Influx Insights Tag Feed: bbc

data as a brand service tool

Influx Insights — 2008-09-03T22:17:16Z

Media and brand websites are collecting a ton of data.

Obviously, there’s the inbuilt desire to keep and own that data, instead of sharing and using it for something. Increasingly the aggregation of data on a community level is going to be a way in which brands can enhance their relationship with their consumer base.

Dopplr is a brand that’s building its reason for being out of the sharing of its data with its users, so much so that they are starting to predict travel trends for the coming season.

Google Insights is an example of a brand providing an additional service through the sharing of data.

Another organization playing with this concept is the BBC, who are sharing their radio audience data with its user base with its Radio Pop initiative. Here's how the Beeb describes it..

"Whenever you listen to live BBC radio through Radio Pop (either within the site or with a widget) it will store what and when you listened. We can then use this data in a number of ways. Firstly, you can see a history of what you listened to - maybe you'd like to go back to last week or even last year and see what you heard. Secondly, there are at-a-glance statistics and graphs on your Radio Pop profile page showing your favourite radio networks and programmes.

Radio Pop is social software. Just like the many social networking sites out there you can add your friends to Radio Pop - then you can see their listening, subscribe to their latest programmes feed or even see the aggregated favourite networks of all your friends."

In the BBC's case the habitual data becomes the "glue" that links the social network together; integrating the brand into the network. Obviously, there will be "experts" suggesting this needs to be a Facebook application, rather than a stand alone social network.

Clearly, there's an opportunity to make more use of data to build closer relationships to brands and between brand users. Before this happens, perhaps there first has to be a cultural shift that takes place inside organizations that makes the sharing and freeing up of data, something acceptable.

Posted by Ed Cotton

can brands cope with consumer participation?

Influx Insights — 2008-01-10T10:21:54Z

Influx and many others have been following and reporting on the Marketing 2.0 trend which suggests a new open environment of participation between brands and their customers.

The catalyst of the internet has made all the possible and brands now have the power and potential to engage in real dialog.

A few days ago I was struck by this stunning stat from the BBC News as reported by Robin Hamman, who was commenting on a presentation given by Peter Horrocks, Head of the BBC newsroom.

"BBC News can get 10 - 20,000 emails and messages a day, this still only, Horrocks says, represents around 1% of the audience..."

This suggests that we've only scratched the surface of consumer participation, obviously the BBC being a giant media company, is an extreme case.

It raises some interesting questions.

How can the BBC cope with that volume of participation?

How will it cope when it increases?

How does it or does it respond to the wisdom of the crowd, given that it's only 1% of its audience?

If we shift over from the media to the marketing world, it appears that most marketing departments aren't yet designed and organized to manage and cope with Marketing 2.0, most are still working and structured for a 1.0 world.

The Marketing Department is going to need to change radically, but there are some questions.

How do they make the transition?

When does the "tipping point" occur?

Marketing departments need fundamentally new skill sets, new positions/job titles and they are also going to need some smart technology to assist them.

Given how little bandwidth most departments have these days, it's safe to assume that there are quite a few brands out there who risk damaging their reputations because they simply aren't structured to cope with the new era of conversation and participation.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the bbc co-produces radio show with listeners

Influx Insights — 2007-11-15T17:14:19Z

iPM is an interesting development from the BBC; a radio show and podcast that's shaped by the listeners. Here's how they describe it.

"iPM is a weekly programme as well as a podcast. The “i” stands for interactive and “i” as in something personal. You can discuss ideas with the production team on this blog and during the course of the week you can view and comment on stories that are being lined up for Saturday's programme.

We’ll source what we do through the best blogs, passionate 'ear catching' online debate as well as comments and recommendations of others. So what ends up on air will be shaped by listeners and bloggers.

iPM is an experiment. It’ll take advantage of the huge number of conversations and sources that take place every minute of every day. Our intention is to distil the very best and produce the type of programme that you'll find interesting and engaging.

We'll be as transparent as we can about the ideas and guests that make it to air. Our blog will explain why some ideas and stories get dropped or squeezed out. Also, by posting our rough ideas in front of the audience, we're also inviting the well-informed and blog-savvy to help us develop a particular idea.

So, we're open to all opinion, alternative takes on stories old and new, and aim to shine a light on issues that are under reported or not considered traditional fare for a news and current affairs programme. Whatever the final result, we hope you’ll find the programme interesting and want to take part."

I really like the idea of the audience being able to peak behind the curtain and see how the stories are developing and get to have their say. It really changes the dynamic between users and creators and if they open the aperture up to listeners, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Via Podcasting News

Posted by Ed Cotton

pushing tv into video games

Influx Insights — 2007-11-01T08:15:51Z

There was an interesting story yesterday about BBC's Top Gear teaming up with Polyphony, the creations of the racing video game Gran Turismo. The deal involves Top Gear providing program content for the new Gran Turismo channel (I assume this is part of an extended TV network that Sony Playstation is building) and adding the show's unique test track to the Gran Turismo video game.

The channel will launch some time in 2008.

Clearly, it's an example of TV networks reaching out to ensure their content gets distributed as widely as possible. With certain audiences spending more and more time with video games, the seamless integration of additional content onto gaming platforms makes a great deal of sense, especially given the ability of the consoles to handle HD.

It's probably safe to assume that all kinds of media tie-ups will happen and be integrated into games, especially with the sports franchises sharing highlight reels and the like with their gaming partners.

It also suggests that brands might have the opportunity to generate more interesting content within and with video games than just placing their product in the game.

Posted by Ed Cotton

schama's power of art

Influx Insights — 2007-08-01T08:44:59Z

PBS has grapped another great series from the BBC with Simon Schama's Power of Art.

The show has is blessed with some great writing.

Here's Schama talking about Rothko.

"One morning in the spring of 1970, I went into the Tate Gallery and took a wrong, right turn and there they were, lying in wait. No it wasn't love at first site. Rothko had insisted that the lighting be kept almost pretentiously low. It was like going into the cinema, expectation in the dimness.

Something in there was throbbing steadily, pulsing like the inside of a body part, all crimson and purple. I felt I was being pulled through those black lines to some mysterious place in the universe.

Rothko said his paintings begin an unknown adventure into an unknown space. I wasn't sure where that was and whether I wanted to go. I only know I had no choice and that the destination might not exactly be a picnic, but I got it all wrong that morning in 1970. I thought a visit to the Seagram Paintings would be like a trip to the cemetary of abstraction - all dutiful reverence, a dead end.

Everything Rothko did to these paintings - the column-like forms suggested rather than drawn and the loose stainings - were all meant to make the surface ambiguous, porous, perhaps softly penetrable. A space that might be where we came from or where we will end up."

They're not meant to keep us out, but to embrace us; from an artist whose highest compliment was to call you a human being."

I watched the Turner and Rothko shows and a couple of facts caught my attention.

1. When Turner's painting, "Hannibal Crossing the Alps" was first shown in public, tens of thousands of people stood in line to see the poltical statement being made about Napoleon and France. What art form has that kind of political power today?

2. Mark Rothko toiled for 20 years before he devised a radical new way to move people with art.

"The fact that people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I can communicate those basic human emotions.. the people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when painting them. And if you say you are moved only by their color relationships then you miss the point."

Rothko

Posted by Ed Cotton

elvis' backing band

Influx Insights — 2007-06-24T16:53:07Z

A bronze film winner at the 2007 Cannes Ad Festival created by DFGW for the BBC.

Posted by Ed Cotton

new web rules from the bbc

Influx Insights — 2007-06-22T00:50:27Z

Some interesting new "rules" from the BBC. (Via Tom Loosemore)

1. Build web products that meet audience needs: anticipate needs not yet fully articulated by audiences, then meet them with products that set new standards. (nicked from Google)

2. The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly. (again, nicked from Google, with a tip of the hat to Jason Fried)

3. Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people’s content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.

4. Fall forward, fast: make many small bets, iterate wildly, back successes, kill failures, fast.

5. Treat the entire web as a creative canvas: don’t restrict your creativity to your own site.

6. The web is a conversation. Join in: Adopt a relaxed, conversational tone. Admit your mistakes.

7. Any website is only as good as its worst page: Ensure best practice editorial processes are adopted and adhered to.

8. Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.

9. Remember your granny won’t ever use “Second Life”: She may come online soon, with very different needs from early-adopters.

10. Maximise routes to content: Develop as many aggregations of content about people, places, topics, channels, networks & time as possible. Optimise your site to rank high in Google.

11. Consistent design and navigation needn’t mean one-size-fits-all: Users should always know they’re on one of your websites, even if they all look very different. Most importantly of all, they know they won’t ever get lost.

12. Accessibility is not an optional extra: Sites designed that way from the ground up work better for all users

13. Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes: Encourage users to take nuggets of content away with them, with links back to your site

14. Link to discussions on the web, don’t host them: Only host web-based discussions where there is a clear rationale

15. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent: After all, it’s your users’ data. Best respect it.

Posted by Ed Cotton