CoolBrands UK Top 20 2009/2010
As I posted the table last year, I might as well post the update here:
CoolBrands 2009/10 Top Twenty
1. iPhone (up one place)
2. Aston Martin (down one)
3. Apple (same position)
4. iPod (up 36 places)
5. Nintendo (up two places)
6. YouTube (down one place)
7. BlackBerry (up 16 places)
8. Google (down two places)
9. Bang & Olufsen (down five places)
10. PlayStation (up five places)
11. Xbox (down 28)
12. Tate Modern (down two)
13. Dom Perignon (down two places)
14. Virgin Atlantic (down two places)
15. Ferrari (down two places)
16. Sony (same position)
17. Mini (up 11 places)
18. Vivienne Westwood (up 23 places)
19. Rolex (down ten places)
20. BBC iPlayer (New entry)
Read more at CoolBrands: HERE
Filed under: 2009, November | Leave a Comment
Tags: CoolBrands, Coolbrands 2009/2010
The problem with going to the theatre is not enough people go.
So 5 theatre production companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Old Vic have joined together with a new service from Digital Theatre.TV Limited to launch what they hope will be an iPlayer service for theatrical productions.
At launch only one production is currently available online; an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic Far From the Madding Crowd. This is performed by The English Touring Theatre, at a viewing cost of £8.99.
The idea of mixing quality theatrical productions with digital viewing doesn’t jar with me. The productions are filmed and streamed on-demand to play on your laptop or link to your HD TV for home viewing.
Clearly the service isn’t trying to provide a purist theatrical experience (no cramped seating, blocked views or late night journey home). Instead it’s built on the model of accessibility and convenience that digital home media players operate so well within. Although the HD credientials and multiple camera-angles do try to leverage some technical superiority in relaying the performances via DigitalTheatre.com. Presumably adding a cinematic affect to the viewing of the performances?
I had hoped there would be a repository of performances available at launch. Plus some free material, lower cost viewing options and background access footage from directors, actors, technical specialists etc. involved with each production. Hopefully this will all appear in time. As only offering one play and charging £8.99 to view it isn’t the brilliant service début I’d perhaps hoped for. But I still look forward to trying the service out soon.
I would imagine Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber would be interested in the commerical accessibility of this sort of service. But producers as diverse as those behind Glyndebourne, Cirque de Soleil, and both The Latitude and Edinburgh Festivals should be getting rather excited by this idea.
I look forward to seeing the list of quality productions grow rapidly for the service to realise its potential.
Filed under: 2009, November | Leave a Comment
Tags: DigitalTheatre.com
I need to check this out when I have a moment.
Parleys.com uses Adobe AIr to strem video library presentatinos from tech geeks on digital, tech and system related subjects; and perhaps more.
Filed under: 2009, November | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adobe Air, Parleys.com
With more people tempted to buy a new PC, now that Windows 7 has launched, I thought it might be of interest to look at a service that eases PC set-up.
Whenever you go to set-up a new PC, you have the chore of loading the (digital) software that let’s you run the apps you use every day.
Ninite.com have a feee online serrvice that allows you to select the applicatinos you wish to install and then set them all up easily.
The apps supported on their list cover most of your needs. But there are a couple of noticable exceptions (e.g. Internet Explorer, Adobe Air and Last.FM – although the latest version, IE8, has such poor performance in loading new tabs and delays switching between them that I wouldn’t bother with it myself).
Still, with the install list this extensive, you’ll soon find your new PC is up, running and fully loaded.
Ninite is compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 7. Hopefully a Mac version will appear soon.
Filed under: 2009, November | Leave a Comment
Tags: Apps, Ninite, Windows 7
FIVE have picked up the ABC series FlashForward in the UK (thank you Dawn Airey). It’s an enjoyable show that has the critics in the States raving.
The acting talent on-hand are excellent and the series pace is less frantic or cryptic than Lost, but still enjoyable.
The cast is headed by Joseph Fiennes and the show shares some talent from the Lost team. But you will also spot faces from ER, Numbers, Enterprise etc. over coming weeks.
This series is fully loaded with skilled writers, directors, cameramen, stunt people etc. that you’ve probably seen great work from before (Go Brannon Braga! – 24).
The series has played its first few episodes in the UK, but if you are quick, you should catch Episodes 1 – 4 online at Demand Five: HERE
This is going to be the third TV series I only watch on PC. How do we sort out the advertising attribution better for this way of viewing TV? It’s not digital advertising as standard TVC’s are pre-rolled. I’m sure Tess Alps is wiring up better measurement tools to my machine as I type and will be reporting TV advertising online better pdq.
FIVE seem to have signed up X-Box 360, BT and Kinder Bueno amongst other advertisers, while Blackberry have sponsored the show here in the UK. I await the Blackberry App that ties in with FlashForward in some clever manner.
Enjoy.
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: Advertising, Blackberry, Brannon Braga, BT, Bueno, Dawn Airey, FIVE, FIVE on Demand, FlashForward, Joseph Fiennes, Tess Alps, X-Box 360
According to new research from mobileSQUARED and Lightspeed Research UK smartphone users are almost 3 times as likely to access the mobile Internet regularly as non-smartphone users. The figures from the new consumer survey show that 30.7 percent of UK smartphone users access the mobile Internet a few times a day or more in comparison to only 11.7 percent of non-smartphone users.
In addition, 20 percent of non-smartphone users have never accessed the mobile internet compared with only 6.4 percent of smartphone users.
The full findings from this research will be made available to all attendees of the Taking Internet Mobile seminar on 5th November 2009 in London. Attendees will receive a 50+ page research report in addition to attendance of the event and the networking drinks, all for only 350GBP
More details about the event and how to register can be found here
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: mobile internet, Smartphones
Mad Men On Sesame Street
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: Mad Men, Mad Men On Sesame Street, Sesame Street
Google Wave – note from beta
Felix Verarde’s blog is worth a read for his digital comment.
A link to his thoughts on the beta trial of Google Wave is: HERE
His findings in summary: If you wish to launch a personal communication and project collaboration tool, perhaps you should let large connected groups pilot it through Beta? Rather than 100,000 unconnected individuals.
I still think Google Wave will become a hugely useful aggregation and collaboration tool, it’s simply not fully optimised yet.
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: Felix Verarde, Google Wave
Over the last decade the occasional anecdote has been dropped into presentations I’ve seen about either the resurgence of a media format, or the fact that formats don’t die, they simply multiply.
Sadly in the case of vinyl, the music seems likely to come to a halt in the not-too-distant future; at least in the UK. For while 7″ singles did go through a minor revival in the mid-noughties. Annual sales in the UK fell by more than 50% in 2008; dropping to below half a million units according to the BMI.
BPI Reported UK 7\
The story is a lot worse for 12″ singles; they have dropped from selling 4 million units in 2000 down to less than 254,000 sales in 2008.
BPI Reported UK 12 Inch Vinyl Sales
The final death for new vinyl is perhaps indicated by sales of LP records. As LP’s have long been the format of choice for audiophiles, including blues, jazz and classical music fans. Sadly the warmth and audio-quality added to the music by the format, when married to a decent deck, amp and set of speakers, hasn’t slowed the slide from over 750,000 units in 2000 down to a little over 208,000 in 2008.
BPI Reported UK LP Vinyl Sales
So is the vinyl music format clinically dead? If it were a person, would it be on a plane from London to Geneva, to an arranged assisted suicide?
Well, like many things, the story isn’t quite that simple. If the reason sales of new vinyl have been dying were the introduction of the CD, followed by a coup de grâce from the MP3. Son of MP3, free digital music channels (e.g. Last.FM), or the competing subscription based channels (e,g, Spotify), may be causing an aberration. Because people are listening to more music than ever before.
Here’s the theory: People are listening to far wider and more eclectic music collections now; more regularly.
While this passion for collecting music fuels the search for the new and latest act. It also means some people are listening to far more previously released music. They are (re-)discovering old music, cared for music, treasured music; music that’s a bit worn and lived in. Physical music, made tactile and often with great artwork on the sleeve.
Nostalgia also plays a part. The recession has seen the revival of many comforting brands, products (and bands) that were popular in the past.
Even back in 2008 GfK were reporting an uplift in record turntable sales (highlighted under the audio separates section). This was a modest growth (to £10m in the UK market) at a time when personal MP3 player sales were down year-on-year.
Even big new tech goods such as digital audio streaming clients/servers only reported £16m in sales in the same report. And the average price per item of these shiny new MP3 juke boxes is over double that of turntables.
It seems vinyl may yet find a second life as a purer source for treasured and rare music. Vinyl is being collected again. Second-hand it maybe, which won’t help the BMI record any growth in chart-related sales. But actual sales volume for vinyl (new and second-hand), as well as the amount of music played on vinyl, could well go through a leap and then a modest revival. At least for the next few years.
The leap itself is likely to be in part from the increasing number of people transferring collections from one media format to another. 35mm to jpg, VHS to DVD, DVD to HD. Leaving LP’s and singles to transfer via turntables with USB connectors to MP3 or similar digital options.
But dusting off an old collection of something as treasured as vinyl music, whether you bought it new or second-hand, has an addictive and unique sensory quality about it. Particularly if you listen and experience the music whilst transferring it to digital files. A guilty pleasure if you will.
And so more people may find life in Hi-Fi yet. At least until that annoying scratch reminds you why you settle for less with your iPoded tunes.
According to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, vinyl sales were up 50% through May of this year in the US and Canada. So vinyl is on the rebound again across the pond.
Read more from Jessica Whitta: HERE
Visit BMI for their UK vinyl chart sales data: HERE
What HiFi Industry Insider Report Summary: HERE
Filed under: 2009 October | 1 Comment
Tags: BMI, GfK, Jessica Whitta, Nielsen Soundscan, Vinyl Music Sales, What HiFi
A great TED Talk by John Gerzema. I just wish there were also reports for other regions of the world that covered the same points. But this US-orientated talk is well worth listening to for its interesting examples of how consumers have adjusted their behaviour and spending to live through the recession.
Go to the TED Talk: HERE
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: John Gerzema, TED Talk, The Post Crisis Consumer
As you would expect Rory Sutherland’s presentation at TED is witty, erudite, it contains interesting references and there’s even a couple of pithy G.K. Chesterton quotes.
TED is all about great ideas that are worth spreading. Rory, vice-chair Ogilvy Group and current president of the IPA, has more than most worth hearing.
‘We are perishing for the want of wonder, not for the want of wonders.’ G. K. Chesterton
See the video: HERE
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: G. K. Chesterton, Rory Sutherland, TED Talks
David Katz, vice president of the Americas at Yahoo Mobile in California provided some interesting info today on Mobile Marketer in the US.
While announcing that Subway, Toyota and Blackberry have bought the mobile phone ad inventory for the NFL season across all of Yahoo’s various fantasy football platforms. He also discussed how he believes mobile phone marketing is maturing (aka overcoming tech restrictions and both poor design and implementation by agencies supplying the ads).
Subway will be using expandable and animated banner ads that open within the application (so they don’t open your iPhone’s browser unnecessarily). While Toyota will run ads that rely on a built-in HTML canvas within the application to enable mobile Web access for info on their cars; such as the Prius.
Mr Katz said “It’s an example of the maturity of the mobile advertising market. The challenge with many in-app ad experiences is that clicking on an ad causes the application to shut down and launch Safari, which can be disruptive. If you interrupt the user experience in a bad way, it can teach them not to click on ads.”
“Toyota and Subway are running ads that are integrated into the experience so when you click, the landing page opens in a clean way,” he said.
Subway and Toyota have block-booked ad inventory around Yahoo’s Fantasy Football application on the Apple iPhone. While Research in Motion (RIM), unsurprisingly, have booked the ad inventory around the Blackberry version of the Yahoo service, available in Blackberry App World.
The Subway banner campaign will link to a full-screen landing page that features a new sandwich and will allow you to find your nearest Subway store with ease.
While Toyota is running static and animated banner ads across Yahoo’s Fantasy Football mobile website and the iPhone application; this activity is part of its recently promised US$1bn investment in advertising in the USA over the next few months. There will be particular emphasis around the new Prius within the campaign.
Just as with the Subway landing page, when consumers close the Toyota mobile Web site, they will immediately be returned to the Yahoo Fantasy Football application.
Leaving the consumer in control of their mobile device and empowered by relevant mobile advertising is possibly seen as the next threshold in mobile digital media development.
Dan Butcher writes about this in more depth: HERE
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: Blackberry, Dan Butcher, iPhone, Mobile advertising, NFL, RIM, Subway, Toyota, Yahoo
An interesting digital campaign has launched from DDB and is generating some buzz around viral films posted on YouTube and at a microsite for VW.
The premise of the campaign is that if you make things more fun, it’s easier to change people’s behaviour. While I love the the work and the idea alot; I’m not quite as clear on the link it has with the VW brand?
I won’t try to make a tortured comparison with any environmental or driving experience message for VW. I’ll simply chalk the work up as a nice digital thought, well executed.
There appear to be several executions in the campaign, the most popular being the piano staircase.
Take a look at the work: The Fun Theory
The Fun Theory - Piano Staircase
Filed under: 2009 October | Leave a Comment
Tags: DDB, The Fun Theory, Viral, VW
Twitterati and bloggers with a passion for mobile phones have been commenting on the rather puzzling manner in which Nokia recently announced the launch of its new flagship internet tablet model, the N900.
Nokia N900
The N900 was the centre-piece of the Nokia World event in Stuttgart, Germany, last month. One of few products to set loose significant blog entries and tweets, in what was reported as an otherwise lack-lustre event.
Interestingly, Nokia executive vice president of markets, Anssi Vanjoki, made a presentation where he reminded the attendees of Nokia’s plans for internet tablet mobile phones. Their first product was the 770 back in 2004; that was apparently the first in five planned generations of internet tablet.
The new N900 was described at the launch as the 4th generation model. But Mr Vanjoki left the audience feeling this iPhone competitor would be shortly superseded by a new product – the 5th generation internet tablet (presumably using one of the fast new processors recently discussed on Mashable.com).
To be fair, the N900 sounds like a high quality product. It clearly is an iPhone GS model competitor, with an ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 32GB memory, 3G HSDPA, wifi, GPS and 5mp camera. It also runs the latest upgrade of the Maemo operating system, Maemo 5.
But with Nokia’s masterpiece 5th gen model described as their blueprint for the future of mobile computing. Mr Vanjoki may have made the N900 seem obsolete at its launch. As well as giving their next internet tablet mobile one hell of a reputation to live up to when it finally arrives.
Could the N900 have been damned by faint praise by its parent?
Filed under: 2009, September | 1 Comment
Tags: N900, Nokia, Nokia N900
An interesting article on BrandRepublic: HERE
Internet media spend has finally taken the lead over TV media i nthe UK. This, in part, has been because of the decline in TV ad spend this year.
I wonder how much the media value will be for ads shown on video on-demand, online and mobile TV channels in 5 years time?
Filed under: 2009, September | Leave a Comment
Tags: Digital, Media Spend, TV
Vodafone UK have today announced they will sell the iPhone from 2010. Interestingly they will position the device as more of a customer retention tool, than a business acquisition winner. This makes sense in light of O2 and Orange also having the product prior to Vodafone UK.
The BBC reported the news this morning: HERE
I wonder if the deal with Apple will allow the new Vodafone 360 service to work on the device via HSDPA internet access?
Filed under: 2009, September | 1 Comment
Tags: iPhone, Vodafone, Vodafone 360
Recent Entries
- CoolBrands UK Top 20 2009/2010
- DigitalTheatre.com launches HD theatre production player
- Parleys.com – TED Talks meet Tech Geeks in video repository
- Ninite – Making new PC set-up simple
- FlashForward – FIVE select a great series from the makers of Lost and 24
- Sony 3D 360 degree concept viewer
- 30% of UK smartphone users access mobile internet several times a day or more
- Mad Men On Sesame Street
- Google Wave – note from beta
- When new vinyl music sales died, did they gain a treasured second life?
- John Gerzema: The Post Crisis Consumer
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