Monday, July 5, 2010
welcome to optimism: (video) small world
Tony D here. Not often i contribute to the blog, but when i do i like to think it's of a high calibre. You may already be aware that the current award winning Old Spice campaign was produced out of our Portland office. However what is not so well known is that Freddie Powell, who co wrote the Nike 'Write the Future' epic,is the son of the original 'Old Spice girl'. Check out this link and have some 'mum envy'...welcome to optimism
Lowe Roche - Digital: From the Intern Desk: Fast Weeks, Firsts, & Fun Nervousness
With the G20 craziness (which was going on right outside our office, hence the picture) and then Canada Day, the past two weeks have been short, busy, and have flown by! There were a few firsts for me, including my first off-site client visit, first agency-wide brainstorm (where I actually had some input!), and my first earthquake experience (we’re always shaking things up here at Lowe Roche! …Sorry, bad pun).
My first off-site client meeting was honestly the coolest experience I’ve had in my career, albeit very short, up to this point. We are doing some work with Roots Canada, and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go on the leather factory tour with a few others from the agency. We spent a couple hours there, gaining product/factory/brand knowledge, and met with Michael Budman himself – an extremely passionate and impressive person. I gained a lot from meeting him and seeing the inner workings of his business – it was all very inspiring. (It was also pretty sweet how he hooked us up with some product too, I won’t lie!) I’m super excited to be on this account, and look forward to the work we will be doing with them. In fact, within 24 hours of getting the account, we were delivering creative to the client, which I feel says a lot about what kind of agency this is.
Last week, I was part of a full-agency meeting, where I actually had the chance to speak up and pitch a creative concept. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was a remarkable experience for me. Having just recently finished business school, I’m used to being the one leading the meetings, but now I’m at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak. And honestly, I was a little nervous to voice my opinion in front of these creative minds that have been in the ad business for years. But I think I did an okay job, and am glad to have that practice under my belt. (It’s fun being a little nervous!) I believe this is another example of how this agency works – everyone, not just creatives, has the opportunity to be involved in the brainstorming process and everyone has a say. One major thing I’ve learned about this business so far is that a great idea can come from anywhere.
So thanks again for reading, and as always, please let me know if there is anything you want to hear from me in an upcoming blog post. Cheers!Lowe Roche - Digital
TechCrunch: FaceTime and Why Apple’s Massive Integration Advantage is Just Beginning
The success of iPhone 4 has been astonishing to witness, despite the antenna issues, proving once again that Apple has a unparalleled ability to differentiate around design and integration, not simply “features.”
Perhaps the best example of this so far is FaceTime, Apple’s take on video-calling. FaceTime makes video-calling on the Android-based Sprint HTC EVO look silly, because the EVO awkwardly requires users to sign up and download a third-party app, then launch it every time they want to talk. Normal people simply won’t do this.
Apple eliminated this friction by innovating at the confluence of hardware and software—hit one button mid-call and the feature just works. It really is amazing (yes, I am channeling Steve Jobs).
But FaceTime is just a teaser of Apple’s deep integration capabilities. Below the surface of hardware / software, Apple is on the cusp of differentiating on a much deeper level, a result of its strategy to vertically integrate at the component level. The advantages of integrating so deeply are subtle but incredibly powerful.
Feature Bloat in Components Benefits Apple:
I recently discussed why innovation in mobile is happening at an unprecedented pace. One primary driver is incredible component innovation.
But this rapid innovation—which is good overall—causes a negative byproduct: “feature bloat.” The HTC EVO, which crams in 4G wireless, epitomizes this best (sorry, but mobile 4G is not ready for primetime, and I firmly believe Apple won’t even include it on next year’s iPhone 5).
The temptation for companies to differentiate via features is a virtuous cycle: component vendors (Broadcom, TI, Qualcomm) compete aggressively based on integration levels. Handset OEMs like HTC push vendors to release features prematurely, and they make component decisions based on availability of bleeding edge (but often buggy) technology.
This leads to a “kitchen sink” mentality, which conflicts with customer development frameworks, ironically driving a maximum feature set. Pressure from handset OEMs is a driver, but component vendors also tend to use competitive analysis to shape their marketing requirements. Steve Blank made some excellent insights into why this leads to feature bloat. The poor reviews of the HTC EVO are proof that—though alluring—additional features don’t always speak to consumers. Especially when they kill your battery overnight.
Apple thinks much differently about adding features. While the HTCs of the world “differentiate” blindly based on available technology, Apple innovates only when it can create a superior, well-integrated user experience.
Right now this virtuous cycle of feature bloat is accelerating in system-on-chip (SoC) development for the reasons I outlined above. And Apple is poised to sidestep it by vertically integrating and producing chips which mirror its minimalist product strategy.
Supply-Chain Transparency is an Enormous Unspoken Benefit for Apple:
Perhaps even more powerful is an unspoken advantage afforded to Apple’s SoC designers: vertical integration gives them explicit knowledge of what’s happening across the entire component ecosystem and value-chain.
How? Every component vendor in the world visits Cupertino to share its “secret” roadmap—despite the fact that Apple now competes in SoC development. The dangling carrot of an Apple design win simply outweighs any aversion to sharing. This transparency from other chip makers is extremely powerful, since handset OEMs plan several generations out (e.g. Apple is undoubtedly in concept stages with iPhone 6 and the A6).
Apple can learn Broadcom’s chip plans and mull over whether to bring portions of the digital logic related to GPS and WiFi on to the A6. New technologies like NFC for payments—bring in-house or purchase discrete? There are dozens of permutations, each with design challenges, benefits, and risks.
By extracting data from suppliers, Apple’s chip team has a feedback loop into product planning. All of this collective wisdom adds up, helping Apple decide what to roll-up, buy, license, or outsource. Imagine seeing your competition’s entire feature roadmap, and then planning your own SoC strategy. It’s like seeing your neighbor’s wife naked, and deciding afterward whether you’re interested, even though you’re already married.
Cisco has used a similar vertical integration strategy to its benefit in the enterprise for many years (Broadcom and Marvell pitch Ethernet fabrics despite the fact that Cisco builds its own switch chips). But in mobile, Apple is the only company who owns all three elements of the value-chain—hardware, software and chip components (outside of Samsung). Nokia divested its component division to STMicro, and Ericsson and Motorola spun off theirs as well.
As multicore ARM-based chips accelerate, and as software / hardware integration becomes more of a differentiator, Apple engineering teams will out-innovate competitors at the intersection of these three levels (again, antenna issues aside). It’s much more difficult for Google, Motorola, and others to cross-pollinate information from their own independent silos.
In tomorrow’s smartphone wars, this transparency into the entire mobile value-chain will give Apple an incredibly powerful advantage. This strategic implication wasn’t lost on Steve Jobs when he made the decision to vertically integrate and compete with the giants in the semiconductor world.
Fact is, Apple is a company run by brilliant strategists and user experience designers, not engineers. They know that deep component, hardware, and software integration gives Apple an enduring advantage as mobile platforms evolve. Which is why Apple will undoubtedly produce more devices and features that become huge hits like iPhone 4 and FaceTime...TechCrunch
Perhaps the best example of this so far is FaceTime, Apple’s take on video-calling. FaceTime makes video-calling on the Android-based Sprint HTC EVO look silly, because the EVO awkwardly requires users to sign up and download a third-party app, then launch it every time they want to talk. Normal people simply won’t do this.
Apple eliminated this friction by innovating at the confluence of hardware and software—hit one button mid-call and the feature just works. It really is amazing (yes, I am channeling Steve Jobs).
But FaceTime is just a teaser of Apple’s deep integration capabilities. Below the surface of hardware / software, Apple is on the cusp of differentiating on a much deeper level, a result of its strategy to vertically integrate at the component level. The advantages of integrating so deeply are subtle but incredibly powerful.
Feature Bloat in Components Benefits Apple:
I recently discussed why innovation in mobile is happening at an unprecedented pace. One primary driver is incredible component innovation.
But this rapid innovation—which is good overall—causes a negative byproduct: “feature bloat.” The HTC EVO, which crams in 4G wireless, epitomizes this best (sorry, but mobile 4G is not ready for primetime, and I firmly believe Apple won’t even include it on next year’s iPhone 5).
The temptation for companies to differentiate via features is a virtuous cycle: component vendors (Broadcom, TI, Qualcomm) compete aggressively based on integration levels. Handset OEMs like HTC push vendors to release features prematurely, and they make component decisions based on availability of bleeding edge (but often buggy) technology.
This leads to a “kitchen sink” mentality, which conflicts with customer development frameworks, ironically driving a maximum feature set. Pressure from handset OEMs is a driver, but component vendors also tend to use competitive analysis to shape their marketing requirements. Steve Blank made some excellent insights into why this leads to feature bloat. The poor reviews of the HTC EVO are proof that—though alluring—additional features don’t always speak to consumers. Especially when they kill your battery overnight.
Apple thinks much differently about adding features. While the HTCs of the world “differentiate” blindly based on available technology, Apple innovates only when it can create a superior, well-integrated user experience.
Right now this virtuous cycle of feature bloat is accelerating in system-on-chip (SoC) development for the reasons I outlined above. And Apple is poised to sidestep it by vertically integrating and producing chips which mirror its minimalist product strategy.
Supply-Chain Transparency is an Enormous Unspoken Benefit for Apple:
Perhaps even more powerful is an unspoken advantage afforded to Apple’s SoC designers: vertical integration gives them explicit knowledge of what’s happening across the entire component ecosystem and value-chain.
How? Every component vendor in the world visits Cupertino to share its “secret” roadmap—despite the fact that Apple now competes in SoC development. The dangling carrot of an Apple design win simply outweighs any aversion to sharing. This transparency from other chip makers is extremely powerful, since handset OEMs plan several generations out (e.g. Apple is undoubtedly in concept stages with iPhone 6 and the A6).
Apple can learn Broadcom’s chip plans and mull over whether to bring portions of the digital logic related to GPS and WiFi on to the A6. New technologies like NFC for payments—bring in-house or purchase discrete? There are dozens of permutations, each with design challenges, benefits, and risks.
By extracting data from suppliers, Apple’s chip team has a feedback loop into product planning. All of this collective wisdom adds up, helping Apple decide what to roll-up, buy, license, or outsource. Imagine seeing your competition’s entire feature roadmap, and then planning your own SoC strategy. It’s like seeing your neighbor’s wife naked, and deciding afterward whether you’re interested, even though you’re already married.
Cisco has used a similar vertical integration strategy to its benefit in the enterprise for many years (Broadcom and Marvell pitch Ethernet fabrics despite the fact that Cisco builds its own switch chips). But in mobile, Apple is the only company who owns all three elements of the value-chain—hardware, software and chip components (outside of Samsung). Nokia divested its component division to STMicro, and Ericsson and Motorola spun off theirs as well.
As multicore ARM-based chips accelerate, and as software / hardware integration becomes more of a differentiator, Apple engineering teams will out-innovate competitors at the intersection of these three levels (again, antenna issues aside). It’s much more difficult for Google, Motorola, and others to cross-pollinate information from their own independent silos.
In tomorrow’s smartphone wars, this transparency into the entire mobile value-chain will give Apple an incredibly powerful advantage. This strategic implication wasn’t lost on Steve Jobs when he made the decision to vertically integrate and compete with the giants in the semiconductor world.
Fact is, Apple is a company run by brilliant strategists and user experience designers, not engineers. They know that deep component, hardware, and software integration gives Apple an enduring advantage as mobile platforms evolve. Which is why Apple will undoubtedly produce more devices and features that become huge hits like iPhone 4 and FaceTime...TechCrunch
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim: Will Your Life Be Better in 10 Years Because of the Internet?
Assuming we are granted seeing the next 10 years unfold, how will the Internet impact your life and in particular your social interactions?
According to ‘experts’ (overused and often undeserved title alert!) a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, life is gonna be good because of the social web. Honestly, since most of these folks probably depend on the Internet to make a living are they going to say anything else?
The study revealed
The social benefits of internet use will far outweigh the negatives over the next decade, according to experts. They say this is because email, social networks, and other online tools offer “low friction” opportunities to create, enhance, and rediscover social ties that make a difference in people’s lives. The internet lowers traditional communications constraints of cost, geography, and time; and it supports the type of open information sharing that brings people together.
While they acknowledge that use of the internet as a tool for communications can yield both positive and negative effects, a significant majority of technology experts and stakeholders participating in the fourth Future of the Internet survey say it improves social relations and will continue to do so through 2020.
Please continue reading here: Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
According to ‘experts’ (overused and often undeserved title alert!) a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, life is gonna be good because of the social web. Honestly, since most of these folks probably depend on the Internet to make a living are they going to say anything else?
The study revealed
The social benefits of internet use will far outweigh the negatives over the next decade, according to experts. They say this is because email, social networks, and other online tools offer “low friction” opportunities to create, enhance, and rediscover social ties that make a difference in people’s lives. The internet lowers traditional communications constraints of cost, geography, and time; and it supports the type of open information sharing that brings people together.
While they acknowledge that use of the internet as a tool for communications can yield both positive and negative effects, a significant majority of technology experts and stakeholders participating in the fourth Future of the Internet survey say it improves social relations and will continue to do so through 2020.
Please continue reading here: Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Business Insider: The Shocking Media Habits Of 8-18 Year Olds
Kids are leading the world's transition to digital media
.
This is in part because kids aren't afraid of technology, and in part because kids haven't spent years getting use to anything else.
So if you want to get a sense of where the world's media habits are headed, it makes sense to watch what kids are doing.
The Kaiser Family Foundation did just that in a comprehensive survey released early this year. Kaiser surveyed more than 2,000 families
, and turned up all sorts of interesting information about the media habits of 8-18 year olds.
Some key points:
* Kids consume a heck of a lot of media--and more all the time. Basically, if kids are awake, they're consuming media. And, increasingly, they're consuming multiple forms of media at the same time.
* Kids' print media consumption is tiny and falling.
* Kids' digital media consumption is going through the roof.
No big surprise there. What is a surprise is how little parents seem to care about this. (Or, alternatively, how much parents encourage this media consumption by consuming a huge amount of media themselves.)
* In 2/3 of households, TVs are on during meals
* In 75% of households, TVs are on when no one is watching them.
* More than 70% of kids have TVs in their bedrooms
* Only 1/3 of households have media-consumption rules
No surprise, more media is consumed in households in which TVs are always on, where there are no media consumption rules, and where kids have TVs in their bedrooms.
And, no surprise, kids who consume the most media get the worst grades (but is this cause or effect?)
It's a long presentation, but it's awesome.
Flip through the presentation here >
Read more: Business Insider
.
This is in part because kids aren't afraid of technology, and in part because kids haven't spent years getting use to anything else.
So if you want to get a sense of where the world's media habits are headed, it makes sense to watch what kids are doing.
The Kaiser Family Foundation did just that in a comprehensive survey released early this year. Kaiser surveyed more than 2,000 families
, and turned up all sorts of interesting information about the media habits of 8-18 year olds.
Some key points:
* Kids consume a heck of a lot of media--and more all the time. Basically, if kids are awake, they're consuming media. And, increasingly, they're consuming multiple forms of media at the same time.
* Kids' print media consumption is tiny and falling.
* Kids' digital media consumption is going through the roof.
No big surprise there. What is a surprise is how little parents seem to care about this. (Or, alternatively, how much parents encourage this media consumption by consuming a huge amount of media themselves.)
* In 2/3 of households, TVs are on during meals
* In 75% of households, TVs are on when no one is watching them.
* More than 70% of kids have TVs in their bedrooms
* Only 1/3 of households have media-consumption rules
No surprise, more media is consumed in households in which TVs are always on, where there are no media consumption rules, and where kids have TVs in their bedrooms.
And, no surprise, kids who consume the most media get the worst grades (but is this cause or effect?)
It's a long presentation, but it's awesome.
Flip through the presentation here >
Read more: Business Insider
Friday, July 2, 2010
PR2.0: Engage is Now Available in the Apple iBookstore
My friends over at Wiley Publishing alerted me to some good news today. If you own an iPad or iPhone, Engage! is now available in the Apple iBookstore.
About Engage
Now is the time for businesses to shift from experimenting with social media to strategically designing and measuring campaigns that contribute to brand resonance, positive sentiment, advocacy, and most importantly, the bottom line. While many books, talk about social media as something that businesses need to embrace, most leave marketers wondering what they need to do and how this information applies to them
Engage was written to not only learn how to apply social media strategies within your company, it also helps you rally support and implement programs to excel personally and professionally. With the foreword contributed by Mr. Ashton Kutcher, Engage is indeed the complete guide to help you effectively…engage.
This book promises to provide the answers and insights necessary to effectively build communities, activate the social web, end the battle of who owns social media, guide you through branding yourself and your company online, and also determine the ROI of everything you do.
This is your time… PR2.0
About Engage
Now is the time for businesses to shift from experimenting with social media to strategically designing and measuring campaigns that contribute to brand resonance, positive sentiment, advocacy, and most importantly, the bottom line. While many books, talk about social media as something that businesses need to embrace, most leave marketers wondering what they need to do and how this information applies to them
Engage was written to not only learn how to apply social media strategies within your company, it also helps you rally support and implement programs to excel personally and professionally. With the foreword contributed by Mr. Ashton Kutcher, Engage is indeed the complete guide to help you effectively…engage.
This book promises to provide the answers and insights necessary to effectively build communities, activate the social web, end the battle of who owns social media, guide you through branding yourself and your company online, and also determine the ROI of everything you do.
This is your time… PR2.0
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