medialifemagazine.com
Alternative media
Stripping down to the real message
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jan 21, 2011 - 1:10:13 AM
You're sitting on the subway, eyes on the floor, when you look up and notice a beautiful woman standing near one of the doors.She is dressed to the hilt: Black blazer, green blouse, tight black pants, sunglasses, expensive-looking purse and a jaunty men's dress hat sitting on her head.
She's the sort of woman who knows she looks good, and indeed the men in the subway car can't take their eyes off her. She smiles at you, and you smile back.
Then, out of the blue, she raises an eyebrow, holds up her purse and throws it to floor.
The men on the subway look at her quizzically. One of them picks up the bag and offers it back. She ignores him.
A few seconds later she removes her sunglasses and tosses them toward the back of the car. Another man picks them up but again she refuses to take them back.
The woman continues to remove her accessories.
She places the jaunty hat on a bald man's head. She shrugs her blazer onto the subway floor. She even unbuttons her blouse and drops it onto the seat next to you, revealing a tight white shirt below.
Still mesmerized by the stripping beauty, you pick up the discarded blouse and discover, much to your surprise, that there is a 2-inch by 3-inch white hangtag on it.
On the left side it reads, "Make your smile your best accessory." Next to the words are two tubes of toothpaste and another phrase on the right side: "One week, one shade whiter."
Now you get it. The woman shedding her accessories isn't mad after all. She is part of an alternative media campaign to promote a new toothpaste, Colgate MaxWhite One.
The aim of the campaign, developed by Y&R Paris for Colgate, was to get across the message that white teeth are a more powerful accessory than any bracelet, hat, necklace or other bauble.
Its target audience: young, fashion-minded Europeans.
Y&R launched the first part of the campaign in 20 different countries with print and TV elements. It chose Paris to execute the out-of-home element.
Three models were loaded with heaps of accessories one morning and sent to different pedestrian- and traffic-heavy locations across the city to perform their faux strip shows.
Everything they took off had the Colgate message attached in some fashion. So when people picked up the objects to hand them back, they saw the Colgate message.
The campaign was effective for two reasons, first because you can never go wrong when you employ a beautiful young woman in a campaign in Paris.
But also because the stunt was clever enough that it caught people's attention without being obvious.
Good alternative media campaigns always arouse people's curiosity. They are puzzles for the eyes; the reward comes as folks figure out the puzzle.
That's why this one worked so well.
© 2011 Media Life
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Now this is what I'd call a revealing media stunt. From Media Life. Stripping down to the real message
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
W/ permutations like this, is the traditional term "ad agency" still appropriate? NBC Sports Creates New Ad Agency
NBC Universal will announce on Monday that John Miller, the former chief marketing officer for its television group, is coming out of semiretirement to set up and head the NBC Sports Agency. The ad agency will market all parts of the NBC Sports Group, which will soon include Comcast’s sports cable channels. Its formation is another indication that Comcast wants to seize opportunities in the sports arena, where ESPN is dominant.
The agency will be modeled after the NBC Agency, which Mr. Miller helped to start in 1999 and which markets all of NBC’s television properties.
“We are forming this agency to respond to the demand we are already hearing from many advertisers who are looking forward to creating integrated campaigns with our soon-to-be combined assets,” Mr. Miller said.
Those assets will include NBC’s existing broadcasts of sporting events; the Golf Channel and Versus, both owned by Comcast; and 11 regional sports networks, also owned by Comcast. The individual units will still promote themselves, but the agency will find areas for broader collaboration between units and with advertisers.
“Creating the NBC Sports Agency has the added advantage of having each part of the NBC Sports Group become invested in the success of all,” Mr. Miller said.
NBC Sports already has experience producing ad campaigns for the National Football League and the National Hockey League. It has also worked with advertisers like Proctor & Gamble, Coors, Mercedes and Target.
Mr. Miller retired from the NBC Agency last summer. Since then, he has been helping with the integration of Comcast and NBC. He will remain chairman of the NBC Universal Marketing Council, which orchestrates promotions across the company.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
From today's issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Sunday Biz: From the brains to a brand
Inquirer Money / Top Stories
http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view_article.php?article_id=315985
From the brains to a brand
By Bing Kimpo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: January 22, 2011
MANILA, Philippines—For several decades, Asian industries have seemed content to remain at the background, providing manufacturing, research and other support services for Western brands.In the last few years however, regional suppliers such as BenQ, HTC and Huawei have begun to make that leap of faith to the forefront, casting themselves in the retail shelves and spotlights, and facing customers worldwide carrying their own names.
Here in the Philippines, Butuan-based broadcast electronics company Marjeds Systems Inc. (MSI, www.marjeds.com) is similarly throwing its hat in the global game, behind its own brand, Digital ST.
Digital ST is MSI’s stamp on its line of broadcast equipment for digital radio, TV, cable and satellite systems. The Digital ST product portfolio includes broadcast transmitters, satellite uplink and distribution facilities and equipment, as well as set-top boxes. MSI’s big, hairy and audacious goal is to be a key player as the broadcast media industry inches closer toward full digitalization.
An ambitious goal, perhaps, but one that MSI majority owner and CEO Ed Millana, 39, believes the company is prepared for. After all, he himself has trained for this moment since Grade 5.
Yes, Grade 5.
In 1984, Ed Millana’s father unexpectedly received a call to take on a job in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He hurriedly prepared for his overseas contract, but was left to settle one last item of business before his trip: what to do with an already paid-for non-formal course in electronics at the Agusan National High School in Butuan? Gamely, his fifth-grade son took his slot. Six months of entire Saturdays at school later, Ed Millana finished the course, topped his class and even graduated with honors.
In high school, Ed carried on his passion for electronics, repairing television sets and Betamax video-cassette player-recorder units from his home-based shop. He later began his tertiary education at Urios College in Butuan, where he earned a certification as an electronics technician, before moving to Manila where he earned an Electronics Communication Engineering degree from the University of the East in 1995.
Following a two-year stint with electronics company WEC, where he mastered the R&D and design aspects of radio communications equipment, Millana returned to Butuan in 1997 to become an entrepreneur. He founded MSI with a starting capital of P10,000. His company’s business initially consisted of more repair work on radio communications equipment.
MSI’s big break came in 1998, when it was commissioned by Keppel Communications as a sub-contractor to survey prospective cell sites in Cebu for Globe Telecom. Two years later, SMART Communications hired MSI to build cellsites for its new digital GSM network, a contract that soon expanded to over 250 cell sites. Apart from SMART, MSI also built some 50 cell sites for Globe Telecom.
In 2006, with a worthy war chest from its lucrative cell site construction contracts, MSI decided to invest heavily in research and development, spending on software, test equipment and engineers.
The gamble paid off, as MSI began bagging contracts for R&D work from Chinese and Korean original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It was also awarded projects by UK defense contractor Racal Communications.
Three years later, armed with experience and expertise as a subcontractor, MSI decided it was ready to break in to the scene with its own brand. In 2009, MSI secured permits from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to manufacture and distribute broadcast electronics equipment. The company subsequently began producing its own Digital ST-branded products.
Today, MSI’s Digital ST equipment is all over the world. In the Philippines, its transmitters are used by the likes of Progressive Broadcasting Network and block timer UNTV. Abroad, Digital ST equipment has been brought by MSI resellers to customers in several countries—even those on the leading edge of broadcast electronics themselves, such as EMC in Germany, RRSat and Sentinel-SMG LLC in the United States, and SET Ltd in Georgia. A Digital ST satellite encoder even reportedly sits on a rack of a Fox affiliate in the US.
Apart from selling its own equipment, MSI now is also the regional representative of foreign brands in the booming broadcast electronics space. These include the Israel-based LiveU brand of backpack satellite uplink equipment.
“The Filipino has always been known to be crafty, brainy—in our own lingo, ‘wais,’” says Millana. This has served us well in supporting foreign business, whether as subcontractors or as service providers, he explains.
“The challenge—and opportunity—for all of us now,” he shares, “is to move up to the next level and bring our own brands to the rest of the world.”
Shameless self-promotion: this is my very first byline. Thank you, Marge. Thank you, PDI.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Going Advertiser-as Content-Producer Again, P&G Launches a Soap Opera for the Web Age.
A Web site created by the company for husbands and fathers offers articles with titles like “Conquering Sex Problems.” Among other things, the article advises men to take their time in bed.
“If you want a hot woman who acts like a porn star in bed, you need to be prepared to spend some time getting her to that place,” suggests the site, ManoftheHouse.com.
While the Internet is crowded with all kinds of sex advice, P.& G. — the maker of Pampers and Ivory soap and the nation’s largest advertiser — says it has found an untapped marketing opportunity for its products in the family man.
Much of the popular sex advice for men, in publications like Maxim and GQ, is directed toward singles on the prowl, the company says. Even its top rival, Unilever, has gone decidedly raunchier in a campaign for Axe, a grooming brand aimed at young men, that includes a double entendre about cleaning sporting equipment and a man’s private parts.
The P.& G. site gets out of the bedroom, offering tips on grilling burgers, cleaning toilets and disciplining children. It promises, “We’ll make men out of you yet,” while also promoting Gillette razors, Head & Shoulders shampoo and other company products.
“What we are trying to do is speak to the whole man,” said Jeannie Tharrington, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble Productions. “Certainly, relationships and sex are part of an adult man’s life.”
Josh Bernoff, senior vice president at Forrester Research who has written about P.& G.’s marketing efforts, said ManoftheHouse.com was not so different from “As the World Turns,” the TV soap opera that was another P.& G. innovation.
“This is the 21st-century version of the soap opera,” he said. “It’s information. It’s topical.”
More and more big companies have discovered the how-to genre as a marketing tool. General Mills offers dieting advice and coupons on Tablespoon.com, and Wal-Mart has a Web site in which mothers blog about everything from being frugal to reviewing products.
Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at the Altimeter Group, a digital strategy consulting firm, said company-generated lifestyle sites could be effective as long as they did not push the brands too hard. Reviewing the homepage of ManoftheHouse.com, he said, “All of these discussions on this page are already happening on Facebook,” he said. “The reason these things do work is that consumers are already having these discussions, having a healthy breakfast, talking about their wives in relationships.”
Ms. Tharrington said company research found that men were going to women’s Web sites to find information on recipes, cleaning the house or getting a stain out of a shirt. As for sex talk coming from a company that has honed a wholesome image — remember Mr. Whipple? — she said, “For us, it’s part of it, but it’s not the whole thing. What we try to do is be tasteful.”
Procter & Gamble has a long history of unusual marketing. The Cincinnati-based company created one of the first radio soap operas as a way to market its products, and years later it created its own soap operas, including “As the World Turns,” for television.
In the last decade, Procter & Gamble was one of the pioneers in word-of-mouth marketing campaigns in which mothers and teenagers were plied with samples and coupons to draw more customers.
In 2000, the company introduced Beinggirl.com, which provides information and expert advice on issues that teenage girls might be too embarrassed to ask a parent or a doctor about, like menstruation, eating disorders, acne and dating. The site also advertises P.& G. tampons and offers free samples.
In the years since Beinggirl.com was created, Procter & Gamble has started several other lifestyle Web sites, including one that is directed at women, Homemadesimple.com. David Germano, the general manager of ManoftheHouse.com, said consumer data showed that 10 percent of the visitors to the women’s site were men.
ManoftheHouse.com has brought on several writers who had established father-focused blogs. Karl Withakay, a Utah-based singer and songwriter who writes some of the sex articles, including “Conquering Sex Problems,” was already writing about relationships for other media outlets.
“The pieces he wrote were based upon his own experience,” said Craig J. Heimbuch, ManoftheHouse.com’s editor in chief, in an e-mail. “I appreciate his perspective a great deal. It lends itself well to the tone of the site, which is men helping men.”
So are men drawn to a PG-rated Web site when so much R- and X-rated competition is out there? Procter & Gamble says that so far it is pleased with the number of visitors. The site was started in June, and by December it had topped a half a million monthly unique visitors.
By comparison, AskMen.com, a site with similar, if more titillating content, had 5.5 million unique visitors in December, according to comScore, the market research firm.
Jonah Disend, chief executive of the brand strategy firm Redscout, questioned whether ManoftheHouse.com would generate a big following. He said men tended to be more interested in specialized publications about a specific hobby or sport.
“Just because no one’s doing it doesn’t mean there’s a real market for it,” he said.
Racy also works. Indeed, that is just what Procter & Gamble’s archrival, Unilever, discovered in its efforts to market Axe. The campaign it started last year, which included the double entendre, has become a sensation; last month, Zeta Interactive proclaimed the ads as having received the most social media buzz in 2010.
“We’ve taken a calculated risk,” said Heather Mitchell, a Unilever spokeswoman, “knowing what resonates with our guys.”
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Why do they always have to talk about Proximity Marketing in the future tense? Let's do it!
Only a decade ago, the concept of receiving data and content at your fingertips without an outlet or modem was considered revolutionary, but technological advancements made that view out-dated. From a cultural perspective, our lives today increasingly rely and thrive on mobility and connectivity, and on any given day we are exposed to information and content through a wide array of platforms. We are also more connected to our mobile phones; in fact, by 2012 analysts predict that over 50% of digital content will be accessed on mobile phones rather than the standard computer browser.
Since consumers are spending so much time on their mobile phones, mobile has become an essential channel through which marketers should reach consumers -- both via social media, apps and digital marketing. That being said, it can be overwhelming for consumers to navigate the barrage of information coming at them from so many different mediums, including Digital-Out-of-Home (DOOH) channel.
Similarly, for marketers, it can be very difficult to break through the "white noise" and really capture consumers' attention. So what's the solution to rise above all this noise? Proximity marketing, a growing medium that leverages a number of trends including mobile coupons, location-based services, geo-targeting and digital signage, into a robust and interactive marketing platform.
It works by automatically detecting mobile customers within close range of a retail presence and sending relevant content, such as coupons, videos, competitions and other engaging media.
Location, Location, Location
Proximity marketing is a well-matched addition to the marketing portfolio, as it seamlessly integrates and supplements DOOH advertising efforts. It expands the scope of interactive marketing in public places to offer a more spontaneous and direct interaction, targeting consumers with messages that are useful and delivered in a timely manner. The result? Consumers are more likely to take action.
And because consumers are targeted only while within a radius of 300 feet or less, marketers have the ability to instantly connect and interact with consumers, in real-time, as they are in-store. This takes the concept of "location-based" marketing to an even greater level of "local."
Additionally, proximity marketing can support social networking, price matching, coupons and real-time transactions to consumers at the point of sale, allowing marketers many options for interacting with consumers.
DOOH, Promixity Marketing Future Impact
• The Time of Mobile: The average American spends nearly three hours a day on their mobile phone. Proximity marketing allows marketers to leverage the mobile channel as a way to connect with consumers in the palm of their hands.
• Instant connection: Marketers can connect with consumers as they are shopping, in-store and primed to buy. A recent study conducted by IBM found that 72% of consumers are more likely to take action after receiving a message while "on location" compared with messages received off-site.
• Here and now: Because proximity marketing is done in real-time, marketers can manage and measure their campaigns immediately, helping them improve the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in the short and the long-term.
• Steer clear of privacy issues: Marketers avoid privacy issues as proximity marketing uses Bluetooth technology and does not involve consumers' email or phone numbers. Consumers can opt-in if they want to receive SMS or email alerts as well.
• The new shopper: For consumers afflicted with ADD (Analog Deficit Disorder), static signage is visually processed as nothing more than wallpaper. Proximity marketing allows marketers to reach these shoppers with interactive touch points that catch their attention.
• No delivery fee: Low cost of entry -- marketers and consumers avoid any mobile carrier charges to deliver or receive marketing messages. Proximity-based marketing allows marketers to capitalize on consumers' in-store location, target them in real-time and encourage immediate action on the consumer's part. Through digital technologies, it allows brands to leverage their strengths and foster interaction to develop consumer loyalty, increase ROI and cultivate repeat customers -- a win-win for brands and consumers alike.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
From TechCrunch. Jack Dorsey: "We want the technology to fade away so that you can focus on enjoying the cappuccino that you just purchased.”
Twitter Chairman and Square founder Jack Dorsey sat down with Charlie Rose last night to talk about Dorsey’s unique position of being responsible for two technology startups based on the idea of simplicity: Twitter and Square. Watching this interview you realize that Dorsey’s accomplishments have little to do with luck, and more with his focus on creating the purest products by throwing away any unnecessary flourishes. “It’s really complex to make something simple,” he tells Rose.
Dorsey describes himself as an “editor” who edits technology and teams “so that we have one cohesive product that we tell the world.” In the clip above (provided by the Charlie Rose Show), Dorsey talks about how he got the idea for Square and how hard it is to make mobile payments no more complicated than swiping a credit card.
Dorsey believes the most powerful technologies are those which disappear, like the iPad disappears:
“When you’re using the iPad, the iPad disappears, it goes away. You’re reading a book. You’re viewing a website, you’re touching a web site. That’s amazing and that’s what SMS is for me. The technology goes away and with Twitter the technology goes away. And the same is true with Square. We want the technology to fade away so that you can focus on enjoying the cappuccino that you just purchased.”
In the clip below, he talks about how he got the idea for Twitter from his obsession with cities and dispatch systems, but how he felt those systems were missing one thing: the people, his friends. Now Twitter is not just about status updates but about pointing to, and carrying via short links, other media on the Web. He boils down the essence of Twitter into this: “Any media that you can imagine it can point to a carry in real-time. And the only other technology I know that’s done that well is the web itself.”
Dorsey also pegs the number of registered Twitter users at 200 million (when I checked with Twitter to confirm this number, I was told it was very close, but not quite there yet—so chalk that up to rounding). Also, asked at the end whether Twitter is making any money, Dorsey said the company has revenues but it didn’t sound like it’s got any profits yet.
You can watch the full interview here or read the full transcript below (courtesy of Charlie Rose).
TRANSCRIPT
CHARLIE ROSE: Jack Dorsey is here. He is the chairman of Twitter. Since its inception in 2006, the site has become a powerful tool of information and communication. Almost 200 million users worldwide tweet every day.
That has allowed Twitter to become a real-time news feed. It’s also reshaped how public figures from celebrities to politicians communicate. The company is now working hard to monetize its popularity. Dorsey started Twitter as a side project in 2006 with Evan Williams and Biz Stone.
His latest venture is called Square, which can turn your mobile phone into a credit card reader. Pleased to have Jack Dorsey at this table for the first time. Welcome.
JACK DORSEY: Thanks for having me, Charlie.
CHARLIE ROSE: Good to have you here.
Let’s just talk about Square and go back to Twitter. How did that come about?
JACK DORSEY: It came about because my cofounder is a glass artist and he sells these beautiful glass faucets and he was selling one for $2,000. And all he had in his pocket was his mobile phone. He couldn’t accept the credit card from the woman who wanted to buy this faucet and she didn’t have a checkbook and she obviously didn’t have $2,000 of cash, so he lost the sale.
And we were discussing this and we have these general purpose computers next to our ears and yet –
CHARLIE ROSE: The iPhone-4.
JACK DORSEY: Or an Android phone, or a blackberry, whatnot. But yet he wasn’t able to accept that credit card. So we wondered why that was, and we answered it by building this system.
CHARLIE ROSE: You write code, yes?
JACK DORSEY: Yes. I wrote code.
CHARLIE ROSE: And that’s what you do well?
JACK DORSEY: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: That’s what you’ve been recognized for since you were 14 or 15 years old.
JACK DORSEY: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: So you immediately set out to do what?
JACK DORSEY: My goal is to simplify complexity. I just want to build stuff that really simplifies our base human interaction. Twitter was around communication and visualizing what was happening in the world in real-time. Square was allowing everyone to accept the form of payment people have in their pocket today, which is a credit card.
So we have built the simplest way to accept credit cards. It’s a little tiny device that we give away for free, and you just download some so wars from the app store and plug it in to your mobile phone or iPad and suddenly you can take credit cards. So if you’re a tax accountant or a lawyer or doctor or even a hair stylist, you can now accept credit cards.
CHARLIE ROSE: And you monetize this how?
JACK DORSEY: We take a cut of every transaction. So we charge 2.75 percent and 15 cents on the transaction. which we then pay the credit card companies out of. So the user only has to pay that 2.75 percent. They don’t pay any credit card fees. They don’t have to have a setup charged. They don’t have to pay for the hardware or even the software.
CHARLIE ROSE: Hardware’s free, software’s free.
JACK DORSEY: You just use the phone you have in your pocket.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK, so this sounds to me like a win-win for everybody. Small businesses like it . . .
JACK DORSEY: Yes, they love it.
CHARLIE ROSE: Somebody has a credit card and wants to pay with a credit card likes it.
JACK DORSEY: You can pay everywhere now.
CHARLIE ROSE: So you who created this with your partner like it. It seems so fundamental. Why hadn’t someone done that before?
JACK DORSEY: It turns out it’s really complex. It’s really complex to make something simple and especially when you started addressing the financial world.
We have a number of things — in order to accept credit cards you have to talk with a bank. Normally when you’re a small merchant or a business or individual you have to get a merchant account, which means you have a one to two year relationship with the bank, and then there’s always these fees and setup costs and monthly minimums. It’s a mess.
And it’s never really been designed in a beautiful way and that’s what we’re good at. That’s really hard to do.
CHARLIE ROSE: How do you minimize fraud, because that would be a concern?
JACK DORSEY: Right. So we actually have a lot of benefit in using the credit card system itself because a lot of the protections are on the payer side. When someone issues you a credit card, when your bank issues you a credit card, they assume that that card is going to be lost or stolen. So all of the protections are watching the payer.
So if we get a swipe or if we get a signature on those card payments then a lot of the risk is off us because we know the payer was in that location. And apart for that, there’s a lot of information in these phones. There’s GPS. We know where the transactions are taking place. People are putting in their Twitter accounts. They’re putting in their Facebook accounts. They’re telling us about themselves and we can use that to build a reputation for how they will interact in the world.
CHARLIE ROSE: Did I read that you were involved in some kind of lawsuit because of somebody else?
JACK DORSEY: We — so we worked on this system which actually was prior art. So we built this little credit card system with another individual who we worked very well within the past. But unfortunately we were not included on the patent we both created together. So it’s just a minor thing. We’re not independent on this IP, it’s just something nice to have.
CHARLIE ROSE: And this is the future of mobile payment, in your judgment?
JACK DORSEY: I think so. I think — the biggest thing we’re trying to address is let’s simplify this entire world. Let’s speak what people are using today. A number of people in the United States, almost everyone, is using plastic cards to pay for things, but it’s extremely difficult to accept these cards. So let’s make it’s easy and take more and more of the friction out as we can.
CHARLIE ROSE: And what’s the global response?
JACK DORSEY: The global response has been really good. You need to tailor these technologies to each market. So we’re starting on the U.S., but we want to be completely payment device agnostic. Different countries use different methods. So in Japan, for instance, they’re using a lot of near-field communications, obviously. In places like Kenya they’re using SMS, they’re using phone credits.
So all these markets have their own technologies to pay for things and exchange value, so we need to make sure that Square can accept every for of payment that is in the payers’ pocket. In the U.S. it’s the credit card.
CHARLIE ROSE: And how do you divide your time between Square and Twitter?
JACK DORSEY: I have a really fortunate situation. I’m now in the midst of I think two of the great et cetera companies in the world. I’m chairman of the board of Twitter so I go in when I’m needed, I point out what I think is moving, what technologies are interesting, things we may need to fix and things that we’re doing really well at. And when I’m not needed I get ou of the way.
CHARLIE ROSE: And how did Twitter get started?
JACK DORSEY: Twitter has a long story. I’ve always been fascinated by
cities and how they work. And I taught myself how to program so I can understand how the city works.
CHARLIE ROSE: You taught yourself to program so you could understand how cities work?
JACK DORSEY: I wanted to visualize them. I wanted to see them. I wanted to play with them. I was inspired by New York City and just — if you consider New York City, all these entities roams about the cities, taxicabs, ambulances, fire trucks. And they’re always reporting where they are and what they’re doing. And if you can visualize that you can see how the city is living and breathing and what’s happening in the city. So I started building dispatch software. And that’s the software that runs these entities, always reporting where they are and what they’re doing. I’m in an ambulance at Fifth and Broadway taking a patient in cardiac arrest to St. John’s Mercy, a very, very simple model.
In 2000 I realized that I had this beautiful picture of all these verticals in the city that make the city work but I was missing the citizens. I was missing the people. I was missing my friends. So what if I could just take my phone and — we didn’t have mobile phones that worked that well in 2000. I had a very simple Rim device which was the precursor to the blackberry. What if I could be anywhere and share what’s happening and I could get everything in real-time? What if we did that?
And it turns out it was just the wrong time. In 2006 SMS got really big in this country. I met my cofounders Biz Stone and Evan Williams who had worked with blogger to build blogger. So they understood the importance of self-publishing. And I just added this real-time aspect, this SMS aspect and we said what if with just SMS and the web I can go anywhere I want and report what I’m doing and see what everyone else is doing in real-time, a very, very simple start and users have taken it from there.
CHARLIE ROSE: Was there a conversation that took place to make you do that or did this take place in your head?
JACK DORSEY: We were — you know, we were working –
CHARLIE ROSE: Because it was Odeo what was the company?
JACK DORSEY: We were working at a company called Odeo, which was a podcasting company, and I joined as an engineer. And the interesting thing about Odeo was that no one in the company was really that excited about podcast. So we weren’t –
CHARLIE ROSE: So it was a business you didn’t care a lot about?
JACK DORSEY: Yes. I just wanted to work with Ev and Biz. I saw them from afar as my first real job, the first time I had to write a resume. I wanted to do more consumer facing stuff because I had always been back in the real-time transactional systems, and they presented that opportunity.
So I joined, I worked on this podcast, it wasn’t that interesting. And then iTunes came out with the podcast directive which kind of took Odeo’s business model and potential off the table. So we started trying to figure out what we’re going to do and how we make audio more social, how we have group communication.
And during this time SMS was coming and being used and the first time you could send a message from Cingular to Verizon and it was amazing. I fell in love with the technology and the rest of the company did as well. And one day Ev said “Go out, think of some things to do, come back, we’re going to present to the company.” And I took a group of two other people and we talked about this very simple idea of being able to report where I am and what I’m doing and go out in real-time over our phones and the web in 160 characters. And we were on the playground and we presented to the company.
It didn’t really go anywhere, but then a week later we talked about it more and we decided I would take two weeks and Biz Stone and my other programmer Florian, and we would build the system. And we built in the two weeks and we took more and more resources. And the first tweet that was actually written by a human was by me and it was inviting co-workers.
CHARLIE ROSE: Inviting co-workers?
JACK DORSEY: That was the start.
CHARLIE ROSE: and how did you decide on the responsibility between you and Evan and Biz?
JACK DORSEY: Well, I was leading a lot of idea and the vision for where the product was going. Ev was funding and supporting what we were doing. He put the shelter over our heads. And Biz was just an amazingly creative guy. And he was helping come up with words like “follow” –
CHARLIE ROSE: He’s the marketing –
JACK DORSEY: He’s a marketing genius. He’s amazing and fun to talk to.
CHARLIE ROSE: So where is it evolving to? Because some have made this point — it’s more information than social, social being Facebook.
JACK DORSEY: Yes. I think that is a great point. I think we’ve put a lot of emphasis on tweeting when a lot of the value is actually following people. And anything you’re interested in the world whether it be Charlie Rose or JetBlue or a public figure or your local coffee shop, they’re on Twitter and broadcasting what is interesting to them. They’re broadcasting about the organization, what they’re doing. So I can go and get immediate value from these things that I care about. And that’s the most important thing is being able to get in immediately and being able to follow someone I love, like Kanye West or like Barack Obama or any politician serving my particular state. I can see them immediately.
But then there’s another hook — you can actually participate with. You can reply to them, and they may reply back. They’re human again. And we spend so much time putting these organizations and public figures on this massive, massive pedestal, but we have to remember they go through all the small details of live that we do. And you can make them human again and you can interact with them.
And it’s not just humans, it’s a social movement. It’s seeing what’s unfolding in Iran. It’s seeing what’s unfolding in Moldova or Arizona or anywhere in the world.
CHARLIE ROSE: And so it has political implications?
JACK DORSEY: It could.
CHARLIE ROSE: It did in Iran. It was about the only way people could communicate.
JACK DORSEY: It was one way. There were multiple ways. I think what was really important in Iran was that the first time people were really using these tools to be on the ground and show what was happening. And that alone created an international conversation.
To a lot of people in America Iran and what’s happening in Iran is a black box. It’s hard to understand what’s happening. But to be able to instantly see video and to see man on the street accounts of how things are unfolding in real-time as they’re happening is amazing and I’ve never seen that before with any other technology.
CHARLIE ROSE: What I don’t understand when you look at your penetration around the world, you’ve done really well in Japan, and Facebook hasn’t. What does that say?
JACK DORSEY: We’ve had massive success in Japan. And it wasn’t just recently. It was very early on. It was within our first year. People just took to it right away, and we really couldn’t figure out why. But we found all these amazing things. People would actually put these automated tomogotchis onto Twitter and you could follow the tomogotchi patterns.
CHARLIE ROSE: What does it say about culture?
JACK DORSEY: It’s a very engaged culture and they’re very, very focused on constantly iterating technology. And Twitter is a very, very fast way to do it. In Japan, it’s not 140 characters, it’s 140 words. So you could write a little mini-novel. This is a whole story in the universe.
CHARLIE ROSE: And in China?
JACK DORSEY: In China it’s the same, very much the same. So people are writing non-stop about what’s happening within the country, what’s happening around the country. So it’s a very, very interesting peek into these cultures.
CHARLIE ROSE: So there’s these two ideas. One is Twitter is the next big internet success story. I would expect you to say yes, but if you had to say yes, why would you make the case?
JACK DORSEY: I think it’s huge. I think it’s huge because never before have we had such access to that immediate information. And once we have that information we can participate and interact with it. It spans at the intersection of every single media. It’s a great way to point to video, to images, to text, to web sites. Any media that you can imagine it can point to a carry in real-time. And the only other technology I know that’s done that well is the web itself. So I put it on the same league as the web.
CHARLIE ROSE: When was the last time you wrote an e-mail?
JACK DORSEY: I write one every day.
CHARLIE ROSE: More than one? Do you write many or do you mainly use text messaging?
JACK DORSEY: I use text messaging a lot more.
CHARLIE ROSE: Than e-mail?
JACK DORSEY: More than e-mail.
CHARLIE ROSE: And do most people you know who are — have the same affinity for technology follow that rule, follow that practice?
JACK DORSEY: I think so. As we go to a younger generation that’s definitely through because it’s more instantaneous. I use e-mail as a reference. E-mail is a great reference. It has a subject line. It titles what the e-mail is about and I can refer to it, I can search.
But it’s not great for communication because it’s not focused on the most important thing. The subject is the message, and that’s the message. The subject is in the message in the IM. It’s bringing the content to you right away.
One of the things I love about the iPad, for instance, is when you’re using the iPad, the iPad disappears, it goes away. You’re reading a book. You’re viewing a website, you’re touching a web site. That’s amazing and that’s what SMS is for me. The technology goes away and with Twitter the technology goes away. It’s so easy to follow anything you’re interested in. It’s so easy to tweet from wherever you are. And the same is true with Square. We want the technology to fade away so that you can focus on enjoying the cappuccino that you just purchased.
CHARLIE ROSE: Your CEO has said that Twitter has cracked the code when you advertise. What did he mean by that and how have you cracked the code?
JACK DORSEY: It’s not just the advertising but the human behavior. It’s a new way to communicate which is to spark interaction. One example of this is one of the first entities that was using the promoted products that Twitter has was Disney and “Toy Story.” We naturally have when toy story three came out people were going the theater and they were tweeting they were going to see “Toy Story 3″ and some would tweet during the movie. Then they would come out and say “This is amazing.” And it just naturally trends to the top. And Disney used that as a way as an opportunity to capture that natural trending ability and then also point to content that they want to surface to their consumers and to their customers.
So it was just a very natural and easy way to again point attention and direct attention to something that the advertiser wanted to see. But you’re going to see that anyway, because it was trending.
CHARLIE ROSE: The relationship between Evan, Biz, you, and where there’s tension and where there’s not tension and where one — and why there have been so many different executive changes since Twitter was founded, what’s the answer?
JACK DORSEY: For any Silicon Valley company, the most important thing is the company. And any great founders need to get out of the way of the company. We presented a spark with an idea. We saw a lot of the direction being driven by our users, and a lot of what we have to do now demand very, very specific management. And we know our strengths. And that’s mainly it. This company is bigger than any individual. It’s bigger than Biz, bigger than Ev, bigger than myself.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do I get this then? So Biz’s strength is marketing?
JACK DORSEY: He’s a great communicator. He’s a great protector of the brand.
CHARLIE ROSE: Evan’s strength is product strategy and that kind of thing?
JACK DORSEY: Yes, he has a great way of thinking about the user and how the user’s coming to the technology.
CHARLIE ROSE: And your strength is writing programming?
JACK DORSEY: My strength is programming. I also think my biggest strength is simplification. That’s what I love doing. I love making something complex. I love taking everything away, taking all the debris, the conceptual debris from a technology away so that you can just focus on what’s most important.
So I see myself as a really good editor. That’s what I like to be. When I edit a technology, I want to edit a team, I want to edit a story so that we have one cohesive product that we tell the world.
CHARLIE ROSE: Meaning what? What does “edit” mean?
JACK DORSEY: There’s so many ways Twitter could go, there are so many features Twitter could build. There’s so many features that Square can build. But there is only one or two going to bring us to the next level. So edit that to one, to get rid of all those inputs and edit to one cohesive story, one single thing we’re saying to the world and that’s what we do with product.
CHARLIE ROSE: Are you by — at the core, primarily a software programmer or are you primarily an entrepreneur who’s simply wanting to ask the right questions which will lead you to the next business?
JACK DORSEY: I think I’m a mix. I love building technology, I love programming. I love building teams. And I also love building beautiful things. I love art, I love design, and I love seeing that intersection of technology and the teams that work on it.
CHARLIE ROSE: But once you build them are you thinking about the next thing?
JACK DORSEY: No, I’m thinking about how to scale what we built, how to bring it to a global audience.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what do you have to do to scale Twitter?
JACK DORSEY: We have to get it everywhere. We have to make it easy for people to use.
CHARLIE ROSE: How many, 200 million users?
JACK DORSEY: Yes, 200 million people are using Twitter.
CHARLIE ROSE: Facebook has 500 million plus.
JACK DORSEY: So we have a long way to go.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you think you can reach 500 million.
JACK DORSEY: We can go well beyond that. And I think the important thing for Twitter is that it works on any technology. The mobile phone itself, like anyone in the middle of — we have a short cut in Iraq, for instance, Twitter has a short cut in Iraq, and 60 percent of the population of Baghdad has a cell phone in their hands and they can use SMS. And they can send a tweet for free to the short code in the middle of Baghdad and then also receive these tweets in real-time. That is amazing. That is just unheard of. And that’s why I’m so excited about this technology because it speaks to the lowest common denominator, every technology.
CHARLIE ROSE: Would you argue the most exciting agent of change in the world today is the number of mobile devices? I mean by that one smart phone, that an increasing number of people in the world have it, that that’s the agent of change, how many people get put in their hands a device that has such power?
JACK DORSEY: I think it’s a — I think it may be — it’s a single spark. I think it’s a good way to further our understanding of what it means to be mobile and what it means to have technology around us all the time. But the iPad is mobile as well. Laptops are mobile. So all these devices we can take with us and interact. But I think the important is what does that mean for these technologies? What does it mean for communication when a device like those knows where it is, when it can accept the forms of payments that we use and we can build it into address whatever we want to address.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what is your counsel inside when the subject is the following — we ought to merge with Google or we ought to follow the Facebook pattern and stay independent and go public?
JACK DORSEY: I think Twitter is so unique that we must stay independent. We must continue to build what we dream of having in the world. And we’re just barely started, that’s the thing. Twitter’s been an amazing success, but we’ve just gotten started.
CHARLIE ROSE: Just gotten started because of what it can do or just gotten started –
JACK DORSEY: Because of what it can do.
CHARLIE ROSE: Lay that out for me, finally, what it is you think you can do.
JACK DORSEY: So we’ve built this very easy way, no matter where you are, to put content in, to share what’s happening around you. But it’s still very difficult to find meaning and relevancy in real-time. How do we get people to discover what’s most important? How do we surface what’s happening right now that someone should pay attention to? And that happens within your social network. It happens in the things you care about, within the country or even the world. But how do we in real-time bring that to people? And this is not just a challenge for Twitter. It’s also a challenge for the technology industry because we have all of this information just swirling about. How do we make sense of it? We need to do a much, much better job in making sense of it.
CHARLIE ROSE: Is Twitter making money?
JACK DORSEY: It’s making money. We have revenue.
(LAUGHTER)
CHARLIE ROSE: I know you have revenue. Making money has to do with profit. Making money has to do with a positive cash flow.
JACK DORSEY: We have a long way to go.
CHARLIE ROSE: That’s yes, or no? I’m not sure?
JACK DORSEY: We have revenue. We have revenue. You’ll have to speak to Dick.
CHARLIE ROSE: Everybody has revenue.
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you for coming.
JACK DORSEY: Thank you so much.
CHARLIE ROSE: Jack Dorsey, Square and Twitter. Thank you for joining us. See you next time.
END
<Copy: Content and Programming Copyright 2011 Charlie Rose Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2011 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.>
Companies: Twitter, Twitter, Square, Ustream Software engineer Jack Dorsey is the Co-Founder of Twitter, and was the CEO until October 2008. Dorsey had the original… Learn More
Website: charlierose.com Birthplace: Henderson, North Carolina Charlie Rose is an American television interviewer and journalist. He entered television journalism full-time in 1974, when he became the managing editor of the PBS series Bill Moyers’ International Report. He currently hosts the Charlie Rose Show,… Learn More
Website: twitter.com Location: San Francisco, California, United States Founded: March 21, 2006 Funding: $360M Twitter, founded by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in March 2006 (launched publicly in July 2006), is a social networking and micro-blogging… Learn More
Website: squareup.com Location: San Francisco , California, United States Founded: February, 2009 Funding: $37.5M Square is a revolutionary service that enables anyone to accept credit cards anywhere. Square offers an easy to use, free credit card reader that plugs into a phone or iPad. It’s simple to sign up. There is no extra equipment, complicated contracts,… Learn More
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Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Retailers reinvent selves as media, now produce content too! From AdAge. Best Buy Launches Network
Stay on top of the news, sign up for our free newslettersABC, Syfy and Best Buy? Retailer Launches Network
Electronics Expert Turns Publisher With Multichannel Net Packed With Original Content -- and It's Seeking Ads
By Natalie Zmuda
Published: January 03, 2011NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The press corps at this year's Consumer Electronics Show may find themselves jostling for soundbytes and product demos on the Vegas strip with video crews from Best Buy.
--> Yes, the retailer is now a publisher, rolling out a multichannel network filled with original editorial content spanning everything from how-to videos and gift guides to new-technology primers and behind-the-scenes looks at popular movies. The network, called Best Buy On, includes a website it bills as an "online magazine" and a huge in-store component with its content and ad messaging "broadcast" on screens across the store, including in the TV, mobile and portable entertainment sections.Advertisers have access standard ad units on Best Buy's global home page, every product home page and BestBuyOn.com
The project has been in "soft launch" mode since 2009. In that time, Best Buy has established an internal advertising and editorial team, cultivated relationships with media buyers and advertisers including Sony and Procter & Gamble, and invested in new screens and online video players. And later this week, Best Buy On, which is now ready for prime time, will be cranking out content from Las Vegas' MGM Grand.
Advertisers have access to nearly 145,000 screens, as well as video players and standard ad units on Best Buy's global home page, every product home page and BestBuyOn.com. Two to four screens per department are being added, allowing advertisers to specifically buy into the mobile department or portable entertainment department. Between 100 and 150 screens per store will ultimately be a part of the network, said Keith Bryan, senior director-media strategy.Related Stories
- Why Marketing's Big Guns Are Winging Their Way to Las Vegas
- Once-Wonky Consumer Electronics Show Draws Advertisers Scouting for Next Big Thing
The project is ambitious, considering that any number of in-store TV ventures have struggled to gain traction and been plagued by image problems. Even the Walmart Smart Network, the most high-profile venture in the market, has rolled out significantly slower than originally anticipated. The network targeted 2,700 stores two years ago -- Walmart has more than 3,700 stores in the U.S. -- but had rolled out to just 1,200 as of early October. By comparison, Best Buy's network is deployed in 98% of its nearly 1,100 stores.
Mr. Bryan said Best Buy On isn't simply an in-store network, and is significantly different from other retailer's models because it lives in multiple channels and produces original editorial content. So far, advertisers like P&G's Swiffer, Tide, Duracell and Braun have advertised with Best Buy On, as have vendors like Canon and Sony.
"We're just getting our feet wet, but it's already beating our expectations," said Mr. Bryan, who would not comment on the company's financial commitment to Best Buy On or its marketing budget.
Mr. Bryan, who is responsible for both buy- and sell-side media at Best Buy, said nearly every advertiser that has experimented with the network is coming back, because of the value proposition, competitive CPMs and engagement that he claims is as much as 10 times that of other online media publishing networks. He declined to comment specifically on the network's CPM. Best Buy boasts the ability to reach a billion people a year via its stores and site.
In promotional materials for Best Buy On, the network makes a case for why its shoppers are influential in categories, such as automotive, food and beverage, home and furnishings and travel. While electronics vendors are a no-brainer, Mr. Bryan also expects the network would be a good fit for advertisers in the hospitality, travel and automotive sectors, and even the apparel category could make sense, he said.
"Strategically, it makes a lot of sense to me," said John Swift, president-integrated communications at Omnicom Group's OMD. "We need to find different ways to connect our messages with consumers in different places."
Editorial content is shepherded by Bill Anderson, VP-creative director Best Buy Media Network. Mr. Anderson, who has a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota, acts as Best Buy On's editor, overseeing the editorial calendar, which includes stories like "Are Your Kids Too Connected?," "Tech 101: Connected TV Basics" and "Inside 3D Animation."
Execs say the intent is to be complementary to, not competitive with, publications like CNet, Engadget or Gizmodo, which cover consumer electronics. But while Best Buy says it's not looking to compete for eyeballs, media buyers say it will be competing with those publishers for ad dollars.
"We're not looking at them as a peer to some of the other, bigger consumer electronics publishers, yet, because they're still growing in scale and reach," said Jeff Rossi, VP-digital director at MediaVest, which has made buys with Best Buy On on behalf of P&G. "But if they do get there, content is of a strong enough quality that it provides another competitor in that space."
Editorially, Best Buy On is steering clear of controversial territory, focusing on broader tech stories rather than product reviews, lest it get into sticky situations with vendors. "We're going to stay in a nonbiased place." said Mr. Anderson.
While stories will be told from a Best Buy point of view, something executives say is clear to customers, stories are meant to be journalistic in nature. "It's not journalism in the sense that they're not independent of commercial pressures," said Stephen Shepard, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. "If they do a good job of it, it's welcome. I don't mind reading something from Best Buy, if it's fair and informative and honest."
And, at the end of the day, it's just one more example of marketer as media, something Mr. Shepard says, for better or worse, is becoming more common.
"I don't know that all brands can aspire to be a media outlet that's relevant to the agency community," Mr. Bryan said. "But multichannel brands that have a footprint physically and digitally can very much be media. Multichannel brands could be one of the most important forms of new media in the next 10 years."
"Customers expect us to have a point of view," Mr. Bryan continued. "If the only way we can do that is in a 30-second spot or a Sunday free-standing insert, then we're screwed."
~ ~ ~
Contributing: Michael Bush
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This is definitely yet another interesting development in making the case for Digital OOH / Place-Based Media.
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