Spider Blog

It's time to get your slide on...

2009-02-03T12:50:00.007Z

I have always watched the Barclaycard Slide advert with a sense of envy, for I too wish my journey could be so much fun. This was particularly prevalent yesterday - with the snow disabling most of London's transport, a giant slide to my office would have been handy! Well now in a nice show of consumer engagement, Barclaycard are encouraging people to have a go at building their own slide and are kicking it off with this amusing viral...

Ok, so its not quite as fun actually sliding your way to work but it’s a nice way of taking the TV ad a step further and playing on its viral quality. But this is far from the first example of the ad spurning a YouTube homage, a quick browse found Specsavers piggy backing on the advertisements popularity with this cheeky spoof and with a trip 'watersliding around the world' on offer, lots of home made versions are sure to follow.

Join the Revolution

2009-01-16T15:27:00.008Z

Some of the Mantra crew were very pleased to be in attendance at the first 'Every Single One of Us' pow-wow last night. ESOOU, for those who haven’t already heard the whisperings on the internet, is the communications movement (brought to life by the incredible enthusiasm of Jonathan MacDonald) which aims to bring together all like-minded people to fulfil a joint vision "to enable and enhance interaction between people and commerce". In a nutshell - put the consumer at the beginning of the value-chain, listen to their needs and wants and form all communication strategies around them – not tagging them on at the end as an ‘end-user’ afterthought.

The ESOOU is based on Jonathan’s ‘Communications Ideal’ which has been around for a few years already but which he is now eager for people to start bringing to life. According to the movement (I’m not sure if Mantra has inadvertently managed to sign itself up to a cult!), all communication, whether it be in marketing, advertising, PR etc., should aim to achieve four important things:

Transparency – hurray, the end of all those annoying ‘hidden charges’ that make your bargain basement £1 flight to sunny Spain a ‘now-I-have-to-take-a-second-mortgage-just-to-fund-you’ type of trip

Relevance – people are willing to share an incredible amount of information about themselves online via tools such as Facebook, blogs, Twitter and Flickr. It is now time for innovative companies to make use of this data and individually tailor all communications messages

Easy interaction – don’t make me fill in a dossier about my life just to sign up to your website and get a free pen

Desire – no, not the type we at Mantra have for biscuits, but the good old fashioned, 'I really want to engage with this brand'

And perhaps the most important thing to remember is that ALL communication must adhere to ‘The 3 P’s’ – privacy, permission and preference. All pretty straight forward propositions I think you’ll agree.

So, according to the folks at ESOOU, if we can do all these things we can make the world a better place. Mantra is always keen to do its bit for world peace so we’re definitely on board – are you?

Le tweet, c'est chic?

2008-12-30T10:22:00.004Z

Regrettably this blog has been a bit void of posts over the past couple of months. Whilst this has been down to having my days filled with work rather than shameful neglect or disinterest, it raises the question of blogging versus twittering. Six months ago 'twitter' was barely on my radar and was something I happily ignored as a time drain which didn't quite match the level of banter or stalking ability of Facebook. However, along with many of my colleagues here at Mantra towers I signed up to twitter a few months back and began to tell the world (well the handful of people from the office who were 'following' me) about what I was doing with my day. For those of you who aren't familiar with twitter, which many of the twitter community can be guilty of forgetting is most people, it is best described as 'micro-blogging' whereby people answer the simple question of 'what are you doing?' in 140 characters or less. These updates are delivered to anyone who chooses to follow you, and vice versa. So after initial doubts and lack of enthusiasm at telling people what I was having for lunch, I am becoming a convert to the phenomenon. And a phenomenon it has become, transcending its original niche position to being the focus of a Telegraph article and also a particularly interesting piece in The Times where Sathnam Sanghera approaches the site with a scepticism commonly seen, but is ultimately won over.

This all leads back to my original point about the blog versus the tweet. Whilst lately I have struggled to keep the blog updated, my twitter manages to have my attention 3 or 4 times a day and has become a welcome background noise. So has twitter killed the blog? The real-time nature of twitter positions it as a relevant and active platform which can come into its own in terms of citizen journalists who 'tweet' (one of many terms coined from the site) on the same platform as many highly regarded national journalists and an array of celebrities. Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross and John Cleese all regularly update the twitter world on their movements, with Mr Ross' personal tweets even managing to make the pages of the Daily Mail. And with Barack Obama using the site to great effect to help him on his way to victory, twitter is clearly something to be taken seriously. With over six million users, the site has grown rapidly but it has its downsides. Whilst those committed to the site will sing its praises, for those who arent immersed in the world it perhaps cannot match the accessible nature of the blog and instead could appear insular and even cliquey. Twitter can on the other hand be used to take a blog to a new audience, the open nature of twitter allows you to network as easily as it allows you to express your random procrastinations, helping it sit comfortably in the social media world and leading me to realise that the twitter must learn to share my attentions with the blog.

Awarding Innovation

2008-10-31T12:02:00.003Z

Some of guys from Mantra attended The Economist's Seventh Annual Innovation Awards last night. Held at the Science Museum in London, the ceremony recognises the interface between innovation and business and its impact on economic growth.

This years awards recognised some exciting people -

Jimmy Wales - the King of Wikipedia. Wales founded the online encyclopaedia in 2001 and it has since grown to become a site offering nearly 2.4 million articles to 55.8 million unique monthly visitors in the U.S. alone. Advocating the power of public collaboration to generate content quickly and accurately, Wales was handed the innovation award for Business Process.

Matti Makkonen - the Finnish engineering and mobile telephony pioneer widely credited with inventing Short Message Service (SMS). Makkonen's invention has become ingrained in our daily lives as a simple to use communication tool, yet interestingly he never received financial payback for his pioneering work as it never occurred to him to document his efforts or apply for a patent, however he did go on to become the Vice President of Nokia Networks amongst other things - plus he now has an Economist Innovation Award for Computing and Telecommunications!

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley - along with Jared Karim, this duo founded the cultural phenomenon that is YouTube. Thanks to these guys, many an hour is wasted watching the weird and the wonderful, but beyond this, they also helped redefine digital multimedia content. Enjoying market dominance, YouTube accounts for 73% of all visits to video sites and holds partnerships with the biggest name content providers. Chen and Hurley picked up the award for innovation in Consumer Products and Services.

Other winners included Arthur Rosenfeld for being 'the founding father of the energy efficiency movement' and Bill and Melinda Gates for their foundation's work with immunization in the developing world.

Following on from last nights event, a handful of Mantra bods can be found at the Economist Innovation Summit today - discussing innovation strategy, the effectiveness of collaborative platforms such as Web 2.0 and understanding how start-ups can best utilise collaboration.
Check out some pics from the event on Flickr http://tinyurl.com/6nukzs

The world according to Sorrell

2008-10-29T13:53:00.006Z

So – last night the Mantralites marched through the hail down to the Cavendish Conference centre to see Sir Martin Sorrell speak about (broadly speaking) ‘the world’. After half an hour or so thawing out amongst the crowds of suits (RTS events – very few women – lots of men in suits bellowing at each other), we were escorted in to the main room and took our seats in front of Sir Martin and the host for the evening, Hugh Pym – Acting Economics Editor for the BBC. Sir Martin started off by stating that unlike most agency people, he was actually going to answer the brief - a list of questions asking his opinion about the current and future state of the UK and global economy and the impact on the media markets. Key take-aways:

- If you focus on one media, in one market, you are a bit buggered (cue plentiful references to ITV)
- The BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and the next 11 (or discounting Iran, 10) are the markets to watch and embrace – their growth is significant
- China has the equivalent to two times the population of the US on mobile phones, half of which are on one network
- The areas to focus on are PCs, mobile and video
- The potential of mobile will be realised when the operators are forced through threat to their business to sit together in one room

In addition, Sir Martin talked specifically about WPP. The TNS transaction which is expected to be formalised today takes them back to the no. 1 spot. His aim is to have WPP’s business as follows – 1/3 digital and new media, 1/3 BRICs and emerging markets and 1/3 market research, insight and services (NB – his predictions for PR are positive – phew!). One point that provoked an audience chuckle was his ‘dad-like’ observation of the digital industry. He believes the language digital people use is exclusive and confusing – “twitter, Flickr – what do all these words mean?”

When asked about the suggestion that Google was a parasite, his response was that if Google was a parasite – he would like to be one. The reason other business leaders talk in such a derogatory fashion is because they are jealous. But regulators should look a little closer at the monopolistic position that Google is taking.

One has to wonder how Sir Martin has time to do anything other than travel; “When I was in Sao Paolo / Brazil / Bejing / Germany last week…” but his international and multi-market knowledge is awe inspiring. We were captivated the entire evening and post-event chatter in the office has kept us occupied while the server decides whether it is going to wake up this morning.

Thanks Sir Martin (and RTS) - was a great evening.

Brand extension is pants?

2008-10-14T17:07:00.004+01:00

With the doom and gloom of the current economic climate largely dominating the news at the moment, it is always refreshing to read something which manages to bring a smile to the face…. Which is exactly what happened when I read about ITV's attempts at 'brand extension', for it was reported today that they are launching a range of Coronation Street spin off products including, wait for it…underwear.

Yes, ITV who have recently announced job cuts and are suffering at the hands of the credit crunch, are aiming to build the Coronation Street brand beyond the cobbles by selling 'underworld' knickers (apparently that is the name of the knicker factory on the show and not some questionable new niche).

There is undoubtedly huge potential in terms of extending a brand to new arenas, take the empire of Mary-Kate and Ashley for example, but is the world ready for underwear, 'tea sets' and Corrie themed restaurants? Hmmmm….

Go forth and be social

2008-10-01T13:41:00.008+01:00

The quest to set up a customised social website (think Metrotwin) has become a whole lot easier as SocialGO today announced that it is now in OpenBETA.

This much anticipated bespoke social network maker is free to use and allows people to create a customised social website for any group, topic, business or theme. With a simple, easy to use design and a load of useful features you can have a network set up within a few minutes.

Having been in intense development for twelve months and having reached over 1,000 social networks already, SocialGO seems set to make a refreshing impact on the social networking scene.

An interesting departure

2008-09-24T16:08:00.005+01:00

British Airways has launched its very own social media platform – Metrotwin. The online community links those from 'the two greatest cities in the world' - London and New York, and represents one of the most significant drives into social media by a big brand.

The network allows users to provide recommendations of the best places to go and things to do in both cities whilst also helping users navigate the vast amount of online information on the two cities. Echoing Facebook, Metrotwin lets users create profiles, follow others and review and rate different aspects of London and New York.

This use of social networking signals a trend whereby content is becoming more niche and personalised. Where once an individual, group or brand might set up a page or group on a networking site, perhaps our demands and experiences are such that we now want to be able to create an entire platform to establish a unique, personal and relevant social network.

The pet...2.0

2008-09-09T17:52:00.008+01:00

Remington has this week launched the ‘digital pet man’ – a downloadable widget housing a ‘hunk’ who will strip for you on demand in between working out, cleaning up and showering you with compliments. In the interests of equality at this stage I have to mention a similar widget launched by The Sun a few months back whereby you could download the star of page 3, Miss Keeley Hazell, to your desktop. Racking up over 10,000 downloads in its first four days this proved a major coo for the tabloid paper.

So will Remington be able to replicate this popularity with their application and nuzzle their latest product offering on to the desktops of thousands of women? Judging by the reaction from some of the girls in the office, it seems likely!

A Pru-dent move?

2008-08-28T12:02:00.004+01:00

There was an interesting piece of experiential marketing outside the Mantra offices today which proved a talking point in the office. The bus stop on Tottenham Court Road had been taken over by Pru Health and turned into a kind of fruit vending machine. One of the advertising boards had been filled with oranges with a gap at the bottom for passers by to take advantage of the free fruit on offer.

Ever keen for a freebie, there was a buzz of people around it at lunchtime so it seems that Pru Health was on to a winner.

Walking on water

2008-08-27T11:09:00.004+01:00

EA Games proved itself to have a great sense of humour this week as it responded to a YouTube video poking fun at their latest Tiger Woods game. Discovering that Tiger Woods could actually walk on water in the game, Levinator 25 posted a video on YouTube to share this embarrassing flaw with the world. But rather than trying to mend the damage and take an apologetic tone, EA gave as good as they got and turned the situation to their advantage by posting a brilliant video of the real Tiger Woods walking on water as testament to his uber talent.

Cue EA grabbing a raft of positive attention to their latest offering - an amusing example of a brand paying more than just lip service to the world of digital media.

Friends in high places

2008-08-07T10:01:00.004+01:00

There is often a perception that not all brands need to pay attention to social media as a brand building tool. Some brands just do not fit with the social media audience. But is this really still true? This week Cartier, one of the world’s most exclusive jewellery brands, published its very own MySpace page. An interesting move from a brand which few would ever associate with the MySpace generation. So is this a sign of a brand jumping on the band wagon or should we instead view this as a brave and clever move which will reach out to an untapped and lucrative market?

2008-07-25T14:48:00.002+01:00

Some of the guys from Mantra were out mingling at the Moo summer party last night. Held at The Vibe Bar in Brick Lane, the jam packed party saw the who’s who of Web 2.0 and digital media schmoozing (and enjoying a few free drinks!). So a big thank you to the guys at Moo Towers for a fun, hot and sticker filled evening - bring on the next one! ;)

Pics galore here

Mantra Day Out

2008-07-01T14:00:00.005+01:00

Mantra went on an afternoon away, well a few minutes down the road to the Southbank, on Friday to visit the much-hyped Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.

Combining both indoor and outdoor installations, we all had a brilliant time and a few pictures have made it onto our Flickr page.

We <3 Firefox

2008-06-18T13:59:00.002+01:00

So Firefox is trying to break the world record for number of downloads in a day. They got off to a shaky start but things are looking up.

At Mantra and Spider we were only to happy to help!

Is it Wii-eally a fake?

2008-06-11T12:38:00.001+01:00

I am sure many of you have seen the following video doing the rounds called 'Why you should buy a Wii Fit for your Girlfriend'. It has already had nearly 2 million plays on YouTube alone and no doubt has been a great boost to Nintendo's brand.

But is it actually an amateur video? Looking deeper into the video reveals maybe all is not what it seems...

Have a look at Showmoney's analysis of the clip and make you own mind up :)

Either way I am sure it has sold a few Wii's...

The new breed of viral

2008-06-09T14:49:00.004+01:00

So yesterday The Independent on Sunday covered the power of blogging and social media on US politics, particularly Obama's use of social media to publicise popular TV appearances.

Just taking a quick look at today's Viral Video Chart will show the popularity of the elections on social networks like YouTube.

SEO <3's Online PR?

2008-05-22T17:35:00.003+01:00

So, I was at the International Search Summit today at the British Library thanks to our friends at Nordic eMarketing.

I got to sit in on the online PR session which included talks on harnessing online PR, blogging and Facebook. Nothing was really new and most of the talks concentrated on international campaigns and running multilingual sites, unfortunately just from a webmaster / blogger point of view.

What was interesting was the intro talks from Microsoft and Xerox. It might have been stating the obvious but again it needed to be done - SEO and Online PR NEED to be aligned. Agencies / colleagues need to work together to optmise press releases distributed online so they can have an impact on SEO.

It is a simple step, but an effective one. When will we learn?

Facebook Chat > IM ?

2008-04-23T09:41:00.005+01:00

So Facebook Chat went live today (after a couple of weeks of private beta testing) allowing users to see which of their friends are online and chat in real time the same way one would on MSN Messenger, Skype or GoogleTalk.

ReadWriteWeb has a good summary of the features from the original Facebook blog announcement at the start of the month...

UPDATE - Ok, been playing for 10 minutes and the UI is REALLY good for a V1 release. Initial thoughts are it needs a floating notification widget / desktop client for when your browser is minimised but that's about it. This is going to have a considerable impact on the IM market and it will be interesting to see the competitor and press reaction over the coming weeks.

Twitter becomes front page news!

2008-04-18T10:10:00.003+01:00

Everyone knows Downing Street has jumped on the web 2 bandwagon recently but few would have thought it would become front page news.

The Guardian (of course it was The Guardian) has reprinted Gordon Brown's Twitter feed on the cover this morning.

Many 'twitterers' are beginning to get annoyed by Twitter spam, commercial twitter accounts just advertising their clients products. Good to see Downing Street is using it probably and replying to tweets opposed to simply posting corporate 'messages'.

And ironically, how did I find out about it? From my friends on Twitter before I even picked up the paper!

Online TV on TV

2008-04-18T09:17:00.004+01:00

So Channel Five has become the first broadcaster to buy the rights to an online TV show, explicitly Sofia's Diary, Bebo's successor to the popular KateModern show.

Bebo says it 'represents a milestone for television broadcasting' and Five wants to 'play a role pioneering the next stage of entertainment.'

Interestingly, Sofia's Diary, like KateModern before it, is not funded by ads but by in-video brand placement from companies including Microsoft, Orange, Proctor and Gamble and Disney.

Viewing figures are around the 5 million mark on bebo and Five will be hoping to capture back some of the audience it has lost to online media over the past two years and it will be interesting to see if other broadcasters follow suit....

Mantra in the news...

2008-04-17T11:57:00.004+01:00

So, Mantra was mentioned in Marketing (sub needed) yesterday after supplying them with some facts on AVE. As it allows marketers to put a figure on PR activity clients see it as an effective measurement tool but many PRs will disagree. And rightly so, as it has many flaws:

It doesn't measure message
It doesn't measure the impact of the positioning
It doesn't measure the impact of the actual publication

But quantitative vs. qualitative will always be an ongoing battle...

Flickr adds Video

2008-04-09T11:14:00.003+01:00

So Flickr yesterday announced (what has been rumoured for a while) Flickr Video. This allows Pro users to upload videos that will sit alongside their photo collections on the Flickr website.

Excellent, so I no longer have to keep my videos on a separate site like YouTube or (the far superior!) Vimeo?

Not quite yet. Flickr has (for now?) limited uploads to 90 seconds long and 150MB in size which means it is not going to become a replacement for YouTube just yet.

It is interesting to see is Yahoo! going after Google's share of the online video space and if it will, over time, integrate Flickr Video with its own Yahoo! Video site.

So what can users do with 90 seconds? Well one example emerging from the private beta phase is the 'fridget' - a snippet of video filmed from the inside of a fridge as someone (or something) peers inside.

Some examples!

The Next Web kicks off in Amsterdam

2008-04-03T09:47:00.005+01:00

So The Next Web conference kicked off this morning in Amsterdam with Erick Schonfeld opening the event with his thoughts on the widgetization of the web, or as he called it, 'blowing up the web'.

You can follow all the action at the official blog.

And don't forget KRose will be broadcasting Diggnation live on Revision3 today at 5pm (BST) !!!

End of Facebook? It was just blip

2008-03-26T09:24:00.006Z

So last month I blogged on how, for the first time, the press had got its teeth into Facebook as user numbers were down over the Christmas period.

They saw it as the beginning of the end.

They were wrong.