The Agency VC

As agencies search for a/the new model many seem to be favouring the approach pioneered in the communications space by Anomaly NYC: Partnerships with entreprenuers and innovators to develop their proposition and take to market strategies in exchange for shared IP.

Ogilvy has had an Innovation Lab based in Singapore for several years developing mobile applications and the model has just been rolled out to London and New York. At MIPTV the Lab recently ran a 2 day workshop as part of the Content 360 competition to identify and refine cause related marketing initiatives for our clients. Rachelle Boyle, who I was mentoring, won for her fantastic Fanta's Unxepected Heros idea about raising money to educate third world countries on the Sodis filtration process. Basically if contaminated water is left in a soft drink plastic bottle, of the type that Fanta comes in, for 6 hours in the sun it becomes drinkable.

It looks like this is one of a number of initiatives by ad groups and holding companies to establish units to determine the future of digital media.

The Interpublic Group set up a Futures Marketing Group, which houses its IPG Emerging Media Lab.

WPP Group has WPP Digital, which handles its investments in emerging media companies like Spot Runner, Jumptap and others.

Publicis Groupe has Denuo, a new-media consultancy that advises start-ups on ad models in exchange for equity positions in them.

Havas media lab is a research and development unit to partner with clients and start-ups to find new ad models.

Vincent Thome, fresh from a whorld tour, has an interesting take on the shared future of VCs & agencies.

Tags: Ogilvy Innovation Lab Giles Rhys Jones Marketing Trends agency vc Media Lab

Nike Ads Now & Then

Nike Ads 2.0: Media Spend - Zero, Celeb - 1, Camera - 1, Branding - None, Car - Models own (probably)


Nike Ads 1.0: Media spend - Massive, Production costs - Huge, Branding - Everywhere, Celebs - Countless


An interesting illustration on the state of advertising today.

Hat tip - Scamp

Tags: nike advertising changing giles rhys jones

Not Even the Skies Are Safe From The Ad Men

not sure about the media targeting...

Tags: flogo giles rhys jones advertising

Swiss Family Bloggers

So the younger sibling has started documenting his life working for the foreign office in washington dc and mum has got in on the act as well.

5 Levels Of A Customer Advisory Panel

dell - public
joost - registered beta
p&g tremor - broad selective panel
lego - internal fan group
wii - unsolicited

Carlsberg and Mentos Viral

Lego Social Strategy

Tags: lego social media

Advertisers Become Conductors

McKinsey published a report on the way that technology has changed how businesses interact with each other, specialist suppliers and service providers.

Time was when management theory’s answer used to be that if these activities were contracted out to specialized companies, coordinating them would create excessive "interaction costs": the expense and bother of dealing with outside suppliers.

As an illustration these interactions account for over a third of economic activity in the United States. They exert a potent but little understood influence on how industries are structured, how firms are organized, and how customers behave. They argue that any major change in their level or nature would trigger a new dynamic in economic activity.

Think about advertising. We used to be set up to outsource a minimal amount at the bottom, commodity end of the scale with whole departments set up to deliver a single channel like TV or medium like print.

As the ways to reach our audience tends to the infinite, the cost of interactions tending to zero is incredibly timely. If harnessed correctly could stop many an agency creaking at the sides.

This makes the conductor agency model - the agency acting as a strategic middle man connecting and managing specialist suppliers to deliver - a possibility.

With the cost of interaction zero you could theoretically have departments made up of an indivdual, think openad.net.

Tags: giles rhys jones mckinsey agency of the future

Report On Joint TV & Computer Usage

Are you reading this whilst watching TV? If so you would be in the majority, 78% U.S. adults go online while watching TV, and more than a third of them do so always or often. Out of these, "Double-dippers” (dumb name) are comprised of adults who enjoy surfing the Internet while watching television. Fully 62% of double-dippers surf the web while watching television for content that is not related to what they’re watching. And 25% of double-dippers go online for information specific to the programming they are currently viewing.

Most commonly, double-dippers who surf the web for related content are looking for more information or color about what they’re watching, be it profiles of the actors (51%), products/services that appeared in or were advertised during the program (40%), or related upcoming events (39%).

Here is an interesting report on the use of using the computer whilst watching TV. Throws up some interesting applications for not only program makers but advertisers - no and not just to go to the online shop or see the making of the ad.

On a related, but side note I saw this viral based on the Ogilvy London Ford TV ad where cars floated away in the sky. JWT Auckland, which has the Ford account in NZ took the release of the original ad one step further by producing this viral which then went onto become a traditional worldwide news story driving viewers back online and breaking records on YouTube, especially in the comments and responses, exactly where you want them.

Two hat tips to Damiano Vukotić.

Tags: giles rhys jones Damiano Vukotić blinkx TV and Online Video habits

"Reviews" Beat "UGC" In Forrester Survey

I don't know - what do you think? I don't know either - but what do you think?

Consumers are spending more and more time online and less time with traditional media. But what do people actually want from the sites they visit? Acording to Forrester Research and the asked 5,000 online consumers they asked the content and functionality they’d most like to see is:

What do you think?
64% percent of consumers reported wanting to see user ratings and reviews. Although only 23% want the ability to upload or view their own content.

Show me the money
And nearly the same amount also wanted price-focused offerings, like special offers or coupons (61%) and product or price comparison tools (59%).

Dont play games with me
Only 29% of all US consumers said they’d like to play entertaining games or fill out quizzes and questionnaires on sites.

Tags: giles rhys jones forrester research consumer reviews online user generated advertising