Month: November 2009

Categories
talkability

The 10 most-read posts of 2009…

Here are the 10 most read posts on Talkable Likeable in 2009 (I’m trying to beat the Xmas rush.)

10. Strike-through cut-through – lovely poster from the ever-reliable VW

9. Hey you, get off of my cloud – why IT departments don’t like employees moving faster than they do

8. PR as fireworks – appreciating the right sequence for news announcements

7. “Please RTFM and we welcome you to teh interwebs” – LOLs beat command-and-control marketing any day of the week

6.Connecting with your face -facebook is going to be frighteningly important in 2010

5. Clinginess is the new spam – the pitfalls of over-communicating

4. If you type “Google” into Google, you break the internet – funny every time

3. It’s marketing Jim, but not as we know it – sometimes, little executional touches go a long way

2. Will people pay for content? Wrong question – however fragmented channels become, brands are what matter

1. The story behind Maybe It’s Because I’m a Londoner – how that Capital Radio ad was inspired by Oliver Twist and Christopher Walken

Categories
disruption pr strategy

Champions of search neutrality – how Google might win the PR war against Murdoch

Rumours abound that Murdoch and Microsoft might team up to make Bing the only place where News International content can be found in search.

As a stick to wield at Google, it’s pretty much the only one Rupert has. And as they trail by miles in search share, Microsoft won’t miss an opportunity to team up and gain an edge either.

It must be tempting for Google in turn to consider exclusive deals with Murdoch’s competitors.

But what do consumers want? Imagine a world where you have to know “I can find this kind of content on Google but that on Bing, or that on Google but not on Bing”. It’d be awful. Like having to dial 118 118 for these phone numbers, but 118 247 for those phone numbers.

We want everything in one place.

I wonder whether Google would open up a PR front championing “search neutrality“? i.e. position themselves as wanting to bring you the whole web and de-position others as wanting to fence it off.

Categories
humour invention likeability low cost marketing pr surprise talkability

It’s marketing Jim, but not as we know it

Spotted in Soho, promoting the new Star Trek DVD – get yourself a Spock haircut

Categories
likeability surprise talkability viral

Connecting with your face

Punchy example of the power of facebook connect. Check it out

Picture 9

Categories
pr surprise talkability

Game on

Launching Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2 in Leicester Square was a terrific PR move. Games are the new movies and this was great example of thinking big

Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfa-001

Categories
disruption productivity

Hey you, get off of my cloud

A friend of mine who works at a respectable FMCG company was recently trying to find a solution for collaborative working on an international project. He’d heard that Basecamp was perfect for the job – web based, secure, trackable, low cost and fast to get up and running.

His IT department declined and offered their preferred large-scale business apps solution – which would be ready in 15 months. He patiently stated that the project was due by Xmas and he’d like to try Basecamp.

The IT guy played his joker: “we don’t support it”.

It seems that line can be pulled out by IT departments anytime. It’s the desktop guy’s Get Out of Jail Free card. Along with “It introduces risk”, it’s a no-comebacks special designed to end the conversation.

But not being supported by IT departments is the very point of cloud applications. The hosting, maintenance and developments are handled remotely and cost-effectively.

The opportunities created by web apps is too great to pass up. Certainly start-up competitors will have no issue using newer, low-cost alternatives to organise themselves. But it’s no surprise there is fear and protective behaviour at work – IT departments are getting disrupted too.

As Nicholas Carr explains in the excellent Big Switch, continuing to deploy and support big desktop systems feels like running your own generators rather than plugging into the national grid.