X Factor Tipping: results after week one

well a disastrous week one for Mediation. I wasn't half right when I said that it wasn't a strong line up for the groups… if only I'd followed through with that intuition in my voting. I tipped Girlband and Ruth to be in the bottom two, as it was BOTH girl groups were in the bottom two.

not only did I miss out on five points for not tipping Bad Lashes to be in the bottom two but was then robbed, yes robbed, of an further five when the wrong girl group went. I'm a fan of neither, but Bad Lashes were the better of a bad bunch…

but thats the way the cookie crumbles and so a bad week for Louis and Mediation sees the scores on the doors as follows:

1.
Dale             25
1.
Davey           25
1.
Philip           25

4. Carole
20
4. Laura
20
4. Paul
20
4. Richard
20

8. Mediation     15
8. Emma
15
8. Jason K
15
8. Nicole
15
8. Simon
15
8. Stu
15

14. Bree
10
14. David D
10
14. Jason W
10
14. Lizzy
10
14. Nick
10
14. Nuala
10

Mediation must do better next week, the question is who but who will join Girlband in the bottom two. certainly not Alexandra or Laura, my two top faves who were both amazing on Saturday. we'll see. as for now, its adios to Bad Lashes…

advertising, broadcasting

Brands lose out as Channel 4 pulls out of DAB

what's most surprising about Channel 4's announcement that it is pulling out of DAB is not that it's abandoning the platform, but that it took the broadcaster so long to do it. it's been a long road for C4 since the consortium it led (which included Channel 4, Bauer Radio, UTV, UBC Media Group and SMG) 'won' the second DAB digital radio national commercial multiplex in July last year. delay has followed delay; we were supposed to get the first stations this summer gone, but plans were subsequently scaled back to just one station (E4 Radio) to be launched in 2009.

as the MediaGuardian podcast panel observed, Andy Duncan's strategy to move into radio (and particular speech radio) was more than sound – indeed it formed a key part of a broad range of announcements and maneuvers under the 'Next on 4' banner designed to shore up Channel 4's PSB credentials, with the aim of pursuading the Government to part-fund the broadcaster as it faces a multi-million pound deficit in its budget. but almost as soon as the announcement was made DAB ran into trouble.

the problem for the platform is simple. DAB is an interim technology; one that in future media history lessons will sit neatly on the timeline between FM / AM signals and the internet. as soon as internet-enabled radio listening was available on mobile phones the writing was on the wall for the platform. in this context it would be madness to even contemplate now going ahead with a second national multiplex.

unfortunately this simple problem doesn't have a simple solution. for a start the 30% of households which have invested in a digital radio aren't going to be jumping for joy if the signal goes down the pan. but more importantly there doesn't exist an internet-based commercial platform to replace DAB. there is no commercial iPlayer and certainly no commercial investment available to build one (commercial radio was struggling even before the recent downturn, and shows no sign of improving soon). access to the iPlayer platform is emerging as the most cost-effective and consumer-centric solution.

but the group set to lose out as much as any other are advertisers. what Channel 4 radio offered was a viable commercial offering to rival BBC Radio 4, an audio space to produce more upmarket and sophisticated audio content and advertising. it was a space I as a planner was looking forward to exploring, and I'm sure I wasn't alone. for a radio landscape crying out for diversification and innovation, Friday's announcement heralds a loss far greater than any one station. it is the loss of an opportunity that may never come round again.

broadcasting, X_Factor-tipping

X Factor Tipping: live finals – week one

so here we are. a whole eight weeks in, and it's time for the live finals of the X. but there's an extra edge this year thanks to the lovely Dale who's organised a tipping competition of all things. the rules are simple, every week until we get to the final five Mediation has to pick two acts I think will
survive (yes’s) and two acts that you think could
be sent home (no’s)… scoring is more complicated:

5 points for
each ‘yes’ that survives
5 points for each
‘no’ act that's in the bottom two,and
10 points for each ‘no’ act that is sent home

but there is, however, a
twist. if one of Mediation's ‘yes’ acts is in the bottom two I lose 5 points and if
one of them is sent home I lose 10 points!

so it's all to play for and with all the acts unproven on live TV there's been a fair bit of discussion, with the final tips going as follows:

first up to stay, Alexandra. outrageously robbed of a place in the live finals in 2005, this year she gave a performance for Cheryl head and shoulders above the other girls. she's worked for three years for this chance and Mediation expects her to grab it with both arms.

next up to stay was more tricky but I've settled for Laura. quirky, down to earth and vulnerable, reckon the public are going to love her. and great voice makes her solid from a vocal point of view

first of my nominations to go is Girlband. admittedly Louis had not a lot to choose from (so much so that the producers had to form a band from solo contestants that didn't make it) and it's not a strong line up for the groups. they're up against another – and arguably stronger vocally – girl group who'll divide the girl group vote in week one. not a chance.

the second nomination to go again is harder and despite lots of lobbying for Dan, who can't sing for toffee but has a flawless back-story so will stay in the competition for way longer than he should, I'm reluctantly settling on Ruth. just not convinced that the great British public will buy Enrique-esque stylings on prime time… sorry.

it would be nice to think that this is all is aid of proving Henry Jenkins' theories of Convergence Culture – demonstrating how the evolving ecology of broadcast and consumer-generated media are developing in a harmonious and mutually beneficial way. it would also be nice to think that this proof that the live-TV model is still very much (a)live and kicking; proof that this kind of involvement just wouldn't be feasible if the broadcast was time-shifted… but it's not. Mediation just loves a bit of X.

finally it should be noted that Mediation is very much in two minds about Austin. please please can someone stop him crying, its all very distracting. plus the poor boy has been styled to within an inch of his life… I don't know who put Morticia Adams in charge of styling but they need to be pointed in the direction of the pasture. fast.

enjoy the show.

Austin before…

Austin after Morticia had her way… poor guy.

Uncategorized

Wanting to win: happy birthday Google

how things have changed. to mark their 10th birthday Google has opened up its oldest-available search index, and its fascinating stuff. as the Google website observes: "The world wide web and the
world have both changed a lot since 2001. Searching Google's 2001 index
illustrates both points in what we think is a pretty entertaining way.

"If
you searched on 'Michael Phelps' in 2001 for instance, you were
probably looking for the scientist, not the swimmer. 'Ipod' didn't
refer to a music player, and 'YouTube' didn't refer to much of
anything."

it's a timely reminder that the pace of change is showing no sign of stopping soon… the media landscape is barely recognisable from the one I first saw when I started working in this industry in 2001, the same year from which the above index comes.

media, in many ways, is an arms race… in which the winner is determined as much by those who have the best ideas as those who want to have the best ideas. if there is any lesson from Google it is this; success comes not just aiming, but from wanting, to win.

experiencing, innovating, social networking, viewing

Cutting thru choice fatigue: How the Secret Cinema and Nokia dictate and curate a unique movie experience

Thursday lunchtime Mediation received the following message from Secret Cinema: "Lords and Ladies, Dukes and Duchesses, Partisans and Plebians and the Claypool Foundation of Arts. Secret Cinema in association with Nokia will take place this Friday 3rd of October at 8pm … Dress should be majestic and wondrous for this shall be an evening of wild, wild romance, honey song, long journeys, laughter and dance."

Last night Mediaton therefore duly popped along to Hackney for this month's secret cinema event. their website observes that "the internet is changing the way way we watch films. the secret cinema changes WHERE you watch film."

but the event goes far beyond screening in an interesting location. the movie – which isn't revealed until the very last moment – is explored and teased from the moment you arrive… key scenes, themes, characters and quotes are all on display in everything from the actors who greet you to the pre-screening entertainment. it's brilliant.

but the best bit is when the movie starts, and you're sat watching the Marx Brothers' in A Night At The Opera – a movie you may never have otherwise seen, with a few hundred other people who similarly had no idea that was the movie they would be watching. in a world of choice fatigue, it is a curious joy to have an evening of your time dictated and curated by others.

Nokia do well to be associated with the Secret Cinema organisation and movement. they also do well to screen a short movie at the event which, rather than being an ad, shows established artists revealing what they would do for 96 seconds. it's all in aid of promoting Nokia's mobile TV channel capsule 96 and it feels entirely in tune with the event.

if anything, Nokia could be doing more to create associations with the event… rather than getting an email revealing the location, how much more interesting and intriguing would it be to get content and clues direct to your phone. sophisticated flash-mobbing making the event even more engaging courtesy of Nokia.

thanks to Eva for the heads up on this, very appreciated. Secret Cinema was a joy to attend. get yourself along next month for a bit of mystery.

partisans queuing outside Hackney Empire

performers entertain before the movie starts

our compere for the evening

actors perform an iconic theme from the movie

Nokia's trailer for Capsule 96

performing a piece from the opera featured in the movie

a silent movie short

after all the teasing, the big reveal…

selling

‘Exciting and dynamic times’: how the PPA reminds us of the key components of any media conference

yesterday Mediation popped along to the PPA's Magazine Advertising Conference and Awards 2008, held at the IMAX. media conferences really are a wonder to behold and the PPA's effort was no exception, with several key components of any decent conference on display (no pun intended)…

selective use of stats are out in force to make convoluted promotional statements about the channel… in 70% of product categories, for example, magazines drive more online sales than any other medium. who knew?

awards are a must. my best of the morning being 'The Industry's favourite Magazine Cover' (for the record it was the above Superman Returns effort by Empire).

fat words like 'relevant' and 'engaging' are compulsory in every sentence, and a host of industry heavyweights are rolled out to half inspire us and half self-promote they own pet agenda. to be fair John Grant was on his usual excellent form, reminding us that the new media attack is centralised on distribution whilst actually supporting the creation and filtering of great content.

but the best and most compulsory part of any media conference is the plain, unabashed optimism that oozes from every syllable. there are no challenges, only opportunities. consumption never goes down, consumers just get more sophisticated. but above all conditions are never bad. this is really important. our beloved western economy isn't teetering on the brink, it's just going thru an 'exciting and dynamic' phase.

and for all their flaws, this is what we love. in an all-too-often cynical industry, it's quite right that a media channel can put on it's finest and sell it to the world… it's a testament to the passion our industry has for what it does. and besides, who wouldn't want to live in such exciting and dynamic times?

engaging, promoting, social networking

When promotions go bad: what brands can learn from Leading Hotels of the World’s response to a PR nightmare

in a post back in April Mediation commented on Hoxton Hotel's £1 room sale, observing that the success of the promotion created very much a double-edged sword; with fulfillment issues due to massive demand causing a negative CRM fallout.

Hoxton Hotel no doubt sympathises with The Leading Hotels of the World group, who this week were forced to completely abandon a promotion when massive demand for what was a very attractive offer – $500 rooms going for $19.28 (the price of a room the year of their founding 80 years ago) – became massively oversubscribed.

this is a genuine disaster for the brand, but the situation has been significantly mitigated by the group's response to the situation…

one, take ownership.

the above statement has been posted on their website and emailed to those who applied for the offer. Ted Teng, President and CEO of the organisation commented that "Although our original back-up plan provided a viable solution for
the 150,000 people who were registered, it was met with some confusion
over submission procedures and timing … We are sincerely committed to restoring your faith in our brand and do not want to risk disappointing you again".

two, engage in the debate.

the brand quickly engaged themselves in online conversations about the promotion. in a forum on the flyertalk website. Marshall Calder, SVP of Marketing at The Leading Hotels responded to posts by explaining the situation and what was being done to rectify it. the response of contributors to the forum is telling…

SanDiego1k comments "I think this is a sound decision. It is very classy of you to make the hard decision, then return to advise us. Thank you" … Irish Lad adds "I think that makes a lot of sense in the circumstances. I appreciate
this must have been a difficult day for the management at LHW … good luck with the rest of the
promotion and thanks for posting today."

three, communicate that you're working towards a solution.

Calder adds, "since we do not wish to disappoint anyone again, we shall re-tool the
$19.28 promotion and communicate the details to all registrants within
the next week."

if it was consumer communications on the internet that caused the problem, then it's corporate communications on the internet that will go a very long way towards fixing it. there's a lesson for all brands in Leading Hotel's response to the situation… brands can't remain detached from consumer conversations, especially when those conversations are generating negative WOM about a brand. in fact quite the opposite is true: the response of Leading Hotels may generate from a potentially disastrous situation more goodwill than their promotion could have ever hoped for.

thanks to Hanson for the heads up on what's going down in the hotel world…

engaging, gaming, innovating, internet, praising

Shaking up YouTube: Brilliantly creative use of YouTube courtesy of Wii

click the above picture or here to see some brilliantly creative use of YouTube for Wii's 'WarioLand Shake It' game. very smart breaking of the conventions of the YouTube infrastructure to bring to life the nature of the game…

in fact it says much about just how used we've come to the left-hand-screen-surrounded-by-other-clickables format that when it starts to fall apart it is really rather unnerving. and the fact that you can still click on the components of the page once it's been destroyed is just genius.

lovely lovely stuff. thanks to Daryl at Vizeum for the heads up.

advertising, branding, praising

In praise of… the old-fashioned tease campaign currently proffering a little mystery to our post-information age

there's nothing Mediation likes more than a decent tease campaign, and this one has certainly been splashing itself around London's transport network at the moment. tube card panels, cross-track 48s and station dominations have all been showing images of Obama outside No. 10, golden footballs, overweight kids and what I think is a pic of the magnets from the new large Hadron Collider at CERN.

the tease (then reveal) model is as old as the hills; use the medium of outdoor to tease the public with non-branded images that provoke questions as to what they are, and why they're there… and of course which brand they're for!

it's an approach that's increasingly rare these days. partly I guess due to the requirement for more demonstrable returns on investment (essentially with this strategy you're paying for the space twice), but it's also a model that has somewhat been reversed in recent times…

its Fallon's fault. ever since the set of their San Fransisco Balls effort was captured and posted before the ad was released, it's become somewhat fashionable to do the opposite of the tease model. now several brands advertise the making of the ad… on-set photos of the recent M&S summer ad for example made the national press.

I guess that why I like this campaign. not only is it demonstrating confidence with it's investment, but in a post-information hyper-transparent age it proffers a little mystery to a sometimes all-too-knowing media landscape.

———-

29.9.08 supplemental:

the campaign is for The Times. sales and marketing director of Times Media Katie Vanneck as quoted in an article on Brand Republic:
"The Times is the only national daily without a dogma — the paper does
not tell you what to think but encourages the reader to question and to
challenge.

"We wanted to reflect this ethos of 'show and not
tell' in our brand campaign which is why we have gone for strong,
simple images that set you questioning and thinking.

"We want readers to think again about our times and to think again about The Times"

…mission – I suggest – accomplished. thanks to Eva for the comment on the post and the heads up…

content creating, designing, engaging, experiencing, gaming, social networking, user-generating

What brands can learn from Superstruct’s invitation to fix the future

you are officially invited to create and explore the world in 2019. but be warned, it's not going to be pretty. the Institute For The Future has developed Superstruct, an ARG that aims – with a massive number of players' help – to chronicle the dark future they predict for us, then help them fix it.

"With Superstruct IFTF introduces a revolutionary new forecasting tool:
Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Games (MMFGs). MMFGs are
collaborative, open source simulations of a possible future. Each MMFG
focuses on a unique set of “future parameters,” which we cull from
IFTF’s forecast research. These parameters define a future scenario: a
specific combination of transformative events, technologies,
discoveries and social phenomenon that are likely to develop in the
next 10 to 25 years. We then open up the future to the public, so that
players can document their personal reactions to the scenario."

its a fascinating concept. taking the ARG to the next level and using Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds to capture and identify our most likely (and most successful) responses to multiple 21st Century threats. you can join the simulation and watch videos outlining the 'superthreats' we face on the Superstruct website.

brands could learn a lot from this endeavour. at it's most basic, the IFTF – thru Superstruct – is encouraging a community of people to engage with an idea. that isn't a million miles from what most advertisers want people to do – only they generally use advertising to convey the idea. and are then a bit vague about how people can get involved; other than buy stuff of course.

but if a brand really wanted to break the mold. if a marketing team really wanted to explore and communicate something in which they believed by creating a platform thru which a community of people could genuinely engage with the idea, the brand and each other… they could. think how much more powerful M&S's Plan A campaign would have been if they had engaged with a massive community of people to explore ways to make sure we didn't have to resort to plan b. think how much more traction you could get by using media to communicate the project and report its progress.

the risks are huge. you have to be radically transparent; but most brands have to be radically transparent already. if you get it wrong no one will care; but if you get it wrong now people can filter your messages out. you have to be hyper-creative; but creativity has never been more important. you have to rely on people pro-actively and constructively contributing to the platform; but people demonstrate time and time again that this is something they're increasingly comfortable doing.

and if the risks are huge, the rewards are greater. get it right and you not only engage an audience in something your brand stands for, but your brand may even make a bit of a difference… as well as creating affinity and customer value – and therefore revenues – on the way…

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MEDIATION

negotiating the future of media and communications

Author Archives: Chris Stephenson