Communities Dominate Brands

Information flows the life force of communities

All roads lead back to Finland. No seriously they do, C'mon I am not joking.

As my close friends and colleagues know, I am an honoury Finn ( I hear the Swedes groan )

So why do all roads lead back to Finland? - Well the thought struck me having just read a piece about an incredible piece of technology. Invented where? Finland. Those clever clever Finns.

The article is Towards an Information Society Free from Inhibitions

The first point that caught my eye was this

To make a leap to real information society we need mediating tools between consumers and service providers, mediators. The purpose of a mediator is to bring the technology oriented set of services and the technology driven interface structures more close to end users democratic ability to act. In the end we might be able to evaporate the difficulties without the risk of flinging the decades long evolution of technology into bias

Quite so.

The Finnish company behind this revolutionary technology and approach is Morselcode Oy

One of the first commercializing frontiers taking advantage from this is Kauppalehti. Kauppalehti is a leading Finnish financial newspaper, experiencing the use of UPCODE application by delivering On-Line Stock Exchange information to cellular phone users. Kauppalehti provides the list of recent ups and downs on stock market within fifteen minutes delay. That is the fastest information flow Helsinki Stock Exchange can distribute at the moment.

The recent Finnish presidential elections are another example of how to use cellular phones reader application. One of the major candidates, Mr. Sauli Niinistö, applied the solution to deliver his campaign information through the 2D matrix code reading services in terms of genuine participation into information society.

The graphic code was published on campaign posters. Scanning the code, cellular PDA users were able to read detailed information where their candidate was giving a speech. The information updating frequency was reset almost on an hourly basis.

No other public media could give such on-line information to voters or journalists. The UPCODE cellular reader service in Mr. Niinistö’s campaign evoke keen enthusiasm among the voters. After launching the service the amount of users rose into thousands.

That is incredible - the speed of distribution, the ability to search and find in such powerful ways is I believe transformational.

And in fact

Morselcode leans on active networking and partnership strategy. Mr. Pekka Toivonen stresses that knowledge management is the expected turnaround to entering better customer service by helping them up bringing their service platform, generating more profit and strengthening internal information flow.

It is a proven fact that mediator type solutions are helpful when creating totally new businesses. That is what we are aiming at, says Mr. Toivonen.

What has also got me excited about Morselcode is the social application of the technology

Everyone knows just how cumbersome it can be to try to track down information from, f.e. municipal healthcare services. With UPCODE reading method and optimized media content that information could be delivered on cellular phones’ display in a fraction of a second. The entire customer service process would be perfect when also appointment times and payment processes were part of the features, says Mr. Toivonen.

Toivonen picks up another example: he sees that public transportation is a perfect area to bring mobile society available for everyone. Imagine that you get all the timetables on your mobile display, all the routes can be restored as bookmarks – and, last but not least, the cancelled routes are informed on line. When the mobile wallet technology is standardized it is only up to how fast the service providers are able to serve the markets.

That is again amazing, such applications can expand and condense time in ways previously thought unfashionable or impossible. They unleash information data flows and will drive and facilitate life simplyfying and life enabling services. And I would argue be a key element in bringing communities closer together.

Information flows between communities are the life force of communities. Morselcode's technology has just taken those information flows to a completely different paradigm.

Thought for the day

Communication > Community > Communion

Coming together for a common purpose.

Sharing together, transcending together

Communities Dominate Bonds, says Chroma blogsite

I wish I had thought of that title, and yes, we have to mention this pending consumer boycott. First the credits - Constantinos Demopoulos, at his Chroma blogsite, posted about the consumer boycott, in a blog with that wonderful tile "Communties Dominate Bonds". A short blog but recognises that there is a consumer boycott brewing against the announced new Bond actor, Daniel Craig.

Lets see what happens. I'm a passionate Bond fan myself, not just of the movies, but all the books, videogames etc. I did feel that Pierce Brosnan had hit perfection in the role in the last movie, and was disappointed to find he was not to return for the latest 007 installment, Casino Royale. I do feel that Sony, who now own the movie rights to the cultural icon, could be swayed by community reaction. But also it may be a bit too little, bit too late, as the Bond film is already in production, so it might become too expensive to pull the plug now, and re-sign Pierce Brosnan suddenly to do another Bond flick.

Anyway, on the "Communities Dominate" theme - yes, they dominate everything, even superspy Bond-James-Bonds as well.

Fixed Mobile... Pretendence

We hear a lot about Fixed-Mobile Convergence around telecoms people. I've been following it with a lot of personal interest since I led the team to build the world's first Fixed-Mobile converged telecoms service in Finland in 1996 (hey, thats 10 years ago, wow, time flies...  Best wishes to all who were with us with HPY, Finnet, Radiolinja, 999 etc - and in Finnish to my friends: Terkkuja 999-Tomilta!)

Back then fixed telecoms was the giant, mobile almost only a nuisance, even in world-leading mobile penetration country Finland, and the whole project had a bit of the feeling of a gimmick, even with our management at the time. Did we really need to even bother to converge with the tiny amount of business in mobile. In early 1996 Finnish mobile penetration was under 30%. How times change.

Today 2.2 Billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide dwarf the 1.2 Billion fixed lines. The total amount of revenues of mobile teleocoms shot past fixed over a year ago and today all the attention is with mobile. But that old topic of Fixed-Mobile Convergence still hangs around. And for good reason. We see all kinds of interesting technical ideas like VoIP Voice over IP ie Skype, Vonage etc, on WiFi phones, etc.

So we find a most interesting OECD study reported by our friend, Steve Jones of the3GPortal.com. The OECD study reports that out of the 30 countries in the OECD, already in 23 countries, the cost of mobile calls is LESS than the cost of fixed (wireline/landline) calls ! Amazing. Leading the countries where the difference in Mobile's favour is the greatest are many predictable countries, starting off with Finland (of course) and Portugal, Austria, Denmark and Sweden - all quite to be expected. But also at this end of the scale, some surprises: Hungary, USA and Canada?

At the other end, only 7 OECD countries have mobile calls still more expensive than fixed line calls, and the most expensive of these, counting from the worst are: Spain, Japan, Korea and Germany.

Now to think about the bigger picture. Some who comment on our industry still like to think that mobile is too expensive. That there is an economic rationale for selecting a fixed line call. To wait until you get home to make calls then from the cheaper option. This is no longer even relevant, as the facts no longer support this kind of thinking.

And we have many other interesting phenomena that have been recently reported. That 80% of all voice calls in Japan now are placed from indoors. And 70% of mobile data is consumed: indoors. In Finland 50% of homes have abandoned the fixed line altogether, and over 30% in Portugal. There are 1 Billion internet users - but already 25% of those access via mobile phone, not via PC. 1 Million people have plugged 3G modem cards to their laptops - and these will mostly have abandoned a paid WiFi subscription when taking the 3G modem option.

I do understand the concept of Fixed-Mobile Convergence. It is a bit like running after a train. The mobile telecoms industry ran past the fixed one. It no longer really cares too much about trying to converge with the dying breed, that of fixed telecoms. But it is the fixed telecoms side which is near-desperate to find fixed-mobile convergence, as a lifeline. BT wants the Fusion (formerly Bluephone) to work. BT made a big blunder selling off its GSM/3G operation, O2, and is now desperate to get back into mobile, through this and the MVNO deal with Vodafone.

But why would a Vodafone or any other mobile operator really care to attempt to converge - with fixed. They can pursue convergence with the internet, and convergence with the media/TV, etc. But fixed-mobile? it is not convergence, it is pretending. "Fixed Mobile Pretendence" if you will.

Rethink the basis of communication

I am here in Barcelona to speak tomorrow at The Spanish Marketing Society's 80th Anniversary event

rethink the basis of communication

I've done quite a bit of thinking and hope I can deliver for my audience.

I am sharing the stage with Jonas Ridderstrale - co-author of Funky Busines , Douglas Atkin a partner and chief strategic officer for Merkley & Partners and author of the book The Culting of Brands , David Gutmann of PRAXIS, communications planner Jim Taylor , Joâo Marques - General Director of Millward Brown in Portugal, Eusebi Nomen - Director of ESADE chair of intangible assets analysis and professor in courses of “Evaluation of Intangible assets” and “Intangible assets and business policy”. Felix Muñoz General Manager of Marketing services at Telefónica, Juan Ramón Plana a Spanish broadcast Grandee, Lluís Martínez-Ribes a professor amd marketing consultant.

phew... Quite a stellar cast.

Now... out into the streets of Barcelona

Social Media Forum

Social Media Forum

Taking place on 17th May 2006 at the London Hilton Hotel

The new Blogs & Social Media Forum is breaking away from the traditional conference format to help maximise interaction and networking. Conferences need to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience – and the interaction with peers makes this happen. It’s all about engaging in the right conversations.

And, as I would say "Nobody is as clever as everybody."

Effective communication is a challenge for everybody in today’s organisations and social media is all about communication. Knowing what’s being said both inside and outside your organisation is critical and must be understood and controlled. But what exactly is involved?

Examining the impact of wikis, blogs & RSS, the one day forum will combine expert industry insight from leading thinkers in the field of social media technologies with real life case studies. The programme offers an unrivalled learning experience from the moment you sign up.

Make sure you join in the debate with fellow professionals and colleagues. You’ll be able to quiz speakers in small groups and share information and experiences in an informal yet structured environment. There will be wifi so you'll be able to blog throughout the day.

Chaired by Euan Semple, Independent Consultant and ex-Head of Knowledge Management at the BBC.

It has already been a pleasure sitting on the advisory panel and I am really looking forward to the event.

Thanks Lorna for inviting me.

Plan for Fees on Some E-Mail Spurs online Protest

A group of nonprofit and public interest groups is beginning a campaign today to protest plans by America Online and Yahoo, which each offer e-mail services, to charge high-volume senders of e-mail fees to guarantee preferred delivery of their messages.

AOL and Yahoo are working with Goodmail, a Silicon Valley company, which plans to charge between a quarter-cent and a cent for each message. The two Internet companies will get the bulk of the fees that Goodmail collects.

Richard Gingras, chief executive of Goodmail, said the company planned to offer unspecified discounts to nonprofit senders of e-mail. AOL will start using the Goodmail system within a month. Yahoo will begin testing the service several months later and will charge fees only to deliver messages related to purchases or financial transactions.

The campaign is being organized by MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group that uses its list of three million e-mail addresses to influence public opinion and raise money, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an Internet civil liberties group. They have enlisted about 50 other supporters including the Gun Owners of America, the Democratic National Committee and the National Humane Society.

The groups have set up a Web site (www.dearaol.com) which will have an online petition users can sign asking AOL to change its policy.

Via the New York Times

Thought for the day

Commercial success in the digital age will belong to those businesses that attract, engage and organise digital communities to meet multiple social and commercial needs. By creating strong digital communities, businesses will be able to build customer loyalty to a degree that todays marketers can only dream of.

Think of HMV and Mothercare. Would they struggle as much had they developed a community strategy which was embedded into all that they did?

Could they have beaten the big supermarkets and internet players by revising their bricks and mortor strategy?

Rosabeth Moss Kanter in her book Evolve says

One company’s loyal community of empowered users is another one's nemisis

When every trend is against you - the print media

Alan and I work with just about all industries that are facing convergence, from broadband internet to mobile telecoms to media and advertising, and other related parts like banking and commerce. We find it strange that so many inside the print media are still hiding their heads in the sand. The truth is out there, and all of the evidence points to a brutal fact: EVERY trend is going against the print industry. Look at this:

There are less readers. They are willing to pay less for magazines, newspapers and books. The total revenues have been dropping for the industry. But there are more titles. So there is less money to share for any one title. Now more and more free titles are appearing, putting even more pressure on the cover prices. As readers disapper, the advertisers are abandoning print. Advertising revenues have continued to drop. Worst of all, the young people are voting with their dollars, simply not buying to read anymore. They are on the web, inside games and on their mobile phones.

Every study on every aspect of the print media tells the same story. Readers prefer digital sources. Loyal readers average age is dramatically growing and with many titles is nearing retirement age. What was once suggested that TV would be the end of reading newspapers and magazines, today that reality is coming but it is more interactive video on the internet, videogaming and mobile phones that is taking the majority of younger readers' interests.

We've blogged about many periodicals suffering with these trends. This week's the Economist (Feb 25, 2006) reports of yet another paper suffering. This time it is the National Enquirer in the USA, which has seen readership drop 20% in two years. Yet so many print media executives that we meet and talk with, seem to be refusing to face the facts. While not a newsprint representative, in this weekend's Financial Times (25 Feb, 2006) they quote the map publishing company, A-Z Map Company's director, Norman Dennison, saying, "People will always need printed books. I'm not trying to stand in the way of progress..." - come on. People will always need printed books? The proof is out there. Older generations may love print, but the younger generations are clearly showing they don't need printed newspapers, printed magazines, nor printed books.

How can senior managements at so many publishers be so blind. I could understand if it was only a regional trend (for example witnessed only in Japan and Korea, or only in Scandinavia). Or if it was only a partial trend - such as readers shrinking but revenues growing - or have some balancing trends, if sales prices are going down but advertising revenues are growing. Or if the trend had only started and we had the first year of data. But no. EVERY trend goes against print media. Has been for years already. What is wrong with this industry, don't they get it?

So what do we say? Engage your readers, of course (plenty of advice and case studies in our book and on this blogsite). Get onto TV, it is no longer prohibitive, as we saw for example Audi launching its own TV channel, or when British pop magazine Smash Hits finished its print run, it still maintains a popular TV show (and web presense).  On TV, make sure you go interactive with your audience.

More importantly, get into truly interactive media - videogaming, virtual worlds, online internet and mobile phones. Use your image and brand with your readership now, while you still have the readers, and migrate with them to the digital world. If they are young, get into their videogaming and/or virtual worlds. We've discussed examples from massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft to virtual room environments like Habbo Hotel. If they are older, get into their discussion groups and blogsites on the web. Does your paper have a blogsite. Not a website, a proper blogsite which includes RSS feeds and fully accessable links into and out of the site? Set up wikis, podcasts, reader participation. Get seriously into reader-participation! Citizen journalism. Study the Ohmy News case from Korea. Every print media executive should know Ohmy News thoroughly.

And then, when prioritizing your emphasis, remember this. TV executives are now saying mobile phones are the future of TV. Videogaming executives are now saying the future of videogaming is mobile phones. The internet? Already 25% of all internet access is via mobile phone: the world's largest internet service provider is a mobile operator (NTT DoCoMo's iMode in Japan) with more revenues and more profits than any fixed internet service provider including broadband. Virtual worlds? CyWorld in Japan has 30% of the total Korean population accessing the virtual world via their mobile phones. So if you really want to understand young readers, where are they now, and where will they be even more in the future, make sure you have a mobile phone service strategy. Bring your paper and readership to the mobile future, as long as your company still is alive.

Every trend goes against the print media.