Thursday, September 21, 2006

Advertising 2.0 and the internet as entertainment

First published in Marketing magazine in Sept '06, I set out to show how the internet was moving from being a task-based to an entertainment-based medium.  Just four years on, we now pretty much take this for granted; but what I went on to say was that it was an opportunity for the resergence of the advertising industry - a business that had lost its way.  Has advertising 2.0 appeared yet?  Perhaps not, but I'm still hoping...

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Internet retailing, still not asking the customer

First published in Marketing magazine in September 2006, this piece looks at how rudimentary research is on online consumers' behaviour instore, compared to the sophistication of research on physical retail.  It's still the case now, though things have certainly improved; and the obsessive attention to conversion and customer journey displayed by operators like Amazon is still bafflingly rare across online retail in general.

Thursday, September 7, 2006

Internet takes over TV

This was first published in Marketing magazine in September 2006. As internet TV is now really starting to make inroads into audiences, I think it still makes relevant reading for agencies and media folk four years later...

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Sam Goldwyn and the future of music on the internet

First published in Marketing magazine in Sept '06, this article looked at how, Canute-like, the record companies were trying to push back the tide.  Four years on, and they've succeeded in persuading the last government to pass the Digital Economy Act; a cretinous piece of legislation that performs the equivalent of insisting that railway lines have a towpath alongside them, and trains are always preceded by a horse because otherwise the canal industry might suffer.  Sam Goldwyn knew what he was talking about...

Alternate identities and the web

This article was first published in Marketing magazine on 6 September 2006.  It was the first column I wrote for the magazine, and looking back at it I think it's as true today as it was then.  With reputedly on in six Americans marrying last year having met online, developing the skills to understand online identity is becoming more than just crucial learning for media planners...