Is Kodak really out of the picture?
Jan 23rd
I feel sad for Kodak. A brand that defined an entire industry has been beaten by evolution.
But digital isn’t responsible for its demise; it was Kodak’s resistance to it and other change that saw the final nail in the coffin called bankruptcy.
Having never quite capitalised on the digital technology it pioneered, Kodak stood firmly behind its stand alone stores and print offers – trying to push its film brand.
Kodak, say analysts, also misunderstood the new ways consumers in which consumers wanted to interact with their photos. I hate to make this judgement, but it seems to have been the Yahoo of the photo world. Laughing in the face of competition and resting on the laurels that the brand was once the best in its field – surely that would be enough. And what about our loyal customers?
For a brand that created “moments” it certainly struck the rest of the world as odd when it left itself out of the picture. Indeed, missing the digital moment that would thrust it into the future.
Another aspect of that was online photo publishing, printing services that delivered prints to your door and department stores joining the bandwagon, printing photos for a few pence a shot.
Indeed, there were many things that went wrong for Kodak, but no real reason why it couldn’t have caught up if it tried.
Yet, even in bankruptcy, Kodak boasts some enviable strengths: a golden brand, technology firepower that includes a rich collection of photo patents and more than US$4 billion in annual sales of digital cameras, printers and inks.
It’ll be an interesting one to watch with some speculating that a revival isn’t completely out of the question.
But it sure would take one hell of a marketing effort to restore any faith in the brand.
For now, we’ll wait and see. In the meantime, here are some cute “moments” from a brand that will always be remembered as a pioneer, a ‘titan’ of the photographic and printing industry.
Not even Rihanna could save it…I guess it was love in a hopeless place.
How to be a digital ninja in 2012
Jan 16th
Looking to bolster your digital capabilities in 2012? There’s only one device you’ll need, and finally it is your mobile.
We’ve published many a headline over the years to the effect of “Is this the year of mobile?”
While we’ve all waited eagerly – knowing the broad capabilities our pocket devices hold – we have been disappointed year and year again.
But finally, it seems like 2012 is it for mobile.
And we’ve not waited because there hasn’t been cool stuff on mobile until now, we’ve just all been so caught up with devices that have come since mobile.
You have to remember that mobile is an old platform – reinvigorated perhaps by replacing ‘mobile’ with ‘smart’. The year of the smartphone has dawned.
Why?
Our insistent need to be socially connected at all times. But not only is social growing, content is.
Facebook currently boasts 800 million users worldwide. Of those, 350 million are using Facebook mobile – sharing news clips, photos and blogs.
We’ve said content is King before, but this will ring true more than ever in 2012 as internet users shy away from simple status updates.
Branded apps are also on the rise as smartphone take up steadily increases and the naysayers of the iPhone, HTC, iPads and other smart devices join the life of the living.
Brands have been trying to get into the pockets of consumers for years, but there has always been a challenge for some to do it in an organic, fun and engaging way.
So with the huge growth in online shopping outside of eBay, there’s never been a better time.
With this, brands will also become more creative when it come to geo-location platforms and there will be a smoother, more complete social integration.
I had never quite realised how much my phone could do until I was given an iPhone 4 recently. But it wasn’t until after my laptop and iPad were stolen in a break and enter until I realised I could actually do everything I wanted and needed to do from my phone – my iPhone 4.
I think others are starting to notice also…especially brands and marketers.
I can’t even catch public transport with checking the app to see how long I have to wait, go to dinner without checking out Yelp or start my morning without checking the latest specials on ASOS.
It’s an increasingly digitally mobile world.
How to get a brilliant new job in marketing this year
Jan 13th
“Whether you’re looking for a new job or looking to make your next rock star hire, matching talent with opportunities is a time-consuming process,” reckon the folks at LinkedIn.
Late last year the professional social networking site launched a real-time job seeker application – currently in Beta. Profile Matches, aims to make it faster and easier to find jobs and candidates.
LinkedIn members will also be matched with job opportunities that they might otherwise miss, and hiring managers and recruiters will see qualified candidates immediately after posting a job.
I have to say that the feature is actually pretty good. This new feature works best when you’ve filled out the experience, summary and professional headline sections of your profile with details about your skills.
It’s been a long time coming for LinkedIn when you think about it. The site already enables users to list whether or not they are interested in job opportunities – and recruiters have long used the site as their head hunting ground.
And it’s no wonder: LinkedIn adds around 10 new members every 5 seconds, according to the company’s senior vice president of product development, Deep Nishar.
LinkedIn has around 135 million users in more than 200 countries. That’s a lot of exposure and opportunity.
Furthermore, as of September 2011, LinkedIn counts executives from all 2011 Fortune 500 companies as members; its corporate hiring solutions are used by 75 of the Fortune 100 companies.
There are 528,000,000 search results for ‘Marketing jobs UK’ when punched into Google.
Searching for a job using social media isn’t anything new. And in the field of marketing, it’s almost a given. We are a networking profession after all.
In reading through the many stories of those who managed to secure their current gig through social media, the biggest trend seemed to be that a chance tweet, Facebook post, or online connection made all the difference.
Here’s a cool one from a few years back:
Who hijacked Chri$tmas?
Dec 21st
I’m sure many retailers are wishing that it could be Christmas every day. Shopping this season really has put a great big smile on somebody’s face and retailers are expected record crowds in the Boxing Day sales with consumers hungry for real discounts.
Imagine if it was Christmas every day. We simply wouldn’t celebrate it and marketers wouldn’t plan their year around it either.
The “season” that has become Christmas is so vast and so huge that it is starting to look more like a marketing theme then an actually celebration of a religious figure.
Take all the popular Christmas songs that are sung each December around the world. ‘Let It Snow’ and ‘White Christmas’ for example. I can’t begin to tell you how weird they are to listen to when you’re in Australia and its 40 degrees outside.
And then there are the Christmas decorations, the Christmas cards – all featuring snow.
In terms of marketing essentials, Christmas includes the lot: a jingle (or 100), a loveable character, a path to purchase and lots of cute little one liners.
And it all works. We spend more money between September and December than we do all year. We buy things like themed serviettes, dinnerware that we can only use once a year, fake trees, cards, jumpers that we look ridiculous in and jewellery that lights up. Are we buying these to pay our respects for the origins of the holiday? I suspect not…
Furthermore, what was conceived as a celebration of Christianity has taken on many forms with it even being celebrated in countries, such as Japan and South Korea, where only a small percentage of the population is Christian.
And why do some people eat ham and others eat Turkey? In Switzerland they have a fondue chinoise and in France they eat prawns and oysters. If we were all celebrating the same thing, surely we’d all be doing it the same way.
The same can be said for holidays such as Easter. Chocolate eggs, if you really think about it, don’t quite make sense.
So was it marking that hijacked Christmas? Or consumers?
They say that the true meaning of Christmas is…oh hang on, I forget. Is it shopping and alcohol?
Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas as much as the next person. It just seems that we seem to be getting sillier and sillier when it comes to what marketers try to get away with at this time of year.
Here’s such an example:
The social media metrics of top tech companies
Dec 5th
Ahead of this week’s LeWeb ’11 Tech conference in Paris, this table was released dishing the social stats on 15 of the top tech companies. SocialBakers, the social measurement organisation, has collated the data from the delegates, comparing Facebook, Twitter and Google+ statistics.
It holds some quite interesting surprises. Not so surprisingly, though, is Facebook’s (the company) dominant fan base on Facebook. However, this contributes to that constant bone of contention; how much is a Like or a Fan really worth? That’s why column three looks at the average engagement rate. What they found here was that users had a twice as high engagement rates with Google (company) on Facebook, than Facebook (the company) was given on Facebook.
This table may go some way in clarifying matters.
Is QR code marketing here to stay? (infographic)
Nov 29th
Just ahead of eBay’s launch of its London-based physical shop (purchasing is made possible thanks to QR codes) the time seems suitable to take a wry look at the history of the QR code. Will they ever catch on with the main stream? Research suggests that users may recognise the analogue symbol, but very few have actually scanned one. With the increasing popularity of augmented reality within marketing, has the industry moved so fast that QR code technology has become defunct before fully experienced? Could there be a place for it as the cheaper, less cutting-edge, out-of-town second cousin to augmented reality? Only time will tell.
Why Facebook is the best marketing tool: infographic
Nov 21st
The battle of the social networking sites rages on; Facebook and Google+ continue to attract column inches, for their similarities as much as for their various differences. We were alerted to a recent blog post that succinctly highlighted the contrasts between the two. This stated that that Facebook is a self contained site that drives traffic within itself. Google+ on the other hand, partly because of its positioning within the Google superpower, drives traffic all throughout the web. This poses some interesting questions in terms of data and information sharing. While this may be quite a interesting way of separating the two, there are still the stalwart followers that will remain rooting for each camp. One such is the company, Bullseyehub, who created this infographic claiming Facebook is the best marketing tool. Whatever your standing, this yields a few enlightening stats.
eBay embrace the physical space
Nov 17th
A peculiar move when all other retailers seem to be fully optimising their sites for mobile browsing and developing apps ahead of the festive rush. But eBay’s pop-up store is also utilising QR codes; a reasonably creative technology but we’re still waiting to see whether it will burst into the mainstream.
Branching out into two brand new formats of retail during the Christmas shopping period may seem risky, but it’s only a five-day experiment. So if anything, the pop-up novelty should be enough for eBay to ride on, or even up eBay’s stature for its ambitious digital gamut.
eBay’s five-day shopping experiment will begin on December 1st in Dean Street, Soho, near Oxford Street. It will feature 200 items on sale and shoppers simply scan the desired item into their smartphone, a downloadable QR code reader is needed here. Or, if you’re yet to enter into the smartphone arena, eBay has partnered with HTC in order to lend out devices to make your purchase on.
Once the users scan their favourite product they are then directed to the checkout page of the product on eBay’s main site, where they complete their purchase online.
“We are opening the store to cover the ‘Super Sunday’ weekend at the beginning of December, which traditionally sees the most number of people shopping online,’ said Laura Williamson, eBay’s head of consumer PR. She expects to see more than 5m visitors to eBay’s website on Sunday 4th, buying up to 30 gifts per minute.
Again, the selling point lies in the novelty. I say this because eBay have partnered the inconvenience of physical Christmas shopping on the high street with the rigmarole of an online check out service, (incorporating a mobile payment feature would eliminate this hassle). Aside from the tangible benefits of seeing something before you buy it, the advantage of this lies in it being a great PR stunt.
On top of this, the wider public are still not completely comfortable with using QR codes, potentially impacting on sales.
So, it will be interesting to see what kind of results this latest service generates this Christmas.
Which UK company is the most innovative?
Nov 15th
Which company do you think deserves the accolade of the UK’s most innovative? Take a few seconds to answer this question by following the below link.
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