Mobile pizza

Advertising on the BBC

According to this article from the New York Times, there are proposed plans to introduce advertising on the BBC sites.

This news item didn't strangely make the headlines in the UK. Not even on the BBC site.

Who killed TV?

That's the question asked by an article on Italian La Stampa. It quote a few telling stats:

• Italy's population is still growing (56 million)
• But the top TV networks (RAI and Mediaset) have lost 1.5 viewers in the last year
• It's a drop of 5-7% in the audience figures used by advertisers
• The 4M subscribers now with Sky are a small part of the answer
• The real problem is in the drop observed with 15-44 year olds
• 1/3 of the Italian population consumes 4-5 different types of media (i.e. not just papers & TV)

Their conclusion is that this is the effect of the 'IM-generation'. I like the definition: people who live constantly connected with everyone else. TV for them becomes the most significant 1-minute clip extracted from a programme.

TIM launch instant messaging

TIM in Italy are the first mobile operator to launch a web+mobile instant messaging service.

It will be live in November and TIM users will be able to see when people in their phonebook are connected.

They will initially offer free of charge, but it will certainly be charged for in the new year.

Lame shortcodes on TV

A couple of weeks ago Russell Buckley was expressing his disappointment at the limited popularity of shortcodes in outdoor advertising.

The problem is not limited to billboards. I saw a new Peugeot 307 advert last night: interesting creative based on its great fuel economy, good photography and a little "Text 'offer' to XYZ" instruction at the very end.  What was the offer? What did it have to do with the rest of the advert?

An illustration of how text response is badly shoehorned into glossy brand campaigns.

Voda phone

So Vodafone will be launching their own 3G mobile handset this month.

The Vf710 was built for them in China by Huawei and looks like a mid-range business phone.

While cost would certainly have been a driving factor in the decision, Vodafone also were allowed far more control than usual on the software.

I look forward to seeing what they made of the opportunity.

Torino Wireless

Great initiative in Torino, my hometown.  TorinoWireless is an organisation that brings together wireless start-ups and accelerates their growth through:

• Reviews of the company's positioning
• Support on strategy, busiess case, prototyping and commercialisation
• Management of their Intellectual Property
• Venture Capital involvement
• Clustering of complementary businesses

It sounds like an attractive proposition if you have a new idea that needs developing.

New Corsa SMS response

Spotted a new campaign by Vauxall using text response from outdoor billboards.

The text back includes the usual 'reply with name, postcode etc.', but also links to an extensive WAP site.  The site doesn't look great, but has some interesting features and shows some effort.

Putting play in a play

Tassos Stevens presentation at Playtime.

The Performer walks on stage and hands out paper and pencils. General confusion as they get passed on.

The Performer is no longer there. He's left his bags on the stage.

People in the audiece start to comment on his absence. A mobile rings.

Of course, it's his phone. Noone goes to answer.

The phone rings again another 3 times. By now there's a debate as to who should go and pick it up. The different personalities in the audience start to emerge.

Eventually, someone takes the initiative, searches through the bags and answers the call.  The tension has all gone now - "Should I pick it up", "Is he going to come back and catch us in the act", "Why doesn't someone in the fron row go for it".  It is replaced by expectation... the 'volounteer' is standing on the stage, listening  in silence to the person at the other end of the line.
All he ends up doing is dictate a statement of secrecy that everyone in the audience has to sign.

It was just a demo, so we snap out of it now. It has however shown how a few simple devices can create playful interaction in the audience. It could of course have panned out completely differently: an earlier response from the audience, a different volounteer...

Shortcodes In Ads Work

An M:Metrics report mentioned in moconews shows that 18.5 percent of UK mobile users has responded to shortcodes in ads.

It's good to see published figures on shortcode responses. We shouldn't however take them to the letter as it looks like they included SMS voting in their figures.