Turkey bans YouTube
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Turbulent times at GooTube. After Viacom moved out, Turkey is banning the service due to a video showing Greeks criticizing and insulting Turkey and Ataturk. More details at TimesOnline.
Source: Techcrunch
Society
Personal is the new social
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Yesterday i saw this.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/p9Bh_VcjiCI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Early in December my Son and I went to Winnipeg for an exhibition lacrosse game of our favorite team, the Minnesota Swarm. Winnipeg is about 8 or 9 hours and an border crossing away from our home, so it was a non-trivial jaunt for a sporting event. For us, it was a novel adventure. I’ll spare you almost all of the details other than it was a wonderful trip and Winnipeg was an awesome place to visit, even in the winter. Everybody we met was really great and especially helpful, which leads me into the actual story. Two other die-hard Swarm fans made the trek up as well. We sat on one side of the MTS Centre and they had seats on the other side. The game was fun, even if we did lose. Once the game was over the other guys stood up from their seats to leave. Someone tapped one of the guys on the shoulder and when he turned around, he asked him “Did you drive up from the Cities just for the game?”. His answer was, of course, “yes”. The man handed him a twenty, said “gas money”, and walked away. To this day I am still astonished by the man’s anonymous generosity and can’t help but reflect on how that simple act affected the perception of folks from Winnipeg and perhaps Canadians in general. Like I said, i’ve told that story to many many people and the universal response is “whoa”. I’m sure the people that I told have told it to others and so on.
How quickly and thoroughly did that simple act trump any efforts that the local tourism board could have done?
With Web 2.0 loosing its momentum (Henriette feels the same) and social networks reaching a saturation point, getting more personal seems to be the obvious choice.
And it isn’t hard as it used to, thanks to the many digital tools now available. But it will surely require a new shift from companies, used to large media plans and broad market segments. Welcome to micro-targeting.
Btw, Torke (the folks from Invisible Red) have definitely a sense of humour with their new homepages.
Community building the High Line
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Music for the Internet generation
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It’s no wonder that music chains like Tower Records are closing, when the Internet is changing the guts of the music industry. Take for the example a band called The Bastard Fairies, that just got a worldwide recognition thanks to a video on YouTube.
[youtube]k8x14cLGh5o[/youtube]
The Coolest 8 Year Old In The World Talks About O’Reilly
link to YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=k8x14cLGh5o
After the video was released, millions of bloggers and YouTube fans started the buzz and the hits on the band’s website were on record peak. Then it came the “Internet Generation” attitude, offering as a free download the whole album – free as in no questions asked – as a mean of promotion.
This reminds me of the new Web 2.0 motto, as stated by Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google: “Don’t fight the Internet“. Instead of patronizing users with their RIAA endorsement, new bands are understanding the power of the web to create their own long tail.
The sheer amount of myspace profiles for music artists is a living proof that record labels are loosing the battle. When a new mp3.com (or a sort of MusicPedia or YouTunes) comes along and takes their place as the nr1 source of music, establishing a culture of participation and responsible sharing, maybe they get serious about rethinking their business model and start concerning a bit more about the bands and the fans.
* P.S.: it sure helps having great songs and beautiful photos of the lead singer!
Senior boomers
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Young @ Heart
If someone told you about a Chorus called Young at Heart, you would have thought of some 18 year old group of kids that gather around the weekend. And if i told you they performed some contemporary themes from the Beatles to Peter Gabriel you’d probably be even more sure.
But what if you surfed to their website? Then you’d better guess again !
Young @ Heart Chorus has in their lines people with ages ranging from 72 to 93, with shows all over the USA, with great reviews and feature articles in The Guardian and Time magazine.
Senior citizens are no longer the bystanders in modern society, and are now taking an important role in society and shaping cultural trends.
Marketing for the future generation
With the aging populations in Europe and America, marketing should be prepared for the growing market segment with an increasing purchasing power and influence in buying behaviors.
© The Pew Internet & American Life Project
The demographic trends are clear and the usual marketing focus on the 18-24 age group might be under scrutiny. According to SeniorNet, almost half of the seniors 50 and older used the Internet for 5 years or more, with a great part being over 65. In another study it’s shown that while many seniors today don’t go online that often, that is about to change as the “baby-boomers” generation reaches the age of 65 and older.
(link to SeniorNet report, PDF 184Kb)
(link to Pew Internet Report, PDF 21Kb)
Most of the senior citizens found on the internet a way to reeducate themselves and keep in touch with friends and family. They probably also spent a great effort and/or money in learning how to use information technology. Now that they’re acquainted with new medium, “wired seniors” have a lot of time available to be online and are active purchasers, so it makes all the sense to consider this target in any online marketing mix.
With a special interest in this target is the Health sector, with the challenge of getting their message right in the online channel and at the same time trying not being mistaken with spam. From prescriptions to diseases or even in the fitness sector, online marketing is getting more important in comparison with the traditional below-the-line marketing employed to senior citizens.
Implications for online advertising
“Wired seniors” use the internet mainly for email, so consider an approach through newsletters subscriptions and email alerts, with clear concerns on privacy, as these citizens seem much more aware of the importance of online security and are more suspicious when providing personal data.
Another implication on online advertising is the concern for accessibility, with great efforts to increase readibility, color blindness and support for aural devices. Much of today’s Web 2.0 design trends seems to have that already in mind, implementing valid XHTML markup that is a first step to conform to 508 accessibility guidelines.
It’s clear that many of online users feel they’re not being targeted, with online advertising clearly shaped to 14-17 year-old segment. Innovation doesn’t have to relate only to young people and if companies offer solutions and products to older users, they could create a competitive advantage as online population gets older.
Debunking astrology – Tales of a skeptic
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I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, an excellent book where science seems so fascinating.
This made my view of the world these days a little science biased. So, when chatting about the role of Astrology and my feelings toward this pseudo-science, i got my opinion a bit confused, so I’d better write about it. Here goes:
A long, long time ago, in a land called Babylon, people tried to make a sense out of Nature and God. To help them in their lifes, calendars were created, based on the stars and natural cycles. The zodiac map was also created, conveying a generic illustration of the placement of the stars and their influence on human life. And so, Astrology was born.