FIVE LAUNCHES MOBILE INTERNET FOR CSI MIAMI WITH KILRUSH

UK Broadcaster, FIVE, has just given the mobile internet a shot in the arm with the launch of a new mobile internet site to support the new series of CSI Miami (which debuts tonight).

The site has been built by recently launched Kilrush, the company that now sits within the Mobile Interactive Group as its mobile internet arm and follows launch news that it has been selected as the mobile interent partner for ITV (dotcom).

Crucially the site will give viewers made for mobile rich content such as video and will be cross pomoted online, on air and via SMS push messages. FIVE already has 20,000 opted in mobile subscribers so, combined with the CSI faithful, its safe to assume that the service will be a great success.

Tessa Cannon, marketing campaign manager at Five said: “This is the first time we’ve opted to integrate a mobile site to promote the launch of a new series of any FIVE programme. CSI Miami has a broad viewing base and we wanted to provide a more integrated approach to promoting programmes on FIVE. The Kilrush team worked closely with marketing and the digital, technical and creative teams to deliver a great site and we’re planning to integrate more mobile internet activity for other FIVE programmes throughout the coming year.”

The App store long tail

AdMob’s May metrics report is out and its taken a long hard look at the iPhone App store. The great social media guide, Mashable, has published an interesting analysis of the numbers and what they mean. It concludes that what is surprising is that of the 2,309 apps in their network and 15.1 million unique users. Morover, the AdMob report shows that its only the top 116 apps have 100,000 users or more and there are only 322 apps with 10,000 to 100,000 users. Taken together these intervals make up 19 per cent of the entire number of iPhone apps. The other 81% have less than 10,000 users, and 54% of applications have less than 1,000 users.

When a market gets over populated there seems to be a few rules that apply in particular the long tail theory where the distribution curve or long-tail means that those ‘things’ that are ‘good’ gravitate towards the upper end of the sales curve and those that are less well thought out make up the tailing slope. This is amplified by ‘search’ and of course, marketing of the app.

So…a good and a bad thing but the inevitable nature of the beast.

Mobile augmented reality

I’ve just read an interesting blog entry from e-consultancy on mobile augmented reality. This is a really smart new growth area in mobile where the user points his mobile phone camera at a scene and an app executes that layers useful information over what is being viewed.

The e-consultancy piece references a Wimbledon Seer application from IBM, which runs on Google’s G1 smartphone. The app gives tennis fans the ability to superimpose additional information about the match when viewed through the handset’s camera lens. This includes match info, news and the location of find outlets around the Wimbledon grounds.

At the moment development seems to be clustered around Google’s Android OS using the compass and GPS functions to grab what you are looking at (so that’s what a compass if for!). Other companies such as the Dutch firm Layar have produced an app that turns your phone in to a sort of business directory – point the camera lens at your built landscape and all sorts of local business info such as the location of ATMs or houses for sale appear on the screen.

Obviously, handset penetration is fairly low but the thing that I really like about it is that it plays to the specific charactistics of the mobile device, allowing spontaneous interaction with the users environment in a way only mobile can. Check out the video on Gizmodo.

Digital Britain

Is the agency model broken?

Something is up with the agency way of doing PR or is it?

By ‘agency’ I mean a typical structred way of doing PR with an exec (usually the most junior member of the team, on the frontline doing calls, writing releases etc.) a manager (managing the campaign execution, planning and client relationships) and a director (strategy, ideas etc.)

So, there is a minimum of three mouths to feed, plus IT support, rent and the cost of other admin staff….which can all add up to an expensive monthly retainer.

I’ve taken soundings over the last few months from various small agency owners. Pretty much, without exception, all have shrunk. This, of course, may be due to the recession but it strikes me that it is also due to significant changes within the industry (and perhaps the recession is the catalyst that has expedited these changes?).

New techniques have arrived, with social media in particular signalling a new channel for communicating and creating engagement between a company and its audiences. This technology is easy to use and accessible to anyone (plenty of posts on this elsewhere).

PR is much less of a dark art than it used to be so is there a way forward?

Of course there is. This industry is big, with lots of bright and talented people but for smaller agencies with smaller clients there is a real need to adapt and change the way of doing things.

No doubt when the green shoots arrive some of that nourishment will be diverted towards PR, but for many of us I think there is a real need to challenge the traditional agency structure and develop a new PR currency that ultimately delivers a wider set of marketing disciplines better value and more measurable results.

One newish model that is growing in popularity is ‘freelancers under one brand’ (couldn’t think of anything snappy). Under this view, PR professionals and other marketers work together under one brand to service a client. It may be that client X needs elements of a PR campaign, some SEO, some email marketing, some social media training etc. etc.

The structure is very flat – a team of experts with no hierarchy and crucially much lower overheads. By pushing a collaborative model, freelancers obvioiusly get the opportunity to pitch for bigger and more interesting clients and for the clients themselves, they get the opportunity to work with a much wider set of marketers as part of one connected campaign.

I had a great lunch with Lloyd Gofton from Liberate Media last week and they have been successfully doing business this way for a couple of years.

….and to these ends we’ve been quietly rolling out our own version of a small connected model under the name Goose.

New iPhone app to exploit 3Gs capabilities from Envivio

I’ve just read a press release from what is one of the first (of many?) companies to exploit the video features of the just released iPhone OS 3.0.

Envivio has launched iLiveTV a complete package for encoding and distributing live TV (yes broadcast) services to iPhone. It also supports premium services such as Catch-up TV, Video on Demand and a channel guide.

Smart cookies.

Video is power hungry so I wonder will the iPhone battery life extend long enough to watch a footie match or the omnibus edition of Eastenders on the train home?

For marketers the obvious advantage now is the ability to include made-for-TV spot ads. That said, there is also a danger that the mobile format will at the same time be misunderstood….imagine having to sit through a full ad-break whilst watching your favourite show.

Ad-men please go gently!

PR old or new school?

I’m a very happy chappy today.

I just received coverage for a client of mine, Mobile Interactive Group in the FT. It spans 3/4 of a page in the business life section and it struck me that this might feed the deabte on online PR versus traditional media relations.

We’ve been with MIG for five years since the company began and our initial brief was to help build the company reputation in the trade media. Along the way we’ve adapted and changed and added new techniques and fully embraced online PR.

But achieving a landmark piece in the FT must jar with the new breed of online PR professionals and agencies who see traditional media as somewhat outmoded by web 2.0 (or is it 3.0 now?).

Roger Warner from online PR agency C&M makes some very valid points in his recent blog post on the subject…..however it seems to me that we are all at risk of getting caught up in the dogma trap.

Surely what is really important is skillfully employing a range of PR techniques to help build a client’s reputation, growth, sales, or whatever else its strategic objectives might be. As good consultants we should be recommending campaigns and tactics that meet these objectives head-on, be that by applying SEO and conversational marketing or traditional media relations (that sometimes results in a massive article in the FT).

I agree with Roger that PR agencies need to move and explore online PR now and, if there isn’t any in-house expertise to do this then take a few risks, train or employ a specialist. No doubt those that don’t will miss out but there is still a huge benefit in participating in print and online media via traditional media relations techniques.

So, isn’t it time we all moved the debate on a little and keep focussed on what is important to our clients?

I’m talking about a third way which sounds a bit new labour but to me and my clients actually makes lots of sense….its a blend of old school and new school PR that actually gets my client’s phone ringing and that is the point.