Bloggers meet up round 2.0

30 07 2008

I went to my second Bloggers’ Meet Up last night, held at Doggets in Blackfriars. The drinks were on Stella - just wanted to say thank you for supplying us with copious amounts of soft drinks, beer and vodka! We had lots and lots of fun so thank you! You can view last night’s photos here.

 

The usual suspects were here but I also got chatting to quite a few interesting peeps: Andy Bargery (thanks for organising the meet ups!),Willem (at last), Hayley, Anthony, Julius, Cristiano and Chris.

 

See you all next month!

 

 

 





Age of Conversation vol. 2

11 04 2008

 

Did you miss the conversation in the blogosphere last year about The Age of Conversation - the collaborative book project that brought together some of the leading names in blogging and social media?

Well this year, ‘The Age of Conversation: Why Don’t People Get It’ has some 275 authors contributing covering the following subjects:

  • Manifestos - Declarations, up front, on the Age of  Conversation and why don’t people ‘get it’
  • Keeping Secrets in the Age of Conversation – With everyone talking so much, why do we need secrets and what is the role of privacy?
  • Moving from Conversation to Action - The practical steps that businesses and brands can take  to move from conversation to something more valuable to their business
  • The Accidental Marketer - What is the attraction of marketing and are there company’s or brands that happen into marketing success? 
  • A New Brand of Creative - With the changes in the way  that people communicate and collaborate online, marketing and advertising  companies are needing to reach out and work with a new type of creative team.  What do these “creatives” look like and what are the challenges that they face?  
  • My Marketing Tragedy - covering projects that have failed and what was learnt from the failure?
  • Business Model Evolution - Just as the markets and  people are changing, so too are the business models around both clients and  agencies - this chapter will explore the implications of the new business model 
  • Life in the Conversation Lane - Bringing it all back to  the individual and  how is life in a digitally connected, social world impacting us all?

The authors of the Age of Conversation 2.0 are:

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem.

Stay tuned!





It’s been a long time…

8 04 2008

 

 

Life has once again been a little hectic which has left me with no time on my hands to write anything, but I promise to come back with some fresh, interesting stuff soon!

I picked up a link courtesy of Spinning Around containing a list of the top UK blogs taken from AdAge. Based on the AdAge Power 150, the top UK bloggers on all things advertising and marketing on 1 April 2008 (with no comedy additions what with it being Fool’s Day and all).

If you feel that you should be included, you can get in touch with AdAge here, who will add you to the list.

 

UK

Global

Blog

1 (=)

25 (+4)

David Airey

2 (=)

46 (+6)

Blogstorm

3 (=)

55 (+5)

NevilleHobson.com

4 (=)

61 (+1)

russell davies

5 (+1)

90 (+5)

The Engaging Brand

6 (-1)

107 (-22)

adliterate

7 (=)

114 (+8)

PR Blogger

8 (=)

128 (+7)

Crackunit

9 (+1)

139 (+9)

Modern Marketing

10 (+1)

143 (+17)

Only Dead Fish

11 (-2)

147 (-2)

Welcome to Optimism

12 (+2)

173 (+15)

A PR Guy’s Musings

13 (+2)

178 (+12)

Crenk

14 (-1)

182 (-2)

Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Blog

15 (+1)

186 (+9)

PPC Blog

16 (-4)

189 (-16)

Make Marketing History

17 (+1)

248 (+11)

Hobo SEO UK

18 (+2)

251 (+25)

greenormal

19 (=)

263 (+9)

Life Moves Pretty Fast

20 (-3)

278 (-33)

Simonsays

21 (+3)

308 (+13)

Interactive Marketing Trends

22 (+3)

309 (+13)

mediations

23 (-2)

317 (-25)

Drew B’s take on tech PR

24 (+2)

329 (+5)

50-Plus Marketing

25 (+4)

336 (+11)

Wadds’ tech pr blog

26 (+1)

344 (-3)

Raw Stylus

27 (+1)

345 (-3)

The Way of the Web

28 (+2)

348 (+11)

Faster Future

29 (-7)

354 (-51)

Beyond PR

30 (+4)

355 (+37)

livingbrands

31 (-8)

356 (-52)

Blog Till You Drop

32 (=)

372 (+9)

…the world’s leading…

33 (+2)

399 (+10)

The Friendly Ghost

34 (+2)

408 (+12)

(Almost) Always Thinking

35 (-4)

419 (-39)

Lewis 360

36 (-3)

429 (-38)

Brand Strategy Magazine Blog

37 (+4)

464 (+23)

A Mountain Dweller in the Thames Valley

38 (-1)

469 (+2)

Tell Ten Friends

39 (+1)

470 (+15)

[Bluurb] stuff and things

40 (-2)

474 (-1)

Nick Burcher

41 (+3)

483 (+32)

Simon Wakeman

42 (-3)

484 (-2)

Brandgym Blog

43 (-1)

504 (-3)

Unleashed on Marketing

44 (-1)

507 (-4)

The New Marketing

45 (+3)

511 (+26)

Pudding Relations

46 (-1)

515 (+1)

PR Voice

47 (=)

525 (+2)

Living in a digital world

48 (+1)

538 (+3)

Offer and Acceptance

49 (-3)

548 (-29)

All Things PR

50 (=)

552 (+2)

PRwordSmith

51 (=)

567 (-2)

Indolent.com





A few thoughts on seeding programmes

6 02 2008

an8gjx.jpg    Steve at VCCP asked me a while back how I felt about the 3 Skypephone seeding programme. The timing is perfect to share my thoughts as I have just agreed to take part in another seeding programme…

1)    Pitch it right

In case you didn’t know, my name is not Darryl and no I don’t live in the US! I am not quite sure how I would be able to blog about a US product when I don’t have any knowledge of the market… Read my blog (or at least pretend to read it!) and understand what makes me tick and what doesn’t. In the 5 minutes that you take to customize your pitch, the chances of me blogging about your product has gone up from 1% to 100%…

2)    So I’ve agreed to write about your product…

Comments and feedback about my posts are always welcome – it shows that you’ve bothered checking your links and that you care about what I have to say. I would suggest leaving comments on both my blog and your blog – it allows conversation (blogging is all about sharing ideas, right?) and will probably increase traffic on your blog.

Both the O2 Cocoon and 3 Skypephone campaigns were well executed – good pitches, interesting ideas but overall I felt that that the online discussion was one-way when I would have liked to see a two-way conversation i.e. people bouncing off ideas of each other, rather than a list of all the posts/reviews. As a researcher, I like to understand the why’s and how’s therefore when criticising a feature, I would have liked to know why the bloggers felt this feature was bad and how/what could be improved in future phones.

The 3 campaign was cleverly orchestrated using a number of successful web 2.0 sites such as flickr and youtube, however (sorry guys!) I didn’t get involved beyond the phone review, partly because I am not the target market for the 3 Skypephone.  

Both the O2 and 3 blogs look great however, my main criticism is that they are hard to find and I can’t see a link on the networks’ websites – consumers should be able to find these blogs easily and I would suggest that O2 and 3 put a link on their homepage which should hopefully increase traffic hence online interaction.

Kudos to O2 for allowing consumers to co-create (i.e. write posts) on their blogs – this blog could be a useful resource covering phone reviews as well as an online troubleshooting portal. If marketed properly, the blog could become a real strength for O2…

Looking forward to reading your thoughts on this   





Introducing the O2 Cocoon

11 09 2007

Peter Kwong of advertising agency VCCP in London recently approached me about a project he is working on for mobile phone supplier O2 

O2 recently launched a new 3G quadbrand mobile phone called Cocoon and the guys at VCCP contacted me to blog about it. Very much like Neville Hobson, I do get quite a lot dodgy pitches, most of the time from the USA but:

1)     The folks at VCCP actually took the time to read my blog and leave a comment

2)     Their pitch is of interest to me - I try to understand consumers for a living and just thought it would be a good idea to check out and get involved with the O2 Cocoon blog 

I have been an O2 customer for years and as ‘a valued customer’ O2 upgrade my phone once a year no questions asked. I have now had a Samsung phone for the last 3 years, and I upgraded to a Samsung E [insert number] back in May.  Well that’s right – I don’t even know what my phone is called! Kudos to O2 for using an actual name rather than some random code we consumers, can never remember!   

The Cocoon project

2007-07-31_071423.jpg

 Source: Taking inspiration from real life, we asked designers, fashion students and musicians from London to Tokyo, Shanghai to Rio, “what inspires you, and what do you want from a mobile phone?”

The answer? Something emotional. Original. That doesnt look like a phone or a music player - something more natural, thats visually stunning and functions perfectly.’

I usually go for branded phones (Nokia, Samsung) even though I perfectly know that the O2 phones are out there… but why?

1) O2 phones are not advertised resulting in limited awareness of these phones

2) Consumers tend to go for well-established brand.

I won’t spend too much time reviewing the Cocoon phone at this present moment as I only received the mobile phone on Saturday – saying that the phone is pretty good and looks great and more will follow on the subject. I’d like to discuss the O2 Cocoon blog for now.  

First of all, I am glad to see that the Cocoon was developed with the help of consumers. Marketing lesson #1: marketing is about meeting your customers’ needs and wants.

I think the blog is a great idea – viral marketing can do wonders especially for an ‘unbranded phone’. The folks at VCCP told me that when purchasing the phone, O2 customers had the opportunity to blog about it on the O2 blog and they have also been approaching bloggers since July.  

Although I think the O2 Cocoon blog is a great idea, interaction on the blog is still fairly limited even though all technical problems reported seem to have been addressed.  The posts are generally good however the blog does not necessarily cover all technical aspects of the phone.

 As a qualitative researcher, I like to understand the ‘why’s’

Although the feedback on the blog is certainly insightful to O2, I would like to see the blog’s administrator ask specific questions on the phone and get bloggers to leave a comment, something similar to a bulleting board. 

Saying that I am very impressed by O2 efforts and I’ll be reviewing the phone very soon!





The magical W list

29 08 2007

janice_joplin_vase_200_name.jpg 

The W list or the Magical List as some have called it, is a way for women to celebrate women. I was extremely surprised to find out that out of the 150 blogs on the Todd’s Power 150 Marketing Blogs, only 13% are written by women.

 

Valeria Maltoni started collecting links of blogs written by women and the W list was born! Needless to say, the W list getting bigger and bigger by the minute! The full list can be found here on our wiki the W Magical List of Women Bloggers.

 And if you’re a Facebook user, why don’t you join the W List Facebook Group?





Fancy a drink in London?

21 08 2007

blogdrink.jpg

Are you a blogger? Do you live in London? Are you free on Thursday 6th September? 

Fellow Frenchie blogger Sandrine is organising a little get together at the Prince Regent, 25 Gloucester Road, SW7 London.

 Hope to see you there!  





It’s my blogging birthday!

14 08 2007

sp_0452_blog_birthday.jpg

Blog till you Drop is 1 year-old today! I made it!  

This blogging journey has been filled with the unexpected but it has only just begun!

So here’s to my new friends:

  • I’d like to thank Twan for being my first ever reader and for sticking by
  • Chris Brown and Reshma Anand – it was fantastic meeting you! We’re only a plane ride away!
  • Thanks to Mack for his friendship and for creating the z-list where I met so many great people
  • Mike, keep creating, it freaks people out!
  • Christine and Katia – thanks for the insightful posts. I am looking forward to the Bathroom Blogfest 2007!
  • Tesa, we should hang out in London, or perhaps Hong Kong? What do you reckon?
  • Thanks to the London bloggers Neil and Organic Frog for making the whole blogging experience local!
  • And finally, kudos to the z-listers for being such a vibrant community.

Before I indulge in strawberries and champagne, I’d like to know what you think of Blog till you Drop. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!    

This has been a fantastic year and I look forward to my second blogging birthday!





18th April 2007

2 04 2007

new-blog-header.jpg





Qualitative Research 2.0

13 03 2007

 

Z-listers have been meeting up on this side of the pond! I recently hooked up with Reshma Anand of the Qualitative Research blog, and we shared our ideas on the future of Qualitative Research.

1) Scary Technology

Qualitative Research is an exciting discipline that hasn’t reached its full potential yet. A lot of researchers see themselves as data suppliers while they should act as marketing strategists. No wonder why, research as a whole is seen so negatively when we are failing to embrace new technologies.

 

  •  Proposals: Proposals are our sales tool, and as researchers, it is our job to win a project by understanding the client’s business objectives, offering the best methodology at the best price. I recently got involved on a pitch for a major music downloads supplier and we came up with a very creative proposal. When I had a look at the suggested methodology, I was disappointed to see that the research would only be conducted offline when part of this project could have been done online. It is impossible to recreate a group’s interaction online but I felt it would have been nice to get closer to the client’s business i.e. the Internet, by including an online element.

 

  •  Moderation: Moderation is a crucial and difficult skill part of qualitative research. Needless to say, moderating is a lot more complicated than a simple chit-chat over coffee.  Viewing facilities only started offering DVD recording a couple of years ago and in terms of audio-recording, the only format currently available is old-fashioned audio-tapes. Sometimes I wonder if we really are in 2007!

 

  •  Presentation of findings: A good presentation should be easy to read, provide insightful, actionable recommendations and should be aesthetically pleasing. I worked on a presentation for Schering-Plough last year and we included video-clips of the group throughout the presentation. Our client loved it!

 2) Online Research

The main two online research tools currently offered are quantitative web-surveys and qualitative bulletin boards (and its variants). While quantitative web-surveys are booming, I haven’t had the chance yet to get involved in bulleting boards. But what about blogs? Are they not a fantastic research tool in their own right?

 

I stumbled across an article published in the July 2006 edition of Research entitled ‘Is anyone out there listening?’

 ‘Thinktank [a market research company based in London]  conducted a Qualitative Research Study, speaking to 50 white collars workers in Central London aged between 18 and 55 about their use and attitudes towards blogging in a series of mini-depths interviews. The vast majority of our respondents just didn’t seem interested in listening in on what bloggers have to say. A minority thought they might have stumbled across blogs in the course of their Internet browsing but could not think of any names and would not ever consciously think to refer to them.’  

Before I started blogging, I had no interest whatsoever in reading blogs, but when Blog Till you Drop was born, I also started reading other online blurbs to find out about what people had to say. When I started blogging, I also became part of the blogging community. Interviewing white collars, outsiders from the blogging community, was irrelevant.

If this study had been carried out amongst bloggers the answers would have been totally different. More and companies get involved in viral marketing; whose opinions are these companies looking for? One word: BLOGGERS. So while white collars in Central London may not be interested in what bloggers have to say, smart marketers will.  Blogging is still niche, but ignoring what we have to say would be myopic.