Author: tvangelist

I am oft deceived by the very egotistical, megalomaniac, control-freak natured behavior of many people at work and in business and I do wonder what it is that drives them (power and money in the main). I like nice people, friendly people who want to work cleverly and as a team. How rare it is to find such folk in today's dog-eat-dog world. After working hard since the age of 16 which equates to 50+ years of graft ... that could mean that I might have something to share that has value ... but most people don't want to listen. Be nice, not nasty as life is finite.

Playing into the CFOs hands with Quantifiable Digital Marketing – ROI

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Playing into the CFOs Hands with Quantifiable Digital Marketing – ROI

People are hailing ‘Digital Marketing’ as the new paradigm for Marcomms.  The inevitable search for quantifiable marketing results in companies that want to make sense of their marketing spend is clear.  I will however argue that Digital Marketing has already started to ‘expose’ the marketing theories of the world’s digital marketing gurus and the plethora of Social Media experts who are committing to it with all of their might, even boldly claiming Traditional Marketing is dead!   They are  merely all shooting themselves in the foot because the truth about marketing ROI is perhaps best left buried under the carpet.  Sometimes it is better not to ask for quantifiable results because you may soon find out that you are exposing yourself to unwanted CFO scrutiny, followed by budget slashing and potential job loss.  When it comes to tangibles in finance nearly ALL  CFOs are heartless and cold towards the world of Marketing (a certain intangible).  With measurement comes accountability and as such you are all playing into the CFOs hands with your fabulous Marketing ROI claims.   Cutting the marketing budget is the first thing that happens when Revenue drops n’est ce pas, fighting for marketing budget each year is an uphill battle isn’t it?  I have read many an article on the work lifespan of a modern CMO,  which is now, on average, 2 years,…why?  Perhaps it is due to modern marketing accountability!

In this saturated digital media world the majority of digital marketing campaigns fall on stony ground.  OK some will be successful but the % is tiny…ROI is generally negative.  Studies of Facebook campaigns and  ‘Likes’ highlights this and it is only the tip of the iceberg.  If you were to use finance driven Project Indicators, Rates of Return,  NPV, IRR and Payback calculations in Marketing you would soon stop all projects before they start. ( The PI > 1).

Digital Marketing can be equated to our attempts at the introduction of Digital Interactive Television – i.e. Not many people really cared and did not click on the buttons as we first expected.  I suggest that the ‘new’ Social Media gurus do a psychology and sociology course as part of any marketing course in order to understand human beings.  Why?  Because people are actually NOT interested in this ‘engagement’ aspect in the main, as you are interfering with the task in hand (Surfing the web, looking for something, facebooking, blogging etc.).  In digital TV we were/are able to monitor, gathering deep information from this Digital system long before it was called Social TV.  Analytics was our new business, or was it?   We actually buried the results across the industry (still do) because whilst it is obviously the way we are all heading in Digital Media it is unjustifiable in terms of spend.  Yes it will grow, change,  and we will see positivity but not for many years to come.  Interactivity/Engagement = Perseverance and Re-Education (Changing Habits).

What people fail to understand is the bigger picture in Marketing.   The fundamentals of any Corporate Marketing initiative is ‘Presence’ and that should embrace both Traditional and Digital Marketing.   Traditional message generation or Brand Exposure is only a brainwashing of the masses who are in general doing ‘other things’ when you offer up your Brand.  Making them engage when they are in Facebook is not what you should be trying as it is distracting from the fun of Facebook so the mental state of the recipient is not tuned in.   The need for ‘presence’ in the market is paramount and a marketing cornerstone for all the marketing mix.   So what if 1000 people click on your Ad, so what if a 1000 people send a tweet does it really matter?  It is only a miniscule  % of the amount of people who have probably consciously and subconsciously  registered your ‘presence’ without interaction,  which therefore does not mean that you have failed in your campaign.  It does however if you do the math’s.

Here is something you can convince the CFO to do as a Marketing ROI exercise – Stop your Traditional Marketing and see where you head – I know that your  Company will suffer and lose market share, possibly fold and collapse.  Presence is primordial!  I  also suggest that Social Media gurus work in Companies where ONLY Digital Marketing is done to see how long they last…I furthermore suggest that they stop telling us that Traditional Marketing is dead because they do not know what they are talking about!

The VCR/PVR was supposed to kill advertising … it didn’t!  TV killed the radio star… it didn’t!   Just remember this: Web Pop Ups which annoyed people so much and disappeared were the sign that Digital Marketing is in the main an interruptive, distracting nuisance that is heavily ignored.   All Digital Ads are just a new form of  popups that I have called Popins.  Uninvited guests!

Take a Pill to Escape the Tablet Headache

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It was quite a few years ago now since I worked at a Polish Tech Company who had already designed a PAD with Windows on it (was early 2000s).  It was always considered innovative by us but just a skunk RnD project.  After all it would never take off now would it – who wants to use a device like that we said –  Years later we have Tablets a go-go and here is a full review and worth looking at http://tablets-review.toptenreviews.com/

Is There Really A Loss Of Allure To CES 2013?

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200px-The_Bubble_British_PosterWhen you don’t go to a Trade Show that you have been regularly visiting for the past 8-10 years it is a slightly uncomfortable feeling.    It sort of feels like you are missing out on something…but are you really?  CES is after all a gadget show and do we need to go if we are not Retailers of Consumer Electronics?  What a lot of people do not know is that there is a lot going on behind the scenes in more of a Business-2-Business nature; especially in the Television world that I move in.   A lot of networking takes place, and a lot of  ‘private suites’ allow for plenty of businessmen to gather, show of their wares in private, discuss and potentially deal-make!

However as a ‘tech journalist’ you might think that things have a different allure.  Certainly the BBC’s writer David Pogue has just publishd a very poignant article from his perspective.  It can be found in full here: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130104-does-ces-have-a-future

His outlook is that there is mostly years of repetition of  technology along with what I call ‘catch-up’ Companies there ‘en-masse’ with cheaper but the same gadgets from the year before and therefore swamping the floors, the industry and the news with old stuff in effect.  There is also a decline in the Big Companies with Microsoft having pulled out!   Apple is not there either and if Apple is not there how can it truly be called THE Consumer Electronic Show?  Qualcomm even did the keynote speech this year – Qualcomm?

Another journalist from our immediate industry Leslie Ellis pointed out that the the trending products were waterpoofing gadgets for your smartphones and tablets.   I suspect the Hunting Knife Company and the Mini Flying Helicopters will still be there in the South Hall and that Spearmint Rhino will still get its CES clientele.  Ummm, so what is it I miss?

Well in all honestly I do miss it as it kicks off the business year with a hectic, manic traipse around Vegas!  Therefore life without an early dose of CES certainly makes for a less-tired more calculated start to 2013.

All Hail Netflix and World Dominance!

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Sinking_ShipIn response to the announcement by Ted Sarandos – Netflix’s CCO  or as I think it should be titled – CHM – Chief Hype Master who believes his Company is “CHANGING TELEVISION FOREVER”!   I would merely say,  Whoaaaa there Cowboy;  of course you have to get excited about your Content deals – Just like Everyone else does LOL!

However what I see overall is just another pretender to the business throne of the TV world!  Someone else who is once again going to radically change an entire business model overnight.  Someone looking to reign supreme and change the 80-20 mix (80% who watch linear TV and the 20% who watch all the other stuff)  … Mr Sarandos you have a privileged position and you are more than likely not part of the real world…a world of people who, quite honestly, have to get up in the morning and go to work in a horrible tough job, or clean the house, or go shopping, or do the laundry, or go to school, or LIVE.  People who work hard all day!  People who come home, open the front door, kiss the wife/husband/partner, kiss the kids, hug the dog and fit back into the evening’s ritual – Perhaps even cook a meal…or people who are both working; where the family is scrabbling around to find time for the kids pick-up, homework, chores, sports, hobbies, family BBQs, kids birthdays, sickness, LIFE, and all the things that the world delivers.   The world of spare time between 9pm to midnight!

Does anyone in this industry REALLY believe that we are glued to our TV screens 24/7 as if that is the only thing in the world?  Come on what are we believing!!!   Why are TV shows scheduled, why are their ratings, why has the business delivered the same format for the last umpteen years, in the way it has?  Because TV has created a system that has adjusted to and suits the masses not the few.  We ordinary folk adjust and organise ourselves to schedules, we like schedules because we can do other things in the meantime!  We don’t need TV, we have TV which is part of an entertainment package that we use to entertain ourselves within scheduled periods in our lives and Mr Sarandos it is not the ONLY thing we have!

What is the best way for a busy family in the modern hustle and bustle of daily life – It is Linear TV, PVR and Catch-Up TV (aka VOD) perhaps even Apple TV which is an on-demand (not subscription) service…Pay as You Watch (makes sense).   Unless Netflix can be the only supplier of ALL the Content with ALL the options in the world including a humble price tag we will see that they are merely just another choice in a HUGE selection of TV offerings that we have today.  Linear TV still reigns supreme according to the Analysts but who cares in the heady world of OTT Services – All hail Netflix!

What I Really Think About Facebook

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If you live in a city of a 1,000,000 plus your actual ‘contact’ with people is limited to the epi-centre (i.e. where you live) and a radius of some mile/kilometer or so around you – In effect creating a village in that large city; and reality says that a small % of that million inhabitants are your real contacts…each person has a different village some constituents overlap as in Facebook, Twitter et al! So PLEASE STOP pretending that we have access to Billions of people in Social Media because WE DON’T! There are many villages in FB/Twitter/LinkedIn and of course a few larger towns and a city or two that get created (as per all social media sites) and you have to realise this before you waste your money on advertising and sponsored media in those domains. Social media reflects life, reflects business and is a parallell universe to our everyday existence. Open your mind to the reality and ignore the hype…Think about it!

kenbonzon's avatarblog maverick

Lets talk Facebook

First, I’m not recommending to any of my companies that we leave facebook. I am recommending that we de-emphasize pushing consumers or partners to like us on FB and focus on building up our followings across all existing social media platforms and to evaluate those that we feel can grow a material following. In the past we put FB first, twitter second. FB has been moved to the bottom of a longer list.

At the core of the issues I have with FB is how FB thinks about itself .

This is from their page on Newsfeed, Engagement and Promoted Posts : “In this way, we can keep news feed an engaging service where people come to get the information that is most interesting to them.” FB believes that their news feed is an engaging information source.    They seem to really, really want to…

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Un-Sociable Media and Your Money!

Posted on by tvangelist

If you live in a city of a 1,000,000 plus your actual ‘contact’ with people is limited to the epi-centre (i.e. where you live) and a radius of some mile/kilometer or so around you – In effect creating a village in that large city; and reality says that a small % of that million inhabitants are your real contacts…each person has a different village some constituents overlap as in Facebook, Twitter et al! So PLEASE STOP pretending that we have access to Billions of people in Social Media because WE DON’T! There are many villages in FB/Twitter/LinkedIn and of course a few larger towns and a city or two that get created (as per all social media sites) and you have to realise this before you waste your money on advertising and sponsored media in those domains. Social media reflects life, reflects business and is a parallell universe to our everyday existence. Open your mind to the reality and ignore the hype…Think about it!

Is It Technology Disruption Or Business Disruption That Is To Blame?

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There is a myriad of articles that have been written since the dawn of so called disruptive TV technologies and the the now so called Over The Top television paradigm.  I recently read an article on The Verge (Andrew Wamugi) which talks about the battle for the living room and why we have got it all wrong.  Unfortunately, albeit he is correct in parts, the article mixes things up by blaming both technology aspects and content issues as if they are related or similar problems; which actually they are not!

Almost all TV Content and channel line-ups are decided by Content specialists who are paid to fill their time-slots it is not the CTOs that decide on that!  Quality of TV content is governed by people who commission TV shows, who make Pilots and Focus Groups.  The majority of money to fund ‘New Content’ comes from the Cable Companies (part of the subscription fee that consumers pay).  All this talk of Cutting the Cable Chord drives us along a route of cutting the funding of content.  This was covered heavily and clearly by Mark Cuban in his blog…We learn’t that this sum is in the billions of dollars.  Content costs money to make!

The article says that we concentrated on widening the reach by doing IPTV and offering new access to consumers…This is true to a certain degree but this is a cause and effect situation.  As far as Technology is concerned it merely evolves…however so does the business around it: IPTV came about because the Telco CEOs wanted to expand their business and differentiate. We saw SmartTVs emerge because TVs became commoditised and they wanted to differentiate…its about business not technology.  Cable went IPTV and TV Everywhere to counter the business threat that was IPTV…The effect and cause of Comcast et al entering into this domain.  Business is about maintaining revenue to keep a business alive and of course pay all the salaries of the employees.

Furthermore the article goes on to talk about  serving better content to the customer and that we should switch on the TV and be fed things we are interested in. (Even if there are millions of subscribers who all like something different at any moment in time) The article states that their should be intelligence in the device that delivers what WE like when we switch on the box.   Switching on the TV to find something you will like is like opening the oven to something it decides that you  want to eat!   This is just an impossible task that only leads to the position of monotony.  Variety is the spice of life my friend…We need variety if we eat the same meal every day we tire of it…if the world of TV turns into content the ‘system’ knows you like how will you ever be surprised by content that you sometimes see, think you wont like, but are pleasantly surprised by if you give it a chance!

The reason the TV business is in such a disrupted state is because there are far too many people trying to make money with content distribution…too many fragmented services…even Starbucks, Tescos, and Toys R Us also getting into the game which is stupid and the only reason is because it is easy (due to the internet).   If you had to have a Broadcast License to Broadcast Content as you do in the real TV world then I am sure that this would inhibit the fragmentation, the industry would be governed properly, controlled better so no harmful content could be proliferated and we would have a more understandable  industry.  The TV industry is now in a mess but who do you blame: the Content people for trying to maximise the return on their assets? Or the technologist for exploiting science? Or the businessman for exploiting the technology, also protecting his job in a dog-eat-dog environment???

It is TV people and we do not need it 24-7-365 we have other activities in-between and around it and that is the essence of this response – There is a limited amount of viewing hours per person, per interest and VARIETY, SURPRISE, SERENDIPITY is the job of the specialists who decide on content and channel line-ups and compete for us the viewers. (p.s. you can also buy DVDs, Blu-Ray Discs and go to the Cinema to watch films (Experts once claimed these were all dead because of OTT).  So Who is to Blame for the Mess?

What is the Future of Digtial TV? – Is That The Right Question?

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Linear TV is still pretty strong across all standard transmission media. The advent of ‘new disruptive TV services’ are only actually being seen over ISP infrastructures. It is easy to become a WebTV Company but really hard to become a Broadcaster as you need a license. So the Future of Digital TV is still fairly clear. What is not clear is what is the Future of the Digital TV Business Model. Look at this example – some OFCOM boffin recently stated that all UK Broadcasting should be made to go over the Internet and the DTT spectrum used for something else. LOL! Putting all of your eggs in one basket is a route to failure i.e. everything on the Internet. An infrastructure prone to failure, with a shaky QoS offering and it can be called inefficient as it is. Apart from that all over the Internet is a rather strange idea considering that 30% of the UK is under served for Broadband…The population does not all live in a metropole and yes there is a Rural Broadband initiative but it needs massive funding another Government issue. All over the Internet is not a good business model for the ISPs who would have to bear the burden of all that data infrastructure investment with only flat-rate subscriptions – or would we see a return to pay for what you use model?  If this is the case does OFCOM suggest that the License Fee be included in the Broadband subscription?  See how complex it all becomes!

Each technology has its place.  The Future of Digital TV is that Digital TV Broadcast is needed, Digital TV on Broadband is needed and Digital Satellite is needed. These are all ‘transmission media’. The Future of Digital TV is all about the ‘Business Model’ which I believe is actually in the hands of the Content Producers and the Rights Holders…They have set about maximising the distribution of Content by allowing everyone to sign up and everyone to distribute as mentioned by Johann and Broadcasters panicked as they thought they would be usurped so they too signed deals with Connected TV CE manufacturers in a ‘pull-the-rug-from-under-my-own-feet’ business model. How silly it is becoming; even Starbucks and Toys-R-Us are getting into the act! However in reality the average household has only a certain amount of money to spend on Premium Services. There are very few households that have several Premium TV subscriptions…So presently the fragmentation of the Digital TV Business is actually over a single transmission medium which is Broadband and there is the chaos…Which leads to a re-phrasing of the question What is the Future of Digital TV over Broadband?

HbbTV Needs to Up Its Game If It Wants To Win!

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There is many a debate (especially on the TV Forums of LinkedIn) surrounding the Interactive TV Specification of HbbTV.  Many people are already hailing its success due to the fact that it has been selected in a handful of countries with interest and deployment growing elsewhere.  Even the DTG in the UK has added an HbbTV profile to its D-Book Spec.

Like Docsis versus the DVB-Return Channel specification the industry driven HbbTV spec has beaten a DVB consortium developed product.  Notably the same supporting Companies are in both camps in order to hedge their bets.  Actually  they are merely choosing sides and subversively working against the specification that they do not actually support as a business?  I have, in the past complained about this act to no avail.  I have also highlighted this issue of fragmentation at SDO level, to no avail, especially as the world of TV and Broadband collide!  No organization (i.e EU/EC) has evoked any initiatives around the need to  ‘merge’ these disparitive groups in order to harmonise all the work, thus avoiding, in the main, huge Corporate wastage of effort and manpower.  Millions upon millions of dollars are spent in duplicated tracks of work.  We live with it.   The DVB and OIPF/HbbTV divergence will possibly cause more fragmentation than is necessary despite liaison between the groups.  The DVB must address this issue quickly in order to help the market roll-out of this homogenised interactive system for DVB networks – Perhaps it is too late for that?  Docsis managed to be successful without the DVB, so was CI+ until it was pulled back in to the consortium.  Has a precedence been set?

I was an evangelist for MHP in those heady days, which now bear a striking resemblance to the HbbTV rollout. I am still a firm believer in Interactive Value Added Services for the viewer and therefore it is good that HbbTV appears to be growing in stature. I said it is moving ahead in the same way as MHP did 10+ years ago i.e. a disparitive smattering of Countries, Channels, Broadcasters, Operators – Many, Many Tech suppliers – a further smattering of Content Developers and several all encompassing HbbTV experts such as HTTV in France.

However like the MHP initiative there is no cohesive nation-wide plan in any country despite what others may think; nor any EU mandate (nor will they ever mandate anything in this area now the market has reached such massive digital fragmentation) – the digital Interactive TV horse has truly bolted!  This may cause a problem for HbbTV to become a true nationwide or global standard.

As I have also previously highlighted the very nature of TV software evolution (HTML5, Companion Screen, Second Screen, Zeebox,  SaaS technology etc.) and the margin fueled business of high volume selling at retail i.e. Zappers and alternative solutions (Hulu, Netflix, AppleTV and all the varieties of Connected TV, WebTV and the Toys-R-Us channel type offerings) it may take longer for it to be fully mainstream in Retail…

However for the first time it has a larger ‘Broadcaster’ following than any other previous standard. The EBU is firmly behind it. The markets are the problem. Where there is an incumbent like the lonely MHP in Italy, change will take longer, but there will be change; it is inevitable!  Unification with a forward drive at a higher level is required.  Someone needs to really drive it forward but NOT as a technology; which is the present modus operandi!  One of the biggest problems of HbbTV is that  after tens of years of experience, we know full well that selling Technology Acronyms for the Interactive TV business to Consumers – DOES NOT WORK. Even MHEG5 and OpenTV in Sky were converted to “Red Button” to make it consumer palatable. HbbTV needs to do the same for it to go truly mainstream before it becomes outmoded especially ‘vis-à-vis’ the general public who are used to ‘new services’ each 6 months. If HbbTV wants to win as a mainstream universal technology it has to up its game.