Digital Connections

Great World Cup SMS Infographic (c/o O2 & Wired)

Building on my England World Cup infographic post from last Saturday, here's another England / World Cup infographic. 

 

Taken from an interesting article from @NateLanxon at Wired magazine, showing SMS usage around England's World Cup games - perfectly illustrated in infographic form. (If anybody gets a higher res version please nudge me).

During England’s Group C matches, O2 users sent just over 75,000,000 text messages - with usage peaking at 4k-5k texts immediately after England's goals.

Sport is inherently social and its best served live and with shared real time experiences, it’s all about “The Power of Now”. First choice mode of carriage for major sport is always on TV, sharing and analysis then happens on the most convenient platform, in this case mobile. As a gregarious and social race, we instinctively and immediately want to share our appreciation of the “awesome” with our closest friends.

(On the flip side SMS traffic looks highest during England Algeria - but I think we can put that down to boredom)

Gregarious creatures and the World Cup "fail whale"

Hello, it's been a while,

Working on lots of exciting projects at Fast Track has resulted in me being pretty quiet on this blog for the past month or so. If you've been trying to get hold of me then you've probably received my "over capacity" reply, as I've been tied up with the FIFA World Cup (read more here) and London 2012 projects.

And chances are that if you've been on Twitter over the past few weeks then at some point you've probably also been hit by their over capacity replay, aka the "Twitter Fail Whale", as the social media platform has been creaking under the volume of conversation around the World Cup.

 

Even Twitter have admitted that June has been Twitter’s worst month as the  platform undergoes structural changes to address record tweeting and account creations.

"We’re working through tweaks to our system in order to provide greater stability at a time when we’re facing record traffic. We have long-term solutions that we are working towards, but in the meantime, we are making real-time adjustments so that we can grow our capacity and avoid outages during the World Cup."

The FIFA World Cup is a great example that sport is inherently social, best served live and paired with real time social communication. The first choice mode of engagement is always TV, the second choice is a social platform. In the past this social platform was mainly the pub or the home, but now opinion sharing and analysis is occurring on the most convenient platform (Twitter, Facebook) whether thats online or mobile.

In the view of Karl Marx, "Human beings are intrinsically, necessarily and by definition social beings who, beyond being "gregarious creatures", cannot survive and meet their needs other than through social co-operation and association."

When it comes to World Class sport we still instinctively and immediately want to instantly share our appreciation of the “awesome” with our social circles.

I guess this is just another fine example of how "Technology Changes People Don't" ... 

 

The Last Advertising Agency On Earth

Despite it being very bleak and somewhat over the top, it does raise many good points.

And a very good online ad for a conference!

3DTV, Changing The Game For Sports Consumption In 2010

January 2010 has been something breakthrough in world of 3D Television, no longer are we talking about cardboard glasses with red and white cellophane lenses, things have moved on and instead we’re talking about:

• James Cameron’s Avatar racing towards becoming the highest grossing film of all time.

• All of the major TV manufacturers launching 3DTV models at CES 2010 in Las Vegas. 

• O2’s announcement that they’ll be screening the Six Nations Rugby in 3D at Odeon and Cineworld cinemas.

So how big is 3D TV going to be in 2010, and which areas will see the biggest impact?

Many people are asking “Haven’t we been here before with HDTV? “. After all we’ve all stood in Dixons or John Lewis and stared at a bank of TV screens, desperately squinting to try and see the difference between conventional TV and HDTV – dismissing the extra cost as too great.

But that isn’t the case with 3D - the difference is obvious, consumers don’t need to be convinced, its genuine innovation and that’s why I’m convinced that 3D will succeed.

Unfortunately there is a shortage of 3D movie content for 2010, a few classics will be made available and the film studios will begin to make more 3D movies – but there is still going to be a shortage of 3D available for the home.

Not everything is suited to 3D, I’m pretty sure that we won’t be watching Eastenders or Newsnight in 3D –actually the thought of 3D Eastenders chills me to the bone.

Gaming is tailor-made for 3D, it’ll be cheaper and easier to create 3D content and gamers stare directly at the monitor in immersive gameplay for hours so they’ll really get the 3D benefit.

But the area that I’m really interested in is sport and 3D. Sports content is the without doubt the best broadcast content suited for 3D, and the area that consumers will really engage with 3D.

ESPN have announced that they will be showing 25 football matches during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, including the opening game, South Africa v Mexico, on 11th June.

Through ad agency AIS, O2 have also announced that they are screening some of the RBS 6 Nations in 3D. It’ll be interesting to see how many rugby fans actually wish to spend a Saturday afternoon in an Odeon Cinema rather than drinking with their mates down the pub. Perhaps the 3D cinemas will attract a younger audience.  And for O2 it’s a room full of brand receptive fans - putting O2 at the forefront of innovation.

Some sports will be more suited to 3D than others, and for 3D to be a success then rugby and football have to be successful. It’ll be interesting to see the TV manufacturers marketing campaigns behind 3D, sports sponsorship must look very attractive – I suspect we’ll see an increase in sport / team sponsorship with an increase in ground advertising during the World Cup and during the  2010/11 seasons.

So how big is 3D TV going to be in 2010? Well I’m not saying that 2010 is going to be the year of 3D, but it’s definitely going to be the birth of 3D.

Interesting Media Buy: Windows 7 Banner On MacUser.co.uk

Rather surprised at this media buy.

Can't imagine that too many Apple Mac evangelists will rush out and buy Microsoft Windows 7 on launch day.

.....Not one for the Marketing Week Effectiveness Awards.

Apple iPod touch online advertising on Skyports.com

Brilliant piece of entertaining & innovative online advertising.

Unsure who the agency is but if they drop me a line I'll include the credits ;)

Thanks to Andy Kinsella at Glue London for pointing this one out!

Online Football First: Ukraine v England

Digital technology’s impact on sport moves forward this weekend, when the Ukraine v England football match will become the first England international ever to be broadcast exclusively live on the internet in the UK, on a pay-to-view basis. The game can be viewed at www.UkrainevEngland.com.

This breakthrough has been hailed by some as the future of sport, and a massive stride towards total media convergence, yet by others it’s viewed as an absolute disgrace. Leaving many England fans wondering why they can’t watch their national team on free to view terrestrial TV, like the Germans and Italians.

Fans questions and concerns seem to fall into two categories:

1) Background: How did we get to the situation where TV rights for an England game are exclusively available on the internet?

2) The Quality Issue: Are fans going to be able to enjoyably watch Ukraine v England? Or are technological limitations going to stand in the way.

So, in answer to those questions:

How did we get to the situation where TV rights for an England game are exclusively available on the internet?

The best “in a nutshell answer” that I’ve come across was written by Charles Sale in his Daily Mail column.

"The Beeb had originally offered the Ukraine Football Federation £4.5million for the rights after the World Cup draw was made in 2008.

But instead Ukraine sold all their World Cup games to the Kentaro agency, who in turn agreed a £5.5m deal with Setanta for the England match.

Yet when Setanta went bust and the rights returned to Kentaro, the BBC dropped their offer to £1.5m and gave the agency 48 hours to make up their minds.

Kentaro, mindful that no England World Cup qualifier had been bought for less than £3m in the last five years, preferred to test the potential of the internet market, which Kentaro CEO Philipp Grothe called 'the future of premium sports rights content'.”

“Digital sport specialists Perform, who are streaming the England match online via national newspaper websites, including the Daily Mail, are limiting pay-per-view subscribers to 1 million. Actually, they will do well to attract 300,000 even with the offer of free viewing if you have a Bet365 account.”

Perform Group’s outline case can also be found on the Ukraine v England website.

It’s worth pointing out that BBC aren't obliged to show the Ukraine v England as World Cup Qualifiers fall outside the governments pre-identified “crown jewels". And in a free market surely the BBC are being prudent by not overpaying for such sporting events.

My view is that the BBC has placed a couple of fair and reasonable bids here, after all why should the BBC match Setantas exaggerated £5.5m price? Would that be the best use of the BBC license fee?  After all Setanta going bust was partially down to overpaying and overinflating the football rights market, and it’s fair to say that if the BBC were able to secure the rights for the match at a fair and reasonable price then we wouldn’t be in this position.

We mustn’t forget that public demand shapes what we get on our TV screens. Matthew Syed sums this up rather well, when he states that the reason that we have this game on the internet “is because we prefer to watch former sportsmen rumbling their way through the rumba in glitter, sequins and a fake tan than real sportsmen playing the national sport in what passes for the greatest competition on the planet.”

So if it’s not the BBC’s fault then it must be the FA's fault then? Well actually no, the FA doesn’t own the relevant rights - the Ukrainian FA do, and they can sell the rights to whoever they like. The rationale being that this system allows individual (minority) FA's to benefit from the visit of larger nations.

So its FIFA's fault? - FIFA should control the TV rights for all the World Cup qualifiers....

....err ok then....let’s move onto question 2.

Are fans going to be able to enjoyably watch Ukraine v England? Or are technological limitations going to stand in the way?

If you've got plans to watch the game in your local pub on a giant screen with a beer in your hand, then realistically you’re not going to have the best experience. And that’s assuming that your landlord does have the technical knowledge to hook his laptop to a giant screen in the first instance.

Preventing landlords from showing the game is probably the biggest downside of this experiment; it doesn’t do the on trade any favours. After the smoking ban and a recession England football games were a banker for a day’s brisk trade. However, I’m sure that if fans look hard enough, then they’ll find some rough boozer hooked up to Swedish satellite or something. Odeon are showing the game on giant screens in 12 cinemas, which is great if you’re aged 13 and under and fancy an alternative to the Saturday Matinee.

However, if you live in rural Britain and your broadband is fed through BT’s archaic copper piping, then you’re probably going to have some buffering issues and you may well have a 7.47 kick off. Then there’s the speed issue, the average broadband download speed in the UK is 4.1mbps.

But if you live on an empty street in a major city, and you have a fast connection then you could do quite well. Don't forget that you can hook up your laptop to the TV.

It will be interesting to see whether the infrastructure will handle a maximum 1 million subscribers streaming a live feed at 5.45pm on Saturday. Perform have limited the stream to 1m in order to guarantee a high quality streaming service, and they’ve also installed a “test” before purchase to ensure a users system can handle video.

I think that this is a great experiment and what better time to do it than now? It’s a good way of watching England and we’re going to have to trial watching online TV at some point in time so why not now?

Whether people are prepared to pay for it is another interesting question. Digital natives have been watching live football streams for free on a Saturday for the last few years – it’s debatable whether these digital natives are going to pay for their streams unless the quality is significantly higher.

This experiment will hang on the quality and reliability of the stream.

IPA Social: 10 Principles (#IPASocial)

If you're a member of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) then this will probably need no introduction, but if you're from the sports marketing industry or a non-IPA member agency then it might need a touch of background explanation.

In January 2009, the IPA hosted a 44 Club event at the London College of Fashion, entitled "Social Media Futures - The future of advertising and agencies in a networked society."

The event had the potential to be great, and should have been great - unfortunately it wasn't. I blogged about the event and wrote a post which in hindsight I now view as overly harsh, and one that I certainly wouldn't write today.

However, I wasn't the only person who expressed disappointment, with Amelia, John, Robin and Anjali all expressing their views.

To give the IPA massive credit, within 7 days of the event Nigel Gwilliam (Head of Digital at the IPA) was analysing exactly where the IPA went wrong and how the IPA could ultimately deliver what their members wanted.

(I should point out that I wasn't and still am not a member of an IPA member agency, which goes someway to why I feel uncomfortable about my original post.)

Nine months later, Nigel has chaired and facilitated a very passionate & talented group of digital communications experts. This "IPA social" group have collaborated to write 10 principles that clients and agencies should bear in mind when developing Social Media campaigns. However, the group are also keen to point out that these principles are starting points for further discussion and are not cast in stone.

Each of the 10 principles are hosted on individual blogs (listed below), with the IPA acting as hub for the IPA Social Project, and everybody is encouraged to read and discuss the principles... after all social media is basically lots of people having conversations online.

Tuesday 6th October sees the IPA host a follow up event - which will see Mark Earls, Neil Perkin and Amelia Torode presenting their views, with Amelia, Katy Lindemann, Asi Sharabi and John Willshire joining in with a panel discussion.

If you're going along then drop me a tweet and say hello - if you cant make it then have a read of the 10 principles and join in the conversation online.

I was full of expectation nine months ago, and once again I'm full of expectation - but I know that these guys will absolutely nail it and add traction to a great debate.

The 10 Principles

1. People not consumers – Mark Earls
2. Social agenda not business agenda – Le’Nise Brothers
3. Continuous conversation not campaigning – John V Willshire
4. Long term impacts not quick fixes – Faris Yakob
5. Marketing with people not to people – Katy Lindemann
6. Being authentic not persuasive – Neil Perkin
7. Perpetual beta – Jamie Coomber
8. Technology changes, people don’t – Amelia Torode
9. Change will never be this slow again – Graeme Wood
10. Measurement – Asi Sharabi

Google Wave Preview: Waving At Myself!

"The first fax machine -- the person who bought the first fax machine was an idiot, because there was nobody to fax to.

But he or she became an evangelist, recruiting others to get the fax machines because it made their purchase more valuable.

Those are the effects that we're going to see.

Attention is the currency."

Kevin Kelly [TED: The Next 5,000 days of the web (Dec '97)]

This morning I was lucky enough to receive an invite from Google to preview Google Wave.

Which is absolutely fantastic news and the geek in me is pretty darn excited.

Although I must admit to feeling rather like that man with the first fax machine...

I've sent out my 8 invites to some friends and some fellow tweeters and bloggers (James, Neil, Amelia & John), but they are all currently awaiting delivery by Google.

"Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick."

In the meantime I'm sat Waving at my desk and sending out faxes to myself.

Happy Birthday Ceefax

35 years ago, on the 23th September 1974 - Ceefax was launched on BBC.

Both my parents worked at BBC Newcastle, so I have a certain soft spot for BBC related stuff.

My childhood obsession for football results and league tables could only be served by hours of gazing at Ceefax. There's the old joke that, "This game would be more exciting on Ceefax", and as a Newcastle fan in the late seventies early eighties this is a pretty accurate representation on the state of affairs at St James'.

However I wasn't alone, up and down the country armchair fans would sit down on a Saturday afternoon, punch in "316" for live scores and just watch the numbers increase as the goals went in. Convergence was alive and well, by using the "mix" button a viewer could watch Grandstand at the same time.

Of course Ceefax was the start of Britain’s journey into Interactive Television, and in many ways the most successful, with 22m browsing 600 pages at one point. Wow that’s an advertisers dream!

Ceefax truly came into its own when breaking news. Live TV was somewhat of a novelty back in the 70's and Ceefax was a bridge between the event taking place and actually being reported on TV and radio news. Plus Ceefax would only report pure hard cold "brute facts".

Skysports News recently dragged on Richard Dunne's transfer from Manchester City to Aston Villa for close to 48 hours, with plenty of footage of footballers and agents driving cars in and out of leisure centres. Ceefax would have reported the Dunne transfer beautifully in 20 Characters

"R Dunne ManC - Villa"        

Brilliant job done, that even puts Twitter's 140 characters to shame.

Rather sadly we'll soon be deprived of Ceefax and its simplistic brilliance, as part of the analogue television signal, CEEFAX will finish with the "Digital Switchover in 2012.

In the meantime, Happy Birthday Ceefax!