Six years of Ipod 2001-2007

Came across this short photo gallery on the Guardian that shows how the iPod evolved over time. What will the iPod look like in 2013?

Mobile phones and MP3 players are probably the most fascinating examples of the pace of technological innovation. The pace may not be that different from that of Moore’s law, which was invariably demonstrated when the computing power of microprocessors doubled every 18 months or so. But just like what the advertising emphasized, it was “(Intel) inside”. Nowadays everyone makes sure that innovation is clearly visible on the outside.

Talking of the Guardian, they launched their US edition – Guardian America – at the end of October. A bold international expansion move at a time when most newspapers are either shrinking or reinventing themselves as multimedia content conglomerates (like the New York Times company).

It is still to early to see if this formal launch helped increase their US reach (currently around 2M monthly visits), but we should revisit this in a few months when audience data becomes available.

The Music Industry – From Retail to Media

A small hiatus on the blog, because of an intense workload over the last few weeks!

I recently met an executive from Warner Music who is exploring new directions in response to the radical digital transformation that has taken the music industry by storm.

After this discussion it occurred to me that there is a parallel to be drawn between the music and media industries. In both cases the most common business model was about combining content production and content distribution. And in both cases, the digital transformation changed the game … distribution came first. Then once the distribution lock is gone, it opens the gates for a lot more people to produce a lot more content. Natural selection based on talent does the rest.

The media landscape is being deeply reshaped in the digital era – these are not breaking news.

Newspapers are losing classifieds revenue to the likes of Craigslist, paper versions of magazines disappear (good bye Business 2.0), radio is increasingly listened to digitally, and network television shows are migrating online.

There have been several examples in the past where content owners clashed with online content distributors about intellectual property – and how to split advertising revenue. Google was sued in 2005 by AFP, a news agency, over copyright issues. The Google Books initiative was attacked by book publishers and authors. Viacom asked Youtube to remove thousands of copyright-infringing videos, following in the footsteps of NBC and CBS.

Back to the music industry. Those companies were used to operate with a retail (e.g. distribution) model and “moving product” (vynils then CDs). Getting airplay and maximum repetition was a means to an end… not unlike advertising, a way to promote record sales.

Now Apple has the upper hand in music distribution – with no serious competition, except maybe the recently launched MP3 download store on Amazon.com.

Look at the 20 most seen videos of all time on YouTube.

Nine of them are official artist music videos, including bands like My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park that are signed by Warner labels. Those hundreds of millions of views are proof enough that music companies own the rights to content that is extremely attractive for online audiences. So are these companies the next in line to use legal action to force Google to share some of its advertising revenue? That’s quite unlikely – old habits die hard. They have always sought artist exposure and were all too happy to get this exposure for free.

Artists have discovered that the Internet is also a way to bypass middlemen, not just for marketing but also for sales. Radiohead has created the sensation once again with their recent announcement, and many bands have jumped on the publicity bandwagon.

Talking of Radiohead – this reminds me of John R., a former colleague of mine when I worked in London. John had previously worked as a talent scout for Sony Music and he liked to joke about the fact that he passed on the opportunity of signing Radiohead!

If you want to read more about artists embracing the digital age, Wired had a fascinating cover story on “the rebirth of music” in 2006.

Can artists do entirely without record companies in the near future? Probably not. After all, the music industry has a proven track record in discovering and nurturing talent. If anything the Internet makes the talent easier to spot. There are many hopefuls posting their webcam musical performances on Youtube like Esmee Denters, Mia Rose or Lamiyah. Audience ratings and comments are a transparent way to assess their growing popularity.

As a conclusion there is some irony in the current situation of the music industry.

When Apple introduced legal music downloads and a robust Digital Rights Management system, the music industry saw this as an opportunity to finally solve the problem of piracy on peer-to-peer sharing platforms like Napster and Kazaa. Yet today, Apple is in such a dominant distribution position that it has become a major threat to the industry.

Google’s stronghold on search is seen as a threat by most content owners. Yet Google is probably the very opportunity for the music industry to achieve its transformation into a media business that leverages an enticing and exclusive content.

Online video

In my previous post, I wrote about Gunn’s 12 advertising formats – which were illustrated with video clips embedded in web pages. An interesting symbol, as video advertising is becoming more and more prominent online.

It is an easy way for TV networks and media agencies to follow audiences: people watch less TV, more online video, let’s just deliver the same TV commercials online.

In my humble opinion, there are a few things to consider when using video for marketing messages on the Internet. Here are just four examples on possible ways to make online marketing videos different from their TV predecessors.

1) Interruption vs invitation. Interruptions of the user experience are definitely not welcome online. Advertising is more effective when users choose to watch it voluntarily rather than perceive it as an intrusion. Users should also have options to come back or be reminded later, so that they consume the advertising on their own time.

2) Linear narrative vs. adaptive story line. Let users interacting with the story to increase their engagement. It does not have to be complex, it can be simple branching such as “yes/ no” or “go left / go right”.

3) One size fits all videos. The Internet is a very personal medium unlike TV. Sending different messages to different audiences or different audience segments is possible. It can happen without breaking the bank in terms of production budget – green screen videos combined with computer generated images open greatly the range of options.

4) Substance over production values. The most successful online videos are often shot with low-cost webcams or camcorders. Users’ expectations are different than on TV. Don’t spend extra budget for details that will be barely noticeable on a small size video window.

What are your thoughts about online video? Can all of Gunn’s formats be reproduced as such? Are there going to be eventually new formats that fit the online environment better? I’d love to hear from you.

Advertisers, break free from your TV addiction…

A few weeks ago I found this 12-step program to understanding TV advertising formats. I am not sure if it will remove or reinforce advertisers’ ingrained reliance on television advertising! But read on…

For those who don’t know him, Donald Gunn is a former JWT Creative Director whose claim to fame is the Gunn report – a third party assessment of the best advertising campaigns. Third party means supposedly objective – always an interesting concept in an industry where subjectivity reigns. Nevertheless, it’s gone like Robert Parker with wine – Gunn’s choices now garner almost as much attention as some other advertising accolades and awards like the Clios or the Cannes Lions.

Gunn recently talked with online magazine Slate and described what he considers the 12 types of advertising formats. Well, really he’s talking of 12 types of TV commercials formats… repeat after me: “advertising = television commercial”.

Gunn has been there , done that and his analysis makes for a very interesting reading, especially since he illustrates his theory with several recent campaign examples conveniently embedded as Youtube clips.

Are these formats universal? Gunn implies that little has changed in decades, and that new commercials are simply variations of the same old themes. But as video becomes more and more common online, can things evolve?