Whatever...

#Awkward: You can’t fake authenticity

By Claire Ayles

If you want to be taken seriously by the media, being authentic, credible and genuine are just as important as having a flashy new product to announce.  That means talking in a tone of voice that suits your personality and the brand values of your company or organisation.  It sounds dead simple, but there are plenty of cringeworthy examples of when spokespeople try to fake authenticity and end up getting it very, very wrong. 

Take for example this week’s rowing boat trip by Angela Merkel, David Cameron, Mark Rutte and Fredrik Reinfeldt:   

Under what circumstances can you ever imagine the political leaders of Germany, The UK, The Netherlands and Sweden getting in a boat together, apart from for a staged photo?  That’s right – there are none.  Ten out of ten for effort, but this one definitely fails the authenticity test. 

Politicians get this wrong an awful lot. Take a look at this brilliant article from the BBC which showcases some of the lamest attempts to look like an ordinary person. I mean, George Bush and Vladimir Putin in matching Vietnamese tunics? Really?

 Last but by no means least, who can forget Ed Milliband’s manufactured ‘natural’ smile?  

 Do you have other examples? We’d love to see them!

 

Is it soon to be farewell to the handheld gamer?

By Astor Sonnen

While innovation in technology continues to create new and exciting ways to make our lives easier, let’s take a moment to consider the pieces of technology that have been lost along the way. In particular, let’s look at the fate of a piece of design that was once dear to my heart…

Last week, Sony announced that it is going to stop shipping its landmark PSP console. Whilst the PSP itself is not something I was particularly attached to, I was attached to the handheld gaming consoles of old. Nintendo set the standards with the Game Boy in 1989, before providing us with a conveyor belt of devices and a plethora of games, which included famous names like Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda and Pikachu. It was a time of basic and fun gaming, and I defy anyone to make a game with a more satisfying theme tune than Nintendo’s original ‘8-bit Tetris’.

Mobiles are the biggest reason for the handheld gaming decline. Apple, HTC, Samsung and so on already make up a long list of companies producing phones that are more powerful than handheld consoles. The effortlessness of transitioning between your Twitter feed and a game or, just the stigma attached to an adult playing a games console on the train, means sales have been declining. King Dedede and his hammer have been hovering over the nail in the coffin for a while.

Arguably, the lack of competition has also led to the market demise. Only Sony and Nintendo currently produce handheld systems, and the two companies are targeting different consumers. Some would say it’s difficult to stay innovative when there isn’t anything to keep driving you forward. The mobile gaming market is now the leader when it comes to ‘gaming on the go,’ and with the Internet of Things becoming more and more prominent, it’s unlikely that any company will see a handheld console, which is purely designed for gaming, as a worthwhile investment.

So whilst some will argue that the handheld gaming era had already ended with the introduction of the iPhone, Sony’s announcement does mean that the end is perhaps now clearly visible on the horizon – a sad occasion for any 90’s gamer. Maybe I’m just nostalgic for the gaming of old, or maybe, I just really still like Pokémon. 

Google stretches its marketing muscles

By Mike King

It is widely known that Google has been experimenting with driverless car technology for a number of years, initially focusing on retro-fitting existing vehicles.  However, the company’s recent announcement that it is now manufacturing its own driverless cars is a marketing masterstroke.

Years ago, during some brand development training that we undertook with the excellent Peter Finch, we did some interesting brand stretching exercises (as an aside, Peter was so good that we got him to author a Johnson King white paper on branding).  Brand stretching entails taking a well-known brand and applying its brand values and attributes to a new area of business.  For example, if McDonald’s were to move into the mobile phone market what would its offer be; or how would Aston Martin tackle the cosmetics industry?

Coincidentally, one of the brand stretching exercises we were given during the training centred on Google and we were tasked with defining the characteristics of a Google Hotel and it was fun to do. 

Google is one of the biggest brands in the world and its brand values centre on simplicity, ease of use, fast response, fun and innovation.  Perfect attributes for a driverless car, making this latest move a perfect stretch for the Google brand.   Recent news coverage about its driverless car has reinforced the company’s brand even further.  Regardless of whether it ever becomes a commercial reality, the Google brand has gained tremendously from this move. 

I only hope it doesn’t go horribly wrong, after all the IT industry doesn’t have the greatest track record in product reliability.  At a COMDEX trade show in the distant past, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the automotive industry saying "if General Motors had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

General Motors response was simply "Yes, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?"

Let’s hope Google has the technical prowess to back its undoubted marketing muscle.  

World Cup 2014, technologies on the football pitch

By Anne-Hélène Piet

Less than a month from the beginning of the World Cup on June 12^th in São Paulo, Brazil, it’s been announced that certain technological innovations will be a part of the games. Indeed, ahead of the first match to kick-off between Brazil and Croatia, a young paraplegic person will, with the aid of a mind-controlled exo-skeleton, take a kick of the ball in the opening ceremony. Moreover, for the first time in the history of the World Cup, FIFA will allow the use of goal-line control technology, a system which includes 14 high speed cameras located at every corner of the football pitch, filming to accurately determine if a ball has crossed the goal line. If a player scores a legitimate goal, the referee will receive confirmation via their watch. This equipment will help them make the right decisions and avoid discussions or angry situations as has happened in previous World Cup tournaments.

Last but not least, the official ball has been once again designed by Adidas and named ‘Brazuca’. The German supplier chose the 2014 World Cup to introduce its prototype ‘Brazucam’, featuring six HD cameras with an image stabiliser to give a unique view inside the game to improve fans’ experience but also for team managers. Although this ball won’t be used for official games in 2014, one can imagine an advanced version for future World Cups.

I wonder what other technologies we’ll see in future tournaments? Perhaps players with cameras embedded in their sportswear. A report conducted by Futurizon for HTC also claims that by 2020, players will be equipped with accelerometers in their shoes that are able to precisely measure speed and performance, and the ball will feature impact sensors to measure trajectory. All this information will then be provided to referees, players and managers to be analysed in order to improve the game.

Since 2006, an international robotic tournament called ’Robocup‘ has been organised every year and aims to create a robotic football team able to beat a human world champion team by 2050.

With these innovations, we can wonder if human referees and players will even be on the football pitch in future. From my perspective, even if improvements in equipment can be argued to make the game better, there is something to be said for being careful that technologies don’t have an adverse impact on competition and sporting spirit.

Some gamers are gay. Get over it.

By Mike Marquiss

With more than a cartful of beloved characters, Nintendo is everyone’s favourite family friendly video games company. That’s why seeing Nintendo in the news this week  for its controversial decision not to allow gay video game characters in Tomodachi Life, an upcoming life simulator game, came as such a shock to many. 

Apologies to anyone out there who’s looking for a ‘Make your own Mario effigy’ guide, I’m not here to admonish Nintendo (for the most part), nor defend it. There’s plenty of that elsewhere. What interests me is why the issue of gay characters and storylines in video games makes headline news on such a regular basis. Why are we still debating the issue? Will the video games industry ever ‘grow up’ to the point where we can move on? Or does it simply reflect a society that has yet to do so?

Gaming holds a unique position in the wider technology industry, which is what our blogs generally cover. As opposed to Software Defined Networking or IT security, video games are creative endeavours and human by nature. It involves cutting edge technological development of course, but it’s also a product and reflection of the society in which it has been developed. Watch Dogs for instance, Ubisoft’s next blockbuster title, is set in a dystopian and fantastical Chicago, yet in many ways is indicative of today’s post-Snowden world, unwittingly so perhaps. 

But ‘What does this have to do with Nintendo?’ you ask. Well, I’m getting to that.

Nintendo’s decision not to allow gay relationships IS indicative of... something. However much the company says Tomodachi Life was "never intended to make any form of social commentary" (which is almost certainly the case), it does suggest that maybe, just maybe, Tomodachi Life’s developers weren’t ready to tackle the subject of homosexuality, or didn’t feel the need to. Did they really not recognise this massive sub-section of its user base or did they simply choose to create a game that excludes some players from playing it in the way they want, one that might reflect how they actually live their lives? God forbid they should do so in a life simulation video game! 

I don’t believe that every video game has to tackle every social issue, nor would I buy an Xbox version of Question Time, but I believe games should be held to a higher standard, especially when we’re talking of mass exclusion and prejudice. On that note, I’ll leave the final words to Yannick LeJacq, taken from his excellent Guardian article. 

“...let me play the part of a concerned friend once more and say: come on, Nintendo. You're better than this. And it doesn't seem like you have much more to lose anyway.”

 

Is size really everything in the world of film viewing?

By Flora Haslam

Fancy watching a film on your phone just 18 days after release?  And paying less than if you watch it on your TV?

At a recent event in Beverly Hills, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of Dreamworks Animation (the studio behind films like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and the more recent, but somewhat less successful, Mr Peabody & Sherman), made some interesting predictions for the future of the industry.

Katzenburg proposed that on the eighteenth day after release, movies will be available ubiquitously, and – critically – film fans will pay different prices depending on the device from which they are viewing. 

The pricing model he suggested was $15 (£9) per film for a movie-sized screen, $4 (£2.40) for a 75in (190cm) TV and $1.99 (£1.20) for a smartphone.

Given that 95 percent of the revenue from 98 percent of movies is earned in the first three weeks in cinemas, this seems to make sense, and I’d certainly be reluctant to pay much to watch any film on a four inch screen. 

What is less obvious is how this would be enforced.  Right now, it’s unclear how the industry could confirm the screen size in order to make the right charge.

In the meantime, I’m off to the cinema – no point waiting 18 days!

 

NYPD’s #fail

By Claire Ayles

Work took me as far as New York this week, a destination that never disappoints.  I particularly love US TV news coverage – just five minutes of FOX makes the plot of Breaking Bad seem completely run of the mill, and one of the few upsides of jetlag is that you can get a massive fix of programming before the working day even begins.

Getting the news anchors giddy with excitement this week was the NYPD’s spectacular Twitter blunder. For reasons only known to them, the people running @NYPDNews thought it would be a good idea to start the hashtag #myNYPD, which the good people of New York City could use to share photos of themselves with some friendly cops.  

Here’s what they wanted to happen:

But here’s what actually happened. And it happened a lot – there were over 70,000 tweets in just a matter of hours, with #myNYPD beating the much publicised #EarthDay in the trending ranks.

 

NYPD isn’t the first high profile victim of hashtag hijacking (we’ve even featured a few on this blog) so it’s a wonder that the folks there didn’t think about the potential ramifications of this campaign before they hit ‘post’. 

It’s what us soccer-loving Brits would call a classic own goal.

Airlines slow to lift ban on in-flight calls

A few weeks ago, I was on a flight into London City Airport when there was an announcement that we were going to be diverted to Southend Airport because of a broken down plane blocking the runway at London City.  This was not good news (anyone who’s ever been to Southend will know why). 

Immediately after the diversion was announced, a man sitting across the aisle from me pulled out his mobile phone to make a call. I must confess I was a little concerned.  I remember thinking it doesn’t matter, there’s no way he’ll get a signal up here but, much to my surprise, after a few attempts he did manage to make a call to the person who was supposed to be meeting him at the airport. 

My initial reaction was that it was dangerous for him to be using his mobile phone while the plane was in the air.  After all it’s been drummed into all of us for years that we shouldn’t use mobile phones on planes because of flight safety but, it turns out, there is no danger of phones (or laptops or tablets for that matter) interfering with in-flight systems.  There is no recorded instance of an air accident caused by a passenger's use of an electronic device.  The whole thing is a myth.  In fact, research has shown that anything up to 30% of passengers on a flight forget to turn off their mobiles anyway.

There are practical issues that may stop you using a phone on a plane - fairly obviously you could find yourself out of range of the nearest cell tower and, even if you do manage to get a signal, at high speed it is not easy for you to be handed off between different cells so you’ll lose connection.  But these are not safety concerns.

As far back as 2008, Ofcom took steps to licence the use of mobile phones on planes.  The FCC has also recently taken similar steps.  Although some airlines say they are responding, it is very odd that we are still told to switch to flight mode or turn off portable electronic devices during take-off and landing.  Maybe the airlines are concerned that passengers don’t want to listen to other people talking on their phones.

Incidentally, the broken plane was cleared from the runway and we were able to land at London City as originally planned; prompting, of course, another call from the man across the aisle. 

Whatever happened...

By Oliver Fischer

...to StudiVZ? You don't know what StudiVZ is? Well, then you are probably not German, or a good deal younger/older then I am. Because for most German students of my age, the social network StudiVZ was the big thing between 2006 and 2008.

In the summer of 2006, a friend told me about this new website for university students where you could network with people, share information about yourself and join discussion groups. I was curious – as a good journalism student should be – so created an account.  It had a pretty basic looking design, mostly in red and white, and asked me for some basic information: where I was studying, what I was studying, what kind of music I liked and so on. After about half an hour filling in more information than I would normally have told a girl on a first date back then, I uploaded a picture and my first foray into social media had begun.  Initially this was not as exciting as you might suspect, particularly because one of the first things StudiVZ told me was: “You have no friends!”

Thankfully that soon changed – after I sent the first few friend requests I also started receiving them, mostly with nice messages saying how great it is that I joined. In hindsight, this is rather strange since none of us really knew why we joined, except for curiosity. That was the first big phase of StudiVZ: First there was curiosity, then there was the hype, with people spending whole days on the platform as everybody and their mothers joined up. Then there was the phase where politicians started warning people about it, mostly because of privacy issues (but also because that's basically what they do – there's a whole group of German politicians that constantly warns people about the dangers of the internet...)

And then there was the lawsuit against Facebook. Early in 2008 there were already rumours that StudiVZ was basically just a copy of Facebook (which back then few people in Germany had even heard of) and, in July, Facebook actually sued StudiVZ.  The argument was settled out of court, but at that time the German social network was already past its prime – more and more users switched to Facebook and started deleting their StudiVZ accounts and, by end of 2009, the site was more or less deserted. I received some birthday messages on there in 2010, but that was about it – nowadays most people I know have deleted their accounts or forgotten their passwords.

The website is still online and it seems there are actually some people who still use it actively, but when I logged onto my old account again to do some research for this blog, all I could find were nostalgic memories which left me thinking if the same thing could one day happen to a site like Facebook when the next big thing rolls around...

 

In the land of the micro-blog, the little man is king

By Jonathan Mathias

A couple of years ago a friend pointed me in the direction of some pretty obscure Twitter accounts that were receiving some well earned praise. Two of them (a couple of the wittiest, yet downright unusual Twitter accounts you’re ever likely to find)  are being fawned over once again, this time in this Bloomberg article, which is lauding the unlikely social media triumphs of a Dalston kebab shop and one of East London’s most infamous late-night boozers – The Dolphin. 

These irreverent, provocative and often bizarre Twitter accounts are a refreshing break from what can be a sea of boringness.  It’s interesting, though, that such out-spoken accounts are linked with businesses, rather than individuals.  Of course it’s not always going to be a good idea to throw caution to the wind over Twitter – if you’re a public company, for example, it could upset the shareholders.  I personally think it’s pretty brave even for small companies to be so bold.  This does however bring up questions of self-censorship and dumbing down and, before long, you have to start wondering if anyone is really going to be interested in what you have to say if it has be to, for perfectly valid reasons, ‘boring’. 

Fundamentally there is a cost/benefit analysis equation for anything you post online – understanding the weighting of this is how to work out how your social media efforts are going to influence your reputation and, ultimately, if and how they are going to bring value to the business.