eleanor baird

Remembering the Razr

In Uncategorized on 12/20/2009 at 13:27
Remembering the Razr

A few days ago, Nielsen released a report about the top media trends in 2009. One of the most striking findings, highlighted by MediaPost, was that this was the year that the iPhone and the Blackberry Curve finally overtook the four year old Motorola Razr V3 as the device carried by the most US wireless subscribers.

Ultimately, it took the iPhone and the Blackberry Curve a little over 18 months to become Razr killers.

In a way, this isn’t surprising news. Unless you’ve been living under a rock since the first version of the iPhone came out in June 2007, or perhaps even if you have, you’ve heard a lot about it. The Blackberry Curve 8300, the #2 phone according to Nielsen, has also been a popular standby for RIM, and has also been on the market since 2007.

What does this have to do with Convergence Culture? People’s behavior around media is definitely changing, but these findings highlight how slow adoption of new technologies actually is among the majority of the US population. It also suggests that we still have a ways to go before the majority of Americans are being exposed to all of the possibilities of a “three screen” media world.

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Blackberry + U2 = A new and better iPod?

In advertising, consumer products, media, strategy on 07/26/2009 at 13:54

While waiting for Public Enemies to start, me and my fellow theatre goers experienced a moment of confusion (complete with loud mumblings of “what?”) when what looked like an ad for an upcoming U2 tour or album or maybe their support of a certain cause turned out to be an ad for…Blackberry. We were informed that “Blackberry Loves U2″ and directed to www.blackberry.com/u2.  Being a fan of both (I steadfastly refuse to get an iPhone), I feared this might be a weak attempt fr Blackberry to seem cool, but checked it out.  And was glad I did.

The campaign behind that confusing ad is actually an interesting idea that raises questions about both the challenges of joint branding and how Smartphones and the media industry could create a truly convergent marketing platform.

Below the fold:
Brand Confusion – a winning tactic?
Why the Blackberry could be a better iPod
So what?  Converging content, spreadability, social networking and location-based services

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Branding in a direct response medium

In advertising, internet, media, strategy on 06/07/2009 at 16:11

Can you use the web effectively for branding?   I touched on this question in my thesis, but a couple of recent events got me thinking about it again.

Having dinner with some Computer Science PhD students at the Cambridge Brewing Company the other night, our conversation about business models for social media turned to the value of online advertising, specifically, how it is different than TV and why online display advertising still doesn’t bring in big money.

And, a couple of days before that, AdWeek reported results of a Forbes.com study that found that most marketers are still using direct response metrics for online advertising, based on clickthrough and conversion rates.  The article points out that search and email marketing are considered the best performers held up to that yardstick, while display and video ads are at the bottom.

On one hand, this makes complete sense, but in a medium where you can target precisely and leverage social networks and word of mouth, not using the internet for branding seems like a missed opportunity.   How could we use the web effectively as a branding vehicle, in a way that makes sense from a measurement perspective?

Direct marketing is about facilitating transactions, but branding is about facilitating relationships.  Here are some thoughts on how to build a brand relationship – and measure it – on the web.

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