Sepp Blatter must have had his fingers and toes well crossed over the last few days. With the World Cup Finals now over, he can breath a sign of relief that the quarter, semis and final didn’t throw up any more controversial incidents like England’s disallowed goal.
His attitude towards the adoption of a digital technology are a classic case of an organisational figurehead refusing to keep up with the pace of the real world around him. Try as he may to preserve some strange personal ideal of what is suitable for the most important sports event on the planet, one thing is inevitable, in 2014 we will have goal line (and probably far more extensive replay) technology.
His concession to ‘look into it’ only highlights how inevitably futile it is to keep up such a battle against the technology tide. Soon it will seem even more bizarrely backward than it already does that South Africa’s high profile tournament, with all its 3D replays, swooping aerial camera angles and HD slow-mo showing every flying bead of sweat, could not get in the way of a good old fashioned refereeing mistake.
There can often be valid reasons to preserve ‘traditional’ ways of doing things. But football is already transformed by media technology on every other level. Not taking advantage of replays on the pitch when the rest of the world can see them is archaic and pointless. The professional game and its audiences demand it.
To be a good leader today, you need a very different mindset. Conservatism at the top may seem steady and ‘experienced’, but it’s an approach that’s way out of touch. The ability to remain constantly open to change is vital, because rapid change is the most potent, consistent force out there. Which successful organisation has stayed on top of its game by steadfastly refusing to adopt the latest technology?
Congtratulations on reaching a release milestone go out to one of our record label clients this month. SOUNDZ, the forward-thinking deep house and techno imprint – for whom Alchemy Content provide online profile and promotional services – celebrates it’s 50th release with a corking track from the prolific Hakan Lidbo, featuring haunting vocals from Melpo Mene.
The package contains no less than 3 different remixes from X-Press 2 and has already been given full support by the trio in their sets and charts, plus picked up on by a wide range of international DJs since first emerging at Miami WMC back in March. For this key release, content assets include streams of the track, images and a doc containing interviews with Hakan and Rocky for press/bloggers to use for quotations or in their entirity. All supported across Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and beyond.
There’s plenty more to come from SOUNDZ and it’s legendary house music-focused sister label, Slip N Slide, over the coming months. As online streaming, Twitter and mobile all become increasingly central to the promotion of new tracks, the importance of a good content generation and management package becomes ever more obvious.
Yesterday’s gossip about the alleged ‘closure’ of Fabric raises plenty of the big digital media issues of our time.
@buzzin_fly DJ Ben Watt posted what turned out to be the first online news of redundancies at the vitally important London venue. Within an hour there was plenty of RT action of his original post and the usual overexcited Twitter chatter confusing the issue. By the end of the afternoon things were getting fairly heated on the clubbing forums, forcing Ben to make a statement earlier today.
The one voice that everyone wanted/needed to hear remained deafeningly silent. In fact, as opposed to posting a statement on either their homepage news feed or blog, @fabriclondon contacted Ben and asked him to remove his earlier tweets. As anyone using Twitter (and indeed any web media tools) should really be aware, this is an utterly pointless exercise. It also fuels the gossipmongers no end.
There is still no mention of the rumours – which have of course now spread far beyond Twitter and the forums – on any of Fabric’s online profiles. This late reaction will do more damage to their reputation than gossip ever could. We questioned why it took so long for an official statement to go up on the Matter website last week, but with the venue’s closure and staff being given their marching orders, it was understandable that getting online was probably not the most pressing issue. It’s different this time though. The Fabric blog is still being updated with info about this weekend’s parties, so the wall of silence makes the situation seem dire, when clearly every effort will be being put into making sure the club continues to open as usual, if this is possible.
During times of internal turbulence, no company really wants to have to stand up in front of the public and make a statement until the dust at least begins to settle. But it’s an absolute necessity these days. And it can be done quite effectively in 140 characters. A chatty “will clear up all rumours shortly, open as usual” would have been good. Instead there is confusion leading up to one of the most lucrative holiday weekends in the clubbing year, inflicting both short and long-term damage to the club and it’s fantastic international brand.
It serves as a stark example of how even the most apparently slick, youthful media operations – that are fully blogged, Twittered and Facebooked up – are still a long way off having the digital strategy required to react properly to today’s real time web.
It is not enough to simply be using all these tools, our entire approach towards communications needs to be rethought in order to cope with them. Adapting is proving difficult for most people aged over 25 and most companies with managers over 25, but this absolutely needs to be embraced.
Hopefully Fabric and the many observers of this incident will use it to improve their digital strategy in the ways we often advocate here. Long may the club continue.
So we’re only hours away from a general election result, but the influence digital media has played on it all won’t be decided until the dusts of history have begun to settle. The fact that it hasn’t dominated the commentary has been refreshing. Perhaps as a society we are finally getting over the novelty of being able to communicate ideas/images in real-time from/to anyone/anywhere?
Having said that, the breathtaking lack of digital media savvy from the Brown team in the ‘Bigotgate’ incident (breathtaking to Gillian “You’re joh-king!” Duffy at any rate) in not only leaving a mic on the PM, but then not thinking that a BBC Radio studio might just have a webcam set up, shows we’re still at a pretty basic stage.
Bizarre Limbo
Something as steeped in history and protocol as an election is bound to struggle to keep up with the pace of change. It feels like a bizarre limbo between different worlds to go to a polling station where a man with a pencil and ruler crosses off your name on a big list, while the person behind you updates their Facebook status to “…is voting” to the world from their phone.
If anything, being social online really has inspired younger people to engage with politics this time, even if it is inevitably in a more presidential, personality-driven way. No party may have mobilised support online in quite the dynamic method of the US Obama campaign, but this was never going to work like that in the UK. Acerbic wit on Twitter is much more our style. What real effect that has on voting patterns is debateable. A outright victory for Nick Clegg would seem assured when looking at the Twitter search feeds, with David Cameron’s Torys repeatedly mocked, yet the polls tell us they lead.
Unwritten History
Our society’s digital divide clearly remains wide, and particularly split by age and, of course, media savvy. But whether we notice it or not, this election has probably squeezed that gap a little more. Even if the blue rinse Conservatives are not part of the digital conversation, the way social media is changing the expectations of those who are is having a profound, unstoppable social effect.
The result of the election has implications for our media history too. Will the newspapers still be able to claim it was their desperate front pages ‘wot won it’? Will a hung parliament be said to result from tribal populism for the Lib-Dems invigorated by TV debates and Facebook’ed up youth? Are pollsters more or less accurate now we’re all wired up? All will be revealed tonight. See you on #ge2010 for the real-time action…
All this week we’re out in Mayrhofen, Austria, producing a real-time stream of news content for the official Snowbombing festival iPhone app by Eristoff – Vodka from the Land of the Wolf.
If you’ve got an iPhone or iPod Touch, download it for free while the event is taking place and let us know what you think. You’ll find news, gossip and interviews direct from the week-long festival, which sees artists like The Enemy, Editors, 2ManyDJs, De La Soul, Fatboy Slim, Vitalic, Doves and Friendly Fires playing to 6000 fancy dressed loons high up the Tyrolean alps.
Live Feeds
The app makes use of Alchemy Content’s specialist experience of developing and running mobile applications that go beyond the gimmicks; providing a useful, always up-to-date information service that’s constantly available in a user’s pocket.
Live feeds of high-quality custom content give people a reason to refer to the branded application repeatedly throughout their time at the event. For Snowbombing, we’ve devised an additional Eristoff Secrets feed, offering exclusive calls to action on things like VIP party access, ticket competitions and insider tips for getting the most from the resort.
Intense Usage
Mobile apps based around intense periods of usage, like major events or holiday locations work particularly well, so the Eristoff Snowbombing app is an ideal use of the technology and Alchemy Content’s editorial and project management services. See our Clubber’s Guide to Ibiza app for more.
GPS maps pinpointing and recommending local businesses, a fully searchable events schedule including artist profiles, plus user generated community feeds from YouTube, Flickr and Twitter all add to the application being an essential download for anyone – whether out at Snowbombing or not – with an interest in the artists or wanting an interactive guide to the best of Mayrhofen’s après ski.
Download the Eristoff Snowbombing app for iPhone or iPod Touch.
The media landscape has changed dramatically since we last had a general election here in the UK. And the rate of change frustrates, baffles and annoys a large part of the electorate. However there’s no escaping the fact that this election is going to be all about digital media.
Twitter is far more established and important that it was even during Barak Obama’s famous social media election campaign. And the UK already loves to tweet during political TV shows like the BBC’s Question Time. It’s a real shame that the many Twitter-phobes are missing out on this important new dimension. One day soon, all big live events will have a feed of comments as a standard part of the broadcast. Then, status updates will be see for what they really are – far from egotistical personal broadcasts, they can be a simple but effective ways for any audience to participate in a communal event.
It’s fantastic that just as digital progress seems to signal the ‘end’ of event television by making almost everything available on-demand, we have a brand new medium for live events, that also has the added importance of immediate political weight.
The Chancellors Debate showed the shape of things to come once the party leaders have their TV showdowns. Of course the negative side of all this real-time digital commentary is that those in the spotlight become incredibly guarded and bland, plus attempt to exert way too much control. However, like it or not, this technology will play a vital role in the Election 2010. And this is really just the beginning of a new political era, so resistance to things like Twitter will have to simply fall away.
The Daily Mail and others may still find value in running daily scare stories about social networks and the anonymity of the internet for some time yet, but the next month will be an important move forward in the acceptance of all the ‘new’ media technologies – and how to use them effectively. Even if politics continues to annoy and baffle, hopefully the relevance and power of digital media will become clearer.
Electronic music’s most legendary mix CD series and its associated record label, Global Underground, has just completely relaunched its online presence, with Alchemy Content now providing regular editorial feeds and social media management for the brand.
GU was way ahead of the game in terms of building a passionate fan community on its site over a decade ago, but little much had changed about the basic site design over the years.
The brand new Globalunderground.co.uk has a completely fresh visual identity, a strong new Heritage section telling its history via those infamous City Series mix CDs, less intrusive but more comprehensive e-commerce for buying music and merchandise, plus new Tours, News and Forum sections to make the most of the strong community, rather than hiding it away as before.
The famously acerbic regulars on the GU forums have been quick to make their opinions felt, but the 2-way conversational approach of the new site is already paying dividends, opening up a real dialogue with the loyal fanbase to help provide the facilities they actually want. It’s a really exciting project that should see the label fully take advantage of today’s digital media tools to build upon its amazing international following.
Alchemy Content will be producing short regular magazine-style content and social media activity for GU, with the next big milestones being the return of the club residency at London’s Ministry of Sound on March 6th and the annual WMC party at Mynt in Miami on March 24th.
Mobile apps are all the rage, right? Yet the reality of the situation is that the majority of people don’t use them, yet. Apps are spectacularly useful when they make life easier – quickly, regularly, efficiently – but for owners of the more popular handsets, this simply isn’t the experience. Just finding and downloading them can often be too much hassle for starters. And the minefield of data plan charges and different operating systems are enough to scare off most people anyway.
Therefore it was good to see a consortium of seven mobile phone manufacturers and networks coming together to announce a new standard system for apps at the Mobile World Congress last week.
As far as we’re concerned this kind of initiative can’t happen fast enough. The average person has no interest in why the technology can’t deliver them a good media experience on their phone, but as soon as it does, they are going to wonder how they ever did without it. In the meantime we’re in the frustrating position where an amazing range of new content, tools and services are only really available to those who own an iPhone.
Despite all the buzz about mobile apps, designing a service that can be enjoyed across all the mobile platforms is still fraught with barriers and expenses. Mobile will only really take off when the focus changes from ‘how’ services are delivered to ‘what’ goes onto them, from the technical to the editorial.
Apple run a restrictive, closed system in an era when pretty much everyone else is working to principles of compatibility, yet theirs remains the platform of choice because they have streamlined the whole experience. Google’s more open, Android system is slowly gaining ground, but it will take a lot more cooperation to bring the overall mobile app/online experience up to the level that people will want to use it on all handsets.
We’re on the right path, but the progress of mobile media has been far too slow. Protectionism still reigns. Now Apple have generated all the interest, perhaps this latest announcement of cooperation will bring forward mobile media’s ‘broadband moment’ of mass adoption, and kickstart the technology/content revolution that is currently only enjoyed by a lucky minority of phone users…
When it comes to customer service, brands that are 100% ‘digital natives’ seem to do it so much better that the older ones. There’s really no excuse for this. We’re many years into the digital communications revolution now. The mantra of being conversational, honest and accessible to customers really ain’t that new.
Over recent weeks I’ve had 2 very different customer service experiences. Admittedly pitting the boutique online printers Moo against electronics behemoth Sony isn’t really a fair match. But online, every brand should be ticking these essential boxes in the same way, or risk rapid damage to their reputation – whatever their size.
Moo: Good
We use Moo for our business cards, and the latest batch came back with a slight cutting error. Finding out how to contact customer service was stupidly easy. Every step of the transaction had already been reported by automatic email. The box contained re-order codes, a helpful returns sticky label and the website is clear from clutter, making navigation a breeze.
I sent an email, got a response and the reprints we on my desk at no cost – financial or emotional – to me, the customer. (Makes you want to write a positive blog post by way of a thank you, really).
Sony: Not Very Good
Meanwhile, the door on my Sony camcorder suddenly wouldn’t close, with or without a Mini DV cassette in it. Seeking assistance for this was the polar opposite experience. Googling the error code produced reams of forum posts slagging off Sony, this apparently common fault and their inability to communicate with customers on it other than charging them a lot of money to fix it.
Trying to find Sony’s own customer services for any official info was painful. Searches under a number of different terms pulled up variously unhelpful results: North American only help centres, drop down ‘help’ menus that didn’t list my particular camera model, vast FAQ pages.
Digital Content Strategy
A proper digital content strategy would see Sony not only simplifying and promoting the path to reach them direct, but also managing and reacting to the user comments about their products on other sites. It’s ridiculous that no representative from the company has contributed to those forums. Their reputation is being raked through the mud on there unchecked. The commercial missed opportunity is there for all to see.
Ok, so Moo may have a little too much Innocent Smoothiesque folksiness about them for some tastes, but all that chumminess is just a presentation style that works well for their type of business. The same principle of effective and rapid customer service can be handled in a totally corporate way with equally good results.
Help Them ‘Get It’
It all goes to show the huge culture shift that is going to have to take place very rapidly at ‘old’ companies as the general public increasingly seek answers to their issues online. It’s unfortunate but unsurprising that the brands that really ‘get it’ are those built for the new digital space.
At least helping all the others catch up presents a wealth of opportunity for a new breed of media companies. As ever, seeing it unfold around us is a very interesting process. Even though I still haven’t worked out how to get my camcorder to close.
