what is it that you do

*Sigh* No! The Times

Today Brand Republic reported that the Times website has lost 1.2m unique users since May. 

That sounds like a lot. It sounds like more when you realise that it's 43% of their audience in a 2 month reported period. A period that coincides with the introduction of their paid for access.

I'm not privy to any information about how much revenue they've generated in terms of subscriptions - but I do know that as their page impressions have dropped from 29m to 9m over the same period then their ad revenues will have fallen through the floor. If we assume a rough £12 cost per thousand for any ad on their network and an average of 2 such on any page that's half a million straight off.  Each month. Not to mention the reader offers/partnerships/white labelling that newspapers use to flesh out their revenue.

I don't imagine that they are going to do a turnaround especially quickly - but it will be interesting to see what sort of limbo dancer Mr Murdoch is. Just how low can he go?

I thought this was a ballsy move when they first announced it - but one that I couldn't see working. At the same time the old free content isn't really working either - and I completely understand why the old media tycoons are so upset with the new media search behemoths that earn so much as the carriers to their content.

Going it alone was never the answer. the Times isn't my paper of choice. I'm much to much the liberal Guardian reader for that. I did however used to browse quite a lot of their content when it was free. Now it isn't I go elsewhere. Or don't. I find I'm satisfied with one less sports section distraction. 

It's interesting to see that there hasn't been an enormous and correlating increase in any other UK newspaper sites. It may just be that people who did check in with the Times every now and again just don't any more.

If paid for is going to work it has to be as a partnership across different media owners. It has to be as a license that allows to access to any UK newspaper. They can then look to divvy it up depending on where I/you/the UK has actually been and what content they've created. 

There is just too much content out there for one group to make a stand. People are used to free and know where to go for it. A general license will ensure that the news is paid for it's work. If some people then go to amateur free channels or wait to watch the news at home/hear it on the radio then it just means there's too much news and a new level will be found. Some may fall by the wayside but all won't.

This will also set a model for the licensing of content on the internet. I think the same will happen through music and film when cloud access to content is fast enough to watch anything/hear anything whenever/wherever you have a screen (which will be bloody everywhere)

I really do think that everything for free online will die a death sometime in the next few years. Some established media owners will die along with it - but a sustainable license for content regardless of origin will make sure that new levels are found. 

John Barnes has Mars in Motion

When I first heard about John Barnes reprising his New Order World in Motion 'rap' to flog mars bars this summer I thought it was an awesome idea. How on earth could that fail? It would be a smart, nostalgic football ad in this sure to be summer of none stop football ads. How could you fuck that up?   

Well. You could make it look like it was shot in a park by random kids. You could make it look terrible. You could make Liverpool Legend John-eh-Barnes-eh look really uncomfortable and have had him overdoing the free product. You could make it look like you only had a passing familiarity with the original video. Three lions on our mars I know we can't go wrong? Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. 

Here it is...

Here's the original to make you feel better. The best football song there has ever been.

Danny Dyer's deadliest d!ckheads

I was going to write this in the style of Mr Dyer but I can't bring myself to do it.

There has - quite rightly been an outcry about the Danny Dyer column in this week's Zoo in which he suggests that a guy would find it easier to get over his ex if he went out with his mates and smashed 'anything that moves' or cut his ex's face.

 

 A lot of the anger has been directed at Danny Dyer himself. What people don't seem to realise is that he will have noting to do with this at all. In the slightest. Not even a little bit. This will have been written by someone junior who's job it is to channel TV's most risible east ender. All of the blame for the above lies with Zoo magazine - specifically the editors. The one responsible for this should be proper booted and given a real goin' ova fackin' sharpish. 

I know who Alexandra Burke bloody is

I've just been sent an opportunity. More of an 'opportunity' for a brand I look after to work with Alexandra Burke. It's a 12 slide presentation that tells me that Ms Burke looks like this

And nothing else. Nothing else at all. I've been sent a presentation of pictures. There's no idea here at all. Not even a sniff of a one. Apparently if I take up the opportunity then I'll be able to meet her. 

I just don't know what the opportunity actually is.

What I do know is that ideas for brands still come out of people and places who get brands. And consumers and channels and market and and and. Media agencies make a big deal about how they can develop campaigns with media owners and bypass traditional creative areas. Sometimes they can. When I was a media planner I did. More often though they are just badging existing properties.

To get a great campaign a great creative and a great plan(ner) is a (great) place to start. Not always - and there are no guarantees. You are more likely to get relevant ideas that will make a difference to a clients business. Those things (and those people) are generally found in agencies.

I should probably talk about crowd sourcing at some point but I don't want to overrant. It upsets my cat. 

Yes my elbow is bloody sore today and the Northern Line is no fun at all. 

Too goddamn old to dance

I've broken my elbow. It's official. Got the xray to prove it. Got the story of falling of a stage in a club as proof of too-old-for-this-idiocy. Until the next time.

Didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. I've cracked ribs/toes and the like before but never broken anything. I wouldn't recommend it or anything but it's not the end of the world. I look ridiculous tying like a t-rex though. My sphere of influence is now about a foot around.

GameSatan

UK game retailer GameStation has come clear about including an immortal soul clause in their online t's & c's. Full story below. I'm just thankful that it was the relatively benign xbox pusher who tried this. I'm going to check my Sky terms tonight as I don't reckon Murdoch would 'fess up

Thousands of shoppers unknowingly signed their souls over to a computer-game store after failing to read the terms and conditions on their website. 

GameStation added the "immortal soul clause" to online purchases earlier this month stating customers granted them the right to claim their soul.

While all shoppers during the test were given a simple tick box option to opt out, very few did this, which would have also rewarded them with a £5 voucher.

The store claims this shows 88 percent of people do not read the terms and conditions of a website before they make a purchase. 

Bosses also say they will not be enforcing their rights and will now email customers nullifying any claim on their soul.

Look at my horse, my horse is amazing

This loops forever and I can't stop listening to it. It's a tiny bit NSFW and kids.  

Full and never ending version is at http://existenz.se/out.php?id=17275

If I ever hear this in a club then I'm doing to go nuts.

Shuddup woman get on ma horse

Icelandic volcanoes

This eruption at Eyjafjallajoekull. the name looks like something my cat types when it jumps on the keyboard. 

He's not very good at typing. I suspect he's biding his time until one day he's going to get fed up rubbing round my legs when he's hungry and jump on my laptop and type 'feed me fucknut'

Here's a beautiful picture of an ash cloud in the sky above Manchester

 

Taking things a little more seriously

I've pretty much used this blog as an extension of my twitter rather than use it as a way to share thinking. I suspect this is because I've been saving my thinking for my clients.

I'm going to start making this a little more of a home for my thinking. Not that such a thing would preclude sillyness - since that's an intrinsic part of my thinking. I don't think you can be a good planner unless you are into stuff. Lots of stuff. I think that includes silly stuff. Especially when it's as glorious as this. If this doesn't make you smile then you're dead inside and should probably get some help for that.

Books or TV?

A question. If you took your TV (TVs) and stacked your books in front of them would you be able to see your TV at all? Given the amount of books I've stockpiled recently for Books Born Free then I'm pretty sure it would take a cinema screen to outdo them