Agora Media Group Blog - Travel Industry, Social TV, tCommerce, 3D, Augmented Reality, Marketing, Design, Applications, Mobile, Open Source

The ubiquitous Mobile Web experience

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:43:06 +0000

Great graphic that presents very well the opportunities and the Content-Context relationship.

What interesting to see are the Synaptic Web derivatives when we have a look at the Context.
Information is being filtered and recommended, based upon interests, location, subscriptions and so on. By doing so, the offered Content is more relevant and appropriate.

When looking at the amount of possibilities that are shown in the image, understanding the -potential- power of this device is important.
Why?
First of all to understand the business environment better, secondly to adjust business strategies to these new opportunities or maybe reinforcing current strategies in order to create a better positioning and proposition.

I should at least research the impact on middle- and long term, making sure you won’t be surprised and ready to thrive or survive this mobile transformation.

(click to enlarge)

What do you think of the graphic and that what is being shown?

The -real- ROI of Social Media?

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:06:50 +0000

Much has been written about the ROI that can be generated by Social Media, I’ve read many kinds of ROI’s, all trying to reflect efforts and its return.

But there’s a paradox when having a closer look at the two terms in relation to the new open business environement.
First let’s decompose ROI and Social Media.

ROI:

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.

Keep in mind that the calculation for return on investment and, therefore the definition, can be modified to suit the situation -it all depends on what you include as returns and costs. The definition of the term in the broadest sense just attempts to measure the profitability of an investment and, as such, there is no one “right” calculation.

For example, a marketer may compare two different products by dividing the revenue that each product has generated by its respective marketing expenses. A financial analyst, however, may compare the same two products using an entirely different ROI calculation, perhaps by dividing the net income of an investment by the total value of all resources that have been employed to make and sell the product.

This flexibility has a downside, as ROI calculations can be easily manipulated to suit the user’s purposes, and the result can be expressed in many different ways. When using this metric, make sure you understand what inputs are being used.

Secondly, let’s have a look at the definition of Social Media:

Social Media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM). Social media utilization is believed to be a driving factor in the idea that the current period in time will be defined as the Attention Age.

When thinking of both terms and and how they can relate to each other, I conclude that the terms are “forced” in order to create meaning with current understanding and definitions.
The ROI of Social Media is like trying to ascribe ROI to a telephone line.
Part misinterpretation and misunderstanding of both terms and part the necessity to quantify in order to meet business objectives, are reasons why this enigma won’t be solved soon.

Return on Investment is a short term metric, a direct relation between cost and return is calculated, and (short term) objectives don’t have much room for tactics or actions that don’t add direct value to the ROI.
Here’s where the complication is, communication and interaction often do not add direct value to a quantifyable objective (for example sales).
The best example within Social Media is Trust. How can the long term process of gaining and retaining trust be expressed in a ROI?
Surely, when consumers do a purchase (be it a soft or hard conversion), it is the only quantifyable and “visible” action/reaction within a much larger process by the company and other consumers.

The latter is important and the crux within this question.
Social Media is causing a paradigm shift where all conventional wisdoms are becoming obsolete.
One of these wisdoms is the notion of two seperated entities, businesses versus consumers and the interaction between these two, ending up in sales, profit, revenue, ROI and so on.
A revaluation is necessary, in this transparent digital world, the seperation is disolving and consumers are complementing and replacing pieces of business processes.

If consumers become part of the business, how must these external entities be calculated and taken into account?
It’s not only the -direct- cost business cost what counts, but also the indirect and consumer-added related costs which should be taken into account in order to understand the new relationships and impact.

So, what is the real “ROI” of Social Media? I do not have a clear and sustaining answer yet.
A new digital landscape requires as a new way of conducting and quantifying business.
I believe the first step in this paradigm shift is to release the legacy of conventional business rules. Comparison -with old standards- is in this case a devaluation of the real opportunities and power of Social Media.
From there on, known metrics and KPI’s will have new interpretations which explain relations and money flows better than the current ones.

It’s a long learning curve and many challenges won’t be solved within months. Take the business effects of Social Media into long term strategies, set aside budget to research and test this phenomenon. In the mean time, transitions will happen and New and Old ways will meet.

What do you think the ROI of Social Media is?

Two Minute Pitch that Helped Push Social TV to the Forefront

Richard Kastelein — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:31:58 +0000

Thought I would share my winning pitch for The Netherlands Deloitte’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions 2010 Tech Visionary for futurist views on Social TV and Media Convergence.

I wrote it on the train on the way down… I actually forgot half of it and kind of made it all up again once I got up there. I had two minutes to pitch… in front of about 200 of Holland’s tech community who voted by SMS.

My name is Richard Kastelein, I am a Canadian of Dutch heritage and am currently working a Chief Strategy officer for a startup in Groningen called Worldticketshop as well as building a creative and innovation agency called Agora Media Group in London.

How many of you have young children out there?

In five years, your children and mine will laugh at the old days when certain programs were available only at certain times. We will too.

On demand TV is just part of the great change we are going to see in the future… where media will be ubiquitous, and will no longer be the passive experience we now see today.

It’s called TV Everywhere.

I am going to go through four quick points.

1.       Production. The rise of User Generated Content has already and greatly shifted the Internet landscape and will do the same for TV. Merged media will be everywhere, video, audio, photography, 3D and more.

2.       Delivery – Entertainment will be available in the cloud – everywhere, on demand and available to anyone, anywhere.

3.       Consumption – This will be profoundly changed due to the future convergence of the Web and TV, where web widgets become part of the TV experience and viewing culture will be radically changed due to the inclusion of recommendation engines which will offer true reflection of consumer needs and wants.

4.       And lastly, Monetization. Last year, it was noted by MTV here that content companies are now driven by control of Intellectual Property. And that has too and will change. Business models will change. I call it tCommerce and it will also be a paradigm shift for the TV industry. Last year MTV also mentioned that new business models will need to come into place. We feel that affiliation models will rise – profit sharing rather than profit hoarding. The ability to shop on TV will be seamless and simple allowing for revenue sharing between the broadcasters and advertisers.

Already new players in the social tv space are building API’s and SDK’s to allow developers to make the shift from iPhone and Facebook to new models on TV. Yahoo Connected has an Open API, Europe ’s HBBTV will likely be Open Source software as it’s based largely on Open IPTV and even BBC’s Canvas in the UK is pushing towards open standards.

I will wrap this up by saying that it’s my feeling that this could be the next ‘bubble’ in the market as TV is going be decentralized and it will, in the future, be owned by the audience in many ways. Unlike TV today…. Such as in the USA, where the networks are publically owned and contracting – with no sign of growth in the future.

Thanks for your time and feel free to contact me at the borrel if you are interested in chatting further. We are working on building products for this new space.

The Search Engine Advertising Conundrum

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:38:59 +0000

(Disclaimer: I’m part of the team at Traffic4u that develops TrafficSAM)

In the digital environment where quantification reigns, the importance of Online Advertising has become increasingly evident.
The worldwide success and adaption of Search Engine Advertising (PPC) is the most obvious example of this. Search Engine Advertising rapidly grew as the pull and results driven-channel because it is able to attract and convert visitors in an advanced manner.

Over the years competition has become more fierce, and all sorts of tools have been developed to cope with expanding accounts and the increasing complexity of this channel. The role of Search Engine Advertising is maturing. Companies understand the power of focusing on target groups and Search Engine Advertising’s strategic use for internal processes (competitive intelligence, market research tool, etc.). Along with the maturation of this channel, a demand has arisen for sophisticated technologies that are able to assist marketers in the decision making process.

This is where TrafficSAM comes in. It’s a tool that has been developed in-house from the experience we’ve gained over years of extensive (international) campaign management.

Two important aspects define TrafficSAM and the way it meets the needs of businesses:

1. First of all, we’ve tested and used conventional -automated- bid managers to understand how these systems optimise campaigns and results. Our experience is that the fine equilibrium between technology and human intelligence is not being exploited in these systems. Too much emphasis is put on technology and automation and not enough on the human -non replaceable- input that can alter performance in a way technology alone, cannot.
TrafficSAM utilises both by offering functionalities which assist the user by taking away time-intensive tasks, while at the same time allowing the user to be in full control of the decisions that need to be made.
By doing so, the system reaches a refined equilibrium, resulting in an equation of: Technology + Human knowledge & experience = 3.

2. The other important equation within Search Engine Advertising and Marketing in general is that Performance is the result of: Campaign(s) + Website + Product/Service.
Basically the system centralises the three direct influencers of performance, namely PPC data (campaigns), analytics data (website) and back office/CRM data (product/service).
By providing these insights and relationships, users can uncover what really triggers campaign performance to go up or down.
Example: A campaign is optimised and the products are in stock, but if the website is not user-friendly, performance will not be as optimal as it could be. There are numerous combinations that can be made to help find out why gaps exist between expected and actual performance.

Along with a more thorough understanding of advertising efforts (and understanding the interaction between the website and product), it provides two-way optimisation on a business level. Not only can users optimise their advertising campaigns, but they can also gain feedback that can be given to product managers and website builders based upon what has been learned from the system.
The second benefit on a business level is the use of the same data. Due to the customised connection with the back-office, the same figures can be used across the various departments within the company, solving the challenge of inconsistent data between platforms and departments. The disturbances that inconsistent data can cause can negatively effect decision making, which needs to be as optimal as possible in order to thrive and be a step ahead of the competition. As in any type of management, efficiency and effectiveness are key to being able to move forward within the given constraints.

What equilibrium do you seek in campaign management tools in order to successfully execute and understand advertising efforts?

TrafficSAM press release:

Traffic4u introduces its own bid manager

Traffic4u, specialist in Result Driven Online Marketing, is introducing TrafficSAM: a technology that makes managing Search Advertising campaigns more efficient and more profitable. TrafficSAM can couple data from the Back Office (CRM, turnover data) with Google AdWords, Yahoo! and Analytics data. The system has been developed by Traffic4u and is already being used by some of the biggest advertisers in the Netherlands.

Origins of TrafficSAM

Traffic4u began developing TrafficSAM in 2006. Due to the extensive and international campaigns of its clients, the need for a technology that could simplify the management of large campaigns increased. First comprehensive testing was conducted with existing bid managers that automatically take over the entire bidding process. “The large systems that were tested are based on the black box principle. The system makes all of the decisions based on predetermined earnings targets. We found that most advertisers wanted to remain in control and learn from their campaign. Only then can you outperform the market and consistently generate more sales from your campaign in the long term,” says Gert Jan Munneke, CEO of Traffic4u. TrafficSAM was developed in order to offer these advertisers a good solution. It is an intelligent management system that helps the online marketer make better decisions based on insights that the technology provides.

Technology: the future of Search Advertising

The increasing importance of Search Advertising for companies has been a trend for years now. Budgets grow, campaigns contain an increasing number of keywords, and advertising is being done in several countries and often in multiple search engines. With this growing interest, the awareness that campaigns need to be directed from different sources increases. A lot of important data can be attained from the Web Analytics package and the Back Office. By directing campaigns using multiple sources such as actual turnover, inventory or availability, they become more profitable, but also increasingly complex. Traffic4u expects that marketing intelligence systems will play a vital role in managing online marketing campaigns.

In-house, outsource or a bit of both?

TrafficSAM is used by both Traffic4u clients and advertisers that manage their campaigns completely in-house. The strategic importance of Search Advertising for many companies is so large that they have multiple employees that work on managing their campaigns. A good example of such a company is holidaycars.com. They were one of the first clients to use TrafficSAM to direct their campaigns. Robbert Jan Meerpoel, CEO of holidaycars.com: “By using TrafficSAM we now have a direct link with our reservations database, so we can see exactly how much revenue the campaigns generate. This used to be a time consuming task, for which we frequently had to use excel, but now we have an overview of all information with the click of a button.”

Why am I not yet sold on the promise of Social TV?

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:13:22 +0000

* * * * * * * * * * *
This article is a guest post by Paul Johnson and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Agora Media Group editorial staff. ( Twitter of Paul Johnson is @tweets4pj )
* * * * * * * * * * *

There are some fabulously innovative technologies coming out that bring the promise of a new generation of possibilities for the bigscreen… searching, managing and personalising the content through our TV sets will never be easier.

…sharing our experiences, our likes and our dislikes through social engagement with like minded people…again all possible directly through our TV sets.

…participating directly with live broadcasts or on demand content, whilst having more control over advertising and marketing engagement with brands, again all now possible with these new technologies.

But here is the catch:

How many of these services will people actually want to use on their bigscreen and how often…to justify the business case investments?

Before trying to answer this, here are a few scenarios that have run through my mind:
Would I want my kids to interrupt my news broadcast because they are meeting up with their friends to share the latest episode of Charlie and Lola…because there is a community game running at the same time…and Dad…”its better on the bigscreen”.

Would I want my Mum interrupting the last 20 minutes of the last episode of ‘24′ with a video call or chat alert popping up on my TV screen?

Would I want a message alert pop up on my TV, whilst I am watching the last few minutes of the FA cup final…its an invite from my wife’s sister to see if she wanted to come to the virtual arena to watch an exclusive gig from Take That…who are promising a ballad to the winner of the video calls…OMG!?

I find myself answering these scenarios…No and Yes.

No, because I would get thoroughly annoyed at my loss of control of the bigscreen in the living room…my right to ‘owning the remote control’ would be over (as if I ever had it !), and I would just have to suffer all the social interruptions to my favourite TV shows when all I wanted to do was close the door, kick back and enjoy them in peace!
Yes, because I love the idea of social engagement whilst I am watching TV, or using the bigscreen to enjoy a multiplayer game…with my family and distant friends.

So why am I torn between embracing social TV and shutting it out?
Simple…I have yet to read anywhere that the technology comes with ’social modes’ that can be controlled, depending upon what state of mind I am in and what device I am on.

However fabulous these new social tv services are, if they do not consider the following 2 things by design, then I worry that Social TV will become a fad and not the must have that business cases and our digital future deserves.
1. my state of mind – do I want to be a couch potato without interruptions at all or do I want to make like a social butterfly.
2. my digital lifestyle footprint – do I want to engage with social TV on the bigscreen or ’snack’ on the services on a complimentary device whilst I am enjoying the TV show.

What are your opinions on this? Am I missing something? Am I making any sense? Is there anything else that concerns you about Social TV as part of the bigscreen experience of our future?

Microsoft’s new Augmented Reality Mapping technology

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:42:23 +0000

Microsoft presented their Augmented Reality mapping technology at TED.
Look at the video below, fantastic what it can do.

For me, three things strike out:
*The incorporation of Photosynth processes in their maps. Great way of including crowdsourced images in a natural way.
*The abilty to augment a location by use of the mobile phone camera and being able to see their real-time view superimposed on maps.
*The ability to look inside buildings due to the use of backpack cameras.

What is your first impression on the new opportunities?

Agora Media will pitch at the Deloitte Fast50 TMT !

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:56:58 +0000

We did it!

The prediction by CEO Richard Kastelein has received plenty of votes, enabling him/Agora Media to be present at the Deloitte Technology, Media and Telecom event the outlook for 2010 and further. This is the chance for him to be recognized as a ‘Tech Visionary’ representing Agora Media – and further – the entrepreneurial community of the Netherlands.

Richard’s prediction is in line – of course – with Agora Media’s outlook of the future in terms of Media Convergence and the rise of Social TV.

His entry:

Media Convergence and Social TV
If we all thought the Facebook and Twitter social media growth phenomena were extraordinary, wait until social TV hits your screens. And it is not as far away as you think – not only with the logical IPTV market, but also terrestrial TV. Social media fused with TV is …the future and the implication of reach that will touch billions not millions.

As Facebook revolutionized the way advertisers can niche-target their online demographics, social TV will profoundly change the ad agencies and marketing departments will offer their wares in the television realm. It’s called tCommerce and watch out – TV widgets and recommendation engines are not far away.

Neilsen ratings seem vague, less targetable and will likely become obsolete in TV 2.0. See http://agoramedia.co.uk/blog/?s=kastelein&x=0&y=0 for articles I have written on Convergent Media and Social TV.

Contest link

On March the second the prediction will be pitched in front of a crowd of 200 Deloitte thought-leaders, CEOs, presidents and other VIPs in the Dutch TMT sector. The winner will be selected by the crowd.

This will be great exposure and certainly the platform to show our outlook and opportunities in these sectors.

We will keep you up to date!

Ubiquitous Mechanization – Digital Life 2.0

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:53:37 +0000

Great graphic by Randy Krum who created his personal infographic.

Of course, not everybody has all these devices, but it’s clear that we’re become increasingly mechanized beings and have many extensions that are belonging to the daily repertoire.
With the rise of the smartphone and other convergent devices, many activities can be completed at anytime and anywhere. This only will increase in the future due to more advanced processors/hardware and societal diffusion of technology in general.

What are your thoughts on the digitalization of society?
Do you adhere the Transhumanist view, that science and technology improve human lives and want to intertwine it as much as possible?
Or do you adhere the Modern World critics view which see an advancement in technology as an involution of the human being?
Or somewhere in between?

The ubiquitous Mobile Web experience

Where does Mobile stand in your strategy?

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:54:49 +0000

Mobile is in the spotlights, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, like the Verizon Wireless-Skype agreement, Google’s new Mobile mantra, the Windows phone etc.
Interesting announcements are made, ubiquity is becoming clear, the Mobile Web is being adopted fast, Mobile Search rises and many more -convergent- developments.

Where does Mobile stand in your strategy?
If it’s important for you, what are you doing right now to incorporate it in your strategy?
If not, what are the reasons for that decision?

Discuss as well via Google Wave

‘Mobile First’ – Google’s new Mantra

Gianluigi Cuccureddu — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:43:42 +0000

More news from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Yesterday I reported that Verizon Wireless and Skype are at the verge of changing the industry.

Today other news reached me, this time it’s Google, who’s new mantra “Mobile First” is being put as primary focus of the company. The latest acquisition in that space, AdMob, is a result of this new strategy.

Mr. Schmidt said that three areas are coming together on the mobile device, namely the Cloud, computing power and interconnectivity. All these three areas converge in the mobile device, making it a most powerful device where strategies need to be developed in order to thrive or at least, survive.

The signs are there, smartphone sales are growing at a 30% year-over-year rate, which will eventually surpass the personal computer sales.
Even more important, the adoption of the Mobile Web is growing annualy eight times faster than the Web adoption did a decade ago.
In countries like Indonesia and South Africa more searches are done via the mobile Web than via the desktop, it simply cannot be ignored.
For other key mobile trends, have a look at the 8 key Mobile Internet themes article.

These are all serious figures developments which cannot be ignored by companies if they want to keep up the high pace of emerging and converging opportunities.

What do you think of this ‘declaration’ by Google?