Nice, Mobiles and TeleMedia

The session I was speaking at, ‘The New Monetisation Paradigm: Content, Advertising, and Markets of One’, was surprisingly well attended given the 4pm start time: conferences can be long hard days and 4 o’clock is certainly more ‘retire to the bar’ time than ‘explore new business model opportunities that can generate revenue through advertising’ time.

Last week I was in Nice, which is nice, especially in the sunshine. Truthfully, temperatures were hotter than I feel comfortable in and I had to be really careful as I’d failed miserably to plan for such heat and forgot hats and suncream. Luckily, the bars on the beach all have umbrellas for shade. And beer used for cooling purposes.

I don’t recall ever having been to Nice before, so I was unprepared for the rich and the beautiful people wandering around. Bernie Eccelstone’s doppelganger, in the nicest sense of that word, was drinking beers at a beach-front bar on Thursday afternoon which was unsurprising as the Formula One circus was in town, or rather, in the next town; the Monaco Grand Prix revving its engines in preparation for Sunday’s race. Sitting here a few days later I can tell you that Lewis Hamilton won which means the bruises are worse as I have been kicking myself for not extending my visit and catching, at the very least, some practice circuits. Possibly a golden opportunity missed.

Fortunately, I was prepared for the TM Forum Management World 2008 conference which I was speaking at. I don’t usually speak at this kind of event (large conference) but was looking forward to it, especially as I was in one of the break-out rooms speaking to audiences with an interest in ‘Advertising & Monetizing TeleMedia Services’. The conference is aimed at the telecoms business in general with sessions ranging from ‘End-User Device Management’ to ‘Using SDF/SDP for Rapid Service Deployment’ and not an advertising-specific event. In fact, Microsoft was speaking on a whole range of topics unrelated to the ad technology world I’m used to working in (See also MSFT Press Pass). The session I was speaking at, ‘The New Monetisation Paradigm: Content, Advertising, and Markets of One‘, was surprisingly well attended given the 4pm start time: conferences can be long hard days and 4 o’clock is certainly more ‘retire to the bar’ time than ‘explore new business model opportunities that can generate revenue through advertising’ time.

Given it’s not an advertising-driven conference I wasn’t sure exactly how to pitch the presentation of Microsoft Advertising’s view of monetisation opportunities so I opted for a general view of display-based advertising markets, value & opportunities in a multi-screen environment that a Telco could easily provide. My co-presenters, Grant Lenahan from Telcordia Technologies and Gary Galinsky from Call Genie had taken slightly different views of advertising options on mobile, incorporating non-display opportunities (which include SMS messaging and ad-funded calling). All together, I think the three stories gelled into a very intriguing story for the operators’ representatives in the audience.

Thankfully, all three if us had taken these different approaches to the idea of monetising services which meant that, while we were in overall agreement, our presentations were sufficiently different for the audience. I’ve found one of the downsides of some speaking engagements that are put together by third parties is a lack of, if you’ll pardon me, engagement with your fellow speakers. Last week, I don’t believe it really mattered as there were good stories to tell.

I focused on the Microsoft Advertising suite of tools to tell my story of ‘connected advertising’ which, in a nutshell, suggests that advertising should no longer be considered separate by medium. Advertising is a conversation, a long-term engagement or a multi-layered pitch to a consumer. It’s not a 30 second radio spot, a 728 banner or mobile coupon. It’s all those plus relationships from other communication tools or social sites and a compelling future, at least for me, is one where advertising messages know this and ensure you’re not burned by messages nor are you swamped by irrelevant promotions. Advertising becomes both connected and smart.

So, where does mobile fit in? Well, my co-presenters were able to give compelling success stories for monetisation today: and some things are a long way from traditional thoughts of advertising. My pitch, if you like, was more of a future think-piece. The dots are not connected yet but they could be. I wanted to ask the audience to forget traditional notions of advertising and think how advertising to customers may become part of a larger communication through connected technology. I believe that’s better for everybody and I wanted to hear what they had to say about it.

The discussion that followed the presentations was fascinating for me. I come from a background of working with content owners who need to generate revenue via advertising to provide the services they’re offering. Much of the audience didn’t come from that perspective; many were – understandably – unfamiliar with advertising processes and the roles each player in the ecosystem fulfils. Many represented the service provider in the mix who may, for example, be providing a gateway for others to advertise rather than sell media space themselves. It’s a very different viewpoint and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of adapting my experiences to a different environment. Only the future will show which way it will play out and, unlike the Monaco Grand Prix, I can’t sit here and tell you who the winner will be.

Disclaimer: the views here are my own and are not necessarily the opinions of my employer nor of the conference management. You have read the full disclosure, haven’t you?

Anything You Can Do

The latest advertisement from Mercedes is one best-timed and well-pitched pieces of advertising I have seen for a long time.

I haven’t written much here for a while. I don’t really know why but I haven’t gone away – perhaps I am just spending all my time moving my Windows Media library across to iTunes. Yes, I gave up and switched to an iPod Nano. And, after all those trials and tribulations with other music players, I am very happy. I even bought the Nike+ kit so that I can track how far I have run at the gym. Seriously, I’ve tried many of the music players and they just don’t have the ease of use and integration that the iTunes has. It’s the seamless interaction that makes it all work so well.

Still, that’s not why I picked up the keyboard today. Earlier I watched the European Formula One Grand Prix; and boy what a race that was. But I don’t really want to talk about the race itself (I am sure you can read all about it here) but I did want to talk about one of the best pieces of advertising that I have seen a long while.

Even if you are not a petrolhead follower of Formula One – and especially if you are British – you can’t have failed to have read some piece about the Championship scrap between Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The latest advertisement from Mercedes (which is of course the team they both drive for) plays on this rivalry beautifully. Anything you can do, I can do better:

I just think the whole thing is really well pitched and they seem to have had some fun making it.

A New Champion

With limited time to write anything longer, a couple of quick things to note about yesterday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

Fernando is F1 World Champion 2005Ah, Monday morning and so little time to say anything. Nevertheless, Fernando Alonso’s Formula One Championship title (he’s the youngest ever Formula One champion) can’t go without note [Alonso clinches Formula One title] nor can Christian Klien’s superb qualifying performance [itv.com/f1 – Klien goes from zero to hero]. I preferred the later UK start time for the Grand Prix. 6pm seems like a much more sensible hour.

A New Beginning

In news … Minardi sold to Red Bull Racing.

On Friday, I mentioned that The Guardian was getting its new look tomorrow. You can follow the paper’s editors as they plan prepare tomorrow’s paper at The Editors’ Weblog that has launched on the site.

In tomorrow’s sport section I hope they cover Formula One in some detail. It’s been announced that Red Bull Racing will take over the Minardi team from November. Minardi’s boss, Paul Stoddart, told BBC News “Small privateer teams are probably phasing themselves out … it’s hard to imagine a truly privateer team can break into F1 again”. I think that’s sad for the sport really but the who really has got that much money?

Button On The Podium

At the front, Jenson began to close on Michael Schumacher during the second stint of the race and by lap 30 he was on the FerrariĀ’’s gearbox.

jenson button bar honda2005 German Grand Prix: Ah what a great day: At the front, Jenson began to close on Michael Schumacher during the second stint of the race and by lap 30 he was on the Ferrari’s gearbox. Over the next 15 laps he tried to force the seven-time world champion into a mistake and on lap 45 it happened: Jenson pulled a masterful overtaking manoeuvre into the hairpin [source]

UPDATE 27 July: I wish I had time to write but for now I will just quote, ‘The Lucky Strike B.A.R Honda team heads east to Budapest for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix hoping to repeat the podium finish achieved in Germany’ [source]

Silverstone, Here I Come

The tent is packed for Silverstone.

My Silverstone Countdown: I’ll be leaving in a couple of hours – tent packed with a car load of food – and I’m getting pretty excited by the prospect of the whole event. Silverstone is so much fun and now David Coulthard is defending it. He ‘has hit out at Silverstone’s critics ahead of his bid to secure Red Bull’s first-ever podium finish in Sunday’s British Grand Prix’ [Source] Who knows if I’ll get a chance to post but keep an eye on the Flickr feed to see any pictures I’ll be sending.

Silverstone Circuit Weather

It’s getting close to the moment I have to pitch a tent near Silverstone.

Silverstone countdown: get familiar with the tracks so you can work out where you would like to be on certain days. I think the people I am going with will know better than me but it’s still fun to watch the speeds. In the meantime, keep an eye on the weather at the Silverstone circuit although I have seen varying reports in different places. Sun? Showers? A year ago tomorrow we were watching them race around the streets of London. Somehow, that would have been much more convenient, don’t you think?

Countdown is Progressing

Counting down to the British Grand Prix.

It’s only three days until I arrive at the British Grand Prix site and so I’m having a fantastic build up. Firstly, I can report that the tent has been purchased and I can – just about – get it up. This is, of course, a great start. Secondly – and don’t tell the bookmakers – but I can tell you Jensen Button isn’t going to win on Sunday. How do I know? He said so. “I have no chance of winning. It won’t happen, we are not capable of doing that”. [Source] The excitement builds …

The Day F1 Came To London

More pictures from the Formula One event in Regent Street, London

and the crowds arrived at piccadilly cicrusthe big screen on piccadilly

One thing is certain: the crowds arrived. There were thousands of people lining Lower Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street. People were on the roof, balcony or hanging our of a window. People were climbing lamp posts and traffic lights. People perched on almost any structure that didn’t move and on top of many that were plainly unsafe. We waited until almost seven o’clock until the great roar of the F1 race cars was to be heard. Mansell, Button, Montoya, Coulthard and Brundle – to name but a few. The noise, the smell: it was fantastic F1. To be honest I eventually moved to the big screen on Piccadilly as they passed so quickly that you missed a great deal and I wasn’t at the front of a crowd. The atmosphere was pretty good humoured – apart from some lunatics climbing on top of a newspaper sellers wagon – and everybody seemed to enjoy it. After an hour it was, more-or-less, finished but the crowds seemed to hang around central London for a good while. Perhaps, one day, a race really will take place in London.

See also: Formula One Comes To Regent Street
BBC Sport: What price a London GP?
This is London:Eddie supports London Grand Prix

Formula One Comes To Regent Street

London-based fans of Formula 1 racing are in for a treat today as the Regent Street F1 parade takes to the streets at 6pm.

regent street prepares for the f1 paradehsbc as an f1 sponsor gets in on the regent street f1 eventmore preparations for f1 on regent street london

eddie jordan being interview on regent street
eddie jordan being interview on regent street

There is a real sense of excitement in the air around central London today. My office is at Piccadilly Circus and today is the day that Formula 1 comes to town! F1 cars will be parading (as there really is no racing) around the area (basically Regent Street and Lower Regent Street) from 6pm tonight. As I went to buy my lunch there were already people taking up their positions. The roads are being closed, the barriers put in place and the inevitable advertising signs going up. Jensen Button and David Coulthard are among the current F1 drivers taking part. Nigel Mansell is driving for Jordan and I saw team boss, Eddie Jordan, being interviewed (left) on Lower Regent Street while out walking. I just need to decide what time I am leaving to get a view.