Let's get together and do it again

JP Morgan's Imran Khan (different Imran Khan) is tipping online display advertising to grow this year by around 10.5%. Which is obviously massive. He also cites a few trends that seem to be moving the industry away from naff executions - aka the banners that neither you nor I ever click on. Which, let's be honest, is all of them. He is talking though of a trend more towards what Banner Blog exists to share with us, which is great.

That's not what I want to talk about though. In the same article Khan talks about mobile growing 45% (!!!) this year, winding up with $3.2 billion spent on SMS, $253 million in mobile display, and $321 million in mobile search.

A few things:

1. As the mobile platform improves, the notion of display as distinct on mobile from PC will disappear


2. It will however give way to services sensitive to your platform and do other interesting things around location, and device-specific functionality


3. I don't understand what constitutes "mobile search" - maybe someone can explain it to me?


4. Advertisers who invade the phone like they have every other medium are going to get smacked; it's still too personal

Aside from all of this, it's the same Mcluhan-esque mistake (slide 44) made in online advertising where we take what we did before and force it into this new shape because we don't know any better. If anyone truly believes the best way to use a mobile phone is to send people SMSs, they deserve the rapid demise their business will receive.

Frankly it speaks to the lack of vision and general laziness that pervades the entire ad industry. With the simple days of TVCs and print long behind it, rather than thinking about how it can reinvent itself to be relevant in a new era, it consistently mines tired ideas that speak to the silo-mentality of 20th century media.

People, look at foursquare, get in and use it for a few weeks. That, right there, is a perfect storm of local marketing, small business marketing, and mobile. If you do not see it, either try harder, or find a job where you do not need to.

Free business plan - SMS Coffee

The lines between marketing and business strategy are, in my mind at least, getting fuzzier and fuzzier. Note I am placing a premium on value over a better campaign to sell a lousy product, but that's just me. If businesses suddenly created nothing but products worth talking about, everyone in the ad industry would need to go and find new jobs (best of luck to them).

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Mmmmmm...coffee....*homer drool*"][/caption]

Friends who know me know I am passionate about coffee. I regularly go to tastings which are held a one of my favourite cafes here in Melbourne, and while I have hauled myself back to a respectable two cups a day, I savour every minute of it and look forward to the next.

So I was thinking about how people could enjoy more coffee, more conveniently. I'm a big believer that the future isn't online, it is mobile, a platform that encompasses everything the internet has brought to us without needing to be tied to a desk. I'm already starting to live that life, but we're only a short way through the wealth of possibilities.

With this in mind, I want it to be easier to buy coffee. Particularly if I'm on the move, I don't like the standing around waiting for it to be made. So here is something I think is a pretty good idea. If someone could go build it I'd really appreciate it.

1. A coffee house does a deal with a micro-billing provider to bill people via their mobile rather than having to fork over cash (further towards a paper-less society - this is a good thing)


2. Sarah, almost at the city train station where she will jump off, sends an SMS to the coffee house with just "1" in the message body


3. This is received by the coffee house. Sarah's number is in the database, 1 is her favourite, a long black.


4. They accept the order and this pushes a message back to Sarah saying her coffee is being made


5. Sarah's train pulls in to the station, she gets up to the coffee shop across the road from the station, finds her coffee waiting for her and off she goes. No lines, no waiting, no fumbling for change.

We have the technology to do this, and the know-how to apply it to hundreds of other industries. Why aren't we people? This doesn't need a 30-second spot; it creates value and is worth talking about. And that is enough.

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Image courtesy of Amit Gupta, with thanks to compfight.

Context of text in the next generation

I read two unrelated posts this morning which both said the same thing; the generation of children who aren't yet teenagers have an interesting relationship with and approach to communication.

The first was from Fred Wilson who was after a new phone for his daughter to replace a broken iPhone. Funnily enough, she didn't want it replaced with an iPhone, 2007's must have toy.

She wants the new crimson red Blackberry Curve.

Fortunately, it looks like I can get an unlocked one on eBay for between $100 and $200.

I wonder what this says? I realize it's a sample size of one, but I've heard that a bunch of her friends have also given up their iPhones in search of a better texting device which seems to be the one feature they value most.

The second was from Simon Chen who said exactly the same thing:

Ask a teenager to give up their mobile phone and see what happens. Actually, I bet if you told any kid today that the new rule of the house is their phones would be restricted to voice calls only (and that the text or SMS function would be disabled), there would be a global revolt. Parents would be locked in cars and basements and all manner of threats would be shouted from every rooftop.

Kids don’t talk on phones anymore. They grunt. But the little f@#ckers can text. Man, can they text.

I am loathe to carry out a conversation via text, I flat out refuse and don't respond, or else I call if it is really important*. But I've seen this behaviour in my younger cousins, and being somewhat pedantic about grammar and punctuation, have certainly seen it carried out in the way sentences are constructed - or rather abbreviated into forms that begin to border on unrecognisable.

With this in mind, I've begun thinking aloud (and with no real clarity yet) about what this means for the way the next generation will communicate, particularly how they will expected to be communicated to and how this will impact their interactions with the rest of the world.

For example, is it reasonable to expect "correct" grammar to be taught if it ceases to apply to their daily lives the way it does to mine? Will an essay in SMS or l33t speak be admissable in new communications courses once they at university? More applicable to me, how does that change the nature of text in ads? How do you affect the tone of a piece if not just punctuation but vowels themselves cease to play a part? Srlsy?

I'd dismiss the above as nonsense, except I already see my own generation with hard and fast mind sets on certain things nobody had to teach us, we just knew. The notion of respecting someone because of their title never even entered our minds; what do I take for granted that the next batch won't bat an eyelid at?

The changing nature of communication is something I find endlessly interesting, even if there are no easy answers.

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*Things that are important:

1. A guitar I simply must have


2. The girl I'm seeing accidentally meeting the girl I'm seeing


3. Confusion over which bar we will begin the evening's festivities in


4. A Springsteen tour being announced


5. More as I think of them...