The paid content debate: Freemium Contiues

Guardian iPhone App

This morning sees the launch of the new iPhone version of a national newspaper, in the form of The Guardian iPhone App. This like many others on the market (New York Times for e.g.) offers readers the opportunity to browse, swipe, tap and toggle their way through the papers content in a finger friendly iPhone version. However this is one fundamental difference here, the price tag. £2.39 to be precise. As Tech Editor @charlesarthur mentioned this morning, about the same price as a Tall Starbucks Latte, but representing a very clear stance on behalf of The Guardian in their approach to online content.

The Guardian famously was one of the first nationals to attempt a paid content model back in the early part of the decade for their web portal, which was later abandoned after little take up of the service, so it will be interesting to see how readers react to the penny-gap challenge now placed before them.

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Stream or Download Guardian Podcasts

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The app in itself, built by Salford based mobile marketing agency 2ergo (Client), takes the platform a few steps further than previous apps of this kind, particularly in the form of downloadable content, podcast streaming and tag browsing, through a very neat hover window style, much akin to the quickly spreading raft of Adobe Air applications such as TweetDeck or Spotify.

The ability to favorite both sections, as well as individual pieces of content also adds a nice touch to the browsing experience, and instant access to Galleries, making full use of the Photo Browser iPhone API, makes scrolling through pictures a very pleasurable experience.

All in all a well thought out and executed app, with content from a reputable source, who seem to have spent the proper amount of time that is needed to create the user experience that readers have come to expect of big budget applications, however it remains to be seen whether the price tag will be a stumbling block.

For those users who do not wish to part with the modest sum of a couple of quid, the mobile web portal of the paper continues to provide adequate access to content, but for the superior experience, the app seems the way to go, further solidifying the viability of the “freemium” model that seems to be sweeping the online content world. (More on Freemium here: http://wp.me/pl46h-31)

Personally,  in favour of being able to finish reading Charlie Brooker before being plunged into the dark-3G-deadzone of South Clapham, I’ll skip the extra latte.

2ergo PLC are a Client of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, London, for whom I work, however all opinions of this or any other 2ergo App are my own and do not represent the opinions or views of  2ergo PLC, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide or The Ogilvy Group.

Twitter & Brands Panel @ #140conf

A big thank you to DElyMyth for capturing this at the #140conf – This is the twitter and brand panel feautring me (@jamespoulter) @kodakCB, @msamayoa, @mikemath and @KelloggsUKThanks again to all the panelists. You were legends. I’ll be writing up my thoughts in due course – still digesting!

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#140Conf Photos from my new Kodak Zi8 PVC

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Countdown to 140Conf London

So just under a week away from 140 Character Conference London. Which I am thoroughly looking forward to.

Joining me on the brand panel at around 12PMish will be Rachel Fellows, Corp. Comms director at Kelloggs – you can find her on twitter @KelloggsUK. I also have the privaledge of welcoming Mike Matherson (@mikemath), CEO of Cake Group to the stage and Mauricio Samayoa from wearesocial to join the panel aswell.

For those of you who haven’t yet signed up to come along you can get a 50% discount with my “friend of speaker” code, click here to use it.

Thank you to all of you who contributed your suggestions, in particular @jangles and @brynmorgan.

As a result check out:

@nectar

@jamesoncultfilm

@magnersuk

@innocentdrinks

@britishairways

@virgintrains

@guitarherouk

@doritosuk

and

@waterstones – all as a good starting point!

If you have any questions for the panel don’t forget to DM me or submit a comment here!

And finally for those who missed it check out http://london.140conf.com/schedule for the full line up!

 

Google’s Social Circle & The Trust Network

Social search… interesting development. Or is it.  Google have been including social web results in search results for a number of months now. Google’s next development seems (as explained in the above slightly creepy and uber conservative video – count the amount of mentions of security related words) is to use the content from the social sites that you have added to your Google profile into your main web search results.

This creates some level of helpfulness in cross referencing friends, comments and answers to questions across social platforms.  Meaning that if I look up details about where to go on honeymoon I will get trip advisor, expedia and the gang, but also results from my friend Tim’s blog about where he went on holiday last week – a result that would never usually hit page 1 of a search result list. All of this is nice enough and interesting in a slightly geeky, if you’re into that stuff, kind of way.

However what is interesting is the greater trend that has prompted this technology from Google – personal networks of trust. We have known for a long time now that word-of-mouth from friends and contacts is the most trusted source of information to us. The entire public relations industry thrives on this single fact, we trust those who we know more than those who we don’t. Therefore it is logical that when I want honeymoon ideas, or where to rent a Tux for my wedding (which is in June by the way – presents welcome, gift list link to come!) I can use Social Search to check what my contacts and friends across my social circles (the Google terminology for our networks of trust) think about the topics I am searching for.

Of course this has significant ramifications for brands who interact in the social web. The default of most web users when looking for information is to jump into the lap of Google, whether looking for a good deal on a TV or life insurance, and according to HitWise “The proportion of traffic that online retailers receive from social networking websites – such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube – increased from 5.2% in March 2008 to 7.1% in March 2009.”

Brands who don’t currently interact in the social web, or have poor SEO of the content that they currently produce are going to come a-cropper if Social Search moves towards a default. Clearly, if we begin to see the opinions of our contacts displayed right alongside carefully SEO’d content and Paid Search, competition for our attention heightens, and our default will be to go with what we trust – our contacts.

Bloggers, BNP and the BBC

Frankly it was hardly suprising that most of last nights Question Time became a bit of slangging match. From the panel, to the audience to the twitterati. Nick Griffin still shocking as ever but not surprising in any way. It meandered its way in and out of homophobia (Stephen Gately), immigration (Winston Churchill) and racism (the KKK) – (all of whom will be starring in my script for a new west end musical – so watch this space!) – but what was most interesting, that of course wasn’t mentioned in the show as it was recorded a couple of hours previously – was the reaction on twitter.

As I mentioned during the show last night watching TV has changed dramatically when you add twitter into the mix. Some of the biggest televised events in recent months have taken on a whole new dimension when you add the live commentary of the twitterati to the mix, and the result is very interesting. From Jackson’s funeral, Obama’s inauguration to last nights BNP debacle (who co-incidental feature in part two of my musical), these events have been amplified dramatically through the help of real-time media – of which twitter has been central.

This is interesting from a number of points, firstly that of people using multiple media sources simultaneously is slowly moving into the mainstream as Alan from Broadsight’s Broadstuff blog pointed out today:

The dream of people interacting around TV programming via social networks, a key plank of Joost’s original pitch, has been shown to be valid – its just that people are using a microblogging service on standard terrestrial TV rather than herding sheeplike into the Web TV players’ own social networks

The way in which these media are now complimenting each other and providing additional functionality, as opposed to driving one or the other to the brink of extinction goes one step further to prove that we really are becoming a convergent culture, and are able to cope and adopt many different types of media, without sacrificing our time to another.

Uses of the #bbcqt tag on twitter in the run up to last night's Question Time on BBC where Nick Griffin head of the BNP was a panelist

What is truly interesting however was the way in which twitter influenced the viewing of the programme in the first place. Last night’s programme received over 8 million viewers, more than doubling the last highest audience of 3.7 million. According to my research using Radian6 (our social media monitoring partner which we use here at Ogilvy) – the hashtag for question time – #bbcqt was used over 5000 times in the past 3 days (although the BBC reportedly say it was used 75,000 times), over half of which took place before the programme had started. The reach of these 2000+ tweets is phenomenal.

The Top 10 Tweeters who used the #bbcqt tag

Looking at just the top 10 most followed twitter users who used the #tag in the past 3 days (even if they only used it once) would amount to a potential reach of nearly 250,000 followers – if you start adding up Mr Anderson’s “long tail” you begin to see the bigger picture, and how this could have some clear influence on reaching new audiences that would never usually watch the show.

The question is now, how will the BBC capitalise this in other areas? Tweeting Songs of Praise? Guess the price on Antique’s Roadshow? GPS tagged tweets during Location Location Location?

The possibilities are endless…

Hunting for Twitter brands for #140conf London!

I will be hosting the brand sessions at London's 140 Conf

I’ve been very kindly asked by good friend of the Ogilvy clan Jeff Pulver to come and host two sessions with brands at the London lef of Jeff’s fantastically popular 140 Character Conference.

Therefore I am on the hunt for some ingenious UK brands using twitter for the betterment of themselves, their customers or just mankind in general!

If you are, or know such a brand please send their @name plus a brief explanation to me via twitter or here as a comment so we can start sorting the wheat from the chaff – and try and be original!

The conference itself looks to be fantastic with Chris Brogan joining us live via Skype from NYC and the legend that is Stephen Fry in the room with us on the day! We will also be joined by the likes of Jeff Hayzlett from Kodak and the wonderful Josie Fraser aswell! So we are all in for a treat!

So keep the suggestions coming, and don’t forget to head over the conference site to register.

Smarter Work: Why Social Networks Matter

View more documents from Sacha Chua.

Getting stuck into Glue

The good people at Glue have given me a BETA account to test out, and i’ll be sharing my interview with Peter – their CEO on the blog in the next week.

For now i’m writing this post to you in the nice simple, orange glue interface and giving it a whirl.

Full review to come!

J

via Glue

Wembley Skies

As today is National Poetry Day, here is a little one of my own from the Sunday Latte Lamentations Archive, which I am hoping to include in a published volume someday *sigh*…

Thoughts welcome!

Wembley skies
Arch raised
Ablaze with roars
Of soul’s unfazed
Empty poster boards
Remind to mind the gap
And stay on track
Tell me to keep it down
Not for country or crown
But for peace.
Not much found here
Except the dripping drops
Of inspiration as the
Teams scores for the nation

Another stop passes
One more unmasked station
It’s not my stop
But hearing my destination
A promise of home
Turns into expectation.
So I mind the closing doors
And release the emergency handle.
Focusing on my candle
Stick maker, I forget,
The butcher and head on into
Baker Street, to take my pick
A fleet of franchise
Each providing a new need.

Grabbing my companion in a cup
The beer ad’s ‘wassup?’
Leaves no sting,
A warm sofa seat,
Whose heat I don’t feel.
Just His warmth as the layers
He peels back, reveals
That little bit of His,
That is already mine.
Beyond this congestion zone
Is something more glorious
Not just ‘fine’.
Beyond this groan
Is a place called home.
Not just where the heart is
But where I know and am known..