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Deloitte recently released their predictions for the media & entertainment industry. As you might imagine it is somewhat gloomy particularly for traditional media industries struggling to get to grips with digital distribution (e.g. print media and the music industry). However there are some silver linings in there:
Quick fix digital entertainment (not including music sales which are considered pretty much screwed):
the last two times the economy experienced a downturn, movie ticket and DVD sales went up. It is likely that people will continue to indulge themselves in the small pleasures of DVD consumption, interactive game-playing, online entertainment, books, social networking and television while eschewing big-ticket items such as cars, refrigerators and computers.
Advertising:
Advertising, which is a critical revenue source, is both under threat and faced with incredible opportunities. The traditional advertising segment has been struggling for some time and will continue to struggle into 2009 with the conclusion of the U.S. presidential election and the turmoil in the automotive and financial sectors, which are among the top advertising spenders. Online advertising is growing fast, as evidenced by 26 percent growth in 2007.3 Yet with some advertising budgets locked into longer term contracts, the ability to shift more advertising spend online could be limited. Mobile advertising, which to date has failed to gain traction, could offer the much-needed growth opportunity in 2009.
Advertising budgets will go down, but guerrilla marketing and other innovative platforms for reaching consumers may thrive.
I spotted this while checking out the Dame Edna for MAC story. One of the latest YouTube trends (mainly amongst teenage fashioneers) is to do a video review of the items they bought out shopping aka The Haul. Not a million miles away from unboxing videos done by tech geeks which just goes to show what the geeks are doing today the teenage girls will be doing tomorrow.
Check some out (if you have the stomach for it) here.
You’ve got to love brands that take risks. MAC has proved itself one of these by teaming up with Dame Edna of all people. Beauty marketing is usually so dreadfullly dull and a cycle of endlessly repeated cliches. By doing a campaign with Dame Edna (featuring “gladioli inspired” make up range) the brand has immediatly created a talking point that has extended the campaign through PR way past the reach of the paid for ads.
A classic example of a campaign designed to get blog/press coverage by being slightly outrageous. Previous ambassadors have included Dita Von Teese and Mary J Blige (also not immediately obvious choices but great when you think about it).
Via News.au
Queensland’s search for a caretaker for the islands of the great barrier reef has been doing the rounds in a huge way over the last two weeks. Genius idea really – this is like crack for wage slaves returning to their cublicles for another year of monotony. It’s scored spectacular PR globally (even in South Africa). It seems like the work involves writing a weekly blog and feeding some fish.
I’ve been following new South African website spitorswallow.co.za. The site reviews local wine farms and also encourages readers to rate farms to visit. Quite handy for picking out new farms to visit. Also interesting to see how they’re using Twitter and Facebook to support the blog.
Seems to me only a matter of time before we see the more forward thinking wine farms also on Twitter – much less hassle than a blog and a useful low maintenance way to stay in touch with fans.
(via Paper) Inven.tory is a New York fashion boutique that describes itself as a “curated outlet”. The concept is based around weekly changes in the stock available which is all sourced from up and coming designers. Because the stock is often samples or overspill it’s sold at discount.
The ad industry has been trying to figure out a way to exploit flash mobbing for years and may have finally figured it out in Saatchi and Saatchi’s new ad for T-Mobile. Liverpool Street in London has seen a fair few flash mobs in the past so this could have felt a bit done. However from the teaser it looks like this is a full on old school musical routine and actually pretty cool.
via Brand Republic
I’m not sure what is more of a headf*ck, Charlie Kaufman’s Synchedoche (which I just saw at the cinema) or the new Savanna D.I.Y online ads. The Savanna ads allow you to upload a photo of yourself or your buddies on top of the characters faces. The nice touch is that you can then share them, via YouTube or Facebook for example. I suspect we’ll see more of this type of thing in the future.
To be honest the results are a backwards speaking mystery dwarf away from being the new David Lynch movie. Spooky faces floating on monkeys and random words spoken by a disembodied voice. This is what happens when the kids that stayed up late to watch Twin Peaks grow up and get advertising jobs I suppose… now where did I put my happy pills.
*The pic is from Synecdoche as i’m still waiting for YouTube to send me a clip of the savanna ad
I mentioned Mario Garcia a few posts back. While browsing through his blog I came across one his more recent projects – the launch of Next in Lagos, Nigeria. The video (shot for its launch party) gives the behind the scenes view of the paper which goes from a daily tabloid during the week to a supplement crammed broadsheet at weekends.
Although the video doesn’t go into the digital side of Next this is also pretty progressive with plenty of multimedia content (example below).
If I was commissioning some photos for an ad campaign my brief would be to make it look like it was shot by a 15 year old and found on flickr. I came across Eleanor Hardwick while idly wandering through Dazed Digital. Love the photos which have this hip without being hipster magic to them.
Visit her on Flickr for more recent shots.
