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With the rise of location based mobile applications and Google map mash-ups, location-based content is becoming a major trend. Interesting also that this intersects with the shop local trend that has been growing over the last few years to save us from trailing dirty carbon footprints when we get groceries and hipster t-shirts.
The point to all this is that a location is more than just its physical space its also the psychic space of the experiences, thoughts and imaginings of the people in it.
Local artist (and discerning blog reader) Nicola Grobler was exploring this theme in a recent work that involved her stopping passers in set locations around Cape Town and asking them for examples of small victories achieved that day. The resulting collection of victories (which were then printed on mugs and re-distributed) paints a picture of a location that captures it in just a valid way as a photograph.
Another example (Via PSFK) is the the London Parks Board who are commissioning stories from famous writers set in their parks – that will be then sold at the actual location.
For a more techie version of the trend check out The Grid’s Mobikasi Location based documentary (mentioned before on this blog).
Reminds me of a suggestion I made to a senior Intel (ex-client) person when they were briefing us on Wi Fi (about eight years ago), which was the interesting thing about hot spots was maybe you could put unique content on them to be downloaded by visitors. For example a coffee shop with music tracks by a band; It would make a good incentive to visit a location. Of course he looked at me like I was an idiot instead of pointing out my obvious genius. Sigh.
See also William Gibson’s Spook Country all about augmented reality as far as I could gather (gave up half way through due to brain ache).
(Pic is from Nicola’s Small Victories project which will be returning to Cape Town later this year)
I have noticed phrases like “online is the way everything is going” a few times over the last week, both from advertising types and publishers. I had plenty of opportunity with the latter at the web 2.0 conference in Cape Town last week. Every time it’s said with a bit of gloom and wistfulness for the old days of television ads and/or the rustle of broadsheets on a Sunday Morning.
I feel sorry for these people because they obviously love the work they do and they feel the weight of doom and kids with iphones bearing down upon them. A good point in this weeks Digital Edge podcast was that media doesn’t work like that if you look at history. Cinema wasn’t killed by TV or internet piracy (in fact its pretty healthy), There is far more broadcast footage being shot these days than ever before (its just going online more). And radio (if you broaden it to include podcasts) is actually thriving.
Based on my demographic study of one, radio consumption has actually shot up dramatically over the last year. It could be the rapid approach of middle age youth of course but actually think not. Audio is relatively cheap to produce so its quite easy to build shows around specialist areas of content (that old Long Tail thing). So rather listen to crap on 5FM during the day in the car I listen to downloaded shows. And if I have stuff to do round the house I often plug my ipod into the stereo to accompany it. It’s a great medium for multi-taskers (which is the main occupation of the noughties it seems).
My regular weekly consumption is something like this now:
Sunday:
- Download the (excellent) new Monocle Weekly podcast and listen to it lazing on the stoep (with coffee)
- Also use the BBC iplayer to listen to Radio 4 or Radio 6 while I read the paper
Monday:
- Download the Digital Edge podcast (listen to it while making food some point during the week)
Tuesday/Wednesday:
- Get the latest two episodes of Beats In Space via itunes (Tim Sweeney’s excellent space disco show on a New York college radio) I listen to this mostly while driving around.
- Also get the Media Guardian’s (UK) Tech Weekly podcast which again listen to while making food or doing the chores required to keep my crumbling Victorian bungalow from returning to the dust.
Thursday/Friday/Saturday:
- As most of the podcasts I follow come out earlier in the week if i need new stuff by this point i’ll pay a visit to Myspace and let a page stream tracks (DFA for example), Download Digital Planet from the BBC, or listen to Tiga (if a new episode is available) or Modcast.
And just to show its not only me living in this brave new world i’ve checked with my mum and she downloads The Archers (long running radio soap opera) to listen to while she does the ironing regularly.
So my advice to those weeping into their pillows about dying media is cheer up and transfer your skills (the new world ain’t that different).
Wrote this for one of the marketing publications recently (no idea if they’ll end up using it):
Social Media – As PR is a dialogue based discipline it is naturally best placed to manage conversations and the flow of information between companies and their audiences via online social media such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs (amongst many others).
This is both a huge opportunity and major challenge for PR agencies to transfer their skills to the online environment and educate themselves on the etiquette required for these new platforms. I would also add that these skills should be mainstream PR skills not stuck in a specialist interactive division.
Blogger relations – Blogs are increasingly influential in South Africa. However the approach used with traditional media doesn’t work. Bloggers because they are usually writing out of passion and in-depth knowledge of specialist subjects are often more challenging to achieve positive results with than traditional media. The PR industry needs to understand their needs and work flows (for example they don’t typically work during office hours) and make an effort to build close relationships with the key bloggers.
Integration – The switched on clients are demanding real integration between disciplines. This means PRs need to involve themselves at every stage of communication planning from brief through to execution and evaluation. Communication agencies incapable of working in collaborative groups are going to lose clients to those that are building systems to work across marketing disciplines.
Blurring of marketing boundaries – related to the integration issue there is increasing overlap between the work of PRs and other marketers particularly in the online space but also in below-the-line activity. On the brand PR side of Atmosphere’s business we’re managing below-the-line marketing activity or specific projects for a number of our clients as we’ve proved that marketing activities with innate media appeal make budgets go much further (particularly in the current economic environment).
The media are bypassing PR people – as a journalist why bother to wait for the local launch when you can watch the first one in New York/London online and via the blogs (in particular new tech products such as phones). South African PRs working on global clients need to be prepared to act much quicker in the lifecycle of worldwide product launches to avoid losing control of the story. Also as more senior business people are on social networking sites such as Twitter or have their own blogs Journalists can also bypass the pr department and go straight to the source of information. PRs need to learn how to encourage this where it aids the brand and intervene where it doesn’t.
In this digital age you’d think all the hipsters would be rushing to get their hands on the latest techno-marvels to prove their oneness with the future. If you stop to think about it this was never going to happen, hipsters being the most contrary creatures on the planet: you say jump, they settle into the sofa (with an organic South American latte). If the corporate world is going digital they were bound to go analog. Two examples as proof:
The Moleskine book: this must be outselling all PDAs in total at the moment. You simply cannot be considered a creative (of any kind) unless you own one. Bonus points for turning it landscape and drawing elaborate diagrams mixed with sketched portraits of everyone else around the table looking at you attentively.
Lomography: the digital camera industry has built every possible feature into the latest generation of soul stealing photo devices. You barely have to press a button to shoot them. Imagine how annoyed they are that everyone wants to get an analog Lomo.
Maybe the newspaper industry doesn’t need to worry quite so much after all. Maybe it should take out lots of ads to tell everyone how really absolutely cool being online is.
I’ve heard/read a number of bloggers question the future of blogs recently – some of them writers of very well read international sites with tons of readers. While I don’t think blogging was a fad that’s going to vanish anytime soon, I do think there are a number of trends at play re-shaping the blogosphere as we know it:
Media blogs:
Traditional media owners took their time but have now caught up with the amateur bloggers and taken the best elements of the quick fix, personally written blog and combined it with some appealing new qualities (like the ability to write). Alot of the content now floating around the blogosphere is actually originally generated by journalists that are getting paid to do it. As a blog reader i’ve found myself increasingly cutting out the middleman blogs and going straight to a few insightful content producers writing on topics that I follow (most of them are written by journalists).
Progs:
At the same time many of the key non-journalist bloggers have been around for many years now and have grown from amateur commentators to what i’d call professional bloggers (proggers?): they have a business model based around blogging. Many of these now have the scale and feel of a media company (not necessarily a bad thing) psfk.com for example. Some have actually become media companies such as The Huffington Post. For new bloggers theses sites are pretty hard to compete with as they dominate Google search results on any topic they consider to write about. At best new blogs can hope to grow their audience by acting as a feeder blog (one referenced by these super blogs).
Microblogging:
Twitter is one of the key agents of change in the blogosphere. Many blogs were based around re-posting others content. Twitter does this faster and more efficiently and is much less hassle than typing into wordpress etc. I suspect many (lazy) bloggers that weren’t producing original content themselves are switching over to Twitter to share links.
The future:
Original content on a specialist area of interest for me is the future of blogs. Unless blogs have a unique perspective and a stream of content that isn’t simply regurgitated from The New York Times or engadget I think they’ll start to fade away as blog readers become more settled in their online reading habits and stick with a small number of trusted sources.
(as a non-journalist/progger I of course realise the irony of this post but at least i didn’t pinch it from Gaping Void etc etc)
Update: Bloggasm recently did a quick survey on leading blogs which points out how they are regurgitating content rather creating original stories.
An article in the UK’s Observer suggests the World Cup is just lining the pockets of the elite and brings no real benefits to the people of South Africa. I think this article is a shame really as I think most South African’s are proud of hosting next years event (certainly not suggesting everyone is universally happy with it though).
But as the country struggles with crippling levels of unemployment and crime, and the ruling ANC suffers allegations of sleaze and cronyism, the World Cup feelgood factor in South Africa is notable by its absence.
From a PR point of view this is exactly the kind of article that South Africa needs to worry about. It would be naive to think that when the massive media spotlight associated with the event shines on us its only going to show the good things. Of course its not all happiness and rainbows but there are some real benefits that the World Cup brings and it would be a shame if they get lost.
I’m just hoping the organisers have a plan for pre-empting the inevitable digging for negative stories that’s going to take place. The rather (completely) empty media section of the 2010 website is a bit of a worry in this regard. First rule of PR: nature hates a (news) vacuum: and is most likely to fill it with something rotten. Couple of ideas:
- Don’t try and stamp out any hint of negativity (that would be impossible) rather aim to make sure its at least balanced by running an open and honest press office;
- Get a proper easy to find online press office running;
- Encourage non-official/organisers to add their comment to stories (community/grass root groups for example). Sadly no one believes the official but getting local community groups to say what a positive thing the World Cup is communication gold dust;
- Create a concise one-stop place for journalists and bloggers to see what social development is taking place as a result of the World Cup across the country;
- Proactively pitch stories on the benefits of the World Cup to international media including a media trip to see the developments/grass root activity (and let the media have the freedom to gather their own information out on the street although there will be some negative reactions the openness should result in balanced articles);
- Try and ensure grassroots media (I mean bloggers and online commentators) support for the event by putting in place a regular flow of information formatted for their needs;
- Aim for transparency of the organisers (doesn’t someone on the team want to do a behind the scenes blog get on Twitter?);
- Run a bloggers tour devoted to the World Cup along the lines of Brand South Africa’s one at the end of last year maybe.
