With all of the recent news, an interesting idea came up at dinner a couple of nights ago in conversation with Gordon Young, the editor of The Drum. As Microsoft makes its moves into the world of devices and services, what other acquisitions might make sense? What, for example, if they bought Ford? The … Continue reading What if Microsoft bought Ford?
Category: Marketing
On Friday afternoon I'm going to be presenting at the 2013 Silicon Beach event. Unless I have a massive change of heart between now and then, the following is roughly what I'm going to be saying. If you're attending the event, really, really, this is what I'm going to be saying so don't read the … Continue reading seven stories – Silicon Beach 2013
A few weeks ago I was chatting with an acquaintance who works for a trade body in the marketing industry, organising events for them. These events take sponsors, and the sponsors they were working with were exclusively technology service providers. Marketers buy marketing agency services, advertising space, novelty pencils and the occasional cuddly toy, right? … Continue reading The “2017 Meme”
There was an article published on the Stratechery blog last week about the failings of BlackBerry (and Nokia) that put in mind a piece written a few years ago by The Partners' Jim Prior (and part of his book Preserved Thoughts). Ben Thompson's piece on the mobile industry noted that, in the relatively short history of personal computer … Continue reading The power of two
As the TV-licensing fee paying father of two toddlers, one of the most consumed parts of the wealth of the BBC's output in our household is CBeebies - the channel aimed at pre-schoolers. Although I use the term channel, content is probably a better description because having been born into the iPlayer age, our two … Continue reading The public service remit
About a year and a half ago I wrote about the competitive battleground that was the living room. Eighteen months later I feel I might have been missing the point; by the look of the numbers from Ofcom's Communications Market report this year, the battle for the living room has been won, by TV content. … Continue reading The living room battle is over
Every once in a while, an old colleague of mine Francis requests a theme for a blog article. A few days ago he asked me why, when we shared an office, I'd seem to pick up every sales telephone call I received. He wondered why... The mechanics of it are simple, I guess. I'm easily … Continue reading Answering the phone
There was a link to a concept for Twitter redesign posted on the Guardian Tech Blog this morning that made me ponder a broader subject - as established brands and media force deeper into their use of social media, have we seen the end of Web 2.0? The first iteration of the world wide web … Continue reading The end of 2.0?
A few evenings ago I was giving a friend of mine a bit of advice. She'd been asked to, as a "career development opportunity" (alongside her day job) to create a digital channel strategy for her organisation. One of the topics that came up was the subject of telephone helpdesks, and specifically whether helpdesk callers … Continue reading Hanging on the telephone
One of the many things that I learned when I spent a couple of years working for a small consulting firm in the mid-00s was the importance of the second person pronoun. To be honest, given the paucity of my education in grammar at school, I had to look that one up: basically "you" and … Continue reading It’s not me, it’s you
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