The wisdom of the collective mind... or not!

I was involved in the preparation & release of some market research data earlier this week and whilst the overall results were positive, I was a little surprised to read the backlash that it generated from some posters on social sites.

First of all some context - the report focused on how women use the internet on their mobile phone and what they want from it in the future. Sensing the potential risk for multiple faux pas, the language was checked beforehand by a (female) diversity expert to ensure that our Neanderthal writing skills had not inadvertently offended more than half the population. Despite this, once the info was published we still found quite a few comments appearing slating the report as being sexist because it (a) only considered women and (b) happened to mention their views on shopping.

So, help me out here. The research data was gathered from visitors to a shopping service whose content is targeted at women; this seemed sensible given that the end client was interested in women's views on mobile shopping. If we'd claimed that the results in any way reflected the opinions of men, or even of a balanced audience, then I would expect to be justifiably shot down by the first person to note that 92% of responses came from women! Did we say that men don't shop or that women shop too much? No, we just asked people about the activity that they had already chosen to engage in. Perhaps we should have diluted it down to a report that found that an unspecified percentage of indeterminate people have an opinion on something - is that better?

I'm sure there's a closer here about the challenges of pleasing all of the people, all of the time, but right now a more apt simile would be something that noted how the collective mind is as mad as a sackful of badgers that you poke at your peril!

Rant over.

Mobile marketing goes multi-channel?

It's grey, overcast & raining (which should come as no big surprise given it is a bank holiday) but the smiley lady on the telly box assures me that summer is on the way so my thoughts can't help but drift hopefully in the direction of barbecues & cold beers at the riverside. This got me wondering whether with the advent of a World Cup summer (where every brand and his dog will be promoting something), we'll start to see more joined-up thinking from our favourite brands when it comes to bringing mobile into the marketing mix.

Too many brands still seem to view the world as black & white, where:

• we're either web-surfing or watching TV or using a mobile, but never two things at the same time;
• we're "mobile" so our info needs are streamlined and we'll accept shoddy content so long as its fast, or we're at home and will invest more time and expect a richer experience;
• we're out-and-about so all we could possibly be interested in is our nearest x or the supplier of the cheapest y, whereas when we're at home we suddenly become willing to use the web to transact.

In reality the latest research shows that more & more of us are surfing the web on our phones at home, often whilst watching TV - throw an ad break at us and we'll tune out whilst we check the latest sports news on our iPhone. Its time to put some effort into getting the small screen and the big screen working together if you want to keep us engaged.

I remember working on a project about 15 years ago for a forward-thinking (at least back then) broadcaster who was looking at ways to capture interest in ads through a set-top box. Imagine it if you will: you see an ad on TV, you press a button and lo & behold you get a personalised call or mailshot from the supplier; it's like something out of Tomorrow's World!

Sadly the logistics involved meant that it never got off the ground, but today these logistical challenges are solved by the kind of comms technology that's jucommonplace in every mobile phone. See an ad; press a button; get a mobile coupon to buy that 24 pack of Carlsberg half price! Throw in an "internet of things" and before you know it my TV will know when I'm surfing for the footie results instead of watching that chick flick and will text my wife to land me right in it. Perhaps the future's not so bright after all...

I've been spending lots of time lately researching ARG's which has been great fun, but has also led to far too many sleepless nights as I wake up with weird ideas & scenarios flying around my mind - how can you fail to get excited at the prospect of a game that merges with the real world?! I'm curious to see how far some of the developments in mobile technology such as smart phones with GPS and augmented reality can be used to enhance the experience so we've started dabbling in some basic mobile "treasure trails" here. Next step is to try to add in more funky layers without limiting the potential audience too much (iPhone/Android only anyone?)...

Still not sure how this stuff can be commercialised outside of product/brand-specific viral marketing campaigns but it's going to be fun learning.

Time flies...

I'm obviously getting old because I find myself increasingly asking those around me "where does the time go?" in the way that old people used to when I was a fresh-faced revolutionary, fuelled by ideals, cheap beer and the vigour of youth. Why do I say this? Well, despite the best of intentions I've just realised that it's over a year since I wrote anything here and I'm wondering where the time went.

Actually I'm pretty sure I know where it went - some fool keeps filling the internet with stuff that appeals to my interest in useless information and its almost impossible to resist one more click... Added to that I now have to wade through a mire of status updates & Twitter posts that introduce me to all-new purveyors of random but intriguing content so its hardly surprising that I never actually find the time to do anything worthwhile! Nevertheless I've made a promise to myself that I'm going to air my thoughts aloud (in a digital sense) more often rather than scribbling this crap onto post-it notes which inevitably get lost.

So... I'll see you all in another year then.

What happened to Dell?

For longer than I can remember I've been a big fan of Dell; I've bought plenty of their products, I've persuaded friends, family and businesses to do the same and I've told anyone that would listen about how good they serve their customers. With that in mind they were my first port of call when my current notebook started to fade. A few minutes work sorted me out with a fantastic new machine and the follow-up email assured me that I'd be playing with this baby in just 7-10 days time.

So the big day was fast approaching (just as well as the old steam-powered kit is really starting to struggle!) but then out of the blue, I get an email on the day it's due to despatch telling me that the delivery date has been pushed back by four weeks! Needless to say this was damned annoying, especially when they leave it so late to tell me so I figured I'd get in touch to check what the hell was going on. After a couple of frustrating hours trying to get answers by phone/email the best I could get was:

1. I can't cancel the order,
2. they're “really sorry about <insert nature of customer complaint>”, and
3. they hope that I'll be happy with everything.

Oh and although they can't deliver my notebook for a total of six weeks from order, they absolutely, positively can deliver an identical system in 7-10 days if I place the order right here, right now!

Seems like the super-slick Dell of the past is losing its way; all they can offer now is crappy service, long lead times and industry-standard pricing. A real shame as their kit still looks decent but I just can't deal with randomness like this so I'm finally going to have to bid Dell adieu and see what someone else can do...

Postscript: I finally decided to migrate my work stuff onto by beefy desktop-replacement notebook and go with a Samsung NC10 netbook for when I'm on the move (more on this later). Delivered less than 24 hours after ordering it and whilst I'm unpacking it I get another email from Dell to let me know that my old order is delayed further! Bad decision? I think not!