Content vs. Platform

Today platform is more important than content.

Tomorrow content will be more important than platform.

Take heart.

Nokia to Pre-Load SKYPE

 

Source: www.symbianv3.com

 

Internet telephony company Skype has secured a landmark deal with mobile handset maker Nokia to preload Skype software onto some of its new smartphones, beginning in the third quarter of this year. Skype’s technology allows consumers to make cheap long-distance calls over the Web to land lines or cell phones; calls to other Skype users are completely free. The eBay company has been slowly moving into the mobile phone arena with deals with operators like Hutchison Whampoa’s 3. (Source: Reuters)

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I wonder what this will do to the Nokia/Operator relationships which were so carefully nutured over the years.

Brilliant Campaign – “I’m a PC”

Brilliant in it’s simplicity and it’s uncharacteristic audacity. Shows stature.

Kudos!

Google Chrome – One Box for Everything

 

Their simple claim is “One box for everything”.

What I write here is really my first impression. I’ve been on Google Chrome for a sum total of 10 minutes. What I wanted to record here is my very, very first impressions and how intuitive I thought it was. I’m a fan of knowing what to do immediately and can’t be bothered clicking help or referring to manuals. I’m sure most of us are the same.

The first thing that impressed me about the Google Chrome browser which I am beta testing is that it actually gives you, upfront, a choice of which search engine to be used as default.  One would have imagined that they would automatically “force” Google and then the user has an option to change it later.

Not so. They ask you up front. Now, that is confident branding. Just how branding should be done in the era of Web 2.0. 

The major change is that the address bar doubles up as a search box. So while you are typing a search, a list of website suggestions appears in the window. If you choose not to take their suggestion, hit “enter” and the regular search results come up. At first, it’s a bit confusing but I’m guessing over a (short) time, you’ll get used to it.

As usual Google has maintained their clean UI, which is great.

Another new feature is the “tab” feature which stores a thumbnail of your most visited sites so you can go there in a jiffy. I’m not sure about this as it seems to work pretty much like the toolbar favourites. But then again, ask me in a week. I’ve been on this for a few minutes and these are really my initial, very raw and very first impressions. By the way, I couldn’t intuitively figure out how to delete a tabbed thumbnail which I don’t want.

There’s this new application tab which I haven’t figured out yet. So, low marks here for intuitiveness (or my intelligence).

The new “dynamic tabs” are pretty much like the old tabs where you click the plus sign to open a new tab, and like usual browers you can move the tab about. You can also move the tab into its own window (though I don’t know why you’d want to do that) and they claim it’s easy to move it back. I couldn’t work it out.

Crash control seems like a good one. Apparently, each tab is considered as a single browser. This means that if one application crashes, it doesn’t close all the other windows. Haven’t seen this at work but if it works, that’s a great feature.

Incognito mode is cool. This allows you to open windows when you don’t want it to appear in your web history. For example, you can use incognito mode if you’re sending flowers to your wife and you don’t want her to know from the history (although you can clear history quite easily). But nonetheless, I thought this was a cool feature.

Anyway, there are other features but try it out yourself.

You can download Google Chrome beta here (for Windows Vista/XP).

Let me know what you think.

 

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My First Interview with Sydney Radio FM 99.3

This is the first of my regular appearances on the Breakfast Show on Sydney Radio 99.3FM which is a short, light-hearted segment about trends around Asia Pacific.

 

Danesh Daryanani Interview on Sydney FM99.3

ROI – Standard Chartered Bank Singapore

I read this in Marketing-interactive.com today.

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Singapore – Standard Chartered (SC) has embarked on a new OOH ad campaign using a new Electroluminescent Light (EL) technology on the bodies of 200 Taxis – making it the pioneer in Singapore and Asia for this initiative.

SC has exclusive rights to use EL for outdoor advertising in Singapore until the end of June. The ‘vehicular billboards’ will ply the streets of Singapore from mid-May onwards, have been branded with luminescent SC trust marks.

Other recent marketing and branding initiatives by the bank include collaborating with SMRT and Moove Media to advertise on their Tunnel ad media as well as campaigns with EyeCorp at Changi International Airport Terminal 3 since January.

SC says its efforts have paid off. According to Millward Brown’s annual global brand ranking, compared to 2006, SC is ranked among the top 10 British brands as well as one of the fastest growing brands, it has increased its brand value by 73% to US$6,855 million (S$9,236 million) in 2007.

You can read the article here.

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I’ve bolded the bits I thought was a bit of an over claim to put it very mildly.

So this is what happened. Standard Chartered Bank Singapore implemented three campaigns. One is the recent OOH ad campaign using a new Electroluminescent Light (EL) technology on some 200 taxis in Singapore and the other were some tunnel advertising and some advertising in our Changi International Airport.

The claim is that the campaigns were successful as Standard Chartered is now one of the top 10 British brands accordingly Millward Brown and one of the fastest growing brands in the world.

But perhaps I should give them the benefit of the doubt. It is possible that without these Singapore based campaigns, they would not have done so well globally.

OK, I concede. I stand corrected.

Well done, Standard Chartered Singapore for lifting the global brand standing of Standard Chartered through these fantastic initiatives!

Technology and Joy

After my last phone call tonight, I put my Nokia down on the table and looked at it for the first time. Now, mind you, I’ve had a mobile phone since 1993 when I joined Nokia so it’s not like I’ve never seen a phone.

But this time, I placed it on my work desk in front of my laptop and I saw and contemplated it.

I could be a Friday night sort of feeling where I’m home alone because I’m sick. I just looked at the phone, history came forward, and I initially marveled but that did not last long.

This tiny device in front of me connects me to the world. I have no clue how to construct one of these despite having worked in companies manufacturing mobile phones for 10 years.

Then I thought of my early career.

I started work in 1988. It was an international company and a leader in its industry. Yet, when I started work, I had no mobile phone, no laptop, no blackberry, and no email. What that meant practically is that when I left work for the day, I really left work.

What did that mean to me? Well, I enjoyed me job. So, as a result, I actually looked forward to going to work each morning. I enjoyed my 8 hours there. And yes, I did leave at 6pm every day. And, I enjoyed leaving work each day. I looked forward to Fridays because I had the weekend to enjoy but I equally enjoyed my Sunday as it meant I could go back to doing something I really enjoyed (for 8 hours).

After 20 years of working, I moved up the ranks and held very senior positions in jobs that I technically should have enjoyed. I know I should have enjoyed those jobs because after I left all those companies, I still think about them, read about them and hold a dear interest in the companies and industries that I left.

But then, why didn’t I stay? Why did I burn out?

Mobile phones came into the picture, laptops and emails visited and finally Blackberries invaded. I didn’t have air tight containers of different things I enjoy. My different enjoyments crashed and clashed.

I love cooking and I love tennis. Can you imagine cooking and playing tennis at the same time? It just doesn’t work!

If technology allowed me to do two or more things that I love at the same time, the result will be rejection of both.

Arguably Racist 1960′s Jell-O Ad

Oh dear… don’t know what to make of it. The brief was probably twofold. To talk about the great taste but also to highlight the variety of flavours.

From a creative point of view, if this was truly from the 60s, the juxtaposition of a Chinese baby with jello is very clever methinks. Surely would have made people sit up and look.

Bills and Noise

This evening, I decided to go through accumulated bills from the last two weeks. Each envelope I open is filled with other “stuff”. While some were interesting, I just did not have the bandwidth to go through all of them. Actually, some of them, I really was keen to find out.

Observations:

1. Keep language brutally simple. We don’t believe marketing blah blah. Give us the facts and keep it at that. We’ll make up our own minds.

2. Keep the word count brutally minimal. We want economy and efficiency of language. We just don’t have time to plow through your marketing blah blah.

3. Layout. Keep it simple. No pictures admittedly is irritating but redundant pictures and complicated layout is even worse.

End result. Nothing caught my attention and both the marketer and myself are worse off for it.