Multitasking UK: What will advertisers do next?

The UK has been named a nation of ‘multitaskers’ thanks to social networks and increasingly sophisticated mobile phones, according to new research from Ofcom.

The research reveals that a fifth of all media is consumed at the same time as another form of communication with people spending almost half of their waking hours glued to a screen, on the phone to friends or listening to the radio.

Although TV is as popular as ever, almost one-fifth of the time spent watching TV is now accompanied by laptop or mobile activity. A finding supported by YouGov this week which found that that more than half of UK respondents (58%) are regularly consuming at least one other type of media while watching television.

With television being seen as one of the staples of the advertising industry it will be interesting to see how they react and engage with their target markets moving forward. Brands could sponsor online elements of shows that incorporate your social network, for example real-time quizzes and voting amongst friends. Alternatively, e-commerce professionals as it could offer the unique opportunity to directly link products shown on TV to internet retailers.

Whatever the next generation of advertising will look like we know that the picture below will no longer represent the typical television viewers today.

Embracing social media – different paces abound

We have all embraced social media in a big way – particularly in PR where it is such a natural fit for us – it’s pretty much second nature after all, we are so used to having dialogues with journalists, sharing stories and having on-going conversations with all types of people.

So it’s easy to forget, perhaps, that social media is still evolving at a rapid rate and that businesses aren’t all embracing it at the same pace.

Just in the past few days, I’ve heard of two global brands who are way behind the curve. One has flatly refused to have anything to do with social media and the other, is ‘way behind’ in their social media conversations according to an inhouse marketeer.   For those kind of brands struggling to persuade directors to embrace social media  – here’s a useful post from an interesting US online publication, ‘the social media examiner’, ‘9 ways to sell social media to your boss’.

And then of course, there’s the other problem that businesses are online but don’t know what the guidelines are.  The rules are still evolving and changing, again at a pretty rapid rate.  Twitter is still largely unregulated and businesses are still learning and experimenting with it.  Here’s some latest guidelines that have come out of oatmeal.com.  They are not necessarily right, in fact I would question many on the list, but it’s interesting to see guidelines attempted to be set.

And then of course, there’s the fact that Facebook is only just starting to be used as a valuable marketing tool  for businesses. The largest social media tool on the planet provides a huge opportunity to businesses – the social media examiner has lots of ideas on how to maximise your Facebook profile to generate interest among customers and prospects as well as some great recent campaigns that have really worked for brands.

So as we all move at different paces, and standards and guidelines continue to evolve as time passes, once the revolution is over, it’ll be great to see what transpires.

Net Neutrality – what it means for PR?

Recently there has been a wave of stories around the issue of net neutrality and its wider implications. Such as the release of a “joint policy proposal” by Google and Verizon concerning hardline and wireless net neutrality .

This is a concern for many – and especially communications professionals
Net neutrality keeps the internet fair. It provides a medium through which any of our clients can, with a relatively small amount of capital and the right skills, make their voice heard.

This being challenged with some network operators rumoured to be advocating (again) the prioritising of certain types of traffic for a charge. If this happened, a domino effect could ensue with charging creeping into business models across the net. So pay walls could pop up everywhere as big content carriers or blogging platforms seek to claw back network charges. The impact on online media and bloggers could be immense and strike at the heart of why the Internet has flourished as a source of information for all, rather than the few.

Resistance to ending net neutrality is huge so any shake-ups of this magnitude are going to be difficult to progress. But the issue does keep on returning to the agendas of both network operators and content players. As communication professionals we have interest here too and we need to be vigilant about where this debate is going.

Silence Isn’t Always Golden in the World of Social Media

Four days after one of the most epic on-the-job resignations of the decade, the Steven Slater Facebook page has grown to almost 200,000 supportive fans. The mainstream press has covered it, YouTube videos have been created to re-enact it and The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show produced a song about it.

But surprisingly Jet Blue airlines, which are considered one of the most social media-savvy and customer-friendly companies out there, have been deftly silent. As of Tuesday, the company’s Facebook page lacked any reference to Mr. Slater, and as AdAge noted,  its handful of tweets on this red-hot topic consist mostly of short statements like “an investigation is ongoing” and “we will not comment”.

It is likely this is due in some part due to the involvement of the FAA, Homeland Security, and possibly other agencies who are investigating the incident due to the actions during the now famous resignation. But for a company with over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, 301,000 fans on Facebook and a reputation for having an open dialogue with their customers, should they not have had a more hands-on online crisis management plan?

According to the New York Times, Zeta Buzz online media technology has shown that positive conversations surrounding Jet Blue have decreased from 79% to 70% since the incident.

However despite this initial decline, there is still an opportunity for JetBlue to turn this around and seize the generated publicity and weigh it against the company’s positive aspects, such as its previous safety record etc.

As of now, this story has a hero in search of a villain, and JetBlue doesn’t want to be it. But more importantly they don’t want to simply cater to public online opinion in the short-term when the incident could have had much more serious implications.

Tent Rescue Teams, Goody Bags and ….Iron Maiden!

The onechocolate team is fresh back (or not so fresh, believe me) from Sonisphere, a rock and metal festival that graces the beautiful grounds surrounding Knebworth House each year.  This wasn’t just an office jolly though… oh no!  This was part of a brand exercise for our lovely client, PC Tools. 

From Thursday to Sunday, PC Tools staff and ambassadors rocked out with festival goers.  But, they did something different.  They did something that (strangly) is almost unheard of in the IT Security industry.  They went and talked to their customers.  Not over the phone and not over email.  No – they went and looked them in the eye.  Of course, we know that nothing in this life comes for free.  So, in exchange for goody bags and fun free stuff, we talked to them about their digital lives.  Hell, the PC Tools Tent Rescue team even put up their tents for free for the chance to speak with these good people…