Steve Jobs, genuine innovator, visionary, entrepreneur

As the flowers and messages gather at the #Apple flagship store in #Covent Garden near our offices, we cannot let the day go past without noting the sad passing of this creative man who changed and shaped our world forever.   You may not have agreed with everything he said and did but no one can deny that he made a huge impact on our world.

 Barack Obama summed him up best: Steve was among the greatest of American innovators, brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.’

Some of the most notable articles of today:

#Businessweek says “Steve Jobs departs a world he helped transform. Jobs was a total original. He was somehow able to blend iconoclasm, rock-and-roll, and chic industrial design with the nerd sciences, as well as the unseemly profit motive of the corporation.”

#Venturebeat highlighted ten important products Steve Jobs has brought to the world

Moco News – a tribute in links and quotes including “For those of us lucky enough to get to work with Steve, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”—Bill Gates

And finally some of Steve Jobs own most memorable quotes – an inspiration

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” – Macstories.net.

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful … that’s what matters to me.” – Wall Street Journal 1993, shared by UK Guardian.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Stanford University commencement address, 1995

82 percent of people who have worked in a restaurant or bar own iPods/iPads, compared with 66 percent of people in general.

These figures have been put together by a website called www.correlated.org  Everyday Correlated.org, ask a new question, for example: are you left handed? Then with a clever bit of coding and maths, they work out which set of previous questions can give the biggest discrepancy from people in general and forward you an email with the results.

At this stage the sample groups are only reaching just over 300 so these correlations should be taken as interesting rather than factual and short of combining with a massive social network like Facebook, twitter or LinkedIn, we as communication professionals will not really be able to utilise them.  However, with stats like:

“71 percent of perfume/cologne wearers prefer debit cards over credit cards, compared with 53 percent of people in general” 

you can begin to see the beauty of this site.

Mobile: the next big thing in Marketing and PR

The number of people accessing the internet via mobile devices may reach 1 billion by 2014, meaning mobile will overtake the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web. At the same time, more users will be consuming mobile apps with the mobile app market reaching $8.3 billion in 2014 compared to $3.8 billion forecast for this year.

This makes thinking about the marketing opportunities of mobile and mobile apps all the more pressing and exciting. Many brands are already incorporating mobile apps into their marketing and PR campaigns. Deodorant brand Lynx has launched a mobile app which encourages consumers to share their party experiences with selected friends by streamlining their social media activity in one place. The application will be promoted through the company Facebook page, YouTube channel and a dedicated website and will act as a media channel for future brand and marketing campaigns.

What’s significant about this example is how it makes the most of how the mobile platform allows marketers and PR professionals to interact with consumers regardless of time and location. The increase in mobile internet usage is a great opportunity for brands to engage consumers through social networks, while using dedicated apps and location-based websites to make their messages relevant to consumers. Additionally, mobile apps can be used to create innovative, interactive and engaging forms of content using specific Smartphone functionalities such as multi-touch navigation, cameras, GPS, etc.

Not surprisingly brands and media companies are focusing significant efforts on tapping into the mobile platform. In the era of mobility and social networking, mobile devices will have a profound impact on how marketers and PR professionals communicate with their target audiences.

Sony Caught in PR Firestorm

Feeling sorry for the PR team at Sony as they negotiate a perfect PR storm.

News of their Android-based tablet launch and  fight back against Apple is being overwhelmed by the gathering storm about the PlayStation customer data breach.  

While the new tablets are capturing media imagination for their original folding touch screen design, the unwinding of the PlayStation story is undermining Sony’s credibility on taking on the IPad on the front that matters most – the ability to manage a user friendly but secure  eco system of easy to buy and use content and services.  With consumer trust in PlayStation shaken, Sony has its work cut out to retrieve goodwill and realise a network strategy that competes with iTunes and the AppStore.

You have to wish Sony well because the market does need strong alternatives to Apple and  Sony should be well-placed to deliver iconic consumer devices that people love to use.

In terms of managing the PlayStation story, the best advice is to be as transparent as possible and to be seen to share with your customers all available knowledge about what has happened and provide firm assurances about the counter-measures and defences in place to prevent this occurring again. It very much seems that Sony are attempting to do this now.

As always the worst damage to a brand’s reputation comes less from the effects of the incident itself than whether the communications process has gone well or not.

The Independent launches a new title

Next week the Independent launches its new complimentary title I, aimed at readers “who want concise, quality news at a low price”.  According to the publisher Evgeny Lebedev this will be first quality daily paper to have launched in Britain in the past 25 years (since the Independent).

The launch of the new publication, which will be priced 20p, is an interesting move on the part of the publishing company as it tries to find a new niche on the newspaper market. However, the price is an issue which some experts see as a threat.

The new publication might have a negative impact on the Independent’s readership, which has seen its circulation fall below 100,000 in recent months, with readers opting for the cheaper version of the newspaper. Similarly, readers who are not very sensitive to news quality would probably choose free rival publications such as the Metro or the Evening Standard (also owned by Evgeny and Alexander Lebedev).

However, despite these concerns, i received an initial positive reception from media agencies, describing the 56-page read as a more accessible and “funky” format than the Independent. This would be particularly appealing to a younger demographic such as the 30-somethings who want a “more substantial” read than city-based free Metro.

The newspaper will be backed by subscription iPhone and iPad applications and will launch with a two-week giveaway of 100,000 free copies a day to build up brand awareness. If i succeed in attracting a substantial number of readers who are willing to pay for its content, it might be followed by other dailies of rival publications which want to tap into its readership base.