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Location apps: a hot trend nobody knows about.

Author: Allen R. Gibson

Here’s a good article in Marketing Mag that clearly shows why ‘location aware’ applications and marketing are only at the beginning of a long road to widespread consumer awareness, much less utilization.

As the article notes: “more than eight in 10 North Americans don’t even know these services exist. Only 4% said they’d ever used one at all.”

What that means for those of us who think things like Foursquare, HearPlanet, and Google Places are going to be huge, is that, for now at least, such channels MUST be supported with other marketing tools.

An app that knows where you are located, and can tell you cool things about the place your at, is a very handy idea. But before it’s any good to me, I have to know it even exists!

However, web sites once had the same problem, believe it or not, and it wasn’t that many years ago. So right now we’re at the ‘frisbee stage’ – who is going to get a product out there to the masses that they love, and that becomes so ubiquitous they end up naming the category after it?

Just one more race to the golden finish line in the web world.

Tags: geolocation, HearPlanet
August 27th, 2010  |  Posted in Branding/Marketing, High technology and marketing.  |  No Comments »

Why blogging matters.

Author: Allen R. Gibson

Closeup of male hands typing on a laptop
Male hands typing on a laptop from Yuri Arcurs Website

Just finished reading a wonderful book about blogging – “say everything,” by Scott Rosenberg.

He explains, with great clarity, who the pioneers were, and more importantly what principles they used to make the blogosphere the freely expressive place it is today. It could have turned out so differently, if the naysayers, the big corporations, or the merely greedy had hijacked the process.

Rosenberg talks about the make-money model of The Drudge Report, which let M. Drudge move from a low-rent L.A. apartment to a fancy Miami condo. More power to him. This, of course, is the model hyped endlessly today by all the ‘experts’ who can show you SEVEN WAYS TO MAKE MONEY FROM ONE INFO PRODUCT! SIGN UP HERE!

But many of the creators of modern blogging had a different ethos. It was, and is, more about genuine self expression. They, says Rosenberg “set out to construct a new, alternate universe – one in which some of the laws of the old world still held, but others were suspended or upended.”

Part of the underpinnings of the blogging explosion came from the mindset codified by the famous “Cluetrain Manifesto,’ which before the social media explosion declared that “markets are conversations” and stated that “Learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service…they will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.” Now, this was in 1999, remember.

So what do we have today? SO many corporations, and small businesses, racing as fast as they can to jump on the social media bandwagon, while still spouting the same soothing cliches of old fashioned marketing. Still trying to force their information down your throat, with no real mechanism in place to answer you even if you did want to talk to them. Doing ‘social media’ without being willing to BE social is going to look pretty dumb somewhere down the line, people.

Because the social train has left the station. And it’s time we all had a clue about how it’s different than any media train in history.
Thanks, in large part, to the courage and determination of the geeky pioneers who decided that ALL geeks should have the right to be heard, and who have stood up for that right sometimes in the face of condemnation, threats, and jail time, to the point where there are now more than 126 million blogs. “Blogs have created a new public sphere, and it’s hard to imagine life without it, now that it’s here.”

Lately, we’re seeing governments in various parts of the world trying to crack down on this public space. They are particularly interested in not allowing people to have private conversations thru the net. Let’s hope they don’t succeed. Because the ability to talk openly to each other is a really significant piece of progress on this planet. It’s changing life as we know it already in all kinds of ways – political, social, economic. Sure, Blackberry’s may help a few terrorists plan an attack. But they might also help people get the truth out about their governments oppression, and lead to better lives for thousands of people. On balance, some governments have been far more harmful to people than terrorists in the course of history. So, for me at least, the scales tip towards more freedom of communication, not less.

Geez, you’d think I was writing my own manifesto.

August 17th, 2010  |  Posted in Branding/Marketing  |  No Comments »

Gulf State Airlines expanding like mad.

Author: Allen R. Gibson

Man with red bags at the airport, motion blur
from Crestock Photos

Each of the three rich gulf states – Qatar, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi – which were founded using their ruling Arab families deep pockets, now appear to be using solid business cases to expand like mad, spending billions on new wide body airplanes, building huge new airports, and expanding their routes all over the world, including into places that have been underserved by global aviation for decades.

Their timing seems perfect. As new middle-classes emerge all over the world, with new money and a desire to see the world, the middle eastern Emirates are becoming the hub of a new ‘silk road.’ As The Economist recently stated:

“For passengers, at least, the arrival of the Gulf super-connectors is unalloyed good news: more routes, lower prices and better service. In particular, the opening of entirely new networks to big, fast-growing but previously underserved cities in emerging economies is both a feature and a stimulant of globalization.

There are good reasons, such as the scarcity of land and local environmental objections, why cities like London and New York no longer wish to accommodate ever-expanding mega-hub airports. If Dubai, Qatar and Abu Dhabi want to put aviation at the heart of their economies by taking the spillover from growth-constrained airports in developed countries and by building networks that European and American carriers, obsessed with stifling competition through mergers and alliances, could not be bothered with, they deserve not brickbats but applause.”

You won’t find much applause here in Canada, though, as Air Canada joins its European partner Lufthansa in aggressively denouncing any expansion of the Gulf’s airlines in to Western Canada. Despite the west’s desire to open up our airports to more of the world, thus increasing economic opportunity and benefiting consumers, Air Canada seems to have convinced our federal bureaucrats that any such move would be bad, bad, bad.

But, as The Economist article notes, most of the arguments levied against the Gulf airlines – that they are unfair competitors, pay less for oil than western airlines, and are using the state’s oil riches to expand – are demonstrably untrue, if not downright disingenuous.

June 6th, 2010  |  Posted in Branding/Marketing  |  No Comments »

Author: Allen R. Gibson

In advising my clients on their web strategy, for some time now I’ve been advocating against web sites. Not that you don’t need a web presence – most businesses do – but rather that you need to be on the web in a manner that is constantly update-able, that is nimble, interactive, and responsive. And I mean truly responsive. Not pretend-interactive, with a form to fill out, or an email signup. The interactivity needs, ultimately, to be between real, live human beings. It’s a process – some might call it a relationship.

The Globe and Mail’s “Report on Business” magazine has a great article in the May issue. In “Search and Destroy,” Omar El Akkad says that Google has turned advertising on its head by providing clear, concise, and precise data about what works, and what doesn’t.

Web analytics can tell you what pages of your web content consumers like, which ones they ignore, and which ones send them scurrying for the exit. If you aren’t paying attention to this kind of feedback, why on earth are you bothering to spend money on marketing?

The downside, if you can call it that, of the new online ad reality is that you must be willing to test, test, and test again to refine your content. The traditional advertising system is not designed to support this approach. Designers, copywriters, media outlets, agencies, and business owners all want to pretend that what they have created is ‘perfect’, and there’s no need to analyze it. What that’s tended to boil down to, as El Akkad notes, is that ‘the person with the biggest paycheque gets to decide’ ad creative. And media outlets want to charge you for the very EXISTENCE of your ad – for the ‘space,’ versus any kind of relationship to whether it works or not. Which is why I love online advertising. When I can create a facebook campaign that gives a client half a million impressions, and several hundred click-throughs, all for a tiny fraction of the cost of traditional media space, we are on to something!

Just remember, though, that getting a ‘click’ is just one step of the process. If the click leads me someplace boring, or if there is no compelling reason for a consumer to stay engaged, then you are not taking full advantage of the technology. Good creative is still needed. It’s just that now the tools exist to PROVE that the creative is working.
Or not.

I know that StarMedia delivers creative that works to motivate action. The challenge is always to have a clear series of action-steps that help the consumer to buy. Because, from where I sit, sales is still the king of metrics.

Tags: Google, Online advertising, strategies
May 27th, 2010  |  Posted in Business Advice, High technology and marketing.  |  No Comments »

Social Media – why bother?

Author: Allen R. Gibson

It’s a valid question that I get asked on occasion – why do you bother with this stuff? It seems like Twitter and Facebook are just a big waste of time?

Well, sure. ANYTHING can be a ‘big waste of time’ if all you’re doing is wasting time. TV, games, bowling, coffee (OK maybe not coffee!), reading, even sex. Folks can, and do, use any and all of these to avoid life, or to alleviate boredom. Does that make them all useless? Obviously not.

Social media matters because it is, ultimately, the conversation of our planet. Not our tribe. Not our country. Not our ethnic group. But our whole damn planet! And that’s really important. Because when we know the ‘other’, the ‘alien’ to be a human being just like us, we find it much harder to go to war with them, and shooting them in the head starts to take on a real morally repugnant overtone.

So anybody who thinks social media is just a waste of time just doesn’t get it. And if you need more tangible proof, here’s a brilliant slideshow with some facts for you:

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later
View more presentations from Marta Kagan.

April 15th, 2010  |  Posted in Branding/Marketing  |  2 Comments »

Australia has survived Emirates airlines, why can’t Canada?

Author: Allen R. Gibson

Alberta, along with the other western provinces, have been pressuring the feds recently to open up our western skies to more foreign airlines. Thinking is, more carriers might actually lead to more competition, more options for travelers and even, gasp, cheaper fares! Oh, the horror.

Two completely different points of view have been eloquently expressed recently in two op-ed pieces in the Financial Post, one on March 20th and another the 23rd.
In one, an economist at an Ontario business school, Fred Lazar, posits what to me is the ridiculous idea that somehow Air Canada is going to develop strong international hub airports in Canada in some dimly-seen utopian future, once they’ve found some new way to compete with the global heavyweights. That is, as opposed to popping in and out of bankruptcy, as it has twice in the last 5 years – to the delightful enrichment of its senior management, and at the continued expense of Canadian taxpayers.

There is ONE thing that a ‘strong’ Air Canada… No, hold it. Let’s not be ridiculous. There IS NO strong Air Canada. What there is, is a series of long-standing protectionist measures to prevent really strong airlines from flying into our country when they want to. And heaven forbid that anyone should transit through a Canadian airport! Flights must stop or start here, else our world will crumble! And who have these policies served? I mean, really, who??

As the earlier reprint in the Post by Peter Harbison, the chairman of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, made clear, Canada has hundreds of thousands of fewer air passengers land here than Australia does. Along with far fewer international flight options.

The head of Air Canada, Mr. Rovinescu, in one of several recent speeches eviscerating the idea of Emirates access to anywhere other than Toronto, had this to say: “What Emirates wants to do is flood the Canadian market with capacity. Its strategy is to scoop up travelers going elsewhere in the world and funnel them through Dubai, further strengthening Dubai as a global flow hub. This would have the effect of severely damaging our hubs in Canada and our network in Europe and elsewhere.”
Really? What ‘hubs’ are those? The one’s you’ve been going bankrupt servicing? And ‘your’ network in Europe? You surely mean your partner Lufthansa’s network?

Where, exactly, in the world am I going to find more convenient to fly by transiting Dubai? India, maybe. Somalia. Gee, does Air Canada fly there a lot? Why, no.
So you’re saying, Mr. Air Canada, that opening up more capacity to a part of the world you hardly bother with will, somehow devastate the market for Air Canada? Even though most AirCan flights aren’t even on AirCan planes? I wonder what Australia’s experience has been?

Turns out that, “despite a 50% increase in Gulf airline capacity since 2005, Qantas’ international market share is almost identical.” So Australia’s Quantas manages to compete, and Australia gets an extra 40,000 visitors a WEEK into it’s airports and country. Gee, that must be awful for Australia’s economy. A total disaster.

Turns out most of Canada’s air tourists come from the US. Makes sense, as their airlines at least offer cheap fares to their citizens. But, in case you haven’t noticed, America’s economy has tanked. Where are we going to replace those lost tourists from? Well, with the attitude of Air Canada, backed by the bureaucrats of Transport Canada, and perhaps the federal government, it would seem the answer to that question would be:
Nowhere.

airplane
airplane from Crestock Stock Photo

Tags: Air Canada, competition, Emirates, fly
March 24th, 2010  |  Posted in Customer Service, Lethbridge Business  |  1 Comment »

Women owning thier own power – new media trend?

Author: Allen R. Gibson

Closeup portrait of happy young business women...
from Yuri Arcurs Website

Has anybody else noticed that there seems to be a vast media trend towards stories that show women and girls deciding for themselves, stepping into their own power, choosing their own path in life, and perhaps becoming heroines in the process?

I’m noticing it in the sci-fi bookshelves at my local library (I’m a big sci-fi reader). Suddenly, half the books have women protaganists. Strangely enough, tho, most of the women seem to be in the military – or at least posses awesome martial skills! (Martial – as in arts. Not marital. Tho THAT would make for some weird scifi! )

I’m noticing it on Twitter, and in the blogosphere. I couldn’t help but notice it during the entirety of Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” – tho how going from making a decision not to marry the ugly bore suddenly turns you into a pioneering businesswoman, out to conquer China! I’m a little unclear. The killing of a jabberwock has got to boost your self confidence, I guess.

So obviously I’m not saying all these stories are good stories. They’re not. But they are THERE. And that authors and creators and editors and publishers and cultural gatekeepers see in them something that might actually SELL – well, that IS good news! And, like the generations of little boys who fantasized about growing up to be Superman, or one of The Hardy Boys, or a cowboy, or whatever, might we be fostering a generation of little girls who are fed a diet of dreams that go way beyond teacher, nurse, or single mom? (I was going to saw wife, but I know far more single moms than wives. Another seismic shift in the experience of women, yes?)

The funny thing is that I haven’t noticed much commentary about this trend. Do I need to expand my twitter follows? Explore feminist writers? Or is it just that this stuff is happening under the radar a bit, and like many other societal changes is one day going to crash into the collective consciousness like a tsunami? Wrong metaphor, I acknowledge. Much too violent. I expect, in fact, that what we will notice instead is more of a tsunami of peace breaking out. Of intractable conflicts suddenly becoming tractable. Of childcare becoming as important as health care. Stuff like that.

Because, let’s face it, if enough WOMEN suddenly start owning their power to make things happen the way they want in this world of ours, we are going to be in for some BIG changes. Ones that may make the internet ‘revolution’ seem paltry in comparison.
Now there’s a trend I wouldn’t mind noticing!

See the wonderful documentary, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” about the women of LIberia helping end their war, for an example of what’s happening in the real world, not just in fiction.

Tags: female power, feminism, media
March 19th, 2010  |  Posted in Random thoughts  |  No Comments »

Old tactics can kill ya’!

Author: Allen R. Gibson

Watched a good documentary on ‘Battle 360′ about one of the last great naval engagements of WW2, and it brilliantly reinforced the idea that applying outdated ways of thinking can be a real killer to even the best laid plans.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf was a coordinated effort by the Japanese navy to destroy the American’s invasion of the Philippines. And it was brilliantly conceived! The Japanese faked the withdrawal of one of their battle groups. They used empty aircraft carriers to draw off the American carrier group and leave the invasion fleet largely undefended. Both tactics worked.

Suddenly, a Japanese force, including the biggest and toughest battleships ever built, was steaming down on American forces who’s biggest guns could fire a few miles. The Yamamoto could fire 18 miles. No contest, right? Well, here’s where things get interesting.

Faced with imminent destruction, US commanders threw themselves at the enemy. Small destroyers charged full-steam ahead to get within range of the precise enemy formation, five times their size. The one little US aircraft carrier threw its planes into the air, while waddling away, shooting it’s puny guns in a show of defiance.

At this point, if the Japanese commander had let go of his training, let go of his ‘fleet,’ and demanded his individual captains plow ahead and engage the enemy, odds are he could have sunk every ship in sight, and then gone on to kill the troopships and supplies of the invasion force. It would have been mayhem.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he did what any good commander from the FIRST world war would have done: kept his force in formation. At which point his ships started blowing up. Some from the air attacks. Some because he’d let the little destroyers get within torpedo range, and his lines of ships were easy targets. Eventually, he gave up and turned away, surrendering his chance of success only a few miles short of the ultimate goal. Thousands of Japanese sailors died, both in this encounter, and in the sacrifice of the whole carrier decoy group. All for nothing.

I wonder if some investment bankers, or car manufacturers, or even politicians, are feeling like that Japanese commander these days? They had a model, a set of beliefs, about how the world should work. And then, one day, it just didn’t work that way anymore. And all the extra billions that were poured into the system couldn’t make it work. Just when it seemed auto makers might be ok, it turns out Toyota has been making dangerous junk. The ‘best’ cars are no longer good enough.

Which isn’t to say we won’t have carmakers. Obviously, we will. But it is, yet again, an example of how failure to respond to new realities, because you are being driven by old ideas and refusing to respond to what’s right in front of you, can be the death of you.

March 8th, 2010  |  Posted in Business Advice, Random thoughts  |  No Comments »

Olympics highlight aboriginal tourism.

Author: Allen R. Gibson

During a foray to Vancouver to experience the Olympics, and to take a ride on the magnificent ‘Alberta Train’ that was used by Travel Albertaa to ferry guests and athletes from Vancouver up to Whistler, I also had the opportunity to attend the reception hosted by the Aboriginal Tourism Association of B.C. at the Pan Pacific Hotel.

The beautiful harbour-front location and huge windows looking out onto the Olympic rings provided a splendid backdrop to the fantastic native art and dancing on display during the event. And the native cuisine from across Canada made for a fascinating culinary experience. Muskox was particularly tasty. Rattlesnake less so. Salmon, in all its glorious varieties, was a highlight as well.

But what the event was really showcasing was the level of confidence and success among native tourism operators in British Columbia. Dancers, weavers, jewelers and fashion designers were all presented live during every day of the games, in a venue that also hosted the world’s media. The eventual impact of all that exposure can only be guessed at, but it is sure to pay off handsomely in terms of future tourism revenue.

BC’s attitude is on display in the provocative phrase above the band office of the Osoyoos Indian Band: “Indians used to work for a living.” Osoyoos Chief Clarence Louie is renowned across Canada for his businesslike attitude: “The single most important key to First Nation self-reliance is economic development,” he says.

To that end, the band, located in the far south of the Okanagan Valley, BC’s interior wine growing region, currently runs seven of a total of about 200 aboriginal tourist businesses in the province of BC. Others include the Talking Rock golf resort near Chase, the brand new Squamish Lil’wat cultural interpretive centrea in Whistler, and the St. Eugene Mission resort in BC’s southeast Kootenay region.

Beverley O’Neil, who consults for the association, notes that a study shows that tourists who visit the province motivated out of a desire to explore aboriginal experiences had an average length of stay of 14 days, providing a highly valuable premium over other visitor types. I am not aware of what the stats might be for Alberta, but the industry here has a ways to go to catch up with the level of development, and professionalism, of our nieghbours to the west. But from what was on display during the Olympics, it is a road worth traveling!

Pan Pacific Hotel

The host of the Aboriginal Tourism Association opening reception.

March 1st, 2010  |  Posted in Branding/Marketing, Visions of Vancouver  |  2 Comments »

Eating my way through Vancouver!

Author: Allen R. Gibson

from Crestock Photos

It’s funny, but the biggest thing I’ve missed about Vancouver since moving to Lethbridge, Alberta three years ago is THE FOOD!

OMG – this city is an eater’s paradise! You may have seen my YouTube video about the joys of Commercial Drive and it’s cafe’s and markets. But that is just one segment of the culinary delights to be experienced in this city. I’m off in a few minutes to Seb’s Market Cafe on Broadway – one of the most wonderful breakfast joints in the world. Home-made breads and preserves accompany amazing egg dishes. With your choice of sides, from shitake mushrooms to elk and caribou. Yum yum.

Then there’s the sushi. The New York Times said that Vancouver has the best – and cheapest! – sushi to be found anywhere on the planet. I suspect they got it right. There’s an all-you-can-eat sushi place housed in a former Bino’s on Broadway near Arbutus that offers you a six page menu to order from – and keep ordering from until you can eat no more – for about $23. That’s ALL you can eat. I figured it would have cost me about $140 for the same meal in Leth.

And at the Pan Pacific Hotel the other night as part of the native Host Nations tourism businesses official welcoming ceremony for the Olympics, guests were given the chance to enjoy a wide variety of traditional native fare from across the nation. Rattlesnake, anyone? Muskox was really delicious. Fiddlehead salad. Five kinds of salmon dish. Duck gizzards. Some truly exotic eats!

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Vancouver’s multi-ethnic history, and the generations of cultural mixing, have led to amazing innovations in cuisine. AND some long-standing traditions. The Greek joint on Davie St. that’s had people lining up for lamb for over 20 years. Or the Fresgo Inn a few blocks down – massive mushroom burgers that are legendary for their size, if not their flavor.

I’m going to miss this, when I fly home Monday. Good thing I stocked up on some extras at the Santa Barbera market.

February 13th, 2010  |  Posted in Branding/Marketing  |  No Comments »

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