MASSIVE day for digital privacy

Tomorrow the EU will announce the most far reaching reforms to data protection law ever (well, you know, other than when data protection was actually born, but that doesn’t count).

Viviane Reding, a ‘let’s get stuck in’ EU Commissioner, will announce plans to reform data protection laws across Europe and finally remove the many and varied versions of it that we have.  So, big news for us all, whether we’re citizens or businesses.  Key points:

- yes, we’re harmonising (yay!)

- yes, we’re giving more transparancy about what/how collected and used online (yay!)

- yes, we’re allowing proper deleting of stuff (big yay, bye bye that bad hair day photo!)

- yes, we’re allowing porting across platforms (nice one!)

- yes, we’re making people ‘fess up to their data indiscretions (ouch!)

- yes, we’ve yanked it into the Internet age (finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

Video of VR:

 

Proper summary at WSJ online.  The beast of a few hundred pages of detail out tomorrow, so will write again then.

Data, love it.  (That’s for you Gary!)

Megaupload shutdown – me on the telly tonight

Thanks to Benjamin Cohen at Channel 4 – if you get past the pictures of cool cars and famous pop stars … you’ll find a little bit of lawyer stuff.  About 3 mins into the report.  Hurarh!

http://tinyurl.com/8x2kkw2

Dark, dark, dark day for the Internet

It’s easy to take the Internet for granted, but for some time now it has been under pressure.  The pressures are long and varied: what is free? Should free mean free? Does free here mean free there?  Who determines free?  Is free open, is open free?  And so on.

It boils down to this: is it morally right to combat online copyright infringement using the tool of online censorship, which reaches across borders and into uninfringing material?

I applaud Wikipedia and friends for standing up and fighting SOPA in the US and we should all do the same. 

Copyright  infringement will stop when people have reason to respect copyright, when they understand the value of the creative process, when the ecomonics make sense in the consumer market. 

SOPA, folks, ain’t the tool for any of that.  So stand up and shout.

 

Google keeps fees on illegal ads – so what?

Much stuff on the newswires this morning about this – essentially that Google keeps the fees on ads which are illegal and pulled.  Clearly a big issue for us here in the UK in the run up to the Olympics, because selling tickets after purchase is illegal.  See for example this story on ZDNet.

Yes, I agree that pulling ads slowly is a bit naughty, but the outrage that Google keeps the fees is misplaced: it has provided a service, it is entitled to the fee.  Giving the money back would effectively penalise Google for an advertisers misconduct.

And if advertisers carry on … well, Wenlock and Mandeville will be round for a quite word. 

 

Are we finally turning the digital telly page?

There seems to be a convergence of stuff on digital telly at the moment.  (For the quantum physics aspects of convergence of stuff, do ask that lovely chap Professor Cox.)

Netflix has launched, Lovefilm is reborn under Amazon ownership, I’ve got iPlayer on my telly and analogue sets are all for the skip very soon.  That’s quite apart from Google TV and iTunes.  These really are happy times for lovers of digal content.  Or are they?

My current question is whether the underling intellectual property licences (which include several restrictions on how content can be distributed to consumers for viewing) actually are hindering the speed of the growth of the market? 

Just take the licensing terms under which major holywood studios usually distribute their films to digital media retailers:

- copies time out after around one month

- once a person begins watching, those copies will time out after 48 hours

That’s been the prevalent structure for a while now and I would say it’s time for evolution of that.  Why does it matter if I take more than 2 days to watch a film?  (This grumble, you must understand, is heartfelt: I have lost count of the number of flights where I have not been able to finish watching a film and then by the time I got back to it, time was up.  I now rent fewer movies, which is not a positive thing for the growth of our digital ecomomy.)

Any licence structure which places even a minor barrier in the way of an impulse purchase of a movie should be looked at.  Another one to add to Neelie’s list.

By the way, later this week the EU will be announcing its action plan to double the share of the Internet economy in Europe by 2015 – and that includes digital stuff.  Keep you posted.

 

UK consumers happy to shop using technology

KPMG (you know, that very large collective of number crunchers …) have released a report on how technology is transforming the way consumers interface with shopping.

Shopping online is not new (hey, even the E-Commerce Directive is over 10 years old now) but the way it works and who’s doing it is constantly evolving. 

Some snippets …

- 77% of UK shoppers prefer to by goods online (CDs, DVDs, books and the like) which puts us ahead of the curve in terms of adoption

- but were’ really quite nervous about technology enabled banking (I say that’s only a matter of time)

- apps, apps, apps …

Tudor Aw (as quoted on the BBC News website) calls this a “converged lifestyle” and that’s spot on.  The way we engage with our work, play, family, friends and entertainment is shifting – and that’s exciting.

And it’s also more complex from a regulatory point of view: there’s a myriad of regulations reaching across technology, consumer and business sectors which all need to be ticked off to engage properly with this market.  So, don’t forget to chat the the lawyers too … to make sure you have the rights you need, pay the taxes that are due, get the £ in and have technology that actually works.

HAPPY SHOPPING

The future of advertising – ish!

This made me giggle.

 

 

Consumer facing marketing – using sponsorship in sport

Went to a good conference today called Sport and the City, with a horse racing focus.  I’m a City kid, so not really acquainted with the horse racing world at all, but the principles of good marketing and commercialisation of rights in horse racing are sport- (and indeed sector-) neutral.   My thoughts from the day:

First past the post:

The big pot of prize money goes to Raymond van Niekerk, Global Marketing Director for Investec.  He wins this on the basis of being a telling it like it is guy when it comes to sponsorship and, in my experience, he’s spot on.  Here’s what he said:

Sponsorship is about exposure, association, leverage, relationships and who your brand bedfellows are – and “if it didn’t happen on TV, it didn’t happen”

Sponsorship is a “play about status, about what you don’t get with advertising”

Be aware of limitations of sponsorship though – if you have a complex product/brand set, it will not communicate that depth

The thing that rang true from my perspective was on the contract side, about needing to control your own destiny – but with the recognition that it’s still the start of the journey, so you can’t get to signature hating eachother!  And that’s the point really, isn’t it – it’s not a widget supply deal, it’s a partnership, a marriage, a whatever.  It’s about trust and having a good feel about who you’re working with.  And when that trust slips up, make sure you have the mechanisms to swoop in and deliver.

Big thanks to Raymond for telling it like it is – oh, and for saying he didn’t hate *all* lawyers.

Other notable runners and riders:

Simon Bazalgette of the Jockey Club and Stephen Michael of Ascot Racecourse gave us a really stunning view of the modern horse racing world and the wealth of commercialisation opportunities there were there for brands.  Really, if you hadn’t looked at the horse racing sector before, now might be the time. 

Richard Fitzgerald of Racing UK/RMG allowed us some very real insights into how technology and consumer marketing and conversion really work, by showcasing the William Hill app.  Quite remarkable.

Good to Know (Google)

There is much harping in the press about how Google is bad, so nice today to see some positive stuff.

With the Citizens Advice Bureau here in the UK, a nice little booklet (and other online resources, like videos) to keep you informed about how to keep you and information safe online.

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/news.google.co.uk/en/uk/goodtoknow/pdfs/booklet.pdf

So, nice one Goog

As individuals become more empowered (e.g. Consumer Rights Directive, new cookies rules, etc), take note.  Don’t put your head in the sand, give the lawyers a call  – then can structure it right to make the most out of it *and* stay on the right side of the law.  Go on, we don’t bite (unless you ask us to!).

Walpole – where luxury meets ecommerce

I was at the Walpole luxury e-commerce event yesterday and Guy, Julia and the team put on a great event with really high quality speakers. 

There were speakers from many fashion and publishing brands as well as speakers from the technology and social media industries.

Interestingly – and perhaps a sign of the times – Facebook didn’t get a kicking on the privacy front but was instead seen as a valuable tool in customer acquisition and engagement.  I knew we’d get there in the end!

So, what were the snippets from the day?  Here you go:

- they key uses of digital media have been to enable brand aspiration to be wider, which has in turn converted more (e.g. Links of London’s Facebook page has a 14% social media conversion compared to 2% from general web browsing)

- VIP style early access/limited availability (e.g. pop ups, limited editions) driven through the social media base of followers has shown considerable success and does not compromise the values associated with scarcity, but maintains them

- Forrester think the traditional ‘marketing funnel’ is dead and now it’s about cross-channel and on- and off-line engagement, one brand, one experience, etc (I’d agree!)

- some interesting views on value of bloggers with commercial deals with brands (some legal issues there, from a transparency perspective, just so you know)

- big theme of day was handling personal data (which is of course key to the personalisation piece for a brand), not just internally but also the Facebook type conversation

- there is a fundamental difference between how you manage your brand for Google and how you manage your brand for Facebook – Google is all about converting the first click, Facebook not so relevant if converts later but better quality engagement in the long-term

- brand owners seem to be worried about current state of law on google adwords (fair enough, as currently is legal to purchase competitor adwords, subject to being transparent about the destination site – the real business decision is if you’re in or your out, bit like the Cold War really)

- everyone agreed the holy grail was finding how to reward in a non-commercial manner (i.e. through experiences) the super brand ambassador in a brands social circle

- there has been a “seismic shift” in ROI from Facebook over last 3 years, with some brands achieving 90% of traffic/conversions from Facebook (whereas 3 years ago was more balanced over a number of platforms)

- high on everyone’s mind was how to properly leverage expensive sponsorships in the social/digital space – particularly with 2012 coming up

So there you go – it’s game on for making the most of these opportunities now.