Mediabattle

Last week students of the Universities of applied sciences Utrecht and Enschede took part in a media battle. The concept of the battle was quite simple; Five companies presented a real life case before the students which they had to find a solution to. The companies presented them with cases varying from funeral services to branding of a region. All this in only two and a half days time whilst working in teams of three or four. The challenge was on.

Tagged with: target group, mediabattle, crossmedia,

Pandora's Neocracy #1

Let’s not argue over the fact whether Pandora had a box or a jar. According to my source her original container was called pithos. Whatever may be the ultimate truth, as we may learn from Greek mythology, Pandora gave us ills, toils and sickness. And hope. Zeus ordered his friend Hephaestus to create a woman – Pandora – to punish mankind after Prometheus stole the secret of fire. As the story goes, Pandora had been given a large jar [pithos] and instruction by Zeus to keep it closed, but she had also been given the gift of curiosity, and ultimately opened it. When she opened it, all of the evils, ills, diseases, and burdensome labor that mankind had not known previously, escaped from the jar, but it is said, that at the very bottom of her box, there lay hope, good old hope. Apparently, once Pandora understood what had been in her pithos, she quickly closed it.

Tagged with: social, pandora, crossmedia, mobile,

A mobile hoax and a minor

I came upon a nice picture of a layar (that’s not a mistake. It is the commercial name of virtual layers on mobile phone applications) on a mobile phone. We see Keizersgracht in Amsterdam on a nice autumn day through a VodaFone branded cell phone. We can look through the phone and the apparent Funda site, the Dutch real estate site. Intriguing. In the same image, we read information regarding a house at Prins Hendrikkade, costing about 349,000 Euro. As an example of what’s coming up, I’d say it is a great picture. From a reality point of view, I tend to say that this mash-up is a hoax. The picture we see is indeed Keizersgracht. The bridge you may spot at the end of the canal is Leidsegracht. It is where I walk the dog twice a day. The shot is taken at the bridge of Leidsestraat. Prins Hendrikkade is by no means even close to this point. I know because I live just behind the left-side houses. And, a propos, there’s no way one might acquire a flat for that price in the Prins Hendrikkade area (which happens to be near Amsterdam Central Station and Nemo. But, who cares. VodaFone has made its point.

Tagged with: hoax, education, crossmedia, mobile,

Communication management and Crossmedia

Why would we bother about crossmedia? Why not just apply internet, TV, radio, print and events; isn’t that the same as crossmedia? I don’t think so! Crossmedia is not just about media, it’s about communication. The word ‘’medium’’ means that it is between two other things and connects them; a sender and a receiver in this case. Connecting, that is what media can do. Two or more people connect and consequently form a duo, a group, an organisation, and a network.

Tagged with: communication, loyalty, crossmedia,

Tweet

And then there was Twitter. Not less than three years ago nobody had ever heard of this typical social medium. Twitter started in 2006 and is currently enjoying unprecedented success. I have no clue how many people use this micro blog to tell their followers where they are, what they do or what they think. But reading the (printed version of a Dutch) newspaper about Twitter’s overload due to the death of Michael Jackson, it must be a huge crowd. Twitter, in its core, is truly crossmedial. You may use your mobile or your Twitter account. You might want to embed Twitter in your Facebook pages. You name it. It is a fine piece of modern communication tooling which allows us to tell the world what you’re up to. Ever since I was confronted with Twitter, I have asked myself why people – including me – actually use Twitter. Personally I’m not the type to tell the world what I am doing all the time. Maybe I’m too old for this but it requires a lot of handling, both handling of my followers and handling of my micro blogs. I have followers who send Tweets every 10 to 15 minutes and quite frankly, I don’t give a damn.

Tagged with: hyves, micro blog, facebook, crossmedia, twitter,

Youth congress: H2O and acronyms but no crossmedia

I visited the congress on trends in youth marketing (www.kidsenjongeren.nl) last week in Nemo, Amsterdam. Quit interesting. The congress took two days but I only visited the second day because the topic of the second day, youngsters (teens), has my interest, more so than the very young kids. As usual, a score of presentations and workshops overloaded the day. So, what have I learned? Well, again like almost always, if you are critical, not that much. The topics dealt with during the day were ‘as usual’ and not a word was spoken about crossmedia, apart from the numerous citations that teens are multi-tasking. And again, generation Einstein was not just mentioned as the capturing of our crossmedia savvy younger generations, it still seems to be a sort of religion for youth marketers. Hmmm.

Tagged with: congress, young people, youngsters, branding, levi's, crossmedia, Marketing,

This is not a rabbithole!

Alternate reality gaming is a very interesting crossmedial concept. There are to this day some successes and some failures. There has yet to be found what the success factors are to make a successful ARG. Stef Wouters and Filip Fastenaekels were brought in to shed some light on the world of ARG. They are, amongst others, responsible for a very successful ARG for the Flemish Public television regarding the Flemish tv-soap “Emma”. Their findings on how to create an ARG were very insightful and inspiring.

Tagged with: alternate reality, crossmedia, games,

Working on a Cross Media Strategy for the KRO

Yesterday the KRO, the Dutch Catholic Broadcasting Organisation announced, at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, a 'competition' for their hit television show Spoorloos. Spoorloos, roughly translated 'without a trace', shows personal stories of persons looking for their long lost family members in the Netherlands and abroad. This, of course, with support of the editorial staff. Weekly, approximately 2,5 million viewer watch this show.

Tagged with: spoorloos, crossmedia,