the F rant

The good people at the Mises Institute have released another pearler of an article about the obstacles to economic recovery.

They (rightly) claim two obstacles to economic health and recovery: a spread of Marxism and Keynesianism that is infecting Governments all over the world.

FREEDOM: Economics, Politics and Business

According to Nielsen, Twitter is most popular with 35-49 year olds, with teens barely rating on the Twitter popularity scale: Twitter Doesn’t Smell Like Teen Spirit .

This makes perfect sense to me for three reasons:

1. Twitter is so limited, so simple, that old people don’t feel intimidated by it. ¬†Therefore, they can get involved without fear that they are inadvertently giving away their credit card details or friend’s details. ¬†After all, a lot of TWEETERS operate under a pseudonym.
2. Twitter isn’t very interesting. ¬†Compared to Facebook, Twitter is extremely limited. ¬†Younger people embrace neo–celebrity, that is – “the celebrity of me”. ¬†In the minds of this age group, “how can you truncate my brilliance into 140 characters”?
3. It may well be that the data is skewed by the fad of Twitter – how many older people aren’t actually on it, but are hearing a lot about it at the moment, therefore answer a survey question in the positive? (Nothing against Nielsen’s excellent methodology of course!)

And now… ¬†when teachers start teaching kids about Twitter, rather than the other way around, it makes me think it’s the new Second Life, ie: not great.

FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends

The original Cadbury Gorilla ad was not my favourite ad in the world – the type of TVC I don’t really like, which is in essence a branded short film.

How it links to the product or brand, I’m not really sure. Maybe I’m just a bit cynical, but I’m not a huge fan of these surrealistic brand TVCs. Give me a good creative call to action any day.

Now, in the aftermath of the Sound Relief Concert, and John Farnham’s duet with Chris Martin, Cadbury have paid a lot of money to Sony Music and the English songwriters of “You’re the Voice”: Andy Qunta, Keith Reid, Maggie Ryder and Chris Thompson, to synchronise “You’re the Voice” to the same “Gorilla” TVC.

Here it is.

FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends

Blog posts coming shortly (I’m just importing them, line-by-line).

There are over 487 of them – and getting them from old WP and Blogspot files (with over 11k spam comments is impossible.¬† I’m having to delete the spam and import one by one.¬† Aaaah!

I’m starting from my earliest posts in 2003 – and moving in reverse chronological order.

If you’re still awake by now…¬† The thing will be updated by end of March I reckon.¬† Sorry that it looks like a car crash at the moment.¬† Stay tuned!

UPDATE [10/04/09]: I’m still importing them, post by post. ¬†I’ve got about 200+ to go…

UPDATE [06/06/09]: I’m still¬†getting through them all… ¬†I’ve got a big gap from about 2006 to 2008 that I’m working through. ¬†Animo et Fide (with courage and faith) I will get through…

FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends

Speaking at ad:tech today on “How to Engage Online Consumers”.

I’m with¬†Tarnya¬†Baohm, Digital Marketing Manager, RaboPlus

Yuri Narciss, Head of Technology Markets, Google

and it’s being moderated by:

Adam Good, Executive Director of Digital Innovation, Clemenger Communications Group

Follow the sessions on Twitter:

#atsyd, #atsyd1, #atsyd2 and #atsyd3 (for the three different streams) – remember, I’m @confrantzeskos

UDPATE 10/04: Here’s the slide presentation from the event. Not particularly illustrative, because most of it was spoken to… But here ’tis anyway.

FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends