The Sharing Economy is about Convenience

While the values of the sharing economy are undoubtedly admirable – community, sustainability, social equality – the one that swings it for the consumer, and moves them to act above all else, is convenience. 

Unless your service is super easy to use, forget it.

Source: The Drum - Suzy Bashford: As Uber andAirbnb call on EU to support collaborative consumption, is it here to stay – orare we over sharing?

Media - the essentials

Quote of the day by Jeff Bezos (again, I know) - but sometimes, it seems like Media CEO and directors forget this essential two facts:

"The Post will have readers at its centerpiece. I’m skeptical of any mission that has advertisers at its centerpiece. Whatever the mission is, it has news at its heart"

Source: Jeff Bezos warns Washington Post must innovate its way to success

Quand Jeff Bezos s'offre THE Post

La phrase du jour - à méditer

"Si les gens ne paient pas pour des médias indépendants qu’ils devraient lire, des intérêts privés paieront volontiers pour les médias qu’ils veulent que l’on lise"

Article (un peu trop?) alarmant sur le rachat du Washington Post par le CEO d'Amazon:

Des faits dérangeants sur le rachat du Washington Post par Jeff Bezos - ZDNet

Publishers' Reality Check and Call for Collaboration

Last Tuesday (29th May)  I went to London for my first  FIPP Research Forum (special thanks to my boss!). A two-day event for publishers, researchers and marketing executives in the magazine business. It's a huge opportunity to help improve magazine research around the world, to debate and compare learnings from each other's experience(s), to the benefit of all the industry. 

Unlike other conferences, the Research Forum encourages discussion and contributions from the floor with special sessions in breakout groups for delegate to debate the papers given in the previous session. Therefore, the number of delegates is set at a maximum of 50 in order to have restricted discussion groups with 12 to 14 delegates. Most of us agree this aspect of the Forum is/was the most valuable of the programme. 

The morning sessions of Day 2 (Wednesday) were dedicated to the digital and mobile developments in 'magazine land' with the focus on metrics and measurement techniques:

- The efficacy of Print + Web - Nicolas Cour (France)

- Consumers' use of talets, mobiles & other digital devices - Kathi Love (USA)

- Usage of and attitudes towards iPads: results from an iPad panel and How tablet in- advertising works - Anja Manouchehri (Germany)

- Measuring magazines' social media engagement, and building an overall engagement index John Carroll (UK)

When it was time to discuss these different studies in my breakout group, we looked at each other without enthusiasm. Because we felt there was more, an underlying question… Digital reading is (still) too small and publishers are losing feathers in the printed business model. The decline is not 'picked up' in digital reading. We have to face that we are becoming an industry in crisis. Without solutions in a short future, except trying new things and developments based (or not) on insights.  Don't get me wrong, we don't like short-termism but facts are facts. I can summarize our conversations in 3 key discussion points:

1. Do we really want the 'move' of our readers to digital? And more important: How do we 'keep' them in paper?

Duplication between print and digital is still very low. For magazines, it seems that digital is not (yet) the holy grail. We all agree it's necessary to create strong communities around our media brands. I have shared the example of the women weekly Libelle (Belgium) with a paid app dedicated to recipes called Libelle Lekker! together with the launch of a monthly about cooking with the same name. With some success.

My French colleague of Prisma Media, Nicolas Cour, cited the example of the TV guide Télé-Loisirs, that recently has launched an app - both on tablet and mobile - that makes it possible to program recordings with your device and out of home. Some services are paid and are satisfactory in term of profits. 

Egbert De Waal from South-Africa (Media 24) cited some nice examples of successfull cooking/fashion/specialized travel apps/mobile site with paid access to locally and 'internally' produced video content. 

But still, one big conclusion was: it's not enough to make profit, despite some successfull initiatives. In-app advertising and shopping can make a difference but we have not much understanding yet about this specific part of the business. It could mean an important charge for the short-term future in terms of development and the search of the right (commercial) partners.

2. To bundle or not to bundle? As magazine players tend to diversify in digital but also audiovisual media, it seems difficult to offer an advertising bundle that fits all the players of our industry.

To bundle or not to?

Are we sending the right signals to the market by acquiring other 'traditional' media active in the audiovisual sector or by investing a lot of money in digital companies and not in editorial? Where are these investments in print? 

Magazines are 'Pinteresting' avant la lettre, building strong readers' communities about specific AND general topics. We can show the market the engagement with traditional printed media is very high. But not seen as powerful enough. So, how can we convince readers and advertisers? 

Innovation is one key aspect. Flair Fashion Tag (Belgium) is a nice example: with this application readers can tag cloths and accessories in their Facebook friends’ photos. The tagged items are posted on the Fashion Tag wall and editors pick the best ones to publish in the magazine. Nice idea that improves the interactivity between the magazine brand and the readers and can result in commercial opportunities.


Finally, we ended this specific discussion topic with another important question: is bundling not dangerous in financial terms? Big (FMCG) companies are already claiming huge discounts when planning long-term campaigns. Is there a risk bundling will lead to discounts like never seen before? 

So, again the same conclusion: cross media strategies are not helping us at the moment. Soon, digital will become the next must-have in the media strategy together with TV. If the print industry don't act fast, it will lose the battle and will become 'nice to have but only when enough budget' for marketeers in charge of media strategies. 

3. Knowledge problem: digital people seem not interested in print. Therefore it's not a surprise they can't integrate print in a smart manner in the media plan.

People working in print and people in favor of printed media - dedicated planners and buyers in agencies included - seem to be better 'educated'. Digital players have little understanding of print in comparison to the digital knowledge of print players.


Conclusion:

So yes, we ended a little bit depressed. But not for long. Because we were able to face the truth and I'm sure it will lead to action and more collaboration. 

I would like to thank all the persons of breakout group B (see the list below) and Nancy Detrixhe in particular. Our dear chairman and reporter that has lent me her notes for this specific blog post. She's also doing a great job at the Dutch Publishers Association. Always posting new and relevant information about the power of print.

FIPP Research Forum 2012 - Breakout Group B delegates:

Anja Manoucherhi (Axel Springer), Henriette Mittag (Benjamin Media), Jean Faulkner (Conde Nast), Nancy Detrixhe (Dutch Publishers Association), Saara Itävuo (FPPA), Kathi Love (GfK MRI), Jane Farmery (Hearst Magazines UK), Georgy Mikaberidze (Hearst Shkulev Media), Egbert De Waal (Media 24), Nicolas Cour (Prisma Media), Peter Callius (TNS-Sifo) and myself (Sanoma Media)

Thx to @social_media!

Today in my mailbox about 1 p.m. (Belgian time), get congrats of SlideShare. Click to enlarge

Apparently, they 'reward' hot topics in a unique way. Also hot topics on other networks like Twitter and Facebook, of course. And that's probably why, combined with loyal twitter followers who like to share, that my stats on SlideShare made an amazing jump (from 29 views this morning around 10 a.m. to more than 450 views about now - 12 hours later).

Thanks to the lessons of @bnox - and I was skeptic in the beginning - I now have found a way to combine my passion for (media)marketing and my degree in journalism in a very trendy way. With some encouraging results. Of course, I keep in mind that good & targeted content is important, but you need to reach somebody with that content. So yes, I think that for education and regular updates & valuable insights, social platforms where peers can feed each other, share and spread knowledge are becoming more and more valuable.

Online News is like Chinese Food

(Celebrity) Information Diet is a very nice idea of ADWEEK. I like reading this little Q&A section. I was reading the (last?) one with Dr Who's Matt Smith, when I saw an interview with actor and stand-up comedian Kevin Nealon. As a lot of my French-speaking friends I discovered this guy in the comedy Weeds - as pot lover and accountant Doug Wilson.

Actually, it seems that Mr Nealon is a mobile phone addict, checking breaking news on twitter and playing Angry Birds when bored. Nevertheless, he has his own words to describe the added value of newspapers and magazines and why a lot of people still turn to print(ed) media. I smiled, I hope you too. Click to enlarge:

picture by Michael Schwartz

Read more about the media diet of Kevin Nealon

La Nouvelle Ménagère: un homme comme les autres?

Cette sacrée ménagère. Objet de toutes les attentions. Pour preuve, un des derniers Lunch BMMA avait pour thématique "Il ne faut pas la lui faire à la nouvelle ménagère", avec Marc Vandercammen du CRIOC (Centre de Recherches et d'Information des Organisations de Consommateurs). J'avoue: je n'y étais pas. Pour toute consolation: ne pas devoir entendre la notion nouvelle ménagère 150 fois en moins d'une heure.

Pour le coup, j'ai une nette préférence pour le terme PRA (principal responsable des achats) quand on parle d'achats d'ordre domestique, et de principal responsable pour la préparation des repas chauds ou du choix des marques dans un domaine particulier. Ce n'est pas pour rien que le Centre d'Information sur les Médias (CIM) fait la distinction. Et c'est nettement moins sexiste. De plus, ça pourrait peut-être contribuer à faire évoluer les mentalités de ces messieurs :-)

J'entrevois déjà le lever de boucliers! Malgré l'avènement de l'homme aux fourneaux, c'est encore madame qui range, qui nettoie le plan de travail et qui décide principalement des marques et aliments qui sont servis à table. Principale conclusion à tirer: la nouvelle ménagère a pour principal défaut de ne pas assez imposer la contribution des autres membres du ménage quand il s'agit des corvées domestiques. Plusieurs études, dont l'étude CIM-PMPA (pour volet Plurimédia-Produits-Attitudes), démontrent que les femmes sont toujours  n°1 lorsqu'il s'agit de cibler les décideurs de (marques de) produits ménagers. Exit le nouvel homme?

La Nouvelle Ménagère

View more presentations from Vanessa Sanctorum

Honnêtement, je me demande encore qui ça peut étonner. Mais alors, pourquoi certains annonceurs utilisent des voix masculines et/ou acteurs pour nous vendre leur marque? Pourquoi ce genre de spots/pubs existent-ils encore et jouent-ils sur des clichés où l'expert est masculin? Pensez-y à deux fois lors de la conception de vos campagnes.

Dans une prochaine analyse: les enfants et les proches, quelle influence pour les marques de grande distribution? Timing prévu: fin du mois de juin.

Is papier leuker dan digitaal?

Hoe zit het nu met digitaal lezen in Vlaanderen? Memori, een expertiscentrum van de Lessius Hogeschool, onderzocht het fenomeen dit voorjaar. Net voor de commercialisering van de iPad2. 

Zo'n 2.770 personen namen deel aan een online enquête. Er werd niet alleen gepeild naar hun interesse in e-reading maar ook naar hun verwachtingen en de betalingsbereidheid op het vlak van digitaal lezen.

Eén van de meest frappante conclusies (pdf) heeft betrekking op jongeren. Hoe jonger, hoe groter de bereidheid te betalen voor digitale content. Die jongeren waarvan de meeste denken: zij willen toch niet betalen. Diezelfde jongeren die opgevoed zijn in het 'nieuws is gratis op internet' - tijdperk. Nog sterker: andere internationale onderzoeken kwamen tot dezelfde conclusie.

Klik voor een groter beeld

Vrouwen, laagopgeleiden, 60+ers en niet-bezitters van tablets zijn minder bereid te betalen voor digitale content. Hoogopgeleiden scoren goed op beide soorten publicaties. Op zich niet zo opmerkelijk. Maar net vrouwen, 50+ers en hoogopgeleiden blijken vaker voorstander te zijn van papieren publicaties.

Cijfermatig kan je stellen dat vrouwen en 60+ers niet echt tot de early adopters van technologische snufjes à la iPad behoren. Maar mijn buikgevoel zegt dat er veel meer aan de gang is. Er bestaat  namelijk ook zo'n tendens als: Neen, nu even niet connected. En als je stelt dat 50+ers de laatste 15 jaar overconnected zijn, hoogopgeleiden met een goede baan bijna altijd en overal connected zijn, dat vrouwen dat in hun genen hebben of het nu live of digitaal of telefonisch is...

Je hebt af en toe een pauze nodig, een moment voor jezelf. 82% van de respondenten hebben aangeven dat ze lezen nog steeds prettiger vinden op papier. En dat snap ik best. Het laat je toe om je volledig te verdiepen in het lezen zonder enige afleiding (mail bvb, open vensters op het internet, ...). Daarbij ben je zichtbaar met iets anders bezig en zullen de meeste toch (even) aarzelen met jou te storen. Het leesmoment heeft nog iets heiligs. En dat had wat mij betreft ook één van de conclusies kunnen zijn.

Andere resultaten vind je ook op deze link (pdf) : http://www.memori.be/sites/default/files/attachments/20110518-onderzoeksresultaten_digitaal_.pdf

Uitgevers verdienen nog niks op iPad maar...

Goedele op iPad is een geweldige tool voor de redactie om 'out of the box' te denken en te experimenteren met de mogelijkheden die tablets met zich mee brengen.

Waarom op iPad? Omdat deze tablet voorlopig nog koploper is wat gebruikers betreft en aankoopintenties. En het is over deze markt dat ik het wil hebben. Niet zozeer over de verkoopcijfers van de Goedele edities op iPad die aangehaald worden in het artikel van de krant De Morgen.( Editie van vandaag, 05 mei - geen link naar het artikel want niet gevonden op de site). Context is ook belangrijk. En wat het artikel niet aanhaalt is net de adoptie van de tablet computers door de Belgen.

Volgens een recent onderzoek van de Online Publishers Assocation (OPA) zijn 6% van de Belgische surfers uitgerust met een tablet. Een studie uit eigen bodem, de Chocolate Barometer van Aegis Media, wijst op een penetratiegraad van 3% in de Belgische huishoudens. Men kan dus moeilijk spreken over een mass market product. Toegegeven: met zo'n lage penetratiegraad in ons land geloof ik nooit dat één enkele Belgische uitgever nu al winst maakt met de verkoop van iPadedities van Belgische printmerken. Daarbij speelt op onze markt ook nog de taalverdeling: volgens de OPA is de typische tabletuser eerder Franstalig.

Toch kunnen we vermoeden dat tablets binnenkort hun status van nicheproduct gaan verliezen: zowat 30% van de Belgische surfers geeft aan een tablet te willen aanschaffen in de komende maanden. Een mooie vooruitzicht voor uitgevers die al vertrouwd zijn met het medium.

Met Goedele op iPad wilt de redactie meer dan een doodgewone bladerformule/surfformule - met of zonder zoommogelijkheden- bieden aan zijn lezers. Goedele op iPad moet entertainen, verrassen, overvallen,...  Een maandelijkse challenge die deze straffe madam, samen met een sterk én beperkt team, weet te realiseren sinds een klein aantal maanden. Een première op de markt van de Belgische maandbladen, een voorbeeld voor alle printuitgevers. En hopelijk, een succesvolle zet in een nabije toekomst.

The Joneses in Wonderland

A seemingly perfect family

A few days ago I watched the movie The Joneses. The plot triggered my curiosity: a fake family hired by a marketing company, moves in an upper-middle class suburban neighborhood. Their task is to introduce theirs neighbours to new luxury-level products in a very subtle way: by showing off clothes, cars, gadgets, frozen food (?),... Making everyone in the neigborhood envious and ready to buy.

This promising edgy exposé turns out to be a so-called anti-consumerism movie. Despite an entertaining first hour the blockbuster-happy-end is somewhat of a disappointment - stop reading if you haven't seen the movie-

Yeah, right! Shock the viewers with the suicide of a ruined neighbor - who'd tried to keep up with the Joneses- let them believe in the remorses of this newly hired employee David Duchovny, and finally, soothe them with an impossible love story between a middle-class sales man and an ambitious business woman. If this is not Alice in Wonderland... 

Magazine Readers'Expectations

"Readers expect much more from publishers on tablets than two-dimensional content. They expect digital narratives; along with content they can read, watch, touch and share. It means we need to learn to design for eyes and for fingers simultaneously. It means we must change workflows in our newsrooms. It means we must rethink subscription and advertising models. It means we must innovate as never before."

Juan Senor and John Wilpers, editors of 2nd Innovations in Magazines 2011 World Report
(Source: FIPP)

Réflexions sur l'efficacité en 2011

Alléchant et prometteur le dernier séminaire de l'irep sur l'efficacité. Une journée pour s'inspirer. Une journée chargée aussi: réveil à 5h30 pour choper le premier Thalys et un retour à Bruxelles vers 20h. Et aventurière: première utilisation du métro parisien ainsi qu'un parcours passionnant d'un quart d'heure dans le quartier de Saint-Germain-des-Près, à la recherche de la Maison de la Recherche . 

Etudes de cas, réflexions (quasi-philosophiques) et partage d'enseignements ont attiré un public se composant principalement d'agences, d'instituts d'études et de représentants médias. Bien sûr, il y avait des annonceurs présents. Mais on aimerait les voir plus nombreux. Principalement, ceux en charge des budgets médias. 

Est-ce par manque de temps? Par manque d'intérêt pour un programme trop orienté recherche? Peut-être. Pourtant, c'est leur définition du mot 'efficacité' qui nous intéresse.Trois présentations étaient axées autour d'un annonceur/d'une marque. Un annonceur était présent en tant qu'orateur et co-présentateur. Et je dois dire qu'il s'agissait d'une des présentations les plus intéressantes de la journée.


Pourquoi la présence de l'annonceur m'importe-t-elle tant? Car c'est la preuve d'un vrai partenariat et d'une certaine transparence. Et puis ça ajoute bien plus qu'une touche de crédibilité. Même si quelques slides comportent des zones d'ombre -mais néanmoins intéressantes- où sont mentionnées X données confidentielles.


En l'occurrence, il s'agit de la présentation L'économétrie comme outil de pilotage du mix marketing par la performance. Euh... Il faut savoir que mes compétences sont nettement plus marketing qu'orientées recherche pure et dure. Je craignais une approche reprenant des formules compliquées, laissant le mot de la fin à l'annonceur. Mais Fabrice Crevola, à la tête du Département Pricing de Renault, a vraiment joué le jeu avec Jean-Baptiste Bouzige, Président d'eki:metrics . Un vrai bilan d'expérience. Autant dire que je n'étais pas la seule à être tout ouïe :-) C'est rafraîchissant d'avoir l'ensemble de la réflexion d'un annonceur sur les KPI qui définissent l'efficacité. J'ai rarement cette opportunité en tant que marketeer d'une régie publicitaire.


Mais si je devais résumer mes notes de la journée, je dois en conclure que les KPI n'ont pas fondamentalement changé: share of voice, notoriété, pénétration, intention d'achat(s),...  Les médias sociaux n'ont pas bouleversé les choses lorsqu'il s'agit d'efficacité de la communication publicitaire. On parle toujours la même langue. Mais on introduit de nouvelles pistes pour mesurer, analyser, comprendre. L'horizon s'élargit et comprend un nouveau continent. Ça ne rend pas la tâche plus facile mais en même temps, c'est ça qui rend la chose tellement passionnante.

The (Literal) Return of Engagement

During the recession, articles about ROI and how to maximize every euro of dollar were legion in media land. Logical. Sales performance is the top priority in such hard times. As an advertising marketeer of Sanoma, I'm aware of that specific trend.


I don't dare to say that the economy is in full recovery mode. But some see optimistic signs (limited to our part of the world; and not relevant for all industries). In the business literature you can measure these signs through more content on new developments like the rise of the tablets, the evolution of 3D viewing, the 'green' attitude of brands... and of course, the (literal) return of engagement.


But what editors of these articles seldom state is the following: engagement is many things. And advertising engagement is one of them. You can rant and rave all you want, tablets and social media will not change that fact. 


The conclusion? I'd like to steal the idea of Erwin Ephron and quote another media planning professional , FCB's Roger Baron: "If you want engagement, make a more engaging ad". Don't misunderstand me: I'm not saying media sales house and advertising marketeers can't help you find matches. But creativity is key, and We, I mean the media planning professionals, still have not developed a system to express creativity in figures nor did we develop a magical formula for each device/media. But we're definitely working on it.


P.S.: Specific about magazine advertising - Stop|watch. Everything on the impact of advertisements in magazines. Creativity in magazine ads: see chapter 4 -p.53. Still relevant!

An old recipe for new media

Paginated Media? Never heard of it until today. My colleague at the ARC, who's doing a great job of international knowledge sharing between "Sanoma countries", drew my attention to it.

According to a mediaIDEAS paper Paginated Media has 3 key properties (excerpt):

1. metered: the media is divided into defined pages of content that are presented together (as in magazines, books, newspapers, article, section,... ) or individually;
2. edited: the role of the editor - he or she selects the articles, media, images and rich media that fill each page;
3. designed: the included content is arranged and formatted to enhance the reading (e.g. columns and typography) and visual experience (e.g. white spaces and positioning of elements).

Do any of these characteristics seem familiar to you? This list summarizes the main reasons why I think print editors have the best armed forces to win the battle in media land. And let it be clear: the media debate is no longer about which devices consumers use. A 'healthy debate' must be about the emotional relationship between (a) media brand(s) and it's consumers. When it comes to passion printed media brands have a huge asset.

Belgian daily switches language

Our little country is complicated. That's a fact. For Belgians, and for foreigners. Everyday our International Sales, responsible for taking care of advertisers and agencies abroad, struggle with the same problem: explaining the differences between Flemish people, people living in Brussels and Walloon people.


As a marketeer, it is my responsibility to help them with relevant information and insights about these matters. Besides the political issues, it's really passionating. Because North and South think different. Don't dare call a Brussels native a Walloon! And don't forget the small group of German-speakers in eastern Wallonia. For the info: I don't like talking with socio-demographic datas but in Belgium, it helps a lot to understand the situation. A speed training 'History of Belgium for Dummies' is also a plus. 


The point is: media of one language community don't interact with media of the other language community. Except for a few exceptions such as national surveys and charitable causes. And of course, on the advertising market. Especially when the media sales house is integrated into the publisher, as Sanoma or Roularta are.


Le Soir is known as a French-written quality daily with strong roots in Brussels and surroundings. Editor-in-chief Béatrice Delvaux is a kind of an Iron Lady, passionated about her job and her (media)brand. Tomorrow, publisher Rossel will publish a special edition in Flanders, with the first five pages written in Dutch. The purpose? To let discover the tone-of-voice and the specific insights about the political issues and the analysis about Flanders. In other words: to feed the debate. In a positive way. I'd like to say: chapeau! Let's hope it will make the other language community curious. But I have doubts... Knowing the sales figures of newspapers these days...