Since When Do Major Sporting Events Govern Countries?

Making my first coffee today in the office at 8AM I noticed a story on the front page of the NZ Herald. Funny I can’t seem to find it online, but there were loads of results on the web’s news pages.I’ll share the Huffington Post story here because I can’t find the NZ Herald story online for some strange reason.

Basically the story is that Dutch Brewery Bavaria has been selling orange mini skirts to soccer fans as an ambush marketing stunt.  The clothes were available for sale in the Netherlands and as a very nationalistic country, it is normal behaviour for Dutch people to wear Orange on major occasions such as sporting events and also for children on Queen’s Birthday. So many Dutch people bought these skirts and wore them to the FIFA World Cup match against Denmark. The clothing had a tiny little label that would be very difficult to see with the Bavaria brand on it.

That wasn’t the problem though. The problem was that they allegedly paid a group of 36 blondes to wear them at the match, which is against the rules of sponsorship, where Budweiser are the only official beer sponsor of the map and have exclusive marketing rights. The story in the Herald said that 2 of the 36 women were arrested and charged and if convicted could face fines from 1,000 Rand to a term in prison. Subsequently they were released on Bail and FIFA has said they will not be charging the individuals, they will be bringing charges against the Bavaria Brewery itself.

As a marketer, I appreciate that brands pay outrageously high sponsorship fees to be able to advertise at major sporting events and expect protection, but how far should they be allowed to go? If I like a brand, why shouldn’t I be allowed to wear their clothing. I play poker and have played in tournaments sponsored by Jack Daniels and have won Jack Daniels clothing. If a group of my friends who also won their branded clothing to an event, could I be in trouble? If the organisers of the poker tournament encouraged me to wear their clothing at the event, would they be in trouble? Remember that the logo on the clothing, these 36 girls were wearing was only on a tiny tag that if you wanted to read it, you would have to get so close to the garment that you might get arrested on other charges.

Next year we have the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and the International Rugby Board is running by the same rules. According to the IRB even the letters RWC in succession have been trade marked. In effect I could be breaking the law just be blogging the letters RWC. When did it become possible for a sporting body to prosecute people or businesses for using 3 letters in succession. I mean, we only have 26 letters in our alphabet! So what if they were the initials for your company? Are you breaking the law? If I worked for or supported the Roger Wright Centre in Christchurch, and they had corporate clothing, I wouldn’t be allowed to wear it to any World Cup matches in New Zealand.

So what happens to other companies or organisations that use RWC in their name? Have they lost the rights to their business names? What happens if their staff want to be proud of the company and go to a match in company clothing? RWC stands for Redwood City in California. It stands for Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester New York which has a proud sporting history.

I think this is very scary and another example of large corporations wanting to own and control everything. Some of those corporations in the drug world may now own the patents to some of my DNA!

Anyway, before you go to any of the matches in South Africa this year or in New Zealand next year, make sure you don’t have any clothing showing off any brands that haven’t paid the IRB for the use of the letters RWC or any of the other trademarked groups of letters. They probably won’t have Sky in the holding cells.

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Could a San Franciscan Artists lost eye instigate the next disruptive technology?

This will no doubt do find its way to TV and all the media will pounce on it, not the least because most people will think it is pretty weird. I found the story by accident when following a tweet from NZStuffEnt about a new NZ ICT Body.

So the story on Stuff goes like this. Tanya Vlach, an artist in San Francisco lost an eye in a car accident in 2005 and has asked for someone to replace her prosthetic eye with a Web Cam with Bluetooth connectivity. She also wants a 3x optical zoom and an SD slot and the ability to take still photos. She told the NY Times that she could be used for a reality TV show or as a life recording.

As she said, this kind of thing has been in Science Fiction stories for decades and would be a logical extension one day, so, just like with my Location Innovation Awards, why not make one day, today?

This would fit quite nicely with recent topics I have been blogging about such as Haptic VR suits. If they can make prosthetic limbs that are controlled by the human nervous system, it shouldn’t be hard to create an eye that can be controlled directly, either through optic nerves, or by blinking to allow her to zoom, focus, switch it on and off (there are obviously times when you do want some privacy) and dilate to cope with bright light.

There are obviously some technical details such as the power required to run it and the Bluetooth Communications. Having done a lot of photography I know how much power is involved in zooming and adjusting shutters etc, but I’m sure there is a way, after all they can implant pacemakers and other technology that requires a modicum of reliability.

As to what to do with it. She would make a fortune just from telling her story, but the opportunities would be huge. Espionage might be unlikely because of a high profile and metal components, but chances are the military would be very interested in her experience as would other security services, irrespective of how discrete the new eye is or isn’t.

The company that gives it to her will be gifted a huge business opportunity. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this technology doesn’t already exist. I have previously blogged about contact lens displays for computing which are already under development. Some 30 years ago my grandfather became snow blind and was a guinea pig for a technology of experimental prosthetic eyes. They were big many faceted things that didn’t work very well, but instead of seeing nothig he could see shadows and knew when I was walking in the room. So this concept can’t be new. The big difference is that the technology development that I have been aware of was designed for the user to regain vision, not as a camera to be transmitted elsewhere.

So like the 6 Million Dollar Man, wouldn’t it be better if she could see everything a well as transmit it?

So if you have the technology and want to help her and yourself, she has a blog where she has her wish list specifications and you can make contact with her.

This is so cool on so many levels. Firstly from adversity comes something potentially better than she had before. She might hanker for more privacy one day but it sounds as though she is smart enough to sign a contract that will give her what she wants and let the people who develop it get what they want.

I could think of so many uses for this technology. I was interested to note that she did not list a microphone but I guess at times when she is recording for others, she could always wear a seperate microphone, somewhere, perhaps built into her watch or jewellery.

As well as law enforcement and military use, it would be great for all sorts of news reporting. I wonder how many situations are lost because people wouldn’t allow cameras into a scene of activity. William Gibson would probably see it used for marketers looking for the next big fad or selling the experiences of people wearing them to others, Philip K Dick would have had people rebelling against the Big Brothers who were wearing them and trying to find ways to shut them off.

Imagine using them in a sporting environment. How would you like to see exactly what your favourite sportsperson sees when they are playing? Bring in the Haptics again and you could see and feel what is happening. It’s not unreasonable, they already using sensing technology on top athletes to understand exactly how their bodies work.

Marketers are always looking for the next Christensens Disruptive Technology and if Tanya is successful, this could have a huge impact on so many technologies that people will adopt in the future. I wish her every success.

While this blog is starting to get a good following, I would love to get more readers and encouraging me to keep writing. If you feel that my blog is interesting I would be very grateful if you would vote for me in the category of best blog at the NetGuide Web Awards. Note that the form starts each site with www whereas my blog doesn’t and is of course https://luigicappel.wordpress.com.

Thanks so much for your support:)

The Warehouse Sends Tents back to China

The Warehouse managed to get loads of publicity about the story of getting a request from the Chinese Embassy, recalling their tent stock from the branches and selling them to the Chinese at a substantial discount.

This sort of fits in to my previous story about getting great mileage from a PR opportunity. The NZ Herald gave them a nice story and they even got coverage with TVNZ.

I don’t want to pick on The Warehouse, (note there is no mention on their website, an opportunity missed) they did a nice thing, but lets look at the opportunity from a business and marketing perspective.

First it is autumn and the likelihood of selling more than a handful of the 1200 odd tents before spring is negligable, so they become aged stock, take up valuable room in their stores or their warehouses which costs money.

There are only 1200 of them and they probably paid next to nothing for them. The heavily subsidised price would probably be similar to their FOB and holding cost and the Chinese Embassy probably did them a huge favour.

Wouldn’t it have been better to do a big song and dance about their benevolence and GIVE THEM to China. They can write it off as charitable donations and win huge favour from the Chinese community. The additional business and goodwill they would have generated would far outway the small cost of these items. Now that would be newsworthy!

Bottom line, nice story but could have been far better for them. Also a thought for the people of the Sichuan Province in China. I can’t comprehend the devastation those poor people have suffered. Speaking of PR, what a difference between the way the Chinese Government handled this situation and the disgusting situation in Myanmar.

What is it about Facebook?

It amazes me how many people have said to me “I don’t get it” and “What is Facebook?”  Next thing I know I am receiving notifications and whether they get it or not, they are using it. In fact people are spending a fair amount of time every day using it. In December and January ‘Active Users’ exceded 8 million and page views were over 18 Billion in one month! No wonder Microsoft want in!

One thing that continually amazes me and many of the people that I talk to is that unlike many other social netowrking applications, people typically use their own names and provide incredibly detailed information about themselves that they wouldn’t dream of doing on other sites. They complete quizes and compare information with their friends such as their personal goals; would you ever, have you ever, personality tests, what music you listen to and much more. In effect giving people the ability to find out perhaps more about you than you know about yourself.

One thing that many people are still doing is collecting loads of friends like they do on sites where they might be a little more cautious. Perhaps as they play games and talk to people they are interested in or find attractive, suddnely they are laying their souls bare to total strangers.

Obviously this becomes hugely popular and various brands are starting to use Facebook as a way of marketing to and interacting with customers, for example when I search for Facebook applications I find a couple for BMW, 1 for Coca Cola, 37 for Microsoft, one for LG, 162 applications around Google, 12 for Nokia and the list goes on. I’m not making any judgements here, I love the idea of genuine personalised marketing. If companies can figure out how to market products and services that I am genuinely interested in, I am all for it and Facebook applications as marketing data acquisition tools make a lot of sense.

Many years ago I visited Arthur Anderson in Chicago and saw a demonstration of a retail system which kept images and vital statistics of customers. The concept was being able to send an email saying “Luigi, our latest summer fashion shirts are in and here are some pictures of what YOU would like like in your colours.” My future vision for that is that they will send that message with the image in a video so I can see a panorama on my mobile phone, only when I am in vicinity of the store and with an electronic coupon. The issues here are more about trust, but I’m getting into mobile marketing again and digressing as I am wont to do.

The thing I love about Facebook is that they have created an evolutionary product that keeps changing as more and more people add content and concept. You can look in the search area almost as you would in Google. Thinking about things I am interested in, I entered ‘song competition’ and found 19 events. I entered Texas Holdem and found 8 applications, more than 500 events and much more. If you are more of a golfing person, there are 47 facebook applicatins and countless events, the list goes on: politics – 95 applications, religion 25 applications, philosophy 25 applications, 14 applications for theatre and well I can go on indefinitely because while I write this blog, more applications are  being posted.

Then of course there are interest groups, discussion groups, activity groups, fan groups and being silly I even got more then 700 results doing a search under groupies!

I’m starting to get a picture of how much time this amazing environment can take up, but just as interesting how much, used wisely, Facebook could empower and entertain you. It can open doors and lead to all sorts of opportunities. Most of all, it is different. Most social networks are focussed around an activity or group, like photography, music, dating. Facebook is multi faceted and multi dimensional mirroring most people and having an endless array of new things to experience.

I’m still not sure that I can give an elevator pitch of what Facebook is.  I guess it can be whatever you want it to be and more. The question is what is it to you and what are other sites going to do to compete?

While this blog is starting to get a good following, I would love to get more readers and encouraging me to keep writing. If you feel that my blog is interesting I would be very grateful if you would vote for me in the category of best blog at the NetGuide Web Awards. Note that the form starts each site with www whereas my blog doesn’t and is of course https://luigicappel.wordpress.com.

Thanks so much for your support:)

What can they find out about you on Facebook and who is looking

I was having a discussion with my new Sales & Marketing Assistant today about permission and proximity based marketing and the impact that social networking is going to have on this market. The topic of Facebook came up and how it is different to other consumer facing networks. The key difference is that unlike ‘most’ social networking sites people use their real identities, names and other information rather than nom de plumes. This means that a huge amount of information could be available, much more than they might want known.

Who might want to use this information? Potential employers, lending institutions, the police, security services, marketing companies, loyalty companies, asociations, manufacturers, brands………………… Why? Lots of reasons, some good, some bad.

I may have mentioned in a previous blog that a major university in the UK is doing some research to find out what they can learn about their current students from Facebooks, and I’m assuming the exercise is to find out what they can learn without people’s informed consent.

It’s no secret that brands like Coca Cola are very interested in the ability to market to users of Facebook and I’m sure they will come up with some very cool games or other applications to get people to participate and then the fun begins.

Now the areas I am particularly interested in are proximity based marketing, in the long term using GPS based mobiles. Currently less than 4% of all phones have built in GPS and therefore tracking people’s whereabouts now is not a marketing proposition, but it will come. Subject to controls, and that is already looking difficult to impose, I would have no problem with a music shop sending me a text message saying “Luigi, we know you are close by, come and show us this message and we will let you have a play on our new Roland Guitar Synthesisor just in from the lab and if you by a set of strings while you are here, you can have a second set to the same value free.”

We know that in future fashion stores will have a database of their clients measurements, colours, likes and dislikes. I see in the future a scenario where a woman will get a PXT or Video message, saying “seeing as you are in the area, we’ve sent you this photo to show you what you will look like in the new autumn-wear that has just come in from Milan. Drop in in the next 30 minutes and we will give you a 25% discount on your purchase.”

But I digress as I often do. In marketing and collection of information, the theory is that you have consented to companies or organisations collecting and holding information about you and often you have unknowingly consented to their sharing your information with others. I am concerned that the definition of consent is blurring. If you put personal information onto your Facebook profile and for one reason or another people you have no direct relationship can access it, did you consent to their having it and did you understand what that meant.

For example, if you send a message or email to someone you don’t know via certain applications in Facebook, you will get a message saying that the recipient will be able to see your profile and information for 1 month, even if you don’t accept them as friends. Is that scary or what? People tell me that they don’t allow their information to be seen by strangers, but that’s what they think!

The thing about this phenomenon is that Facebook is not an application, it is a development environment that anyone can use to make applications that link in to the Facebook network through a range of API’s and Widgets with commonality in functions. In an environment like Bebo or even MySpace, you are really dealing with one company who have control of the environment, even if they allow people to add little Flash applications or plugins. Facebook is quite different. If I had the smarts, or the inclination, I could build a Facebook  application. Let’s say for example I decided to build an application for Flashmobbing. It may be a little old concept now, but I’m sure if I focussed on a High School or University as a start up location I could get hundreds of people to join up and I would then have access to their profiles.

There are lots of more criminal or sinister things I could do, but I don’t want to even mention them and give other people ideas, but I’m sure you get the gist.

I’m going to stop now, I have things to do, but this is what I’m thinking about. On the one side I would like to see a world of permission and location based marketing that knows what I am interested in and where I am, but on the other hand I want to be able to ensure that I am not pestered with spam and that my personal details remain personal.

While this blog is starting to get a good following, I would love to get more readers and encouraging me to keep writing. If you feel that my blog is interesting I would be very grateful if you would vote for me in the category of best blog at the NetGuide Web Awards. Note that the form starts each site with www whereas my blog doesn’t and is of course https://luigicappel.wordpress.com.

Thanks so much for your support:)