Andrew Curry
Opinion
10 August 2012
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My colleague Andy Stubbings went to hear Taschen Books' Julius Wiedemann talking about publishing's rocky road to a digital future recently, and it turns out that the industry has something to learn from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's five-stage model of grief : (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance). As he writes, "It wasn't exactly clear from the talk where publishing is on the DABDA journey (inevitably, the projector was malfunctioning), but it appears we have gone past Denial ("Of course the traditional newspaper model is viable!") through Anger ("How dare people find information for free that they used to have to pay for!"), and is now somewhere into Bargaining ("OK, you can read all our magazines as much as you want online, but only by subscribing to our 'digital newstand' via your iPad")."
Opinion
02 August 2012
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Bradley Wiggins just keeps on winning – in a way never seen before by a British cyclist. And for those of us who have been following cycling for years, it's still a surprise. Yesterday's time trial gold was the cherry on top of the huge cake represented by his Tour de France win. But it also reminds us that winning is a team business.
Opinion
02 August 2011
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It's easy to get wrong-footed by the speed at which social networks are growing. How should marketers or advertisers respond? Are we going to get left behind? Over at The Futures Company blog this week, my colleague Alex Steer has been previewing some new analysis we've done on both the constants in social media, and the points of tension - the 'pivot points', as we've called them. The constants first: social media is social, and will remain so. We've boiled this down to Four Cs. People use online channels to communicate (stay in touch), to create/curate (originate and pass on content with their stamp of approval), to collaborate (work towards shared objectives), and to consult (give and receive information, advice and opinion). These four activities are the heart of the user value in the online space.
Opinion
04 July 2011
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Watching The Social Network again on DVD I was reminded of my trip to see it in the cinema. The film itself, of course, portrays one of the founding myths of social media: the outsider who uses his mastery of code to set information free and bypass those in power and authority as he goes. But digital technologies are also about control.
Opinion
11 November 2010
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I was invited to Munich earlier this week by the insurance group Allianz to talk to its Brand Council about the brand in the age of the digital conversation. The company's just launched its 'One' campaign, which promotes engagement with consumers through sharing. The emphasis is on real people in authentic situations giving or sharing useful advice or a valuable experience. Digital and social media are a central part of the process.
Opinion
14 July 2010
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Before the World Cup recedes into the distance, I wanted to mention a post from Cape Town by my colleague Alex Steer on global brands and new consumers. The whole piece is at The Futures Company's blog, but in a line, the message is that global brand strategies and new consumers in emerging markets don't really mix.
Opinion
28 May 2010
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The current row over Facebook's successive changes to its privacy settings has several strategic implications for the way that businesses - not just in the digital sector - relate to their customers. In case you've missed the story: Facebook has radically reduced the default privacy settings for its users since the autumn of last year, meaning that users are likely to be sharing far more details across the internet than they previously did. (I've written about this at length elsewhere, but a visit to ouropenbook.org gives a sense of the scale of it.)
