Screams in the maelstrom
Shared links, quotes, thoughts and the occational idea about digital business and ideas by Mads-Jakob Vad Kristensen, seasoned digital executive and entrepreneur.
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Advertising itself may not be crippled yet, but I think ad tech is busy destroying the very ones who made the bet to build their businesses on advertising revenue.
No matter where I turn, I see nothing but dwindling returns and a need to do ever more - and incur more cost - in order to just maintain what you had yesterday. How anyone still believe in being advertising funded is beyond me (exept a couple of very obvious global exceptions).
That is not the same as saying advertising will go away, though. It won’t. Not yet at least.
Quality raises funds by itself
It’s kind of interesting that it continues to be taboo for journalists to think about how to fund the journalism that they do (I realize some have been dabbling and experimenting for quite some time, but the majority don’t), when in fact it should be a natural thing.
A natural thing? Yes, indeed. Because financial support flows to quality journalism with a real impact on the people who ‘consume’ it. Simply because it’s worth the money people decide to spend on it. It’s not about fundraising for projects - it’s about doing things so valuable that people will want to support it without you having to beg them to do so.
To me this is a beautiful equation: You serve and you get paid. And people pay because you serve them.
What’s so difficult about that?
3 issues with Xbox One
In many ways I like what I have read and seen of the new Xbox One. It’s a bold step for Microsoft in trying to dominate our living rooms now that they have pretty much lost foothold - in the places they had any - everywhere else.
But I have three issues - or question marks - with regards to the new box.
First of all it’s interesting to see Microsoft betting on the TV screen at a time where everybody is getting personal screens through the widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets. Microsoft must be betting that there is still a huge market for sharing experiences on the big screen in the home, and I think it remains to be seen whether that’s actually going to be the case going forward.
Second, I will be curious to know how this works with partners. If Microsoft is really serious about becoming the dominant player in this space, they have to make it much simpler for everybody and his wife to partner with them by writing apps (or whatever it will be called here) and making those available to the largest possible audience. Otherwise they will be leaving an opportunity for somebody else.
And finally; what happened with the WAF here? If this is going to be prominent in the living room, it needs to be beautiful to look at so even the wife understands why it decorates the room just by being installed with the TV. To me the Xbox One looks just like another box, and maybe that will be putting some people off.
(Photo: netzkobold)
The thought of endless new ways of facilitating old time consumption using Google Glass just makes me sad. Because here we have a potential paradigm shift, and the only things we can think of to do with it are simple extrapolations of what we have always done.
The only thing in this presentation that does anything for me is the first aid bit. I think that speaks more for the potential in Glass than all the others combined.
I’m convinced a major exit play for all dealing with ehealth start ups and services will be insurance companies looking to get better insights on who to insure and who not to - and ultimately boost their bottomline.
I’m not sure it will be good for regular people, though.
On one hand I’m confident that customer service and the quality of same will be one of the big differentiators going forward.
On the other it troubles me to leave that sort of thing for algorithms, since in reality it says something about having given up on providing world class service through humans. Which to me again is an admission of defeat.
Turning things upside down
Yesterday I was at a dinner where we took turns in making predictions for what will be hot or not the coming year(s). It was an interesting exercise, and there was a great degree of versatility in the discussion even though a lot of the points were really no brainers.
I also contributed with a few things I believe. For one that I think advertising for media companies will be a downhill struggle that’s unwinable given the excess supply of inventory and all the stakeholders completely making this space a blood-red ocean. And that I think customer service will be on the up as a competitive differentiator going forward; treat customers better than the competition and you have an edge.
But most of all I think there will be loads of opportunity in turning things on their head. First by making a really simple analysis: If everybody else is heading in one direction concept wise and want to serve basically the same kind of customer, how can you flip that and serve the rest? Does it make sense to try and do so? Often it won’t but sometimes it will, and that to me is where there is an opportunity to make a difference.
Another way of doing it is by stripping a case of everything you would consider given if you were to do it the normal way. The great analogy here are the old airlines versus the new low cost carriers. I think the same method of removing old ways of doing things - so old they have become ingrained part of culture - and giving it a decent spin can be applied to a lot of industries.
Finally, I think the place to be is in B2B. There are so many tired, expensive, overly complex systems out there crying for a more fun, simple and less expensive approach. The only caveat is that it’s going to be a tougher sell because you can’t sell so much based on emotions as you can with consumers. But if you succeed in finding the right approach, the prize could be huge.
(Photo: followtheseinstructions)
As a big, big fan of Tumblr, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that no matter who ends up acquiring the company, it won’t face the same destiny as Posterous did, when it got acquired; complete shut-down.
I can’t remember having ever seen or used a better integrated and well-functioning self-publishing platform than Tumblr and just to think that it could end up going away into some corporate monster is depressing.
Google has been in dire need of a design line for a long time, and now it seems like that’s starting to happen. The only question is then if it’s going to make Google a more consumer friendly company?
Personally, I have my doubts. Google has such a tradition for being a completely engineering driven company - and in a very geeky way at that - that it’s not something you dismiss overnight. There’s still some ‘sex appeal’ missing and I just don’t think they will get that easily.
But kudos for trying hard.
Of course it’s always great to be ambitious, but I just don’t see this one happening.
No matter what you do next, you always drag along a heritage from the past. And Groupon has created so many wrecks in it’s tracks from disappointed merchants, customers and so on, I just have a hard time seeing the foundation to build this $100B dream on.
