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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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.
The real question here is rather whether there ever was a natural law that dictated that things should be monopolized and stripped of all the profits such a situation could bring? The answer of course is, no.
Many media execs tend to think of their media business as being a natural thing like water and electricity. The fact that it of course isn’t is part of the root cause of what will lead to their demise.
The interesting bit here will be what happens when we aren’t talking about Google Glass but Google Contacts or some other company who have succeeded in making the form factor invisible.
It’s going to happen. It’s going to be a pain for everybody else, who will never know whether you’re one of those who Google and others enable to see right through you, so to speak. But it’s going to happen.
This doesn’t only apply to media companies. All companies looking at new things need to figure out whether they’re attacking a problem from a known angle in respect for how things have always been done - or from an entirely new.
The downside of attacking problems from an entirely new angle is that cultural change with the target audience may need to fall into line with the idea. But I think we have seen so many cultural changes over the last few years brought about by new technology that it’s a bet worth taking.
The traditional way of getting drawn into a game environment is if you make a conscious decision to play that game and spend time on it. But what happens when technology permits the game to immerse itself into you? Perhaps even without you knowing about it?
This will give an entirely new meaning to the old saying of ‘playing games with you’. It could be used for a lot of really cool and helpful things - but could be very dangerous too.
We, the Facebook cattle
If you combine the numbers released earlier this week that says that Facebook is losing millions of users in key markets with the more aggressive approach the company is taking towards advertising, you get an interesting dilemma; will there continue to be a huge base to grow from?
I have little doubt that Mark Zuckerberg sees himself as some sort of cowboy with a billion plus herd of cattle; a herd of cattle ultimately designed solely towards bolstering his own pockets - and those of his investors. He may say he has other goals, yet I think his actions suggest something along the above lines.
Question is how long the herd will remain entrenched? In order to go to any scale in an advertising business today, you need to take the cowboy approach, and very few of us think of ourselves as cows, so there are bound to be a clash there.
Facebook could be - or nearing - a very interesting and somewhat dramatic tipping point.
Eventhough I haven’t used my account for ages, it still feels kind of weird that Hotmail is not completely gone. For better and for worse an iconic part of the digital revolution.
