www.marketingvox.comwww.tubemogul.com/blog/
Posted by:
04 February 2009.
Members of the Moet & Chandon Table are in line for quite the treat. BOE and Moet & Chandon have compiled a stunning compilation of some of the finest dining in SA, as well as select dining choices Internationally – all presented in a compact guide.
The BOE & Moet Circle of Appreciation Guide will be reaching the hands of their new owners soon.
We are certain that they will be enjoyed!
Posted by:
19 January 2009.
Constantly bombarded with information? Want your info in a neat little package? Slideshare might just be your solution.
Slideshare is a You Tube-esque site that houses slide show presentations from various authors. Presentation topics range from Health and Beauty, to Business and DIY; sure to cater to varying interests.
Below is a presentation from the site on thinking visually:
Find out more at www.slideshare.net
Posted by:
14 January 2009.
Idea Bounty is a recent concept within the marketing/design world initiated by Quirk eMarketing.
The process behind it is rather simple. Clients post a brief, describing the creative requirements for a particular project and in turn offer a reward for the wining submission (a bounty). The brief is displayed on the Idea Bounty site together with the “bounty” that is up for grabs.
Submissions are open to the general public, both professional and amateur. In doing so the client is broadening its scope for fresh, new ideas from a number of creative minds, and creatives get to present their work without the pressure of long-term commitments.
Websites:
www.ideabounty.com/
www.quirk.biz/
Posted by:
14 January 2009.
Fire Eagle is an amalgamation of Twitter and Wikipedia – on steroids. Created by Yahoo!’s Brickhouse, it provides a GPS service for the average Joe by storing a user’s location information.
With the help of user interfaces such as Dopplr, Twitter, and Facebook, it allows the subscriber to share their current location at any given time. Location details can be updated by using a variety of services and applications such as; social networking applications, mobile devices, RSS feeds, GPS systems, WiFi, etc.
The service extends beyond simply tracking one’s location; it takes things a step further by allowing to subscribers to see if their friends are in the same area, or whether they will be in the same city. Also, by using Wikipedia, subscribers can read up on nearby landmarks, as well as view images taken in the area.
Subscribers can control the type of information they want to go out and who it goes out to. Updates can be both manual and automatic, and with the numerous methods with which to generate those updates they have freedom to choose a method that suits them.
The added benefit of getting to know the environment around them, and being able to locate friends – making planning of social activities easier, are a further bonus sure to change the misconception that technology renders us unsociable, making us unaware of any environment beyond our keyboard.
Website:
www.fireeagle.yahoo.net/
Posted by:
14 January 2009.
A hotel in New York once frequented by literary greats has reinstated its literary heritage, with a modern touch. The Algonquin Hotel has partnered with Amazon to offer a free service to guests.
Guests can look forward to a free loan of a wireless reading device called ‘Kindle’. The device comes pre-loaded with a guest’s choice of book and is also available with a list of reading classics for the undecided.
The venture allows Amazon to sample its product, while providing The Algonquin Hotel with an exclusive offering to guests.
Website:
www.algonquinhotel.com
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
05 January 2009.
Best wishes to all, from the iKineo team, for 2009.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
22 December 2008.
The Jack Daniel’s Crack Jack’s Safe website, produced by ourselves, and developed by Hello Computer, one of our key web partners, won the 2008 Viral Marketing Award at The Bookmarks, South Africa’s online awards.
Posted by:
18 December 2008.
iKineo has decided that it will gather no moss and has subsequently rolled on to new offices.
Find us in the new year at our new office in Heritage Square:
99 Hout Street
Cape Town
8000
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
10 December 2008.
If you are going to start using social media, you should at least have an understanding of what it’s about. Social media is not about the tools, the tools are only a facilitator.
Starting with the basics. Roll your sleeves up, get dirty and stake your claim:
1) Register your domain name, preferably a dot com extension. It’s also a good idea to register any variations and extensions of your domain name. Do it sooner rather than later, or you might be negotiating with a domain squatter, paying a premium in the future, rather than pennies in the present.
2) Find a good, reliable web host, and do your homework. Ask for referrals. If you are just starting out, it’s okay and economical to go with the cheap shared hosting plan, I.E Godaddy. Expect to upgrade to a mid level or higher hosting package within 90 days or less.
3) Install a blogging platform, preferably Wordpress. Find and install the necessary plugins, themes and widgets. Installing a caching-system plugin is also a good idea. You need to optimize not only just for search engines, but also page loading time. Find a simple theme and build around it. KISS is always a good rule of thumb.
4) Customize your permalink structure immediately. By default, WordPress uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them. This will severely limit the amount of traffic you will see from search engines. Change your permalink formatting to the following markup: (day and name) yourblog.com/blog/2008/10/25/sample-post/
5) Create an about page. Tell people what your blog is about, and most importantly what you’re about. Put a nice head shot of yourself on the about or profile page. Make sure to include any awards or recognition that may be relevant about the author. Give people an email address to email you, rather than an online form. Add your primary social networking badges and urls on your contact page. Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter should be a starting point. I would also create a blogroll. It can be on your sidebar, or a separate page, but it should exist somewhere on your blog.
6) Install analytic software, such as Google Analytics. It’s a good idea to have at least two stats packages installed and running. All analytic software is not created equal, they all have the same purpose, but vary in their reporting and tracking methods. Results will vary to an extent, comparison of multiple data sources is vital.
7) Give people the tools to promote your content. Social promotional buttons make it easy for your visitors to Digg, StumbleUpon, and share your content. Bring the good word back to your blog. For instance, if you’re active on FriendFeed you should install the FriendFeed comments and likes plugin on your blog.
8) Establish a Feedburner account. Provide easy visibility for new RSS subscribers, use text links in addition to graphics to promote your RSS feed You can also add an email subscription form on your site. People who do not use feed readers, will be emailed your latest postings.
9) Focus and be consistent with your blogging. Most professional bloggers get paid per post. Don’t be intimidated or feel forced to compete with them. Work at your own pace. Quality takes time, plain and simple.
10) Build as many social passports as possible. Passports are basically the profiles that you build on the various social platforms. These profiles all should be consistent, and most importantly point back to your blog or website. The goal is to create as much organic link juice as possible. The core target is search engines. Consistently update these profiles, and use tools such as ping.fm to update them.
11) Leave thoughtful and constructive comments as much as possible on other blogs. Don’t stop there, post comments on Facebook walls, FriendFeed, and Twitter. This promotes good practices in social media, and it also gives you an opportunity for exposure and link placement. This can lead into new networking opportunities and potential new friendships.
12) Establish and actively use your Google Reader account. This perhaps is the most powerful tool in any social media arsenal besides a blog or microblogging platform, such as Twitter. I will outline more in detail as we get further down the list.
13) Find the top 50 blogs in your space, and subscribe to their RSS feeds in Google Reader. Consistently be on the lookout for new blogs, and the voices behind them.
14) At this point you should already have a Twitter account. If not, establish one. If your objective is personal branding, your Twitter username should be your name. Otherwise you could brand your twitter username the same name as your blog. Remember consistency with all your profiles is key.
15) Work smarter not harder. Use the tools to help you manage and stay ahead of the pack.
16) Listen to what’s being said about you. Create Google alerts to monitor for positive or negative chatter.
17) Link out as often as possible when the circumstances permit it. If you are writing a post on a related subject, always look for a chance to reference a fellow bloggers work. This is not only good blogging etiquette, but will also put you on that persons radar in a positive way.
18) Build relationships with key influencers in all the communities and platforms that you participate on. Relationships take time to develop and grow in time. One good example on how to do this, is listed above at #17.
19) The material that you create should be something that people want to share. For the most part, it should be relevant to your networks’ interests. Create newsworthy, thoughtful, intelligent content that has immediate usefulness.
20) Become an expert in your field. Try to align and surround yourself with the best tools, and people to accomplish this. It’s all about networking, networking and networking. Take it offline when permitting. Organize local social media meetups and tweetups. Make it an effort to attend trade shows when possible.
21) Don’t knock it until you tried it at least once. Be open to trying new multimedia applications that enable self promotion, audience engagement, brand retention and participation. Experiment with podcasting, creating video, slide shows, or creating and posting any type of original user generated content.
22) Solicit not only your peers for feedback, but your audience. Ask your readers to submit feedback for site improvements, ideas on new topics to blog about, follow ups on previous topics, participation in polls etc.
23) Good content speaks for itself, and is recognized. Let others promote your content and only promote your best stuff. Ask your twitter followers to spread the word by re-tweeting good posts. Be sure to do the same for others.
24) Promote others, even more than you promote yourself. Practice this, and it will come back to you tenfold.
25) Use Google Reader to share and promote your own work, as well as your core networks content. Don’t limit yourself, share complete strangers work too. Good content needs to be rewarded, recognized and distributed through the appropriate channels and relevant communities.
26) Hopefully you will already have at least one active social bookmarking account established. Delicious, Diigo, Ma.gnolia, any of these will do. Open accounts on all three of these services. Make Diigo your primary account for bookmarking. By doing this, you can use a Diigo feature that allows you to bookmark to all three services simultaneously.
27) Establish accounts on Stumbleupon, and any social news sites such as Digg, Reddit and Mixx.
28) In addition to sharing content with Google Reader, be sure to StumbleUpon, good blogs, or websites. StumbleUpon is key for traffic and exposure. You can expect a large spike in traffic initially, then gradually it tapers off within a few days. You can expect long term traffic from SU, albeit in dribs and drabs.
29) Tag your media, especially blog posts and bookmarks. Social bookmarking, video and image sharing sites also serve as search engines, therefore tag accordingly. The traffic comes in dribs and drabs, but it’s targeted traffic nonetheless. Every click counts. Same applies to any other forms of media you create, including videos you publish on Youtube, Vimeo. Images you publish on Flickr, podcasts, etc.
30) Blog postings, bookmarks, Flickr images and so forth should all be imported into a social content aggregation site, such as FriendFeed.com
31) Be omnipresent on all the networks. I should be able to find out about your latest happenings, and or statuses if I am browsing your Facebook profile, Linked profile, Twitter or FriendFeed stream.
32) Use the cloud to your benefit. Work more efficiently by using online applications to manage and organize the workload.
33) Take full advantage of all the Google services that are offered. Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Notebook, Google Reader and so forth. These services are all web based, and offer sharing and group collaborating features. You can also import the data publicly via RSS, and an html page via your Google Reader shared link blog. Bottom line is, most of your Google data is easily accessible, manageable and integrateable with the web.
34) It can take months even years to see successes. Stay consistent and focused with your social media strategy. Adapt when necessary, and do not be afraid to take calculated risks.
35) Do not ignore the simple concept of “transparency.” Personalize your brand. People relate to people much more effectively than they can a logo or commoditized brand.
Any additional thoughts?
Read more by Mike Fruchter
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
10 December 2008.
We have completed campaigns for Tom Ford and Nokia this year, and have just recently completed a large campaign for the Nokia N78, which has gone really well. We have been using various ASP and social media tools to manage the campaigns, and the next step of for us to develop a bespoke mash-up using all the lessons we have had over the year.
Tomorrow evening Phatset is a co-sponsor of Green-T, a green fashion exhibition, in Cape Town, bringing together leading edge designers, photographers, sound engineers, and stylists.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
30 November 2008.
This is some edited ideas laid out by Tom Hayes and Micheal Malone in an article in the The Wall Street Journal
While the authors were specifically talking about marketing for online retail, their ideas have relevance to a new mindset that all marketing today requires. The authors conclude that very few of the traditional techniques of classical marketing (call them Marketing 1.0), or even of eCommerce (Marketing 2.0) will work in the world of social networks. A very different set of tools, concepts and practices is needed. Call it Marketing 3.0. Here are five:
- From loyalty to attention. Before you can win consumer loyalty, you have to capture and reward consumer attention. Old propositions – network television’s tired offer of 22 minutes of canned sitcoms in exchange for eight minutes of untargeted commercials – won’t cut it. Consumers are demanding a better deal.
Some brands are starting to flirt with better exchange rates: Virgin Mobile gives a minute of free phone time for every minute of advertising a customer accepts. Ryan Air recently announced it would offer $15 coach tickets from the U.S. to Europe, subsidized by passenger attention to advertising and in-flight sales pitches.
Smart marketers will of necessity become obsessed with customer attention in the way they once obsessed over customer loyalty. The shrewd brands will create elaborate attention-rewards programs, and incentives to break through the noise and make that critical initial connection.
- From crowds to clouds. Once you get that attention – once you generate heavy traffic to your site, gather a large league of “friends” on MySpace, or spawn a dedicated following on Twitter – how do you monetize the crowd?
Smart brands are turning their crowds into “clouds”: organic, self-forming and often self-governing communities of interest. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Frito-Lay and Harley-Davidson use their clouds as feedback loops to get better faster by obtaining good, timely, often brutally honest customer insights. And the members of clouds can become true believers; they don’t just watch your commercials, they make them.
Right now, few companies are emotionally equipped to wring the best benefits of a cloud, because the most valuable voices out there usually belong to the malcontents. In the old model, customer-service departments aimed to placate or jettison disgruntled customers. In the cloud model, the idea is to cultivate and reward them. That’s not an easy transition.
- From places to spaces. Consumers are increasingly organizing themselves into new communities – not just the big generic social communities, but myriad idiosyncratic slices of narrow, passionate interest (i.e., BlackPlanet, Inpowr and MomsCafe).
These new market spaces, or “meganiches,” may seem small, even strange at first. But when they’re efficiently targeted, they can be highly responsive, lucrative and loyal. Well-established meganiche Web sites include Gamefaq.com for video gamers, Dpreview.com for digital photography aficionados, and Howardchui.com dedicated to mobile phone zealots.
With this shift toward self-organization by consumers, national advertising campaigns as we know them will increasingly become a waste of time and money for many companies. The trick for brands is to cohabit social spaces with these consumers. Social media, and its verb form, “friending,” requires entirely new forms of advertising: bottom up instead of top down, personal rather than public, and subtle rather than full frontal.
- From memes to bemes. In the Age of Broadcast, good advertising could occasionally manufacture memes of tremendous social impact. Think of “It’s not inside, it’s on top” or “We be doing it.” If you can’t recall an irresistible or effective turn of phrase of late, it’s because it is exceedingly difficult to spread a meme in today’s
fragmented media environment. Marketing 3.0 is now the science of devising and managing directed business memes: call them bemes. Bemes are sent by members of social communities to each other and typically contain a reward or exclusive offer, which, when redeemed, also results in a reward coupon for the sender. This encourages members of social communities to propagate a “viral” ad. One well-documented beme was “The Subservient Chicken” from Burger King.
Brute force marketing won’t work inside social networks. The best online marketing now takes place among people who know and trust each other. Consider how rumors work. Like a rumor, a beme is a bit of useful information that rewards each person who passes it along. Want to be a sensation? Create a beme that consumers willingly accept and share with others.
- From silos to simultaneity. Too many retailers today persist in believing that online shopping is merely a virtual extension of real world shopping. That is a big mistake.
Rather, online and offline need to coexist, and we need to rethink how they relate. For example, to their surprise, companies like BestBuy (which even encourages customers to shop the aisles but buy online from in-store kiosks) and Macy’s are discovering that physical retailing is a perfect way to move units online. That is, the physical world has become the showroom for the virtual realm.
Retailers now must reimagine a world where consumers experience products in stores but ultimately buy them on the Web – Stores are for experiences, the network is for inventories. And what in turn prepares potential customers for what to look for in stores? Online communities.
All of this suggests that Marketing 3.0 is not only different from its predecessors, but actively undermines them. If your marketing program fails to adapt to this new world, it won’t just become irrelevant – it will actually work against you.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
29 November 2008.
glaceau vitaminwater, the iconic brand from the u.s. is soon to be in south africa, and ikineo is a key part of the team :)
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
28 November 2008.
As part of developing an overall CRM programme, iKineo was responsible for producing the Amdec Properties website. Hello Computer were our web development partners. We must express our gratitude to them for having such patience, as we had a client brief that became a moving target over many months. It is great work that we are proud of. Included in this body of work is the site for the Evergreen Retirement Villages developments and soon-to-be-live a great site for Melrose Arch the premium urban lifestyle precint in Johannesburg.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
28 November 2008.
After almost 3 years at iKineo, Franco has decided to leave the team. He has been a big part of the iKineo journey, first as a client and then as a senior team member. We wish him well in his next endeavour.
Posted by:
19 August 2008.
When the Democratic National Convention descends upon Denver next week, a fleet of vehicles provided by General Motors for the event won’t be using just any ordinary fuel. Instead, the flex-fuel cars will run on clean-burning ethanol derived from waste beer produced at Molson Coors’ Golden, Colo., brewery.
Whereas most ethanol is based on corn, Coors produces about 12 million litres of the stuff each year from beer that gets lost during packaging or is deemed below quality standards, for one reason or another. Coors says it is the nation’s first major brewer to convert its waste beer into ethanol, having begun the practice back in 1996.
At the convention, the GM fleet—which includes vehicles with biofuel capabilities and hybrid technology—will run on a mixture of fuel combined with ethanol from the Coors facility. The cars will provide transportation for numerous delegates, staff, members of the media and other special convention guests.
Check it out @ www.molsoncoors.com
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
07 July 2008.
We have been very busy in the past few weeks and it seems that the next few are shaping up in the same way. We spent some time collaborating with the capitalist punks from thunk recently which has been fun as well as seriously valuable. We are looking forward to more thunk/ iKineo mashups in the future.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
06 March 2008.
The first person from iKineo to send Joshin an email with the subject “Hidden Treasure Found” wins a bottle of Moet and Chandon. This offer is only valid for 3 days from the date of this post.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
03 March 2008.
We recently installed a commissioned artwork at our offices. Our Heartbeat is a heartshaped collection of individual team member portraits. It is a dynamic work which will grow and change with the evolving iKineo team. The talented artist is our friend Tamsin Relly and the work is a reference to her body of well-known work titled Heartbeats.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
02 March 2008.
We recently visited Lausanne to meet with the Kent team at BAT. We are working with them on a strategic engagement. We are also working closely with Intrigue. Kent’s experiential eventing partner in Switzerland.
We worked hard, but also managed to see the sights. It was a great trip to Switzerland, and I’m sure the ones to follow will be even better.
Posted by:
29 January 2008.
Coffee drinkers around the world are expected to consume almost 7 million tons of the stuff each year by 2010, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. That means a hell of a lot of spent coffee grounds to dispose of. Rather than throw the nitrogen-rich material into landfills, the global chain Starbucks has found a greener solution by giving it away to consumers with gardens.
Eco approaches may be all the rage today, but Starbucks’s Grounds for Your Garden program actually began as a grassroots initiative back in 1995. Since then it has grown steadily, offering up free spent coffee grounds to North American customers year-round on a first come, first serve basis. Grounds are packaged in reused coffee bags and sealed with simple directions for using them in the garden or compost pile, where they can help improve soil quality.
“Coffee grounds are a valuable source of nutrition for the garden,” explains Ben Packard, director of environmental affairs for Starbucks. “Reusing coffee grounds in the garden is a great alternative to disposing this rich resource from our stores. It’s a win for gardeners and a win for Starbucks.”
Indeed, now that the spotlight is shining full-force on companies’ environmental practices, this kind of approach really is a win-win for everyone. It’s relatively low-cost and easy to implement, but it means less waste in the landfills, a benefit for consumers and their gardens, and a green image for Starbucks—definitely worth emulating!
To read more visit: www.starbucks.com/aboutus/compost
Posted by:
29 January 2008.
The launch of the Gateway Imagine programme was a resounding success. During December and January we ran a massive acquisition campaign, recruiting consumers onto our database for further communication throughout the year. Gateway set us a target of 20 000 recruits during the 6 week campaign. In order to hit that target we had a team of promoters working in our Imagine promotional area for more or less 12 hours a day. Not only did we have a number of great prizes to give away, but we were also showcasing the use of biometrics – a first for any shopping centre in the country. The basic idea was that our promoters would interact with shoppers, and bring them back to the promotional area to be recruited. We then took down their basic information, and some contact details, so that we can get in touch with them in the future.
Next we used our biometric scanners to record their fingerprints, the idea being that rather than giving them a loyalty card, their fingerprint will be their access pass to the world of Imagine. So at the next event they attend, they won’t need a ticket, they simply arrive and place their finger on the scanner to gain entrance. Eventually customers will also be able to access special in-store offers and discounts by scanning their fingers when they pay for their purchases. By the end of the campaign we had roughly 20500 people on our database. Mission achieved. Now the rest of the programme begins. It promises to be a busy year, but all the latest news will feature on our iKineo blog.
To read more visit: www.imaginegateway.co.za
Posted by:
06 December 2007.
Imagine. Gateway. Just more. Gateway’s Customer Relationship Programme went live on 4 December 2007. And so far we’ve been really happy with the numbers of people we’ve achieved during our acquisition drive. In a world first, Gateway has become one of the first shopping malls to use biometrics to sign-up people to a loyalty programme. Even the Idols finalists signed up today!
The aim of the programme is to acquire people to the Gateway programme and then interact and get to know more about them. By joining, they receive exclusive access to information, experiences, events and opportunities to connect with family and friends.
The project has also been quite challenging in terms of the integration of a Data Management Tool, bluetooth, biometrics, web and SMS to wapsites with synchronised data over all the channels.
The campaign ends the 15th of January and thereafter we will start the next phase of our campaign.
Vida e’Caffe has also partnered with us in a 2-for-1 coffee deal about which we are very excited.
Imagine. Gateway. Just more.
Posted by:
15 November 2007.
The digital camera allows you to share memories with old friends and loved ones—or it would, if you ever bothered to upload those memories onto your computer!
Eye-Fi provides an alternative way to upload photos. It is a 2GB memory card that connects to your wireless network to so that you can automatically upload photos as you take them. The process is quite simple. Once you have purchased the card, you simply need to go on to the Eye-Fi website, configure your network info, and choose the social-networking/photo-hosting/blogging site you want your pictures moved to. As long as your camera’s turned on and in wi-fi range, any photos that you take will be automatically pushed to your desired destination.
At present, Eye-Fi can only auto-transfer to one target at a time, but it is quick and easy to change destinations, which ensures that your grandmother doesn’t receive photos of you trying on new speedos.
For more info visit http://www.eye.fi/
Posted by:
15 November 2007.
At recent music festivals in the Netherlands, jeans brand Wrangler offered festival goers a much needed service: laundry. And at 18 meters wide and 9 meters high, the Wrangler Laundromat was hard to miss.
People dropped off their mud-encrusted laundry and were sent a text message the moment it was ready. No spare change of clothes? Wrangler came up with a generous solution to that problem, too: they handed out black overalls to anyone who used the laundromat. Like most other pop-up ventures, Wrangler Laundromat is an exercise in experiential marketing, aimed at surprising and delighting consumers in a way that magazine ads or TV spots usually can’t.
After picking up their spotless garments, visitors are given a “Dear Mom, I’m clean” postcard to send home. All of which makes for a fun and memorable experience.
Visit http://www.wrangler.nl/ for more info.
View the Wrangler Laundromat advert on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMjbZuxRVBA
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
01 November 2007.
Joshin and Franco are presently in Lagos developing a relationship with Leo Direct (above, Dickson Eze, GM of Leo Direct), which is part of the Rosabel Leo Burnett group in Nigeria. The group is 30 years old and is one of the larget advertising and media groups in NIgeria. We are working to strengthen the Leo Direct offering with our CRM experience and expertise. The Leo Direct pedigree and deep local experience is valuable.
We have been working hard this week and have seen numerous exciting clients within Rosabel’s portfolio. The Rosabel team is fantastic and we are really enjoying the people.
The Lagos experience is unique, but the city buzzes with energy and the vibrancy of an economy on the rise. We are very excited by the new iKineo presence in this phenomenal market.
Watch this space for updates… (pics coming soon)
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
23 October 2007.
As a new Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, I recently attended the first seminar of the 4th ALI Class. It was a fantastic immersive experience – academically, professionally, and personally – with 20 other amazing Fellows.
We spent the few days at Didimala, a beautiful game lodge in the Limpopo Province in South Africa.
ALI is closely affiliated to the Aspen Institute and modelled after its Henry Crown Fellowship. ALI Fellows are part of the Aspen Global Leaders Network.
I look forward to the 3 upcoming seminars over the next 18 months, the individual project commitment, and the lifelong relationships.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
02 October 2007.
We are co-sponsors and patrons of Number Two, the second in a series of projects and events for emerging designers, presented by Whatiftheworld, which was voted in the Top 50 Emerging Galleries worldwide.
Event details:
Friday 5 October, 19h00, 208 Albert Rd, Albert Hall, Wood Stock The Number Events are an initiative started by Whatiftheworld in February 07. For an entire week furniture and product design exhibitions were held,culminating in a group fashion show of emerging fashion designers (Union of the Dull). The event was a huge success with many of the designers receiving international orders for their work.
This time things have been taken up a notch. Designers from Johannesburg have joined, to create an event that is more representative of design talent from a larger part of the country.
Expect to see product design installations by emerging industrial designers:
Adriaan Hugo Lyall Sprong Liam Mooney Xandre Kriel
A key element of the evening, from 21h00, will be The Nothing, a group fashion show, that will feature emerging talents:
Abraham + Louisa, by Suzaan Heyns – Abraham Louisa is a ladieswear label that explores the relationship between masculinity and femininty. Strict and stern versus soft and pliable. Black meets white. Sheer versus covered up. It is both strong and soft, innocent and jaded.
Dandy Savant, by Cameron Foden & Kerry Chaloner – Dandy Savant Spring Summer 2008 “This is a Summer of Violence”. Dandy Savant is a design collaboration between Cameron Foden and Kerry Chaloner. The menswear brand was conceived in December 2005 and showed for the first time at Whatiftheworld: Union of the Dull Autumn Winter 2007/2008. This, their second collection, draws inspiration from conflict. “This is an amorphous conflict, not political or personal, not necessarily definable. We are exploring isolated or fractured identities and the dual natures of protection/exposure and strength/fragility in conflict situations. We became obsessed by this theme, and how it draws negative or destructive connotations, but is a natural state. Conflict can signify or catalyse change and growth.”
White Noise, by Petro Steyn – White Noise will showcase a special neoprene project for Number Two, The Nothing. Its called something like Zonkey, a zebra and a Donkey its not street wear, avant-garde or Haute Couture, its nothing you cN WEAR something quite weird. Its abstract in shape and form.
Pwhoa, by Richard de Jager – This summer season pwhoa continues its signature organic tech feel in a ladies wear collection thats totally devoid of colour. Using the most mundane cable and rib knits the silhouette explodes in shapes that grows all over the knits reminiscent of fungi, sea anenome ,and local flora.Get ready for a new nightmare in craft!
Emerging jewellery designer DONNE BULLIVANT, will also be showing a selection of her newest work. All these installations will be on show on the first floor of the Albert Hall building on Albert Rd, Salt River.
For more information visit: Whatiftheworld
Posted by:
02 October 2007.
The media mix now has a new and viable form of print publishing – on-product magazines. The idea is simple: create a small magazine which fits onto a fast moving consumer product and distribute via grocery rather than traditional magazine channels.
The idea is now patented and has launched the first on-product magazine – a bottled water aimed at the female market with iLove magazine attached. Distribution will be focused through convenience stores, supermarkets and gas stations, significantly differentiating the products that carry them and offering advertisers a circulation far in excess of magazines sold through traditional magazine distribution channels. In three months, iLove magazine was the largest circulation magazine in Australia and the company has global aspirations, holding patents for on-product magazines attached to all common food packaging formats.
Print was the first mass medium, the first medium to take advertising, and still commands more than 50% of the world’s advertising expenditure despite the advances of radio, television, outdoor and more recently the internet. Newspapers and magazines have not had an easy time over recent years as the paid circulations of the leading publications have declined, partially due to the ability of the electronic news media to deliver more specialised, relevant and up-to-date news and partially due to the increased competition in the market. The availability of Desktop Publishing tools such as Adobe PageMaker, QuarkExpress and Adobe InDesign have democratised publishing, more than doubling the number of newsstand magazines in most countries and fragmenting the market.
Those magazines which still hold large circulations do so with cover-mounted tip ons, freebies, competitions and massive marketing budgets. While magazines target specific audiences far better than most media, these market forces have detracted from magazines’ ability to deliver large audiences.
This is where on-product magazines come in. They allow publishers to reach a much larger audience than conventional magazines without the huge marketing budgets.
As one would expect, on-product magazines have also had a terrific response from advertisers. Its the progressive, innovative marketers who have been the first to adopt the idea. But as the distribution channels improve, no doubt major marketers will want a piece of the action.
Posted by:
01 October 2007.
For a few weeks in July and August, the Rihga Royal Hotel in Tokyo ran a program for guests aged 3–12, employing them for a day.
Children picked one of five different types of work: housekeeping, doorman, front desk, floor service and kitchen, with different tasks to tackle. At the end of the day, the young staffers were allowed to choose their preferred form of remuneration: a gift certificate for books, or a passport for free ice cream every year. Rihga Royal’s informal work experience program was open to children, who had to be accompanied by a parent/guardian staying at the hotel.
Parents had the option of hiring a professional photographer to snap shots of their industrious offspring greeting guests or making an omelette. With dual aims of keeping children entertained and encouraging them to consider a future career in hospitality, this seems like a fun program for hotels.
Posted by:
01 October 2007.
Giving customers the opportunity to learn a few words of Korean or Portuguese while en route to Seoul or São Paulo, Air France introduced in-flight language instruction on selected flights this month. An interactive audiovisual language program developed by Berlitz, the service works on regular in-flight entertainment screens. Passengers can learn and practice the basics of 23 different languages, in four main lesson categories: numbers, dates, words and dialogue.
JAL and Singapore Airlines also offer Berlitz Word Traveller as part of their in-flight entertainment package, and Virgin Atlantic has experimented with Japanese and Spanish lessons. It’s a great example of trendwatching.com’s status skills trend. As many consumers are demonstrating a value shift in status from passive consumption to mastering skills. Smart companies are offering their customers the opportunity to add to their skill set. Watch, and learn!
Posted by:
03 September 2007.
Truworths is providing great value to all of its consumers by instituting the Truworths Fashion Workshops.
These workshops are setup and facilitated by Truworths, but are initiated by the consumer. So basically anyone can request for a stylist to come and perform a workshop. During the workshops, experts share their insights on fashion, trends and the latest styles. Consumers can even provide a list of topics they would like to cover, and Truworths will ensure that any and all questions are answered. It provides an excellent way for consumers to find out more about the local and international fashion industry, as well as getting tips on what to wear, and how to wear it.
For more information you can visit the Truworths website (www.truworths.co.za).
Posted by:
17 August 2007.
Giles has already mentioned our creative day and I just wanted to share my version of it.
Not only was it a relaxing, inspiring day, but most importantly it brought us all together even more as a team. This was an investment into the most valuable aspect of the business, Our ridiculously good looking team!
Giles mentions the galleries in his blog, so read up on how we were inspired by a the VEO gallery and also an artist from the ‘What if the World’ gallery, I like to refer to him as ‘The Polish Hack, who needed to be breast fed and now is a walking threat to society.’ In my experience, if I sum them up in this way, then they are destined for success.
I myself created amazing works of art at the afternoon session with our resident ArtMaster – Tamsyn. She should be the one on exhibition. Tamsyn, I think iKineo will be investing in its own gallery space soon!!!!
Special mention goes out to Debbie, who without doubt has inherited her mother’s artistic flair. I’ll take that pear sketch for a 100.
Admire the pic above, just proving to all that we actually did get our hands dirty and also attained some self confidence in front of the camera.
Thanks to all below:
Tamsyn, you are an inspiration to all of us.
Justin for sharing your vision with us and being an amazing outlet for upcoming art www.whatiftheworld.com
Joshin, also known as the Boss around these parts for fronting the cash so we could have some fun.
Planning our next one, feel free to share your ideas… perhaps an exchange with some of our partners? lemme know franco@ikineo.com
Posted by:
16 August 2007.
iKineo has decided to resurrect one of our old practices, namely: iKineo Creative Day. The basic premise of the day is that the whole team spends a day out of the office engaging in activities that stimulate our creativity. There isn’t much of a restriction on what those activities can be. Suggestions have ranged from exchange programmes with creative partners, to a day spent with top designers.
Our re-launch of the creative day concept took place on Friday the 10th of August. We set out in the morning to visit VEO Art Gallery, which is located in De Waterkant, at number 28 Jarvis street. They are currently holding an exhibition by 5 of South Africa’s most talented contemporary artists: Jenny Merritt, Bastiaan van Stenis, Kerry Murray, Jennifer Gray & Anthony Mutheki . The exhibition was fantastic, and we chatted with the owners for a while, as they explained some of the more unusual art in the gallery.
Next we made our way into Woodstock, to the newly acquired venue of the ‘Whatiftheworld’ art gallery. Justin, the owner of the gallery, guided us through an exhibition of Andrzej Nowicki, a 22 year old artist born in Poland. As we wandered around, Justin explained a bit about the philosophy of Whatiftheworld. The gallery aims to identify up and coming artists, and provide them with a platform on which to exhibit their work, and launch their careers. It also provides an excellent opportunity for art collectors who can get fantastic art at a decent price.
Finally we decided the time had come for us to try our own hand at some art work. Tamsin Relly, a Cape Town based artist, took us into her studio in Gardens, where we learnt a bit about the practical side of art. From pencils, to charcoal, to painting with wine, the whole experience was greatly rewarding, and we all left feeling like we had a shot at an artistic career.
To view more photographs you can visit our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2708755358
Contact details for all the venues we visited are as follows:
VEO Art Gallery www.veo.co.za
28 Jarvis Street, De Waterkant Tel: 021 421 3278
Whatiftheworld Art Gallery www.whatiftheworld.com 208 Albert Rd, Woodstock Tel: 021 448 1438
Tamsin Relly http://www.tamsinrelly.com/home/default.asp tamsinrelly@gmail.com
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
11 August 2007.
iKineo supports the Accelerate Cape Town initiative.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
06 August 2007.
Uwe Gutschow from SaatchiAtPlay, in his presentation in the Nomadic marketing course at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business , outlined 7 rules for success that most successful marketing campaigns are using:
Collaborate, co-create with specialists, consumers
Be relevant, connect with your audience
Be transparent and honest
Provide exclusivity and recognition
Allow participation – let go!
Intrigue, inspire, entertain, surprise
Make it easy to share
Spoken after our own hearts!
Posted by:
03 August 2007.
Blogging matters to business, whether they want it to or not. Whether you ignore it or embrace it, it will still have an impact on your business. Here are the reasons:
1. A blog is an informal, easy to maintain method for communication with your customers and for them to communicate with you – A business blog can be an informal way in which customers can really interact and learn more about your business. If it’s just more marketing blurb and not made for interaction, then rather don’t.
2. A blog is an informal, easy to maintain method to communicate with your employees and for them to communicate with you – A blog that only employees have access to can give employees up-to-date information daily and allows for more and informal interaction with all tiers of the business. News can also come from more than one source and allows for synergy and networking even for multi-nationals
3. A blog can give an informal “voice” for your company that educates and informs website visitors – it is a faster, easier way to get information to customers and employees and gives a personal face to the company by talking about culture, value systems etc. Some examples are: Google and General Motors
4. Your employees are definitely blogging – By April 2007 Technorati – a blog search engine – was tracking 70 million blogs and found that 1.4 blogs were created per second worldwide. Facebook receives 40 billion pageviews per month. You therefor want to be sure that you communicate with your employees regularly, so you can assess their satisfaction with the company and know that if there is a problem they will communicate with you, not the rest of the world. You also need to know what they are blogging to ensure that they are not giving away trade secrets or confidential information. You should have a policy giving emplioyees guidelines about what they can blog about your company or customers. Blogposts can live forever. Here is some ideas for such a policy: Corporate Blogging Policies
5. If your employees are blogging, so are those of your competitors – it is quite amazing what type of market and competitive intelligence one can find on blogs. It is a good idea to keep track of competitors’ blogs, those of their employees as well as that of the industry.
6. Potential employees are blogging too – a quick search for potential employees name on the internet, might give you more of an insight into the personality, background, mindset, values of a candidate than what an interview or CV can ever give you.
The power of the Blogosphere is here. It is immediate, interactive and a superb communication and networking tool. We suggest that you embrace it as a critical business tool.
Posted by:
03 August 2007.
The Hennessy Cognac DJ Battle is finally up and running.
You can view the site at www.hennessy.co.za. Its looking pretty cool if I dont say so myself! We’ll be adding in content as we go along, so keep checking to see the latest updates.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
03 August 2007.
We hosted another Table evening last night at the stunning Ellerman House in Bantry Bay. Hans Enderle, founder of the City Lodge group of hotels, was our featured guest. 10 Seats of Table got to spend quality time engaging with this business icon. He has a fantastic story beginning his career at age 15 as a baker’s assistant, with his first job in South Africa as a hotel receptionist.
We drank plenty of fine champagne, eat well, and finished off the evening with cognacs and engaging conversation.
The Table programme is going well this year, with a number of new Seats and engaging guests.
The next Table evening features Trevor Ncube, a newpaper tycoon, and is on the 5th of next month in Johannesburg.
Posted by:
30 July 2007.
Just got back from a great strategy and ideation session for Southern Comfort. Lots of fantastic ideas for F08 and beyond. Looking forward to seeing all these ideas come to life.
We had the pleasure of hosting this S+I and so the 3 day session was held at Ka’inga Private Game Reserve in Limpopo.The BF team came from the US, the UK and Prague to join us.
A great time was had by all and we even managed to find the time to see the big 5 (minus a rhino)!
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
30 July 2007.
Slate.com put together a 5 minute crash course in the basic 12 master formats of television advertising, first identified over 30 years ago by advertising executive, Donald Gunn. Have a look at the video on Slate – 12 master formats of television advertising. It is useful background knowledge for anyone in the marketing industry. I wonder what the 12 master formats of digital marketing are going to be 30 years from now…
Posted by:
25 July 2007.
Hi all. We are about to sendout our first issue of the new iKineo newsletter.
If you would like to receive a copy, please send your email address to giles@ikineo.com, and I will add you to the mailing list.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
25 July 2007.
Our client recently informed us that our ongoing work in creating and managing the Nokia Mobile Leaders Society is acknowledged within Nokia as global best practise marketing. We are very excited by the acknowledgment, as it is a compelling consumer engagement and relationship programme. Congratulations to the team working on the programme!
This adds to global best practise acknowledgements we’ve received over the years from Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort, Lucky Strike, and Dunhill.
Posted by:
18 July 2007.
Microsoft’s Photosynth takes collections of images, analyses them for similarities, and then displays them in a reconstructed 3D space. The system will allow users to walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
The technology works by scanning collections of photographs, which can be taken from different cameras at different times. It picks out distinctive features in each image and cross-references them against the other photographs, checking for similarities.
This allows it to pinpoint a feature’s 3D position and to also calculate where the position of the camera would have been when the picture was taken.
The program can use as few as two pictures but it becomes a lot more exciting when several dozen images are used. The 3D model will enable people to move through a scene, looking at pictures from any angle, click on specific photos, zoom in or out of a feature, and see where snaps were taken in relation to other images.
It is most likely that the photo-sharing websites will be early-adopters of this technology, since they are already a storage space for thousands of photographs. Wherever people share photos, instead of just seeing a gallery of unorganised photos, now you can pull everyone else’s photos together and make a rational sense out of it.
Microsoft have said they believe the technology will almost certainly be web-based, and people should be able to run the application toward the end of 2007.
Posted by:
18 July 2007.
Tesco is set to halve the price of energy efficient light-bulbs, cut its reliance on air freight and install more wind turbines on supermarket roofs as part of a £500 million green initiative. Britain’s biggest retailer has also pledged to label every product with its “carbon footprint” – the amount of carbon dioxide generated during its production and distribution – to help customers choose environmentally-friendly goods.
The moves, which are designed to appeal to the growing number of “green shoppers” as well as help cut Tesco’s overheads, follows a pledge from Marks & Spencer to be carbon neutral within five years. Other British supermarkets are expected to unveil their green agendas over the next few months.
The supermarket will halve the price of energy efficient light bulbs, offer more biofuels in its petrol stations and use its Green Clubcard scheme to promote energy efficient appliances, including televisions that use less power when in stand-by mode.
It will also begin the search for a universally accepted label to detail the carbon footprint of every product.
The store will also reduce Tesco’s reliance on air transport by restricting it to less than one per cent of products. All air freighted products will carry an aeroplane symbol.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
11 July 2007.
A podcast can be an extremely engaging and high-impact business-to-business marketing tool. Many companies, particularly business service providers, seek to position themselves as thought leaders in their industry by writing articles and white-papers, but haven’t considered using the same content in audio form as a podcast.
Increasingly, people are looking to have more control over their media consumption, and for content which best fits their information and entertainment needs. Companies should aim to make their communication available in as many formats as possible, in order to fit people’s increasingly complex media consumption preferences.
Some other advantages of podcasts:
Podcasts can be produced with very little cost and effort, but can be accessible by an influential global audience.
People can subscribe to receive your podcast regularly – like a newsletter in audio form.
Voice can be more effective than text alone in conveying personality and building trust.
An alternative use in large companies could be an in-house podcast which employees can download from the internal server. This could be used as a training aid, culture-building tool, or as an alternative to the usual newsletter.
MP3 players are becoming increasingly popular in South Africa, especially as many new cellphones integrate them. I would like to encourage companies to start wrapping their heads around this medium and get a headstart in building subscriber bases.
from http://daveduarte.co.za/podcasting-for-business-2/2007/07/07/
Posted by:
28 June 2007.
After some negotiations and initial chats the Coca Cola and Boogaloos collaboration is under way. Style My Coke was at the Monte Casino and Brightwater Common Skateparks this weekend, thanks to the iKineo & Boogaloos management teams.
A start to many amazing activations. Not only will we continue a relationship with skating on a national level, but Boogaloos are open to collaborations within their planned lounges and the SkateBoarding World Championships in Monte next Feb…..
You heard it here first!!!! Watch this space….
Posted by:
18 June 2007.
We’ve been working on the Jack Daniel’s calendar for a couple of months now, and the hard work is starting to pay off.
We received the first working version of the calendar last week, and an updated version today. Its looking really great, and its also really easy to use.
We’re hoping that we’ll have the final working version in the next two weeks. So keep your eyes open, and you can have your very own Jack Calendar.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
01 June 2007.
We had a valuable two day session in London working with the broader Jack Daniel’s team from the US and the UK, as well as the core South African team, developing key ideas and strategic marketing direction for the brand in South Africa.
We worked in a fantastic venue close to Spittlefields market in East London, which from the outside looks like a derelict building site, but on the inside is a funky lounge, club, and creative workshop. Apparently it is managed by Sony and is a showcase for Playstation. Great for inspiring creativity.
Posted by:
25 May 2007.
On Wednesday night we had our 7th Leadership Chat with Philip Hourquebie CEO of Ernst & Young. This Leadership Chat was held at the Park Hyatt in Johannesburg. The evening was a success with great learnings from Philip. We will soon be updating the Mobile Leaders website with key comments from the evening and a photo gallery.
Stay tuned for more info, and go to Nokia Mobile Leaders Society for more information on the programme.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
23 May 2007.
After years and months of assuming they knew what we were talking about, Debbie compiled some user-friendly definitions from Wikipedia to give some of our clients the 411 on the changing media landscape.
1. Social media
Social Media describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video. Popular social mediums include blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs.
A few prominent examples of social media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Gather.com (social networking),YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Miniclip (game sharing). These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis, and vlogs to allow users to interact.
2. User Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) refers to various kinds of media content that are produced or primarily influenced by end-users, as opposed to traditional media producers, licensed broadcasters and production companies. The term came into the mainstream during 2005 in web publishing and new media content production circles. It reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. These include digital video, blogging, podcasting, mobile phone photography and wikis. In addition to these technologies, user-generated content may also employ a combination of open source, free software, and flexible licensing or related agreements to further diminish the barriers to collaboration, skill-building and discovery.
3. Social Networking
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking website. It was originally developed for college and university students but has since been made available to anyone with an email address. People can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region. As of February 2007, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 25 million members worldwide (also from non-collegiate networks). Facebook is the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 6 million photos uploaded daily. It is also the sixth most visited site in the United States. The name of the site refers to the paper facebooks that colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.
MySpace
MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. According to Alexa Internet, MySpace is currently the world’s fifth most popular English-language website, the fifth most popular website in any language, and the third most popular website in the United States, though it has topped the chart on various weeks. The service has gradually gained more popularity than similar websites to achieve nearly 80% of visits to online social networking websites. It has become an increasingly influential part of contemporary popular culture, especially in English speaking countries. With the 100 millionth account being created on August 9, 2006, in The Netherlands and a news story claiming 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006, the site reportedly attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000 per day.
Twitter
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, the Twitter website, or an application such as Twitterrific. Twitter was founded in October 2006 by San Francisco start-up company Obvious Corp. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and also instantly delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. The sender can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone is the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, or through an application. For SMS, currently three gateway numbers are available: short codes for the USA and Canada and a UK number for international use. While the Twitter service is free, posting and receiving updates via SMS may incur charges from the wireless carrier.
4. Blogs
A blog (short for web log) is a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order. Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media. In May 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 71 million blogs. Popular South African blog search engines are Amatomu and Afrigator.
5. MXit
MXit (pronounced “mix it”) is a mobile instant messaging application developed in South Africa that runs on GPRS/3G mobile phones with java support. It allows the user to send and receive text messages to and from PCs that are connected to the Internet and other phones running MXit. These messages are sent and received via the mobile Internet, rather than with standard SMS technology. The user can also exchange messages with online chat communities like MSN Messenger, ICQ, and Jabber. Messages are limited to 2 000 characters. Because messages are billed by the amount of data sent, they are much cheaper to send than traditional SMS messages.MXit claims to have a registered userbase of over three million, about five million log-ons per day and over 100 million messages sent per day. The application is distributed internationally, but the bulk of its userbase are South Africans.
6. Podcasts
A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of webcast which, like ‘radio’, can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term “podcast” is a portmanteau of the name of Apple’s portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast a “pod” refers to a container of some sort, and “cast” to the idea of broadcasting. In other words, a podcast is a collection of files (usually audio and video) residing at a unique web feed address. People can “subscribe’ to this feed by submitting the feed address to an aggregator (like itunes). When new “episodes” become available in the podcast they will be automatically downloaded to that users computer. Unlike radio, or streaming content on the web podcasts are not real-time. There is no live broadcast of content, the material is pre-recorded and users can check out the material at their leisure, offline. Though podcasters’ web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.
Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term is an evolution specialized for video, coming from the generally audio-based podcast and referring to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device.
A phonecast is similar to a radio or broadcast television program but designed for internet transmission to a mobile phone. Mobile phone software allows a user to connect to a media server within the wireless carrier network, which is distributing (phonecasting) the phonecast, and displays the audio or video content to the user’s mobile device. A phonecast can be either live or pre-recorded for on-demand use after the live broadcast. Phonecasting differs from podcasting, which assumes a transfer or download from a desktop PC and is on-demand only. Phonecasting does not require a desktop PC and connects directly to the carrier’s network.
7. Web jockey
A Web Jockey (also called WJ or dubjay or webjay or webjock) is a term for an “on web” host or talent who selects and presents prerecorded media for a targeted audience. Analogous to a “disc jockey” for radio or a “video jockey” on television, a Web Jockey is a live personality on the internet entertaining, guiding and interacting with viewers through a show, presentation, videocast or webcast. An emerging term the WEB 2.0 for an Online Presenter, the term “web jockey” is derived from the VJ and the DJ. The principl aspects of the web jockey that sets it apart from its predecessors are that it is on the internet and also that it is interactive. The audience plays a much stronger role as a result of the onine user’s access to the web jockey, as compared to the the one-way, linear mediums of television and radio. A “dubjay” is part host, part presenter, part friend and hence has a close and personal relationship with the audience. Mistress Juliya (VJ from Fuse Television) was one of the first Webjay’s online, setting up a live webcam and videocasting a daily show from her personal computer that was watched by millions.
8. Second Life
Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, called “Residents”, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another. Second Life is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by the cyberpunk literary movement, and particularly by Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash. However, Second Life is in a virtual world class of its own. The stated goal of Linden Lab is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate. Second Life’s virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (Linden, or L$) and is exchangeable for US Dollars in a marketplace consisting of residents, Linden Lab and real life companies. In all, more than six million accounts have been registered, although many are inactive, and some Residents have multiple accounts. Despite its prominence, Second Life has notable competitors, including Active Worlds, There, and newcomers such as Entropia Universe, Dotsoul Cyberpark, Red Light Center, and Kaneva.
9. Mashup
A mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience. Content used in mashups is typically sourced from a third party via a public interface or API, although some in the community believe that only cases where public interfaces are not used count as mashups. Other methods of sourcing content for mashups include Web feeds (e.g. RSS or Atom), web services and Screen scraping. Many people are experimenting with mashups using Google, eBay, Amazon, AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoos APIs.
Posted by:
21 May 2007.
We at iKineo are getting used to the sweet sound of drilling. A new restaurant is being built below us,and although I am sure we will enjoy it when finished – we are NOT enjoying the noise right now.
We will keep you posted.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
18 May 2007.
We spend all our time focused on client work that we don’t and engagement programme with our own clients and target market, apart from the daily client service and work delivery. Over the past few weeks, in between client work, we have been working on getting our own act together. Today we decided to put a few activities in place that engage our clients, partners, and potential clients. Looking forward to seeing this in action and its results.
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
16 May 2007.
We are off to London at the end of the month for a global Jack Daniel’s strategy workshop. Selected people working on the brand worldwide have been invited to share their insights and thoughts to collectively develop ideas and strategy for the brand over the next 5 years. I am looking forward to it.
Posted by:
16 May 2007.
We are currently working on a very exciting project for Famous Grouse Malt. It’s all about Fathers Day and making your Dad feel famous. Turn around times are epic on this site- 5 days to build a website, upload tool, e-mailer and re-skin the old website.
It’s going to be great when completed. Hats off to Wireframe for helping us turn this around :)
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
14 May 2007.
We are currently developing the Jack Daniel’s Consumer Engagement and CRM strategy for the upcoming year. It’s been interesting understanding the gaps in the current strategy and particularly the challenges we have in measuring and segmenting the consumer data. We’ve formulated some exciting engagement concepts and the challenge is to craft these into a coherent strategy and engagement programme to achieve the key objectives. Interesting stuff…
Posted by:
Radarboy
14 May 2007.
What Japan thinks is an interesting blog that translates consumer surveys in Japan. While many surveys could be classified as pop, there’s quite a bit of interesting information to be gleaned here, especially concerning the mobile market.
Among them that keitei (mobile) email has strengthened parent/child relationships though this seems to be just in communication and not in building trust – there’s a lot of peeking going on (more than 1 in 10) of eachothers emails and call records.
Japan does not use SMS. Well, it is available, but it is almost never used – keitei email kills SMS hands down in both convenience – being able to send a message to your friend’s phone from your PC mail app, as opposed to going through a SMS gateway, and in number of characters and attachments allowed. Heavy use is also made of a Japanese blend of emoticons called kaomoji as well as built in graphic icons (as in the picture above) and decor mail – a kind of html mail. http://whatjapanthinks.com/2006/04/06/mobile-smilies-ヽ▽ノ/
Interestingly difference in emoticon design may have a deepermeaning than just cuteness, http://japundit.com/archives/2007/05/15/5989/
Another interesting acticle concerns Voice Over IP phones. Almost everyone who has an internet connection has a high speed connection in Japan, yet the ability to make free VOIP calls has not really effected phone habits
Posted by:
Joshin Raghubar
13 May 2007.
It was great working with the MediaCompete last week preparing for the MTN pitch. On the eve of the pitch, they sent us a curve-ball brief (we had to prove we could deal with last minute briefs), and then MTN informed us they were moving the pitch to two days later. It meant I had to stay in Johannesburg for a few extra days, but it also allowed us a little more time to develop the presentation.
The team and work came together and I think we delivered a fantastic and hopefully on-the-money pitch on Friday. Eagerly waiting for the results…
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Joshin Raghubar
07 May 2007.
We’ve been asked by MediaCompete, one of the three shortlisted media agencies, to be a key part of their pitch and client team for the humungous MTN account. We’ve developed some awesome consumer engagement programme concepts using various social media to mobilise people. The pitch is this week. Keep your fingers crossed!
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05 May 2007.
After attending the Coke Fest concerts I’ve been inspired to get back to my rock ‘n roll roots. So I went and bought ‘The Razors Edge’ by AC/DC, and ‘Appetite for Destruction’ by Guns ‘n Roses, which incidentally is the fastest selling debut album of all time.
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03 May 2007.
My Coke Fest was in Cape Town on Tuesday the 1st of May. But, while most people were there to enjoy some of the best local and international bands, we were there to sell Coke. More specifically iKineo was managing the Style My Coke stalls.
The main preparation took place from 1pm on Monday. With the help of 12 students we worked through the afternoon and into the night. Gazebos were erected, fridges were moved into place, and roughly 1440 (give or take) 500ml bottles of Coca-Cola received a design make over. As usual there were a few hiccups, such as the lack of electricity, the late delivery of stock, and the theft of our chairs. But by 9pm more or less everything was in place.
The day itself was great. The local bands (Taxi Violence, Dirty Skirts, Parlotones and the Springbok Nude Girls) were awesome, and set a great stage for the bigger international bands. Unfortunately the only international band to live up to its reputation was Hoobastank, who played some great rock, and were excellent at engaging with the crowd. All the others (Staind, 3 Doors Down and Evanescence) were a little disappointing.
All in all it was an excellent day, despite 17 hours on our feet.
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28 April 2007.
On Friday (27th of April) I made my way up to Johannesburg to get an inside peek at My Coke Fest.
Despite the hype over the last few weeks, the music was a little disappointing. The local bands were alright, with The Parlotones and the Springbok Nude Girls being the pick of the bunch. The Nudies are apparently recording some new music, but obviously opted for a ‘best of’ line-up for the show, playing some of their most renowned songs such as “Little” and “Bubblegum on my Boots”.
The international bands were a big let down. Hoobastank were great, even though I knew 3 songs out of their entire set. 3 Doors Down were okay. Staind were completely average, and Evanescence weren’t good at all.
But music aside, the event was a great experience. Never before have I seen so much skull branded clothing, so many tattoo’s or such a proliferation of black hair die. It was all a little intimidating for a Capetonian boy wearing jeans and all-stars.
Things also got a little festive with a record breaking sale of 145000 draight beers. Bearing in mind that the crowd was roughly 25000 strong, this equates to roughly 6 pints per person, or 3 litres of beer.
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25 April 2007.
We are preparing for the Cape Town leg of MyCoke Fest 2007. Our boardroom is currently jam packed with 4008 bottles of Coca-Cola, 12 Style My Coke machines, 6000 plastic ‘skins’ and some electrical equipment. Needless to say we aren’t having many meetings at the moment.
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Joshin Raghubar
25 April 2007.
Had a full day of meetings scheduled in Johannesburg today, which I had to cancel. South African Airways (SAA) seemed to have deleted my flight booking off their systems somehow. Despite the booking confirmation print-out I had in my hand, making amends didn’t even cross their minds. They always seem to let customers down!
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Joshin Raghubar
24 April 2007.
These are our shared values:
Committed to Delivery
Creativity and Innovation
Common Sense
Creating Value
Challenging, Learning, and Growing
Commitment to Each Other
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Joshin Raghubar
23 April 2007.
The Heineken global brand team recently approached us to assist them to develop a Consumer Engagement Model and associated campaign for 1-to-1 consumer engagement for the UK market. They were impressed with the work we did for BAT some years ago. We are very excited!
To be continued…
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17 April 2007.
Went to a great presentation by CIA about their new research on archetypes. A great way to understand different market segments of our country.
As stated in biz-community .com, CIA is the Cape-based consumer insight agency and is the company that pioneered the practice of video-based qualitative market research in South Africa, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.
And ten years on, the company is set to launch another first, a product that promises to shake up traditional marketplace segmentation, born out of a decade of in-depth product and brand research for South Africa’s leading brands.
Going to be presenting this to our clients early next month.
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Joshin Raghubar
04 April 2007.
It is every city’s challenge to carve out a unique brand, position and value proposition that is compelling to local, regional, and national communities alike (business and individuals).
We like to think of Cape Town as a leading international city – a global icon. I think Cape Town can still be a global icon and a compelling place to live, work, and play. However, we are never going to be an international CITY that goes toe-to-toe for positioning against global CITIES like New York, Barcelona, and Melbourne. We are not that. We are different, and for many this is better.
Let us realise we’ll never be bigger than our name – Cape TOWN – and rather re-frame this positively. Let’s position Cape TOWN as the best and the coolest TOWN in the world where everthing you could want is in close proximity- a vibrant, diverse, globally connected community with easy-living town values. Cape Town can still be a unique global icon.
This is a compelling story and an idea worth mulling over. Food for thought when developing the Cape Town brand.
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02 March 2007.
TheCoolHunter is a site that has hundreds of contributors from around the world, each of whom has their finger on the pulse of whats cool. From design, to music, to amazing promotions, there is loads of great content.
Have a look, its really interesting: www.thecoolhunter.net
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Joshin Raghubar
04 January 2007.
We put together the Levi’s Pocket Blue Film festival screened at selected Vida e Caffe’s in Cape Town and Johannesburg. This innovative fashion film exhibition, coordinated by iKineo together with CapsuleCreative, challenged acclaimed and emerging South African filmmakers and fashion photographers to make short fashion-inspired films shot entirely on the Nokia N93 cell phones. While the films are not primarily about technology, it does encourage creatives to continue to explore new ways of expressing themselves using new technologies.
The featured directors included Crispian Plunkett, Bryan Little, Patrick Ryan, Natasja Fourie, Padraic O’Meara, Xandre Kriel, and Purienne aka Berlin. They each also collaborated with leading local music talent for their respective soundtracks.
We have always strived to push the boundaries of creativity, and the convergence of media and technology. Our work with leading brands continues to be a result of a collaborative process between visionary clients, talented partners, and ourselves. Pocket Blue Films was an opportunity for us to engage and collaborate with leading & emerging creatives, exciting brands, and new media formats. We are excited about the process of the project’s development as well its outcome.
iKineo was a collaborator and co-sponsor (with Levi’s, Vida e Caffe, Frangelico, and CapsuleCreative) of the initiative. Says Franco Raffa, iKineo’s Business Director, “iKineo is a 1-to-1 Marketing & Brand Activation agency that has We hope the people who caught the screenings at Vida e Caffe were as inspired.”
If people missed the films at Vida e Caffe, they can still be downloaded from Pocket Blue Films
