Digita1Ninja

The economic down turn is certainly something that’s not been hard to avoid; Gordon Brown made his announcements, banks have come to near collapse surviving only as a result of government bailouts, pounds tanking, etc, etc. As with any of these things until they start affecting/occurring on a personal level it’s all just typical journalistic hyperbole. 

It’s been hard to escape though and it’s finally starting to encrouch on me in more direct ways. Fortunately, and touch wood, it’s not impacted me in anyway that can be comparable to those that have lost jobs as a result of this slump and for those people I feel bad. I think the epitomy of the shocking state we’ve got ourselves into is highlighted by the “Techcrunch Layoff Tracker“. Ebay, Dell, Nvidia, Seesmic, Yahoo, Ticketmaster have all had pretty sizeable layoffs. 

The ever slumping pound crept into my life when I received the hosting bill for this very website! It normally clocks in at an even £9 something, but instead this time came in at over £12. Obviously it’s not amount of money, thank god, but it’s still the first sign of the ‘change’.  Jason Calacanis has been doing a pretty decent job of covering his thoughts and feelings on the whole downturn, in fact his email has proved to be a massively interesting read and a really honest insight into the trials and tribulations of running a start-up in this period of uncertainty. It does offer a really frank and open insight into all areas of the start-up process. I would recommend getting over to his site and signing-up. I saw a huge amount of Jason at FOWA, and the guys a brutal and highly opinionated business man but I like his frankness and whilst I don’t always agree with him I admire someone prepared to step-up and put their opinions out there.

All this rambling leads me to why I decided to have my little economic rant puff piece. Revision 3 have laid off 3 shows (Pixelperfect, Popsiren and Internet Superstar) and also cancelled distribution of Wine Library & Epic Fu. Having seen a few of the revision 3 guys giving talks at FOWA, this was really one of the last companies I expected to start laying people off. I’m led to understand that a few people have been laid off as a result of the cut backs, as well as the show’s being cancelled. They banked $8m in funding not that long ago, but I guess it’s certainly financially prudent to trim now to ensure that the 8 mil spreads across as long as this down turn lasts. If the shows weren’t finding their audience, I can also imagine they weren’t that cheap to produce, they need to be cut loose. 

You can read Jim Louderback’s blog post about it on the revision3 website, you can also check out the shows in question (which at time of writing where getting fairly strong coverage on the front page of the revision 3 website).  Right now I’m just grateful to have a job and in an industry that is normally ok in times of economic turmoil as people look for cheap and long-term entertainment. 

I hope the good people out of work right now find something soon.

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Update: Seems that Jason (mainly because I never spell his last name right) has decided to update his blog with the email that he sent around to his email list. So you can check out the article I was talking about above on his website now

There has been so much going on in this crazy 24/7 Internet world we live in, and with all the manicness at work I have failed to have time to post. However in all that stress I managed to avoid procrastination, go me! But in follow up to the previous post on procrastination I wanted to ensure that as many people as possible saw this bad boy:

For this piece of comic genius I claim no credit, check out the source at: projectsidewalk and I was pointed there way courtesy of gapingvoid. Pay them the credit they deserve and go check out there sites.  Check back soon for ramblings on gmail, iphone, apple and the crazy US election race.

 Following on from Apple’s announcement the other week of their new Macbook Pro’s, a machine that does look pretty damn sweet! In fact it made me regret a little the PC that I’m currently typing on, if it weren’t for the few bits and pieces that I want to do on a PC I would have bought one…I’m a sucker for a sexy looking design. Not that I needed much convincing but the PC vs Mac ads seemed to have a taken a turn for the “nasty”. With the ad below making a direct attack on M$ ad spend vs it’s attempts to resolve the issues with vista. Check it out;

I have to admit to it being pretty funny, and part of that probably stems from the fact it’s a little bit true. However that said, I don’t hate PC’s and in fact really enjoyed the “I’m a PC” campaign which was much smarter and better executed than the Jerry Seinfield crap they tried to run. They’re also running a second ad that take’s a pop-shot at the latest Microsoft press release about the next version of windows being called “Windows 7″

Now whilst this is great fun, etc, etc it did get me thinking as someone that works in Marketing and Brand; when did negative advertising become so popular? Think back to the day’s when McDonald’s sued Burger King when they ran the campaign with a 6 year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar where she called out McDonald’s burgers and claimed to only eat at “Burger King”

For me it’s something I’ve always shyed away from, there are so many pitfalls that come from having a purely negative campaign. I’m talking front and centre, our product is better that X specific rival for the following reasons or X specific product sucks because of XYZ reasons try product M instead, rather than some of the more standard “more X than any other product”. To openly attack a competitor means that you a) Need a really, really good lawyer B) your product does need to be 100% superior and C) You need to be able to stand up to the response. Why open yourself up the extra scrutiny that comes from negative campaigning, moreover consumers aren’t stupid and not all of them take that well to a product that chooses to “go negative”.  It’s something that’s seen each time a US presidential campaign comes around, candidates go negative against each other, call for an end to negative campaigning, continue to do it, promise not to do it again and then wait 4 years to start all over again. 

There are a limited number of benefits to be gained from negative campaigns. It does give you a very aggressive position and allows you to openly call out your strengths and play up the opponents weaknesses, it gives you a differentiation point that you can quite clearly express without having to be unique. Where as in a traditional campaign you’d look for a unique selling point to set you apart from the competition, this time you can just go they do X we do X ten times better, so if you enjoyed it with them you’ll really enjoy it with us. 

It’s certainly not a route recommended for new starters, it’s one that seems more regularly employed by those well established in an industry trying to make themselves heard against a competitor of similar size and stature. In an internet based world people are going to talk and argue about most things, do you want to fuel that fire with your ad campaign? I can’t get past feeling that a negative approach to a campaign highlights a lack of creativity, a really good & clever campaign around a solid product can generate you so much more exposure, discussion, sales and good will than anything else. I guess my view on this could be jaded by many things, not least the industry I’m in and the products I’ve worked on. 

Either way I think the apple campaign is funny, and sure it got me writing about it and picked up a bunch of coverage across the net but it still feels a little cheap. Like kicking a man when he’s already down with a pitbull around his balls and on fire, why stand over him and point out the flaws that are quite obvious to see. However I don’t think aggressive negative campaigns are going to grow, they leave to much on show and most products won’t stand up to that degree of exposure. Be clever, be creative instead…and before you ask, no not something I’ve ever been quite able to do yet but there’s hope beyond the standard.

I’m now going to go old school with a pen and the sexy FOWA notebook to mull over a random idea to pass the time in the evenings. Expect to see more in the next couple of days…

(Image come from here)