Hope to see you there! mediaPro 09
November 3, 2009 by tele2002
Corporations and Social Networking
November 1, 2009 by srtunicca
Well, before I start this blog in earnest I should point out that for us here at Tunicca the jury is still out on the whole Twitter thing. Alongside Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. the Twitter phenomenon has exploded in recent months and expanded from being a social networking tool for keeping touch with friends, to a new marketing tool for businesses who want to keep in touch with customers and market their company to prospective new clients.
As I said, I think for us the jury is out as we (like many other businesses) are yet to really gauge the effectiveness of Twitter as a business marketing tool. I was at a dinner party last weekend with some industry stalwarts and we spent quite some time discussing the merits of the Twitter phenomenon. Around the table the general consensus was: are people really that interested in what each other are “having for breakfast” or that they are “on the train home after a hard day in the office”? That sort of stuff is far too mundane and uninteresting and of course why would we want to know all of the minutiae of someone’s life when we have got enough to think and worry about with our own daily challenges. Of course, it is not for us to cast aspersions on what people want to tell each other – if James from London wants to inform his friends that he “doing the laundry with a bit of a hangover” then that is up to him. Let’s not forget of course that with Twitter we don’t really have to listen if we don’t want to.
However, from a business perspective, social networking as a whole provides companies with the ability to get much closer to their customers. Whether that is through a blog (thanks for reading by the way!) or a forum, the thoughts and concerns of customers are much more accessible and the online community can drive change and development in a very powerful way. The turnaround of Dell from unreliable supplier to respected market leader is chronicled in Jeff Jarvis’s book ‘What Would Google Do?’ and it is clear that Dell’s success had a huge contribution from the blogging community. And it was Dell’s eventual participation in this community and was a fundamental driver in their success story. That’s the archetypal example of social networking making a real difference not just to a company but also to its consumers.
But what happens when a corporate misunderstands the whole thing. In Jarvis’s book (and Juliette Powell’s 33 million People in the Room) the idea of corporations opening their doors wide to their clients is expounded – social networking gives companies the opportunity to allow their clients not only to help them to improve their customer service but also influence the development of their product portfolio. For once consumers can make very powerful, collective comments (the power of the online community should not be underestimated!) but more importantly the supplier, if they are brave and embracing, can listen and be truly driven by the needs of the market.
Which leads me on to the point. A certain Pre-media vendor has clearly only recently cottoned on to the fact that everyone is busy blogging and tweeting and has obviously felt the need to jump on the bandwagon for fear of being left behind. However, this is where it all goes very wrong. Their attempts at tweeting merely involves them setting up some kind of script to tweet every single press release from the past 5 years – and I can tell you that is a lot of tweeting! I for one had to stop following as it was driving me nuts – I am sure others will follow me in deserting. And that is a shame because I am sure that they have relevant and interesting stuff to say on Twitter. But I feel that they have entirely misunderstood and missed the target and the results are somewhat unpleasant. But fundamentally, they have failed (as yet) to open the doors to their business!
By the way all you Twitter fans, we are @tunicca if you want to follow us!!
(Tunicca would like to make it clear that no babies were harmed during the making of this blog)
Author: Sean Runchman
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
“BPOs must reposition themselves to sustain pre-eminence in e-publishing”
October 30, 2009 by tele2002What a great article, I’m not really into aggregating other people’s content, but I have to share this one with you.
Innovation – The Patent Test
October 30, 2009 by tele2002
I’ve read an article today and been researching over the last few weeks how patents could affect the world of pre-media, the one I read today is about how Denizen has flexed it’s muscles with it’s patent 6,859,936 by suing media agency Mindshare for incorporating the brand Vaseline into the TV show Maneater, so my question:
Is it possible to have any innovation at all without it infringing someone’s already registered idea?
When corporations have the power and resource to register all of the ideas that their employees have, how do smaller companies, or entrepreneurs manage to provide changes that accelerate the world of pre-media. Are these registered ideas really “squating” on our ability of us to continually expand and bring to market new products that are current to today’s environment, or are they hoping to cash in on our ability to have a similar idea that works where they couldn’t….
So while I was doing my research, I decided to look for my kiosk idea and see if anyone had already filed and had issued a patent on a similar idea…. sure enough there one is registered to Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. 7,268,901
This patent was filed in 2001, way before the internet had matured, way before communication networks were cheap enough to provide high speed connections, way before printing technology could provide colour print at the speed available from HP themselves and a very long time before the ability to report news around the world as it happens to the masses was just common practise.
So where would that put us, our idea is based on modern technologies, the modern need to change the newspaper delivery methods, the need to reduce the carbon footprint and the need our consumers to decide what they read.
What happens when two completely unrelated people/companies develop something that is essentially the same, yet one files for a patent and has it issued?
Do we need to check the patent list every time we have an idea? Might save us getting sued!
Author: Gary George
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Dynamically published – who’s brave enough to break the mould
October 29, 2009 by tele2002
So these are troubled times, but there are lots of opportunities for renewing the strategic direction and innovating your businesses. Many of you have scanned the market for ways to dynamically produce your work and offer more services to your clients. The technology is available to you that would revolutionize the way you service your clients and the speed in which you are able to turn pre-media output channels around. Yet is there anyone who is prepared to break the mould and step outside the comfort zone of desktop applications or template based webpage workflows?
Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Quark & Avairy are moving their applications on-line, workflow management interfaces are being delivered via the browsers and pre-media output channels are expanding – yet which pre-media companies are utilizing the available technologies to change their business models?
Technology is nice, but new business models change the world. Michael Josefowicz
When we look at the different market verticals, are we able to innovate each of them by exploring how they approach different problems?
Companies like Marklogic are stepping in and providing innovative solutions to the publishing arena and revitalising the way content is handled and delivered. Markzware have developed ways to extract content from our working document to enable us to index and search, then ultimately re-use the content. Moonpig has shown how manufacturing processes allow for single personalized content to be produced efficiently.
But why is it the new entrepreneurs that are providing us new ways of production and not the companies we employ to provide us services. How many pre-media companies can boast they have “Similar Image” search capabilities in their portals the digital asset managers they provide for their clients? You can rest assured that the clients will start asking for it now Google offers it to them for free.
Brands such as Danone are cashing in on the ability to aggregate users freedom of expression by allowing them to upload their own images to be printed on Danette pots in a bid to capture the consumers loyalty. What are you doing to capture your customers’ loyalty?
Pre-media is evolving, technology is evolving, people’s needs and requirements are evolving, but are you bold enough, insightful enough and innovative enough to evolve your business model to survive?
Author: Gary George
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
mediaPro09
October 29, 2009 by tele2002
Survival of the Fittest
October 27, 2009 by tele2002
Been an interesting couple of weeks for me – I finally took some holiday and immediately fell ill with E-Coli – without visiting any farms! I have to say not the nicest illness to contract, but hey over that now. While I was away I tried so hard to keep away from the computer and blogging but couldn’t help but notice how my daily google alerts are now extremely frequent with the term Pre-media. It seems to have become synonymous with Pre-press now as all news reports on Pre-press companies appear to refer to them as Pre-media companies as well…..
Anyway, recently we have seen Adobe finalise their acquisition of Omniture for 1.8bn USD (well someone hasn’t felt the effects of the recession!), their beta release of Adobe Photoshop for the iPhone (something I will try and cover in another blog if Adobe ever release the app in the UK!) and some high profile web based companies press releasing the use of Adobe technologies under their bonnets. The competition is also hotting up for Adobe as Avairy.com has secured funding to expand their online graphic engine services as a direct attack on Adobe Online. If Avairy do well then they are prime to be snapped up by one of the big market players (Microsoft, Apple or Google). Hey, you never know Adobe might even make an offer if the Competition & Monopoly Committee let them!
Right, now onto business; something that caught my attention on the first day of my holiday (while I was waiting for NHS Direct to call me back) was a story on BBC Breakfast about supermarkets using their power to drive down prices in the supply chain yet they still turn huge profits. Their maintain that the consumer wants better prices, yet the executives get huge salaries and huge bonuses. I was thinking this mirrors what the print industry is suffering at the hands of the big players in the industry. Saying this over the weekend I heard a story of how 2 major UK based Pre-media companies who are undercutting the competition to win the business even though it would mean they would lose money on the work. Well, I say they would loss money, but actually they would put pressure on the supply chain to maintain their profit while driving others to the edge of extinction.
During a recession we see that the survival of the fittest really comes into effect and especially in the print and pre-media world. But the fittest used to be those who were big and had huge buying power, but now the fittest has transformed into those who are small and well managed. I described it this morning as layers in a cake, as the big companies grow managers justify the need for more staff or more managers to service the client and this is all well and good whilst the income is high and everyone is happy. However, as that income drops the managers look for more efficient ways of producing the same work and cutting costs from the bottom up, but at the bottom is the foundations of the business and this is where the bread & butter is produced. Yes make it more efficient, but make it efficient with a view of cutting out layers of the cake, not the foundations of your business.
Credit to Scott's Blog site for this image
I’ve seen, heard and experienced this – where complete layers have eventually been removed from an organization. At the time fear and panic about survival drive this, but that fear and panic is more about change and managed properly that change will be embraced by the remaining layers. When your bread & butter workers understand the value they bring and feel the effects themselves then you will generate better business. But if your workers hear that Mr Joe Bloggs manager is getting an XXXX bonus when half of them are about to be made redundant then the moral of your workforce drops to an unimaginable level and that’s when your clients suffer.
Author: Gary George
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Shameless Advertising Part II
October 16, 2009 by srtuniccaOK, we have to admit we quite enjoyed the irony of posting the blog ‘Shameless Advertising’ right after a posting complaining about the blatant advertising that UK newspapers expose their users to. Apologies to those of you who look to us for comment, debate and views, but we strongly defend our right to self promotion on this blog 
And that leads me swiftly on to ‘Shameless Advertising Part II’ (which at least includes some views and comments on the current economic climate)…
As you can probably tell we have been asked a lot recently for guidance regarding the purchase and implementation of systems and this is all rather pleasing as we see it as a sign that people are finally coming out of their recession-proof bunkers and blinking in the bright sunlight of opportunity and growth. Now I fear that this could be heralding a false dawn and indeed there is still much caution in the World (apart from in certain banking institutions, but don’t start me on that!) as companies are nervous of signs of a recovery tricking them into making a wrong move.
In most quarters it is felt that there is still a long way to go to the full recovery that we are all keen to see. However, the optimistic among us are hopeful that the perceived ’green shoots of recovery’ don’t get struck down by a sharp killer frost this winter as the recession bites back with a vengeance.
However, under the gentle rays of this possible new dawn it is rather fitting that there should be an exciting new show in London at the beginning of November. MediaPro 09 is all about technological innovation for the world of Pre-media and Tunicca is pretty pleased to be participating with a stand to show our wares. OK, I admit that it is a small stand as we of course have no hardware or software to display.
Nonetheless we will be there and I am proud to say that this is the first trade show that Tunicca will exhibit at and marks somewhat of a milestone for the company. We hope that all of you UK based pre-media people will find time to make your way to historical Old Billingsgate for what promises to be a timely and interesting 2 day show.
Shameless Advertising
October 9, 2009 by tele2002
Is the UK Cashing in on Advertising?
October 8, 2009 by tele2002
My old friend Andy Fraser happened to be over in Germany last week when he dropped me an email on our whole POD print concept. He found in a newsagent over there that they are already providing POD for the international editions of our favourite papers. And you know, I have myself experienced these POD papers when staying in Europe a few weeks back.
When sitting down for breakfast I picked up a copy of the New York Times global edition. This must of been printed locally and delivered to this and probably 100 other hotels around the area. The one thing that struck me as odd and pleasing in the same breath was the lack of advertising in this paper, other than a few scattered ads for subscribing to the global edition and then just one…. yes ONE paid advert for a watch. The following morning unfortunately someone else had got to the NY Times before me, so I picked up The Independent International Edition and sure enough the Brits had fully cashed in on the advertising with a total of 22 ads in the 48 pages of the paper. And we’re not talking about little classified ads here, we’re talking full page or half page in your face ads. So being that I found this a little intrusive with my breakfast, I proceeded to lookup the subscription price for The Independant and since it is clearly being supported by advertising, I was expecting a pretty low rate. But no… £894!! for the Monday to Sunday editions…. Well cotton my wee little socks, not only are they taking that daily advertising revenue, but to obtain the copy you are paying a big subscription fee (lets work that out…. emm oh over £2.40 a paper, thats over 5p a page since the edition I read only had 48 pages…..)
So, the hotel (or me if I subscribed) would have paid out all that money, to be forced to read untargeted UK based advertising (not that useful when you are in Germany knowing that you can get your tomatoes half price at Sainsbury’s that day) and filled with news that has been editorially altered to be shorter for a smaller paper!
Is there a Cognitive Mismatch Between Newspaper Execs And Newspaper Readers? I’ve been following the article on TechDirt with the same title and adding my own comments, but it actually brings me back to my own A Possible Future For Newsprint series where if you are paying for the content, why not choose the content you want to read.
Author: Gary George
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
