Dennis Publishing, publisher of Auto Express, Evo, The Week and Expert Reviews, can today announce the launch of new car review website CARBUYER.CO.UK.

Designed to help users decide which new car to buy, wherever they are in the buying process, CARBUYER.CO.UK is the first motoring website to combine expert reviews, aggregated content and exclusive video road tests with a powerful search engine. The site features reviews of every new car on sale in the UK and provides a comprehensive and reliable rating system for each new model. Reviews offer simple star ratings and detailed analysis of key characteristics, including on-the-road performance, comfort, reliability, practicality, value for money and running costs.

Pete Wootton, MD of Dennis Interactive said: “CARBUYER’S user-centric design has been developed with the input of over 6,000 new car buyers. In addition to our extensive user testing programme, we engaged key motoring manufacturers and the agencies that represent them to help shape our new product. This innovative approach has ensured we will deliver a product that offers rich commercial opportunities in a quality branding environment.”

CARBUYER.CO.UK uses information backed up by the latest facts and figures from JATO – the data provider to the motoring industry, allowing visitors to the site to access complete specifications for every new model variant.

Dennis Publishing has invested heavily in video content for CARBUYER.CO.UK, allowing users to watch the cars being test-driven by the site’s presenter, Mat Watson. The CARBUYER YouTube channel, launched in August this year as a taster to the new website, has already received more than 150,000 views and provided essential feedback from consumers ahead of the launch of www.carbuyer.co.uk.

To mark its launch, CARBUYER.CO.UK has joined together with Mindshare to broker a launch campaign for their motoring clients – Ford, Mazda, Land Rover, Jaguar and Volvo.

Victoria Woodall, Business Director at Mindshare, said: “Mindshare are very excited to be the launch partner with CARBUYER along with our portfolio of car manufacturers, especially since the opportunities with in-market car sites have remained relatively unchanged for some time now. We see this as an opportunity to find out first hand how this new approach to navigation works for the ‘great undecided’ audience and to validate the role such a site plays amongst the other well established sites in the motoring sector.”

The site, which launches on Monday 1^st November, also includes an easy-to-use car finder tool, plus the latest market news and independent buying guides.

Online retail spend is increasing year on year, according to a new report by online payment service PayPal (conducted by Experian). In the 18 months up to the end of 2010 online shopping is the only area of retail likely to record sales growth, helping to rescue the UK’s retail sector from recession. The survey estimates over £4.5bn will be spent on electronic products in 2010 and this will rise in 2011.

As a response to this increasing spend and the increasing demand for objective and honest buying advice across a vast range of technology products,Dennis Publishing have launched Expert Reviews. This new site, designed and developed by the in-house team is the result of Dennis’ expertise and experience of publishing in this highly competitive sector.

The aim of the site is simple – make it easier for users to find the products that match their needs, compare them with other products, take advice from our large team of in-house experts, read aggregated reviews from previous buyers of the product (using buyer reviews provided by Reevoo) and find the best price.

Expert Reviews’ new comparison engine enables users to compare multiple reviews and confidently make a buying decision. The innovative filtering engine enables users to select exactly what they are looking for and compare products to create their own buying shortlist, making it easy for users to find the products they’re looking for at the right price.

The impressive volume of product reviews housed on Expert Reviews means that from day one of launch we are the definitive technology buying guide. The reviews will be added to on a daily basis – the depth and breadth of our product coverage ensuring that consumers who are eager to get their hands on the latest technology and gadgets will visit the site regularly. Products reviewed include laptops, TVs, digital cameras, gadgets and other consumer electronics, with many categories containing hundreds of products.

David Ludlow, Expert Reviews Group Editor said, “Finding the right product at the right price can be incredibly difficult, but our filtering engine and huge database of in-depth reviews makes it easy.”

Expert Reviews will offer advertisers new and exciting ways to reach their customers. We will be developing integrated advertising solutions for clients – innovative bespoke advertising solutions covering everything from standard creatives through to partner focus microsites, webcasts and digital magazines. Rupert Standley, Marcoms and PR Manager from Toshiba says “Toshiba are delighted to partner with the launch of Expert Reviews and believe the site really compliments the launch of our new Satellite T130 laptop.”

Expert Reviews will build on traffic already established from our leading Dennis technology brands including Computer Shopper, MacUser, Computer Buyer and also the digital magazine, iGizmo. The site will also draw from Dennis Technology portfolio’s four million unique users a month.

An online video guide showcasing some of the core new features of the site can be found at: www.expertreviews.co.uk.

Only 9% of viewers find overlay video ads intrusive, finds ITV

Only 9% of people find overlay video ads to be intrusive and detract from their overall viewing experience, according to a report by ITV. (via www.nma.co.uk on 1st Dec 2008)

‘We are punk to their stadium rock’: the independent news sites challenging regional papers

Michael Casey, former regional newspaper journalist and creator of video news site YourThurrock.com says ”There must be an alternative way to express the news and in 2008 for the news to be able to express itself”. While he acknowledges the staff shortages and budget pressures in local media that have resulted in many journalists being more office-bound, Casey has rejected his desk and is currently converting a van into a branded mobile journalism and video editing suite. (via www.journalism.co.uk on 1st Dec 2008)

Press Gazette’s guide to content management systems

Business publisher Centaur has just spent £1m on its new CMS provided by Abacus E-Media, Trinity Mirror has just spent £7.5m on its Midlands newsroom complete with new CMS technology (albeit with the associated cut of 65 jobs). This technology is seen as so important that some news organisations claim it means journalists can be done away with. (via www.pressgazette.co.uk on 1st Dec 2008)

Just f**king Do It (An ABC of guardian.co.uk’s R2 project)

JFDI… which stands for “just f**kling do it”,was the unofficial name of one of the development teams which sat alongside the R2 [new Guardian CMS project] teams. The JFDI team handled very short turnaround work. Mostly this consisted of bugfixes, but it also included minor enhancements. It worked in a traditional Agile manner, but due to the size of the individual tasks work was reprioritised every day rather than every fortnight. (via Inside guardian.co.uk blog by Nik Silver on 1st Dec 2008)

Trinity Mirror to cut 78 jobs in north-west restructure

Trinity Mirror has announced a restructuring of its titles in the north-west of England and north Wales, including the merger of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post newsrooms, which will lead to the loss of 78 jobs. The proposals, outlined to staff today, will be introduced before the end of March next year, and will see journalists across the division grouped into four centralised multimedia “hubs”. (via www.pressgazette.co.uk on 1st Dec 2008)

Iliffe buys East Midlands free papers from Trinity

Independent regional publisher Iliffe News and Media has bought the Herald and Post series of free weekly newspapers from Trinity Mirror. The titles, which have a combined distribution of 113,000, are the Northampton Herald & Post, the East Northants Herald & Post Series, the Brackley & Towcester Herald & Post and the Market Harborough Herald & Post. (via www.pressgazette.co.uk on 1st Dec 2008)

Message for Obama – the best pictures?

The inspiring (and often hilarious) Message for Obama Flickr group, lovingly turrned into a book by The Guardian’s Head of Communities, Meg Pickard. Meanwhile, the Guardian picture desk have made a gallery of their favourites.  (via Inside guardian.co.uk blog by Sean Clarke on 28th Nov 2008)

Regionals fear £15m planning application ad revenue loss

The Newspaper Society is seeking an urgent meeting with the Government, arguing that new plans on planning applications could result in newspapers losing £15m a year in ad revenue. (via www.mediaweek.co.uk on 28th Nov 2008)

BBC claims local video strategy was misinterpreted

The BBC Trust’s rejection of the BBC’s local video strategy last week has led to the plans being misinterpreted, according to Pete Clifton, head of editorial development and multimedia journalism at the BBC.  (via www.nma.co.uk on 28th Nov 2008)

Yell.com adds more local content while BBC plans set back

Yell is rolling out a series of ultra-local sub-sites featuring town and city information as part of a move to ramp up content across its website. (via www.nma.co.uk on 28th Nov 2008)

How to Grow Your Twitter Followers to Over 10,000 in a Week

It’s never too late to build a large, loyal Twitter following-if you think outside the box. In this guest post, Matthew Magain from SitePoint shares some tips on how you can grow your Twitter following to more than 10,000 in less than a week. (via www.twitip.com on 27th Nov 2008)

Newsquest axes editors and publishers at northern titles

Newsquest has parted company with the editors, publishers and managing directors of several newspapers in the north of England as part of a management restructure. (via Press Gazette: Regional Newspapers on 27th Nov 2008)

Home page (An ABC of guardian.co.uk’s R2 project)

There are two major aspects to the home page’s flexibility. As part of the R2 [new CMS] project they created a variety of templates which could be switched in largely at will. Also, any one template has internal logic which changes the layout subtly according to where a production staffer marks a break or places an image or video. (via Inside guardian.co.uk blog by Nik Silver on 27th Nov 2008)

MEN Media appoints Revenue Science

MEN Media, publishers of The Manchester Evening News and part of the Guardian Media Group, has appointed behavioural targeting specialist Revenue Science to provide targeting opportunities across its sites. (via www.nma.co.uk on 27th Nov 2008)

Build Your Own Slideshow with s3Slider jQuery Plugin

The s3Slider jQuery plugin is made by example of JonDesign’s smooth slideshow script. The author needed something like that for jQuery. Since he didnt find it after a small research, he decided to build it by himself. This script is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5. So you can use it in all you projects even commercial ones. This plugin has been tested and is known to work in Firefox, Opera, Safari, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. (via WebAppers by Ray Cheung on 26th Nov 2008)

Flexible advertising (an ABC of guardian.co.uk’s R2 project)

All pages have been designed to display ads of various sizes, and reshape themselves accordingly. This is most obvious on some of the right hand ad slots — sometimes you’ll find them displaying an ad that’s a squareish rectangle, sometimes you’ll return to the same page and find another that’s markedly taller. Also, the guardian.co.uk home page sometimes has ads on it, and sometimes doesn’t. The ad sales team decided not to fill certain ad slots just because they could, thus ensuring there were periods when the guardian.co.uk home page was ad-free. Apart from any other advantages this means that when ads do appear they have more impact, and of course it increases the value of advertising on the home page. (via Inside guardian.co.uk blog by Nik Silver on 25th Nov 2008)

Leading regional publisher M.E.N. Media Takes Digital Ad Sales In House

Leading Regional Media Company M.E.N. Media, publisher of the Manchester Evening News, has announced that it is to bring its digital sales in-house.  The move will allow agencies to deal directly with the Company when developing online campaigns for its clients. (via www.prcompass.com on 25th Nov 2008)

Reuters creates role of comment editor

New agency Reuters has beefed up its comment team by appointing founder deputy editor of Breaking Views Jonathan Ford to the new job of commentary editor. It is the latest move in the London-based agency’s recent policy of broadening out its service to be about more than just breaking news. (via www.pressgazette.co.uk on 25th Nov 2008)

Twitter rejects $500m Facebook offerc

Talks have broken down in Facebook’s bid to acquire Twitter in exchange for $500m (£330m) worth of stock after the two companies failed to agree on the stock’s value. (via www.brandrepublic.com on 25th Nov 2008)

An unformed theory: newspaper business models

There’s a lot of talk about new business models, about the market not caring if we make money, about there being no right to a job in a newsroom. There’s a lot of talk about regional newspapers having less than five years. (via Subbed Out? by Sam Shepherd on 12th Nov 2008)

How many 25-year-olds you know buy a newspaper?

“I hate to admit it, but newspapers as they exist today have probably had their chips. Maybe not tomorrow, or next month, or even next year – but it’s coming”.  Why? Well as Ryan Sholin demonstrates, the newspaper buyers of the future don’t buy them. A weekly publication, maybe. A daily newspaper, when they can get the news that’s relevant to them online? Nope. (via Subbed Out? by Sam Shepherd on 3rd Nov 2008)

Regionals must abandon ‘one size fits all’ attitude to online

“Frustrating, aren’t they? Regional news websites, I mean. They all look the same. ThisisLincolnshire. ThisisGloucestershire. ThisisBORING. What’s wrong with LincolnshireEcho.co.uk? Absolutely nothing, that’s what. By giving seperate name and feel, you’re distancing it from the print product.” (via daveleejblog.com on 24th Nov 2008)

Local online news video – where do we go from here?

With the announcement of the BBC Trust decision not to allow the BBC to go into English ultra-local news journalism, a huge amount of attention has fallen on the existing regional press. Martin has picked a selection of 20 titles with websites – the twenty titles that had the highest circulation according to these August 2008 figures. This includes papers that were not just in English areas that would have been affected by the BBC’s plans, but also titles from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (via currybetdotnet by martin.belam@currybet.net on 23rd Nov 2008)

jQuery.popeye – An Inline Lightbox Alternative

There are a ton of Lightbox scripts used on an ever-increasing number of websites. However, Lightboxes are usually not consistent with the look & feel of the rest of the website, and they still feel like a kind of pop-up, since the image leaves the layer of the web page and opens up a new layer. The author of jQuery.popeye wanted something more integrated in the flow of the web page – a box with a small preview image with caption, the possibility to flip through an array of more thumbnails and, of course, to show an enlarged version, all in one place. Lightbox offers that. Moreover, he wanted the box to stay anchored to the page layout and not hovering above it disconnectedly. The way to achieve this was writing a script which would fix one corner of the enlarged image to the exact spot where the thumbnail had been. (via WebAppers by Ray Cheung on 23rd Nov 2008)

Reevoo’s iphone app comes into its own in the Crunch

With over 20,000 reviews on under the company’s belt, Reevoo is a service that may be influencing what you buy, and what you don’t buy. Founded in 2005 (previous coverage here) the British based startup recently released an iPhone web app. A native application is yet to shows its face, so we’ll be taking a look at the iPhone web-app. Search for a product you may be interested in and you’re given a list of related products. You’re given a clearly displayed rating on every listed item. It’s convenient and saves time. If you’d like to go deeper when researching, or if you wish read those staple reviews the company is built upon. You simply select a result and you’re presented with a clear list of reviews, a guide price and a product image. The format is clean and the information is plentiful. (via TechCrunch UK by Guest Author on 24th Nov 2008)

SearchWiki: make search your own

SearchWiki is a way for you to customize search by re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting on search results. With just a single click you can move the results you like to the top or add a new site. You can also write notes attached to a particular site and remove results that you don’t feel belong. These modifications will be shown to you every time you do the same search in the future.  The changes you make only affect your own searches. But SearchWiki also is a great way to share your insights with other searchers. You can see how the community has collectively edited the search results by clicking on the “See all notes for this SearchWiki” link. (via The Official Google Blog by A Googler on 20th Nov 2008)

Archant and Telegraph in geotagged search launches

Archant’s EDP24 site has released a new local business directory complete with search results plotted on a Google map, which can be refined by distance . (via blogs.journalism.co.uk on 24th Nov 2008)

BBC’s local web video plans derailed by Trust, North West faces ‘repercussions’

The BBC’s controversial plans to launch a £68m web-based local video service hit the buffers on Friday, as the corporation’s governing body, the BBC Trust, rejected the proposals.  (via How-Do on 23rd Nov 2008)

Paul joins Pod1 from consumer magazine publishers IPC Media, where he was responsible for digital strategy and new product development centred on mass-market female titles. Prior to this, Paul worked across a series of roles in IPC, latterly heading up their internal digital department which he formed in 2002. Over the next four years, Paul was responsible for launching over 30 new websites at IPC including Marie Claire, Ideal Home and most recently the re-launch of countrylife.co.uk and initial product development on Good To Know. Before joining IPC, Paul was managing director for a digital design, development and hosting company he founded in south Manchester in 1998.

“We absolutely see slower growth coming,” says Kip Cassino, vice-president of research at Borrell Associates, a media-research firm. “Generally, newspapers tend to believe things that have been good are going to get better. And that’s not always the case.”

A possible cause is that advertisers are looking to spread their spend across more sites and are also moving away from the traditional players, towards the likes of facebook and myspace. This, coupled with the continued growth of paid search – a sector that only Google, Yahoo and MSN can play in – means bad news for online newspapers, and possibly traditional media online in general.

A friend of mine who works for a big online advertising player recently commented that “advertising revenue should just be the icing on the cake” and that too many publishers are relying solely upon ad revenues in their business plans. Newspapers do have other sources of revenue – unfortunately the Classifieds market is in a much worse state…

At the Online Publishers Association London 2007 Forum last week (8th March) they left the best for last, with Wolfgang Grulke - futurist, author and adviser to the world’s top firms through his firm FutureWorld International - ending the day with an inspiring but frightening look into the future, asking one important question for your business – is your product at the end of its life-cycle?

20/20 vision, 20/20 hindsight

Grulke basically uses shock and awe tactics on companies who have failed to grasp the concept that their product has reached the end of its life-cycle. His predictions on how the world will change between now and the year 2020 takes its base from history and the changes occurring between 1970 and the present day. It’s not just about technological change, but changing consumer behaviour and culture.

Your product may be popular with its current purchasers, but will the next generation feel the same? Scary but thought provoking stuff, which really hits home on the importance of keeping your company on its toes.

Changing culture

Grulke talked about how attitudes and values have changed between generations and how this has spawned companies that match the generation’s ethos and culture. The Silent Generation(born 1925-1942) would have paid a parking fine, no questions asked. They were the children of a recession, so think government is a Good Thing – the only generation from which a US president has never been elected.

Next came the Baby Boomers, (born 1946-1964), who question authority, did the whole Woodstock thing, and if given a parking fine would Stick it to the Man – and were at the forefront of civil rights. Their children were Generation X (born 1961-1981), born into a turbulent economy – cynical, with no trust in traditional values and a lack of beliefs.

And the companies these different generations spawned?

• Silent Generation: IBM
• Baby Boomers: Microsoft
• Generation X: Google

Sell the product or the attitude?

Marketing has changed to match the cultural differences between generations. Grulke showed the famous x box advert, Cradle to the Grave. Anybody viewers who are not Generation X (or Y) may ask “where’s the product?”. We used to market products, now we market attitudes.

The rise of User Generated Content, Grulke postulates, is very much tied to the growth of the prosumer.

Changing technology

Grulke compares the situation “Big Media” finds itself in similar to a bar-room brawl - you don’t know where the next punch is coming from, everybody’s a competitor, and the guy you’re fighting with next minute smashes a bottle over your noggin the next. Carolyn McCall reached a similar conclusion at last year’s AOP conference. Your competitors aren’t who you thought they were. If you are the CEO of an answering machine manufacturer, should you be looking at other answering machine manufacturers, or at the free voice mail that comes with every mobile phone these days?

Death to the washing machine

Grulke often tells anecdotes during his presentation as if from the mouth of the future consumer.

Granddad, Mummy says that you used to have these big boxes in your kitchen called “Washing Machines”. Did you really used to pour boiling water on your clothes and then cover them in nasty chemicals? Didn’t it ruin your clothes? And Daddy said the box used to walk around the kitchen on its own!

What was he on about? Sonic cleaning. In the future you will just hang your clothes back in the wardrobe and sonic cleaning technology will shake the dirt from your clothes as soon as you close the door, with technofibres un-creasing them, ready for you to wear the next time you open the door. This technology is a reality, now. But rumour has it a company is buying up all the patents in this area. And it’s not a washing machine company – it’s Unilever. Of course, since when have the Chinese cared about patents…

Another great anecdote is the legend that Sony invented the iPod four of five years before Apple. Sony they held on the the technology in fear that it would completely destroy the market for the Walkman. “They were right, it did.” Of course, it was Apple, not Sony who did the killing…

Print yourself something nice, dear

If you’re thinking the makers of washing powder are in for a hard time, then what about retailers? 3D printing technology is also a reality. You can buy one that ‘prints’ plastic models for $40,000. Sure, they take a whole day to do it right now, but look at how fast ink-jet printers are compared to five years ago? Apparently a university recently printed a fully wearable dress, and in China they have printed a working mobile phone – plastic case, electronics and all. [I'll dig out some links to evidence later.]

Imagine what this means for retailers? It’s not that far away from Star Trek style ‘replicator‘ technology. Go to a website, download the design for a new pair of shoes, stick in the leather cartridge and print yourself something to go with the new dress you printed earlier.

Hanging on

Grulke seemed to suggest that you can can almost smell when an industry or a company is hanging on to a product line. They’ll talk about gaining market share, brand loyalty and difficult trading conditions. They’ll do research which will confirm that the people who buy their product really does love them and wants more – but what about the next generation? Do they get it?

Our grandparents loved wearing hats with their suits – and I’m sure hat companies’ surveys showed strong brand loyalty and love of their products – but how many people do you see wearing trilbies these days? And how many hatting companies are there now? (I should know, I’m from Stockport…).

They may be able to show a recent upwards trend on the sales chart. But Grulke suggests that:

Even a dead cat bounces when it falls from a great height…

So what’s the solution? Grulke says that companies must “ride the technological tsunami” - that is to embrace change and not shy away from it. Following the cannibalisation metaphor, his advice was:

Eat yourself before someone else does.

So what will be your competitive advantage in the future?

According to Grulke, people will not be your greatest asset. Instead, it will all be about:

• Skills, not knowledge
• Attitude, not experience
• Leadership, not management
• Relationships, not people

His final prediction is that nearly everything will be commoditised, particularly infrastructure. (The scary part of this prediction is that he thinks China will automate their industry and agriculture, thus making 300 million jobless..)

To compete in a world where everything is a commodity, his advice to companies is:

Don’t compete. Find the white-space.

And don’t be afraid. “Search for the hero inside yourself”. If you need help, go buy his book…

Here are the notes from Peter’s presentation on Intent Driven Media.

How content was from Gutenberg to 2001

• One to many publishing.
• Reader makes a choice based on brand.
• Publisher controls timing, coverage, audience access to information and vendor access to audience.

Then Search happens

• Impatient readers expect to be in control
• Every page is now a front door

  • You should be getting at least 50% of your traffic from search engines.

• The first five seconds are crucial!
  • A reader comes in from a search engine into an article page.
  • They will decide whether this page is for them within five seconds, before pressing the back button.
• The first sentence sells your article and keeps them on the page.
• Magazine and newspaper writers assume people want to read their article – online you have to assume they don’t – hence no puns, plays on words or in-jokes.
• Users will scroll down to your content, so they probably won’t even see your logo – convey your brand with colours etc.
• You need to sell them the next click, so put related articles near the middle or top of the article. About.com got a 15% CTR when they did this.

Five corner-stones of successful content

1. Relevance – Readers are looking for complete solutions.
2. Resonance – Expertise is relative – they are looking for the like-minded, pro or otherwise.
3. Specificity – The specific always drives off the general.
4. Speed – Readers need the content on demand.
5. Comprehensive – Readers want the full story, so they value input from peers.

So a mix of content is required, from broad to narrow; from small audiences (long-tail) to large audiences (mass) – delivered from a range of sources, from editorial content , blogs, UGC, Forums and ratings, reviews and comments . For example narrow content might be a search for gardeners in my area, whereas broad content might be an article about gardening trends.

Tips for monetisation success

• Metrics drive innovation.
  • You can pretty much test everything on the web.
  • The ability to learn and to iterate is your competitive advantage.
• Web development and design is a process, not an event.
  • The first day after a redesign is the worst.
  • The day you stop tweaking a website is the day it dies.
• Make informed decisions, understand costs and benefits.

Focus on three simple things:

1. The cost of audience acquisition
   • Don’t make a net loss in driving traffic.
   • Consider PPC as a cost-of-sale rather than marketing.
   • Your online audience should be a superset, rather than a subset, of your print audience!
2. The cost of content creation.
3. Your rate of monetisation – ie yields.
   • And it’s not just about ads!

“This is the age of atomised information bound by reader interest.” (as visualised by Digg Swarm).

Rayport suggested the key to sucess is to focus on:

1. Building volume through aggregation.
2. Building margins through engagement.

The key differences between traditional and new media in the Web 2.0 world are:

• Community is the new engine of content creation.
• Social networks are the new distribution channels.
• Social intelligence is the new editorial filter.
• Tools & applications are the new editorial bundles.
• Multi-platform development is the new publishing.
• Video is the new lingua franca of online content.

Five strategies for success

1. Own the audience – overwhelm the microcosm.
   • Shock and awe with content abundance.
   • Target on
     • Location (eg xianei.com – china).
     • Interest (eg bebo.com – music).
     • Identity (eg femail.co.uk – female) .
     • Condition (eg theknot.com – getting married – used by 85% of US weddings).
2. Claim the community – ensure membership has its rewards.
   • Create communities of conviction, reward loyalties.
3. Work the web – let the outside in, and the inside out.
   • Adopt open-source thinking and leverage network effects.
   • Let the outside in: allow content from the web into your site, eg widgets, rss, etc. Why not include your competitor’s news on your site? They’ll only go back to Google to get it. Progressive insurance even shows competitor’s prices even if they beat theirs – builds trust, gives confidence, increased conversions.
   • Let the inside out: Allow syndication of your content and brand through rss, widgets, open APIs etc. Set your content free. 60% of YouTube streams are on third-party sites – let your users do your marketing for you.
4. Design for the occasion – customise interfaces for context.
   • Take the form-factor into account, eg web browser vs mobile phone
5. Integrate the experience – multi-channel, multi-platform.
   • eg Pop Idol is across TV, internet, phone, etc.

User (or pro) generated content

Rayport posulates that there are different types of ‘user generated content’ – and even different types of professionally generated content are emerging. Each piece of content may be created by a professional or an amateur, and that person may be acting like a professional or acting like an amateur.

For example:

• Amateurs acting like amateurs: Star Wars Kid and Numa Numa;
• Amateurs acting like professionals: Ask A Ninja and ZeFrank: The Show;
• Professionals acting like amateurs: lonelygirl15 and the Mentos/Diet Coke videos;
• Professionals acting like professionals: OK Go, Jeff Jarvis or Beppe Grillo.

The conference, and the OPA, is mostly aimed at traditional media companies who are already embracing online and who want to find out what’s working for other people and also do a bit of networking – so it was right up my alley. It’s a nice change from most events about online for print publishers, which seem to be pitched at those who are struggling to ‘get it’.

Day One:

Staying Competitive in the Digital Era

Jeffrey Rayport of Marketspace kicked the conference off with a presentation verging on an attempt at stand-up comedy, entitled Staying Competitive in the Digital Era. Despite the comedy, he made some fantastic points about how traditional media companies need to change their thinking- community is the new content creation engine, social networks the new distribution channels, social intelligence the new editorial filter, tools and appliances the new editorial bundles, and multi-platform development is the new publishing.

Rayport also suggested five strategies for success: own the audience, claim the community, work the web, design for the occasion, and integrate the experience. I particularly liked his explanation of working the web – letting the inside out, and the outside in. He finished with a hypothesis about content creation – that there are either amateurs or professionals who are either acting like amateurs or acting like professionals – from Numa Numa to Lonelygirl15. For more on all this, see the full notes.

Web Video Panel

Next came a panel discussion on the subject of web video. I didn’t really take much away from this and I found most of the panel sessions a bit disappointing.

SkyBlog / SkyRock – The French mySpace

After a networking coffee break, Pierre Bellanger from French pirate radio station turned website SkyBlog (the French myspace), talked about what Web 2.0 meant for them. Most of the talk was a little hard to understand with the thick accent, and what I did hear I felt was mostly irrelevant to the audience. However Bellanger made a couple of points well worth quoting:

Andy Warhol said everybody would have 15 minutes of fame. But on a social network, everybody is famous for 15 people.

On why moderation is necessary, and who boundaries actually help a community to thrive:

Cars go faster because they have brakes.

Starbucks’ Marketing Innovations

Next up was Anne Saunders, Senior Vice President of Global Brand Strategy at Starbucks with a slick presentation about how Starbucks never spend money on TV advertising, that it’s all about the brand and the service, and how everybody loves them. When she asked if anybody had any questions, I almost said “so where does the web come into this?” but refrained… The only remotely web orientated bit was when she had a slide about their store finderon their website. Hmm, innovative stuff.

The Yahoo Roasting

During lunch, Dominique Vidal,  Regional VP at Yahoo Europe, was pretty much roasted by Larry Kramer of CBS with a bit of help from the audience. Vidal was forced to admit that Yahoo does compete with traditional publishers – which made the usual spiel about how publishers should partner with Yahoo sound a bit odd. But that’s the ‘net for you – everybody is a partner and a competitor at the same time. He was seriously thrown to the lions. Perhaps he should have asked Anne from Starbucks for some roasting tips…

Web 2.0 and The Guardian

After lunch Carolyn McCall, CEO of the Guardian Media Group was joined by her editor of The Guardian newspaper, Alan Rusbridger, to talk about their experiences of taking a traditional media company through the digital transition. They thought their switch to Berliner format was the “hardest thing they’d ever done”, until they tried to go from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. Being a trust, they’ve got some serious money to spend and are currently investing £15m in a redesign of Guardian Unlimited…

International Mobile Study

Next came the results of an OPA commissioned survey conducted by TNS on the subject of mobile web usage called Going Mobile: An International Study of Content Use and Advertising on the Mobile Web. The presentation was quite graph and stats heavy as you might expect. I have a full write-up on the results here, and there has also been some press coverage which were slightly more upbeat than I thought TNS had conveyed. The bottom line was that there is a long way to go before Mobile Internet goes mainstream.

The Mobile Platform Panel

Following a second networking coffee break came another disappointing panel discussion about the Mobile Platform. I was impressed with Simon Thompson, European marketing director at Motorola, but it was otherwise a pretty dry affair. Thompson constantly corrected anybody who said ‘mobile device’, explaining that they are ‘mobile PHONES’. Despite all the bells and whistles, the function driving the usage is the phone.

The only useful snippet of info I took from the session was Graeme Oxby, marketing director at mobile operator Three commenting that 50% of video clips downloaded on their network were viewed at home, and that the concept that people will watch clips at the bus stop is a total fallacy. Thompson quipped that in the UK they’d probably get mugged for starters! Oxby himself said he tended to watch the ITV news on his phone in the kitchen rather than try and get his kids to change the TV channel…

Staying Relevant – the Business of Advertising

Bob Greenberg, CEO of ad agency R/GA finished the day with a presentation about how advertising has changed as technology has improved. Having started out in film production, Greenberg postulated that he’s had to reinvent his company every 7 years. It was a fairly interesting talk, including a funny video clip of his 89 year old Mom saying she didn’t have a clue what he did for a living, “Something on the Internet?”.

He showcased some interesting things they’d been doing with Nike and Apple, called Nike+, and that they’ve just launched a ‘new breed’ of e-commerce store for Nike, which is a full Flash experience. He claims that despite the flash it is accessible, usable, and even has SEO – I’ll believe that when I see it, and it feels a bit sluggish to me. One memorable quote from the session was:

It’s not just about getting consumers’ attention – it’s about giving them some attention as well.

Day Two

Discussion: Staying Competitive

Jeffrey Rayport of Marketspace was back again to start the half-day, starting a ‘lively discussion’ about competitive strategy. Unfortunately it just turned into an argument between Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine and Michael Zimbalist of The New York Times basically about user generated content and blogs. Zimbalist felt that such content did not have a place within their quality media environment, and Jarvis being a blogger obviously took the other stance. It wasn’t a particularly great debate.

Intent Driven (aka Agile) Media

Luckily the next session on Intent Driven Media from Peter Horan, CEO of IAC (aka Ask.com) was a real gem with lots to take away, so was deserving of a full write-up.  Horan talked about the impact of search on media, explained how the first five seconds of a user’s visit are crucial, suggested five corner-stones of successful content and finished on some great tips on monitisation. Well worth a read. It was also interesting to hear about IAC’s experiences with some of their fantastic daughter companies such as TripAdvisor and About.com.

A Walk on the Leading Edge

Another mediocre panel session, this time supposedly talking about emerging technologies and new companies, but to be honest it was totally forgettable.

The Age of Entwined Media

After a short break, James Spanfeller, president and CEO of Forbes.com, took to the stage with a presentation entitled “think big” – but he didn’t really demonstrate any big thinking. Their best innovation to date was doing blogs and podcasts.

But to be fair, they did have some good points about leveraging the power of your brand – they are launching sister sites including Forbes Traveller, Forbes Autos and also local language sites such as Forbes.pl. Despite a mostly dull talk, there were a couple of nuggets that caused the ears to prick up:

• Forbes.com add 3,000(!) stories per day to their site(s).
• They had 10m unique users in 2005, which grew to 16m in 2006.
• They sell ads on “targeted reach, mass targetability” – ie no waste.
• They guarantee their advertising. If you spend over $150k over 60 days on forbes.com, they will measure brand awareness before and after using an independent company and if it hasn’t increased they will refund your money. This has apparently been very successful, even when clients have had awful creative.

The Media Investment Landscape

The penultimate slot was a dreaded panel session, but this one wasn’t too bad. No real surprises – just a bunch of venture capitalists talking about how they wished the IPO market would come back, as getting flipped by a big media company is just too rare an event…

One of the panelists was Tony Askew, MD of Reed Elsevier Investments, which is a cunning way for Reed to do relatively risky ventures that the parent company wouldn’t normally get into, such as web start-ups.  They spend 40% of their fund on digital projects.

One decent quote, basically about network effects and traffic acquisition costs was

The trick is to get users to do your marketing for you. It’s very difficult to make a profit if you have to pay to acquire users.

(sorry, I didn’t note who to attribute them to)

Lessons from the Future

They definitely left the best for last with this presentation from Wolfgang Grulke- futurist, author and adviser to the world’s top firms through his firm FutureWorld International. Again, this session entitled Lessons from the Future – 20/20 vision, 20/20 hindsight, was well worthy of a full write-up.

Grulke basically uses shock and awe tactics on companies who have failed to grasp the concept that their product has reached the end of its life-cycle. His predictions on how the world will change between now and the year 2020 takes its base from history and the changes occurring between 1970 and the present day. It’s not just about technological change, but changing consumer behaviour.

Your product may be popular with its current purchasers, but will the next generation feel the same? Scary but thought provoking stuff, which really hits home on the importance of keeping your company on its toes.