S60 Open to new features

Here on the 4th floor of the Boston office, things occasionally get ugly. Case in point: When I came into work this morning, there was a large box of chocolate graham cookies, open, on the counter near the coffee station. Though it was 8:45 am and I had already eaten a bowl of Banana Nut Crunch cereal (my son's favorite), I ate 3 of them -- I have very little self-control when it comes to food. Apparently my co-workers don't either, b/c when I returned to the kitchen to get my second cup of coffee at 11:30 am, the box was empty. The animals had descended upon it. One or more had even left bite marks on the side:

I wish I had a before picture as well. Nice box full of cookies. Gone in three hours. Animals!

This morning I was listening to NPR (BBC for Americans, more or less) on the way in to work and was very surprised to hear a story about a "high-end Nokia phone" running 3rd party software. Turns out the phone was our very own, S60-powered N82, running software that reads text to blind people. Pretty impressive stuff-- and it should be-- the price tag is $2000 for the software-- but this is cool: You take a picture of a piece of paper, and the software reads text on the page. Take a picture of a bag of coffee, and the software tells you if it is decaf or regular. Check out the story here.

Quick update from the folks planning "An Evening With S60" in Miami:

We've recruited two product managers from the device side, and two product managers from the services side to join us at "An Evening with S60" in Miami. And there will be some new stuff: Whatever S60-based stuff that gets announced at 3GSM, we'll have it on display State-side in Miami. Plus we have a real professional handling logistics: Kristina Ferrari. So things will be better organized than they were when I picked the venue in San Fran :-)

We've also reformatted the evening a little bit. We'll still have the same casual feel, with drinks, food and unscripted conversation throughout the evening. We'll still have the goodie bags, and we will have a Nseries device giveaway. But we'll also add a few short demonstrations on the latest product and services. That way the audience can seek out the people who presented the products in order to hit them up for one-on-one demos and questions. And there will be a mobile-based game early in the evening, with some sort of prize to the winner.

If you have other ideas for the event, fire away. We're still firming this thing up.

...And oh yeah, to sign up, click here.

"AEwS60: San Fran": Dark room, plenty of beer, and lots of phones -- Dan didn't plan much beyond that

Two of the S60 Marketing and Sales teams are in New York this week for meetings on North American strategy. We heard updates on the situation with our major operator accounts. We were privy to a few more details that served to back up Mark Louison's public comments last week on the coming availability of 6 -12 handsets for North America. (Can't share too many details but thankfully S60 will be represented). We continue to plan the ramp up of the S60 Ambassador program. Current plan is to be live and accepting sign ups from around the world in April (lots can change between now and then but that's the target).

Meanwhile, I managed to take this picture of Nokia's North American HQ in White Plains. This was taken just as the sun was rising, on the way back from my run. Sun was behind me to my left, reflecting off the glass of the building and providing a nice contrast with the green and blue display inside the 1st floor. I was using Sportstracker to track my distance, didn't think I'd have occasion to take a picture and of course didn't bring a standalone camera. But Sportstracker is on my N82, and my N82 is also my camera (and my mobile browser). So I got the shot....proving once again that the best camera is the camera you have with you...

An article in the Jan 28th Businessweek about Ford's plans to revitalize the Lincoln Brand describes two challenges facing Ford:

1) Lincoln's older customers have chauffeurs. They don't actually want to drive one.
2) Lincolns are the car of choice for funeral homes. Nobody wants to drive a hearse.

Ford has lured a former Toyota executive (James D. Farley) to turn Lincoln around. Farley believes Lincoln's past can actually be a blessing -- not a curse. Affluent consumers already associate Lincoln with luxury. Why tinker with that? Instead, Ford will create new designs. Instead of a glitzy, rock and roll based broadcast advertising campaign (aka Cadillac's recent efforts), Lincoln will rely "extensively on word of mouth marketing" to inform consumers that Lincoln is back.
Interesting idea....I wonder if other once-powerful brands in North America could take a tactic like this?

Boston sports fans have had *very* little to complain about in the past 7 years. The Red Sox have won two 'World' Series, the Patriots 3 Super Bowls, and the Celtics today are 29 - 4, the best record in the NBA. Even our soccer team, the New England Revolution, played in the League Championship in 2007.

Our players, our teams, and our coaches are truly great. One thing that is not great, however, is the experience of watching the games as a fan.

We know that the growth of broadcast advertising has had unfortunate consequences for corporations and consumers in general: In 1971, the average consumer was exposed to 571 ads a day. By 1997, that same consumer was exposed to 3000 ads a day (Shenk, "Data Smog"). Marketing executives today estimate the number has grown to 5,000. The traditional broadcast advertising is nearing a saturation point.

The sports scene is one of many examples of this saturated market. Ten years ago, when I watched my beloved Red Sox on TV, a total of 2 advertisements were shown between each inning.
Today’s Sox matches are a whole new ballgame: from two hours before the first pitch is thrown until the stadium lights have been turned off, we are inundated with billboards proudly displaying large corporate entities. The billboards and signs are everywhere and on everything. They are on the walls, the dugouts, the napkins, even displayed on helicopters flying over the field. Companies wishing to promote their brand have become increasingly more brazen. For instance, when a relief pitcher is brought in to the game, “the call to the bullpen is brought to you by Verizon Wireless.” Sportscaster Jerry Remy promotes his "RemDawg" hotdog stand in between batters. Little animated figurines dance in the corner of the screen to promote tv shows, furniture stores, and coffee shops.

The NFL is no different: We used to listen to the Patriots on WEEI. Today, we listen to the Patriots on the “Safety Insurance WBCN Patriots Rock Radio Network”. The pre-game show is sponsored, the opening kick off is sponsored, and nearly every 4th down features a product placement.

And the NBA is perhaps the worst offender of all. We no longer watch the Celtics at the Boston Garden, we watch at the TDBankNorth Center. Each quarter is interrupted by inane on-court contests, giveaways, and other shenanigans. And when we visit the bathroom and dutifully stare straight ahead while we go about our business, we see ads on the bathroom wall. If we choose to look down, a company called “Wizmark” is fighting for sponsorship space on the cakes at the bottom of the urinal.

As these ads proliferate, the relative impact of each ad is diluted. Each “impression”, as defined by the advertising industry, becomes shallower and occurs over a shorter time span.

As a result of this saturation, consumers are now tuning out ads. For example, in 1964, 34% of consumers recalled at least one advertisement from the last TV show they watched. In 2006, only 4% did (Newspaper Bureau Association, 2007).. In 1965, advertisers needed 3 television ads to hit 80% of the population at least once. By 2007, they needed 117 ads (James Stengel, P&G CMO).

As the interruptions become more frequent, and in many cases more shrill, the reputation of advertisers has diminished. For instance, in 2007, advertising executives were the 20th least trusted professionals in the USA, following lawyers and preceding used car salesmen (Gallup).

It is no wonder, then, that "Word of Mouth" or "WoM" advertising is now the fastest growing segment of the advertising industry. The following data was released by PQ Media in November 2007:

PQ Media released the following data at the last WOMMA conference in November 07:

Thanks PQ Media. I see this trend as a promising one. WoM, in my experience, is about connecting people who know and use a particular product with potential buyers of that product. Broadcast advertising, on the other hand, is about shouting at potential consumers. I'm not blaming the Sox, Celts and Pats for accepting money from broadcast advertisers. I'm hoping that as WoM advertising grows, we see fewer corporate-paid interruptions at games, and more conversations-- outside the stadiums-- between corporations and genuinely interested, potential customers.

Spent last week in Helsinki, planning for the S60 Ambassador rollout this Spring. I have some notes on our proceedings and am in the process of putting them into PowerPoint decks, as nothing gets done in Nokia unless it is first documented in a PowerPoint deck.

Of course, all work and no play makes Helsinki a very dull place, and I did manage to grab a beer with a co-worker on Friday. Grand opening of a German-Finnish beerhouse downtown...they featured very large beer mugs, here's a shot, taken with an N82, or yours truly enjoying a *liter* sized beer:

I figured at least Stefan and Ricky would be proud :-)

Seth Godin wrote a quick blog post relating the 1% rule to the Iowa Caucuses. His point is that even when the stakes are high, voters, like consumers, don't necessarily enjoy speaking out or making their voices heard. In other words, word of mouth is "hard" for customers. This thinking rang true, and it especially resonated with me after spending a week with my Finnish colleagues, many of whom like to remind me that Finns, and maybe Europeans in general, may not be as eager to participate in an S60 Ambassador program as Americans are.

But something else about Seth's post also irked me -- and I think it was the tone of inevitability. As in -- the figure is 1%, and that's an immutable law, so don't try to change it. I got to thinking -- is it possible that the growth of blogging platforms, feedback mechanisms, and social media tools in general is actually providing an impetus for *more* people to speak out in favor of the candidates, products, pastimes, and people they love? In other words, is it possible that the figure is 1% today, but that it was 0.6% 4 years ago, and maybe will be 1.4% in 2008?

Thinking along these lines, I dug out an article from the International Herald Tribune that I read on Saturday. Turns out that the turnout in the Iowa caucus, while still a tiny percentage of registered voters, was higher than it was in 2004. In fact, a record number of Democrats turned out: 239,000 in 2008 versus less than 125,000 in 2004. The Tribune attributes the high turnout to dissatisfaction with Bush's policies. But Republican turnout also grew more than 20%, from 87,000 to 114,000.

The voting process in Iowa has not changed. But the campaigns certainly have. More people are blogging about candidates. More people are posting original videos about candidates. And the broadcast networks are giving more airtime to citizen bloggers -- they even turned over two debates to YouTube. The optimist in me thinks that part of this increase in turnout stems from the fact that citizens and consumers, when given a platform on which to speak, are more apt to stand up and do just that.

OK, I was able to confirm prizes for Cali-based S60 Ambassadors. Stereo Bluetooth Speakers:

And Stereo Bluetooth Headsets:

First place prize winners will receive one of each, second place winners receive the speakers. These devices have arrived in our S60 Marketing office in Espoo, Finland, but still have to get through customs and into Boston before we ship them individually to the winning Ambassadors in Cali. So allow a couple more weeks for delivery.

Congrats to all winners and thanks for your efforts to spread the S60 word!