4 Fuks Saké

"Do Me A Favour Instagram. Oh, You Have."

5 times a week I'll use the phrase 'Oh for fuck's sake." It's been eight months since I've done that and then felt compelled to write something on my blog with the same name. It's Instagram again.

I refer you to my April post, about Silicon Valley entrepreneurs' ingenuity at duping people who wear expensive trainers for their own commercial gain. This week, they've said they're going to sell photos of your kids to McDonalds, who'll in turn advertise Big Macs. That's what I've understood it to be anyway. 

Four things.

1. This bloke nails it, citing this collective sense of self-delusion. Search #coffee and look: there's your shot of a latte, filtered in Hudson, alongside 450,000 others. 

2. Your photo was rubbish. Instagram made it look nicer, so much so, that you felt compelled to share it with others. As far as I'm aware, you haven't paid them since you opened your account.

3. Instagram have been stupid. The more avid a user of social media you are, the greater your propensity to attention seek. So attention seekers (their core audience) pour through social T&Cs with the meticulousness of a Manhattan lawyer. They do it for their own benefit, not the crowd. I don't believe Facebook and Instagram want to sell pictures of my kids to Exxon, nor do I think lawyers will allow them to. If they can, who's the bell end for putting them there in the first place? Howevere, if they want to sell pictures of my uncooked ribeyes or empty espresso cups, that's a fair deal for me.

4. If you don't like it, vote with your feet. Go to Flickr's new app or the next photo sharing network you've yet to hear of. They'll end up doing the same thing to you.

"Hey Guys, I'm A Bit Uncomfortable You Made A $1bn. Let's Have A Diet Coke And Talk."

I've held an opinion for a while that a large proportion of people working in social media had sand kicked in their faces at school. Technology has always been 'nerdy' and there is a revelling in the outsider term 'geek.' Naturally, social media in its infant years attracted the types who worked their way up from Star Wars figures through to circuit boards. 

Woe betide anyone that leaves the geek crowd and gets accepted by the in crowd. Backs will be turned.  

Like Instagram. They had the audacity to take $1bn off Facebook. They have "sold out."  People get fucked off and talk of betrayal. The issue seems to be that:

a) They took money off the big enemy, Facebook.

b) That Instagram made the user feel special and important, and now they don't.

I would suggest the following.

1. People come up with ideas and go to work to try and make money. That includes the founders of Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and whatever a couple of people in San Francisco are working on right now, that we'll fall in love with later this year or early next.

2. People with relaxed dress codes, white teeth, and nice smiles from California, are adept at making geeks feel special. Like the Instagram "guys" pictured. Wouldn't you just love to have a Diet Coke with them? They give them things to play with. Coax personal information out of them to make money, and then persuade them to promote the whole process.

3. If someone makes $1bn out of something like nice pictures of babies, cats and food - rather than oil or guns, then that's a good thing. 

4. If you are uncomfortable with Instagram making money in the social media industry, stop doing it yourself. Stop walking into publications and/or businesses asking for much smaller amounts of money to advise on how to use Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc...to make money. 

5. If you don't like Facebook, delete your account.

Congratulations to Instagram. I love your product, I love your work, and I'm glad you're making money. As Paul Carr, said "They didn't sell out, they just sold. They're a company, not the fucking Rolling Stones."

 

Cultural Intelligence

I once wrote a small book on the nuances of global culture and their effects on communications campaign. It's "How To Create Global Talkability," and you're free to download here. This is from The Poke is equally as insightful - Europe, as viewed by Americans. 

Beauty & The Bollocks

According to The Guardian yesterday this was ninth in one global viral video chart. 80% of people who watched this film in the US, said they were less likely to text when driving. It cost £10,000 and was made by a film maker and local students in Gwent.

How much did Diageo pay to shoot 7 minutes of Robert Carlyle's beautiful looking whisky epic? How much money will they spend on media, on seeding costs, on promotion and PR of said film? How much time was spent in meetings, presentations, focus groups and rounds of research to produce it? How much more whisky will be sold as a result?

1. Which do you think is the most effective piece of work?

2. Who are the winners and losers here?

Prince. Frog. Rainforests. Save Them

My Talented Colleagues: ref Sky+HD

Last night's screening of Titanic in high definition for Sky+HD, by my work mates. The Oscars are broadcast in HD for the first time this Sunday, on Sky Movies Premiere and Premiere HD.

Fit Birds Sell Things

Press play on above clip.

After 90 seconds the following happens:

5% go "that's sexist."

Another 5% debate it in advertising magazines, blogs and forums with their mates and draw no conclusion.

90% go "that's cool."

The result: when faced with a choice between equally priced transatlantic flights on either BA, BMI, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic - more people will opt for a ticket from Virgin Atlantic. They think, if they all cost about the same, I'll go for the one that looks most fun.

That's the way it works, isn't it?

 

Obamadigimania

I could bore the shit out of you by pointing you to pictures of my boy on Flickr. He's important to me. To you he's another baby.

More interestingly, you could go and take a peek at this - Obama's Behind The Scenes On Election Night set. Loads of articles about his use of the Internet to raise money, votes etc - but here's a cracking example of it. Fascinating. Giles alerted me to this.

Telly

It's been a great week for black men on TV. Lenny Henry's got some catching up to do.

It's obviously unfashionable - coming from a one-syllabled agency in Soho which does digital/brands/integration/360/wankery to suggest that television still has a major role to play in the lives of the world's citizens. Twice this week I have been sat with my four month old son and we have watched two wonderful moments play out in front of us. Scarcely the bread roll - let alone the hors d'oeuvre for what was to come, was Lewis Hamilton's F1 triumph. ITV deserve credit for squeezing every last drop out of the drama played out on the track. As Hamilton whipped round Glock on the last corner, I jumped for joy. Jack shat himself.

Obama's use of the Internet will be a module in its own right in political / media classes. The full magnitude of his - and the country's achievement revealed itself in all its glory through television that will last with us forever.  It began with the beautiful orotary of Obama in Grant Park presented against the backdrop of the Chicago skyline at night. Cutways to the elated rainbow of faces, the tears of Jesse Jackson and the sheer volume of people was the start. People and more people in Times Square, Capitol Hill, outside The White House - being sat on a sofa at 6am in zone 6 South West London, watching it play out was a very moving experience.

Telly is great. It will be for a while yet.

Macsturbation