Toon Army’s Keegan SMS Points The Way Forward for B2C Communications

January 28, 2008 at 9:24 am · Filed under SMS, Communication, Acquisitions/Mergers, Crowdsourcing

How do you tell an influential group of people that something really important is happening? Well the traditional way of getting your message out is the press release – and there’s a certain amount of legal requirements for trading companies that mean the press release will always be with us in the future – but as Web 2.0 and technology continues to become entwined with grass roots marketing and news, the landscape ois going to thorw up some interesting ways to look at communication.

One f those was last week’s announcement by English Football team Newcastle United. They’ve been looking for a new manager for some time, and announced their signing last week. The normal way would be the press release from above. Not this time. What were the main stages to the announcement? Well the press conference/press release was third. Before that, news went up on the website.

But before all of that, the first official news was blasted out to all the Fan Club members by an SMS text message.

I love the fact that the people that care most about the club were the first to be told; and that anyone who got that text message was very likely to jump up and tell everyone else close by that Kevin Keegan was coming back to the club. Not only have you continued to develop a superb relationship with the fans (Newcastle United are probably second in terms of rabid supporters in England, just behind Manchester United), but you’ve created a little viral message bomb all on your own.

Being able to harness people power to get your message out is going to become ever more relevant in the Web 2.0 world of tomorrow. Companies are going to be looking to make their users into evangelists – which in turn not only drives up the user base of the project, but also reduces the money spent on traditional advertising. The recent Le Web conference in Paris is a prime example of this. Everyone in the tech.conference circles was aware the event was happening – and over 1500 delegates proved the marketing worked. Total amount spent on advertising and marketing the event? $0.00.

Mobile Messaging 2.0 is not just about how the message is delivered, but how people react to that message. With a bit of planning and fore-thought, web 2.0 can not only complement the traditional methods of B2C communication, but enhance and increase the effectiveness of the message. There’s going to be a lot of innovation in this space as well, watch out for it!

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Crowd Control

January 18, 2008 at 10:47 am · Filed under Politics, Crowdsourcing

I last visited Pakistan in April 2006, to spend a couple weeks visiting family in Karachi and Lahore. Even as a British-born Pakistani, I’m constantly amazed by the generosity and warmth of the Pakistani people…

One of my strongest impressions during my last visit was the proliferation of mobile phones - most people I met under 30 had at least two handsets, and invariably a third. Upon further investigation, Pakistani users - like many others - utilise multiple handsets and SIM cards as a form of presence management and a means to mediate their various social relationships - whether friend, family, or coworker.

It comes as no surprise that the proliferation of mobile technology in Pakistan is increasingly playing a part in directing the country’s civil and political life. America’s hapless War On Terror has intersected twice with this proliferation, once with the capture of Al Qaeda’s ‘20th hijacker’ Ramzi Binalshibh as he boasted over a satellite phone that he’d indefinitely evade capture….one for the Darwin Awards!

Secondly, and more acutely, with the assasination of former PM and kleptocrat Benazir Bhutto last month, Pakistan’s military government didn’t understand how rapidly SMS, mobile video, voice calls and photomessaging would undermine their barely plausible explanation of the assassination. See this blog for a useful photo+video account of events. Collectively, Pakistanis had unwittingly shot a multi-dimensional Zapruder film,

As the nation’s 75m mobile subscribers overwhelmed Pakistan’s mobile infrastructure, the Interior Ministry began to concoct a narrative based on TV coverage. (I based this on some specious commentary from Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria on the Daily Show!).

As the accidentally crowdsourced evidence - snippets of photo messages and mobile phone footage - emerged, the government was forced to backtrack and eventually agree to re-open investigations with the assistance of detectives from Britain’s Scotland Yard.

Though the focus of coverage has been on delayed elections, nuclear security, geopolitics and extremism in Pakistan. I believe something more subtle and fundamental has been overlooked - the empowerment of Pakistani citizens with democratising technologies. As successive civilian, and military governments have failed Pakistanis, perhaps this is the beginnings of a bootstrapped civic culture, carefully asserting influence over the country’s future.

It’s hard to silence 75m cameraphones.

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