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Following on from our hugely successful Social Media Week seminars, I was invited to speak at an event hosted by Bethany Hogan at Team London Bridge at the charity based Brigade Bar & Bistro on Tooley Street.

Below is a video from the event but be warned – it’s almost an hour in length! If you’d like something a little quicker to consume, then scroll down…

For the event, I talked about what businesses should be doing right now and what was coming up in the next year or so. The next few paragraphs highlight some of the key topics I covered in the event.  

Visual aid

  The immediate shift in Social media is the movement from text based content to visual content. Facebook Timeline and the popularity of Pinterest have both helped push visual assets into the mainstream. YouTube has converted existing videos to 3D too so it’s vital for companies not to forget about AV content (the video above is available to view in 3D)!  

NFC and smart wear

  Barclaycard released an NFC sticker to attach to the back of mobile phones to pay for items in the same way as using an Oyster card. With the emergence of Smart wear, it’s likely that we will also begin to see a convergence of products very soon. Cambridge University have been developing a wearable touchpad with Nokia. This kind of technology could form the basis of future smart watches or smart bands that will allow users to pay for goods with a swipe of their wrist.

Social media goes mobile

There is a general movement to move social media to mobile. This will continue as a trend as the term ‘Social media’ becomes a yesteryear thing to say in the same way as web 2.0 and new media have vanished. Google & Facebook have been acquiring multitudes of mobile apps, platforms and programmers to be at the forefront of this evolution.

My big punts for the future

I made a few big punts during the event including the prediction that the evolution of digital media will become a permanent connection between people and society at large. Wallets will be redundant as the chipsets will get down to nano size allowing us to simply inject our life data into our bloodstream, transmitting via our own natural human magnetic field. I predicted that kids under 3 today will never own a wallet as we move to a completely cashless society. ‘Head up display’ technology will be embedded into our brain sensors to allow us to use robotic artificial intelligence to heal ourselves and store updatable Wikipedia style knowledge.

If you scrolled down from before the video, then here are the slides from the presentation

About the event

The video was shot and edited by Mickey Lee as were these photos from the event http://www.thebiglondon.com/tlb-social Team London Bridge is an independently funded body that looks after developing and promoting London Bridge for the companies that fund it. To find out more, please visit http://www.teamlondonbridge.co.uk

The event was held at the Brigade Bar & Bistro http://www.thebrigade.co.uk which supports the Beyond Food Foundation, helping disadvantaged young people to forge a career in the catering industry. To find out more please visit http://www.beyondfoodfoundation.org.uk

Last week the now infamous Google Art Project ran a major advertising campaign on YouTube.

Intrigued, we discovered that it recently broadened its remit to include a further 151 cultural institutions and now covers over 40 countries across the globe. That’s a lot of art! Even the Obamas have leapt onto Google's bandwagon and anyone, anywhere can now gawk at the chandelier clad rooms of the White House.

This is a project which is close to our hearts at Total Media, largely because we’re a bunch of art lovers but also because a considerable number of our clients are in the arts sector. Among the new recruits are London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, and The Imperial War Museum, who have both allowed Google to get up close and personal with some of their most extraordinary treasures.

Google’s street view technology not only allows us to roam the corridors of these famous galleries and museums with the click of a mouse but it also lets us witness, in minute detail, the splendour of the Armada Jewel and the likes of Rosetti’s beautiful painting The Daydream. The experience is strangely addictive, particularly when its high resolution view allows you to see more than the naked eye does on a typical gallery visit.  Whilst digital art usually consists of perfection, airbrushing and hyperreality, Google’s Art Project tool lets you see the tiny brush strokes, the imperfections and the subtleties which make art, well…art.

A project with pitfalls

It’s not all about marvelling at life’s masterpieces though. For Google, the project has brought with it the pesky issue of copyright law. Once upon a time original art works such as Botticelli’s Birth of Venus could only be seen by those lucky enough to visit the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Now, users can not only scrutinize it with a super human lens, they can also post it to a Facebook account, or pin it to their Pinterest boards, giving visibility to an infinite number of people.  Some would say this is fantastic, only Google has allegedly shrugged off the responsibility of obtaining permissions from the people who own the rights to these works. As the New York Times recently reported, this has been left to the galleries themselves to obtain. For this reason, there are comparatively few artworks from the 20^th century on display through the project. The permissions simply haven’t yet been given. 

Another pitfall is that the virtual capturing of these galleries is done at a fixed time, and at this stage Google has no way of keep up to date with the changing exhibits which make major galleries so successful. This means a person who feels they have navigated the hallways of the Tate Britain has, in fact, only seen the Tate of a few months ago, meaning effect isn’t as authentic as it would seem. Not only that, but it bypasses the awe and wonder which is usually the product of a real-life gallery visit. As Claire Gould (curator at Helsinki Art Museum and sister of our very own Leila!) says, “Art should have a value as an original, or as an experience that you cannot get elsewhere. This tool diminishes the experience of art, since it flattens the works through its digitalization.”

Has Google got it right?

There is one silver lining to all this, and that is the Google Art Project is effectively bringing museums to the masses; anyone, regardless of economic or cultural capital, can gorge themselves on fine art from the comfort of their own home, office or classroom. They can even 'curate' their own personal gallery by collecting their favourite art works and sharing them with friends. For this, Google has to be applauded. We're all for reaching the masses here at Total Media, and we'd have to agree with anything which supports people subscribing to the arts. Will our clients see a rise in visitors to the galleries themselves though? We'll have to wait and see.

Total Media received a Highly Commended accolade for its Huffington Post launch campaign at last night’s sixth Clear Channel Awards.

Total Media along with its campaign partners Posterscope and Maher Bird Associates (MBA), won the Highly Commended award in the category for Best Use of Digital in Outdoor.

Lucas Brown, a Partner at Total Media, said of the achievement: “We’re delighted to receive the Highly Commended award, along with our collaborators, Posterscope and MBA.”

“Using our specialist media and digital knowledge, we were able to conceive and implement an innovative launch strategy which complemented the Huffington Post and engaged audiences,” he added.

To generate buzz around the launch of the Huffington Post UK last year, and to recruit bloggers and journalists to the site, the campaign used an integrated mix of media, including digital and outdoor, combined with a live Twitter feed as its centrepiece.

Positioned at railway stations, with up-to-the-minute headlines and the most recent ten Tweets, the posters would be amongst the first messages audiences would see each morning.  As well as press coverage and a number one trending on Twitter, the campaign generated visitor statistics beyond all expectations.

The Clear Channel Awards celebrate the pinnacle in innovatively planned and effective outdoor media campaigns. 

With just over 100 days left until our capital lifts the curtain on the 2012 Olympic Games, I thought it would be a good idea to see how people will be watching the Olympics this Summer.

If recent stories (and personal experience) are anything to go by, one can assume that a lot won’t be watching the games in the actual stadiums. So where will people be watching the Olympics over the summer? In terms of location this could be any number of places, for instance my family will be hosting a few Olympic BBQ’s with the TV on in the background. Others will be heading off to some of the Olympic TV screens in London’s parks, to indulge in some of the atmosphere and some will join in with the hordes of crowds packing out bars to cheer Chris Hoy and company on to gold. 

Regarding the actual channels that are covering the Olympics, your options are far more limited. The BBC will be covering the event day and night meaning rival broadcasters are preparing themselves for a dip in impacts during July. If Sue barker, Colin Jackson and Michael Johnson don’t cut it for you then you’ll have to switch over to British Eurosport (assuming you’ve paid for the correct Sky or Virgin package). Although this channel normally has a somewhat niche profile, come the Olympics it will be showing an all-encompassing selection of sports. The channel served me well during a summer in Barcelona where I unfortunately spilt Sangria down a customer whilst watching Michael Phelps win his 8^th gold medal.  However as is the case with most sport on TV the success of the ratings will largely depend upon the performance of our nations athletes, which staggeringly could actually be pretty good. What is more, is that there will be no staying up until 2am or waking up at 6am to watch the live events, this year’s Olympics will be more or less catered to the UK public’s schedule meaning the allure of watching live action should inevitably lead to more ratings.

In terms of viewing the Olympics online the story is a somewhat similar one. The rights around any Olympic content being shown on the internet are impressively strict with the BBC and Eurosport websites being the only UK broadcasters able to show any content. The two websites along with BBC iPlayer will inevitably see significant rises in traffic over the period, however Sky Sports news will most likely see upsurges both in TV ratings and website traffic as its special Olympic report will cater for its loyal consumers seeking extra news. Much like last time around, expect to see clips uploaded onto YouTube, only to be taken down swiftly.

The rise of social media over the last 4 years will clearly add another aspect to the Olympic experience this year. The relationship between sport and social media was fantastically demonstrated in this year’s Super Bowl with the world record for the amount of tweets in a second broken twice. The first came in Madonna’s half time performance and the second at the very end of the match, my own prediction is that #ldn2012 and #ubolt will be breaking similar records. As we have seen before on TV, these social media buzzes will in turn create a drive back to live viewing as people do not wish to miss out on the real time experience of watching and discussing the Games over Social media platforms.

Needless to say if you don’t wish to watch any coverage of the Olympics and are hell bent on avoiding the ahem… “massive waste of tax payers’ money”…. then  you will also need to avoid picking up any newspapers as they will have the Olympics story dominating both sides seeing as it’s not often that press has an advantage over TV and online these days.

Total Media is celebrating turning 30 today!

It was an announcement in Campaign magazine sometime in April 1982, which alerted me to the birth of Total Media. Mike Sell, who I am sure was wearing white socks in the photo, and his founding partner Mike Dinsdale (Dins) struck a louche pose in their launch broadside at the world. Intrigued and having met Dins briefly at Market Research Society events I got in touch and after a period of freelancing for the Mikes soon left my job at HTV and joined up. At the end of 1983, when a couple of our research contracts came to an end, we decided to focus purely on media planning and buying and, in an amicable separation, Dins set off on his successful research career.

There were now three of us in a converted double garage and the only way was up! Endless pitching with hand-drawn charts (no computers then!), days that routinely ended between 10 and 12 pm and all fuelled by the Sharnaaz Tandoori brought the wins that allowed us to start growing. This all nearly ended in tears when, after taking our two largest clients to Jean Michel Jarre in the Docklands, we tarried too long in a wine bar post-show and missed the last train out. Electing to walk to civilisation we got caught in a storm and attempted to keep up the jollity while sheltering in a rapidly filling drain culvert. A sympathetic security guard squeezed us into his sentry box where we called one of the client's husband who drove up from Epsom to rescue us. He was very good about being dragged out of bed, though I am sure he mentioned organising something in a brewery as we were dropped off.

Nigel Potter, after a stint in US agencies, joined our number, and helped us develop and grow our publishing sector strength. He also introduced fancy dress parties which endure. Following a particularly cheerful Christmas party – Mike dressed as a bumble bee, Nigel as a French maid and myself wearing a nappy and bonnet combination – we were walking back to Acton, where we all lived at the time, when a large black Mercedes screeched up next to us. Out leaped what looked like a heavy-weight boxer, clearly offended by us, and headed straight for me with fists the size of dinner plates. The bumble bee seemed to melt into the dark, I was frozen to the spot and the French maid did a brilliant Henry Kissinger negotiation, convincing man-mountain that decking a man in a nappy would do nothing for his street cred.

Annie Lambert, the next senior hire, insisted unreasonably we felt, that we buy some PCs and subscribe to a few research sources before signing up. Good thing too. We were then 14 strong and growing as we headed into the 90s and long lunches, company cars and ties began to disappear. The company established its skills for launching products and services and developed strengths in the arts, travel and retail sectors, launching Amazon and TK Maxx amongst others in the UK. At about this time, Barry Took brought his agency into the fold and Total Media North was formed and has thrived ever since. Another arrival was David Proud who set up our production division fifteen years ago today! That’s right, Total Media Production! David is an ex-England boxer and at a very young 62 is the fittest person I know, regularly running marathons.

With this growth came a need for more financial rigour and Daniel (don't call me Dan) D'Mello joined us as our first Financial Director. Dan (don’t call me Dan), despite a worrying commitment to Crystal Palace, sharpened up our systems and has kept the place ship-shape ever since.

Moving to our first office in 125 High Street Kensington felt very grown up and the space seemed enormous, uncluttered and a great source of corporate pride. Lucas Brown joined at this time to develop our direct offer but also introduced the annual company walk and the concept of Lucasland. This shifting place, some five miles beyond Neverland, forms the destination to which Luke cajoles, pleads, bribes and bullies the generally overhung rabble to strive to. We've done around half a dozen of these epics now with plans for another this September.

At about the same time as Luke's arrival we absorbed some of the staff and clients of Radar, nee Upward Brown Media. From this development we formed our international team, unique in the independent sector, and our sector strength in charities. Ten years on, many of those clients are still with us and from the team that came aboard Jacqui Purdy and Pedro Martins each lead client teams, and Tom Laranjo is now Total Media Ltd.’s managing director.

Since moving into our current floor six years ago, the agency has experienced more change and growth than in the previous twenty-four put together. The company is now 89 strong, some 83 in London and 6 in our Solihull Total Media North (surely Midlands, don't ask!) office. Digital has profoundly changed the media business and rather than outsource we decided to build our own teams which now include PPC, SEO, Social media, PR, Strategy, our own DSP and data, who all integrate with our planning teams.

At the end of 2010 we welcomed the arrival of a number of Round 2 Media's staff as that company encountered difficulties. The boost in numbers involved some squeezing up and demolition of partitions but added to the strength and depth of our team and established the agency in the pharmaceutical sector. My beautiful office, which took 28 years to get, is now looking pretty temporary!

With all this squeezing up we have spotted a noticeable number of relationships forming; some going right through to offspring and weddings. It does seem at times that the company's core purpose of customer engagement has been reduced simply to engagement. Perhaps we just need to put a match-making commission system in place?

Throughout all this Mike has been the rock and glue of the agency (if that is possible) and his irreverence has kept any shred of hubris or pomposity at bay. He did once swear though that he would top himself if we ever employed anyone younger than the company. As of today some 62% of the agency weren’t born when the company started and I am glad to say that Mike, or someone just like him, is still with us. In this sweep I must include Mike Drake and Andrew Dunlop who have been our legal and financial non-execs from the start. Mike does our board minutes, which stay just this side of polite but are very funny. Andrew, who at six foot six, commands attention and once picked me up by the lapels and dropped me on the pavement outside the office. I think I was just questioning his amortisation policy. His son, James, now works for us and is just as big. Oh dear.

Total Media has started, been part or formed all of the careers for great numbers of young and not so young people. Many have stayed with us for many years, a heartening number have left and returned and those that moved on form Total Media’s diaspora, now in the low hundreds and in agencies around the world. And, of course, our 30 year long journey would not have been possible without our clients, some of which have been with us almost from the start. To every Total Media friend – employee, client, media owner and supplier; past and present – many thanks indeed for your contribution in getting us to 30.

Happy Birthday Total Media!