Geo-tagging to hit the mainstream?

I've always loved the idea of geo-tagging photographs. I used to travel maybe 120 times a year and took photographs as a way of documenting my trips (on film too - I'm that old). Then, I played around with Google Earth, dropping holiday photos onto maps of the planet. And sharing them with friends around the world. All good fun but it always felt at the edge of nerd-dom.
Now I have a BlackBerry (they're a client, hence the correct spelling). As do many many other people. Now, Nokia have had gps in the n95 for a while, but BlackBerry have a huge installed base and repurchase rate. That makes me think it's *just* the device to get geo-tagging to take off, big-styley. I don't quite know - apart from ego (showing off) or keeping track of close friends and relatives, what the real application of geo-tagging is - but I can't wait to find out (thoughts please!!!)
I just wish these BlackBerrys had a decent damn camera.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I set up a little Flickr group to this end, and let's see who comes to play.

Renaissance and the slowdown

Adage have a little article about what 'renaissance marketers' need to do to develop integrated marketing campaigns (actually, IMC's - I love the way people can turn everything into a Three Letter Acronym, or TLA).  In a nutshell, it precis how agencies do it:

- strategic consistency (I'd call it coherence; slight difference)

- common measurement framework

- break down functional silos

- ensure you have the functional and technical skills to deliver.

But they seem to have missed out the bit where they have to buy some creative work. What is the renaissance work they should be looking for, what characteristics should it have?

I found an old book on the shelves at home which might provide the answer. Early renaissance art was categorised by naive wonder. Middle renaissance by intellectual idealisation. The high renaissance by scale, energy and high art.

Perhaps BMW films were a good example of exploring and surprising people about the possibilities of integration with digital at the core. Perhaps I Love Bees was a neat example of creating a very deliberate programme of experience orchestrating different channels through the web. Has anyone done the latter? Are there high renaissance integrated creative campaigns yet? Are there any agencies producing them (the scramble for digital agencies to become ad agencies, and vice versa, suggests not). Are there any clients - renaissance marketers, in fact - putting briefs out for this sort of work?

Technorati Tags: renaissance,marketing,integrated,adage,art

Positioning for an economic downturn? Or, of baby birds and octopi.

So it's pretty clear the industry is in for a bit of a rough spell. There usual summer lull in new business and softening budgets may not come back in the autumn. The IPA has been talking for a while now about the importance of brands advertising during a recession to strengthen your market position when it's hard for your competitors to respond.

But, how do agencies position themselves for this downturn?

Networks have greater flex than smaller agencies. They can move people around the network, compensate for downturns in one market through network revenues, and downsize more easily. I was in a network during and after the last recession, so I can remember how they consolidate and adapt.

Smaller, independent agencies have less elasticity of resources and cashflow. Less 'fat'. The danger is they strip out a lot of the cost which makes them less able to add value and slower to respond to an upturn (and therefore vulnerable to sale).

I suppose my answer is that smaller agencies have to try and sell an integrated offer based on a value (not low cost) basis. They can save the client money by not having to maintain a lot of separate contracts with different agencies (a network to a client must look like a nest with loads of constantly demanding baby birds competing for scraps of worms from the parent). Integration can mean keeping the brains trust together and coordinating an integrated structure (and therefore campaign design) around the clients' business. More like an octopus, then.

And I wonder how many agencies have been bold enough to start talking about the R word in their creds yet?

Technorati Tags: economics,positioning,downturn,integrated,advertising,recession