Google : Under the Spotlight

If you didn't know, Google has recently been under intense scrutiny all over the world for unethical practices. Last year in November they came under investigation through a anti-trust probe launched by the EU in order to ascertain whether Google abuses its market position, similarly in June this year, US federal regulators issued a anti-trust probe in order to investigate the same thing, and then 4 days later, a French search engine 1PlusV issued a court action towards the search engine giants, suing over allegations that Google uses its dominant market position to guide users towards sites that are involved within their adsense programs, and through their sponsored links that appear down the side. Effectively, Google are able to eliminate sites and search engines that are legitimate within the search, in order to promote sites up the list that are involved within their advertising program. Of course, these allegations remain to be proved but have been increasing in their seriousness despite Google's claims for legitimacy. Depending on who you believe, this could be a legitimate use of large market share in order to push consumer towards you products, or an illegal use of power to restrict consumer choice in the search for more revenue although Google claim their ranking system is legitimate. Will marketers continue to use Google adsense capabilities despite the negative media attention they are receiving at the moment? I believe yes, because if you translate this into a real world example, companies with huge market share have capabilities to steer consumers towards their products, be it through large recognition through previous brand building or through extensive use of IMC a company that has taken large market share can rely on those who are part of their market share to use and be directed towards their products, why then cant Google do the same? 

what do you guys think? 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13941382

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11876443

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13899197

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15014077

Facebook = More T.V?

Imagine a world where 20 years down the track, on a Sunday afternoon, a family gets together in the living room to catch a few hours of Sunday televisions best programming. whats different from this situation from our normal one you ask? well in this world, mum and dad will begin with checking their Facebook pages, "ooohh" mum will say, "looks like Uncle David posted that Jersey on Ice (or some other generic reality T.V show) is a cracking watch!" and the family will then, having listened to Uncle Davids sage advice tune in to watch an hour of fake-tanned juice heads trying to party on ice-skates. the truth is, Facebook and social media is continually changing our lives and statistics prove that not only do Australia have a almost unbelievably high amount of Facebook saturation, but that we are the most fanatical users of Facebook in the world. This simple fact is that Facebook has opened the door for a huge opportunity for television. Now, by tapping into the resource of Facebook, marketers can effectively segment and target specific groups according to the general demographics of the platform itself. it also allows marketers to capture the thoughts of opinion leaders within groups and create value through their recommendations and status updates, i mean who among us has never had a show recommended to them through another friend on Facebook either through direct communication or through the reading of a status or a post on a wall, in fact manager of Ipad movie distributor "SeaChange" believes that "Social recommendations trigger much higher views than traditional context recommendations. That can really help operators to increase viewing which may help to increase the revenue stream." .

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14921491

Some experts say that there is a downside to this seemingly perfect marketing tool. first and foremost, marketers have a lack of control over what is posted on a Facebook page as it comes straight from the consumer, ie "Saw planet of the apes, it was terrible", status's like this can have a vastly negative effect on a product. additionally, Anthony Rose, ex CTO of TV, internet company "YouView" believes that by focusing on social media, and targeting segments through social criteria, large chunks of market can be excluded from consideration. for example members of the older population probably wont receive the same sort of value through social media as younger more tech savvy consumers. Finally, often the internet becomes a mask for less scrupulous individuals seeking to appear under a different persona then there normal appearance or nature, which brings the problem of deception and whether we are hitting the right audience. to put it simply, a friend once told me "Ah the internet, where men are men, girls are men, and little boys are FBI agents" 

Thoughts?

Twilight the Game : God help Us

Its no secret that everytime a blockbuster movie is released, a video game modeled on the movie will be soon to follow. Take the latest recreation of marvel Hero Captain America for example, released earlier this year, has already been followed up with the corresponding Video Game, "Captain America - Super Soldier". this is but one example of this phenomena, others include, X-Men Origins and the Wolverine game released soon after, Avatar and its video game and the catastrophe that was the movie Thor and its equally bad game Thor-God of Thunder. The fact is, many studio's and opportunistic game developers see these blockbuster movies as as the perfect opportunity to effectively "piggyback" on the movies awareness levels that come from being a new studio film. In my opinion, this represents excellent marketing on behalf of the game producers who have effectively identified the opportunity to create a game that will be largely backed up by the movies following (particularly if the genre of the film is reflective of the video gaming community, you couldnt make a "gone with the wind" game for example and expect it to sell), and poor poor marketing decision making in most cases on behalf of those who own the intellectual property of the movie. lets face it people, when it comes down to it, well known video gaming companies, those who are reknown for creating great games arent interested in borrowing ideas for games and are primarily interested in creating their own worlds and enviroments from scratch (world or warcraft for example), you simply never see large companies like Gearbox, Valve or Blizzard creating games based on movies. for the smaller game designers however, it represents a large opportunity. the problem however, is that usually their creative hands are tied by the movies characters and strict development constictions and therefore on average these games based on movies are usually rubbish, and therefore damaging to the creators of the movie and damaging to the brand of the movie itself. take thor for example, the game received a 3/10 on respected pc magazine IGN, and the game developer? Liquid Studios a miniscule player in the gaming community (http://au.ps3.ign.com/objects/900/900982.html). or take Avatar for example, no one could say that the movie was rubbish, but the game on the other hand, released soon afterwards? a 6/10 on IGN, passable but nothing special. simply put, not since the heady days of  Bond classic Goldeneye and the game made from it, the timeless N64 classic Goldeneye, has the secret formula for movie-tie-in games been cracked and we will continue to see games released in future that are poor mirages of decent movies, potentially hurting movie brand equity.

p.s
thank god no one has made a twilight game

the horror that was Thor.

for those of you who have seen a game of thrones, this will make you laugh