Cheongy

I woke up this morning to find a glorious $2.50 worth of Facebook credits on my Facebook account.  Sweeeeet….

With an active user base of 235 million global monthly users - Social Gaming is forecasted to earn $400 Million in 2010. The  purchase of virtual currency (c. 1.6 billion sold in 2010) as  the revenue stream for these companies. (ref)

As Facebook becomes further engrained in our lifes, there have been talks that it should be come regulated (mmmm very serious stuff) – However with the presence of my $2.50 – I feel the dynamics of my relationship changing with Facebook.  Changing from a social network, to a … gaming platform?  Let me explain. To date, Facebook has always been an extension of my self online, not a self promotion tool like twitter, but a virtual mirror of my real life – the option to participate in Social gaming has always been there, but never be pushed towards me – as it was today. The numbers don’t lie and social gaming is huge – it does make sense for Facebook to want a slice of the action. However are the short terms gains (incremental gains in revenue) – ultimately going to harm the long term goals of Facebook – to become a social utility, as I’m sure I can’ the only person feeling like this. Anyway I’m sure this is the start of something else and with  Facebook just recently partnering up with Amazon. There are some great opportunities for Brands to buy my Love;) – Doooo it!

Polorising my initial reaction to Facebook Credits – heres a Ted Talk I saw recently that could explain a new paradigm shift in our society… is Facebook credits the start of this?

- Henry Jenkins ‘Convergence Culture…’

Prior to the internet it was fairly easy to plan advertising and control it – eg don’t book where you don’t want to be seen. However with the proliferation and fragmentation of publishers on the internet  (ergo every one is a publisher, even me!) . In an attempt to shape fragmentation – we turned categorising standards such as IASH. Which brought some order to the chaos… However do our clients really know where their advertising is appearing… Do we?

This is just a hypothesis, but if you were to ask a hundred people what they thought the internet is…. would we eventually begin to see that the internet only consists of 5 sites… MSN, Yahoo, Google, BBC and Facebook (alright, maybe more than 5… but you get the gist of what I’m saying… Clearly this isn’t what the internet is constructed of, but are traditional marketers still thinking this… I think yes….

With this in mind – I think the IAB needs to be applauded for their work done on the IamtheLongtail As it brings to life what the internet really is…

The longtail = tribes = internet.

Everyone seams to be kicking around the idea and touting the stregnths of the internet with its ability to target anyone even a Spanish Cross dressing doctor in Botsawna, but still…however our plans are dominated by the MSNs of the world.

Maybe its a reflection of an overworked, and lazy industry, maybe small numbers are just harder to rationalize…. I have no idea… but it something to think about…

Another crazy week to add to my Overseas Experience. Running away from Bulls, sangria filled water pistols, and partying up with Spain after they won their worldcup semi finals game against Germany.

I heard from my friend Jye that the Pamplona bull runs were one of the most amazing things he had done during his travels… he wasn’t lying. The bulls weren’t hugely scary, for the most part you only experience 3 secs as they race past… but its the sheer panic and fear on everyones face that really gets the adrenaline going.

The brave/moronic woke up on Wednesday morning to participate in the first bull runs of the San Fermin festival. In the dark we were ushered into coach loads of ‘Bovine’ cannon fodder and sent on an hour long mission to Pamplona. Once in Pamplona we ducked under a few barriers, and were at the beginning of the town hall. We were waiting for the rockets to fire at 8pm to signal the starting of the first bull runs. I stuck closely to the PP travel guys who had done it last year,  as I did not want to be part of the group that got culled on the first morning. continue reading…

Quite an eventful week this week.

• Thursday – Media Awards
  Stellar effort by James Green and Josiah Amartey bringing home the ‘Best use of Affilliate Marketing’ for their work on HMV
• Friday – BBC Track Day
  Spent the with Top Gear crew and Stig, putting a Lotus Exige, and a Elise around the Dunsfield Aerodrome track – Videos to follow of my horrendous driving effort.
• Saturday – Serpentine in Hyde Park
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