Digital Vinyl

I know this is not comms related or anything. But it says a thing or two about the power of the Internet. The last part of this rant was released earlier today and already they put an animation to it. And of course it’s hilarious&8230; and sad. Have a great summer folks. /Baek

Tonight LeBron James the basketball superstar and marketing machine will announce where he will play his home games in the future. For the first seven years of his NBA career The Chosen One has played for his hometown team the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now King James as he is also known will chose to either stay ...

Messaging in the stream. Not a new Kenny Rogers / Dolly Parton collaboration rather the aspiration of marketers wishing to bathe in thewarmth of earned media. The idea goes like this. The brand creates a social home that people can join like or check in to and as a consequence allow the brand to join ...

CRTC Decision on Fee for Carriage Consumers will have to dig a little deeperLast week the CRTC finally announced their decision regarding fee for carriage.The issue in an nutshell is that Conventional TV broadcasters such as CTV Global and City TV are not paid a fee by distributors eg. Cable companies satellite companies for their broadcast signal/content while Specialty Stations eg HGTV TSN Food are paid a fee on a per household basis. This is a historical model whereby the Conventionals were guaranteed maximum distribution/mandatory carriage and therefore the biggest audiences possible to sell to advertisers.With Conventional stations losing money for the first time in 2008/09 and Specialty channels enjoying record viewing and profit Conventional owners questioned their ability to deliver local TV and Canadian content under the existing regulatory restraints.The fact that the same companies in most cases own both the Conventional and Specialty channels and often the cable company too did not dissuade the CRTC from announcing pending approval a U.S. model which allows each station to negotiate a fee or some form of exchange for carriage with each of the cable/satellite companies. Another part of the announcement was that video-on-demand VOD advertising will be allowed and will be the selling domain of the TV stations not cable cos.This is a positive result in terms of longer term revenue potential for the broadcasters and buying access and simplicity for media buyers.If a carriage deal cannot be negotiated the Canadian broadcaster could demand blockage of their signal and the signal from any U.S station broadcasting shows where they own Canadian rights denying consumers TV access to top U.S. shows eg American Idol CSIAcademy Awards. Ultimately since the CBC is not part of this equation and Rogers owns both CITY TV and the cable pipes; as will Shaw for Global TV this is primarily a CTV issue . Just as younger and tech savvy consumers who have abandoned phone landlines for mobile only and long distance for Skype not to mention CDs and DVDs for digital downloads of music and movies most often for free; some may cancel or never buy cable TV preferring to view legally or illegally video content on their laptop/mobile device . The end result is that most consumers will pay a little more for their cable bill; voices will be raised consumers will complain but we will return to business as usual.We at MEC do see positives in the decision given new access to VOD audiences some additional revenue for Conventional broadcasters which may help mitigate pressures on pricing an end hopefully to what became a public debate that seemed a waste of energy and resources.

One of the biggest stories of the month so far alongside Personalised search of course is Googles dive into real time search in the form of Latest Results. On certain searches Google will provide &38; update real-time results pulled from newspapers magazines blogs &38; social networks primarily twitter into the results page. This video highlights ...