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First day kid free so finally had a little time to catch up... thanks to many great member sites I gleamed some key messages:

Year 2010 - The year of the mobile
    -    predictions future revenue will come from search not sms as was first thought (note to self to check this out)

Year 2010 - Social media
Great post here on future media
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/30/context-is-king-how-videos-found/

Factor 4: Content is King?
Indeed, to paraphrase Viacom’s Chairman Sumner Redstone: content becomes more important than distribution mechanisms; as new channels of distribution creep up, it is the content that is always going to be necessary, hence the adage “content is king”.  If you fast forward to 2010, it’s true that with all of these social media aggregation and distribution tools, you are seeing media rise to the surface.  No one, after all, cares about the pipes; it’s what flows through the pipes that matters.  The context—Facebook, Twitter, email—in which people are introduced to media and consume it is becoming more important than the content itself.  Content is no longer king, context is.

I have always loved the distinction of context and content and so love this clarification it is on the money. I'm sure niche can survive for this reason but it must achieve the last key ingredient...

Year 2010
Year of engagement - marketing, specifically communication will never be the same again. How are you engaging with your customers/readers

Again a great post here
http://www.searchengineguide.com/eric-brown/will-2010-be-the-year-for-engagement.php

I understand a few of you have received a marriage proposal from a new member - whilst I understand it made your day I think we can work together to keep that out of gooruze. Thank you to those members who reporting it so swiftly - the member has been removed. 

I was caught up in a planning session and couldn't get to the site to remove them but I have to confess I was amused by the members who shared with me their reaction to such a solicitation. A bit like watching a serious game of cricket and seeing a streaker run across the oval - you wouldn't want to see it happen regularly but every now and then it is amusing

Good news - I think we will soon have a way to add videos(youtube) to gooruze. I think it will be a great way to add depth and energy to gooruze. mmm i think i might be inspired to start vlogging.

Have you have heard of pandora jewelry. If you have I'm sure you have been online and will agree 100% that it has to be one of the best products which was made for selling online. This must be every marketers dream to come up with such a flexible, ever growing product line - well it is certainly mine.

Ok for the uneducated - remember charm bracelet - well add a quality universal brand/quality silver/gold gemstones and you have the pandora pick and select range.

How it works - you buy the bracelet or necklace and then select from hundreds of charms to build your piece.

It's kind of like "Thomas the Tank Engine" - start with the tracks and then the sky is the limit how much you can spend.

Why so perfect for online?

1. Easily viewed and inspected online

2. Awesome brand power "authentic pandora"

3. low cost delivery

4. Large Target Market - suitable for every occassion for all women - xmas, birthday, valentines, mothers day.... you get the picture.

5. Addictive - no self respecting female will want just 1 charm on her bracelet - the race will be on to have them all.

6. Oh and my favorite - there is a wishlist - you can tick what you want and send your husband/friends to see what is on your wishlist.

I'm sure this gimmick will pass - but in the meantime Pandora has found a money tree and has revolutionalised jewelry gift buying. I wonder how this brilliance can be applied to other verticals.

 

I just picked up from twitter this cool video on scouta - by the same people who did "machine is us" - worth a watch. It says 5 days old so maybe I'm the last to see it  thanks for the tip richard.

Recent post by Nick Gonzalez of techcrunch describes the new AdReady. Here is the review - worth a read Nick provides a good overview.

I had a quick look - looks nice and clean I think worth testing it. It offers a cheap and easy way for small businesses to test display advertising . Looks a bit like spotrunner is to TV ads. 

Did you catch the latest story from Business Week re Micrsooft and prediction that over the next 4 to 10 years 25% of Microsoft revenues will come from advertising!  According to Chief, Steve Ballmer "All marketing will be digital sometime in the next 10 years," predicts Ballmer.

Interesting I see in another post "All Microsoft has to do is prove the value of all other marketing messages delivered prior to the action of searching" and they can beat Google & Yahoo.....Gosh I so would love to see them achieve this and take online marketing to a new level, new paradigms.

Ok so how do we get him on Gooruze? Anyone have his email address?

Funny enough about 10 years ago when I was working at Microsoft I sent him an email (he was Global Head of Mkting at the time)- cocky little thing that I was back then - I had just read One To One Future by Peppers and Rogers and was sick of working in such a "product focussed" organisation - yes in those days it was all about product and I was Manager Customer Development in Sydney Australia. Would you believe it I sent him a copy of the book and told him we need to move towards this new approach.  Not suprisingly ......I never got a reply

It's ok I took a "snagit" for memory sake - me in first place of Gooruze - perhaps one day I can show my son.

I'm pleased to say the post has been taken by a more rightful owner - well done Duncan - but can you hold it?

Plenty more competition now for ranking I wonder who will own the 1st spot on launch day.

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I have just finished reading the book by Ishmael Beah, a child solider in Sierra Leone, who shares of the horrors of war and the impact to young kids. Gut wrenching stuff which had me surfing the net at the finish of it wondering what I could do to help. I came across a couple of  “causes groups” on facebook.   Now maybe there are other factors going on like mistrust but what surprised me is the low level of donations given the number of members: 

 Invisible Children has 228,146 members and only $12,671 donated  

 Help the Invisible Children! 6,415 members and only $110 donated  

 Mothers Against Drunk Driving has 47,568 members and only $222donated

Facebook has brilliant mechanisms to automatically opt in friends which of course help drive up the numbers but really how active are those members. As any Direct Marketer knows quality not quantity has always been key to success. I think I read somewhere that members of facebook are not very committed. Do these donations suggest a rather passive involvement - or maybe it is just lacking credibility of cause. Either way be great to see web 2.0 help causes such as child soldiers achieve greater exposure and funding. By the way if you haven't read the book I'd highly recommend it - but be prepared to be "blue"  

I came across this interesting comment in AdWeek -

"Hallerman said that while economic conditions will, naturally, impact ad spending, Internet should be relatively safe in '08. "The Web is not going to be the first thing they cut," he said. "When times are tough, brands tend to gravitate to something they can prove to their bosses. Cover your ass becomes more important."

According to the article "Pure-play online advertising was the fastest-growing sub- segment of the pure-play Internet market, surging 36.3 percent last year to $15.11 billion, driven primarily by the national online ad market, particularly search advertising, per VSS."

The article points out that while there is a lot of discussion around digital and web 2.0 - the bread and butter is in search and display advertising.