Ged Carroll

Category: business | 商業 | 상업 | ビジネス

My interest in business or commercial activity first started when a work friend of my Mum visited our family. She brought a book on commerce which is what business studies would have been called decades earlier. I read the book and that piqued my interest.

At the end of your third year in secondary school you are allowed to pick optional classes that you will take exams in. this is supposed to be something that you’re free to chose.

I was interested in business studies (partly because my friend Joe was doing it). But the school decided that they wanted me to do physics and chemistry instead and they did the same for my advanced level exams because I had done well in the normal level ones. School had a lot to answer for, but fortunately I managed to get back on track with college.

Eventually I finally managed to do pass a foundational course at night school whilst working in industry. I used that to then help me go and study for a degree in marketing.

I work in advertising now. And had previously worked in petrochemicals, plastics and optical fibre manfacture. All of which revolve around business. That’s why you find a business section here on my blog.

Business tends to cover a wide range of sectors that catch my eye over time. Business usually covers sectors that I don’t write about that much, but that have an outside impact on wider economics. So real estate would have been on my radar during the 2008 recession.

  • History of sampling + more

    History of sampling

    Whosampled.com’s crowdsourced ‘trainspotters’ across the music presenting a history of sampling. If I had one criticism of the history of sampling its that it was very hip-hop focused. But focus is the blessing and the curse of public talk like this. More related content here.

    Brexit

    I get that Brexit is about identity politics rather than about economics but the impact of supply chains is something that still hasn’t registered. Falling out of the customs union will challenge assumptions consumers have made on British brands. This segment from Newsnight simplifies it for the average member of the public – I’d argue it was the wrong programme to run it on due to its relative lack of reach.

    MemphisStyle

    The Exclusive North American Premiere of the BMW i8 MemphisStyle at Frieze Art Fair New York. BMW presents two Art and Design Talks in partnership with SoHo House. – BMW’s art car project has been running for decades, the i8 pattern – brings you back to the 1980s when Memphis was at its height. The i8 itself harks back to the iconic M1.

    BMW i8 Memphis style

    This Polish dub influenced drum and bass track was on repeat with the iPod.

    Alex Turnbull

    Alex Turnbull (@alexturnbull23) • first international Stussy Tribe meet-up – back in the pre-internet history of 1987 you had the first meet up of Stussy’s collection of friends and tastemakers on Southbank in London. Back then it was a haven for skateboard culture. If you’re a Londoner and you participate in Charlie Dark’s ‘Run Dem’ club the inspiration was right here.  You can see similar thinking in New Balance’s Blackout Squad and Adidas’ Tango Squad. Fashion, luxury, sports and drinks brands have tried to repeat this – usually without the authenticity. Turnbull is a member of post punk band 23Skidoo and went on to found Ronin Records – one of the UK’s most prominent hip hop labels

  • Paula’s Loewe collar + more

    Loewe x Paula’s

    Spanish luxury brand Loewe x Paula’s rolled out its collaboration with Ibiza boutique Paula’s. Paula’s reflects a move of Ibiza away from sweaty EDM fans to a more elite stylish visitor more used to Pykes and Hunters. In many respects Loewe x Paula’s is about taking Ibiza back the original Balearic vibes where it was populated by the international jet set, before football casuals and clubland discovered the white isle in the mid-1980s. More related content here.

    Generation Z

    Meet Generation Z in our latest film | JWT Intelligence – downloadable and handy for provoking thoughts on planning in terms of data point. I have broader issues with the concept of generations and find life stages generally much more valuable as a concept. Generations hide data which should have use asking broader questions. Their generalisations aren’t that helpful either.

    Fred Wilson

    Venture capitalist Fred Wilson speaking at MIT Sloan School of Management. Fred Wilson used to run a technology VC operation with Andy Kessler. He then went on to found his own VC business – Union Square Ventures, based out of New York.

    Wilson talks about the VC role in terms of coaching entrepreneurs as much as investing them. In some respects this feels at odds with the usual VC approach of investing in the team. He talks about the demise of the investor letter, but also the importance of writing as ‘thinking out loud’.

    Product design by algorithm

    The Lowly Folding Chair, Reimagined With Algorithms | WIRED – classical material and computer aided design came up with something special. Its a fantastical piece of design. The question of intellectual property with regards the chair is a problem that can be solved another day

    UNISON

    UNISON campaigns to get voters on board with more of a focus on public services as the UK election got under way seems to have failed completely judging by the opinion polls. This disturbing video was made with Claire Sweeney – which breaks the uncomfortable ground between daytime TV programming and satire. At worst, this could be used as an excuse for the government to clamp down on the ‘interference’ of trade unions in parliamentary elections.

  • Studio 54 + other news

    Studio 54

    Nicky Siano on disco, drugs and DJing at Studio 54 | The Vinyl Factory – Studio 54 was an iconic club at the height of disco. While the Studio 54 was synonymous with disco, it  became known for being a celebrity mecca and a restrictive door policy. The celebrity attendance meant that there is a huge archive of society and press photography taken inside and outside the club, which cemented its fame further. 

    Business

    China wants to restrict WTO rules on dumping, unfair subsidies | SCMP – I am sure they do, as they are most often on the receiving end of penalties

    Three kingdoms, two empires: China’s internet giants go global | The Economist – with the exception of political censorship, the internet sector in China is lightly regulated. Facebook, Apple and Google, in contrast, face increasing scrutiny. Chinese internet firms can achieve market domination of a sort that would attract close attention in other markets

    Consumer behaviour

    Why has the ubiquity of tech turned us all into divas? | Canvas8 – impatience, desire of immediate gratification

    Luxury

    adidas and LPD Are Still Battling Over Failed Collaboration | The Fashion Law – this looks like an interesting collab gone bad. Adidas have some issues, they screwed over Shawn Stüssy and S-Double aborting a collaboration, so this isn’t completely surprising

    LVMH to Buy Christian Dior in $13 Billion Deal | BoF – raising the money through an expanded public offering….

    Barnzley Armitage and the Lost Art of Streetwear — the culture crush – great interview with the legendary stylist

    Barnzley Armitage and the bootleg Chanel tees – DisneyRollerGirl – snide t-shirts that accessorised the whole Buffalo feel of i-D magazine’s famous ‘Happy’ issue

    Media

    ESPN cuts familiar faces in major layoff – CNN – I wonder when this will trickle down to sports rights payments

    Government ‘blocked’ from accessing Twitter data to help spot terrorist plots | Telegraph – Twitter pushed back against the surveillance state

    Andy Lau teams up with Tencent and Fox for Chinese financial drama | Marketing Interactive – interesting evolution of the Hong Kong TV and film industry

    Now you can buy TV ads through Google’s DoubleClick | TechCrunch – this could sting agencies (cough cough WPP) who invested in an ad tech technology stack

    Security

    Nothing new in UK Govt cyber security survey – Enterprise Times – in a blow for the government only 4% referred to Government and public sector sources. This is disappointing given the effort the UK Government has spent promoting cyber security

    Pathway into Cyber Crime | UK National Crime Agency Intelligence Assessment – more about kudos and moral / political issues (secrecy etc etc). Interesting that its being pulled into Prevent programme

    Wireless

    Xiaomi phones won’t be heading towards the US anytime soon | Gizchina – not terribly surprising due to not having a patent fence to play rough with other vendors and the difficulties of adapting complex service offerings for US market from Chinese market

    Why is Foxconn Pushing Sharp back into the Smartphone Market so Aggressively? – Patently Apple – it would put a lot of pressure on Huawei

  • Rotterdam + more news

    Rotterdam

    Unilever Sets Up U.K.-Netherlands Clash in Search for New Home – Bloomberg – It is unsurprising expect Shell to look at similar moves, given its dual listing in London and The Hague. Rotterdam makes more sense as from a real estate point of view the London headquarters at 1 Victoria Embankment is too cramped, the Rotterdam headquarters . From the economics Rotterdam also makes more sense due to Brexit. The only thing that can stop the move is London based institutional investors

    Unilever to restructure and slash ad spend | Marketing Interactive – I suspect that this is misreading the picture. Unilever had been rolling out ZBB when I was there and were looking at the spreads business for even longer. I see this more in terms of the lens of the London – Rotterdam discussion

    Design

    Apple tumbles down laptop brand survey after tepid reaction to new MacBooks | BGR  – Stop this size zero design bullshit and gimmickry

    Ethics

    The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI – MIT Technology Review – which challenges regulation

    Hong Kong

    “Ghost in the Shell” is a poem to Hong Kong as it faces the 20th anniversary of its handover to China – the original Ghost in the Shell animators drove around Hong Kong to get a feel of mixing old with new

    Legal

    【蘋果踢爆】眾籌走數咖啡機兄弟再爆醜聞 今次係智能多士爐！ | 2017-04-01 | | 蘋果日報 – Hong Kong’s Apple Daily on serial Kickstarter scammers

    Report: China to Overtake U.S. as Digital Market Leader for Luxury Watch Brands | Jing Daily – surprised that it hadn’t already

    Luxury

    Daring Fireball: The Swiss Watch Industry Should Double Down on Mechanical Watches – there is a certain arrogance that Silicon Valley knows everything, but I also believe smart watches are a fad, a companion device not a watch replacement

    Marketing

    Why that Pepsi ad isn’t as bad as you think it is – Mumbrella – if you don’t get it, you’re not the target audience

    Media

    Google and Facebook will take 70 per cent of all money spent on digital advertising by 2020 | The Sun – why is News Corp providing a compelling narrative to short their own stock in such an orchestrated way

    Bots are the newest form of new media — Quartz – interesting take. I see them as continuation of ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ type text adventures

    YouTube won’t show ads on channels with fewer than 10K views | siliconangle – huge for B2B own brand channels who will be free of ‘competitive spamming’

    SXSW Video: Nick Denton Is Getting Into Messaging | Special: SXSW – AdAge

    How China keeps gay people off TV | Dazed Digital – interesting insights into Chinese media law that content providers need to consider

    Too much diversity? Disney’s Marvel (DIS) says that comics readers have had enough of relaunched titles like Ms. Marvel, Ironheart, and Spider-Man — Quartz – #comicgate just waiting to happen

    WeChat Expands in Europe in Bid for Global Advertisers, Payments – Bloomberg – mostly about the Chinese diaspora

    Security

    Samsung’s Android Replacement Is a Hacker’s Dream – Motherboard – But most of the vulnerabilities he found were actually in new code written specifically for Tizen within the last two years. Many of them are the kind of mistakes programmers were making twenty years ago, indicating that Samsung lacks basic code development and review practices to prevent and catch such flaws. – interesting that the faults aren’t in the Nokia and Intel originated code that Tizen builds on top of. This hits after the Note 7 debacle

    Software

    Jolla adds support for Sailfish OS on Sony Mobile’s XperiaTM devices – interesting that this didn’t cut through during GSMA

    Apple’s New File System: Who Cares? | Monday Note – I do this is huge news

    Web of no web

    Not on my watch: Huawei CEO sees no future for wearable smart devices | SCMP – pretty much the same argument that people made against (low and mid market) watches used against smart watches. Wise words

    Wireless

    Samsung Smartphone Shipments Tops Chart in Q1 due to Flooding the Market with Massive Low-End Model Shipments – Patently Apple – the growth is in low end devices

    Apple Held Back Most Advanced Wireless Tech, Says Qualcomm – Tech Trader Daily – Apple has more influence in many countries than Qualcomm? I’m calling bullshit on that statement at least. Qualcomm meddles in lots of regulatory things including mobile carrier consolidation in markets around the world, they have a strong regulatory team

    Huawei mystery memo (and phone strategy) confirmed • The Register – not terribly surprised by this, guessing turning back on brand advertising and carrier subsidies with a focus on the SIM only market? The ad and marketing spend was very uncharacteristic of the brand. The problem is that the spend is needed in a mature consumer market category. More related content here.

  • Richard Edelman is wrong, PR isn’t at a crossroads…

    I recommend that readers check out Richard’s PR is at a Crossroads post. Edelman cites changes at PR agencies owned by marketing conglomerates as indicators. He thinks this due to a lack of confidence in the PR industry. There may be some truth in it; 2016 had the lowest annual growth in seven years for Edelman. As PR is at a crossroads, on the cusp of transformation? No, it is already being transformed.

    Richard Edelman, head of Edelman PR

    Public relations has already crossed the Rubicon. The Rubicon crossing happened years ago. Richard noticed the signs back in April 2011:

    …as PR continues to expand, encompassing digital, research, media planning and content creation, should we consider rebranding ourselves as communications firms?

    At the time the question was prompted from London colleagues. Richard disagreed with the premise.

    By 2012 Edelman was in the AdAge Agency A-list in the US. In March 2015, Edelman’s boiler plate changed from:

    Edelman is the world’s largest public relations firm…

    to

    Edelman is a leading global communications marketing firm

    Edelman hasn’t been a PR agency for the past 2-5 years. The transformation in the industry has been going on for at least a decade.

    Why this has happened is down to six factors:

    • Mature research and academic thinking on effective marketing
    • Technology-driven marketing strategy
    • CMO perspectives shaped by marketing thinking
    • Talent
    • Advertising changes
    • Media landscape changes

    Mature research and academic thinking on effective marketing

    Lets break things down a bit, some bits of PR are about the corporate parts of a company.
    Corporate PR covers a large area including:

    • Public affairs
    • Educating investors
    • Shoring up shareholder confidence
    • Internal communications
    • Community affairs

    Some corporate and social responsibility actitivities could fall under PR. When we’re talking about who is responsible for organisation moral purpose /meaning. This should come from the CEO down.

    Thinking about marketing communications the situation changes a lot. It depends on the sector and the audience that you are communicating to. For consumer marketing; the role that PR plays as part is a subordinated part with the marketing mix. Byron Sharp’s works How Brands Grow (parts 1&2) outline PR’s small, but intricate role with clarity.

    For mature consumer brands, engagement (and by extension PR) is less important. Instead the focus would be on efficient reach and frequency of repetition. Being top of mind is more important. The only way for marketing communications-orientated PR teams to grow their billings is service expansion.

    Technology-driven marketing strategy

    Many business-to-business marketers are using content marketing as a key channel. The content shaped by analysis from marketing automation software.

    In marketing automation, strategy is outsourced. Rules embedded in the software platform dictate approach. PR becomes a source of content to feed the machine. The idea is to determine an effective approach. Then optimise to reduce the price of engagement over time. I could write a blog post or two about the problems with this approach, but it is tangental to PR. Content creation is an opportunity for PRs, all be it one with perpetually squeezed margins.

    Mature research and academic thinking on effective marketing

    In B2C marketing there are large research projects on what works. These include Ehrenberg-Bass Institute and the IPA. In marketing mature consumer brands, we know that reach, frequency and recency matters. Engagement is less important. Public relations then becomes an afterthought at best. Taking an integrated media planning led approach makes sense.

    There isn’t a comparable set of research for the PR industry like IPA or Ehrenberg-Bass. Outside the US public relations generally doesn’t have budgets for tools and data. Clients tend to be more action-orientated. Media agencies tend to have the best insights – which aids planning and creative.

    The benefits of an integrated advertising-led approach goes back decades. Edelman cites Y&R’s ‘whole egg’ concept. Dentsu’s ‘Cross Switch Marketing’ is similar with roots going back to the 1960s. The PR industry mistook integrated thinking for a primitive view of PR practice. The reality lies somewhere between communications myopia and macro marketing thinking.

    From a CMO perspective

    • PR spend is a small part of their budget. It may not even sit in their budget if there is a CCO (chief communications officer) role in the company
    • PR isn’t supported by good quality secondary insights like the IPA or Ehrenberg-Bass
    • Advertising works
    • Advertising agencies foster high trust through visualisation of ideas backed by insights
    • Media relations is low cost, low efficiency but can be high engagement
    • Integrated simplifies the client/ agency dynamic (one ass to kick)
    • Successful integrated agency engagements. Examples include Red Fuse (Colgate), GTB (Ford, Purina) and TBWA Media Arts Lab (Apple)
    • The memory of Enfatico has disappeared

    Talent

    Edelman has done a better job than most agencies in getting digital and paid media talent. I’ve worked as an in-house marketer. I have worked as a PR person. I’ve also worked in PR agencies doing digital and paid media. I now work as a strategy director in a creative ad agency and the difference is huge.

    For most specialists working in a PR agency can be thankless task:

    • PR agency leaders don’t get other disciplines. This is particularly true outside North America
    • I’ve worked with too many agency leaders who think digital is an infographic or a video
    • The briefing process in PR agencies is awful. ‘We’ve got a video, make it viral’ was the worst brief I had
    • Outside North America budgets are very tight
    • You can get better working conditions elsewhere. Tools, people you can learn from, research and ambience. Real conversation at a PR agency: “can you wear a shirt and suit?” “Why?” “We’d just like it” “Can I quadruple my day rate?” “No, why?” “That’s my inconvenience of wearing a suit fee”
    • PR agencies don’t win the awards that matter to us. PR publications wring their hands about the lack of PR wins at the Cannes Lions. This matters for your career

    If you have capability built up in the ad agency, creative shop or media agency; use it. Publicis, WPP and Interpublic have deep expertise they can draw on. Publicis talks about this as ‘The Power of One’. It is much easier than recruiting more technical, creative and planning talent into a PR shop.

    Advertising changes

    As PR has changes so has advertising. There is a far greater understanding of what efficient and effective looks like. While I lament the the decline of advertising’s golden age; multichannel storytelling has improved. Advertising agencies have learned how to combine earned and paid media. Earned media is an incremental revenue increase advertising agencies. Advertising agencies have done earned media and not even thought about it being PR.

    By comparison creative represents a big budget bump for your PR agency. That causes the client to pause and think. The expansion of advertising has wiped out the crossroads; so PR isn’t at a crossroads anymore.

    Media landscape changes

    As advertising has changed so has the media landscape. The online environment is shaping out with two winners around the world. The pattern of online advertsing spend is clear. Everywhere outside China online advertising is static; only Facebook and Google see increases. In China, is is Tencent due to WeChat that wins. Sina benefits from Weibo. Baidu would have been an obvious winner due to it being a Google analogue. Instead Baidu’s earnings have been static.

    This decline in media fortunes adversely affects editorial space. This impacts the efficiency of media relations. By some accounts in the UK there are now 3 PR people for every journalist. PR agencies have needed to expand beyond media relations. This means trying to get more involved in owned and paid media. The challenge is that advertising agencies are also in that space – extending their storytelling. In the case of the media landscape, PR isn’t at a crossroads because the crossroads no longer exists it has become a singularity at the centre of the media sector

    More information
    PR not communications | 6am blog – yeah I called bullshit on this one. I could afford to be right; Richard had a global family business to defend
    Whole Egg Theory Finally Fits The Bill For Y&R Clients: Global Agency Network Of The Year: Team Space System A Winner For Citibank, Others Set To Follow | AdvertisingAge
    The Dentsu Way – a great book, right up there with Ogilvy on Advertising in my estimation