Deezer expands globally, partners with LG and Toshiba to ride smart TV revolution

by Marketing ON 8 February 2013

As the online music streaming space becomes ever more populated – Spotify, Rdio, Guvera, Vevo, Mog, Pandora are all among the players to service Australia – French outfit Deezer has announced international partnerships to invade the living room on smart TV sets.

Deezer was founded in 2007, one year after Spotify, and has just announced news of an international partnerships with big-name TV manufacturers LG and Toshiba. Deezer will now not only expand globally, but win itself a further user base through the two consumer technology giants.

Deezer’s international expansion is reported to have been faster than any other digital music service, being available in more than 182 countries and in every continent in the world, it claims.

And this latest move to zero in on (and stream through) the growing numbers of smart TVs identifies a unique opportunity for the brand. In the last year alone, around 43 million smart TVs were sold worldwide, and it is predicted that this number will rise to 95 million by 2016, reports NPD DisplaySearch.

Axel Dauchez, CEO of Deezer, explains his company’s vision: “We believe that putting Deezer at the heart of the TV experience marks the next innovation for music. For many of us, the living room is the heart of the home, and we want Deezer to be a part of that.”

Breaking down new barriers and creating a listening experience that’s ‘anywhere on any device’ is the goal for Deezer.

Richard Choi, senior vice president of the Smart Business Centre at LG Electronics, adds: “LG was the first company to integrate Deezer – a service already available for PCs, tablets and smartphones – in its smart TV line-up.”

Deezer will be available on all LG smart TV models produced from 2011 (available worldwide). It will also be available on all Toshiba smart TV models since 2011 (Europe and MEA/Asia, Pacific) and on all smart TV models produced from 2013 (worldwide).

Buzz surrounding Consumer Electronics Show focused on TV and gaming

by Marketing ON 9 January 2012

For the geeks among us, Christmas is yet to arrive. Gadget lovers and tech boffins rejoice: this Tuesday it will be game on when the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opens in Las Vegas.

CES has been the stage from which many notable technology-related products have launched, from the VCR in 1970 to the Blu-ray Disc in 2004. So what will be the talk of CES 2012?

Nielsen and McKinsey-owned social media monitoring company, NM Incite, tracked online conversations leading up to the CES and compared 2012’s buzz with 2011′s to forecast what the talk of the show will be.

Most notable among their findings was a decrease in tablet buzz in this year, although tablets are still the most talked about CES topic, while TV and gaming talk is on the rise.

TV has made the steepest year-over-year gain, with buzz doubling to 21%, to almost rival tablets as the most talked about pre-show topic. Gaming-related discussion also saw significant increases in its buzz levels, doubling from 8% in 2011 to 16% in 2012.

Tablets were the only category to decline in percentage of buzz, from 31% to 23%.

NM Incite also found that one of the top trending topics over the last 90 days came when the specifications for Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox leaked on November 15, spurring rumours of a possible reveal at CES 2012. Microsoft drove buzz again on December 21 when it announced that its keynote at CES 2012 will be its last opening presentation at the conference. And buzz peaked again on December 28, following LG’s announcement that it will unveil its 85-inch ‘ultra definition’ TV at CES.

Technology research firm Ovum has also chimed in with predictions on the trends to emerge out of this year’s show. The key points for marketers to take out of their predictions are:

Tablets and bring your own device (BYOD): Android-related announcements from Samsung and others mean that these products will be looking for consumer market share by targeting Apple’s dominance in the tablet market. Expect to see some user interface-based approaches to having multiple personas on a single device, enabling the user to differentiate between work and personal application. More Android models, specifically those running the ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ version of the operating system, as well as Samsung’s Windows 8 tablets, are expected to emerge. Given that the manufacturers will target the enterprise tablet market as well as the consumer market, expect to see mobile device management capabilities and partnerships packaged up as part of the pitch,
Ultrabooks: This year at CES will see a large number of PC manufacturers fight back against Apple with ‘ultrabook‘ form factor devices. Expect to see these mimic the form factor and features of the MacBook Air with pricing in the $600 to $700 range.
Microsoft: Specifically, Microsoft is looking to enable the enterprise market to manage and exploit the BYOD trend in its newest operating system, Windows 8, and other form factors and deployment scenarios it is considering,
Kinect: In addition to Windows 8, more may be shared about applications for Microsoft’s Kinect-based gesture interface in enterprise scenarios, including retail, manufacturing and healthcare streams, following the release of the Kinect enterprise software development kit in 2011,
Media technology and the connected home: Expect to see ‘ultra definition’ TVs demonstrated as a potential evolution path beyond HD. Smart TV application platforms and new user interface models for electronic program guides and navigation are also likely to be demonstrated, as will media sharing over Digital Living Network Alliance. Google will also be talking up its Google TV and Android set top box deals,
Mobile digital TV: Expect to see another slew of mobile digital TV announcements, including a focus on in-car integration and the Metro PCS announcement that it will manufacture handsets capable of tuning in to live, local TV broadcasts, and
BlackBerry: It’s likely RIM will be showcasing its BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.0 at CES, though it is not clear if they will also use the event to launch the Playbook 2 tablet device or announce it at a later date.

The CES is always a significant event on the technology marketing calendar, with ramifications for consumer and enterprise markets. While tablets will still be high on the agenda this year, the more innovative new announcements are expected to come in TV and gaming as talk shifts towards developments expected in these areas.

Homepage image courtesy of TechCocktail, via Flickr.

LG goes outside

by Marketing ON 22 July 2010

LG Electronics (LG) has announced a three year partnership with outdoor concert circuit, A Day on the Green.

The partnership falls under LG’s brand platform, Life’s Good moments, and offers festival goers a chill-out suite where they can road test a range of LG’s products.

“LG’s sponsorship of A Day on the Green re-enforces our commitment to helping Australians experience more Life’s Good moments,” said Mark
Nesci, corporate marketing manager, LG. “This is an extremely exciting partnership bringing together a number of product experiences and planned promotions to enhance the concert experience.”

The 2010 concert circuit starts in October, with concerts to be held around Australia and New Zealand.

China-built electronics not trusted in Australia

by Marketing ON 13 May 2010

As many as two in three Australians are unaware that many well known TV brands are actually manufactured in China – and many would be concerned over the quality of the unit if they knew.

According to the ‘Consumer Electronics Study’ TNS Global Research, the majority of manufacturers, including leading brands Sony, Panasonic, LG and Samsung, are now assembling most of their TVs in China, whose standards Aussie consumers don’t generally trust.

The study found that 48% of Australians are not aware that most TVs are manufactured in China.

One in two Australians believe that the quality of TVs made in China are not as good as those made in Japan or Korea, while 20% rate the quality of units made in China as poor.

“Currently, consumers perceive Chinese manufactured products to be of inferior quality, be it correct or not. It is a common misconception and, in the case of TVs, an incorrect one. Sets assembled in China are done to the same specifications as those made in countries with better quality reputations,” explained Marcus Pritchard, director of technology research at TNS.

“These preconceived ideas of quality are challenges to the growing ranks of Chinese brands, such as HiSense, entering the Australian market more than to the established credentials of the big players.

The study comes eight months after a series of scandals in the country led to the country’s prime minister, Wen Jaibao, to claim that China’s brand ‘wasn’t poison’.

Sony banks on make.believe future

by Marketing ON 19 January 2010

Sony is set to launch its new marketing push in Australia entitled ‘make.believe’.

Chief executive Sir Howard Stringer is apparently behind the re-energising of the company as it faces strong competition from companies such as Samsung, LG and Panasonic for sales in key product areas such as flatscreen televisions.

Sony’s value has dropped significantly since the GFC – it announced in March 2009 that revenues declined 12.9% for the quarter.

The company aims to use the campaign to show a united Sony, with every division of the Japanese electronics and entertainment group under a single vision for the first time.

Sony Australia, Sony Computer Entertainment (which includes the Sony PlayStation gaming console business), movie studio Sony Pictures, Sony Music and even mobile phone provider Sony Ericsson will feature the words under their logo.

Sony unveiled a major push into 3D-in-the-home technology, with its first 3D TVs due to go on sale in Australia in 2010.

A spokeswoman for Sony explained that a promotion was likely to be run in Australia to give consumers the chance to make their own ‘make.believe’ online videos.

Crowdsourcing: agencys death knell?

by Marketing ON 23 September 2009

Crowdsourcing is starting to get agencies a little hot under the collar.

Once considered a cultish Web 2.0 concept for niche design, it has entered the mainstream zeitgeist big time. Why now? Well we already know that it takes a while for the rumbles of the underground to reach the lofty altitude of big time Adland…but when it hurts their billings the culprit gets a direct line to God.

So when you see agencies such as Lowe London being dropped like a hot potato after 16 years in favour, for the client’s idea to crowdsource its ad campaign (like Unilever did last month), you know the Suits are starting to panic.

Unilever’s comp for its Peperami account is nothing new. Doritos started dabbling in the crowd with its multi-million dollar Superbowl competition and over the last year LG, BMW and Red Bull have also gone down a similar path.

But its not always some dilettante creative stacking shelves at Walmart Indiana that wins, often its small agencies that may not have ever had a look in for a pitch to a major brand.

In the case of BMW, which used www.ideabounty.com, the winner was the founder of a South African digital agency called Urbian. He pocketed US $3k for his pitch and no doubt an instant entry into the BMW global marketing lair.

But while big brands dipping their toe into the sea of the crowd seems ‘cute’, now the question is, will the result create a tidal wave away from using the traditional agency model forever?

For an industry where creativity is the real currency, crowdsourcing unleashes the beast of untapped creativity on a scale that the well-groomed marketing departments of big brands have never had access to before. And with no overhead and little cost.

What they do lose out on though is a commitment to the brand, the company and the fostering of an ongoing creative relationship. Passion, creativity and commitment can’t be crowdsourced as easily as an idea.

And thrown into the mix are questions of, “Who’s work is this really?” Stories filter through agency land, both from indie and top-end of town agencies, of over worked, strung-out creatives drinking from the (crowd)source before a big pitch. “It’s back-up,” they say, but how soon before it becomes a lazy practice? Imagine if the client actually likes that last minute idea? Does an agency owner really want it drifting out that the latest award winning campaign was actually a product of 17-year-old design student in Tunisia?

It may be easy for a web designer in Istanbul to put a template of elements together with some innovation but ensuring that those elements have a technical foundation, future proofing and flexibility that meets the need of the client is not so easy to spec without the back and forth of client-agency relations.

And if the relationship does continue, well, be careful what you wish for. What you thought was a gorgeous (but slightly cheap) Russian bride might end up being a case of playing Russian roulette with your brand and design integrity.

nineMSN launches new video site

by Marketing ON 7 July 2009

nineMSN has announced the launch of its new video portal, ninemsn.com.au/video.

The company says its monthly streams have increased from one million in 2006 to 11 million a month currently, and that the site will archive 40,000 video clips in a matrix-style format.

The format allows individual content providers to be highlighted, allowing users to sort content by channel, genre or TV show.

Through channel-specific buys advertisers will be able to align their brand with particular video channels.

Division of content into channels such as comedy, sport or entertainment will allow advertisers to align their brands with values-related areas. According to nineMSN, this will be the first time brands will be able to associate themselves online with sport, news or entertainment, rather than traditional generic channels. nineMSN revealed that video is a key differentiator for it in the online market.

“The consumer will find the new site more interactive and engaging with respect to the way content is now displayed. Long form content in particular is in high demand and our content partnerships incorporate Channel Nine plus 15 other video providers such as MTV, Splash, National Geographic and Lonely Planet,” said Joe Pollard, nineMSN CEO.

The site will allow nineMSN clients to skin channels with their brand or product, in addition to pre-roll and display media. The site launches in partnership with LG, who are using the technology to promote their new line of plasma televisions. LG will enjoy 100% share of both the entertainment and sport channels.

Additionally, ‘inline’ video is being incorporated across nineMSN’s offerings to enhance editorial and video cohesion.