Who Owns Your Brand?

David Alston writes:

" ... Just a quick reminder to let you know that the next Twebinar, titled Who Really Owns Your Brand?, is coming up on July 22nd, at 2pm EDT. Visit http://www.twebinar.com to sign up ... "

I found the last one to be very good, even without the Twitter component. Though I do plan to try that as well this time.

Massively Complex Agent-Based Models

During a recent review of agent simulation models I have been involved with it came to light that I had not written publicly about Simulex, which positions itself as developing Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation. Although I cannot provide many details, Simulex tailored its SEAS agent-based economic models, developed for DOD applications, to important regional demand and growth applications for us.

" ... we use our exclusive license to SEAS to provide the next generation of consulting services to our clients in government and the private sector. Instead of experimenting with real people, SEAS allows clients to interact with synthetic people and observe what is happening. Using agent-based modeling in a business war-gaming environment, SEAS seamlessly incorporates all aspects of managerial decision making to provide a complete and integrated view of economies, industries, and organizations ... ".

Some of their application case studies, with strongly visual outputs. Worth a closer look for bottom-up economic and interaction system simulations. Note also the inclusion of gaming environments.

Business Blogging

A blog about Business Blogging. This has been around for some time, just a few posts a month, but some occasional gems. Also, related, a wiki index of Fortune 500 blogs, with some recent reviews. Seems incomplete, but I found all the blogs I knew about and some I had not. Also contains links to other corporate blog lists and resources. I was also reminded of the New PR Wiki, which lists lots of Web 2.0 public corporate efforts, though it has had only a few updates in 08.

Google Research

An overview article by CW on current known Google research. Includes two topics I am looking at closely. Image search and specifically facial recognition. Also, the use of Street View kinds of capabilities on mobile devices, such as their Android mobile operating system. In the article is a link to a PDF, that shows 50 winners of a challenge held to propose Android applications, includes screen shots. And the usual cautions about Google's potential for evil. Or has Google lost its Moho?

Ad Look at Demographic Data

AdAge has a good look at changing US demographics, with lots of graphics. Some data about aging demographics.

Privacy on the Web

From Knowledge@Wharton: Privacy on the Web, Is it a Losing Battle?

Unilever Technology Ventures

I was reminded by a recent reference of Unilever Technology Ventures, an effort by a consumer package goods company to " .. provide a world-wide window on new technologies that will influence the development of next generation products ... ". Compare its approach to that of Procter & Gamble's Connect & Develop program. Unilever does not appear to be doing anything that is equivalent.

In Jonathan Zittrain's insightful recent book: The Future of the Internet ..., he explores the concept of how generative systems (systems that are flexible enough to help generate new ideas, such as the computer or Internet) can be positioned as test-beds for this kind of innovation. So which is more generative, a corporate venture fund, corporate connect & develop? or focused internal R&D? And what are the risks of each?

Kraft's Wall-to-Wall

In former times there were representatives from each major packaged goods manufacturer at each retail outlet every week and sometimes every day. That fell by the wayside due to cost cuts. Now Kraft is reintroducing some elements of the concept:

" ... Wall-to-Wall, an overhaul of how Kraft sales reps work with retailers, has been a big factor in helping the company swing to sales increases ... Under Wall-to-Wall, a Kraft sales rep can be at a store every day and is responsible for almost the entire portfolio of Kraft products, ranging from Oreo cookies to Kraft salad dressing, to Oscar Mayer bacon... "

Report from ARF Audience Measurement

Correspondent Professor Byron Sharp, Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, University of South Australia reports from the ARF audience measurement conference(edited) :

Rachel Kennedy and Virginia Beal from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute were there presenting. Here's their report on key highlights:

1. Tivo and TRA - creation of a joint venture to create a single source panel with tivo set-top box viewing data combined with store loyalty card data for the same people to track exposure and purchasing.

2. Announcement of the establishment of 'The Media Behaviour Institute' - a joint venture between Sequent Partners and Mike Bloxham from Ball State University. They plan to roll out a USA version of UK's TouchPoints.

3. Launch of Google TV - Google is now in to the business of planning and buying TV ad space and allowing more timely measurement.

The 3 Quotes or phrases that we liked from the conference:

1. Media measurement needs an equivalent of the Euro
2. The mobile phone is the remote control to your life
3. What is required to bring about change in media is intellectual curiosity combined with desperation.

Key things that were talked about:

1. About Jeffery Cole from the Centre for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School...key insight was that the internet usage did start to affect TV viewing in the US but that was a function of dial up - with broadband and wireless TV viewing is stronger than ever. ()
2. Internet users starting to accept advertising as the price for free content on the web.
3. Internet allows Magazines and Newspapers to become more like TV - ie 'LIve news' not 6 hour or more old content - so a great opportunity for them
4. Media brands are more important than ever in the digital realm - ie NY Times for news online although you may have never read the paper - but know the reputation as good source of news.
5. 91% of Americans pay for TV (ie cable or satellite) and spend $260 per household per month on content devices - ie Mobile ph, broadband, TV subs
6. Mobile phones being used to interact with outdoor, print and ambient media in terms of texting in codes or photographing / scanning barcodes for vouchers, and also transacting with it like a credit card
7. Much talk about the 3 Screens - TV, Computer/laptop, Mobile (and the complexity of measuring)
8. 90% of US channels have audience shares of less that 1%.
9. Every minute 10 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube! YouTube is now offering cut of ad revenue to posts that are popular and bringing users to the site. Great tool to use to pretest ad creative - calling it 'the worlds largest focus group'
10 88% of online reviews of products in the UK are positive - reinforcing Institute report 34.
11. Rise of the Infopinion Age - ie online reviews etc - Trusted info comes from: 1. Friends and Family, 2. Credentialized expert (ie ebay, reviewers etc) or strangers with experience.
12. Introduction of the C3 measure for TV ratings during the ad break - essentially min-by-min rating and how they are now looking at the performance of ads in the pods and discussing how they should charge a premium for space that is taken by poor ads that turn the audience away.
13. High involvement categories (cars, phones, elec's etc) spending about 10% of ad budget on digital, low involvement about 2%
14. with 250 channels in UK there is 42,000 hours of content a week - with 2000 there is 333,000 hours of content broadcast - raises the Q of what is appropriate to track?? What is the threshold of significance - what is big enough to be worth reporting? .... "

Google Tour de France Street View

Google has launched the use of its streetview capability in Europe by providing views of Tour de France venues. Played with it a bit, nicely done. Another step forward by Google and Microsoft, who are digitizing the world.

RFID Adoption Report

Aberdeen on Maximizing Value Between RFID and IT
By Michael Dortch, Aberdeen Group
Aberdeen Group has released the latest installment in a series of reports on RFID adoption. Entitled RFID and IT Infrastructures: Maximizing Business Value, the report is available as a free download until August 29th. Following is the executive summary, contributed by report author Michael Dortch ... "

Difference Engine

Short video of the first computer of Charles Babbage, finally constructed and in operation. If computers like this had prevailed, machinists would be king. It was never working in his lifetime. At the right, a replica in the London Science Museum.

Aldi Assault

Deep discounter Aldi is planning a major assault on UK grocery markets. This is of much interest to big CPG because Aldi sells few major brands.

Shopping Community

Zeer is a new search engine and bricks-and-mortar shopping social community. More here. Looks to be mainly about food purchases, review and community.

Google Must Divulge YouTube Log

"... Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled. The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement ... ". - It is about a specific court case, and likely would deal with aggregate, statistics, though the fear is that the specifics would leak.

The Power of Wind

Long time follower of wind energy, since I was introduced to a system pumping water on a neighbor's farm:

" ... Regional grocer H.E. Butt Grocery Co. has signed on with CPS Energy, San Antonio's municipally owned natural gas and electric company, to use wind energy to help power its 46 stores throughout San Antonio and Bexar County." ... '.

Of course there are likely zoning issues, but wouldn't it be a better marketing idea to place some of these on or next to the at lease some stores? This just designates a portion of power from the grid. Update: And they seem to be moving in that direction.

Public Understanding of Technological Accuracy

This article was mentioned in Slashdot and elsewhere ... Wimbledon tennis is underway and new uses of image analysis to determine line calls, notably the 'Hawkeye' system is now in common use. Based on listening to the commentators in Tennis, the system's accuracy is seen as absolute. In particular the visual display created by the system is so compelling that there seems to be no room for dispute. Yet there are considerable errors in the system itself. How is this reconciled?

It reminds me of a presentation I saw from a consultant which showed a very realistic visual display of atmospheric changes that would occur based on a complex simulation which used a number of positional and operational variables. The output was a realistic graphic which displayed a beautiful blue sky in one case, and a smoggy layer in another. So the output was 0-1 (in or out?) I asked the obvious question: What errors in the system could cause a flip from smoggy to blue sky? Had these been explored? What is the sensitivity of the model? I did not get a real answer, it was an executive briefing after all.

You could make the argument that the tennis game has become so fast that despite the systems errors it is still better than having a human judge the result. True, but I woud like us to make that choice in an informed a way as possible.

You can get a preprint of the technical paper by clicking on the link above.

Battle of Ideas in Your Mind

According to the details of the article, would seem to indicate that there are multiple presences buzzing about in our brain that could be used to make group choices. I am still unimpressed overall with the 'Wisdom of Crowds' phenomenon, its a weak approach that makes excuses for us to keep from really understanding physical phenomena. Last resort at best.

A battle of ideas is going on inside your mind
" [Wisdom of Crowds]... a pair of psychologists have found an intriguing corollary. They have discovered that two guesses made by the same person at different times are also better than one ... Edward Vul at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harold Pashler at the University of California, San Diego, have revealed in a study just published in Psychological Science that the average of first and second guesses is indeed better than either guess on its own ... "

This article also led me to the We're Only Human Blog, which covers this study and related topics.

Pioneer of Business Computing Dies at 92

Most Americans that follow the history of computing think of Atanasoff's ABC machine, Eckert and Mauchley's ENIAC, followed by the Univac, and a large number of IBM machines. I worked briefly with one of the electricians who had maintained the ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania.

Many of the early applications of these machines were military, such as the computation of artillery tables. It turns out that some of the earliest applications of business computing were done with the LEO computer, for a British tea shop in 1947. David Caminer, the developer of these early business processes, has an obituary in the NY Times, which has details of his developments. More detail about the LEO, modelled on the Cambridge EDSAC. Caminer was one of the few remaining pioneers of practical business computing.

Update: UK Computing Pioneers.

What Happened to Artificial Intelligence

A Network World article on the state and direction of AI. Below are some of the statements at the time that led us to expect we could do lights-out corporate control. It did not happen. The included slide show is mostly about robotics, I guess because software AI is mostly hidden away.

" ... Stanford University computer science professor John McCarthy coined the phrase in 1956 to mean "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines," In the early years of the artificial intelligence movement, enthusiasm ran high and artificial intelligence pioneers made some bold predictions.

In 1965, artificial intelligence innovator Herbert Simon said that "machines will be capable, within 20 years, of doing any work a man can do." ... '