The recently released Prince of Persia film is the latest addition to a growing list of films based on computer games – an interesting reversal of the usual ‘film then computer game’ marketing and production process. This reversal isn’t a particularly new development, as the 1993 UK release of Super Mario Bros illustrates, but it’s one that’s becoming more and more common with 8 films making the leap from computer game to film in the last 2 years. Admittedly, not all of the films were Hollywood Blockbusters, but you get my point.

This growing trend might illustrate the fact that film studios are beginning to run out of interesting stories and ideas to mine and are therefore being forced to cast their nets wider to other possible sources. Perhaps the penny is beginning to drop that audiences might not be that bothered about seeing yet another ‘reimagining’ of tired classics like Robin Hood (don’t hit me Russell).

Given the rapid convergence of media channels it’s almost inevitable that at some point an internet based phenomenon will make the leap to the silver screen and a big step was taken towards that happening this week. It was announced that the popular Twitter feed ‘Shit My Dad Says’ has been commissioned by CBS to be made into a TV series starring Captain Kirk (William Shatner).

As far as I know, this is the first commission of its kind, but it could be a watershed moment. It’s likely that other entertainment companies will be jealously eyeing CBS’ move and that they’ll now be increasing the focus of their search for content ideas onto the internet.

LOL cats the movie anyone?

Grace Slick’s famous quote about the 60’s could be more narrowly applied to many gigs and festivals of this or any year.

I’ve been to quite a few (ever since my first one which was Kula Shaker at the Leicester De Montfort Hall, oh dear) and other than the really recent ones, I actually struggle to remember most of them. This is probably down to a combination of the time that’s elapsed since I went and my alcohol consumption when I was there, but given the amount of time and budget I’ve invested, this is a bit of a shame.

The only token reminder I do have of most of these events is in the form of a sad little collection of tickets in an old shoebox, but while they confirm my attendance, they don’t actually remind me of the experience itself.

I’m sure most music fans would empathise with me and in their heart of hearts wish they could remember a lot more about the live events they’ve been to.

What was the atmosphere like? What was the set list? Did the band play any new songs for the first time? Was it actually any good? God knows.

A story on the radio (digital radio since you ask) the other day caught my attention as it mentioned a company who are trying to satisfy this demand for a more engaging music souvenir, one that not only will help you remember a set list, but what it sounded like.

Musicnetworx have come up with the ‘Simfy live’ product , a USB stick containing a recording of the live show recorded at the event itself and available for punters to buy as they leave it. If this sounds a little lo-fi, the recording is also made available online as a download.

Such a product not only satisfies consumer demand for a ‘richer’ gig souvenir, but also serves as an extra revenue stream for the touring artist – in theory everybody wins.

Quite a few bands are getting involved, with Kiss signing up for their most recent tour and Iggy Pop, Elton John and a few others also signing up.

The price point is a little high (£20 odd quid) which might be a bit prohibitive and mean it’s more appropriate for the older, more affluent fan base (hence the artists above I guess), but if it proves successful this price will no doubt reduce over time.

Personally, I’d give it a go (not for Kiss though as I’ve seen them live and they’re RUBBISH) if I thought I’d been to a great gig and it was something I wanted to look back on or re-experience. Music fans are also a bit collectible crazy which only adds to the product’s appeal for them.

A slight issue might be that your opinion of a gig might change when you play it back a few weeks later and hear it sober for the first time. Without the benefit of the more usual, fuzzy, rose-tinted gig glasses you might suddenly realise that the show was a load of crap and massively over-hyped – something I’ve always suspected about the 60’s to be honest, sorry Grace.

We have a guy who works at our sister agency, Soup, who is the Moses of eCRM. Well actually his name is Giles (Captain Grimes).  So really, he is the Giles of eCRM.  Recently he gave a really good presentation at an Figaro Digital event on the 10 Commandments of eCRM.   In this week’s NMA, Justin Pearse used his opinion piece to promote the power of email (Email as good as any marketing channel when done right: i/d 13th May).
Giles and Justin are right, some clients jump on the latest “shiny and new” digital thing like iphone apps and AR, but have not yet cracked “traditional” online marketing like email.   So below are Giles’s 10 pearls of eCRM wisdom:

1. Plan, Communicate and Agree
We always asked the following questions of each new client:
o What are your aims?
Many clients don’t really have a clear idea of why they are using email marketing. It is worth spending time focusing on what you would like to achieve. Is it increased sales, reduction in service costs or loyalty?
o Are your aims realistic?
Once you start an email relationship with your consumers you need to maintain it, therefore make sure you consider your budget and the eCRM timeline.
o Do you have the resources to make eCRM work?
A half hearted attempt is worse than none
o Have you gained company-wide buy-in?
Internal sell in of ROI – get them to use it – biggest reason for failure
o Have you agreed targets for your eCRM?
Never underestimate the significance of asking this question
2. Registration
Quite simply, if you make promises, make sure you keep them. If you say you are going to send regular email updates, then ensure you deliver against that promise. Let the registrant know what they can expect from you and how often you will make contact. Don’t be afraid to ask them what they would like to receive. Also don’t be dull. Please don’t be dull! And finally make sure you get a formal opt in. Did I mention not to be dull?

3. Be creative but get your message across
The challenge here is to make sure the email design is exciting and creative, but does also is built in a way that gets through the spam filters. Make sure you give equal weight to form and function and also remember:
• Always adhere to email best practice
• Don’t be afraid of text only messaging
• Test to mobile devices as well as ESPs
• Don’t be too cryptic or too clever
4. Get the conversation going
Remember people will change their likes and dislikes over time. Make sure that you invite comment, opinion, suggestions and even complaint. Consumer feedback is how companies learn to improve what they do. It is important to talk to your database, not at them. The normal rules of conversation apply – just like social media.
5. Target, Segment and Personalise
I don’t know about you but I prefer to be called by name rather than Dear Amazon.co.uk Customer! It is not difficult to personalise emails these days. Or to segment your audience and send content which is relevant to their preferences.

6. eCRM: It’s part of the mix!
The rules and benefits of eCRM are similar to social media, hence why they work very well together. eCRM is fantastic at recruitment, building loyalty and generating customer information, but it should be used as part of the marketing “toolkit” and use in conjunction with other marketing disciplines. Did I just use the term marketing toolkit? Please shoot me!
7. Remember People Change
Deutsche Bank holds up to 10,000 pieces of information on all their customers. That is a company that really understands their customers. Ask questions, keep the communication going and act on what’s said. Do that and you’ll be friends for life!

8. Analyse this, analyse that and report the other
The investment can be high and the ROI is far from instant, therefore it is vital that you report successes and link them to tangible return from investment. Like social media, good eCRM programmes, take time and effort to develop but are well worth the effort.
The key metrics are:
• Attributable sales / traffic volumes
• Customer retention levels and recruitment savings.
• Recruitment levels through MGM
• Incremental sales
• Savings on customer service calls
• eCRM prompted Social Media activity
9. When it’s over, it’s over, accept it!
Even the best executed eCRM plans lose people. Don’t try to make it deliberately difficult for people to unsubscribe but do ask why they are leaving. Ultimately respect their decision and be polite.

10. Remember eCRM ‘s a Marathon not a Sprint
eCRM is all about relationship and relationships take time. Stick with the relationship and the rewards will be yours!
I will leave the final words to Moses:
May the LORD, the God (of eCRM), increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!

Someone in the office (naming no names) showed me a ‘chilling’ story on The Sun’s website this week. Amazingly it seemed, a random punter had taken a photo of a ghostly figure in the mirror of their hotel room. My God, maybe ghosts really do exist…

I had a closer look at the picture though and couldn’t help thinking that the ‘ghost’ looked a bit familiar.

In fact, it looked a hell of a lot like a ghost that features in an iPhone app I downloaded recently called ‘Ghost Capture’. It allows users to choose from a range of ghostly supernatural figures and then insert them into any photo they’ve taken on their iPhone, allowing them to scare the crap out of unsuspecting photo subjects – perfect for winding up your Mum.

If you look at the screenshots in the review of the app in the app store, you can quite clearly see the ‘ghost’ that appears in The Sun’s picture (top right, third row down) and here’s another picture featuring her made using the app.

Either The Sun has been genuinely duped by a mischievous punter, or they were having a bit of a slow news day and fancied giving Ramada Jarvis hotels a bit of a plug on the back of a tenuous story. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and plump for the former.

Unbelievably though, when I had a quick look on their site I found another very similar story from February of this year. Look closely at the ‘ghost’ from that story and then at the line of ghosts on the fourth row down of ghost capture. Spot any similarities?! They even had the front to ask the bloke who claims to have taken the picture to hold up a crappy phone (not an iPhone) to try and cover their tracks.

Clearly this isn’t journalism at its finest, I just can’t believe they had the cheek to pull the same thing twice at the expense of their users. At least a few of the comments at the bottom of February’s ’story’ show that not everyone was fooled.

News International (who own The Sun and The Times newspapers) is planning to introduce a paywall to its timesonline.co.uk website in June on the back of Rupert Murdoch’s assertion that users will be willing to pay for quality content. If he’s planning to roll this paywall strategy out to thesun.co.uk as many are predicting, he may need to take a hard look at the quality of its content first.

The speed of user response in the digital space to ‘real world’ events can be incredible and I was amazed last week by a great example.

While watching the Champions League semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan last Wednesday I got a text from a mate of a great UGC image which merged an incident from the game with a famous scene from The Shining. What shocked me was that I got the text before the game had even finished.

I worked out a timeline of events as below:

7.45pm – Match kicks off

8.01pm – Barca’s Sergio Busquets takes a cowardly dive and gets Thiago Motta sent off (see 21 seconds for the ’sneaky peek’ he gives to check the ref is going to send Motta off)

9.34pm – UGC image of ’sneeky peek’ posted on a football forum

9.36pm – Image texted to me by a mate

9.43pm – Game finishes

I’ve seen plenty of examples of football related banter following games in the past (like this following an Argentina World Cup game and this following John Terry’s penalty slip in the 2008 Champions League final), but they’ve always been the day after a match, I’ve never seen one done so quickly. Admittedly, it took an hour and a half from the incident taking place to the image being posted, but that’s still not bad going.

This example just re-enforces the assumption that more and more users are either watching matches online or watching matches on TV while surfing online simultaneously. It also shows that with access to the right tools, users can produce some seriously funny content very quickly – something that many brands would do well to harness and that some have been trying to.