BigShinyThing

We toddled along to an ‘Advertising 2.0′ conference last week. Esther was on a panel discussing the presentations. We thought that Esther makes a lot of sense. An early investor in Google, Flickr and del.icio.us, we think that Ms Dyson — like in the song — knows where it’s at.

She made a couple of excellent points last night. One: if we pay more than lip-service to the thought that users are now in control then we should really face up to the conclusion that pushing ads onto them ain’t gonna work no more. Obvious you would have thought. Not given that the prior presentation had been all about online advertising models that presumed attention as a given. No mention of ad-blocking, RSS-ad filtering and — oh yes — search…

Esther talked a bit about the potentially interesting models being developed in the States by companies such as Root Markets, who are basically bribing consumers for their attention. Not a bad idea when you consider the success of crowd-sourcing and gold markets [as discussed in previous posts]. People love to share an opinion. Hell, we’re overjoyed when someone leaves us positive feedback on our Amazon seller account: imagine trapping that will-to-be-liked for your brand.

Second point: advertising is having a good product. The iPod and very-possibly-any day-now the Wii are bearing this out. Have a good product and your consumers will do the selling for you.

Ms Dyson. We salute you.

How many times do we have to say it: there is nowhere to hide on the Internet. This time last year we were talking about how Sony had attempted to exploit street art to market the PSP and now the company has been caught astro-turfing on behalf of the brand. According to Brandrepublic:

Sony Computer Entertainment has been exposed as being behind an embarrassing online viral campaign intended to boost sales of its PlayStation Portable handheld console at Christmas.

A website appeared last month, at alliwantforxmasisapsp.com, intended to look like a genuine fan site unaffiliated to the brand. The site, which included a video clip of a “Cousin Pete” performing a rap asking for a PSP for Christmas, triggered suspicion among the gaming community about its creators’ impartiality.

Speculation that the website was a Sony creation was initially dismissed by the site administrators, who wrote: “We don’t work for Sony. And for all you dissin’ my skillz I’m down for a one on one rap off or settling it street stylez if you feel me playa.” [Quite].

It has since emerged that the site was created by Sony Computer Entertainment US.

Contrast this with the launch of the Wii. Now we don’t think that all of those pictures of Wii-related black-eyes and customised wrist straps are necessarily a Bad Thing. And recalls also have a tendency to make the heart grow fonder. At least it demonstrates that people are actually playing with the damn things… as The Mirror headline notes:

Wii-OWW! THE new Nintendo Wii games console is causing mayhem — as over-excited players hurl themselves around.

Meanwhile, we’ve seen a grand total of three PSPs this year. Another gauge? Flickr is already hosting nearly 21,000 photos relating to Wii to PSP’s 23,000.