From Bloomberg’s leaked e-mail address to the continually gushing BP oil rupture, this week has offered quiet the variety of headlines. Did I mention the World Cup started today? If you’ve been busy all week, no worries, here are some things you missed.
CF presents you, Feed the Beast | Week in Review.
Chamber of commerce says taxpayers should help pay for BP Spill Cleanup; GOP Leader agrees, then recants
AT&T security breach exposes 114,000 iPad 3g customer e-mails, including many top CEOs
Steve Jobs reveals the new iPhone4 at annual WWDC conference
As of May 2010, Google handled 71% of all search queries in the United States, with Yahoo! dragging behind at 15%.
Despite Googles dominant position in online search engines, the company still continues to innovate, making it increasingly difficult for rivals to compete.
However, Yahoo! has not given up.
In a recent press release, Yahoo! has announced a series of changes to further integrate Facebook in numerous Yahoo! properties, such as their homepage and Yahoo! Mail and Pulse. Their goal is to make Yahoo! not only your online source for news, articles, e-mail and search functions, but also your portal for social networks.
“Starting with Facebook, we are bringing all of these elements together to give people one simple, trusted place to share information and connect. We think this offers great benefit to people across the web, and it’s key to helping Yahoo! extend our reach and increase engagement,” said Cody Simms, senior director of Social Platforms and Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN) at Yahoo!.
We know it’s hard to get excited about another site integrating social networks, but there is potential that can benefit everyone; clever social network aggregation.
Here is what’s planned:
Centralized Dashboard. With Yahoo! Pulse, users can control external social networks in one dashboard
Create and Share. Folks who create and share content on Yahoo! sites like Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Flickr, omg! etc can seamlessly share information via Facebook
View FB Friend’s Updates. Now you can see a live stream of your friend’s Facebook status on Yahoo without leaving the site
Will this partnership prevail and who has the right social media strategy, Google or Yahoo?
We have no right answer. Yahoo!’s strategy is focused around integration of already popular social networks, while Google focuses more on creating/acquiring its own social networks (ie. Buzz, YouTube, Picassa). Yahoo also creates original content, while Google aggregates. They’re two different companies, but we do believe their both on course with implementing the right strategies.
Since 2003, the All Things Digital conference has been breaking news, highlighting innovation, and showcasing conversations with the most influential figures in media and technology.
This year marks the eighth anniversary of the conference, hence the D8 name.
Last night, Steve Jobs kicked off the event with a Q&A session with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Wall Street Journal’s digital duo.
Here are some highlights from the event, including Jobs’ thoughts on the missing 4GS phone, Adobe Flash, Google and the origin of the iPad.
Recently, this has been a popular topic of discussion in finance and media. Although we’re bouncing back from the recession, the value of stocks and annual earnings have remained stagnant or continued to decrease among the top U.S. corporations, yet the annual earnings of CEO’s have generally increased.
Although the US Securities and Exchange Commission requires the top 500 corporations to publish the salaries of their top execs, there is a lack of transparency on how compensation is calculated. The chart below from AdAge shows the salary, compensation and percentage change of the top 25 ad executives of 2009.
Compensation is usually linked with performance, but McCann’s CEO John J. Dooner Jr, still earned a total compensation of $2,802,828, although McCann lost major clients like Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon’s wireless and Droid businesses, Pfizer’s Viagra and $970 million potential earnings.
So, how is compensation measured and how do you value someone? Pay formulas are often murky and CEOs are still likely to receive generous bonuses and stock awards no matter how they perform.
Is there a correlation with more and more people leaving their company recently, to start their own shop?
“Adobe is lazy. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy” said Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, during a Town Hall company meeting.
Two months after the incident, an Adobe employee reply’s via blog, “Go Screw Yourself, Apple”.
The gloves are on – it’s evident that these two heavyweights are ready to get in the ring. CreativeFeed breaks it down:
Two Top Tech Heavyweights – The Tale of the Tape
Surprisingly, these two giants were tag-team partners back in the day. Adobe and Apple used to have a good relationship. Apple used to own 20% of Adobe for a few years and even now, both companies still work together to serve the creative community. However, that is where their joint interests end.
The Apple iPhone and iPad have never supported flash, one of Adobe’s core offerings. In fact, Apple’s terms-of-service agreement prohibits it. No matter how much customers speculate and demand it, Steve Jobs refuses, and even wrote an open letter titled, “Thoughts on Flash“, stating his reasons.
As a result, Flash (and Adobe), lack a presence in mobile browsing, an industry that has exponentially grown in recent years. Communities proficient in the development of flash and users (95% chance it includes you) currently suffer from limited web browsing freedom.
Two months after Steve Jobs’ manifesto, Adobe has finally responded with their marketing campaign called, “Freedom of Flash”, with a message of choice, open markets and love.
The Advertisements:
In today’s New York Times and Washington Post, enormous print ads were placed like the one seen below.
Online Display ads like this were seen on New York Times, Engadget and their own site, addressing Apple’s recent spate of clear and direct attacks against the company and its products.
The Letter:
Founders of Adobe, John Warnock and Chuck Geschke (pictured above), also replied with a letter titled, Our thoughts on open markets, which discusses Apple’s clear and direct attacks against the company and its products.
The Site:
Adobe creates a site, The truth about Flash, showcasing statics to “set the record straight” because “a fair amount of incorrect information has been communicated”
Our View from Ringside:
It looks like this bout is going to go the full 12 rounds, since these guys are just getting warmed up – and neither Jobs nor Geschke back down from a good fight. CreativeFeed can imagine Adobe continuing to go great lengths to defend its reputation and products in the open market, using consumer pull strategies to push Apple into opening up. The question is – will any of this be enough to sway Jobs and his lust to wrestle power away from media industries and consolidate it in Apple products. (e.g. Music – iTunes, Books – the iPad bookstore and potentially the future of mobile viewing without Flash). Most likely not, since Jobs has never been one to answer to anyone, even his loyal fan base of Apple followers. (Okay, perhaps stockholders, but even that relationship tilts in his favor in a power struggle).
In regards to the opinions of both respective companies, it’s questionable whether either of them is truly “open” or representative of a “free market” as their letters and messages suggest. Adobe and Apple have both built proprietary products to gain competitive advantage, which they deserve to do. As this fight continues to rage on, we’ll see the future of how we all view and consume media play out. Our question – will either of their tactics, as the mudslinging gets worse, sully their images? Or will the “free” market winner take home the Championship Belt and be dubbed King?
From a PR standpoint, if a disaster is named after your company, then you have a major problem.
As the title “BP Oil Spill” has been flashing across headlines this past week, it’s probably pretty safe to assume that BP must have a decisive plan to protect their image and carefully answer any flaring concerns from the public and media, right?
Some of us at CreativeFeed remember how poorly Exxon CEO, Lawrence Rawl, handled the Valdez oil spill of 1989, so we’re curious to see how BP will handle this disaster and if they will utilize social media as a PR tool.
In a crisis situation, social media is the fastest and most effective way to reach an audience. It’s cost effective, instant and direct—without the filtration and commentary of television, newspaper, radio journalists and bloggers.
BP spokesman David Nicholas said, ”We want to ensure that we can get out information about the response to this incident and spill as rapidly and widely as possible…. Twitter is a clearly popular medium.”
BP has focused their outreach under a different name, Deepwater Horizon Response. Nearly two weeks after the “BP Oil Spill”, it’s been interesting to see how the activation and connection of different social media platforms have created a humanized approach, adding a personal touch to relating to the public.
In contrast to a newsletter, a strategy used in traditional PR, the issues and progress of BP has become a topic of conversation, rather than a one-way message. There is a level of transparency, connectivity and accountability BP has taken through uncensored conversation and direct responses.
What do you think of BP’s response through social media platforms?
How does this change the nature of interaction between public and the corporation?
Do you think BP is hiding behind “Deep Water Horizon Response” and does this disconnect their efforts from their brand?
Large variety of images showing a collaborative effort of contracted workers, government organizations and volunteers working to restore the Gulf Coast
The Oprah Winfrey Network, a 50-50 venture with Discovery Communications, has secured a $100 million deal with Procter & Gamble, although the network doesn’t even launch till next January.
With a budget of $2.7 billion in 2009, $100 million may seem small for the consumer giant, P&G, but for OWN, the recognition by P&G as a lucrative opportunity sparks the attention of other marketers.
The deal will span for 3 years, and is said to include ad time as well as P&G product placement in some of the network’s shows. It’s also rumored that there are provisions in the deal tied with the network’s performance. However, with Oprah’s cult like popularity and “domesticated” audience, P&G products like Pampers Diapers and Crest Toothpaste will sure to perform favorably to the audience’s priorities.
Though huge, upfront media buys aren’t unheard of in the industry, it’s interesting that this one is built largely on the fame of one person, Oprah Winfrey.
Without any ratings, coverage, reach and demographic established, this deal is a guessing game for P&G, but who cares, it’s Oprah!
At CreativeFeed, we hope the best for Oprah and Procter & Gamble!
