UK soon to be the high-speed Internet capital of Europe

Posted Wednesday, December 21, 2005 at 12:09am in Media, Technology | Leave a Comment

eMarketer is reporting that come 2006, the UK will be the high-speed Internet capital of Europe and by 2008 it projects that it will have caught up to the US. Already, the UK has the highest Internet users in Western Europe:

A quote by eMarketer Senior Analyst, James Belcher says this is because of the government’s efforts to increase Internet access across the UK - 57% of the population are now online.

It says: “A larger broadband audience is important for marketers. Greater bandwidth allows access a variety of different communication and entertainment applications that are otherwise inaccessible or sub-standard when utilized at lower bandwidths.” How true and another reason why video blogging will become more predominant.

The report also goes onto say the amount of people shopping online is increasing. Not only that, the amount they are spending is increasing also.

This doesn’t surprise me. The North East has ownership of the largest shopping centre in Europe, the Metro Centre, and as I done my last bit of Christmas shopping today, it was unusually empty for this time of year. Shops were advertising sales already! Normally, the sales start at the beginning of January and certainly not before the Christmas shopping frenzy.

Also, advertising in the North East has hit a bit of a downward slope recently. I’m hearing of quite a few agencies that have been laying off staff. I’m not sure if this is the same across all the UK, but I imagine it could be. I wonder if it’s due to people beginning to buy from ecommerce sites?

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‘Making The News’ on the road

Posted Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 8:44pm in Blogging, PR General | Leave a Comment

Philip Young says “Following the success of Making the News at Sunderland in November we have decided to take the show on the road with an even better event lined up for Manchester on Wednesday February 15, 2006.”

All the usual suspects are lined up to talk so it should prove to be another evangelistic event. Great news! If it’s anything like the last event, the attendees are in for a treat.

Venue: Lancashire County Cricket Club, Talbot Road, Old Trafford, Manchester

Tickets are £125 + VAT for CIPR members and £145 + VAT for non-members.

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What’s up with TypePad?

Posted Friday, December 16, 2005 at 10:38pm in Blogging | 1 Comment

I’m subscribed to quite a few TypePad platform based blogs and I’ve noticed a lot of them have lost their last week’s worth of posting? Anyone?

Black Eyed Peas are mob video blogging

Posted Thursday, December 15, 2005 at 7:39pm in Blogging | Leave a Comment

Right, let me get this straight. If someone is recording video from their mobile phone to a blog this is mob video blogging? Well, if there isn’t a term for it yet, I’ve just coined one.

The Black Eyed Peas are MVBing to their website. It says: “The Black Eyed Peas Video Diary is a unique online event. During the European tour from December 1st up until December 21st, all of the Peas will be equipped with 3G mobile video phones. With these phones the Peas can make video calls to blackeyedpeas.com where their footage is published. The footage is shot with mobile phones, so the quality may vary. One thing is sure, you’re about experience an uncut, exclusive trip behind the scenes of the European tour.”

The place where the videos are published is hardly a blog - there’s no RSS, but it does allow comments. Only last week I blogged on how North East band, Maximo Park, were allowing fans to send in photographs of the band from cameraphones to their moblog.

Are we starting to see new ways in which bands are interacting with their fans? My prediction is, we’re going to see a lot more of this. As technical advancements in gadgets like mobile phones continues to increase, we’ll see ways in which music acts can be brought a little closer to their fans.

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Bush’s iPod endorsement

Posted at 7:06pm in PR General, Technology | Leave a Comment

Seems like everyone has an iPod these days with the latest fan of the Apple mp3 player being none other that the president of the US.

In PR terms, I’m not sure if this is a good endorsement or not. Part of the iPod’s appeal is geared toward the young, cool and trendy. Something that George Dubya isn’t. What next? Tony Blair declaring his love for the PSP?

Seems like the iPod brings out the young person in all of us. President Bush starts calling his assistant “Dude” as he scrolls his music collection.

Watch the Sky News video here

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