Ian Waring

Simplicity Sells

Computacenter win two VMware European Awards

Just heard that Paul Casey and Martin Clarkson will be picking up VMware EMEA Solution Partner of the Year, plus VMware EMEA Emerging Products Partner of the Year, at Partner Exchange in February. Go team!

Carbs/Fat/Protein balance this week so far, having started the diet mid-December. Just under 4 bags of sugar lost, and 58 to go. Long process, but two people mentioned an apparent weight loss unprompted today. Secret appears to put less in your gob, at reasonable times of day (microwaved dinners at 9-10pm unhelpful), and to exercise judiciously. Seems to work so far.

Carbs/Fat/Protein balance this week so far, having started the diet mid-December. Just under 4 bags of sugar lost, and 58 to go. Long process, but two people mentioned an apparent weight loss unprompted today. Secret appears to put less in your gob, at reasonable times of day (microwaved dinners at 9-10pm unhelpful), and to exercise judiciously. Seems to work so far.

From the time I led the Marketing Services Team at Demon. It was a dumb sounding advert, but it pulled response like crazy. Some of the responses contained nice poems, so it struck a connection. Average cost to land a £10/month paying customer was £30, around 1/6 that of competitive ISPs at the time (this was 1998-9). Advert done in a rush a week before, and Les Hewitt (media buyer extraordinaire) got it in most target newspapers near the back. Once in, he phoned them hourly to twist their arm relentlessly, getting it shifted page by page towards the front. Made it to the dating page on Valentines Day in the Times I believe. We tested everything, and knew what the landed cost of a customer was for every ad we placed. Even knew which ones gave us high response and then heavy churn 3 months later (waves hello to the Sun and Mirror). The most effective medium one of my folks tried gave us acquisition costs of £4 per landed customer, but many odd ball complaints. But that’s another story. Class work, well executed and full of personality. In my humble opinion, of course.

From the time I led the Marketing Services Team at Demon. It was a dumb sounding advert, but it pulled response like crazy. Some of the responses contained nice poems, so it struck a connection. Average cost to land a £10/month paying customer was £30, around 1/6 that of competitive ISPs at the time (this was 1998-9). Advert done in a rush a week before, and Les Hewitt (media buyer extraordinaire) got it in most target newspapers near the back. Once in, he phoned them hourly to twist their arm relentlessly, getting it shifted page by page towards the front. Made it to the dating page on Valentines Day in the Times I believe.

We tested everything, and knew what the landed cost of a customer was for every ad we placed. Even knew which ones gave us high response and then heavy churn 3 months later (waves hello to the Sun and Mirror). The most effective medium one of my folks tried gave us acquisition costs of £4 per landed customer, but many odd ball complaints. But that’s another story.

Class work, well executed and full of personality. In my humble opinion, of course.

Some TV awards are on the telly at the moment. They showed a pic from “Have I Got News For You” which reminded me of this picture, with a caption underneath that said “Bill Clinton sends a picture of his private parts to the wrong person”. Jane still likes him though; not sure if her crush is really on him or on John Travolta (who played a politician like him in Primary Colors). Or both.

Some TV awards are on the telly at the moment. They showed a pic from “Have I Got News For You” which reminded me of this picture, with a caption underneath that said “Bill Clinton sends a picture of his private parts to the wrong person”. Jane still likes him though; not sure if her crush is really on him or on John Travolta (who played a politician like him in Primary Colors). Or both.

Apple's Daunting numbers

Another growth spurt, with very impressive comparisons vs Google, Microsoft et al. More valuable than Greece to boot. Click the title to get to the Techcrunch article.

Jonathan Ive’s glowing Apple on the back of Jane’s MacBook Air. If you suggest replacing her MacBook or iPhone 4 with any other supposed equivalents, you get a look somewhere between indignance and a death wish. Meanwhile, her husband is waiting to trade up to an iPad 3, and so start another round of hand-me-downs to the so far unsmitten. There appears little shortage of willing victims. To the more observant, yes, those are Ugg slippers, her other main Xmas present from yours truely. She’s just discovered there’s an Ugg Store on Newbury Street in Boston, so I’ll start guessing the next holiday destination.

Jonathan Ive’s glowing Apple on the back of Jane’s MacBook Air. If you suggest replacing her MacBook or iPhone 4 with any other supposed equivalents, you get a look somewhere between indignance and a death wish. Meanwhile, her husband is waiting to trade up to an iPad 3, and so start another round of hand-me-downs to the so far unsmitten. There appears little shortage of willing victims.

To the more observant, yes, those are Ugg slippers, her other main Xmas present from yours truely. She’s just discovered there’s an Ugg Store on Newbury Street in Boston, so I’ll start guessing the next holiday destination.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Stidston. It looks like that on the sofa at home too (that is, without the Acer). The glowing Apple is design genius.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Stidston. It looks like that on the sofa at home too (that is, without the Acer). The glowing Apple is design genius.

I used to adore my Lexus IS200 when I worked at BT. Looking at the new CT200h… but it’s bugging me that the seemingly spacious interior has the diminutive Kylie Minogue driving one in the adverts. If her wax model at Madame Tussauds is anything to go by, it appears to suggest she’s 4’ tall and as thin as a broomstick. I wonder if I’d fit without impaling myself on the steering wheel and taking up all the space for rear passengers. I have several months to work that out.

I used to adore my Lexus IS200 when I worked at BT. Looking at the new CT200h… but it’s bugging me that the seemingly spacious interior has the diminutive Kylie Minogue driving one in the adverts. If her wax model at Madame Tussauds is anything to go by, it appears to suggest she’s 4’ tall and as thin as a broomstick. I wonder if I’d fit without impaling myself on the steering wheel and taking up all the space for rear passengers. I have several months to work that out.

One commentator said this week that you could get five years imprisonment for stealing a Michael Jackson track, while Conrad Murray got four years for killing him. Then seeing a British guy queued for extradition to the USA for having a web site publishing links to torrent sites, and a Dutch National queued for extradition from Australia to the USA, both of whom have committed no crime in the legal jurisdiction in which they reside. Finishing the week with SOPA and PIPA legislation shelved for the time being, with the MPAA explicitly reminding US politicians whose pocket they were supposed to be in. Amazing. The central allegation coming back is an old chestnut on piracy costing American jobs. Does that really hold up to any scrutiny? Is it not more related to the pace at which material is released into other territories and lining up the economics to put a quality product in the hands of customers willing to buy where there is demand? And to do so at a price point where there is little incentive to invest time and effort to subvert the process?? I think that’s a lesson that Apple helped solve in the early days of iTunes. It’s easy for consumers to do the right thing. I recall some excellent work done by Claire Enders in the days of Napster. Claire at one point earlier in her career worked on strategy for EMI Music, was adept at turning 500+ pages of BMRB research tables into pithy summaries of Music/Internet/Telco market directions, and was outrageously unPC when numbers she uncovered contradicted public statements by senior media company execs. A joy to listen to. Claire now runs Enders Analysis, and is often on Sky and Bloomberg exercising her “take no prisoners” views. But I digress. The thing she found was that the only people who suffered any loss from Napster and similar music sharing services were the top 10 artists at each of the 5 or so big record labels. Everyone else benefited, by way of exposure of their music to a wider audience, and related secondary businesses like concerts and merchandise. So, at face value, the RIAA strings were being operated on behalf of 50 or so economic entities in total, some of whom are well known for their adept tax avoidance and deployment of their wealth in offshore tax havens. That got me thinking. Whose interests are being compromised by the recipients of the aggressive pursuits across the world? Who are these people who are besmirching the reputation of US lawmakers in foreign lands by their heavy handed approach to playing King Canute on individuals who will have little impact on the cause they are PR’ing? Why are the amounts being sought so out of proportion to the actual monetary amounts involved?? Clue is to follow the money. The folks funding the effort are giving major money to politicians. The funds are massive. Chief beneficiary of the politicians spend is the TV Networks. Aren’t the TV networks mainly owned by the few big, vertically integrated media companies? So the money appears to go full circle. Wouldn’t the resources be better spent improving the access, timeliness and expense of content across the world? I suspect most consumers would want to do the right thing, and piracy would be a meaningless economic niche. Having someone more forward-thinking at the MPA/MPAA would make the world a better place.

One commentator said this week that you could get five years imprisonment for stealing a Michael Jackson track, while Conrad Murray got four years for killing him. Then seeing a British guy queued for extradition to the USA for having a web site publishing links to torrent sites, and a Dutch National queued for extradition from Australia to the USA, both of whom have committed no crime in the legal jurisdiction in which they reside. Finishing the week with SOPA and PIPA legislation shelved for the time being, with the MPAA explicitly reminding US politicians whose pocket they were supposed to be in. Amazing.

The central allegation coming back is an old chestnut on piracy costing American jobs. Does that really hold up to any scrutiny? Is it not more related to the pace at which material is released into other territories and lining up the economics to put a quality product in the hands of customers willing to buy where there is demand? And to do so at a price point where there is little incentive to invest time and effort to subvert the process??

I think that’s a lesson that Apple helped solve in the early days of iTunes. It’s easy for consumers to do the right thing.

I recall some excellent work done by Claire Enders in the days of Napster. Claire at one point earlier in her career worked on strategy for EMI Music, was adept at turning 500+ pages of BMRB research tables into pithy summaries of Music/Internet/Telco market directions, and was outrageously unPC when numbers she uncovered contradicted public statements by senior media company execs. A joy to listen to. Claire now runs Enders Analysis, and is often on Sky and Bloomberg exercising her “take no prisoners” views. But I digress.

The thing she found was that the only people who suffered any loss from Napster and similar music sharing services were the top 10 artists at each of the 5 or so big record labels. Everyone else benefited, by way of exposure of their music to a wider audience, and related secondary businesses like concerts and merchandise. So, at face value, the RIAA strings were being operated on behalf of 50 or so economic entities in total, some of whom are well known for their adept tax avoidance and deployment of their wealth in offshore tax havens.

That got me thinking. Whose interests are being compromised by the recipients of the aggressive pursuits across the world? Who are these people who are besmirching the reputation of US lawmakers in foreign lands by their heavy handed approach to playing King Canute on individuals who will have little impact on the cause they are PR’ing? Why are the amounts being sought so out of proportion to the actual monetary amounts involved??

Clue is to follow the money. The folks funding the effort are giving major money to politicians. The funds are massive. Chief beneficiary of the politicians spend is the TV Networks. Aren’t the TV networks mainly owned by the few big, vertically integrated media companies? So the money appears to go full circle.

Wouldn’t the resources be better spent improving the access, timeliness and expense of content across the world? I suspect most consumers would want to do the right thing, and piracy would be a meaningless economic niche. Having someone more forward-thinking at the MPA/MPAA would make the world a better place.