27 Nov 2009 : Sugababes love Windows 7
I was initially quite cynical about this Microsoft/Sugababes tie up. For starters the design looks like they've just comped the Windows 7 loving Sugababes in at the last minute - probably when the Pussycat Dolls dropped out, and the video scenarios are really pretty cringeworthy....
But the more I thought about it, the more I realised its probably a match made in heaven. With every new Windows OS people hope its going to be as good as OS X, but it never really is. With every new Sugababes line up people hope they'll be as good as Girls Aloud but they never really are.
13 Apr 2009 : Social media marketing
There's an interesting debate on Matt Haughey's blog about the merits of social media marketing vs just making a product that's so brilliant that it finds its way to the top organically:
"So maybe instead of getting your company on twitter, paying marketers to mention you are on twitter, and paying people to blog about your company, forget all that and just make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products, hire people that represent the company well, and when your stuff is so awesome that friends share it with other friends, you may not even need 'social media marketing' after all."
Obviously its not a black and white issue, you have to do something when you start up to get the ball rolling, and as someone points out, what do you do if your competition has a better product, surely you don't just give up....
...well if you're trying to market Microsoft's Zune maybe you should. A survey of teenagers has found 100 per cent will buy one of Apple's music players in the next year. Of those questioned only 4% had a Zune and no amount of Twittering by Microsoft will improve this.