The ‘e-smerging’ UK Tech media landscape

This post has been coming a while. Sometimes it takes some time to stand back from the pixels and focus on the emerging picture. However several recent events have led me to believe that Tech Journalism is dead. In fact, what precious little there was has now smerged into the realm of online advertising.

Not that there is anything wrong with advertising, that, plus a good World War or Two*, are how great brands are made. But it is not what many in the UK call journalism; investigative, free-from-commercial considerations and provocative. And this revelation demands a new type of response from those of us who work in the ‘earned media’ B2B space that stubbornly resists being rebranded as anything other than Public Relations. First the evidence:

EXHIBIT ONE

TechTarget acquires Computer Weekly – 28^th March 2011

When a $270m giant, whose business is to repackage and distribute content built by advertisers to a highly qualified audience, swoops in to buy the UK’s leading technology title for small change, this is a seminal moment. TechTarget’s admirable business model (slogan ‘Where serious tech buyers decide’) is built on selling eyeballs to advertisers in much the same way that broadcasters sell slots between programmes. With one difference; almost all of the content has been pre-created by the advertisers themselves. It is too early to see what that means for Computer Weekly’s readership and long-term editorial direction, but no one is claiming this move increases the freedom the UK tech press enjoys. In fairness, it is the case that ‘free’ content, mostly whitepapers written by tech vendor product marketing teams, is very compelling, more technically detailed, if a lot less objective, than much UK tech media output, which all too often focuses on IT consumerisation and gadgets (as previously ranted about).

EXHIBIT TWO
Nasty US tech journalist spat Tom Foremski v Michael Arrington – April 2011 (ongoing)

There are few things more wrongly compelling than observing two girls fighting at close range – except for two grown tech journalists bitching. In the fascinating and deeply personal battle for the moral high-ground which followed failed media empire AOL’s surprise purchase of up and coming blog Techcrunch, the winner was not so much the truth, as the status quo. As both sides slung mud about whether investing in the companies they were writing about clouded their judgement – it was easy to see both sides. It got really bitchy when writer’s partners and their employers were cited, in a row that even the UK red tops would relish. Bottom line – there is a conflict of interest in writing about and investing in companies. This seems to confirm that there is a new code of ethics for those who create commercially beneficial copy about companies whose profits they ultimately share.

To recap, so far we have the cream of the UK’s tech media working for what some unkind souls might call a ‘content farm’ and reporters who describe themselves as well-paid by their employers, writing copy which may also contribute to their personal wealth. Confused? See a ‘smerging’ of roles here? Here’s more proof from another recent personal professional experience.

EXHIBIT THREE
‘they are not a PR firm’ – May 2011

OK, hands up there are some journalists who thanks to many years of careful nurturing, preferential treatment on stories and possibly the odd expensed refreshment, are ‘friends of the family’ here at Positive Marketing. On the other hand, we like all PR companies are entreated daily to submit copy for titles either too lazy or too cash-strapped to provide their own content. That is the status quo. So when we recently saw a competitor given a regular blog slot by a leading UK B2B tech title (who we agreed to keep nameless), we were intrigued at the possibility of getting in on the act. A quick call to a normally hard-to-track-down editor (coincidentally a former colleague) and then three rapid-fire email volleys disabused us of this possibility and I quote “X isn’t a PR firm as such = it’s a consulting firm”. According to this editor, the blogger in question did not work for a PR firm, so why would its hyperbolic Linkedin description be “the only PR and communications consultancy to specialise in the enterprise software industry”?

It seems the best of us can get confused in this new ‘smerged’ new world order. But rather than bleat about it, we at Positive Marketing are getting with this new charade and turning into a consultancy too, it’s just that some of our paying clients want to call what we do PR.

Hopefully these three examples confirm what many have said for some time, tech journalism, advertising and PR are ‘smerging’ together to become, well, just plain tech marketing. When editorial can be replaced by product literature [EXHIBIT 1], when journalists can promote companies they invest in [EXHIBIT 2] and when PR companies are the new journalists [EXHIBIT 3], the rules of the game really have changed. In some ways that puts us all into competition for the same vendor dollars that have always fuelled the information opportunity which surrounds the IT industry. Whether we have to change the name of our services, literally invest in our clients, create more Whitepapers (or even all three) we still love this sector and treasure its dynamism, so maybe it is better that the hypocrisy around editorial independence needs to die. Or maybe it was just a myth to start with.

In subsequent posts we will look at the repercussions of this new advertorial honesty and why with content as king, contacts as commodity and relationships the new currency, we like our position in the market for ideas more than ever. If you want to learn more about how we think, work and deliver results daily, leave a comment, email us at contact@positivemarketing or, if you can be pithy, send a tweet to @positmarket.

* If you have not yet you have to see the excellent BBC Three series ‘Secrets of the Superbrands’ where Alex Riley sees, amongst other things, the rise of Coca Cola and adidas as being aided by their roles in supplying opposite sides in World War 2

Man bites dog(food) in snow

Thanks to the UK’s well-publicised inability to cope with light dustings of snow and the ludicrous Spanish Air Traffic Controller’s strike, my three days with a client in Barcelona, turned into almost a week of time out of the office and a chance to prove that even bad news presents opportunity.

What started as an interesting challenge, interviewing several IT services gurus on-stage, ended up somewhere between a game of chance and a military planning operation. Ten of my eleven team-mates opted for wild and wonderful escape routes with cross-border plane reservations and seven hour pre-dawn drives to neighbouring France.

There are worse places to be stranded of course, but weekends, although not work-free, are precious in fast-growing businesses. My Plan B, the overnight Barcelona to Paris train, would have been wonderful in high summer, but not on the third day of no air transportation in a cold snap and with the risk of poor internet connectivity. So I held tight and waited for events to turn my way.

As we always tell clients at Positive Marketing, with some careful preparation, savvy execution and a preparedness to be wrong, the news agenda can be your friend. We call it trend-surfing because of its many similarities to the preparation and the timing required for actual surfing. So it was, that after posting my comments on the UK’s BBC News Website, in-between frustrating server errors on the BA site, that a researcher from the broadcaster called to ask how things were going. This was the opportunity.

A couple of coffees later I was live on air, from my hotel bedroom, with BBC Radio 5. We discussed the implications for fast businesses, especially those experiencing growth like Positive Marketing, when state workers, in charge of national infrastructure, strike.

It was, the interviewer noted ‘a good plug’ but it is always good to ‘eat your own dog food’ because it reminds you of what you are asking your clients to do. Pleasingly enough, selected highlights from my rant also made it to the main BBC News Website. The twin hits resulted in a stream of emails from potential customers and partners, all tuning in early on a Sunday morning to catch-up on news, some of whom I had not heard from in a decade.

Modern news agendas move ever faster, making agile trendsurfing a critical skill. Marketing folks just naturally feel better when they crack on, experimenting with angles, rather than letting events wash over them. A two-hour turnaround from pitch-to-coverage proves we can walk the walk for their brands too.

If only the over-paid and unthinking Spanish air traffic controllers understood the consequences of their inaction would be for hundreds of thousands of revenue-generating passengers. But then, had they done so, this trendsurfing opportunity would not have existed. So, if you think eating canine cuisine beats letting the tail wag the dog, we would be happy kickstart your trendsurfing too.

CeBIT versus Woodstock – tradeshows revisited

This year’s CeBIT was a shadow of its former self, according to a presenter and agency owner who has escorted clients there for over a decade. Meanwhile, another senior marketing executive I spoke to claimed exhibiting at the show was a success for her company because “CeBIT is not for leads”. This ‘bigger picture’ thought was supported by an insightful comment from HP marketing vet Peter Chargin, who raised the importance of knowledge gathered on the ground by attendees. Good point I missed and it made me think.

So if conferences are not for leads, but for brand presence and education, has the world changed?

Some claim, with a lot of validity, that the ‘live’ experience of shows and learning is what the trade show is really about. This is certainly true for the army of press and bloggers who descend on trade shows, they learn a lot. But actual sales need more than awareness, they need persuasion. This is why Salesforce and Siebel are used for telemarketing more often than campaign management – people buy from people not emails. Even PR management tools like Response Source and Vocus just help good old human interaction, they should facilitate handcrafted emails and calls from persuasive PR professionals (like Positive). Use them as spam tools and they are counter-productive.

So then why the downer on conferences if they tick so many boxes? Physical interaction – tick, educating while selling -tick, potential new customer awareness – tick. What does not work is the economics. Why pay for booth space, why not just do speaking slots?

I think I have a better idea, or rather my bright friends at Brighttalk.com, had one. To be honest though, the Brightvocalists did not realise it at first, until, in a truly Twitter-like way, they remodelled their business plan. From a sort of online AGM tool they came up with virtual conferences. So now you have all the knowledge sharing you could need, full control over how your brand is conveyed and even some ‘accidental’ leads as it is promoted to the firm’s half million users. Whether or not, the ‘webcasting reinvented’ users Brighttalk claims all love your content, that’s a lot of potential bag-fillers passing your virtual booth – for free.

We need yet more innovation. Half day physical conferences, impromptu conferences (Twestivals not Flashcrowds, for safety reasons) and much much more online innovation (Brighttalk, Webex etc.). Music festivals people spend days at, but industry conferences? Can anyone honestly say the ‘Good Old Days’ of CeBIT were really like being at Woodstock?

Let’s discuss your opinions by emailing pmaher@positivemarketing.org and to learn more about how we can help check out www.positivemarketing.org

Is nastiness necessary?

Yesterday I visited a Tradeshow which seemed immune from the current general malaise. Long, but orderly, queues formed for sessions, abundant freebies were displayed on the stands of a plethora of start-ups with shiny new logos. What was this exciting exposition, flourishing despite the current financial doldrums? A show focused on technology for marketing professionals.

These days that covers a lot of services and applications, including SEO tools, CRM and statistics packages, Web-building and hosting. Not to forget the man with the mobile bubble making machine – possibly the stand-out in terms of innovation. It did seem ironic to stage a conference to market marketing to marketing professionals but the free entry ensured a healthy crowd.

My excuse was to talk to a prospect. She was an overseas marketing professional from a software vendor, attending ‘to pick up ideas’. I was selling Positive Marketing to her and her colleagues. For them this was a perfectly valid research trip; so we all had alibis. These though are tough times and beneath the gloss, the hawkers of today’s marketing tools were doling out some interesting, no, plain-nasty, messages.

One VP speaker recommended using his analysis package to find deeply unprofitable customers and then giving them to your competitors – nice. Another senior panellist picked on poor old Microsoft Outlook, which he opined would be dead in 18 months, replaced by universal use of Google Apps. This was ironic as UK Gmail users were at the moment of his speech experiencing an outage which lasted several hours.

Marketing guru Al Ries once likened marketing to war and it seems it is now. For years ‘unfair competitive advantage’ has been the half-heated rallying call of many a marketing professional, but now cut-throat competition means some people are thinking it means survival of the bitchiest. But is this the smart play?

The first rule of smart marketing is to qualify your audience to make sure you send the right message. In this case, the audience was marketing executives spending some time, but little upfront money to review the state of their profession. Even though these are professionals, who know all about having a sharp Point Of View, ultimately ‘people buy people’.

Nasty folks tend not to be nice to do business with and that is what I remember from these two vendors. If we are all getting evil, perhaps even Google, let’s remember that what goes around comes around.

P.S. If you are curious to know who the boot boys are drop me a line pmaher@positivemarketing.org