It makes me worry when Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is quoted on the hacking scandal as saying ‘the pillars of the establishment are crumbling’. Hasn’t anybody told you Nicky, son of a banker, Westminster boy, you, too, are the establishment? Clegg gripe aside, it does seem all the politicians are rushing to show how zealous they are in their newfound hatred of News International. Old friends become enemies – while in the case of the Liberal Democrats, they can feel smug that they never had cause or opportunity to press flesh with Murdoch. But is all this focus on News International missing something?
It’s five years since the Information Commissioner presented his report ‘What Price Privacy?’ on illegal information gathering by the printed media. Its key findings, taken from police investigations under Operation Motorman between 2002 and 2006, showed The News of the World to be only number five on a list of newspapers and magazines trading in illegal information. Number one was The Daily Mail (952 transactions), followed by The Sunday People (802), Daily Mirror (681) and Mail on Sunday (266). The NoTW made a modest 228 trades. Best Magazine came in just behind The Sunday Mirror with 134 trades. Over 300 journalists were involved. Surely not all of this can have been justified as in the public interest? Those investigations only produced 2 successful prosecutions. No one involved was fined more than £5000.
‘What Price Privacy?’ made clear a full five years ago that newspapers were involved in rampant law-breaking – and no politician or policeman dared to stop them. Until now. My question. Will either of the two inquiries announced by David Cameron be looking at the whole trade in illegal information, beyond phone hacking at News International? Will other newspaper editors and owners be called to account for themselves? If they are not, then almost certainly most culprits in this business will breath a huge sigh of relief as they delete the last of the incriminating emails. Phew, Murdoch took the rap – and we got away with it!
Circa sales supremo Tanushka has secured orders from WH Smith, Waterstones, Hamleys and merchandising deals with two national newspapers. 2011 is shaping up well for About Time and our new lines. Thank you Tanushka!
Meanwhile Hamleys kicked off the Christmas in July season early with its tips for the top Christmas gifts in its stores. It’s the list any toy and games seller wants to be on. They included Moshi Monsters Talking Plush toys, based on the hugely popular online games network. There was also the Air Swimmer – a remote control floating range of underwater beasties. Selfridges’ Christmas in July PR event is next week.
If the retail cycle for suppliers begins in November and ends in May for most major Christmas gift retailers, the PR cycle is well and truly under way – something we are acutely aware of. We have begun our press PR and we are looking at digital marketing strategies – including targeted mailers at our customers and viral media. If we are going to invest in viral media, we need to know what our likely ROI will be and who we are actually targeting. We have spoken to some experienced marketers who have warned us to make sure that we seed any viral work properly, and to be sure we know who our viral is aimed at.
About Time, our flagship game, is aimed at both the grey and the 25-40 educated consumer. Youngsters can play and enjoy it, but they don’t make the buying decision. Which brings me to viral marketing. Looking at recent YouTube hits, its obvious that the main viewers are in their teens. Their music, their concerns, what they find funny – the most DIY videos, often with a face just talking or singing to camera, that’s what people watch. In fact, they watch people like them, making videos themselves. These videos are authentic. The only viral hit in the top ten that was commercial was the latest trailer for Harry Potter – no doubt about that demographic either.
Perhaps it would be better for an About Time viral to successfully reach our target market in smaller numbers than the hundreds of millions who watch Justin Bieber covers and rants by disgruntled ginger boys. The viral beckons, because of its creative possibilities and the chance to make a buzz around our brand, but it might be much less effective than traditional PR and targeted mailers aimed at our core consumers. That’s our challenge. The good thing about a viral is that all the above points to low-cost production, while investing properly in seeding. Of course the idea has to be knockout…
Times journalist David Aaronovitch was first in line to ask a question of Richard Gage, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. Gage flew over earlier this month for a talk at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA did not advertise or endorse the talk). Gage spoke for 2 hours, using video, graphs and apparent scientific logic to convince his audience that 9/11 was a demolition job. Gage is at the respectable end of the Truther movement, and his job that night was not too difficult as the hall was packed with those who firmly believed what he had to say. There were a handful of dissenters, Aaronovitch the most famous of them.
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With me were an ex-army officer who had done several tours of Northern Ireland, a former businessman who moved to Tarife in Spain when his last venture came a cropper, and an ex oil rig worker who spent years in the North Sea and Middle East before having a mid life brainwave. What did we have in common? We had all become game inventors and were now at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate for the Toymaster Show. Read More »
Just had a thought – if
i am undecided on AV, can i
put Yes as my first preference, and No as my second preference…?
Or even better, AV++, where whatever you vote, you win!
If I knew the answer to that, I would probably be a rich man. Instead, I went to a gathering of entrepreneurs organised by a business guru friend of mine, Paul Levy. After sharing our experiences and challenges, Paul made some suggestions, one of which was for me and my fellow directors to find a talented e-selling expert who loves games to join Circa and share with us their online selling expertise.
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Here are the final posts from Seb my friend and co-inventor of About Time who was working for an
agency in Bahrain and is now finally home with his newborn daughter Ada:
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These are Facebook posts over the last 72 hours from my adland friend who is trapped in Manama.
The rioting, the CS gas and the rubber bullets flying first thing in the morning…so what will the night bring? These riots keep me from getting into the office and finishing my work. We had to run from creeping tear gas and Police blockade once more.
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This is Iain’s report on his trip to the New York Toy Fair last weekend:
I flew Virgin to New York on the Saturday. I knew I was on the right plane when I bumped into Ian Gibbs, the buyer from Harrods (ex Hamleys) in the queue at immigration. He’s a top guy – always picks up the phone, and happy to give a sympathetic hearing but cast a critical eye over your latest product idea. In fact when we were developing About Time, it was originally called Circa – The History Game. He said to us, it’s got potential, but you’ve misnamed it – it’s about when stuff happens but goes across all aspects of knowledge, not just history, so why limit yourself. We went back to the drawing board and ‘About Time’ was born. Cheers Ian! Read More »
My expat contact in Bahrain was sent home from work on the day the government sent troops and tanks to crush protesters in Manama, killing at least four people. He is one of the thousands of British ex-pats working in the island kingdom. He and his flatmate went and bought a lot of liquor – yes, that is quite easy to do – and headed home. That day he noticed that his emails were bouncing back – he asked around and it seems that the government has taken a couple of pages out of the Egyptian book on how to crush protests – first by closing down digital communications, then sending in the heavies. Read More »
