HTML5 and a new mobile app from Absolute Radio

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Apple iPad is about to launch in the UK, and in preparation, Absolute Radio is now available in a HTML5 version for all you iPad and iPhone owners to be able to listen to all the audio and see all the videos.

And in case you’re wondering, that’s all the audio and video throughout the whole site – not just the first couple of pages.

HTML5 optimised Absolute Radio website

And that’s in addition to the release of the all new Baddiel & Skinner Football Kit App for iPhone and Android, with support from Sony-Ericsson for the Android version.

It’s got the Baddiel & Skinner Absolute Radio Podcasts, a pub locator, score prediction game, red and yellow cards, football soundboard, an illustrated guide for doing goal celebrations, and a football rattle when you shake your phone!

Baddiel & Skinner Football Kit App

This is the link for iTunes. And you can find it via your handset on Android. The great news is that it went straight into the Top 20 Paid Sports Apps on the UK iTunes store, and it’s currently floating around the Top Ten.

(Disclosure: I work for Absolute Radio as Digital Marketing Manager.)

And in case I forget, I’m out and about over the next couple of weeks, so feel free to grab me for a chat etc if you see me at:

Specialist Media Show, May 25th, Peterborough (Hosting a round table on mobile)

Open Mobile Summit, May 26th, London (Doing a quick 2 minute piece on our work on Nokia platforms at a couple of different times during the day in the Nokia lounge.)

M-Publishing, June 1, London (Hosting a round table on mobile publishing).

So come chat if you spot me…

Filed Under: mobile, Mobile Applications Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This week I am mostly helping on FHM’s relaunch.

December 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment

One of the great things about my job at Bauer Media is that I get to help out a hugely diverse range of brands. One such brand is FHM, which is relaunching with a new website. I haven’t been involved in the main site itself, but the excellent team working away on the new site seem to be happy about my input, and most encouragingly, they see this as the start of an evolution, rather than an end result.

Click on the image for a fancy flash Homepage Tour:

There are a couple of interesting challenges for the small part I’m playing initially:

1. FHM has had a number of disparate social media outposts, and I’m spending time finding all of them, and updating as necessary. And then putting them all into a cohesive plan. It’s a bit of a change from the usual job of starting from scratch – and it’s going to be interesting seeing if it’s possible to reawaken some groups from stasis.

2. Because FHM is enormously popular and has so many different editions being published around the world, it means there’s a lot of different properties on the same social networks, and ideally I need to work out when and where they can work together – and at the same time try and eliminate the scammers using the FHM name.

Hopefully I’ll be able to come back with some examples of successful solutions shortly!

Filed Under: social media marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

I’m not a number – or a user – or a visitor

June 30, 2008 By 11 Comments

For a while I’ve read various people debating whether ‘traditional’ terms for people online are still effective. Do we really just want ‘visitors’ – as if they turn up, pay their museum entry fee, look at the exhibits and then leave? Or is it fair to assume they’re users – as if we’re peddling heroin? Especially as a ‘user’ is linked to user accounts and usernames. And only those who actually make a transaction can really be termed ‘consumers’. (They’re not ‘Unique Users’ in analytics/metrics, they’re Unique IPs…but I think that’s not something that can be changed now!)

I think it’s a shame that ad agencies and computing have sewn up ‘client’. It’s more informal than consumer, and yet infers a bit more choice and power on the part of the individual than the other terms. And like an agency, any website publisher has to constantly evolve and adapt to meet the needs of their clients…

I did try to work out a reason for renaming the audience Flibbertigibbets, but even my tenuous grip on reality struggled with that one.

So, like an age old riddle, what’s someone who can come and read a website and leave, come and interact, or come and take part in spending money?

So far, my best effort is ‘Participant‘. If we accept that participation starts at going to a url and observing the content, and goes up to spending every second of the day interacting, posting, uploading and purchasing. And if you look at the Wikipedia entries for participation, it starts to make sense:

‘Participation, in addition to its dictionary definition, has specific meanings in certain areas.

So it can incorporate decision making, benefit, multiplicity, sharing, and being involved in a virtual reality? If you really want, you can split it into Reading Participants, Posting Participants, Uploading Participants, Buying Participants. You can even have a past participle if it makes you happy!

I’d be interested to know if other people think it’s a change worth making, and whether it’s worth participating or not?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Successful websites need a tailored proposition

June 3, 2008 By 4 Comments

The most important element of a successful website isn’t the technology, the content, or the marketing. It’s having a clear and defined proposition which is understood by the entire team – and most importantly, by the users of the website.

I’d always been implicitly aware that the likes of Google, Ebay et al had a clear purpose upon which they’d built success, and yet I’m as guilty as anyone of putting the cart before the horse, and trying to fill something with content, and market it, without  ensuring that there was a clear proposition in place. That’s even true of this blog, which has evolved over time, but really began as a general internet/tech blog. Even now, posts like this are somewhat at odds with my main focus on community and social media marketing!

Anyhow, since moving from editorial to marketing, I’ve had the chance to see how much a clear proposition helps the titles I work with – much of it driven by great work by one of my colleagues, Charlie Watson. Suddenly there’s a clear purpose and drive which can be lacking, particularly on sites which have been going for some time without direction.

But it’s also important to remember that direction and proposition may need to change over time, and be adapted in response to your audience. And that was underlined by a great meeting with the Ditto team yesterday. I can’t say what’s changed quite yet, but I can say that I’m constantly impressed with the way they respond to their audience, whilst maintaining a clear focus and proposition.

I guess it great propositions boil down to:

  • Define a clear and simple aim for your site which differentiates itself from competitors, and aims to answer the needs of your audience.
  • Monitor how effective the proposition is, and be open to changing it. Noone has ever got it exactly right first time – but the biggest websites listened and evolved more quickly than their competitors.
  • Don’t be tempted to keep adding ‘and also this’ to the proposition. It needs to be so clear and simple you can convey it with one look at your homepage, or in a few words in ad advert or message board. Or even in a logo. You can’t do that if the proposition is 3 paragraphs long with an appendix! Google’s proposition is summed up by a logo and search box.

Oh, and if that does help you build the next big thing, my commission is around 10%!

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