Quick Update

Being a small-ish business that's just bought another small business, our second acquisition in 18 months, we fell to talking about business development, or marketing (it's usually the same thing when you're an SME). There's blogs and tweets of course, we have offices in the UAE, Beijing, Moscow so we can get the word out in new countries, and we will e-contact all our existing and recent past clients. There's trade papers. There are online sector-specific newsletters (I can never find us in them so I have little faith that possible clients do). Google ad words are good and we have had some quantifiable success there.

Then someone suggested trade shows. I've always hated trade shows. I loathe the over-heated, over-stuffy, over-badged, over-boothed plastic blandness of it all. Cellophane-wrapped peppermints in bowls and tiny biro pens. I'm not talking necessarily about media shows. At least they have big TV screens and fancy cameras, and the better ones have debates or keynote speeches.I went to a railway show once in Berlin. No speeches but huge locomotives on special tracks in the convention centre. White sausages and beer being scoffed by large train executives from all over the world. I have been to a bus show in Birmingham with huge clean blue buses and silver coaches, and acres of safety CCTV demonstrating how the whole journey could be recorded and linked, in real time. You could torture people by making them watch a bus journey in real time on CCTV. I'd start with the 134. I went to a holiday industry show which managed to deglam and defun everything to do with travel. Local government shows, yes, there are dozens of them. Health. And Safety. IT of every hue. Textiles. Dyeing. Dying.

That is the trade show story - they're dying. B2B trade show revenues in the US were down 6.4 per cent in 2010, according to American Business Media. Two years ago Apple said it would stop going to the Mac show. A bit like the headmaster saying he's not going to turn up at school. Spending on shows down too. It's the things I mentioned first - Google, blogs, tweets - that are killing them, along with recession. But like the desk phone and the lawyer who won't action a contract without a hard copy, and the bank that takes three days to move money from your account to someone else's, they're not dead yet. They'll just become emptier and more depressing.

The best ones will become conferences. The others will go online. We'll stick to the Google ad words. And pass on the peppermints.

Quick Update

We were watching a couple of corporates in the office. One was created about four years ago and the other was current. Corporate comms have changed more quickly than broadcast TV. The obvious style changes of course, music that's more modern, editing style tighter, shooting a bit more fluid, more attention to consistent branding, on the whole a sharper but more informal feel. The older one felt staid, dull, suited. Clients often insist on dull suits to do the talking but they're learning...Graphics - light years of change. We're doing things in the office that would have been beyond the dreams of anyone but the biggest blue chips half a decade ago.

But none of that's the key thing. Now, who would dream of doing corporates without offering social networking of all kinds? It goes without saying you throw up a special website (we used to think that could be a separate business), Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, tweets, text updates, outdoor (we used to think that was a separate business too). And you offer all the standard metrics and target the messages. And allow the thing to take on a life of its own. That still scares some clients.

So what's next? We offer 3D on everything now. But the thing that's barely off the blocks yet is location-specific apps. (oh yes we used to think that was a separate business too). That's where broadcasters and corporates are in a race. News broadcasters are increasingly adopting a mobile-first approach to their workflows; consumer brands are unlocking the potential of location-based mobile from the till and shelf up to the roadside hoardings. The main challenge for both of them is to get my son off Angry Birds.

Back to the vids - the other difference is the voice-over. Received Pronunciation went a bit more Estuarial. Mild glottal stops and flattened vowels. Even with the stiffest clients. You can't do social networking with a Home Service accent. Voice trainers and presentation coaches take note. We definitely used to think that was a separate business...   

At the Big Media Forum in the Middle East, all talk and schmooz and designer hotel. The usual 80-20 rule applies - only 20 percent of the people are worth talking to, for only 20 percent of the time, which means that 80 percent of the time is spent on vacuous pleasantries and expensive coffee. There is a benefit in that, because it's unusual to get 20 percent of the people you want to talk to, in the same place, prepared to talk to you, and especially so if you are a small media business instead of a named Big One with a proper business card title. So in theory you can save 80 percent of the time you'd spend travelling between meetings and pitches, hotels, meals, etc., and use it to catch up on the follow-up emails and action points. Or family time. Or go for a run. It's a nice spring day and the flight home is tomorrow. Prepaid with no flexibility. Hah.