Chris Dalrymple - blog

Think Visibility conference - cheap and northern*

2008-12-30T10:27:00.006Z

DaveN recently blogged about Think Visiblity, a new mini SEO/SEM/digital conference being held in Leeds on the 7th March which looks pretty good.

Dave himself will be speaking, as well as a few other notables, including some who spoke at the far more pricey A4U Expo this year.

My ticket's bought already and I'd recommend if fancy attending you do the same sharpish - they're only allowing 100 attendees and rumours are there are less then 30 tickets left. See you there.

_{*Well, £30 and in Leeds - see what I did there?}

Why I (almost) don't feel bad about blogging on Christmas Day

2008-12-25T16:25:00.003Z

Come on, you're all doing it. Admit it.

Affiliate marketing still low in marketers priorities

2008-12-21T19:51:00.003Z

Just read a post by Lee McCoy highlighting a report by Epsilon. It shows where marketers are (or aren't) likely to cut advertising spend if they have to and it's not good reading for affiliates.

Unsurprisingly CMOs are more likely to cut directories, radio, magazine and telemarketing which is understandable - cut spend you can't track and keep the spend you can.

However somewhat strangely (and worryingly) affiliate marketing seems to be pretty far down the list of those to keep, after Direct Mail, TV and online display.

Why cut a marketing channel which guarantees returns at a predictable rate in favour of above the line spend? I supect a few reasons come into play:

- Lack of understanding, especially in the upper echelons of marketing - affiliate marketing is still pretty unknown to a great deal of marketers, whereas SEM has managed to establish itself. I've spent many a meeting trying to explain exactly how affiliates work to exec-level marketers with mixed results.

- Belief that the sales aren't incremental - and this links to the third point, but there's still an underlying belief that these sales would have come naturally if the affiliates hadn't referred them.

- And finally, and this is the biggy, inability to de-dupe from other sales - It's the old referrer attribution issue again. Where do affiliates sit in the referrer process? Do search affiliates cannibalise SEO and PPC sales?

There's no easy solution to this - it will be helped by better technology and better awareness, but until there's more buy-in from senior markers into the channel there will always have an impact on affiliate and merchant relationships, and problems like this one.

The perils of affiliates and voucher codes

2008-12-16T20:01:00.002Z

Figleaves aren't having much luck with their affiliate campaign at the moment.

Seems that someone at figleaves HQ has decided to kill comission rates and cookie periods at very short notice after a sudden realisation that the majority of affiliates sending voucher code-wielding customers probably isn't profitable.

In this climate customers are hungry for voucher codes so merchants need to be careful that theirs don't go viral (if they don't want them to), especially after commissions, shipping and othe acquisition costs are taken out.

The most important lesson? Don't piss off your affiliates before your most important trading dates of the year. Unless that is you're planning on closing the programme altogether?...

SeaDragon on the iPhone

2008-12-15T19:32:00.004Z

Much blogged elsewhere, but what the hell, Microsoft launches SeaDragon iPhone app - the nifty tool which allows you to view gig-pixel images on any device, without biblically long load times.

And it's rather nice too - with a 3G connection it's amazingly smooth at displaying images and the all important zooming in and out. There's something very satisfying about being able to zoom so close, so quickly and it's a great fit for the iPhone's multi touch interface.

Unfortunately the browse PhotoSynth function isn't working so we have that to look forward to but hey, it's free right?

If you've not seen the original TED presentation of SeaDragon and PhotoSynth (PhotoSynth is particularly impressive), it's worth watching, and the app is free from the iTunes store:

Cdiscount.co.uk launches

2008-12-15T14:25:00.003Z

Cdiscount.co.uk launched last week after a few delays and it has the potential to cause waves in UK online retail.

Owned by the French retail giant Groupe Casino, Cdiscount was initially promising massive discounts over the likes of Amazion and DSG group.

Looking at the site, the prices seem to be comparible to other retailers (although they are offering 15% cashback), however what does stand out is the interest free credit available on the site.

Items over £75 qualify for '3discount', the option to pay in 3 installments interest free, and without a credit check. Given no other big retailer is currently offering this, and it makes a Sony Viao available for just £133.33 a month I suspect this may be a clincher for customers once it becomes more well known, especially as it seems to avoid the need for a credit check.

One to watch...

eConsultancy relaunch site

2008-12-15T13:39:00.001Z

eConsultancy have relaunched their site over the weekend, and rather spiffy it looks too.

As well as a much clearer design and layout, the site has pushed focus towards user profiles, encouraging visitors to update their account information using a 'your profile is X% complete' status on the front page - similar to that used by LinkedIn.

End result? My profile is now fully up to date, complete with dodgy picture. Works, then.

Back to the big smoke

2008-09-16T07:19:00.002Z

I'm currently sat on the 0720 from Leeds to London King's Cross on my way to The Search Sessions at Vinopolis.

In the vain hope that I might actually write up some of the notes that I'll take during the day and publish them here I thought I'd take advantage of the cripplingly slow wifi to prime the blog ready for an uncharacteristic update.

Listening to the wonderful Laura Marling and wishing I had green tea - the expolits of the weekend and two day hangover that followed have meant that green tea rather than beer is the preferred beverage.

It won't last.

Come on ad agencies, get some originality.

2008-06-04T19:48:00.003Z

Another example of ad execs not looking very far for their next idea, the brilliant Flight of the Conchords seem to have been ripped off by Coors Beer.

bears more than a little resemblance to:

But sadly it's not exactly uncommon. See Sugar Puffs vs Mighty Boosh, Pot Noodle vs Lazy Sunday and Sony vs Kozyndan.

I admit, it's always going to be difficult to come up with something genuinely new (see Copyblogger's latest post), but despite the fact that there are still some stunning , effective ads around.

The easy route is of course to borrow something cool from the internets that will appeal to the yoof market. But I'd suggest though that the longevity of something truly original will be a lot longer than something nicked off YouTube.

Internet World 2008 - random snippets

2008-05-05T20:59:00.007Z

So last week I popped down to the big smoke for Internet World, a online/media/marketing type trade show with seminars from a range of people from the BBC to Microsoft to Mozilla.

What was interesting was the general 'noob' vibe around the place (punter-wise at least). Not that I claim to be a veteran of online marketing, but there were huge crowds around the 'older' online seminars - Google University, basic SEO, PPC etc. Conversely, there seemed to be a lack of interest in the newer side - 'web 3.0' stuff like virtual worlds, in-game advertising etc.

Anyway, clientele aside, I took a few random (being the operative word - this is by no means a complete summary) snippets from the various seminars which I thought note-worthy.

> Mobile - Interesting talk from BBC Worldwide. Only 22% of UK mobile users have 3G. Google the most visited website through mobile in the UK, followed by the BBC and O2's mobile portal - simple, information driven content.

> Virtual Worlds - 80% of Internet users are expected to have virtual world self within the next 4 years (not sure of the source of that stat - slightly dubious myself). This being the way people will predominantly interact online in the future, including for ecommerce.

> Viral Marketing - Many commented on the difficulties of getting sufficient momentum for Viral. The key being the core proposition or product has to be rock solid and something the customer would ordinarily forward/talk about anyway (see the Dyson AirBlade). The value agencies then add is the delivery mechanism and 'packaging' of this idea to ensure it is passed along. 'Fun games' don't work any more and distribution costs need to be comparable to the creative costs to gain sufficient momentum.

> Presentation from Thomson.co.uk - currently the highest trafficked travel agent online. In general there is a 20% year-on-year movement from offline to online holiday transactions.

> They've made a huge investment in technology and agencies - WebCredible and FoolProof for Usability/User testing, IntelliTracker/Visual Sciences for Analytics. Lots of A/B and MultiVariate testing and a huge focus on removing obstacles to conversion. They use Tealeaf (http://tealeaf.com) for real time analysis of customer activity.

I realise this is a pretty random assortment of snippets - I might flesh it out a little more if I get chance. However the really interesting one for me was Virtual Worlds - Justin Bovington, from Rivers Run Red, Ed Bartlett from IGA and Phil Guest from Habbo Hotel did a great job of debating the ins and outs of virtual worlds, raising some interesting points along the way. I'll try to blog that fully over the next couple of weeks...

More complete write-ups can be found here and here.

This might be the geekiest thing I have ever seen.

2008-03-29T21:37:00.005Z

"Each of Mozilla's conference rooms is named after a deprecated HTML tag". Brilliant.

These noobs sure do browse funny.

2008-03-26T11:56:00.003Z

Great blog post from Cabel.name about adverts in Japan using search suggestions instead of URLs to guide people to websites.

The main reason is seems is the difficulties of using the internet with both Japanese and Latin alphabets - searching in Google means not having to switch keyboards. It also makes life easier when so many Japanese use the web via mobile.

However there's still lessons for UK marketers - a surprisingly high number of people never input URLs into the address bar: they either search for the keyword in Google, or better still search for the full URL in Google.

In fact, more people search for 'hotmail' in Google than search for 'DVD'.

The only problem is, once you've decided to publish a 'search for...' how do you make sure you always stay top?..

Sleeveface!

2008-01-24T21:20:00.000Z

The internet makes you stupid.

2008-01-24T20:25:00.001Z

Well actually, it doesn't. It just records all the stupid things you do. Interesting article from the BBC about the perils of online paper trails, especially if you're just about to enter the big wide world of employment.

The inability to delete your emo-tastic MySpace profile aside (ever heard of privacy settings?), it's definitely something people should think more about - especially if you've spent your formative years as an online AOL 12 Y3AR OLD SCRIPT KIDEI LOLZ!.

On a few occasions before meetings or job interviews people have asked me about my blog (hello if you're doing pre-meeting research). Because of this I'm very aware of what I write which might incriminate me later, but to a certain extent I just have to live with it - I'm sure any determined Googler could find something untoward if they looked hard enough.

However so long as you're sensible with your privacy settings, use an alias if you want to spill salacious gossip about your colleagues on a public message board and be careful who tags photos of you dressed like a fairy on facebook, you should be fine.

Just popping by...

2008-01-23T22:45:00.000Z

Little chance for blogging at the moment due to a dizzyingly busy couple of weeks at work, however just enough time to say, this is almost stupidly pretty, however it is also stupidly expensive, and this place makes rather nice wine.

First new gadget of the year!

2008-01-06T20:43:00.000Z

Panasonic Lumix DMC LX2, with snazzy 16:9 aspect ratio and 10.2 lovely Megapixels. Initial results can been seen here. First impressions are very good - nice auto mode, lots of settings to play with and a shutter speed of up to 60 seconds. Much playing to be done.

WhizzGoing around Leeds

2007-12-17T20:08:00.000Z

Recently my trusty Audi Quattro failed it's MOT rather spectacularly, resulting in it now being sat, rusting in a friend's driveway.

Because I live in the middle of a city and walk to work a car isn't strictly necessary. However it's always useful to be able to get out and about when I need to. Step in WhizzGo, 'pay as you go' car rental company. They have cars parked across Leeds (and a few other UK cities) which you can book online and access by pressing a swipe card on the screen which unlocks the car.

Cars are charged by the hour (About £4.70 including petrol) with up to 60 hours a day free. There's a range of cars available - all Citroens - and you get a free, warm, fuzzy feeling knowing you're helping to take a car off the road (or at least leave one abandoned on a mate's driveway), plus it could work out lots cheaper than owning a car even if you use it regularly.

I've used the cars a few times and apart from one instance the cars are clean and parked where you expect them. No MOTs, no repair bills, no insurance costs. This is how car ownership should be.

A mini iPhone review. Because there haven't been enough of them already.

2007-12-02T11:52:00.000Z

The large gaping hole in my bank balance is testament to one thing - I caved (very early) and bought an iPhone.

Partly I blame my new-found Mac fandom, partly Mr Stephen Fry, and partly because it's just so gosh damn pretty.

So, I've had the thing for nearly 1 month now, and I think the best summary is from Mr Fry's blog - 'Not sensible, but, oh the joy of it!'. The thing is just so good to use. It's been said many times before, but it's a thing of beauty. Using it is easy. And despite the fact no mobile phone is worth £895 or however much it's going to end up costing me, it nearly seems worth it.

A few things that are good/bad:

Email doesn't do the auto portrate landscape switch thingy like safari does
Gmail isn't as good as it should be, but with Gmail IMAP support (which I'm still waiting for on my account) it should improve.
2.5G is slow (but you already knew that). However it is bearable.
Safari is great. Really intuitive to use, and it's great to have the full internet on your phone.
The camera is actually ok, and I've been happily using it to blog with.
It's meant I've been able to leave my laptop at home when I just needed a web connection and email.
The phone part is easy to use - in fact in some ways easier to use than my SE K800.
The battery life is excellent, despite initial worries.
I really love using it.
It's a pain putting in WEP keys when you want to connect to a secure wifi network, especially without copy and paste.
The keyboard learns very quickly, and I'm now nearly as quick as on my SE.
It needs to be opened up to 3rd parties (but again, you already knew that).
Ringtones are stupid. Really stupid - I can't upload my own and I can't find any to buy if I was that way inclined.
It's great to use... etc...

Overall as a piece of hardware, the iPhone really is nothing special (shininess aside). Spec wise it's actually not that much of an improvement on my old O2 XDA IIi (Wifi - check. Touch screen - check. Not 3G - Check). But it's the software that's really special. That's what makes it such a beautiful device to use. And it's also (hopefully) what they can improve with firmware updates, and opening up to third parties (coming in Feb). Go on Apple. You know you want to.

Extreme Caterpillar, or Jason Bradbury's guide to Success on Youtube

2007-12-02T11:03:00.000Z

Jason Bradbury, him of Gadget Show fame, recently did an experiment in viral marketing which is useful for anyone looking to try something similar.

Jason has the advantage that he is a 'Famous', but there are good tips in there for us mere marketing mortals.

The whole thing came about as part of a Gadget Show challenge to get as many hits to some viral content as possible, and whilst co-presenter Suzi Perry went down the 'taking your clothes off' route with a Tamba Internet doing most of the hard work for her, Jason decided to caterpillar in garish 80s getup around London. You can see the results below:

Rather handily, Jason's put together a few posts giving some useful hints as to how to be successful on YouTube: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5.

Bella Hardy gets nominated for the Folk Awards!

2007-11-21T23:11:00.000Z

Fantastic news this evening, my seemingly-more-talented-each-day girlfriend Bella Hardy, has been nominated for 2 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

She's picked up nominations for the Horizon award and for Best Original Song, which is fantastic. Fingers crossed for February!

Flight of the Conchords - I thought I knew them from somewhere..

2007-10-29T23:53:00.000Z

I'm becoming mildly obsessed lately with Flight of the Conchords, New Zealand's fourth most popular Folk duo, who currently have a series on BBC Four.

It's taken me a good while however to remember that they did a Phones4U advert in 2004. Which I remember liking lots (and was far superior to the new 'Scary Mary' adverts IMHO) and shows that not all advertisers just jump on cult bandwagons ;-)

If you've not already had the pleasure, I suggest you catch up on YouTube, and watch them on Tuesday nights on BBC Four.

It's business time.

The Archers goes iPod

2007-10-15T21:09:00.000Z

Radio 4's The Archers, already the most popular programme on the BBC's 'Listen again' player, is to become available via PodCast.

It's another good move by the BBC, but still frustrating given the iMP is still going to be using DRM and isn't compatible on Mac as yet...

Chinese vs German Culture in graphical form

2007-10-14T22:15:00.000Z

There's something very satisfying about these graphical representations showing the differences between German (blue) and Chinese (red) culture by Yang Liu.

Crowds

Punctuality

Found via Adino Online, and possibly BoingBoing, but I've lost the original source...

Unpredictable Porridge - John Peel meets Web 2.0

2007-10-11T14:25:00.004Z

Kinda like Digg but for unsigned bands and artists, Unpredictable Porridge has just launched, and is fronted by John Peel's son Tom Ravenscroft.

We hope to attract bands and artists making all kinds of music, whose likeliest chance of exposure in previous years would have been sending a demo tape or CD to John Peel, my dad. In his absence, we hope to be the first place you'll send in something you feel we all need to hear.

William Ravenscroft.

I admit I have a slight ulterior motive for blogging about this (besides the fact it's really quite cool) - my rather talented girlfriend has just added a page. Go listen and get voting! ;-)

Vote now for
bella hardy

What would Stephen Fry do?

2007-10-07T17:38:00.000Z

I was reminded by someone this week that I actually do have a blog, so I thought it might well be a good idea to remind the interwebs too. Wait for it people, here's a long overdue blog post.

Rather excitingly, Stephen Fry has started a blog. His first post demonstrates the fanatical level of geekery he has for Smart Phones/PDAs etc, and has cast me into utter confusions as to which phone to get next - I was thinking of shunning the iPhone in favour of the far more sensible Sony Ericsson P1i but reviews don't get too much more damning than

Just bugger off Sony Ericsson, you’ve lost my respect. You’ve had thousands of pounds out of me in the past. But stick to student mobile phones called Kxxx with crap silly little jukeboxes on them, SmartPhones are out of your league.

So, despite the crap camera, lack of 3G and picture messaging, the iPhone it might just be.

Alternatively, I could just embrace my inner luddite and get myself a pocket mod.