Media

12
Jan
2016

Netflix In The UAE: The Verdict

This article was originally written for Lovin Dubai. Click here to read the full article.

So, as many of you might already know, Netflix finally became available seemingly without warning in the UAE last week. It’s been a long time coming, but at the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last Wednesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that the streaming service was rolling out simultaneously in more than 130 countries around the world and the UAE is thankfully one of those countries.

While many expats in the UAE use the service already through a VPN, an official launch gives viewers more options for using the service and finally lets us sign-up using UAE payment methods. After having the weekend to binge watch a host of shows we finally have a good idea about what the UAE version of the service offers content-wise.

Is it censored?

In short; no. One of the concerns that seemed to come up quite a lot on social media channels when the announcement was made was whether or not the content would face the same scrutiny from the censors as we tend to see with films that reach the cinema. We’re quite used to seeing chunks of movies being removed and many social commentators assumed that this would be the case with services like Netflix too.

From our experience over the weekend though, this certainly doesn’t seem to be the case. We’ve come across quite a few scenes that definitely wouldn’t see the light of day at the cinema if you know what we mean!

While it doesn’t appear that content has been specifically censored in the UAE, there is still the issue of regional licensing agreements that have resulted in certain content not appearing on the service in general outside of the USA. For example, as OSN have the rights to show House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black in the UAE, even though Netflix actually commissioned and produced these shows themselves, they can’t stream them on their own service in the UAE. Other shows like The Office, Suits, Dexter, Lost and Modern Family also don’t make the cut for the same reasons.

To read the full article, click here.

Posted by Rob in Dubai, Lovin Dubai, Media
05
Jan
2016

Virtual Reality and the future of Media & Entertainment

A version of this piece was originally written for Shane O’Leary’s Tracking ’16 Trends Report which was launched this week. You can download the full report here.

Virtual Reality, despite being an actual reality for quite a while, is still somewhat the stuff of science fiction for the average person on the street. All that might change over the next 12 months though.

In 2016, there will be some serious movement in the Virtual Reality (and Augmented Reality) space in terms of mainstream availability. The consumer versions of the Oculus Rift, HTC’s Vive, and PlayStation VR, among others, are all scheduled for release in the New Year. But more importantly, away from these pricey headsets, more affordable and thus more mainstream-friendly options are becoming available to let anyone with a smartphone experience the potential of what VR technology has to offer.

This past November, a collaboration between Google and The New York Times put cheap Google Cardboard VR headsets into the hands of over 1 Million people to facilitate a 360 degree documentary that The New York Times produced on the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Never before has basic VR technology been so widely distributed and so easily accessible to the general public.

From a publisher point of view, this is an area where large incumbents (like the New York Times mentioned above) can flex their muscles and use their resources to produce more powerful content via VR that smaller pretenders might find harder to create.

But with this technology more accessible than ever before, and content producers now starting to actually cater for it, what is really exciting is how different industries might take advantage of Virtual Reality to offer more immersive experiences to their audiences. Just think of the potential that cheap, mainstream VR availability could have on the actual media and entertainment that can be produced across everything from news, TV and movies, video games, and even areas like live music and sport.

Imagine being able to watch your favourite band play a festival half way around the world from the fan pit. Or experience the Champions League Final as if you were sitting in the front row right on the halfway line. All this from the comfort of your own sitting room (and without having to queue up for half the event to get a pint!).

In addition to large media and content publishers starting to cater for VR content, the barriers to this type of content creation itself are beginning to come crashing down, at least in terms of 360 degree video. Devices like the GoPro and Google camera rig collaboration will enable smaller publishers and agencies etc. to get in on the action too. And that’s even without taking into account user-generated content, something that is bound to grab people’s imaginations. With live streaming increasingly accessible and growing in popularity all the time through apps like Periscope, users’ appetite for this type of content, from both a consumption and creation point of view, should help propel the concept forward. Take the 360 degree video of the annual Grafton Street Christmas Eve charity concert from Bono and the lads below as an example of the possibilities (view it on a mobile device to get the gist of it or drag your cursor around the screen to manipulate the view if you’re on a laptop / desktop).

With VR slowly graduating from being a techy niche to scratching the surface of the mainstream, and with content producers finally starting to jump onboard, expect to see some really interesting examples of this over the next 12 months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFejk_J9ifQ

Posted by Rob in Media, Virtual Reality
14
Nov
2015

Activate’s Tech & Media Outlook for 2016

It might come in at a gruelling 136 slides, but this 2016 Tech & Media Outlook from consulting firm Activate at last month’s WSJ Live Conference is jam-packed with interesting stats, insights and projections for the future of technology, media and entertainment. It’s a bit of a slog if you’re trying to absorb all the information presented, but it’s well worth a skim through at least.

Posted by Rob in Media, Social Media, Tech
15
May
2015

Does It Matter Who ‘Owns’ Your Content?

This post originally appeared on the McCollins Media Blog

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years you’ll be aware of the massive push towards Content Marketing these days. Any company looking to compete online will be producing content of some sort; whether on social media, a company blog, email newsletters etc. in the hope of getting some exposure, and that exposure leading to a sale. And while there are many ways to push your content out into the world, owning your own content is the Holy Grail – that is, hosting it on your own site.

How people are directed to your site to view it is a contentious issue in itself, and where social media is concerned, it can be risky relying on Facebook & Co. for your traffic as they are constantly tweaking their algorithm to restrict the reach of posts from businesses, and forcing brands to pay for the privilege. With this in mind, more businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of controlling their own content and the relationships with their followers.

Facebook recently began to roll out a news hosting service that presents content from publishers such as the New York Times, NBC, BuzzFeed and the BBC directly in the Timeline. Basically, this means that Facebook owns that page view rather than the content publisher themselves. In a media landscape that is struggling to find ways to monetize, this is yet further fragmentation of the space.  Tinkering with native content – or as Facebook calls it, Instant Articles – is not much of a surprise for a platform that is so focused on pushing other people’s content, but it’s now clear that they  want a bigger piece of the publishing pie.

What does this mean for brands though? Well, not much just yet unless you are one of the publishers handing over your content to Facebook. But if anything, this has set a precedent with Facebook clearly wanting to get into the content hosting space. Not just sharing links anymore, but presenting the content directly itself. With this in mind, it’s not a stretch to imagine Facebook soon rolling out a company blog-style service similar to LinkedIn Pulse, and trying to move even more of the brand-customer relationship to it’s platform.

I’ve heard some people raise concerns lately over rescinding more control to Facebook when it comes to managing their relationships with customers. But is this really something to be worried about? For your typical SME, I would argue no. Sure, Facebook acting as a gatekeeper to your followers is not ideal, but when it comes to content, the more channels of distribution there are, the more chance of exposure for your brand.

This addresses the age-old challenge of discovery. If you only host your content on your own website, it exists in a vacuum. But if you also put it up on other channels (e.g. LinkedIn Pulse, Medium etc.) and possibly a new Facebook hosting platform, it has more of a chance to gain some traction and have a further reach. Get it out there. This post itself is up on three different platforms. While that might be frowned upon when it comes to SEO, your content shouldn’t be a slave to an algorithm, it should try to make a connection with people.

Brands are understandably sceptical about relinquishing yet more power to Facebook, but when it comes to channels for your content to prosper on – the more the merrier! A successful blogging platform on Facebook could actually encourage a whole new generation of content creators, and revolutionize brand story-telling in the process.

Posted by Rob in Facebook, Media
01
Jan
2015

Some thoughts on tech and digital for 2015

I was delighted to take part in the Irish Digital Outlook 2015 released this week. This is my contribution to Shane O’Leary’s annual digital trend forecast. Download it here.

Digital / Social Marketing

So much has been said about the collapse of Facebook’s organic reach for brand posts over the last 12 months, but I think most clients are still unaware of what this means for their brand. Either that or they’re in denial. I think that 2015 will be the year that SMEs are finally forced into looking at Facebook for what it now is, a paid marketing tool.

By still seeing it solely as a free communication platform, not only are brands largely wasting their time and effort, but they are ignoring the potential of using the platform as a great way of running well-targeted, cost-effective digital ad campaigns.

Hopefully brands will also start considering the potential of moving some of their customer engagement from social channels to their own websites, where they are the ones ultimately in control of the relationship. The benefits of creating a space where customers can interact with a brand on their own site, not to mention the possibilities of owning their own customer data and using that via email and mobile, will hopefully become more obvious.

Video Advertising

Video advertising will continue to grow in popularity and will become more and more accessible to smaller brands. Expect to see smaller agencies beef up there video production capabilities, and some larger agencies maybe even distinguishing their video production service from the rest of their operation to differentiate between the quick-to-turnaround videos made for social, and more high-end TV quality videos that could be sold as a standalone service. Also, expect Facebook’s amped up video function to steal some of YouTube’s thunder.

Tech / Mobile Platforms

There’ll continue to be a lot more experimentation from the big players in the tech / mobile space, capitalising on their resources and user base. Uber for example are testing out a courier service as well as offering lunch and grocery deliveries in some markets. Most of these types of platforms are still finding out the different ways they can improve users’ lives and what’s actually within their range of capability. In the same vein, I imagine that we’ll continue to see a lot more moon-shot projects from the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon to add to the self-driving car, virtual reality and drone projects we saw in 2014 respectively.

In a music sense, Spotify will have to fend off a new streaming service from YouTube, and expect to see a revamp of iTunes as well, more than likely integrating the Beats Music streaming platform in some form, with a fresh emphasis on visuals and premium content.

Apple Pay will roll out globally and hopefully paying for goods with your smartphone will at least start finding some mainstream adoption. Hopefully we’ll see an Android NFC alternative too.

Mobile Hardware

From a handset point of view, it looks like it’ll be a tough year for Samsung. The Korean giants are being squeezed from both the high and low end with Apple introducing larger screens and making their OS more flexible, and a host of decent quality Chinese Android manufacturers launching their models in the West. Expect to see decent spec Android devices from the likes of Xiaomi and OnePlus on sale for as low as €300. That’ll give some people a tough decision over whether they really need to be shelling out upwards of €700 or tied to a mortgage-like contract with the latest iPhone.

Wearables & the Internet of Things

From a Wearables point of view, I’m not sure we’ll see too many things that break away from the niche / novelty realm. Apple Watch is due in the Spring but I really don’t see too much potential in the smartwatch space in its current form. As long as a smartwatch still needs to be connected to a smartphone to work, it’s nothing more than an accessory.

What I’m much more interested in however, are iBeacons and ‘Nearables’, sensors that interact with the smartphones we carry, as opposed to sensors that we wear. There’s a whole host of interesting players in this space and I really hope we start seeing some real world examples of this type of technology in a retail capacity. The potential there is huge.

Posted by Rob in Marketing, Media, Mobile