The Trouble With Big Cities

Although I live in London, I spend a lot of time with my Mum in the city where I grew up. I say city, but Worcester is actually very small when it comes to town and city sizes. And it's a long way from anywhere. It's quicker for me to fly to Barcelona than it is to visit my Mum. Worcester suffers on the GWR Hereford to London line as part of the route is single track through the Cotswolds. I read somewhere that the train journey takes longer now than it did in the days of steam trains. There are local buses, but you really need to understand the timetables as most services are not very frequent and don't run every day and don't have services after 5pm. How you are supposed to use those buses to get to or from work, I really don't know! And let's not talk about the local motorway traffic which seems to get more congested year on year.

As a city, Worcester seems to be suffering from lack of job and career prospects, especially for young people, despite being home to a large university. It's a nice enough place to live with beautiful countryside nearby, a river running through it, a sizeable Marks & Spencer in the High Street and some lovely places to eat and drink. But that's the trouble, the new job opportunities in the city are all hinged on retail and catering jobs. Gone are the days of the big employers like Kays Catalogue, Dents Gloves, Cinderella Shoes, Worcester Royal Porcelain and Metalbox. Maybe, it was like this back in the 1980s when I left school. The majority of my generation left Worcester at the earliest opportunity. A few stayed, but they could be counted on the fingers of one hand. A lot of us left for London. I certainly did and I wasn't alone.

I'd love to see an innovation space in Worcester - in the city centre - showcasing young retail and creative talent and giving them the opportunity to try out their ideas in the city and providing a business hub. I've always thought the old Corn Exchange would make a great space for that. It has been lying empty for so long with a string of failed restaurants behind it, yet it's in a central  location in an interesting and historical building. Or failing that, the Angel restaurant could be reverted back to a market hall but focused on new retailers and have a mix of small office and retail units. I'm heartened to find out that there is an organisation who have similar desires called The Kiln. I'm interested to see what they come up with and wish them every success.

I mentioned all this in passing in a conversation I had with friend and retail expert, Eva Pascoe, and she was telling me that the network effect of new technology was boosting cities and was keeping smaller towns and cities down. It's not something I'd really heard before but it made sense. This article, 'The problem with London Guilt' explains how that works in more detail and why London has become so dominant over other British cities over the years.

I'm not sure where that leaves places like Worcester but it makes for interesting reading to understand the dynamics we're living in right now and why the focus is on 'smart cities' rather than 'smart towns' or 'smart villages'.

I welcome your thoughts and comments on the topic.

Did you know about e-sports?

I certainly didn't think much about it. I vaguely knew that there were competitions for some of the bigger computer games but it didn't really cross my mind to think about it much. Until the last few weeks, that is.

I mentor a couple of Masters students from the University of Westminster every year. It's where I studied as a mature student and this is my small contribution towards giving back to the university. This year, one of the students I'm mentoring is a massive e-sports fan so we've been talking about it a lot. Coincidentally, the BBC has just shown a fantastic documentary about e-sports, The Supergamers, which you can catch on the iPlayer for the next 4 weeks. They also have a brilliant primer, in case you were wondering about it.

Did you know that 10s of 1000s of people attend live games and millions watch from the comfort of their own screens? - yes, they're watching teams of people play a computer game.
Did you know there were salaried professional players?
Did you know that the prize funds can run into tens of millions of £?

This is big business.

There's something that feels instinctively wrong about (mostly) young people devoting their time and energy to what boils down to pressing buttons on a computer screen. Of course there are cognitive skills involved. Many of these games involve strategy decisions and being able to work in a team. Your reaction speed is critical (and this reduces as you age) and your career could be over by the time you're 22.

And how can this be considered a sport? I mean there's no physical activity, is there? Arguably, your brain power and reaction speed will be enhanced if you're also physically fit. But it appears that many of the professional players are just like other teenagers and live on junk food, sleep in late and don't do much in the way of getting outside in the fresh air to exercise, preferring instead to slump in front of the TV or a computer screen.

It got me thinking about why I value, say, playing rugby as being a 'better' activity than being the best at League of Legends? What makes it better (or not)? It's arguably healthier to be outside in the fresh air and the physical movement is a good thing about playing rugby. But there are risks of being physically damaged - broken noses and cauliflower ears are common features of rugby players. And in both activities, players need to spend hours and hours of their time devoted to playing, practicing and analysing their performance in order to improve for next time. Is it a better use of your time to hone your rugby, football or netball skills as against honing your computer gaming skills?

It also got me wondering what the role of mobile devices might be in all of this. In terms of fan engagement during tournaments, I'm sure there's a lot of scope. The vibe and scale of these tournaments feels like a cross between a gladiator fight in a Roman Amphitheatre and a Premiership football match. The emotion of the fans is very real.

If you dig a little deeper into e-sports, you'll see that it's growing at phenomenal speed and that it's now a multi-billion $ industry so it isn't going away anytime soon. I wonder how soon it will before some of the e-sports teams and tournaments will become household names as familiar as Manchester United or the Boston Red Sox?

(File under 'stuff young people do but I don't really understand yet'. See also How to Snapchat like a teen.)

Youth App Consumption

An interesting word cloud from Michael Acton Smith of Moshi Monsters fame. What is your favourite app? Word cloud showing how kids answered (March 2014)

Source: https://www.facebook.com/helenkeegan/posts/10152307388677457

Sharpcards secures deal with T-Mobile UK

Sharpcards has just announced its agreement with T-Mobile in the UK to embed its EMMA system (that's Enhanced Mobile Messaging Application to you and me) on certain of T-Mobile's handsets in the UK. This is to create a better MMS messaging experience for T-Mobile customers.

"Under terms of the three-year agreement, EMMA will be embedded within the messaging menu of the specific handsets. EMMA allows T-Mobile customers to send high quality ecards as easy as sending a text message, by putting the service right in front of the customer at a time when they're texting.

Ecards are designed as an imaginative was to send picture messages – fun and flirty animations for everyday sending, from the world's top brands.

EMMA comes in both Java and Symbian and is a fully integrated part of the handset software that requires no further installation by the customer. Content is continually updated and the customer does not pay a data fee to access the ecards."

T-Mobile in the UK, happens to be the cheapest MMS provider (as far as I know at least) at just 20p a message. And this represents very good value. The idea behind including the EMMA system, means that customers can access sophisticated mobile content such as animations and include that in their MMS messages. There's a one-off fee of 75p for the animation you choose, but once downloaded to your phone, you can use it as many times as you like.

I encourage ways to help normobs increase their usage of more sophisticated aspects of their phones and this is a great start. My only question is the pricepoint... is 75p too much for the average teenager (for I'm guessing it will be teenagers who might drive this) for something like this? I suspect once the service has gained some traction and is out there on a selection of handsets in the market that we'll see some ad-funded models emerging or specific sponsored content... I can already visualise Coca-Cola traditional Christmas animations and Love Hearts at Valentine's Day. I do hope so, as I think it will be at that point that this will really take off and could be an interesting spin on mobile marketing.

Technorati Tags: messaging,MMS,T-Mobile,animation,graphics,wallpapers,mobile content,mobile marketing

Tuesday tidbits

Such a lovely afternoon here in London town and yet, I'm sat behind a keyboard instead of supping something chilled and sparkling in the sunshine by the river. Hey ho!

Since I am sat at a keyboard, I thought I'd share some links with you of interesting stuff I've been looking at recently.

What young people think of the Iphone

They're smart these youngsters. They can appreciate good design, but also understand features and benefits. And they're clearly not all Apple fanboys and fangirls. SMSTextNews has a youthful roving reporter who's been asking his mates what they think of the Iphone. Isaah, 15, first did this back in November last year. And he has revisited his pals and got them to actually play with an Iphone and tell us what they think. His friends have mixed feelings about it - some don't like that it doesn't have buttons, for others the camera is important and not good enough on the Iphone. For others, they think it's 'wicked man'. We all know you can't please all of the people all of the time. Worth a look for the genuine comments. Next time Issah, can you record it so we can hear the comments please?

I love Blykwatch on SMSTextNews. Ricky, SMSTextNews' resident Blyk Watcher, has given us an update today with the lowdown on the marketing messages received, some comments about customer service and thoughts on data usage and mobile internet. All really good stuff and well worth a read. Oh, and for those of you who don't know, Blyk is the free mobile network aimed at 16 to 24 year olds and it's ad-funded. If you're interested in some of the detail of their campaigns, then look no further than their media site. And for some further customer insight, it might be worth checking out the Blyk customer forums.

Dizzler Rocks!

No really, it does. Dizzler is a free downloadable application allows users to search online and play free music, videos, games, and radio stations on their desktop or mobile device. I've just been playing with it online, and aside from the fact that I haven't been able to update my profile, the music playing bit of it has been working extremely well and there's a very comprehensive back catalogue available.

And while we're at it, twitter rocks too because that's how I heard about it from my network of twitter pals. MobileMaggie was twittering thanks to Freecloud for alerting her to Dizzler. So I took up the beacon and checked it out too and in turn shared the Dizzler love with J_Mac who wrote about it here.

Youth and digital life - what's really going on?

MTV, Nickelodeon and Microsoft have jointly prepared an in-depth study of 18,000 or so young people globally to find out how they're spending their digital lives. And there are some interesting findings, including:

Mobile usage:
Indian youth are most likely to see mobile phones as a status symbol and globally, under the age of 14, kids generally use the phone as a toy. After 14, the mobile phone quickly becomes a means of self-expression and communication.

68% of 8-14 respondents said they felt safer having their mobile phones with them outside the home, rising to 81% in the UK, and 71% said their parents use the phone to find out where they are.

Digital life:
Globally, the average young person connected to digital technology has 94 phone numbers in his or her mobile phone, 78 people on a messenger buddy list and 86 people in his or her social networking community.

Yet despite their technological immersion, digi-kids are not geeks

• 59% of 8-14 year-old kids still prefer their TV to their PCs
• Just 20% of 14-24 year-old young people globally admitted to being "interested" in technology.
  

They are, (as anyone who's ever watched a teenager at work), expert multi-taskers and able to filter different channels of information.

Kids and young people don't love the technology itself

• they just love how it enables them to communicate all the time, express themselves and be entertained.
• Digital communications such as IM, email, social networking sites and mobile/sms are complementary to, not competitive with, TV. TV is part of young peoples' digital conversation.
• Despite the remarkable advances in communication technology, kid and youth culture looks surprisingly familiar, with almost all young people using technology to enhance rather than replace face-to-face interaction.

What's happening in China?
China has lower mobile usage amongst young people, a less-evolved print media market and a family life of no siblings with parents and multiple grandparents. As a result, the internet provides a rare opportunity for only (and lonely) children to reach out and communicate using social networks, blogs and instant messaging. In stark contrast to their Japanese peers, 93% of Chinese respondents aged 8-14 have more than one friend online they have never met face to face.

"Chinese kids inhabit a world very different from their parents, and because of that they would rather find advice and support through their friends than through family," said Colleen Fahey Rush, Executive Vice President of Research for MTV Networks. Amongst 8-14s globally, only in China was TV not the No. 1 choice. "This is encouraging 8-14-year-olds in China to select online over TV, a trend not witnessed in any other market," she said.

Typical activities haven't changed much
For kids (8 to 14 year olds), they may be immersed in tech from the day they were born, but the things they enjoy doing most are:

• 85% watching TV
• 70% listening to music
• 68% hanging out with friends
• 67% playing video games
• 51% spending time online

As they grow into teens so the ranking of their favorite pastimes change. At the top of the list of 14- 24s favorite pastimes is

• 70% listening to music
• 65% watching TV
• 65% hanging out with friends
• 60% watching DVDs
• 60% relaxing
• 59% going to cinema
• 56% spending time online
• 55% spending time with girl or boyfriend
• 53% eating
• 49% hanging out at home

"There is a powerful link between TV and the Internet, especially for 14- 24s. TV is watched to relieve stress. Sixty percent said they watched most of their TV lying down. But the Internet is cognitive and active, especially if young people are using it for studying or social situations," said Fahey Rush.

As with any research commissioned by large corporates, there's bound to be some bias towards the commissioning company, not least, because of the asking of the right questions 'Ask the right questions and you'll get the right answers'. MTV, Nickelodeon and Microsoft, clearly want to demonstrate the link between TV and online (and clearly there is a link as I write this with the TV on at the same time) but it's worth a look nevertheless. I'd love to see the whole report but I can't find any links to it. So if anyone else has found the link to the full shebang, please let me know by commenting here or dropping me an email.

You might also want to take a look at the official Viacom press release here and the MTV one here.

Telco 2.0 round up on 'digital yoof'

The Telco 2.0 initiative is about brainstorming how telcos, handset manufacturers, media companies et al can generate revenue in an IP based world. They had a recent brainstorm session at the end of March and the write up of the session on digital youth is now on the website and is well worth a read.

Some highlights include:

Research from Peter Miles from SubTV, the UK student TV network

1. 90% access the internet daily in 2006 (up from 82% in 2005 and 65% in 2004)
2. 51% of students visit social networking sites each week
3. 99% own a mobile (and 74% ‘would lose their mind if they lost their mobile’)
4. They are VERY good at multi-tasking and filtering - normal marketing messages may not get through

Nick Bassett from Vodafone's research unit tell us of the key phone requirements for the predominantly pre-pay 'Tireless Texter' :

• Modern. Yup, the device must be cool ‘n’ funky.
• Have good quality camera. To capture those young fun-lovin’ moments…
• Include Bluetooth. So those pics and games can be exchanged with friends for free.
• Have lots of memory. To store those illegal music and video downloads.
• An MP3 player. To play those (still) illegal downloads

Alfie Dennen from Moblog reiterates the need for sensibly priced flat-rate data plans to encourage mobile web usage without fear of billshock and appealed to the operators to come up with alternative (improved) revenue share models.

Well worth a read.

Make your Mark with a Tenner

Ok, so this is off-topic as it's not about mobile marketing or media, but I still think it's worth mentioning especially as Ewan from smstextnews is involved and I got a lovely email from Oli Barrett to tell me all about the 'Make your Mark with a Tenner initiative.

Starting today, 10k young people across the UK will get a tenner and one month to see what they can achieve with it. Over 110 schools are taking part and participants can work alone or in groups. There are awards for those who make the most money and also who has the greatest social impact.

There is a blog to keep up with progress (although there's nothing there yet) and of course the main site where you can read all about it. I think this is a really interesting one to watch and should be more engaging and more accessible than programs like the Princes Trust (which has its place but is a *lot* of work for those involved) so I wish all the participants and sponsors the best of luck and hope it's a huge success.