I used to be a die-hard Playstation guy. I spent many a happy hour on both the original and the PS2. I had both an original XBox and a 360 and while I liked them, I haven’t really been in deep love. It was kind of an ugly duckling – it had some potential but it was not really there. I’m not a big fan of the controller (maybe I’m not the demo but they’re too damn complex for me) and while I signed up for XBox Live I never saw great benefit in it. Until now. Continue reading
Filed under Thinking Aloud
As Emily Litella might have said, “What’s all this about integrated measurement? Why, all the people measuring media already measure everyone – Black, White, Asian, etc. What more integration do we need?”
OK, so that’s not as good as “violins on television” but the point is we DO need more integrated measurement of all media. It’s a big topic right now and I’ve had a number of folks ask me how, or if, I think it happens.
To me, it’s a “when” not an “if” and the “how” is through the one place that seems to be the junction of all media these days – the ISP, and more specifically the cable guys. A large percentage of folks get their TV and their Internet through the same pipe. It’s not unreasonable to think that as those providers move into wireless and other places (or in the case of Verizon, if they’re already there), use of mobile devices can be added to the mix.
Good column discussing the topic by Diane Mermigas today. Add to that what Sony is doing with set top boxes, the growth of companies such as Phorm, Microsoft’s purchase of Navic, and I think you get a sense that this is where we’re heading. I, for one, am glad. Having spent many years living and dying with the Nielsen TV ratings, which are estimates and less accurate than what we’ll be getting in a few years, the process of analyzing consumers’ media habits and the most efficient ways to reach them will be a lot easier.
Filed under Consulting, Thinking Aloud
It appears as if the Microsoft/Yahoo deal is off again. From my perspective, that’s too bad. No, I’m not a Yahoo shareholder looking to cash in. I’m just a guy who has had business dealings with both and feels that the combination of the two would have taken the best of each of their worlds and made a stronger partner for the rest of us.
One of them is really good at technology (not that the other isn’t) and has a track record of innovation. The other is the best partner from a client service perspective with which I’ve ever worked. Instead of this being about ego (most business deals have a good dose of that in there) and control, I wish that they’d thought about where they’re NOT the best of breed and realized that one’s square peg fits nicely into the other’s round hole.
Someone told me many years ago to hire for my weaknesses. It’s not easy to admit you have any, but we all do, as do most organizations. Hopefully, that’s why they hire folks like me – to bring in a set of skills that are missing or unavailable.
The blogsphere has written many gigabytes about the other aspects of the propsed merger, both from a financial and a tech perspective. To me, the real strength of the new MicroHoo organization would have been a cutting-edge tech company with world-class client service. That is what is needed to compete.
Filed under What's Going On
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