Even US goes off-deck

With Japan moving more and more into the mobile web and Asia and Europe following in its wake, the US is finally developing its own taste for the unknown waters of the "off-deck".

"Off-deck" means outside the mobile phone carrier's officially vetted mobile websites. In the traditional business model for mobile phone carriers or operators, when you click on the Internet button on your mobile phone, carefully vetted specific service providers are showed to you on an official "menu" or "deck". However with the increasingly atomised interests of mobile web users, the slow speed to which operators react to changes in their user's interest centers, and the slow mobil-isation of web content and web services means people are more and more willing to find the services they want and don't need to be spoonfed in that process. This seems to have started happening in the US as well as people get more and more used to the idea of internet on their small mobile phone, and more and more phones are internet-enabled with bigger screens.

When speaking at the mobile roundtable at the Dreamgate Japan CEO conference in early 2007, K-Laboratories CEO Tetsuya Sanada waxed sentimental about how the walled garden allowed the Japanese mobile industry to develop around Docomo, and that's where he cut his teeth so I could see where he was coming from. But the go-go early 2000s are radically different to the end of the 00s where fixed mobile convergence will make sure that competition will be coming from one media or the other or diagonally out of the woodwork where you least expect it. It struck me at the time more as an argument that ailing agricultural producers would lobby for in the face of the globalisation of trade, but it is the opposite of competition.

Walled gardens work to develop an industry and should be retained to help seed emerging markets and industries, that's why East Asian economies have done the same and have been rewarded with long growth periods of growth, but once out of the posts they fail to serve their purpose when they fossilize current players with little novelty to bring to the dynamism of an industry. When I said that the walled garden is falling apart and on-deck is dead, I was slapped down by both walled garden participants at the conference. One year on however, and the walled gardens keep crashing down all across the globe.

More in the original article here.

Diversity, bees and a broken rudder

Having seen An Inconvenient Truth over the weekend, and with the torrential floods over in the UK this last week, coming across this article entitled "Resilience" rang a bell. It talks about the importance of diversity/redundancy (whether you look at it from an assets standpoint or an efficiency standpoint) in an ecological system. Taking the example of the collapse of bee colonies, he points to the decreasing gene pool available in our mass-market food production agromodels, the decreasing gene pool in the fauna and flora that makes up the energy pyramid of raw to processed food, and our decreasing ability to limit antigens/pathogens making their way from monoculture production to our dinner plate.

Talking to Eriko over the weekend about the application of this to business, I remembered reading about the pros and cons of Six Sigma efficiency versus creative innovation in a McKinsey Quarterly article, or maybe on this old BusinessWeek article on GE CEO Immelt and his new creativity thing... I can't remember which for sure.

Six Sigma weeds out the causes of failure, while innovation embraces failure as a rule. When you're looking for something out of the box, don't look at Six Sigma. When you're looking at operational efficiency, don't reach for brainstorming and venture businesses.

At the time, I suggested a new company model that has a marketing and strategy process that is creativity-centric and an execution half that is process efficiency-centric. Because efficiency isn't going anywhere any time soon, just efficiency doesn't get you anywhere if you don't think laterally when competition heats up.

A good example that is one of Mike's favorites he always bugs me with: I was showing off my yachting prowess to GF down South of Tokyo in Zushi, out in the bay. Balmy sunshine, calm seas, nice breeze, so far so good. Then suddenly it gets cloudy, wind picks up and changes direction every few minutes, the sea gets choppy and then the rudder handle breaks. You're just outside the bay area, not enough to paddle back, but if you don't move you'll be carried out further into the bay by the slow currents tugging at the vessel. Solution? Lashed the two components of the rudder handle together with spare elastic band to simulate the handle, then steadied the handle with right hand and coerced the ship's sails slowly back to the harbour with the left. Get too much wind, the vessel speeds up, do one zigzag in the wrong direction and the elastic goes then you're in trouble. Catch too much slack and you may enter the "dead zone", where each time you try to push your boat left or right to get some wind, the wind pushes you back to the area where you can't catch any.

Eventually, I got back to the harbour, and only told GF that we were heading back early, she told me later that nothing seemed out of place, but I was scared out of my wits that any one thing could kick this plan out and we'd be left waving around for help. Out-of-the box and in-the-box definitely go hand in hand.

Maybe we need to build an industrial system that allows for more of the former while holding on to the knowledge of the latter. One never goes without the other.

--Mandali

Naviblog featured in UK marketing magazine

Web-based UK marketing magazine mad.co.uk has featured Naviblog and its Guinness Navi product as part of its latest article on mobile marketing services.

In a phone interview with co-founder Michael Harris, the article bills Naviblog's Guinness Navi service as a "next-generation service [...where] in all cases the search process is reduced to one click". The report goes on to point out that "Japan passed the 100m mobile subscriber" level a few months ago, so "innovation is now about business models and marketing tactics, as opposed to technical features and functions"... We couldn't agree more.

See the article for more: click here or Google cache here.

DJ Mandali - “Soundtrax Rock”

It all started with a fateful meeting online with an article on Iggy and the Stooges, followed by another fateful trip down to Shinjuku's southside Tower Records store on an otherwise nondescript Sunday afternoon. Idling through the aisles, before I knew it I was faced with what is probably the best UK garage/punk band ever, the Bang! Bang! The rest is a vague recollection of stomping around Shinjuku with random people on the kerb...

This mix is fully soundtrack-based, from the Brothers of the Head's Bang! Bang! musico-mentary soundtrack, to Samuel Jackson's latest Wutang-drenched anime flick Afrosamurai, or offbeat movie Babel's strings-and-piano masterpiece. You'd think a soundtrack would be purely an atmospheric, dramatic tension-led, orchestral affair... well, those gilded days are officially over. GZA. Big Daddy Kane. Stone Mecca. The Bang! Bang! Ryuichi Sakamoto. Susumu Yokota. Welcome to Soundtrax Rock. Time to mosh.

DJ Mandali

Naviblog FM hits no.2 on the Electro charts!

Listening to our very own Naviblog FM yesterday, with the ever-faithful Naviblog FM player widget sitting on my desktop. Checking out our guest DJ this week - DJ Tornado Kicks - with his new "British Punch" mix, listeners have been piling in over the last few days, making our FM radio station hit the no.2 spot worldwide for electronica and related music genres.

I mean, up against the likes of Soma FM? You gotta be kidding! It seems Naviblog FM is reaching to new heights, and nothing's getting in our way. Respect to DJ TKs. Keep them grooving!

Naviblog and Diageo release Guinness Navi

TOKYO, March 22, 2007: Diageo Japan K.K. (1) announced today the launch of its one-click mobile pub search service “Guinness Navi” on March 17, 2007. The new service was developed by Naviblog Corporation (2), based on their award-winning Naviblog platform.

Guinness Navi allows users to search nearby Guinness outlets easily with their mobile phone, based on the user's location. Guinness Navi is the first service to offer a branded mobile search for food and beverages. Although the service is currently restricted to Irish pub search within Tokyo's 23 wards, it plans to increase its scope to other areas, and to dining bars, local bars and other outlets.

Guinness Navi is extremely easy to use: the user reads in the specified QR barcode on their mobile phone to reach the service's top page, then clicks on the link there. The service then reads the user's location and plots the closest Guinness participating outlets on a mobile map. The service requires no downloads, installs or updates.

Current map search services require the user to click through a number of screens to reach the desired local search result, resulting in long search times. As the new Guinness Navi system is compatible with all locational technologies (from antenna triangulation/cell ID, to GPS, WiFi and direct address input), the search process is reduced to one click. The service can be used by users on Japan's 3 largest mobile phone operators (NTT Docomo, KDDI, Softbank), reaching a majority of users in the Tokyo metropolis.

Opening its website at www.guinness.jp in fall 2006, Guinness is actively pursuing digital marketing activities, including the launch of this new Guinness Navi service.

(1) About Diageo Japan K.K.
Diageo Japan (CEO: Paul Gulliver) is the 100%-owned Japanese subsidiary of London-based Diageo Plc. Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business, and owner of numerous premium beer, spirits and wine brands. See www.diageo.com for more.

(2) About Naviblog Corporation
Naviblog (CEO: Mandali Khalesi) is a Tokyo-based mobile marketing firm that provides branded marketing solutions to consumer brands, digital advertising agencies, and mobile operators worldwide. It is a Red Herring 100 company, with its award-winning Naviblog mobile search platform. See www.naviblog.jp for more.

NaviblogFM: DJ Tornado Kicks - “British Punch”

Just click and listen, there's no better explanation because it's 1000% pure English.

I was pretty amazed though, that there is still so much more to learn from their leading style and fashion by time and generation...

DJ Tornado Kicks


Well, he's back...

After a short absence from the Naviblog FM studios, our favorite guest DJ, DJ TKs, is back on the scene. This time he is weighing in with his super-cool, 1000% pure British playlist. We'll start out with Side A, then head over to the B side in a few days...

Honestly speaking, DJ TKs isn't some hulking body-building type so it amazes me how he was able to carry all this fucking music over to the studios (okay, I admit, he used one of those large capacity USB HD's). I seriously doubt if you'll hear the same song twice... yes, that many songs. This is one playlist not to be taken lightly... totally smoking.

Hey, he wouldn't be DJ TKs if we expected anything less... so, like DJ TKs said, "just click and listen!"

DJ Mike (the.ex.hipster)

Robert Mugabe: When will you get yours?

The news coming out of Zimbabwe for the past few years has gone from absurd to downright appalling...

I wonder if this is what Bob Marley had envisioned for once a great country when he sang more than twenty-five years ago at Rufaro Stadium celebrating Zimbabwe's independence.

Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny,
And in this judgement there is no partiality.
So arm in arms, with arms, well fight this little struggle,
cause thats the only way we can overcome our little trouble.
-- Bob Marley, Zimbabwe

Yet another beating of the same opposition members in the span of a week, in the airport no less... read here.

As an African-American, my first thoughts are, "what the hell is wrong with those people?". Those people referring to African leaders like Mugabe who continue holding Africans back and downtrodden, and for what? Is it control? Is it money and the good life for themselves? Is it just plain ignorance? Me, I kinda think its the latter and it really pisses me off.

I think its definitely time for the "old man" to go... he's caused enough pain and suffering with his king of jungle antics. If I were to hold an audience with Mugabe, I'd probably put it to him like this:

Mugabe, for the sake of your people, please just find a hole to crawl into until you take your last breath. Instead of moving your people forward by 25 years, you have moved them back by 50 years. You tend to lay blame at the feet of the white man for your short-comings as a president and as a man entrusted to help the weak of your country. Your "land grab" policies were doomed from the onset and only used a polictical tool, and for what? With the way you steal elections, why would you need to use the land grab as a political tool? It just doesn't make sense to me...

Haven't you heard that beating of opponents with metal bars is barbaric and not acceptable in this day and age? Haven't you heard that Africans are sick and tired of guys like you who only serve to prolong their suffering? Do you have any idea what kind of image you portray to the rest of the civilized world? Its certainly not an image of being civil... and that reflects on all Blacks.

Where are groups and people who make up the African Union? Where are these people who are suppose to stand for positive change on the African continent? Thabo Mbeki, where are you? Why are you not being more vocal towards the Zimbabwe mad-man Mugabe? All you guys in my book are worthless if you are not willing to stand up to this guy...

It will be a joyous day when this tyrant no longer exists either in Zimbabwe's politics or on this earth...

- Mike

Peace out...

Naviblog checks: PSB on micro-targeting or the brand "soft-sell"

Reading a very interesting piece by PSB on the WPP's website on what they call micro-targeting. Interestingly, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) are originally pollsters that are now turning from the political targeting and polling analytics scene, to the branding and new media marketing industry.

The article reads quite well, with a number of insights, such as an 11-step checklist for micro-targeting efforts, as well as a case study on increasing user retention for a telecom company. This kind of reminds me of what I was talking about at the Tokyo Entrepreneur's Summit last week when a member of the press asked me, what comes next for mobile advertising? Is it banners? Is it coupons? I said that it was the end of the brand "hard-sell", the beginning of an experiential "soft-sell".

The real answer is targeted promotion based on psychometric behaviour analytics sourced from search and blog statistics. I also suggested mobile product placement within an ad or a service, I suggested auto-affiliation on info displayed within a page. These are all things that can be done to drive marketing activities on the mobile and the web.

The authors note however that no matter how well you try to setup these micro-targeting campaigns, "[...]many highly experienced, prominent and successful PR and marketing people both on the client side and in agencies lack the analytical skills and understanding to properly design and lead a micro-targeting project."

I would go even further and say that you not only need the right people, but more importantly you need to have a platform that collects and analyses this kind of data and then bases incrementally better conclusions based on a recurring analysis loop. Naviblog's location-based blogging platform could play this role, and allow even agencies and professionals that lack the ability to design such a project, to gather relevant data and act on it accordingly.