A KENYAN FIRST ON GOOGLE SEARCH

Thanks everyone for making the Kenyan hero, Makmende, such a hit. With a record #67 hottest search on Google WORLWIDE as at 14:00 GMT, no Kenyan topic has EVER hit that mark,Reports Makmende.com

Just who is this Makmende!

The 1970’s themed video, directed by Jim Chuchu and Mbithi Masya, features a mean, ass-kicking character known as Makmende (played by Kevin “K1”Maina) who has been all the rage on Twitter this week. A lot of people have been wondering who the hell Makmende is. Well, that depends on your age and where you grew up. Makmende was a term used way back in the early to mid 1990s to refer to someone who thinks he’s a superhero. For example, if a boy who’s watched one too many kung-fu movies on TV decides to unleash his newly acquired combat skills, he would be asked “Unajidai Makmende, eh?” (Who do you think you are, Makmende?) Trust me, there was a Makmende in every hood!

Kibaki invits Raila to be his facebook friend.

From the album:
"Wall Photos" by GADO CARTOONS
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43 people like this.
Jerome Kaumbulu
Jerome Kaumbulu
LOL
3 hours ago · Report
Henry N Githinji
Henry N Githinji
Hahahaha....please pox him in return!!
3 hours ago · Report
Babbie Kabae
Babbie Kabae
Dude would not be using a desktop... he would have an iPad, or funky laptop... He would 'add friend' just to snoop and keep tabs, 'keep thy enemy closer'
3 hours ago · Report
Jaseme Otoyo
Jaseme Otoyo
Jakom, ignore his friendship request!!!
3 hours ago · Report
Mercy Mghoi Masese
Mercy Mghoi Masese
....he he he,friendship request ignored!!..
3 hours ago · Report
Lennie Ngige
Lennie Ngige
LoL!!!! LoL!!! LOLEST!!!!
3 hours ago · Report
Steve Mwei
Steve Mwei
in the prevailing circumstance add him as a friend.
3 hours ago · Report
Nganga Ngangalittle Kinyanjui
Nganga Ngangalittle Kinyanjui
Looking at Baks friends before ignoring friend request!
3 hours ago · Report
Ritah Roggs
Ritah Roggs
LOL!!!LOLEST!....inbox me baba jimmy!
3 hours ago · Report
Ken Nyandega
Ken Nyandega
add him as a friend!!!!
3 hours ago · Report
Solomon Macharia
Solomon Macharia
yaani they r on facebook instead of running the country!!!!!!They all must go
3 hours ago · Report
Jacob Ndungu
Jacob Ndungu
lol.......good one gado
3 hours ago · Report
Belinda Abira
Belinda Abira
He he he! This is hilarious.
3 hours ago · Report
Mutwiri Kimathi
Mutwiri Kimathi
thats a good one...lol!!
2 hours ago · Report
Odongo Kodongo
Odongo Kodongo
Don't! Report him instead!! lol
2 hours ago · Report
Tom Lutomia
Tom Lutomia
too deadli....
2 hours ago · Report
Victor Masolia
Victor Masolia
pliz ignore..... he wants to go through your profile
2 hours ago · Report
Ivan Ogolla
Ivan Ogolla
thats crazy man real crazy
2 hours ago · Report
John Gachui
John Gachui
lol
2 hours ago · Report
Shaddy Ominde
Shaddy Ominde
anaona samaki kubwa kwa FB yake
2 hours ago · Report
Cheche Kiriba
Cheche Kiriba
hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 hours ago · Report
Pat Ngoda
Pat Ngoda
REPORT!!!!!!!!!! He's definitely upto NO good!!!! Remember the famous NARC m.o.u?
2 hours ago · Report
Eduardo Gitau
Eduardo Gitau
LOL
about an hour ago · Report
Jasper Joseph Wanjala
Jasper Joseph Wanjala
IGNORE!!!
about an hour ago · Report
Felix Kamwibua
Felix Kamwibua
Ha ha ha. Mambo baddest,
about an hour ago · Report
Charles Mugendi Opiyo
Charles Mugendi Opiyo
... ha ha ha, Agwambo, IGNORE!
about an hour ago · Report
John Masika
John Masika
A good one!
about an hour ago · Report
Kevin 'Voke' Juma
Kevin 'Voke' Juma
noma iyo...
about an hour ago · Report
Wambui Wainaina
Wambui Wainaina
kibaki kende
about an hour ago · Report
Achie Achiebaibe
Achie Achiebaibe
good one gado,even raish dint see this coming
about an hour ago · Report
Ogolla Onyango Fredrick
Ogolla Onyango Fredrick
ACCEPT!
about an hour ago · Report
Douglas Waweru Maina
Douglas Waweru Maina
I SWEAR THIS IS THE FUNNIEST CARTOON I'VE SEEN THI S YEAR.
about an hour ago · Report
John Karanja Muraguri
John Karanja Muraguri
stop facebooking. lead the nation.
about an hour ago · Report
Amos Mwaura
Amos Mwaura
Kuddos GADO!
about an hour ago · Report
Lucas 'rateng' Mboya
Lucas 'rateng' Mboya
owada....too funny....emilio is ahead... raila better open a flikr and youtube accounts quick.....)
50 minutes ago · Report
Peter Kinuthia
Peter Kinuthia
Gado hii ni kali sana, u r the blessed one..........................
48 minutes ago · Report
Bewewez J Toon
Bewewez J Toon
Hey yawa...he Better invites him and suggest more friends for him....Funny!!
34 minutes ago · Report
Castro Kaluna
Castro Kaluna
Usaniiii!
27 minutes ago · Report
Dennis Waititu
Dennis Waititu
DEADLY ITS THA BOMB
21 minutes ago · Report
Kenn McDonald Mariga
Kenn McDonald Mariga
Ignore!! look at his friends.. akina Mungiki, Kivuitu, Moi, Mwakwere... watu bure kabisa!
20 minutes ago · Report
Alex Watila
Alex Watila
LOL
18 minutes ago · Report
Dimitri Njoroge
Dimitri Njoroge
Thats the best!
17 minutes ago · Report
Joseph Ndirangu
Joseph Ndirangu
please join; you can solve all your problems through chat, you don't have to go through muthaura.....
16 minutes ago · Report
Write a comment...

"Our intention is that 25 per cent of our revenue in two years time will come from data. It’s probably about 13 per cent right now," he said.

Joseph said more than three million Safaricom users now accessed the Internet on a mobile phone, or via a portable modem. But he said the potential number of mobile Internet users could easily top 10 million in Kenya, where infrastructure is still poor and mobile Internet penetration is below 10 per cent.

"This should easily be 10 or 20 per cent over the next two years," he said. Joseph said the firms money transfer service, M-Pesa, now has 9.3 million registered users in a country, where the majority of people do not have access to a bank. "We’re doing about 15 million dollars a day in transactions," he said.

In November, Safaricom said daily M-pesa transactions amounted to $10 million daily.
Reports,The Standard Newspaper

Photoshop 20 years,congratulations

Great Moments in Photoshop History: Happy 20th Anniversary!
BY William BostwickFri Mar 12, 2010
Complex Magazine rounds up their 50 favorite Photoshop moments in honor of the software's 20th birthday.

Photoshop

Photoshop turns 20 this year, and in honor of 20 years of making the impossible possible--or at least easier--Complex Magazine has teamed up with Brooklyn design studio Chips to gather their 50 favorite moments in Photoshop history. They're hilarious, and hilariously true.

Photoshop

Photoshop

All the memes are here, from the Montauk Monster to Nicolas Cage. Cory Arcangel's gradients make an appearance. So does Coudal Partners' Layer Tennis. On a more serious note, they include Brian Walski's infamously manipulated Iraq war photo for the L.A. Times and Iran's faked missile launch. But it's Complex, after all, so the most screen time goes to awesomely bad mixtape album covers, most by the mad geniuses of Pen and Pixel Graphics, who rose to fame on the '90s Houston rap scene. It only speaks to the program's power that it enables designers (and everyone else) to make everything from this to this.

For a little nostalgia, check out this anniversary video from Adobe. It opens with bolo-tied Photoshop founder Russell Brown demonstrating Photoshop's "most unethical" uses on an ancient Mac and nay-saying Fred Ritchin warning that Photoshop will make the public "disbelieve photographs generally" and that photographs "won't be as effective and powerful a document of social communication as it has been for the last 150 years." How naive. Jump to 2010, Russell (bolo intact) sits with John Knoll, Thomas Knoll, and Steve Guttman to discuss the impact of their 20-year-old idea.

Delighting audience key to success for publishers on mobile: Guardian

The Guardian, a British newspaper, has seen 70,000 downloads of its paid iPhone application in a month, proving that charging for mobile content can work for publications.

Guardian’s iPhone application is available worldwide. This news should be a wake-up call to publishers looking to extend their brand – mobile can do that and bring in revenue.

“Success starts and ends with delighting your audience,” said Jonathon Moore, mobile product manager at Guardian News and Media, London. “Media organizations – even large ones such as ourselves – can't change user behavior or consumer patterns overnight.

find a job for you

“So the only thing that matters is producing a product that you're proud of,” he said.

The application is $3.99, a price the publication deemed fair for the level of content and functionality it offers (see story).
The Guardian

Hearing all about it

Success in monetization
Features of the application include editorial content such as news, features and opinion pieces, photo galleries and audio, all of which can be personalized for the consumer.

The application was designed in-house and built by 2ergo.

Guardian’s application is available in Finland, Latvia, Romania, Austria, France, Lithuania, Slovakia, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Greece, Malta (Republic of), Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Italy, Portugal, Australia, Canada, Britain, Ireland and the United States.
Guardian

Offline reading

The publication’s Web site at http://www.Guardian.co.uk saw 35,792,874 unique users in November 2009. Its mobile site at http://m.guardian.co.uk had 927,000 unique users in November. Nearly half of the mobile users accessed the site via an iPhone or iPod touch.

Guardian used social media, Twitter in particular, as a marketing tool. Mr. Moore said he spent nearly every day monitoring every tweet that has mentioned the Guardian iPhone application and responding to consumers, feeding back answers to their questions and noting their responses for future features.

The Guardian also had an advertising campaign across Web, print and mobile. On the mobile site, the publication specifically targeted iPhone users.

Mr. Moore said even without marketing, publications can still achieve success if they manage to break into the Top 25 or Top 50 applications listed in the App Store.

“If you can stay true to your principles and produce something that excites people then you've always got a chance,” Mr. Moore said.

The Guardian application has a rating of four and half stars out of five and more than 600 comments.

Pocket-sized Guardian
Consumers can browse the application offline and save articles to read later.

The Guardian claims its application has an unrivalled news search facility.

Consumers can customize the homepage and flag contributors for quicker access to their latest articles.

The application also has a trending feature that lets users access the most popular Guardian articles at any given time.

The application does not currently feature advertisements.

Mr. Moore said media organizations need a good mix of editorial thinking and technologists to develop the proper mobile content.

“Well, without giving away the secret recipe, I'd have to say you need to start with ambition and it helps if you've got the right mix of people,” Mr. Moore said. “The mobile industry is still plagued with so-called experts who are only too willing to tell you what to do and how to do it.

“Most of them never produced anything of note,” he said. “So beware. Step back, take your time, and produce something of quality.

“If it doesn't sell, then there's probably not a market for it – yet at least.”

Editorial Assistant Chris Harnick covers content, gaming, media, television, music and social networks. Reach him at chris@mobilemarketer.com.

Google exec: Mobile to soon have more targetability than TV, radio or Internet

Google exec: Mobile to soon have more targetability than TV, radio or Internet

By Dan Butcher

March 5, 2010
Google exec reveals mobile strategy, case studies,

Alex Barza is mobile ads sales lead at Google

NEW YORK – A Google executive revealed the company’s mobile strategy, detailed case studies and discussed the market potential during the keynote address at Mobile Marketing Day, hosted by Mobile Marketer and the Direct Marketing Association.

Google has made tremendous strides in mobile, including mobile search and the development of the Android operating system powering phones such as the Motorola Droid and its own Nexus One. Google’s increasing presence in mobile is reshaping not just the mobile business but also marketing in general.

“We look at mobile as a big part of our overall strategy—that’s an understatement,” said Alex Barza, New York-based mobile ad sales lead at Google. “We’re looking at mobile across the entire world as a global play.”

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Two-thirds of the world’s population has a mobile phone subscription—4 billion people—and there will be 5 billion wireless subscribers worldwide by the end of this year, according to some estimates.

Mobile will create the ability to individually target more people than any other channel, according to Google.

“Mobile will soon have more reach than TV, radio or the Internet,” Mr. Barza said. “Mobile is the access point to the Internet in the developing world.

“Search has been our core business for many years now, and we actually receive many more searches on mobile than we do on desktops in developing markets,” he said.

Morgan Stanley recently predicted that more users will access the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years.

Market researcher IDC is even more bullish, predicting that this is going to happen sooner than that—by 2013.

“What’s driving this mobile adoption? Computing, connectivity and the cloud,” Mr. Barza said. “What’s different about mobile today than even a couple of years ago is the computing power of these phones.

“Here in the U.S. LTE will potentially be rolled out by the end of the year, and 4G is the equivalent of putting a broadband cable modem in the palm of your hand,” he said. “The cloud is basically the Internet, with more than 700 million servers around the globe, and with smartphones all of that information is in the palm of your hand.

“That’s where we feel the future of mobile is going and where we’ve focused our energies—high-end Web-enabled mobile devices are the future of mobile.”

When Apple rolled out the first iPhone in 2007, it cost $600 and only ran on the Edge network, and was only sold via Apple and AT&T.

Now iPhones are 20 times faster, the operating system is much better and you can buy 16GB iPhones at one-third of the price at Walmart or Best Buy Mobile.

Consumers can now get an iPhone or Motorola Droid for $199 or so.

“If you think about how far we’ve come as far as access to these Web-enabled devices, it’s pretty incredible,” Mr. Barza said.”Bigger screens, more connectivity and faster processors are enabling us to do a lot more.”

As an example of convergence in action, Mr. Barza cited Google goggles.

“Google goggles leverages the unique attributes of the mobile phone, which is much more personal than a desktop, much more interactive than the desktop Web experience,” Mr. Barza said. “It leverages sight through the camera, GPS makes it location aware, the cloud gives it access to vast amounts of data and you have connectivity within seconds.

“I point my Nexus One out my hotel window in Chicago and within milliseconds there’s an augmented reality interaction telling me ‘You’re looking at the Chicago Watertower,’” he said. “There’s also optical character recognition, so when you’re reading a menu or document in a different language, it can translate that into 100-plus languages.”

One of the audience members commented that the mobile technology Google sees on the horizon is like something out of Star Trek.

“If you’re texting in English, Google will translate it in real time, so you can have a dialogue with someone who doesn’t speak English, and we’ve applied that to a conversation, so if I’m speaking in English, the phone will pick that up and translate my voice and spit it back out in over 100 languages,” Mr. Barza said. “We’re not quite there yet, but we will be soon.”

New devices = new usage
Google tracks mobile searches on Google.com within the shopping category.

The three-year graph, from May 2007 when the original iPhone launched to January 2010 when Google’s HTC Nexus One debuted, showed tremendous growth in the shopping category.

IDC forecasted that by 2013, there will be more than 1 billion mobile devices that can connect to the Internet. That does not just include phones, but also gaming consoles, netbooks, eBook readers, GPS systems and car navigation systems, iPads and tablets.

Mobile commerce has arrived
People are showing their willingness to buy goods and services via their handsets, and not just ringtones and wallpapers, but everything from books, movies and music to tickets, flatscreen TVs, fashion apparel and even cars.

“I was blown away that someone bought an actual Corvette on eBay mobile for $75,000,” Mr. Barza said. “A lot of clients across the board are starting to experience sales from mobile devices and are seeing incremental growth of users accessing their Web site from mobile devices, which is leading to sales.

“Consumers want this—they want the stuff that they want when they want it, and mobile enables them to buy it now,” he said. “Having a mobile-optimized site aids that process, because it provides better customer service, but there are some sales happening via mobile on non-optimized sites.

“There will be Flash on all Android devices later this year, with pinch and zoom and fast connectivity.”

Retailers are seeing more conversions at a lower cost using mobile channels.

A Google mobile advertising case study run with Razorfish tested alternate landing pages and found the best results with a page that included the nearest store locations.

The company tested mobile-specific variations in ad copy and found the best results with ads that mentioned the iPhone.

The mobile campaign was 7.5 percent more efficient on a cost-per-conversion basis compared to desktop campaigns. There were close to 10 percent more conversions with mobile-specified text.

“Some retailers are seeing similar average order values on mobile as they are on desktops,” Mr. Barza said. “Conversion rates are similar on mobile as they are on desktops, and Best Buy said at a recent conference it is seeing better conversions on mobile than via desktops.

“It’s a trend we’re also seeing across some retailers,” he said.

The impact of mobile on retail is already being felt in a big way.

Red Laser has been one of the top 5 paid applications in the App Store, ShopSavvy became the top free application in Android Market and Google Shopper launched this year.

Deloitte found that one in five shoppers intend to use their mobile phone while shopping in store this season.

“We can measure mobile commerce conversions, but it's also important to understand how retailers can assign value to conversions,” Mr. Barza said. “We should assign a different value to consumers who are in stores using their phone to look up pricing information.

“Those are challenges we have to think through,” he said.

Google’s mobile strategy
The foundation of Google’s mobile strategy is location, mobile search and computing in the cloud. In addition, going forward all of its software will be compatible with both mobile and desktop environments.

Current examples include Google Docs, Photos, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Voice, Latitude, News, Calendar, Shopper, Google.com, My Location, Search application and Voice Search, as well as the newly launched Buzz.

“We want to make these accessible anywhere they’re located to create a seamless experience from desktop to mobile no matter where you are or what device you’re using,” Mr. Barza said. “Mobile is taking a major priority within the company.”

The key is taking advantage of the opportunities that cloud computing opens up.

“What Google has done, we’re leveraging all of the connectivity and power of the cloud, and it starts with the location of phone, which knows where you’ve been, it know where you are and, in the future, it may even predict where you’re going,” Mr. Barza said.

“Search is the core of our company,” he said. “We want to make it extremely easy to perform mobile searches on the go leveraging each user’s location.

“We have search apps available on a series of phones, and we’re leveraging the voice capability on phones so users can speak a search, text message or email.”

Google proved with the pending $750 million acquisition of AdMob that mobile advertising is a very important priority for the company. As expected, Mr. Barza could not directly comment on the deal till it was signed off by the regulatory authorities.

“Our mobile advertising strategy is that we want to connect with people when they are using their mobile device, whether they are searching, browsing the Internet, watching video or using apps,” Mr. Barza said.

The local explosion
One out of every three search queries on mobile have local intent, according to Google.

“We have Google Mobile Maps as the base layer, and we’re adding other layers of data particular to a specific user's interests,” Mr. Barza said.

Users can find locations, click to call, get the address, show the location on a map, get walking, driving or public transportation directions, including navigation with street views.

A new feature of the Nexus One’s Android 2.1 operating system is GPS turn-by-turn directions with voice.

Meanwhile, click-to-call phone numbers in mobile ads saw a 5-30 percent increase in click-through rates.

“It has worked well for small and large businesses,” Mr. Barza said. “The calls these advertisers received came from both actual search ads and from landing pages, so I recommend you have a phone number prominently displayed on your Web site.”

Analysts estimate that more than 3 billion mobile applications have been downloaded across several application stores iTunes, Android Market and BlackBerry AppWorld.

Google is serving ads within iPhone and Android applications representing millions of daily impressions.

In-application banner ads and search ads enable a consumer to download an application with two clicks or taps.

Google also serves mobile ads tallying millions of daily impressions within YouTube, which is preinstalled on Android devices.

“The feedback we get from advertisers is that after an app is released initially, the buzz tapers down, and it’s tough to stand out in sea of apps,” Mr. Barza said. “We’re leveraging our ads in applications and mobile search to enable advertisers to promote their applications, giving them the ability to serve an ad that lets users download an app in two clicks.

“It helps discoverability and extends the investment they’ve made in app development,” he said.

Staff Reporter Dan Butcher covers ad networks, banking and payments, carrier networks, manufacturers, and software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

Social Life at the ongoing ICANN conference

Music Night

Join us for a night of open mic entertainment – and bring your own instruments.

Whether you play the guitar or the sax, the xylophone or the triangle, you are encouraged to add to a tremendous night of fun by packing up your instruments and bringing them with you to ICANN’s 37th meeting in Nairobi.

When: Tuesday, 9 March 2010 from 20:30 - 23:30

Where: Sarova Stanley Hotel, Churchill Ballroom

Open Bar. Shuttle transportation to the event.

Formula Xdvd available at Nakumatt Westgate.Buy your copy now.

FORMULA X DVD is now in Nakumatt Lifestyle, Nakumatt Junction,Nakumatt Karen, Nakumatt Prestige and Nakumatt Westgate. DVD includes feature film, making of the film and movie trailers..KSH 199. Much thanks to everyone for your continued support!!

blackberry outageThe Blackberry outage that RIM does not want to talk about continues to affect people on both sides of the Atlantic with outages reported in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Some people have been without service for more than 24 hours.

The outage is a peculiar one, Data Outage News reports:

"Again, this is affecting devices on all North American carriers, BIS and BES, and it appears to be only devices on WiFi, wherein data works "sometimes" when connected via WiFi; no data when WiFi is disconnected."

RIM has not yet made a statement about the outage and we have to believe that this is not a smart way to handle an issue that has customers wondering if it their phone that is causing the problem.

T-Mobile has been keeping its Twitter account updated for customers affected by the outage.

twitter.tmobile.jpg

We posted yesterday about the news. It was difficult to get a read on the extent of the outage but by this morning commenters were reporting a number of problems.

On Monday, Simon Benson in the United Kingdom said:

Seems to be affecting the UK as well! We've been out since around noon GMT on Sunday! Bit difficult remote working without access to email...

Some are considering dropping the Blackberry. Danielle Ricks posted:

"I've had MAJOR problems with my T-Mobile Blackberry 8900 for the past 12 hours!!! What is most disturbing is the fact that the T-Mobile techs didn't even know there was a problem. I spent a half hour doing trouble shooting with them... after doing my OWN trouble shooting... just to FINALLY find this post telling me we ONCE AGAIN have a nationwide Blackberry outage.

I'm on my way to SXSW and I HAVE to get my emails. I LOVE T-Mobile customer service but if the Smartphone doesn't work it won't do me a whole lot of good. I've been a loyal Blackberry customer but this is my third RIM outage and I'm done! Thank you ReadWriteWeb for being on top of things *calling AT&T to inquire about an iPhone*"

The outage can't be helping RIM right now. How many outages can users face when there are an increasing number of alternatives to their service?

We'll update the blog when we have an update about the service being restored.
Report from Readwriteweb.com

The Tamasha park rip-off

Yesterday sunday afte will always be a reminder to me of how businesses rip of gulible customers.I went out with my family to tamasha langata.we ordered a family pack kuku and fries.The service was horrible from the word go and when our meal the reputation was sustained.the coated chicken was hard as a rock and stale n half cooked.the fries were like stones.i witnessed three tables returning their servings to the kitchen!I doubt the promoters here care about their patrons except for the easy buck they make from such lousy unedible and mediocre fare.Can someone who values and cares for this outlet toss that menu and management in the bin and replace them with someone who knows something about customer care.If in doubt ask Ronalo,Java or Lawinos kitchen about their secrets to success.

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. ~ Edward de Bono

Cross over 101 aired its episode on NTV on Sunday. But the rumour mill is that the balling station Citizen may have had a hand in that, word is Citizen has offered K-Krew a bag of money for them to air the show on Citizen, but under a different name!

This will be the second music based show Citizen has snatched from the ever dozing NTV crew.By Frankierants.

The Meaning of the Verb- RAVE

What is the Meaning of RAVE?

Main Entry: 1rave
Pronunciation: \ˈrāv\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): raved; rav·ing
Etymology: Middle English
Date: 14th century

intransitive verb 1 a : to talk irrationally in or as if in delirium b : to speak out wildly c : to talk with extreme enthusiasm
2 : to move or advance violently : storm transitive verb : to utter in madness or frenzy

(from-http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rave)

1. to utter (something) in a wild or incoherent manner, as when mad or delirious
2. (intr) to speak in an angry uncontrolled manner
3. (intr) (of the sea, wind, etc.) to rage or roar
4. (intr; foll by over or about) Informal to write or speak (about) with great enthusiasm
5. (intr) Brit slang to enjoy oneself wildly or uninhibitedly
n
1. Informal
a. enthusiastic or extravagant praise
b. (as modifier) a rave review
2. Brit slang
a. Also called rave-up a party
b. a professionally organized party for young people, with electronic dance music, sometimes held in a field or disused building
3. Brit slang a fad or fashion the latest rave
4. (Music / Pop Music) a name given to various types of dance music, such as techno, that feature fast electronic rhythm
[C14 raven, apparently from Old French resver to wander]
(from-http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rave)

A quiet revolution

The advertising industry landscape has changed dramatically in the past decade with the rise of the media independent to fully-fledged media agency powerhouse. The end result is the death of the full-service ad agency and the dominance of the media agency when it comes to media buying.

About 10 years ago, independent media agencies in the UK realised that if they bought media space in bulk, they could sell it to clients cheaper by acquiring discounts. However, it has not been an easy ride for the media independents that started this evolution of the industry. Labeled ‘discount media houses’ and the ‘bottom-feeders’ of the advertising industry in the early days by the ad industry and sometimes media owners, too, they led the trend that has separated the media planning and buying functions from the creative side in ad agencies.

Media buying and planning was often treated as a clerical function and staffed by administrative assistants. Budgets went to creative departments and the less glamorous media function was stuck in the backroom. It wasn’t until the big advertisers realised that they spent more on media than any other commodity, that they began demanding appropriate service and the media independent agency was born.

Media owners remain scathing about the lack of experience among media planners, the no-shows at meetings, bullying tactics for discounts and little investment in training.

South Africa followed the trend begun in the 1990s in the United Kingdom and Europe, and now happening in the United States, when clients began moving business to media specialists operating outside traditional ad agency media departments, for discounts and service.

“This revolution was driven by the clients, who found that media specialists did a better job,” says Josh Dovey, MD of Media Direction-OMD.

By the mid-1980s in the UK, the media independents were a force, stealing a huge amount of revenue from traditional ad agencies. Many of the larger ad agencies started buying up the media independents in order to set up their own separate media specialists. In the last few years, clients in South Africa began calling for separate creative and media pitches.

“It’s only in the past three or four years that ad agencies have aligned themselves with media agencies,” says Harry Herber, The MediaShop Group CEO. “There was always a bit of a ‘begrudging relationship’ before, as media agencies were regarded as the ‘poor cousins’ of the industry. Then clients wanted to do things better and smarter and saw media agencies as representing an additional source of revenue.”

Today, media agencies offer clients strategically-relevant media solutions and have moved away from the discounting system to results-based media decisions.

Dovey explains: “Media and creative functions have now split completely in South Africa — there isn’t a full-service ad agency left. We are ahead of the US with this trend. The industry has certainly been turned on its head. This is a positive force for the more progressive agencies.”

Driving the changes in the local industry were:

* Clients unbundling of the percentage commissions system in favour of fee systems.
* International clients demanding that media planning and buying be separated from the creative process and handled by specialists.
* The convergence of media options, which resulted in a blur ring of media types.
* The proliferation of media productions and options.
* The need to better target a consumer bombarded with increasing media choices.

Continues Dovey: “The fact is, media agencies do media better than the advertising agencies. The explosion of media options has meant that we have to buy loads of research and invest in good people. The costs are high, and a start up agency usually cannot afford to set-up its own media buying department, so they outsource. We also have many ad agency customers who have bought into the whole area of expertise on its own and want to offer the best possible service to their clients — and part of that is outsourcing media to secure the best option for clients.

Says Herber: “I think we’re complementary. There is a desire on clients’ behalf to know that is a degree of choice in the media brains they want — not what they are given.”

The ad agencies were left with no choice but to follow the trend and all the majors have set up their own media buying agencies, many with an international partner. The traditional media independents contend that a true media agency is one with clients independent of its ad agency partner/creator.

Starcom is the newest media agency out of the Leo Burnett stable. Starcom MD, Gordon Patterson, believes that media agencies that do have an agency affiliation and relationship, are far more in touch with the advertising process because of their involvement in other aspects of the client’s business. Dovey, in turn, asserts media agencies that are truly independent can offer completely impartial media plans.

He says the important differentiation in media buying is knowing the mindset of the consumer. “We shouldn’t rely too much on numbers. Good research is absolutely essential but it’s not the only ingredient. The media we choose for our clients has to be relevant and focused. Niche doesn’t mean small, it means focused. However, many media owners have used niche as a crutch for being inefficient with small numbers.

Media agencies are undoubtedly the powerhouses of the industry. Some even outsource their creative now,” says Patterson.

The why

Discounts and specialisation gave the media agencies a reason to exist originally. The sheer avail ability of media options today makes them a necessity.

The process was driven by client, due to:

* Budgetary pressures, the few rands available have to be spent properly.
* Specialistion is a worldwide trend.
* The convergence of technology and increase in media options.

“Clients are looking for added value, not just a cheap schedule,” Patterson points out.

The total advertising cake is valued at R8 billion in South Africa. The top three media agencies bill 35-40% of all media placed in this country. Media billings have been doubling every few years and represent substantial revenue for the media agencies.

“Media agencies are like banks,” says Herber “The client pays us and we pay the media owners about 15 days or so later — this is our major source of revenue. Ad agencies have been looking for an additional source of revenue because they lost out to the media independents originally on all these billings.”

New Wave Media’s Steve Topp outlines the main criteria a client looks for when appointing a media agency:

* The ability to negotiate better deals.
* The ability to buy better.
* Ability to interface knowledgeably.
* Systems with which to administer the entire media function.
* Systems and ability with which to evaluate their effort.
* Systems with which to monitor their competitors’ efforts.
* How well the media point can dovetail with the advertising agency.
* The ability to move quickly on information.
* The media points’ ability to interface with other facets in the media strategy, ie PR, sponsorship and media based promotions.
* Access to media research.
* The people.

Dovey emphasises: “The big development is in the media — it’s such a cliché but you are now competing with so much more. So much more media to interact with, that breaking through that clutter is the single biggest challenge facing all of us. We have to be clever with our client’s money but responsible.

We have to balance the wild and wacky with strategy. A smaller slice of the money pie means we have to make campaigns work harder. We can’t rely on just one medium. Incredible woolly thinking predominated media — one went into television and that was it. Consumers don’t just consume one medium a day — people are receiving messages all day and we need to plug into a consumer’s daily media map and design a strategy around that.

“Clients are usually far more innovative than we are, given that they are paying media planners to be ideas factories. You can’t sit still in this market as a marketer, and there are constant product changes, new products, line extensions and so on — why should it be different for media?”

Dovey also encourages media owners to be more creative and innovative when presenting opportunities to media planners and buyers.

Challenges

One of the biggest problems is the lack of headspace — quality, trained media specialists. Attrition in the industry is rife, with many experienced people being poached by clients and media owners, or emigrating. Media owners and clients also charge media agencies with a lack of investment in training quality people.

Patterson says media agencies have to participate in the industry through the Media Directors Circle (MDC) and through training, lecturing and so on. “People are our most valuable resource.”

Industry perception is that discounting is still rife and that discounts demanded from media owners by media agencies are often not passed onto the client. The only way to get around this, say both Dovey and Herber, is for clients to audit regularly, for transparency to be assured.

Herber believes the issues are relatively simple and apply to the entire industry, not just the media agencies: “There are plenty of nefarious ways to take advantage of discounts and kickbacks; clients must audit — it’s as simple as that. Regarding margins, the solution is to ask the client for a fee, not a percentage. That’s the most logical way to go and assists with formulating budgets and resources.”

“I think the making of media into a commodity is a mistake,” Herber adds. “Clients should be coming to a media specialist for a plan, rather than just for booking space. Media is an idea. It is not about where’ you advertise, it’s how you use the where’. Added value is achieved, not by bigger discounts but by better ideas.”

Herber says the consumer is sick and tired of straight advertising and clients are demanding “more bang for their buck”. The weakness in the industry as a whole is that very few ad agencies have realised this and remain centred on topical, issue-driven advertising instead.

“There is also the under-representation of people of colour,” says Patterson. We have not promoted media as a desirable profession to the industry as a whole, let alone the main population group. Media is one of those wonderful destinations within the ad process where you can make a visible difference.”

The next step? Clients will discern where they want to be and will all be out to pitch. Media agencies, instead of having relationships with clients through their creator/partner ad agency’, will be dealing with clients direct,’ emphasises Herber.

MDC Gauteng chair and Acuity media director, Janet Watermeyer, says media planning is like any other professional service — you get what you pay for. There is media “scheduling” and then there is strategically-smart media planning. I believe that smarter media planning flows from a tight association with strategy, and that outsourced media planning can be too removed from the process.

The media marketplace is changing rapidly. Media planners are faced with increasing media options, more uncertainty in making the right media choice and more accountability for delivering results to clients. There is also more benchmarking of what works in media, and consequently more copy-catting. Media planning is becoming an increasingly important function within the marketing process.”

Watermeyer emphasises that investing the client’s media rand effectively is not just about getting a good deal with a media owner. It is about aligning a media opportunity with the brand’s strategy and finding ways of doing things differently. The plan ner needs to find new media opportunities, or find new ways of using existing media options, in order to stand out from the competitive clutter in the marketplace. Media planning is more and more the driving force behind the delivery of a creative solution to a client’s advertising problem,” said Watermeyer

We live or die by the quality of our media product and there is no fall back; media buyers are the end of the line, we can’t hide behind an account executive or creative director,” Dovey quips.

The client perspective

By Steve Miller, National Brands marketing manager

The efforts of the ad industry to elevate the importance of the media discipline within the traditional agency have led to clients believing that media was indeed a crucial element and worthy of at least as much attention as the creative product itself.

It is a small step from this vantage point to believing that outsourced, independent media specialists may provide a superior and more objective media solution than media departments within ad agencies. The driving force behind this view is that many clients perceive that media still plays second fiddle to the creative departments, and brand fiscal discipline suffers as a result.

Perceptions aside independent media specialists have objectively much to offer from the client’s perspective.

Often there are financial inducements, such as lower media buying fees (although the days of cutthroat cost undercutting appear, thankfully, to be over). Then there are the benefits of media-only focus: media specialists, real attention to your brand portfolio, creative-neutral media solutions designed to best target the desired consumer and the willingness and ability to innovate. It also appears that some of the most qualified media practitioners have begun to gravitate to the media specialists, so the media skills are often superior to that of the average agency. Subjectively, it would appear that some of the bigger independents also appear to have qualitatively different relationships with some of the major media owners, relationships from which your brands often benefit.

None of these, traditional media departments would argue, are unique to media independents and they may be right. What media independents do offer the smaller to medium- sized client is, however, the ability to tailor a group of media specialists uniquely to your brand portfolio’s needs in a way unlikely in a normal agency, where brands fit agency structures, not the other way around.

Probably the most important benefit is logistical control if you are a client with more than one brand at more than one agency. No longer do you need to co-ordinate the media strategy, planning, buying and implementation tasks of myriad agencies across multiple brands, often liaising between the agencies of creative origination and the buying agency via your own media manager. You have just one point of contact, one focus of control, one body to hold accountable and responsible and one relationship to manage, and an overhead that is outsourced.

Ultimately the choice between traditional media department and independent media agency is up to the client — both have much to commend them but the fact that independent media agencies deliver and are here to stay, is irrefutable.

The media agency perspective

By Josh Dovey, Media Direction-OMD MD

There has been a quiet revolution in the media discipline over the past few years and nothing demonstrates this better than a conversation I had with a new client recently: “I knew you could buy well,” she said, “that’s why I came to see you. What I wanted to find out was what else you could do for me”

The fact is that advertisers are looking for media strategies that will enable them to talk to their customers, and cut through the 2 500 commercial messages we all receive every day, most of which do not register.

This problem is not new but whereas old-style media planning would simply provide a conduit for the creative work to be exposed to the consumer, we believe that our responsibility doesn’t end there. Great creative work will always be important in achieving the “cut through” but it should no longer have to work alone.

When Virgin Airways put a tray of eggs on the luggage carousel at Johannesburg International airport, the actual audience on the day was small in mass media terms. However, the cut through was instant, and the subsequent memory will reinforce the Virgin message whenever those people are exposed to any Virgin advertising in the future. There was also a considerable PR effect, just for good measure. This is a fine example of media planning merging with a creative idea.

Obviously, for most branded goods and services there is a requirement for mass communication, and you can’t run an entire campaign based on one-off wacky ideas. At the end of the day we have an enormous responsibility to spend clients’ money to achieve the best-balanced return. However, a clever media idea that is strategically sound can reinforce the main thrust of the campaign and bring it to life. The two are not mutually exclusive; in fact, they must be totally integrated.

The importance of this philosophy will grow more acute over time as advertisers do business in an increasingly complex world. New technologies are creating new channels of communication and distribution, and giving birth to a constant flow of new media opportunities. These must be assessed, interrogated, and the good ones integrated into the overall communication. Advertisers must also make the time to be part of the process — it’s always tempting to reject something different in favour of the trusted formula, but the way you talk to your customer, like anything else, must evolve.

The media owner perspective

By Giséle Wertheim-Aymes, TML Consumer Publishing GM

The challenge to perform in a market that has been in recession for the past three years places media owners and advertising agencies under huge pressure. Increasingly, the focus is on margin, and on driving margin through volume or value growth. Yet, advertising budgets are not growing to accommodate the multitude of media choices, nor are they keeping pace with media inflation.

With the continuing fragmentation of the market, media owners face perhaps the most serious challenges. Many of these can be met by being more flexible, innovative and intelligent about our offerings, and by proving our value.

Given that we accept that the onus of proof of worth rests with media owners, we take the hiring, training and keeping of the staff who represent us seriously. And when we don’t, we pay a huge penalty. We know we have to prove the value of our media to agencies and their clients.

It is therefore not unreasonable for us to expect that, as judge and jury, media decision-makers are qualified, skilled, trained and committed to making fair and transparent judgements on what we have to offer.

Yet, this is often not the case. Of concern is the growing number of good people leaving the media planning industry (often also the country). It is of critical importance that agencies keep good media planners and are focused on training up-and-coming talent to accepted norms of professionalism. We’ve had media directors and their staff not show up for a pre-arranged presentation in their own boardroom by our executives and editors.

Granted, there are great initiatives in the industry, such as the MASA training spearheaded by Virginia Hollis and her volunteers. However, I suspect that more media owners than agencies are sending personnel through the training.

Though we have a healthy respect for the agency’s role as custodian of the media strategy, and always try to avoid going direct to client, given the present context, it is sometimes suicidal not to pursue the ‘client direct’ strategy. For example, we have gone to the lengths of flying to Paris, France, to present our argument to a client (successfully) because the agency wouldn’t give our brand fair due. We know that, with the fragmentation of the media, planners are finding it impossible to see all media and do their jobs in reasonable working hours. I think these people are some of the hardest working I know. But recessionary times are not forgiving of these limitations. They demand results, so we cannot accept that we are not given our due.

The management of agencies have to take media more seriously and invest in these departments and people. By the same token, we fully accept our responsibility to invest in the staff we send to them with media opportunities. At the end of the day, agencies and media owners need to meet this challenge together in order to serve the interests of our mutual stakeholders... our clients and their brands.

From Marketing Mix website.