So how did Myspace and new owner Rupert Murdoch react? Well, it didn’t. They offered new products, namely Myspace TV which didn’t ever gain YouTube like traction. Whilst it still existed as a social networking site, they didn’t listen to their community of loyal users or even try to recapture its lost audience. They didn’t remove the spam, clean up the clutter or add new features. They just carried on. Fast-forward to 2008 and Facebook had overtaken Myspace as the site of choice in most countries except the US. Myspace now only had one up on its rival; music. Instrumental in launching the careers of artists like Lily Allen - it was so well placed to create an amazing platform for musicians and personalities that Facebook had failed to do. Yet it didn’t. Even when Myspace Music arrived, it just wasn’t good enough.

This month, when Facebook officially caught up with Myspace in the US, redundancies struck. This seemed to be the final wake up call. Today, Techcrunch UK reported Myspace is about to lay off 2/3 of its international staff along with closing a string of offices. The report goes on to say London, Sydney and Berlin will remain as central hub offices. This is smart - we know as much as 60% of European ad spend comes out of London. This will help with a short term strategy, though long term I imagine the changes will not have such a drastic effect. I can bet my life that stuffy management who failed to innovate over the years will remain, yet the young talent who have worked so passionately will be the first to go. This will be the saddest thing of all.

What did Facebook do so right? Like Google before it, Mark Zuckerberg and team have a built a strong and powerful product to a point where the consumer experience is unrivaled. It was only at this point that they began to monetize their hard work. They are still not quite there in terms of offering the perfect product to a global advertising market, though with public pages and a more real-time approach, they are not far off.

So, what can Myspace do now? Let’s not forget it is still owned by one of the biggest media companies in the world. It’s not going anywhere fast. It failed to capitilise on its first mover advantage and now it’s too late for them to compete as a social network. It’s no longer ‘A place for friends.’ However, It’s not too late to take advantage of its youthful appeal and its glaringly obvious niche; music. The 125 million or so remaining members will also help. Brands and agencies have always spent more on Myspace than Facebook simply because it provides better branded opportunities, especially around its content. Fox has no shortage of this. Now is the time to change.

John Wooden said it best “It is not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”

To make sure we provide the best experience possible, The London Media Poker Night on Wednesday 13th May will take place at London’s exclusive Hospital Club in Covent Garden.

Doors open at 6.45 and cards will be shuffled and dealt at 7pm sharp.

Entrance is FREE to members and non-members but admittance is strictly by guest list only – LIMITED to 30 spaces.

Buy-in to be decided on the night – There will be a game for all levels including a free table.

Address: 24 Endell Street, London, WC2H 9HQ

Make your guestlist application by contacting Alistair Crane:

E: cranealistair@gmail.com

SMS: 07886 465 471

Tweet: @adfundal

Now (no pun intended) Spring and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco have extended the theme to a TV aired in the States during Fox’s 24. “We are trying to give a face to the network and talk about the fact that Sprint understands this whole consumer need of having things now,” said Mike Goff, vp of national advertising at Sprint.

See the creative below and visit the updated mini-site.

Green Eyed World follows the life adventure of Katie Vogel, a talented girl with a green guitar, killer tunes and big dreams. Each week, the new episode is your backstage pass into the music business as Katie travels through different cities and countries in search of fun, freedom, fans and friends.

Powered by Sprite, Green Eyed World is an exclusive, one-of-a-kind social interactive show in which you get the chance to tell Katie what you think through simple vote and comments. Whether or not she listens to you is yet to be seen, but her decision combined with your input inspire her real life choices.

One of a kind social interactive show? I’m not so sure about that - we’ve all seen the success of Bebo’s Kate Modern, however its true innovation lies in being the first channel to integrate Facebook Connect with YouTube. Visitors can comment and vote using their existing Facebook accounts instead of YouTube’s own commenting system. It work’s pretty well, though it does leave me thinking YouTube’s involvement in this campaign exists solely because Facebook is yet to provide a decent platform for advertisers and branded content.

“With this show, Sprite shifts from creating the perfect branded content to content that perfects the brand,” explains Stafford Green, Head of Digital Marketing Europe for the Coca-Cola Company. “Instead of repeating single messages in traditional media, Sprite supports these new experiences and deep storytelling to communicate our core brand values over time. It’s a fresh advertising model. And everyone wins: the Artist, the Brand and the especially the audience — getting free on-demand, truly interactive content without commercial interruption.”

‘It’s a fresh advertising model’ - Hmm, again this has been done time and time before. Sprite’s announced marketing plan below suggests this will be a significant activity for them in 2009.

- Pan-European YouTube Partnership with homepage presence in five languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian and German) with expected reach of millions of contacts

- Outdoor/Indoor displays (Billboards, Point of Sale…)

-Special packaging on Sprite cans in selected European countries

- Global diffusion of the series (mobile, legal peer-to-peer sharing, social networks, potential traditional television broadcasts & related TV commercials)

- Live Events/Artist Showcases (London, New York, TBA…)

- Green Eyed World promotional merchandising

Despite the substantial marketing investment, I can’t help but think this campaign will have more impact and value for Katie than it will the brand. However, this is fine by me. I’ve quitely followed Katie’s career over the last few months and she is incredibly talented. This activity provides a massive platform for her to grow her global fan base - an awesome opportunity for any upcoming artist!

Good luck Katie…

Check out the channel and Katie’s songs here.

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As part of it’s 25th Anniversary celebrations, Virgin Atlantic is launching a new show, PitchTV, which will air onboard and will also be available online here.

We’re now inviting entrepreneurs in search of investment and exposure for their business ideas to upload short video pitches.

The community here will vote for their favourite video pitches and each month, the winning videos will feature as part of Virgin Atlantic’s PitchTV show which will air on their inflight entertainment system – gaining exposure to the hundreds of business professionals who regularly fly Virgin Atlantic. Anyone interested in hearing more about the most popular entrepreneurs’ business ideas will then be able to get in contact and maybe help take their ideas further.

When I was starting out, I wish I could have had the chance to pitch my business ideas directly to people who could help make my ambitions a reality. We can now make that happen for you.

If you’re a budding entrepreneur, we’re giving you the unique opportunity of getting your ideas by top business professionals from around the world on board Virgin Atlantic planes as well online here.

Who knows – among the viewers might be someone with the power to bring your idea to life.

All you have to do is film yourself delivering the very best pitch possible, but make sure it’s no longer than 2 minutes. Then simply upload your video pitch here.

Each year, I will also personally select my favourite pitch, and the winner will receive a very special prize which I’ll reveal more details about later on…

In the meantime, get your 2 minute pitches together, film them, upload them and may the best pitches get the exposure they deserve!

Good luck!

Sky 1 and The Simpsons have recreated the adidas House Party advert. Adidas comments “As they say, imitation is the best form of flattery, so we tip our hats to Sky 1, Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa and Maggie for their celebration of originality.”

Making Cash From a Bird: Twitter Revenue Model

I think their considered (or delayed…) approach to making cash is at worst, interesting and at best, incredibly wise.

They have their funding, they are mapping their run rate VERY carefully and they have a whole load of options.

My interest around the whole ‘Twitter making money’ saga doesn’t centre around the company itself  but more around the countless journo’s, bloggers and so-called ‘industry experts’ who have been speculating, in my opinion wrongly, about how this rising star of new media will make its billions.

So many who should know better have gone away and written poxy attempts at modelling revenue based on a display ad model - Whether they talk about indescriminate banners, buttons and MPU’s or ‘contextually relevant’ PPC ads placed in and around tweets.

The models around paid subscriptions are even worse - This is all SO WRONG.

Twitter needs to play to its strengths - Users like the service because it is free and doesn’t carry any ‘clutter’… no ads confounding you into accidentally clicking or encroaching on your privacy by seemingly ‘reading’ your tweets and marketing accordingly.

Twitter does not offer a new platform which creatives can use to pioneer exciting brand campaigns, actually quite the opposite - Twitter uses a simple user interface to enable and encourage short (and often opinionated) comments, conversations and information exchanges.

Ultimately, the service carries massive amounts of real-time data, which if put into context, can be invaluable in providing research in the form of customer feedback, user reviews, word of mouth spreading (+ve/-ve) and much more.

The real value Twitter has to offer brands and agencies and therefore where it would make most money in the shortest possible time is strongly centered around providing timely insight on any given subject - I am well aware that there are 3rd party tracking services which you can set to monitor certain key words and similar but what I am talking about is a Twitter-built dashboard enabling the simple monitoring of words and trends with the ability to drill into more complex detail at the click of a button.

Think about mapping +ve/-ve user commentary against their twitter ranking (those with more followers being more powerful), assessing the value of a tweet to a user (the more frequently a user tweets, the more diluted each tweet becomes) and perhaps most importantly, being able to apportion location to a conversation - It’s great that people are talking about your product positively, but if they are all in NYC and you’re launching in London then perhaps you should reasses your strategy… see where I’m going with all this?

Once you have isolated the users you want to target based on their tweets/followers/locations, there is then a value in using display/direct marketing opportunities to communicate with them - But ONLY once you have assessed the data first.

There are clear signs that research and insight tools are becoming more crucial to the way agencies and their clients conduct their campaigns and that means more money for companies providing these services - Sir Martin Sorrrell’s recent $25M investment into Omniture stands as testament to this trend.

So, let’s stop all this silly talk about banners, buttons, text links and alike - The display model was nowhere near perfect to start with, why impose a legacy concept onto an emerging platform when you could totally revoloutionise the way brands view the value of a conversation.

Rory Sutherland talks very highly of an innovative service called Fizzback, I say Twitter is already carrying the information marketers so desperately seek, they are merely lacking the tools to collate and interpret.

Twitter, go forth and innovate.

Onwards and upwards.

Andreas Hilger, the marketing director of InBev UK and Ireland, said: “The strong cinematic look will appeal to film buffs who know their cinematic history, as well as to the wider public, and will not disappoint those who have come to expect something very special from Stella Artois.”

Watch the trailer below and see all 3 films at SmoothOriginals.com