Well the season has only just ended but before the final whistle had gone this Sunday there have already been a host of transfer rumours circulating the papers and the internet, not least about the current state of Arsenal who have been widely tipped to lose a host of their players this summer. Whilst Arsenal seem to be giving away some of their best talent some of the not so promising youngsters are being kept on to see if one more season will improve them into the players Arsene Wenger want them to be. The problem is that if they haven't been able to cut it this season then without some Arsenal's best players they are unlikely to improve.
Lets start with who is tipped to go or who actually left.
Well the first big lose has been Mathieu Flamini to
The lose of Flamini seems to have sent a shockwave through
the side and if you believe everything you read in the newspapers there is a
cue outside Wenger's door of players asking to leave. Now whilst this may be
utter rubbish Alex Hleb has been strongly linked with a move away to join
Flamini in
Even worse could follow if Fabregas were to leave, this seem like nothing more than newspaper propaganda but if Hleb and Flamini were to leave then what is to stop Fabregas or anyone thinking that Arsenal aren't going to be challenging for honours next season. Without key players Wenger is either going to have to buy, which he seems reluctant to do, or put his faith in his youngsters once again, which has proven to be hit and miss. Again Emmanuel Adebayor has been linked with a move away, although he has denied that rumour this week. If Arsenal were to lose these four key players they would be unlikely to replace them over the summer or challenge for honours next season.
Another problem that rises out of this major problem facing Arsenal is that if they are to lose key players they will have to really on those who have been ineffective this season, I don't like to use the word failures cause that is too harsh. But the likes of Philippe Senderos, Gilberto, Emmanuel Eboue and Nicklas Bendtner have all had their moments but overall they have failed to impress and as such these are the kind of players Arsenal should be looking to off load and concentrate on keeping the players that helped them finish just five points behind Man Utd. Wenger is again going to have to pull another rabbit out of his hat if the Gunners are to at least challenge for any silverware next season.
Bet on who is going to win the title next season and who you think will leave in the summer at Betting.Betfair.com.
After having watched the drama of the last day of the Championship season unfold in front of me on Sunday I have come to the conclusion that whilst it will never boost the quality of the Premier League I did in fact find it more exciting to watch than any last day of the Premier League season.
Let me explain, firstly the game between Stoke and Leicester
may not have been the greatest game on the field but the fans made it into a momentous
occasions, momentous for
At the other end of the table who have believed that the
likes of
Reading an article by Phil McNulty on the BBC's sport
website defending the Premier League after Kevin Keegan's 'boring, but great,
leagues' comment yesterday has made me realise that while the Premier League
title is going down to the wire, it's between two clubs who you would have
guessed would have been up there at the start of the season. You can pretty
much dictate how the league is going to go before they kick-off in August. The
Premier League has become predictable with the same old sides rising to the
top, not so in the Championship this season where it could have easily been
Stoke or

That is what I love about football, the unpredictable side
of things, something which is slipping away in the top flight of English
football. It's why I have enjoyed the FA Cup more this year than any other, but
that competition lost its shine as soon as Manchester United decided to play in
some silly tournament in
Perhaps the Championship's biggest plus point is also its
downfall because, as the
I imagine that at this moment realistic
To steal a quote from a BBC news reports I saw earlier
today, City change their managers more regularly than people change their tooth
brush. Sven-Goran Eriksson may not be in the same league as Steve Coppell and
his 32 day reign but what
Place your bets on Sven being the next manager to get the sack here
I have had a copy of Sun Tzu's the art of war for years and every time I read it I keep thinking 'this is all about marketing'. But the problem is the text is just too confusing. So I'm going through the book and replacing terms like 'war' for 'marketing'.
As you will see, it makes for easier reading and greater comprehension. To give you an anchor point, I've put the original text adjacent to my hacked version, this way you can see if I'm keeping to the correct interpretation.
I hope you enjoy reading this series of posts as they roll out over the next week or 2.
Laying Plans. Understand the mechanisms of your marketing plan and use these carefully.
Waging a campaign. when you decide to go for it, be agile and don't get caught in a 'siege' situation
Approach by Strategem. This chapter is about understanding your competitor and knowing when to undertake your play for a given market.
Tactical Dispositions. Thinking on knowing when to make your move.
Energy. how once you gain momentum, you become like a "round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height"
How Customers Think | Book site | Amazon
You can argue that marketing is about influence for commercial benefit and this book, whilst not specifically internet or PR focused goes into the mechanics of how the mind works in relation to your message. For instance, the idea that a memory of an advert is actually in a memory 'soup': - with influences from your pre conceptions
- the circumstances you saw the ad in,
- the metaphors you use to associate with that product or service
By understanding a little more about how your brain works, you will get your message across more effectively
Connected Marketing | Book Site | Amazon
A collection of essays from 'savvy' marketers, where they analyze the connections between different media and they ways you can leverage them. It also goes into 'word of mouth marketing' and how this is so often neglected, yet is the commercial driver for so many businesses. If you're not familiar with the new frontiers of marketing, then this is well worth reading.
Cluetrain Manifesto | Book Site | Complete book (free)
Before there was web 2.0, there was Cluetrain. This book sets out a manifesto for how business should conduct its marketing in this new internet age. It's simple message: "markets are conversations". The idea of markets and conversations is played out is 1000's of blogs and forums, chat groups, review sites, where like minded people do something they have done for 1000's of years... give opinions.
And those opinions are listened to, hence the awesome commercial power of managing these conversations as well as possible. This piece of internet philosophy is a must read to all those who think has not really disrupted the old 'broadcast model' of marketing.
Unleashing the Ideavirus | Book Site | Amazon
A simple idea. Ideas are like viruses. The more easily they spread and the more momentum they have, the further they will travel and influence people. Its a lovely idea in principle, but in practice it takes a lot of skill and understanding to get this right. My view: Help people buy, don't sell, so customer is your king. Then you will come up with ideas which customers love, then ideas spead. Another term for an ideavirus is a 'meme' coined my Richard Dawkins.
Word of Mouth Marketing | Book Site | Amazon
Like the book title says, this about getting the word out and spreading it efficiently. It's a practical 'how to' book, going into the mechanics offline WOM. The relevant part for you is that good news can travel if you help it along. The downside: you have to have something people want... so doing a half hearted viral campaign or not having your customers real interests at heart will not wash. I thoroughly recommend it.
New rules of Marketing and PR | Book Site | Amazon
If you are a corporate and you are putting together a business case, then this book brings together a logical set of 'connections' between the myriad of online and offline places where your message could travel. It also re enforces the idea that if you speak honestly and compellingly, you will have the necessary credentials for this new PR landscape.
Herd | Book Site | Amazon
Humans are herd animals. On a deep level we reference each other and somewhere in our subconscious, we respond in combination with our environment and other humans. Hotmail, texting, Digg, Wikipedia, Facebook, 2nd Life are all examples of the herd mentality in us that follows the 'big idea' at any given time. This notion does not exclude the importance of mavens, connectors and hubs, but it simply adds another dimension to our understanding of how ideas and activities can spread across the internet.
Naked Conversations | Book site | Amazon
Robert Scoble helped open Microsoft to its most important influencers ( Geeks) by allowing their engineers to share on their insights and progress on Channel9 a video pod casting blog funded by Microsoft.He subsequently moved on and wrote this insightful book on how blogging can have a massively positive impact on a brand or a corporate entity. The subtext here is that people crave authenticity, finding it builds trust and that leads to stronger relationships between the provider and the customer. It's a close cousin to the Cluetrain Manifesto.
The session most relevant you (Online PR person) was:
Reputation Monitoring and ManagementI won't go into all the specifics, but the must useful points were:
If you are not talking with your customer base your customer base will be talking about you. This session will look at ways to monitor, manage, and influence your reputation within the blogosphere and press.
Use the right tools to monitor what is being said about you.
When something flares up (like a disgruntled customer ranting about you) get in there and do serious damage limitation.
When you want to spread a message, find the 'hub' sites and help them write about your product or service. Then if all goes well, these sites disseminate a story across the blogosphere and consequently your originating site will be ranked on the search engines.
The right tools:
(An extended list here: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/08/26-free-tools-for-buzz-monitoring.html)
Google blog search:
Does a great job indexing blogs and flagging up chatter about YOU
Google Alerts:
Same story, but to your inbox and it covers web, discussions, videos and of course blogs.
And then you have the more sophisticated tools like: this one from BlogPulse which tracks blog conversations between various blogs who link in between each other.
It is in effect an 'eco system' similar to this kind of thing (left: a diagram of a social network with a famous (deceased) person at its hub.
As you see, there are core influencers who influence others to a greater or lesser extent. The big blob in the middle is our main man here.
So to see this tool in action, you should have a look at these results:
Here is one for 'Pubcon' and another for 'Paypal' (not much happening here!) and 'Facebook' - hmmmm....very busy!
and how about a normal 'corporate' like Dell - for me the intersting bit is this :
- 11/16/2007 Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: Engadget)
- 11/16/2007 Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: Toys & Gadgets)
- 11/16/2007 Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: Component Apple)
- 11/16/2007 Dell's XPS ONE now on sale (from: BlogJunkies)
- 11/16/2007 Dell's XPS ONE now on sale - Engadget (from: BWOne.com)
- 11/16/2007 XPS ONE from Dell now available for purchase (from: CrunchGear)
- 11/19/2007 XPS One: New Dell All-in-One PC (from: Direct2Dell)
- 11/20/2007 Todos aman a Mac (from: Reymond Blog)
- 11/22/2007 XPS One - Beauty! (from: Andrew Lark)
How about this one for 'will it blend?' the you tube movies of a guy blending various things including an iphone.
- 11/25/2007 Guitar Hero: it shreds, and, yes, it blends (from: Engadget)
- 11/25/2007 Guitar Hero: it shreds, and, yes, it blends (from: Toys & Gadgets)
- 11/26/2007 Rock on, Ottawa-Gatineau! (from: Population of One)
- 11/27/2007 GNC-2007-11-27 #320 (from: Geek News Central Podcast)
- 12/03/2007 Blendtec (from: ANCPL's Blog)
The Message here is clear: reach online influencers with a good 'viral' message and your message will travel.
There is whole lot more I can talk about in reference to Pubcon, but I'll save that for another post.
