Samsung set to Challenge iPad - New Tablet Unveiled

Samsung has decided to go head to head with Apple. After launching it's own smart phone to rival the iPhone, now Samsung has developed it's own iPad which it promises to be a better option. The new device was unveiled at the IFA consumer electronics unlimited show in Berlin. Rumors have it that the new table will go for sale at as low as half the price of the iPad. Apple sells the iPad starting at £429. Data plans are then sold separately by mobile companies, including O2.

Image: Ipad on the left and the Samsung Tablet on the right

The Galaxy Tab, as Samsung has named it, has a seven-inch screen, making it smaller than the iPad. It runs on Google’s Android operating system, for which there are thousands of apps available, and can be used either with a wifi connection or on 3G, as long as the user has access to some sort of data plan.

Unlike the iPad, Samsung’s device is able to load web pages built using Flash. It also has a camera on the front and back, a feature not included on current models of iPad.

Moreover, users can continuously communicate via e-mail, voice and video call, SMS/MMS or social network with the optimised user interface.

Reports say that it could go on sale for as little as £200, although the company has not confirmed the pricing or the exact launch date. Samsung is only one of a number of tech companies that is entering the tablet computing market. Amongs other rivals are Binatone who revealed their model earlier this week (which however does not have 3G capability) and BlackBerry and Lenovo, who are set to unveil their option later on this year.

Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone has been a hit with consumers and reviewers. It has been promoted in a wide-ranging ad campaign, including television, outdoor and online.

Toyota is still not out of the woods

Toyota's problems might not have ended at all as it is considering the global recall of 300,000 Prius hybrid models as it is being claimed that these might be suffering from braking problems on icy roads.

A spokesman for Toyota in Great Britain said that the company is looking at all the customer feedback and data they have from US and Japanese bases. However for the time being the company hasn't yet decided what to do.

Should it be admitted that yet another problem has affected another Toyota model, it prove to be a huge blow to the Japanese automotive giant, which has already launched the recall of eight million vehicles suffering with an accelerator pedal fault.

Toyota is actively working on PR to help reassure consumers on the quality promise of the brand. These promotions have been launched five days after the marque rolled out a similar campaign in the US.

Toyota is closely monitoring customer opinions and concerns and no decision has yet been taken on whether to run further marketing activity later on this week. In my opinion, Toyota should not look at costs of marketing at the time being and go aggressive to reassure its current and potential clients. One must remember that Toyota is associated with quality and such link must be defended as it represents a competitive advantage for the brand.

VW overtakes Toyota in manufacturer battle

A constant battle exist on who is to become the leading car manufacturers in the world and the crown seems to be always changing hands...This year the people seem to have wanted a leader driving a small unassuming little VW bug.

The U.K.’s Guardian wrote that, "Volkswagen-Porsche has overtaken Toyota to become the world's largest car manufacturer as the German group benefits from state-backed stimulus packages around the globe." Volkswagen was reported to have produced a total of 4.4 million vehicles so far this year. This is about 400,000 more cars than its closes rival Toyota. This milestone was possible as Volkswagen took over Porsche earlier this year (after ironically Porsche failed in the attempt to buy Volkswagen).

Apart from this there were other economical factors that helped VW to overtake Toyota...for example Toyota has closed some plans this year and also by looking at the net gainers from the European support for buying new cars, Volkswagen was the leader.

The question is whether VW can keep the lead as Toyota has an estimated total capacity to produce 10million cars a year...what do you think?

Failing to Act is Acting to fail

It is interesting and at the same time a pity to read how a company can drive away huge clients and lose money without taking immediate action to tap the source of the problem. I'm speaking about Royal Mail and the strikes which have been on and off since last July. This left a sizable dent on the image of Royal Mail, a reliable postal partner, as well as its bottom line.

Two huge companies, Amazon.co.uk and ebay.co.uk have take action to avoid being caught in the issue both directly and indirectly. Whereas Amazon has decided to act directly (given that it contract the postal provider itself) ebay is using lobbying to try to diminish the impact that such strikes are having on sellers depending on Royal Mail.

It was announced that Amazon is searching an alternative mail partner that will ensure as minimal disruption as possible to its services in the run up to the Christmas period, which is seen as vital after the recession. This could lead to Royal Mail losing a contract of a reported value of about £25 million (Amazon is the second largest client of Royal Mail). Apart from this, one needs to consider the extensive damage that these strikes are having on the brand of Royal Mail. While companies are starting to look at alternatives (which will give a boost to competition), many customers are trying to avoid Royal Mail as it is slow and inefficient.

In my opinion, although the company should not give in to any request made by Unions (who sometimes use strike measures as a threatening tool), it must sit around a table with the representative of its employees and Unions and try to find a solutions as quickly as possible. The sooner this is done the less the harm Royal Mail will suffer...Should it decide to wait and see it might face a higher damage then if it gave in to union request.

P.S. This will be my last article for the next two weeks as I won't be having access to Internet...will see you soon.

Woolworths set for revival

I was reading an interesting article on the big brands which went bust during the credit crunch over the past year. I remember it all started with the fall of the banks and Woolworths. It was headline news everywhere, the big and long surviving brand lost it's battle...however the economy is recovering and new stores are opening again...it was here that I read that even Woolworth's is being reopened (in it's brick and mortar format) and it seeks to relaunch under the new name 'Alworths'. Could this be the proof of the end of the recession?

The idea is the brainchild of former Woolworths commercial director Tony Page, former UBS banker Gareth Thomas and former Woolworths store development manager Andy Latham.The Independent claims the plan is set for the launch of 50 stores, which will be Woolworths in all but name.

However problems started to merge as Page will not be involved in the new launch and is now threatening legal action against Latham who is set to launch the store on his own. According to the Indipendent, Alworths stores are set to open in Didcot in Oxfordshire, Faversham in Kent and Wokingham in Berkshire. The new chain will not be able to sell Woolworths' former own-brand products which have been bought by various chains including Argos (which bought Chad Valley toy range) and Shop Direct (which bought the Ladybird childrenswear brand).

Tesco Model found to be an illigal immigrant

Fatou Cham, a checkout girl (checkout number 6, Tesco, east London) was picked by Tesco to model for a glossy advertising blitz however she was later exposed as being an illegal immigrant.

Ms. Cham came to the UK from Gambia in 1998 on a student visa (studying banking, economics and finance at London Metropolitan University) however stayed after it expired in 2001.

Ms. Cham was chosen to model for the Florence and Fred clothing range by Tesco from a pool of hundreds of hopefuls for an ad campaign used in women's magazines. The advert showed Ms Cham modelling in a blue dress with the words below the image saying "Designed by F&F. Priced by Tesco. "

Immigration officers questioned her at her home in East Ham, east London, on Monday. She was quoted to say that she was excited to be chosen for the Tesco campaign and had hoped it would bring her other opportunities. However everything went wrong.

How do you think this might affect Tesco's image?

Employees criticise customers on Facebook

Brands invest hefty sums of money in PR to try to improve their image in the eyes of the consumer and make them shop more however DSGi, the parent company of PC World and Currys, was surprised to learn what was going on, on Facebook.

A Facebook group named DSGi Employees appeared on Facebook and it had quite opend conversations between DSGi staff with contemptuous comments about the chain's customers. In this group the employees provide ample criticism towards customers, with discussions ranging from 'Chatting up customers....' to 'Arsehole customers!', 'Really Stupid Customers!' and 'Some customers are really really stupid.....'. The group itself points out that it isn't a group for those who love and adore DSGi, just one for people who work/have worked for the same company. The group ask visitors to bear in mind that this is an UNOFFICIAL Dixons Stores Group plc, Discussion forum/Community, any views/opinions expressed on this page by either the group creator or it's members are those of the individuals only and not of DSGi plc or any of its affiliates."

Similar staff mutterings on Facebook have resulted in employee discipline, including Virgin Atlantic, which launched an 'investigation' after staff were found badmouthing their customers last year. In July, Primark promised to probe its staff after several employees posted "malicious" Facebook comments about customers, calling them fat, pikeys, and twats.In January, Waitrose and Tesco also launched investigations following the revelation that some employees had posted abusive comments about customers on various Facebook groups.

I believe this event further proves the need for companies to monitor forums and social media as it must make sure that such occurrences are minimised and promptly tackled. How much do you believe such comments left by employees of these companies leave would have on you if you were a customer of these companies?

Look beyond the wrapper...Maoam story

I was reading some articles on the net and came across a very interesting article...have you ever come across the sweet label Maoam? If yes you should read the following article:-

The Haribo brand did not go down well to a shopper who noticed that the wrapper illustrations appeared to depict pieces of fruit engaged in sexual activity. The complaint was made public by various media including The SUN and The Daily Mail. Mr. Simon Simpkins from West Yorks said he had a "heated exchange" with the shop manager when he saw Maoam's wrappers.

All Maoam wrappers feature a lime character close to, or holding, different items of fruit depending on the sweet's flavour. Mr. Simpkins went for the lemon flavour, however when he looked at the wrapper, the image was quite interesting...but at the same time shocking. He said: "The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter. The lime, who I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face."

Honestly by analysing the wrappers and try to look at them in different light you might say that Mr. Simpkins is actually right. Have a look at the cherry flavour packaging which is even funnier. It features Mr Lime "tasting" a cherry while another one watches.

According to Haribo the wrapper design was introduced in 2002 and was an attempt to make the wrappers "more lively". It denied there were any sexual connotations intended in the illustrations. Haribo did also confirm that they received the complaint from Mr. Simpkins and published the email.

After having read all this what do you think? Do you think that brands use these imagery as subliminal cues or do people try to interpret images in their way?

Sexual Connotation in adverts...does it really pay off?

There is a new soft drink advert going round online and it's now being banned from YouTube. It is being claimed by many that that the promotional video is taken from a banned German advertising campaign for Sprite.

The TV ad opens with a shot from behind of a girl performing oral sex on man. While she's at it, she starting thinking and then she stops to say she would like a Sprite whereupon the ad cuts to a side-on shot of her sucking the bottle before it is explodes over her face. The ad uses the Sprite endline of 'Obey your thirst'.

The ad was quickly pulled from YouTube at the beginning of the week, with the site initially blaming copyright infringement. I managed to find a copy for you on this site as a person managed to download it and post a copy online (http://asheq.co.uk/2009/07/22/sucking-sprite-off).

Eventually director of the advert Max Issacson came forward and admitted the ad was actually intended as an experiment to see how many people would be fooled into thinking it was real.

This advert was not the first advert of its type, Perrier had made a very similar ad back in 1976 and it is basically exactly the same as the Sprite one, but without the blow job. This goes to say that the idea is not new...however what do you think such ads pay?




In my opinion, they are very valuable if one wants to produce a lot of PR however one must be really careful with the potential damage that this could cause to the brand.

Brand Names Lost in Translation

International branding and marketing is very important and crucial to the expansion of a company. Given such importance, companies must take it very seriously and an aspect which has to be thoroughly studied is culture and language. Today I met another classic case of a company creating a brand without actually paying too much attention to this concept. If a brand decides to go international it must also make sure that the brand carries the same message all around and that there are no negative connotations to a brand name.

The latter example related to gas giant Gazprom's new joint venture with Nigerian firm NNPC. The two firms decided to call the joint venture Nigaz. While tit's quite easy to deduce from where the name originates; a conjunction of the words "Nigeria" and "gaz", English speakers seeing the word written down find that the brand name has a strange resemblance to a slang racist word..

Incredulous Twitter users quickly spread the story around, dubbing it a branding fail and prompting a number to suggest Nigaz should adopt a strap line along the lines of "gas with attitude".

As I said previously this is not the first failure at creating an international brand. The most classic example is the Vauxhall Nova, however other examples exist... Mitsubishi was forced to change the name of its SUV model the Pajero in Spain, where the term means 'wanker'. Starbucks opted to stick with the term 'latte' when it launched it's coffee shop brand in Germany, to the amusement of locals. While the word "latte", which translated in English means means 'milk', is translated to German Slang it actually means 'erection'.

A simple translation error meant that a Parker Pen ad run in Mexico ended up promising consumers that it would not "leak in your pocket and make you pregnant", which is at least a more honest promise than Pepsi's "come alive with the Pepsi generation" slogan, which famously ended up meaning "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead" when it was translated to Taiwanese and marketed in Taiwan.

Chinese translations are difficult too and in fact are fraught with difficulties - Kentucky Fried Chicken's "finger lickin' good" managed to come out as "eat your fingers off".

No matter how much we stress the importance of having a brand name or strap line which carries no bad connotations in any language you intend to market in, companies still continue to make this newbie mistake. It's vital to take care of these things although some companies might be tempted to make the mistake on purpose to get some free PR.

Ryanair to take low cost to a new Level

I was searching for flight ticket yesterday and accidentally I found an article on Ryanair...honestly I could not believe what I was reading and in fact diverted my research from one on flights to one specifically on Ryanair. Read through the following article and let me know what you think....

In a drive to cut down costs, Ryanair is hoping to axe 90% of its baggage handlers and instead allow passengers to carry their own luggage to the plane.

The move has been met with dismay by the airport industry amid concerns that it will make the already tedious security check in process even longer. There is also concern that travellers with bulky luggage to carry are unlikely to splash so much cash in Duty Free. This will enable Ryanair to cut down about £44 million in luggage handling fees.

Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary, commented: ‘What it means is no more waiting at the carousel, no more losing your bags, no more wasting your life in over-priced airport terminals.'

Budget airline Ryanair will be taking no-frills to new levels as it also has plans to to introduce a charge of £1 for the use of toilets onboard. As reported by the Telegraph, Michael O'Leary justified this charge by hinting that lead to fewer people needed to use the toilets and so Ryanair could provide fewer cubicles and put in more seats, therefore cutting prices for all.

Courtesy of: http://aviationgazette.blogspot.com/

Additionally during an interview on Sky television while discussing the airline's cost-cutting measures, Mr Randall (the interviewer) asked Michael O'Leary if he would charge for sick bags. Mr O'Leary replied: "Yes."Although it is unclear if the airline boss was teasing his host, this would once more lead to a new low cost level....what could be next?

Company Launches Mobile Phone for Kids

Firefly is a brand of Mobile Phones that has sought to detach itself from the main stream mobile user and has sought to develop mobile phones specifically for children. The company has already made available two handsets in the US and is now seeking to grow and expand into Europe.

These phones have the ability to take pictures, record videos, listen to MP3 files and play games, which nearly all other mobile phone have however it has the added feature that enables parents put controls on the phone. Parents can restrict who can be called from the phone, who can call the phone as well as controlling how much is spent.

Although figures show that more than half of children in the UK aged from five to nine years old already have mobiles, the launch of Firefly has spurred criticism from those worried about the erosion of childhood, as well as the health implications. Children are being introduced to the adult world faster and this could be affecting their future quality of life.

The phone will be debuting on the European Scene in the UK where they will be distributed by by Kevin and Frances Crean. The couple say on their website, www.fireflymobile.ie, that they were inspired to find a handset suitable for their children after a health scare involving their daughter when she was away at camp. They have also opened a discussion board on their website to welcome any comments.

Although as stated earlier the mobile phone owning age is decreasing, governments such as that of the UK still advise parents to avoid giving phones to under 16s.

Qualities that an innovative product should have

I always like to surf the net for in search of something innovative...that stands out of the crowd and something from which each and everyone can learn. I can across a very interesting article reviewing a likely innovative and interesting product.

It is well known that now a days the market for promotional products is over saturated and companies tend to sell the same promotional stuff. However brand owners hunting down promotional products are now a days looking to satisfy two main criteria:- the product must stand out from the crowd and must have plenty of use. Well Brightbutton's Willie Wetsuit is certainly going to cover all of these requirements.The following section describes the product in terms of it's use and it's innovativeness.

Use: As far as promotional products got he Willie Wetsuit is primarily a keyring....a keyring with a difference as is designed to hold a condom. Hence it meets the first criteria of being a useful product. The Wetsuit can hold from one to three units.

Branding: The suits come in a choice of seven colours and there is 60mmx30mm of space on the back to place branding. The promotional message can also be printed in four colours so there is plenty of flexibility.

Overall: Well the product is certainly different, but will it get the same exposure as pens and mouse mats? Brightbutton market the Wetsuit as a fun way of promoting safe sex. However from a poll that was done another company it was found that many females wouldn't be impressed with a potential mate especially if they saw what the keyring contained and thought the best place for a condom was in a wallet. Overall the product is bound to be picked up as well as remembered and hence it serves all the requirements for a successful product.

Very Innovative Stealth Marketing Campaign...you must read!

I was sitting at home in front of my laptop and I was searching for innovative marketing campaigns when I came across the new advert series by Procter & Gamble...It is a very unusual campaign for Procter & Gamble and in fact from what I could find it was only launched of a blog....maybe to test people's reaction to it.

I found a blog featuring a series of short short films about a schoolboy who one day wakes up with "girl parts" instead of "boy parts". The videos show you the problems this guy faces in adapting to the menstruation cycle and finally when the D-Day arrives how this guy deals with the issue. I was quite amazed at this viral campaign and continued to search for the marketer behind this stealth campaign when I found it was none other than Procter & Gamble's Tampax.

Since April Procter & Gamble has been quietly promoting Tampax tampons through the blog www.zack16.com, which features a series of regularly updated short films, starring Zack Johnson.

As of this week, the most viewed of nine online videos produced had been seen fewer than 6,000 times on YouTube, though it's had a few thousand additional views on such sites as StupidVideos.com. The fictitious Mr. Johnson also has a Twitter account, @ZackJohnson16, with 949 followers.

Koogle a new search engine

I was surfing the net and for new stuff on the net and came across this really interesting article and I said why not share it with all of you...

A web portal called Koogle has launched with the aim of giving orthodox Jews the ability to search the net without breaking any Torah commandments. 'Koogle' is a pun on search engine Google and the traditional Jewish dish 'kugel'. The Hebrew language-site is split in to sections including news, a market place for people to sell second-hand goods and a business directory for everything from Kosher restaurants to bridal wear.

The website is very targeted however there are already some concerns about whether the real market exists. The guide of the website says that it will also filter out items that ultra-orthodox followers are not allowed to have in their homes, such as televisions. However in this case, would ultra-orthodox who are not allowed to have TV be allowed to connect to the Internet and more so, own a PC?

The site is designed to meet guidelines set down by orthodox rabbis, ensuring that no sexually explicit material is shown.

The site will also not allow transactions on the Sabbath, when it is forbidden to work or undertake business.

Let's wait and see whether this will actually be the new trend for search engines and whether the new niche marketing strategy will take off...

Examples of how Failing to use Social Networking may lead to PR Blunders

I was reading a number of articles and came across this really interesting article written by Mr. Graham Charlton on the 8th of June 2009 and that shows how companies can misuse Social Networking.

A number of brands have fallen foul of social media over the last few years, either due to lack of understanding of how information spreads online, or by attempting to manipulate the system and getting caught out.

The listed ten examples show the reaction of companies who have suffered PR nightmares online, in most cases the bad publicity has come via social media sites...

Ryanair

After a blogger criticised a flaw in the airline's online booking process, staff from the airline left several childish and insulting comments in response to the post. To make matters worse, after the episode was publicised around the web, the company issued a statement saying that 'it is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won’t be happening again.'

Domino's

The video showing Domino's employees doing all sort of disgusting stuff to the food they were preparing went viral on YouTube (mentioned in an earlier post on this blog), and was a PR nightmare for the company. The company did what it could by posting a video response on YouTube, though some found the delivery by President Patrick Doyle less than perfect (the video did not have the same viral effect as the initial one posted on YouTube).

Belkin

A Belkin employee was caught red handed offering to pay other Amazon Mechanical Turk users to write positive reviews of one of its products on the site. These reviews were especially unconvincing given the fact that the router in question had several bad reviews already, making the positives stick out like a sore thumb. The paid reviews have since been removed.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey left a bunch of anonymous postings about rival company Wild Oats before being rumbled, causing a great deal of embarrassment for him and his company. The same CEO apologised to shareholders afterwards, but the damage was done.

Wal-Mart

The company was outed in 2006 after a blog chronicling a duo's travels across America while camping in Wal-Mart car parks turned out to have been the work of PR firm Edelman.

Amazon

After removing books with adult content, including Brokeback Mountain and Lady Chatterly's Lover, from its bestseller lists, Amazon was subjected to a torrent of bad publicity on Twitter and elsewhere. The company blamed a glitch but didn't directly respond on Twitter.

Kodak

Kodak recently decided to charge an annual fee for storing photos in its online Gallery, and though it claimed to have emailed everyone concerned, some were clearly surprised when their photos started to vanish. Obviously the company received lots of bad publicity for the company on Twitter.

Target

US retailer Target got itself some bad publicity in the New York Times last year after dismissing a complaint from a blogger about one of its ads with the phrase: 'we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets'.

Just months before, the company was outed for encouraging Facebook users, who were receiving various freebies, to praise the company on the site. Was this a nontraditional media outlet?

Neal's Yard


The retailer of organic products pulled out of an online debate as part of The Guardian's 'You ask, they answer' feature. It seems the company didn't like the question concerning the withdrawal of one of its products last year; a homeopathic remedy for malaria.

As pointed out here, this refusal to engage is not the way to deal with criticism online, and represents a PR failure for the firm. In this way to leave users to draw up their own conclusions.

ExxonMobil

An example of why companies should own their social media profiles, and monitor sites like Twitter comes from ExxonMobil. Someone calling herself Janet set up an account on the site in the company's name and managed to fool plenty of people before the account was taken down.

All these examples are just a snippet of all examples that one might find about Companies failing to use social media effectively to correct or respond to blunders. In this way they let users draw up their own conclusions and possibly offer a the possibility to competitors to have their say too!

Apple plans price cut to boost demand

I was planning to upgrade my mobile phone and was looking at what's available on the market before venturing to any brick and mortar store. While browsing for news about the Apple iPhone I came across a very interesting news which, if confirmed, will probably have me waiting a little bit more before upgrading.

Apple is planning to expand it market share in the smart phone market as it is thought that next Monday it will be announcing the launch of its new iPhones which will be priced at around $50 or $100 less than the current US iPhone price of $199.

Apple currently accounts to about about 11 per cent of the world’s smart phones market, trailing behind Nokia’s 41 per cent volume and Research in Motion’s 20 per cent, according to Gartner figures from the first quarter.

The news, of the new cheaper iPhone is expected to be divulged by apple during the developer conference, a conference which Apple usually uses to introduce most of their products. However till today, Apple has declined to comment the news which has been widely reported in all international media. The much awaited conference, begins on Monday with a keynote speech by senior vice-president and marketing chief Phil Schiller. Reports are also spreading that during the conference it will also be announced that founder Steve Jobs is planning to return to work after a period of medical leave.

Coming back to the new iPhone, with the price reduction of $100 Apple is expected to increase demand by 100%. The production of the new iPhone is expected to start in July. While iPhone and Apple enthusiasts will be longing to see the latest product from Apple, competitors such as Palm (which was famous for its PDAs in the 90s and is aiming to revive its fortunes and take market share from Apple) will not be very happy to hear this news.

I believe that the latest price cut could lead the mobile market to grow again as users start switching from less functional mobile phone sets to the latest and now cheaper Smart Phones.

Facebook to introduce Payment Gateway

I was searching for news about Facebook as we as I had read that it had sold about 1.5% to a Russian Company (Digital Sky Technologies) for $200m so as to raise more finances. I came across an article that is very interesting. Facebook has begun tapping a new revenue stream as it seeks to introduce an internal payment system. This will enable it to reduce it's reliance on advertising and to start earning commissions on payments. This has been long awaited and it will enable Facebook users to be able to buy credits that can then be used to buy virtual goods from third party applications running on Facebook.

This revenue structure mimics that of Second Life where developers can start developing virtual items that can then be bought by users to customise their Facebook experience. Second Life was a success as hardcore users where buying property and furnishings to create a virtual life. An example of the potential of Facebook is Zynga, the largest applications developer on Facebook, with 42m users using their games. It is believed that they make nearing $100m in annual sales. Together, developers working on Facebook’s platform are expected to make more than $500m this year perhaps even more than Facebook itself.

Facebook hopes that by offering a site-wide currency it will encourage more commerce on the website. By serving as the payment provider, it will capture a percentage of every transaction. The payment portal will serve the same purpose as PayPal is for Ebay Inc. The percentage profit is small but over time, this will be very significant.

Social Networking sites and now even the mini blog site, Twitter, are suffering from a real problem...they have a huge following but they cannot find a proper revenue generation method. This will give them more possibility as a specialised payment gateway exists to help them monetise on their services.

Could this be the end of an all free service? Social Networking sites need to be really careful with this as they depend on a large userbase and if these sites become too focused on revenue generation they may alienate their user. The right balance needs to be struck.

Vive México a new campaign to promote tourism

Mexico has been hardly hit by the Swine flu crisis as tourism figures have been falling dramatically. In fact I have been looking at tourism resorts in the country and the prices are really reasonable...I was really attracted to the place and was even considering a bargain holiday in South America but I'm still somewhat doubtful...possibly I have been influenced by the swine flu phobia.

This decline in tourism has led the government to take immediate action. President Felipe Calderón launched the Vive México promotion and communication campaign that will have unprecedented Federal Government investment of 1.2 billion pesos.

In a truly motivational speech, President Calderón described the Vive México campaign as a “true national movement" that requires the participation of all Mexicans, particularly the most outstanding ones who have shown the most talent." He invited every Mexican to let tourist know that going to Mexico is a great experience as Mexico has a lot to offer in term of culture and natural beauty.

Apart from this, resorts are being urged to offer discounted prices to locals so as to try to stimulate internal demand for the tourism sector. This could partly diminish the effect of the fall of international demand. At the same time, figures from the artistic, sports and cultural world will promote Mexico's tourist resorts both within the country and in the rest of the world while the media will disseminate Vive México.

Will the locals support this campaign and help Mexico revive itself and attract more tourists? We'll wait and see and in the meantime I will continue to look for bargain holidays...if anyone has any suggestions please let me know

Motorola and Beckham...their marriage may not be a perfect one afterall

This week has been a very hectic one as my PC was infect from a deadly worm! I am still without my laptop so I had to revert back to my PC...While searching for ways how to destroy the worm I came across this very interesting article....

As you know PR is an essential part of a company's marketing campaign and having a very famous brand personality is a big plus. A few months ago Motorola signed up David Beckham to launch their new £1,400 Motorola Phone...a big name for a high ticket item.

Unfortunately for both Becks and Motorola something has gone wrong! Becks is in hot water after pictures showing the former England captain tapping away on an iPhone hit the web. Italian paparazzi who are famous for their undercover techniques managed to find the scoop of the month.

The paparazzi caught Becks red handed while eating out alone in a restaurant in Milan. He was actively playing with his toy...surprise, surprise...it was an Iphone! As soon as he noticed the paparazzi he sheepishly hiding it under the table, but it was too late!

Englands captain has been the face of Motorola since 2006, and has signing a multi-million pound agreement including his latest Terminator campaign for the new Motorola.

After this gaffe, it is still unclear whether Motorola will take any actions against it's brand personality for using competing products...who knows, Becks might be considered a normal person and as such is attracted by Apple's gadgets