Google Chrome, is it a Browser or is it a Platform

I’ve been listening to all the talk about Google Chrome, the cool little demonstration videos and the EULA back tracking and find it all very interesting.

I have to say I haven’t used Chrome yet but that’s okay because this isn’t a product review.

I’m most interested because everyone is calling Chrome a Browser and I’m not sure it is.

John C Dvorak, has said he thinks this will lead to a Google operating system but I’m not sure this isn’t the operating system itself, loosely anyway.

Maybe I’m linking elements together incorrectly but for me you have to consider 3 elements and the impact they will have on the Technology Industry and beyond.

First, Google Apps, essentially a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Why bother with Microsoft Office if you can have all your applications on the Internet and using Google’s computing power rather than you own.

This is what is being called ‘the cloud’, Apple have their MobileMe platform allowing you to store your files on the Internet so that you can access them from anywhere.

All of these services are trying to achieve the same thing, use the Internet more, use it for storage, processing, synchronisation etc.

Secondly, there is Internet access and generally it is getting quicker and more available away from your office or home; there is WiFi, WiMax, 3G etc

Third there are the devices themselves. Asus Eee PC, the really small PC using a Linux based operating system. With this you don’t get a huge amount of power but it’s very portable and hey if your going to use Google’s Servers for your processing needs why do you want a big laptop when a small one will do.

Also there is the iPhone, which I’m using to write this post, or Google Android or whatever the competition comes up with in the future. These devices are pretty much connected to the Internet or could be 24 7.

So put them all together and what you get is ultra small and ultra mobile devices which are incredibly powerful (they have the power of Google’s servers) and they are constantly connected to the internet for browsing, email, letters and reports, spreadsheets, presentations or data access.

You can choose a pocket sized smart phone or a more traditional laptop style or indeed an ultra mobile, a tablet, or if you prefer a windows PC or a media centre to give you access to your Video on Demand service.

The choice is yours, to suit your needs and your budget.

So why do you want to pay for that ultra fast PC, unless you are gaming, or why do you want the power of Microsoft Windows or Office when it’s all more conveniently on the cloud and you can access it anywhere via the same interface and applications you are used to. You can access you office files without the need to bring them home in your brief case and you can access your home files to see how much you need to pay that bill for.

There are of course some down sides to this scenario but most of these will be fixed over time.

What do you do when you don’t have access to the Internet, I travel most days by London Underground, and until they get WiFi it’s going to be dead time in this scenario.

Also there are security and EULA issues.

Finally there are alternatives, kind of, why not put all your files on a memory stick and if you need applications you can use a U3 memory stick to take your desktop with you from computer to computer.

So is Google chrome a browser or a platform giving you access to the cloud and all of your computing needs through any device running it.

As always, we live in exciting times, which is why I love tech and my job so much.

Update, Expansion and New Clients

Okay it’s been a while so I thought an update was due.

Over the last few months we have been working with a number of clients from the UK, USA and South Korea helping them with their strategy and how to engage their consumers in a digital world.

In addition to this we have also been doing a huge amount of ‘housework’ to help us with the expansion of Bletchley Group over the coming months. We have launched a new website at http://www.bletchleygroup.com but are working on a update to the content to better reflect what we do and the services we offer clients going forward.

We have finally found our PR team although this took us significantly longer than we hoped or expected but we pride ourselves on giving a first class service and so it was vitally important that we have the correct team in place to achieve this. I’m glad to say we now have this in place. Look out for some press releases in the near future.

Also I’m extremely please to say that News International specifically The Sunday Times are now a client.

Unfortunately I can’t mention the project just yet but we are working to help them launch a new initiative. Our remit is very wide ranging, we are currently preparing a full scoping document including; the proposition, positioning, the brand, the supply chain, fulfilment partners, e-commerce, legal and finance. It’s a brilliant project and will be an excellant case study to show our full range of services, once we can tell everyone about it.

Bacardi unwrap the bacardi.com portal

It was nice to see that Bacardi have officially unwrapped the bacardi.com portal. Congratulations for a fantastic site.

Two years ago we developed a strategy and solution to help Bacardi address their business needs.  

Bacardi globally had over 50 local websites each with their own look and feel creating an inconsistent message to consumers throughout the world.  To address this our solution included a portal which would allow a globally consistent look and feel which can be controlled by the Global Brand Team centrally.

The Local Marketing Teams however wished to have control over the campaigns which they ran and needed a quick way to maintain this promotional activity carried out in their own market.  To accommodate this, our solution allowed for each local market to have access to a number of locally based micro-sites which met the portal standards we prepared and so fitted into the global portal.

In addition to these two key elements of our solution there were numerous other technology advances which met the marketing and business needs including deep linking of domain names so that http://www.bacardi.com/uk/blive/competition would take a consumer directly to the UK B-Live competitions page without the need to navigate there from the home page, making the consumer experience so much easier and getting consumers directly to the content they are interested in.

We planned the global implementation and managed the implementation of this portal and the launch of the UK and USA micro-sites in May and June 2007.

Our solution met and still meets all the requirements of Bacardi Global Brands and the Local Marketing companies to provide an incredibly flexible, globally consistent brand experience to their consumers throughout the world. 

We’re Looking for PR Professional to help us grow.

As part of our London expansion we are looking for a PR professional

Excellent opportunity for an enterprising, freelance PR professional to help develop the PR strategy and build this small but highly regarded Digital Marketing and e-Business Consultancy reputation and profile in the UK and internationally. This is an initial 6 month contract (part-time) with the possibility of being extended based on results.

The role:
•    Build awareness and brand recognition for Bletchley Group and work with the Managing Director, to reach key audiences: trade, business communities and media
•    Raise Bletchley Group’s profile and secure a dominant media share of voice
•    Provide direction to position the consultancy as Digital Marketing and e-Business experts and develop market positioning and messaging for different geographies
•    Research and secure opportunities to comment on Digital Marketing and e-Business issues in the Press, Radio and TV, as well as speaking engagements
•    Support organic growth by attracting new business and potential employees
•    Create a Media file and distribute to key press contacts
•    Advise on Media Training, press release writing and distribution
•    Develop thought leadership topics and writing/selling-in articles, case studies and white papers
Your Experience:
•    Digital, professional services or business-to-business PR experience
•    Proven national (and ideally some international) media relations experience
•    The ability to assimilate complex information, identify key issues and communicate to key audiences
•    Excellent writing skills
•    Positive, self-confident and able to work on your own initiative
The successful candidate should be a strong and credible relationship builder who can instil confidence in key stakeholders, a clear communicator and thinker; show a passion for PR and a real commercial understanding of the impact PR can have on sales demand and revenue.
This is a freelance position with the possibility of becoming a long-term partnership.  Applications to talk@bletchleygroup.com stating experience and salary expectations.

Please feel free to contact us should you or anyone you know be interested!

We’re expanding in London – New Business Development Manager

We’re looking to expand our London office and have published the below advertisment:

New Business Development Manager – London

A small but highly regarded Digital Marketing and e-Business Consultancy is looking for a New Business Development Manager to help develop our growing business within London and the UK.

•    Must be able to hit the ground running
•    Must have a proven track record of identifying and winning new business to meet quarterly targets.
•    Must be experienced in consultancy solutions sales rather than product sales
•    Must have the ability to communicate persuasively at board level and build long-standing client relationships
•    Must be passionate about helping organisations find solutions to their challenges using Digital and e-Business Technologies
•    Must be Professional, passionate, ambitious and ethical
•    Must have a dedication to succeed

This is a freelance position with the possibility of going permanent.  Attractive, negotiable package.  Applications to talk@bletchleygroup.com stating experience and salary expectations.

Please feel free to contact us should you or anyone you know be interested!

The FWA Website of the Year Awards 2007 – Results

The FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 have been released, the winner, “Get the Glass!”.

As well as the FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 the FWA have also announce the FWA People’s Choice Award 2007, sponsored by Adobe which was also “Get the Glass!”.

Here are the press releases for the FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 and the FWA People’s Choice Award 2007, sponsored by Adobe.

The “Get the Glass!” website is phenomenal, the highest quality animation and graphics, it’s like having a Pixar movie you can play with, the ability to have true interactive animated movies has arrived!

This site was not our first choice although to be honest our first three choices were all equally good for different reasons, so were happy they won. Our choices were:

1. Halo 3: Believe by AKQA
2. HBO Voyeur by Big Spaceship, BBDO NY, HBO
3. Get the Glass! by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners & North Kingdom

Here’s our reasons.

Halo 3: Believe by AKQA

This website is great, it got our first place for a couple of reason, the quality of the images is outstanding, although the interaction is poor. The main reason that we gave it first place was that it is one of the few websites which we could actually see the business objective coming through into the website. We assume the campaign objective is to engage consumers into believing the war was real and this is almost a documentary of the aftermath, so encouraging them to purchase. We think the website while not overly interactive achieves this marketing objective.  The music selection, which is often overlooked, is also fabulous.

HBO Voyeur by Big Spaceship, BBDO NY, HBO

Again this is a great site, what we liked about this is the possibilities it has, imagine when your TV and your PC are the same device, Windows Media Centre actually works or Apple TV lets you do more than just watch iTunes.

The HBO Voyeur website has the potential to be the next step in content for PC/TV Convergence, the way all entertainment will be!

Get the Glass! by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners & North Kingdom

We have mentioned above why we like this site, the highest quality animation and graphics, it’s like having a Pixar movie you can play with, and all over an internet connection, what more can you ask for.

Anyway these were our choices, let us know what you think!

ad:tech London Success

Our Managing Director, Jim Stevenson has just returned from Ad:Tech London where his speech was so successful he has been invited to speak at a conference in Barcelona.

More details to follow.

Speaking at ad:tech London

Our Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Jim Stevenson, has been invited to speak at ad:tech London – The UK’s Premier Interactive Marketing Event.

Jim will be discussing Digital Amplification of Experiential Marketing along with Marcel Engh, Vice President, Brand Entertainment, SONY BMG Europe, Jean-Paul Edwards, Head of Media Futures, MG OMD and David Day, CEO, Europe, Lightspeed Research.

The conference is on Wednesday and Thursday 26th and 27th of September at the Olympia 2, Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UX. Here is some useful information.

Hope to see you there.

DEWARS Website Launched in Mandarin

We have launched the DEWARS website in Mandarin to target the growing markets of the Far East and specifically China.

Users who select China as their country of origin will be presented with the site in Mandarin.

This means the website is now available in English, Spanish and Mandarin – all the languages of the core markets for Whisky -, yet again playing to the Strategy we prepared for making the site easy to find and use for consumers.

Invited to Join the FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 Judging Panel

Our Managing Director and Principal Consultant Jim Stevenson has been invited to sit on the Judging Panel for the FWA Website of the Year Awards 2007.

The FWA website is run by an amazing guy, Rob Ford. It receives over 1 million visits per month and is a very highly regarded award website by many, if not all, in the Website Design and associated industries.

The Judging panel is a ‘who’s who’ of Creative and Designers in the industry and therefore we consider it a huge honour to be asked to join this panel and bring a Digital Strategy, Business and Marketing view to the awards.