So, after months roaming the streets of the UK with camera cars that look like a cross between Coronation Street taxis and twenty-first century scarecrows, Google has finally launched Street View. You can now take a street-level ride through 25 UK cities via the Street View function in Google maps. To be honest, I was beginning to wonder if they’d ever make it. I thought maybe extreme traffic congestion was stopping the Google photo cars from actually getting around - leaving Google with masses of film of the same few buildings. Or perhaps that the continually repeating congestion charge was causing Google a severe financial problem that threatened the ROI on this project. Or maybe they were experiencing an unacceptably high clamp rate. At one point I even thought some pro-privacy caution could be prevailing at the Googleplex.  Whilst all this was going on, The Register produced a neat map showing photo sightings of Google’s Street View cars in the UK, but it does look like… well, a congestion map.
All this got me wondering what the applications in marketing might be. And despite coming up with some interesting ideas (obvious beneficiaries could be house hunters and estate agents), the fact that much of the imagery will be out of date by the time it is viewed will limit its utility. It can’t tell you if a shop is open or closed, and it may even suggest that your local Woolworths is still alive and kicking, not to mention MFI, Whittard or Zavvi. But all is not lost; if you need to see the outside of a tyre replacement firm, dentist or builders merchant before you avail yourself of their products and services, then Google Street View may well be for you.
Here’s to it though. And if the privacy lobby were worried yesterday, they’ll probably be apoplectic today.
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Trevor Beattie brings PR into BMB
Trevor Beattie’s BMB agency has announced the launch of an in-house PR function and in the process one of the founders, Andrew McGuinness broadened his definition of what BMB does from advertising to ‘publicity’. As moves by one of the UK’s strongest creative agencies, these developments are worthy of reflection. I see two points of interest:
First, BMB’s move into PR could indicate the arrival a new agency philosophy. The Internet has created a new mechanism for consumers to better inform their purchasing decisions. Opinion on any product or service is now just a click away. There’s been a democratisation of product information. Communities of consumers can exchange notes on any brand. Non-users can easily access these online opinions to inform their own decision making. The formation of brand attitudes is no longer closed and personal, it’s open and communal. As a result, almost anything that costs more than about £20 is now habitually researched on the Internet before being bought. It follows that any agency in the business of helping companies sell products or services needs to understand and respond to this information rich buying model. By putting PR at the heart of their ‘publicity’ offering, BMB are recognising that brand information can be as important as brand imagery.
Second, ‘publicity’ is a great definition of marketing communications. After the 90’s shopping sprees to buy direct marketing, research and experiential agencies new terms for our industry were emerging left, right and centre. The buzz words became ‘360 degree integration’, ‘total communications’ and ‘media neutrality’. Saatchi and Saatchi’s Charlotte Street entrance signage tracked these changes nicely; the agency used to be called “Saatchi and Saatchi Advertising” proudly announcing that it was in the business of making ads and nothing else. Then I noticed the sign over 80 Charlotte Street was reading “Saatchi and Saatchi Communications” as the agency aimed to get into a wider basket of additional marketing services. Now, perhaps on the basis that less is more, the sign reads simply “Saatchi and Saatchi”, with the agency preferring to define itself by nothing more than its name.
At the end of the day we are trying to make something more famous and better thought of than it was yesterday. But we don’t seem to like simple definitions. For me, the word ‘publicity’ is unashamedly simple and so very strong. It’s also the term used by two of the greatest brand managers the world has ever seen; Brian Epstein and Andrew Loog Oldham.