Tag Archives: Nike

May 21, 2025 · 19:28

What’s in a brand?

That is at times the question. Most of the world was to sink their claws into Saudi Arabia and we see all kinds of settings, some speculative, some going for the worst. The truth is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is on the rise. Not merely because they are doing well (they really are), but the massive secondary reason is that they are a no-debt zone, just as the UAE is. So as we se that America is $46 trillion in debt, the EU has a debt of 14 trillion euro and Japan has a $9 trillion debt. Yet as the Telegraph a mere three hours ago gave us all ‘‘Worse than Greece’: The debt crisis threatening to blow up the global economy’ (at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/05/21/trump-sparked-debt-crisis-could-blow-up-global-economy/) the truth is (speculative) that I personal believe that America is in a worse state, even as the America administration is in denial and the media is massively avoiding reporting on it. I personally think that the network of Stake holders is con spiritually involved as well. As I see it (based on the work of Cathryn van Kessel) that ‘(Con)spirituality as a curriculum of immortality’ is set to “If we are listening to marketing hype, it seems that—with enough money—we can live longer, healthier lives. These products, however, are often no more than consumerist swindling steeped in pseudo-science and pseudo-spirituality. When viewed through the lens of terror management theory (TMT), mitigating the harms of (con)spiritual grifts is more than a problem of a lack of scientific literacy, anti-consumer education, and media literacy.” My personal view is set to the premise of “mitigating the harms of (con)spiritual grifts is more than a problem of a lack of scientific literacy, anti-consumer education, and media literacy, it is a (sort of) given setting that the stakeholders are dwindling the settings of parameters and changing the premise of given values, creating confusing hype settings” This is merely a personal view, but it seemingly fits the patterns we see, or tend to recognise.

So as such we see “Because the assets that the country holds are still far more valuable than the debts. All the land, mineral rights, water, etc.” and this shows the pressures to add Greenland and Canada to America, as such they wouldn’t be considered bankrupt. Another version is “Because debt payments are still manageable” but here time is running out, as such the Trump administration is playing the bully card on Canada and Greenland. But here the dance becomes a problem as Canada is not giving in as it is part of the Commonwealth. And that is why Keir Starmer as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is being catered to by the EU as the WU is in a similar predicament and the UK ‘re-joining’ the EU, the EU ends up with a credit card that gets renewed value. But the larger truth is that time for these three are running out and as such they are courtesan themselves to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And now we see the larger setting that the article ‘Saudi brands reach $116.8 billion in value fueled by energy, banking, and telecoms sectors’ (at https://brandfinance.com/press-releases/saudi-brands-reach-116-8-billion-in-value-fuelled-by-energy-banking-and-telecoms-sectors) gives us, and the values we see are “STC (brand value up 16% to USD16.1 billion)”, it is number two. Number one is Aramco (of course) and that is oil and I didn’t want to ‘taint’ the setting. After that we get “Almarai (brand value up 20% to USD4.7 billion)” but the third one is the kicker “Saudia (brand value up 34% to USD1.1 billion)” and here is the setting of three out of the ten that these are brands that have a 16%, 20% and 34% growth, totally unheard of in western settings and as such everyone wants in. Wall Street pretty much demand these new settings, but this is not on Wall Street, as such several brands (including me) are pretty desperate to get in. And I have made a few unsuccessful moves and I will totally try to do so again and again. I told a previous boss a few years ago that they had to get there now, now the going is good. But alas, it fell on deaf ears and now as brands in the EU, US and Japan are getting desperate we will see a total new stage of in-fighting and spading their opponents. But as they diminish one another, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will get the cream of the crop at a mere 65% of the total value, because the desperate will sucker themselves to get into the game as early as possible, hoping that the going is good early in the game. I get that, I would feel the same way (as a non-captain of industry that I merely my view) and now that China is entering these fields as well, the west is desperate to get in.

And at present we see little to no evidence how three players can have a cumulative debt of $70 trillion dollars. This is $70,000,000,000,000. Did you ever consider that the debt of these three is more than all the gold in the world? How is that possible? Is it because these three have the assets, because the debt is manageable? We think that we can all be a millionaire as long as we can couch up $55,000 in interest every year, but that is a debt without an end date, you pay as long as you live and that is not a realistic setting but these governments are telling you that story with the assistance of stakeholders (who get their own revenue out of that), yet at that point we ned to consider that you are a millionaire at $55,000 plus whatever the stakeholder charges and now it get to be a little iffy (aka yucky). It is a setting that is delusional, as such they all (desperately) need to be part of the Saudi branding, yet as I see it the Saudi’s have another view, you see STC gave us in 2024 “In 2023, we expanded our global footprint even further by acquiring a 9.9% interest in Telefonica and launching TAWAL operations in three European countries. Over the past year, STC Group has focused on diversifying our global offer to connect people across countries and continents.” They gave us that in March 2024, and the sphere of influence of Saudi Arabia is expanding. So whilst by an expected 2029 we might see brand X, but it is fueling STC for a larger and larger slice of the pie. As such it will all be co-owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and this is not white washing. It is merely business and these stakeholders will turn to the needs of their own paychecks more and more. 

And this is not a dream story, it is not a nightmare story. It is about to become the reality of things and as such our paychecks go in part not to Telefonica, it will go to Tawal and through that to the STC. A simple business setting and for the most the media is will not inform you, it adheres to the needs of shareholders, stake holder and advertisers. 

This is the power of branding and whilst we think that Nike, Lululemon and Jaguar are great brands, there is an underlying setting that the cool car is owned by Natarajan Chandrasekaran (chairman and Managing Director) and Saurabh Agrawal (CFO) (to some degree). And now we see the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expanding in all kinds of directions. In this I kinda set that stage in ‘An altering stage’ which I wrote on October 2nd 2023. I used the word ‘kinda’ as the focus was China and I wrote “It is a summary and you should read it. It shows several elements that are taking the world by storm. It is not “As shown in the latest IMF annual review of the country’s economy, progress has been most notably reflected in non-oil growth, which has accelerated since 2021, averaging 4.8 percent in 2022. Despite lower overall growth reflecting additional oil production cuts, non-oil growth will remain close to 5 percent in 2023, spurred by strong domestic demand.” We get the goods here, but it is “The economy’s non-oil growth has been spurred by strong domestic demand, particularly private non-oil investment. Sustaining this performance requires pursuing sound macroeconomic policies and maintaining the reform momentum, irrespective of developments in oil markets.” Even if the stage is not revealed, when combined with other views we see that ‘strong domestic demand’ is merely one string from the harp of economy, the harp of Saudi economy. What matters is that larger streams involving defence, technology, construction, tourism and services are ALL moving towards Chinese shores. We see some of it now, but that list is rapidly expanding and the next US vote is 45 days away with them having to brood on a loss of billions and it will be a lot more than 1 billion.” Which was a slightly different setting than the IMF reported on and I saw that two years ago. It is the story (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/10/02/an-altering-stage/) which gives the goods, so consider that I had this at that point, so why didn’t the media see this over the last 17 months? Consider that before you lash out and wonder who you should blame. 

Too many of us are kept in the dark and you should wonder why. You see I am not an economist or some savant. Yet I know data and I have parsed data for decades, and I saw a long time ago that the numbers didn’t add up. So wonder how the media could have missed it all. You were merely given slithers of data and until you consider the larger picture (which the bulk of the media will not give you) wonder why and it is not that it was to complex. As I personally consider the setting is that stake holders are part of the deception. Their cheques are too fat, so they like this game how it is played and they have been playing it for years. 

Have a great day and remember, don’t trust all you read, verify the data you are given, even my data. I am not telling you to trust my data. If anything I am a little like Fox Mulder (from the X-Files) and trust no one, not even me. 

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December 7, 2023 · 22:15

DM for losers

It all started with an image on LinkedIn this morning. We see here (see photo below) that Google has instigated a 5000 email limit per day and that three ‘objected’. 

There is no fighting another day. When you need to send over 5000 emails a day, you are a loser. You are what the 90’s regards the worst case of sales. Direct Marketing for losers. There is no setting of email more, get more revenue. If you cannot set that stage at 250 mails per day, you will not know your customers, you are nothing more then a Cialis pusher (as some say). Real sales is knowing your customers and you have ascertained that YOU have something they need. Proper customer care requires you to know your customer, have a system in place to service your customers. If you are a small business 250 customers a day is even  stretch, but OK, I could go along with that. You are not Nike, SAS, Adidas, Gucci, Volkswagen or Volvo. These have systems and people in place to service that much customers and that limit will not affect professional corporations. 

If you want to be a loser, that is on you, but as more and more people block your personal domain for email harassment, the string will go quickly. One, Two, Four, Eight then people will alert friends and after that it goes 32, 128, 512, 2048. In a week 50% of your daily target is gone and soon the algorithm takes over and less people will get your message, your options decreases even more. Making you start your setup from zero, all lost because you took the path of a loser.

In this world you (as a small business) could address at best 250 people a day. If you have the system to register it all, and you read it all you can retain at best 250 deals a day. Yes it is a speculative number, but the larger setting is not merely selling, it is also the need of manufacturing (if applies),stock, sales service, it is a track and one person cannot properly deal with more than 250 people. Considering 10 hours a day, you have 25 seconds per customer. You can listen to all the BS given to you as they want to sell their system to you, but consider, can you serve your customer completely in 25 seconds? No you can’t, no one can, not even McDonalds who needs 120 seconds. Direct Marketing for losers is not a solution, it is a delusion with no destination. It reminds me of a joke I told someone with a subway map on his T-shirt. “The pink line is the woke subway, it goes everywhere and gets you nowhere ever, no destination will ever be reached” perhaps not entirely accurate, but that is how I feel. 

The largest of all jokes is the one telling you can do it all, it makes you believe that you are stronger then Popeye, faster than roadrunner and wealthier than Scrooge McDuck. None of them real, none of them have any basis of reality. A setting you walked into driven by greed. Like a civil servant with dollar shaped pupils all he does is chase revenue which he hands over to his government leaving him with $882 per week (at best), optionally working yourself to death. As I stated, Direct Marketing for losers has no solution, it never ever will be a solution to anyone but the people selling you that system, serving their income. So how will you get reliable data on 5000 emails a day? Who else has it? Can you see the vicious self defeating circle you are in there? 

Google is right and it is time you figure it out too.

Enjoy your day, Friday is now 2 hours away for me. 

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June 6, 2023 · 21:14

Ding Dong, push it

This is the stage, it is not exactly ding dong ditch, but the stage is not that far off. Some would state kiddingly “How do you tell the difference between a male door from a female door ? One’s got a ding dong and the other knockers.” Yet the larger truth is hidden here. It is a combination of anticipation and expectation. In market research it is about engagement that engagement is depending on Business Intelligence and most brands have been slacking off, they can no longer tell the difference between what the party lines tells THEM and what the consumers expect. There is a misalignment (not some Miss Alignment). The ITP (at https://www.itp.net/business/uae-consumers-expect-brands-to-get-them-report) gives us ‘UAE consumers expect brands to ‘get’ them: Report’ in this I am referring to places like the Dubai Mall. They are doing a much better job, but they are also vying for attention. That place has more than 1200 outlets and places like Louis Vuitton are vying for the attention of people also seeing Burberry, Armani, Dior, Cartier, Hermes and Prada , all in the same mall. A place that is over 12,100,000 square ft in size, so they need to get it right the first time. You see these places aren’t really competitive for people with a misers purse. When you see a person walking with a shopping bag that might not fit a sandwich, that person is likely to have spend $5000, as such he or she is done for the day. And that mall has 200,000 of visitors a day, as such they need to get on point to get their fair share. Business Intelligence is the currency that assists and here we see “According to the study, a staggering 92 percent of respondents claimed that it’s important for brands to “get” them. These findings come at a time when brand loyalty is plummeting, with 91 percent of consumers surveyed in the UAE (15 percentage points higher than the EMEA average) claiming to be less loyal to brands compared to two years ago. Nearly one in four individuals (23 percent) attribute this decline in loyalty to disappointing experiences.” I personally believe that it comes from the people expecting some kind of engagement, and to be honest, outside of the videos on the Dubai Kids Zone, I have not seen to much engagement. One of My IP solves that, but it is not mean for one shop, it is meant for the entire mall. It is the brands that require to create some level of engagement and to be honest. In all the mall walkthrough videos I have not seen any. You might wonder what that means. You see, the video walker will call attention and thus far, apart from the sensational views that the mall offers, I have not seen any. And my personal view is seen with “When asked about specific expectations, the researchers discovered that 79 percent of the UAE sample population emphasised the importance of brands consistently being aware of their purchasing habits. Furthermore, 86 percent of respondents insisted that companies should remember their preferred communication channel. A staggering 91 percent called for personalised discounts, while 86 percent urged brands to offer tailored recommendations during engagement sessions.” And consider this ‘86 percent urged brands to offer tailored recommendations during engagement’ Now there is debate on how to go about it and I reckon that this is on their marketing groups, but when we get a number like 86% it matter, it matters a great deal. I myself am on the fence, not on what is done, but how it is done.How to do cater to a Muslim population? In New York you set the Victory Secrets line in the open and the people come gushing, that will not work in Dubai. In other versions I prefer to have fun, as such the Mall could do something like below. 

Not real people of course, but the heads do not fall into a number, but into a slot with a brand and the ‘winner’ gets a small token from that brand. Perhaps to add a factor, the numbers 5,10,8,5 will be replaced by “Diesel, Adidas, Nike”, “Burberry, Dior, Hermes”, “Prada, Chanel, Cartier” and “Virgin, Sony and Nespresso” the (animated) head falls down the ramp and falls into one slot, then the visitor gets to grab one present from a barrel. An element of surprise and one of excitement. I reckon that line will fill up massively and fast. This is not the only way, some companies have their own way of engagement and they need to dig deep to create engagement, because when a place that rocks 200,000 visitors a day state that 86% of them had a less than great experience, it is time to evaluate what you are doing and the images below show great views, but it is lacking engagement. So why is that? And don’t think it is one shop, Louis Vuitton and Virgin both rock the view, and lack the engagement as far as I can tell.

So how to get the attention?
This is a much harder question, it is how to get them and that has been a life long struggle right from the bat. Customer engagement starts at one point and goes around towards what grabs them and Market Research is about masses, engagement is about that person, as such BI needs to evolve into new areas of engagement and that is the rub, how to go about it? The study gives us “The study revealed that 86 percent of respondents (15 percentage points higher than the EMEA average) considered it important for brands to provide a customer experience supported by the latest technology. Similarly, 85 percent (21 percentage points higher than the EMEA average) expressed their likelihood of being more loyal to a brand that invests in technology to enhance the customer experience.” And yes a TV screen creates more engagement, but at the Virgin Megastore, where were the gaming corners? 

Where are the places that interacts with people? It is not merely the best TV or the best screen size, it is what grabs a persons attention and there places like Adidas could benefit by adding a sport element in the store, it could benefit by having a place like Hermes open a creative corner. 

Consider buying a pyjama. One of the dreariest acts I ever face, but what happens when you can create your favourite pyjama (optionally in a more privacy setting)? It seems that the Arabic world is all about sports, as such what happens when you get to create your next polo-shirt based on YOUR favourite team? The Dubai Mall sports two Hockey teams, so why aren’t brands using that for more interaction? They might, but I never saw it. If the world of consumers is about engagement, the lack of attempts is equally staggering. You see, one of these walk throughs would have shown something. And it wouldn’t need to be ‘horrific’ like feeding a mermaid to the sharks, but between doing nothing and doing something horrific is quite literally an ocean of sand. So when this all starts with data, how is it captured? How are people engaged in this stream? That is equally important a side to manage correctly and even as I like the article, we see nothing on that. Especially in the UAE where tourism is at an all time high. What separates the local shopper from the tourist? It is not always clear and I believe that Harrods had its own set of problems in the 90’s. And when you have a study that boasts “21 percentage points higher than the EMEA average” I personally believe it matters a great deal, but the first observation is clear, there is seemingly a lack of engagement in the UAE (specifically the Dubai Mall). Oh, and this is not all me, places like the TRO group have been rocking the  Omni-Channel Advertising for well over a decade and they have been showing that there is power in engagement. So it is not just me, there are expert voices all over the place, but the larger Market Research and marketing community doesn’t know how to interact in an engaging sphere, as such they do not touch it. Yet that might merely be my view on the matter.

Enjoy the day and take the time to smell your cup of coffee, because that too is engagement. 

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April 5, 2023 · 01:57

A promise kept

It all started a little before February 1st 2022. It was when I wrote ‘The opportunity for 2022’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/02/01/the-opportunity-for-2022/) this is when my brain saw the opportunity that Augmented Reality saw for what it was. It took a little longer before I set it the premise to paper and with the videos of the Eaton Centre Mall (Toronto), I saw the setting to engage the audience of a mall (pretty much all 116,000 malls) that AR was the ticket to drive engagement It was then that my mind created 8 pieces of IP, the 9th came one day later when I realised a few items that tarted to mingle in the process. You see, we see mobiles and AR, but we (basically they) do not see the larger stage. 

From my MAPINT days, we were working with maps and thematic layers. It is nothing complex. It is a map and over that map we set a transparent layer which we fill with information that overlay the map. Population, usage information, measurements. It could be nearly everything. But when we put a OVER a mobile phone, the phone maker needs to adjust for it. It can be done ‘as is’, but images become messy, and now we get to the setting.

The maker (Tiffany for example) ads the code on to a business card (the back side most likely). The code is for example a ring, a high end ring that now does not need to be shown to the people, with all the dangers of it getting stolen. But that is only a small part of it. The larger part is that the ring is now advertised by the people to everyone else. Thousands will send to thousands and the Tiffany product will reach millions in the stretch of a day, all it costed them was a business card. Optionally the edge will show the Tiffany logo.

Now we get to the thematic layer. That shows the ring in high resolution, but it does so over what was under the layer. So when you photograph your hand with that layer, the intelligence that was in the thematic layer will place the ring on your finger and the intelligence does the rest. Rings, bracelets and you photograph it to set on your hand and photograph it with that selfie you could send it all over the place with the question “Does this look good on me?” And when it is a Tiffany ring the responses will come from ‘great’ to ‘amazing’ A simple equation added to a phone, an iOS or Android phone. I saw this happen well over a year ago and no one seemingly picked it up. Go read up, no one had it and no one wanted to buy it, so I am handing this out for free. So when a Huawei phone adds this option and you can show your feet with the new Nike shoes that only can have 50,000 owners, would you do this? I am certain that you will. The pull of short term gratification through selfie has been well documented for well over a decade.

The AR code was a way to liven up malls, they need to create waves of interactions and that was one of them. Victoria secrets has the option of setting an AR window that overlayed part of their shop, now they have a daily run of Victoria Secrets models showing their goods and it will create a huge following (leave it to single men admiring women in lingerie) and that is not merely the start of it. The AR window is aganst the outside window, as such the models will walk over a local catwalk whilst never being there.

Jewellers, fashion even book shops have options in their repertoire and it draws in the people. It was that simple a jump and who has done it so far? Who got to that point? It is now known that Tiffany and I believe it was Gucci are setting serious coin towards Arm towards the digital development of their wares, which is good. But let it be clear I got there a year early and now because of the Public Domain event, everyone can get there. So you all have a nice day and see what you can make of your goods and where AR can take you.

I kept my promise and I will snore like a sawmill today (its 01:50).

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February 5, 2021 · 02:25

Am I the hypocrite?

It is a fair question and it has been asked before. You see, I hate hypocrisy to the largest extent. And thanks to the Australian Arms Control Coalition (AACC) there is now a larger chance that I will be able to sell the Chinese Chengdu J-20 to Saudi Arabia. The planes are around $100 million each and I will try to start with 6 planes, with a service setting and training that will add up to almost a billion, as such 3.75% of $1,000,000,000 is still 37,500,000, with the option of two more sales tracks it adds up to serious money. To be honest, I would have preferred to sell the BAE Typhoon, yet the idiots t the CAAT made an end to that and as I want my commission, I will sell Chinese goods if I so please, so not only did the CAAT and the AACC not achieve anything, they dislodged their governments for a billion in taxable goods, as such things will go from bd to worse rather quickly. And as the ACCC is so about “Instead of exporting arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for use in Yemen, Australia, the US, and other nations should be pressing these governments to end their unlawful attacks in Yemen and hold those responsible to account” (at https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/04/australia-freeze-arms-sales-saudi-arabia-uae), we see the stupidity of Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch in action. You see they have absolutely nothing to stop the Iranian/Houthi side of things, and they started this mess. So the entire she said/she said mess that both the CAAT and the AACC are revolving around, the stage where we see is thwarted and made useless because they are focussing on one side and no one has the balls (especially Elaine Pearson) to do something about the Iranian side of things and it will get hampered more as the EU does not want any anti-Iranian intervention, they are still in that delusional stage where they think that they can offer some kind of nuclear pact that no one will heed, especially the Iranians. 

And in a one sided setting, I still whole heartedly agree that Saudi Arabia has a right to defend itself, in this the attacks by Houthi forces on Saudi civilian targets should enable Saudi forces to strike back, and if you do not know about the attacks on Saudi targets, it will be because the bulk of the western media remained silent on it, probably a stakeholder issue.

And as I have to eat at some point, I see no issue selling the Saudi Airforce the Chinese Chengdu J-20. In the first we are not at war with China, in the second it will be delivered to an established government, I feel that I am in the clear. 

So when I see “especially those who have committed grave violations against children”, I wonder just how Archie Law can continue with a brain that much lacking in insight, breathing should be the challenge he is facing. Houthi forces in Yemen have been systematically depriving food from Yemeni children. This has been known for well over 6 months, headlines like ‘Houthi militias attack humanitarian organisations, block aid to Yemenis’ are not new or unique. A one sided stage against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is time that those shortsighted voices are given a new level of opposition, as such I see no reason not to aid Saudi Arabia in acquiring the weapons they need to keep their nation safe. I reckon China will not object, especially if the end result is that they churn close to 9 billion from the EU, UK and US. I hope to get up to $2,000,000,000 in sales which will get me a nice retirement funds, but I am happy with just the one shipment (two is always better) and it gives me a larger stage to show just how shortsighted these people are. 

I know, I am slightly too angry, but that happens, we all have our short stages,, and mine is the hypocrisy of others. Just like that they are all about the actions against certain Chinese groups, yet the setting that Apple is accused of using slave labour is quickly silenced, I reckon that Apple and Nike are as advertisers too big for the newspapers to really take a look, it is my assumption that these two do not advertise on ABC, or am I wrong?

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December 12, 2020 · 04:05

Yay discrimination!

Yup, that has to go down like a kick in the head, does it not? But that was the thought I had when I was confronted with the BBC article ‘Mastercard severs links with pornography site’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55267311), now personally I do not care about Pornhub. I don’t think I have ever been there, honestly. I am not anti or against porn, in Europe it was available on nearly every corner and a lot of it for free, as such I got over that need decades ago. So, whatever, I (for the most) do not care, but I hate hypocrisy, I hate it with a passion. So when I see “Mastercard says it is ending the use of its cards on the pornography platform Pornhub after a review confirmed the presence of unlawful content”, yup, it is an option they can take, but at the same time they are setting themselves up for a court case regarding discrimination by Pornhub. You see, when we consider “Members of China’s Uyghur ethnic minority are being used as forced labor in factories far from the so-called reeducation camps that have held them for years in Xinjiang, according to an extensive new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a think-tank founded by Australia’s government” (source: Quartz), if I remember my law lessons, slave labour is illegal, is it not? 

As such, how many Nike shops were banned by Mastercard as well? How many Apple Stores are not able to process Mastercard? The New York Post (25th July) gave us ‘Nike should quit lecturing on social justice — and atone for using slave labor in China’, where was Mastercard at that point? Oh and according to ABC VISA is doing the same thing and for both I see no actions on Nike, Apple and a few others, like fashion stores that have been involved in ‘Aussie fashion retailers accused of driving poverty in Bangladesh with cut-throat pricing in new Oxfam report’, this came from Nine News 3 weeks ago regarding an Oxfam report, so where were VISA and Mastercard barring “Some of the biggest Australian fast fashion brands” in this? Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander, I say. But it seems that hypocrisy is high with the financial institutions. Now, I am not stating that Pornhub is innocent, even as we are told “A New York Times investigation accused the site of being “infested” with child-abuse and rape-related videos”, it calls for investigation and pressure, but the voice of Mastercard and VISA stating some holier than though barring, all whilst they have no issue processing slave labour goods is a bit much, even for me.

So when we get “Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof named it in his New York Times article, saying he “didn’t see why search engines, banks or credit-card companies” should “bolster” Pornhub”, I am willing to initially side against Pornhub on matters and when we see a name like Nicholas Kristof, we all want to see where and how he got the data he used, fair is fair, yet in this, I see the actions by VISA and Mastercard as a BS approach towards the limelight. Especially when we see reports of Oxfam and several others on the other issues. But I reckon that these two card companies will hide behind the ‘too complicated an issue’ and will continue as usual, but as I see it, they are discriminating foundations and if Pornhub wants to extract a billion in losses from these two, I would be able to live with it, but it does not take them off the hook. Even if we are told “Pornhub, which has denied the claims”, I would want to look into the evidence of Nicholas Kristof, I have had my doubts on journalists several times, but this is a Pulitzer Prize winner, they tend to remain well above board, in this Pornhub is the lesser trustworthy of the two on a mere glance, and I state that speculatively, I have not seen the evidence and I hope that Nicholas Kristof will hand over that evidence to the press on a much larger stage. Yet, we need to see Pornhub like a much less puritan version of YouTube, or Facebook (me thinks), as such they facilitate automated distribution, just like social media, but they too need to look into matters to a much deeper degree, if I believe that social media must do this, then players like Pornhub must too, and if there are criminal issues, they need to be dealt with and fast. We cannot say for sure what is criminal and what is fake criminal and the track is not an easy one, a source (Tweaktown) gave us in December 2018 “Pornhub saw 4.79 million videos uploaded in 2018, with 147GB per second”, this might not be as much as YouTube, but it cannot be too far off and a place like Pornhub does not have the infrastructure that Google has (my speculated view), as such there is every chance that criminal activities will pass the filters and not be seen until it is much too late, and yes, something needs to be done, but we can do without the hypocritical BS that VISA and Mastercard are giving us, if anything Pornhub needs the funds to upgrade their hardware on detection, investigation and reporting, that’s how I see it.

You know, this article might have the most use of the letters pee, ohh, arr, enn ever. Oh Joy! Well, time to enjoy Saturday with a strong cup of coffee and a sandwich.

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August 7, 2019 · 10:55

Brotherhood of Heineken

As we stepwise push forward towards 5G, we think that it all stays the same, it will not. A few parts will change forever. Google has an enormous advantage, yet they too are now pushing for different changes, changes that they had not seen coming a mere year ago. In this case there is no direct link to my IP, so I am happy to give you all the inns and outs of that part (pun intended).

To start this we need to consider a few sides, all with their own premise. The first is the focal point:

4G: Wherever I am
5G: Whenever I want it

That first premise is a large one, it is not a simple localisation part, it is all about getting access at a moment’s notice, yet what we need access to changes with the push we face. The initial part is the creation and the impact of awareness. As we re-distinguish ‘awareness’ the metrics on awareness will also change and for the first year (at the very least) market research companies on a global stage will be chasing the facts. They have become so reliant on dash boarding, Tableau, Q-view and Q Research Software will all have to re-engineer aspects of their software as they fall short. Even the larger players like SAS and IBM Statistics will require an overhaul in this market space. They have been ‘hiding’ behind the respondent, responses and their metrics for too long, the entire matter when the respondent becomes the passive part in awareness is new to them, and that is all it is, it will be new to them and the constructs that are behind the active and passive interactions will change the metrics, the view and the way we register things.

Google has the advantage, yet the stage for them will take a few turns too. Their initial revenue stream will change. Consider the amount of data we are passing now, that amount also links to the amount of ads we see. Now consider that everything in 5G is 10 times faster, yet 10 times more ads is not an option, so they now face revenue from 10% of the ads compared to what we see now. In addition to that, as we adjust our focus on the amounts we face implies that more advertisement space is optionally lost to the larger players like Google and this too impacts the stats for all involved. Google will adjust and change, in what way, I cannot tell yet, but the opposition is starting to become clear a in this example we see Heineken, a global established brand who now has the option to take the lead in 5G awareness.

Introducing

Ladies and gentleman, I am hereby introducing to you the Brotherhood of Heineken, in this fraternity / maternity, we invite all the lords and ladies of their household to become awareness creators towards their brand. In the Netherlands thousands are linked through a company like Havenstad and similar operations, this stretches through Europe and all over the place going global. These lords and ladies can earn points in the simplest thing, by setting a stage for Heineken to spread the message, we see that the initial power is with the consumer to support their brand. Awareness and clicks are converted to points and that leads to exclusive offers and rewards. Consider the unique stuff that Heineken has given to its professional public now for all to get, to buy and to earn. Bags, coolers, clothing, accessories. For decades we saw the materials created and most of us were envious of anyone who had that part others did not, now we could all earn it and because Heineken (Coca Cola too) have created such an arsenal, these players could take the lead in pushing their own awareness to new levels.

Now it is easy to say that Google is already doing this and that is partially true, but that equation will change under 5G and these really large brands could pay a fortune to Google or take the lead and create their own powerhouse and in this day and age that powerhouse will become more and more an essential need. Anyone not looking and preparing to this will hand over opinion and choice to Google and watch how that goes, yet consider that some sources gave us a quarter ago: “Google will remain the largest digital ad seller in the world in 2019, accounting for 31.1% of worldwide ad spending, or $103.73 billion“, now consider that they need to grow 20% quarter on quarter and that in two years that metric has changed and as such the ads could cost up to 30% more, now do the math on how YOU will survive in that environment.

Samsung, Proctor & Gamble, Coca Cola, Nike, Heineken, Sony, Microsoft will all face that premise and that is how it all changes. As we see that the metrics will have reduced reliability, the market research players will need time to adjust and in that lull a player like Heineken can create its own future and set its digital future in another direction to exceed their required expectations. This step seems short now, but as the stage alters it becomes an essential stage. Google may remain in denial and oppose that this will never happen, but the data and metrics are already suggesting this path and that is where we are now; the option to be first or pay the invoice, what would you do?

I believe that the visibility starts to get a little focal just before 2020 games, and it is in full view before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and in full swing by the time the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar starts. These two are close together and the people will pay through the nose for that visibility, especially the European parties in all this. I expect a more evolved 5G advertising stage via apps as well, seeing ads to unlock premium view and data is likely to happen, all this is coming to us and our view of advertisement will alter to a larger extent. We will be told that this will never happen, it is not how they work, yet they are deceiving and lying to us. Consider that change in the last 25 years alone, in 1994 advertisement through printed medium and TV was at an all-time high, they all claimed it remained this way, within 5 years that stage was already changing with online ads to some extent and the slowing of printed medium, in addition the international channels would push into national advertisement. A mere 5 years after that (in 2004) it started to take off in earnest and would increase revenue to over 100% in the 4 years that followed. Between 2005 and 2017 that would push from $6 billion to 26 billion, do you really think that their words holds true? To keep that growth and their need for greed the metrics and approach has to change, there is 0% chance that these players will accept a growth of data based impact of a mere 10% of what is was in 4G, there is too much riding on this.

For the largest players there is an alternative and it will not take long for them to set the stage to this and start finding their own solution to keep awareness as high as possible. If you have to pay through the nose to keep awareness or create the environment to reward achieved awareness, what path would you choose?

Let’s not forget players like Heineken did not get to the top by merely offering a really good product, they offered a lot more, a view, an awareness that all embraced; Sony learned that lesson the hard way by losing with a superior product against the inferior competition (Betamax versus VHS). 5G will set a similar yet new battle ground and for the most the media is seemingly steering clear for now.

That is with the nice exception of Marketing Interactive, who gives us (at https://www.marketing-interactive.com/going-beyond-the-big-idea-creative-leads-on-5gs-impact-on-advertising/) “There is no denying that the rollout of 5G will change storytelling and the consumer journey“, it is a true and utterly correct view. They also give us: “creatives need to evolve from old habits and stop hiding behind “the big idea”. “We, as creatives, need to evolve from old habits, stop hiding behind “The Big Idea” and evolve our creative process and creative structures to be based on this new digital reality, to create content based on this new innovative context“, this is the view from Joao Flores, head of creative, dentsu X Singapore and he is right. We also get “For agencies, the opportunity calls for unorthodox alliances to make sure our creativity is the beating heart of this quiet revolution“, which is true, but it ignores the alternative path where the largest players start getting this path in house and in light of the two revelations, we see that during the last decades players like Heineken had been doing just that and that makes them ready to take on the 5G behemoth and push the others into second place or worse. There is a need to have expertise and many do not have it, but in that Heineken has been different for the longest times. It is most likely due to the unique view that people like Freddie Heineken had on their market and consumers. You merely have to realise that they were the first to embrace ‘Geniet, maar drink met mate‘ (enjoy, temper your drinking) it was a slogan that came into play around 1990, as well as ‘Drink verantwoord. Geniet meer‘ (drink responsibly, enjoy it more). All pushes to set a better stage, it is there that we see that a new push could be produced by players like Heineken.

We see so many more paths opening, but in all this the one overwhelming side is not what paths there are, but the stage of metrics that they all rely on, as such having control on the expenses as well as the foundation to create a reliable stage for their metrics will be a first soon enough. Not merely: ‘Who is your population?‘, it is the stage where the passive and active awareness can be differentiated on, that too will push advertisements and the applied visibility through 5G apps and 5G advertising and how the funds are spent, that will be the question that impacts player like Google Ads on the next 24 months, because if they do not do that, their quarter on quarter growth will suddenly take a very different spin, and they are not the only ones affected.

 

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