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3UK are on a mission. In other news, I almost beat the crap out of the mainstream media today.

Started by Ewan · 11 months ago

I appreciate it.

I appreciate all the work that the marketing and public relations teams do for product launches and things like this.

Today’s event with 3 was billed as a ‘Christmas in July’ preview of the company’s ‘fall line’ — their Christmas line up. It’s not just TV channels or fashion/retail chains that need to [...] ... Continue reading »

43 comments

  • James Whatley

    11 months ago

    Excellent point, well made.
    reply
  • Dan Carter

    11 months ago

    i agree totally. Then again I am 1 of those 'shit hot' bloggers talked about lol
    reply
  • HeavyLight

    11 months ago

    Magazines are even closer to being finished than newspapers!
    Just imagine when those MSM mags will hit the streets? Something tells me they'll be somewhat less than relevant by then.

    Doomed, I tell ya!
    reply
  • ChrisB

    11 months ago

    Really great article, and so telling of the mainstream media types.
    reply
  • Haha

    11 months ago

    Get a life, nerd. Not everybody sleeps with his the NXXX or the NYYY, people have a lot of other things to do in their life. I know it sounds strange...
    reply
  • Ewan

    11 months ago

    Heh! Brilliant! A flame!
    reply
  • James Whatley

    11 months ago

    You've definitely hit the big time now chum ;)
    reply
  • Ben Smith

    11 months ago

    They do round here, sunshine.
    reply
  • Mike42

    11 months ago

    Go the Daily Mail technology columnist.

    ....Of course, your readership aren't interested in mobile broadband dongles for their free laptops while on holiday in their velour-stuffed caravans in some Midlands white trash wasteland hell-hole.


    ....I'm amazed you were even able to find this site......
    reply
  • DanLane

    11 months ago

    Exactly, and it's because not everybody wants to eat, sleep and live mobile phones that they need advice from the people who do, literally, eat, sleep and live with mobile phones on their minds. When mainstream media prints news about mobile phones they need to make sure they've done their research so that the normobs of the world can be informed without putting in too much effort.

    Thanks for proving our point :)
    reply
  • sierranighttide

    11 months ago

    Speaking as a nerd and a geek I’ve gone camping three times this summer and two more are planned – the gps is a wonderful tool for campers
    I’ve traveled the states from one coast to the other with an Eee PC – it saved me a lot of potential frustrated moments and getting hoplesly lost
    Flat tire, dead battery & no wifi service – PDA phone worked great and got help

    Next? I might be traveling the South America seas and I’m bring my nerd toys with me.

    Us geeks & nerds have a LIFE and we have complete efficently with nerd toys and survival skills -- Maybe you’re just jealous?

    BTW – I’m a grrrrl – Nerds & geeks rock!
    reply
  • MartinSFP

    11 months ago

    Another great Ewan rant! I have to say though, as important as mobile technology is to the readerships of a wide range of mainstream publications, not every publication has a technology correspondent.

    Journalists get invited to PR events every day. Not all of them will appeal to every journalist. Although it may be their job to cover what they see at them, after a while these events will blur into one big free buffet. They probably go along for the food and to pick up the press release so they can write a filler piece if they need to.

    As exciting as you or I may find this particular one, for many of the people there (who probably got invited to to the launches for a new vacuum cleaner and a new brand of slippers last week) it was 'just another launch for a product they don't care about'.

    Sad but true.
    reply
  • technokitten

    11 months ago

    I concur @MartinSFP

    I've run product launches and PR events in the past and to get anyone to turn up can be an achievement sometimes when there are so many other launches going on at the same time. And even if they turn up, the journalists who do come are not necessarily the least bit bothered about what you're up to. I'm not tarring all journalists with the same brush mind you - journalists are just very busy people, with hellish deadlines and a ton of product launches press releases, fact finding and interviews to deal with, often with daily or weekly deadlines to meet.

    On the other hand, bloggers are generally enthusiasts so would give their eye teeth to come to a product launch in their sweet spot. It's not necessarily their day job (although in this case it is your day job Ewan - does this make your a blogalist or something?) but it's their passion and their specialist subject so they will make the time and the effort to turn up and find out more just because they can.

    It's all relative.
    reply
  • Ben Smith

    11 months ago

    Yeah - I refer you back to my podcast comments from hte Jawbone launch, which itself was good, but where the man from [insert large US-based media firm that you'd recognise] had already written up the iPhone 3G review prior to its announcement.

    I was horrified - I'd chew my arm off to be paid full-time to write about this stuff and he dribbles out that toss... what a lack of respect for his readers.

    I guess the thing is blogs are more interactive so if we did that the readers would tear us a new one.
    reply
  • jonmul

    11 months ago

    Yet another sign of how - from a bleeding edge point of view anyway - print media is dying on it's ar$e.

    Seriously, when was the last time you read about a new device or service in a technology magazine that you hadn't already heard about online?
    reply
  • rafeblandford

    11 months ago

    Nice post Ewan - some interesting observations. I've seen the same thing at a variety of events. Mainly it just makes me feel sorry for the PR people who have put a lot of effoer into such an event. On the other there is a distinction between bloggers and journalists (as technokitten points out) and it is important. The main stream media is equally stratified. Lifestyle vs technology press for example. And at the end of the day even a shiny picture in a magazine with a decent circulation can be important (though there something wrong with the way ROI metrics are generally measured). PR tends (and I'm generalising massively here) to value even a small item in print media over online media (and even more so over bloggers. You can debate circulation versus visitors count of course, but degree of targeting tends to be forgotten and of course the online and blogger stuff probably has far more long term legs.

    That said by sympathy for 3 is somewhat tempered by the fact I haven't been able to make contact with them. I've tried going the 'proper' PR route and was largely ignored, and wrote to 3 Mobile Buzz and didn't get a response (perhaps not surprising, I may fall outside their remit). Maybe I should have tried harder, but...

    To be fair I think its very hard for marketing people to connect with those they need to (how do you know who is most valuable unless you're part of the community itself), especially with blurring lines (or rather a continuum) between bloggers/social media/online media/mainstream media etc etc. Of course you also have to bear in mind they have limited resources and therefore can only ever target a certain number of people so you can't assume you should be on the list (which incidentally PR should set up a mailing list and send out a summary the next day to everyone who was unable to make it or they didn't have room for).
    reply
  • Mac Morrison

    11 months ago

    Agreed, presumably you were given some sort of takeway press kit. 3 would be looking for a magazine like heat to stick the E71 (in girl friendly white) or black berry bold - next to some lippy and wedges.

    Of course the danger being it ends up being PR for the handsets rather than the network - but im sure the press kit photos are '3''d to within an inch of their DPI.
    reply
  • Ewan

    11 months ago

    Aye. If the journalist just wants the release and a picture, fine. You get
    that by email. But when you turn up to an event, it's downright rude to pop
    in, stuff your face, ignore everything, spot the 'goodie bag', grab one and
    head off!
    reply
  • Mac Morrison

    11 months ago

    now you are just making me hungry, I'll put the kettle on.
    reply
  • JayLaFunk

    11 months ago

    Great Read Ewan, but go on, NAME & SHAME
    reply
  • Ewan

    11 months ago

    Tempting Jay, tempting....
    reply
  • South77

    11 months ago

    It's only a couple of phones... remember, the mainstream press has its readers to think about too, and will put in effort commesurate with the return.
    reply
  • South77

    11 months ago

    I've met Rafe at AAS and read his site -- he's very good.
    reply
  • John

    11 months ago

    But where is the story for the mainstream media? Frankly, I'm disappointed with 3 - where's the innovation gone? This was just a handset launch, and the newest product thing (for them) was that they are now going to be selling blackberry - hardly news when everyone else has always been selling them.

    Where's the next X-series, the next Orb, the next slingbox, the next skypephone (er..)
    reply
  • DanLane

    11 months ago

    http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/07/3_skypephone...

    There is the next skypephone, plug it into your laptop and it'll load the drivers to use it as a mobile broadband dongle... there's your innovation!, every other operator will sell you a handset contract with data and specifically forbid you from tethering it.

    Three are pushing all the right buttons for me right now!
    reply
  • Mike42

    11 months ago

    Hmmm...Orb. Slingbox.

    er, taxi for mass-market FAIL, please! It was a buzz but really - TV on your mobile? Next.

    ...actually, I met a Slingbox user the other day. No, really! I was carving my initials into his side with a stick and he woke up...wait, no, that's a Monty Python routine....
    reply
  • DanLane

    11 months ago

    My slingbox gets used every day... never on my mobile though!
    reply
  • Mike42

    11 months ago

    How's the stick wounds chap?
    reply
  • doug

    11 months ago

    did they mention the E66??
    reply
  • Ewan

    11 months ago

    Alas no mention of the E66!
    reply
  • Constantine

    11 months ago

    Thanks Ewan, you'll be the first to know if Nokia is doing something in the UK. Well it could be you or Rafe, depending on whoever has push email turned on ;-)
    reply
  • Ewan

    11 months ago

    Thank you, Mr Shit Hot ;)
    reply
  • meraj

    11 months ago

    Great insight Ewan, I share the same feeling.

    I remember being at the Nokia Growing Together conference and having tons of international journalists doing nothing related to the phones, and looked at me crazy just for taking tons of comparison images. The same happened at the N96 and N78 launch, although there were less of these mainstream reporters.

    They probably think "This guy never saw a phone in his life..."

    Pretty ironic it would be!
    reply
  • Mac Morrison

    11 months ago

    Entertaining post, but chill mate.

    Imagine if you had to cover 15-20 launches a month. Not all on things you care about, you may be for example massively into home cinema but not care about mobile much. etc. Most of the results from a launch like this is to get the Press Release printed - mostly verbatim, and a photo in the publication.

    Job done.

    Dirty but realistic.
    reply
  • Ewan

    11 months ago

    I really don't agree. If you're the technology correspondent for a girly
    mag or a computer mag or whatever... it's your job to take an interest, even
    if it bores-you-to-shit. You take an interest. You walk about. You look.
    You poke.

    You don't arrive, stuff your face and piss off with the press release 60
    seconds later.
    reply
  • Mac Morrison

    11 months ago

    ideally not - but you know daddy got me this job.
    reply
  • South77

    11 months ago

    right, it's totally rude and slack. no excuses.
    reply
  • Mac Morrison

    11 months ago

    mind you - there was nothing genuinly *new*
    bold has been at various trade shows
    E71 has been in nokia store on regent street for a few weeks
    N96 is there too
    tocca is in every mobile store in the country

    X1 is rare as is the things you presumably wernt allowed to blog

    however if its a bloody press show - why have things you cant show on display.
    unless it was purely on embargo. which most press ignore.
    reply
  • DanLane

    11 months ago

    You don't always do a job because you care about it, you do a job to get paid for it. Not caring about the subject matter doesn't mean you can do a half-arsed job.

    All you're doing is confirming the laziness of mainstream media.
    reply
  • sierranighttide

    11 months ago

    Sad…. Just sad about the idiot journalist. This is why the information on gadgets in printed news papers sucks! I don’t even bother to read most of them, as they’re boring or give no interesting information. Bloggers is where to go for information. Double check / research to ensure it’s accurate and or true…but still the blogs is what I read.

    Glad I found this site, I’ll be reading often.
    reply
  • Richi

    11 months ago

    i wonder if these handsets you have mentioned above will appear at some stage on the 3ireland network because frankly the choice of handsets in the Republic is quite bad compare to the English market....
    reply
  • Ben Smith

    11 months ago

    Sorry pet peeve: It's the British market, not the English one.

    On a more helpful note, all the 3 firms world-wide select their own handsets so what 3UK does is no indication of what will happen in Ireland... other than via consumer pressure.
    reply
  • kapow

    11 months ago

    a jobs a job. you took the job knowing full well what it entails. i dont care if you have 50 deadlines to meet you do what your supposed to do. thats what you get paid for. give me the damn job if you cant be arsed or have no interest!
    sods law.

    hey any news on the samsung soul on three? i hear a release is imminent?
    reply

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