Elections

At the moment there are elections in Holland. Everyday the politicians are on television and on the radio. Because I was curious if the use new media, I started a research. I found out that the are pretty conservative in the way the use internet and social media. Look at the website of PVV: http://pvv.nl/ boring!

Also the website of the PvdA is very boring. http://nu.pvda.nl/ also, no links to social media. Not smart.

I don’t understand why the political parties don’t spend more time on cool websites and social media. I think that they can win votes with a good website that is adapted to different target groups. Why don’t they create a site for older and younger people?

Especially after the things I’ve learned in the course: ‘design of business communication’ I can say that the websites have bad designs. Too much text, bad lay out. I think this is one of the reasons why the political parties have problems with reaching the youth.

Another thing I do not understand is that we still have to go to certain places to vote. Why can’t we use our Digid? That would be perfect! I think it is real old fashion to go and stand in line to vote. Don’t forget this line: within 8 years we can vote online. Trust me.

big thinking

At the moment I am following a course philosophy, pretty interesting. They teach me different aspects of philosophy and the way big thinkers, like Habermas and Darwin think. I’ve learned that a modern thinker, Jean Baudrillard says that we have lost sight on the real world. The reason for this is that we create an image of the world through the media. We live in a simulacrum, a situation in which we lost sight of the real world and look at things through the media. We believe what we see on the news, but are they true? I think that with the development of new media, the image of the world we create, will more and more be like the world as it is. Power and money play a smaller role in new media.

The entire landscape of the media is changing, mass media is changing. It is even disappearing. In the old days everybody was watching television on Saturday night. Nowadays we are skyping with our friends in America or are watching movies on YouTube. Because of the new media; mass media lost it’s power. These days the user has the power. Also, old habits are returning. For instance; 10 years ago people with a certain hobby were almost dying out. Now, with social networks etc. they can find each other. What happened to the contact advertisements in newspapers? Nobody needs them anymore. Now we use Parship or other dating websites. Every year there are many marriages that started with Parship.

Another cool new way of advertising is the collaboration with TNT. If a company has a new product, for instance Lipton Tea, they advertise on television. TNT offers them a service, they can send a promo package to customers. The tv watcher sends an sms message with zip code and house number to TNT and TNT delivers a package. Creative thinking.

Another interesting thing. Yesterday I called to Creative Technologies, for my mp3player which is broke. A guy in Singapore answered the phone call. He even spoke dutch. He helped me and sent me a new player, which will be sent from Ireland. I didn’t even had to send my old player. I can’t look inside the computers of Creative, but I think they have a good CRM system.

Queensday

Hey People!

How's life? I'm fine!

It's been a while but here I am again, with a fresh blog just for you!

I've been partying on queensday, I went out in Tilburg. It was a lot of fun! I went to the festival Tilburg sings. Maybe you are thinking: what does that have to do with ICT? Well, when I arrived there, the police sent me an mms with information. In that mms they told that there are camera's everywhere and where the police checkpoints are. Also guidelines on how to act when panic occurs where given. A very efficient way to give information to the crowd. So even when you visit a festival, ICT is there to serve you.

But there are more cool new applications that help you through out the day. The municipality of Tilburg launched a new iPhone app in which you can help them with maintaining the city clean and tidy. It works like this: when you are walking down the street and you see a spot where for instance someone dumped garbage you can send the exact place by gps and take a picture. This information is sent to the right department of city cleaning, which will solve the problem. A cool new way to clean the city. And off course it gives more power to the civilians.

See ya!

Festival fun

Last week I went to a festival in Belgium which was a lot of fun! The only thing was that that we forgot our tickets. STUPID. But the Belgians are not as stupid as we always think; they had an E guest list with my name on it, so I could still get in. Modern technology. Where would we be without it?

Public transport chipcard

I just have to write a little blog about the new public transport chipcard.

I wonder if there is anybody who likes the chipcard…there is one thing for sure, I don’t.

Although it’s a modern solution and probably inevitable, I think it’s not efficient. Many things went wrong with the implementation and still there are problems, many students still did not check in their card. The fact I don’t like about it, is that it is ANOTHER card in my wallet. Why didn’t they just make solution that uses the PIN card or something. In my opinion they didn’t make travelling easy, but more difficult. Not only for the passenger, but also for the NS staff. For them it takes much more time to check everybody in the train, because they have to (digitally) read every card. Also, it’s not user-friendly for tourists. Who have to buy a card before they can use public transport.

I really wonder if the card was a good idea. Especially when I think of the costs the government has made to develop the system. Don’t get me wrong, I think modern technologies are great, but only when it is a solution to a problem. In my opinion, the public transport chipcard only created problems (till so far).

Check this...

Contradictions in marketing campaigns

A nice marketing campaign where I’d like to write something about is ‘the Dove campaign for real beauty’, a Unilever campaign which is really innovative. Instead of using perfect looking models, Dove choose for a different approach. The campaign showed how fake all the ads are and how dangerous it is to influence young girls with images that are not realistic. The message is clear: ‘’All the cosmetic ads are dangerous and it should be different’’. Check this short ‘film’ to see what I mean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I

I think the approach of Unilever in the campaign is good, but I doubt their intentions.

Because if you look at this Axe campaign, also a Unilever brand, you see the exact opposite image concerning ‘real beauty’. Check this movie to see what I mean.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9tWZB7OUSU

And then you’ll know…

It’s all about making more money and the ‘good intentions’ are just a way to distinguish a brand.

Money..money..money...

My solution...

Time for a new blog :)

I was thinking where a should write something about this time and I’ll write about an idea I have for a new software application. It is inspired by the problems I see at the university when it comes to computers.

Always when I go to school and I don’t take my laptop with me, I have to look for a computer and always it takes me way too long. This is a problem I’ve seen at almost every high school or university. I am not the only one with this problem, especially on the HBO schools in Holland you always see people wandering around in search for a computer.

Now…my solution...

An application which is connected to all the computers on a campus/school or company. When you arrive at school and you need a computer, you simply go the one of the main administration computers and you immediately see if there is a free computer somewhere on the campus. You register yourself to that computer and it will be locked for 10 minutes, then you have ten minutes to go to the computer and log in on your account. No more wandering through the campus all day in search for a computer. Problem solved.

Social media

Social media

There are different forms of social media. There are micro blogs, network sites, weblogs and video sites like youtube and the dutch dumpert.nl. Who hasn’t got a facebook or hyves account these days? Social media is more popular then ever and there is an online society for everything. The companies behind the websites make a lot of money. How do they make that money?? Advertising!

These days social media marketing is very popular and even a must for companies and their marketing strategies. One of the success factors of social media and marketing is that the target group is differed in many different subgroups. If you, for instance, like the Bacardi Mojito, you can link yourself to the Mojito hyve. Bacardi can advertise for their new mojitos on that hyve. But maybe the amount of members of the Bacardi Mojito hyve is the best way to create (free) exposure.

At the moment there is one group of people that are using social media a lot to achieve their goals and that group is the politicians. These days there are elections in Holland and the politicians are showing up everywhere. The dutch prime minister; Jan Peter Balkenende has is own hyve: http://jpb.hyves.nl/ and off course Twitter: http://twitter.com/JPdeMP. The success of these ways to connect to your targetgroup is that it feels very personal. If Balkenende is your friend on hyves, this feels really personal.

In political campains Social media is the key factor to success. Obama probably won the elections because of social media. He understood the importance of Social media and used it perfectly. The interresting thing is that the U.S. elections in 2004 where very different and social media didn’t play such a big role. That shows that Social media became very important in only 4 years. Check out this video about Social media and polics:

Marketing and modern technologies

As everybody knows, ICT and modern technologies are present everywhere. Brands use fancy websites to build strong brands and use the internet to sell products. Companies that are very good at using the internet to sell products, are tour operators, mobile phone companies and companies for fast moving consumer goods. Who hasn't bought a cell phone or booked a holiday on the internet?

Also dutch event organisers like ID&T and Q Dance build beautiful websites to create a certain feeling for their events. check: http://www.save-exit-planet.org/. If you go to the website, you get the feeling that you're watching a trailer for a science fiction movie, but it's a promotional website for a rave party.

One of my favorite companies that uses modern technologies in their marketing, is Heineken. Their tactics are to not just build a website that promotes their brand, but to create a community with many possibilities. Too late for concert tickets? you can get them at Heineken.nl. Wanna play a game? Go to Heineken.nl. And the website offers many other services for their customers. Check: http://www.heineken.nl

I work for one of the largest health club operators (gyms) in the Netherlands, and our ICT strategies are not as efficient as they should be. The funny thing is our competitors also don't use ICT to attract new members, or keep current members. There is no possibility to buy a membership online, there is no online training program and the websites of healthclubs are mostly unattractive.
Also the software that is used for CRM and customer databases are not efficient in most health clubs. That is why I think if there are good software programmers and website builders out there; the health club industry is great target group to sell your products!

after carnaval

Hi there people!

Another blog from me, after 3 days of intensive carnival it's time to come back to the real world. There also are people who celebrate carnaval today but for me that would be lethal :p.

I was thinking what a strange cultural thing carnival is in North Brabant. Everybody dresses up crazy and do things they normally would never do, like listening to songs like: ''I'm jetty and I love spaghetti'' and dress up like Bjorn Borg. When it's carnival, everything is possible. I never really look forward to carnival but once I started I really love it, but after 3 days of intensive singing, drinking and dancing I'm done.

I wonder how many people did not show up to work or school today, I've read that lot's of people get ill after carnival.

3 years ago I was in Curacao during carnival. Totally different then here. It's almost like brazilian carnival; with steelbands and women with beautiful dresses. Also an amazing experience.

And at the moment I'm studying again. I've got the idea that this semester is harder then the last one, unfortunately. But everything is really interesting, so that is positive :)

Ciao!

Incredible inventions

Todays media use in organisations lecture was pretty interesting. Mindbogling that the microchip was such a world changing invention. What would we be without the microchip these days? Even my 84 old grandpa uses his laptop to buy books online.

I think that the internet is an even greater invention. It has done so much for so many people and businesses. The music/entertainment industry changed dramatically and dating is totally different then 15 years ago. And who buys a enceclopedia these days when you can find everything on wikipedia?

We also talked about specialized software in organisations in todays lecture. When I thought about the company where I work I realized only my department (sales) uses 4 specialized software programs and I can't imagine working without them.

One thing is for sure! A lot of things changed completely with the microchip!



Well guys,

Have a nice carnival :)

Bye!

Hi people,

This is my first blog.