Print vs Web: Comparing costs

With internet penetration in South Africa at 10.5%, and online media being the "new" media, clients are often hesitant to allocate a substantial portion of the budget to online campaigns. Clients tend to rely heavily on traditional media such as print, due to the wide reach and relatively low costs. In this (brief) post, we'll look at the cost benefits of online over print.

• When comparing print versus online costs, one has to compare the cost of production, distribution, and CPM (cost per thousand)


• With web, there are no printing or distribution fees


• You can easily update content online for a fraction of the cost that it would cost to correct a print ad


• The cost of delivery of online content continues to fall due to cheaper bandwidth and hosting, while printing costs will continue to rise


• The online medium provides for richer and more in-depth content, as well as having content in video and audio format


• With web, your return on investment can be measured accurately by tracking conversions (sign-ups, sales, leads), whereas with print it cannot be measured accurately


• E-books are cheaper and more ecologically viable, compared to print production and distribution
  

While internet usage is only at 10.5%, this continues to rise. In addition, more people are spending most of their time in front of a computer, and getting most of the information online. Even newspapers has seen a recent much faster decline due to the internet, forcing a mass migration online to sustain their audiences.

Companies in more technologically advanced countries have seen their markets turn to the web, both for convenience and costs. While there is still a valuable place for print, online media is becoming an all-pervasive medium, one that cannot be ignored, even in a developing country such as South Africa.

"I'll know what I want when I see it", subjectivity in design

An issue which comes up quite often in discussions about the relationship between designers and clients is subjectivity in design. It is an issue which can cause tension in a good working relationship.

Designers spend their time and energy coming up with what they think is a great design, only to be told that the design doesn't satisfy the client. The client then becomes frustrated as he/she feels the expectations are not being met, or that time and money is being wasted.

Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of designers.

Meeting Stakeholders
Try to ensure that the designer meets all the key team members and stakeholders that will ultimately make the decisions. This is so that the designer doesn't waste time going through a full design process only to have it rejected by a decision-maker at the end.

Success criteria
Together with your designer, you should develop success criteria, that is, develop the different objectives that need to be met. These need to be clearly defined by both you and the designer, as they create a common platform from which to work.

Visual aids
Try to get all the stakeholders or key team members to provide sites and creative material that they like. It's really important to give the designer input on your preferences and likes, and the designer should be able to guide you in terms of design elements such as colour, typeface etc. When you do give feedback, try to frame it in the format of a question, problem or opportunity that needs to be explored. . . not just "I don't like it". The key term here is constructive criticism.

Moodboards and wireframes are also a good idea, and ideally the designer should present you with them. Moodboards are great to give you an idea about colour, images, typography etc. Wireframes are essential to display the layout and hierarchy of information but should not require too much investment of your time.

Background information
You can also make the process easier by providing the designer with information about the company and more importantly, your audience. The designer takes this information and defines user profiles and personas, for example, for a website.

Style Guides
If your company has style guides for your brand, provide these to the designer so he/she can use them as a reference.


Like any good relationship, its based on honest communication and mutual respect. Both parties have to be open to constructive criticism, and at times, agree to disagree. Compromise. . .but never on quality.

Crime reporting sites just what SA needs

With the appointment of a new National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele, the debates around crime stats which were raised during the 2009 elections, have resurfaced once again. His arguments about a moratorium on crime stats have provoked plenty of criticism in a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world.

Added to this is the recent crime stats scam exposed which alleges that police had been burning dockets in batches as well as capturing the crimes at a lesser charge. What's become apparent is that the very people who we depend on to protect us, and to curb crime, are the very people who are committing crime. Now, while not all police should be tarnished with the same brush, and there are many outstanding policemen and policewomen out there, it is still no consolation to those victims, be they of robbery, rape and murder, who will never receive justice. Crime stats are of huge importance, especially to the police, and to dismiss them, or argue for a moratorium tells us a lot about the committment to fighting crime.

In the States, however, it is a completely different case altogether, with crime stats and police reports being easily accessible by the public. All this information is available on crimereporting websites. A few examples of these are Spotcrime, Sanfrancisco Crimespotting and EveryBlock Chicago. These sites feature interactive maps with information on the types of crimes,reports and stats, albeit a few days old.

Crimereporting websites like these have an important role to play for an informed citizenry, and can empower communities even further to take steps in curbing crime. In South Africa there are already a number of structures created by communities such as the neighbourhood watch and other Community Policing Forums. Crimereporting websites can provide vital information on crime trends and stats in areas, and locals and tourists can be aware of crime hotspots and avoid them accordingly. People can also be encouraged to post their reported crimes on the website, and in this way, warning each other as well as keeping tabs on the police's performance in fighting crime. In terms of crimereporting in social media, we've already seen a similar integration in twitter.

From a different perspective, we would also be able to approximate the actual levels of crime versus perceived levels of crime. If and when we are allowed to see the Ministry of Police's crimestats, we can compare this to the reports aggregated by citizens. Again, we can't forget the disparities in terms of the digital divide, and the majority of South Africans who have limited or no access to the internet, but if Jacob Zuma is to be believed about ICT rollouts and rural development, and the supposed cheaper broadbrand via the new cables, this should soon not be as big a hurdle as before.

If an online platform can play a role in disseminating information about crime to the public, South Africa is the one country where it is needed the most.

Social CRM

A while ago I wrote a post about twitter, and if it would actually take off, in the context of other already established popular social media platforms such as Facebook. The 'evolution' of twitter has created a space where companies, and brands in particular, can interact with their customers and respond to their online rants, raves and general discussions about brands and products, with far more immediacy than ever before. Twitter is a great platform to gauge perception of brands, and it forces brand managers to engage with customers. Subsequently companies have now begun 'mining' twitter for perceptions of their brands.

The evolution of this kind of communication between company and consumer on a social media platform has created a new genre called Social Customer Relationship Management (sCRM). It's basically the integration of social media with traditional Customer Relationship Management. sCRM encourages greater participation from both sides and increases brand involvement, builds relationships and brand loyalty. An example of this is Stephen Fry's tweets about his frustration with an HP printer. Soon thereafter he gets a response from HP offering to help.

The only negative aspect of this kind of communication, is that it could be hijacked by a marketing department and end up spamming consumers, as was the case with HabitatUK. If not used properly, there is a potential to damage a brand much faster (and more publicly) than if traditional channels were used.

Of course, sCRM provides opportunities for tech companies to create specialised applications to help companies keep track of their brand mentions. An example of this is Buddy Media's Twitter Management System which identifies and monitors topics around a brand, tracks performance and trends for a brand and its entire industry, as well as data on followers, mentions and re-Tweets. There are a number of similar tools such as Mr.Tweet and Twitter Alerts, for a more comprehensive list check out 99 Essential Twitter Tools and Applications.

Twitter has also introduced Twitter 101 for Business, which is a great resource in learning how to get the most out of Twitter for your business, such as how to engage with consumers and tracking sentiment about your brand.

Another good read is 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business.

Twitter is still growing as a social aggregator, and, as so aptly stated in a TechCrunch article, 'it's where news gets broken, where celebrities get social, and where companies can do business'.

Fresh content without the hard sell please

I'll probably get a lot of flak for writing this, and I hope I won't have to resort to the same in the future. . .

There's something that's really been irritating me now recently . . . and I guess I'm due a rant.

The online 'industry' is highly competitive, especially in South Africa where there is such a limited space within which to move. Consequently web agencies have to ensure that their brand becomes prominent and easily recognisable by potential clients. One of the most important tools for web agencies is to become "an online center of influence", that is, to write plenty of useful content and articles (simultaneously helping with SEO). As I am a verocious reader, aggregator sites are a huge time saver.

Every now and then, or I should say, more often than not, I come across an article title that hooks me, that is, the article seems like it will shed some interesting insights onto a familiar subject. So I read the first few paragraphs, and then skim to the end to see if it actually does provide any insights / solutions. It's at this point that I get annoyed, as while the article may have a great hook, it turns out to be nothing more than the same old content, recycled and redressed, written for the sole purpose of advertising XYZ's services. This is essentialy 2-3 minutes of my time wasted on reading an advertorial.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind companies advertising their services, everyone has to, I'd just appreciate some forewarning. It's the illusion of the author imparting knowledge for the sake of imparting knowledge that annoys me. Perhaps my ability to sift through the rehashed content is what needs polishing.

So my new technique is to scroll down, check if its 'safe' then scroll to the top to begin reading the article.

Like I said before, I don't mind agencies advertising their services through submitted articles, but potential clients are becoming increasingly web-savvy and web agencies have to become more sophisticated in marketing their services.

SA ranks 52nd in Global Techno Report

The World Economic Forum ended it's Africa sessions in Cape Town last week,and while technology wasn't really in the spotlight, the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 provides a valuable insight into how South Africa fares against other countries, as well as our strengths and weakness in terms of ICT. The Global Information Technology Report is the "most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on development process and the competitiveness of nations". Basically it evaluates the environment, readiness and usage of ICT and its impact on development and its role as a catalyst for growth.

Specifically. . .
The environment for ICT offered by a give country,
The readiness of the economy's key stakeholders - individuals, business and governments
The usage of ICT among those stakeholders

The top scorers were Denmark, Sweden and the United States. For overall Network Readiness Index, South Africa ranked 52nd.

South Africa's 10 best ranks:
Financial market sophistication 12
Number of procedures to reinforce a contract 14
Extent of staff training 15
Efficiency of legal framework for disputes 20
Property Rights 20
Prevalence of foreign technology licensing 22
Intellectual property protection 23
Local Supplier quality 24
Extent and effect of taxation 25
Quality of management schools 25


And South Africa's 10 worst ranks. . . no surprises here. . .
Quality of math and science education 132
Availability of new telephone lines 113
Quality of competition in the ISP sector 112
Quality of the educational system 110
Availability of scientists and engineers 110
Internet users 97
Residential monthly telephone subscription 97
Government success in ICT promotion 95
Burden of government regulation 95
Tertiary education enrollment 94


What this shows is that while we are faring well in terms of policy and framework, we are falling drastically short on a basic and fundamental environment conducive to development not only for ICT but also by ICT. Our weakest points seems to be in education and competition in the ICT sector which affects prices and usage.

So while we enter a new dispensation hopefully the General will make significant inroads into developing the ICT sector, and make South Africa more competitive in the global arena.

Google's Moderator a step in the right direction

I'll be the first to say that Google is the one of the most exciting and innovative companies around, and with the release of their latest application, Moderator, this spells interesting times, not only for citizen participation, but even for how we think about product development.



Google's Moderator is an application in which users can submit questions to vote for the ones they most want answered. Users can even submit questions to world leaders, such as Obama, Putin, Chavez, and then vote for the ones they want answered. Already the White House has implemented the application for Open for Questions, where Obama answers questions from the public. Obama made extensive use of social media during his campaign, and seems to be extending this strategy to encourage greater participation from US citizens.



Since South African parties have already started to replicate social media strategies in their campaigning, if political leaders, or even government structures, could implement a similar platform based on such an application, this might encourage input by citizens and improve access to government. Of course, as stated in my previous post, only a small percentage may be able to participate on these platforms, but perhaps that will change dramatically after the arrival of seacom. The only problem with this is platforms like these need the participation of those political leaders, there's no point in submitting questions if there's no hope of them ever getting answered. Recent events has shown that SA citizens are not apathetic about politics, and would like to participate, but most times their concerns are not taken into consideration at all. If political leaders do decide to to use applications like these to interact with the public, it'll be a good sign of political will to encourage political participation.

Applications based on user-generated content are seeping into all spheres of modern society, and if businesses could use similar applications in their product or service development, we could see better designed products or services tailored to market needs. However, this might not always be best option to go with in all cases. It'll be impossible to meet every one's needs, but in terms of using a rating/voting method, companies will be able to prioritise customer needs and release products with fewer callbacks.

Government, and companies, that use tools to encourage citizen (and user) input is a step forward in the way we think about how we are governed and the products we consume.