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Just wanted to remind you all to come and catch up with us at Internet World this Thursday. Benn will be speaking at the event and will be on hand all morning at the WOM UK stand to answer any questions you may have on word of mouth marketing (stand W985, opposite the DMA Theatre).

It’s being held at Earls Court and is free to register. Just go to www.idmf.co.uk

Those of you who have been reading Neoco’s blog for a while may have read one of my previous posts about SimCityDS; summary: nice micro site, rubbish game.

http://blog.neoco.com/2007/07/17/a-microsite-that-does-its-job/

Today I chanced upon another game micro site that led me to the blogging control panel to publish my thoughts: MarioKart Wii!

http://www.mariokart.com/wii/

It’s interesting to compare my experience of the two micro sites. I bought SimCity DS on the back of a good experience on the micro site. I bought Mario Kart Wii because of many happy hours playing Mario Kart 64. I’d never actually visited the micro site when I purchased the game. I went on today trying to figure out how to avoid the mysterious POW! I was expecting the usual game micro site; information about the game, screenshots, videos, maybe a game. Not a chance! I reckon the entire site can be summarised in this handy easy-to-navigate text-only format:

GAME INFO: The worldwide race is on with a whole new set of tricks, tracks and ways to play! Cruise brand new circuits, or pop wheelies on one the speedy, new motorbikes.
MULTIPLAYER: Play up to three friends locally or challenge up to 11 friends via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. All 32 tracks can be played online! Review ranks and tournaments through the optional Mario Kart Channel.
WII WHEEL: Transform the Wii Remote into a steering wheel for an all-new Mario Kart experience. Intuitive design will have novices and veterans alike cruising fender-to-fender in no time.

I also reckon I could summarise this even further, with a single line of text, without really losing any key information:

GAME: Racing game; new tracks; new motorbikes. MULTIPLAYER: Play with 12 people; Mario Kart Channel. WII WHEEL: Steering wheel control pad.

That’s it! Honestly. Well pretty much. There’s a video and some kind of tour diary for North America, but nothing else. No screenshots, no real information about the game. Nothing to tell you how to avoid the POW! Actually, I am over exaggerating slightly. There’s also a widget. I choose Kooper Trooper character and installed it on my website. The result was:

It doesn’t really do anything and I can’t figure out what it’s got to do with Kooper Trooper!

So then, a missed opportunity? Maybe; but probably not. Mario Kart Wii is an excellent game (regardless of mixed reviews). And it’s currently selling by the bucket load.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/mario-kart-wii-debuts-with-594k-sales-in-japan

Trust me on this one – it does not disappoint! In summary a wonderful game and a rubbish micro site. Probably a better combination than SimCityDS!

PS: If you’re wondering about avoiding that bothersome POW then try this out:

http://uk.gamespot.com/wii/driving/mariokart/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-42563420&pid=942008

News of Microsoft pulling Windows XP off store shelves in June has hit XP fans hard.

Fans of the 6 year old operating system have hit forums and blogs to try to save their software. For many, Microsoft’s latest PC operating system, Windows Vista, is inferior compared to XP. Vista has had lukewarm reviews since its launch last January - mainly due to its large hardware requirements, a poor performance and its occasional incompatibility with other programs and devices and frequent, irritating security pop-up windows.

And, no matter how hard Microsoft have tried to persuade users to embrace Vista, they don’t seem to be getting through. Galen Gruman, a longtime technology journalist, started a Save XP Web petition, which has gather more than 100,000 signatures and thousands of comments since January. Most of the are die-hard XP fans who want the petition to force Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows is released, currently targeted for 2010.

Microsoft have declined to meet with Gruman to consider the petition. But, Microsoft is aware of the petition, and said in a statement to The Associated Press, it “will continue to be guided by feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs”. They already extended the XP deadline once, but it is showing no signs that it will extend it again…

I know this ad has been out for a while and I’m possibly a bit slow on the uptake with this one but I still wanted to get my tuppence worth said about this.

I am referring of course to the recent Honey Monster adverts. What the hell is that?

As most people at Neoco are aware I am a huge Mighty Boosh fan and I heard this ad (I was in the spare room at the time) and came rushing into the lounge so fast I slipped on the wooden floor, exclaiming to my amused other half, that’s a crimp if ever I heard one.

Some of you may be unaware of what crimping is but it is a style of erm well not quite sure how to describe it…… of rap and poetry, that boosh fans have come to know and love.

It is basically a rhyme of nonsensical words that ensure that you end up with a bizarre look on your face. It is actually very clever.

To give you the idea here are the lyrics from the ad

Sugar Puffs, Sugar Puffs HUP!
Honey coated puffs in a milky bath
Put ‘em in your mouth and they make you laugh
Kept in the cupboard taken out for breakfast
Spoon’s best friend and the fridge’s favourite
Huff! Puff! Huff-puff!
Huff! Puff! Huff-puff!
Wheaty chums that settle in transit
Golden pips of a sunshine princess

The Boosh started to crimp as far as I can tell in their radio show back in 2001. Each TV series has included at least two or three crimps. They are a bit of a highlight to us booshy fans or Mod wolves to those who are in the fan club (yes arguably its sad I’m a member but WHATEVER!).

I’m sure the people at Sugar puffs see this as some sort of hip, cool, down with the kids type of tribute, but that’s certainly not how they see it. They are currently in a huge legal battle over this issue, as they are saying it is a direct copy.To be fair I have to agree, that I think it is.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article934592.ece

After seeing this I sent the following links round at the office to spark some of the usual chit chat and see what they thought. There is only one other Boosh fan in the office, so it was a fair floor to see peoples take on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLXMxU-FC1E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSIQ4IJAYfk

This threw up the question of can you really copyright a style of singing? I suppose that is a fair question. The lyrics are original and it is purely the way they are being said that is the issue. Do they have grounds for suing?

I suppose that we shall see what the higher powers in court have to say and see the outcome of the legal battle is.

Apparently the ad is set to run until May, and then again from early July to mid-August. All I can say is that I for one think that in the words of Tony Harrison ‘This is an outrage’

The latest earnings report from eBay shows that Skype is now making money! For those of you that are unaware, eBay bought Skype for about $4bn a few years ago when Skype were losing money - and everyone thought it was way overpriced. However, opinions may now be changing, as a result of this announcement:

“Skype continued its strong growth trajectory, reporting $126 million in revenue for the quarter, representing 61% year-over-year growth. Skype added 33 million registered users in the quarter, ending the period with more than 309 million registered users around the world. Skype now has the largest registered user base within eBay Inc.’s portfolio of businesses.”

Although Skype might not be a good fit for eBay, after these impressive earnings it is likely that if eBay were to spin off Skype as its own public company, there would be huge benefits for eBay - it would appease eBay’s shareholders, put money in the bank for more sensible acquisitions, and be one of the hotter Internet IPOs in a few years. After all, few companies of Skype’s size can grow revenue and users more than 10% quarter by quarter - making it a very attractive company to Wall Street investor types. Perhaps eBay has hung onto Skype this long just to let it grow into its $4 billion valuation before offering it up on the public market. Or perhaps they are thinking about selling to someone else? Whichever option, eBay certainly doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to decide.

So, with Skype continuing to grow rapidly, perhaps it was a good investment for eBay after all?

We found the following article (using one of our feeds) which outlines 7 tips to making the most of RSS.

Most of us subscribe to a couple of feeds (at least!) now, and we all know that once you get past just a few feeds, it can quickly get overwhelming. The article outlines ways to stay on top of your RSS feeds, organise them better, share then with others and it provides loads of examples of readers and services to try out.

Key points are to:

• Oversubscribe - so you have more chances to find something worthwhile
• Don’t try to read everything you’ve subscribed to - just read the most recent and relevant items
• Use multiple services and try different readers - many do different things
• Learn about OPML - to help you move bundles of RSS feeds around

For the full article, visit: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tips_for_making_the_most_of_rss.php

There are two approaches to a consumer crisis.

1. Put your fingers in ears, close your eyes and repeat ‘la-la-la-la-la’. This is what we now call the ‘BA’ approach or ‘T5′ syndrome
2. The alternative is to actually engage with the consumers. This is the braver but ultimately much more competent approach. Look at American Airlines ‘Crisis’ blog: http://www.womma.org/blog/2008/04/a-look-at-american-airlines-crisis-blog/

This article was flagged up by Jim Sterne’s twitter: http://www.wdfm.com/marketing-tips/jim-sterne.php

It’s a really nice and simple ‘top 10′ list of things that you must measure on your website.

The key advice from the article is that investing more in your website without measuring how well it’s working is simply gambling’. You should ‘Set goals. Make changes. Track results. Repeat. Those are the instructions for a bigger, better, faster, stronger website’.

Why not do a health check yourself?

Quite a few people now know about our little vice for collecting fridge magnets from anywhere we can.

A new addition to our blog is to start thanking those people who bring us a magnet back from their latest travels.

Today’s entry is from Sian @ Brando and comes all the way from Kiev, Ukraine. Thanks Sian!

Sorry about the picture quality but that’s what you get from an iPhone. Next shot via better digital camera.

So, there you have it folks. Our vice is now exposed to the world and we hope to see many more magnets from everyone out there. No location should be spared - we even have one from York, England! You even get a shout out on our blog. Can life get any better?

MySpace has signed a deal, to air it’s shows such as Quarterlife, Roommates and Special Delivery on screens outside the US. The deal covers DVDs and merchandise but MySpace will retain all net rights to its programmes.  Despite bad figures for NBC’s broadcast of MySpace’s “Quarterlife” in February, MySpace are clearly having another attempt at finding an audience for its programmes beyond the internet.

As expected, they’ve also just entered a partnership with Universal Music Group, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group, which will offer music services on MySpace, a site that’s been known as a music community ever since all the sensible people fled to Facebook in 2007. Enhancing the MySpace Music platform already in place, they’ll offer DRM-free digital downloads, ad-supported audio and video streaming, a mobile store plus plenty of other knick knacks…

Users will be given tools to personalise their profiles even more (uh oh…) by creating playlists and easy-music searches. Artists signed up to MySpace Music can offer the users digital downloads, mobile ringtones, wallpapers and text messages regarding tours and the like, plus sell concert tickets and other merchandise.

For a full article on the MySpace TV deal, go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7339983.stm