Owned Media is more Loaned Media

Anyone working in digital marketing or for an advertising agency will use the words Paid Media, Owned Media, and Earned Media. But is Owned Media really Owned Media?

PEO Model - should Loaned Media be part of the mix?

I was reading an old Forrester blog post last week on Paid, Earned and Owned Media, and the author split Owned Media into 'fully-Owned Media' (your website, your blog) and 'partially-Owned Media (your Facebook fan page, your Twitter account etc).

Owned Media is essentially something you control as a person or as a brand. I would argue that much of Owned Media is actually Loaned Media. Most blogs are powered by Blogger or Wordpress. If either of those platforms makes a significant change or ceases to exist, your blog will be affected. Thus, you don't control it. Same with Facebook or Twitter or other 'Owned Media' platforms.

Loaned Media - the new model?

Therefore you don't control those platforms outright, you simply control the parts that are loaned to you. Go on, throw Loaned Media into the mix, you know it makes sense.

7 Life Lessons from LOST

I've written a few previous posts about LOST on this blog, but with no real takeaways. The other posts were more a recommendation, an arm twist is you like. "If you're not watching LOST, you should be!!", type posts.

18 months after the finale, I'm still introducing people to LOST, who love it. They were late to the party, and some felt it was too late to catch up, but if like them, you like twisty, character development-based, unorthodox shows, it's never too late.

When LOST launched onto UK screens back in 2005, it attracted six million viewers. Even from the trailer, there was a sense that LOST was fresh, something different. It wasn't a medical show. It wasn't a law and order show. It wasn't even a sci-fi show. That, for me, made it very compelling.

Shift forward through the six series, and and that lure never wained. LOST kept me hooked - in part -  because the writers always left me guessing. Answers to the story were drip fed, but never given in full, which always kept the audience wanting more.

OK, I confess, my name is Simon and I'm a LOSTaholic. I’m still in withdrawal. Twitching. Shivering. Wanting more. But there are no more fixes to be had. So this shall be my closure. My attempt examine what I think made this show phenomenal, for all those who watched it, and for those who have yet to start or complete the experience.

Lesson #1 - Everything happens for a reason - there was a big debate of science versus faith all the way throughout the show, but in the end, faith and destiny prevail. Cut to real life, and I'm a Yes man, a positive thinker, and make decision based on what I think is best at the time. Eventually those decisions and choices place us where we are today. Tomorrow there will be more choices, big and small, and that moves us along the life path again. Sometimes we’re led down a path, and we’re not sure where it will lead. Embrace it, enjoy the adventure.

Lesson #2 - Humans are, generally, inherently good by nature - Light versus dark, white versus black - throughout LOST there was a tug of war between Jacob and his brother. Jacob saw the good in people, his brother believed they came and destroyed each other. Despite the rioting, racism, crime and hatred that occurs in life, there is more human good which outweighs the bad. Charity work, a minutes silence at a football match, love - this list is endless.

Lesson #3 - The little things in life help us to see the Big Picture - I'll leave this to Carlton Cuse: "We were enriched along the way by what we learned as we delved into these characters. As we got deeper into the characters and as we got deeper into the story, it told us a lot about what made the show more complex...so I think we would look at it and go, ‘The superstructure is the same, but oh my gosh, I’m getting such a rich character experience,’ and that was only possible by doing the hard work of making the hundred and twenty episodes that led up to it."Most of us have visions, goals and dreams, but it's only possible to reach those goals through day-to-day experiences. Those experiences build up, we learn from them, and that helps to view the big picture.

Lesson #4 - Do things based on gut feel - That feeling you get when you know you should pursue a particular course of action. Do it. Do it because deep down, it feels right. That trip into the jungle to find water, blowing up the hatch, pushing the button every 108 minutes. Taking that trip to the place you've never been. Hiring that person who will sweat blood and tears for your company. Twirl or Crunchie. You get the idea.

Lesson #5 - Everyone gets a second chance - everyone who was brought to the island was struggling in some way. The island gave them a second chance to be the person they were struggling to be. Everyone makes mistakes, some big, some small. We're human after all. Human nature is generally good (I said so above), and will permit second chances. So no matter how much we screw up in life, there's always a way out, a second chance.

Lesson #6 - Why do we fall over? So we can learn pick ourselves up - OK, before you start Googling, that's a Batman Begins quote, but it applies to LOST too. John Locke has many a tale or story to spin to help the other Losties cope with life on the island. "That’s a moth cocoon. It’s ironic – butterflies get all the attention, but moths, they spin silk. They’re stronger. You see this little hole? This moth’s just about to emerge. It’s in there right now, struggling. It’s digging its way through the thick hide of the cocoon. Now, I could help it – take my knife, gently widen the opening, and the moth would be free – but it would be too weak to survive. Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening it." Let's calling it building strength through adversity. Using experiences - pain, hurt and suffering - we make ourselves stronger.

Lesson #7 - Learn to let go - sometimes life doesn't work out the way we want. We lose friends and family. We lose loved ones. If you don't let go, you can't move on. Christian Shepherd, LOST finale: "Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some… long after you....the most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you."

Whether or not you watched and loved LOST as I did, I'm sure you all have life lessons you've taken from other shows and books. What are they? And if you loved LOST and just want closure too, sorry, you'll have to find it in your own way :P

Visualizing Foursquare Check Ins

As of June 2011, Foursquare has 10 million members. I am one of those members, and am a big advocate of Foursquare. But recently more and more people I chat to about Foursquare say they are bored with it, and don't see the point in using it any more. "I don't care if someone checks-in at a McDonald's drive-through", said one colleague. According to many sources, Foursquare are shedding users faster than they are gaining them.

Let's not forget, Foursquare was created as a game. Get points for check ins to different places, and pit yourself against your friends and colleagues. But for many, the boredom factor has kicked in. Check in at the same place over and over, and the points dwindle. If (like me) you travel around a lot, mayorships are stuff of dreams.

So what's left to play with if you're stuck for points and over the mayorship honeymoon? At the end of the day, each Foursquare check-in leaves a data footprint. Strip it back to it's basic function, and Foursquare is essentially a location memory system. It tracks how many times you check into a particular place, and your most popular categories. This leaves a nice potential for data visualisation.

Step forward Weeplaces.com. WeePlaces makes use of your Foursquare data by creating geoprofiles, a personal page of your check in experiences.  That way, they can store and organize your geodata to create an amazing Foursquare visualization. Here's the visualisation I created back in May;


A Year of foursquare Check Ins from Simon H on Vimeo.

Give it a go yourself!

Yas Island Links Golf Course

I don't play golf. I'm a sales guy, so you should think golf should come naturally. I'm also very sporty, so again, a quick few athletic swings of the club and good eye for distance should see me right. The truth is, I've played only two rounds of 18 hole golf in my life. That said, I have a mean pitch and putt game.

So when I was over in Abu Dhabi recently, a colleague suggested we play the Yas Island golf course. "It looks like an amazing links course!", he said. I didn't really know what that meant. We were staying at a hotel that overlooked the golf course on Yas Island, and to give him credit, when I looked out from the balcony, it did look amazing. He began Googling. "Si...this is one of the top 100 golf courses in the world. And it was designed by a Scot. We have to play it". I couldn't really argue. Despite my lack of golf experience, playing one of the top golf courses in the world was too good an opportunity to turn down.

What an experience it was, and surprisingly enjoyable. Despite me losing and getting verbally abused for the rest of the trip, it was a fantastic experience, set next to the water, and next to the Yas Marina Circuit, home of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

I've attached some of the photos I took around the course, including an amazing 17th hole (which I'm proud to say I  parred).

The view with Yas Marina circuit and Ferrari World in the distance;

On the back 9 as the sun sets

The 17th hole. Choose your club wisely!

Safe to say, if you get the opportunity to get out to Abu Dhabi, stay on Yas Island and give the golf course a run for its money.