HMV set to launch social networking site

Music retailer HMV is testing the first stage of a social networking site, called Get Closer, which will allow users to discover and share new music.

The site is currently being tested by a thousand users prior to a full launch on September 1, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Get Closer will allow users to import music and film files to create their own library. They will also be connected to other users with similar tastes to form "spider clouds" around the artists, genres or films that they have in common.

Simon Fox, HMV’s chief executive, said that the site is more about developing connections, discovering and sharing new music than social networking in the traditional sense.

He said: "We will then match you up with similar people. It’s all about connections and collections."

The site is part of HMV’s strategy to broaden its appeal from traditional retailing and to capture a share of the growing online market.

Get Closer will be funded by advertising revenues as well as having a click-through button to HMV’s online store.

The site will also make recommendations to members about what music they might like.

Next month Tesco is taking on Apple by launching an online shop for video and music downloads. Tesco Digital will offer 3.3m songs and by the end of the year it will be compatible with iPods and other MP3 players.

In February, Omnicom agency OMD UK won the search engine optimisation account for HMV. It has been tasked with promoting HMV.com as one of the first options people see when searching the internet for music, films and other entertainment goods.

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McDonald’s aims for premium image with designer uniforms

McDonald’s is providing its staff with a new range of uniforms designed by Bruce Oldfield, famous for dressing Princess Diana, Jemima Khan and Sienna Miller, in an attempt to appear more upmarket.

The old outfit’s bright colours have been replaced with more subtle shades of black, beige and brown for the air-hostess style uniforms.

Female management and front of house staff will wear high heels, pencil skirts and scarves, male counterparts will have suits, and the staff who serve the food will wear polo shirts, all in similar colours.

The new uniform will appear in the UK next month for all 67,000 workers to complement the company’s restyled restaurants, at a cost of £2m.

McDonald’s said that the clothes made staff feel more confident and customers respect them more.

David Fairhurst, chief people officer at McDonald’s, was reported in The Guardian to have said: "We’ve been on the journey of confidence. And part of that confidence will come from having the staff feel good in their uniforms.

"The new uniform reflects how there is now a more upmarket feel to the business. You still have the value meals but there are also the premium ones, and these uniforms give a more premium feel."

Oldfield said that it had been fun to design the "contemporary look" for employees at McDonald’s and that he had come up with a design that is practical and stylish.

In a previous attempt to change people’s perceptions McDonald’s last year started a campaign to get the Oxford English Dictionary to change its definition of a ’McJob’.

The McDonald’s Corporation posted a 24% gain in first-quarter profit yesterday, thanks to strong international sales, but investors were nervous about the company’s first monthly decline of US same-store sales in five years.

McDonald’s is not the first fast food chain to go for the premium market. Yesterday, its rival Burger King announced plans to roll out an £85 burger as part of a wider strategy to boost its premium credentials.

The UK’s most expensive burger is set to launch next month in a limited number of outlets in upmarket central London locations.

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Asda drops Coleen in upmarket drive

Asda has axed Coleen McLoughlin, girlfriend of Manchester United and England football star Wayne Rooney, as theface of its advertising, to concentrate on appealing to a more upmarket shopper.

The supermarket chain’s £3m two-year contract with Rooney’s fiancee came to an end last month and the company has decided not to renew it.

Asda executives think that the 22-year-old WAG McLoughlin is too young to represent the brand’s George clothing range, which it wants to target at the over-25s.

According to a report in The Daily Mail, Asda is aiming its sights at more "upmarket" celebrities to appear in its advertising, such as Joanna Lumley, Helen Mirren, Sienna Miller and, according to a source of the paper, the French President’s wife Carla Bruni.

There is no confirmation if, former model and now singer, Bruni, who is Italian, has ever been in to an Asda.

Asda is the latest supermarket linked to dumping an arguably downmarket celebrity from its advertising. In January, Iceland denied speculation that fomer Atomic Kitten Kerry Katona had been dropped from its advertising, arguing that she was still under contract.

Asda’s advertising is created by Fallon and recent campaigns have starred celebrities including football pundit Ian Wright, Ozzy Osbourne’s wife Sharon and comedians Paul Whitehouse and Victoria Wood.

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Chinese to boycott Western brands over Tibet

Western businesses including KFC and Carrefour are facing a boycott from Chinese consumers who are angry about the world’s reaction to China’s involvement in Tibet ahead of the Olympics.

Over the past week there have been street protests, including demonstrations outside Carrefour stores, apparently organised at grass roots level by ordinary Chinese citizens.

Anti-Western sentiment has been inflamed by the protests over the country’s claims to Tibet, which took place when the Olympic torch passed through countries including France, Britain and the US.

It has now formed into calls for a boycott, with crowds in the central city of Wuhan carrying banners stating "Say no to French goods".

KFC faces a boycott on June 1, International Children’s Day, typically a day for Chinese parents to take their children to Western fast food restaurants.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, websites targeting KFC and Carrefour have been set up by 24-year-old IT worker Kong Zenquiang.

One particular incident in Paris where pro-Tibet protesters tried to wrestle the torch away from a disabled Chinese athlete, Jin Jing, has resulted in particular criticism towards France.

CNN and the BBC have also come under fire for perceived bias in the way they have reported on Tibet.

China is well known for monitoring its overseas student community and the Independent reported that Canadian and Australian secret services have uncovered monitoring and organisation of Chinese student groups by embassy staff.

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Google results silence critics

Million-song MP3 players on way

A NEW generation of MP3 players could provide music lovers with millions of songs at their fingertips.

Scientists have developed a way of dramatically increasing the memory on iPods and other gadgets while retaining their small size.

Future devices could store 150,000 times the amount of models on the market now, according to researchers at Glasgow University.

They have created a tiny switch which would see 500,000 to one million gigabytes squeezed on to one square inch.

The current limit is around 3.3 gigabytes. The technology is being developed along with scientists at the STFC Daresbury Laboratory in Warrington, England.

Dr Vin Dhanak of the laboratory said: “This research shows that the potential is there for your future iPod to have hundreds of thousands times more capacity to store music and video than currently possible.”

The team now faces the challenge of resolving “fabrication issues’’ surrounding the device.

The molecular switch is controlled by taking nanoparticles, each a millionth of a millimetre in size, and placing them on to a gold or carbon surface.

The research is reported in this month’s edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

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Advertising watchdog refers Ryanair to OFT

The Advertising Standards Authority said its decision to refer Ryanair to the OFT followed "a catalogue of breaches" of advertising codes as it accused the budget airline of continuing to mislead consumers and denigrate competitors.

The ad watchdog had formally investigated complaints about Ryanair’s ads and found them in breach on nine occasions over a two-year period.

This includes a ruling today that find Ryanair in breach of the advertising code once again for failing to ensure flights were available in sufficient quantities following a press ad claiming it was offering 2m seats from £10 one way.

The ASA said: "Through misleadingness and unfair comparisons Ryanair has repeatedly breached the CAP Non-broadcast Advertising Code, which is designed to protect consumers and promote fair competition."

The ASA found that Ryanair was persistently misleading consumers by making "exaggerated claims" about the extent of availability of flights at the advertised price and advertising prices that were not inclusive of taxes and charges

Other breaches included making "misleading and denigratory" comparisons with competitors, not stating clearly significant restrictions that would exclude customers from taking advantage of an offer, and failing to provide evidence to prove the claims they were making.

Christopher Graham, director general of the ASA, said: "It is very disappointing, but absolutely necessary, that we have had to take this course of action. The ASA has given Ryanair every opportunity to put its house in order and ensure that its advertising adheres to the codes.

"Instead, they have continued to mislead consumers and denigrate competitors. We would prefer to work with advertisers within the self-regulatory system rather than call in a statutory body, but Ryanair’s approach has left us with no option but to refer them to the OFT who will consider appropriate action."

The OFT acts as the legal backstop to the ASA, but it is rare for the watchdog to make a referral to the OFT, the most recent case being in 2005.

Last Friday, in a preemptive strike at the ASA, Ryanair announced it was making a complaint to the OFT about the watchdog after learning that it was referring the airline to the OFT this week.

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Google opens up keyword bidding

Google has announced that it will allow keyword bidding on all terms typed into its search engine, in a controversial move that will draw criticism from agencies and advertisers.

The internet giant announced that from May 5 its trademark complaint investigations will no longer monitor or restrict keywords for ads served to users in the UK and Ireland.

The move brings the UK and Ireland into line with the US and Canada, where Google has been operating the policy since 2004.

The move means that a user who types a trademarked brand name into the Google search engine, alongside its associated service, will now see ads in the search results from rival brands in addition to those for the brand they were searching for. For example, this would affect a Google user who enters a carmaker’s brand name alongside the word ’car’.

The decision to introduce broad matching technology will increase advertising revenue and comes hot on the heels of a decline in paid-advertising clicks on Google over the last two months.

Advertisers and agencies in the UK have long argued that opening up Google’s search engine to show ads from advertisers bidding against keywords allows rival companies to profit from decades of investment in building up brand names.

Google has argued that it can present its users with more ads in the sponsored links section, giving them greater choice.

Matt Brittin, director of Google UK, said: "We are making this change because we want to give users greater choices to help them make informed decisions.

"Advertisers are accustomed to the fact that users searching for their trademarked terms as part of a phrase may see ads from competitors."

However, Gavin Sinden, a director at digital agency Equi=Media, attacked the move. He said: "Putting all this together with the fact that Google’s paid advertising clicks have shown decline over the last two months for the first time ever, a more cynical interpretation begins to emerge.

"This seems like an attempt by Google to increase bid values and volume of bids on a huge range of terms. This is very difficult to justify in terms of Google’s avowed policy of trying to serve the consumer by increasing relevance."

Sinden warned advertisers that "you could type in a search for a particular brand and be confronted with nothing but a sea of competitors".

He added: "This is going to have a major effect on digital marketing budgets over the rest of 2008. The speed of introducing this change and the lack of consultancy make it difficult for clients to realign their budgets to ensure money is available for the increased spend on brand keywords that this will undoubtedly require."

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Sir Hugh Orde to Address Public Relations Institute

Sir Hugh Orde, Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, is to be guest speaker at a Breakfast Briefing organised by the Public Relations Institute of Ireland (PRII), in Dublin next month.

The North’s top policeman will give a talk on the communications strategy he piloted through in Northern Ireland at the Breakfast Briefing, which takes place on Thursday April 10th in the Davenport Hotel, Merrion Square, Dublin 2.

"We are greatly honoured to have such a figure of Sir Hugh’s stature and standing. His briefing will undoubtedly be of great interest not only to all public relations professionals but to many other interested parties", said PRII President, Justin Green.

To register for the PRII Breakfast Briefing with Sir Hugh Orde, e-mail info@prii.ie. The cost of attending is €40 for PRII members and €55 for non-members.

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The Gate to New York

Dublin’s own Gate Theatre visits the prestigious Lincoln Center Festival this July in New York.

Three prestigious actors, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Barry McGovern, will perform Samuel Beckett monologues as part of the Gate | Beckett portion of the festival. This will feature three works not originally conceived for the theatre: Eh Joe, I’ll Go On and First Love.

Eh Joe will star renowned Irish actor Liam Neeson in his debut role for the Gate. This powerful monologue has been described as one of the “greatest half hours in theatrical history”.

Barry McGovern will star in I’ll Go On, a one-man show based on Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable. First performed at the Gate Theatre in 1985, this tour de force has toured worldwide to great critical acclaim.

First Love, Beckett’s darkly humorous post war novella, stars international stage and screen actor Ralph Fiennes with direction by Gate Theatre Director Michael Colgan. The 55-minutes which make up First Love will fly by thanks to Ralph Fiennes’ charismatic performance.

The Lincoln Center Festival is a great opportunity to increase the international artistic significance of the Gate Theatre. Visit www.lincolncenter.org for booking details.

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Microsoft Office On The iPhone? Maybe

Microsoft is checking out the new iPhone software developers kit and is deciding what, if anything, they want to build for it, exec Tom Gibbons tells Fortune. One obvious possibility: A mobile version of Office, which Microsoft (MSFT) already offers for devices running its Windows Mobile operating system.

And unlike Office for Macs, the iPhone version might be a leader. Word and Excel for Apple’s (AAPL) Macs have always trailed the Windows editions in features and usefulness. But because the iPhone’s hardware and operating system are miles ahead of any phone Microsoft offers, Office for the iPhone could conceivably become the model for future Windows Mobile editions. Imagine that.

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Mobile marketing poised for growth

Some 20 percent of Irish consumers regularly access the internet from their mobiles, according to research from Return2Sender.

The mobile marketing firm’s survey reveals an interest among Irish consumers in MMS, SMS and mobile internet services and, by extension, mobile marketing and advertising. According to the research some 33 percent of respondents said they have sent a text replying to an advertising campaign.

Perhaps the most surprising finding of the survey was that over 60 percent of Irish consumers are using multimedia messaging (MMS). This messaging format, which facilitates picture and video messaging, has taken a while to achieve popularity, although arguably this could have been down to a lack of content or services focused on the format in the past. As mobile marketing gains traction, usage of MMS looks likely to grow.

A survey conducted on mobile marketing in Europe by the Mobile Marketing Association in January 2008 indicated the growing popularity of the sector, with one in ten consumers questioned saying they were "highly interested" in receiving marketing messages via their mobile.

Meanwhile, Return2Sender’s research also revealed that around 50 percent of consumers were willing to receive marketing messages as part of a loyalty scheme, where they would receive rewards such as call credit and ringtones. Donald Douglas, managing director, Return2Sender believes a large number of consumers are happy enough to get ads on their mobile if they get something in return.

In saying that, Douglas revealed that content providers aren’t really making the effort to create targeted content for consumers. The firm’s research shows that over half of consumers cited lack of interest in mobile internet services or said they had no need to use them. Douglas suggests this means there’s a gap in the market for firms to fill with "great mobile campaigns".

According to ComReg’s quarterly report from December 2007 Ireland has a mobile penetration rate of 114 percent, which represents a market of around 4.9 million mobile subscriptions. These figures highlight the opportunity that exists for the mobile marketing sector in Ireland, according to Douglas.

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PlayStation PR account goes to Bespoke Communications

Bespoke Communications has been awarded the PR account for the PlayStation brand in Ireland by Sony Computer Entertainment after a competitive pitch. In particular, Bespoke will be responsible for developing PR campaigns for both PS3 and PSP for the Irish market.

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April 3^rd – 5^thGrand National, Aintree

April 6^th – 7^th Irish Beauty Show, RDS

April 7^th -13^thGolf, US Masters

April 10^th – 13^th Disney on Ice, RDS

April 11^th- 13^thIrish International Antiques and Fine Arts Festival, RDS

April 13^thFlora London Marathon

April 19^th – May 5^thSnooker, World Championships, Sheffield

April 19^thHockey, Irish Senior Cup Finals, UCD

April 20^thPalm Sunday

April 22^nd – 26^thRacing, Punchestown Festival

April 23^rd-24^th Technology 4 Business, RDS

April 26^thTrinity Regatta, Dublin