Gray Dudek

Parrot have announced a new car stereo powered by the Google Android operating system, called the Asteroid.

Android, looks set to give the Parrot Asteroid an edge over ordinary car stereos, including the ability to download Apps, Web-based music, advanced voice recognition, real-time traffic updates and some clever location-based services.

Users will be able to download a huge variety of Apps via the Android Market, such as Spotify, giving users access to an almost incomprehensibly large library of on-demand music anywhere they drive.

There’s also the possibility for apps that can show you nearby parking spaces, help you avoid traffic jams, locate speed cameras or listen to Internet radio stations. The possibilities, as anyone who owns an Android mobile phone, will tell you, are constrained only by the strength of your signal, which might suffer at 70mph but should be fairly good when you’re cruising through town.

The Asteroid comes with three USB ports, which can accommodate a USB 3G dongle as well as a GPS dongle. These work together to power the built-in Parrot Maps app… a cartography service that locates your vehicle and identifies nearby streets, businesses, shops and could even analyse the proximity of other Asteroid-using drivers.

Android’s voice-recognition features are good for driving too as users should theoretically only need to verbally search for tracks, artists or genres across all apps/peripherals connected to the stereo.

Parrot says the Asteroid will let you play music stored on a USB key, iPhone, iPod or SD card, or online radio stations. Music can also be sent to the system via mobile phones or MP3 players that support stereo Bluetooth (A2DP).

The Parrot Asteroid should be available in the UK in the first quarter of this year.

source: Plus-Two.com

Spotted this the other week and just thought it was a great piece of work. It’s not absolutely clear on why it was done within the film but it was created by Conscious Minds on behalf of Levis as they try to come back as brand we all consider ‘cool’ using various social and digital efforts.

All that aside, it’s just a seriously clever piece and credit to the editor(s) for having the patience to stitch it all together…

As usual Aleksandr Orlov is extremely endearing as a character and complains about everyone getting Meerkats confused with Markets (note: I must say I blame him for that as before his advertising campaign started I have never confused the two…)

Regardless, it’s the usual slick execution and has become more polished as the time has gone by. I think this is nice as the client is clearly seeing the results and therefore investing more but the traditional style of the Meerkat videos was to me much more compelling and ‘believable’ (if I can use that word about a stuffed puppet) than the beautifully recreated sets we see in the ad’s now.

Check out the latest video:

…and now check out an original video:

But my opinion to one side how has the interest in the whole Compare the Meerkat / Market campaign been performing from a social perspective?

Is it still in our favour? Are we still talking/blogging/tweeting/etc about it? Or has is become just part of the ‘funky’ (sometimes irritating) insurance sector advertising campaigns?

I checked it out on Social Radar and here’s what I found:

So from the above trend chart we can see a huge embrace of the Aleksandr Orlov character and his stories starting back in July 2009 and since then a slow decline in the number of mentions that either he or Compare the Meerkat and indeed Compare the Market are getting across the social sphere. The query used was pretty basic I admit so I’ve probably missed a few posts and Tweets here and there but the trend still remains representative I would suggest.

However, from a shakey beginning (where pretty everybody misunderstood WTF the ad was about and for that simple reason hated) the sentiment towards the campaign has grown over time and maintains a positive feeling towards it. However with declining volumes of conversations I wonder if the latest ad will hit the mark.

Well I suppose in one way it matters not really as it’s the final installment of Aleksandr, Sergei and all the Muskats…for now at least…

Starting a new business is a positive action, and in my experience most entrepreneurs are positive people. But sometimes that positivity can mask harsh realities that many entrepreneurs would rather ignore, and can lead them to buy into ideas that are detrimental to success.

Here are ten dangerous ideas that many startup entrepreneurs buy into that they shouldn’t.

Raising money from VCs is crucial to success. While having a flush bank account can give a startup entrepreneur the opportunity to execute on a vision, money alone doesn’t guarantee success — the majority of companies that receive VC funding still fail, just like all businesses.

Bootstrapping is wonderful. Some believe that startups should raise as much money as they can, but there’s another camp that advocates for bootstrapping. Unfortunately, extreme bootstrapping is problematic because not having enough money is just as detrimental as having too much of it. In fact, undercapitalization is one of the leading causes of new venture failure.

We can figure the business model out later. While there are more than a few high-profile examples of successful entrepreneurs that didn’t know how their startups were going to make money, the reality is that launching a new company without a business model (or some thoughts about business model) is, in most cases, more likely to produce failure than success.

There’s no competition. Even though focusing too much on the competition can be a distraction, entrepreneurs who believe that there is no competition are almost always completely out of touch with reality, and that’s a far worse thing.

The competition sucks. Many entrepreneurs who recognize that they have competition believe that the competition is so inferior as to be of marginal importance to their new business. In some instances, this might be the case, but most of the time, this type of denial can be harmful.

Experience is overrated. Just because a number of high-profile startups have been founded by entrepreneurs with little to no experience doesn’t mean that experience doesn’t matter. Experience is far more likely to provide for key industry insights that will boost the chances of success, and in some relationship-driven industries, having a track record is a prerequisite for getting deals done.

We don’t need a business plan. While a 40-page business plan might be an unnecessary formality, not planning is planning to fail, so it’s always good for entrepreneurs to put into writing a ‘business plan’ for personal use.

That’s going to happen — it’s in our business plan. Business plans, including those with financial projections, can be valuable planning tools, but far too often entrepreneurs conflate plans and projections with reality. They come to believe that certain things are real because it’s in the business plan. Business plans and projections should be thought of as a guidebook, not a map.

Somebody will want to buy us. A big exit is something many entrepreneurs dream about, but it’s not something they should count on. Unfortunately, when you’re building for an acquisition, chances are you’re not building for self-sustainability.

Failure is not an option. Negativity isn’t a desirable trait for an entrepreneur, but overconfidence isn’t one either. Opportunity cost is the greatest cost entrepreneurs pay and therefore, getting tied up pursuing a business that isn’t going anywhere can be very expensive. That’s why entrepreneurs should be prepared to recognize when a business has reasonably failed and be ready to move on, even if they’re going to fight as hard as they can for success.

Photo credit: chego101 via Flickr

Content credit: eConsultancy.com

So, is it just noise now that we all ‘filter’ out of our inbox when it drops in?

Or do we all feel it’s still useful and relevant?

Well, eConsultancys latest piece of research tells us that us advertising folk need to keep using email marketing as a way of engaging with consumers as more than a third of people (38 per cent) do not use a social networking site such as Facebook.

The survey, entitled “How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of UK Consumers”, also found that only 6% of internet users had asked for recommendations on a social media site which seriously surprised me – clearly the bit they don’t include within this is the ‘passive’ endorsement people relevant via components such as eBay Feedback scores and the like.

More than a third of consumers (36 per cent) said that receiving an email had prompted them to make an online purchase and 27 per cent stated that an email had encouraged them to make an offline investment.

Linus Gregoriadis, Econsultancy’s UK research director, said:

“Despite the rise of social media, the role of the email channel is secure. Email is extremely effective as long as companies are targeted and relevant when communicating with consumers.”

Furthermore, 61% of consumers preferred to receive advertising messages via email compared to 28 per cent who said post and five per cent who stated social networking sites.

So, as it goes ‘food for thought’. Email will always have a place within the mix be that for transaction confirmation, up-sell, loyalty building, etc. The trick is to decide (via research) which of the areas it can help us.

To play it off against Social Networks (as an example) seems a little odd to me personally as it’s like saying “well I put it on TV because TV is better than Outdoor.”

Surely it all comes down to the objective and therefore what are you trying to achieve versus leading by channel and then force fitting (and then complaining when it doesn’t fit!)

(stat’s courtesy of IAB)