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I watched Britain’s Got Talent last night - great TV and George Sampson reminded me of the halcyon days down Martines nightclub in Basingstoke when I could still “strut my stuff”.

One of last night’s acts - The Deans of Magic - got buzzed half way through and had to stop their routine. Amanda Holden made a great comment when the judges critiqued the act, which really made me think - “It doesn’t pass the ’so what’ test”.

In front of millions… It was uncomfortable to watch and a harsh lesson in rejection. Imagine if your presentation, sales pitch or marketing was put to that kind of test - a ruthless audience and people ready to switch you off at the press of a button.

And, you are under that kind of scrutiny.

You may not hear the buzzer but your audience will be judging you every step of the way, whether it is a face-to-face brand experience, your website or any of your marketing and sales collateral, they will be metaphorically pressing that buzzer if you aren’t good enough for them and switching off.

A show like Britain’s Got Talent is all about entertainment. Marketing is all about engagement. It’s tantamount the same thing.

Many people go onto talent programmes on TV without the ability to engage, a term Simon Cowell has coined with the ‘X-Factor’. Many companies market their businesses as if people give a damn about them - they don’t!

The question is does your marketing pass the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ audition? Does it pass the ’so what’ test?

Every three or so months I get a phone call from 4com trying to sell me something. Each time, I explain that I am not the person that buys what they sell and they apologise and then say they will take my details out of their database. Meanwhile, everytime, they still ask me if I have listened to what they have to say.

Then three months later, I get another call.

They have become more personal in their approach. They obviously know that cold-calling doesn’t penetrate like the good old days so they don’t even mention their company name to the person that answers our phone at work. They say things like, “He knows me”, or “I’m returning his call”.

Persistence is okay, I get the need for persistance, but this? No permission, no targeting… come on!!

4Com - when will you bugger off and leave me alone? I don’t buy what you sell. I am not interested in what you sell… in fact I now really dislike your company - with a passion.

But, you know what? I’ll put money on it that they will call me again in the next three months.

Louise sent me this link about semiotics and I too found it very interesting. Well worth a quick read through.

I have suddenly developed an interest in semiotics … this is a science around the symbolism of objects and colours, esp in particular cultures - and is often used in advertising, branding and the media without us even realising ….. this interesting website explains it quite well and is interesting food for though - I thought you might all be interested too!

Radiohead have fans - lots of them. They could have just released a new record, got some airplay and sold some records. But they allowed people to pay what they thought was a fair price for In Rainbows - marketed online and distributed online.

And today it’s Coldplays turn with the new single of their next album announced as a free download.

How much traditional marketing spend have they saved? You can bet the cost is less than the publicity this ’stunt’ will generate.

Let’s face it thought - it’s not even a marketing stunt. It’s just the way things are moving with cheaper distribution and the nature of a viral message and social tools (I just Twitter‘d it). It goes hand-in-hand with the thousands of un-signed bands on MySpace and YouTube.

Oh yes, did I mention that these people have fans? So, what’s so special about you?

Do vertical markets play a large part in your business marketing online? Perhaps you are interested in how you can leverage your specialist skills to your advantage for marketing?

You may be interested in this article just posted on our website - How To Appeal To Vertical Markets On The Web.

Next time you find yourself saying that social media won’t work for your business, you may be interested in these stats via NMA.

They are taken from some research by Universal McCann into social media, surveying 17,000 people across 29 countries, including the US, UK, Brazil and Pakistan during March 2008. Highlights include:

• 59% of internet users worldwide view at least one video clip every week
• 73% of internet users have read blogs while 48% read blogs every week
• 83% of internet users watch video clips, up from 62% in 2007
• Podcasts are listened to by 48% of internet users
• 57% of respondents said they are a member of a social network

If you don’t start talking, sharing and collaborating online, perhaps your customers themselves will. And, perhaps your competitors will join in too.

Other findings include that 31% of respondents have started a blog themselves. Maybe one of those is already talking about you?

Me and Debs are in Canada to see a client and there are two massive differences to where we are staying in Mississauga and Basingstoke (or any UK town).

Firstly, the place is huge. The roads are huge, the cars are huge; you don’t walk anywhere - you have to drive.

Secondly, despite lots of malls and shopping arcades, things aren’t that centralised (and I get that a lot of the US and Canada is like this). There are pockets life, interspersed with massive roads and housing, and every road seems like the M25.

After a hard days work, we need somewhere to eat so firstly, we have to drive. Secondly - and this is a weird one for me personally - there is a massive choice. As well as all the standard chains of Tim Hortons, Tony Roma, etc. there are lot’s of other independent restaurants. A MASSIVE choice. Last night we went to Mr Greek (a chain).

So, I have to ask myself, with so much generic choice, how could you compete if you set up a small restaurant? Why would people choose you? You could run adverts, hand out flyers and get people through the door, but then what? Could you get them to come back, especially with all that choice?

We had a discussion the other evening in a bar with John, one of the guys out here, about customer service in Canada and how I thought everyone was really on the button. The waiter was attentive and at one point came over to ask us, “Is everything alright with your food?” Being from the UK where customer service is not so keen, I was impressed with the level of service. John then said, “Yes, but you say no, and he wouldn’t have a clue what to do.”

He also got it spot on in a meeting yesterday when he spoke about infrastructure on a new web project - not the infrastructure of getting the business through the web, but the infrastructure of being able to deliver in THE best possible way - the experience.

So, really, are you different from the McDonalds of the world? And, how do you prove it… time and time again? What does your customer service say about you, or the experience a client gets?

Google is like my Mississauga - the choice is overwhelming.

As small businesses, we can only differentiate as to why we are NOT like McDonalds, or Mr Greek. We can offer the reason to return and the reason to spread the word - the experience.

Great Article on Search Engine Land by Brian Kaminski about B2B marketing priorities for 2008.

With tough times ahead, focus seems to be the key:

• On budgets
• On vertical markets
• On cross channel consistency
• With your customer data

2008 should be an interesting year in many markets - a tough one, but interesting all the same. And, as Billy Ocean once said, “When the Going Get’s Tough, The Tough Get Going”.

A bit late in now but I needed a snappy title. I thought I’d share my web predictions for 2008.

Feel free to come back in December and rub them in my nose if I am wrong - like that is gonna happen!

You may have heard the phrase - Never Assume because you make and ASS out of U and ME? We all do it.

Which reminds me that we all generalize as well (see what I mean).

Put the two together and you have a generalized assumption.

So, next time you hear someone in a meeting say, “People want to see that”, or, “then they will do this”; wonder if it’s really true.

Assumptions are there to be challenged.

You probably hear them all the time (there’s another one), along with negative reasons from individuals about why ’something won’t work’.

The guys at Google were told that there’s no money in search, people want portals - did they?

Established retailers thought people wouldn’t buy online - now they are scrambling to climb aboard.

As marketers, sometimes the opportunity is found on the edges, rather than in the safe middle ground. Have you got the balls to take a chance?

More importantly, can you afford not to?