The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has decided to keep us waiting for their interim ‘Digital Britain’ report which was due out today, 26 January 2009. A spokesperson confirmed that it’s been delayed until the end of the month, which to us is the end of the week.
Anyhow, the long awaited report, which won’t be finalised until late Spring this year, is expected to outline the Government’s vision for, er, a Digital Britain. To be specific, it will be looking to regulate the net so that it can be made available to everyone nationwide. It is expected that the report will also set minimum broadband speeds and impose obligations on telecoms to meet these requirements. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said the government was looking at regulating the internet to “even up” the imbalance with television.
Of course all this makes sense. But there are a number of major obstacles, first of which is investment, or lack of, in new fibre-optic cabling and ensuring that exchanges up and down the country, which are controlled by BT, are upgraded so that broadband speeds can be increased. Britain is lagging behind not just Asia, but Europe when it comes to speeds, with the UK average just over a year ago – light years in net time being 3Mbs. This is way behind the 4.8Mbs in Germany, the 7.4Mbs in Sweden, 10Mbs in Japan or between 50 and 100Mbs in South Korea. Often seen at the gold standard, South Korea is able to achieve this thanks to Government contributions and commitment to building a fibre-optic network. Now let’s imagine how BT and other service providers such as Virgin Media feel about this?
Government commitment is key. And while the UK Government has been asking a lot of questions about what Digital Britain should be like, the time is right for it to invest in a tool that will help all kind of businesses reach their customers during these difficult times.
The Christmas of 2008 saw the start of Britain’s first recession since the early 1990’s. A recession that has made many high street retailers cut prices to ensure survival. Yet for some stores, like Woolworths, it was too late. Their time was up. But while gloom was spreading like a virus down the high-street shoppers turned to the internet and spent over £4.6bn last month, up 14% on 2007. Online sales accounted for £43.8bn in 2008, 15 per cent of total retail spending.
Consumers are becoming more demanding, especially when there aren’t many pounds in their pockets. They want quality and competitive pricing, something that the internet allows them find. Yet businesses with retail operations still appear to not embracing the net as a new channel for sales, which is why Government needs to step in and rid the nation of this digital ignorance.
The Digital Britain report is the perfect opportunities for Government to show it’s committed to helping businesses reach out to consumers. The internet is another pathway, another pavement. South Korea, is not just the country with one of the fastest networks, it is also one of the cheapest. And with the Government’s commitment to spending it’s way out of a recession, investing in the internet would send a signal of it’s commitment to investing in the future.
Charging for the net is outdated. It’s akin to charging us to walk down to Tesco to buy something.
Having said all this, bureaucracy does have a habit of getting in the way of progress.
ASA #fail to understand social media
Friday, September 3rd, 2010The Adverting Standards Authority (ASA) siloed approach to regulating social media highlights this regulatory body’s lack of understanding of real-time communication channels.
On 1st September the ASA announced that the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) had empowered it to police ‘marketing communications online, including the rules relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children.’ The statement from the ASA added that, ‘the remit will apply to all sectors and all businesses and organisations regardless of size.’
It all sounded very well, apart from one specific paragraph, which stated, that journalistic and editorial content and material related to causes and ideas – except those that are direct solicitations of donations for fund-raising – were to be excluded from the remit.
And here lie the problem. The guidelines and regulations that the ASA wishes to apply to social media and networking channels appear to have been written from a 20th centaury perspective, where marketing disciplines where siloed – advertising was the big beast, direct marketing was direct marketing and public relations was, well, media relations. There appears to have been little understanding of the fact that social media and networking crosses all these marketing disciplines. In fact, it brings them together and maximises message penetration.
You would have therefore thought that the ASA would have consulted widely before announcing that it was to regulate social media channels. Well, its statement said that the regulations that it would be enforcing were formed as a result of ‘formal recommendations from a wide cross-section of UK industry.’ Very odd thing to say given that the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and it’s Social Media Advisory Board, which I should declare that I sit on, had been omitted from any consultation even though numerous requests were made.
Without a doubt social media has to a certain extent be regulated – best practice needs to promoted. The CIPR is currently reviewing its social media guidelines and has uploaded these to a wiki where people can register and share their thoughts.
Online and social media has changed the way that companies, brands and consumers interact with each other. Transparency has a higher value than ever before, especially in a world where the old ‘broadcast communications model’ is taking a back seat to a ‘conversational’ one where consumers and stakeholders can cross examine business.
The ASA is right, there is a need to regulate. But before doing so there needs to be a clear understanding of what one are trying to regulate, and why. Marketing communications is changing. Six months, the time until 1 March – when the regulations are currently due to come into force, is a long time in social media terms.
Engagement, dialogue and understanding comes through dialogue. So lets start here.
Tags: #ciprsm, advertising, asa, cipr, communications, guidelines, marketing, pr, public relations, regulation, social media, social networking
Posted in advertising, comment, pr, social media | 1 Comment »