What's all the 'Buzz' about?

BuzzFeed: What's all the 'Buzz' about?

Prezi: What's all the 'Buzz' about?

Fastcompany.com named BuzzFeed their 18th most innovative company in 2013 for ‘reinventing how news (and advertising) is shared.’ 

BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti, he said the following in his recent public memo; ‘We have the potential to be a defining company, the same role the traditional media companies played decades ago. These companies were once small and scrappy like us. They faced the skepticism of the incumbents, they pioneered new models, embraced new technologies and succeeded because they served their audience better than what came before’ (LinkedIn, 2013.) 

This memo describes the changed media industry, and the products, processes, positioning and paradigms of the whole industry that are hanging in a state of change. BuzzFeed.com has placed itself in the centre of the new social web and is one of the first online ‘social sharing’ sites to show definite progression towards the creation of new dominant designs for the industry. BuzzFeed prides itself on it’s innovative enterprise, however it still understands the evolution of innovation and influence of the past on it’s current position. It is set to rework these traditions in order to create a new combination in the value change of the media industry to suit the the market which continues to become ever more consumer driven. 

BuzzFeed recognize innovation as an essential management tool. They are using innovation for the benefit of all their stakeholders; their innovative content with unique viral qualities is beneficial to their readers and sharers, their advertising partnerships have proven the importance of collaboration for innovation, their sharing platform is driving content towards all social media sites and traditional news companies are also reaping benefits from the innovative designs of BuzzFeed’s platform and their understanding of online audiences. 

In seven years Jonah Peretti has built an innovative company and with it’s recent investments in the innovation of online advertising the activities of BuzzFeed are hovering over the tipping point of Roger’s diffusion curve (Tidd and Bessant, 2009.) BuzzFeed has the support of innovators, early adopters and the early majority of consumers and with increased support from advertisers BuzzFeed’s innovations will cross the tipping point;  they undoubtable have the potential to be the dominant design for the future of online advertising and viral content as the entire media industry looks to change to serve a new, mobile, digital audience.

See Peretti’s Linkedin Memo here: 

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130904212907-1799428-memo-to-the-buzzfeed-team

And explore BuzzFeed’s creative content partnerships here:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/download/casestudies

Reference:

Tidd, Joe and Bessant, John (2011) Managing innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change, [eBook] [online] Available at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CVuYk25bkfsC&dq=tidd+and+bessant+5th+edition+managing+innovation&source=gbs_navlinks_s [Accessed: 05.11.13]

VICE From Lads Mag to Vertically Integrated Global Digital Brand

 Vertical and lateral integrations have propelled VICE from a free magazine to an international multi-platform, vertically integrated brand with revenue of $100 million dollars in 2011 and estimated worth of $1 billion dollars in 2013 with only around 3% of that coming from the magazine itself.

VICE has always been a free magazine, however they have a controlled audience in that the magazine can only been found in highly vetted select boutiques, cafes and bars.  This ensures that the magazine has a 100% pick up rate by the target demographic of young urban trendsetters with disposable incomes.

The magazine is available globally and VICE have used their online platform to gain an in-depth knowledge of their target demographic. As VICE have a cult following internationally they have recognised that there are common features amongst this demographic.  This accumulation of knowledge production is where the value lies.

VICE have vertically integrated into advertising. Their agency Virtue produces content for big brand advertisers. They have a digital distribution advertising network, AdVice, that allows brands to connect with consumers on many other online platforms outside the VICE domain. But most interestingly they have radically integrated laterally by offering entertainment solutions and digital platforms for big name brands.  A current example of this is The Creators Project in partnership with Intel, which provides a digital arts and culture channel. This allows Intel to stay in touch with their core demographic of creatives.

VICE are adept at generating maximum profit from their content with successful moves into book publishing, music production and management and video production. Currently in the process of creating their own video player, which will ensure that their online video production will have a long tail whilst being embedded into host sites and advertising revenue will be split.

Vice continue to grow with incremental horizontal integrations and are producing many new niche channels.  Their success is tantamount to the interest the brand has received from other huge media companies.

You can view my presentation here http://prezi.com/4g34oryjxa4q/edit/#1_24309637

Case Study: Paperight

Founded in 2008 with the vision to increase access to books in Africa, Paperight is now the largest network with print-on-demand books to stores in the world with over 200 outlets (Paperight, 2013a). This innovation earned them first place at the Frankfurt Book Fair Contec Startup Showcase in Germany in October 2013 (Mulgrew, 2013).

Publishers, authors, or right brokers register on the website, www.paperight.com, to sell print licences to businesses-copy shops, schools, among others. They choose their rights fee per copy in dollars, usually between 5-15% of their conventional publication’s RRP. Paperight keeps 20% of that amount with no other fees charged. Customers pay a licence fee and the outlet’s printing charge  (Paperight, 2013b).

The four P’s of innovation

Product: changes in the products or services that an organisation offers.

The innovation of Paperight offers products to two groups of consumers. It sells licences to copy shops, schools etc. to print books on demand and it sells new markets to publishers and authors.

Process: changes in the way in which these products or services are created and distributed.

It is relatively cheaper to purchase a book printed from a Paperight outlet than to purchase it from a bookshop. Titles printed from the internet are usually more liable to copyright violation. In order to downgrade this, Paperight uses social DRM by way of watermarking to personalize each book with the author(s) and end user’s name. This enables Paperight conduct spot checks on its outlets to make sure the system is used correctly (Anderson, 2013).

Delivery is also relatively cheaper. There are no delivery charges with Paperight products.

Position: changes in the context or market in which the products or services are introduced.

Titles published which may have initially been restricted to certain markets due to limitations in delivery now have a wider market through Paperight.

Paradigm: changes in the fundamentals of the models which structure what the company does. 

Publishers and authors usually sell their books in bookshops, online stores etc. However, the innovation of Paperight provides a radical alternative for the sales and distribution of books.

The Paperight innovation clearly demonstrates the utilization of knowledge and technology to produce novelty products and services ( Tidd & Bressant, 2009). According to research gathered, Paperight has no competitors in the same vein of its production.          

Innovation Of Amazon

Amazon was once an online bookseller was founded in 1994 and then launched their website in 1995. Since then it has diversified, now selling over forty product categories ranging from music, fashion, to groceries, cars and much more. It is now known as a world leading global marketplace, due to its media innovations of service, product, place, positioning and paradigm. 

 

Amazon have written on their website; “At Amazon, we believe that innovation has the power to change the world.’ (www.amazon.co.uk/com).This shows how much they value innovation and a deeper analysis into their business model will define this to the core.

In the year 2000 Amazon, launched its marketplace allowing third party sellers to sell and reference their products to Amazons namesake. This allowed for the long tail business model because it enables them to sell rare products at a lower cost. Amazon.com is a principal e-retailer and is a globally acknowledged brand, with a strong online presence. The internal and external analysis reveals that Amazon.com shows many strengths which outweigh the weaknesses. The longtail business model allows Amazon to be a real success.

The value chain can be broken down for Amazon in a simplistic way which has evolved over time through innovation. From the packaging to distribution each aspect has been improved to give the customer convenience. Amazon Prime allows faster delivery to the customers who pay an annual fee. 

See below slides for a brief view on business models, such as PEST analysis, Four P's analysis and Value Chains. 

 

@Lookitssaima

By Saima Omar