Internet connected TVs - the next big marketing play? - 04/02/2010

In this fortnight's issue:

• From Dragons' Den to the 100 Club - Warren Cole's first London gig
• Internet connected TVs - the next big marketing play?
• Technology Strategy Board to invest £6.5m in SME feasibility studies
• Mobile games hot sector for venture capital
• Avanta to help commercial occupiers reduce rent burden

You'll find interviews with many of the UK and Europe's leading entrepreneurs at www.entrepreneurcountry.net. Register while you're there and join the growing community.

The Road to Hell

For the inside story on the music industry, whether you're trying to break into it, hoping to profit from it or just looking for an entertaining night out, join us for an event with a difference at the legendary 100 Club on Thursday 11 February.

Warren Cole, the musician who braved the Dragons' Den and secured investment from Julie Meyer, will be performing his first live London gig at the club which helped to launch the likes of The Sex Pistols, The Clash and Oasis.

Prior to the gig, Warren's manager, music mogul Paul King, will deliver a fascinating insight into how the industry works. Check out the event flyer here.

Paul has been an artist manager and concert promoter for over 30 years, managing highly successful bands including Tears For Fears, Level 42, Johnny Hates Jazz, Fairground Attraction and Breathe, who collectively sold over 32 million records under his direction.

Nevertheless, Paul managed to go bankrupt twice and was completely out of control during much of that time. A true Rock n Roll survivor who learnt the hard way, he will share some of the real secrets of the industry.

• Making attitude work, and when it can work against you
• Why other bands are important to your career
• Why you don’t want a record deal but must pretend you do
• Get press, radio & TV when no one has heard of you
• How and why you need to break America
• How to fund it all from day one

Perhaps some parallels with the world of start-ups...?? For a taste of the music Warren will be performing at the gig, use the virtual iPod on his website to listen to his latest tunes.

Inspiring technology innovation by small companies

Over 180 British SMEs are to share nearly £6.5 million investment from the government-backed Technology Strategy Board to stimulate innovation in a wide range of technology areas.

The funding is being invested to enable British companies to carry out 153 feasibility studies in areas such as Advanced Materials, Biosciences, ICT and Nanotechnology, and to support the Digital Britain vision. Each project will receive up to £25,000 support, with the work due to be completed within about three months. A further 31 feasibility studies in Regenerative Medicine will receive up to £100,000 each, with the studies taking up to six months to complete.

Over 2000 applications were received but of the 184 successful applications for funding, all but two were from SMEs.

Commenting on the funding awards, the Technology Strategy Board's Director of Innovation Programmes, David Bott, said: "Many small companies have great ideas, but lack the funds to enable them to carry out the important initial feasibility work required to see if their ideas are workable.

"We were delighted, but not surprised, by the huge number of applications. Nearly two-thirds of commercial innovation stems from small companies and they are a vital source of wealth-generating new products. We were also very pleased to see good applications from every part of the UK, which shows that we have innovative talent across the whole country," he added.

Television - the new web

by Joe Foster, founder of easeltv

These days, for any established brand, a web site is a necessity, and for most marketing managers a mobile strategy is now an equally viable option. Whilst TV has always offered a powerful advertising outlet, it has been an expensive and limited tool. All this is about to change. Broadband connected TVs with open internet access present an opportunity for businesses and brands to hold a direct relationship with the consumer through arguably the most influential of all the three screens.

Those companies that seize the opportunity are likely to gain significant early mover advantage. Yet there is still the challenge of how to use the medium effectively. This article aims to give an insight many of the key aspects to consider if you want to get into the market and assess its potential.

Read the article here

Mobile games hot sector for venture capital

The 7th annual Mobile Games Forum was held in London on January 19th and 20th. Paul Flanagan, Executive in Residence, Ariadne Capital was invited to speak on a VC panel and relays his thoughts on the event.

The first thing that caught my attention is that our US cousins are more active on the mobile web than Europeans. How could this be - I thought we were light years ahead?! Wrong. Alistair Hill, Lead Analyst of comScore Inc pointed out that the US carriers offer more unlimited data plans than European operators.

Mobile games are a big business, recently more dominated by big players such as EA Games and Gameloft than smaller studios or start-ups. For example, video game publisher Gameloft announced consolidated sales of €122m for 2009, up 11% compared to 2008. Years ago much of the coding and development moved offshore and UK game developers focused up-market on console titles.

The iPhone, iTouch and Android platform offer new opportunities in this space for UK and European developers and start-ups and we have seen the app stores flooded with great games. Gameloft reported earnings of €25M from app stores last year. In many ways this is a golden era, harking back to the early days of the UK game developer community where small teams made great games in their bedrooms and went on to build world famous brands.

Read more....

Avanta to help occupiers reduce rent burden

Occupiers of leasehold office space, which had a rent review in the last 2-3 years will in today’s market be paying somewhere around 40% more rent than current market rates, warns Richard Douglas, head of Avanta Property Management, a new division set up by serviced office operator Avanta.

The division was created specifically to assist office occupiers locked into long term property leases which have unused space that could be sub-let, helping to offset costs on the bottom line.

“However, there’s a lot of Grade A property out there that’s being under-utilised by occupiers trapped in long term institutional leases and we believe that much of this property can be re-utilised to help bring small parcels of high grade property back onto the market," commented Douglas.

We have substantial experience of working with both occupiers and landlords and our team will handle all negotiations with landlords on an occupier’s behalf."

The new division will also manage relocations for larger companies which are not looking to move into business centres, saying it can deliver fully-operational space within six weeks on a build-to-suit basis.

For more information, go to http://www.avanta.co.uk/uk/offices/entrepreneur-country