Category: Business Strategy

New data shows publisher revenue impact of cutting 3rd party trackers

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

This note shares new data on publisher revenue impact from switching off 3rd party ad tracking. In January, the Dutch national broadcaster, NPO, switched off 3rd party tracking ad targeting. NPO has an online video audience of 7.1 million per month, and display reach of 5.8 million per month.[1] Revenue impact I have examined Ster’s revenue figures, … Continue reading New data shows publisher revenue impact of cutting 3rd party trackers

Johnny Ryan’s privacy keynote for P&G

~ johnnyryan

Procter & Gamble invited Dr Johnny Ryan of Brave to give a (remote) keynote address about how advertisers should adapt to the privacy-first future.The presentation covers the problems with conventional advertising technology, risks to brands and media sustainability, and sets out several alternative models. See the video here.  For reasons made clear in this keynote presentation, … Continue reading Johnny Ryan’s privacy keynote for P&G

Online advertising is destroying itself.

~ johnnyryan ~ 3 Comments

Online advertising is destroying itself. And it is doing so in a way that will fatally undermine online publishers' sustainability. Increasingly brash formats and data snooping by online advertisers are driving millions of people to sever publishers’ revenue lifelines by blocking all advertising. The outlook is very bleak indeed. Publishers’ are desperate to extract revenues from … Continue reading Online advertising is destroying itself.

Design discussion with IDEO.org, 3fE, and Irish Design 2015

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

I spoke about design with John Collery (IDEO.org), Colin Harmon (3fE), and Laura Magahy (Irish Design 2015) in Dublin recently. Here are the highlights. As I wrote last year in The Irish Times, a happy customer is an extraordinary thing. So extraordinary that this first moment of happiness with a service can be a prelude … Continue reading Design discussion with IDEO.org, 3fE, and Irish Design 2015

Design matters for business, for startups

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

Originally appeared in The Irish Times on 7 November 2014. Full story is at http://www.irishtimes.com/business/find-your-niche-and-put-focus-on-design-1.1991105  A report by Sir George Cox for the UK Treasury in 2005 started with definitions of three key ingredients that could enhance business competitiveness: creativity, innovation, and design. Creativity, Cox said, is the inception of new ideas, approaches to problems or … Continue reading Design matters for business, for startups

What start-ups need is proof, not passion

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

I wrote this article for The Irish Times. Full story is at http://www.irishtimes.com/business/what-start-ups-need-is-proof-not-passion-1.1949565. After the dotcom bust, entrepreneurs came to realise the untested hunch was no longer adequate. In 1999, the start-up Webvan launched in the US with the intention of becoming the grocery service for online shoppers. It climbed to a multibillion dollar valuation at … Continue reading What start-ups need is proof, not passion

Designing services for smarter business

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

I wrote this article on service design for The Irish Times, published on 5 September 2014. Article is at http://www.irishtimes.com/business/designing-services-for-smarter-business-1.1916748 The Apple user or Nespresso drinker appreciates not only the physical good, but the entire experience of interacting with the business A customer’s relationship with a service is often unpleasant and short. But occasionally something … Continue reading Designing services for smarter business

Design Thinking, and thinking like a child, for product design

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

This is a slightly shortened piece I wrote for The Irish Times on Design Thinking in organisations. Full article is here http://www.irishtimes.com/business/bring-design-thinking-to-your-product-1.1822064 Bring design thinking to your product Thinking like a child could save your business cash US technology investor Dave McClure coined a maxim that sums this challenge up: “Your solution is not my problem.” … Continue reading Design Thinking, and thinking like a child, for product design

Press: “Innovation Academy UCD appoints Dr. Johnny Ryan as Executive Director”

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

Dublin, 8 April 2014:  The Innovation Academy, UCD, today announced that it has appointed Dr Johnny Ryan as Executive Director.  In his new role Dr. Ryan will take responsibility for the execution of the strategic mission and expansion of the Academy, and management of core operations including staff, programmes, and commercial operations. Dr. Ryan joins the … Continue reading Press: “Innovation Academy UCD appoints Dr. Johnny Ryan as Executive Director”

The 2012 tech topic, and a guess at the topic of 2013…

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

A brief note: I was asked to think about the hot topic in tech for 2012, and make a prediction for the hot topic of 2013 by Corriere della sera, an Italian newspaper. It might seem passé, but I think the hot topic of 2012 has been mobile Internet.  The ITU disclosed in June 2012 that mobile‐broadband … Continue reading The 2012 tech topic, and a guess at the topic of 2013…

An experiment in startups working with news media companies: looking back at The Irish Times Digital Challenge

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

(This post also appeared in The Irish Times on 4 October 2012.) LAST FRIDAY, at The Workman’s Club on Wellington Quay in Dublin, an Irish technology start-up company called GetBulb was announced as the overall winner of The Irish Times Digital Challenge. GetBulb has produced a system that can rapidly create data visualisations suitable for … Continue reading An experiment in startups working with news media companies: looking back at The Irish Times Digital Challenge

Week One: The Irish Times Digital Challenge

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A_zI4oMWwM I PREVIOUSLY POSTED THIS ON THE HUFFINGTON POST. RE POSTED HERE. Some months ago I set up The Irish Times Digital Challenge to invite digital entrepreneurs to propose ways to work with The Irish Times. Almost 81 early stage digital companies applied, of which 14 were invited to pitch in person. From this a … Continue reading Week One: The Irish Times Digital Challenge

The Internet makes trust and insight scarce commodities, and makes newsroom veterans more valuable

~ johnnyryan ~ 2 Comments

Recently I have been looking at the newspaper as a service and as a business (for reasons that will become apparent later). Something is becoming clear. While the Internet makes information plentiful, and this in turn may be a challenge to some aspects of the newspaper business, deep insight and trust remain as scarce as … Continue reading The Internet makes trust and insight scarce commodities, and makes newsroom veterans more valuable

“Peer-to-Peer Retail”: Social marketing/commerce is not just about ‘likes’

~ johnnyryan ~ 2 Comments

Owjo, the social commerce startup where I worked as evangelist/marketer/product guy, had a big problem. Its offering was so big, and so potentially transformative, that prospective customers couldn't get a quick grasp of it. Part of my job was to break the product down, so that discrete offerings could be orientated to specific markets. The … Continue reading “Peer-to-Peer Retail”: Social marketing/commerce is not just about ‘likes’

Piece in Wired: “Dublin Web Summit highlights the under-reported successes of Irish tech”

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

Following on from my previous piece in Wired UK on the optimism at the Pub Summit, this piece takes a macro snapshot of the Dublin startup scene during last week's Web Summit. See  Web Summit story on Wired UK here, or read on below.. Last Friday was a big tech day for Dublin. Web game … Continue reading Piece in Wired: “Dublin Web Summit highlights the under-reported successes of Irish tech”

Frederick Taylor, DEC, and Zynga: how does “idea fuel” filter to the top of perpetual beta organisations?

~ johnnyryan ~ 2 Comments

I broke bread with the speakers after the Dublin Web Summit on Friday (see my coverage of the Summit for Wired UK), and sat opposite Marcus Segal, Zynga's Chief Operating Officer for Games. Segal is faced with a hell of a problem: Zynga is growing like a super nova, and the model it uses relies … Continue reading Frederick Taylor, DEC, and Zynga: how does “idea fuel” filter to the top of perpetual beta organisations?

The “Android Paradox” – Google’s bright future at both ends of the market

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

Update 9 June 2011: What a mess. My original "Google's bright future at both ends of the market" appeared in Business & Economy as "Android apps will be of low quality". This is absolutely not what my line of reasoning was in the piece. I have asked B&E to change the title to something more … Continue reading The “Android Paradox” – Google’s bright future at both ends of the market

Mobile OS Wars – the new rules of the mobile ecology

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

I wrote a piece for India's Business & Economy on the mobile OS war. Draft text below... (online version article available here) The eco system is key. The mobile OS giants have one guiding principle: the OS with the best selection of software applications available for its users will be most attractive to consumers, and … Continue reading Mobile OS Wars – the new rules of the mobile ecology

Good news for startups in Ireland (iGAP)

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

Tidbit of news: I attended the final of the iGAP today. iGAP is the Internet Growth Acceleration Program, which was initiated by Colm Lyon of Realex and hosted by Enterprise Ireland. The 10 finalist startups pitching had participated in iGAP for the previous six months, learning from mentors and instructors drawn together by Brian Caufield. This … Continue reading Good news for startups in Ireland (iGAP)

The Big Idea: the death of the center and the new centrifugal trend

~ johnnyryan ~ 6 Comments

Now that it is complete, a clear narrative has emerged from the forthcoming book. The  Internet, like many readers of the book itself, is a child of the industrial era. Long before digital communications, the steam engine, telegraph pole, and coalmine quickened the pace of the world. Industrialized commerce, communications and war spun the globe … Continue reading The Big Idea: the death of the center and the new centrifugal trend

The bubble… (eBay, Amazon, Netscape, Webvan, Pets.com…)

~ johnnyryan ~ 6 Comments

Continuing from the earlier snippet about the Dot Com Collapse... this is a continuing piece from the forthcoming book. (feedback welcome) The collapse had been foreseen by a shrewd few. In early December 1996, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, attended a dinner in his honor at the American Enterprise Institute. After … Continue reading The bubble… (eBay, Amazon, Netscape, Webvan, Pets.com…)

What issues to monitor when discussing digital competitiveness for Ireland?

~ johnnyryan ~ Leave a comment

I'm putting together a document at work that will define the scope of our Digital Future group. The question is, what issues should be included and why if the group is to examine digital competitiveness in Ireland in the coming years? In 1999 the Government's Action Plan to Implement the Information Society noted that: "we … Continue reading What issues to monitor when discussing digital competitiveness for Ireland?