Commune

Asking for online feedback

2009-01-02T12:42:00.003Z

Many sites (amazon, expedia, etc.) ask you for feedback when you buy something. ebay goes further by making it such an integral part of the process. By I received an email today from a US company called Zooscape.com that goes to a new level.

They've given me a list of reasons for why customer reviews are really helpful. I actually found the list quite interesting, and indeed helpful. I will be using it in presentations to clients - to show the value of opening out the brand to customer feedback, and also to show how a long form email can be a valuable part of CRM alongside offers.

Here's their list of reasons in full:

* Let me take a moment to explain why product reviews are so important.

We trust that your shopping experience with ZooScape.com was a positive one, and while we hope every product we sell offers a high level of satisfaction, we simply cannot be absolutely sure unless we get feedback from customers like you. We sell a lot of products, and we do our best to keep ourselves informed and provide you with as much specific information as we can. But, in the end, it is still YOUR experience that really counts and keeps us better informed about aspects of a product that would otherwise be unknown to us.

We take all the reviews we receive very seriously, good or bad. In fact, your reviews can even make or break a product at ZooScape.com! Here's how:

When people like you share their positive reviews with one another, more new visitors to our site can be confident in the satisfaction and results they will achieve. Your review may be that final little bit of information necessary to sway someone else into finding a product with life-changing results! Then, that person's positive experience is passed on and read by another person, and so on....

On the other hand, if a product is simply not 'living up to the hype', and is receiving lukewarm or even negative reviews, then inquiring shoppers have the right to know. In fact, if the growing body of public opinion is that a product is simply ineffective, we will remove the product, (not the reviews), from our site! Honestly, there are some products we no longer sell because the reviews were awful.

With the staggering number of products available online, getting the benefits of previous users' experience is vital. I am also a shopper, of course, and I also buy products online. I personally find that reviews act as a safeguard ensuring quality and efficacy of every product. Like everyone, I am much more confident buying a product online if I have seen reviews for it first.

Think how you feel when you come across a product that you think might be right for you, and some great reviews or a few success stories confirm those very thoughts, providing you with confidence and certainty. Think of how you feel when a review might make you aware of something you neglected to consider about a product or its claims, steering you in a better direction. A community of people sharing thoughts, opinions, and experiences is an extremely beneficial process in the online shopping world.

Of course, not everyone is in 100% agreement, and experience with the same products may vary. But, a longer list of reviews for any given product means a more accurate general consensus. It takes just one person with the courage and dedication to write one simple product review to 'get the ball rolling'. That's how online communities and forums are created!

We would greatly appreciate your thoughts and opinions on any ZooScape.com products that you have purchased, or even a product that you purchased elsewhere, but would like to express a few thoughts about.

We are giving you, the customer, a forum to be heard by thousands of people! If you wish, you can even state your opinions with the comfort of knowing that you are protected by total anonymity by entering your name in the review as 'anonymous'.

So, this is why I am personally asking you for your help. On behalf of all present and future ZooScape customers, just like yourself, I know that the more product reviews we have at our site, the better informed everyone is going to be.

New Year Predictions

2008-12-31T17:16:00.002Z

Some predictions based on some knowledge, and a bit of wine

After a lot of nasty price and offer ads this xmas and new year, we'll move into a advertising and communications style that celebrates how long things will last. 'Smart investments' will be suggested in things that are built to last not built to burn. We'll see lots of extended warranties and new services that look like they 'save' you money on the surface (but will be disguised insurance policies)
Just seen '100 books' on the nintendo ds. And of course there's the amazon kindle and the sony reader out there too. They're still living in the world of neeks at the moment, but i reckon 2009 will see the growth of illegal book sharing. Have book publishers learnt from the harsh reality the music and film industries faced...?
It will be a year of consolidation and mergers in agency-land. There really are just too many agencies, meaning that each one has quite a lot of average people running around doing average work. Particularly in 'digital' where there's a LOT of average people pulling the wool over the eyes of senior agency staff who wouldn't recognise a digital opportunity if it sat there at breakfast.
Sadly, CSR, green credentials and ethics will take a back seat in communications. It will be interesting to see which organisations and brands pull support for these programmes - this will be an eye-opener for who was serious and who was green-washing.
Related to point 4, i think there's a massive opportunity for organisations to 'go local', and more importantly for some local organisations to thrive if they get it right. large companies can go local / personal by using digital to understand customers and potential customers. local organisations can't compete on the buying power and scale of multi-nationals, but they can win on trust and customer knowledge / service.
Also related to point 4, some of the good ideas for new forms of business organisation that were born out of sustainable thinking are equally valid for a wary economy - renting, sharing, repairing.
I might be biased, given where i'm now working, but i honestly think that we'll see new types of sales promotion that connect sales with genuine and relevant customer needs. Digital means that a sales promotion doesn't have to be one size fits all any more, the customer can have more control on what's interesting to them, and organisations and brands that capture this with genuine insight and genuine ideas will benefit from promiscious customers who can see past the false econony of a quick price reduction.
There was an interesting article in Q the other month that suggested that music tends to predict the economy. I'm hoping that more songs like Elbow's 'One day like this' show new optimism that will filter up into the economy in 2009. Sadly, i reckon we're in line for some depressing smiths-style numbers. But i'm loving the return to the 80s synth lines from Keane and the Killers latest albums.

And now to more wine...

For Emma. Xmas 2008

2008-12-24T20:25:00.003Z

Click here for details...

[whilst this is on my blog, this is actually just for Emma. Others passing by, hope you're not disappointed!]

Happy holidays

2008-12-22T23:32:00.002Z

Sorry, been far too quiet for a bit. It's been a blistering start to my new role at iris. Meeting lots of lovely people, getting involved with loads of new clients and some great ideas and opportunities for 2009.

So, I plan to think of a few predictions for 2009, and hope to be much more active next year.

But have a good xmas and new year!

The voices in my head

2008-11-22T12:22:00.006Z

So yesterday, after 18 action-packed months, I left Proximity London.

(I'm joining iris in a group head of planning role.)

But I thought I'd do a top five personal achievements at proximity for my own records. Yes, a bit narcissistic, but that'll be blogging in general.... And there's nowhere else to put it.

1. Delivering digital strategies for RNLI and Harveys for 2009 (let's hope they're implemented), and winning a place on Shell's global digital roster

2. Seeing Harveys become a genuine challenger brand to DFS following the sponsorship of coronation street. It shows how a simple strategy, good advertising and a passionate client and agency teams can really make things happen. I think the most satisfying was seeing new work across multiple channels - TV, Print, Leaflets, Website, Email, Mobile, In store.....

3. Working with DDB and Mediacom on VW annual planning. The BTL agency wouldn't normally have had that level of involvement, so we (proximity) were very pleased. Some lovely campaigns for VW: Scirocco, Golf v6 (to come), Tiguan, Touran, Passat CC too.

4. Mentoring or helping or working with some great people who I know will do well - james hidden, james hough, jamie chadwick, kirtsy higgins, abi fletcher, mat spencer, jo dann, andy ford, emma bushnell, charlie h-s, nicole mackintosh, andrew waddell, matt tanter, scott hendry, anna booth, megan randell, emma slade, tessa clements.

5. Actually using semiotics, ethnographic research and discourse analysis sensibly and practically for some work! Simon W - the original map of possible positive charge inputs seems to be working....

Thanks to amanda phillips, mark hancock and kevin allen who took a bit of gamble letting me in the building in the first place. Thanks proximity and good luck in the future.

Stratstock

2008-11-11T10:35:00.002Z

Last night I had the honour of speaking at 'Statstock: - how the other half plan'. This was an IPA Strategy Group event that brought together 9 planners to speak about what its like to plan from the perspective of their discipline.

The brief was to 'to help younger planners broaden their view of what strategy and planning can mean in very different types of agencies and consultancies'.

So I was speaking from the world of direct marketing. Which was bloody difficult as we had Max Wright from Rapier speaking about an integrated approach, Martin Bailie from Glue (digital), Sam Noble from iris (sales promotion). So as you can imagine, there was the potential for a lot of overlap... It was also made more difficult as we were speaking at the same time in a big room at the Mary Ward House with booming acoustics....

(Oh yeah, and there was no audio visual equipment either, so flip charts, pens and actual conversation were required)

The reality for me is that planning is planning is planning when you're looking for the 'grand strategy' (thanks to Stephen King's theory of planners here). It's about understanding people, motivations, moods, potential connections and how brands can be inciteful in linking these together in a useful and valuable way.

But planning is necessarily more discipline focused when you're 'advert tweaking' - i.e helping craft the execution (including the measurement / evaluation).

So for DM I tried to focus on the new and interesting things that i've been involved in that lead to more effective direct marketing: semiotics, discourse analysis and ethnography. (In retrospect, I tried to throw too much in to my 10 minutes!)

For me, the way that differerent speakers approached their chat was just as instructive on the shades of planning as their content:

boards vs. live pen scribbling vs. just talking
conversation vs. polemic (i didn't realise we were competing for which discipline was best...)
facts and case studies vs. thoughts, ideas and suggestions
looking back vs. looking forward

I didn't get to see all the other speakers, but overall feedback was that it was a interesting night, people felt that they had value for money and some ideas to take away. (as well as some top tips. which reminds me. this guy has scanned in all of the first pack of IPA strategy group fast strategy top tips. wow - check it out here)

The ipa girls were filming, so hopefully we'll see some good edits on the ipa website soon.

FREE music downloads

2008-10-13T20:59:00.004Z

Whilst i've not been blogging, I have been spending time writing and producing new pieces of music.

Over on Clueless Chimp there's 5 new tracks to download for FREE! (right click on the link, save target as. Then click on the file from explorer to launch into itunes)

My good friend David Nicholls and I have been jamming away, and Hey Now Sister is the product of that. To be honest, it needs a remastering, but you get the idea.

I was in a band called 'Amber Waves' with David at university. Or was it 'The Amber Waves'? We argued a lot over the definitive article. In fact we argued a lot about a lot back then. We're older and wiser now, safe in the knowledge that we'll never be on the front cover of Melody Maker or Select, and we won't be performing live on Top of the Pops.

We do have some vague plans for some live events in 2009 though.

Planning to get talked about

2008-10-13T20:50:00.002Z

It's see something that:

a) uses direct mail effectively - interesting stuff was sent to a number of young video bloggers

a) uses social media effectively - they were encouraged to open their mail on their vblogs.

c) has a bigger and wider social meaning - they were asked to produce content that flies in the face of the media stereotypes of young people as knife-holding hoodies and shows the youth of Britain as a more caring, involved and socially active group of people.

d) has a real world social element of people doing things together- the bloggers were invited to the RNLI head quarters in Poole to see what they do and meet young people who are contravening the youth stereotypes by volunteering as crew or as lifeguards. The bloggers blogged about this too.

so from less than 20 mail-packs to over a quarter of million views, responses, texts, emails showing that the previously silent majority of british youth are now prepared to speak out.

watch out for the next phase. 'Broken Britain' ((c) The Sun, 2008) is going to be fixed.....

Check out all the mystery package videos and responses on You Tube.

A genuinely positive action from an organisation that is trying to connect people using the most cultural relevant means available.

Been a bit lost....

2008-10-13T20:41:00.002Z

Hello. Is there anybody out there?

Apologies for the radio silence.

It's been a hectic, mad, contradictory, progressive, sad, exciting, new and 'same old' for the last few months.

The next few months promise more of the same, but I hope to blog about it a bit more.

We heart loyalty

2008-07-27T21:58:00.002Z

(photo thanks to hummingbird heart on flickr)

When there's a sign of an economic downturn, many brands start to think about the old adage that it's more profitable to look after and grow value from current customers rather than to try and get new ones. I suspect this is because they're worried about losing customers to competitors who slash their prices in tough times.

Of course, trying to start 'loyalty' initiatives now is just too late.

For me, genuine loyalty comes down to one simple statement:

'Staying with something for the long-term even though there may be more attractive options available right now'.

So this means sticking with something even through 'bad times'.

Is this really possible? Will people really give a s**t about brands over the long-term? Can 'loyalty marketing really work?

The trouble is that most people discount the future. They are easily and irrationally attracted to offers. Tell someone you'll give them £10 now or £100 in a year, and most will take the £10. Tell them somethings free, and they'll overlook something much better that costs them only a nominal value. (Read the brilliant book 'Predictably Irrational' by Dan Ariely for more insight into this sort of human behaviour)

The other day, my parents booked a flight to the US, just so they had enough miles to maintain their American Airlines Platinum status. So I guess it can work.

But from this is a clue. Loyalty is more likely to come from experience over and above the norm (in this case not from privilege not points).

So what does that mean for brand wanting to get somewhere close to loyalty from customers?

Offering just a future discount based on behaviour will fail. If you're going to use discounts, do it on initial purchases to try and build a habit. (let's not pretend it's loyalty, and rename it inertia marketing??!)
Do something special on the first purchase, not the 100th
Look for ways to create prestige and recognition rather than discounting the brand
Change the way the brand behaves with people who are interested. I've said it before, but for me the best 'loyalty schemes' are those that crowd-source and ask for opinions that will be acted on. P&G Tremor, Nokia, BMW, and Lego are all good examples.
If you use points and prizes, then make sure you link it to a data and insight strategy that allows you to understand people better and test different propositions, offers and ideas with them.
If you're online - make registering have no barriers to entry so you can immediately start to buld up a picture of what people are looking at and buying (and link into a data & insight strategy as above). This means something special on the first purchase (or even browse) not the 100th. Oh, I've said that already.
And have a bloody good product or service. (quite important that one)

The Dream Machine

2008-07-27T21:16:00.003Z

Probably the silliest thing to do right now is to open a record shop. A shift to downloads and even the big boys are struggling.

But John and Elaine have gone and done just that in East Dulwich (which was missing some musical-like shopping opportunities). Hurrah!

They're running the shop as an open community collective - encouraging anyone and everyone to come on, get involved, help out and generally spark off a music community. I spent a good few hours today, pricing up records and trying to put together shelves for them (badly, I must add).

Who knows if they're mad or inspired. But if enough people get involved, there's a fighting chance that the Dream Machine (sister store in Texas) can survive and thrive.

I'm going to be helping them out, trying to think of new and cool ways to spark off some word of mouth, get people involved, and hopefully enable lots of local music-loving folk get their fix.

Launch part is tomorrow at the Constitutional Hall in East Dulwich. Here's the details on the East Dulwich Forum

Juis Suis Animal and Martin Carr (of Boo Radleys fame) are playing. Come on down - it's only £6.

And here's the party in the shop last night... probably be another one tomorrow night!

Agent Orange

2008-07-14T20:48:00.002Z

It seems the link wasn't working on my last post, so here we are embedded. If you haven't read the previous post, this is a sabotaged version of the Orange 'I am' TV ad. With changed dialogue and music....

Creepily telling us that mobile phone operators are collecting lots of data and spying on us.

Happy days.

I am .... disturbed

2008-07-13T17:02:00.006Z

New brand campaign from Orange from Fallon.

I think there's a really good central thought here - something to do with mobiles connecting and enabling your life - past, present and future. Certainly a brave attempt to position Orange as more important than a particular tariff or offer on a new phone.

But I find it a bit dark and a tiny bit creepy.

It might be the music (slightly melancholy piano number, that reminds me of a cross between Four Tet and Boards of Canada).

Or perhaps it's the way people fade in and out like a dream / nightmare.

Maybe it's the way no-one seems to smile properly. (Even the 'encouraging' teacher, has an evil glint in her eyes).

It actually makes me feel that David Lynch might have been involved, and the narrator / viewer is actually a psychopathic serial killer living in a distopian world.

Good to see that it's spawned some rip-offs already. Check out this reworked version: 'Agent Orange '.

Suddenly the original doesn't seem quite so disturbing.

I drink, you drink, we drink

2008-07-08T20:54:00.007Z

31st May. Boris stops people drinking on public transport in London. So no surprises that there's a big party - centred on the circle line. Lots of drunken behaviour, vomiting and a number of arrests in this alcohol fuelled flash mob.

For me, echoes of the Paris Commune and the student uprisings of the 1960s. People trying to lay claim on a public space and redefine what different boundaries stand for. In this case, we're seeing a protest / class struggle / dispute over both physical and social boundaries, with the resistance coming in a playful manner (reminiscent of the Situationist International).

A few years ago, we would have marvelled how this was organised through social networks and mobile phones. (But though those of us who went to raves in the 80s/90s know that you don't need digital technology to organise some unlicensed fun.)

Interestingly, (if you follow Mark Earls and his Herd theory) this circle line party wasn't some centrally-controlled and organised event. There weren't some 'key influencers' who told everyone else what to do.

It actually came about from many different groups and people debating about the change in the law and thinking it would be a good idea to commemorate the occasion in the best way we know - a massive piss up. And the circle line pub crawl has been a student favourite for generations.

So the perfect conditions for an idea to be spread / imitated through people's behaviour:

* lots of different groups all with similar beliefs
* a highly dispersed network, with many 'weak links' that allowed these different groups to hear about what others were planning
* and yes, I suppose, the technology to make it easy for these weak links to be connected and for the idea to be spread
* an incredibly visible action that is easy to imitate

Lots of people drank far too much, and I'm sure there were many sore heads the next day. But I wonder how much more people drank because they got caught up in the occasion? Many would have gone with the intention of drinking as much as possible. And there were enough of these to get a critical mass of people behaving in one way. Through imitation and subconsiously wanting to fit in, many more will have changed their behaviour away from what they rationally would have intended.

It's like a night after work. You go out with no intention of staying out too long. If there are one or two people wanting to carry on, that's not enough to make you stay. No matter how influential they are. But if there are a few more, and the night is more interesting / entertaining that you expected, you stay out. When you see someone who's not normally out having a few, it makes you feel better about staying out yourself.

So I was particularly interested to read this month's Brand Strategy, where Pamela Bower-Nye, global marketing director for attitudes to alcohol at Diageo talks about their responsible drinking strategy.

She talks about the need to move away from lecturing about responsible drinking to talking about 'choices'. Reading what she says, the focus of Diageo's campaign is on making the consequences of irresponsible drinking personal - being excluded by their social peers for being an embarrassment. (Making people think about personal consequences is also the strategy behind Leo Burnett's drink and drive ad campaign).

However, I think for these campaigns to work, its not enough to give people a message when they're sitting in their living rooms - no matter how personal / relevant / engaging the message might seem.

It requires brand action alongside brand message. This means doing something at the moment of choice - i.e. at a night out - something that actually changes people's behaviour at that moment, so that others imitate.

Is there a future in loyalty?

2008-06-24T10:01:00.003Z

(photo thanks to atomicshed on flickr)

I'm working on a pitch just now where one of the questions is 'what is the future of loyalty programmes?'

When I started in this industry loyalty schemes were new and exciting and would save the world from bad advertising. Now they're increasingly commoditised and people now expect rewards on initial purchases in the form of cash-backs on sites such as ipoints or quidco. So where's all the loyalty gone?

So here's my quick and dirty predictions. Would love to hear other people's thoughts!

Consolidation into a few large points schemes where people can see the benefit from buying products and services across multiple sectors
Move from points into cash-back for these larger schemes (especially online aggregator schemes)
Successful loyalty schemes will be those that are aligned to a holistic customer data strategy that enables brands to understand and connect more with people at a personal level
Branded loyalty schemes will evolve to focus on enhanced experience of the brand’s product or service rather than discounted points converted into unrelated goods

Is ROI killing innovation?

2008-06-18T19:42:00.003Z

Brent Hoberman (of lastminute.com fame) did the opening address at the Future of Digital Marketing 2008 conference today in London.

Presenting without PowerPoint, he took us on a lightening-fast and enlightening trek through his experiences, ideas and other random digital-related thoughts.

(It was a shame that the rest of the day couldn't live up to such a great opening... some of the presentations would have more appropriate at a 'past & current of digital marketing 2004' conference)

Brent knows he's been successful, but he wasn't arrogant enough to suggest he's an innovation genius. When talking about his newest innovation - mydeco.com - he was humble enough to suggest that there's still lots of learning to do. Some things that currently look like winning elements might not take off, and other simple ideas might end up being the killer app. Successful innovation comes from setting off lots of initiatives and ideas - not necessarily one 'big' idea.

So one thing Brent said really struck home - he questioned whether ROI can kill innovation. He wasn't saying that as marketers we shouldn't worry whether things are working or not - of course we should care about this. No, he was suggesting that the obsession with 'ROI' and 'certainty' will stop good and new ideas from happening.

How can you do something different and innovative if you need proof that it will work?

At worst this would mean only ever copying what you or your competitors have already done.

At best, proof can be 'found' by looking in different categories and piecing together 'evidence' from case studies that are similar to the strategy / idea that you're suggesting.

But history is written by the victorious. There are few case histories that demonstrate what hasn't worked. (Brand Failures by Matt Haig is the only real example I can think of). Looking within these 'case studies of success' from a source like the IPA Effectiveness Awards will quickly confuse you with success coming from apparently contradictory strategies for two different brands in the same category....

For me it comes down to the difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

Measurement and ROI analysis can only ever help you be more efficient. Spend your money again in places where it worked and take your marketing dollars out of stuff that doesn't. Good worthy stuff that we should all do. (Although I would argue that a red, amber, green model for 'should we do it again?' would simplify this process and prevent us having to wade through graph after graph of data analysis)

Improved effectiveness will only come from innovation. Doing something different to the category, different to the norm and providing some genuine value to the people you want to buy your product or service. Yes, measurement and ROI analysis can be one of the inputs into the innovation and ideation process, but 'proof' can never be found to justify something genuinely new.

So it worries me that whilst 2007 saw many agencies and businesses invest in innovation departments, job titles and descriptions, the current 2008 climate is seeing our friend ROI turning up to every party, with his close friends 'guaranteed' & 'proof' tagging along.

It's a party with lots of conflicting and loud voices. I just hope everyone can get along and innovation isn't ushered out the back door for being too unreliable...

Balloonacy

2008-06-09T20:49:00.003Z

I loved the Orange Unlimited and never ending website that Poke created for them to help advertise their unlimited texts campaign. It was a simple but clever idea, beautifully executed, and certainly took up a number of hours of my time.

I think perhaps it was a bit of a decadent use of marketing funds, but I would imagine the 'engagement' box was well ticked with very long dwell times. (Though I'd like to see that stats on how it did in social media)

Well, I think they've surpassed themselves on the 'wish I'd done that' stakes. They've only gone and created a brand new concept:

The digital nomad.

The world's first internet balloon race. Choose a balloon animal (corresponding to one of their four 'segment' tariffs - camel, dolphin, racoon or canary, which are now being launched on pay as you go). Give it a name and a purpose and wait for the race to start. (22nd June)

So what happens?

You guide your balloon across the web - visiting different web sites and collecting points for its travels. There's some interaction as you get your mates to support you and give you a boost. And in Sonic the Hedgehog style, different websites have different power ups that earn you more points / distance. Each animal has different characteristics (temperament and speed) - though it's not clear how these will play out in the game.

A widget for your web site / favourite social networking site will give you updates and allow your friends to see how you're doing.

You can even submit your webpage / social media page for inclusion in the great web journey. So not only do you compete and interact - you get to help set the course as well.

The balloon that goes the furthest wins some big prizes. (Ibiza trip, reflecting the age group they're targeting). And there are daily prize draws for good performers. But with something as involving and potentially entertaining like this, it's not just the competing for the big prize that matters - it's the ability to get stats & feedback to compare with your mates for social kudos. (As well as look at the stats for numbers of visits to your web pages).

In fact, if I could make one suggestion to Poke, it would be to include the ability to set up mini-leagues with my mates so its easy for this group banter (perhaps using the social media widgets)

So it looks like a blast, and certainly deserves to have success in terms of likeability, WOM, and engagement. It also gives Orange a whole bunch of emails and data to play with for future nurture / prospecting and conversion.

I guess my only challenge to Poke is to keep the interest levels up in the lead up and during the actual race. They've sensibly restricted the fun to 7 days, and are now generating as much buzz as possible in the anticipation of the event. But having signed up today, I've only received a perfectly pleasant email. I want more!

Whether this will work in terms of PAYG sales, who knows. And in fact, I'm actually not a fan of Orange's overall strategy of taking their segmentation into full customer-facing marketing, but that's another post.

But great to see something brave, new and interesting.

(Thanks to Pete Petrella for pointing this out - a brilliant digital creative chap)

So was difficult worth doing?

2008-06-01T10:54:00.002Z

So they did it.

3 minutes of tense times on C4, particularly as they struggled with the 'N'. And a nice moment, when we see 'hello mum' written in crude pen on the gloves of one of the sky divers. (Rather bad shot of the car though, but we'll forgive them that as it was live.)

2.2 M watched the live ad (Guardian). There was an increase from 2M to 2.2M when the ad was shown according to unofficial overnights. So a minimum of 200K actively engaged?

I managed to miss the 'live' event, but I guess that's not the point. It's about planning to be to be talked about too.

And is it working?

Well 52K hits on You Tube in 4 days. Who knows how many hits Honda have on their site.

Blog Pulse doesn't show a massive increase, but we'll see in the next few days.

Over on Creative Review, the comments are slightly flat.

Personally, I think in the world of PVRs, making appointment to view advertising is a good idea, and I admire W&K / Honda for their bravery. But it's interesting that the ad is linked to the Accord rather than just being a Honda brand piece. Yes, there's a shot of the car on the ground, but let's be honest, the product has nothing to do with the ad and vice versa. For me Cog was stronger as the product was intrinsically vital to the ad's success.

But they've got a long way to go to meet the 1M+ who watched cog on You Tube. It's going to take a lot for the live ad to go viral.

Will the ad make a long-term effective impact on people outside of the advertising community...?

Britain's Got Talent?

2008-05-28T14:44:00.005Z

I might be wrong, but I reckon that CHI were inspired by Britain's Got Talent when developing their ad for drench water....

Drench Ad?

(you want to look at about 1 min in for the best bit...)

Britain's Got Talent?

Thanks to Simon Law for helping me spot that possible link...

Trade on Trust

2008-05-28T10:19:00.004Z

About a year ago, at my last agency, I pitched (unsuccessfully) for Royal Mail communications planning. The big idea that we had (thanks to Simon and Graeme) was for RM to transform their SME database into an active and living online community where other people (businesses or consumers) could rate and review SMEs. Rather than a static listing with just the address and web page, SMEs would be humanised.

(...the people behind the numbers, you might say!!!).

We called it 'Trade on Trust'.

It was a big idea, and perhaps too much of a stretch for Royal Mail at the time. But given recent experience with builders, trust is so important in choosing your hired help.

We needed some builders. We went on the East Dulwich Forum. There were quite a few recommendations, but 'Tom & Jay', stood out a mile for their glowing reports. We phoned them, got them in and got a quote. They were about 30% more expensive, and of course, we had to wait 8 weeks more to get them in. The rational brain said that they couldn't possibly be that much better. But then the emotion kicked in. This is the house we want to stay in for years, we really want it to be perfect.

And of course, the emotions won, and we're now living in a tip as Tom and Jay (& Dirk) are at work. As with any building project, the costs already seem to be spiralling.... 'No, that wasn't quoted for.' ... 'actually this would look a lot better with a new wood flooring...'. Hmmm.

And yet, even though I rationally know that we might be being overpriced, the thought of getting another builder / carpenter etc. in for these additional jobs, seems like a bit too much effort. (Which I'm sure is what Tom & Jerry, sorry Jay, are expecting.) But if this was a scam, surely the East Dulwich Forum would have some luke-warm reviews?

I've always suspected that the only reviews written are those that are either really positive or those that are really negative. And who wants to say on a review that they think they might have been ripped off? Particularly when they look at their finished masterpiece and they're filled with emotional pride. (And I have to admit that T&J are doing an excellent job).

Perhaps we have artifically inflated reviews akin to the Hawthorne Effect?

So how can people like me get a 'real' sense of who to trust for projects like this?

Can businesses really 'trade on trust'?

I am sure that there is still an opportunity waiting to be grabbed by a business that has both national scale and local relevance. (Royal Mail / Post Office, Yell, Thomson, Trinity Mirror, BBC, ITV, Job Centre Plus....) But to make it a success, this online resource /portal would need to have a pretty complex recommendation algorithm. Not just an 'average'. An algorithm that measures recency, importance, semantics, context, validity & volatility.

So maybe we'll have to leave it to Google then.

The curse of the planner's advert

2008-05-27T13:45:00.003Z

As a planner, I spend far too much time deconstructing other companies' communications.

It does annoy friends and family who aren't really that interested in 'advertising', but it keeps me amused.

Who's this for? What's the insight?
What's the proposition? What's the creative idea?
Do I think it will work?

I guess I'm trying to see 'behind the execution' to get a glimpse of another planner's work.

It should be possible to understand and guess at all of this in a well crafted piece of communication.

Some will probably argue against me, but the planning work shouldn't be glaringly obvious in the final communication. (Unless it's a very simple rational offer / message where less creative ideation is needed). The creative development phase should take the planning insight and proposition and transform it into something that connects with people on a number of emotional levels.

And certainly you shouldn't see the planner's work poking out in a car ad.... that pinnacle of artistic endeavour. The most rewarding representation of the TV creatives' art. Subtly playing on the emotions and the senses. Bringing in the compelling rational thinking to help you justify your extortionate spending. Creating ultimate desirability for a hunk of metal on wheels.

So OMG to Kia with this ad for the Cee'd. So bad I had to write about it.

I can see the brief now....

Our target audience are really indifferent about our cars and they just have no desire to buy them. We really need to change their minds with a TV ad.

Watch it. It's appalling.

I know that a good planner's proposition should be good enough to run as a billboard, but this????

Shame. Because in searching for that Kia ad on You Tube, I came across this one for the Sportage 4x4, which is great. If you've got nothing interesting to say about your product, at least make an ad that makes me laugh.

Jealousy?

2008-05-20T19:56:00.003Z

I've been a bit lucky!

Ages ago I was asked to go and speak at a marketing conference in Moscow.

About three weeks ago I noticed that the date was 22nd and that I would be in Moscow on the night of the Champions League final.

And last week I managed to get hold of tickets for the game.

No one likes a show off. But not sure that I really care right now.

Woo hoo!

(I just hope that the Russians stay up all night drinking vodka tomorrow night so that they're not too bothered to hear about the challenges of CRM in FMCG!)

Fast Strategy

2008-04-27T19:49:00.003Z

Tomorrow (28th April) is the IPA Strategy's conference: 'Fast Strategy'.

I'm pleased to say that by being part of the IPA Strategy Group, I've had a small part to play in helping get this show off the ground.

It promises to be a lot of fun. We've got three teams (leaders are Mark Earls, Phil Georgiadis and Johnny Hornby). They're taking a COI brief in the morning, to come back with their strategies in the afternoon. In the meantime, the conference attendees can listen to some thoughts and ideas from the great and the good of ad-land, with TBWA, Wiedens, Grand Union, the Times, Naked, and Leo Burnetts all doing a turn.

At £150 a pop, it's actually pretty good value for a day of good speakers. But I know I've not found it easy signing this off (yes even group members have to pay... the IPA aren't going to miss out on any possible income!).

So I hope the attendance is good, the speakers are great and people enjoy the fun and frivolities.

My money's on Mark E's team to crack the COI brief... not sure if anyone's actually running a book though???

What this space for a (not so impartial) review.

The seedy side of Manchester

2008-04-16T19:39:00.004Z

(Photo credit, holdsy from flickr)

Some might say that every side of Manchester is seedy.

(and no that wasn't supposed to be an oasis reference...).

Anyway, a bunch of geo-anarchists under the group name of 'guerilla geography' have an interesting plan to create a multi-media map of manchester.... they're inviting people to give information about any 'naughty' event that took place in the town-where-it-always-rains. The information will be put on a map and produced as conceptual art for next year.

So if you've ever been in Manchester and had a rock n' roll star moment.... (!)

Electric Dreams (Book Review)

2008-04-13T20:18:00.005Z

History isn't always written by the winners.

Usually, books with a historical theme have a habit of being quite dull.

Often these books are revisionist texts drawing on multiple references to build a single argument: references the author agrees with and references that they feel they can shoot down.

Or alternatively, the author tries to cover every possible aspect, view and detail that the reader gets bogged down in tedium. (See Peter Ackroyd's books on London and the Thames for a good example of detail obsession)

This book didn't look too promising at first glance:

* it is about 'computers' - I really didn't want to read about the development of fortran and cobal
* it is about computers in 'American' culture - I'm generally very sceptical of American-focused stuff
* there didn't appear to be too many pictures

But I loved this book.

Computers represent the ultimate dialectic of capitalism. They represent power and control, yet they also represent liberation and grass roots activism. Individualism and collectivism. Technology allows for the concentration of the means of production in the hand of the few (think of the use of computers in the City), yet also allows people to connect and share ideas that undermine the very fabric of capitalism. (think terrorist operations and the dispersed yet effective organisation of anti-capitalist action).

This book is wonderful, not only in that it got me thinking about a whole host of dialectic observations (!), but primarily because of how it considers its topic:

It's a cultural reading. Rather than reviewing academic texts or considering primary and secondary sources of consumer research, the author looks at how 'cultural texts' are produced within and without the system. He considers the way in which these texts demonstrate how computers affect and are affected in American culture

What does that mean in English?!!

Well Ted Friedman (the author) has a look at a bunch of letters, films, magazines, games, TV programmes, adverts, websites to see how computers and stories / mythologies surrounding computers' roles are represented.

So we get a look at the films 'the Desk Set', '2001', 'Matrix'. We look at Wired & the Wall Street Journal. We look at Apple's 1984 ad and IBM communications. We look at cyberpunk literature (eg. William Gibson and Kurt Vonneget. We look at Civilisation and Sim City as 'God' games. We look at flash mobs and blogs.

It's a very diverse and informative read, picking up and picking apart multiple threads. (Although it can be a little heavy going in places). Moreover, it takes a potentially turgid topic and litters it with interest.

What's particularly refreshing, is he tries to consider diametrically opposite views (i.e. technology as a good thing vs. technology as a bad thing). And by considering texts produced at a point in time (historical materialism), he avoid too much revisionist thinking.

It reminded me of Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins (another very excellent book). Jenkins also looks at culture to consider changes in the world of media and entertainment. (His texts being The Matrix, American Idol, Star Wars, and Harry Potter amongst others)

Actually, check out Jenkins' blog if you have a spare few hours (pithy, he is not)

But anyway, back to Electric Dreams...

There is no central argument per se, although Friedman is certainly of the view that technology is a great liberator rather than something that should be suppressed and controlled. He is in the optimism camp, where all possible worlds should be dreamed and imagined and can be fulfilled by technology. The language he uses gives him away as someone who has been trained in Marxist ideology and one who believes in a lot of it.

But hell, this blog isn't called commune for nothing...

Glass is half empty productions

2008-04-07T22:24:00.005Z

In an ad break yesterday:

Dairy Milk 'Trucks' ad: 90 seconds of averageness
National Lottery ad: 20 seconds of pure joy

Fallon 0
AMV 1

(though AMV must be gutted about the repitch)

Sausages (Book Review)

2008-04-07T22:01:00.005Z

Unless your product or service is actually useful in some way to somebody, you're wasting your time and money with loads of marketing guff...

David Taylor has written quite a few books about brand marketing - brand gym and brand vision to name a couple.

Those other two books are worthy guides to brand marketing, full of bullet points, ten-point guides and other stuff that you can copy into presentations.

But 'never mind the sizzle...' is a much nicer read. It's told as fiction - a story of a guy from sales on a year placement in marketing at a flailing UK company who make sausages.

Bob (our hero) discovers the marketing team developing a product extension (pizzas with sausage on top), wasting time and money with an expensive ad agency. Brand diamonds, meaningless focus groups, media stunts, celebrities, over-the-top ad shoots and a ridiculous tag-line prevail....

But Bob sees the value in their core brand, reigniting it with solid research, genuine insight, and connecting to real people. Oh, and he gets a great job done by a hungry small design agency with no fat expense account.

It's an obvious story where Bob saves the day, the marketing director loses the plot and the ad agency drown in champagne at their soho members club.

But entertaining and strangely instructive nonetheless.

And to be honest, it's a valuable reminder to all of us in ad-land to take a step back on what we're doing and think about how absurd it all is. And that we really are meant to providing a service to people...

Rather sadly, I give you two recent examples....

My girlfriend works at an agency who have a large mobile phone handset company as a client. She was in a focus group the other day where people asked after about 1/2 hour -
'can you actually use it as a phone?'

I sat in a meeting last week where we (yes, I'm complicit in this one), honestly recommended 'getting cool people to create art that symbolises the product'.

So heed the warning, ad agency folk. If clients read this book, watch out.

Gage's Library

2008-04-07T21:29:00.004Z

People who know me know that I read a lot of books. Amazon Prime is made for me, and not a week goes past without the aesthetic beauty of the brown cardboard box landing on my desk at work.

I promised Jo at work that I would write some reviews and overviews on my blog. Most people don't have the time to read some of the crap that I do. And let's be honest, most books can be easily summarised:

The Long Tail - fewer numbers of people like stuff that's less popular, but the web means that even the least popular things can be matched up to the weirdos that like them.

The Tipping Point - a few people influence loads of others. Get them and you're made. The web makes this easier.

Wisdom of Crowds - lots of average people together are better than individual experts. The web makes this easier.

Herd - people do stuff instinctively and there's no 'maven' or 'leader' required.

Blink - your first thoughts and ideas are usually right.

Purple Cow - unless your product or service is different, you're buggered.

Brand Innovation Manifesto - unless your product or service is different (in one of xx helpful types defined by John), you're buggered.

Green Marketing Manifesto - unless your product or service green and normal (in one of xx helpful types defined by John), you're buggered.

The Black Swan - there's no point predicting anything. Ever. Other than unpredictability. (400 pages down to one line there, now that's being succinct)

This saves time and hopefully means more people can spraff on like planners in meetings...

(remember to cross your legs, put your fingers into a steeple, and close your eyes whilst musing....)

Odd hobbies?

2008-03-19T21:03:00.004Z

Marketing Direct are running a piece about people in the industry with unusual hobbies - so our PR agency suggested I submitted a piece. It seems that writing some music at home is unusual in the direct marketing industry. I wonder what a normal hobby is for people who read Marketing Direct?

Appreciating new things...

2008-03-19T20:56:00.004Z

I was putting together a nice film on the sorts of things that people take time out to appreciate in life. 'Personal Appreciation' being a comms platform that we're working towards for a client brief.

We filmed a bunch of people around the agency chatting away about their passions... including Mr. Hancock and his love of vox amps.....

I was kind of inspired after editing the film (& maybe hearing Mark go on about getting particular sounds), so thought I'd write a new piece to go with it. Bit of a change of direction - got loads of orchestral sounds... violin, cello, trombone, brass section, timpani. Had quite a lot of fun remembering my cadences and key signatures from studying music structure and composition.

I couldn't stay completely with the classical style. Notice that I sneaked in a classic dub bassline in there. Soundclash is sooo easy...

As usual, the finished piece is uploaded on the website here.

Ealing Comedy

2008-02-26T22:28:00.004Z

I'm carefully packing up all the music equipment for the the big move. Obviously I couldn't do this quickly and efficiently. Instead I felt the need to write some more stuff...

So hop it over to the website and have a listen to two new tracks.

They should run in the browser. (Right click, save target as to bring into your lovely itunes!)

Last and Final Willow - named as the last and final song written in Willow Road.
Three Come Along - named after my perpetual waiting for the E3 bus. Never again, I hope!

Email me on gagey501@googlemail.com with any comments, thoughts and ideas.

I hope I can remember how to plug everything together in the new house!!!

WH Smith in 'great experience' shock

2008-02-19T22:35:00.002Z

The other day I was at Paddington station and needed to buy a card. (yep for valentines!)

So I picked up a card in Smiths and went to the queue. It was ten people long and I had 5 minutes to get to my train. Decision time - do I stay or do i go?

Just as I was about to leave I heard one of the four cashiers yelling:

'come on, come on. keep it up. these people have trains to catch. keep it moving, keep it moving'.

And all of the other cashiers were smiling, and I was rapidly moving towards the front of the queue. They were even tossing bags of change to each other to deal with the inconsiderate commuters who had obviously just got a twenty out at the station.

Amazing.

I was reminded of the the old training video from video arts 'Fish' which was designed to show people that even the most mundance jobs could be good if you injected a bit of fun, energy and team spirit.

SOLD!

2008-02-19T22:13:00.005Z

I know it's been quiet in the Commune. But I've been carrying on the path to petit-bourgeousisedom and bought a house in East Dulwich. It's been a 7-month ordeal that culminated in lots of hassle and pain in the last two weeks to exchange.

Soon, I will contributing to the East Dulwich Forum, throwing my hands up in annoyance as another 'high street' brand moves in. Although I'd better watch out... they say that the first sign of an area losing its character is when the advertising folk move in. It'll be accountants next.

Everyone's got some horror stories to tell about buying and selling property. The annoying estate agents. The painfully slow way in which solicitors work to a different theory of time to anyone else. The unhelpful banks and mortgage providers.

Don't want to boast, but I reckon I've got all the stories covered.

Foxtons: were evil, then actually started to be quite good (when the sale was going through)
Lloyds TSB: brilliant service and genuinely looked for solutions.
Ealing Council: as inefficient as ever
ICE Save (high interest instant saving account): Very unhelpful and inefficient w*nkers

The Greenwashing Index

2008-01-09T22:50:00.000Z

More green themed stuff from me. (Guess what sort of thing I'm working on!)

Go to this site and have your adverts scored against the greenwashing index.

Picture courtesy of flickr and actually from a great cartoonist who I've now discovered, Tom Fishburne. His site is here.

Hopefully Helping Greenpeace

2008-01-09T22:38:00.000Z

Greenpeace UK have asked today for music for their videos and films. (check it out here).

So I've donated a track: Somnambulism. (it's on my website on the jukebox on this page, it's track 7 and is spelt incorrectly!)

Not sure if they'll use it or not, but it's great that brands are opening up for UGC that isn't just videos! (and one in which I might actually provide something more than mediocre!)

Literally Greenwashing

2008-01-09T22:21:00.000Z

Once again proving that no space is sacred from communications, Naga DDB Malaysia have painted this onto the pool tiles:

'Don’t let this be our future. Save our rainforest, stop global warming.'

Not sure what the call to action is, but at least there's no danger of this green message being washed away.... (!)

(Courtesy of Osocio for that one. Great social advertising blog and site, by the way)

Analogue Heaven

2008-01-04T12:43:00.001Z

I bought a new set of toys just before Christmas.

Arturia's pack of soft-synths of some classics: Moog Modular, Minimoog, Prophet, CS-80, ARP 2600, and Jupiter 8.

Obviously, I'd love to have the originals of these wonderful instruments, but I don't have the money. Or more importantly, I don't have the space.

Anyway, I've been fairly productive, having written two new tracks, which you can download here. (Left click on it to hear it in your browser. Right click, save target as to download the mp3)

The first one, Switching You On is a more dancey number, and to be honest could do with a new mix and some better production. But you can hear lots of analogue burbles going on. Nice.

I've spent a bit more time on the production of the second one: Transmission Out. There's a bit of moog and some ARP in there. But I'm particularly happy to have found an amazing Fender Rhodes sound.

2008 promises to be full of music I hope!

New year, new habits

2008-01-03T14:02:00.000Z

As John Grant (Green Marketing Manifesto) would say, things really work when normal stuff is green. (Greennormal)

I needed to get rid of some rubbish. Too big for my car to take to the dump, so I went looking on Google for someone to come and collect it.

And found this wonderful company 'Eco Junk' based in Camden.

Wonderful people. They come and pick it up and then go and recycle it all. They even use LPG trucks and they're carbon negative.

And for less money than the price of skip hire.

Genuis.

And normal.

Spread the Christmas Spirit

2007-12-15T13:59:00.000Z

Here at Proximity Towers, we've been getting into the spirit of Christmas.

Join us!

Post a video response on You Tube here

Have fun!

Merry Christmas!

Why do I keep humming this tune?

2007-12-07T10:55:00.000Z

Half rubbish, half brilliance.

It's alerted me to the idea that xmas is expensive, and if I can get some presents on the cheap, that would be nice.

Reckon I could cope with a weirdo playing guitar at me whilst I'm trying to have a drink.

Yet, somehow, over time I am imagining Nigel's world away from the pub as everything falls apart and he is soon on the streets for buying one dodgy Transformers DVD.

And as I have blogged before, there's nothing like a jingle.

TBWA diversify their services

2007-12-04T22:21:00.000Z

Seen in the North Laines, Brighton, Dec 2007

Mr T's Avatar and the power of TV

2007-12-04T22:10:00.001Z

Not sure if I like this or not.

World of Warcraft have made some TV ads. With Mr T, William Shatner and Willy Toledo.

You can check them out here.

So, the biggest Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gaming has decided that it needs to use 30 second TV spots to sell its wares. Having over 10M users from PR, reviews and word-of-mouth I guess isn't enough.

I applaud the agency that convinced Blizzard that they needed to advertise.

Cool to see a Mr. T Avatar though....

If only everything in life was as reliable as...

2007-10-22T21:35:00.000Z

Got my new car finally. 15 week wait from our friends at Volkswagen whilst it was built and shipped over from Mexico. Almost forgot what colour I'd ordered.

Now when I first started work in this industry, there was a lot of talk about CRM and Peppers & Rogers were all the rage with their chat about putting customer needs first, etc. etc.

So why is it now, in our hyper-modern digital world that I entered into a black-hole of communications between putting the order in and finally receiving the thing?

Confirmation of order received by the factory? Nope.
Running specification of its build - when, how and by whom? Nope.
Realtime 'dotted line across the ocean' as it crosses the Atlantic? Nope.

That would be have been great on my iGoogle or as a Vista widget.

No, just 15 weeks of silence. Poor show. (And that's without mentioning that they somehow lost my details on the database for the payment. Hmm - must talk to the people who run the database).

Not really a dig at Volkswagen particularly as no-one in automotive seems to have cracked the 'waiting game'. Or in any other delivery-based sector it seems. (Well, FedEx and UPS are not bad, I suppose).

When we dreamed about realtime CRM in the early 90s, it was a bit of pipe dream. At best it turned into welcome packs and quarterly newsletters & magazines, booming the direct mail and contract publishing industries for a while. But I don't understand why digital is not really being used to allow people to access the level of detailed information they want, when they want and how they want. It's not DM, but I do get welcome emails and quarterly email newsletters. Lazy.

I'm sure there are some great examples. Just none for things I'm buying at the moment....

Rant over!

Shameless Plug

2007-10-09T21:45:00.000Z

Been having a lot of fun over the last few months with Harveys and itv / Coronation Street - with the big launch of the new sponsorship idents last week.

Check out the Corrie content on the website too that we've done - and play the Rovers Pub quiz that we've put together with the excellent Player Three.

It seems that every half decent TV programme has a sponsor these days, and I have to say that so many idents seem to be half baked ideas with little or no relevance to the programme they're sponsoring.

Corrie is one of the only programmes that consistently pulls a large mainstream audience, and Harveys could easily have been lazy, viewing the deal as 'cheap' airtime and settling for a cheap and nasty ad. But I think they've been brave by investing in CGI ads, online gaming, interactive and mobile internet to leverage the sponsorship with a long term strategy to help make Harveys stand out from the glut of me-too furniture retailers lurking near a out-of-town centre near you.

Harveys will have to ensure that the product and service are up to the right standards to ensure that people who try them for the first time are left satisfied. And that means in the store, waiting for delivery, the actual delivery and after-sales queries. Unfortunately, all the clever advertising in the world won't overcome negative reviews and word of mouth, which has been a problem for them in the past.

The right sponsorship deal has the power to change businesses - not just in terms of higher awareness, intrigue and google searches - but as a platform to consider and sort out every way in which the company and brand can and should add value to the customer experience.

Roll up, roll up - get your Web x.0 here

2007-10-03T17:36:00.000Z

How many agency folk feel a bit like they're in the following enforced sales scenario at the moment?

Thanks to logic and emotion for that one - brilliant blog from a innovative thinker

Back to the future

2007-10-01T19:58:00.000Z

Was in one of those random meetings today about 'what the next five years will hold for us, and how will digital take over the world'. And jokingly someone mentioned that we would soon see a resurgence of the 30sec spot...

And so, the conversation turned to half an hour of chatting about TV ads we currently love. And we had the usual suspects of Phil Collins / Gorilla (and whatever chocolate bar it is), bouncing balls, splashing paint and the soon to come plasticine bunnies for Sony.

And the delightful food-porn that is the Lurpack ad. (Which apparently saw an increase in sales over 20% a week after breaking - now that's an IPA award if ever I saw one!)

Ok, I know that the networks are dying and personalised and relevant 'TV ads' will soon be distributed through mobile, RFID tagging at point of sale and beamed into my head through the headphones on my next-gen ipods (maybe).

But there's nothing like some good old fashioned nostalgia. So I'm loving the new/old Aquafresh ads happily sitting in prime time. Quite refreshing in a world where most ads currently seem to include some whimsical floaty people with some whimsical floaty acoustic guitar music in the background (yeah, thanks Sony / Jose Gonzalez for starting that musical trend).

Let's bring back jingles, I say.

[And for some more predictions in Blogworld, check out this recent Holy Cow post - good stuff Mr. Hancock]

Disaster Recovery

2007-09-29T15:57:00.001Z

I thought I was being clever putting all the music that I write on a dedicated hard drive. Until it went bust and I lost a year's worth of work. Silly Paul.

Anyway, just under a grand spent later, those miracle workers in data recovery have reunited me with my precious....

Go over here to hear the (old) fruits of my labour. 8 tracks for you to download to your itunes.

All comments gratefully received. Especially nice ones!

Strangely Familiar

2007-09-29T15:24:00.001Z

Ok. Been away for far too long.... It's been a busy summer. After 7 and half years in the world of media, I've hot-footed it to a creative agency.

Now many people reckon that media agencies shall inherit the earth. (Certainly Jim Taylor and the folk at MEC). And perhaps they will be right.

But for me the future is in being able to create genuine value for the people that you want your brand to connect with. And creating value means doing something.

And for me that means being in a place where planners, creatives, designers, researchers (and semioticians, games designers, architects and any number of interesting people) can work together collaboratively to understand, plan and create that value. And yes, more often than not that means operating in fluid & digital world.

And unfortunately, whilst media agencies have loads of fantastic ideas - at the moment, my experience says that they still win or lose pitches based on their TV / Press / Radio / Outdoor guarantees. Not their ideas.

I think in the future, media buying will have to separated off again. Buying could do with a healthy dose of streamlining to bring it into this century. A big fat computer to automatically bid and book operated out of China I reckon. Maybe then communications planning can properly thrive and media agencies will inherit the earth.

But until then, I'm loving being able to actually make stuff happen.

Agency see agency do

2007-05-12T11:05:00.000Z

Maybe I'm just more aware after my trip. Or maybe there really is something rippling through agency world. Once again, Soviet iconography has popped up - this time on Sky Sports' TV ads.

By my reckoning that's four major advertisers (Sky, Pizza Hut, Virgin and Ask) who are trying to spark off community revolutions of one sort or another.

It seems that Herd theory works for agency folk too.

Or maybe it's actually all those planners who have read the Herd book / blog and are now subliminally writing their creative briefs with collectivism in mind - sparking Soviet images in the creatives' minds?

Either way: Vivre la commune!

(Apologies & thanks for the shameless rip off of Faris' line from his recent excellent post on behavioural engineering for this blog post title)

End of an Era

2007-04-30T21:24:00.000Z

Always good to achieve catharsis through artistic endeavour. Go to Latest Tunes on my other site to download some more new music. By me, my guitar and some fancy production with Cubase.

New computer coming this week, especially built for music production, so expect to hear more soon.

Privyet Comrade!

2007-04-18T09:43:00.000Z

So I've been to St. Petersburg in the last week and been very impressed with how much the USSR loved the old 6 sheet and obviously had some good copywriters. Some classics:

'Vodka is your enemy. Your passbook is your friend';

or 'Let's have the proletarian parks of culture and rest';

or my personal favourite:

'Smoking is expensive and dangerous for health and work'. (Who needs Nick O Teen?)

And now I'm incredibly aware of a bit of an onslaught of Russian Iconography and sloganeering in some recent advertising ideas.

Pizza Hut came out recently with their 'Seize Your Lunchtime' campaign. (I won't call it an idea ... lazy, lazy planning with no real insight, I'm afraid)

And probably more in tune with a call for a popularist uprising is Ask with their Information Revolution / Anti Google campaign. Greg has commented on this elsewhere, and I agree with his views that the execution could have been less corporate, especially on the website.

However, (unlike Pizza Hut) this feels like an idea that might actually be connected with a genuine insight - that some people have concerns about the ubiquity of Google, have a desire to be different, and are looking for an 'underground' movement to be part of. I'm looking forward to seeing if the campaign is working and how it will develop.

The challenge for Ask is that (as I've commented before elsewhere) the Internet is as close to the proles seizing the means of production anyway, and Google are at the forefront of giving the power to the people already.

My worry is that Ask will see a spike in traffic, but with a lack of genuinely different & innovative new products, those defectors will rapidly go back to the not-too-evil-ones.

If I get knocked down, I get up again

2007-04-03T23:01:00.000Z

I am trying to recover from a disaster. My external hard drive has packed up, losing about a year's worth of music I've written. Yes, I know - should have done a backup.

Anyway, best thing to do is to pick yourself up and just keep going.

So I've been messing around with some guitar and synth sounds. And you can download it here if you wish. You can click on it to play in quicktime or whatever is your browser media player of choice, or you can right click and 'save target as' to get the mp3. Would welcome any comments / ideas / thoughts.

The title was inspired by a man who walks up and down the South Ealing Road punching numbers into his calculator all day.

Another fine mess

2007-04-03T22:22:00.000Z

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what does an empty desk signify?

A Perfect Mess by Eric Abrahmson and David H. Freedman is a fascinating, entertaining and must-read book. In this book they suggest that mess is actually a good thing. Using an informal, storytelling approach they make a convincing case for bringing mess into your life.

It seems that the investment in time for tidying is often not worth the so-called 'efficiencies' you can gain. And it also seems that too much order will restrict our abilities to make intuitive leaps, stop us connecting apparently disparate things and generally limit our creativity.

Mess gave us penicillin, The Sunflowers, and Ulysses amongst much much more. Order has given us urban planning tower block disasters and increasing levels of OCD.

I was fascinated to learn that perhaps 90% of JS Bach's work was never written down - he used to improvise all the time and make stuff up whilst playing concerts. A Jazz pioneer it seems.

Another entertaining section explored the issue of 'smell' being a generally negative, messy sensation and word with very few words in the English language knocking around to acceptably describe different smells.

A great book and highly recommended. But for some reason, I did a lot of tidying whilst reading it...

The truth is out there?

2007-03-26T13:27:00.000Z

Just watched an hour or so of Al Gore's current tv (229 on the Sky+ EPG.)

Video documentary of Pakistani and Indian people coming together as friends and family - pleading for their national governments to stop their nuclear ams race
Demonstration of ecologically-sound bicycle networks in East London
An project from teenagers in the UK to stamp out Marijuana growth and use amongst their peers
A video diary of an Iranian teenager visiting the wonders of America for the first time

Ah, the democracy of user generated content....

Are you infected?

2007-03-26T12:02:00.000Z

For some reason, a big fat hardback book with a snappy pseudo-scientific title and some choice reviewer quotes seems necessarily authoritative.

Affluenza by Oliver James seems to be such a book. In this tome, Oliver (author of 'They F*** You Up') spends a year of his life interviewing people across the world - from New York to Beijing, from Moscow to Wellington. He argues that he has identified a 'contagious middle class virus causing depression, anxiety, addition and ennui'.

This virus (the Affluenza of the title) is 'obsessive, envious, keeping up with Joneses' - or in other words the human condition of seeking to better themselves by accumulating material possessions and experiences in order to feel better off than others. James argues that as we continually strive to achieve these 'virus goals' our motivations of 'being' are replaced by those of 'having'. And James links the intrinsic motivation 'being' to genuine happiness. Or rather, the motivation of 'having' to such ills as depression, anxiety and ultimately greater social problems such as drug abuse.

James proceeds to go around the world drawing on case studies of individuals to illustrate how the condition of late capitalism (post-post modernity, velocity age, anyone?) creates ever-increasing desires such as home-ownership and wider conspicuous-consumption that leads to the incubation and growth of the virus. These desires mean we are suckered in by advertising to buy more stuff so we work longer hours, relationships and communities suffer and children are uncared for properly.

Pretty bleak, isn't it? And nice to know that I'm somehow at fault due to my role in the evil advertising industry.

James goes on to suggest 'vaccines' for the virus. These start off as sensible psychologist's therapies: finding intrinsic motivations (i.e. I am a city trader because I am fascinated by numbers and the big fat bonuses are really just a bonus, honest); being beautiful rather than attractive (apparently Russian women are great at this); only consuming what you need; being authentic; enjoying motherhood (& fathers taking a greater child-caring role); educating children rather than brainwashing them. So far so Freud, Jung, etc.

But his finale is quite frankly amazing. He lays out a manifesto not dissimilar to the Socialists of the mid 20th century.

Return all property to the state (having one estate agent, fixed prices and a lottery system if demand surpasses supply for specific property)
Tax anyone earning over £100K / year at about 95% to equal out wages.
Cut all defence budget and reallocate to paying one parent at national average wage to take the first couple of years off following childbirth
Remove tests / exams from education and divorce syllabuses from the needs of industry - allowing children to discover their true talents
Ban anyone attractive being in adverts. (seriously! who decides, the 'beauty police'?!)

So a lovely future where we're all doing stuff that we intrinsically love and getting paid enough for it, and living in a place that's just big enough for our needs. (worrying echoes of lebensraum?!).

What James fails to consider is the very nature of capitalism will necessarily create uneven development. Capital flows from places that don't suit the need to accumulate to places that do. Areas of growth and areas of destruction and deprivation. Even if the UK did seek to employ some of James' measures, the flow of capital (i.e money) away from the UK would be expedient and devastating. The only way in which James' measures could be employed would be on a global basis. Which is, of course, impractical.

It's a similar argument to that often postulated idea of agencies being paid for pitches - there will always be someone who waives the cost to gain an advantage...

So, in my opinion James has let himself down with the last couple of chapters. They rather smack of 'must finish book for publishers.... must have controversial conclusion'. His arguments are badly thought through compared to the elegant stories of the early part of the book. I can excuse him his methodology - qualitative stories that back up his opinion. Statistically invalid, and no doubt biased in the fieldwork, James is only using a storytelling technique that increasingly popular in authoritative, trans-disciplinary books (see Gladwell, Godin, Grant, Anderson, etc).

What is the definition of a good book?

Well, I finished it. It made me think. I'm now writing about it. I suggest these behaviours are the result of 'a good book'. A look at the reviews on Amazon shows very polarised opinions. (but then again, that is the fallacy of Amazon reviews - few people write a review or rate something if they are ambivalent about it).

I like (most of) his thinking. We are often obsessed with material stuff at the expense of genuine happiness. I've noticed that I've changed some of my behaviours in the last few weeks as a result of reading the book (that iTube is only something I want - not what I need...)

But in the meantime, I must go online to look at those ISA deals I was seeing on the TV - I must buy a new and bigger flat next year.

Rubbish designs

2007-03-14T22:08:00.000Z

Rubbish. Every UK household produces over 1 tonne of it annually. And the stuff in our rubbish bins could power 5,000 hours of television every year. (does Audi TV have that much content?)

Ethical consumerism seems to be all the rage at the moment. Blogging ahoy after Channel 4's attack on Global Warming.... Gordon Brown has started getting the tube, and UK political parties square up to a 'green-off'. (I'm sure their intentions are genuine, and not a ruse to reel in the floating voter. Not that I'm cynical or anything...)

Enough about politics, let's talk design!

Enlightened sections of the design industry are considering and incorporating social and environment externalities into sustainable design solutions. They're thinking: 'What is the true 'cost' from cradle to cradle?' (In other words the energy and resources used and the social impact to make something, distribute and sell it, use it - and recycle it to make something new.)

Today I went to the [re]design exhibition at the Bluebird Cafe in London. This exhibition shows work from 17 innovative British designers who are bringing sustainability into contemporary design. Chairs made of old plastic and supermarket cardboard, a bench made from old Euro bins, trainers made from old rubber and clothes, blinds made from old signs (my favourite), lamps made from old bottles. All made using sustainable processes.

A really fascinating piece was a bench made of old supermarket cardboard packaging from a chap called Jason Ifkahar. It seems he actually has an arrangement with Sainsbury's to use their waste in his designs, and they're looking for ways in which production levels could be increased.

Now, I haven't heard Sainsbury's talking about this - but this seems to be really positive CSR from an organisation doing something proactive, innovative and actually quite cool.

(Rather than green-washing a tired loyalty scheme, like some other supermarkets we could mention)

Beautiful research

2007-03-14T11:17:00.000Z

Promised myself that I wouldn't do too much signposting, but this is amazing.
It's an interactive display of research on the ideal home and housing - from Japan. It encourages feedback and comments, and has some lovely new-age music (reminiscent of Future Sound of London).

Shame the actual research isn't too interesting...

No more dull research debriefs?

Herd Abstinence

2007-03-14T08:31:00.000Z

With the public smoking ban in force in July, over 2M people are going to try and give up smoking today for national no smoking day

Current stats say that about 85K people normally quit on this day each year, so this represents a massive increase in people who are going to try.

Stats for Ireland, seem to show a decrease in respiratory illness and some evidence for decreased cigarette sales.

But there is little evidence of the Government planning for a decrease in tax revenue from tobacco sales over the next few years. (but if anyone knows differently, please correct me!)

So top-down legislation is what was required all along? Or is the timing perfect that legislation has met a powerful group or herd mentality to quit? Or will people will find clever little work arounds (like your favourite pub becoming members only, or possible installing one of these)

Will we actually become a healthier nation?

I won't hold my breath. I'm off to rehab, thank you very much.

Weak Links

2007-03-12T21:20:00.000Z

Just picked up a(nother) new report from the US on WOM. Check it out and download here.

I picked up this comment on the report from Dani Marino, who talks about a concept called Social Persuaders and Influencers or SPIs. SPIs are people with large, active and many social networks. They have persuasive power and they love to talk about products and services. And they are 10% of the market...

As with a lot of stuff on WOM, there does seem to be an obsession with finding those important broadcasting types. Or social connectors as Gladwell calls them.

Find them, seed your message into and across their social networks and watch the dollars roll in. That'll be WOM wrapped up. Bring on the YouTube, Myspace, Tribe, MOG, Rateitall and Faceparty seeding campaigns with clever and humourous content! 7% positive buzz and 1% growth or so the LSE tell me.

But it seems to me, that people forget a few key things:

Messages at best travel in a superficial way - instantly consumed and disposed of. ideas on the other hand have a chance of sticking - although they will probably be re-appropriated and become out of the control of the initial originator
And as a proper reading of network theory will tell you (including the tipping point): For stuff to travel the receivers in the network / community have to be receptive. it is not enough to have loads of SPIs / broadcasters (or whatever we call them) chatting. People have to listen and want to take on or act on a dissipated idea. For an idea to travel through communities knowledge of the way in which information is exchanged within those communities is critical for success.

To have a chance of planning for an idea to spread socially requires a deeper understanding of linguistics, semiotics and ritual - within and across different communities.

It means understanding the weak links in a community and across communities as well as the so-called strong links of the SPIs / broadcasters (that everyone else is probably bombarding with rubbish viral messages anyway)

This Blog is not taking place

2007-03-12T18:39:00.000Z

It seems that the spectacle of this blog is already much more important than the reality of it....

People have been talking about it for a while. I've been talking about it for, oh, nearly a year.

And now, as it goes through a difficult birth (and premature - thanks Doug), it's already undergone a few christenings, changes of clothes and is having a pre-school identity crisis - defined by the spectacle of what others think it ought to be, before it has uttered it's first few words to become a reality.

So why these mixed metaphors? Well, I read with great sadness at the passing away of one my heroes last week - Jean Baudrillard. Controversial in his writing, he is perhaps most infamously known for his writings on the first Gulf War (it won't take place, it is not taking place, it did not take place) and essays on the twin towers 9/11, where he described the horrors as 'a fusion of history, symbolism and dark fantasy - the mother of all events'.

I'm not going to deconstruct his arguments, primarily as they have been examined beforehand by excellent scholars more qualified than I. However it seems strange to me that I picked up the 'Gulf War did not take place' only a few weeks ago, and he then goes and dies.

I had decided to re-read this book, not because of a particular interest in the Gulf War, but because recent thought on brands (e.g. Grant's view on brands as molecules of real, authentic ideas) seemingly goes against Baudrillard's central thought that the spectacle (i.e. people's perceptions, influenced by media commentary) is becoming more important than the reality (i.e. what is really going on).

[Ok - Baudrillard's argument on the Gulf War, was that it was entirely constructed through the media for the purposes of both the West and Sadaam; the 'war' was won before it started and did not involve proper conflict - so how could it be called a war?; and it took place mainly on CNN rather than in the Gulf]

So, in our 21st century, Internet-dominant, convergent world, Baudrillard is surely wrong. We are no longer at the mercy of what the behemoth media companies want to tell us about the world as spectacle. We can check out real-time live feeds and blogs for the 'reality' - as we have seen in blogs from the front line for the Iraqi 'war'.

But as Henry Jenkins has succinctly argued, our culture is necessarily an interplay between the large media players and those who wish to participate. And listening to Al Gore on the radio this morning, Current TV, (for all of it's 'democratic' intentions of participatory culture and user generated content), has a 'review panel' of people who decide what is interesting / acceptable for popular consumption. Democratic??

However, surely the best measure of what is interesting / acceptable / influential / authoritative on the Internet and in the blogosphere is the number of links / downloads and views. In other words, popularity.

Does popularity mean reality and truth???!

I think it is dangerous to be swept away by the fantasy that the democratization of the Internet has opened up reality for everyone and swept spectacle under the carpet.

The spectacle has pulled off its greatest trick (again) by convincing the world that it doesn't exist.

I hope Jean is smiling.

Why the post is always late

2007-03-06T23:41:00.000Z

Ok.

So holding page whilst I sort out some content. Apologies to anyone coming here from a link wondering who / what I am...