Just back from The Big Chill

This summer has seen almost 400 'festival' events planned (according to RPM) while some fell at the last hurdle with low ticket sales (Wild in the Country, WaxOn) others showed a lack of planning (zoo8 plus others) a very few sold out (Leeds & Reading / CampBestival) I think this year will be the turning point for the   festival market. A bit more solid audience research needs to be done by organisiers before event planning. The smaller niche events appear to have done the best.  Normally associated with quality services -NOT luke warm Carlsberg and random noodles. After all there are only so many 17 year olds willing to put up with the joy of Readings  'environment' (wow that makes me sound old)

Well, I took myself and kids off to The Big Chill, Very middle class, very safe, and mostly very relaxing, some neat brand activity and the surprisingly good Leonard Cohen I really am hitting that age! -still looking forward to seeing Iggy Pop at Get Loaded

After 18 months, Amplified Journeys makes its debut

Despite still feeling a little jaded from The Big Chill, last night was the press launch for Harman Kardon's amplified journeys . A fun event in The Bluebird Dining Rooms, lots of press turned up, most things worked as planned, food was fab and the wine flowed (rather to) freely.
Tony Harberman from Harman hosted the event. Alex James (he of Blur) spoke of music and cheese and I got to show off amplifiedjourneys.hk
Focus are doing the PR and to quote "...The magic of online music discovery has now been merged with the practicalities of route navigation for the very first time in a new, unique and totally ingenious web mash-up...amplifiedjourneys.hk marks the first time music and journey planning web applications have been brought together to provide web users with bespoke music playlists, which can be intrinsically linked to personal musical tastes and a planned trip..."

Chewy pen nibs and a new phone.

Bic Mobile just seen via Springwise BIC have launched a really neat ready to go mobile phone, charged, sim'd and credited -all out the box for about £40. Its a great idea but misses a few key BIC brand attributes, It would have been fab to have a biro attachment hidden in the case like a stylus, or even better have the casing made from soft (blue) chewable plastic. The really key reason so many thinkers use BIC's, they are some of the best pens to chew!

iphone & free beer

iBeer video.  'Just because you can build it, does not mean people will want it' current hot topic on the iphone app forums. The fun to be had with beer and movement sensors may be a flash in the pan (hand) but fun none the less, the key question is whether you would pay ($3) for it or not. Award winning Carling iPint HERE.

The iphone apps are not unlike Lego, there is always another bit to add, Not always useful but pleasing to play with all the same.  These two apps compared on the excellent Bannerblog. 

Issues of ad placement and the long awaited semantic search facility

Lots of people talking about digital semantic search and placement.

This recent digg entry shows the obvious pitfalls of the current blind network and simple word match technique. "..Diamonds? must want to buy them!.." - More on Semantic search HERE and here 

Youporn takes a festive (f)tumble

Oh the joys of analytics! while the new Googletrends has invaluable use for measuring effectiveness of your campaign it also is a fab way of livening up a dull Wednesday.

Witness this screen shot showing an alarming drop in Youporn visitors over the Christmas holiday - The workers of the world (well loads of: Americas, Germans, Italians and a few Brits) obviously prefer there porn during office hours rather than interrupting carols round the log fire.
Note also the dip at Easter and 'schools effect' in the first two weeks of September.

A side note is that youporn** appears to be one of the few web2.0 adult sites - notwithstanding its gratuitous use of reflections.
(**so I am told by my hard working researchers on the subject- Craig & Nick from AW Media )

The Joy of Type

This has been around for about a year now but its still a joy to behold especially on a Friday with the speakers up loud. By (?) Jarratt Moody and widely copied since

The joy of evesdropping - Summize.com

Very sweet Twitter hack / build / add-on. Summize allows you to see everyone talking on Twitter about a single subject, even allows a degree of location specific search. Currently using it to stay on top of the 2gether08 Conference while at the same time trying to  write a new business pitch.

The last point is that my summer will now be spent 'kissing frogs' as opposed to larking about at festivals. The upshot of  a client going into administration last week -which meant the cancellation of there experiential campaign -boo. (oh yeah and we loose a bunch of cash)

Ok, so Twitter might actually be useful. 2gether08 in WC1

 

I have in the past been rather down on the whole Twitter malarky, '...little more than passing notes in class..' I believe I wrote, however due to work pressures** I am having to skip this weeks excellent 2gether08 ideas conference. But lo! i shall not miss the ball, as I am actually following the whole thing via Twitter in real time and then cross referencing to the speakers and /or blog comments mean i can pretty much keep abreast of some of the great thinking featured. NOT a convert to Twitter - just a grateful user! (neat how-to Twitter HERE) Thanks to David willcox.

** second client in a year to go into admistration, glory be, we've really upset the gods this week. 

am I missing something? Pimms Vs Club 18 - 30.

The current Pimms ad appears to be just a poor copy of the famous Saatchi's club 18 - 30  campaign or have I missed something? The Pimms ad shows a nudist beach (just in case we missed this there is a sign in the background 'Naturist Beach') everyones rude bits are then covered up by objects in frame. Only its not as subtle or funny as the Club 18-30 version, what's going on? -is it some kind of in joke?

Very poor intergration it would appear. Really does not seem to hang together with the rest of the Pimms campaign featuring a festival bus and online sunshine spotter.

Neat photo sharing site

This is good, like flickr but with emotion. Called FFFFOUND -now there is spelling i can relate too! Its browsing images with a very neat book marking system.
Technorati Tags: photo, philip slade, share,

ScribeFire

mmm this could be good. Trying out the 'publish-to-all' Firefox extension ScribeFire.

Write to as many blogs as you care via the Firefox window you are in. 

Only issue at present is i can't find the spell checker, which with my abilities is quite an issue.

(after test) Whoooa. look below! some weird clash going on with the 'copy and paste' function. Either that or i'm being a real plonker. Still a neat idea to streamline blogging.

Spineless Heinz?

todays Brand Republic

Gaydar Radio joins call for Heinz boycott

by Nikki Sandison Brand Republic 25-Jun-08, 14:10

LONDON - Gaydar Radio is following in the footsteps of gay rights group Stonewall by calling for a global boycott of all Heinz products in protest against the withdrawal of its Deli Mayo ad, which showed two men kissing.

Nothing like a bit of man on man action to get everyone worked up. The ad is an eye catcher, really quite harmless and a succesful way to get consumers to reconsider a ho hum FMCG product.

MFC08 the follow up (late as ever)

One of the problems with racing from one project to another is you often leave a few loose ends. Nico Macdonald (pulled MFC08 together and acted as genial host) has encouraged me to place links to my slides and images etc. My SLIDES here (also on slideshare) Flickr set HERE, Me in action HERE, Great bit on 'free' web from Alan Patrick at BroadsightHERE. More notes HERE.

Two points from the conference still on my mind.

1. The non-liberating effect of technology  in communications. In other words the lack of mass availability, understanding or affordability rather than what any box or service can actually do.

2. Why do at least three speakers at every technology conference talk about their kids using DVD players?

Media Futures Conference 2008

BBC event at Ally Pally.

Odd multi tasking audience. -final session under way.
People here are on Twitter (passing notes in class) some posting to flickr (hand drawn sign 'this is dull') others blogging including video streaming from each talk.
Which gives me the overall impression no one is actually listening to any of the speakers.
My Talk went ok, short round of applause, a bunch of questions and 14 minutes later I was off. -good experience all in all, including some one passing me a note to say i was the best dressed person here (stuff the technology feel the cloth)

Will i finally buy an iphone?

Brand image? = Apple still feels brand warmth. This despite a slight prickly sensation on seeing so may new Apple stores opening, like THIS.

Fragile? = Will i break it? oh most certainly (x3 Blackberrys this year) At least i recognised my faults and did not buy a Mac Air opting for a black MacBook instead and a very padded bag.

Usability? = Maps. end of story

O2 18 month contract? = Anything is better than T-Mobile,  - coverage in deepest darkest Clapham? zero! 

Battery Life? = I'm a long time Mac user, I know the score by now.

Scratched screen? = I like worn, stickered technology and keeping my phone in a fluff and coin filled pocket

Camera? = If it works in the pub that's all that matters.

Art doesn't become Ad

As a follow up to the story about new 'art' ideas being copied for commercial gain. This, about Swedish artist Erik Nordenankar's global GPS drawing being a fake is funny. Here is a brand that resolutely failed to take advantage of a young artist.

Erik had claimed that with the help of DHL, a GPS tracker inside a case, he had 'drawn' a picture of himself across the globe. A really top idea and one supported by some great evidence; cool Youtube videos, stills from the Stockholm DHL office and lots of notes. Trouble was as rather a lot of bloggers pointed out - there were some pretty basic flaws in both his route shown and technology used.

But why fake it??? This could have been such a fantastic advertisement for DHL! why the heck did they not jump at the chance of making this young artists dream a reality? Erik appears to have simply been told by the Swedish DHL office to keep his video & photos within the confines of his art school. - not heard of YouTube chaps?

DHL have the technology, man power and time to have done this for real. Why would they let this just leak out onto the web? Now the story is doing the rounds, any attempt to actually do it and prove how worldclass your logistics really are will simple be a damp squib. A really shame. (This site is a neat example of what individuals can do- Theworldismycanvas)

Artist = Great idea, poor finishing 

Brand = Lack of imagination, missed a sitter 

Great little film

Just to prove some people have way to much time on there hands. This fantastically watchable clip was highlighted on Brand Republic today. Called MUTO by the artist Blu. The point being not just its a great bit of work. But opening up the debate as to which agency would be first out the blocks to copy it for an ad.  A fun cynical comment for sure. However that is the point of all new ideas starting small and then flowing out into the mainstream to be updated, amended, improved upon and finally destroyed by over familiarity.

The AA. The brand that cares.

 

The Fish did the Moonwalk on Saturday. While ambling along with her on the final mile of the 26.3 -she hot tired and sweaty, me sunday papers and coffee. I saw this AA patrolman helping someone finish. Now that is a brand that cares!

Scam emails find a home.

One of life's little chores each morning is to delete all the spam emails from your inbox. I have been collating the most humorously bad or just plain inept for a web site called 'You Have Won'.

The counter thought of course is that no one would bother sending these unless in some small way they worked. Which of course begs the question, who??? who falls for this kind of scam? Can any sane person not see that sending bank details or worse $250 in response to a badly worded email will not result in a bad situation.

Since doing this I have been shown a whole bunch of other sites doing the same thing, including a few that go on the attack and scam the scammers (now can't find links -typical)