philip slade

The current debate on the usefulness of social media summed up in three documents.

Pretty neat set of papers summing up key view points on brand Facebook. Ranging from 'Ban it, close it off' to  'We're not using it enough' Great to see a debate underwritten by such urgency from both sides to do something now. What everyone agrees is not having a Facebook policy is the biggest crime of the year.

1. ‘Why ALL bosses should copy me and ban Facebook from the workplace’ by Theo Paphitis (published in The Mail Online - where else?)

2. "...innovative business leaders should be looking to introduce ‘Facebook’-like applications....to create a more collaborative and efficient workplace.." Dr Norman Lewis on Futures-Diagnosis.com

3. "What the f**k is social media? -one year later" Marta Kagan of Espresso (13 million views on slideshare inside a month of these slides below)

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later
View more documents from Marta Kagan.

This is gonna be huge

Augmented Reality (AR) applications launch on the iPhone.

While I have spent years getting excited by the possibilities of mobile apps like semapedia, (unlike most of my clients, who dispite my best efforts, passed on the opportunities). Now with the launch of a raft of genuine AR apps Like this from DiscoverAnywhere there appears to be a real case for commercial use. While it is true the actual audience of iPhone & Android users is really small compared with total universe of mobile (cell) phones, in time this should be the standard for 'whats that?' questions in the street. The answer being you aim your phone at the object and heh presto the phone overlays a label telling price, location, availability or simply its name.

Very interesting that Amazons tech division A9 have brought Snaptell, which basically puts Amazons prices and availability information over the top of any item you see in a shop, (currently only works in the US)

Like most people I often emerge from a station and ponder where is? (the nearest bar) having an interactive live map to overlay reality is a fantastic bit of black magic to delight. This last bit, is in my opinion, the key to any new techs ability to succeed, is it a joy to use and do you want to tell you mates about it?

Just look at the footage below of the yelp.com trial AR feature, yes you really do have to shake the phone three times for it to show the hidden button, how charming is that? -there is also a neat London Bus AR demo HERE from Presselite. The Next Web has a bit about a live tweeter layer which could see even more tourists actually being hit by buses (while tweeting), the guys at Presslite had us tracking.

 

Freeium, the future business model for content providers? -that also includes agencies like us

I have been writing a piece about premium brands turning to 'Freeium' provision. This being the idea of parcelling up content into free to air sections that sit alongside full fat, longer, wider, versions. Works for just about any product area as long as the brand in question has retained enough unique equities. This made me think that actually companies like ours could start offering this. -and yes I know we've been doing it for years when we pitch. What I was thinking about was what if we 'give' our new campaign to the client to enjoy and contemplate. But then require a fee if they want to see the full picture; like where the logo goes, what the call to action is or even an explanation to 'what the hell is that?'

Tweet of the day

I have been looking at Twitter measurment tools for a client today. Found this eyecatching tweet via the People Browser platform, blending the weeks biggest storys into one

"..If you are a celebrity who has not died yet, please say something in support of the people of Iran.."

It goes without saying the scale of the pain, the people of Iran are going through, would never have been possible to convey without a platform like Twitter.

Hugley useful resource on Twitter use by the way on Jeremiah Owyangs blog web-strategist.com. Also soon to be published book Twitterville by Shel Israel.

Emirates Globe stays the course

Emirates at the Arabian Travel Market May 2009

What feels like a gazillion years ago (2006) I designed an exhibition stand for the airline Emirates. I was very chuffed to see they are still using the epic structure to this day, having sweated blood on the thing (and a stack full of also-ran ideas) its great when your work survives beyond launch day. I will post, later via slideshare, all the roughs and back up ideas that went into this design.

Big thanks have to go to the poor souls in the Pulse production office who were faced with the slightly daunting task of not only making it work but then transporting it all over the world.

Story about its current form in The Dubai Chronicle

Duck islands Vs Peter & Jordan

Britain has a unique media landscape - I think partially because we never really got WWE WrestleMania.

Let me explain. The Peter Andre & Katie Jordan Price car crash relationship still rolls through the British media because its an endless pantomime of hero's and villain's, with a script so transparent we all get it. But lap it all up because there are no surprise's, just another wedding/separation/recomfirmation/birth, round the corner. It is our very own version of a WWE 'history-in-the-making World title defence/rematch/comeback/handbag Slamdown.

This despite taxpayers money being lavished on Conservative grandees Duck islands, Manor House's and Moat clearances. David Cameron just about convinced everyone that the Tory's had changed, were new and full of young people with new ideas. But now like some pantomime baddy come back from the dead, we are told 'Oh No' The Tories/Conservatives really do all own wacking great piles in the country. oh bugger me how did i not see that coming.

Mind you a complete overhaul of Parliment with even a real possibility of an elected upper house, now that might just be the M Night Shyamalan rewrite of Puss in Boots we all need.

Close but no cigar

Philip Slade NOT winning an award.This is me moments before learning we did not win at the Revolution Awards. Never mind, he says with a big shrug, It was a great evening. Which ended in something of a blur, but no broken limbs this time, which must rate a success.

We lost out to a very pretty bit of work from Honda. The Ideas Playground. Amplified Journeys.hk will live to fight another day, still very much in Beta 1.0, we have some cracking improvements for version 1.5. plus a whole host of bolt on options coming.

Paying for ideas? or a seamless extension to a clients marketing department?

New agency types like www.creativeorchestra.org and www.anomalynyc.com are trying the paying for ideas route. Is this the way to break out of the current cycle of bogus pitches and constant 'cost reviews'?
Clients have been shedding staff from marketing departments at a rapid rate. Now more than ever you have brands that need complete support. A great idea poorly carried through will do as much damage as shallow thinking wrapped up in gorgeous execution.
We are in an amazing year for opportunities, media costs have never been lower, clients have never been more open to 'plan B' thinking. It might not be like the '70s golden age of advertising buoyed up by tobacco money. But I do see it as a golden age of communications. Clever smart messaging that reassures consumers they are making the right brand choice.

Commuincation challenge, Research says our customers can't tell our cheaper product from our far more expensive version.

What to do? cloak everything in lush secondary packaging? talk about limited editions or celeb endorsements? mmm Starbucks would appear to be about to make a virture out of the fact, their $1 dollar coffee tastes the same as the $4 version mmm, this is going to be interesting.

Starbucks brews instant coffee for cash strapped customers

byStaff, Brand Republic 13-Feb-09, 09:00

NEW YORK - Starbucks, which built its business on selling $4 cups of coffee, is to offer customers instant or soluble coffee for less than $1, which it claims tastes as good as the real thing.

The Seattle-based retail coffee giant will begin selling an instant variety of coffee, called Starbucks Via, next month at selected stores.

"...Howard Schultz said that people being served the coffee could not tell the difference between instant and fresh brewed...." 

Now I drink a ton of coffee, am also very picky about where and what i order, so I find this at the very least an  intriguing challenge! hats off to Starbucks for giving it a go, especially for flying in the face of conventional brand planning.

Linkedin new apps

While Twitter appears to have gone from mainstream to overblown in a little over 30 days, Linkedin marches on with more and more add-ons & apps. Maybe its the lack of guilt, Which Facebook always carried with it.

New Google add-on Latitude is really cool and looks like it links with all the right platforms, love the privacy statements that you can set fictitious locations (Google suggests 'Victoria Falls' -WTF??) so your love ones needn't know all your movements 24/7. Neat! fantastic location based software that you use to tell people where you are not, genius.


The President has a new web site

It was only a matter of time, But Presdient Obama has re-launched the Whitehouse.gov site. Obama's team dominated the whole sphere of social networks pre-polling day. Now he looks set to reinvent Government online. Watching David Cameron's Conservative.com playing catch-up is vaguely amusing, if it were not so sad seeing the Labour party blowing it (online and most other places).

I really really hope at the next UK election all parties allow the best of British digital planners and designers to actually do there jobs, but I do fear that all three of the main parties will pull a McCain - lip service web site, with a flat transitions to other digital channels. Good overview HERE from Jeremiah Owyang at Forrester research.

Barck Obama the gift to new business

I have been writing a whole bunch of presentations lately on the lessons we can learn from Barack Obama's marketing campaign. Pretty much all centred on the thought that the internet changed in October 2008.

There are so many things to draw on from the opening up of visual equities to the YouTube rebuttals linked to sites like Fightthesmears.com

Todays cut on the story is building around the thought about optimised search via brand negative terms

"Brand advocacy grows with quieter advertising and looser brand control –just ask Obama."

There are many elements to Barack Obama’s campaign that have changed the way online communications should now be used. The SEO element using supporters generated content should impact on any brand with an online presence. Most brand sites do not account for consumers current search behaviour. The internet changed in October have you explained to your clients why?

Good Obama case history

Barack Obama’s digital agency

Earlier version of social networking element

BBC article about changes in search patterns

Chris Hughes ex Facebook was behind the mybarackobama.com strategy

Prince Caspian says no to crack

Saw Bigga Than Ben at a charity preview last night. This is the film written and directed by Suzie Halewood.
Based on a Russian best seller about two young guns scamming London for all its worth. Gritty, funny and very good to look at. Starring Ben Barnes (yes, Prince Caspian himself) and Andrei ChadovI.

The soundtrack features Joe Strummer, Pete Doherty and The Rifles, the latters 'Lost in London' fits so well. really hope the film gets a wider audience than just its current art house run.


Suzie is the charming lady who directed our Fresh & Green commercial last year, pic from shoot with Mr AWT. There is an outside chance this will have another outing on TV. Previously with a media budget the square root of feck all, next to no one saw it.

Very cool speaker

GLA-55 speakers from harman / kardon

I was in Berlin last week at the consumer electronic show IFA. Huge, huge event, way too much to see in the day I had (especially as I was there to show Amplified Journeys to the world) These speakers (GLA-55) on the Harman Kardon stand were really tactile and I am sure will be a hit. There are some shapes you just have to feel and pick up. The only shame is that they are not actually glass, I just wanted them to be heavier and cold to the touch - that would have been cool.

Which brand??Many brands had stands covered in flat screen TV's. The trouble with such plenty was a real lack of brand individuality. Much like the Sat Nav hall which featured 1000's of oblong grey box's showing maps. Both sectors need an 'Apple' moment to break out of such comformaty.

Actually Becker systems did have some neat rubber coated Sat Nav units (Z 100, review features excellent reader comments!) aimed at bikers which would look great in cars. Especially if coated in other textures.

There is a Flickr set HERE of the things I did get to see at the show.

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