While planning our new 'thing*' came across this again. Genius from David Ogilvy on the qualities of a Creative Director

  • High standards of personal ethics.
  • Big people, without pettiness.
  • Guts under pressure, resilience in defeat.
  • Brilliant brains — not safe plodders.
  • A capacity for hard work and midnight oil.
  • Charisma — charm and persuasiveness.
  • A streak of unorthodoxy — creative innovators.
  • The courage to make tough decisions.
  • Inspiring enthusiasts — with trust and gusto.
  • A sense of humor.

    •  

    Seen on http://www.brainpickings.org quoted from

    The Unpublished David Ogilvy
    public library

    Track your McD or real time answers to what's in my burger, and who made it?

    As if to prove just how wrong the Iceland approach is (see post below) McDonald's in Australia have launched this App that allows you to track the source of all your ingredients, including introducing you to the various growers and farmers involved. ​A simple(ish) combination of GPS, image recognition and augmented reality. I'm not a customer, but I do like this very much. Thanks to rufusleonard for the tip

    McDonald's "Track My Macca's" from Stevie Laux on Vimeo.

    Turn your phone into a mobile Macca’s ingredient tracker and get to know some McDonald’s favourites inside out… For the first time ever you can track ingredients in the actual food you bought. Just point your phone at the front of the specially marked boxes and let the app do the rest.

    Your table-top suddenly springs into life with cutting-edge 3D augmented reality. Pick one of the featured ingredients to track, then find out its story. Using your phone's GPS, image recognition, plus the date and time, it works out where some of the ingredients came from, and what happened to them on their way to you. If you like, you can even get friendly with some of the farmers, fishermen and bakers who supply McDonald’s.

    Iceland burgers, unknown place of origin

    In the wake of the horse meat scandal. Iceland have been putting up these posters claiming their burgers are '100% tested' Couple of rather obvious points to this claim. One, you mean you didn't test before?​ and Two, far more important considering current* shopper treands, There is no mention of where the beef comes from. The key issue for consumer trust in grocery is being transparant about source and provenance. Putting up such a prominent poster that fails to say where the beef comes from, begs the question, what are you hiding?

    Iceland Burgers.png

    Ideals Vs Sponsors

    Screen Shot 2013-03-12 at 16.52.08.png

    While it might come across as sour grapes gripping about an event you are not at. BUT i'll do it anyway. ​Looking at this weeks SXSW event I was struck by how at odds the title sponsors were to the ideals of disruption and difference that the event was founded on. Sure any live event of scale costs a bomb to put on and anything with a hint of cool will always get 'non-cool' brands throwing money after a bit of rub off.

    BUT and its a big BUT.

    By putting all your key sponsors on show in such a way SXSW has. Does sort of underline its got a bit 'dad-at-the-disco'

    Fear of Missing Out trend begats a smart new app

    If you keep getting envy from seeing what your friends are up to, when you are at home with only iPlayer and the dog for company. You need CouchCachet an app that syncs with Foursquare to depict a fantastic night on the town. Titled a bit worryingly as “Life. Without the Hassle of Living.” 

    Screen Shot 2013-03-12 at 15.14.05.png

    Foursquare itself has always suffered from ​over-checkins but this takes it a step further by adding geo tagged photos and in location bonus points etc. Not sure how often you could pull the trick, but maybe worth it to spook your timeline once in a while.

    Seen on http://www.fastcodesign.com/ via Brooklyn Magazine
    ​

    Another sign the old world of Europe bumbles innovation opportunties

    Ludovic Levy. VP Ad Services Orange. Feb 2013

    ““What is exciting is that Africa will start to close the loop before Europe because many more people pay via mobile there than in Europe – whereas it will probably take a few more years in Europe. Weve has strong opportunities in that field. As soon as we have enough NFC penetration and enough devices in-store that accept NFC payments Weve can help close the loop between mobile coupons, advertising, payments and also analytics,””