How to....part 2

Saw this in the book shop the other day. A Haynes manual for building a website! They've got one for building your own computer as well. I always thought they were just about Morris Travellers and changing the headlights on your mate's Ford Capri. Oh my! They've even got one for a lunar lander! Where can I buy one of those?

It's the banner that keeps on giving....without having to take you anywhere

Brilliant, a banner that let's you keep on clicking without taking you anywhere but proving immensly enjoyable all the same. I'd love to see that stats on this. Hat's off to Pringles for doing it. Lovely stuff!

Janet & John me

Common Craft offer simple, easy to understand 3 minute video explanations of common internet things (How Twitter works, What is a blog, How do you elect a US president?) Very simple, and deceptively smart.

True story - my old Technical Director once had to explain to one of our Account Directors "where the internet lived". This would have been a lot simpler, and avoided the obligatory post explanation self harming....

Smile for the camera....

I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Augmented Reality is up there with smellovision and holographic television as a gimmick led techonology with no lasting appeal and little useful contribution to the user experience.

I say this because I've been doing some research of late into how to bring a holiday resort experience online and came across the new Nissan "Good Decision" website via The FWA. Great and thoroughly well trodden idea in principle - answer some questions and the site comes back with a recommendation for the perfect Nissan vehicle for you. Then it gets tricky. You print out a sheet of paper, hold it up to your webcam and get a 3D scene rendered onto your screen that you can interact by moving the sheet around. Except it doesnt seem to work. Whenever I held the printout up to the camera, the scene would keep trying to re-render itself, and whenever I turned it to get a different angle it would disappear and then try to re-render itself. A phone call from my nearest dealer would have been more effective, no? ("hello sir, that pink Micra is ready and waiting for your test drive").

I thought that maybe it was something to do with "me" so tried out a similar use of the technology via the funky website for the new Star Trek movie. Again, in principal a nice idea, but i had to print out the screen, then install a plug in, reboot my browser then find the url again, then get the install to initialise and load in more content etc etc.....

By the time I got it working, I couldnt really tell what it was doing other than showing me a 3D model of the Enterprise that I could wiggle around via my webcam. It asked me to press some buttons but when I did that the model disappeared, I'd have to wiggle it in front of the webcam (this all sounds a bit saucy) and the whole process started again.

Has anyone seen this technology used in a good way, with a simple and easy to use interface and user experience?

Don't tell anyone....

Secret Tweet is an online confessional, allowing you to tweet those tweets that under your own name would lose you your job or alienate you from your friends. It's a simple idea, beautifully executed, and full of disturbing and frank submissions from the dispossessed, the forgotten and the frustrated. Interesting if unsettling reading for those voyeurs amongst you...somewhere to let off some steam or spill your innermost thoughts if you're not...

Going Dutch

This is nice, in a kind of old school web kind of way (!)

KLM are playing on that old riff, travel starts as soon as you leave your home, with an online campaign and microsite that brings to life the experience of travelling with their airline. The banners are very subtle - no shouty shouty, just some nice imagery and lovely copy. The campaign site breaks down every step of your journey with them, from check in to destination. It's old school in that it's not trying to do anything particularly innovative from a marketing point of view, but it gets the most important thing in marketing spot on - a good story well told



The banners are all over Linked In at the moment (nice bit of media planning there - I wander how well they've done?)

The campaign site, Journeys of Inspiration, can be found here.

Brain game...

I'm sure someone else has said something about this already but, as this blog is primarly for me to remember things, I had to make a quick note of this campaign from Sage accounting. Yes, Sage Accounting and a creative campaign - who would've thought it! Don't watch much telly these days, but by all accounts they're something to do with The Krypton Factor these days. To celebrate, they've created an online brain training arena called Train Your Business Brain, which pits you against other intelligentsia from around the UK. Two things I really liked about it 1 - It uses Linked In as it's primary source of traffic - nice bit of relevant social advertising within the right environment 2 - It pits you against a small team of opponents and immediately brings a tangible human touch to the proceedings.

So, whilst I my General Knowledge prowess may be up there against Gordon, a research student from the Midlands, I havent a hope in hell of bettering the mathematical genius of Carol, a marketing executive from the South West.

The kids are alright

Great program from the BBC about the influence of the internet on "digital natives" - people who have grown up with the internet and are using the internet as their first port of call for information and entertainment over and above more traditional means. Lots of discussion ensues as to whether searching and the skimming of information is to the detriment of deeper study and retention of information through more traditional means. You know, reading...in a library...and searching by getting up out of your chair and having a proper dig around.

Program is here

Article is here

The local library (if you're interested) is here

Can I have a word....?

I came across a weird contrast over the Xmas break whilst shopping for presents. Not sure if WH Smiths are alone in this, but they've created a section of their book department purely for those seeking comfort in other people's misery.

"TRAGIC LIFE STORIES" is a cornucopia of tales from scarred individuals dealing with long held issues generated through a childhood in social care and an adulthood in shame. It's a living I guess, and in some instances I would imagine it can prove quite liberating in a cathartic kind of way...but I'm not sure lumping them all in under this one catch all category does them justice. If anything, it just makes me feel that someone is trying to make a buck out of unhappiness, and it kind of leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I'm hoping that some of the larger stores also have a "HAPPY LIFE STORIES" to provide the Ying to the "TRAGIC..." shelf's yang. Somehow I can't see it. I'm thinking of opening my own bookshop with no categories and no real order to anything. First come first served - you'll get what you're given and the synopsis simply states "may contain words and phrases. Page numbers are a guide and not a guarantee of logic or story progression".



Contrast that with this scribble found on the back of a bus seat on my way into town over the same festive season. Have no idea who wrote it, or why, but the simplicity of "I'm scared more than I will ever let on" opened up a torrent of speculation in my otherwise Christmas drenched head. I'm sure that somewhere in it's origin was a tale that may or may not end up on the shelves of WH Smith in said category of despair, but in truth I can only guess as to how it got there or under what circumstances this ended up being the only option for the scribe.

For all I know, it was some poor sod who'd forgotten that their holiday homework had been left in their locker at school and there was no way they'd be able to get it done and handed in on the first day back after the holiday. On the other hand....well, I'll never really know now will I?

Congested from manchester

I have a real issue with the current campaigning for and against the Manchester congestion charge. Not because I'm fundamentally opposed or in favour of the idea, but because a campaign on a topic such as this should be clear, to the point and lay out it's case with a compelling argument. I lived in London all my life and to be honest the congestion charge had some effect on calming the streets (although the subsequent price increases have been a flimsy excuse to increase earnings from a captive audience). What's bugged me with the Manchester advertising has been the lack of any conclusive argument within the campaigns themselves.

The "stop the charge" lobby lead with a "Vote NO!" poster, black background / white text and the line "£1200 to drive your car" (note - it's about £2 in and £1 out. That's it.) No argument about why or why not we need a congestion charge, just a cheap and bland "It'll hit you where it hurts" message. Other anti groups have adopted a similar approach. It comes across as facile and bland.

The pro lobby, led by Greater Manchester Future Transport leads with an above the line message "I won't have to pay the congestion charge...because I travel off peak". I'm stunned. I drive into work, so it's not talking to me, or telling me the benefits of why it's a good thing, it's just telling me that other people won't have to pay it because they wouldn't have been hit by it in the first place. It's random and irrelevant to the people it should be targeting - me the commuting driver.

So, it's nice to see someone doing something with a bit of impact and a clear message....



Enter stage right Mr Peter Saville. Very simple - Manchester needs the investment in transport from a congestion charge or the city will grind to a halt. Voila - a nice bit of video on You Tube to send around to your friends. A point well made.

To be fair, the "pro" website has changed it's messaging of late and is doing a decent job of giving a proper argument - given the vote takes place in a couple of weeks and knowledge is everything...

Snap!

Google have created a home for the LIFE photo archive. Millions of historical and iconic photo's available for all. Powerpoint will never be the same again! Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for posting it via his Twitter.

Money money money - money mia!

On my way down to that London for a meeting and was listening to the world service on the drive to the station. News article came up about the Italian national lottery, which has a jackpot that currently stands somewhere around the 100 million Euro mark.

What jumped out at me though, in amongst the spectrum of moral outrage at the huge amounts on offer, to the absolute frenzy of ticket buying (Italy has a population of around 58 million people, and they seem to have bought a total of 100 million tickets) was a comment from one hopeful ticket holder. When asked what she thought were her chances of winning, in the face of odds at 600 million to one (you have to pick 6 numbers from a total of 90) she said simply "It's not about the winning - for cost of one Euro I can dream. If I didn't buy a ticket, then I cannot dream".

I found that quite beautiful....

Wordy Rappinghood

Like words? Want to share words with others? Want to tell others what words mean?

Wordie is billed as Flickr without the photos. Create your own list of words and phrases, share them with others, comment and discuss. Dead simple and dead nice.(thanks to Nicholas Butler for flagging this via Twitter).

Wordia is slightly different, redefining the dictionary with users asked to make short videos about their favourite words and upload them to the site. Very creative, and one of those "why hasnt anyone ever thought of this before?"

I never knew what Fermata was / is until I saw Doc Brown's delightful description. Nooooooooowwww, I dooooooooooooooooo!

Twittering classes...

Some interesting articles here on how brands are embracing (or not) Twitter as a channel

33 Brands That Suck on Twitter

Why Brands are unsuccessful on Twitter

The Evololution of Brands on Twitter

Muxtape has snapped...

It's down courtesy of the RIAA. Full report from Mogger Mistee here. Maybe just for now - who knows?

Hope Blip isnt next. "We've only just begun..."

Can we all stop having fun please and do as we're told!

Hey Mister DJ....!

Came across blip.fm via Crackunit and I have to agree with Iain, it's brilliant, not least because it's got one of the simplest sign up processes I've ever seen. Screen name, email address, password, what bands do you like. That's it! Straight in and it's given me 30 likeminded souls with similar tastes in tunes and it blasted me a cracking Albert King track "Blues Power". Reminds me that I havent used Last.FM in ages, so will have to give that another go at some point.

So, sign up and start spinning people. The sun's out and we need a decent soundtrack!

Who's talking...and how?

Media consumption figures released today via an article on the BBC.
Will give it a proper read later...
Article here...

Original source material available on the OFCOM site here...

Ready for your close up?

Back in the 70's, the celebrated fashion photographer Helmut Newton developed "The Newton Machine", a device allowing his models to take photos of themselves as they saw themselves, without the need for the intrusion of a photographer to colour the process. So, the Helmut Newton estate have recreated this device in three of TopShop's flag ship stores (London, Manchester, Dublin) and opened it up to the public. Really nice idea, offering a great platform for Top Shop to showcase their clothes and (more importantly) the people that buy them. Have a look for yourselves at the website here.
Read all about it here.

That's enough about me, what do you think about me?

Solid article from Forbes magazine about the nature of the "always on" populace, blogging, twittering, FriendFeeding and generally telling everyone and anyone who will notice what they're doing, reading, eating, dreaming about. Still, helps if you have something important to say. Not so good if you don't.

Got to say, this was highlighted to me by Jeremiah Owyang via his twitter, although he does talk about it at length on his ever excellent blog.

While we're on the subject, Chris Brogan has a great post that takes this "always on" mentality to its next obvious step. If people are always talking, the best thing you and your clients can do is listen to what they're saying, especially if it's about you. How did I hear about this article? Nicholas Butler, a complete stranger who I happened to hear on a podcast one time mentioned it in his Facebook status update the other day.

God bless the internet....

Who's on first?

Jacked is a new service being launched over in the US, targeting television sports fans. I'm not a massive sports fan, I'll be honest, but the service seems like it may have something. Watch the game on the telly (remember those - generation Y people?) and get live stats, news, product info streamed to your computer, all ad supported.

Given there's an increasing number of people watching tv and surfing at the same time (twittering while Lost gets Lost) this isn't such a far flung proposition. If you've ever watched a baseball game or NFL, you'll know that half the screen is littered with stats. This eases the problem, letting you watch the game on your tv and getting your stats fix from your laptop. If they could offer a mobile service, so people could get this info while attending the game itself, I think they could be onto a winner. Google already have a live scores service for mobile users.

Saying that, have a look at this report from the beginning of the year, detailing the war against live blogging at sports events, following a recent crackdown by the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). Given broadcasting rights are the backbone of the sports industry, control of stats from feeds and the internet, no matter how they're collated, carry a premium. Someone will at some point want paying for all of this.