Advertising
I Updated My Blog’s Sidebar!
It’s been in the works for over a year. But last week it actually happened: I left the building. Or rather stayed at home, and didn’t log into Zoom. Anyway, I don’t work for Wieden+Kennedy anymore. (You might know that this isn’t the first…
Long Read – The New Propaganda
Long and very bleak but very important piece from The Guardian: Information Trap. My jaw was dropped for most of it. This blew my mind. In the case of the vote to leave the EU, Borwick, who seems to approach such challenges like a Rubik’s…
Found this random SWF on my HD. Made me all Poke / Orange / Balloons nostalgic.
The Outline is an antidote to the shitweb
I don’t fully agree with all of it all the time, but The Outline is a wonderful thing. A publication that’s well written and beautifully designed for phones and computers. Loved this piece that came in the email yesterday: Productivity Is…
Slides Q&A from Ravensbourne
Last night Tony and I did a talk for a bunch of wonderful students at Ravensbourne. In order to get the damn thing prepared in time, in a collaborative fashion, we used Google Slides. Whilst nerding around trying to get the thing sorted I…
Slack: Work This Way
Great piece in The Guardian this morning by @jemimakiss. It’s all about Slack and the culture behind the company. Reading through the piece it struck me how similar the cultures of Advertising Agencies and Tech Start-Ups are. And how…
Sneak into The Kennedys (a home for random creative folk)
Are you, or do you know, someone ‘creative’? Someone who’d like to come and work with us for 7-ish months? (Please forward this on to people you think might be interested). You’ll get thrown-in at the deep end of advertising — with support…
Working differently at W+K London
We’ve just started something that I’m rather proud of (note: this is specifically a thing we’re trialling in the London office of Wieden+Kennedy). A couple of weeks ago we announced a bunch of changes to the way we work, some of the most…
Advertising Has Grown a Penis on its Face
I did a talk the other day at Here London. I had a truly lovely time. The other speakers were all – without exception – amazing, talented, interesting and passionate. I felt spectacularly un-worthy. I whanged-on about what I reckon might…
Hygienic, Authentic, Archaic
Amazing set of brand values. I’m guessing in a pretty unique combination. Plus you can get it done in a museum if you like. And it has a QR code. I don’t want a tattoo at the moment. Hand-poked or otherwise. But if I did, on the strength…
Yellow seems to be the hardest colour
If you were trying to say sorry to thousands of people would you pick light yellow on light grey? And then sign it off with the self-congratulatory hashtag #greaterwest.…
David Chang on Creative Direction
Well not exactly. But there’s many parallels in his talk about achieving deliciousness in the kitchen. All you have to do is replace the odd word here and there, and he could be talking about what it’s like to work in a decent agency: what…
Teach Your Kids to Crush Pregnant Animals
I saw this ad on telly today and was totally blown away. My first reaction was “wooooah, that looks awesome” (in the voice of my inner 6 year old). Then my inner Daily Mail reader kicked in and was all like “oh my god, teaching kids to…
An Insignia Moment
For some reason this ad came into my head when I was in the shower. I think it was because I was just using random bottles of shampoo and shower gel. Just goes to show the power of a jingle
Microsoft and Yahoo! Ads
In under 24 hours I’ve noticed these 2 ads for what I suppose are Google’s nearest competitors in a bunch of things. First this Yahoo! ad. Now I’m not crazy about the chick with the Social Media Tattoos. I’ve seen her around a bit and I…
My Talk at Under The Influence
Here’s the talk I did at Iris’ excellent Under the Influence day. It’s basically about digital experiences and magic and how the two are interconnected. Hope it’s OK – from my perspective I think it wanders a bit at the end (I sort of ran…
The UNICEF Tap Project
I’d never seen the full case study of this amazing campaign before. It’s just great. Probably old news to many of you. But still brilliant.
10 Reasons Digital Is Better Than Advertising – Remixed
This is all going to seem a little strange. Why on earth would anyone want to remix a presentation in such a fashion? Well it’s a funny story you see. I was mucking around with some basic VJing software. It’s a thing called Quartonian that…
Judging Viral – Viral in 5 Words
I’ve been doing some bits and pieces of awards judging for various folk this year. It’s all been interesting so far. The one I’m most worried about is the D&AD Viral Category. I’m the chairman of the jury and I’m guessing that there’s…
URLs Out – Searches In
I was watching TV last night and an ad came on for continuing education. It’s one with fingers walking around the place. The ad was OK. I didn’t really pay much attention. But at the end of the ad the call to action was – “search for EMA…
Packshots vs Reality
This German site has photos of 100 product packs and shows them alongside photos of ‘the real thing’. Surprise surprise, the packs look better. Via: metafilter
Make Mine a Builders – Superb Blogger Relations
In the post the other day I got a package of brilliant stuff. You can see it above. It contained a pack of “Make Mine a Builders” tea and a stylish silver mug with one of those climbing clippy things (I can never remember their proper…
Please God Let This Be The Last…
The world can’t cope with any more toppling objects. Perhaps Pot Noodle can be the nail in the coffin of tipping stuff. (Oh, apart from the coffin-based domino rally that I’m going to do very soon…)
The Rise of The Ad Man 2.0
[I’ve written this post once already. I got to the end of it just as someone phoned me up. I picked up the phone. Fumbled it. And dropped it on my laptop which duly crashed in a spectacular fashion. The second revision is slightly shorter…
Scratching Hand
Nice inspiration for an ad. Anyone, anyone
The Art of Sneaker Cleaning and Sneaker Cleaning Products
I’ve veered into silliness with trainers a few times, going out of my way to find them, spending too much money on them and hoarding them badly. I’ve always known that I wasn’t a real sneakerhead though. And I had that confirmed to me when…
AgencyTart – Nice Contact Page
A superb use of ‘punch in the aorta’ when applied to blog spammers: From a new site on my blogdar – agencytart.wordpress.com a sweetly vitriolic blog with a passionate hatred of lots of bad things. I hope the author finds their negativity…
Monkeys and Drums and Stuff
Scamp has written a really good piece about ideas and their appropriation by advertising. It specifically talks about the Cadbury’s Gorilla and the fact that it was originally pitched to someone else, and there was once a drumming Gorilla…
Advertising Ads
In spite of the heinous typo I love this sign (from a little newsagents just off Brick Lane). I haven’t seen anything that encapsulates quite so wonderfully the problem with a lot of the online advertising that is floating around aimlessly…
Do You Want to Do Digital?
Scamp asks the $6m question: Most above-the-line creatives claim that most digital creative work is poor, and they will be able to do it much better, when they’re asked to. However, my question to above-the-line people is… do you actually…
McDonalds’ Freakout
I’ve got no clue what’s going on… Comment is all pure guesswork. If you can clarify please do… Is this an ad from Japan? Is this a really mentalist remix of an ad from Japan (it really gets going about 2/3 the way in)? This really does…
One Of Those Days…
I’m sure everyone has those days. But I proper feel like I’ve just had one. I’m not sure why I feel that way. I just do. I’ve had a couple of good meetings. In fact a couple of really good meetings. And some pretty good news too. I’ve just…
For the Twitter Haters
If I didn’t have Twitter I wouldn’t have had these nuggets delivered to me. Two of the most important things I’ve read in some time… You can’t say that Twitter’s useless now. This proves it. I hope Russell and Hugh don’t mind me posting…
Geometry Wars – Particle Man
This ad for Geometry Wars I liked. It’s almost another kind of entertaining demo, sort of: It makes me smile and chuckle. They’ve also got some bonkers online advertising which I can’t actually find right now. And the website is also…
P-p-p-product D-d-d-demos – The Beardyman Way
I’ve been looking around for interesting product demos recently. We’ve been talking to clients how demos can be both entertaining and informative. A couple of well-known entertaining product demos that spring to mind are Ikea’s Dream…
Indian Underpants Billboard
I’m not sure that the copy on this Indian billboard works all that well…
I’m Baaaaack
But I’ve got blank page syndrome. I can’t think of anything interesting to write. Computers are scaring me. I’ve not sorted out my photos yet. And I’ve got jetlag. But to bring in the New Year, here’s the greatest advert I saw whilst in…
How To Do Digital Planning
I’ve been trying to post something like this for a few months now. But it kept morphing into a badly researched history of planning mixed with a poor how-to guide. And of course I kept veering off into bloody flag-waving about how digital…
How To Do Digital @ Scampblog
Great post by James Cooper (creative director of Dare) over at Scampblog. I particularly enjoyed his skillful deployment of the 180 degree handed complement: 2. Be original. Same rules apply to when all you lot who moan about whether…
Facebook Group – How Much Would You Cost?
I’m trying to figure out the value of a whole person (on Facebook). It seems that everyone’s talking about how we’re all being sold off bit by bit. So why not all flog ourselves whole to the highest bidder. Come along join in. Sell…
A TV Ad That Made Me Laugh
This new TV ad for Carling lager made me laugh out loud. Mr Cherkoff take note ;-) (from Twitter feed earlier today)…
Why Marketeers Are Too Excited About Facebook
I almost can’t bring myself to write about Facebook. Everywhere I go I overhear people talking about Facebook. From people in the street on their phones talking to people about how they’re going to Facebook them to arrange a night out, to…
Orange Unlimited Interactive TV
There’s one unfortunate things about Interactive TV ads, not that many people really get to see them. Which is a shame when they’re sometimes as lovely as this: Thanks to YouTube ‘ordinary’ people without Murdochian Red Buttons can now see…
Zoo Advertising
What is it about Zoo advertising. This is the 3rd Zoo ad I’ve posted on here. This time it’s the San Francisco Zoo. I guess this is really just a press ad turned into a short movie, but given the costs of putting something on the Internet…
Sometimes I Just Want to Cry
Or alternatively just shout really loud bad words in public. This morning I’m not going to cry. I’m going to shout. CAMPAIGN MAGAZINE PARTS THE SEA OF ONES AND ZEROS AND LEADS THE ADLANDERS INTO THE NEW LAND OF OPPORTUNITY. WHERE THERE’S…
Making Good Shit Stick Is Tough
Don’t get me wrong. I love the meritocratic world of the web. Good stuff floats, average stuff gets suspended in the sea of mediocrity and bad stuff sinks without trace. And that’s the way it ought to be. It used to be really easy. Back in…
Ooooohh Trippy
I just got this in a mail from make-up company Hard Candy. Don’t ask why I get make-up emails, I just do, right. Following on from the acid-free-child-safe microdots earlier in the year it would appear that hallucinogenics are in. I’m not…
Never Ending Web Page
Here’s something we just did for Orange. Goodthingsshouldneverend.co.uk It’s one of my favourite things that we’ve done in a while. It’s a never ending webpage. Crammed full of fun stuff and lots of surprises. Some are online, some are…
Mini – Lunchbreak Moonwalking
Yesterday I blogged about theotherlunchbreak.com – Mini’s really nice lunchtime learning sessions. I managed to get along to the ‘Learn to Moonwalk’ session and it was great! Sorry about the rubbish quality – my phone video camera just…
Sony’s RecYou
There’s been mutterings of recyou.jp around for a few days. It’s a very slick Japanese flash site for Sony Walkman. It’s quite hard to navigate your way through it, I managed by trial and error rather than a knowledge of Japanese…
Mini – Learn in Your Lunchbreak
I love this a lot. Mini are putting on a bunch of lunchbreak experiences. Where you can learn something new in a lunchtime. The list of things that are up there at the moment are: Bruce Lee for beginners Beat a lie detector Be a spy Deal…
Digital vs Advertising
I did my talk about ‘10 Reasons that Digital is Better than Advertising‘ again the other day. I enjoyed it, and I did feel that bits of it are true. But at the same time it also felt a bit futile, It was never designed to be an important…
JML on the Internet
I don’t know why I love JML, I just do. It’s something about their no-nonsense straightforward approach. As well as the fact that all their products are miracles of modern innovation! Next time I’m confronted with a bunch of people fawning…
Hype Machine Stunt – Boo :-(
Shame. It appears that the Hype Machine stunt that I liked yesterday sort of failed. They couldn’t get enough people to do what they asked so they launched it anyway. Oh well. I guess that’s life. I still like the principle of what they…
Hype Machine Stunt
Like this a lot. Hype Machine are going to launch their new site once 10,000 people are looking at this page: http://hypem.com/new Brilliantly it’s not when 10,000 have looked at it cumulatively, they’re waiting for 10,000 to have the page…
WTF WWF – Massive Paper Plane and Boat Project
Here’s the short version of the story: With the WWF we’re building a massive paper plane and massive paper boat. We’re then going to fly / sail them (somehow) to the Houses of Parliament. If you sign up to the online petition your name…
Nike, is it Supersonic?
Right now you can’t move in London without seeing some kind of ad for Nike Supersonic. According to the blog spam I got the other day: “Nike is launching an exclusive invitation only event for 3,000 people in London to push their pace…
Britain’s Brainiest Family on Wii
Spotted this on TV the other night. I thought it looked like a really cool integrated campaign for Big Brain Academy on the Nintendo Wii. What I took out of the ad was that you’d get to play networked Big Brain against other families and…
How Much For An Ad On A Bus in Google Street View?
If you’ve not seen it yet Street View in Google Maps is amazing. Lifehacker reports that it’s now in 15 US cities (and it’s coming soon to the UK judging by the fact that we saw a Google cam car driving round London the other day). I’ve…
Charlie Brooker – More Cocks and (She)Cocks in Advertising
I do find Charlie Brooker amusing. I think I’d find it a bit painful being so dark all the time, but I admire him for it
Blogger Relations – Learning By Doing
I just got a nice mail from the people I mentioned (or rather didn’t mention) below. It went a bit like this: With head hung suitably ashamed, a very valid response to my earlier request – you’re right, blogger relations is certainly an…
Blogger Relations – Digital Agencies Suck at it Too
In retrospect I shouldn’t have had a go at the Ogilvy PR Blogger Outreach Code of Ethics – incidentally they’re back with a V2 which you can find here. Having looked at some of the things I’ve been getting recently, people involved in this…
Unfortunate Advertising Crop
I quite like the new ‘be more Nokia’ ads. But when I tried to photograph one I got this unfortunate crop. Whoops!
My Favourite Post in Recent Memory
The Logic+Emotion blog is consistently good. This post about execs not getting ‘new media’ is so spot on it hits the middle of the spot in the middle of the spot at the centre of the bullseye. An extract: “The industry has brainwashed us…
My Last Post…
As a 34 year old. I’m 35 in 20 minutes and that’s a thing that makes me feel a bit, well, old. I was trying to think what to write about on the train home. I’ve had 2 glasses of wine and a hectic day. And I’ve been to an uninspiring talk…
I Still Like Cartridge Save
I just got my second ‘sponsorship’ payment via PayPal from Cartridge Save. So that’s all working out nicely. Thanks guys. If you missed the story about my deal with Cartridge Save you can read about it here.
Skate – Nice Game, Nice Campaign
There’s a new game coming out called Skate. I think you should be able to guess what it’s about. It looks absolutely stunning, not sure that this clip will do it justice. I think they’ve also done some cool stuff with the control system by…
Marc Ecko’s Latest ‘Stunt’
Marc Ecko, he of ‘Tagging Airforce One‘ fame, has come up with another big noisy stunt. He’s bought a baseball for 3/4 million dollars. It’s a controversial baseball. It’s the ball that was hit by some dude (Barry Bonds) who got 756 home…
It’s All Gone Vodafone
It started here: Then I saw: Then this: Then I realised it had left ‘advertising’ and gone native… (I should have taken the time to balance the red colour to make the point better, but I don’t have the skill or the time, sorry…)…
Nice Macmillan Cancer Support People
I’d already seen a poster for this and was going to write about it. I was going to write about it because I just thought it was a really nice idea, having a big coffee morning to raise money. Especially when it’s a charity whose purpose is…
Cravendale Do a Very Very Good Thing
W+K London and Unit9 have made a really brilliant thing. It’s part multi-player interactive game/muckabout. Part UGC. Part video editor… http://www.milkmatters.co.uk It follows on from the really nice Cravendale ads that are on TV. You can…
Fosters Do a Bad Thing
I clicked on a banner today. I probably click on 2/3 a month. I’ve no idea if this is low or high or average. I’ve never seen any stats about the number of banners that the average person clicks on. Has anyone else? Anyway, I digress…
Why My Last Post Was A Load of Rubbish
Motorola just did a very nice ‘sponsorship’ of http://explore.twitter.com – the tone of it, the way it’s been done and a genuine feeling of connection between the sponsor and sponsoree. And it feels like something that could legitimately…
I’ve seen the future of Marketing 2.0 and it’s rubbish (but don’t worry, it’s in Beta)
[Please note: none of the brands mentioned here have ever done anything like this (as far as I know), it’s a purely fictional story of an imagined future from my slightly fuddled brain] Imagine if last night everyone who worked in the…
Why I Like This QR Code Poster
I like this QR code poster. Here’s the reason why: It’s very big, so you can take a photo of it from across the road. Good usability. It’s mulit-layered. If you don’t know what a QR code is, it doesn’t matter, it just looks like a big…
A Tale of Modern Blog Blagging
I got an out-of-the-blue email a couple of weeks ago asking how much I’d charge for a text link from my blog. I thought about it, then realised that I had no idea. I know a bit about CPM and CPA numbers and I know how much traffic I get…
PSFK Conference in LA
If you’re lucky enough to be in or around LA on the 18th September you could do a lot worse than head to the PSFK conference. It looks like a great line up with lots of good stuff on… http://www.psfk.com/psfk-conference-los-angeles
Nike Nooooooooooooooooo!
New Nike Vintage site. And it uses page-turns. I guess perhaps it’s a retro-vintage thing. But no. Just no. Didn’t you read, it’s one of the 7 Deadly Sins (almost)…
Accidental Ad Mashups
Ribena have these quite fancy outdoor ads that rotate between flavours but have the same message overlaid on the top. They’re pretty eye catching and a bit clever. Where they work less well is when the board inside gets changed and the…
The 7th Deadly Sin – We Have a Winner!
I’m absolutely flabbergasted at how many comments the 7 Deadly Sins of Digital has had. It’s up to 85 comments and still growing! But I figured it was time to pick my winner for the 7th Deadly Sin. Trouble is, there are so many great ones…
Heroic Ads – New Bravia
I can’t help myself. I’ve been contacted by the online PR guys who are ‘seeding’ the new Bravia ad. Part of me wants to not play ball, but the other part of me wants to see what’s going on. I do like the ads and I’m interested to see what…
The 7th Sin Personified?
I don’t normally like highlighting specific pieces of work and picking on them. But in the context of the 7 Sins of Digital I had to post this. It’s Interflora’s new eBrochure. For starters anything called an eBrochure should be put…
Recruitment Musings
This is a tough, slightly reflective post to write. It’s very much a brain dump, the start of some thoughts rather than anything resolved. I’m hoping that some of the smart people out there on the internet will add to it and help these…
7 Deadly Sins – It’s on Fire!
There’s some great comments coming in on the 7 Deadly Sins post. It’s going to be a struggle to pick a winner. I’ve got a couple of favourites already though. Problem is there’s going to be nothing left that we can do online once the list…
Faris and Me on TV
Well not really TV, but it is sort of like TV on the Internet… This time I’ve actually managed to watch myself, so I’m making progress. I didn’t like it, but I did manage to stomach it. It’s from the Ideas Forum thing that Faris and I…
The 7 Deadly Sins of Digital
There’s a bunch of things that people who are just getting into digital always seem to propose at some point or another. I guess they’re things that are part of the learning process. Things that a lot of us have done, and hopefully learned…
I Can’t Watch…
This is me presenting “10 Reasons Why Digital is ‘Better’ than Advertising” at the PSFK conference in London. I can’t even bear to hear recordings of my own voice so there’s no way that I’m going to be able to watch this… (I tried watching…
They Just Had To… Blend an iPhone
I thought I’d posted the Blendtec ‘Will it blend?’ ads from YouTube before, but it doesn’t look like I did. Anyway I thought they were great, genuinely viral ads. Showing a slightly geeky professor / home shopping channel presenter…
Logic+Emotion: Thought of the Day
Caught this great quote on the excellent Logic and Emotion blog: “Design is so popular today mostly because business sees design as connecting it to the consumer populace in a deep, fundamental and honest way. An honest way. If you are in…
Work Naked
Whilst I’m all for working naked (or at the very least in underpants and socks). This ad struck me as rather odd. I’m cool with people working nude at home but I really don’t think we should be encouraging it out in public (using mobile…
Vimeo Ads
Vimeo have just redesigned their site (they’re a video sharing site a bit like YouTube). They’ve always had a nicely designed site and I think I quite like the new version too. One thing I really liked was their approach to ads – they’re…
Chemical Brothers ‘Shop’ in London
Not sure quite how I feel about this. I like it. But I’m not sure it’s a very good use of money. I’m trying to make it a better use of their money by blogging about it. The Chemical Brothers have taken over a disused shopfront to promote…
Spam Quality Up Again
Ideas Forum in Bucharest
I’ve been in Romania for the last few days. Which has been really interesting. I’ve been getting to hang out with Russell and Faris, which is always a nice thing. We’ve been talking at a thing called the ‘ideas forum’…
I Got An Ecard!
An ecard from a scammer. Don’t you think it’s a bit grim to use an ecard with jolly balloons on it to tell me that someone has just died, along with his wife and kids in a bomb. But I guess I am going to be $7,500,000.00 Million richer, so…
PSFK Today
I’m enjoying the PSFK conference in London right now. I just did my talk about 10 Reasons Why Digital Is Better Than Advertising. But you’ll all be bored sick of that by now. It was quite nerve racking. But I got through it. Hugh MacLeod…
BusyPost
I’m really rather busy right now, so finding time to post is tricky. Plus they’ve taken away the wi-fi on my morning train which is a right old bugger. But I did see 2 things on lamp posts that pricked my interest today: I’ve got no idea…
Flying Elephant Spam
Perhaps the most creative spam I’ve received. It’s very surreal.
Digital Lepers
If you read my rubbish regularly you know that I have a funny relationship with advertising. But as I’ve tried to stress before I don’t have anything against the advertising industry. I just think that the digital world has perhaps an…
I’ve been TaxiBlogged!
My thing about YogaLadder has been lifted by the London Taxi News: There’s a YogaLadder in My Taxi | London Taxi News I feel special. As I’m now on the TaxiWeb here’s something else taxi related. I saw this parked near Old St yesterday…
I don’t hate advertising. I just like digital better.
Well I finally did it. I finished my list of “10 Reasons that Digital is Better than Advertising“. Which is a personal triumph. It’s the longest sustained thought of my blog so far. Even longer than my ranting about Virgin Media! Even…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 10
Of course there are brilliant people in advertising who ‘get it’ too. And blatantly you don’t have to be a web-obsessed geek to come up with interesting interactive ideas. But naturally it becomes easier to consider this world if you spend…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 9
[Sorry I’ve been very rubbish at putting up these last 2 reasons – they were written, but I’ve been suffering from a semi-crippling case of uncertainty…] If you’re ‘a creative’ you either want to write a novel or make films. If you’re a…
The 7 Qs of Viral Content
As you might know I don’t really like the term viral. But neither does the author of Modern LIfe is Rubbish so I’m quite happy to link to this post on: The 7 Qs of Great Viral Content, which is a nice roundup of stuff that good content…
The Daddy of All Secret Clubs…
Following the post about secret clubs, posters like this have just started going up for Secret Sundaze (one of the original new wave of oudoor / warehouse parties). It doesn’t get much more secret than that. If you’re smart you might be…
Now That’s Segmentation…
Absolutely stunning. This leaked segmentation doc (allegedly from Phones4U) is one of the funniest things I’ve read in a while. Certainly the funniest marketing segmentation anyway. Includes such highlights as: Flashing Blades: blokes…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 8
There’s a whole bunch of stuff that makes online audiences great. They’re immediately measurable. You can see how they heard about you. You can see what things they’re searching for in order to find you. If people are talking about you…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 7
Actually I’m not sure that working at somewhere called Dream Digital, Stick or RazerBlade, is necessarily any better than having to answer the phone: “Good afternoon, Benson, Christ, Smith-Fellow, Hasbeen and Shagalott”. But the point is…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 6
It’s interesting to see the difference between digital people and advertising people right now. There’s a whole lot of smugness going on. Ad people are smuggly going “we’ve got the clients” ears (hopefully not in boxes in a gangster way…
Toronto Zoo Again
After Jealous Animals, a site I blogged about before, comes Bugsrock the tale of some cool cockroaches. Toronto Zoo do good stuff again. I can imagine kids and adults loving their work in equal measure. Which is surely the aim of Zoo…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 5
As conventional advertising revenues decline, programme makers have less and less cash to spend. So TV gets more shit, so fewer people watch it so ad revenue goes down again. Conversely the web’s audience is steadily increasing in volume…
Everybody Loves a Secret
Secrets are cool. Every single party in London now seems to be held in a secret venue (even though you can buy tickets at Ticketmaster).
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 4
Success in network media isn’t about ego. No one cares who you are, or what you’ve done before – unless you’re Jonathan Harris or Joshua Davis ;-) Audiences care about whether they like your thing or not. More honest and ernest cultures…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 3
Maybe this won’t last forever. And of course lots of people got their fingers (and worse) burnt in the last .com fiasco. But because the cost of entry for digital stuff is low, and the technology is cheap (or rentable) it means that people…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 2
OK, you have to know some stuff to put things on the Internet, but not that much. Just look at the people in 80% of YouTube videos, do they look like they know how to do complicated computer stuff? Or use a VCR? Or open a tin? In spite of…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising – Number 1
Digital agencies sometimes do advertising. But only a few of them call themselves ‘digital advertising agencies’. This means that we’re given permission to do lots of other things. If you work in advertising you are typically expected to…
10 Reasons Why Digital is Better Than Advertising
Photo borrowed from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelfan/46008873/ I started writing this list of 10 things after I chaired a debate at the D&AD about ‘Consumers In Control’ which basically turned into a mass venting of frustrations…
Horrible Misguided Integrated Campaign
Basically this site: http://www.information-revolution.org and it’s associated advertising try to position this organisation as a sort of free choice organisation campaigning against the dominance of Google. But it’s a campaign for Ask…
I Like MOMA
This is the second time I’ve said I don’t want to blog about what I had for breakfast. But in a roundabout way I’m doing it again… This morning I stopped at a little stand called MOMA at London Bridge (I have to admit the first time I saw…
Sky vs Virgin – Good Sky Online Ads
I’m not sure where I stand on this whole Sky vs Virgin thing. I’m not really that bothered I suppose, I never really liked Sky channels or Rupert’s thing anyway. But I did quite like the Simpsons now and again. Which is why I thought that…
First UGC Win In The Bag
Well the evil plot to pillage the world of UCG has begun. Nothing major, just 2 tickets to a club-night on Saturday. But worth 30 quid. Not bad for 5 minutes spent writing a 50 word response to something… Interestingly I sat down and…
This Makes Me So Happy
Over at Pink Air Jeffre talks about the ‘kick off’ meeting. The dreaded meeting after the business has been won. The thrill of the chase has gone. The hunt is over. And the carcuss is rotting before your eyes… In his account of the first…
Bandwagon – iTunes Backup
Bandwagon is an iTunes backup software / service combo. I read this and thought of me: Bandwagon is for smart people that have a huge music library that has never been backed up. At least the last bit’s true. Another nice – ‘link to us…
More On UGC Cash
Thanks to everyone who’s offered to join – as Russell says, we are ‘The User’… But for goodness sake, keep quiet! What if the marketers hear about our evil plot?
Plundering UGC Cash, Who’s In?
I’ve just been flicking through New Media Age. And after my earlier comment about User Generated Content, I was dismayed to see how many column inches have been given over to terrible UGC ideas – but with MASSIVE cash prizes. I did a quick…
Nice Altoids Idea
I think this is really nice. In the swamp of dirty UGC ideas that we have to endure, here’s one that floats to the top, like cream, not a turd. It’s got a limited lifespan, but that’s OK. Simple idea, you can leave a valentine’s message on…
The Best Online Advertising Ever?
This is one of the only banners in recent months that I’ve actually clicked on. I knew I shouldn’t, but I just had to… But you know what the real f**ker is! It doesn’t even make a bloody noise. I felt so cheated it’s untrue. The least they…
I’m Not The Only One With Haters
This post over at Russell’s blog entitled: Bugger made me rather depressed. All of the criticisms levelled at Russell are the precise same things that makes his blog so damn good! I’m affectedly bumbling and luvvie in my writing style, I…
Boxes Not Blogs
Sorry it’s a bit quiet round here. I’m busy packing up all my things to move house so my life’s in boxes at the moment which is a bit stressful. And I’ve not got much time, or space, to do blogging-like activities. Just in case you’re…
Google Australia Puts People on the Map, Nice.
Damn Google being able to use their own technology to be able to do something really really cool. Google Australia is celebrating Australia Day 2007 by photographing Sydney Harbour from the air, and we want to make sure as many of us as…
Google Maps Adventure Game for Penguin
If you’re into adventure type games. Or just want to win some great prizes. Or are a real nerd and want to see how we’ve used Google Maps as part of our quest interface. Head over to MaliceBoxQuest.com, something Poke have put together for…
I’m in Viral Shock!
Bumped into this piece for Mountain Dew over at Faris’ Blog. As I commented over there. I’m in shock. It’s a ‘viral’ that I like. And I liked it so much I passed it on. Making it really and truly ‘viral’. I’ve got to go and lie down
CMOs on Digital and Traditional
Following the BBH Lynx win post I thought this research into the attitude of CMOs(commissioned by Sapient) reported some interesting stuff. LIke the fact that 68% of CMOs prefer to work with multiple agencies, to derive the benefits of…
BBH Wins Lynx Digital Account
An interesting ‘moment’ in online advertising. BBH win Lynx digital account. To my mind Dare have done some really amazing online advertising for Lynx (Feather and Blow to name but two), and I’m really surprised that the account has gone…
Powder Your Nose in Style
I like this. A luxury private washroom on Oxford Street. Brilliantly named WC1 (well I liked it anyway!). A glamorous urban sanctuary, WC1 is the world’s first one-million-pound powder room. It has been designed with impeccable hygiene and…
My Mini Adventure
I sort of wrote myself an unwritten rule that I wouldn’t blog this. But when I did a search for Mini Adventure London and nothing came up, I felt a bit bad. Mini have obviously spent a lot of money on an awesome piece of experiential…
Yahoo! Mail Championships
Here’s a little Poke project. To promote the new Yahoo! Mail we’ve set up the Yahoo! Mail World Championships. Starting with the theory that everyday challenges became competitive sport over time (e.g. hunting became Javelin throwing…
Crisp NPD for Kettle Chips
I’m a bit of crisp junkie as I’ve said before (even post the drinking oil advert that put me off a bit). So I’m a bit biased, but I like this thought. Buy this Kettle Chips party box online for $19.99 which contains: Five 5 oz. bags of…
F**K you and your Second Life ‘firsts’ you bunch of Adf**ks
I’m glad that someone with some heritage and history in Second Life has come out and said this: Second Life Herald: Gallery of Lies. And said it very loud. I’d have loved to have written this piece, but as my Second Life consists of about…
The Value of Experimentation
I agree with Russell when it comes to the value of experimentation and play. Asi also brought it up in relation to the video-fronted search engine I mentioned yesterday. I’m all for play and doing new stuff. But there is a degree of…
Interactive Cinema Ads
Brazillian interactive cinema ad for Fiat using text messages. More details on the MIT Advertising Lab blog Interesting idea, and something we’ve had discussions about before. But I always felt it was really irresponsible to do something…
Advertising to Man in Captivity
Toilet media. I’m sure at a point it seems like a good idea: You get 99% (I’m guessing) accuracy in gender targetting People aren’t just rushing past Blokes don’t know where to look when urinating next to other blokes, so give them an ad…
Mmmmm Crisps
As far as vices go crisps is a big one for me. I’m not a chocolate person. I like salty stuff. With fat. This ad haunts me. When I look at the lovely colourful packs I can’t help but think of drinking oil. It works.
Netflix Prize
This must be one of the most blogged about stories of the last week. But I’m going to do it anyway because I think it’s really interesting and it spans the worlds of geekery and marketing perfectly… Netflix are offering $1,000,000 to…
M&Ms Dark
I like this. It looks lovely. It’s nicely produced. And it’s always tough to do something in the least bit interesting with chocolate online. M&M’S® Dark Chocolate But… It does owe a big debt to the Virgin Radio promotion from last year…
When good ads go bad…
I like the new advert for 3. The one for free Email and IM on your phone. If you’ve not seen it, here it is: I was really really disappointed when I opened up my weekly Zoo magazine (it’s a work thing, honest) to see this press version of…
Fizzy Web
I had a meeting with a prospective client yesterday (I hope she doesn’t mind me posting this, I am keeping it anonymous). And in our conversation she said that she wanted their site to be ‘fizzy’, at first I almost laughed, then as we…
Taxi Seat Ad
Saw this ad on the back of a taxi seat. I really don’t know what to make of it at all. Advertising ‘the snip’ must be an interesting brief… For some reason this line made me chuckle (not sure it’s supposed to though): “Now you have your…
Mod Your Mob for Orange
Here’s a little something that we’ve been working on for Orange. Called Mod Your Mob it’s all about creating freakish versions of mobile phones. I’ve not had much to do with it, and I’m not quite sure if it’s a pisstake or not. I’m not…
A Conversation on Participation
“Why don’t we let people get involved. Give them a way to upload their short movies / photographs / demo-tracks / homages to our product / ideas / knitting patterns / kazoo melodies / etc. They can win prizes.” “Would you do it?” “What do…
Digital Frustration
Just in case it gets lost in the comments. I thought it was worth blogging the fact that Tony Davidson left a comment in response to my ranting the other day. Thanks. It’s always nice when a monologue turns into a dialogue. Stops you…
Digital Creativity Revisited
Yesterday I posted this: Tony Davidson on Digital Creativity I got into a bit of a rant about it. You’ll find it’s easy to bait anyone who works in digital in this way. In fact there’s probably a good sport in there somewhere. It’d be…
Tony Davidson on Digital Creativity
The above image is blatantly stolen from the excellent DigitalAgency blog. But short of retyping the whole thing I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it. It’s from the D&AD Student Annual, written by Tony Davidson (Creative Director…
Clerks 2 – A socially networked film
The Social Customer Manifesto: Silent Bob Speaks I liked Clerks when I first saw it. I liked its low-budgetness, especially the fact that the store in the film had a broken shutter (to hide the fact that the only time they could afford to…
Coke do good
Coke have been getting quite a lot of slating for various things that they’ve been doing online. Poor user generated content, ill conceived non-virals, etc. Not sure where this came from, but for me this is a ‘viral’ movie. I bet it was…
I lied
I know I said I’d shut up about a certain topic, but… Kevin left a comment asking what I thought of his opinions on the Agency.com thing. So I thought the least I could do is take a look. He makes some very good points, however, as I said…
Roll Over
I think this will be my last word on the Agency.com Subway thing. But I’m never one to say never… I got a nice mail from Tom at Agency (he of “Roll Big” fame). The gist of the mail was: They’ve been reacting to things as they unfold (and…
WhenWeRollWeRollBig.com
A response from the Agency.com camp regarding the Subway video. It’s basically saying: “we did it, we got people talking, that’s the whole point”. I’m sure the debate will rage on around whether this is just a good piece of…
It was viral…
Now it’s a phenomenon! The immortal line from the Agency.com Subway viral comes alive. Check out the “if we roll, we roll big” t-shirt. With snappy, “corner office, now” detail on the back. Printed on high quality American Apparel garment…
Agency.com ‘viral’ pitch video
OK, I’m going to give credit where it’s due: hats off to Agency.com for nailing their colours to the mast (in a very public way) and for using web stuff to talk about web stuff. Credit over. Maybe it’s just a cultural thing. But this video…
Companies get 2.0ed
The YayHooray community get all over redesigning big corporations in the style of web 2.0. It’s all over Digg and del.icio.us, so you might have seen it already. But it is pretty funny (if you’re a design geek). All the cliches are there…
More Viral Stuff
Faris from Naked talks about the fact that viral ‘just is’. Also uses the nice ‘real world viral’ example (oh, hang on, that’s just a virus isn’t it?) of the 118 vests. Also mentions a foul Coke example of labelling videos as ‘viral 1…
Big Chill / iTunes Promo
Nice promo idea – when my Big Chill tickets turned up they’d suck in a ‘free 3 songs from the iTunes shop’ card. Sweet. What they hadn’t done is create a page of ‘recommended’ tracks or anything like that, which might have been a nice…
A Wee Bit of Advertising
Saw this in a gents loo yesterday. It made me chuckle a tiny bit. Then it made me feel sick. A small goalpost drenched in mens’ wee. Not something I’d want my brand to be associated with. But then I’m not advertising pissy goalposts (yet).…
Social Notworking
This makes me want to weep. Wal-Mart’s ‘Hub’ for teens that allows them to ‘express their individuality’ (and win cool stuff!). Ths writeup in AdAge highlights most of the issues… Advertising Age – Wal-Mart Tries to Be MySpace — Seriously…
Where I work is OK
Poke have just been rated the top Digital Agency in the UK by Revolution Magazine. Actually more importantly we weren’t rated by the magazine, but by clients (as reported in Revolution Magazine). This is the second time in 2 years that…
Mentos Do Good
Mentos Turns Coke/Mentos Geysers Into Video Contest – this article says it as well as I could, so I’m not going to repeat it. But I suppose you need to know what it is, so here’s a quick summary. Put Mentos in Coke. Booooooosh. Quite…
We’re fucked
OK, not totally. But this is an interesting development. A startup that will take your designs and turn them into coded web pages by outsourcing it to cheap places around the world (returning your pages within 5 days). Prices from $150. If…
Garfield (not the cat) on Cyber Lions
Although I would be interested to see what Garfield the cat would have to say about Cannes. Anyway. You’d expect a geek like me to talk about the web being a “transformational opportunity to engage the user”. But when someone from…
I like adverts with good words
This is one of a set of adverts for Tate Britain that I like a great deal. They use words well. I stopped to read them. I enjoyed the reading. I felt better for having read it at the end. The Judges at Cannes seemed to like them too. For…
Scalextric World Record – Zootube
Here’s a little site I’ve been working on. I’ve been keeping it a bit quiet because it’s a bit laddy (well a lot laddy in places). But it is appropriate for the target audience. It is for Zoo Magazine after all! The site documents the…
So much good stuff…
I should be going to work right now. But I keep finding amazing things that I feel the urge to share… Following on from ‘convert your website into a pattern’, here comes ‘what does your website sound like’. A site that turns your website…
I Hate Viral(s)
I’ve grown to hate the term viral: I hate the fact that it’s overused. I hate the fact that it’s misused. I hate the fact that ‘viral’ appears as a line on media plans. I hate the fact that people now call them virals. With an (s) as if…
Genuine Marketing Gimmicks – An Oxymoron?
Sorry few posts. Hectic week. Going holiday Friday. Lots to do… I’ve started to use Radio 4 as my alarm clock. I didn’t think it would work. But people talking, gently, as they do on R4, is quite a nice way to wake up. You get kind of…
Turn Yahoo RED and Raise Money
American Express RED are trying to rasie £10k to fight AIDS in Africa today. All you have to do is click on a banner on the front page of Yahoo.co.uk (and it doesn’t even take you anywhere!). Each click raises 25p. Click here to do it!…
Bonfire Of The Brands
Neil Boorman (ex-editor of ex-Sleazenation, Shorditch Twat and other titles I’m sure) is writing a book called: Bonfire Of The Brands As part of his experience he’s burning all of his branded goods in a big bonfire as part of re-evaluating…
Interview With Me
Piers asked me a few probing questions about Poke‘s Webby winners. I answered them as best I could. Hope it all makes sense. Seemed to at the time of writing. Inspiration From IF! : Interview With Iain Tait, Poke
Nobody Reads Ads
I just read this Guest Essay from the 2004 Gunn Report by Fred & Farid. There’s some really interesting stuff in there. I particularly like the way that they talk about consumers: The marketing strategy talks to the consumers; but we are…
Eau De Play Doh
Play-Doh Fragrance – pretty much everyone loves the smell of Play Doh, don’t they? I know I do. But does that actually mean we want to smell like Play Doh? Well if you do, you can. Thanks to this limited edition cologne. Even if they don’t…
More on Ziki
After posting about Ziki a couple of days ago I got this email (Severine, I hope you don’t mind me posting this): Hi Iain I’m Severine from Ziki. Just wanted to thank you for signing up! Thanks also for your post about Ziki :-) I didn’t…
Get a Mac – TV Ads
Apple – Get a Mac – Watch The TV Ads – OK, they’re playing up all the old stereotypes, but they’re well casted, well written and don’t mess about. Expect about a gazillion spoofs from PC lovers on YouTube before the week is out…
Free AppZapper
One digital life reports on a really neat promotion run by MacZot. They reduced the price of the Appzapper application by 5 cents for every blog that linked to the site. Mac bloggers went nuts for it and the price went down to completely…
That’s not very nice…
Spotted this on the wall of Weiden & Kennedy’s London office. Not sure I agree 100%…
Big Companies Do Nice Stuff
I’ve had two good experiences today. Both nice things that companies have done. So in the spirit of helping to spread good stuff I’m going to talk about them. First I’m going to praise O2. I’ve had some relatively poor experiences with…
Videos From the Googleplex
Google have released a heap of videos from their internal archives: In addition to helping distribute content from across the world, Google would like to share videos featuring our company. Some great stuff in there, especially the…
Aaaaargh!
Virgin Radio have another one of their infuriating but brilliant ‘see how many artists you can spot‘ thingies. This time it’s moving video not just an image. Unfortunately I can’t keep up, it’s too quick for my puny brain. I’m a big fan…
BannerBlog
BannerBlog.com.au : Where Banners Click – nice site from Australialand. A regularly updated feast of online advertising with contributers from lots of agencies around the world (including Poke’s very own Tobie Cameron).…
Fashion Vs Style Vs Pop Video
Compare and contrast: French Connection’s new advert is not a million miles away from this pop video from last year (damn, that song is really really bad!). Thanks to Emil for the tip – came up in an IM conversation about originality in…
Run London – RouteFinder
Funnily enough a second post about an AKQA piece of work in one day, they must be doing something right. And in this case they really are: Run London – RouteFinder. An extension of the undoubtedly great brand property Run London, this time…
Diablogue: Life takes….
Diablogue (a new find on the blog trail; thanks Russell) pointed me in the direction of a new online Visa campaign produced by AKQA. Life Takes Visa As the Diablogue guys say there’s some sweet moments in there. But I can’t help but feel…
Viral Promotion
Saw this on iamcal.com. threadless are doing a secret sale – buy 3 or more shirts and enter the code ‘tenbucks87’ at the checkout and you’ll get them for $10 each. you have until feb 25th – tell everyone you know A really nice example of a…
Flipping the Funnel
Flipping the Funnel (ebook) – as ususal Seth writes in a way that makes you think, “duh, of course, who didn’t know that”, but then you realise that you didn’t, and he’s just implanted something new and brilliant in your brain. A really…
Guns ‘R’ Us
Psssst. Wanna buy some guns? A brand new microsite by Poke. The film’s been done by Mother. We’re trying to get it seen by as many people as we can. So we’ve put together a microsite and have done some interesting distribution stuff…
The Postal Service vs Apple
I like the The Postal Service a lot. Their album is great. I also like Apple a lot. Their products are great. As has been well documented the latest Apple Intel Ad looks a lot like the video for “Such Great Heights” by the aforementioned…
dumb, crass, stupid, sexist lavazza
Interesting thoughts on complaining via buzz tracking. Russell doesn’t like the Lavazza posters with busty women on them (russell davies: dumb, crass, stupid, sexist lavazza). I think the image, as a photograph, is middle-shelf…
PumpPod
Saw this poster collection on the streets of NY – Pumppod.com. Damn, there goes another one of my brilliant money making ideas, if only I was quicker and better at things.…
broken leon (not really)
Following on from my dirty BP ad post last week, was interesting to see another debate around the tiny little things that make all the difference. russell davies: broken leon (not really). Which in turn references a dissection of the book…
BP Dirty Irony
Saw this ad for BP on the stairs down to liverpool st station. Ironically the sign talking about clean energy is the dirtiest poster I’ve seen in ages. Oh the sweet irony. Honestly though. When you see the state of it you really can’t take…
Asian Backstreet Boys
Asian Backstreet Boys – the full story. They’ve got a deal to do Motorola ads now. Yoiks!
Honda Element Game
i really like this site. The Element and Friends Web Site – 2006 Honda Element Yes it’s for a car and yes it’s a game (2 thing that I’d normally not get at all excited about). But it’s really charming. The tone of voice and style are…
1984 – The Mac Story
A really interesting look at the legenary Mac 1984 launch advert. I knew bits and pieces of the story, but not some of the finer points. And it doesn’t get much finer than (of the boardmembers it says): “The others just looked at each…
Levi’s Antidote
Levi’s Antidote is, in its own words: “…a living, growing snapshot of what people are thinking and doing across Europe.” Now, as the guys at SMLXL so rightly point out, this is theoretically a great idea. A campaign that supports…
Bouncy Balls!
Sony Bouncy Balls TV advert. For me this is one of the greatest ads of recent times. Not only is it a thing of great beauty. It’s executed brilliantly. It demonstrates, in a way that everyone can understand, the key product benefit. Oh…
Sorrell vs. Murdoch
Interesting Reuters article from a couple of weeks ago. Martin Sorrell talks about how media companies are running scared of the new new media. But perhaps most interesting is his criticism of News Corp’s recent acquisitions.…
Account Planning School Of The Web
All round smart guy, planning dude and greasy spoon fan Russell Davies has set up the Account Planning School Of The Web – IMHO a properly wired idea. He’s putting effort in, and helping people out, but at the same time potentially getting…
iPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro
From Cult Of Mac Blog – iPod Nanos on Tokyo Metro – This is a great (if a little expensive) promotion. Having said that, this is one of those ads that creates so much residual ‘buzz’ around it that the initial investment is totally worth…
Burger King Gets Farked
Adrants covers BK getting ‘Farked’ – an interesting story of a brand getting stacks of exposure though an online community running away with their ‘icon’ and co-opting it in their own way. The article kind of makes it sound as if BK had a…