Never get out of the boat: new york

Showing posts with label new york. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

there's a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out

The majority of the readers of this blog seem to come from in and around the greater New York area and from broadly round that eastern part of the USA that has been the worst affected by Hurricane Sandy.

So this post is just a message of support from Boat HQ to all of you out there, hoping that the worst is now over and that everyone can shortly start to pick up the pieces and get back into the swing as soon as possible.

I recall listening to an interview with - quintessential New Yorker - Lou Reed that was being conducted in a mid town Manhattan hotel room.

In between questions the journalist commented that it was becoming hard to hear Lou's answers because of the noise of the traffic outside the window.

To which Lou Reed responded 'It's New York. What do you want me to do?'.

Knowing the stoicism of many of my east coast buddies, this week's events won't be too much of a problem.

Finally, and on a customer-service-as-marketing note, we were interested to learn from Business Insider that many of the major banks have agreed to waive a number of fees for customers in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut through till Wednesday.

Citibank, Capital One, and Chase customers will pay no fees on many items including extended overdraft, returned Item and insufficient funds Fees, late fees on credit cards, and also loans, including mortgages until the the storm is over.

Friday, September 03, 2010

the beat of new york

I found this very cool little movie created by German film production agency Stereoscreen. The movie was made from bits and pieces collected after shooting an ad for Mercedes in New York.

A bit like a what-we-did-on-our-holidays, and an excellent use of a day off in the Apple.

The drummer fella is also a bit of a star.

Gute arbeit.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

mike arauz's 5 rules for digital agencies

A new business model for digital agencies? We've been loving this article 'A new business model for digital agencies' by Mike Arauz from Undercurrent New York (seems he is a colleague of our other current fave rave, Bud Caddell).

Mike has encapsulated nicely some of the same things we have been talking about round Geronimo towers for a wee while to avoid the pitfalls of what David Armano described as 'The Wheel of Marketing Misfortune' and principally the dangers of 'death by big idea' and stuff like 'flashturbation'.

Here's his 5 point plan summarised:

Rule 1: If it can't be done quickly and cheaply, it's not an option.
...you should be able to launch up to 20 small digital experiences each week.
(me - lofty goal - but keep 'em 'on-point' and it's do-able)

Rule 2: Make a lot of pots.
'A ceramics professor comes in on the first day of class and divides the students into two sections. He tells one half of the class that their final grade will be based exclusively on the volume of their production; the more they make, the better their grade. The professor tells the other half of the class that they will be graded more traditionally, based solely on the quality of their best piece. At the end of the semester, the professor discovered that the students who were focused on making as many pots as possible also ended up creating the best pots, much better than the pots made by the students who spent all semester trying to create that one perfect pot.
(me - yep, i'll have that)

Rule 3: Sell ideas, not things.
When this agency pitches clients, you don't pitch one big idea, you pitch the first 10 small ideas...These ideas will each be designed to spread your message, attract the attention of your desired audience, build relationships, and compel action, if applicable.
(me - wahey! - totally)

Rule 4: Everything launches, the client gets to buy the hits.
No one can predict which idea is going to become and internet sensation. And not every potential hit will get approved by the client's legal or PR department. These concerns don't matter because you're going to launch every good idea you come up with...If they don't want it, the agency can either take it for themselves or kill it.
(me - straight out of 'screw it let's do it' - spot on)

Rule 5: Phase 2 - Everything is iterative.
Work on all of these select projects using an agile process, making small changes as you go. There's no finish line, there's just one improvement after another.
(me - your mantra should be 'test and learn, test and learn, test and learn...')

Thursday, September 11, 2008

old punks never die....they go and work for apple

We took notice as this week's launch of the new ipod nano unfurled.
Each available variant is illustrated with an album pic in the screen relating to each colour.

The array of current pod-friendly harmless popsters - Clavin harris for yellow, Interpol for red, James Blunt for blue etc etc - is shamelessly disrupted by the inclusion, in the pink model, of...not
'would you?/wouldn't you?' brat poppette 'Pink' (as you may have predicted) but none other than...gnarled, drug-addled grandads of glam-punk ...
THE MIGHTY NEW YORK DOLLS,
THE TOTAL AND UTTER KINGS OF RAWK'N'ROLL AND GREATEST BAND IN HISTORY.

thanks John.

Monday, March 10, 2008

usa tour update 1.5

Just going through todays snaps and i liked this one too.
ESB from 42nd st through the trees and snazzy motor in the foreground.

usa tour update

Arrived in New York last night. I must commend Virgin Atlantic, fantastic service even in cattle class - on demand movies and all that. I watched Brick Lane and about half of Control, the Ian Curtis biopic.

It was a beautiful day today so I walked down to the east village looking for the CBGB's shop, found it but it was closed, and had my ritual NY breakfast of Eggs Benedict at Virage on 2nd beside St Marks while contemplating tattoo shops on 8th St.
Couldn't find my favourite hat shop, maybe it's gone?

I was half-supposed to try and catch an old mate who I haven't seen for 10 years or so at Shelter, an 'after-hours' that starts at 10am a bit further downtown. I took the view that going to a club at that time of the morning was just too dangerous at my age so gave it a miss and took the healthy option. A long walk up 5th Ave to the Guggenheim - promptly about turning when I got to the door due to the queue - and instead took in Central Park for a couple of hours then window shopping.

Meetings in NY tomorrow then flying out to Denver Tuesday morning.

Snapped the pond in Central Park below.