Thursday, August 14, 2008
wisdom of crowds
As the new season is upon us...
'The fans make their views clear after yet another goalkeeping error.'
thanks to Al for this.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
nietzche marketing
exerpts from a twitter conversation with @zeroinfluencer
zeroinfluencer: Brands are deities not entities, so have to pray for help. Brands need to be nihilists so that people can prey on them.
me: @zeroinfluencer'Brands need to be nihilists' is it a kind of nietzsche marketing?
zeroinfluencer: @EaonP The nietzsche planner "I speak on behalf of the void, formerly known as your customers."
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
the boat goes mobile
You may have noticed the 'mobile' button over there on the right sidebar.
Yes, this blog is now fully mobile, coutesy of mofuse
So to get 'the boat' on the move simply point your phone's browser to http://theboat.mofuse.mobi/
Monday, August 11, 2008
unified list of top 100 novels
As a list geek i was interested to scan this list of top 100 novels, compiled by neil bowers
Here's his methodology which seems fairly credible to me.
heres the top 10, not too many surprises:
1. Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
2. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. The Grapes Of Wrath John Steinbeck
4. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
5. Catch-22 Joseph Heller
6. One Hundred Years Of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
7. Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell
8. Ulysses James Joyce
9. On The Road Jack Kerouac
10. The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
The first novel I recognise of recent years pops up at no 40 - Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
search online for 'i am'
what's wrong with this picture?
i particularly like the 2nd sponsored link.
'i am a lippi selk bag...i am awesome'
Steven King's 'N' - mobile graphic novel
More widget-ness, as Stephen King's latest novel 'N' is previewed as 25 video webi-isodes, as a pre-lude to what is believed to be 'the first comic-style book adaptation specifically developed and produced for viewing on today's most popular small screen platforms' ie mobile devices.
Ideal accompaniment to the horror of your commute?
full story here
adidas/ultravioletsound free album widgetyness
Hot on the heels of Converse's ultra-cool 'My drive thru' free music download featuring a track by N*E*R*D and Julian Casablancas from the Strokes comes this Adidas Originals 'add value through content' incentive featuring (marginally less cred) dance/pop puppets UltravioletSound.
Via the 'Ultraviolet Sound widget' - which fans are encouraged to place the widget on their myspace, facebooks for maximumum 'viral-ness' - they get access to a free 11 track UltravioletSound album and 30% discount on Adidas Originals clobber (as worn by the band - au naturelement)
via greasyguide
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
scenes from an italian restaurant
Carmine's - a small traditional Italian cafe/restaurant in my old home town of Aberdeen - small menu, but brilliant at two things – pizza and pasta.
I first went there about nearly 20 years ago with the now MrsP. After our lunch Carmine told me 'this girl is a-nice, you bring her again, not that other one' (refering to another not so polite girl i had brought in the previous week!)
The reasons we love Carmine's are:
- the tinny cassette player blaring out Opera...
- Carmine does the cooking and serving himself while singing along...
- We were poor so Carmine brought sneaky glasses of wine (it's unlicensed) when we couldn't afford to bring our own in...
- The size of portion you were given was directly proportionate to your own size (huge Calzone for me)...
- Carmine comes over and shouts at you if you don't finish all your pizza...
- Despite being a regular for 10 years I was still called 'Ronnie' even though he knew fine what my real name was...
- Potential customers who only wanted coffee were chased out of the door...
- 'Poison' coffee (sneaky Sambuka!)...
- The cafe was across the road from the main Theatre in Aberdeen. The cast of whatever was on were often in there between performances (the walls were covered in signed photographs)...
- He closed at 7pm - daytime trade only so no bother from drunks etc...
lessons for marketing?
Carmine never advertised, ever - All w-o-m.
The turned-on-it's-head 'customer service' was legendary - people lined up just to get shouted at.
The one-size-fits-one approach to portions!
He never pandered. If you don't like it go to pizza hut.
People love authenticity.
The opposite of great is not 'bad', it's average. Average is invisible.
Anyway, I heard that Carmine is retiring this year. It will be a sad day when the last customer is chased out the door.
apologies for the blantant use of a Billy Joel reference as the title (I'm on a rediscovery of early Billy Joel, it's a phase that will pass, i'm sure).
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Friday, August 01, 2008
guinness viral
via utalkmarketing
A spokesman said, “Please be assured that Guinness is in no way associated with this video, and has approached YouTube to have it removed'
yeah, right...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
'disposable' phones?
Bic - the makers of disposable pens and razors - and Orange France have introduced a disposable mobile phone.
hat-tip to brand dna
When we say 'disposable' I'm supposing that means 'use it and chuck it away'.
Not strictly true here as the phones can be topped up after the initial 'free' 60mins have been used.
With these phones Bic have kinda got it right as a brand extension but they have got it way wrong if they are not 100% recyclable.
Or maybe we don't actually care as it seems that only 3% of mobile phones are recycled anyway.
thought for monday - here's to the ladies...
'It is my fact-based conviction that women's increasing power - with their leadership skills and purchasing power - is the strongest and most dynamic force at work in the [American] economy today....even bigger than the internet.'
Tom Peters, Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age(2003)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
have tivo and amazon unearthed the holy grail of interactive tv?
There's been umpteen retail models developed around interactive tv over the years, none of them have paid off to any great degree as far as I can remember.
And I should know, I've crashed and burned with quite a few.
TiVO may just have cracked it though with the just announced extension of their partnership with Amazon.
For a wee while, TiVo users have been able to download movies and tv shows via Amazon’s digital on demand video store. Now that experiment has been extend to include other products.
'Product purchase' as the new feature is known - available on Tuesdays initially - links to products guests are plugging on the likes of Oprah and David Letterman.
If the viewer chooses to buy something during a show, TiVo records the rest of the programme so the viewer can pick up where they left off (as you would expect) - but here's the nifty bit. TiVo users are also able to save their items in their Amazon account basket and finish up later.
Taking the web and TV and weaving together their strengths?
The real holy grail however will come when the product purchase feature rolls out during ads (assuming they are not being skipped) and where shows feature product placement.
NY Times article here. Thanks to my old chum Brian at TiVO NY who alerted us.
Monday, July 07, 2008
special k summer challenge
Amid the kerfuffle around the Heinz NY deli style mayo ad I must say this one for the Special K Summer challenge is potentially far more 'dangerous'.
- To recap, there has been an outcry from certain reactionary quarters over the Heinz ad which features a 'family' at breakfast. The place of 'mother' is taken by a big NY deli style chef character who prepares the family's sandwiches. The dad gives the 'mum' a kiss at the end of the ad. Heinz pulled the ad temporarily after complaints from conservatives that the ad promotes homosexuality -
No outcry, however, over this Kelloggs ad which features a woman hiding herself to avoid being photographed on holiday, as she is embarrassed to be pictured in a red swimsuit.
The problem with this scenario, as you will see, is - she is not fat. Not even chubby. In fact, by all accounts she's pretty fit.
According to eating disorders information site Disordered Eating the number of people receiving treatment for anorexia or bulimia in the UK is around 90,000, while many more people have eating disorders undiagnosed, in particular those with bulimia nervosa.
This kind of thing does not help.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
mediacamplondon
On the off chance you're winding down friday afternoon with a quick trawl through your feed reader and chance upon this post, a quick reminder that MediaCampLondon is on tomorrow (Saturday) at:
SAE Institute North Road, Islington, London, N7 9DP
2mins from Caledonian Road tube.
from 10am.
Registration is still open at the wiki
and at the time of writing there are still a couple of slots open for sessions.
Friday, July 04, 2008
catch the pidgeon
spotted in barber shop window off Wardour St.
04/07 UPDATE
My eagle eyed brother, Al, (see comments) has spotted this is in fact a take off of a piece by Weegie artist David Shrigley, heres his original below.
Among his other notable credits are; the title sequence for the feature film HALLAM FOE and album cover art for the likes of Malcolm Middleton. 
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
life instructions
this is great. don't remember where i found it, if anyone knows (and if are there others like it?) please let me know.
billy boy and predictably irrational
The latest developments in energy drinks move the focus from sports to other energy sapping activities.
Among the myriad of products in the sex-drive boosting drinks market are:
SexDrive (does what it says on the tin), Slumpbuster and...wait for it...Deep Throat.
The one that caught my eye (courtesy of trendhunter) is Billy Boy (see pic).
Each can comes wrapped with an individual condom attached.
The German firm that makes it are actually in the condom business so the drink is an added extra.
With that in mind I was interested to hear behavioural economist Dan Ariely talking about his new book 'Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions' on a recent episode of business book podcast Foreword Thinking. Among the questions asked in the book are; 'Do you know why we sometimes find ourselves excitedly buying things we don’t really need?'
Airley conducted various experiments in the research including some fairly unsavoury research around how sexually aroused male college students decision making processes were altered by their state of arousal.
Note: One handed computer keyboards were integral to the experiment.
According to review site bevnet Billy Boy doesn't actually taste that great but when theres a job to be done taste is the least of considerations...
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