Never get out of the boat

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Electric Business

I spent Monday evening having a conversation with a group of small creative business owners - from the Surrey/Hampshire area - in Guildford.

Many thanks to Kate from the Farnham Electric Business Club for asking me to fill in.

I was asked to give a short presentation and kick off a discussion and braindump to see if we could collectively come up with some ideas and tactics around the theme of 'Know your Product'.
In retrospect I think I tried to squeeze a bit too much content into the presentation as I had to whizz through to allow enough time for the dialogue piece, and despite leaving my notes in the cab I just about managed to wing it.

My presentation was loosely themed around the value of conversation and connection strategies for small businesses with low or no budget for marketing.
I started off with a sort of case study of a piece of work we did at Weapon7 for the launch of Xbox360 which went viral via the Xbox fan forums. Using a fraction of the media budget it created a disproportionate buzz compared the more expensive media and showed how getting the early adopters and influencers talking can accelerate the spread of an idea.

I introduced gapingvoid's Stormhoek blogger outreach from 2005 and neatly segued in the launch of the Blue Monster label (how cool to be featuring it on day of launch) to demonstrate the influence of social media and show the value of unlikely partnerships, and followed that up with a look at Go Home Productions - how garden shed remixer's cgc ends up on MTV and remixes for David Bowie.

The homework for the group was to connect to me, join the conversation, start experimenting with new tools/tactics outside of traditional marketing and look into the kind of innovations that can develop the talkability of their product or service.

I also promised some recommended reading to get some thinking going, I'm going to list a couple of things here for those who have done the homework and looked me up.

BOOK - Seth Godin's Purple Cow , when I first read this about 3 years ago all sorts of lightbulbs started going off in my head.

PODCAST - to get enthused about all things new media you could do worse than Six Pixels

BLOG - Any of the links on my sidebar will lead you off to many more links.

And in the spirit of link-love heres the people who left me their cards at the end.

Claire Harrison, Fine Artist
Designer, Nick Cannons
Another designer, Andrew Cross
The Boiler Room, Guildford music and arts venue.

Whats the pic all about? On my way to work I usually buy a coffee off Mr Coffee, a van parked on the courtyard ouside new Spitalfields market. Despite having Starbucks, Costa and numerous other established coffee chains around them, Mr Coffee has a long line every morning. Instead of the usual boring loyalty stamp cards you get a free pair of pants with every 20 coffee's. Or if you just ask they will give you a pair anyway.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Look out kid, You're gonna get hit

As a Dylan freak, I'm loving this.
Send your own Subteranean Homesick Blues message.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

too much monkey business

"We've created a branded space in which Cadbury's can be generous in bringing joy,"

Yep, the Cadbury's ad with the gorilla doing Phil Collins.
You can't argue that it's a pretty funny and entertaining piece of content, decently executed. A bit of random Youtube-esque silly-ness in fact.

Yes, it's gone viral and theres a lot of debate about it

but did it need the massive tv budget to do that...?
and is it more about the clever dicks behind it than the brand...?

It's here

Quechup spam

sorry if i've spammed you with that Quechup thing. I got an invite from a trusted source and signed up to see what it was, then the b'stards hi-jacked my address book and spammed everyone. apologies again.

Go Home Productions retrospective

Arguably one of the finest exponents of the art of mash-up/bootleg/bastard pop - Go Home Productions - has released a 20 track retrospective 'cd' compiliation this week. "This Was Pop (2002-2007)" A 5 year bootleg retrospective.
GHP has delivered some of the most celebrated examples of the mash-up genre over the last few years including the Madonna/SexPistols fusion 'Ray of Gob' and 'Rapture Riders', the Blondie/Doors hybrid.

The mash-up phenomenon exploded around 2001/2 as bedroom mixers, enabled by the democratisation of music production allowed by software such as Acid, Ableton and later garageband fused acapella tracks with the instrumental tracks of other records to create new 'remixes’. 'Stroke of Genius' was probably the biggest of the time and that spawned an MTV slot with the video mash-ups to compliment the tracks and Mash-up club nights like ‘Bastard’.

GHP’s retrospective is a pretty decent introduction if anyone’s missed out.

GHP is also a pretty interesting case study in a couple of the basic ideas of the new marketing.

I'm thinking about, the power of free, permission and the product is the marketing.
By giving away the tracks for free via his website and mash-up community blogs like GYBO and Boomselection (early example of the long tail of distribution..?) GHP has build a fanbase and mailing list, with permission to contact the list when there’s new tracks uploaded.
With this comes reputation and with that comes dj bookings, ‘legit’ remix work etc.
From fiddling in the shed to official remixes for Bob Dylan and David Bowie is quite a ride.

Of course, it helps that his work is shit-hot. As an art form that is by nature ‘user-generated’ there are thousands of wannabe mash-up artists making pretty average at best, shoddy at worst mixes, but GHP’s ‘Purple Cow’ is the vast musical knowledge from years of fandom which allows him to introduce the little extra elements into his tracks that the less detail focussed would miss. In ‘Rock in Black’ - the Queen and AC-DC blend – the little addition of Freddie’s ‘..get on your bikes and ride’ line is that knowing final piece of polishing that gives it the extra 5% .

Anyway, the tracks are here.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Chromeo

A couple of the guys that have done some work with us recently have also made this promo clip for the new Chromeo album.
Pretty cool i think you'll agree.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

fatblogging wk#5 28_08_07

bit of a breakthrough this week. now 16st 6lb. 4 pounds off.
now its coming off i'm setting inital target of 14 stone by December.
Ive no idea if that's realistic?

Friday, August 24, 2007

Flogging a dead horse.

Campaign magazine run a feature this week, maybe influenced by the 7 deadly sins of digital - they home in on the 7 deadly sins of advertising, as illustrated by the most commonly used stereotypes and cliches.
Ranging from buffoon dads to single women with cats and 'crowds united for a cause'.
What's more remarkable is - how they narrowed the list down to seven.

The article is not online as I write but heres a couple of snippets to give you a flavour.

'Using stereotypes allows advertisers to communicate layers of meaning built up across centuries to a mass audience very quickly'

hmm, perhaps the only mass audience is the one that is fast forwarding past these ads with their Sky+.

'Great advertising shouldn't resemble the act of looking through a window at the world...in a world where we're given so much in the way of horror stories, greyness and hardship, the last thing we need is to see more of that in our ad break'

Er no, we use stuff like Art, Music, Movies to escape, not ads.

'Society still looks to advertising to entertain, promise and show world truths without it's gritty traumas' - the editorial.
Well, you wouldn't expect the industry rag to turn on it's own community but...

Maybe this stuff was true 20/30 years ago but the world has changed, consumers have changed and the rules of engagement are different. We are just not paying attention any more.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

MediaCamp BUCKS 07

Got my felt pens out and designed this nifty web 2.0 friendly ;) logo for MediaCamp BUCKS. I'm also pleased to add that I hooked up with Chris Hambly, the founder, to add my (considerable - see fatblogging) weight to any organisational areas where I can be of use.

For anyone reading this who would like to get involved, whether to present, sponsor or to participate in any way - the usual un-conference rules apply (ie there are no rules) - visit the wiki here for more info.

MediaCamp BUCKS is an UnConference with a strong educational flavour for bloggers, podcasters, and new media professionals & amateurs for one day to share, explore, challenge, and grow our abilities in new media.

When? Friday 19 October - Saturday 20 October 07
Where? Buckinghamshire Chilterns University, England, UK about half an hour from London - website

Monday, August 20, 2007

fatblogging wk#4 20_08_07

16st 10lb. another 1lb gone. A big shepherds pie last night probably took the edge off but at least I managed a whole week with only 1 beer - last wednesday (medicinal purposes).
Note on sunday: a 3-1 home defeat by the green half of the great unwashed would normally trigger the swift downing of a family size bag of Revels but I managed to resist...
keepin' on keepin' on.

Friday, August 17, 2007

its a big-ass table

cherkoff calls out adland

What makes a great blog post? the answer is..many things. Up there with the best reasons to post is pure partisan passion and opinion. Chuck in a bit of controversy and make sure you're gonna rile somebody somewhere and your just about there. James Cherkoff sticks it to the dinosaurs of the ad business in fine style over here.
"The tectonic plates that the marketing industry sits upon have shifted. What adfolk don't get is however great their ideas - no one cares anymore"
This gets the NGOTB chocolate watch for inspirational rant of the week.
Keep at it mate.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

fatblogging wk #3 14_08_07

16st 11lb. so 2 pounds off last weeks disaster puts me 1lb ahead after 3 weeks.
Its progress I suppose but a bit slow.

it's ok to consume...

I commented on a recent post by Mitch Joel - from the fantastic 'Six Pixels..' marketing podcast - on the evolution and widespread adoption of the tools of 'user generated content'. At one of the recent concerts by the re-formed lightwieght phoneys of 70s new wave The Police - despite the insights within his post I'm still not sure Mitch really gave a good enough reason as to why he was actually there in the first place ;) - he noted the mass of mobile devices capturing either audio or video at the concert and the subsequent upload to the various channels within hours of the event. Mitch observes 'So, why is there so much User Generated Content? The answer is simple: because they can. Content creation from the User’s perspective is no longer an option. It’s a right… '
Anyway it got me thinking about the same thing that has started happening at the football. Here's a bit of my comment (i've only reproduced it here because i wanted it captured in my own space for posterity)
'...the winger goes on a mazy run, beats 3 or 4 defenders, delivers and inch perfect cross to the big striker who powers a thunderous right foot strike into the back of the net past the flailing goalkeeper. as the camera pans to the striker running towards the delirious fans behind the goal...where once there were wild eyed faces of ecstacy with outstreched arms theres a metallic cyborg army of clicking one eyed monsters.'
At the end of the day (gratuitous football cliche) the clamour to create content can sometimes get in the way of simply enjoying and consuming. With music and football surely its about immersing yourself in the experience and simply getting off on what it is? Dunno.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Tony Wilson

Our man in the north, a key mover in the development of the two most important era's in British music, punk and acid house (yes London, the north had it first while you were still rare grooving in bobble hats and flares). Everyone knows the story. Cheers Tony.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

ACID HOUSE MEDIA

We now know about Punk Marketing. I’ve also come across Punk Planning and Rock’n’Roll Advertising. But where does the new media marketing and social media explosion sit in the world of pop cultural analogies?

Its ACID HOUSE MEDIA.

Like its distant cousins mentioned above ACID HOUSE MEDIA is a grass roots movement built from the ground up by passionate enthusiasts, bored with the conventional establishment thinking, and determined to build their own scene relevant to their values.

Podcamps are like the illegal raves, popping up in any urban space that can accommodate them. New friends are made in seconds as strangers bond over the sounds of techno bleeps. While the warehouse party generation kept themselves up all night with Ecstacy the drug of choice for the new media generation is another kind of E.
Connectivit-E. (behave yourself! – Ed)

Like the payphones in M25 service stations back in the day, Twitter spreads the word among the new media ravers about the latest techno tools to keep the party going.
For the hardcore the party continues all day and night in Second Life where people who have never met can rub sweaty semi naked bodies against each other.

Podcasts pump out the message day and night from the tower blocks and council estates.'Big shout out to the new media posse in the area. Keep it locked!'

Meanwhile, as in the first wave of Acid House, everyone is a DJ. Ripping and remixing content then sharing their ‘mixtapes’ via Youtube and Flickr then spreading the word via the superclubs like Facebook, which have sprung up as the underground starts its inevitable journey into the mainstream.

Where does it go from here? Every integrated agency is ramping up digital as the new media marketing rave bubble grows. Every big brand marketing director is asking questions about how they can leverage this cultural explosion.
Like Acid House it will not be long before the whole culture is absorbed by the mainstream. Maybe it already has? Maybe we will see the endless fragmentation of sub-genres? Balearic Digital Marketing, Drum’n’Bass Advertising, Handbag PR.

Maybe we won’t care though, because we will already be onto the next thing.

In the meantime – Get on one.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

tshirts-socialmedia-tshirts

Greg Verdino comments on AdAge's no-shit-sherlock revelation that the t-shirt is a marketing vehicle. Slightly more insightful is Greg's analogy that the t-shirt has more in common with some of the 'key truths' of social-media.
sample
'Advertisers still think about campaigns as discreet programs with fixed start and end dates -- when the last ad runs or the promotion expires, the campaign is over. (If) t-shirts are forever..'
full post here.
I'm still after a Twitter shirt if anyone knows where to track one down?

Monday, August 06, 2007

bbc news - wtf?

I wonder if anone else is puzzled by whats happening to the bbc news in the morning. I'm up about 5.30 and lately theres been some Australian bloke presenting the pre 6am news. The whole hour is an ego-fest for this guy - shouting at the camera, arms flailing and gesticulating. offering his opinions!
This morning he even had the normally MILD MANNERED fella that does the far east financial report upping his 'presentation' so as not to feel left out.
I would expect, and have seen, this type of 'news-as-entertainment' on 3rd rate US cable news channels but there should be no place for this bollocks on the bbc.
READ THE F*CKING NEWS. If I want entertainment I'll ask for Bruce Forsyth...

fatblogging wk#2 06 08 07

last nights weigh in...
16s 13lb
Poor start, up 1lb from last week.
Could have something to do with saturdays beer fest, my mate Adam turned up at the door after being awol for 2 years learning to be a yacht captain.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Sky and Amstrad

In case anyone thought Sky were being a bit quiet on the iptv/broadband delivered tv front (i was one of those) the announcement of the Amstrad purchase reveals all. Now they have brought that relationship 'in-house', and added to the aquisition of Easynet earlier, I would expect some serious vid/content on demand developments sooner rather than later.
I'm now sitting back on my order for a Sky+ box - i'd bet they will free before long.

Monday, July 30, 2007

2d to 3d web

just read that Mattel's Barbie Girls an immersive brand virtual world, has signed up three million members in the first 2 months, and they’re getting around 50,000 new sign ups a day.
anyone else still doubting the transformation of the web from a 2d browser experience to a 3d immersive one? the only question now is how long?...

a journey of a thousand miles....

begins with but a single step.
Just back from an enjoyable week in the sun at Dionysos canyon in the mountains overlooking Kumlubük bay in Turkey.
Highly recommended if you want a real away from it all holiday.
I was all set to start a flickr page and post my snaps when I was struck by the realisation...
I AM A FAT B'STARD.
I cannot possibly share the pics of my semi-naked wobbling.
Hence forth a portion of this journal will now be given over to the phenomenon known as fatblogging. I'll do the first weigh-in tonight and each Monday will be tracking my progress. Need to work out a plan and some targets but today is offically the start of the new me. Wish me luck...

Friday, July 20, 2007

white list email marketing

avoiding the blacklist courtesy of Seth Godin

Click through to see the plexo

Monday, July 16, 2007

Sign O' The Times

The biggest marketing story of the week is, of course, the new Prince album 'Planet Earth' which was given away free with the Mail on Sunday in the UK this weekend.
Quote from his purpleness “It’s direct marketing and I don’t have to be in the speculation business of the record industry, which is going through a lot of tumultuous times right now,”
Prince has been a thorn in the record industry's side since probably day 1. Among the most famous incidents being when he went on 'strike' in 1994 in a dispute with Warners over publishing rights and appeared with 'Slave' written on his face for a number of months.
There will be plenty written and discussed over the implications for the retail end of the record industry - its not harming the artist much as the sell out tour indicates. Let's not forget, hardcore Prince fans are going go and buy another copy when the official release happens. It's worked as a re-awakening for lapsed fans like myself. I've listened a couple of times now and ive liked the organic band-y sound, although Prince has been off my radar for a few years anyway so maybe thats not a new development.
One question though. I wonder how it ended up going out with Britains most reactionary right-wing paper rather than . say, the Observer - which does a monthly music pull out a la Mojo or Q - which would seem to me to be a more appropriate partner? Highest bidder I suppose, but that took a little bit of the shine off a real innovation, for me.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Bernie Rhodes knows...don't argue

Had an interesting email exchange with legendary punk agitator, ex-Clash and Special AKA manager Bernard Rhodes the other day.

I'd contacted Bernard with some questions after checking out his website, where BR rails against all and sundry and laments at the shallow and vacuous nature of contemporary popular culture.

I politely suggested to BR that he might like to consider opening up the site into a more bloggy format to allow readers to comment and perhaps link up with like-minded readers - thus enabling a conversation and a community to see each other, around the content.

I also encouraged BR to think about new-ish things like Twitter (when you check out his stuff i'm sure you'll agree he has enough short soundbites to fit the format).

Well, BR responded indirectly via his contact page by explaining he has no plans to be getting involved in social media as it is the domain of 'ranters, bullshitters and timewasters'.

That's his take. Obviously it's early days in this space so we'll see where it lands.

I still think BR has some pretty interesting views which would get some debate going for sure but it appears he's not ready just yet.

Thats a shame I think, if this forum had been around for some of BR's influences such as Guy Debord.

I think there would have been some interesting ideas reaching out further than they did in their time.

I wonder what Malcolm is up to...

Live earth

If the combined egos of the pop glitterati on stage at live earth could be harnessed to generate electricity we'd have no energy problems for the foreseeable future.
Where was Jarvis when we needed him? Madonna's performance (put your hands together to save the planet...?) was up there with Jacko's legendary Brits self deification from 10 years ago. I really though we were past that. Politics and pop does mix when theres something at the core, but what exactly were this lot saying about anything? Pussycat Dolls? I mean, come on. The funniest thing was the ticker tape thing at the back of the stage typing out loft insulation tips while Genesis hobbled around the stage looking like a bunch of cowboy builders.

chinwag party

Met up with a couple of twitter pals at the chinwag party, Artful Dodger Sam and Stoke City fan Will. Its great to put faces to names and a few beers and hot dogs were quaffed. I also managed to have a chat to Luke Razzell, who I'd seen speaking at the last Chiwag live, and his girlfriend Charla.
We've now facebooked up and I'm hoping to be able to contribute to his new Blogfriends project, if I can.
I was also introduced to zeroinfluencer aka Dave. Dave is involved in one of the most interesting developments in tv for a while, Where are the Joneses?. Its a wiki based tv show where the plot and script etc are written by the 'community'. Didn't get a chance to really have a proper blether but I'm hoping that will happen sometime soon. Thanks to Chinwag for bringing people together, again.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

can a brand 'own' football?

Had an interesting conversation today around Nike and adidas, both brands trying to 'own' football (soccerball, for my US chums). With Euro 2008 fast approaching the battle will become even more fierce.
Nike's Shooting Gallery ups the ante although some of the invitation clips smell a bit phony to me...;)
At the end of the day (gratuitous football cliche ole) I'm on the adidas side, if only because the badge adorned the shirts of Willie Miller and co on the greatest night in the history of football - May 11th 1983
Nike just havent earned it yet.

Monday, June 25, 2007

interruption marketing can still work...

Walking down Commercial Road about half an hour ago I came across one of the last outposts of full on interruption marketing. An old dosser approached me, I expected the usual 'have you got 10p for a cup of tea' routine. But no.
This fella has obviously had a think about it. With interruption strategies your message has to really cut through the clutter to get my attention and be highly targeted. Bear in mind that round E1 way there are plenty city boys with there 100k bonuses burning holes in their pocket (i'm not one of them unfortunately). His pitch was as follows. 'Excuse me mate, have you got a spare couple of hundred quid for some hard drugs and kinky sex?' I gave him 50p.
Of course, if he collared me tomorrow with the same story I might not be so inclined.
But as a one off interuption which made me pay attention and gave me a wee laugh it worked.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

chinwag live - dark side of social media

Popped down to check this out last night. Details of the panel are here.
Interestingly enough there were no representatives from any of the big social network 'providers' (is that the right word) ie Myspace, facebook. Apparently they were invited to contribute but declined on the basis of a reluctance to be thrown into the 'bear pit'. A bit poor in my view as probably around 75% of the audience were advocates and active participants in at least one of the popular tools around.
There were the usual topics discussed - stalking, myspace riots etc but not really any great insights to be fair. I enjoyed the comments of James Cherkoff and will be checking out his modern marketing blog, and had some sympathy for identitologist, Luke Razzell who got a bit of stage fright at the beginning and then just got into his stride as the session came to a close.
The funniest thing, though, was a generally angry Tim Ireland from bloggereads who landed some new terms on me, 'sockpuppets' and 'astroturfing'. I'll not bother explaining them here, look them up if your interested.
Tim's pearls of wisdom/tales from the darkside included the revelation that politicians and their lackeys are using social media outlets to try and galvanise support for dubious policies and generally manipulate the conversation on blogs by the use of multiple identities and faking grass roots support (there, Ive given away the astroturfing reference'). as he gazed upon the audience with a face that begged 'can you believe this?' I found myself contemplating...politicians manipulating media to further there own dubious ends, and hoodwinking the populace?
surely not. The words no shit and sherlock came to mind.
Notably no mentions of Twitter/Jaiku (although a good few of the audience could be seen feverishly twittering updates on their phones) and ning (this is a relatively new one to me, but after an hour or so fiddling with it yesterday it seems potentially a bit of a bad apple...dunno).
The main take-out was, of course, be careful what you post out there because its up there forever and might come back to bite you. And there was a general agreement that, yes -there is a dark side to social media but likewise there is a dark side to any interaction between humans virtual or otherwise.
I'll definitely be checking out, and no doubt commenting on, these chinwag events in the future. Next time I'll aslo try and do a bit more real life networking, I was on my jack last night so didn't mingle that much. Big thanks to Thayer for the invitation and baptism into the chinwag network.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

south west trains

dear south west trains,
I hope you've got your google alerts on cos I'd like you to read this.
This morning I tried to renew my weekly ticket (in the same manner Ive done for the past 2 and a half years that ive been commuting with them) only to be told by the guard on the train that they will no longer renew tickets on the train and I am liable for a penalty fare plus a non-refundable single journey ticket to get to Waterloo, where I then had to q for 20mins to get my weekly ticket at the desk.
After a great debate I had togive in, and endeavoured to get a refund upon arrival.
I pulled up one of the managers at Waterloo to try and get him to see sense - and heres the funny bit - he pointed me to the swt website where I could make an appeal but told me there was no point as no-one reads them. ha!
Anyway, this is where all the pr, marketing and advertising fluff you like falls over.
At the point where the consumer (ie me) actually, physically interfaces with the brand the experience is shocking. This got me thinking as I listened to the station announcements 'anyone verbally or physically assaulting our staff will be prosecuted' 'dont talke your eye off your bags or we'll take them away and blow them up' etc etc - negative, negative.
Now SWT have a monopoly situation. I have NO CHOICE but to use their service. But, and its a big one (we like big butts) they are fostering some serious ill-will towards their brand by doing everything in their power to make things more difficult and annoying for their consumer. I have NO CHOICE at the moment but if in the future I get any opportunity to stick one on them I will be taking it. And theres 1000's others who will no doubt feel the same. B'STARDS.
This is Thatcher's legacy - public services SOLD OFF to the private sector. For what? To improve service by creating competition? where is the competition?
Ive come up with a new line for their marketing.
'South West Trains - Fuck you and give us your money'
They should use it - at least it's transparent.
Great start to the day.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Stop poncing around with more cultural bullshit.

jeez, i thought my ramblings were pretty random till i came across the website of former Clash manager and original punk strategist Bernard Rhodes.

Heres a sample quote:
'These are the early days of a street peoples movement, formed to counter the vast amount of cultural and political bullshit which is constantly invading our lives.Worse, this corrupt and boring corperate paradise for squares, is being promoted by a media we detest but are forced to endure.
If you're hip you'll understand'

www.bernardrhodes.com

current fave

Seen this online art collaborative thing which i'm liking.
zoomquilt

the vinyl countdown...a sagely tale

disaster struck the other day.
We'd been out shopping a while back a bought a bunch of 12inch frames designed for LP covers. The idea was to frame up some of our ols album covers with arty artwork ie the Velvets 1st, Sticky Fingers (Warhols) Sgt Pepper, maybe some old Blue Notes and suchlike to hang on the stairs. Anyway in a space saving excercise last summer i'd boxed up all my old records (i used to be a club dj back in the early 90s so its a fair old pile 1000's of 12inch singles plus 100s of vinyl lp's from jazz to punk and whatever else) wrapped the boxes in bin bags and stored them in the old ww2 bomb shelter we have in the garden. So i went out the other day to have a dig about and it turned out that over the winter the rain had come in through the airbrick and basically all the bottom level of boxes had been sitting in a few inches of water for about 5 months. I've salvaged most of the actual vinyl but the covers are pretty wrecked.
The moral? Look after what you care about, dont neglect it cos when you need it it might not be there any more.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

berrysplat tv

Berrysplat tv is a project I've been involved with that I'd like to share.
Ribena is a popular drink in the UK - they claim that 97% of blackberries grown in the uk make it into Ribena. The story of this project is - what happens to the other 3%?
Budding filmmakers (we gave cameras to some film students and alereted Ribena's opted-in database to kick-off participation) are invited to submit their movies with fun, interesting , innovative ways of 'splatting' berries. The clips are voted a la YouTube etc and the overall winner trousers a thousand quid. As a little extra bonus some of the best videos will be featured behind the red button on the interactive tv ads during the four week run of the tv campaign, so its multi platform. It just gone live and theres a few bugs being ironed out on the fly but I'd welcome any comments/views.
Its a decent little piece of brand participation with a cross-platform twist and a couple of incentives. Also its not overly sell-y.
Ribena fact: while I was chatting with my hairdresser the other day she told me that when she and here boyfriend lived in New Jersey they used to make a weekly pilgrimage to a specialist deli in Brooklyn, who imported stuff from the uk, to specifically buy Ribena - for 10 dollars a bottle! - they rationed themselves to one glass a day as a taste of home.
have a look here www.berryspat.tv

Thursday, May 31, 2007

the horses are on the track....

and no it wasn't me.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM

another new discovery that's blown me away
'Because as with nature, innovation doesn't take place in a vacuum'
Innovation ecosystem blog

file under 'no shit, sherlock?'

BBDO agency investigates our shared habits in an attempt to work them to a marketer's advantage or find opportunities to break them.
SOMEBODY GIVE THESE PEOPLE A SHAKE

Come back CSP, all is forgiven

in a grumpy mood last week I commented on Christopher S Penn's otherwise excellent and insightful journal that a list of twitter updates doth not a good blog make...and i was unsubscribing. well, he's binned the twitter updates (can follow on twitter after all if i'm interested) and so i've come back.
here's his latest musings,always thought provoking and forthright.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

linked in

Never got round to using this Myspace for grown-ups but Ive now just done a megablast from my mail contacts and i guess I wait and see who it reels in.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Billy No-mates

No votes so far - hardly surprising judging by the amount of comments i get here.
Still, you've got to be in it to win it.
Vote here

This is England

Really looking forward to seeing Shane Meadows new movie This is England.
Got me remembering back to 1979-82-ish, splashing bleach on my Levi's over the sink and going for a No1 crop. I bumped into my mum on the way back from the barbers and she never recognised me. These were the days when fashion, music and that were a statement and had meaning. identity through subculture etc. Quite a contrast with today (I'm thinking about Kate Moss Top Shop again...) I also remember Saturday afternoon shopping for Ben Sherman shirts, trying to track down the ones with original Oxford cloth. Dexy's, Two-tone, Fred Perry everything. Traveling to Ipswich to see AFC in the UEFA cup - suedehead army....Happy days, i'm going goo-ey now.
After all that i hope the film is actually any good.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY from trendwatching

Another gem from the excellent trendwatching.com. true and correct.

sample: "Old economy fog is clearing: no longer can incompetence, below-par performance, ignored global standards, anti-social & anti-eco behavior, or opaque pricing be obscured. In its place has come a transparent, fully informed marketplace, where producers have no excuse left to underperform. TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY for some, TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH for others."

full thing here

Be an Arsehole today

Still reeling from this Christopher S Penn post on one of my new favourite blogs, yesterday.

sample; '..commit today to no longer communicate or work with people who are poisonous to your well being. You know who they are - rumor mongers, gossips, backstabbers, energy vampires, and generally not nice people'

changed it from Asshole to the English venacular of course...

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

The Damned United

Loving David Peace's 'The Damned United'. Unputdownable is the phrase I believe.
Essentially a biog of the late great Brian Clough, famously the gratest manager England never had, in the form of a stream of conciousness from the mind of Cloughie
during his ill-fated 44 day stint as Leeds boss in the early 70s and reflections on his rise to the top in the decade that preceded. Dark and menacing in tone
it's is like a 'Heart of Darkness' in the world of football.
bonus: its on the 3 for 2 table, too.

Kate Moss and Top Shop

The latest post-consumer (ahem) consumption frenzy as Kate's 'collection' launched at Top Shop last night. Shoppers were allowed 20 mins to purchase a maximum of 5 items. A whole can of worms really and I'm not sure what to make of it as an observer. I'm reminded of the notion that it's no longer about celebrity as endorser, it's about celebrity as provider (of what though?)
Kate's 'designs' are - lets face it - hooker outfits for teens and thats not particularly healthy. Neither is the consumption frenzy (again) like the Primark riots and the Ikea opening where sofa hunters were being stabbed by rivals in the queue. Dont know where I'm going with this but I just get a bit squeamish.
(note to self; Too much use of consumption in this post)

'I came in here for the special offer..guaranteed personality'

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

D&AD 2007 - Need for Speed Carbon AV Wars

Its that time again, and I please to note another entry in the book for 2007 to add to last years haul of 3 (including 1 Yellow Pencil nomination).
You can argue of the merits of the D&AD awards (smug ad industry back slapping vs genuine recognition for good creative) but to be fair I'll take any accolades going thank you very much.
The piece in question was a digital tv interactive 'ad' for EA Games release of Need for Speed Carbon - 'AV Wars'. You can check out a snippet on my portfolio site
The reason I'm pleased about this award is it was a conceptually strong idea with some great content to work with. EA marketing people had commissioned AV 'remixes' of NFSC by leading VJs that was earmarked for release at some date after launch. We asked for exclusive use of that content for the 'ad' and played it out longform behind the red button off the ads on digital tv. Of course NFSC fans recorded the thing on their PVRs ripped it and it was all over Youtube within hours.
So it was abit of tv that empowered and involved the viewer and contributed to community and conversation online via the forums and social media. And it looks pretty cool too. Job done?

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Office fave - Thou Shalt always Kill

loving this

Bowie fixated bbc drama a go go

Great news, after I cried into my cornflakes following the last episode of the best british drama on telly since god knows when, Life on Mars, a cursory reading of the Metro over someones shoulder on the tube revealed that a sequel is being shot.
Ashes to Ashes will be set in the 80s this time. I cant wait for The Laughing Gnome after that, or Hey! Mr Gravedigger for that matter.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

web 2.0 bullsh*t generator

Remember the dack.com web economy bs generator from a few years back?
These guys have updated it for web 2.0. Literally minutes of fun to be had until it starts to ring true too close to home...
Also there is Brownpau's Buzzphrase Generator for some "excellent catchphrases with which to litter your site and marketing materials".
fantastic.
go ahead make bullsh*t

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

wembley

Had to laugh at this. Scottish builders at the new Wembley have hidden Scotland flags and stuff under the turf. Spirit of 77 lives on...

sunny day on brick lane

snapped this, no idea what its about, something to do with teeth anyway, but quite liked it.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

adobe cs3

Off to see a preview of Adobe CS3 tonight. Still angry at them for binning Freehand.
It will be shaking hands with the devil...
this is more of a tweet than a blog, sorry.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Pies and Prejudice

Enjoying C4 talking head and sometime Radio 2 dj Stuart Maconie's latest 'Pies and Prejudice'. A vague travelogue of the north of England (with some fairly gratuitius south-bashing for good measure). Being Scottish i'm not sure where I stand on the old north-south divide. I'm veering towards being an honorary Southerner but only because I worked in Liverpool for a while (Stuart berates cockneys for their 'thumbs in lapels cheerie-ness' but equally a pain in the arse is how everyone in Liverpool thinks they are a comedian or have stepped out of some black humour Carla Lane sitcom (howzat for sweeping generalisation!)
Heres a snippet on Hampshire (my current residence) that made me Lol on the train.
' ..I remember defence secretary Geoff Hoon using Hampshire as a reference during the early days of the invasion of Iraq when British soldiers were patrolling the city of Umm Qasr. 'Umm Quasr is a city similar to Southampton' he informed the Commons, prompting one British squaddie to reply to an interviewer, 'He's either never been to Southampton, or he's never been to Umm Quasr. Theres no beer, no prostitutes and people are shooting at us. It's more like Portsmouth'.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Spitalfields market

Nearly pee-ed myself with exitement at coming across 7inch God save the Queen ON a&m
just now in Spitalfields market, it's thursday - antiques day.
There are supposedly only around 100 of these in existence and go for around £5k.
I couldn't believe my luck when I saw this one for fifteen nicker!
Suspicions were aroused however when i noticed the pink vinyl...and another 10 copies in the same box...
Decent business idea though, press up your own batch of ultra rare records and sell them on for ten times the price of a regular 7inch. I cant remember manufacturing costs but i think a batch of a thousand would cost you a couple of hundred. not a bad return...
Spitalfield is Londons best market by far, changes everyday and not overrun by tourists like Camden, Borough nd Portobello.

Friday, March 09, 2007

another Punk book

Just finished this one, Babylons Burning by Clinton Haylin.
He's the guy who wrote Velvets to the Void Oids, another one of my favourites.
The first 3 quarters of this is one of the best books about punk ive come across - up there with Englands Dreaming etc for detail and analytical but the final quarter veers off at a tangent towards the largely insignificant so called paisley underground of the mid 80s then seems to crowbar in large sections on dull american college rock to somehow teniously link up to Nirvana and grunge. shame.

HEROES

loving this on sci-fi channel. missed it first time round but they are re-running them just now
and ive just cottoned on to downloading tv via bit-torrent so ive got the first 17 episodes queued up (although its going to take about 3 days to dowload...)
for younger readers this is an example of artist generated content. this is where people go to college and learn how to pretend to be other people (known as acting) and say words that have been written by a writer (also known as a script). This type of content was popular back in the early days of tv and is currently having a bit of a revival.

Friday, February 09, 2007

Current office fave

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

the wow starts...when?

Have you seen the tv ad. what a load of tosh, as if we needed more proof of the almost total irrelevance of 90% of tv advertising (unless the ad was made by Apple to make their competitor look bad). Vista is supposed to be part of new media, a tool, but the launch has a real old media smell. Microsoft (ok MSN) boo-ed me off for a job too so double stuff you to them.
Then you've got to laugh at this motley crew...waiting for the wow to start.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

WFMU 60 second remix

enjoying this little bit of ugc.
take any song, edit and reduce it to sixty seconds or less.the winner gets a load of free records and that.
It works best with really long songs, my current fave is A Really Quick One (The Who) by a fella called Tim Scullion

Friday, January 12, 2007

Craig strikes for the over 40s!

Nice one Craig Brewster, signed on for the reds at 40 - comes on as sub in the cup v Hibs scores one and sets up the last min equaliser. Despite being twice the age of half of the rest of the field he shows how its done. As Oscar Wilde said 'Youth is wasted on the young...'

iPhone

You've got to love it. The big question is - how can they make and design such good looking, innovative stuff but still not know how to dress themselves in the morning.
Did you see the state of Jobbs' shirt and trousers...

Monday, January 01, 2007

happy new year

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Sock it to em jb

Thursday, December 14, 2006

letting it slip

Ive been piddling around over at my myspace page so neglecting this blog, sorry.

Friday, November 17, 2006

over exposure

Saw this article which i thought was worth sharing. More on the slow death of marketing but written with a degree of panache!
sample quote - 'We’re so niche, it’s hysterical. Don’t spend all those marketing dollars, for you’re burning out your core audience. And your only hope is that this core audience will revere you, adopt you and spread the word to others. Because you can’t REACH the others!!'
Been away for a bit so so posts for a while.
Ive got some pics of our Venice trip which I'll get up once I get near a PC.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

AVENUE Q

Went to see this at the weekend with M. Laugh out loud from start to finish.
To be fair I hate musicals and was dragged along under duress but glad i went.
Go see it if you get the chance.
Lack of updates here recently due to not being arsed. In case anyones interested the chilli harvest was a bumper one. One homegrown pepper in a pot of chilli blows yer head off. Never buying supermarket crap again. Same goes for the tomatoes, ended up giving loads away as theres too many. Had a bit of a duff year for grapes though...need to buy a book or something.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

guerilla something, not sure what

This is great. Graffiti/street artist Banksy and DJ Dangermouse (of the Grey Album and Gnarls Barclay fame) got together and messed with Paris Hilton's album.
Banksy doctored the artwork, mouse tweaked the music and then they printed them up and dumped 500 in HMVs all over London.read more about it here
or see the movie of them at it here
Bring me the Heads have kindly posted the whole package here

hey! music lover

Rapidshare have deleted my files so I've bit the bullet and done a myspace.
Its in prog but the tunes are up there.
'Pricks' and 'Saigon' at the moment.
heres the link

Monday, September 11, 2006

hey hey we're not the monkees

I'm a little bit late with this one and the whole 'consumer generated content' thing
but did find this very curious.Sponsored by Wendys and produced by Bolt media its taking the whole manufactured pop to the next level.
the 'band' is called Orangeblood' and the track 'Gunshy'
Produced entirely via Web collaboration with audience participating and voting on every aspect - from the band's name to choosing members and the tune distributed via MySpace etc.
Got this from the excellent JaffeJuice.

Tried to embed the audio but bloggers not having it so heres the link

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Vertigo...

Cured!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

More Rock'n'Roll History

Here's 'Zed's Dead Baby' the original 'A' side of the Pricks EP in an earlier post
This one continued the Pulp fiction theme. There was a few tunes around shortly after this was released in 95 that used the 'path of the righteous man...' sample
but my ones used less obvious bits of dialogue. By the way Pricks pre-dated the Fun Lovin Criminals by about a year in case you were wondering.
This was the UK A-side but DJs were playing the Pricks track so it got flipped round for the Belgian and Italian releases.
I ripped this from the State of Play vol 1 cd which I had to buy off ebay. I had about 10 copies but ended up giving them all away, luckily someone had one for sale. £2.99 was a bit cheap I thought. I also got a copy of my first single for Hook, as Party on Plastic, for 50p - an disgrace , it should have been on there for £10 at least.
I'll post that one once I figure out how to record from vinyl into me computer.
Zeds Dead Baby here

Saturday, August 12, 2006

D&AD

My certificates arrived yesterday (2 in the book, count 'em).
Xbox thing for New uses of broadcast and Smirnoff thing for interactive advertising.
Couldn't help being slightly underwhelmed by the cheapy paper and rubber stamp.
For eighty squid a pop I think I was expecting something a bit better. I wonder if the pencils are rubber?

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Arthurly...

Friday, August 04, 2006

Schnabel

Turns out Julian Schnabel was the chef at Max's Kansas City in NY in the late 70's - flipping burgers and breaking plates while the likes of the Ramones and Heartbreakers were inventing punk...

Thursday, August 03, 2006

No sleep 'til canvey island...

I just got the Feelgood's first lp again, its been reissued with extra tracks.

Theres a 2nd cd with stereo versions (the original '74 lp was mono) butI prefer it in mono, anyway.

As a kid I marvelled at Wilko's ability to play lead and rhythm guitar at the same time (and with his fist!).

Next thing the Ramones came over and the rest is history...
Little known fact, Wilko Johnson's real name is John Wilkinson.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Take a tip from Mr Johnny Green...

Speaking of bikes...
This is a great book. Ex Clash roadie Johnny Green (immortalised in the Dr Feelgood classic 'Take a Tip') gives a grass roots fan's eye view of the Tour de France. Plenty of 'on the road' rock'n'roll anecdotes thrown in as they stalk Lance Armstrong and co around France. JG's enthusiasm is infectious and its a great intro to the Tour if, like me, you've not got a clue what its all about.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

i've got a bike you can ride it if you like...

We had a few quid to spare last week so went and blew it on bikes.
A final tribute to Syd after listening to 'Piper' all week maybe. I got a minimal black Marin and M got a Trek with a comfy seat. The first bikes we have ever had! Theres no gym or anything round by us in leafy Hampshire, so it seemed like a good investment from an exercise point of view. A new hobby!...and safer than crack.
Next week a cloak.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Dance like a monkey...

I must admit to approaching the first Dolls album in 30 odd years with some caution..
Need not have worried, seriously, it ROCKS! Basically, starting where Too Much too Soon left off
its as though its 1974 again. David J's voice sounds like a few fags have been smoked inbetween mind you and in all fairness we could do without Micheal Stipe's cameo, but you can't have it all.
I read a thing where Noel Gallagher out of Oasis said, in response to critisism that Oasis had become a bit formulaic and didn't experiment etc like, say, Radiohead, 'Let the others do the experimenting, we'll blow the roof off everywhere we play'.
Thats the spirit of rock'n'roll for you and theres plenty of it here.
Between this and Primal Scream it's a rockin' summer....

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Rock'n'Roll part 3 - Saigon

Here's another of my greatest non-hits, 'Saigon'. This is my favourite of all the stuff I did for Bellboy.
Recorded at the beginning of 97 this was a deliberate move away from the four to the floor techno stompers that had become my trademark. The guitar came out of mothballs and this one features real bass guitar too. This track was scheduled as a single but potential problems with the Apocalypse Now samples (and the label having a bit of difficulty getting their heads around a radical change of direction) meant it was tucked away on the 2nd Bellboy cd compilation State of Play 2, as a bonus unreleased track. About 6 months after this came out Death in Vegas came out with The Contico Sessions, this wouldn't have been out of place on there so I knew I was on the right track even if the label didn't.
This track also featured in the 1998 Paul Spurrier film Underground grim tale of urban decay starring Ian Dury!
Heres the tune

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Bono

In between saving the world Bono still has time for a pint.
Apparently in Ireland theres no equivalent word for the Spanish 'manana'.
There's nothing that requires that level of urgency.
Irish fella told me that so dont start.
Did this illustration as part of a St Patricks day thing but the client bottled it and wouldn't use it.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Latest from the garden...

After last years pumpkin fiasco (3 pumpkin plants just about took over the whole patio and then when they were just about ready for picking a hedgehog attack and half of them got nibbled) Ive stuck to tomatoes this year. 15 plants altogether with a good few big bunches of golfball size green tomatoes already.
Ive also experimented with chillis this year - theres 6 plants. I've had them inside as i thought they might be a bit sensitive, but with this heatwave we're having ive got them outside now.
The grapes are looking good too - I gave the vine a good chopping before last winter so this years crop look much better than last year's.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

That cat's something I can't explain...

Monday, July 10, 2006

My Kurt Cobain story

A couple of weeks after Kurt Cobain topped himself, on a regular Tuesday morning, I was going about my business in the record shop i managed in Aberdeen. Next thing a couple of geezers came in, a journo and photographer. They explained they were doing a feature for Select magazine (serious rock mag a la Mojo or Q) on the recent demise of the aforementioned KC.
As Nirvana came from a small town near Seattle called Aberdeen the idea of the piece was to get vox pops from punters in the American Aberdeen and the Scottish one with individual reactions to the sad news and asked if I would mind if they hung around the shop to talk to the customers.
No problem, except at 9,30 on a tuesday morning there was no-one about so after half an hour they got bored and did me instead. I was a bit gumpy as per usual in the morning so reeled of some flippant comment about KC being a bit of a twat who bough the whole rock'n'roll death trip blah blah. Photo taken and off they went.
Next month in Select theres the article with my pic and sarcy comment. Within hours the phone in the shop is going mad with angst ridden Nirvana fans offering death threats and the like to yours truly and the shop window is full of spotty faces with greasy hair ponting in at me going 'thats him..'. A couple of them started following me home so I had to do a detour through a few gardens to shake them off. I was also a club dj at the time, and fairly well known locally, so I had grand delusions of being assasinated in mid backspin on the decks, I was more concerned about which record i'd be playing as the shots rang out - it would have had to be something obscure and cool.
The spooky thing was on the next page of the article theres a Nirvana pic and the bass player, Kris Nobolisk or something, is my double! (except I'm slightly better looking). Needless to say for the next couple of months we didn't sell much Nirvana and other grunge type stuff as the pimply punkers gave the shop a wide berth.
And thats my Kurt Cobain story.