Piehead (also known as Philip Slade) gets rather excited by the world around him. This is a record of the stuff he finds. Most is haphazardly filed as either 'Home' or 'Work' The difference generally being whether it features: rants about brands and marketing or Alice (14) and Jake (13) or very occasionally the Fish.
Having struggled with Dyslexia all his life, Philip now admits that spelling and grammar will be skills mastered in the next life
Ok so it did take the best part of a month to get going but the Mo has arrived! Pictures HERE.
This really itchy and frankly low rent porn star look is all in the interests of a very good cause, raising funds for The Prostate Cancer Charity. Last year over £14 Million was raised from 173,000 Mo growing men.
Hopefully you will find time to sponsor me as well. Link to my Mo page HERE.
Either way, happy Monday to you all (its just stopped raining)
I have always said that what we do is create waves. If you are too cautious the waves won't be big enough for people to see. Once you start a wave you must be prepared for it to reach something or at the very least rebound. Trouble is so many agencies produce work that hesitates as if afraid to cause a ripple. Steve Henry has written an excellent bit on this subject. He describes the effect on the agency Albion when they let the viral 'Slap Nick Griffen' free across the web. Details HERE.
"...And the agency was threatened with physical violence, which was why the door was locked. Now for me this is EXACTLY what a great agency does. Get stuck into culture, have an opinion, have a great creative idea, and get it out there fast. And make sure to stir it up. Using the wonderful world of social media. I'm getting sick of saying this, but 90% of advertising goes out there and does nothing at all..."
Lots of chat at the moment about the true effect on consumers of normalising social media behaviour.
I have a short bit in my Augmented Reality talk I have been giving, but found this by Dr Norman Lewis, seen on Spiked "...One of the most confusing things about the question of privacy, and what makes it so elusive today, is that it is far from evident how people regard their right to privacy, or how these attitudes translate into day-to-day behaviours.
The concept of privacy, once merely thought of as the right to be left alone, has been transformed as we have become more information-oriented and as digital technologies have come to ensure that almost everyone now has a ‘digital fingerprint’. The question is further complicated by the fact that, in recent decades, the boundary between private and public has become blurred. A new age of disclosure has emerged where reality TV and social networking sites now represent the ‘private’ face of public scrutiny..." (rest HERE)
Could a cut-price iPhone be about to appear? There is a new patent with Steve Jobs name on from Apple that talks of an invention for viewing ads on mobile devices, (seen on Slashdot) where the device locks until the ad has been viewed, it includes a 'process' where by the viewer must verify their presence before continuing normal use, i.e. you can't walk away and make a cup of tea. See full patent HERE*.
I wonder if this is an Apple version of the Blyk concept of free mobiles for teenagers in exchange for taking part in research and viewing ads. Apple have previous with education aimed devices.
If this was linked say to the new Apple netbrowser/tablet/mega iphone that's widely rumoured to appear in 2010 all the more interesting. The app store trend and the beginnings of an Augmented Reality advertising market does mean a rethink for the models of revenue generation across mobile devices. Has Apple jumped the gun by building in such capabilities to its new 2010 products?
This is very good. Subject to change are staging a performance/art event at Battersea Arts Center. Difficult to explain fully but in a nutshell the audience build and maintain paper houses in a cityscape built on the floor of a large theatre space - sort of. Huge fun, not least because I was never quite sure what was happening - not least because you could wander of to the bar at any point. The event has already run in Brighton
Lee Mack and Frank Skinner check the direction of the First Class loungeBBC launched what is probably the laziest bit of programme making I have ever seen. 'Celebrities' race around the world in 80 days in aid of Children in Need. You can just hear the brainstorm now, "...what about the ghost of Micheal Palin mixed with a TopGear challenge and a sub Charlie Boorman travelogue.." What we actually got was Lee Mack and Frank Skinner travelling first class by train and hired mini bus, London to Turkey in Nine days, NINE DAYS!! they didn't even reach their destination on time. You could get a black cab to do it quicker than that! as for the required peril or disasters on route, we got a hotel key put in the wrong way round and a bit of confusion over a tourist visa in Turkey (something a gazillion Brit package holiday makers successfully complete every year) How stupid do the programme makers think the audience have to be to find this entertaining?
The only point of note in the whole show was the rather nice shirts both Lee and Frank wore. The rest was utter tosh of the highest order, even Sky won't have made something this crass.
Final word from the person responsible for green lighting this awful mess.
Jo Ball, BBC Commissioning Editor for Features, BBC One and BBC Two, said: "Around The World In 80 Days is an exciting part of our autumn schedule and we are looking forward to seeing some of TV's best-loved famous faces (BTW that includes Shane Richie) take part in this 21st-century twist on Fogg and Palin's epic voyage."
The twist being we just spend a load on a travel planner, get some second rate celebs to moan about being worn out, sat in first class all day, and heh presto cheapskate TV.
Update on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 07:25PM by
Philip
Just a word on these intrepid travellers (re: life changing experience, Frank Skinner) If you must avoid air travel, its still only 3 days by train to Istanbul and at a cost of £350 far better value than last nights nonsense.
MCCA Best Awards closing date is looming large this week. Not helped by going to Germany tomorrow to shoot a short film for Harman International, but what's life without a deadline? -generally spent in the pub!MCCA Best Awards deadline looms
Pretty neat set of papers summing up key view points on brand Facebook. Ranging from 'Ban it, close it off' to 'We're not using it enough' Great to see a debate underwritten by such urgency from both sides to do something now. What everyone agrees is not having a Facebook policy is the biggest crime of the year.
Augmented Reality (AR) applications launch on the iPhone.
While I have spent years getting excited by the possibilities of mobile apps like semapedia, (unlike most of my clients, who dispite my best efforts, passed on the opportunities). Now with the launch of a raft of genuine AR apps Like this from DiscoverAnywhere there appears to be a real case for commercial use. While it is true the actual audience of iPhone & Android users is really small compared with total universe of mobile (cell) phones, in time this should be the standard for 'whats that?' questions in the street. The answer being you aim your phone at the object and heh presto the phone overlays a label telling price, location, availability or simply its name.
Very interesting that Amazons tech division A9 have brought Snaptell, which basically puts Amazons prices and availability information over the top of any item you see in a shop, (currently only works in the US)
Like most people I often emerge from a station and ponder where is? (the nearest bar) having an interactive live map to overlay reality is a fantastic bit of black magic to delight. This last bit, is in my opinion, the key to any new techs ability to succeed, is it a joy to use and do you want to tell you mates about it?
Just look at the footage below of the yelp.com trial AR feature, yes you really do have to shake the phone three times for it to show the hidden button, how charming is that? -there is also a neat London Bus AR demo HERE from Presselite. The Next Web has a bit about a live tweeter layer which could see even more tourists actually being hit by buses (while tweeting), the guys at Presslite had us tracking.
A BBC story about our bestest friend powerpoint. Look down at the comments section, when all else fails it won't be the rampaging hordes on the streets that bring down society, but an unfixable bug in PowerPoint.
www.identitee.com Links words across songs with a lovely flowing action. Like the typography. Does need a bigger data base, the current selections are very reflective of its ultra conservative sponsor 'Hard Rock Cafe' (its one Clash track is however - 'I'm so bored with the USA'!)
The buy a shirt section does vex me as they want $55 for a rather ordinary example. When personalised shirt printing is so good right now, (Threadless or Design by Humans etc.) this seems extremely poor value (and design)
Not that I need anymore reasons to spend time in bars, but this is a really neat idea. Use Your Local.com Rather than spend Saturday morning's queuing up at the Post Office to collect parcels that have been delivered while you are at work. Get them sent to your local pub, pick up on way home, stop for a quick drink to thank the landlord, genius! Nobel prize's have been given for less.
The scheme is backed by Scottish & Newcastle (now part of the Heineken group) appears to have been thought as a way of giving country pubs another offer, to me the big pull is for urban pubs/bars, As I have ranted about before the parcel delivery service is just out of wack with modern work patterns. The Saturday queue at the Clapham Post Office is daunting if you don't arrive by 8 a.m. having the option of going to the pub instead, now that is an advancement for mankind.
I am really sorry if you received multiple out-of-office replies from me, bit of a tech melt down, late night, last day in office etc. At least i didn't unplug the server this time....
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The current phone tapping scandal** is a fantastic creative opportunity for the phone companies to run tactical ads informing consumers how to change the default passwords on there voicemail. Scanned the papers this morning and nothing!
** = it would appear that most celebs (and royals) are like the rest of us and leave there voicemail in factory settings. Which means all you have to do is call the number when its off, enter the pin (1234 on 90% of handsets) and heh presto you get to hear all the inane chatter you like
I have been writing a piece about premium brands turning to 'Freeium' provision. This being the idea of parcelling up content into free to air sections that sit alongside full fat, longer, wider, versions. Works for just about any product area as long as the brand in question has retained enough unique equities. This made me think that actually companies like ours could start offering this. -and yes I know we've been doing it for years when we pitch. What I was thinking about was what if we 'give' our new campaign to the client to enjoy and contemplate. But then require a fee if they want to see the full picture; like where the logo goes, what the call to action is or even an explanation to 'what the hell is that?'
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 09:32AM 
Ok so it did take the best part of a month to get going but the Mo has arrived! Pictures HERE.
Philip
;)
