One can One can't

ONE CAN TAKE A HOLIDAY

2011-06-07T15:53:00.009+01:00

This will no doubt be a crushing blow to the two people, other than my wife, who read this blog. But I'm afraid I am taking a sabbatical from all things work. And that includes one can one can't. The reason for this self imposed break is that my wife and I are going on a trip of a lifetime. Not that you would want to but you can read all about it here.

Night night, and see you in December.

HONEST TEA

2011-06-02T09:33:00.001+01:00

Nice little tactical idea for, well, I think you get the idea

SOUND

2011-06-01T18:28:00.000+01:00

Zimoun : Compilation Video V2.8 | Sound Sculptures & Installations from ZIMOUN VIDEO ARCHIVE on Vimeo.

NEARNESS

2011-06-01T18:24:00.000+01:00

Nearness from Timo on Vimeo.

THE FIRST MOVIE IN THE OUTERNET

2011-05-10T09:49:00.002+01:00

This is pretty interesting - an interactive, alternate reality game type film thing. It's looks relatively clunky. And I doubt that your going to be sucked head long into the action as it plays out on your mobile phone screen. Still, I'm glad people are doing this stuff.

EASTERN EGGS

2011-04-20T10:25:00.007+01:00

Awesome idea. All proceeds from the sale of these eggyweggs will be donated to the British Red Cross to help people in Japan. So get buying soldier.

But more to the point, check out the egg-bot that makes paints the designs!

Lovingly stolen from Hurty Brain

ONE PICTURE PER DAY

2011-04-15T12:07:00.004+01:00

This is the latest project by the multi-media artist Jonathan Harris (if you could call him, or indeed he we like to be called, that). Harris has done a ton of great stuff, some of which I've talked about on this blog before, but whilst this is not on the scale of some of his other projects - nor is it even a new idea really - it is Jonathan's rambling musings on life, as overlaid on the film below, that make this really interesting.

He makes an interesting point, one that is true to almost everything we do, that the more you see, the more you experience and learn, the more you realise how much there is still left to discover. As Jonathan states at the end, "Boy meets world, boy still baffled"

BENJAMIN ZANDER AT TED

2011-04-15T12:01:00.004+01:00

If you've got a spare 20 minutes and you're not that bothered if people at work see you cry, then this film is for you. An inspirational talk from an amazing guy. Funny too.

"Never say anything to someone that could not stand as the last words you ever say to them"

HOVIS FARMERS

2011-04-13T13:33:00.002+01:00

I like this a lot.

That is all.

(To be twatty though, shouldn't the line have been, "We only work with the Britain's best..." Therefore the need for the competition. Not that it matters.)

PIXAR PROMO FOR CARS 2

2011-04-04T13:58:00.003+01:00

Nicely put together film for the upcoming release of Cars 2. I like the fact that it doesn't labour the point about what it is, leaving people a bit of room to investigate the randomness of it all. Which, if they do, rewards them with a working telephone number on the ads, and a secret web address (pause at 57 seconds or click here if you can't be bothered).

I think that's about that.

THE SITUATIONIST

2011-03-24T15:49:00.002Z

A mobile app brought to you by those cultural gurus Benrik who, with their trendsetting bible 'This Diary Will Change Your Life", inspired a bunch of keen disciples to do weird and sometimes stalkery tasks to help them live a more fulfilling life. Below is a little blurb from the boys themselves but it is essentially ace...

"Situationist is an iPhone app that makes your everyday life more thrilling and unpredictable. It alerts members to each other's proximity and gets them to interact in random "situations". These situations vary from the friendly "Hug me for 5 seconds exactly" or "Compliment me on my haircut", to the subversive eg "Help me rouse everyone around us into revolutionary fervour and storm the nearest TV station". Members simply upload their photo and pick the situations they want to happen to them from a shortlist, in the knowledge that they might then occur anywhere, and at any time."

URINE FREE WETSUIT

2011-03-24T15:42:00.009Z

Urine free wetsuit you say? Well what's with the picture of a micturating bear then? Well, what we have here is a jolly amusing ebay listing from some guy selling his used wetsuit on ebay. This led to the listing receiving so much attention that some canny businesses - primarily XCEL wetsuits - adding some of their products for free. The price then rocketed, the chap offered to give all proceeds to the Japan Earthquake Fund, more items were added by some bandwagon chasing companies, before the whole lot went for £8,999. That, my friends, was the Internet just winning.

If you're interested I wrote about something similar a while back, this time for a "max wicked sick BMX"

I bought this wetsuit brand-new last year and have worn it a fair bit. When I say 'fair' I reckon about 20 times, but then probably more like 30. A fair few times anyway.

HOWEVER you will like this, If it was not being worn, it was hung on a hangar or rolled to prevent creasing AND I rinsed it in fresh water after EVERY session so it's in VERY good condition as I look after my gear, I always do, similarly I take care of my body and shower at least once a day and always moisturise. Yes you're probably getting a feel for the kind of man I am. You can see from the pictures it has no creases and looks lovely. My friend Gaz has got a wetsuit that he doesn't look after and it looks like an Elephant's arse, all wrinkled, a bit like an old man's testicle.

You're probably thinking "People p*ss in wetsuits, I'm not sure about a second hand wetsuit", but believe it or not I have NEVER urinated in this suit, seriously, these suits are too good to be doing such a vulgar act in, the wee just ends up staying in the suit and then when you're sat having a post-surf pint in the pub you smell awful and girls don't like boys that smell of p*ss so you just sit there, alone all night, sobbing into your pint of Betty Stoggs like a lonely desperate p*ss smelling man.

I've included a picture of a bear using a urinal, this is how I normally use the toilet, notice that the animal is not wearing a wetsuit. Although I am not a bear, I, like a bear, do not p*ss in wetsuits.

It's a size medium or "m", it was the top of the range suit when I bought it, I think I paid around £300 for it, still a great warm suit that will make you surf at least 200% better. It won't really but it will keep you warm and it's flexible so you'll be able to throw your arms around like Beyonce whilst you're bouncing along a wave. People will look at you and say "f*ckin hell check that dude out, he knows what he's doing wearing one of those Xcel suits and he's got some fresh dance moves". They probably won't say this.

Now as it's been worn, there's some signs of wear around the neck, which I've taken pictures of, so you don't say "oi you c*nt, there's area of wear around the neck I'm giving you bad feedback". The pictures make it look worse than it is (because they're close-ups), and I've taken the pictures with the suit turned inside out, when it's the right way round you don't see the wear and it has no effect on the performance of the suit. That was a bit boring wasn't it, but it had to be done so you can't take me to eBay court for not being honest with you.

Why am I selling it? Well I've just bought a new one, as I'm a flash tw*t like that, I tend to get a new suit every season, I just like the feel of fresh neoprene on my soft skin, and well to be honest I could do with some cash to pay for prostitutes. No, that was a joke, now you're going to think the suit is riddled with disease but it's not as I was joking I do NOT engage with ladies of the night.

I'll post it out the next working day following cleared payment, or if you're around the Truro area you can come and collect it thus avoiding postage charges. Having said that, if you're a maniac, maybe you should just let me post it to you as I don't want to be murdered to death, especially as the summer is just beginning! WOO HOO.

Any questions just ask, I'll answer them very quickly as I'm sat at a computer all f*cking day, unless there's waves.

Thanks for looking and reading all of that ridiculous text, I hope you have a wonderful day.

THE 3D TRUTH IN OLD MASTERS

2011-03-15T13:07:00.004Z

Great, well written idea by Director Jake Lunt. It's pretty old, but hey, deal with it. Take a look at his other stuff over at Independent Films like the Cannes Lions Samsung 'unboxing' viral, D&AD winning 'How We Met' animation as well as a tidy 'How To' film for the same brand. Oh, and he can also draw, that talented little shit.

INTERACTIVE MUSIC VIDEO

2011-03-14T13:39:00.007Z

Super slick interactive 36oº panoramic - just go ahead and click the link for Christ's sake - music video by Chris Cairns. It's for a chap called Professor Green who I suspect, if the video is anything to go by, is not a real university professor. Although perhaps I'm being overly judgmental? There is also an iphone version using, presumably, gyroscopic technology to control your view by wafting your phone about like a lunatic. Very nice indeed.

For more Chris Cairns commercials, music videos, or Vimeo stuff click back there.

SPEAKERBOX

2011-03-08T18:36:00.002Z

Nice little project by Jordi Parra for his degree - a device for playing Spotify at home by connecting up playlists to a physical device using RFID tags.

As chappy-me-laddy makes clear

"...a standalone player that comes with 8 tags that can be linked to music. It can be for yourself, or to give it to somebody else as a present, giving you the chance to link music to the tags before giving it to that person… In a way, like we used to do with mixtapes, but now the “mixtapes” are RFID tags linked to music on Spotify.The RFID tags don’t store any music, they are just linked to a certain Spotify URI or search. Each tag has a unique ID, and each unique ID points to Spotify music. That’s it, the music is not in the tag, it’s on Spotify."

So there we are

HOLY CHRIST

2011-02-25T16:14:00.002Z

This made me choke on my cornflakes this morning.

HONDA JAZZ

2011-02-25T16:08:00.003Z

This is super duper tech. Obviously not exactly new but I just thought I needed to get it up here as there is going to be a hell of a lot more of this type of thing - interactive TV / smartphone tie-ups- in the future.

Yet again W&K doing some pretty forward thinking stuff.

GOODBYE COW, PIRATE & CYCLIST

2011-02-18T17:37:00.004Z

I really liked this campaign. But now it's dead. Farewell, adieu, see ya.

GET YOUR FOOTBALL TEAM IN THE NEWS OF THE WORLD

2011-02-18T16:13:00.003Z

Not for shagging prostitutes, snorting cocaine, crashing cars, or generally being a chavy oik.

But for doing this...

Now can someone tuck my microphone in?

PUSH SNOWBOARDING

2011-02-15T18:24:00.004Z

Here's a pretty sick (snowboarding chat for rather jolly good) data hook-up between Nokia and Burton snowboards.

Essentially data feeds are received from various sensors on the board and converted into visualisations via your mobile handset.

Check it out...

Push Snowboarding from PUSH on Vimeo.

And read more about it here

BAD ASS BILLY BASS BILLBOARD

2011-02-14T10:18:00.003Z

ISN'T ADAM TWEET

2011-02-11T22:50:00.008Z

Well, yes.

Thanks to the lovely people at Poke, and the no doubt accommodating people at Orange, I am quids in for brownie points this Valentine's. I showed the wife your brilliant little animation over dinner tonight and she was super chuffed. What a lovely little campaign you've mad e.

What can I say but, all together now, ahhhhh.

To take part yourself, all you have to do is tweet #feedlovestories with your 140 character love story. Remember chaps, you've got to be in it to win it...

SKATEBOARD PROJECTION MAPPING

2011-02-11T17:44:00.003Z

Slick, essentially.

(Spoiler: you probably only need to see approximately 30 seconds of this nearly 9 minute video)

The making of a Light Session- Tron Premiere- ENESS from ENESS on Vimeo.

CITY CIGARETTE

2011-02-08T13:38:00.002Z

Nice cigarette sculpture by artist Yang Yongliang (sounds like a Libertines song to me?). I'm sure there's an anti smoking ad in there somewhere. More here.

ISN'T IT TWEET

2011-02-07T17:42:00.002Z

Nice idea by Poke for Orange. You tweet you love story and they'll animate it. Jolly simple, and not in any way inspired by the Old Spice films that just so happen to have been made by the ex head of this agency. Judging by the smart way in which respondents were chosen for Old Spice you will probably need to have a twitter followership that would rival Justin Bieber if you want any chance of your tweets being made into a animation. Still nice though.

OUT THE BOX IDEA FOR WRANGLER

2011-01-19T18:21:00.005Z

Nice window display concept...

...that reminds me more than a little bit of the wrangler website which was super sweetly put together.

PHILLIPS SONICARE EXPERIMENT

2011-01-14T14:20:00.004Z

Nice little idea for a toothbrush. Although it does remind me a little of two ads that have come out of CPB - The Whopper Freakout and Coca Cola Lawyers.

But the question still remains, can you really 'Love' your toothbrush? The answer, of course, is no.

Still a nice idea though.

MAPNIFICENT

2010-11-24T12:24:00.003Z

Mapcockingcredible they should say! One of the best dev hacks I've seen for a long time. It's just a fantastic idea. And genuinely useful. I love it.

Mapnificent from Stefan Wehrmeyer on Vimeo.

QUEEN LIKES FACEBOOK

2010-11-18T10:41:00.000Z

No explanation needed really

THE SUN MUDDLES THEIR WAY THROUGH AN OLD SPICE RIP OFF

2010-11-18T10:14:00.002Z

The person who came up with this idea must have literally wet themselves with excitement. You can just picture them rushing into someone's office shaking a scribbled notepad as a giant map of Africa begins to appear around their crotch. 'The woman you'd love your woman to be like' for The Sun is probably the most suited spoof ad I have seen for a long time. As an idea it is quite simply sitting there, primed, ready, tee'd-up or tied up, and patiently waiting to be smashed out the park.

There are two problems though. One can be best described by the old adage 'never work with animals, children or page 3 models'. And the other? Well, it's not written by the guys who wrote the Old Spice ads now is it. Oooh the tickets are now beers...lads...tour...tits.

It's still a good idea though. And because of that it will get spunk loads of hits.

SHRIGLY'S BODY ART

2010-10-07T15:05:00.006+01:00

A good few years ago I tried to get a well known brand to buy into the idea of Tattooing customers with their logo. I say well known brand not because I am hard working advertising professional who is sensitive to the reputation of a now long ex client, I would happily sully their reputation in a heartbeat. It's just I have just forgotten who it was for. Anyway the idea was that there would be various levels of discount depending on the positioning of said permanent logo - 1p for sole of foot, one free item for lower arm, or unlimited branded tat for life for forehead tat and accompanying 'attention grabbing' arrows.

Anyhow, surprisingly this idea didn't leave the bottom draw. Not even when April fools came round!

So I was rather titillated by the news that David Shrigley had been tattooing people live at the Freeze Art Fair. Unfortunately, as the video below makes clear, Shrigley the ruddy fraudster was only pussily painting people rather than needling JoePublic direct in the facial with nothing more than a glass of champs as an anaesthetic.

Here is some of his handywork.

But low and hurrah. For it seems that some plucky individuals, no doubt annoyed at Shrigleys impotent gesture, have begun making their tattoos permanent. Now that's Art with a capital A! Here are a couple I like but there are more ('intrusive') examples here if you so desire.

IT'S A UNICORN! THE PERFECT MYTHICAL BEAST FOR A 3D FILM

2010-09-30T09:23:00.004+01:00

Here's the trailer to The Foundling, the last film to come out of the DDB/RSA Parallel Lines Campaign. I've talked about this campaign before on this blog but but now you can watch all six films on their website. And, inevitably, the "user generated" competition film on Youtube. The winning film is actually pretty amazing.

OUTRACE

2010-09-17T10:01:00.004+01:00

So this looks pretty bloody cool. A series of robotic arms, the sort you see in all those car production line ads, sit on a podium in Trafalgar Square and spell out short messages for people. Before sending them their personal video message so that they can post it on their social networks. Check out the trailer.

Check out the website here and a few techy development photos here

QR CODES HIT POLAND

2010-09-16T16:45:00.005+01:00

On a recent trip to Poland I saw a series of musical park benches playing Chopin tunes, detailing some of the composers favourite Warsall haunts, and featuring QR codes in order to download more content. I know they've been around for ever but I really think we're seeing a tidal change that will see QR codes on pretty much everything in the next year.

SMALLEST EVER STOP MOTION

2010-09-16T13:20:00.003+01:00

Nice little stop motion by W&K. All in aid of launching a new Nokia handset. The basic idea for the whole campaign is 'It's not about technology, it's what you do with it'. In other iterations real people have hacked the phones to create digital spray cans or microscope devices - hence this stop motion using the phone as a microscope. Anywhat, splunge on this.

This is what W&K have to say about the whole thing

OLD SPICE FACTOIDS

2010-08-12T12:23:00.004+01:00

As if you need any more proof that the Old Spice campaign was rather successful. Pretty amazing that the videos got more hits in 24hrs than Obama's victory speech, surging profits by 107% and making Old Spice the No.1 male body wash.

OLD SPICE DOMINATION

2010-08-03T19:41:00.002+01:00

This will, without doubt, be the campaign of the year. Power-sappingly brilliant. And I don't put it on here to tell you about it, you already know. Everyone does. The film above, one of hundreds of films created, has got over 3.5 million hits alone. That is quite literally astounding.

The whole thing, from creating 100 TV ad quality films (or in Internet terms breaking news stories) a day to responding to people with big online followings and/or influence whilst giving them something they desperately want to (an can easily) share, is annoyingly simple and smart.

Anyway, it's on here because this blog is about stuff I like. And I like this a lot. Despite also being on 84.7% of pages ever made for the interweb.

That's not been proven yet, but it's still scientific fact.

TROPICAN AND THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE DOCU-AD

2010-07-22T13:30:00.004+01:00

I've just seen this. And although it's a bit old now - it broke in February - I really like it. It's a sweet idea executed pretty nicely. You can check out it's facebook page here.

It's becoming quite a trend this form of docu-advertising. And it has a couple of incarnations.

The first is basically advertising, colonial style. Here, you march into the remoteness to gawp at the primitives in name of tat selling. Tropicana, Whopper Virgins - where they forced a load of filth discs on the unsuspecting people from Thailand, Romania, and Greenland who had never seen a burger before, and Soundville - where they turned an Icelandic town into a soundsystem for a week, all fit into the category.

The second sort is where the strategic concept is frogmarched into the real world and then filmed - Youtube styley by some shakey camera man like that Walkers idea where they went to the sleepy village of Sandwich because 'any sandwich is better with Walkers', improving it for a bit with the likes of JLS at the School, Pamela Anderson in the pub, and Frank Lampard on the football pitch etc etc.

Obviously there aren't just two types. In fact, I have no idea how many types there are or if they can even be less obviously crow-barred into categories for the sake of a blog post. But there we are.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

2010-07-22T12:57:00.004+01:00

I've written about this film before. In a rather disparaging way due to the rather rubbish initial trailer. Anyway, this one is better. And despite what I said last time I suspect this will be a good film. It is directed by David Fincher and written by that chap who did the West Wing after all. Therefore expect a lot of quick fire over elaborate dialogue delivered by a series of people constantly walking down corridors carrying papers. Then shot a bit edgier.

Watch this, it'll knock your geeky white socks off.

PLAY FOR THE DAY THAT...

2010-07-06T18:07:00.007+01:00

So I'm making an interactive comedy drama with a radio production company called Somethin Else. It takes the form of an improv sketch show in which all the characters, locations, events, and even some dialogue have been chosen by the public...live on air.

You can listen to the pilot episodes on Wednesday 7th at 1:20, 1:40, and 2:00pm....here. At which point you can vote, submit, and suggest your way through a bizarre and hilarious chain of events here.

Initially a simple poll went round - this is a pilot remember - so people could vote on the whos, whens, and wheres. You can have a play here although the lines are now closed, and you may still be charged (no money will actually change hands as I'm neither Ant nor Dec).

The most popular combinations that crawled through the voting process were as follows: Drum roll? Yeah you're right, no drum roll...

A private secretary to the Queen who only has a few days to live
A bird spotter who burnt down their school when they were younger.
A Kleptomaniac who is psychic.

And, perhaps also a necrophiliac who is (also) strangely attracted to Gary Glitter.

As for what's going on:

Act 1 will be set in a locked toilet on the day that Thatcher comes to power.
Act 2 will be set at a school reunion on the day that World War is declared.
Act 3 will be set at a funeral, on the day that Michael Jackson is resurrected.

I hope you all tune in to Listen and Interact.

Enjoy.

NEW OLD SPICE

2010-07-01T09:34:00.003+01:00

Brilliant, obviously. But is it better than their Cannes Grand Prix winning spot from last year? No. But so what.

LONDON NEW CITY LANDSCAPE

2010-07-01T09:23:00.004+01:00

Nice data visualisations of geo tagged tweets around London. In the second image you can see that peak twitter traffic in London surrounds Soho Mountain. What this says about anything at all I have no idea. But I like the fact they've renamed the locations.

Done by the clever chaps at Urban Tick Blog.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

2010-06-29T10:10:00.003+01:00

In a college that we'd like to forget, there was a boy. But not just any boy, a Pimple faced super geek kleptomaniac named Mark who wants to make friends with the whole entire wOOOrld. Blah blah blah - not the most epic trailer I've ever seen - did someone forget to add the pictures, but I'm sure they'll make up for it with the inevitably overly dramatic script about what is essentially just a story about a chap building a website. Still, it's relevant for this blog and I'll probably watch it. Just not at the cinema. Let me know if you Like it.

3D DOCUMENTARY EXPLORER

2010-06-24T14:53:00.004+01:00

I'm very much liking the way you can explore related material attached to sections of the BBC's Virtual Revolution documentary.

PAPA SANGRE

2010-06-24T09:50:00.003+01:00

This is really rather cool. It's a game played with your eyes closed...on your mobile! Erggh, what!? Basically you navigate yourself around using 3D Audio controlled from your handheld device. It's pretty tech, and pretty bloody intriguing. Still not clear, let the video below shed some light on...sorry.

This game is being developed by Somethin’ Else, supported by 4iP and the development team includes Paul Bennun, Ben Cave, Adam Hoyle of Do Tank, Margaret Robertson, Nick Ryan and Tassos Stevens of Coney. Illustration by Sofiski.

SUSTAINABILITY'S NEXT TOP MODEL

2010-06-23T17:17:00.004+01:00

Do the Green Thing have a new competition on facebook called Sustainability's Next Top Model. Basically they have four low-fi green ideas and you vote for your favourite. One of them, Sugru, I have talked about on this blog before (and this is the one that is currently winning). Its submission video is below but there is a more explanatory one in my earlier post. Anyway, get voting.

Make do

Lflect

Wool finder

MAKE YOUR OWN RADIO ADVERT

2010-06-23T10:43:00.003+01:00

So now it seems that you can quickly whip yourself up a radio ad online for £400 with Big Audio Ads. What the hell you do with your radio ad then is anyone's guess. Drive around town with a giant megaphone on your roof? Probably needs some cheap channel planning to go with it.

TEAM GATORADE, FUCK YEAH!!

2010-06-18T10:05:00.006+01:00

Boom - more smoke people, everyone looking busy? Right, I want a bigger screen in here STAT - puff-flash-puff-flash bang!

Hello and welcome to mission control, mainline to the Gatorade brand, centre of the social universe. Cue film....

OK, OK, whilst this is obviously a good move by a brand who definitely 'get it' I can't help wondering whether this whole show is more for our benefit that theirs. I mean, are Gatorade really doing anything that amazing? On the surface they are, and just by creating such a thing they are certainly making a statement to their marketing department and in doing so changing perceptions and directing energies. But many of these monitoring services, if that's all their doing, are varied, free and easy to use. And if you want to get more sophisticated then brands can already buy an off the shelf service through companies such as True Cast and Radion 6. Services where it's response to, rather than just monitoring of, social media that you're really paying for - something Gatorade don't really mention here. Like their Sr. doo da alludes to when he says, and I don't quote "People were banging on about some rap song in one of our ads online so we offered them the free track through twitter". Hmmm, couldn't this be done with even the most basic of twitter searches? Is mission control therefore not much more than an elaborate licked finger to the wind?

On balance I think not. This is just a handy sound bite and, whilst they may not be using it to it full potential at the moment, the fact that they've actually set something up like this in house is massive. Not only that but these types of tools are always a learning curve that will, if you have a system like this in place and backed by management, soon see Gatorade doing some really smart stuff. And when that works, expect everything else Coke owns to follow.

If you're keen there's some other articles on mashable and PSFK.

TWITTERINGS TAKE TWO

2010-06-15T14:48:00.015+01:00

So last week, or whenever it was, I posted about a few twitter ideas that had been bandying themselves about. Now, obviously spurred on by the relative ease with which you can do something vaguely entertaining with twitter, there's more.

First up is Marble Art. Here, as the name suggests, we have twitter induced marble (not sure if it is) art. Tweet #marble.tv and you can watch, via a rather uninspiring webcam, marbles released down a series of slides. Well, I say you can watch, actually you can mainly hear marbles - perhaps yours, perhaps not - whilst you watch a load of fluorescent tubes. Still, it's a pretty interesting experiment created by a group/agency/collective called Crowd.

Next up, Dot War, a little twitter experiment out of the same school as Twitter parade - i.e. largely pointless. Here your twitter avatar is broken down into little pixels that battle it out with someone else's avatar pixels. And that's kind of it really. Who wins you ask? The person with the fattest face.

All in all, two interesting uses of the twitter platform that, whilst not exactly hugely entertaining or incredibly useful, do show the potential of twitter and how easy it is to connect it to other platforms and ideas.

More and more people are starting to tie up with twitter now, and this will only increase with the news that Twitter places has launched with Gowalla and Foursquare integration.

Oh yeah, and before I go - especially as some of these have been delivered with a rather derogatory tone!, here is one totally awesome use of twitter - a visualisation of every tweet in the World Cup by game. All lovingly put together by the Guardian. Brilliant. Really brilliant.

GOOGLE + TOY STORY

2010-06-14T18:12:00.002+01:00

Sweet little film promoting the next Toy Story movie. Here they discover Google and worry that what-ever-his-name-is will sell off all his toys on eBay before heading off to college. To which some bright spark replies in the comments below... 'But loads of the girls bring their toys to college'. Well done you.

DYSON - BEST PRODUCT DEMO EVER.

2010-06-14T14:18:00.004+01:00

Just a few engineers titting about in the Dyson labs (don't they know there's a world cup on!) is all it takes to produce a viral hit that's also a great product demo for the air multiplier. Couldn't be more perfect really.

SAMSUNG MANUAL

2010-06-07T13:52:00.007+01:00

Really rather slick alternative to the old instruction manual. It was created by Vitamin Design, a collective of, well, designers who have come up with some nice ideas for things as diverse as a magic light beam you can move with your hands, a cardboard needle case to prevent the lovely nurses getting jabbed, and a thing that visualises the contents of your brain using bio feedback technology.

TWITTERINGS

2010-05-26T14:30:00.008+01:00

So there seems to have been a few little twitter ideas done in the last few weeks. Unsurprisingly Uniqlo - a brand that has smart Internet things sewn into their t-shirts - have jumped balls deep onto the limited character bandwagon. It wasn't even their first time.

In their version you can join a lucky line, giving you the chance to win 1000 yen voucher (I don't even know if that's good or not, probably only enough to buy you 15 deep fried tentacals), by tweeting the website. Another similar idea, although one with no perceivable prize or point is Sony Ericsson's Twitter World Cup. Here, you can Tweet #twc plus your team in order to fill up a stadium with virtual fans. Why the fuck anyone wants to so this is beyond me but the site functionality is quite nice. There's even a mobile app, which considering the there is no real incentive to take part, play, win, share - anything really - seems like a bit of over kill to me.

Lastly, we have the Twitter Parade. Probably the most entertaining of the lot in all its bleepy bonkersness. Not for a brand and therefore is, like Twitter itself, a nice little service with no way of being monetised.

See you all after the bank holiday. Out

KILL THE WORLD (WITH A SPRING IN YOUR STEP)

2010-05-26T09:48:00.003+01:00

Funny alternative twittter feed from some joker. "Btw, does anyone have Criss Angel's email? I bet he can make this oil disappear!" Etcetera Etcetera.

I'VE JUST GOT DOWN AND DIRTY WITH A MALE DWARF NAMED FREDERICO AND EVEN HE COULDN'T MAKE MY C**K LOOK BIG

2010-05-24T15:48:00.005+01:00

What a Jolly good idea. I do like it when people come up with relevant ways for brands to use Facebook. This is genuinely entertaining, it's quick and easy for you and Dr Pepper to do, it has gargantuan reach, and it is thoroughly on brand. What's the worst that could happen? Very good.

It reminds me of Whopper Sacrifice, an idea so successful that Faceboook eventually - I say eventually actually I mean almost immediately - took it down.

Up for it? Then click here.

ROBIN HOOD, ROBIN HOOD SINGLE SPEED CYCLING THROUGH THE...SHOREDITCH TWATS (NOT THIS LOT THOUGH, THEY'RE NICE, THEY GIVE TO CHARITY.

2010-05-20T16:35:00.010+01:00

This is a great idea. Presumably, if you have just watched the video, you think so too.

Well, do you?

It's one of those things you wish you'd been involved in. Not because it's for charity - which of course is nice - but because this bunch of creative outlaws have got off their arse and used their skills, and a few free(ish) web services, to make stuff happen. For the better. Robin of Shoreditch I doff my felt, feathered cap at you.

Check out all the ideas here. Their twitter here. Their progress here. In fact, scratch all that, everything that is remotely related to this project is linked to from their homepage...here. If, however, you want something completely unrelated, clickety click quick here.

Next week I may do a rundown of the ideas that I think are the best. But you can always let me know which ones you like in the comments. Or not.

GUVERA - AD SUPPORTED MUSIC DOWNLOADS

2010-04-29T10:29:00.009+01:00

Yes, it's true that the people who run this business could easily carve out successful extra careers, appearing in box office hits like Anvil and This is Spinal Tap. For all I know, perhaps they have, perhaps that's the only way they've managed to bank roll the Guvera project at all.

But despite their obvious penchant for stupid hair, the Guvera project does seem like a pretty smart move. As they say it is, on the surface at least, a big fat win-win merry go round. Not to mention very current considering the shoddy Government Digital Economy Bill all the doom and gloom bandied about by certain ex-web evangelists.

Anyway, enough of all that, this is a pretty nice platform. Although like many nice get-your-free-shit-here platforms that have gone before it, the question is, will it take off?

Watch this space I guess.

AVATAR AND THE TREE OF SHITE

2010-04-26T17:48:00.007+01:00

Avatar, one of the biggest grossing films of all time has just come out on Blue-Ray. And what better way to promote this money making colossus than a not so giant plastic tree draped with a few fiber optic cables? Rather than some painstaking recreation of Pandora's Tree of Souls they have instead created something that reminds me of a cheap hotel chandelier in February - clinging desperately to the last remnant of a new year party popper.

I have never seen such a poor excuse of a promotion. 'Growing' out of the concrete at Speakers Corner, and positioned next to a B&Q bargain hut that presumably holds its diesel polluting power, this tree looks like it is on a day trip from the outdoor fun zone of some M1 based Happy Eater.

Not quite in-line with the groundbreaking technological feats of the film the tree will, wait for it, change colour - ooohhh - not to mention allowing you to download an Avatar wallpaper! Not quite worth the effort.

In fairness, although I only found this out when reading about it afterwards, the tree of shite will plant a tree somewhere else in the world if you connect with it. If you want to be entirely underwhelmed you can visit the tree in Hyde Park.

James Cameron...I hold you personally responsible.

AGENCY PROFILE - BOONDOGGLE

2010-04-26T17:43:00.004+01:00

So I've just come across this Belgian agency called Boondoggle, whatever the hell that means. And they seem pretty slick. So, I thought I'd share some of the campaigns they've done in the last year or so that I think are good (and not in foreign speak).

First up, and top of the pile, is the Baby Elephant campaign for Antwerp zoo. It's a really smart way of getting people interested in a zoo. People are always suckers for baby anythings, so to play out in soap opera fashion the very rare birth of a baby elephant is really fresh, making everyone emotionally involved in the event. This video explains all.

They also did a nice campaign for Axion, a bank targeted at the youth. What they did was cleverly book a load of ad units that would transmit an Internet first - live banner concerts. 25 bands competed for the chance to perform live at Belgium's biggest concert venue. I like this campaign because it all works together neatly - a really nice use of media, creating very engaging ads, involving the public through voting, and giving participants an incentive to embed the individual concerts all over the web.

Other nice stuff they've done is to use their out of office replies to promote a language school. No lollipop for guessing that the Out of office reply was written in not good proper English.

And a campaign for Volvo in which they promoted the car through the first ever carbon neutral web campaign, offsetting everything from the banner impressions to the Google searches.

THE SOUNDS OF HAMBURG

2010-04-21T18:28:00.005+01:00

This is really nice.

Following on from Jung v Matt's integrated campaign which saw the entire Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra dispersed in various locations across the city - all conducted from the roof of St Michael's church no less - the interactive agency Demodern have created an interactive musical mash up using live webcams called The Sounds Of Hamburg.

Using motion-tracking software you can assign individual elements in the live webcams to a particular instrument then watch them play away as they trundle about. The effect is to turn people, cars, boats, tinkers, gypsies - whatever really, into moving elements within your own personal orchestra.

DR PEPPER DOES APRIL FOOLS

2010-04-20T18:11:00.004+01:00

I may be a tad late with this, but it's been sitting in my drafts for a while now. 20 days to be precise. I guess its just been hanging out, amusing itself, and masturbating - cos that's what most people on chat roulette do don't they? Anyway, it's great. I do like it when companies manage to do nice reactionary stuff with whatever Internet phenomenon is kicking about at the time. And still manage to keep it relevant and on brand.

Created by Lean Mean Fighting Machine.

LABOUR'S YOUTUBE MANIFESTO

2010-04-20T13:19:00.003+01:00

Well, hats off to Labour. These animated versions of their party manifesto are very nicely done, presenting the main points of their manifesto in an accessible (if a little patronising) way to voters on sites where they actually hang out. And they're interactive, which means you can watch an overview or delve into it the animations to find out about any policies that are of particular interest. I like them, the characters and dialogue are really good, and they're fresh and brave enough to warrant people (especially Labour skeptics like me) embedding them on their blogs. Which, means they're sure to get a lot of hits.

Nice, but there's still no way I'm going to vote Flash Gordon.

THE MOST AWESOME

2010-04-15T15:52:00.007+01:00

It's awesome o' clock. What we have here is a site that aims to... actually, I think they cover it pretty nicely themselves. Take it way awesomenessness.

"The Most Awesomest Thing Ever is scouring the universe for the Most Awesomest Thing. Ever. By endlessly pitting two things against each other, we’ve created a stage set for destruction. You will battle, winners will emerge. Only the strongest shall reach the hallowed halls of the Most Awesomest."

Created by Big Spaceship who are, themselves, pretty awesome.

SLAP A POLITICIAN'S FACE OFF

2010-04-14T18:13:00.006+01:00

Well isn't this ruddy brilliant. Yes, it is. Produced by Albion the slap-o-meter packs more punch than an egg covered Prescott and sits open on your desktop whilst you watch the live debates. Thus allowing you, the proverbial political punchbag, to 'vote with the back of your hand' and make clear who you think is being the biggest chump. Minute by minute.

Give them a hand - Albion, and then the politicians that is.

DIESEL

2010-04-14T17:38:00.005+01:00

I'm not going to say much about this, other than the fact it is amazing. Loads of great stuff about it which I'm sure you all know about. Really very slick. But an interactive video in which you can roll over, pause the film, and then buy anything that is being worn by the models at that time is awesome. It is done by Anomaly. Who are also awesome. The fact that the music in the film is produced by Anomaly records is just one of the many reasons why this is so.

UVA'S LATEST THING

2010-04-13T12:04:00.005+01:00

So, UVA are doing something cool again. This time it's a light and sound installation at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London. It's has been commissioned by Virgin Media to celebrate 10 years of UK Broadband, taking as its inspiration the idea that light is the data source in fiber optics. Set over the four floors of the empty warehouse it looks set to be pretty cool. Oh, and it's also free. But you have to get there before the 19th April. Check it out.

Speed of Light - Making of Documentary Part 3 from United Visual Artists on Vimeo.

LOVELY STUFF

2010-04-07T17:49:00.002+01:00

Skateboardanimation from Tilles Singer on Vimeo.

This is one of those great ideas you see on Youtube (ahem, Vimeo) and wonder how long it will be before it is ripped of by some ad creative. Fortunately, in this case, it sort of already has. Here.

UNIQLO - OOPS WE'VE DONE IT AGAIN

2010-04-06T16:41:00.006+01:00

It can't be more than a 1 week or so since Uniqlo made their last effortlessly cool web thing? But here we are, again, saying what a good job they've done. It's kinda boring. Nevertheless this time they've made a super simple (and it could have been super rubbish) mash up between your personal twitter tweets and some pretty models larking about. But although this could have been terrible, it is not. But what did you expect? Make your UTweet here

UPDATE: I just read an interesting debate over on Andy Whitlock's blog about weather this is good or not. After conceding it probably is, or at least not 100% confidently denying it isn't, Andy makes the point about how the retweet function created an artificial appearance of mass hysterical praise when in fact it was just a lot of people saying they liked it. The thing is, although I kinda agree with this idea I'm also not sure how many people would have confused it for anything other than a lot of people saying they quite like it? What do you think - big'd-up beyond proportion or a nice little thing people told you to check out?

YEAH, BUT WHAT ARE YOU GIVING BACK?

2010-04-01T15:41:00.005+01:00

Check out the latest in a long line of inspirational diatribes over on The Day Blog. This time it's all about making things fun and playful. Very important if you're asking for someone's opinion or demanding they give up their time, or heaven forbid, money!. Chip chop chap and click here quick smart.

TOUCHY-FEELY BILLBOARD

2010-04-01T10:31:00.004+01:00

I like the idea of a billboard lottery. Generally speaking billboards are a pretty low interest medium. So to get people jumping up and down, scratching and scrabbling at them as though they're in the Crystal Maze is no mean feat. As a stunt I think this is great - it's fun, interactive and human - but I wonder whether Tuborg have any plans to extend the idea? I'd like to see the billboard as just the start of the journey. Perhaps each card could have a code that people enter online, a QR code to continue the journey via mobile, or maybe something used for Augmented Reality. Would get them some nice data capture along the way. Anyway, there are loads of options but using the billboard lottery as the start of something bigger would be pretty cool. I'll keep an eye out to see if they do.

Idea by More Creative.

SKITTLES DOES AN ORANGE THING

2010-03-30T17:38:00.006+01:00

Now then my fruity American confectionary. I think we all know that what you have done has more than a passing resemblance to that nice little Orange site by Poke. Yes yes I understand that rainbows are also never ending and so it does fit very nicely thank you very much. But you have to admit that the way it works, the way it is laid out, and the kinda pointlessness of it all smacks of what came before.

Unfortunately it's just not as good - there's little to interact with or any real reason for investing much time there. I imagine, considering the rather desperate way they try and force you to share every last element - share this button! Tweet this colour! Tag this scrap of nothingness! - that they wanted the whole pun thing that is running through it to take off and become 'user generated' (lase the train slow/chase the vain crow). We'll see.

Anyway, despite all this you can't begrudge Skittles for they have created historically brilliant TV ads, some pretty punchy web ideas, and through all this hoodwinked themselves over 4 million fans on Facebook.

THE TRIVIAL PURSUIT EXPERIMENT

2010-03-25T17:38:00.006Z

Well, it's not exactly Nike Men V's Women. Actually, it kinda is. It's just a bit cheaper, more sedentary, and not for Nike. Still, despite all that copy cat crap this is actually a pretty cool idea and a very slick website for a crusty old board game. Seems like they got a lot of people involved too.

The 'Men V Women' version has now ended now and has, as of today, been replaced by 'The Battle of the Generations'. All pretty tidy stuff from the guys over at Tribal DDB.

It's also got some quite nice features to keep you interested like pulling in different video depending on whether you've got the answer right or wrong. However they do seem to have missed a trick by not producing a paired down version of the experiment for the iphone or Facebook. I'm sure it would be super popular in those formats. Especially in Facebook where you could do some fun stuff considering most people display their sex and age.

SHRIGLEY DOES A FUNNY MOVING DRAWINGS FOR PRINGLE

2010-03-24T14:25:00.003Z

Loving this from Pringle. Pretty bold move from the brand especially as it was apparently played at the launch of Milan fashion week not to mention the fact that if you go to their site you'll see that they certainly win the prize for the most emaciated models. Another anomaly is the fact that this is the other piece of film recently commissioned by Pringle. Kinda different don't we think?

WHO'S WON THE BATTLE OF THE COMPARISON SITES?

2010-03-24T11:50:00.005Z

Confused.com is the latest in a long line of comparison sites to overhaul its advertising in reaction to a rather conspicuous Meerkat. Shit scared by the success of Compare the Meerkat almost every comparison Ltd promptly sacked their agency and started to get serious. So how have they done? Let's first take a look at what they are all up against.

Since Aleksandr first hit the screens Comparethemarket.com has seen a 400% increase in unique visitors year on year, a 189% rise in sales since September, and cost per acquisition was reduced by 73%. Not only this but Aleksandr has over 700,000 fans on Facebook and nearly 40,000 followers on Twitter, making him officially more popular than Wayne Rooney and more influential than Hilary Clinton! Aleksandr has also received over 50 marriage proposals since the campaign launched, had a stuffed doll sold in Harrods at Christmas, and has even created an iphone app.

So why is the Meerkat streaks ahead of the competition?

Well let's have a look at the competition starting with BMB's efforts for Confused.com.

OK, I'm sure BMB were worried about producing another character led campaign - opting instead for a moody benefit demonstration - but this ad just doesn't go anywhere. The only thing you can do is watch it rather passively. And even if you really love it, which is highly unlikely, what else are you going to do? The quick witted of you will of course say that you can go to the site and use the service, but considering what they are up against BMB really needed to get people to spend more time with the brand, pass it on, spoof it, quote it on television, or tell their friends in the pub. Which just isn't going to happen.

Prior to this Confused filmed some every men/women using their service in a low grade YouTubey sort of way. Intersperse this with some lingering views of the actual browser and this is a product demonstration at its simplest.

A terrible ad? Well, we would do well to remember that this ad had the best recall value of any ad in 2009 according to Adwatch. However if recall, when your Meerkat share (I've still got it!) is constantly getting nibbled away, obviously wasn't working well enough then surely they needed to produce something a little bolder or multi platform.

Similarly the campaign for Moneysupermarket featuring comic Omid Djalili and created by MCBD (which was appointed to the account in September) is another set of nowhere ads. Not entirely crap, but not in anyway funny - just there, prodding you with the mucky stick of its strategy. All this has going for it is a £15m media budget bribing the British public to it's website.

So both these ads it must be said improve upon the ads that went before. But all though they are better in one sense, they kind of aren't in another. Yes they're better produced and have all the hallmarks of a big agency strategic idea. But I just don't think they are are ideas that have been executed to work well in a multi channel environment. They are, I'm afraid, creative dead ends. Yes yes I'm sure both ads could have some form of web presence, some form of tell-us-what-you-could-have-bought or haggling-help type thingy.com. But in both cases I worry that any online extension to these ideas would neither be funny enough to be passed round or serious enough to be useful.

OK, so the Meerkat campaign allows the conversation to continue, invites interaction, and ticks some of the online boxes that allow TV campaigns to be spread about. However despite winning digital campaign of the year at the Campaign big Awards, it really can't be said that the Meerkat has succeeded because it is especially Digitally savvy.

Proof of this comes from the last rival to the comparison crown - Gio Compario.

They seem to have done all the right things. Like Meerkat they've got all the standard supporting sites, they're on Facebook & Twitter, they provide a steady stream of content, plus ring tones, alerts, and Christmas cards, and have made a genuine attempt to cultivate a dialogue with with people - following people who follow him and answering questions as they come through.

But it doesn't have the same following as Compare the Meerkat. Gio Compario gets 30,000 views for its TV ad on YouTube whereas Meerkat gets nearly 300,000. Gio's only got 3000 fans on Facebook and 230 fans on Twitter but Meerkat can in either case get about 200 times as many.

In the end Meerkat won for two reasons. First it beats Money Supermarket and Confused.com because it created an ad concept that can exist outside of its Television format. An ad that you can see having a life of it's own and an idea that people will make their own, have fun with, and talk about. Not to mention the fact that a character lends itself to cheap online extensions.

Secondly, and rather disappointingly in terms of a killer conclusion, the real reason Meerkat beats the final contender, as became clear when they topped the list of most irritating ads of 2009, is Go Compare just created a crap character.

What this means is that although VCCP gave themselves every chance of success by selling an idea that worked online, I don't think they created a hugely innovative digital campaign. What they did, and all credit to them for this, is create a great character idea that allowed them, when their client started seeing that it was popular and successful, to expand the idea into all these different online spaces with relative ease.

What do you think, best digital campaign of the year or just best character?

PHILLIPS PARALLEL LINES

2010-03-23T10:41:00.003Z

This is the follow up campaign to the very slick Phillips Carousel campaign created by Tribal DDB and Stinkdigital. And it looks set to be pretty epic.

Yes yes we've all seen plenty of people over the years make branded content instead of a good old 'ad', but this does seem to go one better than most in a genre that was defined early on (if you gloss over historical stuff like the soap opera which I'm going to) by the very popular BMW films. Why? Well, there is an idea - the fact that all of the five films are very different but have exactly the same script - and that makes it just that little bit more interesting than watching Clive Owen twat around in a BMW for a bit. Below is the official trailer, here is the microsite, and if you click here you will find yourself in Facebook for no other reason than to let Facebook Connect pull loads of crap from your contacts for no discernible benefit. Facebook aside this is going to be good, but good won't come cheap.

HEINEKEN DO THE CARLSBERG THING...

2010-03-22T15:15:00.007Z

...but they do it very well. I even watched the whole thing waiting for the whole "Carlsberg don't do classical concerts, but if they did they would probably be the best classical concerts in the world" etc etc, and was even a bit confused by the endline before it slowly dawned on me, through a rather conspicuous green hue, that it wasn't Carlsberg, it was the other weak pissy lager. Perhaps that just means Carlsberg really do own the cool beer stunt. Still, this is very good.

GOOGLE JOURNEY - TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY

2010-03-22T14:13:00.006Z

Nice not so little Google mash up by Russian Railways and the folks, well, at Google. It allows you to follow the route of the Trans-Siberian Express on it's epic journey across 2 continents, 12 regions, and some 87 cities. Along the way you can look out the window, brush up your Russian listening to live radio or a suitably epic novel, and expand your knowledge of obscure Russian towns. I'm just going over the Volga listening to War & Peace. Nice.

Here's the video going over the Volga.

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN

2010-03-11T15:23:00.001Z

Music and after effects by Cyriak.

BANKSY - EXIT THROUGHT THE GIFT SHOP

2010-03-03T13:49:00.011Z

Set against the highly apt backdrop of a Waterloo graffiti tunnel you will find Banksy's cinema. And inside, amongst the dripping arches of a disused railway tunnel, and surrounded by a handful of random installations, I watched his film.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, purposefully not reading anything about it before hand. But I can reveal, with all my limited authority, that it is great. Funny, entertaining, interesting, sporadically punctuated by rumbling trains overhead, and at times even thoughtful. I won't tell you what it's about - you probably already know- but it is a very clever critique on the pompous fakery of the Art world. Well worth a watch.

The way Banksy weaves together the story, especially as this requires changing and subverting something that has already been made, not to mention the sort of punchy thought provoking work he produces, makes me think that Banksy would have made a great creative Director. Although I can't imagine a job he would less likely do!

Here's the Art world burning in one of the installations.

OK GO - LATEST MUSIC VIDEO

2010-03-02T12:50:00.009Z

OK, (no pun intended) I know it is going to seem churlish of me to say this but I don't think this is any good. What I mean is that of course it is good, great even. It's incredibly rich and detailed, technically brilliant, and there are some wonderful little details in it. But I can't help thinking I've seen it all before. I can't help thinking of it as a sort of bastard lovechild born out of some long standing gang bang between Cog, Guinness, Google, Barclaycard, and Brylcreem. Now I'm sure I would have been very happy to have been involved in this in any capacity; filling up the paint cannon, blowing up a balloon, or greasing some pulley. But, after treadmill, I just can't help feeling a little disappointed. You see treadmill was so simple, low-fi and original. And for all the ingenuity and production value of this latest effort I just don't think they've matched it.

Obviously it would still be the first thing in my portfolio.

Produced by Syyn Labs.

REALLY?

2010-02-26T11:42:00.005Z

Dream land, it's unlikely isn't it? But then again, who am I to judge.

THE STORY

2010-02-25T12:45:00.007Z

It’s a Friday and 400 people have quietly shuffled their way into the Conway Hall to listen to 14 people talk about the art of storytelling.

The Story, an event curated by the very clever Matt Locke, chaired by the omnipresent Russell Davis, and witnessed by a very un - ‘I work at a London digital agency’ - crowd, was an inspiring reminder of the power of a good yarn.

Now before I cheapen the whole event by relating it to ‘life inside a London digital agency’, The Story was certainly not a worky conference where you come away with a couple of well worn insights or a few cheap quotes to whip out during boring meetings.

The Story was an inspirational, thought provoking, interesting, funny, hugely entertaining - no matter what you do you would have loved it – day out.

But on top of it all that, it did make me think a lot about the work we do.

And this is what I thought.

The internet is a hugely complex, many streamed, multi authored, community edited story.

And here were a bunch of speakers seemingly bound together by a desire to create stories that embrace this complexity and chaos.

The layering up and overlap of narratives, the multi inputs of characters and authors, the chaotic anti-linear treatment of time.

Much like life itself.

This theme began with a traditional story by Cory Doctrow which had as its subtext the creative commons of the web.

(image courtesy of Meg Pickard who wrote a great article about the event)

And continued with Dr Aleks of BBC2's Virtual Revolution fame talking of her frustration at not being able to produce a community edited documentary, Tony White who creates stories from fabrics of found text, Annette Mees & Tassos Stevens of Coney who create improvised theatre, Alexis Kennedy and Paul Arendt who create social media games/stories, Livity a company that inspire inner city youths to tell their own stories, Tim Wright who subjected his partner to a multi channel/author prank, and David Hepworth who gets people to tell true stories live in a London pub.

(some of these are expanded on in a great article by my work chum Joe)

Now all these people either use or mirror the complexity and community aspects of the web in order to create multi layered stories.

Which if you know Matt Locke this is exactly what he is doing at Channel 4 so well.

But on the other side of this coin are the workman-like droids who create content and campaigns for a variety of clients online.Of which admitadly I am one.

Work that largely doesn’t address the need to, and possibility of, weaving in the power and pleasure of stories.

You see we have at our fingertips all the tools to create stories that match the complexity and magic of the real world and yet most of the time we create flat and lifeless work that doesn’t make people feel or do anything much at all.

This of course is dramatic, nor strictly true, but the point I’m making is that if you take a look through some of the work these people do, the way they manage to feed into internet technologies (or structures reminiscent this platform) the magic of storytelling, then the possibilities for all types of branded communication quickly becomes apparent.

Now I realise that the above may be a bit confused for someone either not at the event ior inside my head so here it is in short hand.

The internet is quickly becoming as rich, complex, layered, intricate as the real world.

And the way people interact online is largely analogous to everyday life.

However the work most people do for clients online doesn’t really make the most of this richness..

Perhaps this is because we all became a bit too wrapped up in what the technology could do for us, instead of what we could do with it.

But at The Story there was a bunch of great people who in their own way either told great stories online or in an environment analogous to it.

Which I think is a reminder that we should all try and weave the power of stories into everything we do. Whether that is for a company, individual, or just yourself?

Anyway, that’s probably enough, check out the speakers who were there and take your own inspiration from it.

GORDON BROWN PUNCHES SOMEONE'S FACE OFF

2010-02-23T16:24:00.004Z

Amazing. This is how 'smash' Gordon's bullying claims are being reported in Taiwan. It is straight out of The Day Today info graphic stuff and I for one think the BBC should take a leaf out of there book. It really needs no explanation but I particularly like how into it the animators have obviously got - namely the sound effect scream as woman gets ripped from her desk, the car accelerations (why is the car speeding anyway?), and the proper Hollywood KO to the face Gordon gives one of his advisers.

Enjoy

LWWWMTA

2010-02-22T13:38:00.003Z

Hurrah, thank goodness, rejoice - for another healthy portion of Last week we were mostly talking about has just hit the screens over on the blog that pays.

This week we talk about the death of flash, clever game releases, interactive film, super swish shop installations, and a South African hip hop trio.

So what are you waiting for? Hip hop skip and jump your way here.

YOU ARE NOT A GADGET

2010-02-15T14:05:00.007Z

I went to the RSA on Monday to listen to Jaron Lanier talk about his new book You are not a Gadget.

This book is critical of web 2.0, crowd dynamics, creative commons and all the spaces and practices surrounding them. In essence, and the talk was far more complex and philosophical than this, Jaron was reacting to the pervasive mantra of Web 2.0’s most ardent supporters. This mantra is probably best typified by Chris Anderson’s new book Free, and the free-conomics it persuades us to believe in. In short this is the idea is about giving away 99% of what you do for free online and charging for the rest. Jaron on the other hand, and bear in mind he was until recently banging this drum the loudest, believes that Web 2.0 has had its chance to define the culture and economics of the future. But has failed.

He cites Journalism and the music industry as proof that the way we use this technology has devalued human enterprise, creativity, and intellect and cannot sustain itself. As he says, “the vast majority of journalists, musicians, artists and filmmakers” are “staring into career oblivion because of our failed digital idealism”. Yes, yes, he knows that there are lots of examples of bands giving their music away for free and making money on branded pencil cases and whatnot. But as a whole he believes the industry and the creative people who work within it cannot be sustained this way. This is an important point, for Jaron is not arguing against particular success stories – ‘more power to you’ he says, he is arguing against the system as a whole.

Perhaps Jaron will find it amusing that when I went to the launch of Chris Anderson’s book one of the other speakers invited to add meat to the bones of Chris’ free-conomics argument was the editor of The London Paper. The London Paper went out of business shortly after he spoke.

Is Jaron right? Well, by the timethat there are enough people who believe he is, it will probably be too late.

Anyway, here is your free blog post. Would you like to purchase something whilst you're here? No, looks like I'm giving 100% away for free.

Buy the book here
Some FAQ here
A good review in NYT that discusses the other implications of his point
And some good background on Jaron at Times Online

UPDATE ON CRETINOUS BRITAIN

2010-02-11T13:43:00.003Z

A day after the appearance of this pointless sign this is what I see this morning. A sign warning you to be on the look out for other signs warning you to look out for wet patches sitting directly on top of the sign that is warning you to look out for wet patches. Britain has slipped into terminal decline, turn off the lights on your way out.

SPIRIT OF THE AGE

2010-02-10T13:11:00.002Z

Unbelievable! Walking through Liverpool St station this morning I see this. Proof, if ever you needed it, that we live in a cretinous world. A world where people believe that large, neon sandwich boards placed on or near a wet patches are not quite, well, obvious enough. You know what guys, I think we should also run out a couple of additional posters, just in case like. What I want to know is why they really think that the person who fails to see a luminous plastic obelisk in the middle of the floor, is suddenly going to start noticing these additional warnings.

It's a bit like being trapped in a Lion cage and being shown a picture of Lion 'just so you know what to look out for'.

ROPE AT THE ALMEIDA

2010-01-29T10:01:00.004Z

This is brilliant. Beautifully written, dark, and funny. It follows the real case of two privileged undergraduates who commit an apparently motiveless murder. They strangle a young chap, invite his friends and family, including the victims father, round for a party, and then proceed to wallow and become drunk on their own twisted morality and sense of intellectual superiority.

Here's some great footage from the rehearsals. Rupert is amazing, although it doesn't quite come across here.

Written by Patrick Hamilton Rope premiered in 1929 and is now showing at the Almeida theatre in Islington. It was later made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock.

YELLOW JIHADIST BENTING JESSOP JESSOP JESSOP BOMB PLOT

2010-01-22T17:29:00.004Z

Literally can't wait fo this. The first feature film by the ever brilliant Chris Morris. Premiere's on Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival.

THE SUPER CHIEF

2010-01-21T14:12:00.001Z

Now that's how you design a train. The Sante Fe 'Super Chief' being serviced in Albuquerque, 1943. Named 'the train of the stars', because of all the celebrities who rode on it, the Super Chief regularly traversed the 2,237 miles between LA and Chicago from 1937 to 1971. Beautiful.

MISSED A TRICK?

2010-01-19T10:28:00.003Z

How to write headlines...Lesson 56.

Take this example of a bus stop poster I walked past last night. Everything about it is technically correct. I mean, you can't fault the English, apart from the abbreviation of Arthur of course, and this particular copywriter certainly makes his point clearly and succinctly. No one will come away from this piece of communication thinking anything other than the fact that Arthur Gunn did, in a very real sense, have sex with your mother.

But I just think this poster would have been slightly punchier if it had said 'Artha Gunn fucked your mum'.

In poster headlines a little bit of rhyming goes a long way, making it easier to read, and ensuring the target market (the 'your' in this case) internalise the message (that Arthur Gunn fucked his/her mum) effectively and economically. With the minimum of fuss.

But there is another mistake. How am I to know whether Arthur Gunn fucked my Mum? How am I to know this poster is talking to me? Or someone else? Unless of course I already know that Arthur Gunn has fucked my mum. In which case the poster becomes redundant.

So, understand your audience, find out what they know and don't know, then tell them something new in a simple, engaging and playful way.

Next week...long copy on a toilet door.

LWWWMTA

2010-01-19T09:49:00.005Z

For another exciting weekly roundup on the blog that pays, this time all about snow, and digital stuff. And funny stuff. And a bit more snow. Clickity click here.

BEANS MEANZ HEINZ

2010-01-13T16:41:00.005Z

Well what a rather brilliant idea by those clever bods over at Heinz. It's a pop up cafe in London that serves up nothing but Beanz on toast, all brought to you by suitably mumsy or dadsy looking waiter. They suggest you donate 50p for your plate of beany bother and they give all the proceeds to charity.

Now I defy anyone sitting in a cafe decorated like home, complete with kids drawings, eating beanz on toast and drinking tea, whilst escaping the near zero temperatures outside, not to feel warm and fuzzy inside and love Heinz all the more for it.

And for anyone who doesn't actually go it's been reported in practically every paper. Not to mention that they've got the mums and dad's who work there to tweet about it and thank people for donating. One guy gave them £300 quid today!

Enough said really.

THIS POST WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE (AT LEAST IT WILL IF YOU'RE MALE)

2010-01-07T12:43:00.004Z

According to some recent research by Dr karen Weatherby, a gerontologist from Frankfurt, perving over women's breast can prolong a man's lifespan by up to five years. She reckons that just ten minutes eye balling boobs is equivalent to half an hour of aerobic exercise.

The good doctor adds, "Our study indicates that engaging in this activity a few minutes daily cuts the risk of stroke and heart attack in half. We believe that by doing so consistently, the average man can extend his life by four to five years"

Now whilst this is great news to men everywhere, especially those nagged into undignified indoor running (not me of course for I am a perfect physical specimen), it does pose an odd catch, or should I say snatch 22. Because whilst a man who stares at breast can extend his life by five years, this extra five years will be the old, arthritic, infirm, and presumably impotent five years right before you dribble yourself into the grave. Therefore whilst the breasts may give you an extra five years, its just five extra years that you will be prevented from enjoying them. The good boobs giveth and then the good boobs taketh away. How sarcastic life is sometimes.

By the way, before you embarrass yourself, a gerontologist is not a tit doctor. It's someone who studies the sociology, physiology, and psychology of getting old. They may of course still, themselves, be a tit.

Full article here.

Finally, this is probably a hoax as the original article states it was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine on which there is no record, using a quick search of anything related to karen Weatherby of boobs. Ah well, I think I shall post this anyway.

Ooooh a boob. Bye

DOES EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN

2010-01-06T14:14:00.004Z

A blog that gives you a gif a day composed from just three frames of a movie/TV show. Far more amusing/weird than you could possibly imagine.

WOWAWEEWA: PARROT DRONE

2010-01-06T14:10:00.002Z

Apple lets go of the reigns and it all starts to get quite interesting. Much more to come.

NICE ONE MBC

2009-12-16T17:25:00.003Z

In my review of the week on the blog that pays Publicis' shite rendition of 'I got a feeling' cropped up. All I did was say it was rubbish. MBC do this more eloquently.

I also like how quickly these things are happening nowadays. Publicis do a Christmas card, which gets sent round, which gets spoofed, which will probably get re-spoofed. All before Christmas. It just shows how on the ball your client would have to be if you wanted to do this for a brand.

WORK CLUB CHRISTMAS CARD

2009-12-15T17:46:00.005Z

Well, it's nothing if not punchy. I'll like it though, it's got dollops of balls, a crescent of violence, a side order of kitty death, and it made me laugh. I'm sure everyone is aware of what it references.

Hats off to Work Club for doing this.

LWWWMTA

2009-12-15T12:29:00.006Z

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except a mouse singing 'paedophile'. What am I talking about? Well, to find out, read up on my round up of last week's best bits at the day job. Where? Here.

Image from Sketchy Santas

NEWLY WEDS ON THE JOB

2009-12-10T12:44:00.003Z

First we had Baker Twee t, now we have this. This is the best idea I've seen this side of Pentecost.

Like Baker Tweet, or even The Digit Ear in fact, real world events are interpreted, automatically, into tweets. In this case a marital bed is hooked up with pressure sensors. These sensors record the length and intensity of each session and convert this data into tweets, broadcasting to the world the bedroom antics of this (un)lucky couple.