be kind rewind

On a brighter note I'm looking forward to this. You don't see enough of Danny Glover these days.

out of reach

My main problem with digital at the minute is that it's still no where near having the same kind of reach as telly. All the optimism around it is great but you just can't get to the big big audience and uplifts with it.

I'm reading permission marketing at the minute, probably ten years too late but it's an interesting snap shot of the thinking and expectations at the time. Ten years on though and we're still of the mindset that it's either digital or telly and digital is the future. In reality though telly's going to keep winning out for a long time yet I think.

We should just accept the fact and try to integrate in each others favour rather than go at loggerheads.

Welcome to pessimism.

death and marketing

Do you remember Death Cigarettes? They were around for a short time in the early 90's. They marketed themselves as the only brand that was completely honest about the dangers of cigarette smoking. They didn't last too long but it was a thought provoking change at the time.

With more and more of the audience learning the tricks of marketing all the time I wonder if a 'commerce does bad, atleast we're honest about it' approach will become more commen. Small scale statements could be used to out the secrets of intire industries. Such as tobaco, aviation, supermarkets, automotives etc.

Perhaps it's a bit anarchist but it could possibly be done at a balance in the consumers interest.

Just a thought.

ease of use

When I was a youngen it was all about style over substance for me. I thought David Carson and Raygun was the best thing since sliced bread. Now I just want things that work. The below map for Waitrose is probably the best piece of graphic design I've come across this year. They should enter it into D&AD. Why? Because it works, the fact that it uses the exact road signs you see when you come out the tube station means to can instantly get your bearing and find B from A.

Following on from this probably the best site I've used this year is skyscanner. It's designed like shit but the functionality it allows to view calendar based flight costs is so obviously the most logical way to book flights if you've got a bit of lee way with your dates. It's saved me a couple of hundred quid already this year.

heavenly issue

I also picked up this Heavenly records edition of Illustrated Ape last night (it was a busy night). Well worth the purchase price of £5 if you're interested in Heavenly. It reminded me that I had a half written post about working with them stacked up from ages ago which I've just finally put live.

I worked with Heavenly on one of the first proper sites I ever created when first arriving in London as a youngen. I didn't really realise the honour of sitting with Martin (heavenly founder) and Robin (chief heavenly story teller) for hours on end producing the thing back then.

For examples I got to hear first hand the hilarious story behind this picture. Along with many other gems from their years in the industry at that point.

The site also got put out as an official record release (HVN 100) which makes me a recording artist I suppose?

an idea for ecommerce

HVN13 Bobby Gillespie's toasted cheese sandwich.

A fair few years ago I did a website for Heavenly Records. It took about two years to get it out of the door because (as Heavenly confessed themselves) it was like writing an auto biography of the label and they had a lot of stories to tell. At the time I didn't really realise it but I learned a hell of a lot from working with Heavenly. Although being a little rough around the edges they were true visionaries. Some examples I'd state would be:

-Their decision to put Bobby Gillespie's half eaten toasted cheese sandwich (left in their office) out as a record release (HVN 13 pictured above).
-When the website finally did go live it was also given a full label release of HVN 100. I suppose this means I've got a record release in my portfolio aswell, I should have put it in my CV thinking about it.
-Heavenly also openly encourage mp3 file sharing in the days of Napster while every other label was just getting angry.
-They had been blogging for years in the form of their rambling magazine Socialism.

Anyway my point for this post was that in designing the Heavenly site we got talking about an online store as everyone did back then. I remember at the time we had this great idea that rather than do the standard online record store they could mix in something more limited sale based like ebay. They had stacks of unsold records (some unreleased due to art work typos), promos, badges and half drunk cans of celebrity beer that would have sold like hot cakes. This would have added to the sence of community, encouraged repeat visits and loyalty in encouraging users to come back to see what was on sale next, and given them a real point of difference.

I still think that online stores miss so many opportunities for personalisation and community building/ customer statisfaction that still only seem to be present in ebay.

sneezing

While I was having dinner last night I overheard a guy at the next table giving an impassioned review of The Counterfeiters. I want to go and see it now he did such a good job.

So I thought I'd do some sneezing myself. The place I went for dinner last night was Bar Shu. If you fancy a nice meal it is one of the few places in London that you can get genuine Chinese provisional food which is a world away from your generic Chicken Chow Mein and Crispy Duck. I stopped off in Sichuanese on my way to Tibet for a week so can vouch for it's authenticity (fiery as hell).

You also get a nice tin of tea and chilli pen set when you leave, more appropriate take home stuff just like I found at Wahaca.

Then after you're done at Bar Shu head over to Alan Yau's Yauatacha to pick up some cakes that are nearly as well designed as the packaging.

Bless you.

democratising donation

I've been thinking about the concept of democratising donation for a while now so here are a couple of examples of it.

The first is 2 sets of christmas cards I bought last night. Both our produced by the same company, to the same theme, on the same shelf and both give a 40p contribution per pack sold to charity. But each design in the range gives 40p to a different charity so in effect you can pick and choose who you want to donate to. Simple but very empowering.

The second is this report I got from the Co-operative bank a while ago. I've mentioned that I've got a lot of time for the co-op before but for me this really goes to show that they have democracy and working as a cooperative at the heart of their values. Well done the co-op.

sequential advertising

I went to a conference the other day where digital outdoor was being hyped up as the next big thing. To me it's still no more than a TV put where a poster or billboard used to be.

One interesting part of it though is its ability to do sequencial messaging. I've seen those TV's on escalators being used quite nicely to do Sony's balls campaign bouncing down the stairs with you and last night saw an effective version of the guy from Pims skiing down the escalator at Tottenham Court Road.

This doesn't just have to be from one screen 12 inches from the next though. Whole user journeys from driving into work to catching a bus to the first online banner ad of the day to press ads in the free sheets at night could be put together to form a compelling and impressive narrative.

Either that or they'd annoy the hell out of you.

great simple idea