interesting stuff

This post just does what it says on the tin.

Ken Robinson in his element in 2009.

Alain de Botton on happiness, ambition and wealth in 2009.

   

Monocle magazine on retail, craft and value in 2009.

 

ee bah gum

The current financial climate is proving quite difficult to find brave venture capitalists looking to take a punt on great ideas.

Anyone fancy backing 'E By Gum'? A fruity gum that also delivers your RDA of Vitamin E and would be marketed at northerners? Think of a cross between Vitamin Water, Juicy Fruit and Last of the Summer Wine.

It's there for the taking.

being nice as a marketing strategy part 2

I've spoken about being nice as a marketing strategy before in relation to Yorkshire Tea but thought I'd bring it up again seeing as people are talking about all kinds of joyous things like happiness as a business model and reasons to be optimistic.

Last night a nice man with a big beard in Rough Trade East gave me a free copy of Vampire Weekend's new compilation album (that you can normally only get when you buy their album from Rough Trade). So I joined their Album Club in return. And liked them even more.

Then I got that free expresso from Pret a Manager the other day while I waited for my soup. So I went back yesterday.

So it works. 

hello global economic downturn

i went to pret a manger at lunch

Three things I observed:

-A family of Americans had somehow managed to restructure the que from a one-que-per-til to a one-que per-shop system by accident. It's normally a one-que-per-til affair so all hell broke loose, people were really put out by not having things done in there usual way. It was fascinating to watch and even more fascinating to witness how hard it was to fix the system again as soon as it had been established. Heard mentality had kicked in and there wasn't owt anyone could do.

I can't think of any metaphors for marketing, just thought it was funny and interesting.

-The soup had run out so the guy on the til gave me a free expresso while I waited for more to be warmed up. It was nice of him, thanks til guy.

-I liked this post card about re-pricing stuff due to VAT stuff. 

bon storytelling

How could you fail not to get or like this album after reading that, this, that, above.

Bon means good in French, the title of this post is good storytelling. It's a double meaning thing. Come on, stick with me.

seeing and believing

I was watching some rubbish on Christmas day telly where this little lad gave his mum a snow globe that did CGI stuff inside it. He had a nice Christmas day movie line to go with it though...

Mr Kipling proved this along with Uncle Ben and Cap'n Birdseye.

 

More and more believing is coming from consumers actually seeing what they are being asked to believe with a bit of good old fashioned transparency. Kind of summed up nicely by one of Tom's sketches for me.

i've seen even more of the future

It's made by Technika, costs 199.97 and is available in Tesco's Cambridge. In all seriousness I'm almost at the tipping point where I'm consuming more media via my ipod than my telly now. So it makes sense to just plug my ipod into a telly. 

In thinking about it my ipod, laptop and telly are all just applications for accessing information and entertainment. What I'd really want is for all the content to be floating in the clouds like mobile me and the hardware to just be a window in on it. So I could get to the same stuff through any of those access points. Or just buy the license to listen to and watch anything I want at any time rather than have to pay to download specific files.

We'll need a decent UK broadband connection first though.

the art of conversation

Meera (seen here talking to Ade at interesting 2007) gave me this book in the week. It's what the School of Life conversation meals are based on I think. That's why she gave it to me. Because I liked the School of Life meal. 

 

The very first page throws you straight into a big idea. It talks of the old British Telecom slogan "it's good to talk. It kind of stands for a lot more than just BT's old slogan that line. It stands for the 80's and 90's ambitions of self expression, sharing information and trying to be understood. Which kind of sums up advertising as well. 

Talking is only half the story though Theodore argues (great name eh). Conversation on the other hand is a much fuller picture. It involves sending and receiving information. It is an art that can as easily catch fire as die a death. It's the grey between the black and the white.

Time to stop talking, and start conversing.

digital natives & immigrants

There's a very interesting bit in this talk by Ken Robinson (fast forward to 29:15) about digital natives and digital immigrants. Those who have had to learn about digital environments and those who were just born into them.

There was also something in the Sunday Times a while ago talking about a similar concept in the way kids now grow up with technology and how it is literally messing with their heads.

They'll be coming for our jobs before long those little natives. And they'll probably know more about this digital malarkey than we could ever dream of.