Nike Golf have decided that the best way to market their new golf balls is to blast them at objects and film the resulting destruction in slo-mo. Great videos, aimed at convincing people that if only they buy these balls, they will be able to hit them hard enough to do such damage. You can […]
Lovebites
The agency where I work have been busy producing a series of 2-3min shorts, called Lovebites, that are being shown 5x/week in TBS here in the US, in partnership with Sunsilk. They focus on the life of a 25yo as she develops a relationship with her new man. A few episodes were filmed that would […]
Perils of International Banking
In the US, I’ve mainly been living in a cash world.  I have a credit card, but I keep it for big purchases, never using it for day to day stuff.   My debit card expires the end of this month and I’d arranged for one to be sent out earlier so I could guarantee getting […]
YouTube: Time Invention of the Year
Yes, the writers at Time do know the actual site went live last year. But they are celebrating the sheer power of the people who have made the site their own. “But even though they built it, they didn’t really understand it. They thought they’d built a useful tool for people to share their travel […]
DRM, Zune and Microsoft
How to piss many customers off and confuse many others.  Anyone who buys a Zune from Microsoft is not going to be able to play tracks they have bought from Microsoft.  There’s why digital files should not be locked in but be in neutral, cross platform compatible formats – so you don’t lose the value.
Phones on Planes?
No. Please no.  At least put themin a booth or something so the rest of us don’t have to hear them say ‘guess where i am, on a plane’.
Big Brother In Second Life
I’m not sure whether I think this is innovative or downright scary but Big Brother is moving into Second Life.  Check out the trailer, which appears to be the sales pitch for the franchise and does not mention the SL version. In the virtual version, they are looking for 15 people in 3 time zones […]
Million Dollar Spaceship
The Million Dollar Homepage was successful and was immediately followed by plenty of imitators, none of whom achieved the same notoriety. No-one had a really new take on it. But now I think we have one in Your Name into Space. MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department and the Georgia Institute of Technology Space Systems Design […]
Chevy Life – more living in cars
There’s obviously something in the air, maybe the high property prices, but, following Nissan, another car manufacturer has decided that their vehicles are perfect to live in. This time it is Chevy, who are running the ‘Aveo Livin’ Large Campus Challenge‘. I’m late on this as it finished last week, The “AVEO Livin’ Large Challenge” […]
Cheques and Checks
Changing countries brings with it a set of cultural changes that sometimes have you shaking your head.  The last few days it’s been over cheques (or checks if you prefer).  To enable me to be paid directly into a bank account I needed to fill in a form – and provide them Payroll with a […]
Cable troubles
Setting up the new apartment I have had two very different customer service experiences from the facilities suppliers.  On ringing up ConEd, the electricity/gas supplier, they had no problem in changing over the account into my name. Time Warner cable on the other had will do nothing until the previous tenant remembers to cancel their […]
Make a Superbowl Ad
The US’ NFL are runnng a competition this year to have their Superbowl ad created by a fan.  Interestingly, they are not jumping onto the ‘upload your video’ bandwagon but making peotential ad writers turn up and audition in person. (although, given the rules of the pitch, I think they should have allowed video presentations) […]
University Challenge Questions
Dave has picked up on one of the latest questions from University Challenge: “What XML formatted files are used on web sites to provide machine readable content summaries and are often visually marked with an orange box?” In this case the students apparently got the answer correct. However a few weeks ago they asked: “What […]
Timewasters from unusual sources
It’s not just the big brands that need marketing, small ones, organisations, groups, sports all need the marketing love as well. And they’ve all heard the call of the viral, hoping it can be the answer to their prayers. Today I bring you some timewasting games to hurry you through your working day from the […]
IAB – Taking Control of UGC
Bad, bad title. Setting up everyone to believe you can take control of the masses out there. As was acknowledged eventually in the panel conversation, taking control is out of the question but it seems that none of the panel had questioned the title in preparation. Again, this is taken from rapidly scribbled notes. The […]
IAB – Fran Kelly keynote
Frank Kelly is the CEO of Arnold US and has written a book ‘The Breakaway Brand – How Great Brands Stand Out’. However, I found his talk about using interactive to help build brands extremely frustrating, with multiple asides and exclamation marks in my notes as he said something that I disagreed with or just […]
7 days in a Nissan Sentra
Nissan have been runing some interesting commercials this week, to promote the new (I assume it is new) Nissan Sentra. Marc Horowitz has blogged his story – it was last week – and explains the rules. I must live 7 straight days out of my Sentra. I am free to come and go from the […]
IAB – Total Communications Planning
Today, I spent some time at the IAB ‘Agency Summit’ which looked at interactive advertising. I took notes of a few of the sessions, the first being a look at Total Communications Planning. The panel comprised of: Bob DeSena, Managing Partner – Director of Active Engagement, Mediaedge:cia Louis Jones, EVP, Managing Director, Media Contacts Maria […]
New Software
I’ve changed over the software, imported the posts and managed to get most of the links working in the same way. I think I’ve sorted out the feeds by following the relevant instructions, but not too sure. So added an upgrade entry into the old ones.  All I need to do is upgrade the style […]
Rugby and Roulette
A couple of virals for Friday – both UK based. The first is from the Rugby Football Union, not your usual source of viral videos, with a short funny encouraging you to go out and play rugby. If you are a cat fan, this may not be your cup of tea. The second is from […]