10 Years of New Labour - 10 Years of New Media (Part 1)

I know it's easy to say so now but I had a gut feeling that Tony Blair's premiership would end in tears. If blogging had been around in 97 I would have blogged about it and could prove it to you. I guess the thing that nailed it for me was the shocking error of judgement when the conference linked hands and rocked on to D-Ream's 'Things can only get better'.

I just did a quick search for that piece of film on you tube and it doesn't exist. Well at least not in a very accessible place. I reckon the government employ someone to stay on you tube to check for postings, as a matter of national security! The original version is here. If anyone has footage from the conference please do let me know.

Anyway. Like I said I had a gut feeling about TB. I feel like we had some sort of bond. I moved into a great new flat the day he moved in to no.10 and one of my friends was one of his Private Secetaries. She got me an invite to no.10. I have sat in his chair - he really did have a batphone to Ireland and Washington and he had a picture of his kids, pre Leo, but not of Cherie. So my friend was always singing his praises saying what a wonderful boss he was and I don't doubt this. As I said I just had a gut feeling that his heart was in the right place but he was way out of his depth. He'd never run anything before, let alone the country.

Being a Creative Director is really nothing else than trusting your gut. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes wrong.I left the cosy world of the TV creative department in 1999. Most people said I would regret it. Who knows what would have happened had I stayed but again the old belly said this digital thing would take off and I can't say I'm wholly unhappy with the ways things have turned out.

So what's the gut saying now? In the spirit of experimentation I'm going to say in this post that Gordon Brown is going to be an absolute disaster as PM. I saw him speak at an Internet Conference many moons ago - I think it was probably 2000. I thought the chance to see a real politicin present would be pretty cool, a proper orator. He was rubbish, absolute crap. He had no passion, he was unclear about the point he wanted to make and as a person left me severely underwhelmed. Whatever you say about Blair he has the gift of the gab, in spades. Gord doesn't.

Whether people will find this out in time for David Cameron to waltz into no.10 or not I'm not sure. But like I say, it's here, written for posterity. Gordon Brown hasn't got what it takes. Let's see if my prediction comes true.

Tune in for New Labour vs New Media parts 2 and 3 in a few days time where I look at how creatives have  agencies have changed over the 10 year period. Toodle pip.

Coke do UGC in Second Life

Coke have created a site called virtual thirst where they ask users to come up with ideas that will then be created for real in Second Life, the virtual world.

I'm sure if you read this piss poor attempt at a blog you probably already read Joseph Jaffe's blog he explains the idea in more detail.

What's interesting from my point of view, apart from the fact that marketers continue to experiment in second life, is that there is a smart way of ensuring quality control. Users have to submit ideas and then the panel choose which ones get animated by their resident geeks. Who knows how many people have actually bothered to submit ideas but when we are talking about advertising quality is still better than quantity.

Do all planners want to be creatives?

I want to Beer Sphere last night, the planners drinks thing. It was good. There were people from all corners of the world swapping ideas and interacting, in fact the whole thing reeked of 2.0ness.

BR's very own 2.0 geezer Robin asked me what I was doing there as I was a creative. Fair point. We (along with The Law) then discussed the notion of whether planners actually want to be creatives. So I thought I'd ask the question.

To get the ball rolling, I think they do.

A tale of two pitches

Now that the Sony and ITV pitch wins are public and people have asked me about them I thought I'd say something. Without giving away all our secrets of course.

First up ITV. We actually pitched for this before christmas but obviously there have been a few client side changes since then and so it took a while to come to a final decision. We pitched with one idea that was simple in its conception but complex in its execution. A measure of how fast the industry moves on is that in between now and then this idea has popped up for TV programming elsewhere. Or maybe it just wasn't that hot an idea!

Sony was a big one. I'll make no bones about it we wanted to win it. Balls and Paint have been the two outstanding ads over the last few years. We want to create the outstadning piece of digital work to sit on the same table.

Again we pitched with one idea that had several components. What was particulary pleasing on this win was that it was done without too many pizza nights. Just two in fact. We had an idea early on and executed it with the minimum of fuss. The night before the pitch I think I got home about 10pm. A first, but hopefully not the last!

Of course now the really hard work begins.

Awards-tastic

It's the beginning of the silly season. Who'll get what? Who's zooming who? Why does everyone get in such a flap?

For me winning awards has really only ever been a fun way of someone saying they like your work. And a bit of night out. The notion that you win an award and then double your salary immediately seems charmingly anachronistic, unless I've made a complete balls up of the whole situation! (quite likely actually).

Anyways, amongst all the luvvies sitting around stroking their chins and trying not to get found out when they stitch their rivals up are The Webbys.

The Webbys are a global award that have grown in popularity with the web. Once the preserve of geekdom they are becoming more mainstream. The big difference being that once a piece of work makes the final shortlist it's up to the public to vote. So, the theory is that it's a more democratic process.

Anyway, the key to democracy is persuading people to do things that they don't really want to do and making them think they had a choice.

So....I give you, my friends, trusted friends!, the choice of voting for three of our pieces that have made it into the finals.

I would link directly for your convenience but you have to log in. Sorry about that. You'll have to go via here. 

Don't think of it as a vote for Dare - but for your country.

(This politics thing is a piece of piss. Taxi to Notting Hill. Dave, I'm on my way!)

Interactivity is everything

Last week I was on a series of client away days, brainstorming, that kind of thing. It was all very interesting but the thing I remember the most was a purely interactive experience with an italian sausage.

I was doing a client workshop with AEG, the German white goods manufacturer (although clearly all these types of goods are black or silver now, so perhaps that nomenclature will change over time). In the evening session we went to a restaurant called Mmmmh! in Brussels. It was great fun trying to explain the name of the place to the cab driver but even more fun when we got there.

The whole premise was that we had to make our own meal. There was around 20 of us so the chef gave us our duties and off we went. I helped prepare pasta with Italian Sausage. 'Where is this going?' you ask. All the kitchen products were AEG appliances and of course we got to play with them and explore all the great features. The touch, the sound are as important as the look. This was great and actually made me want to fit my next kitchen out with AEG.

We know from our wok on SonyEricsson that if you can get consumers to interact with products they are much more likely to buy them. So although we bang on about 'digital' this, 'digital' that. Actually in this crowded environment that we live in getting people to interact with products is far more important.

Digital at Campaign Direct

Just a quick thought on the Campaign Direct awards last night.

I was drafted in last minute (I think..) to help judge because more and more digital pieces were being entered. The debate about whether something is 'direct' or not has been going on for ages. It seemed to me at times we were judging posters, TV ads, press ads, everything.

Of course one could argue that all digital is direct. Pretty much all digital work has a call to action, whether it's a 'click here', 'upload here' or 'find out more'. So where to draw the line?

Most of the digital work that was entered came from agencies traditionally labled as DM agencies but there were a few entries from digital agencies. I can see this trend continuing.

We had a pretty good night. We only entered two pieces in two categories, Corporate and Best Use of Digital. Dare school got a commendation for Corporate but won Best Digital. Lynx Blow was a finalist in Best Digital too. Before you ask, I wasn't allowed to vote on our work!

So dareschool has done OK at the awards. Mainly because of the innovative technology I reckon. These days it's relatively simple to have a cool digital idea, the hard part is making it happen. So a public thank you, to Al, Mizzy, Greg, Ade, Dangerous, Kooch and Jo. You rock.

Stop Moaning Cooper. Show us the good stuff.

I have had it pointed out to me that I have been a little negative on this blog. So in the spirit of, ermmm..Eatser? I am going to give some examples of work I actually like. Radical.

Before that, a quote from The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda (which I am reading at the moment and recommend):

Where there is so little of significance to feel, every minor sensation seems annoyingly amplified."

What I take this to mean is because there is so little good work around the bad work annoys me even more. 

Anyways, as promised, two links that if I had had anything to do with I would be immensely happy and wouldn't bother doing anything else creative all year.

First up an ad for Sportlife. But not as you know it. Thanks to the Creative Social for the link.

And second up a piece of Art. Advertising / Art vs Art / Advertising. The old conundrum. Who cares? It's just great. If a brand had done this it wouldn't be any better it would just win loads of awards.

Happy Easter. Enjoy your breaks. You're worth it.

Are we so bereft of ideas?

I was watching tv last night, Lost, Sky One, yup I know, I know, I realise I should be watching it via a podcast or whatever, but there you go. So, some ads came on, one was for the VW golf and the other for 'Now 66' featuring Girls Alound. 'What's the connection'? I can practically hear you scream.

Well it's that both are rip-offs. Girls Alound, and lest we forget, The Sugababes, assasinated RUN DMC's 'Walk this Way' for comic relief. Ok it's for charity, but even being charitable this is an abomination. I always thought that an artist should be able to sue for defamation of character when someone does a terrible cover. 

I guess the girls think that they are bringing an 'old' song to a new audience etc etc. Bless. Much the same could be said with the new VW spot. Presumably the fact that Audi did exactly the same ad - brilliantly I might add - around twenty years ago doesn't matter. Presumably they think that either no one will remember or that they are 'updating' an idea. A homage even? Is the 'Great Pretender' ironic!?

So how long is long enough? What's an acceptable time scale for creative people to copy a song or an idea? In this digital age it's only going to get quicker.