iPhone. A quick thought

Okay - it's Friday, as always I'm frazzled, but I did have a thought about the i-phone after reading that Vodafone (our lovely client) are going to bag the rights.

Of course the first thought was, great, I can get one! Then i thought, oh shit, I can't because we have SonyEricsson as a lovely client too. But then having seen the video from the NY Times dood (thanks Nick) it dawned on me that most people will probably use it like an advanced Crackberry rather than an actual phone.

In the same way that loads of people have Blackberrys and mobiles I think people will use the iPhone as a small laptop but still use their normal mobile to talk to people.

The iPhone does proper web browsing and email via wireless. Most of london is wireless now so that works. And it's also good for photos and music (like a laptop). It doesn't do SMS so for most people that's a bummer - but they can have a nice normal mobile like the SE W880 for that.

Yes? No?

PS. Also of interest is Johnny from Anomaly's idea to re-sell the iPhone for charity. Why would he do that? Cos he's a nice guy - certainly. But also he is auctioning off a jawbone (sexy bluetooth headset) as part of the deal. Jawbone are an anomaly client. Smart thinking again from Mr V.

(thanks to Nick again for the link)

The Cure for Depression

Blimey there is much to be depressed about. The weather, no Thierry Henry, lack of UK awards at Cannes. But I have a cure.

Bloody Frogs

How can you really tell whether digital in an ascendance or not? Well, the only real, scientifically trustworthy, barometer, has to be attendance at the gutter bar. And the results are just in, Peter Snow style.

From where I was sitting the busiest two days in the gutter were Tuesday and Wednesday - Geek Night - rather than Thursday and Friday which is TV night. Hey it's not conclusive, but then what is?

We had a disappointing result in terms of actually winning anything, but c'est la vie. I did hear that the jury didn't give Lynx Blow a gong because it was sexist. Lynx, sexist? Are you shi**ing me?

Web grand prix and gold winners were worthy as far I'm concerned. All good stuff. Farfar's Heides thing for Diesel shows what you can do when you take an idea to the extreme, Nike + I've written about elsewhere and the Milk stuff is just so lovingly produced. I guess the knives will be out for the banners like they were in D&AD but the jurors can only give awards for what was entered. I think the days of amazing little banners that everyone loves are over. Banners are dead. It's sites from here on in.

Cool stuff for me included finding a frog (ok, flo, it was a toad, but then the headline doesn't work does it?) in the pool. And being on boats and at parties with all the old school luvvies.

It's comforting to think there is still a massive divide between digital and ATL in terms of people. The linen brigade stick to what they like doing and we do what we want to do. I'm sure they see the digital people and think what a bunch of chancers with no class etc etc. I'm perfectly cool with that.

At one luvvy party though we were offered some drinks and stuff by a nice french waitress. She gave us more than anyone else and whispered to us, 'The cool passengers need to be recognised'.

It was a lovely moment that was worth at least a Grand Prix to me.

:)

Is it sunny?

With the cyberlions shortlist just in we have two finalists. From here on in it's anyones guess. Flo is optimistic but I am naturally English about these things - ie. I bet the bloody foreigners stitch us up! 

We are off tonight so if you are going to be in Cannes for a few days maybe see you there.

Like I actually know who 'you' are. Obviously if 'you' are a friend or 'you' are a hot team or designer wanting to come and work for us, or Bob Greenberg, then that would be great. If 'you' are someone I've fired or who thinks I'm a complete twat or something like that then, you know, it wouldn't be so cool.

I still find this whole blogging thing quite strange.

Mobile Wars and Art as Brands

After a few busy, but interesting, days I went to the O2 Wireless festival last night. Two things struck me: Mobile Phone operators and handset manufacturers are just everywhere these days and no one has a better brand than The White Stripes.

First up, you literally can't do anything in life anymore without a mobile operator or handset manufacturer being involved in some way. Music. Art. Football they have become truly ubiquitous. I don't have a problem with this at all - the O2 festival is a 'good thing' I am glad it exists, (as long as the artists are good) so thanks O2.

However, there were moments when the annoying O2 girl on the big screen just got too much to bare and there was an O2 unsigned competition winner who seemed to provoke a fairly harsh reaction from someone behind me. He shouted at the top of his voice, 'I have no idea who you are and have never met you, but I f**king hate you.'

Musically speaking the Queens of the Stone Age were brilliant. They have this dirty bass sound that sounds amazing live. Mark Collier does a good impression of them. After them The White Stripes headlined.

The whole stage was made red, including monitors, backdrops etc etc - nothing particularly new there but even their roadies were dressed in black suits (suits..) with red ties. Then when they played the giant video screens by the side went into red and white monochrome mode. It looked great. It was the full 'brand' experience. (You can see some of it here) 

Obviously they are increibly talented, god knows how jack White makes such a full layered sound on one guitar (The Mrs who understands these things much more than I do said he was playing the lead guitar like a bass too - I trust her implicitly on these matters)  - but the whole experience was so tight.

If other brands paid as much attention to quality and detail they would have 'fans' rather than just purchasers.

When is enough, enough?

I got sent another link about the 2012 logo in an email which just read 'you'll love this'. Naturally I clicked on the link.

Up came this (for those of you who can't be bothered to click it's a you tube page with the warning message that the IOC have got the legal boys out and have pulled the film)

This raises a few questions. In the spirit of 2.0 and full disclosure etc etc are they right to block the content or does that just fan the flames / make us hate them even more?

Would anyone really search beyond one link to find this new content?

Where would you actually start to look for this content other than you tube?

Just what was it?

Some things I learnt yesterday

I did a Pecha Kucha talk yesterday at the Made in Brunel show in Islington. There were some fairly big knobs there including Sir Digby Jones head of the CBI. Here's what I learnt.

1. Sir Digby is a very good speaker. He has a rakish charm to him that I bet goes down a storm in boardrooms and posh eateries. He told a joke about management consultants: All management consultants know how to make love to a women a hundred ways. Unfortunately management consultants don't know any women. (I bet he has a gag about Marketers when he speaks to consultants..)

2. People go to the loo in airports to listen to the flight announcements because they can't hear them in the main concourse. (From Joe Ferry Head of Design Virgin Atlantic)

3. Creativity improves business. Well we all know this... but Virgin have made an extra £20m in royalties (on top of normal business) for their upper class seat / check in designs. (Also from Joe Ferry)

4. Doing a Pecha Kucha talk is a lot of fun. You are forced to distill your thinking down to key thoughts. Always good.

5. I did a pretty good talk but was then interviewed for Bloomberg TV and completely went to pot. I looked at the camera and sounded like an idiot. Why is talking to a camera any different from doing a presentation?

6. If the marketing industry is to move forward we need to get different people interested in it. Brunel is not your standard Watford or St Martins but some of the ideas the students have there are brilliant and actually more suited to marketing today than being able to draw a 48-sheet.

You should go to the show. You might learn something too.

What's the answer to promoting a new show on ITV?

Very quick post on something interesting that we have done for a new show going on out ITV this sunday: Talk to Me. It's the first use of Yahoo Answers to do something quite like this.

If you haven't tried Yahoo answers do, it's human powered search. These days authenticity seems to be the key when trying to talk to consumers - so what better way to start a conversation then pose a question and get real people to answer?

The internet is not about computers.

(Oh - and, er, watch the show - having seen the first few rough edits it's pretty good. Quite a change for ITV. Sunday night.)

Like the 2012 logo and BB some things just won't go away.

I surely can't be the only one who finds the whole Digital vs Traditional thing mind-numbingly dull but it seems like it's going to run, and run.

This week alone after some stuff about D&AD and digital not being as good as posters we now have Lord Saatchi dissing google in the FT and a big peice in Marketing Week about RKYR nicking Virgin from Glue. I guess it is the story of the moment and the press just write things  people want to read.

It seems to me there are only two routes open to anyone in marketing these days. Moan about the changes and pine for a bygone era or willingly embrace the opportunities.

But these opportunities are open to any agency in any space. For example take the catcam project. Basically a cat with a web cam - brilliant, made possible only by the internet. Now, with a little bit of work (and a cat food client - if you are a cat food client please contact me!) this could become a cracking idea. The point is that it could be a TV ad, a site, some posters, a 'viral'. It doesn't matter - ideas are media agnostic.

One day you will be too.

Anyone want a job?

I'm really not sure if this in the spirit of things but, you know, we're busy, you're probably bored so why not come and work at Dare.

We are looking for all sorts of people really. Creatives, Producers, Wizards, Lion Tamers (of all leveles).

We dont have a poster on the wall that says, 'You don't have to be a geek to work here but it helps' or anything like that. Our recruitment policy is quite simple, in fact bordering on the truly niave: it is be good and be nice.

If you think you fit those exacting standards come and say hello here.

Thanks for your time. Remember what Bobby Byrd said: 'If you don't work, you can't eat.'

The Future of Press Advertising

Forget all the online vs TV nonsense. How is print going to work in our digital futures? This brilliant presentation at Ted Talks poses one very cool scenario.

Non geeks beware this is a talk about a peiece of software but bear with it until around 2 mins 30 where they show a digital verison of the Guardian complete with a BMW 'press' ad.

The user can continually zoom into the picture, getting more and more detail. Now, this particular ad has been created by software designers so it's devoid of an idea or much visual style. But if a great creative team got together with a digital dude you can imagine something quite special.

There have been rumblings elsewhere about whether digital is better than this or that and the Rooney poster not getting into D &AD. You can wonder about the vagaries of award decisions until you're blue in the face - it's like arguing with the referee after he has awarded a penalty against you - makes you feel better but ultimately pointless.

We need to move on and work out where the future great work is going to come from. Watch the clip - and then think what the ad could look like if you had that brilliant, fierce, evocative picture of Rooney instead of a BMW car.  

Doing a Dali

In 1974 two American creatives hired Salvador Dali to direct an Alka Seltzer ad. He dressed three women up in white leotards and painted them. You can watch it here.

He thought the whole thing was going to last 4-5 minutes. He had no concept of the 30 second ad.

But, what he created was very interesting and the team managed to edit together something really wonderful. It went through the roof on research but was pulled because the first scene was someone stabbing a woman with a giant marker to dramatize the pain of heartburn, a lady from Ohio complained. 

Two things. Just one lady complained and that was enough to shelve the project. Perhaps we are a little better off these days after all. And two, when are we going to see some more digital Dalis?

PS. The inspiration for this post was reading the Private View on the 118 Flashdance viral. Now personally I don't like these films, I think they are peurile, but I can see that they work really well and every now and then you have to say 'f**k it'. In the same way that the US team probably said, 'F**k it, lets get Dali in'.