I went on Holiday and took the Internet with me

I just got back from a lovely little holiday (hence no posts). Along with Speedos (it's an enduring image isn't it?), Proust and suncream we took a laptop. What are we, nuts?

We went the Maldives. By the way I think I have a good line for their tourist board: 'It's f**king amazing. And not THAT expensive.' We were in the middle of nowhere, 45 mins boat ride from Male and yet even there they had wireless and even on the boat ride my mobile reception was better than in London.

I'll get to the point. Even though we were having a ball, doing nothing, reading, getting sunburnt, drinking ginger mojitos there was still a little bit of time for our friend the internet.

I showed a photo to someone here and in the room was a laptop. She just rolled her eyes and said, 'saddo'. The implication that having a laptop on holiday means work. Far from it - I think everyone at Dare can testify that I did absolutely no work while I was away. But I did muck about a bit on the web.

The web has become a little bit like having a TV in your room on holiday. It's entertainment and a connection with reality - if you want it. The entertainment bit is the key though. It's fun to go onto Facebook for a bit, check the Arsenal goals - one way of working out whether I'm on holiday or not is just to see whether there has been an amazing home game or not, I always miss the good ones - and put some photos up on Flickr. 

This is what most clients don't get. The internet is not about work anymore. It's embedded into people's leisure time. And indeed they are having more fun on their computers than on TV. Although the indian soaps I occasionally flicked past were sensational! 

Barclaycard and Gay Bingo.

I wrote a while ago about not many uk clients getting involved in blogging. I'm happy to say Barclaycard are trying something out with their WTF Collective blog. And it's certainly not about APR percentage rates.

A wee bit of backstory. Barclaycard have created this neat little gizmo called the OnePulse which is an Oyster Card, Credit Card and Cash Card for Londoners. Anywhere that has an oyster reader will let you get a tenners worth of chocolate (or porn mags) by just swiping it rather than putting in a pin. Quite cool I think.

Therefore the blog is all about forward thinking Londoners and what they think the Future of London is all about. There is Jonny Woo, a fairly outrageous transvestite, Stephen Mangan from Green Wing and an up and coming band called Proxy to name but a few.

It's the brands first foray into social media and who knows where it will end up but I think it's a pretty interesting toe that has been dipped.

A fad is a fad but it can be a good fad

Some time ago I signed up to the Blog Action Day - which encourages blogers to unite for oneday to raise the issue of the enironment. The most interesting thing for me is not the environment per se, that's just a fad, but the way the web can get over 16,000 people to write about something.

I'll spare you my thoughts on whether digital marketing is more green than traditional etc etc (it probably is but not by any significant amount so who cares?).

We are undoubtedly in a green era. My friend's mum used to collect rain water when we were teenagers. I thought she was a bit mental - in a fun way - like she was preparing for the apocolypse or something. Now, I look at my drainpipe and wonder how I could collect rain water to water the plants. (Growing tomatos, and herbs). But it' a fad, an industry and politically motivated fad. Most fads pass - remember aerobics in the 80's? - now half the country is clinically obese. Whether greenness continues might well depend on whether his royal greenness, Dave Cameron, gets in or not. I think he might and that may influence a whole generation to come.

But when talking to Florian about this he gets very German. "There are no people dropping cigarettes in Germany, there are no plasic bags in German supermarkets and if you do get coke in a plastic bottle you take it back in a tray to be cleaned out. And there are no people drinking alcohol on the streets and dropping bottles and cans. This is not a fashion, this is how it is."

How do we get to that stage? I have a hunch it will take more than Dave but a loose collaboration of bloggers from around the world with something to say could be the start.

You know? For kids.

Over the next two days - if you fancy it - you can see interactive marketing do its thing, live in front of the cameras.

We have created a site for Woolworths for the launch of their Big Red Book (their version of the Argos catalogue). The site is a live feed from a field in the middle of nowhere where we have set up a large wooden catapult - a trebuchet if you know your medieval military history - that 'launches' the book.

Users can log on queue up and fire their own book. If they hit the target they can win a prize - even a whole page from the book . (Did anyone else when they were a kid leaf through the argos catalogue adding up which was the most expensive page or taking the best product from each page? no - oh, just me then.)

I think what's interesting is this is event marketing, PR, Field Marketing and 'digital' (whatever that now means) all in one site. And again, as I mentioned before, although it's a neat idea what really is impressive is all the stuff that goes in to making it happen.

Have a look. Throw books at stuff.

Anyone want to see the new Bravia ad before it airs?

After a quite feverish amount of work by all concerned our first big site for Sony launched last night. It's still in beta and will be adding more bits and bobs over the next few months but it's pretty nice and does include 'Play Doh' the third Bravia ad from Juan and Fallon.

Our idea was always to create a site that celebrated colour, not just the great ads. There are interactive experiments, more in depth information on the ad and a 'colourwall' where you can bag one of 16.7million colours - just like Yves Klien. 

It's not all working properly quite yet - but you get the idea. And you can watch the bunnies!