LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST...

Spike Lee meets Johnny Vukan thanks to Steve Jobs

Johnny Vulkan constantly impresses and inspires me and I am really proud to count him as a friend.

I'm sure that you've read about his iPhone experience is all over the blogosphere as well as in the mainstream media. Not only did he get to meet and shop with Spike Lee...

But he also hugely raised the profile of (and I hope money for) Keep A Child Alive thanks to the fact that he was auctioning off the iPhone on eBay.

The other thing that I found interesting was that in all the reports of Johnny's great iPhone adventure his agency, Anomaly, was always mentioned:

PR News: Johnny Vulkan, representative of Keep A Child Alive and partner at Anomaly is first in line at Apple's SoHo store - Manhattan

Valleywag The man on the right, Johnny Vulkan, is a creative type, with Anomaly, a hip web agency

I think that it's just brilliant: Johnny gets to be one of the first people in the world to own an iPhone and become a minor, temporary celebrity in the process and meet loads of interesting people; Keep a Child Alive gets enormous amounts of hugely valuable free publicity (and money) and Anomaly who were smart enough to give Johnny a week off work gets a lot of kudos as do their clients (see the logos on JV's t-shirt and his Jawbone ear-piece) It does more for the reputation of Anomaly as a smart, creative and principled agency that any advertisement that they could have developed and run.

Playstation Home

I received this email this evening from a major US consulting group:

... PLAYSTATION Worldwide Studios recommended I reach out to you on behalf of Sony PLAYSTATION 'Home'.  Could I set up 30-45 minutes to speak with you sometime this week or early next week? I'm working with Will on 'Home' advertising opportunities.  He suggested I learn VCCP's perspective on virtual community advertising.

Home is PLAYSTATION's upcoming virtual community which will be accessed via the PS3.  A key feature of Home will be advertiser-sponsored "lobbies".  These lobbies are similar to the ones you would find on Habbo Hotel or 2nd Life and provide advertisers with the ability to provide interactive experiences for PS3's user base. 

We'd like to learn how you and your clients think about advertising on virtual communities and your views on Home specifically.  Topics include: Interests, needs, typical pricing structure, etc.  Thank you very much and I look forward to hearing back from you.

It made me laugh out loud.

Why would I want to share all our learnings on virtual communities and  specifically "interests, needs, typical pricing structure etc"?

Just seemed bizarre to me. Playstation aren't a client of ours, the un-named consulting group weren't offering to provide us with their report, why would I pass on information like this?

Or is it just me?

If you were emailed something like this would you do the interview??

PSFK Conference: The Elephant In The Room

Lots to think about.

Lots of questions.

I wanted to leave it a couple of days before blogging about the PSFK London Conference for a number of reasons, (a) it was very hot this weekend and the sun was shining and (b) I think it's good to let ideas and thoughts have a chance to take root and develop a little.

It was a chance to be surrounded by clever people, a chance to switch off the Blackberry and an opportunity to have some thought space and engage with some smart ideas: The living "mouse-human" mini jacket and the lab-created frog steak made me feel a bit sick but got me thinking; applying the principles of "Belief, Purpose, Cause" to brands helped me understand why we have no problem flying Virgin Airways but HMV Airways would be another matter; but it was Tamara and John Grant on the Green Marketing Panel and Johnny Vulkan from Anomaly that made me actively stop and question rather than just passively sit and think.

Which brings me on to my "elephant in the room" (this is Banksy's elephant in the room in LA earlier this year)

What is the purpose of the industry that we are in?

Having spent years at Ogilvy, I was always taught it's "we sell or else...". For all that we work in a creative business, at the end of the day our job it to connect people and brands and in the process sell our clients products. If we don't, we get fired.

But when you talk with people like John, Tamara and Johnny and start to think about the world that we live in, it gets a bit more complicated. Our creative end products (ie, advertising in all its forms - direct, digital, TVCs) help to faciliate a relentless culture of continual consumption and the creation of an un-ending desire for new "stuff." But how sustainable is this in the long-term?

The elephant in the room for me is, how can we marry together ethics and a concern for a sustainable and healthy future with a "we sell or else..." philosophy?

I suppose the answer, in as much as there ever is 'an answer", is that we at agencies have the opportunity to represent the views of the consumer and to ensure that ethical, sustainable marketing ideas and practices are not only things that live in a CSR department. The question that the Green Panel was debating was whether advertising agencies were being left behind in pushing this debate on. I worry that for they most part we probably are.

People don't change...

How true.

Thanks to Only Dead Fish

Open Face...Book

Faris and Doug have written far more eloquently than me about the Facebook phenomena that is spreading through professional London (and I am sure elsewhere) as we speak. Friends who I would never in a million years have imagined that would join anything like this are signing up in droves.

There was an interesting post on TechCrunch today about about the fact that Facebook is setting itself up to be the anti MySpace. As MySpace clamps down on non-sanctioned widgets and applications (forgetting that actually one of the huge drivers of MySpace uptake was YouTube and the ability to incorporate content quicky and easily into a page), Facebook is doing the opposite and opening up its core functions to all outside developers. It is really providing unprecidented access.

I posted the question on the Facebook Plannersphere a week or so ago whether MySpace was now well and truly dead or at least about to die a death.

While I know that MySpace still provides a great platform for music sharing, I wonder does anyone really still use MySpace? And if so, why?

And finally, was it a huge waste of Murdoch's money?

"The internet is for porn..."

I like the way that some companies are using video and YouTube as a channel to distribute content. I often think that stats and facts are often easier to digest in video form rather than on a word document or powerpoint slide.

This video had some great stats and facts - did you know that 89% of the world's porn is produced in the US? Did you know that 25% of all search engine queries are porn? 70% of all porn downloaded happens in the working week Monday-Friday 9am-5pm?

Turns out the folks in Avenue Q were right...

the new Web 2.0 Eco System

Loving this eco-system that Todd And highlighted. It shows all the Web 2.0 sites and ranks them according to estimated market value and their Alexa ranking, so that you can see quickly which sites really do have the influence.  Visually it makes it so clear.

From "Don't Drink and Dial" to "Don't Booze and Blog"

Years ago we presented to Orange what we thought was a great idea. We said, what if Orange were to offer a service that allowed you to block the ability to text certain numbers at specific key "danger times," for example Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm-2am.

The entire team could remember people that they had drunkenly texted after a large night out and the resulting cringe factor was often worse than the hangover itself.

But now there's a new tech worry...

I got a bit drunk on Thursday night, so when I got home and fell through the door, in addition to eating large amounts of toast and cheese and some random Roses chocolates that were in the kitchen, I also went online (I knew that I shouldn't keep my laptop on the kitchen table, but I like having a cup of tea in the morning as I surf)

I spent a good hour on various blogs, happily leaving badly spelt comments and random thoughts on hundreds of sites.

I am wondering if I should invent a gate-way system that at certain key danger times, bans me from boozing and blogging?

Maybe just a Breathalyzer attached to the computer?

This is the closest thing that I have found, they say it is their online breathalyzer: Drunk Browsing Test.

The JKF Approach to Digital Communications

I have had two days of conferences - speaking at the Future Marketing Summit yesterday on a panel hosted by the brilliantly didactic Richard Huntingdon, along with a former Ogilvy buddy/mentor Rory Sutherland (who has a lovely blog worth checking out, especially for his most recent Sorrell posting), the celebrated Steve Henry and P&G bright light David Grebert. We were discussing the impact that technology has for brands. You can see Richard's presentation here. Not sure that I totally agreed with Steve's point of view that the ad agencies need to be much braver and experiment much more with new digital technologies. While I'd agree that many ad agencies are not always risk-taking imagination leapers, I happen to believe that we at agencies should be proposing new technology experiments when we can clearly articulate to ourselves and to the client, what exactly the value to the consumer would be of us doing it and how it is on brand. Not just new technology for the sake of being first to do something, unless of course that it what your brand is all about but most of them aren't.

Then today I was an attendee at the Guardian Changing Media Conference.

So what did I learn at the conferences and what can I share?

In a nutshell, JFK got it almost much right... 

In a digitalized/digitalizing world, Brands need to "Ask not what your country consumer can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country consumer."

Seriously though, I got some great food for thought on both days.

The Changing Media Summit in particular was excellent, this is Roy Greenslade's blog from the day.   There were people blogging and Twittering all over the place! The discussions that these sessions generated were interesting in part because I think that the audience was so diverse (NGOs, media owners, directors, journalists and only myself from VCCP and two old friends from Mother representing ad agencies)

Thoughts that sound deceptively simple, but aren't:

1. Just because you have an audience doesn't mean you have a community (Kevin Anderson, Guardian Unlimited - this was my sound-bite of the day and will be using it in a client meeting tomorrow!)
2. Can YouTube be used more as a testing ground for TV show pilots/TV ads? (Stefen Lechere, Google)
3. While we talk about digital engagement, we also have to be pragmatic and think about scalable engagement (Sue Elms, Millward Brown)
4. Has the democratisation of content meant that a thousand flowers have bloomed, or that we have created a thousand monkeys with keypads? (Edwin Aoki, AOL)
5. Alan Rusbridger talks a good game, but does terrible powerpoint slides. Only 3 people out of the entire day choose to do anything in powerpoint at all - the rest just spoke. And spoke brilliantly. Why did he and why do I still feel the need for powerpoint, even if it is mainly visual and not just bullet point after bullet point of text?

Oh and I met someone else who has also has a Blog Card to give out to people instead of an official Work Card. His cards were cool Flickr ones though.  Good to meet you Dan and your blog is brilliant, Fabric of Folly.

The Uglyfication of Betty

Post of the Month virgin

I've been nominated for a Post of the Month. It's my first time, so it's exciting for me. 

It's about Google and the way in which I think that brands should be thinking about using search engines. I enjoyed writing it and I think that the discussion that it started was fantastic.

I use this blog to talk about stuff that makes me stop and think, about stuff that I hope other people will be interested by and want to engage with.

You can vote by clicking here - Thank you!

Twitter with Darth

Thanks to Ian M, i have a new Twitter buddy. Who knew that the Dark Lord of the Sith himself was on Twitter, fantastic!

This week I pimped out my new Imperial TIE Fighter with angled wings, chrome laser cannons, and a wicked powerful hyper-drive. Rockin'!< 10:39 AM March 07, 2007 from web

Wanted: Backwater drifters to become faceless cogs of the Empire. Enjoying hours in rigid, hot body armor, with little or no pay, a plus 09:54 PM February 27, 2007 from web

Wondering if that dork son of mine will ever figure out that there is more to life than bullseyeing womp rats in his T-16 back home. 11:13 PM February 08, 2007 from web

I love Twittering with friends, I am "NylonMeals" if you ever want to Twitter together.

Darth Vader's Twitter is certainly the funniest one I have come across.

Are there any Twitterings (not sure what the word is) that would make us all smile?

Maybe the best digital agencies are not digital?

The Won Report has just been published.  It's an annual report that looks at the best digital advertising and agencies around the world based on the quantity and quality of the awards won.

Here is the full list of the best campaigns and best agencies from around the world - the winners may surprise you. The three agencies who have won more digital awards than anyone else are Crispin Porter, Dentsu and DDB Sao Paolo.  The highest rank pure-play digital agency is R/GA New York at #6. The highest British agency is Glue at #14.

Given the recent win of Axe digitally across Europe, the fact that AKQA do above the line for Yell.com and Agency.com do Ikea, how useful are terms like "digital" anymore? Aren't we, or shouldn't we, all just be Creative Agencies.

After all, isn't it all just about using creativity to connect people and brands in engaging ways that drive sales?

When Online Media Planning Goes Wrong...

Oh dear...

The problems of online media placement.

Wonder if Toyota ever knew about this?

There was also a great example of the annoying Mitchell and Webb "I'm a Mac" ads running next to Charlie Brooker's enormous anti-mac rant which was quite amusing

If you've seen any other dreadful online media placements pass them along!

YouTube - is it all cats and toilets?

There's an interesting article on AdAge about what exactly people are watching on You Tube. It might not be what you think, they say that it is actually not User Generated Content. It's been a question that I have thought a lot about recently because while I am not averse to watching cats falling into toilets, for me You Tube is a brilliant way to uncover "cultural currency."

When I read about Piers Morgan being the new Simon Cowell on America's Got Talent, I want to see it for myself. When I hear about the documentary Jesus Camp and some of the insane comments that these tiny kids are making I want to hear them myself. I wanted to see the ads that Michael J Fox made advocating stem call research and the resulting furore on stations like Fox and shock jocks like Limbaugh. Knowing that there is one place that I can go to hunt for stuff like this makes my life easier. Trouble is every time I go back to YouTube I keep finding that the non-UGC stuff has been taken down.

YouTube is brilliant but for me it needs more than LonelyGirl15 and toilet cats. I just hope that the networks and the studios realise that they are only shooting themselves in the foot by pulling down their content.

The first rule of Dining Club...

Dining Club was set up earlier this year by Richard Addis and John Torode (not the celebrity chef John Torode, the journalist John Torode, who also happens to be my dad) with the objective of getting a smart, eclectic mix of people together to discuss issues of the moment - in the past they have welcomed the likes of Ben Schott, Anna Ford, Norman Tebbit and Saira Khan. Dining Club takes place at the Gay Hussar restaurant in Soho, an old-school journo hack/politician hang out, that serves some of the best Hungarian food (and in particular the best duck) in London. 
Tonight was specifically to do with media and in particular the future of newspapers. Anthony O'Hear gave a fairly dour after-dinner speech about the fact that, paraphrasing TS Eliot, we had given up our wisdom in return for limitless, 24/7 information. (Where is the Life we have lost in living, Where is the wisdom that we have lost in knowledge, Where is the knowledge that we have lost in information) ,
It was an interesting discussion with the group seeming to split along generational lines - with one half of the room declaring that the abundance of information, so long as you can navigate through it and find the good stuff, is the perfect springboard for increased knowledge and wisdom. The other older half more anxious about the growth of the Internet , user-generated content, citizen reporters etc. To them this indicated a lessening of journalistic standards and a lessening of wise editorial control and guidance.
I don't get depressed when I see circulation numbers falling for newspapers. You just have to look at the rising readership from around the world of sites like Guardian Unlimited, www.wsj.com, www.economist.com, www.ft.com. There is still obviously a need and want for informed, edited pieces of comment and opinion but it just isn't always a paper-based  need. In addition to more traditional sources of information now found online, the Internet has opened up lines of communication between people around the world, some of them are educated and informed, some simply opinionated but all with a point of view. The fact is that if I want to know the inside scoop on new movie shooting in LA, the Beltway gossip in DC or the best new club in Brooklyn I will go to a Blog not a newspaper. To me that's exciting and positive, but to print journalists it's slightly terrifying. Eye-opening to see that there are people who really believe that the Internet and Blogs in particular are simply channels for broadcasting conspriacy theory-laden, bigoted rants.
Information is the foundation for knowledge and wisdom, not a barrier.
(BTW, There's an interesting PDF on the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy - the concept has been explored by Al Gore in Digital Earth and others)