No bullying

The internet has tipped the balance of power in favour of the individual rather than the brand. But what happens when consumers abuse the power that the internet gives them?

Continue reading

The fragmentation of social media

Our Thoughts    Rich, 14 November 2011

Fragmented Facebook

Always looking for trends, we’ve noticed a bit of internet chatter around the idea of social media fragmentation recently. We think the chatter could be fuelled by two separate ideas: the rise of niche communities, and cognitive limitations.

Continue reading

Facebook’s Frictionless Sharing

Our Thoughts    Rich, 24 October 2011    2 comments

facebook graffiti thumbs up

Frictionless sharing is all very well, but will it have an impact on the trust that users place in shared content? Does removing the friction also remove the value?

Continue reading
Red Bull Bulletin cover

A piece on Mashable Business by Dermot McCormack got us thinking about brands and content and authenticity and authority and all that stuff. So we wrote a post about it.

Continue reading

Obligatory Google+ post

Our Thoughts    Rich, 21 July 2011

Google+ logo

We thought we’d let the dust settle a little bit around Google+ before posting out thoughts up here. But since its launch on June 18th, the dust has shown no sign of settling – in fact there seems to be more and more dust being kicked up every second.

Continue reading
Social Entertainment Age

Last week we downloaded a free copy of GlobalWebIndex‘s annual report looking in detail at the way people use the internet.

The report re-stated some things that are obvious just from looking around, and formalised some things that for us were gut-instinct. The major thrust of the report is that a movement away from content creation to content distribution, fragmentation of the devices and platforms from which we access and consume the internet, and changing perceptions of the internet as an entertainment platform, are all bringing about a return to the traditional hierarchies of professional content generators, paid-for content, media giants, big brands and the political elite.

Continue reading
Path

After months of rumour, new social network Path launched Monday. We’ve been playing with it a bit. It’s early days to make a lot of comments – and I suspect until I reach a critical mass of friends it’ll remain difficult to comment. Obviously though, I’m going to comment anyway.

Continue reading

Curious curation

Our Thoughts    Rich, 12 October 2010

Guardian Science

I read a great blog post the other day by Neil Perkin over at Only Dead Fish on content curation.

We all know that the internet has shaped a new paradigm of content creation: no longer do we rely on traditional sources – books, newspapers, magazines – to provide our content. So far so obvious.

Continue reading

Mobile Couponing, Infographics and Tesco

Our Thoughts    Rich, 3 August 2010    1 comment

Mobile Coupon Infographic

I had lunch yesterday with an old colleague who moved to Toronto a couple of years ago to work with Transcontinental Media. We had an interesting conversation about couponing, which is apparently a big thing in North America – much bigger than it is here in the UK. My ex-colleague was concerned that, as a consumer publisher, Transcontinental’s use as a channel for distributing coupons was falling.

Continue reading

Advertising vs Storytelling

Our Thoughts    Rich, 14 July 2010

Climate Change

People talk a lot about telling brand stories. They also talk a lot about the idea that traditional advertising is dead. I agree with the former, whilst not entirely agreeing with the latter. But today I came across something that illustrates the tension between the two ideas pretty well.

I read with interest that the Union of Concerned Scientists have decided, in the wake of climategate, to run a series of ads to make themselves appear a little more ‘cuddly’.

Continue reading
What the tweet

Nice graphical piece from one of our favourites, good.is. Apparently, a study by journalism.org in the US has found that most of the thousands of stories that are passed around the internet via blogs and twitter each day are actually generated by “old-school media” – ie the press.

Continue reading

Speaking to the past

Our Thoughts    Rich, 13 April 2010

Chaplin

Penguin are turning 75 this year, and their iconic orange spines and minimal covers have got Douglas Coupland and Penguin Canada thinking. Penguin covers, says Coupland, act as a time stamp. Taking a look at a cover design can take you back to a time and a place – they’re a bit of a Proust’s Madeleine triggering involuntary memory in and of themselves.

Continue reading

Heineken Italy get creative

Our Thoughts    Rich, 25 March 2010

Heineken cap

Some great work here from Heineken Italy – love the way they’ve done a bit more with their sponsorship than just logo slapping. And the mixture of sheer joy and relief coming from the audience is palpable – genuinely delightful.

Continue reading

Bing it.

Our Thoughts    Rich, 16 March 2010

BING

Interesting to see that Microsoft have turned on the advertising budget to promote their search engine Bing in its seemingly futile attempt to take on Google.

It’s David vs David, a clash of the titans. But Microsoft is so far off the pace it’s hard to watch as it scrambles to play catch-up.

Continue reading

‘I’m on a horse’

Our Thoughts    Rich, 27 February 2010

Old Spice Logo

Old Spice. Something worn by everyone’s Dad in the seventies, and possibly still worn by everyone’s grandad. Redolent of sweaty Saturday nights in dodgy boozers with swirly carpets and fake velvet seat coverings. Not something any self-respecting young gent would want to associate themselves with, you would think.

Continue reading
Pepsi Refresh

Media sales guys don’t usually struggle too much trying to sell Super Bowl ad spots. After all, with a huge US television audience (around 90 million this year) it must be a no-brainer for brands, right?

Wrong. Pepsi, usually a shoe-in for a Super Bowl spot, have this year bucked their own trend by eschewing the NFL showpiece in order to invest the money in…you guessed it, social media.

Continue reading
American Apparel Gold Pants

A wonderful example of UGC and crowdsourcing from American Apparel:

“We’re looking for a brand new bum (the best in the world!) to be the new “face” for our always expanding intimates and briefs lines. The winners will be flown to LA, photographed and featured online. Send in a close-up photo of your backside wearing American Apparel panties, bodysuits or briefs for consideration and vote for your personal favorites.”

Continue reading
Reed SHort Film Competition

I don’t know about you, but I always think of Reed, the job site, recruiter and supplier of temporary labour as a little bit evil. I don’t know all that much about them, but I bracket them broadly with recruiters, which condemns them to be dismissed instantly and without much thought.

But Reed have gone and launched a lovely little short film competition which has changed my perception of them a little bit.

Continue reading