Thursday 28 July 2011

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo

All agencies have them.  We look forward to it.  We dread it.  We try to guess the weather.  We try to be original.  We always end up spending 80% of the budget on booze that doesn't get drunk.

The 726th Annual TBCH Summer Party was held this year on the 14th July.  A date that will surely go down in history as the day that we had our party on this year.

We started out with a very civilised picnic in the park, complete with bubbly, strawberries and smoked salmon (plus over 130 blinis, due to a clerical error with the Sainsbury's order).

The slightly overcast day lent itself well to a few games of ever-increasingly competitive rounders, with more than a few dirty tactics being employed by senior members of staff.

Then it was back to the office to wipe our sweaty brows and cabs to Old Street, where everyone was welcomed to The Bavarian Beerhouse.  A few Steins of Krombacher and shots of Porno Brause (imagine popping candy plus vodka and you're there) put everyone in a party-party sort of mood.

Many sausage and schnitzels later, it was on to Ziegfrid for more drinking and dancing until the early hours.

There were sore heads and a reconciliatory trip to the pub the next day, but as everyone knows, that just means it was a good party...

Here are some of the (least incriminating) photos from the day...











Monday 25 July 2011

Beer, pies and teeny-weeny footballers.

Wednesday 6th July saw the Red Box Table Football Tournament roll into town once again.

This year our fighting fit team consisted of Andrew 'The Stopper' Musumeci and Richie 'The Scorer' Florey.

After doing a bit of pre-match warm-up (beers), it was game on.

Each game lasted no more than 3 minutes and the only rule?  THERE ARE NO RULES.

Oh, except for no spinning.  Spinning is cheating.

After winning the first game 8-2, and losing the second 5-2, our team needed some half-time encouragement (beer and also, pies).

Winning the third game 5-3 pushed our team into the Quarter Finals...unfortunately, that's as far as they went, finally bowing out with a result of 2-0.

Great sports that they are, they valiantly stayed on to support the other teams (drink more beers).

Despite the eventual result, a good time was had by all.

Special thanks to Amit 'The Cheerleader' Dave and Merran 'Just a small glass' Lusher for their unwavering support throughout the evening.

Roll on next year...we've already started practising.



Wednesday 20 July 2011

The four commandments

The King James's Bible was written by a committee.  Yes, you heard right.  The book that gave us phrases such as 'the salt of the earth' was written by committee.  In fact, it's plural.  Committees.  Not one, but six were responsible for writing it.

How can this be?  In our business we are taught that anything created or designed by a committee is a bad thing.  The result of a committee will be a many-headed beast, rather than a pure single-minded idea.  How many times do we exclaim 'There are no statues to committees!'

The BBC Four documentary 'When God Spoke English: The Making of the King James Bible' provided me with the answer.

Lesson 1:  The importance of the single-minded idea

King James wanted a translation that would stamp his authority as king over a country that was going through turbulent times.  He knew exactly what he wanted the version to convey - his majesty.  If he had written a brief, that would have been the proposition - 'majesty'.

Lesson 2:  The power of presentation

Each of the 47 translators (he needed this many as let's face it, the Bible is rather big) was briefed to translate from the original Greek into English.  The committees then judged the translations against the King's brief of 'majesty'.  Every single word was judged.  And because the Authorised Version (as it came to be known) would be read aloud in church, the committees insisted that the translators didn't just send in their work for approval, but instead they had to read it aloud.  They had to present their argument for why they had translated each word the way they had, face to face.  (One suspects the 21st century habit of copy sent by email wouldn't have been tolerated.)

Lesson 3:  Check for typos

The first editions suffered from printing errors.  The word 'not' was missing from the seventh commandment ('Thou shalt commit adultery').  Oooops.

Lesson 4:  Committees can be a good idea

Everyone involved with the King James Bible knew what was expected of them, and they had a shared vision.  The King had a clear brief.  The translators knew what they were trying to achieve.  And the committees knew against which criteria they were judging the translations.

Any parallels with our industry?


Just a thought.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Doomsday for display?

Sucking on a thoughtful tooth and generally musing about everything, a thought hit me.  Doesn't happen that often.  But hit me it did.  We're all aware of the latest cookie legislation and the Euro directive to overtly solicit opt-in.  And we can all conclude the future of online advertising has been thrown into a serious tailspin.

The way we collect, collate and analyse the data that informs the way we all go about our online advertising business has been seriously threatened.  But we all knew that.  And despite Ed Vaizey's vaguely reassuring but nebulous murmurings about modifying (or ignoring) the Euro guidelines, there is genuine worry sweeping through digitalopolis.

But that's only a teeny-tiny problem compared to another lurking threat to our digi-dream future.  Adblocker.

Yup, it's here.  And it's the most popular 'extension' to Safari.  By miles.  It wipes out every pixel of every display ad.  From the tiniest button, to the most sophisticated re-targeted-fancy-pants-rich-media-interactive extravaganza.  OK, it's not widely known about yet but it works and is free for anybody who wants it.  And it's only a matter of time before other browsers get their own versions.  And, let's be honest, search engines and browsers alike will be powerless to stop folk getting their hands on it.

So, it becomes irrelevant that we may not be able to use Google Analytics or come up with hyper-sophisticated behavioral targeting.  If people can turn off our ads, we're screwed.


Now I'm sure the multi-billion dollar online display business won't just lay down and let this happen, but the threat is very real.  Imagine a function that lets us cut the commercials from live TV.  Or 'banish' ads from printed media.  Or wipe out outdoor.  Who wouldn't give it a thought?  Despite the world being a much less vibrant and creative place without advertising, we know given the chance, people would and could do without it.


But with opting out of cookies and developments like Adblocker, the control is being handed to the consumers.  Ironically, you could call it true co-creation (well, co-destruction).


Maybe it looks like print is worth 'going long' on.


God bless the Heidelberg.


Amen.



Oranges aren't the only fruit.

Legals:

For the sake of anonymity the following tale of customer woes contains no direct reference to the telecommunications brand in question.  They will herein only be referred to as 'The Fruity One'.

I recently came to the end of my mobile contract with 'The Fruity One'.  I have been with 'The Fruity One' for three and a half years.  I have never fussed, never complained.  I have never lost my phone.  I have never called the helpline.  Barely set foot in one of their stores.  Always paid my bill on time.

"Surely", I thought to myself, "I must be one of their highly valued customers?"

"Surely", I wondered in my naive state of customer delusion, "I must be eligible for a competitive renewal offer?"

Nope.

According to my online account, if I wanted to upgrade to an iPhone 4 it would mean increasing my bill to £35 a month.  Quite expensive, but it's an iPhone 4, so I wasn't too surprised.  What did shock me however, was the upfront handset cost.

£600.

That's right.  £600.

Yeeaah...I'm out.

Why make it so difficult for me to get a good deal on an upgrade?  Why play 'the game' and risk my leaving?  Why not offer me a great deal upfront, to ensure I don't even consider whether the other side is greener (and more importantly, cheaper)?

I'm taking my plums elsewhere.

How do you like dem apples?

 

It's the end of the world. Give now.

You're a charity.  You want to raise as much money as you can.  You're offered free advertising.  You'll reach millions of potential donors.

Oh, just one thing.  Your ad will appear in a newspaper that's mired in controversy, has been universally discredited and is shutting up shop.  It's The News of The World.

What do you do?  Take the moral high ground and say no?  Or take the advertising?

Most of the big charities did the former, one of the few exceptions being the DEC.  And who can blame them?  After all, the saying may be,"If you eat with the devil,use a long spoon".  But at least the spoon can be used to feed the starving.

And the smaller charities?  Well, several took up the paper's offer.  After all, why turn your nose up at the chance to target an audience you'd never normally be able to reach with your tiny media budget?

Like it or loathe it, the final edition of The News of The World sold over four million copies.  That's over four million people who looked beyond the phone-hacking scandal and still bought the paper.  Over four million potential donors who won't think badly of your charity.

And when it comes to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like that, who wouldn't throw self-righteousness to the wind?

To (mis)quote Bob Geldof at Live Aid, "Just give us your f**king money".