By Royal Invitation Only

As part of our campaign delivery for The Queen's Awards for Enterprise, our CEO Steve Grout was invited along with the campaign team and winners of the awards to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace for a personal thank you.

Targetbase Claydon Heeley - We've got contacts.  Believe.

Google Goggles Part II

 Here's the exciting second installment of 'How Google Goggles sees TBCH'.  We still recommend abusing the technology for your own immature amusement.

Becky

Caroline

Chris Martin

Chris Myers

Claire

Merran

Muz

Ali

Amit

Tee hee hee.

The New Rock Stars?

Isn't it a disappointment when you imagine a brilliant picture of something really cool in your head, only for it to be rubbished in the cold light of reality?

Maybe it was just me, but I always had a slightly romantic view of internet hackers (not to be confused with those pesky phone hackers).

I had convinced myself that they were the modern day heroes intent on sticking it to the man (think Neo and Morpheus from The Matrix).  Either that or they were a sinister bunch of uber-villains out to cause havoc and mayhem.  What tied the two together was a delightful mixture of intelligence, charm, skill and mischief, not to mention a good dose of humour.  They were a secret society, the illuminati of the internet, who met up in their mysterious hideouts to plot, scheme and hack.

But the recent arrests of prominent members of hacker groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec has made me realise I was perhaps being a little flattering in my fantasy.  The dynamic internet elite were little more than teenagers, and pretty geeky ones at that.  But it did get me thinking...

Are these budding hackers the disaffected youths and rebels from yesteryear?  Both are seemingly drawn to the 'cool' and dangerous side of society.  Just as they were with punk and grunge, our generation of youngsters are being compelled by the same sense of rebellion and anarchy (and the counter-culture and politics that come with it).

Have they simply traded guitar rhythms for algorithms?

The main difference is that the internet has made it possible for anybody to become a 'rock star'.  The internet provides anonymity and intrigue.  Its reach allows anyone to gain kudos, respect and admiration (regardless of what they look like).

Herein lies the appeal for the downtrodden and outcast - a golden chance to be a part of something bigger.  More importantly, it's a chance to be something more than an awkward teenager who struggles to strive in an offline world.

Let's compare the old with the new.  Sure, both are rich and famous and evidently surrounded by a gaggle of groupies.  But if I'm completely honest, I'd sooner spend an evening with Keith Richards than Julian Assange - any day of the week.

Email or Admail?

Returning from my summer holiday this year, I was welcomed home by over 280 emails in my hotmail inbox.  I know we all complain about junk mail, but this number actually excludes those pesky little bits of communication.  So if you subtract all the messages I received suggesting all sorts of gadgets and pharmaceuticals for any problems I might (or might NOT) have, it would appear that I am pretty popular.

It was only when I started to sort through my inbox that I realised I didn't have ONE email that was sent from a friend, relative, colleague...or indeed, anybody I really know.  Most people knew that I was away, but this did strike me as pretty shocking (Or maybe you have no friends - Ed).

I sorted the messages into groups:

Interesting stuff I want to read:  0

Newsletters from sports clubs I've joined:  3

Offers from brands & products I'm a regular customer of:  21

Updates from LinkedIn/forums I've signed up to:  32

Random rubbish from companies I've had to give my email to in order to register interest/buy something once:  224+

Now, I'm no good with stats but that's a pretty small percentage of email that I actually have any interest in.

More importantly, there wasn't any personal email, so it seems (in my world at least) email isn't used this way anymore.  Has email become purely an advertising medium?  Perhaps email has now reached maturity as a personalised, targeted comms channel...

While I have 'opted in' to this stuff in some way, virtually none of it is truly personalised, relevant or interesting.  When I do take the time to 'open' rather than 'delete', the majority is just your bog-standard, boring email copy.  And the more I get of it, the less time I spend opening anything at all...

Email can be good, but it should be used sensibly.  Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean you should send it.  Just because you are pinging out lots of messages to your mailing list, don't kid yourself that you have an engaged audience at the other end.

Next time...'Freemiums'.

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...

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.

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.