(un)digital experiment

Russell Davies has very kindly asked me to give a little talk about the joys of printing at his Interesting conference in London on June 16th. Ahead of that I thought it would be interesting to run a little experiment to see how something as obviously viral might work with paper and a postman.

This is all ahead of a ressurection (or should that be resucitation? re-ignition? re-gurgitation?) of Artomatic which is coming shortly.

If anyone’s interested in getting some stuff from the new artomatic, do get in touch with me at Tim[at]artomatic.co.uk

I’m no media planner, but…

Surely to make this work properly, this cab would only go to areas at most risk of flooding. Would it patrol those same streets when it’s raining, driving slowly past people’s waterlogged homes, so they had time to find a dry sheet of paper and write the telephone number down?

(un)convincing

Anita Roddick is on record that she regarded (when she owned it) The Body Shop was a political campaigning organisation first, product company second. Now, of course, she doesn’t own it, L’Oreal does. So, why cling on the politics at all?

Then it was scrappy, slightly homespun–you were buying some of their opinions in every bottle.The Body Shop now is a fairly polished, accomplished, good value skin care retailer–kind of Top Shop for the bathroom. Long ago they ditched the window posters of starving Africans in favour of glamourous models, but this glib attempt at ‘taking a stance’ is worse than not caring. Well, it is not caring; it’s just not caring while trying to exploit those who do care.

(un)fair start in life

What do you imagine Mr and Mrs Francisco had in mind when they were pouring over the what-to-name-your-baby books all those years ago? Did they think they’d be giving their daughter the very best advantage in life by making her memorable?

Or did they just really like the name San(dra)?

(un)informative

One thing that strikes me about the Land Of The Free is quite how many rules there are compared with the UK. For instance: what happens when you see an ambulance coming your way? In the US, you’re obliged by law to pull over, otherwise, you’ll get a ticket. In the UK, you, er, pull over. If you don’t… you’ll, er, feel bad for the rest of the day. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of difference between the ability of American ambulances to part traffic than with their British counterparts.

Lookalike

Apart from the fact that they both own successful retail chains (except that of course, Anita Roddick doesn’t own it anymore), what would these two have in common? And apart from the fact that they’re both featured in their own window displays with soft focus and a gold signature. Surely, this must be one of those women-in-business charity promotions? I didn’t see anything to say it was, but I’d feel more comfortable knowing it was and they forgot the branding than to think these two decided to adorn their own windows simultaneously.

Too much (un)planning

Does anything seem a little odd about the ads for the Alfa Spider? It feels like either the ‘landscape porn’ format, the execution (all that flapping skin) or the brand stayed up too late and drank too much Red Bull. Unfortunately, it’s playing for the brand. It feels like it’s trying a little too hard to stay awake–compare this with the get-up-early-towels-on-the-sunloungers approach of BMW in their See How It Feels spot.

So, is this inadvertently, a little too realistic an interpretation of Alfa, maybe a little too revealing, a tad too much on-brand?

Personal branding

From the age of the occupants and the style of the large letters down the side of the car, it seemed unlikely these nice folks were in the fruit preserves business (I might be wrong).

Advocates of the Japanese tuner cars, carry manufacterers’ logos, as race cars do, reflecting how tuning road cars as reached the professional levels of race teams. Here, we have what looks like the opposite: people decorating their cars with self-expressive graphics that look like they might be a logo, but aren’t.

The real thinking goes on here

I met Heather LeFevre yesterday in Richmond because her Planner surveys make her an expert on the profession. Our chat drifted onto the subject of entrepreneurism…

It’s very interesting to think of how entrepreneurs are portrayed in culture. It’s either hard-as-nails, take-no-prisoners as in BBC’s Dragon’s Den and NBC’s original (and the BBC’s version) of The Apprentice or it’s odd-balls like Anita Rodick or Richard Branson who succeed because they’re just, so, er…wacky.

Either way up, entrepreneurs are rarely acknowledged as thinkers (with one notable exeption–Fast Company magazine has tirelessly waved the flag for business creativity). These are the people who regularly come from nowhere and turn catageories on their heads. In fact they seem to be coming up with, all day, every day, what everyone in agency-land is clamoring for: Ideas.

Entrepreneurs get a bad rap. I know from experience that the quickest way to end a job interview is to say the E word. Culturally, entrepreneurism is the mad inventor in the shed in the bottom of the garden who’s never let in the house in case he scares the guests. Original proprietors are usually the first to be shown the door when it starts to come together.

Business and brands don’t want entreprenuers. Is it because they shun conventional wisdom, rarely do research and rely on their gut? Does the fact that they don’t play by the rules stand in front of their track record? Do they know something you don’t?

Maybe there is something valuable going on in the shed at the bottom of the garden?