Too much of a good thing?

Not so long ago, it seemed so cool to share your location, but now social apps like location, check-in Foursquare appear like a quaint reminder of a time past. Recent news that Foursquare is to split its business in half, from the commercial to the social appears a bit like a last gasp at relanvancy, really not sure if it's the right move in the current climate. Post Snowden personal data is not something most people want to leave lying around. I was pondering such things when I came across these two pictures of the perils of location aware mobile devices being left in passive mode. Again, its not the tech at fault more the understanding of the power we weld even in passive mode.

On a night out I've often had lamp posts talk to me, however the ones in Bristol actually did

'..Hello Lamp Post is an experimental, city-wide platform for play. This is an opportunity to rediscover your local environment, share your memories of the city and uncover the stories that other people leave behind. Hello Lamp Post encourages you to look at the city with fresh eyes and engage with systems we take for granted. This is a chance to slow down, reflect and give yourself permission to play.

Hello Lamp Post is an interactive system that gives everyone in Bristol a new tool to talk with each other, through prompts and questions - all facilitated by the city's physical infrastructure. By referencing the thousands of pre-existing identifier codes that label items of street furniture across the whole city, players can send text messages to particular objects, including (but not limited to) lamp posts, post boxes, bollards, manholes, bins, or telegraph poles...'

Hello Lamp Post ran from July 2013 - September 2013 in Bristol.

Data or Theory?

'...But which is a bigger menace to society, laziness about data or laziness about theory? Theory-laziness is seductive because it's easy - mining for correlations isn't very mentally taxing. But data-laziness is seductive because it's hard - the more complicated and intricate a theory you make, the smarter it makes you feel, even if the theory sucks...'

Noah Smith http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.co.uk 

Introducing PathWW

Introducing Path Worldwide from Philip Slade on Vimeo.

Since August last year The House Worldwide has been nurturing a new London based Shopping Marketing agency called Path. Set up to service Champagne Laurent-Perrier’s global duty free business. Within a few months of launch the Path team were also responsible for causing a media storm in Ireland on behalf of The British Pregnancy Advisory Service. A simple ad idea that generated the top 5 trending terms over a weekend. 2014 kicked off in the most spectacular of styles with this fledgling shop being appointed by the UK’s largest retailer, Argos, to look after their multi-million pound Own Brands business. For more details http://www.thehouseww.com & http://www.pathww.com

Since August last year The House Worldwide has been nurturing a new London based Shopping Marketing agency called Path. Set up to service Champagne Laurent-Perrier’s global duty free business. Within a few months of launch the Path team were also responsible for causing a media storm in Ireland on behalf of The British Pregnancy Advisory Service. A simple ad idea that generated the top 5 trending terms over a weekend. 2014 kicked off in the most spectacular of styles with this fledgling shop being appointed by the UK’s largest retailer, Argos, to look after their multi-million pound Own Brands business. For more detailsthehouseww.com & pathww.com

Talking in pictures

I do admit to feeling overburdened by the volume of images on my various devices, wondering of their real worth or life expectations. -having lost a device packed with images, and felt utter terror of loss for a few days soon. I was fine and the images were as if they had never been. So maybe the worth I attached was only because I come from pre-digital days, and that a image detox is not a bad thing from time to time 

David Shariatmadari talks in The Guardian about the urge for a photo detox

'...Previous generations seem to have been more aware of the sense of false security that images can provide – portrait paintings were often accompanied by a memento mori – often a well-placed skull signified that death was inescapable. The selfie lacks this handy feature. As we happily snap away, are we are engaged in a kind of mass denial? Things can be preserved, we seem to be saying, perfectly, digitally, and for ever....'

Embed Block
Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

I've gone a done it again and started another age

path.jpg

Well, to be honest, it all sort of started by accident. However we are now really chuffed to be able to start talking about our new agency. Called Path Worldwide or PathWW for short.

Path is a new kind of agency focused on unlocking value in shopper behaviour 

Built around a core team of Ben Stobart and Philip Slade. Both with award winning track records in international shopper marketing. Path is very proud to be part of The House Worldwide a new model for advertising networks.

Ben and Philip believe a multi-channel world demands a new approach to unlocking value in the path to purchase. Current projects are proof testing their thinking in three key areas;

Building new paths

Clearing a crowded path

Shortening an existing paths length

Path was set up in late 2013 with founding client Champagne Laurent-Perrier who appointed the new agency to look after their UK and World Duty Free business.

Since launch Path has been supporting House Worldwide clients; ghd and Lenovo as well as picking up the brief from one of the UK’s most famous retailers. Details of this exciting new development in the life of this fledgy business will be released shortly.


You can see more of what we are up to via TheHouseww.com or Pathww.com or hello@pathww.com

Path_v3.jpg
BusinessCard_v2.jpg

So so true, make more stuff, want to be better, you will improve

I think it was at springtime 2012, when I came across David Shiyang Lius lovely piece of work about Ira Glass. It was the most inspiring and motivating video, I have ever seen in my life. I watched it over and over again, listened to Ira Glass' voice and told myself, that I am not the only person who is constantly disappointed about the gap between ones taste and ones skills. Later on in 2012 I decided to do an own filmed version of Iras interview - use my own language to tell his message. It took me about a year from concept to upload. I made it for myself and for anybody who is in doubt with his/her creative career. I also think that Ira Glass' message isn't only limited to the creative industry. It can be applied to everyone who starts out in a new environment and is willing to improve. THANK YOU Ira Glass whom I've never met in real life but had such a big influence in my development. Thank you for telling beginners, what nobody else does. David Shiyang Liu for the video, that initiated me to start that project. You all should watch his awesome kineticTypo-version here: http://vimeo.com/24715531 The people from current.tv who originally recorded the interview with Ira Glass. See the relevant part here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY The people from Magic Lantern who gave DSLR videography a new dimension (I chose this project to be a test run with the RAW plugin)! Steven Sasseville for painting the "taste"-painting for me. Pedro Sousa for his advice and working his ass off at the "creative work"-chalkboard. Wolfgang Kraus for letting me borrow his sound equipment. Kai Löhnert for working out on his birthday in the "fight"-take. Wolfgang Hendrik Schnabel for giving me the museum-like atmosphere and his silhouette in the painting-takes. Hermiyas Ötztürk for his hairy "good enough"-hand. Orange Hive Studio for light equipment and location. Mima and Heinz Sax-Schmitz for the location of the "ambitions"-take and finding me the "finish 1 story"-typewriter. A SPECIAL THANK YOU Solveig Gold for beeing the most patient and supporting person in my life. She appears in a lot of scenes in this video. Jutta and Uwe Sax for several equipment and their support.

The ones who history ridicules

"Who does the Can’t-Do Culture hurt the most? Ironically, it hurts the haters. The people who focus on what’s wrong with an idea or a company will be the ones too fearful to try something that other people find stupid. They will be too jealous to learn from the great innovators. They will be too pigheaded to discover the brilliant young engineer who changes the world before she does. They will be too cynical to inspire anybody to do anything great. They will be the ones who history ridicules.Don’t hate, create." Marc Andreesen on Can Do vs Can’t Do culture

We all know it, but the stats still stand out

 '...For the study, Wave 7, the IPG Mediabrands agency surveyed people in 65 countries, including the UK, the US, India and China. It found that 73.4 per cent own a  smartphone, up from 44.8 per cent just a year earlier.Smartphones, meanwhile, …

 

'...For the study, Wave 7, the IPG Mediabrands agency surveyed people in 65 countries, including the UK, the US, India and China. It found that 73.4 per cent own a  smartphone, up from 44.8 per cent just a year earlier.

Smartphones, meanwhile, are being used to do more things – up from an average of 3.7 online activities in 2012 to 5.2. In the past year, there has also been a 34 per cent rise in the number of people who use their smartphone to manage their social media profile.

Globally, 51.9 per cent of 16- to 54-year-olds used a microblogging platform such as Twitter in the past six months, up from 42.9 per cent in 2012 and 14.9 per cent in 2010. The highest proportion of microbloggers (86.2 per cent) was in China.

More than 91 per cent of people have watched video clips online, up from 87.9 per cent last year, while 78.3 per cent have created a social media profile, an increase from 74.9 per cent in 2012….'

Content marketing that actually works

Found this great list of examples of content marketing that actually do something for the brand, rather than being one-off hits for a campaign. Seen on http://digitalinnovationtoday.com Paul Marsden from a presentation by Joe Pulizzi, author of Epic Content Marketing  and founder of the 
CMI (Content Marketing Institute) 

  • The Furrow Magazine by John Deere agricultural machinery (began 1895!)
  • Benchmark Magazine by Burns & McDonnell engineering
  • ZMOT Research Project by Google
  • CMO.com by Adobe software
  • Lego Club Magazine by Lego
  • Coca-Cola Journey Magazine by Coca-Cola
  • Red Bulletin Magazine by Red Bull
  • Jyske Bank TV by Jyske Bank
  • Openview Labs Magazine by Openview Venture Partners
  • River Pools and Spas Blog by River Pools and Spas
  • Copyblogger Magazine by Brian Clark (Speaker, Consultant, Publisher)
  • Food & Family Magazine by Kraft Food
  • Smosh YoutTube channel by comedians Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla
  • Home Made Simple Magazine by P&G
  • Open Forum by American Express
  • Think Money Magazine by TD Ameritrade
  • From One Engineer to Another blog by Indium Corp electronics
  • Lauren Luke makeup videos by Lauren Luke (eBay seller)
  • Experience Life Magazine by Lifetime Fitness health clubs
  • Health Hub Magazine by Cleveland Clinic
  •