48 Hours in New York

Sat in the apple store NY in the middle of a manic 48 hours in Manhattan. 5 meetings, a bit of shopping and the most random collection of events ever. Best so far, unknown to me lost my blackberry in the back of a cab very late the other night. woke up with calls from England checking i'm ok. A white Knight had found my phone, called the last few numbers in the address book to try and find me. The White Knight? Tall, blond, works for a hedge fund, she was charm personified - New York tales, you just couldn't make it up. taxiwithblackberry.jpg

should be off to the states right now, but

Getting close to your clients product is very important for any creative. Having an all business class airline as a client does have certain advantages until the matter of a  fleet of only four 767's leaves you at Stansted, due to there being no spare.

Car industry creative commons?

roewe.jpg The online world seems cool with flexible ideas regarding copyright. The automotive industry (outside of kit cars) has never really faced such dilemma until now.

Much talk in the motoring press at present about Chinese Car makers copying western models. Michelin's newsletter has a good overview HERE. Shuanghuan are the company of the moment with the  BMW X5 look-a-like called the CEO. Everything seemed ok while the cars were only sold in China but now plans are afoot to export them suddenly everyone's getting very excited. Honda appeared first off the blocks a few years ago pulling legal moves on a CRV-a-like weirdly called the Laibao.

My favorite (!) is less a copy more a rebirth. The delightfully named Roewe  is indeed a Rover 75 first seen in Europe in 1999. Apart from being ludicrously cheap i really can't see any brand benefits.

Smart ideas

We have just had a demo of the music discovery mash-up we're planning for one of the 7th floor clients. really rather full on,ningID.jpg if all goes to plan it should be something rather special. In the mean time a few things that caught my eye that are actually up and running (beta nonsense notwithstanding) One Llama sweet music discovery and play list maker neat share via Facebook tool. Speaking of which came across Ning a build yourself facebook type private communities tool. good graphics and a starting point for a number of mash up ideas. Finally Twittervision design by David Troy is a fantastic bit of time wasting. A Google earth Globe spinning while Twitter icons appear showing the slacker world in action, excellent.

I've got a budget and i'm gonna use it!

HBO.jpg How to sell a TV production brand. Oh my, did the boys and girls at HBO have fun with someone else's money (BBDO and Big Spaceship spending between them $7 - 10 million to get it done)  THIS is the most amazing use of cross media to push a media brand i've seen. Everything from street screenings, blogs, faq, even phone numbers plus of course youtube previews. What I really like is that it could so easily have been a cliptastic experience but has ended up as an exercise in lateral utilisation of the media platforms its broadcasted on. HBO as a brand in the UK is so linked to certain key shows, but here you get much more a sense of what the brands values are. Detail, Realism, Risk and audience reward. While i have seen notes about Voyeur on other sites, big thanks to Ashley Ringrose at Bannerblog for a fullsome review of the idea.

Web trends map 2007

webmap.jpgThe 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective. mmm very Friday friendly bit of research time killer. Very very cool interactive version here

Found on the Information Architects site; map by Oliver Reihenstein. via a link from Greg Verdino blog, which in turn came via Charles Arthers blog -(championship level WILFing today)

Already posted on the jolly excellent All The 7th Floors 

When geeks get bored

webackwards.jpg 

Fed up with your neighbours using your broadband connection? find passwords passe? try this. code HERE. turns the images files upside down and back to front. Genius. Thank ex-parrot for taking the time to work it all out.

I always think subjugating brands is a good sport*, and a good test of a the brands resolve to with stand such attacks, but this is one of the first I have seen for a whole service.  

* = That highly questionable VW agency gag HERE.  Not the Australian Tourist board HERE

When did you start work?

The timeline of Mac innovation set against your own entry into the world of creative arts? mmm well here is the chart to do it. Another absolute gem unearthed via Stumble! click on this thumb786072-897845-thumbnail.jpg or go HERE for the full 1976 > 2007 pictorial mac progress which you then can't help plotting your own career against via the machines you have used. A real joy. Big thanks to Edwin Tofslie for taking the time to do it

The sound of widgets

Widgets on blogs can be fun, even interesting at times, but in truth generally dull within minutes of discovery. The Uniglo dancing girls I did think was really funny, until I couldn't get the bugger to stop its music loop playing! ooh and slowing the load times on this blog didn't really help either, still fun while it lasted. There is an interesting bit on e-consultancy  HERE about photo sites booming as a result of blog widgets.

metaphor of the day.

'..Working in Marketing is like out running a rain cloud. Slightly pointless but satisfying to be successful..'

Today started with the BBC saying showers were coming and a dark cloud sat above our house...but its a sticky 20c and full wet weather motorcycle gear is very hot.  So to give Monday a lively start I put on summer body armour (lots of padding held together by mesh, water proof as tissue paper) and drove like a nutter into central London to 'ta da' successfully out run a rain cloud. Pointless but fun. - or rather a way of avoided the obvious concerns regarding car bombs masquerading as minicabs

Links for a footloose Monday

A whole bunch of research for a tourist authority we are designing a new web portal for has resulted in a range of rather interesting found links.
Great picture viewer here = letstakepictures
Top navigation and cool music = Konspiracy
Great illustrations = Overmode
Nice menu and navigation = Leitwerk
Clever design company = Upwithg
Another design/web cleverness = Soleilnoir.net
Bunch of rather smart creatives who work at the above = Creaktif 
Good info, articles and links = lastickerie
Small but perfectly formed site (its about Burmese cooking) = Hsaba
Finally an almost Last.fm,  MTV.com type cross over = musicmesh

Silly but rather fun

786072-880660-thumbnail.jpg If you take a look down the left hand side bar you will see a rather fun little clock/video graphic thing. A promo blog widject clock or 'uniqlock' from the Japanese discount retailer brand Uniglo. A rather sweet bit of subtle brand 786072-880662-thumbnail.jpgadvertising that may burn bright for a few months across the blogs of the world. A very neat interface has been designed including a bit of sales promotion to win a watch.