Quite a random collection today…

Lots of bookish things about on the web and room for two more. Good reads lets you keep a track of what you’ve read and recommend etc. Read it, Swap It is a swap shop for books. After all, how many do you read twice?

A gift for the lady driver in your life

Get arty with canvas print and you are art

A blog totally dedicated to Philip K Dick. I like the films, perhaps i should get round to reading the books.

A blog for gaijins who have lived in Japan for too long

A site dedicated to online boutique shopping

Sky doing some charity, environment & learning stuff

Play some fun stuff. It is a Friday after all! Fly guy, line rider, double wires

Facebook gave me the opportunity to find some old pics for the TMW Alumni group. Sorry, Iestyn.

An early example of user generated content using mobile phone cameras - The Tugler Show.

The feet belong to Sean Dewhurst, he has some nice cars to hire.

The handbag. Essential for women but in many ways it’s still a mystery to men. Why so big? Why so many? Why so much money?

BUT, a lot can be garnered from what’s inside a handbag. Insights into behaviour, lifestyle, beliefs, extra-curricular activities etc. And now you can let Flickr do the hard work for you! Found this on the excellent Get Shouty blog. Example above is from Y&R Youth Probe 2005. I love the question mark after Vaseline.

Project managers, account peeps, creative types, technologists, everyone really. At pretty much all levels. If you want to work for Digitas London, drop me a line @ ngill@digitas.com

I’m in Holland again today after an oh my god early flight into Schiphol. I perused a couple of the free rags that were scattered on the train from Schiphol to Den Haag (sitting upstairs of course - why can’t I do this at home???) and discovered that there had been a concert/festival of sorts on the bit of green that I walk past on the way to my client. I saw the pictures of the bands and had not a clue who they were. One looked vaguely reminiscent of Kim Wilde but surely not?

Anyway, reminded me of a deck that I cobbled together from various sources for a last minute hospital pass I was given last September to chair an Ad Tech (only the leading interactive conference type thing there is so no last minute shit yourself pressure there!) seminar on Pan European advertising. My task was to set it up, then my colleague Stephan would harp on about some work we’ve done for GM and then a lovely lady from Wheel and her client from EasyJet chatted surprisingly candidly about EasyJet’s forays into pan European advertising including their somewhat school boy errors of translating good performing English keywords into French and hoping for the best and being somwehat chastened when the results were, to be blunt, shit. Local knowledge works best here, clearly. And then I would lob a few questions to the panel and then open up to the forum in a not so hairy and skinny Russell Brand type way. And with less swearing.

Anyway, here’s what I set the show up with. No, nobody knew who the people at the end were either which kind of proves the point that we may be in Europe, but we’re not Europeans yet. Let me know what you think.

The tube was too hot. I’d already missed my train. So I got out and walked from Tottenham Court Road to Waterloo. And I took these pictures from the Embankment bridge over a very brown Thames. London always looks nicer in the sun. Shame the camera on my Sony Ericsson XYZR2-D2-whatever it’s called isn’t better.

Buzz 1: word of mouth. Social infectiousness. Jibber jabber. Call it what you will. Bzz Agent have been going for a while Stateside and have recently started up in the UK. Does it work? Well, as Kevin Keegan once said, “if you don’t buy a ticket you can’t win the raffle.” (How we miss his words of wisdom). So I signed up. And they encourage Bzz Agents to have full disclosure so here it is. I’ll be updating my bluurb here with news and events. So far I’ve been diligently completing surveys a plenty to try and get some action. Agent status: awaiting orders.

Buzz 2: Matt Dickman does a weekly round up on his Techno Marketer site with Buzz Friday. Why do I like this? 1) a round up of what’s interesting this week in marketing, technology world. 2) It has video! I particularly like his sign on/off (cunningly varied by week), “this is Matt Dickman from Techno Marketer” - he could be on the BBC! Perhaps he could introduce characters from the big bookcase behind him? Or maybe that’s the 2 pints of lager starting to take effect. Matt has some compelling thoughts and also pops up with good commentary on a lot of the blogs I read, like this comment to the dearly departed from Digitas world, Greg Verdino (good luck @ Crayon, Greg).

Buzz 3: Jeff Jarvis’ Buzz Machine

And here’s the two pints of lager. And you’ll notice I was doing work by annotating an analytics deck, the blow softened by an unseen Thai Green Curry from Prince Arthur, Eversholt St, London.

I can’t help thinking that the people on the left look like they’re having more fun.

Image taken on a trip oop North to Gullivers Theme Park with the nieces and nephews. 

Logo a-go-go! After the fiasco of that logo, comes more news that the banking institution known as Barclays is highly likely to change their logo for fear of offending the Dutch if the proposed merger with ABN Amro takes place. While the logo causes less visual intolerance than the 2012 thing, it does strike a cunning resemblance to a Nazi emblem when you place the two together, something which doesn’t go down well in Holland after being an occupied country for much of the War. One can totally understand their feelings but I don’t imagine Barclays set out to create a “Teutonic looking eagle”. Mind you, I don’t think a logo change will matter too much as my quick pop quiz suggests that the name has a lot more resonance with the people on the street. I wonder if Wolff Ollins will be on the pitch list to re-colour the ABN Amro hearldic badge thing?

Fed up of your dull corporate pics, try a touch of glamour to make you look like a celeb or a princess or just less minging. (source: the times T2)

I’ll admit to buying Wired magazine from time to time as I find buying reading the likes of FHM, GQ etc. makes me a look a bit pervy on the train home what with all the naked girls. I know I shouldn’t care, maybe it’s the English thing? So I sometimes have sanctuary in Wired, Mac mags and of course, books. Anyway, Wired has some nice blogs that throw up some cool stuff. I like this one.

From breakfast to dinner with music? Fall in love with driving again and go on a photo journey using the Astra’s new panoramic windscreen & a mash up with Flickr. This is new from the Digitas London house (the artists formerly known as Modem Media). Be interested to know your thoughts.

You never know but I may just have received a comment from a future rock god. Tim Rooke from the Bribes obviously takes a keen interest in the spread of their fakebook antics which is to be applauded. Tim says:

Legend… Although, the quotes do make me sound like a knob.. I actually had a intelligent argument, but that’s not shown…

Usage of the word knob has just endeared me to him and I forgive his anti web authenticity stance. And with hindsight I guess the band did achieve their aim of getting their name known. I might even try listening to a few tracks to see if their real day job lives up to hype. Oh how fickle I can be.

 All will be revealed during Cannes week, if they win an award. If they don’t who knows. Will the ransom be paid? Enjoy!

Forget wikipedia, watch videopedia instead. 5min.com has short, instructional video clips on a whole lot of stuff. (source: iconoculture)

Swap the plane for the train & get a first class ticket with Virgin Trains. The bearded one likes green stuff. Interesting that despite staggering out of Euston tube station each day onto the main concourse at the rail station (a Virgin base camp for those who don’t know), I have never seen this advertised and only found it in a predominantly US source! (source: iconoculture)

iMedia look at video stuff

Volkswagen let you create your own Night Driving film for the Golf using Jumpcut. I found this on Bowen Craggs, this is what they say:

Volkswagen’s Night Driving competition site is as compelling an example as you’re currently likely to find of how the Web 2.0/social networking phenomenon can add a new dynamic to marketing and customer relationship building. Not only does it use the technology and content posting conventions of video sharing sites such as YouTube to give users a screening and viewing platform, but it also ‘shares’ exclusive material with its putative film re-editors. “Here’s the footage we went into the editing room with,’ it says, ‘see what you can come out with.’ Other elements of the social mix such as voting and posting to your website exploit the viral aspects of the medium.

Part of the reason the campaign works is that millions of potential viewers feel entirely at home with the content creating/sharing environment. While on one level this is a simple competition to win a film camera, the entries themselves have now become part of the wider campaign to attract attention.

Filtered water becomes flavoured water. Genius or pointless? (source: daily candy)

Chat via video conference with oovoo with up to 6 chums. For free. It sounds like a Vic Reeves mentalist quote on Shooting Stars, which is probably more fun (source: daily candy)

Some digital music type stuff at 7digital

And advergirl gives a real job description for account execs

Finally, the locals are probably up in arms and unlikley to be swinging around poles but innovative ad placement/creation for myprivatedance.com to get the attention of weary travellers as they arrive at Gatwick. I wonder if it lights up at night?

P.S. I haven’t run out of things to say, I just have a load of stuff that has been piling up in my notebook that I thought you might like to know. You know how it is.