Badmovieclub and Graham Linehan break Twitter!

Last night was the first and who knows last Bad Movie Club on Twitter. Maybe this was becasue it was Friday 13th or maybe becasue it was such an insane and easy idea.

Everyone watch the same bad film at the same time and give a running commentary
on Twitter

Well here are the numbers

• On 13th Feb 2009, around 2000 people watched the same ‘bad’ film at exactly the same time and shared their collective ‘disappointment’ via Twitter.
  40,000 individual comments were sent and tracked ‘live’ by the film’s audience.
  A total of around 80,000,000 ‘Tweets’ were therefore viewed in just 2hrs 40mins. To generate this much Twitter traffic, both Barack Obama & Stephen Fry would each have to sustain posting 68.4 Tweets an hour ‘at the same time’... on Friday they collectively averaged 1.7 per hour.

#badmovieclub on Twitter

Twitter is being used in the most imaginative ways. Just found Graham Linehan on Twitter @Glinner had he's running an experiment with the Bad Movie Club. Tonight at 9pm the club are watching M. Knight Shayamalan’s ‘The Happening’, which I paid to see in the cinema and I can tell you it really sucks.

Anyway the point is that all the members are watching the movie at the same time and tweeting their thoughts on this truly dreadful film. A great experiment and a good laugh to as well.

I don't see how this kind of collective event could have been managed without the use of Twitter. People all around the world are now using the Internet as it was envisage, well at least this far.

Amazing Light Graffiti

Just found this amazing light graffiti on the Guardian Website. It's all done using long exposures and light pens. No photoshop cheating!

Oh god someone at Sony is gonna hit the roof!

The Onion have made this really, really funny spoof story on Sony's products. It's bound to come under a litigation soon so make sure you watch it before it is removed from the web.

Utterly brilliant!


Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

Make sure you stay as an imposter

I often wonder how I get through stuff. Sure I know lots of things but I'm always learning, I like to think I'm an expert, but don't they know everything?

This post about staying an imposter shows that you shouldn't be scared to feel like a fraud, you're always learning and that's the whole point.

Hey it made me feel better!

The Mad Men are getting clever on Twitter

Yesterday I Twitted a story from the BBC about how the series Mad Men is influencing fashion.

Very quickly after posting this I got two new followers Peggy Olson and Betty Draper both characters from the show.

Betty Draper has a blog Welcome to the Drapers which showcases life for an American housewife in the early 60's complete with recipes and hits for around the house. All perfectly put together to show the underlying stresses Betty is under in the series.

Peggy Olson has a LinkedIn site which states her experience as:

Peggy Olson’s Experience
Copywriter
Sterling Cooper
(Marketing and
Advertising industry)
1961 — Present (48 years)
I've worked on print and broadcast campaigns for clients such as Belle Jolie, Clearasil, Samsonite, Right Guard, Mohawk Airlines, Martinson's Coffee, and Playtex. I'm eager to learn and do all I can to improve my skills. I hope to be a creative director some day, but I know I have a lot to learn first.

This is such as perfect way to promote a series all about Ad men in the 60's by using modern methods.

Only question is what would the ad men of Sterling Cooper do with a smoking a drinking ban in the work place?

Computer Tan

A colleague has just shown me Computer Tan. This is a great viral website with a very serious message.

The site is amazingly believable and the production is exquisite. It's been produced by Mcann Erikson and has already duped over 30,000 people into believing they can get a tan from their computer screen.

PR on a budget

Here are my 8 tips for getting PR on a budget

1. Get some good, interesting pictures
   Journalists love good, interesting photos always help you getting in the publication. Always supply hi-res, colour, pictures. But don't email then unless specifically asked, they'll jam up their email and you annoy the journalist.


2. Write a brief company history
   The journalist needs to know who you are and why you should have space in their publication. They need to look good to their editors, make sure you play to that by giving them something interesting


3. Read your relevant press
   Sounds obvious, but a little research into the right journalist will pay off


4. Contact the journalist
   Again obvious but make contact. Don't email, phone just before lunch is best. Most journalist don't do early mornings and after lunch is getting close to deadline you'll just annoy them.


5. Arrange a personal meeting
   If at all possible go and see the journalist. Take them for lunch, it'll give you a good chance to tell them all about your company. Plus they'll get to know you personally. When you meet them make sure you have things ready for them to take away a CD with your great hi-red pictures on, your company history, your latest press releases. Make it easy for them.


6. Follow it up
   After your meeting, write a personal note to thank them for their time. Don't just wade in with a release, see next point.


7. Only contact with relevant stories
   Journalists have their own interests, you'll know this you did your research (see point 3). So don't start sending them everything you produce, make sure you only send them relevant stories they are likely to want to run. And ensure your release has an image to go along with it, if requested. One way to get a picture over with out blocking up email is to send over a low-res version with the offer of the print quality one should they want it.


8. Always say thank you

Designer's Repulic closes it doors

Just checked my email and I truly gutted that Designer's Republic has closed. Growing up in Sheffield it was difficult to miss their influence. From nightclub flyers, I still have my full set of flyers from the opening of Republic nightclub. To the covers of Pulp records, Designers Republic was the place to work for a creative, just wish I'd been good enough.

Goodbye Designers Republic

Giving a great presentation via the web

In today's world thinking about the environment and your carbon footprint is very important. That's why it's a great idea to use web presentations when you really don't have to make the journey to see your customers. If you get it right, giving presentations via the Internet can be far more fulfilling than you may think.

Here are my tips to ensure you give good presentation

Presenting via the web has it's own issues. Most notably that you're not there in person. Here are a few tips to help you out if you do that same as we do.

Your PowerPoint presentation

• Keep it simple and to the point
• Avoid bullet pointed lists that you're going to read out to them. Save yourself and them the time and just send them the document so they can read it themselves.
• Be passionate

Your desktop

• Make sure your desktop is as clear as possible. If for any reason you have to click on it you don’t want customers to see other customer’s files or clutter on the screen.
• Ensure you have your company wallpaper on your screen. It's easy to do and look so much more professional than a picture of your favourite car or your wedding day, or your cat (however cute)

Your Customer

• Your customer may have a different screen resolution to you. Make sure they can see what you can before you start your presentation. You don’t want a customer to miss something at the edge of your screen. You can do this by moving your mouse from corner to corner of your screen and asking if they can see it moving.

I'm sure there are loads more tips, but getting these few basics right can make a huge difference.

Over on Presentation Zen you'll find loads and loads of information about putting together presentations which work.

Obamicon.me great little idea

Just found this site which creates an Obamicon of any picture you like. Above is my little effort.

A nice little viral idea which is spreading quickly and rightly so. Thanks to Dave Gorman's Blog which is where I found it

Goodnight Tony Hart

Like a lot of people my age I grew up watching too much TV. One of my favourite shows was Take Hart, presented by the best art teacher you could ever want Tony Hart.

Tony Hart had a gentle way of showing you things you never thought could be possible. We would take old bits and pieces and show you that you too could create anything you wanted. To a kid living on a council estate in Sheffield this was near to revolution.

Tony Hart probably more than anything I've ever seen on TV inspired me, and thinking about it now still does. It's a really sad day to hear that he has died.

In a very short space of time the country has lost two truly great inspirational people Tony Hart and Oliver Postgate. I think its time that something was done to celebrate these two truly amazing people who inspired generations to think that anything was possible.

Compare the Meerkat

The guys at Compare the Market are very brave and clever. If you've ever been on their site to look for financial services or the whole host of things they offer, you'll know that they are very good at giving you a great service that saves you cash and time.

But I guess for them and you probably its pretty dull stuff, I mean just how excited can you get about it, not very is my guess.

Which is shy their Compare the Meerkat campaign is go good. My first glimpse of the campaign was the spoof email I got from Aleksandr the annoyed Meerkat running his site comparethemeerkat.com which is losing visitors to comparethemarket.com. The great thing is that its done with total conviction, no giveaway that its really from compare the market. The team there have given their customers the benefit of having a sense of humour and not had to explain the joke to them. When you click through the email you get a fully functioning website, which delivers a way to actually compare Meerkats, to tricks or gimmicks shoved in the way.

Here's the TV ad too, which completes the whole set.

On top of that there's even a FaceBook group for compare the Meerkat which already had 17,000 members. All this results in a fantastically executed campaign which has great viral qualities and makes what could have been a very conservative campaign work very, very well.

At home with Eric Clapton

Amazing picture! More rockstars at home on the Guardian website

Stop worrying and enjoy life

Just found this over on Dave Gorman's Blog. Bus ads for Atheism. About time all us non believers had a voice!

Truly the worst ad ever made

I've just seen what is truly the worst TV ad ever made. It's for a piece of software from Microsoft for singing with your laptop. Now not only is that a really crap product, yes another one from Microsoft, but the song the little girl sings will make you want to throw-up in seconds. The direction is awful, the script terrible, the acting appalling generally there aren't enough words to describe strongly enough just how bad this ad is.

I'm almost ashamed to post it here but without doing that you'll not understand just how excruciatingly bad this ad is.

Now before you watch it you have been warned - have a bucket ready. Click play at your own peril (this is not a "joke" video, this is Microsoft video).



To see a great ad take a look at this recent Virgin ad, now that's how to make TV

News at 10 spin the figures

Just watched News at 10 and they announced with a fantastic set of graphics that there were over 7,000 job losses announced this week alone. Which is terrible news and was rightly reported as a main item. And they did use a very striking graphic to ram the figures home.

Thing was that once the figure had been taken off the screen they then announced that 15000 jobs would be created by the major supermarkets.

Now call me cynical but isn't that a net gain of 8,000 jobs? Why on earth didn't the graphic come back on and then move the other way?

Clearly we're not ready for good news stories yet.

Twitter is really changing the world

Twitter and social media in general are changing the world - no really!

A guy using the ferry in New York posted some of the first pictures of the plane crash from his iPhone on Twitter within minutes of the incident.

This just would not have been possible even in the last two years. The news flashed around the world literally in seconds.

If anyone doubts the power that the Internet and social media have given the world now then they really are crazy. The world has changed, soon there will be two sets of people those on the inside and those outside.

Grattan announces job cuts in the UK

It's a sad day today as Grattan the giant of the British mail order companies announces job cuts.

Especially sad for me because I used to work in the Bradford office on the customer retention team. Grattan is an amazing place for anyone in marketing to hotbed their skills. You learn so much at such a quick pace a, because you have to and b, because there is an enormous wealth of skill and knowledge in the teams over there.

Thinking back there are people working at Grattan who had been there 30 years when I left around 4 years ago.

And maybe that is there downfall as well as their strength. Grattan and the associated brands, Freemans, Look Again etc where jut too big a ship to turn around.

It's odd when you think about it because mail order is the way that business is now going. Every company with a website takes orders online and delivers direct to your door just like Grattan has for over 100 odd years.

The problem is that their model for mail order, or the "Club Book" as it was know on my street when I was little, is based on people not being able to get credit. So one person in the area would be the agent for the Club Book and customers would pay that person in small weekly installments. The agent in return gets a commission.

All was well for Grattan until the advent of the credit card, then suddenly there's no need to get credit form the agent anymore.

This did so much damage to the traditional mail order companies like Grattan because their entire business model was built on having this credit system which they handled.

Even more of an irony now is that due to the credit crunch, the Grattan model should in theory be perfect again as people can't get the credit they could in the recent boom.

Unfortunately it would seem its too late for Grattan and that's a big shame.

Twittersphere here we come

Hey I'm getting advanced now. I've decided that just using Twitter via Twitter is so last week, so I've jut downloaded TweetDeck which seems to be the platform of choice at the moment. I'll let you know how I get on.