In February Microsoft overtook Google for total unique visitors in the 15 – 34 female age bracket.* Microsoft have been in second place to Google for the last few years so this is quite an achievement and probably in no small part due to Microsoft’s recent advertising campaign for Bing, their new search engine. Has anyone been swayed by Microsoft’s Bing? Personally I’ve not found Bing as user friendly or as fluid as Google who specialise in search engine activity.

The stats however extend to more than just the respective search engines, they include the whole network of properties owned by Microsoft and Google. Are Microsoft about to challenge Google for internet supremacy or have Google just had a blip at reaching 15 – 34 women (Google held their position as No.1 in other demographics)? Watch this space…

*Source: Comscore.

Soundtracks can make or break a film, and some are obviously better than others…

I for one am very much looking forward to seeing the new Martin Scorsese flick Shutter Island. After the warranted success of his last film, The Departed in 2006, I believe Shutter Island will keep up his usual standards in delivering exceptional pieces of modern cinema. His collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed & now Shutter Island) always seem to portray both lead and director as two artists at the top of their games.

More important to this piece however is Scorsese’s ability to deliver amazing soundtracks. A brief glimpse at his back catalogue (Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino and the above mentioned – especially The Departed) not only brings to mind scenes of greatness but also the songs that accompany said scenes – Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb fading in and out during a tense scene in The Departed for example.

I have listed below, in no particular order, my top 10 movie soundtracks. Feel free to comment / leave your own list.

Gladiator
Top Gun
Kill Bill v.1 & 2
Empire Records
Rocky IV
Pirates of the Caribbean (Curse of the Black Pearl)
Star Wars (original trilogy)
The Departed
Human Traffic
Apocalypse Now

This week it has come to light that the 1984 Video Recordings Act was never enacted. Most of you will ask, “so what? I’ve never heard of it.” Well you should have.

The act prohibits the sale of ‘adult’ material (eg. 18 rated films) to minors.

Apparently the Home Office in 1984 failed to notify the European Commission of the existence of the Act despite being required to do so under an EU directive. The mistake was not spotted on two subsequent occasions, in 1993 and 1994. As a consequence, effective immediately, police are being told to halt any existing, and to not bring any new, prosecutions for selling ‘adult’ material to minors until the Government passes emergency legislation to re-enact the 1984 Act.

Until then, retailers will be able to sell ‘adult’ material to under-18s without fear of prosecution.

Obviously the larger retailers, especially those in the Entertainment Retail Association (ERA), have vowed not to benefit from the news. Kim Bayley the director general of the ERA said “We are of course surprised that this news has come to light, but we are confident that all ERA members will act responsibly – and will continue to ensure inappropriate material does not get into the hands of children. However, I can’t speak on behalf of smaller video and video games retailers who aren’t ERA members.”

Kids must be having the best summer holidays ever…

Youtube has been a big part of our lives for many years now. Whatever the use for it, UGC, comedy, adult material, etc, we all have a selection of videos we can show friends or family that will make us happy, laugh or cry (and in some cases all three). So what are your three favourite YouTube videos / moments? In no particular order my three favourites are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_og14JAlBk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMS0O3kknvk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8t7iSGAKik

Yesterday, after weeks of searching, I finally found a source of the new flavours of Walkers crisps (the shop on the ground floor in our building – the closest shop to our office, d’oh). For the uninitiated the new flavours are as follows, Builder’s Breakfast, Cajun Squirrel, Crispy Duck & Hoisin, Fish & Chips, Chilli & Chocolate and Onion Bhaji.

Walkers have been pushing six new flavours recently, the public are being asked to vote for their favourite and the winner will be added to the Walkers range indefinitely. Unfortunately the shop downstairs didn’t have onion bhaji in stock so we could only sample, and savour, 5 of the new flavours. After doing this I would surmise that unless the onion bhaji flavour is the greatest crisp ever to be invented, or at the very least mildly palatable, the winning flavour will not adorn the shelves of the Walkers distributor for long. In running order of best (or at least not vomit inducing) to worst I would rank them as follows:

1. Crispy duck
2. Cajun squirrel
3. Builders breakfast
4. Chilli & chocolate
5. Broken glass & razor blades
6. Fish & chips

The fish and chips flavour initially hits you with a smell similar to Maldon sea front after the fishing trawlers unload their haul. The flavour explodes on the palate like a raw fish sandwich with fish paste as the filling. Needless to say nobody had more than a single crisp and there were certainly no enquiries as to seconds. Crispy duck was the best, most went back for a second try, but, like the others, it left a strange after taste akin to old gym socks.

Of the people I’ve spoken to about these new flavours (seven) nobody has liked them. Surely we have to say this is a stunt to increase sales short term and may affect brand positioning in the long term; I for one will not be moving away from Kettle Chips any time soon.

How does one come to terms with the loss of a loved one? Some mourn silently and quickly before moving on with their lives. Others swiftly take themselves to the bottom of a bottle and remain there, loudly and incomprehensively, for an extended period of time. Here at Maxus we believe there’s scope for both methods or another somewhere in between. Hence the huge party we threw for a much loved member of the Bloomsbury way crew – our receptionist Natalie Grout who flew to Brazil today for 6 months of haute couture travelling. Maxus, and friends, turned out in force at Guanabara off Drury lane and celebrated Natalie’s tenure with us. Natalie always brightened our already bright reception and was warm and welcoming to clients, reps and even perfect strangers.

But now it’s time to move on. Natalie has been replaced by the very lovely Katie Davis who is young, enthusiastic and she plays video games – to quote an absent member of our team, winner winner chicken dinner! We’re all looking forward to working with Katie. The queen is dead…long live the queen!

nat-vs-katie - Check them out here…

Please leave your goodbyes (to Nat) or hellos (to Katie) below.

Friday marked the release of one of the most anticipated games for this next generation of consoles; Street Fighter IV. Based on the 1991 release, Street Fighter II, and incorporating new 3D rendered backgrounds, this new iteration promises to be the best fighting game for….well, since 1991.

One of our members, the Wagbat, threw an early hat into the ring today when he claimed “Street Fighter is the greatest multiplayer franchise of all time”. This started a huge debate and therefore required a blog and a pole. Personally I would love to disagree with Waggy-Waggy-Woo out of principle. However, the usual suspects (Mario Kart, Goldeneye, Call of Duty, Left for Dead) don’t quite reach the levels of this staple from our past, and now, once again, our present.  Leave your thoughts below if you think we’re wrong or have missed any huge franchises past or present.

Movember finally came to an end in the BJK&E offices (and everywhere else). Using the pretence of a raffle, we raised a whopping £88 for prostate cancer and gave away some ‘amazing’ prizes; the following all went to the lucky Kate Rigby…Paul Weller CD, flip-flops, baseball toy binoculars, inflatable guitar, ski and snowboard holiday brochure and a bottle of champagne. Ian Richmond won second prize – a lovely bottle of Sainsbury’s finest (basics range) Lambrini, the lucky chap!

There were also some awards for this years participants:

The biggles award went to Andrew Kingston for looking like a WWII fighter pilot.

The facial hair of the day award went to Matthew Waghorn (everyday) for his varied approach to Movember (and facial hair in general).

The A for effort award sadly went to Patrick Lindon who, despite trying really hard, didn’t manage to push out more than a light down on his top lip.

The confused.com award went to Daniel Parkinson for growing blond top lip hair despite all other hair on his face, head and body being brown. Weird.

Photos of our final efforts can be found below. Comment if you want, we don’t care anymore, just happy to rid our faces of such a disgusting blight. Who grows a moustache for any reason other than charity!? Buffoons, that’s who.

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) Patrick, Matthew, Andy and I have been growing MOs (moustaches). That’s right, we’re bringing the MO back because we’re passionate about tackling men’s health issues and being pro-active in the fight against prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. 35,000 men are diagnosed every year and one man dies from prostate cancer every hour. One in eleven UK men will be diagnosed in their lifetime.

The history of Movember has it’s origins in Australia; Movember (a portmanteau of the words ‘Moustache’ and ‘November’) is an annual month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November. The event has been claimed to have been invented in 1999 by group of Australian men from Adelaide.*

On Monday the 1st December the four participants will take to the office circuit and offer fellow employees the chance to stroke our MOs, donate to charity and possibly win a bottle of bubbly. The MOers will then (finally) be allowed to shave their top lip.

Please take the time to look at the pictures below, they were taken on Monday 10th and Monday 17th of Movember. We will be updating the blog with pictures on Monday 24th and December 1st – come back then for more Movembering fun.

Feel free to send photos of Movember efforts by yourselves or fellow employees** and leave a comment on who’s MO looks best…

MONDAY 10th Movember

MONDAY 17th Movember

* Wikipedia: Movember

** send to dan.parkinson@bjke.co.uk

PICTURES SENT IN

Two of our Ubisoft clients!

As most are aware there was a small festival in battersea over the past weekend – the LG Freeze. The main draws for the event were a host of UK snowboarding and skiing talent competing in a big air competition (see adjoining video) and a music stage with performers including Sway, The Enemy, Reverend and the Makers and Iglu and Hartly.  Ubisoft were co-sponsors of the event and this afforded some of us here at BJKE free tickets.

A thoroughly good time was had by all, not least those in media. From a small straw poll we took on Friday and Saturday the general public were very impressed – a highlight was Cyprus Hill headlining on Saturday night.

The event also proved to be a great branding exercise for the upcoming Shaun White Snowboarding game release by Ubisoft. The trailer (complete with Xbox’s and Wii’s) was mega busy all day and had queues round the block at its peak (check out attached photo).

If you were there, what did you think?

Ubi Freeze from BJKE on Vimeo.