A recent survey in the US, conducted by TeleNav, has shown that a third of all Americans would rather give up sex than give up their mobile phone!  An alarming 70% would prefer to give up alcohol and a rather grubby 22% would give up their toothbrush – see image below.

I’m convinced that us Brits are less attached to our handset devices so I’m throwing the question out there – What would you be more willing to give up so you could still have your mobile phone?  

The transition of newsprint editorial on to digital platforms has transformed the way consumers discover news.  Readership is moving online and advertisers are not too far behind. 

Rupert Murdoch recently announced his plans to charge for access to News Corporation’s UK newspaper sites – a day’s use would amount to a fee of £1, while £2 for a week’s subscription.  Although the model of free content supported by advertising is clearly flawed (many successful news sites produce minuscule revenues), users have previously voted against the paywall model, simply migrating to another paper that decided to go with an advertising-based revenue model.

So with declining print circulations, declining print ad spend, a tradition of supplying  free content online and users migrating as soon as sites do start to charge, how are companies going to finance their good, in-depth, quality journalism?  Will it be a case of interrogating those consumers who do sign up for the paywall so that they are better understood from a marketing perspective and therefore a huge premium can be charged to advertisers? Or will the micropayment model come into force?  Whatever the future holds, finding a way to monetise the huge readership newspapers and magazines is the Holy Grail for online publishing.

Just as one free London title closes, another two arrive.  As we all know, The Evening Standard is set to become free very soon but in the meantime the first female targeted free title has launched.  ‘Stylist’ will be distributed in London, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham and the publication has already created debate within the Maxus office. 

Personally, as I read the ‘Welcome’ on the first page I became increasingly frustrated.  Verging on the patronising, it included one typo and three, yes three, mentions of chocolate (in an article of c.150 words)!  It seems the editor can’t do a hard days work without a bar of Green and Blacks at her desk!  I read on and came across the Elsewhere section.  This focuses on World news in one compact page.  Now bearing in mind that within the ‘Welcome’ it stated that the editorial would focus on thoughtful journalism, dealing with issues that matter, I was surprised to find the first piece of World news to be on how the Russians are the vainest nation – putting more pictures of themselves online than any other European nation.  Other articles referred to dating in the US, nude hiking and weddings.  Now they are the issues that REALLY matter to us women, are they not?!

Others in the agency, however, really liked it and are glad that there is finally free title that targets women.  I guess it is only meant to be a quick read whilst your sat on the tube and therefore I may be getting a little over-sensitive. 

Anyway, I better get back to work…….now where is my Dairy Milk??

I think the front page of The Sun seems to sum up the feelings of the nation with ‘At least it’s sunny’.  That’s right, when the state of the country is in a complete and utter mess, when unemployment is at its highest and families struggle to make ends meet, the good old British resolve comes out and we focus on the positive…….the weather??

You know how bad things have got when the only good news is the British weather! 

 I loved the new 118 247 ads although I do think they’re on the verge of becoming entering the extremely annoying category.  The OTH on the radio must be at least 15 per week!

My question though is not regarding the advertising but about the product itself – do we still need Yellow Pages through our letter-boxes?

I received the updated yellow bible the other day, sat on my doorstep as its too wide to fit through the letter-box.  And what did I do with it?  I picked it up and popped it straight in my recycling bin also sat outside my front door.  What with the tinterweb and mobile should Yellow Pages not be thinking more about the environment and not just giving these mammoth books away. 

My idea to Yellow Pages would be to save money (and the environment) and either only give the books out to those who request one – a simple card through everyone’s door asking if they would like to receive these in the future would allow this OR geo target by mosaic profiling and only send them out to the areas of Grey Perspectives and Twilight Subsistence.

Today is the most depressing day of the year according to  Psychologists.  They’ve supposedly worked this out by combining some very critical factors which influence our attitudes – weather, debt, time since Christmas, time since failing our New Year’s resolutions and motivational levels. 

Now, I’m not a ‘bottle half empty’ type of person but I do tend to agree with them and I’d like to add another reason – there is nothing to watch on the tele!  Going through my EPG yesterday left me completely miserable.  No good films, no entertaining drama, no side stitching comedy.  Instead we have celebrity Big Brother which features a bunch of washed out has beens / wanna bees, shows about how the UK/World economy is in disarray and shows about how the nation is full of people who are either obese or too thin.  Can anyone suggest anything good on TV at the moment?  If not I’ll just keep staring out of my window at the slightly more entertaining rather large raindrops!

I was watching the match last night and found it rather amusing.  The French coach, Raymond Domenech, has a very unusual approach to team selection….he likes to take a players star sign into consideration before making his decision.  He apparently doesn’t trust players who are
Scorpios and thinks that defenders who are Leo’s are show-offs and has been quoted saying “When I have a Leo in defence I’ve always
got my gun ready as I know he’s going to want to show off at one moment or another and cost us”.

Can this theory be applied to the media industry?  What star sign do you have to be in order to go far in media?  I’ve conducted a quick review
of all 31 BJK&E employees and noted the following:

We have a fairly even spread across the 12 star signs although interestingly 26% of us are Geminis.  Now, the purpose of Gemini is to be
one who gathers and conveys information – a good trait within our industry, one could say!  It also states that Gemini is an air sign, and as such
puts great value on the mind and its thinking function, to the extent that emotional experiences may be regarded as complications that are
best avoided. Psychologically, air is attracted to water, but air finds the emotions difficult to deal with as they don’t fit in with its concept of an
ideal world.  Hmm, they may need some more emotionally-led team members in order to create the rounded media strategy?? 

In an industry that is based on numbers and spreadsheets, is it any wonder that there are no Pisces at BJK&E.  Pisces have vivid
imaginations and will often think they are being followed. They have some influence over their friends and people resent them for flaunting
their power.   Underneath it all they lack confidence and are generally thought to be cowardly. 

Fortunately, only 2 people in BJK&E are Scorpio.  This is the star sign that is said to be shrewd in business but cannot be trusted. They
will reach the pinnacle of success because of their total lack of ethics. Tut tut…..you Scorpios know who you are!

I, myself, am a Capricorn and am one of three in the company.  We have a need to conserve…the survival of the clan.  Our sign
denotes time, age, strength through patience. Ah yes, clearly the best!!!

Yes, it’s that time of year again. The time when we do our bit for foreign relations.  Brown may have Bush visit for a few days but how much do they really get to know each other?  BJK&E host 2 interns for 6 weeks and by the end of it, we get to know all about them – from how many siblings they have to their deepest darkest secrets! .  It’s their first day and here is what I’ve found out so far……..

First Name:   Heather
Surname: Blouin
Sits:  On the dark side

Heather is from Delmas, Saskatchewan, Canada. She has just completed a Marketing Degree from the University of Regina, which is also in Saskatchewan. Heather grew up on a farm and spends every Winter snowboarding.  Her Summers are usually filled with camping and fishing.
This is Heather’s first time in London and also my first internship.  During university she worked for a field marketing company. 
 
First Name:   Emily
Surname: Stephens
Sits:  On the light side

Emily is 21 years old, and she’s from Wichita Falls, TX. It’s a medium sized town about two hours north of Dallas. She is currently a student at the University of Texas in Austin and is majoring in Advertising with a Minor in Business Foundations. She has one older sister who is living and working in Atlanta, GA. Her favourite hobby is trying new restaurants/food of all kinds, especially finding organic food places which is sometimes pretty hard to come across in America!

I saw an editorial piece on the BBC programme ‘Click’ this weekend and it scared the hell out of me.  It described and even showed the next generation of what they called pedestrian satellite navigation.  It will allow consumers to receive information whilst on the move.  It came in the form of……wait for it….. contact lenses!  Yes, small pieces of technologically advanced film that you stick on your eyes!  What you see with your normal vision is then recognised by the chip inside your lense, analysed and information is displayed into your line of vision.  An example it gave was one for tourists e.g. you’re in a new city, your vision lands on an impressive landmark and you wonder what it is. The contact lense recognises this building, displays its name, its use, when it was built and any other pieces of historical or cultural information. 

Now, I wear contact lenses so the insertion of a lense is not what scared me, it was more how close we are to the Minority Report age!  If this can truely be done, then where will this take advertising?  Can we really expect to be sending special offers to people’s eyes?  Will we blink into the epos system at WHSmiths and receive 20% off the purchase of our favourite magazine?  Or will it give us reviews of restaurants as we pass them?  I can see it happening within the next 5 years.  In fact it may not even take that long but my only question would be this.  What next?  Chips to be embedded in our brains?