I like my sports but I will tell you the knowledge I, as a girl, know about cricket. It goes on FOREVER. It is slow. There’s this thing called ‘leg before wicket’ that is shortened to LBW but apart from that all I know is there is a bat and a ball involved.

Maxus, as you will be aware, have moved into a swanky new office with all new mod cons and the one thing that is an eye opener is how well received our new TV’s are. We have one everywhere. We can pick whatever we want on them but for the last week the screens have been dominated by… you’ve guessed it. The bloody cricket. Indeed, it’s the cricket world cup and I am sure it is interesting for some people but unlike other sports that have managed to get a following from both genders; cricket remains predominately male.

I understand The Cricket World Cup has grown as a media event with each tournament. The International Cricket Council has sold the rights for broadcasting of the 2011 Cricket World Cup for around US$ 2 Billion to ESPN Star Sports and Star Cricket. The tournament is being broadcasted all around the world in about 220 countries. These are massive figures and very impressive considering that only 1 in 325 (approx.) women take any interest in the sport at all.

I’m asking my girls, can any of you tell me the appeal? Please. If Maxus are anything to go by, it’s purely a male sport.

As we all know, the city becomes somewhat paralysed when any transport is affected, and apparently the potential collective loss to London’s business’ caused by this strike could be as much as £100 million. Who knows how much of a loss Wembley stadium made last night!

However, I think there is a good point to take from all this chaos and that is that it may have alerted the commuters and Londoners that we could save collectively, millions if we were to seek alternative modes of transport to our places of work.

I was personally baffled at the sheer number of people walking the streets last night as usually they are hidden away underground and watching the riverboats cruise by, busier than ever with commuters precariously perching on deck due to the lack of seats inside.
I read about someone considering riding their horse into town and many using scooters – the foot powered variety to get to work and personally having spotted two children hitching a ride on the back of, what I hope was, their Grandmas mobility scooter, it made me wonder how many ingenious modes of transport were actually thought up yesterday?

Whether you struggled to get to Wembley to see England thrash the Andorrans or whether you were just trying to go about your normal day, how have you been transporting yourself during the strikes?

> £500 day “book now last chance for this great price” conferences on some obscure piece of marketing strategy
> Poorly thought out media owner promotional material – how many cardboard pen holders can I possibly make use of on one desk?

Now I know people have to promote themselves … but in this age of online technology is it totally necessary to make me chuck reams of material away every week? Couldn’t a little bit more imagination be used?

Grrrrrr

As usual the Big Four look likes staying as The Big Four, no matter how much our MD argues Spurs’ case to the contrary.  To be honest if they can improve on last year’s 11th I’ll be impressed!  So, what I want to know is what will the Top 4 be and who will get relegated?

Here are my thoughts:

Top 4

1. Chelsea
2. Man United
3. Liverpool
4. Arsenal

Relegated

Stoke
Hull
Bolton

Think I’ve got it completely wrong?  Then Blog who you think will make the Top Four and get Relegated.  Whoever gets it bang on Wins…………………………….Pride

Virgin Radio Holdings Ltd (including the radio station) was bought in May 2008 by TIML (Times of India Group) – India’s largest music and ents group for £53.2million following its sale by SMG.

Lawson’s responsibilities will include making an announcement on the new brand name for Virgin Radio, expected within a fortnight. So the big debate, BJK&E and friends is – what would you name it and why? Consider:
 - The station has to keep the same genre as previously in accordance with its licence
 - The station will still be located in Golden Square
 - There is no need for it to have an overt link to “Times of India” in the name
 - The “DAVE” phenomenon of TV (if you dont know what I’m talking about read my retrospective futures article) – name can be everything!
 - So the name needs to befit one of the UK’s biggest commercial stations
 - Albion will be helping create the new name so no cheating and asking them

Best / closest answer gets a prize. Possibly.

Take this weekend.

Wimbledon’s Mens Finals – not only is Wimbledon a staple of the British summertime but this year the epic Nadal / Federer final was about the most outstanding 5-hour 5-set nail biting game of tennis you could ever hope to see. Who cares that both finalists were from across the European pond? The TV viewing public clearly didn’t with a peak of nearly 13million viewers as it stretched towards the post 9pm final – well up on 2007. What shone through was great tennis at a great venue.

Silverstone Grand Prix – Again, a TV ratings winner up on 2007 figures with a peak of 6million viewers cheering Lewis Hamilton to his first ever Silverstone victory. Silverstone has been described as the spiritual home of Formula 1, drawing some of the largest crowds of all Grand Prix events and for Hamilton to offer up a racing master class there is a great day for British sports.

Henley Regatta – anyone who’s walked the length of the Henley race during Regatta week has enjoyed classic upper class Britain … post knee-length dresses for the ladies, chinos for the men, champagne picnics by the riverside, Great Danes dressed in rowing ties, Pimms on tap and even the odd burst of sunshine. Glorious. Who can say who actually won most of the events … we were too busy enjoying another brilliantly hosted British sporting event.

If the London Olympic Committee could just take a leaf out of these books – then 2012 will really be an Olympics to remember whether as host nation we cover ourselves in golden glory or not.

1. Tetris – PC (1985)
2. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – N64 (1998)
3. Doom – PC (1993)
4. Super Mario World – SNES (1991)
5. Guitar Hero – PS2 (2005)
6. Street Fighter II – SNES (1991)
7. Super Mario Kart – SNES (1992)
8. GoldenEye 007 – N64 (1997)
9. Grand Theft Auto IV – PS3 and Xbox 360 (2008)
10. Metal Gear Solid – PlayStation (1998)
11. Halo: Combat Evolved – Xbox 360 (2001)
12. Super Mario Galaxy – Wii (2007)
13. Final Fantasy VII – PlayStation (1997)
14. Resident Evil 4 – GameCube (2005)
15. Chrono Trigger – SNES (1995)
16. Gran Turismo – PlayStation (1998)
17. Sim City – Macintosh and Amiga (1989)
18. Half-Life – PC (1998)
19. Sid Meier’s Civilization II – PC (1996)
20. Gears of War – Xbox 360 (2006)

Just goes to show that good games aren’t all about textured polygons and wizzy framerates… 

Full list can be found here:   http://www.mcvuk.com/news/31033/EW-Our-top-50-games-of-all-time

However as media planners and buyers will agree, there are certain classifications that are imperative to our work.  Geographic segments, income brackets and of course demographics generally.  And its the latter of these three that I think deserves some inspection.

According to NRS the Social Grading classifications were born from a survey dating back over 50 years.  They also claim “it remains a highly effective way of classifying readers of different publications”.  Certainly the natural hierarchy of Doctors and Lawyers still holds true, but surely there must be instances of social migration; leading to a shift in the traditional running order?   For example, teachers (according to NRS) are classified as B, whilst Junior Managers come in at C1.   Subtleties aside I think it’s fair to assume that teachers are generally considered underpaid for their efforts and that it’s certainly not the desirable austere profession it was some 50 years ago.

More obvious discrepancies include skilled tradesmen (sparkies, plumbers etc) that can demand a very high premium for their services now that they’re seemingly in short supply.  Then there’s musicians, celebrities, and sports personalities… where do they fit into this antiquated rank?   

In my opinion it no longer ‘remains a highly effective way of classifying readers of different publications’ but rather an old fashioned way of doing business that’s no longer relevant to today’s consumer.

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? 

My impressions to date:

Truckles : Very close but it’s overpriced, under-portion-sized and refuses to allow outside reservations.

The Old Crown: This is probably my favourite local pub but the comforting winter exterior looks a bit dark and gloomy in the summer sunshine. Easier to get a table mind you.

The Plough: Again nearby with some outdoor seating (which gets over the slightly stale inside smell – to put it nicely) but the road tends to get covered in shade by the buildings and lets face it, unless you want your food fried not a culinary classic.

Collective media thoughts on nearby alternatives?