“The British have a knack for comedies about social awkwardness. That’s only natural, given that we have a knack for social awkwardness full stop.” This quote is taken from an article published a few weeks ago in The Telegraph, reviewing the new Channel 4 comedy ‘Fresh Meat’ and examining why us Brits (or some 2,352,000 of us who tuned in to watch the first episode) get a certain sort of masochist pleasure out of watching people squirm uncomfortably.
Ironically this show premiered around the same time that I started at Maxus; so for my first blog (ever!) I thought it seemed fitting to talk about how it feels being the ‘fresh meat’. Thankfully, my experiences have not been at all comparable to those of the characters in the sitcom. At no point have I found myself rambling on about my Egyptian cotton sheets and so far there has been no sign that Rigby has Russell Brand’s head hidden in her drawer.
Nevertheless, it is always nerve-wracking starting out somewhere completely new – like your first day at school all over again, but your parents aren’t there to drop you at the gate and without the comfort of a school uniform, there is the inevitable panic about what to wear. My first day feels like a very long time ago now and my sleepless night before that first day seems ludicrous because, as I came to realise almost immediately, once you step through those (very heavy) doors, you are part of the Maxus family.
There has been a lot to learn, both on and off my training checklist, but it is surprising how much you can pick up in 3 weeks. I’ve pretty much got to grip with what a TVR is and I know that Stuart likes menus, especially ones with the calories listed on them. One thing that I have picked up on though is how many opportunities there are to learn or OTH (eh!) both inside and outside of the office; whether sat at my desk, in a boardroom, on offsite training or in the pub on a Friday evening, there are always people around that are willing to share with you what they know. As a new starter to media and a London ‘fresher’, this has been invaluable, and often insightful.
All in all, these first few weeks have flown by in a blur of media jargon, planning systems and free Krispy Kreme’s. I am sure that by my next blog I will be a much more seasoned member of the media crew, but for now I’ll just carry on making notes on everything I can and thanking my lucky stars that (so far) no one here has offered me a bowl of “special Munge”.

There are ways to increase viewing times of outdoor sites.

After the heroics of Steve and Howards crisp eating contest last Friday I thought it best to see how the professionals did it so we have the world hot dog eating champion taking on a bear in an eating contest.

Last week the F8 conference for developers saw Zuckerberg announce some pretty significant changes to Facebook. The most interesting of which is Timeline.

A few new things have been implemented already, the Ticker on the right hand side of the page that delivers ALL updates from your friends in real time and the revamped friends lists. What is on the way though represents something of a step change.

Timeline, set to replace your profile, aggregates and organizes your life into chronological order, all the things you’ve posted on the site, starting with your D.O.B. when you first registered, are available, you can then jump into individual years for more detail. It can also be filtered by different actions, so you can view your timeline just in photos or just in status updates and so on. Of course for most of us there is going to be a vast jump between date of birth and actual Facebook activity so you are of course able to add pics, videos, narrative and so on to fill in the gaps and create a complete digital documentation of your life.

Privacy I hear you say? Well not that it’s ever really stopped them before, but yes of course, you will able to select exactly who is able to see your timeline.

Inevitably some will love it and others loathe it but before long it will simply be part of our daily life and we’ll struggle to remember what profiles even looked like.

Another major change is around frictionless sharing, the aim here is to make it as easy as possible to share content, ie websites or apps only needing to get permission once and then everything you view/do within them will be shared…umm, not sure about that!

But back to Timeline, is Facebook missing the point? Hasn’t it always been about communicating and distributing content and data? Not archiving it? What do you think?

It should be live to all users by the end of week.

So summer is over and more importantly festival season has finished for another year. Traditionally, festivals were the soundtracks to our summers – events where people escape from their daily lives and enjoy a weekend of festivities (usually in some remote part of the country) whilst listening and dancing to their favourite bands and solo artists. However, this summer has seen some of the music industry’s most prolific figures (e.g. – Michael Eavis) fear for the future of the common music festival.

Eavis said earlier this year that ‘festivals are not selling out’ and fears that ‘people have seen it all before’, putting in jeopardy his own iconic (and some call the best) festival, Glastonbury. His predictions serve a stark warning to festival-goers and organisers alike as there is a real chance that in three to four years the summer music scene may be quite different from the one we experience today.

So what has lead Eavis to this stark prediction? Are we really in jeopardy of losing music festivals for good? The last few years have been economically difficult, which has meant that people have been forced to be more careful with their money. Combine that with the fact that festivals are as expensive as a holiday abroad, and it makes sense that they are the first thing people cut back on when money is tight. There has also been a growth in European festivals, which attract larger crowds at cheaper prices and usually have the added bonus of guaranteed sunshine, which means people can combine a festival with a summer holiday.

The other problem with current festivals is they all appear to be the same. As Eavis says, people are becoming bored of seeing the same bands on the same circuit each year. For a £200 ticket, people are expecting more from their experience and want to see creativity, individuality and difference when they invest in a large-scale music event. I personally, would hate to see the end of festivals. As a music fan, festivals allow you to see a variety of acts in one place and allow you to forget about everything for a weekend. However, I do believe that the festival format is becoming stale with the same line-ups appearing at festivals across the country and a lack of imagination in not only the acts playing, but also the experience as a whole. We want to experience a unique and exciting musical wonderland, which is different from anything else we have seen before. These are the things that summer and more importantly festivals were made for.

One of the busiest cities in the world in slow motion.

TOKYO SLO-MODE from alex lee on Vimeo.

Social media is full steam ahead in India. Some interesting ways of drumming up business and you can even contact the traffic police on facebook….

Social Media in India from Zarul Shekhar on Vimeo.

STIF – Frances’ Public Transport Authority – are trialling the use of NFC enabled smartphones as travel cards on the Metro and on buses in Paris.

Bravo Les Francais…Boris, pay attention!

NFC (near field communication) has been a hot topic in the mobile industry for a while now; we use the technology every day in our Oyster Cards. Without going into unnecessary detail it’s a short-range wireless technology that involves an active chip (like the one in your oyster card or smartphone) and a passive receiver to transfer data. Its potential is huge with wide ranging applications, however, it’s been rather slow to get off the ground. The main reason for this is, with payment as its focus, there are currently far too many stakeholders making far too much money out of the current credit card system. Banks, credit card companies, transaction handling companies, data companies and so on…and on…and on…

This is why launching mobile payment in a controlled environment like city travel, where the technology already exists, is a great idea. I love my Oyster card, I think it’s great. What massively frustrates me is that I rarely ever know when it needs topping up, not too bad when you’re using the tube and you can top up round the corner from the gate but getting on the bus, having waited an age, only to find that you’re out of credit and with no change in your pocket? Rubbish! Being able to glance at your phone on the way to the bus to see what your ‘mobile oyster’ balance is, or even better not having to worry about a balance at all because it gets charged straight to your phone bill? Yes please!

Think how much easier we could make travel in London; no more hunting for coins, cursing the person ahead when their Oyster doesn’t work or fiddling around with cards and PIN’s when topping up. Want to hop on the tube? Touch your mobile. Want a Boris bike? Touch your mobile. A Bus or train? Yup, touch your mobile. Even taxis could benefit hugely, no more stopping at cash points, waiting for change etc, even your receipts could be digital and sent straight to your inbox ready to go on an expenses form!

Outside of paying for stuff, smart posters are the other use of NFC that people, especially OOH media owners are raving about. With the poster acting as a receiver, touching your phone against a 6-sheet at the bus stop will deliver all matter of extra info instantaneously, making QR Codes look, well, a touch prehistoric.

Granted that we need all our phones to be NFC enabled and that’s happening at the moment. Most smartphones already have NFC functionality, they just aren’t activated. So outside of mobile payment and smart posters, what other cool/useful functions can you see for NFC? How about instant customer feedback? Touching your phone against a smiley face or frowning face as you leave a shop depending on your experience. What about transferring content from different media devices? Putting your phone on top of telly when you get home to transfer the web page/video you were viewing onto the big screen for example. How about from a marketing perspective? What are your thoughts?

A hot topic that has always been debated when it comes to the world of Facebook pages is the value of a ‘Like’, and in the advertising space there are more than enough blogs, tweets and discussions about the cost associated with this seemingly innocent measure to brand favourability.

This year we have seen a dramatic increase on Facebook’s take of their ‘Like’ ASU ads, with networks offering cost per ‘like’ models and even now sites offering nothing else but ‘fake fans’ such as buyrealfacebookfans.com (a site offering 10,000 likes for $297)!!

Personally I think there is something pretty questionable when you get into the realm of buying likes and brands are at risk of entering a very murky world if not careful.  Now I am not completely discounting the network offerings, but I do think it is crucial we are asking how these ‘Likes’ will be aquired and where they are coming from (a fan is for life, not just for a post campaign analysis).

I think that we as agency folk need to consider a ‘like’ in a similar way to any other brand measure, and realise that fans are earnt and not bought.  What are your thoughts?