Lessons to be learned

I'm seeing a lot of attempts to formulate processes and frameworks for approaching the socially networked, constantly connected world, which is quite entertaining given the increasing personalisation of our "news" channels, where we all define what we consider to be important.  Putting structures around the organic seems counter-intuitive but adopting a pattern based planning approach can help facilitate sharing of best practice and create a means of achieving relevance and scale, which like it or not, will continue to be important to big organisations even if their definitions of scale inevitably have to shift.

That said, it could also end up in horribly formulaic and predictable, innovation and creativity-killing disasters.

Beware.

With that sentiment in mind, here's a great parody video of an ad agency industry award entry video made by a Canadian agency with a great sense of humour and acute insight.  Made all the more hilarious for me because I re-launched My Little Pony when I was working for Hasbro in the late 90s. Had we lived in a constantly connected world, so much of this could so easily have been reality.  Enjoy.

It's life Jim, but not as we knew it: The world as we start 2011...

I liked this clear, simple articulation of the bigger context we all live in.  Well worth 2 minutes of your time to flick through and then 5 minutes to ponder upon where you personally fit it to it and the consequences for your brand or business in the bigger picture.

The 11 themes of the Zeitgeist for 2011

View more presentations from rossdawson.

LEGO: Open ended creativity

I used to work with The LEGO Company, I still have friends that do. Somehow I'll never be able to write LEGO in anything but capital letters (as it should be) ever again. They were fun times on so many levels and only those who have experienced night after night on business trips to LEGO HQ in the Hotel LEGOLAND bar in Billund, Denmark (complete with full sized LEGO man "playing" one of those magic electric grand pianos) will ever really understand quite how far the definition of fun can be stretched.  You know who you are ;-)

Quirky but endlessly creative company that they are, there is no denying that their products inspire young minds across the world to go on and use the product in a myriad of creative ways. Doing the rounds on Twitter this week has been a meme of the "12 coolest LEGO music videos", which shows you some uses for LEGO that I bet you didn't see on Christmas Day as boxes were ripped apart scattering small bricks everywhere for you to stand on later :-)

 There's a rich selection to cater for a wide range of music tastes if you follow the link above , but I'll offer you one here and now:

Nice Gestures from Skype

Like lots of people with friends and family scattered around the world, video calls via Skype are a really valuable thing to me.  Video calling is the most amazing and useful thing. It's a service that brings near people and events that are far. Age doesn't matter.

I have friends and family that I regularly talk to on Skype that are both young and old alike. United by the discovery of how useful Skype is.  I've had friends show off new babies not yet 24 hours old,  had friends' children show off their drawings / toys / reading skills,  and I've shared all manner of disasters and delights with friends and family.  Skype is responsible for new family vocabulary too: setting up Skype-dates, or Sunday Skype-age as it's become known with my brothers in Australia, are moments in the week I cherish and look forward to, especially now that the latest Skype release permits multi-way calls, and I can voice Skype (at least) where- ever I am via the Android App on my phone.

I love the way that Skype has transformed our expectations of keeping in touch.  I have a South African friend that until recently was living in London, and her 2 year old daughter talked to her grandparents regularly via Skype, and that's what calls meant to her - video, being able to see and talk.  So when one day her Granny was on the (regular) telephone, she clasped the handset to her arm to show her Gran where she'd hurt herself.  In her 2 year old mind calls are visual, it's just those of us with a few more years on the clock that will recall a time when telephones meant calling fixed places, voice to voice only.

Anyway, back to Skype, which suffered a service out-age just before Christmas that had Twitter lit up like a Christmas tree. Personally it didn't affect me at the time, but I understand how frustrating it may have been for others that were.  Full marks therefore to Skype who just sent me an email with a voucher code for Skype-out credit and an apology.   A smart and very nice goodwill gesture that's much appreciated and will no doubt go someway to making those that were miffed feel better, and also encourage trial for those people that have only ever used Skype to Skype calling (which is free), enticing them to use Skype for regular calls.

Good stuff Skype. Nicely done, and nicely timed ahead of the New Year rush to wish friends and family a Happy 2011.

Mums are online a lot ...

Now if I was going by my Mum as my benchmark, I'd be concerned about my future employment prospects - I have to ring or text to alert her about an email I've sent.  Luckily most of my friends who are Mums are rather better digitally adjusted / or even more passionate about the web than some of my other non-Mummy friends. The latter just haven't realised (yet!) what a fantastic range of tools it can provide when you are uber busy.   Just yesterday I found a link to a blog that is full of useful shopping tips for busy Mummy's.

Check out this infographic from Microsoft:

Then,  if you think your friends who are parents or just your parents could do with some techy help, (my generous help desk services only stretching so far..) pootle over and check out this useful teachparentstech site from Google:

Comedy Gold: Technology - The One Ronnie style

Traditions are the things that make Christmas, random things that over the years have become part of family expected and part and parcel of the season for one reason or another: fighting with my Mum to get to the purple Quality Street sweets first, Terry's Chocolate Oranges (and just where can you buy the plain ones this year??),  my brother and I smuggling that random satsuma Father Christmas always put in our stockings back into the fruit dish, and The Two Ronnies on TV or DVD to chuckle at.   I remember one year my Dad and I laughing 'til our sides hurt over a sketch in a 20 something years of the Two Ronnies show entitled the Plumstead Ladies Male Voice Choir. Scriptwriting genius. Just one raised eyebrow for hours afterwards was enough to set us off all over again. I'm sure a glass of port or two helped but....



Sadly Ronnie Barker is no longer around but I am delighted that Ronnie Corbett is still working and making me laugh with his fabulous One Ronnie show on the BBC.

Thanks to my old colleagues at Hyper for sharing this genius sketch, technology explained, Ronnie style.

Mr Corbett,  you are a legend. There's a certain irony that possibly the best tech sketch I have seen all year comes from someone who has just celebrated their 80th birthday. 



And if like me, you believe that there's no such thing as too much comic genius, here's a Plumstead Ladies-esque take on Songs of Praise too. I love, love, love smart observation and great writing.



Happy Christmas. May it be full of fun and laughter.

Meerkat moves into documentaries

Where is this brilliant compare the meerkat/ market campaign going next? After the recent book launch, now it appears Aleksandr the media-mogul is moving into documentary making, the clip below providing a nice round up of the ATL activity over the last two years and teasing of things to come on December 30th. Will Meerkovo become as famous a fictional place as Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross?

Everything they do with this campaign just makes me smile. Nice attention to detail as ever. Enjoy.