Tag : advertising

Have you ever read Fuck My Life? If you haven’t, you really should stop by at least once a month. It’s a continuous stream of everyday stories in which people share the shitty moments that ruined their day. The stories are often hilarious or eye-watering, sometimes both at the same time. A heavy sense of irony is essential.

It was in this mindset that I opened the site on my mobile phone this morning and saw this ad banner at the top of the page:

In recent months we have hosted a few events at our London HQ. We've held a couple of show and tells, plus some panel chats and presentations on different technologies and ways of working. These have been fun: bright people sharing ideas with a very engaged audience usually makes for a good time. Also, each event offers an opportunity to meet new people, which is great.

At the end of this month we're hosting a talk by the hugely inspirational Cindy Gallop, and then in early October we're welcoming a panel of highly interesting characters for Storywarp 2. Read on for more info on these events, and how to RSVP.

To wrap up this week, here are some interesting links that have been floating around the office, and some of this week's tech news that caught our eye. From the slowly growing relationship between advertising and venture capital to Google's latest ventures, it's all there. 

These are the slides from my talk at the APA International Content Summit 2010 yesterday. The gist of the talk follows, tidied up and with quite a few new thoughts thrown in. The numbers refer to the slides.

2. The panel topic was ‘The future of advertising: is the traditional model dead?’

And so I said ‘NO, it’s not’. FMCG companies especially, but everybody else too, are still throwing millions into traditional advertising on TV and in print and outdoors. It ain’t dead yet and probably never will be.

But advertising is losing its dominant place at the centre of communication between brands and customers; its influence is waning and it’s under attack: there’s a big shift happening and awareness of this is moving mainstream. This talk asks: Why? And what does the new model look like?

There's a bit in the original film Karate Kid, when Daniel, almost crippled by blows to his leg, assumes the iconic Crane Kick stance and kicks his opponents chin in and knocks him out cold. Brilliant. 

That's basically what Facebook's could do to Google in two really sweet moves. Admittedly, performing those two moves could take a couple of years to pull off, but bear with me for a moment.

Super-exciting news today as the Telegraph’s new fashion and beauty channel has gone live. One of the most beautiful sites I think we’ve ever worked on, it’s the result of a close collaboration between the Telegraph’s Digital Futures team, the fashion and beauty editorial team and Made by Many.

Two of the most exciting opportunities this project presented were to create an environment where premium brands and advertisers felt at home, and to include a new proposition: I•SPIED, the best fashion and beauty products as chosen by the Telegraph’s expertsTwo of the most exciting opportunities this project presented were to create an environment where premium brands and advertisers felt at home, and to include a new proposition: I•SPIED, the best fashion and beauty products as chosen by the Telegraph’s experts

I’ve read too many blog posts recently about pay walls and the future (or lack thereof) of journalism. With the debate raging and being nowhere close to resolution, I needed to remind myself of just how much online advertising sucks.

The proliferation of computer software and the internet has brought many powerful tools to the masses.

From desktop publishing to cheap and powerful design tools, from affordable HD cameras to global publishing platforms such as blogs and YouTube, and self-publishing and self-marketing platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, technology has given power to the amateur and the semi-professional — the power to create media and content that can been seen by millions of people, quickly, cheaply, whenever and wherever.

That’s one of the many stirring quotables from a blog post published last week at John Winsor’s blog.

John is the CEO of Victors and Spoils, the new model (ad) agency that’s applying crowdsourcing models to creativity.

Before I go on… ARG = Alternative Reality Game – an interactive, cross-media narrative.  ARGs are cross platform games that explore storytelling in an interesting and non-linear way.  They tend to be used as a form of viral advertising, a way to get people involved and engaged in a product so they continue to support it.  However, as the genre grows, self-supporting ARGs are created which function in a similar way, but aren’t based on the back of another media product.