Wednesday, October 7, 2009

My podcast of the month

http://wtfpod.qb1.libsyn.com/

Marc Maron - podcast


I'm embarrassed to say I'm not yet a mad men convert.

However, I listened to the marc maron podcast (of which I'm a huge fan) today and he had some interesting insights as to why it was a hit - or at least what it is that sparks with people.

1. The glamour/atmosphere
2. The fact that it's on the cusp of a new time in America - social norms genius-ly expressed, but beginning to blow open
3. The true/honest depiction of the (ad) work environment - "Seeing how the sausage is made"

Pervasive brands




I was in Seoul last week and spotted this shop. I snapped it because it seemed so odd that Samsung would have a clothes shop. Then you think about the pervasive nature of other brands in other countries and it's not so strange.

Connected'ish is this amusing (as usual) snippet from the onion. And yes, I am aware that Yamaha is not a Korean company.

WTF

I CANNOT speak highly enough about a new podcast I've been listening to.

http://wtfpod.libsyn.com/

It's not pretty, but it is incredibly insightful. Funny. And a wonderful way to realize and let go of your angst - should you have an excess amount as I do.

It's inspired me to have a go - a go at a podcast, not at passers by! Any takers?

A thought for channel planners?


How could a brand feed a consumer's public, private and secret life?

Esp. interesting for communications brands? Nokia, telcos, google?

Apologies it's the wrong way round....

Comms. by committee


What? Global communications gone mad! Didn't someone read this before it went out and go "will anyone have any idea what we're talking about".

Google street view




This is my first google street view guy sighting. It was just off Arab street in Singapore. The guy looked kind of cool and was extremely branded. Something of a celebrity; with people as anxious to take pictures of him as he was to steal pictures of us!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Bricolage



Good planners and creatives do a lot of bricolage I think.

24 percent of traffic accidents occur between the hours of 6pm and 9pm



The latest one on my street, but given the state of the roads....govt. statistics say that more than 6,000 people are killed and 45,000 people are injured daily on China's roads; goodness knows what the actual number is. No seat belts in any taxis nationwide doesn't help.

I'm a big fan of The Trousers, even if local Beijingers don't agree


Home made advertising - Shanghai retail style


This is a hand written ad-like-object for a range of notebooks, rather grandly titled Quo Vadis, on sale in my local stationary store. Some bright spark had the idea of writing as if a consumer had written a pseudo-testimonial into the sample notebook. It's quite nice - although they liked it so much they did it for every size notebook in the range which resulted in the idea losing some magic!!!

Bring out your daughters


Interesting human-fair a couple of weeks back in Shanghai. Parents brought sales material to the park with a view to selling off (in a marriage sense) their sons, but mainly daughters. It was a competitive affair...