Last night I watched a whole bunch of TED films to make a dull train journey go faster. And this film astounded me. Woody Norris demonstrates a whole new way of dealing with sound. Instead of using a speaker cone to push air molecules around in an unfocused way, he uses predictable disturbances in the air to deal with sound in a very focused way. He’s a bit mad and unfocused himself – but what he demonstrates is quite astounding. Especially for a former sound engineer like myself. Have a look:

I know. ‘Digisphere’. I just made that up. Crap, isn’t it?

But if you want good stuff, have a look at the Cannes Cyberlions finalists. There’s a lot of stuff in there that I wish I’d done. And not enough that I did do. Very inspiring. And unfortunately I’m not there to share champagne with the winners.

Go look! Click on the image below:

(Good luck with Balloonacy Poke!)

Wow! This video was sooooo simple to do. I just took the film, trimmed a crappy bit off the end, and clicked a button to upload it directly to YouTube. That was it. I’m kind of stunned at how well it worked (and a bit embarrassed that I’m putting up a video of me!)

I love this un-website by BooneOakley. They’ve simply used the interactivity of YouTube to make a very sweet online home for their agency. I bet it’s going to attract lots of copyists. They must be chuffed to bits with all the comments of praise beneath the videos. Well done folks!

My fellow Ogilvanian, Colin Nimick, pointed me towards this ad a couple of days ago. (It was apparently on the front page of Campaign and I’d missed it because I’m so vain and self-interested that I skipped straight to the article about me!) This is a peculiar ad because it’s an ad about ads. It’s there to tell people how great TV advertising is. However, it seems to say how great TV advertising was. I don’t think there’s anything in there from this side of the millenium. And I can’t think of many recent ads that will have the same kind of cultural impact. However, still a nice piece of film to watch. Enjoy!

Wii started it all by making the movement of a controller within an environment a way of controlling the action. Now Xbox are taking it one step further by doing away with the need for a controller completely. The stuff in here seems pretty fictional but the principal looks good. Keep your eye on this one.

Thanks to Leighton

Another fantastic film from TED on how people make decisions. A must watch for all copywriters, I reckon.

This morning I’m starting in my new role as Creative Head at OgilvyOne.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to say hello to all my new Ogilvy brethren (and sistern). I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you. Please pop by and say hello.

I just hope no one steals my lunch money or gives me a wedgie in the boys’ toilets.

I went along to Twitter this afternoon to broadcast more inane drivvel and was given this message. The ’strange activity’ they were referring to was some Russian twat hacking into my account to promote his own pathetic video of car crashes. Grrrr.

That’s the second time in a week I’ve had an account hacked into. Some nefarious ne’erdowell in the Niger hacked into my Skype account last week and spent all my credit. Skype then blamed me and refused to give me my money back. Double grrrr.

I hope I have more luck with Twitter.

What’s Russian for ‘wanker’?

Over the last few years, as I’ve been doing more and more digital work, I’ve been regularly asked to create digital extensions of above-the-line campaigns. But very often the concept you’re given just doesn’t work online, so you end up having to move it in a different direction or have to rely on borrowed interest. Admittedly some nice ideas can come out of that but it isn’t true integration. And the problem doesn’t just apply to digital – it applies to all campaigns that extend across more than one media channel.

So if we’re to make our campaigns integrate better and work harder, I believe we need a different approach to creative ideas.

For the purpose of this rant, I’m going to make a sweeping generalisation and split advertising into the two categories of Broadcast Ideas and Participation Ideas.

The ‘listen to me’ route

Broadcast Ideas are ones that only travel in a single direction: from the ad to the audience. There is no invitation for the audience to get involved (other than potentially going out to buy the product). This sums up the majority of advertising concepts. Admittedly some of these can go viral or become part of popular culture – but that’s usually by accident rather than on purpose. (For example the Ferrero Rocher ‘Ambassador ad and the Citroen dancing car ad.) However, even on the lucky occasions that this happens, it still doesn’t help with creating an integrated campaign.

The ‘it’s all about you’ route

Participation Ideas are the ones that encourage people to get involved. And I’m not just talking about digital here – it’s nothing new. Jingles might be out of fashion now but they were a way of getting the ad into people’s heads. I remember running around the playground singing the words to the ‘Um bungo‘ ad and the ‘Shake and Vac‘ ad. Moving beyond the embarrassment of turning your ad into a crappy song, there was the Orange Tango Man that resulted in perforated eardrums up and down the country. And regardless of what I think of them, Fallon’s Cadbury ads come from this camp. A modern cliché has been coined to describe this stuff: it’s ‘earned media rather than paid media’.

A bit of a disclaimer

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that all advertising campaigns need to be participatory. Some campaigns are just about getting a message out there. DFS will still need to simply tell people about their summer sale. Tesco will still need to get rid of their surplus stock by telling punters about their 3 for 2 offers. But if the marketing plan includes an element of digital engagement, this needs to be considered from the very start and be addressed in the initial concepts. Otherwise the campaign becomes disparate, punters get an unfocused message and the client doesn’t get value for money.

What has your experience been? Have you seen any good examples of proper integration? Or do you have any good suggestions on how to improve the situation? All opinions gratefully received.