Kitcatt Nohr - Blog (1)

What does the future hold for social and digital agencies?

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:07:48 +0000

According to research conducted amongst 2,000 marketing students across Europe, the days of the specialist social media and digital marketing agency are numbered. Over 80% of our industry’s up and coming talent reckon that these standalone agencies will disappear within the next 10 years, as digital becomes a mainstream discipline for all marketers.

Emerging from recession in Europe

Fri, 10 May 2013 14:14:04 +0000

Publicis Groupe recently published some interesting research exploring how Europe will find its way out of this recession – if indeed it will ever do so. How are Europeans reacting to the recession? Who will emerge stronger, who will have been weakened? Do people fear the worst is yet to come, or can they see the light at the end of the tunnel? How do they think their countries will overcome the crisis? Which measures do Europeans view as necessary, or pointless, even counter-productive? Finally, how and to what extent are people prepared to reshape their daily lives in order to adapt to the new reality?

The future of digital campaigns

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

We talk a lot. My agency, I mean. We debate, we question, sometimes we quarrel, always trying to get to the bottom of common truths and, often, trying to turn them on their head.

Speaking in Code

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 23:00:00 +0000

At last week's 'Now / Next / Why' Contagious conference, I was struck by a session called the 'Coding Generation'. In today's digital world 'speaking in code' is no longer the preserve of spies, sleuths and school kids - it is also becoming the language of marketing.

Are you ready to go deeper?

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:22:48 +0000

The World Wide Web. Oh digital womb of information. Oh protocol structured, network driven divine alter of worship. Oh what a load of tripe. To let the raging bull into the china shop of illusion, it’s a corporate controlled space where 2.5 billion souls consume, babble like jacked up geriatrics in a bingo hall and watch consenting adults indulge in their twisted ballet of the flesh. At least that’s what I thought.

Welcome to the land of smiles

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 11:32:47 +0000

So, the universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, two parents had the audacity to name their child Mitt*, and my latest verbal tapestry is being spun live and direct from Colombo, Sri Lanka – just to put your blog reading experience into some kind of context. But forget the wild beaches, lush jungle and scorching Sun. I’m surrounded by smiles. Thousands and thousands of smiles.

Now a Major Motion Picture

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:42:15 +0000

I’m waiting for the film of Fifty Shades of Grey to be announced. Now, I blush and hurriedly say, “No, not like that.” I don’t want to see it if and when it does come out. More, I’m predicting that the adaptation will happen. Maybe it will encounter a bit of controversy, but it’ll ultimately get its ‘18’ certificate from the BBFC and be a sure-fire box office success.

What are you looking at?

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:37:54 +0000

There was a time when Galileo Galilei turned his gaze to the heavens to search for the truth. Now human beings simply look down. But we no longer even care about finding the answers. We’re transfixed by the rectangular ego-portal nestling in our palm. The internal self has usurped the external world. The fractalisation of human consciousness has begun.

The Importance of Being Bond

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:24:23 +0000

Sam Mendes’ Skyfall has just become the fastest film in the UK to break £50 million in ticket receipts. It’s on course to emerge as the highest grossing film of 2012 (on these shores) and is leaving more box office records in its wake than Slavic villains.

50 Shades of Failure

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:27:58 +0000

After a hard day spent banging out the verbal flavour for various corporate entities, it was time to return to my chamber of misery. With a Quasimodian shuffle I headed toward the concrete horror of Warren Street, unaware of the hilarity that was about to ensue.

To like or not to like? That is the limited question.

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 16:03:05 +0000

Human emotion is infinitely complex. It represents the unquantifiable, the spontaneous – the intangible. So does it have a place in today’s homogenised, ROFLing, here’s-a-pic-of-what-I’m-eating social zeitgeist?

Who needs lunch when you've got new clothes?

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:33:36 +0000

Today the new Primark on Oxford Street/ Tottenham Court Road opened - and I thought it would be rude not to have a wander there at lunch time for a little look.

Victory at the Puma Yard

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 14:28:09 +0000

Last night we were lucky enough to witness Usain Bolt's historic victory at the Jamaican-inspired Puma Yard pop-up bar and restaurant in Shoreditch London.

London 2012 reminds us why Britain is 'Great'

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:14:14 +0000

Last Friday I sat down to watch the opening ceremony, with a big glass of wine and a lavish dinner of chicken nuggets, chips and beans (dinner of champions), not really knowing what to expect. I have been a fan of Danny Boyle's work for years, lusting over Leo in The Beach, declaring Slumdog Millionaire as one of my top 10 fave films and feeling a bit sick watching 127 hours... but the Olympic opening ceremony, could he really pull this off? I remember watching the Beijing closing ceremony 4 years ago and thinking there is no way we can top this in 2012.... how wrong was I.

My 90 mins with Cesc Fabregas

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:39:38 +0000

I have to admit it, meeting ones hero is a nerve wracking experience. “Squeaky bum time” is, I think, the official footballing term. What would he be like in person? Would he be friendly? Would he be late? He’d just played for Barcelona in the Champions league the night before and picked up a knock, so would he turn up at all?

The Alternative Reality of a Dark Knight

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:57:01 +0000

With the marketing campaign well underway for the imminent release of the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises, Senior Creative Jamie Readon looks back at the promotion for the film’s predecessor, The Dark Knight.

Waste Not Want Not: Learnings from TED salon

Wed, 23 May 2012 11:39:40 +0000

I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to the TED Salon at the Unicorn Theatre on 10th May, and I wanted to share some of the ideas I heard about there.

Can facebook really put its money where its data is?

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:21:57 +0000

The facebook IPO launched today at $38 per share, making it the biggest Tech IPO ever. There's little doubt that all this IPO funding will be supporting a big push into Google territory - search and particularly mobile - but the interesting question is how the requirement to make money for its shareholders impacts Facebook.

The mobile web is with us – and it's here to stay

Wed, 09 May 2012 13:03:39 +0000

More than one in every ten visits to websites now comes from a smartphone. according to new research by Latitude Digital Marketing. If you are the sort of person who likes detail, it's 11.5% to be precise. And how much growth is that, I hear you ask. Why, it's a 202% increase year on year in mobile web traffic. And that's a sensational figure.

Facebook and Instagram: If you can't beat them, buy them

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:48:27 +0000

You're in your bank manager's office. You need some cash to buy a business. It has 13 staff and no revenue. Nor does it look like it has any means of generating any money. What's a fair price? Your bank manager might suggest that a pound could be in the right ball park. But, if you're Mark Zuckerberg, then $500 million would be the answer.

The ultimate one-to-one marketing

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:48:05 +0000

Your name. Companies are always using it in emails, letters and 'personalised' marketing. Funny that they pretend to know you so well through their communications - but forget all about that face to face.

Social notworking?

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:24:15 +0000

I was bewildered by the news that Zynga is planning to break away from Facebook and launch a new "platform" for games called Zynga.com. It looks like a fairly random step for a company that gains the vast majority of its income from people who play things like FarmVille on Facebook (and which account for 12p in every £1 Facebook makes in revenue.).

This little piggy said “Slow down”

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:00:03 +0000

My wife broke her toe a few weeks ago. It’s been an absolute nightmare. We spent the day in A&E waiting for the x-ray to tell us it was a spiral fracture and she’d be out of action for 6-8 weeks.

Be Mo's Valentine?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:20:06 +0000

Roses are red, Violets are blue, Mo has a message of quality, peace and love for you...

The world is coming to where you are

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:01:53 +0000

I saw this week that the Guardian is now getting one million hits a day on its Facebook site, that there is now a Coke dispenser that actually works by using Google Wallet through an NFC-enabled smartphone, that cab drivers in New York are now accepting credit cards through smartphone technology, that New Look increased web sales by 500% by making their site work better on mobile. And of course, you've been able to manage your flights on Delta, book your table at Pizza Express (and pay for the pizza) through apps for ages now.

A useful idea

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:56:27 +0000

According to the latest estimates, there are 10 billion paper business cards in circulation in the world. That is a) more than one for all of the people currently struggling to find a space to live on our crowded planet and b) a total waste of money/resources/time. (At roughly a millimetre thick, I reckon 10 billion cards would stretch from my desk to the edge of space.)

One in the eye for behavioural economics?

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:41:41 +0000

News just in: the application of behavioural economics to social change doesn’t always work.

The Chinese revolution

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:38:55 +0000

One in four of every social networkers on earth is in the People's Republic of China.

In technology we trust. Too much?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:15:02 +0000

I’ve just finished working on a project with a multi talented superstar. He’s got turned out feet and turned out toes and a poisonous wart on the end of his nose!

The science of sharing

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:54:20 +0000

Beyond have just released the results of their research into social consumers in the UK. The highlights are, the more you share, the more valuable you are to a brand. So pay attention, all you brands out there, because you only need to push at the open doors to get your content out there. Which is sort of common sense, isn't it? But no less valuable for that.

SOLOMO

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:02:31 +0000

Those clever folks at Nielsen have created a graphic overview of the data that matters in the growing worlds of social, mobile and local marketing.

Information is beautiful

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:36:08 +0000

I came across this tool a week or two ago, and was amazed. It has all the events of one larger movement, The Arab Spring, catalogued in an interactive scrolling timeline, from December 2010 to the present day.

Lies, Damn Lies. And statistics.

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:15:58 +0000

At last, new research to show what the ‘average’ Facebook user does every day on the world’s biggest social network.

Reclaiming the ‘C’ word

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:21:48 +0000

Our industry loves a buzzword, and the latest one bouncing around is this seven-letter beauty: "CONTENT".

Has video killed the DM pack?

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:55:10 +0000

I’ve worked as an Art Director in direct marketing for the past 15 years, raising awareness and quite a few quid for causes that help children, old people, blind and disabled people, dogs, birds and all manner of exotic wildlife around the world.

What matters more: advertising or customer service?

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:50:21 +0000

Apple were recently declared leaders in customer service in the US for a record eighth year, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). With a score of 87 out of a possible 100 marks, Apple stands a clear 9 points ahead of its nearest rival. And rain falls downwards, you might say.

How to lose friends and alienate people

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Like every obsessive tech nerd, I was right in the front of the line to get my Google+ invite – hoping to the Lord of the Rings that the seed of Google would finally speak the truth, instead of another four letter Google disappointment.

What I did on my holidays

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:45:11 +0000

Evening fell, people drifted from the pool and the beer started flowing. I found myself in conversation with a German called Lutz

Instagram: creative uses by brands

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:12:48 +0000

Over the last few months, Instagram, the free photo-sharing app, has become something of a phenomenon.

Not just another Facebook Fan Page how-to

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:38:18 +0000

One of the most important aspects of Facebook, which is rarely discussed among the social media Twitterati, is the actual design of the Facebook Page; the dimensions available and how to think about using that space creatively.

Social media and The Apprentice

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:17:49 +0000

The Apprentice, like Dragon’s Den is always popular among Twitter users, with a thriving back channel of conversation during every airing of the programme. You can see from the Sysomos chart below the dramatic increase in conversations on Wednesdays and then during the final on Sunday evening.

What else did I learn at Cannes?

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:32:24 +0000

This year, it seems that the predominant taste on the British sunloungers on the beaches at Cannes is that of sour grapes. Unimpressed that the rest of the world remained largely unimpressed by the best of British, our advertising community has responded by saying that it never wanted to play anyway. My favourite comment came from a UK guru (I won't embarrass him but he has what my granny used to describe as 'a lovely head of hair'. He was moved to complain that much of the work from outside the UK was a little 'crude', and that our own product was so subtle that Johnny Foreigner would never get it. I'm sorry, but I just don't buy that. Much of the work I saw at Cannes was very sophisticated indeed. And built around some wonderful ideas.

The end of the world as we know it?

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:00:00 +0000

Closing the News of the World has brought out the best in the sub-editors of the surviving papers. ‘Hacked to Death’ screams this morning’s Mirror. ‘Paper That Died of Shame’ smirks the Mail. ‘Goodbye Cruel World’ in the Telegraph is my particular favourite.

What did I learn at Cannes?

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:14:09 +0000

Brief, expressionistic outlines of some of the things that struck me when judging at Cannes this year. I'll write some more about them all soon, including in Campaign next week. Everything is direct We live in a world where every communication seems to want to start a dialogue with customers or prospects. It doesn't matter if it's Old Spice Guy answering questions on YouTube, or Tesco opening virtual shops on the Seoul underground, everybody's talking to everybody. And all their interlocutors are answering back. Direct is everything All advertisers are trying to find ways to measure the response their work is generating: some of them are selling stuff, some of them are soliciting donations, some of them are sending people on an amazing journey. All of them are counting, analysing, learning, improving.

'It just works'

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:00:57 +0000

It may have escaped your attention, but Apple did something significant yesterday. It admitted that MobileMe wasn't very good. Actually, Steve Jobs went further than that. He described it as 'not our finest hour.' But did that put Apple off? Did it 'eckers like. Which is the reason for the other significant thing they did yesterday: launching iCloud.

Is CRM dead and being replaced with 'CMR'?

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:00:55 +0000

Everything seems to be dying these days: print, TV, banners, destination web, creativity… And Kurt Cobain is already dead.

Are you a Valery or a Fry?

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 16:00:03 +0000

It was the French symbolist poet Paul Valery who remarked that he could never consider writing a novel because he could not conceive of writing something as arbitrary as 'the marchioness went out at five o'clock'. I don't know about you, but that's how I feel about Facebook and Twitter. I find changing my status on Facebook, or tweeting at all, among the most arbitrary things on earth.

Wallpaper made on the iPhone

Wed, 25 May 2011 14:00:28 +0000

Textile designer Ella Doran has just released a range of wallpapers with a difference. It features an image taken on an iPhone. As she explains 'Normally with photographic prints, it's all about the sharpness of the image. With this one it's about the blurriness created by the iPhone.' It's a brave move in an industry obsessed with high-definition resolution. You can judge the outcome yourself at Clerkenwell Design Week for the next couple of days.

The changing nature of targeting: from 1-2-1, to many-2-1

Fri, 20 May 2011 14:22:50 +0000

The more I thought about social media, the more it has become obvious that there is another shift afoot, this time related to targeting.

The future of computing?

Thu, 12 May 2011 13:04:35 +0000

In the week when Google announced that it was about to launch Chrome laptops, I found an infographic that seems tremendously appropriate.

How to achieve great things

Fri, 06 May 2011 13:55:32 +0000

Obviously, one doesn't achieve great things in a haphazard way. It takes organisation. More precisely, it takes a list. This is the list that Benjamin Franklin gave himself every day. Perhaps we should give it a try ourselves.

Operation Osama Bin Laden Tweet by Tweet

Thu, 05 May 2011 14:12:11 +0000

I just found this amazing infographic of Operation Bin Laden broken down by timeline and tweet by tweet. Amazing.

Important (relatively)

Thu, 05 May 2011 09:39:52 +0000

Our friends at We Are Social have carried out a super-speedy analysis of how Twitter reacted to the news of Osama bin Laden's death. Not surprisingly, it all got very busy, as this graphic shows, with more than 5,000 tweets a second. That's a lot of tweets, but not as many as on New Year's Eve in Japan last year. I wonder what that makes you think about social media...

Now that's what I call a dashboard

Wed, 04 May 2011 09:32:45 +0000

This has to be one of the most frightening things I've ever seen. A dashboard of the US National Debt, that changes in real time. Guess what, it never gets smaller. And those numbers. What do you call them. You can find the real thing yourself at usnationaldebtclock.com

Who on Earth is Sohaib Athar?

Tue, 03 May 2011 16:13:14 +0000

Apologies if you already know this, but Sohaib Athar is an IT consultant from Pakistan. Perhaps more interestingly, he's also the man who tweeted Osama bin Laden's capture live to the world.

A brand occasion

Tue, 03 May 2011 15:44:00 +0000

The Royal Wedding wasn’t just a marvellous state occasion. It was the ultimate product placement opportunity for British brands.

Something entirely new. Not movies, not pictures: moving pictures.

Mon, 02 May 2011 21:35:45 +0000

Two artists have created a new way to to record your special moments - pictures with movement. It is, in their own words, ‘something more than a photo but less than a video’.

Congratulations Slimfast

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:59:46 +0000

Can you guess the top trending topic on Twitter this morning? That's right. And what's the number one post at #royalwedding? It's an ad for Slimfast, that's what, offering to help you fit into your wedding dress. Timely, topical and free. Well done whoever had that idea.

What I learned at the Revolutionary awards

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:21:27 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the awards for Revolution magazine. Aside from the mighty Snickers work winning 'best integrated campaign' (hurrah to all who created it!), I learned one big thing. Here it is: The future belongs to all of us. If we are bold enough to claim it.

Today is World Pinhole Day

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 20:45:44 +0000

No lense, f258, an infinite depth of field... it can only be pinhole.

What happens when you turn e-mail off?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:19:15 +0000

It was my birthday recently, and I decided to give myself a present. I turned my work e-mail off. It was surprisingly difficult. In fact, the only way I could do it was by turning my iphone off entirely. And that got me wondering: what happens when you turn your e-mail off? After a couple of hours, I realised that what happens when you turn your e-mail off feels exactly the same as when you stop smoking. You start to feel withdrawal symptoms, the inside of your head starts to itch, you get a little bit tetchy, and you suffer from a physical craving. How can this be? How could I have become addicted to e-mail?

The day digital laughs at itself

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:23:44 +0000

Want to check out Apple's revolutionary new retail experience for kids, celebrate Youtube's 100th birthday, or try out Google's motion controlled Gmail? The web has turned into a giant toy box for the day with subterfuge and subversion at every turn.

But is my audience on Facebook?

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:45:25 +0000

I admit it, it's a bugbear of mine. You're halfway through a conversation about using the web to get a message across to a group of people, and everyone's nodding along. Then you just happen to drop into the conversation that there's no need to build a campaign microsite, that Facebook would be a better way of reaching people, because it's always on, and it can do almost everything a conventional site can (Actually with iFrames it can actually do everything a conventional site can, and with Fpay you can even pay on it without leaving the 'always on' environment.)

March 24, 2011 (a very long way after Auden)

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:57:34 +0000

I sit in a breakfast nook/Off Fifty-second street, Excited and abuzz/As the clever hopes aspire/Of an optimistic decade:/Waves of thinking without fear/Circulate over the bright And darkened lands of the earth :

Aspiring to create the next #1 paid app in the world?

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:34:44 +0000

Sure-fire steps you need to take in order to become the company that makes the #1 paid app in the world:

Crowd sourcing - a matter of life and death

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 14:13:20 +0000

People living close to Fukushima, not trusting government statistics, are publishing their own

A transport of delight

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:13:02 +0000

A real-time map of all the trains on London Underground, created by Matthew Somerville at the Science Hackday. I could look at this all day, as the little icons move through parks and along roads. (Obviously I can't look at it all day, because I've got other things to do...)

The future of shopping?

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:32:05 +0000

It's here at last. The first thing I've ever bought on Facebook. Limited Edition Heinz Tomato Ketchup with balsamic vinegar. That may hardly sound like a clock-stopping moment, but it's the first fmcg product I've ever heard of that has been promoted and merchandised entirely through social media.

Lamentation on time and space

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:56:03 +0000

When I take my son to the science museum, and show him the real Apollo capsule, and life-size model of the Lunar Module, I can see his eyes sparkle, and on the way home he will stare at the Moon with wonder and hope. And it pains me greatly. Because, some day soon he will realise that they are all older than I am. They do not represent the future he can aspire to. They represent ancient past. Past which seems greater than his future.

Will crowdsourcing work for Saab in the US? You tell me...

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:53:43 +0000

Back at the start of the year, Saab launched a new campaign to relaunch the brand in the US. You can see the logic, the conventionally unconventional driver's first choice had just been cut loose from its parent in Detroit, and wanted to make the most of its independence. Hence 'the Story of Saab'. You can almost see the brief. 'We want to get down into our brand dna and give people something to hold on to. It's a bit like this ad we've found from the sixties. You won't have heard of it. It's called 'Lemon'.'

How to win friends and influence people

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:31:56 +0000

Anthony Fantano is the internet's busiest music nerd. A self proclaimed geek and fitness nut from Connecticut, he’s the host of The Needle Drop a music b/vlog that reviews tracks and albums that you’ve probably never heard of.

Mark Zuckerberg wasn't the first...

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:19:20 +0000

My cat Susan had a Facebook page back in 2008

Mark Zuckerberg's dog now has a Facebook page

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:00:30 +0000

Always ahead of the curve, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has already got his pet dog a page of its own. His name is Beast, he's a Hungarian Puli, and he can be found at http://facebook.com/beast.the.dog

A revolutionary act?

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 13:06:41 +0000

George Orwell wrote that ‘In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act’. It seems that in announcing its less-than-perfect customer charter results today, NatWest may just have become the revolutionaries amongst banking’s ancient régime.

Friended by man's best friend?

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:02:29 +0000

As Julia said, we can't wait to meet Miles the dog in the flesh. But as this new infographic shows, he may well already be on Facebook. It seems that 14 per cent of dog owners already have a page for their four-legged friend on the social networking site. So the next time you get a request from someone to be their friend on Facebook, you might want to work out how many legs they have before you reply.

Meet Miles. One more reason why we can’t wait to join our friends at Digitas

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:56:26 +0000

Miles is the resident Jack Russell at Digitas London, and another reason why we can’t wait to pack our bags and head for Howland Street.

Who is using social media?

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:44:37 +0000

Is it just me, or is everybody in the world having a lot of conversations that begin with 'just who is on Facebook?' or 'who exactly uses Twitter?' Maybe it is just me, but in case it isn't, here's a nice set of data showing exactly that. Make of it what you will, but it should help you answer some of the questions you (or your clients) might have.

A double whammy for Apple?

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:15:17 +0000

The web is alive with rumours that Apple design chief Jonathan Ive is about to hang up his boots and come back to Blighty. Apple chiefs are said to be unhappy about this prospect, feeling that Ive is too valuable an asset to work remotely, and are believed to have made it clear that if he goes, he goes.

I just paid with a tweet

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:31:50 +0000

How much would you pay for this album? It’s called Elephants at the door, it was inspired by the famous ‘trip’ sequence in Disney's Dumbo, and was created by an Italian producer with a pencil mustache and a penchant for flammable looking shirts. If your answer is ‘nothing’ then you’re in luck.

Can Mr Porter make your boyfriend stylish?

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:35:28 +0000

Mr Porter, the “brother” site to the hugely successful Net-A-Porter and The Outnet, has gone live.

What's in a name?

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:51:31 +0000

Inspired by the tremendous work he did for National Geographic when creating their surname map of the United States, James Cheshire has now done the same for dear old London town with this typographic map of surname distribution. It's based on the data from the 2001 census, so we can be sure it's genuine. It's based on a simple premise: the more common the name, the bigger it appears on the map.

Are Radiohead's shock tactics revitalising the album launch?

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:45:02 +0000

The new Radiohead album ‘The King of Limbs’, comes out this Saturday. There’s been no hype, no reported studio fallouts, no leaks, not even a track-listing, just a cryptic announcement via Radiohead’s website on Monday night- ‘Thank you for waiting’.

Google v Apple publishing: it's a numbers game

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:56:36 +0000

Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced that Apple would charge a cut of 30 per cent of all subscriptions purchased through the App Store. Today, Google countered that it would only charge publishers ten per cent, and that it would also give them access to their customers' data.

Computer beats man - again. So why is it a big deal?

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:58:52 +0000

IBM’s Watson supercomputer chalked up another victory for the cyborgs yesterday by beating the two best-ever contestants in the US game show Jeopardy.

Give us this day our Daily dread

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:31:46 +0000

It seems that all may not be well at The Daily, the newspaper jv between Apple and News International (see blogs passim.) According to a leaked memo, the editor, Jesse Angelo, has ordered his journalists to bring him more content: specifically of the exclusive kind

Are digital agencies the new dinosaurs? Campaign asks.

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 11:31:30 +0000

Campaign magazine, in a moment of breathtaking and rather wonderful impertinence, recently ran a feature asking if digital agencies are the new dinosaurs.

Twitter - welcome to the most parochial conversation ever

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 10:26:33 +0000

Call me a snob, but I've always had the feeling that if you could hear what other people were thinking, it might not be all that interesting. And boy does Twitter prove me right.

Everybody's favourite camera app just got fashionable – free

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:52:22 +0000

To mark New York fashion week, the amazing iPhone camera app Hipstamatic has created a new 'fashion' lens. Developed with celebrated photographer Chiun-Kai Shih, and named 'Chunky' in tribute to the snapper's nickname it gives shots a super-saturated look.

Is Rory Sutherland right about behavioural economics?

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Two weeks ago in Campaign, Rory Sutherland argued that the marketing industry “could do with a bit more hard science” to generate consumer insights. He contested: “we are light on hard findings. Most other businesses are allied to an academic discipline of some kind. Marketing isn't.”

RIP Guitar Hero

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:10:54 +0000

It's true. Guitar Hero is no more. Despite generating profits running into billions, the music gaming genre suffered a disastrous Christmas. So the company that produces Guitar Hero decided to pull the plug.

Cloud City

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:40:35 +0000

Recently I stumbled across this amazing story: China building a city for cloud computing. Imagine aliens landing in this Cloud City. What would they think of us? An army of ants feeding, tending, grooming the digital Queen.

And on the subject of instant gratification

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:22:00 +0000

I heard about this today

And what about writing?

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:57:04 +0000

Some teachers now advise their students not to write directly onto a screen

Is this shallow?

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:54:16 +0000

I'm asking you to do something we're all used to doing now, but which is in fact quite new

Funny hah hah

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:25:31 +0000

Every year, my local parish church, Holy Trinity Dalston, holds a service of thanksgiving for the life of Joseph Grimaldi, the father of clowning. Every year I mean to attend.

China in the driving seat

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:49:33 +0000

Surprise has greeted the unveiling of the new Ferrari FF. But if you take a geopolitical view of things, it shouldn’t be so shocking.

Acton- Sin City

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:33:43 +0000

When people ask me where I live, my reply ‘Acton’ tends to draw the conversation to a premature close. Most people’s relationship with Acton is transitory. They pass by it to leave London along the A40. They completely miss the bewildering parades of kebab shops, Polish butchers, and wholesale paint stores. The only people to deliberately venture there are Australians and Kiwis who gather at the infamous Redback Tavern, where, I’m told, it’s acceptable to relieve yourself against the bar whilst ordering drinks.

@Brands no longer have secrets

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:03:40 +0000

I joined Twitter a little under 2 years ago. At the time I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was simply a smaller version of Facebook. But after 602 tweets and viewing thousands more, I’ve since changed my mind.

The Daily launched today

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:21:18 +0000

For 14 cents a day, Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs have just changed the face of newspapers for ever. With social interactivity built in, The Daily will bring the first non-legacy online newspaper to the world.

From hero to zero

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 13:32:34 +0000

I am a bit of a preppy. Always have been, always will be.