Here Be Monsters|blog

Finally, after all the talk comes action

Apparently, Vodafone and Yahoo are developing a mobile ad initiative here in the United Kingdom that'll enable advertisers to direct their message at people depending on gender, demographic group, location and user behaviour.

According to the WSJ.

If successful, the effort could help shape the nascent mobile-advertising industry.

The two companies will jointly develop the look and feel of the ads that will likely include a variety of formats--from banner ads to short video clips. Vodafone also will use Yahoo's sizable sales force to sell to advertisers.

For customers that opt in to the service, Vodafone will collect details, such as age and gender, at sign-up. Then, over time, it will build a profile of customers' interests based on their activities over their phone. For instance, Vodafone could track their favorite types of music or which sports they like to watch.

You can find out more here but you need to subscribe, which, I know is a bummer.

Google Checkout

Google Checkout is like Paypal, In some ways it's better.  

• It's a conduit, not a bank, so your money will never get stuck (something Paypal seems to do alot)
• It really is one-click shopping.
• It doesn't share your full credit card info with anyone, not even merchants
• If you use it now and you get money off at participating stores

In someways it's worse.

• Bay currently don't accept it
  
• It hasn't reached UK yet

You can see the promo film here. Thanks to The Consumerist site

why could this only be American? | 2

Roger was kind enough to let me know that there are Japanese versions of the Apple ads I've been taking about and so I clicked over to YouTube to see them. (Isn't that brilliant. I can now, in a matter of seconds, find material that was referenced in a post to me. Every now and then I get an overwhelming sense of the enormity of the change that the Internet brings. And when it does, I find myself loving life that little bit more. My son on the other hand will only know a world connected to wide web, in the same way I've only ever known a world with flying, I wonder what huge changes he'll experience?) Anyway I digress.

Putting to one side the cultural and language differences. Doesn't it seem altogether less authentic to you?  The wardrobe, the casting, their performances - all seem to lack the comfortable, lived-in feel of the original. And so lose charm, the very essence of what makes them appealing. The PC character in particular seems completely fake, lacking any of the appeal/authenticity of the original character.

I thought the Japanese version helped make my point - that the skill sets and sensitivities required to make these particular ads work in such a familiar/intimate way could only come from Americans. Not unlike the writing of Sopranos, WestWing and The Simpsons, now I come to thing of it.

the secret to virals

One of the projects we're working on right now is a web based video campaign. I suppose I could call it a viral, but as we all know you don't make virals, you make pieces of communication which become viral. So it was mighty handy to come across the Viral Learning Centre.

An altogether more insightful piece on what makes something viral can be found here though.

yipee

Apparently Leicester Square gets free wifi tomorrow. I can now work al fresco amongst the pigeons, cartoonists, American tourists, drunkards and first-daters. I'm actually very happy about this, seriously. Hurrah for London moving into the future

I so want to be able to do this

Why could this only be American?

I'm a big fan of this campaign. Partly I'm sure because I'm a big fan of all things Apple - seldom do they get things wrong, everything from the packaging to the stores to the products to the customer service is an articulation of the brand. But mainly I'm a big fan of these ads because they're so, well, charming.

Imagine the script; Open on an empty set. Two men stand side by side talking directly to camera. Hmm, doesn't sound that interesting. But when you watch them they ooze charm. The music, casting, wardrobe and performance, the rhythm of the language, the direction - all make the whole thing very watchable. But also very American.

No other country could have made this, like this. Could it be that as inventors of the modern language of film it just feels right by association and familiarity? Is it that culturally they have more respect for film and a better ear for dialogue because they haven't been brought up in the shadow of a theatre culture?  Or is it simply that because of its size, they have a larger pool of talent to draw on than other countries? I've heard arguments supporting each of these, all of which were compelling, none of which were wholly convincing though.

Defining HBM

We're constantly thinking about how to be different, not different for difference's sake, you understand, but different for better's sake.  If nothing else it forces us to challenge our presumptions and highlight when we're being complacent. Okay, it keeps us from arguing over who's going to win, I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here. It was while reading The Wisdom of Crowds that it occurred to me that this, was as good a description of how we're trying to work  as any we've seen or heard.

There are four key qualities that make a crowd smart. It needs to be diverse, so that people are bringing different pieces of information to the table. It needs to be decentralised, so that no one at the top is dictating the crowd's answer. It needs a way of summarising people's opinions into one collective verdict. And the people in the crowd need to be independent, so that they pay attention mostly to their own information, and not worrying about what everyone around them thinks.

And then I was reminded of Collective Intelligence by Pierre Levy, which refers to a situation where nobody knows everything, everyone knows something, and what any given member knows is accessible to any other member upon request on an ad hoc basis.  And through that collaboration you grow and develop And that rang true too.

Obviously they can both co-exist, but what is the best working structure, briefing process etc  that would maximise the potential from both?  I've no idea where I'm going with this, I just wanted to get it out there in the hope that I might get some clarity. No doubt I'll come back to it and expand upon it. In the meantime feel free to chip in with any suggestions.

GREAT CRM and the T-shirts aren't bad either

Got my new Howie's brochure this weekend. And when I saw it I felt excitement. I'm not saying I was singing from the roof tops, but I did genuinely smile. It dawned on me that I was looking forward to opening the brochure, not to see the clothes really but to read the other stuff. I wanted to know how things are with them, I wanted to see what random lists they've put together, I wanted to know if they've still keep their book lending going. I realised I actually cared about how they were doing. And that is some achievement.

Also, in an age when everyone is looking digital-based and away from paper-based, it dawned on me that there is real added value in being surprised by something in the post, to the extent that it can feel like a genuine gift.

THE BIKE LIBERATION FRONT