Here Be Monsters|blog

Top geezer

Had the immense pleasure of spending 2 hours in the company of Rory Sutherland last night. Something I would heartily recommend to anyone if they find themselves offered the opportunity.

He has to be one of the nicest and most interesting men in adland

Sorry if this sounds  a little gushing, but it's so nice when you meet nice people.

Structure

I've been listening to a fair bit of Russell T Davies lately. (I was going to make some witty remark about not being as melodic as Booker T, but then I cringed). It wasn't planned and if truth be known, I'm not much of fan of what he's done to Dr Who, but when it comes to writing he has a refreshing take that is more contemporary than most of his peers. He's also blindingly passionate about writing and drama and reality TV which I've written commented about on this blog

In the last interview I heard (R4 arts and culture programme) he had some really interesting things to say about structure. While being a long term advocate of a beginning, a middle and an end he accepts that there is a new breed of writer appearing that has been as influenced by video games as they have by film. And that these writers have a more episodic attitude to narrative. Examples of this are both, the last of the Star Wars films and the latest Harry Potter. Both of which were lambasted for their lack of plot - by traditional critics, naturally/

So are we seeing a new form of storytelling developing?

My personal view is no and oh yes, probably.

A film without a plot is never going to be a rewarding experience, the linear nature of film and time is perfectly suited to traditional storytelling, but that is not to say that it couldn't and won't evolve over time to include additional tools (personal screens, handheld devices, web-linked widget ), for an audience member to dig deeper as and when they want to, making it a more personal form of storytelling, one unique to the viewer via their personal choices.

It's also really just another way of explaining transmedia storytelling. And highlights it's growing importance for comms.

Just like buses. Success No.2

Thanks to copy©unts, a site dedicated to the shaming and naming of agencies happy to simply steal ideas, I have success no.2

Back in January I predicted that someone was going to lift wholesale the Oren Lavie pop video and low and behold someone has, Campaign Palace for Target. Interestingly while the video was up on youtube as recently as last night, it has now been taken down.

So, does all this matter? All this is finger pointing. It's not like it's something new. Ad creatives see the stealing of ideas as perfectly acceptable behaviour, as long as it's not another ad, of course. So, why bother exposing it now?

Well, I think it matters for the simple reason it's another example of how the changing media world is impacting on the role of ad creatives.  And once again, showing how they're refusing to adjust, and instead, continue to believe it's all going to be like the 80s one day soon.

But the truth is it won't and our job has just got harder, we now have to search for that holy grail of creativity - originality. And I've said it before, most ad creatives are just not good enough for that.

In a world where people have total knowledge, a more expensive copy of something fresh and original will no longer hack it, why else would you pass it on, other than to snipe and sneer and be smug that you can spot a fake and as you point out the source.  (Not unlike this and my last post I suppose). 

And that can not be good for our industry, or a brand.

New ads coming your way soon. RESULT

 

Anyone who reads my blog regularly, will know that I do an occassional series called, new ads coming your way soon, where I get all Derren Brown and predict something that will be lifted by an ad creative somewhere. Well today, I have my first result.

Here's what I said back in April

This is just one of those lovingly executed ideas that is so going to have it's heart ripped out and end up in an ad. My money is on mobile communications, or maybe a broadband offering, but don't be surprised if you see a car logo or the COI dangling from the end of it.

Well it's just been used in a commerical for Land Rover. You can see the ad here

I don't know what to think, really. Smug?  Sure. Also disappointed that adland has become so predictable. But mainly frustrated that the original wit and style of the original has been lost in the ad, but hey isn't that so often the case.

40% of tweets are babble, apparently. So?

Is it just me or is bashing twitter today's hot, new sport. What with future PM's insulting users, articles in the sunday papers slagging it off, and now this from the bbc, there's definitely a band wagon going around with a few more spaces to feel.

But, it also seems to me that the point is being missed, you don't judge technology by the quality of the content - have you seen the first TV commercial  - hardly an indication of what was to follow.

No, you judge it by the behaviours it creates and right now, they're slowly being explored and formed by people playing around with a new tool to see what they can do with it.

Major props to BBH

You gotta hand it to them, when it comes to grown up quality TV commercials, BBH are in a league of their own. Enjoy this 6min film for Johnnie Walker.

Thanks to a Faris tweet for the nod.

One brilliant client

It's not often that a company takes a decision that could change the way the organisation works and it's even less likely to happen in public, so I applaud  Best Buy's launch of Twelpforce. Essentially this new service uses Twitter to enable Customers to interact directly with their 1,000 strong work force to get answers.

My heartfelt congratulations go out to them for being bold. Bold is good. All too often we see companies being conservative in their approach and making incremental change.

As their CMO, Barry Judge in his blog says:
“Twelpforce is obviously an experiment. A very public one. And with this publicity comes a certain amount of risk. In my view, it is a risk well worth taking for many reasons”……he goes on to say “I also know we will make mistakes. Heck, I have made many mistakes in my own use of social media. But, I also know we will learn from them and be a smarter company about how to better serve customers going forward.”

By empowering their workforce to interact with Customers this will being the Customer inside the organisation and help create a Customer centric culture and blurs the lines between Customer Service and marketing. As Barry says “No longer is customer service a department but something that all of us can do”.

Is Barry Judge brilliant or what?

Thanks to Ben Shaw for the nudge.

Must read article from Ad Biz

The thrust is how the industry will be changed by this recession. You can read it all here. But if you can't be bothered the main points are;

• Agencies need to be leaner and move quicker
• Consumer behaviour will continue to be about spending less. Thrift is in vogue, as hard choices between wants and needs dominate family dinner table discussions.
• The trend for reduced spending is fueled by, the global recession, environmental realities and new world leaders - that's Obama presumably and not Cameron (come on it's just a matter of time).
• But then again, maybe not, and spending will go back to how it was
• Digital technology is driving new models of marketing
• Performance models of re-numeration will grow in popularity

The JK Wedding viral continues

First this was launch it's been around about two weeks now and it's currently at 14million hits, 10 million in the first  week. That's right 10million in one week.

Then came this, this week.

But what's possibly most interest despite the speed of the build is the way that lessons have been learnt by the Sony people who are monetizing it, although Jill and Ken continue to share the love.