I’m not a cynic, but I’m afraid this simplistic, schmaltzy piece from Coca Cola definitely left me cold.
In the latest Open Happinessinstallation from the company, they set out to break down barriers and create a moment of connection between two nations, India and Pakistan. Their Small World machines, located in what appear to be shopping centres, allowed people on both sides of the border to connect in real-time, touching hands and drawing symbols together to unlock a free Coca Cola can.
The idea is to “unite” the two nations and bring them together:
We are all idiots, if only we’d realised the path to world peace was so simple …
I’ve never been a Man U fan (my loyalties lie to the west), but David Beckham’s announcement last week that he is to retire really feels like the end of a footballing era.
However, references to Beckham’s amazing skills on the pitch have almost completely been drowned out by the commentary relating to his incredibly lucrative sponsorship deals.
The man in the pants has made himself a brand magnet, and I’m sure that companies like Adidas will not be regretting their investment of many, many millions of pounds.
In amongst all this furore, I came across an initiative, sponsored by Nike, which I think may well have found the Beckham of the future.
The Chance was launched in 2010 and saw scouts travel to 55 countries to watch 150,000 football players in action with Facebook the platform to spread the word and create a buzz. Just 100 players made it through to the Global Finals, where they put their game on the line to compete for 16 places on a once-in-a-lifetime training tour.
Great engagement don’t you think? Grass roots, global reach, social media …
Have a look at the film and see if you can pick the next footballer to become the richest athlete on the planet:
It’s been a hell of a week at work and I have finally made it to Friday feeling like what I can only describe as a wet rag.
If anyone else is crawling, I have come across a gadget which could just have made our lives a little easier.
The Livescribe Echo Smartpen is not just a pen. Rather like one of those James Bond accessories it is much, much more.
Not only does it let you to record audio while you’re taking notes, it allows you to save and share interactive notes to your computer, iPad or iPhone via a micro-USB connector that also enables you to recharge your pen.
And the memory storage holds a whopping 400 or 800 hours of recorded audio, depending on the model.
Talk about multi-tasking – I could have been thinking about an agenda out loud for one of my many meeting whilst writing comments on a contract.
Knowing my brain though, I’m not sure whether I could deal with all that. Have a look at the demonstration and see if you agree:
Everyone here at UA was very excited when lovely Oliver Jackson-Cohen landed the leading role of Jonathan Harker in NBC’s new drama series based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
And they have just brought out a first-look trailer to whet our appetites:
In this take on the classic story, Count Dracula poses as an American entrepreneur who wants to bring modern science to Victorian society, but secretly hopes to take revenge on those who cursed him with immortality centuries earlier.
I have to say it all bears very little resemblance to the original plot of the novel, but it looks like good fun and just the sort of thing we need on our screens as the weather starts to turn colder and winter sets in.
The soft drinks brand 7Up came up with the brilliant guerrilla marketing idea of placing a “vending machine” made entirely of ice in the middle of a Buenos Aires street where, unlike here, it is hot. As the ice surrounding the cans melted, passers-by could grab a free drink.
There was of course a whole social media element round the stunt, with fans of the drink invited to place bets on Twitter as to when the last can would fall from the ice. The winner received a free six pack of 7-Up.
When I was old enough to know better, I put myself through The Silence of the Lambs. It took me months to shake off the terror I felt watching Hannibal Lecter in that cinema.
And now, some 12 years later, I think I might be foolish enough to go through all that again. NBC’s thriller Hannibal is coming to our screens tonight at 10pm on Sky Living HD.
The series focuses on the growing relationship between FBI special investigator Will Graham and Dr Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist destined to become Graham’s most cunning enemy. And we, the poor audience, all know what danger he is in ….
Will Graham is played by Hugh Dancy and his trusting regard for Lecter was brilliant to watch in the sneak preview I got my hands on.
Definitely not for the faint-hearted, but if you can steel yourself, worth a watch as it has had rave reviews in America where they have seen the first 4 episodes already.
It’s my birthday today, and I’m wondering whether anyone will give me a phone that changes shape when someone calls me.
MorePhone is being developed by researchers at Queen’s University in Ontario.
It is a smartphone made of thin, flexible electronic plastic, and sandwiched beneath the display screen are a number of shape memory alloy wires which allow the phone to curl its entire body, or up to three individual corners.
Each corner can be tailored to convey a particular message. For example, you could set the top right corner of the MorePhone to bend when receiving a text message, and the bottom right when receiving an email. Rather fabulously, corners can also repeatedly bend up and down to convey messages of greater urgency. Like waving!
At the moment it is still a prototype, but you can bet in about 5 years we will all be carrying thin, paper-like mobile devices that flap around ….
I’ve written about Google Glass (the augmented reality glasses apparently due out next year) before, and was intrigued to see the latest “how to” demonstration video currently doing the rounds:
I’m still not convinced that the glasses are a practical innovation though – I find the idea of having information projected right in front of my eyes worrying for someone as clumsy as myself.
Google have sent out about 1,000 pairs worldwide for testing and pictures are already beginning to find their way onto Twitter (#throughglass if you want to have a look). There’s one posted by an employee which shows a picture taken whilst driving.
Having watched the video, I wonder how safe such activity is, as the photographer would have had data in front of his eyes and would have been touching the glasses’ side bar several times to set up the picture (just glad I wasn’t a pedestrian!)
The pace of technological change quickened last night with the very first Blippar-enabled TV commercial.
For those of you who don’t know, Blippar is an image-recognition app which aims to bring packaging to life.
All you have to do is download the app, point it at the Blippar symbol on your packet of cornflakes, poster at the bus-stop or magazine cover, and all sorts of exciting content is revealed.
The company has only been going since 2011 and in the last two years they have achieved nearly 900,000 downloads (expected to hit 4 million by the end of this year); expanded into the USA; and attracted major blue chip brands ranging from Nestle and Unilever to Nike and LG.
And now the technology has reached TV screens. Blippar worked with Channel 5, Paramount Pictures and media agency MEC to create a blippable commercial for the new Star Trek film Into Darkness.
The commercial aired at 9pm on Channel 5 and all viewers had to do was point their phones (with the app obviously), at the screen to be taken to a specially created Star Trek Into Darkness interface. Great way to spend the commercial break winning tickets to the film’s premiere in Tokyo, watching the trailer or booking tickets at your local cinema.
Given the split screen behaviour now exhibited by so many television viewers these days, I think Blippar have taken the next logical step.
I was in Selfridges on Oxford Street this morning at 7.30am with Lily for a photoshoot in aid of the new BlackBerry Q10 launch. If you want to get your hands on the latest model you have to rush off to a Selfridges as the phone is being sold exclusively in their stores this weekend before general release.
Being a tech-lover I was very impressed – all the features of a bang up-to-date smartphone with the BlackBerry keyboard. Most smartphones have touch-screen keypads only and I really enjoyed being able to type properly when I had a go. Much more like a teeny tiny mobile computer than a phone.
Lily sees BlackBerry as a natural partner given her involvement in Impossible.com, so we had a good morning.
Here’s a picture of Lily and the phone both looking beautiful!
Something heart-warming and positive for Monday morning …
UA client Lily Cole is a woman of many talents and I have decided that her latest venture truly defines her as the “Renaissance woman” for our era.
Lily is developing a site called Impossible.com. It is a site which will enable users to meet and help each other. You will be able to post requests (for example, “I need a lift to the station”), and anyone in your local network can offer to help. What makes the site different from others is the emphasis on giving, rather than bartering.
As Lily says doing things for free is a powerful social force. It creates bonds between people, which is why I set up this social network, Impossible, to create a gift economy. I mean, how unintuitive is it that society can be paralysed by our economic situation when we all have time and skills to offer?
I admire her optimism in this world where commentators warn that isolation in front of a computer screen is the fate of the human race. It’s a brilliant way to be part of your community and I am sure it will succeed.
I’ve mentioned before that Henry Cavill is set to wow us this summer as Superman in Man of Steel, and here is another sneak preview to whet our appetites.
If the weather collapses we can console ourselves with a trip to the cinema where it will be warm, dry and very exciting!
My friends at Hoot have been weaving their online magic again and this time for the mobile network giffgaff.
What better way to spread the word about their online SIM-only service than a web series?
Called The Chaos, with the slogan Life’s better out of contract, the series follows a band who are signed to a record label that ultimately destroys their independent spirit.
And this motley bunch includes UA’s very own Dan Renton Skinner as Dougie the band’s manager.
It’s very funny, there are 5 episodes and you can watch them all on giffgaff’s dedicated site, or have a look at episode 1 here:
I’m off on holiday this week, but thought I’d leave you with a good news story from UA.
Our client list is long and varied, and the UA website is a good place to keep up with all the news.
I was pleased to see that Sean Gascoine’s client Arnold Oceng is starring in The Good Lie opposite Reese Witherspoon after the producers conducted open auditions all over the world in an effort to find their cast.
The Good Lie is a feature film based on the true story of four Sudanese children who escape Southern Sudan by walking a thousand miles to the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.
Ten years later and now young adults, they emigrate to America with the help of the UN.
You might have seen Arnold in the brilliant Channel 4 drama Top Boy and the feature films Adulthood, The Knot and My Brother The Devil.
It’s not often that I write about a conventional TV commercial, but I watched the new Heineken offering this morning in aid of the brand’s UEFA Champions League sponsorship and it really made me smile.
The film ties in with the usual Facebook activity – the brand has a significant fanbase with over 12 million likes on its page.
The new content is a game based on the scene in the commercial where the Heineken hero shoots a ball between the two bottles in what we assume is a border control post. I was useless when I had a go – see if you can do better HERE.
The commercial itself is cheerful and well made - I think Heineken know their audience and have got their engagement just right on this occasion:
Right, having become a Heineken fan, I’m going off now to play their other game Starplayer in an effort to win tickets – see you at Wembley!
I’ve returned to the office determined to do something to curb the effects of the large number of chocolate eggs which I managed to consume over Easter. Obviously a week of abstinence is on the cards with lots of salads and not a cocoa solid in sight.
I think I have found the gadget to help me on my quest – the Smart Herb Garden brought to us by Click and Grow wowing everyone via Kickstarter. Even if you have black rather than green thumbs, this high-tech flowerpot will do all the work for you and keep herbs alive to cheer up a boring low-calorie salad.
Apparently all I have to do is plug it in, give it some water and then harvest herbs. The plants survive on a nanotech material engineered to supply their roots with the right amount of oxygen, water and nutrients. Very clever I have to say and the ideal solution for when I go on holiday … although I’m not sure if I’d spend the $79 it would cost to have one of these in my kitchen.
As we seem to have entered another mini Ice Age, I thought I’d leave you with something appropriate as I battle my way up north for the Easter break.
So rather than fluffy bunnies, daffodils and chocolate eggs how about the return of Game of Thrones on Sunday night? Season 3 is set in a country I recognise from our TV screens as mid-Wales in March full of ice and darkness, or as the blurb says where “winters can last a lifetime”.
It is of course utterly gripping, so throw yet another large log on the fire, get the whiskey or hot chocolate out, draw the duvet ever tighter round you, and settle down to watch the host of UA clients fight their way through the next 8 weeks or so.
There’s a useful guide in the Guardian for those of you who are not familiar with the epic which you can read HERE. For everyone else, here’s a preview:
Maybe at the end of this season we might just see the first glimmerings of that phenomenon called the sun. Happy Easter!
It seems to me that to get on in life now you either have to (a) get up at the crack of dawn or (b) become a teenage entrepreneur. I can definitely do the former but I’m now beginning to wonder if it is enough.
Yahoo announced yesterday that it has acquired mobile news aggregator Summly.
Summly is an app which enables users to easily find news they’re interested in. It displays snapshots of articles from a variety of news sources using artifical intelligence and natural language processing. You can separate the snapshots into customisable categories and it is definitely the sort of thing that is addictive and of course useful.
Wait until I tell you that Summly was developed a couple of years ago by Nick D’Aloisio, who was then, wait for it, working out of his London bedroom and FIFTEEN years old!
The teen raised an initial $300,000 of funding in September 2011, and a further $1.23 million a year later from such luminaries as Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono. Apparently more than 90 million summaries have been read through the app since its launch in November 2012.
Yahoo will be rolling it out under their umbrella shortly.
Note to self, put pressure on teenage daughter. She is obviously not working hard enough …
Lovely Samantha Barks continues to sparkle on her way to stardom.
She fought off strong opposition to pick up the Best Female Newcomer gong at the Empire Awards last night for her role as Eponine in Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables.
Congratulations Samantha!
Click HERE for her acceptance speech here’s an interview:
It’s the end of a long, cold week and I think we all deserve a little light relief thanks to the wonder of the worldwide web.
Aren’t you always hearing about how the real role of YouTube is to be the home for millions of cat videos?
I think those rumours might be true after my daughter introduced me this morning to the YouTube phenomenon that is Lil Bub.
Lil Bub is a cat but not just any cat. Lil Bub was the runt of the litter, and has various physical problems to contend with.
But thanks to the global reach and influence of YouTube, said cat has what I can only describe as superstar status with a Facebook page, Twitter account and endless online videos.
Lil Bub has even had a documentary made about her, Lil Bub and Friendz, which debuts at the Tribeca Film Festival this year.
The trailer was recently released and you can watch it in all its glory here:
And Lil Bub is not alone, Henri the existential cat’s owner used to be a wedding photographer but gave up to concentrate on the musings of his furry friend, Grumpy Cat has his own website and merchandise and also made it onto national TV in America such is his cult status.
Forget Comic Con, if you are a feline fanatic you can attend the Internet Cat Video Festival, a now annual event in Minneapolis where you can worship at the feet (or should I say paws) of your favourite cats.
This must say something about the human condition, as a species we have an overwhelming desire to communicate anything to do with cats to our peers and the technological revolution is satisfying that need in spades.
What did everyone do before the web? How did they survive without the warming presence of Lil Bub in their lives?
Art, Copy and Code has come up with a series of experiments to re-imagine advertising. The initiative asks how the modern web will shape the future of advertising and partners with the innovative brands, storytellers and makers who are defining it to find out.
One of these experiments is talking shoes from Adidas. Personally, I think I’d have to destroy said shoes in a matter of minutes they are so annoying, but I’m obviously not the target audience.
The idea behind them is to connect the offline and online world, with marketers inviting people to interact with their products through the web.
So, you can put on the shoes and they will communicate and connect your
activity to the web. Using an accelerometer, a gyroscope, bluetooth and other technologies, the ‘talking shoe’ translates shoe movements into what is supposed to be funny and motivating commentary which can be posted to Google+, or if the wearer chooses, they can also broadcast the dialogue via on-board speakers.
Can you imagine? Here’s a little film to give you an idea of just what people would be letting themselves in for:
What do we think? The future of consumer engagement? I think they’ll have to brush up on their grammar first …
My sights have been turned on China for a while now, and I’m becoming rather boring telling everyone we should be looking east rather than west for the future of advertising.
Want China Times (a Taiwanese newspaper published in English) added grist to my mill this week with an article about Chinese billionaires. Apparently the spending power of the richest people in China accounts for over 25% of the global sales of all luxury brands.
Companies like Louis Vuitton are seeing 50% of their products snapped up by Chinese purchasers whose preferred luxury products are clothes, jewellery, watches, cosmetics and fabrics.
According to new statistics produced by Global Blue, a multinational company specialising in products and services for international shopping and spending, Chinese shoppers are for the first time ranked number 1 in terms of spending on tax-free shopping, accounting for 17% of all tax-free shopping purchases.
Brands are going to have to work harder I think to sell their wares as the Chinese purchaser is becoming increasingly sophisticated with a shift away from businessmen to younger shoppers and women.
These consumers will not be relying on “luxury” alone, but will want targeted products relevant to their specific cultural lifestyle.
Will I be proved wrong? It will be interesting to see if China continues it stronghold on the international markets over the next couple of years. I for one will definitely be watching …
I’ve had an unbelievably manic week which has meant the blog taking a back seat for a few days as I wrestled with work. It’s been odd not to have the daily ritual of sitting down and typing, and made me realise how much it has become part of my life.
I am of course not alone, there are literally millions and millions of people out there beavering away sending off their thoughts into the ether. I think it is one of the great things about the phenomenon of the global online community that there will always be someone out there writing something interesting (my current favourite is all about how Hollywood films fare in in China). I still can’t get over the fact that I can connect with bloggers literally from all over the world (as long as they speak English!).
Next time your having a chat with a colleague in the office kitchen ask them if they have a blog – you might be surprised by their response.
That happened to me this morning. My colleague Emma Campbell casually dropped into the conversation the fact that she writes a blog all about her four children - one son and triplets. Not only does Emma write a wonderfully honest blog, she also has a column on the subject of bringing up her tribe in Multiples magazine (which is for parents of twins and triplets) and is about to start writing one for Best Magazine.
A woman of many children and equally many talents!
So, I encourage you to get in front of that computer and have a go if you keep thinking about putting fingers to keyboard (what’s the phrase? I can’t now say “pen to paper”). There is a great sense of camaraderie out there and as I said, you will find interesting, like-minded people from all over the world coming out of the woodwork.
I had the joy of walking into work yesterday in the biting north easterly wind. My discomfort was compounded by the loss of a glove near Old Street and I was very pleased to thaw out in the comforting warmth of my office.
Mark Zuckerberg is obviously immune to winter. His COO Sheryl Sandberg has revealed, in her book Lean In about the company, that he keeps the Facebook offices at a mean temperature of 15C.
There’s speculation that this is an attempt to keep productivity levels high but I can’t imagine that would work. There’s nothing worse than sitting at your desk feeling chilly or having to wear your coat to stay at your computer for any length of time.
A Guardian article on the subject points out that in this country the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers recommends an office temperature should be 20C. And, according to further research, this is still below the optimum level for productivity.
Apparently performance peaks in an office heated to around 22C. A study by Cornell University in New York put the ideal level even higher, at 25C. They found that when an office was heated to that temperature, workers typed 100% of the time and had a 10% error rate; at 20C, they typed 54% of the time, and had a 25% error rate.
At 15C I would think that 20% of your time would be spent typing with a 75% error rate due to numb fingers. The rest of the time would be spent making trips to the kitchen to make hot drinks.
I’m not quite sure whether to believe this story about Facebook though – when I did a Google search for images of the company’s offices, all I could find were photos of people in their shirt sleeves and t-shirts!
Who hasn’t been out and about with a dying phone and no access to that all important electricity supply?
Never fear, help is at hand courtesy of some new technology which uses the heat or cold from your cup to charge said phone.
The catchy-named Epiphany onE Puck uses the Victorian technology of a stirling engine (developed in 1816 to rival steam power) in a handy coaster with a standard connection to plug into your mobile device.
Sit your cup of coffee or can of coke on the coaster, attach your useless phone and bobs your uncle it will charge in no time.
Brilliant don’t you think? The device was of course funded on Kickstarter and I am desperate to get hold of one, as seems like one of the most useful things you could have in your life right now.
Not very newsworthy I hear you say, until I tell you that Jon self-published This Thirtysomething Life on Amazon in 2011 after his previous four novels had all been rejected by agents. After putting it up there Jon got on with his sixth book and didn’t give the fifth much thought until late 2012.
Then, he decided he really should do some PR, and after reading some other writers’ blogs, signed up to the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing free five-day promotion offer.
This lead to a very pleasing snowball effect with This Thirtysomething Life eventually reaching the top 10 list of paid Kindle books.
Not an agent, or publisher in sight – just word of mouth and the global community at work. As a result, Jon was signed by UA and now has a 2 book deal with Hodder and Stoughton.
It’s an example I think of crowdfunding and shows that if content is good then the public at large will respond if you get it out there into the wonderful world of online.
So all you budding novelists, what are you waiting for??
Did anyone else hear about a new film called Pulp?
Instead of a release in the cinema or onto DVD, Microsoft released British indie film Pulp exclusively on a games console, Xbox 360 to be precise. Microsoft is expanding the reach of the console as an all-round entertainment unit and involvement on this level is a perfect way to engage with consumers.
Pulp tells the story of a group of comic book geeks who get pulled into the criminal underworld so it is perfectly pitched for an audience of gaming enthusiasts.
The company is not afraid to do things differently – I blogged about the release of the Halo 4 feature film in the Autumn which Microsoft chose to place online rather than the cinema.
The world of gaming has an enormous global audience and is now most definitely one to take seriously if you are involved in film-making. Watch this space!
Does anyone know why large kitchen appliances always decide to give up the ghost at the same time? No sooner did we grit our teeth and buy a new oven than the dishwasher turned up its heels and died. And now the fridge which has been talking to itself is definitely getting worse.
My daughter is rather pleased about the impending demise of the fridge. She sent me a link to something which looks unbelievable but maybe the norm sooner than we think.
Yuriy Dmitriev is obviously a man of great vision. He has designed a cold environment to store food, I can’t call it a fridge because it bears no resemblance to that appliance.
Every year, Electrolux holds a global competition for creative design students with a prize of 5,000 euros and a six months paid internship at one of the company’s design centres.
Yuriy’s Bio Robot cools biopolymer gel through luminescence. (I don’t quite understand how it does that, but then I don’t understand how my iPod works). A non-sticky gel surrounds food items when they are pushed into the gel, creating separate pods. There are no doors or drawers, and the food is apparently individually cooled at its optimal temperature thanks to the robot.
Not only is it open, it can be mounted vertically and horizontally (even on the ceiling!), and can be modified to any size.
Sounds amazing, but I wonder if Yuriy has really thought this through?
How do you dust it? Can you wipe it down? What happens if you commit the sin of forgetting about something at the back and discovering a brown liquid some weeks later?
And of course how do you prevent children from keeping their naughty hands out of it? (maybe that’s why it has the ceiling option).
Although possibly flawed, I take my hat off to Electrolux and their engagement with young designers.
If you feel inspired have a look at this year’s competition, the deadline for entries is the 15th March, so you’ve still got time to submit your idea:
Something to keep you on the sofa tonight and for the next 7 Mondays …
ITV’s new thriller Broadchurch starts tonight at 9pm and stars Olivia Colman as DS Ellie Miller, who with her rival DI Alex Hardy (David Tennant), investigates the death of an 11-year-old boy in a quiet Dorset town.
The series explores what happens to a small community when it suddenly becomes subjected to the full glare of the media spotlight.
Olivia’s character Ellie has to find reserves of patience and toughness to negotiate a professional relationship with the difficult and unyielding Alex Hardy (Tennant). And Ellie is also emotionally involved in the case because her son Tom was the dead boy’s best friend.
It’s that time of year again – Comic Relief. Things have been going on for some weeks now in the build up to the night itself on March 15th.
If you have somehow managed to miss the comedy madness and mayhem I think you should give Let’s Dance for Comic Relief a good go especially because not one, but two UA clients have made it through to the final.
Coronation Street star Antony Cotton amazed everyone with his tap dancing prowess(not only can the man act, he is a veritable Fred Astaire), and comedian Katherine Ryan did some serious enormous bootie shaking in her very energetic performance of Starships by Nicki Minj.
Working with the wonderful world of advertising as I do, I am the annoying person who is ALWAYS looking at commercials whether still, online, outdoor, indoor - if there’s an advert in my sightline then I’m there.
Research came out yesterday from Route, an audience research body for outdoor advertising, looking at the way we encounter outdoor advertising in this country.
The research was extensive, starting in 2008, and included the largest GPS travel survey tracking 28,000 people over a nine day period, resulting in the creation of 19 billion GPS records.
Eye tracking techniques were also adopted to identify the adverts participants saw whilst travelling, and included the measurements of 360,000 frames for road, bus and the tube.
In an average day someone will make eye contact with around 27 roadside posters, 14 bus adverts and by taking a trip on the tube, they will come across an average of 74 adverts. Apparently the average distance travelled out-of-home each week is 241km at an average speed of 19.94 km per hour and according to the research, men travel faster and further than women.
Here’s the film Route made about the project:
I think the research is interesting, but don’t we really need to know what place outdoor has in driving sales?
Is it key? Or has the rise in mobile meant that we are all glued to our devices when travelling on public transport blissfully unaware of the advert opposite us on the tube (unless you are me of course).
I’d be really keen to see some findings about that ….
Back at my desk and fully up to date with all the Oscars news. But far away from the gossip and hype of the red carpet in LA, is the London West End stage.
And gracing that stage is a UA client who is very familiar with Hollywood and the world of film.
James McAvoy is starring in Macbeth, Shakespeare’s darkest work at the Trafalgar Studios until the 27th April and I advise you to beg, steal or borrow tickets as he gives an utterly amazing performance as the tormented Scottish lord struggling for power, fuelled by ambition and paranoia.
The reviews have been amazing:
It would be a cliché to say that James McAvoy inhabited the part; also inaccurate. It’s much closer to the truth to say that he was possessed by it. Every beautifully rolled Scottish word, sounded like it had just occurred to him and issued forth that moment for the first time. His take on the character, as someone composed of equal measures of courage, doubt and a dark sense of humour at his own predicament, was innovative yet true. He is no Hollywood star, trying to prove something. He is a supremely talented, consummate professional who holds nothing back. [Huffington Post]
You could say that he is always the man of action even when laying bare – in incisive and pungently Scots-accented verse-speaking – the knotty nuances of his innermost fears and torments. And the actor makes that seem perfectly natural in a gripping, no-holds-barred performance that will impress fans of his work in the X-Men movies and unlock for youthful newcomers to Shakespeare some of the poetic and psychological riches of the play. [The Independent]
Be ready, too, for an excellent and harrowing performance from McAvoy. His Macbeth is possessed with manic brutality. We often glimpse, unnervingly, the whites of his eyes and the sudden blaze of his smile. He is a man of action whose words go awol: he chokes on “amen” and the names of the men he has killed. [The Guardian]
I’m off next week enjoying the delights of Paris with teenage daughter, but I couldn’t leave without sharing Aldi’s latest offering (I know, I can’t help it, I just love them!).
Their new commercial provides a much-needed antidote to the advertising schmaltz which always surrounds Valentine’s Day and really makes me laugh:
Anyone who has visited Ireland recently can’t have failed to notice banners and signs everywhere all promoting ”The Gathering“.
The Gathering isn’t a rock band, but an initiative to persuade the great Irish diaspora, which apparently numbers some 70 million worldwide, to return home (and spend lots of money).
Described in terms designed to pull at the heart-strings of anyone with a smidgin of Irish blood in them, Ireland will open its arms to friends and family from all over the world, inviting them home to locally organised gatherings in villages, towns and cities. There are clan gatherings, festivals, special sporting events, music and concerts taking place across the country, all year long.
As part of the marketing drive, the fabulous Andrew Maxwell is fronting a very funny short film to mobilise everyone to pack their bags and get over to the old country in 2013:
I think I might have to pin my 1/8 of an Irish person badge on and get over there!
I read an article in Brand Republic yesterday which revealed that Norway is the most advanced nation in terms of consumer adoption of digital media. That means they are more engaged with the world of IPTV, smartphones and tablets than any other country on the planet.
ZenithOptimedia undertook the research which discovered that 38.8% of the Norwegian population have digital devises.
And 64% of them have smartphones compared to an average of 44% across the top 19 global markets.
The top 10 makes for interesting reading. Norway is followed by France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark in the top 5 with South Korea as the only non-European nation to feature in the top 10.
You’d think the UK would have been up there, but surprisingly we scraped in at a poor number 10, whilst the US was even lower at number 12 and predicted to fall even more by 2015.
Fascinating stuff and you can read an overview of the report HERE.
Another example today of the move of all things away from television and onto the internet.
The BBC, of all people, announced on Friday that they have decided to take 40 hours of content and release it on iPlayer instead of terrestrial television.
The programming appears to be rather vague at this stage, with a spokesperson stating that there will be a range of content and the 12 month trial will start sometime this year.
The BBC have already flirted with piloting original content on iPlayer with Feed My Funny. This initiative made seven comedy pilots available exclusively on iPlayer and YouTube (several featuring UA clients of course), and lead to a commission of one of them, the hidden camera show Impractical Jokers.
And last year Pond Life – a series of five Doctor Who mini episodes, was downloaded 5 million times no less.
I see this as an interesting development, and maybe a pigeon step on the way to a world where we choose what we watch, when we watch it and on what platform. I am sure that the current TV scheduling will eventually become a thing of the past, maybe sooner than we think?
Here’s Diane Morgan and Nick Mohammed in Games On from Feed my Funny to give you an idea of the format and high quality we can expect:
Why is everyone appearing in their pants this week? Firstly it’s Beyoncé in the O2 commercial in a state of undress, and this morning when I got off the bus on Oxford Street there was a giant screen in the window of H&M with David Beckham running around in just a pair of knickers.
David Beckham is an advertiser’s dream. The football hero, giver to charity (he’s donating his Paris St-Germain wages to a children’s charity), keeper of the Olympic flame and all-round good egg is keen to embrace endorsements and at 37 obviously well aware that his days on the pitch are well and truly numbered.
So partnerships with Sainsburys, Samsung, Burger King, Adidas and H&M are obviously vital to maintain his wealth.
The relationship with H&M is a new line in pants called Bodywear launched last Friday and the short film, directed by Guy Ritchie no less, is definitely going to make a splash as Beckham effortlessly jogs in just the said pants.
H&M uploaded it to YouTube on Wednesday and it already has well over a million hits. Interestingly the brand’s Facebook page doesn’t appear to have any pictures and very little activity but their Twitter account is far more active with 1.8 million followers.
I think H&M have hit the right spot making a short film – they don’t need a big mainstream advertising campaign when they have a semi-naked David Beckham running for them.
Have a look at the film and see if you agree with me:
I was having a quick look at Mashable yesterday (one of my favourite websites), when I noticed an article which said that by the end of this year there will be more mobile devices on the planet than people.
Plus by 2017 there will be more than 10 billion mobile-connected devices and mobile network speeds will have grown by seven times what they are now.
What does that say about advertising? Will mobile take over from television before we know it? Are people in ad agencies and marketing departments poring over the statistics?
I will be very interested to see what happens … In the meantime, have a look at Worldometers where you can watch global mobile phone sales zooming ahead before your very eyes. Scary stuff!
As part of O2′s very broad consumer engagement strategy, the brand offers a priority ticket purchasing scheme for gigs around the country. So, if you are an O2 customer you can get excited about Beyoncé touring here in April and have the chance to buy tickets 48 hours before everyone else with O2 Priority.
Given the fiercely competitive world of phone providers, brands have to work incredibly hard to generate consumer loyalty and this is a clever initiative to persuade us all to shop with O2 - especially as their relationship with music is already so well established.
The ticket scheme is supported by the usual cross platform campaign from a TV commercial to tie-ins on Facebook and Twitter as well as a behind-the-scenes video available on O2’s YouTube channel.
I’m afraid I’m not persuaded by the TV commercial though – Beyoncé appears to have forgotten to put most of her clothes on and bears a striking resemblance to Barbie-as-Marie Antoinette (minus the dress of course).
Despite the glitz it is a rather underwhelming affair, but then if you have Beyoncé do you need to worry about the creative?
I’m sure her fans aren’t worried and I’m also sure that there will be a big consumer shift to O2 as a result.
Here’s the commercial in all its glory; and, by the way, Priority ticket sales open at 9.30am on the 21st February.
Luckily we don’t have to go too far as the world premiere of Fiesta, the adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s first novel The Sun Also Rises, opens tonight at Trafalgar Studio 2.
The play has been adapted and directed by Alex Helfrecht who is one of the creative forces behind Oiffy (the other being the incomparable Jorg Tittel). Fiesta fuses live jazz (courtesy of Trio Farouche) and dynamic choreography into a piece which explores the sensual beauty and raw brutality of Hemingway’s tale of love, loss and decadence.
Fiesta is set in the 1920s where American writer Jake lives a bohemian life in Paris with fellow expat novelist Robert Cohn, until the arrival of the irresistible Lady Brett Ashley throws their lives into turmoil.
Jake’s obsession with the testosterone-fuelled world of bullfighting takes them to Pamplona in Spain where in the sweltering heat they meet the beguiling bullfighter Romero and a violent spectacle unfolds. We are promised sizzling choreography, brutal fight scenes and cascading wine which all sounds amazing - you can buy tickets HERE. See you there!
In the meantime here’s the trailer to whet your appetite:
What do we all think about Channel 4′s relationship with Sainsbury’s? It all started last summer with the Paralympics sponsorship and a new initiative links the two brands even more tightly.
Set in a purpose-built interactive studio at a Sainsbury’s store with a studio audience, the show will use Sainsbury’s products and the supermarket’s branding will feature within the programme’s title sequence, credits and on cue cards held by the presenters. The audience at home will also be able to get involved and ask questions through Twitter and Facebook.
Sainsbury’s describes the show as ground breaking – they are going to have to work hard to justify that label.
But this is or course the way I see television going: totally ad-funded content set alongside traditional commercials and the ad-break sponsorship ident we all know and love.
And the comment by Lucus Green from Superhero TV who made the series adds weight to my theory: The partnership between Channel 4 and Sainsbury’s allows us to reach out into viewers’ lives way beyond the TV screen. We will have a deeper relationship with our audience than ever before thanks to the huge number of platforms provided by Sainsbury’s and Channel 4. This represents far more than just a new way to fund programmes. This is the two companies exploring the arena of consumer engagement with a big budget behind them.
I don’t have any problem with brands paying to produce content as long as they are transparent about it, can justify the programme, and the production values are exceptional. Audiences are pretty discerning when it comes to content and I don’t think they would be prepared to sit through what could effectively be just 30 minutes of advertising.
The series airs at the end of this month, and of course I will be taking a keen interest. I am intrigued to see whether it will make a difference to Sainsbury’s in the battle between the big supermarkets for customer loyalty and if so, how will the other retailers compete?
I wouldn’t immediately associate the Guardian newspaper with a luxury brand website but I noticed yesterday that the publication has developed a partnership with Nowness.com.
Nowness is the editorially independent website of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and apparently serves as a daily resource for the culturally curious by premièring inspiring stories from the forefront of contemporary culture and global lifestyle, (in both English and Chinese interestingly). The Guardian’s role in the partnership involves choosing and hosting any Nowness.com’s videos it considers of interest to subscribers of the paper’s website.
I’m intrigued by this relationship. Whatever it claims, surely Nowness can’t be entirely independent, and what does it say about the Guardian’s readership? No longer a left-wing view of the world but champagne socialism running riot?
The commercial model for the venture is based on revenue from pre-roll ads to be split 50/50 between the parties.
The first video to feature on the Guardian’s site is a film shot by fashion photographer and filmmaker Jacob Sutton in the resort of Tignes featuring snowboarder William Hughes careering down the snow-covered French slopes in a bespoke LED-encrusted suit.
I discovered that the video isn’t exactly new – it’s been around for a year and here it is on Youtube:
Sorry Guardian and Nowness I think you are going to have to do better than that …
It may be the end of January, and I was able to go outside without thermal gloves this morning, but I definitely still feel winter-bound and in need of some comedy to take my mind off what I always think of as the bottom of the year.
Luckily Ricky Gervais might just have come to my rescue with his new series Derek starting tonight on Channel 4.
Filmed in a mockumentary style, it is written, directed and stars Ricky and features great performances from Karl Pilkington, Kerry Godliman, Ashley McGuire and David Earl.
Set in an old people’s home, the series centres around the care worker Derek, and portrays the home’s staff and residents as unhappy outsiders disadvantaged, excluded and unwanted by mainstream society. There’s an interesting interview and behind the scenes film on the Channel 4 website.
Yet again we see Ricky Gervais confronting issues that are often considered outside the realms of the conventionally acceptable. I like the fact that he pushes boundaries and makes the viewer uncomfortable – he is still the enfant terrible of the comedy world.
So, 10pm tonight on Channel 4. In the meantime here’s a little teaser:
He’s a keen lover of classic plays, but lives too far from any metropolis to make theatre-going a routine pleasure.
Luckily he embraces all things technological, and has recently found the perfect way to enjoy award-winning productions.
Not only can you experience theatre in cinemas. Now, thanks to Digital Theatre, you can download productions to your desktop, iPad, or stream to your TV if you happen to own a Samsung Smart TV app (I can guess which television my parents will be buying next …)
UA client Hattie Morahan recently wowed audiences with her award-winning performance as Nora in the Young Vic production of A Doll’s House directed by Carrie Cracknell and with Music by Stuart Earl.
Such was the furore surrounding the play that it was sold out, and for many reading about the awards was all they got to see of the production.
Luckily it is returning to the theatre for another run at the end of March.
However, if like my father you probably cannot get to the Young Vic, you can now watch A Doll’s House in all its glory courtesy of Digital Theatre.
I think this is a brilliant way to bring classics to us all. You might not get the live theatre atmosphere, but you can still see great performances and it’s a snip at £8.99 to own or £3.99 to rent.
The world of cream cheese tubs is no longer simple. Gone are the days when we read the ingredients and worried about the calories. Now it’s a whole new ball game.
Philadelphia are changing our relationship with said tubs by “blipping” them.
Thanks to Blippar technology (see my post which explains everything), a tiny container can now deliver a whole new experience.
Blip a tub and reveal content such as the new TV ad, recipes, and even a game with the chance to win £200 worth of shopping vouchers by catching falling ingredients from special Philadelphia recipes with your shopping basket.
Bit like going through the back of the wardrobe, and of course makes me want to rush out and by some just to have a go!
I am constantly amazed at the number of Brits popping up in high-profile US television shows as Americans.
The influx appears to be in only one direction though, as I’m having trouble thinking of one American actor over here who has recently played an English character.
Matthew Rhys is just one example of the “taking America by storm” phenomenon. After five years starring in the hugely successful Brothers and Sisters as a US lawyer, he is about to headline in a new high profile drama series called The Americans – about Russian sleepers operating in the States in the 1980s.
In FX’s new spy thriller, Matthew plays Phillip Jennings, married with two children and living in 1981 suburbia.
All is not as it seems however, as Phillip and his wife are really Soviet KGB agents, who have spent the last fifteen years pretending to be Americans.
The series premieres in the US on FX on the 30th January and hopefully we can all see it over here as well. There is some footage with interesting comments on FX’s Facebook page worth having a look at.
I was having a look at the UA website yesterday – the home page is a mine of information with an ever-changing news section – when I noticed that our annual Pat Kavanagh Award had been bestowed on a lucky winner last week.
Pat was an amazing literary agent who died far too young four years ago.
The award in her memory was set up by UA and Goldsmiths University to reward the most outstanding student on the university’s MA course in Creative Writing.
Julia Rotte is the recipient of this year’s award for her collection of short stories called Cat’s Cradle.
