Designing Ecotopia

I remember having a chat with the orgainisers of Ecotopia a few months ago. The three of us were drinking mint tea and lamenting the state of the sustainability conversation. In particular, we lamented how the conversation is mostly around dystopia and all the stuff that’s bound to happen if we don’t make the change.

Now you never have to attend another social media conference again

The social media strategy echo chamber is something I’ve lamented before.

Lessons from Polaroid

The first time I stumbled across the BMV acronym was in the  brilliant Umair Haque’s post Apple’s Next Revolution — And What You Can Learn From It

The acronym, Umair informed me, is the way media bankers are now referring to books, music and video. I stared at it for a while, a wry smile stretching across my face. There is something so beautifully dismissive about this acronym and the way it clumps together three very different products and industries around the one thing they have in common: they haven’t really cracked digital yet.

I work in digital, so naturally I think about this kinda shiz all the time. If I worked in BMV I would be thinking about this shiz all the time too – and I’d be seriously excited.

Bootlaw – selling shares in a private company: the rules!

A couple of weeks ago a raggedy looking thespian walked through the streets of Covent Garden wearing a sign offering me the chance to buy shares in the South Sea Company. What I didn’t realise at the time – and what Danvers told me all about at last night’s Bootlaw – was that the South Sea Company and infamous South Sea Bubble of 1720 is the very thing that established the fundamental principles of our share trading laws. Thanks guys.

An open letter to my father – why I don’t want to buy a house

Dearest Dad

I know you don’t get it, but I’m really not interested in buying a house. Every time I say that sentence to you, you finish it for me with the words: right now. The thing is, it’s not that I’m not interested in buying a house at this point in time, but really that I think buying houses is silly.

Here’s why:

1. I’m not British

When I first arrived in the UK at the ripe old age of 20 I fell for the property ladder love story, hook line and sinker. So much so that I went and bought my first house at 23.

Strategy memes and conventional wisdom

Is it just me, or is the planning world a bit of an echo-chamber?

As strategists we are meant to question these subjective interpretations, but that’s not what I come across most of the time. Most of the time I hear regurgitated aphorisms.  And because we all blog and tweet etc. these strange kind of strategy memes are crossing oceans. No matter who’s blog I read, or which country they’re in, it’s the same shit I hear. It’s a classic case of groupthink.

A branded experience (and a half)

Last night I was lucky enough to attend a Hendicks Gin party at the glorious Wiltons Music Hall.

As small small indication of just how bloody incredible the evening was, the picture above is an ice-filled bathtub in Wilton’s foyer. The taps, when turned by a beautifully groomed man in a top hat, pour Hendricks Gin.

My evening, was the shiz, and naturally, it got me thinking about work.

What do Led Zeppelin and Sustainability have in common?

There’s a funny thing that brands do. They do this thing where they totally and utterly lose any connection with the actual meaning of their names. Apple, Orange, Dell, Polo, Mars – these are all brand names that are linked to the things they brand, not the actual words.

It’s geeky, but you can drink it

How easy-going was Robert's wine tasting? Well I walked in with one of these and walked out alive. That's how.

On Friday night I attended my second Twitter live wine tasting event, as conjured by Robert McIntosh.  I blogged about the first one way back in August last year. The thinking goes like so: groups of people around the world can convene around a table laden with gorgeous food (this time with thanks to the awesome kindness of The Lansdowne Pub in Primrose Hill and drink amazing wine. These various groups are then brought together through the magic of the Twitter hashtag, where tasting notes, compliments and the occasional taunt are shared across the oceans and aggregated on the live tasting site.

This people, is wine 2.0. And it rocks.

What makes a brand?

What makes a brand?

Not a brand designer.

Not a piece of comms.

And certainly not some lame message map or brand expression guidelines dull enough to get you eating your own hair.

I’ll show you courage – part two

L sent me this photograph this morning. Apparently we aren’t the only people offended by this ad. Clearly the organisers of many a club night are too.

I’ll show you courage

As we walked through Queens Park on Sunday things couldn’t have been lovelier. The sun was shining, we were on our way to yoga followed by the season’s first picnic. The chat was good. And then without warning, the mood changed: “What the f*&k is that supposed to mean?” my friend L said.

Yes people, she’d spotted the Courage ad you see above. All three of us stood a little slack-jawed and more than a little offended.

Here’s why:

• Most importantly, this woman is not fat.

Sustainability is not your ‘get out of jail free’ card

I read Tony Blair’s “The Crisis We Forgot” post on The Daily Beast with wry bemusement.

I suppose fundamentally, there’s something really quite outrageous about Tony Blair waxing lyrical about how Obama should make the right decisions. Ahem, yeah, ‘cos you made great decisions didn’t you Tony?

Cynicism aside, I must be honest and say I don’t know a bloody thing about the extent of Tony Blair’s tree-hugging inclinations. And in fairness his Breaking the Climate Deadlock initiative is probably sound (I’m a little over the whole carbon thing frankly – more of that some other time). For all I know, he could have always been a big sandal wearing, vegetable growing, freecycle freak. I have no idea.

Chocolately goodness

To the families of all those holding their breath for my next blog post – my condolences on your loss.

Yes, I’ve been slack, but not because I haven’t been blogging. On the contrary, I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been too busy blogging.

I’ve been working with Cadbury on their announcement about Dairy Milk going Fairtrade. I’m loving it so far and will continue to blog the journey to Fairtrade with them for the next few months. So watch that space people.

This project has reinforced a lot of beliefs I have about social media, marketing and brand stuff. More posts to come, but here are two to start with:

Bootlaw – legal lessons from Google

You all know how much I love a bit of Bootlaw action. Big time. But I’m starting to think that I should find a new way of starting these posts for fear of Barry and Danvers growing used to the gooey, gushiness that seems to come as standard. Keep them on their toes I think.

Last night, my favourite lawyers on the whole planet (oh bah, there I go – gush, gush, gush) hosted their fifth Bootlaw with a brilliant guest speaker: Trevor Callaghan, Senior Product Counsel for Google EMEA who told us all about Google’s approach to legal issues within its business. Handy.

Trevor started with the five principles behind Google’s legal thinking that has worked well for them:

Twitter is not the new Facebook, thank you very much

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet.

The world, it seems, thinks Twitter is the new Facebook. Just to make sure this wasn’t a sick joke my mind was playing on me and as research for this post, I Googled the phrase “Twitter is the new Facebook”. The results? 44,700,000 of them. It even led me to a discussion on Yahoo Answers where people debated whether Twitter was in fact the new Facebook. The news results were even more charming, even The Kentucky Kernal published thoughts on the Twitter Facebook bhoona.

I don’t get it. Comparing Twitter with Facebook is like comparing apples with oranges, pizza with sushi and well, other things that don’t compare.

Feeling Loopy

In the words of the Beatles “I read the news today, oh boy.”

Inappropriate bonuses, fires, anger, deadly demonstrations, recession, redundancies, bombs, snow chaos, loss of confidence, house prices dropping, this is a period of social anomie, revolution and new beginnings.

For me, there is one common thread that has woven its way through all the ills of this time. Mankind, with all our industry, creation and development, we’ve gone on about our business in a linear way, forgetting that we can’t disassociate ourselves from the innate fact that we are part of an eco-system.

Now, before you send me into the forest to hold hands with hippies and sing Kumbaya, grant me a moment of your time.

New Media, Measurement and I Ching

Totally and utterly half-baked

I’ve been giving the measures, metrics and indicators of social media a lot of thought lately. And the one thing that I couldn’t seem to get away from is how we actually get insights from data. To my mind, the insights come from correlating the data. It’s only when measures come together that they start to tell a story.

I wanted to create a flexible tool that social media folk could use to find their way into those stories.

The tool had to be:

Flexible – we had to be able to expand it to include hundreds of measures if need be and only a couple if that’s all we fancied. It also had to be able to use different measures, allowing us to gauge behaviour, channels and anything else all at once by comparing them with each other.

Simple – The tools that have worked in measurement in the past are ones that stay simple and only take a moment to wrap your head around. I’m thinking of Net Promoter Score in particular, beautifully simple but gives massive insight.

Reversible (i.e. a measurement and planning tool) - If we had the measures it could help us find the insight. And if we knew what story we were looking for, it could help us to focus on specific measures as indicators.

New Media and Measurement

Accountability. Every client demands it, so every agency lusts after it.

And this frightfully desperate state of affairs often leads the planning department down a track of utter shite, as they try to establish some kind of unique discourse that will allow them to dazzle their client peeps.

I’ve been a victim of this desperation in the past. I once worked at a non-traditional agency as part of the team that was setting up the Planning Department. We inherited a set of processes from our American cousins that was hideously cringe-worthy. And because I was the Planner, I’d be the schmo standing in pitches telling the client why we knew that 18 people were going to talk about their product, assuring them that it was a proven science. Vile.

So, with all this baggage and opinion, it’s no surprise that I was determined to make Measurementcamp earlier this month.

How to Run Workshops

Who's in charge of these pens?

Cringe!

There is nothing more dire than a poorly managed workshop. Nothing. That’s why there’s so much pressure when it’s your turn to do the managing. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to be part of some of the most awesome sessions. And even though I’m a bit sceptical about a bunch of people being creative and collaborative on cue (a little old school really), I know it’s possible to achieve bucketloads.

Being part of workshops managed by other people and observing what does and doesn’t work has helped me shape the way I do the managing bit when I’m the one standing at the whiteboard, in charge of all the pens. Here are my top tips for making it worthwhile. If you have more, I’d love to hear them.

Bootlaw January – Bill baby, bill

For those of you who don’t know, Bootlaw is the (totally brilliant) meetup organised by the very lovely legal dudes at Winston and Strawn. Last night I attended my second Bootlaw (there have been four to date) and I guess that makes me an official Bootlawyer. Ahem, yes, thank you. You can read all about the November sessions over here.

Now, I don’t want to gush too much, but if you’re a start-up I can’t recommend these sessions enough. I would genuinely be sad to miss one. For those readers who aren’t in the London area, I will do my best to share the lessons learned when I do attend.

Sustainability vs. Scientology. Can you spot the difference?

Let's consider how we appear to the rest of the world.

Sustainability in business is a big passion of mine. I often find myself at green gatherings where like-minded entrepreneurs and activists get together to talk about all things environmental.

I love these get-togethers. I invariably meet amazing people. Indeed some of my closest friends and some of Unchained’s closest collaborators are part of this amazing, global, growing, green community.

Can you feel my love? Good, because that’s where the gushing ends.

Managing the most neglected member of your team

I’ve seen the greatest people managers crumble like cookies when it comes to managing themselves. I have 9 tips for getting it right. We all know that ten tips are way better than 9, so send me your thoughts and hopefully we’ll get a nice round number together.

Juxtaposition 3

War and Weather