Sometimes you see marketing everywhere…

Sometimes it seems I do little other than see, hear, plan or produce marketing. Whether it’s a flyer through my door, an email in my inbox, or a message via a social network, I’m receiving a huge amount – and there’s even more via snail mail, TV, radio etc.

But sometimes something simple stands out, and this one made me chuckle. Today at work, I decided to go out to the smoking area at the back of the building, and on a low wall outside was a pile of 20 or so lighters, all branded with the name of a local pub. Underneath was a sign saying ‘Please take one’.

Either someone just wanted rid of a pile of lighters, or it was a reasonably simple targeting of the people most likely to actually need a lighter – especially now that smoking is banned in pubs in the UK!

In the midst of sophisticated marketing and targeting techniques utilising databases, touch points and insight, sometimes doing some simple and old-fashioned actually stands out.

Earthquake hits U.S – and Twitter

As with the earthquakes in the UK and China, the first I heard about the earthquake today in America was on Twitter. Whereas most news sources will be busy subbing their efforts, people are updating Twitter whilst events are going on around them.
Great for anyone who wants to find out about the news as it happens – worrying for the people who could end up in danger because they’re glued to their PC/mobile instead of finding a doorway!
July 29 US Earthquake on Twitter

Abandon meditation: spend 5 minutes in TwitterWorld

I have just found another great Twitter Toy: Twitter World. You watch the public time line unfold on a world map. It is oddly relaxing!

Nathan explains here how he set it up.

Twitter favourites gallery

I was just reminded that a while ago, I started a “Twitter Favourites” set on my Flickr account. I was finding that there were some real Twitter gems that I wanted to keep a hold of.

So now, any funny or memorable quotes that I see on Twitter get screen grabbed directly to Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fuchsiashock/sets/72157604373466543/

Do a search for “screen shot upload to flickr” or similar and you’ll be able to track down some software giving you more or less one-click uploads to flickr.