December 2010 Archives - 2/4

The spirit of Christmas…

December 24, 2010 By Dan Thornton 1 Comment

Christmas is an interesting time. It’s steeped in tradition, and yet the modern incarnation of St Nicholas is pretty far removed from the original. It’s a time for being social with colleagues, friends and family, and yet it’s important to remember that everyone else will have their own views on how they want to celebrate. And it’s one of the few days when I’m going to attempt to keep the laptop off (Except for potentially streaming some songs).

On the note of individual Christmas preferences, here’s one of my personal favourite Christmas videos (you’ll need your sound up)

If you’re a fan, the chap who created the video (which has had 1.6 million views) has now created a new version to the audio stylings of Pantera.

Obviously the more traditional of you will probably prefer the annual Norad/Google Santa tracker.

So Merry Christmas, and hope you have a great festive season and 2011….

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: christmas, lights, pantera, slayer

The meme-ing of Christmas

December 23, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

I’d been meaning to write about how social networks really do seem to have killed something with regards to blogging – the blog meme. Rather than posting and tagging people to get their opinions, which used to happen a lot a couple of years ago, people are just asking the same questions on Twitter and Facebook. Bit of a shame for longer answers (And the chance to get some backlinks!).

And then Eaon tagged me in a blog meme.Originally started by Rob Campbell.

Bugger.

So, in response:

1/ Best single thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010.

Professionally, the best thing by far has been the fact that rather than sign-on for unemployment benefit whilst applying for every job available, I took the opportunity to try to start my own business. Thanks to a great number of wonderful people I’ve managed to secure some great clients, avoid bankruptcy, and although I’m still speaking to people about potential permanent roles in the future, I can limit it to those opportunities which are truly amazing, and that can stack up against building up my own empire.

Personally, I also have to say I’m immensely proud of finally turning some talk into action, and starting up Digital People in Peterborough. So far there have been two pub meets, with about 15 people coming along to each, plus around 40 people signed up for the old site. So with a new site and a new year, it should be even better in 2011.

2/ Most shameful thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010.

Probably the biggest source of shame has been launching a new business and a couple of personal sites when I have a young family to support and spend time with. The balance between work, my own sites (ORD and FPSPrestige), and my family is getting better with time, but it can definitely be a struggle at times. And as a result, this blog has suffered quite a bit in terms of regular updates providing value to everyone as well as hopefully attracting a little bit of new business. Plus 140Char has been effectively shuttered since October.

3/ Ad industry scandal or scoundrel of the year.

I’m not strictly an ad man, and don’t fancy picking out something from one of the bad advertising lists elsewhere, so I’ll generically call out all of the businesses who typically spend lots of time and money on shiny adverts which promise lots and don’t deliver.

That includes companies who are now claiming to be social or engaged as bandwagon jumping, but haven’t invested the time and effort behind the scenes to make it part of their actual business process. At it’s core social media and engagement is about customer service and conversation, and not pitching someone one week and then sending him a generic PR link-building request the next (It’s happened to me several times as people failed to click on the About page on this site, for example).

4/ Your overall rating for 2010 out of 10. [1 = shit / 10 = showoff]

It’s been a challenging year, and the current economic and political environments aren’t making life easier. But I’ve managed to conquer several obstacles, and I’m pretty proud of both my business, and some of the resulting efforts of my clients. I don’t think 2011 will be easier or any less hectic, but I’ve got a far clearer picture of what I need to be doing, and it seems like the last month in particular has built a lot of momentum for 2011.

5/ What do you think will be the most overhyped advertising related subject of 2011?

Augmented Reality (AR) is a good example of fantastic technology which really isn’t being used very well by a lot of people. (Looks like Forrester agree with me on that one). But I can’t see that stopping more companies jumping on mobile, tablets and technology like AR without stopping to sort out their underlying business strategy and approach first. I’m confident that most magical solutions generally fall back to a base level fairly quickly, and that includes Apple platforms like the iPad and the iAd ad network.

Technology is awesome and something that I truly love, and there are great opportunities in utilising new technology as soon as possible. But if your basic plans don’t work with the most basic of tools, then any new technology solution is just going to mask it in the short term.

Who am I tagging:

Apparently I need to pick on five people and distract them from their Christmas relaxation, so I’ll go for:

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Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: Augmented Reality, carl lyons, dave cushman, jonathan jacobs, jonathan macdonald, marketing, neil perkin, overhyped technology, social media

Lipstick on a pig….

December 21, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

Considering the current snow disruption to travel, and the fact that I had to cancel meetings today due to being stranded, the news that East Coast trains are about to appoint a new advertising agency came at the perfect time.

No disrespect to the advertising agencies involved, but I’m not sure any advertising agency is the solution to the problems East Coast has. Even when they’re not stumped by the presence of snow in winter, any advertising has to compete against the daily criticisms being made by paying passengers.

Image by BadgerGravling via Flickr

Overcrowded, under-resourced, and charging for previously-free and unreliable wifi are just some of the things which advertising won’t solve. Add in the costs, the difficulty of reserving seats, the lack of effective information on delays, and you’ve got a pretty steep challenge to solve.

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Filed Under: Advertising Tagged With: Advertising, agency, amv bbo, campaign, east coast trains

The Way of the Otaku?

December 20, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

In some ways I may have made a mistake in naming TheWayoftheWeb a few years ago. Because the Web isn’t the important element, and neither is mobile, print, radio, television or pigeon post.

Any Japanophile videogame or anime fans will already understand the Otaku reference, but the best explanation comes from brilliant author William Gibson:

‘The otaku, the passionate obsessive, the information age’s embodiment of the connoisseur, more concerned with the accumulation of data than of objects, seems a natural crossover figure in today’s interface of British and Japanese cultures. I see it in the eyes of the Portobello dealers, and in the eyes of the Japanese collectors: a perfectly calm train-spotter frenzy, murderous and sublime. Understanding otaku -hood, I think, is one of the keys to understanding the culture of the web. There is something profoundly post-national about it, extra-geographic. We are all curators, in the post-modern world, whether we want to be or not.’

That’s from a column he wrote almost 10 years ago for The Guardian. It was shortly before the release of Pattern Recognition, which I highly recommend and recently re-read.

In the book, his heroine wears a Buzz Ricksons jacket, – a Japanese firm recreating American military clothing with the kind of passion for detail which particular Otaku appreciate.

But there is a group of Otaku for every subject imaginable. Individually, each one may be an expert, a maven, a connector, an influencer. But for all the talk of reaching out to ‘influencers’ – I worry we’ll miss the society that allows those people to have influence in the first place.

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