Run on Toast

The Christmas post

Yep, it's Christmas, and we've got a whole sackful of goodies for you in this jam-packed post - it's positively stuffed with festive frivolity.

So, Agency Christmas Cards eh? Yep, pretty much every agency does one and as any creative who's worked on the brief will tell you, it's incredibly difficult to get right. It's probably the most subjective piece of work we ever do (there's no more difficult client than yourself), and there are endless pitfalls to navigate - from budgets to general crapness.

But thankfully, this year a number of great Agency Christmas Cards have made it through the winter wilderness and emerged as rather special little things indeed. Here are a few lovely ones in no particular order:

Ogilvy - Let It Snow

The first of two iPhone apps in the list. Brilliant in its simplicity, it overlays a lovely snow fall on your iPhone camera, so when you take a pic, it looks like it's snowing. Shame it misses the vast majority of people who don't have iPhones.

Mother - $10,000 Honest Spam

An idea we toyed with - give away the Christmas Card budget. Nice twist with the Nigerian Spam, and a terrific ending too - it could so easily have been uber cheesy. But pulled off beautifully. What more would you expect from a fellow Agency of the Decade. ;)

AKQA - Resotweetion

Best use of twitter for an agency Christmas card I've seen this year (also the only one, but don't let that put you off). Uses tweets tagged with #NewYearsResolution to sing Auld Lang Syne. Simple and sweet.

Agency Republic - A Way to a Manger

The second iPhone app card - this time only for the 3GS. You tell it your address and when you hold up your camera, it'll put a shining star above your house to help you find your way home. Not only one of the best cards I've seen this year, but one of the best cards I've seen ever. Visit Republic's site to watch the cute video too.

Duffy & Shanley - How to do the agency holiday card

Ok, so we've all seen Xtranormal by now. And we've seen "what happens in an agency" stuff before. But this is pretty much exactly the conversation that takes place whenever the Agency Christmas Card brief comes in. Made me giggle anyway.

Rebel - Jack Bauer Interrogates Santa

Incredibly well re-edited 24 thingy. I don't watch 24, but this is incredibly good.

Jenny & Keira - Duct Tape Angel

Best student card we saw this year. Great stuff girls.

ViceLand - SO MANY SANTAS

 

There are aren't there. Ok, not technically a Christmas card, but it's terribly fun.

Rapier - Animals in Santa Hats

 

Bucking the digital trend, we might be the only agency in the whole world not to make an online Christmas Card. Instead, we made a little hardback book - a collection of our favourite fauna in holiday headgear. Nothing particularly marketing- or advertising-related here - just a book of pure, unadulterated holiday happiness. There might be a few left, so if you want one, just drop us a line.

Right - enough of that. I'm off to stuff myself full of crackers and pull a turkey. Merry Christmas everyone and all the best for 2010!

The Word Monkey

Data visualisation rules

 

This is a subject getting increasing conversation time on various blogs. One of the consistent challenges is to avoid visualisation for the sake of it.

In thinking about our rule set I like very much Manuel Lima's information visualisation manifesto:

1. "Form follows function
2. Start with a question
3. Interactivity is key
4. Cite your source
5. The power of narrative
6. Do not glorify aesthetics
7. Look for relevancy
8. Embrace time
9. Aspire to knowledge
10. Avoid gratuitous visualisations"

However in avoiding Lima's points 6 & 10 Edward R Tufte is still the authoritative source. Below is Tufte's own manifesto quoted from his excellent book page 13 - the second bullet encapsulates it all really.

"Excellence in statistical graphics consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision and efficiency. Graphical displays should

• show the data
• induce the viewer to think about the substance rather than about methodology, graphic design, the technology of graphic production, or something else
• avoid distorting what the data have to say
• present many numbers in a small space
• make large data sets coherent
• encourage the eye to compare different pieces of data
• reveal the data at several levels of detail, from a broad overview to the fine structure
• serve a reasonably clear purpose: description, exploration, tabulation or decoration
• be closely integrated with the statistical and verbal descriptions of a data set.

Graphics reveal data".

The image above is one of my favourites from his fantastic collection of visualisations - Napoleon's march into Russia. The brown line is proportionate in size to his army as he begins his campaign. The advance of the army is shown across a map of Russia. The black line is Napoleon's retreat with date and temperature plotted - revealing with great articulation the human tragedy.

Evidence Based Marketing

 
 One of the trends I like to follow is how marketing is changing as a profession. 

The rise of digital with its clear measurability and the recessionary climate has dragged everyone's attention back to accountability.

I believe we are seeing unswerving adherence to practitioner expertise, particularly around the art of branding, starting to give way to a more evidenced based approach. This is also evident in other professions, most notably medicine. (See Ian Avers excellent book - Super Crunchers).

Of course the very best marketers have always used customer intelligence in all its guises but in my experience these kinds of practitioners are the rare exception.

In support of my belief Marketing Week's recent article Marketers make intelligence choice makes reassuring reading. The piece sites a recent Forrester report which claims that the future ranks of chief marketing officers will come from the "customer intelligence" division of the business.

Eat, drink and watch telly...

Hello all. In case you hadn't noticed, it's Christmas. And I really rather liked the Xmas tree that appeared in our reception the other day:

I've just been told it's the first piece of Point Of Sale ever produced by Rapier. And if you recognise the tree image that's because it's being used everywhere at the minute.

Top work from Griff, Matt and the studio legends.

In other news, Angus and I have been eating Baconnaise - the ultimate bacon flavoured spread - this morning. 

 

It tastes like recooked bacon (as you'd get in a shop-bought sandwich), but has the texture of mayonnaise. It's just bizarre. And not as wholly horrific as it sounds.

Anyway, I'm off to see what other meat based condiments I can get my hands on.

Merry Christmas! The Word Monkey

Being creative with data - IPA event

Link to a recent IPA event I helped to organise. Thanks again to all those who participated.

I just called to say, 'nice suntan'...

Those intriguing bods at Skype have put a guy called Rob in the middle of a Spanish desert, with a phone box...

Check out the site, built by The Viral Factory, here: http://phoneboxexperiment.com/ - watch the intro video, and then you'll see a live feed where you can watch Rob on the phone, all day, every day.

Call him if yourself if you like: +34 951 055 675 (you're supposed to use Skype, but any phone will work)

If this feels oddly voyeuristic in a sickening 'Reality TV' way, that's because it is. But for some reason it's oddly watchable. Perhaps it's because his one-sided chats prompt you to fill in the gaps yourself and in some way feel part of the conversation.

I also think it says something about the credibility of the Skype brand that I wasn’t even cynical about this for a second. If they couldn’t have done it, they wouldn’t have faked it.

Cheers to Hello You Creatives for the heads up.

Love as always,

The Word Monkey

'Building' brands...

You know when you see something that makes you all happy inside?

 

Yes, it's Muji Lego. I think I'm in heaven.

todayandtommorrow.net explain it best:

"Inside the boxes you’ll find the classic LEGO bricks but also a few sheets of paper. No big deal. But when you also have the right punch hole tool, you can combine both to create something new."

The interesting bit for me is that I never would've expected these two companies to team up like this. But it just sort of works. Like, why didn't they think of this sooner?

Can you think of any other unusual brand partnerships that just work?

We are...

You may have seen our ad in the Evening Standard yesterday. If not, it's going to be in Campaign tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing what the industry has to say about them. Judgement by your peers is always tricky...

(Yes, we've spotted the typos and they'll be fixed! *Can't be perfect all the time*)

Do You Get Value from Sharing Your Data

 

Clearly this is a rhetorical question.

One of the constant themes that interests me is the value consumers receive in exchange for providing their personal information to large brands.

A few companies aside, evidence would suggest that the value exchange is stacked in favour of the Big Brands.

This asymmetry takes many forms - most commonly:

• Repeating your details multiple times when you call the contact centre
• Spamming / Junk-mailing you with inappropriate offers that you have failed to respond to time and time again
• Etc

Those brands that will be successful in the future get the following:

• How you use your customer's data is part of the brand promise - this goes beyond simple security and appropriate use
• Through demonstration not declaration there needs to be a clear value exchange for supplying your personal details
• Finding ways that customer data can be applied to help them manage their service with you rather than just for your company's benefit

What's provoked my latest tirade?

I called my mortgage provider. At first the voice recognition software was excellent, far better than fighting through a push button IVR system, only to have to repeat every single detail to the agent in Mumbai!

Having a Pop...

So NABS are hosting their annual "Sounds Familiar Music Quiz" on 2nd Dec 2009. And at £600 a team (includes entry to the post-quiz disco, of course), it should be a fairly successful fundraising event for them.

Better still, Christian & Andy over at DDB have come up with this terrific little campaign to get more teams to take part:

Luckily, there'll be a drum solo round.

I don't think you're allowed to sleep over at Jerusalem Bar though.

Great line. I think this might be my favourite one.

Lovely Art Direction. Glad they're having a pop at themselves too.

Everybody loves cheese. Especially song cheese. A DLKW specialty.

 

There's something a little bitter about this one. I like it.

The campaign seems to be getting a lot of blog coverage. Which, even if it wasn't intended, is a great way to amplify the tiny budget NABs will have had. Though I'm surprised it didn't provide a link to the facebook event, which is decidedly lacking in attendees at the moment. Why many creatives don't think about these things is beyond me.

Now for the big question. Will Rapier be taking part? Well, there's a pretty diverse range of music playing in the Creative Dept right now - on one side, we have Lily Allen and MGMT, while on the other we have some classic Queen and Phil Collins. I prefer a bit of 80s cheese myself. So we might have quite a team already. Stay tuned folks.

Love as always,
The Word Monkey

P.S. Sorry about the awful punnage in the headline. But it made me smile.