I’m in Canada, writing from my second hotel of about four I think for this trip. The first night, in the Wyndhams, my body clock was still adjusting. At 4am my eyes opened like it was 9am and kicked me up into the day. Damn. “Best start work then…”
First, coffee…. and this is what I’m faced with -
There isn’t much tech in the world that I don’t get on with, however coffee machines (along with most fax machines) would be on the very short list if I ever made one. In fact, I just did and look – they’re at the top.
Were there any instructions for the machine anywhere in the room? No.
Any tips or pointers on the actual machine itself? No.
Brilliant.
Tweet tweet -
About 90mins later, this appeared -
What’s the twitpic behind the link?
Well… THIS:
How freaking amazing is that? My tweet, illustrated.
To give you some background, I stumbled across Irkafirka sometime ago now, back when they randomly sketched one of Benny’s tweets. I thought it was amazing and started following them. Both on Twitter and on RSS. Irkafirka illustrate tweets. Randomly. And they’re awesome.
Yesterday they did one of mine and I’m grinning form ear to ear.
T-minus 2hrs until take off. I’ve never been to Canada before, this time last year I was just packing my bags to head of to Wyoming and still a little bit unsure of my future. Amazing to think how far and how much things can change in a year.
Why Canada? Work, naturally.
1000heads have been signed on to do some work for Nokia Canada and since the start of July we’ve been executing our first kick off activity; the N97minitour.
Driving from Vancouver to Toronto (with stops along the way) and timed with the Canadian N97mini launch, our team on the ground over there have been organising meet ups, competitions and generally blogging and tweeting their little hearts out.
I’m flying over for leg two; Montreal to Toronto. What with Mobile Geeks this coming Friday and a whole host of other events lined up for the ten days following, it should be pretty awesome.
As I type, the team are en route to Montreal and I’m already grinning at the thought of the RV pictured above pulling up at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International and my team waiting to greet me. Amazing.
Like I said, I’ve never been to Canada before. What a way to see it first hand?
Sometime ago now, some friends of mine asked VC and I to film a short interview piece together, discussing the future of the shopping experience – aka – the purchasing journey.
I don’t know what happened to the footage (if I find out I’ll see if I can upload it later), but what I do know is that the thoughts from that day still rattle around my head like it was only yesterday. In today’s super-connected society, how can any one activity (be that marketing, advertising or PR) truly claim to be the sole driver behind product sales?
Analysing one of my own purchasing journeys; I’m going to use the example of Split/Second, a new racing game for the Xbox360.
The first part, the very beginning, was when I saw a tweet from a trusted friend saying “This looks awesome!” with a link to a game trailer. It was so long ago now that I forget who it was, it might’ve been Kev or Joe but I’m not sure. Anyway, like I said, that tweet led me to YouTube, where I watched the trailer. Then I watched it again. In HD.
It was a Saturday morning, the girlfriend and I were getting ready to go out and I stopped her to watch it with me. It was that good. Excitement. I am a fan of Burnout, a similar arcade-style racer. I’ve finished both Burnout 1 & 2 for the Gamecube and I’m very close to finishing Burnout: Paradise City on the 360. Split/Second is very similar (but in the same breath very different), so this game spoke to me.
Interesting.
Next, came the research phase. When was it out? What could I do to find out more? My Firefox history tells me that it was May 1st when I saw the video above. At that point, I was in game-buying mode. I tweeted:
A few things came back, but nothing that really grabbed me. I waited. A week later I saw this tweet from Nik Butler:
Nik played it. He liked it. I went to bed thinking about it and, the following morning, I wake up and download the demo. It’s one car, one track, one race. But I like it.
A few days after thatit’s holiday time. Dubai. Beautiful, relaxing, sunny Dubai. I buy Edge; the thinking man’s games mag. What’s inside? A review of you guessed it, Split/Second.
They said:
Ultimately, much like a summer movie blockbuster, Split Second offers thrills galore, but there’s a hint of glossy superficiality to it, too. Large-scale explosions distract from a lack of tactical depth for a while, but the game’s lifespan would have been improved, particularly as far as multiplayer is concerned, with a more comprehensively involving strategic element. Yet there are few games in the genre that create quite so many sharp intakes of breath and instances of unintentionally barked profanity as this one, and sometimes that’s what racing gaming is all about.
That quote there, that last sentence even, was what finally clinched it for me. The journey was long but on May 31st, a full month from my first encounter, the game arrives.
It started with a tweet, then a trailer, then trusted referrals, a demo of the game and finally an official games review (in print no less).
The purchasing journey can be long and winding with many different touch-points. I hear conversations about acquisitions, downloads and click throughs and I despair. The modern day ROI model cannot be put down to just one thing. There are many routes to my wallet and none of them are exclusive. They live and breathe around each other and, it’s only through that understanding will we ever really make an impact.
Notes:
Modern technology helped my map the data; Firefox history with viewing the trailer, my Xbox Live account with my demo downloads and of course Twitter, time-stamping my progress. This stuff can be mapped, it’s just knowing where to look.
Also, massive thanks to the cool cats at Edge who, after I managed to lose the copy of their magazine that I wanted to quote from (see above,) kindly emailed me a PDF of the original article I needed. Rockstars.
Altitude is a small problem. It takes 30-40mins to find your rhythm; breathing, walking, clambering etc… it’s hard. But when we make to the ice, things are easier. Well, I say easier. What I mean is, ‘less hard’
On thing is for certain, the view is stunning…
The big part of this challenge is being lowered down into a crevasse. Turns out the lowering part is the easy bit.
You can hear the glacier crack and move under your feet, the ground itself isn’t moving but the concerned looks on the faces of our Italian guides gives them away, it’s time to move. By the time we’re on our way back to camp, the clouds have moved in and finding the journey becomes just that little bit more precarious.
Hold hands lads, we don’t want to lose anyone out here…
Matt Singley, James Whatley, Jeb Brilliant and Brad Fidler @ MGoLA
- via the very talented Rachael Depp
The last time we took the Mobile Geeks of London on Tour was back in September last year when we descended on the Big Apple itself, New York. Before that, Los Angeles (where the above awesome photo was taken – thanking you @Rachael).
But what about 2010? Where in the world should we host Mobile Geeks of London ‘On Tour’ this time ’round?
Well, I’ll you right now – we’re headed to Canada!
Since the start of the year I’ve had a couple of trusted friends run their own ‘franchise’ events of the Mobile Geeks vein, a couple of which have actually already appeared within the Canadian borders; covering both Vancouver and Toronto. Good work Tom Hall.
I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London are, by definition, NOT based in Montreal but, some of you reading this might be, or you may someone who knows someone…
You get the idea.
.
PS. If you’re wondering what I’m doing in Canada in the first place, then look no further than the #N97MiniTour, I’ll be joining the WOMWorld/Nokia team for the second leg of the trip from Montreal to Toronto it’s literally going to be amazing…
Food poisoning. All of us. Wiped out for 24hrs. Eugh.
Today we were supposed to walk up to the next camp. A three hour hike taking in ice climbing, hills, glacier walking… none of this happened. Instead our keeper in Italy, Dee, organised a helicopter to fly us up at lunchtime. Reluctantly and somewhat lethargically we packed our things and made our way to the heli-pad.
All of us, in bits.
The flight itself was fantastic. There’s another photographer on this excursion, Alex, and he and I keep getting bundled together. In the ‘Helipos’ it was the same. The good part being our pilot gave us the full tour ’round and over Mont Blanc.
We arrive, walk to the lodge and collapse. All but two of us crashing out like we’ve never slept. Sam, who was especially ill the night before, sleeps through from 2pm to 6am the following day. He needed it. The rest of us? We made it to about 7pm before we began to stir. Downstairs we tried to eat. Telling jokes, trying to will ourselves better. There are others here, they’ve been out climbing. Lucky beggars.
Later, the energy levels are up. Not refilled totally but we are on the mend, at last. We spend the rest of the evening playing poker by candlelight.
I’ve been using the iPad for around two months now I guess and, although my thoughts on the device have been percolating since February… I think, at last, some words have finalised themselves in my head;
The iPad is a high-end, luxury disposable device. An oxymoron. Social, yet non-committal.
Social, is the key word here and it’s this, as well as the whole damn anthropology of it all that brings me to our conclusion.
The mobile phone; hyper-personal. Unique. Yours.
The laptop; still personal, but inclusive. At times, socially unacceptable. Effort.
The iPad; social. Open. Socially acceptable.
Flat and, like table top space invaders of old, it just works. Around the home, in the pub or even in the office – the iPad is handed ’round like it’s always just been there.
I like the iPad. It’s a social consumption machine and there really is nothing else like it.
I’ve not had time to do any writing as yet. We’re here, on the border of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps, looking up at Mont Blanc after a really, really intense couple of days. Yesterday, after flying in the 1hr 15mins from London, we were picked up from Geneva and drove through to Italy. I had no idea it was so close.
We walked for hours and climbed for a while too. Aside from a couple of smashed phones (my own N86 and an iPhone belonging to one of the winners), it was a good day. Intense, but good.
But that was just day one. Today, August 31st, has been one of the scariest days of my life. Being up there, in the mountains, some 3300m above sea level, with nothing but a single rope, a guide and your friends to keep you alive. It’s pretty hairy.
There was a bit, just after that I decided to cut. We stood there and just cried. Cried and cried and cried. The emotional intensity of it all. Completely overwhelming.
