whatleydude

Some stuff from the w/e Feb 24th, 2012.

1. Woman in Black – aka ‘Harry Potter and the Spooky Ghost’
   Surprisingly good, genuinely scary and overall a bloody good night out at the cinema, WiB is definitely worth a look. The only real problem with it, if I’m completely honest, is that Mr Radcliffe still very much looks like a certain Mr Potter. He’s on a train out of London and suddenly you think he’s on the Hogwart’s Express… Annoying, but I’m sure it’ll pass. Eventually.
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2. Claire Claire Claire Claire Claire
   Claire’s Accessories trended on Twitter this past week and it was not for a fun reason. Simply put: they’ve been caught, red-handed (again), stealing / pilfering / thieving / plagiarising designs from others. Not cool. Cue much deleting of angry Facebook fan comments and general poor social media crises management. Claire’s Accessoires, if you’re reading this, get in touch. I can help.
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3. Terence Stamp
   One of my favourite sources of creative inspiration, My Modern Metropolis, posted their ‘Pic of the Day‘ this week and it was this awesome photo of a ‘now and then’ Terence Stamp. Wonderful stuff.
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4. Cafe Rouge, Maida Vale
   Without doubt the worst meal I’ve had all year. Avoid them at all costs. I tweeted something similar earlier this week, they replied. I filled in their form, they sent a lack-lustre response. The result? I still feel the same and I won’t be going back. Poor customer service annoys me. You never know how far those butterfly beats will fly.
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5. Mobile Geekery!
   The best thing to happen all week? I managed to catch up with some of the finest mobile geeks (and friends) London has to offer. Dan ‘I’m building my own mobile network‘ Lane, Ben ‘Bloggers in suits‘ Smith, Edward ‘Somehow I’ve blagged a job at RBS‘ Hodges aaaaaand Ilicco ‘Oh my God I’m at an agency‘ Elia (and we had a small does of Alistair ‘GRAPPLE ME‘ Crane too).All top chaps, all fantastic friends. Much, much merriment was had.

This week I am running horrifically behind; the notes I’m writing up have been in my Moleskine for well over a week (today’s the 27th of Feb and I’m backdating this post to the 17th!) and I have two batches to write up.

Right then, shall we?

1. Chronicle
   I have a much bigger post to come about this film at a later date [read: when I get a chance]. In the meantime, seek it out. It’s worth it.
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2. SMW4x4
   Last week was Social Media Week and Monday saw four case studies given by four different agencies at the HMS President upon the river Thames. Hosted by This Little Lady Went To London and sponsored by Cloud nine Recruitment, 1000heads and BDMDigital, the event was not only about raising awareness around four (well, three) great pieces of work but there was a charitable angle too, with all ticket proceeds going to CRISIS. There may be some bias (I chaired the event in question) but it was by far and away the best night I had throughout Social Media Week: Samsung, Nokia and Brewdog all being well represented by their respective agencies.
   Good job.
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3. The Other Cinema
   Brief Encounter @ The Troxy. Feb 14th. Date night. Bliss.
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4. social@Ogilvy
   The launch of social@Ogilvy meant a fancy get-together across five pods on the London Eye. No more 360 Digital Influence, now there’s just social@Ogilvy. Champagne. Sushi. Awesome.
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5. Google+
   The second social media week event I managed to get along to was the afternoon hosted by Google+. With a programme of speakers that included Professor Robin Dunbar (yes, he of Dunbar’s Number fame) and demo after demo of how awesome Google+ can be, I must say I’m fairly sold [I event wrote my first Storify about the event]. All it needs now is users, in volume.
   I’m on Google +, circle me there.

Bonuses: Matt finding this awesome shirt, being interviewed for ‘Behind the Headlines‘ and rediscovering my love for all things Cat Stevens. 

Five [and a bit] things of general awesomeness from last week.

1. Singin’ in the Rain.
   On a whim, I managed to get a couple of stalls tickets to this recently opened West End musical…. and I was not disappointed. Beautiful, fun and very, very wet – Singin’ in the Rain was definitely the highlight of the week. If you’re looking for a show to see in London, then see this.
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2. New Avengers Trailer!
   Do I need to say any more? No, I didn’t think so.
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3. One kick ass lasagne.
   Many, many cheeses. I’ll be making that bad boy again. Oh yes.
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4. Not at MWC.
   Mobile World Congress is the world’s largest mobile telecommunications conference and it happens every year around February time in Barcelona. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend a fair few times over the years, however this year (like last year) I won’t be making it over so instead (like last year), Dan and I are throwing a mobile-focused get together in London town. If you’re around, you should come along!
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5. CALM: Campaign Against Living Miserably.
   Suicide is one of the biggest killers of young men in the UK today and this charity has been set up to combat that fairly horrific statistic. I met one of the founders this week and well, I doubt very much this’ll be the last time I blog about the subject (it certainly isn’t the first). For the time being however, please check out Thirty One – a new album of specially curated music from Manchester artists, and the best thing?
   All profits go directly to CALM. Hop to it.

Bonuses: something I spent a lot of time working on last year was finally unveiled, Bonfire.IM became my favourite browser plug-in of all time and the Creative Social (although was somewhat disappointing in the main) yielded the discovery of the AMAZING Bear71. 

Everyone has their favourite toys from childhood, I was fortunate to have a few. If you remember things like He-Man, Thundercats or Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors – then this tale is for you.

When I was a kid my big thing was M.A.S.K.

- aka Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand.

“MASK Crusaders! Working overtime! Fighting crime!“

I remember one Christmas morning when I walked down the stairs to find Boulder Hill completely all set up and ready to play with [can you imagine depriving me of an unboxing today?!] -  it was brilliant.

Switchblade, Condor, Volcano… the toys were amazing. One in particular, was Bulldog.

Bulldog was an American truck that fell down into a tank-like contraption at the press of a button. After a while (I don’t remember when), the spring loader in the click broke, which basically meant that Bulldog couldn’t return to truck mode.

This video talks you through the general awesomeness of Bulldog. You don’t have to watch it, hell you might even want to just skip it completely. However, the money shot is around 1min in. Y’know, just in case.

To add some background to this story, my father was an extremely talented carpenter and joiner, who owned his own building contracting company. He liked to build things. And as such, so did I. Lego was my thing as a kid, in the main at least, but outside of that you had Zoids.

Zoids were great. A seemingly impossible mixture of prehistoric robotics, each toy came in tiny little pieces that you had to assemble yourself (or in my case, with my dad).

What this all meant was that when Bulldog broke, dad and I set about taking it apart (like a Zoid in reverse) to see what the issue was. The cause: a small dog-leg-shaped piece of plastic that had somehow snapped during playtime. Damn.

‘What do we do now, dad?’
‘Well, now we know what’s wrong, son, we can get a replacement part and fix it.’

A few days later, an eight year old James Whatley wrote a letter to Kenner Parker toys explaining what had happened and asking very nicely if they could possibly send out the replacement part that we needed.

A few weeks later, my mum greeted me from school to tell me that she thought Kenner might have got my letter, as a parcel had been delivered while I was in class – and it had a MASK label on it. We raced home as fast as we could and, sure enough, there it was was: not a small packaged envelope containing the piece we needed, but instead a whole brand new Bulldog. Brand. New.

I still beam when I think about it now.

Two things to take away from that story:

1. Surprise and delight: I’ve talked about it before, and I’ll talk about it again. It’s nothing new, but it is [still] a beautiful way to deal with your customers. Even now I can imagine that marketing or customer care manager sat at their desk, opening my letter and thinking: ‘Hey, let’s just send him a new one. That’ll make his day.’ – and they were right, it really did.
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2. That one decision, made all of 20+ years ago in a random office somewhere in the UK, had such a profound affect on a little boy that not only does he still remember it fondly, but actually now spends his waking hours working out how he can make his clients’ customers feel just the same way.

That’s some butterfly.

This week I’m cheating again. Things written on Monday and then backdated to Friday.

Shrug.

Sue me.

5 things of note from this past week -

1. Travelling Light @ The National Theatre. Admittedly my tickets were freebies from a friend but still, it’s still definitely worth seeing. So what if the accents are ropey at times and who cares if the script is slightly clunky in places – it was lovely little piece of theatre.
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2. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol @ The IMAX!! Bloody good and again, well worth seeing (at THE IMAX though, obviously).
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3. #DriveTime – aka ‘tweet along with Drive’ – came and went. It was fun, but could it have been better?
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4. The Descendants (w/ G Clooney). Dead good.; it just kinda… happens. He’s bloody brilliant actually, best thing/most nuanced performance since Michael Clayton. Yep. You should see that too.
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5. The future arrived, via my iPad. Still learning. Amazing.
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Bonuses: Sleb spotting in Soho, covered in snow at Speakeasys in Clapham and some gorgeous MEGACITY photography up in Leeds.

This post is about the recent home release social media activation of the film DRIVE. There maybe spoilers ahead BUT I’ll be sure to yell loudly if they come near. Then again, we may make it without any. We shall see…

Drive: a stunning, nay breathtaking, film from 2011 (some would argue THE film of 2011). Woefully ignored by the Academy but adored by fans worldwide, its a glorious tale of love-driven revenge told through the haze of 70′s LA neon with a soundtrack to match.

Of Drive, I am a fan.

On Monday, Jan 30th 2012, Drive got its UK home release on both DVD and Blu-ray and, to celebrate said launch, film-studio-friendly agency, Think Jam, sent out early copies of the film out to a select group of fans on Twitter.

The aim? To kick-start a pre-scheduled participatory/group viewing, snappily referred to as #DriveTime.

Nice idea.

But not everyone agreed -

Dan has a point.

In fact, the whole conversation between him and Mike is worth a look (especially as both have proven experience in this kind of marketing). I stumbled across the conversation between the two of them after the film had finished, however found myself unknowingly agreeing with them midway through.

That aside, there’s also the very real issue of SPOILERS.

I would be gutted if someone I followed [on Twitter] unwittingly gave away key plot points throughout any film that I was yet to see (especially on THE DAY of its home release, ie; if you didn’t see it at the cinema then you’re stuffed). In fact, so much did it concern me that I issued my own warning before the film started.

Those issues aside, the ‘event’ seemed to go well. So well in fact, that my friend and I started kicking around some ideas around data visualisation that could work alongside it – yes, that’s right, we’re data geeks.

Bear with me, this is where things get interesting -

Data Visualisation around group events is nothing new, see The New York Times and the Super Bowl or before that, The Guardian and the World Cup; with swathes of data, you can make beautiful, beautiful visualisations.

But these events, they’re huge, global happenings with hundreds of thousands of tweets to process, giving you an extremely granular level of preciseness that you wouldn’t find with say, 1200 or so tweets… right?

Well, ish.

“…I bet they haven’t sold it in.”

One of the great things about these kinds of social media campaigns is that the data is (relatively) free and available for anyone to access. So what if you could steal the data from the Drive activity and not only present it back in a gorgeous fashion, but also demonstrate your skill as a potential new partner in doing so?

“Could you piggy-back another agency’s paid activity to showcase your own?”

Well, as I said, the data is there. So all you would need to do is farm that information and go from there… right?

Search term: “#DRIVETIME” – parameters 30-31 Jan 2012 – network: ‘TWITTER’ -

Export as .csv, group & subtotal the number of tweets by time published and… Voilà!

Look at that lovely data.

I’ve cleaned it up somewhat (only showing the data between 7pm and 10pm – the film started at 8pm) but you can clearly see the flurry of activity that happened throughout.

Now, we can sexify this chart (thanks Robbie) and we can also actually map the highlights of the film against the peaks and troughs of conversation.

A – 8pm: the film starts
B – End of [the awesome] opening sequence, ‘Night Call‘ kicks in
C – The Driver meets the girl for the first time – it’s encapsulating
D – Combination of ‘Under your Spell‘ starting + a key killer quote from our hero
E – Sequence of Driver and Irene spending time together [intense]
F – That elevator scene
G – Dip for a(nother) particularly violent piece
H – Film ends, people loved it and tweet according

What are the takeaways from this exercise?

1. If you’re planning a scheduled viewing (over social media) make it both a) a universally accepted film (read: a classic that most people have seen) and b) perhaps one that’s not so visually sumptuous and arresting.
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2. Think about THE DATA. Alright there was a Storify after the fact, but if me and my friends can throw together a crude visualisation of what our collective tweets look like… then Christ, what else is possible?

Which in turn asks a bigger question:

If today’s brands (and consumers) are ready to remix anything and everything, what’s to stop the agencies of tomorrow doing the same?

..oh and look, no spoilers.