– pic via the extremely talented Harry Duns

Last October I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak at the fantastic Exeter-based conference, Like Minds.

My topic? The five word of mouth moments of 2011.

Easy, right?

You don’t need me to tell you the first five that spring to mind, so let’s look what happens when you probe a little deeper -

[your comments and feedback, as ever, are welcome]

Oh, and the best thing? I just managed to lay my hands on a ticket to the rather exciting TEDxObserver 2012.

Speakers include one Miss Camila Vellejo.

Amazing.

Now in its fourth year, the festival is known for being the key event for the local communications industry and, with an expectation of 3000+ attendees, Nokia were onboard as sponsors; with both a device launch and a booth on site, part of the deal was that they were able to nominate their own speaker for the weekend.

The brief? An introduction to word of mouth marketing; a relatively unknown discipline in that part of the world. Case studies would be a necessity but, while I was permitted to talk a little about the work with Nokia, any heavy-handedness would not be welcome.

‘Perfect’, I thought. ‘It’ll be me, a room of 20 or so people, talking about (and probably kicking ideas around) the idea of word of mouth marketing and what it means to the modern-day brand’. Donezo.

Upon arrival [landing just after midnight, after leaving Beirut in the morning and making a short stopover in London for lunch - long story], I was asked to come down to the venue to meet the team and pick up my credentials.

‘But it’s really late and I doubt it’ll go on for long, I’ll do it tomorrow’, I said.
‘No’, they insisted ‘the party is only just starting. Come now.’

I did, and they were right: the party was only just getting started. However, that wasn’t the only surprise of the night. After meeting and greeting the rest of the people I was there to represent, I was asked if I’d like to see where I’d be speaking on the morrow – ‘Yes’ I replied, ‘that’d be great’, expecting to be shown to some corner/booth somewhere in the main hall.

Oh no. How wrong could I be?

Imagine my surprise as I was shown into the main conference hall and simply told ‘Yes, you’ll be in here’
‘Sorry? How many people can fit in here?’
‘Oh, about 900 sitting but probably closer to a full thousand when we fill up at the back’

Right.

The following day I rewrote the entire presentation (less Q&A and small numbers, more pretty images and big stories). I had potentially one thousand people to entertain. At 5:30pm. On a Friday. Plus, after once reading about Jyri Engestrom‘s tendency to wear bright red cardigans whenever he gives lectures to large groups of people (it helps the audience keep track of the presenter on stage apparently), I thought I should rock the red trousers too.

So I did – and it was awesome.

Click here to view the embedded video.

PS. Rovinj is gorgeous, I thoroughly recommend visiting if you ever get the chance.

The English definition of ‘currency’ (outside of its obvious monetary connotations) is ‘The fact or quality of being generally accepted or in use‘. Keeping this in mind (and given the universal habit tagging of all things technologically vital and important), laptop stickers could therefore be construed as a currency of the blogging community

If that’s so, then why not make some of those? Good ones mind. Not just your logo on a white background.

Something interesting.
Something better.
Something that will spark a conversation.

A social object, if you will.

This thought process is not new, we used to talk about this kind of community currency back in my SpinVox days: what was it about a certain place or a group of people that would always get them talking and, better yet, what wouldn’t.

A recent video from Heineken was what got me thinking about this again (and what prompted the tweet above, too). Have a look, we’ll regroup on the other side -

Right. Let’s deconstruct this for a second. First off, as I asked the team at 1000heads last week; is this cool?

The general consensus was no, it isn’t. It’s a good video, yes. But using technology for technology’s sake is never a sound strategy for success and alas, that’s exactly what’s going on here.

“Why is this Heineken? Where is their connection?” were other recurring questions. You could argue that the new brand message of ‘open your world’ underpins this whole activity somehow, but you have to look quite hard to see it. And anyway, that much at least is besides the point.

Could this have been done better by taking a closer look at the reality of a festival currency?

Festival currency: what it isn’t

.
Before we get into what and what does not work around QR codes, let’s first establish that I genuinely do buy the idea that they act as a conversation starter. That’s great in fact. Any excuse to start talking to a new person at large social events is welcome. Well done.

However, as anyone who’s ever been to a festival will tell you, the genuine currency of the modern day festival-goer is communication. To stay in touch, you need that most precious of camping-based premiums: mobile phone battery life.

There is a whole other blog post to come about how the success of the next generation mobile hardware manufacturer depends on this particular aspect of their devices (and breathe), but that’s not for today. Today is about realising that festival-goers aren’t going to spend precious battery life on QR code snapping, especially when it’s the only thing keeping them connected.

Heineken could learn from Orange here.

Back to those QR codes, hands up who’s got a phone that can scan a QR code out of the box? OK, next question: hands up who’s got a phone that can scan a QR code out of the box that you know about? See what I mean. Shocking.

QR codes are great, but there’s still such a large education piece to be done before anything like this creates any real traction [note: the video proudly points out that 5000 'U-Codes' were printed, not how many were actually scanned].

Taking all of the above into account, it’s clear that the modern day festival goer needs to remain connected, visible and contactable.

Festival currency: what it could be

.
Flags. This isn’t my idea, first off. Scroggles planted this particular seed when we were working with MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation a few years back. At a festival, if the currency isn’t anything mobile-related (or at least, related to draining mobile power) what else is there?

FLAGS.

Think about it.

Print your own message on a [Heineken-branded] flag and suddenly you have something that you can wave to find your friends, stand near or under as a meeting point and ultimately, personalise as much as you like within your own artistic boundaries.

No messing about with esoteric QR codes, no imposing your brand onto that super-valuable phone battery; just simple, visible and useful branding.

Flags, as currency for festival goers.
Laptop stickers, as currency for bloggers.

There’s more here. I’m sure of it.

What’s your engagement currency?

[Big thanks to both James Mayes and Gia Cavalli in the construction of this post]

Cher Lloyd has a new single out called ‘Want U Back’. This is not news, nor is it something I would normally write about. However, one watch of the video below and you too may very well be compelled to put pen to paper to help the poor girl out.

First things first, Cher: you did the dumping lover, which means you can’t get all wanton and worthy now that your man has moved on. Harassing your ex-bf after you’ve done the deed is just not cool. Leave them be and move on – they’re just having fun! For realsies.

I know you’re sad and jealous [don't deny it, her jeans really don't come into it] but to be honest darling, the real issue here is that you’re addicted to social media!

Yes, there’s no branding on the photos that you’re browsing on that oh so conveniently placed iPad of yours, but there is no denying it – you’re actually Facebook stalking him, aren’t you?

Spending hours and hours moping around on your bed, hunting down photos of him and his new flower having fun is just not healthy dear (we’ve all done it), but why torture yourself in this way?

Gloating that you had him first is no fun for anyone (it’s just plain unattractive for a start) and look, of course he’s going to visit the same places you went to, you live in the same town!

Truth be told, you don’t want him back, you know you don’t. You just want what you can’t have. You let him free and you let him go and, sorry to say it (and as you quite rightly point out), the boy is flying! You can’t blame him for that.

Unfriend him on Facebook, unfollow him on Twitter and just have done with it. If he wants you, he’ll come a-runnin’ – but I doubt he will, not now you’ve all gone all helicopter anyway… Seriously, what is that about?!

I feel your pain. 10yrs ago this level of sophisticated monitoring required a private detective (or two) and several thousands of pounds worth of surveillance equipment. You’d probably need a lawyer too.

But Cher, honestly, in this day and age? People share stuff. And, while it isn’t easy to just not look. You really should stop give yourself a big hug, get out of the house and go and enjoy yourself.

Lots of love,

James

PS. That boy Astro [I recognise him, has he done any TV?], he looks a bit young for you lass. Just sayin’.

PPS. Love the track. Good work.

So long, 2011. 2012, here we come!

via

PS. I know this has been seen a million times everywhere already, but I still love it.

Zooey + Average Joe: Gorgeous

And, even though Mr Ridley Scott would have you believe otherwise, the connections to the Alien franchise are strong with this one.

Exhibit A:

This ship, the ship the crew of the Nostromo board at the beginning of Alien in response to the distress / warning call.

Which, surprisingly enough, looks remarkably like this one, exploding and falling out of the sky in the trailer for Prometheus.

Similar right? Shape, structure etc… it’s all there.

OK, so some spaceships look like other spaceships. True. However, any fan of the original Alien film will recognise the following image, aka – Exhibit B:

This chap is actually nameless in the film, however he has somehow earned the name of ‘The Space Jockey‘. Look what he’s sitting on and just look what this is, coming out of the ground in the Prometheus trailer.

This film is set on the ship that the crew of the Nostromo discover. That much is plain to see. Ridley Scott has said that there will be no Aliens, however there will be space jockeys. In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gifted it to man. The film’s official synopsis talks about man’s search for its very beginnings.

One wonders if these ‘space jockeys’ are pitched as our creators [as well as those of the Xenopmorph] and this is what happens when we meet ‘God’ face to face.

Who knows, we only have to wait until summer 2012 to find out and it’s about time Ridley Scott came back to the sci-fi genre.

Bring it.

Yes, I know. But I don’t care.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a stunning film.

The original, gut-wrenching thriller smashed into my face like an iced bucket of water; it was fresh, cold and very, very dark. I loved it. Admittedly, I am yet to see Hornet’s Nest or Played with Fire.

(Nor have I read the books but I’m sure that’ll change shortly)

However, something I wanted to share today is this awesome trailer for the US re-make of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Two words that should send a shudder down any film purist’s back are ‘US’ and ‘Re-Make’ but, this is Fincher we’re talking about kids. David. Fincher.

His last film, The Social Network, was very, very good. The first trailer, which dropped back in July 2010, showed that (with such contentious source material) he really meant business.

I think it’s fairly safe to say that this time ’round, he’s done it again.

It drives and it beats and it rages. Like the film itself will do so too, I’m sure. Bring it Fincher, I can’t wait.

Finally, before I go, I have to share one more thing. There’s a new Muppet film coming soon (no, really) and, to help build buzz and interest, they’ve been gently ripping off the trailers from other upcoming films. Dragon Tattoo is no exception.

This, is perfect.

Note: this is not your average email, but we’ll come to that shortly.

If you’ve not seen the film before (I haven’t), it’s about a teenage girl (the amazing Saoirse Ronan) who has been trained by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) to basically be a complete bad-ass. Think Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass [but slightly older and with less pink wig-ness] and you’re probably halfway there.

Anyway, like I said, she’s been trained to be THE PERFECT ASSASSIN and then well, from what I can see from the trailer, Cate Blanchett turns up and the proverbial really hits the fan.

Speaking of which, the trailer is worth a look -

What do you think? I missed this at the cinema as I had only just got back from my mad trip across Siberia, but it does actually look quite good. IMDb gives it a solid 7/10 and, I think I probably will pick this up at some point also.

So, why am I blogging about it? Given that a) I haven’t actually seen it yet and b) although the film looks good, it doesn’t seem to be the kind of epic masterpiece that normally drives me to put e-pen to e-paper.

Well, it’s that email I mentioned at the top. It would seem that HMV and Universal have teamed up to create a rather awesome Foursquare-based treasure hunt across three major cities in the UK (London, Birmingham and Manchester) that kicks off this weekend.

Based around the central themes of the film, each hunt contains six codes that need cracking and from there you end up with six locations that need checking into.

The prize for completing said task? Er.. a weekend in Berlin! Sweet.

If you’re any of the above cities, your orders are available c/o The Galinka Project (but be quick, you only have until Monday). In the meantime, I have codes to crack.

Catch you later.