Month: March 2017

No edition last week + a metric ton of stuff and nonsense to catch up on; this week’s episode of THINGS is going to be one chunky monkey. You have been warned.

Additional note: as promised earlier in the week, FToF readers can get 15% off tickets for the next One Question conference by using the following discount count ‘OQJamesW2017‘ (add the code at check out etc).

Right then, shall we?

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Things of note for the week ending Sunday March 26th, 2017.

1. THE SXSW UPDATE

Right, as promised two weeks ago, here’s a bunch of stuff I picked up at the annual film/interactive/music festival in Austin Texas.

• Here are all the slides from the SXSW Webinar we did from the final day of the trip.
• Here’s the recording of said Webinar (it’s about an hour long and the audio kicks in a few minutes in), the slides in bullet one work so much better with a v/o – honest.
• Here’s a Twitter Moment featuring all the notes made from the 14 different sessions I managed to attend while I was there.

Other things of note: the best iPhone cover I ever saw, picked up a pair of Snapchat Spectacles, I had a maple syrup & bacon doughnut and it changed my life.

Questions on the notes are probably best

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2. A FIST FULL OF TRAILERS

• AMERICAN GODS. TV show. Based upon the Neil Gaiman novel. Coming soon.
• JUSTICE LEAGUE. Film. The next part in the DC Cinematic Universe (following on specifically from Batman v Superman however set in the same universe as everything from MAN OF STEEL, WONDER WOMAN (incoming), and even [the abominable] SUICIDE SQUAD). And it looks bloody awful.
• WONDER WOMAN. Film. The back story of the supporting character from BvS. Could be good. Could be terrible. I do hope it’s the former. We could do with a decent female superhero lead.
• GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 2. Film. The sequel to outstanding Marvel space adventure and the first of three Marvel movies this year (with SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING and THOR: RAGNAROK to follow). Looks good.

I feel like I should add a fifth but I can’t think of one right now. Maybe I’ll come back to it later.

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3. ALEXA: PROJECT YORICK

File this one under ‘R’ for ‘Reasons why I love the internet, #22134’.

Mike McGurrin has done something very, very dark to his Amazon Echo.

And I love it.

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4. DOODLES TO ANIME

This is ridiculously cute.

I think this has been kicking around the web for a while but I’m not sure. However, these pictures of a dad’s anime characters inspired by his son’s doodles made me grin from ear to ear.

From Bored Panda:

‘Thomas Romain is a French anime artist who lives in Tokyo. He’s worked on various series including Space Dandy, Basquash!, and Aria, but his best ideas actually come from his sons. Working together in what he calls the Father And Sons Design Workshop, Thomas and his kids come up with all sorts of weird and wonderful characters. Well, his kids actually come up with them, and then Thomas adds his professional touch to turn them into everything from steampunk doctors and snake fighters to cloud dwellers and sand golems.’

Brilliant.

Go see the rest.

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5. INTERESTING READING

You may not have followed, or even seen, the Jack Monroe v Katie Hopkins libel case (Spoiler: the latter lost (hurrah)). However, if one wanted to not only get familiar with the matter but also get really into the detail, then you could do a lot worse than read the final judgement papers (PDF download) from the hearing.

Social media is still so very new and reading about how a libel case works in the age of Twitter is something I find just plain super interesting.

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Bonuses this week are many:

• In the US? Google’s ‘Project Sunroof’ now covers every state and, if you’re looking to invest in Solar Power, Sunroof will help.
• I’ve been doing a lot of reading into the ‘Connected Home’ and, among other things, I found this neat website from McKinsey covering off the key areas you should know about.
• Will.I.Am can SEE THE FUTURE (amazing).
• Superhero origin stories as IKEA instruction manuals. Excellent.
• Future Islands have a new song out.
• It was Adweek Europe last week and, for reasons I won’t go into, a few of us advertising people were asked to make a playlist for one of the events. Go get.

Finally, expect to read a lot about Google Home this week (although, saying that, in light of the amount of guff the UK press has in store for Google at the moment I wouldn’t be surprised if they rescheduled, however), the UK announcement for its release is scheduled for Tuesday and there’s another event shortly after that I’ve been invited to which I’m fairly sure is the same thing. We’ll see.

Here’s hoping it gets better than this.

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And that is about it for this week.

So you know, each and every one of you that made it this far:

Until next time.

First thing first: thanks to all of you that got back to me re: last week’s formatting. Many of you liked it, a lot of you didn’t like it. For those of you who suffered weird issues where the damn thing didn’t fill your screen properly – yeah, that was my fault. I know what I did wrong. That said, I have no idea why it didn’t actually send in the first instance so… we’ll have to wait and see this week, right?

RIGHT.

Where was I?

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Things of note for the week ending Friday March 10th, 2017.

Hello.

I’m writing this to you from Houston, Texas. Currently waiting for a delayed flight to Austin so that, next week, I can attend the SXSW Interactive festival. Woop.

I’m going to TRY and not be an over-sharer on Twitter this time around so if you wanna keep up with my shenanigans while I’m there, add me on snapchat. The username, you guessed it, ‘whatleydude’.

Thing time:

1. THIS LETTERMAN INTERVIEW

Oh, hi David Letterman.

Right?! Jeez Louise. Since retiring from ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ he has grown a stupendous beard. Also, this interview with the [now] elusive Letterman is a must-read for any passing fans. Good coverage on Trump too (if you remember his run ins with him).

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2. EDWARD SAPERIA

Here are three things about this week’s eponymous thing number two.

• Thing one: Ed Saperia is an interesting person.
• Thing two: Ed Saperia has an interesting network.
• Thing three: Ed Saperia has started a weekly newsletter that contains links to everything he posts to Facebook in the week previous. And it’s genuinely REALLY interesting. You can read the first edition via his archive and then probably figure out how to subscribe and stuff on your own after that. Give it a go.

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3. DIE HARD PLOT HOLE

I’ve seen DIE HARD (aka ‘the best Christmas movie ever’) a million times but this always passed me by.

There’s a bit in the film where Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) pretends to be a hostage when he first comes face to face with John McClane (Bruce Willis). McClane suspects that something is off and manages to get away—but it is never specified what exactly set off his alarm bells.

If it’s ever bugged you then LOOK AT YOU! Spotting plot holes a mile away. AREN’T YOU GOOD? As luck would have it, some 29yrs after the film was first released, Stephen E. de Souza has told us how and why this happened…

Esquire has the answer.

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4. IMPORTANT ASA UPDATE

The ASA updated its advice to ‘affiliate marketers’ this week and goes out of its way to underline how the new guidance includes blogs, vlogs, and social media posts & content. If you or your work leads you near any of these areas, then you really should familiarise yourself with this latest update.

They’ve even made you an infographic.

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5. THE BEST THING I SAW THIS WEEK

Amazing, right? Go RT the source.

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Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Buffy as feminist parable
• No Man’s Sky could be making an artful come back
• Ogilvy’s Time to Change campaign makes ‘Pick of the Week’
• Thor: Ragnarock looks mental
• A women-only speaker list (save/bookmark/etc)

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Aaaaaand that’s me, I’m out.

See you next week with a TON of SXSW stuff to tell you about.

I BET YOU CAN’T WAIT.

Things of note for the week ending March 3rd, 2017.

1. FACEBOOK VIDEO FORMATS – A ‘HANDY’ GUIDE

In its ongoing attempt to ensure that all its competitors’ features are available across all its apps and services, Facebook is launching vertical video (announced on its blog – you may’ve missed it among the noise re: autoplay ads w/sound on).

Anyway, the point is: Facebook video requirements are changing. And to help, it created this… er… handy reference guide.

Right click.

Save.

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2. MOAR VR STUFF

I met Sol Rogers shortly after I saw him speak at the inaugural ONE QUESTION conference (tickets for the second one are available now). Armed with an infectious enthusiasm and a brain to match, Rogers’ just happens to be founder and CEO of REWIND, a company specialising in VR experiences.

Here he is, writing for Little Black Book, asking the question: ‘Entertainment or Empathy – What do people really want from VR?‘. Minor correction to Sol’s piece, Samsung shipped 4.51m Gear VRs. I doubt very much they sold them all (many were given away as freebies with the latest devices / as an apology for the Note 7 kaboomzle problem).

I remain bullish on the future success of VR. Yes, we’re heading out of the peak of the hype cycle but I doubt the trough of disillusionment will be as deep as many predict.

As ever: we will see.

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3. OI. YOU. IMPOSTER. READ THIS. 

Did you know that approximately 70 percent of us will experience a period of self-doubt at least once in our lives.

If you’re struggling to validate why you are where you are, worry not – here are five ways to help move past it.

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4. OPEN STRATEGY

The Open Strategy newsletter is excellent.

This post rounds up their most read articles over the past 12mths and covers everything from content strategy to MILLENNIALS (and all the guff in between), it really is an excellent resource for some interesting and challenging reading.

Go swim.

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5. DISNEY X MAKER = ?

If you’ve been paying attention, Disney-owned YouTube-talent-owners known as MAKER has been scaling back its operations to focus on less ‘stars’ and land with more impact.

Digiday has its own write-up. It makes for hella interesting reading.

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Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Big Red on the future of connectivity.
• The greatest thing on American Gladiators ever.
  
• The Atlantic Timeline. Neat.
  
• How to keep your messages secure. Teen Vogue, smashing it again.
  
• My favourite photo of my place of employment to date.
  

Until next week.

Stay cool.