Friday, 2 May 2008
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Stephen King - JWT
Have you ever wondered what the father of 'Account Planning' looked and behaved like? I first heard of the existence of this video in JWT London's weekly meeting and recall Guy Murhpy's (JWT Global Planning Director) face lighting up at the description of 'hammers' as examples of product parity in utility.
I then saw it for the first time at the launch of 'A Master Class in Brand Planning' with Merry Baskin and Judith Lannon back in November, and was taken aback at how plannery Stephen King was. Which of course makes complete sense. Here we can see the enthusiasm for the abstract from way back in this marvelous clip that Guy has released and which also includes the remarkable Jeremy Bullmore who shared with me the inside story on that JWT clothing allowance that John Grant talked about over on Brand Tarot here. Jeremy told me in London before I came to Beijing that the allowance was a tax break and that it was a choice between a lawn mower or a clothing allowance and not as suspected an elitist perk for the Toffs. I think this is as good an example as it gets of confirmation bias, narrative fallacy, silent evidence, and epistemic arrogance which are all weaknesses that planners should be conscious of struggling against when forming conclusions.
I then saw it for the first time at the launch of 'A Master Class in Brand Planning' with Merry Baskin and Judith Lannon back in November, and was taken aback at how plannery Stephen King was. Which of course makes complete sense. Here we can see the enthusiasm for the abstract from way back in this marvelous clip that Guy has released and which also includes the remarkable Jeremy Bullmore who shared with me the inside story on that JWT clothing allowance that John Grant talked about over on Brand Tarot here. Jeremy told me in London before I came to Beijing that the allowance was a tax break and that it was a choice between a lawn mower or a clothing allowance and not as suspected an elitist perk for the Toffs. I think this is as good an example as it gets of confirmation bias, narrative fallacy, silent evidence, and epistemic arrogance which are all weaknesses that planners should be conscious of struggling against when forming conclusions.
The Economist
I need to call The Economist in London or Singapore by June 9th in preparation for a subsequent telephone call with the brilliant 'Nonsense'. I've found a little countdown widget from a really good new Web 2.0 site for the Lynx Effect that will help me remember (and you too if you need a widget to remember something).
The Forbidden City
I've yet to actually venture inside the Forbidden City despite living next door. I'm waiting for a crystal clear day and some swotting up on the history first I keep saying. However earlier this evening I was reading Rachel Clarke's excellent blog which I follow because she is doing grown up stuff on social media metrics as well as gaming and advertising too. Rachel posted about a Canon Eos/Rebel XT competition which is a camera I bought recently, and that I'm having a lot of enjoyment with. Anything that makes me look vaguely proficient is always welcome and this sucka sure takes care of me. Here's a little run round the Forbidden City walls on my lekky bike which I have reason to believe may resemble the Hoffmeister bear on a girly bike when I'm riding it!
Breaking News
Easily the biggest news of the year for Social Media in China is the just announced 430 million dollar investment by Oak Pacific Interactive for Xiaonei the Chinese Facebook. I posted just recently about China 2.0 over here, with inexpensive ways for brands to get involved with social media, but these guys have just thrown an incredible amount of money into this small start up despite a) the Social Media model is unproven in China b) a revenue model is yet to be harvested from that. This is the equivalent of Google's purchase of Youtube in 2006
Whether this proves a sound investment or not (and its hard to see why a way to make it work wont be found) this is another example of the shift from interruptive messaging of the traditional monologue model of advertising to the dialog model we are seeing all round the world. Advertising may not be broken in developing economies as Russell points out quite correctly, but as long as the shift of eyeballs to computer screens continues it's possible that the massive passive is diminishing a lot quicker than us Asian planners may have first anticipated.
For a comprehensive and authoritive analysis check out Kaiser Kuo's blog post on Ogilvy's Digital Watch.
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
My powerpoint is unstoppable
The Staufenbergers have started a new game with their latest fab post and I've risen to their challenge. I wonder what my prize will be!
Monday, 28 April 2008
Paquita
Earlier this evening, the Ballet de l'Opera national de Paris danced a 'Paquita' for a predominantly Chinese crowd at the Beijing National Theatre for Performing Arts (The Egg). Quite astonishingly (to me) they played with the narrative on two notable occasions.
They were spectacular, fluid, and yet tight when it counted. Gutsy in a word.
At the end of the first act through a triangle shaped formation, the dancers hopped violently backwards and receeding back into the stage, with peaked caps, bathed in the deepest hues of revolutionary red, and saluting violently to the audience whose spontaneous applause they won through sheer bravery given the context of the protests by China against the French in the last few days that is bordering on rage and insanity.
For a brief few seconds, it was as if the French were saying to the overwhelmingly Beijing intellectual-elite audience plus a few oiks myself, "is this what you want?", "is this how you want France to be?", "jumping up and down every time China starts to wave a stick?" ...."haven't you, you of all people, had enough abuse of power?"
It was the most creative thing I have ever seen and I will never forget it.
Bravo!
They were spectacular, fluid, and yet tight when it counted. Gutsy in a word.
At the end of the first act through a triangle shaped formation, the dancers hopped violently backwards and receeding back into the stage, with peaked caps, bathed in the deepest hues of revolutionary red, and saluting violently to the audience whose spontaneous applause they won through sheer bravery given the context of the protests by China against the French in the last few days that is bordering on rage and insanity.
For a brief few seconds, it was as if the French were saying to the overwhelmingly Beijing intellectual-elite audience plus a few oiks myself, "is this what you want?", "is this how you want France to be?", "jumping up and down every time China starts to wave a stick?" ...."haven't you, you of all people, had enough abuse of power?"
It was the most creative thing I have ever seen and I will never forget it.
Bravo!
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