Posterlist seems a thirfty source of white-wall-worthy posters.

Just earmarking for the future really. (ps. origin of the word earmarking - disfiguring cattle to prove ownership - found here which is also a great source for other language based curiosities, like contranyms...)

Just parking this radio four treat, the Vilayanur S Ramachandran Reith lecture.

Some delicious cake for the brain.

Back when advertising folk all looked like Cary Grant, James Webb Young penned a short classic: 'A Technique for Producing Ideas'. Download it here.

In a nutshell then,

Step 1: Leave no stone unturned : Do all the homework on your current brief and - on an ongoing basis - browse the world for general, random 'interseting' stuff.

Step 2: The Mental Digestive Process. Chew on what you've learnt.

Step 3: Now drop it completely. Have a bath. Do something else.

Step 4: Eueka, the idea appears.

Step 5: Share the idea. Work it. Develop it.

Is your target definition too vague? If you shouted it from the rooftops across a crowded street would everyone look up? or would you have spoken to just the chosen few?

"Women who watch soaps on TV"

"Women who regularly watch several 'reality' TV soaps"

"Women who feel that they know their favourite soap stars almost as intimately as their closest friends"

Marketing 2.0 is…

A shift from competitive positioning in a hierarchical world (of demographics, status and image) by using consistent (brand essence) messaging

…to cooperative, life-enhancing marketing: engaging a networked world of freer but more connected individuals by using a molecule of coherent, fascinating and useful ideas.

The main forms of marketing 2.0 strategy (that replace ‘messaging’) are as follows:

1. personalisation: eg Nike iD, Top Shop advisors, first direct service

2. co-creation; eg Wikipedia, Lego Factory, Amazon reviews

3. cascades and crazes; eg iPod, Gmail invites, YouTube

4. social connections; Friends Reunited, MySpace, Facebook

5. community and clans; inNYC card, Starbucks ‘perk up your life’, Red Bull

6. causes and values: Dove, Toyota Prius, Amex Red

7. crowd and awe experiences: Selfridges Vegas Supernova, O2 Wireless festival, Nike Run London

8. concept innovation & customer education: Flora Activ, Budweiser Day Fresh, Nike Free

9. brand JVs: Nike/iPod, Levis/iPod, U2/iPod…

10. Folksy grassrootsiness: Innocent, Google ‘lucky’ button, from ‘reality’ TV to YouTube

John Grant

See this related post (McCracken) about relevant artisan trends
Tags - planning, trends

What's the toppermost of the poppermost in cyber space? Chart rundowns here

tags- trends, web 2.0

The Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen help fuel the growth of the Social Media Network (shown behind). Each type of individual possesses a complimentary quality that when combined, creates an infectious momentum which spreads rapidly.

From wikipedia:

* Connectors: Those with wide social circles. They are the "hubs" of the human social network and responsible for the small world phenomenon.

* Mavens are knowledgeable people. While most consumers wouldn't know if a product were priced above the market rate by, say, 10 percent, mavens would. Bloggers who detect false claims in the media could also be considered mavens.

* Salesmen are charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills. They exert "soft" influence rather than forceful power. Their source of influence may be the tendency of others, subconsciously, to imitate them rather than techniques of conscious persuasion.

Note: based off Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point

via here

tags - planning

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Anais Nin

Tags - planning

The Penny Farthing - 1870
















The Safety Bicycle, 1885









The Locust, 2006







Tags - lovely things

Exactly what it says on the tin, here

Tags : free stuff