12-17-08

Man and (music) machine(s)

Music. Technology. Geeking out. Bring it on.

12-16-08

Bush shoe throwing hijacks

UPDATE: the meme has gone really big, as kind of expected. Sock and Awe has had over 46 million shoes thrown too . . .

After watching the news report of a journalist throwing his shoes at George Bush this morning, I waited for the inevitable response from the web. Usually it’s from individuals able to move quicker and smarter than your average brand which most likely wouldn’t be up for doing anything Bush related and therefore politcal/risky in the first place or would just take days if not weeks to sign something off. However, today I’ve seen three Bush/Shoe related things pop up in my Twitter stream from PopJam, Lewis PR and Zappos.

First up we have my favourite and by far the best – Sock and Awe from PopJam founder Alew Tew (he of milliondollarhomepage fame).

This feels completely right, has an awesome name/domain and does a nice job of subtly bringing in a link back to Popjam and a fairly discreet email entry box.

Nicely done. I certainly had a few goes and signed up for more info on PopJam. Job done.

Secondly, we have the Bash a Bush ‘viral’ from Lewis PR.

To be honest, the fact it was referred to as a viral in the URL string automatically put me off it. It’s digital content that is hoped to go viral, blah blah blah . . . Anyway, having got over the ‘viral’ thing the gameplay is itself pretty straightforward and pretty slickly done, as much as can be for a tried and tested (and therefore more tired ) basic ‘bash the rat’ type of format. But, again – at least they did it and moved petty quickly.

Finally, we have a video from the guys at Zappos. Very quickly turned around, but all in all not that funny or posted on their blog. Still, top marks for trying and having the balls to just put it out. Oh and for tagging it with Bush, Irag etc !

So, yet again another reminder that brands (and agencies) need to move at lightning speed these days in order to ride on the waves of excitement that follow an event like a journalist throwing a shoe at George Bush, a BNP list going astray or something else that’s just around the corner. And – that competition really is fierce for people’s attention. You’re quite literally up against the world.

More here and here.

12-11-08

Snuggie – the blanket with sleeves!

I don’t know if it’s a bad thing that I’d actually quite like one of these and everyone that I show it to seems to feel the same way. I could then ‘use my laptop without being cold’. Maybe they should have been given out at Le Web?!

UPDATE – I’ve removed the video as it autostarts and I’m sick of it. Visit the site to check it out.

Jokes aside, I think Loic’s response was great today. A perfect demonstration of confronting a problem and saying it as it is, quickly, honestly and from the heart.

12-10-08

Bums and Gin

Take a photo of a bum and a bottle of gin, upload it with Twitpic and tag it with #bumsandgin and hey presto, you’ve joined the rather specialist bums and gin meme currently being fueled by Infobunny (aka lo-fi librarian). Crazy interwebz hey?

12-04-08

Meme Non-Response Guilt (MNRG)

I’m feeling guilty because I haven’t taken part in a meme thingy that Ged started – listing out the top not-very-technical things that every PR person should know. Then the other Jed has retagged me and reminded me in his follow up – expanding the list out to 50 things! Oh and in the meantime, Becky has delivered the goods too and I feel bad, but OK for the time being because Jonny, Stephen, Paul, Stuart and Wadds are yet to get involved.

There’s some really good thinking here that I reckon could be repurposed into a more use friendly format and used for lots of things. A bit of a cop-out maybe, but how about a wiki? That feels more suited to the task at hand which is essentially creating a big list of useful stuff. And then by taking part you’ve already ticked off ‘editing a wiki’ too.

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