middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Look here. Yes, the gorilla is in there. According to Altogether Digital, who by the look of a quick peek around their site know their stuff, are bloody good at what they do and can get a story high up on Digg to help increase their blog readership rather nicely. Altogether rather good. Wonder if we all agree?

You could have some fun with this. Or alternatively it could just be an incredibly intrusive new way form of advertising. Remember when Gmail caused a storm with its contextual ads?

I’m not a Northern Rock customer, so just stumbled across this via TIGS. Nice move and also probably helps with being able to serve up the homepage to a rather higher than average number of site visitors (I imagine).

Nice to see what seems like a really genuine, honest message from the CEO. And nice to see a tweaked search result. Now where’s the Northern Rock blog? And why don’t they do a sponsored link like Tesco did in the midst of its petrol crisis?

Honest, open and transparent. HOT is the way to go as we all know.

Are a bit crap really aren’t they? Just heard (how I seem to be “watching” TV these days) the Curry’s advert and the tagline is “with you in mind”. And they haven’t even done any SEO/PPC on it. Other taglines over the last few months seem to be getting worse. Or is it because I’m getting more cynical?

Want to make sure your tagline hasn’t been used before? Check here. Or go here to check out some of the best (and worst) of all time.

Great ideas are more valuable today than ever before. Discuss . . .
Nice ambient work for Mondo Pasta via Yacco’s blog. Further discussion here, which interestingly comes top on Google under Mondo Pasta.

Saw the latest spot for Big Yellow Storage the other night and love it. Done by Dougal Wilson with Blink, CHI and The Moving Picture Company, the ad uses some amazingly effective stop-motion animation to create animated waves of possessions that look stunning and made me sit up and see who was behind it.

It also made me think how nice it would have been to hit YouTube, type in “Big Yellow Storage ad” and find the ad online to link to. Would that be a PR or an advertising “thing” ?!

Instead - check out the blurb on The Moving Picture Company website - and view the showreel online (if you can get it to work). I love the way that old-school stuff looks so cool when mixed up with a bit of digital.

Nice one Dougal and co. Next time I have some storage needs, I’m sure I’ll think of Big Yellow.

Iain Tait over at crackunit.com has finally finished his Top 10 of why digital is better than advertising. Well worth a read. Try being a bit of a digital geek in a PR agency . . . that’s why we all stick together.

Celebrities around the world will need to have a rethink. The ACEE has published the Top 12 greenest vehicles of 2007 and the Prius isn’t top. Some good news for Honda as it fights to defend its decision to go without sponsored branding on its latest F1 car as being based on its desire to bring global warming issues to the forefront of F1, rather than because the sponsor pulled out at the last minute, which thelondonpaper is claiming tonight.

And, if you’re not planning on changing your car sometime soon, there’s plenty you can be getting on with to do your bit towards sorting out this rather big problem the world is having to deal with this year.

Thanks Treehugger.

PS - I’m only a few days in on this so bear with me if you’re thinking WTF. I’m finding my groove here.

Apple says hello this morning. Something tells me there are going to be a fair few takes on this. (*See disclaimer in About me)

I’ve just seen one of the latest Virgin Media ad spots featuring Uma Thurman. You know, the one where she pauses and we’re supposed to end up thinking “I want to sign up to Virgin Media”.

According to the Guardian, the ad allows people to share an intimate moment with Uma as she unexpectedly pauses silently for a seductive ten seconds on screen. I don’t know about anyone else but it just makes me fill up with hatred and on numerous occasions over the last week I have shouted at the TV. Maybe I’m not in the target audience (male, 27, London, heavy broadband/mobile/TV user) but there’s just something about it that makes me feel all nasty. And I’m not a nasty person.

I definitely haven’t been won over. Sorry Virgin - I know a lot of work will have gone in to the ads and you probably don’t care what I think - but Uma just isn’t winning me over. Or my girlfriend.

Image via Flickr