Surprise and Delight

I was running today(I don't do it so much nowadays due to a dodgy knee), and apart from thinking how brilliant Nike + is, I found myself clicking through some of my favourite ever songs on the Ipod; "Uptight" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" by Stevie Wonder, and "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. It occured to me that with the download culture I had listened to them so often I have become too familiar with them. This is in marked contrast from when I was a kid and the songs would appear on the radio when you didn't expect them and they were all the more brilliant becuase of that element of surprise. I am not quite old enough to remember them in the charts (ok, perhaps just the last one) but there was genuine, spontaneous excitement when they came up on golden oldie slots, and I would wait with my old flat tape recorder, fingers poised over the 'play' and 'record' buttons, hoping the DJ didn't talk for too long over the intro of the song I was going to record onto my C60 Cassette. Now I can get the song when I want on youtube, my Ipod, my phone. Even the 'I can't wait to get home and play the record' feeling has pretty much gone.

It is way more efficient - I get my music when I want rather than waste hours waiting for it to come on the radio or save up and go down the shops for it- but boy does it take away that sense of surprise and delight.

Perhaps that is why we need to do what we can to put the surprise and delight back into what people are buying.

Pressure

"You have to learn how to use the pressure".

Gianluca Vialli, the great Italian football player said this, or something very like this, when interviewed on Radio 5 Live this afternoon about the pressures of managing in the Premier League.

It made me think of a manager, of any kind, being able to take on significant pressure that the team is facing and be a vessel for and yet somehow transforming it into positive energy for everyone around. Perhaps Obama has been able to do that. I wish I could.

Pork Chops at $4.99 or Brand Anthem?

There are clients who want to sell pork chops for $4.99, and are only ever going to creative work that sells pork chops for $4.99.

But of course the agency decide it is an excellent opportunity to create an amazing new brand campaign.

99.9% of the time , this scenario is going to end in a mess; too much time wasted, too much agency resource pointed needlessly in the wrong direction, too much course correction needed. It all smacks of irresponsible fiscal management and ends up with demotivated staff who don't feel confidence in what they are being asked to do ("here we go again").

Why not just recognise that this client wants to sell pork chops at $4.99? Wouldn't be better for the agency to devote its resources to answering the brief spectacularly well? Selling $4.99 pork chops can be done very creatively. Save the big brand anthem effort for the client who wants it.

Agencies are usually to blame for the mess. They really should know better. But clients aren't exempt from blame. By pandering to the agency's desires or not being clear about the task they are quite capable of bluring what should be a simple brief.

There is a very powerful lesson in this. Understand what the client is asking for, and what they are going to buy.

I mean if you asked a shop assistant for a yoghurt you wouldn't expect her to come back with some broccoli, would you?

Moon

After the post about long shadows it didn't feel wrong to post a night shot. This shot of the moon was taken almost a month ago (11/11) with my 'real' camera, not the trusty blackberry. The definition in this shot is a nice complement to the 'inexactness' of my previous moon post, here. Another time I shall take two shots of moon at same time with different cameras and post both for a true comparison.

Long Shadows

This picture was taken at 12.24 p.m yesterday (with trusty blackberry camera). The long shadows - and low sun - so soon after noon got me thinking about the the length of the day at various latitudes. Here are some comparisons (for 6th Dec):

Reykjavik: 64 Lat, Sunrise 11.06 am, Sunset 3.30 pm, Daylight 4hrs 24 mins
London: 51 Lat, Sunrise 7.53 am, Sunset 3.49 pm, Daylight 7 hrs 56 mins
New York: 41 Lat, Sunrise 07.07 am, Sunset 4.26 pm, Daylight 9 hrs 19 mins
Singapore: 1 Lat, Sunrise 05.54 am, Sunset 5.57 pm, Daylight 12 hrs 3 mins

Hammerfest, at 70 Latitude, in Norway, didn't have sunrise and sunset times for 6th December. I can only presume the sun didn't officially rise yesterday.

DEMOS

DEMOS is a think tank. It was launched in 1993 by Geoff Mulgan and Martin Jacques as an independent and fresh thinking anditidote to short-term, aligned, dull and Whitehall-centric think tank culture prevelant at the time. At the time, I read an article about DEMOS' intentions , got excited, got myself invited to the launch, and became a paid up member, receiving articles and going to meetings but staying perpherial and anonymous.

My involvement changed in 2002/3 when I saw colleague at RKCR/Y&R involved in DEMOS work. It transpired that my boss at the time, MT Rainey, was one of DEMOS' trustees. I waded in and took the work on. Work that culminated in presenting a strategy document to DEMOS at their annual weekend offsite.

I have tried to retain links with the organisation, offering insight where I can and providing a base in the US for visitors from the UK.

Yesterday evening DEMOS held a meeting for its Assoicates. I am lucky enough to be included as one, I presume for my work five years ago, and I am keen to contribute to such an excellent and inspirational organisation.

DEMOS have a new director, Richard Reeves, his website is here. He was excellent yesterday evening; thoughtful, authoritative, and eloquent. After a couple of difficult years including changing management and financial concerns, DEMOS seems rejuvenated and back on track. I look forward to being a playing a part.

Don't Be A Snippy Chimp

I had the good fortune of going to a brilliant 'inspiration' talk from Dave Brailsford, the Performance Director of British Cycling. It was anything but the charicature motivational speaker thing event. Brailsford established his credentials by comparing the 1 Gold medal won in the 76 years to 2004 by British cyclists with the haul gained in 2008, that would have put British Cycling, if it were a country, ahead of France in the medals table; 8 golds and 14 medals in total.

He put his success down to three key points (plus a huge increase in lottery funding).

1. Focus. Taking only cyclists with podium potential. Brailsford was offered 46 places by the British Olympic authorities, but they took only 23. The rest weren't good enough. They set goals; not goals of beating others, but of being the best they could be, identifying a time as the goal. The times were audacious but were not unrealistic. They had been carefully worked out.

2. People. Brailsford got in the right people. The one he talked about most is Steve Peters, the only psychiatrist working in the top echleons of sports apparently (mostly, it is sports psychologists). In essence Peters talks about the emotional 'chimp mode' that if left uncontrolled, can take over, just when you don't need it. You can't change your chimp, but you can learn how to manage it so it doesn't impair performance.

Brailsford also doesn't believe in 'fear' coaching. Only positive coaching. It was part of a value system that on the team had to buy into. One very senior coach was fired for not buying into the vlaues, and others didn't last. Podium potential riders needed podium coaching.

3. Aggregated Marginal Gains. When the prepartion for the 2008 games began Brailsford gave everyone on the pursuit team, including all backroom staff, a short film for inspiration. It essentially showed their 2004 Athens defeat by the Australian team with a dramatic voice over from a movie, by Al Pacino I think, about winning one inch at a time. This laid out the philosophy to the team. They were ruthless and ingenious about breaking down every tiny element of performance. For example, McClaren F1 team did modelling on aerodynamics (helmets, body position) and race strategy. One resulting change, that defied conventional wisdom, was the start 0ff man switching from 3/4 lap to 1 and 1/4 first leg. They also got the team to 'feel' the right speed so that riders could change when they wanted to keep the speed up, rather than everything being pre-set (ie one lap per rider). In the final this resulted in one of the riders riding an unheard of 2 and 1/4 laps without a change. But it also took in learning how to wash hands properly, so avoiding the main source of passing bugs. They went to such lengths that team members were employed in Bejing to keep door handles clean. Brailsford even 'joked' about taking an inch out of riders collar bones to lessen the wind resistance. It was a joke, but I bet he had the figures!

One other comment Brailsford made was the importance of removing all stresses from the race itself which meant the performers were then freed up, as far as possible, to perform to their best. In essence it was all about preparation and leaving as little to chance.

There are some good implications for individuals and for organisations alike:

Focus

Audacious but realistic goals carefully worked out

Best people

Best people on side

Don't focus on the competition, focus on your own performance

There are improvements to be made in many many areas.

There are improvements to be made in many areas you don't even know about.

Every area should be looked at from scratch - conventional wisdom needs to be challenged.

Get rid of as much stress before the event so you can focus on performance during the event (not the stress of it).

Understand the chimp inside and work on it.

A Different Perspective On An Orc

This is an Orc. It is from Warhammer, a fantasty strategy game that George has got into. The Orc is only about an inch in height but this picture makes it look bigger. And angry.

It minds me of some really good work we did for LEGO company a few years ago. Initially, we couldn't find an interesting way to present the LEGO models. Then Phil and Graham got involved. They started thinking about the models from a kids perspective, namely lying down with head on the floor, playing at the same level as the toys themselves. It was brilliant insight. Whilst adults are looking from a vantage point five or six feet up in air, the kids who play with the things see them much more eye to eye level. Everything flowed from that.

The ads we did, and I don't know if I can find them a few years on, had a sense of dynamism and scale that just couldn't have been achieved it we had looked the issue from our adult vantage point. It was one of the best examples I know of, literally, understanding the perspective of your target.

Brussels Building

This is a cool building in Brussels, opposite the Sheraton hotel. Click to see the light show.

It is the lights moving, not the camera! There were also had multicolour displays as well. But by then I was off in a cab. This was filmed with trusty old blackberryvision.

Brand Architecture

It's always good to have access to Aaker's brand relationship model. There are many different architecture models. This one is one of the more comprehensive. It is from the 'Brand Leadership' book. It looks like a picture taken from my trusty blackberry camera. Unfortunately it wasn't. I had to play around with scanners and proportion. Apologies for the final result. You may have to peer a little. I will try to find a better, more legible version.

Cartoon Time

I got the set!!

Genius or Graft

Great article in yesterday's Guardian, an edited extract from Malcolm Gladwell's new book 'The Outliers', that questions the notion that genuis is born and not the result of other factors.

Gladwell suggests that hard graft is vital. That there seems to be a magic number of around 10,000 hours 'practice' to obtain expertise. He quotes Daniel Levitin, a neurologist, who contends that this holds true across sport, music, programming and many other subjects.

He argues that timing is also vital. For example Gladwell demonstrates that the richest Americans ever were all born between 1831 and 1840, just the right time to take advantage of the industrial transformation of America that happened in the 1860s and 1870s. He also suggests the best time to be born to take advantage of the personal computer revolution that started in Jan 1975 with the announcement of the first assemble-it-yourself at home PC, the Altair 8800, was between 1952 and 1958. He shows that a whole raft of computer legends were in fact born in this period.

It is a beguiling argument. But many people were born at the right time, and many of those people worked hard, though not all of them are "geniuses", so I suspect there are still other variables that distinguish the "geniuses" from the rest of us. Nevertheless, the theory gives us hope that we can, with hard graft and good timing, make it big. It is nothing if not democratic.

Extracts from the book are here.

One last thought, the hard graft and timing theory, as a prerequisite for success is not totally new, as here suggests!

Design Time

I love this digital/analgoue radio. Not just because I can listen to the BBC World Service broadcast in great clarity, but because of its super design. It has very simple lines when we see it face on. All the dials and buttons are on the top so it is pretty easy to use in this vertical position.

Swivel the handle right the way around and it can be used as a stand/rest for the radio.

Put it on a desk, like I do, or a shelf, and operate it in the horizontal.

It was designed by the innovation house, IDEO .

I can't do a post on design without quickly showing this:

It must be nearly 5 decades old, and with kind hands it still works very well.

I Wish I Had The Confidence to Say Less

The Power of Emotion

Listening to some of the speakers at The Battle of Big Thinking last week, I found myself becoming rather cynical at the weightiness of their intellectual models as a way into their subject. We had two papers about the quantum theory of communications, a paper grounded in theories of sex and death, one on bio-mechanics and another on how the brain works (it was too complex to make any more sense of it). Whilst not against interesting hooks to introduce a subject nor borrowing from other disciplines to make a point, see here for an example, I did find myself longing for something very simple and very persuasive.

An example might be that all we are attempting to do with communications is to move people, connect with them as emotional beings. Whilst I realise it isn't an easy task, it is does form the basis of a lot of what we do.

I just happened to chance upon a brilliant example of this. The blog is Richard Huntington's adliterate, the particular post I have in mind is this one; 'The Power of Raw Emotion' .

The Battle of Big Thinking

Graham Fink receives the Mexican wrestling belt as winner of the 2008 Battle of Big Thinking from Malcolm White yesterday afternoon. Graham's idea was big and brilliant. Driven by the belief that we need to put different, or opposite, thinking in the same place to create ideas, he proposed a way to put people in touch with their 'opposite brains' by meeting people from a different walk of life. These people would meet for an hour and see what happens. Any ideas would be submitted to a website. He called it the bigthinkingclub.

His master strokes were twofold. Firstly, that he was going to make it happen, not just talk about it. And by pledging to launch the club if he won, he pulled that one off. Secondly, he seduced us by recognising us as founder members! How flattering is that.

The other outstanding piece was Nigel Newton, CEO of Bloomsbury publishing, who spoke about trusting our instincts rather than the analysis whilst we watched a seemingly random series of data slides about the minutia of Lloyd's life pass by.

Obama!

This is one night I wish I was back in the States.

I woke up in some Dutch hotel at what seemed a random time in the middle of the night. I turned on the TV to see if Obama had been elected, and by some odd coincidence within a few minutes the polls had closed on the west coast and Obama was projected as the winner.

Wonderful and amazing.

It's Absurd

Why are there so many luggage shops in airports? How often have you seen people turn up to an airport carrying heaps of clothes, looking for somewhere to buy a suitcase, roll-on or hold-all?

Molecular Boardroom

Having posted yesterday, here, about looking at the world in detail, it was a wonderful coincidence that I was lucky enough to see a boardroom that does just that earlier this week. This is the boardroom at DSM in the Netherlands:

The idea was to signal a more creative environment. The company understands the world at a molecular level and used that as an inspiration for the room. As well as the amazing walls, the room has a glass ceiling as well; and effect that makes it even more extraordinary. Below is a good example of how the ceiling amplifies the effect:
The company also has a history of buying art from local artists and employes a curator full time to run the collection. I couldn't resist putting some more shots of the boardroom walls in my 'Artzy Surfaces' flickr collection, here .

Microslicing and Insight

I don't think marketing folk spend enought time thinking about the small things; by which I mean the really small, the nano, the granular, miniscule and the tiny. In amongst all the talk about big ideas, perhaps we should flip the telescope and look through it the other way around. In other fields we are seeing the world very differently through new detail, such as the example below, perhaps we can as well.

The world of insight gathering might benefit from some miniscule thinking. Though research may be getting faster, easier and cheaper - primarily due to the internet - I don't know if it is getting any better. In fact, I suspect the opposite. I also see lots of research being commissioned that is a triumph of process over thought and is probably a re-run of some previous research project that has already given us enough information to save us the cost of doing it again. I should confess at this point, I am thinking more about 'exploratory' research or insight development work. As a side point, and the subject of another post in the future, I suspect there is a business to be had in delving through back archives of research for answers before any more research is commissioned.

Anyway, back to the subject of getting more insight by microthinking. I am convinced there are insights to be found, hidden in the small nooks and cranies of the mind and behaviour that conventional research, especially internet research, will never find. They may be things that people are never able to articulate, and therefore can't tell us about, without some skillful input from the researcher, but they exist.

I love the idea of breaking down processes, psychology, and behaviour into tiny little units and investigating each little unit in turn. In those tiny moments there is some real, and new, insight.

Blue Sky

Coley Porter Bell hold an annual competition called 'Blue Sky' which encourages entrances to explore a passion, one that is likely to in some way be connected to creativity. Past winners have created an adult, retro ice cream brand, explored the role of colour on buildings, looked at the effect of billboard ban in Sao Paulo and even explored fear. Here is a link, and here as well. The winner gets £3000 and two weeks off to spend on their Blue Sky project. They have to give a presentation to the company once completed. The entries are submitted anonymously, so the selection panel are judging on the merit of the entry.

The winning entry for 2006 was to write a book. This is it, written, printed and complete with blurb and quotes on the back cover, a 400 page plus parody of the branding industy:

A Good Thing About Europe

One of the best things about Europe is the old and the new sit (mostly) happily side by side. Perhaps the most famous example is the Louvre in Paris. When it is done well it really works. I had a mini-example of this in Maastricht earlier this week. We ate in a simple, traditionally Dutch bar, the Poshoorn, with is dark wooden interior and intimate warm atmosphere (excuse the trusty Blackberry camera):And we stayed in a decent modern hotel called, perhaps a little self-consciously, The Design Hotel with its minimal chic:This is a shot of the lobby. Neither of the two places were particularly expensive, or out of the ordinary, which is just the point. They co-exist happily and many people, including myself, can no doubt enjoy each one for what it does well. In fact walking directly from one to the other only heightens the effect.

Afternoon in St. Albans

That lovely time in the afternoon, when the sun is making its way toward the earth, casting long shadows over a crisp Autumn day. This was taken at 2.34 pm on the trusty Blackberry camera.

It's Absurd

People turning and shielding a free newpaper away from someone sitting next to them on the train so they can't read it.

The Native American and The 15th Century Clock Tower

Native American pan-piper plays in front of 15th Century English church. One for the cultural benefits of our globalised era then.

This clock tower had a mechanical clock from the beginning, a great rarity at the time. It also was used by the Admiralty as a semaphore station in the Napoleonic wars. It only took 5 minutes to relay a message to, or from, Yamounth. Faster than a slow email then! I wonder if the Native Americans could send smoke signals that quickly. Perhaps there is a kindship between the Native Americans and the Clock Tower in St. Albans after all, with early long distance messaging being the common thread.

By the way, as lovely as pan-pipes may be in the Andes, I have a particular loathing for them when accompanied by a pre-recorded backing track of AOR.

Misty Cathedral

St. Albans Cathedral in mist early last Saturday morning.

Public Spending

This is a really bad picture of some really well laid out information, the Guardian's graphic depiction of the UK Government's 2008 public spending. Instead of endless lists of numbers it has been laid out in circles, that represent the pound amount, where the money goes. Tufte would approve, I am sure. To look at the chart in its full glory, go here.

The Romance of British Train Travel ll

This shot was also taken on 26th September 2008 using the blackberry camera. It is of St. Albans station taken through the scratched window of the train I was sitting in.
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Madonna and Guy Ritchie are to divorce.

The Romance of British Train Travel

This picture was taken with a blackberry camera on 26th Sept 2008 on a First Capital Connect train from St. Albans to London.
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Today, the US government agreed to use some of the $700bn bail out money to buy equity in the major banks, following the UK model.

I Don't Know But It May Help

"That which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

I don't know about that, but there are probably some times when it helps to think there may be something in it.

Seeing the World Differently

We normally see the world map by size of country. Imagine if we looked at a map of the world by the relative proportion of the world's population living in each country. It would look like this:

And a world map that shows the relative proportion of Muslims by territory, would look like this:

and by water reserves:

It is fascinating. Worldmapper.org enables us to look at the world in many different ways: by resource allocation, trade, religion, transport use, income, disease, energy, etc

Republicans and Democrats couldn't agree on the proposed $700bn US "bail-out" plan. Sebastian Coe and Kelly Holmes sprinted in the Tate as part of a art work celebrating humam movement.

Brilliant Business Cards

A (bad, it's the Blackberry camera again!) picture of Eco3's business cards; well, stickers really.
Eco3 are an environmental and sustainability consultancy, see here for more details. Their business cards are terrific. They re-use other bits of card, for example a train ticket or a cut a bit of card from chocolate packaging and then put their sticker on it. Brilliant!

My first question was whether the 'sticker' method was more damaging to the environment than the 'print business cards' method. Of course they had done the research and it was a third less damaging.

Wonderful stuff.

Full Moon

I like the 'inexactness' that a Blackberry camera sometimes brings to a photo.

The Conspiracy of Yes

I have theory, and I call it "The Conspiracy of Yes". I use it when trying to explain the inertia that happens in (our) business when the relationship - usually between agency and client - becomes an end in itself. Like this:

Client Manager: Can you do a campaign for me? I need it in two weeks to take to my boss.
Agency Manager: It will be tough but we'll do it for you.
Agency Manager to Agency Team: We simply have to do it. And we could do some great work.
Agency Team: OK. What's the brief?
Agency Manager: Project X
Agency Team: What about Project X?
Agency Manager: We need to do some work for it.
Agency Team: What work?
Agency Manager: Some ideas.
Agency Team: On what?
Agency Manager: Project X
Agency Team: This is useless!
(ok, you get the picture now)

Exasperated, the Agency Team start working.

Two weeks later work is shared with the Client Manager. The Agency Team have worked flat out for two weeks. After the meeting the Client Manager praises the agency, particularly the Agency Manager for getting so much good work out in such a short space of time.

The Client Manager then takes the work to their boss, subtling boasting how they managed to get all this work out of the agency in two weeks from start to finish but, though good, it isn't quite right.

The Client Manager's Boss's assessment of the situation is as follows: Well done Client Manager. You have worked the agency hard, and got all this work out of them AND had the smarts to realise that it isn't quite right. Good for you.

The Client Manager happily scurries off to debrief the Agency Manager.

Client Manager: The Boss really appreciated all the hard work and the ideas you delivered, but he thinks it isn't quite right. We need some more. You have two weeks.

And so on.

The objective of all this activity gets lost. There is a good chance that nothing will get made either. The Agency Manager and Client Manager fall into this rythmn that shows lots of industry but little else. Unless there are big changes at either the client company or the agency, this cycle could go on for a long time. Occasionally, something will be made, but it will be so safe as to be unnoticed. But by now, the Client Manager and Agency Manager recognise, even if only subconciously, that this way of working keeps everything ticking over just nicely thank you, and them safely in their jobs for the foreseeable future.

Small Pleasures

In amongst a day of overcrowded trains, grumpy gym staff with bad attitutude (why do Brits have to be so difficult sometimes, though I guess that is a case of the pot calling the kettle black) and a day long meeting on a subject that could, in the right hands be wonderful and amazing, but barely got above dull, was a little bit of walking through London. It is such a interesting place to walk. The light was good, making nice-looking buildings look even nicer. Below, as an example, is a view from where I was working. There are more views from places I have worked or stayed here.The UK govt. are suspending the practice of 'selling short'. The GB paralympics team returned home, second in the medals table at Bejing games.

Quaker Meeting House

I had wanted, for some time, to visit the Quaker meeting house in Chappaqua. For a start, it is one of the oldest buildings in Chappaqua and though we had lived in town for almost five years I had not visited it. Also, earlier this year, Graham Turner, the creative director at work had been enthusing about a Quaker school in Manhatten as he had done the rounds looking for a school for one of his daughters, which reminded me of my interest. Additionally, I felt some bizarre, though distant, connection with the Quakers as one of the few interesting things about my home town in England, Hertford, was that it was the home of the first Quaker Meeting house built in Britain. But as well as visiting, I also wanted to go to a Quaker service, or meeting.

One Sunday morning, whilst on a cycle ride, I stopped by the Meeting House and was shown around by a friendly Englishman, who worked for the UN, called John. He told me what happened at the meetings. I thought I would attend one. A week or two later I went.

The meeting room has no obvious alter or focal point. The friend who leads the meeting could sit anywhere. There is no 'set' service. People are encouraged to speak when they feel like saying something, and they stand when they do speak. However, nobody may want to speak at all, as was the case at my first meeting. There was 50 minutes of silence, only broken by the sound of people moving quietly on their seat or a muffled cough. Those 50 minutes of silence were interesting. They were simultaneously duanting and liberating; in the same way that following instuctions or a set of directions - like writing a creative brief with a series of boxes - can be comforting, whereas having to make it up yourself from scratch - like having to write on a blank sheet of paper - can be very challenging. Initially, I didn't know what to do with all this space. Quite quickly, I began to enjoy the openness within which to reflect.

I returned to the Quaker Meeting House twice more before we left Chappaqua. The first time was with George and Ollie, whom I persuaded to come with me. They managed to sit in silence a little before leaving the meeting to go to the kid's 'meeting' which they seemed to enjoy. The second time was the last weekend I was in Chappaqua, after Jill and the boys had gone. I stood up in the meeting to say "thank you". I had only been to the meeting house three times but there was something good happening there and I had been touched by it.

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This post is a revised version of an unpublished post I started in June 2008, whilst we were still in Chappaqua.

Henry Blofeld

My Dad and I went to see Henry Blofeld in his one man show last night. 'Blowers', as he is affectionally known, is the senior member of the Test Match Special (TMS) commentary team on Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live Extra. I have tried to explain to those who have never heard TMS, the ability, and pride, of the commentary team in not only commentating on a five day cricket match but also in commentating through delays, rain, and other odd incidents, but it is usually in vain. Explaining the sport itself, let alone the cult of the radion commentary, particularly the notion of a five day game between different countries that could end in a draw, is a challenge for a start.

I remember trying to do just that with Stephen Sonnenfeld and Ken Segall in a wonderful steak restaurant, Lambert's, one evening in Austin, TX. I thought I was doing ok until Stephen asked if there was any particular food that was associated with cricket, a little like hot dogs are associated with baseball and tailgating with (American) football. When I started talking about the players coming off for tea and sandwiches (cucumber ones in particular) he started to laugh. When I explained that due to the hours of play they had to come off for lunch as well, he started to fall about with laughter. The idea that the game is so long that it has to accomodate two meals a day for five days was too much. I didn't even begin on the commentators having to deal with covers being taken on and off!

'Blowers' was pretty good value, though we thought he may have had a little more content in the two hours; perhaps he is holding some back for a later tour or book. His most interesting stories were how Ian Fleming's Ernst Stavros Blofeld was inpsired by his Dad and how he passed the 'audition' for TMS as the BBC producer who auditioned him thought he was very good at 'locating' the listener. The analogy he used was that of trying to describe a picture of a horse to someone over the radio. Whereas most people would start with the horse itself, Blowers started with the frame, the background, the situation before getting to the horse. This also explains 'Blowers' penchant for talking about seemingly random things like passing buses, pigeons, and other scene setters.

It is also a good tip for any speaker trying to convey a setting, regardless if there is a radio or not involved.

St. Albans

St. Albans is where we now live. It is a good town; lots of history (third largest Roman town in Roman Britain, death place of first saint from British Christian martyr and a jolly good catheral), close to London (20 mins fast train to central London), and has some youthful energy about it (busy market a couple of days a week, strong local music scene, lots of Goths hanging in Catheral grounds). Apparently house prices are the highest in the country outside of central London (gulp!) and its people are 9th most active in the country. Here are some shots:

Inishturkbeg

Imagine owning your own island. 63 acres of island off the West Coast of Ireland in fact. Imagine that when you bought it, the only buildings were the remains of some stone cottages inhabitated over a hundred years ago and a little stone jetty: no running water, no power. That is what Nadim Sadek, the owner of Inishturkbeg did. He has spent the last four years turning it into an amazing place for companies to get away, for large parties to holiday and for his family to get away. And what's more he is giving it an identity, which was created by my new employer, Coley Porter Bell. It hasn't been officially launched yet so I daren't post anything prematurely. I will do in time. Instead, here are some pictures of the weekend we spent there as part of a thank you from Nadim.

This is the view from the Pavilion of the jetty:

And the sunset from the main house:

And a different view from the main house the next morning:

And the small motor boat dropping us off on a nearby island for in the afternoon. The weather had deteriorated a little.

A great couple of days, and what's more, a great idea.

What's Your Story?

I was in a Waterstone's recently, trying to buy a basic book on economies for inquisitive eleven year old when I saw lots of 'story cards' on the wall. Here are a couple:

Though the photos are pretty bad, taken with my 2 megapixel blackberry camera, the stories and the idea behind it is really good: people sending in their story on a card. The competition is now closed, but the website is still up, have a look, here.

It reminds me a little of the American Visionary Art Mueseum, and in particular the Post Secrets exhibit which people post cards anonymously of their secrets.

Goodbyes

I have been saying a lot of goodbyes recently, and I have learnt four things.

1. Goodbyes are interesting for who does say goodbye and who doesn't and how they say it. I have had a couple of real surprises popping up, that have left a really positive impression on me, and a couple of the expected who just didn't show that haven't.

2. Someone said to me, about a third party in fact, that the way you exit is probably more important than the way you enter.

3. Being "goodbyed out" is no bad thing. It is probably time to go when one feels the onset of "goodbye fatigue". Earlier is too early; there is more goodbye spirit in you to be spent, and later is just overstaying a welcome, or to be exact, a farewell.

4. If you have too many goodbyes, you can go onto the next phase of relationship! One of the most instructive goodbye was with some close friends who took me in for dinner. We parted a little teary, then I realised I have forgotten to pass some DVDs (that only play in The States) to them, so we went to get them, and say goodbye again. Five minutes later they phoned to say I had laft my jacket at their house, so I had to drive over and pick that up. By this time, we were over goodbyes and onto the next phase of the relationship. By this time it was more funny and practical than emotional. I am going to plan for something similar next time.

Cool Bhudda

This was the nightlight in my room in the 'W' in San Francisco recently. I don't usually sleep with any lights on but this was an exception.

Emergency!

Pithy Nuggets

I gave a short presentation on Tuesday to the WPP Fellows in New York. It was entitled "10 things I may or may not have learnt or am still trying to learn, that may or may not be useful, masquerading as pithy nuggets of my work philosophy and presented as an attempt to pass a handy hint or two to younger and smarter people so they can get further than I have done quicker than I have done" Here are the slides:



The tips themselves are:
1. Eat your greens
2. Snuffle for truffles
3. The central question
4. Go to the source
5. Find common ground
6. WPP is a corporation
7. The Binary Brief
8. Take a stroll on philosophy beach
9. Take a risk when buying shoes
10. The slide is self explanatory

Feel free to suggest additional tips. I can extend the presentation or swap out from my original ten.

Walkscore

Following on from my post of my journey to work, I found Walkscore. It is an website that enables you to see how good any area in the States is for walking. It calculates how walkable any area is based on proximity to a variety of amenities. There are many things that it doesn't include in its calculation (public transport, weather, crime, etc.) but I like the intent.

Debrand that Ad

I noticed this ad on the subway: a spoof of the 'transform yourself' genre of advertising. It was sufficiently oddball for all three passengers around the ad to start talking about what, or who, it was for. On closer inspection the small print revealed 'absolut'. I still made a visit to the site, http://www.bekanyenow.com/ which is a little different from http://www.bekanyewest.com/ , a ticket sales site, where I mistakedly first went. It just goes to show it isn't always easy to remember web address from an ad, even one that was relatively interesting.

This Morning's Journey to Work

For the full journey visit This Morning's Journey to Work on my flickr pages.