The Communications Room

I feel more and more that that the time is here where old and new media has not just collided, but agencies are admitting to the fact that it has actually happened. In a post 2.0 age it will be impossible to specify what ‘kind of agency’ created this or who created that. The gloves will thankfully be well and truly off and only the strongest will survive.

Anyone from a production house, an ad agency, a media agency, even a social justice, public affairs agency could have come up with the idea for the Pet Shop Boys Integral campaign. However, they do all need to understand digital. And whilst I do think it will be easier for a digital agency to grow out than it will a ‘traditional’ agency to grow in, this post isn’t about who is best to do it. People can fight about that somewhere else for all I care.

It is more about the blurring of the lines becoming normal, new media being seen as just media. I honestly don’t think there is a more exciting time to be working in digital…yes, even in Australia where Telstra are pushing things like QR codes hard. But again this isn’t about QR codes potentially arriving from Japan three years later. Shit, interactive billboards were being done in Belgium in 2005. It’s about digital really manifesting in people’s lives, not just on a screen.

Everyone knows that taxi drivers are generally annoying no matter what part of the world your are in. Whether it’s running you over, putting your life at risk, going the long way round or generally just thinking they own the roads, taxi drivers get on my wick. Particularly in Australia it would seem.

One of the things that has also surprised me about the ‘energetic Aussie’ is that they drive or get cabs everywhere. So needless to say like most major cities in the world you always get a gob full of pollution settling nicely in your lungs every morning. But the other night, whilst at a do with my girlfriend and her work they arranged cabs for everyone from their account and at the end of the night a Greentomatocars turned up. It’s an environmentally friendly taxi service with some bloody nice drivers. I like this brand and think every business should have an account with one.

Despite working in digital and spending far too much time on t’internet, I love reading. And as we all know, in a world where technology is taking up more of our time, more and more people are spending time reading books…..oooohh spoooky. So to cater for the person that loves both is Library Thing. Now I guess this has been around for ages but I have just found it and as it turns out there is loads of them. For me this is my favourite. It isn’t the most attractive like Bookrabbit but it is the most intuitive.

I have started a group which you are more than welcome to join. I’m currently there on my own so it’s quite dull at the moment.

I went to an AIMIA forum this week relating to ‘Market Research in the Digital Age’. Whilst it was helpful it left me somewhat wanting more. They spoke a lot about disruptive technology (which is an unhelpful mindset to be in if I’m honest) and the main take out for me was that technology allows you to do the same research only faster, cheaper and more accurately. Which is kind of obvious really. However, it was nice to hear about the developments in the industry.

For me, I would have like to have seen a forum on how we could use digital/technology to better understand people in general. Something more along the lines of this post on digital anthropology from Logic + Emotion. Or simply how can we use digital devices to observe what people do.

I kind of like the virtual pint app from Carling. Admittedly I’m not sure whether it will work out to massively cost effective i.e. will it get more column inches than downloads? But it is what it is. And that’s an entertaining piece of communication, using cutting edge technology from a brand doing good things. Will it sell more pints, perhaps not? Is it useful, not really? It will however get groups of lads crowding around their mate with the new iPhone down the pub thinking about Carling. Even though Carling’s product isn’t the best in my opinion I have a growing appreciation for the brand. They always do good stuff such as this last year at festivals. Maybe the next time I’m in England I might try an actual pint.

I have blogged about how pointless HSBC’s The World’s Local Bank position is before but they have just confirmed that all it really means is that they don’t just rip you off at home, they can do it all over the world.

So part two goes something like this…

There is me thinking that I could quite easily open a bank account with HSBC in Australia seeing as I have been a customer with them for 12 years in the UK. No they tell me it isn’t that easy because we are on ‘different systems’. I would have to jump through stupid hoops and have X amount in the bank blah blah blah. It is irrelevant that I have an account with them already. So off I go to Westpac who make it a million times easier for anyone moving to the country to open a bank account so you can merely get paid and take it out.

However I am then left with deciding how do I pay my bills from the UK so I don’t have to fork out 20 quid every time I need to transfer money to pay them. Surely I can just go into HSBC in Australia and pay it into my UK account so I can pay my credit card bill, that is with HSBC I might add, after all they are the World’s Local Bank? No I am told, I will be charged the 20 quid because it is an ‘overseas transaction’. However, if I was a premium customer with 500,000 in the bank they would not charge me. One, do you think if I had that much in the bank I would worry about the charge and two, does banking with you for 12 years not make me important enough. Jokers! Apologies in advance if I ever work on this account in the future but surely anyone can see that the whole position means nothing is just not authentic in any way shape or form.

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Actually to me…but after a hard fought battle for my services, OK not that hard, I am now officially spending my days with the lovely people at Amnesia as a Strategist. And just to cover my backside I will reiterate that all comments, thoughts, opinions, rants, rambles and brain farts on here are mine and mine only. If you want Amnesia’s you can find them here.

So here is to a long lasting relationship creating some cracking stuff for some great brands

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Well it’s not quite that exciting but I was having a chat with Auntie Mye about why she always leaves the Radio on in the house even if she is out. I initially thought it was something to with scaring off potential burglars, but as it happens it’s because ‘a house is never lonely when the radio is on’. Which is a lovely little thought. I don’t listen to the radio much these days, only Lastfm, but it’s true, radio background noise is comforting and it’s not just at home. We all must of worked in those offices which could do with a bit of Radio ambience to breathe some life into the place and drown out the tapping of keyboards and long silences. Perhaps there is a campaign to promote radio in there somewhere.

I love it when you are having a chat with someone who shines a little light on something which makes you look at it differently, or with a new kind of affection.

Does digital make us lazy? Have we lost the urge just to do stuff or stand up and speak out for what we believe in? Does digital give us the chance to dabble in something but not actually see it through?

Well there have been a few things lately that have made me think about digital lethargy. The point in which a person’s interest or involvement online isn’t mobilised into something that arguably has a greater influence and/or effect (it’s not a real post unless you have coined a term by the way). Perhaps it is political or merely something more fulfilling personally. Or maybe even a sale.

I criticise myself a lot for being too lazy. I have strong opinions about politics and the environment, but I don’t really do anything about it. I rarely read the paper properly anymore. I use Facebook instead of making an effort to go and visit friends and family. I go on many cool branded sites but rarely buy the product or even think differently about it, at least not consciously. And of course posting too much about things other people have said or done rather the things I have done or think.

Noah and the guys from Zeus Jones have written this and this respectively about how digital habits are manifesting themselves in traditional forms of media consumption/behaviour, which is an interesting concept in itself. Although not related to digital, John Mcure of Reverend and the Makers fame also wrote this in the Guardian that touches on people doing sod all politically. I particularly like this paragraph.

“Yet a deafening silence prevails, save for on soft issues that don’t require our leaders to remove the splinters of middle England’s fences from their derrieres. Bono talking hungry Africans is a safe issue. He’s a man they’re happy to do business with, borrow some cool from. Everyone agrees we should act. Comic Relief, Sport Aid? No brainers. A far cry from the counterculture radicals who so affected our broad thinking during the late 60s or even during the punk era.”

So praise be to god my dying belief in mankind was saved when I went to my first APG event in Sydney and Sam McLean from the not for profit Getup.org.au gave us a presentation on how they use digital to mobilise people around specific issues such as the environment or the price of fuel for example.

Now I think Getup is awesome and it is genuinely more than just an online petition site, which lets face it is the most lazy form of activism. It has 280,000 members. People create content for their campaigns for free and people donate money to pay for the media spend and launch it as a TV ad. They even organise ‘Getogethers’ across Australia that do influence policies at varying levels. Getup are a great example of how digital can be used cost effectively to create grassroots interests and participation, but more importantly how they turn that interest into something potent by using ‘old media’.

If you haven’t seen it yet, Getup is responsible for the following movie. And if you want to donate towards the media spend you can do it here.

Now I’m sort of going off course a bit but I will maintain the ramble. The rub for me on this is ‘what does this essentially mean for brands?’ I often hear it said, particularly in the alcohol market, that their respective audiences aren’t online. Which isn’t true, but what is true is why should someone bother to gather, ‘online or offline’, anywhere other than a pub for a bottle of lager? And that is where digital agencies are failing. Why would any self respecting lager drinker bother to jump through these hoops just win a fridge or hear about all of their exciting news via email? Do they really care enough to do what is being asked of them?

This to me is the part that clients want us to answer and is imperative if digital agencies are to play a greater role from a brand leadership perspective. Rather than throwing stats at them that say 21 – 35 year olds lager drinkers now consume x amount of Internet hours compared to TV, therefore we must do something in digital. We must be showing them how we can use digital in a way that is relevant for people’s relationship with that specific brand. How can we snap them out of this lethargy and create communications that are more than just forwarding an email on to a friend, entering a competition or signing up to a petition against global warming? How can we mobilise the masses and not just those who are motivated enough to play with the latest communication just because it’s cool and innovative? Perhaps there is a market for a digital, come experiential, come PR agency?