How to take the room with you

I think ever since the inception of PowerPoint we've been struggling to break free from the tyranny of bullet points. Russell got himself invited to TED this year and posted about a bunch of videos they have made available to download (link here). Grab them all. Especially Malcolm Gladwell and Sir Ken Robinson and Ze Frank. That's how to pitch. That's how to take a room with you (Neil Cassie at Leo Burnett said the job of planning as taking a room with you).

Get Illuminated

The granddaddy of blogs, BoingBoing, has a new podcast feed for itunes called Get Illuminated, and features interviews with "creative people in fringe culture". Should be really good. The first interview is with Doug Rushkoff, who wrote about a new 'renaissance' fuelled by technology. I've used that analogy in a presentation about the many changes we're seeing in the advertising and marketing industry, and how we may see a new type of agency emerge (perhaps a Media Arts agency). As someone who is just old enough to have lived the 'Third Wave' revolution of the mid-eighties, it's worth listening to Rushkoff's themes to see how they parlay into advertising. You can download a speech he gave to pop tech in 2005 at IT Conversations.

Can you smell where you are?

Let's hope Transport for London aren't reading this

I've long thought that people have cognitive maps of London - that they navigate above and below ground by subconscious landmarks.

In New York now, there's a map of the subway on Gawker showing what each station smells like.

Audience participation and nicely integrated with Google maps. Very web 2.0

A Global Planning Group

I really hope this flies. http://www.flickr.com/groups/planning_eye/ is a new Group on Flickr for planners, would-be planners or anyone interested in joining the fun - and ideally from the broadest set of creative businesses. The idea is to post a picture a week of anything that's caught your eye. At worst, it'll spice up our PowerPoints. At best, it'll be a fascinating insight into what's in the minds of some super bright, interesting, creative people all over the world. So come and sign up and lt anyone you know who might want to play, know.

Mapvertising

Geotagging photographs is really addictive. Although I personally find Google Earth too slow and clunky and have taken to Flickr's maps instead, I love the interface of the map.

Navigating services and brands by their place on a map is intuitively human.

There's the BA campaign at the moment that uses Google Maps as an embedded or ingredient brnad. Very interesting. Saturn in the US have a totally integrated Google Mpas/Earth/Search campaign running (info on NY Times here) and now UM have published a pdf about all things Mapvertising (direct pdf link here).

At the Roundhouse

I love the Roundhouse in Camden. Great space. Today, Merce Cunningham's Ocean. A few people left before the end, which I think is disrespectful of the dancers, but also of their own intelligence and imagination. If the emerging debate about the next iteration of advertising as 'Media Arts' gets some traction (look for the video debate between Lee Clow and Alex Bogusky here), how do we make communicationsas provocative and challenging as this and how on earth do we get people to give them a go?

Enter the Copywriter

As an alumni of McCann and Microsoft, this struck a chord.

Little surprises

This art project leaves little painted figures around London. I can't wait to find one. I saw sometihng a little similar to this in Bon Marche in Paris last autumn but I like the randomness of chancing upon these on the street. It reminds me of bookcrossing too. Why don't more brands embrace this sort of art/culture collaboration and 'chance' marketing to surprise and delight people?

The Dunbar Number

There seems to be a new openness to science theory in advertising thinking at the moment. Memetics is an obvious example, of how ideas are transmitted and received. Another that might have some merit is this piece from IT Conversations about the Dunbar Number - the 'cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom a person can maintain stable relationships' and the formation and dynamics of groups. Could be worth a listen if you're planning an online community for instance, or want your email campaign to be considered a must-read by your customer?

Homegrown video genius

I don't know about you but most of the videos on YouTube and Google Video are just poor. I suppose that's part of the charm for some - but it also makes everyone feel like they can create great content for next to nothing. The other part of their charm is the rare surprise find of original great content made for next to nothing. This is a work of imagination and executional genius. The song doesn't do it for me but the video is so simple I can't believe it hasn't been done before. Lovely.

Bench press

I forgot Amiga called their computer desktop 'Workbench'. Who wouldn’t rather be a skilled carpenter than a 'knowledge worker'? Benchtop or Workbench evokes craft and artisanal skill in a way desktop sounds formailsed and cold. Or am I rambling? Thanks to Nathan for the link to The GUI screenshot repository:http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots