Cool Drinks Ad
July 30, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I’m going on holidays at the end of this week. In the spirit of what I’ll be doing this time next week - in the sun mind you! - is another cooool drinks ad. This time for Miller Light. Love the idea of the giant crowd! Cool effects.
Poorly Executed Campaign: l’Oreal
July 27, 2007 at 9:33 am
I’m going on my holidays next week, so am in the market for sunscreen. This morning I came across an ad on entertainment.ie - I couldn’t not, it was in yer face and required me to close it in order to see the navigation = not good… But this morning, because it’s a sunny day and I’m going on holidays in 7 days, I clicked on the ad.
What a disappointment!
A microsite which I can only assume was created by some UK outfit with really bad navigation. There’s a kind of spinning wheel where the content resides on the right - are they trying to make it difficult to get at? That shape also reminded me of my favourite Charles Schwab site - back in 1998!!
There are pictures of someone who’s supposedly used high protection sun screen and low protection sun screen but they are so teeny tiny I couldn’t actually see the point l’Oreal were trying to make! Presumably your skin looks better with high protection screen?
And of course there’s a competition! I’d love a trip to Cuba thanks very much. Because it’s a UK site, I had a quick scan around for terms & conditions to ensure that us ‘Eire’ people would be eligible to enter. There were none. Started to fill in the registration form and it froze. Then I got an error message I’ve never seen before about scripts that made me feel a bit nervous. Oh, and the input boxes are opaque black!
All in all l’Oreal, you’ve lost me. Your spend has been wasted. Your digital agency should be shot. Or rounded up against a wall and pelted with stingy sun screen.
Aren’t we a great little country?
July 25, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I don’t know how many times I heard my mother say that over the years - even in the 80’s. Gasp! Yes, I can remember back that far. And yes, my Mum is an optimistic soul! You know how they say you get more like your mother/father as you get older? Well ‘aren’t we a great little country’ was on my lips as I saw AllThingsD’s video on Dublin. I don’t know much about them yet but they do big tech conferences around the world and are over here right now investigating holding the European one in dear old Dublin. Nice to see an American’s slant on things, kind of funny that they didn’t stray beyond the environs of the Shelbourne Hotel!
Thanks to Mulley on Twitter for the steer!
Fighting breaks out amongst US blogging intelligentsia
July 25, 2007 at 9:05 am
Blog skirmishes have taken place between Stowe Boyd and Linda Stone.
Background so far: Linda Stone came out with a theory of Continuous Partial Attention in 2002. You can read more on her site.
Stowe makes Reboot presentation on his theory of Flow - to which I would subscribe. You can read my take on it here.
Since then, Linda Stone posted her response to Stowe’s Reboot 9 talk on someone else’s site, she left a comment there addressed to Stowe, that was a bit of a mistake I think. Why not address him directly?
But I’m not too sure whether I like Stowe’s dogmatic response in which he says he understands her better than she understands herself. (Youch). Stowe ends by drawing a clear line between those who are in his tribe and those who are not. His references to baby boomers previously in this post infer that those who are not are a bunch of old timers who don’t really matter anyway.
And here’s an intelligent comment from a reader of Stowe’s blog.
No More Mr Nice Guy
July 24, 2007 at 9:38 am
I just read a great post over at Clunky Flow which takes a look at Google’s recent response in relation to Facebook:
Internet search has been the killer app. of the web and Google have been the most successful company at delivering and monetizing that service. However, search has recently been superceded by social interaction as the new killer app. of the web. Internet users now spend much more time and energy engaged in social interactions mediated across the web than they do in searching for content. And this social interaction is occurring within walled gardens that exclude Google from accessing its contents in order to protect the privacy of it’s attendees.
Google is getting tetchy. Want to know more? Read on…
Love Facebook or Hate Facebook?
July 23, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Guy Kawasaki has a poll on his blog today asking how many friends you’ve got on Facebook. The majority of people haven’t got a Facebook account yet, despite the vortex-like hold the platform seems to have on people. But of those who do have Facebook accounts, the majority have more than 50 friends on there.
- 42.96% have not got a Facebook account
- 17.45% have 0 - 10 friends on Facebook
- 8.88% have 11- 25 friends
- 6.6% have 26 - 50 friends
- 24.12% have more than 50 friends on Facebook
‘Do you use Facebook’ survey
July 19, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Facebook - ah yes - the wunderkind of the web . . . for now, until the next big thing comes along. But Facebook does seem to have traction. In fact it’s exploded in the past few weeks. It’s all over blogland (I don’t like the term blogosphere) and I’m receiving invites from even my most non-techie, non-online friends who are shocked that I’m not on it. In a dramatic about turn, I was actually defending myself about this decision last weekend.
Why am I not on it?
Because I’m an active member of many sites, enough for me now, with the little bit of free time I get to enjoy them. For sites that pique my interests like Flickr, Tripadvisor, 43things, Fairtilizer, Spanglish, and MySpace, I’m more than just a user number. I actively participate. So I don’t really want to join another one unless it’s offering me something I haven’t already got.
At this morning’s Open Coffee proceedings in Dublin, I did a straw poll amongst people who were there about Facebook. Have you registered on Facebook? Do you use it? If so, why?
The overall response was that most people have registered, nobody is using it.
Reasons People Registered for Facebook:
- because they wanted to see the API
- curiosity
- because they had a friend on there
Obviously not wholly representative of the population at large, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. Thanks to Eamonn, Lawrence, Olivier, Barry, Eoghan, and Alastair for your opinions.
3 Good Causes
July 12, 2007 at 12:04 pm
1. Senior Bloggers - I initially dreamed this one up in May and got very disheartened by the lack of interest from state bodies who you’d think would have access to the kind of people I was trying to reach. Happy to report that this time round, in July, I’m getting a much better response.
UPDATE ON 15 AUGUST - despite numerous attempts to recruit 8 seniors interested in learning how to blog - I have failed. Thanks to all who helped me in promoting this. I will not try again. Obviously Irish elders are too busy camping out in Spain or Portugal to be bothered with blogging.
I’m looking for 8 over 65 year olds who know how to send an email - and who have lots to say!
The uber-stylish and with super fast broadband, Dylan Hotel are giving me a room on 21 August to run a blogging workshop. We’ll spend some time looking at blogs and how they’re written. We’ll learn how to write a post (and if you can send an email you can write a post - same thing really, just different language). And we’ll get everyone in the group set up with their own blog. The idea is to get silver bloggers blogging because we need to hear what they’ve got to say.
If you are interested in taking part in this, or you know someone who would be interested, please contact me and let me know. This is all free by the way.
2. Give 3 hours a day to a Seniors Cyber Cafe. Over the course of my investigations into finding silver surfers yesterday I spoke to Derek O’Shaughnessy of St Annes Church on Dawson Street. They have a cyber cafe for seniors - the whole set up, computers, broadband, etc. But they have no teacher. If you are interested in hanging out at the cyber cafe and answering such questions as “how do I book flights online?” or “how do I send an email?” then Derek wants to hear from you. It’s only a 3 hour time commitment - from 12 - 3pm and you’d be doing a very good deed. Contact Derek on 087 130 3472.
3. And how about this - Social Networking around loans to farmers and entrepreneurs from developing countries? Kiva.org allows you to load up money you want to donate. Browse the projects, check the repayment terms, and donate. Manage your overseas aid portfolio. Network with others who have invested and share stories about what projects have worked and generated a return on the investment. You can take your money back out, or, leave it there, grow it and keep reinvesting.
I love this idea. It certainly hits the mark in terms of the trends charities face of people wanting to see where their money goes to. And it neatly avoids the administration costs that many charities incur.
Smart Telecom Site Live
July 11, 2007 at 6:18 pm
This has been keeping me busy for a little while now. Glad to see it’s live and the client is very happy with it. View site.
Our role involved planning, content copywriting, design, and build.
It felt good to be writing clear content for a site that sells broadband. As a consumer over the years, it never ceases to amaze me how much tech speak creeps into broadband provider websites. I defy anybody to find anything on the spanking new Smart Telecom site that is not easily understood by even your granny! Nice use of Ajax too on the FAQ section - even though I say so myself.
Dublin Zoo - in need of an update
July 11, 2007 at 11:32 am
Oh the power of photography! We’ve just started work on a new project for an ecommerce site. The client is very switched on and realises that good photography can make all the difference. If you want someone to buy something from you, you must try and give them as much information to assist in that decision - a couple of good pics is a basic requirement but one that is all too often overlooked.
Take Dublin Zoo for example.
There has recently been a number of new babies born at the zoo. They’ve got the PR working on overdrive, every time I open a Saturday Irish Times there’s a cute picture of baby elephants, giraffes, etc. staring right back at me. So the pictures exist.
Now go to the Dublin Zoo site. It’s awful. A generic montage of images that look like they’ve been cobbled together from old brochures going back to the 1970’s. Isn’t that lion from “Born Free”? Lighting is off on all of them, and look - there’s no sign of the new celebrity babies! Don’t go clicking into news because you’ll get stuck - there is no back link on the logo to home. Search for baby elephant and you get a list of results that aren’t relevant. The first one is a pdf, but it doesn’t tell you that. The most prominent feature is a (expensively produced) waste of time virtual map that I couldn’t understand.
This site is not marketing focussed, content is poor. It does not entice me to come visit, it’s not up to date, and if I was deciding how to spend my summer holidays time with the kids, I’d be going elsewhere.
Now, here’s an example of how a zoo site should be done. Denver Zoo - first thing that jumps out at you are the cutesy pics of the animals. The seal-lion makes me go agh. The orangutang is so cute. And even the reptile looks appealing - kind of.
Apart from the strong use of photography, the site is well structured achieving clear goals - education, conservation, kids, plants. Denver Zoo looks like an attractive place that I’d want to visit and it’s easy to see the current events. Content is well written for the audience. In short, Denver Zoo is everything that Dublin Zoo is not.
Dublin Zoo is one of the most popular tourist attractions. They have a good name for their marketing. It’s just such a pity that they ignore the online environment and that lets them down.
