The other day I have received an e-mail and a great initiative by the environmental non-profit called GREEN THING was introduced to me: Glove Love.

On the website they say: “There’s only one thing worse than not having any gloves when you need them – having just one.” With Glove Love they match up single gloves that have lost their original partners to create new and unique pairs. It’s part of our anti-waste initiative called ‘All Consuming’, which promotes the art of wasting nothing and using up everything.

I think it’s rather a lovely example of inspiration, creativity, technology, sustainability and connecting individuals through a shared passion.

Check out how you can do the Glove Thing.

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

This is the 200th post on mad-blog.com. Congratulations and a big hand to all those who have contributed so far. Over 20,000 absolute unique visitors from 134 countries joined us, spending an average of 2:59 minutes on the blog. Over 4,550 people have subscribed to our rss feed. Thanks for all the interest and support.

This is the perfect opportunity to share the most read stories celebrating Media Arts and Disruption. Enjoy and pass them on:

(1) The audience is always right. (by Michael Zorn)

(2) Some brands don‘t like change. Change doesn’t much care. (by Michael Zorn)

(3) Cannes Lions 2009: Who will be the big winners? (by Rob Schwartz)

(4) Disruption is liberation. (by Sven H. Becker)

(5) Let‘s do things we think we cannot do. (by John Hunt)

(6) Change: What business can learn from politics 2.0. (by Frank Striefler)

(7) The age of media arts. (by Lee Clow)

(8) The Zimbabwean Trillion Dollar Campaign. (by Gavin Heron)

(9) Act like lovers do. (by Stefan Schmidt)

(10) adidas Originals: Connection with the original tribe. (by Moritz Kiechle)

(11) Images travel but disruptive ideas thrive. (by Perry Valkenburg)

(12)  The beauty of big. (by Jean-Marie Dru)

If you have any comments please email Ulrich Proeschel.

In a series of seven posts authors from London – this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion. Todays post by Ian Thomas, Managing Director Integer London.

We Londoners like to think that we have some of the best shopping around. And with over 40,000 shops to choose from, ranging from the boutiques on the local high streets to retail palaces such as Selfridges we’re certainly well served. But if you were to open a new store here tomorrow, would it based on the retailing conventions of today?

Retail is facing a revolution as shoppers switch to online channels and technology ranging from iPhone barcode scanners to comparison web sites bring transparency to pricing and make it very clear how much extra we pay for the pleasure of visiting these palaces .So any store being designed today would join the physical store and their online presence to enable a seamless customer journey. It would recognise that shoppers research in one channel, buy from another and then switch back to online channels for customer service post sale. It would incorporate the fact that other shoppers buy online but want to collect or return the product at a physical store. In short, you would design your offering to be multi-channel from the start.

You might not stop at this and incorporate some of the innovations that online retailing has brought – such as price comparisons (which keep customers from leaving your store), customer reviews (that can significantly boost conversion levels and average order value), offer home delivery or communicate current stock availability. And you might integrate your supply chain so that you get the manufacturer to ship stock directly to the customer, meaning the retailer only needs a display product in store and can display an extensive range to satisfy the “long tail” of niche markets.

On a recent trip to New York I saw one store which is already offering most of the above, possibly giving a glimpse of the future of UK retailing. The store was Best Buy – the largest electrical retailer in the US and owners of the Carphone Warehouse in the UK. They have embraced multi channel retailing like no other: you can browse in the store and order on line – from the store itself. All stock can be delivered the next day (sometimes the same day) and importantly installed and integrated to your existing devices by the Geek Squad (who they also own), giving them ownership of the much fought over “digital home”. Increasingly, they are bundling their products and services to make it harder to make comparisons with other retailers and adding other services such as online receipt storage and recycling of old devices.

The reason that this is of importance to the UK is that Best Buy is to launch here next year – and given that there are over 800 Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK (seemingly on every London street) and they have vowed to bring these innovations to the UK. Interestingly this is at odds with my own experience of The Carphone Warehouse, where their telesales team appear to compete with store staff for your business.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Ian Thomas, Managing Director, Integer London.

In a series of seven posts authors from London – this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion. Todays post by Rob Brown, Managing Director Staniforth\ and author of “Public Relations and the Social Web”.

In a series of seven posts authors from London – this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion. Todays post by Dom Caisley, Managing Partner STREAM\ Music.

“Is London still the centre of music?” someone asked me today. “Yes, yes it is. Let me tell you why. This is a true story, it happened to me last week.”

My two employees (Dave and Tom) and I hadn’t been out together for a while and work had been particularly busy so we thought we’d have a night out, see some bands (we are the music team at TBWA\London) , look up some old contacts and go visit some of the new venues springing up all over town.

A few calls here and a couple of emails there and we had a rammed packed Tuesday afternoon/evening, with barely time on the schedule to squeeze a drink or two in-between acts (we managed). And that’s the thing about London. Walk down a street and you’ll quickly come across a music venue, a pub with a back room, a wine bar, a converted church, nightclub etc. with the whump of a bass drum, the cheers of the crowd, the smash of a cymbal or the reverberations from the bass creeping past the bouncers into the night air.

As our evening will demonstrate, if you want to listen to live music there isn’t a town like it anywhere in the world. We start at the Marina & The Diamonds showcase on the Atlantic building roof gardens in Kensington at 2pm. It’s a showcase just for music retailers, press, ad agencies and other music licensing teams (TV, film, computer games etc.) We locate the kitchen door ready for the hot nibbles to come out and grab several long stemmed champagne glasses filled with the finest sparkling wine a supermarket can supply.  The band’s good, if a little distracted, but more importantly we’ve tapped up the artist liason guy for three names on The Specials guestlist at Brixton Academy later on.

Now, however, we are hot-footing it over to Shoreditch for the Shoreditch festival (80 bands, 25 venues, one night, one square mile). On the way, we call in at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen where EX-Lovers are playing an afternoon set for press before their evening gig. Hoxton, Dalston and Shoreditch are the places to be at the moment, with virtually every other door a music venue and tonight, every one of them will be rammed full of checked-shirted-fop-haired-skinny jeaned kids going mad for the latest sound. I’ll leave the skinny jeans to the kids but there is nothing better for finding the next big thing than to follow them about town. These guys can sniff out the next style, future star, the new sound from a mile away and all you have to do is walk into Spitalfields market and follow the crowds to be part of it.

It’s now 6pm and we’ve already graced the Queen of Hoxton pub, the Legionnaire, and Rough Trade East record store , double pinting cider in each, a handshake with the band’s product manager and a nod to the ad agency competition and we’re on the move again. We’re walking down Brick Lane and immediately there’s a little crowd  gathered with one man rock and roll band John Henry Matthews giving it on the slide guitar and kicking his bass drum pedal like Rooney in the 89th minute. This isn’t just a busker though, Little Si Brewis over at Sony signed this guy two months ago. He’s booked as the support on the Kings of Leon tour and has his first album coming out next month yet here he is dancing for money. A hundred yards down and there’s another band playing Sandy Denny’s “Who Knows Where The Time Goes” but this time there’s a lady in the audience belting out the words like Nina Simone’s version. She’s got one shoe on, carrying five Tesco’s bags and the voice of a soul diva.

We can’t stop, Of Montreal are starting at the Vibe Bar in 5 minutes and we need to get in the door before the rush starts. That’s the problem with the British summer, the first whiff of sun and everyone’s got their tops off and lying on any scrap of grass they can find.

It’s 7.30pm and we have still got Madame Jo Jo’s in Soho, and the 100 Club on Oxford Street to fit in before The Specials come on stage at Brixton academy () . There’s a rumour text going round that Brakes are playing  the Pearl Jam aftershow party at the O2’s nightclub Matter but that means a boat ride across the Thames and the boys want to go to Boogaloo club in Highgate to see if Shane McGowan and Pete Doherty are gonna jam again later on. Apparently everyone was up on the stage singing ‘Dirty Old Town’ at 6am last time so who am I to argue.

Blinding set by The Big Pink at Madame Jo Jo’s and then we argue over the best band to ever play the 100 Club whilst listening to Hockey. My vote’s on Elvis (but the picture on the wall looks like it was taken in the States and I’m pretty sure he never played England) but Dave goes with Prince and Tom the purist’s gone with Neil Young. We’ve got no time to argue and we’re in a black cab on the way to Brixton.

The Brixton Academy, where I spent a large percentage of my youth and pocket money, is rammed. I have never seen it this busy (and that includes The Pogues, Arctic Monkeys and Motorhead) but we chivvy our way down to the front (right hand side of the stage, next to the girls toilets is always the best area as all the men are on the left by the mens!). The lights dim, the DJ takes The Clash off the decks and puts the opening strains of Wagner on, an eruption of noise, a frenzied surge forward proclaim The Specials coming onstage. They open with ‘Nite Club’ and it rains beer for a full 30 seconds. I lose track of time and a connection to the floor as the maul of sweaty fat skinheads waltzes me around the mosh pit. I lose the boys, but at the pre-arranged time and place outside I can see their Cheshire Cat grins from across the street.  Check it out for yourself…

Black cab again as we’re fighting to get to the Roundhouse, Camden in time for the end of David Byrne’s set and then Koko for the club night where Mark Ronson is Djing Koko . In between however we stop at The Good Mixer pub where Brit Pop was born and signed its record deals and Dave blags wristbands for The Social just in case we survive Boogaloo.

Eventually at 5am I’m in bed and the familiar 12 inch mix of monotone is ringing in my ears and I’m dropping off to dream of playing bass with anyone that will have me.

“That’s why London is still the centre of music,” I said. “A simple yes would have sufficed!” was his reply.

In a series of seven posts authors from London –  this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion. Todays post by Tim Bonnet, CEO, TEQUILA\ London and Acting CEO Agency.com.

It’s easy to assume that the explosion of young people using social networks affords marketers a wide new gateway through which to target them. Youth is now incredibly hard to reach with mass messages, thanks to an unprecedentedly complex media landscape and stricter comms legislation. But this demographic remains a vital, influential market.

Social media may not be the cure-all it first appears, however. The use of social networks among younger age groups is maturing: Ofcom reports the number of those aged 15 to 24 with accounts dropped from 55% to 50% from Q1 2009 compared to the same period last year. Growth among all social networking sites is in fact increasingly driven by older demographics such as LinkedIn.

The suggestion is that young people are not as predisposed to social networking as we’ve been led to believe (mainly by the networks themselves). They are essentially obsessive early adopters. It’s no surprise that an age group undergoing their own seismic physical changes are most accepting of the genesis of social media. For older people, who are just managing to get a handle on social networks through the ultra-simple Twitter and utilitarian LinkedIn, it is still something new.

15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern Matthew Robinson shocked The City in July with a report on the media consumption habits of young people, which made the FT’s front page. For the first time, business was forced to consider young people as subtle individuals who unsurprisingly have different social needs to adults and reflect this in their consumption of media.

What Robinson proves, albeit as a sample of one, is that there is no entry point for the youth market and that viewing young people as a homogenous group is pointless and unhelpful. For marketers, it’s a question of applying the same strategic rigour to selecting social media as with any other; rather than letting clients presume “it doesn’t cost much, the kids are all doing it and so are our competitors, so let’s pile in”.

Adolescents are interested in exploring social boundaries and iteratively developing their own identity. Social networks have become an important part of that development because online is one of the few environments in which young people can dictate what their world looks like and who they share it with.

Brands need to determine: what is the scope and depth of conversations? What online content do they consume? Are they generating content or sharing? What other channels are they using? What conceivable room is there for brands to join or expand the conversation? How does all this link to their wider behaviour as consumers?

The use of social networking sites is a perfect example of Media Arts: the discipline of managing how a brand behaves in the many channels it has at its disposal. We could all be smarter about which channels we select, or leave to one side for a campaign where necessary. As long as the beliefs of the brand are relevant to social networking sites, we can create some big ideas and shape consumer behaviour. Get it wrong, and brands risk losing youth for good.

Only insight differentiates a placeholder Twitter account or Facebook page from a strategic asset to the brand. Audience understanding is why Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice promotion was so effective, with more than 230,000 Facebook users dropping superfluous friends in exchange for the incentive of a free burger. All that remains of the initiative now is an eerie message citing the site’s success.

Online conversations happen between friends and in social circles, not from brands directly to a single consumer. Social media cannot be used to blanket target such a diverse demographic – conversations have to be two-way to be engaging and effective. That is the level at which the battle for social networking’s ‘native’ youth market should be fought.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Tim Bonnet, CEO, TEQUILA\ London and Acting CEO Agency.com.

In a series of seven posts authors from London –  this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion. Todays post by Jess Greenwood, Deputy Editor of Contagious.

When YouTube was invented, it brought with it waves of user-generated video content that by 2006 had threatened to drown us all in trampolining cats. Predictably, there was much kerfuffle in the advertising industry. When haphazard attempts at ‘viral’ communication were compared with the generally hilarious mishaps, exploding Diet Coke bottles and sleeping pandas that populated the channel, the future of video-based advertising communication on the internet looked bleak. Brands just weren’t that fun….

More than anywhere, it was London that suffered. A corner of the industry that prided itself on big budgets and high production value, a place where, even if we’d never seen it before, we’d seen it all before, London was swiftly overrun with innovative digital hotshops and planner-bloggers proclaiming the death of the traditional agency model. It was here that the user-generated, low-budget, crappy handheld revolution seemed likely to strike hardest.

Thankfully, we’ve all grown up a bit since then. Several recent campaigns have harnessed the power of non-video-based UGC to staggering effect. Walker’s ‘Do Us a Flavour’ campaign through AMV BBDO, for example, attracted 1.2 million suggestions for new crisp flavours – a million more than expected. TBWA\London’s Skittle Skuffle allowed punters to create their own avatars, and pit them against friends and family using social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The game drew 370,000 Facebook fans in a matter of weeks. But the arrogant days of getting consumers to make your commercials for you thankfully seem to be over, with most brands realising that in order to make people care enough you either have to pay them lots of money (Doritos) or recruit semi-professionals and promise them a glittering career (HP).

The Triumphant Return of Film

As the impact of the user-generated commercial quietly declines, the impact of the ‘statusphere’ – the evolution of the web into a short-form, comment-driven mechanism based on the uploading of short status messages to platforms such as Twitter – is making itself felt in Adland.

Despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the mainstream media, social networks are unarguably good at one thing – the speedy dissemination of information. Links fly, comments are retweeted and a smart piece of content becomes a global phenomenon in the blink of an eye. However, with a new platform comes a shift in our psychology, and our approaches to sharing. On Twitter, content is like a badge. Sending it on means wearing it for the rest of the day.

We have something of a mantra for judging the criteria of a Contagious campaign, namely – is it useful? Is it relevant? Is it entertaining? Twitter is the ultimate meritocracy, for those who care how they’re judged at least. If you pass something on, it had better be at least one of those three things, or you and your online reputation will be stuck with it.

From an advertising perspective, this has interesting ramifications. Three of the most widely distributed pieces of advertising content of the last few months – as far as video goes, anyway – were high budget, beautifully produced films which took full advantage of online distribution channels to extend the audiovisual format way beyond a traditional commercial.

Nike’s skate wear commercial, ‘Today Was a Perfect Day’, starred Paul Rodriguez and Ice Cube and was released online in a web-only format of 120s to a rapturous reception from the skate and film communities (Brand Kitchen, Johannesburg). Philips’ ‘Carousel’ played with interactive technologies to allow users to investigate an elaborate heist at their own pace, to sell the 21:9 TV (Tribal DDB, Amsterdam). And finally, Diageo’s work for Johnnie Walker, a six-minute, one take narration of the history of the brand by Scottish actor Robert Carlyle as he tramps over the highlands (BBH, London).

All three films are slick, boasting extraordinary production value – and importantly, a strong creative idea. Philips’ clowns are menacing, and the stop frame action enticing. Carlyle’s performance for Johnnie Walker is assured (although that, too, may have been expensive). And Nike’s laid-back examination of a day in the life of an affable skater is the stuff of which slacker dreams are made.

With this in mind – could we see a return to the big budget gosh-that’s-pretty production of yesteryear at which London so excels? Is it time for all those newly rebranded ‘digital’ creatives and ‘viral’ directors to start dusting off their pens, paper and 35mm reels and get out there to show us what they can do? Is London’s creative renaissance about to come from the most unlikely of directions – the resurgence of film?

A word to the wise, however. As digital production techniques are further democratised, the cogs will begin to turn. Making something look big budget will no longer cost big budget. And so the cycle of user-generated content will begin again, perhaps marking a return to the scratty, off-the-cuff production of 2006. Crank up the Gnarls Barkley….

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Jess Greenwood, Deputy Editor of Contagious Magazine.

www.contagiousmagazine.com

Click here for the Contagious round-up of the year featuring TBWA\London’s Little Big Planet.

In a series of seven posts authors from London –  this month celebrating the coming together under one roof of six TBWA companies – will share their thoughts on successful brand behavior, highlighting topics like upcoming brands, the impact of digital, music, the future of PR and new trends in retail. Enjoy some some inspirational thoughts and join in the Media Arts discussion.

How Craft is Shaping London’s most Interesting New Brands

British people are fond of grumbling that they don’t make anything any more.

The country that was first to industrialise was also the first to down tools.

So it’s exciting to see that the most interesting new brands in London have come from the workshop.  They have rediscovered the art of making things.  Rather than brands of image, they are products of craft.

Tailor Timothy Everest brings a craftsman’s approach to high fashion. An apprentice of The Rolling Stones’ tailor Tommy Nutter, Everest is a leader of the new bespoke movement, updating classic tailoring for a new generation.  His location shows a return to craft too.  He works out of an atelier in Spitalfields, the gritty area of East London that has been the centre of the garment trade for centuries.  Timothy Everest clothing mixes the craftsman approach with the tailor’s art: bespoke suits, collaborations with everyone from Marks & Spencer to Rocawear; ties decorated with the Spitalfields flower and made-to-measure jeans.

Another brand bringing manufacturing back to London is spirits manufacturer Sipsmith. They have opened the first distillery in London since the 1820s, in which they create small batches of gin and vodka. The gin comes from British barley spirit and water from a tributary of the Thames.  Interestingly, when many spirits behave as lifestyle brands Sipsmith is a distillery.

Retailer Labour And Wait brings the craft aesthetic in to people’s homes.  Launched in 2000, the store stocks simple, austere household products. Customers can pick up enamel buckets, Welsh blankets, wooden brooms and balls of twine, feeling the weight and build quality of products designed to last a lifetime.  The store has resurrected old manufacturers that have lost distribution over the years, and are now finding their way in to smart Londoners’ lives.

Surprisingly, Japanese designer Rei Kawakubo has opened a third outlet of Labour And Weight in her high fashion boutique Dover Street Market.  The setting might be East London in 2009 but the atmosphere is as austere as Yorkshire in 1949.

A similar simple artisan look shapes menswear label Albam.  Launched two years ago in the heart of Soho, Albam design and sell what they call modern crafted clothing.  The pieces tend to be timeless – indigo jeans, round neck sweaters, brogues – with a nod to functionality, from waxed fisherman’s cagoules to lumberjack shirts. Albam documents the production of new pieces on its blog, shifting from the conventional fashion timescale of seasons to the craftsman’s timetable of sourcing, developing and supplying products.  To complete the artisan feel, new arrivals are announced on a chalkboard outside the store.

In the spirit of revival, publisher Persephone Books reprints neglected classics by women writers, selling them out of two beautiful stores in chic Lamb’s Conduit and Kensington Church Streets.  The content of the books comes to life through Persephone’s exquisite design.  Every inside cover and endpaper is different. Persephone believes that readers get as much pleasure from how a book looks and feels as they do from the words.

London’s new craft brands are an inspiration to people in the brand business.

They reconnect us with the manufacturing process and the back stories from which brands still gain much of their meaning and their value.  Building brands on image and messaging feels shallow in comparison.

They remind us of the deeper satisfaction of owning something made with substance and care and even a measure of love.

And they reassure us that even in a mass-marketed world, craft can still win people over.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please email Tom Morton, Executive Planning Director TBWA\London.

Direct: +44 20 7573 7104

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