broken window

Dan 'the man'

We're doing some profiling of well-known BlackBerry users this week at Figtree, which meant that I got to meet and interview innocent's Dan Germain yesterday.

It felt like a bit of a scoop, seeing as Paul's planning to interview him in the near future. It also felt weird to meet someone in person you feel you know because you read their blog. In a good way.

I'm pleased to report he's both a very nice man and interesting. So Paul's podcast will be good.

After we talked about innocent, what he does there and the perils of BlackBerry addiction, our conversation turned to blogging and how to keep up posting momentum.

Dan said he tries to do one post a day. A good number, which made me feel a bit lazy / guilty, as I've been a bit remiss with my posting lately. Sorry about that.

I'm therefore going to try to do the same thing as Dan from now on. One post a day. At least.

Thanks, Dan.

PS:

Sorry for the blurred photo. I'd drunk a bit too much coffee.

Geek activism

While I was out shopping on Saturday I saw these jumpsuited folk outside the Apple store on Regent Street. They were protesting against Apple's attitude to digital music file rights management.

I think they had a bee in their bonnet about the way they encode the downloads from iTunes so that you can't play them on anything but an ipod*. In other words, (playing the dreaded devil's adocate for a moment): a good business model. It will be interesting to see how Apple respond to this, especially since the French government have been wading in on the issue recently. Will all this customer activism prevail? It must be a tricky one for Steve Jobs.

* From reading far too many tech blogs, this is what I think they're problem with Apple is. I was too busy 'consuming' to stop to ask. I bought a nice pair of jeans, one shirt and some trousers that day, in case you were wondering.

Yes it's me. No, I'm not a guerilla marketing stunt

I was trying to avoid posting about this, but word seems to have got out online, so I might as well roll with the punches and talk about it a bit. Such is life in the new, open world.

You may have seen quite a few of these around if you live in or around E2. Several fellow bloggers certainly have. I have a feeling that some of them have quite a lot of readers too. Thanks to John, Will, Kate, czechOUT for picking up on it. Katcha's is my favourite though.

I should admit that I kind of deserved the posters. I did a bad thing, that nobody should ever do in a relationship, although I can't pretend I wasn't stunned by the 'shock and awe' response. You can probably guess what it was that I did wrong. I'm very sorry for hurting her feelings, and not just because of all the unwanted publicity either.

In case you've taken the posters a bit too literally, I should stress that as well as being a liar and a cheat (more one-offs than actual character traits), I'm quite a nice guy really.

It feels quite weird being the subject of what's shaping up to be a promising viral campaign. I'm told that 400 posters went up, although on the afternoon I spent scooting round Shoreditch and surrounding areas tearing them all down, I could only find about 100. Friends have been helpfully assisting in the 'de-advertising', but I gave up trying to supress it once the story hit the radio here and here. The ubiquity of cameraphones is giving the posters a second life online, which is interesting.

Assuming my ex used a photocopy shop, I reckon her media spend was about £6. She should win an IPA Effectiveness Award or something.

Would any communications strategy types care to do a quick analysis on reach, frequency / pairs of eyeballs or have any other plannerly metrics we could use to work out the campaign's effectiveness? Faris, I'm thinking of you!

That's all for now. More updates if / when the 'campaign' progresses...

Legogangers

On my way out tonight, I ran past Gilbert and George on Kingsland Road while trying to catch a bus. They were immaculately suited and booted as always, presumably on their way to something arty.

Then I returned home to find this post, which points out that they've been immortalised in my childhood medium of choice, Lego.

All Friday nights should end this way.

Advertising isn't working

Vacant and defaced 96 sheets spotted on Bethnal Green Road last night. Titan's poster is right - it is a landmark in UK advertising. But not for the reasons they think.

Having trouble selling space, guys?

Urban Spam - the front line of resistance

Russell Davies continues his noble campaign against Urban Spam today.

A marvelous idea - I wonder if we could make some similar stickers for Snail Spam envelopes (see below) when 'returning to sender'?

Sending things through the post would get over any fear factor about giving them out, too.

Shoreditch-on-Sea

My good friends Paul and Rich have packed in their well paid jobs to set up this, just off Brick Lane. In a classic case of 'that'll work back home', they're going to be bringing some much needed R&R to hedonistic Shoreditch throughout the summer.

City Beach, as it's called, will offer a good BBQ, bar (with cocktails), live Brazilian music, and definitely no electro.

This is how it looked at 8pm last night. They've been working on finishing the build all morning and it's opening at lunchtime today.

I'll be there. Good luck guys, hope the weather stays nice for you.

The power of not taking yourself too too seriously

Like my scooter's eye view of the back of a Karma Kab here. Much more entertaining than a boring old London taxi or beaten up minicab.

And you remember it.

Pub humour

One of my favourite pubs, the Red Lion on Hoxton Street, has an irreverent sense of humour. Which is refreshing. Their staff deliver it - their interior reflects it (because the staff change it themselves from week to week).

I often wonder what would happen if much bigger brands stopped trying to please everybody (an approach which ultimately can please no-one) and did things that had a bit more character for a change.

This is true inside-out branding - letting your people's (unmoderated) personality shine through...

Like this:

And this:

If they did this, people would probably talk about them more. Like this. Without getting press releases or anything.

It's beginning to happen to some extent, with staff bloggers like Robert Scoble putting a human face on what seemed like big, nasty corporations. But I feel it still has some way to go before we get the Red Lion experience every day.

Culture clash: A very formal kebab shop

You know those slightly outdated, smart restaurants that insist that gentlemen wear a jacket and tie for dinner, and often have a few spares - just in case somebody violates their dress code?

Well the Turkish kebab restaurant Mangal in Dalston is about as far removed from those as it's possible to get.

That's why I was struck by these spare ties on a coathook on a recent visit. Not exactly a broken window, more ironic, faux-aspirationalism. It isn't far from Shoreditch, so it's not surprising.