Penguin Dating

Another genius idea from the clever book people at Penguin.
Penguin have created Penguin Dating; a new dating site that matches people together based on their favourite books and authors. There are no fears that the wont work or not have enough of a userbase to make worthwhile as its powered by Match.com

I love the idea as its such a simple yet compelling idea. It’s the sort of service that any publisher could have done but only Penguin would have thought of it.
There is a real theme behind a lot of Penguin’s work and it really is simplicity. Even something as potentially complicated as an ARG was made so simple and easy to engage with the We Tell Stories game they created earlier this year.

Its got me thinking if this match-making idea could work with other kinds of publishers such as record labels or even film studios? Perhaps film is too broad but music definitely can bring like-minded people together.

Awesome stuff.

Thanks to Kylie for this!

"I Am"

Not new news, but I’ve been thinking about the latest Orange campaign – “I am Everyone”. Aside from the ads themselves, I was thinking specifically about the strapline on their outdoor/press ads directing people to search for “I Am” online for more information. Initially I thought it was a bit of w*nky ad-thing to do but thinking about it again it’s a really nifty way of encouraging people to take on your creative strategy and bring your brand into the vernacular.

Off the back of the recent news that 88% of people are now searching for brand specific terms online (as opposed to generic terms like “mobile phone tariff”), I think we could see this tactic being used even more as clients and agencies really start seeing the value search/PPC can bring to your brand as opposed to viewing it as just another sales driving platform.

pimms o'clock

its harder and harder to get really excited about new widgets/applications these days.

but Pimms seem to have created one of the best little widgets i have come across in a long time.

the application allows users to simply type in your post code and the widget will search and display your nearest pubs and parks.

but the smart bit is that it also displays exactly which hours the pub/park is in direct sunshine for. This is obviously based on it being a sunny day!

Ticks all the boxes, its fun, easy to use and most of all its actually quite useful (could do with a few more locations but I think they are adding), oh and its still London only at moment.

idiots

So, you get half a million people around the world playing your game and at the same time reviving a typically dying breed of board game among a young, entirely new generation of players.
What do you do then? You make a blindingly obvious mistake.

Wonder how long it will be for them to make an “official Scrabble” widget, and then wonder how long it will take for them to realize that no one downloads it as you have single handedly pissed off every player – oh well, learn the hard way eh?

Pinger

Ive just read about a new service called Pinger.
Pinger basically allows you to dial a UK number and leave a short voice message then send the message on to any number of your mobile contacts in one go.
Sounds like a nifty piece of kit and Andy at Playpen explains how he can see the service being used as a form of voice Twitter. Im not so sure and when I think about it I really don’t see the use of this.

Firstly if I had voice messages for every Tweet that I get in a day it would do my head in! the nice thing about Twitter is that you can quickly scan Tweets to see whats going on in the Twitter world. Also, Twitter allows you to simply share useful links via tinyurl, imagine mumbling a url down the phone while your mate scrambles to find a pen to jot down the interesting link, nice.
I think it’s a nice idea but im not sure about it becoming a voice form of Twitter and I don’t really see the need for it generally as if you need to let a load of your mates know where you are, simply text, no hassle with having to bumble your way through a message.

I may be totally off the mark and it becomes an overnight success and everyone will point and laugh at me.

(rant over)

Interesting 2008

Been meaning to write this earlier this week but its been mental!!!

I had the pleasure of attending my first Interesting last Saturday with some mates from work and it was, well, very interesting!
Im told by a mate that this year was even more focused on getting interesting people that we really would never have heard of, last year I think they had some more famous faces, especially from the bloggersphere; which made the whole event even more interesting and unexpected! no long talks on future of comms/marketing etc. all quick firing random, very interesting people talking about everything from coin design to handmade scotch eggs!

It was an early start for a Saturday morning but well worth it. Was nice to catch up with some people I hadn’t seen for a while and very odd kind of recognizing people from pictures on twitter etc.

I haven’t got time to go into the event in too much detail here but you can see all speakers and event details over here anyway. But if you haven’t been and missed last Saturday, definitely worth going next year!!

Thanks to all involved for making it an awesome day! – Conway Hall is a great venue too, felt like being back at school assembly.

Highlights for me;

“sign in” table
Radiohead Nude remix
Coin design
Geography
Informatics
Food Map
Graphic design and music
Funny words
Toilets around the world
Digestives shaped as “T”’s
The Final Countdown

Google continue the Net Neutrality fight

Google have further weighed into the whole net neutrality debate with the announcement that they are going to be providing web users the tools they need to detect for themselves if their connection is being messed with by their ISP’s.

I think this is a bold and positive move form Google in the fight for net neutrality, but I have a bad feeling this wont be a big enough move to make a real difference as I feel the vast majority of people wont have the inclination to fight a battle that has been seemingly low in profile outside of tech circles. However, I hope I’ll be proved wrong and this does indeed turn from a small groundswell movement to a full blown wave of protest!!