Category: General

Google have recently published some interesting research into how people are increasingly "multi-screening" - that is, using more than one device to be able to complete particular tasks and activities. Some headlines: - 90% of all media interactions are now screen-based - on average "we" (the survey was of US folk in LA, Austin and … Continue reading Maintaining state

Achievements this week included: - great meetings with Tim at isobar - ... Justin at Bite... - and another Justin from the corporate team - finishing up with two good days away with the new DPE Leadership Team Next week: childcare juggles

There's a photo doing the rounds on Twitter at the moment, with this:           How The Sun newspaper reported about this new thing called the 'world wide web' in 1992... pic.twitter.com/fI3M7mH9 A colleague of mine retweeted it, I also saw Tom Watson (MP) retweet it, although with a question about its validity. You don't need to … Continue reading The retweetable bashing meme

There seemed to be a bizarre psychological experiment in play on my train home from central London last night. One of the two pairs of doors were out of order, and were denoted as such by four roughly 15-centimeter diameter blue circular stickers, two on each of the door windows, with an "!" and the … Continue reading The psychology of colour

I spent Saturday afternoon at Twickenham Stadium, watching the first games for the bulk of the London clubs of the rugby season. I'm more of a football person, but have grown an appreciation of the other code in the past decade. For some years rugby has used video technology as part of the refereeing set … Continue reading Objectivity in sport

There is a story that I have told a few times about a conversation I had soon after I started at Microsoft with one of my colleagues in the marketing team here. I was reminiscing (as one does as one gets to a certain age) about my first few years of work and how email … Continue reading Intra social networking

Here's (roughly) what I talked about when I spoke at the Ignite Ubelly event last night in London's fashionable West End... I want to share with you something that has been keeping me awake at night. It seems that we have arrived as a society into a world where everything of any importance needs to … Continue reading Two laws, one thermometer

The TV series Mad Men has done a lot of crystallize the public perception of the marketing industry in the past few years, and it probably stereotypes a golden age for the ad men of Madison Avenue in the 1960s. Good looking, martini-chugging, fast talking, and a world dominated by creativity; where the great copywriters … Continue reading Disruption! (Or marketing in the early 21st century)

Every so often I interact with a brand through Twitter, and every time I end up disappointed. My most recent deflating experience is with BT - but don't misunderstand me here. I'm not convinced that any big brand really gets how to interact with customers through Twitter because I'm coming to the conclusion that social … Continue reading Brands’ identity

A couple of interesting observations from articles I've seen in the last week on the subject of (almost subliminal) influence; the first, some research into the impact that fonts have on how believable written information is (in short - use Baskerville over Helvetica for a small, but statistically significant increase in credibility); and the second … Continue reading Subtle influence