one part truth, two parts mixer

Ugh, sort it out

I found this mildly annoying. I was rating my friends short film (btw watch it) and I would actually like to hear more about the competition, but my only options are hear nothing or hear everything. Why can I not hear more about Virgin Media Shorts without being bombarded with crap from Virgin Media (which I can't even get) and Virgin Mobile (which I don't even want)? Surely the whole point of doing stuff like this is (or should be) to make people warm towards your brand? A soft-sell if you like. Not just a way to build a database for mailings about mobile offers.

And anyway, it's not like you couldn't advertise to the 'Shorts info only' people. I'm sure you're allowed to put  adverts within emails that are about the thing they've signed up to.

I know I need to stop ranting, but brands need to stop being annoying first.

Awww, more heart for Howies

This is from the most recent Howies catalogue. I love love love the fact that you can borrow books off them. A company that is just genuinely nice.

With this ring

Does anyone work at Hula Hoops? I was thinking it would be nice to do a limited edition packet with slightly bigger Hula Hoops so that adults could revisit the joy of wearing them as rings.

The future of publishing...

...is Rio Ferdinand. Only joking, but format-wise his magazine #5 is actually quite good. I'm sure that what he's doing is nothing new, but all the digital versions of magazines I've seen before have just been, well just that: a digital version of a magazine faithful to the 2D constraints of print. Wow, page turns are animated.

#5's actual pages animate, but more importantly it has embedded video and audio. A major problem that the culture magazine sector is facing is why would you want to read about something when you can experience it through video? I think it's been lazy of the print media to just offer digital subscriptions with no value add when the technology is there to make. It's not a distant future where people download magazines to their smartphones, and surely video and audio is better suited than words?

Jeez, if Rio Ferdinand can do it then surely so can the publishers?

Inspector Morse

Another super logo from Google. Today it's all about Samuel Morse.

Pride of England

I take it back. London pride were making a go of owning St. George's Day yesterday... with posters!

 

And also with this amazing bit of sponsorship:

Come on people, having lots of England flags about makes it feel like there's an international football tournament on. It makes people happy. You have 1 year to organise a great St. George's Day 2010. Or hire Team Awesome and they will do it for you (for nice price).

Happy St. Georges Day chaps

I still can't believe that no one has tried to own today in the way that Guiness own St. Patricks day. Come on ale brands, wakey wakey - we demand free hats.

Yikes! Price hikes!

Martin has just informed me that the starting price of a MacBook is now £929. Okay, it's aluminium now but a £100 price increase in a year? I thought technology was supposed to be getting cheaper! Apparently it's because sterling is worth so little these days, but £100? Still seems too steep.

It annoys me how much contempt Apple appear to show to their customers. It annoys me more that people keep lapping it up (myself included). Rant aside, it's interesting that a company can fly in the face of what is accepted good practice (good customer service, etc) and still keep racking up the profits (remember that Wired article?). Will their behaviour ever bite them on the bum?

Who covets more, is evermore a slave

That's a Robert Herrick quote by the way. The other day I received this  email from Tesco.
 
For the 18 months or so I have had a Tesco delivery (on or about payday), spending about £40 a pop. Four/five months ago, I switched to Sainsburys. They have one hour delivery slots, the drivers are more friendly and actually I don't notice that much of a difference in price.
So Tesco should want to get me back as a customer, right? So why are they they sending me messages trying to increase my spend when I don't even shop there anymore? I've only once spent over £75 and that was before Scouse's birthday (lots of booze, you see), so a £5 off £50 voucher would probably be more appropriate and may have even tempted me back to blue from orange. They chose increasing my spend over getting me back and that = FAIL. I'm sticking with Sainsbury's, until I can afford Ocado at least.

Boxing clever

So the Khan Barrera fight is tonight, and it would be worth a watch except it's on Sky Box Office. This isn't a problem in itself, but there's only one price for boxing on Sky and that's £15. Or £14.83 now we have a VAT discount. I'm happy to pay that for big fights, title fights, and fights with globally established boxers. BUT while Amir Khan has been overhyped in Britain, he's not yet world class and most of his fights since he turned pro haven't been watchable enough to warrant £15.

Why don't Sky have a two-tier pricing structure for boxing with fights like tonights priced at a tenner, and 'Category A' fights for £5 more? Surely at £10 they could sell more, therefore gaining similar profit margins - it's not like their delivery cost changes much. Also, you could probably lure in people who have a passing interest in boxing, or in Khan but who wouldn't normally shell out. Surely it's great to get these customers in, as they will be more likely to pay for boxing again?

If that's not a good enough reason, can I throw in a 'credit crunch'?