Britney vs Lily
Interesting spin on Britney’s big comeback track.
Lily’s cover has the edge. Just…
Enjoy.
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And is still unsure as to how Lily Allen managed to become more famous than her Dad…
Leave Britney alone…
Under 18’s or those of a mild disposition beware. This Britney lover swears. Rather a lot.
An oldie, but a goodie…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And thinks that this is almost as funny as Britney’s famed UK X-Factor appearance…
In the night garden…
Kids love it.
Some adults moan about the use of ‘improper language’ encouraging kids to keep up the googoo gaagaa speak (both sides can quote stats, for what it’s worth, I think it’s positive), but you can’t ignore the fact for legions of parents and children, In the night garden has affirmed itself as one of the top kids TV programmes in a very short space of time…
In the Night Garden is best described as; ‘a modern televisual interpretation of a nursery rhyme picture book’. Quite a tall order, but when you consider that this is a staple in the ‘bedtime hour’ on cbeebies (BBC’s dedicated children’s TV channel), it presents itself as the modern day equivalent of a bedtime story. Its about a magical place that exists between waking and sleeping in a child’s imagination.
We even have Knight of the Realm David Jacobi narrating. Perfect pre-bed time fodder.
The whole programme is executed flawlessly. Gentle intro, upbeat story / crazy funtime, and as we start the wind-down, a recap of the story, all the characters slow, and pack themselves off to bed. And then at the end, it’s your turn to go to bed too little one. Genius…
Carry this through into every possible merchandising opportunity going, and we have some very happy creators, and some parents lighter in the wallet.
The BBC / Virgin cynically deleting all shows from store-able hard drives in the build up to Christmas aside (ensuring everyone bought the DVD box set to keep up the bedtime routine), we have a shining example of how to make money from the pre-school market, without being seen to be aggressively marketing to them. After all, none of us want the Daily Mail brigade up in arms calling on tighter government regulations…
Hats off chaps, well done.
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And a massive Pontipinites fan, even though they haven’t got the gravitas to carry an entire episode all on their own…
The new stars of commercial radio?
These two are funny.
Some of the best talent comes up through the ranks. Hospital radio, community stations. They have produced some corkers over the years.
Check these guys out.
I’m sure we’ll they will be breaching the airwaves with a bigger audience sometime very, very soon. Pete and Al on www.gtfm.co.uk every Friday night from 10-11pm. If you can’t listen live, catch them on youtube, at http://www.youtube.com/carryonfriday
They are destined for bigger and better. You heard it here first…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And wouldn’t mind being a guest with those talented boys soon…
Facebook climbdown…
It’s embarrassing.
For a brand that empowers its users in such a way they can instantly unite against against the ‘enemy’, issue a rallying cry to the like-minded and deploy the troops with amazing speed, you’d think facebook would know a lot better than to try changing the privacy rules by the back door…
I managed a textbook case of this in 2008 (when an international bank with local aspirations their ads would have you believe), and they did what most big brands chose to do. Ignore the facebookers, they can’t damage my brand, it’ll blow over in a few days. Against all my advice, the brand dug in, only to suffer at the hands of the mobilised minority.
After it hit the BBC 6 o’clock news a day or two later, a rather hasty about turn was arranged…
So facebook. A brand that provides the very battlefield, that truly gets the potential of 2.0 (having harnessed it from day one), should have known better than to bite the hand that feeds it. That of its users.
A foolhardy situation the board should have seen coming a mile off. An alienated user base will now watch its every move, and cry foul the moment they put so much as a privacy related foot out of line.
It wasn’t a smart move, deletion of a profile in the users eyes means everything comes off. A brand that prides itself on the sense of ‘community’ it facilitates really shouldn’t have scored this type of own goal, however great the need to further monetise the site is…
The privacy battle will rage on.
But I can’t help but feel if brands use consumers personal data to bring information / content / advertising / offers to them that is of genuine interest, they won’t mind a jot…
After all, it worked for Tesco…
Iain Morrison is a senior marketer in the British Tourism Industry. And would encourage brand managers to watch what happened to facebook. It’s probably happening to your brand right about NOW!