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28th June 2005 - Your name in pictures

Not completely sure why you would want to, but if you go here you can have your name graphically represented using bits from photos on Flickr.

Actually, having done it I guess it's quite fun!

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23rd June 2005 - Grokker on-line

Grokker is one of those things which appeals because it's such an interesting concept, but which maybe doesn't quite work in practice.

The idea - a search engine that's far more intuitive because it offers a graphical representation of results rather than huge long lists.

When it first appeared as a download a couple of years ago, I thought it was great, and played around with it no end. But I soon found myself drifing back to Google's reassuringly retro (and usably linear) lists.

Anyway, Grokker has now gone on line as well, so I may give it another go.

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8th June 2005 - The nature of humour

Metro is the free morning newspaper given out in London and other UK cities. Well, 'news' is probably stretching things: it's definitely at the light and disposable end of reporting. But for planners, it's a brilliant source of trivia facts and spurious research findings (often of rather dubious origin), all perfect for spicing up presentations.

But what it's also great at is finding academics whose life's work seems to be to provide equations that explain the most pointless things (paid for with some Government grant I guess).

This week: what makes a sitcom funny.

It all comes down to ((r*d+v)*f+s)/a. Obvious really!

• r = recognisable qualities of the main character;
• d = their delusions of grandeur;
• v = verbal wit of the script;
• f = amount someone falls over;
• s = difference in social status between the highest and lowest ranking characters;
• a = success of any scheme during the show;
  

Apparently Only Fools & Horses comes out on top.

Anyway, maybe someone out there would pull together an equation for successful AND award winning advertising. It would make creative briefings a whole lot easier!

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3rd June 2005 - (Really) interactive advertising

I'm always up for something that makes brand experiences more interactive and entertaining, particularly where it has advertising potential as well. Which is why I think this new intereactive creative gizmo from Reactrix looks quite cool.

Basically, it uses something similar to touch screen technology to allow, real time, whole body interaction with your brand communications. Which probably fails to really describe it properly. But you can find a good promo and some case histories here

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