4 Fuks Saké

Who Still Wants To Be An Astronaut?

I have a pretty good job. I try to persuade people to drink more booze, eat more food and watch more telly. It gets demanding though, and at times of extreme stress my mind naturally wanders to what I'd rather be doing. David Gower's job as main anchor on Sky Sports, or the bloke that chooses the music for the goal montages on Football Focus are obvious first choices. More prosaic careers such as being a lorry driver pop up - probably the time and space you get I imagine. The process of travel has always been strangely alluring - perhaps flying a commercial airline might be an option.

I am not alone.

KidZania in Tokyo is a theme park which is targetted at 2-14 year olds. It shoudn't be for kids - I'm 36 and I want to go. Originally launched in Mexico, it's no surprise to see it a roaring success in Japan.  It's a replica town where you can have a go at doing the job you fancy doing. You can get into uniform, fly a replica jet, work the post office, marshal the traffic - whatever needs to be done, you can do it.

After Disney's takeover of Marvel, and the certainty of another 100 years of character-based theme park-to-fast food tray juggernauts, it's nice to see that there's a place for simplicity. Nintendo always said that everyone likes playing games however old they are and they're right. 

Knock down Chessington down the road from me, and stick one of these up.

(Pic: guardian.co.uk/Getty)

The Prince's Rainforests Project

In the next 24 hours, deforestation will release as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 8 million people flying from London to New York. On that basis, add your signature and ask influential people to do something about it.

Then, return to 4 Fuks Saké and we'll stick to lighter matters.

Time To Delete 'Digital'

I started to write this blog 2/3 years ago as an outlet for aggression, after listening to anodyne powerpoints about the future of media. It's -1 outside in London, and I'm not hungover 22 floors up in Hong Kong - other than that, the status quo remains.

Still plenty of people who enjoy confusing clients and/or their bosses by using as many digital terms and phrases as possible. It's even more helpful if new apps launch regularly with stupid names. Knowledge/confusion = power and paranoia = hopefully a few quid.

I've been working in essentially PR since '95 and my job's not changed. I persuade people to buy products by getting someone they respect to tell them they should. For those of us who have always been in PR we're not doing anything new - it's just our skills and techniques have had to be radically reinvented.

In 95 I wrote a press release, faxed it and tried to carve a story via a chat with a journalist. If I want to do my job properly in 2009, I have to master the fact that the customer now starts at Google, or heads into their community of mates. I need to press buttons on a keypad and persuade someonethey respect to post, write, share a link, re-tweet my 140 characters or whatever it takes, to get them to say exactly the same thing..."Have you seen this?"

Competitive advantage comes from ideas first and foremost, not which buttons to press. If you have something exciting, exhilarating, moving, engaging - then naturally, people will want to share your ideas with others. Good ideas precipitate conversations that start with the phrase "have you seen this?" Everything underneath (the old skool press release, the Facebook group, the widget, the Twitter feed), is just simple professionalism to share that idea.

Using the term 'digital' as if that in itself is creative, is holding us back. Take it as a given. Shove it in the bin, move on, and move people with ideas 2009 style.

Asian Intelligence

How to get instantly smart on Asia, the Internet and other things. Norman Lewis: "To See The Future of the Internet, Look East," in the excellent Spiked.

Burma

Shot by Ogilvy in Amsterdam, on MTV, doing the rounds virally. Burma.

To get more involved join Tim Whirledge's Facebook group,  or go straight here .  

Another Culture Lesson

Throughout Asia, an 'instant noodle meal solution,' is an efficient, tasty and wholesome snack. Here in the UK we have Pot Noodle. Our and AKQA's latest work for them, with more than just a nod to Guinness...

Chinese Facebooks

No Facebook yet in China, and it may be some time. Its pronunciation in Chinese sounds like 'Doomed To Die." Not to worry - in the country where there's a caring and sharing approach to idea generation, you can sign up to whichever clone you like. Mobinode points out U.discuz.net, Xiaonei or Yeejee which look comfortably familiar to a pair of Western middle class social networking eyes.

More importantly, kop a load of a bunch more 'China's massive' stats. In the last 6 months, 48 million more people tucked into the Internet, report Kaiser and China Web 2.0 Review. That means we're now up to a total of 210 million users - primarily well educated and city-based. However, 40% of that new 48 million are living out in the sticks. You can find a meaningless stat about China every day - but that's a significant one. Greater access to education and information is coming to the masses.

Global 'Talkability?'

Positive word of mouth sells products. Brands and products that are talked about, shared, recommended or loved, sell. Brands and products that are ignored, fail. Marketers doodle on pads in meetings, thinking, "how do I secure positive word of mouth, or 'talkability' for my brand?"

For global marketers, there's a bigger question. How do I create positive word of mouth and fame for my global brand across different cultures, in different languages, through different media contexts?

Is it possible to create global 'talkability' for a brand or idea?

If so, how is it done?

Want to know? Click on the link just below and read Creating Global 'Talkability'. It's written by me.

Download Global_Talkability.pdf

A Few Things

Thinking is hard work on Saturday mornings, so here's a load of people who've done it for me already.

The music industry is on fire if you look in the right places, say Chris Anderson. Sales are up everywhere except for CDs. Stats and article here....

Everyone's talking about it. Nokia's doing it, by making a few quid in the developing world. Read all about it in the New York Times.

Here's my own flag. Make your own flag here.

This man was a genius.

I'm going for some more coffee and Soccer AM.

Can We Be Arsed To Catch Up?

See that previous post? It all happened.

4 weeks in, 'so Jim, how are you finding being back in London?'

Well I've had a clear illustration why the East Asian economies continue to leave the Westerners for dead. One might be the different attitude the two cultures have to a simple thing called a deadline.

A deadline is essentially a promise. "I promise I will deliver you something by this time on that day," so an employee may say to his boss, or a supplier may say to a customer. My experiences in Hong Kong were clear - deadlines meant deadlines. People that missed deadlines did so with embarassment, shame, and no end of apologies.

In the UK it's different. A supplier - let's call them Sky Broadband by way of example - write to you and say, we'll have you connected by then. And then they don't. And they're not that bothered really anyway. So my first Sky bill arrives for the month, and it's for 36 quid a month, rather than the 41 quid I'd agreed  when I signed a contract for TV and broadband. They've lost 5 quid. That's called lower productivity.

As it says at the top of the page, it's no rocket science.