Let's Keep Things Simple

4 Fuks Saké

This blog has moved and changed names.

Please head to 4 Fuks Saké for more of the same.

Goodnight and God bless.

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.

Sex Sells. Sex + Vanity = Millionaires

Here's a signpost as to where the digital revolution has taken us to as we move into 2008.

Stressed about the democratisation of hardcore Internet porn? Depressed at the disintegration of the concept of celebrity? Disturbed by the accelerating voyeuristic hunger of tabloid and digital media? Bored by the sapping of creativity and brain-numbingness of reality TV? All four collide in a simple, yet spectacular example of dot-joining to create a piece of business genius.

Bigsister.net (be very careful with this 'not suitable for work' link) is a free, online brothel. It's a real life brothel somewhere in Prague. You can log on for $20 a pop (sorry, monthly fee) and watch the action in its various rooms. Or you can walk in and get some action - for free.

Except it's not for free. As the T&Cs say quite clearly, "Basic requirement is, that every guest visiting BigSister has to sign a contract, where he agrees, that all his activities will be shown via internet, respectively subrogates also his rights, that relate with any kind of publication."

This much I know. The publishers will be rich. The staff won't be rich. The clients will all have middle-aged paunches, many of them German.

What next? Do we get them in every city?

In at number 6...

Industry and media recognition at last from Asia-Pacific's Media. There you'll see Let's Keep Things Simple, in at number 6 in the industry's Top 10 blogs feature.

Wonderful stuff - recognition not just for me, but also my 20 regular readers.

Thanks to Tim for the image, (http://www.gotoofareast.com).

It Has Taken Me Far Too Long To Find This

The 10 Biggest Cocks In Advertising, courtesy of Charlie Brooker.

Why Viewing Loftus Road from 5,000 Feet Is So Important

I'm such a sad fuck. I can't seem to take my eyes off maps, things to do with travelling, journeys, countries and stuff.

I can gently and warmly spin a globe for ages, thinking about flights, time zones, terrains, climates and the restaurants I'll find when I get there.

I log onto Google Earth to look into sporting stadia  from the sky. 

I get mildly irritated if the Flight Tracker thing isn't working on the plane.

I'm genuinely interested when I ask people  what roads or trains they've taken on a journey, just to see if I could have done better.

That's why I love these.... With Dopplr, I can tell the world where I'm travelling to. With Plazes I can point you to a map and tell you exactly where I am and what I'm doing right now. On Facebook I blatantly show off all the countries I've visited. With OSX Planet my Mac desktop updates every 2 minutes with a live satellite shot of the whole fucking big blue planet.

No-one gives a fuck, but that doesn't matter. It just makes me feel 5% warmer inside.

Hero

It's like Bill Hicks swallowed a tag cloud.

Strumpette names this guy, Loren Feldman, PR person of the year. Never heard of him until then. He's a fucking hero. Watch all these, or take a listen to his 2008 predictions....

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

Good Things To Consume Today....

1. Your eyes will always open to an article which begins: "What did I do for the Kick Racism Out Of Football day of action at Selhurst Park? Why, I hurled abuse at black people, of course."

2. The Economist, with another essay on conversational marketing. Nothing new, but useful for forwarding to clients to convey intelligence.

3. Watch these... (The Guardian is great at this...)

4. Guinness. (Don't think much of that ad though)