Month: July 2015
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On The End of Apps (as we know them)
A while back Tom Goodwin wrote a great Techcrunch piece (the one with that opening line about Uber, Facebook, Alibaba and AirBnB that has been so frequently copied/quoted ever since), talking about how our relationship is increasingly shifting from the creators of products and even services to software interfaces that have become the new mediators. A new breed…
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Dots Conference 2015
Last year I curated Dots Conference – run by Antony Mayfield and the smart folk at Brilliant Noise, and a key part of the Brighton Digital Festival. It was lots of fun, and the feedback was great from the people that came along, so I was really happy when Antony asked me to curate it…
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Ritual and Changing Behaviour
As you've probably guessed, I've been reading Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto, which is a well-written exposition of the power of simple checklists in driving efficiencies and performance. Atul uses lots of examples from healthcare (he's a general surgeon), aviation, engineering and construction to show how well-crafted checklists can be transformational in their impact. I…
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The Three Types of Problem in the World
I rather liked this delineation of the three different types of problem in the world, featured in a paper on reform in the healthcare industry by Brenda Zimmerman of York University and Sholom Glouberman of the University of Toronto, and quoted in The Checklist Manifesto: Neat. Zimmerman and Sholom go on to contend that we…
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David Lee Roth and Brown M & Ms
From Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: 'I heard the story behind rocker David Lee Roth’s notorious insistence that Van Halen’s contracts with concert promoters contain a clause specifying that a bowl of M&M’s has to be provided backstage, but with every single brown candy removed, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation…
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David Lee Roth and Brown M & Ms
From Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto: 'I heard the story behind rocker David Lee Roth’s notorious insistence that Van Halen’s contracts with concert promoters contain a clause specifying that a bowl of M&M’s has to be provided backstage, but with every single brown candy removed, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation…
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The Future of Agencies
I'm currently conducting a major research project focusing on the future of agencies, working with Econsultancy. It's a revamp of the report I did three years ago on the same subject. As part of it I've been interviewing a large number of senior agency-side personnel from around the world working in all types of agency from the big…
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Post of the Month – June 2015 – The Winner
Happy to say that the winner of this month's Post of the Month vote is Tom Goodwin with his thought provoking post on What if Cannes Celebrated the Worst, Not the Best of Advertising? Well done Tom – you join the hall of fame. My thanks to everyone for taking part.
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Post of the Month – June 2015 – The Vote
Thanks for the nominations – so our vote this month is between: What if Cannes Celebrated the Worst, Not the Best of Advertising? by Tom Goodwin Dump the Dogma – by Richard Huntingdon Tomorrow Today by Gareth Kay Will Advertising Ever Again Be About the People it Serves? by Tracey Follows Advertising has Grown a Penis on its Face…
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Post of the Month – June 2015 – Nominations
It's time to open nominations for Post of the Month. If there's a good post that you've read and that was posted in June you can nominate it direct or in the comments below. Lots of good writing that I could have included in my shortlist this month – I've picked four for starters, but…