Change is good regardless of the pain

Being a West Ham fan I find this quite upsetting - followed the Hammers all my life and my first game if I recall was against QPR in Sept'77 my dad took me and we drew 2-2. I can still remember Stan Bowles, a great player for QPR even as a kid I could see he was good. But time changes and as a West Ham fan and creative so must I, no matter how painful that change is at the beginning, it needs to happen, the best ideas are the ones that haven't been done before, the unknown is scary and even if you fail at first you stick with it, (If that wasn't the case West Ham United would still be call Thames Ironworks and I would be still just writing 60 second TV spots, so change we must. Yes we have all the crap going on at the moment with seating arrangements with old school mixing with the new school. (I like to call them the 'Popcorn crew') Peanuts and darts been thrown was never the way forward, onwards and upwards. COYI

There's More Pop -Ups In-store From Amazon

The march continues in owning the shopping experience from Amazon, according to Business Insider, the tech giant has a master plan to open even more pop-up stores in the coming year, they are keen in particularly to showcase its Echo speakers and other devices and hardware like; Kindles and Fire TV. You could be looking at over 100 pop-up stores in the coming months, as the e-retailer is reportedly putting up one almost every week across the US. They are keen to stress though just because Amazon is expanding its physical presence it doesn't mean it's focusing more on bricks-and-mortar shops. Having said that, apparently, these pop-ups are there to give potential customers a chance to play and interact with the products to then drive up their sales online, so surely the increase will continue. We all know this is the best retail strategy for any brand worth their salt that they have a fully integrated experience. Let's see how this shakes up and maybe what partnerships could evolve for big brands on the high street.

Let's face it girls can't compete

This morning I was watching breakfast TV where I fleetly overheard the young lady announce that UK girls are one of most unhappiness in Europe, this announcement obviously drew my attention as you see I have 3 girls of my own. Under the screams each morning on who's got the hair straighter to the regular early morning door slams. (Fair play to the person who hung my doors as they are still on there hinges) Anyway I though this was all normal but the announcement from the presenter did get me thinking; are my girls happy? And if not why not? We went through it, you know growing up and all the pressure that came with it, but it’s now moved into a much more microscopic environment, thanks to social media platforms especially Instagram and Snapchat, the pressure to always'look pretty' or 'on flick' as my eldest says is never ending. But it doesn’t stop there, at school, there's pressure to be 'sporty'(As you see the boy's like this and if the boy's like you then the rest of the girls like you too) Mustn't have'puppy fat' but 'thigh gaps' are all collective acceptable. If the boy's don’t like you, then the girls take more selfies trying to gain more 'likes' and ‘heart-shapes’ while snapping away they're chasing that dream for perfection and acceptance. As a parent the whole thing gives me the shits and so says someone who works in the business! So you can see how I felt when this appeared later on that day:

This picture was created by cosmetic surgeon Dr De Silva which combines the nine most requested features in one 'perfect face, that appeared in today's (31st Aug 2016) Daily Mail I just shook my head and was raging (My daughter wanted to Snapchat me as she never seen my face so red) but god almighty what hope is there when this type of stuff is appearing? It's constant. So can I make one request to all media types please please stop publishing this tripe otherwise what hope have they got? I try to do my best as a dad and someone who works in the industry I avoid producing stuff like this. As we all know to try to be 'perfect' and chasing that continued dream, ends in unhappiness. It becomes a nightmare you only have to look at the rise in eating disorders and self-harming in the UK to see the damage we are creating. Let's start by helping our kids to face up to things in a more positive light, let's not compare but let's celebrate our kids being themselves. PLEASE.

Reinventing the wheel, literally

Here is a wonderful piece of engineering and what can I say, this has literally reinvented the wheel, well how we harness it anyway, massive backing from Kickstarter and a reasonable RRP, a real wheel of fortune for the maker me thinks.

Tetris bookcase

I love ideas that: Combine offline with online. Are visually appealing and functional. Are playful hacks made by super smart geeks. Thank you Oyvind Berntsen who added LED's to his bookcase and made them programmable. Genius.

Too Cool

Literally the coolest book ever. Breezing through the pages of this handy flip book offers the illusion of standing in front of a refreshing fan as it cycles back and forth. The idea is the first published book from a company called 72 and Sunny from their CD. (I'm guessing he or she is an art director?)As the writer would have dismissed in an instant as it's not available as an eBook. For me playful but practical. In my book always a good sign of an idea.Have a great weekend.

Very Krafty

Towards the end of last year, Kraft decided to renove all articial flavours, perservatives and dyes from its popular Macaroni and Cheese product. But when Kraft informed its customers of the imminent change, it was met with strong resistance. Social media lit up with moans and complaints from fans saying they will stop eating the product if they change. Now for the Krafty bit; with advice from their agency CP&B - their response? Don't tell them!! So what did they do? So for 3 months around the end of 2015, Kraft quietly started selling the new product in the old packaging, and the changes was only announced in very small type on the packs. Kraft sold 50 million boxes, which is standard in 3 months, so no complaints, they then launched the campaign' We'd invite you to try it, but you already have' - the whole idea was don't advertise (How ironic coming from an ad agency) That’s what you call real problem solving in marketing - not trying to over analysis, or use tech for tech sake, or do a big old production number – it just comes down to one thing; smart thinking.