Month: September 2013

Can High Heels Save the World?

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Can High Heels Save the World?

After seeing this in the paper… it got me thinking everyone is always finding something wrong with high heels, the lastest 3D scanners that show the ever lasting damage of heels yada yada… Interestingly enough it was reported that after a poll taken of women in there 50s and above who wore high heels for a long period of time actually had stronger pelvic than those that didn’t . To me that is a world saver….

Attached is brief I designed around the concept while working on a production set …

 

brief sample

 

 

 

Facebook is Nothing More than a Technological Fling: My Response…

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Facebook may not last forever but  it’s the Love Affair We’ll Always Remember…

I remember the first time I joined Facebook. I didn’t have any interest; I had already dabbled in networks of old from hi5 to Meebo, Myspace and the long forgotten WAYN (Where Are You Now).

Like the standard convention of romantic flings I had gone with the flow, jumped on the bandwagon and enjoyed a blissful few weeks only to suddenly get bored, and look for my next fix. This was often coupled with abruptly burned bridges  with nothing left in the distant cyber space except for a few dates and an obscure picture of a cat or whatever my web cam accidentally took a picture of.

But Facebook was different. Felt different and it looked different, a bit like meeting a man who isn’t your usual type but is intriguing nonetheless.

The layout was simple, accented in its now trademark crisp white and blue with a cute little ‘f’ sign.

People also used real names, gone were the Myspace days of searching and finding ten different ‘Hype G Producers’; I simply typed in a real name and bingo! I had instant access to friends and family across the world, some whom that I may not always keep in touch with, but I could always remember fondly and see what they were up to.

Let’s not forget the ‘secret’ beauty of Facebook, the guilty pleasure, and the gratification factor. Not only can I show those that I have not seen in years that I have finally grown into my nose, my skin has cleared and my teeth no longer resemble something that is supposed to open a tin of baked beans. I can also take a quick look at the girl who I never liked, but had to be friends with her to keep the social peace, (secondary school was sooo political back then) and see that she is doing what I’d always expected her to be doing with her life- absolutely nothing. I know it’s wrong to say it but show me a person that has never done this and I will show you a poking liar.

Yes gratification however you get, it feels so sweet!

But let’s look at it a little deeper, Facebook has created jobs, (I have personally worked in jobs where my role has been to solely facilitate social media), revealed affairs (Jeremy Kyle would NOT have 70% of  material for his show) and has even helped shaped the political world- think I’m exaggerating?

The biggest social media campaign ‘The Big Schlep’ was launched in 2008 to encourage conversation about then presidential candidate Barack Obama. While Obama was making the rounds, Florida was seen as a challenging state because  of issues such as, lack of ethnic common ground  between said candidate and State’s large population of the elderly Jewish community , combined with unfounded   rumours that Obama did not have the  community’s best interest at heart. It looked like the vote was lost, but with help from  an excellent  viral video complete with the campaign’s call to action (click now or share content)  alongside the  comical efforts of Jewish comedienne Sarah Silverman there was a much greater sense of awareness for Team Obama and extra votes were in the bag…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgHHX9R4Qtk

Around 20,000 people signed up as Great Schlep fans on Facebook, while minute of the huge scale of things, it was campaign that the likes of Myspace and its pre historical elk could never have achieved.

Yes shares have dropped, an excuse for us to buy I say, it happens. We live in an ever changing economy, it still has value just not as much as before, besides there once   was a time when nobody would have touched Apple Macintosh with a dirty USB stick, but with sheer innovation from the late Steve Jobs and a lot of Moolah from Microsoft owner Bill Gates- the brand is now more sought after than a Granny Smith, (Massive lines outside Apple stores on launch of a new device sound vaguely familiar?)

For those 83 million fake profiles, there are over 170 million real people who log on a day. That’s activity, data and real consumers and if you know your ASOS from your Tesco then making money is like shooting ducks in a proverbial barrel. As long as the deal is worthwhile, relevant to the brand and consumers haven’t been bombarded with nonsense then the return on investment can be massive, see my favourite campaign below as it really puts the social in social media- if you’re a lone flyer this could be the way to go…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eL2lWn7oup4

To wrap this up as I probably could go on, much  like the fling of summer 2006, Facebook serves a purpose now, it targets, it connects and it sells.

Yes of course a young buck will try to usurp the glorious Zuckerberg, and throw him off his Lego built throne with matching crown,  (for some reason this is what I imagine, call me crazy, I can take it- in fact I often encourage it). I remember when Me and all the other social media geeks waited with baited breath when  Twitter came along with its sleek lined micro blogging feature and its even more adorable bluebird icon. It  respectably tried to step up to the plate once upon a time and quite rightly so, for without competitive fear we wouldn’t have challenge and innovation. But still that pretty little chick was seduced by the mighty ‘F’ and now there is a rather helpful feature that integrates each networks’ posts- a bit like a marriage or a mushy rom com where the brash naive newbie falls for their older established arch enemy…

So until this mysterious, sleeker, sexier and even more intriguing social platform comes along that makes Facebook cower in fear before sweeping me away onto its new layout, easier access-y  goodness, I am happy to stick with the devil I know, got shares?  Frame ‘em be proud that you contributed to technological history as that’s just priceless.