livingbrands

10 things we didn't know before the 48th week of 2008

1. The 999 emergency number was chosen over 111 because telegraph wires rubbing together in the wind transmitted the equivalent of a 111 call.
2. In space, an item as small as a toolbag can be seen from Earth.
3. There are only eight mycologists in the UK.
4. US intelligence kept a file on Tony Blair's personal life.
5. Premium chocolate tasters don't swallow the goods.
6. Police use curry to combat alleged drugs possession.
7. A dog's mucus enhances its sense of smell.
8. The speechwriting "tricolon technique" has been used by Julius Caesar and Barack Obama.
9. A French cologne has a scent inspired by the smell of human sperm.
10. Gordon Brown writes to X Factor contestants.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

Cheap gags...damaged brand?

118118 is a brand I've always liked. But as I've written about before, I think it's in danger of compromising its equity with new, cheap-to-run-so-high-in-profit services that simply don't work.

First of all came their mobile-based ask any question service. Which, as I discovered, will deliver you a rubbish answer for your premium rate call. Interestingly, there's now an option to watch the Q&As 'live' as they happen, with the poor quality there for all to see - more often than not, the response seems to be 'we don't know' to questions that a quick Google search easily answer.

And now for a cool 60p they're offering jokes texted to your phone…with a nice line in extra racism apparently. At least that's what two Asian students found out...twice.

What were they thinking!!! The PR shit storm has kicked off big time (a lot of it in the more right wing media interestingly), which can't do the brand any good (unless they plan to exploit the BNP mailing list to drum up support).

It's down to a rogue Filipino (which is spelt with an F not a PH, I've just discovered) operator apparently. Hmmm.

Anyway, just shows that trying to make a quick digital/mobile buck can be a damaging false economy.

I want something distinctive and different (honest)

Tom Fishburne gets it right again. Seen it with NPD. Been there with comms ideas. You suffer death by a thousand cuts, only to be criticised because what's left isn't that interesting (surprise surprise!)

10 things we didn't know before the 47th week of 2008

1. The Queen wore flares.
2. The Mary Rose might have been sunk by a French cannon.
3. Parents pushing children in away-facing buggies talk to them less, and their offspring appear to be more stressed.
4. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson is a practised and "flamboyant" dancer.
5. There was rumoured to be a 14-minute-long Beatles track called Carnival of Life, although many fans thought its existence was a myth.
6. They were wrong - it exists.
7. On the Buses star Reg Varney opened the UK's first cash dispenser.
8. Britain's not in record debt - if you account for inflation and economic growth.
9. Some Albanians settle family feuds through an ancient code called "Kanun" which allows revenge to be exacted on any male adult member of a family, but precludes entry to that person's property.
10. Camel urine is sought after for its medicinal effects in India's Bihar state, and sells for £1.34 a litre.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

If you can't beat em make sure you just do it better

The official Monty Python Youtube channel. Brilliant!

Cutting off the long tail

All of us working in the digital space like the Long Tail theory - it's simple, elegant, makes intuitive sense, and offers a lot of hope that small can be viable, even successful.

But is it actually true?

British economists have recently completed a study of 'tens of millions' of digital music transactions. And they found not the Pareto Power Law of the Long Tail, but the Log Normal distribution of a classic sales curve.

You can check it out in more detail here (although I should warn you that it's not the best written thing I've ever come across). And there's a preceding article arguing why the economics (particularly in music) don't stack up either.

But some interesting stats for you to be getting on with…

• 80% of the digital inventory had no sales at all - starkly put, there was no tail, long or otherwise.
• 80% of sales were accounted for by just 52,000 songs. The number of songs, in fact, that could be found on around 4,000 CDs…roughly the inventory held by a typical high street music store.

I'm sure there's a strong counter argument to be made. But it does make you wonder.

So brave new world? Maybe.

Alternatively, in the wise words of the Who: meet the new boss…same as the old boss.

10 things we didn't know before the 46th week of 2008

1. Avatars have sex.
2. Cocaine addiction has a gene.
3. Love handles shorten your life.
4. Barack and Michelle Obama have code names Renegade and Renaissance.
5. Germany, not China or the US, is the world's biggest exporter.
6. The QE2 does 49 feet to the gallon.
7. Monty Python's dead parrot sketch dates back to Ancient Greece.
8. Gary Glitter's I'm the Leader of the Gang was on the syllabus for GCSE music.
9. The song Two Little Boys was probably about the American Civil War.
10. Alastair Campbell plays the bagpipes.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

Get your free money here

 
(Loopzilla)

Big headline in the Evening Standard last night: Bank rates head for zero per cent. Now I'm no expert, but is this really the answer? I thought cheap credit was the cause of all our current woes? And surely savers will flee, the pound collapse etc.

Any experts care to comment?

In your face

Without wishing to turn into Obamablog, this did make me laugh. It's nice to see that even events of positive, world changing significance aren't above some gentle mockery. The irony obviously being that, for some Americans, this is precisely what they fear...

 (From Adam Buxton via CMM)

700

 
(Leo Reynolds)

Nearly missed this. But it's 700 not out!