Category Archives: Uncategorized

Rainbows & Unicorns

Posted on November 7, 2010 | 1 Comment

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

The not-so-happy side of Photo Memories

Posted on October 21, 2010 | 6 Comments

Photo memories, when they first popped up on Facebook we all smiled with nostalgia and enjoyed dipping in and out of the albums that had been long forgotten, of times gone by that we’d giggled about and commented on at the time!

However, when it comes to relationships Facebook’s efforts to bring a bit of happiness to our everyday lives by tapping into past memories has actually been found to have the opposite effect of making us sad or creating weird undesired tension with an unsuspecting  person whose past you have dipped into.

How it makes you sad – And what Facebook are doing about it
Old photos inevitably mean old relationships and old faces in your life that might not be around anymore. You could be happily going about your day, have a quick dip into facebook and suddenly you are faced with a happy smiling photo of your ex, who it has taken you the best part of 6 months to stop thinking about everyday. Great. That sick feeling returns to your stomach as you try to stop yourself browsing the album with a tear in your eye.

You can delete or block them, yes, that helps, as talked about in a previous post, but sometimes you don’t want to totally sever connections with ex’s, you might have mutual friends or still see them from time to time. Plus, you can hide them in your newsfeed, so you don’t get regular updates from them without making a statement about removing them as a friend. But photo memories, it can pop up totally unexpected and hits you right where it hurts!

Don’t worry though, Facebook has cleverly thought of a way around this by checking past relationship statuses and ensuring that any past connections are barred from the particular algorithm that brings up the memories facebook thinks you might like to see.

Facebook Photos Project Manager Sam Odio said “I’d like to let you know that we’re listening to your feedback. The photo memories product no longer shows tagged photos of your friends if you were previously in a relationship with them.”

Thanks facebook!

I wonder often if facebook has a relationship psychologist working for them on this stuff and who that is? The level of impact the network can have on our easily influenced minds is now quite extraordinary with books like this one – Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, now appearing on the shelfs of self help book shop aisles all over the world.

“Facebook makes dating far more complicated than it used to be.” Mashable

Creating awkward tension

The other weird thing about photo memories does is that it can create an unexpected fascination with unexpected people. People you may not even really think about on a day to day basis, or people you have maybe only dated a few times and thought it probably wouldn’t go anywhere. But other people’s old photos are interesting. Admit it. We’ve been harmlessly on our Facebook newsfeed pages when all of a sudden we get distracted by an interesting looking shot in the photo memories section. We click on that photo recommendation and all of a sudden we’ve lost 30 minutes flicking through an album that belongs to someone you don’t know, featuring someone you know now, but you didn’t 5 years ago when these shots were taken. Facebook has intrigued us, got our natural voyeur engaged! Then, before you know it you suddenly have a bizarre knowledge about that person, one they have no idea about. If you mention it to them, do you look like a stalker?

“How has your week been?”, “Well I spent Wednesday night browsing through your holiday pictures from Thailand in 2005, and thinking how hot your ex girlfriend was back then…”

Facebook does things that encourage our inner stalker. But does it creates a curiosity that wouldn’t have been there otherwise? The other important thing to bear in mind is that apparently the infamous algorithm serves us photos in this section of those people we interact with or visit the pages of the most. So, if we keep getting pictures of the ex, or people we are fascinated to find out more about, have we actually brought it on ourselves, is Facebook simply amplifying our natural behaviours and we just don’t want to admit it?

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Vast, Findable, Shareable, Free – The Smithsonian Commons

Posted on October 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

“The worth and importance of the Institution is not to be measured by what it accumulates but by what it sends forth to the world.”

Joseph Henry – The Smithsonian Institution’s first Secretary

I went to see Michael Edson talk at the Powerhouse Museum on Friday night. He’s from the Smithsonian Institution where he’s the Director of Web and New Media Strategy. He was talking about the Smithsonian’s digital presence and exactly you go about digitising the world’s largest museum and research complex in order to open up Smithsonian resources, communities, and expertise through technology for increased learning, innovation and creativity globally.

Michael’s passion, honesty and insight was captivating. The project itself, if you can even call such an undertaking one project, is incredible and a powerful demonstration of the depth of the abilities we now have to connect and share resources across the web and an inspiration about the possibilities of what we can actually do online.

You can see Michael’s presentation here and see where they are at with their prototype here.

http://www.si.edu/commons/prototype/index.html

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

TV ads so good, you’ll wanna share them

Posted on October 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Something has happened in the last three weeks.

People are talking about advertising again.   Yep, that is old school TVC advertising, 60 sec, 90 sec and even 120 spots!

Thank you Ikea (even though I am a dog person really)

Virgin Atlantic

And my personal favourite with its rapping farmers –  Yeo Valley.

There has been so much debate and argument over whether the days of the creative advertising agency is over.    I think the last month has proved that day has certainly not come.  I credit London ad land for the magic they have produced with their briefs recently, its made me feel very excited to be a part of this industry I am so passionate about once again.

Capturing people’s attention it is still about having great ideas.  Great creative agencies should be a place those happen every day.  The ideas we have just need to be less about selling me stuff or just making your product sound great.  It’s about getting me to like you more by getting my attention in an entertaining or random way, making it something I can do, be involved in or something that is just down right useful.  Essentially the idea needs to do something other than just advertise.

For a yoghurt brand to run an ad that doesn’t talk about taste, or calories, or any stand out product benefit actually, must have taken a brave marketing team and a strong supportive ad agency.   But by choosing what may have seemed like a somewhat random route of sexy rapping farmers waxing lyrical about ‘being down with the Soil association’  what they have got as an instant result?  A swell of comments on Twitter and facebook, (so much so it was the first thing I saw people talking about when I woke up in Australia on Sunday morning) and a YouTube channel where people are already talking about the track going to Christmas number 1.  I can already imagine the kids in British playground chanting ‘Yeo Valley, Yeo Valley’.

I am excited about what this might inspire other clients to invest their budget in and what ideas will come to life as a result.  The popularity of these ads is even more measurable than ever through views, shares and mentions and even the parodies.

The ROI will be evident very quickly, and so long as they see follow through in the sales (I have a hunch that kids will be DEMANDING Yeo Valley yogurt in supermarket aisles across the UK very soon) they should be success stories (with the case studies coming soon).

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Sharing your smarts.

Posted on October 10, 2010 | 2 Comments

Are you a smart cookie? Prove it.

I started a new job a few weeks ago. The scariness of being in a new environment with a lot of smart people reminded me about how in this industry the sharing of our smarts is one of the most exhilarating and the most daunting things about what we do. Knowing and imparting the right knowledge in presentations and meetings can be make or break in our careers.

Sharing smart stuff makes us feel good, we inherently like to help people with what we know and of course it makes us feel good if they find it interesting or smart too because we solved a problem and proved we were clever enough to find it or think of it in the first place.

But, when we share something we think is smart, and others don’t acknowledge or don’t agree it can make us feel sad and a wee bit silly sometimes. Especially if we expected a positive response that just doesn’t happen. The response can ultimately affect in a matter of seconds how we feel about ourselves as capable people. Having an ability to judge what is the right thing to share and when is crucial and completely nerve wracking.

Twitter is a great smart learning and sharing tool – you get the rewards almost instantly, in a measurable tangible way when people show their appreciation through RTs and responses to you. And, you don’t have to worry about blushing publicly if your contribution is the equivalent of meeting room tumbleweed.

When I first got into Twitter this really excited me, and I wanted to share any interesting link that I found. Like many other people I loved the thrill of seeing someone appreciate something I had thrown out there and also the fascination trying to understand what people found most interesting. However, it did become quite overwhelming quickly. It’s easy to get confused about what is right, wrong or interesting. It essentially got me really confused and probably exposed me to be a little naïve at times. Like when the others in the meeting room drop their eyes at a slightly off piste comment – the silence on Twitter had me worrying about the relevance of what I was saying. But with so much information out there, what is good practice to learn and share the best stuff? Both online, and knowing what to transfer into real life?

1. How do we filter the relevant smart stuff?

What is really relevant knowledge in the meeting room? Because that is where the smarts really count and the value we add that pays the bills. Choosing what the right stuff is to immerse ourselves in is crucial.

2. Do we really need to know it all?

What is relevant for your world and where you operate?

Yes, it is great to know lots about everything. But if there is one thing I have learnt in the last year it is that the potential for learning is too rich and complex. You simply can’t learn and know about everything.

3. Where do you draw the line with what you share for free?

How open should we be with what we share online? How much do we need to share to prove our smarts and what do we hold back as part of the value we give as part of our day rates?

4. How do you stay relevant and interesting (both online and in real life)

We hear the term echo chamber a lot now, have we heard it all before? Is the chatter is just a churn of new people coming on board, learning and sharing the stuff everyone else learnt last term? Is there still the opportunity to find fresh, relevant inspiration?

Finding the answers

Here are three pieces I have read this week that helped feed my curiosity on this topic.

From Russell Davies.

The way to be interesting is to be interested. You’ve got to find what’s interesting in everything, you’ve got to be good at noticing things, you’ve got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they’ll find you interesting.

Interesting people are good at sharing. You can’t be interested in someone who won’t tell you anything. Being good at sharing is not the same as talking and talking and talking. It means you share your ideas, you let people play with them and you’re good at talking about them without having to talk about yourself.

From Katie Chatfield.

Do your fucking research.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. Stephen Hawking

Make sure you know what you are talking about and if you don’t, well find out. It’s not always that hard.

When I was fresh faced and ‘oh so naively confident’ I went out for a drink with the Client Services Director at the agency I worked with at the time. He was giving advice on my future career and how I could progress into my next role. I remember he fed back to me that I had a tendency to be dogmatic at times. At 24 I had no idea what that even meant. I found out. I am glad I did and I am glad he said it because even now it can be very easy, but dangerous, especially with lots of enthusiasm and passion to assert an unproved opinion but it’s also the easiest way to expose yourself.

From Gareth Kay.

Little idea #10 – be interesting, not right

… I firmly believe in a world of data abundance and processing power, that the curious will win. This, in many ways, is a re-dedication to our past. Bill Bernbach said this back in the the 1950s:

“The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you, and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”

How to be a smart cookie? What have I learnt.

To be seen as smart you have to be interesting and to be interesting you have to keep learning, but crucially, to be recognised as being interesting you have to be brave enough to share your thoughts. This last bit is the most daunting and tricky, because its where you have to be ready to defend and discuss your thoughts effectively.

What I hope I’ve have learnt from being the new girl is to rather than barge straight in there like my 24 year old dogmatic self, is to apply the same kind curiosity as we do when we learn new smarts, and use that curiosity to understand the situation, the context and the people involved. Because the smarts we share will be much more interesting if they are relevant, even if they might not always be right.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

Finland – you rock

Posted on September 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

I recently got back from a trip to Europe.  While I was there I ‘accidentally’ managed to cancel my return flights to Sydney.  An honest,  simple mistake.  Who knew if you miss on of the legs they automatically cancel the rest of your trip outright.  No exceptions.   Not me, obviously.

Having not realised about this rule and had stupidly decided to travel on from Finland (where I had stopped over to go to my good friends wedding and eat some amazing chocolate cake) onto the UK on Ryanair, so I could travel with a friend in need of my company rather than take my connection with Finnair from Helsinki.  I never thought to tell the airline, surely they wouldn’t even miss me – I had paid for the ticket, it was no loss to them if I didn’t turn up?  Surely?

This is not the case.  I found out a few days later airlines all follow a policy that if you don’t show up for a leg of a flight they will cancel the remaining flights on that ticket with no refund.  It is apparently to prevent people taking advantage of combination fares but only using certain legs of the journey.

I spoke to Flight Centre, who I had booked my flights with after my travel agent Mel emailed me to break the news.  Stating I would need to purchase a one way flight back to Sydney.  There was nothing they could do.  I realise it is standard policy, but it seemed pretty extreme and unreasonable to cancel out my return back to Sydney.     I was faced with the prospect of having to admit this massive cock up to my family and fork out another $1000 to get back.   Except I didn’t have $1000, I would have to ask my parents for the money.  Yep, the 29 year old daughter returning home for her little brother’s wedding after 18 months away.  ”Great to see you Mum and Dad!”  I couldn’t even face the reality of that situation   I was feeling pretty sorry for myself, but in my despair I knew there must be some way out.    So, I did what any person  who works in marketing  would do.  Bombarded the call centres with calls, asked to speak to supervisors, tried to debate my way through any loophole I could find.  When that didn’t work  I scoured the internet looking for something, anything that resembled a customer commitment or a piece of marketing I could base my case on to try and get my original flights back.

After 15 minutes of digging through the Finnair website I spotted a small link in the bottom right hand corner.  The Finnair blog.

On it I found Marku Remes.  He called himself  ‘a defender of customers’ interests’, he sounded exactly like the kind of guy I needed to talk to and so I crafted up my emotional plea, took a guess at what his email address might be and then held my breath in optimistic hope he would get back to me.

Luckily for me I found my hero.  Mr Remes 100% delivered on his blog bio claim, while everyone else I had spoken to could do nothing to help me he looked at my case with some evident human emotion and understanding.

I understand your worry and frustration very well; I would feel the same if this had happened to me in Australia. I try to find a solution by talking to my superiors. I’ll get back to you when I have answers.

And he did, the very next day

Finnair has now evaluated your personal situation vs. occurred ticket contract breach. Finnair is a friendly airline of the Northern skies so we have decided to assist you in as much as we can. Our ticketing expert will be in contact with you later today for the required arrangements.

I got a call later that day, the rep was extremely helpful – got me back onto to my original flights with only a small admin charge to pay.  He also mentioned to me that Mr Remes had been instrumental in resolving my situation and had even taken the time to clear it with superiors in Sydney to override this strict rule.  I considered myself to be a pretty lucky girl.  The news made me so, so happy and meant I could appreciate my time with my family and not have to be the one spoiling the celebrations with bad news.  For that I am extraordinary grateful.

So, this post is a thank you to Finnair and especially Mr Marku Remes.  It is refreshing to experience a company can look beyond rules and conditions to consider the human situation surrounding them, plus go beyond the call of duty to help that person out.

I also have to say that my flights home were all utterly smooth and other than British Airways delaying my bag in Heathrow Terminal 5 I had no problems whatsoever.  I even quite enjoyed the chicken meatballs for dinner.

Remember the yoghurt pot?

I also recognise how fortunate I am that my error was able to be resolved.  We make so many decisions in life without taking the time to think them through.  I should have at least checked with the airline before making assumptions it would be fine.  Not for the first time Finland has reminded me to take the time to think things through before rushing into something. So Finland, Finnair and Marku Remes, thank you – you rock.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

What do a raft in Wales, a lightswitch, KitKats and Indy Mogul have in common? Some lessons in causal marketing.

Posted on September 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

Another random story from the Swankie career vault.   This week I have been thinking about when I built a raft on a team building course in Wales.  It was cold.  It was Wales.  We were a bunch of bankers building a raft together in Wales, in the cold.  When we finally got it afloat I got my bum wet because the seats weren’t exactly the sturdiest thing I have ever sat on.  Plus, we were last team to make it to the other side of the river.  But you know what, when we did we yelped with joy, hugged each other and felt so uncontrollably happy at what we had achieved together, it was immense and my happiest memory of Wales.  The fact it was a bit tougher for us almost made the whole thing more rewarding, and we had all made a difference to make it happen.

I’m stating the obvious again, but doing stuff together makes us feel good as human beings.  We also get happiness thrills from the pleasure of giving and contributing to causes.  So my hunch?  There must be more we can do with brands to create things people can do for good together, like the Pepsi Refresh project,  that can also make us happier people.   Maybe we will even  like the brands more as a result and buy more of their stuff.   A win for everyone, surely?   Especially now the internet makes it so much easier to bring a bunch of people together in a community.

The danger?  How do you avoid becoming yet another facebook page for a good cause, sponsored by a big brand chasing as many likes and status updates as we can, because I am a big hearted girl who wants to do her bit – but there is only so many times you can promote a good cause before you loose interest or it becomes boring for your friends and followers.  Harsh, but I think it’s a fair call.

These were the questions I had in my mind when I went along to #smcsyd this week to hear John Johnson (@jjprojects) and Dae Levine (@daelevine)  speak, I was curious to hear what they had to say about what made Earth Hour and the Nestle Killer campaign known for their global successes, mass following and tangible results.

Their presentations were good and insightful, and a few people have already beaten me to good analysis of the content they chatted through, so you can read about them here.  From @erietta & from @HannahDeMilta

What I tried to take from the presentations were any key lessons are in building a groundswell around your cause for maximum success.  Are there critical factors we need to consider to help achieve that pop culture status (and get Aston tweeting about you)?  What are the lessons for any brands (or agencies representing brands) who are excited about the opportunity to do something like this?  Do it well, as well as have the maximum chance to demonstrate to the finance director next year it was a sound investment for the company?  I was hoping these two might have some answers for me.

So, if you are keen to start a little social revolution for a cause close to your heart, these are some pointers that I took away from the night that might help you out.

1. Make sure everyone can make a difference to your cause.

If everyone feels like their effort is important and appreciated they will become more involved in supporting and doing it.  I personally am crap at tying rafts together – but my god, I knew my effort counted to us making it to the other side, so I gave it my all and it made my celebration in the ‘success’ I had helped create so much sweeter.  I also liked the fact Greenpeace thanked everyone who helped them out, personally, where possible, by email.

2. Make it really simple.

Turn your lights off for an hour.  Stop buying KitKats.  Easy.  Doing stuff can be scary for people.  Make it something everyone can do if you want lots of people to do it.

3. Let people put their own stamp on it.

Make your content open and encourage people to play with it and adapt it for their own world.  I was curious to hear both Dae and John talk about how they were just as proud of the offshoots and adaptations their campaigns had inspired.

4. Get people emotionally connected.

Greenpeace used imagery of a monkey for a reason.  People get attached to human story and animals.  Bring emotion into it wherever possible.

5. Define and aim for success

Even if it feels a bit pie in the sky, have a goal you would want to achieve and strive to make it happen.

I also found it interesting what they said also echoed what I learnt the week before from the guys at Indy Mogul about making great online videos while they were visiting Sydney on their Australian tour.

They call themselves the “first network for the YouTube generation” and they have over 10 million views a month.  Their formula?   Make programs with really simple genuine concepts, concepts easy for people to get involved in and do (see Backyard FX as reference, which is a show about how to create movie type special effects using household utensils) and enable community conversation around that on YouTube, so the community can help shape the channel and the program.  They even thank a viewer in every show who has commented on the previous edition.  Simple, but effective and spurs more people to leave comments in hope of being featured next time.

The Indy Mogul 4 Golden Rules

  1. Be genuine
  2. Be resourceful and creative, don’t be too slick
  3. Be interactive and responsive
  4. Keep it short

I took from these two events that whether you are making something for good, or just something to get the LOLs, it seems there some really quite simple things to remember that can help get the idea resonating with as many people as possible and producing warm and fuzzy feel good as a result.

Making stuff happen together is a unquestionably a good thing, and as brands start kicking into planning for their 2011 campaigns I am getting excited about what we might all help create next year and the smiles that might bring in the future.  Happy idea making!

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

Happylife

Posted on August 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

Completely fascinated by this project which I came across thanks to Iain Tait.

Happylife is a initiative that claims to be building technology that will be able to detect the happiness of people using it more effectively than the human beings closest to them in real life.

Through analysis of facial expressions, eye movement and pupil changes linked to other physiological processes, members in the household are analysed and a device then reports back on your happiness through a LED display and the positioning of a dial on what they reference as “effectively emotional barometers.”

Amazing.  How many times have we sat and wondered how the people in our lives are really feeling.  About what may be hiding in those ‘I’m fine’ responses, when we know fine well they’re not.  What if a machine could really give us the truth or predict oncoming bouts of sadness in advance?  What power or insight would that give us?  Is it a healthy thing for relationships or does it unnaturally take away our right to choose not to share our darker moods when questioned?  Could this kind of science help us become happier people?

Read more about the project here, and also make sure you flick through the gorgeously eery storyboards created to depict the Happylife home.  Their hand sketched glow is spookily enchanting.

Image credits:  augerment

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,

The quarter life crisis

Posted on August 12, 2010 | 17 Comments

Quarter life crisis?  Me?

Have you ever had one of those days where you just want to change every single little thing about your life?  Or one of those months or those years for that matter?  You are not alone.  More and more frequently I am hearing about people in their mid to late twenties who decide, rather suddenly in many cases, to completely transform their lives.  Leaving partners, totally changing careers, starting businesses, dying/cutting their hair, moving to the other side of the world – nearly everyone I know has done at least one of these things in an effort to seek refreshed happiness.

What is it about those post university, early career years that make us fundamentally question who we are and what direction we are going in?    All these questions and challenges we pose ourselves about who we want our grown-up selves to be, along with stressing about what haven’t we done yet and what do we need to achieve before we feel ready to settle down?   There is something about the path we lay for ourselves in our early 20s that by the time we hit 24 we all seem to be saying a similar thing. “It’s what I thought I wanted – but I just wasn’t happy.”

But, does change make us happy?

So, if we are not happy with the path we had, is the secret to happiness through a trial and error combination path of changes until we hit the winning route?    The chart above was sent to me from a good friend of mine.  It really got me thinking about my own situation.  My very own Quarter Life Crisis (QLC).

When I hit 25  I woke up on my birthday and literally decided right at that moment it was time to change everything and, I did.  Long term Boyfriend (who was actually lovely), flat (that I owned in London), job (in Marketing for a very big bank in the UK) and I kept on doing it.  Jump to 3 years later and I am sitting on a plane to Sydney partied out, single, broke and miserable.  None of my changes had worked long term.   Change that was all self inflicted, change that involved me ending relationships, changing careers, moving house 5 times, jumping around several social groups and seriously straining some amazing friendships.  It was clear whatever change I made next had to be a big one.  A moving to the other side of the world kind of change.

What I have learnt from 5 years of change. (Including one very big Australian adventure)

I’m writing this from the airport, heading home after my first 18 months in Australia.  This milestone of my first trip home is a pretty big deal for me, particularly in the context of my QLC, and thinking on reflection of my decision to move here.    With time to kill in the airport, I started thinking about my Gran.  I’ve always been very close to my Gran.  She’s the one to blame for my passion for Doris Day movies and habit of singing musical songs in the shower.   She’s pretty deaf now, so we communicate mostly through letters and cards, hand written of course.  It is very sweet.  When I left the UK for Australia my Gran wrote me a card with some pearls of Dundonian wisdom to take with me to the other side of the world.  It said…

“Don’t go near spiders, don’t go swimming because of the sharks, don’t work as hard as you did in London and I hope you find the happiness you’re looking for overseas.”

I was moving to a strange foreign country.  Things would be different.  Things that no-one in my family could help me prepare for.  She understood completely why I was doing it, but it scared her.  And that is the thing about change, it is actually pretty scary.

I will never forget the night I left the UK.  It hadn’t really sunk in the majorness of this change I had organised myself into until I got onto the plane alone and headed for Sydney.  Just me, 26KGs of stuff and a large Scooby Doo teddy bear I’ve had since I was 15, who would act as a pillow and chief comforter.  I was flying away from my family, my friends, my career and everything I had pretty much ever had.  Including people I thought would be a part of my everyday life forever. Flying into a complete unknown and a whole new life, based on a hunch that I would love Australia.   I was fucking terrified and cried uncontrollably for the first 5 hours of the flight.

So in the “Quest for Happiness”, is change the answer?

For me, even though it has been scary and tough, it was the right change moving here.  The right change that eventually came at the end of a chain of others.  So, yes – if you aren’t happy, there is something wrong and yes, in order to resolve that change could be the answer.  But, here are some thoughts to consider if you think you may be going through a QLC.

  • Before you make any big change know you are doing it for the right reasons, and as much as you can, think about what consequences you might face as a result.  Recognise what you have that is valuable to you.  Don’t sacrifice it for something you just think you might want now.
  • Old habits die hard.  No matter what you change about your environment, there are some things inherent to you as a person that will never change.  So be comfortable being yourself.  You can’t change into someone you are not.   It sounds like bullshit sometimes, but relaxing and just being yourself is when you shine.
  • It’s great to start afresh.  But make sure you aren’t just running away. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you won’t bring those inner gremlins with you.  They will eventually get fed after midnight and start to trouble you once more.
  • If you do decide to make the change, don’t be too tough on yourself.  Change is hard.  Take each day as it comes and remember, its OK to feel a bit overwhelmed and frightened sometimes – if it is the right choice, it’ll worth keeping going.

The best thing about change

Be excited about the possibilities of your change.  The most exciting thing about change is the unknown.  Be ready to  grab any opportunity that comes your way.  All the unexpected adventures and experiences.  Ones you may not have ever had the opportunity to live should you have kept everything the same.

As a celebration of my decision to make the change to move here are some random memories of some unanticipated experiences and adventures that I have had in my first chapter in Australia.  They are what I will go home today to tell my Gran and they will be the experiences that will shape where I go next.  I hope you enjoy them.

Australia: Chapter 1′s random adventures

I lived in Campbeltown for two weeks.  Then I moved to Coogee.  I saw Vanilla Ice play live.  I met a bunch of new friends.  I worked at Jack Watts Currie for a little while, they were all lovely, it was very pretty and they had a ping pong table and an agency dog.  I joined Twitter, went along to a thing called Coffee Mornings, got drunk at SHTBOX and met some interesting people at both who would become good friends.  I went to Randwick Races and didn’t win any money, ended up going out in Manly and pretending to be Kate Winslet in Titanic on the Ferry ride home.  I ran a half marathon.  I got addicted to Underbelly.  I went to see a Clairvoyant, who told me good things I hope come true one day.  I went to see a good old friend in Wellington, the city with the best coffee in the world.  I saw Sydney turn red with dust.  I learnt how to Scuba Dive.  I went to Jervis Bay, went scuba diving with seals and saw a Humpback whale.  It was amazing.  I changed jobs.  I went to work at McCann.  I worked hard, and learnt a great deal from some true mentors like Chris Johnston, Mark Pollard, Vince McSweeney and Marie Claire Jenkins, as well a whole bunch of other awesome people there.  I went to back to New Zealand to shoot ads for work and ran around the lake in Queenstown.  It was beautiful.  I went to Melbourne.  And had to learn how to live it – fast.  I met an old soul I connected with.  I ran City 2 Surf.  I went to the Blue Mountains and ate liqororise and talked about life at the back of the bus like old ladies with my old boss from London.  I ran another half marathon, was late and got to run across a deserted Sydney Harbour Bridge.  I sang Karaoke.  I saw Robbie Williams play live and the 13 year old me died of happiness.  I swung on a hammock in the Australian countryside at a little magical music festival.  I rediscovered the fun of pretending to be a pirate.  I tried to re-learn how to drive a car, then drove a van 40kms across Sydney from Coogee to Castle Hill, to this day is my scariest day and my biggest achievement.

I went on a great big road trip adventure across Australia.  It was eye opening and amazing,  I didn’t drive.  Here are a random selection of  photos.

Trip highlights for me – I saw lots of wild Kangaroos that excited my inner tourist.  I went to The McLaren Vale, which I think is one of the most beautiful places in the world and tasted the most amazing red wine there.  I climbed Mount Wudinna and saw the sunset over it.  I saw the Nullarbor Plain and the road through it, it was intense.  I spent my first New Years here in a dried out swamp playing Uno and drinking port.  I saw the Indian Ocean for the first time and I saw the sunset over it too.

Back in Sydney I saw a blue moon and it gave me an idea for my future.  I took up Body Jam and realised I love hip hop dancing, even though I am very bad at it.  I did a creative writing course and played with some ideas.  I saw Salt n’Pepa play live.  I danced.  I started a blog.  I learnt what the Semantic web was all about, kinda…  I did my first Tri-athon and swam next to the Opera House.  I did some dancing Yoga.  I watched a lot of Rugby.  I started a group about Community, because it fascinated me.  I ran another half marathon.  I went surfing and realised I haven’t done that enough.  I jumped around in a mask on the pitch in the ANZ stadium shouting and screaming and felt like a nutter in order to learn how to present better.  I went back to New Zealand and helped make an ad with the All Blacks.  And I and got to be the person holding the t-shirts while Richie McCaw changed his top. ;)  I had a day at work where I spoke to people in New York, LA, Singapore, China and London in one day – and thought that was kinda cool, if a little stressful.  I got my palm read.  I got drunk with advertising veterans and listened to some great stories.  I discovered a group of Secret Foodies and got up to some good old fashioned mischief.  I watched the moon rise over the ocean turning into a lunar eclipse.   It was really beautiful and it made me think.

Overall, I have had 18 months of amazing, mostly completely unexpected experiences and adventures.  Thank you all for making it so great.  And even though this change was a good one and I am hoping my QLC might calm down a little now I am still ready for all the randomness and exploring in Chapter 2 when I get back  in a few weeks time.  :)

 

→ 17 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

Life in A Day

Posted on July 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

I saw this campaign for the first time today.  It made me get a little excited and remember why I love working in marketing and advertising.

Life in A Day – A historic, global experiment to create a user generated feature film, shot in a single day, by you.

The film will undoubtedly be beautiful and capture some great insights and moments of real life from all over the world.  But what got me most excited today, were the comments on the YouTube channel.  (Except the obligatory ones about the idea being ripped off)

I do get a bit gushy about community, as some of my close colleagues and friends will know – but I am not embarassed to say I personally love this idea because already, a day or so after launch there were comments and questions from people all over the world.  From the very beginning this project has started to bring together a worldwide community.  A community with a shared purpose.  An experience they can all share, that they can connect through and an end product they will all have had a part in creating.  Something that wouldn’t have been able to happen 5 years ago before we lived in these shared social web times.  (Gush, gush!)

I also love the fact that someone at LG has decided to invest their marketing dollars in this kind of project.  Being brave enough to demonstrate their technology in an idea that does something, rather than just say something about the product.  It also looks like it has been done jointly between Youtube & LG, with no mention of an ad agency – unless I can’t find it?  If this is true, I find that very interesting too.

I eagerly await to see what happens on July 24th and the resulting piece of film that Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald will create to premiere at the 2011 Sundance film festival.  Until then, I will enjoy watching the conversation and buzz in the community as it all happens.  I’m in.  So I’ll certainly be out with my camera on the 24th to capture a little bit of my life for them.  I hope you do too.  Nice work LG.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , ,