an inevitable post about Mentos

I was handed this flier today on my walk into work - can't go unfortunately as I've got to go to a meeting.

4 quick observations

1) it's interesting that they are doing this and they should probably be applauded for getting round to it. But strange that they should do it now (it's cold an dark today in London - why not do it in the Summer?) - a good year at least since the youtube think went mentos

2) Strange that there isn't a URL link to youtube on the flier. Why wouldn't you do that? Or even link to Mentos own site?

3) A shame that Diet Coke aren't involved in this - would have been nicer as a joint initiative. Much has been said about mentos embracing this more than diet coke so I won't go over old ground but a joint thing would have been better.

4) finally, hundreds of people filed past the distributors of these fliers (they were giving out mints as well) entirely disinterested which suggests this probably wasn't the most effective way of spreading the word about this. With all the free mags & newspapers in London currently the challenge of getting anybody to pick up anything has never been greater.

Don, Scanners & Tiffers say they might go and maybe take some photos so I might post some here later.

The net can be a wonderful thing sometimes can't it? This site uses letter images from Flickr to create any word you want it to spell

http://metaatem.net

here goes...

after a late wobble when I saw a Sky ad (realised they don't do mobile) I find myself back on page 10 of Sunday's Observer - big ad for Virgin Media. Calling now. It's 11.16 am.
I'm invited to enter my home number. I have 3 options. Press 1 to join Virgin Media. I'm doing that...NOW.
And straight through to sales. Good start.
Asked for postcode, do I want the 4 for £40 deal? yes.
1st November (Thursday) is the first date they can do it.
I ask lots and lots of questions which the chap is good at answering. For some reason I get 2 bills - 3 for £30 from NTL and a separate Virgin Mobile bill for £10.
They will cancel BT for me but I have to cancel T mobile (a bit annoying - and remember to get my packcode from them) and AOL.
10 minutes in and they've done a credit check. Which is all fine (good) - any the whole thing has taken 15 mins.
Being installed on Friday 9th Nov - do I want AM or PM? AM please. fine.
Aah, but I've been popped on hold and put through to the mobile team (annoying) who are now going to take my details for virgin mobile. They try to upsell me to another product (annoying) the bloke isn't very good - he's creating an account for me on Virgin Mobile's website. I can hardly hear him.
He's taking my date of birth, phone number, do i own my house, what's my password etc (I've already given this to Virgin Media - annoying). they now want sort code number (which I've already given to Virgin Media - annoying) they now want to do a credit check (again, which I've already done - annoying) - all in the virgin mobile bit added 12 minutes making the whole thing 27 minutes.
After the Virgin Media call I felt quite positive - having to do the whole thing again for Virgin Mobile is, well, annoying. But I've done it. Just need to cancel a couple of things now and I'm away.
Feeling quite proud of myself. 12 months of hell to follow then?

live blogging experiment

this might be fun or a massive anti-climax. I have decided that we're getting Virgin Media - tv, broadband, phone & mobile. I've been thinking about it for a while. Right now we have freeview, AOL broadband (£17 a month), BT (£20 a month ish) and T mobile (£16-17 a month ish) which I think equals about £53 a month. With Virgin media, according to an ad in yesterday's Observer - I can get the lot for £40. TV would include Setanta too which is a bonus. So I reckon I get to save about £12 a month and get a better service. Except. Except it's Virgin Media which everyone knows is NTL. Horror stories about bad service abound. But I'm going to give them a call - see how easy it is and maybe take the plunge. And try to live blog my way through it. Have to do a bit of work first so will come back to it in a minute. Exciting or what?

365

I am increasingly seeing the term "365" used in marketing. The brief I'm looking at now mentions it 3 times

Create a deeper connection 365

Build towards a goal 365

365 programme

The suffix "days of the year" has been dropped (and it was an annoying enough term when it was there).

There are about a million things wrong with using "365" in my view but let me highlight just 3

1. It is grotesquely American

2. Do you really want a deeper connection with your audience on Christmas Day? Boxing day even? What are you - DFS?

3.are you going to have to switch it to 366 for the leap year next year?

no. really?

Main story in tonight's London Paper (still paper tax less for now)

"The Conservatives were dealt a devastating blow to their party finances today after a High Court Judge ruled that a businessman who let them his £8.3m fortune was insane"

You don't say.

Tax all paper, reward walking!!!

The first thing you notice when saying that you are definitely going to do a post on a certain subject is how difficult it is to then write about said subject. It's probably the closest i'll ever come to writers block. So I'm going to make a list of a few things that I could blog about, have a think and then come back to it.

1) Paper should be taxed in the same way that alcohol or cigarettes are. That should prevent me having to slalom my way into the office via someone handing out random free papers, mags & fliers. It should also ensure that people think about what they're doing and the damage to the environment before they print 1 million newspapers a night (Associated Newspapers - you know who you are). There is however a bit of a flaw on this plan. Paper can be good. It makes books, which teach people to read and become educated and informed. without paper (and the printing press) the world would be a very different place. So let's impose a blanket tax on paper. Except books.

2) People should be rewarded for walking. When I take a cab to a meeting I save about 10 minutes in London (generally) - it costs about £7-8. I get a receipt and charge it to my company and then 3-4 weeks later the money appears in my account. But I could walk. It would require me to be organised and leave 10 minutes earlier but I could definitely walk. It would have the benefit of keeping me fit, allow me to get my head together before a meeting and be better for the environment. But I don't do it. Why not? Habit, lack of thought and the fact that ultimately it doesn't cost me anything. I reckon though that there has to be a way for somebody to do something positive with this thought and reward people for walking. If I could get a receipt for walking and get rewarded for that effort I would do it. Selfish isn't it? But could it actually be a workable plan? Could it be done via GPS or via scanning your mobile at certain points around London? (bit like an oyster card) - you then get rewards for walking. Could be an interesting idea? Open to abuse of course (nothing to stop you driving from one post to another if you really wanted to) but a sort of more accountable pedometer which is universally recognised and allows universal rewards (I'm making this up now slightly but there's an idea in here somewhere)

Interesting to see how companies are sort of organising something similar (see AKQA's facebook group which is a nice touch) - if everyone did one of these it could make a difference. Will start by suggesting we do one at MindShare
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12634040036

This post has been a horrendous ramble on my part (no change there then) but glad to be doing my (very small) part...

Just realised that my "list of things" is actually 2. Aah

Blog Action Day

I've signed up for Blog Action Day (a bit late) thanks to Nick for the prompt via his blog. So I will blog about the environment shortly.

Lost post - Random & beautiful

I found this in my "edit posts" function - it was written in April last year but has never seen the light of day as I didn't ever post it. Until now. Arguably not worth the effort...

Walking over hungerford bridge last night in the usual scramble to get the train - there was a 5 piece brass band playing "Take on Me" by Aha - seemingly for no reason. They weren't asking for money, they weren't there for commercial reason from what I could make out (certainly they weren't branded) it just looked for all the world as if they were there because they love playing glorious 80s cheese on their trumpets. And I thought it was beautiful. Random, but beautiful. More of this please, everyone in the world. Just doing cool stuff randomly and entertaining people. Must be able to do something like this for ITV I'm thinking. Will think a bit more about this.

universal avatar - cool

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7038039.stm

According to the BBC's website "plans are afoot to allow your avatar to roam from one virtual world to another" - a JV between IBM and Linden Lab (the creators of second life).

Next up - can someone invent something where you only need one password for everything in life?

An argument with a large tree...

Update on the lack of apology from South West Trains. This has just arrived. I actually quite like the response

"Dear Mr Wilding,
Not a good morning, sorry. points failure at Weybridge which blocked the up fast line for about 30 minutes, and a broken crossing at Wimbledon which required a 5 mph emergency speed restriction. There were delays of up to 40 minutes. We are very short of 444's at present. We have 2 stopped with collision damage following an argument with a large tree near Dorchester, and a minor collision in the depot at Northam which damaged a second 444. We are doing everything we can to turn out 42 per day, but out of a total fleet of 45 with 2 out of service it leaves us very tight for maintenance etc.
I hope to have at least one back by early December. In the meantime we will do everything we can to provide 42 per day.
Yours,
Stewart Palmer"

I like the term "an argument with a large tree" and the brilliantly understated yet seemingly genuinely apologetic (to me anyway) "not a good morning, sorry". More of this from SWT please (although getting the trains to run the right stock and turn up on time would be preferable.

The little things matter. Have I said that before somewhere?

Customer Service

I sent the below note to SouthWest trains on Thursday morning...

Dear Mr Palmer,
I hope you're well.
I will keep this one short.
The above service this morning
- Was a 4 coach 450 train, not a 5 coach 444 and was subsequently unbearably uncomfortable.
- Had no connecting train at guildford
- arrived at waterloo station 20 minutes late without any explanation or apology from the guard
Dare I ask for an explanation? An apology even?
At least it turned up this morning I suppose, which was more than happened yesterday.
Do you consider this to be acceptable Mr Palmer?

It is now Monday morning, some 72 hours later - no reply yet. It's a little thing but the little things matter