Launching the world’s first snore absorption room; creating the world’s biggest shave; reinterpreting art with technology; revealing the best place in the UK to bring up a family… As 2011 draws to a close, we take a look back month by month at some H+K Strategies campaigns and work throughout the year.
January: City & Guilds Million Extra
You're hired: Karren Brady+ City & Guilds' Chris Jones
To start the new year, preparations to launch City & Guilds first ever Apprenticeship Summit went underway early on. The aim of the campaign was to help ensure one million Apprenticeship starts by summer 2013.
In January, we commissioned a report to identify the barriers employers face in hiring apprentices with the findings discussed by key political and business leaders at the Summit, hosted by Apprentice star Karren Brady.
Nearly 100 pieces of coverage resulted from this campaign as well as a request from Professor Alison Wolf to receive a copy of the full report after seeing the articles to include in her Government review of 14-19 education.
February: Intel Remastered
Shortlisted for various industry awards, our Technology team created an exciting art campaign- Intel Remastered to showcase the creative application of Intel technology. The project saw 13 modern artists reinterpret iconic masterpieces using digital technology and techniques.
Pushing the boundaries of art and creating one of the most talked about art events on the year, the stories and inspiration behind classics such as Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ and Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ were retold and presented to a digital-savvy audience.
The pretence that this blog is a weekly thing really has to stop. One month since the last one, fact fans. I’ve had THINGS TO DO. Not least going to Brussels and Croatia, where I went on holiday and did NOTHING other than read and swim and be horizontal. It was awesome, and as a result I now look less like this and more like this. No really, I do.
“Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness; close bosom friend of the maturing sun…” – or that’s what Keats said. Personally speaking, I think Keats can do one, as can September and Autumn in general. Everything smells of wet dog and regret, it’s cold and miserable and it’s now just the long, slow trudge towards another season of crass mass-consumerism and endless, interminable, incomprehensible perfume adverts (NB – anyone who works in advertising who reads this, please feel free to explain to me why perfume advertising is so oblique, as I have literally no idea).
Think, then, of this edition of Web Curios as the lightbox to your SAD, the plaster to your axewound (for future reference, an unpleasant conjunction of words to Google), the United Nations to your genocide. I’m here to help. To that end, herearesomerecommendationsforawesomestuffyoucandoin Londonoverthenextfewmonths (NB – that last link is one of the best things I’ve seen in years, very much recommended. Oh, and for an interesting take on Libya, you could do worse than read this). In the real world! NOT ON THE INTERNET! Crazy but true.
But for now it’s still all about the internet. Well, on this particular blog it is, anyway. If you don’t like it, you know what you can do (though I’d prefer it if you didn’t; I’m needy, and low-to-moderate traffic figures are all that’s standing between me and a P45).
HELLO! This Friday marks what, as far as I’m concerned, is the end of the last working week in April. Next weekend we have death, resurrection and ceremonial chocolate sweats; the weekend afterwards we have a nation descending into drunken, vomitous chaos in the name of a patriotic spirit long-forgotten (oh, and there’s a wedding happening too). As a result of people indulging in this sort of behaviour, it’s unlikely any of us will have got over the jaundice before May at the earliest (NB – Web Curios does not condone excessive drinking unless it’s as an expression of royalist fervour, in which case go for your lives webmongs).
As a result of the imminent HOLIDAY, this week’s Curios is going to be relatively light on work-related stuff. Obviously, though, it’s all still GOLD. ENJOY, DAMN YOU.
Happy New Year! (I was going to accompany that with an image, but you’d be suprised how NSFW the first Google Image result for that apparently innocent phrase is. Dear God, it’s all just filth on the internet, isn’t it?).
I, though, have been leading the glamorous life of a jetsetter. Apart from on Christmas Day, where I found myself eating a mediocre lunch, alone, at the soulless Gordon Ramseyfranchise at Heathrow Terminal 5. I have been to Rome and Berlin and (unexpectedly, due to being ‘confused’ on new year’s day) Dusseldorf and Amsterdam and San Francisco. I didn’t look at the internet AT ALL for over a fortnight. It was AMAZING.
Now, though, my nose is once again being deprived of multiple epidermal layers as a result of prolonged exposure to the grindstone. I am back ON IT. As such, take a deep breath, make yourselves comfortable, and let me guide you with the assured touch of a skilled lover through this week’s selection of things off the internet. After a picture, to break the monotony:
My vision was a bit like this on New Year's day, hence the Dusseldorf incident
We are a nation in mourning. We have been denied our RIGHT by the cheating foreigners. Or, as the more level-headed amongst us migh be thinking, we’ve been spared seven years of small-island jingoism and casual racism, dredging up the ashes of empire in unseemly and ugly fashion. Whichever side of that particular fence you fall on (clue: if it’s the wrong side, sling your hook; we don’t need your sort ’round here), the fact remains that football’s not coming home; it’s going to hang out with Roman and the oil barons instead. Don’t worry, though; they’re both fantastic countries with unimpeachable records on human rights! Eh?Oh.
Leaving aside frivolous sporting matters for a moment, it has once again been a BIG WEEK. Everyone’s favourite agent provocateur Julian Assange has been disclosing secrets left right and centre – and noone can complain, because it’s ‘in the public interest’! (this is my new favourite statement, largely because ‘the public’ is such a large, amorphous entity that almost anything can be considered to be, to some degree, in its interest. Basically meaning that anything is, to an extent, permissable. Thanks, Julian, for ushering in a new era of libertarianism). Top Tip for 2011, though – get Julian on your Dead Pool, quick smart.
Elsewhere, the festive season is upon us and so are the advertising campaigns – this video, for example, by La Senza (and I challenge any man reading this to watch that and not feel a bit…well…grubby. I promise; it’s impossible). Web Curios would, however, like to suggest that maybe this year, given how utterly banjaxed everything is, you potentially consider a different approach and perhaps useyourmoniesdifferently. Or, you know, go ahead and buy that scented candle set that we both know will stay in its packaging in the guest bedroom for evermore. Your call. Of course, if you want to buy me a present then feel free.
(sometimes I think I’m in the wrong industry, you know).
Anyway, enough of this. OTHER STUFF has been happening – INTERNET STUFF (seamless segue, I think you’ll agree). But before we turn our attention to INTERNET STUFF, a picture!
[A brief aside - can someone explain to me, please, what the appeal of the X-Factor is? I am genuinely baffled as to why millions of people seem to find entertainment in watching music that was mediocre to start with being sung appreciably less well by people with less talent than the original artists, many of whom have fairly obvious and somewhat troubling personality disorders, on a set that looks as though it was designed by the same people who designed the wrappers for Quality Street chocolates, presided over by a group of people who, as a result of consistent public attention and adulation, are now of the mistaken belief that what they do matters and should be the subject of public debate, all in order to basically inflate the already gargantuan income of a man who's almost singlehandedly responsible for everything that is wrong with the last decade of this country's musical output? (I wonder if he and The Man are friends?) WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL ARE YOU ALL IDIOTS WHY CAN YOU NOT SEE THAT I AM RIGHT AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. Feel free to respond in the comments if you have any arguments that might persuade me that the IQ of the majority of the UK population is in double rather than treble figures, and that that is borne out by the its televisual habits]
*Ahem*
Of course, though, that all pales into insignificance compared to stuff that people have done on the internet. Here is some of it.
Ach, who am I kidding? September’s been a horrible month, webmongs, and I for one can’t wait to see the back of it. All I can say is that I hope the past few weeks of your lives have been better than the past few weeks of mine. Anyway, enough maudlin whinging; I’ve got nothing this week, ‘comedy’ intro-wise, so on with the webrubbish. ‘Enjoy’.
The fund management industry controls assets worth around $90 trillion worldwide. Deciding how to allocate this money is the task of a global industry that employs more than 50,000 people in the UK alone. Asset managers pride themselves on their ability to analyse their universe of potential investments, and for many it is this methodology or sector knowledge that separates them from the competition and secures their clients.
To communicate an investment strategy, fund managers use all manner of graphs and tables to illustrate performance and highlight the potential of their product but as Monday night’s edition of Newsnight (starting at 26 minutes) highlighted, our ability to represent complicated information is changing.
Presenter David Sillito uses examples such as the charismatic Hans Rosling’s lecture on population and life expectancy to illustrate the compelling nature of modern graphics.
The basic premise of the Newsnight feature is that as the quality and beauty of a presentation increases, so too does our likelihood to pay attention and retain the information.
There is clearly an opportunity for asset managers to use these kinds of graphics with clients and prospects, but also potentially with the media. The websites that serve the investment community have become more visually compelling, I’m thinking in particular of the Financial Times site and innovations such as Alphaville’s Tags graphic for example.
As sites like Citywire add new forms of content such as video, the media is working in partnership with fund managers to generate material. It is not hard to imagine a situation whereby fund mangers with graphics that shed new light on an investment trend could collaborate with media outlets to place their information and at the same time highlight their expertise in important media.
A few illustrations
The video graphic below shows the drop off in the number of flights during the peak of the volcanic ash chaos, but it could just as easily represent investment inflows to major financial markets.
Wheredoesmymoneygo.org looks at how the government is spending our taxes. A fixed income manager could produce something similar to highlight their beliefs about government spending policies and the outlook for the government’s bonds. An interactive version of the graphic below can be found on the website here.
Unless you’ve been buried under a rock for the past month (and even if you have), you will have seen or heard the very good spoof of Jay-Z’s ‘Empire State of Mind’ put together by the very talented MJ Delaney. In case this means nothing to you, you can see it below:
With 2,473,414 views on YouTube AT THIS EXACT SECOND, it’s done quite well. It just so happens that they brains behind it happen to be friend with a colleague of mine, and so they very kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the CRAZY INTERNET WHIRLWIND which they’ve been engulfed in. Read on:
1) How long did it take you to write and record ‘Newport’?
MJ and I came up with the idea back in May as we were singing along to the Jay Z version and it just made us laugh to replace New York with Newport. MJ is a young filmmaker trying to build up her showreel so she decided to make it into a video and was the driving force behind the project. It took us about 3 evenings over the course of 2 weeks to write, during which MJ also started casting for the Jay Z and Alicia’s roles. We found Terema through a casting website but weren’t able to find a Jay Z we were happy with (there doesn’t seem to be a wealth of talented Welsh rappers in London!), so we managed to convince our actor friend Al to take on the part. We recorded it in one day at our friend’s studio (not nearly as glamorous as that sounds – we were in a cramped basement room and at one point the light bulb hanging from the ceiling exploded above our heads). Simon Bloor is a very talented sound engineer who mixed and layered it for us that evening. Then in June we made the trip to Newport on a Sunday and filmed it all in one day. MJ then spent about 2 weeks on and off editing it and she put it up on Youtube on 21st July.
2) Did you have an active plan to get it to go ‘viral’? (sorry, I hate that term too)
We never actually sat down and discussed how to seed the video but I think you have to have confidence that if your friends and colleagues like it, then they will pass it on and it will grow organically. You can’t force people to talk about something or share links on social networking sites [MY BOLDING AND ITALICS, BECAUSE IT'S TRUE], which is why Twitter and YouTube are such great meritocratic platforms to showcase work. Our aim when we first set out was 10,000 views so we never expected the kind of response that followed.
3) If so, where did you ‘seed’ the video?
We sent it to friends and colleagues and it just took on a life of itself from there. I also sent it to Newport City Council but I never got a reply…
4) If not, at what point did you see interest really taking off? What was / were the catalyst(s) for it going EVERYWHERE?
Once it was tweeted by celebrities there was a massive surge in the number of hits we received. People like Example, Lily Allen, Caitlin Moran and Stephen Fry command such a presence on Twitter that when they shared it with their followers it soon caught the attention of the mainstream media.
5) What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve received?
My personal favourite was when Alistair Stewart clapped and called it “genius” on ITV News at 10. That was pretty surreal.
6) Have the offers of work come flooding in, and if so what’s been the best?
Al and Terema have had lots of offers to play the song live at various events. Otherwise there are some ongoing negotiations but nothing concrete yet. We’d certainly like to collaborate again as we had so much fun making it.
7) Why do you think ‘Newport’ has taken off in this way (aside from the fact that it’s, y’know, good)?
It was something that the people of Newport and Wales enjoyed and were proud of, which helped a lot. On another level, I think it resonated with the British sense of humour and how we try not to take things too seriously.
8) Can I be in your next video?
I’ll put in a good word with MJ! [THAT'S A NO, THEN]
As a bonus, check out the markedly less funny response by ‘real’ Welsh ‘comedy’ rap outfit Goldie Lookin’ Chain:
