For Blogging Out Loud...

There's some pretty amazing stuff out there that impresses me, partly because it takes a little vision somewhere down the line to come up with the simplest idea, but mainly the belief (and balls, mostly) to see a vision through.

Impressively inspiring speech over with, imagine the original pitch for their idea went the other way, or that the decision maker in each case had got out of the wrong side of the bed - luck clearly plays a part here.

So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Great conversations that could have happened, but fortunately didn't"...

Google - Larry Page and Sergey Brin
"What, so people search for something and then get advertising for different stuff alongside their search results?!?! Have a word with yourself Sergey, it must be those pills you're on for your ADHD"

iPod - Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive
"Just so I''m clear on this Jonny boy, it plays music WITHOUT CD's?!?! Get back into the studio you little muppet, it'll never work"

Yahoo - Jerry Yang
"Mr Gates, I hear what you're saying but I'm not gonna cut you a deal at $50bn - it's completely out of the question..."

More to come!

There's a type of ego in the industry I work in - its one of assumption. The assumption that everyone knows what you're talking about, the assumption that everyone is as intelligent/proactive/quick as you, and the assumption that everyone knows their own target market.

Stepping back and taking stock is one of the hardest things for me to do.

When I speak to friends, I may feel that 'they' are stuck in the caveman era (relatively), and that I need to justify that 'manipulating Google' is indeed more than a full-time job. While I feel as though I am dumbing everything down for them, I completely understand the trading of stocks, the selling of houses and graphic design - or whatever it is that they do for a living.

The fact is, 'digital' moves that little bit faster than the rest of the world, therefore we, as digital marketers are, by nature of our foresight and challenges, impatient people.

We want things now - that's why we are always connected, with a BlackBerry, an iPhone, a laptop, home and mobile broadband, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS feeds, the list goes on.

Is it possible digital is moving too fast for the rest of the world?

It's true we transact, connect and generally live a valuable portion of our lives through the lords own interweb - but we're unique and we don't realise it. There are still a lot of people to educate, they still don't "get" online, and they are likely the ones who, once you explain what you do for a living, answer with "this web lark is amazing innit".

Is it too much to fathom that there are probably more of 'them' than there are of 'us'?

Digital marketers of the world unite, take stock. There's plenty more hard work on the horizon...

Let's get things straight, when it comes to anything 'shiny shiny' I'm an "early adopter". This is marketing-speak for "a chancer". I am the Betamax to your VHS, the Sega Saturn to your PlaystationOne and the HD DVD to your BluRay.

There's always one and the large conglomerates can always guarantee a few first-day campers arrive before the ink on the marketing budgets are dry. And it's normally yours truly.

On the odd occasion that I get it spot-on, I never fail to blow my own trumpet. I was an iPod 1st generation owner, iPhone 1st generation owner and, erm, the rest are a little embarassing...

What can I say, I'm a stubborn so and so, and I love to say "I told you so". Every so often I see something shiny and I have to have it. Myself and the other half have the same conversation every time this happens, and invariably I win - with the old adage; "Christian Louboutin will miss your business if you play this game with me, sweetheart".

Anyhow, I am about to spend a credit-crunching £19.50 on this, the John Lewis CEC7CJLU Egg Boiler. This sounds simple, it boils eggs. As a big fan of breakfast myself (and a lazy one at that) pressing a button and waiting for my boiled or poached eggs to arrive in a couple of minutes - seriously turns me on.

I am told something like this was on Dragons Den and got completely slated by the panel.

Is this likely to stop me? Hardly.

Does it use water? I've got no idea. Admit you're jealous...

Every so often you are handed a resource that saves you time and effort, is informative and ticks every box. In digital media, I find I dedicate a lot of my time to educating people, in Layman's terms - concepts that are difficult to explain at the best of times - often resulting in frustration for all.

So that's why I give my ringing endorsement to Elliance, who have produced a series of SEO Infographics to hit each of these nails bang on their heads.

From the most basic SEO concepts, through to integrating with PPC and Social Media - this is an extremely valuable resource. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is an invaluable way of saving time (and for me, my hair!)

It could happen to you, but lady luck decided she should throw a bit of the plucky dust my way this time.

After about 10 years of irresponsible UK football accumulators, gambling on 8+ teams in a twice weekly coupon, combining Blue Square North Half Time results with the asian handicap on Danish Superligaen games - generally making assumptions about teams that, for all I knew were completely fictional - the luck FINALLY came to me last week.

On March 4th 2009, an unnamed online bookie had a bug in their system that resulted in me being presented with Manchester United odds (in running at 2-1 up with 8 minutes to go) of 7/1 instead of 1/7!

Only when this was in my statement did I notice it, but luckily by that time they had verified and paid out on it. Happy days!

Credit to the competition where due, Razorfish have published an insightful Digital Outlook guide for 2009.

Discussing the new role of the agency in business planning, emerging media, new buying practices, the evolution of campaign measurement and a really in-depth look at TV (where it is, and where it could be by the close of 2009).

There's the customary focus on social media (as is the norm these days), and, not to feel left out, the economic downturn gets its warranted mention in "When the Going Gets Tough..." (p.174-)

Might take a while to load the PDF, and a little bit longer to trawl through (it's 180 pages short), but you are likely to learn a thing or 2 along the way.

Have fun...

Try not to mention it too much, for pete's sake...

When different becomes the same, where's the hope for the ambitious creative undergrad? If we catch a cold every time America gets a sniffle, Gawker offers us a little hope of how 2009 could pan out for the rest of us.

When media owners speak of "speeding up in a slowdown", and something along the lines of "...the way things are these days" dominating social conversation, it's a shame that, in an industry famed for breaking new ground, imagination has taken a back seat to playing it safe.

Optimism, you can never have too much...