art of conversation

NUTTERS? OR SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

People often have a particular interest or passion that may not be obvious. Especially men. It may be baseball, golf, photography, music, film, football, cars, World of Warcraft . . something where the 'normal' rules of time or money do not apply. It's about being involved, taking part, being a bit of an expert in something and connecting with other fans.

From a marketing and research point of view this is a goldmine. The British love of footie has been exploited by everyone from The Sun to Nike to Coke to Barclays and football is the ultimate example of brands seeking to join in with a community and get kudos from so doing.

QUITE INTERESTING # 5

ANOTHER THING YOU MAYBE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT BOROUGH MARKET...

Did you know that pigs cannot look up? They are also prone to get sunburnt, not because they can't see the sun and avoid it, but because of their skin. This is why farmers build pens for them.

BRAND ONEROUS

Who owns brands?

This question may seem either very obvious or complete nonsense, depending on your take on brands in the new, digital age we are in.

Are the brand fundamentals just the same nowadays, despite the protestations of those who twitter, wiki and flickr around? Or, do you agree with us that the notion of brand ownership is evolving?

Evolving conversations

It's catching on. A new book has just come out called The Age of Conversation, edited by Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan, who challenged bloggers around the world to contribute 400 words on the topic of “conversation”.

We had already written a paper on the subject of 'conversations as the new research', which is um a little over 400 words long but which you can read here

A shorter version, with pictures, can be seen here

Be sure to follow link here to buy the book, or you can download it for only 10 US dollars. Best thing is, all money to children's charity Variety.

QUITE INTERESTING # 4

Just above The Market there is a smart new street sign. It really looks the business and tells you where everything is.

The thing is, they are so high up that even people going past on a double decker bus probably don't see them, let alone those on the street.

This may seem like a terribly obvious observation. But sometimes in research you have to point out things that may be rather obvious, but somehow got missed. Then people say afterwards, well THAT was pretty obvious! Bloomin researchers, cuahh..

Seriously, though, you'd need a step ladder to get up there, just to know what is where. Or maybe borrow Ollie's jet pack on high level hovering setting (a bit risky, that option).

But somebody in Southwark Council (street signs division) obviously thought these signs were a good use of Council Tax money...

Trust me, I’m on TV

There has been a furore about the BBC and others deceiving the public over video editing and fixing telephone competitions. As a result, according to the Guardian recently, people do not trust the BBC nearly as much as they used to.

Trust and respect are critical values in the world of media and in the smaller, less noticeable world of research. But trust and respect have to be earned and to be maintained.