Blank sheet approach - adds freshness

I'd like to drop a line or two about the fresh page / blank sheet approach. This post is less about interactive marketing and more about how we work, which explains that I am doing less reading and more working...which is a contradiction because I strongly believe that the more you work, the more you should read and stay in touch.

A fresh page is a clean start, a beginning. A fresh page does not mean forgetting about the mistakes and successes of past projects but implies entering the room or kick starting a project objectively and openly. A fresh blank sheet implies not being biased from the start, it highlights the need to listen carefully, look at the issue from all possible unexplored perspectives and then if necessary go back to the baggage you carry around with you from past projects you've been involved in.

Text by DESA

I have recently been involved in a project by the English students association DESA. The above is the end result of their hard work and enthusiasm. There is no financial business model in the project but a freshness of colour, discovery and literature. To get to know more about DESA visit their online space at http://soc.um.edu.mt/desa-soc/latest.html

Social brands and latest news

I admire brands which regularly update their followers/consumers about what they're up to. Some of these brands regularly send e-newsletters which are less of a promotional message and more of an informative one. Often, they even add tips which are in-line or adjacent to their area of expertise.

There other brands though, brands that BLAB in bursts, surprise their followers and then go to sleep for some weeks or months. Then they burst again when research highlights they have been losing appeal or trust. These brands under-estimate the value of news! Their news section is often hidden somewhere in their website. Their latest news section is often not up to date with the latest news and their news is no news but a promotional BLAB. In contrast, social brands interact socially. Social brands update their twitter status and tell us what's on their mind. Social brands allow us to connect and follow. Social brands enable us to speak about them in the online world because they are online.

I am a social being and it is easier for me to engage with a social side of a big commercial brand.

Happy Birthday Blogger

A worthy blab for Blogger which turns 10 next Sunday and hosts this blog amongst many. A good review about Blogger's roots and history at TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/17/before-there-was-twitter-there-was-blogger-and-its-turning-10/

Freshness Index

Image Source: toxel.com

I'd like to dedicate this 2 minute blab on my/your/our 'freshness index':

How fresh am I in the ideas I propose and the solutions I come up with? How open am I to alternative perspectives to one particular problem? How often do I reject the first idea? How often do I read loads of different stuff which exposes me to areas other then my everyday interests? - That's how fresh I am/you/we are!

Now I believe the above makes an individual fresh in his/her approach to life and therefore work. Now trow in the same room, office or house a bunch of such 'fresh' individuals and watch the freshness multiply and grow exponentially!

Now imagine the opposite happening in a mainstream office (of which we have many)...and cry!

Freshness brings freshness, and that it should be on our priority list at any level in any big, small or medium organization.

Defining Johnnie Walker's brand persona

Top1 Video Ad. at Creativity-Online

Blab! Blab!...Blab! - Wave

I've just been humbled by the Google Wave Demo which, as big as it may sound, could possible redefine the social web as we know it.

Currently this social web allows me to blab and allows you to blab back.

With Google wave, I will blab and at the same time, you could edit my blab or blab back. The blabs could come from anywhere, be it the wave client or any other blabbing medium such as twitter, facebook and all. We were amazed with an app that allowed us to blab in twitter and update our facebook status at the same time, now get that and make it the norm, and don't even limit it to text, include images, videos, links, documents, etc.

Obviously, to add more colour to the wave project, the wave client can be embedded in any social web tool, making the conversations (Blab!, Blab!...Blab!), the same one, irrelevant of the tool.

In conclusion, who will need websites anyways. Website links will feature in waves and the online widget for that web will feature in the conversation.

Ironically, all this happens in the browser. Would I be wrong to say that once the desktop becomes the browser, the offline content is stored online...then it is a series of waves and blabs...and it is one big thing.

It's late and i am hyped up, so I'll stop here!

If you are geeky enough, spend sometime watching the 1.5hr demo http://wave.google.com/ (I am open to a demo night with lots of popcorn and lots of discussion)