convince and convert.

This is all I have to say:

http://www.convinceandconvert.com/

Oh, and this:
Don't be put off by the I-just-threw-up-a-little-bit-in-my-mouth like design, completely ignore it and go straight for the content instead. Because it's awesome.

take a stand! no sorry, sit down actually.

I feel somewhat obligated to write a little something about what's going on in Libya, Bahrain, Jordan and so on.

But let's approach it from a social media angle, given the nature of this blog. But I won't make this an obnoxiously long political post (first of all I don't know shit about politics), nor will I head deep into the social media jungle (which I'm more closely acquainted with). So let's instead scrape a bit off the top, like the icing, the best part of the cake.

You have probably seen events around such as the one below:


The point I'm trying to make is (headline give away!) is that people are happy to sit on their asses and show their "support". I wrote an essay last term dealing with online relationships versus offline relationships, concluding in stating that it is up to the users of technology to decide how valuable a relationship is.
Having mentioned that. This is something else - THIS is bullshit.
Virtual demonstrations will never be as powerful as actual physical ones. A "march" (honestly?) on Facebook would never have abolished slavery, given women the right to vote or more up to date freed Egypt.

So what I'm asking is what's the point of these virtual marches? Can you see any results? I sure didn't see any headlines in The Times saying "Facebook marchers force Mubarak to resign".

If you're truly planning on getting involved and showing your support get off your ass and steer clear of the "Attending" button.

So what did I do? Nothing.

Hypocrisy 101:
Is doing nothing better than attending a virtual march or overwhelming Twitter with hashtags? I'm not sure. But until I've made up my mind I'm playing this one like Switzerland.

pizza, panic and payback

First all nighter of the term went down last night/this morning. Alfa prototype for Web Design course is now ready for submission!

Here's a sneak peek:

Big shout out to my group members Natasha Downes and Sinead Murphy! You are awesome.

Left the computer lab 9.30am (noted should be that I went in 9.30 in the morning. The day BEFORE.) and stopped at Tesco and picked up some ice cream for breakfast. Came home and found a letter from SAAS waiting for me:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AWARD NOTICE

We have set out below the amount to you.

Tuition fees we will pay to your college or university: £3,400.00

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not the most emotional person.. but this. After all the shit jobs I've had in order to put myself through university - there was nothing I could do.

People, I'm not even ashamed to say this: there was tears.

Ice cream and £3400, what more could you possibly ask for a Friday morning?

That's right - NOTHING.

social face off.

Massively looking forward to seeing the result of Urgent Genius's viral (people seriously have to stop using this word) competition.

Big shots like Wieden + Kennedy, BBH and R/GA are going head to head to see who can grab the most online attention. After entries are finalised there will be seven days of tracking to see how well the content spreads. Virals will then be judged based on creativity and speed of reaction.

High expectations to say the least! Remember, big names do not always equal big ideas.

"We now generate as much information

every two days as was generated from

the beginning of time to 2003."

Eric Schmidt, former CEO, Google

chocolate jesus.

I have a confession to make. I thought Valentine's Day was something made up by marketers. But it actually originates from the very same concept that serves as the main source for all marketing and also what we actively or passively form our lives around. That's right, the correct answer is: religion. This annual commemoration (Wikipedia's word - AS IF that would ever be in my vocabulary) dates all the way back to 496 AD. (That's a long time ago.)

Valentine's Day is an exceptionally good occasion for marketing. Why? Please. Easy one. People want to be/feel loved more than anything. On this particular day, you take the opportunity to show someone you love him or her by buying them material things. The person subject for this action of affection then feels obligated to reciprocate such (staged) kindness (in whatever way they see fit....) which ultimately results in: you get what you want: again, to feel loved. Also, people that walk around saying they hate Valentine's Day secretly want to be loved the most. (Except for myself. I always am, and always will be the exception. Hrm. This doesn't mean that I will turn down chocolate. Just saying.)

So x years ago (too early in the morning for maths!) the initial concept of Valentine's Day was born. Then 21st century marketing and ancient Valentine's Day came together and made a baby.... (hmm a little bit pedo.. which actually given the topic is very fitting! ..and equally inappropriate):

Chocolate Jesus.

That baby turned out to be a wonderchild making profits soar in economies worldwide. In Great Britain Valentine’s Day will generate £334 million in sales according to Brand Republic. So this waste-of-money-day turns out to be boosting us toward better times financially. So I'm now encouraging you, no - actually - commanding you to go out and "waste" some money!

And while you're out there take a moment and say thank you to the lord - Chocolate Jesus.

in a relationship.

There was a time when I thought computers were stupid. ("there was a time" refers to when I was about 10 and very much preferred to run around in the woods in Finland playing make believe.)

I was wrong.

COMPUTERS ARE AWESOME.

My boyfriend's name is Sony Vaio (ooh brand endorsement!). Unfortunately I cheat on him. Loads. With this guy called Apple Mac (ooh brand endorsement 2!). There's this place, sort of like a computer brothel I guess, where I go every day because my boyfriend can't satisfy me.

(Membership is pretty expensive though, £5900.00, but you get this nice card that lets you in 24/7. The expression "value for your money" has taken on a completely new meaning.)

I don't even feel bad. My conscious is as clear as the sky was in Midsomer Murders season 4 episode 11. (Seriously, I love that show.)

....okey. Never write a blog post after a 12-hour work day.

there's plenty of rabbits in the lab.

(The above "lab" obviously refers to our computer lab - NOT any other sort of nasty labs where sweet bunnies are tested and tortured.)

For the love of rabbits do not forget to check out what's going on with our 3D animation project!

This is my lovely, lovely team:

Alistair Murray, Hyejeong Jin, Daniel Diaz, Kevin Hung, Jie Cai, and myself!

And this is where we document our story:

http://raidingrabbitstudios.blogspot.com/

super bo... ooooohh!

Super Bowl is about so much more than the game.

In the ad world it's all about which commercial scores the most attention.

What I've seen so far - NOT impressed. (But then again I didn't watch the game, these dudes are way too geared up for my liking.)

Best one so far:

Creepiest one (except for 0:58 - that was awesome!):

Pepsi surprisingly enough had the worst commercials. By far.

barbie and ken.

This has to be one of the best digital campaigns out there at the moment!

Barbie and Ken broke up on Valentine's Day 2004, ending a 43 year long love story. Now however, the largest toy company in the world, Mattel Inc. are pulling out all the stops to reunite them. The Barbie and Ken site has a love-o-meter where people can have their say on the matter, currently leaning towards "let him down easy" (go barbie!).

Campaign is making the most of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Youtube and has generated a big following.

Why is this campaign so successful?

- storyline remains consistent and entertaining

- consumers are emotionally engaged

I saw a ridiculous comment on one article about this very campaign. Someone (obviously not possessing a lot of knowledge on the topic of marketing in general, let alone SMM) said that it's not targeting young girls very effectively.

Jaysus. Think a little, will you? Who buys the dolls? Their mums. Which demographic group is the fastest growing on social media sites? Over 35s. Also, is the objective for this campaign to sell more products? Well, ultimately, that's the objective for every campaign, but usually there are some steps in between, in this case: awareness.

Get it right.

"I thought we were meeting at 4?"

So. My punctuality mantra "to be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, and to be late is simply unacceptable" has now come to have a completely new meaning.

I showed up at Whitespace in my I've-slept-three-hours-I-have-no-idea-how-to-construct-a-sentence-in-any-language state of mind roughly around 1.50pm. The receptionist went to get the guy I was meeting, Phillip, Head of Digital.
When he walked down the stair about 10 minutes later we shook hands and he asked me if we weren't supposed to meet at 4pm? And I said something like: really? I'm pretty sure it was two o'clock?

Meanwhile in Jo's head: "Shit. Shit. SHIT. Really??! Did I get it wrong?! First impression screw up. I want to leave. How do I leave? Where is the nearest window???! Should I set the place on fire? No. Only a crazy person would do that. But really? 4??? **** **** **** **** **** **** ****"

We went into an average size meeting room with stains in the ceiling because it'd been a flooding upstairs (they will paint it over when they get the money from the insurance company. I don't know why I'm writing this.) We sat down. I was scared. I'm never scared during interviews. I think it was partially because of me showing up TWO HOURS EARLY - I simply can't stress that fact enough - and partially because he was wearing a pink shirt (someone once told me to never trust a guy in a pink shirt) that got my nerves flying around.

Anyhow. He proper put me on the spot. I was sitting there, stuttering, mumbling and my English level was about the same as when I was 11 years old. I could hear myself. And I sounded like a right idiot. And I thought to myself: how do I explain to him that I'm better than this? That I don't suck. And that my English is actually quite decent.

Then. After talking for a while and me wanting to die for equally long time (pardon my morbid sense of humour, I'm Finnish. Apparently we find death hilarious - I have no intention of killing myself.) something that can only be described as magic happened, Phillip said something along these lines: "so when do you want to do this?" The feeling that rushed over me was probably very similar to the one Moses had when he divided the Red Sea. That's when I no longer wanted to kill myself.

Then he gave me a quick tour of the office (which is absolutely fantastic).

Then I left. Checked my email on my phone.

The interview was in fact at 4pm.
The joke's on me.

P.S I now deem guys in pink shirts to be trustworthy. Regardless of previous information I've been given.

i wish i wasn't writing this.

It's 2am.
I'm in the computer lab.
Alone.

I'm juggling Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver.
I just watched a Flash tutorial while eating crisps.
When I realised what was happening I died a little bit. Say my left big toe or something.
Dead. Couldn't be more dead. And now I want to die even more as I just realised I have that interview at Whitespace tomorrow at 2pm. I have to prepare. I'm not going to. They are simply gonna have to take me as I am. Baggy eyes and everything.

What have I become.

.............................................................................................................................................

3am update

So put together this video to possibly go up on Hot Tin Roof's landing page on Facebook.
Also, turned out I didn't need the Flash tutorial. Instead I chose to keep it real with trial and error.

On my wish list right now:

• unorthodox amounts of Starbucks