Help having ideas

More often than not the harder you try to have an idea the harder it is to have one.

This is a problem we all face at sometime or other.

So do yourself a favour and download the great free eBook by Suzanne Pope.

It is without a doubt the best Idea Generation eBook you'll download this week. 

Stay humble

Introducing The Caseys

Man I hate award entry case study videos.

All those meaningless brand impressions and footage of people actually giving a shit about advertising.

Which may explain why I love The Casey awards so much.

Old Spice High Five

Old Spice have just launched a fun new game for mobile called Old Spice High Five.

And when I say mobile that's exactly what I mean.

I went to check it out on my Macbook and got the message screen above.

Really made me smile.

Oh and here's how it actually looks on your phone.

Choose your winter

Chris O'Dowd stars in this cute new spot for Nike. Enjoy!

Squeak squeak squeak

I am in awe of the talented people who create these visual recording things at conferences and meetings.

There's a guy where I work who is particularly good at it.

A word of warning though - Don't sit nearby when it is being done.

It's hard enough focussing at a conference when so many people are typing and tweeting but the constant squeaking of a marker on paper drives me mad.

Rant over... 

The day before tomorrow last week

The Day Before Tomorrow is a cracking new online film series looking at the impact of digital on a variety of industries.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet I had Dave Birss, the man behind the series, introduce one of the films to my creative team via Skype.

The twenty minutes we spent in the company of Dave (albeit via screen) was absolutely brilliant.

He is an inspired thinker and a damn good raconteur.

We watched and loved his film on the entertainment industry. I've watched a couple more since.

I'd suggest you do the same. Here's the link.

Powerpoint & Pictures

It was Russell Davies who first got me interested in blogging.

He also got me interested in interestingness as a thing.

But what I really thank him for is teaching me that powerpoint should be about pictures not just words.

Thank you Russell. 

Lettering vs Typography

Just as every client thinks they know how to write just because the have a keyboard on there desk, so every person who plays with type thinks they're a typographer.

Now I'm no type expert. Far from it.

But I do know the difference between Lettering and setting Type.

Sadly a lot of people don't which is why the people from Font Bureau created this handy guide.

You can thank me later. ;-) 

Berlin Wall Google Doodle

I don't visit the Google homepage much these days as I type my searches into the Safari browser.

So obviously I miss many of the cute Google doodles created for special events.

Fortunately I didn't miss this one from last week for the Berlin Wall.

Get Lucky

It's thought that counts

Yes I know the copy is tiny and hard to read.

Try clicking the pic for a better look.

If that doesn't help just squint.

A lot.

Because these two ads from the Xmas campaign for Foyles bookstore in the UK are well worth squinting for.

Kudos to W&K London for such readerly imagery in the words.

The great white male

My first creative director was a woman.

As was the first one to give me a job when I went to London.

I was also hired by a woman in my current role.

Apparently this is very uncommon.

Which makes me pretty lucky I guess! 

Maker of stuff

Lovely little film about a guy called Mac Premo. He calls himself a maker of stuff. I kinda like that. 

New Campari calendar

These stunning pics are from a just launched calendar by Campari.

They look even better if you click to enlarge them.

The lady in red is French actress Eva Green.

Each highly stylised image denotes a key event in the history of Campari.

All I know is I wish I got to go on photo shoots like these!

Turn the sound down

How cute is this packaging for 3M foam earplugs!

Such a nice idea.

Not sure why you'd need such a large amount of earplugs. But what the heck.

Kudos for the cuteness to Scholz & Friends in Germany. 

#onlyintheapp

Fast food chain Taco Bell have put their faith in appvertising by suspending all their social feeds and replacing them with a single app.

Visitors to their Twitter or Facebook are given the hashtag #onlyintheapp and a link to download the app.

Obviously apps make it easy for brands to communicate with fans and advocates.

But I can't see them replacing the real time interactivity of things like Twitter.

Only time will tell I guess. 

Blowin' in the wind

To be honest I really don't like these kind of agency case study videos.

But this idea is so damn nice I'm prepared to make an exception. 

News not news

If there's one thing that bugs me about ad industry websites it's their their ability to pass of just about anything as a story.

Case in point is a so called 'Qantas exclusive' posted by Campaign Brief on Monday.

So what was the exclusive?

"Campaign Brief can reveal that Qantas is set to launch a major ad campaign within the next fortnight led by a blockbuster commercial, shot in various locations around the world"

Now that my friends is anything but an exclusive if you ask me.

In fact I could've told you that. Apart from the two weeks bit.

Obviously a slow news day over at CB.

What makes a good CD?