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A while ago Gavin Heaton and Drew Mc Lellan asked a bunch of us bloggers to contribute to an e-book about the Age of Conversation. We were each to contribute a chapter of 400 words about our take on the subject. As more people got excited about the project and spurred on by the idea that the profits would go to a children’s charity more bloggers got involved, with just over 100 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators finally co-authoring the book.

Not only is this likely to be a bit of a ground breaking read (I certainly liked my 1/100th of it) but its also a fascinating experiment in the wisdom of the crowd and and ferocious speed of collective self publishing. A book that is about half the length of an average novel has been conceived, the authors found, written, edited and published in hardback, softback and e-book formats in about 3 months.

And if it is all nonsense (which I would really suggest quite strongly it is not) then Variety gets stacks of dosh out of it.

Buy a copy now.

No really buy a copy now!

You can get the link to buy and all full list of the authors by continuing to read below.

I know this is way off topic but I can’t help myself.

I got given a Wacom tablet for my birthday recently and I think I am in love.

It looks fantastic, its brilliant for drawing and as a way to zip around the screen it kicks seven types of shit out of my trackpad. It even comes with a mouse that gives my mac a right click – weird.

Go and get one and love yourself forever.

One of the more unfortunate characteristics of the advertising business is that every generation believes itself to be the first.

That bridge shot from the Marin Headlands as the fog rushes into the bay. Image courtesy of John Curley

Been on my hols in the extraordinary and beautiful San Francisco. Clearly unable to post while in a California state of mind on account of feeling too damn nice to my fellow man. Now back in London and as cranky as hell so normal service will be resumed shortly.

Hillary and Tenzing enjoying a hearty cup of beef tea while scaling their own summit. Image courtesy of bernard-Voyer.com

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of chair in a panel session on technology at the Future Marketing Summit in London. With me were Steve Henry (creative legend and ex-employer), Rory Sutherland (Ogilvy supremo), Amelia Torode (VCCP’s digital chief) and David Grebert (P&G’s future guru on advertising and instore experience). We were a little light on technologists to be honest but I rather enjoyed myself having these brains at my beck and call.

It is always a pain as a facilitator that you can’t lob in your own point of view so I make sure I pissed all over the subject to before hand in my introduction. I talked about the need to retain the magic and delight that new technology brings back to marketing, my preference for tech’ that amplifies brand ideas and the need for us to be more modest when approaching new technology and media.

You can download the speech (if you are a regular reader don’t expect too much you haven’t seen here already) while the slides are on a slideshare (which you won’t be able to see if you are reading this as a feed).

The Swallow tailed hummingbird. Like most dynamic micro brands they are small agile and very fast. Image courtesy of Flavio Cruvinel Brandao

So, I have been obsessing recently about cool and funky little brands like Method, Hendricks, Riverford Organic Vegetables, Dorset Cereals, Good Energy and the like.

And I thought I might draw some conclusions about what is going on and the things that unite them.

The intention is to provide some learning for other brand owners, especially when they are approaching NPD projects.

Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Location for THAT ad. Image courtesy of Andy Latt

I don’t know what I love most about the uber premium breakfast cereal brand, Dorset Cereals – the idea, the product, the packaging or the online experience. So you are just going to have to endure me whittering on about all of them.

Image courtesy of Hans van Reenen

Brands help businesses fight the inexorable drift towards commoditisation – the point at which consumers can’t tell the difference between the offerings in the marketplace and can only choose on price.

And you don’t get much more commoditised than the UK energy market, where there is the square root of sod all to differentiate the miserable operations that try and claw out an existence in this market.

So price rules, especially in times of high wholesale energy prices.

However, there is one corner of the market where real difference is starting to emerge – green electricity tariffs and suppliers.

NaCo – making it cool to be uncool

So far every dynamic little micro brand I have sent down the catwalk has been from the UK or US.

So next up is a brand that has become a cult fashion label in Mexico City – NaCo.
Set up in 2001 by Robby Vincent and Edoardo Chavarin, with the sum total of $500, the name NaCo is a play on the mexican word ‘naco’ and all that it means.

Hendrick’s Gin in its signature apothecaries bottle.

Hurtling down the Brand Catwalk this week is that small but perfectly formed premium gin, Hendrick’s and its one-brand assualt on, what Malcolm Gluck famously called, the Daily Telegraph Obituaries column image of gin and gin drinkers.

From 1974 to 1982 I lived in a part of the UK called South Devon, in a village called Dartington.

My father farmed the next door estate to a place called Riverford Farm.