Canned Tactical Bacon
Not really sure what the bacon related posts are about, but here is mine, in your absence Helen. I like the quote on the can “I firmly believe that bacon has the potential to bring about world peace”-Anonymous
Author Archive
VISA POUR L’IMAGE 2009
Jenny Hardy - September 15th, 2009This was my second year visiting Perpignan for VISA, and once again it was an inspirational thought-provoking week. The highlight for me is the night projections and the opportunity to attend talks by the photographers about their work. On the third of September we received the news that Christian Poveda was killed, in El Salvador, shot by the gangs he filmed.
Poveda a documentary photographer and filmmaker he devoted his time to photographing the street gangs of El Salvador. Last year I attended his talk and had the opportunity to watch his documentary “LA Vida Loca” which follows the members of La 18 a branch of the Mara gangs.
The documentary is due to be released on the 31st of September and I would recommend seeing it. Click here to watch a clip.
Online Marketing Show 2009
Jenny Hardy - July 1st, 2009
Largely the show was geared up for large companies with marketing departments, who wish to explore and learn new ideas. That’s not to say there were not nuggets of interest and new things to learn.
Despite at some times unbearable heat, Adam and I managed three talks and a look around the stands.
The most interesting talk was by Amelia Torode, Partner and Head of Digital Strategy at VCCP. Amelia discussed the “Compare The Meerkat” campaign. Amelia highlighted the big change from traditional Ad campaigns where it was important to make them ‘sticky’ to remain in the consciousness of the audience, now a successful social media campaign is about ‘Spreadability’.
Love or hate Aleksandr Orlov, follow him on twitter or be his friend on Facebook. The core idea and strong narrative spread across platforms, was key to the success and charm of the campaign. One problem was due to issues with measurability. I have a good guess that many agencies and clients have similar issues with social marketing.
Although Compare the Market had measurable success, with its positioning in the market and many other benefits i.e. increased sales, increased traffic and reduction of costs etc. There is little research and evidence that consumers engaging with social media campaigns will necessarily engage with the product. Will being friends with Aleksander make you a customer of Compare the Market?
Amelia will be starting a research project with the IAB. I will be very interested in the results, as will many others.
There was a general consensus throughout the talks, that good conversations start with questions, so in the words of Adam “ Interesting! How you can’t kill the meerket? What could be the end strategy?
Fun With Bullet Points – The Toyota Way
Jenny Hardy - March 12th, 2009For anybody reading the Toyota Way Field book, I have made some bullet points for you to use, a circle with four quadrants. I have found them particularly useful as, I want to break down the training goals into clearly definable tasks and make them tie in with the Multifunction Training Time Table (chapter 11, p 225-258).
The Training Timetable is a useful tool in giving an overview of all staff, their skills and importantly where they are in their training. Using the bullet points will help me along with the timetable to make visual indications of the requirements needed to achieve professional standards.
These bullet points can be imported into Word and Pages, I have described the process below.
Word Instructions
First right click on the images in this post and download the files I have made to your computer, Save them in Applications > Microsoft Office folder > Clipart > Bullets
In Word > Format > Bullets and Numbering. Select a bullet you wish to change and click Customise. Select picture and find the bullet point you want to use, select it and click OK.
The bullet will appear on your document where you have the cursor. Customise the remaining bullets for the remaining images. Remember to customise the bullets on the Bullets and Numbering window NOT customise the images to one of the bullet options, otherwise Word will change all of the bullets in your document to the same image.
To add a bullet to your document Place the insertion point where you want the list to begin click the bullet point button in the toolbar. To choose your custom image, open it, in the Formatting Palette, this can be found in View.
Pages Instructions
Right click and save the images.
On the Pages document, Place the insertion point where you want the list to begin.
Click Inspector in the toolbar, click the Text Inspector button, and then click List.
Choose a bullet style from the Bullets & Numbering pop-up menu.
To use your own image as a bullet, choose Custom Image and choose an image in the Open dialog that appears.
We Made it to Number 1!
Jenny Hardy - March 5th, 2009Congratulations to the team! A mix of good content and hard work has been getting us some awards for our Rubber Republic YouTube channel. This week we’ve made it to number 1 most viewed UK channel, Gurus!
Happy New Year- Best and not so best New Year messages
Jenny Hardy - January 5th, 2009My Best is Electrabel
Electrabe’s pixilation using 288,000 individual candles. Pixilation and stop motion techniques have been around since the 1900′s. The techniques seam to be growing in popularity, with all the new technology and software that has made these techniques available to any person in their bedroom. It is pushing creatives to think harder and for the final creation to prove beyond doubt that a lot of time was spent on this! This reminds me of all those domino rallies in the 80′s, there must be an universal fascination with finicky tasks that take up a lot of time. When it works it looks like Electrabel and when it tries to hard it’s “Happy New Year! (2009) in HD”
My not so best is Happy New Year! (2009)
This guy having a go in his room is commendable FlippyCat’s channel has 1,026,401 views and currently the 5th most viewed all time for Canada.
Which is the more successful new years message?
Walk a mile in somebody’s shoes
Jenny Hardy - December 10th, 2008
On a crisp winter morning walking to work, some times you see the funniest of things. I would walk a mile in these shoes, but they seemed to be going on their own path. A little side project of mine is to photograph interesting things on my way to Bristol centre, over the years I have an interesting collection. I invite you to have a go too, thinking of a small expo in the loo and a prize for the winner!
HEY WHIPPLE, SQUEEZE THIS. A Guide to Creating Great Advertising LUKE SULLIVAN
Jenny Hardy - December 2nd, 2008Seeding is very similar to being a copywriter. You are asking a person to spend time with something, most people actively try to avoid. The book contains loads of little gems of wisdom. Luke’s well-used gem was ‘keep it simple’. So I will sum up the challenges of seeding by sharing with you my favourite advertisement.
Lüzer’s Int’l ARCHIVE Vol.6-2002
A song dedication to you all
Jenny Hardy - September 25th, 2008I’d like to say, it’s good to be back as a Rubber office regular, rather than a sporadic part-timer. As a musical bunch – with music tastes and itunes playlists as slick as crows ankles – I duly dedicate this tasty number to you all.
The Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell
Jenny Hardy - June 9th, 2008After a spell of living in Cornwall, my family and I moved to Plymouth. My parents bought an ordinary end terraced house halfway up a hill, on one side of a valley.
My father decided to paint the house, so he painted it pink, baby-doll pink with postbox-red window frames and door. My school was at the top of the hill across from my house. The hill was high and once you reached the top it afforded a view of the valley. My house stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the grey brick and pebbledash. When I was asked where I lived, I just had to say the pink and red house, it was for a while an icon on the landscape, I even used to get post from my school friends addressed to ‘the pink and red house’. I think Gordon the Gopher was having the same problem.
After a while, another pink and red house appeared, and soon the Royal Mail sorting office in Plymouth was also pink and red. Slowly, over the next year, coloured houses started to appear all over the valley. One day, I turned around at the top of the hill and the valley was a wash of colour. What I was fortunate to have was a visual example of a tipping point; I would like to think my dad started the small phenomena.
Whatever happened, something had changed in the landscape of our small area of Plymouth. Malcolm’s book is about change and how, even though our world at times may seem unmovable, a social epidemic can spread. My dad was not trying to make the valley more colourful or working for a paint company trying to boost sales of exterior house paint in Plymouth, but what if you wanted to spread your message or make a change?
The Tipping Point gives loads of examples and anecdotal stories, much more accurate and relevant than mine, to provide an insight into how social epidemics can be achieved, and with much more hard work, belief, intuition and reflective research that my dad would have ever intended.
