I’d never been to an “unconference” before, and found the format quite unusual, essentially a fifteen minute talk, followed by small group discussions at your tables before asking the speaker questions.

“The Fragmentation of Knowledge in the Brain” - Derek Smith

The other unusual feature of the conference was that until we turned up we had no idea what most of the talks were going to be about.

The talks were great, ranging from the BBC News website, to the Open Shakespeare project. The two I probably found the most interesting though were the talk by Derek Smith of the University of Wales Institute Cardiff on the way in which the brain stores semantic knowledge and relates that to syntax, and the “on-the-day” Steve Loughran of HP Labs who’s working on Hadoop (readers may remember the high resolution buhddabrot that I posted a few months ago, which I rendered on a hadoop cluster). It was great to be able to ask some questions about Hadoop, especially since I had to miss the Hadoop conference in London a few weeks ago.

Steve Loughran Shows how he’s using Hadoop over anonamous bluetooth logs to show the council how many people regularly use local footpaths.

0-60: MG Wins (Bajaj tops out at 37mph)
Fitting people in the back: Bajaj wins (back seat of the MG best suited to small parcels and lapdogs).
Fitting people in the back legally: MG wins
Having doors: MG wins
Doing 80 miles on £4.44 of diesel: Bajaj wins
Being red: draw
Having circular headlights: draw

In the last seven years I’ve ordered nothing but Crucial memory. Mac memory is easy to get these days, but why change? Crucial have made it easy to keep using them. I don’t know what I’ve spent with them, but it could be up to four thousand pounds.

In that time I’ve also seen a lot of Crucial banner ads on sites I visit. Response rates to these ads are entirely measurable: clicks through to Crucial’s site are definitely tracked, and in theory where I hover my mouse could also be tracked and measured as a proxy for my engagement with the ad (but probably isn’t).

I’ve never clicked on a Crucial ad. Does that mean money wasted? One short way to end the question is if the ads are pay-per-click (CPC). In that case Crucial pay out nothing.

Chances are though that these are pay-per-impression (CPM) ads, so there is a cost for Crucial in showing me them. So does that mean money wasted? After all, I’m already a customer, and I never clicked an ad. The part of me that loves direct response would say yes, money wasted, sell me something new instead. But there’s another way to look at this: Crucial remain my default choice for computer memory. Brands are an example of the power of defaults.

Advertising Crucial repetitively reinforces Crucial as my default choice for this product. On a competitive basis, if Crucial buy out that media, that prevents another memory supplier catching my attention by placing ads in that space.

So far, so much basic brand theory. I thought this worth posting because we are very involved in understanding and expressing both the measured (in the direct-marketing sense) and non-measurable value of advertising. The internet offers a wonderful blend of the two.

My current default position is that if an advertising response can be measured, it should (obviously if it can’t, then it can’t). That’s necessary, but not sufficient: it’s my belief that the most effective advertising campaigns will be built to meet a clear business goal, and their value will be measured in part by direct response elements; however understanding the full value will also require softer measures less amenable to statistics, such as conversation and opinion tracking, and fascinating aspects such as fan activity and product ambassadors (obligatory Lego reference).

Got an opinion on this? Send me your thoughts: andy@teamrubber.com

• eBay -> will it be there in ten years? What about vertical auction sites? Is everyone just using Amazon?
• Mobile applications -> how to get the location data at low cost.
• Vouchers -> Why does Orange Wednesdays work, and why do other mobile voucher schemes seem like too much hassle? Orange invested significantly in their scheme; they made redemption easy for retailers and customers; they supported it with well-funded advertising (we pitched on some).
• Twitter and viral voucher or referral schemes.

Next Bristol Open Coffee: September 9th 2008. Thanks to Starbucks, Park Street for hosting.

Though it won’t convince me to splash out on an Alexander McQueen dress or Christian Louboutin shoes as modelled by Lady Tottington, having the well-loved Bristolian duo Wallace & Gromit front the campaign for the upmarket chain is definitely going to prove popular with consumers and their children.

More Ofcom analysis at paidContent:UK

Then I tried a mate’s bike and realised that:

1. I can get everywhere so much quicker (rain or shine) on a bike;
2. Bristol is great for cycling
3. you can get the Government to pay for some of your new bike.

Point 1 is clearly obvious as there are many restrictions on skateboarding, and walking is just slow and boring.

Point 2 is more currently relevant.  Bristol was voted the first cycling city in the UK recently by the all-knowing government, giving us some money to spend on making cycling better around the city and some essential feel good points.

But what can £100m buy you in the drive to improve cycling in a whole city?  Well maybe one of these cycle lifts would encourage some people to cycle, but they would probably stop soon after the lift or their bike broke down.  Instead, Bristol have asked the public what they think we should do.  A novel and inspired idea I feel and it looks like the growing consensus is “more cycle lanes” for all; another few debates there I think.

If anyone feels inspired to get a bike then point 3 is almost certainly relevant.  Already, three members of the Team Rubber family have used and (lawfully) abused the cyclescheme offering that the government has allowed.  It’s brilliant, you get a beautiful bike plus accessories at about 40% cheaper than in the shop, and you can pay it off monthly.  Just don’t fall off….