Clare Townhill

NIN: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Thermocratic cds that react to the heat of the player thus only revealing the message when you've listened to some of the new album. Genius. This photo, posted on Flickr (thanks Alistair for tipping me off) has received 131,850 views. Here is one of the most pertinent comments posted by users: 'At last, something that could actually promote buying the CD as opposed to stealing it.' I highly recommend going to the site to have a proper look at the picture - it has interactive elements - and the rest of the comments. I'll do a proper wash-up of the whole campaign as soon as time pressures will allow. http://www.flickr.com/photos/7879970@N06/463078490/

MC Nuts vs. Wordsworth...

For the love of all that is holy, whatever possesses any marketing team to believe that the secret to engaging da yoot with the poetry of Wordsworth is a giant rapping red squirrel? Words fail me so I'll use Reuters' instead:

Apr. 11 - A giant red squirrel named M.C. Nuts belts out a Hip Hop version of the Wordsworth poem, "Daffodils" in honour of its 200th anniversary.

The music video was created on behalf of the Cumbria Tourism board in Northern England and it was was designed to appeal to the next generation of Lake District visitors.

William Wordsworth is considered by academics and writers alike as one of the greatest poets of all time; M.C. Nuts is hoping to ensure that the youth of today show their respect for the English poem in the future.

Shouldn't that be Respeck?

Nine Inch Irony Nails

This bastardised version of the normal anti-piracy sticker is sure to have caused even further fury at the RIAA after their recent bout of drachonian behaviour over the NIN campaign:

USBM WARNING: Conusming or spreading this material may be deemed subversive by the United States Bureau of Morality. If you or someone you know has engaged in subversive acts or thoughts, call 1-866-445-6580.

When you call the listed number it patches you in to this  recorded message from the Bureau of Morality which threatens you with aggressive re-education by locating your personal media. Highly amusing, although I suspect no one at RIAA headquarters is smiling.

Knives out for NIN
Boing Boing: NIN's Anti-Piracy Pisstake

Knives out for NIN

I'm agog at the stupidity of the record industry. I've just finished reading the Stefan Koffe's post on the gamevertising section of Futurelab. The record industry association RIAA has attempted to start legal proceedings against NIN fansites which have made songs from the new album Year Zero available for download despite having signed off the campaign. Geffen Music also tried to rig the Artist of the Month election on MSN against NIN. The whole point of the band's marketing campaign has been to generate excitement amongst fans and give them to tools to share and talk about the experience part of which is downloading and having conversations about new tracks. To have the RIAA attempt to litigate against the fans who have been doing just that shows how truly fossilised and doomed the traditional music industry is unless it learns to listen and adapt to the needs of its customers.

What Was I Looking For?

The browsing experience of ending up at a distant site digital miles in content and location from the original search has a new name: wilfing (derived from the acronym of What Was I Looking For?). According to a YouGov survey commissioned by Moneysupermarket.com 33.7 million of us admit to the occasional wilf; almost a quarter of those surveyed said they spent 30% or more of their internet time wilfing - the equivalent of spending an entire working day every fortnight surfing the web without any real purpose.  Here are some of the other findings:

• Shopping websites are the most likely destinations for wilfers
• Other popular pulls include news, music and travel websites
• The tendency to wilf is more prevalent among men than women

From the language and tone of the two articles I've read about this - 'epidemic', 'pointless', 'lured away from purposeful sites' - you'd think that browsing was a sickness not a pursuit obviously and quantifiably enjoyed by millions. I love roaming about the web, I often have my best ideas after finding something I didn't know I was looking for. The ability to connect from one thing to another and bounce between ideas and sites is one of the things I love most about the web. I will confess to the odd moment of headscratching as I try to work out what my primary purpose was, but it's not a big deal. Another thing that the survey and journalists seem to fail to take into account is the level to which we all multimedia multitask: it's quite common for me to browse, or Skype whilst taking a work call, a lot of the time I'll keep working on which ever email or documents I'm working on too. It doesn't mean that I'm not using my time gainfully, or in some way idling away my employers time. The articles' attempts to draw hard lines between using the web for work or using it for leisure is horribly out of tempo with users' media consumption and the reality of their working lives. It's by virtue of the web that I manage to get any life admin done at all; noone in my family would have received a Christmas present from me this year was it not for my ability to look for and buy things online throughout the course of my working day. Ditto all other events which require gifting. I'll be interested to see the full survey when it's published on YouGov. Another thing that this survey brings to light is how hard websites need to work to earn the dwelltime of the user, either via good useability and service or interesting interactivity and features, given the number of potential pathways drawing our attention away.

Top Tech News: Two days per month wasted on aimless web surfing
Guardian: Wilfing on the web

Who Really Watches Ad Breaks?

Finding out that no-one watches the ad that you've spent a couple of million pounds on because they're putting the kettle on, nipping to the loo, or playing tetris must be a bit of a blow. I suspect this could be the experience awaiting quite a few clients and agencies. In May Nielsen are going to launch a new rating system that monitors and reports upon the number of viewers that continue to watch a TV show during ad breaks. WARC seem to think that, as a member of the advertising industry I'll be worried about this. I can't bloody wait. Having quantified statistical evidence that this is the case (beyond the figures about the escalating growth, dwell time, and investment being garnered by digital) will do wonders for rebalancing TV-aholic brands and give interactive media the budget and credence that consumers do.

WARC: Advertisers Twitchy, Networks Twitchy...

Nerdette Heaven

I'm not  going to go into what I had to do to get this, but let's just say that it wasn't pretty.

Zombie Marketing

What do you get if you cross the undead with flashmobbing? Flesh mobbing. On the Good Friday (tis the season for the dead rising from the grave after all) the zombie mob took to the streets of London. I particularly like the registration prompt for wouldbe zombies on Fleshmob.co.uk: 'Count my corpse and tell me where to meat'. Inspired.

Joost Envy

Before you read on, you need to go and have a look at Joost to understand where this post is coming from. Need Joost Account. Must have one. Will die if not (or words to that effect), and it appears that I'm not alone, 'Get a Joost Token' has become a desired object on 43Things for 38 people (39 as soon as I get a sec to add my name to the growing list of craven and begging Joostless souls). Great example of an influencer strategy in full flight - carefully select a few chosen to bestow beta upon for a product you know they will love and rave about; give them power and bragging rights by letting them share to their chosen few; stand back and watch the desire trickling down the influencer model until it gets to me, and many others feeling as bereft and hungry as a hyena arriving a week late to a kill; I can smell it, I just can't taste it.

Eye Candy

The Eye Project by KDDI is a thing of great loveliness: eye.kddi.com