Russell Davies

looking for a job?

Brains On Fire asked me to post this job offering. Happy to oblige.

If you're interested, talk to Jennifer, don't talk to me.

"Curiosity is a must. Call this a "Jr. Planner" position if you like, but Brains on Fire - a naming and identity company based in Greenville, SC - is looking for more than that. We are in the preliminary stages of looking for a kindred spirit to support our Chief Curiosity Officer and help her (me) continue to develop the insight portion of our process. Please check out our website and our blog, and if you're feeling particularly kindred, email me (Jennifer at brainsonfire dot com) and we can talk interviews and experiences and resumes and whatnot.

I look forward to speaking with you!"

everything he knows

This is a lovely site, full of what seems like excellent advice. I especially like do something.

there's a metaphor in here somewhere

               

           

There's this great story in the New Scientist (via We Make Money Not Art) about some Dutch scientists who've discovered they can silence racist chanting by playing the chants back at the crowd with a slight delay. This confuses everyone and stops that chants (you get a similar effect on a conference call when you can hear yourself talking.)

This is interesting in and of itself.

But there's also a kind of metaphor here for those slavishly insight-based brands; those brands who find out exactly what their customers are like and mirror it back to them. On the face of it, not a bad idea, but in reality they're always echoing back with a slight delay. And the audience has moved on, they're not quite where they were, so this mirroring just confuses the relationship, makes the brand look out of kilter and insensitive.

That make sense? I think so.

More love to spell with flickr.

third podcast, tunes and nonsense

Here's the third one. Couldn't really think of anything to say so here's some audio nonsense and some tunes I like. Enjoy.

MP3

not urban spam

I think this is very definitely not urban spam. Because it's funny, original, appropriate and interesting. Which gives it value.

via MIT ad lab.

bad looking data at media 360

I'm sitting in what feels like the 1000th presentation at Media 360 where someone apologises for the business or density of their data chart. Like bad data design is somehow inevitable, like a force of nature, like all you can do is put the numbers in to excel or powerpoint and tweak it a bit and that's all you can do.

There are other options. The point is to communicate.

Don't apologise for it, make it better.

Look at gapminder, or presentation zen, or information aesthetics or even that old curmudgeon Mr Tufte. Data can be communicative and beautiful, if you only think about it.

(Above is a nice, simple-looking chart from gapminder, which is even better because it's part of a useful, explanatory animation)

that's influence at Media 360

Jim Hytner of Barclay's is talking now. Easily the most engaging speaker so far, perhaps he's got interesting stuff to say, talking about all the instore stuff they've been doing. (I think a lot of it done by Vital. ) NDG has been talking about this stuff a bit, and while some of it's mixed I think it's a decent step forward for a bank. (Not yet, Ziba and Umpqua, but a really nice start.)

And he's using Adam Morgan's challenger brand stuff to talk about how they've changed the way they do everything. Now, that's being an influential planner. I don't know if Barclay's paid Adam for any consultancy, but they should.

(Still loving, Spell with Flickr)

planning school collectivex - volunteers wanted

CollectiveX has had very good reviews from people like TechCrunch so I've set one up for the Planning School of the Web. They host discussions, files etc so it might be a good way of managing, hosting stuff and it might be a good place to try our discussion thing on the 23rd. (Though it's a bit network-y, lots of talk of leveraging connections, anyway). I've set up the group at planningschool.collectivex.com but I think I might have to invite you to join. So, can I have some volunteers who want to join, so we can try things out? I need your email address to invite you, so could you email me - russell at russelldavies dot com - if you're up for it.

And do our more technical brethren (and not complete neophiles like me) want to cast their eye over it and see if they think it'll be useful?

pop quiz - what would you call this?

Anne and I were sitting and considering whether to paddle in here or not. It's the North Sea. We decided not. And we thought that a lot of our reason for not doing it is the name. There's not much that's appealing about the name; 'The North Sea'. Sure, you can conjure up some romantic associations to do with duffle coats and chips but not enough to kick-start a paddling industry.

So here's a quicky Planning School assignment - what's a better name for the North Sea? Add your answer to this post. A new name and a 20-word explanation of that name. Best answer done in the next 7 days wins a signed copy of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. (Signed by him, not me, I bought it at Borders)

Assignment 7 - Cruising, Grant, blogs

Another slight change of plan for Assignment 7. Here's how we'll do it:

1. The task is here. On Grant's blog.

2. You can write as much as you like. Use as many pictures, as many words, as many whatever. But your contribution has to be an entry on a blog of your own. Not a linked file. Not a comment on Grant's or mine. Something on a blog of your own. This means, if you don't already have a blog, you have to start one.

3. Because of this, I'm giving you a bit longer to do it. Your entry (in the form of a link posted as a comment on this post) has to be in by the end of June.

4. Grant and I will mark/judge these things by writing comments on your blog. Then I'll do a round-up of links on here, so it's an opportunity to get early publicity for your blog.

5. The prize will be two hours of my time. Which isn't a lot I know, but it's all I've got to give. I'll do some strategic stuff for you, I'll critique your portfolio, I'll chat to you on the phone, I'll knit you a scarf, I'll do whatever, but I'm not leaving my desk/home to do it, so it'll have to be something remote/virtual.

Image, again, courtesy of the brilliant Spell with flickr.