Nicisms

It pisses me off when I blog about a video (see the post below) and the big-wigs decide it needs to be removed.

Why doesn’t someone create a video hosting site by simply purchasing a skin or using an opensource product to whip up a YouTube rip-off where all and only “pulled down” videos are on show? I think it’s a winner. Do it.

PS: Why not call it: NoTube, no video goes unwatched. Or something better of course.

What was sprite thinking?

Let me hazard a guess:

Could it possibly be that Sprite took a risk and wanted this advert to be banned? Could it possibly be that Sprite is illustrating a movement in to the social media and “viral” space through controversy?

I think that Sprite made use of the German standards to benchmark a campaign that would expand much further than the initial launch of the advert in Germany. I think they were banking on their advert being banned from Germany, finding it’s way online and spreading across the world.

Did anyone notice the new can in the adverts? I did. It could even be said that Sprite is rolling out a world wide relaunch of their brand and this is the mechanism they have chosen to introduce users to this new brand. Perhaps.

The New Yorker doesn’t want you to read their content. At least, they don’t want you to read the content first. They want to force you to look at an advert smack-bang over the key eye-track position of a story, top left. Then while it’s loading (and the close [x] option isn’t visible) they want you to think “Hmmm, this can’t be happening, can it? An advert over the main body of text.”

They then want you to close the advert and continue reading the story. I don’t think anyone’s content is good enough to overcome this sort of hurdle. Not only will I not click your stupid advert but I will not not read the article, leave the page and not return. Tsk tsk.

Downturns in the economy should be handled slightly better than this. Surely the answer to revenue issues is not to shove unwanted adverts as users who actually do visit your site?

Innovation is such an exception thing to strive for. And I think that I am incredibly fortunate to land up in the market that I am in. Mobile is an innovative space.

Let me not get caught up in my own head and clearly lay out what I intend to say:

It’s simple idea but on that only recently dawned on me. I am fortunate to be in an innovate environment. Imagine if I was still a print writer? I’d be doing the same thing over and over and over, every day. I’d call my contacts, I’d gather information and construct a story from the information, I’d conduct an interview and write the story which would be edited, sub-edited and cut-up by the mechanisms in place. My byline would appear in the paper and the sun would set and rise again to repeat the cycle. Sure the focus of the story changes but more often than not it’s the same mechanisms.

Let’s look at an accountant, yes there are challenges in every client that an account might audit, but on the whole there is very little innovation in their market. Pascal might come out with an update, a law might be tweaked here and there and if an account is lucky they land an extremely strange client who they enjoy auditing, but the premise is the same, the actions are the same, the results are the same. NOTHING is new from year to year in the way that they do things.

Very similar situations apply to Lawyers, many GPs (which is a pet hate of mine), Judges and many other careers, career choices, markets and industries. There is very little that drives innovation.

Then you move in to the mobile industry and the market is booming, filled with innovation and change, constantly. That appeals to me.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that other jobs or industries aren’t appealing and don’t have their own, relative levels of what some might term innovation. But where I am right now things change on a daily basis. My job spec today could be completely different tomorrow and in every likelihood will be entirely different next year when my current projects launch.

This motivates me and this keeps me interested in what I am doing. I hate being stagnant and I hate reaching a point where maintenance of a job is more common than innovation, creation and envelope pushing.