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    July 2009

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    contact: james.gm [at] 77pr.co.uk

    02 July 2009

    THE UK'S TOP MARKETING WEBLOGS

    Hello lovely people ... For once in recent times, we've sorted out the charts on time (more-or-less), So this month's tables and all that are all below. Hope that they find you well and generally having good months of it. Without further ado, those charts in full ...

    UK
    Global

    1 (5) 36 (14) Blogstorm
    2 (3) 37 (7) David Airey
    3 (-1) 43 (-5) Econsultancy's Internet Marketing Blog
    4 (-1) 48 (-8) russell davies
    5 (-1) 66 (-23) NevilleHobson.com
    6 (-5) 77 (-48) Chris Garrett on New Media
    7 (2) 101 (7) SEOptimise
    8 (-1) 104 (-13) Crenk
    9 (-1) 110 (-16) FreshNetworks Blog
    10 (0) 122 (3) Nick Burcher
    11 (NEW) 123 (NEW) We Are Social
    12 (4) 132 (41) Only Dead Fish
    13 (12) 148 (67) Crackunit
    14 (8) 156 (41) FeverBee
    15 (3) 176 (12) Rubbishcorp
    16 (12) 181 (50) Welcome to Optimism
    17 (14) 183 (89) Collective Conversation
    18 (31) 186 (225) London Calling
    19 (-4) 189 (-25) Social Media Trader
    20 (-7) 191 (-41) This Is HERD
    21 (0) 202 (-6) SEOCO Blog
    22 (1) 228 (-23) Event Manager Blog
    23 (16) 234 (111) SEOgadget.co.uk
    24 (3) 236 (-8) A PR Guy's Musings
    25 (-5) 238 (-47) UK Affiliate Marketing Blog
    26 (4) 239 (32) HERD
    27 (-16) 240 (-101) PR Blogger
    28 (-14) 245 (-93) adliterate
    29 (-3) 248 (-26) Blendingthemix
    30 (-13) 262 (-76) Interactive Marketing Trends
    31 (14) 284 (93) PR Media Blog
    32 (-8) 288 (-77) The Engaging Brand
    33 (2) 296 (25) Faster Future
    34 (16) 299 (117) The Way of the Web
    35 (9) 307 (68) Andrew R H Girdwood
    36 (-4) 310 (-20) 50-Plus Marketing
    37 (6) 320 (51) Apple Pie & Custard
    38 (-4) 327 (-8) Drew B's take on tech PR
    39 (-6) 333 (-29) Modern Marketing
    40 (-40) 334 (-334) Feeding the Puppy
    41 (7) 342 (59) Life Moves Pretty Fast
    42 (-4) 343 (-1) UK Internet Marketing Blog
    43 (-7) 361 (-38) Mediaczar
    44 (33) 362 (281) Rock Star PR
    45 (21) 371 (177) further and faster
    46 (6) 373 (50) Hobo UK SEO Company Blog
    47 (23) 383 (192) Fraser's Affiliate Marketing Blog
    48 (3) 395 (22) livingbrands
    49 (-12) 404 (-64) Spinning Around
    50 (-8) 407 (-39) Make Marketing History
    51 (-11) 416 (-70) renaissance chambara
    52 (3) 442 (-5) Liberate Media blog
    53 (4) 443 (24) Sturgeon's Law
    54 (-35) 445 (-255) Technobabble 2.0
    55 (42) 478 (291) Curiously Persistent
    56 (3) 480 (-8) never get out of the boat
    57 (-28) 489 (-236) That Canadian Girl
    58 (9) 517 (48) The Ad Pit
    59 (1) 522 (-21) PPC Blog
    60 (-7) 524 (-95) Brendan Cooper
    61 (13) 559 (49) General Marketing Blog
    62 (-4) 562 (-94) Simon Wakeman
    63 (6) 563 (11) Beyond PR
    64 (-64) 570 (-570) LitmanLive
    65 (21) 584 (113) mediations
    66 (24) 587 (128) 25 letters in the alphabet
    67 (-3) 595 (-57) Simonsays
    68 (-68) 597 (-597) Tamar Search Blog
    69 (-6) 598 (-67) Wadds' tech pr blog
    70 (11) 612 (48) Indolent.com
    71 (16) 617 (81) Digital Examples
    72 (-72) 618 (-618) Internet Marketing Made Easy
    73 (-1) 621 (-38) 10 Yetis PR Blog
    74 (-20) 633 (-200) greenormal
    75 (-10) 649 (-109) The Web Pitch.com
    76 (-3) 652 (-56) Confessions of a Wannabe Ad Man
    77 (6) 664 (11) Brandgym Blog
    78 (35) 671 (249) Creative in London
    79 (0) 680 (-31) Nicola Davies
    80 (-18) 685 (-160) Real Fresh TV
    81 (-13) 687 (-119) Measurement Matters
    82 (2) 692 (-14) middledigit
    83 (-83) 694 (-694) AdGrads
    84 (-37) 699 (-299) The Renegade Agency Confessional
    85 (-3) 705 (-42) The Rosemont Loving
    86 (-15) 706 (-128) From PR to Eternity
    87 (-31) 713 (-268) Shiny Red
    88 (0) 719 (-18) Organic Frog
    89 (-9) 746 (-87) PR Voice
    90 (6) 755 (9) The New Marketing
    91 (1) 756 (-19) Raw Stylus
    92 (-14) 764 (-117) Digital Marketing Viewpoint from Cheeze
    93 (-18) 777 (-162) (Almost) Always Thinking
    94 (13) 780 (76) CarbonGraffiti
    95 (-2) 783 (-43) Ginger and Proud
    96 (-5) 789 (-56) Freshen me up
    97 (3) 816 (-6) Vincent Thome's Blog
    98 (0) 817 (-31) Nitmesh
    99 (3) 844 (-26) [Bluurb] stuff and things
    100 (3) 846 (-26) Norton's Notes
    101 (-2) 853 (-58) Unleashed on Marketing
    102 (3) 859 (-7) One Size Fits One
    103 (-8) 860 (-97) Living in a digital world
    104 (2) 877 (-24) Buzz Attitude
    105 (NEW) 881 (NEW) The Open Agenda
    106 (-2) 897 (-58) A Mountain Dweller in the Thames Valley
    107 (1) 911 (-49) All Things PR
    108 (1) 920 (-46) Engage: the Carve Consulting blog
    109 (2) 921 (-31) DaveChaffey.com
    110 (0) 926 (-47) The Red Rocket
    111 (1) 958 (-61) noticing
    112 (4) 966 (-22) Punch Blog
    113 (2) 981 (-40) In the Cowshed
    114 (3) 1000 (-40) PRwordSmith
    115 (3) 1021 (-48) From the Cowshed
    116 (3) 1023 (-48) Offer and Acceptance


    For those who may be interested, this chart is based on the AdAge Power 150, the top UK bloggers on all things advertising and marketing on 1 August 2008. If you feel that you should be included, you can get in touch with AdAge here, who will sort you out. As soon as you're in, I'll pick you up in this filleting of the AA chart.

    ONE MORE FOR TODAY

    One more for today (will also sort the AdAge top bloggers this evening) ... LOVED this. Bloody amazing stuff. Disclaimer: it's by AMV, who own Seventy Seven. LOVELY.

    EVIAN BABIES ...

    I reckon that Ben (AKA son of Scamp) got it right. This is "Satan-jumping-out-of-the-loo-while-you're-taking-a-dump fucking creepy".

    BUD LOVES US ALL ...

    Post-pitch frenzy (some successful, I am rather pleased to report), I realised that Spinning Around shifted a LONG way down the priority list. A really long way. Anyway, I'm back and pottering about and have got a load of bits and bobs.

    First up, the new Budweiser work from DDB London that is up and about on Campaign and Guardian Media. Just so very pleasing. And a bit clever. And eminently watchable and re-watchable. Am really hoping that they take this into PR, digital, experience: there is SO much that could be done with it. Great work.

    19 June 2009

    PITCH MUSIC INSPIRATION

    Sorry ... another really busy week this week. Pitching again, y'know? Lots of music-related bits and bobs at the moment, so thought that I would take rare advantage and blog some of the bits and bobs that have been inspiring me in that very field ...

    Largely, these are thanks to pitch colleague, Chris Reed, who has been diligently collecting them in expecation that their time will come at some stage ... and lo it has.

    First up, the Williams Fairey Brass Band's Acid Brass ...

    Then there's this absolutely cracking track. I particularly recommend it from about forty seconds in ... by a group called Frumptarn Guugenband.

    The other two chaps who have been really rather blowing me away are these two: Nathan "Flutebox" Lee and Beardyman, both of whom have a totally different and individual take on all things beatbox. Has to be watched to be understood, really ...

    Er ... and that was it. Hope that you're having lovely weekends folks. Spinning Around will be back to more-or-less normal by the middle of the week after next. In the meantime, please forgive somewhat patchy posting?

    18 June 2009

    SOUTHWEST STEWARD ROCKS THE PLANE

    Southwest (forerunner of all things easyJet) is a brand that is the stuff of legend in branding circles. Watching this, you can understand why ...

    17 June 2009

    DAMN UNIQLO FOREVER

    I am now sorely irritated. Uniqlo have done another really, really good thing. This time around (the latest in their range of digital branded widgetty content campaigns), they've created a calendar.

    Alongside the weather for a range of international locations, there are cute short, time-lapse films of Japan. By all accounts, "tilt-shift techniques" are what has distorted these mini-movie masterpieces to make them look like man-made models ...

    Do feel free to pop the sound on ... I muted it because it kept playing evertime I loaded the page and got a bit annoying.

    16 June 2009

    THANKS, ROB!

    Having another bugger of a week with a pitch or two and lots of fun client stuff to be working on. So a quick one to say "thanks Rob" for making Spinning Around his blog of the week this week. Too kind, sir, too kind. A star and a gentleman indeed, I would say.

    13 June 2009

    APPLE'S WALL OF FUN ...

    For their world wide developer's conference, those clever people at Apple made a rather crazy cool representation of the top 20,000-downloaded apps from the iPhone app store.

    It's actually a seriously interesting thing ... with icons lighting and creating little ripples everytime another is downloaded live in the store. Clever stuff, I thought ...

    12 June 2009

    LITERAL VIDEO MARVELLOUSNESS

    Apologies. Another week, another pitch. And therefore not enough time to catch up with the old blog. A bit shit really. Anyway, have got a handful of bits and bobs to share so will knock them up over the weekend.

    In the meantime ...

    You really do learn something new every day as it turns out.

    I'd not come across literal videos before. So being sent this one by the missus (who in turn got it from the lovely Sarah Schofield (former colleague and good egg) was rather marvellous. If a trifle barking. Who's going to use it as an ad creative first, then?

    05 June 2009

    BEATLES ROCK BAND TRAILER: STUNNING

    Our Lucy is out in LA at E3 at the moment (actually, she'll be on her way home shortly). However, before she left the big city, she thoughtfully knocked over the trailer for the Beatles Rock Band game. What a stunner ...

    02 June 2009

    MORE NON-ADVERTISING SHENANIGANS

    A film by Chris Gavin. Which just goes to show that there are many lo-tech ways of creating great work ...

    01 June 2009

    THE UK'S TOP MARKETING WEBLOGS

    Hello lovely people ... For once in recent times, we've sorted out the charts on time (more-or-less), So this month's tables and all that are all below. Hope that they find you well and generally having good months of it. Without further ado, those charts in full ...

    UK
    Global

    1 (5) 29 (20) Chris Garrett on New Media
    2 (1) 38 (5) Econsultancy's Internet Marketing Blog
    3 (-1) 40 (-1) russell davies
    4 (0) 43 (1) NevilleHobson.com
    5 (0) 44 (2) David Airey
    6 (-5) 50 (-16) Blogstorm
    7 (1) 91 (8) Crenk
    8 (1) 94 (17) FreshNetworks Blog
    9 (2) 108 (6) SEOptimise
    10 (2) 125 (3) Nick Burcher
    11 (5) 139 (31) PR Blogger
    13 (7) 150 (44) This Is HERD
    14 (-4) 152 (-40) adliterate
    15 (-2) 164 (-6) Social Media Trader
    16 (45) 173 (347) Only Dead Fish
    17 (10) 186 (72) Interactive Marketing Trends
    18 (1) 188 (2) Rubbishcorp
    19 (29) 190 (224) Technobabble 2.0
    20 (-6) 191 (-31) UK Affiliate Marketing Blog
    21 (1) 196 (36) SEOCO Blog
    22 (-4) 197 (-14) FeverBee
    23 (-6) 205 (-32) Event Manager Blog
    24 (-3) 211 (6) The Engaging Brand
    25 (-18) 215 (-124) Crackunit
    26 (12) 222 (114) Blendingthemix
    27 (13) 228 (122) A PR Guy's Musings
    28 (-13) 231 (-69) Welcome to Optimism
    29 (1) 253 (12) That Canadian Girl
    30 (-4) 271 (-19) HERD
    31 (-2) 272 (-8) Collective Conversation
    32 (-9) 290 (-57) 50-Plus Marketing
    33 (-8) 304 (-64) Modern Marketing
    34 (0) 319 (-23) Drew B's take on tech PR
    35 (-11) 321 (-82) Faster Future
    36 (17) 323 (113) Mediaczar
    37 (-6) 340 (-56) Spinning Around
    38 (4) 342 (12) UK Internet Marketing Blog
    39 (-3) 345 (-29) SEOgadget.co.uk
    40 (-1) 346 (1) renaissance chambara
    41 (16) 365 (115) Brand Strategy Magazine Blog
    42 (-1) 368 (-17) Make Marketing History
    43 (-8) 371 (-72) Apple Pie & Custard
    44 (-1) 375 (-4) Andrew R H Girdwood
    45 (-13) 377 (-92) PR Media Blog
    47 (13) 400 (105) The Renegade Agency Confessional
    48 (-11) 401 (-77) Life Moves Pretty Fast
    49 (1) 411 (12) London Calling
    50 (-17) 416 (-128) The Way of the Web
    51 (4) 417 (36) livingbrands
    52 (NEW) 423 (NEW) Hobo UK SEO Company Blog
    53 (-25) 429 (-167) Brendan Cooper
    54 (-10) 433 (-51) greenormal
    55 (-4) 437 (-10) Liberate Media blog
    56 (2) 445 (43) Shiny Red
    57 (27) 467 (255) Sturgeon's Law
    58 (-12) 468 (-77) Simon Wakeman
    59 (-7) 472 (-42) never get out of the boat
    60 (19) 501 (152) PPC Blog
    62 (4) 525 (38) Real Fresh TV
    63 (13) 531 (115) Wadds' tech pr blog
    64 (-5) 538 (-46) Simonsays
    65 (8) 540 (80) The Web Pitch.com
    66 (NEW) 548 (NEW) further and faster
    67 (-18) 565 (-148) The Ad Pit
    68 (1) 568 (26) Measurement Matters
    69 (-6) 574 (-39) Beyond PR
    70 (-14) 575 (-101) Fraser's Affiliate Marketing Blog
    71 (-1) 578 (26) From PR to Eternity
    72 (3) 583 (55) 10 Yetis PR Blog
    73 (8) 596 (69) Confessions of a Wannabe Ad Man
    74 (4) 608 (40) General Marketing Blog
    75 (10) 615 (113) (Almost) Always Thinking
    77 (-23) 643 (-196) Rock Star PR
    78 (2) 647 (15) Digital Marketing from Cheeze
    79 (-5) 649 (-28) Nicola Davies
    80 (6) 659 (83) PR Voice
    81 (-34) 660 (-252) Indolent.com
    82 (5) 663 (84) The Rosemont Loving
    83 (-11) 675 (-64) Brandgym Blog
    84 (-16) 678 (-90) middledigit
    86 (-22) 697 (-138) mediations
    87 (-20) 698 (-118) Digital Examples
    88 (2) 701 (73) Organic Frog
    90 (-19) 715 (-110) 25 letters in the alphabet
    91 (0) 733 (63) Freshen me up
    92 (-10) 737 (-33) Raw Stylus
    93 (-1) 740 (66) Ginger and Proud
    95 (-33) 763 (-240) Living in a digital world
    96 (-8) 764 (-12) The New Marketing
    97 (NEW) 769 (NEW) Curiously Persistent
    98 (4) 786 (110) Nitmesh
    99 (-5) 795 (45) Unleashed on Marketing
    100 (-4) 810 (56) Vincent Thome's Blog
    101 (0) 811 (83) Pudding Relations
    102 (-7) 818 (29) [Bluurb] stuff and things
    103 (-6) 820 (56) Norton's Notes
    104 (-15) 839 (-86) A Mountain Dweller in the Thames Valley
    105 (-40) 852 (-291) One Size Fits One
    106 (-23) 853 (-133) Buzz Attitude
    107 (-30) 856 (-209) CarbonGraffiti
    108 (-9) 862 (17) All Things PR
    109 (-9) 874 (9) Engage: the Carve Consulting blog
    110 (-7) 879 (33) The Red Rocket
    111 (-18) 890 (-77) DaveChaffey.com
    112 (-14) 897 (-19) noticing
    113 (-68) 920 (-532) Creative in London
    115 (-9) 941 (-15) In the Cowshed
    116 (-12) 944 (-23) Punch Blog
    117 (-9) 960 (-17) PRwordSmith
    118 (-9) 973 (-12) From the Cowshed
    119 (-12) 975 (-46) Offer and Acceptance
    120 (-15) 987 (-63) Yet Another Planning Blog

    For those who may be interested, this chart is based on the AdAge Power 150, the top UK bloggers on all things advertising and marketing on 1 August 2008. If you feel that you should be included, you can get in touch with AdAge here, who will sort you out. As soon as you're in, I'll pick you up in this filleting of the AA chart.

    BECAUSE NOT ALL CLIENTS ARE GOOD

    LIONS IN TRAINING

    Has to be said, this is some SERIOUSLY smart work for the Lions Tour idents. Shame that the team aren't performing quite up to the standard of this hype if their first performance is anything to go by ...

    As knicked from the excellent IFTABTWIC?

    31 May 2009

    SEVEN INTERESTING THINGS ...

    ONE ... Seth Godin at TED talking about tribes and death of mass marketing

    TWO ... BRILLIANT baby products website. Loving it

    THREE ... 40Winks is a REALLY posh B&B, basically. Lovely

    FOUR ... Times Square goes pedestrian ... interesting

    FIVE ... Kiosk is a crazy fun place to hang out, I think

    SIX ...This Animatic is crazy, but EXTREMELY cool

    SEVEN ...Tee hee ... iPants

    30 May 2009

    CASSETTE BOY TAKES ON THE APPRENTICE

    This has naff all to do with advertising really.

    But it's a bit on the clever side. And funny too, which meant that, in a week where there has been something of a dearth of great advertising work, this seemed like a good thing to share.

    The infamous Cassette Boy mashes The Bloody Apprentice and SirAlun gets a bit of a makeover and comes clean about the real purpose of the show ...

    29 May 2009

    NEXT GENERATION TALENT IS BACK

    Some folks might be aware that I did a spot of judging for the Panasonic "Next Generation Talent" contest last year. And jolly good fun it was too.

    Well, it looks like (thanks Mel!) I shall be doing that judging thing again this time around. So it seemed only right and fitting that I popped up their promo film here to make folks aware that the contest is up and running once again.

    26 May 2009

    APOLOGIES ... AND MORE GOOD SAMSUNG WORK

    Sorry ... another busy week in Seventy Seven has left precious little time to be blogging. Still, one account win and a shortlisting for the Children in Need pitch makes it more than a little worthwhile.

    Anyhoo ... the lovely folk at the Viral Factory have been at it again with their on-going and apparently pretty successful work to change perceptions of Samsung.

    The lord god alone knows what the Korean electronics giant has put into this campaign, but it's doing some really interesting things to my perceptions of them.

    First of all, I love the fact that there is no need for consistency in the creative. All of the work looks different. All of it is lovely content in its own way.

    It's a brand that has realised that if it is going to play "media owner" or try to get its work aired for free by other media owners then it needs to play by the rules that apply to a producer of content, not the rules that apply to a purchaser of media space.

    Samsung are created interesting content.

    Second of all, they're doing something quite brave. TVF (who have made this work) are far from cheap (in PR terms, maybe not so in ad terms). They barely get out of bed for less than £20,000 and this kind of stuff feels like nearer £50,000 or more.

    That suggests that they are putting £100,000-200,000 a year into the creation of content. Relative to an advertising campaign, that's a small sum of money. Relative to the millions they could be spending on media, it looks good value.

    But it also means that they are spending that £100,000+ on a bet that the work will be good, because if it's shit they don't get free space on blogs like this and the Tweets that it will trigger and the email pass-ons that will be created. And that is quite a brave move, if you ask me.

    That makes me feel better about them as a brand. I like brave.

    18 May 2009

    SEVEN INTERESTING THINGS ...

    Another set of interesting things. Loosely artistic.

    A photo essay on the contents of the USA's fridges at GOOD Magazine.

    A Periodic Table of typefaces at Why Me?

    An amusing "ultimate combo" T-Shirt with Street Figher references.

    I really liked the Poster Inspiration section on Why Me?

    A take on the "KEEP CALM ..." poster over at Work Food Food.

    Saatchi and Phillips de Pury & Co has a fab exhibition on the way.

    Ian Wright's stuff for Givenchy. On YouTube too ...