Who’d have thought London would go all alpine this winter!! The soup companies must be doing a roaring trade, as nothing warms the cockles so well as a steaming bowl of soup for lunch. To wit, I was dashing thru the snow on route to an early afternoon meeting down Holborn way and I thought of hunting down a quick lunch. I passed an Itsu and thought no, sushi is a summer thing. However, they had news of new menus on the windows so I dived in - and very pleased I did. They’re doing this hearty new range of noodle soups (well new to me!) which sounded great - but what really attracted me was the ’slurp’ thing - eat it with chopsticks, a fork or simply slurp. Now, who could say no to boldly slurp your soup with such stated permission. Tremendous Itsu, brilliant copy writing that made me smile and made me purchase. I’ll be back very soon (or here’s an idea, maybe you guys could open in W10? or deliver? )

My idea was to use this blog as my creative digital journal - but given I take the moleskin everywhere I haven’t really had the wordpressing need. But we’re currently helping Random House publishing take a quick temperature check into the gifting book market - discovering some fresh learnings around who gives what to whom and why when it comes to gifting and receiving books as chrissy gifts. And pictures can say so much more than words eh - so thought I’d get posting my pictures again.

We all know there is a recession on and this downturn is having a big impact on high street shopping and who knows when it’s going to upturn. . What we also know from our work with Sony Music over the past 2+ years is that more and more of the shopping of entertainment ideas is going online, which is having a major impact in the way things like books, CD’s, DVD’s etc are discovered, purchased, enjoyed and shared.

So last weekend we were in Kingston doing some people ‘meet + greets’ and I walked past the local Borders - or what was left of it. The whole place was on sale, and not just the things on the shelves - you could actually purchase the shelves themselves if so motivated!! I took a few pics of this seemingly sad demise of another high street store and then asked the people we were recruiting their thoughts about the closure of Borders - you know the mad thing about this, leaving aside their perceived differences of Borders vs Waterstones vs W H Smiths etc, they said that all the 40-50% off sales signs actually put them off going in, that it made it all seem a bit street bazaar - so they continued on past and headed to Waterstones. I guess that’s why it’s called ‘down’ and ‘out’!!!

And so finishes this US book retailing import experience (interestingly this store had a Starbucks in it as well…more about that lot soon me thinks)

Those old enough might recall a tv show years back called ‘Northern Exposure’ - set in Cicely Alaska, about a town full of quirky charachters, 1 of whom was Chris the DJ with his show ‘Chris in the Morning’ - he was so philosophically cool men wanted to be him and women wanted to date him (he was last seen as the husband on that big greek wedding film). Anyway I loved the show and clearly I too wanted to be Chris. To my delight in San Fransisco earlier this year I found the boxset - and am now deep into series 4 out of 6.

Thing is, our latest gifting tracker project has us in-store twice a week in HMV observing and interviewing the customers in the run up to xmas - what are they buying, who for and why, and how did they know to get it! What is amazing in these credit curnched times is the confirmation that nites in front of the telly save money - it seems the only decent primetime viewing is Strictly, X Factor and I’m a Dickhead Celebrity - after that comes the new DVD or Box Set…or just Mamma Mia!

In much the same way as Wii took gaming to a new audience, so Mamma Mia has introduced DVD’s to a new DVD viewing audience - or will soon do given the amount of people buying it. It seems to be 1 of those rare entertainment products that people purchase not only for themselves but also a few more copies to give to friends in a ‘I LOVED this and I thought you would LOVE this too’ kinda fashion.

It just shows how entertainment marketers and companies ignore this female market to their detriment in commercial terms but also in a profound lack of understanding their needs, wants and desires!! I’d love to hear what Chris in the morning would say about that

says what it does on the tin really! nokia have launched their mid range phone that indeed does come with music - as much as you want. the idea is you go online, download unlimited tracks and transfer to your phone. think about it - unlimited music yours to keep on your computer for ever. it raises a million questions doesnt it? look close and it says £129.95 (albeit with a couple of ** that says you gotta preload £10 of airtime on payasyougo) - so if the offer was all the music you ever wanted to your laptop for £139.95 one off payment and you had a year to get it would you do it? gotta watch this one with interest…

last weekend it was the new westfield shopping centre that was all the news - this week its obama albeit for ridiculously better reasons. however, not wanting a pretty cool idea to get lost in the historic nature of obama’s presidency electness, the (my) new local waitrose in westfields has made a bold statement about committing to be part of the shebu community thru making a monthly donation of £1000 to 1 of 3 possible charities. Thing is, they’ve embraced a bit of 2.0 user generated choosing - the cashier hands your receipt with a small green token, then on the way out you pass this stand and get to choose which slot to bank your token against the 3 possible chairites - at the end of the month, the bin with the most green tokens wins. brilliant waitrose - and more, waitrose (being part of john lewis) is in fact ‘owned’ by all the staff - so its actually the staff choosing to donate some of their ‘earnings’…a double brilliant brilliant to you all

how often is it that you’re innovating away on 1 project and the output stimulates ideas for completely different categories. take men - and face creams (as you do) - its not something we’ve been working on but we have unwittingly discovered that ‘we’ have thankfully moved beyond all that metrosexual bollocks to a place where blokes are back being blokes, but with soft skin - and thats all ok. and rather than believe its ‘cos we’re worth it’ - it seems that its all driven by our caring partners…whats good for them has become good for us. seems timely for a proper skin care offering for a man’s man dont you think? I might run it by my daily provider…

so most of our friends know we’ve been working with SonyBMG people to help launch a fantastic new album. we innovated the concept and then engaged some new friends at WorkClub to create a gorgeous album experience that is currently 4 short films inspired by the tracks on this new album (7 more films coming)…take a look here and experience it for yourself, we’re sure you’ll love it - cos its industryapproved!

so I’ve just cabbed back from a Soho Sony DVD meeting (our latest project is a lovely insight piece partnering with Sony Music, Sony Pictures and HMV to understand gifting at xmas) and I’m chatting with cabbie and he starts telling me about how he has signed up his 81 yr old mother to the monthly DVD rental thing - we all know lovefilm, but he went for ‘cinemaparadiso - they had better category setup’ - she is watching upwards up 6 DVD’s a month (£12.95 monthly rental ~£2 per DVD), he bought her a DVD player from Tesco for £30 (with as little buttons or functions as possible “Mum, just push this middle button only to make it go”) and she’s all made up. brilliant. makes me think this is a recession proof business model - and filled with innovative potential for more at home experiences - just add kit.

so went the name of our conference - under the banner of ‘london in prague’, taking the innovation expertise of london on the road. this year we wanted more of a ‘workshop’ approach; a morning of insight from our invited speakers and then an afternoon of creative inspiration - using the 2.0 insights and generating ideas against the working brief of ‘water conservation’ in czech. even tho it was a big blue sky challenge, the teams did a great job applying the stimulus. we’re loading the ideas onto the site & 1 specific idea is being developed further to be launched. brilliant.

check out london in prague

ps points for counting how many times I say ‘inspiring’

so we were in Prague last week at a tremendous innovation conference put on by my friend and colleague Jaroslav Cir - thought I’d get blogging again around various observations. 1stly the coolest thing I came across was a Trabant parked up kerbside - clearly still in daily use. These cars became the defining symbol of the wall coming down between east and west Europe. And although they were a 2 stroke environmental nightmare, they were radically innovative for their time, made out of plastic composite - and if you believe wikipedia, the body is recycable by becoming fodder for pigs etc to eat…brilliant!

how very cool!