I recently took up triathlons - not sure why, I think it was a drunken bet and maybe the Nike "man Boobs" ad (posted alongside this, but anyway they have got me now - I am addicted to it, from the "sprint" distance (400m swim / 20k bike & 5k run) one I did with a number of colleagues back in May to the hugely challenging and peversely enjoyable Olympic distance race (1m swim, 40k bike and 10k run) - I am even training through the winter by cycling to work (12 miles) and running home from Wimbledon to Teddington (11k) and starting t0 plan next year and talking wistfully about going away to do the Barcelona triathlon at some point in the future and I have even joined a number o tri talk forums and groups online !

I am not alone it seems - Triathlon is the fastest growing sport in the UK with over 500 events planned next year and in a time when we are being told that half the country will be obese by 2010 this is all good news but the most interesting element of this to me is that being part of the groups has meant that I am now conversing with people from all over the World about training, diet and kit - people that I will never meet but I find I have loads in common with and to me this is the interesting part - I have more interactions with these people than I do most of my friends and neighbours which as I read it makes me sound v sad but in fact I guarantee you that this is the case for lots of other people - think about it in this busy life your down times are spent online not on the phone and emails and texts have replaced a beer down the pub or over a meal. In turn the brands that are facilitating and being involved in this social interaction are the ones that recognise this phenomenon and non traditional method of communication.

I have been commuting through Waterloo for 7-8 weeks now and for some reason everything changed this week - I am being targeted !!! Not by homeless people, Big Issue salespeople or terrorists but by agencies and in turn brands.

In 3 days I have been offered 5 leaflets, a badge, a pot of yoghurt, a mid morning snack, a ride to work, even an apple and today there was a guy drawing on the floor of the station for Sky HD

Now obviously Brand Experience is not going to go away, indeed it has become the mainstay of many brands plans but I am still amazed how a great strategic idea and creative approach can be completely ruined in execution. One case in point - Nurofen - are pushing their Nurofen Express - I assume a quicker way of getting rid of a hangover or various other aches and pains - and as such offered commuters a free ride to work in a cycle rickshaw ie an "Express" way of getting to work (I assume) but they placed these all in a row (about 7-8 of them) on the Strand away from Charing Cross and on a tourists route - as a result all I saw were Japanese tourists delighting in a free trip around London and lots of commuters either ignoring or missing it altogether ! Then today I was given an apple by "Little Red Riding Hood" or rather a lady in a red coat with a straw basket which upon inspection had a sticker on it detailing Stansted - New York American Airlines - then it dawned on me....The Big Apple (geddit) - the apple was tiny and was covered in bruises......does this reflect how I will feel when I get there ?

The defintion of irony where there is an incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result and this is the case here - if Brand Managers, Marketing Directors and Chiefs Executives could see the actual effect on their brand they would turn their back on this medium forever.

Irony is also usually associated with humour and tragedy and here's the rub .....it is in the delivery that this activity is letting down the brand - now I can't say whether this is due to inexperienced agencies being used or worse agencies that claim they can do this but just subcontract to make a few quid or Clients trying to do this themselves but it does demonstrate exactly why we at Gravity (http://www.gravitythinking.com/) have adopted the approach we do ie coordinated capabilities tm - that is we stick to the strategy and creative development and we then work with partners to deliver perfect execution or in other words perfect placement of the rickshaws and proper juicy "Big Apples"

I can't wait now to see what next week brings ...........

This week I downloaded Radiohead new album via the site http://www.inrainbows.com/ as it has been widely publicised you can pay what you want but whether you paid £0.00 (Creep) or the average CD price of £8.92 they certainly got as much if not more than you did out of the deal. Research has showed that email addresses are worth £5 at least and if you add phone numbers, addresses etc. then the amount defintiely increases. The possibilities are endless for this data - not just for 2 way comms via phone, home and email but also in profiling the buyers via postcode and starting to gain a ral understanding of who your audience are.

In an industry that is struggling due to illegal downloads and decreasing sales this is inspired and shows a very interesting way forward that is not only being followed by Radiohead but it is rumoured that the Charlatans are about to follow suit and with Prince and Ray Davies releasing new albums via the Mail on Sunday and Live Nation's new association with Madonna it is fascinating to see where the industry will go next. This also shows an interesting example for many other industries with multiple outputs and the desire to reach an ever more elusive consumer. Lets wait and see how they follow this and who else gets on the bandwagon. Einstein once said "Information is not knowledge" and far be it from me to disagree but in this case think just having the the information is a great starting point.........
Posted by ajfroberts at 2:27 AM