Brands, Bands, Fans

Frukt Image

Music strategy and comms agency Frukt send me a lovely email every month called Brands | Bands | Fans which is a top snapshot of the way that brands are ruining music. Or in some rare occasions doing something that’s actually quite good.

The newsletter has a blog (or is it the other way around?) which can be read here: http://www.brandsbandsfans.com/.

But I quite like getting the newsletter, as it makes me laugh sometimes, from today’s mail:

XM, Virgin Megastores, Myspace, Smirnoff and MTV all win kicks in the head for launching a further stack of battle-of-the-bands competitions this week. Someone do something interesting will you? Dare I suggest that non-expert marketing agencies who suggest this well trodden path as somehow ‘cutting edge’ would do well to pick up the phone and call FRUKT. We do this for a living… we can help you. We can make you a better person and give you confidence and make you really different and exciting. We can.

A tough bit of salesmanship. But they make a valid point.

Media Organisations of the Future

Faris has a good write up of a presentation by Simon Waldman of the Guardian: What is a media company?

I saw the same presentation (or a version of it) at a Microsoft day late last year. And I have to say I thought he put forward a really compelling case. I don’t want to rip-off Faris’ slides that he ripped-off from Simon ;-) So you’ll have to go here to see them.

I do share Faris’ reservation that it works for people like the Guardian, or MTV, and bits of the BBC. But I’m not sure if it holds true for De Agostini where their whole business model relies on transportation of physical stuff (binders, lord of the rings tiles, pony statuettes, etc.).

Interestingly, or not, De Agostini is one of the few things I’ve not manged to find in Wikipedia recently).

Gnarls Barkley – Crazy Video

Crazy Video StillCool Hunting blog the Gnarls Barkley video for UK chart smash number one hit – Crazy. It’s top. A really simple idea beautifully executed. Based around a morphing set of Rorschach ink blots it’s a worthy accompaniment to the track. I don’t know quite why I felt compelled to write about it, it just moved me. But I guess there’s a few things that I really liked:

  1. The video mirrors the beauty (and simplicity) of the track; which is nice.
  2. They’re both a modern interpretation of things from the past. They feel like they’ve been inspired by loads of things, but actually imitate nothing (that I’m aware of).
  3. They both stand out from everything around them. The track just bursts out of the radio. And if I watched MTV I’m sure that this video would really stand out alongside the ‘booty action’ of most modern hip hop videos.

Anyway, you can watch it here if you like: Gnarls Barkley – Crazy (Quicktime)

Powerpoint Tip

MS Office Tip: Black out your Powerpoint Slideshow this really is a top tip. If you’re doing a PowerPoint presentation (I know that it’s pretty much like handling the wand of satan, but lots of us have to do it), and you want people to stop staring at the screen like ritalin-laced teenagers whacked out on MTV. Just hit B, the screen goes blank. hit B again, the pres comes back. Simple, but useful. Like the site I pinched the tip from – Lifehacker