January 2012
7 posts
Message sent to my Last.fm account
17 year old: Hi there, is there any chance at all you could send me the We Cut Corners
album? I'd really appreciate it! Let me know if you can.
Me: Buy it...
17 year old: i'm 50c off it (used a giftcard) after buying Carl Barat's EP and the Fight Like Apes album unfortunately.
Me: can't man - they need the sales!
17 year old: Just bought it there off iTunes, gonna put it up on a few sites for free.
Project Dreamcatcher: How cutting-edge text... →
There has been a frantic rush to analyse social media. Part of my role at Mindshare is to do just this, but often like any data analysis, context is key. Text analysis - understanding the human meaning behind what is left on forums, twitter, or blogs - can provide far greater insight into consumers than the volume of data alone.
For me, this article was fascinating. If Obama’s text analysis...
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WatchEvery 3 months, I produce life through a lens - a collection of photos I take with an iPhone or Canon camera.
I’ve looked back on the very lucky 2011 I had and created a annual look at the year that was for many difficult, but life is more about banks, debt and austerity.
Thanks to everyone who made each of these images possible.
Music by the amazing James Vincent McMorrow, who I saw a...
December 2011
4 posts
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November 2011
7 posts
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Twitter Trouble
Richard Moore, on behalf of the Sean Gallagher Presidential campaign will be issuing a complaint to RTE about The Frontline programme not validating the source of a fake tweet read out during a live debate. Speaking on The Last Word this evening, Gallagher’s media consultant suggested if their complaint brought about protocol on how to handle tweets on live programming, it will be a good...
October 2011
11 posts
Can Google and Twitter predict our President?
It’s always interesting to keep an eye on Google Insights - the tool which allows you to see the volume of searches (relative rather than actual) made by different markets. It is a great indication of what people are into and the Irish Presidential election is no different. So who are we searching for? As the tool only allows us to look at five terms at once, we’ll exclude Martin...
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“The man that Gallagher took the cheque from will be at a press conference...”
– The Tweet That Changed Gallagher’s Game
tweet above from @McGuinness4Pres
For social media - forums, twitter, picture services - to be taken seriously, they need to grow up. They need to act maturely and realise that with the right to broadcast a message to potentially thousands comes the...
WatchIrish High Waves as Good as Anywhere Else A friend of mine, John, introduced me to the sport of surfing. I always associated it with Hawaian culture or in recent years Dublin4 heads (thanks to that Denny’s Ham TV spot), but standing on a West Ireland beach in the wet and cold wind isn’t as glamorous as TV and movie make it out to be. But when you get in the water, it is something very...
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WatchWill the iPad save the Publishing World?
It’s probably too late to expect certain newspapers to come back from near-death, but those who are re-inventing themselves definitely can see the glimpse of light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel in the publishing business. Steve Jobs legacy isn’t just great technology innovation marketed well to the masses but the fact he...
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WatchThe last time I wrote on this blog, a place I’ve neglected for the past number of months, was when I was talking about record shops. I’ve been meaning to write again here, but felt like I needed a reason to commence. Well I have an excuse - record shops.
Sound It Out is a documentary on the very last, the very last, surviving record shop in Teesside, North East England. It focuses on...
July 2011
3 posts
June 2011
1 post
April 2011
1 post
February 2011
1 post
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January 2011
1 post
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Retailers: step up!
Recently, I spoke with Jim Carroll from the Irish Times about the impact on retailers of certain products going digital. My main point was that retailers need to innovate to provide consumers with added value and/or experience in store to convince people to part with their money, make the trip to the store and walk out with a physical product. Extra effort has to be made with products which can...
December 2010
1 post
November 2010
4 posts
Think behaviour before you create
photo by gfpeck
Three separate stories and situations I have noticed in the past few days have sparked me to write about how we need to think ahead, not about potential success of an idea, a business plan, or an activist campaign, but think about people’s behaviour. It’s simple in principle, but often forgotten or ignored in practice. Designing for people’s behaviour can...
Influencers - How trends and creativity become...
Williamsburg Basement - the home of many influencers
I spend my days looking at how people consume things - brands, media, messages. My role can often be an unhealthy obsession with looking at what people get into, what makes them tick and how they are communicating this with others. Part of this is understanding trends, influencers, the tipping points. In no way, do I aim to assume I know the...
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Acting like a local
One of those hideous morkeshing terms is Glocal. Thrown around board room tables like cheap coffee and Powerpoint slides, it sums up the phrase “Think Global, Act Local.” While attributed to Scot town planner and social activist Patrick Geddes, it was adopted by corporations in the 80s and 90s as commercial globalisation spread, lead by giants such as Sony and Microsoft.
The marketing...
October 2010
2 posts
The Social Network: An Education
I have been reading David Kirkpatrick’s book The Facebook Effect and so was interested to see how Mark Zuckerburg would be portrayed in The Social Network, based on another book Accidental Billionaires. Speaking about the film, the founder of facebook explained the partying depicted in the film is fiction as “this is my life, so I know it’s not so dramatic.”
However, how...
September 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Nike Plus
This is nothing new, but I signed up the other day and realised the strength of the partnership between Nike and Apple. The running training product and service is very simple. Download an iPhone app, which tracks where you run and therefore speed, time and place, allowing them to give you advice (why not buy more Nike products?) and compare your runs against their community of runners
...
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Review: Pyjama Girls
I had been planning to see this Irish film, since I read about it’s production last year. Pitched as an insight into the social dynamics between inner-city Dublin kids. In particular the film follows to close friends, the girls in pyjamas.
I misunderstood the synopsis of this film, but the comedy I was expecting never came true. This is a sharp, honest documentary of a part of society...
August 2010
3 posts
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New York: in case you ask
I have been to New York too many times. Friends joke and slag me about the fact that every time, I attempt to go somewhere new on holidays, I inevitably end up back in the city. But I do not apologise. It is a great place and given I have been there as a tourist as well as living there for a summer, I want to share some of my ‘things to do.’
People often ask - what would you recommend...
Is what you carry, who you are?
Over at flickr’s blog, they profiled J Trav. The photographer has produced a beautiful portfolio capturing a photo of the subject and the contents of their bags.
While many shots are well constructed (colours are similar, layout of items are messy in some, neat in others and I wonder if the full contents were used, or censored), this is a great excercise to see the link between...
July 2010
1 post
June 2010
4 posts
His & Hers: go see this film
Tonight, I went for the second time, to an excellent film. A perfect snapshot of Irish women and equally Irish men. His & Hers is an incredible insight into the relationship between men and women which is generation-less. The film provides an insight into how woman have an unforgiving sympathy for men, and others alike.
Following over 50 women, living in the midlands, the film asks each...