October 2009
56 posts
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“Agencies: definitely don’t try this stuff at home. If you believe that you...”
– From this funny comment on this excellent AdAge article. I agree that building software companies within the dinosaur agency groups is a recipe for disaster. But it’s already working for the new breed of agencies like CP+B, R/GA, AKQA, Digitas etc
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Why snark works
somethingchanged:
Because it’s a subliminal argument. Or an aspirational one. Or at least flippancy is. Or, well, wait:
Imagine a spectrum lying across the ways we communicate. One end represents being flippant, funny, referential, snarky, and concise—zingers and one-liners and sarcasm. The other end represents being earnest, thorough, measured, charitable, and serious. The difference between...
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“The internet is here, it’s been here for well over a decade and it’s moving...”
– I’m Gen Y and I shop online on the DTDigital Insight blog. (via dtdigital)
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Watchsomethingchanged:
Sweat Shoppe have developed a technique to project video footage on a canvas, vitually painted by a LED-lit paint roller. (via Vimeo, via Today and Tomorrow)
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“While it’s tempting to call them ‘baristi’ because of the Italian roots, the...”
– Fake AP Stylebook (via nerdshares) (via somethingchanged)
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“Dear America: you can’t have an economy based on narcissism, good intentions,...”
– Scott Locklin: “In which I stomp on some of our glorious “green shoots” (brilliant and insightful as always)
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“To facilitate Blankfein’s call for transparency, we’re launching the...”
– Gawker sets the stage for “Internets vs Goldman Sachs” Round 1, starting with an initiative to crowdsource the collection of personal excesses by GS employees.
I agree with FT Alphaville’s take on this - just because these guys make and spend a lot of money doesn’t mean they...
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“Unfortunately it’s screw the shareholders!!” Charles K. Gifford wrote to a...”
– “Bank of America E-Mail Shows Concerns Over Merrill Deal”, New York Times
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“Twitter Inc. claimed what appears to be its first financial scalp Monday when...”
– via The Deal
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Why doesn’t anyone care about your new website?
When a business launches a new website there is typically some fanfare. Congratulatory emails abound. Executives make laudatory announcements. Website analytics are carefully watched for improved performance.
Yet the results that follow are often disappointing. Traffic stays steady. Bounce rates don’t move. Average time on site doesn’t change. It seems that no one cares that...
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“The Monthly: Sort of like The New Yorker but four times less frequent and about...”
– “Stuff White People Like - The Melbourne Version“ This is so true - except that I generally find The Monthly more interesting than The New Yorker.
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“Advertising isn’t dead or dying: smart advertising isn’t dying. The days of...”
– “Guess what? The sky isn’t falling”, Sudeep Gohil of Droga5
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“In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves...”
– Eric Hoffer (via somethingchanged)
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“To model correctly one tranche of one CDO took about three hours on one of the...”
– Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain admits that he really had no idea what the CDOs on their balance sheet were worth. Felix Salmon quite rightly blasts him for changing his story, having previously claimed that he knew exactly what the positions were worth. If I were a Merrill shareholder I’d...
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Academics have to unlearn bad writing:
fluffynotes:
A friend in mainstream trade publishing, who’d like nothing better than to buy books written by smart people on important topics, cringes when she spies an academic heading toward her at a party. For D and her editorial colleagues, “academic” is shorthand for “lifeless prose, cumbersome to read, filled with unnecessary complication, often disdainful and stridently obscure in style...
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“The word “curate,” lofty and once rarely spoken outside exhibition corridors or...”
– “The Word ‘Curate’ No Longer Belongs to the Museum Crowd,” NYTimes.com
Guilty as charged. (via somethingchanged, wearethedigitalkids)
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“We were about to launch personalized content, but Susan’s dog ate the...”
– Just spotted this bizarre quote in a Forrester report on web content personalisation.
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“The advertising industry needs to forget about recovery and start thinking about...”
– David Droga
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“Creativity is a renewable resource.”
– Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter giving his 5 word speech at the Webby awards.
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“The need for traditional investment banking services—intermediating capital...”
– The Epicurean Dealmaker is by far my favourite finance blog. This quote is from Part IV of his series of posts on investment banking compensation. Part I, Part II, Part III.
Anyone who has even the slightest interest in understanding the role of compensation in the recent financial crisis should...
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“I would have thought the bravery, the courage, the ability to think through a...”
– Gordon Thomson commenting on the Australian public’s attitude towards refugees who come to Australia by boat. Quoted in David Marr’s must-read article on the topic in the September issue of The Monthly.
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'I'm getting out of this industry. Again.' by...
jkleske:
The market forces created by the rapid demise of mass media and traditional media models have made the real business we’re in clearer than ever. We’re in the business of leading our clients in creating new ideas and even mediums so compelling and entertaining that the consumer searches them out. These ideas can’t be familiar. These ideas won’t be comfortable. These ideas won’t be...
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“I can see into the immediate future. It will consist of millions of people...”
– Funny first line of David Sherwin’s blog post on the “verb problem” interaction designers will be presented with when working on augmented reality applications. (via chrbutler)
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