May 31, 2006
off to copenhagen, london etc
Off to Copenhagen tomorrow morning for my Reboot talk with Rick Segal in the afternoon.
I go to a lot of blog events. Reboot is my favorite of them all.
Then it's off to London afterwards. Signing a new [very large] batch of Stormhoek prints on Monday, then off to the Content 2.0 conference on Tuesday.
Back home to Cumbria on Wednesday. No more travelling after that for a while, hopefully.
We live in interesting times etc.
May 30, 2006
we needed to find a solution
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
[Inspired by Dennis Howlett's recent post.]
we believe in brands
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
[Inspired by Ogilvy.com.]
May 29, 2006
yesterday i married a girl.
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
remain frugal
[More thoughts on "How To Be Creative".]
31. Remain Frugal.The less you can live on, the more chance your idea will succeed. This is true even after you've "made it".
In 1997, I landed the dream job. High-paid advertising copywriter. Big office. Big apartment in New York. Glamorous parties and glamorous backdrop. All feeding the urban sophisticate narrative etc. All good.
The trouble was, even though I was being paid very well, I was still broke by the end of the month. Life in New York is a costly business, and I was determined to experience it fully. I sure as hell wasn’t saving anything.
Like they say, education is expensive. And I ended up paying top dollar.
Because of course, one day the recession hit, the job dried up and I nearly found myself on the street. Had I lived a bit more modestly I would have been able to weather the storm better.
There are a lot of people out there who, like me back in New York, make a lot of money, but spend it just as quickly. The older you get, the less you envy them. Sure, they get to go to the fancy restaurants five days a week, but they pay heavily for the privelege. They can't afford to tell their bosses to go take a hike. They can't afford to not panic, when business slows down for a month or two. The have to keep tapdancing, whether they like it or not.
Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.
gapingvoid needs a facelift...
I'm thinking gapingvoid could use a makeover. It's looking a bit worn etc.
Anybody fancy having a go redesigning it? If so, please e-mail me a proposal. Thanks.
May 28, 2006
open-source marketing
So people have been asking me where to buy Stormhoek in the USA.
Because of my deep involvement with blogging, Web 2.0 and all that, naturally the place I would most like to sell it would be Silicon Valley, California.
But there’s a slight problem. The shop I would most like to sell it in, K&L Wines in Redwood City, doesn’t carry it.
The only thing to do is get enough people in Silicon Valley to contact the store, and very politely, ask the South African wine buyer, Jim Chanteloup, to start carrying it.
So if you're involved with Silicon Valley, please give Mr. Chanteloup a call or drop him an e-mail [contact details here]. Maybe explain why you’re calling. Maybe tell him all about Stormhoek’s connection with bloggers, Web 2.0, Silicon Valley, TechCrunch etc etc.
Tell them it’s distributed by Palm Bay Imports in New York, if he wants to know where to order it.
If you could help me spread the word on this, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
[UPDATE:] TechCrunch's Michael Arrington has joined the cause. Thanks, Mike!
May 27, 2006
brands vs markets
As a former ad agency person, I've always been interested in the word, "Brand".
Actually, that's not entirely true. For the last couple of years, using the word "Brand" in a sentence usually causes my eyes to start glazing over. And it gets worse every yer.
I often wonder where my disaffection came from. What compelled me to once write "Branding Is Dead" etc.
I'll tell you why.
I dont like branding. I don't like brand theory.
I like markets. I find them much more interesting.
Why? Because branding is all about what people think they do, markets are about what people actually do.
A big difference.
May 26, 2006
photo above cannes
Sig took this great picture of Cannes from near his house, up in the hills.
All those yachts there means all the Cannes Film Festival fans are in town. The big boat just left of center is Larry Ellison's 138-metre yacht, The Rising Sun.
May 25, 2006
freakgirl
Who loves Freakgirl? That's right, you do.
Who will read Freakgirl every day from now on? That's right, you will.
[btw: Freakgirl was one of my one of my first regular blog reads, back in the early days etc. Rock on.]
more prints!
Due to the whole Stormhoek Geek Dinner thing I've spent a lot of time in the past few weeks, signing prints.
On a mundane level, it's the most tedious job I've had in years. Print after print after print. Neverending. Ouch.
But at the same time, there's something quite Zen about it I like. There's also something about getting the work out there in non-digital form that I find very fulfilling.
So here's an idea I'm pitching around the Stormhoek boys, in order to get more signed prints "out there":
How about if, as well as being able to download high-resolution images off gapingvoid, I also started making more signed, fine art prints available, to anyone who wanted one?
How about, instead of charging you money for the print, we had a similar arrangement to the one we have with the high-resolution downloads i.e. How about if we gave them to you for free, with a "gentleman's agreement" that if you ever came across a bottle of Stormhoek in your local supermarket, you'd consider giving it a try?
Stormhoek would pay for the prints, my "readers" would get to hang them on their walls, the costs would hopefully be covered by new Stormhoek conversations and new business being generated.
I think the whole thing could possibly work quite well, as both a commercial proposition and an interesting marketing case study.
Thoughts?
Stormhoek Geek Dinner: Arkansas
Bill and Misty's Arkansas Geek dinner looked like a lot of fun. Pics here.
This dinner in particular had quite a backstory to it, which you can read about here. Murphy's Law on steroids etc. Glad it all ended well in the end, though. Thanks especially to Bill and Misty for their enthusiasm in making it happen.
I have never once set foot in Arkansas, but here we are, throwing parties there, through some sort of post-internet, self-organising Cluetrain thing. I find it beautifully surreal.
winecast.net
[Picture of the bottle and the sign-up sheet. The idea is that the attendees sign the latter and send it back to us, which we then keep for posterity etc.]
Heads up to Winecast's Tim Elliot for hosting a most excellent Stormhoek Geek Dinner in Minneapolis/St. Paul the other night.
Sure, the Stormhoek whites are alright, but the 2005 Pinotage is simply amazing. Full, spicy, red, carnivorous. This one made us stop and talk about the wine.Rock on.
"stormhoek" the viagra of the wine industry?"
Kim Maxwell has written an article about Stormhoek on the preeminent South African Wine Website wine.co.za. We were aghast when we read that she called Stormhoek the "Viagra" of the wine business.I suppose the trick to marketing is to know when and when not to take it seriously.We work too hard crafting each hand-blown bottle from imported Madagascar silica, painstakingly cultivating every vine on our 900 year old estate with nothing but a pair of nailclippers, to be referred to in such flippant and disrespectful terms.
Our beautiful maidens, who gently press each and every one of our precious grapes individually between their thighs, will shudder in fury when they hear this outrage.
This is blasphemy, I tell you! Utter blasphemy!
[And we thought we were the Kool-Aid of the wine business.]
May 24, 2006
geneva airport
On the way back to London last night, quite by chance I ran into Hamish, my old highschool buddy/current SAP rockstar consultant, in Geneva airport. So we sat and had a quick 15-minute beer together, before I had to go run catch my flight.
Hamish tells the story quite well here.
[Bonus Link:] Hamish talks about Thingamy vs SAP:
It would be possible to replicate every function inside SAP in Thingamy eventually, but the problem with being a cheaper option for the existing commodity is that being cheapest is a very hard way to make a living. But if you could use Thingamy to generate a better business or product, then the sale of the organisation, or the value of the organisation's future cash-flow is in part based on the business model built into the Thingamy software.[Disclosure: I have equity in Thingamy.]Now, how Sig licences that value is a question for another time.
the gap that seperates "making" from "selling"
The thing is, I dont see marketing as "selling" per se...
To me, the best marketing is always been about self-expression.
When you express yourself or your business correctly, sales just become a natural part of the flow.
The gap that seperates "making" from "selling" is artificial.
Which explains why Sig's marketing budget is only $74 a year.
May 23, 2006
cultural transformation etc
From The Hughtrain:
THOUGHT: the future of advertising is clients increasingly asking their agencies to help re-invent not just their brands, but their actual companies. The future is agencies being increasingly unable to deliver on this.I'm still not sure what to call this new industry, but spending the last few days working at Swisscom gave me a glimpse.Out of this wreckage a new industry will emerge...
The phrase I can't get out my head is "Cultural Transformation".
[Note To Self:] It's interesting being paid to talk about what you actually know about, as opposed to what you pretend to know about.
u.k. geek driver wanted
Dear Hugh,Anybody interested in driving a car please either leave a shout-out in the comments or send me an e-mail and I'll pass it along. Thanks.ITV are looking for a test driver for our car series Vroom Vroom, currently airing on Sky.
We are test driving a car next Friday, 2nd June, and are looking for someone who would consider themselves to be a bit of a geek to test drive the car. The person needs to be up for a bit of a laugh with our presenter as the piece will be a bit of a piss take. We need someone who would like to appear on TV and who already owns a car.
Filming will take place somewhere within the M25 and possibly in the Surrey direction.
Those who apply must hold a current valid UK driving licence and be available next Friday [2nd June]. As time is of the essence, I need any interested people to contact me immediately.
Many thanks,
Michael
Vroom Vroom | ITV Productions
The London Television Centre | Upper Ground | London | SE1 9LT
technorati-edelman deal
Technorati and Edelman announced that Edelman will have an exclusive right to offer Technorati's analytic tools in Chinese, French, German, Italian and Korean, starting with French in July and continuing into early 2007.Could be interesting. We'll see. Edelman's Steve Rubel also talks about it here.
[BIG Bonus Link:] Weinberger interviews Richard Edelman.
[Note to blog newbies:] Edelman is the world's third largest PR agency.
When I was at the London Wine Fair last week I was appalled that so many British PR flacks didn't even know what a blog was. Made me wonder what planet they'd been living on these last few years. [AFTERTHOUGHT: "Planet Trendy Expensive Launch Party", no doubt.]
british spy blog
Although the blog was launched six weeks ago, over the weekend, British media including The Observer picked up on the blog of a former British Intelligence officer, Richard Tomlinson, who spent time in prison for breaking the Official Secrets Act. The papers say that the government is worried that Tomlinson will divulge national security secrets on his blog.It remains to be seen whether Tomlinson will be squashed like a bug, or whether the blogosphere will come to his defense.
morning in geneva
I'm typing this live in Geneva, from the wifi-enabled cafe you see in the photograph above. Having my morning coffee and croissant, waiting for Laurent to show up.
This is my busy season. I had the London Wine Fair last week, I'm consulting for Swisscom today, in London tomorrow, home in Cumbria for the weekend, then off to Copenhagen next week for Reboot, and the Content 2.0 conference in London on June 6th. Add a tailoring business, the cartooning, and a book project to the mix...
Meanwhile, Sigurd and Thingamy is hotting up behind the scenes. I'm not blogging about that too much these days because we don't want the whole thing to boil over. But it should get pretty interesting in a few weeks or so.
This is why I live in Cumbria, deep in the English boonies. If I had to juggle all this stuff PLUS deal with all the stresses and strains of big-city life, I think I'd crack up pretty quickly.
I'm looking forward to July/August. Less travelling, more writing and drawing. Bliss.
May 22, 2006
scathing remarks 271
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
I'm blogging this from a wifi-enabled pavement cafe in Geneva, where I'm working for two days with Laurent Haug, on a project for coComment and Swisscom. More later.
May 21, 2006
english cut in america, june 2006...
English Cut's next American visit is confirmed for June 16-27, 2006.
Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, and New York.
We have a new line of really fabulous custom shirts, as well as the bespoke suits.
Please e-mail Tom if you wish to make an appointment. Thanks.
May 19, 2006
May 18, 2006
or the puppy gets it
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
Over the last couple of days I've posted a dozen or so so wine-biz-related new cartoons over at Wine Fair Live. Check 'em out.
Trade shows are exhausting. I am completely exhausted.
Tomorrow I'm sleeping till noon. Exactly.
May 17, 2006
stormhoek gets a gong
[I'm blogging this from the London International Wine & Spirt Fair, representing Stormhoek, which is why I've been so quiet lately: it's been a ton of work etc.]
Stormhoek has just won a major trade award: The Drinks Business' "Best Consumer Campaign 2006".
[NB: "Gong" is Britspeak for medal or award.]
Apparently the guy giving out the award said, "For their daring, vision and unprecedented results..."
The Drinks Business is one of the major UK wine & spirits trade mags.
Rock on.
UPDATE: Here's the makeshift blog we made for the event attendees. It's actually gotten a lot more use and interactivity than I predicted.
UPDATE: It's the eternal conflict: the need to find and post good content, versus the mundane reality of what we've come here for i.e. looking after customers.
May 16, 2006
"viagra and the wine blogosphere"
Kim Maxwell ponders sexual innuendo, silent conversations and nudists after noticing the frenzied attraction of a little-known Wellington winery called Stormhoek.Quite possibly the finest Stormhoek article written yet.
May 15, 2006
i'm blogging light...
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
Having my busiest week for ages. Apologies for the light blogging etc. Should get more interesting around here by tomorow. Watch this space. Rock on.
May 14, 2006
it's a very small world...
A little bit of video from my phonecam.
[Links: Perfectpath.co.uk, Marmaladya.com]
May 13, 2006
May 12, 2006
shipping prints
[Sam of Stormhoek UK, helping me get some prints shipped off to the US Geek Dinners.]
I signed a couple of hundred prints today. And I signed a couple of hundred yesterday. And the day before. Phew!
Wine. Prints. Geek Dinners. Somehow it all fits nicely together.
A relative of mine is a neighbor of Robert Waller, the guy who wrote the bestseller, "Bridges of Madison County", which was a huge book 10 or so years ago. This is what my relative told me:
To make a long story short, when the book took off he spent the next couple of years basically on a perpetual book tour, signing hundreds of books a day, sometimes thousands, with very little time off.
I cannot remember how many books he signed in the end, but it was well over million. Maybe as much as ten million. I just remember it being a staggering figure.
The poor man can no longer hold a pen. All the signing buggered up his hand permanently.
I'm beginning to feel his pain. Literally.
That being said, I'm loving it.
May 11, 2006
scoble's mom
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
[Inspired by poor Robert Scoble's deeply moving recent post.]
May 10, 2006
"microsoft bristles at being cast as a laggard."
[NYT:] History, then, suggests that past success is often an anchor holding a company back, and that Microsoft is at risk from the Google challenge. "The wind is really behind Google, and Microsoft's main tool for navigating the future is the rear view mirror," said Paul Saffo, a director of the Institute for the Future, a forecasting consultancy in Silicon Valley.[Thanks to Dave Winer for the link.]
jesus wants you
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
[Inspired by Tom Smith's recent post.]
stormhoek flickr'd
Very cool... Tom Skerous saw a case of Stormhoek in his local Majestic wine shop here in England, and so he went ahead and Flickr'd it.
It's moments like this that your inner marketing maven feels so proud and happy... when you know your marketing IS working.
[And when I define marketing as "working", I mean it less in terms of "selling", and more about "how the people who matter to you are connecting with what you do, for all the right reasons".]
But is it working with enough people? Is it working with enough people, enough of the time? That's another issue altogether.
May 9, 2006
it was not enough to see the stars
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
May 8, 2006
lacey widget
Steve Lacey [co-founder of SwitchGear Software] has also built a gapingvoid widget. Thanks, Steve!
the freedom idea
Every time I get a train down to London I buy a cup of coffee from this guy. A nice, piping hot cup of java, right there in the train station.
Besides the coffee being good [comparable to Starbuck’s, anyway], I love the guy’s business model. It could not be any simpler. One of those funky, European three-wheeled microvans, an industrial espresso machine in the back, and a space for napkins and cups.
I’ve talked to the guy about his business a few times. No, he’ll never be rich, but it’s a good living. Beats having to work for The Man. Beats having to shell out big bucks to the landlord and the payroll, which is what he’d have to do if he opened a conventional coffee shop in the center of town.
Besides that, there’s something so utterly cheerful about the enterprise- quite a contrast to your average British drab, tepid railway coffee shop. All the guy needs is a wee microvan, a smile on his face and the capacity to work hard, and his customers are well looked after, his bills are taken care of, his house and his family’s needs are paid for. Easy.
Yes, it’s interesting for us marketing geeks to read about how the founders of Microsoft or Google made their first billion while they were still in diapers. But somehow I find this story just as compelling. Because it’s not a story about a rock star. It’s not a story about gods and titans. It’s a story about a regular guy who managed to find a simple, sustainable level of personal sovereignty in a small town in Northern England.
In other words, it’s a story about freedom. And when it’s simple to understand and relatively attainable for us mere mortals, the freedom idea hits us on a deeper level than any story about billionaires.
[LINK: Caffeine Rush]
May 7, 2006
grey purpose
[Click here to enlarge/download/print etc.]
Just a thought: Are any of you downloading and printing the drawings [in accordance with my licensing terms etc.], and maybe hanging them up somewhere [office, home, bar, whatever]? If so, please send me or blog any photos of them you might have- I'd love to see where they're ending up. Thanks!
[UPDATE:] The Head Lemur has a gapingvoid print in his bathroom. Rock on.
May 5, 2006
sidebar gapingvoid widget
Michael Kamleitner has made a very cool sidebar gapingvoid widget for Wordpress [Get the plug-in here]. Thanks, Mike!
In an email, he says it:
* fetches the newest pic from your feedI like. You?* caches is locally
* displays it in any arbitrary size (max 400x225)
* links directly to your blog (in the headline and the image itself)
[NB: And let us not forget Kosso's Widget.]
![[Click here to enlarge/download/print etc.]](http://www.gapingvoid.com/images/greypurpose.jpg){kind=link}