The Frozen Race….

I understand that this may seem like a very strange post but it came up in conversation at work and I found myself being very interested in the topic and the related facts and arguments. Cryogenics or Cryobiology when it comes to Human Life Preservation, the moral issues and the general point, was the base of our conversation.

Now I must admit my understanding of this is very limited but from what I do know, the process involves freezing a body (after death) at a very low core temperature, stopping the decay process a human body would normally experience. The point of this is that the body can be frozen in the same state for as when the person dies, then at some point in the future can be ‘unfrozen’ and brought back to life. I recognize that that maybe a very simple and ‘laymen’ explanation but that’s the way I understand it at this point!

The point…
Well the point of this process can differ from person to person in my understanding, the main explanation being, if a person has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, they may choose to be cryogenically preserved until a future time when a cure had been found. Other people argue the point is so that the body will never die and can be brought back to life in future times where a ‘live forever’ process has been developed. Some famous people are said to have been frozen including Walt Disney, who is said to be kept in a privately run facility until such time the sure for his illness is found (although I am not how credible this is). The famous baseball player Ted Williams has been be put in ‘Cryogenic suspension’ along with his son after legal battles which objected to this process, he was said to have wanted this procedure so he and his loved ones could be together in future times.

The Moral/ Ethical Aspect…
Many people have an opinion on the moral implications of freezing a human body and even more of bringing a human body back to life. The argument stands that people should not play with nature in this way and many state that cryogenics is unethical because the chance of successful revival is too small to be considered a worthwhile way to manage a dead body. For people of various religious persuasions, cryonics offers a moral argument. Many religions believe in a form of existence after death, often Heaven or Hell. If their ideas and teachings are true, then it would be impossible for a persons soul to be pulled back to mortal life on Earth after moving on. Again, if as most people believe, the soul departs from the body after death, cryonics would not be beneficial in any form. While the body would exist, the mind would not and preserving the mind, the person themselves, is one of the goals of cryonics.

My Opinion….?
Well it is very hard to say really. I think it would be an astounding feat if scientists could create the technology to bring a person back to life, so to speak, but there are so many implications that seem to go along with this notion I don’t believe it could ever be a good thing. There are many many questions I can’t seem to find an answer for… How does a person know that their body will be stored properly? How long would a body be stored for? If a person was brought back to life one day, would they be the same person as before they died? What would the mental implications be if a person was brought back to life and then has the ability to live forever? If a person dies in there 80’s, is frozen and brought back to life years later with the technology to live forever, would have to live for eternity in an 80 year old body? If this technology is developed and the majority of people opted for this, the earth would be severely over populated in a very short amount of time, would the planet be able to cope or would the world and life as we know it eventually cease to exist due to this?
I have a million more questions about this, which I would imagine could not be answered until the day that this is possible.

Well like I said at the beginning, It may seem a little random a post for a Sunny Friday afternoon, but I like to get my thoughts down and see what others have to say on the matter!!

New User Survey on Social Networking Sites vs Advertising…..

New research has been done by the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) into the Brand Groups on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. The results of the survey which tested 1,900 UK adults, showed that less than a third of users want to join groups of high profile brands, even if there is an offer of free or exclusive information and content.
Although a relatively small group were tested, this information indicates bad news for brands increasing their digital advertising via networking sites. Will this start to become apparent to industries attempting to market this way or will this information? Or will this research be rendered invalid as the popularity of social networking continues to grow, and people start to see the business connections as a benefit to them?

The survey also indicated that user do not mind having adverts on the sites but pay little attention to them. This result is not as alarming as it would seem that most of the population with no experience or knowledge of the advertising and marketing world, don’t realise how even an advert on a page increases the strength of a brand and although may not lead to direct consumer action will raise their awareness of the company, its brand and functions, of course this is resting on the shoulders of the advertises to come up with a campaign that send out the right message to the target audience. So will these results prompt companies to change their advertising style? Or will this information become irrelevant in coming years?

Do we think this information will at all affect anything in the digital advertising world or with companies dismiss it due to the low number of users surveyed, and lack of consumer marketing knowledge?

San Miguel and the £7m Campaign…

Sumer is approaching and therefore time to start another Alcoholic Beverage Marketing campaign…. The past couple of years have been dominated with Magners and Bulmers cider drink, fosters always being a hot favourite and corona and a verity of wines bringing up the rear… So Summer 2009, enter San Miguel!

Carlsberg, who took over production, sales and marketing activity of the brand in October last year, has announced a £7m marketing campaign for the beer, due to start in May with television advertising, followed and supported by outdoor, print and cinema screen promotion. Carlsberg are also said to be running a campaign at train stations around the country, this is reported to be an experimental campaign to test the validity of train station advertising, which in my opinion should work well due to the high volume of traffic and closeness to city centre bars and restaurants.

The aim of this campaign is to increase the brand strength of the beer and guide consumers to the leisurely enjoyment of the drink. With the tag line, ‘Not a Quick Beer’ they are obviously leading consumers to believe that this should be consumed in a relaxed and laid back environment and Carlsberg have been reported to say that customer are “looking for something to savour and enjoy when relaxing with friends after another busy week”

Carlsberg are aiming to raise to the profile of the beer to premium, they have redesigned the packaging and labelling of both the cans and bottles to sit well with the European theme of the drink.

In my opinion this will be the beer of the summer, sales and brand strength should increase a vast amount in the summer months….. Providing we have the weather to suit!

The Top Ten Things To Do This Summer...

1. Complete my website and get the design service fully up and operational, so many new project have take priority!! So watch this space for the new CandTS website!

2. I have taken on a project of doing all the album artwork for a local music producer… this will bring a fair amount of work for me and I get to listen to all the new local music as well. I am very much looking forward to these projects!

3. The Big Garden Overhaul…. On a personal lever I have decided that its time to get my garden sorted this summer, I have planned to get the outside of my house painted cream, clean up all the patio areas, defence the perimeter and even get some plants on the go!!

4. The Drum Project… I am building an oil drum BBQ, A common thing I understand but I am up for the challenge of completing this project and creating the most impressive BBQ on the Crown! I plan a 2 tear grill system with a hot plate and plenty of storage space.

5. Shows…. I have a few shows coming up for work and need to make them count. A military show in and a Boat show in September, these will be completely separate events with very different needs, its time to raise the company profile and get the brands promoted properly, this is the perfect place to get our new image out there!

6. Festival…. I am planning on attending a 3 or 4 festivals this summer, Secret Garden Party and Bestival being the two most important. I usually work at Stainsby Festival Stewarding, which is always good fun, I find you make a lot of contacts for the music design world through these festivals, obviously not the reason I go but it defiantly makes it even more worthwhile!

7. Grand Prix Parties…. Me and a couple of friends have really got into the F! this season and have been making an event out of the races so far, I plan to make sure this continues as its great to relax around the BBQ after the race.

8. Get my car ready for action. My little MG needs a few minor things doing to it, a new soft top, which I have decided to fit myself, a good valet (which I am not doing myself!!) and a some minor heating adjustments. Looking the Barn/ Workshop is fitted out for all project work I am undertaking.

9. Decorate the interior of my house, I bought this house nearly two years ago and I think it could do with a lick of paint and freshen up. There is very little to no work to do on the house now, just a few decorative additions and organisation, including a new LCD TV to go above the fireplace, Mind you, that is necessary not luxury!!

10. Amongst all the work, project and DIY, one of the most important things for this summer is to relax and have some fun with friends, a couple of summer parties, many many BBQ’s and fires!

So I guess the moral of this story is work hard and play hard with good friends and lets hope the weather is good!!

Google Buying Twitter….?

Are Google taking over the internet?? With plans to buy Social Networking site, Twitter, is seems that this will be another string to the ever growing Google bow.
Google have completed 54 successful acquisitions up until September 2008, including You Tube, Android and DoubleClick an online ad agency worth over $3 billion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Google

With most other webbased activities covered by Google, it makes sense that they would want to enter in to the social networking side of things. Twitter being the fastest growing social networking site of its time, with over 55m user per day, it would be a great move for Google to make. Twitter witch is reported to be worth £170m, were in discussion with Facebook last year but nothing was to come of this. Now it looks as if Google are set to buy out Twitter. There have been no fixed reports of any changes or improvements they would make but I am certain that Google with put there stamp on the already very successful site. Watch the Space….. or if in doubt Google it!!!!!

Argos Entertainment…

This week Argos has struck a deal with The Hut Group, an online retailer, to launch a new entertainments site. The site is due to sell CD’s, DVD’s and merchandise, stocking over 125,000 titles.

While many companies are pulling out of new ventures and reducing their marketing spend, Argos are taking a bold move to sweep up the lost sales from the fall of High street retailers Woolworths and Zavvi. I believe this is a great move for Argos who are fast moving into almost every high street market now. Offering free delivery will be a great pull for prospective customers and challenge the competitiveness of Giants like Play.com and Amazon. With every new area Argos move into, they are strengthening the Brand in the marketplace, but will there be an endless supply of markets for them to enter into? Or are they reaching the end of the diverse line?

Argos will find themselves in direct competition with supermarkets such as Asda and Tesco for music and film sales. Will Argos be able to compete and take sales from the already well established online stores? With plans to market the new site www.argosentertainment.co.uk, through communication with their existing customer base, I believe they have a great standing point to gain a good slice of the pie! By establishing the site as a separate brand name this will add depth to the already strong name of Argos and help them to gain a more respected position in the online high street!

On another note, marketing week have reported that WHSmith are to trail Pick ’n’ Mix stands in a number of stores around the country, a market which has been reported to be worth £200m per year. This is lead by the recent closure of Woolworths. With larger organisations moving to clear up the lost sales of failed companies, customer will not feel the loss for a long, but the glimmer of hope for smaller retailers to mop up these sales will be dashed by the speedy introductions by the big players. Brave moves are being made by companies such as WHSmith and Argos in a bit to increase sales and brand strength. In my opinion, this is a risk more companies should make and I believe with the example of these two companies, a successful story will follow!

The A-Z of Inspiration & Motivation!

A – Aspire.

Never stopping aiming Higher and looking to the future, better yourself and work.

B - Be Positive

Focus on the positive outcomes, aspects of your career and your life. Positive things happen to positive people. Look for the best in every situation.

C – Confidence

Have confidence in yourself, knowledge and abilities. Confidence exudes Confidence!

D – Development

Never stop looking for ways to develop yourself both mentally and physically. It’s important to keep up to date in your career and personal life.

E – Excitement

Let yourself get excited about new projects, activities and events. This excitement will be passed on to others!

F – Feedback

Seek feedback for everything; this is the best way to motivate yourself into improving! Just be mindful to sift the constructive criticism from the pedantic comments.

G – Grab

Grab opportunities when they arise. Exciting things may not happen all that often, so given the opportunity, grab it with both hands!

H – Hard Work

Working hard is a motivator in itself, this will lead to higher productivity and drive through both work and life. Just remember to play as hard as you work!

I – Intuition

Trust your intuition, its often the best tool your have in decision making.

J – Join

Join in everything you can; you will gain encouragement, inspiration and motivation from others and their actions.

K – Keep Going!

Never stop looking, learning and starting again, things along the way will inspire and lead to new an exciting prospects.

L – Listen

Listen to what others are doing around you, listen to what people are saying, read journals, blogs and articles, their opinions may provoke and inspire you!

M – Modesty

Be modest. Don’t sell yourself short but a modest attitude will motivate others to believe in you and your work.

N – Never Say Never

Try new things; never dismiss an idea or notion as it may lead to bigger and better things.

O – Optimism

Be optimistic. Look for the good in all people and ideas before dismissing!

P – Patience

Be patient. Good things come to those who wait. Just make sure what you are waiting for is viable!

Q – Quotes

Read quotes and articles. This will lead to a deeper thinking!

‘Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it’ Dwight Eisenhower

R – Risk

Take risks, be brave and believe in yourself. Successful people fail before they succeed.

S – Spontaneity

Be spontaneous. Some of the most exciting and successful things come from spontaneous activity.

T – Time

Organise your time. Give yourself free time to have fun!

U – Understand

Take the time to understand what you’re undertaking, understand the ramifications, understand people and more than anything understand your motives and goals.

V – Viability

Make sure your ventures are viable. There is nothing more de-motivation than failure through lack of preparation and research. ‘Prepare to Fail if you fail to prepare’ Anonymous

W- Weakness

Identify your weaknesses, knowing where you can develop and improve can drive you to turn these weaknesses into strengths and positive attributes.

X – eXercise

Grasping at straws with the spelling, granted, but exercise is very motivational none the less. Find something active that you enjoy and run with it so to speak. This will help to keep a healthy mind and body!

Y – You

You have to be able to use the tools to motivate yourself to achieve all that is attainable and don’t forget to be yourself!

Z – Zest

Embrace your zest for life; think positive and positive things will happen!

iBetter?

Yesterday Apple announced its latest software update. The revision will include over 100 new features and benefits which will enable programmers and developers to create new apps for iPhone users. Some of the features promising benefit the end user will be MMS messaging, cut, copy and paste functions, the ability to sync Google Calendar with your iPhone, Bluetooth connections to other iPhone users, Push notification features, extra search functions, plus many many more.
I for one am waiting with breath that in baited, as an iPhone user, I think this is a great move for Apple. It will help to keep the existing customers and also attract new customer to convert to apple technology.

With critics labeling it as a ‘great gadget but a bad phone’, it is more important that ever for Apple to update the iPhone. The current restraints on the iPhone have been (for myself at least) very frustrating, with even the most standard of functions unavailable i.e. MMS messaging. With the advanced technology of apple devices and being market leaders in their field, there seems no logical reason for iPhones not to possess this level of functionality. Have Apple been purposely holding back on these in order create the hype and media coverage that they are obviously getting, and of which will only increase leading up to the official launch of the update?? I believe that this could be the case, and in my opinion a bold move, but one that has and will continue to pay off for them as the popularity and brand strength of Apple and the iPhone go from strength to strength. Philip Schiller, Apple's SVP of worldwide product marketing, has been quoted as saying ‘The changes would keep the iPhone years ahead of its rivals.’ I think that this statement is well founded, as long as Apple and the app developers keep on their toes!!

With ‘Jailbreaking’ technology becoming more widely available to users, it is increasingly important for Apple to keep ahead of the game, the new 3.0 update will give Apple the advantage and eliminate the need for most illegal ‘jailbreaks’. The increased availabilities of basic functionality, along with new and existing features apple will defiantly have competitive advantage and offer a near perfect range!! (In my bias opinion anyway).

The Strategy

I have begun to write my new marketing strategy today. Sales are on the decline (as they are for most people) and for the first time in company history people are starting to panic!

We are more than half way through the month and there have been no sales what so ever so far. People are starting to realise that something needs to be done to pull in new business - enter me! On closer analysis of the sales techniques that have been used in the past I immediately spotted huge gaps in the market and in procedures. I have rushed together a core marketing plan and strategy (which I will need to heavily expand on over the coming week) and was amazed at people reactions to the fact that half of the techniques I suggested had never even been thought of.

Writing the strategy is going to be a LOT of work. There has been no research, gap analysis, customer information, competitor profiling or geographic work done what so ever. I am actually enjoying to all the nitty gritty parts of the plan and am even looking forward to presenting this to the MD and starting off the implementation plan!

YouTube Cull & The Mixed View

I can understand the mixed opinion of the recent YouTube cleanup. On the request of more royalties being paid the songwriters and artists for videos submitted by YouTube users, Google have removed a large number of ‘Premium Music videos’ and privately made video including mainstream music. This decision came in response to PRS, who collect royalties for artists, asking Google pay charges to songwriters and composers. They could not come to any fixed deal, with Google calling PRS’s request as ‘too Prohibitive’ . In response to the removal bid Google have made, UK music has labelled the company as being ‘exploitative’.

I am in very mixed opinions on this issue, on one hand I agree that songwriters and composers are rightfully entitled to royalties when their music is used. The music business is seeing a decline as it stands, with an increase of illegal downloading and file sharing sites popping up all over the net, I can understand the perceived importance of demands made by the industry body. Refusal to pay sent out a message to the music industry that they do not agree with charges but the main sufferers of this exercise are the YouTube users…. Without the permissions of official music videos and tracks, the great success and usage of the site will fall dramatically, meaning a decrease in profits for the owners. The use of these tracks and videos are again a mixed bag, It could be seen as free advertising for the artists/ record companies etc, as people can review songs with removing them from the site, in this sense I disagree with UK Music for their actions.

So what is the answer? Do Google pay the charges laid out and risk having to charge users for the service or should UK Music re-evaluate their demands and come to an agreement with Google?