planningblog

The First Planningblog Newsletter

2008-04-07T10:12:00.010Z

(I've been meaning to do this for ages!)

Business news from yesterday's Sunday Times

"UK Trade & Investment, the government's international business-development organisation, is expected to announce this week the creation of a 12-man strategy group...to promote what it regards as the five key sectors of the British economy; life sciences, energy, the creative industries, financial services and information, communication and telecoms."

"Set up as an antidote to YouTube...Joost has been overshadowed by the success of the BBC's iPlayer, and in America, Hulu, a collaboration between NBC and News Corporation."

"Remember, this is the Congress that passed the Community Reinvestment Act that required the Fed to force banks to increase lending to poor ghetto-dwellers ("under-served communities") who wanted to buy home. Enter the sub-prime mortgage problem."

"The DVD, which was launched in Britain 10 years ago today, has become a key source of revenue for TV producers. They sold 32m last year out of the total number of 248m. Overall volume growth of 9.3%in 2007...consumers are buying more but spending the same, as cheaper discs held the value of the market flat at £2.3 billion."

Random Notes

What does the word "paradigm" really mean?

Have you seen "Our Body The Universe Within"?

UK Account Planning Group

How to brief creatives for advertising. APG Creative Briefing course 29-30 April 2008

How to facilitate inspirational brainstorming and generate fresh and creative thinking. 28-29 May 2008

research. April08 - Market Research Society magazine

$3.5 million video consumption study ...will place observers in the homes and work places of 350 people, watching and recording every one of their media interactions throughout the day...data will be taken down at 10-second intervals on handheld units that allow the user to add observational and anecdotal evidence whenever they choose.

Interesting Statistics

All who download from the web: (from internetworld.co.uk "key statistics")

80% of Brits - anything, 89% 18-34, 71% 55+
50% music. 58% of men, 43% of women
46% software updates
26% photos
26% games
7% adult content

Movies - 26% men, 13% women
TV programmes 18/13
Radio programmes 15/6
Podcasts 12/7

2007 - social networking sites (Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, etc) accounted for 20% of all internet page impressions in the UK.

2004 - UK consumers spent £16 billion online - 262 transactions.
2005 - £22 billion - 310 transactions

£30 billion was spent online in 2007 in the UK - accounts for 12% of total media expenditure.

4% of US women who are college graduates have children out of wedlock (from slate.com)

planningblog Relaunch

2007-06-12T08:56:00.000Z

This is just a quick note - planningblog is relaunching on Saturday at the Interesting conference. More later.

I Knew I Was Right

2006-10-05T13:45:00.000Z

From the Times:

"Dr Peter Fenwick is an eminent neuro-psychiatrist, academic and expert on epilepsy and disorders of the brain."

"..."If, when all brain functions are down, the patient is able to receive information, then it follows that the mind can act independently of the brain. We must be able to demonstrate this objectively if we are to move forward; it’s vital for neurological science and our understanding of human consciousness.”

Market Research Can Help

2006-10-04T08:30:00.000Z

You know in your heart you are supposed to care about what the consumer thinks.

Schooled in P&G Ways, SMG's Kaplowitz Puts the Consumer First

"...Ms. Kaplowitz is still looking at traditional media, but she's also concerned with channels such as public relations, direct marketing and the in-store experience as the consumer's relationships with media and brands change. In recent years, P&G has migrated to a communications-planning approach that accounts for all the ways consumers connect with brands -- not just paid media."

Market research can help.

Ah, but what is market research?

Is it the same people answering all the questions being asked?

Consumers Rebel Against Marketers' Endless Surveys

"...Though no truly global figures are available, almost every researcher has seen participation erode in recent years, with rates under 10% increasingly common. Surveys tend to poll the same people over and over, often "professional respondents" who go hunting for research for dollars. "

"Just 0.25% of the population supplies 32% of responses to online surveys, said Simon Chadwick, former head of NOP Research in the U.K. and now principal of Cambiar, a Phoenix consultancy, citing research by ComScore Networks. More broadly, he said, 50% of all survey responses come from less than 5% of the population. That leaves lingering suspicions that survey research may be getting less reliable."

""We're perpetuating a fraud," Mr. Chadwick said."

Is it internet users signing up for surveys and pretending to be who they're not?

Fact: I know of only one on-line survey company in London that recruits respondents face to face. Hi Ros.

Is it people who say something because they think they should?

Traditional Media More Trustworthy Than Emerging

"...The 1,500-person online survey, in which 1,162 responders were identified as consumers, found that the "future of trust" lies in traditional media forms -- mainstream newspapers, magazines, TV and radio."

"More than half (52%) anticipate relying on traditional sources for news that significantly affects their lives, while 13% will rely mostly on emerging media, such as citizen journalists, blogs and podcasts. More than a third, however, anticipate relying on both forms of media for news."

"Last spring, LexisNexis integrated licensed blogs into its online research platform. "We were looking at not only the current state of what people trust and rely on, but ... we wanted to also look at what's possibly happening in the future," said Jennifer Aleknavage, LexisNexis' communications manager. "What's interesting is that new media doesn't take away from traditional at all.""

"Though the company has done news surveys in the past, this is the first time it has explored attitudes toward emerging media forms."

So, according to LexisNexis, 'new media doesn't take away from traditional at all'.

Fact: audiences are declining for both press and television. Despite a strong start to the Fall season in the States, this is likely to continue, especially for news shows.

Fact: Merrill Lynch predicts flat newspaper ad revenues this year and a 1.5% decline for 2007.

Fact: the API spent a year developing a report "intended to help reshape and reinvigorate the newspaper industry".

Fact: the internet contributed $16.92 billion from advertising and subscription fees from 14 companies, up 20.5% - this from Ad Age and excludes internet retail transactions.

When I think of all the research I've done on the internet over the years, I'm amazed at how comfortable "normal" people are with it now. Everyone has a nose round these days. I see very few ads unless they're sent to me, in Grazia magazine, or popping up annoyingly on corporate sites.

Here are some fun ads just to round out this post:

Travelers Group: Snowball

Toyota: Nessie

Accura: Anthem

Stealing Stolen Memes

2006-09-26T09:15:00.000Z

This meme has been stolen from it comes in pints?

1. First name? Carol
2. Were you named after anyone? My mom and dad.
3. Last cry? He knows.
4. Do you like your handwriting? yes but I've copied some of the flourishes.
5. What is your favorite lunch meat? Tuna, family trait
6. Kids? Nephews. 2.
7. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? Absolutely. It would be great to fight some of my battles with a like minded person.
8. Do you have a journal? I have a few old journals. Most of them I threw out a few years ago as they were soooo boring I wouldn't want them read after my death, I'd die of embarrassment.
9. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Not as much as people think
10. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes
11. Would you bungee jump? Never. Unless it would ensure world peace.
12. What is your favorite cereal? I haven't eaten cereal for a hundred years.
13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No, everything gets pulled off, then shoe treed if I can find some.
14. Do you think you are strong? Minded, yes, physically, no.
15. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Classic chocolate chip from Justine's.
16. Shoe size? EU 38-39.
17. What is the least favorite thing about yourself? Can't think of anything off hand.
18. Who do you miss the most? My dad, taking my nephews to elementary school, Target and KMart.
19. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Black jeans, black sneaks.
20.What are you listening to right now? Muted city traffic.
21. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? That is a question.
22. Favorite smell? Darphin lip balm, reminds me of my first lipstick.
23. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Building porter.
24. The first thing you notice in a person you're attracted to. I feel a pang and that makes me take more notice.
25. Do you like the person who sent this to you? I stole it, following the trend.
26. Favorite drink? White and fizzy and good quality.
27. Favorite sport? Jump horse racing.
28. Eye color? Moss green with gray flecks.
29. Hat size? Very normal.
30. Do you wear contacts? Yes, since high school.
31. Favorite food? Michigan tomatoes in August.
32. Scary movies or happy endings? I like things that make sense. Or else romantic movies.
33. Last movie you watched at the theater? The Queen, before that, The Break Up and Nacho Libre, all really good.
34. What color shirt are you wearing? Black velvet, it's cold today with the window open.
35. Summer or winter? March is my favourite month, so a mix of winter and spring.
36. Hugs or kisses? Depends from whom.
37. Favorite dessert? Frozen berries with white chocolate sauce.
38. What books are you reading? Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.
39. What's on your mouse pad? Don't need one, my "mouse" is a flat bit at the bottom of the laptop keyboard.
40. What did you watch last night on TV? Last time the tv was on was Sunday night so second half of Elizabeth. Helen Mirren rocks!
41. What are your favorite sounds? Waves crashing at Inchydoney, wind through the tree leaves outside my window, James' archaic, Noel Coward accent.
42. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles, especially John's aching, rock and roll voice.
43. The furthest you've been from home? I'm pretty far from home now - Crete or Prague or Portland Oregon.
44. Where were you born? Michigan.

Feel free to steal this!

Men Are Not From Mars

2006-09-21T13:15:00.000Z

"Men are not from Mars nor women from Venus. They are from planets much further apart."
John Molloy, 2005

From Ad Age, here's an article about "The Man Conference" that included "statistics from a 500 man survey conducted just weeks before the conference".

However well or poorly the survey was conducted, the findings are interesting.

The results spoke to the surprisingly high consumer activity of the average male. For example, 58% of men polled spend more money than they make each month. "It almost makes their target household income irrelevant," Mr. Donaton said.

This highlights something I've noticed since doing Iowa tests in elementary school - that household income and job title is asked for, and survey findings are based upon, the respondent telling the truth.

When I was little I would fill in that dad was a salesman and I'd mark the highest income level available. He was no salesman and I still don't know his income level.

To date, some America research projects are recruited using claimed household income. Show me the person who tells the truth as I'd like to try selling them the Bayswater Bridge.

Hey:

"I don't believe in focus groups in hotel ballrooms," said Kerri Martin, director-brand innovation at Volkswagen.

Ms. Martin's recent launch of the Volkwagen GTI was released without focus-group feedback and was a huge success. In fact, it was so popular among consumers across the country that it elicited user-generated videos and design models of the product.

I've taken part in large focus group settings - NEC anyone? Another odd American import, like watching focus groups behind a mirror in sterile laboratory conditions.

The power of word of mouth is much more effective with men than any celebrity or athlete endorsement, said Rose Cameron, senior VP-planning director at Leo Burnett USA.

There's a big shake up going on in the research world these days, thank goodness. The research procedure that finds out what people really believe is already being used. It's sometimes called "Ethnography" although I call it "hanging out and chatting madly".

Thrilling times.

Monitoring the Chatter

2006-09-21T07:30:00.000Z

A new internet evaluator is being launched:

Market gossip is to take on a more high-tech form thanks to a new automated system that will trawl through more than 40m internet sources – from blogs to regulatory filings – on behalf of hedge funds.

Due for an official launch early next year, the platform is being run by a former Deutsche Bank executive and has received financing from, among others, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture capital firm that backed Skype before it was sold to Ebay for $4.1bn last year. Ten hedge funds are trying out the system.

Called Monitor110, the platform acts as an aggregator and a filter for hedge funds trying to keep up with the explosion of information sources on the internet, such as blogs. The blog search engine Technorati currently tracks 50m blogs, with about 175,000 new ones created every day.

Patrifornication

2006-09-19T14:00:00.000Z

I made it up but the Chilis started it. Google it yourself, I'm not exaggerating.

An article about the PBS documentary on Marie Antoinette has this tongue twister:

Admirably, this Marie Antoinette uses subtitles instead of voice-overs for its fascinating interviews with French historians. Foreign languages are too rarely heard on mainstream American TV, including news programs, an omission that can only worsen national provincialism. In this case, the elegant, aggressive formality and residually neoclassic syntactic parallelism of French provide a thrilling dramatic approximation of the haughty court ritualism in which the young Marie Antoinette was trapped.

"provincialism", "agressive formality" "residually neoclassic", "synactic parallelism", "dramatic approximation", "haughty court ritualism" -- ee by gum!

Can't write well or won't write well, you be the judge.

Update: written by Camille Paglia, so that explains everything.

Voting With Delete

2006-09-19T13:30:00.000Z

"Voting with delete". That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? I just googled the expression and checked on google blog. No one's used it before as far as google is concerned. So I just coined a phrase. Attributions gratefully received.

Onto the post of the day...

YouTube needs to be careful.

From Cynopsis.com:

YouTube, Inc. and Warner Music Group Corp. have signed a deal under which YouTube will distribute music videos from WMG's roster of artists as well as behind-the-scenes footage, artist interviews, original programming and other special content. Additionally, YouTube users will be able to incorporate music from WMG's music catalog into the videos they create and upload onto YouTube. WMG will be able to authorize the use off its content via YouTube's advanced content identification and royalty reporting system, set to launch by years end. YouTube and WMG will share revenue from advertising on both WMG music videos and user uploaded videos that incorporate audio/audiovisual content from WMG's catalog.

I am still mulling over the significance of something I learned on the weekend, that is, my ahead of the curve, Hollywood Hills dwelling, 14 year old nephew deleted his MySpace entry a few days ago.

In the old days the term was "voting with your feet". Now it should be "voting with delete".

Other interesting news from cynopsis.com:

Discovery Communications has expanded its content on Google Earth by adding more than 150 2-4 minute video segments featuring worldwide destinations. The Discovery Networks World Tour is available through the Featured Content checkbox in the Google Earth sidebar and by clicking Discovery's globe icon. Since April 2006, Discovery has been the first provider of content to Google Earth when it first offered videos of U.S. National Parks. Now the collection consists of National Parks and Landmarks, U.S. Cities, European Cities, Africa, World Landmarks and coming soon Discovery Atlas.

Also:

Fox has ordered a comedy pilot called The Minister of Divine, based on the UK series The Vicar of Dibley which ran on the BBC for four season. The story is about a woman who was known as a something of a rambunctious teen, and returns to her hometown as the local minister.

When is the BBC going to base a reality show on Judge Judy?

The Future of Brands and Planning

2006-09-18T17:45:00.000Z

Russell's got a post up "The future of brands and planning". I'm going to write up my response and my predictions.

Gemma's question: What do you think Planning will look like in ten years and how will Planners have to adapt?

Obviously most things will be the same. In any forecasting project it’s always good to start by making it clear that most things will be the same. Look at any 10 year time-span and most things are mostly the same before and after.

Most things WILL be the same. I saw the movie "The Queen" on Saturday, set in August 1997 and noticed:

The laptops looked really old fashioned
The Queen's mobile phone was one of those clunky old big ones
The Times was still a broadsheet

That's it. Everything else would have looked just fine yesterday. Diana's final outfit, ALL the cars, all the clothes - especially Tony Blair's football shirt, well maybe it would have been red and white - the hair styles, the OTT tabloid headlines, the cordless phones, the kids toys, the IKEA shelves, even the messages and flowers look the same every July 1st and Aug 31st on the gates of Kensington Palace.

But here are some predictions for you, in and out of planning:

The Superbowl and Coronation Street will still be on and they’ll still be punctuated by ads. Most of those ads will still be no good. But slightly more of them will be good than now.

Only people aged 50+ will watch televisions. Everyone else will watch things in their own time, in their own way, on computer.

Seth Godin will be publishing books on an hourly basis.

They will not be printed on paper.

Traditional quantitative research agencies will have almost entirely disappeared (though a couple will be preserved at the National Museum of Redundant Services). The sheer amount of opinion generated by whatever the blogosphere becomes will make asking people new questions pointless. The companies who mine, analyse and package that opinion will replace old school quant and everyone will hate them as much as they hate Millward Brown now.

One hopes all market research will undergo a stupendous change and will get very expensive due to conducting fieldwork ethically, experienced researchers running groups in locations that the respondents are comfortable in, analysing the findings comprehensively, running workshops instead of debriefs, hiring good writers to write up the findings, hiring good art directors to create the presentation materials.

Quantitative research will never go away Russell, businesses will always want numbers to quote. Anyway, quantitative research, when done well, is as easy to comprehend as a cookery programme.

Also, I'm not so sure that opinions will be that easy to find online. My 14 year old nephew just deleted his MySpace account, too mainstream I guess.

MRI and neural imaging will be banned for market research purposes when a petfood ad makes someone’s brain explode.

Can't come soon enough.

Planning departments will dump their econometricians when it’s discovered that econometrics is simply a vast con perpetrated by a cabal of disgruntled mathematicians and that statistical science is more akin to astrology than astronomy. Lots of planners sigh with relief and admit they’d never really understood statistical significance anyway.

Statistical significance just tells you how trustworthy your quantitative data is. Maybe in ten years there will be a kitemark for trustworthiness. Just to make it easier for the math-phobic.

Global warming and rising ocean levels will mean that the Cannes ad festival is relocated to Bucharest. The winning ad in 2016 is a visual joke about someone falling over that no-one remembers ever seeing before.

Hasn't this happened already?

DDB will have created a computer model of Paul Feldwick’s brain which is issued to all their planners on a memory card which goes in their phone. They will simply wave their phone over any product or brand and a genius strategy will be SMS’d to the giant simulation of Trevor Beattie running in the creative department.

Now you're just being silly. Paul Feldwick is a one off, just like Churchill and Marilyn Monroe. No computer model is capable of such brilliance.

I'll never forget Paul saying about advertising effectiveness research models "Everything works sometimes." Dumbfounding, really.

Naked Inside will be named ‘Contagion Number One’ by the Center For Disease Control in Atlanta.

I googled this and got something about cigarettes, also the Goo Goo Dolls. Still not sure.

As Sky/Fox/Star exceeded 100% household penetration on earth News Corp executives will announce their corporate space programme (re-using abandoned Pendolino rockets from the bankrupt Virgin Galactic). Their first move will be to target planets newly discovered around Cassiopeia and to use football as a ‘galactic battering ram’. The first game scheduled for transmission to the entire galaxy is a Carling Cup clash between Nottingham Forest and Portsmouth.

In ten years I still won't understand or care about English sports.

The IPA Effective Awards committee will finally admit that they can’t prove whether advertising works and attempt to prove something simpler. They’ll start with the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture.

Why not start this year?

Neil French will start his own country.

Only women who "suckle something" will be allowed to live there.

Maurice Saatchi will be made United Nations Branding Tzar. His taskforce will go through the dictionary and issue every registered brand in the world with their own word, seemingly at random. This will be the only word each brand will be allowed to use in communications. An unofficial One Word Equity Market will be established where brands secretly trade words, Marks and Spencer will desperately try and offload ‘putrid’ but will find no takers.

Oh no! You don't think the United Nations will still be going do you? Arrrgggghhh.

Planners will be banned from blogging as the amount of content they generate exceeds the world’s storage capacity.

I'm an optimist. Storage capacity will keep up.

My predictions:

1. Market research will get better. The people who do it will know their stuff and love it. Market researchers will become "cool" (well, geeks did!).

2. Everyone will have wireless access to googley type info in their pockets and will be able to confront fraudsters with authoritative articles that refute them.

3. The world will have undergone a renaissance in authoritative information sources.

4. Love will become an important attribute for brands and people will take extra effort to hunt down the brands they love. Plus guys won't mind saying it more.

5. Someone will figure out how to measure how much advertising moves people - a tear count?

6. People will go to the cinema just to watch ads. They're all so good these days (well except the Renault Clio one, that's just bizarre and everyone talked over it) maybe have special nights at the IMAX theatre.

7. Advertising will finally figure out how to advertise persuasively to senior citizens (demographics will force this one to happen).

8. Planners, media people and creative people will be aged 21 to 101 with a pretty equal age spread. Account handlers will still burn out at 40.

9. Account planners will be required to learn how to do stand up comedy. One will break out and become a sensation at Edinburgh, then tv then the movies.

10.Russell Davies will have written his eleventh best selling book, entitled "Confessions of an Account Planner".

How the World Has Changed

2006-09-15T07:45:00.000Z

"I never cease to be amazed how much the world has changed in
just two and a half centuries."

Angelus
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Two, Passion

The whole media scene has changed, is changing still.

Every step you take on Kensington High Street involves being handed another free newspaper.

There's lots of innovation which is exciting. Lots of new things to learn which makes life a challenge. Everywhere you look, the old ways of doing things no longer apply and that's great.

But but but...

We'll never get away from the desire for compelling stories.

What's brought this on? I picked 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins off the bookshelf last night. My dad gave it to me a hundred years ago, along with a complete set of the Sherlock Holmes stories. He was a big fan of secondhand books and I guess I missed this one because it was so battered and discoloured. Big mistake - judging a book by it's cover. A rip roaring start, fantastic characters and funny! What a delight.

Ad Age publishes lots of articles about how media is changing, including this:

There's a growing trend developing among media planners that's called "sector strategy swap." This is where a brand in one sector adopts the guise of another sector to open up a whole new avenue of media communication.

Or this:

To catch this season's must-see TV, TVs appear to be optional. Indeed, every major network -- and one not so major -- are experimenting with the web as both a marketing tool and an alternative distribution channel. Ad supported or ad free, streamed on sibling websites or on partner portals, the networks are throwing every imaginable mix against the wall to see what sticks.

And:

Despite all the media chatter about Howard Dean's digital legacy and the rise of blogs and websites as the new powers of political marketing, local and national broadcast TV will continue to receive the overwhelming bulk of all ad spending during the upcoming primaries and presidential race.

Bloggers are citizen journalists. Blogs have exposed biased news sources to good effect. They've also exposed candidate's lies (seared Christmas memories anyone?) and the source of funding for political groups that pretend to be independent.

The entire media environment is in flux and there is no outstanding method of evaluating media impact or spend.

If media planners recommend advertising in "antique" media, they're being wise and conservative.

But trust me on 'The Moonstone'.

Tribute to Yuguag Zheng

2006-09-11T21:00:00.000Z

I signed up for the "2996" tribute in June. Today's the day bloggers will be writing about each of the people murdered on September 11th.

I've been given the honour of blogging about Zuguag Zheng, a 65 year old Chinese man who died with his 62 year old wife Shuyin Yang beside him.

Zuguag Zheng waved goodbye to his daughter at Dulles airport then boarded American Airlines Flight 77, the plane that was deliberately flown into a side of the Pentagon because a handful of brainwashed religious fanatics thought they'd receive sexual nirvana as a reward for their cruel actions.

The many dimensions that make up the universe are nigh on incomprehensible.

However, it's illogical that those murderers would be allowed a nanosecond of pleasure as a reward for their violence.

His daughter Rui has written a loving eulogy:

"Yuguang Zheng, 65 and his wife, Shuyin Yang, 62, were aboard American Airlines flight 77 to Los Angeles on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

The couple was on their way back to China after an extended visit with their daughter in the Baltimore area. Mr.Zheng, a chemist before retirement, graduated from Nanjing University and majored in Analytical Chemistry. His wife graduated from Shanghai Second Medical University and was a retired pediatrician.Yuguang and Shuyin were married for 35 years and raised one son, Shidong, of Nagano, Japan, and one daughter, Rui of Baltimore, Maryland.

They were very loving and affectionate, although they had quite different hobbies and personalities. The husband loved painting and was accomplished at Taichi. He was a little bit reserved. When talking with him, you would find he would be quiet and listen to you most of the time. To his children, he was a special father because he made you feel the love from the bottom of his heart, even though he didn’t speak a lot.

His wife was an active, open-minded and kind lady. She loved to try every thing that was novel to her, even though sometimes it was a little risky. Besides, she liked cooking and was very good at it. Those who had tried her cooking loved her and her food. Definitely, the most important thing about her was that she was a good mother. She listened, accompanied and did her best to comfort her children whenever they felt upset and frustrated even after they grew up.

To both Yuguang and Shuyin, family was the most important thing. They loved each other and their children.

The couple came to the United States to visit their daughter and stayed for almost a year. Their English was very limited.

But it was amazing that they have made some good friends around the area where they lived. Sometimes the couple was invited by friends to have dinner or tea and they would spend hours together using only limited and simple words to communicate with each other.

Actually, the majority of the neighbors knew the couple because it was so easy to make friends and get along with them. Though they were over 60, they were still enthusiastic about learning English as a foreign language. When a word came up, they would immediately turn to the dictionary or ask their daughter. Some times they even made their daughter write the words and sentences down so that it would be easy for them to memorize.

Just before leaving they took a one-week vacation with their daughter and son-in-law in Maine. They had a wonderful time there sightseeing, hiking and swimming.

One day after the vacation, they got on AA77 and left for China. Before getting on board, they told their daughter, who saw them off at Dulles Airport, how much they enjoyed the year with her and promised to visit again in a couple of years. Then they hugged and kissed her.

Rui stayed and watched them until they disappeared onto the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and led to a national tragedy that separated them from their loving family members.

For their family members, the only thing that provides relief is knowing that the devoted couple was together all the time, even at the last minute of their lives.

What they left behind for family members and friends are the loving memories of them. The only wish of their children is that their parents didn’t suffer at the horrible moment. In their minds, their beloved parents still stay with them and care about them as usual. The only difference is that they cannot see their parents and hear their voices again.

Tribute submitted by Rui Zheng."

After five years the feelings are somewhat muted, for you, for me, for this gentleman's loved ones. Here's computer simulation of just what happened in the moments leading up to the plane slamming into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.

Note the wings hitting things like lampposts because the plane is so low to the ground. Would you close your eyes or watch out of the window with horror?

Here's a list of people who were murdered on the plane. Note the wide age range including a toddler, an eight year old and three eleven year old kids going on a special school outing.

I've been to a number of internet sites and have not been able to reconcile the numbers quoted as victims and the names listed. For instance, at aerospaceweb.org they state 59 then list 56 names. A Guardian entry lists 58 "passengers" and 6 crew, this wiki entry says 64 "on board" and then has a list of 63 including the five terrorists' names. I think it's interesting that the exact number of people on the plane is still not clear. One of the many mysteries from the day.

Yuguag Zheng and your wife Shuyin Yang, in honour of your life I submit this blog post, with the greatest respect.

Brain Stimulation

2006-09-08T17:45:00.000Z

Everything at Mind Power News looks interesting, for example:

THE 3 MOST POWERFUL PRINCIPLES I HAVE LEARNED FROM MILLIONAIRES Dr. Robert Anthony

TOP 10 MYSTERIES OF THE MIND Live Science

IS GOD IN YOUR BRAIN? NeuroScienceMarketing.com

SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING MAY WORK AFTER New Scientist

THE SECRET SCIENCE BEHIND HYPNOSIS DeepTranceNow.com

SWITCHING OFF THE TV MAY BOOST YOUR MEMORY Reuters

MEET THE FUTURE YOU The Midas Method

THE SUBLIMINAL POWER OF A SMILE Cox News Service

Accurate Research Findings

2006-09-08T08:15:00.000Z

There are so many ways to get market research findings wrong.

One way - use a research company that runs out of time so makes stuff up!

CBS Tagline Competition

2006-09-07T20:45:00.000Z

I found it at "It Comes in Pints". A great suggestion in the comments section.

How about:

"None of the sources for this night's stories were faxed to us from a Kinko's in Abilene"

Five Years Ago

2006-09-07T20:00:00.000Z

Fourth of July 2001 was the best of the many family reunions I've attended these last fifteen years or so. We all got on and spent great times together. My nephews were little and didn't mind hugs. I sang all the old songs in harmony with my sisters. The economic downturn was gentle and no one had work problems that I recall.

Of course, I was ignorant and naive then and a serious if courteous smoker. Smoking was an expensive habit as I often smoked more than a pack every day. The difference in price between London and the States prompted me to stock up and I had cartons of duty frees in the kitchen.

I was naive because I'd stopped following political news and hadn't bothered to sort out a postal vote for the 2000 presidential election.

Oh sure, I'd bought The Satanic Verses years before, thinking all the media attention meant it would be a good read. I read the first pages in the shop - a plane blows up and a guy falls to earth - never realising this was blasphemy so profound that the only response was to order the death of the author. I'm American, free speech is ingrained in us. A plane blowing up and people falling through the air caught my imagination as I'd missed out on that treat myself Christmastime '88.

I kept my December 16th boarding card for Pan Am Flight 103 for years. I just know the drinks trolley wouldn't have reached me before the explosion over Lockerbie.

By the summer of 2001 I'd been studying Irish history for four years, focussing on the early years of urban guerrilla warfare in Dublin. But that was archaic and buried in the past. As far as I understood it, the shenanigans of the Northern Irish bombers and assassins had more to do with criminal activity than a passion for achieving political objectives. Any attempt by the media to highlight what that lot were up to made me angry at the besmirching of an ancient and honourable name.

IRA. It resonates doesn't it. Lots of Hollywood films in the last twenty years have helped of course, but the media has played a big part in making us all think the violence was political rather than criminal.

Heh.

In a way I was open to believing there were more things the media had misrepresented. That feeling just grows. Kids today will grow up thinking the news is as cheesy as a 1940s movie star bio. Quite right. Knowledge is power.

The anniversary of September 11 approaches. I've signed up to blog about one of those murdered on that day. His name is Yuguag Zheng, a sixty five year old man from Beijing, China. He was on American Airlines Flight 77 with his wife. I've gleaned a bit from the internet about him but would appreciate anything you guys contribute. Planningblog - a t - aol dot com.

Nine Million Downloads Later

2006-09-06T13:30:00.000Z

Click here, then scroll down to "A Million Ways" and watch their fantastic, one take dance. The song's good too.

From AdAge:

"You may not have heard of OK Go, but the Chicago rock power-pop outfit just made history. The band's ultra-low-budget clip for "A Million Ways" recently became the most-downloaded music video of all time with more than 9 million downloads."

Beer Drinking

2006-09-05T23:15:00.000Z

The Miller "Genuine Draft" beer account, worth $70 million, has moved from the Martin Agency to Y&R in Chicago as reported in AdWeek on 1st September.

These are interesting times for that company.

As reported on 1st September, they've spent $30,000 to help publicise a Chicago demonstration on Labour Day "supporting illegal aliens" - and no we're not talking Mork of Ork, or those of that ilk.

"This time, as demonstrators march from Chinatown to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-Ill.) Batavia office this weekend, they will have Miller Brewing Co., as a sponsor. The brewer has paid more than $30,000 for a planning convention, materials and newspaper ads publicizing the event."

"...Now, march advertisements feature not just the organizing committee's trademark blue globe but Miller's logo and a Spanish translation of its "Live Responsibly" slogan."

Now Miller are saying they didn't support that demonstration.

"* Miller Brewing Company has never supported illegal immigration and we have always supported the full enforcement of current U.S. laws.
* Miller did not sponsor the Labor Day immigration march held in Chicago.
* Going forward, Miller will closely review all requests for support from community and charitable organizations to ensure that we are not indirectly funding or associating our name with advocacy efforts on the immigration issue.
* We plan to stick to the business of brewing, marketing and selling great beer."

I like a good quality chardonnay and I don't care if that's a cliche. Is Miller available here? When it's my round, no one asks for it, pints of strangely named bitter seem to be the order of the day.

Finding the Humour in Database Marketing

2006-09-05T07:30:00.000Z

Found this interview at 'MineThatData' blog:

"Jim Fulton wrote his first SPSS program in punch cards in 1981, and began his database analysis career at Lands' End in 1986. He founded Customer Metrics, Inc., a database marketing consultancy, in 1999, when his doctor told him he wasn't getting enough airline food."

"...The growth of the Web has brought with it – in a lot of organizations – a considerable degree of wishful thinking, in the sense that they somehow hope that the Web is a game-changer in terms of customer file dynamics, that maybe if we do all these contortions on Web site usability and optimize our SEO and line up the right affiliates, then we won’t have to do all of that icky nasty customer acquisition and wouldn’t that be nice?"

"I have one client who.....jokes that if he put together channel P&Ls, then the fax machine would be the most profitable channel he has because it doesn’t have all the fixed costs associated with development and maintenance of the web site."

"....A brand’s relevance to a consumer is critical, and in my view advertising or sloganeering can be borderline irrelevant to that objective, if not counterproductive......a brand is the sum total of a customer’s experience with a company: quality of products, quality of service, taste levels, whatever."

"My view is that customer loyalty can never be bought, it has to be earned, one customer at a time. And that’s as true today as it was when pre-Biblical merchants sailing the Mediterranean first contemplated whether to add PayPal to their payment options."

Read the whole interview here.

See the Canyons Broken by Cloud

2006-09-04T08:15:00.000Z

I think this is significant.

The MTV Awards show "once a ratings juggernaut for MTV, pulled in an average of just 5.77 million total viewers over its three hour telecast starting at 8 p.m., down 28% from the 8 million viewers it averaged last year, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. Just two years ago, the show brought in nearly double last night's audience-10.3 million viewers."

50% less audience in two years. 28% drop in one year. These are dramatic figures and extremely heartening. Kids are getting out of the tv watching habit, going on-line, where bias is clear and users have more control.

I turned on the tv once this weekend, to watch a few old Buffy episodes with company. I turn the computer off at night, after a last check of the news.

Thanks are in order for DC's safe return. It's a beautiful day.

Crop the Chapel

2006-09-03T10:45:00.000Z

This is from their website:

This is the front page of the Sunday Telegraph this morning:

What's different about this photo?

Many thanks to L and J

The Globe Theatre

2006-09-02T06:30:00.000Z

Last night I attended a performance at the Globe on the South Bank. The setting is amazing and the soft night air was delightful. The authentic Tudor design includes being open to the sky.

The play started at 730. For the next hour or so the actors' voices vied with helicopters hovering overhead! Ah, life in the city.

Deliciously Scathing

2006-08-30T08:00:00.000Z

From Christopher Hitchens' review of the book Hubris:

"In the stylistic world where disclosures are gleaned and ironies underscored, the nullity of the prose obscures the fact that any irony here is only at the authors' expense."

In Cold Blood

2006-08-29T08:15:00.000Z

I remember reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote in one sitting. I was old enough to babysit my little sisters and imaginative enough to frighten myself to pieces but too young to understand the psychological principles that applied.

David Aaronovitch has written a great article in today's Times - 'Violence in search of a cause: what a famous book tells us about terrorism'.

What makes us tick is still being worked out by psychologists and self help book authors. But the differences between "terrorists" and so-called "freedom fighters" is as clear as the difference between Mohammed Atta and Michael Collins.

Dr. Sanity uses the metaphor of 'brain as piano' in her great blog post 'Listening to music and tuning pianos'.

"There are some things that medication cannot fix. Some pianos that cannot be tuned--maybe because there is a crack in the baseboard; or the materials used in construction were warped; or even that those same materials were irreversibly changed by exposure to malignant environmental factors."

"Any piano repairman will also tell you that some pianos start out as lemons (just as some cars) and cannot produce the same sounds as their peers. Some are so broken that even after repair they are not much more than junk."

"It is possible we will never adequately be able to explain fully every aspect of human brain function--expecially what leads to good or evil--by resorting only to an appreciation of the chemicals and the electrical circuits."

Edinburgh Festival - Some Great Jokes

2006-08-27T08:15:00.000Z

From yesterday's Independent, edited highlights from "50 best jokes" from this year's festival:

1. Christmases were terrible, not like nowadays when kids get everything. My sister got a miniature set of perfumes called Ample. It was tiny, but even I could see where my dad had scraped off the S ... - Stephen K Amos

2. My dad is Irish and my mum is Iranian, which meant that we spent most of our family holidays in customs. - Patrick Monahan

3. I've not seen such a guilty face since I finished my jigsaw of O J Simpson. - We are Klang (if.comeddies newcomer nominee)

4. Nobody thought Mel Gibson could play a Scot but look at him now! Alcoholic and a racist! - Frankie Boyle

5. I went to the JobCentre for an interview. I said: "I ain't got no qualifications, no skills and as for my customer service, sod off." She said: "You're exactly what they're after at Dixons". - Simon Brodkin

6. Edinburgh is the only city that I have walked completely around and only gone uphill. - Sean Collins

7. I've got no problem buying tampons. I'm a modern man. But apparently, they're not a "proper present". - Jimmy Carr

8. I was surprised how British Muslims reacted to the Danish cartoons. I thought: "How can you get this worked up about a cartoon?" But then I remembered how angry I was when they gave Scooby Doo a cousin. - Paul Sinha (if.comeddies nominee)

9. Two guys came knocking at my door once and said: "We want to talk to you about Jesus." I said: "Oh, no, what's he done now?" - Kevin McAleer

10. In the Bible, God made it rain for 40 days and 40 nights. That's a pretty good summer for us in Wales. That's a hosepipe ban waiting to happen. I was eight before I realised you could take a kagoule off. - Rhod Gilbert