Mark Vernon's ten ancient tips for the modern world

We've been helping out The School of Life expert Mark Vernon with the launch of his new book, 'Plato's Podcasts - The Ancients' Guide to Modern Living'.

Ex-priest Mark is a founding member of our client The School of Life whose previous publications include 'The Philosophy of Friendship' and 'Wellbeing'. According to Mark, 'writing a sermon is remarkably similar to writing a feature; and speaking to parishioners is remarkably like to talking to a microphone'.

In advance of the book's release, Mark has compiled ten tips based on the philosophies of the old school heavies to help us deal with the high-tech world of modern life. Pretty useful in the heady, relentless whirl of advertising.

Don't know your ARG from your APG? Web 2.0 baffles and web 3.0 frankly terrifies? Pah. According to Mark, this is nothing compared to the rapid, intrepid changes the ancient Greeks had to cope with. Try dealing with the new technologies for constructing the Parthenon. Mark's advice: think like Zeno the Stoic and go with the flow.

NEW RNIB CAMPAIGN

St Luke's new campaign for RNIB launched this week. Our brief was to begin the journey to recruiting a new generation of supporters for RNIB, by putting the issue of sight loss on to their agenda.

People have a very superficial understanding of sight loss and its implications. In fact, without the sort of support RNIB offers, losing your sight can mean losing the life you had and the future you dreamed of.

With this campaign, we're hoping to create engagement and empathy with the issue of sight loss by encouraging people to consider how losing their sight would affect them personally by asking them the question ‘What would you lose from your life if you lost your sight?’ and inviting them to tell us their answers.

The campaign shows groups of real people including rugby players, chefs and hikers, in the midst of their activity with their eyes shut, contemplating their own answers to the question.

What would you lose from your life if you lost your sight?

CREATIVE COMPETITION

MOFILM is 'a user generated content platform which links the global community with big brands and film through the use of short form video'. They are holding a competition where aspiring creatives can write a digital TV spot for the next campaign for some very big brands including McDonalds, Omo, Pepsi, Visa, Nokia, Campbell's and Vaseline... Briefs can be downloaded from the MOFILM website and entrants then upload thier video. Prizes include trips to film festivals, cash, shopping sprees and internships and the chance to walk the red carpet with Clive Owen at the premiere of his next film Boys Are Back at the London Film Festival. The winning video will be posted on the home page of YouTube for 24 hours. So everyone, get writing! Competition closes October 5.

http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/lff2009/

Mills & Boon, Love & Tea!

I know it's only 11.52am in the morning but it's never too early for romance! I read a review in the London Paper of a rather splendid book club that's been started up at a new tearoom in Soho called 'Yumchaa'.

Romance book lovers are encouraged to bring along their favourite Mills & Boon title for discussion over 'proper tea' - no bags strictly loose-leaf! There will be a guest speaker each month and a surprise too!

I think it's a really sweet idea and for sure I'm going to pop along to the next one. I'm hoping that the 'no-teabags' policy is the only restriction and that copious amounts of biscuits are allowed!

Love Delphina xx

DJ YOUTUBE

Be a digital conductor. In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and developed with contributions from users.

Play all the videos simultaneously or a couple at a time, in any order.

LEGO LOVE

8-Bit Stop Motion Trip With Legos - Watch more Funny Videos

FUTURE DEATH OF THE BIG IDEA

With the formidable rise of social media and the opportunities for smaller online campaigns targeted at specific groups of consumers what will happen to the ‘big idea’ campaigns? Of course we still have great some great, big-production TV ads out there but years into the future - when technology has progressed to a degree where billboards can recognize your own face, mobile phones know exactly what shop you are in, customer service is done on Twitter and there is no such thing as public cinemas - will we still have those magical, colorful, atmospheric, ‘big-idea’ ads? The ads that we (God forbid) actually like.

Advertising on the Internet is still mostly boring but it’s so much cheaper for companies and they are realising this; Volkswagen, for example chose to launch the latest version of its Golf GTi without using television or print advertising, relying almost entirely on free "buzz" online.

Despite the huge buzz about online/social media, television advertising is still proven to be more effective than other mediums, YouGov and the Edinburgh International Television Festival found in a survey they conducted. Most consumers will see a brand or product on the TV and then afterwards use the Internet to research it. Hence the Internet needs to provide more functional and accessible information spaces such as brand homepages and online eStores instead of mediocre banner ads that only achieve a low ‘click-through’ rate.

The most viewed ads on the Internet are still those that take the form of TV ads or are TV ads in the first place. 2007’s Cadbury Gorilla sensation was one of those ‘big idea’ ads that had a huge viral crossover success when 4million people watched it on YouTube. Millions have watched Sony’s Bravia and Dove’s Evolution ads and there are many other examples. These ads are examples of recent big ideas that are more than ad’s, they have become cultural moments. They are autonomous in their own right, for their humour, cinematography or ability to address a universal issue.

The Internet is powerful because it can distribute and ‘keep alive’ the buzz that surrounds a great ad, but the power is still in the ‘initial idea.’ Facebook may allow us to target people but great ideas will transform these people (and the world they live in).

So will advertising in the future be much smaller (albeit targeted), less exciting pop-up commercials and Facebook chats between a company representative and a consumer? That would make being a consumer akin to being a ‘friend’ and there is nothing wrong with that, its just that Facebook’s quest for transparency, and the internet powers that be sometimes have the consequence of vilifying traditional above the line advertising, and I don’t think it deserves the beating.

Or will we see advertisers go back to the ‘big idea’ after a period of boredom and bafflement with smaller, fragmented social-media strategies that only target a specific group – even if it is done well?

Two articles worth reading in regards to this are:

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/929105/2014-media-odyssey/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/04b5a80c-9369-11de-b146-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Edward Campbell