Pinteresting

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you share images or videos that interest or inspire you. It is a rising social network that looks to compete with the market’s main players. You can create an organised pinboard, where you can bring your own images or those of others together. Less of a professional network than Flikr, and with more functions, it can be used to collate inspiration for such things as redecorating your house or planning your wedding. Pictures have always captured people’s imagination and browsing other peoples’ pins is probably one of the most interesting features of the network: It throws up new discoveries, ideas and inspiration.  Pin etiquette includes be nice and avoid self promotion. As a growing network that looks to simply share, it has great potential for creative work and collaboration with others – bringing ideas and inspiration into one place.

Consumers demand more bargains, but apparently the all year round sales have left us disenchanted with discounts. Marketing Magazine has reported that almost two-thirds of UK consumers have lost interest in the January sales – the traditional season for a bargain. The economic climate and growth of online sales demands more competition on the high street but with prices being dropped all year round, it seems retailers need to rethink their strategy. Loyalty cards have grown enormously and with technology pushing on, it’s time for something new.

Hyperlink: A link from one electronic location or file to another, typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on the screen.

Originally used to  reference, it seems we’ve got carried away with hyperlinks. Just because you could link every word to another article or its meaning in Wikipedia, doesn’t mean you should. When the purpose is to create a piece of copy or a page that engages your reader - or that encourages them to explore your site further - why then do you send them off elsewhere? If you spend the whole time being sent to other pages via hyperlinks, then you’d be forgiven for forgetting what the piece you were originally reading was all about. It’s human nature to be curious, chances are people will click on them, so make sure you know why you’re using links and what you what you want to achieve with them.

How serious and committed to the cause are the protesters at St Paul’s? If press reports are to be believed then I suspect not that committed at all. It seems that thermal imaging cameras used by the police and Daily Telegraph show that very few of the tents pitched outside St Paul’s are actually occupied at night. So rather than a full time occupation this is no more than just a day job for most as they return to the comfort of their own homes and beds at night. Present tents will soon become past tents.

We live in a competitive environment whether it is at play or at work. People need to know how to cope with disappointment gracefully and in a measured manner. How often have you heard the expression ‘he is a bad loser’? Censoring the scores of junior football team matches to protect the players from the possible embarrassment of defeat is a defeatist attitude and will do nothing to prepare them for the reality of life. Defeat can make you stronger not weaker.

Audi has launched the world’s first interactive YouTube driving video, or has it? The technology’s certainly there, following in the footsteps of videos such as the popular Tipp-Ex advert, but the idea is missing. Many are quick to jump on the latest technology bandwagon but it seems it has forgotten the basics; why is Audi doing it, who is it doing it for and what is it doing? The latter is especially relevant as the videos seems to lack purpose and for an interactive video it isn’t very engaging.

The proposal to raise the speed limit to 80 mph is being explained as an initiative to boost the economy. But I’m not convinced that economic benefit is the real reason and nor it seems is Phillip Hammond, the Transport Minister, judging by his comments during a radio interview yesterday evening. He claimed the limit was to be raised for the benefit of the economy, because modern cars are capable of being driven at higher speeds more safely, the 70 mph limit was introduced nearly 50 years ago, because as most drivers exceed the present speed limit anyway it would bring them within the law.

Which is it and is it really necessary to do so?

Is the picture of Michael Jackson a step too far? Many argue it’s upsetting and out of order, it’s certainly caused some debate in the JJ Marketing office. However the truth is it sells newspapers, there have been more horrific scenes from recent conflicts on the front pages, and there’s no rule stopping papers publishing such a photo. What it does do though is bring the question of tabloid decency into debate again. Having lost the faith of some of the British public from the phone hacking scandal, is this just another step down a slippery slope?

It seems that if you’re naming and branding a travel payment card system, it has to be a random aquatic animal name. The latest system introduced in Merseyside for local transport has been named Walrus!

They say it’s a Beatles reference but how is that related to transport? Probably just a random animal picked out of a hat. We’ve had Oyster, so next thing you know we’ll see the animals moving into other sectors - maybe Dugong telecoms, Manatee Broadband, Sea Lion Mortgages, Polar Bear Credit Cards…. Actually, they sound good, let’s pitch them!

The behaviour of David Cameron and President Sarkozy in Libya yesterday was embarrassing.

It seems that our increasing obsession with all things American has resulted in our politicians being infected by ‘trans-Atlantic tourette’s syndrome’ - tendency of premature and uncontrolled celebration (for example the George Bush claim of victory in Iraq).

I still believe that traditional British understatement wins whatever the victory.