You know you're working in an agency when...

You get emails like this -

Dear everyone

Security have just rung – apparently there are approx 70 mini sunflowers in pocket gardens which have been delivered to us. If they are yours can you collect them?

Thanks

Dragon's Den and Paid Search

Dragon's Den is one of my favourite TV programmes. I think it's genuinely intelligent and entertaining, and while you get the occasional weak candidate on, most of the ideas that they feature are pretty strong. I really love it.

Given that it is currently the top performing programme on BBC 2, with 3.74m viewers in the week ending 10th August, why don't the companies featured use paid search?

Two cases in point.

Two weeks ago the site iFoods.tv were on. They are a video recipe channel, but their drawback, and this is why they didn't get investment, was that their company name is one letter different to the longer established iFood.tv. Yes, iFoods come up top on organic (free) search results, but why aren't they buying terms like 'video recipes'? Or iFood? No one else is buying these terms, so they would be very cheap.

In the last episode a guy was on with his invention Magic Pizza. Magic Pizza is a device you put under the middle of a pizza when you cook it, so that the middle sits higher in the oven to ensure that it's cooked right through. He got the investment - but the day after the programme was on you had to search in vain to find out any more about. All you got were links to people discussing his product on forums. So why not spend a few quid on the term 'Magic Pizza'? & why don't companies featured buy the term 'Dragon's Den'?

Adam and Joe's Song Wars - The Winner and the Runners Up

Not surprisingly the Lego one won, but check out the runners up - 5 of them are here

I can't think of any brands that have had such a high level of quality in a user generated content contest, and if anyone's looking for someone to make them a viral then this would be a good place to start looking.

As I said before, the level of quality is such a testiment to how well Adam and Joe inpired their fans.

PS - Stephen!

Handyman Know How

This is a great example of a well produced site.

Steve, who runs Handyman Know How, has collated all of the tips he knows and put them down on to one site in neatly sorted areas. Starting with the essential tools you will need, he then covers plumbing, electrics, decorating, and even fixing locks and other security devices.

So many of the sites I see have effectively borrowed ('aggegated') content from other sites, but it's great to see that this is all Steve's own work. It's the perfect place to start if you need to fix somethig nup around the house. (Must get that tap in the bathroom sorted...)

New Website for Number 10

The British government have just re-launched the Number 10 website - see it here

(& in the spirit of web 2.0 I hope they don't mind me borrowing their picture)

For governmental websites its pretty cutting edge - lots of free resources have been added, collating the relatively long standing presences in YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter into one place.

It even has a 'BETA' sign up in the top right hand side. We like!

Via David Cushman's blog

Adam and Joe's Songwars

The power of fans!

Adam and Joe, two British comedians, do a slot on their digital radio show called Songwars. Each of them writes a song to an agreed theme each week, and the listeners then vote on the best.

To promote a Songwars compilation appearing on iTunes, they announced this competition to listeners - make a video of Meatballs (Joe) or Jane's Brain (Adam), and put it up on YouTube.

It's a testiment to their popularlity that so many have been made (the prize is pretty meaningless - that's part of the joke) - and you can see many of them here.

(One of the perils of these sorts of competitions is that often very few people enter. I can think of one example - film yourself doing a silly dance and put it on YouTube - where there were less than 5 entries.)

I think my favourites are:

Meatballs



Jane's Brain



Oh - and this second Jane's Brain one, with lots of Adam & Joe in-jokes

PS - Stephen!

In with a bullet at no. 73

I've just seen the new rankings in the list of UK marketing blogs compiled from the AdAge 150, and, thanks to submitting this blog a few weeks ago, I'm at number 661 globally, equating to number 73 in the UK.

Thanks to SpinningAround for compiling the data!