A lazy gradult recycles.

Which one's for the blog posts on arbitrary topics?

Back in my student days I produced a 10,000 word dissertation on recycling. I don't know who should be applauded more, my tutor for having to feign interest in said 10,000 words or myself for writing them, given my very chequered history with the topic in question. As a gradult of advancing years I'm resolved to change. I'm starting to see how recycling is a key part of our stewardship. You see I thought it was all boring stuff like separating plastics and glass, when it just doesn't have to be like that. Here's an article I wrote for someone else, recycled for your pleasure. I'm just a gradult saving the Earth one lazy post at a time.

Is it me....or should online videos be more entertaining?

The advertising budgets of the big companies these days are comparable to the GDP’s of many an East African nation. With so much cash being spent on bright young advertising gurus, it’s no surprise we’re bombarded with streams of forward thinking campaigns. Logos are honed to an inch of their life, press ads bristle with narrative and if a little longer, some of the TV commercials out there would surely be in with a chance at Cannes Film Festival. So what is it about online video that makes companies down their tools and turn straight back to the dark ages?

There used to be a time when the online sphere was TV’s ugly cousin. All pop ups and banners. Well, the times they are a changing. For many, the internet is now their TV – and their TV is now their internet. The quality of the programmes they watch online doesn’t change, so why should the quality of brand communication?

Even the biggest are guilty of it. We’re treated to Microsoft advertising campaigns every evening on television. Sanctimonious? Perhaps. Smug? Definitely. But at the same time, they are professional, sleek and obviously expensive. Why then, when I recently purchased a PC was the Windows 7 online video guide fronted by a man with a badly dubbed voice and an ill fitted wig? And why was he treating me like a naughty schoolboy?

This is Microsoft. These guys have cash. But it’s not about the money, it’s about the mindset. It seems most companies are yet to catch onto these changing consumer expectations. They don’t seem to realise that they need to work hard to earn our attention online, just as they do offline. They are competing with Twitter, with Facebook and all manner of other time wasting opportunities. If the consumer is going to give a company their valuable time instead of going elsewhere, they need to be rewarded. They need to be entertained.