X marks the......

Totally slept on Gil Scott-Heron, but I didn't sleep on The xx, I couldn't they were everywhere before and after the Mercury.

For fans of both 'We're New Here' dropped yesterday. 13 tracks from Gil's original album remixed by Jamie from The xx.

It's accompanied by a nice little site with a good idea: at certain locations in London you can have the album streamed to your phone.

The music has that trademark haunting feel but I'll let you make your own mind up.

http://www.werenewhere.com/

Tell me a story that will move me

How often can you say you've been truly moved. 

I'd say that feeling is pretty rare.

That's how I felt when I attended True Stories Told Live last week. I'd caught articles about it in GQ and the Observer and decided to see what all the fuss was about. It was more entertaining, more fun and more inspiring than I ever expected.

It's a simple format, five selected speakers tell you a story about an incredible experience they've had. Your trials and tribulations seem minuscule when someone describes the pain of losing friends trying to climb Everest.

Another highlight was the story of the brain surgeon who saved the boxer Michael Watson's life and met Muhammad Ali in the process. 

It takes place every month in a quaint little pub at the end of Chapel Market in Islington. Speakers are different every month so it's likely no two visits are the same. It's a hell of a way to spend a Wednesday, especially for free.

Check it out.

More fun to play the villain

Keep trying to stay in but to no avail, this is going to be decent.

Losing Control

Monday night was a pretty good Valentines day for me. A little disconcerting that there were no females involved but you can't have everything.

I got a last minute invite to be in the audience of Topman CRTL MX . Guest controller Mark Ronson and the radio 1 DJ Huw Stephens presented a TV show all about their favourite music with a handpicked selection of live acts.

I enjoyed the experience on several different levels. 

For cool brands like Topman has managed to metamorph into I truly believe producing relevant content is a strong marketing strategy.Topman have created something interesting which will resonate with the target audience, I'd happily bet money it will prove a million times more effective than any TV ad could.

Other reasons I enjoyed the show were the free booze and rediscovering Lykke Li, she's as talented as she is fine. The View were quite good unfortunately no same jeans though, The Joy Formidable were excellent perhaps 2011 will finally be their year.

You could argue Ronson is a bit of douche, but if you did I'd tell you to shut up! He's a genuinely likeable and creative individual.

The show airs on Channel 4 February 24th at 10pm check it out. 

Phygital

By now I'm betting alot of you will have seen the Honda Jazz ad on TV. What do you think?

I think it's a lovely TV ad but as a stand alone ad it doesn't compare to some of the great Honda work Wieden's have done (live action TV and Cogs to name but two)

But it's not a stand alone ad, as a lot of digital natives will have seen (I'm unsure how this has been disseminated to the wider world) there's an accompanying iPhone app where you can catch the characters as they appear on screen.

The game actually works by syncing the music in the soundtrack on your phone and is some impressive tech.

What's nice here is you can have an innocent play with the characters and there's sales/product benefit information without it being rammed down your throat.

Wieden's smashes it again.

The work is representative of a wider trend in marketing:

Phygital

Phygital is a way to connect the online and physical words to create a real experience of the product or brand values. You can see this with the Nike Chalkbot: a Twitter feed was graffitied besides Lance Armstrong via a robot and the Orange winter warmer campaign where people used Twitter and sent a van with hot chocolate and scarves to cheer up friends.

Phygital is already trademarked before you even think about.

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The Goldmine: Part 1

Anybody who's ever been to an advertising interview knows that you can't dodge the question what's your favourite ad of all time.

I've always struggled with the question. Growing up with you've been Tangoed and the amazing Nike footballs ads it was tricky, you were spoilt for choice, you actually talked about ads in the playground.  I wonder if kids do that anymore?

Even with some great ads in recent years it's still a tricky question, more specifically it's a committal question which can define who you are like; when did you lose your v plates or whats your favourite ever song.

After a couple of years in the business, much pontification and a trawl through the goldmine I think I've found my answer.

The below ad for The Guardian tells a story and gets home the product benefit in a master crafted way see video below.

The ad is awesome so other than saying I think it's beautiful and simple but effective I'll let it speak for itself.

More posts from the Goldmine soon. 

1st Thursdays

Do you love art?

Do you love free booze?

Do you often find yourself pondering what to do on a Thursday that isn't going to break the bank before a heavy weekend.

If the answer is yes to at least one of the three then why haven't you been to first Thursdays?

On the first Thursday of the month loads of galleries stay open late and some of them will even ply you with pretty decent red.

I've watched it get busier and busier over the last year or so and it's always fun.

Here's a teaser.