This week’s infographic is a little different from normal as Inception Explained is a web based infographic designed by Matt Dempsey that aims to explain the plot of the 2010 film Inception.
We’ve included some screen grabs of the infographic below but to fully enjoy it, click on the above hyperlink.
A weekly roundup of talking points, sans effort
Worth the paper it’s printed on?
Last week there were…
…137 articles on the marriage of Zara Phillips to rugby star Mike Tindall, but just 7 on the death of Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, a BBC journalist killed by insurgents in Afghanistan…
… 7 stories appeared on L’Oreal’s airbrushing of adverts featuring prominent celebrities like Julia Roberts, and the subsequent withdrawal of said commercials, while Poland’s Defence Minister resigned following a report into the fatal air crash that killed President Kaczynski and only 3 pieces ran…
… and finally David Beckham launched an underwear range and 14 articles were published, but an Iranian nuclear scientist was shot dead in Tehran and no more than 5 stories appeared.
(Source: Journalisted)
Weekly high:
Next month Andre Ovredal’s much hyped monster movie Troll Hunter arrives. As the build up grows Momentum Pictures, the folks behind the film’s UK cinema push, posted this advert on The Guardian job pages, apparently looking for Troll Hunters in the London area. Yes, there is a link to the official website. No, there’s no company Land Rover.
Weekly low:
Blackburn Rovers may have fallen from prominence since they lifted the Premiership title back in the glory days of Shearer and Sutton. Unfortunately this rather painful advert for the club’s new owner, Indian chicken specialist Vengy’s, will only help thrust them back into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Half time meat snack, anyone?
Battle of the Tweets: Manchester vs London vs New Delhi
Top Manchester #tags (seven days to 4/8/2011)
#mufc #f1
#mcfc #bbcf1
#stayonyourfeet #reasonstobeatyourgirlfriend
#dragonsden #manchester
#key103live #wembley
Unsurprisingly football is making a big impression on Manchester’s Tweeting types, what with the season kicking off imminently, though not before United take on City in this Saturday’s Charity Shield at #wembley. Dragon’s Den is back on the BBC too, which while being a popular series in most localities means something more here as it’s filmed in town.
One to watch: ukmarketinghelp (UK Marketing Help – Marketing Trainers & Experts; 11,264 followers / 5,930 updates)
Top London #tags (seven days to 4/8/2011)
#dearyoungself #thereisalwaysonperson
#omgsoepic #mufc
#dragonsden #f1
#ose #eastenders
Londoners had decidedly less to write home about compared with their northern counterparts when the Premier League called time in May. Despite every team in the capital finishing up empty handed though this weekend’s charitable match up is still a talking point for anyone partial to the sport. Apart from that various ‘comedy conversations’ are trending, we’ll leave it at that.
One to watch: grattongirl (Sarah-Jayne Gratton – TV presenter, producer, author; 62,438 followers / 37,956 updates)
Top New Delhi #tags (seven days to 4/8/2011)
#funnyfacts #truetweet
#nollywoodhastaughtem #saveit
#cricket #dearyoungself
#trentbridge #slutwalk
#indvseng #funnyfac
#arsenal
One major contest the UK has overlooked in its 140 character bursts is England and India’s test match which continues to entertain. There’s also a #slutwalk taking place this weekend designed to change attitudes towards the country’s women who are increasingly subject to prejudice and bigotry based on what they wear, just in case another tag caught your eye.
One to watch: fakingnews (Faking News – English language Indian news satire website; 42,542 followers / 8,026 updates)
That was The Blagger’s Blog, a selection of statements, statistics and noteworthy newsies from across the media and social world, amalgamated, allowing the time-starved professional to start a conversation from thin air.
If there is a success story, blunder, or tweeting town you’d like to see included email hello@smokinggunpr.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!
Smartphones offer so many time saving features trying to find the most useful can be overwhelming. Thankfully you don’t have to, just look at this list instead.
comscore reported that uptake of ‘advanced handsets’ in Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy increased by 41 per cent in the year up to September 2010. According to ComTech 2.5 per cent of all UK mobile users now switch to an all singing, all dancing model each and every month.
Plenty of people use them then. And with that in mind we thought it might be useful to run through some of the best applications available to people in similar professions to ourselves. And yes, we are aware that, contrary to what iPhone devotees may argue, Android OS is the UK’s most popular platform, while BlackBerry is the country’s favourite manufacturer, so we’ve taken a pluralistic stance and included all three of the main brands. Happy downloading.
Google Analytics – iPhone / BlackBerry
Google’s free web analyses are becoming the basic life blood of new media. Here you get to see how much internet traffic you receive, analyse the most popular content, or assess the value of a target publication on the go and we couldn’t imagine life without it, depressing as that may sound.
Mashable.com – iPhone
This app from one of our favourite media sites on the internet works in a similar way to The Guardian’s mobile package. Browse and save stories for later, share via email, Twitter, and Facebook, and, perhaps best of all, there’s even an internal browser to view content on external links without quitting the program.
Google+ – iPhone
The fastest growing social network of all time now has a dedicated app for Apple’s ever popular mobile, putting the burgeoning community at your fingertips, almost anywhere. Create and manage Circles of friends, automatically upload mobile media, and engage in group chats via a Huddle.
Dropbox – Android / iPhone / BlackBerry
Dropbox is one of the fastest and most reliable ways to file share across computers without establishing a proper network first. Now this download places all of those documents in your pocket. We’ve been fans since setting up the company, so let us know if you want an invite sending.
Evernote – Android / iPhone / BlackBerry
With so many sources of inspiration and information how do you keep track of all you see, hear, read and do? Evernote’s mobile software lets you make notes and create notebooks, tag webpages, share content on Facebook and other smartphone apps, and even file geographically, which is all very clever indeed.
They say there’s nothing better than fresh thinking when it comes to marketing and public relations. That is, of course, very true, but when the familiar is used to create something new it’s equally impressive.
In art re-appropriation is the act of taking an icon and giving it new meanings. Arguably examples include Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, wherein throwaway consumer items became priceless, and Greenpeace’s latest environmentalist onslaught, an international campaign that currently stands amongst the most daring we’ve seen in some time.
Rightly grabbing the social media and industry headlines, the charity targeted Volkswagen in response to the car manufacturer’s public persona as a ‘family brand’. Protesters hung banners over billboards in central London, while a video has gone viral, both of which use imagery symbolic of the company’s well received TV adverts featuring a child dressed as Darth Vader. In keeping with the Star Wars theme people are prompted to log onto
VW: The Dark Side and sign up to a petition.
As Marketing Week reported on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Greenpeace pointed to VW’s opposition to environmental laws as the catalyst for the attack, while the company’s representative said the automobile brand was shocked, and committed to cutting emissions. Whether an overreaction or just comment there’s not a chance people will forget this for some time, making it job well done for those responsible. Here’s the video.
The North West has always boasted a staggering level of creative output. Whether you’re talking about the region’s much-loved and lauded bands, designers like Peter Saville, or the wealth of high-profile creative agencies that have a registered address in the area.
On Mount Street we’re proud of where we do business, and that goes further than hitting repeat on The Stone Roses while we ponder our latest innovative solution to a company’s digital PR, social media, or comprehensive public relations quandary. In fact, we’d go so far as to say we take great pleasure in learning about any work being undertaken by our peers, and not least when there’s a direct link to projects in the Smoking Gun portfolio.
Sportswear manufacturer Burrda is a familiar face round these parts, we’ve been working with them for some time now and the partnership has been happy. So let’s hope Wolverhampton Wanderers, the Premiership club that wears a kit made by our own athletic clothes brand, find the same when reaping the fruits of a new deal with Salford design house Raw. Given the fact said agency has delivered on cutting edge aesthetic contracts for the likes of Liverpool FC and the F.A. we’re pretty sure they will.
This got us thinking about the sector, and region, as a whole. According to Creative Choices there are over 4,500 creative businesses based in the North West. On top of that there are a further 5,650 freelancers working in anything from advertising to cultural heritage and the arts. But when you live in a globalised world local doesn’t necessarily mean the same county, which is good because the national statistics prove even more staggering. Circa 1997 the industry in Britain had a GVA of £31.2bn, which, by 2006, had leapt to an even more impressive £57bn.
OK, so that’s pre-recession. However, look at the figures for 2008, a year wherein creativity accounted for 4.1 per cent of all exported goods and services. Also consider that NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) predicted the sector would grow by 4% between 2009 and 2013, more than double the rate of any other industry. That means in two years we could be looking, awestruck no doubt, at an area that adds some £85bn to the UK economy, and employs more people than the financial services. Whichever way you look at it then, if you’re searching for PR, marketing, digital production, design, or any other eye-catching solutions then this is the right country. And with one of the highest concentrations of creative business in Europe, the North West is a key talent pool to dip into.
The cultural industries quarter's own man on the door
Now Manchester is renowned for it’s own fashion sense and the Northern Quarter is the spiritual home of the city’s creative types. We are pleased to acknowledge this fantastic mural, the cultural quarter’s very own door picker perhaps? Just check out that tache. Quality.
Perhaps we should name him. Anyone got any suggestions?
Nothing can help ease the pain of queuing at the Ikea tills like a little piece of humour. This battery POS certainly hit the spot and was teed up nicely when an innocent girl asked her daddy where the cute rabbits live!
