Welsh parody of “Empire State of Mind” is tops

Internet, Marketing, Video, Wales, social media No Responses »
Aug 052010

This is simply THE best parody of the JayZ / Alicia Keys track “Empire State of Mind” that you’re ever likely to see. Featuring the “small Welsh town of Newport” in South Wales it is simply brilliant.

Check it out for yourself if you haven’t seen it already:

 

It’s already received around 2.3 million views on YouTube, and has elevated the starring duo to pseudo-celebrity status in their home town. It featured on all the prominent media channels in the UK, including the BBC and Sky News, and received massive coverage in the press.

This is yet another example of how well-executed digital content can reach a massive audience, cross over into “traditional” media, which in turn drives more people back online, adding to the viral effect.

Everybody say “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”!

Posted by Calvin at 11:33 Tagged with: , , ,

Call for Online Marketing Case Studies

Books, Digital Marketing, Internet, social media No Responses »
Dec 092009

Understanding Digital I’m working on a new book (a follow-up to Understanding Digital Marketing) that will be published by Kogan Page next year showcasing forty of the best digital marketing campaigns in the world.

We’re sourcing case studies from various places, and will feature a mixture of different online campaigns in the book, from award-winners to more obscure but successful campaigns from all sorts of businesses spanning a variety of industries.

We’re a bit short of time to truly crowdsource all the case studies for this edition – but we are looking for your nominations to help us identify truly exceptional examples of online marketing that we may miss through other channels.

You can use this form to submit your favourite campaign for consideration. We’ll let you know if it goes on to be featured in the book.

Thanks a million for your input.

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Posted by Calvin at 12:03 Tagged with: , , , , ,

Amazon Kindle e-reader now ships to Ireland

Books, Internet, Technology No Responses »
Dec 032009

Amazon.com is now shipping the much vaunted Kindle e-book reader to Ireland… complete with 3G wireless connectivity that lets you purchase and download new books direct from your kindle, wherever you are, and start reading it within a minute.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/turing/photos/earths-biggest-selection-450px._V251249388_.jpg

Here’s what Amazon has to say about shipping the Kindle to Ireland:

Continue reading »

Posted by Calvin at 13:50 Tagged with: , , , , ,

Innovative… but not all innocent!

Children, Digital Marketing, Evening Echo Column, Internet, Marketing, Parenting, family 2 Responses »
Nov 022009

Innocent smoothies latest campaign... innovative, but not all innocent!The girls love making up stories and writing them down. They’re forever scribbling in notebooks, on bits of paper, on the backs of envelopes… anywhere they can really. There are poems, short stories… even full-length children’s picture-books complete with accompanying illustrations, scattered all over the house. One of the twins has even set a career goal to become a writer and illustrator of children’s books when she grows up.

While it might be a bit early for that, I have to admit that some of the stories they come up with are surprisingly good, as long as you’re prepared to gloss over the spelling and grammar errors endemic to an eight-year-old’s writing. They’re entertaining, have a good balance of dialogue and narrative, compelling characters and even a workable plot. It’s fantastic to see the girls ready to engage with and explore written language at this age, but I guess making up stories is an intrinsic part of childhood, and writing those stories down is simply a natural progression of that.

For the last week or so they’ve been putting their love of stories to good use on the web, in an online competition being run by smoothie-maker, Innocent. The company has taken the classic paper and pencil game “consequences”, and adapted it for kids to play online. Traditionally the game involves writing a sentence on a piece of paper and passing it on to the next person. They then read it, and fold the paper over, hiding the original sentence before writing their own… and so on until the conclusion of the story. The web version Innocent has come up with is much simpler… and all the more ingenious for that.

Continue reading »

Posted by Calvin at 18:40 Tagged with: , , , , ,

Understanding Digital: CREATIVE

Books, Digital Marketing, Events, Internet, social media No Responses »
Oct 102009

05 November 2009, National College of Ireland, Dublin @ 4pm, €50

Speakers at the Understanding Digital: CREATIVE event

Speakers at the Understanding Digital: CREATIVE event

Disclosure: Shameless self promotion to follow ;-)

As most of you reading this probably know, last year, together with my co-author Damian Ryan, I had a book called “Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation” published.

The book is doing well… and we signed contracts with our publisher, Kogan Page, last month for a follow-up book. This one will highlight the world’s best examples of online marketing. We’re very excited about it… but more about that nearer the time.

Creative online marketing is the key to better ROI

There’s no getting around it, online marketing is the key to maximising the return on investment from your marketing spend, but to do it effectively you have to get creative. Try new things, analyse the results, experiment, and use the unique measurability of online media to inform your decisions.

Do more of what works, stop doing what doesn’t, and never stop innovating.

Get creative with your online marketing… think outside the digital box… and you’ll reap the rewards. But where do you start?

Well, you could join us at the National College of Ireland in Dublin of the evening of the 5th of November for Understanding Digital: CREATIVE. We’re bringing four of the brightest creative minds in online marketing together to share their expertise with you as part of Design Week 2009, in association with ICAD and Results International Group.

Check out the event micro-site for more details and to book your place… see you there!

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Posted by Calvin at 10:53 Tagged with: , , , , ,

Working from home with kids – Career Moves

Blog, Business, Career Moves Column, Children, Economy, Evening Echo Column, Internet, Parenting, social media No Responses »
Jul 162009
working from home

Image by gin soak via Flickr

Because this week’s column about working from home with children, was career related, I’ve posted it over on the new Career Moves blog, where you’ll find lots of other great career, jobs and recruitment related content from the Evening Echo Career Moves section and also stuff written exclusively for the blog.

Check it out, share it with your friends, and don’t forget to let me know what you think via the comments :-) ….

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Posted by Calvin at 15:37 Tagged with: , , , ,

Ireland’s wildlife page on Facebook

Animals, Internet, Web, Wildlife, social media No Responses »
Jul 102009

Ireland's Wildlife Facebook page, onlne Irish wildlife and nature resource If you’re on Facebook, check out my new page on Ireland’s Wildlife – and pass it on to all your friends. The page, and the twitter account on @wildireland, are the first steps in building an online community of wildlife enthusiasts in Ireland.

As time (and budget) allows I’m also working on an Ireland’s Wildlife website, sort of an online “hub” for all things wild in Ireland – a jumping off point, if you like, for Irish wildlife information, resources, links and discussion.

Wanted: wildlife content!

Core to the site will be the 200 or so species profiles I’ve written for the back page of Ireland’s Own over the years. I’m also on the look-out for potential regular contributors to the new site – so if you have relevant interests or expertise in any aspect of Irish wildlife and would like to volunteer your services / allow use of your content then please leave a note in the comments below, or drop me a line.

You can stay tuned here for updates by subscribing to the RSS Feed, become a fan of Ireland’s Wildlife on Facebook and/or follow Ireland’s Wildlife on Twitter.

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Posted by Calvin at 12:29 Tagged with: , , , , ,

Good Luck to the Blog Awards finalists

Blog, Events, Internet No Responses »
Feb 172009
Irish Blog awards longlistThe finalists of the Irish Blog Awards have been announced!

Unfortunately neither this blog nor the SOHO Solo West Cork blog made the cut — but I can’t say I’m surprised. The shortlisted blogs are superb, and I’ve been neglecting mine a bit of late. I was plenty stoked just to make it to the long-list :-) .

Anyway, this is just a quick post to congratulate all those who made it through, and to wish them all the very best on Saturday night in Cork.

If you haven’t already, check out the blogs that made the cut… they’re well worth a look.

Posted by Calvin at 16:04 Tagged with: , , ,

Why should I feel guilty for not blogging?

Blog, Christmas, Internet, Rant, Technology, Time management, social media 3 Responses »
Jan 232009
Merry Christmas Happy New Year

Image by kajvin via Flickr

I was reflecting recently on the Christmas and New Year break.

Over the holidays I took some time off, like lots of people, but as well as taking time off work, I also found myself paying little attention to the various blogs I look after (this one included). Family, friends, children and the like took precedence… which is only right and proper.

So why did I find myself feeling guilty for not blogging?

As I pondered this question I had to ask whether a line been crossed somewhere in my subconscious. When had blogging taken on such a level of gravity in my life. How could I possibly feel even the tiniest twinge of guilt for choosing to spend time with my family instead of posting stuff online?

It’s a fine line… and while it’s obviously important to keep a steady stream of content flowing on the blog(s) there are many, many things in life that are far more important.

Sometimes I look at the flood of posts from prolific Irish bloggers like Damien Mulley, Alexia Golez, and others in my feed reader and despair. Between work, family and other commitments I don’t have time to read all this stuff, let alone write my own.

But then I realised that it doesn’t really matter… not in the grand scheme of things. Different people have different priorities, are at different stages in their lives and are blogging under vastly different circumstances. A missed post here, a sparse week there… so what!

I enjoy writing the blog – that’s why I do it – but feeling guilty for not posting isn’t an acceptable part of the equation.

I purposely didn’t make a new year’s resolution this year… but in hindsight I think I probably will take up a belated one: I WILL NOT FEEL GUILTY FOR NOT BLOGGING!

In 2009 I’ll post here and elsewhere when I can, when I want to and as time allows… without any guilt, remorse or regret for failing to maintaining a punishing posting schedule.

What about you?

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Posted by Calvin at 11:09 Tagged with: , ,

Too much internet is bad for your health!

Computing, Internet, Rant, Technology, Uncategorized, Web, social media 2 Responses »
Jan 102009
Internet Addict
Image by husin.sani via Flickr

Always on internet should come with a Government Health Warning.

No, seriously, it should!

I’m sitting here at daft o’ clock in the morning writing this blog post wondering where the time went to.

My wife is away for a couple of nights, the kids went to bed almost eight hours ago and are sound asleep, and I should be too… but I’m not.

Why? Because we have always on internet, that’s why. I’m not going to call it broadband… because to do so would give it delusions of grandeur, but it is, demonstrably, always on.

And that means I’m always on. On the laptop, on the netbook, on the WiFi enabled mobile.

…must sleep. Kids will wake up early regardless and I won’t be able to cope if I don’t get four or five hours in. Will finish up tomorrow :-)

Right… morning all!

Woken up at 7:30 by the little one. Don’t even want to reflect on how little sleep I’ve actually had. Looks like I’m running on caffeine today folks!

Now… where was I… oh yes, always on internet.

It’s like heroin… only worse, because while getting your fix online might make you look a bit geeky, it doesn’t have the same stigma attached to it as hard narcotics. At least not yet. But it is addictive, and if it’s suddenly taken away you do go into a kind of withdrawal.

But wait, you cry, while it might be an insidious habit, unlike a drug addiction it won’t lead you down a spiral of deceit and criminal activity to get your next virtual-hit, will it? I’m not so sure. Hands up how many people out there have casually hooked up to a conveniently unsecured wireless network “just to check e-mail”, or a profile page, or twitter or whatever?

It’s a slippery slope.

So, I’m thinking of starting a new group — perhaps on facebook (lol) — welcome to Internet Addicts Anonymous (IAA). To kick things off, I’ll go first:

My name is Calvin Jones and I’m a always-on-internet-oholic.

Admitting it is the hardest part — go on, try it for yourself in the comments below, it’s cathartic. I feel better already :-) .

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Posted by Calvin at 3:21 Tagged with: , , ,
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