mikeobrienartist

Is this a paint brush I see before me?

2011-07-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

It has been so long since I picked up a brush and put my heart and soul into a painting. That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it. Far from it: I still wake up most mornings reaching for one of my many notebooks. I have a collection of stuffed folios and pads that goes back 20+ years. I am sure most of my good stuff is in there just waiting for my psychologist daughter to go rooting around when I have returned, in kind, to that great big metaphysical canvas know as the Universe. We are here for so little time that we find ourselves distracted from the thing we love by the need to earn a living. Star Trek has it right: you can't explore the infinite when you are stuck in the here and now of everyday existence. Time, then, to pick up my brush again and go boldly where I have been before and long to be again. A blank canvas; a brush (or 40); a shelf full of acrylic paint and only the vaguest of ideas where the first line will take me. To all those who dare to call themselves "Artist" I offer my thanks for making the Universe a better place.

2010-09-24T03:09:00.001-07:00

It's been a while. I've been taking a long hard look at the various strands of my creative life and trying to put some order into the chaos. I've tried everything including having no system at all and just dealing with whatever comes most urgently to my attention. After all, John Lennon once mused that "Life is what happens while you're doing something else." I have come to the conclusion that the Buddhists have it right: "Life is what you choose to pay attention to." To that end, I have sorted out a system that allows to me to keep track of everything from my lecturing, art, framing and consulting businesses via a combination of daily mind maps working on conjunction with Omnifocus. I can capture all the information, process and act upon it without having to keep all of it in my head. I have cleared out the desk clutter, in-tray stockpiles and email backlogs. Sorted all the project files into folders and archived everything that isn't required for front of mind actions. In short, I have created peace of mind amid the whirlwind of immediate actions, mid-term projects and long term fantasies. My whole life is ordered into 3 main folders: Now. Next and Nuts. Each has subsections for the four working and one personal contexts. Fingers crossed. What Now?...Billing. What Next?...new business in Poland. What Nuts? I'm not ready to tell!

Maidenhead Art on the Street

2010-05-18T04:08:00.001-07:00

Art on the Street was brilliant. A whole two days of mixing with over 1oo other artists from the surrounding area and as far afield as Amsterdam and Australia. Blazing sunshine on day one and constant rain on day two. All the while, the company of some amazingly talented artists and hundreds of people who took time out of shopping trips and Cup Final TV to talk art and business. Can't wait for the next one. My thanks to the amazing ladies from Boville Wright Art shop for organising such a great event.

Some places you never forget

2010-04-14T02:38:00.000-07:00

This is my impression of Ballydwan Cove in Ireland. You reach the single beach via a rock-strewn gap in the cliff face and can find yourself trapped between the crumbling rockface and the pounding waves. The whole bay is a horseshoe amphitheatre for sound and movement. Some days the fog stays trapped on the shingle and you can't see anything but the innermost waves. On other days, the sun flays through the fog to reveal the hitherto latent white horses that ceaselessly race each other across the rough and tumble wave tops. Your eyes and ears have nowhere to rest. You cannot escape the feeling of energy all about you. It is palpable, visceral and always intimidating. Now you understand how the gap in the towering cliffs was made: the sun and the sea are simply irresistible. They work without pause for breath, wielding cosmic and global forces we can't even begin to comprehend. If I painted here all day and night for the rest of my life, it would never be the same from one moment to the next. Such is the power of Ballydwan Cove.

There's no place like home

2010-03-30T02:57:00.001-07:00

While heading off into London to exhibit my work to a wider audience makes sense from a financial perspective, putting your art out into the local community helps you feel part of something bigger: raising the creative and cultural profile of Maidenhead, the place I call home. So many of us living in Maidenhead, for obvious reasons, are so focused on London as the place where we work and play that we forget about what is on our own doorstep. The Norden Farm Centre for the Arts is a place where we artists, of all kinds, get to show our work while others get a chance to play and be amazed, amused and entertained. Take a look at the what's on section of their website and you will see the most extraordinary collection of live shows, films, classes, workshops and exhibitions. Who knows, you might even get to see my latest work in there soon. If you live in the Maidenhead area, check out the website http://nordenfarm.org

Boscastle: the forces of nature at work

2010-03-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

I went to Boscastle in Cornwall and was astonished at the tidal range in the harbour. The quay wall must be 100 feet and parts of it are submerged at high tide and the seabed is completely uncovered at low tide. No wonder Turner loved to paint ships fighting to get into safe harbour. Even the mouth of the cove is a switchback cut between two towering walls of granite. I visited the harbour at different times of the day to catch the changing atmosphere. I was lucky enough to see an approaching storm sweeping in across the sea. I was thinking it will find it just as hard as the ships to fight its way into the harbour. Boscastle has always been more at risk from the rivers that flood in from behind than the sea. It is as if it is the front line in a struggle between the sea and the land with both wanting to claim the village as its own. It is a place of extraordinary energy. I'll be going back soon to tap into the atmosphere.

It still has the power to generate energy

2010-03-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

You can't drive down the embankment in Chelsea without wondering what will become/what should be done with the ruins of Battersea Power Station. My family connection with this landmark building goes back decades. Its abandonment has blighted one of the most dynamic skylines in London. In my panting, I have tried to show how this building has always made people take notice of it, think about it and either love it or hate it. I wanted to capture it's sense of history, its' nowness and it's future all in one go. It has always generated energy in the form of: electricity, debate, ideas, plans, and now... hope. I hope that all of these energies are there in every brushstroke. I hope some of what's on show at http://www.battersea-powerstation.com will keep the energy flowing.

Immortality in Venice

2010-03-26T03:22:00.001-07:00

Hot on the brushstrokes of George and countless other artists, I tried to convey the sense of constantly evolving history passing through, in and around L'Accademia in Venice. I can't imagine how many waves have washed against its imperious foundations, how often the sun has baked each ornately crafted inch of block and plasterwork, how many footsteps have echoed around the marbled floors, how many fortunate souls have rested against the smoothed handrail and sighed at the sight of the Grand Canal flowing by and hoped, just for second, that they could be a part of this building of form that goes way beyond function. While I was painting, I was haunted by the idea that whoever built this work of art knew that one day I would arrive and that through painting the building would understand how precious and intertwined life and art must be to make a lasting impression. In the time allowed, I need to put all I have ever been, am and will be into every brushstroke. There are tens of thousands in this painting.

Geroge Devlin in Venice

2010-03-25T03:30:00.001-07:00

You have got to go there some time in your life. Venice is simply the most fantastic city on the planet. It is an idea that overloads your senses from the moment you exit the train station and enter a kind of Waterworld that even Disney couldn't have dreamed up. A place where all the normal hectic hustle and bustle of a busy city is carried out on roads made of water, which sweep and wash past the most seductive backdrop of buildings ever assembled by man. This painting by George Devlin captures that happy, seductive collage of architecture, water and atmosphere that makes me ache for another visit every time I think of it. In the meantime, I can look at George's painting and know that someone else was equally moved by the way Venice is a celebration of our ability as human beings to make the impossible possible and that if we pay very careful attention, if we look with the mindful intensity of an true artist, we can capture the essence on canvas, take it home and allow other people to share in the moment. You can see more of George's wonderful work on http://www.georgedevlin.com

Robert E Wells

2010-03-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

This is the work of an Artist whose work reminds me of my younger days in London. You can feel the location and, in particular, the weather, in every brushstroke. You can see more of his work here: http://robertewells.com/index.html

Run for your Life

2010-03-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

This meter square painting focuses on the fact that runners are moving through and exchanging energy with matter all around them. Every exposed surface of the body is in contact with the atomic mass of the air, the road and the clothes they wear. Particulates that come into the body via the lungs, end up all over the body. Parts of the body are shed from the skin and are left trailing in our wake. There is give and take in every stride. Even our thoughts that tell us to push harder, run even faster or simply to keep going are exchanged with the universe at the quantum level. This painting explores the sensation a runner feels as they break through the wall. An imaginary energy barrier that brings a breakthrough burst of energy that makes a runner feel as though they could keep on going forever.

Maidenhead Art Market

2010-03-22T05:39:00.001-07:00

Art on the Street has been put together by five friends
who wanted to generate a fantastic buzz about locally produced art and give artists a unique platform to sell their work commission-free in Maidenhead High Street. Thanks to these five amazing champions of grass roots art, you will find me on stand 70.

A change of seanery

2010-03-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

This once was a seascape I gave a present to my daughter Laura and her husband Neil. I asked for it back and reworked it into the present form. The old painting simply wasn't good enough. This one is. It is better because I have moved on from being a painter to being an artist. An artist is someone who has the technical ability to go with the his or her ideas. An artist is someone who doesn't dabble but works at art 24 hours a day. An artist is someone who doesn't accept good enough as good enough. An artist is someone who doesn't hesitate to call themselves an artist when asked for a job description. This painting is the work of an artist. It is made of thought and paint and canvas and heart and soul and love for my Laura and her Neil.

Upon Waking

2010-03-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

Somewhere between sleep and first waking thoughts and ideas come calling. Amorphous and tinged with latent narrative, they hint of other worlds, other lives, other times. By the first spoonful of cereal, the first gurgle of toothpaste, the first overture of birdsong, the first clang of the letter box, they are long gone. Tomorrow, keep your eyes closed, pay attention to the live feed from your subconscious and let the show begin and build and take you to places that only ever exist for the briefest of moments and are gone forever. I did, this morning and this is what I experienced.

2010-03-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

I used to run for fun. There was something about being able to keep going when everyone else around you was out off puff. This painting captures that feeling of the seemingly endless energy that was part and parcel of being young and computer games not having been invented.

Don't argue with the Universe

2010-03-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

While most paintings begin with a voice inside your head saying, "Do this," this one began with the hand and the brush doing all the talking. Who am I to question their motives, inspiration and actions. They might be less overloaded by the 11 billion bytes of information entering the mind every second. They might just be tuning into something more fundamental than the rights and wrongs constructed by personal experience of shifting cultural values in a world gone bonkers. Maybe they know where the fun is hidden in not knowing where it will all end. Whatever, the post-rationalisation about enigmatic energy flow and the unlimited potentiality that exists in the Universe, it's lovely just to let go now and then.

It's Battersea but not as we know it Jim

2010-03-12T03:48:00.000-08:00

Can't seem to stop painting new version of the Power Station that has loomed so large over parts of my life. Dad's demolition company took out the generators (he advised against it, due to the weight acting as a counter-balance to the stacks) but they ripped the guts out of the co-joined stations and, well, it's been buggered every since. It's one of those love it or hate it landmarks, but I am always drwan to it. Dad worked their covered in asbestos (it was used around the generators. The effect was to leave permanent scar damage in the plural lining of his lungs. I look at it and I think of him and all the moments of his life spent in and around the bricks that are still standing tall against the development all around. It is still a power station, but now it powers my imagination.

Don't let them in the next life have all the fun

2010-03-11T08:27:00.001-08:00

Meet my latest painting. A couple embracing. They may be lying still but the air is riven with the aftermath of spent energy and bodies tingling with the release of sufficient energy to create a new life or simply put this one into a positive perspective. One day, all days, not just fleeting moments, will be like this.

Up and and away

2010-03-11T07:46:00.000-08:00

This is Laura, my wonderful eldest daughter and so much more. Painting her portrait has been a labour of love. The madness of the hair is due to the number of times she has changed the colour. The background is inspired by her frenetic life full of dancing (at the Royal School of Ballet) and acting in plays that always seemed to require a wild a crazy girl and a dress sense that is amazingly creative and all her own. My love for her is there in every brush stroke.

I found my namesake hero Mike O'Brien

2009-09-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

Those were the days. My Foster's drinking Australian namesake and distant relative, Mike O'Brien, gets a helping 'hand' from a copper and his helmet to make headlines. Incidentaly, the Policeman's helmet was auctioned off for charity in 2000. In the meantime, having tried to follow in Mike's naked footsteps (at a party in Brixton - sadly no photograpgs exist), I have gone on to become creative director, lecturer and artist, Mike has put his clothes back on and become a successful stockbroker.

At the IDM

2009-09-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

Running a 3 day course as Lead Tutor on the IDM Certificate in Digital Marketing.

New Portrait Commission

2009-09-01T02:49:00.000-07:00

The film director, Jasmin Tempest, has commissioned a portrait for her new country house. Work starts today with a research session to create a context for the final work. Jasmin's latest project was Macbeth's Disciple, http://www.spearean.co.uk/ a film she shot with a cast of the great, the good and the next big thing from RADA

Can't get Venice out of my head

2009-07-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

Next in the landscape department is this painting of the Academy in Venice. The outline is done and I can't wait to get painting. To get me in the mood, I will be thinking about my visit last year. It is the most amazing city I have ever visited. I hope I can do it justice.

Work in Progress

2009-07-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

This haunting picture of Laura is next on the list of paintings I will be working on this Summer. The outlines is up on the canvas and I will soon be getting into the job of painting. The idea is that I am going to work on it in Black and White in the style of the old masters who worked figures up in gray before getting into skin tones. Fingers crossed.

Bridge

2009-07-23T03:18:00.000-07:00

Just a little bridge in the middle of nowhere connecting two sides of a gently flowing river busy doing nothing but reflecting the sun and capturing my imagination with regards to all those before me and after me who will take a moment to admire the love someone put into making something that offers form way beyond function.

Ron

2009-07-23T03:15:00.000-07:00

He may be in his 80s but he still acts, sings, wines, dines, reads in French and English, loves business, physics and walking for hours on end in good company. A lesson to us all. A work in progress.

Harbour

2009-07-22T05:27:00.000-07:00

At first glance, these deep see fishing trawlers were sitting at rest, but when you watched them for a while you notice they never, ever stop moving on the restless tide.

Sunflower 2

2009-07-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

The Sun makes everything possible. Even the glass, feathers and paint this work is made from.

Lily

2009-07-22T05:22:00.000-07:00

I once went to see Monet's water lilys at L'Orangerie in Paris. It was closed for the first time in 50 years. I went again. It was open. I had to respond in kind.

Music 2

2009-07-22T05:21:00.001-07:00

Same MO. Different result.

Music 3

2009-07-22T05:21:00.000-07:00

Different song.

Music 1

2009-07-22T05:19:00.000-07:00

I love composing and I love painting. This is what happens when you try to do both at the same time.

Portal

2009-07-22T05:14:00.000-07:00

I have seen how light the body seems in death. Something more than the air in our lungs goes missing. I don't know what it is. I don't know where it goes. I'll let you know if I suss it out.

B4 of 4

2009-07-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Everybody benefits

B3 of 4

2009-07-22T05:10:00.001-07:00

The Bees get in on the act

B2 of 4

2009-07-22T05:10:00.000-07:00

The Flowers soak it up

B1 OF 4

2009-07-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

The Sun shines down

The window

2009-07-22T04:57:00.000-07:00

Ever seen an eye as the Pupil expands and the Iris contracts in response to light? Two muscles that reduce or increase the amount of light entering the eye. That light is converted into electrical impulses, our brain interprets our vision of the world. Go look into the eyes of someone you love and take a look into the place where they create their vision of you. What do you see?

That Day

2009-07-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

Just a single, solitary house on a vast headland in Wales. You wouldn't be allowed to build it now. It speaks to a time before the car when it enjoyed complete isolation form the world. A place where you could watch the waves and listen to the gulls for days on end and never see a single soul save for the opportunity to get a glimpse of your own.

Mel

2009-07-22T04:44:00.000-07:00

Caught in the act. She, who like us all, will play many roles in her life. But she, unlike most of us, will get paid by the West End for hers. My wonderful daughter Mel, Ophelia, Juliet, Bessie, Peggy, Arkadnia, Lady Macbeth, Lady Bracknell, Vivian, Meg.... etc, etc

Tree/branches/lungs

2009-07-22T04:40:00.000-07:00

Don't the bankers get it? The most valuable thing in life is breathing. What the trees give off keeps us alive. Nothing in your deepest, darkest offshore accounts and vaults is anywhere near as valuable.

Found it

2009-07-22T04:36:00.000-07:00

They've spent billions looking for the Higgs Boson particle in Cern. I got there first.

Seed

2009-07-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

When you think about the extraordinary microscopic details of the actual moment of creation. It's a miracle each and every one of us is here.

Dragonfly

2009-07-22T04:28:00.000-07:00

They were here before us and chances are they will be here long after we have been and gone.

Michael

2009-07-22T04:16:00.000-07:00

He was the strong, silent type not given to sensationalism, hyperbole or bullshit. Words of wisdom, it seems, take time in the making, seconds in delivery and last a lifetime in impact. My Father.

Power Station

2009-07-22T04:12:00.000-07:00

My Father told them not to take the middle part of the station out. They didn't listen and the chimneys started to move outwards to the point where it has cost millions just to hold the structure together. The asbestos has gone and so has my Father but the energy trail they left lives on.

Here comes the sun

2009-07-22T04:07:00.000-07:00

It showers our planet with energy. That energy drives everything we taste, smell, touch, hear, see, think and feel. How little we appreciate the things that have value beyond measure.

May you never be too old to play

2009-07-22T04:03:00.000-07:00

When we were young, everything seemed more intense, more interesting. The days were longer because we lived in the moment. It pays to be mindful. There is no past. There is no future. There is only now.

The Celestine Prophecy

2009-07-22T03:59:00.000-07:00

The book made me think about the quantum exchanges that take place in every intimate act. There is enough energy stored in the human body to create an atomic explosion. Mind how you go.

Meet the real me

2009-07-22T03:55:00.000-07:00

JF took one look at this self portrait and said, "You need help." He might be right.

I'm telling your Mum

2009-07-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

That lazy git Todger, if he isn’t sleeping, he’s, well he’s... sleeping. We had a meeting at the Flabby Road studios to discuss the Comfortably Dumb tour sponsorship deal. We get some free studio time; they get an inflatable banner with the word “Flabby” on it.Seems fair. Anyway, we left the negotiating to Todger, him being the mathematician of the outfit. He only failed his math’s O Level, the rest of us got “Unclassified.” Right in the middle of his pitch, he nods off. He only woke up when his head hit the table. When he sat up with the remains of a jam doughnut glued to his hooter, we knew the deal was off! We took Todger home to his Mum’s. She tells us he’s got something called Narcolepsy. He can nod off at any moment. Just then, we hear a crash coming from the driveway: Todger has kipped off while parking the van and taken out the postman on his bike and hit the garage door. “I told him to lookout,” said the postman from under the van. “He’s got Narcolepsy,” said Togger’s Mum. “Yeah, and he’s deaf,” said Dick, “It’s like in that film: Double indignity.” Just then Todger comes round and stagers out from behind the wheel. He starts shouting at the postman and then Rick starts doing all this Bruce Lee stuff. The postman thinks he’s in for a kicking. “Don’t mind him,” says Dan, “It’s just the epilepsy.” “Bloody Hell, I say, “It’s like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” “No. It’s not,” says Todger’s Mum. “It’s worse. Much worse. I’ve seen them at a gig when only Dick was left pounding on his organ.” Dick starts to say something crude but I throw a fist full of letters at him. “That’s illegal,” shouts the postman who threatens to call the police before he notices Dan, dressed in his Roy Rogers outfit, going for his six-shooter. Todger starts whistling the theme tune from Fist Full of Dollars. “Go ahead, make my day,” says Dan, metamorphosing his characters and confusing the hell out of the postman. The postman’s eyebrows furrow. The sound of gunfire fills the air. Everyone dives for cover. The smoke clears to the sight of the postman running down the street while Dick, Todger, Rick and Dan are being attacked by Todger’s Mum with a broom. A few days in and I am wondering if it’s time to leave the band before I end with a Jack Nicholson-style lobotomy. Whatever next?

Rehearse this

2009-07-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

Are these guys serious or what? They want rehearsals in fancy dress! I had to drag my gear out of the car in broad daylight dressed as Nelson. That twat of a keyboard player, Dick Sleight (of hand), kept shouting, “Kiss me Hard-on,” right in the middle of Us and Them. If he does it during the gig, I’ll give him Dark Side of the Moon straight in the kisser. During lunch we discussed names for the band over a curry. I suggested Pillar of Wind on account of it being a Pink Floyd track and the smell emanating from the general direction of Rick Monsoon, the bummer (sorry drummer). By the time Todger Voters(local politician), the bass player, is throwing up in the bog, “It’s vindaloo in the loo time,” shouts Dick, we have decided on Comfortably Dumb as the name. They think it a fitting tribute to one of the great Floyd tracks. I prefer to think of it in terms of the other guitarist, Dan Glamour, who keeps noodling all over my vocals with that multi-million watt amp stack of his. I offer to re-arrange his peddle effects cables. He offers to re-arrange my features. In the interests of band politics, I offer to drink him under the table in the boozer. We end up pissed and comfortably numb and dumb in the pub with all our gear locked in the rehearsal room overnight. That is until Todger hits on the fun idea of breaking in through the skylight. It was going well until he fell through the bloody thing and ended up in the jewelers next door. Burglar alarm. Police. Meat wagon. Fingerprints. Criminal record. Bollocks! No job and now a Criminal Record...

Meet the Band

2009-07-02T08:17:00.000-07:00

I started browsing through the band members wanted vacancies for months when this offer of a spot with a Pink Floyd tribute band came up. I don’t sound like Dave Gilmour but you’ve got to start somewhere. I make it to the audition just outside London and my sore throat actually makes me sound like Gilmour. I try to explain that I normally sound like Sting but they are so busy thinking about up and coming studio and tour sessions that they hire me. “Did anyone else audition?” I ask. “Want a coffee from Starbucks?” replies the bass player, Todger Waiters. Is he bonding or avoiding the question. It was later I discover that he’s almost deaf. I thought that duff note at the start of Time was just ring rust. By the time he bought an empty cup of coffee back, I realised he also had Parkinson’s. What next? Oh Jesus. The drummer, Rick Monsoon, suffers from intermittent epilepsy (it helps on some solo parts apparently), the keyboard player, Dick Sleight, is an ex-porn star (always laughs at his own “I’m still playing the organ” joke), and the other guitarist, Dan Glamour, dresses up as a cowboy at weekends and goes looking for Pocahontus in and around The Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading - oh how the shop assistants in the Disney shop must love to see him coming. Not! What am I letting myself in for? In the next installment I’ll be covering rehearsals...

Wam Bam Jam - Birth of a Band

2009-07-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

Like a lot of people, the boss spoke to me for the first time the other day. He got my name wrong and then said," You're Fired, er i mean redundant." I left the building in a politically correct state of bemusement and went home to review my finances with my financial advisers: the cat, the dog and Alf my life insurance/pension bloke. Apparently, I have nothing to worry about: it’s only wild animals with valuable skins who tend to meet their end courtesy of a poacher’s incandescent tool up the Khyber. Despite his reassurance, you’ll never see me browsing through the African section of the local Travel Agents. I guess that sense of trepidation makes me boring but I can honestly say I’ve crammed a lot into the past two decades. Perhaps I should be content with the latest of 3 marriages, 12 kids (accumulative total), reasonable income and healthy social life I have, but I still wake up every morning listening for the sound of the starting pistol. On your marks - wake up to the same old Radio 4 news. Get set - hate the same old drive to work. Go - relive the same daily fantasies about a life more meaningful. Why can’t I help but feel as though something profound, meaningful, possibly of earth-shattering consequence is missing? If the world won’t change to meet me half way (what an ego), I will have to change. So here’s the deal: from this moment forward, I’m going to live the life of an overachieving-existentialist; you know: balls-out and bum in the breeze - sometimes both at the same time. For the benefit of posterity, I shall keep detailed notes and digital photographs of this on-going experiment. My hope is that others my feel inspired to throw caution to the wind and discover the joys of running amok through the rest of their lives. The first thing I am going to do is join that band I have been talking about for years... more soon.

You have to question their questionnaire

2009-07-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

If you ever have an odd week or two to complete a subscription form, this is the site to turn your brain into mush and have you running out of will to live before you have got anywhere near the end of reaching the first Proceed button at which point you say "Not more".... I can't take any more of this bloody life/questionnaire...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

http://www.marketinglaw.co.uk/subscribe/default.asp

DMA Email Marketing Council Blog

2009-07-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

News from the front. The collective wisdom of the movers and shakers in the fastest growing communications channel in history.

DMA Email Marketing Council Blog

Quidco - The web's cashback cooperative

2009-07-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

Bag yourself a quote on what your affiliate program might cost you.

Quidco - The web's cashback cooperative

Website Optimiser - to boldly go where your website has never gone before

2009-07-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

Never mind the split infinitive, if you are looking for a sales hyper-drive button that will help you "go boldly" where you've never gone before, Jean Luke Piccard (Gavin Sinden) recommends a visit to planet Google's Web Optimiser package. It's free... but that doesn't mean it can't help improve engagement on your website.

Website Optimiser

Google Insights for Search - Web Search Volume: compare the market - Worldwide, 2004 - present

2009-07-01T04:01:00.000-07:00

Love him/it or hate it, this is on-line branding and response building in a nut shell. Just compare (get it) its performance against the market (get it).

Google Insights for Search - Web Search Volume: compare the market - Worldwide, 2004 - present

So that's what £100,000 in cash looks like

2009-02-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

It pays to believe in your product. In this put-your-money-where-your-mouth is campaign, 3M use a street poster made from two sheets of glass, containing over £100,000 in cash, to demonstrate the strength of their belief in the product's ability to resist the advances of bus stop vandals. In fact, they want as far as to tell members of the public that they could keep the contents if they could get at it. If only I had come to work via a JCB with a thermal lance in my brief case. Mind you, I have no doubt that the poster would have come to an untimely end in certain parts of London. No, I don't mean the East End, I mean the City of London. As we now know, most of the UK's major criminals work in the Banks, Brokerages and Financial establishments around Thread Needle Street. While it might have taken Arthur Daily a few hours to find a suitable hammer drill, the average Hedge Fund Manager has enough ill-gotten gains floating around to call in an Airstrike from the US Airforce/Carlisle Group/Bush neo- conservative welfare fund. Even the Brinks Mat boys could never have mustered the resources at the disposal of the average Derivatives Dealer. Go on 3M, I dare you to set it up somewhere in The Square Mile. Those ruthless, thieving Bankers will have it out of there before you can say, "It's as easy as asset stripping a pensioner's pension fund."

You show me yours and I'll... well, I'll tell on you.

2009-02-13T03:21:00.000-08:00

I love this true to life ad for Energizer. It shows what kids might get up to if you let the batteries in their toys run out of power. Toys out of power only serves to let nature take it's course and the next thing you know... the kids are heading out the gate of Eden at a rate of knots. Let this be a warning to you. Get Energizer into the toys or they'll end up going at sex education 101 like the Energizer bunny. At this point in the blog, I imagine a girl I knew at the age of 3 or 4 is shockingly recalling how I once reneged on my promise to engage in a recipricol show and tell session. Having had my peakaboo, I promptly ran off to tell her Mum what she had done... without returning the compliment and, to make matters worse, even told her Mum it was her all her idea. I hope it hasn't adversly affected her ability to trust men? Don't worry Marrian, your secret is safe with me. Ooops! Anyway, I blame the parents... who had obviously not sorted out the battery situation. Mind you, I shudder to think what might have gone on if Barbie and Action Man came with Energizer batteries. "Oh Action Man." "Oh Barbie." "What about me?" "Bugger off Ken!"

Do I look big in this bum?

2009-02-04T03:06:00.000-08:00

This German campaign aimed at job-seekers stuck in dead-end jobs has constantly made me laugh out loud in public while heralding a wind of change in creative thinking regarding ambient marketing. They started with ambient posters stuck on the side of every kind of vending machine imaginable. The posters reveal that inside the vending machine is a bored stiff human worker. Now they have got to the bottom of the matter with an event entrance poster that shows how we try to improve our lot by 'ingratiating ourselves with the boss.' This 'tunnel vision' approach needs to be put to one side and you need to take a more hard-assed (sorry) approach to developing your career. Ambient and experience marketing is one of the best sources of amazing creative ideas. The combination of concept tied into a sense of theater seems to bring out the best in creative departments across Europe, putting fun into building the Client's bottom (sorry) line.

For F@*k's sake

2009-02-03T02:27:00.000-08:00

How can you switch on to a Gordon Ramsey show and then complain when he goes verbal to the tune of 243/187 F words (depending on the news source). In response to phone calls to Channel 4, Lib Dem MP's were forced to stop wondering which professional pervert leader not to elect; Ofcom were forced not to comment/do nothing (what's new) and the not so great and the not so good everywhere were yelling into their lattes in Cafes from Bloombury to Islington. If you don't like the Gordon Ramsey approach to verbals... don't watch. Why are you watching if you are a sensitive soul/bore? Does it hint at that you are in denial about your latent masochistic tendencies? Do you have a lack of things of consequence to occupy your dull life and ploddy intellect. Get a life. Stop watching celebrity-floging PR bullshit TV and pick up the phone and complain about theiving bankers, dumbass politicians, murderous conflicts, teenage drinking, crap healthcare, company pension fund raids, asset stripping tychoons, Job losses. Russian oligarchs, American robber barons and International Criminals owning our footie clubs, Celebrity retards influencing our kids with their own vacuous TV shows etc. I could go on, but then I have already... Fcuk me!

Oh. My. God!

2009-01-26T04:55:00.000-08:00

It's official. Social Networking has the blessing of 'God's official representative' here on earth. It appears the Holy See wants to get down with the Catholic Youtubers across the world by broadcasting short video news clips on His activities and events at the Vatican. So what can we expect? Pope gets his ring kissed in public? Pope ponders his Hitler Youth photo album? Pope does nothing about Gaza? Pope fails to flog Vatican booty to end world poverty and starvation? Pope bollocks editor of Catholic Herald for slamming the Internet as the work of the Devil just before he launches onto Youtube. Pope gives class on Creationism v Cretinism (or are they one and the same thing?) Pope gives low-down on the top ten spiritual themes of all time. (Que: Alan Freeman VO with Italian/German accent), "Coming in at number 10 in this weeks chart it's: I am Therefore You are Not, by Notorious G.O.D. Up two places at 9 it's: Though Shalt not Thrill, by Forbidden Condom. And at number 8 it's: Suffer little Children Unto me by Confessions of a Catholic Priest in a new parish. At number 7 it's: Killing me softly, by Cain and Able. Creeping in at number 7 it's: Disability - you asked for it by Ban Stem Cell Research. Just outside the top 5, at 6, it's: Mary: Did she or didn't she do it with an Angel? by the Immaculate Conception. At 5 it's: Father, they know not what they are doing by IMF and the Bankers. At 4 it's: God told me to kill my Son for a laugh by Abraham and his estranged son Issac. At 3 it's: Yes, I'm talking to you by Burning Bush. In at number 2 it's: You don't count the dead when God's on your side by Crazy in Croatia. And at number 1 it's: And the Truth Shall set you Free by They'll say Anything if you Torture them with a little help from Jesus in Guantanamo Bay. Can't wait...

Whose Brand is it anyway?

2009-01-24T10:44:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you the number of times I have asked in a lecture room full of brand people 20 floors above Canary Wharf, "Who owns the brand?" The brand people to a man, woman and hermaphrodite answer, "We do."
"If that's the case," I prompt, "I want each of you to write a one liner on the brand." After a few minutes of allowing them to look deep into the recesses of their considerably well-educated minds (for the corporately approved answer), or out of the window over the Thames (for a little personal inspiration), I collect the answers and list out the incredible, not even remotely related range of answers. I then go for the brand jugular...
"If you lot can't reach a consensus, how are the hell are customers? The fact is, most brand gurus seem to have little or no interest in what real people think about brands. It's better to stick your head in the sand/up your own backside (take your pick) and just get on with thinking out of the box/our box (depending on amount of cocaine used to stimulate creative juices). After all, we are the pros, are we not? Why let the great unwashed/uneducated (those without an Eden Project-sized atrium in the office) have a say in anything? I wonder if this blinkered thinking is why direct is now bigger than brand and both will soon be subsumed into digital (the brand that people are defining and re-defining 24 hours a day. Start listening to what the people (not in artificially inseminated focus groups) are saying about your brand in real time and you might learn something: the truth about your brand.

Here we go again

2009-01-12T02:47:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year when we ask ourselves the two vital questions: "What have we done?" and "What next?" Did you finally get your work/life balance sorted out? Will it be this year? What is the correct ratio for the achievement of balance in one's life? 50/50? seems a little neat and not very practical. One of the key problems is that you spend a large percentage of your "Life" factor in bed asleep, thus wasting perhaps 50% of your down time on getting your head down. So you try insomnia to help make the most of your awake time only to find that clients/contacts/students start emailing and facebooking you at 4 in the morning. Now your work/life balance is really skewed/screwed. So you spend more time out of the office, working from home, hoping that Gmail will act as a moderating channel between you and the world and only to find that your nifty Blackberry never shuts up twittering and muttering at you. I'm driving to a meeting, it twits. I'm in the loo, it twits. I'm going out of my mind, it twits. There it goes again. Work/Life balance my arse. I must be crazy to even audit my work life balance. Look waht happened to Dudley Moore in the film Crazy People. He's an ad man who has a Jerry McGuire moment and say's "I know what we'll do: we'll tell the truth about products and services in our ads." They end up locking him away in an asylum. I hope there's room for me. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em I say. If we all end up living in a "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" wardened controlled home for retired ad and marketing people, perhaps the world would be a better place. No-one to make the general populace suffer from coms-induced status anxiety about the lack of funds required to purchase the latest ipod. No aspiration-crushing demonstrations of ad campaigns designed to underscore your oh-so-obvious inability to have it all (the footbal clubs, old masters, gargantuan houses, helicopter-toting yachts, private aiforce, top gear wheels, faberge eggs for breakfast etc etc. No it is easier to just join the nutters asap. The more, the merrier.

Portrait of an ambient artist as an old master

2008-12-23T16:05:00.000-08:00

Soho, the land of film makers and porn and, well porn. Just the sort of place Jack the lards of the art world Caravaggio, Rubens and Constable might have gone looking for a 'model' to paint. Hang on a minute what's that hanging around on the corner with all that flesh hanging out. No it's not a hooker working the day shift, it's a masterpiece (a full sized copy, so don't go down there with your mate Stanley). Ambient takes on a new, upper crust twist in the form of original ads for the National Gallery.

The 30 masterpieces have been going about their business in the streets of London - outside pubs, bookies, sex shops (what no urinal?). All I know is that I have never wondered down the back lanes of Soho (on my way to a recording or editing session, I swear) and found myself thinking, "Must go to the National in Trafalgar Square." Until now. If that isn't art I don't know what is. It certainly bought about a change in my emotional status. The incongruity of lusty oil paintings hanging out in the open where the ladies of the night like to hang out, is something I am sure Rubens and co would have approved of, "Want to come up and see my etchin's love?"

Washroom advertising - are they taking the piss?

2008-12-19T14:36:00.000-08:00

You drive 250 miles up the motorway. It has been raining all day. It's dark and cold. You stop at the service station and head for the loos. You know where the Men's room is because of the smell of amonia hanging in the air. You take a deep breath, push past the great unwashed (hands) of British manhood. You take your life in your hands (so to speak) and with a sigh of relief let nature take its course. That's when the message on the wall in front of you comes stumbling into your consciousness. "Need to borrow a 4x4?" While I'm having a piss? Are the retarded or something? Come on lads, where's the relevance? Whoever convinced you that your brand and sales objectives work best in a urine soaked atmosphere is clearly taking the piss. Come back to me with the sales figures and prove me wrong or get a decent media buyer to work for you.

Sensational Direct Mail

2008-12-18T01:27:00.000-08:00

This mailshot for a landscape gardener stimulates all of the senses: Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, Taste with a real flower parked on the customer's doorstep. The line reads, "If this is what I can do with junk mail, imagine what I could do with your garden."

You walk out the door. You see the flower. You touch the flower. You smell the flower. You eat (OK you don't want to go that far, but hitting 4 out of 5 senses makes for a sensational impact.

For the budding Buddhist out there, who believe that the mind is the 6th sense, you can imagine what's going through the recipient's head as they bend down to pick up the flower,

"I have an admirer, my wife/husband is going to go mental/for me?" it works. It creates impact and drives word of mouth communication and brings the customer into sensational and emotional contact with your brand. You love it, don't you?

Sensory Mail. I feel you dog.

2008-12-18T01:11:00.000-08:00

In a recent article about the convergence of agency disciplines, published in Marketing by Marketing magazine's Richard Abbot, he states,

"Direct marketing continues to be dogged by the 'junk mail' tag, but is nonetheless enjoying tremendous growth as a discipline - so much so that its practitioners are starting to challenge for traditional advertising work. Squeezed marketing budgets, coupled with the unstoppable rise of digital media, has put direct and sales promotion agencies in pole position to reap the benefits. The agency boundaries have never been so blurred."

While I agree with much of Richard's thinking on convergence, I take issue with his reference to 'junk mail'. This view of the customer's take on direct mail is outdated. As he states, mail is enjoying tremendous growth, despite the obvious attentions of the internet, because mail can do somethings digital can't: it can work the senses in a way that makes people take notice. While the internet covers the senses of sight and sound, mail also works the senses of touch, smell and taste. Research from the Royal Mail Info Bank, reveals that mail that stimulates multiple senses can increase awareness, interaction and response rates dramatically.

In support of this new understanding of the use of direct mail, the Royal Mail, in conjunction with the IDM sponsors a range of courses for agency account teams and planners in Sensational Marketing (delivered by Jane Cave and Mike O'Brien from, you guessed it, Jam Partnership). Ask your Royal Mail rep for further information, call 0870 240 0849. Or you can email royalmailmarketing@clientmail.eu.com.

Banking update

2008-12-17T23:58:00.000-08:00

They even have a section titled Bank Robbery. What a giveaway.

Thought you might like to know where to complain

2008-12-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

Had your marketing budget slashed to the bone? Those nice people that bought you the global meltdown have an association: (The American Bankers Association). Here you will find a place to vent your anger under the headline, "World-Class Solutions, Leadership and Advocacy since 1875."

(Look it's on the web so it has to be true.)

I think they have missed out on a trick or two in the Professional Development section - they should have had a course for all those complete bankers who are thinking of taking early retirement to spend their billions before they go to jail. I think a course entitled "How to pick up your soap in the shower" or "You're not putting that in me bad boy," should do it. Go on, visit the site and vent. You know you want to.

Sorry I thought you said, "Buttocks?"

2008-12-17T21:39:00.000-08:00

Trying to get to the bottom (sorry) of what constitutes an illegal ebay ad. Online auction site eBay is removing hundreds of illegal Botox (Oh? Botox) adverts selling discount vouchers and "introduce-a-friend" schemes. The ads included celebrity photos (naughty, naughty) while some claimed to "restore the look of youth and vitality" (Yeah, right have you seen Leslie Ash?)

Which? health campaigner Jenny Driscoll said: "Some of the adverts may lead people to think that having Botox is as easy as getting your nails done, but it's a powerful natural poison (makes you wonder dosen't it) which can have serious side effects.

As professionals working in the communications industry, we have a choice to ensure that what we do is ethical. Perhaps it is easier to say, "No" when you are a senior member of staff in an agency. I worked on beer and fags when is was a teenage copywriter - it was that or hand over my job to any number of writers waiting in the wings. I wish I had taken a stand (I am asthmatic, after all) but family and mortgage commitments make you vulnerable, don't they? No that's just an excuse and it gets you deeper into the mud each time you are the one who says yes to selling crap products and services. We are responsible for our own actions. By not saying, "No" straight off the blocks I started to get all the 'tough' sells dumped on my desk. When I did, eventually say "I'm not working on that!" The powers that be simply moved it on to the next writer. Just. Like. That. Bloody hell.

All I ask is that if you ever see anything that you know needs challenging in the press, on-line, on the radio, on TV: complain, complain complain. That misleading, hyperbolic ad you let pass you by last week is making all our jobs that bit harder to do.