Month: June 2016
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Rise of Facebook + more
At Cannes, the Ad Industry Confronts the Rise of Facebook – The New York Times – takes some of the heat from Google as most hated media partner, but few have woken up to the existential threat that the rise of Facebook poses for the advertising industry and brand marketers. Amazon to Add Dozens of Brands…
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WWDC 2016 – what did it all mean?
I watched the few hours of keynotes at Apple’s WWDC 2016 (Worldwide Developers Conference). I also read some of the resulting analysis and wondered if we’d been watching the same event. So thought I would think about the event carefully and come up on my take of what it all meant. This is a bit…
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Divorce talks + more
Britain, EU at odds over timing of divorce talks – The Boston Globe – The markers of European decline are not hard to find. For the first time in modern history, Asia has more private wealth than Europe, the Boston Consulting Group said last year. And China will account for 70 percent of Asia’s growth between now…
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Brexit part 2
I was prompted to write Brexit part 2 based on the many questions from friends living outside the UK – who are trying to make sense of what is going on. Brexit is a portmanteau of ‘Britain’ and ‘exit’. The exit being from the European Union. In 2013, David Cameron announced that a conservative government…
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Brexit part 1
Why I am writing a post called Brexit part 1? Generally I find politics a bit too grubby and dirty for this blog and have only touched it when I absolutely, positively didn’t have a choice. So expect Brexit Part 1 and Brexit Part 2. On June 23, 2016 the UK goes to the polls to…
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Velvet by Brubaker & Breitweiser
Velvet is the antithesis of mainstream comics. In a world of Marvel-dominated culture, it is hard to imagine more realistic material. Ed Brubaker got the freedom to publish Velvet after several years at DC, Vertigo and Marvel. Velvet is a welcome antidote to the superhero genre of graphic novels. Instead, you get a cold war…
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TAG Heuer + more things
TAG Heuer Pushing Brand in China, as Rivals Scale Back | Business of Fashion – it makes sense given the lower price point of TAG Heuer watches. TAG Heuer is in an interesting place. Due to the government clampdown on corruption, the market for ostentatious watches has been curtailed for the time being. You could dispute whether…
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Throwback gadget: SnapperMail
Thinking about SnapperMail takes me back to end of 2001, I started to prepare for leaving my job at Edelman. This meant upgrading my home IT set up. I picked up an iBook. The iBook was Apple’s consumer-orientated laptop made from 1999 to 2006. Mine was a second generation ‘Snow’ laptop with a G3 processor,…
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Blockchain deals + other news
The Dumb Money Is Chasing After Blockchain Deals | CB Insights – true enough. Warning incoming rant on blockchain. Blockchain has a relatively low transaction rate. Traceability is reliant on a reliable database rather than the decentralisation. You have better performing open source databases that aren’t dependent on the weakest link of the decentralised network. For…