Ged Carroll

Category: spain | 西班牙 |스페인 | スペイン

Hola y bienvenido – – welcome to the Spain category of this blog. This is where I share anything that relates to Spain, business issues, travel related experiences,  the Spanish people or culture.

I have been fortunate enough to travel to Spain a few times for work and pleasure. The Prado museum in Madrid is one of my favourite places and I have been slowly exploring the other museums in the city along with places like Retiro Park.

But there are still huge parts of the country from the deserts of the south where spaghetti western films were made to the Moorish architecture of Granada that I still haven’t managed to explore. All of which was due to a complex history. A history of conquest. A history of cultures and ideas. A history of religions. The dynamism of Spain is down to a young population and economic and social catch up after years of military rule under General Franco.

Often posts that appear in this category will appear in other categories as well. So if Spanish bank Santander launched a new advertising campaign. And that I thought was particularly interesting or noteworthy, that might appear in branding as well as Spain.

I have included some posts here, a mix of film, travelogues and the occasional inspirational marketing campaign

If there is Spain related subjects that you think would fit with this blog, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment in the ‘Get in touch’ section of this blog here.

  • GDPR resources

    Partly due to Cambridge Analytica, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going to have a more profound impact on data usage globally. GDPR would have been seen as an extra-legal reach, but Facebook is making it look like a good idea.

    I thought I would pull together a few resources that I thought would be of interest around GDPR since there is a lot of snake oil being sold as consultancy around it at the moment. I am not going to pretend that I am an expert, so I thought it would be useful to share some of the GDPR related resources that I have been looking to learn from.

    Not only in terms of what the regulation is, but what techniques can be deplored to act in the spirit as well as the letter of regulations. Demonstrating a basic respect for the consumer won’t harm any brand, but might point to badly designed KPIs that direct and digital marketers might be measured from.

    Andreessen Horowitz put together a good podcast on it.

    Privacy by Design – The 7 Foundational Principles by Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D. (PDF) – is a must read paper for creative agencies and product teams. It is based on work that was started in the late 1990s. Cavoukian lists a site as a reference ‘privacybydesign.ca’ – but that seems to be down.

    1. Start by thinking about privacy by design from the start or as Cavoukian says preventative rather than remedial, proactive rather than reactive
    2.  Privacy as the default setting
    3. Privacy embedded into the design of systems and processes (which sounds like a reinforcement of her first point
    4. Not viewing consent in terms of a zero-sum
    5. Privacy secured throughout the lifecycle from end to end.
    6. Being open and transparent about processes to keep the organisation honest and stakeholders informed
    7. Respect for user privacy based on a user-centric ethos

    Via James Whatley’s newsletter this article on UX –  GDPR: 10 examples of best practice UX for obtaining marketing consent seems to be complementary to Cavoukian’s work. This is in sharp contrast to the dark patterns often used to force consent by many sites.

    More related posts here.

  • Great Scud Hunt + other news

    Great Scud Hunt

    What the Great Scud Hunt Says About War With North Korea | War Is Boring – pretty grime reading. The Great Scud Hunt was a key aspect of the Gulf War. The Great Scud Hunt pitted allied special forces units against the Iraqi army which had scattered its Scud launchers across the desert. The Great Scud Hunt was important to stop Israel coming into the war and fracturing the alliance against Iraq. it was also to prevent scud missile attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and cities. Despite the terrain being reasonably flat and barren, the allies weren’t as successful the Great Scud Hunt as they would have liked. By comparison North Korea is mountainous and covered in vegetation making the job orders of magnitude harder. North Korean missiles could target the US, Japan and the whole of South Korea. 

    DD-ST-92-07789
    A relic of the Great Scud Hunt – a missile being examined after having been shot down in the desert by a Patriot missile

    Economics

    3D printing a threat to global trade | ING – Research report with hyperbole

    Legal

    INMA: Pros, cons of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation for publishers  – GDPR could lead to a reduction in programmatic ad spend because advertisers will struggle to measure whether their ads lead to purchases, according to Eric Berry, CEO of TripleLift. There’s uncertainty about how the law will be enforced, but if users have to give consent to individual publishers, demand-side platforms, and attribution vendors, the attribution companies won’t have enough data to make accurate measurements

    Luxury

    Supreme Said Close to Deal with Carlyle | Business Of Fashion – was the Louis Vuitton deal just rolling out the carpet for private equity interest?

    Media

    My new chapter: joining Google to better explain search & help bridge the gap – Danny Sullivan is a great person to fill the hole left by Matt Cutts and more. Sullivan’s status as the godfather of search marketing gives him the kind of authority and audience few others have

    Online

    A Farewell to AIM: AOL Instant Messenger Shutting Down in December – ExtremeTech – wow. The ironic thing is that messenger services could (and should) have been the WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger of today

    Retailing

    How supermarkets choose where to open … and where to close | Cities | The Guardian – even retailers don’t like chavvy areas

    Security

    The Uber app can secretly spy on iPhone screens – BGR – mother fucker…

    Screwdriving. Locating and exploiting smart adult toys | Pen Test Partners – one more security issue to worry about

    Guess what Chinese travellers are bringing back home? VPNs, lots of them | South China Morning Post – exaggerates the volume of desire for unfettered access – outside the intelligentsia, most won’t care

    Yahoo says all of its 3bn accounts were affected by 2013 hacking | Technology | The Guardian – how is this only coming out now?

    Technology

    Why isn’t Apple Pay taking off? | The Drum – and other NFC payment technologies for that matter

    Survey: Facebook (FB) is the big tech company that people trust least — Quartz – its only 1,600 Quartz readers

    High Sierra’s Disk Utility does not recognize unformatted disks | Tinyapps – a lot of a fuck up there Apple, although its now fixed by a security update. Related – Think twice before encrypting your HFS+ volumes on High Sierra | Carbon Copy Cloner – big issue

  • Paula’s Loewe collar + more

    Loewe x Paula’s

    Spanish luxury brand Loewe x Paula’s rolled out its collaboration with Ibiza boutique Paula’s. Paula’s reflects a move of Ibiza away from sweaty EDM fans to a more elite stylish visitor more used to Pykes and Hunters. In many respects Loewe x Paula’s is about taking Ibiza back the original Balearic vibes where it was populated by the international jet set, before football casuals and clubland discovered the white isle in the mid-1980s. More related content here.

    Generation Z

    Meet Generation Z in our latest film | JWT Intelligence – downloadable and handy for provoking thoughts on planning in terms of data point. I have broader issues with the concept of generations and find life stages generally much more valuable as a concept. Generations hide data which should have use asking broader questions. Their generalisations aren’t that helpful either.

    Fred Wilson

    Venture capitalist Fred Wilson speaking at MIT Sloan School of Management. Fred Wilson used to run a technology VC operation with Andy Kessler. He then went on to found his own VC business – Union Square Ventures, based out of New York.

    Wilson talks about the VC role in terms of coaching entrepreneurs as much as investing them. In some respects this feels at odds with the usual VC approach of investing in the team. He talks about the demise of the investor letter, but also the importance of writing as ‘thinking out loud’.

    Product design by algorithm

    The Lowly Folding Chair, Reimagined With Algorithms | WIRED – classical material and computer aided design came up with something special. Its a fantastical piece of design. The question of intellectual property with regards the chair is a problem that can be solved another day

    UNISON

    UNISON campaigns to get voters on board with more of a focus on public services as the UK election got under way seems to have failed completely judging by the opinion polls. This disturbing video was made with Claire Sweeney – which breaks the uncomfortable ground between daytime TV programming and satire. At worst, this could be used as an excuse for the government to clamp down on the ‘interference’ of trade unions in parliamentary elections.

  • Blood and Faith – the purging of muslim Spain (1492 – 1614) by Matthew Carr

    I picked up Blood and Faith on a trip to Madrid. I have a habit of picking up English language history books if I can when visiting a place. It gives you a sense of how a country wants itself to be seen. These usually vary from clumsy propaganda to insightful works.

    Coming across Carr’s book surprised me as it addressed a part of Spain’s history in an unsympathetic light. It covers briefly the expulsion of Spain’s Jewish community and covers the expulsion of the Moors in greater depth.
    Blood and Faith - the purging of muslim Spain (1492 - 1614) by Matthew Carr
    Carr’s background as a journalist and as the son of a controversial English teacher who got involved in post-colonial politics casts a certain lens for his writing perspective. His knowledge of Spain and Islam is second to none.  Having covered both the Islamic world and Spain extensively in books and journalism, he knows his stuff.

    Carr paints a complex picture of tolerance and a cosmopolitan society interspersed with zealotry, bigotry and criminality.  The book shows how the decision to expel the Moors came about, a mix of:

    • Security concerns in terms of internal strive and alleged support of pirate raiding parties from North Africa and Turkey
    • Changes in Spanish royalty as the Hapsburg’s came to the throne. Their German background brought a ‘neoconservative’ viewpoint on Islam due the threat that the Ottoman empire posed to central Europe
    • Internal politics within the Catholic church with hawks and doves
    • External relations with the Holy See and other Catholic countries who viewed Spain as being tainted
    • Internal injustice that caused Moor dissent which in turn fuelled the paranoia of the Spanish

    The book and its subject matter feels surprisingly contemporary. 17th century Spain still provides us with a good picture of the challenges and chaos that ensues trying to deport people en masse. From discovery to logistics it was a nightmare.

    The issues of conservative populism and racism also feel very contemporary given political sentiment across Europe.  The expulsion of the Moors and reconquest of Spain have been cited by both Al Qaeda and Daesh to justify their actions.

    Blood and Faith is ideal if you want a book to read on Spain’s relationship with the Moors. This is a well researched book; just be careful with what conclusions you chose to draw from it.

     

  • Madrid + more things

    Madrid

    The order on things being written and posted on this blog has been scrambled up a bit and I ended up spent some time in Madrid with nothing to show for it as my SD card from my camera disappeared, I have no ideas where I mislaid it. In Madrid, the Prado museum is unparalleled, Mandarin Oriental’s Hotel Ritz is nice.  Madrid’s Museo Naval is not on the usual tourist trail, but well worth a visit.

    Munich airport

    Red Bull and Jason Paul put together a film with Munich Airport that owes as much to Harold Lloyd as the cool of free running

    Concrete truck

    I was stunned by the simplicity of Benedetto Bufalino’s ready-mix concrete truck as disco ball. This wasn’t for a brand but a crazy piece of art. I expect this to be to inspire experiental and and advertising agency creative at some point in the future.

    Monki

    With a lack of an iPod, I have been listening to Monki’s bootleg bundle a lot. Its a great mix of tracks, many of which I wasn’t familiar with. I can also recommend her mix for the Fabric Live series which combines oldies like the FPI Project through to upfront house tracks.

    More things

    I haven’t bothered with football videos over the past year, but this one from Nike shows why they do so well. Great concept and storytelling in the film. Just the kind of creative that one would expect from Nike and done by W+K

    Maurice Lévy sent Publicis Groupe employees his last Christmas message as CEO. Publicis has had a tradition of humorous personal videos from Lévy that demonstrated the company’s creativity in terms of script writing and production. This is in sharp contrast to WPP’s emails from Martin Sorrell, which were more like a missive from a Goldman Sachs analyst.