Now sometimes you just come across something that is too good to keep to yourself – even though it has nothing to do with anything I might usually blog on.

I supposed I could point out how clever it is in terms of video production etc etc, and you’ll see that. But, and you’ll have to excuse the language (please don’t be tempted to play this if you have any children craning over your shoulder), it’s just very funny. I personally like watching and reading Mr Fry’s work and I don’t actually think this would do his image any harm at all, I’d like to think he takes it in the sentiment with which it’s meant and similarly marvels at the skill of the production, but at the same time… well – judge for yourself

a bit of fry and jay z from defyingdarwin on Vimeo.

A colleague of mine on the DigitalRecruiting blog, John Whitehurst (this guy not this one), made me aware of a government document that’s floating around in Cyber space that apparently I (and he) contributed to. And I have to admit, clearly age is starting to affect as I’m blowed if I can remember anything more than the vaguest recollection of a phone chat at some time – but then again, me waffling on about this subject is a pretty regular occurrence I guess, so hard to recall specific instances.

In my defence it’s also clearly over a year ago and it’s been quite a busy year :-s

Anyway – not had chance to read it all the way through, but thought I might share it in case you had more time than I (or seeking a cure for insomnia) and there were any gems in it (other than the fact that the person pictured in the forward does look a little alarmingly like David Walliams – see if you can spot what I mean).

Happy reading - e-Recruitment Projects in the Public Sector: A Government guide to Best Practice; Second Edition 2007

If you have a spread of blog feeds (in particular feeds that are from the US) then you will probably have picked up that over last weekend there was a real stir in the blogosphere. Basically Motrin (a painkiller brand) produced an ad that they posted on their site targeted at mums, hoping to strike a chord and spread the word virally – but boy oh boy did they get it wrong.

There was a massive outcry from those active online participants within target audience who felt patronised and insulted by the ad (which you can see here – make up your own mind, but I have to admit I very much see why it solicited such a negative reaction) – and quite quickly there was even a YouTube video response (see that here). The ad was retracted with (at time of writing) a pretty copybook apology posted on their site.

Lots has and will be written about this, but for me a couple of things stood out as some key elements:

1.    Motrin properly mucked up (or at least they did with the assistance of their Ad agency did). You’d have to ask why no one picked this up. Did they not show it to some of the target audience? How could they so clearly not understand the target audience?
2.    The Internet has demonstrated (again) how quickly and vociferously it can get a collective impassioned opinion felt by decision makers.
3.    The ad was pulled and because it was Internet based that could be done as soon as there was a clear issue – could you imagine the cost and difficulty if this had been running in printed press or on TV. The damage was quite big here, but could have been a lot worse.
4.    But clearly the ad still exists on youtube – and the fact I (and countless other bloggers) are talking about it means that this episode has and will cast a long shadow within a relatively short time.

So what might be learned?
> We all make mistakes – that’s what makes us human. Motrin were clearly listening (to some degree) to the feedback and acted pretty quickly to take down the offending advert. And this is why it’s important to listen, because when the Internet speaks about you then you need to at least hear it. Hopefully you won’t get things quite as wrong, but even so, the Internet is like the biggest most diverse (and lowest cost) focus group you could hope to gather – so use it.

> But because this is the Internet this episode will live on, both in its cringe-able full glory and through the comment and dialogue about it. The thing is, there’s nothing you can do about that. So what’s most important is actually now what Motrin do from here. It may be ironic to some, but what they actually have is a great opportunity – because the brand almost certainly has more attention than ever before, so here’s hoping that they have the sense and skill to use it. Sticking their heads in the sand now would actually do more harm than good.

Brands are made or broken at key moments, and I’m sure Motrin will look back in years to come and see this as one of their defining moments. It’s long been said that “No PR is bad PR” – can Motrin make that a truism?

I’ve been a t-mobile customer for a year now. How do I know that? I know that because a week before my contract expired I was inundated with unsolicited calls from 3rd parties offering to upgrade my phone if I renewed with them. This niggled me. I’m sure I hadn’t consented for t-mobile to pass my details on – and I also couldn’t work out why they would want to as this would only serve to cost them commission on my account?!

Luckily for t-mobile though (I would have thought) I was in no rush. Well not exactly true. With the recent high profile phone releases (i-phone, Blackberry storm & the G1 (google phone)) I was of course in a rush as much as anyone that gets excited by new things (in a real “boy with a new toy” type way) to see what phone I might upgrade to. I’ve had a mobile phone for a good while and you kinda get used to getting a shiny new toy to play with in exchange for your continued loyalty at no cost (well – we all know it’s hidden in the contract, but you know what I mean). So you can imagine how that was magnified when I realised that my renewal date coincided with the day the G1 came out only on the t-mobile network. GET IN! This was surely fate solving any decision I might have had to make about whether to go sexy, business chic or web guy functionally cool.

Interestingly – whilst everyone and his brother (particularly if they worked in a South Wales call centre it would seem) was in a hurry to sign me back up in the days leading up to my contract expiring t-mobile didn’t want to speak to me until the day it had expired. It’s OK I thought. I’ll wait. I’m a loyal kind of customer.

Unfortunately that was the start of the customer service paradox and the wait was all in vain. My hope shattered. My nose was to be left pressed up against the virtual shop window. You see it would seem that about 6weeks ago t-mobile changed the upgrade game for their customers, although you’ll not find it explained in any of their literature or on their website. No longer do they automatically offer reasonable upgrades after your contract expires – oh no. It’s all spend dependent. And I don’t mean that I was told I just had to pay a little something extra to get the phone that would keep me being a loyal customer – nope – this was a point blank “’dems the rules as of now, so it’s pretty much pay the price of the phone or make do”.

I’ll be fair – for customers not entitled to an upgrade they offer £5pm off your bill. And I’m sure for any logical decision process that’s probably not a bad deal – I’m well aware that the price of the new generation of phones to the phone companies is certainly creeping up and they have to make some tough business decisions – but when has getting your hands on new toys been a logical decision process. Logic doesn’t see people queuing for days before to get their hand on the new i-phone. Logic doesn’t then see the same people wait patiently days later whilst O2 get their systems in order to activate the thing. Logic doesn’t see people paying for two phones on different networks just so they can have the latest thing in their pocket.

I can’t work out whether it’s a bold or stupid move by t-mobile – as with many such changes only time will truly tell. But whilst there are other providers in the same space at about the same price with similar coverage as t-mobile and who would love to steal my custom and will give me a new toy right now (with a 1month lag and cost to port my number) then perhaps t-mobile have misjudged this one. I don’t feel any unbreakable brand affinity with the people in pink. But perhaps they’re target audience are people who can’t be faffed moving to another provider (although looking at their advertising and target demographic shown in that I think not).

This is what I can’t get – surely every business knows that it’s cheaper to retain a customer than it is to acquire new. If I walked off the street and wanted a new number and contract they’d give me exactly the phone I want (tariff dependent). But they’re gambling, and I think it is a gamble, that the majority of their existing customers who are good regular (but maybe not the highest) spenders with them won’t feel cheated when they’re denied that annual little technological lift that people on contracts generally have come to expect.

So if you’re reading this and are responsible for managing relationships, be they customers, employees or candidates, then my advice is to be sure before you change anything that you put yourself in the shoes of those who have come to accept things being done a certain way. Cutting back on providing a company water cooler may on paper look like an easy way to save a couple of hundred pounds – we’re lucky to live in a country where we can all drink the perfectly decent water from the taps after all – but what if that’s the last straw for a half decent person who’s feeling the “place just isn’t the same as the one I came to work for”. How much would they cost to replace? What if you’re working at an agency feeling the pinch and decide that the annual Christmas client lunch is an easy thing to cut back on, certainly for anyone other than the top billers? I’d suggest you ask yourself how much you’d spend re-pitching or pitching to replace that business if that’s the final nail in the coffin for your relationship – they never saw you and always felt unloved speaking to a different Account Exec each time they called anyway.

Loyalty can be a fickle thing – but thought and good communication can generally re-enforce the bond even when some prickly decisions are having to be made. Had t-mobile been clear and honest about what their new policy is and why then maybe I might be more tolerant – rather than still reading:

You and your mobile have been joined at the hip for ages now, but let’s face it, ever since the paint rubbed off the 0 key you just don’t feel the same way. Well, here’s some good news: if you’ve been with us for a while, you may well be eligible for a free upgrade or a brand new mobile at a reduced price… If you’re still thrilled with your mobile, you can choose other savings instead.

I’m not thrilled with my mobile and I’ll get a new shiny one without spending £400+ thank you very much, because it’s the price that you and your competitors are willing to pay to get me to switch, but clearly not something you are willing to stretch to to retain me. I hope your clients or employees don’t feel they want to try a shiny new interface just because they feel shortchanged.

The guys over at MyLongLunch (who look to “harnesses the power of online community to connect the advertising industry”) come through every once in a while and ask me to cast my critical eye over a site or job board that has caught their eye for their (often irreverent) weekly newsletter. Here’s what I made of this site:

Soooo – this week’s challenge from the MLL crew was to really get down with the kids and review a site called www.wikijob.co.uk (not to be confused with a job board to recruit 6ft 11’ hirsute bipeds (WookieeJob), a job site for employers in a Somerset village famous for it’s hole (WookeyJob) or the .com wikijobs variant that you can buy at a snip for $25,000 – oh, I’ll take 3 please!).

WikiJob is “designed to let students and graduates find out what careers, employers and interviews are really like. It is the first candidate focused graduate recruitment website and the largest graduate job search community on the internet.” Well – you gotta expect a grand claim or 2 when you’re talking websites.

Let’s start at the beginning shall we. A wiki is a “page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content.” The best known is of course Wikipedia – and if you still don’t know what I’m talking about then either ask your secretary who printed this off for you to read to explain the concept or else go straight to the bottom of this piece because this isn’t going to get any easier.

This site has been going for about a year I’m reliably informed and with unique user numbers touching the 100,000pm mark this is becoming one of those “ignore at your peril” type sites. So what’s it about? Well basically it’s a focal point for people (well – graduates & undergraduates – and they’re like real people, just generally newer) to impart their knowledge about companies and/or tell of their experiences through the various recruitment processes they encounter on their adventures. This then has grown into a self-supporting community with a career seeking bent that, at break neck speed, has developed into a valuable “between the lines” resource and virtual meeting place for keen job seekers.

The site isn’t pretty – but it’s not meant to be. If you’re like me and wanting to meander through it to review then it’s all pretty bland, but I’m nowhere close to target audience and the value/relevance lies in the content. Now if I was a graduate looking for what I can really expect from submitting my application to XXXX Corp, wanted some real tips or wanted to see behind the carefully crafted marketing front that’s so skilfully created (by the likes of me) to find out what the job might actually be like then this is what I’d really want to read. I could so easily slip into the usual “the web today is a conversational not a broadcast medium”, but suffice to say this kinda site is the epitome of the former and in short generating the kind of user generated content, true community engagement and therefore probably reach that established publishers would kill for.

It doesn’t currently have any advertising model (although that’s about to change – so if you’ve got any budget for 2008-09 grad recruitment left I think you’d do a lot worse than giving this site a pop (consider it more an educated bet than an outright gamble)), but that’s only part of what you should be doing with such a site. If you’re in anyway responsible for a client who’s recruiting grads, and you may have to help them with this, then they need to be listening, learning from and ideally partaking in any conversation that’s taking place about them. You/your client may feel it’s too hard to do so right across the web, but with 100k potentially relevant candidates a month (and their user breakdown ain’t half bad either) coming to this site then the nice people at WikiJob have created a focal point where a significant amount of relevant internet chatter is in one place for you to start getting with the web2.0 programme.

I think wikijobs.co.uk is a clever move by Edward & Chris (founders) and has tonnes of potential. Starting with the web2.0 aufait student and grad community was of course the only way to start – but surely turning it main stream is the next natural step in some shape or form (although whether they’d be able to rise to the magnitude of that challenge without some serious VC backing is something only time will tell). And for those who have been in the job board game for quite a while – I think they’ll be looking at this site (if not just the URL) in a couple of years and wondering why they weren’t able to come up with this and take it to market first themselves.

Quite a big day this – the launch of the 3D MarComms website proper. As a business we’ve been operating now for around 6months, so this site is certainly long overdue we know that, but whilst we’ve been keeping ourselves pretty busy (to be fair largely on projects with 33 – more on that again) we’ve also been scheming and building our own stuff too. It’s been an interesting summer – let’s put it that way.

So what might you expect from the 3DMC blog?

If you’re reading this at all then you’ll likely be very aware of my previous blog activity on Digital Recruiting (something that I’ll be keeping up), but as this here is a personal project it’s likely that the focus of observations, comments and (probably) the odd rant will widen. It’s a big world of bloggable topics out there after all. Hopefully I’ll also be able to persuade my partner in crime, Tony the web dev wizard, out of the shadows of deep code to contribute too – he’s not just a nice guy, I also find his explanations of some of the deeper techy issues of the day most helpful in a “digital immigrant” keen to keep learning kinda way (that’s me by the way – he’s definitely a native, maybe even a native elder).

But like with all good blogs – you start of with a plan written in pencil, then we’ll see where it takes us. Marketing Communications and Recruitment are definitely passions, Digital developments too, so there’ll probably be a fair amount on that. Will try and steer clear of politics, but other than that if we can raise a smile, generate a nod of agreement, spark a debate or inform someone somewhere along the way then “job’s a good un”.

Remember though – no one’s got the patent on being right, this blog will just be a bunch of our opinions and thoughts. If you take offence or disagree with something we say then tell us – if we’re wrong or misrepresent something then we’ll be the first to hold our hands up and say so as soon as we’re aware. You’ve got our contact details on the site – call, email, leave a comment. And if we can’t agree, or at least agree to disagree, then it’s easy enough to kill the RSS feed and ignore this little ole blog. Such is the way of blogosphere my friends

Here’s to the next 6months and beyond.