2010-07-30T06:16:25Z Output Communicators Blog Copyright 2010, Output Communicators Blog SPHPBLOG
But now the game moves on. Now I have a friend who's written (built? produced? devised?) an app. Called London Shophound, it's a shopping guide to ...well, work it out. It's for people who, having bought an iPhone, want to use it to buy lots of other things. It was only published (released? uploaded?) a few days ago and already it's bouncing around Google, appearing in Japanese travel listings, putting itself about.

See the difference? The books are on the shelf. The app is out there hustling. ]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100705-180104 2010-07-05T00:00:00Z 2010-07-05T00:00:00Z
It goes like this.

I am moving a much loved piece of vintage furniture and notice part of a label on the inside. The label has a logo and initials which are not familiar to me. Curious, I put the initials and a bit of other info into Google images. This eventually leads me to name and a logo and -yes - it's the same as the one on my furniture.

I Google the name of the firm, which is now defunct, but eventually come up with PDFs of all their catalogues, at a site called the High Wycombe Electronic Furniture Archive, thoughtfully put online by Buckinhamshire New University. Scrolling through the pages of the manufacturer's 1933 catalogue, I find photographs of my furniture. I now know who made it, where and when.

How amazing is that? Without the net the task would have been almost impossible, and it's certainly not something I could have done from start to finish in an hour on a wet Sunday afternoon.

Internet and archivists: a marriage made in heaven - or, in this case, High Wycombe. ]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100614-160248 2010-06-14T00:00:00Z 2010-06-14T00:00:00Z
This could go on for weeks,or months - life changing stuff. Aside from the many thousands of stranded and/or disappointed people,we now have the imminent shortage of airfreighted exotic foods and the collapse of all sorts of just-in-time supply chains.

What will we discover about the way we live and work?

Let's hear it for teleconferencing, local foodstuffs, supply lines which are short and secure, and companies who don't shirk responsibilities to customers when the chips are down.

How is a civilisation with the collective attention span of a swarm of gnats going to cope with a news story which just goes on and on and on? What will the politicians do - because you can't negotiate with (or spin) a volcano. Primal forces just don't do deadlines.

This story isn't yet a week old. Watch and learn.


]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100418-170547 2010-04-18T00:00:00Z 2010-04-18T00:00:00Z
Because we're all grown-ups and we're all writers, the talk is not of sex, drugs or even rock'n'roll. Instead the conversation hovers around writing, clients, editorial angst, the unfortunate rise of the reflexive pronoun in customer service dialogues,that sort of thing. Even blogs enter the conversation.

Then the question is raised. Do you use Pingomatic? What?
It sounds as if we've been gatecrashed by a 1960s soap powder ad. For whiter whites and bright brights - use Pingomatic!

Except it's not a soap powder. It's a cute little online tool for promoting a blog - like this one. And two of us didn't know about it... and we felt so excited by the prospect...and how sad is that?

If girlies sit around in smart city bars talking about promoting their web sites, I guess Don Draper isn't ever going to come over to buy us drinks.

]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100224-144931 2010-02-24T00:00:00Z 2010-02-24T00:00:00Z
Received wisdom tells us that, left to their own devices, commercial mailing lists deteriorate at about 2% per month. So after a year, about a quarter of your precious list is likely to be out of date. Keeping mailing lists fresh and accurate is something I hassle clients about; hence my somewhat anal approach to my own list husbandry.

So here I am, editing and correcting to record the annual impact of birth, death, marriage, divorce, relocation and co-habitation on my own small circle.

Adding in the births is no problem - though Microsoft often stuggles to keep pace with the imaginative choices made by parents. It's the deletions I find difficult. In a paper address book (remember those?), you could draw a thoughtful line through the details of the departed. But a deletion? That feels more final than a final thing, as Blackadder would say.

There you are. Two references to popular culture in one blog. It must be that new zeitgeist I got for Christmas. ]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry100104-151431 2010-01-04T00:00:00Z 2010-01-04T00:00:00Z
All the signals are good. The menu looks interesting, as do dishes being ferried to adjacent tables. The young staff are skilled and friendly.

"Have one of our new magazines," one offers. "They've just arrived. We've got 84 boxes of them." She passes each of us a 64pp + cover magazine. I am all but crushed by the weight. A huge Rolex studded with diamonds glitters on the back page. Sumptuous photography and celebrity food porn slither across the double-page spreads.

It's an impressive contract publishing job. I can't fault the production standards (or the proofreading).Clearly, pretty much every supplier has been persuaded of the value of an advertisement. It's all very flash - and seriously out of step with the quiet confidence of the place where I'm actually about to eat lunch.

OK, so I know the pub is part of a prospering hospitality group, but does it have to make its promotion so horribly slick? And please, spare me the loyalty card.
]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry091124-152629 2009-11-24T00:00:00Z 2009-11-24T00:00:00Z
Award-winning photographer Rob Cook at Yorkshire Scientific Pictures has teamed up with Val Seddon at York-based Output Communicators to offer clients a unique, one-stop communications package – the Hotcom.

A Hotcom is an elegant fusion of communications strategy and technology. Top-calibre scientific photography is combined with carefully crafted text, ready to be delivered direct to recipients’ computer screens.There is no costly printing or time-consuming mailing. Live links can take readers directly to specific web pages for in-depth information, or generate reader responses.

Rob Cook says:
“This is a great way to maximise the value of distinctive science photography – particularly in specialist fields with identifiable audiences. On-screen images can create high visual impact, or be equally effective when underpinning more subtle messages.”

Val Seddon says:
“The Hotcom format is flexible yet robust. Anyone who can receive a PDF can receive a Hotcom. It’s ideally suited to conference newsletters and a whole range of marketing and internal communications tools. The art lies in producing short, readable text which retains both marketing messages and scientific integrity.”


Check out the related link below to Rob's site, then contact either:
Rob Cook, Yorkshire Scientific Pictures on 01904 499 533
info@yorkshirescientificpictures.co.uk or

Val Seddon, Output Communicators on 07852 149 669
input@outputcomms.co.uk.

]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry091014-093359 2009-10-14T00:00:00Z 2009-10-14T00:00:00Z
I loved the programme, and I loved the cartoon so much that I bought the original from cartoonist Jonathan Pugh ( www.pughcartoons.co.uk ), then at the start of his brilliant career.

Party on, Floyd, wherever you are.



]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry090916-160840 2009-09-16T00:00:00Z 2009-09-16T00:00:00Z
Yes, yes, definitely yes. Writers are a bit like hairdressers. We just love to run our fingers through other people's text, snipping off surplus adverbs, slicing into clunky phrases and trimming up sloppy proofreading.

The piece of editorial text in question was over-long and terminally dull but I suspect the original writer was not at fault. Some editorial copy gets trailed around committees and legal teams. Each adds their own changes. The result can become little more than word soup. The copy is no longer fit for purpose.

Useful as Microsoft Word's multi-person review/tracking facility is, it doesn't think. It doesn't take a holistic approach. And it absolutely doesn't care about creative communications. So please, if you're going to mess with the text, think about giving a writer the last word - or as close to it as the legal team will allow.

]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry090820-155434 2009-08-20T00:00:00Z 2009-08-20T00:00:00Z
But then, occasionally, a PR somewhere pulls off a stunt of improbable brilliance, reminding us that creativity is fun.

Today's case in point comes from York (so no prejudice there then!) York Castle Museum, where Dick Turpin spent his last night before execution in 1739, has worked with police e-fit specialists to draw up a "realistic" picture of the infamous highway man. They used descriptions published in an 18th century newspaper.

Does it look like him? Who knows. Do they ever?

But what a brilliant stunt. Look out for the idea-clones in a newspaper near you.
]]> http://www.outputcomms.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry090717-162652 2009-07-17T00:00:00Z 2009-07-17T00:00:00Z