Ants

Collective received its latest recruit of worker ants today.. literally.



The new guys are kind of dazed and sleepy so far - but it's a Monday and they did just take a long-haul trip with Royal Mail so fair enough.



Expect regular progress reports, if they actually ever do anything.

I'm a PC...the rejoinder to the stereotype.

Sometimes it's not necessarily how much you spend on a campaign that grabs attention or changes perceptions.

For me, the great thing about 'digital' is being' 'clever', not necessarily 'cool'. This week, Microsoft have validated this notion in withdrawing their $10 million campaign (featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld) and then launching a much simpler (and in many people's opinions more effective) messaging campaign that responds intelligently to the successful Apple "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ad campaigns.

"I'm a PC" aims to break the geeky stereotyping by showing a series of video clips from PC users around the world including members of the public in a variety of jobs and celebrities such as 'Desperate Housewives' actress Eva Longoria, author Deepak Chopra and musician Pharell Williams who all say proudly "I'm a PC".

Added to this, there is also a microsite that allows you (the general public) to also stand proud in announcing your PC-affiliation. So if you ARE a PC, why not join the throng!!

Musings of Kenta

It feels so good to know that our design dept is headed up by such a well-educated and thoughful man.

End of week one - Collective impressions

I joined Collective on Monday so I thought now would be a good time to put down some first impressions of week 1.

For those that don't know the history I used to be a client of Collective's in their early birth. The Collective style of working at the time really appealed and their work was creative, productive and refreshing. Enthused by this experience I ventured off to agency land elsewhere to try my hand at life on the other side.

So, I've now come round to Collective again (or come home?), not quite full circle as I won't be working in the autos sector anymore, instead I'll be looking after some of the fantastic clients they've been working with recently.

What this week has shown is that the spirit of collaborative working has been retained despite the growth in size of the last few years. In the agency's early days it was probably a necessity to get things done, but now with around 50 people, folks here still genuinely seem to recognise the value of sharing and lots of involvement in creating the work... having 'Collective' over the door is clearly a help but the culture seems to have it ingrained. I guess if you share the responsibility and rewards and everyone knows the client this helps.

Only area I've spotted in the agency where the spirit has lost its way is the dishwasher, which retains individual mealtime neglect.... can't think of a digital solution to this, but maybe a brief is out there for it.

Still, week one nearly complete. Looking forward to picking up the account bag on Monday already... and making some Collective glory.

How's your Colour IQ?

Check your Hue IQ with this fun little toy.



Collective League Table
0 - Steve Little
0 - Petter
0 - Bora
0 - Charlotte
4 - Daniel
4 - Silke
4 - Stephane
4 - Steve B
7 - Jeff
8 - Adam C
8 - Joe
12 - Jon H
16 - Katie
42 - Nicola

Class of Collective

The Collective team step back in time thanks to Yearbook Yourself





See more on the flickr.

It's just like a Planner's DREAM!

In search for the anti-matter and the elusive Higgs Boson...



The scientist in me is secretly (or not so) excited about today. Already as I write this, 100m underground on the Franco-Swiss border, some of the best Physicists in the World are pacing the corridors, waiting for one of the most long awaited experiments to begin....controlled particle collisions to emulate the immediate moments after the 'Big Bang'.

The aim is to discover whether concepts such as dark (or anti)-matter, extra dimensions and even the elusive Higgs boson (God's particle) actually exist.

The Planner in me also loves today as it demonstrates (in a much larger scale) the approach and role planning takes within the agency; taking ideas, historical theory, known fact and putting them into new situations to postulate, plan, test and observe the outcome. The digital landscape is of course, a series of 1s or 0s and therefore a great space to observe behaviours (be it consumers or Brands) and for planning, this gives us this amazing goldfish bowl to sit and watch what really happens.

I love the fact that even the biggest brains in the Science World are showing signs of not knowing the outcome. Professor Stephen Hawking is known to have placed a bet of only £50 that God's Particle would elude even today's massive experiment. Asked why he placed this, he responded by saying "It will be more exciting if we don't find the Higgs (Boson). That will show we need to think again!"

Another classic quote comes from Professor Brian Cox (another CERN boffin)...."Anyone who thinks that the LHC will destroy the World is a t**t." Now that's saying it like it is eh?!

Black on white

There's been a fair bit of debate lately in blogland over whether white text on a black background is more legible and comfortable for the eyes to gaze at (not to mention energy-saving to monitors) than vice-versa. The debate culminated in the rather-silly Blackle - a 'black Google' which claimed to be more environmentally-friendly than its white counterpart.

Ironic Sans has made the very good point that as the majority of sites - and printed text - set black text on white, it's jarring to suddenly face a black page with white text. Visit their test page to see for yourself. So for now it's probably best to stick with convention.

Collective Culture Shocks*

*err, culture? Really?

This week we’re ...
... Having one last desperate attempt to win a Blue Peter badge (see above).
…All going to Sicily, apparently.
…highly recommending Man on Wire
… Dressing up like sea creatures for Bestival
…seriously considering a: 'bring back Top Deck Shandy campaign'.

Collective Guess Who
Ooh-ooh-ooh I wanna be like you-oo-oo (Answer to be posted in comments)

1. Who would you invite to a dinner party?
David Beckham, Stephen Fry, Frankie Boyle and Russel Brand

2. Which two things could you not live without?
Tomatoes and tea bags

3. If you were an animal which animal would you be?
A dog

4. What is your earliest memory?
Zipping around the garden on my tricycle wearing a crash helmet and using an empty bottle of Lenor as my petrol can.

5. What was your first ever album?
The soundtrack to Mary Poppins. That’s when it all started.

The walls have ears …

Michael: “You mean, no one ever burnt down anything at your school?.”

£1 sandwiches no more

It's a sad day for Collective lunchers, and not just because of the rain. The delightful Harlequin pub announced to us it's shutting at lunchtimes, taking with it its wonderful £1 sandwich offer. Particularly distraught were those whose loyalty cards were nearly full. The free sandwich will never be!

Google release 'Chrome' browser

Google today announced that it is launching Chrome, its own open-source browser. Their thinking behind the new browser is that the internet is used much differently to how it used to be. People use the web for content-(and processor-) rich media like video and interactive Flash, and older browsers simply can't keep up. They are unstable and crash, or incompatible.



Chrome aims to solve the problem by using independent tabs as a means of viewing content. So if one tab overloads and crashes, Chrome will just close that tab, not crash completely. The user will also be able to see all processes and plugins that are running on a page, and be able to see which tabs are using up the most CPU.



While these advances sound excellent, it will be interesting to see how Chrome fares in terms of compliance with web design standards such as CSS, java and other plugins. I'm also a little wary of switching over to tabbed browsing - I've been a committed 'window opener' ever since I started using the web and it will be a hard habit to break.

Further reading:
Wikipedia
Google comic

A Bientot, Danny

Collective's resident be-afroed rockstar Danny B has headed off on a whipstop UK tour with band Ex-lovers. You can follow their tour exploits and check if they're coming to a town near you on their blog.