Tag Archives: media

Updating a Cheating Memory – Day of the Daleks review

Entertainment, , , , ,

day of the daleks review

Okay so I’ve always been a Doctor Who fan. I love the modern reboot and especially the “timey whimey” stories that show runner Steven Moffat is so well known for. You know – he’s always getting things that happen in the future mixing with things that happen in the present. Or do I mean the past? The grandfather principle and all that brain aching stuff. Some people say it is too complicated. I disagree.

One of the earliest stories I ever saw – when I was just a little boy – was the Jon Pertwee story, Day of the Daleks. This had a very time travel paradox orientated story which at the time went over my head. I was more interested in the Daleks and the amazing battle they had with UNIT troops at the end of the story.

For me as a child I was captivated. My memories of that battle, with hundred of Daleks sweeping across the lawn of an Edwardian country house, exterminating the soldiers with their cool “negative” laser blasts, whilst the troops desperately fired mortar grenades at them, super-charged my imagination for many years to come……until I bought the VHS video when it was released 15 years later.

I watched in disbelief. What happened to the battle I remembered? The actual reality was just three battered old Dalek props struggling to glide across the grass whilst a couple of soldiers fired cap guns at them.

Of course when it comes to TV and films that you watch as a child, the memory cheats. My young mind had embellished what it saw with the more descriptive prose of the later novelisation and created a false memory of a spectacle that was way beyond the production and budget capabilities of the 1970s BBC.

However it’s not just me. It seems that the memory cheated for many more people who remember the story with fondness. So hats off to the producers at 2:Entertain for the recently released DVD of the tale. The team have gone back to the original filming locations (such as Dropmore Park in Buckinghamshire) and re-shot some scenes using a 1970s film camera, retro Dalek props and new people dressed as soldiers. On top of this they have added better explosions, more lasers and had the modern Dalek voice artist, Nick Briggs, redub the sound track to make them sound super scary.

The remarkable result cures the cheating memory. They have produced a special edition that is true to the exaggerated memories I formed as a child. Pertwee is still a fabulous Doctor. Here he is authoritative, charming and resourceful and shows a particular fondness for red wine whilst fighting his enemies. And he has the best line in the script with his put down of a pompous Government Minister, “Look try and use your intelligence man, even if you are a politician.”

Day of the Daleks was always a great story and script let down by poor production. Now that the old flakiness has been polished we can enjoy this top rate tale as the memory intended. And what a story. Guerrillas from the future traveling back in time to the present to kill the person they think created their Dalek subjugated future (sounds a bit like The Terminator doesn’t it? Except DOTD came first!). It’s a time travel paradox that I never understood as a child.

Now I can understand it, and can watch the show as the tour-de-force my memory always told me it was.

I’m not a Social Media Expert – But I know what I know…

Marketing, , , ,

Social media has become the buzz topic of marketers, PRs and consultants in just about every industry on Earth. But there remains a sense that many are still trying to work out where it fits with their overall marketing and communications strategy. I use social media. Am I an expert in it? No, and I would hesitate to believe the claims of any consultants who say they are, because the medium is still evolving. Daily. All anyone can do is claim to have had more experience with social media.

So what is it? To put it simply, it is the web equivalent of traditional networking and word-of-mouth, something that many people are already good at. It is all about having a conversation with customers and potential customers and building a community around your brand and service. If used effectively, it can bring enormous benefits to a business; improve service levels, boost word-of-mouth business and bring in repeat business.

You can turn customers into advocates by engaging with them and gaining their loyalty. In order to do this, a business has to think about what it can contribute to social media and how best to engage with its customers.

I like to think of it as a spider’s web of information, with data flowing out from a central point and returning to that same hub. A blog site with interesting and topical opinions can act as the centre piece. Twitter ‘tweets’, Facebook and Linkedin posts can drive customers to the blog which itself might contain links to your main business website.

By also creating links to other blogs and related sites, you can very quickly create strands that start to make patterns that Google can identify. Such social media activity immediately increases online visibility regardless of whether or not the company has a website, because social media sites are very search engine friendly.

Users have told me that they can’t, initially, sell directly off it – but it creates a forum for engaging with people and building up trust which will eventually lead to new business.

Facebook and Twitter can strengthen the strands you lay down. In the same way as someone may ‘like’ a Facebook post about you relaxing with a glass of wine, a Facebook ‘Like’ button built into every page of your website will allow your customers to create links back to you.

Social media also allows you to monitor what others are saying about your business, meaning that you can react quickly to both positive and negative feedback. Some have been able to address customer concerns simply by reading what they are tweeting.

Getting to know social media personally, at first, is a much easier way of entering into the space. Time is the only start up cost and you will be surprised at how useful it is for both personal and business-to-business networking.

The Big Issue is – it’s all about selling

Marketing, , , , , ,

Quite a few of my friends, especially those in the fitness industry, are trying to start local businesses at the moment and seeing the guy selling The Big Issue this morning it got me thinking about spreading the word.

How often have you actually stopped and bought a copy of the Big Issue? I have to admit that for me, it is extremely rarely. It’s not that I don’t support the concept behind the magazine and the good job it does helping the homeless to help themselves; I just sometimes get annoyed by the tactics and spiel used by the vendors. Some just shout “Big Issue” and ram the magazine into your face whenever you get within shoving distance. Others stand blocking the doorway to sandwich shops and supermarkets and act as if the purchase is an entry requirement.

Unfortunately shoving and blocking is not selling and it is selling that is needed here.

I am sure that it is not the fault of the Big Issue vendors. Perhaps they are not advised how to sell the product and are just given a satchel full of magazines to hit the streets with. But there is one vendor in Edinburgh who is completely different. He doesn’t shout, ram or block. He sells the content and the benefits of the magazine. He’ll say, “In this issue read a great article on the new series of Doctor Who. Matt Smith’s interview is worth the cover price alone. Hear what he really thinks of predecessor, David Tennant.”

That sort of messaging does grab my attention. It makes you realise that the magazine has content you might want to read. This guy knows what he’s doing and I would bet that he sells many more copies than those working in busier locations. Perhaps he should be teaching the others how to sell.

It is one of the basic rules of business – sell the benefits not the product itself. When you open a new business you have to let people know you are there. Drop leaflets, advertise locally, talk to journalists, go on local radio and announce your presence and most importantly tell them what you can do for them.

If you own a shop you would change the window display frequently so that people who pass by everyday suddenly see a new reason to slow down and go in. If people weren’t coming into your shop you might stand outside and try and entice them in. Again to be successful with this you would focus on the benefits rather than the actual products. I can see that you sell fruit; that’s obvious and I might walk past. But tell me that you have the new yellow raspberries which are much less sour than the red ones and I might pop in and buy some.

Some products are less visible than even the most poorly sold copy of the Big Issue. Selling a service, like personal training may have no obvious “shop window”. Without a shop window we cannot expect people to know who and where we are. But the modern world of internet, social media and digital communications offers an amazing array of selling tools that can be become your shop window in the local area.

Use Facebook ads to target the local population and age demographic. Send regular press releases to your local newspapers and radio stations. Drop leaflets into doctor’s surgeries and and other places where people have time on their hands.

A Big Issue vendor wanting me to buy the latest issue has to tell me that there is something inside it that I really want to read as opposed to just reminding me that the publication exists. Awareness isn’t enough, but fortunately there are very cost effective tools that exist to enable you to turn that awareness into interest, then turn that interest into an opportunity.

Hacking and the Future of the Media

The Crazy World in which we Live, , , , , , ,

During the MP’s expenses scandal the media, and the printed media in particular, delighted in exposing various claims for porn movies, the costs of second homes and the cleaning of ponds. The public’s view of politicians was at an all time low. How dare they treat tax payers money in this way? Especially during a recession when everyone was finding it hard to make ends meet.

Now those same politicians, even some of the discredited ones who still hold office, are baying for the blood of the media as the phone hacking saga continues with shocking new daily revelations. The former editor of the News of The World has just been arrested by appointment – a process that certainly takes the fun out of the traditional dawn raid where doors are smashed aside with bright red enforcers. And of course there will be an inquiry and undoubtedly there will be some new regulations as a result.

I know many journalists and all of them are honest and equally horrified by what has been going on. In our internet and social media soaked world where there is information overload, sometimes I think that it would be good for journalists to be a little more investigative. Ask a few more questions rather than simply rewriting the hundreds of press releases they receive everyday. But if investigation crosses the line into illegal behaviour then that’s not the type of investigative journalism I want to see.

My concern is what the regulatory outcome of all of this will be. The MP’s expenses scandal reminds us that as well as reporting current events, that the press provides a sort of regulation of politicians on behalf of the public. On the whole MPs will be terrified that any indiscretion comes out in print and scuppers their hopes of re-election.

If the media becomes more heavily regulated then the freedoms they currently have to report potential wrong doings in the corridors of power might be eroded or curtailed. We have to punish those responsible for hacking the phones of victims of terrible crimes. But once that is done let the honest journalists carry on their work, otherwise we might find our politicians even less accountable to those they are meant to serve than they are now.