We’ll let you know the outcome!

Next week is vinyl week, followed by old photo week. Keep an eye out for some of the fun! Any suggestions for the following weeks?

Sometimes whilst down the pub, I get asked what I do. Depending who I’m talking to and in what context, it’s sometimes easier – and a bit of fun – to use a pseudonym.

So… Hi, I’m Andy and I design sports biscuits. Generally, people love it, “really?!!”, I’ve even been asked “can you design one with me on please?”

The iPlayer is as popular as ever, enjoying its best month to date in April 2010, with 123m requests for TV and radio programmes.

The homepage now has ’sliding drawers’ which open to reveal more content in each of the categories; featured, most popular, friends, and ‘for you’.

Other changes include a complete separation of TV and radio content to make it clearer for users, while you can also flick easily between channels while watching live TV.

The best improvements for me are the personalisation features. I use iPlayer regularly and it should know what I like based on my viewing habits, so making use of this data to produce recommendations would have been a welcome step.

Instead of simply learning from previous viewing habits though, it seems that the new iPlayer relies on users adding programmes into their ‘favourites’ folder, and then lines these up in a playlist for you.

The introduction of social network integration is another welcome step; while viewing any programmes, you can click to recommend it on iPlayer, as well as sharing it on Twitter or Facebook via the recommend button:

The addition of user recommendations should also make content discovery much easier, as you can now read other users’ reviews of programmes, and see the most recommended in chart form.

Other developments to come include the addition of links to programmes from ITV Player, 4OD, Clic, Demand Five and SeeSaw, meaning that the iPlayer can direct users to these other websites, while also making the iPlayer a more attractive destination.

Key new features

Simple

* Cleaner user experience, with three discovery areas:

–Sliding drawers: Featured, For you, Most popular, Friends

–TV Channels: TV listings page, showing what’s on now

–Categories: browse by genre and sub-genre

* Separate TV & Radio

–No longer grouped together, easier to browse

–Radio console

–Pop-up console runs while you browse

* Channel-hop whilst watching live

–Quick links in viewing window, one-click to flip between channels

* BBC iPlayer Desktop

–Download favourites in advance to save time

–Easier to watch favourite programmes offline

* Improved viewing experience

–Fewer buttons

–Larger screen

–Higher quality video

Personal

* Favourites

–Tell BBC iPlayer what you like, and it will line programmes up in a convenient playlist

–New programmes, expiring programmes and unwatched programmes are flagged so it’s easier to keep track

* Improved recommendations based on what you watch and listen to

–Stored in local cookies, or via BBC iD

–Families can log in through separate IDs: individual experiences through the same machine

–Improved programme alerts delivered via email, so you don’t miss a thing

* Roam with BBC iD

–Log in to store preferences, so you pick up where you left off on another computer

* Customisable EPG

–List your favourite channels and stations

Connected

* Connect with Facebook

–Post content directly to your wall to recommend and share with friends

* Sync with Twitter

–Auto-tweet to recommend and pass links to friends

* Live chat with friends using Windows Live Messenger

–Log in to Windows Live Messenger through BBC iPlayer

–Forward links to others online: watch on-demand at the same time

–Comment live on programmes as they air

Then came along the social media boom, with myspace, facebook and Youtube at the forefront. Introduction of online social media created a snowball effect for people using it more and more to connect with friends and using it’s tools to help promote up and coming events/share music/video/photos etc.

So as these sites gained in popularity I took advantage of this to tell the world what events are going on. Not using this method is without doubt selling yourself short to gain popularity of events. Facebook is the first port of call for whenever I am setting up an event by simply uploading related artwork, adding content telling people in detail, where? When? Who’s playing etc. and then distributing across my network. Then telling my friends to invite their friends and so on……after the event I add photos and video from the night to share with people who could or couldn’t make it.

Other nights such as the legendary Back To Basics (the longest running weekly club night in the world) uses Facebook heavily, posting information on events each week. See the below link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=101739476531177&ref=ts

Here is a link to my next event:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=10150136403150301&ref=ts

Stickybits brings the physical and digital worlds together with barcode stickers which trigger audio, video, photo, and text messages when scanned. The product is a mobile app for the iPhone and Android phones which lets users scan barcodes, attach messages, and keep track of the stickybits left by their friends. Will it catch on?

During December, January and February a new presence was crafted with a new web site, an updated Wikipedia entry to rival the best and a host of other initiatives including Facebook. The culmination of this work was an official launch party and subsequent concert the day after the new site was launched. An innovation in this concert was that conductor Natalia Luis-Bassa spoke at some length to the audience in between items, describing and analysing them quite humorously.

The concert was attended by a posse of 25 Connected teamies who all went along to support the orchestra. A great night was had by all and the concert was a resounding success with some great reviews.

…is DOUGS BIRTHDAY! I think many beers are in order, for the 24th anniversary of Dougs birth should be an important day in everyone’s calendar. The more the merrier!

In late November we descended upon Harrogate, the famous spa town in North Yorkshire staying at the beautiful Crown Hotel whose guest list boasts a number of famous names including Lord Byron and The Beatles. Once we’d all checked in, we headed up to our rooms to get ready for the evening event.

Now donning our suits and dresses, we had a couple of warm up drinks in the hotel bar before departing for The Restaurant Bar and Grill, just a short walk from the hotel.

We were seated and pretty soon the wine and conversation were flowing and the party was now in full swing. The courses were a grand assortment of things including Baked goats cheese, Crispy duck rolls and Tempura of king prawns for starters. Grilled salmon, Malayan spiced chicken (which was fantastic), Sirloin steak and Baked parmesan and butternut squash tart for main and Chocolate fudge brownies, New York style cheesecake and ice cream for dessert. All the food went down well with plenty of wine throughout which gave us a good foothold for what was to come.

After the meal we moved on to the Blues Bar where resident Jed Thomas and his band, were blasting out lots of great music. The cramped space was a little too much for some of us so quite a bit of time was spent outside in the chilly Winter night.

After a few drinks at the Blues Bar, we headed back to the hotel bar to play out the rest of our game of “survival of the fittest”. For some (including myself) the night was winding down from this point on. It was getting late and the drinks were starting to take hold. From here on I can’t really go into much detail as I slumped off to bed early compared to some of the group who continued to party into the wee small hours.

Old marketing is dead – we all pretty know that by now – and is being replaced with what customers think they want. They cannot have been made clearer when a post on said company’s forum from a new visitor asks an opinion on a particular surgeon. Great, an opportunity for the board admin to help out and she does this by posting a link to the main web-site showing what the marketers had written about this surgeon. The original poster summarily dismissed the comment, really quite off-hand actually and asks for REAL opinions from real people. Wow. If this person, who subsequently got great comments about their surgeon and went ahead with the procedure, didn’t believe the corporate bullshit but would listen to the idle ramblings of Joe Average then that says a great deal about the role of the corporate site.

This episode has somewhat accelerated my drive in this project. Which, ironically, is struggling to get proper funding as we are unable to illustrate a (traditional) measurable RoI for it!