I was recently staying in a hotel in Waterloo and wanted to find a local hairdresser to help sort my unruly locks. I put the hotel postcode into Google maps and searched for local places. It came up with about 8 suggestions. I looked at all the Google reviews for the nearest ones and clicked through to their websites to get some more info. There were some really good reviews for a nice looking place just near the hotel. So far so good.

So from a standing start I had spent a good 10 minutes looking at all my options and literally found this company based on Google alone. Must be a pretty cheap conversion and they didn’t even have to waste any other money on me to try and convince me to try their salon.

I then called them to make an appointment – the phone rang and rang and there wasn’t even an answer phone to take a message. I tried them again later that day and it just rang and rang. I tried a couple of times and eventually ran out of patience and just went with the number 2 option on my list.

Just goes to show, you can ...

I stumbled out of Virgin Active on Oxford Street the other day, feeling that wonderful post-exercise smugness which is usually just enough to mask the acute throbbing sensation … when I noticed a new pop-up ideas shop from Ogilvy. ‘What a brilliant idea’ I mused as I limped weakly off to the tube.

As a small agency it’s often hard to justify the outlay of time and resource to pro-bono projects but it really got me thinking about what they had achieved on what seemed like a fairly modest budget.  The shop was executed well, it seemed sufficiently low-fi enough to welcome the average Joe or local entrepreneur off the street; above all it felt accessible and relevant. Their focus this time was on social media to coincide with Social Media Week on 7th – 11th February and in the age where everyone ‘has’ to have Facebook fans, I’m sure they were inundated with requests about whether local businesses and charities can make this dark art work for them too.

After having a snoop and over-hearing a few conversations, above all I thought that Ogilvy did a great job in positively portraying our industry to the public, but also that they had ...

This year, we’re giving the gift of giving.

Our resident elf has filled his sack with twelve pleasurable prezzies to bring some Yuletide cheer to the streets of W1, putting smiles on the faces of humbugs and revelers alike.

With a helping hand from his glamorous opera-singing sidekick, the people of London could hardly believe their luck…

Enjoy!