Info-graphics are all well and good, but we decided that there was only one way to bring the new Facebook timeline for brands layout to life – and that was AS a timeline. You can find it here.

One thing that struck us whilst putting this together was just how buggy the process is for launch.  Facebook might be on the verge of their IPO but they clearly still stick to their policy of pushing developments and features live at the earliest possible date.  It makes for a frustrating process at times (ask anyone who used the Insights tool in its early stages) but you can’t say they are resting on their laurels.

We’re in the process of monitoring how the new layout is affecting our client’s pages and when we have something we can share we will be sure to do so.  In the meantime, to see our work in action head on over to the Douwe Egberts page and have a click around.

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 ...

Q. What do you get when you cross Ruth Roseweir, Marketing Manager at Cubo, with water?

A. A nervous wreck…..

Ruth has a fear of water… and breathing under it, so when she found herself submerged in a tropical reef surrounded by 2,000 fish, rays and even sharks at Discovery Cove’s SeaVenture attraction, let’s just say she was rather ‘sea-shell’ shocked.

Ruth was hosting eight travel agents on a recent familiarisation trip to SeaWorld Parks in Florida as part of our ongoing trade marketing activity to showcase the latest park attractions.

As the group prepared to experience the park’s newest diving attraction, there were reservations from various people, including Ruth, as to whether they could dive with ‘respiratory problems’. But Ruth wasn’t so lucky, as the tour caters for people with asthma and has various procedures which ensure everyone can have a go. Lucky Ruth.

So here she is, the first Cuboid to try out the new underwater walking tour, coming face to fin with venomous lionfish, sharks and spotted eagle rays. And look, she’s loving it, and so did the agents who are now raving about the experience to their customers!

Our online social lives have moved in leaps and bounds over the past few years, some have savoured the opportunity to express themselves via social networks while others still struggle to understand it.  Whichever basket you fall into you’ll be sure to have an opinion about Facebook’s introduction of ‘Timeline’.  No doubt fuelled by the pressure of Google+, the first serious contender to its crown since it steamrollered over MySpace, Facebook is in the process of rolling out a huge suite of updates. The majority being centred around this new Timeline functionality, which is set to replace users traditional profile as soon as Zuckerberg can chat his way out of a tricky legal battle with timelines.com (another story all together).

Once we get past the expected frustration regarding our pure dislike for the way things look or the fact we can’t find that button we once overused, we’ll start to get closer to the core of what will run through the minds of Facebookers and we’ll realise very quickly that any sort of exodus from the network is going to require a much greater change than simply the way Facebook presents your data.

‘I’ll close my account’ is what you will say.  ...

Gary Barlow may be judging Britain’s singing talent on the X-Factor, but it was announced this week that Madonna is soon to judge on the world stage as the face of Smirnoff’s online dance video competition.

As Gary Barlow takes Simon Cowell’s seat on season 8 of the hit show, I noticed that Diageo has cleverly tapped into the ‘X-Fever’ by announcing Madonna & Smirnoff’s hunt the best nightlife in the world, and ultimately the world’s best unknown dancer. Clever.

So, it made me think.  As jobs go, who gets the best judge gig? Let’s put money aside – hardly an issue for these two!

After week one, Gary seems to have got the measure of the shoes he’s filling.  He’s playing the honest judge, saying it like it is and playing ‘Mr. Not-So-Nice’ when needed. Madge, on the other hand, is taking the laid back approach by getting hopefuls to submit a 60-second dance video to Smirnoff or to her own Facebook page. One to Madonna.

Although Madonna’s been around for longer, getting on the X-Factor panel for Barlow has catapulted the 40-year old singer into the media spotlight.  With his squeaky clean reputation he should also get a point for ensuring this ...

I grew up in a little village called Pill, just outside Bristol. The story goes that it was the last place John Cabot set foot before his epic voyage to discover America in 1497.  It was home to the pilots who used to guide the big ships up the Avon to the thriving Port of Bristol before everything transferred to the dreary industrial zones of Avonmouth and Portbury.  And John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, wrote in his 1755 journal that “I rode over to Pill, a place famous from generation to generation for stupid, brutal, abandoned wickedness”…… possibly something to do with the fact that the village once boasted 21 pubs.

Anyway, nowadays there’s nothing overtly remarkable about Pill.  So on a recent visit I was intrigued to encounter a brightly coloured, life-sized statue of a gorilla on a surfboard overlooking the muddy banks of Pill Creek.  Incongruous to say the least.

The plaque on the base explained that he was part of a project to celebrate 175 years of Bristol Zoo, a particular favourite treat from my childhood.  So it wasn’t hard to find this http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/wow-gorillas

Now I know similar projects have been done before (I remember elephants in London) ...

Google+ is most definitely getting a few people excited at the moment, and so it should.  When one monster, free tool of the internet (Google) moves into the realm of another (Facebook) in an attempt to steal its social media crown you know it’s going to get interesting.  It’s potentially the digital Haye vs. Klitschko, except both parties are true heavyweights.

The biggest challenge to any new social network is, of course, the sheer size of Facebook’s user base.  A mind blowing 1 in 13 people on earth are now on Facebook.  Over half of the UK population has a user profile, and 50% of these are Liking or LOLing every day.

Despite the recent reports of decreasing users, the scale of Facebook’s reach gives it an enormous advantage over its competition.  The site is fast becoming the only tool consumers need online, and the only tool advertisers need to engage with their audience.  Effectively owning the communication channel between brand and consumer has placed Facebook in a very dominant position.

Of course, Google knows this all too well, as it managed to achieve exactly the same position in the search battle, much to the detriment of Yahoo and Microsoft.  Google’s pockets (and ...

A little after the scheduled start time, and many hilarious comments from viewers that had failed to notice the “audio muted” and “live cast to begin imminently” banners scrolling across the screen, Mark Zuckerberg took to the floor last night to announce the “awesome” new product Facebook has been working on.

The subject of much debate in the industry since Facebook hinted at its arrival last week, the new product turned out to be video chat – no surprises there then.

Despite the lack of surprise about what it was, the announcement that Facebook has been working on the development of video chat with Skype for the past six months prompted many to question Zuckerberg’s tactics. Could it be that Facebook waited for Google to announce Google+ (the search giant’s new social network that launched last week following the less successful Orkut and Google Wave) before announcing its new offering, or was it just a timely coincidence? Either way, with many suggesting that the Facebook developments have signed the death warrant for Google+ it is clear that Facebook has scored a big win over its rival here in terms of PR.

New developments aside – other ‘new’ bits announced were group chat and ...

Like millions of others, I took part in the Olympic sport of ‘applying for tickets’ last month.  My Dad had also called me up, asking for help navigating the Mensa-esque digital maze that was the application process, and I duly popped over to assist.

I explained there was going to be insane levels of interest in certain events, and that he’d never have a hope in hell of getting anything involving Usain Bolt or a bicycle.  Avoid those both like the plague, I said.  If you want to experience the Olympics, go for something left field, was the advice.

Two tickets for the synchronised swimming heats were bid for – still in shock on the choice, Dad – and the wait began.  In the meantime, I went against my own advice and bid for a pair of tickets for my wife and I to go to the 200m final – expecting zilch in return.

The deadline passes and it’s clear that Dad has failed in his bid to watch the worst Olympic sport that there is (apologies to all you coordinated swimmers out there, but it’s not a sport).  He’s understandably a little disappointed, and I explain there was just so much interest ...

I seldom use the tube these days.

I walk to work every morning from where I live near Tufnell Park and I usually walk home, too.

Anyway, I was on the tube the other night and an ad caught my eye…

It looked like one of those cheesy ‘WellMan’ style health supplement ads.

For a product called the ‘Clear Pill’, purporting to enhance one’s mental performance.

I loved the strapline: BECOME THE PERFECT VERSION OF YOURSELF

Made me laugh out loud, as did the list of side effects which include ‘sudden death’.

It almost had me; just before I asked a stranger to look at it as I was so incredulous, I figured that it was a clever spoof.

A witty teaser campaign for an upcoming film which I subsequently discovered to be called ‘Limitless’. (Out now.)

You can only really work this out from the small print at the bottom of the ad.

Excellent.

Time for my pill…