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I am sure it’s not just me but frankly I am fed up to the back teeth of the constant BBC bashing that’s going round the media since the Sachs-gate episode.  Last week that bloke who’s tipped to play Dr. Who ‘exposed himself on Radio 1′ and then every newspaper carried a story of gross negligence.  Erm… correct me if i am wrong, but it’s a sodding radio show…. it’s not like we can see anything.  I mean really, the whole debacle is so pathetic.   Have you ever heard Howard Stern’s show on Radio Indecency?  It’s utterly crazy, it is pure filthy content and filthy language, yet the ratings are through the roof.  It’s a common fact, outrageous content boosts ratings. How can the BBC ever compete on a level playing field to the independent media outlets (and lets face it there are fricking hundreds of stations) if it  is restricted in it’s behaviour.  The very essence of media involves challenging ‘yourself’ and pushing the boundaries to inspire consumer interest and advocacy.  If the Beeb is going to be handcuffed to the laws of ‘common decency’ then it might as well give up now.

Don’t get me wrong I am all in favour of the festive spirit, I love the feverish excitement that grips the nation in the last few days before Christmas…. I feel delighted to be able to buy all my gifts online and thus avoid my traditional West End jaunt which as the years have gone by (and my stamina has waned) I am very pleased be be able to avoid…

But I can’t help noticing  that if Christmas didnt exist we surely should have had to invent it.  Right now with the impending recession, the nation appears to be holding out for Christmas like a man in a desert after a glass of water.  This is the first of my observations, Christmas is the biggest morale booster of the year.  Presents, food, drink, Christmas parties, Christmas bonus’s(?!) all the consumer Christmasses come at once!

During November and December the British high-streets rake in 5.5 Billion per week, yes per week!  It’s a shame Woolworths couldn’t hold out, and now I notice that Zavvi (formerly Virgin Megastore) are cancelling their Christmas online orders due to the collapse of Woolworth’s Entertainment arm.  Too little too soon!

In leisure and hospitality, British restaurants, pubs and clubs earn between 30-40% of their total annual revenue during the 8 weeks proceeding Christmas.   That’s a staggering amount of festive spirit being imbibed.

I love Christmas and the excitement that it brings, but if it didnt exist then surely we would have had to invent the advent.

Situated in uber-trendy Shoreditch, you can’t help but watch the vast array of different media types pass you by, and your mind tends to wander, how did this little area become so eclectic?

I was recently told that Shoreditch is the home of the new digital age and that we at Captive Minds are conveniently placed in the heart of it all. This came to me as not a surprise, since Shoreditch is all but the home of the biggest culture clash in London and from a fashion –savvy perspective, is the biggest crossover scene this decade. So no wonder, creative talent oozes from the walls of the design studios that are tucked away in the cobbled open-plan offices throughout Shoreditch.

Not only is Shoreditch home to East London’s cool kids, the Super- Super magazine kids, the i-D Magazine readers, whatever you want to call them, it is also the home of the Boombox phase that transformed journalists perspectives on culture and fashion. Based in Hoxton Square on a Sunday evening throughout much of 2007, this 80s based revival was the true vision of Shoreditch and everything that has shaped the media and fashion to date.

Following this phase, the media are incorporating this new ‘East London’ influence and Shoreditch has become the melting pot for all things ‘media.’ So we at Captive Minds feel privileged to be among this inspiring atmosphere and certainly bring it into the boardroom.

Recently, I have been feeling like the world of technology is speeding up faster than ever, and that we as consumers need to increase our pace to avoid getting swept away!

So this time last year no-one except the most hardcore tech-lover (yes, I mean the kind who queued up for 36 hours when the phone was launched) knew what an iPhone application was. Now you can get snowglobes to put on your iphone screen which actually shake when the phone is shaken, and photos of fish and chips you can shake salt and vinegar on to…and I am sure many many more applications with an actual purpose as well as the more silly ones that look great and make your mind boggle -The now banned $999 application ’I Am Rich’ which did nothing but confirm the status and wealth of the user with a nice red picture on the screen being one example!

The speed at which these things become a part of everyone’s lives is what consistently shocks me time and time again. Being merely a wannabe techie person, ie someone who admires these things from afar but is to stingy to get involved, I am constantly amazed at the things I see people playing with when I sit behind them on the bus. For the first time in a while, I get the feeling things are developing much faster than I can keep up with. Only last week I was introduced to Second Sight – and was rendered speechless by it for about ten minutes. Suitable for any phone with a video camera, after downloading a free application the camera is held over a coded square looking a bit like a mosaic. The camera then recognises the code, and pictures, animated characters, video and sound clips all come to life on the screen of your phone. The rattlesnake I was shown, for example, would recoil and spit if the camera was help too close the the coded square, and the animated character would rotate as you rotated the code.

It is at times like these, I thought to myself, that one should accept what is in front of you, marvel at it, and spread the word -because I have realised that just because you don’t understand it does not mean you shouldn’t revel in it. The annual phone upgrade is a chance to push it as far as you can for another year, and by your next upgrade you’ll wonder how you got by without all that new technology. The technological revolution is a never ending road of launch, development, launch, and development, and it is all too easy to get left behind, so I am telling all my friends about Second Sight, and showing them on my phone despite having absolutely no idea how it works, but that’s not important because they all love it too. So my message is to those afraid of change - don’t be afraid of the onslaught – embrace it!

Captive Minds has always represented a few beverage brands and in recent years the Functional Drinks category has definitely been our strongest player.  From 10ml miniature ginseng energy shots through to flavoured water and pure fruit juices the list of nutraceutical properties each one has is endless.  Every one has a reason and need to be drunk at a certain time of the day, the morning drinks give us natural all-day energy, a lunchtime boost for hair and nails(!?) promotes ‘beauty from within’ and of course the early evening ‘relax’ or ‘boost’ depending on your noctural plans.

I think we’re only just starting to see the very tip of this behemothic iceberg, as life naturally gets harder and more stresssful and our bodies take centuries to catch up, I genuinely wonder did the film “Wall-E”capture a futuristic vision of life in decades to come:  every meal is simply drunk like a protein-shake, every mood desire can be drunk from a bottle - it’s a scary thought.

Perhaps turning 30 has made me notice that eating and drinking healthily gives me more energy.  I was already a convert to functional drinks - but now I believe it is part of my lifestyle.

What a week we had last week, a last minute request came through from Polar Extreme Inc. an American Production company currently working on a couple of global warming / North Pole productions, asking us to run a press conference for them - giving us just 4 working days to sort out the location and lobby the media.  Thank goodness the team’s working so slick, the guys managed to secure Parliament Square for a press call (I am told this is unique due to the new licencing laws that govern the square following the mass protests recently) and then Brit, Sarah and myself rocked the media.  We had a full house, Times, Telegraph, Metro, London Paper (thanks Hannah Summers) plus (oh yes) both BBC Lunchtime news and London Tonight.  We even had to turn down BBC Breakfast News on the Sunday.  Client was happy - waahey - well done team.

Sadly, free time was short lived with whole office working Sunday (sorry everyone - working on a large proposal…..watch this space)  Until next time.  Over and out.

Every week at Captive Minds, we have a “show and tell”. One person is singled out to find something unique to share with the rest of the team.

We’ve had all kinds of things so far - from the meaning of Cheese Strings ads to Dr. Sigmund Freud’s contributions to PR. It’s been interesting to see how some of presentations from our Digital and Creative team can spark ideas with the Comms team.

Cezary, one of our developers at CaptiveDC, has spent some of his spare time contributing to a open source project called “Semapedia”. It takes wikipedia whole step further, bringing hyper links to the physical world.

Simply, a unique Semapedia-Tag is placed in or around a physical place of interest. It’s functions like a barcode and means that anyone with a modern mobile phone can scan it and be automatically sent to the relevant wikipedia page about that place of interest. Check it out - http://www.semapedia.org.

“Hmmm” … said one … “Now what if we used sema-tagged t-shirts” …