Shiner is one of the UK’s leading action sports goods distributors.  Active within a number of different categories including bikes (bmx freestyle and race), skateboards (completes and parts), soft goods (bags, t shirts etc), scooters, inline skates, quad skates, protection, and shoes,  Shiner are a business run and managed by people who live, eat and breathe each of the sports that they operate in.

We’ll be working with Shiner on a new digital strategy for the business including e commerce sites and content creation and management, while maintaining  brand credibility and grass root support.

I mention this now for two reasons. Firstly it reminded me of an incident that happened to an old client of ours, Adam, and secondly the meeting I attended (fully clothed) dealt with data acquisition and the desire by brands to know more and more about their consumers. Here’s how the two are connected.

Adam is a well rounded character with a huge, loud laugh like a sea lion who has secured the best spot on the beach. He has a well developed ability to turn a profit at whatever he does, and a result has the generosity and means to entertain himself and others wherever his work happens to take him.

One night a few years ago, Adam extended his largesse a little too far and missed his last train home. A young lady may have been involved in mixing his drinks and decision making. However much she was involved earlier, the young lady had departed by the time Adam leant against the reception desk of an anonymous express welcome city lodge. The transaction was simple. He needed a room. The hotel had a room. Adam went to his door, fumbled his way in and swiftly disrobed in a way that in my student days was known as ‘mad monkey’. He was asleep by the time his ruddy cheeks met the cold, shiny surface of the polyester bedspread.

In the morning his trousers were gone.

Adam awoke simultaneously disappointed and thankful for his solitude. Not being one for introspection or the self indulgence of self loathing, he moved quickly to shower, dress and resume his sober suited life. Which is when he found that had no trousers. An exhausting search of the room, complete with a red faced, heavy breathed squint under the bed, revealed nothing. The only window was closed, and anyway it opened onto an internal courtyard, so that Adam could quickly reassure himself that he had not defenestrated his trousers in a moment of monkey madness.

He telephoned reception. His rapid, close questioning of the staff  was met with silence and blank dumbfoundedness. So he fashioned his bedspread into a sarong, put on his shirt, suit jacket, underpants, socks and brogues and went down to breakfast dressed like the  leader of a newly independent state who wants to celebrate his national costume while also looking like a man that the West “can do business with.”

Having restated his problem to the hotel staff, he repaired to the breakfast lounge and solemnly ate half a melon. It was while he was considering ruining this healthy start to the day with an attack on the hot plates of full English, that the duty manager approached him wearing a huge smile and carrying a pair of trousers on his arm.

Pressed and folded, they were indeed Adam’s. But how? Where? Why? The duty manager asked if Adam might like to dress and then join him in his office where he would be only too glad to explain, but needless to say, without hesitation, the manager could reassure him that the hotel was very embarrassed and would not be charging Adam for his overnight stay.

A short time later, Adam heard how, late the previous evening, long after he had occupied his room, another similarly disheveled business man had entered the hotel and asked for a room. In a mistake that could only happen thanks to the technological ‘development’ of electronic card keys, the man had been given the same room as Adam. He too had fought his way enthusiastically into the room, and such was his inebriated befuddlement, when he saw the large form of Adam on the bed, simply accepted the fact, took off his clothes and fell asleep on the floor.

Still later into the night, a member of the hotel night staff noticed that the two gentlemen had been given the same room. What to do? A decision was taken. Yet another electronic key was activated, and night staff crept into the room to survey two very drunk men, and a random distress of discarded clothes. A further decision was weighed up. Adam was much bigger than the man on the floor, and would therefore be far harder to carry out of the room and into another. Furthermore,  the second man had paid for a bed, and would surely object less to being moved off the hard bristles of the carpet. Attempts to quietly wake the second man failed, and so with many stifled grunts and groans he was lifted up and carried off along the corridor to be put gently to bed.  At the same time, his clothes and belongings were gathered up with much anxiety and fevered haste. So much so that as laptop bags and shoes, jackets and wallets were scooped up, so in error, were two pairs of trousers.

Adam is never slow to see the funny side. With the relief of having secured the return of his trousers and a vivid picture in his mind of terrified, body snatching hotel staff lumbering around darkened corridors, he was quick to accept the offer of no charge for his stay and a free return to breakfast. It was only later, he told me as we shared more of his generous drinks allowance, that he became slightly upset by the thought of how vulnerable he had been at that time. Yes, of course given his level of inebriation he was more than partly to blame. But he still felt that his privacy had been invaded, that he had been put at risk, and that this had occurred due to technology. That the modern change in hotel security from ‘good old fashioned keys’ to ‘those f**king credit card things which never work, except it seems to allow in strangers or any staff who want a look’ had resulted in a small, but significant diminution of his safety when away from home.

As someone who works in brand strategy and digital marketing I am acutely aware that as consumers we are increasingly asked for permissions and access to our lives by businesses and brands. Consumers are rightly concerned that they retain control over how technology affects their lives – and that if permissions are given, that this technology should enhance, not diminish our quality of life. It feels like I’ve been in too many meetings recently where someone has triumphantly said ‘We will do X, and then we will have their details’ without it feels, giving any thought as to whether or not this is going to be a good thing for the consumer. So I would say this, if you’re a brand or an agency engaged in data capture (and doesn’t that phrase reveal how we view it as an aggressive, intrusive act?), ask yourself, do I want people in my room when I’m asleep? Is our digital technology being used so that we can blunder about in peoples lives, taking their trousers and making them feel diminished and vulnerable? For if, on analysis, it is revealed that are simply trying to activate a digital key to their lives without any benefit to the individual, then quite simply, we shouldn’t be doing it.

Peter

Goram & Vincent were appointed to redesign and re-platform the existing Philip Mould website.

The project objectives were to stimulate more enquiries about the works for sale, and to reposition the Philip Mould brand and gallery as more accessible, broadening its potential market appeal. It was also important that staff had a bespoke content management system that enabled them to add and remove works of art (and other digital elements) without recourse to the agency.

Fundamental to our solution was the creation of  an interface that showcases the paintings. As Philip Mould recounted in a 2006 interview "Something that pictures need in their presentation is oxygen, they need air around them.” It was this philosophy that led the business to choose their gallery location in Mayfair, and it was imperative that it was also replicated online. As a result, the ‘product pages’ take their cues from luxury fashion ecommerce to display the paintings to best effect, with a slick ‘zoom’ feature and an introduction from Philip via streaming audio clip.

As a part of this brief we were also asked to create and implement email communications, which included the design and creation of an email template, site integration, and training for clients on both the new website content management system and email platform.

Everyone at Philip Mould Ltd was a pleasure to work with, and we’re delighted that they are receiving positive feedback from their client base on the ease of use and clarity of communication provided by the new site. Finally it’s not everyday that you design and build an site with a £30,000 or less section! Why not have a browse now and pick up a bargain?

Location based apps, or geosocial to give the technology its more sexy name is often touted as being one of the key digital trends for 2012. It’s certainly been the source of some wonderful infographics from Jess3 and the next web. It’s all too easy however, especially for those of us who work in design, to be seduced by these visual delights, and to start recommending clients allocate budget to geosocial this year. But, and it’s a big but – should we be doing so? What are the facts as they currently stand?

Download the full PDF article here.