Callum – Peace and quiet.

Lindsey – A massive ensuite in primrose hill with views of parliment hill for £0.30 p a week

Jo – A can of Diet Coke, a Range Rover, a gift voucher from Marks & Spencer, an American Express Centurion Card, a jar of Nescafe from Nestle, a return flight to NY from Virgin Atlantic, a Sony Bravia TV, a N97 from Nokia, a Louis Vuitton Luggage, a pair of Nike trainers, a Ralph Lauren Sweater, a Tiffany bracelet, a Chanel Handbag, a Cartier watch, a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, a lottery ticket from Camelot, a No7 repair and Protect from Boots, a KFC family bucket and peace on earth.

Anna – everything Jo said!

Charles – is a strong robust UK economy that actually grows for a change and salmon coloured cowboy shirt and shoes.

Nikki – To be sober.

Emma – A Navy Audi R8 with tan leather seats.

Sonya – New jeans as my belly seems to be expanding by the day! Some books on motherhood as I haven’t a clue. And my new years wish is for a healthy baby.

Victoria – I want a hot air balloon and a pet owl!

Christina – I would like the perfect pair of black pumps. The type that has wow factor and works equally well for client meetings and going out for impromptu drinks in Camden. They should be fashionable yet classic, have a quite high heel but should still be good for running fast around the studio in or chasing  buses/cabs. I have been looking for these for years and I know exactly what they should look like – down to the stitching on the sole. if I don’t get them this christmas I will have to take up shoe design in 2010. So maybe a shoe design course then…

Andy – Hair.

Kirk – World Peace.

Richie – Is no more Big Brother, X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, I’m a Celebrity and any other reality TV rubbish!!

Iain – Is a world without estate agents in it. Or Solicitors. Or Craig Bellamy.

Mark – A year’s supply of fine white wine and Sergei Rachmaninov’s complete works on CD.

Sarah – A blow torch.

Oli – A jet-pack and roller blades, will never have to re-charge his oyster card ever again.

Tanya – Shoooooeeessss

Simon – A clipper set.

Sam – For all my colleagues Christmas wishes to come true…and a Range Rover…and some inspiration for what to buy Mrs J…and another trip to Vegas.

Tim – SNOW!

All other Baber Smithians are on the naughty list.

Our very own Creative Group Head and Copy Guru, Mark Blanchard, has had his good work recognised in the most public of manners. A campaign that he created at his previous agency for Lotus has just made it into a coveted list of the Top Ten DM Campaigns of the Decade compiled by Campaign Magazine. Big cheer and molto congrats from all of us at Baber Smith, Mark!
http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/970508/Advertising-noughties—Top-10-DM-campaigns/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
Jo Smith
Sales and Marketing Director Baber Smith

I recently overheard my housemate and her friend engaged in light hearted debate on how certain celebrities managed to maintain their fantastically blemish free skin. They discussed the vast avalanche of skin care products that are constantly targeting young and old during our favourite evening viewing. Yes, these products do help, as do diets and living a healthy lifestyle but what surprised me most was not once was the key word used… “Re-touching”.

I found myself asking the question “Has advertising made people feel uglier?” I notice on an increasing basis the amount of adverts that glorify perfection and marginalise those with less than perfect skin. Heaven forbid you have bad skin! Advertising works on a subliminal level and as simple creatures we accept the inspirational messages it portrays. This is not a recent development, I’m fairly confident that most of the rather sculpted Greek statues posing in museums around the world could possibly have had a slight beer belly. Retouching may not have moved on too dramatically, but the tools we now use have.

Simple programs now allow us to create flawless people with little hassle, which can also be extended through to products as well. As an individual of the advertising realm I do understand that its not all doom and gloom and that certain levels of “sharpening” are required in order to take a shot and bring it to life, but what worries me is how good we are becoming. Is it possible to do your job too well?

With advances in technology, we are slowly becoming unable to tell when an image has been manipulated and with this I feel a false sense of normality is developing. I think people should take a step back from media’s finite depiction of beauty and realise there is no such thing as perfect.

Oliver Sherwell

All good things must come to an end and so it was with Movember, as our furry friends met their maker at a barber’s shop in Camden. After a few farewell tears, hot towels were applied and the cut throat razor expertly removed our month old moustaches in a matter of minutes.

Whilst we may have looked questionable with our upper lip furniture, our cause certainly was not and the Mo Bros of Baber Smith raised over £1250 for prostate cancer research! Across the UK, Movember raised more than £4 million and it was a pleasure to be part of this.

Despite unanimous protests from other halves – plans are already being made for Movember 2010.

The Movember Team

Forget social networking, the next big thing could be social sending.

Entrepreneur Ben Way offers tweeters the opportunity to receive free shares in exchange for promoting his new service, Send Social (https://sendsocial.com/). This service works on the premise that you can send anyone packages by simply having their twitter handle or email address (while never having to reveal the person’s address).

A revolutionary way of allowing people to exchange goods while maintaining their privacy?

Or one of those unnecessary “big ideas” destined for the trashcan of history?

You decide:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/DigitalAM/News/968786/Twitterers-given-shares-promoting-address-less-delivery-concept/?DCMP=EMC-Digital-AM-Bulletin

Lindsey Ostrow

Two weeks into the month of Movember and entering BS towers is like walking into casting for a Village People video, as the MO’s become mo’ and mo’ impressive every day!

Here’s how our Bro’s are getting on…

So far, our guys have raised a fair amount, but will need all your support to reach their target total! TO DONATE TODAY, CLICK HERE!

Yesterday evening we hosted an event at Adam Street exploring what’s good and what’s new in social media and mobile marketing. The aim was to look at which brands do these things really well, to understand what other brands can learn from this and then to look in to the future of these communications channels.

We kicked off with a short intro explaining that we at Baber Smith like to categorise brands and their engagement with social media and mobile marketing as Hawks, Doves & Ostriches. The Hawks being overtly commercial and aggressive in this space (wrong), the Doves being the ones that use it sensitively and subtly to connect with people (right) and the Ostriches being the heads in the sand, hope it goes away types (also wrong!).  This event was all about learning from the Doves!

First up, Howard and Glen talked about their successful experience with social media in the music industry – the industry that’s successfully pioneered the use of these channels for commercial ends.

When it comes down to it, it’s all about expressing basic human values well:

Being true to yourself
Communicating what you’re about
Being a good friend
Creating an interest

With this in mind we drew on case studies from, amongst others, Keane, The Saturdays, Mika and Il Divo in the music industry plus Dell, Best Buy, Skinny Cow and HSBC.

Check out http://www.mikasounds.com/points

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rTzIAWI4Ms for a taster.

Next up was a second Howard, this time on Mobile – where to start! Howard blew everyone away with his knowledge and passion for mobile and not least with the awesome things the technology can do. This was however all tempered with a sense of realism. Some of the technology isn’t here yet and some of it is widely available but it just isn’t being used properly. M&S and their use of Quick Response (QR) codes was put under the spotlight – fortunately their failings in implementing the technology were made up for by good customer services from the manager of their Covent Garden store. We also checked out the wonders of Augmented Reality and got a demo of some leading edge Near Field Communications (NFC) wizardry.

All the feedback seemed positive but please feel free to post your comments if you agree/disagree.

Sam

Our Partners & Speakers

Howard Wilmot, MD of All Leo a specialist in social media marketing in the music and entertainment industry. All Leo are our partners in Baber Smith Socialise, the soon-to-be-launched division that specialises in integrating social media into boarder marketing activity.

Glenn Cooper, Head of Digital at Island Records and the founder and MD of online polling community pollthepeople.com.

Howard Furr-Barton, mobile guru and our partner in the also soon-to-launch new division Baber Smith Mobile that specialises in mobile technology and it’s integration into the marketing mix.

Movember is about bringing the moustache back and having some fun for a very serious cause
- prostate cancer.

It takes a lot to sacrifice one’s looks for a greater good, so all of us at BS towers are very proud of our willing fuzz farmers. Our lads are primed and ready, waiting to say balls to prostate cancer as we enter another fine Movember.

TO DONATE TODAY, CLICK HERE!

Our Bros with Mo’s are: Kirk Mc Carthy, Richie Florey, Simon Smith, Charles Lees, Oliver Sherwell, James Fielden & Andy Lennard.

On October 19, 2009 I was fortunate enough to attend the Powerful Persuasion Workshop that was organized by WACL. For those of you who don’t know WACL, it’s a group of the most senior women in the Communications Industry; powerful and influential women who lend their experience, talent and knowledge to other women in the business.
If I wrote about everything interesting and inspiring that I heard during the workshop, my blog would go on forever. But there was one thing that surprised me in particular and made me re-evaluate some of my own beliefs. We’ve all heard about the ‘glass ceiling’ – an invisible, but powerful, force field that stops women attaining the same salary levels and positions as men with the same qualifications. Having attended this Workshop, I started doubting whether this invisible force field actually exists.
Listening to these women, I decided that the glass ceiling was a monster that we women have created ourselves. And that, if we start behaving a little less like the polite and humble princesses we were raised to be and start acting a bit more like competitive business people, nothing will stop us from being equally as successful as men (not even 4 children, as some of these powerful women proved).
It seems we women fail to do some simple things, and if we want to enter the highest ranks of large advertising businesses (and other businesses) we need to get them right.
We need to stop being afraid of talking up our achievements and actually start telling others how good we are. We also need to start asking for what we are worth in salary negotiations and not for what we think is fair. Another vital thing we need to change is our reluctance to stand in the limelight, there is nothing wrong with allowing others to see us to our best advantage. Finally, we need to start getting better at networking upwards, one area in which men currently excel naturally.
In fact, if we get these things right and use our natural strengths we might even have a competitive advantage over men. As women, we have natural powers of persuasion that give us far more sway in any boardroom. We’re blessed with an emotional intelligence that usually surpasses that of men by miles. Which, in turn, gives us greater powers of persuasion. We need to start using these innate skills to further our careers.

It seems to me that we women are like those superheroes that finally need to discover the strength of our own superpowers. So, at the risk of being controversial, maybe it’s time we got some essentials right and faced up to the fact that the biggest barrier to being as successful as men might actually be in our own minds.
Diana Hopfner
Account Executive
Baber Smith

I recall being at one those advertising agency tree-hugging/team-building weekends a while back where I was forced to reveal my answer to the question – “what do you think is the best thing you can give your children?” My answer at the time was “a sense of self-esteem” – words which came back to haunt me recently when I read “Generation Me” by Jean M. Twenge.

This well-researched, keenly-observed book is an analysis of the thoughts, dreams and aspirations of the post-Baby Boom generation. The thrust of Twenge’s argument is that Baby Boomer parents have s

pent far too much time boosting the self-esteem of their children, to the point where they now have an unrealistically inflated sense of entitlement.

It also points out that any potential employers of today’s graduates and interns have a responsibility to act as a kind of  “reality decompression chamber”, helping this generation come to terms with the cold, harsh environment of the job-free marketplace and frozen economy. We have to politely but humanely point out that the six-figure salary won’t be there on demand like a Starbucks cappuccino, and that it might be slightly harder to become a CEO than it would be to pass an X-Factor audition. And, that successfully ascending the career ladder might be down to such unsexy characterisics as persistence, patience and hard graft rather than easy charm and natural intelligence.

It’s no simple task – giving out a cold, hard dose of reality without dampening the ambition and enthusiasm of our graduate intake.

But for the sake of our industry’s future and for the future success of our new blood, maybe those of us in positions of seniority have to take a deep breath, gird our loins and access our inner Simon Cowells.

Mark Blanchard
Creative Group Head, Baber Smith