Friday, 24 August 2007

Rhys Jones, another new low.

I'm sorry to break from matters professional, but I have to say something about the awful events in Croxteth, Liverpool, on Wednesday evening. First though, my thoughts go out to his poor family.

How can I expect the mother of my primary school aged kids to allow them to play outside of school with their friends, like I did with mine, when such terrible things as this happen on our streets in daylight?

Last year I challenged 3 drug-takers (not teenaged) in a local park and called the police. I didn’t do it anonymously and gave all contact and location details and NOBODY showed or contacted me. After that, I felt ashamed that my bravado might have exposed us to danger... who would have looked after my kids if anything had happened?

Should I call myself lucky that my actions went unpunished by those criminals and in future keep my gob shut, never let my kids play on the streets and barricade them indoors?

I say NO! But I’d sooner have the police at my back, than conducting well organised press conferences after my or my kids demise.

posted by Paul Toner at 23:20

Thursday, 23 August 2007

TV-like content: A no brainer

Once upon a time, TV Advertising was the plaything of the Blue-chips and the arena in which the High Street Chains slugged it out.

It was a numbers game and (please excuse my over-simplification) it went like this:
Any company contemplating TV Advertising had to answer this question: "What percentage of people watching my TV Advert are likely to be interested in buying my products or services?"
The higher the percentage answer to that question, the easier it was to answer the next:
"By what percentage will the projected increase in sales exceed the cost of TV Advertising?"
For some producers of FMCGs and most Supermarkets and High Street Chains the answer to both questions was simple: A high percentage... So loads of TV Advertising for them!
For the rest of the world, the answer was: A low percentage... So no TV advertising for them.

Now with the internet, the goalposts move. The days of the idle browser are long gone. People are on your website because they chose to be. They've followed a link, googled you or keyed in your address from a business card, advert or some other piece of your companies printed collateral: They are genuinely interested.

Now; make a little conceptual leap with me... For "TV Advertising" substitute "TV-like Advertising" then think about who's visiting your website, the relatively low cost of production and answer those same questions.

From there make a conceptual hop this time...
I've watched fantastic presentations by key people from companies at events and thought about the hours of preparation, the expenditure on getting 'that slot' at the event, the air-fares, hotels fees and expenses and the hours spent not performing their primary role. All of that and it's sent up like a firework. All that colour and razzamatazz and it only gets seen the once!

Video your presentations at events and exhibitions and post them on your website. Call it gaining greater leverage from an existing resource, cannibalisation, re-purposing or whatever you like... but for me, it's a no brainer.

Click here and see this blog as a mini flash presentation.

posted by Paul Toner at 20:33

Vector v Pixel: How do you send out your logo?

It’s something that I have come up against since I first started using the Apple Mac as my most important tool way back in the 80s. I thought that as people became more used to transferring artwork electronically, it would stop seeming like rocket science to your average user.

What am I talking about?... vector files.

Electronic images basically come in two ways: Pixel based (like the dots on your TV) and vector based which geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons, which are all based upon mathematical equations to represent images in computer graphics.

People still send me .gif or .jpg files (pixel)that look fine on screen and print out OK on laser printers, but when used in quality print (lithographic) just pixelate or go all fuzzy. What we need is the original Adobe Illustrator (vector): .ai or, .eps file. Once we have the outlined version of this, we can blow this up as big as a football pitch for you and it will still remain pin sharp!

Get this resource from your designer and have it downloadable from your website press area. If you don’t have one, get your web designer or web developer to create one for you so that you never have to be bothered by another agency. In that area you should have any resource that a press agency might find useful:
High resolution .jpgs of the key people in your company
Your press releases with contact details
Your logo in the following formats:
.ai (Adobe Illustrator. Outlined and resolution independent)
.eps (again outlined and resolution independent)
.png (comes with no unsightly background like .jpg or .gif files and great for PowerPoint presentations)
.jpg
.gif
If your designer doesn’t seem to know what you’re talking about... You’ve got a problem; ring me up and we’ll talk: +44 (0)118 956 9874

posted by Paul Toner at 01:17

Tuesday, 21 August 2007

RedCarpet and Simon Webbe

Today, I turned out a 12pp programme from scratch. It goes to print tomorrow and the event is on Saturday. I like it when things need to be done right away. It sharpens the mind of all concerned and gives you that feeling of completion that you seldom get in the real world... LOL.

The things that are going on at iimage at the moment are mostly to do with getting back on our (excuse the royal plural) feet following the break-in back in May. I had no conception of the degree of fall-out there would be as a result of it.... but we're making headway.

So I work like a bitch and keep going, dropping into The BBC News site every now and again or doing weights or sit-ups while I watch a little TV just to keep me (keep me?) sane.

As soon as this damn leg is working properly I can be back on my bike and getting back into shape, and as soon as I've sent out some invoices I can get back to bringing in some new clients, but it sure as hell would be nice to just kick back.

All in the fullness of time.

posted by Paul Toner at 02:48

Sunday, 19 August 2007

Radu Radu Caricatures: Picking it up again

I’ve decided to pick up the torch again and in what spare time I can muster, return to building the Radu Radu website and launching as soon as possible.

What is Radu Radu? Well the name comes from a few years ago when Micky (one of the twins) was learning to talk. It was his best attempt at “’round and ‘round” . I loved the sound of it so much that I had a Victor Kiam moment and bought the domain name.

Radu Radu was conceived following a rather disastrous enterprise with a company who shall remain nameless. In essence, I ended up losing a lot of money, along with the time lost discovering the true extent to which I’d been 'taken' and gaining a lot of extra grey hair (at least I've still got the hair). What little leverage I had was in copyrights I still retained, or I'd have lost more. It came to me (again) that the only product that I had to sell was my time, so that limits me to 24hrs a day and no sleep. I needed something that retained its value regardless of how many times I sold it.

The success of the BBC masks and in particular in the case of Monty Panesar which resulted in 10,000 downloads a day, screamed "possible solution". We won’t go into royalties with the BBC... that’s all about leverage which I didn’t have.

Radu Radu “Quality Sports and Celebrity Caricatures” is the child of all the above, so having started work on it during a quiet period earlier in the year, I’m returning to it as a part of the general campaign to get iimage to make that quantum leap.

Needless to say, it can only be done when it doesn't conflict or compromise existing iimage work, so if you're interested and have money to invest in what will prove to be a "nice little earner", email me or call me on +44 (0)7967 810 152 and lets talk.

posted by Paul Toner at 17:28

Friday, 17 August 2007

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and SEO

Another very late night working. I've been updating the iimage site and further optimising it for search engines. Earlier today I got to talking to a contact at Google about search engine marketing. He maintains that SEM is definitely in the ascendancy over email marketing. Frankly, I'm not at all surprised. There's a nice little taster (and a wake up call) to be read on the Wikipedia site (I'm NOT one of its detractors).

"In 2006, North American advertisers spent US$9.4 billion on search engine marketing, a 62% increase over the prior year and a 750% increase over the 2002 year."

"As of 2006, SEM was growing much faster than traditional advertising"

I’d advise anyone to register their site with Google Analytics. It is a fantastic tool for checking to ensure that your site is earning its keep! Also, make sure you’ve registered with the Google Local Business Centre. You'll like these... they're free!

posted by Paul Toner at 03:09

Saturday, 11 August 2007

Speech recognition v Touch Typing ...

I shudder to think about the amount of time that I have recently wasted trying to get iListen, a Mac OSX speech recognition application to work. The Byzantine convolutions I was required to go through to register and activate it online eventually got the better of me and I have had to retreat and regroup for the time being.

The reason why I was trying this voice to text system was because I don’t touch type. Although I’m a reasonably fast typist (though I’d not want to earn my living doing it), my eyes are glued to the keyboard throughout the entire process. When I’m transcribing vast tracts from my written timelogs to an Excel spreadsheet, the process is painful and time consuming. And before you utter a word, yes I HAVE tried entering them directly on a daily basis... we'll not go there!

I’m caused to reflect on my school education. Under the real and ever present threat of the cane, my fellow Presentonians and I were required to memorise and recite chunks of Keats, selected acts from Shakespeare, the entire Valency Table giving the numbers of electrons in the various orbits of the chemical elements and the Periodic Tables, a tabular method of displaying them and their characteristics...

With all that, don’t you think they could have bullied us into learning to touch type too!!!

posted by Paul Toner at 23:33

Launch of the 3rd generation iimage site

I can’t wait any longer. It would be great to have the site completely up-dated, but there’s plenty of work on and if I keep leaving it until everything is exactly as I want it, then it’ll never be done.

In May, I took my 1st holiday in 5 years. With what happened in my absence, it’ll be 5 more years before I chance another! Paul Stratford, who was very kindly dropping into the studio once a day to check emails and calls, called me 5 days into the cruise to deliver the bad news that I been burgled. I jumped ship in Bergen (don’t ask) and was back in the UK that evening.

The burglary cleared me out of all* equipment and my insurance company (for reasons I’m too frustrated to go into) are being VERY difficult about honouring the policy. I’m still fighting to recover the cost of replacement... Wish me luck!

In the recovery period, too many people to mention individually have been a huge help and support, but I must mention Alex Sinclair from Pilot Pen UK, Gary Small from Diverzion and most of all: my dear Mam.

To cap things off, a fortnight ago, just after I had installed the new equipment and got the network re-wired, up and working, I took time out to play basketball with my boys at the local rec. In my excitement at the prospect of being able to work again, I forgot that wasn't 17 any more and, trying to keep up with a 12 year old kid that had just got the ball off me, I totally twisted the ligaments in my right knee... That’ll teach me to show off in front of my kids. It’s not big and it’s not clever!

As I sit and write this I am all splinted up. It’ll be a month or so until I’m cycling again. Thank God I can work for long periods of time without having to leave the studio!

Anyway... the new site: Its our primary marketing tool and it it needed freshening and to have less of my face all over it. I’m no longer conscious of being a one man band; I have a good network of trusted partners and my clients know the way I work. Prospects will be able to refer to the testimonials that I’m in the process of soliciting from clients.

In addition, the home page also needed googable** (did I just coin a new term there?) content. It had been lacking to date, but now it’s there. What it now lacks is more pictorial content so that you people can see what we do.

I intend to theme it with the calligraphic swirls you can see used already. The pic you see beside this posting is a working drawing scanned from my sketchbook that was ‘worked up’ in Adobe Illustrator. I love this current prevalence of floriate scroll work in all graphic media, I’ve been doing similar stuff for ages, I thought, “Why not show the world how it’s properly done!!”.

Please DO share any thoughts or reflections on the new-look site. I’d be most grateful... unqualified adulation would be hugely appreciated!! Offers of work on projects with limitless budgets and no requirement for quoting, readily accepted!

*actually, I couldn’t make myself leave without at least having my laptop ‘just in case’. Thank god I did, because from the break-in until a little over a week ago, it was all the equipment I had to work on!

** Apparently not

posted by Paul Toner at 05:15

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