One of the profound (tounge-firmly-in-cheek) moments of this balmy summer 2013 popped into view this week on a Ten Horizon team road trip, when I spotted this great quote from his comedic majesty Billy Connolly – it makes me smile every time I look at it – as does he!

When on my travels, I often keep an eye out for the more unusual and innovative ways businesses and brands use social media and the latest tech trends, to promote their wares.

During the last month, I came across a couple of QR codes (A.K.A. ‘Quick Response’ codes) in unexpected places – both drink orientated.

The first was in a Subway restaurant, where I ordered a cup of tea and was given some of those plastic pots containing UHT milk (Yum!), atop of which was a QR code – as you can see in the photo on the right. I scanned the QR code with my free iPhone QR Reader app and it took me to the following web page, detailing product dietary advice and nutritional information – pretty neat!

The second, I stumbled upon during a visit to a local KFC when ordering yet another brew (yes, I am a confirmed tea addict!). As I took the plastic lid off my cup to ‘dunk my tea bag’ (and drip tea everywhere!), I noticed a QR code on one side of the cardboard handle – again, as you can see in the photo on the right. Curious as I am, I scanned the the QR code and it took me to the ‘Black Tea’ category page on the Twinings Teas website. Pretty good, but given that I was clearly drinking ‘English Breakfast Tea’ perhaps the code should have taken me to the specific product page here.

I get the feeling that Twinings were probably making it easier and more cost effective for themselves (from a printing perspective) by going for a generic ‘Black Tea’ category QR code – BUT I’d have found it more interesting and importantly, much more ‘Personal’ if it had been the page of the specific tea I was drinking, that way I’d have instantly felt a closer connection to the brand …only saying!

OK, so it’s that time of the sporting calendar again when the chaps in red rugby shirts head below the equator to try to win a rugby tour – yes the British & Irish Lions are back down-under facing off against the Wallabies.

It’s been 16 long years since the victorious tour to South Africa in 1997 – fingers crossed the wait ends on 6th July 2013, until then my uniform round the office will be this…

The video was commissioned by Kids Allowed founder and CEO Jennie Johnson, to support the great work of Millie’s Trust – a charity dedicated to promoting the importance of paediatric first aid. It’s also to be used as a refresher training video for Kids Allowed staff as well as a valuable resource for parents.

The video was published on 14th February and promoted on the Facebook pages of both Kids Allowed and Millie’s Trust. Within 24 hours it had well over 1,500 views, one of whom was a lady called Kirra, who watched the film in the morning of 15th February. That afternoon the unthinkable happened; her 18 month old son started to choke on the top of a plastic container and because she had watched the paediatric first aid video, Kirra was able to apply the techniques demonstrated and help her son – who thank goodness was fine. You can read Kirra’s account of what happened in this moving message to Millie’s Trust.

Ask yourself this question – would you know what to do if your child, grand child, nephew, niece or friends children were choking or needed CPR? If your answer is no, please take just 15 minutes to watch this paediatric health and safety video.

Kids Allowed came to us with an idea of the lyrics they ideally wanted to use and we took it from there. We developed a number of different musical approaches and eventually settled on a melody that was fun and engaging for the kids, plus that had a few breaks in it so they could take a breather now and again.

We had great fun recording the song in the studio and want to say a big thank you to Alison from Kids Allowed, for all her guidance and coaching that helped our vocalists get the phonics sounds spot on. As you can see from the photo, Alison really loved the sound booth!

We created some simple, clear, easily recognisable visuals and combined them with the song to produce the final phonics song video you can view above.

How do you teach your kids the alphabet? If you haven’t tried it, give our phonics song a go and let us know how you and the family get on.

Our latest work with them is a short TV style series of programmes, featuring two of their own team, Luann and Phil as the presenters. It’s not the first time that Luann and Phil have been in front of the camera, in fact we produced a 3-part podcast series for them in 2011 and as part of the preparation for that, we put them through an intensive one day media ‘presenters’ training course, so you could say they’re now old hands!

‘Workforce News’ is a 10ish minute magazine style programme, targeted at the public sector Human Resources community. With all of the huge challenges and changes facing the public sector, there’s a lot of crucial and often ‘time critical’ information that has to be shared with the HR teams to enable them to do their jobs well. These short and snappy films are a great way to share vital knowledge in a very engaging way.

The first one has just been published and we think Luann and Phil should be very proud!

Anyway, on one of our days out, we took a leisurely stroll around the picturesque harbour in St Ives, where I spotted something in a shop window that grabbed my attention – a couple of hand made signs promoting the Twitter and Facebook profiles of a little fashion boutique called Ebb and Flow.

I have to admit that these aren’t normally the type of establishments I venture into without ‘the better half’ in tow, but I felt the need to tell the lady in the shop how much I liked her handmade window wares – so I popped in and did just that!

The reasons they worked for me:

• The hand written signs absolutely fitted the brand vibe of the shop that sells ethical and green products.
• They were written by someone with fairly legible handwriting, not by someone (like my good self) who writes like they’re doing an impression of a trainee doctor.
• They’re uncluttered – only the key information necessary is included 1. A clear call to action and 2. Clear Twitter and Facebook profile names.
• They’re stuck to the shop window using big dollops of blue-tack on what looks like decent gsm weight paper – as opposed to flopping around or peeling away in one corner.

Funny what you find on holiday don’t you think!

Testimonial featuring Jessica Bynert of Sanderson Dance and Fitness.

Testimonial featuring Kathryn Walker of I-DG.