Posts from date: March 2009

Chilli Challenge

Chilli Challenge - The Update!

About a month ago the light side posted a blog on the start of the "chilli challenge." At this stage we had just lovingly planted the 4 chilli seeds given to us by Country Living and were challenging the Dark Side to a head to head chilli-off.

Fast forward 4 weeks and the light side can proudly announce that our chillis have moved from little pot to big pot. 3 of the 4 of them have turned into chilli plant seedlings. One was a tragic casualty and failed to ever sprout - we found the poor little thing curled up under the soil when we threw the pot away. RIP little buddy, RIP.

Attached pictures of the chilli sprouts in the big pot.

Milly Newman - Maxus, Media Manager

As the light side of the office returned from lunch today we were greeted with a large parcel... curiously, Louise opened it whilst the rest of us watched on in suspense. Inside we found what will become the next competitive sport in the Maxus agency - the Country Living Ultimate Chilli Challenge (aptly named CLUCC)!

 Country Living have kindly supplied us with soil, plant pots, 4 chilli seeds and instructions on how to grow the perfect Chilli plant and the idea behind it is that the agency to grow the largest plant/plant with most chillis will win not only the title of Country Living's 'official best Chilli grower' (I made that bit up) but there is also a shiny trophy up for grabs.

To make things a bit more interesting and because we don't like to do things by half, here at Maxus we are not only competing with other agencies out there; we are competing against each other too. The light side and the dark side of the office are in battle to out-grow each other and will be giving a step by step blow of how we are getting on with our lovely pictures below.....let the fun begin!

Perhaps we can think of some prizes for the winning side?

Come on the light side!!

All quiet on the dark side? Defeat already?

Online Dating - More Normal Than Meeting in a Bar?

I distinctly remember a time in my youth during Sociology when we debated the merits of online dating. Without making me sound old (which in media years I am now) - 13 years ago when this conversation was had internet dating was very much in its infancy. The younger and more judgmental me dismissed it as something for losers who cant meet people in a normal way.

Fast forward to 2009 and now - particularly in London - meeting people via internet dating is absolutely the norm. Sites like match.com / Sarah Beeny's mysinglefriend have not only made online dating cool but are huge media properties with big marketing budgets to match.

Recent conversations have, however, re-ignited a couple of negatives in my mind about online dating::

1 - it takes away the rule of "opposites attract." Because it allows you to be so specific on criteria and do extensive window shopping before you try you might instantly disregard someone who, if you'd met by chance, could have sparked up something really interesting ("Loves motorbikes and photography and is excellent marriage material,,,, er no thanks!).

2 - the grey area of when you should stop dating other people. I have a friend (yes really a friend and not me) who is internet dating 3 / 4 guys. With a couple of these guys she is up to 3+ dates. When I asked at which point it becomes a relationship she sort of shrugged says she's not really keen on any of them for a relationship and they're probably still dating other people too. Very difficult etiquette rules that I dont understand!

Anyhoo. Other than that - I would say online dating has been one of the major plus points about the invention of the internet. It certainly gets around the awkward re-meeting of someone in a bar when you're praying they actually looked ok and that they werent an axe wielding maniac because lets face it, you couldnt' really remember either way on both counts.

Your thoughts?

Do You Know The Way To Cardiff?

Sadly in some parts of the country you don't pick a football team to support, rather you are lumbered with it like an enigmatic albatross slung around your neck. My particular albatross is actually black and white, oh and a magpie in the form of Newcastle United.

Quite how we've managed to make such a mess of one of England's biggest teams is a mystery but with 8 games left there is still light at the end of the tunnel. The only problem is we're horrid away from home, haven't won a home game since Dec and all the teams tantalisingly close to us all play each other whereas we have the joys of Liverpool, Chelsea, Villa as well as a local derby against Boro which guarantees to be one of the worst Premier League games ever.

Logic is telling me that we're stuffed, but this is football and if we can get 11 players on the pitch who will compete and fight like Geordies then we can get out of this mess.

If not then we are potentially going to have the most highly paid Championship side ever.

Potentially on the 25th and 26th May I may not be he happiest chappy!

What Do Points Make!?

I've recently became addicted to a new game, and sad as it is it's a great way of making the money go further as we troll our way through the current recession, and it's called Nectar points! It's surely another clear example that I'm now in my 30's that I'm getting excited about Nectar points rather than what next weekends plans are (monthly shop at the local Sainsbury's and a catch up with a few mates on Saturday night if you're interested), but my monthly shopping is now so much more exciting for it. With each shop comes more points which I dutifully load on to my account, handing my Nectar card over to the cashier with great glee, and then I bask in the glory of achieving another 27 points to my ever growing Nectar bank balance.

Quite what I do with these points I've yet to fathom, and from checking the website I can roughly deduce I need enough to bail out a mid sized financial institution but one day I'll get my monthly shop free, or more likely I'll use it to buy several bottles of red wine.

Making shopping more and saving me money in the long run, what more could you ask for when every penny counts?

Game On!

On Tuesday March 10th the Videogame BAFTA’s were held in Piccadilly.  These awards have been hosted by GAME, a nationwide retailer of…well…games, since 2003.  Ubisoft had two games amongst the star-studded list of nominees: Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia.

Assassin’s Creed was nominated for an astounding four awards:   Artistic Achievement, Original Score, Story & Character, and Technical achievement.  Prince of Persia was nominated for Action & Adventure.  Unfortunately neither game won but it says a lot for a game to even be nominated.  With all the games Ubisoft has for the upcoming year I imagine we shall have some good nominations for next year and possibly even some winners.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare lead all games with three awards, Story & Character, Gameplay, and the GAME award which was voted on by the public.

Until next year!

Twitterganda!

It seams as if I can't go a few hours without someone mentioning the Twitter revolution and predictably all of the trade press have devoted multiple page spreads to extolling the "next big thing" in social property. I'm calling it Twitterganda!

For those of you who have, somewhat miraculously and / or fortunately, not come across Twitter thus far, here's a quick debrief;

Twitter is a free social networking and micro blogging service that allows users to send small (140 characters) text based updates (otherwise known as "tweets"- aaah how cute!) to their own profile page where they can then be viewed or delivered to any user who has opted-in to receive your various pearls of wisdom, location updates, or even more intriguingly, what you might have had for breakfast.

Probably, the most accurate way of viewing Twitter is a condensed Facebook "status updates" service, which is my point entirely. What does Twitter offer users on and above Facebook from a functionality standpoint. The short answer is............nothing!! Conversely, (my attempt to offer a balanced argument) Twitter does give users access to "Tweets" from the various celebs and zed listers eager to jump on its short lived (fingers crossed) band wagon. Whilst donning my media hat, Twitter does offer scope for celeb / influencer brand or product advocacy and should be used by all brands as a source of chatter review - there I've said something positive!!

Honestly guys, have I missed something here?! Is there something genius to Twitter that I've somehow overlooked which is going to secure it's place in Comscore rankings for more than 2 years tops? I know they reached the golden 1 mill user mark but surely this is a short term reaction of the public based on pure curiosity alone?!

New Faces.....

How does one come to terms with the loss of a loved one? Some mourn silently and quickly before moving on with their lives. Others swiftly take themselves to the bottom of a bottle and remain there, loudly and incomprehensively, for an extended period of time. Here at Maxus we believe there's scope for both methods or another somewhere in between. Hence the huge party we threw for a much loved member of the Bloomsbury way crew - our receptionist Natalie Grout who flew to Brazil today for 6 months of haute couture travelling. Maxus, and friends, turned out in force at Guanabara off Drury lane and celebrated Natalie's tenure with us. Natalie always brightened our already bright reception and was warm and welcoming to clients, reps and even perfect strangers.

But now it's time to move on. Natalie has been replaced by the very lovely Katie Davis who is young, enthusiastic and she plays video games - to quote an absent member of our team, winner winner chicken dinner! We're all looking forward to working with Katie. The queen is dead...long live the queen!

nat-vs-katie - Check them out here...

Please leave your goodbyes (to Nat) or hellos (to Katie) below.