Alastair Sloan

Alastair Sloan is a marketing professional from the UK. He has worked as a PR consultant to the music industry specialising in digital relations, and now works in FMCG marketing for a major multinational.

This is his blog about business, marketing, occasionally China and his life. Because Alastair is truly lazy, most posts are videos created by others, blogs written by people far wiser or music recorded by people with real talent. He is just a broadcaster.
Ask me anything
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mostlyjustmusic: Yes, this is a man busking inside a bin. He had drawn a crowd in seconds and was making money hand over foot. Novelty pays hey?!

mostlyjustmusic:

Yes, this is a man busking inside a bin. He had drawn a crowd in seconds and was making money hand over foot. Novelty pays hey?!

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@dannybyrd teaches us all the importance of a darn fine piano riff.

Love this Freddie Mercury Google Doodle (via @FutureShorts)

@zynga and @savethechildren team up to raise money for great causes. Truly exhilarating use of social media for good.

Easyjet #londonriots PR

“Dear Mr xxxx,

“Due to the exceptional circumstances of Parliament being recalled on Thursday, easyJet is aware that many MPs are in its destinations across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa and now need to urgently return to the UK. In order to offer every assistance possible, we have set up a dedicated team to make new travel arrangements for MPs. They can be contacted at: mps@easyJet.com.

“It would help us greatly if MPs could let the team know where they are, give us an easyJet booking reference number (if they have one) and provide us with a contact number.

“Andrew McConnell, corporate affairs manager, easyJet plc”

Ten Design Lessons from Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822 - 1903) was an American landscape designer who put together Central Park, the grounds of The White House and the Capitol, amongst other iconic American outdoor spaces.

His design lessons below encapsulate his approach, and are remarkably applicable to modern-day design, across any industry.

1) Respect “the genius of a place.”

2) Subordinate details to the whole.

3) The art is to conceal art.

4) Aim for the unconscious.

5) Avoid fashion for fashion’s sake.

6) Formal training isn’t required.

8) Stand for something.

9) Utility trumps ornament.

10) Never too much, hardly enough.

@37signals wrote an excellent expansion on each of these points, for all the detail click here.

Check out this video on #qrcodes from @planetdiesel I just spotted on the excellent Fluffy Links blog.

I recently took off all the QR codes running on a print campaign, believing that not enough consumers would have the QR reader installed on their smartphones. There was quite some debate about this with pretty much every stakeholder in the brand holding a different view. In the end for space considerations we took it off the creative in favour of a Facebook URL.

I’m still not 100% convinced by the use of QR codes, but I figure once the readers are pre-installed across phones then they’ll be a pretty useful tool for driving engagement beyone the immediate and fleeting consumption of the creative.

Diesel are already totally bought-in, and have executed what I see as the strongest use yet of QR codes. Check out the video above for more info.

Great new twist on flashmobs, promoting recycling in Quebec.

@axa introducing iPhone app via TV copy with QR code…

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