Tag: Misc

Introducing a new, cheap media space: the out of office auto-reply

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Not a lot of people realise how much fun there is to be had with the humble out of office auto-reply. I (lol) was startingly reminded of what an unsung media space it is the other day when I wrote an email to my friend, copywriter and poet of adland, Rishi Dastidar. This bounced back into my inbox telling me he was away. I was about to delete it unread when the first line caught my eye, and I realised there was a lovely little poem inside, in place of the robotic missive you’re normally confronted with.

It was so charming I decided to share it. It’s not quite the same just repeated here, but try and imagine it ‘in situ’ if you will, in an email.



The paperclip told me
In a menacing way,
“You can’t just flee
Because it’s your birthday.
I solemnly propose
That you compose
A short, pithy note
Allowing you to gloat;
Then inform friends, colleagues
And those pesky bots
Who cannot stop,
That your absence will end
On Friday the 5th.
Do it now. Forthwith!”

Has anyone ever received or composed a better one than this? I remember reading about a rather lovely one which Bronte wrote. No, not Emily or Charlotte, but Bronte of Fruit Towers, as written about in John Simmons’ book on Innocent, where he describes her own exceptionally long and kooky Out of office auto reply:

Hejsa. Somewhere, beyond the sea, is a small country called Denmark. It’s almost like a fairy tale there: lots of little castles set amongst the rolling green hills, beautiful princes and princesses who ride white horses around town, their blonde shiny hair shimmering like gold on the gentle minus 15 degree breeze. Happy people are Danish people who love nothing more than to wave red and white flags around profusely – and drink what is probably the best beer in the world. They also love not saying the word “please” but we can’t be too upset about this, for in this lovely country, a word for “please” simply does not exist. Truly, a magical (but sometimes a little bit rude) place.

So, I’ve gone to the wonderful Copenhagen for a few days. I’ll be running around going to lots of important meetings and it is unlikely I’ll be on email (no fancy Berry thing for me, but my mobile is on so you can try to catch me that way if you need to get hold of me).Bye for now (or hej-hej, as the Danes would say).

OK so it’s actually even longer than that but you get the idea. It’s a nice extension of the brand… the tone of voice kind of explodes into your inbox whether you like it or not… either way, that’s surely the world record for the longest out of office reply, isn’t it?

This has just got us thinking….surely we could do more with this space? Brands could try and buy this space somehow, and do partnership tie-ins, for the different ‘reasons’ people are away, there could be sponsorships for each of them. e.g. If e.g. with Thomson for when you’re on holiday. Or if you’ve gone home ill, maybe Lemsip could be tied in with this? Just a thought…

 


 



 

‘Tis the season to be pikey…let the voucher hockey commence

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It’s only November but the voucher hockey tournament has well and truly kicked off. I think we speak for most people in office based jobs anywhere when we say that there seem to be more vouchers knocking about this year than ever. Must be the thing beginning with ‘R’.

We’ve both been getting them from friends for months, and we’ve only been at BBH for three days, but already our inboxes have more coupons in than we could possibly use in a lifetime.

Now, call me curmudgeonly but, I (lol) just wondered whether I’m alone in my distrust of money-off vouchers? When they work out they are great, sure, but they can also be largely ridiculous for the following reasons:

– You print them off and then leave them on the printer.

– You remember to take them out with you, but when you get to the counter, laden with goodies, they tell you ‘this branch is not participating’ and you end up paying full price to avoid the humiliation of putting everything back on the shelves.

– You remember to take them out with you, but when you get to the counter, laden with goodies, they tell you ‘this voucher is fake’ and you end up paying full price to avoid the humiliation of putting everything back on the shelves.

– You hoard vouchers on your desk and forget to use them until exactly the day after they expire. You have to be a master of organisation to be able to deal with them all correctly. Take for example Zizzis, the prime example of a previous voucher-induced debacle. I had one of their 2 for 1 vouchers printed out on my desk at Euros for weeks, weeks… and we were too busy to take lunch until one day me Nat and I decided It Was Time. We went to use it and it was only valid mon-thursday so we paid full price. Then the next time, when weeks later we allowed ourselves lunch, we went to use it and it had of course expired.

– You lose half your lunch hour discussing the merits and downfalls between 40% off at Pizza Express versus 1/3rd off at ASK. A friend told me she recently had to resort to using a calculator to make sure she made the right choice. Is this time well spent, when you could just be eating where you’d rather eat, and enjoying your full hour?

– Someone recently reminded us that London is actually 10% more expensive than everywhere else – so really we’re not saving all that much anyway – if anything we’re just paying what we ought to be.

Now, admittedly many of the above reasons have something to do with one’s own degrees of personal organisation (or lack thereof), which is usually related to whether one is a suit or a creative, but nevertheless I would hope I’m not entirely alone in my occasional bouts of voucher-induced misery.

Looking back over previous voucher seasons, I remember when I was at AIS…, one poor, bored account man (he shall remain anonymous) took it upon himself to collate them all into one excel grid with all the links and codes, so this became ‘the master document’ with them all in, so you could then delete all the others. He then dutifully circulated it for everyone. Has anyone done that this year?

Having said all this, Nat and I are now going to attempt, all being well, to go and use the Pure California voucher we’ve got on our desk. And tonight is the Carnaby Christmas 20% shopping event which we’ve all got vouchers for here. Fingers crossed we don’t forget them or try to use them outside the hours of validity.


 

Funny and bleak in equal parts: Stoppard does Chekhov in the West End

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So Lol went to see the Donmar production of Ivanov the other night. It was brilliant all round – incredible music, set design and performances. The translation was as witty as ever (and being a massive Stoppard-obsessive this came as no surprise).

The only slight quibble on people’s lips was the way that Stoppard had thrown in a bunch of oddly modern phrases. Being as the setting was meant to be the late 1800s, it did seem strangely anachronistic to hear Brannagh and co. saying things like ‘Going like the clappers’ and ‘knackered’. There were lots of phrases which upset the purists in the audience – as though Stoppard was trying to ‘dumb down’ the words of Chekhov.

It got me thinking though – if you translate Russian into English, does it matter whether you change the language to that of the modern day? Surely if we’re being pedantic, they ought to be speaking Russian anyway??

Either way I really recommend seeing it – not if you’re feeling remotely depressed though. Although it’s funny, It’s not the most uplifting of night’s out.