Our Logbook

The team over at Channel 4 News have just tweeted Slapometer as ‘a newsroom fav‘  http://twitter.com/channel4news

Slapometer is at number 9 in a listing of websites to follow on the lead up to the general election on pocket-lint.com, a site that gives you a guide on how to follow the election. They call it ‘stress relief and humour Flash animation page where you get to give the three big party leaders a taste of your knuckles. Hours of fun’.

Slapometer is having the effect we had hoped for and far more. At 11am this morning (Tuesday 6^th April) the total slaps given were 4,319,306 with Gordon Brown having 56.2%, David Cameron 27.8% and Nick Clegg 16%.  The media is bustling as more people ‘vote with the back of their hand’. On Monday Albion couldn’t have been prouder when the Daily Star featured an article on Slapometer in both the paper and online. As well as this Rory Cellan Jones has spoken about it twice already today live on the BBC news, (with a picture of Slapometer up on his computer screen in the background we might add). We’re hoping for a lot more press to come in the next few weeks on the lead up to the elections so watch this space for more updates and if you haven’t had a go yet we thoroughly recommend it www.slapometer.com

Last October, while the BNP leader Nick Griffin was sweating on BBC Question Time, one of our creatives built slapnickgriffin. It was a simple site where people could express their dislike of the man, by ‘voting with the back of your hand’. It really struck a nerve, and quickly went viral, getting 20 million slaps in just 5 days. We had to take it down when we received nasty threats from far right groups. (For that same reason, we’re not crediting the creative who dreamt up and made it, in their own time – but they’re awesome.)

With an election about to be called any day, we wanted to do something new that took the slapping idea into mainstream politics. And here it is. The Slapometer.

The Slapometer is ‘watch along’ website that lets you ‘vote with the back of your hand’ by slapping along to the live televised election debates. It’s a way for people to express their opinion on the leaders’ performances during the debate, by virtually ‘slapping’ them when they say something particularly wrong. Live graphs show what everybody is feeling, in real time.

We think the slapping idea reflects the sentiment surrounding this election: The dislike of all politicians, and the feeling that there’s no one to vote for – only against. Of course we’re not advocating violence, it’s a ‘Carry On’ slap, in the grand tradition of ridiculous political protest e.g. egging, flanning, Spitting Image.

As well as being fun, we think it’s actually useful. It’s a version of the dial tests popular in US political polling. And we think it’s a much more nuanced tool than, for example, Channel 4’s simple poll after Ask The Chancellors.

If you like it, please pass it on. We want to get as many people as possible slapping along during the debates (which we think are likely to be on 15^th, 22^nd and 29^th of April).

Thanks to the team at Albion who have worked in their own time to pull this off. You know who you are.

http://www.slapometer.com

Steve Henry, our non exec advisor picked up the Chairman’s award at the BTAA awards the other week. He calls it “one of those lifetime achievement awards which make you feel like your career is all over”. You can read all about his experience of the night on his blog.

Steve showed us some of his favorite HHCL work in a company meeting recently. It was interesting to look at the diversity of work from the subversive Tango stuff, to the category-breaking First Direct launch and then the more serious Fourth Emergency service work for AA. Nearly all of the work still stood up today. Sure it didn’t have an associated augmented reality, social-networked embeddable widget, but the rules of cut through in advertising haven’t changed. Engaging, relevant brand thoughts expressed in a way that is surprising and entertaining still get momentum. And you know that if any of these campaigns were executed today they would have the legs to span digital media.

When people hear that we have Steve Henry in at the agency their first question is usually “What does he do?”. So let’s paint the picture. Steve is in 3 days a month, which works out as once a week for 3/4 of the month! He usually begins the day by spending time with the agency partners talking about the briefs with the most potential for creative greatness. These briefs could be big or small or they could be pitches. He then helps us interrogate the briefs before they go into creative development. For the rest of the day he is looking at live stuff going through the agency with a fresh pair of eyes. He can be heard to be saying constantly “Great work always has a something about it that feels like it can’t be done.” And occasionally someone gets a serve in a way that only Steve can pull off – where they are held accountable for screwing up, yet feel motivated to fight another day.

Steve is basically a ball of energy who questions what we are doing. Steve still has more to give than most people who are just starting out. His enthusiasm for the business is infectious and we feel lucky to have him. For him every day is just another day with opportunity to change the world.

Finally, here are a few pieces of HHCL work that we admire (and could find on Youtube).