This is probably the coolest map/data mashup I've seen in a long time. The team at LondonTown.com; have created a customizable London hotel map tool for event organisers that visually displays booking information on a navigable map. Just add your venue and postcode and the system does the rest. Check out the one I did for the area around our office in Covent Garden.

It's a great idea, brilliantly executed with lots of cool features. Live chat, a bespoke email for your guests/attendees and telephone booking service and the opportunity to share revenue make it a very compelling service to use. They've done a nice write-up themselves here.

The thinking behind the experiences was to take the interaction and buzz of The Big Bang Fair out of its annual slot in ExCeL, and onto the streets. The diverse range of participatory experiments on offer includes extracting iron ore from cornflakes, creating water rockets, making ice cream with liquid nitrogen and even making toothpaste for elephants. The plan is to send thousands of young people back to school in September with an appetite for STEM subjects, drive entries to the NSEC and footfall to The Big Bang in March 2011.

You can check out some of the experiments on YouTube and Flickr, and listen to an interview on BBC Radio London (skip to 1hr19m47s).

As a web user and shopper I wholly agree with a lot of the negative sentiments expressed in the article towards these new behavioural targeting technologies.  Just the other week I searched for a new tent on a couple of outdoor/camping retailer sites.  I ended up buying one from a real life shop in the end, but for the next two weeks half the ads that appeared before me were for the three models of tent I searched for.  Useless, and annoying in equal measures.  And it's not just me.  A quick straw poll of friends, family and colleagues revealed the same point of view - everyone finds it incredibly annoying.

I'm all for trying out new marcomms technologies and approaches, but as both a consultant and a consumer I'm not hugely impressed by retargeting.  I'm sure the numbers stack up - it must make some difference to the relatively low average CTRs UK campaigns experience, otherwise why do it.  But the real risk here is alienating consumers, even if you do manage to capture and convert an extra 0.01% or whatever at the end of your campaign.  If I didn't click on it once, twice, the third time or fourth then I'm certainly not going to do it a fifth time.  On top of that I sure as hell won't be buying anything from you next time either. 

If you ask me, there are better ways to spend your online advertising budget.  Ways that add value, build your brand and engage prospective customers far more effectively.  CTRs in the UK have halved since 2004, so something needs to be done.  Interactive MPUs, video, live chat  are all good stuff.  But retargeting, the digital equivalent of being chased round a Bangkok market with traders tugging at your sleeve shouting "best price", definitely isn't the answer.

What do you think?

*Apologies if you can't actually read the article.  Bloody Rupert Murdoch and his paywall etc…..

Anyone else been staring st the same document for most of the day?  Brilliant bit of web content here from adidas that's worth checking out if you're losing the will to live or need to waste a bit of time.

The adidas Originals MEGA Diner is a natty way of bringing the new Originals MEGA collection to life, playing on the whole concept of a "mouth watering moment in footwear".  The shoes are served up (pun, copywrite me) by a hot and interactive waitress in a good old fashioned diner, who takes your order and recommends a pair of the new kicks.  Naturally, you can go on to check out the menu in more detail or place an actual order through the store. Genius. 

When it comes to meet-ups and other web-based get togethers I generally show my face as often as I blog, which tends to be NEVER.  There's a great pub bang opposite the office, and another one near my home, so deviation from the normal routine is a right mission.  However this weekend, after accidentally discovering it on Twitter, I made the effort and went along to Shacklewell Nights - an all new hidden restauraunt/supper club in Dalston.

The whole "pop-up" thing has been done to death by the PR industry over the last couple of years.  Like anything considered cool or awesome it never takes us long to work out how we can adopt it for clients and milk it until everyone's bored and we've spoiled it.  So it was nice to be a part of something genuine, fun and - most of all - unsullied by marketing.

Claire, Jonathan and the team laid on a fantastic evening that completely lived up to its promise of really good food in relaxed, informal surroundings.  Such a cliché, but it really was a case of great food, great wine and great company.  I would thoroughly recommend it, but places are limited and I wouldn't want to miss out on the next event…

Abbot sponsors Friday nights on Dave and the new ads feature Brian eulogising in his own unique thespian style about the quality and virtues of the beer.

We’ve been seeding the comical Abbot ads to media and seeking out journalist fans of the great man himself. We've nailed The Sun and key trade titles The Publican and The Morning Advertiser already.

Those who can’t wait til Friday night to see booming Brian’s star turn can head to www.abbotale.co.uk for a sneak peak of the ads.

We’ve injected some pep up power into the energy drinks market with the launch of Loaded Stamina Shot to trade and business media. It’s an energy drink with a crucial difference; it contains an aphrodisiac that offers drinkers something extra under the hood.

Developed by nutraceuticals company Podium Brands based in Edinburgh, it’s taking energy drinks into a whole new direction. The company has teamed up with IPC media, the publisher of iconic lad’s mag Loaded, to launch the shot. 

We’ve launched the shot against..erm...stiff competition with research to show that there is strong consumer demand for energy drinks with extra functionality. Extensive coverage has been secured across national business, marketing, Scottish and trade press ahead of a big consumer push later this year.

From time to time an advert that is gratuitously hideous turns up. It's the sort of thing that actually makes you want to turn off the TV. It makes you want to complain to someone. It actually takes a bite out of you and leaves you bleeding. It is mood altering.  Recently prboy realized that he has developed a terrible aversion to one such ad. So absolutely vomit inducing and toe curling is it that he simply can't watch it. Just a hint that it might come on - something in his water - begins to set his nerves on edge, his teeth jangling.

There are a number of ruses he has begun to employ.

1. Watch no live TV on commercial channels
2. Only watch BBC channels
3. Only watch commercial TV on SKY+ playback so ads can be whizzed through to lessen the pain
4. Hit live pause at the beginning of every live programme watched, delaying the start by 20 minutes, to allow for fast forwarding the ad breaks.

Desperate times do call for desperate measures.

But this ad is so grim and so cringe making that even seeing it in fast forward can affect you. Prboy will not put up a link to it here. It's that bad.

It's the Halifax ISA ISA Baby ad. It's not the idea of the radio station itself, populated by actors trying to look desperately like bank staff. No. It's the horrible semi-sexual tension between the two leads in it. The mild flirtatiousness of it. There's too much in those knowing looks. And then she sort of waggles her head to the music. And that's where it all unravels for Prboy every time. Prboy has an account with the bank. If it wasn't so annoying closing an account and opening a new one, he would. That's the power of advertising…

With the World Cup just days away the level of tension building in the British media is in inverse proportion to the amount of news they can actually report.

Witness Wayne Rooney having a bit of a toys out of pram moment in last night's friendly and the acres of newsprint and a bezillion pixels spent discussing his World Cup red card chances. If Rooney HAD been given his marching orders last night for a bit of uncouth language it would have had absolutely no bearing on our chances in the tournament and absolutely no damage would have been done except perhaps to the spud-faced nipper's reputation, repaired after marriage, fatherhood and a spectactular personal season at Manchester United. Days of "will-he, won't he" speculation stretch out ahead of us, providing some useful pre-match tension for as long as he and England stay in the cup.

Any major global tournament is obviously an immense opportunity to write huge volumes of "here we go" type copy and to ratchet up the tension in readers and listeners. This time there's palpable tension in the media camp because our star midfielders and forwards haven't yet become injured. This time, on the first day of training, an already flaky and much injured defender got crocked. But hardly anyone really seemed to care. With the two Coles and Gareth Barry mended / on the mend reporters and bloggers everywhere are short of bad news.

How do you cover a major football tournament if our chances haven't been irrevocably damaged before the first game? What happens if we actually have to go into the tournament with, pound for pound, our best available team ready for selection and no one at home with their foot up in a cast? A couple of outlets today have had a stab at trying to get some excuses in early - reporting John Terry huffing and puffing about the altitude, one of our 'keepers muttering about the official ball and commenting on Paul Scholes' rather limp reasons for not answering Capello's call to join the squad. But until they get hold of something really meaty, like Didier Drogba's broken arm or Michael Ballack's hammy, it's going to be a tough couple of days...

We at Consoldiated PR have hosted some pretty amazing press-trips for our travel clients over the years. 

A trip to a panda sanctuary in China, a cool city break in Seattle, an adventure in Japan – including Geisha entertainment - and a cruise around the Caribbean islands to name a few.  It’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it!

So I was delighted to hear I would be taking my first ever press trip to Paris to profile its up and coming design talent.  

The itinerary was jam-packed with exclusive interviews, a first look at a design hotel, a visit to Paris’s top design school and meals in the coolest design restaurants.  So, after a near miss with an ash cloud, we were off. Le Jardin de la Villa was our stylish home for the two day trip – a newly opened, design hotel in the north-west of Paris. 

It seemed like a beautiful space to me, with a unique sense of style.  From the champagne and macaroons on arrival, to the lavender spray left on my pillow at night, I could tell detail was important here. Plus, my room had the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in. Ever! But I know nothing about design.  It wasn’t until talking to the journalists on the trip that I realised how much thought had gone into the project from the textured wallpaper to the post-world war II, Dior inspired pleats in the curtains.  

The designers I found the most inspiring during our trip were the up and coming, super passionate duo Juan Pablo Naranjo and Jean-Christophe Orthlieb who make up the NOCC studio. My favourite collection, Objects of Sound, included a candle-holder, lamp and vase that were shaped based on the sound waves generated when its name is pronounced.  So every object is completely unique and personalised according to your voice and accent. 

No discussion about Paris could pass by without mention of the gorgeous, delicious, mouth-watering food on offer in the city! We were lucky enough to dine in some of the most celebrated design restaurants in Paris including Bon, Alcazar and Kong. 

My favourite was Bon, a pan-Asian restaurant in the 16^th district designed by French favourite, Phillipe Stark (who seems to have designed about 75% of Paris) We sat in the fireplace room which was dominated by a massive rhino head hung on the wall and enjoyed a tasting menu of about 20 different amazing dishes including delicious crab ravioli, black cod and chocolate spring rolls.  Not to mention champagne on arrival and wines to suit all of our dishes. Do yourself a favour and go if you’re in Paris!   

I know some people aren’t crazy about Paris - it’s expensive and Parisians get some pretty bad press! But I’ve been to Paris about five times now and I’m still not bored.  This trip gave the beautiful city a totally new angle and I met some really cool, friendly and interesting Paris dwellers plus some really great journalists!

So, completely exhausted, a few pounds heavier but very inspired, I left Paris looking forward to my next visit.  

Photos can be found in the Consolidated PR Flickr album.