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Tuesday 21 June 2011

The cloud of unknowing - more damn "creativity" than I need, thank you kindly. Plus Call Centre Frolics

I would be astounded if you hadn't seen umpteen references to The Cloud.


There have been ads and posters promoting it all over the place. I have actually been benefiting from it unknowingly.

But the one thing I have never seen until now in any of this great creative outpouring is a simple explanation of what it is and why it's so important.

To find that I had to turn to my favourite source of what's going on in the world - The Week.

They edited a description in The Guardian down to: "Your data - emails, documents, photos, music are stored remotely on line rather than on your computer's hard drive so you can access them from anywhere with an internet connection."

Why didn't they just say that somewhere in the ads?

On a completely different topic, I keep being asked to enter the European Call Centre and Customer Service Awards.

Is there one for bad targeting? I hope there is for Least Helpful Bank with the Grand Prix for Most Buttons Pressed Before You Talk To A Live Person plus the Special Award for Least Comprehensible Explanation of Something Simple.

Who will win the biggie for Most Impossible Question Asked To Identify Yourself. And what about The System that Caused Most Customers to Smash Their Phones To Bits?

The field is wide open - as it is for my next copy seminar. The one in Bristol had 105 people. One person wanted his money back as it was too advanced. That is the first-ever money back request I think I have ever had. Thank God it wasn't because it was just bloody awful.

Anyhow, a lot of people who couldn't come to Bristol have asked if I'd do one in London or somewhere in the North.

If I were able to think today, I could work out what's best to do - but I can't. Trying to talk sense and be pleasant from first thing in the morning till late at night is bloody exhausting, believe me.

And in two days I'm doing it all over again in Sofia. I think I'll go back to bed.



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