So I did.

On a budget.

It’s a bit of an experiment on a number of levels having gone from a six-page site to a one-pager. It now has a different tone and style. Will the SEO work too I wonder? To the uninitiated, that’s getting your site to rank highly (ideally page one) in search engines.

Anyway, if you have a second, go visit the site…

I have to admit I’ve made similarly silly pronouncements. Quite frequently my wife would say.

It’s one of those vacuous statements that reads well but shares no wisdom. What’s new and what’s old? When does new become old anyway? And who or what has the right to define such things? If ‘b’ supersedes ‘a’, is ‘a’ automatically archaic? We probably think vaguely alike when considering these questions in relation to marketing.

I imagine the statement’s author probably meant technology, digital marketing and the internet for example and marketing’s response to the resulting changes in social behaviour and attitudes. In this sense I must be fair to the author since there is a general understanding as to what ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ refers to. This doesn’t alter the fact everything is likely to change.

‘Marketing is changing’ (or being forced to) would be more accurate, but this has always been a truism. Who upon reading that marketing is changing would nod their head in acknowledgment of singular intelligence? No-one and most would probably laugh because of its lack of inspiration or perceptiveness. Of course it’s changing! Even the ‘new one’ is!

When David Ogilvy started writing and revolutionising ads with great success, did anyone within the creative industry say, ‘this is working, let’s stop here for a while’. I doubt it. You’d be fired. Although he did assert you should repeat successful individual ads until they stop selling. No, marketing is changing all the time, pushing the boundaries, but back in Ogilvy’s time they couldn’t have known about the web and all things digital. This really is changing marketing.

The ‘changing’ statement did get me thinking though. However, I can’t offer any wisdom.

The internet is a worldwide phenomenon for a start and it’s spawning unforeseen developments on a minute-by-minute basis. You can start a revolution from your kitchen table or send a message of love. This isn’t TV, radio or a newspaper after all, and you don’t necessarily need money to be a part of it. How do you keep up then, let alone stay ahead. I’m not talking about responding to the now, I mean really ahead. Years even.

My point is does anyone know where the beast is headed? Do marketers really understand? Who or what is really driving the internet? I would suggest all of us. Where will it end (it won’t, but it will change) and what are marketers doing about it?

As marketers we generally try and design for tomorrow’s wants – or stimulate the need – not react to today’s afterthought. But as they say, tomorrow never comes. Where does this leave us with the internet then? The web provides the materials and we go and build the latest thing. But is it today’s altar we’ve just erected?

Has anyone got a crystal ball?

That’s right and it happened two nights ago (as I write), so it’s still fresh in my mind.

The elder of the two, my son (approaching five in age), was to sleep in my daughter’s bedroom (nearer to three than two, but nearly 32 in outlook) as a treat for them both. As I bade them “…lots of love”, and a “…good night and sleep well”, my son said innocuously: “The pirate’s got black hair” (referring to a book he’s reading). Random I know, but what do you expect from kids.

Me: “That’s right.”

Son: “I don’t know anyone with black hair”, (that’s not actually true Son, but anyway, I’ll let it go).

And instead I’ll make the following statement…

“My dad had black hair.” Why oh why did I say that? He passed away two weeks before my son was born, so sadly they never met. Whenever he’s mentioned it begs an awkward question, and so it proved.

Son: “Your dad?”

Me: “Yes, your grandpa.”

Son: “Who’s grandpa? Where is he?”

Me: “You know grandpa, my daddy; we’ve talked about him before. He had black hair.”

Son: “Dad, where is he?”

Me: “He’s very old.”

Son: “How old? Why haven’t I seen him?”

Me: “Oh he’s a million-years-old and he…he…he lives in the sky.”

Son: “He lives in the sky? Why does he live in the sky?”

Me: “Because he’s happy and he likes it up there.”

Son: “But who looks after him in the sky? Is he dead?”

Me: “My grandpa, your great-grandfather, looks after him. They have a party up there everyday.”

An increasingly alarmed looking son: “He must be a million million. Is he dead too?”

Me: “Err…”

Daughter: “How did they die?”

Neither slept well that night.

As I write, the final outcome is still undecided (minority government; Tory-Lib Dem or; Labour-Lib Dem pact/agreement/coalition, although the latter is now looking unlikely).

I have no desire to politicize this blog, but the result of the election – and the issues that led the electorate to vote as it did – raises some interesting questions, not least that posed by an acquaintance of mine, who said:

“What do you think about English independence (from the rest of the UK?). All the countries in the Union voted for/seem to want different things.”

His last point is demonstrated by the election result: no party had done sufficiently well to drive home a decisive victory. This isn’t the place to pontificate on party policies, indulge in ideology or revisit manifestos, but the question is an interesting one.

As an Anglicised Scot (by birth, not choice) I find it a very difficult question to answer and it’s one I don’t want to begin to try to, even if it were my place to do so.

My friend went on to conclude:

“If there was a vote about Scottish independence in England I think it might command a majority (to get rid of Scotland).”

His reasons for reaching this conclusion were many and varied, but they did reference the views of others - primarily those who resided in Southern England – North Sea oil revenues, the Barnett formula, perceived Scottish influence on English-only legislative matters…

Given long Scottish memories and more particularly those recalling Thatcher’s term in office and the now likely return of a Conservative government, could it be old wounds and resentment (on both sides of the border) are about to be aggravated and stimulated in the coming months and years?

I do not ’dash off’ exclusively for a living, but the activity plays a significant part in my professional life. As such, I’ve often wanted to write about the skill (that’s a ‘skill’ in relative terms, just like talking in English is a skill, whether it’s your first language or not), but I just haven’t known where to start.

That’s where this blog comes in: I get to write about the trials and tribulations of writing and its peculiarities, but I also have the opportunity to discuss other subjects. We will all get bored otherwise! Afterall, there are plenty of other places where you can easily find brilliant tutors in the art of writing as a universally observed,  precise and practised technique.

To demonstrate the point, I’ll let you in to a little secret: I trained professionally as a journalist and yet I don’t know all the posh, grammatical terms for the correct this or that. Armed with some knowledge of grammar, style, composition and form, I write from emotion (which I can switch off if necessary as I scribble) and from instinct. I know if it looks and reads well. That’s all I need.

Of course, it’s important to be grammatically correct and precise with your spelling and language when there is a need (and some would argue there is always the need), but fundamentally you write what is necessary, adapting it for the reader – that’s why The Times and The Sun exist within the same stable of newspapers and yet are so completely different.

Writing – and everything that is required to do it, even at a simple level – is remarkable. Fascinating and fantastic. Extraordinary.

And this is what I am interested in.

I’m not going to teach. Instead I hope to enlighten and perhaps entertain. And what sort of writing will I be reflecting upon?

Any sort of writing.

I don’t pretend it’s a great photograph, but it does stir certain emotions for me – or rather happy recollections of a lovely few hours. It also stands for something greater: I look at it and remember what I thought that afternoon, and the ‘putting of things in perspective’, making me appreciate there are many things in nature that can, in one moment, render us insignificant.

For that reason alone, I include it here.

Anyway, enough of the detour!

The spot, seen here looking up the Firth of Lorn, with Mull to the left, the Isle of Lismore nearly in the middle and the mainland away to the right (the ferry port of Oban - Gateway to the Isles! - is just out of shot), is renowned for its white-tailed sea eagles, which were reintroduced into the area in 2000.

I’d not visited the spot before and having just seen one of the fabled birds and failed to successfully record the moment on camera, a distant rain shower was also seen, blowing in from the east, seen here in the centre of the picture. This I did record and the image you see here is the result.

Whilst the eagles’ reintroduction programme has been a great success and many people visit the area in the hope of seeing the birds, on this particular afternoon only my mum, sister and I were present. The weather, grand scenery – with the convergence of sea, forest, mountains and moorland – and sense of space and place, evoked all that I love about Scotland for an all-too-brief few minutes.

Yes? Yes!

Then I shall attempt to get this thing started.

Well, well. Welcome! To this, my first post, here at my own, personal blog.

What is it about? Check-out ‘Topics covered in this blog’  (right) to get an idea. You’ll note its eclectic (read: ‘…bl**dy random’) range. I think it’s fair to say it reflects both my personal and professional interests – who knows, perhaps I’ll be able to weave them together at some point, under an as yet undefined, single, common category title?

Unlikely.

For now and for those of you with a passing interest in Scotland, writing, marketing or fatherhood, read on. Yes, you read this last sentence correctly and affirmative, this blog is going to be discussing all these subjects. Or at least attempting to – and some others as well.

I hope you enjoy its content and find some value and interest within…

Don’t forget, if you think someone else may find this blog even vaguely distracting, let them know. 

Oh and let’s get this in there now: Mum, for what you may be about to read, I am truly “Sorry!”

Finally, if you’re a potential client (not that silly, I mean for writing and/or marketing) or perhaps even a future employer and you’ve stumbled upon this blog having searched for ‘Ludo Morison’, well, you’ve found him. 

Haste ye back.

Ludo, April 2010