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It doesn’t matter who you are, new media is going to get you.

I’m down in Chatham, Kent, today for the Kent Reliance Building Society’s AGM. I’m not a member of the mutual, however, their Chief Executive, Mike Lazenby, invited Podcastmatters Ltd to attend and podcast from the proceedings.

KRBS have been on the go for over 100 years, this was their 120th AGM, and the unkind among us would wonder if some of their members have been with them since their inception. I’m not sure there was anyone in the room at the Commissioner’s House under the age of 50 who wasn’t a KRBS employee. Obviously, anyone under the age of 65 would probably have been at work and thus unable to attend.

What’s interesting is the split in opinion on technology among the membership. The 61 year old Vice Chairman confessed that he’s not that into computers but that his wife is on Facebook. Mike Lazenby related an experience of when he was on the phone to a customer who told him that they were just about to go online and do some banking. This customer was 83 years old. Conversely, one member stood up during the meeting proudly proclaimed that they get all their news from newspapers and do not own a single piece of electronic technology. They did, however, concede to owning a telephone.

So, while it’s clear their target audience - ie. the mutual’s membership - may not be in the normal new media consuming demographic, that hasn’t stopped KRBS looking ahead to the future and wishing to have some quality new media content to offer their membership, along with more traditional communication methods, such as brochures and printed news letters.

Lazenby was very bold in his assertion that much of the current financial crisis is being exacerbated by old media’s newspapers and TV/radio broadcasts. He’s passionate about the fact that new media - podcasts, YouTube channels etc - can significantly redress the balance and promote a much more healthier and positive spin on the state of the country’s finances.

The overall vibe I captured in the audio that will be edited and released as the KRBS podcast is that communication is king, being able to talk directly to your customers is essential and that being transparent and authentic is indispensable. New media for old people?

And not just because I didn’t get shot in South Central LA, or anything like that. No, instead it was a good day seeing my social media friends around the world react with excitement and cynicism in equal measure on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

Today was a good day because CC Chapman got all enthusiastic about CNN’s live Facebook interaction.

Today was a good day because two of our video podcast productions got into the top 5 of their iTunes category.

Today was a good day because I got some good work done, had some good meetings, made some good calls, generated some good interest in what we do and had input into our evolution as a company and how we dovetail with our clients.

Today was just a good day.

We find these guys consistently produce compelling video. They just totally get new media.

Today I started with some nice coffee and a plain bagel. Then, at work, I had a banana while editing podcast content for the New Pajamas Campaign. After that I went into what turned out to be a 4 hour meeting where we listed all of our clients and detailed where we are with them, during which I ate an apple.

After the meeting finished - at around 14.20 - I had a tin of ‘big soup’, lamb and vegetable, followed by a Muller rice and a sugar-free energy drink. While eating my soup I was watching the latest Jake and Amir videos (‘Scary’ is brilliant and reminded me of my son), updating my calendar, sorted through my to-do list(s). I then resumed editing content for New Pajamas. 

I was then interrupted by a phone call from a client whom I’d emailed during our 4 hour meeting. While talking to him on the phone it started snowing. By the time our conversation ended it became clear we should all head home early due to the snow.

On the journey home I fielded two calls, one from Cordelia and one from Bethany.

Now back home, I’m tying up loose ends, emailing links to clients, adding links to my blog, replying to tweets, trying to read a couple of articles on-line, finishing edits to the podcast content I started first thing this morning. It’s 18:08.

Boby Goyetche nails it.

I’ve blogged previously about the sort of client I like to deal with. I’ve also blogged about one of our newest clients, Fake Bake. I thought I’d bring both discussions together.

When I first visited Fake Bake’s UK HQ I didn’t really have a clue who they were. I thought they were a tanning salon. Now, I should explain that I was only going along to this meeting as an after-thought; I was going to be on another client’s premises that day and Gordon was visiting Fake Bake with his wife Marion, who happens to be one of their customers. I tend to be a bit better prepared before visiting potential clients…

Fake Bake’s owner, Sandra McClumpha, also owns a beauty salon in Glasgow, this is the establishment where Marion is a customer, and she’d mentioned to the salon’s manager that Podcastmatters was growing and growing and what we were up to. The manager thought that Sandra would be interested in talking to us for Fake Bake. Hence the meeting at Fake Bake’s HQ.

However, as the morning progressed I got two separate phone calls telling me that 1) Gordon couldn’t make the meeting, could I go along with Marion?, and 2) Marion has been called away to attend to a sick family member, can I go on my own?

This was fine, of course, it just meant I had to leave my other meeting a little earlier. Oh, and find out 1) who I was meeting, and 2) what they wanted to know about. I was able to get an answer to question 1, but not question 2.

Anyway, I met with Sandra and Fake Bake’s sales director Jim Fox. We went around the houses a little bit on the subjects of viral marketing and YouTube before realising that Fake Bake attend some of the highest profile celebrity events in the UK each year and have exclusive, unrestricted access to the ‘back stage’ areas at these events. The excellent Bethany Tang at their PR company, Media Hubb, had put together a little photographic portfolio of celebrities, footballers, WAGs etc etc all interacting with the Fake Bake brand at these events. The lightbulb went off above my head. They should be creating video podcasts at these events, giving people exclusive access to the areas of these events where Joe Public just can’t go. They should be capturing videos of their product prominently on display at fashion shows, music festivals, film premiers etc etc, plus interviews with celebrities, real and raw footage from behind the scenes. Even models being spray tanned!

We now knew how we could work with Fake Bake. 

Sandra, before our meeting, was very cynical about the benefits of using new/social media. I was very cynical about what we could do for a “tanning salon”. But the combination of passionate communication, great branding, a superb product and the demand for social media interaction has resulted in us shooting video podcasts at the Cricket Fashion Show, the Professional Beauty Exhibition and building two social networks (coming soon) for Fake Bake. We’ll also be at the Stirling Castle Hogmany bash, sponsored by Fake Bake and featuring Deacon Blue, and the music festivals in 2009. We also managed to get exclusive comments from the likes of Vernon Kaye, Jennifer Ellison, and Denise Van Outen.  It wouldn’t have been possible, in my opinion, to get the sort of footage with these celebs if we hadn’t done it in a ‘new media’ style. More info to follow.

We’re working with Fake Bake to launch a brand new product early in 2009 plus a charity campaign to coincide with it and we’re in the production stages of a series of video diaries with the Fake Bake tanning girls.

So, the combination of cynicism, being unprepared, being a bit judgmental, but ultimately being open to new ideas has resulted in us working with a very exciting client.

1. decent laptop (I carry a MacBook Pro at all times)
2. large capacity, small format external hard drive
3. selection of USB cables
4. camera - a mobile phone camera is ideal (even the iPhone is acceptable)
5. small video camera
6. notebook to keep track of what you’ve been working on/people you’ve spoken to
7. USB modem to upload content on the go
8. spare memory cards/USB thumb drives
9. business cards
10. digital audio recorder

Bannatynes Health Clubs? Do a quick Google blog search and you’ll see hardly any reference ever to them. There are a couple of links that point to discussion forums, but the posts in question have been removed. Granted, it would appear those discussions were of a negative nature towards the company.

In this day and age of public conversations it strikes me as odd that there aren’t any heathy, open discussions about Bannatynes on any on-line forum, blog or otherwise.

The purpose of this post is to provide content for the high number of hits this blog gets for the search term ‘“mark hunter” banntynes’. I’d hate to have nothing to offer.

I’ve blogged about this a couple of times asking you guys for your choices of new media exponents, whether alive or dead. Who would you like to see blogging, podcasting and tweeting?

I blogged up some of the responses and more have been added to the comments. Have a look and see whether you agree.

I said that Jesus was a cliched choice, and to my mind it kind of is (no offense), however could we view the 4 Gospels as like blog posts? Hmm.

So, here’s my choices;

• Mohammed Ali
• Steve Jobs
• Tibettan monks
• Ricky Gervais. Oh, wait…

Yesterday I asked on Facebook and Twitter ”which person, living or historical, do you wish was using new media?* *blog, podcast, twitter feed etc”.

Here are some of your replies;

• Jesus (cliche…)
• Richard Feynman (I’ll need to Google that one)
• Albert Enstein (ok, another cliche)
• Atilla the Hun
• The world would be a lot less frightening if McCain was even knew what it was

Ok, so, can anyone do any better?

Jon Gisby give us an update on what 4iP are going to be spending their £20 million; finding new talent…online.

Yesterday I blogged that “the best new media clients are passionate communicator technophobes”. I’ve been asked why.

I think it’s fairly simple.

Passionate communicators want to have their voice heard, their message understood, their beliefs “out there”.

New media is, at the same time accessible to anyone and fiercely misunderstood. For example, a streaming video on your homepage is not a podcast. And putting your latest TV ad on YouTube isn’t a viral marketing campaign. Anyway can stream a video on their website. And anyone can upload a commercially produced video to YouTube. That doesn’t mean they’re using new media to communicate.

So, in my experience, the best new media clients are those who passionately want to communicate - and by extension have a fantastic message - but don’t know how to stream video on their website or upload a video to YouTube. They probably struggle opening up iTunes or attaching Word documents to emails; they really don’t like technology, but they understand why it’s so important.

And they’re the best new media clients because they want to hear what you’ve got to say about new media. They understand its importance. And they want to be a part of it without needing to know the intricacies.

My job at Podcastmatters is to show them the tool box, show them how the tools work, let them decide which tools they want to use but then be the guy who knows how to handle the tools for them to get the best job done.

It’s Saturday, it’s around 8.35am, I’ve been awake since before 6am. This is fairly normal. For some reason my body clock is set to “wake up at silly and unnecessary times at the weekends”. I suppose almost 9 years of being a father contributed to this. And with another on the way, it’s not about to end anytime soon.

So, after an hour and a half of blog reading and Facebook-catch up, I enjoyed a cooked buffet breakfast and a read of the Independent (first newspaper I’ve read in a long while), while checking details in the news stories on my iPhone. Now I’m back up in my room about to do some work. (Carla Brun* is playing on the iPod.)

The Holiday Inn business internet access is £16 for 24 hours, an absurd amount. But with me having to put some final touches to a client’s social network, it’s completely necessary. And I’m not paying for it, so…

My reason for being in Harrogate on a wet Saturday is because one of our clients is exhibiting at the Bridal Exhibition right next door to the Holiday Inn. As we’re the complete new media company, we’ve built them an in-house social network while making video podcasts for them from the exhibition.

Lucky old Kyle gets to drive down here from Glasgow this afternoon in quite possible the worst September weather seen in the history of September. We also picked up a new boom mic for one of our Sony HD cameras, which was delivered, handily, to the hotel for me yesterday.

Arriving here yesterday was an experience. Gordon and I had been in Leicester for the day meeting with an important client (hey, they’re all important, ok?) and a heavy-duty podcast recording session. Harrogate is around 120 miles from Leicester, so it should have taken us around, I dunno, 50 minutes a sensible 2 hours at most to get here. But a combination of heading out on our journey at 3pm and the appalling weather it actually took 4 hours to head up the M1. By 10.30pm, after dropping me off at the hotel, Gordon was still battling his way home.

While I quite enjoy being out of the office and seeing different parts of the country, something my previous life as a self-employed window cleaner wouldn’t have facilitated, I do miss the family. Cameron has started a football training course on Saturday mornings, to which I proudly take him each week. It’ll be his mum that has that pleasure this morning. He scored a double-hat-rick last week! Which reminds me, Gail, you better start getting ready to leave!

So, back to the social network site for me and then maybe a nice hot bath and a nap (see earlier comment about being up before 6am, ok?) before the staff of the client arrive to set up their exhibit next door.

*I can’t make up my mind if she’s to be taken seriously or not. I mean, she’s married to that French president dude. And her album is all sung in sultry, breathy French. However, it’s well produced and actually very, very enjoyable. Perfect for lonely Saturday mornings in hotel rooms in front of laptops.