LondonCalling.co » thoughts on all things social and mobile

RSS

Author Archives: Andrew Grill

Based in London, Andrew Grill is an internationally renowned thought leader in the field of digital and social media networks.

Currently, Andrew is CEO of PeopleBrowsr UK.

The views expressed here are my own.

Find out more at andrewgrill.com or
follow me on twitter @andrewgrill


 

Porter Gale Joins Kred

Former Virgin America VP Marketing to Advise on Kred Stars and Kred Leaders Programs SAN FRANCISCO, CA (Jan 26, 2012) - Kred, a leader in influence measurement, announced today that Porter Gale has been named Lead Advisor of its Kred Stars and Kred Leaders programs. Gale will be Kred’s chief evangelist to marketing executives and influence marketing [...]

Google UK online education program is spot on

Over the last few months in the UK, Google has been running what I believe is an excellent campaign to educate users on the finer points of web security, and how websites use your data – and what you can do to control this access. Google have the money and the reach to pull this [...]

“when is my bus due?” a brilliant use of public data and probably the best use of mobile ever

Some months ago, I was speaking to Paul Clarke (@paul_clarke) about his role on the Mayor’s Digital Advisory Board and what they were doing with public transport data. Specifically I asked “when will I be able to see how long it is until my bus turns up via my mobile?”. What I was after was [...]

using social media for business development – the art of the eTap on the shoulder

Like many London calling readers, part of my role involves business development where you are trying to drum up new business from people you have not yet met. I remember my first “sales” call back in 2001 when I had just taken the position of CEO of PropertyLook, an online commercial property marketplace. Having held [...]

The global road warrior’s new BFF the Huawei E587 mobile hotspot

As many London Calling readers know, I travel a lot for work.  I used to travel within Europe extensively, and have done the London-Sydney-London route more times than I care to remember. Lately, my role with PeopleBrowsr has seen me in San Francisco on a regular basis. One of the most popular posts on this [...]

Mobile to the rescue for Black Friday online sales

I am in San Francisco at the moment, meeting with the PeopleBrowsr crew and some other key clients and partners. I arrived over the weekend, so had a chance to indulge in some retail therapy on a wet Sunday afternoon. What struck me is that everywhere I went, people were talking about or promoting Black [...]

Just because you are VC funded does not mean you have unlimited funds

I was at an event recently when I heard the following during a presentation: “we are VC funded so don’t have to worry much about hosting costs…” Having worked for about 6 startups over the last 10 years (none of them VC funded incidentally), this was probably the most arresting thing I have heard all [...]

London 2012 Olympics O2 sponsor deal is no different from previous games

I read with interest the piece in the Telegraph by Katherine Rushton titled London 2012 Olympics: chaos for mobile phones and the comments underneath the piece from outraged Londoners. For those of us for which this is our first taste of an Olympics in our home town or country, some of the antics such as [...]

Millennials were the talk of Pivot Conference in NYC. Haven’t we heard this before?

I was fortunate enough to attend the Pivot Conference in New York last week.  The event was organised by Brian Solis, and had some excellent speakers. Much of the first morning was spent talking about “millennials” and how to market to them.  The conference venue was the Crowne Plaza right on Times Square, and perhaps [...]

Was Ham radio the first true social network? @JeffPulver and I think it was

I met up with @JeffPulver again on Monday in New York at the Pivot conference. He was speaking on a panel at a CMO lunch organised by @JeffreyHayzlett and we chatted afterwards. On the panel, Jeff mentioned that he was a Ham radio operator. For those Generation Y/ Millennials out there, Ham radio (also known as [...]

Link.Me signs deal with McGraw-Hill through Zappos – a QR code success story!

NEW YORK— From a story about the best customer service you never knew was possible comes the best hardcover book you never knew was digital. McGraw-Hill Professional’s most recent publication, “The Zappos Experience”, written by best-selling author Joseph Michelli, bridges the gap between the printed and digital world using QR codes embedded in over 15 individual chapters. Link.Me is [...]

New York Times article on the use of QR codes in retail and on TV

Recently I was asked by Stephanie Clifford from the New York Times to contribute my thoughts to an article on QR codes, and their use in a retail environment. The resulting article “Scan-to-Buy Gets a Trial on Television” appears at lc.tl/nytqr As a well known QR sceptic, I thought it worthwhile publishing the questions Stephanie put to me [...]

I really had high hopes for the BlackBerry Bold 9900. TWO replacement phones later I am not so sure

[UPDATE] I have managed to get the phone back to the brand new state via the BlackBerry desktop manager (the first phone was completely dead).  The Vodafone team told me that there is a known issue with the Vodafone Bold 9900 version and they are trying to provide an over the air (OTA) fix, but [...]

London 2012 – do you have a plan of action?

The Olympics in London are now under 12 months away, so do you have a personal and business plan to allow you to carry on during the games? I write this post with some degree of personal insight as to how an Olympic games can affect a city, as I was living and working in [...]

Landmark Hotel London > another example of the hospitality industry getting social

This afternoon I had a look at my recent  followers on Twitter in an idle moment (someone once said there are two types of twitter users, those who check their follower count and those that are lying)… I noticed that my newest follower was the famous Landmark Hotel in London (@Landmark_London). Intrigued as to why [...]

Bletchley park summer party photos

Presented here are photos from the Bletchley Park summer party held on August 4th. Sponsored by Google and organised by @dr_black it was a great afternoon, raising over £10,000 for the Museum, and even Jeremy Paxman from the BBC turned up! We also were fortunate enough to have a tour of the museum. Read the [...]

How secure is your password?

Found this via @charlesarthur and not sure if it is a phishing site, but what sort of number is 4 vigintillion years? from howsecureismypassword.net

Battle of the MiFis here at Bletchley Park summer party

Here at the Bletchley Park Summer Party,  I opened my laptop to tweet about @peoplebrowsr being on @mashable and I saw the following MiFi networks available. Nice bit of branding from @loudmouthman Read more about MiFis at http://lc.tl/dr

More signs like this please

Seen in Chiswick Park, London. Has made me smile for the last 5 years. Click the image for full size version.

in 2011 search engine technology has come to this?

I’m so glad that in 2011 search engine technology has advanced so far…. I am not for sale. Is this the best we can do in 2011?

I hope in my lifetime we will see the end of pre-ticked forms

I booked a train with London Midland this morning to attend the Bletchley Park Summer Party next Thursday. On the final confirmation screen I was met with Firstly, I had no option to “tick here” as the lazy marketers at London Midland had done it for me, knowing that unless they pre-ticked it I would [...]

Huge QR code seen in London street – is this the future?

I saw this in a street in SOHO in London, a huge QR code hung on a building. As I took this photo, I overheard some people nearby saying “So what, you just take a picture of it? That’s wicked.” Following my tweet about this, Raimo van der Klein (CEO of Augmented Reality leader Layar) tweeted [...]

Apparently I am foursquare member number 57,637. When did you join?

Team foursquare says I am member number 57,637. I’m wondering outside of the US how this compares to say foursquare users in the UK and Australia? Feel free to leave your comments below, or tweet @andrewgrill and follow me on foursquare via http://lc.tl/4

PeopleBrowsr UK is hiring! We are looking for super smart account managers

PeopleBrowsr is hiring in the UK! We need smart and social media savvy Account Managers to join our growing UK team. Details below – and please pass onto someone you think might be a good fit. Position: Account Manager (2), full-time positions Location: London Compensation: Competitive We want an Account Manager who understands the social [...]

How Twitter needs to walk a fine line with advertisers

A recent scoop from Tim Bradshaw (@tim) at the Financial Times during #canneslions last week pointed to Twitter taking a bolder stance with advertising on the 5 year old micro blogging site. Quoting from Tim’s article According to three people familiar with the situation, Twitter’s plans under consideration would see “promoted tweets” appear in their [...]

Screen sharing shoot out and why I am now using join.me

Working in the social media analytics space for the last 2+ years, one of the most important productivity tools has become the screen sharing program. If you cannot be in the same room (or country) as a prospective client, then the next best thing is sharing your screen with them in real time so they [...]

London 2012 ticket process vs Sydney 2000 games

I am very fortunate to be in the position that I will get to see two Olympic games in my lifetime, having lived in Sydney during the 2000 games, and now living with my family in London. At the 2000 games, I was a Volunteer, and saw the opening ceremony twice!  Once during the dress [...]