Celebrity
Monster
Someone sent me this picture of Wossy, and I couldn’t help noticing the remarkable resemblance between the small figure attached to JR’s “man bag” and the Sony Ericsson Music Monster from the original pilot edition of Matter.
I wonder how that got there?
Photos: Stuart Gray ; Times Newspapers
Quite a few Matter subscribers are on Twitter - as well as us too (@matterbox) - so it seemed natural to get involved somehow.
The London (there were similar events all around the world) Twestival was last held Thursday, 12th Feb at Shoreditch Studios. 500 eager Twitterers queued up for an hour or so in the snow to witness on odd array of entertainment, but mainly to meet each other in person.
This most innovative cultural phenomenon featured some very traditional entertainment in the form of auctions–both silent and, er, vocal–and a raffle, for which the star prize was a special one-off Matterbox, which we put together specially.
@technokitten was the lucky winner and is now the proud owner of the following:
• Pico Hand-held projector
• DIY Morph doll + DVD
• Blank Munny figure (Kid Robot)
• LED (lots of small ones) digital watch
• Lego heart (Year Zero) keyring
• Kozik Smokin’ bunny soft toy
• 4GB Lego USB stick
• Big Brand Defector T shirt (Howies)
• Head Porter Coin Purse
• Cut-out London Icons
• Postable wooden jewellry
• Supreme notebook
Hope you enjoy it!
After a few hiccoughs, the first edition of Matter went out in December and people seemed to like it.So, with two editions now, the Matter pilot and Matter No. 1, we hope you’ll have a clearer idea of what to expect from future Matter editions.
Matter boxes are sized according to what’s in them and the smaller size of the last December edition seemed to more popular than the bigger pilot box. We think these represent the two extremes of size with future boxes falling somewhere in between the two.
The December edition, Matter 1 was more practical than the conceptual pieces in the pilot, but seemed to be every bit as popular with something for everyone. There’s a lot of creative possibilities with Matter and we’re keen to see what kind of items are developed for future boxes as the concept matures.
As before, we had a whole range of responses, mostly good, some bad, some indifferent. We’re grateful for all the comments as this is a backbone of what Matter is all about.
Photo credit: Almost Always Thinking(thank you)
Some of you have not received your Matter boxes. They were all sent out on Friday 5th December, and at other times of the year, would have all arrived by now. However, we ran into the Christmas rush unfortunately, and some are still in the postal system.
We have a handful left over, but I don’t want to let these go as replacements until we know that they are lost, not merely late. So, if you’ve not received your box, please hold on a little while longer.
I would like you to tell me you’ve not received the boxes since that gives us an idea of the true volumes that have not arrived. If you haven’t yet received your box, please email at contact[at]matterbox.co.uk rather than leave comments on the blog or in the questionnaire on the site.
Though the number missing isn’t statistically high at the moment, that’s little consolation if it’s yours that’s not shown up.
Thank you
Tim
I hope you’ll all take some time to go to the matterbox.co.uk website, where everyone can see what was in the box and check out the associated websites and offers. Everyone is encouraged to leave us comments on the items/Matter using the ‘comments’ box beneath the product descriptions and the comments function on this blog. Those of you who did get this box can do the same, but you also get access to some (optional) questions on the website about the items you received. If you answer them it will help us when we start planning Matter II – which we aim to be delivered in the first quarter of New Year.
Apologises we have no forum for you to talk to each other on just yet – it’s a work in progress. I hope you use this blog to exchange a few ideas and opinions in the meantime. We welcome all of your comments and rest assured that we read every one.
Finally, to any unlucky people out there who joined Matter before 6pm on September 5th 2008 but for some reason do not receive their Matter today – PLEASE LET US KNOW! We’ll be sure to check where your Matterbox is and sort out any problems with delivery for you.
Enjoy your Matter.
We don’t want someone else to get your box.
If you’ve moved, it’s vital that you update your details–please log-in and change your address in your existing profile. Please don’t re-register as we only use your first registration.
Please do this by SUNDAY night* (midnight), as we’re downloading the data for the November box.
*(if you registered after Sep 5th, you’re fine as you’ll get the following box).
Picture: drcorneilus
We’ve had some email problems recently, now fixed, and there might be some confusion about who’s getting which box. Two emails went out to Matter subscribers, last Thursday (13th Nov around 6:30pm), to tell them their box is coming and to update their details.
1. Everyone registered before 6:00pm, Sep 5th, gets the November box.
2. Everyone registered after 6:00pm, Sep 5th, gets the following box early next year.
After the earlier email problems, if anyone who is registered, but didn’t get an email, please send an email to me (contact[at]matterbox.co.uk with “NO EMAIL” in the title.
Thank you.
Tim
Went to the Campaign Big awards last night, which–apart from BBH collecting an almost unhealthy stash of perspex desk ornaments–was notable for the way in which it was structured.
In a clear attempt to challenge traditional media demarcations, everything was split into sectors, with best executions then awarded prizes within that sector. Mostly it worked, though some sectors were understandably better than others, was a good attempt at representing all the main disciplines, Digital, Direct, Outdoor, Press, TV, Radio as equals.
A couple of things struck me though…
It used to be that Ambient advertising was, for some reason, lumped in with direct (because there’s no paid-for media?), but Campaign had (wisely) decided to include in the Outdoor section, which immediately elevated that category since so much ambient activity is heavily idea-based (and is increasingly influencing paid-for outdoor media).
That then got me thinking that maybe Direct could do with a similar boost. Might it not be an idea to call it Indoor Advertising?
This would also embrace both traditional direct mail and Matter, which is, of course, in-direct.
Warhol Cans - National Galleries of Scotland (BBC) - Finalist Campaign Big Awards 2008
Seen this?
You could believe that this really is a new Vodka brand with some smart creative people sprinkling a liberal dose of fairy dust to give it a good send off into the world.
It’s convincing, with bottles made by Bruni Glass, an arcane Italian glass manufacturer and the technical stuff about filtration over diamonds seems the obvious next step in distillers’ oneupmanship. But, the story about the mystical powers unleashed when the legendary thirteen crystal heads are brought together is real magic. Really.
And why not? Drinks brands have form in developing innovative marketing angles. But, then again, so have movies.
Is this a spoof, one of the early raiders in the coming onslaught for Ghostbusters 3? Lots of bloggers seem to think so.
The Crystal Head Vodka website offers no outlets, distributors and or ways of purchasing the stuff, nor any contact or corporate information. In fact, the site has nothing but Akroyd’s lengthy movie. A few booze sites seem to feature it as a product but don’t show any stock or availability.
It smells like a spoof, but Notcot says “no, it’s real” and even has pictures and comments testifying to the fact that it’s real.
It’s a mystery. I guess that’s the point.
I’ve been recently intrigued by the idea of getting the Matter subscribers to do a single jigsaw puzzle. I like the idea of everyone (notice how I avoided the over-used word community) collectively create something and I’m particularly fascinated by the things inside Matter moving from the private experience into a more public one.
The easy and more obvious way to do this would to do it online, but web puzzles seem to be a bit twee and, frankly, a little unrewarding. But, maybe that’s just the ones I’ve seen. More dramatic and exciting is the prospect of getting all the Matter subscribers to ‘do’ the puzzle in real life. Obviously, this wouldn’t be easy, not least of the challenges would be getting people to physically do the puzzle and how could we avoid the inevitable frustration if one person failed to turn up with their piece?
Leave aside the politics, the Freedom Not Fear campaign created this collage of our leader from CCTV images, which goes some way to illustrating how this might work.
Could we do the same but for purely entertaining reasons?
Photo: Felix Cohen (on Flickr)
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