A while back my friend’s father in law labelled the 2009 Formula 1 Drivers World Champion, Nearly Man.

As my friend recently said, he was nearly right.

Having had an accidental drink with Jenson Button one afternoon in Chelsea, I felt this was a somewhat unfair title.

Working with a number of motor manufacturers and race teams, I have more insight than most, and most of the time considered Jenson worthy of his F1 seat. The Honda withdrawal of late 2008 looked like Jenson would be left high and dry.

Since Jenson and Brawn GP won the Championship recently, it would appear many now agree. He is a bona fide sportsman.

Isn’t it amazing how attitudes change towards a winner?

The above snapped in London’s Savile Row.

I have always said communications need to be consistent. A quick blast of PR may make the Chief Executive feel good, but is a quick spike in marketing spend really the way to go.

Back in 2002, I remember being near the Tate Modern on London’s Southbank and first seeing the Starbucks Red Cup promotion. Really simple, red cups for Christmas. That is it.

Every year Starbucks does a low level push of the red cups. This simple idea gives Starbucks some variation on its usual product range and helps to bring customers to the coffee shops. As well as the feel good factor of the brand getting in on the seasonal action.

Marketing does not need to always be about the big ubiquitous idea.

Being based in Central London, there is never a shortage of buses and their sometimes interesting livery to admire from my window. All day buses trundle past in a non-descript fashion. Single and double deckers, Routemasters, Ken’s reviled bendy bus, coaches and mini-buses.

Despite this malaise of traffic, once a month an advertisement jumps out. This month it was the one pictured above, for Swiss airline, Swiss. Not Swiss Air, for which it is commonly mistaken, they were one of the first airlines to go out of business at the start of the decade. As a result, one time magazine editor and creative, Tyler Brulee, cleverly turned Swiss Air in to Swiss. I digress.

What we really want to talk about here is using the media. Working with raw material and doing something eye catching and different. Some clever creative has thought, how do buses in ski resorts look, and painted (well stickered) a rack, skis and poles to the back end of this number 9. Eye catching and simple. The creative idea is a 10/10. Now will it sell more flights?

Here we have our first skilled author. The likeable solicitor from Soho based law firm, Matt King of Simons Muirhead Burton.

“Back in spring, Courtney Love became the first celebrity sued for Tweeting. A libel (or “Twibel”) claim was brought against Love for a message posted on Twitter in which Love accused a clothing designer of being a “lying thief” and a “drug addict”.

Last month, Chicago resident Amanda Bonnen was sued when her landlord, Horizon Group Management, filed a claim for $50,000 against her, alleging that one of her Tweets resulted in damage to the company’s reputation. Jeffrey Michael of Horizon declared to the Chicago Sun-Times, “We’re a ‘sue first, ask questions later’ kind of an organization.”

Twitterers beware: it can be very easy to slip into complacency where the likes of Twitter and Facebook provide us with a means of instant publication. It is only a matter of time until a similar suit is brought in England. Users should be reminded to think first, Tweet later.”

It may be only September but PlanetSKI reader, Xavier Adam, has just booked his first ski trip. It’s going to be in November, but he doesn’t know where. He’s got a few other plans too.

“I don’t know exactly where I’ll go in November. I have the flight booked and will simply see where the snow is falling.”

In reality, being an avid skier from 5 years old , my thoughts are never really far from winter and this summer I have been doing some serious (ish) training in the gym and swimming pool and what has kept me going is imagining how fit I’ll be for the winter!

Last season was awesome, the best ever with amazing conditions across Europe from November onwards, so I’m off again in November.

Maybe to Verbier as I spent a lot of time there last season.

The skiing, restaurants and nightlife were excellent.

I also visited Zermatt, Formigal and Port del Compte and made many, many new friends.

From the Spanish junior ski champion I spotted taking a Friday off school for training, to retired jovial friends, with lots of ski experience between them, acting as if in their youth again.

I hadn’t skied in the Alps for over ten years prior to last season.

Being part Catalan and based in Spain, it’s easier to throw the gear in the car, and just drive two hours to Baquiera,Taull, La Molina or Val d’Nuria up in the Spanish Pyrenees.

All fantastic ski resorts, if a little overrun like everywhere, at the peak time of Christmas and New Year.

Being based in Europe makes it possible to track when and where the snow is good and just head off. Very, very easy.

Having spent a lot of my youth in the Pyrenees, for me they are one of the most beautiful mountain ranges.

The Savolyeres area in Verbier has a Pyrenean aspect with fir trees and flowing, rounded mountain tops. The added bonus of it being quiet and off the badge collector ski trail, means it is a very tranquil and picturesque environment.

Ski-wise it can also be challenging too, if you know where to look.

Last November, I upgraded my skis, boots and various other bits of gear, going for quality over aesthetics.

The new skis were so radically different to what I was used to, I hated them at first, and it seemed they hated me but perseverance and the fact they cost nearly £1000 saw me get them dancing after a few weeks.

Going back to my old skis now is like hopping in a steam driven vehicle c1900.

This season again, I will be partly based in Verbier, with plenty of trips planned to the Pyrenees.

What a flight Geneva-Barcelona is in winter, the snow capped Alps merging quickly from the air with their Pyrenean cousins.

Breathtaking and worth it for the flight alone.

In Spain, I am hoping to go back to Baqueria after a six year break, try Formigal on a good weather day and explore La Molina, with the local Barcelonenes.

Austria is another option, having been to Kitzbuhel for a mountain party pre-season, it must look even more beautiful with a picture postcard dusting of snow.

The opportunities are endless…… roll on November.”

Q. My business-to-business logistics firm has been holding its own in the recession, but cashflow remains a concern. I’m keen to reappraise costs, particularly in advertising and marketing. I’ve spent a fair bit on public relations, but it’s hard to measure the impact on the bottom line, so I want to invest in more measurable campaigns. Are there any risks associated with reducing or even completely cutting out PR?

Xavier Adam writes:

I would advise you to question whether you really want to put your PR and marketing on ice. No doubt you’ll have heard something similar banded around by the industry, but it’s true. As a business owner, I fully understand where you’re coming from. However, my organisation, AMC Network, is currently doing more marketing than we have in the last 10 years. Advertising, sponsorship, digital communications and PR are all on our shopping list.

Marketing works – we have tangible enquiries coming in as a result. If you’re a good client, treating your suppliers with respect and paying bills promptly, I’m sure they would want to help you. Have you spoken to them about your cashflow predicament? If you are straight and tell them how it is, they may be able to accommodate you, perhaps with temporary reduced payment terms, delayed billing periods or some added HR from your firm.

In terms of effectiveness, you can measure all you like, but have you straw-polled your audiences? I certainly do this on a regular basis, to ask them how they have heard of ‘things’, from campaigns to events and new products. This may not be very scientific, but it is effective, and you hear it from the horse’s mouth. It’s fine to back this up with research centre data, but getting a first-hand feel for your customers’ reactions is a good solid activity at any time, and one engaged in by most major retailers, for example. They will get on the shop floor and see what their customers are doing. All marketing is quite cost-effective right now, as demand is weaker than it was 18 to 24 months ago, but note that good operators will only price cut marginally. While there may be fewer buyers, there are still plenty out there for good suppliers.

A presumptuous approach, as we have experienced a couple of times, will not work in your favour. So talk to your suppliers to see if there is middle ground, and gauge effectiveness by polling your contacts. Remember, your suppliers and customers want you to succeed.

Xavier Adam runs PR and marketing firm AMC Network, which operates in six countries and is often engaged in wider global campaigns. www.redamc.com

At the weekend I saw a press advert for cakes, using a clock, cartoon style lettering and garish pastel cake colours. This is very similar to another company’s advertising, also making associations with tea time, but advertising much more heavily, and I think having started their campaign earlier.

Immediately I thought the advertiser was the heavy ubiquitous advertiser we are used to seeing. The campaign has been around for three months or so now. When looking more closely it wasn’t, it was the rival brand, looking very similar.

They were tapping in to my psyche. Definitely. I had a two second confusion window, thinking it was the ubiquitous advertiser. But how can this be proved in court?

Most non-media people would not realise they were being manipulated in this way. Partly because I saw LOCOG lawyer Alex Kelham’s excellent talk at the IPA, I was extra aware to what degree a brand can pursue an infringing advertiser.

These two tea time examples may be a co-incidence, but I am not so sure.

Both could be interpreted as legitimate images and messages. They are associating with tea time, being tea time products. The two adverts do look far too similar to be a co-incidence.

What do you think? Is measuring brand physche an impossibility? Are we taking image and rights too far? Should we relax a little and be less uptight? Do the public care? Do they notice this sub conscious mind-manipulation?

Images will appear shortly.

b.TWEEN is always a great event. Katz Kiely and her team, really think through the content, running order, venues and attendees’ interests. These industry types have a fantastic handle on what people like me need to hear about.

Usually at conferences you have heard most of it before. b.TWEEN routes out the weird, and takes little time to make me understand why this is relevant to what I am doing everyday.

This was my third b.TWEEN having taken a break in 2007.

There is something about the event which makes it quite different to the usual run of the mill conferences that bombard my inbox. The desire of b.TWEEN people to learn and share is strong.

There is no organising plc of the ‘bums-on-seats’ school, which are so impersonal, ramming down my throat why I should go and see some worthies, or, usually not even going that far. Just sending a long boring list of organisations involved, and insinuating I am missing out by not handing over my £ 1000 pronto.

Alongside the big names at b.TWEEN are people from the largest global agencies, broadcasters and technology firms, mixing with the smallest niche providers. Script writers of reality games share salad and fruit with hard nosed commercial types.

b.TWEEN is different. There really is something for everyone, from the every day tangible to pure conceptual. To demonstrate their innovation, b.TWEEN Twittered, before Twitter was in common use. They created their own version of the messaging service, live text from b.TWEEN participants scrolling over the screens at the Cubby Broccoli Cinema in Bradford. That was in 2006.

This year, helping Katz compile a book on b.TWEEN helpfully forced me to go to the more obscure, but often still well attended sessions. Canadian academics, people from the arts sector and university technology transfer programmes are just some examples of those doing interesting work with digital technology. All were at b.TWEEN09.

Details for 2010 are yet to be announced, in the meantime check out the website at b.TWEEN

btween09#

The audience at his event was a mixed media crowd. Who seemed like big TV fans. This may sound odd to people outside the business, but media types can be snobbish about TV, insinuating it is some form of lower entertainment and not really a cultural activity.

Odd, when for example there are so many good history shows, natural world documentaries, in-depth current affairs programmes and top notch comedy and drama. Hardly low brow stuff.

Following heated exchanges and much applause, I was not entirely sure what the main point of Richard’s debate was, (but this did give it a nice freeflow style). There was a lot of talk about whether the BBC licence fee should be split between the BBC and commercial broadcasters, to create a more level playing field and encourage wider quality programming. The discussion oscillated around this point in several forms.

To me it seems the TV types are only thinking in one formula. When there are various shades of approach that can be taken, to narrow the gap between the BBC with its currently guaranteed licence fee and commercial broadcasters experiencing falling advertising revenue.

In my view, there needs to be an overhaul of the licence fee. It is a poll tax and for people who do not like broadcast, seems an imposition on them. We should in no way dumb down the BBC to save a bit of money, but there do need to be some changes. Time has moved on, and we are no longer in the advent of the TV decade, where the licence fee was the clear solution.

After the event I was speaking with some attendees about a tiered fee structure for BBC services, where different people pay different rates for different packages. If Sky and the like can do this, why not the BBC? It seems fair and will stop many of the stories in the tabloids about the BBC wasting licence payers’ money. The viewer, listen and surfer pay for what they use.

What do you think? Does the licence fee have a future? Is there potentially a better and fairer system? How can the BBC compete going forward? Should product placement and other commercial activity be encouraged?

Finally, thanks to the debaters, who really did make this a fun and interesting event. Peter Bazalgette, Nick Ross, Laurence Marks and of course, Richard Lindley.

Becoming useful as a tool for seeing what was going on. The more people on there you know, the more value it has. Simple.

Just a very quick surf today throws up two new Twitter stories on the major UK media websites. Why has Twitter become so popular? I would say it is the immediacy, and like Google, the simplicity of use. It does no more or less than it says on the virtual tin.

The rules of Twitter are still quite random. For example, many people think getting a huge Twitter following is a good thing. I would say, as an individual, what is the value of being followed by random people in far flung corners of the planet? Also, there is a security issue, broadcasting movements may not be wise amongst an unknown group. The Twitter rules will be self-refined over time.

Lastly, companies and their agencies are making much of their prowess in the digital sphere and now include Twitter in their digital bag. I have signed up with such experts and really am getting some rubbish through on my Twitter feed.

Major brands look confused, are they trying to be my friend, or, sell me their wares. I am unsure, and it seems they are too. One newspaper Twitter feed spams me the headlines, a complete waste of time. When I can just surf on down to their website and read them there myself. Brands are being badly advised.

As a Twitter user, my key pointers for brands are below.

Do, be sure what you are trying to say, a corporate brand trying to get cool, just because of a Twitter account, looks odd. Get the pitch straight and be consistent.

Don’t, overload your followers, be timely but not annoying. Wholefoods is a corporate whose Tweets, while not amazingly interesting, do the job of keeping the brand omnipresent.

What do you think of Twitter? Here for the long term, or, no more than temporary Twittle and Twattle?

Why is the service so popular? Media hype. Or, a serious business and social tool?

For you readers and Twitterers, Twitter ID, @xavieradam