In Dublin's Fair City

Off to Dublin and the uber-trendy Morrison Hotel for the IABC EuroComm 2006 Conference.  You can tell it's trendy because there is not one lightbulb in the place rated at higher than 20 Watts.  We are bumping around like moles - relying on the displays on our mobiles to light the way.  This morning I am lucky to be wearing socks of the same colour.

Ramon Ollé is CEO of Epson in Europe, and he addressed us this morning on the issue of ethics.  He made some key points.

"Behind every language is a culture - just because you can speak their language, it does not mean that you speak their culture......For years we have been sending Xmas Cards to our Japanese colleagues without realising that for them 25th December is just a normal working day."

Ramon had just a couple of slides - and this was the main one.  It's the Chinese ideogram for 'Ethics'.  The image 2nd down on the right a a human eye and the cross above denotes the number 10.  The curvy image bottom left denotes 'heart' while the No 1 on the left means 'work'. 

As with all ideograms the meaning is multi-layered.  On the surface it means 'communicate as though 10 eyes are observing you.'  It's the equivalent of the old PR advice "never say anything you would not be happy reading on the front page of The Times.  But then Ramon peeled away another layer.  It can mean 'look with 10 eyes before you communicate', i.e. truly understand all your audiences before you open your mouth.  I prefer this advice particularly when you include that heart, which adds the instruction to communicate with and from your emotions.

Not bad - it would make a good logo for any communication agency.

John Simmons of The Writer and author of Dark Angels told the Guinness Story – appropriate as the brewery is round the corner and most of the delegates had visited the splendid Guinness Storehouse – all of them had tasted some of the black stuff on the pub crawl up and down the Liffey the night before.
One of the great ideas he described was the propagation of the 1759 emails. That’s the date the Guinness Brewery was established by Arthur Guinness (who rather presciently signed a 9000 year lease on the premises for £45 a year).  But in the 24 hour clock 17:59 is also the time on a Friday when employees prepare to head off for the weekend. Hence the 17:59 emails that are sent out with a pithy story about an event from the last week to grab the imagination. 

From these simple stories whole marketing campaigns have been inspired, including this brilliant ad from Guinness South Africa.  (Click on the image to read the copy). 

John is currently writer-in-residence at Kings Cross Underground Station.  Look out for him next time you switch trains on the Northern Line.