Monthly Archives: November 2011

Life of a Super Sports Blogger

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—Independent bloggers drive sports industry—Fortune 500 companies engage with the citizen journalists —

It’s the ultimate dream for many a football fan. Swapping the nine to five for a career spent posting on a blog about the sport you adore. No editorial limits, no suit, no boss. For Alan Spurgeon and his blog Footy-Boots.com, that dream is reality.

What started as a series of niche articles in 2006, Alan’s blog which focuses primarily on reviews of football apparel now reaches four million people worldwide, three hundred thousand of whom read his words on average every other day. It’s the sort of platform any of the major football brands would pay serious sums to control, but Footy-Boots.com remains independent, relying upon a small team of mostly volunteer staff and freely available publishing technology to engage the fans.

In a year which has seen every major sports brand jump on the social media bandwagon, Alan’s seen a shift in attitude when it comes to dealing with the marketing departments representing the kit he reviews—

“Our job is to review everything we can get hold of and when a product comes with an already established online fan-base that can explain the benefits in our terms, an invitation to meet the people who produce the product and a willingness to engage in feedback, there’s an obvious advantage. For years we struggled away ordering products as soon as we could get hold of them, crawling through the maze of PR departments to get comment or information and then taking the stuff to the field to run it through the paces before posting our opinion online. These days it’s a little different. Whilst we’re still just a couple of lads operating from their laptop, it’s not unusual for us to be invited to meet the people who produce the kit or to go down to the pitch to chat to the premiership players who are wearing it. The biggest names in the world like Nike, adidas and Puma have got used to the fact that if you want to sell your boots to a digital generation, it’s not just the print media and broadcasters you need to engage with celebrity endorsement, it’s the little guys like us. We need data and it’s in their interests to make sure we have it.”

Whilst the manufacturers are falling over themselves to accommodate the ‘super-bloggers’, some team brands have been better than others at adjusting to the social media era. Manchester United and Arsenal rule Facebook with 20million and 7million fans respectively. Arsenal in particular have embraced the digital revolution, recently hosting web chats for up to 2.5million international fans at a time. The players themselves are thrust into this world, somewhat dazed, to play their part. In May this year Rio Ferdinand posted on Twitter “Yesterday I’m signing a few autographs + a guy pulls out his phone + says ‘can you follow me’! A follow is the new autograph!”.

So what does it feel like being taken from your backroom office to the glorious highs of sports stardom? According to Alan, whose site is successful enough to “pay the bills”, some things will never change. “We are now considered de facto I guess in our niche, particularly for the Football Boot Awards we run every year where the public come to us to vote for the product of the year. That’s great and it’s astonishing of course to get to meet your heroes through your work as we have done when premiership players are lined up to take part in things like the awards sessions, but other things remain the same. We’ve not yet been able to get to some of the international product launches, not because of the cost, but because we’re a simple set up, a couple of guys and a few computers, we just wouldn’t be able to take the time for a long flight which would mean being offline for 9 or 12 or 24 hours. We miss out on that sort of stuff. We’re still geeks attached to our umbilical tech.” When asked if they would accept a private flight sponsored by a major sports brand, their reaction is typical of the new generation of citizen journalists— “No way, the fans of the blog would slaughter us. Our greatest asset is being unbiased. You can’t buy our opinion.”

Nobody at Footy-Boots.com has made a dot com million, but the site owners need an income. The key to success might be seen in the addition of sponsors and affiliates on the boy’s website which help to bring in stable financial support whilst they focus on reviewing kit and steering conversation in the forums. “We’re not salesmen, we never have been, never could be. We’re not good at going out there to find sponsors. I’m sure there are plenty of ways the site could make more money, but it’s never been about the money for us so we’re happy to just let a couple of sports shops link through the site as long as we get positive feedback about them. It’s a happy compromise between running a basic blog and being a commercial website.”

As someone who has tested every major boot released since 2006, Alan has a few pointers for those wanting to be on the Christmas list this year and next. “The best boot in the world is only good for one man. Reading our forums (especially the “ask geeks” channel), you know every player has their own strength, speed, accuracy, strength, ability and confidence to take risks on the pitch. No one cleat is going to fit them all. Just like social media has opened up a million different varieties of opinion, the manufacturers of the product are going to have to follow too. Bespoke might be the way to go. I’m sure the technology will exist to let players pick every aspect of their kit through an app very soon.” Which raises an interesting question- what will be the value of celebrity if and when every boot is customised not to the famous foot, but to every man or women on the pitch? There will be bigwigs in PR breathing a sigh of relief in some cases— we all know Football and Twitter don’t always a happy marriage make. Alan has a list of social media disasters on his site to tell that story.

So where next for Alan and his happy team of sports bloggers? “2011 was a great year, we saw some astonishing products hit the pitch and through our relationships with the brands, we felt like we were pretty much front row. We’ll continue to offer a space where your opinion matters and we’ll be bringing that to a climax with this year’s awards which launch online December 5th and we’re expecting tens of thousands of votes again.”

The one difference between this year and last for Footy-Boots.com, a 1765% rise in the number of visits originating from mobile phones. Let’s hope that Nike and co have their iPhone apps in order when voting kicks in.

Violence and Claymation at Camden Arts Centre

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Clay animation, or claymation as it is commonly referred to, for me instinctively conjures images of Wallace and Gromit. Cuddly, quirky characters whose comedic traits are enhanced by the clunky childlike style inherent to the medium they work in. It is probably rather ignorant going straight for such a mainstream example, but I doubt I’m the only one.

I was nevertheless equally ignorant as I was lured towards the Camden Arts Centre by the mesmerising images from Nathalie Djubery’s exhibition A World Of Glass. For starters I assumed it would be in Camden. It is not and I still don’t know why it has given its self such a misleading title. It is actually a little unassuming building plonked by Finchley road tube station. Secondly, there was much more to the exhibition than the misshapen glass like objects that I found so pretty.

After poking around the gift shop on the way in-it’s so nice when museums do that, so you don’t feel less cultured for wanting to look around the gift shop first; not that I’d need to, I’d already overcome the intelligence hurdle of finding a museum pretending to be somewhere it wasn’t- I ventured toward the first exhibition room.

A soundscape of tinkling glass and percussion filled the room and encouraged a pensive, quiet atmosphere. This was not an exhibition where you chatted about what you though of the work whilst you were there and tried to sound pretentious, you experienced it. You also experienced it standing up, so after a few moments I began to wander.

The promotion pictures really did do the exhibit justice. In a darkened room, tables of illuminated glass like objects looked surreal and made me feel less silly for wanting to see them simply for their strangely beautiful aesthetic. It quickly transpired that they were part of the set taken from the claymation films that were playing at either end of the studio; designed to make the whole exhibition feel modestly immersive.

At first glance Natalie Djurbery’s short clay animated films seem to portray the inherent playfulness I imagined (the first image I saw was of a bull tottering around a shop full of glass), but you don’t have to watch for long before realising that the artist is merely playing upon our natural assumptions about the medium to convey her real message.

As the museum suggests, Djurbery’s films resemble folk or fairytales, but without any moral judgement. They do, however, use this genre to explore dark and crude themes of suffering, depression and violence using humans and animals. The content of each of the stories was shocking and, at times, bizarre enough; but their combination with the tranquil dim environment transformed any gut reaction into something more pensive. The effect was strangely jarring and definitely uncomfortable, as though I was somehow complicit in the twisted taboos shown on the screen.

The work I feel was important to see. It broke and built barriers between person, screen, self, other, human and animal. It showed the possibilities of claymation as a serious artform; its crudeness effectively conveyed the animalistic forces that drove the characters and its childlike nature added a level of philosophical thought to Djurberg’s portrayal of the human condition.

To summarise, I did not completely enjoy it, I’m glad I didn’t and I don’t think I was supposed to.

How To Get Over A Break Up.

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SGPFew things in life are as hard as a break up. Having your heart broken is not for wimps. Yet everyone will go through it at some point. Being left by someone you love will leave you bereft but you will survive. Here is the Frost guide to healing as quickly as possible.

[Note: although this articles is about getting over a man, the same advice mostly applies to women too]

Give yourself time to mourn

Nothing stops the end from being so hard.

When something ends in your life, no matter what it is, it is going to hurt. The end of a relationship is the death of that relationship and you have to give yourself time to mourn.

However, only give yourself a few days, a week maximum to really mop. Sounds tough, but it’s the best way. After that, go out a lot, join some classes, talk to your friends, exercise, or even just spend an evening watching a good boxset or reading magazines. Treat yourself and be kind. You are fragile so treat yourself as well as possible.

Cut him off.

When someone hurts you, react. Forgiveness comes later. Keep your dignity at all times, but don’t let yourself be manipulated. There is a reason you broke up.

Delete him on Facebook, stop following him on Twitter. Delete his number, his email from your contact list, cut him off. If he doesn’t want you in his life, then he doesn’t get to have you as a friend. Don’t settle for second best. He will probably want to keep you around and have you as a ‘friends with benefits’ but you are worth more, don’t do it.

Remove him from your life with surgical precision. Sell everything he bought you on Ebay and use the proceeds to go on a holiday with your girlfriends. Get ride of every mementos. Change your surrounding as much as possible and have a clear out. All of this will help.

Some people think you can be friends with an ex. Maybe you can after a long period, But, I think, the only reasons two exes can be friends is if they still love each other, or if they never did.

Don’t just rebound with the next guy.

Having casual sex will just make you feel worse. Embrace the good things about being single, not the meat market aspect. You will be a different person from who went into the relationship. Give yourself some time to grow and settle into yourself.

Remind yourself what you didn’t like about him.

Write everything down. No one is perfect and there are things he done that drove you mad. Did he play computer games all day? Watch football? Whatever it is, that has also gone from your life too. Thumbs up.

Take responsibility

Take note of what you did wrong in the relationship, the mistakes you made. Learn from every bad experience. It takes two people to destroy a relationship. Your next relationship will be the better for it.

Enjoy being single.

Embrace all the great things about being single. Do all of the things that you love that he hated. Go out and flirt. Flirting is fun and there are a lot of amazing men out there. Go out and date. Enjoy yourself knowing you have no ball and chain.

Become an independent women who loves her life. Remember when Prince William dumped Kate Middleton? Kate shortened her hem lines, and went out with Williams friends looking absolutely stunning. No wonder he fell back in love with her.

[If you follow all of this advice and your ex comes crawling back, think hard before taking him back, all of the old problems will still be there. Don’t throw more good time after bad.]

Let go

Know that everything will get better and that time will heal. After removing him from your life and embracing your new one, let go. Nothing good comes from hanging onto the past. Go out and live your life, knowing that you are better off without him.

My final piece of advice is to not let a bad man ruin you for a good one in the future. There is a good man out there for you. If you become bitter, he wins. Always know that even in the darkest moments that there is a good man out there for you, and one day you will find him. Just keep searching and live your life.

New Ski Policies To Encourage Holiday Makers To Be Safe.

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UK INDUSTRY FIRST: ESSENTIAL TRAVEL DISCOUNTS SKI POLICIES TO ENCOURAGE HOLIDAY MAKERS TO SKI SAFE

15% discount for ski and snowboarders willing to wear helmets


EssentialTravel.co.uk is pioneering a new policy discount to encourage skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets on the slopes to launch as of 21 November 2011.

As part of its “Use Your Head” campaign EssentialTravel.co.uk will be working with mountain sports retailer Ellis Brigham and brain injury association Headway to educate skiers and snowboarders about the importance of head protection this season by offering a 15% discount to those willing to wear helmets.

EssentialTravel.co.uk is also offering a 10 per cent discount on helmets in store or online at Ellis Brigham to every customer who buys winter sports cover. These discounts were prompted after 75% of EssentialTravel.co.uk’s customer base admitting they would wear a helmet if a discount was levied against policies.

The leading travel insurance provider has also enhanced its winter policy this year to ensure better cover for ski equipment, piste closure and ski packs.

The Use Your Head campaign was originally launched last year after 40% of Essential Travel’s ski and snowboard customers said they would not be wearing a helmet despite 75% admitting to suffering an accident on the slopes that was serious enough to warrant medical assistance.

18.2% surveyed after the Use Your Head initiative last year said they wore helmets for the first time last year.

Stuart Bensusan from Essential Travel commented: “Following the initial success of our inaugural campaign last year we’ve decided to take serious action and lead from the front by being the first insurance specialist to offer discounts to skiers and snowboarders willing to wear helmets.

“An alarmingly high percentage of people are still intent on not wearing helmets and the reality is they save lives.

“Our survey showed over 65% of those individuals in a ski related accident believed that wearing a helmet lessened the severity of their injuries. We are urging skiers to recognise the importance of wearing a helmet for protection and to start placing the same value on helmets for winter sports as they would for cycling.”

Peter McCabe, Chief Executive of Headway, said: “We are delighted to see the number of skiers and snowboarders wearing helmets increasing year-on-year.

“Even a minor blow to the head can have major consequences, and even the most experienced of skiers are at risk of falling at some point during their holiday.

“By offering reduced premiums, EssentialTravel.co.uk is providing an incentive to its customers to wear a helmet, but the ultimate incentive should be protecting your delicate brain from injury.”

Mark Brigham, Founder of Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports says: “Ellis Brigham are delighted to be involved with the Use Your Head campaign for a second year. Helmets have become the norm on skiers large and small in recent year, they are now lighter, better ventilated and much more comfortable and we encourage their use.”

EssentialTravel.co.uk has launched a dedicated “Use Your Head” micro-site which features full details of the Ellis Brigham discount and Headway charity donation as well as snow injury facts and testimonies from customers who’ve been injured on the slopes.

For further information about Essential Travel visit www.essentialtravel.co.uk or call 0845 803 5434.

Roger Moore's Christmas wish to you

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Let the bells ring out for every child in the world this Christmas.

This festive season, forget the latest iPhone, toy or gadget and give your family and friends a
truly inspirational present by treating them to a UNICEF Inspired gift, which will be delivered
to a vulnerable child around the world on their behalf.

UNICEF’s Inspired Gift range is unique, suitable for all budgets and easy to buy online.
All the inspired gifts are real lifesaving supplies delivered to children, some living in desperate

conditions around the world. They include items such as medicines, foods, water containers
and education materials. Your friend or family member will receive a gift card, which tells
them how their gift is making a real difference to children’s lives.

Now, with the ‘children’s famine’ affecting nearly 2 million children in Somalia alone and its
impact likely to last for years to come, there is no better time to add a UNICEF Inspired Gift to this year’s Christmas shopping list.

There is a gift for every budget;
• For £13 you can purchase life-saving therapeutic milk to help a child suffering from
severe malnutrition to survive another day.
• You can help five families protect themselves from malaria with mosquito nets for just
£20
• For £12 you could brighten a child’s day with five story books
• For those with a slightly bigger budget, £150 will enable you to deliver an entire
‘school in a box’ to children caught up in an emergency so they get back to learning
as soon as possible

UNICEF is the world’s leading children’s organisation, responding to more than 200
emergencies each year and working in every country to make sure the world’s most
vulnerable children are reached. Every year, more than 8 million children die before their fifth
birthday, mostly from preventable causes, that’s almost one child every four seconds. This is
wrong but by purchasing one of UNICEF’s inspired gifts this Christmas, you can help to put it
right.

See our top 10 Inspired Gifts below, or go online to view the full range:
www.unicef.org.uk/inspired

For those who want to wrap up something to go under the tree then UNICEF also offers a
more traditional selection of cards and gifts including gorgeous handmade leather bags and
ethical jewellery: www.unicef.org.uk/shop

Our top 10 Inspired Gifts
All of the photos can be provided as high-resolution images on request. Product photos also
available. Prices effective as of 1 September 2011

Emergency water kit for a family £8.50

Give a UNICEF Inspired Gift that will enable a family caught up in an emergency or natural
disaster to collect, store and even purify water.

Deliver a baby £27
Provide all the equipment and medicines needed for the safe delivery of a new baby.
Life-saving milk £13
Give life-saving, therapeutic milk for the treatment of severe child malnutrition.
Water pump £320
Buy a water pump and help provide clean, safe drinking water for a whole community.
Peanut paste to save a child from malnutrition £23.50
Help malnourished children with this life-saving therapeutic food. It’s a high-protein, peanutbased
paste that comes in a ready-to-use sachet.
Five mosquito nets £20
Mosquito nets for five families to protect them from malaria. Malaria kills one African child
every 30 seconds.
Three months HIV medicines for a mum and a baby £12
Provide life-saving anti-retroviral medicines for a mother and baby for three months.
Polio vaccines £9.50
Protect 100 children from this highly contagious viral infection.
School-in-a-box £150
This emergency education kit provides the school supplies that children need to continue their
lessons as soon as possible after a disaster.
Story books £12
Open up the delight of story-time for whole groups of children with five story books.

UNICEF’s full range of Cards, Gifts and Inspired Gifts* are available exclusively online at
www.unicef.org.uk/shop or by calling 0844 888 5505.

Brits ‘terribles’ at foreign languages.

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Parlay voo onglaze?

Brits ‘terribles’ at foreign languages, with 19% unable to even translate “bonjour”

While everyone loves going on holiday, research by Hotels.com today reveals that this does not ‘translate’ for Brits into an ability to understand and speak the local language. Shockingly 64% of us are completely unable to say anything in a foreign tongue, and only a third (34%) of us are willing to give the lingo a go when abroad. Even simple words such as “bonjour” and “goedemorgen” failed to register, with 19% and 63% of us respectively unable to translate “good morning” in French and Dutch.

Despite French, German and Spanish being on the National Curriculum, only 13%, 8% and 6% of Brits respectively consider themselves able to speak the language. Of those in this category, 25% can ask a limited range of everyday questions, 21% can just say “hello” and “goodbye” and a strange 2% claim that they can understand everything that is said to them, but are unable to say anything back.

The majority of Brits (61%) rarely or never try to speak a foreign language, with reasons for their lack of effort being put down to simply not being bothered (16%), being too embarrassed they will make a mistake (35%) or simply assuming that everyone can speak English (23%).

Surprisingly 47% of 18-24 year olds reported that they haven’t spoken the foreign language they learnt at school, since they left. Conversely, those aged over 55 were most likely to try and speak the country’s local language when on holiday, with 45% of respondents claiming to very often or always try.

Putting pints before their Ps & Qs, more people (43%) were able to translate “a beer please” in Spanish (“una cerveza por favor”) than were able to correctly translate “thank you” in Portuguese (“prego”) 29%.

Kate Hopcraft, from Hotels.com, said: “The results of our study seem to put British holiday makers to shame, with even languages typically learnt at school such as German, French and Spanish having incredibly low levels of comprehension. Brits often have a negative image abroad when it comes to languages and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be anything we’ll be saying auf wiedersehen to anytime soon.”

Percentage of Brits who could correctly translate these common foreign phrases:

Bonjour

81%

Una cerveza por favor

43%

Prego

29%

Ja

57%

Danke schoen

57%

Goedemorgen

37%

Buenas Noches

56%

Retail Sales in Clothing and Footwear increases.

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PEG- Retail Sales figures from the Office of National Statistics have been released.

Footfall has declined 1.0 per cent but the overall sales of textile, clothing and footwear increased.

Official figures today reveal promising news for retailers. Data from the Office of National Statistics show sales figures to be considerably higher than the same period last year. With the weather set to take a turn for the worse and more people feeling a pinch in their pockets, online shopping sales have surged as people look for good deals.

The value of retail sales in October 2011 showed an increase of 5.4 per cent compared with October 2010. The total sales volumes in October 2011 increased by 0.9 per cent, in comparison to the same time last year. Further figures revealed that small stores sales figures increased by 5.3 per cent while larger stores, sales figures decreased by 0.3 per cent. Once again, online trading increased its share of total retail, the average weekly spend on online retailing increased to £561.5 million up from £518.7 million in September 2011. Textile, clothing and footwear sales volumes fell by 1.0 per cent however sales value increased by 2.6 per cent over the same period. These figures bode well for retailers, giving them a much needed life line in the in the run up to Christmas.

Kevin Flood, CEO of social shopping leader Shopow (www.shopow.co.uk) said, “Retailers that were desperately in need of a reversal of their fortunes have found that they now have an encouraging platform on which to build in the run up to Christmas. High street stores have had to pull out all the stops to make their shops attractive by reducing prices early and creating imaginative promotions to increase footfall and more activity at the tills. It is still far from plain sailing and there is still a lot of pressure on retailers. As long as business and consumer confidence remains low, the battle will continue to persuade shoppers to return in their droves.

“Online activity has emerged as a vital area that will only continue to grow in importance over Christmas. We are expecting a significant amount of Christmas activity online and those who have introduced innovative shopping tools that make shopping easier and more cost effective will capitalise.”

Social shopping has emerged as an exciting trend in online retailing as many high street stores look to engage consumers. It involves the use of social networking to share recommendations, share discounts, post reviews and ask for advice on products before purchase.

Mike Harty COO of Shopow said “Regular web shoppers are now empowered to talk about their purchases in an honest way. Social shopping with Shopow enables shoppers to use their trusted networks to make informed decisions but also makes online shopping more interactive and enjoyable.”

David Cameron Sacks Green Envoy Zac Goldsmith in 'Petty and Vindictive' Move.

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It is rare to meet a politician with integrity, who keeps their word, and it seems Zac Goldsmith has paid the price for keeping to his.

Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of being ‘petty and vindictive’ after the Tory MP for Richmond Park had a key Government job taken away from him after he defied him over the EU.

Goldsmith had previously been appointed by the Prime Minister as his personal Downing Street envoy in a bid to fight global warming. The offer was withdrawn a mere two days before Goldsmith’s first assignment, and a matter of hours after he voted in favour of a referendum on the EU.

Goldsmith was due to start work as the Prime Ministers ‘climate change and forest envoy’ last month. His first task was to meet with President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, where forests are at risk. The meeting that was to be held in London last month was publicly announced. Goldsmith was then barred from attending and the job offer was revoked.

The Richmond Park MP said last night: ‘I was always going to vote for the referendum motion, not least because I promised my constituents I would.

‘But the Government was very unwise to impose a three-line whip on Conservative MPs. It created  all sorts of problems for itself that could have been avoided.’

Goldsmith refused to comment on the job offer being revoked, but said: ‘Reversing the decline of forestry worldwide is one of the most important battles faced by our species.
‘I don’t need a formal government role to pursue that work.’

Two days earlier, he was among 81 Tory MPs who voted in favour of a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU and ignored Mr Cameron’s order to toe the line.

A Government source had this to say: ‘You cannot have someone rebelling against the Government one day and walking into a government job the next. Not when two ministerial aides resigned over the EU vote. But Zac is a great guy  and we hope we can revive this job offer in time.’

A fellow MP disagreed and told the Daily Mail: ‘It was petty and vindictive to cancel this post. Zac had every right to vote in favour of a referendum on Europe.

‘The Government constantly says it is giving top priority to efforts  to curb climate change and yet it is prepared to risk that to punish an MP for sticking to his principles on the EU. It is the kind of thing that brings politics into disrepute.’

Well-placed government sources said Goldsmith had spent months in talks with Government officials about the climate change and forest envoy role.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne and Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman had all given the go-ahead for his appointment

Read Frost’s interview with Zac Goldsmith