I received my home insurance renewal yesterday, a massive pack of small print, that I'll never have the time to read through. Yes, yes I know it's in the detail that counts, but I'll never get around to it. What I want is the quote price. That's all that really matters.

Think customer - renewing insurance sucks, every year it's a big pain in the backside.

Today, as if by magic I was invited to renew it online and get four bottles of wine for the bother of doing so. This is smart.

It's top of mind - the offline pack reminded me that it needs to be done. I know the price, all the detail is there for when I want to read it, I certainly wouldn't want to attempt this on-screen, there's far too much to read.

The extra incentive caught my eye - had they got clever and had in my profile I drink wine? Probably not. But the entire experience was a good one. Alot of campaigns are so-called integrated, in essence they mean TV, outdoor and DM.

And yes, I will be renewing it with the company.

How can the project process stop that 11th hour 'hold the presses' moment. My view is people don't spend enough thinking time reviewing the strategy and approving it with 100% belief.

It always amazes me that everything has gone well, approved gateways etc then just when you think it's in the bag along comes can we change that please.

As as answer to this, I am exploring the use of a customer model. So when someone asks the million dollar question, the constantly updated model can show that it's not important and been considered. This creates a new challenge of showing that you're : a. clever clogs, b. don't want to do the work or c. don't agree with the client.

When planning the strategy for an online campaign or communication, planners start at the beginning - desk research, searching for insight...

This is already done and should have a fair amount of credentials behind it. It's the role of the brand manager. They know the audience, what makes them tick and how to differentiate from their competitiors.

To some extent you could end up with two brand propositions. Why? Are the customers different for online? Maybe.

So if this is the case and the experience with the brand is different from online to offline, how does the cross over. I may choose to view/collect information/purchase online but may also interact with the brand in the real world - I am the same consumer!

Digital planners should spend time with brand managers and really understand how the total customer experience can be planned.

Everytime I hear 'Black', I think of the painter sketches from The Fast Show. Its other association is either premium (Black card etc) or death (in the Europe and USA).

So how can black be a force for good - how about saving a tiny amount of screen energy:

http://www.blackle.com/

Just imagine if for every Google search it used black as a background how much energy could be saved without a loss in user experience. What a cool idea!

As part of a next generation OS I'm working on I've been taking OS X apart, well dashboard.

After studying the iTunes widget the drop shadow does not match between the view and config views. How could this happen? It's Apple!

Whilst OS X is an amazing piece of software, it just goes to show that the speed we're all required to work at to gain competitive advantage has an effect on quality control - and these type of tiny errors slip through the net.

Labels: Apple, Dashboard, OS X