Last Word: Code Computerlove, Driven and Twitter Fail

Isn’t the idea of sleeping under the stars romantic? What could be nicer than dozing off with a smooth glass of red in your hand, the stars dancing overhead and a soft breeze lulling you to sleep?

Picture that image now, picture the peace, quiet and tranquillity of a night spent outdoors, at one with nature and a decent bottle of plonk.

Great! Go sign up to Byte Night, the annual city sleep out organised by the digital and IT industries... And then get a blanket. And maybe a bottle of something a little stronger than Merlot. And maybe a raincoat because you’re actually going to find out what it feels like to sleep rough.

Byte Night takes place on 8 October and last year Code Computerlove raised £5,000 for the charity Action for Children by taking part. This year Code want to raise even more to help keep young people off the streets.

Code CEO Tony Foggett said. “Last year in Manchester it was windy, cold but surprisingly and mercifully dry. Although not a lot of sleep was had; just one night out, well prepared, in sleeping bags and survival sacks really brought home what an ordeal sleeping rough is.”

To find out how and where to take part, visit bytenight.org.uk.

DRIVEN ADVENTURER TAKES LEAP OF FAITH WITH 10,000 FEET SKY DIVE

Emily Dewar, account planner at Driven, has clearly been eating her Wheetabix in recent weeks having undertaken some arduous tasks – all in the name of charity.

Miss Dewar undertook two challenges with her friend Rachel Wood in the space of a fortnight. The first was to climb Snowdon Mountain (all 3,540 ft of it) in under five hours in what she describes as ‘horrid weather’. Next our driven adventurer then took part in a freefall tandem skydive from 10,000ft, travelling towards the ground at speeds up to 120 mph.

Dewar told Last Word: “The experience was both a physical and mental challenge, but the feelings of exhilaration at the end far outweighed all the pain and nerves encountered. Knowing that we had raised so much money for such a fantastic charity made everything worthwhile.”

In total the two raised £1,450 for domestic violence charity Refuge, although no doubt felt a little knocked about themselves once they were finished.

Well done girls! Last Word is hugely impressed.

#TWITTERFAIL

The Drum’s 9,000 Twitter followers come from all over the world. You name it: America, Europe, Australia... In fact @ thedrum receives quite a lot of attention from Australia, as it happens. That could have something to do with the fact that The Drum is also the name of a television news show on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation network. Our namesakes down under were too slow to get thedrum name on Twitter because we beat them to it. But not everyone seems to have grasped that @thedrum and @abcthedrum are two very different beasts. Naturally we can excuse a few errant tweets from our lovely, newfound Australian friends. Hello Australians. But we were surprised to find that even the managing director of ABC, Mark Scott, doesn’t know his @abcthedrum from his elbow. The broadcaster’s head honcho tweeted on 23 August: “The latest from Antony Green now on @thedrum on @ABCNews24. #ausvotes.” Sorry to disappoint our Aussie followers wanting to know the important news about #ausvotes, but Antony Green’s dispatches will not be appearing on @ thedrum any time soon. Thankfully @ drogonfli76 was kind enough to point out to Scott the error of his ways, telling him: @abcmarkscott @thedrum isn’t actually ‘your’ The Drum. Try @ abcthedrum :-)” Reports that The Drum will soon start covering the Australian advertising industry are wide of the mark, a spokesperson said.

IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT THE CREATIVE DEPARTMENT WORKS LIKE A MACHINE...

It may sound like the dream of a creative who has fallen asleep at his desk following a cheese binge... A robot that creates advertising. Nae a dream, a nightmare, in fact... Such a machine could make redundant creative across the UK – and see the sales in pool/tabletennis/fussball tables fall dramatically.

However, The Drum has been talking to Stephane Xiberras, president and executive CD at BETC Euro RSCG in Paris.

He and his agency team worked to create C.A.I, pronounced “Kay” (Creative Artificial Intelligence), a “robot” that automates the creative process.

Feed in a brief and out comes a finished ad. No too bad on very first glance either...

One point of particular interest for Xiberras has become the role of people in a creative agency. Why do we need them? What if they were replaced by machines?

As such, we wanted to rummage around the UK for a few “secondhand” briefs that we could feed into CAI to see what she comes up with. And display the work against the actual advert that you created from the same brief...

Would you be willing to pit your work against that of the French machine? If you think your work is up to it, email gordon.laing@carnyx.com