And so to the Lakeside, the home of world darts, where the relatively new Channel 4 chief executive Alex Mahon was to be seen among the crowds of fans, cheering on her favourite players. At least Diary hopes that’s what she was doing, rather than reviewing whether Channel 4 should continue with its existing – and may we say excellent – coverage of the otherwise sadly neglected BDO tournament. A tournament that supports grassroots darts across the country, and where women compete with an equal billing on stage rather than appear as scantily clad dancers as in other darts tournaments we could mention (yes – we’re looking at you the PDC).
Elsewhere in that big wide world that exists outside our famous bubble, it was the Radiocentre’s Tuning In event in Cardiff where Wynne Evans, the Welsh tenor who plays Gio Compario from the GoCompare.com ads, spoke of the impact that the campaign has had on his life. While acknowledging that the campaign polarised opinion – he won Most Annoying Man in Britain for three years and an "I Hate Go Compare Man" page on Facebook attracted more than 30 times more Likes that one for the then BNP leader Nick Griffin’s "I Hate Nick Griffin" Facebook page – it also let him reach a new audience, particularly when it was shown on children’s channels. Maybe that also explains the popularity of Confused.com’s brand spokesman James Corden.
Over at the IPA President’s New Year drinks, president Sarah Golding ran the speeches of previous presidents through IBM's Watson and discovered a disturbing preoccupation with Paul Bainsfair's physique in her predecessor Tom Knox's speech.
When video ad marketplace Teads first rebranded from eBuzzing, one poor marketer had to explain to the company's French top brass why pronouncing the new company name in a French accent was causing problems. Said marketer also had to explain the meaning of "tits" in that conversation.
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