Guest post from Issy:

This week Twitter gained 10 million users in the UK and Facebook held on to its title as the largest social media website in the world – will Pinterest ever be as popular?

PR pros have realised that Pinterest pin boards mean publicity. Kotex used Pinterest to great effect in March when they created the “Inspiration” campaign. Kotex needed a platform where women express themselves freely and openly emphasising style and design, Pinterest is the ultimate platform for self-expression. Interestingly enough Pinterest has mostly female users – somewhere between 70-90% of the entire amount of Pinterest users are women (depending on which sources you believe).

Kotex located 50 women, found what inspires them and bought their inspiration to life by creating a personalised gift, these gifts were then re pinned creating 694,853 impressions.

Harrods also used Pinterest to great effect when they ran a competition for one follower of the Harrods Pinterest account to win the chance to design one of the world famous Harrods windows. Harrods then invited their followers to create a mood board on Pinterest, which would be the inspiration for a ‘Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Street Party’ window.

Interestingly, Pinterest has been bringing in more traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube put together. Pinterest was the fastest standalone site ever to reach 10 million monthly unique visitors and brands are benefiting with Pinterest in generating traffic and sales.

When I first heard about Gwen for Men, I assumed it was the name of an ‘adult’ doll found at the back of one of the JC cupboards or maybe even a treatment for erectile dysfunction.

Fortunately, given my boss had emailed me about it, the reality turned out to be somewhat different. Something far more edifying than a way for the older male members of JC to recover their previous…er…vigour.

As it turns out, it is actually scheme designed to help us men manage our work-life balance. Hardly a new idea you might say – particularly as trying to forge a successful career whilst enjoying a rewarding personal life is something with which we all battle every day.

So why mention it then?

Well, for me, a scheme like Gwen for Men is what modern business culture should be all about. A way of helping people find a way of working that suits the rest of their life – but without jeopardising any of the great stuff that we do for our clients or customers or anyone else.

It’s also extremely relevant to me personally.

Next month, I begin a period of Additional Paternity Leave, taking three months off to spend time looking after my new(ish)born son while my wife begins her own gradual journey back into working life. Apparently I’m the first JC-er ever to do it too – so I’m something of a test case! And, although I will miss day to day office life, in many ways, I can’t wait to enjoy a prolonged period of bonding with Dylan and being a full-time Dad.

It’s all thanks to a new government initiative to allow parents to split maternity leave to spend more time with their children – which is great in theory. But where Gwen for Men comes in is in helping make it work in practice.

According to a colleague involved in the programme, it’s all about “creating an environment where we embrace the complexity of life and where you can have the flexibility to find your balance, experience your moments and be transparent about your priorities.”

Which is a slightly long (not to mention American) way of saying it involves developing a way of working that takes your whole life into account, whatever that entails.

Since becoming a parent, I have enjoyed nothing but support in doing that and, thanks to the mind-set embodied by Gwen for Men, I have been able to have open, honest and fair discussions with the JC-powers-that-be about what working life looks like for me – now and when I come back from paternity leave.

Sure, I’ve had to work out for myself how to adjust to such a major change in my home life but being given the space and guidance to do so has been invaluable. And it’s not just for boring parents like me either. This is something that could and should work for everyone, whatever the demands on your time outside of work. Honestly.

So next time you miss dinner with your mum or that evening art class because you’re stuck in the office, remember Gwen for Men.

Well actually, remember Men for Gwen. Apparently I got the name wrong.

But that’s nowhere near as amusing.

Last week – Marks & Spencer invaded and re-fashioned Brick Lane with 9, 513 discarded garments, which is same amount of clothing the UK throws away every five minutes!  Now that is one powerful reminder of how a sense of disposability has become a prominent and reckless aspect of consumer culture.

M&S has partnered with Oxfam so you can drop off unwanted clothing in their stores that will be resold in Oxfam stores or distributed to countries in need.

From now on, all its stores will accept unwanted clothing of any brand, all year round.

So if you can spare it, why wear it?

Check out M&S on twitter for updates and advice on how to become an expert in #shwopping or visit the Shwop Lab until May 9^th for a host of learning sessions and guest speakers on sustainable fashion. Check Facebook for updates!

So what are these important trends and what are the key outtakes?

• Perceptive Media: Brands have already acknowledged the need to get personal by looking to customisation and personalisation of products and services from the basic to the complex. Media channels are seeing the value in this way of communication and are starting to recognise individuals, tailoring everything from browsers to billboards to interact with them in a more one-on-one environment.

As technology continues to advance with voice and image recognition software and more and more of our personal data is stored, the opportunity for brands to tailor-make a product/service/campaign just for you is becoming easier and more accessible.
Perceptive media helps brands to predict and pre-empt your wants and needs by building unique profiles of consumers through real-time action and behaviour.
This individualised messaging model assists in building stronger, more loyal brand relationships that have the opportunity to continue to strengthen over time.

Where can we see this in action? Check out Target’s Guest ID system that tracks all of your purchases, JELL-O’s adults only vending machine with age-detecting technology and Jameson Whisky’s Facebook game that created unique experiences for every player based on their personal details.

• Marketing as Service Design: The need for brands to be useful is as great as ever. An recent figure from global consulting firm Bain & Company, states that 80% of company CEOs believe they offer superior customer service but in the same piece of research, only 8% of their customers agreed.

To combat this, we are seeing a shift away from brands creating tools or services that benefit them more than their consumers as a ‘branded utility’ takes its place with customer-centric strategies at the heart. Successful companies will become more user and customer-centric with consumer insight at the centre of everything they do – pre, during and post purchase.
As customers have higher expectations of brands due to democratised technologies, interacting at a more sustained level and providing real value to consumers will be essential.

Where can we see this in action? Constantly innovating, Nike has evolved their digital run tracker and lunched Nike + FuelBand, a Bluetooth enabled wrist band that measures activity, Phillips’ Lifeline medical service for the elderly that includes a motion detector pendant in case of falls and Vasttrafik sightseeing app from Gothenburg’s public transport company.

• Social Business: Is something we have been keeping our eyes on at JC for a while now – our Digital guru over in the Chicago office David Armano has been working on this concept and developing services around this, focussing on how to build intelligent business and a connected brand for the last year or so – you can read more from him here. It is most definitely the way of the future as smart companies look to incorporate social mechanisms into their operations- in everything from supply chains to customer service and product design.
This allows brands a level of transparency not previously possible, and more opportunities for the all-important one-on-one time with consumers by integrating customers’ thoughts and opinions into the way they do business, making for more meaningful interaction.

Where can we see this in action? Dutch airline KLM has invested hugely in digital forms of communication for customer service, promising to respond to every Twitter and Facebook post within an hour of being posted, Domino’s Pizza Think Oven campaign allows customers to have a say in everything from staff uniforms to the online ordering process and UK retailer Harrods collaborated with Burberry for the Be A Buyer Facebook campaign during one of the brands recent shows

It’s not often you get a mention in The Guardian but that’s exactly what happened to JCPRSays this week when a great new infographic showing the state of the UK blogosphere was launched by Eloqua. Using Edelman’s very own BlogLevel as its engine, “The Blog Tree: UK Edition” has been widely picked up.

We’re keeping good company here, nestled in the branches alongside great blogs such as 10 Yetis Good & Bad PR,  It’s Nice That and Drew B’s take on tech PR and also some blogs from closer to home as well (including Edelman’s Naked Pheasant and Stefan Stern).

Great work to Eloqua  for pulling this together and a massive pat on the back to everyone who features!