As you get older, if you're a Shoreditch tech geek, two things start to spoil your fashion life.  Firstly, your waist gets bigger so those slinky jeans start biting your beer gut.  Secondly, your chunky DC Shoe Company trainers start to get a bit fruity and the smart, clean smelling people in offices who you work with can smell them.  There.  I've said it.  I guess I never noticed when I spent most of my life in a studio full of skinny people with stinky old trainers, or because I was smoking a ten deck of Marlborough lights every day between lunch and dinner so I mostly smelled of fags which covered a multitude of sins.  

Then one day you find yourself trying to squeeze into a pair of slacks that say 36 inch waist but you suspect it's more likely centimetres.  Enter Carhartt.  For the last ten years I've never worn anything else.  I walk a lot, they don't wear out where my thighs rub together. They say 36 and feel like a 38, meaning you feel thinner than you obviously are.  You feel good, and you know they'll last forever.  I've got Carhartts that are five years old, they're still going stung.  I've taken to walking between meetings.  I might walk from Shoreditch to Covent Garden, Victoria, wherever a few times a week.  I got some Gap Khakis in their half price promo offer six months ago and they're letting fresh air in round my nether regions.  I've stopped shopping for trousers now.  I get 36 inch Carhartts in various shades of black, grey, blue, green, brown and that's it.  For the rest of my life.  Job done.

With shoes, I've always shied away from GEOX because they look like uncool Euro shoes and not a proper brand.  Then I had a child and GEOX market themselves hard to them. Every day between Bob the Builder and Rory the Racing Car I got kids dancing around in GEOX.  Shoes that breathe eh?  They are awesome.  Two years back I was covering all three political party conferences (in my Carhartts) back to back running a live social media news feed.  That's working from breakfast until 2 am, tweeting, interviewing, blogging.  You're on your feet all day.  I did it in 2009 and by the end of conference two (Labour in Brighton) my shoes smelled like dead badgers. Disasterous when you're trying to do a live interview in the press room with Ed Milliband, fortunately he had a stinking cold and didn't notice, but I did.  It was shameful.  2010 was different.  By the end of it my first pair of GEOX shoes smelled slightly less fresh than they did when I bought them, but no more than say a jacket or a pair of gloves.  I've never gone back.  Now I wear brightly coloured Euro trainers everywhere.  They also keep your feet cooler so you sweat less.  It's win:win.

There is one thing in the world that comes to everyone at some point in their lives.  Barbeque.  The trouble is, the dream is often very different from the reality.  In your mind, it lights instantly, cooks perfectly and makes for the ultimate chill out party in the open air.  In reality, lighting it is tough, it takes five newspapers and three lighters, you choke people near it with smoke, resort to splashing petrol on it and burn your face.  The real world BBQ get too hot, it incinerates the outer layer of your food leaving the innards raw.  You get food poisoning, burns, eye and lung smoke damage.  Your friends insult your manhood because you can’t make fire like a caveman.  Your girlfriend feels a bit sick from the smell of paraffin and has an early night.  You are lonely and ashamed.  You are not man, you no make fire, no feed mates, no have nookie.

That’s BBQs are considered a seasonal item by most retaillers.  You buy them out of enthusiasm on the first sunny week of the year, and you shove it in the corner of the garden to rust by mid June.  Then do it all again next summer.  Mr Homebase is rubbing his hands together every spring as he stacks the aisles with cheap steel grills, coals, firelighters and plastic cutlery.  

Every year around 25 – 30 people die from BBQs.  That’s more than get eaten by lions.  

It’s worth forking out a few extra quid and getting Weber.  They are expensive, tough, designed to burn effectively and will last for years, not months. Their BBQs also work great.  They give you a little dish to measure how much coal to put in.  They sell a little chimney that you load with charcoal and is easy to burn and light.  And here’s the best bit.  They make a little one called ‘Smokey Joe’ that goes on the road with you anywhere.  And unlike disposable BBQs, they’re properly vented to they won’t fill your tent with carbon monoxide and asphyxiate you at a pop festival when you pass out drunk on the floor.

Fire it up an hour before with a charcoal chimney.  Check.  Dump the coals in  the bowl of the BBQ. Check.  Add a few more coals if you want it to cook for longer. Check.  Cook your food.  Check. Put the lid on if you want, to cook it slow or smoke it with wet wood chips.  Check. Then dump more coal on it after to have a nice little patio heater for drinks and a romantic sunset / chilled out evening with your mates. Check.   Job done.

It started on a hot eastbound platform, waiting for an even hotter tube to take me out of the city and into suburban bliss.  Across the tracks, in the middle of platform, was a Corona poster, simple piece of outdoor design featuring cold beers in an even colder bucket against a sun set. And probably because I was hot, an unusual feeling this summer, and at the end of another long Social Placement day I quite fancied the idea of ice cold bottle. Somewhere deep in its papery depths the poster read my mind and registered my interest, sending a report to Las Hombres de la Corona or a similar covert operation base where cogs squealed, and wheels were set in motion. The result is that from then on there have been Corona posters at my every turn, around my local area, to and from meetings, even on the way to Chingford to take the kids swimming ... Yes Chingford … Equally it could it be an excellent ad, well positioned for a beer drinkers like me …

UK soaps date back to the 1960s, in some respects they are the first mass-scale brand-partnership created entertainment content (they are called soaps as soap companies sponsored them). Soaps are shown every day with the exception of Coronation Street, which isn't shown on Tuesdays, in addition to this, on Sundays there is an Omnibus edition for each show.

They have become some of the most-watched content on TV with large followings and thus act as a great barometer for UK TV audience analysis (and the advertising that surrounds them).  

With the rise of the connected audience and the ever increasing number of second screens, the soaps loyal and engaged audiences are at the forefront of changes in the viewers habits. Soaps have some of the largest TV, timeshift, online TV (such as iPlayer and 4OD) and online audiences with blogs and forums following every storyline and character.

As the new era of Soaps evolves, Social Placement will monitor the social chatter, sentiment, data and news around these shows and how story lines/characters affect the level of engagement.

To start we present the latest statistics for the big 4 UK soaps, EastEnders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale. Interesting initial analysis shows that whilst Hollyoaks has the lowest viewership in terms of ratings (standard TV viewing figures), it is one of the largest in terms of viewed-online, the buzz and following on social media further shows a trend away from the classic rating system.

Last night episode two of Line of Duty, broadcast on BBC2. 

Offline Response

The show won its slot for a second week in a row, ranked as the highest rated programme in the 9-10pm slot with 3.12 million viewers (13.63% share), a drop of 380,000 on the previous week.

Online Response

The second screen response to the show increased markedly, with a Twitter buzz of 918 tweets, representing 2.96% as a ratio of audience to online buzz. This is an increase in engagement from the previous weeks 1%. Taking in to account the reach of those that were discussing the show (including @Vicky_McClure who plays DS Kate Fleming and has a following of 30,878), there were 547,099 Twitter impressions generated, reaching an audience of 353,928 followers over the period of airing.

There was a positive sentiment of 88%, whilst this represents a small decrease in sentiment from the first show, there is a larger audience pool (and increase in neutral sentiment).

In comparison Gordon Ramseys ‘Behind bars’ had an offline audience of 2.48 million (10.9% share) in its 9pm Channel 4 slot. Online, 1,500 tweets generated 570,677 impressions, reaching an audience of 512,292 followers.  With 81% positive sentiment and a higher ratio of negative when neutral is included.

With a high social media profile (Gordon Ramsey has 900,000 twitter follwers) and successive series of programmes means that ‘Behind Bars’ has a less of a standing start than ‘Line of Duty’.

   Last night Social Placement was invited to visit the pop-up burger joint, Patty & Bun, currently located in the Endurance Pub in Soho.  The owner travelled around America trying different burger places out to get the perfect recipe for a good burger and bring it to the UK.  As Social Placement has an American heritage, it was a perfect opportunity  to trial the English version of an 'American' burger.  

   About eight Americans ventured to Soho to check out this place that has been so highly regarded.  The burger arrived in a takeaway container, heightening the anticipation for what lay inside.  

   Once the box was opened, a big, juicy burger is staring you in the face, and you wonder 'How am I meant to eat this?'  Already, it's obvious that there is a perfect burger to bun ratio, meaning that there was just the right amount of bun to go with the burger: not to little and not too much.  The first bite does you in: it's cooked just right to the point where the juices just stream down your arm, and a shedload more napkins are needed.  The burger didn't stand a chance, everyone finished in a matter of minutes, and even though they were all full, there was still talk about getting another.  The chips were delicious as well, with a dusting of rosemary salt that wasn't overpowering.

Last night was the debut of the new thrilling police drama, Line of Duty, on BBC2. Lennie James stars as a controversial cop along side Vicky McClure, Martin Compston, and Neil Morrissey.

Offline Response

The show ranked as the highest rated programme in the 9-10pm slot with 3.4 million viewers.

Online Response

The second screen response to the show saw a Twitter buzz of 823 tweets, representing 1% of viewers actively engaging with the content and discussing it with peers. As this is the first time the programme has aired, time will tell whether engagement will increase as the storylines unfold and there is more awareness around it. In terms of reach, of those that tweeted their combined active reach is 363,669 people. This indicates that there was a high level of opinion formers in the digital audience, meaning we predict that the second episode second screen audience will grow. The show was well received by second screen audiences, with a positive sentiment of 92%.

To put context around the launch, two weeks prior to Line of Duty, Big Brother returned to Channel 5 on the same day, at the same time, with only 2.7 million viewers. Almost 76,000 tweets have been registered surrounding the show, but only about 15% were of a positive sentiment.

Looking at True Love, another new drama on BBC1 (which also stars Vicky McClure alongside David Tennent), drew in 3.1 million viewers when it debuted on Sunday, 17 June.  There was a positive sentiment of about 93% from 7,400 tweets.

As it happens...

Beforehand, people were talking about their excitement to give Line of Duty a go. 

During the show people tended to quote some lines as well as talk about the cast.

After the show, people had many positive things to say about the series and how they were looking forward to the next episode.  

Of course, not every one was a fan, with a few comments comparing it to the US television show The Shield.

Social Placement is about mixing product placement and digital. We've decided to make ourselves a social company and explore the city around us (currently London). We're going to test out the capital's cafes, bars, offices, galleries and museums as meeting spaces, promoting local businesses whilst growing our own.

We want to review and recommend businesses in terms of how social they are and have created an additional criteria:

Social Placement Pop Up Office Rating

1) Workspace: How much is there, how happy is the place to have us, is it warm and is it possible to actually get work done there?

2) Connectivity: We're a digital business, so can we actually connect with the outside world from the Pop Up Office?

3) Coffee: The fuel of Social Placement is important, OK, so we might drink other things but this needs to be good and is weighted by cost.

4) Inspiration: Ideas and creativity are central to the tech world, so we want to draw from the city and the place we are working in. How much does the office feed our creativity?

We've created an open list to share your Pop Up Offices in London on Foursquare

And our very own Social Placement List

So that's the criteria, here's our first test:

Test 1: Pret A Manger, City Road, London

1) It's large, clean and good for meetings, we've used it before for a good long chat. The staff are pretty happy to have people there and it's pretty friendly.

2) The WiFi is 'The Cloud' and was a little touch and go today

3) The coffee is not the best, but is certainly drinkable and for £0.99, it's hard to beat in terms of pipelining it in to our bodies.

4) It's open and bright, but not somewhere to go to absorb inspiration.

Trendrr.tv have been leading the way in presenting Social TV data. At last week's Social TV World Summit they presented an in-depth review of the state of the Social TV union (of people, content and brands).

The data predominantly examines the rise of Social TV and the growth of brand-partnerships within the space. The key trends are networks taking advantage of the social space to further boost their content. The secondary key trend emerging this year is that of brand-sponsorship. This shows that whilst it is encouraging that brands are now backing social TV and realising the potential of taking notice of their audience's conversations, it's not a huge leap in production partnership. The same banner-ad led logo display next to the content is no different to that of a 'Sponsored by / Brought to you by' bumper ads at the start of a show, before ad breaks and after.

Social Placement, are excited to see the emergence of UK data in their findings. The trends show high-mobile penetration, reality TV generating the most discussions and when normalised, the audience is similar to that of the US Social TV market. 

You can see the full presentation here:

  One key omission from the data is - how are users interacting with brands in shows? Whilst the placement of brands within all reality TV formats is not always universally possible, across the board the support of the UK production industry that placement and content sponsorship brings needs to be better understood, the format of TV, film and music video production is changing and there needs to be a greater understanding of the digital TV world.

Whether it be moving on from the anarchic Ratings system to examining the sentiment of brands placed in productions, the Social TV industry needs to start understanding the effectiveness of this, because it's the future of financing content.

Whilst 2010-2012 has been about establishing Social TV and how it has redefined TV, 2012 and beyond is about how do we better understand content production, brand sentiment and what audiences want.

Trendrr rightly says 'social data is the new creative', Social Placement's Andrew Walker has for some time used the phrase 'technology is the new creative' - in the context of Social TV, it's about taking the way productions are brought to audiences and how the audiences are understood.

Moving away from the banner ad is the key next step for Social TV - allowing users to enjoy content they've sponsored, but by ensuring their sponsorship is subtle, has context and of course connects their audience to the show and themselves. They can achieve this through placement, through using data to understand their audience and enter in to partnerships that make sense for their products. So what does this mean? In short, sponsor content that makes sense for your brand, not just because it's the most popular show of the time. Be subtle and relevant - people will more likely want your products if a relevant star / character loves and uses them, they will not if you get James Bond drunk on lager.

The second trend will be pioneering companies such as Trendrr mixing up the old guard of TV production by showing that both large and passionate audiences sit outside the rating system, that they are vastly more measurable (meaning better ROI for brands) and that they are more likely to talk about brands who are helping fund their favourite shows.

You're at a party and someone approaches you "Hey, I've not seen you for ages!", you think 'awesome, I remember this person, we used to hang out and chat, we had things in common, but I've not seen them for ages, I wonder what they're up to'. So you start to talk and very quickly you realise, whether it's that you've not talked for ages, they just don't know how to approach you after so long or they just plainly don't have anything to say. This doesn't always happen, but when it does, the conversation turns to "what you doing this weekend?", "um" (and you don't say this, but it's on your mind) "nothing with you, and if you suggest it so out of the blue, you're a little creepy".

Today's article on TechCrunch gives some great examples of brands doing just this on social networks: here and some better ways to make the party a little less socially awkward. Let's apply this to the Social Media Party as a brand. I use a party example as people are getting together for a reason and the point is to not be guarded, false and only there to be seen, because after that, what next? On to another silo of social awkwardness.

Where have you been? Ask yourself that as a brand, see if it's something the person you're talking to wants to know, many people love heritage or retro conversations, even about nothing, but there's an emotional connection. 

Where are you going? Surely there's something worth telling (people that are interested) if you're about to do something, acting like somethings up, but the person you're talking to is not invited really sucks. 

Who am I talking to? This is the main point, maybe the problem at the party is not them, they may be dull, but that's probably just as much your fault because you've assumed you've changed and that means you have nothing to talk about, but they may be doing something really interesting.

Ah, allow them to talk! The number one way to get engagement is to give people the chance to actually say something useful that affects you. How do they relate to a product? Well they don't if you just ask 'What are you up to this weekend?'. A conversation worth having is one that creates an emotion, even if it's courtesy - so asking people to be part of the brand is like understanding the person you've not seen for ages, and maybe being interested in their life.

We're interested in a common thing. As a brand, if you have nothing in common with your audience, why would they want your products?

Social Placement approaches this by placing brands within productions that their audiences are interested in, that are part of their lifestyle. It goes further though, it finds the content that brands are interested in and like a friend at a party says "oh you have to meet brand X, they love production Y. It also does the polite thing, it allows people to find the brand and make their own decision, perhaps they love the lead character and identify with them. It makes it a lot easier to just walk up and have a chat at the party because you know something about the person instantly by association.

The best part is, with something to talk about and not just one production but many spread across so many interest areas, there's a lot of parties to attend and a lot of points of view to consider. There's nothing better than a conversation at a party that feels like 10 minutes, but sees the sun rise. You remember these and the person you shared it with.

Zeebox recently reported 15,000 downloads per hour following its TV advertising campaign (January saw it hit the 1/4 million mark), a proof of the power of second screen as a control test. Tell someone something on the screen, on-mass, and drive them to a new community. The example shows that TV content producers cannot be worried about Social TV, but embrace it. The majority of studies show that Social TV gathers the largest benefit to users and second screen app providers alike when it's live. It's the event that draws people and Zeebox feeds off of where the crowd is. Zeebox have ensured that they are capturing a huge new community - the first second screeners.

Whilst many Social TV apps are focused on the US and organic growth, this push will benefit from A) capturing the curious and converted, and B) the UK production-audience. UK productions are highly exported globally and a strategic move to grow the home-market will make a robust app for a future global launch. This, seeded by the discussion and interaction of the UK audience, is a win for UK productions as Zeebox is not insular. As productions air live, audiences and celebrities discuss them, Tweet out and share on wider social networks. This acts as a trailer for UK productions, which promotes them internationally: the 'I want that' factor creates intrigue for future audiences. If Zeebox innovates and promotes itself, it will become a huge international hub for the promotion of the UK visual arts. This and a roll out to international territories will place it at the center of the Second Screen revolution.

Less a challenge, more an opportunity is monetisation. Whilst in-app advertising is an obvious option, it will detract from the experience. The future is commercial tie-ins with content, around launches (as is currently being seen trialled with the Aliens prequel Prometheus), but also competitions that enhance the already-existing commercial relationships in UK TV. From a Social Placement position, the enhancement of product placement deals is a no-brainer. From the outset you know when the content will air and which products will be placed. You will also know that the brand wants to get the maximum return on investment (ROI) and engagement (ROE). The more authentically you place, the more responsive people are to placements, but also the more beneficial to competitions they are.

A scenario would be: a spread of placements across multiple audience-connected productions (i.e. multiple shows that the same people watch), inviting people to 'spot the brand'. Tweeting with a hashtag (as seen with Prometheus), or deeper interaction, such as capturing a picture of it, or Shazzam tagging the content adds more effort and enjoyment to the competition, but also creates a richer and more spreadable advertising vehicle. The options for campaign creativity are infinite.

Whether you've seen the movie or not, Marvel's The Avengers is a great example of doing one thing right: product placement. In the UK, we don't quite get the joke, movies need money to happen, especially huge, graphically lush blockbuster fantasies, in the US it's an opportunity. It's also going to set the model for product placement and movie funding for the future.

Acura, Honda's luxury car division, have done this one right, not only have they placed the car in-context - i.e. there's a point to it, rather than it being an unwanted prop. Acura have gone further and scored a double win - by placing the '2013 Acura' concept car, specifically coloured and designed for the movie, they have both ensured it fits in to the colour-rich fictional world of the movie but at the same time positioned the brand as a futuristic and high-tech car manufacturer.

It's a luxury brand, so those that want the car and can afford it, are likely to want the one from the movie, but even for those that can't afford it, it's aspirational and brand-building, I may not be able to get the 2013 Acura, but I now know about it and will visit their site, see what's there. The constant use of Google Maps for navigation also builds the brand, both as a technology rich car, but also transcending the model-range - even if you get their most bog-standard looking luxury saloon (which is likely to sell higher volumes), you can get the features.

      Nowadays, millions of people are engaging in a 'second screen' experience.  As people watch TV they are using a tablet or smartphone to share their thoughts (primarily on Twitter or Facebook) with friends about what they are watching, or they 'check-in' to shows on GetGlue or Viggle.

     So what does social TV do?  For one thing it can boost ratings.  Nielson has been researching social-TV-to-ratings for the past year.  The results showed a 5% increase in buzz ratings, depending upon where a show was in the season.  Noting that social influence for season premieres and finales were generally higher. 

     TV can also become more entertaining for viewers.  Viggle has a second screen app that can be used as you watch TV.  By 'checking in' or answering trivia questions, points can be earned, which can later be redeemed for gift cards such as Starbucks or Best Buy.

     Social TV also allows consumers to engage with shows beyond the broadcast.  No body cares about 'clicks' any more, they are dead, what marketers really want is engagement: seeing that people viewed our vehicle for x amount of time.  An example of further engagement is USA's Burn Notice, which produced a digital graphic novel to strengthen the engagement of their viewers by deepening the story pre- and post-broadcast.

    Marketers are provided with new opportunities to reach their audience.  Watchwith has developed a 'time based media platform' for social TV apps.  The database knows everything about the show being watched.  For instance, when a character comes on screen, it will feed information about the exact brand products they are wearing into the social TV app.

The power and influence of Social Media is becoming ever present across all levels of business, from marketing, to analysis, to public relations. Its form and practice is changing on a daily basis. Breaking news is starting to come through first on social networking sites and when journalists, celebrities and high-profile individuals use these channels to engage directly with their audiences, the change is even more profound.

Tonight an event is being held in the very centre of London to examine the effects that social media is having on industries such as the news and PR businesses. Hosted by The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the event will examine the impact of social technology in the PR world and all areas that the discipline interacts with.

The event will see leading digital commentators, with the likes of Andrew Walker; co-founder of Tweetminster and Social Placement and Fergus Bell, Digital Newsgatherer and Senior Producer at The Associated Press, amongst them, presenting their main thoughts, ideas and theories within a panel. There will also be the chance for the audience to ask their own questions in a Q&A session which will follow.