$3million dollars for 30 seconds is all but out of reach for most advertisers but its loose change for Google.

So why is Google backing an ad campaign on a platform that its CEO Eric Schmidt famously called a “bastion of unaccountability.”

Martin McNulty, director of online agency Forward3D (disclosure: Speed client), says that this is a bid by Google to understand how marketing channels interact and that Google analysts will be closely watching how the ad impacts search traffic.

“Google is nothing if not experimental. It’s a mistake to view this latest campaign as rearguard,” said McNulty.

“Google wants to control (and integrate) every platform and every possible media and what better way to learn the true potential of the world’s most expensive slot than to buy it,” he said.

The book is an antidote to our safety-obsessed bubble-wrapped society and encourages parents to educate their children to take responsibility and appreciate risk by making and doing dangerous things.

Flying a home made kite, building a fire, melting glass, creating an explosion and nailing and whittling wood are all projects contained in the book.

Fifty Dangerous Things written by the gang that runs Tinkering School in Montara, California. I first came across its founder Gever Tully at TED.

Have a great weekend. I’m off to help my kids cook their dinner on a fire.

Thanks Mark.

Undoubtedly the market is overhyped and is approaching bubble-like proportions. An element of the industry is taking on the hallmarks of a cult with self-proclaimed gurus ranking their prowess by follower numbers on Facebook and Twitter.

But a series of events that shines a spotlight on the market and its emerging potential can only be a good thing. And for the 120-odd people that attended events at 33 Digital, Porter Novelli and Speed this morning I hope it was worthwhile. I’ve never known a time when the PR industry has been so open and willing to share ideas.

We called our breakfast event this morning ‘No More Hot Air’ because social media is characterised by lots of talk and little action. We used it as an opportunity to showcase work across the agency on behalf of clients such as The Economist, Interoute and Tesco.

Social media doesn’t change the way in which human beings communicate. You can see social networks in action in a pub every day. And in this context the person with the most influence and the greatest reputation is not a Facebook geek but the landlady.

It’s not a fundamental change in how people communicate but it is a fundamental change for business.

The conventional approach of media relations no longer works alone – the media for communicating with the audience are now diverse: print media, social media, all kinds of media. And all of this is not only confusing, it’s bloody difficult.

We’ve seen the rise of specialist social media or word-of-mouth agencies to address this emerging opportunity. They have a role, but it is just one piece of the new jigsaw. For their part PR agencies have taken three distinct approaches to social media:

• The creation of a team to focus exclusively on social media programmes. Potentially short term, not inclusive and creates a silo of expertise
• Hiring a high profile individual or small team to handle digital assignments. Likewise not inclusive and silos expertise
• Building skills throughout the organisation and integrating digital into a client’s campaign where it appropriate. New, pragmatic, bold, Speed’s gig.

12-months ago we embarked on a ruthless training camp across the business covering monitoring, planning, content development, networks and measurement.

It’s a process that will be ongoing for the next 18 months at least. But it’s critical to the future of the business. My personal belief is that if you work in the PR industry and want to continue working in the industry you need to equip yourself with digital skills.

“While I applaud [the inconvenient PR truth] initiative, I’m not totally convinced about either the approach or if it will work. It also fails to mention the elephant in the room – the media database companies.”

Perhaps we can learn from network theory? Media databases are a form of automation that promote mechanical networks. They enable PR executives to distribute press releases to lists of journalists with whom they have no prior relationship.

To follow the network argument through to its conclusion means building knowledge of the media that you’re targeting and forging organic relationships.

The rise of blogs and proliferation of traditional media means research and relationship building is more important than ever. The answer lies in balancing the efficiency of databases while maintaining relevance and building organic relationships.

(Also posted on The Inconvenient PR Truth blog).

New cufflinks from Swagger & Swoon (@swaggerandswooon)

This is my daughter’s Year 5 design and technology project. Its a wooden bob-a-long children’s toy fashioned in the image of the Twitter Fail Whale. It made the briefest of appearances on the Makezine blog after we submitted a snap to the MAKE Magazine pool on Flickr.

I’m so very proud

Speaking to Bloomberg at the annual World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, he said “you can’t declare victory until you see consistent gains year-to-year.”

Delegates at the PRCA and CorpComms Conference last October received the same message when Sorrell delivered the keynote.