Bio: Gavin Heaton
Gavin was born on a boat on the Indian Ocean. He was about three months early and nearly did not survive. As a newborn he was so small that his mother wrapped him in face cloths rather than nappies, and dressed him in doll's clothes as nothing else would fit.
OK ... so only some of that is true. But which parts are fiction and which parts fact? What comes first the brand or the story? What is authentic and what is fable? (For the curious only the first sentence is false.)
Gavin has held book editor and publishing roles at Butterworths, tutored and lectured in performance and postmodernism at University of Western Sydney, written technical documentation, marketed technology solutions, established a "knowledge factory" and run innovation teams for IBM, created comprehensive marketing and branding strategies, launched new services and run communications campaigns for Fujistu Consulting and now head up the Interactive division for a global marketing and promotions agency.
In his "spare" time, Gavin writes the Servant of Chaos blog (www.servantofchaos.com) which is his personal rant on the world of branding and storytelling.
Posts by Gavin Heaton:
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How Natalie Merchant Taught Me to Listen,
29 Nov 2011 in Customer Relationships& Featured Posts& Headline& Marketing& Social Media
In social media, we are often told to “listen first.” So, we dutifully set up our Google Alerts, purchase monitoring solutions, and so on. And when the data starts flowing in, we get excited about the volume of information, the share of voice…
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Google Gets Emotional When Telling Stories … And So Can You,
10 May 2011 in Content& Featured Posts& Headline& Marketing& Social Media
When I first began working with the web, I was already deeply interested in storytelling and writing. I had written plays, had some poetry published and dabbled with short stories. But this “new” medium seemed to have something special.
There …
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Creating Coincidence,
29 Jun 2010 in Branding& Featured Posts& Social Media
In 2001, ten-year-old Laura Buxton released a helium balloon. On one side she wrote “please return to Laura Buxton”, and on the other she wrote her address. Where would this balloon land? A tree outside her village in Staffordshire, UK? A lake? A…
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On Generosity and Grace,
05 Nov 2009 in Featured Posts
We are marked each day by the casual collisions that are the artefacts of our existence. There are phone calls, messages and the relative anonymity of online interactions. And in the search for connection, communion or community, we thoughtlessly…
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Planning to be Creative,
20 Apr 2009 in Featured Posts
Creativity is hard work.
Sure, an idea can strike out of the blue, but very few of us are paid for ideas alone. If you are like me, it is in the alchemic work that follows ideation where the true rewards are to be found.Shepherding an idea through…
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Revisiting My Media Consumption,
15 Jan 2009 in Featured Posts
Robert Hruzek is running another of his fascinating group writing projects. This time, for his Blogapalooza, he is inviting people to share what they learned each month of 2008. My own entry will appear on January 19 …. but the entries are still…
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Downfall in the Age of Conversation,
08 Jan 2009 in Featured Posts
On the face of it, it seemed like a good idea – work with an existing and well-known meme to promote the Age of Conversation 2: why don’t they get it? in the lead-up to the new year. It would give the contributing authors some content to blog…
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Not All Conversations Are Equal,
20 Oct 2008 in Featured Posts
We used to say that “the only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about.” But things have changed. You see, when the advertising challenge was to “cut through.” repetition was its own virtue; while in this Age of Conversation, the…
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Who Really Gets Social Media?,
16 Jun 2008 in Featured Posts
Sometimes you just have to ask a question and see where it takes you. Twitter started off with the same premise. What are you doing? Eliciting a variety of responses and prompting a banal moment-by-moment commentary before the community kicked-in and…
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Going Cold Turkey Post Thanksgiving: Blog Nothing Day,
28 Nov 2007 in Featured Posts
When I first read about Blog Nothing Day, I was intrigued. Would it work? Would it be the sort of action that bloggers would be interested in? After all, many of us battle with some form of social media addiction, and the thought of going cold turkey…
