I am writing this from a beautiful, serene space with nothing to distract or disturb me. No Twitter feeds, no Facebook updates, no emails. There is calming music and my keyboard is giving me harmonious sounds of approval as I type.

It’s lovely here.

I’ve been put in a mood where I don’t even want to type ‘hate’ but if, like me, you hate Word and its ugly formatting, you will love this new software called OmmWriter. It has just three font styles and sizes, three soothing backgrounds and a choice of sounds. You don’t even see the menus while you’re writing.

It was developed by Herraiz Soto & Co who wanted to help writers to concentrate, it works brilliantly and it’s free. This is the best type of innovation – no fancy gimmicks or unnecessary functionality, just the things that genuinely help you focus and write in peace.

Unfortunately, it’s Mac only at the moment – if you’re using a PC beg them to make a version for you.

British politicians are more than capable of making themselves look stupid but when ‘Speechbreaker’ is so much fun, it’s hard to resist giving a helping hand. Created by Lean Mean Fighting Machine for the Liberal Democrats, it allows you to remix speeches by David Cameron and Gordon Brown and post the results on YouTube. It has a simple, user-friendly design and is so easy to use that you can post things like this within a couple of minutes:

When you get to the Nick Clegg section, you only have the choice of a few words – ‘Choose’, ‘the’, ‘Liberal’, ‘Democrats’ – and some applause.

I like the way LMFM have looked at this brief from a different angle and that they (and the client) have been brave enough to go with a solution that doesn’t actually generate any content for the Lib Dems. Instead, they have reminded everyone of the nonsense that they have heard from the other political parties and shown them who not to vote for while making the Lib Dems seem young and challenging.*

*Although I have to say that, for me, the inclusion of the ‘C’ word wasn’t necessary and its inevitable overuse kills the fun (or maybe I’m just getting old?!)

I have been an Adam and Joe fan for many years so there is no particular reason for the timing of this post, except that the lovely boys are back on air after their summer hols and I was reminded of how brilliant their podcast is.

A BBC podcast is hardly news but the A+J podcast is a weekly masterclass in editing, audience participation and use of digital channels. While most of their peers lazily find the best bits from their shows and add a few transitions, A+J create specific introductions and podcast-only jingles (my personal fave is the Beck one). And by allowing podcast listeners to retrospectively take part in the features from the live broadcast they have created themselves a second audience.

They don’t just ask people to participate by text either – they have started using jingles created by their listeners, there are loads of video entries to their Song Wars competitions on YouTube and they have even started a bizarre craze for shouting ‘Stephen!’ at concerts.

It’s a great demonstration that a podcast can be so much more than just ‘highlights’ and can increase your audience significantly.

Ok, so creating effective integrated campaigns isn’t a new resolution for 2009, it’s something that we want to achieve every year. But, every year we all feel that it doesn’t quite happen in the way it should. We still see media plans that have been put together without talking to the creative team or TV advertising that is completely unrelated to the digital campaign. Or, even worse, we see TV ads that are the digital campaign.

After 12 years of working with digital media I am pretty frustrated by this and I usually tackle it by having a good old whinge. This year I have decided be a bit more constructive. So, if you can’t put your complete campaign with one agency, here are some of my thoughts on how we can create innovative and effective campaigns that work all the way from awareness to purchase and loyalty.

• Brief all of your agencies at the same time.
  A campaign that sits with one agency for the first 3 months of its conception will naturally have a strong imbalance towards that channel and integration later will be much more difficult.

• Insist that your agencies present together.
  This is an easy way for see how the consumer will see the different channels working together, from the start.

• Break the ‘tv-decides-all’ tradition.
  The big campaign idea might come from your above-the-line agency but it doesn’t have to. Many clients are already leading with concept, not agency, and they get great results.

• Drop the ego and collaborate.
  Yes creative people, I mean you. We all want to produce great work and, amazing as it might seem, working together makes that more likely.

• Remember that integrated doesn’t mean ‘matching luggage’.
  This isn’t a new message by any means but it is still forgotten too often. Each channel is unique and requires a different approach so the key visual from the press ad probably isn’t going to do the job online.

• Maximise the output from your shoots.
  Simply informing everyone when there is a shoot and allowing them to request additional footage can shift a campaign from ordinary to amazing. And, it saves everyone time and budget.

I’m sure a lot of you are thinking that these are the most basic things in the world and you’re right. So no more excuses, let’s make it happen in 2009.