Pull up in your car at a country park venue, grab a gourmet burger, fries, drink, popcorn. Pick up some fantastic RAC freebies while someone cleans your car. Then switch off, sit back and watch a movie. Not bad for £15 a car or even £30 if you’re a non-member.

On Wednesday night a gang from Milestone went to see Grease at Alexandra Palace on the RAC Drive-in Movie staff night. And it was great fun. This series of events is a concept we came up with for RAC back in December ‘09. And now it’s happening – delivering the most amazing brand experience for those lucky enough to get a ticket.

It’s a truly integrated marketing campaign featuring events, competitions, radio, PR, social media, web, press and more. If you’ve missed it this year, let’s hope they run it again next summer. It’s worth joining RAC for this alone!

The annual Milestone Beer and Boulles evening was hastily scheduled in this year to take advantage of the rare balmy evenings (one year we played in the rain!) Held at the Royal Oak Pub near Marlow, which has a magnificent flood-lit petanque court. I’m not sure the exact difference between Boulle and Petanque but I believe it’s something to do with the number of balls you’re chucking.

There’s not many sports that everyone can compete at on the same unlevel playing field but this is one of them. Richard Collins was the overall winner with a consistent display of jack-touching accuracy. But we all had good fun. And good food. The only problem – we finished all the Rebellion Beer!

Someone sent me a free ticket to this year’s IPEX (International Printing Exhibition) at The NEC. I hadn’t been for years, so I thought I’d take a look to see what’s new in the world of printing. Driving into the NEC I was immediately intrigued by these cut-out crowds, randomly placed outside the halls. With no obvious branding, I scoured the massive exhibition for their source. It turned out to be Agfa, who’d run them straight onto foamex using their latest flatbed digital press. Co-incidently Jeni from Milestone’s Dad was on the stand and he kindly gave me a demo. It was certainly one of the most interesting things I saw and a clever way to subvert the whole trade show thing.

According to leading economist John Kay ‘obliquity’ is the way forward for achieving many of our goals in life. In the context of his new book, it means approaching things from an oblique or non-direct angle.

I went along to the Institute of Advertising Practitioners last week for an evening hosted by Ogilvy Group Vice Chairman and IAP President Rory Sutherland. At the event Kay made a persuasive argument for his theory and I immediately identified with the proposition – that our goals are best achieved indirectly. He makes the point that happiest people don’t pursue happiness; it’s a bi-product from the other things that they do. And the most profitable businesses are not those that pursue profit alone.

What immediately sprung to mind was the obliquity in our own business development. At Milestone, every time we embark on a drive for new business we employ a number of techniques. Traditionally we send out letters, mailing packs and e shots – perhaps a bit of cold calling thrown in for good measure. And we always get some enquiries during the process. But over the years the thing we’ve noticed is that most of the new business we get doesn’t actually come from these direct activities. A much higher proportion comes from our network of contacts and by speaking at marketing events. The softer the sell the stronger seems the result. And as a result we have begun to embrace the oblique approach. But deep down we don’t fully trust it. However, there’s still time – I haven’t finished the book yet…