In the same manner that many iphone and ipad apps have an interface that mimics 'analogue', it also comes to pass that analogue interfaces should mimic their digital cousins.
So it goes with the Notepod notebooks. Yer actual paper notebook that looks like an ipad, ideal for for sketching out those proto app ideas.
A few articles this week in the australian press and ad industry media around my favourite subject.
Me.
The first out of the traps were The Age.
The Age is a broadsheet paper, one of the big two - the other being The Australian (I did an interview for them which they never published, I can't for the life of me figure out why they thought the announcement of the Aussie general election was somehow more newsworthy).
There was also a brief piece in B&T, a clearing house for all marketing, advertising, PR and media.
Ad News also ran the story.
The favourite is the piece from CampaignBrief. Arguably the most popular ad industry mag/blog, it also benefits from the quaint habit of it's readers to comment anonymously.
Proper old school.
I've still not heard from mumbrella or DigitalMedia.net.
So you're standing in the 7-Eleven, a bit peckish and fancy a biscuit.
But what to choose?
Do I want a KitKat? Or Oreos?
But wait. I can have a KitKat/Oreo mash-up.
In terms of 'experience' it's about 70% KitKat, 30% Oreo, with the Oreo part heavy on the cream rather than cookie.
Another example of the 'truly special' relationship between the UK and USA.
More so than the conspicuously phoney Obama/Cameron love-in, anyway.
Thanks to #electionWIRE from Youthscape - and this commoncraft style clip, I'm starting to get my head around the Australian election.
HT Gavin.
I'm liking the look of Flipboard. It's an ipad application that creates a 'magazine' containing all the content people are sharing from your various social streams, plus other content curated by flipboard, in a nice 'analogue' style mag format.
They say:
'Flipboard is the worldʼs first social magazine. Inspired by the beauty and ease of print media, Flipboardʼs mission is to fundamentally improve how people discover, view and share content across their social networks.'
I just need an ipad now.
Seneca argued that anger did not spring from 'uncontrollable eruption of passions' but from reasoning. When things don't happen the way we expect or have rationally formed ideas about what should normally be the case, thats when we get angry.
So our propensity for anger can be tempered by altering our ideas about expected outcomes.
There are two principle catalysts for word-of-mouth, which Seth kindly reminded us of the other day. The second is commonly forgotten.
'Word of mouth is generated by surprise and delight (or anger)'.
I'll remember this the next time I am trying to get resolution from some automated telephone robot.
There's school of thought that goes something along the lines of; in conventional advertising material the 'message' (implicit or explicit) and the look and feel are the more important elements versus functionality; whereas, broadly speaking, in a piece of interactive media ie a website or application how-it-works is ultimately the overiding consideration rather than how it looks and speaks.
I've loosely cribbed that statement from a post by my good friend Alan Wolk, though I can't now find that particular article on his blog, the Toadstool, but suffice to say there are plenty more nuggets in there for your perusal.
I would add to this the notion of findabilty as being another consideration that is oft overlooked.
The most well designed and crafted website with the most rigourous user experience planning and the greatest resources and utility matters little if it it cannot be found.
This week I've been coming back to the subject of distributed content as opposed to the campaign microsite (or facebook fan page, for that matter) in some of the discussions we've been having.
It's no longer the case where advertisers can confidently talk about the reach of a campaign or communication. We still hear talk of 'driving' attention to a particular site or thing.
Due to the fragmentation of media (and attention) it's now more difficult to reach an 'audience', in fact one of my favourite nuggets (i can't remember where I heard it) goes along the lines of 'your competition for attention on the internet is EVERYTHING ELSE on the internet'.
This is not just about SEO or search , it's about discovery or serendipity, if you like.
Of course, as we know, around 60% of the touchpoints I'm likely to encounter on a buying journey are non-brand driven, word of mouth, independent reviews etc but
at the very least brands need be there when their customers are reaching out to them for information, wherever that may be.
Three things to consider:
1. Choosing the right places to be, where the the most valuable connections are likely to be made. It may be that Facebook is not necessarily this place, shock! horror!
I'm a fan of Steve Rubel's 'embassy' thinking. Particularly for non-sexy brands.
2. Being interesting, useful and valuable once you are found. What do the people who have found you care about? How can you be of service?
3. And when that connection is made, make sure that all roads lead to Rome.
pic hat-tip to Found magazine.
In an interesting development - and more fuel to the 'email-is-broken' lobby - ice cream giants Ben and Jerry's announced to their UK database this week that all email marketing would cease and all customer communications would henceforth take place on the various social platforms, principally Facebook and Twitter.
A decision taken in response to feedback from their customers which indicated they didn't get much value from updates through the email channel.
Aside from the obvious move to communicating via channels that their customers pull in versus those that push, it's clearly a lot more economical for B&J, with dramatic reduction of costs (no email platform to pay for) and far more on-point (only those who want to hear from them will hear from them).
Add to this B&J have also made a foray into the tweeting-truck phenomenon, as popularised by Kogi BBQ in Los Angeles and Fojol Brothers of Washington, the B&J truck having just completed it's tour of duty giving away 50,000 ice creams in New York and set to move on to Boston shortly.
The B&J NYC Scooptruck tweeted it's locations aided by foursquare and also captured photos of happy ice cream beneficiaries which fed into their Flickr stream, tagged with the recipients twitter handle, of course, for extra spreadability measure (because it's all about me, natch).
For added flavour there's the B&J ipone app - Moo Vision - which opens up 3D Augmented Reality animations from the lid design using image recognition rather than a QR code.
A free prize outside rather than inside, if you like.
We watch with interest as again it's testament to the notion that increasingly digital marketing is about fanbase not database.
The reason it's been quiet round this part of the blogosphere for the last couple of months can now be revealed.
This week I officially took up my new role as Director of Digital Innovation at Clemenger BBDO in Melbourne, Australia.
It had been on my mind to look for an opportunity outside of the uk for some time, so when the chance to work with, certainly the number one agency in Australia and arguably in the top five or six agencies in the world it was an offer I couldn't refuse.
If Manchester United come in for you, you don't say no, kinda thing.
Normal blog service should resume very shortly.
#update
I removed this post shortly after it initially went up as there was supposed to be an article in the press, we were going to let that run first before I mentioned anything here. The article has not materialised though.
You can now add you're messages of encouragement and goodwill in the comments, as usual ;)
As I assimilate into Melbourn-ian culture and Australian society in general I've been paying close attention to Aussie tv.
There's one particular tv spot that has captivated me recently, though for reasons I cannot comprehend.
The spot is for Easy Mac, an instant macaroni microwave thing (as popularised by our Canadian friends as 'Kraft dinner').
A 20ft giant kid breaks into a biscuit factory, then raids an bakers van - his hunger cannot be satisfied - until heading home, shrinking to normal size and tucking into some instant macaroni.
On first look it appears to be merely some fairly predictable albeit mildly amusing gubbins, but wait. Look again...and listen.
The soundtrack to the ad is none other than 'Part-time Punks' by the Television Personalities - proto-indie agit-punksters (and firm favourites in these here Boat headquarters) from circa '77.
What does this mean?
What evil trickery is this?
I can think of 3 possible reasons.
1. This is the cleverest piece of subliminal targeting in advertising history, aimed at hypnotising 40-something ex punk rockers.
2. The creatives who conceptualised the spot were so bored that they somehow sneaked it in with some astute post-rationalising to the client in order to keep themselves interested.
3. Someone involved was at sometime the bass player in the TVP's with a co-writing credit looking to sneak some royalties.
Unless you know different?
If it seems like it's been quiet round these parts for a while it's because I've been up to something in the real world that's taken up a considerable chunk of time.
More on that in another post, later.
In the meantime I've also been reading up on some stuff, including Alain De Botton's 'The Consolations of Philosophy' from which the following nugget is an extract.
'It is not only the hostility of others that may prevent us from questioning the status quo. Our will to doubt can be just as powerfully sapped by an internal sense that societal conventions must have a sound basis, even if we are not sure what this may be, because they have been adhered to by a great many people for a long time.
It seems implausible that our [society*] could be gravely mistaken in it's beliefs and at the same time we could be alone in noticing the fact.
We stifle our doubts and follow the flock because we cannot conceive of ourselves as pioneers of hithrto unknown, difficult truths.'
*industry?
Chapel Street here in Melbourne is a semi-trendy strip full of boutique fashion stores alongside high street fashion, restaurants, cafes and bars.
A bit like a five mile long Camden, except cleaner.
South East Water are refurbishing all the water pipework along the street and have cleverly hidden the work going on and the holes in the ground with these rather cute bits of camouflage/signage, so as to blend in nicely with the feel of the street.
Cheap is the last refuge of the unimaginative, someone once said.
At the end of the day, there's always some other oik who can work out how to be cheaper than you.
Cheap doesn't mean value.
And if all you have to compete on is price, you're as good as finished.
This nugget from Harrison Ford in this morning's Metro reminded me.
'When I came into [the movie] business I was under contract to a studio for $150 a week.
One thing I learned quickly is that the studios had no respect for a person who was willing to work for them for that amount.
I realised that the value I put on my own work was the value and respect I would get back'
Jack Cohen knew about the importance of scaleability in 1929 when he opened the first ever Tesco store, in Burnt Oak near Harrow in NW London.
He'd be a tad disappointed at the counter sign on his Goodge St Tesco metro branch.
i dont think this is what he had in mind.
'This counter does not have scale'
Presumably this counter that has a fixed number of transactions it is capable of processing, which will never change.
'We are unable to take payment of any weighted items'
Not only that, it seems it can only process 'virtual' goods.
Each time I go to bed, following days spent encountering shoddy customer service, I pray like Aretha Franklin.
Ooh, your kisses (ie products and/or services),
Sweeter than honey,
And guess what?
So is my money,
All I'm asking for, is a little respect.
This week's losers being Carphone Warehouse repair centre, who after having my broken handset for close on two months have failed to call, email or even send a letter to update me on said phone's health.
I'm then forced online to check on progress of the repair via the repair tracker tool.
Quite a nice tool, to be fair. Shame no-one told me it even existed.
I'm greeted with a message saying that the handset was declared dead on 29th April.
Fair enough, but when were they thinking of telling me?
That's nearly 6 weeks ago with not so much as a cheep from a human being.
Poor show. Not malicious but just a bit lazy. Wood beez.
Perusing various articles commenting on 'Breathless' (A Bout De Souffle) - in cinemas again after 50 years - I stumbled upon the trailer here, for Jean‑Luc Godard's latest (and reputably to be his last - he's 80 shortly) picture, 'Film Socialisme'.
Curiously this trailer is effectively the entire film speeded up to fit into 2 minutes.
In almost cinema discrepant fashion, the movie also benefits from completely unintelligible multi language subtitles.
I'm sure we're all familiar with the 'Diffusion of Innovations' theory - how, why, and how quickly new ideas spread throughout cultures.
The concept was popularised in 'The Diffusion of Innovations' (Everett Rogers 1962) also adapted and illustrated by the famous adoption lifecycle curve as used by Geoffrey A. Moore in the tech marketing tome 'Crossing the Chasm'and in Gladwell's 'The Tipping Point', amongst others.
For the non-academics amongst us, it's explained neatly, and in a youth marketing context, by American Bandstand legend Dick Clark in this excerpt from a feature in seminal 70's US rock journal Creem by the equally legendary Lester Bangs.
'Anything that's new takes a while before it gets disseminated across the country...You get the J.C. Penney versions of fashions of what the style leaders are wearing.
There's an interesting premise in all of this, in the youth world, you take the lunatic fringe, the avant-garde, the style leaders, the nuts.
And if you are careful enough to determine what they come up with that's a legitimate trend, then you'll be able to figure out eventually what the people in the middle...will be doing in the next couple of months'
Look to the freaks-in-our-midst as Tom Peters would say.
Andy Warhol was a great fan of Coca-Cola.
For him the iconic Coke bottle encapsulated the dream of American Society in the 50s.
'You know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good.'
Of course, while Warhol's brand and persona was contrived to be all about surface with no depth (though, everything he said had more depth than he would have us believe) you can't argue with that statement.
The parallels with modern advertising are apparent.
The democratisation of media and message brought about by the spread of social technologies means that it doesn't matter if you are Coca-Cola, me or the bum on the corner, you have the same access to You Tube or Twitter as anyone else.
This is the great leveller.
If you have a great idea, that people want to connect with and share, that people want to spread, then the mechanisms are there for anyone to use.
No amount of money can get you anything better.
A prospective client revealed to me in a discussion recently how a Facebook promotion they had run was an astounding success.
The promotion had managed to gather 10,000+ email addresses of people who expressed an interest in winning a FREE [product X], thus proving that social media marketing really 'works'.
What this marketer seems to have disregarded is that I could have walked up and down Oxford Street for a few hours with a sandwich board saying 'Get a FREE thing' and probably have gathered the same amount of data for a fraction of the cost.
Is there really that much value in collecting thousands of email addresses of opportunists who just want free stuff?
Sadly, this is becoming the benchmark for much 'social media' marketing.
The same old, same old gimmicky stuff trying to capture momentary attention of non-customers in order to pour those eyeballs into the top of the funnel and see what trickles out the other end.
Money and time that could be much better spent offering rewards to ACTUAL customers and convert them from passively loyal potential switchers into fans and evangelists.
Gimmix. Cushions that fart.
Introducing my brother Al's band - Jericho Hill.
They do mostly Johnny Cash numbers dialing up the man in blacks inherent punky-ness.
They are almost constantly gigging around and have landed a slot at the Rebellion Festival in Blackpool this summer alongside The New York Dolls, Stiff Little Fingers and Chas out of Chas'n'Dave, amongst others.
Have a listen over here.
He's the one who just spotted a half eaten bag of chips on the floor, slightly out of shot (he wrote that, not me).
The Social Media in Business conferences are regular events for those who are interested in how social technologies and practices are changing how businesses communicate with their customers, employees and stakeholders.
The next event takes place on Friday 21st May at the PayPal UK headquarters in Richmond [map]. Just a few minutes leafy stroll from Richmond mainline station.
I'll be doing a talk in the afternoon session, attendees will also hear from Lloyd Davis (of Tuttle fame) and David Cushman (MD of 90:10 Group and author of The Power of the Network) amongst others.
Some tickets are still available from the Social Media in Business site.
I can offer a discount code for readers of this blog to use or share with your friends and associates.
Use the code: smibger for 25% off the ticket price.
If you are there and we've not met face to face come and say hello. Or simply heckle if you prefer.
The third Age of Conversation volume is now available to buy.
Featuring contributions from over 170 leading marketing bloggers, including your truly, AoC3 broadly captures the shift of the social media from a set of hypothetical customer loyalty tools to their current place at the top table of marketing and advertising strategic and creative thinking.
I just reviewed my piece - 'It's ALL OUR TURF'- again having not really looked at it since it was written and was surprised at the pointyness and venom unleashed...
'We have been unable to see the truth, because we have been fighting for ten square feet of ground.
OUR DIGITAL SILO, our little piece of turf.
That's CRAP, brothers!
The turf is ours by right, ... because it's ALL OUR TURF.'
Who are the Warriors? Indeed.
Buy Age of Conversation 3 at: Amazon
Sadly absent from the Turner Prize nominations for 2010 is the work of artist Marcus Brown.
In particular, Marcus' most recent creation Jack the T. Witter aka Jack the Twitter (sic) - his most fully formed narrative to date.
For those not familiar with Jack, a brief description.
'He’s been called a demon and a monster. He’s actually a psychotic Twitter stalker who likes Prokofiev and fried liver. If you are on twitter, he might just be following you and if he’s doing that, well, then you just might meet him in a dark, cold back alley of twitter.'
Jack the Twitter is a transmedia-esque narrative that 'tangles itself into the real life stories' of individuals using social networks such as twitter and foursquare to document their places and interactions.
This entanglement is then replayed in Jack's own grisly (to use an apt etymology) narrative which is published using those same real-time update tools, google maps (the darkest alleys of twitter) and Jack's own blog, Jack the Twitter.
Like that other reknowned 'Jack', his principle playgrounds are the east end streets of Ye Olde London Towne, and 'tis the 'prostitutes'of the twitterati whom have fixed his wrath.
'For twitter's whores are naught but bores especially in east London'
Marcus' storytelling uses the internet and it's myriad of tools as his medium, with his subject matter being essentially a critique of society and culture, as played out on the internet, akin to a mash-up of Adorno and Benjamin with a dash of Warholian detachment, the characters, in effect, describe how we are living today.
For the full story, so far, The Jack 'encounters' are now available as a limited edition 'souvenir' edition paperback book and digital download, entitled 'Jack the Twitter: Volume One' from Lulu.com.
I strongly advise you to purchase a copy lest Jack follow you out into the streets of London in order to avenge his terrible past and fulfil his prophecy...
'It's only the unpopular ideas, that are capable of slowly gaining a few disciples until it's then possible for them to have an effect...because they are original'
Vivienne Westwood, describing, in effect, the notion of disruptive innovation.
The process of creating ideas and things which, on the face of it, often have characteristics that the mass market may not appear to want, or in many cases will be fundamentally opposed to and possibly afraid of.
But doing it anyway.
A lesson in how to turn a piece of direct mail in to a 'brand experience', in this clip courtesy of the Justin Basini Brand Marketing blog.
For me, one of the most powerful little touches is the hand written note that is is included. Fantastic.
Standing in the Post Office the other day I noticed the poster on the wall from earlier this year announcing a Royal Mail collection of stamps featuring iconic British music album covers from the last 40 years.
In a bizzare moment of syncronicity, I was listening to some old Public Enemy tunes while hanging about.
In 'Fight the Power' Chuck D asserts;
'most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps'.
In the Royal mail's collection, of course, none of the featured albums are by black British artists, or even bands with any non-white members.
Surely there could have been a place for a Soul 2 Soul, Specials or even the super iconic first UB40 album?
The mind-numbingly mild Coldplay could make way, for starters.
'Good evening, i'm from Essex, in case you couldn't tell.
My given name is Dickie, I come from Billericay and I'm doing very well'
Jamie Oliver's opening line from his TED Prize acceptance talk - 'I'm Jamie from Essex, I'm a chef' - echoing Essex's other favourite son, Ian Dury (un-selfconciously or not) but the embodiement of the base of contemporary successful branding.
In Chris Rojek's book on Cultural Studies he describes capitalism as having shifted into a new stage of 'cultural development in which branding, advertising and marketing link consumption with popular empowerment'.
We are witnessing this every day now, powered by the emergence of social technologies. There's plenty said about that elsewhere, so i'll leave that alone for a bit.
What I did find useful is what Rojek describes as the six key features of what he calls 'neat capitalism'. Comparing the approach of successful contemporary branding vs traditional capitalist 'corporations', of which the rise of Jamie's star (and others) is a case in point.
1. Informality
'I'm Jamie from Essex, I'm a chef'.
Jamie doesn't wear a suit, doesn't even describe himself as a 'business' person.
In fact he clearly distances himself from that world, in the same manner as Branson, Jobs st al before him.
For another example, just look at the current election lead-up and David Cameron, with his metaphorical and literal sleeves-rolled-up and Nick Clegg with the relaxed demeanour and open-neck shirt. Compared to that Gordon Brown's looking decidedly old-school.
2. Social Conscience
Conventional, traditional business and corporations are widely acknowledged as being at the root of many of the abuses of human rights, exploitation of labour and environmental damage amongst other things.
New branding challenges this and actively seeks to 'make a difference'.
Jamie's crusade to save lives through healthy diet is ,in effect, his 'enterprise'. The Food Revolution.
When Guy Kawasaki talks about 'make meaning first, the money will follow', this is what he is describing.
3. Innovation
We mentioned Branson earlier. Virgin being the poster child of innovation.
Their approach being to look for sectors dominated by jaded, inflexible 'business cultures' and wading in in with game changing approaches. Air Travel, Mobile, TV have all been shaken up by Virgin's disruptive methods.
Jamie, similarly, being almost transmedia personified. No touchpoint being left 'untouched'.
4. Listening to (and partnership with) consumers.
Transparency, value, service are the cornerstones. The biggest mistake traditional business is making is paying far too much attention to it's own processes and needs ergo failing to connect with their customers.
We've talked about the new customer buying journey and passive/active loyalty in this space before. Being present when consumers are 'reaching out' for information and responding.
5. Being Flexible.
Again, listening to the market and looking for branding opportunities.
If Jamie ridgedly stuck in 'product' mode he'd still be in the kitchen in his dad's pub. In 'brand' mode he is not confined by narrow product category definitions and, like Branson, can happily apply the brand to any sphere. Restaurants, books, accessories, TV, even wine.
6. Entertaining (or Fun)
Doing good, making a difference (and making money) can be an enjoyable thing to do.
Albeit within a 'market' context (so let's not kid ourselves that it's somehow 'revolutionary'). But never mind the business logic, a smile (as in a yawn) is infectious. Po-faced is not a good look.
Note: As a mere advertising douchebag, this is my simplistic interpretation, if you are after the concise socio-poitical lowdown, I suggest reading Rojek's book ;)
See what I did there? Informality.
In an age where we distrust financial institutions more than ever before, this bit of branding by Montana Credit Union has a refreshing honesty about it.
The intro copy on the boring is sexy website reads:
“When it comes to your money, too much excitement is the last thing you need, Montana 1st Credit Union has been prudently boring the socks off Missoula for more than 78 years.
Just ask your Grandpa. Since 1931, we’ve been quietly doing what’s right for our members without any high-roller excitement. No corporate jets, no million-dollar salaries. Just great rates and outstanding member service, year after year after boring year.”
In ultra boring Courier too (for typography geeks).
Check out, some of their products:
- Plain Vanilla Auto Loans
- Mild-Mannered Mortgages
- Dull Home Equity Loans
- Safe & Stodgy Savings
Even the billboards mention nothing about the product, just the url.
They give away 'sensible' free ice-cream in the branches and even the strapline is disruptive: 'Boring since 1931.'
Informality, entertaining, innovative.
Top marks.
Take note Gordon Brown. You can still win this thing, mate.
Many thanks to thefinancialbrand blog.
Regular visitors to these pages will know that Malcolm was a big hero of mine.
Just last week I posted about lessons on creating a movement, inspired by Malcolm, Bernie Rhodes and Jake Riviera.
One of my favourite Malcolm nuggets is from a clip in The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle. Malcolm is facing the press who are outraged that a member of the Sex Pistols had reputededly thrown up in a bin at Heathrow Airport, to the horror of passers-by.
Malcolm replies:
'People are sick all the time.
In fact people in this country are sick and tired of constantly being told what to do'.
It's poignant that Malcolm should pass away the day after the Commons passed the Digital Economy bill.
Well, we are still sick and tired of being told what to do.
A bill spun as 'protecting the creative industries' by creating legislation that would prohibit digital sharing of copyrighted material, films and music principally.
One clause allows the government to order the blocking of 'locations on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright'.
'Is likely' being the key phrase. Many people are convinced that this in effect a smokescreen for another, more disturbing agenda around free speech and the emerging 'surveillance' economy.
Malcolm would have had something to say about both issues.
Subversive ideas being his stock in trade, and Piracy as a business model was a key theme of his way back in 1980 with his post-Pistols protege's Bow Wow Wow.
C30 C60 C90 Go! being the pre-ipod, walkman generation's riposte to the 'home taping is killing music' bleat from the music business establishment.
It didn't kill music, and neither will digital file sharing.
Goodbye Malcolm, thanks for everything.
Bootmaker of choice, Dr. Martens celebrate their 50th anniversary by referencing its roots in British youth subculture - principly those with a musical soundtrack - via a mostly online campaign '50 years of Dr Martens'.
Contemporary popsters cover classic tunes from each of the five decades of Doc’s history, the tracks and videos available to download at drmartens.com.
Among the bands/songs featured are The Noisettes doing Buzzcocks (no 'the', please) 'Ever Fallen in Love' and this spooky take on Sham's 'If The Kids are United' by psyche-soul combo The Duke Spirit.
Tom Philips, creative director at Exposure New York who developed the campaign says...
“It’s a brand that people have tended to adopt from different subcultures throughout its history. What we’re seeing today is a whole new generation of kids picking up on the brand and giving their own slant on what it means and how it can be worn.”
So much for that, but, in all honesty, the big questions are;
Where are Kasabian doing original bootboys Slade?
Or howabout Miko doing Elton's Pinball Wizard out of Tommy?
There's also a conspicuous lack of any nod to the two-tone movement (the most Doc clad of any of the subcultures. Brogues and smoothes too, remember?).
And I dunno who, but someone should really have done the Slaughter & the Dogs anthem 'Where have all the Bootboys Gone?'
A potentially very cool idea that falls a bit short by playing it too safe. 6/10
thanks to psfk.
Post-punk, neo-marxist-situationist, critical-theorist funksters Gang Of Four have taken a leaf out of Nine Inch Nails book for the launch of their new collection ‘Content’, due in the summer.
Through a deal with Pledge Music, the band are looking to involve fans in the process of recording and releasing the album by offering unique product packages and experiences, available via ‘pledges’.
These include include a limited edition, cassette walkman, hand decorated by the band, featuring the first ever GO4 live performance on one side of the tape and the new album on the other – available for a £175 pledge.
Or if you prefer, for £950 you can fly by helicopter with the band for their performance at the Glastonbury Festival in the summer.
There’s a number of other pledges including one-offs (a signed ‘damaged goods’ guitar), and other musicians can have Andy Gill do a GO4 remix of their own track for a snip at £1500.
A cursory understanding of behavioural economics and you’ll understand the ‘framing’ of the main ‘product’ – the £100 'Ultimate Can'. Inside the can is a copy of the new album, a book of artworks by Jon King and Andy Gill illustrating and analysing the last 40 years of world history, ticket to a private view of an exhibition of said artworks plus a phial of authentic GO4 blood. No sweat and tears included, unfortunately.
This is the one fans will gravitate towards, methinks.
It gets more interesting when we learn that there is also to be a ‘Pledgers Only’ website rewarding those who have contributed with exclusive videos, live recordings, demos, and previously unreleased songs from the GO4 archives.
And as we would expect, the band are putting your money where their mouth is by donating a share of any profits from pledges to human rights campaigners Amnesty International and Plan International who campaign for child rights and the end of child poverty.
GO4 are now another band who have realised that it’s possible to make art, make a living and make meaning in the new economy – with integrity, without compromising, by connecting directly with fans, offering unique co-creation opportunities, access and experiences, and connecting fans with each other. This is how ideas spread.
No.6: “What are we all looking for?”
Professor's Wife: “Well, let's see. That gentleman over there. What do you think he's doing?”
No.6: “Tearing up a book.”
Professor's Wife: “He's creating a fresh concept. Construction arises out of the ashes of destruction. And that woman?”
No.6: “Standing on her head.”
Professor's Wife: “She's developing a new perspective.”
The Prisoner 'The General'
This video, 'Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop' was created by Keitchi Matsuda a designer and film-maker student, from UCL in London.
A near future vision of the 'internet of things' thing.
His description:
'The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it.'
More Keitchi Matsuda at his website and vimeo.
Finders fee Contagious.
Following on from yesterday's musings on intelligence/talent being a process that constantly evoves rather than a hardwired 'thing', as I'm ploughing through Shenk's book 'the genius is all of us' there seems to be a nugget on every page.
This is double surprising to me as it's a book principally about biology, genetics and cognitive science, yet somehow feeding the left brain with factual stuff seems to fire off triggers in the right brain, therefore helping me figure stuff out for work.
As if reading my mind the following snippet from Friedrich Nietzche then flowed off the page...
'Artists have a vested interest in our believing in the flash of revelation, the so-called inspiration...shining down from the heavens as a ray of grace.
In reality, the imagination of the good artist or thinker produces continuously good, mediocre and bad things, but his judgement, trained and sharpened to a fine point, rejects, selects, connects...All great artists and thinkers are great workers, indefatigable not only in inventing, but also in rejecting, sifting, transforming and ordering.'
Someone once said to me that process of beginning to understand about the actual nature of reality and how 'things' are, is more akin to a 'remembering' of stuff that's been parked in the corners of the mind than a 'learning' of new things.
This week I've stumbled across a few bits and bobs talking about epigenetics.
'the study of how the environment modifies the way genes are expressed.'
Epigenetics challenges the conventional view that DNA carries all our 'heritable information' and is not subject to influence of external effects or those effects being passed on to further generations.
In essence, a scientific explanation of an element of the buddhist concept of esho funi - oneness of self and the environment.
This extract from the NY Times review of David Shenk's book 'The genius in all of us' tickled me enough to get the book.
Shenk is an advocate of the epigenitics thinking.
'...we’ve tended to see genes as a set of straightforward instructions, a blueprint for constructing a person. Over the last 20 years, however, some scientists have begun to complicate that picture.
“It turns out that the genetic instructions themselves are influenced by other inputs,” Shenk writes. “Genes are constantly activated and deactivated by environmental stimuli, nutrition, hormones, nerve impulses and other genes.”
That means there can be no guaranteed genetic windfalls, or fixed genetic limits, bestowed at the moment of conception. Instead there is a continually unfolding interaction between our heredity and our world, a process that may be in some measure under our control.'
In other words, 'intelligence' is not a fixed thing, it's a process.
The first page of Shenk's book features the longer version of the William James nugget in the pic above.
'Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damp, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources...stating the thing broadlt, the human individual lives far within his limits'.
Having said that, James reputedly claimed that it was only when he was under the influence of nitrous oxide that he was able to understand Hegel.
HT to Notes in Samsara
As part of its 'Be Stupid' idea for their spring/summer range, Diesel have launched a campaign featuring a 'be stupid' manifesto vid, interactive things to play with and a catalogue/music video, titled 'a hundred lovers'.
The highlight of the campaign, created by Anomaly, is the interactive catalogue featuring fans of the brand as models sourced through an online recruitment campaign and a song 'a hundred lovers' by Josep on the agency'sown record label.
Here's five reasons why I think this works pretty well..
An ownable brand idea.
It’s a bold statement - "Be Stupid" – but they take it beyond simply a ‘message’ into the realms of a manifesto, a call to arms even. ‘Stupid’ meaning to innovate, do the things smart people are afraid of. Which the elements of the 'campaign' (for want of a better word) do.
The oldest trick in the book (done well)
Creatively it’s classic, take two things that don’t immediately go together and create something new. This is a cornerstone of innovation, and formula 1+1=3 thinking (ie the whole being greater than the sum of it’s parts).
Catalogues are not exciting in themselves no matter how well designed, music videos are what they are. But a catalogue that IS music video, with the interactivity thrown in, is something interesting.
Yer oblique cultural references
Speaking of 1+1=3, the interactive ‘stupid’ word tool thing is conceptually straight out of Burroughs and Gysin’s 1960/70’s book The Third Mind, created using the ‘cut-up’ technique (later popularised by Bowie et al) ‘Cut-ups’ involve taking unrelated bits of text, literally cutting them up, and then rearranging the words to form new narratives. Nice one.
Connecting with fans.
By recognising that fans and their audience are far better messengers than paid for media, they make them the stars. Online auditions were held to find the stars of the video.
The idea will spread because it’s about ‘them’ (and Diesel, it’s a partnership).
This is the biggie.
More than just advertising.
Finding a musician from the audience, give them a platform, creating a record ‘label’, making the tune available for sale on iTunes. This will get downloaded and shared. The point is not to sell music, the point is to leverage another way in which brand ideas spread through networks.
Any more for any more?
Richard Dawkins first coined the word "meme" in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. 'Meme' describes an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.
Most proto-memes go nowhere and are quickly forgotten, or not noticed at all. However, some memes find a tipping point of sorts - and spread - increasing in momentum as they go.
The brand that alledgedly coined the term 'sneakers' (the rubber soles faciltating 'sneaking' around) has launched a new campaign, called 'The Original Sneaker', based on reminding 'the kids' that Keds were the first, authentic sneaker.
Converse and possibly PF flyers (the favourite round these parts) may dispute that, the NYTimes covers that angle in this article.
To be fair Keds have been de riguer with certain trendy elements around London for the last few years, anyway
Keds attempt to bring the brand's history to life in a history section of their website that pulls together clips, stories and ads from bygone days up to the present.
With one notable and glaring exception, and perhaps their most most well known and loved patrons.
Messrs Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy Ramone.
Beaten to the punch in that respect by Converse Chuck Taylor, and Vans, neither of which were worn by the 'brothers' until much later in the story.
HT brandchannel
When the Dubai economy hit the skids there were tales of luxury motors abandoned at the airport as many of the people who had made a fast buck in the good times baled out when the squeeze happened, leaving behind anything that couldn't fit in the hold.
Fast forward to this clever bit of 'ambient' for Dubai Metro, the commuter train network:
'...a driverless, fully automated metro network in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai, launched in September 2009.
Commuters were encouraged to leave their cars at home and take the train with a series of messages written on abandoned cars around Dubai: “I haven’t left Dubai, I just love taking the Metro”, “Metro 1, Car 0″, “Wash me if you want, I’m still taking the Metro”, “Stop writing on me, I’m taking the Metro”.'
The campaign, by Saatchi & Saatchi, Dubai, won the Grand Prix for Outdoor at the Dubai Lynx Awards 2010, though I can't help thinking that there could have been more participative juice squeezed out of this idea, incentivising real punters to join in.
Coming in mid-April is volume 3 of Age of Conversation, this year's edition is subtitled 'It's time to get busy'.
I managed to get it together to provide a chapter for this years edition, I'll preview that closer to release time.
I 'm proud to be between the same covers as the esteemed group of contributers listed below, and thanks to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton who put in the hard work in making it happen, again.
Adam Joseph-Priyanka Sachar-Mark Earls-Cory Coley-Christakos-Stefan Erschwendner-Paul Hebert-Jeff De Cagna-Thomas Clifford-Phil Gerbyshak-Jon Burg-Toby Bloomberg-Shambhu Neil Vineberg-Joseph Jaffe-Uwe Hook-Steve Roesler-Michael E. Rubin-anibal casso-Steve Woodruff-Steve Sponder-Becky Carroll-Tim Tyler-Chris Wilson-Beth Harte-Tinu Abayomi-Paul-Dan Schawbel-Carol Bodensteiner-Trey Pennington-David Weinfeld-Dan Sitter-Vanessa DiMauro-Ed Brenegar-David Zinger-Brett T. Macfarlane-Efrain Mendicuti-Deb Brown-Brian Reich-Gaurav Mishra-Dennis Deery-C.B. Whittemore-Gordon Whitehead-Heather Rast-Cam Beck-Hajj E. Flemings-Joan Endicott-Cathryn Hrudicka-Jeroen Verkroost-Karen D. Swim-Christopher Morris-Joe Pulizzi-Leah Otto-Corentin Monot-Karalee Evans-Leigh Durst-David Berkowitz-Kevin Jessop-Lesley Lambert-Duane Brown-Peter Korchnak-Mark Price-Dustin Jacobsen-Piet Wulleman-Mike Maddaloni-Ernie Mosteller-Scott Townsend-Nick Burcher-Frank Stiefler-Steve Olenski-John Rosen-Tim Jackson-Suzanne Hull-Len Kendall-Amber Naslund-Wayne Buckhanan-Mark McGuinness-Caroline Melberg-Andy Drish-Oleksandr Skorokhod-Claire Grinton-Angela Maiers-Paul Williams-Gary Cohen-Armando Alves-Gautam Ramdurai-B.J. Smith-Tamera Kremer-Eaon Pritchard-Brendan Tripp-Adelino de Almeida-Jacob Morgan-Casey Hibbard-Andy Hunter-Julian Cole-Debra Helwig-Anjali Ramachandran-Jye Smith-Drew McLellan-Craig Wilson-Karin Hermans-Emily Reed-David Petherick-Katie Harris-Gavin Heaton-Dennis Price-Mark Levy-George Jenkins-Doug Mitchell-Mark W. Schaefer-Helge Tenno-Douglas Hanna-Marshall Sponder-James Stevens-Ian Lurie-Ryan Hanser Jenny Meade -Jeff Larche-Sacha Tueni and Katherine Maher-David Svet-Jessica Hagy-Simon Payn-Joanne Austin-Olsen-Mark Avnet-Stanley Johnson-Marilyn Pratt-Mark Hancock Steve Kellogg-Michelle Beckham-Corbin-Michelle Chmielewski-Amy Mengel-Veronique Rabuteau-Peter Komendowski-Andrea Vascellari-Timothy L Johnson-Phil Osborne-Beth Wampler-Amy Jussel-Rick Liebling-Eric Brody-Arun Rajagopal-Dr Letitia Wright-Hugh de Winton-David Koopmans-Aki Spicer-Jeff Wallace-Don Frederiksen-Charles Sipe-Katie McIntyre-James G Lindberg Sandra Renshaw-David Reich-Lynae Johnson-Jasmin Tragas-Deborah Chaddock Brown-Mike O'Toole-Jeanne Dininni-Iqbal Mohammed-Morriss M. Partee-Katie Chatfield-Jeff Cutler-Pete Jones-Riku Vassinen-Jeff Garrison-Kevin Dugan-Tiphereth Gloria-Mike Sansone-Lori Magno-Valerie Simon-Nettie Hartsock-Mark Goren-Peter Salvitti
Very cool bit of direct mail from Canadian recording studios and sound designers GGRP and their agency GREY, who mailed this 100% cardboard record player and record to prospects and customers. It's exactly that - a fully functioning record player made from cardboard, and a record.
HT to the daily what
