DIGITAL BROADSHEET for E-mail INVITATION and VIDEO DISPLAY, commissioned by real estate  industry charity fundraisers.

Small piece from Spring, 2009, for B’NAI B’RITH REAL ESTATE’S YOUNG DEVELOPMENT GROUP. A charity event was held at the former headquarters for the New York Times, now a mixed-use re-development, and called for a contemporary interpretation of period materials from the Times’s founding.

Social media platforms are big particularly due to the factor of interactivity. Advertisers have seized this opportunity and already began working their magic in these areas.

Like in Habbo, where users make friends and do things together, advertisers have set up zones in the online game. You have American Idol – people get to roleplay as aspiring idols or realise the ferocious threat of elimination due to the lack of votes. Scandals with Idol judges are another story.

There are real celebrities as well all for the publicity. Wouldn’t you love to know how aesthetically-pleasing or quirky it would be to have Lady Gaga perform to ‘Bad Romance’ and try to have a virtual smooch with Gossip Girl Chace Crawford’s habbo character – like they did in ‘Poker Face’?

Hmm.. Titillating?

Perhaps not so much when there’s Second Life. Characters are 3D with options to customise intricate details of the body structure. It was a promising platform, other than fulfiling the primary purpose of expanding one’s social circle, for businesses to break geological differences and have conferences online; brands to set up virtual stores and garner product awareness on top of brand reinforcement. However, users who are charged with testoterone and progesterone, whichever applies, choose to solicit online – most likely due to how real the hot actions can get with user-created scripts.

Characters however are not ‘born’ with their own private parts. Looking at how unsightly my character was without one, I set out to figure out how to get my hands on the crotch – yelling,” Where’s my crotch?”, “Oh, what’s that on the ground, is it a usable tool?”.

Eventually, there was a gay male who enlightened me: Second Life characters have to BUY their own. And he was kind enough to fix my undesirable features and flab around the belly into a dashing male:

The briefs were from him too, of course. Sweet.

Tessa and I are spending a few days in western Pennyslvania to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family. 10 days in the same zipcode! On Dec. 1st we begin our return trip to Oregon. Along the way we’ll visit OH, NC, GA, AL, LA, TX (5 shows!), NM, AZ, CA (6 shows including San Francisco!) Visit the SHOW’s page for the finalized tour dates. We can’t wait to see our our South West and West Coast friends – it’s been too long.

Tour has been amazing, we’ve played over 120 shows in around 40 states. We’ve made all sorts of new friends and played loads and loads of rock n’ roll. Our music has become more theatrical, audience involving, physical and we’re scaring a few people in the process. Yes, we’re having that much fun!

When we get back to Portland, Tessa will once again start tax season & I’ll again take classes @ PCC! If you know anyone that could help me out with a part time job, I’m interested in anything! We’re looking forward to being in the same place for a while and seeing all our friends. We’ll be living in North Portland this time close to Missisppi street.

If you haven’t heard our new record yet, Perfect Recipe For A Smile head over to DESTORYNATEALLEN.bandcamp.com to stream or download the record for FREE or DONATION!

Hope all is well.

Nate Allen

In order to succeed in automotive advertising we have to recognize that we all have to change to succeed.  In this world of communication on steroids we have to embrace it and engage it.  We all have to learn and study everyday.  

There’s a saying that hits this nail on the head.  Learners will be uniquely qualified for success and those that have learned will fail faster than they have ever have before.

The question is are you going to be a constant learner or not? It’s only your future!

I have great respect for Tim Williams. He is the author of the book Take a Stand for Your Brand, an important read for every small-to mid-size agency CEO. In a recent AdvertisingAge article he writes,

“… we’re at the nexus of the Great Recession and the Great Transformation of Marketing. In circumstances like these, a strategy of “just try harder” won’t take you very far.”

Here are 10 ideas I have paraphrased from Tim’s article and applied to the driving dealership traffic.

1) You can no longer just observe the changes occurring in automotive marketing you have to engage.  If you wait you’ll  you’ll just fall behind the leaders even further.

2) A digital plan is just that..what you really need  is digital competency if you want to be the leader in driving dealership traffic.

3)  You can no longer have the  focus of your message be  “one to many” you have to make it “one to one.”

4) Don’t sacrafice  brand-to-consumer communications at the expense of consumer-to-consumer communications.

5) There are too many ways to track success today.   You can track everything so don’t be caught with a lack of analytics and tools to measure your effectiveness.

6) Everything you do should be connected to other forms of advertising. Don’t ever let one piece  stand alone.

7) Think in terms of channel plans instead of just media plans. This is a must to stretch smaller budgets into automotive dealership traffic.

Change your perspective today from just placing media to creating media.

9) Don’t hold your hope out for one big idea but  think in terms of “big multichannel ideas.”

10) You have to allocate  more money to creative and creative media and not just media.

Extra Credit:  Beginning 2010 you must have  a plan that includes social media as a primary component, to generate more dealership traffic. 

If you don’t think social media is here to stay take a look at this video from socialnomics.com.

Social Media is here and important to driving traffic to your dealership.

Film and motion graphics producers, 1-2 months starting asap

If you are a seasoned producer with motion graphics and/or film experience alongside your digital capabilities, then do send me your details. We’re working with a prestigious design agency in central London who are looking for producers to work on film, experiential and interactive projects for some stellar brands. You’ll be creatively-led with have extensive digital media project experience plus film or motion graphics expertise, solid PM skills from planning to delivery and good client facing skills. Agency experience and a fast pace of work are a must. 

This position starts asap through to mid January 2010 and will pay c£200-250 per day.

Gill Arnold

0207 420 3538

gill@wearefutureheads.co.uk

14 out of 16 entires converted to metal…

…spread across Bronze, Silver and Gold.

2 disciplines…

1 agency…

2009 is the year of the RED.

Ogilvy & Mather

BRONZE ARAW:

1. Film, Best in Sound Design:

Healthy Options “Teenager”

2. Radio, Single Entry

Pond’s Clear Solutions “Slip of The Tongue”

3. Digital

Banner: Nike, Basketball “Balloon”

Viral: Motorola Philippines “Motorola Razr Slashfest”

Viral: Nike, Manny Pacquiao “Give Us This Day”

Viral: Nike, Manny Pacquiao “War of Words Promo”

Viral: Nike, Manny Pacquiao “Ang Mamatay ng Dahil Sa’yo”

Website: Nike “Team Pilipinas”

Website: Nike, Nike Women “This is Love”

4. Araw Media

Best Use of Outdoor: Pond’s Clear Solutions “Siren”

5. Outdoor, Ambient and Point of Purchase

Craft, Best Illustration: Clarity “Mary”

SILVER ARAW

1. Outdoor, Ambient and Point of Purchase

Ambient, Special Builds: Nike Hyperdunk “Flywire”

2. Digital

Website: Nike, Manny Pacquiao “Prepare for Battle”

GOLD ARAW

Outdoor, Ambient and Point of Purchase

Pond’s Siren

THE YEAR-END BONUS GOES TO…

MEGAMIIIIIIXXXXXX!!!

Si chiama Sixth Sense / WUW (Wear Ur World), è un progetto sviluppato nei laboratori del MIT di Boston ed è destinato a rivoluzionare il mondo dell’interaction design, cioé di quel complesso di regole di progettazione che determina le modalità di interazione fra un essere umano e un dispositivo elettromeccanico o digitale. Ma vediamo nel dettaglio che cos’è Sixth Sense.

Sixth Sense viene definito dai suoi ideatori un’interfaccia gestuale perché consente all’utente di interagire con un apparato digitale (un pc, un lettore mp3, una fotocamera, ecc.) senza il bisogno di utilizzare un dispositivo di input/output come il mouse o la tastiera. 

Il tutto avviene con l’uso integrato di un proiettore tascabile, uno specchio e una camera digitale. Grazie a Sixth Sense, il corpo dell’utente stesso diventa un dispositivo di input. Tanto per fare un esempio, per scattare delle foto con la nostra camera digitale sarà sufficiente inquadrare il soggetto fra le dita nella classica postura da ‘taglio fotografico’ rettangolare. La magia è in piccoli markers colorati (visual tracking fiducials) applicati sulla punta delle dita dell’utente che consentono alla videocamera di registrare i movimenti fisici che verranno processati dal software ed associati all’attivazione di determinate funzioni. Il proiettore portatile proietta quindi sulle superfici fisiche intorno all’utente le informazioni di output del dispositivo. Attualmente il dispositivo prototipo viene indossato dal soggetto mettendolo al collo.

Il progetto ha ricevuto numerosi awards da parte della comunità scientifica internazionale e si annuncia di estrema importanza. E la ragione c’è.

Lungi dall’essere un antieconomico progetto sperimentale destinato a sfornare un prodotto non replicabile su scala industriale, quel che colpisce di Sixth Sense è proprio la sua realistica possibilità di essere prodotto in modo industriale basandosi su tecnologie attualmente disponibili. Il prototipo realizzato (e che potete vedere in funzione nel video) costa infatti solo 350$. Molto meno di un iPhone 3G, in sostanza.

Al di là dell’indubbio valore tecnologico intrinseco del progetto Sixth Sense, c’è da chiedersi quali potrebbero essere le potenzialità di un’interfaccia di questo genere se venissero applicate al mondo dell’advertising. La comunicazione fra brand e target potrebbe essere rivoluzionata radicalmente e definitivamente perché si aprirebbero una miriade di nuove modalità di interazione che hanno come limite soltanto la fantasia del creativo. Senza contare l’indotto pubblicitario che sarà generato dall’hype cycle di Sixth Sense.

Guardate il video e rimanete a bocca chiusa (se ci riuscite).

Firm seeks to minimize “push” and maximize “pull” for clients

Oceanside, CA, USA | 24 November 2009 - MarketPOWER™, LLC added its 2,000th follower today on Twitter, having added its 150 newest followers in less than a month. Its Twitter site’s Google PageRank of 5 has proven unattainable even for many larger firms’ sites, and Director Jeff Cotrupe’s XeeSM page (all social media links, one click) earns a PageRank of 3. “We continue to grow our follower base 100% organically by delivering information and business value, and without using any of the get-followers-quick or ‘train’ systems making the rounds on Twitter,” said Cotrupe. “Beyond rankings and ratings, greater web connectivity leads to more business opportunities. We deploy a myriad of interactive techniques and best practices for our clients and ourselves, but it’s all designed around two core objectives: Reducing outbound sales ‘push’ while creating maximum ‘pull;’ and engaging in comfortable dialogues in optimal venues with prospects, customers and opinion leaders instead of marketing ‘at’ them.”

I’ve been meaning to tell you about the great presents I got at my 6th birthday party!

It was so exciting opening them all…

I got an ENORMOUS teddy from Dizzy Mum’s little human pups (I love it! It is the biggest stuffie I have ever had!)…

…a fluffy yellow ducky from George the Bernese Mountain Dog, which makes a funny “quack quack” sound when I squeeze it…

.

…a soft, cuddly elephant AND a little tennis-ball hedgehog from my new Agility friend,  Scarlett the Shepherd…

.

…a cute bird with beautiful colours from Cookie & Cinnamon…

…and (how thoughtful!) a special medicine to help pets travel well from Finnegan the Sheltie!

(I also got some fishy yummies from Lucky Bear but unfortunately, they have long disappeared in my tummy! )

Both Cookie & Cinnamon and George had also made their own cards for me!

.

Aren’t I a lucky girl?

And then there was the Nina Ottosson “Dog Brick” Interactive Toy that my humans got me all the way from the faraway place called England!

Here is a video of me trying it out:

Hsin-Yi was quite surprised that I wasn’t as dumb as she thought and I actually managed to figure it out quite quickly – ha! ha! Next time they will have to buy the 3 Dog level for me!

Well, I have never had so many new stuffies at one time in my life…I don’t know which one to take to bed with me!

This month was Esquire Magazine’s Augmented Reality Issue. On the cover and throughout the magazine, picture codes known as Augmented Reality software were placed next to the featured articles. For example, Robert Downey Jr. had a code on the cover that he was selling. A male supermodel had a code next to the clothes he was wearing. Readers simply download AR Software to their computers and hold up the AR code to their webcam. Once the webcam registers the code, a video of Robert Downey Jr. in his interview pops up. A video of the Model modeling clothes pops up. These are not short clips. They run for a good three – five minutes. High –tech animations and graphics are of course included and by rotating the magazine at different angles, i.e. facing north instead of south, a different video pops up to talk to, entertain, and educate the reader.

The ease at which Esquire introduced Augmented Reality to the public struck me as something that Museums; particularly Natural History Museums can use to make their visitors more engaged. If they were to place these codes next to their still objects suck as earthen vases, traditional wedding costumes, or even primeval weapons, visitors can beep the codes located next to the objects and immediately watch a video of how they were used. For example, the Natural History Museum in NYC has a traditional Chinese Wedding Costume for a bride along with the Sedan Chair that she sits in. As accurate as those two items are, if I weren’t from Chinese heritage, I wouldn’t know the tradition and importance of the logic behind how the bride gets brought into the carriage. If a video can pop up immediately after scanning the adjacent AR code, visitors can be brought back to ancient China and see that the veiled bride has to be piggy-backed over a brazier on to the carriage by an older woman known as the matron of honor, that the bride was always sheltered with a red parasol and kerchief, and that the door of the Sedan Chair was always kicked open to chase away bad spirits that may have latched on the to bride before.

As these Augmented Reality codes can be beeped on any digital device, the Museum won’t have to worry about introducing a vast amount of technology into their actual exhibits. People can simply view these on their phones. Augmented Reality Codes and software can enhance the experience of viewing still objects!

Kelly Lo

Hans Rosling's Data Graphics at TED Conference

Edward Tufte is fantastic. If I had a log cabin I would go and read his books for days. After purchasing a film projector last week, I have immersed myself in watching TED talks projected large scale in my home. Also fantastic. Hans Rosling’s 20 minute lecture on being able to visualize statistics is simple phenomenal. Countries are represented in circles of different sizes relating to population and are placed on an X,Y axis of health and wealth and Rosling animates the graph moving the placement of those countries on the graph as time progresses. We see countries evolving or failing. Reassigning the X,Y values, we see life expectancy rise up in most countries but literally see sub Saharan countries fall back with HIV-related deaths. Who know that watching moving circles could be an emotional experience – but it is. The bottom line is that so many types organizations have access to this data, but Rosling makes the point that this data is sitting in databases not being comprehended.
While so many major global organizations can benefit from this instigating initiatives, museums can simply play the role of projecting this information for the public.
Thanks TED.

HC Smith

Charlotte Klonk's "Spaces of Experience"

The latest word in display theory was just released by Yale University Press. As in two weeks ago. Charlotte Klonk’s Spaces of Experience: Art Gallery Interiors from 1800 to 2000 locates the development of art gallery interiors in the broader history of experience and perception. It looks like an interesting read, and may be helpful in guessing what comes next!

Jenny F.

I must admit, I’m one of those Twitter skeptics. I feel like I would just be talking to myself and I don’t feel the need to know what celebrities, businesses, or events are doing right this minute. (It’s odd to be reclusive, I know.) But this article presents a really interesting point.

How Twitter Will Change the World written by Steven Johnson in Times Magazine, June 2009.

This article is interesting because it examines Twitter capability to hold conversations that transcend limitations of location, space and time. Twitter ultimately embraces the concept of “latent communities” and uses it to its benefit. People in Florida can actively participate in a conversation hosted in California—all in real time. It is a practical tool that allows people contribute and share ideas.

The article referenced a conference called Hacking Education. The physical event consisted of a small group of 40 individuals, however by the use of twitter, the conversation expanded beyond the conference rooms.

“Injecting Twitter into that conversation fundamentally changed the rules of engagement. It added a second layer of discussion and brought a wider audience into what would have been a private exchange. And it gave the event an afterlife on the Web.”

In relation to my thesis, this case is an example of openness. It defines the way we communicate. It affects our interactions, forms and process of dialogue, such that rather than following linear actions from individual to individual, the conversation is fluid. It is capable of growth and evolution due to the openness of collaboration and contribution of the public.

We’re excited to launch the Net Impact New Haven Professional Chapter NING site.

We welcome all Net Impact New Haven Professionals to join the site. Once there, you can read and reply to discussion threads; learn about upcoming events;  post your own comments, photos and videos; and connect directly with other members!

Click here to get started: http://netimpactnh.ning.com/

See you on the site!

Ford Motor Company has fully embraced Twitter thanks to the efforts by Scott Monty, the company’s head of social media. The car and truck maker has feeds for customer service, racing, corporate news, Taurus owners, Mustang owners, and environmentally conscious drivers, as well as others. Monty joined the company in July 2008 with the goal of “making it the leading car maker for digital communications within four years.” To accomplish this, Monty has groups of employees around the company using Twitter to create a dialogue with consumers and to humanize the brand. Even Ford CEO Alan Mulally has gotten involved by answering some consumer questions via Twitter.

Part of humanizing the brand involves giving Ford tweeters a personal voice. Revolution magazine says Monty told the customer service department: “You all have a script that you’re supposed to follow on your calls. If someone calls in with a problem about their transmission then you know what to say. But I guarantee you don’t follow the script word for word; you don’t use the corporate cheese or legalese that we have in place, which is ‘we regret any inconvenience you may have experienced’. Instead you say – ‘Geeze, I’m sorry to hear that’ or ‘that really stinks’. That’s your personality on a phone call and it should be the same online.”

Monty also claims to use Twitter as a “think tank” for the company and the industry by using the back-and-forth between himself, industry insiders, critics, and supporters to develop positive information that can be used by product development and customers service. Because Twitter allows anyone to “pull” information (unless they are blocked), companies open themselves up to potential corporate espionage or criticism. Ford embraces the openness of Twitter—as well as other forms of social media—and uses the information it receives to the benefit of the company and its customers, regardless if that means having a public discussion about a sensitive topic. Certainly Ford is grateful it’s not going through the bailout conundrum facing rivals G.M. and Chrysler.

This past week, the Ford Fusion was named the Motor Trend Car of the Year, which is a significant achievement in the industry. Hours before the news broke, Ford Twitter accounts began mentioning a big announcement at the company headquarters. As the announcement was made pubic, the Twitter sites quickly posted the story. By using Twitter, the company as able to share good news with its followers, many of whom are simply Ford owners, but who can become brand advocates. Likewise, Twitter was a large part of the Fiesta Movement campaign for the company’s new-to-the-U.S. Fiesta model. One hundred drivers were given Fiesta’s for six months and encouraged to recount their stories on-line. Near the end of the campaign, driver-generated content had received 4.3 million views on YouTube, 540,000 views on Flickr, and 3 million Twitter impressions. Ford executives remarked to the Detroit Free Press at the cost effectiveness and brand awareness penetration of on-line and social media.

Monty makes some interesting statements about social media and he has instituted some decidedly new techniques for communicating internally and externally, such as a Ford wiki, collaboration software, and blogging. Though he fully expects social media will have a place in Ford’s future, he admits it might not be right for everyone. He said to Revolution, “You need to understand where your customers are. If they are involved in social networks, share information in a public way and are talking about your brand, maybe it’s time to get involved.”

Though Twitter may not be effective for every company, Ford has shown how to successfully engage consumers where they are—in social media. The company has given many of its employees the freedom to become advocates for the brand (and sub-brands), which allows consumers to form a deeper connection to the products. Other companies would be well served to give consumer-interaction reigns to employees. Not only does it deepen the consumers’ connection with brand, but also gives the employees a sense of ownership and direct connection to the company’s success. While many companies struggle to find out how Twitter can work for them, Scott Monty has mastered the new media’s position at Ford.