Great interactive outdoor from Amnesty International
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Friday, 16 October 2009
speed, honesty and fairness, that's all we ask
Fascinating day so far watching two stories unfold...
1. Jan Moir
Mail journalist has the audacity to speculate that Steven Gately's death was not the result of natural causes, blindly ingnoring the coroners verdict in a bid to push her homophobic agenda. Twitter erupts, facebook follows suit and now messrs Brooker and Greenslade are all onboard writing articles. The pressure is well and truly on all in a matter of hours.
2. TFL
Blogger notices elderly gentleman being manhandled by TFL staff. Blogs about it, gains traction - public appalled. Terrible timing given that Boris put the costs of London transport up yesterday. TFL respond within a matter of hours via You Tube and promise full response asap.
What has struck me has been the speed with which things have happened in both narratives. From initial snowballing to widespread public denunciation can be a matter of minutes given the technology available.
All eyes on the Mail to see what they will do. The last time I checked the Jan Moir hashtag, there was 1014 tweets in last 29 minutes. If this carries at the same speed for the rest of the day, The Mail will have achieved a quite respectable 10,000 negative comments from the public in one day. Even by the this papers standards this is good going.
hugh de winton
1. Jan Moir
Mail journalist has the audacity to speculate that Steven Gately's death was not the result of natural causes, blindly ingnoring the coroners verdict in a bid to push her homophobic agenda. Twitter erupts, facebook follows suit and now messrs Brooker and Greenslade are all onboard writing articles. The pressure is well and truly on all in a matter of hours.
2. TFL
Blogger notices elderly gentleman being manhandled by TFL staff. Blogs about it, gains traction - public appalled. Terrible timing given that Boris put the costs of London transport up yesterday. TFL respond within a matter of hours via You Tube and promise full response asap.
What has struck me has been the speed with which things have happened in both narratives. From initial snowballing to widespread public denunciation can be a matter of minutes given the technology available.
All eyes on the Mail to see what they will do. The last time I checked the Jan Moir hashtag, there was 1014 tweets in last 29 minutes. If this carries at the same speed for the rest of the day, The Mail will have achieved a quite respectable 10,000 negative comments from the public in one day. Even by the this papers standards this is good going.
hugh de winton
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Jan Chipchase
Jan Chipchase is an intriguing man. On the one hand he's probably got one of the coolest jobs in the media / tech / strategy as head of research at Nokia design, obviously a very intelligent, intuitive bloke with a unique understanding of how we all operate. On the other hand he specialises in a particular line of stating the bleeding obvious, travelling around the world before uncovering news that phones are as important as keys and wallets. Here he is in 2007 at TED...
So until the other day, I wasn't particularly overwhelmed with his work. This all changed however when I took a good look at the speech he made at the PSFK organised good ideas salon, a meeting for some of todays more interesting thinkers.
Here are the ten key insights Jan shortlisted, look beyond point one (yes, I did indeed cringe) and there is some real goodness in there:
* Keys, money, and a cellphone are the three most important things that people will carry with them. This puts cellphones in the category or items required for survival.
* Universities don’t always turn out the best researchers. Chipchase always ensures that those traveling with him have the mental and emotional capacity to support their ‘book intelligence’ with ’street intelligence’.
* Global brands effect spaces in which those brands have not reached. An example of Afghanistan’s very own Kabul Friend Chicken was given, wherein the same logo and brand colors were used for a restaurant mimicking the fast-food chain.
* There will be a generation of people that will have their entire life translated into data. This data will be fed into services and products that attempt to guarantee their satisfaction and personalized relevancy.
* Limitations spawn innovation
* The cone of uncertainty is also the cone of opportunity
* Interesting does not mean relevant
* History is not absolute
* Everyone has a story to tell, but not always a space to tell it
* Human behavior changes slowly
For me, I think he's really touched on something with 'interesting does not mean relevant'. Ideas are central to good brand communication but it doesn't end here. There's plenty of interesting stuff, relevance in this context equals benefit and therefore value. I'll look to explore this territory over the coming weeks
over and out
Hugh de Winton
So until the other day, I wasn't particularly overwhelmed with his work. This all changed however when I took a good look at the speech he made at the PSFK organised good ideas salon, a meeting for some of todays more interesting thinkers.
Here are the ten key insights Jan shortlisted, look beyond point one (yes, I did indeed cringe) and there is some real goodness in there:
* Keys, money, and a cellphone are the three most important things that people will carry with them. This puts cellphones in the category or items required for survival.
* Universities don’t always turn out the best researchers. Chipchase always ensures that those traveling with him have the mental and emotional capacity to support their ‘book intelligence’ with ’street intelligence’.
* Global brands effect spaces in which those brands have not reached. An example of Afghanistan’s very own Kabul Friend Chicken was given, wherein the same logo and brand colors were used for a restaurant mimicking the fast-food chain.
* There will be a generation of people that will have their entire life translated into data. This data will be fed into services and products that attempt to guarantee their satisfaction and personalized relevancy.
* Limitations spawn innovation
* The cone of uncertainty is also the cone of opportunity
* Interesting does not mean relevant
* History is not absolute
* Everyone has a story to tell, but not always a space to tell it
* Human behavior changes slowly
For me, I think he's really touched on something with 'interesting does not mean relevant'. Ideas are central to good brand communication but it doesn't end here. There's plenty of interesting stuff, relevance in this context equals benefit and therefore value. I'll look to explore this territory over the coming weeks
over and out
Hugh de Winton
Monday, 12 October 2009
RG/A: Technology and Platforms
Great stuff from Bob Greenberg (Chairman, CEO & Chief Creative Officer) & Barry Wacksman (EVP, Chief Growth Officer) of RG/A. It's a little long but well worth it if you've got a spare 37 minutes and 56 seconds.
Two points
1. Technology
Maybe it was just their smooth talking and powers of persuasion but I definitely took out of it that as the digital world develops and grows at the continually alarming pace, it is those agencies that are structured with technologists at the heart of it that will create the most succinct and in tune work.
On another note, it will definitely be easier for these agencies to (for example) move into TV spot advertising and steal work from traditional agencies than it will be for traditional agencies to restructure to develop and create digital platforms. Technology is now at the heart of what we do - agencies need to reflect this.
2. A Role For Campaigns
A second and to me central point to 'the future' is the role of the campaign (I wrote about it here). Their importance is definitely waning but perhaps here we have found an answer as to how they will work within the new continual beta context within which we are now entering. Simon Kemp and I discussed this briefly recently, whilst a platform/idea/or new brand strategy might be a irresistible and an automatic cue to start booking tables at every award ceremony going, the campaign is what pushes this platform and enhances discovery. Without this key step, the brand and agency fail to achieve the potential value. So, in conclusion, let's talk about campaigns as the key to discovery and stepping stones that go on top of the platform, not instead of.
hugh de winton
Two points
1. Technology
Maybe it was just their smooth talking and powers of persuasion but I definitely took out of it that as the digital world develops and grows at the continually alarming pace, it is those agencies that are structured with technologists at the heart of it that will create the most succinct and in tune work.
On another note, it will definitely be easier for these agencies to (for example) move into TV spot advertising and steal work from traditional agencies than it will be for traditional agencies to restructure to develop and create digital platforms. Technology is now at the heart of what we do - agencies need to reflect this.
2. A Role For Campaigns
A second and to me central point to 'the future' is the role of the campaign (I wrote about it here). Their importance is definitely waning but perhaps here we have found an answer as to how they will work within the new continual beta context within which we are now entering. Simon Kemp and I discussed this briefly recently, whilst a platform/idea/or new brand strategy might be a irresistible and an automatic cue to start booking tables at every award ceremony going, the campaign is what pushes this platform and enhances discovery. Without this key step, the brand and agency fail to achieve the potential value. So, in conclusion, let's talk about campaigns as the key to discovery and stepping stones that go on top of the platform, not instead of.
hugh de winton
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
New Launch - Stylist
Picked up the launch issue of THE STYLIST - the new weekly free magazine handed out on the tube in London from the publishers of SHORTLIST. It will be out every Wednesday complimenting the Shortlist on Thursday and Sport on Friday.
What did I think of it? As with Shortlist, very professional, some excellent in-depth journalism and complimented with stylish big name advertisers.
But there was a nagging doubt. Just as I find it patronising that Shortlist is only handed out to men and targets that audience, the stylist perpetuates the old fashion myths that women just want babies and only work to go shopping. It is a shame in this modern age where we should be defined by music, hobbies, interest not gender or race that a publishing vehicle exists to enhance these stereotypes further.
Granted, there are hundreds, thousands of female only magazines, but would like to think these have moved on from what to cook for your husband or how much time we spend putting our make up on.
So, good female audience for reaching the young, urban London Market, but a bit more inclusive editorial to show the advertisers in a good light.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Online overtakes TV as largest sector
Picture courtesy of the guardianThe big news of today has to be the online overtaking television to become the biggest advertising sector in the UK market. Not only is this news evidence of the ferocious growth of the online industry but it also points to the UK's pioneering position on the worldwide map as the first major economy to see this shift in power happen.
The milestone marks a watershed for the embattled TV industry, the leading ad medium since the 1960's when it so famously became the channel of choice above press for many of the major brands of the day. The resulting years have produced iconic ads, characters and national institutions yet it's dominance has been eroded by the ongoing fragmentation of the media landscape and move into an increasingly mobile and digital world.
Should we really be as surprised as many of the media news sources seem to be? afterall, we've seen these macro trends for sometime now displaying TV viewing in the traditional, family in the living room setting, decline year after year. My feeling is that we shouldn't - it's a largely predictable news story when it's taken into account how many hours individuals spend on the two media channels. It would be wrong however to see this news as 'bad' news for the TV industry - afterall it is simply not the case that we can draw a clear line between what is TV and what is online. If you are to look at a popular TV show now - it will start on one of the two channels but converge across both to where that audience is. it will take in TV channels, interactive websites, twitter feeds, facebook pages, youtube channels, sky+ offerings and additional red button extras.
In this respect advertisers have never had so many options, surely that's not a bad thing, it's just rather daunting and therefore requires very careful planning and expert opinion to ensure marketing budgets reach the right audiences at the right times with the most relevant message.
Monday, 28 September 2009
visualising data
there has been an explosion in the amount of data visualisations coming through at the moment, have to admit I've found almost all of them via people cleverer that me on twitter.
here are a few of my favourites. got me wondering when we're going to start see the cleaner end of these designs being used in the world of brand communication.
three interesting sites to check
flowing prints
geopanch
good.is
hugh de winton
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