Filed under: Digital Strategy
For Mobile 2009-2020 Predictions
For Online Marketing Predictions
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Big respect to Ash at BannerBlog who has compiled 120+ Agency Xmas and Brand Christmas for 2008 cards all in one spot. He’s segmented them with screen shots and commentary and provided some top level analytics about this year’s crop:
Total Xmas Cards: 123
Self Promo: 60
For a client: 49
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Format:
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Featuring:
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Non Interactive Video: 24
Upload Your Face: 13 Games: 11 Non Flash: 5 iPhone Apps: 2 |
Staff Members: 12
Santa: 12 Elves: 6 Animals: 5 Charity Donations: 5 Economic Downturn: 4 Real World Tie In: 3 Midgets: 2 Snowflakes: 2 The Environment: 2 Web Cams: 1 Nativity/Jesus: 0 Bodily Functions: 0 Live Streaming Video Feed: 0 |
You can add your own if you like. View Full entry here.
Filed under: Digital Strategy
Who said that you can’t use context and get an emotional reation with online display media?
Blimmin’ AWESOME.
Found on the W+K Portland blog
Filed under: Digital Strategy
What will happen to the story in this millenium? What’s over the hill for writers? How can you take your narrative ideas into a cross platform environment? And how can you make a living at it? Jennifer Wilson, Therese Fingleton, and Christy Dena have collaborated on a magnificent project to answer and inspire this generation’s professional creative writers.
The writer’s guide was developed through the Australia Council’s Story of the Future project to explore the craft and business of writing in the digital era. It includes case studies from Australia’s rising generation of poets, novelists, screenwriters, games writers and producers who are embracing new media and contains audio and video content from seminars and workshops, as well as extensive references to resources in Australia and beyond.
Fingleton, T. Dena, C. & Wilson, J. 2008, The writer’s guide to making a digital living: choose your own adventure, Sydney, Australia Council for the Arts Download all 268 pages of digital goodness here.
Filed under: Get Activist
My friend Scott Drummond has being having serendipitous book adventures quite recently. Books have come to him, found on the street, tucked into his frame of reference with notes saying: ‘please take me, please read me, please pass me on’. This has inspired a number of very invigorating conversations and interactions which I need to spend a little more time unpacking before I can still life them for you.
In the meantime I want to share a lovely example of compassion in action- Sarah Garnett’s “Benjamin Andrew Footpath Library”. Started in 2003, it now it puts books on the footpaths in the city and Manly and distributes to hostels and 15 shelters- about 1200 a week. This library wants nothing from it’s borrowers- the books are there for the taking and would seem to spread light where ever they go.
Here’s a story from their website from a fan:
I found the footpath librarywhile queueing up for dinner at JEF’s food van across the road on a wintery Tuesday night in 2007. I’d been a regular since 2004 when I was living in a shitty boarding house in Redfern with my son who’d just been released from Rozelle hospital.
A little while before I was living & working as a professional artist in a cosy mud brick studio on the outskirts of Melbourne. Things were looking up, I was starting to sell paintings, was in with a leading gallery & my health was good. I’d given up the part time teaching job that I’d done for over ten years & was determined to make my living as an artist. But that was then. In 2007 I was sneaking into my studio at night to sleep when I could. I was evicted from the studio for dossing there. In between I slept out or stayed in a shelter.
Throughout this time when I couldn’t paint I’d read & I’m grateful for the footpath library for sustaining me. Reading took my mind off my troubles & gave me a respite from the constant motion that that kind of life demands. The footpath library has been a saving grace. Apart from being down & out in Sydney I’ve been down and out in Paris and London with George Orwell, read about the homeless in Victorian London in Peter Ackroyd’s “London: A Biography”‘, discovered Proust in the Edward Eager Lodge, hung around seedy ports in the South Pacific with Conrad’s Lord Jim & reread one of my favorite books; Joyce Cary’s “The Horses Mouth” with its patron saint of destitute artists Gully Jimson. I read a book on the Lives of the Saints & felt both inspired & humbled. ” The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats” gave me the background on those writers , some of whom I’d read & vowed to read again one day. I wandered through Europe in the 50’s through the eyes of Lloyd Rees & his wonderful drawings and was glad I was sober after reading a biography of Charles Bukowski. Patrick Whites “Tree Of Man” made my troubles look pretty small & I learnt a little humility from reading the life of the Australian poet John Shaw Neilson. Things have picked up since then. I’ve got a cosy little room in Glebe & am painting the grounds of the old asylum my son was a patient in . I’ve got in with another gallery & even sold some work, there’s a survey show coming up in Melbourne later in the year & I’ll take a trip down for that. I’ve got a belly full of cabbage and ham soup & you can guess where I found the recipe for that old chestnut!
* Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Whoa…
Today is S…L…O…W
Hangover- Hello!A cup of joe
Is all I know
To bestow
A healthier glow
(this image and more coffee love from illustrator Christoph Niemann can be found here)
Filed under: Digital Strategy
What’s this disc on my desk from the conference I presented at last week?
WTF?
*breathe*
They’ve done WHAT with my presentation? The one I only gave to the AV guys 20 minutes before I was on stage?
*ok …breathe again*
Burnt it to disc. The raw PowerPoint file. With all the charts and diagrams.
Distributed it to all of the delegates. Hundreds of them.
My competitors.
*breathe breathe breathe*
WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.
No copyright protection. No commercial in confidence protection.And no sign off from the client.
No release at all.
What do you do when the IP horse not has bolted, but has been stolen?
Anyone been here? What did you do? What happened?
Filed under: Zeitgeist
Would you call you clients experts in online?
Would they have spent 10,000 hours devoted to this understanding ?
How about you? Have you spent 10,000 hours?
Malcom Gladwell’s latest thinking in his book Outlier describes the conditions which bring about expertise. I think this can help shed light on why it can be so difficult to get an “I see. I agree” from a client.
It might be this experience lag- not an unwillingness to learn, not a love of another media channel, not an inability to grasp the concepts- that is preventing the uninitiated from embracing new ideas.
The biggest misconception about success is that we do it solely on our smarts, ambition, hustle and hard work. There’s an awful lot more that goes into it than we admit.
This idea – that excellence at a complex task requires a critical, minimum level of practice – surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.
You couldn’t say that it was a rocket science style observation that practice makes perfect, and that concentrated diligence on a task goes a long way to achieve mastery. For me the question is: how can you get people to understand new ideas when the experience gap is so large?
Cramming. The answer has to be: Tutor. Tutor. Tutor. You have to give your clients experience. So that they can get your experience. They won’t have time to practice.
“People don’t rise from nothing,” he writes. “They are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot … It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn’t.”
You need to be the beneficiary for your clients, build extraordinary opportunities, be the hidden advantage to their success and help make sense of the world in the way that others can’t.
“We’ve been far too focused on the individual—on describing the characteristics and habits and personality traits of those who get furthest ahead in the world. And that’s the problem,” says Gladwell. “Because in order to understand the outlier I think you have to look around them—at their culture and community and family and generation. We’ve been looking at tall trees, and I think we should have been looked at the forest.”
Do more than look at the forest for the seeds of success. Plant one.
Filed under: Get Friendly
I am speaking at the Digital Marketing and Media Summit in Melbourne this Friday 21 November, and Julian Cole has arranged a Beerspheer get together for afters:
Madame Brussels 59 Bourke St, City
Please come for a chit chat, good cheer and cupcakes
Filed under: Great Stuff
Gav knows I keep a wardrobe of fluffy ears at work. I met CK in a pair of particularly fetching ones when we caught up in the very swank Soho House Bar in NY.
They’ve always helped when things get muppety:
- A situation brought about by a person who is ignorant and generally has no idea about anything.
- A situation where a person, who defies explanation with regard to common sense and logic, exhuming an air of confidence that is mutually exclusive to that of their accomplishments or ability, tries to set and steer direction.
- Any situation when ‘Muppets Ho‘ is an appropriate rallying cry. Boarding pirate ships and setting things on fire or drinking apple martinis come to mind.
Sometimes, it’s just easier (and certainly more fun) to get into the swing of things.
Perhaps amplification might provide illumination.
Perhaps if I’m extra silly and extra muppety, it will help point out gaps.
So, today, I’m joining the conga line of bunny hopping penguins….
Filed under: Get Friendly
A cool spring night.
A Potts Point view.
Ten inquisitive types.
Four TED films with chat-astic bookend commentary.
Each person brings wine and treats
But nothing is better than the host’s contribution
Mango tart with burnt fig and honeycomb icecream.
Great conversation in good company.
Yum!
Filed under: Digital Strategy
I love ambition and personal belief as much as anyone.
……in context though.
It’s pretty unlikely that I’ll ever claim that I can do brain surgery, build a nuclear reactor or fix the economy in three days.
You’d need to be a specialist, and a very experienced one to do that.
You use a specialist to consult with you when you want to create the best possible outcome, the best possible future.
And if they can’t do what is says on the tin, those Probable, Possible and Preferable futures turn into Improbable, Impossible, and frickin’ Disastrous outcomes.
As ever, fertilizer is a great bed for humour. I introduce to you an old friend (a character from the brilliant comic Catherine Tate) as a new concept (a chameleon to watch out for):
Helen Marsh
A woman who claims “I can do that!” when her friends and colleagues are in search of people with specific skills. For instance, in one episode, her colleague needs someone to practise tennis with, and Helen happily accepts to assist her, implying that she can play tennis brilliantly. However, she is abysmal at tennis and hits the balls way out of the court into a group of trees. In another sketch, she claims she can speak seven languages for a conference, and proceeds to “translate” into nonsensical sounds that were based on linguistic stereotypes.
Beware. Be warned. And when you spot a Helen Marsh remember to say:
No you can’t.
You sold me a ticket to cirque de soleil. What’s with the sock puppet?
Filed under: Digital Strategy
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back…..You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up and believe…whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill…..you stay in wonderland…and I show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes.”
Morpheus, The Matrix
When I worked in the music industry there were a number of amazingly promising acts who were offered record deals and wouldn’t sign, because any offer from a label must be suspect. There was an underlying notion that any contract, any foray into written documentation must the start of corporate piracy, and any opportunity to afford an artist a decent standard of living could only come at the cost of artistic licence.
I’m amazed at the number of people who believe that Wonderland is not for them. That they know how deep the rabbit hole goes and only focus on how dark it is, how fraught with danger and moral compromise it is and refuse to take a chance on themselves. Not because they don’t think they can make it- rather the opposite- it’s the fear of what success, wild crazy world domination success, might do……..
And in that spirit I’d like to share this gem:
(the embed has been removed- but it’s worth a click through)
Filed under: Digital Strategy
ME: (A plan to evaluate and gain insight should form the backbone of any holistic brand strategy)
THEM: I really don’t have any idea what you’re talking about
ME: (Walking through the numbers, a simple ROI calculation)
THEM: Nope. Still don’t get it
ME: (Explaining the fundamentals of channel strategy and the process of decision making)
THEM: Look, you have stop with the jargon.
ME:(Championing the role of marketing: message+connection= sales)
THEM: Why would I want that?
ME: ‘…’
(thanks for the gif(t) Pabs)
Filed under: Get Activist
In Australia, compulsory voting means that every Australian citizen (18 years or older) is required by law to enrol and vote.
Proponents of compulsory voting argue that voting is a civic duty comparable to other duties citizens perform, such as taxation, compulsory education and jury duty.
Our Electoral Commission puts the case like this:
• Opponents argue that it is an infringement of liberty to force people to vote, and that the ill informed and those with little interest in politics are forced to the polls.
• One argument against compulsory voting is that voting can be an onerous imposition on some citizens. Against this it has been stated that: ”All our voting system requires is for a voter to attend a polling booth and mark some papers as they wish, approximately once every three years. This does not seem to be an insurmountable burden to be part of a democracy”.
• Another argument is that both the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights refer to people’s rights to “freely chosen representatives”. It is then claimed that a “right” is something that a person posses and chooses to use, not something produced on demand.
• Article 29 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, however, states that “rights and freedoms” are subject to “duties to the community”, including the “just requirements of of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society”.
So my friends in the States, I may be preaching to the converted but: Please vote. maps.google.com/vote
UPDATE: I’m being interviewed on ABC radio tomorrow (6/11) about compulsory voting. What do you think about it? A good thing? A bad thing? What do you think Australia would be like without it?
Filed under: Digital Strategy
The Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t They Get It? (book)
Print: $19.95
Download: $12.50
This book is a daring challenge to the business community. Gone are the top-down, command and control messages that held sway through the 20th Century. In are a raft of new techniques that start with listening, responding and action that set the scene for a continuing and evolving dialog about brands, experience, business and community.
Filed under: Great Stuff
As of Wednesday, October 29, 8 A.M. (U.S. EST) the Age of Conversation 2 will be available for purchase at http://www.lulu.com/ageofconversation.
I can’t resist:
Yo AOC2 let’s kick it
Nice/nice – maybe (x2)All right stop collaborate and listen
Conversation is back. (Not a brand new invention!)Media dollars are acting tightly
But information flows daily and nightly
Will it ever stop yo I don’t know
But if you turned off the TV would you slow?To the extreme you rock a media plan like a vandal
People’s attention’s not a moth to a candle
They don’t go rush to the speaker that booms
Advertising kills your brain like a poisonous mushroomDeadly when you play a jingle melody
Anything less than the best is a felony
Conversation- Love it, a pretty good way
You can hit bull’s eye- help people play
If there was a problem, yo it might solve it
Check your stats, and community involve itTake heed ’cause I’m a lyrical poet
Social Media’s on the scene- in case you don’t know it
Each tribe creates territorial grounds
A million opinions and conversations sound
‘Cause their styling like a content spill
It’s enough to make a publisher ill
Conducted and formed
This is a hell of a conceptYou make hype but-you want to step with this
Listen- give back. Steal hearts like a ninja.
Cut through like a razor blade. Give a damn
My advice: build happiness. Sell it by the gram
Keep composure. It’s sure to get loose
Magnetize people by your worthy juice
If there was a problem, yo conversation might solve it
Check out the book while the AOC2 team resolve it :
Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem
Filed under: Digital Strategy
- Be good at cutting and pasting
- Be able to deconstruct the craft
- Be able to expand (and contract) to fill the space available
- Be a good, and patient, educator
- Be cyber-optimist and a hyper-cynic
- Use the forces of geekdom
- Don’t hate business, it’s your friend
- Do things, make stuff
- Be Non-Stick and Wipe-Kleen
- Love what you do
- Be humble.
- Good on you if you are omniscient- well done. For the rest of us mere mortals the more you learn the more you realise that digital is an ever expanding medium, and you just can’t keep up with it all. Once you get on top of this fact , you might realise that you’re not alone- we’re all stupid when it comes to the internet.
- Ask lots of questions
- Lots. Ask your clients. Creatives. The HTML team. Your peers. Your neighbour’s kids. Everyone has a piece of the puzzle.
- Really understand that you are not your audience. Really.
- No, you are not a single mum with two kids, a Grey Nomad sea-changer and a time poor operations manager on the lookout for enterprise solutions. Ask: ‘what, specifically, do different people do?. What do they get out of their digital experiences?” How could you make that experience better?
- Be a slut for information.
- Read. Read. Read. Read. Read. Go to as many industry events as you can. Join a coffee morning, or start one of your own.
- Share.
- Be concise. Be expansive.
- Be able to tell the same story in 30 seconds, 3 minutes and half an hour. Without notes.
- Be inquisitive.
- Have random adventures. Tyre-click. Enlist. Join communities. Contribute. Play all kinds of games. Ask yourself: “What’s this all about?”
- Make maps
- How can you describe regular daily digital journeys? How about a tribe’s ecosystem? How about how a joke spreads across a tight knit group of friends as they sit at their desks? Or how a mortgage or a dining chair or a holiday is purchased? What’s value exchange- how is it created? Practice visual thinking.
- Be kind.
- People don’t know what you know, and punching them in the face won’t get them on your side. Give back. Mentor. I often don’t really know what I think about something until I try and explain it to someone else. Accept all offers to teach. It’s terrifying- but it’s better for you to be terrified than have others too scared to approach you. Then your ideas go nowhere.
- Have vision.
- Make predictions. Call trends. Extrapolate. Put a stake in the ground, a line in the sand. Shift it often. What are the differences between probable, possible and preferable futures? How are they different? Have a position: what does it takes to make stuff great.
Rightio- what do you reckon? What’s missing?
