Friday, 28 August 2009
Facebook stats
Interesting stats showing just how big Facebook is! Nearly 30% of UK is now on Facebook. (Source Buzzpoint)
Monday, 24 August 2009
Imogen Heap: Queen of the digital age
"By interacting with her fans at every step of the creative process, Imogen Heap is blazing a trail for the music industry using social networking sites and her blog".
The Independent has a very interesting article on how social networking (Twitter, Facebook et al) and blogs are helping to revolutionize how musicians interact with their fans.
Fans can follow the process involved in the creation of an album and suggest their own ideas on the direction of the music and the artwork.
Imogen Heap - Queen of the digital age
The Independent has a very interesting article on how social networking (Twitter, Facebook et al) and blogs are helping to revolutionize how musicians interact with their fans.
Fans can follow the process involved in the creation of an album and suggest their own ideas on the direction of the music and the artwork.
Imogen Heap - Queen of the digital age
Friday, 21 August 2009
Twitter becomes location aware
Ok, this one has nothing to do with Fantasy Football!! But I thought it was quite interesting. Twitter are adding geolocation to their API.
Twitter blog
Twitter blog
HTML 5 - Audio and Video
www.webdesignermag.co.uk/tip/audio-and-video-in-html-5/
HTML 5 is intended to improve on the lacking support that there is for existing technology that is frequently used on the Internet.
Currently, numerous plug ins are required if a user wants to have a rich experience on the Internet and whilst HTML 5 isn't promising to try and make Flash redundant it is helping to make the inclusion of audio and video easier and potentially more accessible.
The final draft of the HTML 5 standard is a long way off but some browsers are already starting to include features of HTML 5, though typically the Internet Explorer browser is dragging its feet again.
The article below gives a good insight into what we can possibly expect to be able to do with the next version of the HTML standard
www.alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5
HTML 5 is intended to improve on the lacking support that there is for existing technology that is frequently used on the Internet.
Currently, numerous plug ins are required if a user wants to have a rich experience on the Internet and whilst HTML 5 isn't promising to try and make Flash redundant it is helping to make the inclusion of audio and video easier and potentially more accessible.
The final draft of the HTML 5 standard is a long way off but some browsers are already starting to include features of HTML 5, though typically the Internet Explorer browser is dragging its feet again.
The article below gives a good insight into what we can possibly expect to be able to do with the next version of the HTML standard
www.alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5
Brands
http://www.brandbud.com/index.htm
A very nice site that briefly describes the importance of branding by taking you through its very nicely designed city of brands - whilst not forgetting to mention the brand that they have created themselves which is called Bud.
I don't pretend to know what I’m talking about when it comes to the importance of branding but I did enjoy navigating the city of brands whilst digesting bite size information on how branding works
The site is pretty cool as well :)
A very nice site that briefly describes the importance of branding by taking you through its very nicely designed city of brands - whilst not forgetting to mention the brand that they have created themselves which is called Bud.
I don't pretend to know what I’m talking about when it comes to the importance of branding but I did enjoy navigating the city of brands whilst digesting bite size information on how branding works
The site is pretty cool as well :)
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Lovely new ATOC website live
Great to see our new designs and UE for ATOC's website go live today.
Go team ATOC :)
What I have learnt since being at Proximity...
I have learnt so much over the past few months working here, but most importantly the entire concept surrounding behavioural changing ideas – a term that was new to me before coming here and is actually quite a complex term when you hear it dropped into conversations –the sort of jargon companies use to sell themselves...
But when I broke it down and thought about what it actually involves, it’s the sort of thing I’ve seen in the agency on a daily basis and there have been two main examples that I have been involved in.
So I’ll start with my first account. While here, I've been encouraged to get to know the brand's consumers on a personal level and interact with them face to face, feeding my observations and insights into a direct and digital campaign. I feel that being able to actually talk and engage with consumers is a really innovative approach and proved to be highly effective in obtaining our research, which then became part of the creative work.
Thinking about the role I've played between the consumers and the agency team, I guess I myself am a behavioural changing idea. Hiring a student to give their ideas and help shape campaigns created for students is a very different approach and one that I have been proud to be a part of. It has been beneficial for the company to get all the views from a consumer’s perspective and it has been valuable for me to see things from a brand point of view, and everything all ties in with my media degree that I’m currently doing.
I was also asked to write a diary about my time here and I remember thinking how unusual it was for a creative director like Debi ask to see the perspective of not just a student in the media and how I see the agency, but also the mind of a consumer and how I see brands. So everyone has learnt a thing or two from each other - although I may be young and naive I have still imparted knowledge to the company, who in turn have taught me so much.
More recently I have done some work for the RNLI, in the previous campaign the importance of behaviour changing ideas was highlighted, with the mystery packages we saw young teens defend who they were via the power of new media. The internet was not just used for humour or shock but a platform to stand up against the negative portrayal of today’s youth.
In the second phase of the campaign I took part in a blogger workshop for 7 young bloggers who we want to be involved. So we went to the RNLI lifeboat station on the Thames where I was given the opportunity to meet these young, enthusiastic people who were not incentivised by anything other than the values that the RNLI stand for. So here we were looking to the consumers to help the brand. Looking around the room there were people from different generations, with different skills, talents and experiences, all collaborating to generate great ideas. The amount of potential in the room was overwhelming; Deb actually introduced Mark as a digital guru but was quick to correct herself by saying that the young bloggers were probably more digital savvy than him...
The ideas generated were of a very high standard – it’s amazing how powerful the collaboration can be. They weren’t afraid to include different brands in their ideas e.g. Apple and Nike - that will all be incorporated into the latest RNLI campaign. It is these boundaries that have been broken which again highlights the importance of behavioural changing ideas.
And the significance goes beyond just advertising, beyond selling, it’s about creating something people value.
The strength of marketing is still so powerful, we have learnt lessons from wider culture and even taken inspiration from people like the Queen – as we learnt from the talk last week that she had to change her image to retain value amongst the public and how could we not be inspired by Obama’s marketing campaign, that’s put the slogan ‘Yes We Can’ on all of our lips.
But when I broke it down and thought about what it actually involves, it’s the sort of thing I’ve seen in the agency on a daily basis and there have been two main examples that I have been involved in.
So I’ll start with my first account. While here, I've been encouraged to get to know the brand's consumers on a personal level and interact with them face to face, feeding my observations and insights into a direct and digital campaign. I feel that being able to actually talk and engage with consumers is a really innovative approach and proved to be highly effective in obtaining our research, which then became part of the creative work.
Thinking about the role I've played between the consumers and the agency team, I guess I myself am a behavioural changing idea. Hiring a student to give their ideas and help shape campaigns created for students is a very different approach and one that I have been proud to be a part of. It has been beneficial for the company to get all the views from a consumer’s perspective and it has been valuable for me to see things from a brand point of view, and everything all ties in with my media degree that I’m currently doing.
I was also asked to write a diary about my time here and I remember thinking how unusual it was for a creative director like Debi ask to see the perspective of not just a student in the media and how I see the agency, but also the mind of a consumer and how I see brands. So everyone has learnt a thing or two from each other - although I may be young and naive I have still imparted knowledge to the company, who in turn have taught me so much.
More recently I have done some work for the RNLI, in the previous campaign the importance of behaviour changing ideas was highlighted, with the mystery packages we saw young teens defend who they were via the power of new media. The internet was not just used for humour or shock but a platform to stand up against the negative portrayal of today’s youth.
In the second phase of the campaign I took part in a blogger workshop for 7 young bloggers who we want to be involved. So we went to the RNLI lifeboat station on the Thames where I was given the opportunity to meet these young, enthusiastic people who were not incentivised by anything other than the values that the RNLI stand for. So here we were looking to the consumers to help the brand. Looking around the room there were people from different generations, with different skills, talents and experiences, all collaborating to generate great ideas. The amount of potential in the room was overwhelming; Deb actually introduced Mark as a digital guru but was quick to correct herself by saying that the young bloggers were probably more digital savvy than him...
The ideas generated were of a very high standard – it’s amazing how powerful the collaboration can be. They weren’t afraid to include different brands in their ideas e.g. Apple and Nike - that will all be incorporated into the latest RNLI campaign. It is these boundaries that have been broken which again highlights the importance of behavioural changing ideas.
And the significance goes beyond just advertising, beyond selling, it’s about creating something people value.
The strength of marketing is still so powerful, we have learnt lessons from wider culture and even taken inspiration from people like the Queen – as we learnt from the talk last week that she had to change her image to retain value amongst the public and how could we not be inspired by Obama’s marketing campaign, that’s put the slogan ‘Yes We Can’ on all of our lips.
More Google News!!
Anyone notice Google have shifted their Sponsored Links to the left a little?
Google Search
Maybe we're supposed to click the ads more often!!
Google Search
Maybe we're supposed to click the ads more often!!
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Google Caffeine
I'm not sure how often Google announce changes to the way their search engine works but I'm guessing it's not all that often (considering how many updates they must go through to keep one step ahead of spammers). So Caffeine must be pretty special to get them to claim that it will "push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions".
You can test it here:
http://www2.sandbox.google.com/
I searched for "Proximity London" on the conventional Google and got 1,300,000 results in 0.61 seconds. On Caffeine I got almost exactly the same number of results but on 0.16 seconds!! Those extra centiseconds mean that you can now have an extra 3 seconds every day! That's about 25 minutes added to your life. Thank you Google.
You can test it here:
http://www2.sandbox.google.com/
I searched for "Proximity London" on the conventional Google and got 1,300,000 results in 0.61 seconds. On Caffeine I got almost exactly the same number of results but on 0.16 seconds!! Those extra centiseconds mean that you can now have an extra 3 seconds every day! That's about 25 minutes added to your life. Thank you Google.
How do we want our content served up?
Sepas' link to Toriseye and a chat that I had with Liz yesterday has made me think about content, and the way we serve it up. Some of the sites I like best use an interface which is quite childlike - and therefore charming. Little birds dropping you information is hardly sophisticated - but very addictive. Do we consider 'charm' as an element of user experience? Should we try and be more childish to get to a better end result?
Monday, 10 August 2009
Are we 'in PR?'
At Cannes this year, most of the award winning work across categories had a strong element of PR in it. The winner overall being the Obama Campaign which won the much coveted Titanium.
My feeling is that this is because successful brands today, rather than requiring ‘a big’ and constructed idea, need a series of 'PR'able' ideas that create a momentum or a movement.
Isn't this what PR is, using the media to create meaning around a brand (without paying for it)?
And should that be the challenge to ourselves - to start each brief thinking about how we can harness different media channels to amplify the idea?
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Artist exposes anonymous hatemailers using search
This was in the printed version of Wired this month but not online. Basically an artist who uses animals researched the anonymous hatemail she received to link it back to the original senders, and is publishing a book connecting the real people to the hate mail they sent.... all the information is public domain.
It raises interesting issues around the assumption of anonymity online, and how much information is easily available.
Wired reports the artist Tinkebell used Google, Yahoo, Windows Live search and a RapLeaf API to link social networking profiles with email addresses.English article in Dutch newspaper NRC -http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2243400.ece/Artist_publishes%20_hate_mail_received_after_killing_her_cat ...
and the artists website - www.tinkebell.com
It raises interesting issues around the assumption of anonymity online, and how much information is easily available.
Wired reports the artist Tinkebell used Google, Yahoo, Windows Live search and a RapLeaf API to link social networking profiles with email addresses.English article in Dutch newspaper NRC -http://www.nrc.nl/international/Features/article2243400.ece/Artist_publishes%20_hate_mail_received_after_killing_her_cat ...
and the artists website - www.tinkebell.com
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