Farewell to The Population...

Today is my final day at The Population and 31st December is the final day of The Population as a company...

I've had the most amazing 6 months working with the best group of people anyone could ask for and I'll miss them all, good luck to each and every one of them...

As for me, I'll be joining the ranks at Naked Communications in 2010!

*Special thanks to Jessica Brookes for the 'Farewell' video....poppers for life! xxx

My favourite work of 2009

2009 has been a year of changes.

It's been the year we had to learn to do more with less.

It's opened new avenues with new technologies such as Augmented Reality finally taking off, Mobile applications becoming mainstream and widely adopted, 3D cinematic releases becoming more and more frequent and creativity spreading beyond platforms and into entirely new realms and it's also produced some of the most inspiring advertising/comms work I've ever seen.

Below are just some of my favourites...

Campaign: The Marmarati
Client: Unilever / Marmite
Agency: We Are Social

Imagine you're in a Victorian-esque dining room in the middle of London on a weekday evening. You've been invited here under mysterious circumstances and are brimming with curiosity. Imagine the Victorian waiters as they show you to your seat and the sumptuous decoration. Now imagine you're blindfolded as you sit at the table....can you smell Marmite?

We Are Social were tasked by Unilever to help them launch the new 'extra strong' Marmite (the UK's much better version of Vegemite) into the UK marketplace.

Now if you're english you'll be familiar with Marmite's 'love it or hate it' slogan and that people are either worringly obsessed with it or can't even enter a room where it's being eaten...

The clever folks at We Are Social understood the 'love it or hate it' phenomenon well and decided to recruit the Marmite obsessives who were already self-confessed brand advocates. They were subsequently invited to assist in the creation of the 'extra strong' Marmite product....

'The Marmarati' were consulted on everything from taste to packaging. This was advocate 'out-reach' at it's best, flick through the below preso for more information:

The Marmarati

View more presentations from We Are Social .

Campaign: Expedition 206
Client: Coke
Agency: Coke

Coke has always aligned themselves with fun and happiness within their messaging and creative, but this time around they decided to really bring the essence of happiness to life...

In early 2009, emails, newsletters and announcement were made across numerous blogs, websites and forums recruiting avid travellers with filming/creative talents to apply for the trip of a lifetime covering 206 countries and 275,000 miles in just 365 days! But no one knew why or what it was all about...

Thousands upon thousands entered the competition and 9 lucky hopefuls were flown to Atlanta Georgia where they were finally told that they were competing for the chance to become a Coke 'Happiness Ambassador' - see video introduction to the project below:

The hopefuls were divided into teams of three, they then named their teams and set about creating video content, Facebook pages and social followings to secure themselves the victory of becoming 'Happiness Ambassadors'.

The winning team were chosen via online voting by people all around the world for a period of 3 weeks.

Team 'The MIX' were recently crowned the winners, meet them below:

The year-long adventure for these three, throughout 2010, will bring Coca-Cola's Open Happiness campaign to life as they visit with people from different cultures, document their experiences and share stories of happiness throughout their journey.

Beginning in Madrid on Jan.1.2010, and culminating with a celebration at the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta on Dec.31.2010, the story of the happiness ambassadors and their adventure will play out online with content for fans to follow via the expeditions online head quarters at the website, as well as on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Flickr and other social sites.

Campaign: Chalkbot
Client: Nike
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Portland

This truly brilliant campaign was developed for LIVESTRONG, Lance Armstrongs cancer charity.

Each year at the Tour de France, avid race fans chalk messages of support and encouragement on the sides of the roads for the participants to read as they cycle on by...

W+K used this insight to create the basis of the idea for Nike Chalkbot, albeit looking to communicate with a broader audience than just those physically present at the Tour de France.

The Chalkbot was developed with software studio DeepLocal and robotics developer Standard Robot and was a robotic, automated chalking machine designed to receive, process and deliver chalked messages...

Messages could be sent to the Chalkbot via a direct SMS, Twitter @Chalkbot or by visiting the website.

The Chalkbot then printed the messages of hope and encouragement along the race route.

Each message was photographed and the GPS coordinates were captured, the sender would then receive an email message with the details .

Over 100,000 messages were received and chalked...

Campaign: Facebook Showroom
Client: Ikea
Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

To promote the launch of Ikea's new store in Malmo, Sweden, a local agency by the name of Forsman & Bodenfors created a Facebook profile for the stores new manager, Gordon Gustavsson.

Understanding the Facebook craze of photo tagging, Gordon (F&B) uploaded a series of 12 photos onto his profile depicting different Ikea furniture arrangements in different rooms over a period of 2 weeks. They then encouraged people to tag themselves against a specific item in the photos. In doing so, people could win that exact Ikea product.

The real beauty of this campaign was the inherent understanding of the viral properties of photo tagging and the potential reach which could be built from it....

Each time someone tagged themselves in a photo, that update along with the image and link to Ikea's page, would go out to all of their Facebook friends on their news walls. Therefore, all Ikea needed to do was spend a tiny bit of budget on advertising and watch the idea catch on and grow like wildfire....genius.

Campaign: Wimbledon 2009
Client: IBM
Agency: IBM

With the majority of phone app and overlay examples fitting into the 'isn't this cool but ultimately useless' bucket, this activity really stood out as providing something new and entirely useful for the attendees of Wimbledon 2009.

IBM digitally tagged the whole of Wimbledon and created a Seer Android App which superimposed real-time match data, news and useful venue information over the live video feed on the handset using your phone's GPS coordinates to plot the view.

Therefore, pointing your handset towards the Centre Court would tell you which match was in progress and the score as well as helping you find the nearest loo or strawberry selling cart!

The below video will give you a basic overview:

Campaign: Golf GTI Mk6
Client: Volkswagen
Agency: AKQA New York

In 2006, VW spent $60m launching the Golf GTI Mk5 in the US.

In 2009, they spent $500,000 launching the Golf GTI Mk6 in the US, and gained an in-depth reach of over 3 million people, that's a bit of a difference!

In true digital evangelist form, VW shunned any traditional advertising in favour of creating an iPhone app, and only an iPhone app, for the launch of the GTI Mk6.

The app was an entirely free racing game which allowed people to drive a Golf GTI Mk6 and post their driving times on Twitter and Facebook, which VW believed was exactly the right strategy for their target demographic.

To build further excitement and engagement they also created an online competition, complete with a live leader board and the possibility of winning one of six limited edition GTI's, replete with options like carbon-effect trim and 18-inch wheels.

In order to further publicise the game, VW piggybacked/linked off of the Firemints Real Racing game which was a top 10 gaming app for a significant period of time and 4 star rated.

The game has so far seen 3 million downloads!

Campaign: Replay
Client: Pepsi / Gatorade
Agency: TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles

Taking branded content to a whole new level, Gatorade decided to focus on amateur sports players as opposed to their normal favourability towards big name, elitist athletes...

The Easton Area Red Rovers and The Phillipsburg Stateliners are two of the biggest high school teams in the US. In 1993, one game ended in an uncomfortable tie of 7-7.

Gatorade decided to reunite the two teams in a much hyped re-match of that 1993 game to see once and for all who should have been the ultimate winners. The twist was that the team players were exactly the same as those who played in 1993....except they were now in their 30's and very unfit!

Video content was created in the form of a 10 week training schedule designed to get the players back to their required fitness levels as well as player diaries and coaching voxpops.

The content culminated in the match itself which was played on FOX Sports Net and broadcast nationally.

Watch the video below, guaranteed to stir your emotions...

For more inspiring, innovative and truly amazing work, I would highly recommend you read the Most Contagious 2009 report asap!

The idea has alot of enemies....

Download these images

via ideacreativa.org

'Spur' - a discussion and video series about planning and beyond

This is a fantastic short video series exploring the world of 'planners' through discussions with some of the top talent in the industry.

They explore topics such as defining exactly what planning means, what skills and talents a planner needs and answering the age-old question - are planners handicapped by 'advertising' and should they move further upstream away from tactics and mediums and into the real business issues in order to truly impact a Client?

Watch the series below....

Video 1: Is planning impotent?

There is clearly a belief that planning suffers a bit from an identity crisis, tending to be self-referential and consumed by its own purpose and definition. Why is planning’s analytical lens so often turned upon itself? And why does planning often find itself validating its worth?

Redscout Presents ‘Spur’ Episode 1: Is Planning Impotent? from Redscout on Vimeo.

Video 2: Talent - what makes a good planner?

Gaining extra credit as a planner means literally DOING more today; seeing ideas through and making things happen. Planning and strategy cannot be thinking and information alone, perhaps we are best placed to articulate ideas and shepherd the process after all? Forget adding method to madness, the best planners put madness into the method...

Redscout presents Spur Episode 2: Talent. from Redscout on Vimeo.

Video 3: Are planners glorified researchers?

Whenever you ask about the history of planning you inevitably hear “the voice of the consumer.” And while the phrase has become a shorthand description of what planners do, in fact planners, the elite and the newbies alike, all feel it short-changes the actual job.

Interestingly, the insistence that “the voice of the consumer” is just a myth has resulted in a confounded description of the craft.

In the third episode of Spur they explore the differences between “planner as researcher” and “planner as something else,” whether that is creative muse, talent guru, or digital ninja.

Redscout presents Spur — Episode 3: Are planners glorified researchers? from Redscout on Vimeo.

Video 4: Is planning handicapped by advertising?

Clients are getting what they want from agencies, but are clients getting what they need from planners? What are they paying for and what are they getting? Is the value of planning limited by what advertising or communications inherently provides? To a hammer, is everything a nail?

Simple questions that cut to the core of the traditional agency model. All agree that the potential is to go further upstream and truly impact a Client’s business. And that, somehow, planning may be trapped within a potentially out-dated and self-perpetuating model.

Redscout presents Spur - Episode 4: Is planning handicapped by advertising? from Redscout on Vimeo.

This series is a must-see for budding planners and old-hands alike, it brings to the forefront some of the issues the practice is facing but also opens up to new ideas and how planning can move forward...

Enjoy!

Your social profile has never been more important....

Google have just released their real-time, socially fed search results which now include breaking news headlines, live updates from popular social networks, and blog posts published just seconds before...

This video explains exactly how it will look and work from now on...



As Google remains the main gateway to the web (with Facebook catching up fast), it's never been so important to be monitoring your social profile, mentions and customer relations online....

One bad review or poor customer experience within the Google search results when someone is looking for brand/product information could lose thousands (if not millions) of potential sales and customers.

If only we could all go to an ad school like this - Hyper Island

The Hyper Island Way from jonny von wallström on Vimeo.

Socialnomics

Great video with some interesting statistics on social media ROI from different companies and organisations who have thrown themselves into the social space, worth watching:

Ideas I've seen recently that i really like...

I haven't written for a while because I've fallen into the Twitter trap.

I've been sharing all my thoughts, ideas and links via 140 characters as opposed to taking the time to digest, plan and write.

What can I say, I'm lazy.

I've decided to note down, for future reference, some recent ideas which I've come across in my internet travels that have resonated with me so here goes...

The Blogpaper - 'a user generated newspaper'

This is a UK project dreamt up by some bright sparks in London town.
Essentially it's a content aggregation and sharing platform where bloggers, citizen journalists and photographers can upload their stories and photos for all to see.

The bonus side of this is that the best content can be voted on by the site visitors with the highest rated stories and photos making it into a printed edition of 'The Blogpaper'.

Therefore making the community the editor of the paper.

It's only just launched and had it's first pilot print edition out on 25th September. The plan is to print and circulate a weekly edition with the best of the best. It will be distributed via free handout across London similar to the The London Paper and Metro...

The blogpaper site will also redirect people back to the blogs or profiles of the writers/publishers to help them gain a new following and a new readership.

If you're interested in submitting your content to theblogpaper just register here. Once you have confirmed your account you are all set and ready to post whatever you feel is worth sharing and could be interesting to the community and potentially more!

Hipstery - 'Mystery T-shirt buying'

Just when we thought transparency was the be-all-and-end-all approach to the brand/consumer relationship, along comes an entirely opaque experience....in T-shirt purchasing!

Hipstery's philosophy centres on their belief that there is too much choice in this world and therefore too much responsibility and stress laid on the shoulders of consumers. They are offering to take the choice away from you entirely.

All you have to do is pick your T-shirt size, pay 17 Euros (including shipping) and take a quiz. The quiz asks you some basic questions about yourself and that's it.

The Hipstery 'style scientists' will then analyse your answers and run them through their 'innovative style algorithm' to help them decide what the best T-shirt design is for you.

The T-shirts are sourced mainly from out-of-print stock from small suppliers, and if you don't like your T-shirt choice first time around, they will accept returns and offer a refund if the second choice still doesn't match your expectations...

Go on, be brave and make an order...

Hotprint - 'free real-world photo books for Facebook & Bebo users'

Finally! I was wondering when someone would do this...

Hotprint is giving Facebook and Bebo members the opportunity to take their favourite social snaps and transform them into a real-world photo book for free therefore bringing the photos to life and giving them something tangible.

Hotprint have set up an application in both social networks, users simply choose which photos they want to include in their 16 page, soft cover Hotbook. They can also choose from 9 different themes currently available.

The books can be shipped anywhere in the world and have been made completely free due to support from advertising partners who sponsor 1 free book per customer, per month...(including shipping costs and handling)!

Users of the app just have to put up with ads to use the free service, but the ads are not featured on the same page as the photos and are removal full page inserts - easily done! In addition, for every 10 friends who install the app from your initiation, HotPrints will credit you with another free photobook...

If you'd rather skip the ads, you'll need to pay GBP $1.99 for an ad-free version.

With over 2 billion photos uploaded onto Facebook worldwide each month this seems like a no-brainer.

KIND Snacks - 'you've been KINDed'

KIND snacks was started by Peaceworks Inc., an innovative “not-ONLY-for-profit” business. They sell snack bars made from all natural ingredients describing them as healthy snacks that are “KIND to your body, your taste buds, & the world.”

Now they've taken being KIND to a whole new level...

Capitalising on the recent trend of generosity between brands and consumers and consumers themselves, NY-based KIND snacks have created a social movement via 'kind cards'.

Those interested can apply for their 'kind card' via the KIND website, once received they simply do a kind act for someone (helping an old lady cross the road, carrying someones shopping etc) and then pass their 'kind card' on to the recipient of the deed...

The card states 'you've been KINDed' and description reads 'To be KINDed: to unexpectedly receive an act of kindness from a total stranger'...

The idea is that the recipient then goes on to do another kind act and the 'kind card' gets passed from hand to hand, having a positive effect on everyone involved.

Each card has a unique code so that the initial owner of the 'kind card' is also able to track their 'kind trail' online to see how many people they have impacted.
Those with the longest 'kind trail' by January 29th 2010 will be invited to particpate in 'The Great Kind' by submitting an idea of 'Great Kindess' that they cannot do alone themselves. From there, the KINDED community will vote to determine which Great KINDING the KIND team will make happen.

Just a really clever, socially aware idea...

That's it for now.....

Crowdsourcing: Social / Tangible

Recently i've been seeing alot more social marketing initiatives which have crossed over the border of online and into the real world.

In essence it's crowdsourcing but with a tangible, real world momento attached to it at the end...

Below i have compiled a few case studies:

Project: Food52 (www.food52.com)
Overview: 52 weeks, 52 recipe contests and 1 crowdsourced cookbook....


Conceived in part by former New York Times food reporter Amanda Hesser, the Food52 project celebrates home cooks and their recipes.

Here's how it works:

There are 52 weeks in a year, and each week the Food52 team (comprised of Hesser and her co-founder Merrill Stubbs) select categories that go into a cookbook. Visitors to the site have seven days to submit their favourite recipes for each week's category. Hesser and Stubbs then pick two finalists for each category, testing them and photographing them first; then, for 10 days the contest is opened up to voting.

Winning recipes and author bios will go into the Food52 cookbook, which will be published by Harper Studio; authors will also receive a selection of supplies from Oxo, the project's sponsor.

Runners-up and other entries, meanwhile, will be highlighted on the Food52 site, where users will also have a chance to offer their opinions on the Food52 cookbook's photos, cover design and title.

The site is now on its 13th weekly contest, this time soliciting recipes for "your best beef salad" and "your best fruit tart. It's also currently in invitation-only beta—using, interestingly, but will reportedly open up to the public next week.

I love the fact that it starts as a social project online but delivers a tangible by-product which all participants can enjoy and remember...

NB. They've done their social well with a website presence, vimeo, flickr, twitter and across notable blogs...


Project: Ideas Culture (www.ideasculture.com/ideas.php)
Overview: Got a problem or want an idea? Ask the Twittersphere...


Ideas Culture are an Australian company that puts creative thinkers around the globe to work via Twitter to solve a client's problem by morning.

Their "Ideas While You Sleep Service" guarantees an idea along with an evaluation matrix and implementation plan by 10 a.m. the next morning - brilliant!

After registering, they need only submit their challenge online by 4 p.m.

By 6 p.m., Ideas Culture gets the challenge out to its Twitter-based Ideas Agents, who spend 15 to 30 minutes each on the problem. There are more than 200 agents from eight countries on the books, and each earns AUD 100 for four sessions. Problems tackled so far have included recruiting more male customers for a singles matching service and increasing attendance for professional development events.

Again this is a social started project with a tangible deliverable....what could be better!

Project: Threadless Clothing (http://www.threadless.com/)
Overview: People submit designs, others commit to buy them, when enough people commit, they make them and anyone can buy them!

Threadless is a community-centered online clothing store run by skinnyCorp

Members of the Threadless community submit t-shirt designs online; the designs are then put to a public vote where visitors and members of the community score them on a scale of 0 to 5. On average, around 1,500 designs compete in any given week. Each week, the staff selects about ten designs. Each designer selected receives $2,000 in cash, a $500 gift certificate (which they may trade in for $200 in cash), as well as an additional $500 for every reprint.

Although Threadless have expanded in a more traditional direction, adding shirts designed by selected artists, these are known as 'Threadless Select' and are not subject to the voting system.

Once again, a process that starts out in an online social environment delivers a real-world momento...

Crowdsourcing is not an original idea and has so far been done by many a brand such as Nespressos Coffee Machine design contest, Smiths 'Do me a flavour' and who could forget 'My Starbucks Idea'...

However, the idea of giving something tangible and real at the end of a campaign or crowdsourcing project to cement the experience, giving your audience some to keep hold of, really appeals to me...

Facebook, Twitter Revolutionising How Parents Stalk Their College-Aged Kids

This is utterly hilarious...

Greenroad Media: 'Living Pixels'....

This is just such a wonderful idea...

Greenroad Media are offering outdoor media made of flowers...they call them 'living pixels'.
Essentially an image is taken, pixelated and then re-built with flowers to create a living outdoor poster for a brand - check out how it works in this video:




Toyota Prius is the first big brand to do this creating their 'Harmony Floralscape' and you can watch how here:




These designs are eye-catching to consumers and most importantly 'green' being both environmentally friendly as well beautifying the area they are in.....what could be better!

Diary of a transition: 5 new things i've learned

I've been in my new role at The Population for 6 weeks now and I'm certainly learning alot...

It's very different to anything I've encountered before and it's challenging me in new ways, which is exactly what I needed and wanted.

Essentially I'm reviewing many of my thought processes that I've had ingrained in me for the past 6 years and I'm now trying to shift them in a different direction which is far more difficult than it sounds!

Un-learning and re-learning can be a demanding and sometimes uncomfortable experience, but I would encourage anyone to do it if you get the chance to expand upon what you know because, no matter where you are in your chosen career, you never know everything there is to know.

So, without further ado, here are 5 new things I've learned in the last few weeks:

1). A 'Big Idea' is a product in itself

Coming from big-agency-land, my experience was that strategy was something they did as part of the package when it came to media planning & buying.
It was covered by a retainer or percentage of media spend contracts, it certainly wasn't something that clients paid for as a separate product or service.

But The Population's product IS strategy, it's not media buying powers, creative or production, it's intellectual property in the form of ideas...

In my first few weeks I've been getting used to selling ideas which is always something I've believed in but never something I've done and believe it or not, clients are willing to pay for a strategy!

They are happy to invest in the 'big idea' which will dictate their media planning, creative development and the success of their marketing.
Creating a media plan or creative message in silos without a uniting idea subsequently delivers a disconnected result which, if it fails, results in a blame game between creative and media as to whose fault it was, but still, so many agencies are guilty of this...

They get briefed and then go off and do their own thing, only uniting in the 'response' meeting and seeing each others ideas for the first time which is just ridiculous.

LESSON 1: A 'big idea' is essential, don't plan, buy or create anything until you have one, no matter if the budget is $10k or $100k.....and yes, clients will pay for a big idea as a product/service above and beyond media and creative.

2). Social media is just a word

Social media is not a strategy, it's not a campaign and it's certainly not a word anyone should continue to use...

What many people call 'social media' is really just the next evolution of the digital landscape, it's the web but socialised.
Nowadays, everything online has the ability to be social. When you run a banner ad or a homepage takeover, are you considering the conversations that will start as a result of that advertisement?

The next era of digital strategy is about being hyper-connected.
It's about being cognizant and aware that every action you take may cause a reaction in the online space.

You can no longer plan and buy a bog-standard display schedule and expect that to be sufficient in getting your brand in front of people, for them to take notice and subsequently to take action. Display is a small part of the digital planning equation and should only be used for awareness purposes if really required, not sales or customer relations or insights.

LESSON 2: If you're still planning display in isolation and treating 'social media' as separate animal to be used or ignored on a shopping list of 'strategic options' then you're doing it wrong. The internet is inherently social.....so too should be your planning.

3). Facebook/Blogger/Wordpress is your new brand website

Flashturbation is coming to an end, the microsites days are numbered and 'brand' websites are holding pages and nothing more.

So what now? Where do you direct people to talk about your brand, to feed them content and to talk to them?

Easy. Use one of the many platforms available to you for free: Facebook, Blogger or Wordpress.

I've recently run a campaign for an independent film who had already outlayed thousands to build a flashy website which showed their trailer, cast intros and had some wallpapers but there was nowhere for people to interact or talk and share...

Independent films suffer hugely at the box office where the winner is whoever shouts the loudest. The only way to guarantee that people would buy tickets for this film over the big US blockbusters was to create a connection with them prior to the cinema release...

We couldn't do that on the flash site so we built a fanpage. We could share interviews, exclusive video, deleted scenes and generally have a chat with them. We built a real connection with people which resulted in loyal cinema goers who chose us over blockbusters...and it was simply because we made a hub where we could talk to them and be accessible.

This strategy would benefit any brand, not just a small film. Imagine being able to ask a question to 25,000 fans and get immediate responses....no more expensive market research, forget retro-fitting white papers to your consumers, you could have customised insights in minutes.

You also have a ready-to-go database of buyers at your fingertips whenever a new product release is coming up, millions of people already use FB daily so you're not asking too much of them to move to another area within the same site, and, everytime you post to your fan page wall it goes straight into their newsfeed and can get passed to their extended friends network...it's a no-brainer.

This too goes for using Wordpress and Blogger templates which are slightly richer media versions of the fan page. You can creatively customise them to your hearts content, they're free to use and they allow for interaction with readers...we've recently done some other client work where we've built the 'brand site' in a Wordpress template - and it worked a treat!

Lesson 3: Don't spend thousands on a microsite when you could develop richer relationships using a free site template or fan page.

4). Content is currency

Having a fan page or blogger template is fine but it cannot guarantee an audience.
What get's people fanning, reading, sharing and discussing is content.

Everyone knows content is king but what they don't realise is that you need to give them something decent to talk about, they don't care about your latest press ad or a wallpaper.

You need to create a unique content schedule of interesting, entertaining things which should ideally be exclusive to your fans on your fan page or readers on your blog and you need to keep it regular.

On days when I've uploaded video content to a fan page, the fans have gone crazy...
They've commented, passed it to friends (which results in more fans), written wallposts etc..

If you don't have content every single day, don't ignore your page. Even a one sentence status update should be part of your content strategy to keep you accessible and to keep your fans or readers engaged...

Lesson 4: It's all about content, fans won't fan a page which is empty, quiet or boring and people won't read blogs with nothing decent to watch or learn...

5). Social sites are more effective than banner ads

I have been truly amazed by the power of social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicous and Stumble Upon and their ability to drive massive traffic volumes to a chosen destination.

My previous learning was that the only was to achieve critical mass and generate awareness was through buying media....oh how wrong I have been.

The numbers you can reach via these bookmarking sites are astounding, and they drive more engaged more qualified traffic than you could ever hope for via media buying.

However, one key thing to remember is that to achieve the numbers of these sites you have to have the right content which goes back to the previous point. To reach the honourboards on these sites it needs to be entertaining and funny or informative and interesting and you won't always get the formula right.

The real way to win in these environments to to have contact with 'influencers' who have trusted accounts and who have large followings....luckily we have great relationships with them which definitely helps.

Lesson 5: Social bookmarking sites are not to be ignored or underestimated. Try them as an alternative to budget-gobbling display buys.


That's it for now but my brain is expanding with new knowledge day by day so i'll be back with more soon!

Digital Ministry: Digital People Profile

Earlier on this week, Denise Shrivell from Digital Ministry was kind enough to profile me for her 'Digital People' segment.

Some of the key elements i wanted to discuss were around where i saw the digital media industry heading in the next 12 months and what the main trends will be...

I wanted to reiterate them here because i really do think they are key areas to watch:

Question 5. What trends do you think the digital media industry will see in the next 12 months?

Open API & Connections between multiple platforms

There are two key benefits to open API solutions, which I think have been evident so far this year...

The first is probably best explained using Twitter as the example. Twitter's open API has been the catalyst for it's rapid growth due almost entirely to the developer built applications.

These apps have unlocked Twitters massive potential with amazing tools such as a little mobile application which acts as an SMS timer that allows you to set a reminder over SMS to call your mum, to more elaborate visual recreations of Twitter like twittervision.com, which shows an animated map of the world and what everyone is doing around the world.

As a result of expanding the uses, possibilities and appeal of Twitter, the API now receives 10x the traffic that the website itself does.

As more companies start to realise that open systems lead to a more creativity, more reach and ultimately more of a competitive advantage, it's obvious that this trend will grow and grow (just this week Tesco in the UK announced they are opening their website API to third party developers).

The second benefit is the ability to allow open connections between multiple websites such as Google's Open Social or Open ID. Eventually we should have one single digital identity that allows us to connect with any website without having to log-out and login each time.

This can increase the fluidity of online ‘surfing' and also aid greatly with information management from a consumer perspective (i.e. not having to fill-out credit card details each time you want to purchase something).

From an advertising perspective, Open Access also releases a myriad of possibilities when it comes to behavioral and preference targeting...

The end of flash and the rise search engine friendly platforms

I think ‘Flashturbation' is frowned upon more and more these days especially with advertising budgets on the decline and the growing need for consumer feedback and commentary to be enabled on-site...

We've been using templates such as Wordpress for our clients when it comes to creating content hubs. It's cheaper, easier and allows for more of an organic build up of interest and engagement rather than just dumping someone onto a flash microsite. Of course the other obvious advantage to doing this is that search engines can easily pick up a feed-based site...

Augmented Reality

I'm still slightly on the fence with this because I have a feeling it could still fall into the ‘gimmick' bucket, however, I've seen some fantastic non-gimmicky uses of this technology recently.

The IBM Wimbledon application which allowed users to point their handsets to a court and then see real time match information overlaid on the screen, furthermore when users point their phone the at food courts they also got information about what's on sale.

Then there's the new ‘Nearest Tube' iPhone application, which uses both your location information along with the iPhone's compass and video camera to show you an augmented reality picture of where and in which directions around you the nearest London Tube Stations are.

These kinds of applications show the real capacity for augmented reality and the versatile practicalities it can lend itself to, above and beyond novel gaming and visual experiences.

See a Youtube clip on IBM's Wimbledon 'Seer' augmented reality application here - and the London Tube example here

You can read more of the Digital Ministry profile here:

http://digitalministry.com/AU/articles/812/DIGITAL+PEOPLE+ZOE+SCAMAN/1