Welcome to the August edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter where it’s all about user generated content and social networking; the tools that are at the forefront of digital media, capability and expression. From consumer power to Cathartic confession, the digital world is building around us. This edition will illustrate the current trends in our digital environment.

Consumer Reviews Freak Businesses Out

Consumer Reviews Freak Businesses Out

Yelp is a consumer review site that provides a social networking function. Why is this helpful? CNN says, “When we discover something wonderful, we love to tell our friends about it. We also turn to people we trust when we need a good recommendation. Yelp is enabling those conversations to happen on a massive scale.”

People are making a lot of money from it. Anita Lau wrote about the salon at Yelp.com. Lau has posted 2,036 reviews and 1,340 photos, has collected 790 compliments on her work from fellow Yelpers, and has grown her consumer review voice on the site.

80% of shoppers have more trust in brands that feature reviews and that 75% of shoppers say it’s extremely or very important to read customer reviews before making a purchase.

Stick this in the back of your mind and take a trot around the internet. More companies these days are welcoming customer feedback and creating online platforms for user reviews. Web browsers are looking for convenience online as well as off. If a site can provide information as well as community, then it’s good to go; or at least live on someone’s toolbar for a while.

“Your customers are out there saying things about you, whether it’s on Yelp or on some blog. The faster you can fix problems, the better you’re going to do. Customer service is the new marketing.”

New Services Promises Cheap WiFi Calling On The iPhone

New Services Promises Cheap WiFi Calling On The iPhone

A new service called “SkypeForiPhone” connects a Skype subscribers account to their iPhone through a web page on the phone’s Safari browser.

Theoretically, an iPhone user could avoid AT&T charges by using this service when in an area provided by WiFI (this service would be available in an Edge area too).

We tried out the service and although we got the system to load on our phone - and even place a call, we couldn’t hear or speak. A slight problem, no?

Nevertheless, a very interesting development allowing users to choose the way they make their calls.

UK Youth Spend A Work Week Online

UK Youth Spend A Work Week Online

Research released by MTV and Microsoft suggests that young folk in the UK are spending up to 34 hours online each week (16 - 24 years in age). Eight in ten log on each day and say “they can’t live without their computer, over and above their mobile phone.”

Are they sure about the last bit?

More stats on the average 16-24 year old in the UK:

> Has a total of 49 friends, of which 7 are close friends, 26 are acquaintances and 16 are online friends whom they have never met in person

> Has 75 phone numbers in their mobile but only 14% use it to call friends, and tend to text or listen to music on their handset instead

> Has 86 buddies on their instant messenger list

> Is a member of up to three social networks and connected to 86 people (with 56% visiting a social networking site every week)

Camfession

“CAMFESSION”

CAMfess is a new video hosting

site that is billed as,

“the world’s first website that allows users to confess secrets through video blogs.”

The idea is simple enough: confess your secrets, fears or admit mistakes to anyone who would care to listen, or to friends.

Users can confess to the world and remain anonymous. CAMfess contains features which allow users to automatically disguise their voice or face on a submitted video

This is where is becomes perhaps more amusing, because the folks at CAMfess cite religion as a marketing angle

“The act of confession - widely encouraged by religion and psychology alike — makes people better. Admitting to mistakes, expressing a regret, and giving apology to people they may have hurt, is now available through the web.”

Camfess is like a poor man’s blog with a touch of Jerry Springer. In the age of reality television, an age where voyeurism has reached a height never seen before, there will undoubtedly be a place in the market for CAMfess.

Mobile Social Networking

MOSH by Nokia

Mobile Social Networking

MOSH by Nokia has just gone beta, which means it’s now open to users interested in giving the new mobile SNS and media sharing service a try. According to the site, MOSH is “a user-generated content platform designed specifically for use with any mobile device. Create, upload, collect and share applications (like games, software mashups, videos, blogs, music and photos) all from your mobile.”

The app has the requisite PC client but is also optimized for handheld users (like those with the Nokia N95) to share their media and messages with others. On MOSH, users will be able to create and upload profiles, applications, games, and other media and share them with other in the MOSH mobile community via SMS or email, through the web or on their Nokia phones.

Hit the Dance Floor

Hit the Dance Floor

Want the chance to upload your picture

onto a frantically dancing robot?

Look no further than Heineken’s DraughtKeg

To demonstrate how the DraughtKeg allows consumers to enjoy a “new way” of drinking chilled draught beer, Heineken has developed an entertaining destination site where users can upload pictures of themselves and their friends onto a series of dancing robots.

Experiential agency Blackjack has provided the staff for the campaign, who will hand out 100m serves of the beer at key locations across the UK including major train stations and shopping centres. The Heineken DraughtKeg is already a huge hit in more than forty countries around the world.

Battle for blogosphere ballot box heats up

Battle for blogosphere ballot box heats up

Barack Obama may be trailing Hillary Clinton in most polls, but the Illinois senator appears to be winning at least one race: the battle for friends on the internet. .

On Facebook alone, Mr Obama has attracted more than 120,000 supporters – nearly four times the number of Mrs Clinton, his next-closest Democratic rival.

Some strategists say candidates stand to reap huge dividends if they can figure out ways to take advantage of the close connections between users of social networks.

Introduction: What happened in June?

Welcome to June’s edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter where you can download free music legally; become a human joystick; get paid for blogging and watch Groove Armada at the ICA, or if you can’t win tickets, at SecondFest.

Inspiration #1: Online radio stations unite

More than 14,000 Internet radio silenced their airwaves on June 26th protesting against the new rules in the US increasing the royalties paid by Internet radio stations from a percentage of their revenue to a flat fee per song.

The increase is likely to put the majority of the Internet radio stations out of business and is criticized for damaging diversity and leaving only mainstream radio to thrive.
Other Internet pioneers are trying to break existing models and encourage free legal downloading and paid downloads of unsigned acts.

Goodstorm’s mixtape application ‘Capitalism done right’, enables unsigned bands to upload tracks and sell to fans via a widget on their social network profile (facebook, myspace, blogger etc). Fans can also share the love by posting a playlist on their own profiles that tracks can be purchased via.

In a collaboration between some senior technology players and Peter Gabriel, we7.com is an attempt to satisfy all musical interests. A 10 sec ad is grafted onto a track based on genre, demographic profile and suitability to advertising message; paid for by the advertiser, the track is free for the downloader yet the artist still gets paid their dues.

Inspiration #2: Making gaming a mass platform

MSNBC.com (the online news joint venture between NBC & MSN in the US) have refreshed an old arcade video game favourite and brought engagement to a more shared experience with their ‘crowd gaming’ game newsbreaker.

The audience of Spiderman 3 at the opening weekend in theatre in LA, were turned into human joysticks as motion sensors tracked the collective effort to manipulate the paddle and collect the news headlines to collect points. Although beyond a leaderboard on the online game, it’s not clear what the mass audience can then do with said points.

A video of the experience can be viewed at youtube and the game played online.

It’s an interesting variation of the traditional cinema ad, and whilst it may not work against non-action releases, 73% of players surveyed recalled the MSNBC.com brand and could be to used to encourage the audience to participate with the ad and influence it’s outcome or even create their own.

Innovation #1: Bloggers put on the payroll in Sweden

The Swedish version of the metro have recently launched a ‘get-paid-per-view’ blogging system.

Bloggers are invited to set up a blog at Metrobloggen.se, as soon as an individuals blog achieves 5,000 page views per month Metro sends the author a mastercard credited with 150 swedish kronor (USD 20/EUR 16).

Is the offer of cash for characters motivating enough to move your blog from one platform to another? Could a blogger make more money by adding Google adwords to their page? Is the lure of official publication more luring than the freedom of sole cyber space? Does the metrobloggen platform add any value for consumers that can’t be derived from traditional blogger publishing tools?

Could similar armies be recruited to tell stories about brands and be rewarded for their page views?

Innovation #2: Who wants to wear a Skype Headset?

T-mobile bridge the gap between mobile phones and landlines via the Internet with their http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/service.

Buy an appropriate handset, add on hot spot @ home to your call plan, plug in the @ home wireless router and be based in the States, and you can cut down your phone bills by seamlessly switching from mobile to landline using wi-fi, whenever within reach at home or at one of the 7,000 nationwide Hotspots.

On a similar vein is the Fon product, a community based wi-fi project whereby users sign-up to share their wi-fi through the Fon network and then receive 50% of the net revenue generated each time a visitor purchases a Fon access pass via their Fon spot.

Creativity #1: No need for sunshine for festivals this July

Music remains a popular mechanic to engage with consumers, however this time it gets Virtual. Intel and The Guardian bring those adverse to portaloos and mud Secondfest – showcasing short films, line dancing, a secret beach party and exclusive performances from the likes of Groove Armada, Hot Chip, Coldcut, New Young Pony Club, Pet Shop Boys and Rob Da Bank.

For those preferring their gigs less virtual, iTunes have teamed up with the ICA and more than 60 of the world’s hottest acts to offer competition winners tickets to exclusive, intimate gigs; what do iTunes get out of this nice competition based promotion beyond kudos? The gigs are then available for purchase from the iTunes store…

Creativity #2: Spotlight on NMA’s Grand Prix Winner

In response to the release of figures from ChildLine, the NSPCC wanted to raise awareness of teen sexual abuse, provide information about how to get help for themselves or others and create a sense of community to facilitate discussion.

With one in two children using social networks to share problems and get advice online from people their own age, the NSPCC set up profiles with Bebo, ran a series of ‘speak-out-Sunday’ events in Habbo and editorial content within mykindaplace. The teens were driven to a microsite, a safe online community for children to talk about abuse and learn how to stop it.

The campaign smashed it’s CTR and response targets, with 1 million kids spending an average 5 minutes dwell time per visit, and is due to be expanded in 2007 to encompass further social networks.

Just For Fun: How much are you worth?

Ever wonder how much you could get on the open human market? Go to humanforsale.com, where they’ll attempt to place a value on your life and paste it on your blog/profile for all to see. I’m worth $1.27 million…

Introduction

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter.

This month China embraces a new revolution, RFID tag tracking creates some ethical concerns and Derek goes on a rampage in a field for Glastonbury, presumably not wearing Nike+ trainers...

Inspiration #1:

Virtual China:
As Russia declares cyber war on Estonia, China joins the Internet revolution. Housing the second largest broadband community in the world (150m users) and set to overtake the US into the number 1 slot by the end of the year, 2007 has seen a flurry of companies launch into this potentially lucrative marketplace.

Google launched a censored version at the start of 2006, to the dismay of proponents of free speech. Myspace launched a Chinese service, licencing it’s technology to a Chinese company to manage the service locally, with Rupert Murdoch’s Chinese born wife, 1 of the 3 news corp board members.

Social networking is still yet to take off fully in China, hosting 200-300 existing sites. Despite that companies are rushing to launch second life equivalents. Shanda Interactive Entertainment and HiPiHi are developing and testing Chinese versions of the Virtual world. Both companies, however, have been given until mid-jul to install software limiting the amount of time young players can spend online.

Inspiration #2:

Critical measures:
May saw Pandora shut it’s doors to any users sneakily accessing it’s radio service from outside the US; CDWOW being ordered to pay £41m to the British Phonographic Industry for breaching it’s 2004 agreement to stop importing CD’s from Hong Kong and Last.fm being snapped up by CBS for £141m.

The next wave of music applications have hit our PC’s, putting the user firmly in control of their entertainment escapades.

Gigs:
-last.fm launch their events service, recommending gigs according to the music you’ve ‘scrobbled’ and similar artists
- manually upload the artists you’d like to follow onto Tourfilter and receive an email of any upcoming gigs
- or search your music library automatically with Tourbus; Sonicliving or iconcertcal to track events from the bands you’re listening to

Too lazy to create your own playlists, let The Filter do it for you

In a market where reviews are still crucial at making or breaking a release, Critical measures aggregates album reviews from multiple sources and ranks according to their ratings to create the ultimate chart.. Add in a community based element and allow to sort by musical type and similar artists and consumers have the ultimate in exploratory tools.

Innovation #1:

Care in the Community…:
May saw the UK exam board announce their intention to use RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology to counteract cheating to track bundles of exam papers. The tags will keep a record of how many papers are in each bundle and enable them to track them down if they go missing.

There’s been discussion for several months about using RFID tags to track the elderly, hold important medical information and monitor that they’re taking their medication. Raising questions about it’s ethicalness.

More recently, a care home in Florida has been criticised for it’s intention to implant RFID tags onto Alzheimer’s sufferers, calling into question the ethics of implanting individuals who aren’t able to consent to the procedure or implications.

Visit wikipedia to find out more about RFID technology, it’s current uses (oyster cards, mini customer loyalty campaigns in the US and passports) and potential uses.

Innovation #2:

What are you doing?:
Social networking has long been an accepted part of Internet user’s lives as increasingly use to live their lives very publicly online and manage their social communities. Facebook’s exponential growth over the past couple months has shown that the nosey neighbour isn’t dead and in actual fact more virulent than ever in this digital age

In May everybody who wasn’t busy looking at what their friend’s were up to in facebook were seeing what their friends or indeed total strangers were up to in twitter, or putting twitter widgets into their facebook.

Update via web or mobile to let your friends now exactly what you’re up to at all times, or visit a google maps mash-up, twittervision to see what people are doing around the globe.

Creativity #1:

Nike+:
Using an obvious consumer insight, that people listen to their ipods whilst running, Nike have developed a global consumer proposition enabling runners to track the distance, pace, calories and time of their runs, users are able to revisit the information for each run and set it against goals and challenges. With a pair of nike+ ready trainers, a nike+ ipod sport kit and an ipod nano, the user can base their run against a number of criteria, set the playlist to run to and start running.

The community features allow groups to be created where runners challenge each other and track progress; a global aggregation of the total distance run by all users and recommended routes by postcode, city or state.

The community of runners have voted the ultimate work list playlist; there are coaching audio files for various types of training activities and now they’re commissioning bespoke tracks from top artists like LCD soundsystem to fully connect up all the points.
If only they could also run it for me…

Creativity #2:

Where’s Derek?:
Orange find an interesting and innovative way to promote their Glastonbury credentials and subsequent content, through a game of spot the bull.

Every day over 4 weeks, users can go and guess which grid Derek the bull will end up at by 3 pm. His coordinates are taken from the GPS tracker on his collar and the person guessing the correct grid square wins the tickets!

This is an interesting expansion of their entertainment content for younger audiences as they start to truly integrate their mobile and broadband content and develop more interested propositions for their audience.

Just For Fun:

Own your own football club:
First there were open source collaborative projects for film and books, now you can own your own part of a football club and be part of the decision making process.

Introduction

Welcome to the third edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter.

This month create a totally unique musical portrait of yourself and then access the stored music on your PC on the move, become a virtual reality star and decide which flavour Doritos release.

Inspiration #1:

Become a Virtual Reality Star:
Endemol and Electronic Arts have joined forces with the impending launch of Virtual Me. Intended to bridge the gap between traditional TV, videogaming and the Internet, users can use the tool to create life-like cyber clones of themselves and then participate in online talent TV shows like Fame Academy and big brother.

Gerhard Florin, executive vice president of EA International, called the project a "hybrid form of entertainment that takes gaming beyond the console" to a mass-market audience.

It’s an interesting move to try and future proof their business, but it’s yet to be seen if the average Internet user has the desire to live their lives as virtually as the techie audience.

Inspiration #2:

TREND – ‘Early birding’:
In the age of plenty and social badging, businesses are creating a standout consumer experience, through controlling supply and rewarding loyal customers with exclusive pre-launch/release information.

Used as an acquisition tool, potential ‘club’ members are tipped off through general Internet buzz and spurred into joining the exclusive club.

Limited supply creates incredible Internet chatter and often takes it beyond to prime time news. The opening of the primark store in london created an increase in blog postings, receiving 50% of the searches made by clothing giant Topshop in the month of march as anticipation built. Blog postings are now peaking for Topshop with the anticipation of Kate Moss’ clothing range, with 1000 blog posts about this subject alone.

With the ever increasing adoption of web 2.0 capabilities to profile and manage user’s lives, giving people something to chatter about will play an important part within marketing strategies.

Innovation #1:

Pete Townshend ‘paints’ your portrait:
Under the patronage of Pete Townshend, Method Music (Lawrence Ball & Dave Snowdon, Mathematician/composer & software developer respectively) affords users the ultimate in personalisation.

The Method is an Internet based software programme where the user ‘sits’ for a musical portrait. By uploading four strands of unique personal information, a digital photo, a rhythm, a sound and a voice, a unique musical portrait is ‘painted’ by the system.

From May 1st for 3 months, users will be able to create 3 free portraits and download them, share them with friends and be generally amazed about how different inputs create subtly different signatures.

Pete Townshend has created an album of musical portraits with samples available for streaming on Method Music’s MySpace page.

Innovation #2:

Mobile music communities:
Whilst slingbox technology synchs your pc to your TV, enabling users to log-in and watch their TV whilst at work, holiday etc, Phling synchs users mobile phones to stored entertainment media on their PC.

Users not only have the ability to listen to their stored music on their mobile, but they can share access with up to 6 friends and also access other friends music.

The service shows what people within the phling community are listening to, enables users to post reviews and leave messages on friends bulletin boards.

Will people ditch their portable music players in favour of a mobile phone service? What happens if you’re out of mobile service? Is it environmentally responsible to leave the PC on 24/7 to enable access? Will radio stations perceive it as a threat and develop more user-controlled services for when on –the-go.

Creativity #1:

US - Doritos, You Decide:
After a successful promotion recruiting users to ‘crash the bowl’ and create the ad to be aired in the superbowl (650k views of the winning video alone), Doritos continue to position the consumer as a brand partner.

Fight for the Flavour, sees the consumer deciding which of their two new flavours, Smokin’ Cheddar BBQ and Wild White Nacho, is released.

“The idea of Doritos fans continuing to take control of the brand is what excites us about the ‘Fight for the Flavor’ campaign,” said Ann Mukherjee, vice president, marketing, Frito-Lay. “We want Doritos fans to continue to tell us what they want to see, from the advertising to our next flavor and beyond.”

Online audiences have been exposed to the communication through a boxing themed animated video, seeded through video viewing platforms and via purchasing the video home page slot on you tube.

Creativity #2:

Le Duel: Club Internet:
Potential customers interested in Club Internet’s on demand TV service, 24mb broadband and phone triple play package, arrive at their home page to view a video of a duel, only to witness the duellers come out of the video and start using page elements to continue their duel.

It’s a high quality video experience to advertise a high bandwidth communications package in France. In the UK video is becoming increasingly prolific within ads as consumer expectations increase and advertisers look to create engaging advertising experiences.

Just For Fun:

24 hours of flickr:
Join Flickr’s global community project on 5th May to document 24 hours around the world.

Introduction

Welcome to the third edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter.

This month a focus on how the web is facilitating not only online communities but reinvigorating the local physical community. Out of home goes all minority report and video seems to be the norm in online ad and web experiences.

Inspiration #1:

TREND - The Intention Economy:
As web 2.0 (The Social Web) tools (organisation - filtering, tagging, sharing) become ubiquitous to any web experience, consumers take the first steps towards web 3.0 (The Semantic Web).

Whilst web 2.0 tools enable greater management of information preceding purchasing, web 3.0 enables consumers to take complete control of the purchasing process. It’s all about me is taken one stage further, as consumers put their requirements out and wait for a bite from suppliers.

There are already a number of web products servicing the ‘Intention Economy’: - Priceline (not a new concept), enables users to flag their travel requirements with parties willing to sell their products and services against those parameters accepting the consumers ‘bid’; Igglo.fl – a finnish site where every building in Helsinki is mapped virtually and users can express interest in property despite it not officially being on sale.

What next for The Intention Economy? Crowd Clout is already in full swing, consumers making their intentions known and collaborating with others to achieve a common aim: -Eventful – fans grouping together to demand bands come and perform in their city; in India, users tag an offer they’re interested in and when the number of interested parties reach the pre-determined target, they are notified of the opportunity to bulk buy.

Combine the above with Web 3.0 AI technologies & filtering capabilities and SEO becomes the most important marketing activity for a product, with the brand playing second fiddle to convenience, or playing an increasingly important role in decision making.

Inspiration #2:

The Metaverse or Second Life?:
Penguin follow their episodic release of G.W. Dahlquist’s The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters with a virtual release in Second Life.

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, originally published in 1992, describes a world split between the real and the virtual, with a ‘metaverse’ bearing remarkable resemblance to Second Life. Whilst it’s a struggle to understand the benefit of reading in the virtual world vs the real world, the association is clear.

More clear in fact than a virtual perfume launch…

CK will be the first global fragrance brand to launch in Second Life, apparently “the ck IN2U speaks the language of a generation connected by technology - the aptly named technosexuals”, a term which that Calvin Klein have neatly trademarked.

Until smellivision becomes a reality residents and visitors to Second Life (www.secondlife.com) will be able to visit the ck IN2U site and pick up virtual bottles of the new ck fragrances, connecting with other in-world virtual partners by spraying them with fizzing fragrance bubbles to initiate dialogue. Get your free ‘real world’ sample here http://www.ckin2u.com/

Innovation #1:

Web 2.0 – the rebirth of the local community?
30.9 million people in the UK access the Internet regularly. 80% of homes access the Internet via broadband, and as a result spend more of their media time online. Consumers can bank online, order their groceries to be delivered to their homes, get packages collected for posting overseas and work and live in a virtual world.

Some might say the web has played quite a big part in changing the face of the local community to one with very little feeling of community.

Local government are using web 2.0 tools to enable members of the community to participate in shaping their environments. First tested in Lewisham the government has now released a UK wide version in Beta, enabling residents to report problems about graffiti, unlit lampposts, abandoned beds, broken glass etc to the council.

Collaborative projects are becoming increasingly more common and popular giving users the real possibility of having an effect on their environment, be that literature, film or their home town.

Innovation #2:

Advertising targeted to Personal Expression
First digital outdoor ads could be delivered to audiences based on their gender, now they can be delivered according to how you choose to express yourself.

Brand reading screens have been developed which trigger ad delivery based on what they read on the person, for eg. delivering a Reebok ad to a person wearing a Nike t-shirt. Segment wearers of particular brands and deliver portfolio messages accordingly.

Creativity #1:

Experiencing the bounce
The technology used in Adidas’ Microride shoe range stores energy to create a bigger take-off on every step.

Aimed at the youth market, Glue created interactive ads showcasing the product in an cool and appealing way, whilst demonstrating the bounce the a3 technology delivers.

Creativity #2:

Nokia’s The Passenger
To promote their new multimedia GPS car kit and affirm their position with the ever-growing in-car communications market Nokia have created a multi-media online gaming experience.

Incorporating real film footage into the interactive experience, gamers use the Nokia Multimedia Car Kit CK-20W to navigate their way through to the Parisian destinations.

Designed by Hyper Happen it aims to connect with Nokia’s tech-savvy, affluent male target audience.The story contains all the essential elements or at least, the stereotypes of a film noir; a femme fatale, a driver, and a mysterious man are the key characters.

Daniel Goodall, digital marketing manager for enhancement products at Nokia says: ‘The Passenger mixes video and gameplay in a way that we don’t think has happened before. All the driving is real video, real streets and fully controlled by the user…I find it really a creative way of promoting a mobile GPS device since it puts you in the right context immediately and is fun at the same time’.

Just For Fun

Fake Your Space
If social networking is bringing horrible memories of solitary lunchtimes in the playground, don’t worry, with Fake Your Space your imaginary friends become fake and boost your online popularity

Introduction

Welcome to the second edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter.

This month a focus on online video and engaging users through ‘create your own’ campaigns.

Inspiration #1:

Second Life release census data
With a virtual land mass of 361 square kilometres, housing 3million registered residents globally, second life seems like quite a small world. However it registered 6.1 billion transactions between it’s residents in January, up 37% on December and reflecting a 47% increase in user hours (10% of residents spent 40+ hours living in the virtual world in January)

These transactions in the local currency, Linden dollars, equated to $5 million, an average daily volume of $158,000. Small in terms of the GDP of countries and cities on Terra Firma, but no small number considering the population size and the fact it’s a virtual world! It’s said, probably not unjustly, to be the fastest growing economy in the world.

The top five countries are the US, France, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands.
Electric Sheep, employs 30 people to build products and brands within virtual communities such as second life and has just secured $7m in funding from CBS corporate.

As audiences are increasingly being invited to participate in brand development, second life represents a relatively low risk testing bed for new products, taking learnings from the virtual world into the real world. Whilst the physical restrictions & requirements are removed, understanding how a product is received by the virtual community could shape how the brand is communicated in the real world.

Inspiration #2:

Video Online
A busy month in the world of online video. Dynamic Logic build upon their November released online video advertising norms, and drill down further into how using video in online advertising can increase brand metrics. Analysing the impact of the most memorable and the least memorable video ads, a good video can increase purchase intent by 6.9% versus a reduction of 1.5% for a bad video.

Regular youtubers in the US switch off the old tube. 42% of online US adults say they have watched a video at YouTube and 66% of regular visitors to YouTube claimed their YouTube activity is eating into the time normally spent doing other activities, with a claiming they are watching less TV.

As gangs in Mexico take self-expression to an extreme level, Chelsea football club sign a deal with YouTube to deliver the video snacking audience premium content. Premier League restrictions prevent Chelsea from using the service to show actual live footage but do allow for daily update videos and archived footage.

16-34’s are changing their consumption habits at an alarming rate as media companies in this arena are struggling to deliver advertising solutions fast enough for brands to talk to their audiences.

The drive for video is raising the bar for online creativity with high quality video creative delivering high cut through and increases against brand metrics.

Innovation #1:

Personalised Comms from Mini

Mini’s crusade for personalised message evolves from Glue’s ‘ave a word’ viral to a much bigger screen. In the back end of 2006, mini customer in the US were emailed and asked to join a pilot program called Motorby.

After sign-up customers were sent a special keyfob which identified them to the mini motorboard sites located around Chicago, New York, Miami and San Francisco. As the customer drove past they were delivered a personal message from mini like ‘MOTOR ON JIM’

Imagine, delivering a personalised message to your brand advocates, or reducing wastage through delivering a product message about a preferred portfolio brand every time a customer walked past one of your outdoor sites.

Innovation #2:

Web 2.0 turns to the business world
Applications enabling social participation have been changing the way people interact with each other via the web over the past 12 months. Now platforms are springing up to enable business communities to facilitate networking and interaction beyond simply contact management.

In a wired world where geography represents only a small barrier, huddle provides an environment where colleagues and customers and even customers can come together securely to work in real time virtually, but visibly.

Their system can be used as an intra or extranet to store and share documents or as a virtual meeting room where users can collaborate on documents, brainstorms or agree action points.
Mindmeister offers a similar centralised ‘whiteboard’ system to facilitate collaborative working remotely.

With consumers increasingly expecting to be involved in shaping product development and brand communications, could secure environments be set up to invite brand advocates to share their opinions and feedback without the risk of it being seen by one and all?

Creativity #2:

Nike’s Video Mash-up
Nike promote their Nike AF25 basketball trainer through the second coming campaign, enabling customers and fans to create their own mash up of the Wieden & Kennedy commercial, featuring 10 Nike-sponsored basketball players playing in an abandoned airbase hangar. Fans are invited to cut up and splice the commercial, chosing their own soundtrack tell their own story.

The end results can be saved as a video file and uploaded to YouTube or blogs or downloaded to mobile.

The power of online video to increase brand metrics is undisputed, using video to deliver a deeper involvement with the consumer can only increase these metrics further.

Could iconic ads be opened up to the audience to enable them to create their own ad or even their own Green Light District and pass your message on through their social networks?

Creativity #2:

Audi’s Music Mash-up
Audi’s ‘TT Remastered’ campaign launches, featuring a host of interactive functionality to promote the new TT Coupe.

The project, produced by BBH, takes Audi back to it’s roots, “ever since the original was designed under the influence of Jimi Hendrix, music has been at the heart of the Audi TT”

The site features 14 tracks (released over 10 weeks) by emerging artists, covering a track from their favourite idol, the opportunity to sign up for an exclusive remastered music event, an application to remix the tracks yourself and a downloadable game ‘Journeys Through the Sound’ where users can cruise around in the car and build the landscape to the rhythm of the music.

The game is the only opportunity for visitors to explore the car within this framework, they are pushed out to the standard Audi site to explore the car further, which seems like a lost opportunity to me and a waste of a considerable investment into producing a campaign platform.

Just For Fun

Urban Graffiti
With the aid of a laser and a very tall prominent building people in Holland were able to Graffiti, the etch & sketch way.