I want a scarf for Christmas

Moving Brands, an innovative corporate identity design agency out of the UK, developed a fascinating project focused on one idea: Fashion should be done by the people and not just a few select fashion designers.

Introducing Weare, an outstanding idea that merges fashion and technology with social networking.
As the Weare site explains:

"Last Christmas we set up a screen made of fairy lights in the Moving Brands window.

We then invited people to send messages and drawings, via a simple web-interface, to be shown in sequence in the window. The window was captured by webcam and broadcast live to the internet.

We stored everything sent to the window in a gallery, and the full sequence has been used to create this scarf."


You can buy the limited edition scarf online through the site or in selected shops in London. I tried to purchase it but since I live in the US, I wasn't able to input my info.

And, while you're shopping, you can create the next Weare product by contributing designs or visuals. And vote for what the next Weare product should be. I contributed an unrecognizable heart and smiley face. Props to me!

So simple and fascinating. I wish I would have come up with this idea.

Hat tip to Russel Davies.

Dell goes C-List

Even C-list celebrities need endorsements and Dell came to the rescue of unforgettable performers such as Burt Reynolds, Ice-T, Vivica Fox, Brooke Burke, Chuck Liddell and Estelle Harris with their 'Yours Is Here' promotion.

Does it work? The tongue-in-cheek humor is slightly amusing and the execution is flawless. Personally, I like the idea to ask all your friends to contribute via PayPal instead of receiving the unwanted socks, ties and bargain bin book. Feels a little bit like a wedding registry. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Will it work for Dell? Not sure if this new approach to gifting really works in this environment where everybody cuts back on holiday spending. I just wish Dell would have been a bit more creative with their treatment of their C-celebrities. The only one that I really liked was Ice-T but it would be awkward as a guy to send his smooth, female-targeted message to my father. Unless, I'd rather have socks.

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Production. Not perfection.

Good read from Financial Times about Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.

His pure focus on the user experience is laudable and some of his bonmots are even better:

- Listen to what users want. Try to make the site faster and better.
- No meetings, ever. "I find them stupefying and useless."

And my favorite: Put speed over perfection: "Get something out there. Do it, even if it isn't perfect."

I've heard that before.

Ready. Fire. Aim.

Just scanned Michael Schrage's 'Serious Play' and was delighted by his approach to innovation. As quoted by Tom Peters, his principal axiom:

"You can't be a serious innovator unless you are ready and able to play. 'Serious play' is not an oxymoron; it is the essence of innovation." And, in turn, the heart of his serious play is ... fast prototyping: "Effective prototyping may be the most valuable core competence an innovative organization can hope to have." His (Schrage's) intriguing connection, which makes all the sense in the world to me, is that true innovation comes not from the idea per se, though it guides the work, but from the "reaction to the prototype." In fact, in a surprising number of cases (the majority?) the collective responses to a host of fast prototypes reshape the original idea beyond recognition—or lead one down an entirely new path."

This approach needs to be adopted by advertisers. This doesn't mean we need to jump on every fad and experiment with it. But we should invest in Emerging Media, gather quick learnings and reinvest in altered emerging media opportunities.
If you strategize for too long, wait around until competitors are dominating the field by deploying their prototype learnings, you'll be quickly irrelevant.

We live in fast times and new to adopt faster:

"The secret of fast progress is inefficiency, fast and furious and numerous failures."—Kevin Kelly, founding editor, Wired

Not reading enough books?

I admit, it has become tough to read books: the demands of job and life in 2.0, family, kid: it's very hard to find time for books.
Dailylit.com has the answer for you: You can get your book fix via email or RSS feed - especially a good idea for PDA's and my trusted iPhone. Books are divided into bit-size installments you can read in a few minutes. Dailylit focuses on classics: you can choose between Jane Austen, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, René Descartes and tons of worthwhile reads.

Sure, this is not for the book chinstroker. It doesn't provide you with the real experience intended by the author. But it's an interesting approach to make these voluminous novels accesible for the MTV generation. Personally, I think it works best for books like Sun Tzu's 'Art of War'. A quote that I received in my first installment could be right from Tom Peters:

'The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom,
sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.'

Mobile Marketing is about dialogue

A piece in the NY Times talked about the importance of mobile marketing for concert promoters, sponsors and artists.

Combine this with current mobile stats:

Over 250 million of mobile users in the U.S.
35% of adult surveyors were willing to accept incentive-based ads.
56% were willing to accept these ads as text messages.
40% were willing to accept ads via picture message.

The initial stages of mobile marketing were about polls, ringtones and news alerts. Unless you have the pull of American Idol or Beyonce, these tactics don't really go that far and will not be successful in the long run.

As the NY Times piece explains, mobile marketing is about building relationships. It's not enough to reach out to the mobile crowd once as part of an overall campaign. Compare mobile marketing to email marketing: in order to build a database and initiate a mobile relationship, you need to build a relationship and allow them to interact with you on their own terms.

When I went to Coachella a few years ago, I signed up for their mobile updates. I received updates about lineup changes, tips how to avoid traffic, etc. throughout the two days I attended. This was the experience I was looking for. Unfortunately, the promoters didn't continue to market to me after the concert was over: No messages about posted live performances, videos or photos. No insider information about next year's lineup. That's where marketers tend to miss the mark: It's not always about today's sale. Your customers are willing to open up their wallets next year if you continue to engage them.

Why would you not?

What Web 3.0 should be

I started booking my European vacation. Europe is littered with discount airlines. I used them last year and was quite impressed with the price/value ratio.
The first step was to check out Expedia and Orbitz. Flights from Germany to the Canary Islands range between $800 and $5,000. You're kidding, right?
Next step: Googling/Yahooing (that's not a word, is it?) aformentioned flights. Result: Range between $800 and $5,000.

Next step: Searching for the right keyword combinations to find discount airlines in Europe serving that destination. It takes a lot of time, is very frustrating and leaves you guessing: Are there even better deals out there? I found a flight for $250 but it makes me wonder if there's a flight for $150 out there? Or $100?

This is not an acceptable user experience. People should be able to type in their destinations and find the best deal immediately. Attached to it should be offers for cars and accomodations.
That's why Amazon.com was such a killer application: It changed the whole game. Amazon became the one-stop shop for books and music. Sure, there might be a slightly better deal out there. But why bother when the user experience is so economical and convincing?

The travel industry has a long way to go. Orbitz.com and Expedia.com are fairly valuable but they haven't reached the Amazon Olymp. There's a lot of content missing (most discount airlines are not represented on major travel booking sites) and makes every user wonder if they overpaid. A lot of innovation is needed in the travel industry. Health Care. Automotive. You name it.

In the end, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 just means that there's more ahead. A lot more.

Why the web changes everything

This map shows the distribution of all people age 15-49 with HIV. The highest HIV prevalence was in Swaziland: almost four in every ten people were HIV positive. All ten territories with the highest prevalence of HIV are in central and southeastern Africa.

These innovative cartograms "were produced in a unique collaboration between the universities of Michigan in the U.S. and Sheffield."

Usually, countries on maps are defined by size. But these cartograms redraw the globe and resize countries according to new categories.


This map displays worldwide military spending in 2002: The US looks morbidly obese, taking up 45% of the world's land mass. The world spent $789 billion in 2002, the US alone $353 billion. Compare it to the war deaths map:


"In 2002, there were an estimated 172,000 war deaths worldwide, across 80 territories. The Democratic Republic of Congo (dark red) bore the brunt - 26 per cent - of the total figure.

Nine territories accounted for 70 per cent of all deaths. Burundi had the highest death rate owing to war at 1.2 people per thousand of the population."

Political issues are complex. They are filled with stats, numbers, comparisons, half-truths and even more stats. These maps might help cut through the clutter:
Before you saw the map, did you really know how bad the AIDS crisis was in Africa?
How can US politicians recommend increased military spending when the US already spends 45% of the worlds military budget?

A picture says more than 1,000 words. We know that. But this is just the beginning. If we could connect these high-level maps to real-life stories, we'd have a winner: If we could understand the severity of the AIDS problem in Swaziland on a personal basis, any reasonable person would support a major initiative to eradicate AIDS.(Imagine: 40% of the overall population in Swaziland has AIDS. 40%.)

As depressing and sad as these maps are, they should give us hope for a better and more global approach to the future.

But, we have to be careful. There's a fine line between the indifference of wisdom and the folly of enthusiam. I'm with Anatole France and prefer the folly of enthusiasm.

And to end on a less serious note:


Europe represents:

"The average Western European drinks over a third more alcohol than the average person in any other area on earth. In some places there is practically no alcohol consumption, which is why many Middle Eastern countries are not visible on this map.

Ugandans drink the most alcohol per adult, closely followed by Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Ireland.

The map shows the proportion of worldwide alcohol drunk in 2001. It does not take population density into account, so some countries, such as Australia, are unexpectedly shrivelled, while Britain is particularly bloated even though we not in the top ten."

Cheers.

Quote of the day

"The question is how to arrive at your opinions and not what your opinions are. The thing in which we believe is the supremacy of reason. If reason should lead you to orthodox conclusions, well and good; you are still a Rationalist. To my mind the essential thing is that one should base one's arguments upon the kind of grounds that are accepted in science, and one should not regard anything that one accepts as quite certain, but only as probable in a greater or a less degree. Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality."

Bertrand Russel

Placebo Effect

There are two types of people: The optimists and the pessimists. Some might call them the naive and the sceptics. Depends on your point of view.

A new study shows how to market to the optimist group: Describe in detail the product experience people will have. Go in detail about your store, your product, the ingredients, give them a taste of what they are going to experience when they purchase your product. These positive enhancers can be found in the group that reacts to a placebo pill and they are also more interested in taking chances to win money. Actually, chances were 50/50 to win or lose money. But the positive enhancers were just excited about the possibility to win money.
The basic rule for this happy audience: Make sure not to contradict their expected experience: If you market the solitude of First Class flying, don't bother them with filled lounges or rowdy bars on-board. If you market a performance vehicle, make sure the product experience is not that of a lame duck.

The big questions remains: How to market to the sceptics? Just through facts and information? Does this ever work in marketing? Don't think so.

I believe things are much more complicated than the study indicates. Each of us is a pessimist and optimist, depending on your day, your mood, your perception of a brand, your perception of the world that day. Generally, I would put myself in the skeptics group. But not always: When I got my iPhone, I didn't have any pessimistic/skeptical feelings about this purchase. It didnt' even cross my mind that the iPhone would not live up to the hype.
I checked out Bacardi's Mojito site a few days days ago and immediately imagined myself on a hot summer day drinking this refreshening cocktail. Images of South Beach, hammocks and sunsets floated through my mind. I completely forgot that my homemade mojitos never taste that great and they will never be as good as the ones in the Delano. Ok, I didnt' buy Bacardi this weekend but I'm still thinking about it.

In the end, marketing only works when you are in this open/positive mood. Certain brands stimulate positiveness: Apple, Virgin, Nike. Most of the other brands have to work harder: They have to build experiences that allow people to become open to new ideas, new products, new ideas. This can be done through a delighting site, a surprising product experience, a heart-warming encounter with a company rep. It's about opening hearts. And minds.

Age of Conversation - one more day

The wait is almost over: The book launches Monday 7/16/07. Stay tuned.

A billboard that rocks

Not user interactivity but sun interactivity.

This might change everything

This might be the beginning of the end of landing pages: Tailgate,from London based Fhlame Limited developed the "Worlds First fully transactional web 2.0 banner". This will turn faux-transactional banners into full transactional applications.

Instead of clicking through to a landing page, users can finalize their transaction on the banner itself. Publishers will jump on this quickly since users won't have to leave their site anymore.
Consumers might be hesitant in the beginning to transact directly in the banner but if advertisers utilize trusted sites, those hesitations will disappear quickly.

Kudos to Techcrunch for this find.

Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life is a "comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing and personalized" ecosystem of websites "that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. A really exciting example of wiki-innovation.

Kwik-E-Mart update

My friend Fabian and I decided to head out to Kwik-E-Mart on Venice/Sepulveda. From the distance we could see searchlights and, once we got closer, a line wrapped around the block to enter the convenience store. Except during emergencies, when was the last time you saw lines in front of a convenience store? (Needless to say, we didn't bother standing in line...)
Marketing works. Innovative Marketing works even better.

7-Eleven gets it

7-Eleven and the Simpsons have teamed up and transformed a few convenience stores into Kwik-E-Marts. They are selling some of the best known Simpsons products such as Buzz Cola and KrustyO's cereal.

I'm happy to see that 7-Eleven is so advanced in their thinking to allow these innovative promotion. Most companies would distance themselves as far as they can since the TV show has been mocking the typical 7-Eleven setup for years.
Instead, they opted to embrace it. My bet: Their sales and profit numbers will increase dramatically. I will visit this afternoon...

Just one complaint: Where's the Duff Beer?

The Brand Gap

Great presentation, discussing how to bridge the distance between business strategy and design. Very long PowerPoint but it feels to the point and is very entertaining.

Zentation

Finally, an innovative way to view a PowerPoint-based speech because it shows both the speaker and the slide. Developed by Zentation.
Featured speech is Guy Kawaski's 'Art of Innovation'. A must see.

How to kill innovative ideas

It's one of those weekly meetings, the usual suspects in the room, except for the new hire. And the eager employee comes up with an idea that interrupts the flow of your meeting. Unfortunately, most new hires will encounter one of the following answers:

"We tried this before. The client doesn't go for it."

"I don't think we can handle this."

Why is this?

Especially weekly meetings are a breeding ground for unneeded efficicencies and re-establishing order. And, at the same time, kill ideas and demotivate everybody in the room.
Yes, you had time to go through your whole agenda and didn't waste anybody's time.
But you might have killed the spirit of a new hire and made sure that an idea (potentially good or potentially bad) was killed.

Instead of dismissing an idea, why not build your new relationship on these ideas?
Maybe this idea will not work out and you used 5 minutes of your time to think it through? But you showed interest in the ideas of your employee and started a conversation that will last throughout your relationship.
Is there even a choice?

Audi TT promotion

Audi launched the new Audi TT and utilized Realise Studio to project this stunning, promotional piece up onto buildings. The combination of virtual windtunnel, beautiful colors and animation makes for an engaging piece.