Duck Tron - shoestring creativity *like*

Duck Tron from Ryactive on Vimeo.

For those of you who are fans (of either Duck tape, Tron or Tron Guy) this'll be a treat. Apologies to everyone else.

Nice work Ryactive

Via Wired

Filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman's WISDOM project

Fantastic 99% talk from photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman about his inspirational WISDOM project. It's half an hour long but it really says a lot about the creative process i.e. in how it's rarely a flash of genius inspiration, rarely a process of certainty more hard work and curiosity satisfied.

Worth a watch.

Sir John Hegarty in Edinburgh this week

Founder of one of the most successful ad agencies in the world, creative ground-breaker, Sir John Hegarty is speaking in Edinburgh this week not once but twice. To the public at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Tuesday night and at a breakfast briefing for the ad industry organised by IPA Scotland on Wednesday morning at Creative Scotland. Get a ticket if you haven't already.

Crowd accelarated innovation - a TED speech

 
Great insight from TED founder Chris Anderson on how crowds can accelarate innovation and how the sharing of video on online social platforms is driving faster innovation in a number of fields. Key to facilitating innovation is the idea of openness. The more we share our developments with the crowd, the more we accelarate successful innovation.

What happens to your social media profile after you die?

Interesting wee five minute film from TED which explores how your social media presences could be formed into an archive after your death and, a bit creepily, continue to interact with the world after your're gone.

Might make you think about that next tweet/status update/blog post a little bit harder.

Tesco connects the Nation

Tesco is setting out to provide free WiFi across every single one of its UK stores. With over 2,700 stores and 1.3 million sq foot of floor space this means a LOT more WiFi coverage! They're trialling in four stores at present but are set up to roll this out quickly.

If you look at the Tesco store map above, you'll see why this is such a big deal. Add this network to the existing free WiFi in all Starbucks, McDonalds, some Sainsbury stores and many local cafe's and pubs we're getting to the stage where every local community will be connected and pretty much always on.

In the US, there are already a number of retailers who offer free wifi iuncluding Sam's Club, the upmarket brand of Walmart, although Walmart stores themselves don't yet have the facility.

With Tesco also set to digitise their Clubcard Loyalty scheme later this year, their smartphone shopping app and the imminent arrival of near-field payment technology it's an interesting time for the future of retail. This supply of WiFi networks coupled with the growth in smartphone penetration (20.3 M smartphones in the UK!) means location based targeting should be on all our agenda's!

MediaCom Edinburgh are already leading the charge in digital loyalty schemes with the programme we're implementing for Subway's Subcard, the first ever mobile enabled loyalty scheme in Europe and the first QSR loyalty scheme at all. We've also recently implemented the UK's first proximity targeted mobile campaign via O2's new "You Are Here" service, also for Subway.

Thanks to Amy Chan in MediaCom's Future's team for bringing this to my attention.

World's largest Stop-Motion video

Gulp. The world's largest stop-motion animation shot on a Nokia N8. from Nokia HD on Vimeo.


Totally loving this.

Shot at Pendine Beach in South Wales, every frame of this stop-motion animation was shot using a Nokia N8. The film has broken a world record for the 'largest stop-motion animation set', with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 square feet.

Great way to show off what your tech can do and a lovely piece of shareable content to boot.

Here's the "how to""...


Gulp. The making of. from Nokia HD on Vimeo.

Jules Verne meets Monty Python

Not for Everybody from eatbigfish on Vimeo.


Interesting wee snippet via the ever wonderful Eat Big Fish. Founder of US brand consultancy Quaker City Mercantile, Steven Grasse who are the guys behind Sailor Jerry (not my favourite rum) and, as explained in this video, Hendricks (not my favourite Gin).

The story of how the gin came about is interesting enough I guess but, for me, more interesting is the attitude outlined in the opening minute or so:

People buy brands they like (or in American think are "cool").
They don't like advertising.
Make people like your brand through experience, not communication

Now, while I might not entirely agree with him about the advertising part (there are plenty pieces of advertising that people like and which are an experience to watch) I do think there's a lot to be said for thinking beyond advertising (see what I did there MBA guys?) to how brands can create an experience either in the real world or virtually. It's sort of what I was trying to get across in this article about Google +.

Interested to hear from others re. what side of the communication/experience fence you sit.

Amon Tobin ISAM show - now THAT's projection mapping

I've been a long time fan of Amon Tobin's music but this takes it to the next level. Here's a roundup of the premiere of his new ISAM show at Mutek festival in Montreal earlier this year. I couldn't get tickets for the show when it came to London which, on this evidence, is one of my all-time missed opportunities.



Fascinating insight into how they designed the show in the following video.

Google + Brands or Consumers first?

Google’s most successful foray into social media so far, Google +, recruited over 20 million users in just over two weeks. Time will tell whether it is a worthy long-term competitor to the two behemoths of social media, Facebook and Twitter but the rate and scale of growth Google+ is achieving should keep them on their toes.


Brands have clearly shown early enthusiasm for Google+ with many jumping straight on and creating profiles, digital media owners such as Mashable, and the Ford Motor Company being notable examples. However, Google have been very clear that this incarnation of Google+ is very much for real people, not brands, to the extent that they have started to remove brand pages apart from a few “pilot profiles”. But is this a sensible approach?

There can be no doubt that, in the long term, brands will be crucial to the future success of Google+. Especially for the average user, the key reason to add Google+ to their repertoire of online spaces will be whether there is enough interesting and relevant content to keep them interested. While some of us might find the early-mover tech and marketing chat interesting, people in the real world are more interested in relevant, useful content which, for the most part is produced (or at least facilitated) by brands.

But brands will only go where their potential audience is so an emphasis on making Google+ a viable online space for people, before introducing brands, might be a smart move. There’s no doubt that some of the innovation Google+ has introduced, for instance Circles, have the potential to make the platform a better environment for discretely sharing content amongst specific groups of people than either Twitter or Facebook currently provide and this might be one key to growing user engagement.

However, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg question. Brands will only go where there is a critical mass of potential customers and those customers will only use a platform where there is sufficient entertaining, interesting or useful content, mostly provided by their favourite brands. However, in the short term, a focus on getting the consumer proposition and interaction right feels like a good move.

Certainly, Google have deep enough pockets to wait before they introduce money-making opportunities for brands, and themselves. The integration of social behaviour and search data has been a holy grail for some time now and I wouldn’t bet against Google making this happen with this new platform. Whatever happens next, we can be sure that Google will have their eye on the ease with which they can monetise the site in the longer term.

First published at allmediascotland.