All agencies and marketing directors take note

Top 10 Ways Marketers Waste Money

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Thanks for Trinty P3 in sharing and @timBuesing for posting

Race against the Tube

Now you all know I'm a running nut and love digital ideas well look at this little puppy, my favourite running shoes Asics, who ever came up with this idea really understands a runners mentality that if something moves, then you have to race it, great idea, race the Tube and mind the gap.

ASICS Tube Race from AnalogFolk on Vimeo.

CNN launches data visualisation tool

CNN launches data visualisation tool


This is really pretty cool. CNN has launched a great Twitter data visualization tool called ‘Ecosphere’ in support of the COP17 climate change conference in Durban, which starts this week.

The site picks up every tweet tagged with the #COP17 hashtag and uses them to stimulate growth in a plant or tree in the Ecosphere that represents a certain topic, such as sustainability.

The Ecosphere constantly listens to the global conversation on Twitter and every new tweet tagged with hashtag #COP17 is brought into the
environment, scanned for keywords and then grouped with similar contributions, connecting input from around the world, and building conversations within the dynamic environment.

It produces a lush 3D environment that allows you to explore, view content up close or zoom out to observe the visualisation as a whole. It is beautifully distracting.

The Ecosphere will culminate in Durban with an installation piece at the COP17 Conference that renders this globe as a 3D holographic image.

Lovely work and it looks stunning

Mirror Mirror

The Magic Mirror [nytlabs.com], developed by The New York Times Research & Development Lab has just been selected as one of Time's "50 Best Inventions" of 2011. It is probably the best gadget to fullfil those urgent craves from the data addicted, during those few moments they cannot reach their smart phones. This is very neat but if you want to know what the weather is like outside surely you'd look out the bloody window:) seriously though this has great potential especially from a health perspective.

At first sight, the mirror looks like any normal plain, reflective surface. However, next to showing one's reflection, this mirror is also able to deliver daily news and weather details while brushing your teeth or combing your hair. It combines a Philips Mirror TV with a Microsoft Kinect camera to allow you to access all sorts of information while admiring your own reflection. For instance, the mirror can check one's daily calendar and social feeds, and displays all sorts of statistics regarding one's health, including historical sleep patterns or walking activity.

The top creative minds in digital, where's Australia?

Read this last night in Adweek a great piece by Gabriel Beltrone who wrote a who's who in the Global village of top digital creative's, and when you read the roll call and see what they have done you can't really argue with it. (Well apart from one in my mind but we won't go there.) But my point; no one was selected from Australia or New Zealand, yes I know other countries were left out too but I'm in Australia so I'm looking at this area. Isn't anyone from this neck of the woods who could challenge this group? If so who would it be and if not, why in your mind do you think that we haven't the talent? Interested to know. Read in full here

CAN YOU GUESS THE CREATIVES FROM JUST THEIR ILLUSTRATIONS?

Doing Good - so good you want to eat

Everyday objects that can be improved on, you just need to be a creative thinker ahhh this is a little idea that has everything that I adore about creativity; beautifully simple and functional, Thank you Gyeongwan Koo who turned a very good idea into an even better one. This idea starts life in your hands just like an ordinary set of chopsticks except it’s tipped with a starch cap hiding a seed. When you’re done with it, stick the starch end down into the ground and watch as new life climbs up your recycled chopstick. This idea is so good I could really eat it,what a tasty idea.

UX should be child's play

I watched this video a couple of times over the weekend and as it's pretty amazing in that the child only seems to know or understand the interactions of an iPad above a hard copy magazine, at first I smiled and thought; WOW how times are changing that our kids will naturally interact in iPad mode rather than a hard copy mind you it's not surprising considering this kind of interaction is already on everything from touch screens in public places to smart boards in our kids schools you can even drive a car and model airplane via your iPhone! So
when I looked at it a second time I couldn't help feeling a tad sad in the fact that, here is a child that finds turning a page in a magazine so alien, why should I feel sad? Having 3 kids of my own I encourage them to explore and do things that as a child I did - climb trees, make dens to reading books. There's still something very stimulating about books - the touch the smell to the sound of the pages turning etc. No iPad version can replicate that. Neither is right or wrong but I do think it's a right of all children to interact with much information as possible regardless if it's from an iPad or from a book.

Hopefully then we'll have kids who'll grow up to be thinkers rather than robots and just conditioned to think in a certain way.

Marketing directors losing direction?

A new IBM (NYSE: IBM) study of more than 1,700 chief marketing officers from 64 countries and 19 industries reveals that the majority of the world's top marketing executives recognize a critical and permanent shift occurring in the way they engage with their customers, but question whether their marketing organizations are prepared to manage the change. The four main challeges facing Marketing Directors are:

Data explosion: Every day we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data - so much that 90 percent of the world's data today has been created in the last two years alone. The increasing volume, variety and velocity of data available from new digital sources like social networks, in addition to traditional sources such as sales data and market research, tops the list of CMO challenges. The difficulty is how to analyze these vast quantities of data to extract the meaningful insights, and use them effectively to improve products, services and the customer experience.

Social platforms: Social media enables anyone to become a publisher, broadcaster and critic. Facebook has more than 750 million active users, with the average user posting 90 pieces of content a month. Twitter users send about 140 million tweets a day. And YouTube's 490 million users upload more video content in a 60-day period than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years. Marketers are using social platforms to communicate - with 56 percent of CMOs viewing social media as a key engagement channel - but they still struggle with capturing valuable customer insight from the unstructured data that customers and potential customers produce.

Channel and device choices: The growing number of new marketing channels and devices, from smart phones to tablets, is quickly becoming a priority for CMOs. Mobile commerce is expected to reach $31 billion by 2016, representing a compound annual growth rate of 39 percent from 2011 to 2016. Meanwhile, the tablet market is expected to reach nearly 70 million units worldwide by the end of this year, growing to 294 million units by 2015.

Shifting demographics: New global markets and the influx of younger generations with different patterns of information access and consumption are changing the face of the marketplace. In India, as one example, the middle class is expected to soar from roughly 5 percent of the population to more than 40 percent in the next two decades. Marketers who have historically focused on affluent Indian consumers must adapt their strategies to market to this emerging middle class. In the United States, marketing executives must respond to the aging baby boomer generation and growing Hispanic population.
Full piece here

Snaptags better than QR codes

SnapTags are rings, with visual information aligned in a pattern of bars and breaks, that tell a reader app what content to pull up. And where the SnapTag is unique is that each tag also has an SMS short code, so people who don’t have smart phones can send and receive text messages that will connect them with a campaign, very smart.

I also love the idea that visually snaptags look so much cleaner and can be branded easily, the ease of use too in my mind could over take the growth of QR codes,as we know all the faffing around to get content from QR codes will always be a barrier for mass market comms, Snaptags could be a much better alternative.

This poster has a cold

The promotion for the new movie Contagion has truly gone viral. Ahead of the release of the film, Warner Bros Pictures hired microbiologists and immunologists to create an unconventional billboard.
Teaming up with CURB Media and ad agency Lowe Roche, they installed 2 huge petri dishes full of live bacteria in an abandoned storefront in downtown Toronto. Over a period of a few days, the bacteria multiplied and grew to spell out the name of the film, Contagion. Love this and the art direction and type reveal looks amazing, this also reminded of a campaign my old copywriter Jo Arscott did while at Saatchis where they produced a 48 sheet poster and sprayed the headline in glue - over the coming days the fumes and dirt from London streets revealed the message; 'This is what your kid breathes in everyday' it was for kids with asthma, love how both pieces play with the type and dramatised the key message.

Steve Jobs the best quotes for all creative people

Below are some of the best Steve Jobs’s quotes to inspire us to think differently and up our game through innovation and collaboration, wonderful but today a tad sad reading.

1. “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer

2. “For something this complicated, it’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

3. Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

4. “That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

5. “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”

6. “When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions.”

7. “We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.”

8. “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

9. “You’re missing it. This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.”

10. The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient … But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.”

Thank you for inspiring me

Zombie Running App - genius

Yes you have Nike+, Runkeeper and MapMyRun and I've used them all great functional apps but I came across this last night that literally changes the game and more importantly puts the fun back into functionality.

Zombies, Run!, to be released early next year for iPhone and Android, is an app in the style of Runkeeper, with an exciting undead twist.

You start up the app, plug in your headphones and go for a run. As you begin to sprint, jog or walk to your destination of choice, you’ll hear the narrated story of a zombie-infested, dystopian future. You’re a “runner” in this world, which means that your job is to go out and collect supplies like ammo, medicine and batteries for your ragtag base of human survivors. The more you run, the more stuff you’ll acquire.

“We want to tap into a fantasy that we think a lot of people have when they’re running or deciding to get fit — that you can be the hero of your own action movie,” said the game’s designer, Adrian Hon, in an e-mail.

“After all, why does anyone want to run? Probably so we know that if things get bad, we can rely on our bodies to get us out of trouble.”


The idea first came from a class for amateur runners, which Zombies, Run! writer Naomi Alderman had joined. During an introductory session, one of the organizers asked the group why they wanted to run.

“To outrun the zombie horde,” said one of the participants. Everybody laughed — except for Alderman. Her mind was busy running races of its own.

Hon says you’ll be able to make meaningful decisions as you progress through Zombies, Run. For example, once you’ve finished a running session, you’ll be able to allocate resources to different areas of your city, choosing which people to help out. He hints that your decisions could result in life-or-death consequences for some of the game’s survivors. Bloody genius and as always an idea sprung from someones passion, in this case running.

Fans have flocked to Zombies, Run!, which has garnered over $53,000 on crowd-funding site Kickstarter in the past month. Hon and Alderman say they’re psyched about the positive reaction, noting that the game already has a “guaranteed audience.”

Combined with fun and functionality that's intune with your target audience, wonderful work is created.

Linkedin profile as an infographic

vizualize.me - Kevin's profile I came across this last night, such fun and pretty impressive, simple but functional. Interesting Linkedin over the last couple of months have really enhanced their platform. This by Vizualize.me is just another cool add on.

Someone asked the Dalai Lama what suprises him most. He responded, "Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then he dies having never really lived."

Super Fly better than looting and burning

Win a car that made your dad look cool - shot and art directed this for Ribena in the UK- based on the campaign idea - Ribena 'Grow Up One Day' - all based around pranks, this promo was part of the campaign. I wanted something a bit more different and fun than giving away a cool Vespa - so we went for a second hand Capri - Ribena gave away 5 in total, the retro guy - seriously dressed liked that all the time- easy casting.

Twitter promo that's a little cracker

If you haven't picked this up on Twitter then in the next day or so you will - this appeared about 4 hours ago it caught my eye as it has been streaming through my tweetdeck under the hashtag #tweetcracker and it takes you to a site where all is relieved- it's a cross promotion with Samsung and Intel the idea is beautifully simple just log on using your Twitter handle tweet the correct code to disarm the lasers, bust the safe and win what's inside: 10K worth of gold and a Series 9 notebook, and as they say: the only thing that is stopping you are evil lasers and a lucky tweet, lovely work, I also love the video where we see a fit looking looking James Bond leather clad women place the prize in the safe, and arm the lasers, great promo and great fun, a great way to use Twitter as a promo platform site here

5 keys to successful online video.

1. Create context (label and tag the videos to help with searching)

2. Encourage snacking (which is the term they use for displaying related videos around the main video)

3. Produce for the medium (i.e. short form content, bearing in mind not all genres are equal).

a. Av length is 2.6 mins. (In a 2010 report from Cisco, 30% of Internet traffic is currently video. By 2013, 90% of Internet traffic will be video.)

b. Less videos provide fictional narrative and drama more at news, paparazzi video, individual personalities.

4. Use internet distribution.

a. Allow consumers to embed your videos.

b. Organise syndication with internet video distributors.

5. Monetize (for non branded sites)

a. Need to thinking through how to integrate 15 sec pre-rolls.

b. For brands, the creation of 15 sec pre-rolls is an important strategy

Hey dude you were a 1969 lifestyle visionary

Great video, love the music and voiceover but what is amazing is this was done in 1969 and none of this stuff was even invented, all the things we now take for granted; eShopping, paying bills online, email etc. Creative tip: When someone says; 'it can't be done or that idea is crazy'you know you're onto a winner.

3 billion women are wonderful

Seen this ad for the Body Shop - anyone who has kids especially girl's should show this ad to them, I have three girls so this is something close to my heart.

Kids should be happy, healthy and keep in good condition with regular exercise and remember:

> 'Supermodels' most of the time don't feel super.
> Diets don't work.
> Keep active, eat healthy foods, fresh fruit and veg- crunchy is best.
> Never skip breakfast...ever.
> Drink plenty of water throughout the day.
> Nearly all fashion ads with women in them have been 'retouched'
> Always keep your back straight and be proud of your body...you look wonderful.

Data Tracking tool - Userfly

userfly.com from Chris Estreich on Vimeo.

Have digital people got a chip on their shoulder?

Digital life is a bowl of cheeries


Interesting at Ad-tech last week I didn't manage to see much apart from the last session around mobile GPS and how marketeers can leverage it. Nothing of real substance in there, speakers shared loads of stats on why mobile is important, and its usage, the ongoing battle between Foursquare and Facebook regarding checkins and an old favourite for many digital marketeers, QR codes. (I thought no one bothered with QR codes anymore)? What was interesting though was the last speaker Seb Chan from the Powerhouse Museum, he shared two pieces of work he had done at the museum around photo tagging using geo location. (As their head of digital he's doing a great job in bringing the Powerhouse experience to the streets, literally).
But what was interesting was Seb having a slight dig at QR codes and marketeers and agencies constant reminder of how good digital is considering that the last speakers were talking of it's capabilities and it's customer interaction Seb said the contray he admitted his first experience of using QR codes was a 'disaster’ basically the reward for the effort was so poor most people felt the whole thing a bit of a faff, in the real world, it just wasn't working. Admittedly it's changing, but what was glorious to watch was the other panels faces, it looked like Seb had just farted in their geo-fenced location.
This friction in this presentation got me thinking on why do so many digital people in marketing and agencies always share stat after stat on why a particular piece of technology or platform is so much more superior that any other form of media? As in reality it's new and there's no real concrete facts around it. I see it time and time again on blogs, presentations, tweets and at events like Adtech - stat after stat of digital been better, better ROI, better engagement, better recall, better than any traditional media. We are obsessed with it and much of it is ‘cherry picked’ in that you’ll see a stat or casestudy that brand X email campaign had a 99% open rate with zilions of new members etc. What they fail to mention is that this eDM was part of a much bigger campaign with an on-pack promo, radio and posters.
Another example I picked up recently was a tweet that said;
Huge! RT @Warlach Cadbury UK pound on tv vs pound on digital. TV returned 60p, online retuned £2. #atsyd (via @ordnung)
Now that is a pretty impressive stat and as a marketing director I would be licking my lips, but much of Cadbury’s advertising was first spent on programme sponsorship and with this ran many successful TV campaigns yes TV which then went online and became very successful viral pieces, not through any great planning just the ads were funny and entertaining I wonder what the ROI if they had just done online? look at 'Gorilla' with the Phil Collins soundtrack and the two kids with the 'dancing eyebrows'. Brilliant. Another I can recall was John West ‘Bear’ where the fisherman grabs the salmon from the clutches of the hungry bear, this started life as a TV, many of us in the digital business forget that bit. It happens all the time, stat after stat is used at any given opportunity.
Does digital have an inferior complex? Why don’t we just do what we are doing well and everything else will come our way? Without selling all the virtues of using online, we all know it works just like TV it depends on the creative, the media placement and with online the technology behind it.
The smart people know successful digital campaigns do rely on offline communication. Not all but most, and there’s campaigns out there where it’s mainly all online, Old Spice is a a good example. (Ironically that idea was conceived by a so- called through-the-line agency, W&K). My view as always; it's down to the idea no matter what the channel and in my mind the campaign success is greatly increased if there's true channel integration.
Do you agree that digital 'cherry pick' stats?
Photo by Tim Irving of Opart.

My hero

We all needs heros people we look up too, mum and dad are always in there but my one and I have many (Spike Milligan, Martin Luther King, JFK) but one person even when I see an image of him I get a shiver and that's Ali. I saw this and I thought it was such a great piece, below is the background to the project, lovely work.Michael Kalish created this elaborate sculpture that, when viewed from the right angle, looks like Muhammad Ali:

Artist Michael Kalish went big, using 1,300 punching bags, 6.5 miles of stainless steel cable, and 2,500 pounds of aluminum pipe to construct a 22-foot-high installation that took three years to complete.
The idea for the project came to Kalish as he was falling asleep one night in 2008: an array of custom-made, teardrop-shaped speed bags suspended in midair that, from just one vantage point, align themselves like pixels into an image of Ali’s face.
It’s not actually quite done yet. Ali himself will hang the final bag at the unveiling.

How would you like your creative Sir?

Saw this and I think it applies to the creative idea process it was done by From Up North

Nice work

An installation by chinese photographer and artist yang yongliang, black and white photographs are collaged and piled to mimic cigarette ash. The tip of a huge cigarette sculpture hung vertically in the installation space is revealed upon closer view
to consist of cut and layered images of city skylines. Neat.