Influx InsightsInflux InsightsA blog about the intersections of branding, marketing and culture Articles
the conversation as media
2008-02-07 17:53:00 Twitter just produced this interesting chart showing the volume of conversations on its network plotted over the duration of the Superbowl. It's interesting to see what generates the volume and how it changes over time.Perhaps of greatest significance is the idea that the conversation itself is now its own media. The user interacting with mass media through new media generates a conversation stream which in itself creates a new media. Opinions, thoughts, ideas and trash talk all fill the airwaves as people participate with an event in a radically new way. Clearly there are opportunities here for Twitter to align with media brands to scale these conversations and for the media companies to look at interesting new ways for brands to participate. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Media , Conversation
the conversation as media
2008-02-07 17:53:00 Twitter just produced this interesting chart showing the volume of conversations on its network plotted over the duration of the Superbowl. It's interesting to see what generates the volume and how it changes over time.Perhaps of greatest significance is the idea that the conversation itself is now its own media. The user interacting with mass media through new media generates a conversation stream which in itself creates a new media. Opinions, thoughts, ideas and trash talk all fill the airwaves as people participate with an event in a radically new way. Clearly there are opportunities here for Twitter to align with media brands to scale these conversations and for the media companies to look at interesting new ways for brands to participate. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Media , Conversation
cracking the code- the brain is too complex to ever understand
2008-02-07 17:16:00 Experts are suggest that we will soon be able to fully understand the human brain and unlock its secrets. Marketers are salivating at the prospect of this and the opportunity of more potency in the business of persuasion.Not so, says Prof Colin Blakemore."(The human brain is)...an organ so complex we may never fully understand it You don't have to be a neuroscientist to realise that this is an exciting time to be studying the brain. Yet the brain remains one of the greatest areas of ignorance in contemporary science. The scale of the problem is immense. There are 100,000 million nerve cells or more in the human brain, with 10,000 times as many connections between them. That means that, on average, the brain makes a million connections every second for the whole of our lifetime." Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Code , Complex , Cracking , Brain , Understand
cracking the code- the brain is too complex to ever understand
2008-02-07 17:16:00 Experts are suggest that we will soon be able to fully understand the human brain and unlock its secrets. Marketers are salivating at the prospect of this and the opportunity of more potency in the business of persuasion.Not so, says Prof Colin Blakemore."(The human brain is)...an organ so complex we may never fully understand it You don't have to be a neuroscientist to realise that this is an exciting time to be studying the brain. Yet the brain remains one of the greatest areas of ignorance in contemporary science. The scale of the problem is immense. There are 100,000 million nerve cells or more in the human brain, with 10,000 times as many connections between them. That means that, on average, the brain makes a million connections every second for the whole of our lifetime." Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Code , Complex , Cracking , Brain , Understand
the business opportunity of a lifetime
2008-02-06 17:16:00 Money is pouring into the environmental and green energy space as people seek to generate vast financial returns from a massive global need. However, it appears the need is bigger than any of us ever imagined. Apparently, the ice melts observed in 2006/2007, have taken us to a stage that we weren't supposed to be in until 2080. The opportunity here is very simple. Create technology that can "reverse" climate change. It appears that we have already reached the tipping point and only radical intervention can stop the devistating impact of climate change. The chart below is from David Wasdell's briefing to the UK Government and illustrates how the Kyoto treaty doesn't go far enough. To read more on the topic, please check out John Grant's blog post. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Business , Opportunity , Lifetime
corporation 2.0-etsy
2008-02-06 16:21:00 The founder of Etsy (a craft maker community) goes on the brand's blog and tells his people he's raised $27 million of VC funding, but this is no standard press release, it's a story. A story of astonishing growth, the desire to do things differently and explanation of how the millions are going to be spent. Welcome to Corporation 2.0. Some extracts.. "In early April of 2005, I sat in an orange chair facing an open window. It was nighttime and the lights were off. I was back in Brooklyn after a brief residence in Paris, and I was about to sketch the initial ideas that would become Etsy. Working with three friends – Chris, Haim and Jared – Etsy went from these ideas to a site live on the Web in about two months. Now, thirty-three months later, Etsy is a company with fifty employees, a community with over 650,000 members, and a marketplace with over 120,000 sellers in 127 different countries. We launched in June of 2005, which means we're right in the middle of o...
dynamic new media formats
2008-02-06 15:55:00 Yesterday's Super Tuesday collaboration between Google and Twitter introduced us all to a new dynamic media form. Google brought in all the results in real time on the left of the map and Twitter gave us commentary from people and media around the world. It might not have been as arresting as watching Wolf on CNN, but it was pretty close.The simplicity of the design and the real time dynamics created something that was interesting and fun to spend time with. It showed us the mash-ups can have a role and Twitter has a use, after all. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Media , New Media , Dynamic
influx interview-designer series-verena dauerer-editor-pingmag japan
2008-02-06 05:17:00 Verena Dauerer is the only foreign journalist working at PingMag, the inspirational and influential Japan ese art/culture/design website. Here's an interview I did with her recently where we talked about PingMag, it's unique ownership, design and Japanese design. 1. Can you briefly describe your background and explain how you ended up at PingMag?I've been working as a journalist for ten years now, the recent years I was freelancing in Berlin. Apart from that I have been doing production for short films for a while, briefly Lingo programming in the 90s, and eventually started giving lectures about VJ culture at design schools and festivals and organized a VJ festival with two friends there in 2006. At one point, I got bored a bit of myself being in the city and decided to work abroad for a couple of months. I liked Ping, sent these lovely people an e-mail - and came to Japan to work as editor of PingMag in November 2006. Originally I wanted to stay for three months only, but they p... More About: Series , Interview , Designer , Editor
influx interview-designer series- steve portigal- design thinker
2008-02-04 17:48:00 Steve Portigal runs Portigal Consulting, a company that helps clients develop smarter thinking by bringing together user research, design and business strategy. I spent some time talking to Steve about his overlapping world of strategy and design.Steve's client list includes the likes of Nestle, eBay, Palm, Berringer, General Electric and many others.His other claim to fame is his creation of one of the first online communities (Undercover, a Rolling Stones fan group) in 1992, nurturing it from a time when the Internet was an underground academic technology through to today, as part of a global info-infrastructure.1. Can you tell us briefly about your background and what you are up to these days?I studied Computer Science because I liked the idea of making something- software- that had new functionality. But I soon realized that academically, Computer Science was extremely abstract and theoretical. Then I discovered Human-Computer Interaction, the part of Computer Science that deal... More About: Design , Steve , Series , Interview , Designer
dubai: it sold the world, now it wants to sell the universe
2008-01-27 03:47:00 Dubai is now competing with Shanghai as the architectural environment that represents the beacon of the future. Development is rapid, often skyward and sometimes not representative of the best architecture has to offer. Off the coast of Dubai, there's an extraordinary development that involves building islands in the shape of countries and selling them. The site is aptly called "The World ". While it might not be the most creative piece of thinking, it fits perfectly with the motivations of the uber-wealthy who can afford this land, they dream of owning countries. Clealry, this strategy has paid and most of "The World " has been sold. The crafty developers in Dubai have gone one better and are now creating "The Universe ", making all those people who purchased countries in the world, look somewhat foolish, given that planets are now available. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Dubai , Sell
walden as urban car park
2008-01-26 18:24:00 In a time where we are being driven to desire the natural and the remote, it's fascinating to see somebody take a different take and look at "escape" in an urban context. A Scottish theater company. Magentic North, is staging a production of Henry Thoreau's Walden in a car park. Bldblog has a nice piece about it. I think it's interesting because we seem over-burdened with natural cliches about getting out and finding escape in the natural world. VW's "Night Driving" campaign also changed it around, challenging us us to find beauty in the urban.Magentic North's Walden is another great example. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Urban , Park
the demise of the expert
2008-01-26 18:22:00 If the continuing financial crisis has told us one thing, it’s that you can’t trust the experts. Everywhere you look supposed experts and authority figures seem to have been clueless; from the ratings agencies, to governments and senior officers and large financial corporations. It appears the experts where on a “lunch break” when we needed them most.Perhaps the world has gotten too complex for experts and they need to band together in complex neural nets to have a grasp of what’s happening. In other areas, it also seems that experts aren’t all that they appear to be. In a new era of community participation, individuals can emerge as de-facto experts, providing them have the ‘chops” and are seen by the community to be making valid contributions.The concept has considerable appeal because they appear to have the “secret sauce” of objectivity. Amazon is often sited as the best example of this community of experts, where revie... More About: Expert
sir martin blogs davos
2008-01-26 17:38:00 Interesting to see WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell getting into the blogging game thanks to the UK's Daily Telegraph. He seems upset at the lack of American clients at Davos this year. "Heavy snow and security. Travelling to Davos will be a nightmare for most. Larger number of broken ankles and hips than usual. But if you're going to break something, a Davos hospital is as good as any. Looking at the prospective attendance list, many American CEOs seem to be absent, as it's in the middle of their reporting season - and the middle of a financial crisis.Regarding the breaking news of the Fed's emergency rate cut, I must be helpful to sentiment, but increased liquidity is the key. Cutting rates won't do the job. Back to Davos, we've also got to deal with terrible weather, but it'll clear tomorrow, just like the economy, I hope."Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Blogs
apple cult- the movie
2008-01-26 06:02:00 There's a new documentary all about the cult that surrounds the Apple brand. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Movie , Cult , The Movie
happiness factories
2008-01-25 05:09:00 The advertising industry has spent over a century injecting products was happiness molecules to make the act of purchasing that much more desirable. The business is all about adding levels and layers of desirability to products. We know it works, science has proven it and we are learning more and more about how happiness works in the brain thanks to the emerging world of neuroscience. Some theorists might assume the more we understand the brain the more adept we will become at selling things to people. We will know exactly what turns people on, each and every one of us, right down to an individual level. However, it's far from certain that unleashing the magic bullet that encourages rapid consumption is the right thing to be doing, there's that big idea of sustainability that seems to get in the way of such progress. National leaders in Europe have been looking at new ways to measure growth and are thinking about things like happiness, as alternatives to old-fashionedmeasures like... More About: Happiness
daft punk's hand herd
2008-01-22 15:46:00 The French act Daft Punk have been around for over 10 years, but have recently returned to dominance through a series of impressive live shows. I was wondering if all those hand videos on the internet had also helped the band in someway?It all started with this one in June 2007. This was the first and has over 12 million views, that's six times the number of views the band's concert video above achieved!By August someone had reworked another Daft Punk song using their hands That one has over 1.2 million views. In October, a "bodies" version emerged which has achieved over 1.5 million views.There are close to 500 films of people trying to Daft Hand s and despite the fact this meme is months old, people are still doing it. It's a great example of herd mentality in action. The idea is really simple, but there's just enough complexity to it that makes it interesting and it willingly encourages others to show they can do it. There's are some lessons here if you want to use people a...
facebook fallout?
2008-01-22 15:45:00 Facebook is the ultimate social network and there's no doubting it. There are 59 million users to date, and it adds two million to its ranks weekly. Its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has been featured on 60 Minutes and is said to be worth $3 billion for founding it. While there's no questioning its success, there's also no real point to denying that it's just a procrastination tool. Even when we're sitting at home online, we get to pretend we're not. Just check the millions of status reports uploaded by people who are "hanging out with friends" and "spending time with family". For these and other reasons, there's recent evidence suggesting its downfall and lots of conversation has been going on about it. Some say they are leaving because of the proliferation of applications and advertising. Some have realized that it actually separates rather than connects friends because they are quite simply on it all the time. (The addictive nature of the site is mostly due to the controversial ... More About: Facebook , Fallout , Allo
in a word of mouth world everyone's words will be for sale
2008-01-21 04:18:00 Since everyone is going crazy about fake word of mouth on the internet, people seem to have forgotten about the practice in the real world. It was 20 years ago when a then small NYC agency hired actors to talk about a drinks brand at fashionable bars, but it seems to have taken an age, before the ultimate conversationalists, taxi drivers, got into the game."In a promotional campaign for 888.com, an online gambling business, 375 London taxis have been decked out with advertisements for the company's Web site. Most of the cabs are simply moving billboards for 888, which provides online poker and other kinds of gaming. But in 10 of the cabs, the marketing pitch goes further. The drivers may seek to engage passengers in conversation about poker. If customers take the bait, the drivers try to steer the chat gently toward 888.com. Those who show particular interest may be given coupons offering free hands of virtual cards - worth as much as $10 - on the poker site."IHTLook out for more ... More About: For Sale , World , Word , Words , Sale
is data portability the cure for network fatigue?
2008-01-21 03:44:00 Network fatigue is a big problem as web users experiment, use and play with so many differtent sites, each with its own user identites, passwords, friends and content, so perhaps data portability is the answer. Data Portability - Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.Via CubicgardenPosted by Ed Cotton More About: Network , The Cure , Cure
can the crowd replace the expert?
2008-01-19 18:49:00 Researchers at UCLA appear to have come up with an interesting cure to the problem iPod created by turning everyone a DJ. It’s a become a common issue at parties, the musical taste of the host is not shared by the party goers, this leads to angst and ends up with guests connecting their own iPods to try and take musical control, chaos ensues and the party rapidly turns into a disaster. UCLA’s Smart Party uses Wi-Fi to poll the tastes of the people attending the party and creates a play list based on those tastes. It’s an example of a solution to the emerging challenge to encourage and facilitate crowd collaboration in appropriate situations. The party example is good because there is no often no talent gap between the host and party attendees concerning music. The iPod hasn’t put expert DJs out of business, but in situations where they aren’t around, it has made everyone believe they are one. Smart Party facilitates democracy, it allows everyone’s... More About: The Crowd , Expert , Crowd , The Crow
participating in a flat world
2008-01-18 17:33:00 The Internet has created a flat world where access and participation is now the norm. It’s harder to maintain hierarchies and use status as a way to block everyone out. This is an invitational world where those who welcome and embrace others are rewarded. It doesn’t matter who you are, but having the ability to connect and get down and talk to people at their level suggests a massive shift from ego/status and the “them and us” world of the past. Given that the amount of time that those in their teens and twenties spend in these virtual non-heirachical worlds, it’s safe to assume that they want to translate this behavior into the real world as well.This has massive implications for employers, for brands and for experiences in general. Last night, I went to see a “band”, except that it wasn’t. It was a guy, who I couldn’t see, all I could do was hear his voice and the music he played. The first thing he did was invite the audience ... More About: World , Flat
agency challenge of the year- adidas says build us a nike+
2008-01-17 15:47:00 I am surprised it took so long, but according to Campaign in the UK, Adidas is officially jealous of Nike 's success with Nike+ and it wants its own. This could be the agency brief of the year and one of the branding world's most challenging assignments, because no other brand, in sports or beyond, has come close to delivering a layered, engaging experience quite as good as Nike+. The Campaign story lacks some critical information about the real nature of the brief, the timing and the agencies that Adidas is talking to. It's especially interesting because it's asking agencies, assuming they are talking to traditional shops, to stretch well outside their comfort zone. Will it involve product development? Partnerships?Technology? Build ing robust social networks?I can only assume Adidas is looking for an idea that replicates the level of brand engagment of Nike+, rather than simply copying it. The interesting question here is what makes sense for the Adidas brand?Nike has made an ab... More About: Agency , Challenge
the new way to develop a global brand-open shops
2008-01-16 17:44:00 At the end of the last century, every brand was rushing to participate in a new form of commerce, e-commerce.With everyone shopping online is there now more of a value on the real shopping experience? Is the retail-shopping environment, one of the most popular pastimes of global consumers, the place you need to be establishing your brand?This isn't about participating in the retail business as a retailer, but using it as a core part of your branding strategy.With media costs escalating out of control and reach becoming increasingly questionable, the retail store is fast becoming the branding tool of choice for brands that are looking for global reach and to leave an indelible mark in consumer's minds.Brand s that aren't tradtionally retailers are making the leap across into this space. Obviously, it also helps if you have something to sell, but it's especially interesting to see some surprising new entrants.The global soccer organization FIFA has just opened its first store in Si... More About: Open , Global , Develop , Shops
influx interview-designer series- phil lu- starbucks/iphone application
2008-01-15 13:34:00 In the last few days, just ahead of Macworld , a series of fantastic visuals were sent around the web at lightening speed. People wondered if they were real, that's how good they were. The visual concept was for an iPhone Starbucks quick ordering system, using Wi-Fi.It made sense because the technology basically exists and some people are already aware that Apple recently applied for a patent to do something similar.I tracked down the designer of these images, Phil Lu, (to see a fully animated version of the Starbucks application, please look here) for a very short interview. This is one in a series of interviews Influx is going to be conducting with designers over the coming months. 1. Briefly describe your background and what you do?I'm a multimedia designer currently living/working in San Diego, CA. My backgrounds is in media art and graphic design. I did a little bit of graphic design before moving on to multimedia design. 2. How do you come up with the idea for the Starbuc... More About: Iphone , Series , Interview , Designer
thinking about the electronics we consume
2008-01-13 19:02:00 The other day, Piers at PSFK posted an angry editorial about CES. "Another year, another electronics and gadgets conference that is out of whack with modern concerns around sustainability and the planet. The C.E.S. is an arrogant refusal to admit to the problems the electronics industry has created in terms of material waste, poisonous polution, energy waste and over-consumption." He is not alone, today's New York Times Magazine has a great piece by Jon Mooallem called "The Afterlife of Cellphones". The piece explores the world of cellphone recycling and tries to understand why we need to constantly upgrade our phones. Reading the article forces you to think again about waste. Jon concludes; "Even the most idealistic visions of how e-waste should be recycled and reused take for granted that consumers and businesses will never reconsider why we are buying and discarding so many of those products, so quickly, in the first place. If the rush of castoffs isn’t likely to ... More About: Electronics , Thinking
the death of the core proposition
2008-01-13 19:01:00 Mohamed Iqbal is a Senior Planning Director at Ogilvy in Bangalore, he is also a member of our Planning for Good team. A couple of years back, he wrote a paper that connected The Long Tail to brand communication. It won him a top prize from WPP. He has now distilled the paper down into a Change This manifesto and it makes a great read. The essence of his argument is that for years brands and agencies have followed a disciplined approach to uncovering and communicating ONE thing about a brand.Mohamed believes this thinking is now flawed because of the widespread availablity of free and cheap media. He doesn't suggest that it's wrong to have one lead proposition, it's just that you can have a number of others and target specific groups with them. In addition, armed with real-time data, you can easily calculate the ones that aren't working and the ones that are. One really interesting point he makes is that agencies believe when they launch a new campaign, they are making a clean b... More About: Death , Core
the lie-detector makes it to primetime
2008-01-13 01:21:00 Fox's new show "Moments of Truth" probably makes for compulsive viewing and shows us there are still boundaries to be broken in the world of reality-based entertainment. Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Primetime , Lie Detector
17 thoughts and ideas on forecasting the future from paul saffo
2008-01-12 20:52:00 Paul Saffo, the godfather of forecasters, gave a really fantastic talk at the Long Now last night. It was full of lots of sensible thinking suggesting, that despite the negative press against forecasters, of course, he thinks it’s more important then ever. Saffo views the current uncertainty as opportunity, rather than an impossible challenge. Here are some of the highlights from his talk1. Here’s how he graphically views his job.2. Every technology adoption has an S curve.3. We tend to over-estimate the speed of short-term adoption and under-estimate the diffusion of the technology.4. Most big tech trends take 20 years to develop.5. We are entering the age of robots-sensors are everywhere- he used the rapid progress of the technology in the DARPA challenge and Nike as examples. 6. Look for wild cards- crazy ideas at the fringes- they help you find the boundaries7... More About: Ideas , Future , Thoughts , The Future , Paul
data as art
2008-01-12 16:46:00 The visualization of data is fast becoming the next art form. This is a nice example that comes from JK KellerHere's how he creates the visuals. "This is a program I wrote that reads a source text and looks for words that are used repeatedly. The more the word is used, the larger its cube gets. Red cubes are words that are not unique, blue cubes are. The size of the rings is determined by the size of the paragraphs."Found by This is ThatPosted by Ed Cotton More About: Data
sometimes it's all about the execution
More articles from this author:2008-01-11 17:16:00 When I first read about Pepsi's can design challenge, it seemed to me to be more of the same. How many brands are have let consumers, artists and designers play with their pack design?As a marketing concept it appears done to death. The trouble with my cynicism, is that it takes no account for execution. I was forced to reverse my thinking when I came across this can design. It allows the artist to dominate the can, rather than the brand, which makes for a fantastic design. The can's designer is JKaczmarek.Will we ever see this can on grocery store shelves? Posted by Ed Cotton More About: Execution 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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