POST DIGITAL

uSpeak

uSpeak is a new playful way to discover and learn languages. The service is free, fun and gets you to fluency in no time.

 

Sign up for the Beta at: http://www.uspeaklanguages.com

Nike's Back To The Future Fundraiser

Wieden + Kennedy's spot for Nike featured Bill Hader, Christopher Lloyd, Tinker Hatfield, Donald Fullilove and KD star in a film about the most famous shoes never made, in an effort to support the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research.

To learn more, go to www.back4thefuture.com. To bid on the 2011 Nike MAG shoes, go to www.nikemag.ebay.com.

Insight - Do you have one or not?

In the agency world, its a word you hear a lot.  In a consumer centric world it's what you NEED to be relevant to a collaborative audience.  For me it's a word I hear misused a lot.  

The dictionary defines it as:  penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeinginto inner character or underlying truth.

In psychological terms it is: 
an understanding of relationships that sheds light on orhelps solve a problem.

For those of us who create innovations, conversations and stories for on behalf of brands for people it means:

A single human truth that motivates behavior.

In a big data world creating impact starts with synthesizing down to a single insight that inspires an idea and provokes an action.

The next time you sell an idea remember you only need truth to create an audacious provocation that could change the world.

The 21st Century Beetle – Rock 'n' Scroll

Many of you know I love my Beetle.  I was jazzed to see the Webby for Best Automotive go to Tribal DDB Berlin's website for VW. The site uses nifty design to give a history of the iconic car.

What makes this one of my favorites it it's innovative use of video.

Visit The 21st Century Beetle – Rock 'n' Scroll at http://www.beetle.com/

 

 

Moqups

Moqups is an unique app based on HTML5 and SVG that allows you to quickly create crisp looking vectorial mockups.  Get in on the beta at: http://moqups.com

Building Loyalty For CPG Brands

This week I had a great chat with Kate Kaye from ClickZ 

Read more at: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2172529/ryan-partnerships-pena-bickley-talks-brand-champions-video

The Shops at Target

Target recenlty revealed its new micro-niche retail strategy. Like many retailers they are picking up edgy trendsmart shops from Miami to SF—and plugging these mini boxes inside the larger Target retail box.

This concept is not a new one as commercial real estate developers have already seized upon this idea at Boston’s Newbury Street, Chelsea Market in Manhattan and Santa Monica Place in California.

Target typically does this right. If the concept takes off with consumers, we can look forward to more boutiques and more categories.  I ponder what the online implications of these boutiques will be?  will it be a gilt like object or something much more location-based social networking centric?

Coke’s new comprehensive “liquid” marketing strategy

The media landscape is a very different beast today than it was even 5 years ago. Then agency-led television commercials dominated how we channel our marketing. The very fact you are reading this here proves that things have changed.  With splashes of Henry Jenkins’ spreadable media concept, experiential marketing, Sir Ken Robinson’s whiteboard execution and Coke’s sophisticated marketing aplomb, the videos take us on a discovery that is as startling as it is revelatory.

Coca Cola have always been at the forefront of innovation. In this video Jonathan Mildenhall, Vice-President, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence at The Coca-Cola Company is the person responsible for leading global creative vision and strategy for the Company's portfolio of global brands. He explains how Coke will leverage the opportunities in the Post Digital landscape and transform one-way storytelling into dynamic storytelling hoping to add value and significance to peoples lives. 

The challenge of content creation in an enlightening way, reminds us that every contact point with a customernis a point of judgement that should tell an emotional story.  The importance of a content fludity model is also referenced. What is most surprising during the nearly eighteen viewing minutes is how willfully the soft drink marketer peels back the layers of their organization to reveal what’s been working and what hasn’t.

What these videos do is demonstrate is that the world has changed and the largest marketing organization in the world has changed with it. Have you moved from one-way storytelling into dynamic storytelling or from consumer insights to provocations thus potentially adding value and significance to people’s lives.  For those of us who have been building liquid and linked content through transmedia storytelling this is simply refreshing. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Brilliant! Holler Sydney Betas Pinterest As An Agency Platform

Holler Sydney decided to put their main agency site on Pinterest. 

View their clients, peer around the office, and see some of their work – as this site within a site gives keeps you solely browsing on Pinterest. 

 

Check it our at http://pinterest.com/weareholler/

Burberry Eyewear Collection Music Videos

Burberry has approached traditional advertising with a great new entertaining spin to introduce its Summer 2012 Eyewear Collection. The fashion brand has teamed up with a selection of emerging British musicians, who have all created a new track for the campaign. The bands are then shown performing the songs in a series of videos, where they also sport sunglasses from the new collection.

 

The project is curated by Burberry chief creative officer Christopher Bailey, and the videos have all been created in-house. Burberry is releasing them weekly on YouTube during April. Three tracks are out so far: shown here are videos for One Night Only, Marika Hackman, and Life In Film.

 

A fourth video, starring The Daydream Club, will be released next week. The tracks are also available for download from iTunes and the bands will headline Burberry showa that will take place on May 3 and 4 in Paris, Milan, New York and Sydney.

 

Designing The 2012 Election

Calling all FIT, Parsons and SVA students: here's the latest way to get involved in President Obama's 2012 campaign.  Runway to Win, fashion designers' effort for Obama's reelection campaign, is holding a Design Challenge in which any designer can submit their designs to the current collection of Runway to Win gear.

If your design is selected, it will be sold in the Runway to Win collection, right alongside the likes of Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, Jason Wu, Diane Von Furstenberg and more. As cool as that sounds, that's not the best part. The best part comes when the winning designers each receive a fully produced version of their item autographed by Anna Wintour.  Common That's hot!  (Have you seen the September Issue?)

Go to RunwayToWin.com to submit your Hope, Change or "Yes, we can!" themed design. 

Texts From Hillary Clinton

This photo of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, sporting sunglasses on C17 plane texting is the latest meme to sweep the internet.  HRC, the badass, has her very own dedicated Tumblr, Texts from Hillary.  The Tumblr site is the creation of of D.C. PR guys Adam Smith and Stacy Lambe. The gag is based on two very similar photos — shot last October by Kevin Lamarque (Reuters) and Diana Walker (Time)

When I saw the photo back in October, I could totally relate to the commentary about wearing sunglasses inside -- hey when you look good in them you want to wear them everywhere and badasses usually do. More importanlty, rather than looking hungover or like a vampire, Clinton embodies the third thing someone wearing sunglasses inside might be — cooler than your brain could possibly comprehend. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is much more than a muse to woman. It's very satisfying when one of the most powerful women in the "free world" inspires Internet brilliance.  This photo reinforces she is a bad ass and so do the results: Texts from Hillary has been shared on 46,100 Facebook profiles, generating 172,054 likes or comments.

Follow the the sites generating fuel for this viral fire:

1. Texts From Hillary: http://textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com/
2. Twitter Stream: https://twitter.com/#!/textfromhillary

 

The Guardian's Quest For The Truth

This modern take on a classic fairy tale speaks volumes about where we are as a society. The story begins with the murder of the infamous Big Bad Wolf. The tale incorporates the way we take in media today. Starting with a headline in the Guardian, reports online, announcements and subsequent discussions on Twitter, and then the inevitable YouTube videos, complete with crude computer-generated reenactments and even a revelation of new evidence that shows the Wolf suffers from asthma.

I love the use of a timeless tale with a modern twist which demonstrates how we consume and interact with a good story. The best part of this story is that it positioned the The Guardian as willing partner in the quest to find the truth. 

Help us #MakeTheStage at @InternetWeek

I love spring!  Not just because it symbolizes a re-birth each year, but because it's a run up to the best internet & mobile shows. First up, Internet Week which runs from May 14 to May 21.  I will be there from the opening party to the closing ceremonies.

We have a great topic this year: The Post-Digital Age. 

As many of your know, over the years, I have demonstrated that all media is social with the right idea. Now it's time to discuss the greater ramifications of this to the brand world and the agency business. 

Given that all customers are digital & social -- now the day of the Digital & Social AOR is quickly dying and all agencies are expected to be digital. From media planning to creative the game has completely changed new agency models are winning big business with Transmedia story telling and hard core business results. When the old ways begin to give way to something yet to be imagined, we have a choice. Live in the past or get down to the business of imaging the future. What will you do and how will you organize around your the brands you represent in this new post digital age??

I could use your help to #MakeTheStage at this years @InternetWeek. Vote thumbs up for The Post-Digital Age at http://shar.es/rbWQY

Then if your really a cool cat you will get others to vote too.  Help us spread the word by dropping a line (preferably this one: Help us #MakeTheStage at this years @InternetWeek. Vote thumbs up for The Post-Digital Age at http://shar.es/rbWQY ) to your subscribers, friends and followers to vote for The Post-Digital Age at http://shar.es/rbWQY on facebook, twitter, tumblr or what ever platform fits your fancy.

I look forward to seeing you all there - I'll be the one wearing sunglasses inside.

Writing Your Next Symphony

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Harold R. McAlindon

Over the last few days, I have sat in a number of business meetings with fortune 500 marketers who all seem to have the same problem. There is a huge data conundrum.  Everyone of them spoke of the large agency partners having either too little of an understanding of their data across all channels or that their digital &  direct agencies who were in analysis paralysis and could not produce assets that met the data and technology demands of the new mediums. (Often referred to as perishable assets.)  Now that we are in post-digital era where people and our customers leave digital finger prints behind on everything they touch, why have the people who are supposed to be experts at the customers not figured out how to deliver new value to the Post-Digital client?

One of my early mentors, Marc Beeching once said, "The best stories are like a great piece of music. They have a beginning, middle and an end.  Sometimes you have to decide which pieces go where"  I think that analogy holds true for the data conundrum brands are in.  

Much of the Industrial Age and the Information Ages required focus and specialization.  But as white collar work has gotten routed to Asia and reduced to software, there is a new premium on the opposite aptitude: putting the pieces together, or what I call a Symphony.  What is in greatest demand today isn't more analysis, but synthesis-- seeing the big picture, crossing boundaries and being able to combine disparate pieces in to an arresting new whole.

For marketing & brand leaders and digital & traditional agencies alike who do not wish to follow their competitors down a path to a commoditized value exchange -- which is the typical path that many continue to travel -- They have a choice. Live in the past or get down to imagining and forging a new trail to the profitable future.

I have quickly found that you must marry your creative skill sets to a vastly uncomfortable place to survive. Dare I say "Data Synthesis".  As a creative leader you must act like a composer or a great conductor (my favorite is Gustavo Dudamel) .  Ask yourselves which symphony will you write for your brand or clients?  Will it tell a story? Will it have empathy? What meaning will it carry?  How will it be designed?

Next time your clients or potential clients ask you to show them your value -- create a symphony.  

Your audience will listen and remember you. 

Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.