The Tribute in Light is an art installation of 88 searchlights placed next to the site of the World Trade Center to create two vertical columns of light in remembrance of the September 11 attacks. bing's active commemoration has gotten me to change all of my search services to bing permanently and begin evangelizing its powerful decision engine.
[update]They say that no 2 snowflakes are the same, despite looking identical to naked eye. That is probably also true when looking at them through the lens of this great Snow Flake maker.
Today I received a snowflake from a friend. When I followed the link back I was delighted to see a "create a snowflake tool". I must admit I have made about 10 different flakes and sent them out. It is addicting.
Make your own snow flake! http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/
The folks at Popular Front are smart marketers too! Check out the badges they created for people to lift and put on their sites!
When I logged into to my Facebook account today, I stumbled upon the featured video in my dashboard. Upon click I fell for it! I love this campaign... Simply Big.
Kid Rock teamed up with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the a new National Guard promotion "Warrior". Kid Rock wrote the new song, 'Warrior', that is the featured song in the campaign.
They used epic director James Mangold to shoot the videos. (Mangold has done Walk The Line and 3:10 To Yuma) Make sure to go to the site and download the song!
Don Julio recently joined the myriad of spirits companies toying with how do they take the most socially consumed products in the world and apply them in to social media. There is nothing more social than sharing a drink with friends. Combined that with the "Authenticity"campaign and what you get is an authentic way to create a drinking experience.
Don Julio has taken a smart idea and instead of trying to re-invent their site, they did the distributed media thing.They partnered with one of the hottest online blogs. Don Julio + UrbanDaddy = a brand faciltaing their consumers drink finds. I love that they highlight both great accounts in the trade as well as distinguishing places that the perfect find with fun categories like "First Date", "In Celebration", "The Bankers", "True Love" and my favorite "With The Parents"
Check it out! http://thefind.urbandaddy.com/
Just when we had all written off IMAX, they launch The Dark Knight and inject a new spectacular experience for movie goers. All of the sudden the movie theater tickets were worth it again! So now that you have the Dark Knight under your IMAX belt it is time for you to surround yourself with Bono, Edge and gang for an energetic ride in U23D.
As a U2 fan who did the Veritgo tour while in chi-town, this is a stunning production that puts you in the eclipse pit of the Argentinean stage. U23D is the first digital 3D, multi-camera, real-time shoot. It is the largest collection of 3D camera technology ever assembled for a single project.
For those of you who have invested in the home theater with surround sound and stadium seating - IMAX has made the movies magical again. Seems like a fine time to go hang at the movies again. Thanks IMAX!
Check out the site at http://www.u23dmovie.com
If you are rolling with your hommies to France for Cannes make sure to attend Wildfire! This is yet another joint creative partnership that combines the world of publishing and agencies who give them something to write about. (contagious magazine out of the UK and Leo Burnett) Over the last few years I have attended when it was in NYC and it is a great gathering of people. Lots of creative blood to network with.
One of the many thinkgs that I love about this event is that that they highlight work and the best ideas that real people engaged with.
This year:
Leo Burnett will be talking about their fresh, 'HumanKind' approach to marketing - always putting people at the center of their thinking. Not the brand, not the category. In keeping with this, we’ve got case studies from the world’s biggest brand Nokia, and will be finding out how Swedish retailer IKEA personalized their meatballs and MDF shopping experience. We’ll be looking at how Guinness in Hong Kong and Coca-Cola in China transformed community events with a little smart thinking, and bringing you the branded content emerging from unlikely places and winning viewers worldwide.
If you are lucky enough to be amongst the glitter and glam side of our business Wildfire is a must!
Ripped From Their Press Release:
Everything that matters in the
advertising business begins and ends with two things: people and
behaviour. Wildfire brands understand this better than any, and are
themselves built and defined by the people who buy them – people with
the imagination, tools and enthusiasm to share their feelings and
opinions about their favourite products with their peers.
Wildfire brands were created for, and thrive within today's 'People Era' – an era when marketers have to be more human in their behavior, insight and voice than ever before.
With this in mind, some of the most successful brands of the 21st century will be explored as well as new forms of advertising that feel more like real life than marketing. The panel will talk to people from all over the world about what they expect in return from the brands they invest their valuable time and money in, and show what turns a buyer of a brand into an advocate.
In short, Wildfire 2008 will look at the business of advertising through a distinctly human lens.
Experience design can sometimes be a slippery term. With all the
other often used terms that float around in its realm in the technology
and web space: interaction design, information architecture, human computer interaction, human factors engineering, usability, and user interface design. People often end up asking “what is the difference between all these
fields and which one do I need?” This article examines the term and
field of user experience to plainly extrapolate its meaning and connect
the dots with these other fields. Those of us in the field have stated that the discipline takes the theory and the
techniques of traditional design, which it merges with theoretical and
practical approaches from other disciplines. The result is a
gestalt-like synthesis of unique procedures and methods, and of a
project-based approach to develop objects, environments and systems. Interaction design seeks to establish a dialogue between products,
people and physical, cultural and historical contexts; to anticipate
how the use of products will affect comprehension; and to determine a
form that is appropriate to its behavior and use. Experience design takes into consideration not only physical devices but services. Our lives are increasingly
connected through telecommunications networks and filled with immaterial things: music, films, TV
and other information sources. These services, provided by companies and public institutions, are
as important as the machines through which we access them: the phone, pager, PDA or set-top box. Experience design involves the design of immaterial as well as material things:
services and software as well as hardware. Interactive technologies need a new kind of design, a fusion of sound, graphic and product design,
and time-based narrative. Developing this new kind of design will lead to a new aesthetic interface: one of use
and experience as well as of form. When function and information (and perhaps entertainment) converge you should get a universal emotional design that takes the most positive human behaviors into account. Getting The Terms Right
User experience is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system. It most commonly refers to a combination of software and business topics, such as selling over the web, but it applies to any result of interaction design. Wikipedia definition
Interaction design is a sub-discipline of design which examines the role of embedded behaviors and intelligence in physical and virtual spaces as well as the convergence of physical and digital products. Sometimes referred to by the acronyms “IxD” or “iD”… Wikipedia definition
User experience design is a subset of the broader field of experience design; the latter being defined as:
…an approach to the design of products, services and
environments based on a holistic consideration of the users’
experience. Experience design is therefore driven by consideration of
the ‘moments’ of engagement between people and brands, and the memories
these moments create. Also known as experiential marketing, customer
experience design, experiential design, brand experience.
Based on this definition, experience design uses the interactions of customers with products, services and company branding to optimize the overall impressions left by these. User experience design takes a similar approach and applies it to a specific set of products– computer-related ones. For example, an experience designer may refine the customer service and ambience of a hotel, whereas a user experience designer will optimize the customer’s interaction when making a reservation online, interacting with the hotel website or will improve the staff’s systems for managing hotel operations. The key difference can be found in the examination of the word ‘user.’
How Does it all work together?
For another perspective on experience design, read “How to Quantify the User Experience”. There are many articles which deconstruct this discipline, but they all revolve around the idea of user experience design as a multi-faceted approach aimed at making consumer experiences with products, sites and technology more pleasing for people to use.
This holistic methodology is often more adept at helping to reach a set of goals that encompass passive and active user interactions–goals determined both by users and the business or organization.
Experience design is a complex field that is not exactly discrete from all the others mentioned. In essence, user experience draws from each of these fields in order to address the various aspects of a user’s experience. If the user experience is meant to describe the user’s satisfaction with a product, there are a few key elements which need can be addressed the design and implementation of a website, widget or even marketing campaign.
It was a night of learning, seeing my digital comrades and finding the power in CS3, Flex and AdWonder 9.0. It was nothing but the digital worlds A listers.
EyeWonder, the "it" rich media company has quickly become digital video’s fastest-growing technology innovator. The event @ the Shoreham was to teach the digital community about the power of its AdWonder 9.0 Flash Component, the latest version of its revolutionary video and rich media advertising authoring tool.
After mingling a bit with the Adobe rep. and marketing team I found that EyeWonder is the first Adobe solutions partner to take the lead in the digital advertising community using Adobe® Flash® CS3 Professional and Flash Media server solutions. (Where is PointRoll and EyeBlaster now?)
After walking through the Flex demo, I was jumping out of my skin. It has become a streamlined process to create a flash application outside the web browser. The XP Designer in me was like a kid in a candy store. Then the gurus @ EyeWonder took us through the upgrades in AdWonder 9.0 which is sure to streamline our production, trafficking and tracking our rich media units created using Adobe Flash CS3.
I was thoroughly impressed with CS3 mobile application development suite. It gives you the ability to create flash lite apps and test them on thousands of handsets. The night was not all presentations and tech talk. It was great night of sharing drinks, jokes and digital chatter. Check out the photos here
I was skimming my RSS feed this morning and I saw Ian's post on how Batman marketers are starting with the loyal evangelists to get the buzz out on the upcoming movie.
Samplers were handing out dollar bills at Comic-Con in San Diego. On the dollar bills there was a phrase written "Why so serious".
When you Google Why So Serious, check out the second listing called Anticipation.
When you get there what seems (i said "seems") to be a crudely designed website appears...
Batman: The Dark Knight trailer begins playing after the first click. When you begin to take it all in you realize it is designed for the audience who is looking for a bit of a treasure hunt. I loved the Gotham Police report. This is really viral (something conversation worthy that starts in the core of a loyal audience and spreads through word of mouth)
But for those of us who believe in the evolution of creative the site is exactly what the fan base needs to begin getting jazzed! Check out the links at the bottom which begin to get the audience involved.
Batman fans get ready... its coming
Check it our at http://www.whysoserious.com/
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