Living in a digital world

This week sees the launch of the “World’s first internet balloon race” by Orange (arguably an evolution from this idea). Although it may seem like a short-lived gimmick, it could perhaps be more accurately described as the latest attempt at creating a kind of metaweb - a layer of content that sits on top of the internet as we know it.

This is all part of a familiar story: the difficult process in which we collectively work out what to do with the technology we have created. One of the most visible examples of this process is the mobile phone - a well-conceived device to begin with (in terms of global market penetration, going from negligible to 50% in 15 years), it turns out that it can also provide banking infrastructure to third-world countries and has of course become the major focus of device convergence.

A more visceral example of this process can be seen in the field of movie special effects, where it plays out spectacularly in the public eye. For example, Steven Spielberg made use of CGI in Jurassic Park, and as a tool it evolved to a point of fluency when George Lucas came to direct the Star Wars prequels (although even now it still struggles to win over much of the movie-going public).

But the Academy Award for visual effects in 1999 went instead to The Matrix, because ‘bullet time’ demonstrated the first step towards a new tool: the virtual camera. As with CGI, there was a long period in which the new tool was used for its novelty value alone, rather than focussing on how it might be developed further. Almost a decade later, the team that first created the tool (John Gaeta and the Wachowski brothers) have demonstrated its greater potential with the release of Speed Racer. One shot in that effects-heavy film is notably weaker than the rest, and that is the direct homage to the original bullet time-style shot from the end of the original anime series’ opening credits - it feels awkward and contrived, and shows how far the tool has come by contrast with the rest of the film’s fluidity.

Of course, it’s not easy to tell which tools will actually prove useful given further developement. For example, 3D cinema has repeatedly failed to take off (although James Cameroon is convinced that this time it’s different). This difficulty was recently highlighted by Kevin Kelly, who recalls with humility his initial scepticism at the potential of Photoshop, Quicken, and eBay.

While it is hard to see quite how Orange’s balloon race could lead to much greater things, the recently hyped ‘Passively Multiplayer Online Game’, PMOG, while essentially a very similar idea, shows greater promise. As it stands it seems something of an unbalanced, gameable, niche product open to abuse by the likes of myminicity, but it does seem like a significant step towards something far grander than we can quite grasp at this point.

It’s a significant advance on the old web annotation concept, in which users can add notes to any web page they visit that are then viewable to subsequent visitors using the same annotation plug-in. PMOG takes the significant steps of explicitly facilitating links between otherwise separate web pages, and of introducing a half-way practical universal web currency.

Perhaps most significantly it suggests another route towards the anticipated metaverse - a single virtual destination through which eventually all our information and interactions will be filtered. Instead of waiting for a platform such as Facebook or Second Life to reach Google-like domination and thereby gain the power to force all content to fit their own structure and social norms, PMOG is instead a layer that rests lightly atop the web, allowing everything to continue as normal, and simply making things better for those that choose to view things through that layer.

As the Man On A Train says in Waking Life: “Things are just starting.”

Shackleton Madrid agency of the year. One of the jurors told me that Shackleton made over a 100 entries to Cannes. That’s a serious amount of time, money and effort, but it seems to have paid off for them.

From the UK, JWT and The Communications both get golds.Ogilvy, CHI and JWT get bronzes. As does our freelance art director, Michael Jones.

In the Promo category McCann Erickson from the UK get a gold.

Here is some of the shortlisted direct work. This is from Castrol. It’s my favourite piece in the category. Wearing motorcycle helmets is seen as very uncool by Indian youth. This mailed t-shirt on receipt gives 10 reasons why you shouldn’t wear a helmet. But, when it’s washed the t-shirt has an awful accident in the washing machine. The red ink runs blood red and the message mostly disappears leaving only the stark warning ‘reason why you should wear a helmet’. Excellent.

During the Hollywood writer’s strike, TCM sent out this simple mailer. It features a very short letter claiming the channel is in full support of the strike, as after all the best movies have already been made. Such a clear dramatisation of the movie channel’s USP.

Mailpack for Toyota, selling the benefits of the built-in GPS system. Again a simple idea - the envelope has been redirected, but with GPS you’ll arrive without detours.

Lots of ideas playing with the mechanics of mail this year. Here a scale replica of the Land Rover Discovery is sent to prospects in packaging which appears to have been absolutely battered in the process of reaching you. However the ‘indestructible’ Land Rover Discovery is in pristine condition inside the ruined packaging.

Not very PC, but perfect for the target audience. This is the ‘last longer’ pillow.

Wow. What an amazing year for the UK. After a few years of putting in a distinctly average digital performance at Cannes, this year UK agencies have been shortlisted everywhere (probably second most shortlisted country after the US) - and it’s interesting the mix of agencies represented; above-the-line, below-the-line, pure-play - everyone seems to be in on the digital act.

It’s good year for the network too with Rapp Collins Malaysia, DDB Stockholm (3), DDB Oslo, Rapp Digital Brazil, DDB Germany Hamburg and DDB Germany Berlin (2) all appearing on the shortlist.

The big news on the direct shortlist is that Australia has done bloody well, the Germans gain many appearances also. Rapp Collins NY is there - on the B2B shortlist for the agency’s future garden website. The french office has also been shortlisted for some lovely viral work for stella photographic studios using a model, speed cameras and motorways!

Michael Jones who is in our london office has also been shortlisted in the direct and press categories for some work he did at M&C in Australia.

Interestingly the category that the UK is most represented in is integrated, with CHI, Elvis, JWT and The Communications agency making up more than 30% of the shortlisted agencies.

In the outdoor category Asia storms the shortlist, with plenty of work from Thailand and Malaysia. Even Vietnam making an appearance. It seems that the most interesting work in this category is coming from the East. As an aside the Cannes organisers are keen to have the Asian market embrace the event. There’s a lot of China events here and a delegation from China is visiting to decide whether to whole heartedly send a huge delegation to next year’s event.

In the promo category Momentum make an appearance for their ‘other lunch break’ campaign for Mini. I’m really chuffed this campaign has been recognised. I think it’s a marvellous example of how agencies should be thinking. Read more about the campaign here and here.

Today Proximity did an interesting seminar on the lost generation (born 1966-1972). This generation is currently entering leadership positions. Proximity rather than labelling this generation as gen x have attempted to understand them in more depth by dividing them into three categories: cruiser, nesters and super breeders. It’s complicated if you want to know more leave a comment or email me.

tomorrow I’ll post some jpegs of some of the shortlisted direct work that really excited me.

My global creative director, Ian Haworth, is presenting a seminar (you can see the slides above) around how we build value based relationships now, rather than one dimensional communications. A parallel theme is how great a time it is to be a creative and how technological change is taking many of the traditional restrictions away.

Hopefully I’ll be able to give you more details, but as Ian talks my battery is quickly running down.

As a starting point Ian takes us through a whirlwind tour of excellent but simple comms, before starting to make the point that great creative comms work is no longer enough, we now need to make more emotional connections that are deeper than simply working towards brand affinity.

The journey Ian describes is from creative that focuses on a USP to work that focuses on ESP (emotional selling points) to BBSP (belief based selling points) to VBSP (Values based selling points). Communications that develop from belief and values based selling points tend to a have a real, human truth embedded deep within them. They also seem to ignite peer to peer based activity simply because the messages really resonate with the target audience. Ian illustrates this with some work from Merck, around a cervical cancer vacine, Gardasil. Here’s a video of the case study:

The other side to this is how BBSP and VBSP comms lead to debate, eg The Dove work though well received has had it’s online detractors arguing that the brand is hypocritical. A recent NSPCC online advertising campaign (disclaimer: I was involved in this work) led to a huge debate on a Weight Watchers forum. The NSPCC ads were banners shouting abuse at the user and asking ‘click to stop the abuse’. When served on the weight watchers site these ads alienated some of the users (self-esteem issues meant many weren’t happy to have the banner shout abuse at them). However on the forums the work had many defenders. Ian’s point? Because the work was belief based it caused deep seated reactions in its audience and led the work to take on a life of i’s own.

Whoops battery about to go - so I’ll blog this later (after stealing Ian’s presentation and recharging the laptop).

…It’s now later and here’s some of the video case studies from Ian’s presentation (I’ll upload them over the next day or so). You can also see Ian’s presentation here.

Here we go. Blog report from the Debussy Theatre at Cannes 2008. Over the next few days I’ll blog each of the seminars and workshops I go to. I’ll also report on the award winners and ceremony. Do bear with any typo’s - I’m blogging live so there will be mistakes (I’ll edit later, promise).

The first seminar is from FEDMA (Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing). Patrick Collister is presenting some thinking about how DM is sexy, and how increasingly above the line agencies are utilising dm techniques.

For instance, in talking about the sony foam ad, patrick points out that the ad was based on an event, an event where camera users shot the ad as it was filmed, those images are on a website where users can explore the camera and buy it. Patrick asks what awards the ad might win. Probably TV. Maybe media. But in fact it could be more usefully be considered as a winner in the direct awards because it’s ultimate aim is to drive people to a transactional environment.

In fact Patrick points out that the ad is both brand and direct. And five minutes into the presentation, this seems likely to be the core theme - ie the old categories are irrelevant. DM is doing brand (as evidenced by a lovely wooden mailer for a karate magazine) and brand is doing DM.

Patrick argues that one of this first instances of brands advertising moving beyond the ad was the bmw films work from 2002. BMW commissioned a series of films and placed online. In the US the work got 20 million hits, 2 million signed up online, and in a single year BMW’s brand took 12% more share in North America. Unbelievably when a new marketing director joined a year later he fired Fallon - the agency that had given BMW a massive commercial boost. Go figure.

More no-line thinking is evidenced by a campaign for Jim Beam, Press ads placed in women’s magazines spoke to male readers suggesting that if the where reading the female magazine they were a wuss and needed help. Driven to a website, the men could sign-up for a sample of Jim Beam, It was brand, it was dm, it was sales promotion. The line had disappeared.

Interestingly Patrick claims there is still a line, but it isn’t horizontal. There is no longer an above or below. The line is vertical. It runs through everything, and the very best work does just that. And it is this permission for dm to sell but also to do brand, that is making dm work increasingly sexy. A chocolate mailing from the royal mail is used to demonstrate this - an emotional communication that also as a response purpose.

On response Patrick points out that in the past the average response rate is 2%. Not good enough claims Patrick. If DM can now work brand magic, then it’s not good enough to be potentially alienating 98% of your audience. You’v got to aim higher. Leo Burnett in Oz last year ran some work for WWF encouraging people to turn off their lights for an hour. 2% wouldn’t have been good enough. Leo Burnett aimed at 100%, During the targetted hour 2.2 million households turned their lights off for an hour. The equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road - reducing Sydney’s daily energy consumption by 10%.

In aiming for higher response, you can’t just measure traditional scores. You have to measure other things. Expanding on his vertical line theme, Patrick claims that it slides along an axis from pre-decision (emotional) effects to transactional (rational) effects. New, sexy DM should aim to create responses along the entire axis.

Interestingly a lot of the really interesting sexy DM work is comng from brand advertising agency. Patrick ends his seminar by making a call for DM agencies to step up to the challenge and start creating more of this work themselves.

Here’s a similar presentation Patrick’s done previously. Some of the work featured was shown in his Cannes seminar.

Pretty much everybody in our industry has been saying for years that mobile is going to be huge and the boom is just round the corner. An interesting post and set of slides on o’reilly radar demonstrates exactly why this this - There are 3.3 billion mobile phones in use worldwide:

What really interested me is the next slide about iPhone usage that can give us an insight into why mobile internet use hasn’t taken off in the west as we expected it to:

I think a very good argument can be made that the pre-iPhone generation of mobile phones were simply too difficult to use for mobile browsing and the stripped down version of the internet they can browse was simply too limiting.

In my opinion it is the simple and intuitaive user interface that has enabled internet use on the go to be pleasurable and useful rather than a battle that has led to the huge uplift in mobile browsing on the iPhone.

Other mobile manufactuers have learnt from the iPhone, when they have fully incorporated its lessons into their user interface, mobile internet use will explode.

There is also a lesson to be learnt by all agencies and companies that develop applications and sites on the web. Usability matters. An easy to use, simple website often has a competitive advantage over it’s rivals. As an agency and an industry we sometimes fail to recognise this. We’ll return to this point in more detail over the next few weeks.

Here is the full slideshow from the mobile presentation I took the two slides from, it’s well worth a look if you’re interested in the ins and outs of developing for the mobile web:

Last week the IPA announced that legal restrictions on deceptive buzz marketing have now come into force, in the form of the new Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations, which has quite a few things marketers need to pay attention to.

The IPA drew particular attention to item 22 on the list of 31 specific types of marketing activity considered ‘always unfair’, which reads: “Falsely claiming or creating the impression that the trader is not acting for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession, or falsely representing oneself as a consumer.”

Online, it seems this will primarily act as a welcome disincentive to those companies taking advantage of user review sites to give themselves inordinately favourable write-ups under the guise of consumers.

Perhaps as a side effect, this also rules out the deceptive tactic of releasing content intended for viral distribution under the guise of a passionate consumer.

Broadly speaking, the list of unfair practices will accord naturally with practices consumers already perceive to be unfair (or indeed were already covered by the Trade Descriptions Act). But when all is said and done, consumers will never take kindly to deception, whether it falls under the remit of the new regulations or not - and any content that succeeds virally will fall under the scrutiny of an army of geeks.

An interesting example is the recent viral video of a man dressed as Indiana Jones fleeing a giant LEGO boulder.

The fact that it wasn’t a genuine piece of user-generated content proved just as viral as the initial video, although this wasn’t perceived as a problem by all - as one Boing Boing commenter put it: “those internet marketers are TERRIBLE. How DARE they make something that we found briefly enjoyable.” What was more consistently disappointing for viewers was the fact that the boulder was merely made of styrofoam with a LEGO shell and certainly did not contain 5 million pieces as claimed by the video.

So while there is now a hard line defining what counts as unacceptable deception, that doesn’t mean anything on the legal side of that line is still a good idea. And if you’re not careful, Captain Disillusion will take you down.

Apologies for my recent posting laziness. One of the hazards of running a work related blog, is work getting in the way. Damn.

To make up for my shoddiness here are a few sites (some new, some not so new) that I think point to the way the web is developing at the moment.

CLOUD COMPUTING

First off - the cloud, the mesh, the whatever. The cloud refers to accessing computing services over the web rather than from your desktop - see definition here. In other words applications live ‘out there in the cloud’ rather than inside your machine. For a while now I’ve been using google docs (for word processing, presentations and spreadsheets). The following google docs video gives a good explanation for why you might find cloud computing useful: 

But there are many more interesting examples of cloud applications starting to appear. A month or so ago Adobe made Photoshop Express freely available as a cloud app. The app allows users to tweak, store and place images on flickr, facebook, etc. It’s not anywhere near as advanced as the full version (obviously), but it does point to the way users can expect to access more services away from their desktop. And it’s free.

As is box.net a free online storage and collaboration application. I use it to (along with flickr for photo’s) to keep my hard drive free of unnecessary data and as a security back-up in case my home computer gets stolen.

Another tool that I find useful is LogMeIn - this cloud app allows you to access your home computer from anywhere in the world. So far it feels secure. It also allows you to create a vpn (virtual private network) which is able to connect multiple computers. And like box.net it can act as storage backup - except LogMeIn can do this automatically.

FREE STUFF

Although not a cloud app, AVG is well worth downloading (if you’re running Windows or Linux). It’s free anti-virus software. Like lots of free software it does encourage you to upgrade (and pay) for a more advanced solution. 

NICHE SOCIAL NETWORKING

For the past year or so lots of brands have tried to exploit the opportunities offered by social network, but only a few have been brave enough to launch their own niche networks. Courvoisier have their future 500 network for today’s most thrusting and select business stars. And earlier this year the Financial Times announced the thrillingly named FT Media and Technology Executive Membership Forum  - a £2,000 a year subscription based network designed to enable senior executives to ‘maintain contact with peers and luminaries operating within the digital, new media, mobile and telecoms sectors.’ Phew - and pricey too.

More exciting is quark’s social network hooking up designers and allowing them to share their portfolios online. Ilovedesign is the site.

VIDEO

Video services seem to be all the rage at the moment. Youtube are due to launch a live video streaming product soon, for a while now kyte have been allowing users to create their own tv channel streaming content live (and rather badly) from their mobiles. But for me, the most exciting video project (and no doubt youtube will nix this when they launch their service) is Y!Live an experimental release from Yahoo. The site takes live video from your webcam and simply streams it to the world - bingo, your own personal tv channel.

I can see huge opportunities for brands here. Especially in the fundraising space. Imagine a regular stream from your favourite charity in the developing world, where field workers report in each day to chat about their projects and introduce the local people they’re working with. Supporters of the charity would have a instant view of how their money is having an impact, and the charity has a new, low budget media channel - they also incidentally have an instant video conferencing ability allowing dozens of people in many different locations to see what they’re up to.