Really loving the flexibility it is giving me, the insight into different companies/agencies and the variety of work.

So, if anyone has any interesting creative projects they need a producer for then let me know!  Although I’m a digital specialist, ‘ve got some ATL experience too and keen to expand my experience in this area too.

Must write my musings  about ‘seeking out meaning not money’ and what this will mean for people like myself working with technology (and at an ad agency!).

But, perhaps when I’m not about to drop….Zzzzz.

Creative Technologists are beasts which already exist in many digital agencies, but often is the case that ‘traditional developers’ are still at the fore.

What do I mean by the traditional developer?  Basically someone who is passed a brief, and asked to build something, pretty much without asking questions. This is compared to a Creative Technologist who in the ideal world is involved in the project from the start to finish, pushing the boundaries, not hemmed in by their particular programming language and looking for opportunities to apply technology creatively for brands they work with to help them grow their brand. Which will win? As technology infuses our lives further and further it only makes sense that roles like the latter become increasingly significant in creative agencies and account planning.

But to truly make the shift I don’t think this will be easy, for all parties.  For ‘traditional developers’ it would be a steep learning curve and shift in skill set: understanding branding/brand communications and being able to apply technology to the brands, improving communication skills so they become more like account people in a way (technology sales people essentially), generally being less code driven and more creatively driven (therefore a wider tool box of technological knowledge that reaches well beyond what a programming language) – they also need to be infinitely curious and open to learning, to prove their true worth and stay ahead of the fast moving curve.

For account people and producers, it will be a challenge to open their eyes fully to the breadth of technology and understand how this can fit into projects and account planning.

For clients it will be to be brave and work in new unchartered territory.  Balancing any risk with the fact that this is often where the biggest wins can be found. And ultimately recognising how technology is going to become more integral to our lives as themes like the ‘internet of things’ start to breathe more life.  This being the idea that we will live in an intelligent world of objects, things and products all conversing with each other throughout a network – it’s no longer about the internet, it’s about a whole infrastructure of technology supporting our lives and interactions.  The new opportunities for brands will be there for the taking, if they can keep their eyes open to new types of opportunities, models and partnerships.

Naturally it will be developers who will make the easiest transition to this new mind set.  You can also see that masses of developers have natural leanings towards creativity.  However I think true Creative Technologists will be relatively rare in the current market place and not it’s not particularly anyone’s fault, it’s just because many developers are used to being delivered a brief and not being part of forming the brief so they aren’t in the habit of trying to inform the solution creatively and being an agnostic source of technology information.

I guess the key is starting to put developers even more at the heart of the creative solution (and not just lip service) – otherwise they won’t have the mandate to behave as such.  There will also be a job to be done in skilling up in the areas that aren’t part of their current tool box (less about code and more about the brand angle).

New creative team models will also play a role. I think creative teams could and should in future include: art director, technologist + ‘a/the’ brand expert (which depending on the agency set-up could already be the Art Director already), to provide a good balance of perspectives.  The old model of copy writers and art directors, seem less relevant, although not entirely irrelevant.

I think for any one who works in an agency, it’s going to be a whole new learning curve away from creative applications of digital and towards creative Technology, new business models and new concepts of the role of agencies for their accounts.

…just when everyone thought they were getting digital!

What’s interesting is that have created an almost cult-ish following by moving away from their original creative based around their arguably stale image of Swedish heritage, towards an underground, youth focused image, whilst keeping the idea of being something authentic and credible.

The big idea = if you find Koppaberg you’ll find cool stuff.

It was done on a relatively low budget too apparently by tapping into existing underground gigs, films, events etc.  Through these they created a fully immersive experience based around the theme of ‘discovery’ (and they also managed to create loads of creative assets relatively cheaply in the process).  They ‘sponsored’ The Joy formidable and created a promo for them, which became their ad and also used photography from the gigs for print.  The band are now tipped to be one of the biggest new acts of the year.

Facebook fans 7k > 24K. Sales up 52%. so can’t have been a bad job!

Have a look: http://www.findkopparberg.com/

‘Find a new place to party, an undiscovered band, an underground event or a new creative talent. Find the special, the rare and the wonderful. Find Kopparberg.’

Anyway,  I went to a conference earlier this week about the convergence of digital with traditional marketing.

Thought I would share something interesting, seeing as you are likely sat around chomping on your sarnie.

First one is a case study from Heineken, which originally started as a PR Stunt for the Italian market and the video of it went viral globally and reached an audience of 40 million (so they say).

Definitely worth a watch for some creative inspiration.  Reminds us of the power of creating engaging and entertaining content is one of the most powerful things on the web (not static brochure websites!).

There was a good quote from the campaign:

‘Don’t show me the script, show me the press release’ (Founder of Crispin Porter and Bogusky)

Keywords

• Keyword in title tag (+3)
• Keyword in URL (+3)
• Keyword density in document (+3)
• Keyword in H1 and H2 headings (+3)
• Keyword in the beginning of document (+2)
• Keyword in ALT tags (+2)
• Keyword in Meta tags (+1)
• Keyword stuffing (-3)

Links

• Anchor text of inbound links (+3)
• Origin of inbound links (+3)
• Links from similar sites (+3)
• Links from .edu and .gov sites (+3)
• Anchor text of internal links (+2)
• Many outgoing links (-1)
• Outbound links to bad neighbors (-3)
• Cross-linking (-3)

Meta tags

• Description Meta Tag (+1)
• Keywords Meta Tag (+1)
• Refresh Meta Tag (-1)

Content

• Unique content (+3)
• Frequent updates (+3)
• Age of content (+2)
• Poor coding or design (-2)
• Invisible text (-3)
• Doorway pages (-3)
• Duplicate content (-3)

Other factors

• Site accessibility (+3)
• Sitemap (+2)
• Site size (+2)
• Site age (+2)
• Top-level domain (+1)
• URL length (0)
• Hosting downtime (-1)
• Flash (-2)
• Misused Redirects (-3)

I was recently looking to educate myself a little more about this topic and found this article on accessibility which summarises some of the key points.  So even if you aren’t going for the top  AAA standard (apparently fairly hard to attain), this is a good starting point for the basics:  http://www.accessible.org/accessible-web-designs.html.

Examples include:

• Making sure buttons make sense by themselves i.e. if it says ‘click here’ a partially sighted person tabbing through content won’t know what they are clicking to see.  So better to say ‘click here for news’.
• Making sure the images and text are enlargeable.
• Making sure images and maps have alt tags.

Etc….

The guidelines come from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines – which I believe is the main document everyone referts to for AAA standards and has lots of detail in it: http://www.w3.org/WAI/

I’ve been looking at some practical advice to share about creating email campaigns that don’t hit the spam box, so here is what I can share that I’ve learnt and are good to share with novice email developers:

• A professionally designed email with the correct HTML code throughout will ensure your email looks its best in all browsers and you will avoid high spam scores for bad coding.
• Make sure your email doesn’t have any missing or redundant code.
• Don’t miss out the email title.
• Spell everything correctly.
• Ensure your email is not created solely as images. This is a well know tool that spammers use to get past content filters.  Try to get a good mix of HTML text and images in your emails for the best results.
• Always send a plain text version with your HTML email to ensure that if the recipient cannot use HTML or is opening it on a PDA or phone, they will still be able to view it.
• Always try to ensure the plain text version matches the HTML version as closely as possible.
• NEVER USE CAPITALS when you don’t have too. It’s even worse when whole lines are in capitals
• Avoid using italics and very large fonts.
• Avoid using non standard colours.
• Avoid forms in the email itself.
• Images accompanied by little or no text
• Very long list of recipients – send out in phased batches.
• Ensure the email address is valid.
• Large or very long messages exceeding a recipient’s limit
• Attachments
• Colored backgrounds
• Large fonts
• Colored fonts
• Messages created with Microsoft FrontPage
• Punctuation in the subject line
• HTML font color is gray, red, yellow, green, blue, magenta or “unknown to us”

• Trigger words or phrases in the body or subject line, such as “click,” “free,” “guarantee,” “limited-time offer,” “urgent matter” (see below).

Common spam triggering words

These are words which you really want to share with your copywriters and tell them not to use as they put the spam bots in a frenzy:

• Dear Friend – either personalise properly or use Sir/Madam.
• Free – Free offer, Free trial, Free application, Free sample, Free access, Free anything can cause spam problems especially when used in capitals.
• No obligation.
• No risk, low risk, risk free.
• “Click here” or “click below”.
• Order now.
• No catch.
• Money back guarantee.
• Click to be removed.
• Have you been turned down.
• Never mention spam or spam legislation in your emails.
• Click
• Trial (our trial product…)
• Dear ….
• Not intended for residents of… (this could be in the disclaimer)
• Bankruptcy (discussing your workout practice)
• Call now (to register for your seminar)
• Limited-time offer
• Full refund
• Save up to…
• Guaranteed
• Cash (as in “the acquiring company agreed to a deal composed of cash and stock…”)
• Millions of pounds (in the verdict or transaction…)
• Income
• Urgent matter
• Potential earnings
• Breakthrough
• Free offer, free quote

I’ve heard Mailchimp is a very good email distribution client, so have a look!

So I thought I’d spread the love even more and share it with you too!  So here it is … a few links to digital stuff I like. Me, me, me.

Sharpies ‘Uncap what’s Inside
Fun site effectively using social media and tapping into the recession ‘make, do and mend’ trend. Really liked their idea for customising sandwich bags!

Sharpie 'Uncap what's inside'

We make stories
Penguin kids site to encourage kids to learn about story telling:

Creativity doesn’t need a big budget
Made on a $0 budget with the directors in one country and the band in another this music video is pretty nifty.  Makes you think how you can come up with some really cool ideas, even when you have a lot of constraints.  Streeetches the imagination.

Sour music video

Webdesign and projects checklists
Inspiration about usability, design, briefs etc to help finesse your work….:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/29/45-incredibly-useful-web-design-checklists-and-questionnaires/

Mash-up inspiration
Lots of examples of Google maps mash-ups to inspire e.g seinfeld maps, michael Jackson tribute map, wikipedia on Google maps.

One innovation I looked at was interactive Cinema, as used by Volvo.  The in-cinema car driving game is controlled by the audience holding their hands up to control the direction of the car.  It looks a bit shaky from the demo video (below), with the car not really responding to the audience movement so well. So lets hope 02′s latest application of this digital technology is a bit more slick.

Going live on 10^th July, ‘Asteroid Storm’ will feature in the trailer reels before Ice Age 3 3D and G-Force in the summer, followed by Up and Toy Story 3D in the autumn.

02 Interactive Cinema game

The game takes place on ‘Starship O2’ which is trapped in an asteroid belt. The audience is told by the captain that the ship has been damaged and that their help is needed to steer the ship back on course. Again by using their hands the audience is able to control the direction of the spaceship.

The 3D game itself is powered by technology from iO and was conceived by O2’s media agency, ZenithOptimedia. Creative work was done by VCCP and Agency Republic.

People expect a more and more from their cinema – it’s not just a venue anymore, they want more of an experience and a hightened feeling of an ‘adventure’.  Family are a key audience that cinemas are wanting to tap into, so digitally lead interactive and immersive experiences like this will be a great way to keep audiences coming back for more.