I recently did a presentation on innovation at my agency, to keep us and clients up to speed with new happenings in the digital world. My main conclusion was to remind people that digital is more than just a mouse and a screen. ‘Digital can be everywhere’ in the words of our 3D bod.
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 10th 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.
“The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has launched an outdoor campaign using posters that play music to commuters as they pass by.
The ‘Sonic’ sites from CBS Outdoor contain music chips that play classical music to promote the 2009/2010 Season. The creative encourages consumers to purchase season tickets for Scotland’s prestigious Orchestra”
What a brilliant idea. After working on a BBC Classical music brief recently, our insight was that people like Classical music far more than they might immediately think, so the challenge is to get people listening to it again and reminding them of the breadth of appeal. So these posters are brilliant to go along with the site we are producing, as they do exactly what the insight suggests – take the music to the people, rather than requiring action from them and then providing an immediate call to action, whilst the consumer is in a purchase mindset. I wonder if this includes mobile ticket purchase?
Wonder how many music labels. promoters and music branding agencies are going to be using these?
Would love to see some video of this. Please let me know if you find some.
I’ve had dating and love on the brain of late … unfortunately not because of some romantic happenings in my life (boo hoo hoo). No I’ve been thinking about the digital space and dating.
Online dating is seemingly becoming more and more prolific, especially for my generation of late 20s to 30 somethings. It’s now practically the normal way to meet people. So then I started pondering if this is the same in other cultures? What is dating like in other cultures and how is the digital age aiding/hindering this?
Having lived in Japan, I know that dating over there is a whole different ball game. I mean they don’t even really have the words I love you and when I tried to just hug a friend I thought he might die of embarrassment.
In Japan, what they do have which I know about is something called – Konpa (don’t know how you spell this, but that’s the idea). Konpa is where two couples go out and essentially have a double date, in the hope that at least two of them will pull. It’s a lot more regimented that British let’s-get-drunk-and-slober-on-each-other styles. They also have the firmly held belief that women over 30 are ‘Obachan’. Translation – grandmothers. Nice. I wonder how hard the dating game is for these ladies, and ultimately are they using the online space to break down traditional boundaries?
Secondly, I was wondering if anyone has met anyone online via Twitter. ‘Oooh we were thousands of miles apart, but we met on twitter and fell in love in 140 words’.
Both of these cases are very interesting stories in my book. Book… book?
I often have lots of random ideas….so I decided I may as well share them with the world, rather than let them waste and fester in my noggin’.
I’ve been thinking a lot about one of the newer pieces of technology – digital bus stops. There’s been some cool stuff done, like the Cabury’s touch screen games. Now, Dove aren’t our client, but I was thinking about them anyway and their positioning as brand that celebrates women and their natural beauty. So imagine this ladies; it’s first thing in the morning, you are waiting for a bus and you are feeling particularly bleary eyed, somewhat resembling a hamster with pink eye. You turn around and see a mirror. ‘Aaaagh!’ I hear you cry. But then lo-and-behold the mirror starts complimenting you on how gorgeous you are looking! How wonderful you are! And what a treat it is to cast ‘eyes’ on you this fine morning!
So how does it work – basically, you could use the touchscreen technology to create a digital mirror which has audio built in and perhaps even combine motion sensors to detect movement - to give women of the world compliments. You could even use the touchscreen, so that the women can tailor the compliments e.g. what colour eye, hair etc.
I’d be up for a few compliments….not enough going around the world in my opinion.
Second idea of the day, is not necessarily digital, but would be good to share digitally: a social study of the demographic of bus stops throughout the day.
What?
I realised, at 7am this morning that demographic of a bus stop is markedly different to that at say 9am, 12pm etc and how interesting it would be to photograph the ‘demographic’ throughout the day. Would I be right that at 7am you see labourers and typically foreign workers (this is from my observation this morning), at 8.30am white-collar workers, 11am mothers and babies, 1am drunkards and students etc…..it would be interesting to find out if i’m right!
Spotify is the latest music site offering access to music from labels including: Universal, SEMI, EMI, Warner Music, Merlin, The Orchard and Bonnier Amigo. It gives free access to streamed music.
First you need to get your hands on a private invite whilst it is in the beta phase (just ask if you want one). But I do hear they are soon going to make people pay £9.99 per month. Not a bad amount if it really offers you advantages of what is already out there. So what advantages does it offer?
Streamed content (at higher quality than Youtube)
Jukebox facility. You can choose your tracks, create playlists and play to your hearts content, as long as there is an internet connection. Unlike Youtube.
Playlists you can share simply by emailing a HTTP address – which others can also add too – UG playlists. Nice. ‘My best 80’s film track’ anyone?
Clean easy to user itunes type interface
You don’t have to wait for downloads (or fill up your hard drive)
You can link it to your Last.fm account
So what are the disadvantages?
Competition from Last.fm as a free service provider – and in so much as people are naturally resistant to change – ‘Uff, yet another service to figure out. Why?’….
Talk of paid subscription
No iphone app
Not a web app
Not much in the way of genius type functionality i.e suggesting tracks you might like
No e-commerce
An important step in the online social music networks and indeed in how music is distributed and discovered. However it can always be improved.
The best improvement in the immediate term is to keep it free. And now they are ad serving could this be possible? If they then combine e-commerce with the site and other improvements, it could provide a significant change in the digital music model and very appealing way forward for music labels.
I wonder if itunes will copy this model or if Apple will even buy them? I wonder if Youtube will create a jukebox type function?
Happy New Year…i’ve had a digital break over the New Year and come back feeling fresh! I hope you have too.
I’ve just been introduced to some lovely new software called Skitch. It’s screengrab software that allows you to annotate the screenshot directly i.e. clearly point out a webpage functionality or issue you are trying desperately to explain to a client remotely.
It then also allows you to publish this directly to a url of your own. Which is nifty if don’t want to send a jpeg or allow multiple people to view easily.
I think it needs a few tweaks to make it more professional – better type face, some instant arrow tools – basically more functionality so you can customise. But for now, its better than taking a screen shot, importing to power point, annotating, blah, blah…etc. My friend has also recommended Jing, which I have yet to try and would love to hear more about, as in all honesty I can’t be bothered downloading yet more software just yet.
I also wonder if the digital world will start using Skitch et al as a kind of ‘image blogging’ i.e. a way to talk about what they have seen and have an opinion about, more directly. As each person has their own account and page which could be socially bookmarked, I also wonder if there will be any Skitch superstars? Move over Twitter for knowledge sharing? I doubt it, but a nice little bit of software anway.
I just read that the BBC are now offering online recipe videos and something struck me: there is a lot (LOT) of educational content online, but what is missing?
In my opinion, structure. Like a good old fashioned syllabus. Not everyone wants to just dip in and out. Some people would like to do a cost effective alternative to a basic cookery course or french cookery course. They would also have more of a sense of achievement, potentially longer term engagement with the site and ability to set goals.
Of course you would need to allow users who want to dip in and out do that, but others like a bit of structure and sense of purpose.
So when are we going to see the online cookery school from the BBC or others, or a way of tailoring your own syllabus (basically a list of favourites and a tick off list)? And how many other examples of this lack of structure are there…..youtube content, language learning content, podcasts….?
I love reading trend reports. Lots of food for thought for your clients and I like to see if I agree of course. Trendwatching have released the latest trend briefing in time for the New Year and it’s got some interesting ideas.
Out with the new and in with the old
I think the key trend coming out of this report and other sources, is that consumers are not so slap happy with the shopping so I guess the new slogan will be – out with the new and in with the old? Which could mean two things:
1. Purchasing old goods i.e. second hand. Which is quite possibly going to be the trend in the car market, to avoid the huge depreciation of the first purchase (if people purchase cars at all), maybe hitting up eBay more, second hand stores and the new online swap shops.
2. Getting more out of existing goods – so customising, adding features, just generally taking more care of what they already have (one can wish) and making more quality purchases so that they avoid having to dispose and replace at the rate we have seen in the past 5 years.
This second point also means that perhaps brands need to be thinking of new angles – for example a car manufacturer might try and push it’s ‘maintenance package’ or ‘guaranteed buy back price’ harder than the sexiness etc of their offering before. This would then take the edge of a big purchasing decision and maybe provide the tipping point to convince them to buy new goods.
Luxury
The report talks about luxurybeing an ‘enriching personal experience and not only an ownership or consumption of an expensive obeject’. So with people going back to basics a little more, luxury will essentially be the simple things in life: time for reflection, time with friends, nature, social experiences. Luxury without the guilt complex e.g the new Rough Luxe hotel in London. I really hope this will be the case and I think in certain segments of society it will – those with family and properties will spend more time at home, mainly because of the credit crunch. But you know, for someone like me; single, renting, working in a fast paced industry; i’m yet to understand how this will really affect my behaviour and the psychology behind it in the immediate term.
Reactive conversations with consumers
Feedback 3.0is also another theme – and hopefully brands will start to get this right – the idea that brands engage in genuine two-way conversations is clearly not new but hopefully brands will start doing this properly. And along with them going out of their way to solve problems they find via social media on the spot. I simply don’t understand why brands aren’t grasping this opportunity more fully. It’s the opportunity for brands to understand their customers far better, to get their ideas and feedback (viturally for free!), to respond to negative reviews in a more proactive way and develop their brand and products. )There is also the element of – I wouldn’t sit there in silence whilst someone insults me normally. Would you? So more twittering from brands and more sites like My Starbucks Idea. But let’s hope brands find a geniune way to do this, because we don’t need a cheese appreciation social network etc….(hmm or do we!?
Green
So what will happen to the Green issue? Well, I agree with them on this – green will still be embraced, but not as a badge of honor, but for monetary reasons. So brands need to be able to show customers how they can save money by being green rather than just shouting about how Eco-friendly they are.
Just a few trends i’ve picked out. So now it’s your turn – how can you apply these trends to your brand and ensure that you are reacting to what your customer really values and needs in 2009?
Found this interesting list of the top twitterers. Could be a good place to start if you are new to twitter and want to find some interesting people to follow: http://www.twitterholic.com/.
Now, the only thing missing is some info about what kind of things they are twittering about e.g. digital, news, techy etc. I’m sure it must exist out there?
