Posted at 04:44 PM in art, Books, creativity, culture, Current Affairs, Elasticity, Future, joder, media, philosophy, planning, problem solving, Religion | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I loved this video from Volkswagen, which goes to show the power of a brand going beyond its purview to bring a benefit greater than itself to people's lives. (as well as the power of what Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge calls libertarian paternalism). More brands should really think about how to help people, beyond just RTBs.
It also raises an interesting question with viral videos as to what credit (or blame) an agency in Sweden should get for changing brand perception of a global brand in the US. For me, this video does more to improve my opinion of VW than anything Crispin has done for them here in the US.
Posted at 08:00 AM in art, creativity, culture, Design, Elasticity, Games, joder, philosophy, problem solving, Retail, Social Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Two TED talks I recently came across and an interesting article from Ad Age.
The first, of Dave Logan on Tribal Leadership
And the second, the inimitable Seth Godin
And the article: No More Joe Consumer
All are interesting (and flawed, in their own way, but who cares, they're interesting), with the main point being the importance of tribes (and individuals with unique backgrounds) in the spreading of ideas over the 20th Century model driven by mass production, mechanization and advertising
Good stuff. Guess I picked a good time to go back to the fringes, since that's where it all is happening.
Although the whole 'Tribes' motif could be negative (you aren't you, you're your group) the most interesting interpretations are humanistic and empowering.
What's great about this? Well in Adland all of it begins to upends the notion of the USP and the WHO. Less single minded ness, less always trying to answer the question "do we have their permission to do X' from people who are worried that the answer is no. All of this means that you don’t need people’s permission to lead them, just a good idea that you can convince people to coalesce around.
Posted at 10:30 PM in beginning, crowdsourcing, Design, Elasticity, Experience Design, problem solving, Religion, Social Media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Check out the piece that Dev Patnaik of Jump Associates wrote for the Fast Company blog recently.
In it he argues that the growth due to innovation that happened at P&G over the last 6+ years was the result of integrated thinking that launched their design revolution.
As a planner who has always succeeded by being a bit of a round peg in the square hole of advertising/media/technology I have to agree of the importance of this type of thinking, especially at P&G. Of course many planners (and designers and artists and creatives and my wife) who benefit from such holistic/hybrid/integrated/lateral thinking tend to come from slightly strange or mixed backgrounds which explain the predominance of funny names, bizarre ethnic mixes and odd personal histories in all of those professional creative communities.
Diversity breeds inventive minds. Fortune favors the hybrid mind.
But one question is why that thinking hasn’t spread throughout the company. I have the great pleasure of working with P&G for the last few years in both advertising, ethnic marketing and PR. And while I never cease to be impressed by the quality of the minds with whom I’ve had the chance to work in marketing and research, I can only wonder how those great minds would benefit from being unleashed by a similar desire for integrated thinking further downstream in the product development process than described in Dev's piece.
In other words, as Dev says, hybrid thinking or "the conscious blending of different fields of thought (has helped )to discover and develop opportunities that were previously unseen by the status quo”
You could say that this hasn’t happened in marketing or communications at P&G in the same way as it has in product development.
I know we’ve started to try at my agency, with some success (to cite one example among others I can't quite share yet). If I have one promise to make or one goal to set for myself for the coming year, it’ll be to unleash what this kind of thinking can bring across the board to make these products or brands to live in the world.
To do any less would be to do less than this great company deserves (even if they haven’t always realized it themselves) and less than we ourselves deserve.
Let's see how this works out. Have you tried in your sphere of influence?
Posted at 10:24 PM in beginning, creativity, culture, Design, Elasticity, Experience Design, Future, problem solving, tools | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
I thought this was a really fun way to encourage interaction between museum, artist and viewer. The artist created the concept, initiated the performance and then let it go.
I'm looking forward to seeing it at MoMA. An interesting take on crowdsourcing and perhaps a guide to non-art related entitites interested in opening themselves to others.
Posted at 02:43 PM in art, beginning, creativity, crowdsourcing, culture, Elasticity, Experience Design, media, New, problem solving | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tom O'Brien recently tweeted a link to Neal Stephenson's Spew, a piece in WIRED from what is essentially the dawn of time, 1994. What's crazy about it, given when it was published, is how prescient NS was on where we would be 15 years later.
Go ahead. Read the piece. It's really good, in the way that a cyberpunk piece called 'Spew' from 1994 is good. I know sometimes the links don't come through when these blogposts pop up on Facebook, but Google it if you don't see the link and read it. I'll wait...
OK, it's not the Baroque Cycle or even Snow Crash, but it's sort of what we do for a living (or should be), right?
Anyway, a few things occurred to me while reading the piece:
Posted at 02:50 PM in beginning, Books, creativity, culture, Current Affairs, Elasticity, Experience Design, Future, New, problem solving, Retail, Social Media, visualization, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
...and I figured I would try to get your help.
The nice folks at the NY Latino International Film Festival have been kind enough to invite me to speak on a panel next week. The topic is 'Multicultural Millenials' or as they've put it in the description:
It's at 3 PM on July 30 at HBO (1100 Ave of the Americas b/w 42/43rd Sts – 15th floor) but I'm not writing this post to shamelessly plug.
I'm posting to elicit some ideas. Sure, I'm going to follow Guy's advice. And yes, I have some opinions on the subject already: the fluidity of identity, multicultural or not; lack of importance of authority; they don't twitter or pay for music; Univision isn't producing content for them, which is why they're going to UGC; blah blah blah...
OK, I have some more homework to do to prepare. But as part of that homework, as the panel is a week away, I thought I would see if anyone else has found resources or info online that are particularly enlightening about these so-called multicultural millenials.
I'm very open to stealing your ideas...I'll give credit, of course...
Posted at 10:40 AM in beginning, Experience Design, Future, media, Music, problem solving, Social Media, Television | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6703399.ece
I thought this article was interesting, as much for the (half baked) insights this kid has as for the idea that one kid, texting a bunch of friends can make a piece of research that is more valuable that all the other stuff a huge investment bank is generating.
Kind of makes you wonder if we or our clients are using our intuition to dig for consumer insights or letting 'corporate constipation' stand in the way of digging for good ideas.
Anyway, it was interesting and sparked some very good ideas. (thanks Eliza for sending it to me.)
Posted at 06:33 PM in beginning, creativity, Current Affairs, Elasticity, joder, media, planning, problem solving, Social Media, tools | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
From a random conversation with a friend who's an ex-Marine (can you be an 'ex' Marine?), via a friend of his (I think) who is a full bird colonel in the Air Force.
Two pieces of advice:
When the balloon goes up it goes up fast
When the shit hits the fan, wind your watch.
Posted at 11:57 AM in art, beginning, creativity, culture, Current Affairs, Experience Design, Film, problem solving, visualization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
My boss and I had the great pleasure of meeting and having lunch with Pedro Font, a true legend in (multicultural) marketing and advertising yesterday.
For those of you who don’t know who he is, he’s the man who put the Fo into the FoVa that still appears on my paycheck. (17 years later, WING is technically a dba).
He founded the predecessor to Wing in 1979, 30 years ago this year. Say what you will, he was a major force in making the Hispanic market and multicultural marketing the multi-billion industry that it has become. If you want to read a decent overview of the agency back when Grey acquired it, check out this link.
He, for lack of another word, es un personaje. Since leaving the agency he has run a business responsible for selling Televisa’s content and other companies’ films distribution rights all over the world. In other words, Don Pedro is doing just fine, thanks. For all the stories I’ve heard through the years, and I'm sure the rest of you have too, I found him quite gracious, full of ideas and interested in what we’re up to at the agency.
Put a different way, Don Pedro is on our side.
As a true personaje, Don Pedro was not hesitant to regale us with stories and to give us advice. Some of it should be taken with a grain of salt, some of it is useful. All of it is worth reading.
I took notes, and figured I’d share what I gleaned to be Don Pedro’s rules of the road with you. Some of it he said, some of it was observed....
Oh, and if you can, get your own table at 21.
Posted at 04:43 PM in beginning, creativity, culture, Elasticity, Experience Design, Food and Drink, media, problem solving | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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