2010. ápr. 29.

SLANT: Good Interface Design Makes You Happy

"Know why SLANT's excited? Touchscreens and mobile devices are everywhere, and this is just the beginning. Hundreds of brands have the opportunity to deliver an amazing user experience... IF they pay attention to quality graphic user interface design (GUI).
At SLANT, that's the kind of challenge we live for. (Well, besides all-U-can-eat taco night). So, we created this video to share our thoughts on GUI and User Experience Design (GUI + UX) and its ties to marketing.

2010. ápr. 23.

The Socially Powered Enterprise

So you are on LinkedIn.
You have got "a Twitter".
You have got "a Facebook"
NOW WHAT?


...and a very similar presentation from the same  brand strategist, social media veteran, Eric Weaver (Tribal DDB Canada)

2010. ápr. 21.

Kreatív megjelenések az MSN, Live Messenger, Hotmail felületeken

A minap az Adaptive Media oldalán jártam és belebotlottam egy, a Microsoft Live felületeire készített kreatív megoldásokat bemutató videóba. Akkor még összesen csak 37-en látták, pedig szerintem ennél azért fontosabb eszközökről van szó ...legalábbis a Messenger Magyarországon igen fontos online média felület, tekintve hogy megközelíthetetlen kategóriaelső és nem csak egy buta display felület. Ehhez pedig a havi 2.4 milliós elérés, a napi 800.000 belépő és a napi 100 millió üzenet elég meggyőző alátámasztás, amihez kb. az kell, hogy a userek nagyrészénél egész nap nyitva legyen az alkalmazás.

Ilyen adatok mellett azért érdemes megnézni a felületek technikai lehetőségét.
Enjoy!

2010. ápr. 20.

Reklám7 - Lemaradtam valamiről?



Ma kezdődött.

Mivel az ügynökségünk februárban indult, nincsenek prioritásban olyan természetes dolgok, mint betegszabadság, szabadság, vagy fesztiválok. Ergo nem vagyunk ott.

Sajnálom, mert Babocsay Ádám és Mányai Csaba barátaim gondolatait mindig szívesen hallgatom, a Red Bull márka kiterjesztésének terve kifejezetten izgalmasnak tűnik, a médiapiaci válság részleteit jó ha ismeri az ember és Erdélyi Zsolt sokk-terápiája örök hiánypótló performansz. És akkor még végigülném a teljes digitális csütörtököt és a pénteki Harcosok Klubját. (A vidéki programok értelmét és okait még keresem, de a szervezők biztosan tudják, hogy miért kell...)



Szóval nem vagyok és a Rebel Rouse-ból senki sincs a helyszínen. Ez van.
Viszont éppen ezért nagyon kíváncsi vagyok azok véleményére, akik ott vannak/voltak ...vagy ha nem mentek el, akkor miért nem mentek el.

Persze ennyivel nem ússzák meg ezt a posztot a tisztelt szervezők, akik kb. 10 évet tévedtek a konferencia kivitelezésével. Ugyanis 2010-ben, a social bumm kellős közepén, lehetetlen, hogy nincs streaming video a helyszínről, amire bárki otthonról előfizethet. (Pl. én is) Vagy lenne legalább néhány ingyenesen streamelt előadás. De ehelyett mindössze tweetekre és néhány fotóra telt, miközben már azt kellene értékelni, hogy hányan kapcsolódtak a streamre, melyik előadásra és meddig maradtak rajta? Hogy hány online vendég volt, akikről egy egyszerű regisztrációs kérdőívvel ki lehet deríteni, hogy kicsodák?

Tisztelt szervezők, ennél azért többet kellene érteni a kommunikációs világ változásából.
Hogy mást ne mondjak, több tízszeres látogatottsága lehetett volna a konferenciának és a fizetős streaminggel/video galériával valószínűleg kicsit nyereségesebb is lehetett volna a rendezvény. Abban pedig biztos vagyok, hogy akadt volna telco cég, aki szívesen szponzorálta volna a közvetítést, néhány intro movie-val és brandinggelt skinnel. (Az exkluzív tartalmakról, interjúkról, werkfilm lehetőségekről nem is beszélve.)

Igen morcos vagyok, mert a szakmának szüksége van edukációra, ugyanakkor a szakma a drasztikus létszámcsökkentések miatt ki van véreztetve, és az állásban maradt kollégák 99%-a megszakad a munkában. Azaz nem tud elmenni a helyszínre. Viszont ha nap közben nem is, de később felvételről sokan megnéznék az előadásokat, amire ugye nincs lehetőség.
Ugyanakkor valószínű, hogy a szervezők  zokognak a vendégek alacsony száma miatt, pedig az online látogatókkal akár a vidéki rendezvények is rekordokat dönthetnének.

Nos ezek után már értelmetlen a weboldal, tartalmának és kivitelezésének boncolgatása, vagy a beharangozók kritizálása. Bár utóbbiakkal olyan sok baj nem is lenne. Főleg mert ultra-low budgetből készültek. De ez már nem oszt, nem szoroz, ha a konferencia eleve nem tud élni azokkal az eszközökkel, amelyekről az előadásai szólnak és nem tud kontaktust teremteni a célcsoportjával.

Hát tisztelt olvasók, ha valakinek kedve van, írja meg egy kommentben, hogy mit látott a helyszínen, vagy miért nem ment el a rendezvényre. De arra is kíváncsi lennék, hogy ki, mennyit fizetne azért, hogy egy konferencia előadásait élőben, vagy felvételről megnézze. Akár a Reklám7-ről legyen szó, akár más magyar vagy külföldi konferenciáról.

2010. ápr. 18.

Diesel Buzz: Sex Sells


Diesel_Spring2010_SG11.jpg

It's a proven fact that sex sells. That's why Diesel is blatantly using sex to market their new denim S/S 2010 campaign "Sex Sells: Unfortunately we sell jeans."
It's clever, simple and uses the overdone but yet true Sex Sells motto effectively. Following up on their "Be Stupid" campaign these ads garner the brand attention amongst consumers and bloggers while being sexy and having enough humor to them to be appreciated by the masses.

Diesel_Spring2010_SG17.jpg



Diesel_Spring2010_SG19.jpg
Diesel_Spring2010_SG25.jpg

Nike Grid by AKQA

Sami Salmenkivi

Nike has always been the forerunner in marketing, from the iconic 80’s tv spots to Nike+ and the more service oriented marketing of the past couple of years.
Their latest campaign Grid uses all latest hip & cool trends in marketing, such as social media, game like elements e.g. points and badges, hyper local content, and mix real life activities with the digital environment. What strikes me that they’ve still managed to keep the campaign simple and understandable.


The idea: London is a gameboard and old dial-in phone booths are the grid on it. Run between the booths and dial in your code to receive points and badges, ultimately claiming your neighborhood. The game lasts for a total of 24 hours, and it’s not difficult to imagine people running around the whole time with their Nike sneakers smoking to get the titles.



Agency: AKQA

2010. ápr. 17.

Google wants your search stories

Patricio Robles @ econsultancy

Google's big foray into primetime television advertising during this year's Super Bowl was arguably quite the success. Its Parisian Love ad, which wasn't even designed for Super Bowl, was one of the most well-received ads shown.



The internet search giant is apparently so fond of its creation that it's giving everyone the ability to create their own Parisian Loves using a nifty new YouTube tool called Search Stories.



The Official Google Blog explains: All you need to do is type in your Google searches, pick some music and — presto! — you've got your very own Search Story to share with your friends or showcase on our YouTube channel.


As you can imagine, the results are, well, interesting.

Search Stories is a simple, yet engaging, creation. And it's something that Google would have been wise to have set up before the Super Bowl. After all, other major companies have capitalized by encouraging individuals to partake in fun user-generated activities, and, in retrospect, Parisian Love provided a similar opportunity that Google didn't seize.

While Parisian Love does have a coherent message for viewers, it lacks a compelling call-to-action. A call-to-action that Search Stories could have provided. Instead of ending the ad with "Search on", Google would have promoted Search Stories: Tell your story at GoogleSearchStories.com.

If Google really wanted to get into the spirit, it might have even considered running some sort of contest around Search Stories.

Obviously, I'm engaging in Monday morning quarterbacking here, but now that Google has created a well-received mainstream ad and developed a clever extension of it online, I think it would behoove Google to think bigger for Super Bowl 2011.

That, of course, starts with strategic planning. Something that, ironically, may decrease the likelihood of Google coming up with something that isn't overly Googly (read: geeky and esoteric). Nonetheless, traditional advertising mediums have a lot to offer Google now that it's one of the world's most recognized brands and hopefully Parisian Love and Search Stories will provide it with a foundation for future ads that will make us laugh, cry, and go online. To one of Google's properties of course.

Crazed turntablists transform Nike sneakers into sound controllers

hadnews.com

We're generally quite wary of any video meant to "go viral" and "sell a lot of shoes" (or sell a lot of whatever), but from time to time something comes along and cracks our jaded shell. Case in point: the new Japanese campaign for Nike's Free Run+ running shoes sees experimental musician / DJ Daito Manabe and co. bangin' out a tune with the company's newest. The kicks are outfitted with flex sensors (which change resistance when bent), allowing some impressive control of effects via Max/MSP and Ableton Max for Live.



Agency: Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo

2010. ápr. 10.

Apple announces iAd to take on Google & Admob

nextweb

Steve Jobs is announcing Apple’s new mobile ad network – iAd.
The network / feature of iPhone’s 4.0 OS is a direct attack on Google and its acquisition of AdMob.





While Google and AdMob are still waiting to see if the acquisition will be approved by the FTC (and this announcement should solidify that approval), Apple is taking a stab at unfamiliar territory for the hardware/software giant. Going up against Google on advertising is always risky, and this confirmation now means that developers will soon have to choose between going with Google or Apple in many cases. From what Jobs showed on stage, the ads will run kind of as apps within apps, and will not use Adobe Flash – they will be HTML5 (another dagger in the heart of Flash on these devices). iAd will seemingly use location as a main ingredient to deliver ads. iAd will actually be run directly from iPhone OS 4.0 and users will not actually ever leave the app that they are in. From what Jobs showed, Apple wants to focus on video ads. Jobs also said that they will give developers “an industry standard” 60% of ad revenue. Ads will be able to offer in-store purchases (presumably through an iTunes account) and are very integrated in with the OS – for example, a user can shake their phone to see the next stage of an ad.
Jobs: “We do not have plans to be a worldwide ad agency. We don’t know a lot about advertising, but we’re learning. We tried to buy AdMob, but Google snatched them up because they didn’t want us to have them, so we bought another smaller company, Quattro. But we’re babes in the woods.”

2010. ápr. 6.

Media Agencies Are Crap: The Movie

By Piers Fawkes @ PSFK
"Readers of our Twitter feed may remember that I took a swipe at media agencies last week. I called them lazy and stuck in the 80s and I feel that the large majority of staff at media agencies have no interest in exploring new media beyond large buys on Yahoo! They seem to large fat-cats that seem to excessively profit both from brands and media titles by employing junior under-skilled staff to allocate their client’s budgets. So with all that, it may be easy to understand why I have chosen to publish this video of a discussion between a new media publisher’s sales team and a pathetic media agency."

 

"When I did the rant I did get a bunch of emails with “What did I expect?” Most people seem to feel that media is the last refuge of old school advertising where change that is taking place across the rest of the industry hasn’t even begun. Partly this is due to the fact that there are few folks who want to take the risk of questioning the media agency business and partly, this is because media managers at brands don’t notice (or are too lazy to notice) the lack of imagination offered by these well known organizations. I know that there’s nothing PSFK can do to change the media industry so I’m left toying with a consideration of removing advertising from the site. Maybe everyone online should. There are other ways to make money by working with brands – but this old fashioned mentality about how we should make money seems to ruin it for everybody involved (except the media agencies of course)"

No comment...



2010. ápr. 3.

Jay Jays Dance-Off 3D


The campaign formula has remained similar for apparel company Jay Jays for some time. Traditionally a printed catalogue, perhaps some TV, new price points and store design, some photos of each outfit on the Jay Jays website and some eye-catching window-designs in the many Jay Jays stores across the country. But that’s all changed.
Jay Jays approached Visual Jazz in 2009 with key insights that their customers are consuming less print, watching less TV, and engaging with more fun, social content online. Jay Jays have a great handle on their brand and a solid, loyal relationship with their customer base – they have over 40 thousand Facebook fans and as such, a growing online focus.



The Jay Jay’s Dance Off 3D campaign is a first for Jay Jays and it’s focus is online engagement, entertainment and of course showing off the new Jay Jays range. Visual Jazz has worked with the brand to create an immersive and exciting new experience that really needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated. It launches alongside an entirely new Jay Jays website filled with customer engagement opportunities and barrels of fun.
Here’s how we went about the Dance-Off online campaign element…
A casting call was put out for dancers with unique skills of differing backgrounds. Two busy days of auditions took place and 9 dancers were chosen. We ended up with the following range of performers…
  • a robot popper
  • a ribbon dancer
  • a jazz dancer
  • a salsa dancer
  • a ballet dancer
  • a freestyling locker
  • a breaker
  • a arcrobat
  • and a ballroom dancer
Jay Jays are a brand with diversity, inclusion and freedom of expression at it’s core. The chosen dancers represent a wide range of styles, backgrounds, age-groups, attitudes and ethnicities.

dance off screen 3


Shooting took place over one grueling day in an amazing warehouse in the Melbourne CBD. Two of the many spaces in the warehouse were decked-out and fully crewed for two distinctly different shoots. One was for stills, with shots to be used in store window displays, on price-points, and other predominantly offline collateral. The other contained a 3D video camera rig to capture the motion that was to be used in the online execution. The dancers came in and out throughout the day and performed brilliantly within both areas on a tight schedule. Costume changes took place after both locations had their fill of sweet moves and they did it all again.
The Jay Jays Dance-Off 3D campaign shows Jay Jays new range of winter street clothes in a fresh light in an interactive and entertaining way. You can mix your own edit of dancers, or sit back and watch the master edit play out. And at all times you are able to pause the action and explore each dancer’s outfit in detail.
Ultimately we had 20 videos to cut for the full campaign. One solo video for each of the 18 outfits was created, and two main edits that appear on the dedicated site and YouTube utilising the new features of the YouTube 3D video player.
All items of clothing were tracked in each frame of every video. Clicking your mouse or pressing space bar while a video is playing brings up a still image allowing users to explore the outfits in detail and save still frames and wallpapers.

dance off screen 2

The 3D component adds a real wow factor to this campaign. Interacting with the videos and watching the dancers presents a really fun experience on it’s own, but I feel like we’ve really stepped it up by having everything in 3D. The process has presented many more challenges than expected and it’s been a real learning experience, but the re-burgeoning nature of this technology was too exciting to leave out. After many headache’s and late nights, Visual Jazz are extremely proud to present Jay Jays Dance Off in 3D.




Check out the Visual Jazz Blog for more info on the project

7 Solid Social Media Marketing Trends


BNiels Bellaar @ viralblog


1. The Audience Is In Control
Now don’t let this one scare you, more and more marketers understand that ‘in social’ there always is this ’social’ factor. Together people create content about brands, and in many occasions the brands have no idea. Look for what’s already out there and embrace it, like Jeep does once again.

2. Social Media Is Not Free Publicity
‘If you pay peanuts you get monkeys’. That really applies to social media. Big trend we see for the coming years is brands that hire specialized social media content managers; people that not only create a Facebook page and wait and see where it goes (we can tell you now: nowhere), but also actively create news around the brand, make (and keep) it interesting to follow a brand and answer questions.

3. Social Gaming
Do those FarmVille messages in Facebook annoy you? Over 
23 million people are fan of this social Facebook game. Simple games that can be played with friend within your fan’s favourite social network. For now people buy sheep and chickens, but soon they buy your product to step up their game.

4. ROI Measurement
Measuring the effect of your on-line activities on (off-line) sales becomes increasingly important. Obviously you, the marketer, see the possibilities of social media marketing and together with your social media agency you have great ideas. Now all you need is approval and money. And as you know you only get that when you can prove the return is bigger than the investment. So 
measuring and tracking plays a big part in social media marketing.

5. Integrating, Mixing & Sharing
Many brands ask visitors of their (campaign) websites to become a fan on Facebook and/or follow the brand on Twitter. Surely that is great, and you should definitely not stop doing it, but now start looking at integrating these platforms in your brand dotcom. Have video content on your dotcom? Embed it from YouTube. If you ask visitors to participate on your campaign site let them spread the word to their friends on Facebook!

6. Mobile & Location Based Content
Many companies block social networks because the IT guys think they are evil. At the same more and more people have a smartphone, leading to heavy use of social networks on mobile. The integration of social networks with the functionalities of smartphones make great location based social applications, like Foursquare, and make it easy for brand to connect (with) people and places.

7. Social Commerce
Now that more and more brands understand their target audience has a grouped presence on social networks moving (or adding) a shop in social networks is a logical step to take.
Look at EasyJet who are planning to sell flights directly on Facebook, and Dell who are embracing group buys by starting its Swarm service.
Constantly evolving and discovering social media leads to new ways of engaging people in marketing strategies – more and more ‘trends’ will be visible. What trends and opportunities do you see in the near (or far) future?


Top 10 Flash Websites


By Cerebro

When Flash was introduced back in 1996, it quickly became a fancy and very popular element in website design. It’s ability to add interactivity and animation blew people away, but not long before designers and clients carelessly started abusing its powers to impress. Sites would take longer times to load, often driving away needed public. It is now 2010 and becoming impressed by new technologies isn’t as common as it used to be. We salute the brains behind the following Flash sites, which have made animation and user interaction an exciting, fun, refreshing and awe-inspiring web experience.


1. Don’t Click It
http://www.dontclick.it/


Navigation without a Click? Why, certainly! The evolution of the Don’t Click It project began with questioning regarding habits of interface development. Even though we use the click as the way to control and navigate website content, it can also result in wasted time. So the experiment of removing the click entirely from its interface has proven to be a strange but refreshing experience. Try it for yourself!





2. Got Milk?
http://www.gotmilk.com/


As if little milk cartons with cool designs on them weren’t captivating enough, the interface is reminiscent of the days when we played with and read big pop-up books at school. The menu is kept simple and user-friendly, so the content really grabs all of the attention. There are even great recipes to try. Make your mom proud.





3. We Are Trendy
http://www.wearetrendy.com/


Trendy is a design studio working in website design, motion/3d, visual identity and print. Their work is equally impressive as their website design. Navigation is a breeze with section links clearly and cleverly animated at the end of the main star’s tips.





5. Lego Click
http://legoclick.com/ 


An interactive Lego Flash website that’s just as fun as the little Lego’s themselves! All website content is smartly placed in Lego-pieced walls that rest over a cute light bulb production line animation.





6. Arena Estadios
http://www.arenaestadios.com.br/


Arena is a consulting and design firm that mixes marketing, architecture and financial enterprises to bring forth solutions for the sports and stadium construction industry. Check out the transitions, great work!





7. SOBE
http://www.sobe.com


This heavily photograph-driven Flash website gets the point across, in a clear and tasty fashion. Famous for their flavored water, SOBE has concocted a simple and delicious way of showcasing their best product around!





8. Labuat
http://soytuaire.labuat.com/


Labuat gives us an example of beautiful user interaction with Flash. A gorgeous melody plays as you move and control your mouse over the canvas…wonderful things begin to happen.





9. Summit on the Summit
http://www.summitonthesummit.com


This amazing Flash sample showcases one of the most original and well thought website designs, and all for a good cause. You are able to explore Mt. Kilimanjaro on your own while raising awareness about keeping our planet’s water clean.





10. Toyota Prius
http://promo.prius.ru/


This Russian-based Toyota website design impressively combines video, 3d, and user interaction all in one. Might just be another good reason to go green after all!


When All Media Is Social: How Social Became Mainstream

Isn’t social media just a fad, for tech savvy kids? In fact it’s more mainstream than the mainstream, and technology is likely to make it even more so.

Understanding The Under 25 Digital Native

Over 25’s and under 25’s use the same digital services
...but with very different digital behaviour.

Over 25’s Consume digital media in the same way they consume all media - Passively
Under 25’s don’t just consume digital media – but create it, share it and interact with it

An Approach To ‘Social Centric’ Planning

Unless you’re listening you won’t know where the party’s at or if you’re even invited...

Blogging: A Practical Guide

Many brands are still unsure how, or even whether, they should use blogs. This presentation gives practical tips and real-life case studies on how businesses can use the 21st Century’s version of the Guttenberg press.

Social Media: A Practical Guide

Social media marketing is a sector surrounded by hype & jargon. This guide aims to cut through all the smoke & mirrors and provide practical examples of how you can use this exciting new channel.