Here’s the best one minute 33 seconds you’ll spend watching a homeless robot today. It’s an animated short just made by Elad Offer, a Los Angeles-based digital filmmaker and visual-effects specialist I met at TEDGlobal in Oxford in July. And it’s rather excellent. Hmm, maybe Elad should be working on something for the next edition of the Wired iPad app…
Robbie the robot is having a tough time trying to make a living on the streets – but all works out in the end…
To receive Wired as a subscriber for just £2 an issue in the UK, click for their special offer here.
There’s been a great deal of reluctance among luxury fashion brands to embrace the digital revolution. Too many have avoided creating customer-focused websites or innovative mobile-internet apps for fear of losing control of the “brand experience”.
So it’s worth celebrating when fashion houses understand that their loyal followers are indeed online — and want to use their digital devices to engage in innovative ways with those brands. Whether it’s streaming catwalk shows live in 3D (Burberry) or producing innovative iPhone apps (Gucci), the luxury houses are gradually learning that tech is there to communicate more, not less, effectively with their customers.
Therefore it’s also worth noting that Dolce & Gabbana, which has a highly rated “D&G Fashion Channel” in the iTunes app store and live-streamed its 2010 shows on Android phones and iPhones, has now embraced the iPad. Not so much for its ability to deliver apps — but as a centrepiece of its extravagant 20th anniversary menswear show that took place in Milan recently. There were 28 iPads, to be precise — all arrayed along a wall in Palazzo Marino, Milan’s 16th-century city hall, there to display images celebrating two decades of Dolce & Gabbana for Men.
Faris Yakob is the chief innovation officer, MDC Partner, holding company of ad agencies including Crispin Porter + Bogusky and kirshenbaum bond senecal + partners and the former EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson NY. He argues that the impact of digital is spilling off the screen into the real world, changing the way we think.
Originally, media was all about recording the world. We wanted to capture what we saw, freeze it in time and space, show other people.
Analogue media forms an attempt to recreate the world faithfully, transposing variations in amplitude and frequency to recreate the impact on our senses. It takes a property of a medium and modulates it to transmit information.
In analogue sound recording fluctuations in air pressure [that we hear as sounds] strike the diaphragm of a microphone, which induces corresponding fluctuations in the current produced by the electromagnetic microphone. That current is therefore an ‘analog’ of the sound.
Alex Marks, head of international business marketing, eBay thinks so and says it’s time for a shake up.
I was on a panel session at a conference a little while ago. The topic, a slightly hackneyed, but important one was, “Is the consumer in control?” It was a heartfelt debate with much passion on the side of those in favour, and more cynical logic from those who weren’t. Guess who won?
It actually saddened me that the majority felt as if it were business and their brands that held all the cards. When did consumers become a secondary focus? Isn’t the marketing mantra ‘Make what will sell’ and not ‘Sell what you make’? Have we lost sight of that, and if so, what’s the long-term implication?
Part of me can’t help wondering if we’ve performed a type of hypnosis on consumers over the last decade or so. Combined science and magic and led them gently sleepwalking towards the cashpoint. For what other reason can the existence of Heat Magazine and the proliferation of Katie Price be explained?
Paul Berney, MD EMEA of the Mobile Marketing Association says that unlike Obama, the British political parties failed to harness the power of mobile.
When President Obama was elected in 2008, many hailed the role of new media in mobilising the electorate to vote. So much so that US website mobilemarketer.com named him mobile marketer of the year.
The Obama campaign used SMS, mobile internet sites, mobile applications, mobile video, mobile advertising and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to get its message through to a previously disinterested, disaffected or disenfranchised electorate; to great effect. It was presumed that the Democrats’ use of mobile would change modern political campaigning forever.
However, UK parties failed to use mobile effectively. Each party created an iPhone app, although surprisingly, all were very different. The Conservatives’ app showed their views on a wide range of issues, but the responses were text heavy with no other available media content. The app also featured a ‘latest news’ section, which seemed to only consist of a daily press release.
Two additional functions allowed you to phone a friend and register their voting intentions with the Conservative HQ and a ‘swingometer’, which showed the effect on the number of seats by changes in voting. Rather amusingly this only swung one way and didn’t show what would happen if voters turned to any other party but the Conservatives.
Who has been your biggest influence? George Orwell. For teaching me how to write tightly and to understand the power of language.
What is your most hated business expression?
At the end of the day (when not referring to the end of a day).
What’s the smartest business idea you’ve ever had?
Charge people money for high-quality editorial content. It’s just waiting for a device called the iPad.
Which leader do you admire most and why?
Jed Bartlett. He’d make the world a better place.
What’s your favourite word? Serendipity
Tell us a secret. I’ve received letters from four serial killers. They all happened to be Guardian readers when I was the letters editor. Suggests a new Guardian marketing campaign, doesn’t it?
David will be contributing columns to our blog on a monthly basis.
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#WLTM: Marketing Society Business Leader Paul Wilson, CMO, Sunguard http://t.co/xZYSkyovFebruary 3, 2012 2:39
@BrainJuicer: How Can Brands Show Us They Care? http://t.co/SoDI8XQnFebruary 3, 2012 12:13
@RobinHoughton Thanks for braving the cold last night and joining us @SohoHouse. We will send you another book to review for #bookclub soon.February 3, 2012 12:03
