The end of October was one of celebration in India. The fireworks and festivities of Diwali were extended as the country geared up for its first ever Grand Prix. 27 million Indian F1 fans have waited a long time for the glamour of the sport to hit its shore. We were over in Delhi shooting the latest Step Inside the Circuit episode. During our time there we had a great interview with Vicky Chandhok. Chandhok is the President of the Federation of the Motorsports Club of India. Driven by a love of the sport he has been on a 10 year journey to get F1 to India. He’s incredibly proud of the Buddh International circuit and the fact that India’s has proven that it can host the world’s most technologically advanced sport. Vicky embodies the optimism and determination in India. It’s a vibrant, exciting place full of entrepreneurs.
Spark The Rise embodies the spirit of the country. It launched in mid-August as a way to support entrepreneurial thinking, yesterday it announced it’s latest winning ideas. For those who don’t know of it, it’s “a funding platform to propel innovation, entrepreneurship and positive change in India.” It encourages people to share their ideas and then it awards grants to the best ones. I’m a big fan of the creative funding platform Kickerstarter, and this works in a similar way. There’s a public vote and a jury vote. Users can submit ideas into five different categories technology, Infrastructure & Transportation, Energy, Agriculture & Rural Development and Social Entrepreneurship. The winning ideas get announced in a series of rounds. The winners of round two have just been revealed. I particularly like the Intelligent helmet. A circuit within the helmet prevents the bike from starting unless the helmet is worn. It also detects whether a rider has drunken alcohol and in case of an accident it has built in GPS to notify the emergency services. It’s worth exploring the site and reading about some of the great ideas that are being given the chance to live. Kickstarter, in comparison, feels a little like creative indulgence. The ideas on Spark The Rise genuinely feel like they could make a real difference to the communities in India. I hope they do.
Sparks fly every year in the UK on the eve of the 5th November. The country celebrates the failure of Guy Fawkes to blow up the UK’s Houses of Parliament in 1605. The plot was uncovered due to an anonymous letter posted to the authorities. The letter prompted a search of Westminster Palace and the discovery of Guy and his explosives. Fast forward to today and Anonymous, the hacker activist group who have adopted the Guy Fawkes mask from the film V is for Vendetta, have threatened to bring down Facebook on Bonfire Night. It seems they have the capability but they like to use threats rather than action. Facebook has become a target as the group sees them violating users privacy rights.
But it’s not just the Anarchists who are on the ‘take Facebook’ down bandwagon. A new social network Unthink, wants to over throw Facebook’s rule of the social network Kingdom. “We are not another social network. We are a Social Revolution,” declares the website. It’s been described as the anti-Facebook. It was founded by Natasha Dedis a Greek American who became an entrepreneur at 21. In an article on thestar.com she is quoted as saying that “Facebook could become a Cyber-dictatorship”. Unthink isn’t a business it’s a cause and it seems to want to empower the user community to shape it. It launched in Beta on the 25th October and has already attracted over 100,000 registered users. Unthink ‘suites’ are automatically set to ‘private’ as the default. It has four separate information streams public, social, lifestyle and business. These are very similar to the way Google+ circles work. It’s also an ad free zone it promises “No ads ever”. Instead users choose brand sponsors, if you don’t want a sponsor then you simply pay $2 a year. There are also loyalty rewards in the pipeline for users who choose to subscribe to brands on the site. It’s still a tiny start up but perhaps it’s caught the mood of the moment. Just look at the chatter online. People are concerned with privacy on Facebook and there’s growing unease with financial organisations as demonstrated by the Occupy Wall Street movement. I don’t know if the Anonymous threat tomorrow is real or not, but one thing that is certain is that the issue of privacy and what Facebook does with our personal data is becoming more and more of a hot topic of discussion.
Last week Kickstarter, the funding platform for creative projects, successfully reached a major milestone. An Ohio based band called Citizen, looking to release a 7” single, reached their $800 goal and became the 10,000th project. I’ve been following Kickstarter for the last 18 months and I think I may be developing an addiction.
Kickstarter launched on the 28th April 2009. Perry Chen first had the idea in 2002 whilst he was trying to put on a concert without any funding. In 2005 he meet Yancey Stickler in a New York diner and they started working on it. The final piece of the puzzle was Charles Adler, the technical brains behind the build of the site. They felt there were loads of creative ideas that never saw the light of day due to a lack of cash. So, Kickstarter was born. It’s a funding platform for creative projects. It’s a way to raise money for the stuff you want to do. It’s all or nothing, you have to hit your funding target. This adds a gaming element to the projects. 500,000 people have pledged to date and 3,000 people are doing it every day. It’s grown during tough economic times because it’s a different type of spending. It empowers everyday people to feel like producers and gives them a direct connection back to the idea’s source. It’s not a donation platform because by investing you get something back. A million and a half gets pledge every week. 250 proposals are submitted every day and half of those get accepted. On the business side of things Kickstarter takes 5% from the projects that are successfully funded, this makes them profitable. And, importantly, the people who generate the idea retain the copyright.
Stickler states in the PSFK lecture that the first projects were mainly music and film. Then a product idea caught fire. The ‘Glif’ is a tripod stand for an iPhone 4. It’s New York creators looked to raise 10k but quickly raised $140,000. This was the first real product to launch on the platform and the Kickstarter team wrestled with it as it seemed to be a conflict with the original ideology, it felt like it could become too commericalised. They decided to draw the line at corporations trying to use the platform to product test. Kickstarter is there to realise creative people’s dreams.
A case example is THE most successful project to date. Scott Wilson used to be Creative Director at Nike. He designed watches in their design department. He has now set up his own design studio called Minimal. He came to Kickstarter with an idea for a watchstrap for an iPod Nano. He made the case that he was doing this for himself because he believed that launching it on Kickstarter would be much cooler than getting a massive commercial backer onboard. He was looking to raise 15k to fund the project. He had two designs one called TikTok ($40) with a rubberised strap and the more expensive LunaTik ($60) formed from aircraft-grade machined aluminium. He raised an amazing $950,000 in just five weeks. This was the first project I backed and I’m the proud owner of a LunaTik, it’s a brilliant product.
The LunaTik hooked me into Kickstarter and I’ve funded a few other projects since. Of those Tweetland from Costa Rica stands out. Tweetland is a world of games where what happens on Twitter influences what happens in the game. And this all plays out in real-time. Certain words in people’s tweets trigger events in the game. The games are all designed with an 8-bit aesthetic and I’m awaiting the Beta test of the first game called Route 141. I’ve no idea how the game will turn out but I’m intrigued to see how it develops.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nestorvc/tweet-land-the-first-set-of-games-that-play-with-r
The latest project I’ve funded is the awesome LongShot magazine. The last month has seen me completing the first draft of the Urgent Genius book and Longshot features as one of the case studies. It’s a bold project that embraces real-time creativity. It was conceived one evening when a group of the founders were talking about the future of publishing and looking at a magazine that had been produced using the print-on-demand service MagCloud. The Longshot team wanted to experiment with the possibilities of print-on-demand through a project that wouldn’t demand too much of anyone’s time. It was this need to do something outside of ‘full-time work’ that led to the 48 hours (over a weekend) time frame. The team set a theme and then invite submissions from around the globe. People can submit articles, photographs and illustrations as long as they relate to the core theme. The team in the States edit the content and design the magazine. It takes just 48 hours to go from initial brief to final magazine. The printed magazine can then be purchased from MagCloud. The last issue was based around the theme Comeback. The next issue goes live this weekend. The theme will be released on Friday and submissions will be accepted from around the globe. Find out more here:
http://longshotmag.com/?2b7360e0
Kickstarter is a platform that breathes life into ideas. It’s full of creative people’s dreams. Go and explore it. And fund the things you love.
I found a great online discussion on influential design sites and blogs. I picked out some of the links and added some of my own. This is the result - a random list of design, advertising, UX, data vis, illustration, interiors, social media, real-time, trends, type and loads more. Click away.
http://www.90percentofeverything.com
http://www.webdesignerwall.com
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com
http://urgentgenius.tumblr.com
http://www.smashingmagazine.com
http://www.limitedlanguage.org
http://www.informationarchitects.jp
http://community.brandrepublic.com
http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/
http://blogs.creativepool.co.uk/
http://weareundertheinfluence.posterous.com
http://www.thisaintnodisco.com/
http://www.designlessbetter.com
http://thepressureisgoodforyou.b…
http://www.frenchsampleroom.com/…
http://lookslikegooddesign.com/
http://www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog/
http://vandelaydesign.com/blog
http://webdesignernotebook.com
http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/
http://www.designassembly.org/
http://www.cardesignnews.com/sit…
http://www.webdesignledger.com/
http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com
http://www.thedesigncubicle.com/
http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com
http://www.designersreviewofbook…
http://www.septemberindustry.co.uk/
http://www.underconsideration.co…
http://www.good.is/infographics
http://www.informationisbeautifu…
http://visualization.geblogs.com/
http://visualcomplexity.com/vc/
http://www.typography.com/ask/in…
3.30 Friday March 11th 2011 SXSWi
I attended the presentation by Brian Reynolds the Chief Game Designer at Zygna. 60 million + is an impressive number and the job title Chief Game Designer is one I would quite like to have. I was interested to see what Brian had to say.
He started with a little bit of background about himself and the numbers of the community Zygna has built. Reynolds has 20 years of game design experience with a focus on social gaming over the last five. Zygna itself has 250 million+ players a month globally and that’s an immense figure when you consider the total population of the U.S. is 308 million.
There are more virtual farmers than real farmers and Zygna is bigger than EA .
The stats were impressive but why has Zynga been so successful? Reynolds was keen to point out that it is all about games that are actually social. He maintains that games are not just for geeks anymore. As human beings we are wired for social. “We all have different types of friends on Facebook but I care about all of these relationships at some level. Social networks are good at light social touches but the ultimate interaction will always be face to face.”
One of the stories Brian recounted was when he got a great new job and his aunt congratulated him via Facebook and then proceeded to thank him for the energy packs he had given her virtually. The secret, according to Reynolds, is all to do with sparking conversation. The game should exist to facilitate the social interaction. To me that makes total sense it’s why they’re called social games. It seems everyone enjoys the game but it’s the conversation it starts that has the real value. Giving people something to have in common is really important. It reminded of a time when TV dominated in the UK . With only 4 channels to choose from everyone would watch either Eastenders or Coronation Street and then have something to talk about the next day.
What are the Secrets of social gaming?
Reynolds then went on to explore the secrets of social gaming, namely:
Design a game that everyone can play
Farmville works because lots of people feel a connection to farming. It’s that desire to return to something good eg farming or to experience familiarity of a city/home that you shape. It’s no coincidence that Cityville and Farmville are Zynga’s biggest games they are both really simple and easy concepts to grasp.
Give it away for FREE
It’s what makes them valuable. Zynga has been profitable from day one through a free to play model. Reynolds compared it to the principle of the way a razor works ie give away the razor but sell the blades. To hook players in he maintains that you have to give them a certain amount so they get used to the game and then start to enjoy it.
In terms of advertising within games he says Zynga has had great successes and people actually like having branded stuff if they are fun. He talked about one particular example – an Insurance blimp flying around, it was given to players for nothing but the brand pays for it. He stated “Players like free.” It made me wonder if they still like them after the umpteenth Blimp with a slogan on?
Let people express themselves –
Customisation plays a massive part in all Zygna games. The ability to personalise your space or present yourself in an entirely different way to the way you are in the real world is really appealing to people.
He then went on to talk about the real drivers behind why people like Facebook. “What I really want to do is learn about my friends on Facebook. The more time I spend with them the more I learn.” It’s obvious really but social gaming is just another way for us to all hang out with our friends.
2 important social features:
1. Humourous feed posts
Brian then talked about one of the most successful posts they have ever made. It had the highest click through rate and highest post. It was a picture of a girl milking a sheep. The look on the sheep’s face is one of horror. The conversation was sparked with people asking “What is she doing to that sheep?” Replies popped up thick and fast. Such as “I bet you know what she’s doing with that sheep” it created banter and it went viral.
The sheep post was actually related to teaching people how to use the game. It’s important to make the tuition easy. At Zygna they realised that people don’t like going to school, they don’t want to be taught. So they turn the tuition in to mini games in their own right eg they created a story around finding a sheep. By making learning fun it doesn’t become a chore.
The viral effect of the sheep showed Zygna the importance of using humour and specifically sexual innuendo. Here are a few other examples from Farmville:
Margaret needs a few good screws.
Bob has some serious sacks.
Ted knows where the tools go.
Scott just got wood.
These are innocent enough for the youngest to miss it but for the adults to get. And they are the kind of “Carry On” humour that middle age folk love. The post updates bring a little light to people’s days, after all, doesn’t everyone want to have a laugh at the expense of a good friend? His main point around this is that Zygna feed posts are designed to spark off conversation.
“Your friends don’t care about your game status they want a laugh and a conversation.”
2. Design your Spouse
You can design your spouse – there are clear differences between different age groups and marital status.
90% do make it like the person, particular if you think they are going to see it
646,000 same sex marriages in Farmville compared to 150,000 in the US. This is a widely popular feature.
Brian then finished off with a few things to consider when designing social games:
Games with stories that fit around you
Games give people satisfying pastimes, stories, adventures, missions, compete collaborate test skills. Games need to be designed to fit into the nooks and crannies of your day. You have to remember that people have short attention spans and they are constantly multiple tasking when they are playing a social game.
Design a game that can be played asynchronously.
Remember that different people play at different times. So make sure the game allows for that for example: I play at midnight you play at noon but we’re still playing together. It’s hard to organise live multi player occasions it’s much easier if the game works around peoples lives. That’s the main difference with a social game versus a traditional immersive video game where you make an appointment to play.
The games that work are fun but what does “fun” mean?
Series of interesting choices.
Recognise and learn patterns.
Surprise and delight.
“When you play you’re learning. Our brains are designed to identify patterns. They enjoy the challenge, in fact they are wired for them.”
So make it fun
Prototype an idea then build it.
Play it over and over then revise.
Show it to more people then revise more.
Keeping playing and revising for a long time.
Things to try if it isn’t fun
Put more choices in.
Make the choices matter – moral choices are the most motivating.
Build in a story make me a hero.
Hide patterns that I can learn over time – (over time weeds grow you have to cut them back but if you put a sheep on the land it eats the plants we don’t tell you that you discover it).
Create more surprise, suspense and humour.
Add something social in e.g. co-operation.
Game Over 
What a weekend – We had a load of fun and no sleep. Teams competed from across the globe to create social idea/content about global trending topics. And we’ve had over 100 submissions. The next 7 days is all about how far they spread.
Trending topics included:
Dead Island trailer for the gore packed new video game, the release of Radiohead’s new video Lotus Flower with Thom Yorke pouncing around, Bieber because Justin is always trending, Berlusconi’s sex charges goes to trial, Civil unrest across the middle East and North Africa and the Cricket World Cup begins.
A full round up is coming soon but I’d thought I’d pick out a few :
Radiohead launched their new single and video with Thom Yorke – Original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfOa1a8hYP8
Urgent Genius mash ups:
Thom V Soulja Boy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_fkzm6t3Ys&feature=related
Thom Yorke getting down to Chase & Status http://post.ly/1eD67
The Thom Yorke workout vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwEiY3YpXWA
Yorke v Bieber http://www.youtube.com/yorkesaysnever http://www.yorkesaysnever.com
The deleted scenes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWdEmfqX0oc
And hear from the defence from the choreographer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ABInlA5MMY
Dead Island – a zombie game launched with an amazing trailer. Original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZqrG1bdGtg
Never say No to a girl who wants to got to a Bieber concert – http://youtu.be/0_DHKgiCtRM
Rage against Dead island – lethal! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSAaTR1TGJA
Dead Island gets some British tourists http://tinyurl.com/6by5qro
North Korea take advantage of the political unrest with a new ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT_EQizEaeQ
Berlusconi’s never ending sex scandal
Play the game at - http://berlsbigperv.com/
And download Berlusconi’s Bunga Bunga track here http://soundcloud.com/tracks/search?q=bblow+130
Cricket world cup – an anti Ricky Ponting Anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy8nTNGaZIA
Bieber and Unrest mash up:
http://bieberprotests.tumblr.com
And Bieber gets shot http://bit.ly/Biebergetsshot
And there are many more coming to Urgentgenius.tumblr.com
Robots are cool. Fact. From Daryl Hannah’s seductive replicant in Bladerunner. To little Wall-e toiling to clean up the mess the human race had left behind. To Chalkbot living strong for Lance on the Tour. This week Engadet ran a piece celebrating the 90th anniversary of the word “robot”. The word was first introduced to the public in Karel Capek’s play “R.U.R.” (Rossum’s Universal Robots). It was a performed in Czech in Prague in 1921 before going to New York a year later in English. Karel’s brother Josef suggested the term roboti derived from the Czech word robota. It’s literal translation being “serf labour”. For the best part of a century we’ve been obsessed with recreating an artificial ‘us’ to make our lives easier.
Over the holiday season I watched Disney’s Christmas Carol – a film from a few years ago that promised much but bombed on its release. It had state of the art animation but never connected with audiences. Why? Because even though it utilised sophisticated motion capture, people’s natural inbuilt reaction to the characters was one of repulsion. The characters are just plain creepy. These man-made creations sound human and move like humans but there’s something about them that just doesn’t ring true.
This stirred my curiosity and I discovered the Uncanny Valley. Nearly 40 years ago the pioneering Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori observed that people become unsettled by any slight nonhuman imperfection in very human-looking forms. Mori named this phenomenon ‘The Uncanny Valley’. A place where corpses and zombies reside. For the animation and gaming industries avoiding the Uncanny Valley and creating flawless humanlike CGI characters really is the Holy Grail. Read the wiki description with the graph showing the different points on it – note Zombies lying deep in the valley’s depths. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
More recently Prof Karl MacDorman’s research at Indiana institute looks at human photo-realism in robots, androids and computer-generated characters. MacDorman calls into question Mori’s principle. MacDorman has developed an eeriness index that acknowledges the many nuances that we naturally pick up on when evaluating another ‘human’ life form. The design principles for human-looking characters he is developing could be hugely beneficial for the gaming and animation world. They could also play a key role in understanding and developing the potential emotional relationships between robots and humans.
With this in mind it made me question the role of automation in social media. There are numerous companies promising to automate your social media campaigns. There are countless apps to help you individually build more followers or to take the strain as they auto follow on your behalf. Others allow you to piggy back on other friends followers. I also see a fair few tweets that are obviously automated but have a heavy sell message in their first response to you “ Thanks for the follow now buy XXXXXX”. This highlights the fact that automated tools have to be used in the right way so that your tweets don’t resemble the Living Dead.
There are undoubtedly some really useful tools out there like Twiends, TweetBig, Twellow and Qwitter. They each have their own unique strengths, from helping you find more followers and then managing them. To monitoring who has stopped following you and listing you in categories so you can be found more easily. Automation definitely has a place in our busy lives as it allows us to be in two places at once. But what makes social media effective is how well you listen to what everyone else is saying. It’s not a broadcast media. You have to give something back. We are social apes. We like interaction. There’s a reason why it’s called social media. Just as the Uncanny Valley exposes the android who wants to be human we can easily pick up on the overt sell or the automated thanks for the follow. To make social media work you have to invest your time. It rewards those who are curious. For brands it means staying the long course and embracing an always on mindset. You can’t just dip in and then leave. To truly get social media you have to commit ‘human’ time. That means writers/community managers (the term community manager sounds too corporate if you ask me) who can tell great stories, who are informed, who can listen and then respond in a way only a human being can. Automated services are making massive leaps but to be truly social you’ve got to dive in and invest your most precious asset – your time.
And finally, these quirky robots caught my eye as they did the rounds this week. They’re from Chanel and were created by Peter Philips, their Global CD of Make-Up. Check out the lovely stop frame animation with a suitably quirky electronic sound track. These droids aren’t trying to be ‘human’ but they are definitely cute and you can’t help but warm to them:
http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/1/25/1249/animating-chanel
Published Campaign Asia 28th January 2011
You’ve probably heard the name Quora banded around the net and from colleagues over the last few weeks. It’s being generating a significant amount of buzz. But what exactly is it? It could be described as yet another example of crowd sourcing. The Quora community is a heady mix of experts who are real-time curators. Put simply it’s a Q&A based service. To get a definitive answer I went straight to the source and searched the Quora network. Adam D’Angelo (ex Facebook) one of the founders had posted this reply:
“Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question.”
The city seems to like Quora as it received financing back in March 2010 valuing it at $86 million. On Wednesday The Daily Finance reported that from Q3 last year the community has grown from a few thousand to a conservative estimate of 200,000 today. Looking at Google trends and you’ll see how Quora search traffic has exploded. It’s worth noting that Indonesia currently tops that trend chart.
Quora appeal is definitely growing and it’s attracted wider interest in the last few weeks. But this new social network is conscious of maintaining standards so it has protocols that wouldn’t look out of place at a private members club. To join you have to be invited. Before you post a question you have to go through a test to ensure the quality of your query. They are keen to avoid blatant self-promotion and the phraseology of the question should be grammatically correct. You can’t answer your own question and you can only post one answer per query. These protocols maintain the quality and give the community a structured framework to work within.
The quality measures are the things that make Quora stand out but there are other Q&A alternatives out there. Loqly is a mashup of Google search with local experts curating real time answers. Facebook Questions embraces real time responses as it promises to answer any question. Formspring allows you to you share personal and interesting responses with people you know. But the most interesting alternatives are the ones that poke fun at the new social network darling.
Tom Scott offered a rapid response in the first few weeks of January this year. His alternative site is entitled Cwora.
“A continually spamming collection of unanswered questions created, edited and organised by no-one who uses it.”
I particularly like the Spam your Facebook friends button, a dig at the seemingly indiscriminate outpour Quora unleashed on your contacts as you signed up to the platform. But that said, is Scott being unfair? I personally think Cwora is a cheeky poke at the seemingly unrelenting appetite for the next big ‘social digital’ thing. After the explosive growth of Facebook and Twitter in recent years everyone seems keen to jump on the bandwagon.
This week another so-called new social network attracted attention. Hipster appears to be one big joke but that hasn’t stopped 14,000 people signing up to it without even knowing what it is or whether it’s even for real. It seems some people will still turn up to the opening of an envelope.
But in all seriousness Quora is undoubtedly a useful tool. It allows you to seek out some interesting answers from a community of experts. I’ve posted a question asking “How do topical social ideas catch fire?” Within 48 hours I had 3 relatively perceptive answers – I reckon that’s pretty good. On the first day I started to explore the site I noticed a question aimed at Dustin Moskovitz around how he felt about the film The Social Network. Sure enough a direct post from Moskovitz answers the question in an insightful and personal way. This demonstrates the power of the current community and the ability to connect with thought leaders.
And therein lies the problem for Quora. To maintain it’s true usefulness it almost needs to remain niche. A community full of brilliant minds is a powerful resource. But it has a need to grow to attract further investment and that leaves me pondering a few questions. If it opens up to the masses will the knowledge pool become diluted? Or are the tech and marketing geeks who hang out there losing themselves in their own self-importance? Is it just a flash in the pan as everyone moves on to the next cool spot? And are the hefty valuations justified at this early stage?
http://blog.campaignasia.com/granthunter/what-is-quora-and-why-all-the-fuss/
Original published on Campaign Asia, Curiosity Junkie Blog 20th January 2011
A round-up of the best topical social ideas created at speed in 2010. We’ve collected 10 of our favourites Urgent Genius examples, both branded and unbranded, from last year.
1. Robert Green Fail England v USA – the save that never happened. Masterly re-editing of Green’s gaff against USA has generated a massive number of views – http://bit.ly/gA2BSZ
2. The Queen’s Facebook response to William and Kate tying the knot. From BBC Comedy’s Spout in the UK –http://youtu.be/vIgdnlOSlps
3. Movieleaks – Julian Assange’s new profession in reaction to his arrest. From Rob Luciani. See it here.
4. Miley’s bong – Hannah Montana star gets filmed smoking a bong and it finds it way on to TMZ on the 10th December. The next day NMA from Taiwan released this. http://youtu.be/zYZtIP4dhAU
5. Burger King’s Octopuppy – Picking up on the topical news story of the Octopus who predicted the World Cup scores. Rebel the Octopuppy would make predictions every day – if you concurred with the dog you got free BK meals. http://bit.ly/f2q6vA
6.Newport State of Mind – a brilliant parody of Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes Empire State of mind. http://bit.ly/fSI8o3
7. Wimbledon epic match– a print ad turned around in 1 hour for KitKat. http://bit.ly/dYwhsr
8. Crap Logo yourself – Gap launches new logo and the backlash starts http://bit.ly/fviRNO
9. Hippo Biscuits from India and Creativeland Asia a really useful use of Twitter by responding to a potential PR disaster they turned consumers into Sales staff to insure stores across the country were stocked with Hippo Biscuits. http://bit.ly/e6R3G6
10. At the end of the year Facebook updated it’s profile pages Schweppes reacted to offer this useful utility app in true rapid response style – http://bit.ly/gINOAf
11. And finally we couldn’t leave out the epic Old Spice Guy – http://bit.ly/fUYrUE
We’re looking forward to more inspiring ideas from around the Globe and we’ll be launching our global competition in the next few weeks, so watch this space. 2011 – the year of Urgent Genius.
Do you agree on our 2010 selections? If you think we’ve missed an example then let us know.
http://twitter.com/#!/UrgentGenius
Grant Hunter and Jon Burkhart will be speaking about Urgent Genius at SXSW 2011.
There are loads of end of the year reviews doing the rounds at this time of year so I thought I’d capture some of the best all in one place. And yes Justin Bieber (Satan’s spawn) does seem to feature in most of them.
Google Zeitgeist provides great data vis of the years events. It allows you to break down who was searching for what by region. Unsurprisingly the World Cup dominates the global events list with other notable events being BPs catastrophic oil spill and the icelandic volcanic ash cloud.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2010/
Contagious are always on the pulse of all things ’365′ across the social media phere and marketing world. They have a comprehensive round up across areas including movements, real time, viral, TV, experience, stories, demos, devices, products, design, and gaming to name but a few. Download the pdf or shareslide presentation here:
http://www.mostcontagious.com/
Youtube have created a dedicated Rewind channel with a full round up of the most viewed clips all laid out on a 2010 timeline. The power of the double rainbow and the music power of GaGa and Eminem are clear to see. Old Spice represents the ad indistry with it’s realtime Old Spice guy messages.
Shots have their top 10 here:
http://www.shots.net/article_detail.asp?atype=1&id=10874&WT.mc_id=shots_newsletter_20101222_01_10874
* adobemuseum.com <http://www.adobemuseum.com/index.php>
* bing.decodejay-z.com <http://bing.decodejay-z.com/>
* nikegrid.com <http://www.nikegrid.com/>
* thejohnnycashproject.com <http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/>
* thewardensixteen.com <http://thewardensixteen.com/>
* thewildernessdowntown.com <http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/>
* youtube.com/user/adifferentending <http://www.youtube.com/user/adifferentending>
* youtube.com/user/chromefastball <http://www.youtube.com/user/chromefastball>
* youtube.com/user/OldSpice <http://www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice>
* youtube.com/user/tippexperience <http://www.youtube.com/user/tippexperience>
Creativity have their top 5 in a video here:
http://creativity-online.com/news/creativity-top-5-december-20-2010/147778
And a round up here:
http://creativity-online.com/news/creativity-awards-report-2010/145657
And FWA have the 12 sites that they have shortlisted for the People’s Choice Award 2010 (and you can still vote) here:
Yahoo also have an overview in the link below. Their video montage of the extreme events of the year is worth a watch – I won’t pass judgment on the choice of soundtrack.
http://yearinreview.yahoo.com/2010/blog/12057/video-extreme-moments-of-2010/
For the Typographers out there Fontshop have shortlisted their Fonts of 2010:
http://www.fontshop.com/blog/newsletters/december10b/index.html
At iris we’ve had an amazing year on the creative front. We created and launched the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic mascots. And are now busily building the mascot website. We’ve won Campaign Big Awards for our Philips and COI work. We’ve collaborated with Sir Peter Blake for adidas and the guys in London won the CBS outdoor copy challenge. In APAC we’ve worked with the Muscles from Brussels for Sony Pictures (it was recognised as one of FWA’s sites of the week) and Mr Rooney for Tiger Beer. You can see a round up of our Europe work here:
And JCVD here: http://www.dvdamnesty.com.au
If you’re looking for an alternative 2010 review then check this out
Looking to 2011 and SXSW is just around the corner in March. We’ll be there speaking about Urgent Genius and there are a load of other interesting folk who will also be out in Austin. We’ve created a Twitter list of many of the SXSW speakers, here:
