Have a Pintermission with Honda

Honda is one of the first brands entering social network Pinterest.  In line with their CR-V ”Leap List” campaign, they do it strangely enough by asking top pinners to take a break and get outside. You might remember the campaign through the Ferris Bueller sequel video. So this Pinterest part of the campaign is all about getting out and living life to the fullest.

Pintermission

Pintermission

Honda is offering $500 each to the most active pinners  if they’ll take a 24-hour break from Pinterest and do the things they normally pin about. And then pin/post about those. Which in a way brings us full circle to the question: ‘How much pinning is too much?”

I liked the personalized invitation via an @ mention below, showing true blogger outreach, with effort going into research, personalised and engaging through craft. See all invites after the jump.

Pinterest invitation

Pinterest invitation

9 questions to get QR codes right

QR codes have copped a lot of flak after hyped expectations met with reality. Blogs like WTF QR codes and Pictures of People Scanning QR codes are testament to the scorn showered upon them. While some might have already moved onto the next big thing in connection technology (NFC anyone?), B&T / Kevin Moreland have just published a good list of questions to ensure your use of QR codes isn’t doomed from the start.

  1. Is the surface mobile friendly?
  2. Can consumers physically get to the code?
  3. Will consumers have internet access?
  4. Is it big enough?
  5. Is the information at a minimum?
  6. Does it lead to a mobile friendly destination?
  7. Is there value behind the code?
  8. Will consumers realise there is value behind the code?
  9. Have I scanned this?

Apart from the technical best practices I would really stress questions 6, 7 and 8 which are too often neglected. People don’t explore these code. That would be like saying people click on banners just to see where it would take them. Either they get why they should use the code or they don’t.

Get the full article on B&T

If you like Easter ask for s’more

This is first on my blog: cooking recipes and classic homemade craft. My lovely wife Kristin and her friends Corina and Jules have put a lot of time and effort into this online magazine/blog called “s’more” (= some more).

Smore Easter edition

Smore Easter edition

So if you are after some last-minute inspiration for baking, cooking and crafting around Easter, browse through the first edition of “s’more”. The magazine is also available as a PDF download here and finally, you can start following the s’more crew via their blog.

I’m incredibly proud of Kristin and her friends for pulling this off. And if you look closely, you might discover yours truly, modeling his way into a new career as ‘food editorial background talent’.

Circus 2012 – Festival of Commercial Creativity storified

I used Storify for the second time, on this occasion not in the lead up to but during an event itself. Circus, the Festival for Commercial Creativity went into its second year and the organising Communications Council had again brought some heavy hitters in terms of keynote speakers and Big Thinkers. And outside the theatre a strategist would rub shoulders with a client, content producer, set designer, folk musician or a clergyman. Here is a nice summary of three of the speakers on CampaignBrief.

What surprised me when using Spotify on the iPad was that it didn’t feel distracting but more like a new way of note taking. I was curating out of the stream of real-time tweets and pictures and added some background videos while at the same time listening to the presenters. And I like how you can draw in the people you curated by automating an @message with the Storify-link.

Have a read of my three days here and be sure to check out Decoder’s analog sketch-notes.

I don’t know where Storify will go in terms of features, but a manual doodle/sketch section for creating images like the above might be nice. Follow Storify’s blog for updates here - fittingly all posts are Storify stories in themselves.

I will be sure to use it again at Sydney’s VIVID festival where MPU’s ‘Snake the Planet!’ will play a major role. That next time pictures and videos will surely feature a bit more in my Storify.

Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up

This is not a political attack ad but it very well could be. Australian Hugh Atkin, creator of the famous “Barrack-Roll” is at it again and launches “Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up” featuring Barrack Obama as Eminem. Great political rap in the age of the mashup.

Hugh seems to have increased his prowess of pasting those snippets together. Here is the Barrack Roll again.

and with McCain caught in front of it

and if you care for the grand dads of that video genre

Why Agencies should behave like start ups

Probably one of the best panels at SXSW was the one on agency structure and how to bring about a sustainable level of  innovation. And work with talent rather than resources, project based rather than on retainers and hybrid roles rather than high specialisation. See the inspiring sketch notes from the talk featuring among others Rei Inamoto (AKQA) and Kevin Systrom (Instagram). More sketch notes after the jump.

Sketch notes from SXSW panel on 'agencies as start ups'

Sketch notes from SXSW panel on 'agencies as start ups'

My talk on ‘Fragmented Storytelling’, told via Storify

I will be speaking at Sydney’s AdTech 2012 on “Fragmented Storytelling In An Evolving Media Environment” (today 11am). My co-panelist is Jeff Julian, a great production designer who among other films has worked on Spielberg’s ‘Minority Report’. I thought it might be a cool idea to document the evolution of my own talk here:

http://storify.com/tbuesing/fragmented-storytelling

Storify is a tool that has been around which is kind of like a curated friendfeed. You select and pull together whatever helps you tell your story. It is probably more suited to non-fiction than fictional stories but I haven’t researched into the latter ones.

Have a look and if you are interested, drop me a comment or reference link afterwards. And I hope to see you at AdTech in a few hours!

Fragmented