Pinterest influences web strategies

Posted on March 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

America’s TODAY show has borrowed heavily from the usage pattern and structure of Pinterest. Browse to your heart’s content, ideally on a tablet and discover something that you can collect and take away. And because Pinterest is such a mainstream past time already,  many brands should take note. With the rise of tablets and touch sensitive computers in the future, this just feels more human and easily accessible.

TODAY’s digital director, Jen Brown is succinctly quoted with the following.

“There’s something about the mindset of Pinterest that is similar to what [people] love about TODAY.com— and that’s discovery. Sometimes I go to Pinterest and I’m not sure what exactly I want, but I know I’m going to find something fun. That’s really how we try to program our site.”

TODAYshow

See full article on Mashable

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Posted in design, Social Media, Strategy

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Come out like a Top Gun

Posted on February 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

I just watched this video below (don’t ask why) and something hit me about the structure of both music and video. They both go full throttle, travelling hell for leather. In the very first scene, a jet fighter takes off. We know this will be full on airforce porn. Secondly, Kenny Loggins’ song is breaking every speed limit to get to its chorus (0:29), which is pretty catchy and very repetitive.

Now here is my point: most YouTube pre-roll ads are unaltered television edits, and do the opposite. They build up slowly, and reveal the product after 0:05 – 0:10 at the earliest. The problem in this environment is, every user can skip an ad after 0:05.

Lesson for videos on online pre-roll? Better come out all guns blazing, like Maverick and Iceman. Edit the story so that the first scene  gives viewers a jolt, by being funny, emotional, mysterious, suspenseful or shocking. And in under 5 seconds, make clear what this is all about. Or you risk that the whole ad gets fatally ejected like Goose.

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Posted in Advertising, user generated content, Video

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20 Creative Agency Planets in Sydney

Posted on February 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

Whenever you bump into an old colleague (now working at a competitor agency), you might go: ‘Hey, what a small world!’.
That’s what we think as well and were therefore inspired to create these 20 small agency planets.

A big help was Ryan Alexander‘s web app ‘Street View Stereographic’. It creates a “little planet” using photos from any Google Street View. Simply type in the geographic location in the search bar. As we did in the below for our own ‘little’ agency Publicis Mojo.

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So you think you know the agency scene in Sydney? Not like this you don’t. Try to recognise as many of these 20 creative agencies’ neighbourhoods and buildings. Write them with their # into the comments section and be recognised as a real connoisseur of our small agency world.

#1

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#2

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#3

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#4

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#5 (it is around the corner – no Streetview exists)

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#6

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#7

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#8

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#9

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#10

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#11

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#12

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#13

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#14

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#15

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#16

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#17

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#18

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#19

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#20

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Original link via Design Taxi

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Posted in Advertising, design, Locative Media, user generated content

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You are listening to … Los Angeles

Posted on February 11, 2012 | Leave a comment


“You are listening to Los Angeles” is a mesmerizing and beautiful collage of two sound streams. Ambient music (via SoundCloud) and live police radio (scanner audio from RadioReference.com) come together to form an audio experience reminiscent of films like Paul Haggis ‘Crash‘ and Michael Mann’s ‘Collateral‘. Other US cities are available as well – I have done a quick search on Sydney police radio but am not sure it is available online.

I just pledged a few dollars to help creator Eric Eberhardt, himself a digital product manager and UX designer, develop an iPhone app version of the site. I imagine the mobile experience, walking the streets while listening to the two streams together, to be quite an interesting (if not creepy) experience.

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Posted in apps, Mobile

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Add a motor to it – on YouTube

Posted on February 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

I spent an interesting lunch at the IAB Creative Showcase where the last quarter’s winners explained their work. For me The Monkeys ‘Put a Motor To It’ for coffe milk drink ‘Ice Break’ stood out. The campaign documented people adding engines to all kinds of unusual devices – think ‘Top Gear’ meets ‘Mythbusters’. Here is the Ice Break YT channel and below is the campaign’s case study:

As Ben Cooper from The Monkeys explained, the staggered release of videos over 7 weeks allowed the agency (to a small degree) to creatively react to the audience’s viewing behaviour and also integrate fans into the edits. Professional seeding, careful uploading (naming, descriptions, inter linking, meta data etc) and special attention to the inner circle of brand adorers/ambassadors were key. Paid media (e.g. featured video on YouTube’s homepage) actually kicked in only later and formed a second stage.
Other experts like Josh Spears of Undercurrent favour an immediate release of all material. After all, the user doesn’t ‘have all minute’ and probably won’t return to your channel anyway.

In any case, The Monkeys definitely succeeded in bringing a brand that previously aired the same TVC for 9 years in a row to take a leap into the wild world of online video and content.

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Posted in Advertising, Social Media, Strategy, Video

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I Know Where Bruce Lee Lives

Posted on January 9, 2012 | 1 Comment

“Enter The Dragon“, Bruce Lee’s first (and only) solo big Hollywood production, ran on Australian television last weekend.  So it is good timing that I have managed to pull together a video case study of my/SKOP’s “I know Where Bruce Lee Lives“. This tells the story of an ultra-interactive KungFu remixer combining the heroism and cheesiness of 70s KungFu films, the ironic use of the VHS video aesthetic with simple yet engaging interactivity. Here’s more on the making of this interactive art piece. Unfortunately we never filmed any of the live installations and performances. Teaches you to document everything well for cases like these.

Many thanks to my former Holler colleague Razif Djamaludin for the animation work.

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Posted in art, interactivity, Video

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Near future communication at Mojo

Posted on December 12, 2011 | Leave a comment
“Swipe, tap and eat” -  a little update from the Creative Technology front at MOJO. We have partnered with Amnesia/Razorfish and the University of Sydney to develop a mobile application that could change the way we order our favourite meals. We helped MA student Stephen Davis to devise, test and program ‘BrandTable’. It is concept that allows shoppers to order food with only a tap of their mobile phone, using near-field-communication (NFC). A popular smartphone feature in Japan and Korea, NFC will sweep into the Australian market in 2012. Our video of the prototype, which you can see here, has already caught the attention of global technology blogs TechCrunch and Engadget.
We know Australians love smartphones and social networking, so we will continue to explore this technology. Any progressive creative idea, from mobile couponing, real-time scavenger hunts to launching branded films, can be propelled by NFC. And that makes it very near-future-communication for us at MOJO.

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Posted in apps, design, Experiential, Mobile, Video

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