Category Archives: interactivity

Agency Open House Sydney

Posted on October 24, 2014 | Leave a comment

Register for our free event now: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/web-directions-agency-open-house-reactive-tickets-4776690209

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Next Wednesday afternoon, Sydney will see its first Agency Open House. You can visit and have a beer with people at places like Reactive, Host, Soap, Deepend Group, Digital Arts Network, Reborn, WeAreSocial, Pollen, TheFarm,Small Multiples or The Interaction Consortium.

Check out this Agency Open House microsite for Wednesday October 29 where you can also RSVP to the respective agency events. Rub shoulders with art directors, copywriters, uber-geeks, producers and strategy minds. Learn from their work exhibited, listen to talks, ask questions, make connections. You could score an internship, dream job or your next creative collaboration partner. As it is part of Web Directions 2014, expect some heavy hitters from their international speaker roster like Jessica Hische to maybe make a cameo appearance. Just saying….

Check out the full program to RSVP here

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We at Reactive are excited to partner with Web Directions & Creative Social to open our doors for a Sydney-wide Agency Open House So in particular we would love for you to join us at our office in Surry Hills next Wednesday afternoon (Oct 29), between 4-6pm. You can RSVP by registering online https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/web-directions-agency-open-house-reactive-tickets-4776690209

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What are Web Directions, Creative Social and this Agency Open House?

Since 2004, Web Directions has been Australia’s cutting edge conference that bring together the world’s most pioneering, interactive creative directors, business owners, strategists and other global experts of digital design and development. As a social warm-up for this year’s Web Directions (October 30-31) the aim of our joint Agency Open House is to have a beer and a chat, explore agencies’ work and workplaces and build some new connections. Reactive has been part of Creative Social since 2007 and together with this group of leading agencies, we recognise that collaborating in a digital landscape is how we will advance the whole industry and enjoy the journey.

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What’s the inspiration all about?

Reactive has been a partner of Web Directions for 3 years now. This year is particularly special as we were invited to create the opening title sequence for the conference. The film is completely HTML-generated and plays live in the browser, unlike traditional videos.

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One of our creatives involved, Melissa Baillache, explains the thinking behind the film:

“We wanted to touch on the importance of everyone that come together to imagine, design, create and build great digital products and services. The people, who passionately labour over the tiny details, behind the scenes as well as at the forefront of the digital world. In our film, all these individuals are represented by a ‘pixel’. Their stories evolve into playful geometric structures, yet always keep their original core—the element that binds everything together into a single experience.”

We’d be thrilled if you can stop by Reactive’s office for some beers, food and showcasing and explaining the tech behind the title sequence. Registering can be done by simply replying to this email or visiting the event page below:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/web-directions-agency-open-house-reactive-tickets-4776690209

We hope to see you next Wednesday arvo, guys!

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Posted in Advertising, apps, art, Convergence, design, interactivity, Mobile, Strategy

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Content Marketing Picture with Getty Images

Posted on September 11, 2014 | Leave a comment

The most widely spoken language in the world isn’t Mandarin – it’s pictures! These and other truths will come out today when Micha Schwing (Getty), Chris Collacott (Deloitte), Lucy Sutton (King Content) and I talk ‘content marketing’ with particular focus on images. Micha Schwing is Global Director for Content Strategy at Getty Images. She explores the evolving meaning of imagery in advertising and marketing, identifying how consumers and brands engage in the wider visual culture.

Here is a link to today’s event at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney:
http://mumbrella.com.au/content-marketing-picture

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As a contributor to Getty Rise and editor of Adverblog I have my fair share of editorial experience. Including Facebook pages with a six-figure audience – what works, what doesn’t, how to combine copy and images. And ever since content production became more prominent in the marketing mix, I have helped brands like WeightWatchers, Bonds, Nescafe and XXXX Gold do the same and initiate their own programs.

Standing out visually has always been a creative cornerstone of my projects. Most recently we at Reactive initiated a world first collaboration of WeightWatchers and Getty Images: using Getty’s API Connect allowed Australians to tell their very individual success stories, choosing from millions of the world’s most popular photos.

http://vimeo.com/105823482

Quick Update:

Mumbrella content marketing picture panel

Tim Burrowes (Mumbrella), Tim Buesing (Reactive), Chris Collacott (Deloitte Digital), Lucy Sutton (King Content), Micha Schwing (Getty Images)

Mumbrella has written a little summary of our different view points here.

I thoroughly enjoyed partaking in this Mumbrella ‘Content Marketing Picture’ panel and was able to learn quite a lot from debating with Micha Schwing, Tim Burrowes, Chris Collacott and Lucy Sutton. The points we covered ranged from:

  • can brands actually be authentic? It seems sometimes easier to answer in B2B marketing where it is a lot about people, projects and case studies
  • what’s the best governance and how does the organisation need to plan ahead before launching into content production and publication? what structure, resources and process need to be in place?
  • what’s a reasonable and sustainable strategy, what are the aims?
    what amplification and automation opportunities are there? Marketing automation isn’t automated marketing.
  • how can ROI be measured? It doesn’t have to be monetary, it can also be employee retention or innovation projects.
  • are marketers more open to a true portrayal of modern Australia, e.g. in regards to ethnicity, lifestyles, morality,…

We covered a lot of ground and I want to thank Getty and Mumbrella for inviting me as well as my co-panelists for their thoughts.

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Posted in Advertising, interactivity, user generated content

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My Ode to the Transformers – Dutch Digital Day

Posted on June 27, 2014 | Leave a comment

Today I will be speaking at the ‘Dutch Digital Day‘ in Amsterdam, an event held by the Dutch equivalent of AIMIA, called PIBN. Speaking with luminaries such as Joshua Davies, Gadi Amit (FitBit founder) and Sam Hashemi (UX for NASA) will be a treat (full line up of speakers here). In advance of my talk at Amsterdam’s hip location Undercurrent (below) I got interviewed and wanted to share some of my answers below:

The theme of Dutch Digital Day is Ode to the Transformers. What’s in your opinion the most transforming power in digital nowadays?

Simple: it’s still our brains! All means of production have become democratised, low cost and achievable. There are distributed teams, plenty of APIs, agile workflows and crowdsourced funding models. Even 3D manufacturing has gone into constant iteration and rapid prototyping. One day it’s getting produced in backyards or upstairs studios, the next day it’s in the app store, on the streets or in online shops, ready to be ordered and be transported to anywhere. There is absolutely nothing stopping any of us. And there are no more excuses why you can’t just create whatever you can think of.

Probably the most famous work you’ve been involved in was The Most Powerful Arm which changed thinking about Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in Australia. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned working on this project?

That your best work comes from trusting relationships, from working with people you know, from small teams, from cutting the bullshit and just doing the work. Some things you will get wrong and you never have enough time or money. There are actually many things we could have done better with The Most Powerful Arm. But unless you are actually creating something, you are just talking about it.

It’s a beautiful demonstration of creativity, technology and data coming together. Do you have practical tips for people how to make this work?

Plenty of tips and most of them I will share on DDD. To keep it interesting till the day I am just giving away the headlines: Get Physical, Stir an Emotion, Go Mobile, Set a Goal, Simply the Tech, Build It and They Will Come, Re-use Your Ideas. And it will all be wrapped in an even bigger topic: football! Believe me, it will make sense (in a way).

You’re only 20 years old with a resume of someone who’s 35. What’s your story? (;-))

You’re so kind but I am not 20 years old anymore, unless you’re counting in robot years. I’m more like the 35+ you mentioned. So it might be that I simply spent my time like everyone else, inching forward day by day. 😉

undercurrent

 

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Posted in Advertising, Convergence, interactivity

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Take a Break for PauseFest

Posted on February 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

Only sometimes do I wish I resided in Australia’s OTHER city, aka Melbourne. PauseFest is one of those reasons. Apart from its good branding and art work, it features delectable content and experiences.

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Continuing their strong momentum from 2012,  PauseFest features everything from cool installations, games, music, animations and interactive design to creative panels about startups and the wider digital industry. Under the title ‘Masters of the Industry‘ Reactive’s co-founder Tim O’Neill will panel it out with some other Melbourne luminaries. Among them my friend and ex-colleague Dave King from The Royals and Erminio Putignano (ex FutureBrand, now PUSH Collective).

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Check out all the speakers here and get your tickets here.

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Posted in art, design, games, interactivity, Video

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Using Innovation for Good at SXSW

Posted on January 28, 2014 | Leave a comment

The interactive-film-music conference juggernaut SXSW (South by SouthWest) comes around early March and this year I and Emad Tahtouh are lucky enough to be panelists. Reactive and Finch will present together our joint work for ‘The Most Powerful Arm‘. In the panel ‘Using Innovation for Good‘ we discuss the possibilities of using innovation and experimental technology for worthy causes.

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And best of all, you can participate by tweeting question that will be written in real time by ‘The Most Powerful Arm’ robot itself, live, in the room! Use the hashtag #SXSWArm and it shall turn into words on paper.

The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented

The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented

Here are the details of Emad’s and my panel: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2014/events/event_IAP22776

Tim and Emad at IAB Mixx Awards

If you happen to attend the interactive part of SXSW, please connect with us on SXSW’s social platform and/or say hi at our panel.

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I am also currently piecing together my own schedule of favourite events, which you can publicly see here. Maybe we can match interests or share interesting events:
http://schedule.sxsw.com/user_events/628a38f5b2d3793e35cb91f72719527cabe74cd0

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Posted in Convergence, interactivity, Strategy

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