Hacker, Maker, Teacher, Thief – Advertising’s Next Generation

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I have contributed a chapter to the upcoming Creative Social book “Hacker, Maker, Teacher, Thief – Advertising’s Next Generation“. My chapter is called ‘Proving MC Hammer Wrong” and deals with how much we love to touch: our fellow human beings, well designed objects and naturally all those shiny new screens and interfaces. The whole book will soon be available on Lulu and I’ll be sharing news on the launch, chapters and the other contributors here soon. Suffice to say, the book’s authors include some big hitters from the best digital companies, startups and creative agencies around the globe. If you happen to be in London on Tuesday, September 2, do make sure to get to the launch event at Digitas LBI. You can get the last few tickets here on Eventbrite.

Questions addressed in the book are for example: 

  • What does the industry need to do today (not tomorrow) to stay valuable and relevant?
  • What the f**k do clients know about great advertising?
  • How can copying make you more original?
  • How do we ‘do’ innovation?
  • Should we make things people want rather than make people want things?
  • How do you find emotional resonance in real time marketing?
  • What’s the best way to punch procrastination in the face?
  • And why are we so excited by the next generation of advertising?

Here are some rave reviews:

“A punchy, provocative and perceptive trip through some of the bigger debates of the moment, from a gang of the most pioneering creative minds in and around the industry. As a collection, it’s like an idea grenade. It should be required reading for agency CEOs and leadership teams.”
Ben Malbon, Marketing Director, Creative Partnerships, Google

“Forget the past, the future is where it’s at – and this is your guide book.”
Rosie Arnold, Deputy Executive Creative Director, BBH London

“Less of a book and more of a lively debate. So rather than read it, ‘listen to it’ and get stuck in. It’ll make you want to ask questions, nod vigorously and heckle from the back.”
Graham Fink, CCO, Ogilvy China

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Digital agencies teaming up with start ups

I am sure you have already noticed:  digital creative agency work heavily overlaps with start ups. I am hardly the first to notice that talent, ideas, formats and processes are very similar in nature. It’s no wonder some talented staff leave agencies to pursue their start up ideas. Murat Mutlu has delivered a great rant on it here. Similarly, whole agencies team up with venture capital to pursue start up ventures. R/GA’s Connected Devices Accelerator comes to mind. Check out the crowd in this new YouTube content called ‘That Start Up Show’ (you can read my review here). You’d be hard pressed to tell the people apart: agency geezers or start up folk?

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Photo by Heisenberg Media under CC

Or look at the photo above: is it a group of start ups or a digital agency? Click through to Heisenberg Media and you will find out. So in many ways there is little difference. The reason we are still somewhat different is how agencies deal with a variety of industries & clients rather than one target market or one vertical. And most importantly, we differ in the way ‘our businesses work’. We agencies handle risk and reward a lot different from start ups. More often than not, we agencies would love to follow up, evolve, optimise and perfect our ideas for apps and services. Yet the budget often isn’t there for those last hard yards. On the side of the start ups people must often re-adjust their ideas and pivot the whole entreprise. And still their genius might hit a wall. Or the money might run out. Or the market might not react at all.

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Photo by Heisenberg Media under CC

Despite those differences, I thought there is so much to be gained from getting closer to the start up world. I investigated our own Reactive agency & start up relationship further. And as part of our constant Research and Development, Reactive has started a relationship with Telstra’s incubator program Muru-D.

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Through them we got to know a Sydney start up called ISSUE. Their venture is a browser-based authoring tool that creates mobile/tablet ready magazines with e-commerce and affiliate marketing, all built in. Or as they would call it: “Mobile magazines with shoppable stories”.

Issue application site

Last week Reactive Sydney turned into a little film set, hosting the ISSUE crew shooting a demo reel with us. Reactive is acting as their partner agency in this video (with yours truly among the amazing cast). The final video (see below)  features fashion & design bloggers Lisa Hamilton from See Want Shop and Terri Winter, founder of Top3 by Design. They worked together with us to create an amazing interior design and fashion mag – and we had a blast being part of it.

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We will post this ISSUE hype video once it’s finalised. In the meantime you can check out the elaborate set and suave actors in these ‘Behind the scenes’ shots:

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My Ode to the Transformers – Dutch Digital Day

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. 😉

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Blind to Homelessness? Make Them Visible!

Carl Panzcak and his crew at Reactive NYC created this gem of a charity campaign together with Silver+Partners and Smuggler. It is a social experiment and campaign for making homelessness a more visible problem. Great work by our fellow team in New York, made me quite teary actually…

Check out Reactive’s work on http://www.makethemvisible.com where you can find some beautiful portraits of real homeless people in New York. And donate to help.

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You can also read a couple of write ups on Creativity Online, Fast Company, Huffington Post and our own Reactive blog

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This project initially began through our trip to the IAB Mixx Awards in New York with The Most Powerful Arm. As part of being over there, we hosted ‘Tomorrow Evening’, an event with the Reactive NYC crew where we presented our work and thinking. This event in turn created a personal connection to indie agency Silver + Partners which led to ‘Make Them Visible‘. I think it goes to show that you can’t quite know what will come out of hosting creative events. Except that you’ll always make a few interesting connections.

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Agency: Silver + Partners
Production Company: Smuggler
Editing: Now Corporation
Audio House: Sound Lounge
Finishing/Titles: Suspect
Music: JSM 
Website: Reactive

Mobile Masterclass at the Apple Store Sydney

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Two of my creative colleagues are holding a Mobile Masterclass at the Apple Store Sydney (CBD). Called ‘Designing for the Mobile World’ it will give you designers and developers some must-have knowledge. Do you want to be able to deliver mobile-centric experiences in a physical environments? Then join David Brown and Gabriel Tamborini from Reactive Sydney on March 12 as they discuss the current state of the mobile space, and how to deliver an inspiring and delightful mobile user experience. During this session, you’ll break out into groups and develop a digital experience that could be delivered on a mobile platform.

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Wednesday, 12 March at 6:00 pm
Apple Store Sydney CBD
367 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
(02) 8083 9400