7.16.09 :: As a creative, I never miss a chance to use an ad to make fun of a socially undesirable character. In fact, if we worked on more male oriented products, I’d probably have one of the below ideas a day.
I recently came across the article,“Let’s Redesign Advertising” from a Senior User Experience Designer at Modernista!. His argument was simple: advertising has to provide more than a message to people, it has to provide meaning to their lives. He cites brands like Whole Foods, who do very little traditional advertising and instead design their entire product around a healthy, organic user experience from the products you buy, to the bags you shop with, to the sustainable recipes submitted by customers at the front of the store. This gives the customer added meaning to their lives, allowing them to think they are helping while interacting with a brand. On the other hand, people like Gatorade simply splash your face with one of 500 athletes who endorse the product (a message).
So, is the above ‘collar straighteners ad’ just another message? Another way for us to co-opt a part of culture to tell consumers who we are? Does it in any way enhance the experience of the of our lives?
Well, I would argue in the world of beer, it does. It creates identity, just like community and religion create solidarity. That brings meaning and value to our lives and helps us experience our life more than just the halo of a celebrity or another sponsor organization. Now, does it do it in the way Whole Food does? No, not close. But by tapping into culture, a message can mean something instead of just saying something. And, hey, at least it’s a start.
7.9.09:: Everyone has their rock star fantasy. Maybe it’s big hair atop pink spandex, headlining at the Empty Bottle or growing a handlebar mustache. Least to say, many of us have since given up on that. But that doesn’t mean a kid has to loose the hope that singing in the shower will amount to something.
I recently joined Rock for Kids junior board, a not-for-profit organization that provides year-round music education to underprivileged children in Chicago. They offer courses for kids in choir, rock band and even hip-hop. Plus, each year they host two events- a mix tape mixer and a rock memorabilia auction. The organization has even been supported by some of music’s greats including Andrew Bird.
You might ask what this has to do with you? Nothing, that’s the point. Think back to how important music has been in your life. Sometimes it’s an inspiring song on a long drive or that meaningful lyric that gave you a shoulder to lean on, or even that lead singer who inspired you to stand up at a karaoke bar. All these experiences provide positive support in a child’s life. And, hey, it’s better than XBox.
If you want to get involved, sign up for the email list here to keep track of all the happenings.
Or, if you’re one of those money giving folks, you can donate here.
Now back to our regularly scheduled creative musings.
6.24.09- If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve probably noted my fascination with e-paper. Well, a group of students at Art Center shared my interest and created a site and a series of videos that demonstrate how a new newspaper might work at Beyond the Fold.
As you might guess, the first question people might ask is: Why waste your time thinking about this before we can do this? Well, aside from the aesthetic halo this brings, I think the it offers us some practical advice. Since the days of DaVinci and the helicopter, we have always come up with more human and organic solutions when there are no technological restrictions. Why? Because it is our daily experiences that we try to improve. We are not slaves to machines or guidelines.
The same goes for solving any brand problem. We must think what is ideal before we think what is real. Start with: “In world filled with only possibilities, what and how do I want people to interact with my company?” After you have this, bring in the code, the legal copy and the sizes, but never forget your ideal solution (or least how it feels). After all, any reality can be beaten with enough imagination.
6.8.09 :: I know what you’re thinking– we so very desperately needed another smartphone. The iPhone has the market cornered with excellent usability and the most 3G users, Google’s G1 is popular among the open source community and Blackberry’s got a handle on enterprise level solutions. So, if you’re the late entry, the only thing you can do is to claim you can do it all, better.
Not surprisingly, this is what is implied in Palm Pre’s new spot , “Flow” from agency Modernista!
As for me, I remain positive. I had a small chance to play with the new phone this weekend, and while it’s by no means revolutionary, it has some features that are forward thinking and might catch on (i.e. Visual application dashboard, compact design, a nice user experience and great software [gmail and pandora]). My prediction is that the best practices of this phone will end up in the next generations of the G1 and iPhone, but as with the survival of all technology, it will be left in the people’s hands.
We have recently seen a dramatic shift in the definition and responsibilities of friendship. According to Time Out Chicago, we are more likely to call people our friends without really defining them as real friends. Some sites like Facebook and Twitter have made friendship equivalent to replying to a status update. And even Dentyne is telling us to how to treat our friends:
But, in an era where online social networking is the norm, how do we find the set of people who’s opinions we trust the most? And how does this effect what we buy?
Well, there is a fair amount of research on the subject of online word of mouth referrals amongst friends and it all centers around two things: 1.) A referral by a past customer is one of the most trusted pieces of online communication and 2.) The Dunbar Number. According to this concept, a human being can sustain relationships and communicate with about 150 people. Ironically, this is the average number of friends users have on Facebook. These 150 people make up a person’s referral circle, the people we receive information from (commercial or otherwise). Yet only 26% of these 150 will actually be called ‘real friends’ according to the aforementioned article in Time Out.
So, do we only trust these 39 people who we call our ‘real friends’? Well, a local artist/teacher, Maria Scapelli, might be able to shed some light on that with a project called Peoplescape 365. Essentially, Scapelli set out on a mission to make one new friend a day for a year either online or offline. Her topline conclusions: 1.) she only kept about 10% as ‘real friends’ 2.) almost all of these people she met in person. So, based on these loose numbers, we might be able to say a person is only able to maintain about 30-40 real friendships and that these relationships are mainly forged by face-to-face contact.
Does that mean we don’t trust the remaining 110 people in our social circle when they say a Samsung TV is a great purchase or buy a book recommend by Legend457 online? No, of course not. But when it comes to making a brand something we love to a point of passionate irrationality (see Lovemarks), one might assume we have to talk to these 30-40 people (among other things). If we don’t, we are simply just providing purchasing descisions not life long loves.
