Social Hallucinations

Bloggers Unite for Earth

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. There are over 6.000 bloggers who joined the initiative with reach over 4 million readers. The point is to spread the message, focus people's attention on environmental issues.

So if have a blog, just rush to join Blog Action Day to help make earth a better and cleaner place.

You can read more about the action day here.

Tags: environment, blog action day

Weekend Stuff

Here is some pretty interesting and funny links for relaxing weekend with laptop and good Internet connection with a cup of warm tea, good music and warm blanket.

RedFruit farm is looking for manager :-). Great website, especially the movie introducing you to the job.

Talking about jobs. Meet some very innovative engineers.

Dontclick.it. Interesting and addictive project.

Most influential gadgets in the history.

And a bunch of cool ads from YouTube

Great presentation of Nissan Rouge. Roughly speaking, I know what this car can on the road. Besides good creative execution.

I  love "The Science of Sleep" movie for it is dreamness. Watching this movie is like being in a dream. Now, Michel Gondry used his expertise in science of sleep for Motorola and made a Razr commercial.

Sensual advertising from Korean Airlines. Beuatifully done. It expresses softness, sensuality and makes you feel safe.

This is not a commercial. This is the piece from the real life. Tony Blair should be thankful and happy to get so much love.

Tags: links, advertising, dontclic.it, gadgets

Excuse me, I am a Person...

Together with famous paradigm shift that took us from push to pull, we have discovered that consumers are not only some individuals aged 25-45 consuming products and services, they are also or rather first of all are people. 

I control myself when writing or talking and try to replace word consumer with people / person as often as I can. Of course from time to time the C-word  slips from my mouth and I don't see anything wrong in it. I avoid C-word  mainly to clear my mind when working with human insights and break through the single track thinking. There is nothing bad in using word consumer, after all this is one of our roles we play in everyday life. What's important here is to remember that being consumer doesn't define us, doesn't determine our personality, our lifestyle or media usage. We, humans play variety of roles on daily basis, we are employees, mothers, siblings or friends, and consumer is on of the roles. We need to understand or at least be aware of different roles people play in different situation and different needs connected to those. The point is that people even though they are consumers, they don't want to be treated as consumers but as human beings. 

There are some protests and actions going on against the bad habit of calling people for consumers. 22 squared company working with branding through friending has established the advocacy group against calling people consumers on Facebook. And now they took the resistance against C-word a step further - they have created their own web script for FireFox that eliminates the CONSUMERS word in all your web pages, and replaces it with people / person. It looks pretty cool and it is an impressive piece of work. Consumers vanished, only people were left. But don't exaggerate and keep in mind, we are still consumers from time to time and this role has influence on the choices we make.

Tags: 22squared, consumer, people, roles

Commercial as Content

FirebrandTV has introduced today the multimedia platform with  "commercials as content". The best ads will be chosen by a panel of Gen Y.  You can not only watch the cool commercials but also within a click you get an access to promotions and you can buy the products. FirebrandTV will also have CJ (commercials jockeys - someone like VJ) "to contextualize commercials as art and guide viewers through the spots, contests and promotions.". It launches 22nd October on three platforms: TV (ION Television Network), web and mobile (through iTunes and MSN)

Investors behind the project are: Microsoft, NBC Universal and GE’s Peacock Equity Fund, ION Television, as well as Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek, among others, joined Firebrand at its announcement during Advertising Week at the Paley Center for Media.

This is a great idea of distributing advertising using "pull" methods and combining it with merchandise option. It will be interesting to watch as it sets the new standard for traditional TV advertising.  The fact is that people don't hate commercials, people hate being forced to watch the bad and boring commercials. I am looking forward to hear people's reaction to it and see how is it working in real life. I think the sales aspect is very interesting, transferring ad liking into sales.

Crayon is handling the social media aspect of Firebrand - check out what they have already done: YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Flickr and Delicious Links.

Tags: firebrandtv, advertising, content, sales

Power Point Is Bad for Brains

Power point is ominous program. I've hardly been to any presentation where it wasn't used. I'd count on one hand presentations I've given without power point. I have my set of guidelines I use when preparing presentations: people don't think in words, 80% of human communication is nonverbal, it's what I say matters, not my power point slides. And of course Seth Godin's rules: no more than six words on a slide. EVER, no dissolves, spins or other transitions, don’t hand out print-outs of your slides.

Power point is useful but used in a wrong way can be deadly. Here is just another reason why found at Power Point is bad for brains

Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia found
the brain is limited in the amount of information it can absorb - and
presenting the same information in visual and verbal form - like
reading from a typical Powerpoint slide - overloads this part of memory
and makes absorbing information more difficult.

Professor Sweller said: "The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched.

Via Media Influencer

Photo by Erik Mallinson

Tags: power point, communication                                                                 

Co-create or Die

"We aim at nothing but mutual assistance and collaboration". (Winston Churchill, "Iron Curtain" Speech)

I have been to the very good and interesting presentation about co-creation by Rikke Grundvigt from OMD. Rikke talked about co-creation, the digitized reality where mash-ups are just another form of communication. She tried not only to show the new forms of communication, called co-creation but also tried to answer the question:  how media and advertising agencies can find themselves in this new world. How can we become interesting partners in the collaboration process? How can we turn collaboration into our advantage?

I have been thinking quite a lot lately about collaboration, not only as a new form of communication but as an integrated part of the way people work.

According to online Websters dictionary:

Collaboration

Noun

1. Act of working jointly: "they worked either in collaboration or independently".

2. Act of cooperating traitorously with an enemy.

According to Wikipedia

"Collaboration is a structured, recursive process where two or more people work together by building consensus and sharing knowledge in an intellectual endeavor toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature. Collaboration does not require leadership and can even bring better results through decentralization and egalitarianism."

Collaboration means working together, collaboration means co-creation, collaboration means wisdom of crowds. Collaboration means better results, as my great-grandmother used to say: "two heads are wiser than one head" (she was 92 years old).

Collaboration, co-creation are talks of the town. They are the new buzz - let's invite our target group to co-creation! But before we jump into inviting consumers to co-creation, shouldn't we ask ourselves a question: Is our organization ready to work in teams? Do we have culture for collaboration?

From my observations and conversations with people, I think collaboration is huge challenge, due to bad communication (or lack of it), tyranny of "I in front of the computer" culture and "I wanna be a star" syndrome. Hierarchical approach and war of  business cards (who has the stronger title) dominates and overshadows the potential laying in collaboration. People, companies, brands locked in their own private worlds choose to take decisions themselves, just to avoid problems and discussions. It is easier this way. This is the way to promote "I", not good ideas or solutions.

Closing the door for the challenges and unfathomable potential laying in the collaboration makes people feel alienated and limits the chances for surviving in the world dominated by the new species: powerful, creative people, previously known as consumers. 

Photo by CARF

Btw visit CARF's side, and give your helping hand to Children at Risk Foundation

Tags: collaboration, wisdom of the crowds

Goodbye Marcel Marceau

Marcel Marceau, the most famous and fantastic mime in the world has died. He was 84. He was incredible artist. I remember watching his shows with my grandpa, and then trying to mime him.  There was so much expression in his face. He will be missed.

"Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words" (M. Marceau)

Tags: Marcel Marceau

 

What's this?

I have found this new ad. I was disgusted by it. My first I though was: yuck, old burger! Then I discovered it is a commercial for McCafe. It cleared my head, sort of and I understood the concept. But I am afraid, you don't have such a comfort when you place your ad in magazine and an ordinary person runs across it. He / she will be disgusted and will move on. Minority will take their time to find out what actually it is. The idea is very good but execution misses the final touch to make it more appealing and look more like a coffee than old burger.

I have printed the ad and showed it to a couple of my friends (not from advertising business), everyone had the same reaction: "ugh, what's that?! an old hamburger! Gross!"

Via adgoodness

Tags: advertising, McDonalds, McCafe

Living your Dream

One of my friends - Morten has lately decided to follow his passion and open a small company where he takes people for diving trips to Greenland. I guess I will never join him on one of his diving trips (the cold is the biggest punishment to me), I love listening to his stories and seeing pictures from such a far-away land, where you imagine ice only to exist.  In fact Greenland is beautiful and gives lots of pleasures to your eyes, both over- and underwater. I'd love to visit the place during the warm season, of course. Morten enjoys and explores Greenland and gives others the opportunity to discover the wild nature, and open spaces that has never been touched by western civilization.

I admire him not only for being passionate about something as extreme as arctic diving, but also for following his dream. Feeling the passion in others is uplifting and inspiring. Without passion, dedication and engagement life would seem empty.

If you feel like taking a deep dive into Greenland's nature and sea visit Arctic Dive website, order the trip or just watch stunning photo gallery.

Don't forget to spread the word :-) and help people to fulfill their dreams.

Tags: passion, diving, arctic diving, Greenland

Bright Shiny Objects

They are bright, shiny. They attract us. We can't keep our eyes of them. Their glow is like magnet, it pulls us in their orbit and we crave. We just desperately want them. Bright Shiny Objects. B.O.B's own us, we are slaves of having. We are chasing B.O.B's, new colors, new shapes, new materials, 20 GB more...the newer, the shiner, the higher demand. B.O.B's aren't anything new, they have slightly changed the trajectory of attraction. In the modern times they've attracted with material value and material status one could achieve by owning them. It was all about having. Today, in liquid reality, they are armed with meanings, soft values. B.O.B's became even more powerful, because together with them we buy our personality. We tell who we are. We call it being.We are almost shiny as our B.O.B's. Bling bling can be heard on the streets, in offices, in shops, bling is ominous. And bling is voracious...You get it, you show it off, then you get tired of it and want something new.

Inspired by Jessica Hagy

Tags: bright shiny object, having vs. being, B.O.B

Take it or Leave it

What irritates me most is being surrounded by negative people, who see obstacles and are blind for challenges. What's worst they keep on working and complaining, We aren't living in a perfect world, sometimes we are forced to do things we aren't passionate about, work for clients we don't like or disguise the way they communicate. Take it or leave. This is just a rules of the game. Life is to short to spend it on complaining.

My point is that there is opportunity in every job, in the boring task, unbearable client or unacceptable approach to media planning. There are obstacles but overcoming them opens the paradise of opportunities and without ever trying you'd never know whethere there were a chance to change a world, what's more important you'll never change a world or make a difference, you stay wining and hoping for miracle (btw. miracles are the result of hard work or faith).

Tags: job, opportunites, obstacles

Haiku on Serious Error

Aren't you sometimes tired of error messages from Windows system that aren't helpful anymore, but just annoying and wanting you to throw your computer outside the window? In Japan they have found the wonderful solution, they have replaced those error messages with haiku poems. I could imagine they make people smile and ease the fury. I'd love to read one of those on my screen

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.   
Windows is like that.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.

With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not  found.                        

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao - until
You bring fresh toner.

Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

Having been erased,
The document you are seeking
Must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

Found at Brand Tarot, Picture by Hobo Pd

Tags: windows, haiku

Coelho for HP

I like the way HP moved from being technological device into being human's friend, who helps you not just with your business but passion. HP add the real dimension to the expression "personal computer". They've started with rap stars then was Vera Vang and the guy from Orange County Choppers (you can see all the commercials here) and today I've spotted on TV spot with Paulo Coelho. Nice commercial and also beautiful website where you can hear and see his stories as well as lean more about the features that make HP attractive to Paul Coelho. Very insightful communication. Computers aren't only for geeks any more.

There is only one minus, where you click on link 'Learn more and buy', you get this. HP, you've lost me right here.

Tags: HP, Coelho, advertising

Say NO to Average

I was thinking about different grades of being good at something. From being mediocre good quality to being extremely good quality. What does make difference? At which level success begins? Hugh McLeod's cartoon gives an answer. You can't never stop, it is about getting better all the time, believing the sky's are limits. It is about reaching the level of being amazing and saying NO to being average.

So often clients expects from you average stuff and we fit in fear of having dissatisfied clients or losing job. In fact it is huge wastage of time and talent. None dares to grab the opportunity, takes whatever he/she does one step further and become fucking amazing. No, we feel safer within tested excel formula and power point templates. Come on there is a bigger world out there and you can make a difference by saying NO to being average. Spread the world and combat mediocrity.

Thanks for inspiration Mr. McLeod :-)

Tags: gapingvoid, mediocrity, quality, say NO to average

Kisses, Babies and Shaving

It is a long time since I've seen such an insightful and entertaining video for shaving gear. It seems to be Gillette isn't the best man can get, but best babies can get :-)

Tags: Wilkinson, fight for kisses, video, advertising