Social Hallucinations

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

Interesting Links for the Weekend

It is raining outside and it feels like fall but weekend is just round the corner. I am looking forward to quite evening with book, cup of tea and warm blanket. Cosy and relaxing. But before I will find my sofa I would like to share with you a couple great links, sites worth to check out during the weekend. The picture should keep the sunny days in your mind forever. Let the sun be with you!

Fantastic initiative from Grey in US. Their name may be grey but they definitely want to be green. I hope others will join Grey in Green.

Great campaign for Bob Dylan's greatest hits album using the concept from one his old videos. Good one. Btw I've been to his concert some time ago. He is definitely in a good how, but I must admit I enjoy his music better at home.

I wish I could join Polygamous Marriage. Unfortunately I can do it only mentally. Very good planner initiative to go back to the roots and compile Media, Account Planning and Creative (I would also add PR). This is the most reasonable thing to do if you want to survive in the liquid reality.

Interesting article on the new beauty which is ugly. The New Ugly rules in design.

SlideFlickr will help you create and embed Flickr slideshows in less than 10 seconds, in case you are out of time or don't know what to do with your time :-)

And if there will come any sunshine in Denmark this weekend and you decide to celebrate it on beach, contact Sommergrill (summer grill) - they will provide you with delicious food.

After Saturday's night fever you may feel like visiting the church. If you hesitate, may those signs convince you.

Tags: links, green-forward, grey, polygamous marriage, Flickr, bob Dylan, church advertising

The Employee of the Month - Synthesizer

Great post from David Armano about Synthesizers. The more complex world becomes the more specialized functions we create. We have online planners, TV buyers, account managers, account directors, media planners buyers, strategic planners, I could keep on listing the titles we have on our business cards. Lots of people with pieces of knowledge, but so few with the overview and understanding of the whole picture. There is increasing need for synthesizers, who "... help take the inputs, distill them into something meaningful and articulate and output them in compelling, meaningful ways.", Armano says. This is the type of person agencies should invest nowadays in, if they want to embrace the increasingly complex reality.

I am a huge fan of holistic approach which is often overseen and definitely needed in our business. We deal not only with media, we deal with people, culture and technology. It is necessary to understand the interaction between them and come up with some useful conclusions for other specialists to work on. For me synthesizer is a kind of renaissance man who lives after the sentence: "omo sum et nihil humanum a me alienum esse puto". She/he is a person that opens the new door, is curious, isn't afraid, is hungry for wisdom and is able to compile the knowledge.

Who are you?

Tags: Armano, synthesizer, employee, renaissance man

Shoppers Act Irrationally

Economist are using the data behind millions of eBay's auctions to understand the shoppers behavior. They've found out that we act very irrationally. You can read more here

Tags: eBay, shoppers, economy

Back to the Office

I am back to work after short and rainy holidays. I am pretty relaxed and I've managed to go through the hell of unread mails. Mission accomplished. As most of the people have holidays in Denmark, it is quite and very productive time for me. Not too many mails, not too many phone calls. It is quiet and not too many people I can talk too. All in all, more productive time.

This graph pictures it in a way. You can definitely produce more work when not sitting in a meetings. It is logical. The meeting that doesn't produce anything, let it be solution, problem to solve, idea, etc. or has no clearly defined direction, is just a waste of time.

I like also this one. Too much work doesn't ignite creativity, rather stress. I think this is the problem which seems to be overseen - not enough people, huge amount of work and endless deadlines race.

I am going to enjoy the summer time and no meetings, lesser amount of work and lots of inspiration and great ideas :-)

Visit Crappy Graphs for more cool and crappy graphs.

Tags: work, productivity, inspiration, crappy graphs

Relaxing Link

Great online game direclty from Brazil. Great graphics and nice and easy plot, good to try during the lunch break.

Advertising that Helps

"ripple exists to harness the power of the Internet advertising in the true spirit of the Internet - providing a tool for people to help others. We are leveraging the market for Internet advertising to generate revenue to help people rather than our pockets."

Sounds reasonable and it is a fantastic idea. All you have to do is to search and click ...and generate revenue that saves people's life. Finally we can use advertising for more noble purposes than just selling products.

ripple works because it is a win for everybody

• ripplers (that's you) have access to a homepage which allows them to fight poverty with your daily searches or a simple click
• Advertisers gain effective advertising while contributing to our global community
• More funding helps the ripple charities continue their work

The concept is very simple and makes social media to live up to their name - social. It is about being a part of a herd and taking care for its members.

I have installed the ripple logo on my blog (on the sidebar, just look to the right) so ripple on every time you visit my blog :-) You will not probably change or save the world but you will make a difference and this is what matters!

via Chroma

Tags: ripple, charity, advertising, social media

Tired of Your Office Life - Try to Kill Yourself

When you are tired of  mails, meeting and never ending requests, take a five minutes break to kill yourself. It is relaxing and funny game.

Tags: games, 5 minuts to kill yourself

Hot links

I've been a little disconnected for a couple of days so now I try to catch up and I can see that you guys out there in the big wild world are doing lots of great job and campaigns. Here are the best of ...Enjoy and become inspired :-)

Are you in mood for love? Are you feeling emotional? Yes, than you must visit Nokia L'amour site. It is beautiful and very emotional. You can create and feel emotions, but also take a look at jeweler collections designed by Polish artists. Site is available both in Polish and English... Feel the love! Nokia sends love in the air.

Or are you rather in a mood for a wild ride? So I guess you should try Volksdragon. Absurd and fantastic promotion of Eragon DVD movie and have fun pimping your Volksdragon vehicle. It's better then movie itself ;o)

It is never to late to get a glass of milk. When you have lots of time, you can try this - it takes ages to download - the game about a glass of milk...I don't know exactly as it is still loading. But I guess it's worth waiting, as it looks very cool.

 

In the end you can drop by Henry Needle, the charming and very English tailor. He can fix you with some useful pockets for every occasion. Entertaining. Of course pockets are designed for your Nokia N95.

Tags: links, nokia, advertising, advertainment

Links for 25/01/2007

IPTV Guide

Ofcom observes that the demand for services delivered over broadband is developing rapidly. It suggests that over the next five years linear television viewing may fall by 20-30%, to be replaced largely by the increased use of on-demand services. A similar pattern is anticipated for audio programming. You can download the whole report here.

Tags: IPTV, broadband, ofcom, TV

More Marketers Are Grabbing the Attention of Players During Online Games

Games are becoming popular marketing spots as they begin to accept more branded messages.

Tags: games, advergames, online games

Coming Soon: The Death of the Web Page

With the rise of Web 2.0, Rich Internet Applications, Ajax and more, your static web page will soon be an antique: see what this means for your marketing plans.

Tags: web page

Big Media’s Crush on Social Networking

Tags: social networks, second life

Tags: Links

European Online Buying in Growth

According to the "Mediascope Europe 2006 Study," Europeans are avid online buyers. 

The study found that:

• 78% of European Internet users shop online

• they spend an average of € 750

• buy 10 items online over six months,

• there is 11% increase in online buying year over year

• online shoppers in the UK and Scandinavia spend and buy the most goods online

• Germans are online bargain seekers, buying a higher number of items at a lower cost

•  62% German online shoppers and 49% online shoppers in UK visit auction sites at least once a month (European online average of 41%)

• mobile phones top Europeans' online shopping list

• mobile phones had the largest growth in conversion rates year over year, growing at 23%, followed by music downloads, car accessories and home furnishings

via eMarketer

Tags: online buying, shoppers, Europe, Internet

A Second or First Life?

Hilarious concept! Darren Barefoot reacted to the Second Life by creating a site called Get a First Life.

First Life is a 3D analog world where server lag doesn't exsist. Good satire!

Links for the weekend (13-14 Jan)

Boom of Internet Ads in Europe

For years now Internet advertising spending has been growing at a fast clip in Europe, as in the world more broadly.
As 2007 gets under way, media buyers are expecting more of the same.

Tags: Internet, Advertising, Europe

All the news that's fit to print, as a PDF

If the old model for newspapers was one size fits all, just one edition per day, whether for 2,000 or 200,000 readers, the new model is the fully customized newspaper, an edition for every possible need in whatever format the reader may want. The latest format is, of all things, the PDF.

Tags: Print, Online, PDF

The big trends to keep an eye on in '07

One is user-generated ads on Super Bowl Sunday

Tags: Trends, User Generated Content, Media

A Corporate Guide to the Global Blogosphere

The latest Edelmans report on the state of blogosphere around the world. Lots of interesting information.

Tags: Blogs, Edelman, Global Blogosphere

Bunnyfoot Measures Players Engagement in In-game Advertising

Results showed an astonishing variation in consumer engagement. In fact the engagement is very poor...

Tags: In-game Advertising, Bunnyfoot

Tags: Links

The Truth in Ad Sales

How would it look like if we were saying what we thought. Hilarious. We are such "ego trippers"!

 I do believe that we could do better job when we left our egos at home from time to time.

See also "The Truth in Advertising"

Judging from the videos, we are pretty good at producing air, and it isn't even always fresh :-)

Via Adverblog

Advertainment

That's pretty hilarious business I am working in. :-)

“Problem: The bank is losing many of its retired clients. The main reason for this is their death. Objective: get those clients back.”
(Agency, extracted from a brief)

“I call you because I’m watching the ads with the client and I’ve just realized I don’t understand them either.”
(Agency, Account Executive, calling in the middle of a presentation)

There are more gems like those above on AdVerbatims blog. Very entertaining.