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Post Digital Marketing (Thinking)

View more documents from Helge Tennø.

 

This is probably the best slideshare presentation I've read for a long time. It was composed by Helge Tennø, Strategic Director and Digital Planner at digital agency Screenplay in Oslo, Norway. 

Smart thinking documented by brilliant quotes from successful leaders, marketers, strategists, CEO's or so called visionaries. What I find interesting in this long -yet completely fascinating- presentation is the overhaul perspective it unveils to our eyes, from the obvious EVOLUTION of consumer behavior, through the new definition of "digital marketing", way to the ultimate long term battle of the brands related to (shared) VALUE.

He introduces 3 ideas representing THE NEW CURRENCY :

VALUE : transports much better compared to "attention" - creating value in the context surrounding the product is positively transforming consumer experience.
+ DIRECT RELATIONSHIP : "Visualizing the decline of the destination web and the rise of the social media web"... New opportunity : Brands to create direct relationship with consumers.
- TIME -the unstoppable force- (love this!) : He quotes: "Time does not exist!". On some media, content disappears. On other platforms it grows, connects and augments.
 

 
A rich journey naturally guiding you across notions like the fabulous TRANSMEDIA (Faris Yakob), importance of context and convergence, ARENAS, collaborative creativity, utility, search vs SHARE, idea exchange, etc.

Insightful, to the point, clear, mind challenging, absolute must read if you're related in any way to marketing, communication, advertising or have an open curious mind looking for some clues about the future of the relationship between consumers and "their" brands.

 

Rockin' the Yeti - (the making-of)

Hunting the Yeti from Billy the Kilt on Vimeo.

Before we can show you the end result, here is the making-of our Yeti hunt in Norway. This film was filmed and edited by art director Cédric Minot (great job, Ced!). And yes, there are some sneak peeks of the Yeti. - Memo : pictures also available here.

  

THE first -and only- picture of the Yeti !

Okay now, this... is the only picture I could take of the Yeti. Okay, I was far away, used my iPhone and so it's far from perfect too, but hopefully our PRO mountain team could get closer and... yes, they filmed it! We are currently editing the film and a thrilling making-of. I will share it with you here as soon as our client approves the edit. Can't wait. In the meantime, you can see all the pictures of our cool -and I mean cold, really- adventure on my Flickr page or in the slideshow here under. For those of you who could think it is a fake, well it's not. I took this picture myself, with an iPhone v1 and just "reframed" it for the blog. Original is here.


  

Stay tuned, more coming soon...

  

Yeti Hunting in Norway

Image posted by Loren Coleman on CryptoMundo.

  

If you are following me on Twitter, you might have noticed that I've been sending a series of #yeti hash tags, documenting our latest agency adventure... the Yeti hunt. Antoine Servais (copywriter - @Arkzel) and Cédric Minot (art director - @BillyTheKilt) have created a very nice TVC story for one of our clients. Well, the only challenge being, naturally... to find the Yeti. History or mythology? Well, it's about time to find out. ; )

So TRS, a dynamic Belgian film production company and their talented director Jan Boon  (see his work on TRS site) brought us a very challenging way to make this film happen. Go Yeti hunting around Turtagrø mountains, 400km north of Oslo, in Norway.

On the way there, I thought about documenting this quest on Twitter to bring a little "live" dimension to this work adventure. I'll be posting Twitter updates here and Twitpics there. And naturally, we'd love to have your feedback on this...

  

Any views on how we could find the Yeti?  

 

 

Big boys... big toys

 

I remember getting caught by a silly quote while watching what one might see as a silly film as well : "Golden Eye". OK, as a James Bond fan, I don't care about the silliness of the film but rather see it as a fairly good piece of entertainment. This said... in the film there is a sequence where 007 (Pierce Brosnan) is having an argument with Defense Minister Dimitri Mishkin (Tchéky Karyo) while Natalya Fyodorovna Simonova (Izabella Scorupco) is quietly watching them. Suddenly, she interrupts the 2 men and says :

"Stop it! You act like... boys with toys!"

Well, believe me or not, this unexpected allegory made me laugh and these words stayed in my mind ever since. So, simply, true. Sometimes men supposed to be, act, behave as adults show themselves off, like (big) little kids. Their toys? Well, could be anything, from dart guns to real guns, the sky being the limit (Mmmm... can't think of any limit, actually!).

The video illustrated above is a good example of "fun adult play". Naturally, and again, we could be wondering if this is a real story... and if they really did it. Usually, I like things to be quite clear, but this film was surprisingly not pulling the trigger for me. Why? Because it is entertaining, fun to watch and creatively insightful. So whatever, I like it as it is. Even if some questions remain... like who's behind? Vodafone? Blackberry? And of course... the  now super great classic: "So what? ...and then what's next?". This last question being exactly where the focus should be in order to make it really "different" or impactful.

   

The Modern Techno Fairy

"Magic is everywhere, for whoever is open to see it" - unknown.

  

Every once in a while I like to be short-circuited in my day-to-day life by unexpected and extra-ordinary encounters. Whether re-discovering the simple wonders of nature, exploring new emotional landscapes (like Björk would say) or meeting talented earthlings, I know now how these fresh vibrations are indispensable, as they feed my human soul.

Yesterday a colleague who knows I like weird electronic devices and instruments, sent a little link to my mailbox (thanks Pete!). What I found there was indeed full of wonders. Little Boots is an odd, absolutely lovely Artist with a capital "A". The first video I saw (featured above) immediately punched my curiosity so that I simply couldn't resist checking a few side links out. One other "home recording" particularly touched me.

Although I had already seen demos of the Yamaha Tenori-On, this one added a delicious human vibration touch to the transistors, electronic circuits and flashing leds. Amazing... to be able to both compose a song live on such an instrument and sing -being perfectly in tone- while looking so relaxed at the same time. Fabulous, well to my eyes it is... I noticed that folks at Yamaha are referring to Little Boots on their site with a news story (in other words "text"...) pointing that she was listed on BBC radio one famous "Sound of... 2009". Now, wait a minute... they do point out other artists using the Tenori-On in a very boring (well, at least it is to me) way.

My 2 cents... -and I admit that this thought is probably being quite subjective- I believe that a video like Little Boots' is definitely something Yamaha shouldn't miss. They probably saw it, but I think they should do something about it. It is a LOT more insightful and filled with a LOT (many) more emotions than a corporate "look at this new fantastic instrument" kind of message.

What's your take on this?

   

The ride of the Hero

 

 

Last month a video posted on YouTube hit the Guitar Hero fan and gaming community. If you're familiar with the video game "Guitar Hero"... this film will appear to be incredibly creative and surprising. The video had over 1.747.000 hits within less than a month. Recently it was unveiled to be a viral video launched by Activision to promote their last version of the game, Guitar Hero Worldtour. So, at the end of the day, the  bike hero video was not made by a bunch of talented kids, but developed by independent shop Droga5 (check their client list and work).  

 

And here comes the debate about "authenticity" again. Is it OK to play with your audience and authenticity or is it just not a good idea? After a quick check, it seems that the feedback after the revelation is very much mixed between "fake = lame" and "who cares it's a fake, idea and video are still stunning". I noticed a tendency to get more votes from the "it's OK" side on this specific viral case. As mentioned in interesting AdWeek article "Viral Video Hits Blur the Authenticity Line" it seems that advertisers are clearly exploring the limits of fake vs authenticity.

  

"To be sure, there continues to be a fine line between fooling with consumers and simply fooling them. Like much in viral marketing, it remains unclear how much an advertiser should reveal during campaigns." - says Brian Morrissey of AdWeek.

...

"It was awesome only because we thought there were creative kids doing this in their free time," noted a commenter on game blog GameCyte. "Now, it's just a good commercial." - [AdWeek article abstract]

  

I like a related comment found on Twitter and left by Daniel Stein, CEO of EVB in SF the company behind Office Max's "Elf Yourself" :

 

"I like Droga's Bike Hero. Who cares if it is fake, it is entertaining. New definition of viral video should be 'ads people actually want to see.' "

There is one important thing to consider, though... the kind of product we're talking about and the related target group. OK for a little authenticity play with Guitar Hero Worldtour is one thing. OK for authenticity play with the New York Times, might be another one.

 

What's your take on this? Is authenticity an absolute must or can marketers sometimes cautiously play with it?

  

PS : Thanks to Cedric M. for pointing this video to my eyes. Dude... you simply Rock!  : )

  

The Key to Reserva

   

If you like Martin Scorsese... it's a must see.
If you like Alfred Hitchcock... it's a must see.
If you like wine and champagne... it's a must see.
If you like out-of-the-ordinary-stories... it's a must see.

A movie definitely worth spending time with here.

   

JWT Barcelona, lead by Alex Martinez and his team, had a clever and innovative idea to promote FreiXenet, the Spanish sparkling wine (Cava is the Spanish sparkling wine "equivalent" to France's champagne). - More about the context story here.

As mentioned by Craig Davis (JWT's Worldwide's chief creative officer) on his blog, The Good Stuff :

"...the film features not the star in front of the camera but the stars behind - a striking shift from image to product, from how we look to what we make"

 

 

Now, what I like about this is that it drives your imagination out of the conventional story-telling patterns. Of course it is advertising... and of course, there is a link to a brand. But on a very personal point of view, I didn't feel betrayed by the apparition of the product (like it often happens in branded film content). I loved that they dared to distract our attention away from the product itself and push us back into the film. Smart and talented way to communicate. Last but not least, notice the "insightful link" that says : "GIVE US YOUR OPINION".

 

So... "if next year you had to do a short film, which director would YOU choose?"

    

UPDATE : Check "The Good Stuff" original post's comments... seems this story pushed Bob Jeffrey himself (JWT's Worldwide Chairman and CEO) to comment. I think it is a first time, but maybe I'm wrong.  : )

 

Brands and Artist Ambassadors

As you might already know I am a fan of Michel Gondry's work. When I found out about the last ad he directed for the Motorola Razr2, I really liked the Experience site they set to tell about the film and its making of. Quite interesting to listen to Michel Gondry's interview on the briefing and his creative process to make it happen.

What I like about it is :  the idea of giving a free ride to an artist to express his/her vision of a brand through his/her art.

 

It reminds me the surprising buzz of the late 90ies lead by the BMW Film series "The Hire". Remember? BMW gave an opportunity -and budget- to 8 famous directors (John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Won Kar-Way, etc) to create a short film -average of 8 minutes- to highlight the performance aspects of various BMW automobiles (you can find here : season one and season two). My favorite being Star (try it here if you don't have the DIVX plugin) directed by Guy Ritchie, with Madonna, a BMW M5 and fascinating driver Clive Owen -BTW wouldn't he make a fantastic James Bond?-. Don't forget to turn the volume of your computer up while watching this film... the scene over the bridge is simply... exquisite!.

Branded content indeed... but, when compared to traditional advertising, this project had (at the time) an innovative approach regarding format, story, and media.

I believe that there is a LOT more to do outside the traditional ad formats. Also there are obviously many ideas to develop by giving willing artists (and I mean young talents as well, naturally!), new ways to share their visions of brands through their art.

Thoughts or comments?

 

The graduate call

   

Here is a fun and very well edited video shot in the JWT London offices.  No wonder why it is the post of the day on Craig Davis' blog, The Good Stuff. Once again, apparently -like on the previous OMB mentioned on mindblob-, no money or big production, just a bunch of motivated grads led by Musa Tariq. His description of the video on Vimeo says it all :

"We (the graduates who joined last year straight out of uni) had an idea one day after work... and thought why not!"

Also, check this other film from Musa Tariq on his Vimeo page, entitled: "A Day In The Life Of Me". Here is what he says about it :

"I was asked recently what the highs and lows of my job were at JWT... Well one of the highs was the fact that if you ever had an opinion or a suggestion, people would ask you to go do it! The following video was part of an idea we had, it was to show a client how someone my age interacts with technology on a day to day basis! ..."

Basically, I like to see positive energy leading a simple idea into reality. It spreads that same positive energy outside the office walls and is insightful for whoever is "listening". Well, of course, the goal here is obviously to recruit new grads. The last first dot to connect to is JWT London's website frontpage (*) where  the intention appears loud and clear.

Maybe our good friend Sacrum should try to apply there.
; )

   

PS :  (*) this link will probably not be relevant to this post after november 7th - end of the call for grads.