Love is in the air..
February 13, 2012 byLove is definitely in the air with Valentines Day just around the corner – so I thought I would share an ingenious campaign with all you modern romantics out there!
Dating service eHarmony has launched a social campaign to make contacting loved ones easier this Valentine’s Day by converting social media messages into hand-written letters.
The campaign will allow fans of the eHarmony Australia Facebook page to enter a message to an intended recipient online, which will be written out by calligraphers who will personally address and send the envelopes to the recipient.
The Love Letters campaign comes after an eHarmony survey found that only 13% of the estimated 24 million Valentine’s Day messages that will be sent this year will be hand written.
Anna Musson, eHarmony campaign spokesperson and etiquette expert said: “It can’t be denied that the romantic gestures of the past are slowly fading. Love letters were once the glue that held relationships together. Now, handwritten letters have become almost obsolete – receiving one in the mail is a pleasant surprise. This has happened for good reason. Writing a letter is no longer convenient nor is it particularly timely. Online communication tools like email and social media are immediate, reliable, free and, quite simply, more suited to our constantly evolving lifestyle. But the fact is, we still love receiving a handwritten note.”
The Virtual Shopping Experience
November 22, 2011 by
The main point of difference between online shopping and a physical retailer is the ability to try before you buy – when it comes to fashion that is. Zugara, an augmented reality software developer has created a software that allows shoppers to “hold an item” in front of their body via a web cam.
This piece of software – “The webcam social shopper” as mentioned above – uses webcam and a motion capture interface enabling the user to replicate the movement of taking a piece of clothing or accessory off a rack. A positioning tool also allows users to scale and align the piece of clothing to their body. Doesn’t sound quite right does it?
This technology has advanced in many other areas including the gaming arena. I imagine it will be sometime before they fully integrate into the world of online fashion, but it is an interesting space to watch.
Maybe one day we will all have an inbuilt chip like the Arnold in the Terminator!
Or an idea for the online dating world maybe?
No CommentsMarketplace for experiences
November 15, 2011 by
Recently I posted an article about online marketplaces, see ‘Baked in’ Social Media, and more specifically the movement toward using of one’s ‘real’ identity on these sites. Using the Facebook mechanic to demonstrate one’s own authenticity and therefore the authenticity of a product or service offering has, as predicted, become ‘baked-in’ and of huge importance in new online marketplaces.
A prime example is a new site called Gidsy. A “community marketplace for authentic experiences”, Gidsy allows experience “hosts” to advertise and sell unique experiences in their city; anything from a weekend living off the grid to a guide to building your home cocktail bar. Users post an event, name their fee, attendees pay, and Gidsy takes a 10% cut. By providing a reliable and convenient way for people to connect through experiences, the site provides a means to find something special and unexpected to do; claiming to be ‘a great way to make new friends, meet interesting people, and connect with them after an activity’, it is also a way for travellers to find something different to do in a new city.
Facebook comes into play if you connect your Facebook account to your Gidsy account; details are provided about which activities your friends have done and shows you the things they liked. The site places emphasis on naming (and showing the profile of) the individual organising the experience, for the obvious reason that the individual plays a large part in making the experience what it is.
According to VentureBeat, co-founder Edial Dekker says: “Individuals run the Gidsy marketplace, so Gidsy activities end up being very much about the hosts’ personalities and quirks. The experiences are better because they’re expressions of an individual’s personality and passion. Instead of attending a yoga class at a gym, for example, you’ll find an expert on Gidsy offering candle-lit yoga classes on a rooftop.”
This is certainly applicable to experiential marketing – your creative concept, design and activity could all be spot on, but unless you have brand ambassadors and staff that add to the experience, the execution will fall flat. It will be interesting to see the kind of ‘personalities’ Gidsy produces. While the site currently only has experiences in Berlin and New York, you can host an event anywhere, even if Gidsy hasn’t set up a city page for where you live yet.
I’m looking forward to seeing some Gidsy experiences in Sydney soon…
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Today (as you can see) PLAY is taking part in the 11Eleven Project .
November 11 this year gives us a date of 11/11/11 – a once in a thousand years occurrence, so the 11Eleven Project are recognising the occasion with a once in a lifetime creative project:
“As soon as the clocks in your country tick over to midnight on 11/11/11, you are free to unleash your creativity for all 24 hours of the day! If you have access to a film/video/digital camera, mobile phone, microphone, internet, or anything else that you record on and upload onto a computer, then you are invited to take part in the biggest creative project of our human history. We are asking anyONE and everyONE to take part. There are 196 countries in the world (and thousands of languages) and ideally we’d like submissions from ALL of them, although we know some may be more tricky than others – but we WILL get them.
On this day, we want you to film, photograph, record some music, capture sounds, or blog/Tweet. When we have all your submissions, which will have to be uploaded by November 22 (we’ll give you 11 days to do it, seeing as it’s a good number for us), we will then go about the long process of creating a number of awesome pieces of work. These will include a WORLD MUSIC COLLECTION, a PHOTO BOOK, and the big one, with all of the film and sound entries that we receive, we will be creating a 2 HOUR DOCUMENTARY that will show how the world lived on 11/11/11.”
So visit the website , get your phone, camera, recording equipment ready and start getting creative on 11.11.11.
No CommentsBack to basics: the rise of sustainable experiences
November 4, 2011 by
While the notion of sustainability certainly isn’t new, there are increasing numbers of small businesses, individuals, and groups who are developing experiences that inadvertently tap into sustainability and more specifically, localisation.
Sustainability as a business practice is ‘trendy’. That isn’t to say I am discrediting those corporations who have developed initiatives to support sustainable business practice, in fact I applaud them – rather with this article I aim to pinpoint the above mentioned smaller communities who (seemingly) unintentionally create experiences supporting the larger ideology of sustainability without the industry pressure to do so.
Two positions that clearly go hand in hand are localisation and sustainability. Movements like that of Slow Food or even the simple garage sale are perfect examples of this; supporting the art of making sure the actions you make today can be repeated over and over again (sustainability) and the idea of buying local along with the knowledge of where products come from and how they are produced (localisation).
A fantastic instance I stumbled across recently on Tumblr is MilkMade Ice Cream, an initiative in NYC. The founding milkmaid Diana was fed up with the lack of flavor and unnaturalness of ice cream so bought an ice cream maker, got in touch with local farmers, foraged for local ingredients and started making her own pints. Twice a month, she creates one-off, seasonal flavors that are hand-delivered to her limited membership base in NYC.
Closer to home and in a similar vein is Food Connect. Founded in South East Queensland, the organisation delivers local, seasonal produce from farmers living within a five hour radius of Brisbane who are paid a fair price for their hard work and who are encouraged to farm using the most sustainable methods possible. Additional branches have recently been replicated in Sydney and Adelaide with other locations opening soon.
Moving away from food and produce, is The Clothing Exchange, a professional swapping service that promotes the simple notion of swapping instead of shopping for a better wardrobe. Similar initiatives include online marketplaces eSwap, SwapAustralia and Oz Recycle, or the yearly Australia-wide Garage Sale Trail.
As I said while it is promising to see large organisations make a move to become more sustainable, it is equally encouraging to see communities move away from mass produced or distributed products to support grassroot movements. Making the choice to support local can be more expensive and less convenient but the experience makes it worthwhile!
No CommentsYouTube 10 most watched & shared ads this month
October 31, 2011 byDo you want to know what ads people are watching and passing on to their friends?
Use this as entertainment, or as inspiration if you are thinking of making a viral video.
1. Party Rock Anthem-Kia Soul Hamster Commercial
First they drove. Then they rapped. Now they’re dancing to LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem.
2. Official Ojai Valley Taxidermy TV Commercial
Commercial created by YouTube sensations Rhett and Link as part of “commercial kings”.
3. 100 Years / Style / East London
100 years of East London style in 100 seconds.
4. Carlsberg stunts with bikers in cinema
What would you do if you came into a movie theatre and everyone there was an intimidating biker? The correct answer is to summon your courage and sit down anyway.
5. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four; The Hollywood Megamercial
GYM4 surpasses the high-production style of Gymkhana TWO with even more spectacular effects shot in the backlots of Universal Studios, California.
Filmed over the course of five days, director Ben Conrad
(Zombieland and 30 Seconds or Less) and his team at Logan deliver a Hollywood caliber production complete with pyrotechnics, massive stunts and a series of unbelievable tricks.
6. Human Slingshot Slip and Slide – Vooray
Rope + Quad + Tarp + Tube = Viral Video
Nice and cheap and has received over 3million views for clothing company Vooray.
7. Back For The Future
It was an ordinary evening at Lone Pine Mall. All Kevin Durant (NBA player) wanted was a new pair of shoes. Then the space-time continuum showed up.
Bill Hader, Christopher Lloyd, Tinker Hatfield, Donald Fullilove and KD star in a film about the most famous shoes never made, in an effort to support the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research.
8. Back to the Start
This short film / advertisement depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system.
9. The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
Yep it’s still going strong…
10. Byturen.com
Bus company Movia, which runs a late night bus mostly for clubbers and party folk, tapped agency Bocca to create an interactive video. At first glance, everyone looks pretty and poised — what you think you look like when you’re drunk. But on mouse over, the video changes to what you really look and act like with a few under the table.
Tsunami in Sydney
September 30, 2011 by
Janet Echelman’s tsunami, to be precise. Tsunami 1.26 is a gigantic fishnet installation netted up with ropes 15 times stronger than steel in weight and lit by changing coloured lights from Sydney Town Hall. It is inspired by the 2010 Chile earthquake; which ranks as the sixth largest earthquake ever recorded. The tsunami shifted the Earth’s tectonic plates, sped up the planet’s rotation and literally shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds.
Echelman, in fact, never studied sculpture, engineering or architecture. She applied to seven art schools and was rejected by all seven. She then went on to paint for the next 10 years, and went to Mahabalipuram in India; which is famous for sculpture; on a Fullbright scholarship. When her paints didn’t arrive and deadlines closing in, she went for a walk on the beach in the village and watched the fishermen bundle their nets into mounds on the sand. Her first sculpture was made in collaboration with these fishermen. It’s a self-portrait titled “Wide Hips”.
Needing to find a fiber that could survive ultraviolet rays, salt air, pollution but soft enough to move fluidly in the wind, she spent years building relationship with industrial fishnet factory, worked closely with aeronautical and mechanical engineer and created new software to model the complex forms of the net. The sculpture is now so light it could tie in to existing buildings and literally becoming part of the fabric of the city.
More information about Echelman can be found here: http://www.echelman.com/index.html
Art & About Sydney: http://www.artandabout.com.au/
Experience guilt free coffee
August 2, 2011 by
Do you ever feel guilty about buying that second or third ‘daily’ coffee at the end of a long working week?
Well I have great news – this Friday 5th August – I encourage you to buy that second, third, even a fourth cup, guilt free!
CafeSmart, a part of Street Smart, have partnered with 158 coffee shops Australia-wide to ensure that $1 from every coffee purchased goes to charitable organisations helping the homeless.
The initiative, taking place during National Homeless Persons’ Week, 1-7 August 2011, will bring together café owners, staff and their customers, to create change in local communities. You can also be ensured the money from your coffee will go to small grassroots organisations in your area.
So please head to the CafeSmart website and find a coffee shop in your area. I know everyone here at PLAY will head on down to Di Bella Coffee at 50 Holt Street to grab the daily caffeine fix (or two!).
Follow CafeSmart on twitter @StreetSmartAust and let everyone at your workplace know about this fantastic initiative.
No CommentsGenerative Art x Experiential Marketing
June 15, 2011 by
Image © depotArt
Generative art has been defined as “any art practice where the artist creates a process, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other mechanism, which is then set to motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a complete work of art.” (Philip Galanter – one of the pioneers of Generative Art).
In simpler terms, Generative Art is the love-child between Art & Mathematics/Algorithms. The beauty of this form of art is that it can generate countless numbers of variations and combinations, which add a somewhat mysterious character to it. It has a very high level of interactivity as it can also happen real-time, so how can we implement this new breed of art into Experiential Marketing? A good example is ‘The Scion Scramble’ by SEMNON.
To showcase Scion’s brand mantra of customization and individuality, SEMNON built a generative art system that uses a microphone and keyboard to scramble consumer’s photos and Scion’s products into a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork. More detailed information can be seen in the video below:
Scion Scrambler from Stephen Van Elst on Vimeo.
No CommentsAre you a Bie – le – ber?
May 26, 2011 byWe all know celebrity endorsements work. I know I’ve bought shoes because of a celebrity collaborative designer or a dress because a celeb came on board as a muse.
Justin Bieber will be releasing (20th June) a new fragrance called “Someday”. There are teens all across the globe dreaming of what this scent might smell like, teens lining up to buy the fragrance so they can spritz themselves with a scent that Justin has created. I will be keen to see the sales reports…
The commercial for the “Someday” fragrance was released a few days ago… To me it says – spray and the Bieb’s will appear, take you on a magical journey and sniff your neck. I’m not sold – but hey you be the judge, check out the video and follow the count down!!
Visit the site here.
Next up – according to MTV US he will be releasing a line of accessories like dog tags and wrist bands embedded with a scent…
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