Leo Burnett’s Think!

Squashed car, crumbled human bodies, red color splurged and beer bottles rolling on ground. Won’t be a tough guess as to what this advertisement is about. Don’t drink and Drive. Easy!

Annals of campaigns exhibit the same message with almost same stuff to portray. Someone had to take it forward. Leo Burnett came out with amazing insight, aggrandizing the message.

Engaging with London Department of Transport with its THINK! Initiative, Leo Burnett came up with Pub Loo Shocker. Directed by US based agency, Rattling Stick, the video showed the live footage of gents using the loo.

Won’t mind calling it a hysterical campaign, here’s why:

Woaah!! That really shook them. Unfortunately these guys were actors, who were apparently unaware of what was coming their way. Sad the pun/trick couldn’t be pulled on real people partying in bars but actors without a doubt were stunned. Along with mirror break and human mannequin, the agency created specially designed sound effects imparting it a feel of reality. A novel way of putting already heard message with a new feel and context.

Along with a video on YouTube, Leo Burnett also created print campaigns. After gaining traction on YouTube, the campaign managed to create some buzz on Twitter with people reacting positively to the campaign.

Wow the NEW#Publooshocker Ad by the Department for Transport THINK Campaign, is very direct and hits the effect of drink driving bang on!

— La_Belle_Aventure (@Belle_Aventure) June 7, 2013

Great Ad by Leo Burnett to encourage people not to Drink & Drive#PubLooShocker: youtu.be/TADO4LG29bs

— Daniel Sierra (@MercaBites) June 7, 2013

Seen #publooshockerdrink driving film yet? ow.ly/lOdz1. Holy crap.#behaviourchange?

— Thea McGovern (@theasgarden) June 7, 2013

if this ever happened to me i would pee my pants, even if i had just peed. Don’t drink and Drive!#Publooshockergizmodo.com/the-most-terri…

— Sasha Laurin (@SashaLaurin) June 7, 2013

Print advertisement had four different posters with four different officers depicting their role in taking the drunk driver to his/her unarguable destination – Jail. They get banned for driving for 12 months. Look on:

Think! print campaign poster

(According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US, almost 30 people per day die in drink and drive accidents. That’s about one fatality every 48 minutes.)

Pixelonomics

We love to fail

Yes would be the reply if you are/were an Entrepreneur. And that’s why we keep running and chasing towards the Goal. What happens when the Goal is achieved successfully?
We create another Goal or Aim another one and start chasing it. But yes, entrepreneurs never get satisfied by anything. What tempts Entrepreneurs is ‘FAIL’.

See, Ratan Tata or Michael Dell, what do they do not have? They have everything they wished for before being so successful, but the trolling still did not stop. I got a chance to meet Michael Dell last week in Bangalore. Thanks to Nasscom’s startup program.

I was super happy to meet him personally, a bright face which inspires so many’s life. He said- Entrepreneurs need to be a little bit crazy, At least in the eyes of the others. And I could not sleep the whole night thinking about it, still I am awake dreaming to chase my dream once again.

I had to shut my Startup “Ring-a-book” a year back, though it was profitable and managed to get decent bucks in return for selling it too to someone. But the hunger and chase does not let me sleep these days..What’s next? This question hits me almost every single moment.

Some more information here: 1.http://goo.gl/BZ9tm 2.http://goo.gl/X0neS 3.http://goo.gl/t7Vep

When you start-up or go to get your chase, make sure your family supports you in all your endeavours. Apart from that who the f*ck are you worried about. When you go to chase, family support acts like funding from some big VC and you act just brilliantly at that time.

Do not forget to sit and talk to your family about your chase, I know how difficult it is in India but still that’s the first and foremost thing which needs to be done before you start. F*ck Society and Relatives, these are the two most sucking creatures which can happen when you CHASE. “Beta MBA kar liya? Job nahi mili?” And parents reply, haan kar raha hai kuch. This Embarrassment is really big for Parents so teach/motivate/influence/inspire them enough to strengthen the Power of your wings.

Ask them, why don’t you trust me as an entrepreneur but trust the entrepreneur for whom I work as an employee? Never let the dream of Chase down. Working for someone is not wrong, it is wrong when you kill your chase to do this. Something good which I learnt from the Bollywood movie “Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani” Main udna chahta hoon, daudna chahta hoon, girna bhi chahta hoon … bus rukna nahi chahta.

English Translation:
I want to fly, I want to run, I even want to fall … I just don’t want to stop..

Learn to Experiment fast, build fast and FAIL FAST. Entrepreneurs love to FAIL FAST. Its all about the Chase and the Fail.. Life is all about these 2 things.

Pixelonomics

Latest iOS by Apple

When Jonathan Ive unveiled the latest iOS software, it was expected to be a massive leap in terms of design for everyone. I was fairly excited since no one had any idea about what it could look like. We at Pixelonomics did post our thoughts on flat design prior to the announcement, and extend our thanks to friends and fellow bloggers who helped to get an early glimpse of what to expect.

If you saw the event, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook unveiled iOS 7 in the form of a short video where he shared Jonathan’s thoughts on the design and the inherited legacy. As the lock screen was unveiled, I was fascinated by the simplicity and minimalism and how the wallpaper on the lock screen made use of gyroscope in an iPhone. However, when the device was unlocked, I could not digest the way some of the icons such as iTunes and the Apple Store were designed.

As always, I expected Apple to wow us in the design department; This is what they have been doing since the beginning, creating an image of  ”Artists who build beautifully engineered products with software that is visually spectacular.”

Perhaps, Apple made a mistake by letting a hardware designer (an engineer) design the software – formerly the domain of artistas. On the brighter side, the experimentation could pay off in long term. But for me, even if they wanted to do a flat design, the icons could be made significantly better than the current one. I don’t know if this was done in a hurry, but it gives one the feeling of something gone terribly wrong. Everyone knows it, suddenly iOS 6 has started to feel infinitely better, even with those ancient, glossy icons.

Maybe moving ahead, the internal interface is not just minimalistic but well designed too. Almost everywhere in the OS, Johny Ive has tried to reflect the translucent finish to make it a part of the app. As expected, the skeuomorphism has been uprooted and binned from the OS completely. There’s not a single sign of it from the inside out. Ideally, the interface constitutes white, black, grey and shades of green and in addition to it, all the borders have been removed from UI elements; doesn’t matter if it’s a button or a navigation bar. Need I say, this could create a sense of confusion among users whether the button in several positions are merely buttons or just a piece of text written on them.

I think for the first time, Apple has thought entirely out of the box in terms of design and it may be an experiment gone wrong, risking their huge customer base who might not be ready to face this just yet. For most of us, we have begun to identify apple with designs that delight, in fact I found the new font to be merged with another one or having negligible space between two texts in the iOS. I think this looks tedious and not something we expect Apple to do. Anyways, this is only the first beta and i would keep my hopes high for the people at Apple to improve prior to final release.

We want to know your thoughts on the same because other than the ‘pioneer developers’ and the truly brave most of the people we know are refusing to shift to the new OS.

Pixelonomics

Leica X3 conceived by Swedish designer Vincent Sall

By now your mind must have started speculating as to what this piece of art does. It is neither an mp3 player nor the latest Apple reveal.

It is a camera! One with the qualities of a DSLR, sleekness of a smartphone and a radical design, worthy of being featured in the movie Star Trek. This is the Leica X3, as conceived by Swedish designer Vincent Sall, combining the best of both worlds. Just to clarify, this is not a Leica-Sall collaboration.

Leica X3 is a camera!

Sall inspired by Leica’s iconic designs decided to design something worthy of an optics company known for its craftsmanship in cameras, with prices going up-to $25000; while offering something relevant with the modern day needs of photographers – the ability to share photos via Bluetooth.

With glistening looks that awe and the functionality of a DSLR camera, this conceptual design bonds the gap between the already existing DSLR professionals and the ‘Insta-like photograph fanatics’. Where you are either on two ends, one where you own a camera which gives you ‘great quality’ pictures or you have a phone with instagram to exhibit your true photography skills via composition. There is a missing link where one can’t really do both things.

Keeping these shortcomings in mind, this is a double-play from Sall – combining great picture quality and sharing feasibility via Bluetooth in a beautifully thought out package. Maybe something like this will burn a huge hole in your wallet but this would make heads turn at such a rapid rate that it might come with a health warning.

Leica X3 features

Pixelonomics

iOS gets a flat makeover

The day has finally arrived for Apple to supposedly change the design language of iOS and fuel a paradigm shift in app design. For the last 5 years, Apple has carried the traditional Skeuomorphic design whether it’s the Note application or the Game Center, designs which mimics real life whether giving it a real Notepad look or a billiard table where the bottom & top bar has the texture of a polished wood and the middle is engraved with velvet green.

Undoubtedly, as the people at  Daring Fireball noticed the interface of iOS was designed for someone who has never used a smartphone before.

Apple goes flat

With Microsoft proving refreshing to its users, Apple is jumping on the wagon too. As per the leak from 9to5Mac, Apple plans to go flat with their design.

With Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall praising Skeuomorphic design for the last few years, we are looking for a big turn-around. This is a big day for Apple, reviving their 2007 moment when they introduced an all new intuitive mobile OS in front of gaping crowds, a moment that changed the way people perceived smartphone OS. To one today, with function triumphing over design. A mock up of revamped icons in iOS 7 has been presented above which clearly tells you the change in approach.

In fact, if the site is to be believed they have even changed the glossy and shadowed dock. Thereby, entirely getting rid of skeuomorphic effect that iOS posses right now. Moving on from Helvetica to Helvetica neue ultra light, the font gets lighter too, complementing the flat design.

Helvetica Neue Ultra Light

It could be refreshing and something new for iOS users. The flat design language might define how design for mobile application would look like for the next 5 years.

Flipside

This could be a disappointment for many users who love iOS merely due to the skeuomorphism oriented interface of iOS.

Smartphone users who bought iPhone in 2007 and still remain loyal to it, is not due to the fact that they needed a flat or minimal interface. Instead they truly admire the skeuomorphism in it. Hence, there’s a probability that if Apple takes Skeuomorphic interface away from its users, some might never update to iOS 7 (unless Apple push them to do so).

These are the trade offs for taking a huge paradigm leap in the tech industry. One might lose some potential long time users, but one might also get more. In the past it took Apple some time to explain what they do, and why they did things a certain way but they always justified their choices.

We opine

We, at Sparklin, have an opinion that instead of completely getting rid of skeuomorphism, some apps need to incorporate skeuomorphism; it helps incorporate a sense of nostalgia, a connect to real world objects. Consider a Piano app or a DJ app where the Skeuomorphic interface reminds you instantly about what different elements in an application do.

It’s acceptable if Apple would want to throw skeuomorphism from their bundled apps, since they don’t provide an experiential lure anymore. As way back in 2007, most users of smart phones were not well versed with touch interfaces, icons which mimicked real world objects was a necessity.

However we feel that third party developers could go for a flat design approach if they think this could appeal more to their audience, otherwise, they might ignore it too. Before we make any conclusions, we will actually want to see the real deal. Till then, we would like you to throw up your opinions about flat and skeuomorphic designs.

Pixelonomics

Chop a book

Hold the book, Chop it, you resurrect the chef in you. And for professionals, it’s time to get back to basics, i.e. – how to use a knife.

The book was designed by Ogilvy and Mather Bogota for Escuela de Cocina Carulla cooking school. Students of Carulla, a Cooking School were asked to cut it to find the recipes. The usage of knife became all the more important because students had to carefully slice through the dotted lines.

Time to get back to basics

Designed book for recipes

Primarily, the book is to practice and improve the knife skills. No shaky hands will do here. A small challenge for the amateurs leaving no fun out of this amazingly designed book for recipes.

Post slicing the book, you would find the visuals of the dish on the right, along with ingredients and process on the left.

Preview of the book

Pixelonomics

IBM’s functional furniture ads

IBM may be following IDEO’s footsteps but it has certainly taken “forward thinking” from its software/hardware business to real life problem solutions. They say “God lies in Detail” and IBM’s detail-oriented idea was instrumental for city people.

IBM along with Ogilvy & Mather France created a campaign to communicate to forward-thinking citizens. It makes local leaders aware as to how they can make neighborhoods smarter with small and effective ideas. The company has rolled out ads across the city with “People for smarter city projects” turning their ad banners into useful furniture.

People for smarter city projects

Solutions with tiny ideas

Small problems like finding a place to tie your shoe lace, eating your McDonalds burger when you can’t find a place to sit, can be solved with tiny ideas.

This is how you take the Brand’s core values, create an extension, reflect the essence of the Brand and in turn create value for people.

A risky approach from IBM for sure (considering going from IT based solution to Real city life solution). However, expertly executed by Ogilvy & Mather, keeping the core of the Brand IBM intact.

Pixelonomics

Tesla Founder Elon Musk on Hyperloop

“Something that would never crash, immune to weather, 3-4 times faster than Bullet Train, double the speed of an aircraft and would travel LA to San Francisco in just 30 minutes”.

These are the exact words from Tesla Founder Elon Musk. The idea that took birth in 1972 in the form of Very High Speed Transit System (VHST). The concept was put forward by R.M. Salter from Rand Corporation that detailed an underground system that could send people LA to San Francisco in just 21 minutes.

Elon Musk is trying to unearth the same idea, creatively called “Hyperloop”, is better than a Bullet train as per his claims. It would drop people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in half an hour. At a recent press meet, he was quite vague about the idea but he seems to have belief in it.

In 1972, there were technical glitches associated with VHST. In 2013, it doesn’t seem like a distant reality.

Technical know-how

The principal remains the same as that of VHST; electromagnetically levitated and propelled cars in an evacuated tunnel. It would be like surfboard riding the ocean waves. The VHST would be a vacuum sealed tube that would zip across the country.

The Electromagnetic waves are generated by pulsed or oscillating currents in electrical conductors that form the roadbed structure in the evacuated tube-way.

Speed as high as 14000 mph have already been tested by Rand Corporation; which gives all the more reason to Elon to execute the idea.

How about environment?

VHST would be very efficient in terms of conservation of energy. It will accelerate, coast for a while and regain the same energy while decelerating. No climbing altitudes like planes, no fuel combustion, nothing. So, it is pollution free and environment friendly.

Giving an alternative transport which will be connected to subways and will have multi stoppage points will definitely solve majority of the problems. Problems like reducing surface congestion, grade separation problems and noise pollution are eliminated. Along with reducing the problems it will help in sharing of facilities (like Oil, water, Gas, Superconductors, Laser Communication) thereby paying the cost of the tunnel (90% of the cost would be building tunnels).

Challenges

Setting up such a sytem is a challenge. The most demanding of them all is the lateral acceleration. Working with EM waves also requires detailed specifications with precise radius that it can turn with (which was a challenge in 1972 too).

Also if 90% of the cost is involved with building tunnels, then would it be wise to deploy the resources and come up with underground transport facility? Even if that is taken care of, then political and construction issues are waiting in the queue too.

Path breaking ideas require real good effort along with real good execution. Looking at the crude crises, the pollution & environment problems and alternative transport solutions, underground transport facility will be a savior for sure.

Detailed 1972 report

Know more about Hyperloop

Pixelonomics

NeverLate – an iPhone app that promises to prevent you from getting late

Imagine a machine that nags like a wife and is after your life to do what needs to be done. Before we run around screaming that the machines have taken over, let me be more specific – it’s just an app for now, lazy couch potatoes.

Loves to get on your nerves

NeverLate, a proactive iPhone app that works in a unique way. Rather than informing you about the time to go for meeting, it gets on your nerves and pings you to leave. It even allows your calendar to cross reference the traffic report, tells you exactly where that small truck broke down, where the road is under construction and what’s the best time to leave under such circumstances. You get to focus where it’s needed, to getting ready and not delve into traffic reports.

Alminder CEO Max Wheeler explains, “Our goal is to make the app as passive as we can”. Getting hassle free results with minimum data input is what the app is great at. Though designers would still have a lot to debate about (not one of the best UIs), it works rather well for other people.

Knows your whereabouts

The app is intuitive enough too. Using the app for a week revealed that it recognizes your home and your work location. It automatically generates a pattern created by the user and predicts the departure for the locations giving an estimated time for the drive. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

More like Google Now

Yes, they are quite similar in the service aspect. Both tell us what to do, when to do. But here’s the difference, Google Now waves at you, time’s up, you’re about to get late. NeverLate seems more like a wife, who would continuously nag, each time reminding you of everything that needs to be done.

After the initial honeymoon period, it becomes nothing but a reminder that reminds you that – you’re late! Okay fine I get it. It might as well tell me to not eat this, not wear that, come out of the shower. Stop being a no-nonsense spouse.

Personally, I would hate to own this kind of an app. I meant it is just  a technologically driven box, so stop driving me crazy. Are you up for owning this app of a wife?

Pixelonomics

Fruits mashup

Fruity innovations, “Ogilvy Brazil to comes up with their own fruits.”

Yes, you read it right. Ogilvy Brazil with the help of Clecia Ribeiro, a molecular gastronomist went not -quite-the-natural way and created exotic flavors of fruit. Ogilvy Brazil went the AIDA way in launching Philips new Walita Avance blender.

With 3 months of research, Ogilvy gained attention by coming up with new and exotic fruits like Kiwigerine, Bananaberry, and Pinegrape. Sounds yumm!! Doesn’t it??

Kiwigerina

Bananarango

Fruits in the market

The names in itself drew crowds. Fruits were put up on for sale in Sao Paulo market, and they generated immediate interest and forced people to give it a try.

Curious to know as to where on earth does these fruits grow, muddled crowd wanted to know more. That was when the promoter stepped in pulled out a drawer and hands over a leaflet; introducing the Philips Walita Avance blender.

Reactions to the new fruits

Ogilvy definitely deserves a pat on the back for this. Their 3 months of dedicated effort paid off with Philips – giving Philips customers an amazing Brand experience something unique and interactive that most brands craves for.

View the reactions at Sao Paulo market

Pixelonomics