sandoz's posterous

Brains & Our Ideas

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:36:00 -0800

brians.pdf Download this file

My latest Creative Social talk exploring (a) where ideas come from and (b) their ownership

Plot spoiler:

(a) the brain

(a) give them away. they belong to us.

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#8ml - Infinite Marketing Loop

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:21:00 -0800

During a set of 8 Hyper Island lectures on 'Non-Linear Communications' I tried to rewire and improve the way I create presentations, and attempt to create a product at the end of it all.

The challenge was to aggressively use digital principles upon the talk itself:

Agile. Prototype/Iterate.

Appropriate. Be non-linear.

Contextual. Relevant to each group individually.

Simple. Open. Useful.

The output created a simple, theoretical marketing model: 'Infinite Marketing Loop' or #8ml.

Here it is - in an appropriately looping animated gif :)

#8ml consists of 4 elements, in no particular order:

Loop - #8ml

Perpetual conversation & development between brand & customer via the product the relationship creates.

Brand - #8ml_b

A brand with the energy to power the loop.

Product - #8ml_p

A systemised product where core product & surrounding elements are one and the same.

Customer - #8ml_c

Anticipated by brand and product & empowered to engage.

Next Task

Write 140 words detailing each section (I still want to keep it simple) with a ~120 character pull quote in each. (for twitter)

From there i'll take stock, perhaps develop further, or kill it if i wake up and realise it's actually not worth anything. Don't know till I try.

Get Involved.

If you fancy getting involved, I'd be delighted. I can see 3 ways right now:

Just Do It. Create a chapter. Write it, share it, tag it. The brief is very open underneath the 4 key structures. This is easily the most fun way and at 140 words not a daunting task to just try.

Question it. If you want to know more before you can get involved, ask away. I'll be developing around the sides anyway.

Challenge it. If you don't like it, or want to change it. Do so. The loop can adapt, be improved or be replaced.

Thanks

Thank to the lovely people @ Hyper Island, Advance DK and the HIMC London November crew for the help developing.

Please stay involved, I'd love to hear your thoughts and have your input on how this should developing.

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Analytics for the Planet

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:16:00 -0700

Or...
What if Earth & Internet got together to clusterfuck us.
My latest @creativesocial talk for the Internet Enabled Society

CS_AnalyticsforthePlanet_blog.pdf Download this file

@graphicdrip kindly sent this instagram of me looking like i'm doing some kind of 90s dance move in front of the words Utility Fog...

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Delayed & Approaching Deadline: Exec Vote.

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:50:00 -0700

5, belated, reasons why I could be good for the D&AD Exec...

The White Pencil
When creating the latest call for entries, in 13 languages, we also pitched 'The White Pencil' that changed D&AD awards into a catalyst, both for social good and ideas, as well as a prize.
&

Different Student Briefs
I write student briefs, e.g. The Estate of Advertising, that change the way students think about a brand's relationship with community.

Digital Design
As foreman in 2011 I helped change the Websites category to Digital Design to better reflect the breadth, scale and impact digital work is having on the world. I think the results celebrate that.

Russia.
I'm off to Moscow with D&AD in a week or so to run workshops around ideas with social impact. How interesting is that going to be!
"Strelka is located on the grounds of the former Red October Chocolate Factory, two steps from the Kremlin"

Digital Culture...
Education needs to fully embrace 'digital culture' if it's going to start generating leaders. I think I can help.

So...
If you've not voted yet, pls vote here... For me, that is. Thanks.
Then
Else If you have voted or, god forbid, not a member... pls consider a RT to help me out. Thanks too.

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Is The Internet About To Punch You In The Face

Wed, 18 May 2011 23:24:00 -0700

Here's my talk ramble from the Creative Social Presents event last night.
I suspect it makes even less sense without my commentary. But if you saw the talk and wanted a look. Here it is.
I think there will be a film at somepoint. Which is worrying.

punched_master2.pdf Download this file

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Twitter PlayButton

Thu, 12 May 2011 02:31:11 -0700

had a

that curated the music those I follow listen to or suggest into a smart list ( related live to my conversations, tweet stack etc ) all powered by

or some equivalent.

I would PLAY it all day long.

What a fantastic, simple way to listen, share, discover new music without me having to do anything, or join anything new. I just hit the PlayButton in the twitter app thing i use.

Can someone make it please? Might upset BlipFM i suppose. Maybe they could make it?

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WTF does Digitally Cultured mean?

Thu, 05 May 2011 13:12:00 -0700

New Ideas that have been influenced by adding learning from existing digital stuff into the cultural mix.

I'm no fan of jargon... I'm definitely not trying to outdo gamification or some such. It just means a culture where digital values are a force. An input to ideas rather than just an output for.

Which you could argue is the inevitable future.

Anyway, I may be able to argue it away from jargon, but it's definitely a long winded way of saying - Hey go play with digital stuff. It'll make your ideas better.

PS. not my finest graphic design hour really is it.

This post is an update from THIS post about Book Crits.

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Book Crits

Thu, 05 May 2011 10:03:00 -0700

I did 7 book crits @YCClondon UniteIII last night. Well done guys, great effort, great show.

What i realised, amongst the ideas, passion and energy is that i'm mostly saying the same thing...

Putting a 'book' together is hard. I empathise. Who knows who is going to look at it.

Some people may want their insight and ideas distilled into a poster scamp, fair enough, whereas I'd be happy with them as a diverse, curated set of links to prototypes held together with a # and shown to me on a phone.
The right answer is probably both.

Personally, what I am looking for most in a book is experimentation.

To see how a Creative is playing with the World. Playing with Culture. Playing with Advertising.

The process of ideas and insight has not changed. The use of wit and storytelling. You still have to get the fundamentals right. But the culture that forms both of these has changed. Is always changing. Right now the most significant driver for that change is Digital.

a) Digital will may influence what you can do with your ideas.

but, AND THIS IS THE IMPORTANT BIT...

b) Digital will may influence the type of ideas you can have. *

Certainly experimenting with A is important. I'd love to see more of it.
However achieving B is bigger. It's about understanding the impact that digital thinking and culture can have upon ideas.
It's not about ideas being digitally executed. It's about ideas being digitally cultured.

To do that YOU have to be digitally cultured.

Whilst we're on the subject... what exactly is a 'book' these days anyway?

* noticed some fella on twitter pointed out that digital isn't always appropriate. I think he's right. For the time being at least.

*UPDATE*
If it helps...

WTF does Digitally Cultured actually mean?

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Distributed Mobile - The Next Phone.

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:04:00 -0700

There are all kinds of glossy product concepts for what the next mobile phone will look like.

They all kind of look similar, however it occurred to me that it will probably look like this:

A black box hub stored somewhere on (or in) the body that is the heart of a distributed set of peripherals:

The Body

Microphone: within clothing or lip piercing.

Earpiece: always in.

NFC enabled jewellery for payment/pass etc.

Physiological data.

Cameras.

Watch - future wrist piece that displays data.

Friends?

The Cloud.

Everything and anything of relevance. Input and Output.

Immediate Environment

What's immediately around you.

People heading your way.

Brand Geofences.

Your home/car/family.

Perhaps this 'distributed' concept will move the industry forward beyond iPhone product gloss into an open framework of connected devices.

It really doesn't seem that hard to do considering RFID, Smart Dust, CeNSE, and the whole Internet of Things growth. Somewhat inevitable and soonish.

Seems like a future that suits a software or OS that powers a multitude of products (Android/iOS) rather than a perfect single product (iPhone or Desire).

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Politeness, Earphones and BCIs

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:48:07 -0700

Politeness is a fluid concept.

Recently I've noticed that I have been leaving my phone earphones in at work when no music is playing through them.

Originally people did this as a way of saying 'do not disturb' but we all know that doesn't work. People just disturb you anyway.

To me it's becoming a low level second input. A direct information channel alongside the more ambient. An early BCI?
Currently it's indiscreet as my earphones are bright white and culture suggests it's rude to leave them in during conversation.
But, hardware and wetware are coming together fast and product design is trending towards biomimicry at similar speeds so this discreetness will be delivered. Also as per the link above I bet an 18 year old doesn't think it impolite. Finally it's not as if the nature of the smart phone is going to get less important in the manner in which we live.

You could actually argue it's more polite as my phone's incessant beeps from twitter and such alongside its brain slicing ringtone don't annoy others. Which is a growing issue that elicits weird concepts like quiet coaches on trains.

Anyway, I'm interested to see if i can leave them in during a conversation when my cultural conscience/dogma kicks in telling me I'm being rude. Politeness is important. Just exactly what is it now?

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A Battery Bar for Life

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 01:13:00 -0700

Arrgh. Imagine actually having a power bar for life!

That psychological hell hit me this morning looking at my phone.

Guess it's like game power bars. Will we be able to top them up?

Ok, maybe not Red Bull, but you get the point. I'm sure there's a world of research into DNA swapping/regeneration and uploading into mainframes like in Neuromancer. And perhaps Aubrey De Grey's SENS foundation will fix the problem first.

Still, just imagine walking around with a visible graphic showing how much time you have left.
Suddenly it doesn't seem so far fetched.
The modern day Sands of Time.

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On Creative Direction

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 23:09:00 -0700

It's this interesting post from BBH Labs' fault. It got me thinking about exactly what a Creative Director might be...

I'll write in the first person, not out of ego, I'm the only subject i have to hand. A bit like Newton poking himself in the eye... just much less important.

I subscribe to the thought that creativity is just connecting things and Robert Sapolsky's theory that better creativity is just better connection beween white matter and grey matter. Or connectivity between memories.

#1 Typically, I'm less interested in things i know about. I'm interested in other things.
This inquisitiveness builds up a wide, but shallow, connectable database of reference.
This is a key to being a Creative. *

#2 I'm unsettled. Restless. Connecting things in #1 creates new things.
Changes. Designs new systems. Plays with how things work.
This is a key to Innovation. **

#3 Connections happen subconsciously. #1 and #2 provide immediate, intangible answers to problems.
Not THE answer. Just a sense of where the answer IS.
This is a key to Creative Direction. ***

The rest, finding THE answer, is a team effort and craft skills. Be a resource.

* UPDATE *

* The things you are interested in, and moreover their current cultural relevance define what kind of creative you are and how appropriate you are to solving a problem.

All good creatives stretch themselves to different kinds of problems. Over time this stretches the database. But there must be core values and earned values within individual taste that define overall strengths. This is something you can control.

It's also why creatives work best in teams. (diverse teams not AD/CW teams, although it's the same point)

The inputs you choose can define your output. Your output is your ideas/job/career.

** Understanding systems and the way things work, or interconnect is key to innovation. This is perhaps seen as a designers strength, or an engineer and technologist. But it also makes sense that a story is a system of integrated plots. Either way systems thinking is a huge part of the future due to the interconnected nature of technology and data.

This is something that can be nurtured, learnt, applied.

*** This comes with experience, and self trust, and like anything gets better with practice.

A knowledge of why and which appropriate yet interesting connections work.
(On a chemical level at least. It doesn't allow for knowledge of how to structure and sell ideas and other practical skills)

Continued growth in #1 and #2 ensures increasing future relevance where the filing cabinet of experience is always growing and applied to the latest inputs. New connections. Better Vision. Apply the past to the future. Stay Gold Ponyboy.

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2011 Prediction list to end all 2011 Prediction lists

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 11:48:00 -0800

Rather than actually think for myself, i thought i would scrape the mass of impressive 2011 forecasts that have popped up everywhere and cross examine them a bit.

It went a bit obsessive. It must be the 'list' thing.
Making lists can get a bit obsessive.

Anyway, i give you the...

Obsessive 2011 Prediction list to end all 2011 Prediction lists

May as well read them now.
PS. The list is open. If you find some 2011 nice stuff why not add to it, so i don't have to :)

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YCC question

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 07:45:00 -0800

The paradox facing today's grads is that they have only ever been taught advertising. Therefore they think the answer is to create ads.

The expectation is that companies will employ...

people who can create interesting advertising.

The truth is that companies will employ...

interesting people who can create advertising.

The former is narrow, framed by dogma that is no longer culturally appropriate.

The latter is wide. As wide open as modern culture.

So go and make something interesting. Whatever that means to you. You may end up making some good advertising too, whatever that turns out to be.

PS. One last thought before you think this is another rant dismissing the past as irrelevant, it's not. You can learn huge amounts about the future from looking at the past. But you can't stay there.

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The Future of Advertising

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:17:17 -0800

futureadv_sandoz.pdf Download this file

My talk from @creativesocial 's Internet Week discussion on the Future of Advertising. Was a fun night.

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Advanced Retrograde II

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:02:00 -0700

<<<<< Backwards.

A few weeks back i posted about Flipboard managing to take an exciting step forward whilst simultaneously taking a comforting step backwards. I also flippantly coined the whole thing RSSS - Really Simple Social Syndication.

>>>>> Forwards.

Now qwiki.com is doing the same thing but for film. Watch the demo rather than me write you a demo.

So i guess this is Really Simple Social Video. Or something like that.

Video as part of a data set is a very exciting thing. As the demo explains it can build you on-the-fly presentations about any subject the internet has an opinion on... ie. any subject. But also it's the beginning of many new kind of aggregated/curated feed. Add GPS, your bank balance, your heartbeat, the facebook streams of your family, your keynote speech, your favourite episode of House, or your live feed on Justin.tv, whatever. Really whatever, and you will get live and interactive film making/storytelling/curated content etc. So you can make the content in the feeds then aggregate how you want.
This is how i imagine making assets for marketing from now on, in separate feeds that we bring together to make different things in different places. Data-sets where we pick and choose what to add to the variable. Or something like that.

<<<<< Backwards.

The retrograde in this case is Broadcast TV has been behaving like this for a while. TV has long switched between live and broadcast streams. It has had live news tickers and outside broadcasts. It has generated on the fly channel branding with TV Asahi by Tomato or generative broadcast streams with Millicent by Best Before. So this is once again a comforting and easily understandable step, it's now just under my control rather than me needing a whole broadcast company.

>>>>> Forwards.

Once again this isn't really just an aggregator this is a platform. Anyone can now bring feeds together to make compelling video. It will get more sophisticated, probably have its own branding templates (Qwiki meets CargoCollective?). It will be used by all kinds of different people and all kinds of different brands. Given the rise of Google TV, Qwiki now provides a very quick and easy and i dare say fun way to create the kind of content to support that. That's an explosive thing to think about.

What's the impact to Journalism? Film reviews? Documentaries? Personalised content? YouTube? Power Point? Broadcast news?

You stay classy, San Diego.

<<<<< Backwards.

Chatting with @lousiebites she points out the need to veracity of what is created. How do you believe what you see is true? Fox news may already have this problem, but it's only going to get more complicated. How are we going to grade the quality of the information sources we use?

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Reggie Watts @ PopTech

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:55:00 -0700

"urm... urm... I wanna do a song, this is urm... a song about urm... urm... _____ and urm... people, and urm... amalgamation of peoples minds as they come collectively together as a population to effect one another in a way that kinda networks their consciousnesses in a way that can be accessed by those people that view themselves as observers of systems in a hierarchy *inhale* which enables them to thereby surmise certain outcomes that gives information to other people who will classify themselves as observers who can then zoom-in and zoom-out to different levels to kinda analyse and create different situational awarenesses. Urm... so, you know what, one of those, ha-ha-he-he-hihihi."

http://poptech.org/blog/say_watts
http://www.reggiewatts.com/

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Why I <3 Kickstarter.

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 00:23:00 -0700

Kickstarter is described as an online threshold pledge system by Wikipedia. Anyway, I'm loving it at the moment and here's why...

3 projects i recently backed:

VoyURL

Adam has a project around data ownership online.

Power Laces

A lady called Blake Bevin in NY who is making the self-lacing-shoes out of BTTF2.

The Bucket Brigade

What started me off. A bloke called Bud i've never met writing a book future marketing.

3 projects i wish i had:

Lockpick Sport

Some chap with the cracking name of Schuyler Towne making his own Lockpicks. Cool. (1450% funded to the tune of $87k!)

Punk Maths

Maths + Punk + an interesting energetic dude called Tom. (1200% funded!)

BioCurious

Eri, Joseph and Tito. What if A molecular biologist, a mechanical engineer, a computer programmer and an artist - and happened to be sitting next to a lab?

How inspiring is that. Adam, Blake, Bud, Schuyler, Tom, Eri, Joseph and Tito. Technologist, Inventor, Writer, Mathematician, Thief (joke), Economist and Scientist all doing stuff. That's what i love about Kickstarter.

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3 x simplicity

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 07:27:00 -0700

Spent time going thru @tomux fantastic curation of good things online and in YT. What a brilliant and inspiring piece of work, thanks to Tom for that.

Amidst all the exciting technology, projections, crowdsource, remakes and data curation I was happy to note that my three favourite things where very simple and clever films, taking me back to an earlier time in my career.

Bathtub V - by Keith Loutit HD

Gardyn by Pogo

Seaweed by Tell No One

Perhaps just the mood i am in today. Back to interactive heaven tomorrow. Would have liked to have seen The Race 1.0b

make the cut in Sports for shifting all that data live from a racing F1 car and mixing it with 2 streams of opinion and insight from a pit-lane and McLaren HQ. Still, of course i would :) and you gotta cut the list somewhere. However, lovely to see the very talented Tom and Matt's HP work deservedly highlighted:

Anyway, here is the full piece, well worth the time to look thru and think about every page. Again, thanks to @tomux for bothering.

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YCC

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 01:10:00 -0700

I was really impressed by the @YCClondon (http://youngcreativecouncil.com/) event i dropped into last night.

There are two things i especially liked:

This is, as far as i can tell, an event promoting recently graduated students by other recently graduated students. It's a positive action to fix a tough situation. I really like the fact that these guys are trying to solve their own problems. That surely has to be applauded and supported.
The energy and brightness of those involved. Lots of positive faces. I'm pretty sure they all went onto get totally smashed afterwards in the bar. Every one of them knew the importance of digital and every one of them was frustrated at the lack of modern schooling they received throughout their studies. Bravo. That's a start.

It struck me that there are 3 things that every graduating student should consider above and beyond what their course has taught them thus far around ideas, brands and insight:

Interesting.
Too many books, and the students themselves are straight. Shy even. Understandable but a problem. A book for me has to have some 'stones', actually as does a creative. Some style, personality, attitude, nonsense. Something interesting. It's a time to play and experiment. Don't be shy, be interesting. Maybe just don't be weird. But weird is better than boring. So don't be boring. I don't care if your book, or you, is wrong or off the mark at times, as long as it's not boring.
Industry.
You really have to work damn hard. On your book. On your insights. On your presentation. On collaring people you want to talk to. On getting noticed. On being interesting. On understanding the internet. You kinda have to do it yourself. This discipline and hard work always pays off and is visible to others. It's brilliant. I think Gladwell's 10'000 hours rule is true on a very basic level. Put it in!
Interactive.
First step is recognising the importance of the digital world. These students are the future. They should be cool and modern. Interesting. To do so they need to be playing with the internet. Experimenting. I don't care if they get it right as long as they are involved, trying and testing. Eventually they will start to get it. But they have to take it upon themselves to do this. It's not hard, just turn on your computer, iPad or phone and play. Discover. Then experiment with your work. You will go far. So apply 'interesting' and 'industry' here and get heavily involved with what's going on with the internet and you will learn and develop.

Once they have really got into these three things then a book crit can become interesting as we can spend the time discussing the possibilities of their ideas, the smarts of their insights, their understanding of the business problem or the cultural target. But first, Interesting. Industry and Interactive please, and the thing about all these 3 things is that they are things that they can fix themselves. Just like the YCC.

Anyway, next time you see a YCC event. Do consider lending it some support. Good to see the energy and positivity. More power. :)

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