Dandelion and the Storytelling Ad Model
18. November 2008
Allison Mooney
Storytelling is a powerful thing. Ever since our parents read us bedtime stories, we’ve depended on narratives to help us interpret the world around us–and to escape it.
Stories engage us and, as our attention fragments, that is precisely what advertisers are trying to do. Enter the commercial-as- miniseries. The concept has really taken root in Asia–just search youtube for “SK Telecom” or “LG Telecom” and you’ll get tons of hits from South Korea. The following three commercials illustrate this phenomenon, telling the story of a family separated between the North and the South:
Now we’re going to see more of these story-driven ads in the U.S. thanks to a new studio called Dandelion, which officially launched yesterday. Formed by Epoch Films and Kirt Gunn Associates, the company is “dedicated to creating programming and entertainment sponsored by brands.” It’s almost a return to the “brought-to-you-by” model of early television where content was king, and advertisers just paid the bills. Almost. They do work for brands after all, so what they create is essentially branded serial content, but at a higher quality. Actual professional writers, directors and producers are at the helm, rather than marketing interns with a Flip video camera.
Brands today need to be transparent, accessible, human. This is what consumers relate to. These commercials aim to tap into these same ideals by bringing brands to life and appealing to our emotions. If they succeed, will we soon be TiVoing commercials and skipping the shows?
© Allison Mooney for PSFK, 2008. | Permalink | Comments | Add to del.icio.us
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PSFK Talks to David L. Sifry, Offbeat Guides
18. November 2008
Matthias Weber (PSFK Hamburg)
PSFK Germany recently had the chance to talk to David L. Sifry - whom many of you probably know as the founder and CEO of Technorati. His most recent venture is Offbeat Guides, an online service to easily produce customized travel guides. Offbeat Guides’ simple process for building your own travel guide is based on answering five quick questions about the excursion: destination city, your current city, your name, traveldates and where (e.g. in which hotel) you will be staying.
The site then renders an individual guide containing all the information based around your answers. Maps are custom-centered around the location of the hotel you are staying while recommended events, concerts and exhibitions are chosen based on the time frame of your stay.
Custom chapters can be appended easily, so you can include personal recommendations or notes as well. The guide comes as a digital PDF file and is available for optional printing on demand.
Currently the service sources its content from the public domain and freely available sites such as Wikitravel or eventful. David shared with us a few extensions and insights about his motivations behind creating Offbeat Guides:
How has it been going with the Offbeat Guides Beta so far?
Fantastically well! Well beyond my expectations. I think we were surprised- Number one, at how much interest there was from everyday people.
I’ll tell you a story: We launched the company into private Beta on June 1st this year and we had 1000 Beta invites to give away. We were still getting things going so we didn’t want to invite too many people in, we just wanted to get some feedback. And there were stories written about us in Techcrunch and Webware - we just went out to two journalists, and Sunday morning at Midnight was when one of the stories went out, and by 3 a.m. Sunday morning all 1,000 invites were gone. It was amazing. I couldn’t believe it. And we had over 6,000 people sign up just to be on the waiting list. We learned a heck of a lot from the private beta testers and we tuned and tweaked the site to really focus it on simplicity and making it really understandable for folks.
We went out to public beta on Monday and we haven’t really done a big announcement yet - just a blog post saying “Hey, you know the password’s off and people can come”. And now we already are having thousands of people who have been coming to Offbeat Guides to test it out and to build guides. So, I would say we’re really pleasantly surprised with the reception.
Today we’re all always plugged in; nearly everyone has a handset (or two), and we have devices like the iPhone that offer quick, easy mobile access to the internet. We’re curious: especially given your background as the founder of Technorati- the world’s largest blog search engine - why did you decide to provide guides that are based on a printable format?
It’s a good question. I think people get two things mixed up: Getting great information on any device that they want with thinking that it has to be using the highest technology possible. When I started to really think carefully about the problem and as we learned from our customers, of course iPhone and HTML based applications and PDFs and Blackberry apps were in the plan, all of these very high technology applications that solve the problem are important.
But what I learned is that there is really something special about holding a physical printed book in your hands. Especially when you are travelling. And you know, I travel with my Blackberry and my iPhone and my Laptop and all of that and if I am in the middle of a Siok in Jerusalem or I am lying on a beach in Phuket, Thailand I don’t really want to pull out my Blackberry or end up paying those enormous data rates via my iPhone just to be able to find a piece of information that I could easily find if it was sticking in my back pocket.
This is not about printed versus digital. That is the absolutely false argument from my perspective. I want both: I want my information when I want it, where I want it, how I want it. And even more importantly I want it personalized to me. I think there is something very, very useful when you are travelling regarding the technology of paper.
(...)
Read the rest of PSFK Talks to David L. Sifry, Offbeat Guides (3,009 words)
© Matthias Weber (PSFK Hamburg) for PSFK, 2008. | Permalink | Comments | Add to del.icio.us
Recession: Driving Innovative Design
18. November 2008
Claudia Cukrov
Despite rising unemployment and lack of cash-laden clients, the economic crisis may bring some unexpected inspiration to the creative industries. The Herald Tribune recently highlighted the creative boom that unfolded during previous times of financial instability:
If you rewind through design history, many of the most exhilarating periods have been during economic downturns. Take the 1930s, when the modern movement flourished despite the depression. Or the late 1940s, when Italy emerged as one of the world’s most dynamic design centers during its postwar reconstruction. In the United States, Richard Buckminster Fuller invented the geodesic dome to provide emergency housing for demobilized troops and their families. Those domes have since provided shelter for hundreds of thousands of people, many in desperate circumstances.
Despite a lack of funding, the Herald Tribune argues creative types adapt well to unstable environments, utilizing “cheap materials and found objects.”
With credit availability at an all-time low society is reconsidering their spending habits, lifestyle choices and daily behavior. In this dynamic climate there is a strong opportunity to reintroduce eco-living solutions to the public. Designers have been called on to reevaluate industry and create streamlined, “austerity-friendly” business models. The bicycle renting services found in Paris and Montreal are one example of the rising occurrence of rental businesses excelling in the global economic slump.
The Herald Tribune: Recessionary design: A boom time for creative energy
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Reality TV from the Surface of Your Eye
18. November 2008
Claudia Cukrov
Artist Tanya Vlach has put out the challenge for budding engineers to build her a web-cam enabled prosthetic eyeball. The trans-disciplinary artist who lost her eye in a 2005 car accident is planning to turn a once unfortunate situation into a life-long art project. Vlach wishes to use the bionic eye to record daily experiences and contribute towards a possible reality TV program. Vlach has requested the prosthesis be able to take still photos and video, use 3X optical zoom, be Bluetooth enabled and hold space for a 4GB SD card.
On her blog the San-Francisco-based artist writes:
I am attempting to recreate my eye with the help of a miniature camera implant in my prosthetic / artificial eye. The intraocular installation of an eye-cam will substitute for the field of vision of my left eye that I lost in 2005 from a car accident. While my prosthetic is an excellent aesthetic replacement, I am interested in capitalizing on the current advancement of technology to enhance the abilities of my prosthesis for an augmented reality.
Emails have been flooding in from engineers offering their assistance, and with the current spy-cam technology out there, Vlach’s prosthesis is not far off.
[via Sydney Morning Herald]
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The Rise of Creative Industry in China
18. November 2008
Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai)
Anyone who has been paying attention to creative industries in China over the past few years will have noticed a significant boost in its prominence and influence. From grassroots creative bazaars to large scale, government-organized expos, creative industries and the people fueling them are starting to make an increasingly large impact on society.
To help put the growth of creative industries in a broader context, PSFK friend Zafka Zhang recently posted on his experience at the government organized eARTS festival and the larger factors behind the growth of creative industries in China. As a sound artist and the leading authority on virtual worlds in China, Zafka is well positioned to comment on this important trend.
Below is a brief summary of the major factors pushing the creative industries in China forward:
Economic Transformation
- shift from manufacturing to non-manufacturing industries, including creative industries
Government Support
- provision of commercial art and public spaces for creative culture events
Education
- government encouragement of creative industry education (i.e. 100,000+ university students majoring in animation, game design, etc.)
Internet
- access to pirated software for content creation (Photoshop, Audition, etc.)
- creative-focused websites (Neocha, Douban, etc.) & p2p file sharing (Emule, BT, Xunlei)
Change in Values
- growing acceptance by parents to let children pursue careers in creative industries boost in confidence in the China brand and growing individualism
Growing Demand
- consumption of creative culture in the form of indie concerts, DIY designers, etc.
China Youthology: Creative Industry and ‘Creative Generation’ in China
© Sean Leow (PSFK Shanghai) for PSFK, 2008. | Permalink | Comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Mapping the Movements of Street Art
18. November 2008
Claudia Cukrov
streetartlocator.com exposes fresh street art through Google mapping technology. The community Google map marks all forms of street art from railroad graffiti to low-brow gallery exhibits. Painting, sticker, sculpture, stencil and installation-based art are also tagged, with users able to upload images, tag geographical locations and embed the maps into their websites or Facebook profiles. Members can also create online portfolios on the site, showcasing their own street art pieces.
Andy Clark, creator of site explains:
As an artist and web designer with a passion for street art, I started documenting great graffiti, stickers and stencils as I spotted them. I was sure that others were doing the same and that, if this information was shared, we could create a map showing where to find the best street art in every continent, country and city. So StreetArtLocator.com was born.
© Claudia Cukrov for PSFK, 2008. | Permalink | Comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Developing the Future of Transportation: Ultra Niche Manufacturers
18. November 2008
Dave Pinter
As endless speculations and hypotheses are made this week over the future of America’s automakers, what might happen if the big three shattered into many small companies? Some new companies have already noticed cracks forming in the product offer and are launching their own vehicles that aim to be better than anything Detroit could make.
Carbon Motors is looking to produce one vehicle for one purpose only. The E7 is the world’s first purpose-built law enforcement patrol vehicle, designed by law enforcement, for law enforcement. The company recently unveiled a working prototype and has mounted a tour to introduce the vehicle to law enforcement agencies. The production model is intended to come with a Forced Induction 3.0 litre Diesel that can run on Ultra-low sulfur Diesel or BioDiesel. The E7 aims to provide up to a 40 percent improvement in fuel economy. The fuel economy savings translates to money that departments can dedicate to other programs.
The car was designed to be robust and last to a 250,000 mile durability specification. Inside the car, many features aim to improve the officers job. There’s an extensive list of integrated technologies like a heads up display, driver specific intelligent key, automatic license plate recognition system, nightvision compliant interior illumination, and an integrated forward looking infrared system (FLIR).
The exterior of the vehicle has been developed to offer functional characteristics and have a distinctive appearance. The vehicle can sustain a 75 mph rear impact crash. Robust bumpers can function as push bars. All the exterior lighting has been integrated for better visibility on every side of the car.
High on Carbon Motors list was improving safety. They identified that approximately 50 percent of all officer injuries occur in the vehicles they drive. Causes for these injuries include not only crashes, but also poor ergonomics, limited space, and injuries stemming from the insertion and removal of combative subjects. The E7 includes purpose designed driver and passenger seats that account for the gear officers usually wear. Even the rear doors were mounted ‘coach’ style to swing out from the seats allowing for easier ingress and egress of the suspects.
[ via Cartype ]
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Awesome Singapore Night Safari and Zoo
18. November 2008
Gobala Krishnan
I went to Singapore last weekend partly for the SMART Seminar (although I made an appearance for only a few hours) and to take a short break from my business activities. We we there for three days but unfortunately could not go to as many places as I had hoped. Maybe another trip there soon?
One place I’ve always wanted to go was the Singapore Night Safari – heck this has been 10 years coming! Although me and Sheila don’t think it was as good as the Bogor Safari in Indonesia, it was still interesting enough to keep me interested. I have a short attention span, mind you..
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures with Flash, and that meant it wasn’t worth taking any pictures of the animals at all since all you’ll see is darkness. I did however manage to get some “fish therapy” at the exit of the Night Safari and that was really interesting.
I’ve seen a lot of “fish theraphy” outlets spring up in Malaysia over the past year but never tried it. The moment you put your feet in the water the fish immediately start to nibble away.
Did you know that a Malaysian zoo worker jumped into the white tigers enclosure and died the same day we were there? I didn’t know about it too till I read the news the following day. It’s a pretty freaky story of how someone could just lose their mind and decide to take their own life in the most unusual way!
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Customize Frame Colors With Ink-Filled Eye-Glasses
17. November 2008
Joel Horowitz
Feeling blue? Try india-ink filled eye-glass frames. And while we’re sure you could fill them with any sort of liquid, ink is guaranteed to offer the brightest colors. An innovative approach in eye-wear for those that wear glasses every day, but want a few thousand more options.
via Geekologie
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Motrin: How Not to Make a Video Viral
17. November 2008
Dan Gould
Pain reliever Motrin recently sparked a firestorm of controversy over an advertisement which attempted to be humorous, sympathetic and perhaps edgy but ended up insulting the very consumer group they were targeting. The offending video portrayed the practice of carrying a baby in a sling as an uncomfortable fashion statement, something that makes a mother look more “official”. The ad copy also implies that such baby carrying causes back and neck pain - which Motrin will help alleviate.
This point of view did not sit well with the “baby wearing” mothers of the internet. Over the weekend, Twitter exploded with negative commentary and blog posts racked up attacking the ad. In their defense, Motrin acted quickly and took down the video, but the damage may already be done.
Media Caffeine reports:
The flaws in this video are too numerous to list, but it’s clear that the tone was wrong, the message was absurd, and the only possible result was an enraged group of former customers.
On Twitter, the conversations have been furious. As of the time of this post, #motrinmoms on Twitter has gone beyond the 1500 message archive limit in 12 hours, and there are several others going strong at #motrin, #motringate, and others. The vast majority of the responses have been negative.
The blog response hasn’t been any better. There have already been dozens of posts about it today. Some classic ones are listed at the bottom of this story. All are negative. The response hasn’t been good, but as someone who has not experienced baby-wearing, I decided to consult an expert.
To test the ad, I showed it to my wife, a mother of three who has been there, done that. I showed it to her with no prompting, no bias, just a “Hey honey, have you seen this?”
Her response at the 11 second mark: “Are you freakin’ kidding me? This must have been made by a man who was completely clueless about anything we go through.”
Media Caffeine: “Motrin Learns: Hell Hath No Fury Like Baby-Wearing Moms”
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