Wednesday, March 14, 2012

SXSW: The future according to South by Southwest

As the sun sets on my inspiring trip to Austin, all that is left is to wrap up some of the emerging trends to paint a picture of what the short and long term future might hold.


Importantly, we need to stop looking at digital as a channel, as HP's global CD Greg Johnson put it, "digital isn't a medium, it's the age we're in". This was consistent throughout the week, from the flurry of 'always on' location based social app launches to futurists calmly telling us we'll all be chipped pretty soon.


The importance of data was hard to ignore this week. All brands are sitting on an incredible wealth of data, be that marketing databases, ecommerce, social, web analytics and so on yet few are making the most of it. Those brands that do realise the power of data to create truly personalised experiences will inevitably succeed.


The keynote sessions on Monday were packed full of big names focusing on social media for social good, from Al Gore, Sean Parker and Twitter founder Biz Stone. Gore in particular rallied the crowd and suggested a connected online community can 'occupy democracy'. Stone went one further stating "I believe the future of marketing is philanthropy. This is going to actually help your business" (easier to do when you're worth $200 million).


This is all proof that social media has truly come of age, and that it's time to really drive change. There's obviously a lot of hope the Kony work can back that up.


More immediate is the world of 'Solomo' (social location mobile) and the concept of connecting you with people around you who are like you. Highlight, Glancee, Sonar and more all drained our batteries and got some traction without really taking off. Strangely, the most interesting thing about these services is they all rely on either Twitter or Facebook to be of use, further cementing those platforms importance in the social sphere.


As for looking way forward, there was certainly a lot of future gazing about how humans and technology will interact, not anything we've not read about (or seen in the movies) but it was resoundingly covered. Cyborg anthrapologist Amber Case highlighted that we need technology to get out of the way, so we'll use the human body, gestures and geo location as our interface for technology. Much of this is already there through applications such as Kinect and Sixth Sense for example, but her play is more retina displays than anything.


Respected futurist Ray Kurzweil certainly challenged the brain, but the message was along the same lines, a life living alongside computers rather than us merely using them. Kurzweil believes computers will ultimately become smarter than us, and will even be able to understand the nuances of irony and wordplay. The consumption of information certainly isn't a problem as Watson the IBM super computer can already call up every fact from Wikipedia in 3 seconds. Here's a couple of Kurzweil nuggets, the latter left me a little sad as it basically means we are now so intertwined with technology that we aren't bothering to use our memories anymore (Google it syndrome).


"In the future, search engines won't wait to ask, they will already be listening with your permission."
"Our cultural memories have been sourced to the cloud, freeing us up to do other things."


This kind of future is probably best displayed through video, one such example is Keiichi Matsuda's take on the hyper augmented world from 2010




So that's the SXSW wrap, see you back in Sydney.


Nic Chamberlain is writing for AdNews from the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

SXSW: A re-brief creatives will like

The show rolls on here in Austin, and you can feel the buzz building as the music festival kicks off Wednesday, so as the nerds start to pack up, the cool cats start to roll in. Shame to be leaving tomorrow.


Saying that, we continue to see some cool stuff from the digital world, both in terms of the speakers, exhibitors and brands. BBH Labs have courted controversy by creating Homeless Hotspots this week, which is basically homeless people wandering around the festivals with MiFi devices, inviting people to introduce themselves, make a donation and connect to their 4G network.

Controversial? Many think so as BBH Labs have received a fair bit of heat about it, despite this being an experiment and it not (yet) being linked to any brand (well, apart from the agency). You'll probably find most agencies around the world have thought of this kind of idea before but have never had the balls or found the right client or environment to launch it. I'm not going to get in to the right or wrongs of this idea here, as you can make you're own mind up, but this could be a step towards Big Issue 2.0? Check it out here http://bbc.in/ykBtQx
You can't help but love a rather less controversial project here this weekend - 'Google Rebrief', finally a re-brief creatives will enjoy!
Rebrief
The project is a collaboration with legends of the ad game from the 60's and 70's, giving them a chance to help re-create their classic TV campaigns in today's digital age.

The brands included are Coca-Cola, Volvo, Alka-Seltzer and Avis. Google released the Coke and Volvo executions at the festival, and that content plus the other brands will be released in the next two weeks. The Coke revamp is of the classic 'Hilltop' campaign from 1971, where the 2012 version has a social spin with cans of coke being shared with people around the world via SMS and special vending machines.

A fantastic project as it both pays homage to classic advertising and shows how to create engaging work in the modern age. Check out the hype video below.



I didn't want to forget the bull*** job title game, and I think I've found four beauties here: transmedia creator, chief scientist, word nerd and connective tissue director. Coming soon to an agency near you.

I'll be wrapping up some key conference themes tomorrow as my final day in Austin comes to a close. Stay tuned. For more news and stuff you can follow me at @nicchamberlain
Nic Chamberlain is writing for AdNews from the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Monday, March 12, 2012

SXSW: #Endlessrain at South by Southwest

It rains in Texas, who knew? I clearly brought the monsoon weather with me from Sydney, as it's done nothing but rain since we arrived. Somewhat unsurprisingly rain has been the trending topic on Twitter, and every other new social network for that matter (of which there are many, I have about 10 new social apps to play with).

No matter, I'm sure we'll survive, what of the festival?

It is huge. I was warned about the sheer size of it but you really have to see it to believe it. Meltwater were reporting over 300,000 mentions of SXSW on Saturday alone which should give you a feel for the enormity of the event (or the over sharing of the attendees...).

Picking up the badge took 2 hours, and once I'd finally got that I went along to a couple of sessions and was locked out, too many people! Mental note, get everywhere super early.

You get a feel for the quality of the content when using the official app. The easiest thing is to favorite the sessions you want to go to, and there I was at 9.30am and there was 11 things I wanted to see. I need a clone.

Without a clone, you just have to pick a lane and hope its a good one, which invariably they are. I've seen comedians talking about creative process, UX specialists, the tech guys from Mashable to the Cyborg Anthropologist, who was absolutely fantastic. You can read about her here http://caseorganic.com/ or search for Amber Case on TED, it's well worth it.

There's exhibitors galore, so endless fliers, competitions, vouchers and free drinks thrown at you, but it was the brands giving away ponchos were invariably the most popular though.

One standout campaign launch here is AMEX, who have kicked off a neat promo called Sync, Tweet, Save. Current cardholders just have to link their card to their Twitter account to receive exclusive offers and deals, which they load straight on your card, no printed vouchers, no fuss. A really nice example for financial brands in the social space, and it's certainly generated quite the buzz at the festival.



There's plenty to cover about key themes and speakers, but I'll do that tomorrow as the rain has stopped and Austin has come out to play.
Nic Chamberlain is writing for AdNews from the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

SXSW: A sea of tweets and check-ins

For those in the digital and tech industry South by Southwest is the event of events in the calendar, where 'digital creative minds' meet. For those not in the industry it's basically a major nerd fest, often dubbed "nerd or geek prom".
We don't care as we know geek chic has been in for years now, so I'm joining 24,000 others in a tweet up like no other. Undoubtedly there'll be more hashtags, checkins, status updates, blog posts, swarm badges, smartphones and tablets than you can poke a stick at.
I'm already a little overwhelmed by the number of apps, events, parties and volume of tweets I'm faced with, anyway – first world problem.
You'll be hearing from me over the next few days, giving you a rundown of the key themes from the event, the next tech explosion and must have app or social network. I'll also be checking out the most ridiculous job titles at the conference... a couple of early leaders I've seen include "Cyborg Anthropologist" and "Chief Quixotic officer" - watch this space.

It's worth noting the festival isn't all about nerds though, and its actually more famous for film and music, which has been running for 20 years or so. The interactive component was added around ten years ago and has grown each year since, and in that time Austin has been given the name 'Silicon Hills' because it is such a major hub for tech start ups. In fact, Twitter really came to the fore at SXSW in 2007, and although it didn't officially launch there many believe it was the conference that really put it on the social map.
Early indications of what's going to be big this year include location and social context, and the concept of co-sharing through social.

'Highlight' looks like it could be one such darling this year, it's a social network (do we really need another?) that uses information from your Facebook account to find your friends or others users near you who like the same stuff as you, from which you'll be sent push notifications about people in your nearby radius. Take a look here http://yhoo.it/ABVGyL

And Co-sharing through social takes lending your hedge trimmer to your neighbour to a whole new level, read more about that here http://bit.ly/zEL8nx

That's plenty for now. For more news and stuff you can follow me at @nicchamberlain or #sxswi

Nic Chamberlain is writing for AdNews from the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Facebook Timeline for Branded Pages

Yesterday Facebook announced its latest updates to branded pages. This essentially brings Fan pages inline with personal pages. Overall it is an exciting new way for brands to engage with their users. That being said though pages that regularly provide interesting content should see great benefits. Pages that ignore their Facebook fans will not get anything from the new Facebook changes no matter how amazing their new cover picture is.

Some of the keys points you need to know:
  • All Fan pages will be forced to switch over to the new timeline on 30 March
  • You can log into your page and preview what your Page would look like now by using this link
  • Timeline is currently not available on mobile devices but should be switched over soon

Some of the key new features/changes of Timeline include

Cover Pic – This is a large (851x315) image that sits at the top of your new page. Obviously great from a visual point of view there are however a few restrictions in the type of messaging you are allowed to place in this image.

Tabs - These have been moved to sit just under the cover pic on the right hand side. As previously, this allows you to link to your own facebook applications. There are 4 spots visible to the user with the ability to show 12 applications view in a dropdown menu. Out of the 4 spots the first one is always Photos.

Pinned Posts – You can pin key messages to the top of your timeline for 7 days which prevents important stories not getting lost through other regular updates.

Milestones – As all the content is placed on a timeline it’s obvious that you can now go back in history and set up key milestones. These milestones can be another from when the store first opened to when your fan page reached a certain number of fans.

Applications – You are not able to set an application as the default landing page any more. However there are now 2 different sizes you can design your application to. A narrow 520px and a Wide 810px version. This will allow developers a little more freedom in the way they present content through applications.

Private Messaging – The new Pages allows admins to send and receive private messages to users.

There a many more changes in regards to stories and the administration of Pages. Download the full user guide click here. Or for a step by step tutorial you can check this out

Brands that have already changed over

Nespresso


Spider- Man


Windows


Manchester United


Florence and the Machine

Guardian - Three Little Pigs

I just really enjoyed this, so thought I'd share it.

Guardian use the Three Little Pigs to showcase their 360 journalism, integrated channels. You get the thing. What do you think?