Categories
Cool Social Media Tech Trends

Webwill: Your digital identity after death

Just what happens to all this endless ‘stuff’ that we produce online after we’re no longer around to enjoy it? It was one of the topics of conversation recently when @faris was over in London and held an impromptu Beersphere. Which got me thinking, what if there was a way to pre-emptively update our Facebook page, our Twitter page, our blog and all the other online destinations we produce content for with a message. What would that message be and would we use it?

A new service which caught my eye is Webwill which prefaces with asking the question “How do you want to live your life online after death?” In one sentence it describes what it sets out to do, I like that. It’s not an easy thing to do. Ironically, it’s in Beta at the moment and on an invite only basis.

A couple of the facts they give in the video is that 1 in every 3 women in Sweden has their own blog and 850m photos are uploaded to Facebook every month. Over 10billion photos a year. What will happen to those photos in 10 years? Will they be as relevant?

It seems to have all come to the fore recently with Facebook recommending you to people you know who have passed away. Then ask the question, how would Facebook have known? These kinda measures need to be put in to place and I think something like Webwill could help to moving in the right direction to do that. It must be harrowing for someone to be recommended to reconnect with a friend or loved one no longer around. Check these posts out, first from Mashable not so long ago documenting ‘How to eliminate “dead friend” suggestions’ and second from Consumerist where Facebook were embroiled in a lengthy battle for this very reason and performed a u-turn on their own policy which states that “it was their policy to keep dead members profile’s in a “memorialized” state.”

Back to this whole notion of why we even have a desire to keep all these different profiles updated. We’re living for the era of now, so consumed in what we’re doing this minute and maybe not taking the time to enjoy the here and now because we’re too busy documenting it. (For when and for who?) Putting up pictures on Flickr, tweeting about it, writing a Facebook status update, telling people we don’t know on a chat room or forum what we’re doing.  This is important but all those little artefacts you put up online, stay online, indefinitely. It’s always something people seem to forget about when they engage in sometimes hugely libellous slanging matches online where an apology has to be made public or when emails containing conversations which shouldn’t have happened in print are written. Once it’s down on the online notepad, it’s permanent.

So with that morbidly futuristic post in mind check out the video below, pretty fascinating stuff.

myWebwill – in english! from Lisa Granberg on Vimeo.

Update – Here’s a video explanation from the founders via Venturebeat

Categories
Cool Digital Goodies Tech

The Future of Work (Presentation)

An educational presentation by Jeff Brenman of Apollo Ideas who explores how technology is changing the way people work together.

Categories
Cool Funny Tech

What type of Moleskinner are you?

I think i’m part ‘Freeform’ and part ‘Self actualised’ – hey i like some schedule!

How about you?

Bit of a media cliche but I love a good Moleskine. I could get free notepads from work and save myself a fortune but there’s something intangible about writing on one of these beauties. I may have to confess even for the purpose of this post to ordering a few limited edition models (these ones) only available in Hong Kong to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Helvetica font. If that’s not overly needlessly geeky then I don’t know what is.

moleskine1

moleskine2

Via Lunchbreath

Categories
Advertising Company Branding Cool

Pepsi changes to Pecsi in Argentina..

A typical case of overcoming a seemingly impossible problem with a brilliant solution here from BBDO Argentina.

The problem being that for argentines the ‘PS’ sound is hard to pronounce. The solution? Change it. Sounds simple enough right? Well, in doing so, they created the first democratic pronunciation for a brand (which in itself guaranteed coverage..)

The results were almost instant and people have been found to be asking for a Pecsi all over Argentina and beyond!

Pecsi Case from BBDO argentina on Vimeo.

Categories
Cool Goodies Tech

10 Trends for 2010 by @stutts

Interesting to note that crowd sourcing is one of the top trends for 2010. It’s been fascinating reading at length the thoughts of Amelia, John and many others to name just two, with Peperami being the case in point in this instance. In some cases, I think it’s akin to authorised stealing but can see its merits.

I don’t know if the trends are in any order of importance but Augmented Reality comes in at #1. I’d agree with this for the most part, it’s a truly new, interactive and immersive experience when it’s done properly but there’s only a handful of solid examples to date so far.

Mobile payment is definitely en vogue for 2010 with the announcement by Jack probably most well known for being one of the guys behind Twitter. He recently announced his latest project, Square. This is a “new e-payment technology which he hopes will revolutionise the way consumers pay for goods and services.” with an iPhone or iPod Touch to begin accepting credit or debit card payments instantly.

Check it out in action here:

Categories
Analysis Cool Social Media Tech

How will we manage? Global stats and facts.

Watch this. Amazing stuff. You’ll be fascinated by some of the facts.

Did you know?

  • Of the 6.1 billion people in the world, 3.1 billion of those are in work
  • 77% of the US workforce have a Facebook account and 26% speak a second langauge
  • Fortune 500 companies receive about 2000 CVs a day
  • In 2007, 1 out of every 3 hires was made online
  • There are more Blackberries and iPhones in the world than there are people in the UK
  • More than 1m people signed up to Google Latitude in the first week
  • US workers collectively take 917 million sick days per year
  • Employees who surf the web are said to be 9% more productive

Categories
Advertising Cool Goodies

Coming up with ideas, executions and concepts.

Really great presentation deck from Thomas Wagner.

This reminds me of the kind of deck that Andy Bellass produced when I worked at Splendid. Maybe because he’s from an advertising background, I don’t know but he makes decks that don’t look anything like your generic Powerpoint presentations and they take you on a thought provoking and emotive journey, almost holding your hand along the way.

Check it out below and follow him on Twitter at @thomas_wagner

Categories
Cool Digital Print Social Media

Proof that social media is killing print magazines..

Nuff said.

Via CartridgeSave

socmed

Categories
Cool Digital Goodies Social Media

How small touches in social media impact the heartbeat of your brand by @freshpeel

I love presentations like this. An absolute breath of fresh air. Gone are your typical bullet points and times new roman font and here you have a brilliant case in point that hammers the message home, less is more. The words are touchpoints, they aren’t everything, you still want to find out more instead of being bored to tears.

Someone said elsewhere that “Every interaction with the consumer is essential and can make a difference. Brands need to fit into the life of people.”

And here’s from the man himself, Chris Wilson of FreshPeel.com

The idea is that in a world with an unlimited amount of brand touchpoints, some in a brands control and many not, and the fact that consumers can interact with a brand whenever and wherever they want to, every touch matters. I credit the birth of this idea to David Armano and his Micro-Interactions presentation.

Categories
Cool Goodies

TED Talk: 8 secrets of success

Inspiring.

Categories
Case Studies Cool Goodies Social Media

Ford’s Social Media Strategy by @scottmonty..

I started this post a few weeks back with just the video. After a bit of research, I found the below slide deck also. Personally, very useful stuff chock full of insight from a behemoth of a company embracing the social web with both hands. Who says big companies can’t get involved.

Categories
Cool Goodies Personal Branding

The different styles of blogging. Which one are you?

I’d like to think i’m a cross breed of insight, life, brand and piggyback.

You?

Categories
Cool Digital Goodies Tech

Google’s 87 Cool Things from Advertising Week

Andy Berndt, MD of Google Creative Lab and Tom Uglow, Creative Lead presented this recently on Day 1 of Advertising Week 2009. Well worth your time.

You can grab the PDF and the PPT versions of the presentation here. The podcast is here also.

During, Andy asked them to obviously think about Google when creating experiences.  For me, what resonated most was that he reminded everyone to experiment often, be creative, try new things, and don’t be afraid to fail.

I don’t think that happens enough. Trying, innovating and sometimes failing. It’s easier to stick to what’s known rather than taking risks to potentially produce truly innovative stuff. Creativity and ideas generation is still alive and well but execution is being stifled by budgets and ignorance to enter new and unchartered territory. Budgets will always to some extent stifle what can and can’t be done. Also, understandably, it’s difficult from a large client perspective when there’s a lack of knowledge about all things digital and a hesistancy to try something that bit different. But that’s what the agency is there for, to bring them in to this new age of brilliance. I commend the one’s that make it out there in the wild and receive award after award but for every one stand out idea, there’s a thousand that get binned. It’s a shame.

Many of the experiments in 87 cool things highlighted mashups, interactivity, unique data usage, and the fusion of virtual worlds and reality.

From Google Maps and YouTube Annotations, to Insights for Search and a wide array of APIs, it’s easier than ever to play with inventive marketing ideas, using Google of course. We’re told to think of these tools and platforms as our blank canvas, and just have fun.

These innovative campaigns, projects, and even accidents can encourage us to expand our imaginations, think beyond our expectations and consider the impossible. Did you ever think Ohio could be a piano? Or that you would analyze your daily food consumption, and catalog it by cuisine? Or that an engaging and informative website could live entirely on YouTube? I didn’t!

Via Adwords Agency Blog

Enjoy!

Categories
Analysis Cool Digital Social Media

Hello Digiphobe, 4 minutes of your time please..

Watch this.

Categories
Cool Digital Social Media Tech

The hierarchy of digital distractions..

hierarchy_distractions_960

This is brilliant.

Click for the full size version.

Your phone is going, you’ve got a direct message from someone on Twitter, and a new Facebook message also. Which do you look at first? Never fear! The above will take you through the hierarchy of digital distractions.

Via Information is Beautiful

Categories
Cool Gaming Retail Social Media Twitter

Heralding a new era of social gaming..

I noticed this rather bullish full page advert from Microsoft in a recent issue of MCV and it struck me that we’re now entering in to a new era of social gaming. The potential is limitless.

Before it’s even available for gamers to try out today, the functionality with Twitter and Facebook on the 360 is being talked up, and talked up it should. This cannot be underestimated. It’s bringing social networking in to your living room and on your TV.  It’s also a huge USP for the Xbox 360 in it’s ongoing and bloody battle against the Playstation 3. The launch of the PS3 Slim was timely met by Microsoft with a price cut of their own and puts the ball back in Sony’s court.

For social networking to now be a selling point on a games console shows how far it’s come. This is great news for Facebook and Twitter (perhaps more so for Twitter) because it takes it to another level, that bit more mainstream. Everyone uses Facebook, Twitter is still a nice communications tool. It might help more people understand it and ‘get’ it.

Little is known how they are going to look on your TV screen and how they are going to connect to your gaming experience and whilst I hope my feeds are not going to be spammed by friends who have just gained achievement X on game X, it shows that gaming is no longer something that’s done by a stereotypically aged male in a darkened room. They are now the entertainment hubs, in your living room and providing fun for all the family.

Social Gaming

Categories
Analysis Company Branding Cool

Brands 2.0: Branding in a digital world

Brands and Branding below is the book, the ‘offline’ version if you will, but here, you can download the PDF extract of Andy’s Brands&Brandingchapter which is Brands 2.0 – Brands in a digital world.

Don’t say I’m not good to you.

Click me to download.

The book in it’s entirety looks to be well worth checking out and is divided in to three parts:

1. Examining the case for brands,

2. Best practice in branding

3. The future for brands.

It’s a collaborative effort, written by 19 experts, and when I use the term ‘experts’ I actually mean it. The writers are the very cream of the crop.

Categories
Company Branding Cool Funny

That futuristic Coke vending machine..

Coca Cola vending machines as you know them will beCoca Cola Freestyle changed forever should the following be rolled out globally in the coming years. This summer, over in the US, they are rolling out what they are calling the Coca-Cola Freestyle, which is actually pretty cool. It has a touch screen to make your drinks choice through and 100 flavours, some of which have never been commercially available before like Orange Coke, Peach Fanta and Strawberry Sprite. It’s currently only being tested in their corporate HQ’s at San Diego and Atlanta but beginning this month they will be trialling 20 in live restaurants including Subway.

It sounds cliched but when some head honcho of a division of Coke said “It’s like the iPod of drink machines. We’re essentially reinventing the dispensed beverage business.” He could be right.

According to reports, it’s taken 4 years to produce and over $100m in R&D, when you’ve spent that much money purely on developing an idea, you know they’re going to put everything behind it to make it work.

They wanted to make it fun and easy to use, without reminding people of a cash machine or a computer. To do this, they recruited Vince Voron, now senior director of industrial design, from Apple to work on the project. Behind it all, it transmits data over night about what was sold and at what time that day. Already, they’ve found out that after 3pm Caffeine-Free Diet Coke spikes. Interesting.

Here’s the corporate introduction, and to follow is the ‘in the wild’ public reaction. The latter is a bit more animated..