Category Archives: content creating

content creating, user-generating

How Creating Pictures with Wordle Makes Content More Consumable

Mediation_wordle

this is what the content of this blog looks like when it's pushed thru Jonathan Feinberg's Wordle application.  Wordle is a digital toy which generates word clouds based on any string of text you put into it; words that appear more frequently have greater prominence.

not only do the images look great, they also demonstrate the usefulness of a visual image in absorbing information.  our brains are much better at consuming and processing visual information than text…  a glimpse of the above immediately conveys the content and most pertinent themes of the musings on my blog than any scan of the text would.

this could be a great way for companies, brands and even government to convey in a glimpse long bodies of text – for example company reports or even white papers…  not as a replacement for the publication of those documents (!) but as an interesting and compelling way to introduce someone to the content and themes before they start reading the document proper…

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content creating, experiencing

How Fraser and Rik came Back From The Future and did a bit of cultural remixing on the way

so here's a video of the lovely Fraser and Rik performing at the Fringe this year.  I'm posting because its actually a great example of cultural remix; of users re-appropriating broadcast brands in a new context.

I wrote back in November a post about the evolving ecology of TV and how it had to learn to sit in peace alongside its new user-generated siblings.  at the time I commented that:

"both [corporate and user-generated content] are entertaining, and both have their place in the new TV
ecology.  it's notable that DoomBlake's recreative remix is 
entertaining because of the original context as defined by
Lucas's commercial creative vision [of Star Wars].  these content siblings need each
other – one as source material, and the other as a way to stay
contemporary in a changing world"

I kinda think that in their own unique way, Fraser and Rik in coming Back From The Future are doing their own little bit for the future of communications…

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ad funded programming, advertising, branding, content creating, experiencing, planning, regulating, viewing

Transparency; how Mother’s Pot Noodle has it and MG OMD’s Beat: Life on the Street doesn’t

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on a visit to Edinburgh's Fringe Festival this weekend Mediation was lucky enough to catch a performance of Pot Noodle: The Musical.  created by Mother Vision, the show is a surreal and entertaining hour long advert for Pot Noodle – and it doesn't really pretend to be anything else.  in fact its quite clear on the matter…  its an ad.  it knows it is.  its written in the script.

I couldn't help but contrast this to the recent discussion and debate there's been around MG OMD's AFP for the Home Office.  Beat: Life on the Street was a Sunday night show first broadcast last year on ITV.  the show is now reportedly being investigated by Ofcom amid concerns it broke the broadcasting code requiring that programmes "must not influence the content and/or scheduling of a channel or
programme in such a way as to impair the responsibility and editorial
independence of the broadcaster".

so what we have here are two very different bits of content, each designed to form part of the brand narrative for two very different organisations.  but whereas one has (at the time of writing) a two and a bit star rating on the Fringe website, the other is being investigated by the regulator.  what sent them in such different directions?

well… what divides them is transparency.  Pot Noodle's musical has it, and Beat: Life on the Street just doesn't.

you can't make a programme that's funded by the Government and which is specifically designed to change people's perceptions of a state organisation and not tell people thats what it is and what its trying to do.  that's not smart media planning, its propaganda.

what's such a shame is the strategy from MG OMD is great.  in a video on the site, Head of Strategy Jon Gittings comments that the aim of the the programme was to amplify the real experience the public has with PCSOs, to:

"use communication to recreate [the] direct content that would then go on to increase value [of PCSOs] … we would create virtual experiences that bring PCSOs and the community together"

thats great thinking.  de-branding it is not.  brands have to be explicit about their intent.  whether you make noodle snacks or uphold the law, you have to protect your integrity.  say what you like about Pot Noodle making a musical, they were up front about what they were doing…

as one comment on the Fringe site notes: "I doubt that i'll ever be convinced that branded shows at Edinburgh are
a good thing but i struggle to criticise when i'm entertained as such".

well I doubt that I'll ever need convincing that smart relevant content creation – including AFP – can play a part on many a schedule; but I'll sure as hell won't struggle to criticise it when brands and (worse) their agencies think they can do so without being honest about the communications' intent.

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supplemental:
thanks to Phil who pointed me in the direction of a BBC report on Pot Noodle which includes an interview with the creatives from Mother who devised the thing…

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content creating, user-generating

There’s Radiohead’s version; and then there’s everyone else’s version

RadioheadRadiohead are giving anyone the chance to create their own version of the bands video for their latest release House of Cards.  the video was made using structured light to create three dimensional images.  but anyone can download the data  – courtesy of Google – from here, manipulate it, and share the results of their efforts on a YouTube group created for the project.

its essentially an open-source video – anyone can down load the data from which it was made and then make their own version.

James Frost, who directed the video, comments that “In a weird way [the
project] is a direct reflection of where we are in society. Everything
is [computer] data. Everything around us is data-driven in some shape
or form. We are so reliant on it that it seems like our lives are
digital”…as quoted in the Guardian

in a digital world everything and anything can be remade all the time.  nothing is set in stone.  nothing is ever fixed, or finished for that matter.  there is no definitive version of anything; only this version.  which becomes your definitive version is yours to decide.  its a fun world to be in.

here’s Radiohead’s version:

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content creating, gaming, user-generating

Spore’s Creature Creator: creativity has never been so fun or addictive


so I’m addicted already.  only an hour playing with Spore’s Creature Creator and I sense the precious few hours I had remaining this summer evaporating.  its a beautiful bit of software, allowing you to create and then test out creatures in a habitat – their mating calls, dances, moods and attacks.

its round one of Will Wright’s Spore, due for release in September.  the game will see you navigate a species from single cell being to galactic conquest…  and EA have pulled a blinder…  one of the key elements is the Creature Creator, software that’s integral to the game as it allows you to design the species you’ll be taking care of – and EA have given it away for free.

a whole couple of months ahead of the game’s release a key component of it free to download from the game’s site…  a million creatures have already been created (a video of my own little contribution – furdock – is above and a little pic below).  the creativity you’re afforded is staggering, and the hardest part is coming up with a name for your little fellas…

Furdock

its one thing to play the neat trick of getting millions of people addicted to a core element of your game before its even released.  but it’s quite another to make sharing those creations so simple and intuitive.  if this nugget is anything to go by, Spore will be a genuine milestone; not just for gaming, but for the whole of popular culture.

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content creating, engaging, IPA|ED:one, social networking, user-generating

I Loved it So Much I Bought (Into) The Company: the rise of the crowdmanaged brand

Beer_bankroll_2
so those observant people at Springwise have spotted the latest brand to cede control to its potential consumers.  hot on the heels of crowdmanaged eco clothing company nvohk and MyFootballClub's purchase of Ebbsfleet United comes BeerBankroll.com.

for just $50 you get to join an online community for beer lovers where you can not only share your passion for beer but at the same time help create a brewing company.  as Springwise reports, the site:

"…is currently recruiting a minimum of 50,000 members, each of whom
will contribute USD 50 in exchange for voting rights on ideas such as
the company name, logo, product design, product mix, marketing plan,
advertising and sponsorship … Assuming the concept goes well, profits
will be divided three ways: one part to members in the form of reward
points redeemable for products from the Beer Bankroll store; one part
back to the company; and one part to charity"

this potentially potent project is feasible because of tho things: (1) access to information and (2) the ability to share and manipulate that information within the context of a networked community.  and it of course relies on Surowiecki's three requirements for Wisdom in a Crowd: diversity of opinion, decentralisation and independence.

I used to work with a small brewery brand and I acutely recall conversations about how they could, and should, more effectively and transparantely engage with those consumers who (we knew) loved their brand.  but the old habits of deployment of planned branded communications won out (and still does – I observe – to this day).

that brewery and many other brands should be paying close attention to this space.  how long before we all have a couple of side-interests in brands…?  brands that will not only occupy a small – very engaged – part of our mind, but a considerable share of our wallet too.  after all, if the brand was so good that you bought and continue to buy into it, why – when you get to the shelf – would you buy anything else?!

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broadcasting, content creating, regulating, social networking, viewing

Kate Modern’s no-so-modern Commercial Model

Kate_modernBebo’s Kate Modern will end next month

on June 28th Bebo’s Kate Modern, the online drama broadcast by the social networking site, will ‘air’ for the last time.  the strategy of creating bespoke content for the SN is a solid one; it not only attracts and locks in new users, but adds value through interactivity with content to existing users.

however EQAL, who make the show (and formerly Lonely Girl 15) have suggested that in future they’d like to see more than the 1.5m views the average episode received.  doesn’t sound too bad to me…  whilst a quick scan of the Viral Video Chart  shows that the top 20 virals currently deliver anything between 30,000 and 3m views, a better comparison is with the ‘push’ model of broadcast television, in which an average digital channel would be happy to get 1.5m people to watch an episode.

but the more interesting observation is how Bebo applied such old-school thinking to the commercial model.  A spokeswoman for Bebo (quoted here) said the show was profitable
because of the sponsorship deals it put together with the likes of Orange, Toyota and Cadbury Creme Egg.  but this seems like a missed opportunity…

like any online site / brand, Bebo has to be clear about what it is.  Yahoo’s current woes stem from the fact that they don’t know what they are.  Google by comparison are quite clear.  they’re an advertising company.  Bebo would say that they are a social network, but it could be argued that by being seen to ‘create’ Kate Modern, they confuse this proposition.  they should be the third force of Anderson’s Long Tail – connecting source and demand, rather than part of the first – democratisation of production.

but perhaps the biggest opportunity is being missed by brands, who are contenting themselves with being attached to someone else’s content rather than producing their own.  its Orange, Toyota and Cadbury that should be making Kate Modern (or its strategic equivalent), and using Bebo as a distribution mechanism.

Bebo (or any social network) should be happy to filter content from elsewhere…  and benefit commercially from the audiences it attracts as a result…

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content creating, converging, user-generating

When Boris, Ken and Brian met George, Zippy and Bungle

a lovely bit of remix for the London Mayor elections which sees Boris, Ken and Brian meet George, Zippy and Bungle.  brands need to learn to more easily move this quickly, attaching themselves where relevant to current events.  the edit quality on this is superb – check out Zippy’s look of horror when George makes his accusation…  Adland watch and learn…

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advertising, branding, content creating, IPA|ED:five, user-generating

The Trampling by Brands of User-Generated Creativity; why we have to do better than this

Ann_summers_viral_academy
so if once is an incidence, twice is a co-incidence and three times is a theory, then I reckon we have a hypothesis on our hands.  I’ve now noticed three brands of late directly asking users to create adverts for them on the brands terms.

the first and loosest brief came from Ann Summers (above) and their viral academy.  they’re quite direct about it "we don’t retain a creative agency; instead we welcome ideas from talented creative people who contact us directly".  fair enough.  having had content independently submitted, they wanted to make sure it was more formalised.  but the brief remains loose…

"We expect most of the ideas to be for short films – like the ones you can find here  but we don’t want to limit you in any way. If you have a great idea for
a game, a song, a comic – anything at all – we’d love to hear it" [source]

much more recently I’ve come across a couple of examples that don’t show quite the same latitude in their briefs, or what they’re willing to accept.

Doritos_make_me_an_ad_2
first came ‘you make it, we play it’ from Doritos.  they’re getting a bit more specific about what they want…  it’s got to be – for example – exactly 29 secs in length.  a bit more specific then…

but any reservations that Doritos might be taking a slight advantage of consumers  was blown out of the water when I saw Armani’s brief at the weekend…

Armani_advertising_contest
the rules – downloaded from the Armani contest website, stipulate that:

"each creation must comprise:

  • a packshot of the Emporio Armani For Him and For Her
    fragrances: either the packshot found on the Site (which under no circumstance
    may be modified) or a packshot of these fragrances created by the entrant;
  • the two logos found on the Site: Emporio Armani and Get
    together;
  • The English signature “Emporio Armani, The two fragrances:
    Get together”,to the exclusion of any other"

I’m not quite sure slave labour is what Larry Lessig had in mind when he talked about a truce in the corporate | consumer creative pact.  and I’m as sure as hell that ordering an army of consumers to use a packshot, logo and tagline as stipulated by Armani when user-generating, wasn’t approaching what Gibson or Jenkins had in mind when they described a future vision of participatory culture and collective intelligence.

brands either embrace the user-generation on their terms, with all the diversity that comes with it.  or once again miss the boat because they applied a brand-centric old model to a consumer-centric new world.  we surely have to do better than this.

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broadcasting, content creating, internet, viewing

Balancing Individuality and Mass-Culture in the evolution of Content and it’s Consumers

Rocketboom describes itself as a three minute daily videoblog covering everything from top news stories to quirky internet culture.  alongside peers like Diggnation and BoingBoing, it’s one of a breed of short sharp audiovisual pieces made for peanuts and distributed for free via the internet.

in the emerging AV ecology, these elements stand out principally due to the consistency of their presence…  much internet AV content (the vast majority of YouTube‘s real estate for example) is what the Hollywood movie industry would call ‘nonrecurring phenomenon’ – the one off’s and unpredictable quirks that populate the long tail of internet content… everything from a crying Britney fan to the Star Wars kid.  it’s unfiltered, it’s popularity determined by the wisdom of the crowd.

Rocketboom and it’s peers are different.  they’re consistent in both their presence but also their point of view on what and how they aggregate content, and as such become destinations in themselves.  they’re building fan bases; aggregated audiences of subscribers …and it’s in doing so they are creating a new breed of media brand: a interim format between the long-form (TV) show and YouTube’s clip-culture.

it’s an interim format with dilemmas that in many ways mirror those of it’s principal audience of 16-24s.  a recent report by the future foundation’s nVision describes the contradiction in how this group – on the one hand – consumes and relies on mass culture, but on the other craves individualism and self-expression…

"One of the reasons behind this predilection for
mass culture is that young people have less experience when it comes to
consumption choices; they often use mass market products as a short cut to
quick and easy decisions.  They are also strongly driven by the desire to
fit in with their peers and choosing fashionable mass market products can be an
easy way of doing this.
 

Young consumers are also, conversely (and indeed perversely), keen to be seen
as individuals and consumption is a key way for them to express their
personality … In this context, while mainstream hits will continue to appeal to
young people, they might not always loom as impactfully  they used to do.
Marketing becomes harder, must become more individually focussed as a result."
(source nVision report, March 2008)

the parallels between the Rocketboom format and it’s audiences are startling  …a survey cited in a Guardian article by the recruitment company CareerBuilder
asked employers what
they thought the differences were between workers over and under 30
years old.  the main finding was that younger employees
communicate through technology rather than in person.  the same can be
said of Rocketboom; it’s a format that thrives on the back of the
technology to create and distribute cost-effectively…

both Rocketboom and it’s consumers define their individuality by seeking-out and adopting what’s different before anyone else…  but both – ironically – rely on conformity to mass-cultural rules and the credibility – through shared understanding of meaning – that it brings.  will one inevitably give way to the other?

it’s easy to forget how intertwined content and consumers are…  a generation of digital natives are, by virtue of their media consumption, determining the very nature of the media they consume.  and as this generation grows throughout the population, Rocketboom and it’s present and future peers will find themselves pulled into the mainstream along with them…
 

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