Advertising lags Politics by 10 years

August 20th, 2010

Politics Over the Last 30 years

Late 80s -90s  in politics – Big national databases that segmented and targeted and identified “influentials”

90s -2000s in politics – rise of talk-radio hosts

Late 2000s in politics – neighborhood by neighborhood organizing the rise of niche micro-movements (donations, volunteers, etc)

Advertising Over the last 30 years – Basically take politics and lag by a decade

90-2000s – Big national databases that segmented and targeted and identified “influentials”

Late 2000s – bloggers who command attention like the talk-radio hosts and guerrilla advertising

2010 – The rise of twitter, niche advertising, and local and “badged” communities

References

From a late night conversation with Michael Leis on ways to explain advertising/social media

Confessions of a Public Speaker by Berkun

August 19th, 2010

I read “Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun. I enjoyed it and have used its advice. Here are my notes that I took from it.

I often condense all my notes into a single “image.” Here is what I have for this book.

Connectile Dysfunction

August 18th, 2010

Connectile Dysfunction by Mark Baskinger

A great read in UX Magazine. Almost a must read if you are looking into how interaction design can feed into industrial design.

Key concepts

  1. Design for Impact and Design for Experience
  2. Refrigerator- design of an organizational system for cold storage
  3. Boomer and Elderly similarities and differences
  4. Co-design
  5. Steering Wheels as insight for stove knobs (unified product forms and interactions)
  6. Strike Zones

Big Themes

  1. Integrating interaction into form
  2. Situated interaction in environmental context
  3. Express through physical/visual form
  4. Narrating the interaction

Online Profiles & the Movie “Salt”

August 2nd, 2010

The movie Salt gives us insight into deep culture’s conception of how many profiles one person can have.

Observation: In the movie Salt and in other spy movies we have seen a move from a single profile of a spy (James Bond) to a multiple profile spy (Salt) in which Salt is a spy, a counter-spy, and a counter-counter-spy. People nowadays seem to have no problem following this plot line  and character  (the wilderness of mirrors.) This is addition to her 2 “cover” profiles which would exist in each national culture.

Observation: In high schools now kids are no longer exclusively nerds, jocks, stoners, etc. Each of these can be short-lived roles even within a single day.

Observation: Facebook and Linked in are used by the same people in very different ways.

The Question: How many different profiles can a person have? And, how many different profiles of 1 person can other people keep track of?

Answer: I think the answer is 3 to 5. We see Facebook, LinkedIn, and usually peoples corporate in-company profile, and their personal profile (usually mediated through the channels of email/phone-calls/text messages. From the movie Salt we see 5. It is without a doubt more than 1.

References

Chris Messina talked about people having 5 profiles in NY at the Overlap event.

Why spies, counter-spies, and counter-counter spies are so popular right now.

The Official Site for the Movie Salt

Comments on high-school groups (I’m still looking for my reference)

See Also

Shoptimism

Coming Soon: Todd

July 27th, 2010

Build anticipation

At Akira, on State Street in Chicago I found this window display and thought it a good example of building anticipation. “New Shipment Coming Soon!”

Window Display Rothman’s Warehousr

July 26th, 2010

Rothman’s Warehouse storefront makes it look like it would be piled high with boxes inside. What an interesting window display.

Refining Your Bodystorming w/Techniques from Cindy Chastain

July 23rd, 2010

Last year at Overlap Cindy Chastain talked about screen-writing and scenes and people used those improve their bodystorming. At one point in the weekend she distilled her wisdom into 5 points.

  1. POV. Whose story are you telling? (Ask: Who are you telling it to?)
  2. Set up the scene” The Big Problem is “this”
  3. Inciting Incident: “What if” (concept elaborated)
  4. Climax: Result” How it solved problem
  5. Resolution: How the main character feels about it

If you come to my Bodystorming in the Park in New York next Month we will be working with some of these 5 points to take your bodystorming to the next level.

CVS in-store coupon kiosk

July 16th, 2010

Here is an interesting new technology I saw in a CVS in Hilton Head South Carolina — a coupon printing kiosk.

I of course tried it out.
2 observations.
1-A shopper can only really see it when they are standing in the checkout line or leaving the store.
2-it looks much better than the coupons that print out from the cash register.

Explaining Bodystorming to my Dad

July 15th, 2010

My dad asked what I taught the students at SCAD yesterday. And so I had to explain bodystorming to him.

I said, you know that show you like “Whose line it is anyways?” with Drew Carey and they have actors/comedians who stand around in teams and Drew throws roles, situations, and ideas at them and they have to roll with it and come up with a convincing story.

Well, we do the same thing except I throw system, business, and other kinds of problems at them. Its a fun game.

Then, instead of having to read through a 100 page requirements document, someone can watch the 1-2 minute skit (or video of the skit) and get the idea.

Bus Stop Ad

July 1st, 2010

Here is a nice bus stop ad, outside the Sears store on Madison, between State and Dearborn in Chicago. Look at how the bag is suspended and allows you to see through to the other side of the display. Also notice the lighting and the use of front and back “posterboard” as a mat. It presents the bag as sculpture, as artwork and has the viewer read this experienced object as museum worthy.