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Here's great analysis of the future of digital in specialist and non-specialist agencies from www.adweek.com. The main thrust of the article argues that traditional agencies are muscling in on digital campaigns focusing on content, especially viral video. Thanks to social media, the biggest challenge for brands is often
less about creating the kind of technically sophisticated
"immersive experiences" that digital shops have specialized in and
more about crafting engaging content that people are likely to
share with each other. (my highlight).
Unsurprisingly, so-called traditional agencies are bullish about social because it taps into time-honoured communications skills rather than technology.
"Digital used to be this thing that was a little more computer and
Internet based. You had to know coding, Flash and HTML," said
Edward Boches, chief creative officer at Mullen. "Now, what you
have to understand is how consumers behave in relationship to
content, community, technology and media."Being responsible for content in a digital agency, I'm inclined to see both sides of the story. Along with a team of 10 others, I try to hot desk with developers as much as possible to ensure that we achieve the right blend of software/design/content skills at the very start of the campaign. The goal here is to create a sustained experience that ripples through communities and triggers conversations that flow across campaign platform sites, established social media channels and real world events. Impact is everything, but the key word here is 'sustain'. Seeding the conversation with compelling content as part of a structured campaign remains at the heart of what we do. Making a splash is all well and good, but for sustained campaigns that maximise audience engagement, you need to cast more than one pebble into the pond. And that's where you still need the technical expertise. Selecting the right content management system matters deeply if you want a team of community and content managers to feed the campaign with articles, blogs and video. Simple, but effective integration with Twitter, Facebook and other established channels also helps. Detailed campaign analysis is also critical. Again, some platforms are better integrated with analytics tools than others. Most importantly of all, you need social media and analytics experts to measure the depth of audience engagement and feed these results back to the content team so that they can refine content and themes in response to audience interest. The adweek article has more good discussion on these points. Strongly recommend you give it a read, and if it stirs up new ideas about the future mix of technology, social and content, drop me a note below.
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There's plenty to read on Flipboard today. Especially if you want to know if it's legal, how the technology works, and whether or not servers are crashing under the weight of demand. But I think this misses the bigger picture. Flipboard, as you probably know by now, sources content from Twitter, Facebook and others and presents it in an elegant format that looks more like an e-magazine than any of the original publishers. It's a perfect example of how tablets (or devices) can drive innovation in publishing and not the other way round. It was only when flat screen, wide format TVs started selling in large volumes that 'publishers' upped their game. Remember the first time that you watched CSI on a widescreen with Dolby Surround in 2003? This was TV with cinema production values. Pretty much the norm now for production houses and video game developers, but remarkable then. The same will happen with tablets. Essentially e-readers (let's not dodge the issue) for consuming content, they're going to shake up publishing and social media like never before. Yesterday, when everyone was raving about Flipboard, Toshiba launched a dual 7 inch touch screen tablet running Microsoft Windows 7 (Remember Microsoft Courier anyone?). It also put the cat among the pigeons with a super-low footprint Android solid state netbook. Meanwhile HP have the recently acquired Palm OS up their sleeve, and Cisco have launched the Cius, an Android device that's tightly integrated with its suite of collaboration and unified comms tools. All devices that will severely challenge Apple's tablet lead far more quickly than the battle in the smartphone market. Finally, I think this puts a big question mark over the future of traditional e-magazines. With Flipboard, you have the beginnings of an alternative content aggregation and curation model that just about anyone can use. And once you have an elegant UX to connect with friends and subscribe to channel bundles, the model is complete. As I said at the start I'm no expert on the legal issues that govern RSS feeds versus raw URLs. And maybe Flipboard will be sacrificed to the lawyers. But when it comes to the user experience, it's nothing less than revolutionary.
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Here's a gorgeous piece of online content and design from Uniqlo, the people who brought you polo shirts in 200 pastel shades. Like any great user experience, it doesn't need much explanation, although I was impressed by the tilt-shift time lapse photography (the effect that makes the real world sequences look like Lilliput TV). Like all good campaigns these days, you can embed the calendar into your social media platform of choice. And, of course, your blog. (Hat tip to Laurence Krzyzanek for this).
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How complicated is Facebook's privacy policy? Physicist Niels Bohr's famous quote comes to mind: "Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory
cannot possibly have understood it." This infographic from the New York Times (snapshot below), gives you a good feel for the complexities involved. Whether or not it helps you get more control over your Facebook privacy settings is another matter. My own theory is that's its a cunning piece of design satire illustrating absurd number of permutations available to the average user. 
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How do your clients and customers make up their minds? There's a growing list of reader-friendly titles that explain how economics, game theory and neuroscience combine to influence the hundreds of decisions that we make every day. Freakanomics probably started the movement in 2005, and since then we've had The Undercover Economist and series of titles that have evolved into countless analyses of the crash. John Lanchester's I.O.U.:
Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay is a good example, which tackles the complex and ultimately absurd decisions that led to financial catastrophe. Othe titles look at human evolution, specifically the brain, to try and understand how we evaluate information in a fraction of a second before making up our minds. The
Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams,
and God by David J Linden is a good place to start. My own favourite is 59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot, by Professor Richard Wiseman, a series of short essays that explain, amongst others, why punching a pillow increases anger rather than relieving it, and why spending money on experiences brings more happiness than buying things. Oh, and if you want to make sure your wallet is returned if you lose it, make sure you leave a photo of a baby tucked away, but easy to find. Simple really.
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The Times and Sunday Times will be available on an iPAD application later this year. Prices still haven't been confirmed for the service, although it seems likely that this will be bundled up with the existing subscription offer of £2 (U.S.$3.00) per week. A spokesperson said: "These new titles, and the apps, including iPAD, that will enhance the experience, reflect the identity of our titles and will deliver a terrific experience for our readers." Although there's been a lot of chat today about the viability of the new paywall, all the statements coming from the The Times suggest that both the site and the mobile options will completely refresh the user experience and that they'll be some kind of 'wow' element to the unveiling later this year.  While it's risky to predict too much based on the promotion pages, what we can see so far suggests a far cleaner, uncluttered display than the current Times site, which is already showing its age. There are strong indications, as we've already suggested, that the new services will further close the gap between journalists and their readership with live chat sessions and 'lunchtime debates'. From then on in, it's the usual promise of high quality photography, exclusive video and interactive graphics. But it sounds as if the iPAD version will play a vital role in the launch. The device is launched in the UK in April, with the new Times web sites due to go live in May. The timing says it all.
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Back in the old days it was all so easy. The copywriter threw some text at the designer, the designer chucked it back in layout. The writer threw it back even harder, and ducked as the pages came back with some pretty tasty top spin. At the end of the day, you'd make your peace, sweep up the china and commiserate at the Duke of Salisbury.
But it's fair to say that a lot of new software has broken down many of these barriers. Sure, the writer/design mix is just as dynamic. It's just that there are plenty of new ways for wordsmiths to present their ideas and use visual tools to keep things moving.
Before I mention some applications that I use when working on creative projects, let me put your mind at ease. Especially if you are a designer. These are just helpful ways of capturing and presenting ideas. They help me visualise typography right down to the basic shape of the copy on the page. Most importantly, they frequently inspire more attention grabbing headlines and body text.
1. Microsoft OneNote: When I receive the first visuals I'll use the clip function to insert the image onto a page. Then set up a text box on the right hand side so that I can see both copy and design at the same time. I'll also use the page tab feature to track versions as the project moves forward. You can also one click pages to a PDF email attachment.
2. Snipping Tool: Standard issue with Windows 7, this is another easy way to transfer screen grabs to another application - see OneNote. Far more efficient than Print Screen and Paint, or PowerPoint.
3. Google Images: No apologies - it's always easier for me to think in words rather than pictures. But simple image searches kick start the creative process and remind me that most projects are a fusion of text and pictures, and not just one or the other.
4. Evernote (iPhone/Android/BlackBerry) Awesome Note (iPhone): For fear of sounding precious, being creative means never really being able to switch off. Which is why these mobile note taking devices are essential. Evernote scores highly for sound files, web clips and the ability to tag notes for easy search. Content is stored on the cloud and accessible from multiple devices. For my money, Awesome Note has a neater UX and better photo capture.
5. Picasa/Microsoft Picture Manager: Both good in their own ways for managing and resizing images. When I'm in photography mode, Picasa is the application of choice making it easy to convert 'dummy' pictures into the format I need. But Picture Manager is equally indispensable for its 'compress picture' function - essential for converting high-resolution images into usable electronic files.
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Business Insider carries a great story explaining how easy-peasy blogging platform Tumblr is outperforming its rival Posterous. According to the article it comes down to the simplicity of the Tumblr UX which is even clearer than its rival's pages. Of course designers and developers have been pleading for simplicity for years. And every now and again you come across a great example of UX design that really does follow this principle. Here's the home page of UK rail enquiries:  It really doesn't require any explanation. Except that it does one thing extremely well without sacrificing advertising or other classic design features. Now take a look at the equivalent pages from DeutscheBahn (Germany) and SNCF (France).   Did you find the timetable widgets? I'm no developer, and I'll let Andrew Martin pick up the conversation here if needed. But with the UK site I know where I am immediately. And I don't feel like I'm working through a database or an overengineered spreadsheet (drill further down and the pages are equally effective). The more you look at it, the more it looks like a Tumblr or Posterous stream, especially when you scroll further down. Granted, not every business has such a simple offer. But www.nationalrail.co.uk works on principles that most consumer and retail sites should aspire to.
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The moment I got Foursquare? About midday on Saturday when I checked in
at a department store in Cologne. I've been using the service for a
month or so, checking in, looking at reviews, adding places. But I
hadn't quite worked out the real commercial possibilities of the
software.
So why Cologne?
As soon as I checked in, up flashed a 'nearby offer' sign, which
linked to a message from Vodafone. Here's how it worked. In the same
street there's a Vodafone retail outlet, which was giving away netbooks
and other prizes to its Mayors at midday and 3pm.
There's more to this than neat marketing on a slow January weekend. Remember
cybersquatting? When you could register the name of a big business and
negotiate, if you were savvy enough, a payout for your URL? Much the
same is happening with Foursquare. Except now it's smart web and gadget
users who are grabbing online real estate by becoming Mayors or
simply visiting frequently and posting reviews.
The implications for pretty much any consumer facing business are
enormous. Imagine Twitter, but with all that chatter about your company
organised coherently around multiple locations and outlets. No need to
invent tools like retweeting or hashtags, when the work is done for you
already.
As far as I can tell, anyone can add a place, make it visible to other
Foursquare users and start the conversation. Imagine trying to exercise
any control over such fragmented ownership. At least a URL has one
owner.
Which brings us back to Cologne and Vodafone, a company that's already
started to engage with visitors and which understands the implications
for its business. I doubt very much that it's the first to turn
Foursquare to its advantage and it certainly won't be the last.
A final thought. For all the hype, Foursquare has just 100,000 users
worldwide. If you want to go get some of that there online real estate,
now's the time to get moving.
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It's good to see that in the run up to the season of goodwill, Google, The New York Times and The Washington Post have cosied up together in a Labs project called 'Living Stories'. According to Google, the site is "an experiment in presenting news, one designed specifically for the online environment." What's exciting here is that Google is prepared to offer a very clever service to established newspapers, which consolidates content from an ongoing story into one page. It's also noteworthy that when you return to a story, updates are highlighted and older news is summarised. I also like the use of timelines and interactive charts. It's clear evidence that newspaper publishers get the new world of content driven by words, images and data, and it's perfect for coverage of the Copenhagen summit, or the US healthcare debate. Noticeable for its absence is advertising. But although this is still at the demo stage, you can see the potential for high-end spots targetting a more affluent demographic. While the markets are different, Living Stories is also an elegant alternative to the Sports Illustrated e-magazine, for example. While I loved the gadgets and the touchscreen gizmos, here's a minimalist alternative from the grand old warriors of journalism with just a bit of help from the new kid on the block. Classic with a twist indeed.
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Anyone interested in the face-off between the old word of content and the new should be reading theUK Financial Times today. First off, a fabulous article on MySpace (the News Corp Years) and the demise of one of the hottest online properties ever. Whether or not anything could have been done to prevent Facebook from opening up such a huge lead in the social networking marketplace is up for debate. But it's clear that cultural issues hindered the deal almost as soon as the ink dried on the acquisition in 2005. Nothing illustrates this more than the contribution from a News Corp spokeswoman: "The suggestion that News Corp held back the product innovation at MySpace is flatly incorrect...MySpace would come to us with a list of hundreds of product requests. We simply asked them to prioritise and couch them in some sort of strategy, which probably felt foreign to them." Ouch. As if to emphasise the distance between the traditional media and the new, there's an interview with U2 manager, Paul McGuinness, on the next page. Once again the talk is of 'cultural collisions': "I find I'm often talking with [technology] executives who are really careless and frequently arrogant about the cultural impact of what they are doing. I wish there were an atmosphere of nurturing and respect, which I really don't see." Behind the posturing, of course, both sides need each other as much as the other. McGuinness, after all, negotiated the deal to stream a U2 concert live via YouTube and sponsorship with Blackberry. But this painful merger between the new world and the old is like so many others. Plenty of loud words in public, but you can be sure that the important stuff is going on behind closed doors.
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Following on from yesterday's post where the Sun newspaper poked fun at all things e-reader, here's the perfect riposte, this time from Sports Illustrated, published by Time Inc. What I like about this demo is that while hardware manufacturers remain remarkably tight lipped about new devices, publishers are increasingly setting the agenda for the new world of content. Sport is obviously one of the killer apps with the potential to wrench a mass audience from paper to e-ink, and there are some great features here: a dynamic cover, embedded photographs and crucially the opportunity to personalise content. Another important reason why sports will succeed in this environment is that they come with ready made communities of fans, eager to share news and connect with one another. So no surprise that the share feature is highlighted during the clip. Whether or not this was produced in tacit agreement with an e-reader manufacturer behind the scenes is another matter. But in the meantime, enjoy this clip. It's what you'll be watching in 12 months time - or less.
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Hats off to the Sun newspaper. It's just started broadcasting the UK's cleverest and funniest media ad for many a month. The spot makes some great points about the convenience and versatility of print newspapers versus handheld devices, while taking a pop at features such as pinch and scroll, sideways reading and others. But, but, but. How many print newspapers could get away with this? The Sun, with its innovative graphics, layouts and eye-catching content looks great from page to page. Easily the print equivalent of a colourful online display. I can't think of many others. Maybe The Guardian in the UK, or Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper perhaps? Great ad, very funny. But once again the exception proves the rule: print newspapers are falling behind their online cousins when it comes to compelling design, versatility and choice. And the gap is only going to grow.
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You can always count on Harold Evans for a smart take on the current state of journalism and content.
Currently doing the rounds promoting his autobiography, the former London Times editor was cautiously optimistic about the future of journalism when speaking on the BBC yesterday: "Smaller newspaper circulations and a very vigorous web," was his assessment.
Also standing up for traditional journalism (if not newspapers) this weekend was Eric Schmidt. Speaking to Search Engine Land, the Google CEO said: "Well-funded, targeted, professionally managed, investigative journalism is a necessary precondition...to a functioning democracy."
And later: "Name a blogger who today has the kind of deep embedded reporting that a newspaper does."
Both Evans and Schmidt are speaking up at a time when more and more publications are getting onto the paid content bandwagon. As well as the WSJ, The Radio Times (UK TV listings), The Spectator (UK current affairs), and the Financial Times all offer subscription based mobile apps. The Guardian is lining up to do the same.
Meanwhile the London Times is offering something called Times+, a deal whereby readers can add on packages of print and online content to their existing subscription. It's all very reminiscent of banking, with content suppliers targeting a new class of high value customers. The New York Times is already on the way, with The Guardian (again) following behind.
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