More than becoming the dominant online video platform, YouTube is redefining popular culture, harnessing the consumer power and giving a non-filtered stream of media to their users.
More than forcing agencies to search for that amateur video look, YouTube is entering the realms of semiotics, with their unprofessional interface becoming a visual synonym of a media player. How’s that for a 2 year old startup?
This is the kind of thing that Pedro will dig, as he’s so interested in creative collaboration.
Adam and Dessi Price, inspired by their trip to the 11 Spring Project, turned a downtown building they owned over to the art community in Utah. They started this project only knowing one local artist and every artist that joined after came from word-of-mouth. In the end, over 144 artists participate in the project. Over 7,500 people toured through the building.
Last April, after the show from CSS at LuxFragil, i gazed at the merchandising at the lobby. Trendy design, i thought. Well, it surely is, since the controversial 2012 Olimpics logo seems to have been designed by Lovefoxxx and company.
Fallon UK won last week the One Show Award for Exceptional Innovation in Media & Marketing , with their Tate Modern campaign. The project invited music artists such as Chemical Brothers or The Klaxons to produce of a series of new music tracks inspired by works at the gallery.
It’s a bit old news, since the website is online since September, sharing the exclusive tracks, that were first available only to the visitors to listen at the gallery. Check video below for the full case study.
It’s interesting to see that collaborations between popular culture, advertising and brands are becoming more frequent. Whether it’s guerrilla or a new use of media (check also the Newsbreaker action), the future of advertising is increasingly searching for references in popular culture and inviting citizens to be/make the advertising experience.
I’m beginning to find somenewuses for comics. Besides being an essential tool for storyboarding, they can be used to communicate effectively a complex message or user scenario.
If you’re interested, one of the essential tools to translate your message into comics are Wally Wood‘s panels, that you can find at Joel Johnson or Peter Veneables‘ blog.
Early in December my Son and I went to Winnipeg for an exhibition lacrosse game of our favorite team, the Minnesota Swarm. Winnipeg is about 8 or 9 hours and an border crossing away from our home, so it was a non-trivial jaunt for a sporting event. For us, it was a novel adventure. I’ll spare you almost all of the details other than it was a wonderful trip and Winnipeg was an awesome place to visit, even in the winter. Everybody we met was really great and especially helpful, which leads me into the actual story. Two other die-hard Swarm fans made the trek up as well. We sat on one side of the MTS Centre and they had seats on the other side. The game was fun, even if we did lose. Once the game was over the other guys stood up from their seats to leave. Someone tapped one of the guys on the shoulder and when he turned around, he asked him “Did you drive up from the Cities just for the game?”. His answer was, of course, “yes”. The man handed him a twenty, said “gas money”, and walked away. To this day I am still astonished by the man’s anonymous generosity and can’t help but reflect on how that simple act affected the perception of folks from Winnipeg and perhaps Canadians in general. Like I said, i’ve told that story to many many people and the universal response is “whoa”. I’m sure the people that I told have told it to others and so on.
How quickly and thoroughly did that simple act trump any efforts that the local tourism board could have done?
With Web 2.0 loosing its momentum (Henriette feels the same) and social networks reaching a saturation point, getting more personal seems to be the obvious choice.
And it isn’t hard as it used to, thanks to the many digital tools now available. But it will surely require a new shift from companies, used to large media plans and broad market segments. Welcome to micro-targeting.
Btw, Torke (the folks from Invisible Red) have definitely a sense of humour with their new homepages.
Call it environment marketing, buzz marketing or guerrilla. It doesn’t really matter, since it surely has already caught your attention. And probably one of these stunts was done by these folks: Graffiti Research Lab
The media is getting too crowded and these non-linear approaches to communication are getting their prime time now. It’s hardly conventional, and if a brand has the guts to live on the razor’s edge, they should check some amazing stuff that Graffiti Research Lab did. A few of my favorites:
