Blurring of Fantasy and Reality

The Paris-based contemporary ballet Mr. & Mrs. Dream features a high-tech set that brilliantly combines virtual reality with live dance. Kinect sensors are placed above the stage to track the dancers’ movements and the resulting effects immerse the audience into a fantasy world.

Created by software engineering company Dassault Systemes, the 3D set allows the performance to be mobile and to be reproduced at any venue as they plan to tour around the world in the future.

Why am I curious?

We see this impacting the fashion runway as well. Can we attach live experiences to ongoing branded experiences.

Temporary Media?

The problem with sharing everything on the internet, is that it can feel so darn permanent. What started with Snapchat, the app that made sending naughty and silly photos seemingly safe, has branched out into a slew of applications that make our internet presence more ephemeral. Enter the latest iteration of erasable online media, OTR (which stands for off the record), a new in-browser application that let users send messages to other computers with a 5 second time limit before they vanish into the cyber atmosphere.

The app is very much in-line with the trend of temporary online media, from self-destructing tweets to disappearing photos, more and more people are searching for semi-privacy online while still sharing parts of themselves. But it is unclear whether any of the media truly vanishes; in recent news a company announced it can retrieve all the SnapChat photos on your phone for $300, while another site SnapChat Leaked has begun posting pictures of those naughty bits you thought were lost in cyberspace.

Why I am Curious?

What are the implications down the road when temporary media is retrieved? How has this changed people’s behavior? If you can retrieve it will, advertisers try to mine it?

Virtual Presence Machine

Why I am curious?
Could you create an online marketplace to rent out “virtual presence” to key events or experiences around the globe?

Harlem Shaking

Why I’m Curious?

Will this really go viral?

Subtext

In VH1′s popular show ‘Pop-Up Video,’ little blurbs of information pop-up during a music video. A recent patent from Apple shows a similar type of system in the real world that uses augmented reality.

The ‘Synchronized, interactive augmented reality displays for multifunction devices’ offer informational overlays on buildings and objects in live video. The abstract reads:

A device can receive live video of a real-world, physical environment on a touch sensitive surface. One or more objects can be identified in the live video. An information layer can be generated related to the objects. In some implementations, the information layer can include annotations made by a user through the touch sensitive surface. The information layer and live video can be combined in a display of the device.

Why I am Curious?

There is a new feature for iPad rolling out called Mind Meld. It basically listens to your conversations and pops up relevant information. The combination of Mind Meld and Apple’s “Pop Up” could make communicating about what’s below the surface really interesting.

 

Bay Lights Project

The public art installation, “The Bay Lights,” will illuminate the bridge’s 1.8-mile western span with 25,000 undulating white lights.

“My inspiration comes from the motion around the bridge, the kinetic activity of boats, water, clouds, traffic,” Mr. Villareal said.

Why am I Curious?

Because it is cool to create art from everyday things around you. It’s a trend.

 

Enhancing Service through Innovation

In a demo at the TED conference in Long Beach, California, Delta showed off a concept shower that could be used to help passengers recover from jet lag. It uses light to alter the body’s internal clock, similar to the Re-Timer glasses.

The ‘Photon Shower’ is a light chamber designed by Wieden + Kennedy New York with the help of sleep expert Dr. Russell Foster, who held a talk at TED to outline his research on how light can be used to realign our body clocks after long flights.

Travelers can input their flight information into the ‘Photon Shower’ and it will adjust for their individual needs based on flight time and what their body is feeling.

Ad Age reports that it provides a light sequence that recreates the effects of sunlight to alleviate jet lag and provide a pick-me-up for tired travelers. In the future, the shower could be an offering by the airline to help improve the flying experience.

Why I am Curious?

Ideas that seem crazy can become reality and they can be invented by us. Technology and data make anything possible, the connectivity of this shower is very interesting, I wonder if it works? It pays off Delta’s brand and positions W+K as true innovators by bridging customer need states, product innovation and data.

Burberry’s Deep Personalization

The 150-year-old luxury fashion brand hopes to lure customers to its new season of fashion items and accessories through digital interaction. The Burberry coats and bags will be embedded with digital tags that can be scanned via a mobile device or by a high-tech mirror in the Burberry flagship store.

Once these tags are scanned, they trigger a short film on your device that show how the item is carefully made by hand. If you’re in Burberry’s flagship store in London’s Regent Street, the mirrors on the walls turn into screens that are able play the digital content, triggered by the clothes shoppers are trying on. The tags work similarly to RFID chips, but are actually a special new technology developed by Burberry.

The digital feature is part of the Made To Order campaign with Smart Personalization. Customers are able to order products straight from the runway, and have them delivered in nine weeks with personalized engraved nameplates.

Why I am Curious?

While RFID like capabilities have been around for a while very few brands are truly tapping into their potential to deliver immersive experiences and ongoing storytelling. Delivering tailored rich experiences in this way could potentially be a great way to compliment influencer programs and customize retail experiences for high value customers.

GE Collaborates with Twitter Base

GE sketches real-time illustrations of followers inventions on twitter.

February 11th was Thomas Edison’s 166th birthday. It is also National Inventor’s Day. To celebrate the occasion, General Electric, the multinational corporation, asked on Twitter what people’s inventions would be?

Over the course of sevens hours, the GE team replied to the ideas with their own interpretation illustrated on a blueprint. The real-time marketing campaign was meant to promote innovation, creativity and the art of invention. Using the hashtag #IWantToInvent, everyone including brands such as Ritz (who wants to see a mood-based topping spreader) could participate.

While the event may not seem to have very far of a reach, they engaged with over 250 people and created 70 illustrations over the course of the day, it is part of a long-term marketing strategy for the corporation.

Why I am curious?

I am very interested in this kind of collaborative content development that ends in a visual product. It is a great way to engage specific target audiences and create truly unique content.

Integrated, Ongoing Content Creation

“Art in the Streets” is an integrated collaboration in its second year starting in 2011 in LA an extension of MOCA’s wildly popular “Art in the Streets” exhibition. And in 2012 they brought this concept to New York and is featured in Vanity Fair’s December 2012 edition. It is a platform that Cadillac has used to bring to life it’s core ideologies: “bold creativity that surpasses all conceivable expectation, the recognition of great risks as opportunities, and daring ingenuity that breaks down all boundaries.” there is an authentic convergence point between Cadillac’s core messaging and the artists—recognizing risks as opportunities is a hallmark of the Cadillac brand, just as the street artists, through their work, break down and rebuild new paradigms every day.  Vanity Fair, as cultural arbiter, originally connected the iconic car brand the artists, a partnership that continues to bring powerful works of art to diverse communities.

This initiative is a truly integrated approach that utilizes relationships such as the MoCALA (2011), extravagant wall scapes (Brooklyn, NY 2012), integrated publisher relationships (Conde Naste – Vanity Fair), significant Instagram initiative/contest that allows you to share you inspirations at #vfstreetart, integrated features in Vanity Fair magazine that utilize Aurasma to continue to explore the experience and an overall beautiful platform for Cadillac to use as a platform for original content creation.

Why I am Curious?

I am curious about well executed platforms such as “Art in the Streets” that express the brand yet provide robust platforms for brands to continually create original and compelling content. Creating these integrated, ownable spaces where brands can authentically interact with on and offline audiences are invaluable. If the platform is broad enough, like “Art in the Streets” the platform can be tapped into year after year.

Too Much to Manage: Social Media Butlers

 

Don’t you hate it when you’re planning to spend $47,000 for a four-night hotel stay in Washington, D.C., but you’re afraid you’ll be so busy with luxury that you’ll forget to live-tweet the experience.

To honor, somehow, the luxurious experience of being one of the roughly 750,000 people who’ll watch President Obama get sworn in for his second term, the hotel now offers a “Inaugural Town and Country” package.

That includes, in addition to a $5,000 gift certificate for clothes and a night in a different hotel, the exclusive services of a dedicated “social media butler.”

According to a Madison press release, digital marketer Victoria Devine will “chronicle your Inaugural experience so your friends and family can follow your adventures on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.” It adds that she will “post on all of your accounts so you don’t have to fumble for your phone to catch that perfect Facebook profile picture!”

Devine told the Daily Dot that though she’s never butlered before, she does have experience live-tweeting conferences for previous clients.

Why I am Curious

The offering of this type of a service admits that the incessant need to document incredible, or not so incredible moments, has actually caused us to miss or become too distracted in the actual moments. However, social documentation has become such a part of our communications fabric that these types of services are offering to document and curate your experience for you so you can avoid the hassle while still contributing. I wonder how many different curators the Madison hotel will hire and if they are all required to get different types of shots and how much input the individual who hired the butler will have in the real time posts of the inauguration.

 

Will the Smartphone Entirely Replace the Wallet?

Over the years the smartphone has been quietly and consistently stealing contents from our wallets, as discussed in the New York Times article, “How My Smartphone Emptied my Pockets.” As we are all aware of and at this point probably users of, some the contents shift includes the following: “Wallet Sized” pictures have been replaced by the camera roll; Business Cards are now digital rap sheets that can be shared with a click or a bump; cash has been replaced by debit cards which is becoming replaced by payment specific apps (e.g. Starbucks app, or Square where you can speak your transaction at the register); ID cards such as gym memberships, discount cards, insurance cards etc. are often accepted as a digital images or via a company specific app removing the need for the actual card; tickets are quickly being replaced by Passbook or airline specific apps; and Bitcoin the first truly online currency with its own monitoring and regulation system… and the list goes on.

Why I am curious?

As we work with our clients to evolve their Brands we should always be thinking about the opportunities to enhance their products and services. Innovations in payment and access to unique experiences can often serve as category game changers and propel challenger brands into leadership positions while strengthening the relationships between customers and brands. Also, these mechanisms serve as great opportunities to learn more about customers allowing brands to deliver the most relevant experiences, offers and even customized products. Are we sitting on opportunities with our existing clients that could radically change their business?

Curating Meaning

 

Smartphones have made it easier than ever before to take pictures and videos at any moment, but documenting our lives excessively may make it harder to keep track of the truly important things from one day to the next.

That’s the logic behind 1 Second Everyday, an iPhone app proposed on Kickstarter, which prompts users to capture one second of footage each day to create a curated and definitive film reel of their lives.

With 1 Second Everyday, users can compile videos from their phone’s camera roll, other video apps, or capture new clips within the app and then use the edit tools to trim each down to one second. Each clip gets timestamped and assigned to a day on a calendar, so you can easily search for a clip from a specific date, or else watch all your videos in chronological order.

Other recently launched apps have encouraged users to capture a visual or written chronicle of their lives. Everyday, for example, prompts users to snap a picture of their face each day to see how they change over time, while Everyday.me organizes one’s social networking activity into a daily diary. But this is capitalizing on the power and prominence of video.

Why I’m Curious?

The opportunity for brands to use this curated video content to tell the stories of their brands.

Crowdfunding: A Chance for Brands?

As economic difficulties linger on in most parts of the world Crowdfunding has become a way for individuals to club together resources to fund everything from park benches, bridges, community centers, etc. These projects are largely born of necessity, many ask, doesn’t government already do this? Don’t we already pay taxes? However, this is a time when government budgets are tighter than ever before, governments around the world are just not performing a lot of the services they have historically performed. There are a number of these types of ventures all over the world from sites like Spacehive, plank by plank, Brickstarter,  neighbor.ly etc. These sites offer a list of projects that people can pledge money towards. The money is only taken once the total funding needed has been reached, with the site charging a small fee on each donation. This concept is leveraging the Kickstarter model with a civic minded twist.

Why am I Curious?

I am curious about this platform as a way for brands to participate and bring to life their core brand values. If executed correctly it could provide an opportunity to demonstrate commitment to certain types of initiatives, impact certain localities of interest and galvanize online / social communities to work together towards a shared goal. It could be a meaningful and inspiring way to connect the attributes of a brand with the power of online community to manifest something in the physical realm.