Move over voice and motion recognition. The new kid on the block is eye gesture recognition. Not with a camera either but an ear bud that detects nerve signals.
Errrrrr, amazing… You might look a bit mad on public transport though.
As clicks on banners diminish, the challenge for agencies is to find new and interesting ways of engaging people in their different spaces. Recently there’s been a definite move towards taking an application / service and wrapping a creative experience around it.
I’ve picked out 3 new(ish) bits that I’ve spotted… all using services provided by Google.
1 – Google Wave
Launched on a wave of hype (geddit), with people scrambling on Twitter to get invites. Google Wave is meant to be a gamechanger. I got an invite. It’s not that great with only 5 people to talk to.
To show off the potential power of Wave – Joe Sabia (a person who may have a bit too much time on his hands) recreated Samuel L Jacksons’ epic Ezekiel 25:17 speech from Pulp Fiction.
Have a look at this:
2 – Google Maps
Next up is a nice hack of Google Maps. The Editors created a microsite where you whizz around London finding places of interest to them, unlocking content from the new album as you go along.
This kind of stuff used to be mindblowing but there were some interesting comments on Adverblog about it.
I very much like the idea of integrating real and virtual life. But to be honest, my feeling about this execution is “smart, cool, well done” but not “wow” in the sense that this kind of wise approach to digital tools should be the norm (and maybe it’s beginning to be the norm) and not the “wow” exception. What do you think?
I feel the same way. Nicely done, enjoyable, but lacks some of the wow.
However since 14th October, when the campaign went live, 35,000 people have engaged with the app. What’s more, each visitor has spent an average three and a half minutes interacting with it, dipping in and out of an average number of three tracks.
Have a look for yourself:
The Editors – Google Street View Hack / Mashup
3 – YouTube
As Google continues to try and monetise YouTube, opportunities to do something a bit different are popping up regularly. To highlight what’s possible Google Creative Labs send out a doc called 87 Cool Things.
Spend some time looking through this. It’s bound to trigger some ideas:
87 cool things, even a few from us. (Google Docs link)
So there you have it.
I’ve written this pretty quickly so haven’t had time to fully expand on all the ideas, but if you’ve read this site a bit you’ll be used to that.
UPDATE
An hour after I posted this, Tom Ajello from Poke NY sent this link round Twitter.
Goolery: A Gallery of awesome Google-related projects from around the world
Puma and Droga5 are launching a genuine stock market ticker app that measures the rising and falling market by the amount of exposed flesh on some good looking folks. The more values drop, the more clothes come off.
People are already shouting that it’s “inspired” by Sexy Politics but I never saw that. Google it if you want – the site appears to be gone now.
Sexual.
This is a Contagious Magazine article about Radiohead and their continuing experimentation with technology and music.
Dear me, this is clever. Radiohead have now entered the next phase of a long-running metamorphosis, from mere musicians to expert manipulators of the technologies and narratives that underpin the internet.
Two years ago, they released a full length album (‘In Rainbows’) online and asked fans to pay what they thought it was worth. This weekend, they kept the indie masses hanging in anticipation of a new EP, one week after frontman Thom Yorke’s declaration that ‘doing another album would kill us’ was reported everywhere from Twitter to NBC (further proof that the band have transcended the norms of musical notoriety).
By seeding cryptic content and allowing the fans to do the digging, Radiohead were effectively running their own Alternate Reality Game: a treasure hunt in which collaborators work together to solve a series of clues and get to the end of the game.
This is bloody complicated, so we’re giving it to you in list format. Hold onto your hats!
1) What appeared to be a new Radiohead track was posted to file sharing site what.cd. The track, ‘These Are My Twisted Words’, quickly spread, racking up something like 200,000 views on YouTube alone in three days. (Note: this does not take into account actual downloads of the track. Listen here.)
2) With the audio file on what.cd was what is know as an .nfo file: a small text document which contains information about the crew that released it as well as the band itself. This particular .nfo file not only listed Radiohead as the artist, it also contained the following cryptic few lines: ‘i just wanted to reassure readers that following representations / seeking confirmation / that before your very eyes / behind the wall of ice / that the box is not under threat / however they are set to remove / other boxes / in fact i have the list in front of me / i went to a briefing on their plans / and challenged them to tell me / exactly what the cost would be’ (Check the ascii out here.)
3) The ‘Wall of Ice’ referred to in the description and further down the note was taken to be a reference to a cartoon from popular webcomic xkcd, in which a stick figure announces: ‘Dear Sony, Microsoft, the MPAA, the RIAA, and Apple: Let’s make a deal. You stop trying to tell me where, when and how I play my movies and music, and I won’t crush your homes under my inexorably advancing wall of ice.’ (See it here.)
Knowing how fond Radiohead are of digital rights management (not at all), this was taken by excited fans as evidence of a new EP entitled ‘Wall of Ice’ to be released the following day, on the 17th August. The more eagle-eyed had spotted this date in the .nfo file. (NB. This is also the day that Radiohead’s old and vilified label EMI had decided to rerelease the band’s back catalogue in the name of callous profiteering. Coincidence? Probably not.)
4) Fans note the URL www.wallofice.com points to Radiohead’s own W.A.S.T.E. site. Several music journalists hyperventilate.
5) A slight abate in momentum when it is realized that www.wallofice.com had been hastily registered by some random in the Netherlands, and may in fact have nothing to do with the band. Excellent opportunism from the Dutch.
6) A swift return to hysteria when an odd image appearing to represent two twisted trees appears on W.A.S.T.E. The image is also clearly recognizable in the text document accompanying the file download.
7) Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood pops up on www.radiohead.com to announce the arrival of the new song, the one that everybody had already. ‘There’s other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we’ve been practicing, and which we’ll probably play at this summer’s concerts.’ Boo!
However! The zip file which Radiohead have released contains not only the song and the digital credit sheet, but also an album cover PDF. The PDF is a sequence of several images (including the twisted trees) and comes with these directions:
‘This is an artwork to accompany the audio file. We suggest you print these images out on tracing paper. Use at least 80gsm tracing paper or your printer will eat it as we discovered. You could put them in any order that pleases you.’
What does this mean? There is more symbolism in the images? That more tracks can be unlocked? That Radiohead are on a mission to rid the world of printers through the canny destructive mechanism of tracing paper?
WE JUST DON’T KNOW.
However, we do know this. ‘Wall of Ice’ is not only an exercise in crowd manipulation, it’s a genuine acknowledgement of the way in which the music industry now works, and one in the eye to the archaic and crumbling systems from which Radiohead have struggled to liberate themselves. The band is fast becoming as synonymous with technological mischief as they are with music, and for that. we can only salute them.
As one blogger put it, ‘they make it fun to be a nerd’.
What do you think?
Not bad eh. Leagues ahead of most.
Copy + paste via Contagious Magazine.
I like this a lot. Every day people are called on to accomplish a specific mission via Twitter.
People submit themselves completing that mission and the results are shown for all to see on http://tweaktoday.com/
New missions are also submitted and voted on by the users.
And there’s a diary of previous missions
Here’s some examples:
Record video of your commute. Compress to 30 seconds.
http://tweaktoday.com/missions_accomplished/2009/4/15
Take a picture of the coolest building near your work.
http://tweaktoday.com/missions_accomplished/2009/6/29
Share a photo of the most embarrassing DVD you own.
http://tweaktoday.com/missions_accomplished/2009/3/4
Simple idea, really well executed.
You’re at an event. You meet a interesting person or some cool people.
Add the event to blinka.me after you’ve logged in with Facebook Connect and you can safely re-connect. Maybe you just want to add hotpots you visit a lot to see who else hangs out there.
Big Lazy Robot Visual Effects created this impressive ‘spec commercial inspired by Nike’ in 1 month.
We’re starting to see more and more great spec / off-roster / unofficial / unpaid work for some brands.
All this just as Coke are looking into paying agencies purely on a results based model.
Will this affect unknown outfits who make big shockwaves with spec work? How does this fit into the future of brand comms? Gah! What does it all mean?
I’m gonna see if one of our team of crack planners can make sense of it. It’s not one for me on a Saturday night.
What do you think?
via AdWeek
I’ve never been a massive fan of Lily Allen – but that’s changed a bit tonight. Here’s why.
Reason 1
Check out this cool video for the 2nd single off her new album. Called “Fuck You” it was written with George W Bush in mind. The video doesn’t have anything to do with that, but I love it.
I can only explain it is as ‘life as seen through multi-touch’.
Lilly Allen – Fuck You
Reason 2
Her music actually sounds better than I remember.
This is a massive slice of poptastic pie. Admit it.
Lily Allen – The Fear
Reason 3
She was the original MySpace darling. With over 685,500+ followers it’s clear she’s nailing Twitter. She also appreciates a good mashup.
Lilyest Hobo (Lily Allen – Not Fair vs Terry Bush – The Littlest Hobo Theme)
Good work all round really. Props to the girl.
Saw this on the TV last night. Few classic lines in here.
Blurb about who it’s for:
Thinkbox, the television marketing body for the main UK commercial television broadcasters, has launched its first ever TV advertising campaign, to remind advertisers of the unrivalled power, value and effectiveness of TV advertising and to encourage advertisers considering using TV for the first time to seek help from Thinkbox.
Sign of the times?
This is a great self-initiated project from Toby Ng Design based on the scenario – If the world were a village of 100 people.
More info at toby-ng.com
