I have Apple TV at home and it can be a welcome distraction from the TV schedule. I’m experiencing TV on demand more and more. The most recent example being when I spent a Saturday afternoon dipping into my TED Talks iPhone app and streamed a number of talks on to my TV (thank youApple for AirPlay!).
One of the talks was from who is becoming a TED legend (in my eyes anyway). Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy.
Focus on the psychology of life’s problems/opportunities as much as the economics and technology and you can achieve some great things. A way of thinking worth thinking about!
I’m a big fan of Mad Men. The agency tales of Madison Avenue in the 1960s. My dad is also an ad man (now retired) who found himself in his professional hay day in the 1960s. So I like to see agency life lived then against the agency life I live now. Some similarities, just without the liaisons, booze and cigs in the office.
I often wonder what the ad men of then would’ve made of the technology we have to hand today. I personally think my dad would have been in his element because he would have had more to help him do one thing; tell a great brand story. As would have Don Draper; although I’m not sure how he would have coped with the no smoking policies of today!
That’s because it takes more than a website, mobile app, online banner, digital display, YouTube video, Facebook Page, Twitter feed (to name a few suspects) to make a brand resonate with the right people. Especially when brands now rely on a social web where people will share what they like.
This clip from Mad Men is great. Don Draper pitching an idea to Kodak for their “Carousel” Slide Projector. Tapping into the very core of the product. Pretty much forgetting the technology.
There’s also been some nifty editing that actually swaps Kodak’s “Carousel” Slide Projector for Facebook’s new Timeline. As with Apple, Facebook look at how technology can tap into our need to connect, share and feeling of nostalgia. Timeline is yet to roll out, but having early access to it myself I think it’s going to tap into that desire for nostalgia, increase the amount of time spent on Facebook and drive more ad $$$ towards Mr Z and gang.
I had an unexpected stop over at Gatwick Airport on Thursday night thanks to the Gatwick Express driving most of the journey with the breaks on…smoke and then coming to a juddering halt only a few minutes outside of Gatwick…and my flight to Toulouse. An hour later, I was at the Easyjet desk looking at the next flight early doors the next morning.
Having experienced a non-sleeping stop over in Gatwick before, I much preferred the idea of a hotel. Not at prices of £130+ though. But I noticed a “Yotel” under 5 minutes walk to the check in desk. I’d heard of Simon Woodroffe’s YO! Co hotel chain a while back so thought the cubicle style hotel rooms may be reasonable. They were. Only £60 for a night with all of mod cons you need…just in a much smaller space. Genius idea inspired by the capsule rooms of Japan and a British Airways first class cabin that gave Mr YO! Co his sit up moment.
A comfy night was had thanks to simplicity, price and a great use of technology. Check in, ordering food and super duper wifi for free.
It’s still early days for Yotel, but their launch in New York City is a high coup and should shake things up in the hotel industry. Luxury and technology working together to provide a slick and simple solution to city stop overs.
I’ve GOT to get myself over to this Yotel. A corner room with all the mod cons for $200 a night. Great stuff.
Yotel is a great example of how technology can really enhance a tried and tested experience. Technology will have a huge part to play in the hotel industry and the approach taken by Yotel will be common place by the end of the decade. Robot bell boys…maybe.
Google have been running a campaign over the past couple of months about their Chrome browser. From a kid who takes his camera, music and the internet and turns it into a business to a proud new father who tell his daughter’s childhood story back to her with Gmail and YouTube.
Technology is so accessible now it gives us the power to take something to an audience of millions….or just one. Brilliant.
It looks like the iPad is starting to do what the iPhone did for the smartphone market…taking tech that has been around for a good while but making it people friendly. And in turn making the compeition get their fingure out and give the people what they want…choice.
There has been a lot of coverage of Galaxy Tab as Sumsung look to grab some of the tablet limelight from Apple. On top of a great OS in Android, there’s the ability to make phone calls and a back and front facing camera for those face to face calls. And of course, the ability to run Flash.
RIM look to be one of the next big names to get people addicted to tablets. In their case, business people . They’ll be a key demorgraphic (why they’ve called it PlayBook is a puzzler though) as they look to make the most of business’ devotion to their mobile phones. No 3G apparently…grumble!
Really exciting stuff. I’m sure 2011 will see us go crazy for tablets and realise they are more than just “big phones”. A far richer digital experience supported by an increasigly social web makes for interesting times from a design and communications perspective. Excellent.
These ads been sneaking their way on to TV screens in the UK these past couple of weeks. Along with online and press advertising campaigns, Microsoft are clearly hoping they’re coming to the smartphone party late, but with a lot to offer. HTC make great phones and it looks like Microsoft have an OS actually suited to mobile devices. So it’ll be interesting to see uptake over the next year. It’s great to see more choice in the smartphone market and I reckon there’ll be a lot of newbies taking a comfortable choice in Microsoft’s offer. Quality ad. I NEVER do any of these things ;OP
Tonight saw the UK air its first TV debate between the three main party leaders. Amazing, a first in the UK but very much behind the times (Kennedy and Nixon did it in 1960!). ITV’s broadcast was for 90 minutes (with no commercial breaks…great stuff) and they streamed this live on their website along social streams from Facebook and a live comment stream on the site itself. A good start, but not as good as what Current TV gave us during the US Election in 2008. Integrating the real time of Twitter into the TV debates themselves. Love it…
There aren’t many ads on TV I’m happy to interrupt my viewing, but this one made me chuckle. Looks like some thought was actually put into this one. Clever…
Of course, it will never be as good as the iconic milk ad when I was growing up. Fancy milk making a football club famous!
Think Social 