On The Ground Looking Up

This Takes Buzz Marketing To A New Level

At a recent book fair in Germany a company called Eichborn attached small aerial billboards to flies and let them loose around the hall. Quite clever and somewhat disturbing. I wonder if they were inspired by Bill Gates' famous mosquito speech at TED? At least from the video, people seemed to get a kick out of it and you have to hand it to them for generating attention with a clever, buzzworthy, idea. Is there a PETA type organization for insects? They may not be too happy.

Digital Graffiti/Stenciling

I don't think the police can bust you for this, but after seeing it, they may just jump in and do it with you. Very cool.

.

Experiential Marketing Forum - Profile In Leadership

The P.I.L. interview I did with Erik Hauser from Euro RSCG for the Experiential Marketing Forum is now up. You can read it here.

Thanks Erik!

GE's Twitter Windows

As part of our new push into integrated marketing/technology concepts, we have been playing with the idea of live visualization of talk and the associative value of such chatter. Out of that mantra, one of the concepts we have been working on is how the variety of conversation on Twitter relates a certain industry or topic. GE Healthcare was good enough to get behind the idea for their recent Healthymagination showcase that occurred last week at the old Bank of New York space at 44th and 5th ave in Manhattan. Hence Twitter Windows. over 1400 sq feet of window space covered in word clouds. About 50 of these words were connected to some Arduinos and Laptops and were reading Twitter in real time, looking for anyone using the word in a tweet. When the word was used, a light next to the word flashed. So you could watch how often people were mentioning a word vs. the other words on the windows. The interesting part for me was to see how the flashes related to each other. How was cancer charting vs cure? Fear vs hope? In the end it was a microscosmic real-world realization of the sentiment around the subject. I feel there is much farther we will go with this idea, but I am very happy with the initial execution. Rain has hindered all of our photoshoot days, but here is a video from GEReports to check out. And hopefully we will update with some photos soon.

Best New Product Extension - The IKEA Guillotine

What every house needs!

The IKEA Guillotine

<via>

Random Images From My Desktop 14

Mona Lisa Bento

Mercedes Bones

Superheros Crossing

Not the smartest use of floor graphics I have ever seen.

The Power Of Shared Experience

My nationwide tradeshow tour is over.  The last 11 days have been a combination of Philadelphia and Las Vegas for 2 trade shows that could not have been different. And the team is gearing up for a new one in SF at the end of the week. More on tradeshows later.

While in Vegas, I was lucky enough to have a free night to catch the latest U2 Tour.  I have seen U2 a bunch of times over the last 20 years or so. They have always put on a great show but more recently I have been inspired by their stage sets and use of technology as experience.

The new set looks like this:

 

Which alone was pretty bad-ass. Like a huge Spider From Mars (appropriate, that they kicked off the show playing David Bowie).

Then it lights up like this

The thing I dug most was the screen. It at times would come down and break apart like this;

 

Just a very cool effect and I like how it transformed and played in to the whole future like theme of the show.

Being there reminded me of the power of collective experience. There are few things like a big concert with a loyal fanbase. Unlike the Bamboozle festival that we did this year that has like 8 stages and a bazillion bands playing per day and is based in the art of A.D.D., a U2 show is many tens of thousands of people all waiting on every word and note emanating from the band.  Everyone there had a connection to the band, had their own personal history (of which many were sharing with each other) and were looking forward to a new experience to add to their biography. Not only that but you saw how many cell phones were constantly taking pictures that were then posted to Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, etc. all in somewhat real time in order to share that experience with their other friends.

It is the kind of experience that I have tried, not on such a great scale, to emulate in my brand work. Getting people to communicate, to experience, to share, to smile, to sing along, to scream and to move toward something. It reminds me why I like what I do, that you can affect people with the right experience and give them an experience that they want to share with others.

If we do it correctly, there will be no line on the horizon :)

Is It Really Necessary To Bring THAT Back Up?

I am in Las Vegas for NCAS show so postings are sparse but a friend just sent me a link to an article about how ABC is trying to get people excited about their new V remake show by doing skywriting over New York landmarks. As it refers to this large scale stunt, the article cannot help but mention the ATHF in terms of how pushing the limits of marketing in a can generate attention, with sometimes unexpected results. ATHF was also brought up in a story the other day relating to the whole balloon boy incident as well as now that has made it on the list of great 'hoaxes.'

I guess it will always be referred to when people challenge the marketing norms in public spaces. Even though sky writing and a home brewed publicity stunt with a dirigible do not seem that similar to me, they both relate to those looking to crack the art of getting people's attention.

If You Were Not Ready To Consider Projections Before

You might be ready after watching this. Projected on the Bayer headquarters in Leverkusen, Germany. An incredibly creative use of projection, obviously with the full support of the brand. I love it and want to do one similar here. Hello Rock Center?!?!?

If We Only Knew Then, What We Know Now

Nicked from <3 it.