Flash on the Beach, Brighton - Day 1
Flash on the Beach, Brighton, England.
Day 1 - Monday 29th September 2008.
Flash on the Beach is the premier Flash conference in Europe. Nearly
50 of the world’s most talented designers, developers, creatives, film
makers and artists presenting on 3 tracks over 3 full days. Flash on
the Beach has brought together the most creative, technical,
entertaining, inspirational, awe-inspiring and educational speakers in
the rich media industry. The Flash bit of the title is more of a
mentality than just a software product.
Early start today, although needn’t have been too concerned, as
registration was quite quick, and the first session started about 20
minutes late. The skies started to clear up just as we (myself and my
colleague Hiro) went our seperate ways into the halls, Consequently
the attendees and our presenter, Marco Casario of comtaste.com, had to cut
short his demonstration on what is, and how to create,
a Mash-up widget with Adobe Air. Essentially, this widget is a desktop
application for aggregating data from public sources / APIs, such as
flickr and Yahoo! maps. Various code libraries and resources for
creating this can be found here .
Next up was Dr. Woohoo (Drew Trujillo to his mum) and his
In The Mod tool for Colour Analytics, ‘a site which
analyses and finds colour relationships in bitmap images, and allows their export to Creative Suite apps’. This was shown as it was developed into various personal and commercial projects. Again, quite a technical session, but a good balance of theory and practice.
Then it was time for a spot of lunch. Fish and chips in sight (just)
of the sea, before heading back for the afternoon sessions.
Next up was an informative session by Geoff Stearns, Flash Engineer at YouTube and the author of SWFObject, now the de-facto standard for embedding Flash content. An overview of the issues related to developing SWFObject and YouTube, current and future developments (such as captioning, a customisable or ‘chromeless’ player for other peoples’ sites, and annotations) as well a few funny clips (natch):
- Deathmetal Dog
- A man getting inside a balloon (yes, really)
- and the Mario theme played with a remote control car and bottles.
More about Geoff and his work can be found here.
The second afternoon session, by photographer Chris Orwig, was far less technical, and barely mentioned Flash. Despite trying to resist the Californian sensibility he seems to embody, I found myself quite inspired by his words and work, showing ‘out-takes’ and re-touching, but also using quotes from both writers and photographers to clearly get his point across. You can find out more at chrisorwig.com (which includes some assignments for willing attendees) - but the two best pieces of advice were to rely on your ideas - not expensive equipment - to get a good shot and never to tell a subject to smile.
The final formal session of the day was by Erik Natzke. Erik talked us through the processes he has developed for creating his artwork. A lot of coding and learning to produce what look like abstract expressionist painting and is generated by Flash. Again, a good balance of tech and inspirational show & tell.
Erik finished at 5, which gave us a bit of time for a beer on the pier and a bite to eat before heading
back to the Dome for the evening’s Inspiration session (accompanied by a free drink). This was given by James Paterson, who learnt Flash to bring his madcap characters and sketchbook musings to life, and now works with other programmers, as well as musicians and dancers, to take his interactive illustrations to a wide audience. The extended trawl through his personal and commercial work was amusing, entertaining and enlightening. So much to see, so I suggest checking it out for yourself at presstube.com.
And if you’d like to see some photos from our adventures, you can, here.
Richard Gallon, Senior Interactive Designer
A man’s best friend is his dog (and bone?)
Year of the mobile…again. Heard that before? It just still doesn’t seem to have made the impression in marketing circles that we’ve all been hoping for.
But maybe that time is here…Some recent stats bounced around a marketing trends conference I went to announced that consumer advertising is at its lowest level of trust with 18% of consumers going so far as to dislike all forms of advertising.
And according to Nielsen Online Global Survey, 78% of people trust what others recommend, way ahead of all media channels.
Unfortunately, in that same survey, only 18% of consumers trust ads on mobiles. Mmmm, so even with the new technology like the iPhone and other smart phones approaching 25% of market share, claiming to make the user experience more engaging and enjoyable, has the damage been done?
Maybe not.
More people would go back for their mobile phone if they left it at home than they would if they left their wallet or purse there. We can’t live without it – it’s our best friend.
A lot of the discussion in mobile has been around advertising models. In effect, paid for media. Bit old school don’t you think? In a world where the consumer is in control, where they want real time solutions, where they want recognition and personalisation, shouldn’t the mobile community be focusing their attention on how mobile, the most intimate of channels, can help build brand trust and positively engage consumers.
A 2007 study by the London School of Economics, has identified brand advocacy in the UK as being on average 5 times more effective at stimulating sales than brand advertising!
How can this be quantified? I’ve been talking to a lot of people about measuring a brand’s Net Promoter Score – the % of ‘promoters’ (those who score between 8 and 10 for liking a brand) of your brand minus the % of ‘detractors’ (those who score between 0 to 6 out of 10).
The figures go that if a brand improves their NPS by 7%, they will experience an increase of 1% in revenues. And 70% of a brand’s advocacy is attributable to its ability to “Surprise & Delight” (LSE 2007).
A bigger opportunity
So is this the potentially bigger, more immediate opportunity for brands to consider using the intimate mobile channel?
The finance sector has understood this. The best personal example for me is being a First Direct customer and receiving their weekly text account balance service. I get it at the time and day I want it, with the details I want as set against my own criteria. It’s another service that makes me want to talk about First Direct and stay with them.
Another good example I heard about recently was by Amex. They recognised that towards the end of the month, consumers are a bit low on funds, so more likely to stick a few bills on their credit/charge card. The surprise and delight was a text sent in the last week of the month, offering deals and extra points at restaurants that accept Amex. Go enjoy yourself, get extra rewards. Everyone’s a winner!
So should we be asking ourselves some basic questions:
When can mobile best support another channel to drive incremental response?
When can mobile most relevantly ‘surprise & delight’ consumer to help build brand engagement?
How can mobile be used to start a conversation, not to broadcast messages?
It will be brands that leverage this opportunity, who will begin to drive greater brand engagement and build WOM through surprise & delight that will recognise the opportunity mobile has to offer. And integrated into their channel strategy – don’t bolt it on. The principle is a simple one – when is mobile fit for the purpose…when will it surprise and delight….oh, and when can it drive positive business!! (Mustn’t forget that one Mr Evangelist!)
But the evangelists don’t help matters. The mobile evangelists are all getting very excited about the emerging technologies, about the potential of 3.5G, and making wonderful predictions like one I read recently that “…the mobile internet will soon eclipse the PC Web”!
Very helpful for me over the next 12 months, to meet my brand KPIs and volume targets.
Where are the solutions, the ideas, the insight on how to maximise mobile as part of a total comms solution?
What I would encourage is for folk to ignore the evangelists. Find the pragmatists, recognise that mobile has moved on since you probably last included the channel in a campaign, that the consumer is looking for trusted sources of information and that maybe, just maybe, brands who identify ‘surprise’ touchpoints like the Amex example, will not only get consumers positively engaged in the brand, but also measurably achieve positive ROI.
And maybe, just maybe then, mobile could become marketing’s new best friend too?
Andy Snuggs, Managing Director
We’re not merging
Whatever you’ve heard, we’re not merging.
You might have seen the industry headlines that Geronimo are merging with Mustoes. Now, just to clarify any case of mistaken identity - this isn’t us! The merger in the news is that of Geronimo Communications - a PR specialist that is part of the Tribal Group.
We thought we’d reassure clients, partners and friends that we remain independent, continuing to create consumer response and building brand engagement through channels that are fit for purpose.
Create conversations, not just messages
Have a look at your communications model, especially as you’re probably in the planning stages for 2009. Chances are that you’ll have a series of campaigns planned and a product launch or two.
Great, but where’s the glue that links all these campaigns, that engages both your prospects and customers on an on-going basis … and if you say that’s what our brand TV ads do, then hang your head in shame.
Take a couple of moments to look at nike+, mystarbucksidea, babycenter; all are important brand building activities … or what we call brand engagement activities.
And it’s not just big brands … look at Blendtech. And none of them are really selling the product … they are kick-starting conversation rather than pushing messages.
Now ask yourself … what’s the equivalent for the brand you work on? Deafening silence? Shuffling of papers?
Or do you think it’s a fluffy nice-to-have in your marketing mix?
Engaging customers whether it be in the form of information, entertainment or asking for their ideas is not peripheral any more. Ask J&J how important Babycenter is to them as part of their digital strategy … or ask Starbucks where the idea for wireless internet access in their cafes came from.
For the uninitiated, there are three key elements to define:
1. What territory you want your brand to occupy/own?
2. Does this correlate with what your customers/prospects are interested in?
3. Do you have permission to play in this territory?
The execution needs to be sticky… in other words, you need to create something which has some repeat use/longevity – one-off engagement isn’t enough or certainly not enough to create and influence meaningful conversations amongst your customers and prospects … and that is where your brand needs to operate in the future, so start now.
Chris Dickens, Head of Strategy
Branded utility and empathy
For a brand to create an online utility is like saying ‘ask not what your customers can do for you, ask what you can do for your customers’. With this approach, brands can be genuinely useful to their customers, and differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Utility works not by interrupting people while they are trying to do something else, as most advertising does, but rather by taking time to be useful in people’s lives.
By being useful the brand earns loyalty, respect and affinity.
We created an online utility for Radox with ourfamilytime.co.uk, which was a utility that allowed mums to search online for and quickly access family activities in their area, as well as giving special offers to treat themselves. We based the site on a real concern from mums, with the message that families need to spend more quality time together.
The reason behind our success with Radox was empathy; the ability to relate to people and their lives and make a connection in order inspire and empower or simply help them solve their problems.
Most stay at home mums and working mothers don’t have a scrap of time to spare for technology or marketing that doesn’t benefit them by making their life easier or better.
By facilitating meaningful activities a brand can make an emotional connection far more effectively that with advertising alone.
Eaon Pritchard, Head of Digital
for New Media Age