DESIGN WORKSDESIGN WORKS ‘09

The Top 6 Insights from Ad Age's

Creativity and Technology Conference

Technology and creativity are indelibly linked. Companies have been forced to reconsider how they creatively reach out to consumers in step with technological advancements. Marketers are acknowledging that communication is no longer a one-way stream from brand managers to the end consumer. Instead, given tablet devices, social media networks, and other emerging technologies, brands are operating under the inverse relationship—that is, consumers ultimately shaping the interaction with brands. The question still remains: how can marketers and advertising agencies best leverage technology and creativity?

That was the question on the minds of the speakers and attendees at the third annual CaT (Creativity and Technology) Conference in New York, where thought leaders examined the cross section between the technological and creative worlds and provided insights into the newest technology resources for marketers and agencies.

Introduction

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Speakers at the conference answered this question in one of two ways. Some advocated adapting the tried-and-tested methods for increasing communications’ effectiveness—including collaboration, serendipity and emotion—to new technologies. Still others responded to the question by supporting efforts to innovate on top of innovations, including those in the storytelling and the virtual reality realms. Going forward, ask yourself which of these two strategies—one of adaptation and the other of innovation—you and your firm should adopt. The speakers at CaT provide their own personal responses to this question below; but from their stories, draw your own implications, debate your positions with colleagues, and carry your ideas through.

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Collaboration is atthe heart of creativity.

The age-old proverb that “two heads are better than one” holds true now more than ever. This fact is underlined by two devices whose successes depend on collaboration: Facebook Studio and MakerBot.

Facebook Studio is a community for agencies and marketers to showcase great work that leverages the power of Facebook. Jennifer Kattula, Facebook’s Agency Marketing Lead, discussed the factors that would be essential in making Facebook Studio a success.

• Social by design. Facebook has propelled people to consume information through the lens of their friends. Building off this insight, Facebook Studio places creatives at the center of this social Web. Encouraged by the prospect of having their work showcased for the world, marketers will upload their work to the site.

• It has to be a platform. Facebook Studio merely provides the platform to share great marketing work, and the community provides the content. In the end, Facebook hopes to build deep and long-lasting relationships with the participatory agencies.

• This journey is 1% finished. Although the site has been released to the public, Facebook Studio will still change and improve, integrating ideas from its community.

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“Personalized Manufacturing, Collaborative Clocks, and Drabbits: How the World Changes When the

Factory Is on Your Desktop”- Bre Pettis, co-founder of MakerBot

“Facebook Studio & the Social Content Landscape”- Jennifer Kattula, Facebook Studio Manager and

Facebook’s Agency Relations Lead

Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are

locations that have been posted to both.

Source: Eric Fischer

Makerbot is a 3D printer that is so affordable that it spurred the creation of an entirely new community of creatives.

• Social by design. With MakerBot, universities and large manufacturers no longer have exclusive access to 3D printers. Designers and amateurs can now purchase a MakerBot, then upload their creations, and collaborate with other users.

• It has to be a platform. Thingiverse is MakerBot’s online community, where users share their creations and others build off them to produce completely new, creative pieces of work. For example, soon after Bre Pettis uploaded a 3D image of Stephen Colbert’s head to Thingiverse, the MakerBot community mobilized to attach Colbert’s head to an octopus and the Statue of Liberty, among other things.

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Leave people asking, “how is that possible?”

In the last three years, marketing has increasingly focused on social. Brands are no longer saying, “Look at me!” Rather, they’re saying, “Look at you, talking about me!” Therefore, marketers are creating experiences that people want to talk about, and as is often the case, the best of these experiences leave people asking, “How is that possible?”

More and more often, these experiences are starting to capitalize on emerging technologies such as:

• Augmented reality apps, such as those created by acrossair, overlay the physical world with content from the virtual world, increasingly blurring the line between the two.

• Kinect hacking uses body and gesture control to turn the human body into an interface for other technology.

• Projection mapping matches videos to the surfaces on which they’re projected to transform the appearance of the surfaces.

In changing the way the physical landscape and digital content are combined, marketers can create a distinctly different way to engage the world. Brands and marketers must continue to ask themselves, “How can we combine the three techniques mentioned above to more effectively bring brands to life?”

Click the following link to find examples from Sam Ewen’s presentation: http://mashable.com/2011/06/08/augmented-reality-marketing-2/.

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“Augmented Reality, Projection Mapping and Kinect Hacking: Transforming Communication”

- Sam Ewen, CEO and founder of Interference Inc. and The Supertouch Group

Source: acrossair

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App store economics

1. The most visible shelf space in the App Store is the Top Paid charts. Get into the Top Ten, and your app is guaranteed some degree of success.

2. Sales increase on the weekend and around holiday season.

3. Despite the fact that the iPhone is now available around the world, the United States remains a huge driver of App Store sales.

4. Twitter contests can help generate buzz before the release of an application or a new feature.

5. Strategic sales work. For example, when an app releases a new feature, the app should be put on sale.

6. Create a loyal following by engaging customers outside of the application. Camera+ developed an online community where users could share their photos with one another.

7. Wow your users by researching what they want and delivering on it.

8. Fix bugs and boost performance.

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“Smartphones: A Blank Canvas for Creativity and Passion”

- Lisa Bettany, creator of Camera+

Source: Cristiano Betta

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The changing natureof storytelling

The Internet and digital innovations have reshaped storytelling to be nonlinear, participatory, immersive and game-like. The Atavist is a testament to this in that it takes advantage of the freedom inherent in the iPad’s design to tell stories in new and interesting ways. For example, to tell the story of a real-life bank heist, The Atavist iPad application starts with a video of surveillance footage of the actual robbery. Video serves not as a bonus feature, but as an integral part of the storytelling process.

Transmedia storytelling is the process of relaying a story across various types of media. Each part of the story is unique to the medium and plays to that medium’s strength. The nature of transmedia storytelling is orchestral. The storyteller uses different mediums as instruments to create a piece of work that reveals its beauty when each medium works in harmony.

However, not all stories are suitable for transmedia. A transmedia story needs to have complexity and multiple facets, such as in the science fiction movie Star Wars and in daytime soap operas.

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“Fireside Chat: Technique, Potential, and Confusion:

The Truth about Transmedia Storytelling”- Frank Rose, author of

The Art of Immersion- Jeff Gomez,

President and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment

“Long-form Stories in the Digital Age”

- Evan Ratliff, Editor and co-founder of The Atavist

Source: Erik Stattin

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Increasing your brand’s emotional ROI

If someone loves a brand, he or she is more likely to forgive the brand for mishaps. The same relationship holds between people. For example, Apple creates products that lack features that consumers undoubtedly want (like the iPad without USB ports), but the company remains unapologetic. Nevertheless, Apple has garnered such a loyal following that it’s able to succeed despite its sometimes distant customer relations.

In order to invite viewers’ participation with a brand, tell a story with qualities that inspire. Find a message that resonates with people, given the current state of the world. For example, in our modern world of cynicism, blissful ignorance is refreshingly different and resonates with people who are all too sick of the unsettling news headlines.

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“The Emotive Startup (Mentality)”

- Brian Wong, founder of Kiip

“Fireside Chat: Technique, Potential, and Confusion: The Truth about Transmedia Storytelling”

- Jeff Gomez, President and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment

Source: Mykl Roventine

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The power of serendipity

Serendipity occurs when someone stumbles upon something he or she doesn’t expect to find. It can also be termed “a happy accident.” Marketers are increasingly using serendipity to increase positive associations with brands.

Kiip is a startup that grabs customers at the point of elation and rewards them with a branded gift. When a person plays a game on his mobile device and achieves something (moves on to the next level or reaches a score that’s his personal best), Kiip rewards that person with a free product. In tying these achievement moments to brands, Kiip enables brands to not only increase consumers’ attention, but to also increase the brands’ value to consumers.

Tacofinder is an iPhone app that indicates which direction you can find the nearest taco restaurants. Unlike traditional apps, it removes functionality so that it can increase serendipity. The app doesn’t provide turn-by-turn directions, but merely indicates a geographical direction. Users follow a path that they otherwise wouldn’t have taken and likely encounter obstacles along the way. However, the serendipity of discovering the taco place on their own leads to positive affective responses.

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“The Emotive Startup (Mentality)”- Brian Wong, founder of Kiip

“Agency IP: Pushing the Industry to Invest in Passion and Ideas”

- Michael Lebowitz, founder and CEO of Big Spaceship

Source: Kiip

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DESIGN WORKSDESIGN WORKS ‘09

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WRITTEN BY SPENCER GOODMAN

EDITED BYEDWIN PHILOGENE