Community 2.0: Hurricane Gustav Information Center

A collective assembly of Gustav Information. Using Ning platform, the site aggregates content from a variety of social media resources, including; Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Utterz, Technorati, etc.- all you have to do is tag the item gustav.



*Hopefully, this will be a merely academic exercise in pre-caution.

via Social Media Club

Mass Interactive: Cymbolism

Cymbolism is a new website that attempts to quantify the association between colors and words, making it simple for designers to choose the best colors for the desired emotional effect. Taking web 2.0 folksonomy to the next stage, users are invited to organize the definition of color itself with word associations and tags.

Social 10: Facebook’s New Social Video Ad Unit is an Engagement Magnet

A few of us noticed a curious new ad unit pop up in our Facebook feeds yesterday. The unit is a video that also displays open comments from your friends circle about that ad. Real-time, ongoing conversation about the ad - which potentially gives advertisers a peek directly into the sentiment of the audiences receiving the ad. I think this is a game-changer for social ads.

Inside Facebook notes: Facebook will fill the sponsored home page slot with this kind of unit.

The behavior:
1)Clicking on the ad image opens a video player in-line
2)Comments on the video are visible to your entire friend list.

The comments around the ad dramatically increase engagement with the unit, as the highly visible comments provide an opportunity for users to simultaneously draw attention to the ad by drawing attention to themselves.

*While this could backfire if comments degrading the advertiser are abundant ("this movie is Lame"-type commentary could overwhelm - but hey, the comments are from your friends so it has a certain relevance to you), the ad comments take powerful advantage of Facebook’s social dynamics to draw attention to an ad in a way that is impossible without the social graph. When is the last time you heard 9 friends talk about an online ad in the same day?

Ad comments are an interesting step forward in the evolution of “Social Ads.” While this kind of ad may not work as well outside of a few advertiser verticals, expect that early advertisers will be pleased with its performance.

Aki's quick takeaways:
1) Ads will need to become more engaging and comment provoking or risk flaming commentary (or worse, not being worthy of notice and comment)
2) Advertisers will need to become reactionary to response...maybe change the ads up, or try 10 ads - monitor feedback/response/actions taken and let the top 2 effective ads move forward
3) Advertisers will need to become choiceful about what they put in this channel...relevance and interestingness will matter now more than ever
4) EVERY MEDIA will soon be made more accountable to results and data of this nature for every ad media buy

Leave Twitter ALONE!!!

Imagine that title in the voice of the weird dude from the Brittany video...

Mass Interactive: Nokia Productions

Nokia Productions says: "Most films are made for the masses. This one is made by them. Join a production crew of thousands and play a part in creating Spike Lee and Nokia Productions’ latest film collaboration."


Check to all the boxes: big participatory idea and user co-creation blahblahblah, BUT the really important (smart) distinction here is Spike Lee has been hired to "direct" the crowd and conduct this orchestra with very thorough and paced "briefings" that detail what user co-creation should deliver on, creatively. This whole format reminds me of an agency process - Spike isn't hindering creative output from the crowd, but nor is he just leaving it up to some teen to submit any ol' piece of video nonsense and we call it "brand passion". Spike/Nokia Productions is deftly briefing in a creative strategy to the crowd (translate: he's keeping all the submissions ON BRIEF and not just random cheese from the masses).

Brilliant answer, Nokia, to the whole "losing control" debate that always come up with regard to user co-creation. Or...I think its a brilliant answer. We'll see, I guess. Fingers crossed.

*My Age of Conversation submission delves into this burgeoning opportunity to "outsource the agency" by recruiting users as panelists and advisors to the creative idea. More on this soon.

Fallon Brainfood: Social 10 *UPDATE: Scrabulous vs Hasbro

In my Social 10 trends in social media presentation a few months ago, I recounted the cautionary tale of Hasbro's Scrabble versus Scrabulous


Well since then, Hasbro finally beta launched their official Scrabble app on Facebook. And Scrabulous unexpectedly closed down their app last week - only to then relaunch as Wordscraper.

The numbers are in from Adonomics, and Wordscraper has almost matched Scrabble Beta's usage numbers - in only a few days since launch.


Some lessons to learn:
-Again, at the Social, you're competing with the crowd as much as you're competing with "competitors"
-Collaboration may be a better option. So, what Hasbro has created is a new enemy, a formidible competitor more nimble and effective than you (I hear word of tech glitches with the Scrabble Beta, Worscraper is further along and has groundswell)

Electing a US President (in Plain English)

Common Craft strikes again. Swing thought: planners' job is to make strategic complexity as simple and succint as these guys continually do.

Fallonites ride Critical Mass Minneapolis

Last Friday, several Fallonites partook in Critical Mass Minneapolis, the Twin Cities' chapter of a nationwide bicycle awareness movement. For those unaware, Critical Mass is a group that meets in Loring Park on the last Friday of each month and consists of several hundred bikers who ride through the streets of Minneapolis. The group's founding mission is to promote bike usage as a regular means of transportation and raise awareness of how unfriendly city streets are to cyclists.

TJ, Claire, and myself took the streets of Minneapolis to experience what exactly this is like. The following is a photo storyline of our experience.

Cyclists begin to assemble at Loring Park around 5:30. Before the ride, a small civilians rights group makes a presentation about how to interact with police if they give you difficulty. (This was presented due to incidents like this which have occurred in Minneapolis.) The group also makes us write a "jail hotline" on our arm, in case we are arrested.


Claire's arm


The police arrive on bike and in squad car to escort the group. After multiple incidents, the MPD has decided to play nice. (Ironically they don't play so nice later, but that is a whooooole different story.)


TJ and Claire cruisin' Lyndale Ave.


CM heads downtown


Fallon represent!!


Post CM celebration at Preston's.


Overall great experience. I will be back on August 29 as will many others hopefully.

YouTube choose your own adventure

Online video has quickly become the most popular and mainstream form of social media participation. But as it becomes more mainstream, what ideas have surfaced to make video more interesting? Sure, sites like YouTube, DailyMotion, etc continue to spring up, but the videos themselves have remained rather one-side broadcastish.

Until now.



Choose your own adventure (nostalgic of the book series popular when I was in elementary school) utilizes the video response system in YouTube to make online video into a game of sorts. You have to go to the actual site to be able to use it, but the embed will give you an idea.

This particular adventure is about some guy trying to find his cat. I spent awhile searching and thought i had exhausted all of my options in order to find the feline. Apparently I was wrong and never found kitty. Maybe you will be more successful.

Visualization of Information: PicLens, Digg Labs and Twitter/Flickrvision

Here are three applications that allow you to search visually news, status updates, videos, pictures etc. in cool new ways.

PicLens lets you search for photos and videos in 3-D and in full screen. This web browser add-on makes it way easier to search for things with out paging through a website and its also makes it much more fun. Its like apple's coverflow to another dimension. Once you download the add-on a blue box in the upper right corner will light up when a page is viewable with PicLens.

Digg labs web applications organize all the news items on Digg visually. With Digg Stack, the stories are bar graphs that get taller given the amount of Diggs, so you can watch stories grow. Digg Swarm creates circles around stories that get bigger as they are dugg. All of these applications can be accessed online or used as a screensaver.


Twittervision and Flickrvision allow you to see what people are seeing and saying in real time around the world. Using google maps or a 3-D map this program shows you exactly where tweets and photos are coming from. It can get addicting. You can view it on a browser or download the screensaver. They also have a local version that only shows what is going on in your specific area. There is no way I know of to see only my friends on the map and have multiple tweets or photos up at a time. I imagine these programs will get cooler and developed as GPS is becoming more common in cell phones.

Agencies (re)Imagine the Stop Sign

"What if there were no stop signs, and a major corporation was charged with inventing one?"


via moneyries

Message For Future Generations

Mark Earls and Domenico Vitale have created Message For Future Generations a depository of planners' wisdom about Account Planning.

Fallon Planning Blog on Facebook

Fallon Planning Blog on Facebook, ya'll

don't stop, git it, git it
this app is still a bit *buggy*, so expect RSS feeds soonish...and "confirm" a brotha when you visit (or get my confirm email)...I can't activate the hot features til 10 peeps confirm that I'm me. Recognize.
Twitter feeds comin' soon, too, standby.

What the F**K is social media?

Found this great slide show on Blog de Nuit today. It's a very simple presentation about what social media is and what it means for brands.

For those social network connoisseurs out there, it probably won't say anything new. But I appreciate the simplicity and clarity. Reminds me a bit of the CommonCraft vids about Twitter and LinkedIN


My favorite quote from the presentation:


"Relinquish control: The goal is not to control the conversation."

| View | Upload your own

via Blog de Nuit

Virtuality: Onion Spoofs Virtuality

The Onion News Network explores the World of World of Warcraft, a game where you play a person playing a game.

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Fallon Brainfood: Communicators Forum @ University of Minnesota Q2

I presented a keynote at last week's Communicators Forum at University of Minnesota and I ran over time before I could answer many of the Question Cards from the audience. Let's keep the dialogue going. Here are more answers to one of the cards (expect a few more posts in coming days):


Q: Many of the examples refer to "selling products" - can you talk about how we might translate this to "selling research"?
Great question. Ironic, too. Because I am, right now, "selling research". Or strategy. Or an odd hybrid, but I digress. My point is, thru all my social media tools, I am working to get insights out of the file cabinet, out of my notepad, out of the presentations for 6 people and never seen again, and into the hands and minds of my living clients/associates/collaborators/students, etc. In this day and age, there is so much data and research that the role of interpreter and guide is more vital than ever. Research matters not if the people who matter don't "get it". Your mission, as researcher, should be to demystify and help them "get it". So be the Virgil of your research. Social media can help you get your research "slippy" and out there and exposed and in the conversations.

How to get your research social? Dramatize your research's effects on people, show us on YouTube what the data means in an engaging way, blog about how it impacts us in ways we never expected, podcast the interviews of those at the frontlines of your research, Delicious your article links to parallel paths of other thinkers in your field. Slideshare your latest thinking, and Flicker the latest charts and graphs. Get it out of the research journals and into the spheres of influence, your peers, your bosses, your financiers, the press, whoevs and wherevs, get the research socialized, man!

The old school approach to research? A mysterious cabal sequesters themselves away and test and think, then come down off the mountain with tablets of new gospel. Well, the new way is

-Open share - you don't own an idea if you insist on hiding it, you own an idea by sharing it. Throughout the research process, tease us with drafts and sketches and updates.
-Open source - in college, collaboration on a test or paper is called "cheating"...but collaboration is the only way to solve problems faster and smarter in this age. Start cheating, and letting others cheat off you which requires
-Open code, make your info stealable, thus it is desirable, thus it is shareable, thus it gets spreadable. Give up a few secrets (charts, graphs, insights, interviews) and let others work on the equation with you and pay you back. Oh, and steal from others, too (just give credit so that person may own their contribution).

Some quickie sites that come to mind for me (while not knowing what form of research you specialize in) of making research engaging and slippy:
http://blog.compete.com/
http://www.wefeelfine.org/index.html
http://twistori.com/
http://www.heynielsen.com/
http://www.trendrr.com/home

Guilty Pleasure: Art of the Title

Art of the Title is the most thorough (as far as I know) high quality online catalogue of one of our most underrated art forms: The Movie Titles. Check out titles from Vertigo to Alien to Iron Man and more.

The movie titles try to make do in the difficult space between what you really want (the movie) and the penance of reading the names of the behind-the-scenes players. Over time designers have evolved its purpose to explain the movie's essence and sell you what you're gonna get for the next 2 hours, while quickly getting the hell out of the way of the show.

Give a round of applause to these real american heroes, the movie title makers.

Fallon Brainfood: Communicators Forum @ University of Minnesota

I presented a keynote at last week's Communicators Forum and I ran over time before I could answer many of the Question Cards from the audience. Let's keep the dialogue going. Here are some answers to one of the cards (expect a few more posts in coming days):

Q: Give an example of how you control/mitigate negative feedback in social media on behalf of a client.
A: Control is an interesting word. I don't think you can control negative feedback in social media - or rather, you control negative feedback mostly at the service and/or product touchpoint. I.E. Make good products/services, you control most negative feedback. But I am being coy, I guess.

Lemme reframe the question: 'the villagers are angry, they're outside our gates with blog torches, now what the heck do we do?'

Well, negative feedback seeks a response. And the internal audit that should be had in face of any critique is: 'are they right?' If they are right, um, do something about it. If they are wrong, well do something about that. The tension that often sparks a groundswell of negative sentiment across the web is often the fact that absolutely nothing is done (no repair, no acknowledgment) in face of a critique. This lack of any response fuels a revenge mentality.

In my opinion, many negative feedback crises snowball from 2 faults: 1) not responding properly when the problem was small and indeed "controllable" (think Kryptonite Bic Pen Gate), and 2) not making real change or repairs when/if the negative feedback was made (think airlines still haven't changed the system even after years of us complaining).

This quandry always existed (customers complaining and speaking negatively) - the only difference today: customers can make a blog post and expose you to the world and incite a million-man groundswell against you (though really they are only aggregating a million people that already agreed with the negative sentiment). Let's be real, this isn't the complaining customers' fault (control people's sentiment? no.)- it may be the fault of a problem that actually needs to be addressed and/or changed (control your own organization? yes.).

Strategies for managing negative feedback:

-Take It Seriously. Address the negative feedback when it is just one lone caller/blogger/commenter - try to solve his single problem and turn frowns to smiles (a single change just may help you head off millions of the same latent complaint waiting to bubble up). Today, you never know if that lone complainer has a million followers to his blog.

-Use the blogosphere (or any consumer feedback touchpoint) as your early warning system. Track sentiment. Measurement tools abound (see some of my presentations for dozens of examples).

-Talk back. Directly. Blogs have "comments", make yours. Tweet back. YouTube response video back. Email back. yLive back. IM back. Call back. And it won't hurt you to bring some tidy reparation gifts in exchange, but a clear resolve to the problem is probably gift enough for most.

-Consider inviting critics in - stock your advisory panels with haters/lovers who are likely complaining 'cause they actually care deeply about your brand (funny how that works).

-Adopt a process for personal consumer touch that is proactive (think Comcastcares on Twitter). Phone banks wait for complaints to come, can we meet problems earlier up the stream?

-Enable change agents, not just complaint takers. That means the complaint hotline team needs to be reframed. Organize the negative sentiment into monthly reports, DEFINE THE MOB'S PROBLEM, and have MIB agents who can tap the right officer in the company to deal with these problems. And then hold those departments accountable - think Internal Affairs at the Police Department, somebody complains, somebody gets suspended (or at least investigated). If departments are held accountable to complaints, well, they tend to work harder to prevent the problems. Everybody wins.

I won't pretend these are solely "social media" strategies, as they probably make sense in whatever media your customer touches - its simply called listening and responding (or good business, maybe). There may be some efficiencies to doing these via Facebook, or not.

Yeah, I admit that all these suggestions are not easy. But it ain't easy stomping out a raging groundswell of negative sentiment about your brands, either.

BONUS CASE STUDY: Offer your customers the "Marvel No-Prize"! Marvel Comics has the unique problem of juggling multiple comic characters, with multiple writers and complicated story planes. Over the years mistakes happen in the comic character continuum. Fans are avid and engaged keepers of the brand truth and they will write and call Marvel out on any and all story mistakes. In response to every geek writing in to tell Marvel what idiots they are for missing a story mistake, they introduced the Marvel No-Prize. Marvel No-Prize is the award given to the keen fan who not only points out a mistake BUT ALSO SOLVES HOW THIS IS NOT A MISTAKE AFTERALL (thru some mental jujitsu and back issue research).


A couple things are happening in this model: a) hater energy is converted into solver energy, b) only solvers are recognized in the letters pages of the comics and complaints are "controlled", c) the crowd is tapped on behalf of the brands to co-create and look for holes then patch them up. If you buy my assertion that most haters are secretly your lovers who care deeply about your brand, then the Marvel No-Prize metaphor may work for you, give the haters a paddle in the boat and a way to contribute answers for you, put 'em to work! *The actual Marvel No-Prize that you receive is a heavily branded empty envelope, and your feature in the comic book letters page. Which further proves the point: recognition and credit is half their goal.

Guilty Pleasure: Big Ideas, Don't Get Any/Radiohead "Nude"

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows". I found this (late) entry to be particularly fascinating and breakout. It takes a bit to get to the "beat" but well worth it as it builds and mashes the music utilizing Sinclair ZX Spectrum Guitars, Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer, HP Scanjet 3c, and Hard Drive arrays. Of particular note is his savvy working of the social net touchpoints to get the work slippy.

Politics 2.0: Babies for Obama Meme

1500 vids on YouTube for Obama Babies

mini green ideas

Due to society's elevated green awareness as of late, I've been noticing more and more small changes that could really help in everyone's ability to reduce waste.

For instance, piggybacking off of my shoebox post earlier, another thing I often find myself throwing away is receipts. Think about how many small or insignificant purchases are made every day at retailers and how many receipts get quickly tossed into the trashcan near the front door. That's a lot of wasted paper. What if the little credit card scanner next to the cashier gave you the option, like at gas stations, "Need a receipt? YES or NO." I would be inclined from my own shopping experiences to just say no.

Last weekend, I attended the Rock the Garden event at the Walker Art Center which was fantastic. But in addition to the great bands and music, I was really impressed with how they handled the trash situation. The concert called itself a "zero waste event" which obviously wasn't true, but it was the first time that I had seen multiple recycling bins set up for different types of waste. Not only that, but the event had volunteers stationed at every trash outpost to make sure people didn't get lazy and just throw everything into one bin: trash gatekeepers if you will.

Anyway, I like it. And I think some programmer should just write the 10 lines of code it takes to ask "yes or no" for the receipt.

2008 AAAA Account Planning Conference Prep Rally and Post Show

AAAA Account Planning Conference

Paul Isakson and Kelly Thompson have created a Facebook group so we can all see who will be attending and better connect/make plans beforehand. We can also use this as a place to discuss expectations, recap thoughts/takeaways afterward, etc.

Additionally, they've proposed a cocktail gathering on Tuesday night at Shore Club's Skybar for people to meet, connect and unwind on the last night of the conference. The details and RSVP can be found here.

Pass along the links/info to others who might be interested.

**STANDBY FOR UPDATES SOON re: PLANNING FOR GOOD (PfG) 24 Hour Challenge @ AAAA Planning Conference.

Planner Survey Results

For those who haven't seen it yet, Heather LeFevre has posted results from the 2008 Planner Survey.

| View | Upload your own

Check them out and post comments on Heather's blog. There were an amazing 798 completes and loads of great data points, as always. Plus, a quick thanks to the 80 people who mentioned that they read the Fallon Planning/Trendpoint blog ... second in total mentions only to Russell!

Fallon Brainfood: (Teaser Excerpts) from UofM Communicators Forum

I am presenting the keynote at tomorrows' Communicator's Forum at University of Minnesota.

The theme of the conference is "The Matrix," or Communicating in a Web 2.0 World

Here are some teaser excerpts from the upcoming presentation:

| View | Upload your own

More of the presentation will discuss the impacts of social media on brands with some direction arrows to how Fallon is using web 2.0 tools on behalf of clients.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
8:00am - 12:00pm:
402 Walter Library, University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Registration 8:00 a.m.-8:30 a.m.

More info here

"ZAG" by Marty Neumeier

Just finished "ZAG: #1 strategy of high-performance brands" by Marty Neumeier and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. A relatively quick read thanks to a non-traditional format (lots of helpful graphics and larger text) ZAG addresses an issue that many marketers often discuss.... the need to zag when everybody else zigs.

Neumeier outlines a 17 step process by which a successful brand should be conceived or repositioned and while I'm not going to recount the entire process, I marked several quotes that really struck me. Most are pretty common sense, but I feel like sometimes we get caught up in the glamor and glitz of the biz and forget about the simple stuff.

"You can't be a leader by following the leader."
-- This struck me because a lot of times advertising turns into a reactive business. One brand does X and pretty soon everybody is chasing after X trying to catch up instead of trying to figure out how they can leap right over X to Z.

"True vision leads to commitment rather than compliance, confidence rather than caution."
-- Loved this because it has been involved in so many discussions I've had lately. At Likemind last Friday, FanChatter and I were talking about where does the agency influence stop? At communications? Or at biz recommendations? Do we have the authority to say "you need an internal overhaul?" Say that we design an award winning campaign that drives people to be interested in your brand. All of a sudden, the Google phenomenon hits. They google brand X and see that it has the worst rankings of all the brands! In this day, this should be expected. Commitment means not just yelling at people but backing it up. As ZJ says, "actions speak louder than words."

"...zaggning requires that a company define itself by what make it UNIQUE, not what makes it admirable," and on top of that, "Forget about best practices. Best practices are usually common practice. And common practices will never add up to a zag, no matter how many of them you apply.
-- It seems like "admirable" is the enemy of brave and courageous ideas. Admirable leads to the "best practices" which ultimately leads to a bland vision and loss of originality.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book. If for nothing else, it's a quick and motivating read doable on a few bus rides to and from the office.

Adding Value

During this time of economic downturn, I keep hearing the mantra we need to add value--to the lives of the consumer, to our products, to the world. Isn't adding value truly what our products should be doing anyway? Is it time for each of us and society to rethink what adds value and what doesn't add value to our lives and to the world? Maybe it's time to eliminate the nonvalue pieces and develop more of the value add pieces to the mix.

Green threat: shoeboxes

My second "first day" at Fallon was this past Monday and in preparing for a triumphant return, I felt like I needed some new clothes. In a moment of poor decision making, I drove to the MOA in order to make sure that I would have every option available.

During my shopping extravaganza, I purchased two pairs of shoes from Bostonian, and didn't think much about it until I got home and was unpacking. I took out the shoes, shoved all of the tissue papery stuff back into the two boxes, and brought them downstairs to our recycling center. As I was carrying them, I realized how wasteful shoeboxes are.

Everyday, thousands of pairs of shoes are purchased. As a runner, I have gone through literally dozens of pairs of running shoes over the last 9 years of my running career. Granted, some people save their shoeboxes for other uses (at least I have) but in my closet right now, I can think of only 3 shoeboxes.

Quick calculation:
5 pairs of training shoes/yr
+
2 pairs of racing shoes
+
2 pairs casual shoes
+
2 pairs dress shoes
=
At least 11 pairs of shoes per year x 4 years = 44 shoes boxes during college

41 of these boxes got thrown away/recycled.


I realize that as a runner myself, these numbers are skewed, but think about all of the collegiate/professional teams out there who go through multiple pairs of their own training shoes per year and how many boxes that adds up to. I know that on my team, after a new equipment issue there would be boxes upon boxes stacked next to trashcans (no recycling bins... too inconvenient)

It seems like shoe companies could stand to innovate their packaging from the perspective that boxes are a one time use item. Maybe a re-usable plastic box that consumers can choose to leave with the salesperson at the store to be sent back to company. I don't know enough about the material to know would could be done in terms of compostable material or something, but I see opportunity.

Friedlander Photography at MIA

How do you shape the way Americans see and understand their world?

Attend the Friedlander photography exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts June 29-September 14 to see how Lee Friedlander through his photography has shaped how Americans see and understand their world.

Then, take a step back in your world and look at how you shape it. Shift to a different lens and create new shapes. Do these shapes help others (not just Americans) see and understand their world?

Never Give Up

What you hear doesn't necessarily mean it's true. A couple weeks ago I attended the Obama event in St Paul, Minnesota. I arrived at 6:30 pm on the bus and was dropped off right in front of the Xcel Energy Center. From there I had to walk to the end of the line, which at that time was at least 15 blocks long. The doors opened early from their 7:00 pm start. Even though there was little likelihood that I would get in I stood in line along with the many, many people that arrived even later than I arrived. As 9 pm approached and I was still a good 7 blocks away, about four blocks of the line suddenly cleared. Apparently, the police had told the group that the doors had closed, so some people left. I wanted to at least watch the speech from the outside marquee so wandered over to Xcel. As my standing-in-line partner and I were observing all the umbrellas that had been left on the outside of the building, we walked around to the back of Xcel across from the Science Museum. And, guess what? The doors were still open. We added ourselves to the line, went through security, and two minutes into Barack's speech were sitting in Suite 8. Pay attention. Don't make assumptions. Never give up. Who knows where you'll end up sitting.

Virtuality: Postcards from Small Worlds

Small Worlds is in open beta, come check me out. I can say that the startup process is easier than Second Life...I created my avatar and dog avatar in mere minutes. The interface, so far, seems a bit more gamelike than 2L, so navigation and activities are just clearer and more accessible.



So far, the clubs seem less like sex dungeons, again with a key on accessibility Small Worlds is pool halls and game rooms that get you into traditional games mentality. And finding them and getting there is easier than 2L. Music soundtracks play in most spaces and the selections are actually not bad (ie, real tracks from artists you've heard of and like, from Aphex Twin to Michael Jackson - don't know how ASCAP rights play out in Small Worlds).

Burning Man

Received an invite this morning from the DaVinci Institute in Denver to attend Night with a Futurist on July 7. Sometimes I wish I lived in the Denver area as their events usually seem relevant and interesting. Anyway, this next event is called "The Transformative Nature of Burning Man" with Scott Perlman, Co-Founder and COO of Think Like a Genius who has participated in the Burning Man event five times as well as organized the Colorado regional burning man event.

Some time ago, a co-worker of mine shared photos of when she attended the Burning Man event, so this invite reminded me to find out more about it. Upon further exploration, it did get me thinking about some Burning Man questions that may be relevant to what you're doing.

What kind of temporary community would you create, what would you name it, and where would you locate it?
What if there were no selling, no transportation other than walking or biking, and no dogs?
Who would you invite to participate, who would want to participate, and who would just show up as members of your community?
What would it feel like to participate in a community that would totally disappear with no trace within a month's time?
How would you contribute to this year's Burning Man art theme "American Dream" or past themes like Hope & Fear or The Floating World?

Check out the Burning Man website. Review the frequently asked questions, the mission statement and principles, and images of the 30' to 80' past burning mans. One day, maybe I'll participate in the Burning Man event, but until I'm ready to live with wind and dust for a week, I'll continue to experience the event through other people's sharing and my own imagination.

25 Styles of Bloggery

Rohit Bhargava strikes again with this compilation of 25 basic styles of blogging including tips on how often to use each and potential to create buzz and blog traffic by using each.

| View | Upload your own

Politics 2.0: OhBoyObama Think-tank

Oh Boy Obama is the unofficial campaign think-tank. Created by Obama supporters for the purpose of giving the Obama grassroots a platform to submit and vote on ideas to better the 2008 primary and general election campaign of Barack Obama. All supporters are welcome to contribute.

Social Wars

Current TV's amusing commentary on the state of social networks.

Tagging People At The Airport

While I was sitting at the Orlando International Airport with a few hours to kill before my flight yesterday, thought it would be interesting to write about my experience from the morning.

Prelude to the story: think about how much airport security blows. The hassles, the lines…must be an easier way, right?

When I flew out of Orlando, first thing I noticed was that security was divided up based on your ‘ranking’ as a traveler- Family, Casual, and Expert. There are a few airports experimenting with this (more deets), but this was the first time I’ve seen it first hand. After making a quick and probably unfair assessment of the three lines, I decided Expert was probably the route I should take even though I’m not sure I am one. But I kept an eye on how things were going in each line to see if this segregation was actually working and making security a less problematic process.

Overall I think it worked quite well (for most people). For me, especially after having a horrific security experience at another airport a couple weeks ago, have to say I was loving the ease of the experience.

Expert
As you would expect, the smoothest sailing of the 3. Everyone in this line had no more than two (compact) bags, said little or nothing at all to fellow passengers (even the ones who appeared to be traveling in pairs or groups). Plenty of casually dressed people in this line, many college-age and twenty-somethings. Lack of business suited-up professionals was likely due to it being a holiday, but not surprisingly its not hard to pick out the business travelers.

The flow of the line was fast, faster, fastest. If you didn’t know the motions, people cut in front of you. Asked to go through the metal detector again? TSA agents asked you to step aside so more experienced and seasoned travelers could breeze through while you got your shit together (and no, I didn’t have to go through a second time). If you weren’t fast in collecting your stuff after it went through the X-Ray, people pushed things aside in order to grab their gear and get the hell out of there. A cold and efficient machine overall, and I can’t say that I minded one bit. From the time I stepped into line till I got my bag and was walking to the gate—approx 5 minutes (and it was fairly crowded, too).

Casual
An interesting observation- there were many people (mostly younger, but even some older) who hesitated noticeably between the Expert and Casual line. I saw people look at both signs, look at each other, move towards one line but still keeping an eye on the other, wondering if they were in fact “experts”. It also appeared that since many people who normally travel for business were, today, traveling for a holiday, they seemed to be torn as to whether they were still considered an Expert on this day. In my opinion, “expert” may not have been the right tag, as the majority of people probably wouldn’t use that word to describe themselves (just like even truly wealthy people often don’t consider themselves as such).

The line appeared to be just about as smooth as the Expert line, but moved slower as many people had larger bags, or multiple bags, and I noticed many more people being asked to go through security a second time. Relatively little to none of the line-jumping or “please-step-aside” attitudes of the Expert line. TSA agents seemed slightly (but not much) more patient, speed was a little more relaxed and there wasn’t a break-neck race to gather your stuff after X-Ray.

Family
Absolute chaos. Children screaming, little boys who didn’t want to give up their back packs or toys, Mothers trying to hold two kids at once while trying to take off their own shoes and jewelry, Dad’s trying to wrangle 5 or 6 bags up onto the conveyor, many times realizing that one or more of their bags was in fact too big to fit. Getting through the metal detector seemed to be an ordeal for many, as kids were either too excited and ran through without their parents, or hesitated and didn’t want to put their toys on the conveyer or in the bins. I saw TSA agents waiting patiently for people and rarely hurrying or snapping at anyone (not sure if this is always the case, though).

The frustration of various families didn’t seem to be directed at others but rather at themselves- for their kids behavior (perhaps feeling like others would assume they didn’t have control of their kids), for making a mistake and going through the detector with keys in their pockets, for dropping a bag off the conveyor after it went through X-Ray. I think the biggest difference was that travelers in the Family line seemed to be the most willing to accept the mistakes of other travelers, maybe because they were cognizant of the fact that they themselves were often holding up the line and creating bottle-necks in the process.

**I found it pretty interesting to be a part of, and it seemed that for most people around me, this was the first time they had encountered such a system, too. I can say that, in overhearing snippets of conversations in the Expert line, people seemed quite happy that the separations were in place.

Anyone else have any experiences to relate? A few other airports have similar systems- do you think this type of setup works? Or does it create a further divide between experts and novice travelers? Between first class and coach?

And from a brand perspective, what role could an airline potentially play here- if any?

Planning For Good 24 Hour Challenge at AAAA Planning Conference

Planning For Good (PfG) will head up a 24-Hour Challenge at this year's AAAA Account Planning Conference. Junior Planners (under 5 years experience) will be invited to work on a team, with a Planning Director mentor, to solve a problem for a worthy cause. 2 non-profits will brief participants, Kiva and Witness. To participate, sign up for "Real Time Crafting" workshop when you send in your AAAA app and fees. Also note which cause you wish to work on (Kiva or Witness).

-You will need to arrive early on Saturday nite before the conference so that you can be briefed on Sunday at 9am
-You will work for 8 hours only to create a solution and a low tech, flip chart presentation. Note: You won't miss any of the conference!
-Kiva and Witness, as well as Planning For Good leadership team, will listen to private presentations by the teams on Sunday evening. A winning solution will be chosen for each cause.
-The work with be showcased and presented at an event sponsored by Good Magazine on the Tuesday evening of the conference.

What is Planning For Good?

1600+ of the brightest minds in advertising want to collaborate with good causes and make a difference.

Planning For Good’s mission is to bring strategic marketing help to not-for-profit organizations by leveraging a global network of communications planners and strategists from the worlds of advertising and branding (over 1,670 members to-date).

Planning For Good leverages the power of social networks (Bloggr, Facebook) to connect and collaborate monthly on a specific communication problem for a non-profit. A collection of this thinking is harvested then presented back to the non-profit. To date, we've responded to project briefs for Unicef, Live Earth, and Idea Village in New Orleans.

Bed feeling a little empty? How about a virtual girlfriend?

NYU student Drew Barrows recently unveiled a new invention he devised to combat the loneliness he'd been feeling as of late. Called INBED, he brought his idea out at the Interactive Telecommunications Program Spring Show at the Tisch School of the Arts.

A few excerpts on how it works:

"INBED, an “infrared-sensitive” light projected virtual girlfriend"

"So what is it exactly? It’s a single mattress with an attractive brunette who is perfectly quiet. So far sounds like a good girlfriend! Once you sit or lie down on the mattress, she will respond to your every move."

"New York Magazine explains, “Lie on your back, she snuggles up right next to you in a log position. Curl up in the fetal position, she spoons. The only hitch: She’s 2-D."

Odd? No doubt. But I imagine there's a market of lonely guys out there who might get down with something like this. Even though its not real, its the idea itself that I think could find it some success- someone waiting for you to come to bed. It's a comforting thought and helps in part to meet our needs for deep emotional connections with other people. And while this invention can't (nor does its inventor want) to replace the actual thing, the mind has a funny way of believing and seeing what it wants. I bet that if you were that lonely, even the appearance of someone waiting for you could be a soothing thought.

via TrendHunter

Politics 2.0: Things Younger Than McCain

I don't care if it is "age-ist", I'm loving this blog. It's not just how many things McCain is older than (I'm sure that list is much longer than any blog could ever cover off), but it's the odd things they've found that make it so entertaining.

My favorite so far? McCain is older than plutonium. I don't know why that's so funny to me, but it is.

Peep the blog for yourself and find your favorite younger-than-McCain goodie.

The Humanitarian Lion Project

Found this last night thanks to a guy I'm following on Twitter named @johnny_bones...



Great idea. Seems like a cool way to encourage/standardize efforts like the Tap Project. Not sure how far along they are but this vid was posted to YouTube on May 5 (so what were YOU doing to change the world this past Cinco de Mayo?).

I'll see about getting Fallon to help them out. Look for updates here on the Planning Blog.

Politics 2.0: Senator Mike Gravel Tries His Luck With Obama Girl

New from the guys at Barely Political, just over 112K views since it was added yesterday. The haters will hate, but BP and OG still do appear to be drawing at least a few eyeballs for their efforts.

Some of this one in particular is just painful to watch (like hearing Gravel stumble his way through an already lame rhyme) or the attempt at some sort of Soulja Boy steps near the end.

But whatev- its a Thursday afternoon and around that time when people start to hit the wall. It's good for a few laughs.

ROFLCon Musings

Just because it wasn’t a high school student council conference, doesn’t mean it didn’t feel like one. For serious. I used to attend those. The “it” I am referring to was the ROFLCon conference in Cambridge, MA. The energy was palpable. I hit up the conference and have a few take-aways to impart.

It should be duly noted that this conference has already been documented within an inch of its life. Between Twitter and blogs and video and and and…. The focus on the immediate can hardly be overstated. The play by play of what happened has certainly been delivered, but there were also big ideas discussed.  It is fascinating to consider the way in which our collective responses to provocative ideas are being shaped by the desire, nay the demand of an immediate response. Immediacy fundamentally changes the way in which we respond.

Mostly, what this demand for immediacy underscored for me last week was the inevitable changes it means for brand communications. Especially in the online space, if what you are delivering isn’t “eternal beta,” if it isn’t conversation based --- don’t bother doing it. Really, the propaganda machine is dead. We buried it in the ground next to dinosaurs, nuclear waste, and New Coke. Moving quickly means - you’ve heard it here before - letting go of some control and letting people be in charge. 

What doesn’t get enough attention is the reality of immediacy of action that is required to play. It isn’t about what you are thinking about doing. It is about what you do. During the opening panel there was a discussion surrounding the fluke that Internet celebrity often is, and it was pointed out that everyone on the panel actually did the “stupid shit” that everyone always talks about doing. You can’t win if you aren’t in the game.

And yet, there must be something more. Something beyond “stupid shit” – there is, my friend, there is. It involves a willingness to play by other peoples’ rules. Most brands, in all honestly, aren’t willing to play in the sandbox with the other kids. Other kids smell funny and don’t care that we have color corrected that video for like, hours and hours. Brands need to be respectful and understand the space they are in. As Ben, from Barbarian Group, brought up during the marketers panel, if a brand aims to hold someone’s attention online for a minute, their competition for that minute isn’t their traditional “competitive set” but every single other thing on the internet that people could be doing with that minute. In order to meet this demand brands will need to focus on collaborations. Brands, like people, should have a lot of friends. Play in the same sandbox people. Make nice.

Lastly, as I sat in the panels, I sank a little lower in my seat every time I heard the people talk about how they were doing whatever they were doing because they just loved doing it. Could these people smell the stink of advertising on me? Would the suit I was wearing under my skinny jeans and artfully deconstructed t-shirt be noticed? And then I exhaled; I realized that there is room in this equation for brands that are passionate about what they do. We talk about authenticity, and I think it makes us, collectively nervous. What does authenticity even mean? I don’t know that I have an answer to that one, but I have come to believe that if brands focus on people they will naturally be authentic. The people that built their company, the people that use their products – if they think about themselves as having human attributes and can talk about themselves in a human way, they won’t have to force it. Lets just all start by being a little more human.

Lifestreaming: Twitter Helps To Free A Student From Eygptian Prison

via CNN

Quite a story. A graduate student at Berkeley- James Buck- was in Eygpt covering some anti-government protests. He and his translator were nabbed and tossed in jail, and with a one word tweet ("arrested") his network lit up and started taking action to get him out. This may be one of the more powerful examples I've ever seen of how the networks we establish for ourselves online can benefit our lives.



Some excerpts from the story (but check the whole story for all the deets):

"Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator Mohammed Maree were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. "Arrested."

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt -- the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier -- were alerted he was being held.

Buck's urgent message is proof of the value of Twitter, Stone said. Buck's entry set off a chain of events that led to his college hiring a lawyer on his behalf.

"James' case is particularly compelling to us because of the simplicity of his message -- one word, 'arrested' -- and the speed with which the whole scene played out," Stone said. "It highlights the simplicity and value of a real-time communication network that follows you wherever you go."

Fast Strategy (PfG and IPA)

The IPA (the UK's AAAA's) are conducting a conference on Fast Strategy this Monday 28 April.

Mark Earls, one of the brains behind Planning for Good is taking part in a live contest against some of the sharpest minds in the London Planning scene and needs to build an army to tackle a brief from the Central Office of Information (the UK Government's communications 'client').

Mark has assembled a crack group of planners - Jon Leach (of HHCL fame), Chris Forrest (ex DFGW and now of the research company The Nursery) and Ian Tait (of Poke to work on the brief as the P4G Allstars. BUT THEY WANT YOUR HELP.

Mark wants to demonstrate the power of P4G by involving any of us with internet access (and favorable time zones) to contribute to the the thinking. Here's the deal.

Monday, April 28, 10amBST brief posted on wiki site; responses by 12pm (noon) at the latest. Mark and the team will present at 2pm BST.

Please try and contribute - it will be fun and a great demonstration of the power of P4G at work.
If you're interested please email faststrategy@planningforgood.org and/or keep an eye on Planning for Good.



Details about the IPA event below..

How can you come up with the right strategy fast? A selection of Adland’s finest will be giving practical advice on how to achieve this at the IPA and Times Media Strategy Conference on Monday 28th April.
Speakers will include:

- Tim Lindsay, President, TBWA Group: 'How taking the disruption approach can help you get to the right answer fast.'

- Tim Hames, Assistant Editor & Chief Leader Writer, The Times: 'What planners can learn from those that write the news and the pressures of doing it fast and accurately.'

- Gurdeep Puri, Head of Effectiveness, and Janey Bullivant, Board Planning Director, Leo Burnett: 'How, counter to popular belief, data can help you to get to the answers fast'.

- Jon Wilkins, Founder, Naked: 'Fast strategy in a media environment'.

- Stuart Smith, Head of Planning, Wieden & Kennedy London: 'Strategic and creative dovetailing - Fast'.

- Rob Forshaw, Founding Partner, Grand Union: 'How to develop thinking quickly from a digital perspective'.

These short, sharp and fast presentations will be presented throughout the morning, whilst leading communications consultant Mark Earls; Phil Georgiadis, Chairman of Walker Media; Johnny Hornby, Founding Partner of CHI & Partners, and their respective teams, will be putting into practice what they do best and responding to a highly realistic but fictitious COI brief, set and delivered by Peter Buchanan, Deputy Chief Executive, COI.

You, the audience, will then get the opportunity to vote for who you think is the fastest strategist in town, when these three teams return to the stage in the afternoon to pitch live in front of the audience.

Says Guy Murphy, Chairman IPA Strategy Group and Worldwide Planning Director, JWT, “The most important skill that strategists need to learn in this era is speed. The quality of a strategic answer is now partly determined by the time taken to create it. Slow-baked strategy, no matter how good, can never be great.”

The conference will take place between 9am-5pm on Monday 28th April at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE.

Networked Self: Axe on Yahoo! Live

Looks like Axe Brazil is using Yahoo! Live to good effect.


I guess it beats lookin' at my channel

*Unfortunately, the dudes here seem creepy. Put a shirt on!

Politics 2.0: 3Trillion.org

Who needs the lame tax stimulus check, when I got a $3 Trillion gift certificate to spend?




3trillion.org, is a web site that gives you 3 trillion dollars - the money American tax-payers are projected to spend on the Iraq war - and use it in a virtual shopping spree for your friends and family. Lets go shopping!

I picked up a few tchotckes including a space vacation, a Wii, the Yankees, the Beatles catalog, and a lil' somethin'-somethin' for New Orleans.

Guilty Pleasure: Subway Crush

Subway Crush is a new missed connections site for all those times you were on the train but just didn't get to talk to that stranger at the other end of the car. Simple really, the site just takes what Craigslist already does and focuses on one area where missed connections occur- and puts a little more attention on web design than CL.

Still thinking about that girl you saw on your way to work last week? Now you may have a chance after all...

Panic Button: Water

Good Magazine explores the stats and realities of our planet's most abundant (and scarce) resource, water.

Fallon Brainfood: The Social 10 Redux

10 Things Marketers Should Know About Social Networking.

On March 26th, 2008, Aki Spicer, strategic planner at Fallon Worldwide, conducted a presentation about social media, using social media, live, across a mashup of social web touchpoints including Fallon Planning Blog on Blogger, Yahoo! Live, NetVibes, Plannersphere on Ning, and Facebook. View the accompanying slides at Slideshare or download the pdf directly to your desktop at Dropio.

Below is the recorded videos (1,2,and 3) and slideshow links of the presentation in case you missed it live on the web:

| View | Upload your own

What is Brainfood?
Brainfood is a monthly all-agency lunch conducted by Fallon Planners. Wide-ranging topics explore trends, business issues, and actionable opportunities for our brands. Moreover, Brainfood offers us a chance to come together, share a beer and some pizza, and engage in a stimulating discussion on a variety of interesting topics that affect our business. Previous topics have included Virtuality, China Rising, Design For All with more stimulating editions still to come.

Ad/Packaging vs Reality

Found a great site, pundo3000.com, which showcases global food products (with their well-art directed "perfect spoonfuls") VERSUS THE PRODUCT REALITY inside the package.

MMmm, tasty.

Introducing Billy Bones

Fallon art director Chris Lincoln, is debuting his new children's book Billy Bones and its now available in USA via pre-order on Amazon, or in UK via LoveReading4Kids.co.uk or via Amazon UK.


*Here's what Little, Brown & Company Books for Young Readers has to say about Billy Bones.

View more Billy Bones BooTube here.

Mass Interactive: We Think

Vid promoting Charles Leadbetter's new book "We Think".