Time Bomb - Interactive Graffiti (StupidKrap & Holler) from Mike Hill on Vimeo.
A lot of application I think beyond the visual feast - particularly in the interactive out of home space.
I've been working recently on adding logos to QR codes, tweaking formatting and generally trying to 'push it' creatively with these fascinating pieces of technology.
No wonder then that this piece of work really caught my eye. A lot of debate on line as to whether this code can be read with most current QR code readers. Apparently in Japan, it's all good.
We've seen some very interesting results in Australia using QR codes, in some cases codes outperform SMS keyword response, despite having less than 10% of the active user base.
Why? IMO it's simply down to the fact that this is a responsive community - we're talking people who want to engage and interact with advertising.
Let face it, to the initiated QR codes scream a promise of content beyond.
Personally I think Loius Vuitton, Set japan.and Takashi Murakami have done a great job - certainly I can see the conversations with creative folk going much further now compared to the somewhat typical "Are you f(*^&ing kidding - I don't want that crossword puzzle anywhere near my beautiful ad"...
Writing a presentation to a client who wants to get better at Recession Marketing.
Ok, so it's been a few months. I've had every intention of posting some longer-form thoughts I've been developing with, but well.. it just ain't happened. "Builder's house" and all that.
Twitter has become a quicker outlet (and a reason why my frequency has dropped off everywhere)... follow me here: @sim_on ...but I've also been blogging at Publicis Digital, Myne and working on a new site for a permission marketing concept we have been developing for Australia.
Lastly I've been playing a lot of Ukulele lately, this is a pic of me playing with the BUKaneers (Balmain Ukulele Club) at the start of Accoustica Week Balmain April 2009 - this song a Dean Martin Classic, Sway.
Oh and some of the videos I had on Brightcove have disappeared - funny how I just assumed they would be there forever and that these were effectively my 'back-up' copy. Note to self: never trust company that reinvents it's model every few months.
Cheers.
[P.S. Yes, Brightcove did send me an email explaining they were changing their terms of service, but not with enough notice IMHO and the option was go from our free service to paying two grand a year. Then a few months later they contacted me to participate in a research piece about another new pricing model - clearly the last one didn't work - no shit.]
I put this mood edit together for a recent pitch. We didn't win it, but liked this bit. The idea we had which i can't share unfortunately was around combining three current trends. Data visualisation (interesting stuff here here ) with the notion of radical transparency wrapped into a cause-related context, boy it was powerful stuff, at least I thought so.
Recently I found myself in yet another debate about advertising campaign microsites versus pointing campaign traffic to the existing destination site.
My first instinct is to try to integrate with existing sites partly because I’ve always thoughts it’s a better way to go but also because it’s counter to what most agencies tend to do. By going the microsite way you can avoid the perceived constraints of the current site architecture and underlying technology. It’s all care and no responsibility...and for many that's an excuse for elaborately rich flash-based experiences some good and some just, well crap. Of course it really depends on what you're trying to achieve. This 15MB initial load, flash-based site for LG is designed to be an immersive, gamelike experience - I think it works great as an entertainment piece (the guys who did this are part of the agency group I work for).
Here are a few thoughts in support of microsites.
Righto.
How good is typepad for iphone?
I'm curious...so here goes.
Great night at Olympic park last night although the kiwis lost their second in a row. A long time since that has happened!
Almost 80,000 shared the experience with poor lad Ritchie having to sit the game out on the bench.
The Aussies were impressive, it must be said, and a great night had by all (Morgan family ex-youngest and some friends).
Not sure about that camera Steve. Otherwise, love yer work.
Telstra's QR Code launch teaser campaign broke yesterday.
It's great to see this technology finally arrive in Australia, and as I've said, before, I'm convinced this new tool will change the face of media activation and response marketing. Coupled with the arrival of iPhone in a few short weeks we clearly also about to see some big behavioral changes in the way that people use mobile devices.
Where every year for the past five has been labelled by forecasters as 'the year of the mobile', the next 12 months will certainly see some dramatic changes.
Two recent stats that reinforce this.
1. In a recent MNet study - 40% of Australians have accessed Mobile Data Service and more specifically the mobile web in the last month.
2. A recent US study from M:Metrics found that 84.8 percent of iPhone owners use the device to browse the web as compared to 13.1 percent of people who own other mobile devices.
It will be interesting to see how quickly marketers move this time to follow customer adoption of this technology. I'm picking that it will be much faster than the market took to the web.
They've been talked about quite a bit over the last 12 months in Aus and to a lesser extent in NZ.
Soon QR Codes (or whatever they end up being dubbed in Aus as Densu Wave owns the trademark) may be widespread in Australia.
Given the rise of this technology in other markets, and the sheer utility offerred by these cool-looking objects I genuinely think that QR Codes could revolutionise response marketing in Aus. Perhaps even in the same way that its humbler 2D barcode cousin did for the retail business process in the 80s and 90s. That is assuming that a relatively open standard can be established, rather than having many competing barcodes and their associated readers.
I've been lucky enough to have trialled the beta for Telstra's code reader and have to say it is a great app. Once booted it takes about three seconds to load up. From there the camera literally needs only a fleeting glimpse of the QR code before triggering the action - in this case (the code above) it reads my name and phone number into contacts. Believe me it is seriously cool. If you want to try this for yourself the i-nigma reader will work on some phones (but not as well as Telstra's reader).
No firm news yet on when they will be launched in Aus, but one assumes that when they are, readers will be baked into phones base configuration, making adoption rapid.
The marketing applications for QR codes are vast. Actions that can be triggered from QR codes include: opening a WAP site, transferring contact or text details, communicating product ingredients, triggering a download and so on. To give an idea of how much information can be contained in this format - its about 25 times more than a standard SMS.
What's really interesting to me over and above their ability to activate marketing campaigns in a superior way, is the sheer utility that QR Codes can unlock. Yes its that useful question again.
This from a punter commenting on the Amplify Blog
"I live & work in Japan, I use QR codes regularly for a range of services, the main one is to setup and automate many of my travel renewals, ID, flight boarding pass, purchases, membership and purchase discounts at cafes and bars. Sounds mundane and unglamorous for a high-tech application, but it’s the fasted growing retail sales sector in Japan. I find myself exposed to new brands, information and discount vouchers, which I use or refer to friends.
Now you're talking!
OK, here its is. Had a bit of fun putting this together in a tiny amount of free-time whilst at a Publicis conference this week.
110 people attended this event organised by Touchpoint as part of Australian Innovation week.
The speaking event went well I think - I certainly enjoyed it (even if I did monopolise the first hour, sorry Marcus, Mike and Peter). I managed to get the presentation here down to the 25 minutes that I originally intended it to be!
The first bit of the video is a tad slow but there are three case study videos embedded later in the flow - so wipe right or sit tight.
I'm excited about this approach, combining slideshows with video and adding a voiceover.
We have a number of internal training programmes at Publicis that would really benefit from this type of approach.
How I made the file: I edited out the ums and ahhs in Garage Band (blimey, so many), then exported the presso as a quicktime from Keynote, then imported both into Final Cut Express and edited together with other imported assets. [btw I think slideshare allows a voice over, but won't allow video content].
I'm using Brightcove's service to deploy the file, which I found excellent. Their FLV converter also worked a treat.
Anyway enjoy it.
Any feedback much appreciated.
Simon Morgan is a Partner at Myne a specialist marketing consultancy owned by Publicis Mojo Australia.
This is his personal weblog and of course doesn't necessarily reflect the views of his employer, although he suspects that they would probably agree with most things said here.
