Randle rambles

Spent an afternoon at the V&A this week taking a look at the Decode: Digital Design Sensations exhibtion that is currently on.

Really reminiscent of the early experimental Macromedia Shockwave and Flash work that came out in the 90’s by the likes of Anti-Rom, Joshua Davies (Who exhibits), Tomato, Show Studio etc.

For me the best work was the Processing exhibits, even though it’s been around for a while I think it’s time is coming and it’s gonna really take off. Worth a visit to the V&A go take a look.

Another great find whilst doing client research is The Web Strategy blog by Jeremiah Owyang.

An incredible source of knowledge and insight into web strategies. Written by Jeremiah Owyang who was a Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, and is now Partner of Customer Strategy at Altimeter Group.

Good reading:
Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ Into Total Customer Value
Four Social Media Trends for Business in 2010

I hope he won’t mind but I’ve pinched his “To Be Successful, Companies Should Focus On Four Key Trends in 2010″ to share with you.

Don’t fondle the hammer.
Understand customers, focus on objectives, not develop strategies based on ever-changing tools. Companies really need to understand their customers first, see our recorded webinar to learn more.

Live the 80% rule.
This is a movement: get your company ready. 80% of success is getting the right organizational model, roles, processes, stakeholders, and teams assembled –only 20% should be focused on technology.

Customers don’t care what department you’re in.
Customers just want their problem fixed, they don’t care what department you’re in. Yet, now, nearly every department can have a direct relationship with your customers using social tools. As a result, provide customers with a holistic experience Start to investigate how brand monitoring, community tools and CRM systems are merging.

Real time is *not* fast enough.
Companies cannot scale when it comes to social media, for most companies, you cannot hire enough people to monitor and respond to the conversation, As a result, lean on advocates, by building unpaid armies, and anticipate customer needs through advanced listening techniques.

The image above is from “The Future of the Social Web” Forrester Apr 2009.
The Five Eras of the Social Web.

I have been doing some research for a client brand workshop and have come across some really insightful information that I am going to have to post up including this handy little graph on screen resolution saturation.

Until a couple of years ago screen resolution used to be a huge factor when talking to clients about website design. There was a period of shift over a number of years from 600×800 to 1024×768, and trying to convince clients to make the jump to the larger resolution was like trying to get blood out of stone.

Providing multiple designs over two formats, illustrating cut-off points, explaining grids, trying to explain benefits of static versus fluid templates, text re-sizing blah, blah, blah. This was not only time consuming but soul destroying. Oh how we laughed and cried behind the scenes…

With 57% of screens now above 1024×768 could we be swiftly approaching the next jump up to 1280 or even 1680?

Let the pain begin again!

Well it finally made an appearance yesterday!

A brilliant quote to start the proceedings by The Wall Street Journal “Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it.”

It was obviously one of the best leaked or worst kept secrets ever. The best description I have heard of the iPad is that it’s basically an iPhone on steroids.

I think that Apple have found themselves in a difficult situation with the iPad, if it did too much (multitasking as everyone presumed) then they would have potentially wiped out demand for their MacBook range and possibly the MacBook Air.

The biggest revolution with a screen of this size and resolution must be how we’re going to be able to consume more effective rich media. Newspapers and magazines will become far better engaging experiences and with Apple’s desirability factor making their products mainstream could this be the biggest opportunity for brands to push personalised content and advertising based on profiling?

This collaboration between The Wonderfactory and Time, Inc. is an example of how people have been pushing the engagement levels of the digital versions of magazines.

The worst thing about the iPad – still no support for Flash?

Steve really mustn’t like someone at Adobe.

Well the day has finally arrived!

For lovers of all things shiny that come out of Apple, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino this has the promise of being one of the biggest events ever. The rumour mills have been in overdrive lately with talk of a revolutionary tablet, with blogs and forums posting supposed leaked photo’s, url registration forms, patent applications etc.

The event kicks off at 6pm GMT so lets see if there’s enough bandwidth to watch!

Are we telling stories or are we just playing games?

So the biggest thing that I took away from Click London last year was how advertisers are having to address how they communicate to their consumers and the general public.

In the last decade the huge increase in popularity of the internet, smart phones, and gaming machines meaning there has been a complete revolution in how people communicate. In turn brands can no longer just shout messages at people they have to be much more engaging and reactive to audiences. In short brands have to be become useful to their consumers.

Lee Clow and Alex Bogusky (blog) discuss the merging worlds of gaming, computing, movies and social media and the way that advertising is being born again by becoming much more integrated and engaging.

Turning a ‘Monologue into a Dialogue’ – courtesy of Lee Clow.

A distinct lack of posts reflects how hectic the end of ‘09 was, the world of marketing appeared to start to shake off the worst effects of the downturn and it has been a rather crazy few months. Hopefully 2010 will be much more positive for everyone.

Well I did expect the most desirable object of the start of 2010 to be the Google Nexus One, but already in my eyes this has been beaten by the unbelievable Parrot AR.Drone. To say that I want one is an understatement.

The AR.Drone is a helicopter that features within two augmented reality games. The helicopter is controlled via Wi-Fi by either iPhone or iPod Touch and uses the accelerometer and touchscreen as controls. The helicopter boasts a camera so that you can see what’s going on through your iPhone or iPod Touch’s display.

One word: Awesome

Tomorrow I am off to Click London, hosted by Creative Review at LBi’s London Headquarters.

Tomorrow’s theme is – Advertising born again


Advertising is not dead, it’s just being born again by merging with the world of gaming, computing, movies, and social media – in short, advertising is getting closer to, and more integrated, with all the things that people are already using and appreciating in their daily lives. Nowhere is this more evident than in the digital advertising world. In order to become relevant in the everyday lives of regular people, brands need to enter the web that people actually use. With this in mind, we set out to explore how all the external influences will impact the creativity of digital advertising.

A full day’s activity and lectures given by some of the industries big hitters including James Hilton, Chief Creative Officer, AKQA, Johan Tesch, Creative Director, BBH, Nicolas Roope, Founder/Creative Director, Poke London, Matt Ross, Creative Director, Tribal DDB London.

Expect updates on how the day progressed and what were the main topics of conversation.

Bold, ambitious, energetic, cool these are some of the qualities needed of the world’s greatest city, and they can also be attributed to this frankly amazing concept submitted to a recent London design competition.

Mayor Boris Johnson has commited to build a tourist attraction in the Olympic Park. This entry was submitted by an international team of architects, artists and engineers.

You can read more on the BBC news website and at the official raisethecloud.org website.