For Trey

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 

– Dylan Thomas, 1951

RIP Trey Pennington. We miss you terribly.

1000heads: Social Media in Turkey

A couple of weeks ago now, one of Turkey’s leading social media sites, SosyalMedya.co, reached out to 1000heads for some opinion and insight about the amazing growth the area has seen over the past year.

The full item can be read [in Turkish!] on their site, however, Fulya Çimen, content strategist at SosyalMedya.co has kindly allowed us to print the full interview, in English, right here.

Why? Because the Istanbul social media scene is exploding and as an industry we should be sitting up and paying attention. The Turks are coming!

Enjoy —–

 

FC / JW

At sosyalmedya.co, one of the leading websites / digital platforms about social media in Turkey, we are covering a story about social media in Europe and the image of Turkish social media as well as that of Turkish digital agencies. Our main point of this interview is to acquire a foreign insight into these areas – to that point:

Can you define social media in one sentence, with your own words?

For me, social media is (any kind of) content that can be and/or is shared. It is not limited to digital either; you and I gathered around a YouTube video playing on my MacBook is also social media.

Can you define the impact of social media in one sentence, with your own words?

It is almost indefinable! The impact of social media over the past decade has been world changing on a level that we will only really be able to measure when we’re far enough away from it to measure. In the same way that the industrial revolution transformed farming and agriculture globally, the social media revolution is uniting people across the world in ways that we simply cannot measure yet.

Leaving out your own projects, can you tell us about a piece of social media work that you like most?

Here in London, we’ve just witnessed some of the worst riot scenes in living history. The damage is horrific and the impact on the lives of the community is abhorrent. However, through social media, that very same community has pulled together under the Twitter hashtag of #riotcleanup and, even as I type, people from all over London are forming together to help clean up the mess that the rioters have left behind. That is one of the most recent – and best – social media projects I can think of, full stop.

Internet is global. But when it comes to digital projects, do you believe in the importance of localizing as it is in traditional advertising and marketing?

Yes. Massively. I was recently in the Lebanon and the localization work that Nokia has done across the entire Levant region is truly admirable. We’re talking about a brand that is going through some huge changes and yet they still manage to maintain a foothold in these areas thanks to that fantastic localization.

Do you have any opinion or insight about Turkish customers on digital?
The only insights I have I’ve gained recently through the INNLondon project. Designed as a “cultural embassy existing both physically and digitally” its current city inspiration is Istanbul and the numbers and figures I’ve seen coming out are astronomical.

For example, in a similar trend to the rest of the world, the last decade has seen a 1000% increase of Internet users with nearly half of the Turkish population now an Internet user of some kind. This stat alone demonstrates astonishing growth and is something that should be both highlighted and applauded.

If you have an idea or guess about Turkish audience on Internet; as a social media professional, what would be the most effective platform/area in social media for reaching the Turkish audience in social media in your opinion?

Facebook is obviously the easiest response to this question, although I would have to research the numbers to get any real figures. My only prediction in this area would be around an increase in both the use (and access of) the mobile Internet and of course, Twitter. However, comScore reports Turkey as being ranked in the top ten countries for Google Plus adoption and so I would also be interested to see what impact that has on day-to-day social media life, if any.

What do you think about Turkish social media? What is your opinion about Turkish marketing and advertising industry approaches to social media?

Here in London, Turkey (and in the main, Istanbul) is constantly being referred to as a ‘new digital hub’, where the territory is fertile and the climate is right for growth. My knowledge of the local space is not huge, however the impact of the work that’s being done there is echoing across the globe.

1000heads: You down with NFC?

Yeah you know me!

If you’ve been following @1000heads on Twitter, you might know that we’ve been tinkering around with NFC of late, and for good reason.

Last week, as part of our activity for Nokia’s Symbian Belle launch, we arranged a special ‘48hrs in Hong Kong‘ for a very lucky group of six select bloggers.

Aside from running the very latest update of Nokia’s Symbian software – aka ‘Symbian Belle’ – these new Belle devices all come with Near Field Communications (NFC) baked-in. Which means, you simply tap – and go.

Working with the smart guys over at NFC-Hub we produced special NFC-enabled posters, similar to the below –

NFC Hub @ 1000heads

– that were placed up at different locations around Hong Kong. Delivering against Nokia’s release message of ‘Try Something New’, #NokiaTSN, we thought we’d set a two day course of exactly that, with our guests trying their hands at all things news. For example, riding the Crystal Cable Car or simply taking in a Tai Chi lesson in the park.

The best part being that once the on-site posters were tapped –

– the entrants would automatically check-in on Facebook and/or Foursquare (depending on the poster used) which in turn would produce results like this:


Much fun was had indeed.

With NFC becoming more and more prevalent [see Museum integration as well as Dennis Publishing getting in on the act], expect more NFC-based shenanigans from us very soon and, if you find yourself in the 1000heads offices at any point in the future, why not tap us up?

1000heads: 3CT #2

It’s time for episode two of ‘Three Cool Things’, for a bit of background on what this post is all about, please jump back and check out episode one. In the meantime, let’s crack on.

Last Friday’s #3CT kicked off with Michael Quinn talking about the Volkswagen Bluemotion Roulette activity in Norway earlier this year.

First, the video –

Yes, it’s a cool piece of work. Yes, it’s a cool use of Google Maps. But the most interesting part of the whole case study? Check the voice-over at 33secs –

“A TV commercial informed Norway that a Golf BlueMotion would drive northbound from Oslo in two weeks. People were invited to place their bet on where the car would run out of fuel.”

The interest wasn’t built via their Facebook page, nor was it garnered through Twitter. This integrated campaign used ‘traditional’ media to drive eyeballs to the activity. TV to Social. Not the first, but certainly part of a new trend.

Next up, Katie Bunting showed us this video. Simply entitled ‘Eat‘.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=27243869&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

Now, this video [and it’s two counterparts, Move and Learn], did the rounds a good month or so ago and this fact alone meant that it nearly didn’t make the ‘cool’ cut. However, Katie brought along a new insight. Over half of the ‘heads in the room had seen the video(s) but virtually none of them new why it was done or for who.

If you don’t know, click through and scroll down, it surprised us – a lot.

For us, this served as a healthy reminder that when your video goes viral [the three videos combined views are over 9million], most of those views will come from other blogs embedding your content and sharing with their own communities.

Which means, if you haven’t remembered to brand your video anyway, it’ll be much harder for viewers to make any kind of connection.

Finally, our third item consisted of the first half of a work in progress case study [one that we can’t share yet – not until we get the results at least], so in the meantime take a look at this work from Sao Paulo to help launch a brand new ‘turbo’ fan –

We love our outdoor work here at 1000heads and this idea is simple, understandable and completely universal.

Very ‘cool’ indeed.

 

 

Ulaanbataar

The Ger Camp

Moleskine Entry: April 19th, 2011

Writing this today sat in a traditional Mongolian Ger tent, there’s a fire stove burning and the group next to me are learning how to play a game involving the ankle bones from a goat.

Perfect.

We arrived into Mongolia’s capital early yesterday morning and boy was a it ever a long day – in the best of ways.

First, after the SIX HOURS it took to cross the border, we arrived in Ulaanbataar (UB) with relative ease. We switched over to local time (which is probably still messing with our heads) and disembarked.

Our Honcho, a mad, mad woman called Odka – “Like Vodka! But no V!” she exclaimed – greeted us and drove us into town.

Things of note

  • 24hr banking in UB is a work of genius. The only caveat being that you have to knock on the door of the bank until the teller wakes up! Also, once inside, be ready to manoeuvre [quietly] around snoring cashiers.
    .
  • Mongolian people are awesome. Friendly, smiley and very, very hospitable. We kind of came to expect this given the warm reception we had from our fellow travellers en route but, here in their home-country, the kindness of the locals really shines.
    .
  • California Bar for breakfast? Our first non-Siberian/non-ready-made meal for over a week? Oh go on then. Classy, I know.
    .
  • General traffic-based mayhem (I may have video of this knocking around somewhere).
    .
  • Occasional bullet holes.

Overall, this city is cool. The mad, mad, mad culture clash of eastern tradition and western aspiration has created a truly remarkable vibe.

Between then and now much has happened but dinner is nearly ready and I have to go. There’s still so much to catch up on but I’ll have to save all that for later.

Tonight, we sleep under the stars.

Lighting the stove
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2011-08-29-1636

The Hunt for Hanna

Just over a week ago I was sent an email about the new Blu-Ray/DVD release of the child/assassin-based thriller, Hanna.

Note: this is not your average email, but we’ll come to that shortly.

If you’ve not seen the film before (I haven’t), it’s about a teenage girl (the amazing Saoirse Ronan) who has been trained by her ex-CIA father (Eric Bana) to basically be a complete bad-ass. Think Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass [but slightly older and with less pink wig-ness] and you’re probably halfway there.

Anyway, like I said, she’s been trained to be THE PERFECT ASSASSIN and then well, from what I can see from the trailer, Cate Blanchett turns up and the proverbial really hits the fan.

Speaking of which, the trailer is worth a look –

What do you think? I missed this at the cinema as I had only just got back from my mad trip across Siberia, but it does actually look quite good. IMDb gives it a solid 7/10 and, I think I probably will pick this up at some point also.

So, why am I blogging about it? Given that a) I haven’t actually seen it yet and b) although the film looks good, it doesn’t seem to be the kind of epic masterpiece that normally drives me to put e-pen to e-paper.

Well, it’s that email I mentioned at the top. It would seem that HMV and Universal have teamed up to create a rather awesome Foursquare-based treasure hunt across three major cities in the UK (London, Birmingham and Manchester) that kicks off this weekend.

Based around the central themes of the film, each hunt contains six codes that need cracking and from there you end up with six locations that need checking into.

The prize for completing said task? Er.. a weekend in Berlin! Sweet.

If you’re any of the above cities, your orders are available c/o The Galinka Project (but be quick, you only have until Monday). In the meantime, I have codes to crack.

Catch you later.

 

 

 

1000heads: The IAB: Rules Rules Rules

As part of our active membership of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Social Media Council, it’s our duty to discuss, debate and disclose details and information about the issues facing the industry today.

Effective immediately, we’ll be contributing a monthly column to the IAB UK Social blog pages and that kicks off today with this blog post covering off the ASA’s new remit, Tiger Woods’ sponsorship with Nike and acceptance of modern day commercially arranged endorsements.

Get involved.

1000heads: Ticketmaster: Social Ticketing

This morning, Mashable is reporting the launch of Ticketmaster‘s latest layer of Facebook integration, a move that allows users to see exactly where their Facebook friends will be sitting at various different events and gigs across the globe.

Live on over 9000 events across the Ticketmaster website, the new interactive map enables seat tagging, which will post to your Facebook wall requesting (or nudging) your friends to do the same.

Got that? No? Try watching this 80 second explanation –

Social ticketing is something we’ve talked about before here at the ‘heads, but that was more around using social media to reward regular attendees with loyalty points and bonuses. What Ticketmaster have done here – really quite well – is taken the Facebook social graph API and applied it to their own site.

In a similar way that Trip Advisor change the structure of what you’re looking at depending on your friends’ purchasing decisions after their experiences, Ticketmaster has taken a step forward by showing the purchasing decision before the experience. Enabling friends to buy tickets whenever they want instead of waiting and waiting until they’re able to get their tickets at the same time.

I’m reminded of something that o2’s Head of Social Media, Alex Pearmain, said at the Social Media Influence conference back in June –

“How much are we seeing of social brought into commerce rather commerce being brought into social?”

Setting up shop in a Facebook tab is [relatively] easy by comparison, so why not consider changing your customers’ web experience based upon their Facebook preferences as they travel around your website? 

To top it off, Ticketmaster’s research suggests that every time a ticket purchase is shared through social, that converts to an extra five dollars in additional ticket sales. Social media integration moving the sales needle? Perfection. Definitely something to keep an eye on in the future.

Irrespective of your feelings around the Ticketmaster brand, this new feature is smart, useful and ultimately beneficial to the end customer. Well done.

Inspiring new forms of creative expression through mobile devices

Or “How I predicted Google Photovine before it was announced”

A few months ago, I shared a research panel alongside one Marek Pawlowski. Marek runs the MEX (Mobile User Experience) conference and is a keen mobile futurist.

He and I had met before but it’s always good to refresh connections and, a month or so later, he asked if I could take part in a new MEX pathway entitled ‘Inspiring new forms of creative expression through mobile devices’.

“Sounds great Marek, but I’m off to Siberia next month and well, I won’t really be around to contribute properly.”

“That’s fine.” he said  “Just present at the event when you’re back in May.”

So I did.

And in fact, I probably gave a better presentation because of it: chilled out (after a whole month away from the internet), wearing a t-shirt and – probably for the first time ever – presenting in trainers.

Getting back to the event, the questions Marek posed as part of the pathway were as follows:

  1. How does ubiquitous access to new sensors such as touchscreens, gestural input and location tracking change the expression of human creativity?
  2. What does artistic experimentation at the boundaries of digital technology teach us about mainstream user experience requirements of the future?
  3. How does mass person-to-person communications facilitate new creative experiences through co-operative working?
  4. Will person-to-person communications enriched with new channels, such as haptics, emerge as a new form of artistic expression in itself?
  5. Are the text-based ‘Status Updates’ espoused by Facebook and Twitter the zenith of emotional expression or can human moods be better expressed?

My presentation (and the ideas around the answers I gave) can be seen in full below but, I implore you, click through to the actual Slideshare page so you can read the corresponding speaker notes. It doesn’t really make sense without them…

#MEX11: Inspiring new forms of creative expression through mobile devices http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=mex11-110507045025-phpapp02&rel=0&stripped_title=mex11-inspiring-new-forms-of-creative-expression-through-mobile-devices&userName=whatleydude

One thing I do want to focus on, however, is slide 17, MEX Pathway point number three [quick click through]:

How does mass person-to-person communications facilitate new creative experiences through co-operative working?

The answer I gave in my talk (or at least the one word that came to mind when I the question was posed), was ‘Meme‘. The two slides that followed explored the idea of the web-based meme going mobile. To quote:

“What about memes on mobile? I snap this, send it you, you change it, send it back.. An instant meme app? Yes please. Where do I sign?”

That, was May 2011. Two months later, in July, I spot this video from Google, courtesy of The Next Web –

Alright, so perhaps it isn’t exactly the meme-based application that I was hoping for and/or predicting, but it’s pretty darn close. Theme-based sharing even. And, if you recall what the original pathway set out to cover – Inspiring new forms of creative expression through mobile devices – this app nails it.

Bizarrely, for an app developed by Google, it’s only available on iPhone right now, but I’m sure this will change over time. And when it does, I’ll be ready and waiting – because having my friends help drive my mobile creativity is something I’m really actually quite looking forward to.

Thanks for stopping by.

UPDATE: the video of said talk is now available –

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=24190039&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0

James Whatley from Marek Pawlowski on Vimeo.

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Notes
Like I said, go and read that Slideshare deck properly – with the speaker notes.
And when you’re done there, go and read this article on Mobile Industry Review that references some of the above findings.Â