iPhone apps as art?

Does the People's Love for their iPhones have no end?

From Creative Review

At Apple's recent WWDC developer conference, 20,000 of the most popular iPhone apps were showcased on a pulsating wall of 30 Cinema Displays. Whenever someone downloaded a particular app, its icon pulsed light outwards creating a mesmerising display.

I don't want a friend, I want a bank.

On the weekend, I had to take some money out of an ATM. It was a Westpac one.
I don't bank with Westpac, so I knew I was in for a fee. But that's okay.
I key in my desired amount. Insufficient funds. $2.
I key in a lesser amount. Still insufficient funds. Another $2.
I ask to see my balance. Another $2. No longer ok.
And so I leave the ATM with six dollars less than I started with and a burning desire to start a riot. But I calm down. Until I see this.
Now it's game on.
'We're care factor 50'? 'We're take a jumper just in case'? Now you're taking the piss. You're laughing at my inability to find a non-robbing ATM or real competition in the mortgage market. You're pointing out and underlining the inequity of our relationship, while pretending that we're all equals. And fooling, who?
How did that even get off the creative's pad, let alone get on TV? In a couple of hours, my attitude toward Wetspac turned from ambivilance to irritation to a well-founded suspicion of pure evil.
I've worked on banks in the past. I don't know what it is, but they are obsessed with being liked. With having their charitable deeds and community activism acknowledged. With having their essential place in society acknowledged.
While at the same time charging people $6 to withdraw no money from an outsourced ATM and thinking they won't notice.
Here it is, Banks. I don't want you to be my friend. I don't want you to send me a card at Christmas. I just want you to be a bank, without violating me too vigorously.
Something Barclay's seems to understand.

What's on the Wall?

Hmmm...a man with a jackhammer, a pipe, eye patch and heroic Chinese workers. What kind of ad will it be?

Is it ok to steal ideas from YouTube?

The most withering judgement one creative can pass on another's work is; 'it's been done'. In our peculiar segment of our peculiar industry, originality is valued above all else, even intelligibility and efficacy. The current head on the chopping block (or chopping blog in the case of Campaign Brief) is JWT's new spot for Allen's lollies. In it, a giant doll walks down a city street, blowing bubbles that turn into sweets.




Now regardless of any other considerations, it does bear remarkable similarity to this piece of film posted by a company called The Electric Pig.



Or even this viral campaign for Levi's Jeans by BBH in London.




Predictably, the creative community cries 'plagiarism'. And it's hard to believe that at least some of the people involved in the Allen's job weren't aware of the Electric Pig project.
But does it matter that creatives find inspriration on YouTube? In Oasis' pomp, Noel Gallagher proudly noted that he stole most of his ideas from the Beatles. The Rolling Stones started out overtly and publicly trying to mimic Southern Blues artists like Muddy Waters. Visual artists and novelists are also proud to identify the origins of their ideas.
Perhaps these other creative types understand that there is little that's absolutely original in the world, and instead try to move the good ideas that exist just one step further. Or mix two existing ideas together to produce something new.
However, unlike pure artists whose work needs to stand in it's own right, we are commercial artists who use ideas to promote and sell our client's products.
Is it right to hold ourselves to a higher level of creative accountability? Is the 'it's been done' argument a reach for higher standards or nothing more than self-indulgent creative naval-gazing? Should we be less concerned about where an idea comes from, and put more thought into making sure it achieves what marketing objectives it is meant to?
There are 20 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, let alone other video sharing sites like Vimeo. If we discount all of this, what are we left with?

There might be something in this social media after all.

Last week, Russia's Digital Sky Technologies paid US $200 million for a tad less than 2% of Facebook, valuing the social network site at $10 billion. Which sounds like a lot while argument still rages about Facebook's lack of ability to carry advertising or deliver sustained, mass-market advertising results. But what the Ruskis might have worked out, that most of us have not, is that Facebook represents not just another medium to flog a sales message, but rather a tell-tale of how technology is changing the way companies communicte with their customers. A smarter man than me explains it all here.

Don't do it Jana!

Station promos in Australia are generally extremely persuasive commercials for the immediate abolition of the entities they're supposed to promote. My personal low-point was seeing hitherto-respected Jana Wendt sing cabaret with Ray Martin to flog another year of 9. WHY JANA WHY? At least ITV here are trying.

Brand Kings Cross Clare

Last Saturday night, there was a shooting in Kings Cross, Sydney.

This in itself is not unusual. People are, and often ought to be, shot in the Cross all the time.

What did catch the eye was the magnificent TV interview with an eyewitness, Clare.

In a few, beautifully short sentences, Clare etched herself into the memories of millions.

Less than a week later, she has 10000 facebook fans, 100,000 Youtube hits and a PR Agent.

Some have even questioned whether or not Clare is real, or just an elaborate PR stunt. Which is either a barometer of the underemployment of industry commentators, or a low-water mark in the histroy of marketing.

She has come to mean something.

Clare from Kings Cross is now a brand. As one YouTube commentator said 'hot,but bogan'.

The Hole Card.

A mob of ex-TBWA-ers have started up a online social group for bright people who've been laid off due to the GFC. By posting their old business cards online (altered to refelect their newly liberated state of mind), they put themselves out there for collaboration and/or employment. Some of the sentiments are really inspiring. I hope for many, this'll be the start of much better things. Was for me.

More new work

New campaign for new generation Mazda 3, through CHE Melbourne. Other credits to Stephen Fisher, Ian Bear, Georgina Toole and director Michael Spiccia. Special effects by FIN.

How Twitter can help move mass markets

What's the quickest way to get a new product to a mass market? Put it on Oprah!
On today's show she's decided to feed America, with a free coupon for a new kind of KFC grilled chicken downloadable from her website.
Right now the Twitterverse is abuzz with people talking about the offer, the chicken, whether grilled is less fattening than fried, how to download the coupon, how long the queues are outside the stores.
People are actually talking about KFC and shifting their perceptions of the brand.
Which fits in with the line for the new grilled chicken: Unthink KFC. Brilliant.

The making of Radiohead's 'House Of Cards'

I personally found the video for Radiohead's House of Cards, directed by James Frost, a bit like their music; undoubtedly original, not easy to enjoy and lives with you for a long while afterwards.
Frost's idea was that everything around us in the world is data, so instead of filming with cameras, the promo was shot entirely by lasers and scanners.
Admittedly, when I saw first saw it on TV, it didn't do much for me.
But the song and the film resonated more when I watched the 'making of'.
Which begs the question; should the music video be able to stand on it's own (it does have 6 million hits on YouTube) or is the depth of the experience provided by the 'making of' a legitimate part of the whole communication?
Thom Yorke's band were one of the first to understand the emergence of the digital music business model. Fans were invited to download their 2007 album In Rainbows and pay as they saw fit for it, using free or discounted music as advertising for upcoming music tours.
They probably know what they're doing.

Radio Pink

Austereo have announced the launch of a digital radio station completely dedicated to Pink. Songs, interviews, songs from her favourite artists.
The launch of the station will coincide with her Funhouse tour to Australia in May, and continue fof 3 months.
What's really neat about this is that fans choose to listen to the station (online or with digital radios) to deepen their relationship with their favourite artist.
But Pink is a brand, with the same marketing imperatives and challenges as many others. With the sharp decline in CD sales as a way of making money, artists now make the bulk of their income through touring and merchandising sales.
What better way to promote your tour, and your branded products, than through a dedicated media channel?
Cleverly handled, this could also provide opportunities for other brands.
Imagine Kia having a dedicated channel during the Australian Open. Billabong over the long summer holidays. Moet or Yellowglen over the Mlebourne Spring Carnival. Holden over the duration of the V8 Supercar season.
Thousands of people choosing to immerse themselves in your brand for hours at a time.
Much better than shouting at them over 30 seconds when they're trying to watch the news.