[ paul isakson ]

Age of Conversation 2.0 Announced

Drew and Gavin have announced the theme and authors for Age Of Conversation 2.0. The winning theme was "Why Don't People Get It?"

I'm excited to be a part of this and I look forward to what lies ahead as it all comes together. Here is the complete list of contributors/authors with links to their blogs/sites. I'm sure many of these names will be familiar to you...

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

Fallon Brainfood: The Social 10

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Didn't get around to sharing this one last week, but meant to do it. Sorry about that.

Fallon planner, Aki Spicer, shared his thoughts on 10 Trends Marketers Should Know About Social Networking at the agency's Brainfood lunch both with the agency and beyond by broadcasting live across several social media platforms so that anyone could watch if they were so inclined. Sounds like it went pretty well. Wish I could have caught it live.

Aki starts off with a good quote from William Gibson: "The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet."

Much of this is inline with some of what I've shared here throughout various posts and comments elsewhere. If you're following the social media conversations around the blogs, then I would say this is a really good round-up/recap of many of those ideas with some great case studies, quotes and implications to support exactly what he said this is, "a kind of social media 101."

Anyway, give it a go if you're looking for a good perspective on this topic. If you've got comments or thoughts, be sure to leave them for Aki over on the SlideShare or on the Fallon Planning blog post.

The Next Issue

Faris wrote a post recently that reminded me of something I meant to share, but neglected to back in early January. The Future Department has a new magazine out called The Next Issue. As described by The Future Department, the purpose of the magazine and what differentiates it from other magazines are:

Our aim is not to report on past events – or just talk about the future – but to play a proactive role in developing new solutions and approaches, through an ongoing conversation with the creative and business communities we serve, making intellectual and personal connections across all creative disciplines.

In every other magazine, the published article represents the end of a journey: the subject has been treated, and the author and reader move on. Here every article we publish is the starting point – developed and shared by an exclusive group of the most creative minds in the world: our readers are also our contributors.

The request that launched the first issue was something like this:

Summarise the challenges involved in bringing ideas to fruition in a rapidly changing and unpredictable environment. Please submit your thoughts on this subject in as many words as you choose.

The folks at The Future Department were kind enough to publish my response, which was:

Ideas, media and content are all becoming more and more disposable. What was popular and relevant one minute can be dead the next. If you don't do your homework on who you are trying to communicate with, you could end up looking very out of touch, and thus, irrelevant.

Another challenge is the growing amount of content on the web. What you think is an original idea, could very well be out there already or in production at the same time. Then when you release your new shiny idea, someone links the two and accuses one of ripping off the other. In reality, the creator of each may have never known about the other.

Last thought is that thanks to all of the quick communications tools we have at our disposal, clients can more easily send out for feedback on ideas to various audiences and then use this feedback to kill ideas. Odds are this "research" was not done correctly but now they're not going to move forward with the idea because of what someone said to them in an email that was out of context.

I'm extremely flattered that they included my quick thoughts (thank you, Steve & Alex) and encourage you to download a copy of it via PDF here. But not to read my simple note. There is much smarter stuff in there by the likes of Russell Davies, Stefan Sagmeister, John Maeda, John Grant and many, many more.

In addition to the PDF / printed magazine, there are also some bits of exclusive online content including Faris' article. Here are the links for those:

Burnt Fingers - Simon Andrews | In The Future - You Are The Entertainment - Faris Yakob | Ready. Fire. Aim. - Carl Johnson | The Nearest Thing to Pregnant - John Grant | Unknown Green Consumer Insights - Tamara Giltsoff | The Ultimate Pub Conversation - Adam Sefton | Publishing - Daljit Singh | Planet - Carsten Beck | Crystal Balling - Frank Palmer | Passion - Cindy Gallop | Reverse Engineering - Valerio Franco | Doing Down Under - Richard Hollingum | The Next Issue - Lewis Blackwell

I hope you find it as worthwhile of a read as I did and if anything grabs you, or you have some thoughts of your own, please share...

Book Cover Designs Wanted

Can you design a better book jacket/cover than this?

If so, Tara Hunt would love your help.

There really are no rules. Just take the words that are there and make the thing look better.

Post a link to your design in her Flickr comments for this image and she'll check them out.

If you don't have a blog, web site, Flickr account, etc. to post your design to, just create a drop for it and put that URL in the comments section.

Also, please spread the word to others if you can.

I didn't get a deadline from her, but I'm sure it's something that's needed sooner than later.

Any help you can give her is greatly appreciated.

Grand Central Freezes

This has come up a bit in meetings lately as well as being passed around via email, so I'm sure you've seen it, but if not, here you go. Another great execution by Improve Everywhere. Some personal past favorites of theirs include Slo-Mo Home Depot and Best Gig Ever.

The Next "Age of Conversation"

If you didn't get in on The Age of Conversation but wished you had, here's a chance to participate in its forthcoming "kissing cousin." Drew and Gavin have announced that they are ready to organize a second book only this time, they're reaching out earlier and further.

First, go vote for what you think the book's subject/theme should be by the end of this week. They've narrowed it down to three broad topics:

• Marketing Manifesto
• Why Don't People Get It?
• My Marketing Tragedy (and what I learned)

Then, if you're interested in authoring a chapter in the new book, email Drew to let him know. All the details are available in either post from Drew and Gavin, so be sure to visit those if you need more info.

And lastly, if you haven't picked up a copy of Age of Conversation, you should. Not only is it a worthwhile read, but all the proceeds go to Variety, the children's charity (as they will for the upcoming book).

Write John Grant's Speech

John Grant has sent out a request via the Plannersphere on Facebook and Plannersphere .ning. Here is the full text:

Planning Begins at 40: Crowd Source My Speech?

In July I am going to speak at an event hosted at JWT in London (along with Jeremy Bullmore, Jon Steel and others) celebrating 40 years of planning and looking ahead too.

I'm not sure I have anything new to say on the matter that I haven't been banging on about for some years. So... My idea is that instead of presenting my views I get 40 fellow planners from diverse backgrounds to help me put it together. I would open a blog and for the next 3 months we'd just talk about the brief (ie taking this as an opportunity just like any other for a piece of communication to have some sort of effect). We'd then write the presentation together, pick interesting visuals or creative ways to bring it to life, and finally write a speech which I would simply read out on behalf of the team.

All of which depends on if this grabs 40 of you. I'm going to crosspost this on .ning plus the facebook planning groups and give it 1 week. If 40 people say they are interested then we have a project. (If not I'll have to think of something else!) Do say if you'd like to take part (first come first served) & add comments & ideas

:J

If you're interested, you can get back to him through either post.

[ image credit ]

petshop boys + integral video + qr codes = brilliant

Pet Shop Boys are up to something interesting. They've taken their opposition to ID Cards to new heights by embedding QR Codes into the video for Integral to call attention specific issues of civil liberties.

But they didn't stop there. They are also encouraging people to participate by downloading PDFs of the stop frames, create their own video using them, and post it to a You Tube group dedicated to the user-made videos.

About the video, from the PSB site:

The video sets out to amplify the message of the song. The piece was conceived and created by The Rumpus Room as a multi platform project, having versions of the film for small hand held devices as well as large resolution screens. It is both a traditional piece of film and an interactive portal to online information and campaigns.

The video has over 100 QR Codes that are subliminal when watched in real time, but accessible to interact with if you navigate through the film using time controllers. The QR Codes are organised into sections that relate to specific issues of civil liberties.

It's a brilliant use of technology to help further a message that Chris and Neil clearly have a great deal of passion for. The challenge is, do their fans feel strongly enough about it as well to help spread the message and engage enough to create their own videos? Only time will tell, I suppose.

Side question/bet: How long before we see a brand mimic this in a commercial/web video? (Or has it already been done?)

creative financing

A New York couple gets creative with how they raise funds for some of the things they would like to have. Their opening page reads:

Everybody wants something, and we're no exception. But as a 20-something couple living in New York City, we need a little extra help getting what we want.

Which is why we're putting our wants up for sale with these paintings. Each painting represents one thing we want, and costs the price of the real item. So "An iPhone" costs $649.17, while "Buffalo Wings" is only $12.70. The money we make will then be used to buy that item.

I like it and I hope it works out well for them. Very smart way to attempt to get what they want instead of falling into the credit card trap.

HERD // the mailman delivers

Looking forward to finally getting to dive into this one!