new year, new home…

So I have decided to blow the dust of the blog, and to start afresh in 2013.

My blog now has a new home; you’ll be able to find me over at http://www.justinwestcott.com

see you there.

Justin

Jux.com

An interesting new blogging platform – Jux.com – has caputred my eye recently. Launched a few months ago it promises to be:

… the best showcase for your content. It’s great for blogging, portfolios, events, travel and whatever you’re thinking right now. Full-screen and immersive, with no columns or blogrolls. Your pictures and words fill the page edge-to-edge: memorable, beautiful, distraction-free.

I’ve had a good look around the site and have played around with it a bit. It looks to be a great site for sharing hi-res photos (with text) and really does a great job of making things look good. This is definitely the USP – no templates to follow but rather your image/idea is the heart of the post.

To me it seems to be a more visual version of a Tumblr site – and that would probably how I would consider using it.

I can see Jux.com being a great platform for brands to partner with and certainly would be a great platform for small boutique style retailers to use in conjunction with (potentially in place of) a website. It’s free, easy to use and the results are excellent.

One to watch. I’m having a think about how I might do something with it.

Perhaps a food blog – been meaning to do one of those for a while.

For a more detailed first review of Jux.com and it’s capabilities i recommend reading this post.  As this posts shows, it’s fairly easy to also use Jux.com to create items that can then be embedded into more traditional blog platforms (if you wish).

YouTube: A hot bed of creativity & inspiration

YouTube isn’t all cats falling into toilets and babies biting fingers. Fact.

I have, I’ve realized, been spending an increasing amount of time within this channel as a source of inspiration for my own client work and personal interest (I’m learning to master Final Cut Pro). There is a strong core of professional-level individuals (and indeed some professional-YouTubers) producing a steady stream of high-quality content.

Names like FreddieW, ShayCarl and Final Cut King might not be “house-hold” names yet, but they do represent the changing world we live in. They have now become celebrities within the community receiving millions of views for each clip they post and as a result, I’m sure, making a healthy living out of their creativity and skills (in video production, editing, sfx and I’d argue comedy/script writing).

The “amateur” really is taking over and getting an increasing recognition from mainstream studios (film & TV) and marketers alike (when you have a global audience in the millions people take note). There certainly is enough content on YouTube to keep me entertained for hours (I find it’s a veritable rabbit hole of positive distractions). As a result, I’m certainly spending less time consuming regular TV, and even for that matter online TV.

With regards to creativity and influencing your own ideas in shaping consumer campaigns I would suggest YouTube has to be your first port of call for inspiration today. Search for the brand you’re working with – see what people are already saying/doing in relation to the brand, I think you’d sometimes be surprised. Also have a search specifically to the market you’re operating in – you’ll discover; I’m sure, a local director or YouTube star who has influence and audience within the market. Also have a look at the most-watched films for that week/month – a great barometer for current tastes/trends and what people want to watch. I’m sure from a few minutes of YouTube surfing you’ll generate a number of ideas of thoughts to inspire you’re thinking.

Here are just a few examples of some of the best video shorts I’ve seen on YouTube recently, and a great advertisement for the genuine creativity (and skill) of these amateurs/semi-professional film makers:

FreddieW – who produces a quality clip every week – has John Favreau guest star in a clip this week (clearly supported by Cowboy’s vs. Aliens film launch):

http://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew#p/a/u/1/8HZPb7ulu08

I also thought this piece from FreddieW was awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/user/freddiew?blend=1&ob=5#p/c/627F181E0CB37E19/1/8HZPb7ulu08

Essentialism

I’ve had a hectic few months of late and have really neglected to look at Ted for a while. This has in the past been a popular lunchtime destination for me – sandwich in hand, earphones in & an interesting and provocative talk to view in a bite-sized format. Ted is great.

Anyway, I managed to have a lunch break today and watched a thoroughly entertaining and informative talk from Paul Bloom; entitled “The Origins of Pleasure”. A well put together presentation of history, sociology, physiology and psychology in how humans derive pleasure. A key point of discussion was why do we (humans) find greater pleasure from a real painting than from a fake, or why we deem more pleasure from knowing a performance is from someone famous/recognized than someone that isn’t but playing to the same standard etc. In essence the what is it about our psyche that puts so much of  an importance on origin/authenticity/celebrity/effort behind the product/item/person etc.

Yes, a degree of status or snobbery comes into play, but Paul argues that actually all Humans are natural born essentialists. Meaning that our feelings of pleasure go beyond how we feel, see or hear something but rather our responses our conditioned on our belief of what it really is, where it came from, how it got there, what it’s made up etc. This, he argues, governs not just how we think about things but also how we react to them. Or as he states – Pleasure is Deep (that beliefs play a huge part in all forms of pleasure).

Food for thought, I feel, when thinking about the creative process. Brand as we all know, plays an important part – indeed within the context of this discussion it is a key part of the essentialism behind a product. It’s the added/hidden value that our minds put into play. A Gucci handbag might look identical to one from H&M; have the same function; a similar quality of materials – but the value of the brand is paramount and something a consumer would happily pay significantly more for. To the point in Paul’s talk “how do you get kids to like/enjoy carrots & Milk”? The answer – well you tell them it comes from McDonalds – as children perceive McDonalds as creating tasty food.

However, we don’t all get to work for products/services/events associated with strong brands or indeed when you’re launching a new brand you don’t have the luxury of this perceived essentialism value to it. Yet the learning’s from this philosophy should be applied; and this goes to the heart of what we do – creating the story behind the product; a good story should create this sense of essentialism/value to the consumer. As Paul Bloom outlines in his talk; back-story; origin, details of the creative process, illustrating the effort, putting a human face and showing a real person, highlighting a uniqueness are all areas/items that the human mind is predisposed to attach value to and therefore should be thought through in creating the story.

Interesting I thought – worth the 16mins to view.

Where do good ideas come from?

So Google+ has made me realise how much I actually blogging in long-form and has made me realise that Twitter has perhaps made me lazy. So I’m going to start writing again and thought rather than start a fresh channel that I’ll breathe some life into this blog.

I’m going to focus my content on all things related to creativity, as this is where my passion lies.

So as a start, I thought I’d share this fantastic video – thanks to @willoconnor for the tip-off.

Steven Johnson, puts together a very creative presentation outlining his view on where good ideas come from. Stating the importance of outside influence & sharing in order to reach a true great idea. Many of the worlds greatest thinkers, thought best when ideas were discussed in public and shared.

As Steven puts it “when hunches collide”.

Some takeaways/thoughts on how this thinking can impact the way we work in PR:

– Work in teams when thinking; great ideas can come from anywhere in the industry
– Brainstorms work; share the thought process as ideas are best when co-created/co-developed
– Adapt other ideas; innovate/re-use/adapt don’t always feel the pressure to invent
– Read, read, read; to the previous point inspiration can come from anywhere and your good idea could perhaps turn into a great idea by adapting something that has been done before/or in another industry

Stuck in the middle?

Read an interesting article on trendhunter yesterday, giving an early head’s up on a trend to watch – of aspirational media tempting readers in with credit crunch related cover stories i.e. the likes of Vogue, Bazaar and Elle with very un-Vogue like cover headers such as “affordable luxuries” and “reality chic”. Evidently this seems to be a first for such stories to appear on the cover of these magazines – as generally they look to appeal to audiences that would have no problem spending £1,000 or more on an item of clothing. But the credit crunch is hurting all.

Anyway, this reminded me of some of the comments from Ben Hammersley (editor for the new Wired Uk) made at a talk he gave a few weeks back which i’ve been mulling over. I wasn’t there in person but my colleague Luke Mackay was kind enough to share notes. In that meeting Ben pointed to two key trends for 2009 he’d identified, one of which was “The Dividing”.

This he identified as a split that was occurring between luxury and disposable markets as the “middle-ground” has fallen away. In essence over time, and through 2009 he would see the two spectrums polarising with everything else between these polarities falling by the wayside. This is a trend he’d identified across all industries from fashion to television, to retail to publishing. He noted specifically within the publishing the fact that magazines that, if not thriving, are surviving at either end of the price spectrum from 75p at one end and at the other magazines, often imported, at costs of up to and sometimes beyond £8. Magazines in the middle are suffering and falling away i.e. be cheap or be expensive – don’t be affordable, or average on price.

Ben went on to add that this isn’t about social or economic politics or class or about how much time you spend making something. Both groups are not mutually exclusive for example people can, and will, shop in both Prada and Primark. In each case they know what they’re getting. Ben went on to explain that this trend was seen before in the 1930’s and said that the effect of an “intellectual recession” could be seen as a cause for this “divide”, certainly within publishing.

 

His recommendation for business – choose your battle, belong to one end of the spectrum and don’t try to be all things to all people. Companies that go for the middle, will fall by the wayside, just as the middle ground has been. Ben used examples of Marks & Spencer’s and Gap as brands that had suffered at the hands of trying to operate in the middle.

I found this quite interesting, and I’m not sure I agree entirely (possibly as I didn’t hear it firs t hand). My “gut” and my “head” would tell me that in these times that the opposite might take place – in essence an “un-dividing”, as prices become cheaper (just check the deflation going on now), peoples spending reduces, the higher end brands/outlets/publishers in-particular would naturally look at ways to appealing to wider audiences (as their market shrinks, or seems to shrink) by reducing prices, releasing lower-end ranges etc.

But anyway, certainly will be interesting to see if Ben’s thoughts for 2009 pan-out – if so, the move by the likes of Vogue could be detrimental to its long term success or, could set the magazine off in a brand new direction.

 

Technorati Tags: vogue, ben hammersley, dividing

not in the UK (or my tongue)…

It’s an old one I know – but came across it again today (via trendhunter). But thought I’d post it as I still can’t believe the campaign. It’s the Coke Zero launch campaign that ran in Brazil in Feb this year; it’s brave, it’s crazy and it would never (i don’t think) be something the brand would do in the UK.

To help launch the brand in the country; the local agency Espalhe Marketing de Guerrilha – developed a true guerilla activity. Focusing on the “no difference in taste” message, Coke focused on the “tongue” as a key point of creative (see the TV ad spots). To make this live and breath offline, the agency worked with Coke to sponsor piercing parlors in key cities; and offered to pay for all tongue piercings. However, the catch was all piercings had to be made with the Coke Zero bottle top stud and their picture taken and uploaded to an online community of fellow pierced Brazilians. The result – an army of mobile advertisers and brand ambassadors (well until their parents spotted it).

 

Cracking, yet crazy, idea…

 

Technorati Tags: coke, campaing, guerilla</p

BOO

Okay, so came across another innovative campaign involving a mobile handset manufacturer – this time Sony Ericsson, working with the creative people over at Iris. Brand Republic recently covered all the details – but a nice integrated campaign to generate some awareness for the launch of its latest Walkman phone on the 3 network. A video, where the viewer (who should receive an email inviting them to watch it) watches a relatively haunting (think it could have been dialled up in the fear factor stakes), suddendly finds themselves involved in the story and one step further then recieves a phone call, timed with the video. Nice.

 

As many have already pointed out, the recent Obama “no voter” video may go down as the greatest truly viral marketing video seen to date (at one time I was hearing reports it was going out to over 300,000 people a minute) and certainly will now inspire a wave of similar format videos. Hopefully  it will also inspire further innovations in this area (I’ve already had clients ask for a “video like that”) of greater audience engagement/involvement i.e. like including a name, or as in this case, involving a call to mobile.

 

The Obama video, and this Sony E one, and there are others, offer  a). a great way of capturing valuable audience data (improves the ROI) b). a ready/easy format for them spreading – as friends look to pass on the shock / surprise factor to their network by adding in their friends important contact details required to involve them in the video. It’s then the novel factor of being involved in the video/storyline that makes them truly viral. Obviously this won’t / can’t go on forever and soon this format will jump the shark (once the novelty has worn off) – but this should/will I’m sure only inspire more creativity in this field. What next I wonder ?

 

One of my biggest bugbears, and I know it’s one shared by many, is the client that wants, or the colleague that pitches, a viral video.  As we know this is a result/effect not a tactic. You can obviously try to create something that will be “popular” and if successful then go viral. I still find people/clients don’t always grasp this concept (and most importantly what it takes). Sitting down with them and showing them videos that have gone viral can be a good way of doing this – they’ll soon see that you need to create something that moves people – for someone to pass it on, you need to create a reaction i.e. shock, be totally original, be humorous, be spot on with the zeitgeist etc to really make something fly.

 

Anyway, rather selfishly this post has just given me a reason to link to Brendan’s recent post on some of the best virals ever – great post mate.

 

Technorati Tags: viral, Obama, campaign

It’s not my phone…

I clocked this a few weeks ago. Whether it was just because I work in the mobile industry that I spotted the advert in the Metro and was intrigued enough to want to know more – or whether the advert just worked – I couldn’t tell you. But I did remember the URL and sat down at my desk in the morning wanting to know more about the advert.
If you haven’t seen this, it’s a campaign that’s been running since Oct 15th and I believe is due to run through to and beyond Christmas. A simple format – 3 women, 3 continents, 3 stories – all played out in mobile and social media (with a healthy dose of print and TV spots). At the heart of the campaign is the notion that you can tell so much about someone by looking at their phone.

 

These lives are fictional and Wieden & Kennedy has evidently put together 3,750 pieces of scripted content to tell the tales of these characters online via Facebook and on the campaign site. As you might imagine the campaign is one designed to grow organically, and to recruit people to sign-up as friends with these fictional characters, interact with the script (via text/MMS messages etc) and to help build the stories.  The microsite has already clocked up 3million plus viewers – so the campaign seems to be drawing people in, would be good to see how long it keeps people engaged. One measure, number of Facebook friends, seems particualarly low – with Anna (the London character) just attracting 56 friends so far.
I certainly applaud the campaing for its innovation and bravery – it certainly has the right intentions and takes a more interactive, and engaging approach to such a big campaing. I’m clearly not the target market (female biased to support the launch of Nokia’s Supernova range of phones) and found the tales of the characters quite dull; I just didn’t find them interesting enough to warrant me wanting to come back and see how their stories played out. But as I said I’m not the target market.

 

Ella Fullagar, a 15 year old interviewed in Campaign last week about this body of work, who is target market – seems to agree with me. I quote “It was really boring as you had to repeatedly click through the messages… I don’t think it will appeal to much to  anyone in my age group because it’s so time consuming”.

That being said. I do like the approach and as i’ve said the bravery. Perhaps one step bolder, and actually involving real people in very real and interesting lives, could be a way to make it more interesting/engaging and authentic. In fact, isn’t this really what Obama just managed to do so successfully – real life, real people, real stories all played out across online/mobiles/print/TV and much much more besides…

  

***I do work with Motorola in the UK

Technorati Tags: Nokia, Obama, mobile

out of hibernation…

Okay, sorry – I’ve had a very long time out of this blogging game, but have decided to finally return. I’ve been an avid voyeur during the past year as opposed to a contributor; partly due to the fact my day job has kept me busy, and secondly as I found I was having less and less to say.

It’s been a busy, but interesting year – client work has been spread across Canon, Motorola, Creative and Microsoft and has seen me shooting videos in Zermatt during July, arranging fashion shoots with Parkour athletes and searching for mobile directors and much more beside. What’s clearly evident has been that this year, more so than any, has seen far more of my work focused on what I’d call the non-traditional PR and taking more of a direct to consumer engagement approach (or at least thinking about this as part of a broader engagement program). It’s been fun, and certainly believe that there’s more to come. If you haven’t heard about public engagement and Richard Edelman’s thoughts on this I really recommend you give it a read.

So, anyway – I’m back (but plan to blog on slightly different things). Hopefully will get the blog back-on-track and no longer take the mantle of the blog with the fastest reducing authority. Oh and as Steve’s post  (recruitment consultants dream list) shows I’m also twittering again – feel free to follow me.

 

Technorati Tags: Justin Westcott, Twitter, public engagement