Brand Noise

The Structure of Trends (Lecture)

The Structure of Trends (Lecture)

View more presentations from Tim Stock. (tags: design semiotics)

Tried and Texted Approach Gets Consumers Talking

A new scenarioDNA piece published in Admap, January 2009...[Recession] means using an authentic organic approach to understanding the consumer in their world. Unfortunately, for some brands and agencies, it means taking shortcuts on research. Find the whole story.

Air Force Reaching Out Through Xbox

The US Air Force is partnering with Microsoft to promote the Xbox LIVE "Horror Meets Comedy" original short film series premiering this November 19th. The series features eight well-known horror directors who will bring their comedic visions to life. Directors include James Wan & Leigh Whannell creators of the "Saw" franchise, James Gunn ("Slither", "Dawn of the Dead") Andrew Douglas ("The Amityville Horror"), David Slade ("30 Days of Night") and Lucky McKee ("May").

Air Force will create custom intro billboards that will run with each pilot and interactive media placements that will live across the Xbox LIVE online entertainment network and the Xbox.com website. Users can click on these custom units and engage directly with the Air Force Brand Destination which offers users the opportunity to learn more about the Air Force through video downloads, gamer pictures and theme packages.

Seems to me there’s a bigger picture to explore…

Trend Report: Green, Co-mingling Perspectives

Trend Report: Green, Co-mingling Perspectives

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: economy recession)

Sackboy: Homespun Spin on Gaming

Sony is banking on the inauspiciously named star of its new video game, "LittleBigPlanet," to boost sales of its PlayStation 3 console this fall -- and the homemade-looking Sackboy just might pull it off.

Sony also plans to create about 1,000 "LittleBig billboards" -- about the size of a small yard sign -- to stick in the ground in and around San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. Unlike typical cardboard yard signs, however, the minibillboards will feature working lights and ladders and other high-end art and design. The idea came from the game's agency, Deutsch. While the size of the boards almost ensures that at least a few will be stolen, that's OK with Sony. A spokeswoman said some pilfered signs posted on eBay may even add to the hype.

A man-sized Sackboy made a public appearance in Japan.

The line from gaming to crafting is a fluid one...we've been watching it...it thrives on a multidimensional consumer.

Read more.

Spam: Not from India

India has emerged as the country generating the least amount of spam mails among BRIC nations and this volume is a fifth of that originating from the US, reveals a report...The lower percentage of spam mails generated is attributed to a higher presence of well-educated internet users. Read more.

(Photo: Mumbai Bar Camp)

For iBeer Tie Ins, Networks Need Strengthening

So the Carling iPint from BMB is currently one of the most downloaded free applications on the App Store. It's top ten in the USA and I don't think you can even buy Carling here. There's also iBeer.

Cool apps, yes. They've created a lot of chatter about the need for geo-locators for pubs and ecommerce/loyalty ties. That said, two things come to mind:

1. What's the common denominator that drives beer consumption? Its social aspect.
2. How reliable is the availability of a particular beer brand at any given moment?

Diamonds, A Catalyst for Change in India

When planners for the De Beers India "Diamond Bride" campaign set out to "puncture" what they called the BFIW (big fat Indian wedding), the first glimpse of opportunity came when research revealed that wedding jewelry was one of the few areas where the bride had some say.

Within the Indian wedding ceremony gold has been an abiding piece of the bride's adornment for centuries…yet it turned out that a gold bride was perceived by many as being "too decked up, traditional, with a vernacular accent, fearful, obedient, surrounded by uncles, aunts, squealing cousins, at a hustle-bustle-hotch-potch of a wedding party."

In contrast, the "diamond bride" was imagined to be "elegant, at a select gathering, an extrovert who speaks her mind, and, above all, casual, cheerful and happy, not nervous at all, even though she is getting married."

Diamonds, the planners hypothesized, could be the catalyst to a contemporary cultural paradigm waiting to be advanced…

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Sign of the Times: Compound Living

Neither the National Assn. of Realtors nor the California Assn. of Realtors is tracking "compound" type of housing, per se, but innumerable compounds can be found sprinkled throughout Southland neighborhoods. They are created by owners with large lots where zoning permits such housing and by buyers purchasing multiple adjacent properties.

Regina Petterson, a psychologist with Specialty Depression and Anxiety in Los Angeles, thinks that the interest among some in housing such as compounds reflects their desire to recapture the same sort of social change they witnessed or were a part of in the 1960s. "The difference is that it's more structured and less about experimentation."

Living together in a compound, she added, can not only increase the time a family spends together but also enhance the traditional nuclear family. For some buyers, a compound is one way to get some help paying the mortgage.

Nationally, "multigenerational" households represent just a fraction of the population. According to the 2000 Census, 4 percent of all U.S. households have three or more generations under one roof.

But in some parts of the country, these living arrangements seem to be growing in popularity. Twenty-somethings are taking their time moving out of the house, and young families are turning to their parents to help out with children.

Read more.

moot manga and memes

Time also  interviews moot, the founder of the online community 4chan. 4chan is a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images. 4chan's collaborative-community format is copied from one of the most popular forums in Japan, Futaba Channel. Different boards are dedicated to different topics, from Japanese anime, manga, and culture to videogames, music, and photography. moot founded 4chan when he was 15 as a space where he and his friends could talk about manga and anime; it's based on a popular Japanese site called 2channel.