We definitely like: Chevrolet’s ‘True Story’.

November 25th, 2011 • Ads, We like
Tags: Ads, Automotive, Brands, Creativity, history, People, Storytelling, We like

Fantastic commercial, Chevy. With 5 minutes it is a bit too long to enthuse everyone. But dear Chevrolet: Do yourself a favour and turn your boring Youtube channel into a hub for your consumer’s childhood memories. That’s a great story. And even though I as a European have no personal memories of Chevy – I guess a lot of Americans do.

Thx to Creative Criminals. More ‘stuff we like’ here.

Social UX. My Article for Page Magazine.

November 16th, 2011 • Social, Trends
Tags: Article, Page, People, personal, Social Influence Marketing, Usability, UX

Just a quick update: German creative magazine Page has once again published an article from me. If you are a subscriber of Page and if you have issue 12.2011 on the desk please just go to page 90 where I (try to) give five tips for a more UX-focused approach to social media.

To cut a long story short: My perspective on social media (does anyone still use this term???) in this article is that all too often brands/agencies still focus too much on staging social campaigns instead on getting their house in order. Activation – and only activation – via social influence marketing should first and foremost enable consumers to profit more from using social functionalities than from not using it. The answer to a brief in the social realm must always revolve around solving a given problem, not to just drive people to a Facebook page. Form follows function, not vice versa.

The article is in German. And if you don’t have the magazine at home: here is a PDF. But don’t tell anyone.

Whoa! How Shit Infographics Explain the World (the wrong Way).

November 2nd, 2011 • 3 comments Blogs, Location, Reports
Tags: Apps, Burglars, crime, Foursquare, Location, People, PR, Report, Shit, Study, visual, World, Zeitgeist

So Mashable again explains us the world through an info graphic wallpaper. And every self-proclaimed social media expert retweets it. Usually this is just boring. Sometimes dangerously misleading and pretty embarassing. Such as this time.

Latest example of such pure and utter shit: A ‘study’ (actually a joke) that was published as an infographic on mashable, retweeted today by thousands of Lemmings who only seem to be interested to share the next bullshit-infographic as quickly as possible.

The claim sounds credible: “78% of burglars use Facebook, twitter, or Foursquare to target potential properties.”

Whoa! That’s a lot, isn’t it? And it sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? After all the gods punish those freaks who keep on checking in to any location they enter. If only it would not be all so wrong and only if this handy info graphic wouldn’t be a big PR stunt that everyone keeps on retweeting.

• The mashable article features the notorious info graphic by Credit Sesame, “a personal finance tool” claiming that 78% of all burglars use social media to gather intelligence about their next victim
• If you browse the article on Credit Sesame you will find out that the “study” was not at all conducted by Credit Sesame: they apparently just built an easy-to-consume info graphic. The actual “study” was conducted by UK’s security company Friedland: yes, a company that earns money with your fear of burglars.
• If you read the original “study” you stumble upon the following text: “An overwhelming 78% of ex-burglars interviewed said that they strongly believed social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Four Square are being used by current thieves when targeting properties.”

Stuff We Like. Selfcontrolfreak’s Interactive Videos.

Oktober 20th, 2011 • Experimental, People, Tech, We like
Tags: Amsterdam, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Gaming, intelligent, Pechakuchanight, People, selfcontrolfreak, Tech, video, visual, We like

Last night I attended Amsterdam’s Pechakucha Night at Roest. Most of you probably know the concept: Random people present their business concept/idea/art theory/whatever on 20 slides and they only have 20 seconds for each page before a heartless Powerpoint algorithm switches to the next one. The one person that definitely stood out for me was Olivier Otten – a young Dutch Creative/Developer who tries to play with very playful ways to interact with video under the name Selfcontrolfreak.

I don’t want to say much more. Just one thing. Gamification is not about badges and check-ins. Traditional playful, interactive metaphors have been around since the 1990s. But even two decades later I know of few platforms which are as much fun as this one.

Check out his 22 simple, playful video examples and start playing with Selfcontrolfreak.

Anrealage. An 8-Bit Showroom in Tokyo.

Oktober 10th, 2011 • Experimental, Retail
Tags: anrealage, Cool, Creativity, Design, diesign, Experimental, Fashion, Ideas, japan, Kunihiko Morinaga, Lifestyle, People, Presentation, Retail, tokyo, visual, World

8-Bit? Yawn. We have seen pretty much everything in 8 Bit already. Except a store concept. Experimental Japanese designer Kunihiko Morinaga has built this showroom for the F/W collection of his label Anrealage in Tokyo. I think 8-bit is pretty close to getting buried very soon – but I think Mr Morinaga’s showroom is a fantastic final scream.

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The New Facebook. A Morning with my updated Privacy Settings.

Oktober 2nd, 2011 • 3 comments Allgemein
Tags: Facebook, People, Philosophy, privacy, Social Networks, World

One week after f8 – and I am still shocked of the general public acceptance of Facebook’s ‘frictionless sharing’ – and that as a marketing guy. I should actually be sitting on the bridge of Planet Death Star watching all you pathetic Earthlings getting data-sucked now. But as ususal – nobody cares how much ownership over our data we have just lost.

I started my own little exploration through my ‘new’ Facebook privacy settings (No 2 is only relevant for you if you have the new FB profile, No 1 is not).

Frictionless sharing – from ‘Public by default’ to ‘Private does not exist anymore’

So whoever talks about privacy – he usually belongs either to the school ‘Full Privacy by default’ or ‘Public by default’. Jeff Jarvis for example does not get tired to explain how crucial it is that we build our world by virtually defining, tagging, constructing objects and interactions. And that is why we need to be Public by default. In other words: We sign out if we do not want to transmit stuff instead of i.e. signing in to getting public with certain status updates.

But: Believing in a free web society in which everyone collaboratively constructs a virtual world is as realistic as believing in free globalized markets: it is a fiction that is constantly corrupted by the interest of a few. And Facebook has just presented some of their concepts for our brave new world – a world in which you can not sign out of being Public anymore. Simply because it is too complicated.

Unfortunately Facebook makes it almost impossible to sign out of the new ‘frictionless sharing‘. Example: I have 314 apps installed (Yes, 314 – as I said, I am an online marketing guy).

All of these apps do certain things. Maybe I have signed up to Nike+ on Facebook, or Slideshare, or twitter…there are many reasons why I may have installed one of them a while ago. And yes, I have approved most of them to pull certain data: my birthday, my profile pic, or other information from my profile.

But I did approve anything like ‘Yes, dear third party software – you can now post in my name’. But exactly this is a new setting in your Facebook profile since last week. And it is pre-approved by default.

Sharing the songs I listen to may be annoying to one or the other. But Facebook has just allowed 314 applications to post in my name whatever these pieces of software want to share.

There must be a button to turn this function off for all of them at once, right?

Nope.

Facebook allows to disapprove this propery. But you cannot disapprove this function for all 314 apps at once. Facebook forces you to click through all 314 apps individually to remove this.

eWeek claims that this is no problem. Because you can easily change the settings for what your friends see

Facebook pointed out that people who subscribe to its social applications will have complete control over whether they’re info is shared or not.

That is to say, the automatic sharing is on by default in the social apps, but Facebook allows users to control whether their app stories are seen by their friends at all times.

This is like walking around with a black box that constantly documents and transfers your data while its manufacturer asks you not to worry as it does not tell any of your friends.It is  not a proper response to the basic problem. The problem is not just what my friends see or what I actively share with the world. The problem is that currently 314 Facebook applications are allowed to document my life and per default are allowed to act in my name. What the F, Facebook?

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PressPausePlay. Watch the full movie online.

September 21st, 2011 • Movies
Tags: Creativity, download, Film, free, Ideas, People, perspectives, World

“The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way, unleashing unlimited creative opportunites. But does democratized culture mean better art, film, music and literature or is true talent instead flooded and drowned in the vast digital ocean of mass culture? Is it cultural democracy or mediocrity?

This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.”

PressPausePlay is available online now. Looking forward to watching the full thing. Get it here. Thanks to Better taste than sorry for the link.

Social Media Hipsters. They probably exist.

September 4th, 2011 • 2 comments Allgemein
Tags: Fashion, Funny, hipsters, People, Social Media, Truth, World

Thanks to Tastefully offensive for the link.

TED. How Algorithms Shape our World.

September 3rd, 2011 • Knowledge
Tags: Algorithms, Mathematics, People, Presentation, TED, Truth, World

Actually I am convinced TED talks are not ideal content for this blog. This time I want to make an exception. Kevin Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms. And if you read this you get the impression he is right.

Brilliant presentation. Take the 15 minutes to watch it.

Thanks to Jeroen Matser for the link

Winnebago Man. A Documentary about the other Side of Virality.

August 31st, 2011 • Advice, We like
Tags: Advice, documentary, films, Funny, jack rebney, People, Viral, winnebago man, World

“My mind is just a piece of shit this morning.” (Jack Rebney) 

I don’t usually recommend films on davaidavai. Today I make an exception. A couple of weeks ago I read about a documentary that tried to understand the background of one of my most favorite Memes ever: The Winnebago Man.

Most of you will know him. The ‘Winnebago Man’ is almost a relic from the Dinosaur age of viral entertainment. Back in 1989 Winnebago Industries hired the man below to promote their motorized homes in a number of videos. But Jack Rebney was a grumpy man and the actual shooting day was hot, unpleasant and dominated by flies. Cursing is what followed.

And his team filmed it and edited his swearing.

So a couple of team members took copies of these outtakes and passed it on and on and on. Voila – a viral hit was born (on videocassettes!!!).

The documentary ‘Winnebago Man’ starts more than 20 years later. Director by Ben Steinbauer’s self-imposed mission: To find the man behind the video. And to tell his story as ‘the angriest man alive’.

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