Contagious ideas by PSST : spreading 2.0 innovation (editor = jérémy dumont, strategic planner, france)

Adidas commercials

Michael Ballack has a spot of target practice, trying out his new Predator boots. He takes aim at a hoop, which is held up by a trainer at Chelsea 's Cobham training ground. However, instead of getting the ball through the hoop, he smacks it right into the trainer's family jewels  - which is precisely where he was aiming it. The trainer is adidas client Mark Whitehead, who, unsuspectingly ends up taking one for the team. You've got balls Mark (in certain respects).

Steven Gerrard and Xavi Alonso had a go at kicking a few balls at some clay pigeons at Liverpool's training ground, which isn't an easy thing armed with just a football. Alonso launched a clay pigeon from a machine they'd wheeled out on the pitch and Gerrard smacked a ball nearly hitting it. He had another go and, second attempt, he hit it breaking the clay in the sky. Manager Rafa Benitez, watching from his office looked pretty impressed at Gerrard's feat, as were Liverpool training staff standing behind the camera.

Football's Emanuel Adebayor takes centre stage in the arcade classic 'Snake', in a new film for adidas. Sitting in a changing room, he clicks on the studs of his boot as if they're buttons on a PlayStation games controller. Meanwhile, on screen, he runs around the pitch collecting 'computer graphics' stars. With every star he picks up, another computerized Adebayor is added behind him, eventually making a very long row of Adebayors, like a Snake. Finally, achieving a 'High Score' he dances in his trademark Adebayor rhythm. The idea is to show in an innovative way, how F50 TUNiT boots are modified for different styles of play. The film celebrates Adebayor's flamboyance on the pitch and his much publicized love of video games in one very zany film.

Real Madrid star Arjen Robben reveals some of the secrets of his magic footwork in a new film for adidas. Sitting in the Real Madrid changing room, using nothing but the power of mind-control, Robben commands all the parts of an F50 TUNiT boot from the team's boot room. Without aid of visible support, the uppers join with the chassis and the studs are screwed in by the stud key.  He picks up the finished boot and finally with a raised eyebrow, he stops the stud key spinning on the floor. The film is designed to show, in an entertaining way, how easy it is to modify F50 TUNiT boots before a game. Of course, the rest of us mere mortals have to use the power of our fingers instead of our minds to tune our boots.

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: youtube

Insight India, Mumbai, November 4-5th 2008

 
After Mumbai, London and Copenhagen, the 4th edition of Insight India took place in
Mumbai again on Nov 4-5th 2008. 
A two day conference & workshop dedicated to Trend and Design strategy for India,
Insight India 2008 was hosted by the Industrial Design Centre located at Powai on
the green campus of the Institute of Information Technology.
Onio Design and Style-Vision gathered design and marketing experts, trend
specialists and creative professionals from Indian companies and international group
to discuss global and Indian trends, design strategy as well as human-focused
marketing techniques and segmentation models to connect with the increasingly
complex Indian consumers.

I'd like to share with you a selection of pictures I took during my stay
illustrating the key findings of this unique event
http://www.style-vision.com/Mumbai2008

Save the date! The next destination of the Style-Vision Round Tables is Seoul in Korea.
The first edition of the conference and workshop Insight Korea 2009 will take place
on January 14-15th, 2009 at the COEX centre in Seoul, Korea. 

Check http://www.style-vision.com/roundtable/ to know more about this exciting event.


Genevieve Flaven

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: style-vision

Think bigger, not smaller, for healthier brands

credit: l.yimg

You can stare down the recession. It's a time of opportunity, not fear. Everything is changing. Greed is out and communities are in. And in our community of marketers -- both advertisers and agencies alike -- we need to stand behind one idea: That marketing will get businesses going in this terrible mess.

The new economy is the great equalizer. Under the weight of panicked emotion all brands feel vulnerable -- kind of out of place and out of sync with how people are feeling after the meltdown.

We need to change the conversation and look upon idea generation and strategic and creative excellence as the true productivity tools. We need to look at marketing as the true growth indicator. It's the viable option, the last investment to make before you shut off the lights and evacuate the building.

Who says you can't use your marketing to provide consumers with a greater sense of value? Or, go one step further: By realigning your marketing priorities you can maximize efficiencies and maximize a "wow" factor. So less can also be a lot more.

And though it may seem counterintuitive, the way to do this is not by thinking smaller. It's by thinking bigger.

The first thing marketers need in this environment is a harder-working idea, one that operates in culture rather than in a product category, and lets consumers rethink your competitive frame of reference, defining it more broadly.

For example, premium-priced food brands may suffer in this environment due to consumers trading down to cheaper store brands. But if you position these high-priced foods items as a way to make a basic night in as inspiring as a luxurious night out, they start to seem like a bargain. In this instance, a premium food brand becomes home entertainment, not just a packaged good.

By Scott Goodson and Chip Walker

Read more

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: scottgoodson.typepad.com

 

credit: fortunefundingalliance

My technical background is in computer networking. I spent my twenties studying network protocols, designing queueing systems, and working on security issues. It was a great experience that is still useful today, 20 years later, now that everyone uses that Internet thing.

One principle of networking protocols is the idea of guaranteed delivery versus nonguaranteed. Basically, when you send a message over the Internet, it is broken up into tiny pieces, called packets, and sent down the line, mixed up with all sorts of other packets, and finally reassembled into a message on the other end.

With nonguaranteed delivery, the message is just sent out, and the sender doesn't really know if it got there (believe it or not, there are good applications for this). With guaranteed delivery, by contrast, the receiver sends an acknowledgement (or "ack") to the sender saying, in essence, "I got your message, thanks."

The "TCP" in TCP/IP is a guaranteed delivery protocol.

I was thinking about this because I am doing less computer networking these days and more personal networking. Emailing, Twittering, spending time on the phone. And the "ack" concept works just as well here. (Another metaphor for an ack is a "handshake." I like that one.)

Email, to me, is a nonguaranteed delivery protocol. From a technical standpoint, that's nonsense--Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), of course, sends acknowledgements to your mail server when your message is delivered. But I'm talking about personal communication.

by: John Caddell

read more

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: futurelab

 

credit: fortunefundingalliance

My technical background is in computer networking. I spent my twenties studying network protocols, designing queueing systems, and working on security issues. It was a great experience that is still useful today, 20 years later, now that everyone uses that Internet thing.

Meet the most influential women in web 2.0

Meet The Most Influential Women in Web 2.0

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: company fast)

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: slideshare

UNIQLO / AT&T

A couple of stunning websites have caught our eyes over the past week. We’re pleased to see that UNIQLO hasn’t been resting on its Cannes Cyber Grand Prix-winning laurels and has built on the success of websites such as UNIQLO GRID, LOOP and UNIQLOCK to try a bit of consumer research and data visualisation with UNIQLO TRY. www.uniqlo.com/try/uniqlotry.swf The site sees all of the brand’s digital trademarks present (quirky interfaces, frantic multiplicity) but rather than displaying any product line, the site is being used to aggregate customer feedback, blurring the boundaries between branded entertainment and utility.

For each product, hundreds of small testimonial video clips are arranged in an assortment of shifting shapes, from spirals to 3D spheres and even gigantic words. Users can click and view any individual video, or wait for the sequence to finish. At this stage, the advocates are sorted according to their opinion of the product and displayed as percentages. There is even a search option which allows you to narrow down your research via product, customer age and body type, so the results of each sequence are tailored for your interests.

Not only is this a mind-boggling data visualisation and metrics tool, but it displays an extraordinary level of transparency. By providing users with an engaging way to hear real opinions from real people, this application places equal emphasis on the individual and global community as a whole. A similar mass of whirling, beautiful responses is visible on AT&T’s www.speakinthumbs.com, created by Atmosphere BBDO, to celebrate the Samsung A767 Propel and Pantech Matrix’s qwerty keyboard.

Visitors are asked to add their definition to popular text speak abbreviations such as LOL, OMG, BRB, THX and BTW, celebrating the potential for more full expression that the phone allows. Responses are shown as colour-coded dots swirling around the phone and by hovering over a dot the individual’s response can be viewed.
Twists of the mouse alter the direction of the globe of dots or change its direction.

Arturo Aranda, senior creative director at Atmosphere BBDO explains: ‘Based on the insight that we are all thinking more detailed thoughts when we write abbreviations such as LOL or OMG, we have TV and print which shows Thumbs on the handsets actually talking to each other in the detail that the Samsung Propel and the Pantech Matrix allow.’ Will Townsend, group account director, Atmosphere BBDO adds: ‘The online opportunity is to give people the chance to actually contribute these definitions themselves. To join in and demonstrate how the idea comes to life.

You will see from the thousands of creative definitions on the site that people have really identified with the campaign and are keen to write out what they really have on their mind. See Contagious Issue 17, out next week, for a company profile on Stamen, the company behind some of the web’s most stunning data visualisation websites.

http://stamen.com

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: contagious

Ten Half-Baked Advertising Ideas

credit: csdm

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Today, we are raiding Half Bakery for a glimpse of the improbable advertising future. Put your sunglasses on; the brilliance of these ideas is blinding.

1. Advertishoes. "Replace the soles of your shoes with soft rubber, impregnated with chalk or ink, that squashes out onto the ground as you put your foot down. Similar to a self-inking rubber stamp."

2. Get to the airport luggage screeners with X-ray-visible ads: "If two ads are printed on the same page in a magazine, but one is printed with large letters in radiopaque white ink, then the white-on-white ad will only be visible if the magazine is in carry-on luggage viewed by x-ray techs at airport inspection stations."

3. Ads on status bars (also independently described by AdLab):  "Put scrolling text messages in progress bars, and make some money on the side."

4. Skyscrapers as smoke jet printers: "Except instead of ink being shot on to a page of paper it shoots smoke up in to the air. The print head is mounted on top of a high rise building, and instead of the print head moving it relies on wind to move the 'paper' to the side."

5. Rainbow advertising: "Using refraction and rainbow technology, it should be possible to advertise right on airborne drops of moisture. Simply vary the color makeup of your light source."

6. Books printed in sponsored typeface:  "Free classic books reprinted typeset in a font that has McDonald's M's and Special K's and so forth."

7. Ads on fake phone numbers in the movies: "Whenever they use a telephone in the movies, they always use a 555 number. I guess they do that so people won't go home and try to call. Wait a minute. Why not encourage them to call. Talk about a captive audience..."

8. Logo clouds: "Create large lakes in the shape of corporate logos. When the sun shines on them (on a windless day) logo-shaped clouds will appear above them. Note that it might be cheaper to change your company's logo to the shape of an existing lake."

9. Lonely?  Invite telemarketers in your life with a "Please Call Me" list:  "Maybe the local resteraunts could call you around lunch-time and tell you what kinds of specials they have, just so you don't have to go sit down to find that out."

10. Spitball billboards: " This display uses a computer aimed pneumatic spitball cannon which "paints" a picture out of colored spitballs. The display can be wiped clear with a water hose, so the next image can be painted."

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: adverlab

Maybe the Meltdown’s a Guy Thing

Scott Olson/Getty Images

GUNG HO Making bids at the Chicago Board of Trade the morning of Oct. 24.

          

By JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI

Published: November 15, 2008

   

Will the down market never end? For months, policy makers around the world have tried bailouts, interest rates cuts, anything they could think of, really, to bring global markets out of their deepening depression. Once in a while, the markets do move up — only to fall again. Nothing seems to work for long.

      

Perhaps there’s a reason that everyone has overlooked: hormones.

If a research paper published earlier this year is correct, traders have become prisoners of their endocrine systems — testosterone, the elixir of male aggressiveness, during a bull market; cortisol, a steroid that helps the body deal with stress, when the bears take over.

The study suggests that raging hormones might explain why the men who rule the global markets send them rocketing up when they’re on a roll, and swooping down when they get scared, exhibiting judgment that can remind you of the guys in an Adam Sandler movie.

One investment strategist intuitively grasped the situation when he recently told The New York Times: “Normally markets are driven by fear and greed. Now it’s fear and fear.” In other words, instead of a rhythm of testosterone alternating with cortisol, it’s been cortisol and more cortisol for weeks. Actually there was a step in between — greed and greed, the bubble period. That’s when traders were making a lot of money, which made them pump out extra testosterone, grow overconfident and overcompetitive, and take on more and more risks that eventually went bust.

Now, in their funk, the lingering presence of cortisol makes them irrationally fearful, negative and risk averse.

read more

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: NT times

42 Below: the new global and deliberatly unbranded campaign

The arty types at Sydney’s Glue Society have collaborated with quirky spirits brand 42 Below Vodka to create a new global and deliberately unbranded campaign.

A series of anonymous white boiler suited figures have been filmed constructing guerilla art installations, wrapping a row of parked cars in Christmas paper, climbing a mountain with plastic chairs and laying them together to form an arc and laying rows of life-size sex dolls on towels on Bronte beach, Sydney. The figures will be creating sculptures and installations across Australia and New Zealand with more events and actions planned for 2009 in other locations. The stunts themselves have been generating coverage locally, with the films picking up views online.

The first creation made front page news when a UFO constructed entirely from milk crates appeared near Queenstown, Otago. The most recent creation was a series of carpet tiles combined to create a pixilated image to be viewed from the top of Auckland’s Sky Tower. Watch the films here, produced by @radical.media, Sydney, complete with music from some great bands chosen for their uncommercial leanings, such as Four Tet and Battles: www.vimeo.com/videos/search:glue%20society

42 Below is renowned for its quirky advertising and promotions, having previously hosted the Cocktail World Cup, which combines cocktail mixing with extreme sports for a taste. The art films all end with the ‘Because We Can’ tagline, tying in well with the New Zealand brand’s irreverent attitude.

find here the end of the article

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: contagious

 

Becoming greener... companies can do something!

credit: visiondurable.com

Who's greener, your employees or your company?

This isn't just some idle query. The answer can have a significant impact on the success of your company's environmental commitments, initiatives, and progress.

   

Consider:

                                                                                                               

                              

• Millions of people now engage in a variety of green-minded activities in their personal lives, from cutting waste to recycling to saving energy to purchasing greener goods and services. But then they go to work and see those efforts dwarfed by the mountains of waste that collect just around their own workspace, never mind the lights, computers, and other machines that burn 24/7, the dumpsters full of packaging trash, and 1,001 other environmental insults. It's discouraging, to say the least.
• Conversely, some companies' ambitious efforts to reduce waste, pollution, and other forms of inefficiency — not to mention create new markets for cleaner and greener solutions to meet customers' needs — can be thwarted by employees' lack of environmental awareness and personal habits. The disconnect squanders opportunities for employees to embrace a green ethic all week long, not just during the workday, and to bring to their jobs ideas and inspiration for a greener company.

 

The greening of employees can create a virtuous circle, one in which their personal and professional commitments and habits continually reinforce each other. Along the way, the more employees understand about the impacts of their jobs and the opportunities to make them greener, the greater the chances they'll rise to the occasion.

 

Companies are just starting to wake up to this, according to a soon-to-be-released study by the National Environmental Education Foundation. Earlier this year, NEEF set out to gauge "how leading companies approach internal employee education and engagement." It surveyed more than 1,300 people (many respondents coming from the GreenBiz.com newsletter audience) as part of a larger study on corporate environmental and sustainability education.

 

NEEF found that a significant number of companies saying they offer advanced or very advanced environment and sustainability education — 51% of small company respondents and about 30% of medium and large companies. (These numbers may be skewed somewhat, since the survey respondents come largely from environmentally minded audiences. A more representative cross-section of companies would likely yield different results.)

 

NEEF also found that 65% of respondents value job candidates' environmental and sustainability knowledge, with 78% saying such knowledge will likely increase as a hiring factor within five years. Moreover, nearly half of respondents who have no environmental education programs believe their company will begin educating employees in the next two years.

 

Company efforts notwithstanding, employees feel ill-informed about their employer's environmental commitments, programs, and progress, according to recent research. For example, a study this year by the consumer trends consultancy Yankelovich concluded: "In general, consumers leave their green values and expectations at the office door or the factory gate. Even the greenest among us seem to attenuate their environmental demands and expectations when it comes to their employers."

 

Yankelovich's 2008 "Going Green" report — an annual study of green attitudes, behaviors, and opportunities — assessed for the first time the impact of green attitudes on work choices, a topic that has not been as thoroughly examined as consumers' impact on consumption and political choices. It looked at three key questions:

 

1. Are people who may be unwilling to go green in their personal lives nonetheless likely to hold their employers to a higher standard?
2. Are people who are ardently green in their personal lives unlikely to choose to work for employers who are not as green as they are?
3. To what extent do employers need to consider the greenness of their policies, processes and carbon footprint in the context of being able to attract the best and brightest employees?

 

In general, most U.S. workers aren't yet choosing employers based on a company's environmental practices, Yankelovich found.

 

Given the relatively low levels of concern within the marketplace regarding environmental issues, it is not surprising that the vast majority of employed consumers do not allow an employer's greenness to influence strongly their employment decisions. What is perhaps surprising is that even the greenest among us seem to [reduce] their environmental demands and expectations when it comes to their employers.

 

On the other hand, according to the 2008 Corporate Sustainability Employees study by the marketing firm Fresh Marketing, "Most employees want more education and resources on corporate sustainability as only one in 10 feel completely prepared to help their companies go forward on corporate sustainability." Just over half of employees "feel confused over how environmental and social impacts are addressed or feel they are treated in silos."

BY: Joel Makower

Click here to read the end of the article

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: futurelab

 

                              

• Millions of people now engage in a variety of green-minded activities in their personal lives, from cutting waste to recycling to saving energy to purchasing greener goods and services. But then they go to work and see those efforts dwarfed by the mountains of waste that collect just around their own workspace, never mind the lights, computers, and other machines that burn 24/7, the dumpsters full of packaging trash, and 1,001 other environmental insults. It's discouraging, to say the least.
• Conversely, some companies' ambitious efforts to reduce waste, pollution, and other forms of inefficiency — not to mention create new markets for cleaner and greener solutions to meet customers' needs — can be thwarted by employees' lack of environmental awareness and personal habits. The disconnect squanders opportunities for employees to embrace a green ethic all week long, not just during the workday, and to bring to their jobs ideas and inspiration for a greener company.

 

The greening of employees can create a virtuous circle, one in which their personal and professional commitments and habits continually reinforce each other. Along the way, the more employees understand about the impacts of their jobs and the opportunities to make them greener, the greater the chances they'll rise to the occasion.

 

Companies are just starting to wake up to this, according to a soon-to-be-released study by the National Environmental Education Foundation. Earlier this year, NEEF set out to gauge "how leading companies approach internal employee education and engagement." It surveyed more than 1,300 people (many respondents coming from the GreenBiz.com newsletter audience) as part of a larger study on corporate environmental and sustainability education.

 

NEEF found that a significant number of companies saying they offer advanced or very advanced environment and sustainability education — 51% of small company respondents and about 30% of medium and large companies. (These numbers may be skewed somewhat, since the survey respondents come largely from environmentally minded audiences. A more representative cross-section of companies would likely yield different results.)

 

NEEF also found that 65% of respondents value job candidates' environmental and sustainability knowledge, with 78% saying such knowledge will likely increase as a hiring factor within five years. Moreover, nearly half of respondents who have no environmental education programs believe their company will begin educating employees in the next two years.

 

Company efforts notwithstanding, employees feel ill-informed about their employer's environmental commitments, programs, and progress, according to recent research. For example, a study this year by the consumer trends consultancy Yankelovich concluded: "In general, consumers leave their green values and expectations at the office door or the factory gate. Even the greenest among us seem to attenuate their environmental demands and expectations when it comes to their employers."

 

Yankelovich's 2008 "Going Green" report — an annual study of green attitudes, behaviors, and opportunities — assessed for the first time the impact of green attitudes on work choices, a topic that has not been as thoroughly examined as consumers' impact on consumption and political choices. It looked at three key questions:

 

1. Are people who may be unwilling to go green in their personal lives nonetheless likely to hold their employers to a higher standard?
2. Are people who are ardently green in their personal lives unlikely to choose to work for employers who are not as green as they are?
3. To what extent do employers need to consider the greenness of their policies, processes and carbon footprint in the context of being able to attract the best and brightest employees?

 

In general, most U.S. workers aren't yet choosing employers based on a company's environmental practices, Yankelovich found.

 

Given the relatively low levels of concern within the marketplace regarding environmental issues, it is not surprising that the vast majority of employed consumers do not allow an employer's greenness to influence strongly their employment decisions. What is perhaps surprising is that even the greenest among us seem to [reduce] their environmental demands and expectations when it comes to their employers.

 

On the other hand, according to the 2008 Corporate Sustainability Employees study by the marketing firm Fresh Marketing, "Most employees want more education and resources on corporate sustainability as only one in 10 feel completely prepared to help their companies go forward on corporate sustainability." Just over half of employees "feel confused over how environmental and social impacts are addressed or feel they are treated in silos."

BY: Joel Makower

Click here to read the end of the article

Posted by: Loïc LAMY

Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas

Source: futurelab