Last year, like many brands and organisations, London Fashion Week flirted with Social Media by having event details, links to stories and comments posted on Twitter and Facebook… so far so very 2009!
This year, though, sees London Fashion Week take a great leap forward by embracing even more Social Media technologies and making London Fashion Week open to the masses rather than the privileged few… and they’ve done it in some predictable and also some surprising ways.
Earlier this week I gave a talk on digital video and how advertising agencies are changing to facilitate a wide range of video needs that are required by clients. From high budget brand TV adverts to medium budget DRTV adverts right to low budget web-video… the demand is increasing and now’s the time to invest in skills and training.
I gave the talk on behalf of GBM at ‘Band on the Wall’ in Manchester and have split it into three parts of around 10 minutes each. Thanks to GBM and everyone who came to the talk, I hope you found it informative… I certainly enjoyed putting it together.
Parts two and three can be viewed by clicking the red button below.
Imagine walking down any street and holding up your iPhone… what you see on the screen is a view of the street yet there are lots of Zombies running towards you that you then have to shoot. Or imagine walking up to a wall and touching it… just for the wall to then display the view that is on the other side of it…. This is the world of Augmented Reality and it’s a world that looks like it’s going to be very big indeed.
Put simply, Augmented Reality blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and smell. It adds graphics, sounds, and smell to our world… and through a normal pair of glasses or display screen, informative graphics appear in your field of view, and audio coincides with whatever you see. These enhancements are then refreshed continually to reflect the movements of your head and the world around you.
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that in September an edition of Entertainment Weekly in the US will feature the world’s first video-in-print advert. Previewing programmes from CBS’s upcoming season as well as adverts for Pepsi… the video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.
Each chip that feeds the screen can hold up to 40 minutes of video with the battery that powers the chip and screen being able to play for about 65 to 70 minutes. This battery can then be recharged by plugging in a mini USB cord and once you’ve got bored of the content contained in the chip… you can download additional content from the Web. Sounds clever, and expensive… so will it take off?
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, how do I look in the Aqua Circle-Print Tube Dress? Oh it’s nice…but it’s not quite right…have you got it in red…and maybe one size up? Oh yes…that’s perfect. Now let me send this to my friends…girls look at me…what do you think? OMG they love it – I’ll take it…”
Coming soon to a high-street fitting room near you…welcome to the exciting world of Interactive Mirrors.
Interactive whatnow?
An Interactive Mirror is – as its name suggests – a mirror you can interact with. Basically, simply looking at your reflection is like so last year. Now you can actually manipulate it, using the mirror’s touch-screen surface to do everything from trying out new clothes and hairstyles, to giving yourself a tan.
Dark marketing may not be a popular topic of conversation down the pub, or a subject of family debate over a sunday roast, but last year the increasingly popular advertising technique got some important exposure through its use by that most cuddly behemoth of unquenchable consumerism… McDonald’s. The fast food giant, more normally associated with in-your-face mass-media advertising and sports event sponsorship, was found to be the quiet and unassuming creator of a popular online computer game.
On 10th March 2009, the BBC’s Today current affairs radio programme ventured into the world of viral marketing by uploading a video to YouTube. The ‘viral’ – a video that rapidly gains popularity by being distributed and shared on the internet – was created as an experiment to see how widely the three-minute ad could spread in a short amount of time.
As of 31st March 2009, three weeks after being uploaded, Inside Today has been viewed nearly 55,000 times and has been emailed, instant messaged and blog linked across the planet. So far, so good. But the experiment has had its critics, with many questioning whether the Today promotional video can really be defined as viral.
On October 29th 2008 a 30-minute infomercial entitled ‘American Stories, American Solutions’ aired on virtually all of America’s TV Networks. This infomercial was the glittering jewel in Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign and garnered him over 30 million viewers and significant news coverage around the world… largely due to the $3 million it cost to air.
Obama’s Campaign, though, was newsworthy for more reasons than just this 30-minute infomercial. He was the first Presidential Candidate since John F. Kennedy to embrace a new medium successfully. In Kennedy’s case it was television… in Obama’s it was Web 2.0.
Back in the 80s the tobacco company Phillip Morris famously paid $25,000 to have Superman thrown into a Marlboro branded truck in the movie Superman II. At the time, having a cigarette advertisement in what was largely a kids’ movie was not deemed to be one of the wisest decisions made by the film’s Producers. To change the branding, even with today’s technology, would cost a large amount. But what if there was a piece of software that allowed you to place a new piece of branding or advertising message onto the vehicle quickly and easily! A piece of technology that was so easy to use that anyone could now place an advert or marketing message in any piece of digital video in a matter of minutes!
You could be forgiven for approaching the New Year with some trepidation, if you work in the marketing and advertising industry.Some of the traditional big-spending UK marketers are in trouble.Retailers are succumbing to depressed High Street spending in record numbers – Woolworths, MFI, Whittards, Zavvi, Adams – and predictions are for several more high profile casualties in Q1 2009.Financial services is carnage – a roller-coaster stock market, collapsing house prices, dismal rates for savings and investments, reluctant lenders– the only useful role for marketing seems to be chasing debt.And it doesn’t take much foresight to predict a treacherous year for holiday companies – teetering airlines and the collapse of sterling against most major currencies are making the B&B in Blackpool look an attractive option right now.
Last year, like many brands and organisations, London Fashion Week flirted with Social Media by having event details, links to stories and comments posted on Twitter and Facebook… so far so very 2009!
Imagine walking down any street and holding up your iPhone… what you see on the screen is a view of the street yet there are lots of Zombies running towards you that you then have to shoot. Or imagine walking up to a wall and touching it… just for the wall to then display the view that is on the other side of it…. This is the world of Augmented Reality and it’s a world that looks like it’s going to be very big indeed.
It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that in September an edition of Entertainment Weekly in the US will feature the world’s first video-in-print advert. Previewing programmes from CBS’s upcoming season as well as adverts for Pepsi… the video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, how do I look in the Aqua Circle-Print Tube Dress? Oh it’s nice…but it’s not quite right…have you got it in red…and maybe one size up? Oh yes…that’s perfect. Now let me send this to my friends…girls look at me…what do you think? OMG they love it – I’ll take it…”
