Transition
Posted: August 7, 2010 Filed under: iPhone | Tags: Apple, Application, apps, authors, content, iain banks, infinite universes, iPhone, iphone app, mobile, multiple worlds, publishers, solipsists, Transition Leave a comment
Holiday time means a chance for me to catch up on some fiction and this years has coincided with a new release by one of my favourite authors, ‘Transition‘ by Iain Banks. As I started to dive into the story I noticed that there is a complementary iPhone app with extra content to accompany the book – great, I’ll have some of that!
I zoomed straight to the App Store to download it immediately. Then the clever bit: you have to point your iPhone’s camera at a Q code on the back of the book to trigger the content. A moment later and I have discovered some talking-head video interviews with Banks and some transcripts and background notes on the concept and the lead characters. Sure this is all interesting stuff and no doubt enthralling to armies of Banks’ fans but really there is nothing here that couldn’t have been included in the book itself, video aside. All a bit of an anti-climax in the end. I don’t know why but I was kind of expecting a bit more given what the iPhone is capable of and a concept as exciting as human travel between infinite universes. I would have thought there is lots of room to for the imagination to run wild. A social, location based game would fit quite well allowing fans to interact across a virtual mini-verse sharing thoughts, images, ideas, etc. Even a book club app with an opportunity to discuss this and other titles with like minded fans would at least play to the platform. I am sure that these type of Apps are destined to become more common so let’s hope that in the future they can deliver some creativity to rival that of the authors they promote.
Oh and by the way the book is a cracking read which I thoroughly recommend – buy it here and download the app here. Then you can tell me what you think.
Networked greeks and banners creak
Posted: July 27, 2008 Filed under: advertising, Campaigns, Digital, Philosophy, The web | Tags: Ad Blockers, Ad Shels, add-on, advertising, Alain de Botton, Billboards, browsers, Campaigns, content, Digital, Display Advertising, Epicurus, firefox, happiness, Interactive, Networks, Philosophy, plug-in, Re-active, steve lambert, The web Leave a commentIf you have a spare 20 mins check out this video by Alain de Botton about the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and how modern advertising taps into our Epicurean need for friends, freedom and thought. Early followers of this philosophy created a kind of advertising of their own to remind contemporaries of the rules for a happy life.
Add Art
I am sure that modern day Epicureans would throughly approve of the Add Art project from artist Steve Lambert who has developed a plug-in for Firefox Browsers that replaces banners advertising with art. With an evident lack of imagination in most current banners campaigns I think this could be a big hit. However, it poses the question: If no one is going to see the ads, who is going to pay for the content? No ads – no fee: no fee – no content. I wonder will anyone pay for content they currently consume for free? My guess is no, so before we reach an impasse we must begin to look at alternative ways of capturing audiences’ imaginations with methods that are more subtle, intriguing and more useful than those currently in use. A popular solution is the ‘Content is King’ approach: give consumers something they actually need and in return they will interact with your brand/products. There are already examples of this strategy beginning to work on the web – but not really with Banners.
As display advertising as a whole begins its inevitable path towards digital delivery and networked control we begin to encounter digital banners in the real world. These ads, if not fully interactive, will at least be re-active via mobile technology. Could it be that eventually traditional platforms such as ad shells and billboards will be forced to adapt and deliver to our Epicurean led sensibilities and if so what sort of content might they begin to deliver?
The website is dead! Long live the king.
Posted: May 12, 2008 Filed under: Design, The web | Tags: ad agency, content, death of the website, Design, General rambling, modernista, The web, web 2.0, web design, websites 2 CommentsI recently stumbled across the new Modernista! website whilst doing a spot of research on some of our peers and competitors.
At first I thought that the site was simply a great gimmick – a smart way for the agency to show how 2.0 savvy they are. But then a thought struck me – this was leading somewhere that no digital agency wants to go: The death of the website. Why should clients pay money for domain hosting, servers and a CMS when, as Modernista show, you can get it all for free via a series of ready-made web applications?
As our technologies become more sophisticated our audiences’ knowledge of how to use the web does too. It is common place today to look up companies on Wikipedia, check references on LinkedIn and view media via the likes of Flickr and YouTube. In fact it could be argued that Modernista don’t even really need the crude navigation system that they have bolted over the top at all. The web is a huge library for anyone with access to use, a keyword search on Google brings back most of the information you need within a page or two.
So if an ad agency does not need a website anymore can we still justify that our clients do? OK Banks and large Retailers still need bespoke applications for ecommerce and safe transactions but I wonder how long it might be before there are ready-made versions of their apps that we can all use in the same way.
I guess that if this is the trend, the mantra ‘content is king’ rings truer than ever?
rambunktion 