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mindblob.

(click to enlarge – illustration : David Armano)

Back to an illustration David Armano (Creative Director at Digitas) published on his site (Logic + Emotion) a few months ago.

Many big networks still carry a heavy pyramid structure. Not that this structure isn’t appropriate for business, but the question is : will the flexibility, dynamics, responsiveness of such a structure be fast enough to catch up with the reality of business 2.0?
This pyramid structure when related to producing ideas, concepts, or products has definitely proven through time that excellent results can come out of horizontal processes. But what if there was a way to speed up the process now? What if other kind of structures could move twice faster? Maybe there is a way to avoid blocking good ideas in structural/hierarchy processes? Maybe there is a way to consider every idea proposed for a project no matter who is the sender (T-shape thinking). And finally, maybe there is a way to test ideas before they are launched and so fine tune to be right on target with optimum accuracy (like in “flat world”).
One fact is that there are lots of small businesses and advertising agencies already working in “flat world” position. Why? Because people (understand : customers!) are already into sharing ideas with others that way and so, building new paths of creativity (using tools provided by web 2.0). Even people focussing on brand building come to the T-shaped creativity/thinking.

So, what should big pyramidal structures do? Re-shape the structure? Uuuuh! Heavy and time consuming, right! Well, I think there are ways around this. But of course, pushing members of a huge structure into something they are not (yet) convinced in is the most complicated thing of all. People fear change, it’s a fact… Besides the good reasons to do it, changing the day-to-day routines is complicated. Nevertheless, if everything around you is “changing” the message becomes obvious : “open your eyes and look around!”.

Those who tried to communicate on a worldwide scale, via Internet blogs know it. Passionate and convinced people drag audiences no matter their title, CV or experience. If the message they deliver is interesting, they roll and they roll big. Idea : if there are such people within the big pyramid (and there must be!) they should be identified and considered in a new and different way. They could spread the news and convince internally as well as externally.

Suggesting maybe to regroup these “elements” into an “R&D” trend department, some sort of “creative booster”, or “media 2.0 architects”.

CBS definition of “viral video” posted by Joseph Jaffe on YouTube.

Joseph also appears in the video and gives us the perspective of marketeers trying to catch the wave : “If you can’t beat them… join them”. This explains the rise of internet advertising investments.  But beware… marketers making fake videos take big risk and the issue is that taget audience will either “Laugh with them or laugh at them”.

Examples :

- “Laugh with them” : Converse (Made by you).

- “Laugh at them” : Chevrolet Tahoe.

As a music fan I love to discover new stuff. The way I used to proceed was listening to all sorts of radios (local trendy stations, satellite radios, internet radios, etc.). Podcasts gave me a new kind of pleasure through keywords research helping fintune the selection.

Then I found Pandora, a customizable internet radio. Pandora is a website founded by Tim Westergren, award-winning composer, musician and record producer who is obsessed with helping talented emerging artists connect with the music fans most likely to appreciate their music. But don’t you think this is just another internet radio with topics and channels playing stereotype playlists. This system is open and evolutive and is a real tool to help you discover music you like. Pandora’s music discovery services are based on The Music Genome Project™, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans sixty years of music.

All you need to do is register freely, input an artist or song you like and wait for the system to suggest and play similar or related music. You can rate the music to finetune the search. CNET has an “How to…” video that explains it all and an article that focuses on the evolution of Pandora. This thing is just… FANTASTIC !

Wired published a special “How to…” feature. “We live in the age of DIY. Knowing how to use the technology that surrounds you is good – a little creative hacking is even better. This special section is your instruction book on how to do, well, anything – … – Kiss Default mode good-bye – and step up to the tweaked-out, souped-up, overclocked life you crave. “

If you don’t already ready Wired… this issue is worth spending some time on. You’ll find a surprising article by Stephen Colbert on “How to be an expert on anything”. From telling you to “pick a field that can’t be verified” to just saying that “being famous helps”… Colbert brings all sorts of ideas in his definition of the anti-expert. Anyway, even if you don’t plan to follow his hints, they will definitely make you smile.

Why a situation like that… What could we do to stop it?

As stupid as it might seem… although I didn’t want this blog to refer to politics, religion, or anything like that… I feel sorry about what’s happening to people in Lebanon and Israël.

Can’t help it… I think about it and think it’s a sad part of human history being writen under our eyes. We all know this world is full of injustice, we all know some people are lucky other are not. Well I feel like shouting today : IT IS NOT FAIR ! Although I don’t have the keys to point one guilty nation, leader or whoever… what I can point out is innocent people suffering on both sides.

If all the creatives of this planet could gather and think about a way to stop unfair situations like that… they should concentrate right now and connect their brains. Well, I’m being idealist, I know, but anyway… I’d rather beleive it will be possible one day and keep thinking, than closing my eyes.

This article from Timesonline is a quite interesting overview on how we can consider the emergence of Digitality in our lives. Writing this makes me a “digital immigrant” according to their definition. I was born before all the digital tools we now have in our everyday lives (mobile phone, computers, internet, MP3 players, media players, etc.) Considering the generation of kids who grew up with immediate access to all of these tools, a brilliant question is developed in this article : is the way we think (links in our brains) going to be influenced by the new communication tools available now?

Well, personally I think we are already thinking differently. Knowing that the web is open to us, that we can communicate, share, discover, find solutions out there, brings a key to our knowledge. Individually as well as in a more global perspective, getting connected opens a new era of brain evolution. For example, accessing relevant information : if I need the definition or spelling of a word… I type it right away in wikipedia or another online dictionary… 10 years ago, I would have needed a dictionary and be lucky the word I’m looking for is not too geeky to be found in my good old 1997 Webster.

Human intelligence is particularly lazy… if there is an easy way to achieve a goal, why should we use a more complicated one? If we know a tool exists, why shouldn’t we use it? Especially if you don’t have reflex blocking you (like “is an online dictionary as relevant as my good old book?”). Maybe this is why kids make links faster than most of the digital immigrants.

Athough this is not really news anymore, it is worth being noticed as linked to marketing 2.0.

What could one unsatisfied customer do against a giant like AOL? Write a letter? Hire a lawyer to sue them? Bell doors in his town and start a petition? Nothing? “David against Goliath” one might say. Well, not exactly. Not anymore. That’s the story of 30 years old Vincent Ferrari. He had heard that lots of people were having the same kind of problems to cancel their account, so he decided to find out if they were exagerating or if it was reflecting a real issue. So basically, what the man did is call AOL and ask them to simply “cancel his account”. Not a problem you think? Not really… it took him 15 minutes to get to a real person and then… the incredible happened. The thing is you can exactly experience what he’s been through as Vincent recorded the whole conversation and published it on his blog (just check how many comments he received on his post).

Then the blogosphere takes on the information and as the spread is quite wide, the relay is taken by the press. Follows an interview on NBC, published on Youtube plus an article published on The New York Times. And the story is still getting more diggs every day.

Well, yes… AOL apologized. But what about the mediatic disaster of this experience, now? Whoever worked on building corporate image knows. It’s D-R-A-M-A-T-I-C !

So, this relates to the fact that brands and big corporations definitely have to consider their customers more than ever. The reason is that now, customers can speak as loud as them on the internet. And customers have spontaneously more sympathy for other customers, sharing a real experience, than they do for brands or corporations communicating, the same kind of messages over and over again. Small drops making huge waves at the end… waves bigger than the giants.

Thinking about “how to think” and organise ideas before launching them into reality… Here is a recent proposition of David Armano (Creative Director at Digitas), for the anatomy of the new creative mind. Basically, as the target audiences are evolving into more active/interactive kind of receptors (vs. untill now, vegetative receptors), the new creative minds need to integrate analytical, expressive, curious and sensual qualities into their thinking process. A blend of logical thinking and problem solving for advertisers on their way to integrate digital media to keep contact with their target audiences (although the word “audience” should maybe be reconsidered as target is now also empowered to act and react to the brands and messages sent their way).

As David mentioned on his blog [*] , this article [ source Adodas ] is an interesting overview of the situation advertising agencies are currently facing.

Another proposition, somehow linked to the new creative mindset… should we think like designers? [ source FastCompany.com] Tim Brown (CEO from Ideo – one of the world’s leading product-design firms) says so.

Is this process a real conductor to efficient creativity? Does this help shape and build ideas into reality? Well… In the meantime, let’s keep thinking.

[* visual by David Armano]

I must admit I am fascinated by people who invent simple and suprising objects. Weither these objects are really useful, just good looking or really magic, doesn’t really matter. Ideas like these are always welcome. Congratulations Diana! [*] And thank you for this poetic and “O so sweet” vision.
[* Diana Yu-Ju Lin ]