Original 1979 Pac-Man Drawings

Toru Iwatani created Pac-Man. He still carries top secret documents with him to game conferences. No, really.

Iwatani was a speaker at the recent Festival of Games. To the surprise of the conference’s host, Iwatani was carrying the original Pac-Man sketches with him.

via Kotaku

What Google Caffeine means to Brands

The launch last week of Google’s “time-sensitive” search engine, Caffeine, is more meaningful to your business than you might think. Its ability to deliver – and promote – real-time content within minutes of it having been written, means that the ability to control your brand image has just become harder, and resisting social media more risky than ever.

With Caffeine, Google has essentially created an international soap box which amplifies and promotes public opinion regarding products and services that consumers are searching for, at a time when they are likely to be most influenced by opinion, that is, when they are comparing brands before making a final purchase decision. No one should under-estimate the power of public opinion: according to a survey by research company Nielsen, last year, recommendations by personal acquaintances and opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising.

Companies need to consider the impact of public opinion when calculating the return on investment from digital advertising and promotions.

In order to assess this – aside from knowing what consumers are currently saying about your brand online – it is essential to have a plans in place to improve consumer experience/perception, and to manage any future PR crisis immediately and effectively. Google Caffeine means that these plans have changed from a “nice-to-have” to “must-have” for effective online marketing.

With Google’s continuous drive to make search more personally relevant, that “must-have” will soon become “critical”, as social search capabilities are enhanced.

By its own admission, Google sees tremendous potential for social information to improve search, and is “just beginning to scratch the surface”.

Social search, which is already available in beta to registered Google users, filters and prioritizes results by those most closely connected to the user, which means that the impact of the recommendation and/or opinion is further heightened. Nielsen reports a whopping 90 per cent of people trusting online recommendations from people they know.

Let’s look at a potential scenario to show how this could play out.

John is looking for a mobile phone and can’t decide between iPhone or Blackberry. He enters “iPhone vs Blackberry” into Google and gets a page of results that shows both iPhone and Blackberry sponsored ads, followed by Twitter and blog comments from his close circle of friends, bullet-pointed by their avatar for ease of identification.

His eye is immediately drawn towards the avatar of Steven, a trusted friend with a similar taste in technology.

He sees that Steven is complaining about Blackberry, stating how he wishes he had opted for the iPhone instead.

John scans the other Google results to find that Steven is not alone in his view; with three or four other trusted friends holding a similar view.

Now, despite seeing a killer offer from Blackberry advertised at the top of the Google results, John’s mind is made up. iPhone it is.

Now all he has to do is Google some mobile network providers.

While John could have asked individuals about their thoughts on his dilemma, it was much quicker, easier and less intrusive to get multiple opinions from his trusted network, through Google, and more trusted than both the manufacturer websites, which he deems to be biased and complicated to compare, and a generic reviews website, where he does not know the people giving their opinion.

(While the manufacturers’ websites may have less influence in the brand consideration phase, it certainly doesn’t make the websites redundant – it simply addresses a different lifecycle stage which, in John’s case, is to compare models to find the right fit for his needs, to complete the purchase and to later refer to for support.)

Given this new world of consumer-to-consumer advertising, how do we ensure that brands are being represented in the best possible light? By placing genuine focus on customer experience, feedback and engagement, to improve consumer opinion.

The more you allow your consumers to guide (implicitly and explicitly) the evolution of your products and services, the greater sense of ownership and respect they’ll have for your brand. This respect will come through in their communication with their peers, and be picked up in social search to influence like-minded consumers considering your products, which will ultimately increase digital marketing effectiveness and positively impact sales.

• The Official Google Blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com) January 27, 2010.

Jennie Bewes, social media & new business director

As published in The Australian Financial Review | 17 June 2010

Want to work at Amnesia Razorfish?

Do you breathe all things PR? Have a passion for all things social media? Want to join a team that is kicking goals (and plays Foosball every Friday afternoon)?

We’re looking for a smart cookie to come onboard as our Digital PR Exec. With fantastic clients, great projects and a fun team, how could you not want to apply? You can find the full job ad here.

And for a bit of fun, the social team made this to entice you:

Email us: jobs.sydney@amnesia.com.au

~ Karalee Evans, Social Strategy Manager xx

Parrot AR.Drone hits the US this September for $299

we have been talking about this over and over again and it finally got announced and the hands on video from the engadget guys wants me to have it even more.

 

If you are listening carefully to the video there is a girl talking about it and if I understood it correctly you can fly one of these for 12 min straight before it needs to get recharged for 90 min – not great, but a good start.

As previously mentioned the drone is controlled via an app for your iPhone,iPod or iPad (and there is an Android one now too) – You get a free download of the control app in the App Store, as well as a simple combat app in which your view on your iPhone is overlaid with missiles, lasers, and explosions as you duel with another Drone.

there are rumours that more and more apps will be released in the future with new “missions” so it will never get boring

I personally can’t wait and I will talk my boss into buying one for the office.

@maniac13

The World Cup recreated brick by brick…….

 

It’s been over 40 years since England last lifted the Jules Rimet trophy, otherwise known as the World cup.  England began their perpetual odyssey towards ultimate disappointment (no doubt via a penalty shootout) against the relative minnows of the USA on Saturday night.

In the true tradition of English World Cup campaigns past, they snatched a draw from the jaws of victory courtesy of a calamitous goalkeeping error fro Robert Green.  Anyone who woke up from a coma on Sunday morning would have thought nothing else happened in the world on Saturday other than a slight goalkeeping faux pas.

Rather than watch the endless highlights on Youtube, why not check out this kinda cool German website who are recreating this years highlights using stop animation and LEGO….yes those stick brick toys much beloved of children who should really get outside in the fresh air a little more.

See it here -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2010/jun/14/world-cup-2010-england-usa-brick

They have created an entire back catalogue of games including a rather wonderful moment back in 1966 when Football came home and Geoff Hurst scored the winning goal at Wembley.

This an all manner of other stop animated LEGO-Y goodness can be found here.

 http://www.legofussball.eu/

ESPN’s brilliant, possibly borderline offensive 2010 World Cup Posters

On the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, this brilliantly executed set of 33 posters (including 1 from each of the 32 nations competing) is sure to cause a stir and hopefully a laugh or two.

 

Australian poster

Why pantless?

 

French poster

Note Henry’s glowing hand. Cheeky. (nicely spotted Stephen)

See them all here or download them from ESPN’s facebook

[via World Cup Buzz]

Wired iPad app sales to surpass print sales this month

Wired Magazine have reason to be extra excited about the release of the iPad this month. The iPad edition of Wired, which retails on the app store for $US4.99 has – as of June 7 – been purchased nearly 80,000 – the average monthly sales for the print edition. This is after just two weeks on the app store. This was tweeted by Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson on Sunday:

73,000 purchases of Wired iPad app in first nine days. Should beat newsstand sales of print mag (ave. mid 80s) this month.

He celebrated again during Steve Jobs’s keynote at WWDC10 on Monday with:

Can die happy now. Steve Jobs shows the Wired iPad app on stage at WWDC! http://twitpic.com/1utfrk

Obviously, with the iPad still being so new and shiny, app sales are likely to be much higher for the next few months, but even so, things look promising for the Wired app. In addition to getting all the articles (and ads) of the print version, there are extra animations, videos and sound clips sprinkled in there.

Personally, I think the Wired iPad app is amazing. After seeing the Wired app, the whole iPad thing made a LOT more sense. The iPad (to me) is a reading device. Reading blogs, articles, ebooks, magazines. It’s just so much easier than sitting at a desk or having the MacBook burn my lap on the couch. I’ll be happily throwing $6 a month into Condé Nast‘s pockets. Much better than the $13 is costs on newsstands in Australia.

Hopefully we’ll be seeing more creative use of the iPad from other magazine publishers.

Dyson Fan Balloon Obstacle Course

The Dyson bladeless fan is pretty cool on its own, but the Dyson engineers were asked to show how inducement and entrainment of air works on the Air Multiplier fan.

So they build an Obstacle course and used a balloon – pretty awesome:

@maniac13

Another Way To Hang Your Hat

If there are better ceiling lights than these, I don’t know what they are – though I’m willing take take suggestions.

Designer Jake Phipps came up with these classy creations a little while back, and I hope was duly rewarded for bringing a bit of dapper to the lighting scene. He calls them the Jeeves & Wooster – click through for cultural reference.

Honestly, is there anything a distinguished hat isn’t good for? If you’ve got some other well designed or wacky hat uses, or lighting solutions, it would be great to see them in the comments!

@tali3sin

WIN an exclusive Razorfish iPhone cover

We’ve been asked to submit an A4 image for the Digital Who’s Who of Australia. It would be boring if we just submitted the image so in true socialist media stylee, we thought we’d throw it open to you to pick an image.

Here’s the brief:

‘Lastly, please provide a single A4 image (at 300dpi) that you feel most effectively communicates your strengths to prospective clients.

The content is absolutely up to you, as long as we can print it on an A4 page.’

Submit your entry in the comments below.

Best image wins one of these snazzy Razorfish iPhone covers:

@handypearce

It’s almost here: The iPhone controlled quadcopter drone

Update: I’ve been waiting  to buy one of these since I blogged it back in January. Well – the wait is almost over. June 15th sees the launch and pricing details of the AR Drone. Sick … as a Parrot. Details here

I’m planning to get one shipped over. Let me know in the comments below if you want to come and have a play with it

Here’s my original post.

Santa didn’t bring me one, but I wish he had. An iPhone controlled quadcopter drone with onboard cameras … yes really. It says it’s controlled using ‘wifi technology’ so I’m hoping you can’t just fly within a wifi zone. Big brother footage of Sydney coming soon. More here

@handypearce

Hi-Tec achieves a viral miracle with it’s walking on water doco

So Hi-Tec has come clean by admitting it was the brand behind the “Liquid Mountaineering” documentary, which has attracted over 4 million views.

We’ve seen many a fake viral fall flat in the past; most notably the high profile backfire of Naked’s Witchery viral in early 2009. It’s true you can’t fool a YouTube audience. However, Hi-Tec have made a masterful attempt at tricking YouTubers into thinking a group of european thrill seekers have managed to run on water. Gullible bogans. Lots of people have called it, but many people seem to have been taken in:

… or are they?? Or have CCCP (the dutch ad agency behind this genius) done the sensible thing and flooded the comments board with a load of bollocks to make you put all logical thought to one side and think this is actually real. I sincerely hope these comments are genuine, but  sadly I suspect the most gullible ones are not.

I have to admit it had me going until I saw this shot:

… and the bit with men running on water.

As an agency, we don’t create “viral videos”. We create pieces of content that, given the right ingredients, we hope will achieve viral status.

So I thought it would be worth deconstructing the ingredients of one of the best ‘fake virals’ I’ve seen.

Here’s my learnings from CCCP’s viral miracle.