Cannes Cycling Club

Is Razorfish becoming synonymous with cycling or is France simply a perfect place to see from two wheels?

As creative thinkers from around the globe flock to France’s sunny southern shores for the 2013 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Razorfish, alongside Adobe and The Weather Channel, will be two-wheeling through the city in homage to the land of the Tour.

This comes less than six months after Razorfish’s #UseMeLeaveMe tweeting bicycles made their début at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

At that time, people navigated their way around Austin’s crowded streets using Razorfish’s GPS enabled bicycles which tweeted out their real-time locations using the #usemeleaveme hashtag. Each bike had its own name and cheeky personality, something which shone through with every tweet.

This time around, riders will be left to their own tweeting devices and no bicycle will attempt courtship on their behalf, however with multiple routes and pace options available (not to mention the accompanying mechanics and tour guides), this tour of Cannes should prove likewise unique.

Everyone is invited and if you are lucky enough to join the party, say hello to our very own Head of Strategy Ben Hourahine, who will be donning his Lycra to represent the Sydney office.

See below for specific riding dates and times and keep up to date by on Facebook (facebook.com/CannesCyclingClub) or follow the hashtag on twitter (#CannesCyclingClub).

 

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Myspace’s making a comeback…

... and it’s looking very promising.

A lot of feedback has been around the Pinterest-esque look and how sexy the video is making it out to be, but time will tell when we finally log-in and play with it (currently invite-only). Fingers crossed there will be some interesting integrations with Spotify and Soundcloud.

First Digital Agency to Win an Australian EFFIE

We just won a silver EFFIE award for our media attribution work for Aussie Home Loans! Easily one of the most prestigious awards in Australia and the first time one has ever been awarded to a digital agency!

Our idea was to track consumers across all paid and organic channels, which enabled Aussie to monitor the full path to conversion (aka applying for a homeloan). This new model revolutionized Aussie’s digital strategy and media spend, from first contact through to the point of purchase.

A big thanks to our amazing clients Alex Crompton and Stuart Tucker, without whom this would have not been possible.

Also big congratulations to the whole team who worked across this project and the case study: Vanessa Wolff, Camilo Forero, Carly Adamis, Jen Berry, Doug Chapman and Ben Hourahine.

Given we just came off the back of winning an Australian Mobile Award for our AusPost Postcards app, it’s been a great week of recognition for our work.

Go FISH!

Are memes becoming lamestream? Where to next?

A lot of meme Facebook pages are popping up around key suburbs around Sydney. Hurstville memes. Straithfield memes. Penrith Memes. They ragged on the nuances of each of those suburbs. I’m from Hurstville and thought this particular one was good.

You really can’t quite leave Hurstville without a pork roll from King’s Bread (if you’re from Hurstville, or been there, you’d know what I mean. Nom nom nom).

Then I noticed my cousin created his high school meme page, and some of my old high school mates started liking one that was set up for us. Holy crap, Mr Ward does look like George Clooney!

Then there was the London Olympic games, where I’m sure some of us learnt more from the countless Olympics memes which littered the internet then the actual coverage itself. I didn’t catch much of it, but I can conclude that the Queen was involved in some manner, there were some odd-looking divers, some people just don’t have all the luck when it comes to their names, you sure look like an idiot in synchronised swimming and a lot of ladies from the track and field and male swimmers got a lot of attention.

This is becoming quite omnipresent. To the point where in some instances we’re expecting a meme to pop up in the next 10 minutes if anything happened. How will we evolve as a race over the next 50 years if this keeps up? People are lolspeaking in boardroom meetings and communicating with gifs now.

Or is there going to be a meme bubble? Will we get so sick and tired of it all that this whole interweb phenomenon will backfire and explode, marking ourselves down in history as the temporarily illiterate generation, but we get our shit together and go back to being a little bit civilised in the way we communicate?

Whoknowslolkbye.

Australia Post app scores mobile award

Amnesia Razorfish and Australia Post are grinners this morning after last night winning at the 2012 Australian Mobile Awards. The jury recognised our personalised ‘Postcards’ app in the Utilities category over worthy opponents such as Telstra and Deloitte.

The ‘Postcards’ app allows users to create postcards, complete with a personal message, from pictures they’ve taken on their mobile. Once uploaded a physical postcard is sent to the chosen destination, anywhere in the world. Check out this previous post for more details.

Dan Krause, Carly Adamis, Toby Caves and Leslie Nassar receiving the award.

We’re all super excited for Australia Post and the team who worked with them in making this idea a successful reality. Or as our MD Doug Chapman more eloquently put it “We are honoured to accept this award alongside one of Australia’s most iconic brands. With ‘Postcards’, we set out to create a personal experience while acknowledging the physical and memorable aspects of a postcard.”

It’s fantastic to receive recognition from the industry as the mobile category continues to rise. We look forward to creating more award winning work with Australia Post in the future.

Until then, go send some Postcards!

Download of the Australia Post ‘Postcards’ app is available here.

 

Dean
@deanvowles

How would you like to pay for that, ma’am?

Conventional wisdom has it that when someone wants to buy goods, they go to a retailer, purchase a product at a predetermined price, and then become owner of that product. We don’t often think of different ways for this transaction to take place.

But what if there was another way?

Amnesia gets appy at Australian Mobile Awards

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have good news: Amnesia Razorfish is a finalist in the Australian Mobile Awards!

This is for the fantastic work by the team in creating the Australia Post Postcards App. The app itself allows you to send personalized post cards from anywhere in the world, on your iPhone, back to your friends and family in Australia.

To go the next step (you know, and WIN) we need your vote. VOTE NOW by clicking HERE, HERE or HERE.

Some background on the project

The Brief:

• Bring a traditional offline service, online
• Position Australia Post as a digital leader providing “Future Ready” services

The App:

• Create a personalized postcard on your iPhone from anywhere in the world.
• Your friends and family are delivered a hard copy in the mail within 6 days.
• UX is designed to let the sender ‘feel’ the postcard as they navigate the front and back of their creation.

The Results:

• 3600 downloads in 3 weeks (no media spend)
• Rated 4.5 on the app store
• People are talking, including Sydney Morning Herald, Lifehacker and Desktop Mag

Dean
@deanvowles

Wigglegrams. DIY 3D without the 3D Glasses.

Here’s a quick guide to making your very own ‘3D’ Wigglegrams or Lenticular photographs. We used three GoPro Hero’s, some elastic bands, a couple of rulers and some chopped up erasers. It will take about an hour to create your first Wigglegram.

Firstly, what is a Wigglegram? Basically it’s an animated gif which moves quickly between a number of frames taken from slightly different angels to create a 3D effect. In reality it’s a bit like a poor mans bullettime. You can learn more about the science here:

OK, here’s some Wigglegrams we made around the office today:

That’s Brady. He makes creative technology stuff happen.

Johnny, our ever so awesome Barista. He might be hip. We’re not sure.

Ben trying hard to stand still. Apparently that is hard  thing for strategists to do.

How to make your own Wigglegram:

We were lucky enough to have 3 GoPro’s in the Office but you could use any matching cameras. You will need a minimum of two, but the more the merrier. In general you want the lenses closer together. The effect may have been slightly better if we had put the GoPros vertically (but then we couldn’t have pressed the buttons!). Note: We pushed the GoPro’s tight as possible against each other to keep everything sturdy.

Step 1 – Construction:
1. We mounted the GoPros on two stiff rulers using elastic bands.
2. We taped 3 small pieces of eraser chopped up just big enough to press the camera buttons simultaneously.
3. We stuck the chopped up eraser onto a stiff flat object (we used a random bit of scrap metal we found lying around). lining up the erasers exactly with the GoPro buttons. This was loosly attched to the rig using elastic bands again (not so tight that it pressed the buttons)
4. We attached the rig onto a Tripod.

Step 2 – Taking shots:
1. Make sure you have a “centre subject” (see the flowers below in our reception area as an example). Having nothing in the middle of your shot makes it hard to align things, and also lessens the 3D effect. Tip: Don’t have too many objects close up or in front of your ‘centre object’.

2. Keep your rig nice and steady.
3. Avoid anything moving (unless you have a better way of getting each of the cameras to trigger at exactly the same time).
4. Click away… making sure all three buttons are clicked at the same time (although a little bit out is ok if your subjects are still.

Step 3- Making the Wigglegram  Gif
-We put out photos into three folders named LEFT, MIDDLE, RIGHT

Next we imported Left, Middle, Right frames into a layer in Photoshop (Fig 1) – one shot at a time.

– Next step is alignment. The easiest way to do this is to make the bottom layer (eg: left) 100% opacity, then make the next layer (eg middle) 50% opacity. When you do this the two images will look blurred and the trick is to get the ‘centre subject’ of the images in focus.
– Now move the 50% layer so your centre subject matches up with the bottom layer. Repeat this for each layer then turn them all back to 100% opacity.
– Crop your image to dispose of missing or overlapping areas.
– Test your Wigglegram by flicking the layers on and off.
– If you’ve done everything right you can now animate. Turn the Animate menu on under ‘Window’. Make sure you have frame animation on. It’s easier than using the timeline).

– You’ll need four frames (if you took three shots). Start with left, then middle, then right, then middle. Set the interval between 0 and 0.2 seconds and you are ready to export.
-Set the loop to ‘forever’
– Go to File/ Save for web and devices and export as a gif using a selective pallete.

-Done! Enjoy
Posted by @eunmac

Amnesia Search is cool!

Last week I made the move upstairs to learn all about the mysteries of Search. I confess that before starting at Amnesia I knew very little about the role of Search in advertising, in the sense I knew nothing. Google to me was just a way to fast-track assignment research, end debates, and ‘win’ Tuesday Trivia at the pub. After a few days soaking up all things SEM, SEO and Analytics  I can say I look at Search in a whole new way – you know, more than just a cheating tool.

Perhaps it was my ignorance, or the constant jokes around Amnesia at the expense of Search, but I didn’t think I’d enjoy my time in the department. However I’m happy to report my finding that…Search is cool!

Amnesia Search – Ryan gets it.

SEM, SEO and Analytics are truly fascinating areas. Coming from a background of learning about TV’s OzTam ratings, the sheer efficiency of Search media is, well, cool. This isn’t to say I want to – or more accurately can – run off and become an SEM professional. The beauty of rotating through different departments is gaining a good understanding of how each segment of Amnesia works, regardless of whether I will end up working in it in the future. So whilst I won’t be optimizing on a clients keywords anytime soon, I can comfortably say:

• I understand how and why we implement SEM
• I have the knowledge of how to implement basic SEO (Hunter, does this post pass the test?)
• Analytics is genius, and if price wasn’t a factor everyone should use Path To Conversion
• The way these disciplines work together is invaluable to our clients.

So it seems the jokes about Search are potentially unfounded. If you never get to sit with the Amnesia Search department take my word for it: Search is cool. Even Ryan Gosling thinks so.

The Razorfish 5 Report

We have no doubt that you are all in the digital loop and constantly up to date (right?), but in case you managed to miss it Amnesia Razorfish has just launched volume three of the annual Razorfish 5!

Technology, creativity and media continue to intertwine to the point where the line between each has well and truly blurred away. Industries have increasingly realized this, as we continue to see a year on year increase in digital advertising spend. The Razorfish 5 international report identifies a mix of new technologies and techniques and aims to assist CTOs, CMOs and the wider business community to navigate and succeed in an ever evolving, post-digital world.

 

So what’s it all about? Let’s start with the Targeting Readiness Study, which is based on conversations with more than 120 CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and CMOs with a minimum of $500 million in annual revenue. Some of the key findings include:

•  49% consider themselves strong at targeting segmented groups of online audiences, however only 12% have implemented this ability on their owned media and measured the results.
• Less than 50% were able to differentiate between loyal customers and new prospects on their owned media.
• Only 50% view mobile as an owned channel.
• 24% of companies have implemented a process for creative development so that content can be served and reused across segments.

With these findings in mind, the cornerstone for this year’s Razorfish 5 report is an article on maximizing impact from company-controlled digital channels, or owned media.

Further topics discussed include:

•  Ubiquitous Computing – Keeping Up With The Digital Consumer
• Omnichannel Commerce
• Platforms and APIs – How To Open Up Your Digital Marketing
• Developing Production Software Faster
• Bringing Together the CMO and CTO

You can find the full report here or at this address: http://www.razorfish5.com/

Dean
@deanvowles

The future of watching video on mobile devices

Magazines on your tablet have been around for a while and they always seem like a good addition, but nothing really new or ground breaking.

Hopefully that will change with Condition One – a technology company developing next generation immersive video applications. Their flagship product is an embeddable immersive video player for the iPad / iPhone.

The virtual window provides unlimited viewpoints of a single video. The viewers tend to review a video multiple times to catch things they missed and see the footage from another perspective.

Basically you can move around the video to change what you want to look at.

Check it out in action here:

The technology can is/can be licensed to media companies and brands. It integrates seamlessly into existing applications or can be launched as a standalone product.

If you want to try it out, they have a showcase app here

Pretty cool? That’s what I thought.

@maniac13

So you want to shoot some video?

So you want to shoot some video? No problem.

I have a degree in Television producing, so surely we can figure something out. I know a friend whose parents still smother him with gifts (instead of love) and he just got a new Canon 5D – he probably knows how to use it by now too. While everyone else was studying Economics, another friend and I spent our senior high-school years ‘learning’ Film & TV. He used to have a pirated copy of Final Cut on his laptop, so he can probably edit some stuff to look real sexy.

Yeh, we can make you a video alright. Maybe it’ll even go viral – why not? As for remuneration, just buy us a case of beer and we’ll call it even. Easy.

…if only.

The art of film is exactly that – an art. Professionals exist for a reason, and have spent years refining their skills in one of the many particular and often excruciatingly specific roles that exist in the industry. You’ll find a guy on set whose only role is to change the focus of the camera during a shot (Focus Puller). Why? Because he is damn good at it.

As Razorfish moves further into the realm of creating great video content for its clients, we must accept that we aren’t traditionally the experts in this area. Luckily, the guys at Thinkbone are.

To set the scene (so to speak) this week Thinkbone’s crew turned our lobby into a live set in order to teach us a thing or two about production, budgets, and the different outcomes you can expect. They were to film the same scene (Pulp Fiction’s famous “$5 Milkshake”) three times – each with a different budget, and thus final product.  For the purpose of the exercise, let’s assume each budget is for 60 seconds of final video.

• Low budget: For this we are looking at a stripped back pre-production (logistics, scripts, basically all the organizing), three days of post, a bare minimum crew (Producer/Director, Production Manager, Production Assistant, D.O.P), catering and a basic camera and tripod set-up. Oh, and your mate/Mum/cousin acting. Approximate total: $20,700.

For that you can expect to produce something resembling the quality of video below:

• Medium budget: In addition to the above, we’d be looking to add an Art Department, props, wardrobe, casting, semi-professional Actors, make up, location costs, and a beefed up camera kit. Approximate total: $ 65,200.

And for the extra money and effort you’ll be looking at something of this quality (ignoring travel costs):

• High budget: Let’s add more crew, professional actors, expert lighting, more location costs, more catering, and amongst other things, a better camera, a dolly (the thing on the train tracks), and a dolly operator. Approximate total: $97,000.

Now we are looking at some high-end video production capable of matching, or even improving on the original scene. This isn’t to say you need to spend big for every bit of video you create. Each grade of production serves a purpose, so it depends on the individual project and the objectives as to how much you should be budgeting.

Here is the final take of the day (sound is from the camera mic, so apologies). Thankfully, Thinkbone opted to waive the $97,000 – thanks guys. That case of Superdry should arrive any day now.

Dean

@deanvowles

First Timer

Last week provided a couple of firsts – both different but equally as exciting from the perspective of a Junior.

I am currently completing my rotation within the Creative Team, which has seen my copy skills exercised within an agency for the first time. Back in Brisbane I was fortunate to have a few scripts shot and aired during my stint in children’s television. It was exciting at the time, but I like to think I’m playing with the big boys now. And so, having my first bit of copy approved by a Razorfish client was a great feeling. Worth celebrating even…

As if on cue, last Friday I was invited to join the Media team at a media-partner’s yearly social event. I hastily accepted – bottomless jugs of Pimm’s and the chance to see Igor and Dave take to the court was an offer to good to refuse.

As someone who is still narrowing down my first-choice department, it was nice to see the perks that partner all those media numbers!

Dean
@deanvowles

Japanese supermarket scanner that doesn’t need bar codes!

A Japanese supermarket is currently using a new Toshiba scanner that recognises objects based on their colours and shape, so products no longer need barcodes; with all the AR applications for smartphones, developments like the Google goggles and so on, it was just a matter of time for someone to be able to develop this amazing scanner.

Let’s hope Australian supermarkets get them soon enough.

 

Find more technical details about the scanner here:

http://www.toshibatec-ris.com/industries/retail/

To pin or not to pin?

Amnesia Razorfish, an agency of many facets and faces, has joined the Pinterest train. Why may you ask? Well because it’s the big man on campus, socially media speaking.

Plus we get to pin cool stuff like this:

Freddy Mercury riding Darth Vader.

According to Google Ad Planner, Pinterest drew 38 million unique visitors globally in March, which is up from 23.7 million in February and 3.5 million in September last year.

The Los Angeles Times reported how Pinterest is ranked the third-most-popular social networking site behind Facebook and Twitter and the trend is set to rise.

There are articles dedicated to fighting or nurturing Pinterest addictions and Repinly is a page created for the sole purpose of monitoring the most trending Pinterest topics (Food & Drink for now).

So it seems that every marketer, trend observer and media analyst wants a piece of the Pinterest pie, with twitter streams full of answers to the power in a pin.

However for brands, Pinterest is not always the miracle solution for reaching target audiences and, particularly in Australia, the site is yet to prove itself to cautious digital strategists.

For now, these Australian based statistics, found using Google DoubleClick Ad planner, show that while Pinterest is a creative and connected platform, it may not be suited to everybody.

March Pinterest demographics

Pinterest in Australia attracts an older audience, with 34% of users in the 45-54 age bracket.

Of these users, an overwhelming majority (62%) attended ‘some college’ and based on the ‘Audience Interests’ below, the types of colleges become clear.

The most interesting statistic shows that where globally women comprise 72% of pinners, in Australia men are leading the game taking their 52% cut of people pinning.

So what does this mean? Are Australian men less averse to the pictures of cupcakes, Martha Stewart-esque home renovations and wedding dresses dominating Pinterest?

This ostentatious display of everything girly is responsible for the Pinterest inspired site, Gentlemint, that with its mustache logo and promise to be a ‘mint of manly things’ abhors anything with glitter or kittens.

Just like Pinterest, Gentlemint is invitation only and once accepted, men can pin images on “one of the more manly websites on the planet”.

So, what’s on Pinterest that Australian men go gaga over?

Kristie

@kristiebeattie

Facebook acquires Instagram for $1billion

The technology world is buzzing about today’s announcement that Facebook has acquired social image sharing app Instagram for $1billion dollars.

In a recent statement  Zuckerberg promises that Instragram will not be absorbed directly into the Facebook platform:

“We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook…. That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently…. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products.”

Interestingly, the LA times points out that the image based social sharing site has “just 13 employees. That works out to be $76 million per employee.”

A Good Week

This blog may make no sense, so I apologize in advance. Why? Because you’re a busy bunch and I’m a considerate guy.

Oh, you mean why won’t it make sense? Well, because I have had the most inspiring week on record at Amnesia and my head is swirling – with inspiration, possibilities and just general motivation. If there was ever a time for you to abuse my grad status, now would be it (but you didn’t hear that from me).

The week kicked off with a visit from our Global Head of Strategy, Joe Crump, and a talk on Digital Darwinism. He told us a brand’s ‘DNA’ can be made up of seven different measures, to be thought of as dials you can turn to increase or decrease. Authentic, Adaptive, Relevant, Transformative, Fresh, Immersive, Social – how does your brand stack up in these categories?

Joe also left us with his own bag of tricks and suggestions to keep inspiring us into the digital future:

• Find an unmet need – the gap in the market is where you want to be
• Invent something
• Go Beta – we should constantly be testing new work
• Pay attention
• Evolve forever

With all this still sitting fresh in my mind it was off to Circus for two days of immersion amongst some genuinely great thinkers. And speakers of course – it wouldn’t be much of a festival if they just internalized everything.

I’d need a few pages to give a complete rundown of the topics covered, but some statements that struck me as interesting are below.

MDC’s Faris Yakob:

• –  “The CMO will spend more money on technology than the CIO”
• –  “Consumers can make content, but they can’t make technology. Let’s make technology…code can be a creative area, not simply a production”

R/GA’s Nick Law:

• “Media is software, and we are in the media business. It’s time Madison Avenue met Silicon Valley”

The theme of marrying creative and technology was touched on several times throughout Circus. It is nice to know I’m sitting in the middle of an organization that woke up to that need long ago.

When I heard some of my fellow graduates were not allowed by their respective employers to attend Circus – to be exposed to such a broad array of thoughts and ideas – I couldn’t believe it. I found this week to be incredibly beneficial for me and hopefully, in some small way, I can one day make it beneficial for Amnesia too.

Once upon a time…

As someone who spent his University days writing TV scripts and the odd travel blog, one of the biggest things I’ve been looking to find out during my grad program is what role – if any – the old art of storytelling can play in digital advertising. Outsiders may assume that online narrative is limited to three frames on a banner ad – they would be wrong, thankfully. The reality is technology has always helped us to tell stories, so why should digital marketing be any different?

Last week I was lucky enough to run along to AdTech and soak up a bit of what the industry leaders had to offer. I say a bit because, if I’m honest, a lot of the more data-based content may have gone over my head. One talk I did enjoy, however, was by Publicis’ own Tim Buesing on storytelling. It was nice to discover that story can play a big role in online – if not more than offline. It is simply a move toward a more fragmented narrative structure rather than the linear style they still teach us at University. Of course telling stories across different media and platforms is nothing new, and you can find a host of Transmedia experts dryly discussing this phenomenon online.

For us, I suppose this means furthering a campaign or brand story at each consumer touch-point. Which leads to one of the main takeaways from Tim’s talk: story is the new branding. It would take someone a little more experienced than myself to flesh that concept out in detail, but as a junior in the industry who enjoys telling a good story, that is great news!

Dean
@deanvowles

Shapeways – The 3-D Printed Object Shop

Last month we highlighted the revolutionary move by piratebay to allow the downloading of physical objects via pirated 3D print designs. This time it’s all legal and consumer friendly via the NY start-up shapeways. Shapeways is a shop for 3D objects and an instant route to market for, well, anyone.

In their own words:

“With a growing online community and marketplace, we’re a NY start-up that harnesses 3D printing to help you make, buy and sell anything you want.By providing a platform for our community members to share ideas and gain access to cutting edge technology, we’re bringing personalized production to everyone—whether you’re already designing in 3D or are just looking to buy something completely unique. We print everything on-demand, which means that every order is customized and personalized.

We’re working to democratize creation by making production more accessible, personal, and inspiring.”

Shapeways recently ran a competition for 3-D designs inspired by SIRI and here’s the winner:

Amazing to think you could get hold of this by simply sending it to print..

Torrents for physical objects appear on Pirate Bay

While the debate rages on about online anti-piracy laws, the infamous torrent site pirate bay has opened a new category – physibles – for physical objects. Spotted by the brilliant adlab it seems like the next wave of torrenting has already gone physical / digital. 

 

ADLAB – FUTURE: THE PIRATE BAY LOADS UP ON PHYSICAL GOODS

“We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby future you will print your spare sparts for your vehicles. You will download your sneakers within 20 years.”

Yes you read that right, they reckon you will be able download your shoes illegally. Right now it looks like the current content is a random selection of 3D models, oh, and a battle tank.