Desert Island Digital
Don't worry, Digitology isn't going anywhere but it is on a break to allow me to spend time on a few other projects I have going on. Stay tuned though and it'll be back before you even know it.
Showing posts with label Digitology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Digitology. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
A brief hiatus...
Don't worry, Digitology isn't going anywhere but it is on a break to allow me to spend time on a few other projects I have going on. Stay tuned though and it'll be back before you even know it.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
1,000 Posts
No trumpets or fanfares but I did think it was worth a post of its own. This is the 1,000th post on Digitology. Yay! :)
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Where Good Ideas Come From
Watch first, then I'll do some rambling...
I absolutely love this video. Not only is the whole style compelling and engaging, but it's simple. There's no difficulty understanding the concept that Steven Johnson is discussing. And it's a concept that I firmly believe in. I've always considered myself an ideas person - I'm good at thinking on my feet and I don't have difficulty with creative solutions. The thing is, I'm also a firm believer in team work and the power of the group, and it's this part of Steven Johnson's video that grabbed me. I suddenly realised just how many times I've had an idea that has sat simmering in the back of my mind until I've shared it with someone and they've added to it to take it that next step. I also then realised that this has almost always been in private discussions with friends over a drink or some food.
What if there was a place such as the 'Age of Enlightenment's Coffee Houses' or the 'Parisian Salons of Modernism' that people could go to specifically to share ideas with a group and get some input and feedback and possible collaboration? Not just a physical place as such but an actual regular 'event'. As far as I am aware nothing like this exists in Dublin, certainly not within the fields I am interested. I'm not even sure how to describe what this would be similar to, perhaps a think tank of sorts?? All I know is that I think I've found myself a new project. Stay tuned :)
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Digital Communications
I was sent this diagram by a friend as a 'good overview of the various types of communication that exist within the modern world'. The funny thing is, what this diagram made me think about... the iPhone4. I didn't think about the iPhone4 because of some wondrous new feature that it bestows on the world or that it pulls together almost all of the above scenarios as core functions. Instead I thought of the iPhone4 because of a term that Steve Jobs has started using: FaceTime.
Looking that the above 10 communications examples I found myself thinking that it is perhaps slightly odd that only two of them involve seeing the person you are talking to, and only one of them involves being in the same physical place as that person. I started thinking about the repercussions that real-time, trans-global communications has on our communications habits and how it is now more natural to communicate with someone in a non-face-to-face manner.
Something else to bare in mind is the frightening speed at which this situation has come about. Most of these technologies / platforms weren't in existence ten years ago.
What does all this mean though? Am I suddenly shunning technology and calling for a reversion to a less technical age? Far from it. I embrace technology and everything that it can do for humanity. However, I think that it is important not to lose sight of the human connection. Not to forget that there is a person on the other end of that Tweet, Facebook Status update, or Txt Message. As a result of technology, many people make less of an effort to have face to face contact with friends or family. Most worrying is that this is very much a self-perpetuating theme as the more real-time platforms and technologies presented to us the less time we have to physically meet people.
For me, the big issue here isn't that I may loose touch with the real world or forget that there are more reasons to meet someone in real life then to talk to them online. The issue is when you consider that anyone currently eighteen or under, has not known a world without the internet. Consider something like Chatroulette, which almost as soon as it was launched became filled with nudity and exhibitionism. Is a Surrogate-esque future with people plugged into machines living solely through a digital representation, with there being no clue as to a persons true 'self', an actual possibility?
The answer, in my mind, is yes. It could easily happen. I don't doubt that there are plenty of people out there who would jump at the chance to live that way, and that saddens me. It saddens me because I see the role that the media, marketing, public relations and 'big business' has to play in that. Don't forget that there's a real world out there. Don't forget that not everything should exist as solely digital. The digital infrastructure and associated communications and entertainment technologies that we have at our disposal should be used to bridge the gaps between people, and bring them closer together, in real life. Use technology to help organise, to help communicate, to help facilitate. But at the end of the day, meet up with people. Talk. Exchange ideas. Share funny stories, or personal heartaches.
Digital communications should be used to talk to people face-to-face!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
New Challenges & Opportunities
A short time ago I made the decision that it was time to make a subtle but important career change. While the previous two and a half years with Cybercom have been absolutely brilliant, teaching me more then I could have imagined and giving me incredible experience working with some of Ireland's top brands, I realised that I would be better suited to focusing all my attention on Social Media and Digital PR.
These are the areas of the modern marketing mix that I have the most fun with and, to be honest, the areas that I am best at, and ultimately this is where I want my career to go. So I started looking at the UK and Irish markets to see what was happening.
So [cue drum roll], having spoken to a number of different agencies and companies, I have accepted an offer from Simply Zesty and will start in two weeks as their Director of Strategy.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Gone to Vegas
About now I'm arriving in McCarran airport Nevada, Las Vegas's international airport. Some time back my mate Ross popped the question to his lovely missus and, with her answer of 'yes', there's a Summer wedding just around the corner. Of course you can probably guess why I've just arrived in Vegas...... stag weekend!
So here we are, twenty or so blokes looking forward to a weekend of relaxing by the pool and perhaps taking in some of the delightful tourist attractions that Nevada has to offer. Or, it'll go something like this......
So with all that in mind, I'm afraid to say that Digitology is taking a short break. I may or may not be able to update in the next four days, but chances are I won't. I hope you can all manage ;)
See you next week folks
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Give A Day, Get A Disney Day
Disney's latest campaign, 'Give A Day, Get A Disney Day', is the latest example of a growing trend of major businesses driving community support through a volunteer programme. The campaign is aiming to inspire one million people to volunteer a day of service to one of the campaign partner businesses in their communities. By volunteering for a day, participants will each receive a 1-day, 1-theme park ticket to Disneyland or Walt Disney World for free.
The nicest element to the campaign is an absolutely brilliant personalised video creative presented as the redesigned campaign microsite. Just pop in your name and date of birth year and hit play for a hilarious muppet escapade. I won't ruin it by telling you any more, just go and do it!
The campaign also has the following personalised video for sharing through blogs or Social Networks...
Friday, February 19, 2010
A Special Message From Francois Pienaar
I was due to give Darragh a hand on Friday afternoon with his interview with Francois Pienaar for Boards.ie. Unfortunately a number of other interviews ran over and I had to dash before the Boards.ie interview could be done. As a long time rugby fan and South African by birth I was really looking forward to the opportunity to meet one of the greatest rugby players of all time, and a fellow South African.
Thankfully though, Darragh did something totally awesome and got Francois to record this message for me...
Monday, January 4, 2010
I Am A Geek - The Society for Geek Advancement
I blogged this about 6 months ago but in the spirit of the New Year I thought I'd share it again. This is a collaborative video project by The Society for Geek Advancement, all about embracing your geekiness. The funny thing is, this is exactly how every geek I know would describe themself.
Society For Geek Advancement
The Society for Geek Advancement (SGA) was founded upon the principles that we should all embrace our inner and outer geek and have fun while doing it. As individuals who love learning, innovating and believe in possibility as well as change, the second step of responsibility is to be the geek that keeps on giving. As a member of SGA, we work together as a global community to help others realize their true potential too!
You can also find the society on Twitter.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Guinness 250: New Year's Eve
I hope to get a video of the live ad up a little later, but for the moment here are some photos.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
2009: A Review (Briefly)
I had hoped to write a big post giving a full review of Digitology's 2009 but unfortunately I'm running late to drive up to Carlingford for New Year's Eve, so instead here is a quick review of all of you who visited me in the last year. A huge thanks to each and every one of you who took the time to read some of my ramblings :)
Visitors
- Visitors 39,348
- Unique Visitors 27,150
- Pageviews 55,792
- Average Pageviews 1.42
- Time on Site 2min 12secs
- Total Time on Site 60days 2hrs 45mins 36secs
Visitor System Specifications
- Browsers
- Firefox 53.25%
- Internet Explorer 26.60% (of which 6.7% using version 6.x or below)
- Safari 12.96%
- Chrome 5.20%
- Other 1.99%
Operating Systems
- Windows 67.00%
- Macintosh 21.76%
- Linux 9.47%
- iPhone 0.96%
- Other 0.81%
Screen Resolutions
- 1280x800 20.07%
- 1440x900 17.12%
- 1680x1050 15.96%
- 1280x1024 15.42%
- 1024x768 15.14%
- 1920x1200 3.17%
- 1152x864 1.31%
- 1600x1200 1.31%
- 320x396 1.15%
- Others: width less then 800px 1.57%
- Others: width greater then 800px 6.78%
Flash Version
- 10.x 84.98%
- 9.x 14.76%
- 8.x 0.09%
- 7.x 0.09%
- 6.x 0.07%
- 5.x 0.01%
I hope, whatever you're doing tonight, you have a fantastic New Years Eve and a brilliant 2010.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
ISPCC Twibbon
I wrote on Tuesday about the launch of the ISPCC Christmas Appeal, and hopefully you've all gone out and bought yourself a Holly Sprig. However, many of you may not have been able to pick one up yet for one reason or another so why not show your support by adding a Holly Sprig to your Twitter Avatar in the form of a Holly Sprig Twibbon.
Just click here and you'll be given the option to preview your new Avatar with added Holly Sprig. Then just follow the simple onscreen instructions and you're done.
It's a small thing to do but if it helps bring even a little bit of awareness to this extremely important Christmas appeal it'll be worth it. So come on folks, add the Holly Sprig to your avatar and make sure to tell your friends exactly why you did it.
ISPCC Christmas Appeal
The ISPCC are calling on people to make a donation now and make Christmas a happier time for children in need. Donations can be made through the ISPCC website www.ispcc.ie, by calling 1850 50 40 50, or by purchasing an ISPCC ‘Holly badge’, available nationwide for €2 through ISPCC street collections and shopping centres in the run up to Christmas. What’s more, the ISPCC offers a range of low-cost Christmas cards and gifts with a difference in their online Christmas shop.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Top 50 UK/Irish Marketing Blogs
The following list has been compiled from the AdAge Power150 Blog List. Shown is the blog's position both within the British Isles and globally. All Blogs highlighted are especially worth visiting. I am also delighted to add that Digitology comes in at 42 on the list.
this list is correct as of 2am 27th August 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The Walking Dead
Checked my emails this afternoon and was seriously happy to find out that I am the lucky winner of a signed copy of 'The Walking Dead' from Venntertainment.
Rob Cumiskey, the man behind Ventertainment and a regular at Culch.ie, did a ‘Fantasy Bazaar – The Walking Dead Week’ last week to celebrate the release of the latest volume of The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard. As part of his zombie week, Rob was given a signed copy of the release by Sub City Comics (@SubCityComics).
A massive thanks to Rob for the great week of posts, and the brilliant competition. Cheers dude!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
As You Wish - A Princess Bride Event
Damien mentioned this to me about a month ago and as soon as he said it I thought, awesome! Next Thursday (13th August) is the ‘Princess Bride Twitter evening’. Basically the concept is simple; put on one of the the greatest action/adventure/romance/comedy movies of all time, get a bunch of friends, and tweet the night away in a discussion about the movie on Twitter.
Early reports suggest that much of the Irish Twitter-sphere have not seen the movie (blasphemous!!) so this will be a first for many people. Ah to be able to relive your first time ;)
Damien got the inspiration for the night from Graham Linehan’s Bad Movie night with the major exception that this is of course an awesome movie night.
The hashtag for the event is #asyouwish
The movie is directed by Rob Reiner and stars Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Fred Savage, Peter Falk, Billy Crystal and Mel Smith (among others!).
Check out IAmSteph, Mulley's Blog and Culch.ie (who I also owe a thanks to for the trailer above) for more info on the evening.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Street Performance World Championships
The Street Performance World Championships recently did a corporate evening that I was lucky enough to be invited along to. Little did I realise I'd be made look like a real 'dummy'....
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Plaid Nation Tour 2009
I can't believe it's been a year since I posted about the Plaid Nation Tour (2008). But sure enough it has been and the guys will soon be back on the road doing what they love doing. I got an email from R.J. just there at the beginning of July to remind me the tour was fast approaching and to ask me to send him my details so he could post on the annual Plaid Nation Swag Bag.
Well today, as I sat there getting ready to start the working week, a nice little envelope dropped on my desk. As soon as I saw the address label I tore it open...
So for those not in the know, what is Plaid Nation and what is the Plaid Nation Tour?
PlaidNation describes itself as a "rolling celebration of creativity and a demonstration of social media in action". Picture an agency taking to the road in their fully customised, social media optimised, technology enabled Ford Flex, driving around the states to meet up with as many creative, marketing, brand and internet folk as they can. Their aim - to engage, interact and celebrating all the innovative things that Social Media has to offer. What's particularly cool is that the whole thing will be brought straight to your pc as a 'kind of' reality show (but better, they promise).
So what does it all mean and why should you be interested in it?
This is a seriously cool opportunity to connect and engage with the latest social media tools, the cutting edge of modern marketing, without so much Tweeting a Tweet or Commenting a Blog. Plaid will dish out their learnings and insights about how and why the world's biggest brands are using Social Media. In this wonder-tour the Plaid Flex will be visiting (and driving between) Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Branson, Memphis, Jackson and New Orleans. Though don't fear if you're a West Coaster, or don't even live in the US, as they also actively reach out to the International Interweb community (they found me!) to share what they learn from all the marketing, brand and creative people they meet.
In case I'm doing a poor job of conveying the coolness of all this, check out their video...
Plaid Links:
Plaid
Plaid Nation
About the Plaid Nation Tour
Plaid Nation Downloads
The Plaid Nation Blog
Plaid on Twitter
Plaid on Facebook
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Budweiser Lyrics - TV Ad
Last night I had the pleasure of attending a great blogger preview of the new Budweiser Lyrics TV ad, hosted by WHPR. The event was introduced by Charles Wong, Budweiser Marketing Manager, and Matt Delahunty, DDB Account Director, and gave a crowded room of bloggers first glimpse at Budweiser's latest TV outing. The ad itself will go live on the 4th July, coinciding with Independence Day, and is the first Budweiser ad to be created for a foreign market that will also feature in the US.
The ad is driven by The Beatles song ‘All together now’ and is shot entirely from a moving train going around Chicago's L track. As it passes different people and locations, the lyrics to the song are spelt out in fun ways. Total filming time took 50 hrs over a 5 day period, in some serious cold temperatures. Obviously the logistics of all of this should not be lost - consider that every missed take required a full loop of the track to get back to the shot location. This meant that everyone had to be in perfect position at the exact moment needed. Beyond this it was also necessary to make sure that for each shot the train was going at the right speed to catch the action and keep in time to the music.
The ad also marks a first, as it will mark the launch of Sky’s Green Button technology. What this means is that the ad will appear exclusively through sky's system for the first week of the campaign.
So without further delay, the ad...
I have to say I absolutely love the ad. I've always loved 'All Together Now' but in this case I think it perfectly fits with the positioning and attitude that Diageo are trying to reflect. In the context of the current global economic situation the emotions drawn from the ad are exactly what people want - a 'pull together', 'can do' , 'get it done' attitude. Obviously this also fits in brilliantly with Obama's America.
The ad also forms the backdrop to a larger digital campaign based around the new Alltogethernow.ie Website (going live this Saturday 4th July). The site calls for people to upload their own take of one of the 'lyrics' through a video or photo of themselves holding up a number, letter or word. The site also provides behind the scenes footage, Director’s tips and a host of other content.
The ad was Written by Dave Henderson and Richard Denney, and filmed by Director Chris Palmer. The music was performed by ‘The Hours’.
Also, check out this great video from Krishna De of her interviewing Matt from DDB's last night:
Finally, a huge thank you to Cliodhna, Kate and Ruth for a great evening.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Augmented Reality Shopping
I've posted about Augmented Reality numerous times now, and although I've said it before, I'll say it again; Augmented Reality rocks! This is where cutting edge is for me. This is the place that digital marketing can go to create the most interactive, most engaging, and most dynamic creatives and campaigns.
I was lucky enough sit in on a Cybercom 'Friday Session'* presented by Marty. Marty gave a fantastic run through of numerous Augmented Reality applications. Afterwards I said, in my mind it's clear that the next step is Augmented Reality shopping - being able to "try on" clothes in a virtual store before buying them. Well guess what? There' no need to wait....
How incredibly cool is that! Sure it's not 100% accurate or spot on, but it's cutting edge, it's not meant to be perfect. However, give it 6 to 12 months and as it transitions from cutting edge to leading edge, I guarantee this will be picked up by every major online clothes retailer. Consider that this technology could tell you what size clothes to buy. No more guessing as to whether an American 'M' is an English 'L'!
Augmented Reality Posts
Augmented Reality By Hand
Augmented Reality Top 10
Augmented Reality: Shopping for Glasses
Mobile Augmented Reality Game
Augmented Reality Music Video
Augmented Reality Pizza
Eminem's Relapse Augmented Reality
Papermotion
WWF Augmented Reality
What's In The Box? (ARG)
*Friday Session - every Friday 1 or 2 agency staff give a short presentation on a topic of interest to the whole agency. This could be on a new Social Media tool, new International Digital news or holiday snaps of a far off place. Either way, it's a place for everyone in the agency to get together and wind down for the weekend.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Become the Highest Tweeter in The World!
Following on from my previous post, there are some seriously cool things happening with Cybercom's 10 Year Birthday celebrations in conjunction with Gavin Bate.
Following a number of really cool suggestions, it was decided that Neil Perkin's suggestion was a winner. Neil suggested that Gavin do an online auction to give someone the Tweet from the top of Mount Everest, and in so doing raise money for his Moving Mountains charity. Craic'n idea, which I wish I'd thought of!
So get yourself over to the auction and do some bidding! This is a seriously cool opportunity and all proceeds go to Moving Mountains.---Update---
Bidding is going crazy! Check this out - http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170331229446
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