Will Knott

On Wednesday a group of bloggers arrived, by invitation to a PR company’s headquarters. There was, pizza, information and, naturally Budweiser for it was because of Bud we were there. (There was also coffee, for geeks need caffeine too).

There is also an Irish only contest linked to the advert, more information down below.

There we were shown the Ireland only Budweiser Lyrics advert which is tied in with to the first use of the Sky green button feature in Ireland. I’m slightly confused by the green button (and hoping to get comments on it). Depending on where you read, pressing the green button allows for content (usually a video) to be downloaded in the background and viewed at a later date, much like the XBox 360 live videos and trailers. (Indeed the first use of this was last week in the UK where it was used for the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince trailer). I’ve also read that it downloads the content to be viewed at a particular scheduled time. The “twice a day” bit is throwing me. Do you have only 2 times of the day to watch it, or do the downloads only happen between certain hours?

I’m wondering how, and how much this will be used. I can understand someone wanting to get the full (usually longer than 30 seconds) movie trailer or a music video advertised as part of an album, but I seriously wonder just how many people will download the “making off” of an advert once the novelty has worn off.

On a side note, Diageo, if you’re reading, given the iconic nature of the Guinness adverts, and your 250 anniversary celebration of showing the old adverts, put together a downloadable package for the differing advert histories you are collection. I can see that selling in the storehouse too.

Having said that, the creation of this advert is actually interesting. Filmed off the side of the elevated trains in Chicago it offers you an unusual view of the city, and creative interpretations of the lyrics of the Beatles song “All Together Now”. The timing involved is impressive, even more so when you learn that to re-shoot a scene involved the train having to loop around sections of the track.

And now for the advert…

As you can see, you sort of want to see it again to get all the lyrics.

I’m waiting for the spoofs.

But the contest may prevent those for a little while. You see, the makers,of the advert want you to enter your own versions. The advert above was put together using 30 different scenes, each one ties with a line of lyrics in “All Together Now”. The challenge is: create another version of a line of the song. Eventually (if there are enough clips of good quality) another, user generated version of the ad will be created and released on an unsuspecting world. Check out the alltogethernow.ie website, and pick a line from the song.
Tip: find out which are the least used lines, gives you a better chance of being picked.

The first 100 people to upload their clip to the site will win a case of Budweiser. The closing date for video entries is the 15th August 2009.

So get your cameras and renderers ready…

take care,
Will Knott

Full disclosure: I had 2 cups of coffee, about half a large pizza and a UBS stick with a copy of the advert and descriptions on it. And met a few interesting people too.

Before you go to a Twestival, how should you keep an eye out for your friends off Twitter? Well, why not wear your Twitter friends? (yes that does sound like a very bad superhero team).

Wear their faces on your chest. (eewww) OK, pictures of their faces. Better? Or have their mug on your mug.

Walter Higgins at Sxoop (pronounced Skoop, or Scoop) is a image manipulation software developer for a a while now. The headlined Pixenate, an online photo editor, is integrated on many sites worldwide. He also has a history of making image manipulation tools for Twitter. He’s responsible for all the Santa hats this Christmas, and he’s brought out something new, the Twitter Mosaic.

You tell it your Twitter user name (no need for a password) and it generates a mosaic of all your twitter friends or followers. A big image. This can be turned into Mugs, T-Shirts and Bags.

All of this is made possible because of Web2.0 and the philosophy of open APIs (both Twitter’s and Zazzle’s). What has been done recently at http://sxoop.com/twitter/ simply wouldn’t have been possible a few short years ago. Needless to say, these APIs are being battered at the moment. Walter has more details on how to get things running quickly too and the end products seem to be reviewed very well.

So you can create a physical social (media) object and drink to the health of your fellow Tweeters from a Twitter Mosaic mug  (hopefully full of  clean water thanks to Charity:Water) and wear your friends in public.

The Twitter Mosaic is indeed the beneficiary of a Tuesday Push, so soon after demoing it at the Cork Open Coffee Club. And yes I got to know Walter through the Open Coffee movement. However its a cool idea, a great set of products and it since to see someone in Ireland making money in there times. And making money while Twitter is still trying out how.

take care,

Will Knott

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• Sxoop Technologies turn a buck on Twitter (patphelan.net)
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• Twitter Mosaic: Using the long tail to make money from Twitter (antonmannering.com)
• My Twitter Mug is here – Merry Christmas to me! (u-g-h.com)
• Tuesday Push: Twitter Mosaic from Sxoop Technologies (ewritecork.com)
• Push it: Twitter Mosaic from Sxoop Technologies (cjwriting.com)

Get your twitter mosaic here.

Meet Iain Dodsworth, the creator of Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck is, to be honest, my favourite twitter client (and I tried out a bunch).

Christian Payne (aka Documentally) recorded a video conversation with Iain on Friday January 9th.

Talking With TweetDeck from Documentally on Vimeo.

In the video he talks about his focus and why its different from all the other Twitter clients (hint, its MEANT to be in-your-face rather than the usual quiet updates in the corner),  and about taking hints from users.

So Iain, can I have a portableapps version for Tweetdeck?

take care,

Will Knott

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Recently I posted about the short comings of stereotypes (and when they are necessary).

Well Lee Hopkins points out the shortcomings much better than I did, and gives a similar reason… attention span.

While I pointed out that a stereotype in necessary for a 30 second advert (even if you intend to show that the stereotype is incorrect) Lee does one better… he tells a story.

—quoting Lee Hopkins…
“Johnson!” barked the bulldog-like senior manager, “Get in here NOW!”

But Johnson failed to appear.

“JOHNSON!” screamed the bulldog.

Still no appearance of the missing subordinate.

Who immediately feels some sort of pity for Johnson? Who feels some form of anger towards the bulldog-like manager?

Why? You don’t know the context.

For all you know Johnson could have been away photocopying confidential information to pass to a competitor; the bulldog’s shouts might have been a cry for help because they’re having a heart attack — the screams no louder than a whisper to an outsider’s ears.

But this is the Age of the Instant Judgement, when we make snap decisions that can affect lives without taking the time to understand the context.

—

He goes on to point out that a lot of the blogging world and the entire Web 2.0 world means that there is a lot of first reactions. With the high output of posts and blogs, we skim posts. We skim information, a long post tends to be something put aside for later digestion (and might be removed from your reader, or memory when the next nugget of information arrives.

Slightly depressing, eh?

Will

tags : stereotypes, Lee Hopkins, story, Instant Judgement, attention, Web 2.0, blogs, skim