Theme park RFID wristbands let guests instantly share snaps on Facebook

Okay so I’ve pretty much given it all away in the title, but this is  super smart integration of offline and online. Great Wolf Lodge Resorts are getting way ahead of curve – offering guests RFID enabled wristbands to post their holiday snaps to Facebook. All they need to do is connect their wristbands with their Facebook account, then scan them at the camera-equipped ”Paw Posts”. Easy as.

The resort wristbands were already used as room keys and even money, they just got a whole lot smarter and entertaining.

Who will catch on next? Disney? Festivals? I can’t bloody wait.

via PSFK

Touch-screen vending machines, in Japan (of course)

The future of vending machines has arrived. Not only does Japan’s latest invention feature a playful touch-screen, it has a built-in camera that recommends what kind of drink you might like (by distinguishing your sex and age from your face).

And forget about faffing with cash. Wave your phone across the sensor and your drink should arrive in less than 4 seconds.

According to Adverblog, interactive vending machines are performing 3 times better than the “regular” ones, with people queing to “play & buy”. Perhaps the novelty will eventually wear off, but for now this buying experience has entertainment value.

I also read that when a disaster like an earthquake strikes, it gives out free drink. Now that’s super intelligent!

So when are they arriving in the UK huh??

Did you know?

This is another official update to the original ‘Shift Happens’ video. The 2009 version includes facts focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist. Traditional advertising is in steep decline folks, while digital is growing rapidly. Don’t we all know it

London Digital Week. Get involved.

In an attempt to completely fill up your diaries next week, there’s one event running all over the capital you cannot miss.

London Digital Week is a weeklong festival of [mostly free] events, awards, and exhibitions. So if you want to help your clients use technology [NOT be used by it], you should be getting involved with LDW!

Anyway, some things not to miss:

PROTEIN FORUM

Protein Forum have some very special speakers coming down – filmmaker, director, game designer Lance Weiler, and David Bausola of Purefold [an open media franchise developed in partnership by Ridley and Tony Scott].

The event is on Monday 21^st 7pm at Below 54, EC2a 3QR. Register here to reserve your free place.

PLAYGROUP @ SHOREDITCH HOUSE

Come and join Playgroup over breakfast [9.30am start] at Shoreditch House on the 24th September, to discover how to engage generation Y in a conversation with your brand. They’ll be looking at how social media can be used to engage the youth market, and why ‘play’ is integral to all of this.

RSVP to catherine@playgroup.com to reserve your free place. 

CREATIVE SOCIAL

Three Top Socials, Laura Jordan [LBi], Flo Heiss [Dare], and Dave Bedwood [Lean Mean] will be presenting the Good, the Bad and the Ugly on a chosen campaign of theirs.

The event is on Thursday 24th September, at 7pm at JWT, 1 Knightsbridge Green, SW1X 7NW. RSVP names to creativesocial@yourmumlovesyou.com if you are interested in attending.

CONTAGIOUS TRENDS

A crash course from Contagious Magazine. “Of all the thousands of words that have been written about changes in branding since the inception of the Internet, the only ones that are actually true are these: now, you have to give something back.”

The event is on Friday 25^th September, at 6.15pm – 7.15pm, at 380 Old Street [Shoreditch Town Hill], EC1V 9LT. Register your free place here.

FROM ART TO AD

There is a current trend emerging for existing art to be re-used or used as inspiration in advertising. This has been encouraged by social networking and sites such as YouTube. The event will look at how this emerging trend leaves artists’ work open to those in advertising, who sometimes use sources such as YouTube for inspiration to communicate a commercial message.

The event is on Tuesday 22nd September, at 6.30pm Street Lecture Theatre, SE1 6SB. Register your place here.

Human Synthesizer with Calvin Harris

It’s nerdy, it’s sexy, it’s cool. I love it. Using conductive ink, electronic musician Calvin Harris has collaborated with a team to make a synthesizer out of himself and 15 bikini clad models (sure why not), to perform an interesting version of his new single Ready For The Weekend.

The performers stand on the pads, and touch hands to complete a circuit and trigger a sound. Different combinations of pads trigger the different sounds needed to play the track.

Via

Re-wired teens?

Off the back of a dialogue event I attended at the Dana Centre (geek heaven!), I want to share some thoughts on ‘Rewired teens’ - basically meaning…

Game consoles, Facebook, Google…Are teenagers’ computer and web habits changing the way their brains work? And is this a good or a bad thing?

The Science Bit

Apologies for any inaccuracy here, I’m no scientist! But…humans are born with the maximum number of neurons, and as we grow these form interconnected networks. Our brains are ‘wired’ to respond to the world around us – i.e. context /  culture / experiences are all significant in brain development. Inputs from our environment significantly affect the wiring of our brains.

With this in mind (and some fancy convincing brain charts), our speakers (from neuroscience fields) were keen to agree that with the ubiqutous nature of digital technology in our daily lives (particularly amongst digital natives), our brains will have indeed re-wired compared to say 10 years ago. Which brings us to the ethical issue – is this a good or a bad thing?

Re-wiring for better or for worse

If we look at the prevailing arguments, there are a lot of prejudices which have been fuelled by the media. They paint an unpretty picture of a digital world which has created a generation of zombies. I think it was the Telegraph that said Twitter makes you immoral and the Daily Mail that Facebook makes us bad people. As ever with new stuff in the digital space, there seems to be a whole lot of hype and horror and not a whole lot of facts.

The media often starts with the prejudice, and then searches for supporting evidence – or considerable lack there of in this case. Let’s consider the fact that we’ve only had decent brain scans for around 10 years, and it takes longer than this for your brain to develop! Science is being exploited to instill fear rather than actually help us understand something as complex as the re-wiring of our brains.

There is some evidence to suggest that digital natives are for example worse at multi-tasking (as digital immigrants are better at prioritising) and read much shallower. But if you look at video gaming where there has been the most research in this area – evidence suggests positive effects on learning and brain development.

Consider when novels first came along, people felt this passive behaviour was damaging – in contrast to storytelling with friends in social environments. Isn’t it good that the Internet is an interactive and increasingly social medium?

People First

If you work in the digital industry the people-frst approach probably isn’t new to you – it’s not really about the technology, it’s still about people.

Take those so-called dangerous video games which kids play that involve killing. Haven’t kids always acted out pretend kill during play? It’s the same behaviour, but different medium. And teenagers are spending an awful lot of time on Facebook – which isn’t surprising considering the role of friendships and interaction for teenagers in growing up.

Have you considered that technology is largely shaped by wider cultural changes and human behaviour? Surely technology exists to make communications easier? While humans have adapted to the changing digital world, the fundamentals of human behaviour have stayed the same.

All things considered – the Internet is here, there, and everywhere – probably for better AND for worse.

Fire real dodgeballs at real people – LIVE – with the Doritos Dodgeball Challenge!

It’s not too often I take the time to blog about my own projects here at AMV BDDO, but for me this has to be the most ambitious digital project I’ve ever taken on. That feeling of ‘are we really doing this?!’ hasn’t really left me yet. But I’m goddam excited!

The Doritos Dodgeball Challenge is our unique way of launching Doritos brand new flavour – Flamin’ Cheeseball. The Challenge gives people (that’s you!) the chance to aim and fire real dodgeballs – LIVE - from six purposely engineered dodgeball canons, each controlled by a member of the public online – here at the Doritos website. That’s right, via the Internet everyone will be able to fire real dodgeballs at real people with pinpoint accuracy. Sweet! We’re seeding this video (via Unruly) to get the word out…

Facing the canons will be a selection of the UK and Ireland’s leading Dodgeball teams, each competing to be crowned the Doritos Dodgeball Champions. The winning team will then be invited to a one-off ‘world-series’ dodgeball match against the reigning US National Dodgeball League champions, the San Diego Crossfire.

During the hours of play when the professional dodgeball teams are not competing in the competition proper, a variety of celebrities, including Timmy Mallett and Jodie Marsh, will make a special appearance in ‘the cage’.

The site itself was produced in partnership with the amazingly-talented Shoreditch based creative production company, Unit 9.

This project really has been a labour of love for the whole cross-agency Doritos team. I hope you enjoy playing it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it!

p.s. I’ll probably be facing the canons a couple of times in May, so if you’ve ever wanted to fire a ball at me, now’s your chance!

Technology is wasted on the crapiest generation of spoilt idiots (yeah, that includes me)

Are you guilty of being impatient when your phone takes time switching on? Do you get annoyed when your flight is delayed? Do you moan about your broadband connection? Well me too. Comedian Louis CK humorously articulates how our generation has been spoiled by technology.

The world we live in today is amazing, and yet nobody is happy. If it’s not instant (now now now!), it’s not worth waiting for. When everything is special, nothing is.

Watch it all the way to the end, you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks to Nick who told me the story of the man on the plane at my APG training, and I have been unashamedly re-telling that story ever since…

More on this topic from Rory Sutherland over at his Brand Republic blog.

Microsoft’s vision of 2019. Uber Digital.

This is an absolute cheese fest from Microsoft, but worth a watch to see their vision of 2019.  Very Minority Report.

Get me one of those interactive newspapers and digital coffee mugs any day

Via.

Clay Shirky Talks @ the ICA

Clay Shirky did a gig at the ICA 4th Feb (yes it’s taken me a while to get round to writing about it!). His basic thesis is simple:

“Everywhere you look groups of people are coming together to share with one another, work together, take some kind of public action.”

The difference is that today, unlike even ten years ago, technological change means such groups can be formed and act in new and powerful ways. I didn’t spend my time twittering throughout the event like many others, or extensive note writing, but here’s my tripled distilled version…

• Improv Everywhere pulled off an event whereby on the same day, a group of New Yorkers rode the subway with no pants. Okay so this is a “real world” event, but would this have been possible without the ubiquitous nature of the Internet? Group action has just got easier. For the first time, we have the tools to make group action truly a reality.

• Ryerson student Chris Avenir was accused of cheating and threatened to be expelled from school for creating a Facebook study group, where students could ask questions about homework assignments. We know that study groups have always existed, so surely this is simply an extension of a real world social norm? Ryerson were mistakenly employing old behaviours to tackle an entirely new social norm.  The thing that Facebook is most like is…Facebook! Technology is enabling change, but we need to consider institutional and cultural change, rather than trying to apply old rules of behaviour to new social behaviours.

• Gnarly Kitty is a journalist wannabe and she blogs about the things she loves  – pink, fashion, cutesy things, Bangkok, and pink again. Then a coup happens in Thailand and the government tells the media not to report on it. And Gnarly Kitty publishes the first picture of tanks in front of the parliament house and she becomes the global go-to news source. But then she posts about a cutesy new pink phone she’d like to own, and the new readers get upset and want more about the coup. She responds with a post that it’s her blog and it’s about what’s going on in her life – which includes the cutesy pink phone! So what’s different here to professional journalism? Well she’s not talking to us – she’s talking to her friends. We’re not used to seeing things that are public, but not in the public.

• Back in 2006, a black president seemed impossible. Noble, but ultimately doomed. Will.I.Am’s ‘Yes We Can’ helped shift perception to what’s possible, it made ‘Obama’ possible. And in politics, perception is reality. Later in the Obama vs. McCain campaign, we saw two very different approaches. Obama gave away implicit permission and social tools for people to back his campaign, whereas McCain adopted a “comand and control” approach – going as far as giving quotes to strictly copy and paste. The wildfire spread of new forms of social interaction , has profound long-term economic and social effects.
  

Technology is ubiqutous and mass collaboration is upon us. And it’s affecting everybody.

Like what you hear? Buy the book. And more great talks at the ICA.