Attention by irony

We all know how hard it is to get peoples attention today. One of the world most difficult tasks is to get attention on very boring, un-sexy subjects such as public signage. We know people do not pay as much as a small moment of attention to anything that falls in the category of  “this is something you already know, but you ignore it, so we try to tell you once more” like the safety messages on airplanes, alcohol/smoking campaigns and alike.

We often see how some of these categories continuesly cross borders, to renew the possibility to get attention - and some just seems to lost faith in attention (like the flight safety messages - though we here see small glims of hope: Like the flight attendant described in the Heaths brothers Made To Stick where the messages was spiked up  with  some humour for example about the disco-lights that led to the exit signs).

Humour can be a good lead into attention. Eventhough it is an informative message it can be told in a different way.

This is a brilliant example from Larsbjørnsgade in Copenhagen. Found the pictures on a Swedish guys blog. Translated it says:

1: Bicycles will be removed in co-operation with Polish Bicycle Import.

2: Bicycles parked here get its tyre pierced for free.

3: What’s wrong with the public parking around the corner?

Efficiency is not strategy

On the beach of Barcelona I just found this in Attention by Ken Sacharian, which gives another funny comment on the validity of media planning based on efficiency based on simple CPM-values. Just for the record - I don’t believe a second in planning this way. I believe in interaction and engagement.  But everybody say they do - and still I see flowcharts packed with these numbers. I think they are okay at optimising the plan after making the stategy based on insights - but not as a tool of strategy. This quote kind of makes the point in a funny way.

Efficiency is not strategy
If other fields worked that way - imagine an architect who has been awarded  a skyscraper design project. If she operated as our fictional brand marketeer does then she would start by examining the efficiency of building materials: Brick is less expensive than steel, but wood is less expensive than brick, and plastic and vinyl is less expensive than wood - we’ll build an scyscraper in plastic ad vinyl.  Attention - Ken Sacharian

Simultanious viewing?

Spending some time exploring all the new emerging technologies challenging the traditional TVviewing and bringing the TV experience online, combining the best of both worlds, I am a bit confused about the lack of keeping the feeling of flow TV. Watching Youtube, dailymotion, currentTV, Jalipo and Joost I miss something. Even though it seems as there are a tendency towards on-demand viewing I see plenty of possibilities of keeping the aspect of flow and live at the same time as the possibilities of control. Especially at Joost where they very nicely have combined chat functions and viewing it doesn’t make sense that there aren’t a flow to gather around with? Have I missed something. It would be obvious to be able to invite somebody to view content simultaniously as re-creating the feeling of shared viewing across space and context. But can’t find out if I’m just a newbie in Joost or if online TV just is killing flow TV.

Tales of the past II

I have previously posted this on my danish blog, but was reminded how incredible it is when I watched Gaming theme evening on DR2 ( a danish public service TV channel).

I think it is amazing to watch how World of Warcraft created not only a game, but a virtual world. You really see how this virtual place works, when players (or more appropriate inhabitants?) break the storyline of the game and start to create their own stories.

See tales of the past II here….. 

Gears of War

Around a month ago I started Gears of War on Xbox 360 and I must say I got sucked in real hard.. For a while I was drawn to the TV (where I normally don’t spend much time), and saw monsters in my dreams.. until the final scene where I with passion screamed to my boyfriend “When does the next version come to stores???” And after compliting the game we started battling each other…

But one thing I could figure out during this month of craze, was how to use the Bow… And today I found one who obviously has solved that problem…

 

Very explicit drive to web

On adrants today a case from Colle+McVoy shows  how TV ads from the Minnesota State Lottery are directly used to drive the audience online and start interacting with the content. It’s still TV, but the main objective (and interaction) will take place online. It’s interesting and a way to make TV meet online ads.. Will it work? Or are the two media consumption situation too differenten. It will be interesting to know the recent numbers on how many people actually sits with a laptop while watching TV.

 See the spot here