HDTV: THE NEW DIGITAL CAMPFIRE

We spend on average 4 hours a day watching TV. Received opinion is that Television is at the root of society's problems.

A day Xploring with a London family highlights a new perspective. At Sarah and Andy's house, the new Panasonic 37inch HDTV has an altar like status. It has pride of place in the living room. It's become a camp-fire for the most sacred rituals of togetherness. It's time after the kids have gone to bed, the first time Sarah has sat down all day and the first time Andy has seen his work after a long day at the office. It's their time. It's the time they will tell stories to each other about the ups and downs of the day in between commenting on what they are watching. It's their time flirt with each other. They snuggle up under their fluffy blanket (reserved only for watching telly) and connect not only to what they are watching but to each other.

Modern camp-fires are lit exclusively for recreation which is the main purpose of the TV room. Staring into the flames of a camp fire is mesmerizing. The TV room is also a good venue for intimate conversation and storytelling. Families connect (and argue) in their TV room. Families share confidences, stories, their fears, their desires.

It seems to me that TVs still bring families together, and yet most manufacturers would much rather sell TVs based on somewhat abstract product feature claims (e.g. clarity, brightness). No doubt we will see a return to these cliches as the Olympic season dawns. But given that the TV room is a mostly female domain I feel that brands would be better off positioning their products as things which bring a family together and forgetting the technical jargon entirely.

(My) World Narrow Web

Barbie, is 16, she lives and has always lived in Hong Kong. She was very self conscious about her ability to speak English, but despite she has never been doing any exchange program or stay abroad, when listening to her, I felt like I should be the self conscious one when it comes to speak english…

I spend a bit more than an hour with her surfing on internet from her room among giant Doraemon and Hello Kitty dolls.

Surfing with Barbie, suddenly the World Wide Web seemed very small.

She spends about 2 hours almost every night on her computer, but most of the time she would use only 2 applications: www.xanga.com and msn messenger.

She has over 150 msn messenger names in her contact list, but only 8 bookmarked websites.

She has 100 plus friends in her xanga.com weblog, but all of them are in Hong Kong.

In such a narrow web, space for brands to get in touch with her seems very limited. She can’t remember visiting any brand website (‘what do you mean by brands’ she asked me back? How refreshing that was…).

Intimacy and proximity are key to get in touch with her in her ‘My World Narrow Web’. From a user perspective the web is often a small and intimate place but few brands take that into account in the way they communicate online.

The Power of Discovery

New York

I had a love affair with my Nintendo Wii from the moment I laid eyes on it. It was a simple attraction at first. I had seen an ad for the Wii sports game and thought it looked like so much fun; instead of going out, I could invite friends over and we’d play Wii tennis! I courted the Wii for weeks. Looked it up online. Checked it out in stores. Thought about spending the money. Then one morning, I woke up at 6 am, waited outside of Best Buy for 2 hours and came home with the Wii.
But since then I have been discovering new sides to my Wii. I can surf the internet on the Wii, buy any Nintendo game (even the original Mario Brothers) by downloading them directly through the Wii... I can even challenge strangers through the internet to a game of Guitar Hero on my Wii. AMAZING. I love that I didn’t know all these features right away. I had to play with it and explore all the elements. I love that I don’t know what I’m going to discover next.

Implication: Seduction isn’t about showing your cards all at once. Leave some things to be discovered and the relationship will last

Digital Urban Legends

New York

This past weekend I went to a family bar mitzvah and like most family events, there was little to do but eat and drink. My mother, after having one mimosa (that’s right, only one) found herself slightly ‘over-served’, which is mom speak for slightly buzzed. She joyously ran to the (empty) dance floor and proceeded to dance some kind of combination between a traditional Romanian folk dance and Kris Kross ‘jump’. Lets just say, it cannot accurately be described. My boyfriend, who is never without his digital camera managed to record this ‘so you think you can dance’ moment and uploaded the footage to youtube so the family could all watch it. We all agreed, including my mother (she has a wonderful sense of humor) that this would go down in the bar mitzvah hall of fame.

But a few days later my mother called me up. “Jessica, I want you to take down that video of me off of the Internet,” she asked in a sullen, nervous voice. I immediately felt badly, thinking that my mom was embarrassed and been hiding it all this time… but I was way off. “Its just that I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m really worried about identity theft.” Huh?

It turned out that for days my mom had been thinking about all of potential disasters that might happen as a result of her Internet debut. What if someone used the video to get her social security number? What if someone saw her dancing and accused her of faking her herniated disk (her very serious back injury). I have to admit I rolled my eyes at my paranoid, baby boomer mother, but of course took the video off of youtube.

But then I got to thinking about my own circle. I too have heard stories about people mistakenly sharing too much online. Didn’t some girl talk about sex and drugs on her facebook page and lost her job because of it? Don’t corporations google people to make sure they are who they say they are? Despite our differences, my mother and I have both heard quite a few urban legends about sharing too much and paying the price.

Implication: Urban legends may not be true, but they still influence the way we act and how we feel. Things don’t have to be real, to be real in their consequences … even in the digital world.

Which One is the true self portrait?

New York:
This is a piece that was featured in the New York Times Magazine last summer of regular people and their not-so-regular avatars. From the moment I saw it I knew I couldn’t bear to part with it. Hardly any descriptions or explanations were included with the photos. But with images like these, who needs words?
I can’t help but wonder what these people are trying to say? Who are they trying to be? Is this how they see themselves? The one thing that is clear to me is that real people can find a freedom in the virtual world that they can’t have in the real one. This is where they dare to dream.
A famous philosopher wrote about the duality of human nature: each person has their socialized self, the person that society and civilization tells them to be, and their true self, who is wild and free. I can’t help but see these dual portraits and wonder, which one is more real?

Implication: Give people the freedom to explore and express themselves without judgment. This may be the only place their imagination can be set free.

Play Games at the Dinner Table

New York.

One of the most buzzed about exhibitions in New York right now is ‘Design and the Elastic Mind’ at MOMA. Sophie and I trekked up to Midtown a few days ago to check it out.

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

Mind blowing.

And overwhelming, but two projects stuck with me.

Moritz Weldemeyer’s Pong Table is a basic kitchen table. A closer look reveals the table surface to be a giant computer game.



What better way to start the day than sitting down with your cup of Joe, a bowl of cereal and a quick game of Pong with your kids before heading out the door for work.

It’s not such a big leap to imagine your iPhone, enlarged to table top size…. Instead of ‘pass the salt please’ it might be ‘pass that email please.’

And the chair you’ll sit in… why not sketch it in thin air? Motion capture and digital technology will make it for you.



http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/#/235/

But by far the most touching and inspiring project in the entire exhibition is Alan Outten’s challenge to school children to create the things of the future.






http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/#/269/


What good is digital technology without imagination? Children have the most elastic minds on the planet. The best players in the digital world will be the ones who can think like children.

Amazon Found My Wedding Shoes

New York.




This xplorer is getting hitched. As every girl knows, the wedding dress is the most important thing. For me, shoes come in a close second. So over the past few weeks I’ve been doing some serious shoe shopping, both on and offline.

A few days ago I went to amazon.com in search of an overpriced Polaroid camera. Surprisingly, on the home page, staring me in the face were my perfect wedding shoes.

My instant delight quickly changed to weirded out skepticism as I mentally joined the dots and realized that Amazon had been ‘snooping’ on my shoe shopping. It all has something to do with cookies… I’m not techie enough to know for sure.

Amazon new my size, the heel height, color and style I was after. And then right when I least expected it they served my up my ideal shoe, at an ideal price.

I bought the shoes. I love them. But I still feel a little creeped out that Amazon is watching me shop.

Opportunity: Remember your manners! You might get one sale, but you won’t get much respect or love. In the new digital world the nosy snooping neighbors will quickly be shut out. Why not be the ‘gentleman.’

Honesty Is Still The Best Policy

Manila

In this entertainment-crazed town, the hottest draw of the moment is not the latest TV soap or Holywood blockbuster. It's 'The Talented Mr. Montano' (http://delfindjmontano.blogspot.com), the personal blog of one Brian Gorrell, an Australian who once had a Filipino boyfriend named DJ Montano.

Brian started the blog as a way of shaming socialite DJ into paying him the $70,000 that DJ conned out of him during their relationship. The blog has all the requisite elements for a compelling read: tales of sex, drug use, violence and social climbing. The blog has literally been an overnight wonder, generating 70,000 unique views just 5 days after it was started (and the numbers have continued to grow). It has viewers from all over the world, of different nationalities and has generated coverage by the mainstream media as well.

Juice stories aside, what has been interesting about this blog is the tremendous empathy that Brian has received from thousands of faceless stangers. Even without them knowing the full score, they assume that Brian is indeed the victim. Some have even started a Paypal account to take donations to help fund Brian's crusade. Brian's raw honesty appears to be working well for him in this case.

Opportunity: Being honest and transparent is a powerful source of respect. As they explore the digital world, brands need to be prepared to lose some control and tell the truth about themselves, unpleasant as it may sometimes be.

Facebook Cocktail

Kuala Lumpur

This was a menu item that Ai Ming saw in Somo, an upscale restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Aside from being a nice conversation piece, it's also an interesting glimpse into how our online and offline worlds are feeding off each other.

The 'Flaming Lamborghini' isn't a new drink. Neither is it particularly more potent than other cocktails. But framing its potecny as Facebook-grade suddenly makes it a lot more intriguing (which makes you want to try it even more!) Adding tagging to the mix gave the drink a completely new flavor that a physical ingredient might not.

Which made me wonder...what other products or brands could we reinvigorate by colliding with concepts from our digital life? What if we could easily 'mouse over' stains with Tide? What if we could 'tag' Samsonite luggage with our travel history?

Opportunity: Colliding existing real world concepts with digital concepts could lead to fresh ideas

Facebook and other social networks have a strong 'self-branding' aspect to them in that they give people a venue to position themselves. Differentiation comes from having good content and good content comes from having interesting experiences. In that sense, our digital life puts a premium on collecting these interesting experiences.

Which is probably why this drink has appeal. The funny face it claims to give you makes for good content. The kind of content that would be interesting to other people.

Opportunity: If people's experiences are used as content, then brands need to find ways of turning people's brand/product experiences into content worth sharing. 

Mystery Wins

Toronto.

Sandy's teenage son always has a camera in his hand. Just the other day Sandy asked him why had he switched back to using film when he has 2 perfectly good digital cameras?

"I'd rather have the mystery than the knowing."

Opportunity: Anticipation and wonder are powerful human emotions. Bring some much needed mystery to the hyper-instant digital world.

Same gesture, same purpose?

This scene happened on the train between Hong Kong and Shenzhen the 10 million megalopolis created ex-nihilo over the last 25 years over the chinese border.
For more than half an hour I got fascinated how this young couple adopted the very same gesture, while one was playing on his Nintendo DS, and the other putting make up.

Both were observing a reflection of themselves.

As Aisea put it in a previous post from Australia, digital world is mainly about creating and augmenting one's self-identity.

Brands For Hire

Sydney.

For an Xploring project we have for one of our clients, I became a cameraman for the wedding of Kathy and Tim H. 

One of Kathy's friends confided in me that, despite herself, Kathy had become a 'bridezilla'. In her bridezilla-dom, Kathy had hired a small army of photographers and videographers, leaving this Xplorer jostling for positions amongst the swarm of paparazzi seeking to take that 'perfect shot'. 

I decided to move out of the ratrace and stand next to Steve, one of Tim's uni mates, who had brought along his new Sony Handycam to shoot. Curiously, while all the photographers and videographers kept their cameras and lenses trained on the speeches, Steve retired his Handycam back into its carrybag.

"Why aren't you shooting the speeches?", I asked.

"They're better as photos, nobody wants to see this on video"

"Why not?"

"Mate, people want to see movement, that's why I'm waiting for the waltz before I start shooting again"

It reminded me of a group we had for a baby food client, where one mum shared that she didn't bother bringing out the video camera until her baby started crawling. "Until then, it's all pretty boring isn't it? I'd rather take all the nice photos while baby is still getting used to the world".

As technology starts to converge and video cameras become photo cameras and vice-versa, it sometimes can be hard to forget that consumers essentially "hire" products for "jobs" they need to accomplish. The "job" of capturing a moment still belongs to the camera and the "job" of capturing moving pictures still belongs to the video camera.

Research we conducted for an electronics client confirmed that people still carried digital cameras alongside their multimedia phones. Why? Because they were still unconvinced that mobile phone cameras could take 'important photos' (i.e. pre-planned events, such as a wedding, 21st birthday).  

Truth: Brands need to think about what "jobs" their products can accomplish for consumers. Consumers are constantly redefining what "jobs" they expect their digital products to complete. In a world of convergence, brands can often become jack-of-all-trades but masters of nothing - a dangerous place to be. 

"So Old School"

Sydney.

It's a rainy Wednesday night and Puma are throwing a launch party to celebrate a new shoe line at the new MTV studios here in Sydney. Never one to pass up a free drink, this Xplorer made a beeline to the beer queue. It was just another Gen Y-party, as half the room remained in perpetual pose, each camera flash followed by laughs and squeals as everyone congregates to see if their photos are "Facebook quality". 

The theme was "old school" (in the hip-hop sense) and as DMC gave way to the Beastie Boys, it occurred to me that most of the crowd weren't even born when these songs were recorded. Even more mysterious was the fact that the crowd seemed to genuinely reflect upon 'the good old days' as if growing up in suburban Sydney circa-1994 was anything remotely like Brooklyn in the 1970s and 80s. 

Truth: Pop-culture is a permanent, moving mash-up of cultures and time-periods. There is no longer a linear path to 'what's hot right now'. Instead, we live in a universe of infinite 'mainstreams' that make it hard to pin down what really is 'cool' amongst young consumers. 

I quizzed several people about their favourite songs and the response was an eclectic - if not baffling - mix of pop, rap, rock and everything inbetween. Nisha, a proud Punjabi-Australian was channeling British rapper M.I.A. with her mix-and-match assortment of early 90s Reebok Pumps with her ksubi jeans. A browse of her Nokia N-Series music library read like a 'Best of the late 90s' compilation: a little Britney, a little *NSYNC, even a Trisha Yearwood single (how embarrassment). Nisha was at the party with her "gay husband", Joshi, who lamented the lack of any Notorious B.I.G. tracks from the DJ. "I have them on my iPod, I should just go up there and tell the DJ to put my iPod in!", Joshi screamed, downtrodden that he didn't know the lyrics to the song that was playing.

Suddenly, just as Joshi thought the world was to end, the DJ spun onto "Mo' Money, Mo' Problems". Nisha flung her purse at me, took Joshi straight to the dancefloor as they joined a rabble of teens and twentysomethings delicately lip-sync the rap lyrics. Suddenly, the crowd became a sea of digital camera flashes as the second genre of Facebook photos ('the mid-dancing, two-fingers in a v-shape pose') started to take shape. 

Over the course of a few hours, I had seen a phalanx of digital products being used (digital camera, mobile phones, Bluetooth devices... even the DJ was working off a pre-mixed iTunes playlist on his MacBook Pro), but it was all incidental to the partygoers. As far as Nisha and Joshi were concerned, they had photos and videos that would tell the story of their night. Joshi would forget about the songs he didn't like, Nisha would forget about the fact that a girl spilled raspberry vodka on her expensive jeans. What they would keep in mind are the hot photos they took of each other and the good time they had at the MTV party their friends couldn't go to.

Opportunity: Consumers - especially those born after 1985 - are using digital products to create and augment their self-identity. Allow consumers to tell the story they want to tell about themselves. Let them invent and re-invent themselves in the digital space.

Creative Spying

New York.

"I LOVE my Ricoh. It's grown on me too, at first it was just OK, but I've grown to really appreciate how cool it is."



Mike takes pride in his sensible, logical approach to shopping, even when it comes to his passion - photography - so it's quite something to hear these words out of his mouth.

It's interesting too, to think that a digital thing has grown on someone; revealed it's secrets over time, gotten better with age. Blogs, social networks, search engines and gadgets, they all come and go. They explode into our lives with a bang, but more often than not they soon start to fade away, and the next big thing comes along.

Opportunity: Don't explode into people's digital lives and then leave them cold. Let a relationship unfold.

Mike's Ricoh is a small, black digital camera. It's not for happy snappers, it's not easy or intuitive. It has dials and buttons and options that take time to figure out. The photos Mike takes with it are never perfect, but somehow always better for it.



"Its inconspicuous, I walk down the street and take shots without people knowing. It makes me feel like a spy. My big digital SLR camera takes better photos, technically, but they're too perfect. The Ricoh captures a mood, a feeling."

Truth: Just because digital can offer perfection, doesn't mean people always want it. If we want people to FEEL something, we must bring creativity, unexpectedness and imperfection to their digital lives.

Never Alone

Beijing.



It's 11am and McDonald's is crowded with Beijing students and business people looking for their mid morning snack. Like so many fast-food joints or coffee spots, the place is filled with people alone; on their break or on their way somewhere.

Everywhere we look there is a phone in hand, or an iPod on the table, keeping company with the lone munchers. Gone are the days when people would sit by themselves doing nothing but staring into space or reading a discarded newspaper to fill the time.

Never again must people queue alone, eat alone, travel alone or risk looking like they have no-one to be with and nothing to do.

Our digital life pops up in our real life whenever we have a lonely moment to fill, whenever we need something to keep us company.

Opportunity: Meet people when and where they're alone and looking for some companionship. Bring them something of value to fill their downtime.