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Something that I have been thinking about for a while is the shift in ‘Digital’ or ‘The Internet’ from being confined to the screen. It is now penetrating the real world and adding value to it via mobile, outdoor installations and touch screens etc. It has been a common topic of conversation that ‘The Internet’ has made people less social… hermits.

With the rise of geo-bassed services enabling users to tell friends where they are and what they are doing, ‘The Internet’ is now driving people together socially rather than creating more basement loving individuals. At the end of the day humans are social. The June Trend Watching briefing was a piece on ‘Mass Mingling’, which detailed how and why technology was bringing people together.

On Saturday I went to ‘The Creators Project‘ which was an exhibition of technology/art/films/music/installations/panel discussions. Joachim Sauter from Art+Com was speaking at the event and had quite a few interesting things to say about technology in space. His company recently created the concept behing the new BMW ad (which was actually created for a museum installation not an ad, but was ‘used’ by their ad agency). One of the many things I took from his talk was ‘How can technology become part of a real space and add to it, not become an eyesore’. All of his work was there to add value in some way, to help tell a story, not technology for the sake of.

Mobile internet is a massive force behind this shift and spillage, for instance out of the 400 million (500 this week apparently) 100 million people are accessing Facebook through their mobile. The iPhone and other smartphone devices have contributed to the massive growth, feeding the habit of the hyper connected.

This natural spillage from the screen to reality is opening up more and more opportunities for brands to communicate with people. Uploaded 10 months ago by OneDotZero, this video shows an interactive mobile piece that was created for Nokia. Chris Allen who was also a panelist at The Creators Project spoke about a piece of work that he has just finished named ‘LDN24‘. This is another good example of how digital can be integrated into the real world. This piece pulls in live stats, tweets and info from live database sources.

Digital is in the real world… it is not separate… it is part of it. Integrated. Not a silo. How can we use digital and technology to add some value, to connect with our audience?

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A little while ago Facebook changed the language they were using from ‘Become a fan’ to ‘Like’ on pages. Since this happened there has been no real standard in defining what these people are now called. Any ideas? Do we call them ‘Likers’?! Or are we sticking with ‘Fans’?

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Yesterday the famous dragon @DuncanBannatyne posted out the below tweet… what a reaction so far!

In the last 24 hours it has gone a bit nuts and it is a trending topic in the UK. This initiative has been supported by every1followme, who is trying to raise money for charity via sponsorship. A brief explanation to why…

I felt this could be a good exercise to raise money for charity & do good for the world, on the 28th of Jan 2010, I created a twitter list called ‘sponsored by‘ allowing corporate companies to sponsor me & get added to the list forever, this is very valuable to companies etc as the list is featured on this website & my twitter page & all tweets from these companies are shown on the list, all money raised from sponsors will be given to a charity or a number of charities. After I complete my goal gain 1 million followers, we will have a vote & you will decide the charity, not me! I think that’s the right thing to do, it ensures that my task does good for humanity aswell as someone winning the $5000

An idea that really harnesses an attitude of Twitter users… we have #FollowFriday, which sees users sending out tweets to encourage their followers to follow other worthy users. Without taking anything away from this initiative as it is for a good cause, it does highlight a specific social need held by many. The need to be popular. The more people that follow you the more your opinion matters. This ties very much into my last post about STATUSPHERE, particularly connectivity.

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A little behind things this month, hence the late post of the Trend Watching briefing! As I am one of their Happy Spotters I really should write a quick post.

For the months of May/June the briefing is focused around ‘Staus’, that thing we want/have/need to demonstrate success. Their briefing states this is moving away from material objects to include acquired skills, eco-credentials, generosity, connectivity… Their definition of Statusphere is:

STATUSPHERE | As consumers are starting to recognize and respect fellow consumers who stray off the beaten consuming-more-than-thou-path, ‘new’ status can be about acquired skills, about eco-credentials, about generosity, about connectivity… All of this makes for a far more diversified ‘STATUSPHERE’ than most brands and organizations have traditionally catered to. Time to really figure out how and where your customers are now finding their status fix.

Broadly speaking it shows the shift in attitudes away from expensive objects to more diverse ways people are looking to gain status, which link closely to current cultural trends.We can see this quite evidently in specific cultural tribes in fashion and music to name a specific example.

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A couple of things that I came across in the last few weeks that are worth mentioning.

- FatFingers – Is an eBay search tool that allows you to find specific items that has been posted to eBay with a typo. If an item has been posted with a typo it is harder for people to find, resulting in a lower sale price = good deal for buyer.

- Street Museum – Created by the Museum Of London, this app gives Londoners/Tourists the ability to time travel… well sort of. Select a destination or use your GPS, and hold up your camera to the present day street scene and then see it change to a historial version… which as they mention ‘Offers you a window through time’.

Nice.

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Also came across this presentation this week about ‘How to sell ideas’, produced by LBi. A good read.

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So you have all probably seen the #DeBill chatter that has been going around the past few weeks, all relating to the new laws that have been pushed through parlament tackling issues such as copyright. I won’t go into that, but a recent post I made on Twitter via http://www.votethemout.co.uk/ enabled a local MP of mine to find me. He sent me a message letting me know he was my standing in my local area as an independent.

After checking out his website I found he had an interesting idea. It is all focused around what he calls ‘Direct democracy’. If he gets elected then he will post up bills that will be debated and voted on in parlament. Local citizens will be able to log onto his website and vote for they would like him to vote.

A new model of democracy where the masses are able to influence a decision in parlament directly?

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Recently I have seen two brands announce that they will no longer be creating campaign microsites and moving their efforts to social media. An interesting move and something that may change agency land. Over a year it is hard to even imagine the money spent on microsites and if I was writting this at my desk rather than on the tube, could probably find a stat for that.

Anyway, so why? Is it a case of fishing where the fish are? Taking the brand to the customer. If this is the strategy is it does make sense. The question will be will brands be happy to do this and in some cases have less of a ‘brand experience’? Relationships over the looks, strategy before creative.

Another topic along the same theme that caught my eye was that apparently this is the year of social media… with brand owners directing marketing budget to this tool. As long as we are responsible and create campaigns that are relevant whilst adding value, this can only be a step in the right direction.

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