It was a real meeting of the (digital) minds from around the globe. Eight speakers covered creative and innovative uses of digital technology in their respective fields, with a focus on what’s next.

L–R: Q & A session hosted by Mark Simpson (Sixty40) with Kim Wildenburg and David Chontos from PSYOP.

At the end of the day I looked down at the scribbles I’d made on the pages of my Moleskine from within the darkened auditorium. Below are the notes I could decipher, in no particular order:

– Technology opens opportunities to be creative, be seen / heard, connect with others and even generate revenue.

– Gaming is the new frontier – have been more popular / profitable than feature films for a number of years.

– Emerging markets – China is the 3rd largest consumer of advertising.

– Engaging content (storytelling) is always key to communicating your idea effectively. Quality work will always come to the surface.

– Technology improves exponentially, while social, economic and legal systems improve incrementally. This creates a ‘value gap’ for our clients. We should work to narrow the gap by encouraging our clients to embrace the opportunities that technology offers thereby making them more efficient and relevant to their customers.

– Embrace change as an opportunity. Encourage your clients to view their offer / value in new ways. For example, Nike are much more than just a shoe manufacturer.

– Set up a Twitter wall at your client’s office to highlight what’s on the mind of their employees. Knowing yourself is critical for growth.

– Fear of change is dangerous – wanting to protect current revenue streams at the expense of development. Focusing on threats rather than opportunities. This opens the door for your competitors.

– Take stock creatively of what has been done before. We are working with advanced technology but conceptually we are just like new artists / illusionists. Draw inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci and Harry Houdini etc.

– Two strategies are better than one:
1. Organisational Learning Strategy (This alone lacks a goal or purpose)
2. Business Model Development (This alone leaves a company vulnerable to change)
Business Transformation is achieved through a combination of both these strategies.

Experimental music / performance – generated through live motion tracking.

As the inspirational French aviator / poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry put it – As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.

Thanks to the organisers of Pause Fest http://www.helsinkiagency.com for a day of inspired thoughts and business insights.

Until next year.

Weeplaces:

Check-ins are a record of your experiences, activities, and places you’ve been. Your geodata normally is viewed once and then forgotten about. Weeplaces makes use of this data by creating a personal page of these experiences.

Trendsmap.com:

Your personal data holds little surprises. But a visualizing of twitter trends in relation to location gives another layer to mapping.

Mapping of the World’s Friendships:

Location takes on a different meaning when you draw new virtual connections with the physical.  The interactive map “Mapping of the World’s Friendships” created for Facebook Stories shows each country’s closest friendships and possible reasons for the proximity. For example, Facebook users in Jordan have the most bonds with residents in the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Prettymaps:

Then there are the maps that are fun and have no functional purpose. Prettymaps, an experimental map created by Stamen Design, is an interactive map composed of multiple freely available, community-generated data sources; Flickr shapefiles, Natural Earth and Open Street Map.

For whatever purpose we use them for, we know (as shown from current events) that we depend on them. They really do make up our world.

RB stands for artists – thousands of artists. Redbubble is an online resource for artists allowing them to share and even sell their creations with a growing audience of art lovers spanning the globe – hungry for artworks as unique as they are.

Cornwell was engaged to develop a communications strategy and new brand that not only captured the essence of their offer but one that allowed for flexibility of application and appearance as they navigate the delicate line between artists and consumers.

We created a brand inspired by the red stickers used by fine art galleries to signify the sale of a piece. The brand mark can be used to ‘frame’ the amazing creative output from the legions of talented RB members. Since the re-launch it has been embraced by the RB community and has already seen countless graphic reinterpretations. All of which remain true to the idea behind the brand – celebrating the creativity of the individual.

The Redbubble team have run with the new brand, making it their own.

Watch the re-launch video below from the team at The Drop Studio.

The only way to fix this is to replace the old-fashioned TV-first model of campaign development with one that starts by focusing on our deepest, most trusted marketing channel: interactive. It’s time for brands to start building multilayered brand ecosystems that put interactive tools at the core.

While integrated agencies are very good at talking up the marketing fire power they have “under the one roof ”, the reality is that the standard agency structure of dedicated channel-based departments (ATL, Direct, Digital, etc.), each of which house multiple layers of management, creative, account management, strategy, design, media and production, is not able to facilitate even the most basic collaboration required to meet the challenges of contemporary communications.

The main alternative to this approach appears to be the establishment of standalone specialist creative agencies that focus on a core set of skills. But as the number of complex and divergent skills required for a contemporary marketing strategy to succeed increases, it’s impossible to see how these agencies will also be able to meet the challenge, without collaborating with a variety of complimentary specialist creative agencies first.

As a counterpoint to both of these approaches, Cornwell has set about employing a core group of idea-led creative thinkers with a wide and diverse skill set. As a result, it’s not uncommon for the lead team on a Cornwell project to involve a Brand Strategist, Digital Planner, an Illustrator, a Digital Designer, an Art Director, a Copywriter and a Direct Marketer. Together, this team will be responsible for developing a communications blueprint before outsourcing the implementation of the project to their network of affiliated specialty companies and individuals, based on the specifics of the assignment.

Because of this, we never start a project with fixed preconceptions about the outcomes or solutions required. We don’t try and sell strategy if we don’t feel it’s necessary. We don’t insist on redesigning the logo. We don’t change the marketing collateral if it’s doing a good job. And we don’t try to offer a social media edge if it’s not right for the business.

But whatever the brand and specific communications challenge, our multidisciplinary team will deliver work that is intelligent, intuitive, human and gets results.

Everyone knows the best time to get your baked goods is when they’re fresh out the oven. And BakerTweet is a great way to let followers know that the fresh goodies are ready right now.

Little Printer lives in your home, bringing you news, puzzles and gossip from your friends. Use your smartphone to set up subscriptions and Little Printer will gather them together to create a timely, beautiful mini-newspaper the size of a sales receipt.

As part of the CUB rebranding we created the Super Magical Beer Labeller that staff could use to design their own custom labels. The most popular labels were then made into a limited run commemorative “Case of Friendship”.

Thanks to Square, now anyone from a cab driver to a house-call doctor to a produce purveyor at the farmers’ market – even a couple holding a yard sale – can accept payments on their mobile devices.

Social networks and the socially connected web have been powerful rallying tools in helping us change this behaviour. Watching the digitally connected community fearlessly fight for their democratic rights has opened the eyes of the 99% across the developed western world.

As Occupy Wall Street penetrated nearly every continent of the globe (including Melbourne, Australia), I was reminded by our Digital Planner that we are “living with permanent crisis”. Democratic crisis, financial crisis, environmental crisis, fashion crisis. Well maybe the last crisis only exists for me, but crisis nonetheless is now the norm.

Today, Occupy Wall Street. Tomorrow, Qantas grounded. Brands and arguably governments are completely ill-prepared for the instant nature of the new democracy.

The way in which governments, businesses and brands behave has been changed radically. Brands require a new agency model to cope with the heady world of the connected consumer and we have made the migration. In an industry still predominantly focused on using social media or digital strategy
to create matching luggage for campaigns, we have been digging deeper.

In the last 17 years, we have built some big Australian brands. In the past two years, we have developed a new hybrid agency model that provides fully integrated brand, communications and digital experience. The depth and diversity of the work in our new magazine, As of Now Issue 2, is the output of an integrated studio model. Our diverse team have expertise in brand, digital, advertising, planning and communications and of course, design. This means we can harness the challenges of any brief and provide some remarkable creative.

In the latest As of Now we have selected projects that demonstrate our creative range from brand, communications and digital projects. There are excerpts from our senior team, and these talented people are backed by a team of dedicated creatives and management who provide some of the best thinking in the industry.

We are proud of the work. We have the next As of Now on the drawing board.

Let’s connect.

Steven Cornwell
CEO
Twitter @steven_cornwell

Whilst this is a hugely generous commitment to the surf life saving community, it is a marketing campaign to sell more paint. But unlike other big business that sponsor an array of generic community events like sporting teams and arts projects, Dulux have conceived a clever initiative to target their audience.

The campaign reaches the parents of over 60,000 young nippers. Parents of growing families in homes that, may need renovating. Dulux are promoting the quality of the Weathershield product by painting buildings exposed to some of the harshest conditions produced by the sea and the sun. They’re creating a great back catalogue of case studies to support the brand positioning – worth doing, worth Dulux.

Funding maintenance of clubs is difficult, with equipment to save lives being the priority. Dulux’s contribution means greater focus can go to doing this and we can still live in a world of colour.

There are the traditional mediums like TV, radio, print and outdoor media, but the most engaging brands are those that pop up in places where you’d least expect to see them.

When you see a brand step outside their traditional territory and innovate in their approach, it evokes curiosity and provides more opportunity to converse directly with consumers. This typically results in the brand being top of mind the next time a consumer makes a purchasing decision.

So what are some good examples of this?

Picking up a Sportsgirl mag on the street or at uni (or as they ride past – main image).

Grill'd festival vans

Grill’d reach out to a young target audience with the airstream van at festivals & events.

H&M goes Gidget

H&M knows you might have forgot a sunhat or caftan for the beach. The pop-up beach shop is clever.

Tesco goes metro

One of the cleverest ideas of 2011 would have to be Tesco installing images of supermarket shelves with QR codes in a South Korean subway station.

Nothing like purchasing a litre of milk before the daily commute and having it delivered to your door when arriving home.

A: YEAH! Online fight with the competition! <high fives> C: SH$T! ONLINE FIGHT WITH THE COMPETITION?!!

A: BAM! it's gone viral. Server went down!! C: GET I.T. NOW! They crashed the server

A: ACMA pulled the Sydney billboard :O C: We just signed off that media plan last week :S

A: No way, the actor in the TVC got busted for blowing .05? C: I knew that guy was on the Scotch!

But of course, nothing succeeds like success.

When the sales figures come in next quarter, it can all be worthwhile.

A: Their CFO has invited me to golf at Royal Melb this weekend? C: The CFO has invited me to golf at Royal Melb this weekend!!?

- illustrations by Steve Leadbeater.

This usually means they want a holiday. But shifting our view on the stuff that surrounds us can be revealing.

Maybe not as much as skinny dipping in the Bahamas, but enough for you to at least appreciate the beauty right where you are.

Over a couple of weeks I decided to carefully observe and capture letterforms in my daily experience, from old photocopies, used train tickets and signage to discarded cassette recorders and parking meters.

Type #2

The amount of inspiration out there is surprising. It became difficult to walk down the street without stopping to admire the hidden gems.

This continued until it got to the point where I stopped needing to search – the type started finding me.

So next time you’re bored with your surroundings try shifting your focus to take in the subtle and not so subtle beauty in the day-to-day.

It really can change your perspective on the world.

Type #3

Here is some other mundane beauty on the web:

http://mundanebeauty.com/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/beautyinmundane/pool/