transmediale

transmediale is a design conference based in Berlin where people collaborate together to create a variety of designs. The theme used this year was based on global warming. At first I was slightly dubious about this particular concept due to the fact that I felt this would limit the type of stuff that would be seen. Below is some in-depth information about this conference.


“transmediale is an international festival for contemporary art and digital culture. Located in Berlin, it presents advanced artistic positions reflecting on the socio-cultural impact of new technologies. It seeks out artistic practices that not only respond to scientific or technical developments, but that try to shape the way in which we think about and experience these technologies.”(1)


I really liked the fact that I was exposed to an eclectic mixture of work that I normally wouldn’t normally encounter. On the downside however I did feel that most of the work were more conceptually strong rather than technically strong.


One of the surprisingly elements of the conference were the daily lectures on different aspects of global warming, in particular the one I found interesting was the Lecture on Deep North in which they talked in-depth about the repercussions of what we as a human race have done to our planet, and how long it would take “realistically”, to solve thee problems.

Below is a list of resources used within this post.

Bibliography
(1) http://www.transmediale.de/


PSYPO Design

New York City-based PSYOP is an inspiring culmination of creativity, collaboration and production focused on providing visual solutions in motion for the advertising & marketing, video gaming, broadcast and music video industries. (1)

Whilst researching the definition of the name “PSYOP”. I found out that it was a psychological operation used by the military to influence a target audience's value systems, belief, emotions, and behaviour. In their website they have gone in depth into the definition of the term. They state that this is because it is a time when consumers are bombarded with more messages form more media then ever before”.

Overall I really like the style of this company. The work created is wide ranging from car companies such as Ford right the way through to established drinks companies such as Coca Cola. I’ve noticed that with a lot of their work there is a lot of underlying history and meaning has been used, and is not created purely because of aesthetics.

One of the most memorable pieces of work is the Coca-Cola-Happiness Factory. This is not only a very unique advert, but also very well known as it has been shown on TV.

This is a very interesting concept due to the fact they have taken a very mundane process of getting a can out of a vending machine, and have managed to portray the process of the coin going in- to the drink coming out as a “magical journey”.

Coca-Cola-Happiness Factory

Below is another clip of their work. This one is for Fanta, titled Fanta Play: Let Them Play. This is another televised advert for Fanta, which uses a using much simpler colour palette. The monochromatic tones, really brings out the vivid orange colours

Fanta Play: Let Them Play

Overall I really like the style of this particular company. I also like the way that they are not tied down to any particular style. The works created range from sketching hand drawn animation to lifelike 3d motion graphics.Below is a list of resources used within this post.

Bibliography
(1) http://www.dexigner.com/directory/cat/Broadcast_Design/Companies.html
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_operations
(3) http://www.psyop.tv/

Viral Marketing Research

The brief states that eBay wants a viral that “communicates how eBay delivers shopping worth talking about.” I though that this was interesting, and then begun to look at the definition of a viral. Below is a snippet taken from wikipedia.

“Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, e-books, brandable software, images, or even text messages.”(1)

I began to look into viral campaigns that obviously represented companies in a direct attempt to increase sales. Below is a small selection that has been gathered.

Heineken - Walk in Fridge



This viral is aimed at men aged between 18-35. It depicts the female characters being ecstatic with the walk-in wardrobe. However simultaneously the men in the other room are also acting in exactly the same way to the walk-in fridge, which has an unlimited supply of beer.

What I think is very successful about this particular marketing campaign is how it takes an original concept and then flips it on its head. It leads the viewer to think one way then pulls out the rug beneath their feet.

Dove Evolution Ad



This viral is aimed at females aged between 16+. This video shows how a very average looking woman is photographed, and with the introduction of digital effects, and lighting tricks she is made to look stunning. This viral is very popular due to the fact that it has the shock factor.

Women are always trying to buy the latest in skin and hair beauty products in order to achieve “perfection” and by perfection, I mean the flawless models seen in magazines, films billboards etc. This clip demonstrates that the models portrayed are never as perfect as they seem.

Gorilla Ad for Cadbury Dairy Milk



has the slogan “a glass and a half production” with the Cadburys logo. The gorilla, nor the music of Phil Collins have anything to do with the concept of Cadburys, however it gives people something to talk about.

This advert plays on the different side of creating a viral video. The concept could be completely different-or in direct contrast with whatever I wanted to promote, simply to get people spreading it around and talking about it.

I have found this research into viral video very interesting. The techniques that have been used by the various companies have broad and raging from funny, to the shock factor to the simply strange. I will continue to further my research not simply looking into viral videos but other forms of art and media that will give me inspiration.

Sources used within this post

(1)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing

eBay adverts-marketing campaign

eBay has had a wide range of adverts promoting its brand. Below is a small selection of adverts that have been created by this company



Target audience: males aged between 15-35

This advert plays on the word “box” it’s taken the humorous perspective with the use of the play on word. While the character is looking for their selected product a wide range of similar “named” products is displayed- thus displaying eBay’s extensive range.



Target audience: females aged 20+

This advert is quite interesting, it plays on the idea of a woman, who doesn’t realize how valuable, or how much of a demand there is for her products she deems useless. This sends a message to other women who hadn’t even though about selling their “worthless” products on eBay.



Target audience: males aged 20+

This advert is aimed at the male audience. Once again it plays on the concept that products that were once thought to be worthless are actually quite valuable to the right buyer- even the ladder!

Overall the adverts are very interesting. What I have noticed however is that the overall style is very simplistic, and funny. This is the perception that eBay wants to move away from. It wants to retain its whole fun loving attitude- whilst gaining some new attributes such as; smart, friendly, inspiring, trustworthy, and fun.

The next stage of the design process is to look at other successful viral marketing campaigns and see how I cam emulate the success, and see if there is a formula for a successful viral marketing video.

Origins and early history of eBay

eBay is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide.


Origins and early history of eBay

The online auction website was founded as "AuctionWeb in San Jose, California, on September 3, 1995, by French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as part of a larger personal site. In 1997, the company received approximately $5 million in funding from the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital. (1)

The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." eBay went public on September 21, 1998, and both Omidyar and Skoll became instant billionaires. The company purchased PayPal on October 14, 2002. (2)

Competitors of eBay

Amazon.com
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com, Inc. in 1994, it was launched in 1995. Located in Seattle, Washington, Amazon was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet. They quickly shifted into other consumer products and expanded outside of the US. (3)

Google
Google Product Search helps shoppers find and buy products across the web. It works best employing sellers currently established ecommerce sites and then utilizing Google Product Search as a information organizer and checkout tool. Currently this is not an Ebay killer as it displays Ebay results in their search results, however they may choose to further their vertical depth in the future. (4)


Yahoo
You can use Yahoo! Shopping Web Services to search a database of millions of products and thousands of merchants. Yahoo! Shopping operates in a similar way to Google Product Search in that it utilizes a horizontal search structure across pre-established ecommerce websites. (5)

It’s been informative looking at the other sites that are in direct competition with eBay, each of the different sites all have their own individual strengths and weaknesses. Competitors such as Google and Yahoo are not necessarily direct competition to eBay due to the fact they simply list the items relevant to the search- however competitors sites will be listed in their searches.

The next stage is to look at the eBay marketing campaigns and to see how they have marketed themselves previously.

Sources used within this Blog

(1), (2) www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebay
(3), (4), (5) http://www.lightecho.com/index.php/internet-technology/top-10-auction-sites-possible-ebay-killers

D&AD eBay viral ad campaign

I have been set a new project, which is D&AD. This is a global competition created for students to give them an experience of working to an industry set brief of their choice.

Initially I had a wide range of categories to choose from, however some of them were not suitable. Categories such as architecture, or interior design simply wouldn’t be working to my strengths.

After much deliberation, I decided to work on the eBay viral marketing campaign. This brief would be looking into an unexplored area of creating media purely for online distribution.

Final Evualation

I have come to the end of this project. I have found this particular project very challenging. One of the main reasons for this was due to the broad nature of this brief. This meant that there were a lot of room for scope. One of the main things that I did was to brainstorm my ideas, and begin to flesh out how I could tie down a concept to this brief. This was done through researching various theorists, and seeing what concepts appealed to me. Looking at the various pieces of research I found the area of immersive interactivity particularly interesting. One of the main reasons for this is due to the fact that the whole concept of immersive, bordering on the concept of virtual reality was very appealing to me.

I decided to add an infotainment feel to my concept. My initial idea was to have an interactive multi-touch user wall whereby the users could simply come straight up to the wall and begin interacting with a multitude of objects. The original concept was based on a jungle theme, looking across the animal kingdom. But had an opportunity for a much wider application.
I decided to continue the development of ideas, which led me down a different path-to a new space concept. I decided to take this concept and tie it in with the cinema. The next stage was to research the technology that would allow for his concept to be created. The first thing that I looked at was the arduino chip. The technology of the arduino chip allows the user to really interact with the screen without the need for any additional equipment by pressing their feet on the pressure pads underneath the seats. Users moving from side to side will also impact on the screen, using motion sensor technology.

I decided to create a visualisation of the spaceship interface in flash to show exactly how and when the user can interact with the interface.
During the class critique, the main feedback was to introduce a human element so that people could see how users could interact with the animation. Along with this the ideas of creating a real life visualisation was also raised. This was so that people could see how this could be implemented in a cinema.

Overall I am satisfied with the progress that I have made with this project. I have really pushed myself, without going too far. I also feel that I have created a successful final outcome and pleased with all that I had achieved.