The team at Contagious Magazine spends its days finding, filtering and reviewing the most innovative exercises in branding, technology, and popular culture, and delivering our collective wisdom to our beloved subscribers.
Once a year, we round up the highlights, tell you what's important and why, and push it out to the world, for free.
Welcome to Most Contagious, the only retrospective you'll ever need. Available on a beautiful website here: http://www.mostcontagious.com
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2. most contagious / p.02
/ mosT ConTagious 2011 / subsCripTion oFFer / 20% disCounT
FuTure-prooFing your brain vaLid unTiL 9Th January 2012
offering a saving of £200 gBP
chapters / Contagious exists to find and filter the most innovative
01 / exercises in branding, technology, and popular culture, and
movemenTs deliver this collective wisdom to our beloved subscribers.
02 / Once a year, we round up the highlights, identify what’s important
proJeCTs
and why, and push it out to the world, for free.
03 /
serviCe Welcome to Most Contagious 2011, the only retrospective
you’ll ever need.
04 /
soCiaL It’s been an extraordinary year; economies in turmoil, empires
05 / torn down, dizzying technological progress, the evolution of
idenTiTy brands into venture capitalists, the evolution of a generation of
06 /
young people into entrepreneurs…
TeChnoLogy
It’s also been a bumper year for the Contagious crew. Our
07 / Insider consultancy division is now bringing insight and inspiration
daTa to clients from Kraft to Nike, and Google to BBC Worldwide. We
08 / were thrilled with the success of our first Now / Next / Why event
augmenTed in London in December, and are bringing the show to New York
09 / on February 22nd. Grab your ticket here.
money
We’ve added more people to our offices in London and New
10 / York, launched an office in India, and in 2012 have our sights
haCk CuLTure
firmly set on Brazil. Latin America, we’re on our way. Get ready!
11 /
musiC 2.0
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our friends,
supporters and especially our valued subscribers, all over the
12 /
world. We look forward to another great year together.
video
13 /
The more information there is out there, the more the filters are
reTaiL important – and we like to think Contagious is the best filter in the Contagious / Full of Tomorrow /
ad business. Future-proof your brain with the Most Contagious. Magazine / Online / FEED / Special Reports / Consultancy / Events /
14 /
gaming Think about it. Talk about it. Share it with everyone you know. Special Offer to readers of the Most Contagious 2011 report –
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15 /
pubLishing Visit http://shop.contagiousmagazine.com/subscriptions.php to subscribe now /
The Contagious Team www.contagiousmagazine.com / E: sales@contagiousmagazine.com /
16 /
design
supported by
3. most contagious / movements / p.03
01 / mosT ConTagious /
movemenTs / The new worLd order
chapters / What a year. It’s difficult to grasp what caused UK, a group of disenfranchised young people The internet did not create the Arab Spring, or
01 / such momentous change around the world took to the streets to burn and steal, for reasons the riots in London, or even Occupy Wall Street.
movemenTs this year, but it’s certainly been contagious... still not entirely clear. (The operative failure of However, there’s no doubting it has forever
02 / government, education, policing, the family and changed the ways in which we make ourselves
One by one, most power structures came
proJeCTs society as a whole can be a difficult thing to pin heard. Initially, the web provided a discussion
under pressure from the torrent of information,
down.) platform for like-minded souls to connect. Then,
03 / collaboration and distribution afforded by the
serviCe it was a communication tool, as protestors
web. First came the music industry, where frantic As governments, police forces and armies
around the world took to Twitter (and in the
04 / attempts to ringfence a product widely available faced their own citizens, other smaller reminders
soCiaL case of the UK riots, BlackBerry Messenger) to
for free led to the establishment of newer models of the new world order have come to light. The
rally and organise. We then turned to the web to
05 / and younger players amid talk of its own demise. fact that a man as powerful as Rupert Murdoch
rationalise events happening in the real world,
idenTiTy Then, the news media, which was forced to can be held accountable and forced to answer
faster and more thoroughly than before. The
06 / share the limelight with digital-only players, to his own board, as well as a government
Guardian’s timelines of the Arab Spring and live
TeChnoLogy some of whom are now more influential than inquisition, for the phone-hacking scandal taking
coverage of the phone hacking scandal set new
07 /
the stalwarts they were created to usurp. Then place at one of his myriad publications sends a
standards for the reporting of intricate and fast-
daTa Hollywood. Then the TV networks. Then the high very clear message: nobody is untouchable.
moving issues.
street. Then. Then. Then.
08 /
photo / haydn / www.flickr.com/photos/wheelzwheeler/6255028088
augmenTed
2011 will be remembered as the year this gradual
09 / disintegration shifted away from entertainment
money and consumerism towards something altogether
10 / more profound.
haCk CuLTure
The motivations for this shift are extremely
11 / complex. Throughout the ongoing Arab Spring,
musiC 2.0
in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and the other Middle
12 / Eastern nations in which uprisings occurred,
video
years of oppression forced political and
13 / ideological change, sparked, in part, by the
reTaiL democratisation of technology.
14 / Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street and the other
gaming
happenings it spawned have been criticised for
15 / being unfocused, but, over time the discourse of
pubLishing
wealth distribution, the 99% versus the 1%, has
16 / become the dominant organising ideology. In the
design
Supported by
4. most contagious / movements / p.04
Many web pundits were the first to lay out From a brand perspective, the implications of all They don’t actually embody any of those things.
in simple terms why, exactly, the Wall Street this are obvious. When everything is changing, They just emulate. It’s scary man, this simulation
Protesters were so very angry. Others followed, be consistent. When everyone is confused, be life that we’re living. It scares me.’
essentially creating a coherent narrative on behalf transparent. And when the world seems bleak,
Pitchfork’s analysis of the Tumblr phenomenon
chapters / of those too busy trying to garner consensus to be good.
is recommended reading. The argument against
do it for themselves.
01 /
Tumblr / is that Tumblr could wreak as much intellectual
movemenTs
damage as it provides dumb entertainment.
In September, blogging/reblogging/image-
02 /
proJeCTs sharing platform Tumblr announced that it had Democratisation – be it of technology,
reached its 10 billionth post, up from one billion information or pictures of cats on trampolines –
03 /
serviCe
one year previously. That’s ten times as much apparently always comes at a price.
content in the space of one year, created on
04 / In the meantime, be distracted by the rise
28.5 million blogs and averaging 36 million posts
soCiaL of single-usage Tumblrs – blogs created to
per day. In the same month, Tumblr also closed
aggregate images around one theme only. From
05 / an $85m round of venture capital, valuing this
idenTiTy ‘Accidental Chinese Hipsters’ to ‘Shit that Siri
moodboard machine at close to $1bn.
Says’, we’ve aggregated as many as possible
06 /
TeChnoLogy The appeal of Tumblr is obvious. Essentially a over here. Enjoy: http://singleusage.tumblr.com
curated channel of bits and pieces that you find
07 / (For next year’s niche-gone-mainstream
As the global pendulum swings towards the around the web – images, other Tumblr posts,
daTa technology, look no further than image-sharing
rising BRIC countries, Western nations, faced music, video – it’s an easy way to project the kind
08 / network Instagram’s iPhone app; it has been
photo / guney Cuceloglu / www.flickr.com/photos/guneyc/6208557363
with the decline of their own industrial heft, of person you are, or the kind of person you’d like
augmenTed downloaded 14 million times, and an average of
are focusing their efforts on the burgeoning to be, with very little effort. Never one to ignore a
50 photos per second were uploaded over the
09 /
Innovation Economy. All of this is happening popular platform, Barack Obama has launched
money recent Thanksgiving holiday in the US. Not bad
while a generation comes of age having taken his own crowd-sourced Tumblr to grab images
for a company with a staff of six. Anxious Android
10 / its moral code not from the individual laws that and sentiment from the 2012 campaign trail.
haCk CuLTure users can expect their own version next year.)
govern the country in which they live, but from But there’s always a flipside to popularity. To
11 / a more collective and instinctive mindset that get an idea of why it’s so popular, you could
musiC 2.0
prevails online. This is a generation that grew do worse than read confessional hip-hop artist
12 / up with the internet, has two decades worth of Drake’s comments, posted on his own blog in
video conviction that global warming is real and entered November this year: ‘I’m really scared for my
13 / the job market in the middle of a global financial generation, you know. The thing that scares me
reTaiL collapse. Faced with undeniable evidence that most is Tumblr. I hate what Tumblr has become…
14 / the people in charge – politicians, bankers, Instead of kids going out and making their own
gaming educators – have failed to adapt, millennials are moments, they’re just taking these images
15 /
harking back to concepts of pride, community, and living vicariously through other people’s
pubLishing honour, labour and decency instead of the flabby moments. It just kills me. Then you’ll meet them
consumerism that ate their boomer parents. and they’re just the biggest turkey in the world.
16 /
design
Supported by
5. most contagious / projects / p.05
02 / mosT ConTagious /
proJeCTs noT Campaigns /
born To Live, noT buiLT To die
chapters / Our Projects not Campaigns category recognises a new strain
01 / of marketing in which the brand, agency and consumer work
movemenTs together to reach a tangible, meaningful goal. As a decade
02 / of digital interaction gives way to socially, collaboratively
proJeCTs organised initiatives, brands and marketers have been less
03 /
inclined to accept the traditional campaign as their default
serviCe strategy in the battle for consumers’ hearts and minds.
04 / It’s a sign of the times. Having evolved to suit the tightly defined
soCiaL
media options of yore, a campaign is the end product of the
05 / creative process, fine-tuned and finished before it goes out of the
idenTiTy door; concept, realised. Media, bought. Backs turned. A project,
06 / on the other hand, is the beginning of something, not the end. To
TeChnoLogy borrow the title of a presentation delivered by David Lee, digital
07 /
executive creative director at TBWAWorldwide, at the Future
daTa Flash conference in Canada in May, projects are about ‘creating
things that are born to live, not built to die’.
08 /
augmenTed
A project needs to be nurtured and encouraged. It relies
09 / on engagement, feedback and input. It is collaborative and
money communal, and requires constant monitoring. It is undoubtedly
10 / more challenging, but potentially much more rewarding. And,
haCk CuLTure crucially, it plays to the strengths of the new media landscape in
11 /
which the flow of information is two-way, not top down, and can
musiC 2.0 be experienced, echoed and amplified in real time.
12 / The appeal of creating a project is clear: not only can it
video
encourage deeper engagement and forge social connections, but
pepsi / sound oF FooTbaLL
13 / it also gives brands the chance to nail their colours to a particular
reTaiL mast and show what they stand for by effecting change in the real
14 / world. Advertising has woken up to pop culture’s favourite cliché:
gaming it really is about the journey.
15 /
pubLishing
16 /
design
supported by
6. most contagious / projects / p.06
Patagonia / Common Threads Initiative on the selling-on of second-hand goods, a into a surround-sound landscape. The result is
As a brand, Patagonia has always favoured process which happily involves no additional a kind of sonic image that helps participants
a long term approach, and this year partnered manufacturing. In fact, eBay’s Green Shopping identify and locate other players, the goal, the
with eBay on an extraordinary mission to reduce portal touts the universal truth that the greenest sidelines and ball.
chapters /
excess consumption, creating a resale website product is the one that already exists.
The technology advances the current blind
01 / where people can buy pre-owned Patagonia However, it’s a riskier step for Patagonia, which football game, whereby players wear bells to
movemenTs outdoor clothing and kit. The Common Threads doesn’t directly profit from the eBay sales, but alert each other to where they are, and use a
02 / Initiative asks would-be buyers and sellers to benefits instead from the less tangible value specially weighted ball. The mix of innovation,
proJeCTs take a pledge that fundamentally redefines the of practising what it preaches; the website imagination and human interest is also earned-
03 / role of the consumer and also clearly delineates demonstrates the brand’s own dedication to media catnip: Discovery Channel is creating a
serviCe the responsibilities that Patagonia embraces reducing, repairing, reusing, and recycling, by, 30-minute documentary charting the project.
04 /
as a manufacturer. It states: ‘Patagonia agrees for example, donating unsold goods to disaster
to build useful things that last, to repair what Akestam Holst and Society46 are determined
soCiaL victims or encouraging customers to return worn
breaks and recycle what comes to the end of to extend the magic of the technology to other
goods to Patagonia stores to be recycled into
05 /
its useful life.’ Consumers undertake ‘to buy only sports and situations, and Pepsi is encouraging
idenTiTy new fabrics. This bold strategy reached a peak
what I need (and will last), repair what breaks, the public to pitch in their own ideas for further
on the shopping armageddon of Black Friday
06 /
reuse (share) what I no longer need and recycle ‘Sound of’ projects. See Contagious 29
TeChnoLogy when the brand ran a full page ad in The New
everything else.’ www.thesoundoffootball.com
York Times saying simply, ‘Do not buy this jacket’.
07 /
daTa See Contagious 29
www.patagonia.com/us/common-threads
08 /
augmenTed
Pepsi / Sound of Football
09 /
money
2011 saw Pepsi’s Refresh Project rolled out
in other regions, with this iteration from Sweden
10 / leaving Contagious staffers slack-jawed with
haCk CuLTure
admiration and wondering where the hell were
11 / Nike and adidas when this idea came up?
musiC 2.0
Ad agency Akestam Holst, Stockholm,
12 /
video creative technology experts Society46 and The
Swedish Association of Visually Impaired
13 / From almost any other brand this idea would Youth collaborated on a system that allows blind
reTaiL
seem optimistic at best and, at worst, offensively football players the ability to ‘see’ with sound.
14 / sanctimonious. But Patagonia’s track record The system relies on TRACAB 3D tracking
gaming as a champion of sustainability throughout its technology, originally used in fighter planes, to
15 / business enables the brand to stake a claim on capture data on players’ positions, how far they
pubLishing the moral high ground. It’s a perfect PR match-up have run, etc, but Society46 has pushed the
16 / for eBay since the auction site was predicated technology further, translating the information
design
Supported by
7. most contagious / projects / p.07
Chipotle / Back to the Start Norte / Best Excuse Ever to boost the counter. More than 50,000 minutes
US restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill In Argentina this year, lager brand Norte (34 days) worth of good deeds were accrued
collaborated with legendary country music discovered that nothing says ‘Corporate and the campaign gained sufficient coverage in
crooner Willie Nelson, creating a heart-rending Social Responsibility’ like an icy cold bottle of print, radio and TV to mitigate any unease about
chapters /
animated film to promote its commitment to beer. Having no doubt thoroughly researched its ‘do it for the community’ approach to drinking
01 / sustainable farming. the market, Norte discovered that wives and beer. Contagious 27
movemenTs girlfriends were constantly overriding the www.cervezanorte.com.ar
02 / carefully laid social plans of their menfolk (i.e.
proJeCTs going to the bar) with worthy alternatives. Nike / MAG
03 /
The feelgood campaign of 2011 has to be
serviCe Nike’s limited edition release of the futuristic
trainers worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to the
04 /
soCiaL Future Part II. The power-lacing, self-illuminating
Nike MAG shoes were specially designed by the
05 /
idenTiTy
brand for the 1989 film, in which Marty McFly
visits the year 2015.
06 / Back to the Start tells the story of a farmer who
TeChnoLogy transforms his family farm into an industrial animal
07 / factory, but then has a change of heart and reverts
daTa to sustainable farming practices. The soundtrack
08 /
to the film is a cover of Coldplay’s The Scientist,
augmenTed performed by Nelson and available on iTunes for
$0.99 with proceeds going towards the Chipotle In retaliation, the brand hit back with a booze-
09 /
money Cultivate Foundation, which funds sustainable fuelled CSR campaign that offered men ‘The
agriculture, family farming, and culinary education. Best Excuse Ever’. Every time a man drank a
10 /
Norte beer at a bar, he could drop the bottle
haCk CuLTure Chipotle’s preference for sustainably grown
cap into a counter box. For each bottle cap, the
11 / ingredients and food ‘naturally raised with
brand promised that one minute of good deeds
musiC 2.0 respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers
– repairing schools, improving parks, restoring For the 2011 iteration, only 1,500 pairs of
who produce the food’ echoes Patagonia’s
12 / monuments, planting trees and cleaning lakes – shoes were made, sold in batches of 150 pairs
video considered approach, but stops short of
would be carried out by a team of Norte workers. per day on eBay. Prices ranged from $3,500 to
suggesting that customers pledge allegiance
13 / $10,000 ensuring that a substantial sum was
to the cause. On a related theme, Chipotle also To put the campaign firmly in the public eye,
reTaiL raised for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for
commissioned Abandoned, a short film about Norte, through Del Campo Nazca Saatchi
14 / Parkinson’s Research, set up by the actor when
the hardships faced by family farmers trying & Saatchi, Buenos Aires, ran a series of wry
gaming he was diagnosed with the disease.
to compete with industrialised agriculture. It commercials and installed counters on streets,
15 /
features another Willie Nelson track, this time tracking the total on its website and Facebook, YouTube clips featuring Fox, Saturday Night
pubLishing
covered by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. and posting details of its good works. Facebook Live star Bill Hader and Christopher Lloyd, who
16 / See Contagious 29 www.chipotle.com users could also click an ‘I’m going out’ button played Doc Emmett Brown in the original movie,
design
Supported by
8. most contagious / projects / p.08
hyped up the auction and drove fan donations Dulux / Own a Colour Ones to Watch /
to The Fox Foundation. A perfect storm of brand Paint brand Dulux partnered with UNICEF on We’re expecting to see this trend for Projects
loyalty, fan culture and fundraising, the MAG Own a Colour, a charitable project which lets not Campaigns continue throughout 2012,
project, through Wieden+Kennedy, Portland visitors to the website buy one of the 16.7 million particularly as the final quarter of 2011 spawned
chapters / and produced by @radicalmedia, Los Angeles, colours that smartphones, tablets and computer two stand-out examples. In October, JWT Madrid
01 / served as an acknowledgment and celebration screens are able to display. escorted seven residents from the land-locked
movemenTs of the shoe’s enduring cult status, matched Chinese village of Bulin to the sea for the first
only by the affection still felt for Michael J. Fox Each colour costs £1, and buyers are able
02 / time on behalf of Mexican beer brand Corona,
and his role in a pop culture phenomenon. to tag it with a name (e.g. ‘Tanya’s Teal’), then
proJeCTs its Experience the Extraordinary philosophy
See Contagious 29 supply some text explaining why they chose it.
and inherent love of the beach. And in the final
03 / The website is a retina-blasting motherlode of
serviCe www.back4thefuture.com nikemag.ebay.com countdown to Christmas, Coke Philippines, via
polychromatic options that allows visitors to
McCann Worldgroup, fixed it for three OFWs
04 /
OMO / Super Nice Training Center view trending colours and see popular shades
soCiaL (Overseas Filipino Workers who work abroad to
by gender or country. At the time of writing, the
Sao Paulo-based interactive agency F.biz support their families back home) to make it back
05 / campaign – which was kick-started with celebrity
idenTiTy
Brazil applied a project-based approach to help for the holidays. Continuing Coke’s global series
contributions from Roger Moore, Jemima Khan,
launch the Unilever brand OMO Líquido Super of campaigns that ask ‘where will happiness
06 / Matt Dawson and Duncan Bannatyne – had
Concentrado (super concentrated liquid) in strike next?’, the Filipino version and English
TeChnoLogy raised over £88,000 for UNICEF.
Brazil, showing that projects, not campaigns can subtitled versions together have broken 1 million
07 / work wonders for FMCG brands. Although deeply reminiscent of the infamous views on YouTube in five days. Three cheers for
daTa
Million Dollar Homepage, this celebration of colour the real thing.
The target audience was Brazil’s large
08 / is perfectly on brand for Dulux. Contagious 29
augmenTed community of maids, a group accounting for
19% of the country’s working women. F.biz set www.ownacolour.com
09 /
money
up the Super Nice Training Center, a blog
and website offering a series of free lessons
10 / about housekeeping and home economics. The
haCk CuLTure
tutorials could be watched online or downloaded.
11 / As well as learning key cleaning skills, tips were
musiC 2.0
offered on how to write résumés and check
12 / housekeeping job vacancies. The guides also
video
cited the importance of using sustainable cleaning
13 / products and awarded a study certificate to those
reTaiL who completed the course.
14 / This campaign not only offered training for
gaming
a sector not exactly renowned for career
duLux /
15 / development, but also showed consistent
pubLishing
respect for the people who use Unilever’s
16 / products on a daily basis. www.omo.com.br Corona /
design
Supported by
9. most contagious / marketing / p.09
03 / mosT ConTagious /
markeTing as serviCe design /
meeTing The unmeT need
chapters / With brands more adept at tapping into the rich wells of
01 / data which consumers now leave in their wakes, many are
movemenTs becoming increasingly able to spot the gaps, or unmet needs,
02 / in people’s lives. Addressing these was previously trusted to
proJeCTs token utilities such as mobile apps; however, a recent study
ConTagious / issue 26 / sneakerpedia: so good we puT iT on our FronT Cover in q1/11
03 /
by Deloitte found that a 80% of branded apps have been
serviCe downloaded less than 1,000 times. Today, consumers expect
something wholly more relevant, enabling and ultimately
04 /
soCiaL less self-serving. This is where marketing becomes genuine
service design.
05 /
idenTiTy
Foot Locker / Sneakerpedia
06 /
TeChnoLogy Based on the simple insight that footwear retailer Foot Locker’s
core demographic – sneakerheads – have ‘enthusiasm beyond
07 /
daTa
reason’ for their collections, SapientNitro, London, built a crowd-
sourced holy grail of a platform in the shape of Sneakerpedia.
08 /
augmenTed The Wiki-esque website enables users to create a profile and
then upload pictures of all the cool kicks in their collection –
09 /
money complete with a brief history and info on the make, model, material
etc. This tagging helps the site to then archive each model
10 /
haCk CuLTure correctly, creating a vast and infinitely navigable database of every
significant sneaker ever bought and cherished.
11 /
musiC 2.0 Creating a platform from scratch, rather than piggybacking an
12 /
existing social network or fan portal, was a bold move on the
video part of Foot Locker. Even braver, however, is the distinct lack of
overt branding on the site, which adds to the sense that this is
13 /
reTaiL somewhere enthusiasts can come to share their passion, not be
marketed to. However, by stepping out of the frame and putting
14 /
gaming users at ease, Foot Locker is able to draw rich social data about
what makes/models are popular etc. It has even been encouraging
15 /
new floor staff in stores to join up and immerse themselves in the
pubLishing
culture as part of their training.
16 /
design
supported by
10. most contagious / marketing / p.10
Proof that the platform has struck a chord with scanned with smartphones, transformed the devices
sneakerheads around the world is evident in initial into venues for the Hidden Live gigs. What’s more,
results: In beta format alone, Sneakerpedia reached audiences could interact with the bands in real time,
more than 6.7 million fans online and delivered more and even buy the albums directly from their phones.
chapters / than $1 million worth of free media exposure. See
More than 10,000 attended the online festival each
Contagious 26 www.sneakerpedia.com
01 / night and, better still, Zoo Records sold out 80% of
movemenTs
Flair / Fashiontag the albums for the performing bands. Leo Burnett,
02 / Hong Kong was responsible. See Contagious 27
proJeCTs Working on the insight that women take fashion
inspiration from their friends’ wardrobes, Belgian www.zoo-records.com
03 /
fashion weekly Flair launched a Facebook application
serviCe Orange / Glastonbury 2011 App
that lets users request information on specific outfits
04 / Telco provider Orange continued its impressive track FLair /
in uploaded photos.
soCiaL record of muddy field-based branded utility, with a
05 /
Flair Fashiontag, created by Duval Guillaume, mobile app developed by M&C Saatchi Sport &
idenTiTy Brussels, lets users tag an item of clothing or Entertainment London for the Glastonbury Festival.
accessory that they’d like to know more about and
06 /
post it to their friend’s wall. All Fashiontags and All the handy functions from previous incarnations
TeChnoLogy
responses are then displayed in a gallery on the Flair were present, such as performance schedules,
07 /
page and the best tags are published in the weekly planners, and maps. New additions included a series
daTa
print magazine. of ‘smiley’ symbols through which users could specify
08 / – and geo-tag – their mood. This data was used to
augmenTed Fashiontag is a perfect example of how creating build a collective mood map, plotting the buzziest (or
successful Facebook apps is all about spotting and indeed most cold, wet and skint) areas of the site.
09 /
money then augmenting existing behaviours. After launching A news feed also pinged regular write-ups directly
on 22 March the application increased the number from the Guardian, as well as any must-know festival
10 / Zoo reCords /
haCk CuLTure of Flair fans on Facebook in one week by 35%, from updates from organisers.
17,000 to 23,000. See Contagious 27
11 / The improvements resulted in the app being
musiC 2.0 www.flair.be
downloaded 100,000 downloads in a single month,
12 / Zoo Records / Hidden Live amounting to 70% of the festival audience – a 75%
video increase on previous years. See Contagious 28
In March, Hong Kong-based indie music store Zoo
13 / Records staged a music festival – Hidden Live – http://glastonbury.orange.co.uk
reTaiL
featuring eight bands across four nights. What made
14 / it unique, however, is that the performances were only
gaming
accessible via mobile.
15 /
pubLishing Two hours prior to the event, free tickets were made orange /
available in-store and for download on Facebook. A
16 /
design
hidden code was printed on each ticket, which when
Supported by
11. most contagious / social / p.11
04 / mosT ConTagious /
soCiaL and beyond / aLways on(Line)
chapters / It’s the tail end of 2011, and 96 out of the to recognise the airline’s heritage. And in KLM’s activity, in conjunction with Tribal
01 / top 100 advertisers in the US are spending September, it promoted its social media policy DDB Amsterdam, forms part of a new school
movemenTs money on social media, with the rest of the of answering every tweet and post in person, of marketing and branding that sees the
02 / world not far behind. However, the profound within the hour, day and night, by assembling brand committed to exploiting existing social
proJeCTs changes wrought by social media on the ways a ‘living alphabet’ of employees who answered platforms to improve the user experience.
03 /
in which we interact go much, much deeper online queries using letter boards. For 12 hours Contagious 28 and 29
serviCe than advertising. Facebook in particular is the airline replaced normal Facebook and
www.tileyourself.com
becoming the black hole of the web, absorbing Twitter typed responses with a team of 500 https://twitter.com/kLm
04 /
soCiaL ecommerce, content distribution, CRM and KLM volunteer crew members who answered by www.youtube.com/kLm
marketing budgets into its gravity field. This running around and assembling the answer live http://bit.ly/kLmLive
05 /
idenTiTy year saw social mechanisms incorporated before your eyes, inside 60 minutes. The Live
into everything from supply chains to Reply videos were hosted on YouTube.
06 /
TeChnoLogy
customer service to product design. As data
mining becomes increasingly sophisticated,
07 / we can expect social channels to register
daTa
highly on everyone’s radar, from the CMO to
08 / the teenager at the checkout.
augmenTed
In this section, we salute the brands committing
09 /
money most fully to Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a future
that is ‘social by design’.
10 /
haCk CuLTure
KLM / All Social, All the Time
11 / You’d be hard pushed to find a brand, or company,
musiC 2.0
that has committed more wholeheartedly to the
12 / integration of social media than Dutch airline
video KLM. In January, KLM laid on a special direct
13 / flight to a dance festival in Miami at the Twitter
reTaiL behest of an aspiring raver, on the understanding
14 / that he help fill the plane with 351 dance music
gaming professionals. He did, and KLM fulfilled its part
15 /
of the bargain. In June, it covered a plane with
pubLishing its fans’ Facebook profile pics, transformed into
traditional Dutch blue ‘tiles’ for Tile & Inspire,
16 /
design
Supported by
12. most contagious / social / p.12
Domino’s / Pizza and The Art of War Burberry / Tweetwalk
Since 2009’s Pizza Turnaround campaign, Burberry is fast becoming the Terminator of luxury
Domino’s, America’s largest pizza delivery chain, has branding. It just doesn’t stop. As competitors struggle
been aggressively pursuing a policy of transparency to execute the most basic of digital functions –
chapters /
with regard to its product and service. In July this ecommerce, for example – this British powerhouse
01 / year, the pizza chain took this further by broadcasting has demonstrated an uncanny ability to embrace new
movemenTs comments from customers – regardless of whether platforms and democratise the brand without selling
02 / they were positive or negative – to thousands of out any of its aspirational exclusivity. At London
proJeCTs onlookers via a digital billboard in New York’s Times Fashion Week in September, Burberry tweeted
03 / Square. This was to promote Domino’s tracker backstage Twitpics of every look before they were
serviCe system for quality maintenance where customers can sent down the runway, allowing its Twitter followers
04 /
follow their pizzas online, giving feedback throughout to see the Spring/Summer 2012 collection before the
soCiaL the process. The campaign was masterminded by fashion bigshots on the front row. Take THAT, Wintour.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder.
05 / During the Tweetwalk, Burberry’s Instagram
idenTiTy CMO Russell Weiner claimed earlier this year that account was taken over by photographer Mike
06 / Domino’s strategy was inspired by a story in Sun Tzu’s Kus, the most-followed Instagram user in the UK,
TeChnoLogy The Art of War, in which he advises that the best way to and Burberry streamed the show – complete with
07 / win a war fought on an island is to blow up the bridge celebrity arrivals – live in HD through Burberry.com
daTa yourself. That way, your army will fight for their lives, and Facebook. As if that weren’t enough, Burberry
08 /
as they have no option of retreat. This combination once again offered a ‘Runway to Retail’ service, with
augmenTed of bravery and insanity is working. The company the collection available to purchase for one week after
announced that same-store sales growth increased the show. Viewers can also download the catwalk
09 /
money 10.4% between 2009 and 2010, and rose a further soundtrack through the iTunes on-demand service.
2.3% in the first quarter of 2011. Contagious 28.
10 / What makes this Contagious? Simplicity.
haCk CuLTure www.dominos.com Christopher Bailey, the brand’s creative director,
11 / said: ‘We are now as much a media-content company
musiC 2.0 as we are a design company, because it’s all part of
12 /
the overall experience.’ He’s right. None of the social
video technologies Burberry has employed are complicated,
but the benefit of feeding this content to growing
13 /
reTaiL legions of fans is immense. See Contagious 29
14 /
www.burberry.com
gaming
15 /
pubLishing
16 / burberry /
design
Supported by
13. most contagious / social / p.13
Kraft / Mac&Tweets Essentially an online notice board to which you
Kraft gets an honourable mention for embracing can pin pictures and items of interest, Pinterest
Twitter more than most. As well as taking a leaf has quickly racked up an estimated 3.3 million
out of the Old Spice playbook, incorporating unique users and secured $27m in funding
chapters /
comments from its Twitter followers into ads earlier this year. Ideal for moms, DIY enthusiasts,
01 / that were subsequently broadcast on TV, Kraft’s events organisers and anybody looking to create,
movemenTs Mac & Cheese brand also invited internet share or aggregate pictures around a certain
02 / sensation Ted Williams – a homeless man with theme, brands like Whole Foods are already on
proJeCTs an extraordinary voice for radio – to be the voice board to share recipe suggestions.
03 / of its advertising. This was done through Crispin http://pinterest.com
serviCe Porter + Bogusky in Miami. See Contagious 26
04 / www.youtube.com/kraftmacncheese
soCiaL
Ones to Watch /
05 /
idenTiTy The ‘wishlist’ is a fundamental part of the
ecommerce experience – where you keep track
06 /
TeChnoLogy of stuff you like, but perhaps can’t afford to buy
yet. The UK-based startup, Fantasy Shopper,
07 /
daTa
aims to recreate the emotional experience of real
world shopping online. After collecting virtual
08 /
paydays to get hold of some pretend cash,
augmenTed
players can put together outfits and shop for high
09 / street brands to create a virtual wishlist. Looks
money
are shared with the community, or users can click
10 / through to buy clothes from the stores in real life.
haCk CuLTure
Currently available in the UK, the service has
11 / items from 300 real shops, including New Look,
musiC 2.0 Topshop, UNIQLO, Reiss and Harrods. Users
12 / create outfits from a wardrobe of purchased
video items, and follow other users to comment on
13 / purchases and creations. Additional cash can be
reTaiL earned in a variety of ways, including introducing
14 /
others to the platform. Fantasy Shopper launched
gaming in October 2011, and could prove an interesting
indicator of the social future of ecommerce.
15 /
pubLishing See Contagious 29
www.fantasyshopper.com kraFT /
16 /
design
Supported by
14. most contagious / identity / p.14
05 / mosT ConTagious /
idenTiTy onLine / This one has my FaCe on iT
chapters / As we spend an increasing amount of our
01 / waking days online, it is becoming harder
movemenTs to distinguish between what we would
02 / previously have referred to as our ‘digital’
proJeCTs and ‘physical’ lives. The reality, of course,
03 /
is that the lines between the two are now
serviCe constantly shifting and blurring. Emphasising
the fact that we no longer exist online in a
04 /
soCiaL separate, anonymous capacity, brands have
been exploring the notion of the digital self
05 /
idenTiTy
– holding mirrors to consumers and helping
them visualise, celebrate or simply make
06 /
sense of their own identity.
TeChnoLogy
07 / Intel / Museum of Me
daTa arms delicately pluck pictures of your friends of all time via his production company, Tool of
Semiconductor powerhouse Intel took an
from the air, arranging them into a mosaic which North America.
08 / ambitious step towards changing its image from
eventually forms your own profile photo.
augmenTed that of a technology company into one of a lifestyle Take This Lollipop shows the dangers of
09 / brand, via the interactive website Museum of Proof that personalised experiences often result sharing your identity online by using Facebook
money Me. Built by Tokyo-based Projector (of Cannes in increased levels of engagement, more than Connect to scrape information before revealing
Titanium Grand Prix-winning UNIQLOCK fame), 440,000 people created their own museums a creepy man poring over your profile page. You
10 /
haCk CuLTure this site uses Facebook Connect to draw in the three days following launch. More than then see the man calculate your actual location
personal content from each user’s page, before 150,000 users took advantage of the built-in by verifying server addresses etc, before driving
11 /
musiC 2.0 presenting it to them in a virtual tour of their own one-click sharing mechanisms, by publishing their to your house with your Facebook profile picture
personalised museum. exhibition catalogues directly to Facebook. In total, taped to his dashboard. The film ends with
12 /
more than 21 million impressions were recorded a timer set for an hour and lists which of your
video The resulting video pans elegantly through a
on the social network. See Contagious 28 Facebook friends ‘is next’.
13 / minimalist interior, in which onlookers peruse
www.intel.com/museumofme/r At time of writing, the app had been liked
reTaiL a series of exhibitions including your photos,
friends, Liked content and geo-located check-ins. Take This Lollipop / Jason Zada over 11 million times on Facebook. Not bad
14 /
gaming A digital billboard even filters, in real time, through for something which took just one month to
Director Jason Zada – the man behind Office
everything written on your wall before finally produce… See Contagious 29 and the front
15 / Max’s Elf Yourself website – proved that he hasn’t
pubLishing displaying the most common word. The tour cover of this report.
lost his touch for creating insanely viral content,
ends in a cavernous space where two robotic www.takethislollipop.com
16 / by unleashing the fastest-growing Facebook app
design
Supported by
15. most contagious / identity / p.15
Pedigree / Doggelganger Coke Zero / My Life As A Game
In an attempt to raise awareness of dog food brand Coke Zero created a particularly compelling and
Pedigree’s Adoption Drive for shelter dogs, Colenso interactive expression of one person’s everyday life,
BBDO, Auckland and Auckland-based production by translating it into a playable advergame.
chapters /
company NEC created the gleefully compelling
Digital agency Gringo, São Paulo, first launched a
01 / Doggelganger website, which plays to the endearing
movemenTs
search via popular blog Jovem Nerd (‘young nerd’),
observation that people often look like their pets.
before finally selecting entrant Lucas Dias as the basis
02 /
for the character. His mission? To have more time for
proJeCTs
his life outside work, and in particular his girlfriend.
03 /
serviCe The final video-game was called Minha vida de
game (‘My life at stake’) and was created by São Coke Zero /
04 /
soCiaL Paulo-based Hive Digital Media. Dias was filmed and
photographed before the images were projected on
05 /
idenTiTy
a 3D scanner and then rendered to build the game.
See Contagious 26
06 /
TeChnoLogy http://bit.ly/game_cokezero
07 / Lynx / Stream
daTa
Unilever-owned male grooming brand Lynx took a
08 / break from the female-fleshed theme of its regular
augmenTed
advertising, with a rather nifty mobile app that lets
Visitors are asked to either upload a picture of their
09 / users plot, document and share a night out. The Lynx
money face, or capture one directly via web cam. Facial
Stream requires a group of friends to create an event
mapping technology then measures the precise
10 / via the app, which then aggregates all photos, videos,
position, shape and size of key features, before
haCk CuLTure tweets and check-ins from that night into one single,
cross-referencing the information with a database of
11 / chronological thread.
genuine shelter dogs. It will then unite them with their
musiC 2.0
own, personal ‘Doggelganger’. By logging on to the Lynx Stream site the next
12 / morning (coffee and aspirin in hand), the group can
video There is the option to make contact regarding a
then watch and share their own video stream – even
genuine adoption request; however, recognising that
13 / deleting any particularly private or compromising
reTaiL the majority of users will feel an affinity with their pooch
‘occurances’. Razorfish, New York was responsible.
but not realistically be in a position to acquire a new
14 / See Contagious 27 Lynx /
gaming
pet, there is also the option to make a donation. Of
www.thelynxstream.com
course, Doggelgangers can also be shared directly
15 /
via Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. See Contagious 27
pubLishing
www.doggelganger.co.nz
16 /
design
Supported by
16. most contagious / technology / p.16
06 / mosT ConTagious /
TeChnoLogy / hiding The wires
chapters / The technology section in last year’s Most pre-installed on the iPhone 4S in October. Siri actually
01 / Contagious was, in our own words, packed with originated outside of Apple, having been spun out of
movemenTs ‘digital complexity’ to ‘boggle your mind’. So it’s developers SRI International back in 2007 as Siri
02 / telling that this year, some of the most remarkable Inc. The company launched a voice activated personal
proJeCTs pieces of tasty tech are rather the opposite… assistant app of the same name on the App Store in
February 2010 and was acquired by Apple just a few
03 / For a while our consultancy division, Contagious
serviCe months later.
Insider, has been tracking examples of ‘experience
04 / over innovation’ – where technology is used to reduce Siri can complete a wide array of tasks through
soCiaL
friction in people’s lives. Apple’s voice activated Siri voice activated commands. In addition to sending
05 / and Jawbone’s movement monitoring wristband UP, text messages and emails, it can, for example, book
idenTiTy for example, place advanced technology in people’s restaurants and find locally recommended services.
06 / hands but with a user experience that ‘makes the Over time, it even learns your preferences and tailors
TeChnoLogy wires disappear’: it’s simple, effective and focused on its responses accordingly.
benefitting the customer first and foremost.
07 / It courted controversy recently, however, when it
daTa
With Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt was found to be able to locate local brothels, but not
08 / bemoaning the level of computer science being nearby abortion clinics – an app with a pro-life agenda
augmenTed
taught in UK schools, it’s been fascinating to see proving difficult for many users to swallow.
09 / the emergence of hardware and software kits, such http://bit.ly/oJynhc
money as Raspberry Pi and Twine, which are designed to
10 / provide anyone with an interest in computers with Twine /
haCk CuLTure the building blocks required to make coding and We’ve long been fans of all things Arduino, the
11 /
programming more accessible. popular open-source microcontroller. However, a
musiC 2.0
We included 3D printers in Most Contagious 2010, recent project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter
12 / but the technology has continued to amaze this year, aims to get more people tinkering with electronics and
video
most recently with the 3D printing of bones through hardware at home. Twine is a small wireless module
Washington State University and the generation of a and online service that help people to connect their
13 /
reTaiL functioning kidney during one extraordinary TED talk. household objects to the internet.
14 / Mary Shelley should have something to say about that. Sensors within the Twine module detect, amongst
gaming
Apple / Siri other things, changes in temperature and movement.
15 / These can be programmed through Spool, a web app
One saving grace for Apple fans when the rumoured
pubLishing which communicates messages via SMS, email and
iPhone 5 wasn’t released earlier this year was the
social network. So, if you want to be warned if a door
16 / success of voice activated service Siri, which came
design
Supported by
17. most contagious / technology / p.17
is opened in your home while you’re at work, you is going to be available in the UK through the
can programme Twine to inform you via Twitter. Raspberry Pi website, and the charity reports that
Or if your basement is prone to flooding, you can a range of people are interested; from education,
programme Twine to send you a text message if to technology companies and individual software
chapters / it detects moisture on the floor. developers. www.raspberrypi.org
01 / Developed by MIT grads David Carr and Ones to Watch /
movemenTs
John Kestner of Cambridge, MA-based
New York-based developers Kyle McDonald
02 / Supermechanical, the project has been
proJeCTs and Arturo Castro demonstrated their real-time
pledged over $220,000, easily exceeding the
face substitution app, using face tracking and
03 / original goal of $35,000. http://kck.st/uuhljt
serviCe
cloning. Their software swaps faces, allowing
Raspberry Pi / anyone to masquerade as Brad Pitt or Barack
04 /
Obama (at least while their webcam’s switched Twine /
soCiaL When he visited the UK earlier this year, Google
on). Contagious 29
05 /
bigwig Eric Schmidt pointed out that too many
idenTiTy schools continue to teach pupils how to use In Issue 28 we covered Japanese confectionery
software, rather than the building blocks to brand Ezaki Glico which used an advert to
06 /
TeChnoLogy create it. introduce a new member of pop band AKB
48, Aimi Eguchi, with the help of Dentsu
07 / The Raspberry Pi Foundation, based in
Kansai, Osaka. Actually a computer-generated
daTa Cambridge, is a UK registered charity that aims
composite of existing members’ facial features,
08 / to address that issue, by creating low cost
the new member sparked a flurry of excitement,
augmenTed computers specifically for teaching computer
with Eguchi even appearing in Japan’s Weekly
programming to children.
09 / Playboy.
money
‘We perceived that in the UK, the reduction in
But fans began to get suspicious when Eguchi
10 / access to programmable hardware to children
went straight from trainee to starring in the
haCk CuLTure was leading to a reduction of the number and raspberry pi /
commercial for the confectionery company’s Ice
11 / quality of applicants to University and in turn
no Mi candy. Some particularly observant fans
musiC 2.0 number of graduates for the industry,’ says Eben
even noticed that her birthday, 11 February, is
12 / Upton, one of the foundation’s trustees.
the date that Ezaki Glico was founded.
video
PCs and other machines make learning
‘Their hunch proved right and they solved the
13 / coding tricky, as they’re focused purely on end
reTaiL mystery quite rapidly,’ said creative director
user experience. Raspberry Pi’s development
Toshitaka Nakao. After a few days, Ezaki Glico
14 / philosophy has been to place education and
released a ‘making of’ video revealing that Eguchi
gaming coding skills front and centre.
was a sophisticated hoax, created entirely by CGI.
15 / Its first computer is set to launch imminently, at
pubLishing http://vimeo.com/29279198
a cost of just £25 and has been developed with http://vimeo.com/29348533 eZaki gLiCo /
16 / open source principles. The initial run of 10,000
design
Supported by
18. most contagious / data / p.18
07 / mosT ConTagious /
daTa /
The Fine arT oF meaning-making
chapters / As the assembly line otherwise known as ‘progress’ pushes
01 / us forward through the information age, and past the
movemenTs connected era, humans are creating sophisticated tools to
02 / sort the deluge of information we generate. We have now
proJeCTs entered the age of the algorithm.
03 / These logical sequences are increasingly responsible for
serviCe
shaping our world beyond the computer. The biggest companies
04 / are built on them. They control what you see on Facebook, and
soCiaL
how and when billions of dollars of shares are traded on markets.
05 / Brands are using them to evolve their marketing. For an excellent
idenTiTy discussion on the importance of algorithms, check out Kevin
06 / Slavin’s TED Global talk here.
TeChnoLogy
Clive Humby, founder of shopper marketing firm dunnhumby,
07 / is widely credited with the 2006 observation that ‘Data is the new
daTa
oil’ – exceptionally valuable when refined. However, there’s still an
08 / immense amount of room for us to build and tweak the structures
augmenTed
governing how data is distributed, which represents a new frontier
09 / in marketing: how will we take command of the natural resource
money of the information age?
10 / The Privacy Crunch
haCk CuLTure
As marketers’ relationships with data evolves, now more than
11 /
musiC 2.0
ever brands need a firm understanding of how they’re protecting
customer privacy.
12 /
video It’s no longer enough just to design programs to fuel massive
amounts of data harvesting. The creeping liability inherent in these
13 /
reTaiL efforts comes as consumers get smarter about their own data and
its privacy, and will hold your business more accountable in its
14 /
gaming gathering and storage.
bLueFin Labs /
15 / BlackBerry and Research In Motion have been pilloried for
pubLishing releasing data; Twitter lauded for retaining it. Google was in
16 /
the spotlight when The Wall Street Journal announced the US
design
supported by
19. most contagious / data / p.19
government had a secret court order to turn over the But it’s only recently that a series of technological
files of Wikileaks supporter Jacob Appelbaum. and cultural forces have come together to see an
explosion of such activity – the radical transparency
But what’s lost in the idea of data as oil is that
and sharing ethos of social media, the growing
data, in many cases, is personal. The oil is made of
chapters / concern among people about health and wellbeing,
tiny bits of our lives. The data is the colour of your
and the prevalence of sophisticated devices packed
01 / first car, the grade you got in college chemistry, or
movemenTs with sensors, recording and monitoring devices such
the flirtatious comment you left on a facebook photo.
as GPS, cameras, microphones and accelerometers
02 / As the Facebook Timeline is a mainline to our past,
proJeCTs – cheap convenient and ubiquitous enough to make
personal data is loose bits of unrefined nostalgia.
this widespread. This is most recognisable in the form
03 /
serviCe
Your company already has a privacy policy of the smartphone, our most intimate, and frequently
somewhere. Is it time for a revision? Should you put used piece of technology.
04 /
it into plain English and prove you understand your
soCiaL Total shipments of smartphones in 2010 were
responsibility? Should you post it on the front door?
05 / 302.6 million units, up 74.4% from 2009, according
idenTiTy Take Ritz-Carlton as an example. It’s taken big to IDC, with smartphones making up 21.8% of all
steps in the hotel and hospitality sector using the data handsets shipped. 89% of smartphone users confess
06 /
TeChnoLogy it collects on its customers to build loyalty and great to using their mobile throughout the day, according
customer service. But were that data to be applied to Google/IPSOS’ Mobile Movement Study (April
07 /
daTa
without relevance, or made OVER-relevant, it pushes 2011) – meaning that it has never been easier for
past the ever-changing ‘creepy’ boundary. people to gather their own data.
08 /
augmenTed Competent monitoring of data will soon be an Brands have entered this arena by creating
essential ingredient in the recipe for success. A Sybase products, services and software to cater to the
09 /
money commissioned survey from the University of Texas trend; GE, for example, launched four iPhone apps
at Austin, called ‘Measuring the Business Impacts that monitor sleep, weight, pregnancy and mood in
10 /
haCk CuLTure of Effective Data,’ found that a mere 10% increase in conjunction with online community MedHelp. As
data usability for Fortune 1000 companies resulted community members use these tools to track their
11 /
musiC 2.0
in a $2.01 billion increase in revenue across the 150 own development, MedHelp collects this data in real
companies surveyed; a 49% increase in productivity time and aggregates it to produce real-time results on
12 / in the retail industry, 20% in food products, 19% in
video
symptoms and general norms. With over 11 million
automotive. monthly visitors and growing, the content available is
13 /
constantly evolving. Meanwhile, apps like TicTrac are
reTaiL Life tracking /
emerging. TicTrac promises a personal dashboard and
FaCebook TimeLine /
14 / Self-quantification is not new. People have been meta-analytic service that can discern more complex
gaming meticulously measuring many aspects of their lives by patterns in users’ lives.
15 / painting pictures and recording where they are, when
pubLishing and what they’re eating, and how they’re feeling, for
16 /
centuries – the basic diary being a common example.
design
Supported by
20. most contagious / data / p.20
Ford / Sync measure them against their competitors, creating
Ford has unveiled an ambitious string of a more nuanced picture from which to direct
partnerships with medical monitoring and creative and strategy.
technology companies in order to create ‘the http://bluefinlabs.com
chapters /
car that cares’. Extensions to its existing in-car
01 / Sync technology, which to date has focused on Netflix / House of Cards
movemenTs entertainment and communication, will enable US entertainment streaming company Netflix
02 / diabetes sufferers and those with other chronic recently outbid traditional cable channels HBO
proJeCTs conditions to monitor themselves from behind and AMC to secure the rights to House of Cards
03 / the wheel. By plugging the same wireless blood – a series which hasn’t yet begun production.
serviCe sugar monitors used in the home into a Sync The series, a remake of the 1990 BBC political
04 /
interface, the car would be able to notify the thriller, is slated to be directed by David Fincher
soCiaL driver when glucose levels rise or fall, with voice and star Kevin Spacey, and was bought by Netflix
recognition software removing the need for any for a reported $100m. It’s the first time Netflix
05 /
idenTiTy manual interaction. has invested in original programming. Originally
06 /
http://ford.com/technology a subscription-based distributor of film and TV
TeChnoLogy content, the company has expanded to become
Bluefin Labs /
an on-demand streaming content provider under
07 /
daTa
MIT Media Lab startup Bluefin is matching the Netflix Instant banner. Content is streamed
social media chatter to TV to help brands, online and to games consoles such as Xbox 360,
08 / TiCTraC /
networks and production companies work out Nintendo Wii, or PS3, and devices such as Blu-
augmenTed
what content viewers are most engaged with. ray players and internet connected HDTVs.
09 /
money Founded by professors Deb Roy and Michael The company mined vast amounts of subscriber
Fleischman in 2008, Bluefin works by scanning viewing data to determine whether its audience
10 /
haCk CuLTure over three billion social media mentions a would find the combination of political drama,
month, and matching visual signatures from an director and stars a compelling one. The same
11 /
musiC 2.0
archive of over 200,000 TV broadcasts from data which allowed Netflix to decide which series
over 50 national broadcast and cable stations. to invest in, will also help the company to promote
12 /
The two are then married together, to provide House of Cards to subscribers appropriately
video
retrospective data about what viewers were using the service’s existing recommendation
13 / saying about a show in real-time. system. http://bit.ly/blog_netflix
reTaiL
This, the company says, will help brands to get
14 /
gaming a deeper and more accurate understanding of Ford /
HOW viewers are watching, rather than simply
15 /
pubLishing
measuring eyeballs. The service will allow brands
to check how ads work in different time slots and
16 /
across different channels and shows, as well as
design
Supported by
21. most contagious / augmented / p.21
08 / mosT ConTagious /
augmenTed ConTenT / adding vaLue, noT disTraCTion
chapters / Emerging technologies and non-traditional Giving viewers something to do with these itchy There is even a complete set of badges to
01 / media platforms may not be directly stealing fingers, Star Player is a free to download mobile collect by answering certain tricky questions,
movemenTs eyeballs from TV as many predicted they gaming application (also available online and on along with mini trophies such as ‘Free Kick hero’,
02 / would – Thinkbox research reveals that TV Facebook) that allows football fans to interact ‘Goal Master’ and ‘Corner King’. Facebook
proJeCTs viewing figures in the UK have risen every in real time with Champions League games. By Connect allows users to show these off directly
03 /
year since 2006. However, what they are doing syncing automatically with the televised game, via their profile walls – in doing so attracting
serviCe is fundamentally changing how audiences the app challenges users to predict goals, bet more potential Star Players to the platform.
behave. People now expect content on on the outcome of set plays and even take See Contagious 27
04 /
soCiaL demand. They want to be able to share their part in mini pop quizzes – amassing points in www.facebook.com/heineken
experiences. And increasingly, they want competition with friends and fellow Star Players.
05 /
idenTiTy access to added layers of interactivity that
take advantage of the smartphone, tablet
06 /
TeChnoLogy
or laptop resting on the arm of the sofa. For
brands, new opportunities exist not in creating
07 / content from scratch, but in spotting existing
daTa
consumption behaviours and augmenting
08 / them with added value. Put simply, this is
augmenTed
about content being better for having the
09 / brand involved.
money
Heineken / Star Player
10 /
haCk CuLTure With Heineken looking to make its headline
11 /
sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League
musiC 2.0 work a little harder, agency AKQA did some
research into exactly how we watch football on
12 /
video TV. Two key findings were unearthed; one, from
UEFA, confirmed that the vast majority (72%)
13 /
reTaiL of viewers watch the UEFA Champions League
alone at home; and a second piece of third-party
14 /
gaming
research confirmed that most of these viewers
(80%) are dual-screening – using laptops or
15 / phones to access social networks or other
pubLishing
platforms to share their experience of watching
16 / the game.
design
Supported by