The new trend for many brands is to hire iconic cultural figureheads as creative directors, hoping that they can sprinkle their magic zeitgeist dust on the brand. Brands realize he power of celebrity endorsement, but the creative director role is a very different one; instead of just being a shill...
Nick Carr has a great response to the buzz and attention surrounding Amazon’s new e-reader launches and points out a fact about the changed reading experience they want to bring about. “The video is something of a Rorschach test. A person of the web may see X-Ray as a glorious advance....
HTC is trying hard to find the right route forward in the complex and challenging world of mobile phones. This is an industry that has the power to make or kill brands in what seems like a flash; just look at Apple, Nokia and Motorola as examples. HTC is been one of the lucky ones- it has managed...
I’ve been a long-term admirer of GOOD- it’s one that has some people confused who want to put it into a nice little box. That’s GOOD’s beauty, it’s more than a magazine on a media schedule- it’s something bigger and stronger than that. I just got an email from...
America is at an interesting time in its history; for a country that’s historically been so focused on the bright, gleaming new future, it’s seems uncertain about exactly what the future holds. In the absence of a clearly defined future and with the various component parts of the...
Ben Hammersley of Wired UK talking at the LIFT conference about how the internet has changed as is changing and transforming the concept of hierarchies. He explains how we are ruled and governed by meaningless structures and rule sets and why for global and business leaders, the shift away...
Some good insight provided by Hugh Pickens on Slashdot of how Facebook ships code. It gives us a bit of a window into how Facebook's hacker culture works.1. All engineers learn the system at boot camp- 4/6 weeks of fixing bugs2. Engineers get access to the live database3. New feature ideas can be...
This month's Inc Magazine has an interesting story about Zappos and Amazon that makes it very clear why Amazon acquired them. Here are some of the key points:1. Always imagined Zappos as selling more than shoes- used Virgin as a model, but instead of being all about being "hip and cool",...
"We now live in an age in which the imagination of the novelist lies helpless before what he knows he will read in tomorrow morning's newspaper"Philip Roth-1961This close to 50 year old quote is used by Gordon Burn in his amazing article on media saturation published by The Guardian.Posted by Ed...
Homogeneity and it's close relative, consistency are cited as critical components of brand success. Many analysts tell us that brands have to deliver consistent experiences if they want succeed and that homogeneity is what consumers want and desire.It's therefore interesting to read about the...
Brands tend to play around the fringes of experience, while a trendy word in the early 90s it usually translated into a poorly executed trade show booth or something similar.The Pop-Up Store has been the most recent manifestation, the problem is that these ideas follow the rules of old school 1.0...
Some interesting research from the University of Chicago on cultural differences. Asia thinks about "we" and America thinks about "I"."Keysar believes the Chinese students had an easier time
understanding the director’s perspective because they come from a more
collectivist society than their...
Dr. Alex Bentley is a lecturer at Durham University’s Department of Anthropology. Alex’s recent research has explored what drives change in children’s names and in the Top 100 music charts. His research shows that people “randomly copying” one another is one the key...
There are all kinds of rumors flying that Google is suffering a brain drain. Some of the brightest and best are leaving the Googleplex because of the stifling bureaucracy that’s emerged at the company in recent months. Bureaucracy runs counter to the very DNA of Google that's thrived on...
“There is evidence that the 25-29 year olds have grown up quicker than previous generations as a result of 9/11, terrorist threats and two wars. As a result they have adopted so-called ‘mature products,’ such as premium scotch whiskey, earlier than usual. Additionally, 25-29 year...
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