Congratulations to the winners of the Miles Regis “Dig Yourself” contest. Stand Up… Dig Yourself and Be Dug!!!
Susie Cortez
Jane Savarise
Christian Davis
Jeremy Corbell
Shane Howard
Chivette Burton
Eric Andrade
Juliette Joseph
Jose A Chavez
Zachary Kaplan
Winners will receive a first edition, custom designed device skin signed by Miles Regis. Skins are an incredible way to personalize iPhones, Laptops, iPads, Blackberry and tons of other mobile devices. To see the entire collection, click on the link below.
Thank you again to everyone who supported!
http://www.zagg.com/personalize/zaggskins/artist.php?artist_id=37
Incredible Ted Talk presents the notion that certain laws stifle creativity… yet somehow simultaneously breed. Very well said… Great take on where digital media has taken us.
by Chris Denson
Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!… Ok, maybe it’s not that urgent, but there’s been this phenomenon lately where I’ve found myself in a lot of similar conversations about a particular topic. Whether it’s from clients, potential clients, colleagues, and even myself, we sometimes get too caught up with idea of “labeling” things. In one instance I recently had semi-lengthy debate (4-6 email threads deep) about Social TV vs. Social Media vs. Social Commerce vs. Social Entertainment. Prior to that, there was another one about Transmedia vs. Multi-platform vs. Multi-media. Or how about Branded Entertainment? Does it insinuate video only, or is it anything we’re entertained by on behalf of a brand? And in an even more literal labeling issue, a Genius Effect client organization was recently denied a name change by the State. We scrambled to figure out another new name, only to find two days later that the State changed it’s mind and the first was ok.
Here’s the deal. With technology and entertainment evolving so fast, we don’t know what to call anything any more. Buzz words and hot topics come and go quicker than Charlie Sheen at a whore house. Plus there are so many tools in the tool box, and many of them overlap in functionality and capability. Don’t get me wrong, knowing specifically what these tools are used for is extremely important. And you should know industry jargon as well in order to have any decent conversation and presentation, but this idea of rigid labeling has got to go. The problem is that in the good old days, brands knew a very specific formula as to how they wanted to reach an audience. A few print ads, a couple commercials, a contest, maybe some experiential events, a strategic partner or two, and depending on how far you go back, even a world wide web site! And that worked like a charm. But now audiences are far more sophisticated. They don’t like being sold to. They are consuming more content, and more messages on more devices than ever, and for marketers, this state of change has become the norm – and we have to be flexible enough to roll with these ever growing trends.
Change is the norm.
When you get too caught up in what to call certain things, you run the risk of losing sight of the bigger picture. Not only that, you can become so ingrained in labeling that you lose creativity. Sometimes, with creativity, you have no idea what to call this incredible thing you just came up with! So a couple weeks ago, I replaced all my compartmentalized, industry function specific slang terms with one word: “Experience.” As brands, content creators and marketers, we are in the business of creating experiences. We want to give our audience the best experience with our product no matter how they encounter it.
Experience doesn’t necessarily divert to any particular compartment. When you go on vacation, you might go sailing, you might go dancing, snorkeling, a booze cruise, and go see how the real people in that particular region live. The vacation is the experience… with many events taking place within it. Your brand IS the experience, and the ways you connect an audience to your product or content is all part of it. So yes, the tools and labels are important, but the creative ways to get them all working in concert is far more valuable. And in today’s marketplace, you need to be able to use ALL of the tools. Social media can create social commerce. Transmedia utilizes multi-platform tool sets. Experiential events can lead to digital interaction and vice versa. The key is finding the right use of each of these areas to organically build an incredible brand experience for your audience. Be open to possibility.
