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Interesting to see The Atlantic write such a flattering article about The Economist and the current state of the newsweekly business. The discussion revolves around the recent changes and re-designs at Time and Newsweek, who are both hoping to drag their publications to new found success in an otherwise dying print market.
The Economist is the one shining ray of light that everyone now wants to emulate, but The Atlantic does not believe this is possible because The Economist possess one thing these other titles lack.

"The secret to The Economist’s success is not its brilliance, or its hauteur, or its typeface. The writing in Time and Newsweek may be every bit as smart, as assured, as the writing in The Economist. But neither one feels like the only magazine you need to read. You may like the new Time and Newsweek. But you must—or at least, brilliant marketing has convinced you that you must—subscribe to The Economist. "

In the end, it's all about the brand.


Posted by Ed Cotton Yesterday's Influx Curated was a complete over-stimulus fest.

If you ask for short-bursts of information, this is the result.

It's great chaos, but now is the time to try and make sense of it all and ask some serious questions about what it might mean.

Here are 10 themes that came across loud and clear to me and some of the people who raised them.

1. Stand for something

If you are fighting for an idea or trying to build a new business, have a point of view and stick to it.

(Eileen of Ritual, Adrienne of Woolyworks)

2. Get Out of Your Shell

Everyone has the power within themselves to do something great and to think creatively and imaginatively, it's just that most of us don't. We need to find ways to come out of our shells.

(Gary of OYF, Mark of Eat Big Fish, Joshua Brody, William and his masks)

3. Hope is Everywhere, You Just Have to Look

Listen, look and learn and you will find hope and inspiration

(Jody's story of Rwanda)

4. The Crowd Has Power

Power to create, power to dictate and the power to change

(Kanyi of Virgance, Paul of Mozilla, Neil of Nest)

5. The Crowd Needs Motivation

There has to be a leader and that has something to spark the imagination of the crowd

(Paul at Mozilla, Jeben at YouTube)

6. Story is King

Look hard for them, create them, tell them, share them

(Marieke of Peclers, Adrienne of Woolyworks, Alex Frankel, Tucker Nichols, Eileen of Ritual, Iain of Apple, Alan of Apple, Chris of Apple, Tom of Bassett and Partners )

7. Be an Optimist

Happy people make ideas good

(Mark of Eat Big Fish)

8. Be a Pessimist

Amazing things can come from dark places

(Chris of Apple)

9. The World Needs Ideas

There are huge problems everywhere and we have the potential to solve many of them from the ground up

(Emily of Project H, Alexis of Wired, Heather of Catapult, Joshua of REGIONAL)

10. More Corporations/Creatives Should Be Good

What's the problem with doing good, does it cost too much?

(Emily of Project H, Heather of Catapult, Casey of GOOD)

Posted by Ed Cotton Here are a few of the things we learned and experienced at Influx Curated, which was held yesterday.

More material to follow very soon.

The vision of GOOD, the connective power of YouTube, 250 people singing in harmony, mobs for good, the meaning of good, the power of yes, the power of no, California’s need for design solutions, designing for Sudan and getting it wrong, finding ideas from nothing, saying no to CSI for mammoths, creativity from masks, provoking conversation with postcards, crowds making things, crowds promoting things, supermoms, a new manifest destiny for energy change, the need to connect with MCs, trends as stories, objects and craftsmanship, the culture of a small coffee company, tasty tuna tails, dark motivation, hope from genocide, escaping artistic block and the fetish objects of a dominatrix...



Picture by Dominique Pacheco of William Hall's mask session

A huge thanks to all of our speakers and to who attended. We had a great time.

Also, a big thanks to Flamingo who hosted our after-party.

Posted by Ed Cotton Robert Bound writing in April's Monocle has a great piece about the problem with predictive software and music services; instead of introducing us to surprising artists and bands, we get something we could easily predict.

Apple's Genius is according to Noble an "over-used and under earned title".

Deeper into his piece he hints at the real beauty of newspapers, surprise.

"The shift to reading newspapers online isn't just sad for vanishing printworks and the demise of the most unbeatably usable and portable of media materials-paper-but it means reading in an accident free way. Without the need to fold and turn, a readers' key interests of business news, match reports and film reviews can be navigated seamlessly, but without stumbling upon the story of the British pub-sign painter or the intriguing report from the martial arts academy in Sichuan."

While it's not something that can save the newspaper industry, but an overlooked insight that makes them unique.



Posted by Ed Cotton According to Nielsen's latest Three Screens report, 31% of internet activity occurs when consumers are watching television.

It seems there's a huge opportunity to exploit the two mediums more effectively. While putting a URL on the closing frame of a spot has been common place, there a very few examples where the two media have been tied closely together. If you add  the astounding growth rates of online TV viewing with the growth of new services like Hulu, there have to be a whole range of new creative opportunities to make a connection.

At the recent AAAA's Media Conference in New Orleans, the Hulu executives suggested advertisers strive for greater interactivity in their online applications, almost encouraging the audience to play and multi-task with engaging banners, while they are viewing programming.

We can expect to see TV spots that take advantage of this behavior and a lot more creativity being poured into the creative that surrounds online TV viewing.


Posted by Ed Cotton Sony just signed a deal with AMC to bring its digital projectors into movie theaters.

One of the reasons AMC gave for the deal was the ability of the technology to show live events.

While many of us love the experience of seeing a movie in the theater together with a crowd, there hasn't been the opportunity to translate that experience into other events.

Think of the movie theater as a sports and concert arena.

A place to get a ticket for a sold out game or concert and an opportunity for franchises, teams and promoters to extend their revenue base.

It will be interesting to see how far this can develop and what business cinemas might be able to take from the TV networks and bars.




Posted by Ed Cotton