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An amazing example of a brand using data to create an experience. In this case it's Lufthansa in its brand academy in Frankfurt.



Posted by Ed Cotton I have written in the past about the new world of data visualization and the fact it has almost become a new art form. I am going to change my tune here a little and suggest that is going to become an essential tool for anyone working in the agency, strategy, media space.

Our clients are demanding more and more interesting looks at data from us, so we better have a nice way to communicate all this stuff. Aside from the creative department, not many of us have the visual skills to make this work, so we are going to rely on existing tools to make this happen.

One example is Modest Maps which requires a little bit of technical expertise, but can be used to great effect. Take a look at this which shows the spread of Wal-Mart over time.

Going back to the seductiveness of data visualization, at it's best it can become great content as this BBC series, Britain from Above shows. If you get it right it can fascinate, delight us and help us to better understand our world or our business.






Posted by Ed Cotton Many of us have been struggling to find the ultimate example of brand utility, something that goes beyond the cliche that Nike Plus has become, but now I think I have found it.

Created by an enterprising design company in the UK, Wattson and Holmes (the Brits are good with naming puns) are an elegant solution to measuring your home's energy consumption.

Wattson is the sensor unit and Holmes is the software that allows you to see snazzy graphs and data.



Utility companies have some of the worst brand reputations in the world, they get no respect because people feel they are being gouged, a tool like this could help repair their broken reputations and image.

The beauty of the device is that it makes people personally accountable for their consumption and gives them data in an easy to use and understandable format.

We need more tools like this to show people how their individual actions can make a difference.

All Wattson and Holmes now need to do is to hook themselves up to a networked community so the cumulative impact of users energy savings can be measured.


Posted by Ed Cotton It's Chipchase day here at Influx Insights, so here's another post with a great slide from his deck.

Mobile is a huge business and I am not sure we quite realize how big.

One billion + phones are sold a year!!

Worryingly, 400,000 phones a day are retired in the US.

One surely has to question the sustainability of a fashion driven business.

Bring on the modular eco phone...


Posted by Ed Cotton The visualization of data is fast becoming the next art form.

This is a nice example that comes from JK Keller



Here's how he creates the visuals.

"This is a program I wrote that reads a source text and looks for words that are used repeatedly. The more the word is used, the larger its cube gets. Red cubes are words that are not unique, blue cubes are. The size of the rings is determined by the size of the paragraphs."

Found by This is That

Posted by Ed Cotton Valve, the makers of the game Half-Life , are sharing all kinds of stats on their web page.

One of the most interesting are the "death maps" which show the locations, on certain game maps, where most players get shot (as heat).



It's just one example of how rich and detailed information can be streamed and used to create a better undertstanding, based on real behaviors.

Via Super Collosal

Posted by Ed Cotton