Weblog Consulting Register Login Subscribe to Free Influx Emails Join our Facebook Group Branding Street Cred Technology Lifestyle Style Entertainment Interviews Art InfluxTV Map Widgets RSS — All Subjects RSS — More Feeds

Search

Advanced Search

Contact Privacy Policy

Matt Jones, one of the founders of the hip, travel-based social network, Dopplr, spoke at last night's IXDA event in San Francisco.

His presentation was a sort of biography meets sources of inspiration ramble, but it was good.

Jones, worked for three years (2003-2006) in Nokia's design research team spent a lot of time talking and learning about play, a core project he'd been involved in for a couple of years.

Nokia started by searching for universal human experiences something that required no research, just a book, Human Universals by Donald Brown that lists all the commonalities that exist in the human world. Matt and his team discovered there was a lot of global commonality in play which suited Nokia because at the time, it was searching for its own space in gaming.

While Jones and his gang came up with a lot of trend-right directions/themes (social networking, hacking, just-in-time situationalists, reclaim the streets,mundane is the new fun, etc) it appears the only thing that Nokia had on its mind was the doomed N-Gage.

This play project seems to have informed Matt's philosophy for design, he used the idea/quote of Play= Improvisation + Exploring, to make the link back to the design world.

He suggests that most people don't take play seriously, but play is the best way people learn and is all around us. It's the thing that can make experiences sticky and compelling, if you know how to use it right.

He had some nice examples;

The Prius dashboard "makes MPG, the new high score"

Dopplr's brand identity that is personalized for each user and changes as their behavior changes

Playfulness in copy on Dopplr- "July, no trips, we envy you."

As a distraction, Jones talked about his sideline projects for Welsh clothing company, Howies; a computer meets printer meets conveyor belt thingy that spits out Flickr images tagged with Howies. (Russell Davies is a co-conspirator on this).

Another project revolves around creating a map chest for the Howies London store complete with bugs, mid wind speed monitors and web cam feeds from Welsh surfing breaks. His inspiration was to stop the Howies people from becoming homesick for their roots when they were in Central London.

He ended with an interesting thought about the current vogue for the Big Idea, which he doesn't really believe in, instead he feels it's much more about the details and nuances, which are hard to get right and hard to copy.


Posted by Ed Cotton A few weeks back Esther Dyson wrote an op-ed piece in the WSJ about the future of  advertising. She uses the example of Dopplr (the travel based social network) as a way of imagining a new brand relationship.

"Each user determines who will get into his own garden, whether friends or vendors. Look at Dopplr (where I plan to become an investor), a site for travelers. I list my trips, and see how they intersect with my friends' itineraries. "Oh, we'll both be in London April 4? Let's get together!" Or, "Juan and Alice will be in town next Tuesday. Let's hold a dinner!" You can imagine or visit equivalent approaches for books (a hypothetical Amazon 2.0, new and more personalized), clothes (Glam.com and Stardoll.com), and even money management.

So what's the business model? I'll "friend" British Airways, which will say, "We see you're going to Moscow next month. Why not fly through London and we'll give you 10,000 extra miles?" I'm no longer in a bucket of frequent travelers, my privacy protected. I'm an individual with specific travel plans, which I intentionally make visible to preferred vendors. British Airways, of course, will pay Dopplr a handsome sponsorship fee to be eligible to be my "friend" (just as a Nike rep might pay to sponsor a basketball game and be part of the community). Someday NetJets may show up, offering to ferry me and my friends to a conference we'll be attending together."

It's interesting when you look at the changed dynamic here.

The user is in complete control, they are only inviting the friends they want, to be inside their walled garden and the brand friends have to behave in a very specific way.

Note: This is not Facebook with unsolicited ads coming at you from all sides.

This new world requires a lot from brands.

1. Are they trustworthy and good enough to be considered "friends" in the first place?

Do they have a powerful enough brand reputation?

Are they interesting enough?

2. Once they become a friend-Are they a smart friend or a dumb friend?- do they just spam offers without intelligence or do they know user behavior and needs in rich enough detail, so offers can be tailored?

This requires using data correctly and perhaps the means and ability to create billions of tailored offers (ads?) in real time.

3. Are they prepared to be flexible?- change their voice to be more personal, sound friendly and on the consumers side, perhaps even negotiate to win over a customer

Overall, Esther's scenario represents a radically changed relationship one that could be truly one to one and one where brand respect has to be continuously earned and maintained.

Posted by Ed Cotton Dopplr, the social networky travel site has done something very clever, they've associated themselves with some of the smartest, most creative companies around by launching the Dopplr 100.

While you may not have heard of Dopplr, you've certainly heard of many of the companies on the 100- including the likes of McKinsey, Muji, Red Bull and many others, including ad agencies, the names of which I can't possibly mention.

Individuals working at any of the Dopplr 100 with a valid email address get the invitation to join.

It's branding by creative class association, it's the company you keep.

We are certainly upset that BSSP didn't make the list of 100 and I am sure hundreds of other folks feel the same way and that's exactly what Dopplr wants.

It's a nice way to get your company out there and to build a network where people can be certain that "people like them" will be a part of it. There's an in-built social incentive to join up.


Posted by Ed Cotton