Influx Insights Weblog

painting our history

Influx Insights — 2010-02-08T17:04:44Z

Belgian artist Luc Tuymans has been the talk of Europe for at least the last 5 years and has been described as Europe's greatest living artist after Gerhard Richter.

Now, thanks to the efforts of SFMOMA and others a retrospective of his work can be seen in the US.

It's work that on the surface challenges the conventions of painting, but more than that, uses art to provoke discussion about history and culture.

At first glance, it's hard to take in the work. The color palette is muted and depressed, there seems to be an artificial barrier between the canvas and the viewer, it's like he doesn't want you to get close.

There's one series of paintings of banal objects that are out of focus, blurred so that they look like fragments of our memories, but many of these have deeper stories behind them (that's Tuymans style); a body lying innocently on a couch turns out to be a murder victim, the portrait of a man that seems very ordinary, is in fact, a a cancer sufferer.

At its core, Tuymans best work deals with politics and history. There are two series that deal with World War 2; one with concentration camps and the other the broader theme of Nazism.

While many of these WW 2 paintings here are difficult to view, often being minimal and sparse, they all have deeper stories to tell, but when viewed as a series, complete an arc.

In his architect series about Nazi Germany, there's a painting from a photo of Albert Speer on skis and a blurred out portrait of Himmler which render these key protagonists dangerously harmless and innocent.

The work that explores the Belgian colonization of the Congo is perhaps the most impressive. It highlights the key motifs of the story by isolating the key players and covering the assassination of a leader and the exploitation of resources. It's also art that caused a political response, this series was first shown at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and caused ripples that forced the Belgian government to admit their role in assassination of the Congolese leader.

American isn't spared as he explores the country post 9/11 with paintings that include a portrait of Condoleezza Rice and what appears to be a falling World Trade Center, but in reality is simply another demolition. Tuymans is telling us how we've all been manipulated by media repetition.

In a world where new, bright digital media is the "thing", Tuymans shows us that painting still has a potent role to play. He's using his art to challenge and warn us about the power of the diversity of media images that surround us. He's asking that constantly question ourselves to find deeper meaning in these images.

Posted by Ed Cotton

green & black's founder believes kraft will look after his child

Influx Insights — 2010-02-01T09:59:00Z

Green & Black's built its reputation by pioneering Fair Trade chocolate, it successfully managed to maintain this despite being acquired by Cadbury.

G&B managed to "infect" Cadbury and got it to incorporate a lot of their ethical smarts into their own brand. Now with Cadbury being purchased by Kraft, many are questioning if the American company has what it takes to maintain the progress made by these two brands.

In a recent article in The Guardian, one of the founder's of Green & Black's was somewhat optimistic about the prospects. On a side note, it's interesting, he points his finger at consumers for not demanding organic and Fair Trade from brands, of course, this is a little chicken and egg because it often takes a company to lead consumers, as we've seen with Wal-Mart.

"A brand is like a child. It is born into this world, fragile and in great need of parental care and attention. Eventually you send it off to school and university, entrusting it to the care of others. Then it embarks on its career. Green & Black's, to follow the analogy, was nurtured to maturity and eventually got a good job at a big multinational.

It's still our baby. The fact that it can now look forward to continuing its career development with another multinational with a different name (and most of the same shareholders) is not a great cause for concern.

If Kraft screwed up with Green & Black's it would damage their reputation and cast a shadow over their competence. But there is no reason to expect them to goof. They have converted US household names like Oreos and Ritz crackers to organic and even do an organic macaroni-and-cheese dinner.

Every successful organic product represents another welcome step forward in the vital process, whereby the GM dependent climate-destructive industrial farming model gives way to sustainable, organic and fair ways of producing food. Successful corporations identify and follow these deeper underlying trends and would be betraying their shareholders' interest in trying to reverse them.

Frankly, it's the consumers who don't buy organic and fair products that upset me the most. Consumers have a choice, companies don't, they only sell what customers buy. Kraft and Cadbury are on the right track and I am confident the new entity will continue to pursue this.

I have no idea if Kraft will ask me to stay on as president, but if they don't that could be your canary in the coal mine."

Kraft's indirect purchase of Green & Black's follows a familiar pattern of ethical companies falling into their hands of giant corporations- Ben and Jerry's at Unilever, Howies at Timberland and The Body Shop at L'Oreal.

Many of the ethical companies start out with the belief that it's possible to change the world and when purchased may still harbor idealistic notions of this dream because of scale. However, for the acquring company to radically change it's operations, brands etc to all be in-line with the ethical company, is highly unlikely because it's just simply too hard to do.

What's more likely is a token response where the ethical brands sit in limbo and nothing really changes. They can grow because they can distribution muscle, but beyond that, they can't do much.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the best communication ideas of 2010 will lie in the intersection between digital and physical

Influx Insights — 2010-01-31T18:06:08Z

Foursquare j ust announced a partnership with Bravo Television for a few seconds it did not compute, but I went deeper to see what the deal was all about. It's really smart as it offers Bravo a chance for deeper engagement with its audience.

"Of course Bravo is going to put the full power of their network behind the partnership, promoting Bravo’s Foursquare hooks in TV spots. The NBC-owned cable network also plans to use Foursquare for sweepstakes, awards, and other viewer incentives. They’ll even offer Foursquare tie-ins to Bravo advertisers, which will likely come in the form of coupons for viewers to cash in at the advertisers’ venues."

Bravo is keen to be part of the next big thing to go mass, but the communication opportunities here are impressive. Fans of shows will have the chance to follow in the footsteps of their television heroes and get to participate in branded contests.

It's a great example where the virtual world is being unleashed out into our geography thanks to the mobile internet.

On the other side of the coin lies the physical screen and the opportunities that it offers for interaction. Here we've yet to scratch the surface with the possibilities that exist for layered communication on high tech out of home panels and the opportunity for play.

Last month I was fortunate enough to attend the Decode exhibit at London's Victoria and Albert where I saw artists experimenting with this technology. As you can see from this short video of Body Paint by Turkish designer Mehmet Akten, it shows how a very simple idea can be deeply engaging.

The growing physicality of technology and the merging of digital and physical spaces will be a key communication theme for 2010 and some of the best ideas this year will be in these spaces.

Posted by Ed Cotton

magazines on iPads will just be like GQ's latest iPhone app

Influx Insights — 2010-01-31T16:03:12Z

While Apple's iPad has been the subject of a lot of attention ranging, from ridicule and mixed reviews. The spin suggested the iPad would usher in a new era for those in the publishing business by creating another medium for consumers to experience print.

However, the promise suggested by Apple's demos and a number of flashy publisher initiatives is that this new experience is going to be better than a web site, and more satisfying than reading a newspaper or a magazine.

The dream being sold is how our magazines are going to be turned into immersive multimedia experiences (see the Sports Illustrated demo below) where the user takes a joyride through a stream of beautifully designed content and can dig deeper on topics and experience multimedia to their hearts content. While all these seems technically feasible, the big question is who are the publishers who can afford to develop this content on a daily, weekly or even a monthly basis?

It's easy to imagine a scenario where excitement drives the creation of great first iPad editions that succeed in seducing new subscribers into magazine franchises at significant premiums to current subscription rates. However this will not be sustainable because the economics won't map out and the result will be falling quality standards and subscriber discontent.

The other way of looking at this is through the application lens, where new entrants will come into the publishing space from a completely different direction.These new entrants might find better and more interesting ways of serving up content than the publishing incumbents.

It's likely magazines will never be able to afford to realize the "Sports Ilustrated" dream and instead be forced to fight it out in the App Store with hundreds of thousands of competitors.

The future for traditional publications on tablets has to be more "application like", than "issue like".

I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but I don't believe we are going to get the sizzle of the Sports Ilustrated demo, it's much more likely we will be looking at something like the latest GQ iPhone application.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the internet 20 years on

Influx Insights — 2010-01-31T15:23:48Z

The BBC has decided the web is now worthy and has made it the subject of a detailed documentary series, The Virtual Revolution, that explores its origins, evolution and examines the implications of the technology for society.

It's a highly ambitious, well-researched and thoughtful look at what 20 years of the web means for humanity. This is the perfect time to take a look back and project forward because we are on the cusp of massive expansion as the developing world comes on board in leaps and bounds.

The series is narrated by Dr. Aleks Krotoski, who aside from studying the implications of the internet for the past 10 years, is also a member of The Guardian's crack team of technology journalists.

The first program in the series examines the idea of the web as the great leveler and leaves no stone unturned in it's quest for answers. Most of the program is filmed in the Bay Area and includes interviews with local luminaries-Stewart Brand, Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew Keen, Chad Hurley and John Perry Barlow.

The big theme here is one of revolution and counter-revolution which is explained by the adoption of the internet by late 1960s and early 70s Bay Area radicals, fueled by hope from the Summer of Love and looking for a space where their ideals could be realized, a space that turned out to be The Well.

The program concludes that despite all the hippie driven hope for true openness and utopia, the reality today is very different with a handful of new media brands that have taken and co-opted control.

Krotoski finds an interesting contrast from the ideals of 60s radicals to 2010, where there is basically one online store, one social network, one search engine and one online video network.

Despite the potential doomsday scenario of limited control, Krotoski hopeful thesis is that the beauty of the internet is its state of constant flux, which simply put, means those who are in control today, are very likely not to be in control forever.

Posted by Ed Cotton

the migration away from control- facebook is the new url

Influx Insights — 2010-01-28T10:44:04Z

BBH has a new campaign out in the UK for Barclaycard touting ease and convenience of payment, but what struck me most was the URL they use at the end of the spot, where instead of the corporate dot com address, there's a Facebook url.

This is a clear sign of the move away from corporate web destinations in favor of the locations where consumers are spending most of their time. This is a big shift and one that must be quite a challenge for companies to get their heads around, but it reflects the new reality.

This is just the start because it forces the agencies hand to work out how best to Facebook and looking at the Barclaycard example there are certainly some challenges.

Interestingly, the experience seems just like a corporate web site and not the organic, fluid experience you expect on Facebook.

While it's smart understand where your customers are, getting the experience right is critical .

Posted by Ed Cotton

when brand equity gets shattered

Influx Insights — 2010-01-28T10:09:07Z

It takes decades to create a reputation and only a few days to destroy it, Toyota is the latest brand to be falling into the death spiral with a massive erosion in its equity.

Something that it's key competitors can only be extremely happy about, especially when a number of the players including- GM, Ford and the the emerging Korean brands have made such strides in this space.

The problem is especially acute for Toyota because quality has been such an integral part of the company, management books have been written about it and the whole DNA of the organization is structured around it.

It's been suggested that T oyota's push for growth has been the cause of all these problems . It was so fixated with overtaking GM to become the biggest automaker in the world, that corners were cut and compromises made.

Pushing hard for growth has been the undoing of many a great brand.

Toyota's problem seems to a show a lack of understanding of how to scale their production to achieve optimal quality and not thinking hard enough about the impact of potential failure on the brand.

Starbucks is another brand who expanded way to fast and ended up diluting their equity.

In both these cases, while it certainly true that they built amazingly powerful brands, they failed to treat them with respect and didn't use tools to help them to understand the resulting impact of over-expansion on their most valuable assets.

Quite simply, their brands were important, but not important enough to be front and center of the CFO and CEOs agenda.

Posted by Ed Cotton

twitter needs more than the limited oxygen of buzz

Influx Insights — 2010-01-27T10:16:12Z

Twitter might be the brand with optimum buzz at the moment, but it's not enough to take the brand to the next level.

With Twittergate last July, a number of sensitive documents were "stolen" including one that defined the company's mission which is "to be the pulse of the planet".

Judging by some of the latest data, the brand is some ways away from this mission and from capitalizing on its potentially giant valuation-

40% of accounts have never sent a Tweet

80% of Twitter users have Tweeted fewer than 10 times

Only 17% of accounts sent a Tweet in December 2009

It's obvious that you don't need to send Tweets to be able to experience and enjoy Twitter, but it certainly adds another layer of engagement.

Perhaps developers can take the API and create dumbed down clients that encourage more participation, but I would suggest Twitter now needs to start communicating.

Given that Square has the same founder and this is a brand that's currently not just generating buzz, but it's also using web celebs/angel investors, like Kevin Rose to tell a deeper story (240k views on YouTube), it would be smart for Twitter to do the same.

I am not suggesting a multi-million dollar ad campaign, but some content that helps dimensionalize the power and fun of Twitter to a broader audience.

Posted by Ed Cotton

banks aren't trusted

Influx Insights — 2010-01-26T11:31:15Z

Edelman has just released it's annual survey and to prove it seems to be measuring the right things, the data it uncovered on banks is astonishing- their trust rating has plummeted like a stone- from the 3rd ranked sector in the US to the 9th and a rating drop in excess of 30 points.

Looking at this data, it provides some insight as to why the President acted as he did.

However, there's more to this story than meets the eye and more questions to ask.

- What type of banks don't people trust?
- What is it about banks that they don't trust?

I am sure Edelman have this data and it would be great to see it if they do.

Banks clearly have a huge issue that is in crisis proportions and something they need to devote a lot of energy towards. Simply ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away, isn't going help. These institutions need a whole way of thinking about how they need to relate to and communicate with their customers and beyond this need ideas that prove they are to be trusted.

Posted by Ed Cotton

agency finally recognizes it has social responsiblity

Influx Insights — 2010-01-26T11:58:48Z

Good news coming out of London this week, Ogilvy has been inspired by the efforts of all the out of work architects and designers who've set-up pop-up stores and stands to sell their wares, now the giant ad agency is doing the same with a social twist.

The enlightened folks at Ogilvy decided that small, local businesses in the Brixton areas of London could benefit from some of company's strategic and creative thinking. It's a cool PR coop, but it's also a great idea and something more agencies should pay attention to.

Agencies exist in physical locations and probably should kind of responsibility to contribute to their neighborhoods and broader community. Obviously, many think that their pro-bono efforts are probably good enough, but perhaps these contributions need to be smaller, more focused, truly connected to their communities and less interested in the potential of creative awards.

Posted by Ed Cotton

Look!- HP also has a tablet

Influx Insights — 2010-01-26T11:08:23Z

While the tablet frenzy is reaching epic proportions and everyone seems to be looking at Apple, HP does not want to let it's efforts slip by unnoticed because it does have something interesting to say...it has a tablet and it's very cheap!

However, the company has a fun way of going about things, it's almost as if the brief was "How can we be as un-Apple as possible?" and they went and produced a YouTube film that is a snoozefest.

One would think given the attention around tablet computing, that they could find a more dynamic and imaginative way to tell their very interesting story.

Posted by Ed Cotton

gaming is changing and how

Influx Insights — 2010-01-26T10:58:46Z

There's a nice piece on All Facebook that takes us through a history of the various incarnations of the Farmville game from it's earliest days in May of 2007 to today.

Farmville, Zynga's game wasn't launched until June 2009 and has grown rapidly to reach 10 million active daily users by August of 2009 and onto 27 million where it stands today.

It demonstrates how building on people's existing ideas can be a succesfull formula, but more than that, it shows how gaming is evolving from high powered consoles to social experiences. The Wii showed us the power of social gaming in a physical context, but Farmville shows us how mass social gaming can truly become a phenomenon.

Disecting the elements that make Farmville such a success would be a lesson in how things become social and something a number of brands could learn a lot from.

Posted by Ed Cotton

towards a new visual literacy

Influx Insights — 2010-01-26T10:26:39Z

Take a look at Keith Schofield's video for "Heaven Can Wait" by Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, yep it's a couple of months old.

It's an interesting montage of imagery, that has less to do with film and more to do with a load of random and messed up stills, so it was interesting to read that Schofield's inspiration happened to be the internet.

"While looking around for ideas for music videos I find myself on a lot of found-photo websites like ffffound.com or Tumblr pages. I find the lack of context so interesting and I have a huge folder of these random photos. I've done other videos that have been inspired by one photo or another and I always thought it would be great to make a video where it's just like flipping through this folder where every scene is a different image. So something like the pancake astronaut is basically a recreation of a Photoshop that somebody did."

For years, the Internet, was mainly text based, but we are seeing a huge shift over to visuals increasing bandwidth sharing sites cropping up everywhere.

While it started with photography, it's now moved to include illustration, but more than that, it's increasingly about people building upon each others ideas, sharing visual jokes, etc.

It seems we gaining a new level of visual literacy as we become bombarded by more and more images that are increasingly subverted and played with.

Schofield's video clearly points to this and doubtless we will see more takes on this emerging space over time.

Posted by Ed Cotton

advertising as art- for Europe only?

Influx Insights — 2010-01-22T07:15:50Z

It's could be a dream assignment- The British Museum and The BBC join forces to create a radio series about 100 objects the museum has in its collection.

Fallon gets the brief and the chance to elevate the often mundane world of advertising into an art form.

However, we all know how hard it can be with one client, how about two public institutions? They must have done some great selling and/or had great clients because the result is pretty close to art, judging by this one spot.

This is a very artful ad aimed at a highly cultured and educated audience who can appreciate the idea and the story, this is not for a target called "everyone".

Looking at from the US perspective it would be hard to find a client to brave enough to do this type of work and you can imagine when presenting the script getting questions about how slow it is and how long it takes to get to the main message- "would people have the patience to stay the course?"

Could this you see this advertising running in the US? Why and why not? imagine The Smithsonian and NPR creating type of initiative

Posted by Ed Cotton

do clients need social media agencies?

Influx Insights — 2010-01-21T10:55:45Z

According to Campaign, VW is looking for a social media agency in the UK.

This will add another partner to the company's already expansive communications roster, add incremental fees and mean there's more to manage and co-ordinate. In a an environment where budgets and resources are being challenged, it seems counter-intuitive.

However, the media has done a good job, Influx Insights included, in hyping the social media space to such a point that client's probably believe the need a specialist to help them in this complex and challenging environment.

On the surface, at a moment in time when the CMO and his or her bosses seem fixated on the thrills of Facebook and Twitter, holding a review and hiring a specialist seems like a problem solved.

In reality, it might be more trouble that it's worth. If you take a step back and look at how social media breaks down and what's needed, it's pretty basic.

1. Someone has to listen and respond- probably best for the in-house customer service team to work on this.

2. Posting relevant content to get conversation-likely to be split between PR and advertising who both play a role in getting content out to the crowd. Good companies in these fields are already up-to-speed and know the world of social media.

Social media is another channel that must be a part of the communication mix, but fragmenting responsibility, while it seems like a sound plan, might make a marketers life a lot more complicated.

It would be great to get people's thoughts on this topic.

Posted by Ed Cotton