Closer than you think

While this video from Google might seem a bit fantastical – and it has drawn parodies – it’s actually all now feasible. It’s just a question of integration, mixed with a bit of time.

Manhattan Musings

While in New York recently, Zeitgeist was privy to a few interesting examples of brand activation and digitally engaging experiences that it thought worth sharing.

It just so happened that during the visit to New York, the fourth and final tennis grand slam of the year was in full swing in the form of the U.S. Open. Zeitgeist was impressed with the official site’s homepage, which had lagged behind that of the other slams in recent years in terms of user engagement and interactivity. Most impressive was the video functionality, which allowed live, crystal-clear streaming of all recorded matches, in a pop-out window that included information on important match statistics, a chat forum and even picture-in-picture capability so that the viewer could watch more than one match concurrently (see below picture). Also pleasing to see was an article written at the end of the tournament on the greatest matches of the 2011 Open, which included dozens of comments from people via Facebook. Zeitgeist was taken through to the site after seeing it linked from the U.S. Open’s Facebook page. Nice integration.

While most of Manhattan’s citizens had sensibly fled the city’s dog days of summer, some were still caught in the rat race. It was good of HBO then to attempt to bring some enjoyment into the workers’ commute, in a stellar piece of brand activation that lasted for several days. The cable network HBO has had an astonishing run of successful series – recently noted in The Economist – popular with audiences and critics alike, from Sex and the City through the Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm and now with Boardwalk Empire. According to the Gawker, the network had spent so much on advertising on the Metro over the years, “the MTA let them buy the entire car”. The Prohibition-era series came to life for several days with passengers able to ride an authentic 1920s traincar, replete with the odd advertisement promoting the upcoming new season of Boardwalk Empire. It’s a superb idea, something very engaging while at the same time actually serving a purpose (functioning as an otherwise normal subway train). It also fits in very well with a particular fascination New York seems to have currently with speakeasies, a number of which have popped up in midtown and lower Manhattan.

Similarly, BMW have also been taking over a space, this time in the East Village, promoting the automaker’s take on what sustainability means in the form of the BMW Guggenheim Lab. The Lab will include more than 100 free lectures, movie screenings and discussion, according to an article on Luxury Daily, which quotes Harald Krüger, BMW board of management member, as saying “premium is also defined by sustainability”. PSFK called it an “urban curiousity hub”. A picture of the Lab is below.

It was also interesting to wander through the Museum of Modern Art’s current exhibition entitled ‘Talk to Me: Design and Communication between People and Objects’. As the website blurb says,

“The exhibition focuses on objects that involve a direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, and communication devices, and on projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users.”

Running through November 7th, one of the more interesting practical things Zeitgeist noted about the show was the introduction of Augmented Reality as a way of enhancing some of the pieces exhibited. Also included were QR codes featuring more information for visitors, as well as hashtags for each object, to encourage people to talk about them and discuss them more easily via Twitter. Really interesting stuff.

So as you can see, there is an awful lot of interesting and relevant stuff going on in the city that never sleeps. FYI, Zeitgeist will be accepting commissions for future trips, especially ones that involve further investigation into the speakeasies mentioned earlier.

Augment that Reality

Recently, a prestigious blog (no longer an oxymoron) on advertising questioned whether despite all the hubbub, Augmented Reality might just turn out to be another Second Life: a flash-in-the-pan fad that was explosively white-hot at its inception but quickly lost its lustre when it became apparent that no one was making use of it. Could Augmented Reality [AR] suffer the same fate? Before answering, let us delve first into what AR is all about, as well as look at some uses of the technology.

It might be deemed unfair to make a comparison between Second Life and AR, purely on the grounds that one is an application and one is a technology. The difficulty in sustaining use will be in ensuring a practical and enjoyable use of the technology, i.e. fun without being gimmicky (a la QR codes).

Augmented Reality in its simplest terms is a virtual representation of the real world through still image or video overlaid with aspects of digital content. This content could be in the form of an animation to help show off a product, or it could be imagery showing a location that has been ʻtaggedʼ. Currently AR can be viewed with a webcam or with smartphones such as phones using the Android OS or iPhone. One of the most prominent examples at the moment is Layar. It can tell you where your nearest tube stop is, what the price of the house youʼre standing in front of is, a Wiki for the gallery across the road, a Flickr photo or tweet made nearby. Does all this risk being a little too much to take in though?

There are some singularly fantastic executions that companies have been doing over the past year or so. GEʼs example was the first example that Zeitgeist saw and is beautiful in its simplicity, as well as being a great piece of PR for the conglomerateʼs smart grid that President Obama has recently been tubthumping.

Lego also produced something extraordinary, featuring an ʻexplodedʼ version of one of its products on the back of the box, which then fits together, neatly assembled. Anyone who has ever experienced
any trepidation upon opening the hood of their car will welcome BMWʼs foray into the world of AR. Another example that demonstrates the usefulness for such an application is the work that AKQA produced for the USPS. Last month, Esquire magazineʼs AR issue hit the shelves: “The cover, which will feature actor Robert Downey Jr., will emerge on the screen in 3D and feature flying text and images that animate based on how the magazine is positioned.”

Only time will tell; there could even yet be a future for QR codes. Exciting prospects and practical opportunities for AR abound; the technology will have to convert consumers quickly by being easy to use with very beneficial results. Second Life turned out to be pointless; they built it, people came, had a look around and left. Let us hope the same does not happen with Augmented Reality.

App Store celebrates first birthday

From the August Zeitgeist…

Apple’s App Store recently celebrated its first anniversary, and not long afterwards crossed a similarly momentous watershed of recording 1.5 billion downloads. With a little calculator work, this turns out to be over 4 million applications every single day, and just under 50 downloaded every second worldwide, for iPhone and iPod touch models, “creating an ecosystem that any technology company would envy” says eConsultancy.

The immense popularity of the App Store is evidence of the current industry shift from focusing on hardware to software. The iPhone, somewhat unexpectedly, became about much more than Apple’s sleek design and functionality, instead incorporating a user generated aspect, allowing the phone to do anything you want it to. In other words, this was customisation as personalisation, making your product bespoke. It has led to the development of some extraordinary applications, from picking a restaurant – perhaps you could look up your nearest Pizza Hut? – to organising your whole night out.

Just as the Internet in its youth has been compared to a Wild West, so it is now with the app store; Apple has to individually approve or deny every app that passes its way, often on a very ad hoc basis (witness recent deliberation over the first pornographic application). This should serve as a warning for any clients that wish to make apps that are controversial or risk making Apple functionality redundant.

Two recent iPhone applications do a great job of illustrating the potential use brands can make of the handset. The first makes use of augmented reality to embed the app’s own graphics onto real-world imagery displayed through the camera. Click here for a video. As VentureBeat explains, “When a user holds the iPhone flat, it shows all 13 lines of the London Underground. Then as you tilt the phone up, the application shows what direction the stops are in and their distance.” The possibilities for combining the iPhone camera with augmented reality could lead to some very engaging campaigns for clients. To see how augmented reality can literally alter the way we see advertising, click here.

Another recently released app is the first to be  integrated with a Blu-ray disc, for the latest incarnation of that bastion of mediocrity, The Fast and the Furious franchise. There is a “Virtual Car Garage” you can control, and integration with Facebook and Twitter that will appear on future films as well (i.e. “Jordi is watching Balto III: Wings of Change”).

Embracing such synthesis of product over multiple platforms offers brands who can provide engaging content the opportunity to increase interaction with consumers.