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    • A look back: XBox

    This is a presentation I did at school back in 2003 at the University of Oklahoma. It is outdated but I still believe it is a great example of how to build up an argument for a strategic decision.

    I have to stress that we made this before the Playstation “Mountain” commercial that won the Cannes Grand Prix 2004. “Mountain” actually could have been based on this presentation, except here the technical potential would have been stressed.

     

      

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    Fast Strategy Event

    Did something interesting in my lunch break today. I teamed up with the Planning4Good AllStars who were competing at IPA’s FAST Strategy event today.

    Ok, explanations first: Planning for Good is essentially a club of Account Planners all over the world that tackle strategic problems for good causes and non-profits. Members include Gareth Kay, Planning Director of Modernista!, Aki Spicer of Fallon, Mark Earls (author of Herd) and many more notable names from the Plannersphere.

    Anyways, Mark Earls was team leader of the Planning4Good AllStars (him, Jon Leach, Chris Forrest (The Nursery) and Ian Tait (Poke & crackunit)) to work on the brief as the P4G Allstars, one of three teams competing in the three hour battle for the title Fastest Strategist.

    Mark additionally called - through the power of the Internet! -  the combined brain power of Planning for Good people who could spare the time. So my lunch break was 30 minutes of furious typing, reading and searching at once, trying bring in as much thinking, ideas as possible. The Brief was about creating a strategy for a dog owner’s registry in the UK.

    What I learned today (apart from “30 minutes is not much time”) for doing strategy in a team online and fast:

    Mark Earls posted that they just made second place. Bugger. Still was fun.I hope I can see the presentation they gave.

     

    Apropos, presentations. In my Vodpod there is a splendid presentation Mark Earls gave at the ARF conference in New York (via Gareth Kay). He talks about Word of Mouth, decision making in our connected lives and how to best influence those processes. Intriguing stuff. I think I will get his book.

     

    Reaching the finish line.

     Finish line

    Been a bit quiet the last weeks on the blog. That is because there have been major operations underneath the hood of this blog (update to WP 2.5, CSS-Sprites, several plugin-thingies like caching and customizing content), linking to a lot of services that will do great for connecting to the outside world and of course, my shiny new 100% personal and unique (it’s all my handwriting!) WordPress theme: Jonispace.

    Sometimes I come to believe that I am not that bad with CSS and webdesign. There is still room for improvement, but for now this looks good.

    On with the content!

     

    APSotW Winning entry: Me. Yay!

    This week started with a pleasant surprise:
    Rob Campbell posted Paul Colman’s reviews on the presentations for the assignment on Extra gum. After short disappointment because I wasn’t able to identify my presentation from the feedback (see whole story here) it turns out the winning presentation is my entry.

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    To sum this up in short: Extra is the everything else gum of Wrigley’s. The brand is spread out to appeal to everybody, and also the vehicle for new products. My recommendation was to define Extra by leaving innovation to a new brand, and putting focus on Extra as functional gum that aids concentration, focus etc.

    Personally, I knew that this would taken two more slides, but ten was the limit. I REALLY would love to see Assignment “I”: “Mental Hygiene” is perfect, sums up my positioning thoughts much better. In fact, I would love to see all the other presentations. It was always great to see where all the other minds went.
    BIG Thanks to Paul and Rob for taking the time to a look at the work.

    But, alas, back to work. The new assignment is up already online.

    Hm, I can’t help it, but I still have a suspicion that there has been an error and Paul Colman will ask me to return my price.

    How to build a Chocolate Easter Bunny

    Here is a little something I made as an Easter Surprise for Heidi: a giant easter bunny-robot. It is not rocket science, really. Just a whole set of chocolates of all sorts and kinds. Pick a bigger piece for the body, something on top for the head, two long things for the ears, two round things for eyes, one ball for the nose. Assemble all with hot glue. Ta-Da. Joy.

    DSCF2387.JPGDSCF2388.JPGDSCF2391.JPGDSCF2390.JPG

    • März 25, 2008
    • DIY, Output
    • comments closed

    Songs in Charts

    Songs as information design? Here is a wonderful new thing to do with piecharts, flowcharts or other diagrams: turn song lyrics into visualized information.

    SONG CHART is a Flickr Group that has originated from preserving a Live Journal meme. Many of these musical infographics posted are just brilliant. I love this simple idea:

    Friday Im In Love The Cure

    They are pure genius when they not only catch the lyrics but also the character of the song, like this one:

    Around the World Daft Punk

    More here, check it out: Flickr Group: Song Chart

    I figured this would be a could drill and I added a couple of charts myself. But I couldnt help wondering what Tufte or Maeda would do for this.

    heinztocotronic biginjapanlovewilltearuspart yellow

    via Fontblog

    • Februar 26, 2008
    • Input, Output
    • comments closed

    Hello Elky. Hello Spreadshirt-Shop.

    I had planned this for longer and now got into do-mode. I just finished a T-Shirt Shop (via Spreadshirt) with the first motive (also the result of a little drawing session over the weekend). It was about time. There is a link on the left…

    thenausner apparel

     

    Hello Elky

     

    • Februar 21, 2008
    • Improving, Output
    • comments closed

    the deer now have guns…

    the deer now have gunsDuring the Planning seminar in Retz Oke Müller of TBWA mentioned this quote when discussing how Web 2.0 is changing the marketplace. The image above has been in my head ever since.Of course, the obvious thing of Web 2.0 are cases of corporate bloopers. Company X tries to silence a blogger who dared complaining or pointing out a major error of their product. The Streisand Effect should tentatively be taught in Public Relations 101.On the other hand, my observation is that those beloved brands envied by their competition for their passionate followers are more and more becoming the prey of their users. Especially those companies that have been able to create a passionate user base. Of course I am talking about Apple here. The iPhone is a perfect example: Apple’s users DEMANDED a breakthrough piece of perfection. No less. The pressure on Apple was immense (in fact, so immense that they preferred to push back the development of Leopard). Compare Microsoft’s Zune. Who cares about the quality of that product? Who cares it sucks?Greenpeace’s Green Apple follows the same pattern. Users were informed, they cared about the issue. Anybody seen outrage on other bad performers on the list? Steve Jobs had to act.The more passionate consumers are about a brand the more they will demand.Your best consumer will be your worst enemy. The whip that pushes you forward.