Hema, a Dutch department store chain described as a European version of Target (low prices on generic housewares, and lots of original design) has created this fabulous product page with a great moment of surprise and delight.
Make sure you watch through to the end.
I love how they took this “functional” page and invigorated it with brand personality.
That’s my point of view. What’s your twist?
Have you seen other brands get clever with their shopping pages?
As a follow up to yesterday’s post on The Flip Book Goes Digital, here is a way to create a Flip Book with your own images.
The site is called The Big Exquisite Corpse Experiment.
Not sure I am crazy about the title.
But it is fun to play around with.
What’s your twist?
What do you think of this experiment?
Mono (of Minneapolis) have created an unusual campaign for Client Blu Dot design.
They are putting 25 “Real Good Chairs” in key locations in Manhattan and hoping people will steal them.
That’s because each chair contains a GPS tracking device and has it’s own Twitter feed which link to the website.
The pick-ups are being filmed cloak and dagger style by a camera crew hidden in a van.
You can literally follow the journey of these chairs as they make there way through Manhattan and beyond (one, not surprisingly, has already ended up in Park Slope).
It’s gotten some interesting initial press including this piece in Fast Company.
Cool premise. It will be fun to see how it plays out.
That’s my point of view. What’s your twist?
What do you think of this campaign?
Often the wisest words come from the mouths of babes.
Or in my case, the mouth of a very bright 8 year old boy…my son Sacha.
On our recent holiday in France, I was so busy trying to record every moment to share (via Facebook, and email etc) with friends and family back home…that I wasn’t fully experiencing the moments as they were happening.
In this particular instance I was trying to capture an adorable picture of Sacha during his circus lessons.
Obsessed with gettting the perfect shot, I wasn’t really watching the trick he was trying to show me.
“Stop taking picutres, and look!” he cried.
Instantly I knew he was right. The real value of the moment was in the moment.
Not in the picture or pithy update quote to be posted or tweeted later.
So I put down the camera and I really watched. And it was pretty cool.
And then I took a few quick shots.
And maybe I didn’t capture exactly the perfect smile or get the ideal shot.
But when I close my eyes I can see it vividly and I can hear the excitement in his voice when he realized I was really present and paying attention.
Experiences are great to share, but first they should be…well…experienced.
That’s my point of view. What’s your twist?
Has recording gotten in the way of experiencing for you?
There’s been lots of talk about social media and the power of a disgruntled few who can get their message out to to the masses through You Tube and other social media.
Check out this video from a Halifax group singing about a bad experience they had on United Airlines.
It received 500,000 views in it’s first 3 days, almost 5 million views to date and over 20,000 comments.
Worth paying attention to.
That’s my point of view. What’s your twist?
Is viral complaining an anomaly or the shape of things to come?
I’m on a journey…to digital fluency.
It’s a long and bumpy road, but I’m glad I’m on it.
Everyday I encounter new obstacles and things I don’t know. But I am committed to staying on course.
I’ve been thinking alot about the lessons I’ve learned in the relatively short time that I’ve been climbing this mountain.
I thought it might be interesting, helpful, dare I dream…inspiring …to share what I’ve learned so far.
To make it seem a bit less overwhelming I’ve come up with this acronym, which incorporates 5 key steps to digital fluency. I call it SMART.
S- is for Start. Take the first step. Every journey begins with one. Depending on your current level of fluency that could mean joining Facebook, signing up for Twitter, or in my case… starting this blog.
M- is for making connections. The real point of social networking is to connect with people. So it’s not enough just to join a network and ignore it. You’ve got to reach out to other people. Leave comments on their posts or updates, retweet interesting content. Get involved in the conversation.
A- is for Ask. Ask questions when you don’t understand something. I spent most of the day at the Wired conference on Monday wondering if “the cloud” everyone was talking about was the real one looming omninously outside. I finally asked my seatmate and realized it was the computing one.
R- reach out to people that have a higher level of fluency than you do and ask them to teach you. Twitter is actually an amazing way to engage with experts. I reached out to Steve Farnsworth on Twitter and he was incredibly generous with his advice.
T- is for making time to actively explore this new world. It doesn’t mean you have to drop everything to Tweet all day. But it does mean recognizing that technology, like all skills and hobbies, can’t be mastered in a day. Set aside 15 minutes every morning to surf interesting blogs or read a magazine on technology (like Wired), or even just the wikipedia definitions of terms you keep hearing but don’t understand.
SMART. Maybe a oversimplification, dare I say a dumb, way to look at it.
But as I said, hey at least I’m trying.
That’s my point of view. What’s your twist?
What are you doing to improve your digital fluency?
I am a brand enthusiast, passionate futurist and lateral thinker. I am currently working at Virgin Management helping to build the brand in the US by launching new Virgin businesses.*
Learn more » Email Julie »* Though I work at Virgin Management USA, everything here is my personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. The views expressed on this blog are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
