Design Studies: Asking the questions

First we had to create consent forms in order to publish the information we gathered from our interviews.

After gaining our participants permission, we continued on with the questions. I won't go into detail with regards to individual answers and information collected, but the following were our generalised finds, along with patterns we began to spot.

The first question, asking if the participant recognised how many, if any of a selection of adverts was an example of a viral ad, got mixed results. A third of participants however, recognised that the "Visit California" advert was in fact not viral. Others recognised the advert, although were unable to determine which were viral and which were not.

The second question was in regards to Cadburys recent and currently ongoing viral campaign. After asking how they felt after seeing a selection of them, we found that the general response was that they were confused. Often they were unsure as to how the content relates to selling a product, although all recognised the videos themselves.

Thirdly, we asked why they think companies would chose to use seemingly irrelevant content in adverts, to which the general response was to make their product more fun, memorable or enjoyable.

On asking what music was used during a selection of mobile phone service providers adverts, we were left with an interesting array of answers. Although it was a bit of a trick question due to the fact that only one contained music, it was interesting to find that sost could not remember much about the content for Orange or O2 at all (the two with no music at all), however nearly all knew that a) T-Mobile was based around music and b) could name songs used (albeit not necessarily the ones used for the specific advert we had muted). It was interesting to find that a connection was made between the audio and memory.

We then went on to ask which provider each participant used, to which half of our participants use T-Mobile. This may just be co-insidence, but speculation may be drawn on this as to why, in comparison to the other main providers (namely Orange, O2, Vodaphone and 3) had such dwindling numbers in comparison.

Next, we asked if any of the people involved in our interviews could remember what the series of adverts was, or indeed the tag line used throughout for the new Windows 7 operating system. Although a few had no idea, a few of the male participants knew selected bits of them. Some knew the tagline was "I'm a PC and.." and some other knew they were short snappy ads. Here are the actual ads we were referring to:



There are several others available on YouTube from the same series.

It was interesting to find that more males than females remembered this type of advertisement. It's hard to say wether it is because of the quick delivery of the adverts that entices males over females, or if it is the content relating to computers, as computers are commonly regarded as being more interesting to males than females.

Lastly, we played only the audio of an advert, and asked if they could tell us what it was for within the first few seconds - being careful not to reveal the product name that is mentioned towards the beginning. Nearly all of them instantly named it, with the remaining one who did not name it being unable to put their finger on the exact product, although said they did recognise it.

This was the advert we used:

The conclusion we drew from our answers was that the reasons viral advertisements are successful is because in most cases, people remember the content and as a connected result, remember the brand. When a continuous style of unrelated content is used, a style is created, thus becoming part of the brand itself. An example of this is the continuous use of purple throughout Cadbury's adverts, the bright colourful fun extraordinary things that happen throughout Sony's Bravia adverts, or Honda's intellectual use of sound. As this becomes the standard for a brand, the products themselves are less and less important as by now the viewer knows that Cadbury's make chocolate, and Sony makes technological products. It's far beyond that stage. 

Basically, the theory behind it is to make you remember them, and from our findings - most of these adverts do just that.

Stuffs I Wanted To Share

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So on my Saturday evening I have been surfing the internet quite a lot. Don't get me wrong -I do have friends on a social level (although judging from my blog this is hard to believe they are not all digital). 

Several things have caught my eye recently so I thought I would share these - and they will probably end up wasting your time as much as they have mine. 

1. MySpace Website

MySpace appear to have gone under a revamp and now include little animations when you hover your cursor over their logo. Go on, try it. Theres quite a few different ones, it'll have you refreshing for ages! So far I have managed to get the bag of junk, tentacles, a slide with balls, a stags head and eyes and leaves. 

Post a comment if you get any others! It's addictive!

2. Top Gear Car Art

I heavily dislike Jeremy Clarkson - but for some reason he is regarded as somewhat of a journalist having his own column, and is also a very successful world known television presenter. I did however find this entertaining as he gets injured in the downstairs department. Good. The one thing I do like about Top Gear is their filming style - it's always done nicely. Although the content leaves something to be desired. 

Boys and their damn toys. 

3. Worlds Most Expensive House

Costing an estimated $1 Billion, Mukesh Ambani is living the lifestyle of more than a king. Understandably when you are one of the worlds richest men, with an approximate $17 Billion, you want to live a life of luxury - however this is too far. I cannot believe how much people spend. With a £98,000 fuel bill - it would be enough to feed the surrounding slums for a month. What sickens me the most is that it is right in the heart of a slum - rubbing his money, wealth and luxury right in their poverty stricken, disease ridden communities. Unbelievable. 

Oh, and it requires 600 members of staff for upkeep.

4. Bottled Water

This was an interesting article I read, regarding consumerism, and sometimes how ridiculous it is when you really think about it. 

5. McBA(Hons) With a Side Of Dignity

Lastly in my news related topics is the news that McDonalds is set to start providing management degrees. Seriously? I'd like to see where this stands in The Times' Good University Guide. Talk about clown college - or sorry, make that Ronald McDonald College, but not only would it degrade other similar degrees in the field that are not affiliated to it, I don't see what is wrong with putting staff through required courses that already exist? 

huzzah for geeks!

6. Academy of Art University

I read that Adam Savage teaches Advanced Model Making - at San Francisco's Academy of Art University. Now, not only is that my ultimate course - but you get taught by Adam Savage of the Discovery Channel's MythBusters! Zomg! For those of you who don't know what MythBusters is - leave my page now.

I feel a little exposed admitting to my love of that program. Ah well. 

7. National Geographic Photo Contest 2010 

I'm really enjoying the pictures that have been sent in here. Take a look =]

8. The FWA

Great site featuring daily favourites in innovative website design. I used to keep tabs on this daily but since my change of career path (that I aim for) I had migrated away from being so interested. Luckily I have just rediscovered it - and now you can waste hours on this too! The site changes very regularly so you never get tired of it!

One of my particular favourites was the Smart Car site which featured a little game where you drove the car around check points creating a dot-to-dot like image. I suppose it also ties in with my Viral research, and what companies are trying to do to engage people with their product.

So that pretty much sums up what I have been doing. Hopefully you will enjoy at least one of the above. Not much academia was discussed but hey - that's only a very small chunk of the interwebs!

Enjoy! I however, am going to get back to more pressing matters.

Design Studies: Misunderstanding

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I am lead to believe during the latest of our seminars that I have misinterpreted the previous assignment slightly.

The tutorial based website task of Assignment 3 was supposed to get us to build a list of reliable website sources - 5 from our area and 5 that we generally like to keep tabs on. Unfortunately nobody could get it to work properly - as every time we added one of the reliable sources to "basket", it removed the previous one. This meant we could select no more than a total of 1 site. Argh! I continued with the assignment non the less, although had to use my intuition when it came to a sources reliability or level of authority - wether my intuition was right or not, is yet to be determined.

I, however, had taken the above to mean that we must collect 5 online sources from our research area that we have focussed on recently with regards to Design Studies (as in Viral Ads), and 5 we generally like to keep tabs on (this being 5 general design sites. I didn't think that they would want to hear what we keep track of online out-with University related disciplines - there's a lot of rubbish out there don't you know!)

So, anyway, the above mix up and broken tutorial aside - I have taken it upon myself to amend my previous post. I have left that post live on my blog as they are still relevant, but I will add in the 5 generalised sites I keep my eye on below.

They include:

BBC News (Scotland) / New York Times / The Guardian

National Geographic

YouTube

WSPA

Twitter

Vimeo

There are several other sites I regularly like to keep up to date with, as I read a lot of current affairs. After all, it's important to know what's going on in the world. Dundee's only a pin prick in terms of global affairs, so I think it's good to know whats going on outside the box, so to speak!

Design Studies: What Came First, The Viral Or Design?

While YouTubing my weekend away as it's too dark and miserable outside to contemplate socialising, I came across this:

It's everything I've been looking for. It's for The Conran Shop, and it's a Viral advert that promotes designers.

Rubber Republic are a UK based company, whose sister site - Viral Ad Networks - provide viral marketing. Above is an example of their work. 

Established in 2001 they have gathered quite an extensive and impressive list of clientele; including the likes of Channel 4, Nokia, Hewlett Packard, O2 and PlayStation.  They "seed" your campaign online, by "infecting" popular pages - so to speak. For example, they may post links in forums based around a similar topic, where people who tend to read the related threads would then click on the video out of curiosity.

They also have a blog, which I from now on will be following as I'm hooked! 

Below is another good example, by Viral Agency for FedEx:

I initially selected this topic as a derivative from the Airwalk Casestudy, which was brought up in The Tipping Point, where Lambesis came up with a marketing strategy to promote Airwalk in an entirely new radical way. I have since researched into this, and intend to research further, with respect to deriving how viral ads can aid design. So far, from the examples I have shown here in my blog, and from the many, many more examples I have seen myself, I am currently at the conclusion that viral marketing can promote any product or service. This means means it is suitable for design, as some design is in the form of a product ( product design, textiles, jewellery, etc.), whereas other aspects of design come in the form of a service (architecture, interior design etc.).

What I have also come to realise however, is that viral marketing itself is in fact - design. It can be film. It can be graphic design. It can be an installation. It can be a product itself that gets distributed to promote something entirely different. 

It's limitless and infinite, and I fear I have only touched on the tip of the iceberg! 

Design Studies: Viral Ads - Continued

I had posted a rather lengthly post previously about viral ads and why companies chose to go down that route. While still in the studio on a Friday evening, I was surfing the internet checking out some other virals that are out there, so here are my findings and my thoughts on them.

Quicksilver Dynamite Surfing is a good example I just came across. No pun was intended with the previous mention of "surfing" the internet, however! What's clever about it, and somewhat unusual is the products Quicksilver aim to sell are not particularly depicted however unlike the Cadbury's example I gave before - there is a connection, as Quicksilver produce surfing (along with other "extreme sports") clothing.

I found that example on youtube, and via that came across EFFT, - a blog that is dedicated to collecting links to innovative marketing strategies.

The above is a fantastic example of where viral ads are headed. The only problem is, once something new and memorable has been done - thats it, it becomes redundant for future virals. The point is that your viral must be different to whats already been seen. How else are people supposed to remember yours for its originality, if a similar thing has been done in the past? Pushing the boundaries further and further into the realm of nonsensical advertising means it will eventually come to a halt, as eventually (and I hope not in my lifetime, as I enjoy them so much) there will  be nothing new to do. Below, I have included a behind the scenes video, explaining how they managed to create such a film. Find the original at: The Official Ralph Lauren 4D Experience – Behind The Scenes. There, you can also see the New York version.

Now, the silly dance routine has been done a million times over. I know what I have said above about not doing something someone has already done - but certain silly dance routines, in my book, never get that little bit too old. Enjoy:

Wedding Video

Evolution of Dance

American Music Awards Promo

Design Studies: Airwalk, Virals - And An Afro Ninja

As I chose to go more deeply into the Airwalk Case Study section of the book, and as I had quite a keen interest in that field of advertising anyway - here is my related poster in response to the first part of Assignment 2, as documented in my "Design Studies: Storms a' Brewin'" post.

After our brainstorm and subsequent discussion afterwards, I looked more deeply into what starts of a word-of-mouth type viral advert. Firstly, to explain, a viral advert is an advert that does not necessarily depict the product to which it intends to sell, however gains popularity for it's funny/interesting/off the wall content. Via this, it gains momentum - often these days through the internet, and subsequently acquires  attention and publicity for the related (or quite often non related) product - thus selling high quantites as a result. Bingo! Easy really...

Well. The issues (as Airwalk and Lambesis found out) can be that it is very difficult to kick start something like that. I included an example of a successful Airwalk advert in a previous post. 

These days the world is littered with YouTube "stars" - off the top of my head I can name at least 10:

Sneezing Panda

Leave Britney Alone

Tay Zonday - Chocolate Rain

Laughing Baby

Worlds Greatest Freakout

Numa Numa Guy

Star Wars Kid

Afro Ninja

You Dun Goofed Up!

and most recently: Bed Intruder Song

Out of all of these my favourite is still Dramatic Look .

Now I am not for one second saying any of the above are talented, or indeed entertaining (well maybe a few) but for one reason or another they gained notoriety, thus becoming an "internet phenomenon". People often parody these, which although can also be entertaining, only add to the original's popularity all the more. These are exactly the types of things advertisers aim to replicate in order to gain publicity for their products. A few notable examples of this are:

Cadburys Gorilla Ad

 - with follow up Eyebrows Ad

T-Mobile Flashmob Ad

None of the above have any examples of the product, they purely feed off entertainment. They do however, come in more forms other than video marketing. There have been Viral Ad Campaigns in the form of various other media, such as promotional games, websites, images, and obviously videos laced throughout the internet, which then are picked up on by unsuspecting viewers. Subtlety is also an issue, as sometimes it works in a brands favour to allow it to seem like an unrelated source, to which it builds up and is released as the advert. Clever, huh? 

Time is another aspect to which is crucial in making these work. For example, websites that are only online for a set length of time, with for example a count-down timer to release etc. builds interest as it is limited - you have to get on quick to know whats going on. This works well for films. Websites that are quirky and unusual are also known to be successful - such as willitblend.com which tests BlendTec's blending power - by blending whichever product the public request. Engaging the public works well, as if the status of the advert is to progress, people are often enticed to return to catch up with the latest. 

Alternate Reality Games (ARG's) have also been used numerous times as viral adverts in order to promote several things, however they often relate to film and video game release. Cloverfields - which was released in 2008, had clues throughout their trailer that you had to work your way through their sister ARG at 1-18-08.com. 

I've linked in the trailer and related ARG site - so feel free to have a go!

I could honestly talk about this aspect of adverts for hours, but I shan't bore you all with my endless examples I have come across in my time. As viral ad's are not restricted to displaying or conveying the product in question it is entirely possible to use these as a way to attract attention to your project/company. Throwing boxes and boxes and boxes of stickers of your company's logo from above Times Square for example would work in the same way - aim attract confused attention. People immediately question what is going on and as we are inquisitive creatures, approach the commotion to find out what it's all about. I would however of course suggest contacting the local related authorities before clambering up the sides of buildings in the name of advertising.

So thats it really. Cause a stir, a commotion, a ruckus - and people will come flooding.

And well, the rest is history I guess! As easy as that!

Design Studies: My Tipping Point

Epidemics.

When most of us hear that word we think disease. Media induced mayhem. Catch it, bin it, kill it. Quick, you might catch something. Keep your children indoors and immediately phone round all your elderly relatives to make sure they aren't feeling a little "off".

Swine flu. Foot and mouth. Sars. Even in my relatively short life I have been exposed to several epidemics.

But, after reading Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" I have come to understand epidemics in another fashion. Not only disease, but society's behaviour is also susceptible to epidemics, epidemics of trend. Human nature after all, is imitation.

Contagious. There is another disease ridden word. Again though, after reading The Tipping Point I have come to understand that epidemics of trends are contagious. Not unlike a virus. It takes over, spreading through the population, working it's way through vast distances.

The kid wearing the shoes you don't think are "cool" anymore. What are they thinking? Well, 5 months later those same so called "uncool" shoes are on your feet. Trends start by special people, rare people. People who don't mind being out there, different. The thing is, these trends may drift by, unnoticed in the business world. A huge opportunity missed, as not only did they miss a chance of propelling their own product onto the stage under the beaming lights of mainstream, but they of course, and perhaps more importantly to them, missed out on profit.

Airwalk did not miss out. They spotted it. Trendy Southern Californian teens were wearing their brand. They were making a reasonable profit out of this but they were hungry for more. But how to catapult you're brand into the mainstream, yet keep it's underground original cool-ness? Mainstream after all, it not where trends are set. Mainstream is where the lingering dregs of trends hang out. By the time it's in you're local mall, it's not the newest, coolest thing out there.

This was Airwalk's issue.

So they hired a marketing company to create innovative adverts. Not unlike the viral adverts seen today, they created odd, off the wall adverts, that were highly contagious. But this took a lot of behind the scenes leg work to make sure the right topics were brought up via the adverts. They needed the topics that the underground hipsters were interested in, before it hit the fan of mainstream. This is where DeeDee Gordon comes into the picture, as she was another special type of person. Infact doubly special as she was two types out of the three types that The Tipping Point splits people into. Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. These are the three categories rare people fit into, and the types of people who are required in order to tip a trend over the edge and into an epidemic. She is both a Connector - somebody who collects acquaintances and knows many more people than the average person - and a Maven. A Maven is someone who knows a lot. She is somewhat of a fashion Maven. Somebody who has the power of knowledge and has the ability to know when something is going to take off. Due to these traits, she was able to keep tabs on underground trends and use them through Airwalks adverts, early enough that it was new to Joe Public, but cool to the underground scene.

Thanks to the series of ad campaigns, Airwalk seen their peak profit tip $175 Million a year.

Pretty clever really. All by expoiting certain personality traits. This line of attack is seen every day in todays marketing world, although done subtly enough, you probably are blissfully unaware. Yet I'll bet you trudge as I do like a robot and buy whatever has been made into a fashion must have. Be it technology, fashion or a number of other things. Some epidemics are a matter of fate, such as the Baltimore Syphilis outbreak, yet others are constructed to happen with the benefits for the tippers themselves exponential.

Airwalk is only one of several topics brought up throughout Gladwell's "The Tipping Point".  It puts several example epidemics into the context of Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, and explains why some trends take off, while others sink. The drop of crime in New York City during the 1990's. The Syphilis outbreak of Baltimore. The Hush Puppy trend. The Suicide epidemic of Micronesia. Paul Revere during the American Revolution, the examples are endless.

For Design Studies - part of our task was to mind-map the book and then select an area in which to mind-map further. Below is my joint one with Ross, with my own one to follow shortly. I have selected Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen as I find that the most fascinating area.