What were they thinking?

July 17th, 2006 • 11 comments Culture Briefings

This mouth-shaped urinal at a Dutch Mc Donalds was removed after an american toursit made a complain to the head-office in America.

Seriously — what was Mr. McDee thinking with this move? Was this supposed to amuse kids or fuel fire to absurd adult fantasies?!

(Art makes sense in the right context. I probably wouldn’t be offended or think otherwise of these urinals at an art-gallery or even a fun-themed restaurant. But good old Mc Donalds? !)

Cute Inc.

July 17th, 2006 • 2 comments Culture Briefings

I adore Calvin and Hobbes, I think Hello Kitty is an icon and I splurge on grotesque to cute-looking toys from Kidrobot. I thought I was unique in my pursuit of all things iconic and cute — but I’m not alone. The youth in Japan are busy enrolling in Cute,Inc, trying to grab a piece of the cuteness before the trend turns into a fad, cheaply translated by street hawkers. The article suggests that the notion of beauty and beautiful in Japan has become "cute" as opposted to the western, "sexy."
Perhaps this sentence sums up the essence of the quest for cute in Japan:

"Cute is that exclamation from the soul of Japan’s younger generation," much like "soul" or "La Raza," Onishi said.

Food for thought? Hello Kitty inspired credit cards to lure younger kids into becoming financially-savvy (or just spending more money?) Cell-phone charms, toys, and other gadgets now offer a touch of cute, instead of cool.

What’s taking my time

July 10th, 2006 • 7 comments To be filed

I highly recommend IdeaSpotting by Sam Harrison. Whether you are in design, marketing, advertising, product development or even accounting, this book speaks on multiple levels. Information and inspiration is finely dispersed on the pages in byte sized pieces making it the perfect book for busy-on-the-run professionals with limited attention spans.
(Check out the my friend Claire Hyland’s quote in the book!)

If you aren’t really in the mood of making the trip to the bookstore or ordering it online, download Stumbled Upon, a cool add-on for Mozilla browsers. Everytime you click Stumble, it takes you to a cool new website you never knew exisited. Fine source of inspiration and I guess a great tool to kill boredom and waste time!

Are we in-the-know —locally?

July 9th, 2006 • 2 comments To be filed

I’ve got a quick question ?
- How well do we really know our supermarkets, malls and local stores?

Granted, we tech-savvy highly intelligent and insanely busy people are well-versed to shopping online, but you’ve gotta agree with me that online shopping can beat an in-store experience. Even if its just window shopping.

Over the long weekend, I took a short trip to DC. Partly because I wanted to get away and partly because I wanted an excuse to shop. I spent an entire day shopping and when I showed my loot to friends, one of them exclaimed, ‘You bought that from Urban Outfitters and Club Monaco?!” We have those in New York. Why would you go to DC all the way to shop there?”

Fair enough. I was stumped. Now that I look back, I remembered browsing through the staple stores in the shopping district of Georgetown. Arden B, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Benetton, Intermix, Gap, FCUK, Adidas, Sisley, Club Monaco, Armani Exchange…. Patagonia,
I couldn’t remember a single DC-centric boutique. I am sure DC has it’s share of proud boutique-owners but sadly, the truth is — these major chain stores have snapped up some very expensive real estate in the prime location of most cities. And despite my best intentions (and any other tourists’s best intentions..) I think it is very natural to shop and visit places that are most accessible.

Also the lure of being able to buy a piece of clothing or home acessory or even a book for that matter for one of tehse chain stores is made easier by the fact that I could purchase an H&M shirt in DC and return it in San Fransisco if I wanted to.

Also, lets face it. Half the time we have no clue what stores around our area carry. Not all retailers websites carry listings of every single item available in their store. Sometimes– you simply gotta browse through the actual store.

It helps that these major retailers can afford to slash prices majorly during sales. Boutiques and independent stores cannot always afford this luxury.

Just thoughts ruminating in my head- thought I’d put them out there for your inputs.

The Interactive Imperative

July 6th, 2006 • 4 comments Social Media

 
When there are literally hundreds of web sites offering the same news, contests, prizes, and promotions, what really differentiates them from one another? Seventeen magazine’s decision to offer profiles of its editors on MySpace, the Weblogs created by Shop Etc. and Jane magazine, and Condé Nast’s plans for a user-generated teen Web site  such moves are unsurprising, even inevitable. But simply going digital and making the people who produce the magazines more personable doesn’t necessarily guarantee a greater level of reader engagement.

When ElleGirl decided to fold its print vehicle and run as a digital magazine, we thought that the decision may have been a bit premature. Readers like to touch and feel the pages of a magazine, and then recreate that experience online. The print experience triggers the need for the online experience. It also creates the opportunity for sharing with friends. While a two-way exchange is a mandatory evolution to ensure survival, digital components alone do not create an interactive interface. A structured balance enlisting a creative use of various online and offline outlets is the key to creating an interactive exchange between editors and readers.

Last spring, five editors with diverse backgrounds published the first issue of Is Not Magazine, a simple one-page, billboard-like sheet that appeared in the form of wild postings in Melbourne, Australia. The effort not only saved a few trees, but it challenged readers. Produced, printed, and "distributed" Down Under, the tiny magazine, or news-zine, pushed the boundaries of what the publishing world deems a magazine, a newspaper, or newsletter. Is Not Magazine erased existing myths of what a magazine is or should be.

Instead of simply posting content on its Web site, the magazine invites readers to participate in unusual ways. Readers can click on images of pieces that interest them from their camera phone and save for viewing later, or they can send, via text message, a 160-character Flash-enabled story, or write whatever they want on the posting itself. Is Not Magazine understands that interactivity is not limited to having an online identity. Readers’ short attention spans and the plethora of media choices have outpaced the lure of the digital age. Creativity and innovation are defining interactivity  and they are signaling the next big marketing idea.

The dynamic shift toward user-generated content and more active consumer engagement will only gain prominence in the future. While YouTube and Facebook offer users the ability to post their films and friend networks, respectively, Uth TV, a combination of both formats, has taken interactivity to a higher level. The site Uthtv.com is an online channel that invites users to both network and create communities and upload their movies and short films.

But the site has gone farther and provided users with a platform to be recognized for their work. A peer voting system brings the best work forward; selected users have the chance to turn their work into full-fledged productions and potentially paid work. In fact, two of the youth-produced shows have been nominated for Emmy Awards this year. Who knew such a concept could work?

Another impressive venture is the site impnow.com, which has integrated interactivity with the glamour of reality TV. The site lures youth by promising to serve as a launching pad for their entertainment careers. It’s "American Idol" meets "Survivor," played out in an online environment similar to MySpace. The thrill of networking with the potential for an incentive represents interactivity at the highest levels in both of these cases.

Still nascent, these are examples of online media opportunities that challenge the boundaries of traditional media and represent authentic interaction with users.

With 83 percent of youth online at any given time, according to Yankelovich Youth Monitor 2005, kids no longer trade phone numbers. Instead, they ask, "Are you on MySpace or Facebook?" By giving kids the ability to cultivate their voice and a platform to display their talents or their 15 minutes of fame, this new wave of media is giving birth to an entire generation of users that will demand innovative ideas. Publishers that don’t get this risk irrelevance, or worse: Consumers who just won’t respond and who definitely won’t interact.

Co-written with Tina Wells for Media magazine.