Hill+Knowlton Strategies

You! Yes, you! Welcome, once again (presuming that you’ve been here before – if you’ve stumbled across this whilst searching for pornography then I apologise in advance for the lack of nudity but offer you a sincere first-timers’ welcome) to Web Curios.

God, that was a desperately poor intro. Sorry. What can I say? It’s Friday afternoon, and I’ve spent the entire week feeling a bit hungover under the weather. Not to mention the impact on my mood that this has had. It’s hard sometimes being a webmong (as you will well know). Nonetheless, I am putting my personal feelings of exhaustion and ennui to one side to bring you another selection of stuff I found online this week that one or two of you could conceivably find moderately interesting.

(It should be apparent by now that I am not a salesman).

We begin, this week, with a video – If you do nothing else here this week, watch this. It’s 5 minutes long, and is by far and away the best description I have yet seen of how virality works. Ignore the scaremongering undertones, and just think about how the meme below spreads. Oh, and for the non-geeks among you, a quick explanation of what 4chan is – you know all the stuff that features on those lists of the ‘biggest viral sensations EVER’? Stuff like RickRolling, the Numa Numa kid, Chocolate Rain and YouTube Porn Day? They all start at 4chan (WARNING – that link is direct to 4chan; the landing page is safe but I take no responsibility for what you might find beyond that (clue: porn and swearing)). It’s…just mental, really. Anyway, the video….

Oh Nestle… – Other ’social media gurus/mavens/experts/(insert meaningless title of your choice)’ will do this at length over the next few hours / days, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the tone of Nestle’s reponses to comments on their Facebook page probably didn’t do them any favours… Of course, as my esteemed colleague Dan Leach pointed out, it could all be very clever work by Greenpeace…

EDIT: @Malbonster just pointed me in this direction – Nestle’s share price over the past 5 days. Spot where today is on that graph…

Twitter Announces @anywhere – Ok, so what this is (massively simplified) is Twitter’s next step in terms of integrating itself with other, 3rd party websites. The TechCrunch piece linked to in the title is a decent overview (and this is a shorter one)- what it doesn’t seemingly touch on, though, is the potential implications for the development of a ‘universal’ online identity. Could this be a first step into the creation of a one login / username culture, integrated across all platforms? The BBC’s announcement yesterday of greater integration with both Facebook and Twitter would suggest it could be…Oh, and at the same time Twitter also declared that it wanted to be ‘A Force For Good’. Isn’t that nice? And…er…haven’t we heard that before somewhere?

I WANT THIS TABLE IN OUR OFFICES. IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT THAT SOMEONE IMPORTANT IS READING THIS, CAN YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN PLEASE? THANKS.

Can I have the whisky too, please? Kthxbai.

The Times is set to introduce its Paywall in the next few weeks – Will be fascinating to see what happens (clue: it won’t be an increase in traffic) and how other big media players respond.

What a magazine on the iPad might look like - Women’s digital magazine Viv put together this shiny demo, showcasing how their content might work on an iPad. My first thoughts? Content for people who really enjoyed Sin City but who don’t actually like reading very much.

An iPhone app that lets you create virtual balloon animals! – If this doesn’t make you smile just a little bit then you are dead to me. Seriously.

A Few Nice PR / Marketing Case Studies

• Skittles for Valentine’s Day – Part of the ongoing trend in giving people real-life (cool) stuff in exchange for engagement with brands on social media (see also the Marmarati)
• Burger King’s Whopper Face – Your face, on a burger, in Brazil. Genius.
• Heineken Italy – Been everywhere this week, and rightly so)
• (NB – 2 of the above came courtesy of @webkitten, for which thanks are due.)

A Wonderful Collection of Social Media Infographics – useful, courtesy of Michael Schulz whose personal website is also very nicely designed.

CANNONBALL KITTY

I can haz projectile

And, to finish (I know, I know, tldr), this week’s video selection:

1)Losers – ‘Flush’ feat Riz MC & Envy: Great track, great video and Envy is set to be huge this year (obviously if she isn’t then I never said that)

2) I went to see this lot on Tuesday. Great gig, though I did actually cause someone to leave the venue towards the end. In the unlikely event that you ever read this: sorry, Annoying Pair of Girls, but you were really getting on my tits:

3) The Internet of Things: how the planet is developing a central nervous system. 5 minutes of frankly insane futurology here from IBM:

4) Finally, a music video of near-Gaga levels of insanity. WHY THE SELLOTAPE???

Hello, webmongs. Happy Friday and all that. As I write, it’s 11:52am and it would appear that EVERYONE on the internet is watching the Beyonce / Lady Gaga lipstick-lesbian product placement extravaganza (otherwise known as the promo for new single ‘Telephone‘). I’m not, though. I am slaving over a hot keyboard to bring you a random, disconnected bunch of rubbish from the internets. SEE MY STAKHANOVITE DEDICATION AND WONDER.

I won’t lie to you, webmongs, it’s been a week of tribulations – who knew babyfaced pop-moppet Mark Owen even had a penis, let alone that he was sharing it with people who weren’t his partner? Shocking.  Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, let’s get this thing started shall we?  The sooner I crack on, the sooner I can start taking furtive sips from the bottle of advocaat I keep hidden under my desk.

SXSW and the ‘Check-In Wars’ – Ok, so ‘wars’ is maybe a little hyperbolic. Nonetheless. SXSW is a 9-day festival covering ‘interactive’, music and film, which takes place in Austin, Texas each year. Basically it’s a great big hipster / techy love-in, populated by the sort of people who only buy music that’s been endorsed by Pitchfork (full disclosure: I am a bit like that). The ‘interactive’ portion is all about new tech and innovation, and ‘features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer’. Apparently.

Anyway, this year the pre-festival buzz has centred on the growing competition between Foursquare and Gowalla, the two companies currently dominating the world of location-based mobile apps. In the unlikely event that you are reading this and don’t know what they are, read this.

Given the fact that everyone in the Western world is likely to have a smartphone of sorts within the next 24 months, a lot of money is being wagered on location-based apps being the next big thing. This week, both the major playors announced new features – Foursquare plugging its analytics tools that will allow businesses to see who is checking in and when, meaning that they can better tailor their promotions to match their customers; and Gowalla integrating pictures and comments to its check-in service adding an extra layer of sociability to the platform. Whilst Foursquare’s currently winning in terms of users, it will be interesting to see the competition playing out over the next few months.

Oh, and you may not believe that these things are ever going to catch on with real people (ie those who aren’t Soho-dwelling generic media wankers), but the fact that Facebook is set to also allow users to share their location should give you pause for thought. This stuff will go mainstream, honest.

QUICK UPDATE – Just spotted an excellent overview of the two platforms by Corey Frey of Huddle Productions

Whew, that was long. Why not take a breather and read this beautiful, short comic about fathers and sons? See you back here in a bit.

Heat Magazine succinctly illustrates one of the reasons print media isn’t quite as good as digital – print deadlines…

Rich, successful man in 'unfaithful' SHOCKER!

One of the best pieces of creative website design I’ve seen in years, for Wrangler

AOL Launches ‘Lifestream’ – Another big trend for the coming months that trendspotters (people with sharp haircuts, sharper glasses and dust where their souls should be) have been banging on about of late is convergence – that is, a move towards integrating your different online platforms and identities in order to make them easier to manage. We’ve already seen this with Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc, all allowing you to synch your status updates with your Twitter account – AOL’s ‘Lifestream’ is an attempt to create a standalone platform that integrates feeds from ALL your social networks into one place. It’s an interesting concept – not sure if AOL has the clout to make it stick, but again something else which we’ll see more of in coming months.

ANOTHER social app: Plancast – This is worth knowing about, if only because it’s an interesting proposition. Rather than an app that lets you share what you are doing now, Plancast is designed to help you share what you will be doing in the future – basically a social planner app. Really simple, but there’s a gap for exactly that sort of service right now.

Lewis Hamilton’s Secret Life – What do you think Lewis Hamilton does in his spare time? Discusses Baudrillard with his suspiciously transgender-looking girlfriend? Contemplates the theoretical beauty of Euler’s Identity? Stares into space as lonely tears course down his cheeks? Nope, none of those. What he in fact does, according to the new Alternate Reality Game for Reebok which launched this week, is recover stolen artworks like some sort of masculine Lara Croft. I’m frankly puzzled by both the backstory and mechanic for this – I’m a fan of ARGs, but this use of Lewis feels a bit bolted on, frankly, and I’m still unclear as to the link back to the brand.

Attach Digital Content to Barcodes – Bit hard to explain, this, but bear with me. This service allows you to attach digital content to any barcode – that means that if someone scans the barcode with their smartphone, having downloaded the StickyBits app, their phone will automatically take them to the webpage associated to that barcode. So, for example, you could link the Lady Gaga video mentioned all the way up there to the barcode on the CD single – meaning anyone who scanned the barcode with their iPhone could watch the video immediately. Now think about the fact that you can create your own unique barcodes, link them to whatever you want, print them out, stick them to things…the possibilities are huge, particularly for guerilla marketing campaigns.

Raising Awareness Of, And Funds For, he Homeless in NYC – a great piece of creative highlighting the plight of the homeless. As someone pointed out to me, though, it is horrendous that people are more likely to interact with a virtual homeless person than give money to a real one.

Play The Beatbox Game – take ten minutes to try this; it’s WONDERFUL

Take A Photographic Tour Through an Abandoned Lunatic Asylum – Pretty much as unsettling as you’d imagine

And, to finish, some videos:

1) Last weekend the lead singer of one of my favourite bands, Sparklehorse, committed suicide. Mark Linkous was a very, very talented musician – here’s a small example of that talent:

2) To lighten the mood, watch as infinite teddybears invade Worthing sea front (by the amazing Cyriak):

3) UK hiphop really, really loves Nando’s:

4) As of this week, you can now buy a jetpack – this is what it looks like in action:

I should probably try and come up with a better title than this. One thing at a time, though, eh?

This week’s selection of stuff is coming to you a day earlier than normal, as tomorrow I am taking the day off to recover from this charity fundraiser. Given that Haiti is still in an absolute mess, you may want to donate money to an appropriate organisation here or here – go on, you know you want to.

Anyway, this week’s (bumper) selection begins with…

AMAZING FLYING ROBOT LIGHTSHOW – Those amazingly clever people at MIT have put together a prototype video to show what can be done with an army of light-up miniature helicopters. Frankly, after seeing the potential of this stuff even 3d projection starts to look a bit lame…

Vogue iPhone app makes ‘Clueless’ a reality – remember in the film ‘Clueless’ when Alicia Silverstone’s spoilt California teen uses a computer programme to coordinate an outfit from her MASSIVE wardrobe? If you’re under 30 there’s every possibility you won’t, but no matter – Vogue has created an iPhone app that does much the same thing. What’s interesting is that it only allows you to input your clothes into the app if they’re made by one of Vogue’s current advertisers – smart way of keeping your paymasters happy and incentivising other brands to take the plunge and buy ad space with you.

AxeCop - this isn’t strictly speaking new (it’s been knocking about the internet for a month or so), but I want everyone in the world to see it and marvel at its beauty. AxeCop is the stories of 5 year old Malachai Nicolle, as illustrated by his very talented elder brother Ethan. It is basically the insanity of a small boy’s imagination, beautifully illustrated and turned into a comic strip. Read it and weep with laughter. A video taster is below:

Jaron Lanier on people, the internet, the free culture movement…well, everything really – This is a transcript of Dr Aleks Krotoski’s interview with Jaron Lanier as part of the BBC’s recent series of programmes on the internet, ‘The Virtual Revolution’. Lanier, fyi, is one of the great pioneers of internet technology and the author of the recently published ‘You Are Not A Gadget’. I won’t attempt to summarise it here, but if you have any interest whatsoever in the way the web is changing the manner in which we consume information, relate to each other, buy things, sell things, think about things, create things…then you should read this.

Apropos nothing, a rather nicely designed poster for K-Swiss trainers

I like this (via http://bntl.co.uk/)

More Wonderful Scandinavian Creativity – I don’t know what it is with the public sector in Sweden and their ability to use social media incredibly well, but after the brilliant ‘Your Face Here’ viral from Swedish state TV last year they have done it again. The above is a link to a case study of a brilliant campaign by the Swedish Post Office to target the elderly, in part by showing them how easy internet shopping is (because if you shop on the internet, the post office benefits). Watch, marvel, inevitably try and steal.

Newsweek in 1995, telling us all why the internet will never catch on – no explanation necessary.

Noone Knows What The F*ck They’re Doing – a very funny, very true, rant about three types of knowledge. Rumsfeldian in parts, but no worse for it. WARNING – CONTAINS 4-LETTER WORDS.

Video of the Week: ‘Scissor’ by Liars