emconsteroids

Helvetica - the documentary film by Gary Huswit is now available for download in iTunes.

I got myself a limited edition of the movie on DVD last year and saw the movie a couple of times already. Even though it is not exceptionally exciting, it has a few interesting passages. Towards the end of the movie however it’s slightly too long stretched. If you enjoy beautiful fonts though, this is a movie for you. Even just looking at the images makes your heart jump higher … because let’s be honest: Helvetica is the most beautiful typeface ever designed.

What I find striking about the movie being on iTunes are two things:

1.) Distribution has become dirt cheap. Whereas before, you had to produce DVDs including all sorts of material such as DVD packaging, cover design, DVD design and merchandising, nowadays you simply upload it to what is to become the universal gate for software. This is good for the producers, the consumers and above all: Apple. This however is a worry to media distribution companies such as Universal, Sony, Warner and the such.

2.) The second thing that strikes me about this is what I’ve just done can be done easily: recommending or linking to it. This for sure will drive sales as a sale is basically less than 5 clicks or 5 seconds away from here. I find it wrong that I can generate value for all those guys mentioned above (the consumers, the producers and Apple) without seeing a single penny.

Something has to be invented here. I’m working on it. Stay tuned!

I get more and more the feeling, that sophisticated interactive online marketing websites has become increasingly common. Check out a couple of interesting marketing campaigns which probably costed more to produce than a 30 second advertising spot:

Cadbury Chocolate:

Coke Zero:

Smirnoff:

Highe-Chen:

Ikea:

The Economist’s “The World in 2008” gives some interesting insight into what may or may not happen in 2008:

• To watch: Texting for cash. Mobile banking is taking off in places such as Kenya and the Philippines. This allows low-income workers to use their mobile phones to make and receive small payments at neighbourhood kiosks, eliminating the need to visit a bank.
• To watch: Bragging blogs. More than 90% of marketing departments will launch a “social media” campaign, such as a blog, in 2008, according to Lewis PR, a United States-based global agency. By 2009 two-thirds of marketers will set aside up to 25% of their budgets for online social media.
• NOT to watch: IPTV. The success of internet protocol television—watching your favourite shows over broadband connections—is not likely to take off for some years, mainly because of competition from cable and satellite operators.

Source: http://www.economist.com/theworldin/forecasts/industry.cfm?d=2008

Also interesting: The Economist’s take on “Technology in 2008“

Who would have thought this? The Sun promotes QR Codes on it’s yesterday issue. On page three to boot:

This is a QR code, a new kind of barcode, and it will revolutionalise the way you use your mobile – and the way you read your Sun.

You may already know it. If not, be warned, this is something, you will never ever forget anymore. And here it is: There’s an arrow in the FedEx logo. Can you spot it?

If you can’t see it, read how the FedEx logo came into place.

approximeeting pp. Getting together with one or more people by first arranging an approximate time or place and then firming up the details later on, usually via cell phone.
—approximeet v.

Source Wordspy

Yesterday, Google acquired YouTube which surprised a lot of people in the industry. After all Google already has its own video service. So what could be a good reason to spend another 1.6 bn US Dollars? I think it’s the brand. YouTube’s clever moves focussing on connectivity, enabling easy ways of linking and embedding their content into third party sites or applications lead them to one of the best known online brands in the world. And all this just within the tiny time span of 18 months. But Google too is one of the best known online brands in the world. So why should they buy something famous to become famous, if they already are famous?

I think the strategy is obvious: Video content is the kind of content, that users are willing to pay for. Video on demand/digital TV is a good example. On top of that, video is a very suitable channel to distribute advertising content. I believe, Google will use YouTube as a vehicle to escalate the usage of Google Checkout and therefore push PayPal from their throne. Google Checkout is by far the most promising product out of their palette. All it needs is the world wide acceptance and a proper application. And the world needs a reason to use Google Checkout. Wouldn’t video just be ideal for that?

PS: I can see a product where everybody can upload their own videos and actually *sell* them. Obviously all transactions and user accounts would require Google Checkout. Imagine how the next lonelygirl15 will become rich and trigger a torrent of imitators… all in the benefit of Google.

Viral marketing is still a phenomenon that is not completely understood. From the commercial point of view, it just sounds incredibly effective and in the context of networked media and networked society the terminology is very topical.

Here is a small presentation held by GoViral held in Cannes earlier this year (I believe). In my opinion, it is not a particularly good presentation. A lot of information has been around for a while and is not really new, but every once in a while, there is a little spark of brilliance. Judge yourself:

Curiosity is as old as humankind. Ever since humans exist, they want to explore the world they are living in. They want to reach the “Edge of the World” to see what’s beyond it, even if it puts their lives in great danger.

Many conquerers and explorers left their harbors and sailed the seas without having an idea where they are going not to mention whether they will survive. Many of them died at sea, but - as we know today - nobody died of falling off the “Edge of the World”.

At some stage it became clear that the world we are living in is a sphere rather than a plate - and soon after, the big conquer of the limited space on this sphere began. Colonialism shaped more than a Century of our history and drove the explorers to every single spot of this world. Every possible species was examined, every territory mapped and every finding studied.

At some stage however, the discovery of the world came to a stall. This must have been around the time, when mapping and navigation was being practiced at such a high sophistication, that the whole world as it looks like could be explained - or at least kind of overviewed.

Needless to say that the fundamentally deep curiosity does not cease at that stage. Something else has to be found. And if it’s not the Earth, surely, it must be Space.

The exploration of space goes back to the times when the first optical telescopes were probably built by the Assyrians with crystal lenses. But exploring space is not like observing space - and thus, as soon as it was possible, research focused on how to leave the planet. This research had been catalyzed by the fact that two competing nations were racing each other for the superiority in space. Not only because of military or strategic interests - but since nobody knew what could be expected out there also for “space colonialism” - or at least to move the research forward in case there should be a point in colonizing space.

During the Cold War, the race for space was in full swing and could only be stopped once the Iron Curtain fell and partly by the Challenger disaster in 1986. Ever since, space exploration had become more steady and the focus shifted from military and explorationary interests to more fundamental research.

But I think, those are not the only reasons why space exploration calmed down a bit. One often underestimated reason is also the discovery of a new space: The “virtual” space called Internet. There is a lot of work ahead for the explorers of the Internet, a truly infinite and timeless n-dimensional space.

PS: The Roundhouse in Camden, London showed an interesting exhibition called “Space Soon - Art and Human Spaceflight” which I was attending.