rubbishcorp® Talking In Amsterdam (ish)
I’m gonna be talking about ‘What Makes An Anomaly’, at the Creative Company Conference in Haarlem on the 14th of September. Maybe I’ll see you there…
Link.
Atomic Floyd FAIL
Last november the nice folks at Atomic Floyd sent me a pair of HiDefJax headphones. Nice looking phones with a quality sound. I liked them a lot, but then, about 5 months later, they broke. The sound stopped coming out of one of the tiny speakers. I alerted the Floyd who very kindly sent me another pair of the same phones. Awesome, except that pair is now broken. The sound has stopped coming out of one of the tiny speakers. Rubbish. Once is forgivable, twice is just bad.
So, if you read my post and have bought a pair – I’m sorry. If you haven’t and you’re looking for a new pair of phones, probably best not get a pair of Atomic Floyd as they seemingly only last 4/5 months.
Previous post here.
Atomic Floyd – for bad products – rubbishcorp® un-salutes you.
rubbishcorp® Cannes Young Lions Creative Stable
rubbishcorp® is sponsoring the Dutch and UK Young Lions contenders in Cannes this year. I’ve long wondered why sponsorship is largely reserved for people who do sport – when the mechanic clearly works across many other industries. The rubbishcorp® Cannes Young Lions Creative Stable is headed up by Niels & Pascal who are representing the Netherlands. Niels & Pascal caught my eye at last years Portfolio night with an outstanding level of thinking for two so young. I brought them into (what was) RIOT where they proved themselves as some of the best young creatives I have worked with, both in ability and attitude. Niels & Pascal now work for the mighty Achtung in Amsterdam and are certainly ones to watch.
Secondly, Alfred Malmros and Luke are killing it in the UK. Alfred is a member of my ‘non-department’ creative department at Anomaly. His (Young Lions) partner Luke is someone with whom I’ve had contact over the last few years (with his regular partner Wilf). These guys are all incredibly talented strategic creatives (creatigists as you’d call them if you were a t**t). Luke & Wilf currently working at Sony Music. Alfred’s sponsorship is technically a shared undertaking as Mr Paul (Hospital 100) Graham and Mr Malmros colluded in adding Anomaly to the rubbishcorp® sponsorship action.
I’ll be updating the progress of the rubbishcorp® Cannes Young Lions Creative Stable through out the week. If you’re in Cannes be sure to say hello to the boys and buy them a beer. Niels, Pascal and Luke will be wearing the pure rubbishcorp® branded (above) clothing, with Alfred wearing a hybrid rubbishcorp® Anomaly garment (below).
Go rubbishcorp® Cannes Young Lions Creative Stable!
N&P here.
Alfred here.
Luke & Wilf here.
Farewell Amsterdam
On Friday June the 25th I will be joining a few other people in Cafe Molenpad, Prinsengracht 653 to say farewell to Amsterdam. If you wanna come say goodbye I’ll be there from around 8…
rubbishcorp® Vs Anomaly
Just over 4 years ago I started to follow the fortunes of a small New York based agency called Anomaly. The thing that caught my attention about Anomaly was the way the company presented itself. Not since my early days at Mother had I heard an agency be so distinct about what it represented and what it intended to be as a brand. And not since those days had I felt such affinity with a company vision. Anomaly has since proven itself as that new model agency, blurring the borders between traditional marketing services and working successfully as a business development partner. That billing and work is attracting a certain type of client and partner – and it’s those people that I see as the future of this business.
A little over a year ago I learned that the small New York based agency was to become a small London based agency. We met and we talked about the possibility of my working at that agency. At that time there wasn’t really a need for a Creative Director, but I think, even then, we both knew that wasn’t going to be the case for very long.
And fortunately it wasn’t.
I am so happy to be able to announce that I am now that Creative Director. The opportunity to work with the brands on this roster is magnificent. And the opportunity to be part of the future of an agency as smart, special and as distinct as Anomaly is a career dream come true.
Bring it on.
Miami Ad School | Amsterdam
Very soon after I arrived here in The Amsterdam I started teaching at the Miami Ad School – last night (18 months later) I took my final class. As I left I realised that (professionally) the Ad School experience was one of the best I’ve had while I’ve lived here. Not only was it hugely rewarding to work with, and try help, so many talented people – but I also learned loads from each group of students as well as loads about myself and my work. The school does a fantastic job of giving students that want to work in ‘Advertising’ an opportunity to work with real agency people and get real briefs. The mix of tutor discipline is good and practically all of those I talked about it with said they loved the course and the opportunities it provided. Thank you Peggy, Joanna, Marjo and all for making my time there so worth while. If you’re reading this and you sat one of my classes please let me know how you are getting along. I am very sad to leave the school and I hope I can continue to work with students in London.
Miami Ad School Amsterdam – rubbishcorp® salutes you.
PS. Beer for the first person to name the dude in the foreground of the above photo.
rubbishcorp® ‘Pop -Up’ Playstation Portable
I’ve been perfecting the design of this unit for a few days now (obviously I’m pretty busy). A wheeled IKEA bedside table, 40″ TV, console selection, iPad, phones and 5m extension cable.
Makes any room in the house an instant ‘pop-up*’ arcade.
*Incase you don’t work in marketing – pop-up items are very ‘le dernier cri’.
Facebook Like Plug-In
This is a test post as I have just installed the fblikebutton plug-in. If said fblikebutton plug-in works there’ll should be a little ‘Like’ button just below this text. More to follow…
Pieneken | Concept Pub
I had this thought on the way to work this morning – what if you were to open a bar that sold nothing but beer and pies?
The initial idea would be to open one here in Amsterdam, but I guess the idea has a certain global appeal – just so long as there are English people around.
Heineken would likely never allow it – nevertheless, I think it’s a winner.
Anyone?
rubbishcorp® Vs CreativeSocial
rubbishcorp® is the voice of @creativesocial this week.
Internet Fluffer Visualization | Pop ‘N’ Gloss
© rubbishcorp® + internetfancy 2010.
rubbishcorp® Vs The Future / Some Random Thoughts For 2010
These thoughts are in no particular order, neither are they rounded to a specific number or individual theme. They are all things that I have a keen interest in and write about regularly here on this blog.
That There Cloud.
The only thing stopping the mass adoption of cloud technology is peoples reluctance to give up owning stuff. New household brands like Spotify, Apple and Google are all making the whole thing seem a lot more friendly and are paving the way for that mass adoption. Unsurprisingly they’re not alone, many others are testing the waters – figuring out a model that works for them.
Meanwhile the hype and fear has now passed and so people can more easily get onboard. 2010 will see the flood gates open and the migration of our complete digital lives to a online storage facility begin. The only question now is how much are you going to pay to store and access all your digital stuff?
Mobile.
The market for downloadable applications will continue to grow at a fearsome pace. Surprisingly, and despite all the hype, Apple’s App store still only accounts for 13% of the total market share for downloadable apps where Symbian/S60 (Nokia) accounts for 46%. The Open handset alliance, oFono (Nokia/Intel) and others are beginning to suggest/realize feasible alternatives to Apple in the smart phone market. Of course, iPhone will continue to grow, but now so will it’s competitors. Given the might of one in particular, I wouldn’t close the book just yet.
For agencies to succeed in mobile marketing this year, they’ll need to provide people with a measurable degree of utility, relevance, or entertainment (no surprises there). That success can and has come from developing mobile applications for smart devices. It’s pretty rich ground given the billion + downloads from the app store and with other platforms growing expect many more marketers trying their hand at utility based consumer communication.
Augmented Reality
Ubiquitous GPS and compasses in mobile devices will make augmented reality increasingly indispensable. There are already numerous applications for iPhone and Android mobiles that assist us in ‘finding places we need’ and the trend isn’t about to ease up. Location-based gaming will also continue to spread, littering our virtual worlds with puzzles, easter eggs and big huge monsters. On top of that navigation displays will switch from top down map-based action to arrows on the ‘real’ street. More remarkably you ‘ll need only to point your camera at someones face to find out who they are and what their name is.
iPTV
This year broadband-enabled (iP)TV will finally get fully piped into the lounge of the masses. It’s been a long time coming but it should mean you actually get a truly ‘on-demand’ TV experience on a TV screen in that big lounge. And it won’t just be like TV, you can be sure each broadcaster will integrate social networking and media applications into their offerings to keep you glued to their offering. What’s really interesting is that Apple is moving towards this ‘living-room’ space while the other electronics giants are trying to move into Apples area…
Regardless, TV viewing is up and people want the choice the internet provides, 2010 will be the year they get it – the only questions are what and who from?
3D TV
If iPTV wasn’t enough, 3D TV will also be bursting into your living room over the next few months. While manufacturers, content providers and broadcasters (like Sky who are planning to film the world cup in 3D) are embracing the revolution, a question mark still remains over whether consumers will be as willing. Viewers will of course need to buy a shiny new TV to marvel at the 3D pictures and the manufacturers have not yet confirmed how much their 3D sets will cost. I wouldn’t bet against it initially being very expensive. Plus, there’s the tiny matter of those silly glasses; yes, you will need to wear special spectacles to watch, that is until the second generation, which will apparently do the 3D magic automatically. It’s clear that the tech will need to overcome some significant problems before consumers get as (cash on counter) excited by the prospect of 3D as the content providers and electronics companies so clearly are. Then perhaps that’s only because it’s a lot more difficult to pirate a 3D experience, right?
Gaming.
If there’s one thing that isn’t conjecture in this post it’s that gaming will continue to lead the way as the most rapidly evolving and creative industry around. Most notably the PS3 will continue to see a bit of a sales bounce. The trend will continue into 2010, when hotly anticipated exclusives like God of War III, Gran Turismo 5, MAG, Heavy Rain and The Last Guardian start rolling out. As more and more people jump on the HD bandwagon Sony‘s built-in Blu-ray make it a compelling all-in-one home entertainment machine. Plus there are those awesome rumors that a PS3 can run 3D games with little more than a tiny software update (and a 3D TV of course). This combo should see the PS3 become a little more competitive with the Wii (HD?) and the Xbox 360, even with the arrival of Project Natal.
On that note Natal is slated for 2010 release. Don’t get your hopes up though, even if the tech makes it to ours shelves (which I think may be a little hopeful), it’s unlikely to make much of an initial impact as few developers will be prepared enough to make full use of the systems potential. Rest assured that when they do you’ll sure as hell know about it.
Social Media.
In 2010 we’ll begin to see social networks focus more on specific niche models over just general socializing/annoying old school friends. It’s a natural evolution, services like Ning are already gaining share and the reality is that people are more willing to pay for access to specialty networking groups, which makes the proposition way more attractive to the major players.
Payment models will exclude advertising/spammers (see below) and will enable higher-quality offerings for the user – this the key to successfully monetizing the networks and the big guns know it.
Corps (including this one, obviously) will begin to include social media initiatives on a larger scale, and higher up the food chain. Many will move beyond reliance on marketing initiatives and will begin to engage their own social media experts/departments, if they haven’t done so already.
Many organizations are waking up to time-sucking qualities of social networks in their office spaces and so may ban its use. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that employees will seek to feed their social media addictions on their mobile devices and as a result, sales of ‘social software enabled’ smartphones will be on the up.
The big loser this year is poor old electronic mail. Social Networking sites are beginning to own information and content sharing, Mozilla (creator of the worlds biggest browser) is on the offensive with Raindrop and, although it got off off to a shaky start, I can’t see Google Wave laying down without a fight. It’s not over yet, but the writing is definitely on the ewall (sorry).
Apple.
At the time of post it seems Apple is intent on releasing a 10″ iPhone. Supposedly, it will be very pretty, reasonably priced and you’ll be able to be constantly connected to the interwebs with the thing. Sounds good on paper but the reality may be very different. You have to ask yourself why would you want a 10″ iPhone if you already have a regular iPhone that fits in your pocket and a Macbook for everything else?*
*Of course I have got this horribly wrong – everyone desperately wants a 10″ iPhone.
And finally- pay-per-view advertising?
A prominent trend, and something a little more worrying for the industry, is advertising as a punishment for being poor. Spotify is a good example (of course there are many more) as in it offers a premium service that is effectively the same an the basic service only devoid of advertising. And then, more interestingly, there are services like Blyk, that offer highly desirable free stuff, just so long as you can prove you have interacted with the sponsors. Services like Blyk differ in as much as the ad content can be carefully targeted, therefore relevant and useful.
We all know ad cash is increasingly going to a much more diverse and fragmented array of marketing disciplines; social networks, mobile, search engines and PR etc. This effectively means advertisers have to work much harder to get your attention, I’m just not sure forcing people to interact with ad’s is really the best solution in the long term.
rubbishcorp® Is Three
I’ve been in a pitch type scenario today so I haven’t much to report back. The only thing of note is that today marks the 3rd birthday of rubbishcorp®. Obviously rubbishcorp® is as much yours as it is mine so keep up he good reading work and I’ll keep up the posting action.
♥
Movember | 180
Pretty good effort from the boys, but there’s only one winner in my eyes.
Oh, and if you’re native – vote for me!
Movember here.
Creative Social ‘Live’
UPDATE: THIS WAS A MASSIVE FAIL.
I am going to attempt to ‘live-blog’ (which is obviously a lie by definition) Creative Social. I will do this by continually updating this post as the day unfolds. It’s a bit rubbish I know but it might work. Obviously the whole thing depends on the availability of a WiFi internet connection device, so bear with me/us.
Before we go to PIXAR we’re stopping of at the Blue Bottle Roastery/Coffee Bar, for some coffee. Sadly I don’t like coffee so I can’t really get excited about this action. It’s interesting to learn about how a place like this runs and manages roasting, outlets and distribution – be much better if it was about tea thou. In case you’re wondering – apparently the coffee is ‘well-good n that’.
