[agendagroup]

The Art of the GIF

by Kim K.

We love GIFS. They make us laugh. They make us cringe. We’ve made some pretty stellar ones after long meetings and late nights -- today’s inside joke. But while we like making our own GIFS we really appreciate the art of GIFS from all of the other GIF-makers out there.

So we started to look for these artists. A zillion of tweets ago, we came across GIFRIENDS, a group of talented GIF-makers and friends. I (not-so-secretly) wanted to be friends with them. Their name alone said we were destined to be friends.

As you know, I’m a big fan of Collaborative Art so I thought it would be fun to try a collaborative GIF. The idea: each group would provide images to work with and each group would “GIF-a-fy”, and send them back. 

Here’s where we landed: 

Illustration: Agenda / Animation: GIFRIENDS

Photography: GIFRIENDS / Animation: Agenda

Vector Chart: Agenda / Animation and Backgrounds: GIFRIENDS

Photography: GIFRIENDS / Animation: Agenda

For a little extra fun, I decided to ask both of our GIF-makers some questions.

1.How did you start GIFRIENDS?

GIFRIENDS: We all knew each other before but didn't start making gifs together until about 2010. Michael Fivis was the first one of us to start making them and then gradually all of us started to make them too. The group pretty much formed from there. Alex loves groups, and making his friends make stuff together with him. JL: I did not start GIFRIENDS… but I just started making gifs as inter office jokes and then it grew from there, I remember learning making GIFs back in 1999 using ImageReady but did not use that skill until a few years ago, and then it became a thing here.

2. Why do you love GIFS?

GIFRIENDS: GIFs are great because the way you experience them is so similar to the way you experience a still photo, but you get this extra dimension of motion and the loop. Despite their limitations, there's a lot to play with. Alex, Michael and Marisa also have a super strong affinity for the Internet and this weird sense of impermanence that net art works seem to have. Both Peter and Alex went to film school before we all met at Parsons - they still love movies a lot too, so part of that kind of transferred to why we love GIFs since it can work as an in-between of both still and time based mediums. JL: They are the an emoticon on crack. Please read. 7 signs you are actually a GIF

3. What is your favorite? 

GIFRIENDS: It's hard to pick a specific GIF. We all love Smelliott and Jaime Martinez. Here are some of our own GIFs that we like a lot too: 10 Weekdays (Grand Central NYC), Pigeon_002 (movingthestill), From point A to point B (GIFRIENDS), GIFRIENDS <3 ONLY NY too, Japanther (GIFRIENDS), Badaling, Beijing (Michael Fivis). AGENDA: We like them in a set or as part of a series. Techincally astounding: DVDP, Stupid: Reality TV Gifs, Humorous: Scorpion Dagger, Visually pleasing: Yimbo, Subtle: IF WE DON'T, REMEMBER ME.  Of the ones we’ve made I really like: It's Pronounced JIF, youse all!, E-Mail Best Practices, In Matters of Olympic Inspiration… We like these mostly because they happened on a whim or developed over time from personal funny observations.

4. How did you like working with each other's images? 

GIFRIENDS: Working with Agenda’s images are definitely fun and something different. As much as we love illustrations, all four of us came from photo backgrounds and we are all bad at drawing. It’s a fun little experiment that we would love to play around with more, for sure. JL: Similarly, I am more of an Illustrator, not good at drawing either; but always found line art to come naturally. Working with GF imagery felt great. I really like the colllage/photo/glitch aesthetic so that's something we should pursue further. What?

We look forward to doing more of these fun experiments/collaborations in the future!

Good night.

[agendagroup]

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin': Harmonizing TV and Digital

by Dan B.

The Super Bowl came and went, and with it the annual ad buy jubilee. I thought the spots were packaged and promoted incredibly well this year: leaks, meta-teasers, real-time approvals, aggregate listicles, etc. I love the smell of cross-platform marketing in the morning. Smells like…bonus checks.

But what about the rest of the year?

TV marketers rarely apply the same “sharability scrutiny” to spots that run outside big-time placements like the Super Bowl. Too often, ads remain locked inside the screen, representing an absolute viewing experience that may hint at something greater, but largely exists as a moment in time. Example? Back in December, this AT&T ad struck my fancy:

  A great ad. Loved it. Loved it so much that I wanted to send it to a friend. But notice how it was recorded on my phone? That’s because I couldn’t find it anywhere online. Not on YouTube. Not on any AT&T properties. The company spent millions of dollars, worked countless hours, and likely abused scores of Account Executives to produce this message. And here I am, the consumer, dying to share it. Eager to increase views, boost ROI, and burnish PowerPoint charts far and wide. Yet I couldn’t do it. In a marketing context, this seems criminal.

Now, many marketers do actively create connections between TV and digital, particularly direct marketers…good ol’ Flo comes to mind. And by no means does a continuous narrative need to occur between TV and digital messaging; sometimes it makes sense, sometimes not. Yet a surprising number of TV advertisements running today fail to offer even the smallest of hook or hint into the digital realm, and many remain absent from any online outlet. This is a gross mistake.

Three suggestions for advertisers who roll with TV:

1. Post every TV ad in your arsenal onto YouTube and any other video sharing site you wish. Tag it well. Build a channel where your ad collection can live. Even if you do nothing else, and the spots just sit there gathering stray searches and clicks, the investment is worth it. YouTube is the second largest search engine around. Be there.

2. Include a URL at the end of each ad that features—or at least offers a path to—the advertisement in digital form. It need not get much screen time…we’re living in a DVR age, we can pause it. Just communicate how to find the ad online via a search (keyword, hashtag, etc.), or drive to a property that compliments the message and provides access to the original advertisement.

3. Find a nice home for your TV advertisements across all official properties: corporate site, Facebook page, LinkedIn, etc. Stick to YouTube so that views are aggregated. You’ve done the hard part by creating an ad, so you best milk that puppy for all it’s worth. Your consumers—and maybe even the charred remains of your AEs—will thank you.

[agendagroup]

Ikea Nails it: the Simplifying Power of Design

by David S.

To me, it’s all proof that design can be more than just branded eye candy, communicating complex ideas without saying a word. So what's next? Not sure. My hope is that Sven goes the way of Martha Stewart and is given his very own TV show and lifestyle magazine. I can see it now: This New House.

[agendagroup]

Kickstarter 2012: Kayak is King

by David S.

For now, I nominate my favorite Kickstarter project of the year, which for me represents the very best of design thinking: the Oru Kayak, the world’s coolest folding boat. It combines aesthetic appeal, usability, unique materials, and precision engineering in a way far superior to anything else I have seen—yes, even Apple products. Watch the video for yourself. It feels good knowing that this project got funded… and knowing that good design can overcome great adversity.

[agendagroup]

Disasters, Poetry, and the Human Condition

by Michael M.

A week after Sandy, we extend our condolences and sympathies to those affected. In the wake of the storm, I was reminded of a pretty poem about grief by Denise Levertov.

Ah, grief, I should not treat you   like a homeless dog who comes to the back door  for a crust, for a meatless bone.  I should trust you.  I should coax you  into the house and give you  your own corner,  a worn mat to lie on,  your own water dish.  You think I don't know you've been living  under my porch.  You long for your real place to be readied  before winter comes. You need  your name,  your collar and tag. You need  the right to warn off intruders,  to consider my house your own  and me your person  and yourself  my own dog.

- Denise Levertov

If we turn our back on grief, if we deny its rightful place, we are not fully human. When we are saddened by loss—whether our own or that of others—we must take it in, ponder it, live with it. We must feel its sadness, and act on it. In a time like this, when so many of our neighbors have lost so much, I am grateful for my fate, for I have not lost my home or a loved one. But I can only truly be grateful for my own fortune if I let my heart fill with the grief of those less fortunate. Then, being full of grief, I must turn my gratitude into action, by helping others.

For those interested in supporting the relief effort, visiting www.nycservice.org is a great place to start. 

[agendagroup]

Behind the Scenes: Samsung, CSR, and Superwoman

by Dan K.

Today, words like “responsibility,” “sustainability,” and “shared value,” are all the rage.  Jargon aside, there are many companies doing amazing things in the name of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Lefa is tall, beautiful, and intelligent beyond her years. She is beloved by her friends, and deemed a leader in her community. Like many bright and ambitious teenagers, she wants to change the world. Above all, she struck me as a young woman of rare strength and character. I believed in her.

How did she become this way? She told me this story.

Lefa’s father was a truck driver. His job was to take bricks from demolished buildings and transport them to a dumping ground. Instead, he brought them home, where Lefa’s mother took each and every brick and washed them by hand. From sunrise to sunset, she scrubbed. She did this every day for seven years, until finally she had prepared enough bricks to build a new home. It had a living room with several windows, a bedroom, a kitchen that looked out onto a small courtyard, flanked by two additional rooms that the family now rents for extra income. As Lefa told this story with her mother beside her, she placed her hand near the entrance of her home and pointed to the bricks on the ground. With tears in her eyes and a proud smile, she declared “my mother’s hand is here in every single brick.”

Talk about a humbling story. As a parent of two girls, I could only marvel at this demonstration of strength, vision, patience, ingenuity, foresight, humility, sacrifice, and love. In the person Lefa is today, her mother’s hand of wisdom is there, just as beautifully as each brick is part of their home.

Lefa also delivers a sharp reminder of “what it’s all about.” CSR initiatives can sometimes seem like an end unto themselves—sprawling, operational initiatives defined around conference room tables. We talk about CSR, and we know it's about people, but it’s not until we have the opportunity to get on the ground and stand face-to-face with the individuals CSR touches that you understand its true potential. This proximity also helps lift the mist of cynicism that can sometimes hang above CSR (to which I am not immune). Surely it’s naïve to think all companies have only charitable ambitions when they engage in CSR, and surely some programs are stronger than others. But if there’s even a chance that an organizational effort can empower a person like Lefa, to reach her goals and help her shine just a little brighter, then the value of CSR becomes undeniable. And that’s a nice feeling. 

To See Lefa’s story and other CSR stories we tell on behalf of Samsung, visit the YouTube Channel.

[agendagroup]

A New Frontier

by Milica K.

I recently found myself needing some fresh air (New Yorkers know what I mean), so I headed west to Montana for what I hope will become an annual father-daughter fishing excursion. The only thing that stood between me and Trout Heaven was six hours of air travel. Ugh. (Everyone knows what I mean.) Six hours spent feeling like a sheep being herded to the next farm. Six hours of routine transactions, devoid of personality or humanity. Six hours of—I’ll stop myself there because this story has a happy ending. Unlike this guy. 

Arriving at LaGuardia, I was reminded that I booked a flight with . . . Frontier Airlines. You know, the rising carrier based out of Denver, CO? Yeah, well, I’d never heard of them. No matter, since I figured all airlines are the same in the year 2012. But my first peek at the gleaming plane suggested that these guys might be a little different. Its tail featured a crisp image of a fox, which I later understood was just one from a stable of  “spokesanimals.” Frontier was already making my eyes and ears perk up, and I hadn’t even boarded yet. Once I landed in the state of Oro y Plata, I had a lot to say about Frontier:

1. It’s a whole different animal

Those are Frontier’s words, not mine. The editorial tone of the brand is consistently strong. Phrases like “be a social animal,” invite customers to participate in online contests and giveaways. And in a welcome twist of brand confidence, Frontier understands that sometimes air travelers just want to vent in a public forum. It’s one of the only carriers that overtly encourages travelers to “squawk a little.” And the airline follows up by addressing customer service complaints in a timely and professional manner on Facebook. The brand’s friendly tone is carried through to its in-flight collateral, where a bald eagle named Sarge guides you through the food and entertainment options in the cabin.

2. Customer influence on the offering

Frontier engages its 75,000+ Facebook fans in a “Choose Your Brew” competition that pins local Colorado breweries against each other for a chance to be served on future flights. People go nuts, because it’s beer and it’s easy to have an opinion. In fact, for what seems to be Frontier’s target audience of connected, sports-enthused 24-55 year-olds, it’s socially important to throw in your two cents. Especially when your vote makes a difference.

3. Regional pride

In addition to a showcase of Colorado beer, there are a slew of other products served on the flight that originate from the colorful state. The Colorado flag denotes these items throughout the service guide. Frontier is attentive to regional and seasonal activities, such as skiing and sporting events, and it tailors travel promotions around those occasions. Known as the airline that can give you a lift to national parks across America, Frontier’s expansive routes follow through on that promise. 

So...

At a time when the air travel has become increasingly commoditized, Frontier Airlines is refreshing in its genuine, well-considered attempts to connect with consumers, which in turn can have a big effect on brand loyalty. Keep spreading your wings, Frontier. 

[agendagroup]

Tangled up in Blue

by Victor R.

Years ago, as I drove home from Manhattan at 2:30 AM, something caught my eye.  I stopped and got out of the car. I approached a man on the sidewalk and said,

Excuse me sir, but my son will kill me if I don’t bring one of those home.

Without looking at my face, he reached into his truck and handed me a full stack of the now-famous iPod launch posters. Blue ones, pink ones, green ones and yellow ones, all folded in a bundle, ready for Wild Posting on a frigid New York night.

According to my wife, that night was when my fascination with modern posters officially “took a turn for the worse.” Dylan by Milton Glaser, Aristide Bruant by Toulouse-Lautrec, and works by Larry River, Saul Steinberg, Lichtenstein and many others soon followed.

Most are framed, which I argue is simply an act of conservation, but the truth is that I honor their beauty, and I respect the artists who conceived them. As I type this, most of them linger somewhere in the attic, waiting for a wall to become available in our space-challenged home.

But not Blue. Blue earned a wall. Blue reigns supreme in my Apple-loving household. Like most things Apple, it represents a simple idea. It is beautiful, uncluttered and powerful. The way all good communication should be.

[agendagroup]

An Overview of the Evolving Obama Campaign

by Milica K.

Listen to your audience and address what matters  The interactive storybook The Life of Julia attempts to simplify the complexities of healthcare by depicting how Obama’s policies might affect a woman throughout key milestones in her life. Team O expertly crystallizes the campaign’s stance through a clearly articulated message and clean, simple illustration style consisting of a muted color palette. There is a subtle humanity and thoughtfulness to the tone and design of the piece that stays true to the brand.  

Diversify your channel strategy  The Obama campaign does an exemplary job of adopting emerging and well-loved platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, Spotify, Twitter and YouTube. On Instagram, the Obama staff posts photos from the campaign trail, giving people a behind-the-scenes perspective. His communications team asks supporters to share their own photos using the #Obama2012. A well-planned media mix gives a brand exposure and creates multiple touchpoints with the audience. Obama’s team gains social momentum by understanding how to leverage the native functionality of these platforms. For example, his team of strategists asked fans to submit songs for a Supporter Picks playlist that appears on Spotify alongside Michelle’s Workout Mix.  

Utilize influencers  Early in March when comedian Aziz Ansari spoke at a fundraising event in NYC, the POTUS thanked him and also gleefully reminded Aziz that he did not have as many Twitter followers as Obama himself. Questlove from the Roots—who was in attendance providing entertainment as the President’s “house band”—changed his profile picture shortly thereafter to show his support. Appearing on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a couple of weeks later, Aziz fondly recounted the personable nature of the president and his love for music. The banter between the two continued on Twitter when the Obama staff announced they would be taking playlist recommendations. Fans also welcomed the “Barakness Monster” for a presidential first when he joined Jimmy Fallon and Tariq Trotter in a “Slow Jam the News” session. The Obama brand is cleverly woven into popular culture, which is something that makes his appeal “pathetically successful”, as described by funny-man Stephen Colbert.  

Engage with advocates of the brandIn early May when the president announced his support of same-sex marriages, thousands expressed words of gratitude and hope. His team acknowledged the masses by retweeting and aggregating those sentiments on the blog. Retweeted by the president? Talk about the ultimate bragging rights. The constant feedback loop continues. In January, the Obama team set up a virtual birthday card for The First Lady. Everyone who signed the card was thanked in a personal email from Michelle Obama, who used the communication opportunity to announce her venture into Twitter. The Obama campaign continues to hook supporters by rewarding campaign donations with a 10% off discount on campaign gear.  

 Innovate to evolve  The recently released collaborative online planning tool called Dashboard helps mobilize supporters in the same neighborhood. Think of it as a virtual version of the campaign field office, allowing users to join a neighborhood team of local volunteers and see events in the area. These teams are given tools to call voters and report on recruitment and donation progress throughout the election. Empowering a network of volunteers with Dashboard adds to the grassroots efforts that sit at the core of the Obama brand.

Overall, Obama’s campaign elements represent universal best practices that would be an asset in most any successful brand and marketing campaign. When strategically executed, these principles help win consumers, awards and even elections.

[agendagroup]

Making A Virus

by James G.

A story is a possibility. That’s all it is. But that’s a lot. Now: What is a virus? There is a lot of talk about all things viral (videos, marketing campaigns and so on) but if you ask how to make such a thing, that’s when it gets quiet. A virus is just a piece of code or information, an idea with the capacity to adapt to changing circumstance and needle its way into our brains, our thoughts, our perceptions.

A viral idea—now we’re back into the world of persuasion—is one that so resonates with people that it spreads of its own accord, with little or no outside help. People at agencies dream of making such things. But is it possible to consciously, intentionally make such a thing? Many will say no, and not without reason. Most wildly "viral" things (10,000,000 views on YouTube, for instance) are usually genuine, serendipitous and not the product of an agency. Such things are inherently unpredictable—anyone who says otherwise is pulling your leg. But can you reduce that unpredictability? Yes. Can you greatly increase such a thing’s chances of contagion? Yes.

So how do you intentionally design a story or idea so that it will be passed from one person to the next? That one person will see and then, of their own volition, send to another? The place to begin is with the host. How does the virus enter the host? How does it get the host to pass it along? How contagious is it? What will elicit some feeling from within a person? What goes on in the chaos of thoughts and feelings before a decision is made or an action taken? And how does the host interact with the web and other places where they might catch the virus?

Start by asking, What ideas survive in our minds? The answers to this question reside in a lot of places—psychology, drama, game theory, people you meet in elevators—and it can take some digging to find them. It also helps to make sure an idea features one or two of a particular list of ingredients: 1) Inversions: Will Farrell & his tiny landlord, 2) A thing followed to its logical end, 3) Things pulled out of the subtext and amplified but never spoken: Mitt Likes Music, Including This, or 4) A thing some person wanted to say but just didn’t know how to say it: “I’m mad as hell and can’t take it anymore”.

In the right hands, most stories can be adapted to different forms. It’s not very difficult to take a story from one environment (a speech) and put it into another (a Twitter campaign or a web photo gallery or a series of videos on YouTube). But this ability to morph or be morphed is not sufficient to make a thing viral. It’s necessary, but it’s not enough.

A digital landscape makes transmission of the virus easier. But it’s how the thing hits our ears that matters most. Stories can drift from one forum or form to another. They can be implied in a sentence or a picture or a reference or phrase. Or they can be expanded into a great epic or a series of episodes. But if the story can’t find a host then it’s not going to go very far. And, yes, even though serendipity and authenticity can thwart all efforts to consciously and intentionally build a guaranteed knock it out of park viral hit (10,000,000 views on YouTube, for instance), there are things that you can do to reliably get a base hit or better.

[agendagroup]

Beyond Paper: Messaging at the Auto Show

by Dan B.

Earlier this month, we visited the New York Auto Show to meet a few clients and gawk at the sea of shiny things, which is always fun for me as a car guy. I’ve been absent the past few years, and three things struck me about the 2012 show:

LED screens are now priced low enough to be used copiously in a large trade setting. Several manufacturers (most notably Chrysler) created an immersive experience using big, slick panels of LED eye candy.  

The next generation NYC cab is gargantuan, and I hope it somehow gets scrapped at the 11th hour in favor of the Turkish design.  

There was not a piece of printed material in sight, which was disorienting. It used to be a badge of honor to return from the auto show with a stuffed bag of glossy brochures. This year, almost all formalized messaging was contained in touch screen kiosks, from demos to product specs to spirit videos. Score one for interactivity, two for the environment, and three for…indifference. I saw only a handful of attendees using the kiosks. This makes sense: paper can be flipped through, picked up, taken home and ogled democratically without constraint. An iPad fixed at chest height is tidy and slick, but it’s not an ideal experience. Only one person can engage at a time, and tolerance for delayed gratification is understandably low—if social media has taught us anything, it is that people don’t flock to uninspiring marketing just because it’s there.

It appears that event marketing is amidst a transition period. Paper is out (good in principle), but small touch displays don’t currently deliver a memorable engagement. Perhaps bigger will become better, with interaction realized collaboratively on a giant video screen. Or the answer might be micro, and unique apps for mobile consumption will be the tool of choice. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how event marketing evolves, and how advances in technology and communication tactics shape big events like the auto show. My vision? Let’s figure out how to virtually mimic the feeling of driving a Porsche...if we do that, I promise to never skip another year.

[agendagroup]

One Canvas. Many Hands.

by Kim K.

Do we have a theme? Nope! Really? Trust me.

This is collaborative art.

My colleagues initially thought I was nuts when I told them that we would be working on a collaborative painting with no theme or rules. That didn’t surprise me. Designers often have guidelines to adhere to and specific messages to communicate. But when we made collaborative art the emphasis of a recent agency hour happy hour, we were laughing, panting, and sweating within five minutes.

  Collaborative art happens when a group of people simultaneously work together on one piece without any prior planning. The final piece is often constructed of several layers with remnants of the first strokes underneath, and while many people worked on it, it still looks like it was created by one artist. The exercise became popular in the mid-1980’s in Tunisia and was brought to the United States by David Black, a Fulbright scholar who learned about it while in Tunis. David Black has led Tunisian Collaborative Painting Workshops at the Art Students League since 2010.

The idea to bring this notion to the agency came to me after volunteering with kids. Putting a blank canvas in front of them helped them work together, without any hurt feelings when someone’s paint overlapped theirs. They saw that the process was natural and fun, and allowed them to create a unified piece even though everyone brought something different to the party.

The same thing happened at Agenda. At a certain point, the piece really came to life. We were standing around it, beers in hand, talking about what worked and what could be added. People would jump in, paint, and then continue the discussion. It was a great experience, and we’re ready to do it again. Luckily, we still have one more canvas.

[agendagroup]

Creating Brand Experiences: Think before you Engage

by Dan B.

How deep a role should a brand play in the lives of consumers? Marketers of all stripes certainly have their opinions, and ultimately the answer falls somewhere between “It depends” and “Probably pretty deep.” It’s folly to think, however, that brand immersion is a requirement for brand success. 

A brand’s primary role is to provide clear, immediate, and persuasive shorthand for the ultimate product or service it represents. It need not provide a mind-blowing social experience, a heap of utility outside the core offering, or an ethos consumers are compelled to kneel before. It certainly can do and be those things; a brand that fosters such relationships—friend, partner, oracle—is one heck of a brand. But in an environment where consumers are on to us, when they know when they are being sold to and are vindictive against botched attempts at courtship, sometimes the best course is to keep it simple, burnish the base, and go from there. 

Think about Zappos, one of the strongest brands around. Zappos takes a business position of creating retail Xanadu: They make the experience of shoe shopping better than it has ever been. Their brand is credible and powerful not because they have created ancillary engagement experiences, developed notable marketing campaigns, or fueled a cultural movement, but because they exude their promise at every retail touchpoint. The shopping experience is intuitive. The shipping is lightning-fast. The customer service impeccable. The Zappos brand experience is the Zappos shopping experience. Beyond that, they have Tony Hsieh’s (best-in-class) Twitter feed.

That’s it and that’s all. And it freaking works. 

That doesn’t mean brands can’t create relevancy and efficacy by constructing brand experiences. A little more than a year ago, Sun Chips offered its product in biodegradable bags. Unfortunately, the bags sounded like a herd of water buffalo when crinkled. Consumers complained, and Frito Lay discontinued the bags shortly thereafter. That was a missed opportunity. It was a perfect moment for considered, constructed brand experiences. Who said being green was easy? Who said it needs to quiet? Isn’t environmental activism the exact opposite of “quiet”? The brand could have taken an annoying-but-righteous product attribute (loud bags) and turned it into a marketing advantage by creating an unapologetic position ("Make Noise") and communicating that position through brand experiences: a socially driven platform inviting consumers to speak out on environmental issues, product sampling events at political rallies, branded paper megaphones… the sky would have been the limit. 

When we think about creating brand experiences, it’s useful to start at the core: is there a position to rally around, and has that position been exhausted across the core commercial relationship? Only when the answers are “yes” and “hell yes” should we attempt to extend the brand into supplemental areas of consumer engagement. Brands can certainly benefit from strategically honest brand experiences, but such endeavors are by no means mandatory. Sometimes the business relationship delivers all the engagement a brand needs.

[agendagroup]

by Juan D.

I'm a 28-year-old graphic designer, and with today's amazing production software I have to say I have it really easy. Typesetting has become easier than ever (Does it produce more mediocre design, though?). Sometimes, I feel melancholy about the old days, even though I wasn't really a part of them.

Check out this beautiful short: Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film by Danny Cooke, a film about letterpress and one of the few remaining movable-type printing workshops in the U.K.

Beautiful!

[agendagroup]

When B2B Goes Mobile

by Milica K.

The other day I found myself saying, “This is it. 2012 is going to be the year of mobile.” The difference is that for the first time in five years, I actually believe it. This year the most effective and exciting mobile executions will come from unlikely players in the B2B space. If anything supports this claim, it is the growing audience adoption, changing landscape, and valuable new storytelling potential. 

A closer look at user behavior and usage statistics for mobile help demonstrate that there is an adult audience with an appetite for information and utility on the go:

App downloads among adult cell phone owners have nearly doubled in the last two years.

Out of 800 million active users, more than 350 million currently access Facebook through their mobile devices. 

Mobile users on Twitter have increased by 182 percent over the past year.

YouTube Mobile gets more than 100 million views per day.

Remember the days when everyone was gun-shy about the leap into social media? Now everyone’s doing it.

With the right planning—such as establishing social media guidelines, forming moderation queues, and developing risk communication plans—marketers and agency partners were able to cautiously forge ahead. We often liken that first social media leap to dating—there may not be a gold standard, but once you have that first date, you quickly understand what is working and what is not. As the area in which to play continues to grow, it’s just a matter of time before mobile case studies spring up. Someone just has to take the first step. 

Now, what type of content is worthy of a mobile application? B2B marketers have great content to share with the world—everything from executive thought leadership pieces, glimpses into the day-to-day of subject matter experts, customer testimonials, event footage, employee voices, and even charity endeavors. It’s the stuff Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch are made up of—the very stuff that speaks to niche audiences. And there is value in packaging B2B products and services so that it provides utility to the mobile end user. When B2B marketers share this type of information, they have the power to humanize the company and to engage nontraditional audiences.    

Here are four mobile strategies that help to create new business opportunities and to support existing clients:

Provide internal utility. For employees and the sales force, create a mobile tool that will aid in showcasing products, and sharing case studies, while also surfacing real-time data. 

Insist on client utility. Particularly for existing clients, this type of strategy can reinforce the brand value. In the banking industry, players like Bank of America and Chase do this well with mobile banking applications.  

Maximize the event experience. Make check-in efficient with QR code confirmations, push notifications for real-time updates, and put the mobile device to work for networking purposes. Mobile can also replace printed collateral and makes it easy to follow up with attendees who have opted in to receive communications.  

Show your playful side. Games lead in popularity of applications downloaded; they are also the type of application that people are most willing to pay for. A game can increase brand affinity while providing entertainment value. 

Mobile success is measured by app downloads, as well as usage metrics, such as active app users, frequency of their visits, and duration of visit. Here are a few early indicators of best practices that will help demystify mobile application development:

First, get the specifications right. The smartphone and tablet are not as big as a desktop screen, so plan to present content in a digestible way.

Do not overlook the innate functionality of the camera, email, and social sharing. 

Next, know what makes your audience tick. Think about the ways in which you can make life easier through mobile.

Finally, walk before you run. Develop an app for one mobile platform, such as iOS. Then expand development for the other mobile platforms. If you’re starting with a game, consider starting with the Android platform, which is popular among gamers. (And make sure you have a version of your website that is optimized for mobile.) 

Just remember to stay relevant and true to your brand’s value proposition, and you will never go wrong. 

See you in the app store! 

[agendagroup]

Your Phone May Soon Replace That Card in Your Wallet

by Michael M.

Do you know where your mobile phone is right now? Of course you do. You may even be reading this on your phone. And when you go to sleep at night, that phone probably sits on a bedside table less than an arm’s reach away.

Many of us see our mobile phone as the only thing we need to go about our lives. Wake up in the morning, check our appointments, send out emails, select a restaurant for dinner tonight and make a reservation, listen to music, find the nearest Starbucks, and, by the way, pay for our venti latte with our phone, too. At any given time we are more likely to know the whereabouts of our smartphone than where our wallet or purse may be.

More and more U.S. consumers are beginning to think of the mobile device as a wallet.

We can use the Chase mobile app to deposit checks directly into our account without going to an ATM or a bank branch. Bank of America, Citibank, ING Direct, and TD Ameritrade help us check our bank balances, sending an alert when our balance dips below a given level. Our mobile phones enable us to reimburse a friend for our share of last night’s drinks, pay bills, even buy a soda and fries at McDonald’s by simply tapping our phone on the checkout terminal.

Use of mobile payments in the U.S. is likely to surge in the near future, with the introduction of a tiny microchip that is beginning to be embedded in U.S. payment cards. The EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) chip is already in use on 1.3 billion cards in more than 130 countries. Where it is in place, fraud on lost and stolen cards has fallen dramatically. Furthermore, the brains and memory of this chip will enable consumers to store multiple debit or credit cards on their mobile phone, receive and store virtual coupons, and, thanks to NFC (near field communications) contactless technology, check out at that Starbucks in less time than it takes to blink.

MasterCard and Visa are now making a concerted effort to migrate electronic payments in the U.S. from magnetic stripe to the smarter, more secure EMV chip. So a few years from now, mobile payments may be as prevalent in the U.S. as they are in Kenya. EMV chip technology will benefit everyone in the payments ecosystem:

Because of the security of the chip, consumers are likely to switch their primary payment vehicle from card to phone. The ability to choose from several accounts, receive and store offers and coupons from merchants, check out by just tapping, or commute via mass transit with a wave of the phone are all bound to boost electronic payments. 

Banks will see a reduction in counterfeit fraud and lost and stolen cards, and with greater acceptance, contactless NFC technology, and the opportunity to add value with loyalty and other applications, banks will earn more revenue by capturing more of consumers’ spending.

Merchants, too, will see reduced fraudulent transactions, as well as more sales, due to the convenience and security of chip-enabled payments. They can also deepen customer relationships with targeted, even location-based offers, immediate delivery and redemption of coupons or discounts, and other loyalty programs.

[agendagroup]

We Heart Bacteria

by Melissa R.

At Agenda, we like to go the extra mile for our clients.

At most agencies, that might mean pulling a late night, working from home on the weekends, calling all hands on deck for a rush job.

Sure, we do all that.

But how many other firms would have petri dishes of bacteria growing around the office in order to test out science experiments as prep work for building a science education website for their client?

(No, having something moldy growing in the back of the fridge doesn’t count. We’re talking about science here, not slovenliness!)

So why all the petri dish farming? It was all part of an ambitious project we developed for Abbott, the global health care company with a long-running commitment to stimulating children’s interest in the sciences.

Abbott has had great success over the years with a Family Science program that sends top Abbott scientists into elementary schools, community centers, and museums to lead hands-on experiments that teach basic science and problem-solving skills while igniting the spark of scientific curiosity in a child’s mind. Abbott’s Operation Discovery program gives older children a chance to see scientists in action by inviting them to join Abbott employees in conducting hands-on experiments at Abbott laboratories in China, Singapore, Ireland, and the U.S. Together, Operation Discovery and the Family Science program have reached more than 14,000 children, but Abbott wanted to do even more and magnify the impact of the program by extending its education efforts online.

So Abbott teamed with Agenda to build ScienceEd, an online portal filled with programmed web content designed to show children ages 7-14 that science is appealing, accessible, and relevant to their lives.

Why did the world really need another science site? Science museums and other organizations already run a number of websites that show experiments and tell what the results mean.

But Abbott felt that none of these other sites dealt with the emotional side of science. Abbott wanted to show children that science did not have to be distant or scary or untouchable, but rather could be something intimately connected to many facets of their daily lives.

To fulfill Abbott’s vision, Agenda assembled a team of designers, illustrators, animators, editors, strategists, project managers, and programmers. We conducted casting, hired actors, gathered a crew, scripted skits, designed experiments in concert with Abbott scientists, and produced videos of these experiments. (Here’s where the petri dish prep work proved useful!)

We had a particularly fun time doing the interviews for The Spark section of the ScienceEd site, which features Abbott researchers talking about what made them choose a career in the sciences. Who knows? Maybe hearing a neuroscientist talk about how a vanilla ice cream cone triggered her interest in science might be the spark that starts a child down his or her own path toward a science career…

Since science is creative, we wanted to give the audience a chance to create some of the site’s content themselves. So we built a password-protected Lab Crew Club section, where children who participate in the hands-on Family Science and Operation Discovery events can access photos and videos of themselves in full scientific action mode.

The web is often all about what happens right now—the latest tweets, the fastest news updates, instant messages, and chats. That’s why it was so refreshing to work on a project like this that has such worthy long-term goals. It’s exciting to think that ScienceEd could awaken a child to the possibilities of a scientific career and that 20 years later, that child-turned-scientist could be unlocking mysteries and helping to invent cures that could make a real difference in the lives of countless people.

Character Illustrations by David Sossella