middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Wow. That’s the way to do it. How to be at a conference but not be at a conference - live broadcasting of 2gether08. More of this please!

Last Saturday in London saw lots of people (including me) head down to Interesting 2008, a truly unique conference (I think just in its second year) ran by Russell Davies.

People like Ged, Roo and Annie Mole have already done some good write-up of the event so as something slightly different, I’ve given each (well nearly, I actually missed loads in my excitement) presentation down to a single word, added a few sneaky ones and ran that through Wordle to create a visual summary of Interesting 2008.

Here are the words, with links to their respective creators or co-creators - Lego. Horses. Authenticity. Generalism. Geography. Music. WOW. Coins. Food. Insomnia. Ukulele. Meditation. Toilets. Alcohol. Hoovers. Animation. Future. Hiraeth. Community. Brains. WW2. Final Countdown. Recorders. Cakes. Tea. Biscuits. Books. Arthur. Um and I forgot Masks, Words, Winston Churchill and Informatics and probably more - it’s all too interesting! Well done everyone for pulling off such a great day packed full of lots of INTERESTING presentations.

A few thoughts I took away from the day.

1 - It all just felt right. Everyone was nice. Nothing was nasty. It was great to have some kids there. Some rough edges. All very real.
2 - Lloyd can really sing. I even saw him run past with a freshly boiled kettle (no lid mind!).
3 - People are up for getting involved in things. People leapt at the chance to play the recorder on stage. At the end everyone packed up rubbish into bin liners, put all the chairs and tables away. Co-created content and all that.
4 - Most conferences are shit. The last one I went to was Internet World. There’s so much that needs to be changed with the old-school conference format.
5 - It was nice not to hear the words “social media’ mentioned all day. The only appearance of Twitter was on someone’s screen as they were setting up. I didn’t Tweet once during the day. (OK I did, before and after, but you know what I mean).
6 - Meeting people offline (or achieving “fleshpoint” as Ian refers to it as) is just the best, especially when you’ve known them for a while online.
7 - Russell Davies is very funny. He tickled me by ending an announcement with ‘now go back to your business’.
8 - Music pretty much rules the whole Earth. It is GLUE.
9 - There’s so much interesting, genuine stuff out there, so why on Earth do some brands insist on creating their own synthetic stuff instead of getting involved with genuinely interesting things that come from somewhere a lot better than a brainstorm.
10 - It’s a bit rubbish when you’re sat at a conference (or in a meeting for that matter) and everyone’s just on their laptops doing something else. There was a noticeable lack of laptops there and instead much more scribbling in notebooks, analogue style.

“To Thine Own Self Be True”

That’s what was written above the stage at the Conway Hall venue and I think that said it all for me. Interesting was basically a coming-out session for geeks and interesting people. That’s why it’s so frickin’ cool and every single person did such a great job. Quite a number of people introduced themselves as geeks and thoughout the day there was a mixture of both proudness and shyness when it came to people opening up and revealing their inner-geekiness. But I think everyone had that in common - be it food, hoovers, music and graphic design, lego or toilets - sharing something you’re so passionate about is always interesting and the best way of connecting with hundreds of other human beings in a room

And finally - here’s an image which I think captures the whole day nicely.

Why? Because someone sitting near me offered me a pack which I though was a really, really nice touch. The whole day was about sharing stuff and it felt so apt that it should be an old school box of Sunmaid Raisins. Something so familiar and nice. Amazing packaging. Free from crap. An icon. Something that evoked so many memories of school lunch boxes and being a kid. Something that I hadn’t had for ages but still love. So thank you Sunmaid Raisin provider. Your little gesture of kindness left me feeling satisfied that Interesting 2008 really was all I hoped it would be and a little bit more.

[Photo Credit ]

Bonus video: Just for the fun of it. Here’s 30 odd people trying to playing recorders (thanks to the Guardian), including Ben who I spent the day with too along with Ged, Will and lots of other people. (captured by Ged on a Flip video recorder thingy)

I went to the Chinwag Micro Media Maze event last night to talk about micro media and web stuff. The panel was really good and included Umair Haque (Director, Havas Media Lab / Bubblegeneration), Gerd Leonhard (Media Futurist, Author, Entrepreneur), Mitch McAlister (Product Director (Europe), MySpace), Miles Lewis (SVP, European Advertising Sales, Last FM) and Neil McIntosh (Head of Editorial Development, Guardian Unlimited). Steve Bowbrick also did a great job of chairing the thing and keeping it all ticking over nicely.

We didn’t really talk about micro media that much though. Instead with the heavy music bias to the panel, talk was a lot around music and the future of content on the web - which ultimately boils down to the same old argument of ‘consumers want music free and everywhere, the industry wants to be paid and control distribution’. In particular I thought Miles from Last FM (in the true spirit of transparency, openness etc) gave away some great insight into Last FM and the struggle faced by people pushing boundaries with technology. And, Umair too delivered some fairly strong opinions on what we should be doing with the web, advertising in general and as agencies to make the world a better place.

I was going to write up some notes but Ben Matthews has some good stuff up already, so I’ll just add the following little thoughts:

1> 3% of traffic to Last FM comes via the homepage and more than 40% comes from widgets (with 55% predicted by the end of the year). Evidence of brands being distributed around the web. Setting up home in one place and spending all your money on some nice curtains, a swanky drive and a big impressive hallway might not be the best thing to do now. Time to become micro and distributed - part of the flow of data and value around the web.

2> People look at their mobile screens an average of 25 times a day and 95% of the time their mobile device is less than one metre away. Blimey. We all know that the mobile web is going to blow up this year, but in what other ways is this going to impact on our lives?

3> Gerd said that ‘data is the new advertising’. I like this thought a lot. It reminded me of the concept of spimes and got me thinking about providing value to people though data control, manipulation and enhancement.

4> Everyone agreed that we should be doing more stuff that genuinely makes people’s lives better. I thought to myself about what would happen if advertising disappeared overnight. What would happen? What if all that money spend on advertising was re-channelled simply into making products and services better, in order to make people’s lives better?

5> Twitter or micro blogging wasn’t really talked about. Yes it’s a bit yada, yada but I really do think it’s demonstrating the power of thinking small. Neither were new micro advertising formats (like Pistach.io) even though there were blatently some really smart people in the room (including a guy from Double Click I chatted to before kick-off). Or the fact that the whole world is getting smaller while brands seem to still be thinking big all the time.

There’s so much more to come in this space, it’s incredibly exciting. The fact the event was crammed last night was a definite sign of that. Now we just need to start thinking and acting micro. Because as we all know, being small usually means you can move quicker and with the web, speed is everything.

Update - missed Jemima’s post which contains some great quotes and some rather more succinct analysis.

[Picture thanks to Little People]

Google in the UK has “turned its lights out” today in support of Earth hour. Nice. But the best thing, Blackle is most definitely put in its place for once and all.

As to why we don’t do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

Does look quite good in black, though it shows up every last piece of stuff on my nice new screen.

Been meaning to write about Do The Green Thing for ages and now the guys over there have given me a really good reason to.

Right now, there’s some Do The Green Thing people cooped up in a cold room waiting for people like you and me to go there and give them ‘hugs’. Using a live webcam and a simple chat and ‘big hug button’ interface, you can interact live and see what happens when you type things and press the button. One of those ideas that often comes up in brainstorms - do something live on the web with a webcam and chat - but never ever gets executed. So, really nice to see someone actually doing at and committing to doing it well. When I went in there activity was actually pretty high, judging by the amount of chat going on and they were definitely live because I asked them!

The whole point of the thing is to tie into this month’s Green Thing of using body warmth which you’ll find out all about if you go check out the site.

There’s also a Flash Hug on Valentine’s Day and an active Facebook group too. Here’s the details for the Flash Hug:

February’s Green Thing is: Use Body Warmth (and turn your heating down a bit or off for a bit).

Come to Soho Square* at 1.30pm on Valentine’s Day and be part of the world’s first Body Warmth Flash Hug.

The plan: turn the heating down or off for a bit in your homes or offices, come to Soho Square at lunchtime, hug some beautiful people (or some of the Green Thing team) then go back to your unheated homes and offices with a huge body warmth boost.

Really like the look and feel of Do The Green Thing and it’s great to see a continuous flow of good stuff coming from DTGT HQ. Now I (and you!) just need to go do it this month and every month.

Disclaimer - I know some of the people at DTGT as I used to work with them at Zopa

So, IAB Engage 2007 was on Wednesday last week. I was there with Bite client Facebook and got to sit on some of the morning presentations. I hashed out some notes on my phone and have just got round to beaming them, doing a bit of formatting and adding in the links. Some really useful stuff - quote of the day goes to Richard Eyre, Chairman of the IAB who gave a great presentation, mainly about the state of the industry and the need for talent and a step change in quality:

“OK is the enemy of billiant. Today only utterly brilliant will do”

If you want to watch all of the presentations then go here where they are all handily available. Judging by the buzz on the day and a bit of eavesdropping, I’d say that the very last session of the day (which I missed) should be your first point of call. I’m going to watch it now, even if it is late.

[Josh Spear / Undercurrent]
eHelio
Loopt
Iminlikewithyou
Etsy
Blyk
Threadless
Play by their rules
Redefine advertising
Redfining communication - 2 way is required
Seeking out is bad, the discovery process is good
Create something that I want to find
What happens if you ignore all of this ? P Diddy effect.
Lisa nova does P Diddy in response to appauling attempt by BK and P Diddy to do “social media”
You can’t pay to be seen
Operate within the rules of the universe
Think of how to turn an interruption into a service
Think of how your brand can make a site a better place - provide function not awareness
Push your clients
Push your agency
Theres still a big gorilla in the room
Its not that they’re not listening we just haven’t given them anything to listen to
Embrace and engage

[Antony Mayfield / Spannerworks]
Everyone feels like they are behind
We have to write a manual
The web isn’t a channel, it’s an open network
Questions we need to ask:
What does success look like?
Where are our networks?
How can I attract attention from our networks? Earn it.
How can I be useful to those networks?
Speed of communication
Scale of available content is vast
Geography does not define audiences. Interest does.
Interaction with content and authors
Longevity of content
Old advertising campaigns follow you around
Complexity has replaced stability
Look in new places for inspiration
What would Google do?
Search engines how do they look at the web
Dell laptops catching fire eg blog with best reputation
Google is a reputation management system. Brand scoreboard
Human network. Not spam network
Daily Telegraph newsroom - live attention market
Global attention market
Evolution . . .
Best things tried out. Fail fast.
Need to know how people are using the web and what’s important to them
Impact horizon - consumers move on very quick
Look at how networks make sense of themselves.
Understand our networks
Be useful to our networks
Be live in our networks
What is social media? ebook from Spannerworks

[Matt Britten / Google UK]
Powerful drivers of further change:
Access
Storage
Production
Devices
Kyslers law
Cloud computing
Skyblog
UK is the new frontier
Between 50 and 100 per cent more than US spend per head on the UK
Target by interest not demographic
We don’t have an answer were just people having a go
Be found, be always on, every market, full coverage
Follow consumers
Integrate on and offline activity
Engage, listen and respond
Manage actively based on data
25 per cent of search queries lead to purchase
Consumers face tyranny of choice
Back to basics approach to marketing
Be found wherever you are relevant
Be found where customers research and browse
52 per cent of car purchases start online
Over 40 percent of those looking for a car found new makes and models online
Number of people coming into showrooms is lower but percentage that buy are higher
Before making a holiday purchase -
12 travel searches
22 sites
29 days
(On average)
Show up all the way through that process
65 percent of shopping carts abandoned at checkout
Wide variety in online converion rates:
3% high st
11% online retailers
19% catalogue retailers
Need to improve conversion process
If they don’t find it on your site 50% presume it’s not in store
Speak with one voice across all media
Blendtec
650 percent traffic after video series launched
In one weekend, sold more than in a best month before
Screwfix Forum
Bring back the Wispa
Every action can be a valuable data point, need to be selective
Convergence not of devices but information
Universal search coming over next few months
+ Smarter searching around language
+ More personalisation - iGoogle
+ Google mobile - Android
Just try stuff and get feedback on it
Its never completed. Always in beta

[Randy Falco / AOL]
Didn’t take many notes as I found this presentation really dull and not very informative, but other people may have appreciated the stats and the money banter. I just kept on thinking about JR in Dallas ad the importance of the people representing a brand
Online advertising growth is diversifying, away from search

[Richard Eyre / IAB]
Fragmentation of media supply
Personalisation of media demand
Access to talent is massive problem
Disruptive intrusive change
Analysis is key
Deeply held belief in precedent
So, so, yesterday
Flexible open and connected
Fast second mover - epidemic approach today
Freethinkers
Pioneers
Inquisitve
Entrepeneurs
Carving out a clearpath
Need innovation with wit and originality
Ok is the enemy of billiant. Today only utterly brilliant will do

So, the “Oscars of the Internet” are announced and I’m incredibly pleased that Bite client Zopa won. Well done everyone involved, obviously including the nice people at Poke.

Last night I went to the PR Unspun event laid on by Chinwag. Some great speakers (including Neville Hobson who had some great things to say), held together rather nicely by Mike Butcher and some really good little nuggets in there. But, on the whole felt all a bit “Yeah, Yeah”. All the questions were there but still no one seems to have any answers. Or they do but because they’ve spent time and money cracking the code, they won’t be willing to offer it up for free in a room full of PR people

If there’s one thing that resonated with me it was this:
Your client has to be ready to be transparent to engage in social media

Excuse the very note-like-nature of what follows. It was a bit hot in there and I was relying on the friction between a MacBook and blue denim to to allow me to type. No full stops or anything. Crazy.

Is social media mature and mainstream now?
Unilever switched entire £272m budget online to online market research
You can get actionable insights now and that is key to helping brands navigate.
How do you react to clients wanting to know what to do?
Not just a band-aid fix anymore – more proactive approach is required.

How do you get up to speed?
Don’t just train specialist people, train everyone so the whole company is up to speed
Training and education for clients is key too
Idea of losing control is the key issue
B2B clients are really starting to get involved in this space
Need to dedicate time to get up to speed with digital
Fragmented media – more outlets to think about

Does blogger relations really exist?
Relationships need to be developed differently with bloggers that with traditional media outlets
Now you trust people but you’ve never met them in the physical world
Blogger relationships tough, some even choose to post the home address of a client

What is the influence of social media?
Depends on what the context is and what the network potential is
Authority is key so you need to filter it down to a handful of people
You can kill conversations with tactical messaging
Technorati – beware, it covers English speaking blogs mainly

Is it cheaper to use social media?
Sprite in the US wanted to target young audiences via basketball
Zonga and Myspace seeding - achieved as much click through from here than the whole of Yahoo! take-over did which cost $250,000 per day -10 times more for ten times less

Can you make the outing of the strategy part of the strategy?
No not really
You have to be part of a community and immerse yourself in it
See Cillit Bang and Plasticbag as a BAD example
If you mess up be transparent
Your client has to be ready to be transparent to engage in social media

Is this the end of spin?
Honesty is very important
Need not to be worried
BUT people appreciate you reaching out to them as long as its done the right way
Check out Ideastorm from Dell as a good example. dell and XP/Vista – got feedback and shipped with XP as people said they weren’t ready for Vista yet
There is a distinction between consumers and producers
Need to be a blogger to take part

Why would a business want to get involved in SL?
They need to experiment and learn. Is this the future?
IBM is a great example with a dozen presences in SL, including a meeting space.
SL Business Communicators Wiki is a great resource

Is it worthwhile targeting bloggers?
Yes. Everyone reads news online.
Young people will be consumers of tomorrow
Try and tap into the real story
The nasty comes from consumer generated content
Marketers need to look at brand weaknesses as well as brand strengths

How long has the press release got?
It will never go away. It has a purpose.
See social media press release

Will advertising kill off social media?
No. Disclosure and transparency is key

How do you feel about paid for content?
Don’t care as long as content is good

How do you speak to bloggers?
Participate
Create and post as a spokesperson for the company
Check company policy
Bring something to the conversation
Add value
Build a relationship
Be careful as you’ll be asked a whole heap of questions on lots of different topics

What about Web 3.0?
Look at other devices beyond the web, how everything connects
3D stuff
Semantic web?
Its all about talking to people as individuals
RELATIONSHIPS
See twitter – online and offline integration
Check out Twittervision.com

Where is this all going?
Change of tone is a fundamental shift and will impact on way we do communications
We can bring much more insight to clients and measure and communicate in new ways
Mobile will play a big part – anything that brings it all together will be very big
Take it to the next level of emotional and intellectual engagement
It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Important to be part of this change.
A breath of democracy.
Honesty and transparency.
Companies learning a lot from everyone.
Most of it is good.