According to the recap on Mashable (http://goo.gl/IMo9d), the output of the conference was quite clear: “As [...]]]> Last week at Cannes Lion Festival, some of the world’s top brands and technology partners met to discuss how creativity is changing the advertising world and also to select campaigns that pushed new boundaries aside in their efforts.

According to the recap on Mashable (http://goo.gl/IMo9d), the output of the conference was quite clear: “As the web increasingly empowers us to choose and share the media we care about, brands genuinely commit to creating content and experiences that thrive in our on-demand culture“.

Specific in this conversation though, and realtive to agencies today, is the 4th point in the recap: “The rise of the creative technologist”.

In the recap is a great video highlighting points that are germane to our day to day, “As advertising becomes increasingly digital, agencies are looking to bring in more developer talent to help them create new, original products.”

The video:

Full quote: “Advertisers are ready to build. As advertising becomes increasingly digital, agencies are looking to bring in more developer talent to help them create new, original products. Jeff Benjamin, VP Interactive Creative Director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, spoke about this transition, calling for “invention” in advertising and noting that “inventors are modern storytellers.” The same day, Toronto holding company MDC Partners announced a new $1 million competition for investment in technology-driven projects. Mark Holden, Global Strategy and Planning Director of PHD, noted his future predictions for the advertising industry, that new product development will be essential for the survival of media agencies as media buying becomes increasingly commoditized.”

I take from this that while social media, paid media and good copy are important to advertising in the digital future, developing technology to DRIVE the message is as important as any other tactic on the project SOW.

This is a strong message for agencies to pay attention to as an Integrated Marketing Agency supporting both the sale of products as much as creating the opportunities for sales. What are your thoughts on this?

Knowing that the N9 is running the allegedly last version of MeeGo before jumping ship to WinMo, this new device is really pretty. Nokia have always [...]]]> I’m a dedicated Apple enthusiast and an iPhone user. With that said, I have to give credit to Nokia for producing what looks like a very compelling smart phone.

Knowing that the N9 is running the allegedly last version of MeeGo before jumping ship to WinMo, this new device is really pretty. Nokia have always been known for sexy form factors and this one totally delivers.

Equally interesting is the website built to help articulate the phone’s value and experience.

Engadget also posted a rather detailed series of pics and videos showing off the UI and how the NFC (near field communication) implementation works.

Real impressive.

I can see a very near future where NFC becomes a very powerful marketing tool for both audio, video and other messaging. Really slick.

Through a new API they have created and one line of JS, companies/business can geo-tag their pages. The end result is rather compelling from both an end-user perspective and from a social perspective.

Today came word of HBOgo reaching 1 million downloads in less than a week of availability (]]> Was having an interesting conversation with a colleague at work regarding entertainment distribution platforms (music, film, tv) and the growing trend of services providing premium offerings based on choice.

Today came word of HBOgo reaching 1 million downloads in less than a week of availability (article found here). The app (available for both iOS and Android) allows users to suscribe to HBO premium content of their choosing. It’s a growing trend with services like Hulu and NetFlix but HBO is upping the ante by defining an experience around THEIR custom created content.

Personally, I hate Comcast.
Recently, I test drove NBA Network streamed through my AppleTV.

The service really sucked, primarily not due to technology but due to blackout laws redefined based on local bandwidth in markets. It’s a new kind of “local blackout” based on pipe availability. Because of this, I couldn’t enjoy the games I wanted to watch most which defeated the purpose of getting the Network in the first place.

And so, to avoid that, I had to pay the piper (in this case Comcast) to not stream through AppleTV.
But, and of course, to get NBA Network through Comcast, I had to “upgrade”. This Comcast “upgrade” required I take on another 40 channels of drek I wouldn’t let my dog watch just to get one channel I did.

So, the question I ask is, what you pay to choose to consume what you want?

I would have gladly paid for the NBA channel by itself or, bought a package that at the least I could pick MYSELF and not have done for me.

Think it’s clear that the entertainment space is moving radically forward into a “choose your own way” model as the technology affords apps and distribution platforms relying on cloud based technologies and API’s to leverage other services. I’m personally looking forward to when Comcast becomes irrelevant due to the overwhelming want of the consumer to not buy what they are selling.

So, again, what would you pay to get the content you wanted?

It’s a merge of email, IM and social media under one construct with a host of API’s for developers to now leverage those API’s for inclusion into their own sites and for them to also make their [...]]]> Google has dropped yet another bomb on the internet world with a new platform for collaboration called Wave.

It’s a merge of email, IM and social media under one construct with a host of API’s for developers to now leverage those API’s for inclusion into their own sites and for them to also make their own services and extensions with it.

The entire preso can be seen below:

It’s truly fascinating and represents the next revolution online.

Although this app like so many others that seem cool for iPhone won’t run in the background while you use another app, check mail, whatever..it sure seems cool. Hopefully Apple is working on simultaneous applications running at the same time.

The app provides a connection layer [...]]]> I’m getting this app for sure: Pinger.

Although this app like so many others that seem cool for iPhone won’t run in the background while you use another app, check mail, whatever..it sure seems cool. Hopefully Apple is working on simultaneous applications running at the same time.

The app provides a connection layer to your contacts giving you power to IM, email, text, or message through Facebook when they are online. Pinger detects what services the user is logged into as well so you can choose what communication means to use. Kind of neat.