Tag: technology

Bringing together the old and the new

Posted on September 16, 2013 by

New technologies are great, they allow people to do things quicker and faster, to communicate with people at the other side of the world for free, to explore, investigate and research. As human beings we have access to more information than ever before and as a result our expectations have changed irreversibly – we want something and we want it now!

When we read about new technologies it is usually the announcement of a new gadget, most recently the latest iPhone(s), but what is often missing from these reports is the benefit to these tools. What do they do? What can they achieve? How do they impact on the everyday life of the person using them?

As PR professionals we can get lost in the business of these technologies. How can they be used for brands, how will they add value to a campaign and what return on investment will they deliver for the client? Will they go viral, be shared and raise the profile of a product? Will they result in an award winning stunt that will hit the headlines for all the right reasons?

Whilst having a conversation with a colleague who works with the Girl Guiding Association in Warwickshire, we got onto the subject of new technologies and social media forums and how they impact on young people. We were simply discussing the immediacy of everything and the need for people to think before they commit to communicating with the world.

We then digressed and started to discuss our own hobbies and what we like doing. In a complete contrast to anything that would have appealed to the ‘teenage me’ I mentioned that I had taken up knitting and crochet. Now before you fall over yourself laughing I will explain. I find it very hard to switch off – my brain doesn’t have an off button and my mind is constantly active. I think about new business ideas, plans for campaigns, what I need to do next week, what I have to discuss tomorrow, how many weeks it is until Christmas (*groan*) and so forth, it’s a never ending cycle and I don’t mind admitting it’s tiring.

I decided therefore to give crochet and knitting a go. I used to knit when I was really young and haven’t considered or really thought about it since. My colleague Emma then mentioned a group at The Ridings Shopping Centre who have a Knit and Natter session – what an amazing idea!

Although I don’t have chance to go to the group, I did think that there must be something in the idea of taking some time out and creating a scarf, some gloves, a tea cosy or simply just weaving together row upon row of beautiful coloured yarn. And so I tried it and I’m hooked!

Getting back to the conversation, I was explaining to the lady in question that I had started knitting and doing crochet and she asked me if I had learnt from a relative or if I was self taught. It then struck me that new technologies aren’t all about young people, they aren’t all about communicating in real time and they aren’t all about immediacy – you see I am using YouTube to learn crochet and it’s great.

By simply logging on to the many, many sites that exist, I am able to follow the instructions and see exactly what is going on. I find the steps difficult to follow in books as I can’t see exactly what is happening but using YouTube I can literally follow and ‘rewind’, follow and ‘rewind’.

Later that very same night I was catching up with some old school friends that I hadn’t seen for years on Facebook and noticed that someone I used to go to college with had uploaded an image of a crochet scarf – a very good one I have to admit. I commented and ‘liked’ her work, sharing on my feed. Her response; “I’ve only just started to crochet – I’m learning everything I can from YouTube.”

The moral of this story – new mediums aren’t just for business, they can be for pleasure too. For those of you, who like me, often think about how a social tool can be used to best practice for a brand, perhaps it’s time we thought more about the user experience – what would we want to get out of a technology?

Not everything is about speed. Sometimes we need to take a step back and think about how something can add value, even in the strangest of circumstances. If someone had told me three years ago that I would be using YouTube for crochet I would have laughed but I now have a relaxing hobby that I love and I don’t mind admitting my next tutorial is for a flower with layered petals!

3D printing, coming to a home near you

Posted on July 10, 2013 by

 

For those of you who read my blog about the Buy Yorkshire Conferenceyou will know that some of the evolutionary technologies discussed at the event really got me thinking about the future, and in particular about the many opportunities for innovation that will be created by 3D printing.

The thoughts from the event were that although these technologies, including 3D print, were great, they were still some way off being given approval for general release, so you will understand my excitement when I find that as reported in The Drum yesterday, Maplin have launched a machine known as the K8200 kit that can be purchased by the general public.

Now, in most instances this is the point where we have to take a step back and remember that although it is available that doesn’t mean that it is affordable however Maplin have said that the machine takes up to 10 hours to construct, which in turns lowers its cost, and can create any plastic model within 30 minutes, fitting to its scale of 20cm3. The idea over time is that children will be playing with this rather than computer games!

Never mind the children, what about agencies? Doesn’t this present the opportunity to be even more creative and to make scale model products to show the client rather than presenting pretty pictures? I’m not sure how realistic this is but it’s got to get you thinking, right?

How exciting would it be to show off your 3D printer by creating unique products for a campaign. I wonder how long it will be before we move on from ‘printing’ with plastic and start to use other materials. Could you 3D print something that was edible on a mass scale for example – now that would be impressive.

It will be interesting to see how many people make the purchase and if the company’s theories are correct. I know what I would be putting on my Christmas list if I had one.

 

Are we stifling creativity with processes?

Posted on June 20, 2013 by

We were recently invited to a Mi Networking event in Leeds and decided that as the focus was about innovations in technology we would go along and see what it was all about. Honestly expecting to hear about the advancements in social media (again) and how it’s imperative to ‘engage’ and ‘share’ with your audience, we were pleasantly surprised to be confronted by Dave Birss.

In order to give you some background, Dave is a creative but that doesn’t really do him justice. He has worked for some of the world’s largest agencies and has written books and created websites and apps more or less in some instances because he could. They are funny, quirky, interesting and in most cases useful – well other than ‘are you an asshat’.

What made him different was his enthusiasm for genuine creativity – not pretty pictures or the latest App that delivers very little but you can watch in 3D! – but real life examples of pushing the boundaries beyond brand.

During the session Dave focused on taking education and creating inspiration. He explained that creativity is stifled with process and I’m inclined to agree. We all get so caught up in systems, processes and procedures that we think in a linear way, without even recognising that we are doing it. This was lesson one for me!

He then went on to explain that if your creative idea doesn’t make a real difference you need to change the way that you are thinking – which is exactly what he did. He shocked me a little by announcing that not every brand needs social media. I thought I was pretty alone with this school of thought but apparently not. He, like me, feels that it’s more important to identify with the consumer behaviours of a product or service before jumping on a bandwagon and that traditional mediums can still deliver excellent results and jaw dropping impact.

Dave kept coming back to the same thing time and time again with the examples that he was showing – ideas, ideas and more ideas. He shared some websites, which some of you may be familiar with but I certainly wasn’t – Kickstarter as an example. This is a site which allows you to showcase an idea in a bid to generate funding. Those who like the idea will purchase the product in order to allow you to invest further in its development. What an amazing concept.

Then there was his thoughts on how in order to create truly integrated campaigns all of the technologies need to work together. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Dave wasn’t suggesting you make a design work across platforms or look pretty on an iPhone but that one concept, creative or theme was used across platforms and performed in a different way to add value to the user. So you could have one campaign with multi-purpose depending on what platform the consumer chose to use. Brilliant!

A lot of what Dave said made perfect sense, although it became frighteningly apparent that his passion for technology goes well beyond that of most people when he started to show individuals who are linking their nervous systems to computers and implanting chips in their bodies to create additional senses – hmmm, I’ll leave that one for now thanks.

As a result of the session we were buzzing and although a lot of what Dave said would fit into the ‘oh, of course’ category, it was a real pleasure to watch and learn about technology from the perspective of a true creative.

For more details about Dave Birss visit:   http://userguidetothecreativemind.com/davebirss/index.html

So thank you Mi Network for inviting us to this event. It was a great opportunity to take some time out and get back to what we are good at; getting excited over ideas, proposals and the brands we work with.