'Cross The Breeze

February 22, 2010 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

Here’s an interesting interview with Kevin Slavin at PICNIC NY Salon. It’s 8 months old but only just came to my attention thanks to a tweet of Helge Tenno. His thoughts around augmented cities and why maybe ‘augmented’ should be about taking things away instead of just adding them to the world as we are already drowning in data as it is. Take a look.

Looking at this (what I wrote earlier) that definitely makes sense to me.

I’ll be good catching up again with Kevin in NYC in March. And Helge, I hope we will meet each other as well one day ;)

community, inspiration, marketing, presentation, research, technology, trends

ar, areacode, augmented reality, augmentedreality, kevinslavin, newyork, picnic

The end of advertising as we know it

February 19, 2010 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

Or why everything old is new again. Read this great post by Guillaume Van der Stighelen (co-founder of the agency I work for) about advertising and bean counters. About how this new crisis gives yet again a reason to be average. Things will never be the same. Enjoy.

And while you’re at it, subscribe to the man’s Posterours. If you’re any bit interested in advertising you won’t regret.

advertising, duvalguillaume

advertising, average, beancounter, brand, crisis, digital, direct, duvalguillaume, guillaume

Bing@TED: awesome!

February 12, 2010 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

The maps feature on Microsoft’s search products has always had a bit of an edge over Google maps. It wasn’t all good, but the 3D map view was always more realistic compared to competitors, the Bird’s Eye view still remains unique and if you see what they presented at TED a few hours ago… friggin awesome. The Flickr integration, the … I don’t know where to start. Seriously, check this out.

Oh, and Blaise – I’m a fan since you presented Photosynth at Microsft’s internal MGX event a few years ago. You rock!

More on the Bing TED presentation is here.

consumer, inspiration, internet, microsoft, presentation, research, travel

bing, blaise, flickr, maps, microsoft, photosynth, ted

Augmented (hyper)reality

February 4, 2010 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

An iPad, why would you be needing that for? Today you hold a little square in front of your webcam, not anymore tomorrow. Sure you are ready for the future? ;)

This looks a bit like it could be Capital 4.0. If you don’t know Capital, check it out below (blogged about this long time ago).

advertising, art, branding, consumer, technology, trends, video

ar, augmented reality, augmentedreality, capital, future, hyper, studiosmack

Good is the enemy of great

February 1, 2010 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

‘Kun det bedste er godt nok’ (‘Only the best is good enough’) is the LEGO company motto.

“Since its first interlocking brick was launched in 1949 it has become more popular than any toy in history. Every second, seven new boxes of Lego are sold; for every person in the world, there are 62 Lego pieces; Lego people – mini-figures, as they’re known – outnumber real people. You’d think it would be impossible to to go wrong with a brand as beloved as that.”

Yet five years ago, they almost went bankrupt.

“The problem lay not with the product, but with the company’s attempts in the Nineties to make itself more modern and relevant in the age of video games. It had attempted to broaden its appeal to the young female market; it had tried to become a lifestyle brand with its own lines of clothes and watches; it had built more theme parks. But in doing so it had neglected its core business.”

This is a fascinating story of a company that reinvented itself by going back to the core. With some incredible pictures from the inside, great stuff.

branding, bringtheloveback, consumer, games, marketing, strategy

history, lego, story, strategy