six things

that caught my attention today:

1) from the always-attention-grabbing Jessica Hagy (why isn't she a brand planner?)


2) was pre-ordering the new Death Cab for Cutie album this morning and ran across the Vitamin String Quartet's tribute to DCFC. wow. perfectly mellow music for an overcast Wednesday.

3) Japanese taxi lights.


4) German company compares food-shoot images with real post-cooked product.


5) a flash of brand insight from Tom Asacker. brilliant.

6) muxtape. an online, social space to mix and share songs. instead of burning cds of your iTunes playlists, or hoping the object of your affection still has a tape deck and affinity for Rob Gordon-like romance, you can upload and mix and direct your listener to the site. brilliant. it's a bit slow to upload and load...not sure if that's new bugs or just the volume of traffic this great idea is sure to be receiving.

on insight and innovation

most of what i do is geared around uncovering insights and turning those insights into a relevant strategy. the other part of my day job is updating my facebook profile and downloading new music from iTunes.

planning/strategy folks go round and round about processes/resources/validation/research and very rarely agree on what it is, exactly, that they are looking for in an insight. many times, we back into an insight (or strategy) to validate an already-known mindset. that's not an insight. so what's an insight?

i think this slideshow by Matthew Millan explains insight in a brilliant way.

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so here's to Columbo.

another inspiring Internet find today: mass innovation. a short film by Charles Ledbetter. well put together and a great reminder of the world we live in as marketers and consumers.

a vision of students today

just watched this insightful video by Michael Wesch, Professor of Anthropology at Kansas State University, via PSFK. the video was created by Wesch and 200 of his anthropology students to document changes in student learning, while traditional education remains very much intact.




when i talk to college students the biggest change i see is the existence of laptops in class. with wireless networks allowing online perusal during lectures - and many of those lectures being given to enormous classes, tuning out and surfing the 'net become the norm. i'm not sure how this habit has taken hold in the small, private colleges i attended, but i'd imagine where there's a will there's a way in any sized class.

i think the most interesting thing about this video is its relevance to the way many of these college grads act in the workplace. just as education is changing and technology is both positively and negatively affecting the traditional school setting, the workplace is quickly evolving to reflect the same trends.

it's a permeation of multi-tasking and shortened attention spans. it's a heightened sense of urgency, perpetuated by convenience and opportunity to feed and execute any desire/task.

what does it all mean? i look at this video, and look around my own office and see that engagement is king. from the class to the office, technology plays both sides of the sword when it comes to engagement: you can use it to engage an audience in a meaningful way, or technology can be the first suitor to lure a disinterested brain away.

kudos to K-State for exploring this. too bad they couldn't win last night's game (yeah, i was rooting for them) to position the Jayhawks a bit more favorably.