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New Ideas

Wednesday’s ” Watch This”: Ads Worth Watching

December 7, 2011
Change, New Ideas, Videos
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10 minutes of ads worth your time.
Carlsberg stunt with bikers in cinema
I kept forgetting to share this anywhere so finally I remember it and decided to add two other ads that recently made an impression ;) .
This is just hilarious. I love the people that leave hahaha…Great concept from Duval Guillaume Modem agency.

It’s Time
A moving and extremely effective ad regarding marriage equality. You hate, you’re a monster.

Kenny Powers – K-Swiss CEO video (Uncensored)
Smart Branding; Kenny Powers, MFCEO of K-Swiss – Wired’s Geek Dad – “pure advertising gold. It’s also an extremely rare and unorthodox ad”.
I intended to find out the back story of this ad one way or another. Geekdad has the answers direct from 72andSunny.

This one won’t be for everyone. If you don’t know who Kenny Powers is and dislike – questionable humor – you may want to skip this one. But I didn’t even think this was a real company when I first saw the ad. Next time I see their shoes in a store I will definitely remember them and at least have a look. For some it really worked: It was actually successful in convincing me to go out and get a pair of K-Swiss Tubes. – Total Pro Sports

This ad was produced by agency http://www.72andsunny.com/ – a new fav now.

Wednesday’s “Watch This”: PressPausePlay – A FILM ABOUT HOPE, FEAR AND DIGITAL CULTURE.

November 9, 2011
Change, Interviews, New Ideas, Videos
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My friend Aaron Cooper suggested I check this out. And I owe him big thanks for doing so.
I just finally got around to watching this late last night and I thought it was great; entertaining, informative – an easy introduction to people not fully familar with the changes being brought about by digital culture.

The creative landscape is changing. Some talk about a revolution. Others talk about a natural evolution. These changes affect everything. From creation to distribution, from artist to consumer.

And in the spirit of the film’s topic, you can download the film for FREE from their website. (As Seth Godin says ideas that are free spread faster.)
Also have a look at the interactive version – that’s now on my to do list.

Description
The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.

Big Changes are coming: The Cars vs. Phones Barometer

October 11, 2011
Change, New Ideas
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When you talk to managers in the Japanese automotive industry about their worst rival, it is often not another car manufacturer that is on their mind, but the mobile phone. Even before the 2008 world economic crisis, passenger car sales in Japan had been shrinking for years. According to an industry insider, one reason was because the vast majority of young men who used to spend significant sums of money on cars now prefer shelling out $ 100 or more per month for the voice and data services of their mobile companion.

This little anecdote shows that something quite extraordinary is going on in Japan. While physical mobility is taken for granted, the mobile phone is about to supersede the car as a symbol of freedom. The attraction is understandable. The car offered people in the analog age the dream of individual mobility — to go everywhere, whenever you liked. Whereas the mobile phone enables people of the digital age to communicate and to link with almost everything and everybody on this planet from anywhere anytime.

From: The six immutable laws of mobile business by Philip Sugai, Marco Koeder, Ludovico Ciferri.

That last sentence needs to be considered by everyone in business, working for a non-profit, artists – anyone that needs to connect with other people. There is a such a profound shift under way that many people may not even notice it happening. Entire countries that missed the PC revolution are coming online for the first time via mobiles.

And it is not just happening in Japan:

Young people today would rather have the latest smartphone than a flashy car. And the number of them who can drive is plummeting. Is Britain’s love-affair with the car really over?

“Car manufacturers are worried that younger people in particular don’t aspire to own cars like we used to in the 70s, 80s, or even the 90s. Designers commonly say that teenagers today aspire to own the latest smartphone more than a car. Even car enthusiasts realise we’ve reached a tipping point.” – Tim Pollard, associate editor at CAR magazine

The two above quotes come from a Guardian article that goes on to explore various alternative car-sharing models including Streetcar, Zipcar and Whipcar.

Improved, more environmentally friendly transportation systems built around access instead of ownership – all managed via your mobile – is just one scenario that will impact car manufacturers.

What industry are you in?

If mobile phones can take the place cars in the eyes of youth – what will mobiles do to your industry?

What can you do to embrace the opportunities pro-actively?

HFX50 Submissions: the shining lights leading the way forward

September 21, 2011
AQR Ventures, Events, New Ideas
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One of our goals is to celebrate those able to embrace change and drive change for the better. We will highlight the unique and innovative in our home city of Halifax that can inspire us all and serve as (role) models.

Thus inspired by All Day Buffet’s NYC100, we are launching an annual list called the HFX50+.
There will be 5 categories for the HFX50+:

  1. Food, Health & the Environment – we love good food, we want more, thus we should probably look after the environment – who’s providing any of that?
  2. Technology & Innovation – the implementation of new ideas
  3. Art & Culture – be it individual artists or orgs that support local arts & culture, who is making an impact and showing us the way forward?
  4. Business & Non-Profit – best businesses and NPO that represent what we are seeking [see below]
  5. Social & Design – for those bringing people together, connecting communities, doing it with style or creating the objects we covet or the places we want to live and work

We will be looking at a number of factors covering everything from their mission, work they actually do, how they spend their time/money, who they work with, their contribution to the local community, wider contributions, and their pursuits of new ideas/innovations to name a few.

SUBMISSIONS WELCOME
While we have started compiling names ourselves, we know there are folks and organizations out there we probably aren’t aware of or may be forgetting – don’t let that happen. If you would like to submit an individual, business or organization for consideration please send an email with their name to: HFX50@aquietrevolution.com

Deadline is October 16th @ Midnight
The list will be part of our first issue of SPIDER available in late October. 

 

 

SPIDER – our quarterly – spinning a new web of influence

September 21, 2011
AQR Ventures, Interviews, New Ideas
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THAT’S JUST A MOCK-UP
The above is a quick mock-up I did for a team meeting. The logo is a font created by Isaac. While the monkey is a painting from his extremely talented brother (Isaac is the Danny Devito from Twins in this sibling rivalry – I kid I kid….he knows he is loved). And wait til you see the actual magazine – eventually Isaac will have developed a font specifically for it, and is responsible for designing the sharp layout (that is not evident in MY mock-up and you need to see the inside).

The first issue will ideally be out in time for Halloween. Via http://issuu.com it will be embeddable and available for all to read, but there will also be perfect bound print copies available directly from us or online.

Each issue will feature a cover story interview subject who gets the – well monkey treatment from Jeremy (as thanks we will also be sending the actually painting to them).

THE USUALSPIDER CONTENT 
Each issue will address topics based on the acroymn that makes up teh name with an overarching theme for each issue:
Social: issues exploring the ways and opportunities people come together
People: profiles and interviews with doers
Information: covering the internet, bringing you the info you need.  In each issue you will find a infographic center-fold from our own infographic wizard Spencer.
Design: from print and the web to the real world, we explore great design and provide tips on incorporating it into your own projects
Entrepreneurship: we believe it improves communities, beats a day job and we hope to show you why and sell you on trying it for yourself while celebrating those who have
Rock n Roll: we mainly come from music backgrounds. There is ample experience and antidotes from the failing music industry to apply to any business or industry. Plus, we think you could use some better music in your life and have no shortage of suggestions.

ISSUE ZERO PREVIEW
Our first issue, actually Issue Zero – will have the overall theme of addressing failure and if failing is really such a bad thing to begin with.

Besides music, the RnR section will address the opportunities presented by constraints and how limited resources are no excuse for failing (or not even trying) via a look at rock icons such as the Ramones and the White Stripes.

Spencer is working on a infographic spread addressing the failures of the music industry.

The design section will address user vs. company innovations and who is likely to be more successful. We may highlight some amazing failures from the design field as well.

The entrepreneur section will be focused exclusively on our home town of Halifax, NS – and highlighting the kinds of companies and people we hope don’t fail and can inspire others. This will be our inaugural HFX50+ list. Click the link for more details on HFX50+.

The social and people sections are still in dvelopment but should hopefully entertain and enlighten you at the same time on the opportunities present in failure while showing you other views on failure.
 

First Internal Venture: Crowdfunding Service for Musicians

September 20, 2011
AQR Ventures, New Ideas, Startups
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One of the initial ideas that spurred V0.1 of the site

Most of our team are musicians and/or have experience in the music industry – thus we know what it means for an industry to be turned upside down – and find the opportunities in that chaos.

Besides doing client work, we also aim to put our beliefs into practice via internal ventures. The first is a complete reworking and relaunching of a crowdfunding site specifically for musicians.

Besides highlighting the programming, design and social media marketing skills of our team – we also see an opportunity to profoundly impact the lives of musicians for the better. Our mission for the site is more money to more musicians – the antithesis of the current music industry model.

We think our mix of crowdfunding, direct-to-fan options and a system that walks artists through the process from setting goals to reminders for follow-up contact with their segmented fan base will achieve our mission.

Watch the blog and newsletter for more on this project relaunching by year’s end.

(Not naming or linking to it as the site is live but not with the brand spanking new look and features we are excited to share – BUT if you are really curious, some snooping around the AQR world will find it).

False Start, Corrected – We are open for business!

September 19, 2011
AQR Ventures, New Ideas
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This alternatively could have been titled “Do as We Say, Not as We Do”. (We won’t be hiding our mistakes/mis-steps, they’re learning opportunities for us all).

If you check the first few blog post dates you will notice a significant gap between the last post and today’s. There were a number of reasons, we jumped the gun on “starting” when everything wasn’t ready – both on the website and content wise, but also staff/team-wise.

All that has since been addressed.

Then there was an unplanned serve switch and some unplanned bugs that came with moving everything. The kinds of things that aren’t necessarily huge problems – think viewing a website across different browsers and expecting the site to look the same and getting some crazy variations – but take more time than they should to correct.

Those have also been corrected.

Then just as we had a staff meeting and readied to launch the following week I came down with an extremely persistent case of pneumonia. Still lingering weeks later but far better than I was.

So now with the team, site, blog and content all in place ready to go – as well as my health back in relative check …

I am proud to announce that a quiet revolution (AQR) is open for business

(As an epic Chemical Brothers song rises in the background – nice)

But here is something perhaps more fitting, if you’d please: Here we go

Pump it Up – Elvis Costello