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MARKETING | Noah Brier

In Flux

Some thoughts/observations/quotes from Influx Ideas.

October 19, 2007 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 4 COMMENTS

Am out in San Francisco at the Influx Ideas Conference (that's Influx like the blog). Ed was kind enough to hook me up with a free ticket and in exchange I'm going to some blogging from the event. I kind of hate the live blogging thing, though, so rather than just feed you a bunch of random points out of context I'm going to do my best to add a bit of extra info/thinking. It's an experiment, so let's see how it works out . . .

influxideas.jpg

So here are some thoughts/quotes/ideas. Each header is the speaker who was onstage . . .

Sarah Rich - Worldchanging

  • There's an opportunity for local food as a reaction to national security threats. Knowing where your food came from makes it safer . . .
  • "Not every company brands green with integrity," but consumers will expose them. (More or less a quote.) Okay, I'm not sure about this one. Who are these vigilante bloggers people are always talking about. Are consumers really calling brands out or are consumers who live in our bubble more aware of what brand integrity means and we're projecting that awareness on the general population. Joe, a coworker from Naked, had an idea awhile back about building a Virtual Midwest to allow marketers like myself, who live in an NYC bubble to visit the midwest and see what the middle of the country looks like. Just to step back for one second, I don't mean to be snarky here and Sarah may be absolutely right, but I don't feel like I'm savvy enough to know whether a brand who calls itself green and uses some earth tones in its packaging is doing it with integrity. (As Joe pointed out, GM is a good example. Hopefully he'll explain in the comments.)
  • Sarah talked a bit about backstory which I think is a huge area of possibilities. Reminds me of blogjects (here's an old entry of mine that talks about them). Anyway, what happens when objects know (or at least contain information that documents) their own history. What if your clothes included a little chip that told you where it was from, who worked on it, how much fuel was consumed, etc.

Scott Wyatt - NBBJ Architects

  • They've done some awesome work. I've been to Reebok headquarters and it's pretty amazing. He also mentioned Boeing and Telenor. I love architecture as a discipline. Seriously, it's so cool and multi-disciplinary.
  • "When you see the Sydney Opera House you think 'Sydney', but when you think about Sydney, do you say 'opera'?"
  • This building is absurd.
  • I've heard/read a few times recently about the idea of buildings as sales tools. Scott talked about how Boeing brings more clients to it's office as a way to show off their philosophy. I can't remember where it was, but I recently read about an agency (I think) that recently redid it's office and they had a close rate of like 70% when they brought prospects in. (I'm sure those numbers are totally wrong and if anyone knows what I'm talking about, please let me know.) Anyway, it makes perfect sense: As always, everything is media.
  • Last from Scott is something else I've been thinking lots about. He was talking about buildings for corporations and how they approach it. Rather than working off functional specifications (number of desks needed, number of conference rooms needed, etc.), they work off the cultural specifications of the company: Who are they, what do they stand for, etc. This, to me, is a much better approach. I think far too often the corporate world approaches problems by forgetting that people are people. That's why business software is so bad. Anyway, here are two articles about designing business spaces that I think you'll find interesting: 1) Enabling Innovation Through Office Design and 2) Designs for Working.

Gregory Kennedy - Millions of Us

  • I have to admit, as soon as the topic of Second Life comes up I kind of roll my eyes . . .
  • The one point I found especially interesting was the idea that Second Life could be a super cheap 3D app. Rather than paying thousands of dollars for Maya, people have a cheap way to design 3D objects. Of course it's a lot more amateur, but so are lots of other things . . .

Okay, that's it for now, will just keep amending this thing . . .

Kent Nichols - Ask a Ninja

More soon . . .

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COMMENTS

1monica

so I actually watched/listened to the presentations online...how cool was it that Ed Cotton streamed it over the net (much more cost efficient for a full-time working student such as myself.) My favorite part was Askaninja...what a riot, never knew about it before.

October 19, 2007

2Steven Kalifowitz

To Scott's point about approaches to buildings for corporations - I've always struggled with a similar issue, only for public schools rather than corporations. It's always bothered me how public schools often resemble jails. IMHO the architecture of a school should be as cutting edge as possible - announcing to students that, "in this building, anything is possible."

That said, I don't think there's an office or school in existence that doesn't precisely reflect the culture of that organization. At HBO, everyone had their own office, unless you were low on the totem pole - then you had your own cubicle - where when you sat down, you didn't see anyone. Collaboration was very difficult - and the bosses seemed to like it that way. I had a similar experience at ABC. You'd think these companies would want to be efficient & maximize square footage/employee. Let me tell you, my offices at both HBO & ABC took up a remarkable amount of space - most of which was wasted. All of these attributes are proper reflections of the culture at both companies.

Now at R/GA maybe 5% of the staff have an office, the rest sit in open spaces - with no cubicle walls or anything else to divide us. Collaboration is remarkable here; and efficiency is equally high. Noah - just consider your office at Naked. I tend to think that too reflects the culture of your company.

October 22, 2007

3barbara

re Steven's comments on school construction, I think it bears mentioning that you didn't even know kids sat at desks in rows until you were in middle school -- thank goodness for Bank Street -- even at the elementary level, educational philosophy can influence the way you see the world.

October 22, 2007

4Joe Liebman

The Live Green, Go Yellow campaign highlights GM's "flex fuel" vehicles that run on E85 ethanol. Outside of corn country E85 is almost impossible to find (in the state of ny there are two stations, and only one in California http://www.e85refueling.com/ ). GM's E85 vehicles weren't created to help the environment -- they were created to exploit a loophole in federal law. The dual fuel loophole allows manufacturers to earn credits towards meeting federal fuel economy standards by producing vehicles that are able to run on both petroleum and an alternative fuel, even if they never actually use the alternative fuel. Instead of spending many millions on increasing fuel economy GM can spend $50 (per car) to add the technology necessary for its existing automobiles to run on E85. Since almost all E85 flex fuel cars will never run on E85 by 2020 if the loophole isn't closed the US will use 500,000 more barrels a day than if the loophole didn't exist or roughly the equivalent of our current imports from Iraq.

October 24, 2007