Blog

Harlem Shake Agency Challenge

Thanks to those super fine folk at The Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town our afternoon was filled with even more dancing, laughter and silliness than is usual for a Friday. They had uploaded their @JupiterCT Harlem Shake and a challenge to other agencies to join the meme and we promptly got it together, aggravated the other tenants in the building and got our shake on. We @MCSaatchiAbel promptly put it together, missing a few critical details (yes I’m a stickler for detail) and proceeded to join a few other agencies in sharing our video and of course we had to extend the challenge to our Cape Town team and a few other of our colleagues in the industry. Spirits were high and the usual competitiveness between agencies was out of the window and we all seem to simply have some fun.

These are a few of the agency “Harlem Shakes” I’ve picked up on. Enjoy!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQHPBTonq58]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77bQmVSalg0]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJAB-2iD-GI]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQAT6RT-ZzQ]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5J1VxGNP1k]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZzrB5JgJZM]

UPDATE: The agency harlem shake has taken off according to Ad Age with a dedicated site for you to watch agencies from all over the world.

7 things I’d like to see in digital for 2013

I was just reading a .net article on the 20 top web design and developments trends for 2013 and I have a few thoughts on what I’d like to see in digital for 2013, especially in South Africa.

  1. Responsive Web Design
    Probably the largest trend, still not picking up enough traction in South Africa is RWD, which makes absolutely no sense to me. The thought of creating a website purely for desktop, when we have such a large percentage of mobile users locally its ignorant. At the same time, RWD might not be the perfect solution after all, given that have multiple layouts require content to be turned on or off, but that only means its hidden from the user’s eye, but all the multiple layouts and content are still downloaded, which in SA, really defeats the purpose.
  2. Content
    If you’ve ever read anything on the web, you’ll know that for the most part, it’s absolute rubbish. I believe that content has to be a bigger priority in 2013, that doesn’t mean to say that it needs to be bloated, while content is king, it doesn’t have to be a silly bloated one at that. Craft of visual assets needs to be factored in and more relevant content be created, instead of just recycling images from a google search on a specific subject, purely as a cheap option to visually populate your wall etc.
  3. Conversation
    Social media conversations need to be better aligned, this prescribing posts months in advance has to stop. Agencies need to be employed and empowered to write content in real-time. While a strategy can be in place to guide the conversation based on the brands objectives, a more natural real time conversation should take place, where agencies speak in the brands tone to people, engaging in conversation rather than shouting out and waiting for responses. The other problem with the month in advance post prescriptive content creation is waiting for client to sign off everything is the delays it causes. clients need to have a little faith in the communication agency they hire.
  4. Focus
    Most agencies try to be all things to everyone, instead of trying to do everything poorly for the same budget, agencies need to identify real opportunities in the digital space and focus more on that specific area rather than spread themselves too thin across every digital channel.
  5. Hybrid designer
    I’m borrowing the term Hybrid Designer from the .net article and I’m going say what they’ve said in my own words, the best digital designers have the ability to code as they have a better understanding of what the constraints of the medium are. I’ve mostly done all of my own coding of the sites I’ve done in my career. I lack the level of development of a lot of the talented developers I’ve had the privilege of working with over the years, but I have always had a better balance between design and development output.
  6. Story telling
    I believe true engagement is to tell a really compelling story, taking people on a journey, giving people a reason to believe, to interact and be inspired to want to share. In SA, I’m yet to see anything like the type of campaigns AKQA or North Kingdom produce. We spend millions producing TV adverts that run for 30 seconds for a couple of weeks, instead of creating rich online engagements that can last for much longer and offer a lot more information, interaction and share-ability.
  7. Waving carrots
    I have noticed that there are few digital campaigns that don’t involve a huge prize as an incentive to engage. If the prize is the reason to engage, then the focus isn’t on the message we’re trying to drive, but rather the “whats in it for me” mentality. If you’re going to give something away, then it’s simple, have an entry form. But if you want people to understand and engage with your brand, give them an experience they’ll never forget.

Fighting words!

It’s quite common to see people get into spirited banter on social forums and for us outsiders it can either make us want to duck for cover or get fired up and add our 2 cents worth. Social media does not play by the same sort of real life social rules and everyone has the ability to be a big mouth from the comfort of where ever they decide to attack from, it’s a new form of guerrilla war I guess, and it’s a global playing field of cowardliness. I’m guilty of it too, but I am trying to learn from it. There’s always going to be someone who wants to take a dig at you, someone who feels they’re some sort of authority on whats right or wrong. Truth is, there is no right and wrong, we all do things for different reasons and I’m sure that if we were face to face with one another and we took the time to understand each other, it might just be a more civilized society after all. But it’s easy to shoot off another cocky reply on twitter than it is to consider for just a second why someone might have said what they did, too much effort to simply send them a ‘DM’ and engage in healthy debate. The reason I say debate, is that when you’re not being shouted at in a public forum, you’re less likely to be defensive and hence you’re likely to have a healthy conversation. Let’s face it, if people spoke to one another in the real world, like they do on social platforms, there would be a lot of people getting punched in the face.

I have adopted a new approach for myself, which I can only hope more people adopt. I’m not saying this is a hard rule and I’m no authority, I’m just a guy trying to stay afloat in the white waters of our technologically driven society. My approach is to say nice things, share great words of wisdom, spread the love. I like to live by “if you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all”. I see no point in arguing with people online anymore, and if someone has something to say to me, they need to be polite about it if they expect a response, because I try to live by “do unto others and you expect other to do unto you”. I doubt many people who don’t know me would dare say the things they do to me on twitter or Facebook to my face. So lets all attempt to be a little more civilized online, stop attacking one another, take conversations offline if you care so much to engage with one another.

Stay cool now, there really isn’t any reason to act like a dick!

FNB are quick to respond but are they responsive?

Earlier today I commented on a tweet which mentioned FNB will bring the new iPad to South Africa. Simply, I was curious as to why FNB, not Apple (The Core Group) were bringing the iPad to SA, given that I know FNB as a bank, they handle your money etc. Promptly I received a response which I noted because someone I respect had a good chuckle at my expense.

@MichaelJordaan: A real Guru wouldn’t ask “@Digiguru: What the hell does FNB have to do with iPads?”

This was met with quite a few retweets by people who were either laughing at me or at the cocky response from @MichaelJordaan – CEO of FNB. Not taking it too seriously, without hesitation I replied…

@mikestopforth @michaeljordaan LOL I’m not a real guru, but would hope that FNB was a bank and not a Apple distributor 🙂

I quite appreciated the sensible responses from a few other people who informed me how FNB are trying to encourage clients to make use of electronic channels as a medium to do banking. If that’s the whole truth, I applaud their efforts. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I decided to visit www.fnb.co.za as I wanted to see how they were offering the iPad. I arrived at their seemingly well designed home page and after clicking on an iPad image, I read that FNB gives you an Apple iPad, Samsung Galaxy or Smartphone at a reduced rate, with your Cheque Account. 24 Months to pay. As long as you’re a FNB cheque account customer, you probably qualify for their deal. This isn’t empowering anyone any more than it is signing people up to their business. This I understand, given that I know a little about marketing and advertising. Good for them and it answers my question “What the hell has FNB got to do with iPads?”

I know a designer who works on the FNB brand and wasn’t too surprised that their site looks quite descent on the surface. As far as banks go, FNB seem like a forward thinking bank, I have noted they have an App, which is fantastic in a geeky way, but it’s device specific and not the only way to access their content from tablet & mobile devices. As typical South African standards go, I wasn’t too surprised that the site is not responsive, it doesn’t adapt to multiple devices, making it quite difficult to bank online on mobile phones etc. People don’t seem too bothered about viewing sites on their tablets, when held horizontally they look like they do on computers browser, but what about when you display it vertically (portrait) and on your phones which have an endless amount of screen sizes? Thats where it would be in their best interest to have a rethink of their existing site and perhaps design it to adapt better to the devices they say they the want to empower people to use.

iPhone 4 portrait screengrab

iPhone 4 landscape screengrab

I honestly don’t believe that FNB care any more about empowering people by using devices like the iPad any more than they are building brand loyalty through association, leveraging the cool factor. That’s great marketing. However, if they were concerned about empowering, they would already have built their site to adapt better on devices, make the buttons etc large enough to be selected on touch devices, legible enough to read on smaller screens and reduced site speed by removing the +- 40 images that make up the page and rather used CSS, as phones accessed the internet well before the iPad was released. But they’re cool, @MichaelJordaan has many fans who would sooner laugh at  his response to my comment than actually think about what FNB are, and what they are supposed to be doing, which in my opinion is banking. I’m not in a battle with FNB, I quite respect their marketing efforts, they seem like they’re ahead of the competition, sociably they seem to be doing the right things too and I’m certainly not going to get into it with every retweeting fan, I’m smarter than that.

I’m no social guru either, and nothing can be taken back, but now that they have this gem of information from me, the right way to deal with my response online would be to acknowledge what I’ve said and say thanks for the advice, we have noted your point about our site not being responsive and we’ll look into it.

For anyone who cares, let this be a lesson to you. Don’t expect to get an informative answer from brands, you might just get a cocky response. People you respect and others you don’t will point and laugh. But maybe you’ll get lucky – like I have, by actually getting an opportunity to turn this around and hopefully make a suggestion that could actually benefit the brands users.

I buy Apple products, from Apple. I bank, at Standard Bank.

Social Media Etiquette

I’m anything but a “social media guru”, but I do keep in touch with some of the most influential innovators in the digital industry, and might have signed up to a thing or two before many other people, which is my way of saying, I’m an old dog and I there might be some sound advice I can offer in this space without sporting ninja status.

  1. Don’t sweat spelling mistakes: If you were cool at school, you didn’t care about acing a spelling test, and you know what, it’s ok now too. Sure you could really put your foot in it and things could completely get read out of context. But what does it matter? You’re a person, and there are spell checkers, but they just haven’t implemented them on Twitter or Facebook. Your friends won’t care either, unless of course they’re copywriters (I have a few of those) but then they’d be correcting you at the dinner table while you talk with food in your mouth.
  2. Don’t tweet & share your Foursquare check-ins: The only people who care what badge you earned and where you check-in are people on Foursquare, no one else gives a fuck! If you must share your location, Twitter has location-based tweet info and it’s easy enough to check-in on Facebook. You will lose friends and alienate people!
  3. Don’t make a #hash of things: Apparently hashtags add some sort of value when tweeting, but you really shouldn’t use too many, you look like a twat cause hashtags are meant to be relevant to the topic you are tweeting about. But using too many, is considered spamming on Twitter and makes you seem like you’re trending #stupid #thick #dumb #etc
  4. Posting endless images with motivational text on your wall: I love a good thought, especially the really deep ones that kinda blow my hair back the whole day and I kinda want to try to fit that pearl of wisdom into a conversation. But adding all these images about things that motivate you goes against the fabric of the internet, and adding ten in a row is just showing off your copy and pasting skills, while wasting my mobiles bandwidth. Next time you have pearls of wisdom to share, type one up as an affirmation. If you’re bursting to share it, tell the lady who packs your bags at the check out at your local grocery store, she might care more.
  5. Public Ranting: Your social profile, unless set to private (which honestly is very anti-social) is very fucking public, so if you use Twitter to bitch about the traffic, your fight with your sister and the runny guts you got from an Indian restaurant you frequent, all the time, then don’t be surprised when people think you’re a grumpy miserable prick. I simply don’t want to start each day with another of your rants congesting my feed and harshing my morning mellow. Be the cheerful, fun-loving friend I get to hang out with on the weekends. There I said it.
  6. Posting images of hot chicks/dudes: While we all like to admire hotness, keep it to yourself or your select group of friends on a private mailing list. Posting nude-ish chicks and saying “yes-please” makes you look like a horny teenager. It’s a public forum and not your locker at the firehouse. You wouldn’t put half-naked bodies on your office walls or living room, so don’t do it online, unless of course it’s for motivation in the fitness section of pinterest (we’re ok with that, like we are with talking in the 3rd person or for everyone).
  7. Don’t have a conversation on Twitter: I’ve said this a few times before, Twitter is not an instant messenger. It’s easy to fall into the trap, but honestly, if you want to get into a conversation or tell someone to check there mail, and you must use Twitter, DM them. Otherwise find another way of having a conversation that isn’t a public feed … ever heard of msn or Skype?
  8. Posting a link without a description: Facebook has an amazing ability to pull the information of a website, sometimes insert an image and the need for a description to a link is not required, but on twitter it makes absolutely no sense, especially with a shortened url. Hell even a hashtag would be better than nothing, too many though and that makes you look like a twat!
  9. Promoting yourself online but you have a shit website: I buy into social media too, you don’t have to be a “social media guru” to know that it has benefits to any business, but whats the point of investing in a social media campaign that pushes you to ugly website?
  10. Don’t hahahahahahahahahahaha at everything you find funny: It’s cute once or twice to hahahahaha, but if that’s the only thing you do when people you know post something funny, then stop it, you look fucken nuts! Appreciate it, give it a like, hell share it and by all means make a comment, just don’t hahahahahaha the fuck out of things.

Final thought, I wanted to suggest that no one call them self a “Social Media Guru”! I might have used a similar name to describe my online presence, but I have never sold myself as some sort of guru, and neither should you. We all use social media, even your parents and yes, some people have made an exclusive career out of it, but not even Mark Zuckerberg calls himself a social media guru, and lets face it, he wrote the book, get it?!

2011 a short look back

This past year has been an interesting one which on the eve of the new year, could sooner be forgotten if it weren’t for some really significant events.

Steve Jobs
Online it must have been the most significant event in history when Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th. He seriously left a huge dent in the universe and I think people are waiting to see the first significant Apple release without the creative genius driving the company.

Facebook Timeline
Love it or hate it, as of the December 22nd, Facebook officially rolled out Timeline. As an early adopter it took me very little time to really start appreciating the life event display of my personal information. While there are some people who aren’t as happy about the changes, personally I look forward to further enhancements and also seeing Timeline used for page profiles.

Google+
New to social media was the much hyped release of Google’s latest social platform Google+ which has been released publicly, but to date is still very much a geek network. Google also rolled out a really significant UI redesign across most of its platforms, which has significantly improved the look and feel and unified many of their online spaces.

Twitter
Twitter redesigned.

Digital Monarchy
Marianna and I decided we were taking the leap from full-time employment and started our own little digital studio. We were originally going to call our company Harakiri, but the timing was too close to the Tsunami which hit Japan, so we settled on Digital Monarchy. We have no plans of taking over the world, we simply want to do good work. While only being in business for 9 months, we have worked on some great brands with some brilliant people.

FWA
I spent my December holiday in 2010 redesigning my personal website, choosing to try my hand at a responsive html5 design, which won me FWA  Mobile Site of the Day on March 16th. Digiguru has now existed for over a decade and will continue to improve while showcasing my ever-increasing portfolio.

2012
With the new year, brings with it new optimism, may your 2012 be full of fun, excitement, success, laughter, good health, peace, love and happiness!

Thank you

Social Responsibility

I stumbled upon some dirty laundry being aired on a friends Facebook wall today and I was shocked to learn things about their current behavior. There are two sides to every story and I’m a firm believer that I have no right to pass judgement on anyone. But what this does make me conscious of is the fact that this is a public forum and what you say can be read by pretty much everyone. Friends, family, clients, employers etc can all read this and will certainly judge you by this. I certainly use platforms like Facebook and Twitter to find out more about the people I interview, work with or meet. So if I have any advice, it’s to be responsible of your social profile.

  • Keep your password to yourself, you don’t want someone you might be fighting with posting stuff on your wall.
  • Edit the things you say. What might seem funny in the moment might be perceived as something else by people who might not appreciate your special brand of humour
  • Understand and set your privacy settings. If you’re going through some stuff, keep things private.
  • Be responsible for your actions outside of social media, it’s easy for people who recognise you to spot you in the background in photos and drunken photos will not impress future employers as much as you think. People can also post on your wall or on their own, using your name will show up in all your friends walls.
  • Monitor your accounts frequently to stay aware of your online reputation.
  • If you are going to swear, make sure you sign up to @swearbox so that you can give donate to a worthy cause to make up for your bad language.

The brilliance of 140 characters

I was writing a big fat #rant on my favourite broadcast platform twitter today, as I have attempted many times and to my now delight, I stopped in my tracks when I tried to reduce that #rant several times into 140 characters. I think the limit on characters might have just saved me from saying something that might have made me look a bit stupid (not that it will stop me from trying again) as I could not say what I wanted to say in 140 characters and it was becoming too frustrating trying to do so, ultimately allowing me to forget about my #rant and move along. Brilliant way to edit all the noise!

Digital Copywriting

One of things I got to really appreciate while working at Ogilvy was the role of Copywriters. They pair Copywriters and Art Directors to not only visualise ideas, but to put it into words. The copywriters are also quite theatrical and can really pitch an idea, putting into words what Art Directors only know how to say with pictures.

In the digital industry, copywriters are few and far between and I believe they are a crucial addition to any team. Content is king and given that data is made up by text, it just makes perfect sense to have someone on board who can string a sentence together. Below is a list of the type of qualities we look for when hiring a Digital Copywriter

  • Write for search engines
  • Short one liners for banners etc
  • Edit large amounts of copy for sites
  • Explain what seems like technology overload for technophobes
  • Think and write conceptually
  • Spelling & Grammar
  • Write for social platforms like Twitter
  • Understand the personality of different brands and write accordingly
  • Be able to offer options

There aren’t many (if any) Digital Creative Directors who have a copywriting background, so giving a variety of options will help as it makes it easier if there is choice. Your CD will narrow the choice down to present to clients. Being a blogger does not make you a copywriter any more than a social media ‘expert’, so if you can, get some formal training, work with traditional agency writers who you can learn from and then read lots, so you know a little about everything and can hold your own when it comes to cutting edge technology and campaigns. There aren’t many Digital Copywriters, so if you can learn this skill, you could be in very high demand.

Friday finds + friendly tips

Just when I thought I was growing tired of things online, (I actually even tweeted that I was bored with the web) Google and a few other companies have dropped some serious bombs and there are now a bunch of interesting things online worth exploring. With all this geeking it up, even an old hat like myself can learn a thing or two, I feel worth sharing with you.

Finds

  • Google+ launched and has already got 10 Million+ users. It’s still by invite only, so send me your gmail address and I’ll invite you.
  • If you have email overload, then perhaps Shortmail’s 500 character limit will help. No attachments, no junk mail, no folder management. Just pure text. Claim your name @shortmail.com
  • Adobe released the Flash Player 11 beta for desktops. This particular build brings with it Stage3D APIs, for “advanced” 2D and 3D rendering, 64-bit support, H.264 encoding, and 7.1 surround sound.
  • +1 buttons let people who love your content recommend it on Google search. Follow the instruction’s and easily add the +1 button here.
  • Kevin Rose decided to point his domain kevinrose.com to his Google+ account as it gives him more (real time) feedback and engagement than his blog ever did.
  • Over 36 000 businesses may have already signed up for Google+ which will launch later this year.
  • State of the Internet 2011 is an interactive infographic created by Online Schools.
  • If you like infographics, then you need to visit Visual.ly, the world’s largest community for exploring, sharing, creating, and promoting data visualizations.
  • Plus buddy analyzes your public Facebook profile and provides recommmendations of who to follow on G+
  • You can register for DesignSignoff, a new elegant tool for design presentation & review.
  • For interesting stats and to discover and Find People on Google+
  • Tweet my Plus is a service to tweet your Google+ posts.


Friendly Tips

  • Don’t tweet at 2am about yawning, you might have yawned several times tweeting, but no one will be around to respond to your curious questions.
  • Keep your url’s short by using the Google url shortener
  • Despite being irritated when receiving calls from blocked numbers, answer the phone, apparently clients might be calling your from PABX systems etc which will block the number.
  • Create a short URL for your Google+ profile on http://glpl.us
  • If you are a client, please don’t call, email us so we have a record of our conversation. If we talk, we’ll do it face to face, I promise we play well with others.
  • Learn how to redirect your homepage /+ URL to your Google + profile like this http://digiguru.co.za/+
  • Lots of functionality not available in Google+ can be achieved by using Google Chrome’s extensions
  • If you hit the home button on your keyboard, it scrolls to the top of the browser (Yes, I really didn’t know that)
  • If you’re not sure what is going on currently on Google+, don’t worry, the hottest topic is currently people are talking about Google+ as it’s full of early adopters.
↑