GoCrossCampus

GoCrossCampus (GXC) is a massively multiplayer online turn based strategy game from some students at the MIT brain trust. It lives in that space between board games like Risk, Eric Zimmerman/Word's Sissy Fight 2000, and Facebook – an admittedly strange blend. I've been expecting something like this for a little while now but am delighted by the charming approach taken.

The creators are now taking seed money from some VC groups and looking to bring the game to the workplace as a team building activity. I love it.

(Cross posted to transforming games)

Autocannibalism

I received a letter from my house insurance company. It's wishing me a happy birthday by my professional name on (4/0) 20lb matte full-bleed party balloon stock. My policy number appears under the date, a privacy notice in spat-out sans 8pt is smeared across the bottom of the message.

There are so many problems with this piece:

• It demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of why we communicate with each other. They are my insurer - I want them to be solid, sober, responsible, and compassionate. I don't care that they can do a mail merge from a database. I want to know that they are on top of my security. They should have a communication that conveys they have a respectful interest in my well-being and hold my personal information in the most discrete manner. Balloon letterhead - they might as well be waving a bottle of tequila and a handgun in our nursery.
• It highlights for me the inequality of our relationship - this company knows my birthday, my address, they've had people through my house and advised me on things to fix. I haven't even been to their office; I'm not even sure where it is. And now I'm not convinced of their good judgment.
• They assume an intimacy without entering a conversation and ignore our existing relationship. We have every reason to talk to each other - I have a home to ensure, and they are my insurer. Ask me about it and offer professional guidance. You had someone in our house who advised us of things we could do to make it safer. You know that I haven't called to update you about that - Ask if that has been completed as it will improve my rates; ask if it would be helpful if they had a reputable contractor they have vetted contact me about that minor repair. Why haven't they called about that, anyway? BECAUSE THEY DON'T CARE. And now it's top of mind for me.
  

The net effect is that I feel less secure. How much am I paying for this? Either too much or too little; either way, it's a reminder to CHANGE INSURER. Happy Birthday to me!

YourSpace

I attended Sharpe Blackmore Euro RSCG's "YourSpace" event today, exploring the application and relevance of social media to contemporary marketing.

Speakers included:
Ken Wong (Queen's Business School) and three of his star graduating BCOM students, Cleo Cheung, Albert Lee, Sal Patel
Mathew Ingram (Globe and Mail)
Jesse Brown (CBC Radio)
Janice Diner (Ripple Social Media)
Chris Williams (Media Contacts)
Tom Blackmore (Sharpe Blackmore)
and host, Ron Tite (Sharpe Blackmore)

The presentations were quite interesting and I have pages of notes that I will be digesting into some posts over the next few days.

I was not surprised by the eagerness of marketing professionals to adopt these approaches but was a little shocked at how few people in the field have started playing with or participating in them. Not a 20-something crowd but I expect we'll see some interesting results in coming months.

We travel at low-bandwidth

Crystal Castles' xxzxczx me – the aesthetic of the video is such that I can’t tell whether or not it was degraded by the youtube distribution. Great alignment of signal and channel, noise disappears into style and the piece appears native to where the community is using the sound.

Motivation

There are new things happening. Information transmission is increasing and the cathedral of mass media now has coffee shops in the congregation and a bazaar on the grounds. There is a hum of creation and sharing – a groove, like culture is jazz to be played and riffed on. Ad hoc communities are forming about nodes of group definition and forming reservoirs of knowledge and expertise. Trajectories of meaning and precedent are being altered by their mass, their gravity.

These new constellations strongly impact on marketing and communications. The number of media impressions per person per day is skyrocketing and the resources being employed in their promotion is astronomical.

Those of us working in communications see the rise in power of the audience. Intelligence and opinion are legion and the voice of an individual – well-placed and smartly delivered – can alter the perceptions of millions.

At the same time we see increasing concentration of ownership in the industry, massive conglomerations of design, brand management, public relations and media purchasing. The craft of marrying emotion and commodity in symbol is increasingly sophisticated.

And still popular literacy for this strange semiotics is a red queen stalking increasingly chimerical marketing campaigns, multi-channeled and micro-targeted. Consumers are embracing the relationships with their commodities as represented by their brands, engaging them. The ownership of the symbol in legal terms has not changed, but is socially contested ground and those companies who fight it risk alienating those who believe most fervently. Push marketing is becoming a dance and brand crafters are looking to their brand communities, internal (employees) and external (consumers), to define, evolve, embrace and advocate for the brand.

It is the rise of brand culture. It’s an interesting time to work in communications. I will write here about the things I am learning and seeing.