The New Economy - By Joseph Pine

Joseph Pine is regarded as one of the greatest minds in regards to the direction of the new economy. He coined the term "mass customization" based on his best selling books Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition, and The Experience Economy. I had the privilege of meeting Joe in 2007 at a the Mass Customization and Personalization Conference (MCPC) at MIT. His ability to track the direction our culture is heading with regards to the shift in our economic offerings is inspiring.

The following is a video of Joe speaking at a recent TED conference I believe is quite valuable.

Integration of Virtual + Real = Enhanced Experience

via timovirtanen.com "More than just creative marketing, this new advertisement for MINI uses augmented reality (AR) technology to create a truly interactive media piece out of a 2-dimensional magazine ad. “

All you need is a copy of the ad (download), a webcam, and a web browser (Internet Explorer/ActiveX only) to view the 3-D AR (augmented reality) effect.So why don’t you try it yourself.

Made to Stick - Overview

Over the past year I have read many great editorials in Fast Magazine from the authors of the recent bestseller Made to Stick. The subject matter seems very relevant to the brand strategy of Lifeform3D and Lifeform Design. The following checklist from the book is a good reminder as the foundations of Lifeform Design continue to be laid:

SIMPLE “It’s hard to make ideas stick in a noisy, unpredictable, chaotic environment. If we’re to succeed, the first step is this: Be simple. Not simple in terms of ‘dumbing down’ or ‘sound bites.’ What we mean by ‘simple’ is finding the core of the idea. ‘Finding the core’ means stripping an idea down to its most critical essence.” (pgs. 27, 28)
UNEXPECTED “The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern. Humans adapt incredibly quickly to consistent patterns. Figure out what is counterintuitive about the message—i.e., What are the unexpected implications of your core message? Communicate your message in a way that breaks your audiences’ guessing machines.” (pgs. 64, 72)
CONCRETE “Abstraction makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it. It also makes it harder to coordinate our activities with others, who may interpret the abstraction in very different ways. Concreteness helps us avoid these problems.” (pg. 100)
CREDIBLE “How do we get people to believe our ideas? We’ve got to find a source of credibility to draw on. A person’s knowledge of details is often a good proxy for her expertise. Think of how a history buff can quickly establish her credibility by telling an interesting Civil War anecdote. But concrete details don’t just lend credibility to the authorities who provide them; they lend credibility to the idea itself.” (pgs. 138, 163)
EMOTIONAL “How can we make people care about our ideas? We get them to take off their Analytical Hats. We create empathy for specific individuals. We show how our ideas are associated with things that people already care about. We appeal to their self-interest, but we also appeal to their identities—not only to the people they are right now but also to the people they would like to be.” (pg. 203)
STORIES “A story is powerful because it provides the context missing from abstract prose. This is the role that stories play—putting knowledge into a framework that is more lifelike, more true to our day-to-day existence. Stories are almost always CONCRETE. Most of them have EMOTIONAL and UNEXPECTED elements. The hardest part of using stories effectively is make sure they’re SIMPLE—that they reflect your core message. It’s not enough to tell a great story; the story has to reflect your agenda.” (pgs. 214, 237)

... in closing... “Those are the six principles of successful ideas. To summarize, here’s our checklist for creating a successful idea: a Simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story.

Epidemie - very creative Ad Agency's Papervision3D portfolio

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