Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Masterminded by AKQA, London, NIKE PHOTOiD is a brand new mobile application which allows users to customize their own set of sneakers according to their physical surroundings. You simply take a picture of something on your camera phone (it could be anything from a piece of graffiti to an ice cream sundae) and then send this pic off to a shortcode via MMS. The NIKEiD website then picks out the two strongest colours from your image and uses them to colour your custom sneakers. Within a minute, you are sent a link with your design superimposed over the original source of pantone inspiration.

You can then save this image as wallpaper for your mobile, send it to a mate or, by entering the unique DESIGNiD at NIKEiD.com, link directly to your design to complete and actually purchase the sneakers. As one particularly over-excited sneaker-freak in our office inquired with a faint hint of dribble at the corner of his mouth: 'So I could take a picture of a grassy meadow and then it would text me a link to buy my very own Nike Grassy Meadows?' Yeap chap - that's about the long and short of it...

One of the most interesting things that happened at Google's I/O conference today was the launch of Google Earth browser plugin.

"If you already are one of the 150,000 Maps API sites, and now want to 3D-enable it, we've made that possible with just a single line of JavaScript: just add the new G_SATELLITE_3D_MAP map type to your MapsAPI initialization code, and (for most common usages of Maps API) your site will "automagically" support Google Earth via a button in the maps view, with all your existing 2D map code now functioning in 3D as well."

The plugin is already available for installation at the Google Earth API official site. This and the Flash API for Google Maps is going to give way to a lot of mapping and location based exploration in the near future. Love where these technologies are heading.

http://code.google.com/apis/earth/

P.S. No mac support yet I don't think though. Boo.

Dwayne Raupp

UNIQLOCK is a nice example of a viral program that works. Site visitors are invited to embed a clock on their blog, Facebook or iGoogle page. Embeds fuel the motion of a map-based visualization of the physical origin of participants. As the map jumps around to display the time in different embed locations, site visitors can link off to the embed sites. This makes the site an interestingly random way to discover content from all over the world.

For some time now, there has been rumor of an "affordable" Ferrari. Affordable, as in you'll only have to sell one of your children on the black market to pay for it instead of the usual two children. Other than that, details have been a bit sketchy. There were some fake drawings a while back. Spy shots have trickled in. A video or two. But now things are firming up. It now appears that the vehicle will be christened with the alpha-numeric and sufficiently Ferrari-esque handle F149. It's also called the "GT" sometimes. It's expected to share its platform and significant chunks of running gear with similar grand tourers from Alfa Romeo and Maserati. Since all are owned by FIAT, it doesn't surprise me that there's a bit of badge engineering going on. It's just not that often that you see it happening so transparently at the supercar level. To that end, the debate has been raging as to whether this particular car devalues the Ferrari brand. Presumably, some of that debate has to do with who the consumers of same will be. Personally, building a car that some of us could one day hope to own doesn't seem like devaluation of the brand to me. Frankly, more harm is probably being done by the Ferrari theme park in Dubai, the hideous Ferrari-edition Acer laptop or the partying ways of F1 piloti Kimi Raikonnen. But then again, perhaps I am but an aspirant proletarian who doesn't understand his place in the world.

Moreover, I'm sure that some would say that I don't understand luxury goods either if I don't think that they can be devalued by merely falling into the wrong hands. And surely I remember getting into a rather spirited thrash a while back with a former Organic about whether or not rapper Jay-Z (net worth $400M) was damaging the Cristal nameplate by giving the brand hundreds of millions of dollars in free advertising by way of song. But I digress. This is an interesting one. Ferrari, at its core is supposed to be about the red-blooded passion of performance motoring. Which does more to reinforce that credo? Having hopelessly undertrained douchebag multimillionaires buy them as museum pieces or worse still, wreck them? Or, letting them collect a few paint chips on track days and backroads blasts. I say let the masses have a turn already. Or at least the top-earning one-tenth of one percent of the masses.

It will likely still be more than a couple of ticks too far into the Robin Leach zone for my wallet (once pricing is revealed), but just the same, one can dream, right? Indeed one can. As a visit to this URL proves.

The good folks in Maranello, as well as their digital agency of record, seem to have an absolutely perfect understanding of one of the core attributes of their brand that inspires these dreams: sound. From the early V12s of the '50s to the as-yet unreleased F149 GT, sound is something that Ferraristi prize. So, when building a teaser site for an unreleased vehicle, how brilliant is this? Virtually no pictures. But virtually the full range of engine noises. From startup to test track, there's some serious rip and snort. And most importantly, they are sound waves befitting the prancing horse. I also love the old-school Oscilloscope sound wave thingy. And the picture of the trunk lid. That countdown clock is an ominous signal to the bank balances of underfunded dreamers worldwide, but Ferrari gets some props for seeing the wisdom in putting product a little closer to the dreamscape of gearheads everywhere.

Daniel Turman

Spike Lee is teaming up with Nokia to direct a movie pieced together from user-generated cell phone video footage.

"You are seeing first hand the democratization of film," Lee said in a statement on Thursday. "Aspiring filmmakers no longer have to go to film school to make great work. With a simple mobile phone, almost anyone can now become a filmmaker."

It's an ambitious idea that ties together the classic elements of social media, (particularly public voting), with the stamp of celebrity.

Organic explored a Spike Lee mobile film festival several years ago, with Sprint as the sponsor. The idea was ahead of its time - pre-YouTube - and didn't include the element of shared media. We were going to call it "Fifteen Seconds of Fame"!  I think the social component is a big improvement and shows how fast we are moving in terms of the adoption of user-generated content.

http://www.nokiaproductions.com

Misha Cornes

  We work on two major automotive accounts, and occasionally we get an audience with their automotive design teams, which is always fascinating.  These are product designers who are thinking 5-10 years out, an eternity in the world of shifting consumer tastes.  I hadn't thought much about the role design plays in motorcycles.  As a former rider, I can tell you that no vehicle category is designed with as little regard for the passenger!  No gas gauge, no reverse gear, tiny rear view mirrors, no storage space - all standard on most bikes.  It's forever the pre-cupholder era, and I guess most bikers like it that way.

So I was fascinated to read about Harley-Davidson's new line of Dark Custom bikes.  Willie G. Davidson, Harley's chief styling officer, has developed a clear design point-of-view expressed through six new motorcycles.  Compared to the current Harley line, they're throwbacks to The Wild One (1953), less chrome, more black matte finishes, and designed (in theory) to get dirty.  From a marketing perspective, they're about making the brand younger.  Average age of the Harley rider? 46. 

The Dark Custom promos shows guys riding with Vans on, shredding in skateparks, and even on the slopes with snowboards strapped behind them like guitars.  It would seem over-the-top until you remind yourself that motorcycling was the original extreme sport.

Harley-Davidson: Dark Custom

Misha Cornes