Most Contagious 2011

MOST CONTAGIOUS 2011

Cover image: Take This LoLLipop / Jason Zada

most contagious / p.02

/ mosT ConTagious 2011 / subsCripTion oFFer / 20% disCounT
FuTure-prooFing your brain vaLid unTiL 9Th January 2012
offering a saving of £200 gBP

chapters / Contagious exists to find and filter the most innovative
01 / exercises in branding, technology, and popular culture, and
movemenTs deliver this collective wisdom to our beloved subscribers.
02 / Once a year, we round up the highlights, identify what’s important
proJeCTs
and why, and push it out to the world, for free.
03 /
serviCe Welcome to Most Contagious 2011, the only retrospective
you’ll ever need.
04 /
soCiaL It’s been an extraordinary year; economies in turmoil, empires
05 / torn down, dizzying technological progress, the evolution of
idenTiTy brands into venture capitalists, the evolution of a generation of
06 /
young people into entrepreneurs…
TeChnoLogy
It’s also been a bumper year for the Contagious crew. Our
07 / Insider consultancy division is now bringing insight and inspiration
daTa to clients from Kraft to Nike, and Google to BBC Worldwide. We
08 / were thrilled with the success of our first Now / Next / Why event
augmenTed in London in December, and are bringing the show to New York
09 / on February 22nd. Grab your ticket here.
money
We’ve added more people to our offices in London and New
10 / York, launched an office in India, and in 2012 have our sights
haCk CuLTure
firmly set on Brazil. Latin America, we’re on our way. Get ready!
11 /
musiC 2.0
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our friends,
supporters and especially our valued subscribers, all over the
12 /
world. We look forward to another great year together.
video

13 /
The more information there is out there, the more the filters are
reTaiL important – and we like to think Contagious is the best filter in the Contagious / Full of Tomorrow /
ad business. Future-proof your brain with the Most Contagious. Magazine / Online / FEED / Special Reports / Consultancy / Events /
14 /
gaming Think about it. Talk about it. Share it with everyone you know. Special Offer to readers of the Most Contagious 2011 report –
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15 /
pubLishing Visit http://shop.contagiousmagazine.com/subscriptions.php to subscribe now /
The Contagious Team www.contagiousmagazine.com / E: sales@contagiousmagazine.com /
16 /
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most contagious / movements / p.03

01 / mosT ConTagious /
movemenTs / The new worLd order

chapters / What a year. It’s difficult to grasp what caused UK, a group of disenfranchised young people The internet did not create the Arab Spring, or
01 / such momentous change around the world took to the streets to burn and steal, for reasons the riots in London, or even Occupy Wall Street.
movemenTs this year, but it’s certainly been contagious... still not entirely clear. (The operative failure of However, there’s no doubting it has forever
02 / government, education, policing, the family and changed the ways in which we make ourselves
One by one, most power structures came
proJeCTs society as a whole can be a difficult thing to pin heard. Initially, the web provided a discussion
under pressure from the torrent of information,
down.) platform for like-minded souls to connect. Then,
03 / collaboration and distribution afforded by the
serviCe it was a communication tool, as protestors
web. First came the music industry, where frantic As governments, police forces and armies
around the world took to Twitter (and in the
04 / attempts to ringfence a product widely available faced their own citizens, other smaller reminders
soCiaL case of the UK riots, BlackBerry Messenger) to
for free led to the establishment of newer models of the new world order have come to light. The
rally and organise. We then turned to the web to
05 / and younger players amid talk of its own demise. fact that a man as powerful as Rupert Murdoch
rationalise events happening in the real world,
idenTiTy Then, the news media, which was forced to can be held accountable and forced to answer
faster and more thoroughly than before. The
06 / share the limelight with digital-only players, to his own board, as well as a government
Guardian’s timelines of the Arab Spring and live
TeChnoLogy some of whom are now more influential than inquisition, for the phone-hacking scandal taking
coverage of the phone hacking scandal set new
07 /
the stalwarts they were created to usurp. Then place at one of his myriad publications sends a
standards for the reporting of intricate and fast-
daTa Hollywood. Then the TV networks. Then the high very clear message: nobody is untouchable.
moving issues.
street. Then. Then. Then.
08 /

photo / haydn / www.flickr.com/photos/wheelzwheeler/6255028088
augmenTed
2011 will be remembered as the year this gradual
09 / disintegration shifted away from entertainment
money and consumerism towards something altogether
10 / more profound.
haCk CuLTure
The motivations for this shift are extremely
11 / complex. Throughout the ongoing Arab Spring,
musiC 2.0
in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and the other Middle
12 / Eastern nations in which uprisings occurred,
video
years of oppression forced political and
13 / ideological change, sparked, in part, by the
reTaiL democratisation of technology.
14 / Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street and the other
gaming
happenings it spawned have been criticised for
15 / being unfocused, but, over time the discourse of
pubLishing
wealth distribution, the 99% versus the 1%, has
16 / become the dominant organising ideology. In the
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most contagious / movements / p.04

Many web pundits were the first to lay out From a brand perspective, the implications of all They don’t actually embody any of those things.
in simple terms why, exactly, the Wall Street this are obvious. When everything is changing, They just emulate. It’s scary man, this simulation
Protesters were so very angry. Others followed, be consistent. When everyone is confused, be life that we’re living. It scares me.’
essentially creating a coherent narrative on behalf transparent. And when the world seems bleak,
Pitchfork’s analysis of the Tumblr phenomenon
chapters / of those too busy trying to garner consensus to be good.
is recommended reading. The argument against
do it for themselves.
01 /
Tumblr / is that Tumblr could wreak as much intellectual
movemenTs
damage as it provides dumb entertainment.
In September, blogging/reblogging/image-
02 /
proJeCTs sharing platform Tumblr announced that it had Democratisation – be it of technology,
reached its 10 billionth post, up from one billion information or pictures of cats on trampolines –
03 /
serviCe
one year previously. That’s ten times as much apparently always comes at a price.
content in the space of one year, created on
04 / In the meantime, be distracted by the rise
28.5 million blogs and averaging 36 million posts
soCiaL of single-usage Tumblrs – blogs created to
per day. In the same month, Tumblr also closed
aggregate images around one theme only. From
05 / an $85m round of venture capital, valuing this
idenTiTy ‘Accidental Chinese Hipsters’ to ‘Shit that Siri
moodboard machine at close to $1bn.
Says’, we’ve aggregated as many as possible
06 /
TeChnoLogy The appeal of Tumblr is obvious. Essentially a over here. Enjoy: http://singleusage.tumblr.com
curated channel of bits and pieces that you find
07 / (For next year’s niche-gone-mainstream
As the global pendulum swings towards the around the web – images, other Tumblr posts,
daTa technology, look no further than image-sharing
rising BRIC countries, Western nations, faced music, video – it’s an easy way to project the kind
08 / network Instagram’s iPhone app; it has been

photo / guney Cuceloglu / www.flickr.com/photos/guneyc/6208557363
with the decline of their own industrial heft, of person you are, or the kind of person you’d like
augmenTed downloaded 14 million times, and an average of
are focusing their efforts on the burgeoning to be, with very little effort. Never one to ignore a
50 photos per second were uploaded over the
09 /
Innovation Economy. All of this is happening popular platform, Barack Obama has launched
money recent Thanksgiving holiday in the US. Not bad
while a generation comes of age having taken his own crowd-sourced Tumblr to grab images
for a company with a staff of six. Anxious Android
10 / its moral code not from the individual laws that and sentiment from the 2012 campaign trail.
haCk CuLTure users can expect their own version next year.)
govern the country in which they live, but from But there’s always a flipside to popularity. To
11 / a more collective and instinctive mindset that get an idea of why it’s so popular, you could
musiC 2.0
prevails online. This is a generation that grew do worse than read confessional hip-hop artist
12 / up with the internet, has two decades worth of Drake’s comments, posted on his own blog in
video conviction that global warming is real and entered November this year: ‘I’m really scared for my
13 / the job market in the middle of a global financial generation, you know. The thing that scares me
reTaiL collapse. Faced with undeniable evidence that most is Tumblr. I hate what Tumblr has become…
14 / the people in charge – politicians, bankers, Instead of kids going out and making their own
gaming educators – have failed to adapt, millennials are moments, they’re just taking these images
15 /
harking back to concepts of pride, community, and living vicariously through other people’s
pubLishing honour, labour and decency instead of the flabby moments. It just kills me. Then you’ll meet them
consumerism that ate their boomer parents. and they’re just the biggest turkey in the world.
16 /
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most contagious / projects / p.05

proJeCTs noT Campaigns /
born To Live, noT buiLT To die
chapters / Our Projects not Campaigns category recognises a new strain
01 / of marketing in which the brand, agency and consumer work
movemenTs together to reach a tangible, meaningful goal. As a decade
02 / of digital interaction gives way to socially, collaboratively
proJeCTs organised initiatives, brands and marketers have been less
03 /
inclined to accept the traditional campaign as their default
serviCe strategy in the battle for consumers’ hearts and minds.
04 / It’s a sign of the times. Having evolved to suit the tightly defined
soCiaL
media options of yore, a campaign is the end product of the
05 / creative process, fine-tuned and finished before it goes out of the
idenTiTy door; concept, realised. Media, bought. Backs turned. A project,
06 / on the other hand, is the beginning of something, not the end. To
TeChnoLogy borrow the title of a presentation delivered by David Lee, digital
07 /
executive creative director at TBWAWorldwide, at the Future
daTa Flash conference in Canada in May, projects are about ‘creating
things that are born to live, not built to die’.
08 /
augmenTed
A project needs to be nurtured and encouraged. It relies
09 / on engagement, feedback and input. It is collaborative and
money communal, and requires constant monitoring. It is undoubtedly
10 / more challenging, but potentially much more rewarding. And,
haCk CuLTure crucially, it plays to the strengths of the new media landscape in
11 /
which the flow of information is two-way, not top down, and can
musiC 2.0 be experienced, echoed and amplified in real time.
12 / The appeal of creating a project is clear: not only can it
video
encourage deeper engagement and forge social connections, but

pepsi / sound oF FooTbaLL
13 / it also gives brands the chance to nail their colours to a particular
reTaiL mast and show what they stand for by effecting change in the real
14 / world. Advertising has woken up to pop culture’s favourite cliché:
gaming it really is about the journey.
15 /
pubLishing

16 /
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Patagonia / Common Threads Initiative on the selling-on of second-hand goods, a into a surround-sound landscape. The result is
As a brand, Patagonia has always favoured process which happily involves no additional a kind of sonic image that helps participants
a long term approach, and this year partnered manufacturing. In fact, eBay’s Green Shopping identify and locate other players, the goal, the
with eBay on an extraordinary mission to reduce portal touts the universal truth that the greenest sidelines and ball.
chapters /
excess consumption, creating a resale website product is the one that already exists.
The technology advances the current blind
01 / where people can buy pre-owned Patagonia However, it’s a riskier step for Patagonia, which football game, whereby players wear bells to
movemenTs outdoor clothing and kit. The Common Threads doesn’t directly profit from the eBay sales, but alert each other to where they are, and use a
02 / Initiative asks would-be buyers and sellers to benefits instead from the less tangible value specially weighted ball. The mix of innovation,
proJeCTs take a pledge that fundamentally redefines the of practising what it preaches; the website imagination and human interest is also earned-
03 / role of the consumer and also clearly delineates demonstrates the brand’s own dedication to media catnip: Discovery Channel is creating a
serviCe the responsibilities that Patagonia embraces reducing, repairing, reusing, and recycling, by, 30-minute documentary charting the project.
04 /
as a manufacturer. It states: ‘Patagonia agrees for example, donating unsold goods to disaster
to build useful things that last, to repair what Akestam Holst and Society46 are determined
soCiaL victims or encouraging customers to return worn
breaks and recycle what comes to the end of to extend the magic of the technology to other
goods to Patagonia stores to be recycled into
05 /
its useful life.’ Consumers undertake ‘to buy only sports and situations, and Pepsi is encouraging
idenTiTy new fabrics. This bold strategy reached a peak
what I need (and will last), repair what breaks, the public to pitch in their own ideas for further
on the shopping armageddon of Black Friday
06 /
reuse (share) what I no longer need and recycle ‘Sound of’ projects. See Contagious 29
TeChnoLogy when the brand ran a full page ad in The New
everything else.’ www.thesoundoffootball.com
York Times saying simply, ‘Do not buy this jacket’.
07 /
daTa See Contagious 29
www.patagonia.com/us/common-threads
08 /
augmenTed
Pepsi / Sound of Football
09 /
money
2011 saw Pepsi’s Refresh Project rolled out
in other regions, with this iteration from Sweden
10 / leaving Contagious staffers slack-jawed with
haCk CuLTure
admiration and wondering where the hell were
11 / Nike and adidas when this idea came up?
musiC 2.0
Ad agency Akestam Holst, Stockholm,
12 /
video creative technology experts Society46 and The
Swedish Association of Visually Impaired
13 / From almost any other brand this idea would Youth collaborated on a system that allows blind
reTaiL
seem optimistic at best and, at worst, offensively football players the ability to ‘see’ with sound.
14 / sanctimonious. But Patagonia’s track record The system relies on TRACAB 3D tracking
gaming as a champion of sustainability throughout its technology, originally used in fighter planes, to
15 / business enables the brand to stake a claim on capture data on players’ positions, how far they
pubLishing the moral high ground. It’s a perfect PR match-up have run, etc, but Society46 has pushed the
16 / for eBay since the auction site was predicated technology further, translating the information
design

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Chipotle / Back to the Start Norte / Best Excuse Ever to boost the counter. More than 50,000 minutes
US restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill In Argentina this year, lager brand Norte (34 days) worth of good deeds were accrued
collaborated with legendary country music discovered that nothing says ‘Corporate and the campaign gained sufficient coverage in
crooner Willie Nelson, creating a heart-rending Social Responsibility’ like an icy cold bottle of print, radio and TV to mitigate any unease about
chapters /
animated film to promote its commitment to beer. Having no doubt thoroughly researched its ‘do it for the community’ approach to drinking
01 / sustainable farming. the market, Norte discovered that wives and beer. Contagious 27
movemenTs girlfriends were constantly overriding the www.cervezanorte.com.ar
02 / carefully laid social plans of their menfolk (i.e.
proJeCTs going to the bar) with worthy alternatives. Nike / MAG

03 /
The feelgood campaign of 2011 has to be
serviCe Nike’s limited edition release of the futuristic
trainers worn by Michael J. Fox in Back to the
04 /
soCiaL Future Part II. The power-lacing, self-illuminating
Nike MAG shoes were specially designed by the
05 /
idenTiTy
brand for the 1989 film, in which Marty McFly
visits the year 2015.
06 / Back to the Start tells the story of a farmer who
TeChnoLogy transforms his family farm into an industrial animal
07 / factory, but then has a change of heart and reverts
daTa to sustainable farming practices. The soundtrack
08 /
to the film is a cover of Coldplay’s The Scientist,
augmenTed performed by Nelson and available on iTunes for
$0.99 with proceeds going towards the Chipotle In retaliation, the brand hit back with a booze-
09 /
money Cultivate Foundation, which funds sustainable fuelled CSR campaign that offered men ‘The
agriculture, family farming, and culinary education. Best Excuse Ever’. Every time a man drank a
10 /
Norte beer at a bar, he could drop the bottle
haCk CuLTure Chipotle’s preference for sustainably grown
cap into a counter box. For each bottle cap, the
11 / ingredients and food ‘naturally raised with
brand promised that one minute of good deeds
musiC 2.0 respect for the animals, the land, and the farmers
– repairing schools, improving parks, restoring For the 2011 iteration, only 1,500 pairs of
who produce the food’ echoes Patagonia’s
12 / monuments, planting trees and cleaning lakes – shoes were made, sold in batches of 150 pairs
video considered approach, but stops short of
would be carried out by a team of Norte workers. per day on eBay. Prices ranged from $3,500 to
suggesting that customers pledge allegiance
13 / $10,000 ensuring that a substantial sum was
to the cause. On a related theme, Chipotle also To put the campaign firmly in the public eye,
reTaiL raised for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for
commissioned Abandoned, a short film about Norte, through Del Campo Nazca Saatchi
14 / Parkinson’s Research, set up by the actor when
the hardships faced by family farmers trying & Saatchi, Buenos Aires, ran a series of wry
gaming he was diagnosed with the disease.
to compete with industrialised agriculture. It commercials and installed counters on streets,
15 /
features another Willie Nelson track, this time tracking the total on its website and Facebook, YouTube clips featuring Fox, Saturday Night
pubLishing
covered by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. and posting details of its good works. Facebook Live star Bill Hader and Christopher Lloyd, who
16 / See Contagious 29 www.chipotle.com users could also click an ‘I’m going out’ button played Doc Emmett Brown in the original movie,
design

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hyped up the auction and drove fan donations Dulux / Own a Colour Ones to Watch /
to The Fox Foundation. A perfect storm of brand Paint brand Dulux partnered with UNICEF on We’re expecting to see this trend for Projects
loyalty, fan culture and fundraising, the MAG Own a Colour, a charitable project which lets not Campaigns continue throughout 2012,
project, through Wieden+Kennedy, Portland visitors to the website buy one of the 16.7 million particularly as the final quarter of 2011 spawned
chapters / and produced by @radicalmedia, Los Angeles, colours that smartphones, tablets and computer two stand-out examples. In October, JWT Madrid
01 / served as an acknowledgment and celebration screens are able to display. escorted seven residents from the land-locked
movemenTs of the shoe’s enduring cult status, matched Chinese village of Bulin to the sea for the first
only by the affection still felt for Michael J. Fox Each colour costs £1, and buyers are able
02 / time on behalf of Mexican beer brand Corona,
and his role in a pop culture phenomenon. to tag it with a name (e.g. ‘Tanya’s Teal’), then
proJeCTs its Experience the Extraordinary philosophy
See Contagious 29 supply some text explaining why they chose it.
and inherent love of the beach. And in the final
03 / The website is a retina-blasting motherlode of
serviCe www.back4thefuture.com nikemag.ebay.com countdown to Christmas, Coke Philippines, via
polychromatic options that allows visitors to
McCann Worldgroup, fixed it for three OFWs
04 /
OMO / Super Nice Training Center view trending colours and see popular shades
soCiaL (Overseas Filipino Workers who work abroad to
by gender or country. At the time of writing, the
Sao Paulo-based interactive agency F.biz support their families back home) to make it back
05 / campaign – which was kick-started with celebrity
idenTiTy
Brazil applied a project-based approach to help for the holidays. Continuing Coke’s global series
contributions from Roger Moore, Jemima Khan,
launch the Unilever brand OMO Líquido Super of campaigns that ask ‘where will happiness
06 / Matt Dawson and Duncan Bannatyne – had
Concentrado (super concentrated liquid) in strike next?’, the Filipino version and English
TeChnoLogy raised over £88,000 for UNICEF.
Brazil, showing that projects, not campaigns can subtitled versions together have broken 1 million
07 / work wonders for FMCG brands. Although deeply reminiscent of the infamous views on YouTube in five days. Three cheers for
daTa
Million Dollar Homepage, this celebration of colour the real thing.
The target audience was Brazil’s large
08 / is perfectly on brand for Dulux. Contagious 29
augmenTed community of maids, a group accounting for
19% of the country’s working women. F.biz set www.ownacolour.com
09 /
money
up the Super Nice Training Center, a blog
and website offering a series of free lessons
10 / about housekeeping and home economics. The
haCk CuLTure
tutorials could be watched online or downloaded.
11 / As well as learning key cleaning skills, tips were
musiC 2.0
offered on how to write résumés and check
12 / housekeeping job vacancies. The guides also
video
cited the importance of using sustainable cleaning
13 / products and awarded a study certificate to those
reTaiL who completed the course.
14 / This campaign not only offered training for
gaming
a sector not exactly renowned for career
duLux /
15 / development, but also showed consistent
pubLishing
respect for the people who use Unilever’s
16 / products on a daily basis. www.omo.com.br Corona /
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most contagious / marketing / p.09

markeTing as serviCe design /
meeTing The unmeT need
chapters / With brands more adept at tapping into the rich wells of
01 / data which consumers now leave in their wakes, many are
movemenTs becoming increasingly able to spot the gaps, or unmet needs,
02 / in people’s lives. Addressing these was previously trusted to
proJeCTs token utilities such as mobile apps; however, a recent study

ConTagious / issue 26 / sneakerpedia: so good we puT iT on our FronT Cover in q1/11
03 /
by Deloitte found that a 80% of branded apps have been
serviCe downloaded less than 1,000 times. Today, consumers expect
something wholly more relevant, enabling and ultimately
04 /
soCiaL less self-serving. This is where marketing becomes genuine
service design.
05 /
idenTiTy
Foot Locker / Sneakerpedia
06 /
TeChnoLogy Based on the simple insight that footwear retailer Foot Locker’s
core demographic – sneakerheads – have ‘enthusiasm beyond
07 /
daTa
reason’ for their collections, SapientNitro, London, built a crowd-
sourced holy grail of a platform in the shape of Sneakerpedia.
08 /
augmenTed The Wiki-esque website enables users to create a profile and
then upload pictures of all the cool kicks in their collection –
09 /
money complete with a brief history and info on the make, model, material
etc. This tagging helps the site to then archive each model
10 /
haCk CuLTure correctly, creating a vast and infinitely navigable database of every
significant sneaker ever bought and cherished.
11 /
musiC 2.0 Creating a platform from scratch, rather than piggybacking an
12 /
existing social network or fan portal, was a bold move on the
video part of Foot Locker. Even braver, however, is the distinct lack of
overt branding on the site, which adds to the sense that this is
13 /
reTaiL somewhere enthusiasts can come to share their passion, not be
marketed to. However, by stepping out of the frame and putting
14 /
gaming users at ease, Foot Locker is able to draw rich social data about
what makes/models are popular etc. It has even been encouraging
15 /
new floor staff in stores to join up and immerse themselves in the
pubLishing
culture as part of their training.
16 /
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most contagious / marketing / p.10

Proof that the platform has struck a chord with scanned with smartphones, transformed the devices
sneakerheads around the world is evident in initial into venues for the Hidden Live gigs. What’s more,
results: In beta format alone, Sneakerpedia reached audiences could interact with the bands in real time,
more than 6.7 million fans online and delivered more and even buy the albums directly from their phones.
chapters / than $1 million worth of free media exposure. See
More than 10,000 attended the online festival each
Contagious 26 www.sneakerpedia.com
01 / night and, better still, Zoo Records sold out 80% of
movemenTs
Flair / Fashiontag the albums for the performing bands. Leo Burnett,
02 / Hong Kong was responsible. See Contagious 27
proJeCTs Working on the insight that women take fashion
inspiration from their friends’ wardrobes, Belgian www.zoo-records.com
03 /
fashion weekly Flair launched a Facebook application
serviCe Orange / Glastonbury 2011 App
that lets users request information on specific outfits
04 / Telco provider Orange continued its impressive track FLair /
in uploaded photos.
soCiaL record of muddy field-based branded utility, with a
05 /
Flair Fashiontag, created by Duval Guillaume, mobile app developed by M&C Saatchi Sport &
idenTiTy Brussels, lets users tag an item of clothing or Entertainment London for the Glastonbury Festival.
accessory that they’d like to know more about and
06 /
post it to their friend’s wall. All Fashiontags and All the handy functions from previous incarnations
TeChnoLogy
responses are then displayed in a gallery on the Flair were present, such as performance schedules,
07 /
page and the best tags are published in the weekly planners, and maps. New additions included a series
daTa
print magazine. of ‘smiley’ symbols through which users could specify
08 / – and geo-tag – their mood. This data was used to
augmenTed Fashiontag is a perfect example of how creating build a collective mood map, plotting the buzziest (or
successful Facebook apps is all about spotting and indeed most cold, wet and skint) areas of the site.
09 /
money then augmenting existing behaviours. After launching A news feed also pinged regular write-ups directly
on 22 March the application increased the number from the Guardian, as well as any must-know festival
10 / Zoo reCords /
haCk CuLTure of Flair fans on Facebook in one week by 35%, from updates from organisers.
17,000 to 23,000. See Contagious 27
11 / The improvements resulted in the app being
musiC 2.0 www.flair.be
downloaded 100,000 downloads in a single month,
12 / Zoo Records / Hidden Live amounting to 70% of the festival audience – a 75%
video increase on previous years. See Contagious 28
In March, Hong Kong-based indie music store Zoo
13 / Records staged a music festival – Hidden Live – http://glastonbury.orange.co.uk
reTaiL
featuring eight bands across four nights. What made
14 / it unique, however, is that the performances were only
gaming
accessible via mobile.
15 /
pubLishing Two hours prior to the event, free tickets were made orange /
available in-store and for download on Facebook. A
16 /
design
hidden code was printed on each ticket, which when

Supported by

most contagious / social / p.11

soCiaL and beyond / aLways on(Line)

chapters / It’s the tail end of 2011, and 96 out of the to recognise the airline’s heritage. And in KLM’s activity, in conjunction with Tribal
01 / top 100 advertisers in the US are spending September, it promoted its social media policy DDB Amsterdam, forms part of a new school
movemenTs money on social media, with the rest of the of answering every tweet and post in person, of marketing and branding that sees the
02 / world not far behind. However, the profound within the hour, day and night, by assembling brand committed to exploiting existing social
proJeCTs changes wrought by social media on the ways a ‘living alphabet’ of employees who answered platforms to improve the user experience.
03 /
in which we interact go much, much deeper online queries using letter boards. For 12 hours Contagious 28 and 29
serviCe than advertising. Facebook in particular is the airline replaced normal Facebook and
www.tileyourself.com
becoming the black hole of the web, absorbing Twitter typed responses with a team of 500 https://twitter.com/kLm
04 /
soCiaL ecommerce, content distribution, CRM and KLM volunteer crew members who answered by www.youtube.com/kLm
marketing budgets into its gravity field. This running around and assembling the answer live http://bit.ly/kLmLive
05 /
idenTiTy year saw social mechanisms incorporated before your eyes, inside 60 minutes. The Live
into everything from supply chains to Reply videos were hosted on YouTube.
06 /
TeChnoLogy
customer service to product design. As data
mining becomes increasingly sophisticated,
07 / we can expect social channels to register
daTa
highly on everyone’s radar, from the CMO to
08 / the teenager at the checkout.
augmenTed
In this section, we salute the brands committing
09 /
money most fully to Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a future
that is ‘social by design’.
10 /
haCk CuLTure
KLM / All Social, All the Time
11 / You’d be hard pushed to find a brand, or company,
musiC 2.0
that has committed more wholeheartedly to the
12 / integration of social media than Dutch airline
video KLM. In January, KLM laid on a special direct
13 / flight to a dance festival in Miami at the Twitter
reTaiL behest of an aspiring raver, on the understanding
14 / that he help fill the plane with 351 dance music
gaming professionals. He did, and KLM fulfilled its part
15 /
of the bargain. In June, it covered a plane with
pubLishing its fans’ Facebook profile pics, transformed into
traditional Dutch blue ‘tiles’ for Tile & Inspire,
16 /
design

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Domino’s / Pizza and The Art of War Burberry / Tweetwalk
Since 2009’s Pizza Turnaround campaign, Burberry is fast becoming the Terminator of luxury
Domino’s, America’s largest pizza delivery chain, has branding. It just doesn’t stop. As competitors struggle
been aggressively pursuing a policy of transparency to execute the most basic of digital functions –
chapters /
with regard to its product and service. In July this ecommerce, for example – this British powerhouse
01 / year, the pizza chain took this further by broadcasting has demonstrated an uncanny ability to embrace new
movemenTs comments from customers – regardless of whether platforms and democratise the brand without selling
02 / they were positive or negative – to thousands of out any of its aspirational exclusivity. At London
proJeCTs onlookers via a digital billboard in New York’s Times Fashion Week in September, Burberry tweeted
03 / Square. This was to promote Domino’s tracker backstage Twitpics of every look before they were
serviCe system for quality maintenance where customers can sent down the runway, allowing its Twitter followers
04 /
follow their pizzas online, giving feedback throughout to see the Spring/Summer 2012 collection before the
soCiaL the process. The campaign was masterminded by fashion bigshots on the front row. Take THAT, Wintour.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Boulder.
05 / During the Tweetwalk, Burberry’s Instagram
idenTiTy CMO Russell Weiner claimed earlier this year that account was taken over by photographer Mike
06 / Domino’s strategy was inspired by a story in Sun Tzu’s Kus, the most-followed Instagram user in the UK,
TeChnoLogy The Art of War, in which he advises that the best way to and Burberry streamed the show – complete with
07 / win a war fought on an island is to blow up the bridge celebrity arrivals – live in HD through Burberry.com
daTa yourself. That way, your army will fight for their lives, and Facebook. As if that weren’t enough, Burberry
08 /
as they have no option of retreat. This combination once again offered a ‘Runway to Retail’ service, with
augmenTed of bravery and insanity is working. The company the collection available to purchase for one week after
announced that same-store sales growth increased the show. Viewers can also download the catwalk
09 /
money 10.4% between 2009 and 2010, and rose a further soundtrack through the iTunes on-demand service.
2.3% in the first quarter of 2011. Contagious 28.
10 / What makes this Contagious? Simplicity.
haCk CuLTure www.dominos.com Christopher Bailey, the brand’s creative director,
11 / said: ‘We are now as much a media-content company
musiC 2.0 as we are a design company, because it’s all part of
12 /
the overall experience.’ He’s right. None of the social
video technologies Burberry has employed are complicated,
but the benefit of feeding this content to growing
13 /
reTaiL legions of fans is immense. See Contagious 29

14 /
www.burberry.com
gaming

15 /
pubLishing

16 / burberry /
design

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Kraft / Mac&Tweets Essentially an online notice board to which you
Kraft gets an honourable mention for embracing can pin pictures and items of interest, Pinterest
Twitter more than most. As well as taking a leaf has quickly racked up an estimated 3.3 million
out of the Old Spice playbook, incorporating unique users and secured $27m in funding
chapters /
comments from its Twitter followers into ads earlier this year. Ideal for moms, DIY enthusiasts,
01 / that were subsequently broadcast on TV, Kraft’s events organisers and anybody looking to create,
movemenTs Mac & Cheese brand also invited internet share or aggregate pictures around a certain
02 / sensation Ted Williams – a homeless man with theme, brands like Whole Foods are already on
proJeCTs an extraordinary voice for radio – to be the voice board to share recipe suggestions.
03 / of its advertising. This was done through Crispin http://pinterest.com
serviCe Porter + Bogusky in Miami. See Contagious 26
04 / www.youtube.com/kraftmacncheese
soCiaL
Ones to Watch /
05 /
idenTiTy The ‘wishlist’ is a fundamental part of the
ecommerce experience – where you keep track
06 /
TeChnoLogy of stuff you like, but perhaps can’t afford to buy
yet. The UK-based startup, Fantasy Shopper,
07 /
daTa
aims to recreate the emotional experience of real
world shopping online. After collecting virtual
08 /
paydays to get hold of some pretend cash,
augmenTed
players can put together outfits and shop for high
09 / street brands to create a virtual wishlist. Looks
money
are shared with the community, or users can click
10 / through to buy clothes from the stores in real life.
haCk CuLTure
Currently available in the UK, the service has
11 / items from 300 real shops, including New Look,
musiC 2.0 Topshop, UNIQLO, Reiss and Harrods. Users
12 / create outfits from a wardrobe of purchased
video items, and follow other users to comment on
13 / purchases and creations. Additional cash can be
reTaiL earned in a variety of ways, including introducing
14 /
others to the platform. Fantasy Shopper launched
gaming in October 2011, and could prove an interesting
indicator of the social future of ecommerce.
15 /
pubLishing See Contagious 29
www.fantasyshopper.com kraFT /
16 /
design

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most contagious / identity / p.14

idenTiTy onLine / This one has my FaCe on iT

chapters / As we spend an increasing amount of our
01 / waking days online, it is becoming harder
movemenTs to distinguish between what we would
02 / previously have referred to as our ‘digital’
proJeCTs and ‘physical’ lives. The reality, of course,
03 /
is that the lines between the two are now
serviCe constantly shifting and blurring. Emphasising
the fact that we no longer exist online in a
04 /
soCiaL separate, anonymous capacity, brands have
been exploring the notion of the digital self
05 /
idenTiTy
– holding mirrors to consumers and helping
them visualise, celebrate or simply make
06 /
sense of their own identity.
TeChnoLogy

07 / Intel / Museum of Me
daTa arms delicately pluck pictures of your friends of all time via his production company, Tool of
Semiconductor powerhouse Intel took an
from the air, arranging them into a mosaic which North America.
08 / ambitious step towards changing its image from
eventually forms your own profile photo.
augmenTed that of a technology company into one of a lifestyle Take This Lollipop shows the dangers of
09 / brand, via the interactive website Museum of Proof that personalised experiences often result sharing your identity online by using Facebook
money Me. Built by Tokyo-based Projector (of Cannes in increased levels of engagement, more than Connect to scrape information before revealing
Titanium Grand Prix-winning UNIQLOCK fame), 440,000 people created their own museums a creepy man poring over your profile page. You
10 /
haCk CuLTure this site uses Facebook Connect to draw in the three days following launch. More than then see the man calculate your actual location
personal content from each user’s page, before 150,000 users took advantage of the built-in by verifying server addresses etc, before driving
11 /
musiC 2.0 presenting it to them in a virtual tour of their own one-click sharing mechanisms, by publishing their to your house with your Facebook profile picture
personalised museum. exhibition catalogues directly to Facebook. In total, taped to his dashboard. The film ends with
12 /
more than 21 million impressions were recorded a timer set for an hour and lists which of your
video The resulting video pans elegantly through a
on the social network. See Contagious 28 Facebook friends ‘is next’.
13 / minimalist interior, in which onlookers peruse
www.intel.com/museumofme/r At time of writing, the app had been liked
reTaiL a series of exhibitions including your photos,
friends, Liked content and geo-located check-ins. Take This Lollipop / Jason Zada over 11 million times on Facebook. Not bad
14 /
gaming A digital billboard even filters, in real time, through for something which took just one month to
Director Jason Zada – the man behind Office
everything written on your wall before finally produce… See Contagious 29 and the front
15 / Max’s Elf Yourself website – proved that he hasn’t
pubLishing displaying the most common word. The tour cover of this report.
lost his touch for creating insanely viral content,
ends in a cavernous space where two robotic www.takethislollipop.com
16 / by unleashing the fastest-growing Facebook app
design

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most contagious / identity / p.15

Pedigree / Doggelganger Coke Zero / My Life As A Game
In an attempt to raise awareness of dog food brand Coke Zero created a particularly compelling and
Pedigree’s Adoption Drive for shelter dogs, Colenso interactive expression of one person’s everyday life,
BBDO, Auckland and Auckland-based production by translating it into a playable advergame.
chapters /
company NEC created the gleefully compelling
Digital agency Gringo, São Paulo, first launched a
01 / Doggelganger website, which plays to the endearing
movemenTs
search via popular blog Jovem Nerd (‘young nerd’),
observation that people often look like their pets.
before finally selecting entrant Lucas Dias as the basis
02 /
for the character. His mission? To have more time for
proJeCTs
his life outside work, and in particular his girlfriend.
03 /
serviCe The final video-game was called Minha vida de
game (‘My life at stake’) and was created by São Coke Zero /
04 /
soCiaL Paulo-based Hive Digital Media. Dias was filmed and
photographed before the images were projected on
05 /
idenTiTy
a 3D scanner and then rendered to build the game.
See Contagious 26
06 /
TeChnoLogy http://bit.ly/game_cokezero

07 / Lynx / Stream
daTa
Unilever-owned male grooming brand Lynx took a
08 / break from the female-fleshed theme of its regular
augmenTed
advertising, with a rather nifty mobile app that lets
Visitors are asked to either upload a picture of their
09 / users plot, document and share a night out. The Lynx
money face, or capture one directly via web cam. Facial
Stream requires a group of friends to create an event
mapping technology then measures the precise
10 / via the app, which then aggregates all photos, videos,
position, shape and size of key features, before
haCk CuLTure tweets and check-ins from that night into one single,
cross-referencing the information with a database of
11 / chronological thread.
genuine shelter dogs. It will then unite them with their
musiC 2.0
own, personal ‘Doggelganger’. By logging on to the Lynx Stream site the next
12 / morning (coffee and aspirin in hand), the group can
video There is the option to make contact regarding a
then watch and share their own video stream – even
genuine adoption request; however, recognising that
13 / deleting any particularly private or compromising
reTaiL the majority of users will feel an affinity with their pooch
‘occurances’. Razorfish, New York was responsible.
but not realistically be in a position to acquire a new
14 / See Contagious 27 Lynx /
gaming
pet, there is also the option to make a donation. Of
www.thelynxstream.com
course, Doggelgangers can also be shared directly
15 /
via Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. See Contagious 27
pubLishing
www.doggelganger.co.nz
16 /
design

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most contagious / technology / p.16

TeChnoLogy / hiding The wires

chapters / The technology section in last year’s Most pre-installed on the iPhone 4S in October. Siri actually
01 / Contagious was, in our own words, packed with originated outside of Apple, having been spun out of
movemenTs ‘digital complexity’ to ‘boggle your mind’. So it’s developers SRI International back in 2007 as Siri
02 / telling that this year, some of the most remarkable Inc. The company launched a voice activated personal
proJeCTs pieces of tasty tech are rather the opposite… assistant app of the same name on the App Store in
February 2010 and was acquired by Apple just a few
03 / For a while our consultancy division, Contagious
serviCe months later.
Insider, has been tracking examples of ‘experience
04 / over innovation’ – where technology is used to reduce Siri can complete a wide array of tasks through
soCiaL
friction in people’s lives. Apple’s voice activated Siri voice activated commands. In addition to sending
05 / and Jawbone’s movement monitoring wristband UP, text messages and emails, it can, for example, book
idenTiTy for example, place advanced technology in people’s restaurants and find locally recommended services.
06 / hands but with a user experience that ‘makes the Over time, it even learns your preferences and tailors
TeChnoLogy wires disappear’: it’s simple, effective and focused on its responses accordingly.
benefitting the customer first and foremost.
07 / It courted controversy recently, however, when it
daTa
With Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt was found to be able to locate local brothels, but not
08 / bemoaning the level of computer science being nearby abortion clinics – an app with a pro-life agenda
augmenTed
taught in UK schools, it’s been fascinating to see proving difficult for many users to swallow.
09 / the emergence of hardware and software kits, such http://bit.ly/oJynhc
money as Raspberry Pi and Twine, which are designed to
10 / provide anyone with an interest in computers with Twine /
haCk CuLTure the building blocks required to make coding and We’ve long been fans of all things Arduino, the
11 /
programming more accessible. popular open-source microcontroller. However, a
musiC 2.0
We included 3D printers in Most Contagious 2010, recent project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter
12 / but the technology has continued to amaze this year, aims to get more people tinkering with electronics and
video
most recently with the 3D printing of bones through hardware at home. Twine is a small wireless module
Washington State University and the generation of a and online service that help people to connect their
13 /
reTaiL functioning kidney during one extraordinary TED talk. household objects to the internet.

14 / Mary Shelley should have something to say about that. Sensors within the Twine module detect, amongst
gaming
Apple / Siri other things, changes in temperature and movement.
15 / These can be programmed through Spool, a web app
One saving grace for Apple fans when the rumoured
pubLishing which communicates messages via SMS, email and
iPhone 5 wasn’t released earlier this year was the
social network. So, if you want to be warned if a door
16 / success of voice activated service Siri, which came
design

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most contagious / technology / p.17

is opened in your home while you’re at work, you is going to be available in the UK through the
can programme Twine to inform you via Twitter. Raspberry Pi website, and the charity reports that
Or if your basement is prone to flooding, you can a range of people are interested; from education,
programme Twine to send you a text message if to technology companies and individual software
chapters / it detects moisture on the floor. developers. www.raspberrypi.org
01 / Developed by MIT grads David Carr and Ones to Watch /
movemenTs
John Kestner of Cambridge, MA-based
New York-based developers Kyle McDonald
02 / Supermechanical, the project has been
proJeCTs and Arturo Castro demonstrated their real-time
pledged over $220,000, easily exceeding the
face substitution app, using face tracking and
03 / original goal of $35,000. http://kck.st/uuhljt
serviCe
cloning. Their software swaps faces, allowing
Raspberry Pi / anyone to masquerade as Brad Pitt or Barack
04 /
Obama (at least while their webcam’s switched Twine /
soCiaL When he visited the UK earlier this year, Google
on). Contagious 29
05 /
bigwig Eric Schmidt pointed out that too many
idenTiTy schools continue to teach pupils how to use In Issue 28 we covered Japanese confectionery
software, rather than the building blocks to brand Ezaki Glico which used an advert to
06 /
TeChnoLogy create it. introduce a new member of pop band AKB
48, Aimi Eguchi, with the help of Dentsu
07 / The Raspberry Pi Foundation, based in
Kansai, Osaka. Actually a computer-generated
daTa Cambridge, is a UK registered charity that aims
composite of existing members’ facial features,
08 / to address that issue, by creating low cost
the new member sparked a flurry of excitement,
augmenTed computers specifically for teaching computer
with Eguchi even appearing in Japan’s Weekly
programming to children.
09 / Playboy.
money
‘We perceived that in the UK, the reduction in
But fans began to get suspicious when Eguchi
10 / access to programmable hardware to children
went straight from trainee to starring in the
haCk CuLTure was leading to a reduction of the number and raspberry pi /
commercial for the confectionery company’s Ice
11 / quality of applicants to University and in turn
no Mi candy. Some particularly observant fans
musiC 2.0 number of graduates for the industry,’ says Eben
even noticed that her birthday, 11 February, is
12 / Upton, one of the foundation’s trustees.
the date that Ezaki Glico was founded.
video
PCs and other machines make learning
‘Their hunch proved right and they solved the
13 / coding tricky, as they’re focused purely on end
reTaiL mystery quite rapidly,’ said creative director
user experience. Raspberry Pi’s development
Toshitaka Nakao. After a few days, Ezaki Glico
14 / philosophy has been to place education and
released a ‘making of’ video revealing that Eguchi
gaming coding skills front and centre.
was a sophisticated hoax, created entirely by CGI.
15 / Its first computer is set to launch imminently, at
pubLishing http://vimeo.com/29279198
a cost of just £25 and has been developed with http://vimeo.com/29348533 eZaki gLiCo /
16 / open source principles. The initial run of 10,000
design

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most contagious / data / p.18

daTa /
The Fine arT oF meaning-making
chapters / As the assembly line otherwise known as ‘progress’ pushes
01 / us forward through the information age, and past the
movemenTs connected era, humans are creating sophisticated tools to
02 / sort the deluge of information we generate. We have now
proJeCTs entered the age of the algorithm.
03 / These logical sequences are increasingly responsible for
serviCe
shaping our world beyond the computer. The biggest companies
04 / are built on them. They control what you see on Facebook, and
soCiaL
how and when billions of dollars of shares are traded on markets.
05 / Brands are using them to evolve their marketing. For an excellent
idenTiTy discussion on the importance of algorithms, check out Kevin
06 / Slavin’s TED Global talk here.
TeChnoLogy
Clive Humby, founder of shopper marketing firm dunnhumby,
07 / is widely credited with the 2006 observation that ‘Data is the new
daTa
oil’ – exceptionally valuable when refined. However, there’s still an
08 / immense amount of room for us to build and tweak the structures
augmenTed
governing how data is distributed, which represents a new frontier
09 / in marketing: how will we take command of the natural resource
money of the information age?
10 / The Privacy Crunch
haCk CuLTure
As marketers’ relationships with data evolves, now more than
11 /
musiC 2.0
ever brands need a firm understanding of how they’re protecting
customer privacy.
12 /
video It’s no longer enough just to design programs to fuel massive
amounts of data harvesting. The creeping liability inherent in these
13 /
reTaiL efforts comes as consumers get smarter about their own data and
its privacy, and will hold your business more accountable in its
14 /
gaming gathering and storage.

bLueFin Labs /
15 / BlackBerry and Research In Motion have been pilloried for
pubLishing releasing data; Twitter lauded for retaining it. Google was in
16 /
the spotlight when The Wall Street Journal announced the US
design

supported by


government had a secret court order to turn over the But it’s only recently that a series of technological
files of Wikileaks supporter Jacob Appelbaum. and cultural forces have come together to see an
explosion of such activity – the radical transparency
But what’s lost in the idea of data as oil is that
and sharing ethos of social media, the growing
data, in many cases, is personal. The oil is made of
chapters / concern among people about health and wellbeing,
tiny bits of our lives. The data is the colour of your
and the prevalence of sophisticated devices packed
01 / first car, the grade you got in college chemistry, or
movemenTs with sensors, recording and monitoring devices such
the flirtatious comment you left on a facebook photo.
as GPS, cameras, microphones and accelerometers
02 / As the Facebook Timeline is a mainline to our past,
proJeCTs – cheap convenient and ubiquitous enough to make
personal data is loose bits of unrefined nostalgia.
this widespread. This is most recognisable in the form
03 /
serviCe
Your company already has a privacy policy of the smartphone, our most intimate, and frequently
somewhere. Is it time for a revision? Should you put used piece of technology.
04 /
it into plain English and prove you understand your
soCiaL Total shipments of smartphones in 2010 were
responsibility? Should you post it on the front door?
05 / 302.6 million units, up 74.4% from 2009, according
idenTiTy Take Ritz-Carlton as an example. It’s taken big to IDC, with smartphones making up 21.8% of all
steps in the hotel and hospitality sector using the data handsets shipped. 89% of smartphone users confess
06 /
TeChnoLogy it collects on its customers to build loyalty and great to using their mobile throughout the day, according
customer service. But were that data to be applied to Google/IPSOS’ Mobile Movement Study (April
07 /
daTa
without relevance, or made OVER-relevant, it pushes 2011) – meaning that it has never been easier for
past the ever-changing ‘creepy’ boundary. people to gather their own data.
08 /
augmenTed Competent monitoring of data will soon be an Brands have entered this arena by creating
essential ingredient in the recipe for success. A Sybase products, services and software to cater to the
09 /
money commissioned survey from the University of Texas trend; GE, for example, launched four iPhone apps
at Austin, called ‘Measuring the Business Impacts that monitor sleep, weight, pregnancy and mood in
10 /
haCk CuLTure of Effective Data,’ found that a mere 10% increase in conjunction with online community MedHelp. As
data usability for Fortune 1000 companies resulted community members use these tools to track their
11 /
musiC 2.0
in a $2.01 billion increase in revenue across the 150 own development, MedHelp collects this data in real
companies surveyed; a 49% increase in productivity time and aggregates it to produce real-time results on
12 / in the retail industry, 20% in food products, 19% in
video
symptoms and general norms. With over 11 million
automotive. monthly visitors and growing, the content available is
13 /
constantly evolving. Meanwhile, apps like TicTrac are
reTaiL Life tracking /
emerging. TicTrac promises a personal dashboard and

FaCebook TimeLine /
14 / Self-quantification is not new. People have been meta-analytic service that can discern more complex
gaming meticulously measuring many aspects of their lives by patterns in users’ lives.
15 / painting pictures and recording where they are, when
pubLishing and what they’re eating, and how they’re feeling, for
16 /
centuries – the basic diary being a common example.
design

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Ford / Sync measure them against their competitors, creating
Ford has unveiled an ambitious string of a more nuanced picture from which to direct
partnerships with medical monitoring and creative and strategy.
technology companies in order to create ‘the http://bluefinlabs.com
chapters /
car that cares’. Extensions to its existing in-car
01 / Sync technology, which to date has focused on Netflix / House of Cards
movemenTs entertainment and communication, will enable US entertainment streaming company Netflix
02 / diabetes sufferers and those with other chronic recently outbid traditional cable channels HBO
proJeCTs conditions to monitor themselves from behind and AMC to secure the rights to House of Cards
03 / the wheel. By plugging the same wireless blood – a series which hasn’t yet begun production.
serviCe sugar monitors used in the home into a Sync The series, a remake of the 1990 BBC political
04 /
interface, the car would be able to notify the thriller, is slated to be directed by David Fincher
soCiaL driver when glucose levels rise or fall, with voice and star Kevin Spacey, and was bought by Netflix
recognition software removing the need for any for a reported $100m. It’s the first time Netflix
05 /
idenTiTy manual interaction. has invested in original programming. Originally
06 /
http://ford.com/technology a subscription-based distributor of film and TV
TeChnoLogy content, the company has expanded to become
Bluefin Labs /
an on-demand streaming content provider under
07 /
daTa
MIT Media Lab startup Bluefin is matching the Netflix Instant banner. Content is streamed
social media chatter to TV to help brands, online and to games consoles such as Xbox 360,
08 / TiCTraC /
networks and production companies work out Nintendo Wii, or PS3, and devices such as Blu-
augmenTed
what content viewers are most engaged with. ray players and internet connected HDTVs.
09 /
money Founded by professors Deb Roy and Michael The company mined vast amounts of subscriber
Fleischman in 2008, Bluefin works by scanning viewing data to determine whether its audience
10 /
haCk CuLTure over three billion social media mentions a would find the combination of political drama,
month, and matching visual signatures from an director and stars a compelling one. The same
11 /
musiC 2.0
archive of over 200,000 TV broadcasts from data which allowed Netflix to decide which series
over 50 national broadcast and cable stations. to invest in, will also help the company to promote
12 /
The two are then married together, to provide House of Cards to subscribers appropriately
video
retrospective data about what viewers were using the service’s existing recommendation
13 / saying about a show in real-time. system. http://bit.ly/blog_netflix
reTaiL
This, the company says, will help brands to get
14 /
gaming a deeper and more accurate understanding of Ford /
HOW viewers are watching, rather than simply
15 /
pubLishing
measuring eyeballs. The service will allow brands
to check how ads work in different time slots and
16 /
across different channels and shows, as well as
design

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most contagious / augmented / p.21

augmenTed ConTenT / adding vaLue, noT disTraCTion

chapters / Emerging technologies and non-traditional Giving viewers something to do with these itchy There is even a complete set of badges to
01 / media platforms may not be directly stealing fingers, Star Player is a free to download mobile collect by answering certain tricky questions,
movemenTs eyeballs from TV as many predicted they gaming application (also available online and on along with mini trophies such as ‘Free Kick hero’,
02 / would – Thinkbox research reveals that TV Facebook) that allows football fans to interact ‘Goal Master’ and ‘Corner King’. Facebook
proJeCTs viewing figures in the UK have risen every in real time with Champions League games. By Connect allows users to show these off directly
03 /
year since 2006. However, what they are doing syncing automatically with the televised game, via their profile walls – in doing so attracting
serviCe is fundamentally changing how audiences the app challenges users to predict goals, bet more potential Star Players to the platform.
behave. People now expect content on on the outcome of set plays and even take See Contagious 27
04 /
soCiaL demand. They want to be able to share their part in mini pop quizzes – amassing points in www.facebook.com/heineken
experiences. And increasingly, they want competition with friends and fellow Star Players.
05 /
idenTiTy access to added layers of interactivity that
take advantage of the smartphone, tablet
06 /
TeChnoLogy
or laptop resting on the arm of the sofa. For
brands, new opportunities exist not in creating
07 / content from scratch, but in spotting existing
daTa
consumption behaviours and augmenting
08 / them with added value. Put simply, this is
augmenTed
about content being better for having the
09 / brand involved.
money
Heineken / Star Player
10 /
haCk CuLTure With Heineken looking to make its headline
11 /
sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League
musiC 2.0 work a little harder, agency AKQA did some
research into exactly how we watch football on
12 /
video TV. Two key findings were unearthed; one, from
UEFA, confirmed that the vast majority (72%)
13 /
reTaiL of viewers watch the UEFA Champions League
alone at home; and a second piece of third-party
14 /
gaming
research confirmed that most of these viewers
(80%) are dual-screening – using laptops or
15 / phones to access social networks or other
pubLishing
platforms to share their experience of watching
16 / the game.
design

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Microsoft Xbox / Kinect Sesame Street TV / Jose Cuervo / Cuervo Cold
Kinect Nat Geo TV Tequila brand Jose Cuervo, via agency Albion London,
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has partnered with iconic masterminded a series of pop-up gigs throughout
entertainment brands Sesame Street and National São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro featuring band and
chapters /
Geographic to turn passive TV viewing into viral video sensation OK Go. The experiential side of
01 / educational and interactive TV experiences for things was balanced with an online experience, which
movemenTs children, using Kinect’s gesture and voice-recognition saw one of the live gigs being filmed and fed through
02 / software. Shotcast – transforming the footage of the band into
proJeCTs pixels made up of Twitter and Facebook avatars.
03 / Viewers could tweet #shotcast or sign in through
serviCe Facebook Connect to share and read messages
04 /
through the video. Contagious 29
soCiaL www.cuervocold.com/en/verifyage
05 /
idenTiTy
Multi-Screen

06 / Pepsi / SoundOff / Pulse
TeChnoLogy
In an attempt to improve on the traditional prime time
07 / TV sponsorship model, Pepsi has created a pair
daTa
of utilities to give US viewers of The X Factor new
08 /
The programming will enable children to interact opportunities to interact, socialise and even compete
augmenTed with the content using their bodies and voices. around the reality show’s content.
For example, in Kinect Sesame Street TV, Cookie
09 /
Monster may ask a child to clap their hands and will The first, SoundOff, is a social viewing platform
money Jose Cuervo /
be able to recognise whether the child played along. through which users comment on the show, but also
10 /
Kinect Nat Geo TV could, for example, transform the compete for Likes. The quips that receive the most not
haCk CuLTure
viewer’s living room into an animal habitat – in which only earn their creators points and unlockable badges
11 /
the viewer can see themselves projected as an animal (in this case, bottle caps), but are also integrated into
musiC 2.0
before foraging around for food. 15-second ad spots during the show.
12 /
video Xbox is also collaborating with the Sesame Pulse is for the more passive viewer and scrapes
Workshop Curriculum Team on an interactive the web for mentions of everything X Factor-related
13 /
reading-based experience code-named ‘Project online, dragging the information into a rich, navigable
reTaiL
Columbia’. This portal, which is still being tested, data visualisation. The platform was built in just three
14 /
aims to allow children to immerse themselves in weeks by New York-based digital shop Firstborn.
gaming
storybooks, by literally being able to see themselves See Contagious 29
15 /
in the pages of a book and play with the words and www.pepsisoundoff.com
pubLishing
illustrations. See Contagious 29 www.pepsipulse.com
16 / pepsi /
design
www.xbox.com/en-gb/kinect

Supported by


The Black Eyed Peas / BEP360 Ones to watch /

Shazam / USA Network TV and Old Navy
Fans of Shazam – the music identification app with
chapters / over 150 million users worldwide – will now be able
01 /
to capture content directly from their favourite TV ads
movemenTs and shows thanks to the Shazam for TV service. USA
Network TV has made season 2.5 of its popular spy
02 /
proJeCTs drama Covert Affairs ‘shazamable’, allowing viewers
to unlock exclusive videos, photos and wallpapers.
03 /
serviCe
There is even the option to ‘Shop Covert Affairs!’,
which takes users to a mobile-optimised store where
04 /
they can purchase show merchandise. Meanwhile,
soCiaL
Old Navy created a TV ad/music video called Super
05 / CUTE for faux band Audio Threadz. Viewers were
idenTiTy Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas transformed the
prompted to fire up the app when the TV ad came on,
band’s single The Time/Dirty Bit from a linear
06 / which triggered their phone to serve up styling tips
TeChnoLogy audio track into a 360 degree interactive music
from the band, discount coupons for clothing in the
video. Created by the pop polymath’s digital media
07 / ad and a download of the track itself.
daTa company, will.i.apps, the $2.99 BEP360 app allows mTv /
http://bit.ly/vsa7vc
fans to virtually step inside and explore the video
08 / www.oldnavyshazam.com
augmenTed via their iPhone/iPad – as well as direct a 3D photo
shoot of the band. Pointing the device at the album Syzygy Labs / GOAB
09 /
cover triggers each band member popping up in 3D
money German creative agency Syzygy Labs has provided
with a speech bubble containing their latest tweet.
a sneak peak of what multi-screening might look like
10 / See Contagious 26 www.williapps.com
haCk CuLTure in the future with its concept app, GOAB. In a two-
MTV / WatchWith minute video, the multi-platform app is shown letting
11 /
musiC 2.0 people take full control of their viewing experience:
MTV is catering to multi-screen behaviour with a
choosing what to watch and when, connecting with
12 / free iPhone/iPad app, WatchWith, which allows
friends in real time via social networks, accessing
video viewers to interact with the channel’s content as
contextual extra content and even tapping into
13 / it airs. Described on iTunes as ‘a DVR for social
specific ecommerce portals based on their social/
reTaiL commentary’, the app automatically detects the user’s
interest graph. http://lab.syzygy.de
14 /
time zone and displays tweets and Facebook updates
gaming relative to when they were added during the show’s
original airing. The app also provides exclusive video
15 /
pubLishing content around popular shows like Teen Wolf and US
hit Jersey Shore. http://bit.ly/p6dT8p shaZam /
16 /
design usa neTwork Tv

Supported by

most contagious / money / p.24

money / digiTaL Cash

chapters / A revolution is coming in the way that people use money. NFC
01 / (near-field communication) and tools for personal financial
movemenTs data analysis are now finding their way into the hands of
02 / consumers, in no small part due to growth in the use of
proJeCTs smartphones. Leading the pack this year has been Google
03 /
with its NFC-based Google Wallet solution, which is currently
serviCe being rolled out in the US.
04 / The internet behemoth’s entry into mobile money is indicative
soCiaL
of the potential of this burgeoning market. According to analysts
05 / Research and Markets, in 2011 there were 158.1 million mobile
idenTiTy payment users worldwide, a number that should break 1 billion by
06 / the end of 2016. Additionally, $159.3bn worth of payments were
TeChnoLogy made in 2011, forecast to rise to $1 trillion by the end of 2016.
07 / However, jostling for position within the competitive and
daTa
complex infrastructure are the familiar mobile network operators,
08 / banks, card issuers, retailers, and service vendors. Meanwhile
augmenTed
app developers and disruptive startups like Square and Simple
09 / (formerly Bank Simple) are growing in stature and challenging
money the status quo, with their dynamic focus on customer, or user,
10 / experience.
haCk CuLTure
Google / Google Wallet
11 /
musiC 2.0 Filling the near-field communications opportunity void it created
when it launched its HTC Nexus S handset, Google Wallet is an
12 /
video ‘open commerce ecosystem’ which combines the capabilities of
the phone, financial services companies and local merchants.
13 /
reTaiL Currently only available on the Sprint 4G network in the US,
14 /
the service can be used to pay anywhere MasterCard’s PayPass

googLe waLLeT /
gaming system is accepted. Partners in the scheme such as American
Eagle Outfitters, The Container Store, Foot Locker, Guess,
15 /
pubLishing Jamba Juice, Macy’s, OfficeMax and Toys’R’Us are also letting
customers redeem coupons and earn reward points when they
16 /
design tap their phone on the in-store NFC readers to make a payment.

supported by


Wallet represents a major data bounty for Google, but showing the customer’s name and photo and offering
its growth remains dependent on the uptake of NFC- the option to charge items or services to their credit
readers like MasterCard’s PayPass at retailers. After all, card (which is linked to the system at sign-up).
without ubiquity, NFC represents just ‘another way’ for
We love how Card Case places the emphasis
chapters / people to pay. However, it’s expected that the service
back on the human experience. Rather than the cold
will come to Europe in 2012, starting in the UK.
01 / tapping of hardware, the system requires a spoken
movemenTs www.google.com/wallet exchange between the customer and vendor: and
02 / hopefully a smile along the way too.
proJeCTs Square / Card Case
https://squareup.com
03 /
US-based startup, Square (co-founded by Jack
serviCe Dorsey, also co-founder of ever-so-slightly-successful Commonwealth Bank of Australia / Kaching
Twitter), made headlines in 2010 for its nifty hardware
04 / Against a backdrop of growing public disdain for
add-on that allowed people to accept payments from
soCiaL financial brands, several retail banks have designed
credit cards through their smartphones. CommonweaLTh bank oF
05 / mobile applications to help customers manage their ausTraLia /
idenTiTy money more easily. So many, in fact, that we dedicated
06 / a whole report to them in Contagious 28
TeChnoLogy
In Australia, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
07 / (CBA) launched an NFC-powered banking app with a
daTa
wealth of useful banking services.
08 /
augmenTed
The iPhone and Android app – Kaching – includes
services such as paying people via Facebook, email
09 / and even mobile numbers, and paying with a simple
money
swipe at PayPass-enabled stores. Users can instantly
10 / check their bank balance, transfer between accounts
haCk CuLTure
and undertake other banking activities.
11 /
musiC 2.0 CBA sidestepped having to wait for NFC-enabled
handsets to hit the Australian market by partnering
12 / This year, it launched its second service, Card with iCarte. The Canadian company produces
video
Case. This service allows users to pay for goods and smartphone cases with NFC and RFID readers and
13 / services by simply stating their name to confirm the writers embedded.
reTaiL transaction – with no need to wave a handset or tap a
bit.ly/tvwqsb
14 / card, let alone provide a PIN or signature.
gaming
The app automatically detects when the user comes
15 / within 100 metres of a participating merchant which
pubLishing
they have already approved. As they arrive at the
16 / store, the merchant’s app is alerted and opens a tab
design

Supported by


Westpac / Impulse Saver Key to that experience is NFC, and Movenbank Team member Ben Knelman told attendees at
‘We’ve never created the opportunity for impulse will launch on Android phones with the technology a Startx Demo day that Juntos Finanzas tools had
saving,’ proclaimed adland’s very own Rory built in. Gaming dynamics form part of the app to helped participants earning under $40k save an
Sutherland to TED Global, Oxford in July 2009. encourage loyalty (for example, using it to pay average of $1,400 over six months.
chapters /
In the same presentation he went on to suggest for your morning coffee), with points building
To strengthen its business model, the company
if each person had a big, alluring red button at towards an automatic line of credit.
01 / is looking at third-party licensing, so banks and
movemenTs home which, whenever pressed, saved them The bank’s credit rating system is also very credit unions can pay to use the tools; it’s also
02 / $50, people would tend to save more. different. CRED works around a customer’s investigating the potential to generate sales
proJeCTs
Two years on, and BBDO Colenso, New financial behaviour and social reputation. A quick leads based on the savers’ individual goals.
03 / Zealand created precisely that for retail bank survey determines their financial personality, with http://ahorrandojuntos.com
serviCe rewards for paying off bills, saving, or donating
Westpac. With New Zealanders cumulatively
04 / spending NZ$16.1m on impulse purchases to charity, for example. Rather than punishing
soCiaL
every day and only 49% holding a savings customers for exceeding their credit limit, the
05 / account, the Westpac Impulse Saver is an service aims to identify when that might happen
idenTiTy iPhone application to help the bank’s customers through their everyday behaviour.
06 / save more. Every time a user taps the button www.movenbank.com
TeChnoLogy that appears on screen, an amount of $5, $10,
$15, $20 or $50 is transferred to their savings Juntos Finanzas /
07 /
daTa account. As we’ve seen, smartphone owners can rejoice
and revel in the new options for banking and
08 / The application is an outstanding piece of
augmenTed payments now and in the near future. But what of
marketing as service design. We covered
people who own feature phones? Or who simply
09 / it in Issue 27, at which point it had exceeded
money
don’t use the internet? How can technology help
Westpac’s uptake target by 259% and over a
them to improve and track their finances?
10 / third of all Westpac customers with iPhones had
haCk CuLTure downloaded the app. At a time of debt-ridden StartX (a non-profit student startup accelerator)
doom and gloom, it generated over $400,000 of and the d.school Institute of Design Thinking,
11 /
musiC 2.0 free media coverage. both based in Stanford, appear to have a
www.westpac.co.nz/impulsesaver
successful project on their hands with Juntos
12 /
video Finanzas (Finances Together).
Movenbank / wesTpaC /
13 / The project seeks to create personal finance
reTaiL Movenbank, New York, a mobile-centric, cardless projects for first-generation Latino immigrants in
14 / and branchless startup bank, announced it the US. It allows them to track their expenses
gaming would open to the public in 2012. It is one of a via SMS, and receive a monthly ‘visual story’
number of startups, like Simple and Perkstreet, showing where the money has gone via email
15 /
pubLishing to partner with established banks while taking full or ‘snail mail’ – a Mint.com designed for people
control of the ‘front-end’ customer experience. who are offline and depend mainly on cash.
16 /
design

Supported by

most contagious / hack culture / p.27

haCk CuLTure / pLaTForms rising

chapters / 2011 was when hack culture entered the Initially highly wary of consumers tinkering with The Kinect Effect page of the Xbox website
01 / mainstream. An umbrella term, hacking can its hardware, 2011 has seen Microsoft change encourages people to submit stories of how
movemenTs mean anything from creating a plug-in to tack, and learn to embrace the hacker ethos. In they’re using the Kinect in surprising and
02 / adding bespoke functionality to existing off- June it announced the beta version of a Kinect ingenious ways and features videos showing
proJeCTs the-shelf software. The proliferation of hack software developer kit (SDK), with the full how the UK’s Lakeside Centre for Autism and
03 /
culture means the adoption of hacking ideals, commercial version set to launch in early 2012. stroke patients at the Royal Berkshire Hospital
serviCe in other words, embracing innovation and are benefiting from the hands-free technology.
Microsoft has even gone so far as to celebrate
experimentation. For companies, this can
04 / hackers’ repurposing of the Kinect in its latest Microsoft, together with seed fund TechStars,
soCiaL mean tearing down a few walls to encourage
global TV ad, created by twofifteenmccann, also created a startup accelerator to provide
people to tinker with and remix their brands’
05 / San Francisco, which shows the Kinect being developers or entrepreneurs interested in
properties, or using open data to create
idenTiTy used by musicians, students, doctors and even building a business that takes advantage of the
something new. In turn, this has the potential
06 / bomb disposal experts. As the ad illustrates, Kinect technologies with the funding, mentoring
to raise engagement, earn media exposure,
TeChnoLogy Xbox effectively turned the world into an R&D and support they need. See Contagious 29
and position willing brands as benefactors of
07 /
department, and celebrating the unexpected www.microsoft.com/bizspark/kinectaccelerator
cutting-edge creative technology platforms.
daTa uses of Kinect has helped position Xbox as an www.xbox.com/en-gb/kinect/kinect-effect
Kinect / The Kinect Effect innovative brand with a relevance that extends
08 /
augmenTed well beyond the world of gaming.
When Xbox launched its gesture-recognition
09 / hardware Kinect in November 2010 it rapidly
money shot into Guinness World Records as the
10 / fastest-selling consumer electronics device, with
haCk CuLTure more than 10 million units sold in four months.
11 /
Microsoft intended the Kinect to provide
musiC 2.0 controller-free motion-capture fun for Xbox
gamers, but hackers were quick to discover a
12 /
video source of creative technological expression.
Soon Kinect hack videos were popping up on
13 /
reTaiL YouTube in their thousands, showing the breadth
of possibilities for the device beyond gaming.
14 /
gaming
Examples ranged from a 3D video capture
entertainment series, to a magic medical mirror
15 / that showed the inner workings of the bodies of
pubLishing
people who stood in front of it.
16 /
design

Supported by


Ford / OpenXC SDK The project offers possibilities for new revenue
Bug Labs, the New York-based open-source models for the car maker, most notably through an
hardware and software development company, app store where developers can create and sell new
created the OpenXC SDK for Ford. This in-vehicle software.
chapters /
research platform enables developers to ‘plug and Ford should also benefit from fresh insights and a
01 / play’ with modular hardware and software to configure broader intellectual capital base. It exemplifies how
movemenTs cars to run customised apps and platforms. All apps hacking can give consumers the chance to personalise
02 / submitted are reviewed and tested by Ford before a product’s capabilities, not just its aesthetics, to
proJeCTs being approved. better suit their needs. Contagious 29
03 / www.buglabs.net/ford-buglabs
serviCe

04 / EMI / OpenEMI
soCiaL Prior to EMI Music’s sale to Vivendi/Universal Music
05 / Group in November, it announced a partnership
idenTiTy with The Echo Nest, a data-rich music intelligence
06 / company. The result? OpenEMI, a testing environment
TeChnoLogy – or ‘sandbox’ – that gives developers dynamic access
to EMI content, and is designed to allow developers
07 /
daTa to generate revenue through partnerships. In other
words, apps for the web, Apple’s iOS platform and
08 /
augmenTed Google’s Android platform.
One example of the countless add-ons is Bug Labs’ OpenEMI includes content from several specific
09 /
money Fuel Economy Challenge application, which plugs artists, including Pet Shop Boys, Gorillaz and Tinie
into a Ford car to show the fuel efficiency of the driver Tempah, in addition to audio and associated meta
10 /
haCk CuLTure behind the wheel. It also connects them to other data available from EMI-owned jazz label Blue Note
drivers taking the challenge to see who is driving most (10,000 tracks), classical music from EMI Classics
11 /
efficiently. (1,500), and a broad range of music from EMI
musiC 2.0
Selection (1,500). To release a commercial or real
12 /
video world application, apps must be approved by EMI
– who will ultimately become the publisher upon
13 /
reTaiL
approval, with revenues shared between the record
label (60% of net revenue), then the developer (40%)
14 / and The Echo Nest (a small share of that 40%).
gaming
See Contagious 29
15 /
http://developer.echonest.com/sandbox/emi
pubLishing

16 /
design

Supported by


blablabLAB / Be Your Own Souvenir URL from ‘False’ to ‘True’. Word spread fast:
Barcelona-based blablabLAB’s public art while the original site gained 80,000 hits, rumour
project Be Your Own Souvenir combined a generated over 360,000 mentions, and resulted
Kinect hack with 3D printing. in a 20% rise in sales, proving the might of this
chapters / cunning little campaign that tapped into the
In January, the project invited tourists in appeal of sticking it to the man.
01 /
movemenTs
Barcelona’s Las Ramblas to stand in front of
www.burgeranch.co.il
three Kinect sensors for a 360-degree scan.
02 /
The 3D printer received the data and within
proJeCTs
ten minutes churned out a personal memento:
03 / a tiny toy-like replica of their pose. Across two
serviCe
weekends, 500 souvenirs were made, uniting
04 / tourists and locals to watch the production live,
soCiaL burgeranCh /
while a video of the project was viewed more
05 / than 300,000 times on Vimeo.
idenTiTy
The project showcases the phenomenal
06 /
possibilities of the combination of Kinect hacking
TeChnoLogy
and 3D, where suddenly real life objects can
07 / be perfectly replicated or resized, for repair,
daTa
replacement, entertainment or art. Contagious 27
08 /
www.blablablab.org
augmenTed

09 / Burgeranch / Combina
money
To promote its Combina deal Israeli fast-food
10 / chain Burgeranch launched a digital campaign
haCk CuLTure that referenced the illicit nature of hacking.
11 /
Playing on the meaning of combina – an
musiC 2.0
Israeli word meaning to outsmart the system
12 / while getting something out of it – Burgeranch
video
worked with McCann Erikson, Tel Aviv to launch
13 / a two-pronged online campaign. One part of
reTaiL
the campaign featured banner ads that led to
14 / an online trivia quiz that offered free desserts
gaming for answering with unanswerable questions.
15 / Concurrently, the agency seeded rumours online
bLabLabLab /
pubLishing that the site could be hacked to give out free
16 / desserts, by simply changing a portion of the
design

Supported by

most contagious / music 2.0 / p.30

musiC 2.o / LighTing smaLL Fires

chapters /
2011 has seen the established power
01 /
movemenTs structures of the music industry continue to
crumble with sharing and streaming services
02 /
proJeCTs coming to the fore and an increased focus on
experimentation.
03 /
serviCe The rapid uptake of app/web-based services
such as Songkick (Contagious 26), which
04 /
soCiaL recommends gigs based on your music tastes
(and takes a cut of resulting ticket sales) and
05 /
idenTiTy
SoundCloud, which allows easy sharing of
recordings, serve as a reminder of the massive
06 / cultural currency that music continues to
TeChnoLogy
command.
07 /
daTa
Meanwhile, bands are developing increasingly
innovative ways of attracting attention to album
08 / releases. Expect more digital/musical crossovers
augmenTed
in 2012.
09 /
money Spotify / Apps
10 / Spotify is giving third party app developers the
haCk CuLTure opportunity to create music-based apps which
11 / integrate into and enhance the service through an
musiC 2.0 open API, while its alliance with Facebook saw it
add seven million users in just over two months. animations, musical scores, lyrics and essays.
12 /
video Early apps were developed by established The experience was supported by residencies in
Björk / Biophilia different cities around the world and a 90-minute
editorial presences, such as the Guardian and
13 /
reTaiL Rolling Stone, serving music reviews direct Serial innovator Björk has fundamentally documentary produced by Pulse Films, while
to Spotify listeners. The integration of music- changed the way she approaches making music, the faint-hearted could get involved through CD/
14 /
gaming focused social network Last.Fm to Spotify taking a multiplatform approach to her latest vinyl/iTunes.
improved music recommendations, and other album, Biophilia. The album is presented as Björk and her record label One Little Indian/
15 /
apps are allowing users to buy concert tickets a series of iPad apps, housed in one ‘mother’ Nonesuch put together a sophisticated team
pubLishing
and view lyrics. app, offering users an entirely interactive way of developers, led by Scott Snibbe Studio,
16 / to experience the songs – through games,
design

Supported by


LA, who were responsible for Cosmology – the Bluebrain / Location-Aware Albums
mother application. Various developers worked on Washington DC band Bluebrain released two
one or two apps each, co-funding the projects, and location-aware albums this year, The National Mall
taking a share of the revenue. Snibbe explained: (Washington DC) and Listen to the Light (Central
chapters / ‘The beauty of apps is that they allow you to Park, New York). The series of choose-your-own
01 / experience the music far more like the musician has.’ adventure style app albums matches the music
movemenTs Contagious 28 http://bjork.com according to the physical location of the listener via
02 / GPS, with the beats, melodies, instrumentation and
Gorillaz / Korg
proJeCTs rhythms of the songs changing according to their
Virtual band Gorillaz teamed up with synthesiser movements, creating a unique musical experience.
03 / kaiser ChieFs /
serviCe
manufacturers Korg to launch a new version of Korg’s Contagious 27 www.bluebra.in
iElectribe synth app for iPad. The Gorillaz version
04 /
costs $19.99 and comes with 64 preset grooves and Batelco / Super Sonic
soCiaL
128 sounds from the band’s latest album, The Fall. Leading Middle East telecom provider, Batelco,
05 / Users can select preset samples from a track and edit worked with Bahrain-based FP7/BAH to create an
idenTiTy
or discard individual instruments, including kick drum, audio signature that quickly became part of urban
06 / snare, hi-hat, percussion, synth, vocals and sound culture. The Super Sonic CD which contained five
TeChnoLogy
effects. This provides dedicated fans of the band with remixes of an audio signature was sent to influential
07 / a new way to experience and interact with the music DJs in Bahrain, and before long was heard in night
daTa and offers more general users of the app a host of clubs across the island state. 100,000 copies of the
08 / sounds and tunes to experiment with. Contagious 28 CD were available in shopping malls, either for free
augmenTed
www.korg.com/ielectribegorillaz or a $2 donation, and raised $80,000 for Batelco’s
goriLLaZ /
09 / Hearts & Minds social initiative. Super Sonic also
money Kaiser Chiefs / The Future is Medieval received 44,000 plays and 17,000 downloads on
10 / UK indie band The Kaiser Chiefs and their label SoundCloud and 4,000 ringtone subscribers.
haCk CuLTure Universal Music worked with Wieden+Kennedy, Contagious 26 www.facebook.com/batelco
11 /
London to re-engage fans by allowing them to select
musiC 2.0 the tracks that would make up the Leeds band’s latest
album. The kaiserchiefs.com website presented 20
12 /
video new tracks and invited fans to select their ten favourites
for a bespoke tracklisting, before creating their own
13 /
reTaiL
artwork using a customisable template. Smartest of
all, fans were able to sell their personalised album,
14 /
receiving a payment of £1 each time their version was
gaming
sold. Contagious 28
15 /
pubLishing
http://kaiserchiefs.specialmoves.com

16 /
design bLuebrain /

Supported by


Social Networked Music /
To promote its free, legal music sharing service, Singaporean
Telco, StarHub, through DDB Singapore, created Musical Mood
Box, a Facebook app. Based on posts and status updates, the
chapters /
app used an algorithm to sense the user’s mood and then posted
01 / appropriate tracks to their Wall. Musical Mood Box racked up
movemenTs 40,000 Likes, raising monthly traffic by 53%. See a full case study
02 / on StarHub in Contagious 29
proJeCTs
Cellcom hosted a series of virtual gigs for Israeli youth through
03 / Facebook. Viewers of Volume Festival could convene online at
serviCe
a designated time to watch band performances, comment live via
04 / the social network, and integrate themselves into the performance
soCiaL
via webcam. See Contagious 27
05 / http://music.starhub.com
idenTiTy
http://volumefestival.co.il
06 / CeLLCom /
TeChnoLogy One to Watch /
07 / The Bronze format is an app, currently in beta, which creates a
daTa unique piece of music on every listen. The innovative app was
08 /
developed by former Golden Silver frontman Gwilym Gold,
augmenTed Björk producer Lexxx and a team from Goldsmiths College,
University of London. It works by transforming music in real time,
09 /
money triggering different sounds to create an evolving version of a song
each time it is played. Gold’s single Flesh Freeze was the first to
10 /
haCk CuLTure be released via the format. Contagious 28
http://bronzeformat.com
11 /
musiC 2.0

12 /
video

13 / sTarhub /
reTaiL

14 /
gaming

15 /
pubLishing
bronZe /
16 /
design

supported by

most contagious / video / p.33

video / who’s ConTroLLing ConTenT?

chapters / Online viewing figures are at an all-time high,
01 / with the average American watching 21.1
movemenTs hours of content in October, according to
02 / ComScore. And, as YouTube’s recent efforts
proJeCTs covered below demonstrate, online content is
03 /
heading in the direction of longer form, quality
serviCe efforts from professional content producers.
Back in March, Warner Brothers became the
04 /
soCiaL first major Hollywood studio to launch movie
rentals though Facebook, while Miramax’s
05 /
idenTiTy eXperience app allows users to share video
content via their News Feed.
06 /
TeChnoLogy
YouTube /
07 / Google-owned YouTube continues to dominate
daTa
the video content market. The most popular
channel on the site – with 54.2 million unique

youTube /
08 /
augmenTed
viewers – is music video powerhouse Vevo, a
09 / joint venture by Sony Music Entertainment,
money Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media.
10 / YouTube’s shift to organise itself increasingly
haCk CuLTure
redesign to make it easier to find videos and to is released through peer-to-peer file-sharing
around professionally-created content, is shown integrate with social media including Google+ system BitTorrent’s distribution platform VODO,
11 / through deals with Disney, Warner, Universal and Facebook. Rumours also abound that and the season finale aired in December.
musiC 2.0
Pictures and Sony, offering the studios’ movies YouTube will be more organised around vertical
Created by writer Josh Bernhard, director
12 / for rent through the site. In March 2011, YouTube channels. Expect a flood of venture capital into
video Bracey Smith and a cast and crew working
also invested $100m in YouTube Next, a venture content creation throughout 2012.
for free, the drama centres around a Soviet
13 / dedicated to partner projects, programmes www.youtube.com/lifeinaday cosmonaut who is discovered on Earth and
reTaiL and services. The launch of YouTube’s own
claims to have been born on Mars. Viewers who
14 / crowdsourced film, Life in a Day at the Sundance
Pioneer One / donate to the project via PayPal receive rewards
gaming Film Festival cements the video content site’s
Pioneer One, an independent science fiction that vary depending on how much they donate.
15 /
commitment to quality original content. To finish
drama series that is legally distributed online and These include an associate producer credit and
pubLishing off the year, in early December, YouTube had
funded solely by viewers, has managed to raise a DVD of the first season. See Contagious 29
what it described as a lick of ‘digital paint’, a
16 / more than $80,000 in fan donations. The series http://vodo.net/pioneerone
design

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Storymaker / Bar Karma Intel / Visual Life
Will Wright, the brains behind the hugely successful Imbuing a silicon chip with personality? Sounds like
game The Sims, has built Storymaker, a piece a tough brief. But Amsterdam Worldwide’s Visual
of software that enables fans to suggest themes, Life platform for Intel, supporting the launch of its
chapters /
dialogue, props, music and characters for Bar Karma, 2nd Generation Core Chip, rose to the challenge,
01 / a light-hearted sci-fi show. Ideas are sketched out into positioning it as a facilitator of creativity. Visual Life
movemenTs a rough narrative, with users voting for their favourite, is a storytelling platform, featuring people whose
02 / which is then written up and filmed by professionals. lives are enabled by the technology, including Scott
proJeCTs Turnaround time is just six weeks from plot to episode. Schuman (the snapper behind streetstyle website
The Sartorialist), animator Christen Bach, designer
03 / The show was aired on US broadcaster Current TV,
serviCe Michael Wolff and musician Michael Franti. More
exec-produced by Wright and starred Deadwood and
than 37 million people engaged with the campaign in
04 / Lost star William Sanderson as a 20,000 year old
soCiaL 198 countries over an eight month period – a 460%
barman who encounters time travellers, offering them
increase in Intel channel views, with an average of
05 / drinks and conversation at the end of the universe. It
idenTiTy seven minutes spent on the site. Contagious 26 gaTorade /
has been backed by American Express, AT&T and
06 / Mazda. http://bit.ly/storymaker_tutorial http://intel.ly/smnhh7
TeChnoLogy
Gatorade / Everything to Prove Cheer / YouTube
07 /
daTa Expanding its portfolio of impressive branded content Leo Burnett, Toronto teamed up with synth pop-
gems such as Replay, Gatorade, through VML, esque band Strange Talk for P&G laundry detergent
08 /
Kansas City, launched Everything to Prove, a series Cheer to create an interactive music video for its Dig
augmenTed
promoting its G Series sports drinks. The series it. Get it campaign. By clicking on brightly-coloured
09 /
followed the journeys of 15 of the NFL’s top rookies objects throughout the video, visitors were taken
money
in their attempts to become professionals. Debuting to the brand’s Facebook page where they had the
10 /
online through YouTube, Facebook, NFL.com and chance to win the item when they Liked the page.
haCk CuLTure
Gatorade.com, the brand was keen to infiltrate Reinforcing the brand’s commitment to keeping
11 / the teen athletic circle and help them understand colours vibrant, the two-week campaign saw 19,000
musiC 2.0 prizes given away, with almost 2,000 being picked up
the importance of sports nutrition in improving
12 / performance. The rookies became advocates, in less than 40 minutes on day one.
video
spreading the word through Twitter, Facebook www.facebook.com/Cheer
13 / and targeted media. The work became the most
reTaiL watched and talked about content in the history of
14 / Gatorade, generating 229.6 million in earned media
gaming impressions. With 5.5 million total episode views
15 / and 93.5% of teens finding the content appealing,
pubLishing Gatorade is considering turning Everything to Prove inTeL /
16 /
into a television series. http://bit.ly/gatorade_prove
design

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Most Viewed /
And, of course, we’ve been impressed with
an array of films either launching on YouTube
before heading to TV, or being hosted exclusively
chapters /
through social media channels.
01 /
movemenTs
Here are a few favourites:

02 / Volkswagen Passat / The Force
proJeCTs (Deutsch, Los Angeles)
03 /
View count: 62.7m
serviCe http://bit.ly/vw_theforce
T mobiLe /
04 / Dermablend / Go Beyond the Cover
soCiaL (Tuxedo Agency, Montreal)
05 / View Count: 7m
idenTiTy http://bit.ly/beyond_the_cover
06 /
TeChnoLogy
Nissan / Damned Ponies
(Lew’LaraTBWA, São Paulo)
07 /
View count: 14m nissan /
daTa
http://bit.ly/damned_ponies
08 /
augmenTed T Mobile / Royal Wedding
09 / (Saatchi & Saatchi, London)
money View Count: 28.4m
http://bit.ly/t-mobile_wedding
10 /
haCk CuLTure
Source: AdAge / Visible Measures
11 /
voLkswagen /
musiC 2.0

12 /
video

13 /
reTaiL

14 / dermabLend /
gaming

15 /
pubLishing

16 /
design

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most contagious / retail / p.36

reTaiL /
more sTreamLined, more soCiaL
chapters / Those in Europe and America may still be teetering on the
01 / brink of recession, but, if anything, the world of retail seems
movemenTs to have been galvanized by the relentlessly bleak outlook,
02 / offering a succession of innovations and experiments
proJeCTs throughout 2011.
03 / The rapidly evolving relationship between our online and
serviCe
offline consumer behaviour is driving inventive new consumer
04 / experiences that merge the best of both worlds in useful and
soCiaL
increasingly intuitive ways.
05 /
idenTiTy
Staking a claim on that most precious resource, our disposable
income, means brands must work harder and smarter than ever.
06 / Even as economies falter, flash-sale sites have flourished, with
TeChnoLogy
consumers still willing to splash out so long as they’re assured
07 / a kick-ass discount to preserve that crucial feeling of fiscal
daTa
responsibility.
08 /
augmenTed However, deal-of-the-day juggernaut Groupon, the leading light
at the start of the year, has had a bumpier ride of late. Fierce
09 /
money
competition from upstart rivals – think Amazon-backed Living
Social, Google Offers and over 500 other hungry new players
10 / worldwide – cashing in on their business model is just part of
haCk CuLTure
the problem. Hard-luck tales from disgruntled vendors make for
11 / bad headlines and despite typically netting 50% of the profit on
musiC 2.0
the deals it offers, the company has a $500m deficit around its
12 / neck. Notwithstanding the launch of Groupon Now, a mobile-

iLLusTraTion / marC aspinaLL
video
based real-time deals service, its failure to innovate consistently
13 / and distinguish itself from the pack looks ominous. Not to mention
reTaiL the long term economic effects of this cut-price culture...
14 / With 2012 shaping up for more financial thrills and spills, which
gaming
of the past year’s success stories will continue to make their
15 / presence felt in the next 12 months?
pubLishing

16 /
design

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Tesco / Home plus Cannes Lions Festival into the bargain. They salesperson to see how they’re manipulating
Offering hardworking Korean commuters the say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and graphic elements around the screen without the
chance to do a bit of grocery shopping on the this idea has been picked up by yihodian.com in usual mirror-imaging problem that makes it hard
fly, the Tesco-owned Home plus chain created China, P&G/MALL.cz in Prague, and HMV/20th to click or point against our natural tendencies.
chapters /
interactive posters in subway stations that exactly Century Fox in the UK; expect variations on this
01 / replicated the aisles and products in bricks and theme throughout next year. Contagious 28
movemenTs mortar stores. Each item on the 2D shelves http://www.tescoplc.com/2718
02 / had a unique QR code which users could scan
proJeCTs with their smartphone to add the product to Tre / LiveShop

03 / their basket. Having selected all they wanted, While Tesco used the internet to take grocery
serviCe they completed the transaction via the online shopping to subway platforms, Swedish telco 3/
checkout, leaving the goods to be delivered to Tre brought the human touch to online customer
04 /
soCiaL their home later that day – without an onerous service with the launch of 3LiveShop. The system
trip to a crowded supermarket. is based on a videochat-style touchscreen
05 /
idenTiTy
interface that allows employees to demonstrate While the LiveShop pushes the boundaries
The scheme proved popular, driving a 76% rise
the newest phones, using slick screen graphics of what’s currently possible, it does invite you
06 / in new members registered on the Home plus
to highlight key features and price plans. to wonder how long it might be before similar
TeChnoLogy e-commerce site, 600,000 downloads of the
scan-and-shop app in four months and a 200% A lot of work went in to making it all look so functionality can be offered with having to
07 /
daTa increase in online sales. Hat tip to ad agency easy, with digital agency B-Reel, Stockholm, custom-create a whole new platform... Could
Cheil Worldwide, Seoul, for finding the perfect collaborating with Teenage Engineering and Facebook or Google Hangouts be adapted to
08 /
augmenTed way to serve both consumer and client in one fell Isotop to help bring the ingenious interface to accommodate similar one-to-one experiences?
swoop – and scooping a Media Grand Prix at the life. It uses a system of reflection that allows the Contagious 27 3Liveshop
09 /
money American Express / Link Like Love
10 / One brand extending Facebook functionality
haCk CuLTure
this year was American Express, launching a
11 / service for US cardholders that taps into their
musiC 2.0 social graph to create a customised selection of
12 / deals and offers.
video
Cardholders who sign up to the Link, Like,
13 / Love service via Facebook link their card to
reTaiL
the programme and indicate which types of
14 / deals they wish to receive from across a wealth
gaming
of categories including food, travel fashion and
15 / dining. Customers claim specific deals they
pubLishing like by clicking ‘Add to Card’, and swipe their
16 / Amex next time they’re making a purchase from
design

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the vendor. The transaction – and discount – is Stockholm-based Akestam Holst is the agency
later displayed on their statement. No coupons. No behind all this furious plotting, which neatly taps into
codes. Easy. Customers claim their discount without people’s increasing interest in working together online
any change to their normal purchase behaviour. And to solve puzzles and, well, rob their way to consumer
chapters / there’s no hand-wringing about privacy either; there fulfilment. Contagious 29.
01 / is no exchange of profile or financial information www.pauseljudbild.com/heist.php
movemenTs between the two partners. Contagious 28
www.facebook.com/americanexpress Coca-Cola / Happiness Quest
02 /
proJeCTs Coca-Cola Japan has launched a campaign called
Pause / The Heist Happiness Quest, gamifying its 820,000 vending
03 /
serviCe While Amex is exploring the eminently slick and smart machines via QR codes. To play, people will be
end of the retail spectrum, there’s been plenty to think asked to snap the QR code on their local vending
04 /
soCiaL about that’s inventive in less immediately obvious machine, which will then prompt them to name the ameriCan express /
ways. Especially leftfield was a campaign for home machine and choose an avatar for it. Each machine
05 /
idenTiTy
electronics retailer Pause that encouraged the public can be assigned an avatar, but the user will be asked
to plot and execute a burglary. to pick one machine to be their own. That machine will
06 /
interact more personally, sending the user campaign
TeChnoLogy A YouTube film shows the story of Peter,
news and weather. Points and badges will be
ignominiously fired from Pause, and seeking revenge
07 / awarded for checking in multiple times to a specific
daTa by leaking security details about the store online.
machine, allowing users to buy shoes, skins and
Potential burglars are invited to crack codes online,
08 / backgrounds for the machine’s avatar. The real hook,
augmenTed and then, working in teams of two, physically traverse
though, is that one lucky player will receive one million
the actual store to win the prizes on offer. A $6,000
09 / yen ($13,045), and another million yen will be given
money
TV was up for grabs, or a variety of discounts from
out to someone who introduces a friend to Happiness
10-30% depending on how far wannabe burglars got
10 / Quest. Contagious 29 http://bit.ly/Cokevending
into the store before tripping the security system. pause /
haCk CuLTure

11 /
musiC 2.0

12 /
video

13 /
reTaiL

14 /
gaming

15 /
pubLishing
CoCa-CoLa /
16 /
design pause /

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Lays / Vending Machine of Burberry Bespoke, an online service that which might once only have been seen during
PepsiCo-owned snack brand Lays created allows customers to design and customise a show, only to be passed over by cautious
an attention-grabbing vending machine to their own version on the brand’s iconic trench industry buyers, now actually stand a chance of
demonstrate that its crisps are ‘100% Natural’. coat. The system offers just enough flexibility going into production because the customer is
chapters /
Blame it on Unilever’s smile-for-an-ice-cream to accommodate personal preferences, but not brought into the process so much earlier…
automaton, or maybe Coke’s pizza-pushing enough to let customers run roughshod over the
01 / Flying in the face of the majority of online retail,
movemenTs Happiness Machine, but something about a big brand’s rigorously protected aesthetic…
MO targets customers who are not looking
02 / metal box that delivers treats in an inventive way Elsewhere in the rag trade, brands are pushing for a bargain, are willing to wait a long time for
proJeCTs brings out the inner child in all of us. the customisation possibilities further, with their merchandise and don’t feel the need for
03 / newcomers like www.blanklabel.com offering anyone to ‘curate’ the collections on their behalf.
serviCe custom dress shirts from $60. Meanwhile, And it seems to be working; CEO Aslaug
04 / Modcloth’s fascinating Be the Buyer program Mangusdottir cites an average transaction value
soCiaL goes from strength to strength, by putting of $1,800 and many orders that come in between
05 / prototype dresses up for customer critique, $5,000 and $10,000. Their largest order so far
idenTiTy revising the designs based on feedback, and rings in at $42,000 – yep, guess the recession is
06 /
putting the most popular into production. hitting some harder than others...
TeChnoLogy
Also carving out its own fashion niche (and,
07 / yes, picking out a more appealing brand name)
daTa is high-end newcomer Moda Operandi. This
08 /
Developed by BBDO Argentina, the Lays disruptive player aims to bring consumers – and
augmenTed vending machine appears to prepare your their purchasing power – into the loop just 48
crisps – from potato to bag – before your very hours after a designer’s runway show has taken
09 /
money eyes! Promoters encourage passers-by to insert place, shortening the show-to-shopfloor lead
real potatoes into the machine and watch the time considerably in the process.
10 /
haCk CuLTure transformation as their potato is washed and
peeled, fried and bagged. The final product Almost as soon as the models step off the
11 /
is ejected in a slyly warmed bag – reason catwalk, Moda Operandi’s mobile crew of
musiC 2.0 photographers and models sets up a studio and
enough in itself to applaud this bonkers idea.
12 / Contagious 29 www.fritolay.com shoots each outfit, recreating looks item-for-item moda operandi /
video and posting the entire collection online for their
13 / Online fashion / members-only community to browse and select
reTaiL At the other end of the retail spectrum, Burberry from. For members, the attraction is the chance
14 / has continued to grab headlines with its warm to buy anything seen during the show, rather than
gaming embrace of all things digital. Having established choosing from a heavily-edited range selected
an industry-leading approach to catwalk shows by a store’s buyer. For designers, it offers the
15 /
pubLishing that allows consumers to buy items as they chance – finally – to see upfront which of their
go down the runway, this year saw the launch garments and accessories has gone down well
16 /
design
with this informed audience. The upshot is items

Supported by

most contagious / gaming / p.40

gaming /
megawaTTs and miCrohiTs
chapters / As gaming strengthens its role as a force in the entertainment
01 / landscape, it’s settled into a duopoly of sorts: the indies and
movemenTs the majors. As indie gaming has risen and created many
02 / creative titles for every potential device or OS, so has the
proJeCTs world of blockbusting franchise games like Call of Duty, with
03 /
enormous budgets and expectations of success. While costs
serviCe of production aren’t quite Hollywood-calibre, EA is on track to
release MMO blockbuster Star Wars: The Old Republic at an
04 /
soCiaL estimated price tag of $80m.
05 / But it’s not just the big boys making huge dollars. If you thought
idenTiTy the virtual goods business was a curious fad likely to burn itself
06 / out in the near future, you’ll probably be as surprised as the rest
TeChnoLogy of the world to learn that a gaming company recently made an
07 /
astonishing €2,000,000 in just four days selling virtual space
daTa ships. German game developer Bigpoint is no doubt laughing
all the way to the Sparkasse after selling 2,000 drone ships to
08 /
augmenTed players of its DarkOrbit game. Making the sales all the more
remarkable is the fact that the online space shooter is free to play.
09 /
money However, a tiny segment of the game’s total 65 million registered
players thought it worthwhile to spend money on the little drones.
10 /
haCk CuLTure With a recent report from Inside Network predicting that the
11 /
virtual goods industry on Facebook alone is expected to grow by
musiC 2.0 32% to $1.65bn in 2012, it looks like virtual goods may not only
be here for the forseeable future, but continue to become more
12 /
video important in people’s lives.
13 / Meanwhile, the demographics of gamers are more closely
reTaiL resembling those of the general entertainment-consuming
14 / population. In an October survey, GameHouse and Harris
gaming Interactive found 55% of US adult online gamers are women.

voLkswagen /
15 /
It doesn’t hurt that games are bubbling up everywhere, in the
pubLishing backseats of cars, or built with stats connected to your own
personal real world performance.
16 /
design

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SyFy / Defiance and vice-versa has generally proved creatively Toyota / ToyToyota
The blur between gaming and film content at the poor (Resident Evil, anyone?), but the quality of Backseat Driver, the first product introduced by
big-money end of the entertainment spectrum the creative talents involved and the popularity of Toyota’s new toy brand ToyToyota, is an iPhone
is growing, with NBC Universal-owned sci-fi films like District 9 suggest that Defiance could application that lets kids enjoy a virtual drive while
chapters /
network SyFy working with games developer be a trailblazing example of the future of true safely buckled up in the back seat. The mobile
01 / Trion to create a prime-time weekly TV show transmedia television. game, created by Tokyo-based creative shop
movemenTs called Defiance, incorporating an MMORPG www.syfy.com www.trionworlds.com Party, easily one of the most impressive breakout
02 / that will influence the plot and action. Due to air companies this year, uses the smartphone’s
proJeCTs next year, Defiance is similar to Neill Blomkamp’s Jason Rohrer / Chain World GPS functionality to create a fantasy driving
03 / critically-acclaimed District 9, set in the modern Art-game pioneer Jason Rohrer won the route that mirrors that of the real car. Kids control
serviCe day, in an alternate reality where aliens have Game Design Challenge at the 2011 Game My Car, which follows the path of Papa Car, and
populated the earth and live alongside humans. Developers Conference in San Francisco with score points by steering in the right direction and
04 /
soCiaL Audience members will choose a tribe to belong his ambitious creation, Chain World. Working picking up objects along the way.
to, and avatars from real players will appear in around this year’s theme, Games as Religion,
05 / Points are collected for picking up both the
idenTiTy the show itself, which is being scripted by no Rohrer’s game gives each player just one life in
virtual items that Papa Car drops, and the icons
lesser a writer than circus drama Carnivale’s which to control or alter the game environment,
06 / of shops and businesses from the real world.
Daniel Knauf. building structures, tearing them down,
TeChnoLogy After collecting enough points players can
developing systems, etc. But when they die,
customise their wheels, and share the design of
07 / that’s it, and then they have to pass the game –
daTa their car and the route they took via Twitter.
housed in one single USB stick – on to ‘someone
08 / else who expresses interest’, never speaking of www.toyota-global.com/toytoyota
augmenTed
it again. From the moment Rohrer introduced
09 / the game it has created controversy – the first
money recipient decided to auction off the rights to play
10 / the following turns, effectively creating his own
haCk CuLTure set of rules. No one said religious law was fair.
11 / See Contagious 28
musiC 2.0 http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net
MMORPGs like World Of Warcraft are hugely
12 / popular – last year the game earned a staggering
video
$1bn and claims to have 12 million paying online
13 / users worldwide, spending on average 2.1 hours
reTaiL
daily playing – not to mention hugely immersive
14 / and engaging. Transferring those dynamics
gaming and figures to a TV property is potentially
15 / revolutionary. The mechanism for how the
pubLishing linear narrative and gaming dynamics interact is
16 / untested, and the crossover of games to movies
design

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Volkswagen / BlueMotion Roulette Each copy of the game comes with three character
Volkswagen and Norwegian agency Try Oslo ran toys, each with unique attributes and the capabilities
an elaborate game of chance to show off the diesel to store game data and level information. To play the
range of the new BlueMotion Golf, turning Norway’s character, it must be placed on the Portal of Power, but
chapters /
main scenic highway, E6, into a giant roulette board the characters can be used on any system, recalling
01 / and taking bets on when the car would run out of gas. stats the player has earned. 32 characters, each with
movemenTs unique abilities, form the game’s possible players.
The winning entry would, of course, receive the
02 /
car, and that’s the position one Knud Hillers found
proJeCTs
himself in once he had chosen one of the 80,000 slots
03 / available and calculated where the car would end up,
serviCe
based on its consumption of 0.38 litres of fuel per mile
04 / – a kind of Cannonball Run for economisers, fitting in
soCiaL
perfectly with the rise of ultramilers, enthusiasts who
05 / vie for maximum fuel efficiency.
idenTiTy
There was a two-week lead-up to the run, where it
06 /
was publicised with a television commercial urging The game is on its way to become this year’s holiday
TeChnoLogy
participants to the web portal, bluemotion.no. There big-seller, with Activision warning of shortages. Big-
07 / they could place bets using the Google Maps- name Hollywood creatives were on board, with game
daTa
enhanced layout of the road, on where the car would soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and a story from Toy
08 / stop. The site became a live showcase for the action Story writers Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow. voLkswagen /
augmenTed
once the drive started. More than 50,000 people
www.skylanders.com
09 / tuned in to the campaign site. The car drove 27
money hours – 1570 kilometres – before running out of juice. Gadget Show / Battlefield 3
10 / Contagious 29 www.bluemotion.no The most complicated peripheral of the year goes
haCk CuLTure
Activision / Spyro’s Adventure to the UK Channel 5’s Gadget Show, which turned
11 / every first-person shooter’s fantasy into reality
musiC 2.0 Game developer Activision is the latest in a long-
when it turned upcoming FPS Battlefield 3’s game
running group of participants to add to the Spyro
12 / environment into reality – a chamber with treadmills,
video franchise, with a youth-focused multiplatform
ambient lighting and paintball feedback. From a four-
game that incorporates enhanced toy elements.
13 / meter high igloo as a projecting surface to around
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure is the latest release
reTaiL 800 LED lights being mapped onto the canvas, the
in a chain of games featuring purple dragon Spyro,
14 / Gadget Show splashed out a ton of cash to create a
who first starred in PlayStation hit Spyro the Dragon
gaming gaming nirvana. The simulator even featured paintball
in 1998. This latest release, the first from Activision gadgeT show /
turrets, firing according to events on the screen,
15 / since it acquired the franchise in 2008, incorporates a
pubLishing blasting up to 12 paintballs a second at the gamer.
unique toy element and a peripheral piece of hardware
Contagious 29 http://bit.ly/gadgetshow_battlefield3
16 / known as the ‘Portal of Power’.
design

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Friskies / Games for Cats adidas F50 / miCoach We’ve seen first-person Facebook game I Am
Friskies has built three fantastic games designed Adidas has reached another personalised Playr (produced by Bigballs, London) embrace
to ‘feed your cat’s senses’. Furry friends can content high point for gaming and life-tracking, the idea of football gaming based on real world
choose between Cat Fishing, Tasty Treasures allowing players to track real-life athletic skill and performance, but for a major manufacturer this
chapters /
Hunt and Party Mix-Up. Each is a variation on use their own stats inside games. The miCoach is a big move into gaming, and a whole realm
01 / a simple theme: brightly-coloured things move Speed_Cell, embedded into the bottom of the of opportunity for sharing data and performance
movemenTs around the screen; hit them with your paw to boot, measures average speed (recorded every socially at an amateur level, perhaps even
02 / proceed to the next level. According to Nestlé second), maximum speed (recorded every five creating a virtual league based on real people.
proJeCTs Purina-owned Friskies, the colours, movement, seconds), the number of sprints, distance at Contagious 29
03 / and game-play have been ‘researched and high intensity levels, steps and step length. The www.adidas.com/com/football
serviCe tested for maximum feline fun’. device can store up to seven hours of data, which
04 /
can be wirelessly transmitted to a computer for
soCiaL analysis. It then connects to mobile phones,
allowing the athletes to analyse their stats, and
05 /
idenTiTy use the data to play a virtual mobile football
game against opponents. This a new approach
06 /
TeChnoLogy to football boots, which sees them acting as a
product gateway to tools and services which
07 /
improve the player’s football skills.
daTa

08 /
augmenTed

09 /
money
Best of all, this isn’t a closed app – it’s an
10 /
haCk CuLTure HTML5/CSS3 website, so you can play it on
iPads and Android tablets – or even in your web
11 /
browser (though furry gamers may struggle to
musiC 2.0
use a trackpad or mouse). Concerned about
12 / claws scratching your iPad screen? Worry not.
video
Friskies has been conducting careful testing:
13 / ‘We found that the bare glass screen on the iPad
reTaiL
stands up to our cat’s claws with no problems,
14 / but please be aware that a cat’s sharp claws
gaming could damage add-on plastic film covers’. In
15 / 2012, we’re looking forward to social gaming for
pubLishing stick insects.
16 / www.gamesforcats.com adidas /
design

Supported by

most contagious / publishing / p.44

pubLishing / beTTer Than books

chapters / As we grow accustomed to more nuanced Ladybird / Me Books Readers are also able to change any of the
01 / information on the web, we’re seeing what Children’s publisher Ladybird has launched an audio of these existing interactive zones at the tap
movemenTs we can do with it when it’s more accessible. application for the iPad and iPhone that adds an of a screen and record their own sound effects.
02 / Tablets, from the iPad to the Kindle Fire, have audio layer to kids’ books to transform them into They can also listen to the story being narrated
proJeCTs brought us closer than we’ve ever been to the an interactive experience. Through the Ladybird by celebrities including comedian Adam Buxton
03 /
world’s libraries. Tablets also enable us to Classic Me Books app, created by Made In Me and actress Josie Lawrence.
serviCe carry around our own library and leaf through Studio, London, the books are augmented with We’ve seen publishers start to make better
it whenever we want. interactive zones with sound effects that enhance
04 / use of the iPad’s interactive capabilities —
soCiaL
But as the big dogs compete for loyalty to the story. In The Zoo, for example, touching the Moonbot Studios in LA did this beautifully
05 / platforms, and attempt to create the best text starts an audio recording, while touching the with The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr.
idenTiTy space for reading, it’s the smaller, more atypical image of a seal produces the sound of the sea Morris Lessmore — but Me Books offers some
productions for these devices that caught mammal playing in water. extra storytelling magic through an interactive,
06 /
TeChnoLogy our eye in 2011. What parts of the reading personalised experience. See Contagious 29
07 /
experience are being dramatically altered by
daTa touchscreens, or location-aware devices? How
will future authors engage us to delve deeper
08 /
augmenTed into their narratives?
09 / Meanwhile, more companies are trying to crack
money how we experience text in browsers. Software
10 / project Hypothes.is is aiming to develop an
haCk CuLTure open-source level of peer review for discourse
11 /
on the web, revealing bias, reputation and more
musiC 2.0 to give an increasingly factually accurate picture
of what information is credible and what isn’t.
12 /
video Hypothes.is may be adding new content to each
page, but increasingly people are getting used
13 /
reTaiL to things being stripped back, with demand
for services like Instapaper and Readability
14 /
gaming
growing steadily.

15 /
pubLishing

16 /
design

Supported by

most contagious / publishing / p.45

Dorling Kindersley / The Human Body into the trend for healthcare professionals to use shed’. The financing is similar to Kickstarter,
Stuck for Christmas present ideas? Publisher tablets in real-life medical situations. which has yet to launch internationally, where if
Dorling Kindersley (DK) through AKQA the project’s goal amount isn’t raised none of the
Tablets have been remarkably popular in other
London might have just the thing. In August, it backers are charged. Authors like Terry Jones
unexpected areas too: hotels are equipping
chapters /
launched The Human Body app, based on the and Tibor Fischer are participating.
concierges with iPads to give guests advice,
01 / book that has sold over a million copies. The estate agents and retailers are using them as http://unbound.co.uk/books
movemenTs app was adapted to incorporate DK’s strong lightweight sales tools, restaurants are adopting Berg Cloud / Little Printer
02 / design ethos while allowing the reader to them in place of menus and wine lists and, in
proJeCTs explore and understand the human body. Users South Korea, tablets are on course to replace
03 / can swipe through 3D layers of body systems, school textbooks by 2015. See Contagious 28
serviCe zoom into details, switch on annotations, spin
a 3D rendering of the human body and watch Unbound / Launch
04 /
soCiaL CGI movies of body processes. With a £9.99 Of all the strides authors have made on the
price tag, the app was written in conjunction web, some of the most interesting have been in
05 /
idenTiTy with doctors and practitioners, and can be funding. In the US, many authors have brought
bought on iTunes. It provides a compelling blend projects to Kickstarter, a funding platform for
06 /
TeChnoLogy of information, with impressive opportunities for creative projects. In the UK, however, Unbound
interaction and a wide appeal, from mothers to is seeking to allow established authors to get
07 /
medics. As well as creating an additional revenue information from fans on what projects they’d
daTa
stream for pre-existing content, the app also taps back, as well as offering access to their ‘author’s
08 / In another on its long list of triumphs, London
augmenTed design studio Berg has taken the common receipt
09 / printer and turned it into an anthropomorphised
money feed butler named Little Printer, which uses
10 / the company’s Berg Cloud services to compile
haCk CuLTure a daily print-out of appointments, to-dos,
11 /
reminders, Sudoku puzzles, friends’ check-ins,
musiC 2.0 headlines and more.
12 / www.bergcloud.com
video

13 /
reTaiL

14 /
gaming

15 /
pubLishing

16 /
design

Supported by

most contagious / design / p.46

design / sophisTiCaTed diy,
pLayFuL susTainabiLiTy
chapters / With 3D printing becoming more widespread and developed,
01 / last year’s ‘make do and mend’ culture is giving way to more
movemenTs sophisticated ‘do it yourself’ design, where individuals have
02 / the power to create beautiful, customised accessories at
proJeCTs affordable prices. On a larger scale, we’re seeing a growth
03 /
in architecture inspired by living organisms and a more
serviCe whimsical shift in sustainable design, for instance Bjarke
Ingels’s ski slope energy plant in Copenhagen (see below).
04 /
soCiaL
San José International Airport / eCloud
05 /
idenTiTy
eCloud is a dynamic data sculpture, created as part of San José
International Airport’s Art + Technology public art programme
06 / that shows the world’s weather.
TeChnoLogy
The piece is made up of dozens of square polycarbonate tiles
07 /
daTa hung vertically in asymmetrical rows, inspired by the shifting forms
of clouds. A central computer takes in real-time weather data from
08 /
augmenTed cities around the world, visualising it by controlling liquid crystal
pixels which turn the tiles from transparent to opaque.
09 /
money eCloud was created by a crack team consisting of Google
10 /
Creative Labs’ Aaron Koblin, NASA’s visual strategist Dan
haCk CuLTure Goods and UeBERSEE designer Nik Hafermaas. See
Contagious 26 http://ecloudproject.com
11 /
musiC 2.0
Make Eyewear / 3D Printed Sunglasses
12 /
Founded by 23-year-old industrial design student David Minich,
video
who was inspired by the possibilities of 3D printing, the Texas-
13 / based Make Eyewear website sells 3D printed sunglasses and
reTaiL
frames for around $150.
14 /
gaming To create a unique frame, customers send Make Eyewear a
sketch or some inspirational photos of what they are looking for,
15 /
pubLishing
after which they are paired with a designer to refine the design

eCLoud /
and generate a 3D model of their spectacles.
16 /
design

supported by

most contagious /design / p.47

Once the model is approved, the idea is brought to resource Kickstarter to find backers willing to pre-order
life using an SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) machine. the watches. In 30 days, 21,120 units were sold and
SLS manufacturing enables more eccentric and MINIMAL raised almost $1m from 13,500 backers in
creative designs compared with traditional methods. 50 countries.
chapters /
Make Eyewear boasts that it can design pretty The striking designs have amassed a strong,
01 / much anything you want, though springs and lenses passionate following, and MINIMAL has negotiated
movemenTs
are sourced separately. ‘Typically a company will a deal with Apple to distribute the products.
02 / manufacture a product and try to push it out into the See Contagious 28
proJeCTs
market, but we’re asking customers to tell us what http://lunatik.com
03 / they want,’ Minich professes. See Contagious 29
serviCe
www.makeeyewear.com Aaron Jones / YouTube Cinema
04 / In a larger-scale example of ‘plug and play’ design,
soCiaL LunaTik + TikTok / iPod Watch Accessory US-based artist Aaron Jones created an outdoor,
05 / Chicago-based design studio MINIMAL’s LunaTik user-run YouTube Cinema. Visitors to the pop-up make eyewear /
idenTiTy and TikTok iPod accessories are a far cry from movie theatre can plug their smartphone into the
06 /
designer iPod cases. The watch kits integrate with actual structure, playing content via 3G network
TeChnoLogy Apple’s iPod Nano to transform the personal music connectivity. Initially erected at the Cranbrook
player into an interactive wrist watch. The more basic Academy Of Art outside Detroit, the DIY cinema has
07 /
daTa TikTok model ($39.95) combines with a Nano through moved to a more permanent location in a disused

phoTo: James CarriLLo
a simple click mechanism, while the LunaTik ($79.95) garage in the city. The project is an interesting
08 /
augmenTed
offers a more permanent solution via a cage-like example of how democratised technology – powerful
device made from aerospace grade aluminium. smartphones, ubiquitous 3G and millions of hours of
09 /
money Several manufacturers and retailers, including Apple, free content – can help brands create cheap, exciting
deemed a premium quality watch accessory too risky pop-up spaces that offer opportunities to speak to
10 / people directly, or even curate their own cinematic
haCk CuLTure however, so MINIMAL turned to online crowd-funding
experiences. See Contagious 29
11 /
musiC 2.0
www.fakebarf.com

12 / MAD Architects / Ordos Museum
video
Beijing-based MAD Architects’ undulating polished
13 / metal orb has taken shape in the Gobi Desert in Inner

phoTo: iwan baan
reTaiL
Mongolia. Designed as a ‘natural, irregular nucleus’
14 / sitting at the heart of the geometric grid of the new
gaming city growing around it, The Art and City Museum
15 / is intended to serve as a platform for the local
pubLishing community, helping the rural city of Ordos develop.
16 /
See Contagious 29 www.i-mad.com
design

Supported by

most contagious /design / p.48

The Ordos Museum is just one design this And finally, Star Wars director George Lucas
year which shows a commitment to biomimicry, has drawn inspiration from his own movies for
design inspired by nature, a subject which has LucasFilm’s new headquarters in Singapore.
provoked heated debate on the TED site. Read The Sandcrawler Building bears a striking
chapters / more here: http://bit.ly/ted_biomimicry resemblance to the lumbering vehicles used
01 / to travel over the dunes of the planet Tatooine,
movemenTs
Energetic design / only less rusty. The glossy metallic horseshoe
2011 has seen a spate of sustainable buildings structure will combine low-iron glass with
02 /
proJeCTs that are not just functional, but spectacular and plenty of foliage to create a highly efficient
playful too. building housing a 100-seat theatre in addition
03 /
to the company’s offices. The project, which soLar ship /
serviCe Danish architect Bjarke Ingels’ new energy
plant in Copenhagen is to take the form of a has won designers Aedas in Singapore a
04 /
soCiaL huge artificial ski slope. An example of what host of accolades including an International
the architect terms ‘hedonistic sustainability’, Architecture Award, is set to complete by the
05 /
the 333,700-square-foot structure will not only end of 2012. www.aedas.com
idenTiTy
incorporate ‘the latest technologies in waste
06 /
TeChnoLogy treatment and environmental performance’ but
will double up as a downhill ski resort to entertain
07 /
daTa
residents of the otherwise flat city. www.big.dk

08 / To prompt people to think creatively about
augmenTed solutions to the challenges of climate change,
artist and UNESCO-IHP ambassador Ap
09 /
money Verheggen and refrigeration company Cofely
are bringing ice to the desert with a concept for
10 /
haCk CuLTure a giant solar powered leaf called SunGlacier.
The structure uses solar energy to suck moisture
11 /
musiC 2.0
from the air to create ice inside its shadow.
See Contagious 29 www.sunglacier.com
12 /
video Toronto-based Solar Ship’s airship-cum-
airplane can travel 1,000 kilometres carrying
13 /
reTaiL 1,000 kilos, powered only by the solar panels
on its back. Needing no roads or fuel, the Solar
14 /
gaming Ship is designed to deliver medical supplies
to isolated areas or aviation services to people
15 /
pubLishing
living in endangered ecosystems.
http://solarship.com sungLaCier /
16 /
design

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most contagious / subscription offer / p.49

/ ConTagious / subsCripTion oFFer / 20% disCounT
FuLL oF Tomorrow vaLid unTiL 9Th January 2012

chapters /
Contagious explores the intersection between marketing
01 / communications, consumer culture and emerging technologies. By
movemenTs
identifying creative and strategic best-practices, this award-winning
02 / B2B magazine & intelligence resource is regarded as an early warning
proJeCTs
system for future-facing marketers and agencies.
03 /
serviCe
Contagious is only available via an annual subscription. This includes:

04 / A quarterly 100-page publication that provides an expertly filtered
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daTa
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14 /
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Published by Contagious Communications Ltd /
15 /
pubLishing
Dunstan House / 14a St Cross Street / London EC1N 8XA /
www.contagiousmagazine.com /
16 / ConTagious 29 / FronT Cover
E: sales@contagiousmagazine.com /
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