As well as being an incredibly talented and knowledgeable designer Michael Wolff also talks beautifully about the creative process.
In this video, which is part of Intel’s Visual Life promotion he talks through his three creative ‘muscles’ that make him such a highly tuned appreciator of things.
- Curiosity -
Enables me to ask… Why is this like that?
- Appreciation -
Not questioning so much as noticing
- Imagination -
It’s a kind of being open
I’ve just been watching The Good Cook on BBC 1. During the break between each recipe they put a QR code on screen that provides a link through to the BBC’s mobile site on which you can get the full list of ingredients.
The TV show doesn’t go into specific detail so the information provided on the mobile site adds to the experience of watching and satisfies a consumer need by providing the information to actually go away and cook what they’ve seen on TV.
This is a pretty good use of QR codes and acts as a good showcase for those who will not have seen them before.
I showed this video from wemissyou.de today in our morning meeting along with a presentation by Sir John Hegarty, which he did in Cannes recently on the theme of doing work that’s different.
These two pieces of content played well against each other for me. Sir John mentions in his talk that “Selling is not a science it’s an art” this is as true in advertising as it is in publishing and content creation.
There is no formula to being creative. There is no singular process you go through to ‘get and idea’. Art just happens, you can’t control or force it.
I hadn’t really looked at QR codes before I saw an exhibition yesterday in the Welcome Collection and was intrigued to see QR codes under some of the images on display in the Image Awards 2011 exhibit that point your browser to more information on the specific images.
I may be a bit late to the game on QR codes but the possibilities are pretty interesting and I expect we’ll see more and more of them popping up in magazines and on billboards in the future. They provide a great way to extend the experience of an advert or editorial by getting an audience to look at mobile content – the sense of opting in and actively engaging through a QR code may also create quite an intimate user experience.
Earlier this month BeQRious launched a new Custom QR Codes service that will make integrating the codes into campaigns a bit more interesting in some cases.
Some of the custom designs are pretty intrusive but given the right creative execution could work well. They are however such distinct design elements that I’m not sure how many times you can do something like this before it annoys the audience and becomes a bit passé.
This video doesn’t get specific about the features of Google’s One Pass system but outlines the pitch they will be giving publishers.
“As the publishing industry continues to evolve publishers are experimenting with new online models.
Google is trying to help people access the things they want to read.
One pass makes it easy for everyone to get the quality journalism they value.
It’s a simple flexible way for readers to access content from publishers who have decided to charge.
Users only need one login to access news anywhere.
One pass is simple to set up, simple to manage and simple for readers.”
Google are in a pretty good position to offer this type of payment service because they already have an account system that provides their registered users with a range of services. As Chrome continues to increase its market share I could see a ‘one click’ payment system working for certain types of content.
Although Google highlight “news” as the content people will be accessing using this system I don’t think that’s probably best use of this sort of system.
I don’t think asking people to pay for “news” on websites will work because that sort of content isn’t unique most of the time and will always be available somewhere else for free, which doesn’t offer the audience value. Sustaining a audience willing to pay will be all about offering value.
I do think it is possible to upsell unique feature content from news content. If people either have an experience of content or access a type of content that isn’t widely available then there is value in paying if the content is good enough.
I find Google’s One Pass infinitely more interesting than Apple’s subscription service and payment system. While Apple will remain completely device native, Google might be about to provide an opportunity to build an audience around content and then upsell that audience to a paid experience.
