Posts by Warlach:
- “A soultion looking for a problem”
- “One of mibile’s killer apps”
- “Augmented reality is where the web was in 1994” The Economist Technology Quarterly Sept 2009
- Around 50% handsets are augmented reality enabled now
- AR will be worth $732m by 2014 Jupiter Research November 2009
- Music as a feature: To the music industry, music is a product. To PC makers and broadband providers, it’s not a product, it’s a feature.
- Fast business development cycle: Sony Music develops new technologies that changes how business is done every 3 or 4 months, this cycle used to be years.
- Mobile and online merging: The notion of online and mobile being different is fading away.
- Digital transformation : The effect of digital media has transformed music, movies, financial services, advertising and will change all industries in the future.
- Social Media is scary: The idea of losing control is scary for marketers, however as soon as you try to control social media you fail.
- Brand advocates: Brands need to use their evangelist consumers for further promotion. Confide in them, don’t sell to them.
- Listen to your fans: Artists listen to their most ardent fans and brands should do the same.
- Run the ReclaimPrivacy.org script above to test your Facebook settings
- Use the level of privacy that makes you comfortable but always lean towards being more conservative rather than less
- A good rule of thumb: don’t put anything on Facebook you wouldn’t want your Mum seeing. In fact this goes for most of the internet
- If you don’t want people to know where you are, don’t try and check in secretly using – just don’t check in at all
- Spend time on Social Media: Craig made some huge claims on the effectiveness of Social Media for his restaurant business. His business has grown 20% year on year and he now only uses social channels to market Mumu Grill. He puts this success down to allocating at least 45 mins to 1 hour on social media per day. It’s an important point to remember, successful social media takes time and effort.
- Have a likeable product: Jeremy pointed out that @WeAreHandsome‘s (wearehandsome.com) success in the social space has been the appeal of their swimwear. If you have a likeable product or service then it gives customers a reason to interact with you. Social can be an unforgiving and transparent space meaning that it is essential to have a good product to begin with.
- Realise your global potential: Social can easily reach a global audience in a more cost effective way than traditional media, making it perfect for small business’.
- Have a strategy: Lara pointed out that social is a marketing tool just like other channels (TV, press etc) and you therefore need to remember to have a strategy, implement it and measure your results.
- Use social media to connect: Social media offers huge networking potential which is way beyond more traditional face to face events. Annalisa had a great example of how she got to work with @Problogger by simply engaging him in a conversation through Twitter. This has not only lead to him using her Transcribe services but it’s also been a great cross promotional opportunity for them both.
- Enable “s-commerce”: Social commerce is the ability to purchase products and services through social channels. Craig explains that you can book tables through the Mumu Grill Facebook page, this is a really great opportunity to see the direct effect and ROI of social media marketing.
Getty and Flickr and Maddie – oh my!
December 3rd, 2010You know what the best way to end the week is? Congratulating someone on a win – and it’s even better when that person is an ex-Daemon Group staff member!
Madeleine Stevens (Daemonite from 2004-2008 and regular freelancer since) has taken the top honours in the Getty Images’ Flickr competition for 2010! Here’s the photos that helped her secure victory:
Minolta Weathermatic 3 by Madeleine Stevens
Maddie’s photo was selected from more than 2,400 photographs capturing the essence of Australian life as part of the “GRAB Australian life captured” competition. Rather than us telling her story though, check out this interview with Maddie about the competition below:
You can see all the entries submitted on the competitions Flickr page, and there’s a break down of the top 20 finalists here. Some great photos all around, so congratulations to all who entered!
Finally, you should see an add below for the latest issue of Daemon’s mag, Think02, which not only includes a great article on the Getty Flickr partnership but the whole edition was put together using only images acquired as part of it! It’s a great read so if you haven’t got your copy yet, just drop us an email and we’ll send you one for free today.
Have a great weekend everybody, and once again, congratulations Maddie!
Meet the Daemon Team – Daryl Kong
November 24th, 2010We’ve been having a lot of fun with our ‘Meet the team’ series on the Daemon Blog lately, and you can see all the posts in the series so far here.
As we said in the very first post in the series, we’re a motley crew here at Daemon Group – something we strive to harness and celebrate. It’s our differences and unique experiences that allow us to challenge each other, and our clients, and embrace our ethos to Think Courageously in life and in work.
To that end we thought we’d introduce the two newest additions to the office who have both joined the Daemon TWO team as social media coordinators. Today we’re introducing you to Daryl Kong.
Daryl is a recent Grad whose latest role was as a social media Intern which has given him a taste for all things social. Daryl has a technical bias as well, bringing his background in web development to the team.
While he’s only been here a short time Daryl is already fitting in well with the Daemon family. He’s already proven his ability to jump in feet first and solve problems and I’m sure we’ll see more and more great work from Daryl as coming months progress.
Name and nickname?
Daryl Kong, (nickname Daz)
Daemon Team?
Daemon TWO
You spend your days mainly…
Eating, listening to music, twittering!
Favourite thing about being at Daemon
The people!
What’s your greatest achievement?
Sky diving, I’m scared of heights
If you were a flavour of ice cream what would you be?
I honestly have no idea, but lemon sorbet is my favourite =D
If you could have lunch with anyone who would it be? What would you ask them?
Tim Burton. Will you consider a Michael Jackson biography?
You have a weakness for…
Heights (as above)
If you could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be and why?
New York, gotta see for myself why people wear those I <3 NY t-shirts.
Favourite sambo is….
Grilled cheese!!!!
Other important info
I want a sausage and egg McMuffin…
Your mind is the scene of the meme
November 1st, 2010Social media and the creativity of user generated content has forever changed the way we watch movies – take Inception, for example. Christopher Nolan’s latest is a hit with the internet, which has latched on to stills, quotes and even the theme music to make some truly hilarious content.
You had better stop reading if you haven’t seen it yet as there are some spoilers in the pick of the best memes, image mashups and fan videos that we’ve collected below: Oh, and if you haven’t seen Inception, go and see it now – it’s OK, we’ll wait.
The trailer
The trailer was always going to be ripe for remixing – with the pumping score and rememberable quotes. Here’s our pick of the litter:
DORA THE EXPLORER in INCEPTION: Incepción Trailer
Inception Trailer A Capella Re-Dub
Trailer for ‘Toy Story 3: Inception’
Cobb and Fischer
Much like the interrogation scene from The Dark Knight, these stills from the bar conversation have been used far and wide as an image macro or ‘exploitable’ (an image that can be endlessly altered by adding text):
Strutting Leo
Taken on the set of the movie, this infectiously happy Leo DiCaprio has been photoshopped into countless scenes for humerous effect. No matter what happens, he just keeps on strutting:
Infographics Galore
All the dream layers in Inception mean infographics – where information meets design – are not only apt but many are incredibly beautiful. Here’s our favourites, click them to see them full size:
Click on any of the above images to see a bigger version and please feel free to suggest your own personal favourites in the comments below!
Commercialising Augmented Reality – lessons from Jen Wilson.
October 21st, 2010Daemon TWO had the privilege of talking at this year’s AIMIA Digital Summit. It was a great event to be part of and it’s always good to meet people that both work in and are passionate about the digital space.
One presentation that stood out for me was “The commercialisation of augmented reality” by Jennifer Wilson, Director at The Project Factory
Jen Wilson talks AR at the AIMIA Digital Summit
Jen started her presentation by highlighting two popular descriptions of Augmented Reality (AR):
Jen then talked about brands that are leading the way in this space and taking AR beyond the novelty factor. This video highlights Commonwealth Banks’ mobile app that adds value for the consumer:
A few stats and quotes to finish:
Do you see the commercial benefits in AR?
Thanks to AIMIA for organising a great Digital Summit and thanks to Jen Wilson and all the presenters for sharing some great insights into the Digital World.
Lessons from Sony Music’s Scott Dinsdale
September 16th, 2010This morning saw the start of the Ad:Tech Breakfast Briefing series (#adtechbb) for 2010. Today’s speaker was Scott Dinsdale, EVP, Global Digital Operations & New Technology from Sony Music. ”Stories From The Front Line: Digital Transformation In Real Time”
Picture of #adtechbb taken by @cafedave
Scott offered some great insights into how the digital world has transformed the music industry for Sony. Here are a few key points:
From a community management point of view, the last two points were of most interest. Scott talked about the synergy that exists between a group of music fans and a group of brand advocates. It is important to understand that the digital space offers a continuum from mass retailing (mildly interested fans) to “direct to consumer” (high value fans), it is important to learn how to manage this scale.
Artists listen to their most “hard core” fans as they, more often than not, represent the opinion of the wider fan base. Brands need to do the same, they must listen to their advocates to understand their market better. Scott talked about “brand calculus” which is the difference between what you think the market is saying about you, compared to what consumers are actually saying. To achieve the closest alignment between these two factors involves listening carefully to your audience and fans and then responding to your findings.
It is also important to engage your most loyal and enthusiastic fans by confiding in them. Giving them inside knowledge encourages them to act as your brand ambassador and in turn spread your message.
Do you agree with Scott’s points?
A huge thanks to the Ad:Tech team for the Breakfast Briefing. Nice work guys.
Part 2: Location Based Data and Your Privacy
August 30th, 2010This is a follow up post to the one I wrote last week on the launch of Facebook Places, events and the future of check-ins.
After my post last week one of the first things people – and by people I mean normal people, those who don’t spend their time learning the nuts and bolts of social sites – asked me most was “what does this mean for privacy?”
This came in a range of forms, naturally: “will this help stalkers?”, “who the hell would want to have people know where they are all the time?” and “It’s not automatic is it? It’s just I go to… some places… I’d rather keep secret.”
The truth is that any evolution of location based services, and don’t mistake the fact that Facebook essentially setting itself up as the platform for this across the web is a massive development in the space, will result in a swathe of fears, misinformation and genuine security concerns.
MC Siegler summed up the oncoming storm of debate well just the other in this post on TechCrunch:
The countdown is officially on for the big Facebook location backlash. How long will it be? One week? Two weeks? We all know it’s coming, it’s just a matter of when. And that’s too bad because I think Places is actually pretty great — potentially.
…My point is that plenty of people right now are out there on the hunt for a way to show that Facebook Places is the devil. It’s an easy angle. You take something that already is a very sensitive topic: Facebook privacy — and combine it with another sensitive topic: location privacy. Boom. Match made in hell.
Obviously Facebook Places hasn’t launched here in Australia yet, but what I wanted to have a look at today is what you should be thinking about when it comes to privacy on Facebook, Foursquare and the web in general.
Facebook: Check your settings
One of the things you often hear is that people don’t understand their Facebook settings. In some cases, it’s understandable. Facebook hasn’t made changes clear and negotiating the menus can just be confusing – so why not get some help?
ReclaimPrivay.org have a very nifty tool – it’s a bookmark that you simply drag into your browser. Got to Facebook, hit the Scan button and voila. You can see what information is public, where you may have left holes in your defence and even change the settings right then and there.
Checking In = Think First
One of the thing that amazes me about services like Foursquare is the level of safety people think they have. Even when you check-in ‘Off The Grid’, the location will still appear on your Foursquare homepage. You know, the one that’s open to everyone on planet?
Working in an agency, I’m amazed that industry rags like Mumbrella, B&T and AdNews don’t keep a better eye on where key media types go during their days – surely an automatic script could be created to collect this data and cross-reference it for their purposes? Some time ago, when I was searching for a new role, I met with two senior people from a prominent Sydney agency at a café way outside my normal stomping grounds and we all checked in – there would definitely be enough info there to throw up a red flag in a tracking system.
Indeed you can do some really cool things with you location data:
Jye Smith’s Checkins by WeePlaces.com. (Hat tip to Cafe Dave for the link)
That’s info for Sydney digital dude, Jye Smith, digital strategist at PR firm Weber Shandwick, and while Jye seemingly agreed to the service, and allowed it to be public, you can see the same data (whether he stays off the grid and whether you’re friends with him or not) by simply reading his Foursquare page.
So what should I do?
Well, you could take the approach of the folks behind scare campaign site, Please Rob Me, that tried to point out that revealing you’re not at home could be dangerous by aggregating public location data. Then again, most of us have jobs during the day, not to mention the fact that if you really wanted to rob a place watching it first for other people, alarm systems etc would be far more effective.
Essentially, I would suggest a number of steps for everyone using these services:
Remember of course that while Facebook haven’t been great in the past, much of this comes down to your own responsibility. Location based services will only offer more and more benefits to users in the years to come, but (at least for now) they can’t tell where you are if you don’t tell them.
What do you think? Are you concerned that as this sector grows that privacy will become harder and harder to keep a hold of, or do you think we’re on the upswing of demanding a right decide where our data goes?
Six Tips from Social Media for Small Business
August 25th, 2010Last night the Daemon TWO crew attended the sixth Digital Citizens event and this time around we were talking “Startups, small shops and bootstrappers: the real value in social media and digital PR for small business”
A new venue and a new format saw higher audience participation and more questions which worked really well (despite a few technical sound issues). The panel consisted of Jeremy Somers (@itsartdammit) designer and co-founder of We Are Handsome , Craig Macindoe (@chefmumu) head chef and owner of Mumu Grill, Annalisa Holmes (@transcribe) director of Transcribe and Lara Solomon (@LaRoo) creator of Mocks, and author of Brand New Day.
There were lots of good points made during the course of the evening, here are six tips taken from the panels discussions on using social for small business:
A live blog of the event by Daemon TWO’s very own Digital Planning Director, Lachlan “Warlach” Hibbert-Wells, can be found here if you missed the event, and we’ll update this post to point to more photos and videos from the night as they appear online.
Image above courtesy of Vornstar, and can be seen on his Flickr.
Facebook, Events and the Future of Check-ins
August 19th, 2010Today (well, yesterday American time) Facebook held a press conference in which Zuckerberg and Co officially revealed what many of us have been eagerly awaiting: Facebook’s push into location based social activity, Facebook Places.
You can read the live blog of the event on what was revealed and what went down here on Mashable, but what I actually want to talk about is what I was surprised wasn’t revealed.
Anyone working in or around social media at the moment will have heard that we’re in the year of mobile and the location based revolution. I myself have been guilty of discussing this shift ad nauseum in the past, but what this actually ignores is what the growth in Foursquare, Gowalla (both of whom were present as partners at the Places launch) and Brightkite actually signals.
Location is fantastic. If I’m out at a restaurant, concert, gallery, live event etc, being able to connect with other people there who have been there in the past or who are there right now is both entertaining and useful – I can get advice, meet up with friends I didn’t realise were nearby and earn rewards.
So much focus is placed on the reward systems in these ventures, namely the badges or promotional tie-ins however what is often overlooked is the beauty and adaptability of the check-in mechanic.
An example: I’m out at the movies with friends, and all being hip, young social media nerds we check in at George Street Cinemas, I even send this to Twitter and Facebook as well with the message “Seeing Inception!” attached. I see a Tip as to the best seats to ask for in Event Cinema’s new assigned seating madness, grab popcorn and enjoy the movie. Great, right?
Sure, but why base such a check-in only on location? Surely I have more in common with someone in another cinema seeing Inception than someone who is physically close but watching Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue? Likewise, if I’m at home watching Mad Men, why not connect me with others doing the same? This is at the heart of the event based check-in market.
Naturally, I’m not the only one thinking along these lines. There are already a bunch of competing services in the space, fighting against each other and trying to gain traction. GetGlue, Philo and Miso all do similar things but with unique pros and cons for each. As Jennifer Van Grove puts it:
It’s way too early to make predictions. We’re still on the cusp of an emerging trend, but eventually there will be one clear victor.
GetGlue has an advantage on the recommendation engine front. Philo’s live TV focus is inherently network-friendly. And Miso really gets why and how users will use its service.
A solid case could be made for each, and yet one will dominate, just as Twitter killed off its competition and Facebook finds itself leaps and bounds ahead of the rest. Right now, though, it’s still anybody’s game.
So yes, I’m certainly not the only one who sees this as a potentially massive market in the future. Remember, these types of check-ins can, and will, expand to cover more and more of what you do on a day to day basis. Concerts, watching TV, movies, sporting events and, I would wager, even more abstract events such as hobbies and past times.
The part that gets me, is while Facebook Places looks really interesting and will no doubt be the subject of much reporting and debate in the coming weeks, is that it’s this event based interaction which to me marries far better with Facebook’s current ecosystem (Pages, Groups etc), which is why I’m surprised that Zuckerberg said definitively that event based check-ins were not part of the service at this time.
The coming 12 months should be very interesting for how this space evolves, and for an excellent run down on uptake, interaction and profiling of the three services I mentioned above, I do recommend anyone interested read Jennifer Van Grove’s piece.
What do you think? If you’re a currently a Foursquare addict could you see yourself checking in to events? Or do you not see the appeal of any of it?
A stroll with Johnnie Walker
August 18th, 2010I’m always captivated by brilliant film, particularly when it’s done in a single shot, and it’s not what you would usually expect from a particular brand.
This impressive video from Johnnie Walker takes us on the historic and global journey of the Johnnie Walker brand, from it’s humble roots 200 years ago through to today and is a great watch:
(Hat-tip to Crikey and my Dad for the link)
Well rehearsed, well shot, and well delivered – it really does reflect the true distinctive essence of the brand. I’m not a Whisky drinker, but I feel like I owe the Blue Label a taste!!
Who’s coming for a walk?
Check out our hot new look…
August 16th, 2010Ta dah!
Here’s our new look website that, all going to plan, should convey what we do in a much simpler format and allow you to connect with us as you choose. You can check out one of our team’s Twitter pages, see what we’re blogging about, visit our Facebook page or check out our latest news.
The new DaemonGroup.com
The site was designed and built by Bryn Morgan (Brynski, Brian, that designer guy), a member of our in-house Studio team.
You’ll also notice a change to the name Daemon Digital. Now operating as Daemon TWO, the move away from the term ‘digital’ is designed to highlight the pure social media focus of the business and distinguish Daemon TWO from other digital, advertising and PR agencies.
We noticed that clients were finding themselves confused by the multiple approaches from other agencies offering them social media services, from advertising agencies to digital and PR agencies. As Daemon TWO only works with social media, we aren’t distracted by multiple motivations and simply work to achieve the best result for our clients.
The new name is part of an exciting start to the new financial year for Daemon TWO with Austereo Network, SumoSalad and Company B Belvoir embarking on social media projects with us.
Enough bragging. Bring on the feedback. Let us know what’s working and what isn’t. What you like, what you don’t and why?
