Real Blog
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3D printing and Lego houses
I recently watched the latest post-death documentary on Steve Jobs. The early days of the first Apple computers and its origins in a Californan garage got me thinking about another company that operates in New York called MakerBot Industries.
Makerbot Industries are the first company to successfully develop and manufacture ‘personal’ 3d printers. Up until recently 3d printers have been expensive and out of reach of the general public, similar to the days before Jobs and Apple.
How 3d printer works.
3D printed flute:The Makerbot's design essentially puts the manufacturing process into the hands of the consumer. Imagine a whole factory worth of tooling and fabricating condensed into a foot cubed. Users could effectively design an object on a computer, print it on a MB and use it all in the same day.
MakerBot in action:
The reflections of the people in the Jobs documentary expressed his true vision for making the world a better place. A tool like the MakerBot has the potential to do the same. Third-world communities without the infrastructure required to manufacture building materials and construct sustainable houses could use the machine to significantly improve their living conditions.
Continue Reading06.02 20120 -
Google Analytics Inaccuracies
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool, don't get me wrong. It allows me to analyse website data for clients and figure out how people are using the website, what they like, what the don't like and where the best sources of traffic come from. Now it even allows me to look at the series of visits which lead to a conversion and take a pan-session look at how they interact with the website. The new Multi-Channel funnels in Google Analytics are a fantastic tool, but there is a common problem which needs to be addresses.
First Interaction or Last Interaction?
As mentioned above, in Google Analytics you can now track how a visitor interacts with your website over a number of visits before they evenually convert. Sometimes they convert on a first visit, sometimes they convert over 2, 3 or 4 visits. Below is a chart which shows the top conversion paths for a client.
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This type of analysis is very important as the old way of doing analysis only attributed the conversion (the square shaped box) to the last interaction source (or keyword, or medium etc). Now we can focus on channels or keywords which focus on getting visitors into the conversion funnel, not just those that close the deal.25.01 20120 -
Modern day protest
At the end of each year TIME magazine lend their cover to a portrait of who they deem ‘Person of the year’. This year, unlike its predecessors (almost every serving U.S. President, The Planet Earth and last year – Mark Zuckerberg), it was not a photograph, but an illustration. A representation of not one person but a title.The Protester.
This year, many parts of the world fell victim to unrest, destruction and an uprise of protest movements. TIME called it ‘The year people said ‘we’ve had enough’. From Occupy Wall Street (and its many offshoot locations) to civil war in Libya, the ‘disenfranchised youth’ in the London riots and the self-immolation of Tibetan monks. It seemed like it was everywhere. Because it was.
In today’s highly connected digital landscape, you cannot escape the news. Unlike earlier times where the reporting of such events were researched and reported by on location Journalists holding Bachelor Degrees and what was published was highly regulated by Government – today’s events are reported by you, or me, or ‘them’.
The way a protest is broadcast to the world has changed forever.
Continue Reading17.01 20120 -
At the Computer or Away from the Computer?
I recently watched a short animation, listing 29 ways to stay creative. A lively discussion resulted from one of the tips: “Get Away from the computer”. One such person swears creativity is created with the computer. That you can only be creative “while doing”. While I certainly agree that creativity can be produced at the computer, I would disagree that it’s my only source of inspiration for creativity. How could you stay fresh without walking away from the machine in front of you and “doing” something else creative?
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The last thing I would want to do is limit myself to a single source. Whatever you might do away from the computer could be fuel for your creativity. Even subconsciously. Just clearing your mind and going for a walk, you are constantly taking in your surroundings. From buildings, textures, billboards to nature. What I mean by subconsciously is, you could remember some of these things you see and place it in your memory bank. These “sources” could be your next bit of inspiration without you even realising where it originated.
Continue Reading13.01 20120 -
New Coles ad keeping it REAL.
I could not help but be drawn into the debate about the merits of the new Coles ad, featuring Normie Rowe. The ad went to air on Sunday night, and within minutes negative sentiment toward the ad was trending on twitter. Not only negative, some tweets were downright nasty, “I am actually so ashamed to say I work at Coles due to this new ad”. And this; “Molly Meldrum asks to be put back into a coma after seeing Normie Rowe sing in Coles ad”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-Qfn8eFRg
Of course everyone has their opinion, and social media gives everyone a chance to have theirs heard.
For me, this is a continuation of great work by Coles and their agency where the objective of the creative is to best communicate a proposition - then execute a strategy (funny that!). You might call it responsible advertising. Or keeping it REAL.
I have seen the new Coles ad once. I know it is about no-added hormones in their beef. Not a bad outcome with a frequency of 1.
The question is; when I next need to buy meat for a BBQ, will it make me or my wife more comfortable/likely to buy our meat from Coles? For sure.
Continue Reading11.01 20120
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