Fashion 2.0 - The use of social media in fashion

At the last fashion week, the 13 years old Tavi Gevinson was sited at the front row of the fashion shows, near editors and celebrities. The Guardian even called her « the true star » of the Fashion Week of New York in September 20091. This young girl from the suburbs of Chicago has created her blog in 2008 and since a year, she has became a true phenomenon in the world of fashion. Editors, fashion designers, journalists have cited her as an influence, and have admired her style, her curious eye and her talent. Her swift rise to fashion fame highlights the role the Internet has played in breaking down traditional barriers to entry. A real revolution in the world of fashion.

This story emphasizes the new role that social media plays in the world of fashion. To define social media we can say that it's a kind of media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible publishing techniques. An important phenomenon of social media is the democratization of knowledge and information that transform people from content consumers to content producers. Social media enables the implementation of a collective intelligence in the world of fashion. Fashion invention and creation is not anymore the monopoly of magazines, editors, designers and industry. Now real people can also produce and share information about fashion and trends. The result is that everything goes faster and above all everyone can have access and produce content. The « (wo)man » in the street can discuss the legitimacy of studded jackets, the right use of floral print, the new it-bag or some others passionating subjects, as well as Anna Wintour in Vogue Magazine. Everybody can know in « real time » what are the new trends of the last fashion week or how is the last collection of a designer.

This is the emergence of a collective intelligence in fashion world, which is, as Pierre Lévy described it a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and competition of many individuals. Users are now able to generate their own content. It is the capacity of human communities to evolve towards higher order complexity and harmony. Social media enables the emergence of a fresh view, a fresh approach to fashion. « The Internet — web 2.0 media and blogs, in particular — has been kicking down doors and fostering greater inclusion in most cultural fields. With fashion, the net has created unprecedented opportunities for fashion pedagogy, making old media look decidedly old-school »2.

This the example of this new trend: street style. Street fashion has recently made its way into the world of fashion. An increasing number of blogs now feature fashion on real people, and show how trends are applied on the street, how urban street people are inspired by avant-garde fashion. With street style fashion, is now more focused on people and how they appropriate trends and apply its to their own style. Scott Schuman a fashion blogger (thesartorialist.com) describes his philosophy as trying to echo how fashion designers looked at what they saw on the street: « I thought I could shoot people on the street the way designers looked at people, and get and give inspiration to lots of people in the process. My only strategy when I began The Sartorialist was to try and shoot style in a way that I knew most designers hunted for inspiration3 ».

Fashion blogs as thesartorialist.com, facehunter.blogspot.com or garancedoré.com now dictate new rules to the world of fashion. They show « real people » wearing vintage, handmade, ready to wear or designers clothes and not any more models wearing expensive clothes. People can react, comment and share information but also gets inspiration from those blogs. Street style had a tremendous impact on the world of fashion and brands views this new trend as a highly profitable new media business. A brand as American Apparel chose an advertising strategy largely focused on people from the street. Many of the models in American Apparel advertising are recruited on the street, or company stores. In 2009, American Apparel launched a contest with Lookbook.nu, « How do you wear American Apparel? ». People have to take pictures of themselves wearing American apparel clothes and post it on Lookbook.nu. One girl and one guy will be hand-selected by the American Apparel creative team as the grand prize winners and will get to model for an upcoming American Apparel ad4.

This strategy is an example of a trans-media storytelling, a strategy that brands utilize more and more. A trans-media project develops storytelling across multiple forms of media (TV, Film, Web, Mobile, ...) in order to have different entry points in the story. Each chapter is designed specifically for the media which disseminates. All to create a unified experience between media that gives the feeling of entering a universe. Trans-media Storyteller Jeff Gomez defines it as « the art of conveying messages themes or story-lines to mass audiences through the artful and well planned use of multiple media platforms »5. American Apparel advertising strategy obviously use trans-media storytelling to create a whole universe attracting for potential consumers, in particular through social medias as Facebook, Twitter, Lookbook.nu or fashion blogs.

One word on Lookbook.nu which is a community website, created by Yuri Lee in San Francisco and designed for users to post their own street-fashion photography with their outfits. Outfits uploaded to Lookbook.nu by its members are scored with points, known as Hype, to judge that outfit's popularity among the Lookbook.nu community. With more than two millions unique visitors each months, Lookbook.nu is fast gaining ground on the fashion industry's leading publications (UK Vogue's average monthly circulation is 221,090). Jasmine Gardner on London evening standard described Lookbook.nu as « a new tribe which is taking over the fashion world, and instead of middle-aged fashion editors, it's a super-stylish, international bunch of mostly teenagers who are showing us how to dress »6. Some of the images uploaded are so click that the fashion professionals are starting to notice. Managing director of Elite Model Management says: « we'll definitely put this site on our ones to watch' radar … It looks like a good source for both potential new faces and potential new stylists and other creative who we might want to work with »6.

Social medias change the world of fashion durably by creating communities which tells brands that they need to participate and create dialogues with people on-line. We’re beginning to see more genuine interaction between brand and client, using trans-media storytelling. Many brands are experimenting with development of their own social networks or even invitation-only communities to establish relationships with the next, younger generation of shoppers. Luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Burberry have launched their own social networks or added social components to their existing websites. While Facebook and Twitter allow brands to market to the masses in multiple ways, more exclusive social destinations within theirs site enable them to extend their brands’ stories and promises to customers. In doing so, they can maximize users’ online brand experiences.

Burberry's advertising and communication strategies are a very good example. Two events in particular are very representative. The first event is when Burberry decided at the time of the last fashion show to broadcast the fashion show online but also in some private places in cities such as New York, Paris, Dubai, Tokyo and Los Angeles. Guests had to put on retro red and green glasses to enjoy a simulation front row experience. Burberry wanted to make a fashion show, usually elitist, more accessible to everybody. The second event is when Burberry created a website called Art of the Trench where users are encouraged to upload images of themselves wearing Burberry’s signature item – their trench coat. Scott Schuman (thesartorialist.com) helped launch the project and have accepted to take pictures of them. Upon accessing the site, you’re taken to a collage of children, men and women in everyday, every walks of life, categorized into genders, popularity and style. Burberry wanted to connect with its consumers and to show the diversity of them. They wanted to create a community through this iconic piece that is the trench coat. And moreover it cost barely nothing because this is the people who create their own looks and then upload it on the website. Scott Schuman was associated and collaborated with Burberry on this project.

More and more, brands decided to collaborate with bloggers who have an enormous impact on the world of fashion. Everyone can decide to start a blog to share her/his personal style or views about fashion. Those blogs affect everything from print publishing to how brands market themselves on-line. Bloggers now participated in fashion design collection collaborations and received front-row, international Fashion Week seats next to some of the most notable figures in the couture world. Bloggers are at the forefront of content innovation on the Internet and have the know-how to use social media effectively. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s creative director, explains: « It’s important that the bloggers become well respected. They have a very articulate way of expressing an opinion. The difference between bloggers and traditional press is that [bloggers] are often talking directly to a final consumer »7.

And this is the key to social media and fashion. Thanks to social media, fashion, which was the most elitist industry in the world, became more accessible and easier to understand for people. Scott Schuman that: « Previously fashion was so alien and so hierarchical. Bloggers show the average person that they too can be part of it – that this is what it’s really like »7. And brands realized this collective power of customers and encourage it by authorizing fan contributions. Fashion industry utilizes user-generated content and takes part to the creation of a collective intelligence by focusing more on their customers' creativity. The dialog between designers, bloggers and social media gurus has opened up. Designers understand their customers are consuming media and adapt their strategies.

One of the result is that everything goes faster. Magazines realize that they have to share information to their readers in another way than printing it three months after fashion weekends. “I think it’s going to be more and more important to get stuff up on the web — images, reviews, interviews, etc. — as quickly as humanly possible,” says Lauren Sherman co-editor of Fashionista.com. “People read what they see first. I think magazines in particular need to figure out a way to cover the shows more uniquely in print because by the time the September issue comes out, no one cares anymore”8.

The demystification of fashion is another result of the democratization and the emergence of a collective intelligence in the world of fashion. But some interrogations remains. Maybe this isn't a good thing for fashion industry and especially for luxury houses to have their decisions determined by consumers and users and not by the creativity of fashion designers. Maybe consumers don't want to be too much involved in the creation of fashion. According to Hugh Devlin, a brand consultant at Withers LLP law firm in London, people love fashion because this is about dream and magic. He draws a parallel between such consumers and fervent followers of the royal family: “A royalist is unlikely to want to know too much about the Tupperware on Her Majesty’s breakfast table. Similarly, most consumers of luxury don’t want to see behind the curtain. They want to understand the effort that goes into their products but not all the nitty gritty,” he says. Luxury houses have to protect themselves not to loose the dreams that surrounded fashion. The question that needs to be answered is: how far should we embrace, or not embrace, the social medias? Antoine Arnault, son of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and head of communications for Louis Vuitton, adds: “It is not a question of whether online fashion media is a growing force but of where it will stop”7.

Another interrogation is to wonder if new “Fashion 2.0” is another marketing strategy to earn money and seduce consumers or if it is a real fashion revolution? The question of the independence of bloggers in front of those brands is also a very important issue. How bloggers will deal with their new relations with the brands? How much harder, for example, will they find it to hold independent opinions on designers when they meet them at the shows? Will they really find it as easy to write about a brand if it advertises with them?

We can say that fashion world has changed in a incredible way to become more accessible and less elitist thanks to social media but that brands can try to take advantage of this. This is a risk because if brands starts to take advantage of this new phenomenon to earn money this is no more a “revolution” or democratization of the world of fashion but this is only new ways of marketing and advertising. Those solutions appears to be really successful so they are going to be more and more used by the brands. In 2010, we’ll undoubtedly see more brands experimenting in creating their own social networks or incorporating social aspects into their websites. The thing is that we just have to pay attention carefully to those phenomenons to avoid any risk of intrumentalization.




Anouk Exertier, Friday 7, May 2010


REFERENCES

1. Eva Wiseman, Tavi Gevinson: the 13-year-old blogger with the fashion world at her feet, The Guardian, Sunday 20 September 2009
2. Imran Amed, Fashion 2.0 | GQ Rules opens a new fashion dialogue, on Businessofffashion.com, 28 october 2008
3. Schuman, Scott, Biography, retrieved April 6, 2007 from thesartorialist.com.
4. Show us your style and win an American Apparel modeling gig, retrieved November 11, 2009 from americanapparel.com.
5. Starlight Runner Website
6. Jasmine Gardner, Is this going to be the new route to planet fashion?, London evening standard, 14/09/09
7. Nicola Copping, Style bloggers take centre stage, Financial Times, November 13, 2009
8. Hitha Prabhakar, How the Fashion Industry is Embracing Social Media, on Mashable, the Social Media guide, February 20, 2010.

xkcd comic in prezi presentation

Let me show you some hilarious aspects (slightly related to transmedia) of the xkcd comic, and, at the same time, demonstrate some capabilities of the new prezi.com presentation tool.

XKCD comic on Prezi

Thanks for watching. I also experimented with this other presentation about my on-line project (in Czech), and this one about Google.

Use right and left arrows on your keyboard to navigate . More about prezi at TechCrunch. There are some quite well done presentation, for example this one about social media. .

Web 3.0 documentary

Nice short movie about the present and the future of the Web. Interviews with celebrities like Tim Berners-Lee or Abraham Bernstein included.

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

(found via TechCrunch.com)

Carrotmob.org – Shopping for a good cause

Thanks to cachets and special organic certification shopping is nowadays more transparent for consumers: They can easily check if groceries fulfil the requirements of organic production and therewith a social responsible production. In contrast to that it is far more difficult to evaluate shops and supermarkets for their environmental sustainability.
Big supermarket chains, such as TESCO, have in between launched huge green campaigns to popularise their efforts. But especially smaller shops lack in money to accomplish their green ideas. A smart consumer network tries now to help businesses on their way in to a greener future.

Simpsons tik tok video!!

just a cool video I came across today...

the Simpsons jamin!! = )

Case Study: The Office - mockumentary series utilizing new media

"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information."

(Michael Scott, The Office, video)

The line between documentary and entertainment on TV have been blurred for few decades now. Neil Postman argues that the TV format in itself is better designed to entertain than to inform, so he wouldn't be surprised by the concept of "mockumentary", that stands behind the success of the TV series The Office. In this article, I would like to explore how this unique blend of reality and fiction (or, better yet, fiction portrayed through techniques hitherto reserved for documentary) functions and cooperates with other formats, typical for the Web 2.0 world. I am focused mainly on the US version, produced by NBC.

The Office - sometimes too real to watch

The original (UK) TV series was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, accomplished and acclaimed comedy duo. In July 2001, the first episode aired on BBC Two, presenting to the audience a new type of sitcom. Using the documentary methods (single camera, moving camera, commentary, talking heads) they covered daily operation of an utterly ordinaryoffice of an fictional paper-supply company Wernham Hogg. All though everything is carefully scripted, comedy uses the feel of reality as its main mode for eliciting humor. Unlike other sitcoms, many "boring" and "nothing's happening" scenes are implemented to intensify the feeling of tedious work in such a job.

This is how mockumentary looks:

British version was famous for its dark humor and absurd, almost "too painful to watch" embarrassing moments and misunderstandings. There have been worries that the US version, which started airing March 2005 on NBC, would not live up to its UK predecessor. Even though this is a matter of taste, I dare say that after first two seasons, it is one of the best TV series currently on air. Entertainment Weekly remarked that the US version, an

"undervalued remake does the near impossible—it honors Ricky Gervais' original and works on its own terms." It's viewership keeps growing, starting at 5.4 millions for Season 1 and growing up to 9.4 millions for current, fifth season.

The Office and the new media

My first encounter with The Office dates back to the now-famous Steve Job's introduction of the new iPhone (video), in which he used "his favourite series" to demonstrate the video capabilities of the device. I find this quite symptomatic - The Office is one of the most favorite series on air and iTunes store is significant means of distribution, at least it was before hulu.com and NBC's own on-line player. The point is, live TV is not the only means of distribution by far, which is partly what the Writers Guild's strike was about.

Like many other TV series, The Office, too, uses webpages to increase the notion of reality. Both Dunder Mufflin and Sabre Corporation, the fictional companies from the series, have their own, regularly managed webpages. These, along with other blogs and videos, create unusually strong transmedia narrativity dimension, which works well with the mockumentary format and results in really wholesome experience for enthusiastic and active viewer.

Here are some of the regularly updated websites:

(spoiler alert)

• Baby blog
• Sabre Corp.
• Dunder Mifflin
• Dwight Schrute's blog
• Creed's Thought
• another blog (spoiler alert, don't read unless you follow the series :-)

All these are closely connected with the series, but also reacting to actual, current events. Dwight's blog, for example, reviewed the movie Avatar or writes on volcano eruption. To enjoy the texts, it is usually necessary to know the character, so we can view these as a reward for true fans who follow the series. Suddenly, they can use their knowledge of the fictional universe to enjoy extra content they wouldn't understand otherwise. Needless to say, this ties the fan closer to the show and creates new type of fans - "creative fan", for example.

The Office and videos for the web

There is nothing new about fan remixes on YouTube. You can find mash-ups (taking original video and adding a new sound) or collections of new scenes. Fans have contributed dozens of such clips that feature key The Office characters, my favorites include collections Every That's What She Said Joke or Best Pranks on Dwight, but there are genre remixes, too.

More interestingly, the producers jumped on board with their tolerance towards the copyright infringements - apparently, they are willing to overlook if users post individual scenes, even though this is not official rule, more of an observation.

And the producers themselves have created dozens of videos (so called webisodes) that are released only on-line, often during summer break. Typically, the secondary cast participate in these. Also, The Office facebook fan page releases deleted scenes or teasers on-line, and in The Office, these are considered "part of the canon", meaning they don't present some alternative universe but, again, reward fans for their patience and diligence.

Fans are appreciating (and expecting) this

In the Wikipedia era, the large and dilligent fan-base translates into extensive Wikipedia coverage. Truly, The Office is really well covered on Wikipedia:

• main page
• list of episodes
• most of the episodes have detailed description in their individual articles
• list of characters
• most of the main characters have detailed individual pages, just like Michael Scott

After the episode is broadcasted, it takes usually about few hours until a decent episode summary (including chapters setting it in the context of previous episodes) is ready on-line, constructed by usually by 3 to 20 people. It has been part of the WikiProject The Office (US), which "coordinates the collaborative work on" the articles concerning The Office.

Core fans also follow fan (unofficial) blogs: Life In The Office and Office Tally providing interesting news as well as notifications about newly released extra materials.

New generation of product placement

The Office has obviously exploited the new media quite successfully, encouraging fans from all over the world (although mainly in the USA) to follow the fates of their favorite characters with literally encyclopedic thoroughness. This, no doubt, creates richer experience for the viewer (who is no more just a viewer, but often active fan, even evangelist and promoter). Are there some tangible benefits for the producers, too?

There certainly are. Apart from selling DVDs and other merchandise, The Office has brought new level of something I call "natural product placement." Where in normal sitcom you'd see fake brands, in The Office, you can encounter mostly real products from real companies. Some pay to get in The Office:

• Activicsion's Call of Duty video game was a great subplot in The Coup episode
• Staples, a great competitor of the fictionaly Dunder Mifflin company, is a real and large company, and even though it plays sort of a negative role, it pays for it's on-screen presence
• Cisco systems supplied networks and telephones, and pays for it, even though, as far as I remember, was never mentioned

And these are not always contractual product placements. Apple's iPad plays a role at least three times, and some laptops are Apple-made, too. Other company computer uses Windows. Cars (Subaru, Toyota, Chrysler) are called by their names if appropriate etc. Websites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, TripAdvisor or MapQuest are often mentioned, as they would be in real life. In other words, the producers claim that they don't hesitate to bring up a brand name, as long as they feel that brings the natural, real feeling of an office conversation. I have to admit, I quite like that attitude.

My favorite moments

I consider myself a fan of The Office. There were several moments, though, where I had to go beyond that, and admit to be an admirer of what the authors, writers, directors, actors and producers accomplished.

In Local Ad, the team is to make their own advertising, using videocamers and amateur video editing software. When I was watching the result, I completely forgot this has been edited by professionals (of course it has, I had to remind myself, this is a TV series, of course they have editing professionals!). Instead, I was watching a short clip, somewhat clumsily, but surprisingly well, done by my friends. I think this was the best proof to me that they achieved to maintain the reality feel.

In Niagara, where certain two characters (spoiler alert!) got married, their friends surprise them with the JK Wedding Entrance Dance cover. Again, it feels so wonderfully real and improvised you completely sink into the moment, forgetting how many choreographers were probably present. And you can feel the cast is enjoying it like a real wedding.

I think it was a real wedding, in a way. Utilizing the new media made it possible to appeal to fans on new levels and encourage them to participate in on-line games, fan covers, voting, name-suggesting etc. In The Office, documentary and entertainment got married.

BTW You can watch many of The Office episodes on-line using SurfTheChannel.

Pavel Kasík

THE STONE AGE DISGUISED IN WEB 2.0

The new website 1001stories.dk is bringing history closer to the users. The Heritage Agency of Denmark is launching a website trying to make the tourists in Denmark get in touch with their inner historians. The website provides reliable historical information – wrapped in a wiki structure. The experts have already built the skeleton – now it's up to the future users to fill in all the blanks on the site.

On Wednesday 1001 Danish historical places and monuments will go online. The project “1001 Stories of Denmark” has gathered – just as many of the most important historical sites in Denmark. Each historical location has been boiled down to two short texts. Texts you can read or listen to - when planning a trip – or on the mobile when sightseeing. The site contains stories on everything from old Stone Age barrows to highway intersections and the national football stadium. The site does not only provide encyclopaedic historical facts – but has a specific story attached to every place it mentions.

You can for instance read how a decanter of whisky played a crucial role in the foundation of the Danish welfare state a late night back in 1933

BE INSPIRED TO GET OUT
The goal of the site is to make tourists – Danish as well as foreign - venture out in the Danish landscape and experience new Danish historical sites face to face. And then share their experiences on the site, when they come back home. By surfing through the recommendations of other users – you can get a good idea of which sites are popular. You can also follow profiles of users you know or agree with – and check our where they've been and where they want to go.

The main foundation of the site – the first 1001 stories – is written by about 180 historical experts. But the goal of the site is – that it in the future it will mostly be user driven. The first 1001 sites were carefully chosen by The Heritage Agency of Denmark – who are behind the site – the future stories will be created by users who add their own content and recommend their favourite places. Users can also upload pictures and videos to already existing stories.


1001 Stories in moving pictures: A handful of Danish celebrities have been asked to make a short video about a location that is important to them. Here journalist Mette Vibe Utzon is presenting the former Danish Radio building (unfortunately only available in Danish)

CAN A WEBSITE LIKE THE 1001 BE A SUCCESS?
By combining massive expert knowledge with user produsage the website aims to become one of the biggest Danish databases on heritage. It's hard to foresee, if a venture like the 1001 will have the envisaged success once it's being put in the hands of the users. There are both pros and cons to consider:

On the positive side

• The first 1001 stories are there – there is already a huge reliable database to build from.
  
• The stories are written by historical experts and edited by journalists – the initial quality of the content is high.
  
• The site is government-funded – no sneaky commercial interest trying to make money on user data.
  
• The site was constructed as a interactive web forum from the beginning – the structure invites users to participate.
  
• The 1001 stories are no more than 100 words – and are easy to read or listen to on mobiles and such.
  
• The entire website is constructed, so you can get all the information to go.
  

Hurdles to overcome

• When first launched the site can appear as an expert dominated 'online-encyclopaedia' - it is essential, that the take off phase is successful. It will take both time and a lot of work to generate a group of users that will contribute to the site on a regular basis.
  
• Denmark is a small and unspectacular country – the first 1001 stories are already pushing the limits of boredom. There is a good chance, that there are no more high profile places left. If there are no new stories – the site risks becoming static.
  

THE PREMIERE
The website is officially being launched on the 5th of May – on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Denmark after WW2 – a well chosen date to emphasise the need of remembering our historical heritage. The website will be presented at a press conference by the Minister of Culture.

Big Tasty and Co. in the Content of New Media

I´m lovin´ it!

It seems like the international branding campaign hit the mark as a lot of people do love McDonalds. After all, it is for a reason that McDonalds is the top-selling fast-food chain operating over 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries and territories around the world. Nearly 47 million costumers are served per day and in order to enthuse those even more and to cast a spell over not McDonalds lovers, the global market leader comes always up with new promoting strategies.

McDonalds serves as a model in the way that people in charge as for example Heather Oldani, U.S. Communications Director at McDonald’s, are aware of the big potential that is hiding in Social Media Marketing. But what makes the difference to other concerns which can see the benefits of using this Marketing strategy as well? The answer is that the idea of a Social Media Strategy is realized in an optimal manner by McDonalds and this is a big step forward in view of the declared aim to become the market leader in this area as well.

The communication strategy has been revised with the result being geared to the latest trends concerning social networks as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or YouToube. In the process, McDonalds places emphasis on an improved brand engagement and closeness to the concern on the part of the costumer. In order to achieve this goal, a transparent presence on several social platforms ought to encourage the engagement of the costumers getting into contact with the concern and the other way round, the concern gets the chance to get to know the consumer with their needs and wishes which is important in the way that McDonalds can adapt for example the products it serves.

The micro blogging service of Twitter takes an important position within the communication strategy. Requests on the part of the costumer often get lost in the net and remain unanswered. Thanks to the transparency, the speed and the enormous information content, Twitter conveys the message to the costumers that McDonalds takes its consumers seriously by responding to feedback and critique http://twitter.com/McDonalds. By giving suggestions and representations, the consumer is not just in the position to receive information by McDonalds for example in advertising spots, he is rather a producer himself meaning that his feedback is a form of content production.

Facebook as a second core factor in the social media marketing strategy, teams and links McDonalds Fans. It serves as a platform that provides the opportunity for members of a community to share informational content and by doing so a collective intelligence is created. The Facebook Fan website (http://www.facebook.com/McDonalds) serves as a central intersection of several activities referring to the brand on Facebook and it has so far about 1,5 million fans.

Using the example of McDonalds, one gets an impression how the potential of Social Media Marketing can be utilized. That’s the way a good Social Media Marketing is supposed to look like!

A totally different strategy in the matter of promoting its brand is the transmedia storytelling project “Dreaming in Mono” a 60 minute satire for television broadcast over seven episodes which was launched on the occasion of the Olympicgames in Vancouver. Having in mind how sponsers had been advertising just a few years ago, McDonalds has chosen a different strategy remembering that there should be a relation in some way between sport-advertisement and media storytelling. Bringing to life the rivalries and stereotypes of the Danes, Finns, Norwegians and Swedes, an unlikely group of Nordic people is trying to beat an old ski record, only on one ski: a monoski.

The brand and the product have been taken a back seat in favour of the dreams and the stories of the consumer or the McDonalds´ guests. The promotion of Dreaming in Mono is focused on both releasing some Tv-Spots and the url Dreaming in Mono hub.

The offer of The Dreaming in Mono hub is multifarious: music, videos, polls, iPhone apps, a contest, monoski tech tips as well as other applications. In order to connect people around the story, these services are combined with opportunities to start discussions. The content of each episode is unique serving on the one hand the episode story and on the other hand McDonald’s core values

.

Dreaming In Mono - About Dreaming In Mono from Dreaming In Mono on Vimeo.

YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook are used in order to spread content.

The Twitter Revolution in Iran; a virtual revolution, or a journalistic construction.

After the re-election of the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, protests scattered all over Iran. A lot of journalists and observers perceived this development as one founded on the Internet, and especially the social media Twitter – hence the name – “The twitter Revolution.” The name was based on a general perception that a lot of social media, Facebook, Youtube and especially Twitter had established a communication base for sharing information and news internally in Iran, which lay the bricks for mobilizing and organising the many protests and rallies, but also externally in communicating with the rest of the world.

On all fronts and platforms the Iranian government has tried to stop the protests, in the classical sense with physical power and brutality against the protesters and participants in the demonstrations and in the more modern technological sense by blocking specific Internet sites, mobile phone services and other communication tools. Furthermore the government are sweeping the Internet to punish propagandists agitating for a free Iran and for dissolution of the Iranian regime.

In this context Youtube, Twitter and Facebook and uploading pictures, movies and comments on these pages have been a way to communicate from the repressive republic of Iran, to the rest of the world. In this context the social media and the Internet have brought information from rallies and protests in Iran, which normal journalists was not able to cover. During this revolution the Iranian users of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube became the journalists or the “gatekeepers” who reported back to the rest of the world and thereby contributed to illuminating and educating the surrounding world.

But if the revolution is a specific “Twitter Revolution,” is an ambiguous question. One cannot neglect that some of the communication internally in Iran was based on mobilization through these pages. But a numerous couple of journalists and experts claim that the “Twitter Revolution” is a misleading term. Among them is author and journalist Reese Erlich, who after a visit in Iran as a freelance journalist discussed the term on an American news station.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGSplRR7oI

The Iranian internet-expert Mahmoud Enayat supports this view. Both of them stresses out that social media, such as Twitter, wasn’t the central tool in organising and mobilizing the revolution after the election in Iran, mainly because the majority of the Iranian people did not have access to the Internet, and it was difficult to get round the governments blockage of these websites. Furthermore, the main language for the bloggers and tweeters where mainly English and not Farsi, which indicates that the communication from Iran was more focussed on sending information to the outside world of Iran, than the mobilization and organisation of protests and rallies within Iran.

In this perspective it is an overstatement to name the revolution “The Twitter Revolution.” But if the Internets technological development continues to improve, we might see a virtually based revolution. It depends on how widespread the Internet is in the relevant country and for instance whether Twitter, other social media and players win the battle of internet-freedom over the repressive countries. Recently one of the chief executive at Twitter, Evan Williams, implied that they were working on the development of new technologies, which will get around state-based Internet barriers.

Eat my shorts! D'oh!

Just a few catchphrases that make me and surely loads of others out there think of certain yellow skinned characters that are well imbedded in our subconscious, whether we are fans or not. The Simpsons is now the longest running primetime show in television history. It has been swimming in the mainstream ocean for 20 years now and judging by its ongoing popularity it will be rocking our televisions for quite some time. The idea of the show popped out of Matt Groening’s head, who wanted to create a show about a dysfunctional family, but with a certain edge. An early tag-line for The Simpsons said that they "put the Fun back in Dysfunctional" and judging by the series’ longevity we can only agree that the show’s philosophy of making fun of itself and everything in its wake goes a long way. The Simpsons first appeared in 1987 as shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show where it started developing a life of its own. Later it was adapted into a half-hour series for Fox Broadcasting Company and there was no way back.

Groening’s goal was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called “the mainstream trash” that they were watching. Its subversive humor and delightful wit made an indelible imprint on pop culture world wide.

During its two decades of existence so far, The Simpsons shifted across different types of media which helped the series to reach a wider range of audience. Watching these shifts is an interesting insight on how this edgy humor based show can get away with everything if we just learn to smile at it. The Simpsons’ surfing across the media follows an almost predicable pattern, the show used up everything available at a certain given time.

Simpsons Illustrated

At the beginning of the Simpsons frenzy numerous Simpson-related comic books have been released on the market. The first comic strips appeared in 1991 in the Simpsons Illustrated which was a companion magazine to the show, an obvious spin-off of the popular American sports magazine. Its success encouraged the creator to publish several other comic book series based on the popular characters.

The Hollywood connection

Having great names linked to a show is always a voucher for the show’s quality and The Simpsons had a huge number of A-listers as guest appearances. Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Kiefer Sutherland, Alec Baldwin, Danny DeVito are just a few of those names. In fact, celebrities have been known to be so eager to make guest appearance on The Simpsons that they even played themselves in an unflattering light. For instance, Jasper Johns played himself as a kleptomaniac, Gary Coleman played himself as a pathetic has-been, and Tom Arnold played himself as an obnoxious non-talent who gets fired for being such a bad actor.

The Simpsons goes MTV

Michael Jackson was a declared fan of the show; he wrote the pop rap song “Do the Bartman" performed by Nancy Cartwright and featured on the 1990 album The Simpsons Sing the Blues. Also, Bart and Homer appear at the end of Michael Jackson's music video for the song "Black or White" thus consolidating their position in the consciousness of the MTV generation.

Homer: “Oh, so they have Internet on computers now!”

With the Internet slowly taking over, The Simpsons writers started slipping dozens of internet references and website names into the episodes. As a joke, Fox started putting online several websites mentioned as the episode aired, like www.whatbadgerseat.com, www.dorks-gone-wild.com and www.sexyslumberparty.com. Unfortunately, most of these websites are no longer active.

The Simpsons Movie campaign

The idea of making a film version of the series was envisioned at the very beginning of the show but was set to be put in practice only after the series concluded. Taking in account the show’s success and counting on some smart publicity stunts, producers opted to green light the production. As part of the promotion eleven 7-Eleven stores in the United States and one in Canada were transformed into Kwit-E-Marts selling various Simpsons products such as Squishees, Buzz Cola and Krusty-Os cereal. Doing the daily shopping at the same store as some of the world’s funniest cartoon characters is an activity worth signing up for.

Licking the Simpsons

The internet craze caused a serious decline of the postal service. In 2009, the US Postal Service issued a set of five 44¢ commemorative postage stamps honoring the TV series, with each member of the Simpson family (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie) appearing on a different stamp. These collector stamps are the service’s way to fight back and regain some of its audience.

“Supporting the Simpsons: sometimes.”

It is a good idea to associate health with something fun. But can the Simpsons determine the population to eat healthy? The US Department of Health thinks that they are the best media to reach their target audience, therefore the Simpsons have been chosen to front a Government campaign to tackle obesity. Cartoon characters designed by Aardman Animations can be seen sitting in the Simpson’s house eating junk food, which will be replaced by healthy alternatives.

The Bunny

A big stir was caused last year at the release of Playboy magazine’s October issue, featuring Marge Simpson on the cover and also as a three page spread with “implied nudity”, this being part of the show’s commemorating its 20^th anniversary. Playboy CEO Scott Flanders sustains that by this cartoon stunt he succeeded in attracting readers younger than the magazine’s 35-year-old average.

It’s alive!

After 20 years the craze still goes on and it is slowly taking every possible shape and form provided by the media. The over 500 fan pages on Facebook and Homer’s Twitter page with over 50 000 followers are good testimony. Although the series lost many fans over the years, clever story telling by the use of new media made The Simpsons gain a whole new generation of fans. The interest is still alive, mainly due to the creators’ susceptibility towards the needs of the audience and their ability to adapt the show to new media over the years.

Change we believe in? By Ibrahim Ghubbar

Since Obama’s campaign for the presidential elections 2008 the political sphere got to know the new way of political communication. The retail politics has moved from the streets to the worldwide web. With all the web 2.0 application it is possible to reach a huge public and to react immediately to the rival’s campaigns. Especially blogs are an easy way to connect with the electorate why many parties decide to use the new way of communication.

There are several elections going on right now in Europe. An important one will take place in the United Kingdom where the House of Commons and so a total new government will be elected. As all elections it shows the new age of political communication, e.g. the main parties have websites, online-communities and the use of the social networks as Facebook or MySpace. For the direct communication their candidates use Twitter to connect with their supporters. Nevertheless the numbers of followers on Twitter or Facebook create a bigger attention in the media. Another very important way are weblogs in which the parties and their candidates are not bonded to a fixed number of character (e.g. Twitter allows only 140 characters per message) and can write longer statements to certain issues and combine them with video clips, links to their online-channels (YouTube, MyVideo, etc.).

On May 6th the British people will vote a new parliament. The three main parties are the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party that is the current leading party in the House of Commons. It is the first election for the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown who became leader after Tony Blair’s resignation in 2007. Next to several TV debates of the three parties, there is a lot of online campaigning going on between the two main parties, Conservatives and Labour, which I would like to present.

“Labour-Central”- that is what the blogs (yes, plural!) by the Labour party are called. Surprisingly, there are no blogs. The site provides information about the on-going campaign and opportunities to support the party by giving donations or organising local events. Beside that the site forwards to other websites by the Labour party or its supporters. One of them is “Bloggers4Labour” that summarizes all labour-related blogs on one page, the other one is “Labourhome” within the “Labourspace” a reference to the social community MySpace. The first thing that one notice on Labourhome is the candidate pictures that is similar to the ones during the Obama/Biden-Campaign 08. The colour-scheme, the shadowed faces and the writings are almost the same. Same as Labourcentral the Labourhome offers its users to support the party on the networks of Twitter and Facebook or to join the online-community. In comparison Labourhome supports the user with more knowledge and articles about the campaign than the main page.

The “blue blog” is the Web2.0 home of the Conservative party. In a traditional blogspot-layout it greets its visitors with several topics, blog-entries and YouTube-Clips supporting to convince the electorate. Interestingly, every user is able to post a comment or blog-entry, not only the party itself (same thing is on Labour party).
A typical example for the copying-trend in political communication is the video clip on the website. What everyone notices immediately is the significant word “change” which was one of the leading points of the Obama/Biden campaign. It is a kind of irony due to the fact that the British Conservatives are more similar to the American Republicans than to the Democrats to whom Obama belongs.
Another very interesting thing is the time-clock in the movie. Two years ago a Dutch nationalists Geerd Wilders tried to offend the muslim community by creating a video-clip called “Fitna” that shows a cartoon with a bomb fuse on Mohamed’s head. The sound of a clock keeps on going in the background until in the end a black screen and the shatter of glass shall symbolize the detonation. Very similar to the end of the “Change”-clip. This is meant to be a comparison of the settings – not of the contents.

Terry Few said: “Through interaction with new media, knowledge easily passes between sources resulting in a form of collective intelligence”. So what is the political blogosphere? Obviously the political parties support by using Web 2.0 tools and writing Blogs the online-world with a pool of general knowledge and political education. On the other hand the user is able to join this by contributing its own statements. The sharing component of the blogosphere is the most important point of the political online-communication and the main reason why parties decide to use that way. So, the political blogosphere is a collecitve intelligence.
On the other hand it is a great example for the preconditions of produsage due to the fact that is has no hierachy or others strings attached. The fact is that through the online trend in political campaigns more people an especially the younger population deals more with political issues and the parties fulfill there job of contributing to the political education of the people. Thus, the political web 2.0 is defenitely a change that we can or should believe in.

Transmedia in Ukraine. Where is our national creativity?

Transmedia story telling seems to have become a global trend, penetrating all levels of the daily life of contemporary readers and viewers of all ages. Today people can enjoy a multi-sided experience; no longer do people simply read a book, they get involved with the lives of the characters as they visualize in front of them in various forms, be it through comic books, movies or miscellaneous merchandise or online. TV series take this experience even a step further.

When considering this bombardment of media marketing one cannot help but question its usefulness and simple necessity. Is what is happening today under the label of transmedia storytelling a beneficial thing? Or is it simply a way of marketing and money making?

On the one hand, it is easy to understand why people, especially the younger generation, would want to get more out of a story, to see it come to life in various forms, have it seem more believable, to involve themselves in it. It gives them an interest, a hobby, perhaps, and an incentive for further interest. But does it leave the needed room for imagination? For creative thinking? Does everything these days need to be multimedia, have an extended version to it? And in fact, does every story need to be converted into this multi-experience? And furthermore - can it? Not every story can combine the aspects of story telling and technology and still keep the real life aspect to it.

As it seems, from what I was able to gather, transmedia storytelling is a “Western” phenomena, so to speak. Perhaps, more so American than any other. Spreading as part of a pop culture throughout the world, one can witness signs of only imported Transmedia storytelling in those what are labelled “non-Western” countries. Coming from one of these (Ukraine), I began thinking of whether any of this is present in my home country.

The answer would be yes and no.

Of course, Ukraine is still a part of the world, it is involved in receiving western media and actively enjoying it. We do have Matrix, Harry Potter and Lost fans who enjoy the story at more levels than one. The participate in online and real life discussions, fan clubs, etc. Merchandise of the different stories is present in the country as well, though not nearly as much as in the West, where they originate. Perhaps this has to do with the country wanting to westernize, the people wanting to be more modern and a part of a global culture, and shed the legacies of the previous somber era. Generally, younger people are very active online, participating in forums and creating blogs not only in their native language but also in English as they are interested in sharing and receiving thoughts and ideas, be it on the story line that interests them, or for any other matter. There are Ukrainian websites dedicated to virtually any popular movie, TV series or book. It is mainly the younger population that involves itself in the online collective intelligence.

But what about stories originating in Ukraine? Here the situation is close to zero. Overall, the country lags behind in the production of creative material. The number of movies produced each year is minimal and the number of published Ukrainian books yearly, although rising, is quite low on average. Regardless of quantity, the storytelling media that comes out has potential to become popular among the population. Yet, that is simply as far as it will go. There are no further marketing incentives that take place, no multilevel merchandising and no transmedia storytelling involved. There are simply popular stories, yet they keep their original, single medium. Books stay books while TV series and movies keep their film medium. Answering the question whether this is a good or bad thing, the answer is quite complicated. Perhaps there is no clear definite answer at all. Maybe it is because the stories in question do not have the potential to evolve further into another form; maybe the population does not have the interest to involve the stories into their lives; maybe the people are simply too involved with the imported stories that there is no need to further create our own.

This brings me back to my initial question of whether transmedia storytelling is good or bad. Clearly, it has a great money making potential and spreads globally. Yet it seems that it is only the creation of a few countries. The rest of the world simply accepts what is being offered to them and involves themselves in the lives of the popular foreign fictional characters.