The second Awesome foundation grant this year goes to (drumroll..) Jay Cousins and his idea to build bird houses in the city! Here is a bit of his plan:

“Make a little birdhouse in your Keats” will show people how to make bird houses from trash and then place them in public spaces – trees, lamp-posts, street signs and buildings. This process will educate people about waste, and engage them directly in improving directly their urban environment. The birdhouses themselves will create a provocation, bring birdsong to the streets and make the keat’s just that little bit nicer for everyone in it. The project would manifest in workshops – street actions and documented online with a how to replicate in your own keats.

Awesome! We look forward to seeing this in action.

Last weekend I went to the German ADC festival in Frankfurt. The Art Directors club (ADC) awards good ideas and designs from the communications world, from tv ads to magazine design, there is a conference and of course many parties. My expectations were to meet interesting advertising people to talk about how to implement social media in their work and scout some young talents for P3000.

And I really did have some good conversations, everybody was really interested but somehow I had the feeling that there still are a lot of cultural differences between the advertising and the social media world. I’ll explain that in another post. What I actually did not expect so much was to be inspired, I don’t know why, but that actually happened to my joy and surprise. The exhibition was full of nice small and big design and advertising stuff: photos from magazines, print poster campaigns, even some good online stuff and I it was cool to stroll around and let the eye get caught by the vast variety. You can take a look at all the winners here and watch some picture after the break.

Next event I will be attending: Next 2011 I am particularly interested in Peter’s Social track and Nico’s branding day, to bad it’s simultaneous, so I’ll be hopping back and forth supposedly. Continue >>

Only two weeks ago, Heineken came out with the Starplayer iPhone app, which lets players estimate situations in Champions league football matches, while watching it on tv. I had the chance to test it from the beginning and I have to say it’s pretty impressive overall. The concept to run a game simultaneously to popular football games and let players worldwide play against each other is as simple as it is genius and the app is very well done. There are few things I did not like so much: 1st) I fail a lot, and I think I am not he only one, so it’s pretty difficult and on the edge on being demotivating. 2nd) it takes a lot of energy, the phone is almost empty after a match and 3rd) there are some minor usability flaws, like images that look clickable but aren’t. Here are some screenshots and explanations:
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An interactive trailer which pulls your friends information from Facebook and integrates it in the movie.

Technically, it’s not a problem to put individual text and video into a flash movie. Alone, the right idea and the concept is a challenge that Lost in Val Sinestra solves in a very smart way. By connecting your Facebook account to the Val Sinestra Trailer Editor a random selection from your friends list is made, you can chose a “Thrill factor” and your movie is being generated. Your own name will be used for the director’s title, your friend’s names and pictures will be integrated into the plot, on guest lists, on papers, fotographs or in the tv news. Alone, the sharing is not thought through really. In the end, I would expect a suggestion to share your own movie in your news stream and at the wall of all the people that take part in the movie. Technically, that would have been possible.

Try it out at http://www1.lost-in-val-sinestra.com/

Update: Obviously, this is not a movie Trailer but a campaign for Swisscom, as Techcrunch reports.

Der Online-Fashionshop Haburi hat zwei interessante Aktionen auf seiner Facebookpage: In Kooperation mit Cinemaxx können Fans (man muss Fan sein, um teilnehmen zu können, eine Praktik, die immer mehr zum Standard wird) einen Kinosaal mit Freunden füllen. Wer tatsächlich 199 Freunde zu der Aktion einlädt, kann mit diesen eine Exklusivvorstellung von Sex & the City 2 besuchen.

Spricht die erste Idee eher Frauen an, richtet sich die zweite (“Fashion Rocks“) eher an ein gemischtes Publikum: Wer gerne auf Festivals fährt, kann ein Foto seines Lieblingsfestivaloutfits posten und kommentieren lassen. Unter den Mitmachenden werden dann 5×2 Tickets für Rock im Park gewinnen. Umgesetzt wurde die App mithilfe von Wildfire.

Es fällt auf, dass Markenkooperationen via Social Media viel leichter zu organisieren sind, als über andere Kommunikations- und Vertriebskanäle. In letzter Zeit sind mir ein paar solche Kooperationen zwischen Medienunternehmen (Filmverleiher, Kinobetreiber), Reiseveranstalter oder wie in diesem Falle, Online-Fashionshops aufgefallen. Falls ich weitere Links werde ich sie hier posten, falls euch welche auffallen, schmeißt sie hier rein!

Dieses Jahr habe ich die große Freude und Ehre, auf der re:publica zu sprechen. Tex Drieschner, gleichwohl Musiker wie “Solutions Architect” bei Red Hat lud mich ein, auf seinem Panel zu Innovation zu sprechen und dort werde ich dann u.a. mit Tim Leberecht (Vice President das Marketing bei Frog Design) und Iepe Rubingh, Aktionskünstler und Erfinder des Schachboxens sitzen und darüber sprechen wie Neues in die Welt kommt.

Mein Vortrag trägt den Titel “Chaos vs Totgeplant: Von der Organisation der Innovation”. Ich möchte Formen vorzustellen wie Organisationen Innovation “organisieren” wollen und das natürlich mit Fokus auf Online-Tools. Wie schaffen es einige Organisationen immer wieder auf neue Ideen zu kommen und andere scheitern auch mit millionenschweren Programmen? Ist das eine Frage der Kultur oder der Organisationsregeln? Und ab wann macht sich eine Organisation eine persönliche Idee als Innovation zu eigen?

Ein sehr spannendes Thema, über das ich zum einen theoretisch sprechen möchte, um bestimmte Formen und Studien vorzustellen. Und praktisch, anhand von einigen Beispielen wie natürlich My Starbucks Idea, P&G Connect & Develop (zur Marke Braun, die ja ebenfalls zu P&G gehört, durfte ich schon einmal ein interessantes Interviews zu Social Media und Innovation bei Braun führen), Tchibo Ideas, Jovoto Ufa Lab und aus eigener Erfahrung arvato Innovation.

Schon an diesen Beispielen erkennt man große Unterschiede in der Herangehensweise, die einen binden Kunden ein, die anderen ein Netzwerk aus Zulieferern, bei anderen wiederum ist es nur intern, die Form der Beschreibung und der Bewertung einer Innovation unterscheidet sich zum Teil erheblich und die auch der Grad der Formalität.

Wer kennt weitere Innovationsplattformen von Organisationen, die hier noch nicht enthalten sind? Bitte ergänzt weitere Links in den Kommentaren, der Fame der re:publica wird euch sicher sein und mein Dank natürlich ebenso!

Wie bereits erwähnt , mische ich bei der Beck’s Gold Urban Experiences mit. Heute abend veranstalten wir wieder ein eigenes Event, und zwar die Präsentation des ersten Beck’s Gold Design-T-Shirts im Firmament Store. Der Künstler und Designer Dave Little wird vor Ort sein und signieren, außerdem gibt’s frisches Beck’s Gold und die ersten zehn Besucher bekommen eines der auf 500 Pieces limitierten Kollektion for free. Start ist um 19.30 im Firmament Store, Schröderstr. 8 in Berlin-Mitte. Kommt auf ein Bierchen vorbei!

In this video, Tom Littlewood takes us on a journey to places where the Cold War past of Berlin is still visible. So they go to Teufelsberg, an artificial hill where the NSA built a listening station in the 60ies to spy on the communist part of Berlin, consisting of strange big white balls on top of the hill. They takl with a former army commander and visit the bunker at airport Tempelhof where thousands of meters of war film burnt right after world war II. Great piece of work, entertaining and educating, I like.

A very nice branding combination as well: VBS teamed up with Palladium boots to produce this documentary. Taking the history of these french military boot brand into account, documentaries from interesting and forgotten places seem to represent Palladium pretty well.

Doritos teamed up with several agencies (e.g. Mekanism and Proto) and Blink182 to present a concert on a snacks bag. In fall 2009, on www.doritoslatenight.com you could hold a marker printed on a Doritos bag into the webcam connected to a flash app that would recognize that code and put a concert video by Blink182 filmed in a green screen room into the virtual space. You could than turn the bag and thus control the perspective of the video. Great brand transfer and well done technology of “musicians in your palm”.

Here is an example, find the making of video from a more detailed Wired article further down.

“Streit! Konstruktive Kontroverse” (Beef – constructive controversy) is Social Media Week Berlin’s motto 2010, in this post we explain why we think it is a good subject and how we see the state of digital Streit today.

Social Media has become a buzzword, so prominent, many people are already sick of it. Social Media needs to be in every marketing campaign, Social Media is finally the utopia “the internet” (in the 90ies) and “Web 2.0″ (in the 00 years) both couldn’t fulfill, Social Media can be done by everyone and everyone must do it unlesss he or she will fall into endless oblivion. Plus Obama used it. Obama!

We don’t think that that is all wrong nor are we sick of using all these handy tools to connect and interact, nor are we sick talking about it. But we want to take another stand, another perspective. That’s why we came up with the subject “Streit!”. Streit means conflict, controversy, beef! And we like it! Here is why.

Read on at SMWB blog

Die Social Media Week ist eine Veranstaltungswoche, die aus mehreren Events besteht und im Februar 2009 zum ersten Mal in New York statt fand. Dieses Jahr soll sie außerdem in Sao Paolo, Toronto, San Francisco, London und Berlin statt finden. Ich wurde gefragt, ob ich da mitmischen will und nun legen wir los und organisieren euch ein schönes Social Media Festival in der ersten Februarwoche.

Wir dabei, die eine oder andere eigene Veranstaltung zu organisieren, so soll es eine Soundcloudparty geben, eine Enterprise 2.0 Veranstaltung, etwas über Social Entrepreneurship, und ein Future of Web Strategy Meetup. Außerdem werden wir versuchen, viele Events, die ohnehin statt finden, unter das Dach der Social Media Week zu holen. Ich selbst möchte eine Veranstaltung zum Thema “Streit” organisieren, denn ich finde, das kommt bei all den Harmonieträumen und positiven Zukunftsvisionen immer etwas zu kurz, dass sich auch mal jemand streitet, vor allem im Internet. Was im zweiten Schritt ja auch wieder positiv sein kann. Quod erat demonstrandum.

Also, save the date, in der ersten Februarwoche, lest das Blog und den Twitter und wenn ihr selbst was machen wollt, sagt Bescheid! Nächstes Treffen ist Donnerstag, 19:30 im Gorki Park, wer was machen will, kommt vorbei!

Starting from tonight, “Beck’s Gold Urban Experiences” will be exploring urban ways of customizing reality today. It is sponsored by Beck’s Gold and supposed to reach out to artists and creative people for producing ideas and lots of beautiful content to put the spotlight on interesting approaches and enrich an entertaining discussion within this field.

The campaign will be lasting at least during 2010 and consists of several events and online documentation and interaction. First, there will be three so-called “workspaces” in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, starting tonight in Berlin. Artists are invited to shape their vision of customizing reality and to present them to an audience which hopefully interacts with the created pieces. The artists, like e.g. Kim Köster, Klub7, Tracknfield or Balestra Berlin create a room filled with pieces which exist, shine or interact with the people. All of the artists have a background of creating art in a modern, reflecting and urban way in a sense of technology and interaction. Tonight, there will be a breadbaking experiment, lifesound recordings and lots of visual approaches to shaping urban environments. Check out some impressions from the preparations:

My role in the campaign is and was to find ways for interaction, preparation and documentation online, including a community for artists, social media profiles like Flickr, YouTube and the Urban Blog urban.becks.de. Together with Silk relations, Coma and the Beck’s team we put together lots of ideas which will become reality in the next 14 months. Follow @becksurban on Twitter to get updates and get the Urban Blog RSS. The blog is curated by Nilzenburger and will feature a ton of writers who will put together their vision of urban reality today.

MyLifestyleblog has a good overview in German about Beck’s Urban Experiences too.

Einige Initiativen haben sich ein Beispiel an dem sehr erfolgreichen “Der eine Nichtwähler, der Obama verhindert hat”-Tool genommen und ähnliche Web-Instrumente produziert. Immer geht es dabei um ein Video, das sich mit Name und Bild personalisieren lässt und anschließend an Bekannte als Link verschickt werden kann. Ziel ist es bei allen Tools, Menschen am 27. September zum Wählen zu bewegen.
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“Ein Jahr nach dem Bürgerentscheid „Spreeufer für alle“ wollen wir dagegen demonstrieren, dass vieles was Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain lebenswert und besonders macht, verdrängt wird. Wir werden nicht zulassen, dass die (sub-)kulturelle und soziale Infrastruktur und unsere urbanexperimentelle Underground- Kiez- und Clubkultur durch einen musikalischen und kulturellen Mainstream ersetzt wird, den wir auch noch mit steigenden Mieten bezahlen müssen. Wir wollen gemeinsam entscheiden, was in und mit unserer Stadt geschieht. Komm zur Demo-Parade am 11. Juli. Wir werden laut sein, wir werden viele sein. Wir sind die Kinder Berlins.”

Und so wars:

Nobody really likes their telco provider. Everybody can tell a story of a contract which could not be cancelled, about intransparent tariffs, crazy roaming prices (send one mail, pay 5 EUR) and unsatisfying service hotlines. So telecommunication is not a sexy product and what is the telco’s approach to that problem? Change their products? No, it’s massive investment in marketing. Which is why e.g. Peter tells us why telcos are doomed.

Now, Vodafone Germany puts 200 mio. 50-90 mio (!) EUR in a big marketing campaign. And makes it even worse by especially targetting a group of people who feel the need to be online a lot, call them “generation upload” and starting all sorts of social media channels (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and so on). While the term itself might be questionable, the targetting itself is quite smart in my opinion: it is an interesting, important and targettable group. What is missing here in the branding strategy is the consumer insight!

These people who use telecommunication more than others know exactly about the lack of good contracts, good service and fair treatment by their telco provider. They are the ones who are able to tell all the stories I started this blogpost with. Targetting them with advertising without changing the behaviour is exactly the way of one-way marketing and placebo dialogue that should be over since the days of the Cluetrain manifesto.

Vodafone picked the advertising company Scholz & Friends especially for their ideas on social media. But Scholz is an advertising company. They are not business consultants. And social media won’t change that. They talk to marketing directors about ads, not about products. They might talk about products over coffee, but they will never change a company’s behaviour. Claiming to do so, claiming to listen, claiming to put the customer first and then not living up to the expectations is worse than not even rise all sorts of expectations at all.

Of course this is not my sole opinion. The German blogosphere is filled with harsh, taunting, zynical and serious critique. No one of the targeted “generation upload” is impressed by the campaign which was presented this week in a press conference streamed live to the web. Johannes writes in a very short and precise post how a real change could have looked like.

Unlike many commenters I am not talking about sell-out of the blogosphere because some bloggers and prominent twitter users are testimonials of the campaign. That’s not the core of the problem. On the contrary: I hope, they get paid a LOT for being in that campaign. Sascha Lobo, one of the main faces should receive around 100K EUR in my estimation, everything less would be dissapointing.

Moreover, the clip itself is crap! It’s an ad which we have seen in around 100 variations for 100 products in the last 20 years: young, happy, enganged, curious, active people doing young, engaged, active stuff. Wohoo! And the David Bowie interpretation is hideous and hurts! Just to remind you that Vodafone can do better, here is the “Bohemian like you” spot again.

Update:Nevertheless, it’s a very visible campaign and all the buzz that has been created is obviously free brand space. Plus: If you work in internet marketing and like to create social media tools for companies yourself, this is a brilliant example to point to. May it be for the use of social media channels in general or the overall message I hope I made clear in this post: Social media can be about listening and in the end changing behaviour. I am curious how this works out for Vodafone.

A true Stylewalker leans back. And waits and reads all the Michael Jackson posts and remixes and then selects the best for the reader. (the picture ist taken by the brilliant Ralph Uetzelhöffer who does very nice textportraits) Here we go:

LehtMoeJoe’s Beat it remix – in your face!

Bird Petersons Thriller remix – also very funky face

The Hood Internet / Ratatat Remix to Billie Jean – some kind of Roulé feely music sounds better with you’ish floor smoother

And finally a nice mash of “I want you back” with Lil’ Wayne (find more MJ mashs at Kickin Peanuts)

Boyz Noize – Eat it remix -heavy rock disco

Thriller Disco Tech Remix
- Prins Tomas space disco style, very close to the original

Louis La Roche Thriller remix
- another very compressed, tight floor filler with some fragments and happy moments

Thank you Hype Machine, Popwreckoning, Aimt.us, Chromekids

Picture from lastnightsparty.com

So, you like the Berlin style, the groove, the noisy, excessive party? The wall-chique, the fabrics, the industrial meets prosecco scene? The slim jeans, the checked shirts, the sunglasses that are needed to cover worn faces from the morning sun? The guestlists, the sorry-today-only-invited parties, the secrets, the word of mouth hints to illegal places?

Yes, I know you do, that’s why you read Stylewalker. So now you can be part of such a thing, I am giving away 2 tickets for an exclusive party with some pumping music. The only thing you have to do is find out which party I am talking about!

This party is actually not so secret so it is possible to find out. And here are some hints:
1st it will take place july 2nd
2nd it is a party sponsored by a clothing brand
3rd friends of mine organize a blogger reachout so they asked me to give away tickets
4th you probably find out googeling some keywords because of 3rd
Go hunt!

First comment with the right answer wins.

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Junge Helden is an organization aiming to promote organ donation amongst young people. It is all about putting a card in your wallet saying that you are willing to donate your organs in case you are dead. Not a big deal, right? Of course everybody can say no, reality is that most people do not know about the necessity of carrying such a card although they would be willing to help other people.

Junge Helden do a great job in engaging celebreties. This weekend, june 20th, will be a party with Jürgen Vogel, Beatsteaks, Benno Fürmann, Max Herre, Mareile Höppner, Loretta Stern and Jasmin Gerat (all quite well known in Germany) serving drinks or wardrobing. Ian Pooley, Superfitness and others will be playing music, it takes place at Audiolarium, Bessermerstr 2-14, Tempelhof, Berlin

Disclaimer: I am also a member of Junge Helden

First, you can get an overview of all articles published on the DLD live blog here.

After three days of intense blogging, live blogging(!), there should be a little resumée. Must be a personal one, naturally, although I aim to grasp some of that spirit hopefully many people sensed in these days of Digital, Life, Design 09.
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Inspired by Peter’s blogpost about Life updates, I would like to state some things, too.

Over the last year (2008), I was still working as a freelance online consultant but mainly doing concepts and creating ideas for the Berlin based digital communications agency PANORAMA3000 and its clients. I started to work for P3000 in december 2007 after having finished my studies in communcation and business at FU Berlin.

Working for P3000 has been great so far, it’s a very ambitious and young team, consisting of people who like exactly what I like: music, the interwebs and being creative. I had lots of possibilities to shape ideas and concepts for clients like Universal Music, Sony Music, arvato Bertelsmann and even the Golfclub Wannsee Berlin. Some of my posts here might have been work related but since most of it treats with funky web ideas and music, I did not take the chance every time to say I was also working (for money!) with that particular project. Sorry for that.

Next year we’ll be working for young socialists within the Social Democratic Party (SPD), short: Jusos. There are elections to the European parliament and the Bundestag (German parliament who then elect the government) coming up and we will be helping Jusos to tune their websites and most of all their online supporters management, using social media platforms and tools. You probably know that I did work for SPD with ABFace2net in the past. And that stylewalker.net always featured posts dealing with politics.

Of course I will present some strategies, tools and ideas here and hope you will find it interesting to take a look at our work and sometimes behind the curtains. Personally, I like the social democratic people we are working with and often, of course not always, agree with their political ideas about a social society, education, environment and regulating financial markets on a global level.

Stylewalker says thank you with Rocca ZillaMany, many people really did suggest me as a speaker, thank you all for that! The message got through, obviously: yesterday I got an email by the Next09 organization team, thanking me for the many applications.

I hope Next09 did not mind the little community campaign I pushed here, I think it was a nice idea to demonstrate a little of that internet community power in real time when it’s exactly the subject I want to talk about. Plus, Next09 got some nice promotion – some people (enthusiasts and professionals about the internet by the way) had not heard about it before. So, let’s see if I make it, I bring you presents from Hamburg for sure if I go!

And here’s one already: “Bring me the head of Zilla Rocca”, by Zilla Rocca, superb oldschooly hip hop shit, especially the second song “The first order of business” which features a Talk Talk sample I would have liked to use as well. If I was a producer. Other influences: El-P, RZA, Kanye West, Dan the Automator, David Axelrod, J Dilla, Havoc, Rick Rubin. Check the Rocca Zilla profile on Soundclick.

Download Zilla Rocca – Bring me the head of Zilla Rocca. [via Passion of the Weiss]

I want to speak at Next09 and I need your help to do so!

Next09 is a conference for digital communication, economy, the web, technology and the actors within this world. “Share economy” will be the theme for this year, the conference will see speakers from all over the world, the private and the public sector, workshops and start-up presentations. All supposedly dealing with how digital technology, especially the internet, is changing the way people communicate and do business with enabling them to share. Next09 is organized by the Hamburg based company SinnerSchrader.

So, here is the plan: Propose me as a speaker! I did so myself already but I need a little more support, so I will post here what I wrote to Next09 and if you like it,

I very much ask you to go to this speaker proposal form and suggest me!
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Last week, I got a package via mail which looked quite interesting, sent to me by K-MB, a brand consultancy from Berlin.

Opening it, I found two cans connected by a thread just like one of those tin can telephones kids connect their rooms over the street with. Also, a Noise Conspiracy cd and a nice handwritten letter, inviting me to either a Babyshambles or a Noise Conspiracy concert.

Since Babyshambles are cancelled (what a surprise..) I guess, I’ll go for Noise Conspiracy on January 19th.

Opening the cans, I found one of them filled with earplugs and other stuff which turned out to be a bluetooth headset, namely a Jawbone.

I am not only impressed by the effort of this campaign; which also got coverage on other blogs like Lumma.de or blog.telefon.de but also by the product.

It looks nice, the descriptions are comprehensive. It connected easily and fast with the iphone, I just managed the first phonecall with it and the speech quality is good and everything works well. Besides, it comes with a charging unit and several eargear in different sizes.

Good product, good idea.

Create a job and service profile, connect with others, make offers and earn money.

Many ask: “What’s this track in the ford fiesta commercial with the pink car in front of many moving tv screens” or “Wie heißt der Song aus der Ford Werbung”? It’s “Transient” by Pluxus, Swedes who live partly in Berlin and come out on the label Pluxemburg. The song is very groovy, deep, longing, and a little glossy, perfect match for the commercial. Props to Ogilvy London to buy it!

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