The JaffeBLEND Blog

5 Cool Products Using Augmented Reality Today

For years I've been aware of a cool app that allows you to text while seeing where you walk to prevent accidents like falling over. This simple functionality in an app (and a more sophisticated app called Layer) use Augmented Reality. Though despite it being around for years, the integration and adoption of some technologies require a tipping point before they become mainstream. I believe that Augmented Reality (AR) is approaching this tipping point. Why do I think this? Well, the advent of cool gadgetry integrating this functionality has now brought it mainstream. Read on…

But first, let's define what AR is. According to Wikipedia, "Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data." In a nutshell, think of seeing information overlaid on your view of the real world. Think of Minority Report or the futuristic glass in the Iron Man movies.

The reason I feel AR is 'tipping' is due to the combination of AR with wearable devices, an area so exciting that Mindshare have set up a dedicated unit to deal with the new 'third wave' in advertising! Wearable tech, for example Google Glass, as well as tablet and mobile devices, make the combination of merging reality with data more relevant (and practical!) than ever before. The technology now has purpose.

Car Head-Up Display (HUD)

As a lover of technology and gadgets, I am now the proud owner of what feels like one of the most technologically advanced car on the planet market. I ordered my car with appropriately titled "Head-Up Display" which is an overlay of information on your windscreen allowing you to keep your head up (and not look down) when driving in order to view details like your speed, sat nav directions, music playing or incoming/outgoing calls. Watch this video for a true understanding of the experience. More and more cars are including this option, even the latest Kia.

I've been using this feature for nearly a month and can honestly say I can't imagine life without it. I am sure it will be standard on all cars in the next 5-10 years.

Simply put, safety should always come first and not taking one's eyes off the road can only ever be a good thing. I can imagine the data displayed to evolve to being more "contextually relevant" for example background of buildings, nearest petrol stations (as already in sat nav), friends nearby (social media) to name a few ideas.

In the Sunday Times today, there is an article on "one text proving fatal" as a lorry driver is sent to jail for 5 years while causing an accident while he was texting. Perhaps text integration with AR is the next step? Personally, I still think this is distracting (and therefore less safe) despite one's eyes still being on the road. Think about how concentrated you are on the road when taking a hands-free call while driving….?

Smartphone Augmented Reality (AR) Apps

There is currently a broad range of helpful and practical (and cool!) apps using this technology. Have a look at this Top 10 list, for example "Augmented Car Finder", literally guiding you to where your car is parked, or "Lookator", showing the nearest Wi-Fi hotspots to you and indicating their strength. Another list of great AR apps is available here. Caveat, some may only be available in the US and some are only Android/iPhone apps. Another interesting app is Gizmag, which turns your phone into head-up display.

AR Contact Lenses

On the commercial side, AR was used in marketing of the movie "Mission Impossible (MI4 Ghost Protocol)" with a mobile app using AR to play trailers and provide information about the movie by pointing the app on the movie posters or advertisements. In the actual movie, they used contact lenses developed by Microsoft integrating AR.

Google Glass

In June 2014, Google Glass launched in the UK bringing AR to the market for the first time in the form of a wearable consumer product. The press are sceptical about consumer adoption, not due to the £1k price tag, but more the self-consciousness of interacting with the device (and looking like an idiot) in public. The press fondly refer to users as 'glassholes'. Ouch.

I am mildly impressed by the array of trendy spectacle frames they have brought out but I really think that Google should focus more on where the product can add value in the B2B sector then the actual style of the frame. In the B2B sector, I can think of many useful applications of the product, combining a portable webcam and conferencing tool (think Go-Pro meets Skype) in hands-free format.

Here are some ideas (which may already be out there):

• In the medical field, for students or peers to shadow or advise doctor's across geo locations. For example, a Dermatologist may easily get a second opinion whilst wearing the glasses or a trainee surgeon can be talked through an operation with an expert watching whilst providing guidance. I have no doubt this is already in the pipeline.
• For estate agents, providing a live showing experience for potential customers who cannot get away for a critical viewing
• For architects, interior designers and builders, to assess situations and enable discussions without being present
• For art or jewellery buyers, to view an item without physically being present
• In the educational field, for teachers and assessors to judge students' performance in a practical exam
• In museums, to explain about a work of art or artefact while the user is looking at it

My advice to Google is to take a page from the Apple playbook and focus less on the product and more on what the product can do. As sales people should know (and as I teach), it's not about the feature but the benefit. To take it one step further, Apple actually show the iPhone benefits (and how to use them) in their commercials. Google should give glasses to the target audiences mentioned above to help show how the product adds value beyond that of being on a trapeze (this in the actual demo video). Incidentally, any sane person would just use a Go Pro then risk their glasses falling off (side note: I love the Go Pro website with the video of the kid with his dad on a surfboard on their homepage! What a gorgeous example of emotive website design).

Microsoft Headband

Microsoft is going to make Google sweat a bit with their not-so secret British trial of a rival to Google Glass "billed as the ultimate navigation aid to modern life". Users slip on a "smart" headband as an alternative to glasses. Which user will look dorkier? Only time will tell. Hailed actually as a product for the blind, it can obviously be equally used in all the above-mentioned situations.

Virtual Reality (VR) Gaming

While virtual reality isn't augmented reality, I feel that the developments in this sector warrant a mention as the real and virtual worlds gradually merge closer to one another. Recently I learned about Oculus who have a developed a VR headset that allows the game to response to your actual eye movements using eye tracking. As they describe it every subtle movement of your head is tracked in real time creating a natural and intuitive experience". I can imagine this technology also transferring for many of the above-mentioned B2B suggestions for Google Glass.

Have I left you somewhat excited about Augmented Reality? I hope so, though I'm still waiting though for my bathroom mirror to show me the weather and news headlines in the morning as an alternative to being confronted by my own groggy face…

11 Things You Need to Know About Native Advertising

As I sat with my husband on the sofa after putting kids to bed, we collapsed on the sofa to watch some TV (prerecorded, of course). While we fired up our screens for a leisurely evening of media consumption, surfing and mild conversation. It was then that the term 'native advertising' popped up (as it only can when two digital advertising professionals are married) and I must confess to being confused as to what it is (or isn't). I then attending some Adweek sessions on the topic, and was even more confused as I was transported 7 years back during the discussions. I then decided to demystify this subject for myself and anyone else scratching their heads in order to preserve our sanity (and our scalps!).

 

Native advertising is the latest buzzword and trend in the online advertising industry with brands and publishers creating new departments, conferences allocating extensive covering and new companies are sprouting up with their offerings. Read on for 11 key things you need to know about native advertising.

 

1. Native Advertising Has Different Definitions

I discovered several different definitions as native advertising appears to mean different things to different people. According to Wikipedia, "Native advertising is an online advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing content in the context of the user's experience. Native ad formats match both the form and function of the user experience in which it is placed."

 

Many professionals surveyed in the #StateofNativeAdvertising2014 survey consider Native Advertising to be sponsored content (53%), featured content (47%) or content 'brought to you by' (45%) whereas 38% felt that company branded pages and 25% felt that microsites were Native Advertising. Reuters' Felix Salmon contends that the difference between sponsored stories and native advertising is that "native content tends to aspire more to going viral" and generally being shared more.

 

It is important to note that Native Advertising seems to be more of a technique than a format, a way of ensuring contextual relevance, regardless of the format, with an element of shareabilty.

 

The lack of clarity around a definition makes it difficult to establish best practices, which is why the IAB in the USA created a task force aimed specifically at locking down a definition. They have since come up with the IAB Native Ad Playbook.

 

2. Native Advertising is Not New!

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yes, everything mentioned above is not new! The only thing new is the Jargon. Actually, come to think of it, not even *that* is new as we have used "native" to previously refer to Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants when referring to the different audiences familiar with the digital world.

 

3. OK, the Platform Part is New

It wouldn't be a digital advertising article if the word "platform" didn't appear. I stand to be corrected when I said native advertising isn't new as the presence of platforms allows for the first time the creation of scale and optimisation whilst automating the whole process. It also connects contextual relevant with real-time bidding (RTB) converging content with programmatic buying. This takes shareability and content marketing to a whole new level.

 

Native advertising can take place on closed platforms (where brands create and promote content/profiles within a platform e.g. promoted tweets on Twitter or sponsored stories on Facebook) or open platforms (where branded content can lives across multiple platforms). Examples of open platforms are Taboola, Outbrain and Plista who specialise in content distribution as well as StackAdapt, Instinctive, Adyoulike, Triplelift, Sharethrough and Nativo, who stake the claim to specialise in native advertising. There are also hybrid platforms with private marketplaces allowing external real-time bidding (RTB).

 

4. There are Loads of Formats

A big part of Native Advertising is the good 'ol fashioned webvertorial or webvertorial on steroids (i.e. content marketing). The latter being the area I've specialised in with publishers as they create custom solutions for advertisers by combining content with brands in order to bring relevance and added value to target audiences in the form of rich engaging experiences.

 

Other formats falling under the giant umbrella of Native Advertising are promoted blogs, videos, images, articles, music, social media (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter etc.) and even Search. Wikipedia use the Search Advertising example where ads appearing alongside the search results are 'native' to the experience.

 

5. Measurement: Breadth versus Depth

As with all measurement, Native Advertising is measured in terms of breadth (pure traffic) or depth (engagement, time spent or social media sharing). I advise that it's important to look at both as both quantity and quality of audience matter to Brand marketers. As all marketers know, the Awareness, Interaction, Desire and Action (AIDA pyramid) funnel gets narrower as audience numbers decrease while engagement and call-to-action metrics increase. Respondents surveyed indicated that more intuitive metrics will be developed to help equip brands to define success.

 

6. The Native Love Triangle: Publishers, Agencies and Brands

These three players are all involved, with Brands increasingly taking more control over their own Native Advertising (relying only on publishers for distribution) whereas in the past, publishers and agencies took on this responsibility entirely themselves. This is most definitely a threat for agencies and publishers who specifically look to Native Advertising as revenue alternative to narrower margins elsewhere. I advise publishers to leverage their expertise and creativity in order to offer brands something unique and thereby differentiate their offerings e.g. a Microsoft solution may more easily incorporate their social media products, mobile or Xbox whereas CondèNast could typically rely more on their rich content.

 

7. The Blurred Lines between Church and State

The split between advertising and content has always had a grey area where advertorials are concerned. This challenge has traditionally been solved by the 'brought to you by' text in order to ensure that the reader is not left feeling 'duped' thereby decreasing their trust in the publication. On the web, this grey area has gone more 50 shades, for example with links to sponsored microsites placed on homepages or all surrounding display advertising space. As long as there is transparency from publishers, consumers should continue to embrace relevant content and advertising. The concerns are valid; with the FTC (in the USA) even raising concerns for consumers being deceived by ads. This isn't purely a digital problem as I recently was told that even "recommended products" in women's magazines are paid for (or heavily incentivised) placements. I'm gutted to have my bubble burst. But I trusted those editors! Shock! Horror!

 

8. Mobile and Apps are the Next Frontier

As with everything else digital these days, the Native Advertising evolution needs to extend into the mobile and tablet space. Sponsored apps are a no-brainer, as they can offer value in functionality as well as content e.g. a currency company could (and probably somewhere already does) offer a sponsored currency conversion app or travel guides. The responses from a 2014 survey suggest there will be growth in native ads within mobile.

 

9. It is Revenue Generating

We wouldn't be talking about this at all if it wasn't revenue generating. Considering that native advertising is so broad, it would be strange if it didn't generate revenue as it seems to encompass so many forms of online advertising! Still, I feel I should mention this point as at the end of the day, it's all about the money.

 

10. The Forecast is Great

In a world where interruptive advertising is facing extinction, you can only imagine that brand dollars will flow in the direction of added value and contextual relevance. In fact, brands expect to spend a quarter of their budgets on Native Advertising. The implication for agencies will be hiring and training in this area, though many agencies already have some form of capability in this area. According to research from IPG media lab, native ads are viewed the same amount of time as editorial content and is much more likely to be shared than a banner ad (32% versus 19%).

 

11. Creativity is the Missing Link

In my opinion, there is still limited creativity in the delivery of native advertising in the interplay between engaging experiences, added value and brands. The creative agencies are missing from the love triangle probably due to the complexity. I think there is a big opportunity in this area for creative growth. Never before has there been such an array of powerful interactive resources to wow consumers using video, content and social while bringing brand values to life in a tangible and meaningful way. Watch this space! The big question is who will discover this first and being able to pull this off to win the Native Advertising race for consumers' minds and hearts.

 

This article was compiled using the following sources: Wikipedia, #StateofNativeAdvertising2014 survey by Hexagram and Spada, "How Native Advertising Will Change in 2014" – Lucia Moses, Adweek; "What is Native Advertising Anyway" - Tony Hallet, Collective Content

Europe Adweek Day 2: #aweurope

After racing from the tube at lightning speed for a coffee at Costa, the first dilemma of the day was this: how does one consume a boiling coffee in record time as no external food & drink allowed in the venue?  

Matt Shepherd, MD AdWeek introduced the first session, the Evening standard CEO summit. Moderated by Gideon Spanier.

Stewart Esterbrook, MD Starcom Mediavest

• We talk about ourselves as a human experience company and that's the value we bring to the table in understanding consumers
  • Agencies have allowed transaction to be the centre of gravity in the past but Starcom are shifting that to more added value conversation by building rounded engaging experience for consumers 
  • We are not device led but rather look at seamless experiences marrying content and context
  • Key to keeping talent is to develop people, show progress and create winning culture (as everyone wants to be on a winning team)

Arnaud de Puyfontaine, CEO Hearst UK

• What keeps me awake at night?

1. Leadership and people keeps me awake at night
2. Agility and pace of change is a concern but opportunity
3. Absolute obsession with customer knowledge and data

• There is no demise of print but a complete overhaul. They recently launched a new publication achieving 100,000 circulation.
  • Keep talent by helping people believe they are building the future

Dave Gwozdz, CEO Mojiva

Biggest concern is looking for talent but also retaining talent is key. Constantly looking to nurture talent pool as people often picked up by Facebook and Google. 

• Mobile ads don't make you cry and its a challenge to figure it out
  • If you don't think you are doing the most exciting thing possible, you should leave 

Matthew Dearden, CEO Clearchannel

• Core leadership responsibility is to create possibility of potential in a flatline economy
  • Shift from a real estate business to audience business
  • I believe the future of the Internet is mobile and we have NFC enabled sites
  • We even had ads with realtime data feeds
  • When digital adds value you can justify charging a premium
  • For extra £1 spent on advertising you get £6 GDP growth so would encourage more spending on advertising to grow the economy
  • Keep people by giving people jobs they love

Dan Clays, MD OMD

• Culture is so important that they have just appointment director of culture. Need a culture of innovation running through r whole business and also emphasis on knowledge share. 

Next up is the Wired Global Conversation with an impressive line-up. This was definitely the best presentation of the day for me, personally. The panel included Rupert Turnbull, publisher of Wired, Bob Greenberg (R/GA), Sir John Hegarty (BBH), Jon Kamen (CEO Radical Media), Steve King (CEO Zenith) and Simon Rees (CEO DCM - Digital Cinema Media).

75% of Europe in 2015 will have smartphones. What are the challenges?

• Marketing on mobile is in its infancy (Bob Greenberg) and refers to Jeff Bezos (Amazon) saying the Internet is in its infancy! The desktop and laptop are shifting to mobile and, combined with GPS, larger screen and voice activation will create tremendous growth though we still don't know what advertising and marketing look like on mobile
• Sir John says the product we produce is getting worse (or at least people seem to think so) - the elephant in the room! There is always a creative deficit with new technology though we are only beginning to work out a roadmap which will take longer. We don't know where advertising fits.
• Jon also says we are in an interesting point of disruption which will change our business forever 
• Steve says that mobile and multi-screen consumption is NOT the biggest change. There is a multiple of 20 in the disconnect between time spent on mobile and advertising (because the format hasn't been worked out yet). Definitely have not yet worked out how to make engaging relationships with consumers. 
• Simon informs us of the stat that Facebook more consumed via mobile than pc. 
• Bob: you can't separate mobile from social 

How are going to foster the next gen of creative talent? 

• Sir John says we have a dysfunctional government with a disaster education minister who wants to remove a creative education (giving ability to cv don't the future). Real problem in teaching kids about creativity. Governments are run by words!
• Steve King has 5 kids and sees technology as an innate social accelerator as his kids all are producing amazing creativity 
• Bob and Sir John sit on the board at Brand Centre where there is a creative technology track. New role: Creative Technologist

What about data?

Steve King talks about the terabytes of data which advertisers have. What do you do with all this data? We can improve the efficiency and efficacy of our communication. But 2/3 of consumers are concerned about privacy though a different 2/3 want relevant ads. Zenith are working with clients at how to use this data. Simon (DCM) worried about data and specifically, how data is interpreted. Cautious about a completely data led solution. 

Can advertising change behaviour?

Bob: Nike have seen they can change behaviour e.g. fuelband (I've done that!). Nike working on data visualisation - this is a creative way developing when applied to a live event with sports. Sir John objects and doesn't want people to know all this. He expects a huge backlash as this involves taking away freedom. "I don't understand myself sometimes - why are these companies saying we understand you?!?"

Other points:

• 400 M actively blogging in China showing desire for self-expression and we should do whatever we can to protect freedom of speech and editors. 
• Advertising must have trust and authenticity. We've lost trust in banks and supermarkets. A different approach is needed and Facebook says only 3% of advertisers "get it" - content needs to be rich, engaging, truthful and honest (Steve King). 

Next up was Microsoft, my old employer, handing out "cookies" (or shall we say 'biscuits' as this is a European conference) to attendees just as the session kicked off as a tongue-in-cheek salute to the whole internet explorer cookie controversy (which remained the elephant in the room). Andy Hart (newly promoted VP Europe) and Dave Coplin (Chief Envisioning officer) took to the stage for the MSFT Advertising session on Re-imagining Digital Advertising. This was an abstract session telling us how the world is changing and then giving us a peak in the kitchen of Microsoft Research with some super cool innovative products for the near future.

• Our attention spans are getting shorter as we look to our phones, phablets, tablets etc. to cut through 
• We get shown 1009 messages a day (PWC/IAB study, Eye blaster/Mediamind)
• Technology is about enabling humans to be better at what they do
• Qwerty design is 142 years old designed to slow typing to avoid keys jamming- behind the core of these devices
• A video was then shown of Microsoft Research (who design technology 10 years out). In the future every single surface will be able to display 2-way transmission. We saw Xbox technology showing the entire room illuminating and making the room part of the game.
• Smart glass connects Xbox to your mobile device – essentially making 2 devices aware of each other, e.g. phone showing map through the supermarket with special offers
• Smart phones are rather stupid given that they know what you are doing next (calendar), who your friends are etc. and yet relying on you to push a button 
• Context is everything: emotional, social, environmental, external
• Big data will change humanity (nah, that hyperbole isn't big enough!)
• Consumers feel violated in Creepy Valley: there was company who knew a man's teenage daughter was pregnant before he did
• We need to launch "Invitational Marketing" i.e. consumers inviting your brands into their lives to share experiences and messages which will enhance their lives (though you must understand their context, lean in or lean back). Ads should be beautiful, useful and relevant. 

Despite being early, the room was already jam-packed for Programmatic Buying: A win-win for Agencies, Advertisers & Publishers. One angry attendee who was refused entry proclaimed "How could they have such a small venue for such an important topic?!" This session was presented by Powerlinks Media (Mike Harty, Co-founder & COO).

Topic 1: What is driving prices down?

Dan Shaw (ITG)

• Very difficult justifying advertisers paying a premium for data. 90-95% data is questionable which creates question mark about the 5% which is good. Premium doesn't justify the cost. 
  • Seeing more clients asking to be on white list of 1000, 50 or 10 sites because context is so important. Want to be more insightful or targeted and willing to pay a premium.

Harvey Sariant (RadiumOne)

• First party data is so important and publishers sitting on so much. How can they build segments for reading?
  • White lists are only about trust and brand safety 

Topic 2: Audience vs, Context ... Where is the scale? How can we standardise, achieve scale while reaching in niche environments (500 ads seen by each user every day)?

• Good progress in getting publishers to stop competing and start collaborating 
• Clients and planners still want larger formats - data is a hot topic but it's not where the money is being spent currently. Need measurement (the right measurement) and KPI's for it to mature. 
• MWhat is digital these days? We need a cross-platform metric (eg. viewability) across all devices

Is the age of below-the-fold dead? Yes

Seeing more clients talking about viewability from a DR perspective instead of chasing the last click to help the industry move forward. We need trade bodies to start taking the lead to help publishers. We need a way to only render an ad on the page when the page is viewed.

Topic 3: Complete Data; a pipe dream? Valuing an impression the moment of the cookie drop

• WPP changed their terms allowing them to collect data as they seem fit (IDG)
• Can we overtarget through programmatic buying? There is a temptation. 

Topic 4: Delivering for Brand Advertising 

• We need a new set of metrics which is standardised
• 55% of marketers interviewed by Digiday said that online metrics should be aligned to offline
• Clients know that TV performs well and they are comfortable with it

Topic 5: High Impact Ad Delivery and Creativity: Click-through rates are decreasing and creative agencies are becoming disassociated with the digital space. What do we think? 

• Skyscrapers and MPU's are our bread and butter
• We need to find ways at bringing creative agencies back to the table
• Can we loop back to the creative agencies? 
• Need for collaboration and measurement 
• Viewability would involve serving ads in real time (IAB guideline says 50% of an ad should be viewable for at least 1 second) 
• It's not just the agencies - clients are starting to ask questions 
• There are free tools for publishers to show what is and isn't viewable and it's not so scary
• Nobody wants the conversation "have u been serving non viewable ads?"

The final session of the day for me was a panel titled The consumer has changed but has marketing? I unfortunately had to go to other meetings so missed other sessions I would have liked but luckily the conference is streamed and on video This panel consisted of Rupert Staines (MD RadiumOne) , Mark Creighton (CEO Mindshare), Kelaine Blades (7digital), Jennifer Roebuck (French Connection) and Nick Ellsom (founder Fast Thinking)

• Kelaine: your smartphone is your remote control to life, it's timely, relevant and personal but how do we integrate it across everything?
• Nick: marketing is reactive and requires infrastructure
• Jennifer: it's operationally almost impossible to keep up – "digifrenia" is about consumers feeling overwhelmed even at the current pace (so it's not just marketers feeling overwhelmed)
  • Kelaine: you can't even use the same message across the big 3
  • Rupert: Brands don't lag behind, it's the people behind the brands who lag. Simply not enough attention at high levels in the company to address the changes consumers are going through. Companies are suffering inertia and we are still operating around an antiquated structure. Every company without data at its core will not understand its customer base. 
  • Mark: disagrees with Rupert - it's about structure (moving deck chairs on the Titanic). It's always going to be disruptive. We are just about to create seamless transfer between devices and get connected TV's!
  • Rupert: It's a real challenge as there are a lot of companies (see Lumascape) doing a piece of the puzzle
  • Mark: Many aspects are really difficult to articulate to clients e.g. Appnexus and RTB
  • Nick: Lots of DR spend and not brand spend because its measurable
  • Rupert: Nonsense that all value still attributed to last click
  • Digital gives smaller brands a chance to rise to the top
  • Nike have commercialised "I Am Player" by selling virtual boots so there is a huge opportunity for brands
  • Mark: Developed a game for Kleenex called sneeze man. Brands can step in and help small developers who cannot afford the App Store 

So after 5 hours of listening and typing furiously on my Ipad Mini, that was the end of the day for me. Lots of common themes and issues have emerged and I'll be publishing these after Adweek has ended. In the meantime, enjoy the little summaries with nuggets I'm providing. All feedback welcome. Let me know if there are sessions over the next 2 days you think I should attend. I have meetings tomorrow but should get a good chunk of sessions again in the afternoon.

 

Experience the Google Web Lab

Very cool morning at the #googleWebLab at #londonScienceMuseum! The sketchbot takes your photo then sketches it real-time in sand.

All creations are also viewable online at www.chromeweblab.com accessible via a unique tag you retrieve on arrival.

A lot of fun for both adults and kids alike on a rainy London Sunday. Highly recommended! Oh, and entrance is free.

Google Zeitgeist 2012

I just returned from attending my third Google Zeitgeist. This event is simply phenomenal on every level: the content, the speakers, the attendees, the entertainment and the food!

For those of you unable to attend, I've attempted to summarise the key points in this blogpost (with maximum fact and minimum personal opinion ;-). Where detail is thin, I do apologise – I was tweeting, working or networking.

The evening before was kicked off by a Welcome Reception with a range of cuisine from Japanese to BBQ offered in various rooms at The Grove Hotel, Hertfordshire. There was a Heston Blumenthal-esque theme to the event with a scientific room of experiments to create drinks and the most creative desserts I've ever witnessed!

• Imagine a 'toothbrush' consisting of a long biscuit with a selection of flavoured pastes (chocolate anyone?) to squeeze on top from toothpaste tube.
• The other highlight was a chocolate bar involving the selection of a type of chocolate and then biscuit, to then be inserted inside the chocolate like sim card!
• Finally, I found the gadget I'm missing from my kitchen. The reverse grill – which is frozen to -44 C and can create instant ice-cream. Now where will I find the space in my kitchen?!

There were other exciting ancillary events such as a cooking workshop and running club by Dean Karnazes (who I embarrassingly assumed was just the 'running instructor' until he was invited up on stage on Day 2).

Day 1

As top business leaders were gathered in one room, the day kicked off with Nikesh Arora (Google SVP) announcing that this was the "Women's Zeitgeist" attended by the top 50 women in Europe. The power of social media immediately kicked in as I tweeted this, and was then retweeted by Nikesh himself to nearly 12,000 followers.

hroughout the 2 days there was lots of emotion and humour around Chelsea's win over Bayern Munich – nothing like some good inter-country competitiveness to remind us that even top businesspeople are human too.

Beyond the Euro Crisis

Niall Fergusan (Historian) kicked off the first session of the day with an economic history lesson enlightening us that about 12 European governments gave fallen since the inception of the EU. He compared the current global economic crisis to the last 2 depressions and gave his advice for using the past to learn from the future. He reminded us that the whole point of creating a monetary unit was to get Europeans into a federal economic system.

George Papandreou (ex Prime Minster Greece) then followed off with a pro-Greece PR speech and myth debunking. Check out the video here.

• Myth 1: Debt is a symptom rather than a cause. The cause is a badly managed country that has lost competitiveness.
• Myth 2: Greeks are the problem but it's a European problem. It is a precedent of the European structure, showing some of the missing links in the euro
• Myth 3: Greeks are not lazy!

Regarding the third myth, Niall Fergusan commented that the Germans work the least hours out of every other nation which is why when you go in vacation – the Germans are already there! :-)

Stephanie Flanders (BBC Economics Editor) moderated the discussion and question if Greece should never have joined the Euro.

Next up were Jim O'Neill (senior exec Goldman Sachs) & Diana Farrell (McKinsey). Jim was very optimistic and commented that 'the world isn't falling apart' as he sees lots of improvement and positivity. You will always get volatility when you join 17 countries together who are different. He then quoted various positive stats such as 20% of apple revenues per quarter are from China and Germany having a record low unemployment as a result of large production of cars for China.

Finally, Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO WPP) closed with his views that this is a process of readjustment - it's simply a cycle. Since politicians are in the business of getting re-elected and elections are very frequent, it's no wonder they have such a short term view whereas we in business must take the long term view. Sir Martin felt that the discussion was "depressing, distracting and off strategy" and pointed to China, the 2^nd largest economy in the world, and the changes and impact happening there.

Beyond the Rational - moderated by Jon Snow

This session was moderated by Jon Snow (Channel 4 News Presenter) and the first topic was kicked off by Professor Dan Ariely (Professor Economics and Behavioural Economics, Duke University). He spoke about the many experiments into people cheating. Watch the clip here.

• The best time to cheat is actually on the way to confession as people 'reset' at confession though they generally do continue to cheat. He suggested that confession should be broader than simply religious e.g. banks and politicians should ask forgiveness.
• Since the conference is attended by more women than before, it was interesting when the discussion turned to the big difference between men and women in how they view competition e.g. men enter competitions regardless of skill and women don't enter at all.
• He said that people ingested in technology have to be optimistic as technology is about fixing the things that we do badly

Laurie Santos (Assoc. Director Psychology – Yale) talked about her work with monkeys to better understand human. For example, monkeys can learn to use currency and operate a market with risk, discounts etc. that exactly replicates human markets. I'm left wondering if monkeys are super intelligent or if we human just have the intelligence of monkeys …? Watch the clip here.

Matt Ridley (Author and Economist) also talked about optimism and mentioned that child mortality has fallen in Africa by 5%. He cited lots of other optimistic facts (faster than I could type) but I did pock up that there is less equality, the poor getting richer faster than the rich getting richer. Watch the clip here.

The session ended with a beautiful performance by Imogen Heap (who I had never heard of) who reminded us all to breath (ironically she was rather out of breath from being quite nervous!). Watch the performance here.

Google Product Showcase

David Rowan (Editor Wired Magazine) tweeted (@iRowan) some interesting Google facts, which is always good for a room full of folks who love numbers!

• Google activates 850,000 Android devices a day - more than the number of babies born
• Google has conducted 58,000 search experiments in the last year that have resulted in 520 changes to search
• Every minute 60 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube - 50% up year on year

First up was Google Drive, impressively allowing 2 people on different sides of the world to work on the same document in real time. There was a voice to text demo which unfortunately went completely wrong much to the amusement of the audience. Drive can search for pictures by name and recognise content, e.g. pictures of bridges, which can be very useful for searching through thousands of holiday photos. They've also put translation technology into docs.

Next up was Google Plus (Google's fastest growing product), now with 170 million people, although I wonder if these are registered users or active users. The demonstration covered a joint conference call and how to start a 'hangout' even if one user doesn't have a smartphone.

The biggest Search Enhancements included "the knowledge graph" which shows a panel with a range of information surrounding a potentially broad search term (e.g. London) and highlights of pages (+1) endorsed by Google+ friends.

On the YouTube video front, there was head-to-head Apple combat showing the ability to bookmark videos to "view later" and then watch on your phone. They demonstrated how the phone can seamlessly communicate and sling content between PC-phone-TV.

Some 'really cool' Android features were demonstrated such as:

• Unlocking your phone with face recognition, panorama photos and fun video calling effects.
• Transfer of tabs from Chrome browser between PC and phone allowing a continuous browsing experience.
• The NFC chip (also shown last year) was demonstrated allowing you to send information between phones by placing phones on top of one another

We were also shown some mapping picture technology demonstrating an exact location for where a picture is taken, and the ability to follow to visual path on a map as if 'flying'. This is great for folks who struggle to read maps (or the Google Product Manager who demonstrated whose boyfriend lost his backback on the Swiss Alps and needed to relocate it).

The best was left for last as we were shown Google Glasses. A great idea about glasses with integrated voice controlled commands and screen integrating music, maps, information and communication. Check out g.co/projectglass for more. Despite my love of gadgets, I can't see myself ever wearing one of these.

I unfortunately missed the next session on Beyond the Revolution but the interesting anecdote here I picked up was that non-violent protests are twice more likely to succeed. Here are links to the missed clips:

• Moderator: Paul Mason (Economics Editor BBC Newsnight)
• Bernard Kouchner (Founder Doctors without Borders). Watch the clip here.
• Farah Pandith (Special rep to Muslim Communities, US State dept). Watch the clip here.
• Srdja Popovic (Exec Director, Canvas Serbia). Watch the clip here.
• Bassem Youssef (Surgeon & TV Presenter). Watch the clip here.

Beyond Ourselves

This session was moderated by Becky Anderson (CNN).

Lily Cole (Supermodel and Founder of Impossible.com) and Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) discussed the interesting topic of gifting economies. Here are some key points:

• Gifting economies tap into sociological behaviours and technology makes connections transparent. Wikipedia is the biggest example of this as people donate hours of their time because they find it interesting
• Impossible.com (still in Beta) builds on people's desire to have a sense of community, to meet one another and help one another (as does the social media phenomenon). Lily mentioned how gift parading or the economy of regard (gift economy) is worth more than GDP (UK?)
• Jimmy said how the most successful business don't necessarily set out to make money. He cited Mark Zuckerberg who is apparently obsessed with the product.

This is definitely a very interesting concept (and quite change to champagne and catwalks) proving that Lily Cole is clearly a highly intelligent woman! Watch the clip here.

The unforgettable Dame Viviane Westwood followed, talking unstoppably and passionately about climate change. Calling herself a 'freedom fighter', she talked about the financial problem being the symptom and not the cause of the problem. She criticised our current culture of 'consumerism' and praised art as its' not consumption. Unfortunately government are the last to do anything to save the environment so its up to the corporate world to lead change. It would only cost £114 million to save 3 forests…. While many remarked on her monologue, I felt she had a very valuable message for our current materialistic and superficial society where celebrities are the new religion and appearance is the new currency. Watch the clip here.

David Jones (Global CEO Havas & Founder One Young World) talked about One Young World competition and introduced 3 young entrepreneurial candidates which impressive achievements. Watch the clip here.

• Finalist of the Google Science Fair is 16 year old girl from India, Harine Ravichandiran, who came up with a solution for stable voltage for remote villages as her grandparents had to wake up at 3 a.m. for enough light to water their crops.
• Amr Mohamed, Global Winner YouTube Space Lab, came up with an experiment investigating the effects of microgravity on the way the zebra spider catches its prey and whether it could adapt its behavior in this environment.  
• Joe Mwale, 16 year old Kenyan boy who started a water purification business from his bed, while sick with dysentery. To raise $5k, he structured a 5 year lease for a piece of unused land in his family. He has sold 2,000 bottles to date.

The conference day ended with Nobel prize winning Annie Lennox, who brought people to tears with her passionate plight to help pregnant woman with AIDS/HIV in Africa. Her talk was so moving that there were people crying in the audience.

Here are some key points:

• 14 million orphans affected by aids across the whole continent
• If children are born with the virus they most likely won't reach their 5th birthday – it's heartbreaking
• Currently there are 34 million people living with HIV, 23 million of these are in Africa
• There are not enough doctors and nurses per 1,000 people when compared to more developed countries e.g. UK
• When she visited Africa, coffins of every size were being sold at supermarkets. She saw tents everywhere, which she thought were for celebrations but in fact they were funerals.

Watch the clip here.

I chatted to her at the dinner and she mentioned that Jakob Zuma was a strong supporter of the programme (whereas Thabo Mbeki had made things extremely tough with his denial that HIV leads to AIDS. She is truly a remarkable woman and I praised her for lending her name and time to a cause that simply isn't sensational enough to warrant media attention, and therefore global attention.

Day turned to Night and the Drinks and Dinner commenced in a spectacular white tent in the Grove's Walled Garden. The décor this year was light, bright and contemporary. The food and entertainment were spectacular with tremendous style and attention to detail. There were performances by Maria Aragon (12 year old internet sensation with 55+ million YouTube views), Paloma Faith and Ed Sheeran. The alcohol fuelled a whole different level of conversation and networking.;-)

The picture below shows Annie Lennox taking a video of one of the performances (and shows the proximity I was sitting to her). The second picture shows the starter 'scientific style' with tube of mayonnaise and test tube vial of olive oil.

 

Day 2

Going Beyond

This session was moderated by Clare Balding (BBC Sports Presenter).

Sir Ranulph Fiennes kicked off with a profoundly laugh-out-loud funny and borderline unbelievable presentation of his expeditions and their challenges. I've heard him speak before, and yet this time it was even more insightful, inspiring and funny ranging from surviving temperatures up to -132 C to surviving fires, frostbite and blisters. I highly recommend watching the clip here. I since also read that he has also run 7 marathons in 7 days (although that pales to what Dean Karnazes achieved).

Sir Steve Redgrave, an Olympic gold medallist talked about his experiences and the training process to reduce 1/100^th of a second. He touched on the importance of mental performance for physical performance i.e. mental process is to believe you will win so even if they are leading, they are hurting. Watch the clip here.

He was then followed by John Eales, international rugby quarterback who talked about the challenge of team performance versus individual performance. Watch the clip here.

Finally, Dean Karnazes came on stage. He has run 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states starting from deciding to run 30 miles one night when he was drunk (!). I nearly fell off my chair as I had chatted to him that morning and mistakenly assumed he was just the running club 'instructor' as our paths collided on the morning run. I was impressed by a gadget he mentioned and later chatted to him about it – check out the MotoACTV. It's a watch linked to a Jawbone earpiece measuring biometric body information during the run which is then uploaded via Bluetooth. Watch the clip here.

Beyond the News

Evgeny Lebedev (Owner of The Evening Standard) kicked off his strategy for his titles. He talked about his youth in Russia as a key driver for his business achievements today. He interestingly mentioned that his strategy for The Independent is to 'lose less money' and perhaps the losses to be funded by The Evening Standard's profit. Watch the clip here.

Joris Luyendijk (Middle East correspondent and banking blogger with The Guardian) came on next with an honest and charismatic style. He raised the valid point how can we expect bankers to have a long term view when they can be fired in 5 minutes! I just love the Dutch! Watch the clip here.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin (host and producer Huffington Post Streaming Network) discussed how social media is the catalyst for change as elimated the use of parachute journalism by offering a new source of publishing. While reading from his Ipad (!), he told the audience about the new streaming network, which now has more page views than the NY times! The social media change is youth led as 70% of the Arab world is under 30 years (50% rest of world). Google assisted the social media revolution when it launched "speak to tweet" allowing voicemails to be transferred into tweets. Watch the clip here.

Paul Conroy (award-winning photo journalist who was with Marie Colvin when she died) concluded the panel. He recounted the shocking events included his dramatic escape after the bombing that killed Marie. It's phenomenal the strength he has shown and it really brings the reality of the tragic story to life hearing it first hand from Paul. Watch the clip here.

Beyond Today

This session kicked off with futuristic insights giving yet another new and enthralling dimension to the 2-day conference.

First up was Marc Raibert (Boston Robotics) talking about his experiments creating Robots which can run ("Why walk when you can run?"). He showed us clips of Big Dog and Bigger Dog, with humorous demonstrations of house these robot dogs can avoid falling (and sometimes fall miserably). These robotics are already being used for purposes in the military for example with chemical suit testing. Watch the clip here.

Catherine Mohr (Director of Medical Research at Intuitive Surgical) presented to us the usage of robotics in hospitals to reduce recovery time and complications and save costs despite the large upfront cost (as long incisions are eliminated). She demonstrated the cost benefit analysis of high upfront costs versus savings in hospital expansions due to lower bed occupancy (as a result of the significantly shorter recovery times). Amazing how technology in the healthcare sector has such significant financial implications (rather than simply giving patients easier solutions). Watch the clip here.

Mikko Hyponnen (Chief Research Officer for F-Secure) enlightened us on cybercrime. He explained that the criminals are best grouped into 3 categories based on their intent: thieves, activists and governments. He went into detail on each of the categories – especially interesting was Governments as he isolated a clip from a Chinese video showing software which showed they conduct cyber-attacks on the US! Watch the clip here.

Marco Tempests (Cyber illusionist) did a show for us showing showing magic using technology and talking about the art of illusion, turning belief into disbelief. Watch the clip here.

Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO x-Prize foundation, talked about Abundance. He's written a book on the topic, which I looked forward to reading (we all received a copy). He explained how we are heading towards a world of abundance as technology turns scarcity into abundance. Watch the clip here.

Larry Paige, who needs no introduction, came on stage next with his Google Goggles. He talked about how, for many people now, their first phone will be their first computer! Here are some key points from his talk:

• They have made google products much more coherent and visually better (like a little company called Apple?) – "technology should do the hard work for you rare than you doing the hard work"
• People seem confused by Google Plus but it essentially allows people to share things
• You can now take a photo on your android phone and have it shared automatically
• Search has gotten a lot better but you don't always see it though it changes every day. Last week they released knowledge panels
• You can have same tabs open on phone as on desktop providing a seamless experience
• Big bets: their aim to have people use a product as often as they use their toothbrush
• YouTube has been doubling revenue YOY since acquisition for $1.4 billion

Larry has always been motivated by a slogan from a summer university course which said "have a healthy disregard for the impossible" i.e. be very ambitious such as Google's project for self-driving cars. You won't have any competition and you will attract the best people who only want to work on innovative things

He is very excited about the concept of carrying around your health data and data mining based on the data coming out of your body then figuring out why you are getting sick. Watch the clip here.

 

Beyond Philanthropy

The piste de resistance was of course, ex-President Bill Clinton, who came on stage looking old and frail (and in his eighties). I confess to immediately Googling his age which was a mere 65 years. Just proof that being a president ages significantly! Not meaning to appear shallow here, but some folks I chatted to afterwards said the same thing. He unfortunately did not appear to be in good health.

He was interviewed by none other than Eric Schmidt (Chairman, Google) no less.

Here are some of the key points from his talk:

• He chatted briefly about wanting South East Europe to join the EU (especially Turkey) which could be a bridge to Arab Spring. In his opinion, the best way of managing the Arab Spring is not to manage it!
• He went into detail of the EU and Euro problem showing a tremendously sharp brain for economics and still being quite passionate and a strong public speaker in this area
• Then he talked about the Clinton Foundation and his current work (which I was not aware of at all – I just thought he worked the speaker's circuit for a nice retirement fund as I think Tony Blair does (or I could be wrong here). It's quite impressive and you can read more about it here.
• The foundation is:
  • A global initiative
  • Its affiliates look at global networks of cooperation
  • Instrumental in fighting childhood obesity, HIV/AIDS and Malaria
  • Biggest impact has been in healthcare industry, getting HIVAIDS drugs reduced from $900 to $90
  • Got a 88% calorie reduction in drinks at schools
  • Costa Rica's over capital income is 2.5 x its neighbours because it has a green sustainable economy using hydroelectricity
  • Creative cooperative collaboration helped bring down the shoe bomber as all intelligence services between the US and UK collaborated with one another

His appearance went down well (even before he spoke as he achieved a jam-packed room and sell out dinner that evening). In previous years, Zeitgeist had emptied out by the end of the second day, showing clever organisation by the Google Zeitgeist event team. This proves the power of his charisma despite the fact that he's the only US president in history for being impeached for lying under oath (this was conveniently omitted from the session).

Watch the clip here.

With a wrap up by Nikesh, the event concluded. I'm told the Zeitgeist event team now have about a 3 month break before they begin planning again for Zeitgeist 2013. I certainly look forward to next year!

 

First Post from my iPhone!

Well, determination is the name of the game and my spanking new toy is up and running in full force. The iPhone and Orange experiences cannot be separated so a full post will follow. This keyboard takes some getting used to, so I'll stick to my laptop for longer posts. Loving the Typepad iPhone app which I am using now. Over and out. PUBLISH.

The HD War: in the trenches and in our home

We have owned a spanking new Sony Bravia TV for a few months now. Our purchase was fueled by the fact that this TV won all consumer awards hands down (I know I need to have 1080i, I just have not figured out yet why) and I confess to being successfully wooed by the advertising. The success of the balls ad, followed by paint and then the play-doh bunnies has worked extremely well for the brand and the TV sales.

We then needed the full HD effect of course, so we bought Sky+ HD. I was still not very impressed.

So we then bought the HD DVD player extension for our Xbox 360. But we needed some DVD's. So we bought these too. Hmmm ... the image did look kind of sharp. Nice.

So I turned to a fried of mine expressing my exasperation after making the significant investment into the world of HD and not really seeing the difference. He pointed out that on a football match you can actually see the audience's faces and blades of grass versus the fuzz in a regular non-HD picture. Okaaaaaay.

While my battle at home to fall in love with HD still continued, there was progress outside in the marketplace. With interest I read this week how Sony have won the HD DVD war with their Blu-ray technology. Yay for us for having a Sony TV but major loss on the Xbox addition (we will eventually need a Blu-ray DVD player).

HD has been backed technologically by Toshiba and Microsoft, whereas Blu-ray has been backed by Sony, Apple an Dell. While consumers are still confused about the difference, so am I. I walked the halls of CES in Vegas last year and still am confused. In a nutshell, I can help explain that HD-DVD is cheaper whereas Blu-ray is superior quality (but this only makes a difference on TV's larger than 42 inches). 

The real battle is being won on a) the technology side (as more companies defect to Blu-ray) and b) on the content side. The studios are choosing to release their content  NOT on both formats but choosing only for one. This will close the debate for good (and consumers will win in basically, just not having a much choice moving forward about what they want to watch). HD backers are Paramount (Viacom) and NBC Universal (GE) whereas Blu-ray is backed by 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures (of course), MGM, Disney and Lionsgate. The big news this week was from Warner Bros who defected to Blu-ray. Game Over.

My story ends last Sunday, as I was pressing the Av toggle button on my Bravia trying to locate the picture from a regular DVD I wanted to watched when I discovered the AV5 option. With full HD. Meaning that I had NOT been watching HD for at least 6 months with all our equipment. Oh my goodness. I am proud to be very impressed by the TV quality of HD! I am now cool (and a shmuck for not figuring it out sooner).