Subtle Changes, Big Impact

It’s interesting the subtle shifts in technology that effect how we interact. These happen every day with us barely noticing and each of them in isolation really don’t mean much. But compounded by a hundred, a thousand, tens of thousands of these small actions every day, the aggregate impact will be mind boggling.

Two subtle examples:

Snapchat’s addition of a birthday lens. While seemingly innocent, it represents another form of clever data gathering where we as consumers are paying for free access with our information. As they say information is power, in todays world, information is also money. Read the full article here:

http://www.ibtimes.com/snapchat-adds-birthday-party-lens-encourage-users-share-age-data-231955

The other subtle update was to Siri, a week ago I got a little reminder that Siri is always on once plugged in, transforming the virtual assistant from a passive service to an active one. In one fell swoop, Apple now competes directly with echo (or Alexa). And in that one small way, the product moved from the potential as a mobile assistant to a home assistant.

All these little things happen around us everyday without us barely noticing. As these small changes compound it will be interesting to see how we engage in just a few years.

Ian Chee

 

You Snooze You Loose

Napping in the office has recently been a topic that I’ve noticed can be a little bit polarizing. It seems to harken to a shift in how we see work and workplace productivity.

In the past 3 months, I’ve caught an intern in full snooze at his desk with his hood over his face. A strategist sleeping on the couch and our HR team opened a meditation room. Times are changing and how we manage has to change with it.

Read the full article here at Campaign: http://www.campaignlive.com/author/4587/Ian-Chee

http://www.campaignlive.com/article/snooze-lose-changing-dynamics-agency-workplace/1363630

Momentum

There are a lot of things that motivate us in work. Some people are motivated by power, some by money, some by pride. One of the things that makes me happiest of all is making things that make a difference, that actually add value in peoples lives and gets our clients and teams noticed for their hard work. It’s fulfilling to make things I can show my friends, my family, that make them laugh, think or that they find useful. That motivates me. Within 3.5 hours this evening a few of the things that me and my team have been working on for the past few months all of a sudden got noticed, and it felt nice. But it was nicer the fact that it all happened within a few hours of one another.

5:50 PM – My sister texts me this image – a project we did for Pizza Hut made the “Love It” list for the Time magazine print edition. Even in a world of pixels, for some reason when they print it on paper it feels a bit more substantive.

At 6:30 PM a creative director I worked with and respect, posted on Facebook about a financial product that MRY recently helped incubate in house. He offered his critique. Then I noticed that it hit the top of product list. Here is a snap shot of the product ranking on producthunt.com where it reached top ranking yesterday.

At around 9:00 PM after a few drinks with my friend Tal, I noticed a NY times article on FB from a friend who works there talking about a session and a brand idea that MRY Health had come up with and a strategy the team created.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/technology/how-facebook-sold-you-krill-oil.html

In a creative world, it’s nice that the work is gaining momentum. Onward and upward.

What the History of Counterfeiting Can Teach Us About the Future of Digital Marketing

It’s great having one of the most read articles on ClickZ, a bit motivating to keep on writing. I always try to apply my personal life experience to my work experience. One can not help but be influenced by the way you grew up and what you saw as a young person. This article on is one representation of my life experiences intersecting with how I see my work life.

I hope you all enjoy!

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2346393/what-the-history-of-counterfeiting-can-teach-us-about-the-future-of-digital-marketing

The Definition of Insanity

I am a real believer in not doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome (a thought widely attributed to Einstein). But in my work and personal life, I see this paradigm of perpetuating past behavior play out daily. It’s amazing how incredibly hard habits are to break. We often think of bad habits as something only exhibited in our personal lives (eating too much, smoking). But in fact , routine can be a huge deterrent to professional innovation. Here are two pieces that speak to this theme.

http://www.agencypost.com/the-problem-with-habits-a-lesson-at-sxsw/

This article covers how habits force us into similar activities as exhibited in themes at SXSW.

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/television/17810.html

The years of relying on TV as a primary driver for marketing is a powerful habit, one that will take years to shift.

From Text to Touch to Talk

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of interactions. Creativity is often seen only through the lens of content. The funny video, the interesting graphic, a joke. It’s what people see, and have a human visceral reaction towards. Content is very important but the way we interact with that content is that subtle layer that is equally as critical. I recently wrote an article on shifting interaction trends as it pertains to verbal cues.

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2336941/how-talking-to-your-fridge-will-change-marketing

I know there’s been a lot written about the way we interact with home appliances. This article is more about shifting interaction models when verbal cues are introduced. How will our lives change when talking to your xBox becomes a ubiquitous act.