How big is your idea, and does size matter?

To be able to survive in a global market we need innovation. We need a creative industry, and most of all we need ideas. Preferably good ideas but just a whole bunch of ideas would do for now. Let’s start by having a look at the word "idea”. What is an idea? And what makes one idea a good one and another one bad? It's mostly circumstantial so there is no easy way to sepa-rate the good from the bad and the ugly. What we can do is look at the scale of an idea. I think we can divide the world of ideas and concepts into three different domains; there’s great inventions, big innovations and small improvements.

Tagged with: creative industries, innovation, ideas, experience,

Audio branding: sensory or sensual branding?

Last weekend i attended the first international audio-branding conference held in Hamburg. It was exiting to meet the pioneers in this relatively new market. At the HU I have developed a new course in audio branding as a part of our minor digital audio design. It's one of the first courses fully focusing on this specific topic and I'm very pleased our program reflects the points of view I met there. As an eye opener (or ear opener) for all those who are unfamiliar with audio branding I'd like to point you to the TED talk by Julian Treasure:

Tagged with: audio branding, branding, experience,

Communities and Events

Nearly two months ago I posted a blog on my research and that research now is finished! It was on the subject of experiencing events and the influence an online community can have on that experience. At that time I was busy building an online community for the Highlands blues festival, which is now a fact; blueslife.nl. We wanted to have a solid theory to give structure to the online community. So we based that online community on the theory that experience consists of four vital aspects; socialisation, fun, education and signification. We tried to represent those assets in the form of a wiki page, a forum and the possibility to make a profile and to communicate with each other throughout the whole community. We launched this community a month for the festival took place, and that may have been a bit too late for a community to fully flourish. On May 16th, the date of the actual festival, blueslife.nl had a member count of 60.

Tagged with: communities, events, experience,

Experience? Yes, with milk and sugar please

Product experience is hot. Experience is what makes the difference; nobody wants just another piece of soap when we can have an experience of a fresh sensation every morning instead. We’re moving from a product economy towards an experience economy. Take a look at this statement from Nivea when introducing new (European) products on the American market:

Tagged with: starbucks, nivea, experience,

Online communities and event experience

As a graduate student working at the CrossmediaLab the focus of my research project lies on the influence a community might have on the experience of an event. We are trying to find out if participation on a community website, regarding an upcoming event, makes the experience of the actual event and the memories of it in any way different. This would be in comparison to the experience of visitors who did not participate in the online community. The actual research question is formulated as such: “Does participation in a online community contribute to the experience of an offline event.” This research is part of the Crossmedia Atelier project.

Tagged with: highlands, research, experience,