I came across this excellent article on the BBC website at the weekend on the annual report into web habits by usability guru Jakob Nielsen which is a huge wake up call for those designers and Clients who get carried away when designing a site and developing its architecture. Interestingly most of it is not news - just something I think some people (and I count myself in that) forget along the way.
Apparently "Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave. Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention."
They conclude that "People want sites to get to the point, they have very little patience," he said. "I do not think sites appreciate that yet," he added. "They still feel that their site is interesting and special and people will be happy about what they are throwing at them."
Just keep that in mind next time everyone is throwing in widgets, video, forums and discussions boards that unless it is absolutely relevant to the needs of the visitors it will achieve the opposite the effect !

I remember at school there was a popular game that involved drawing a part of a human body on a folded piece of paper and passing it on for someone else to do the same with a connected part then revealing the hilarious outcome - the same was done with words to make up fascinating stories. This idea for Sony uses the 21st century version of the idea and is a great example of how far UGC can go to create engaging, interesting and usable content. The project started with a scene from John Malkovich, he invited visitors to continue the story and chose three winning entries. As the site says "then working with an animator you can see how the script lives on in his dramatic creation. Watch as, with a few bold strokes, the characters come to life. And see how the story unfolds... We hope you enjoy the show."
Overall it is very engaging but it makes me wonder why they could not have involved more people and / or done a variety of different versions to see how different a story can be - anyway have a look it is fun to watch.

Came across this the other day and although it was written back in Sept 2007 and we all know how quickly things become outdated a lot of it was pretty spot on - the overall sentiment that digital will continue to be absorbed into an agency's DNA is becoming increasingly apparent as the lines are blurred. I think 2 of the most interesting points were the shift from creating TV ads to creating experiences and also the rise in the importance of social media. We all know that big ad agencies are running scared of moving away from the set play TV ads as they know that you can reach millions of consumers via a quick, engaging viral BUT they can't bill the huge production budgets and see their ad in the Corry break. Also re: social media we have defintiely seen more briefs go that way and whilst I think social media is very important to consider for future briefs it has to be incorporated into the general thinking and planning as opposed to a being a strategy by itself.
As we say these really are the most exciting of times in the communications industry and the agencies that are running scared are the ones that really should be !

This article in Brand Republic caught my eye this morning. It basically says that a survey by Datamonitor The UK has the highest social networking membership in Europe and it is forecast to almost triple by 2012 to 27m members, according to a report by independent market analyst Datamonitor. It was even more interesting when coupled with the finsdings from this article from Ad Age that details nine profiles of who your targets are and where they might be online.

It has become a rolling joke at Gravity that when you ask an interviewee what brands they like / admire etc. that they all say Innocent so I was interested to see that Innocent used Twitter the other day to report on their AGM - just another headline grabbing initiative I thought - but I was wrong - the script is really interesting and gives a great insight into the company. They also posted the pictures on Flickr and q&A's on You Tube and offered the annual report for download on their blog (which by the way is on eof the best company blogs I have read ad offers a fascintaing insight into the company). I can see more and more companies embracing this sort of reporting as complete transparency is demanded not only by shareholders but also interested consumers who apparently have been asking Innocent o produce Innocent lollies, pies, sorbets and ice creams - sounds delicious !