Rebel With a Cause

A rebel… every business needs one, from tech to finance, automotive to entertainment. Someone compelled to swim against the tide, or in reality, ahead of it.

To many, the idea of a disruptive influence in the midst of a well-oiled machine is the last thing they’d want to encourage. After all, there’s no ‘I’ in team, right? There is a big one in Impact and Instinct and two whoppers in Innovation.

Consider for a second some of the great disruptors, from Galileo and Socrates to Darwin and Jobs, we remember the plaudits and success but they faced their fair share of obstruction, ridicule and uncertainty. They stood their ground (often to their own detriment) but achieved greatness – not for themselves, but the advancement of mankind.

Their contribution to the world we live in was only given meaning through a willingness, a compulsion, to run before they could walk. They faced failure but learnt from this and channeled their energy into ever greater statements of intent.

The Apple ad from 1997 perfectly summed up this sentiment – “The ones who think they are crazy enough to change the world… are the ones who do”.

This spot was released to initiate the Think Different campaign in 1997. Here's to the reasons we stick with Apple through the ups and downs.

Now, I’m not claiming for a second that I have any right to share a platform with the greats mentioned above but I am a rebel and proud of it. 

My wife used to say the words to the Garth Brooks song ‘Standing Outside the Fire’ could have been written for me… “life is not tried, it is merely survived when you’re standing outside the fire”. It’s true, it’s hot in here, at times frickin’ uncomfortable and rarely involves sleep. It’s more rewarding than simply keeping your head down and merely getting on with it.

There is a careful balance to be achieved here. A business formed entirely of rebels is doomed to failure. My ‘Ultimate Agency’ post from 2010 is an example of a fantasy creative agency but imagine a top table featuring the likes of the late Steve Jobs and Wally Olins, to Stephen Fry, Mitch Joel, Marc Newson and Thomas Heatherwick. The Ultimate Agency would descend into anarchy without an army of ‘responsible adults’

My talk at TEDx Athens last weekend focused on the importance of balance. I spoke about the need for ‘seamless narrative’ and how without a clear understanding of this, you were unable to create ‘meaningful disruption’.

I gave the capacity audience their first taste of my rebellious disruption by equipping every delegate at the stunning Onassis Cultural Centre with our Brandwidth Innovation Lab app (iOS and Android) the audio-watermarked musical opening to my presentation triggered the digital performance, with each phone or tablet screen turning into an individual pixel to deliver a stunning light show – a 4D experience culminating with each handset vibrating as one for the final crescendo.

In the grand scheme of things, this was the equivalent to a digital firework display or waving lighters in the air at a concert. I still had a serious point to make. Communication on every level, on every device, no matter what kind of brand, business or individual needs to master the basic art of seamless narrative. Conversation and a clear personality needs a manageable change of pace. Merely shouting at an audience doesn’t work when everyone adopts the same volume or this just becomes white noise. Maintaining consistency is essential when adding impact to the meaningful messages.

My presentation is now available on Slideshare (although I had to convert this from Keynote to Power frickin’ point to upload) but please download for the full experience containing the embedded audio and video.

Disrupting Seamless Narrative from Dean Johnson

Here's the full TEDx video of my talk, complete with app-controlled 4D light show.

TEDx Athens was a wonderful experience, run by a passionate team lead by Dimitrios Kalavros-Gousiou and I was fortunate to catch some of the city sights thanks to Big Olive City Walks.

I wish I could have stayed longer but I’ve already flown from Athens to London, to San Francisco to Cupertino to LA in the past 48 hours, leaving disruption in my wake.

What a rebel.

A Tale of Two Brains

Never has Louis Armstrong’s song ‘We Have All The Time in The World’ been more poignant. I’m sorry, we simply don’t. The sad death of Robin Williams brings this into stark focus and highlights exactly how every second counts.

I have never held any religious beliefs and never will with my focus on achieving as much as possible in this life as we never know when the whole ride is going to end. We’re still in control (I’m sorry, I don’t believe in fate either) but it’s difficult to line everything up to fall perfectly into place.

Robin Williams battled with his own personal demons and his fight with depression ultimately lead to his decision to close the book on his life as he’d completed his final chapter. We feel cheated and we wanted another book, more of his comic and creative genius and feel sad about the personal tragedy and loss to us all.

I never met Robin Williams so I’m not lining up to add a personal story – just that he was always on my fantasy dinner party list and now I’ll have to leave that place empty. It was a big seat to fill.

He brought an extraordinary energy to all he pursued but those incredible highs were matched by shattering lows. As with many of the world's greatest entertainers, visionaries and creative individuals, depression and often a compulsive personality go hand in hand with the visible public results. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Alexander McQueen, Ernest Hemmingway and many more have fought to maintain control. Thankfully the genius of Stephen Fry is still with us.

It’s a criminally unfair balance but one that exists for many nonetheless – but we only hear about the topflight personalities. All the more reason to be aware of those around us and take enough interest in loved ones and colleagues to notice changes in attitude and behaviour.

I’m writing this whilst sat in the gardens of the Kremlin in the centre of Moscow, having given a lecture in a stunning open air auditorium at the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design last night. I spoke about incredible future opportunities for creative technology to change our lives (both good and bad) and some of the stunning projects we’re working on at Brandwidth to shape this.

Am I lucky? I’ve engineered that luck and I’ve pushed well beyond my comfort zone. There have been a few happy coincidences but they wouldn’t have happened without years of groundwork.

I used to be petrified of public speaking but I created situations where I’d have to ‘perform’ in front of an audience. As a fourteen year old, I attended a business seminar with my Dad (I was running the business – you all know I’m not normal) where I had to stand up, Introduce myself and explain why we were there. It may seem a small thing to do, but it was a massive step for me. Even though I’d been on TV the previous year, the live audience was an entirely new experience!

As if my regular radio, podcast, TV and conference appearances weren’t enough, I’m smashing more personal barriers at Silicon Beach in September by co-presenting with Apptain America (one of my many alter-egos), including a musical number and Oculus Rift light saber battle. What could possibly go wrong?

Speaking of comfort zones, I’m a pretty hopeless traveller as I’m geographically challenged, to the point of struggling with route-planning on UK roads and trains – even with satnav! But here I am, in Moscow, following speaking engagements and business trips to Poland, America and Dubai.

My active (with an e) right brain fights with my left on a daily basis but the right side’s always going to win. If I let the rational, sensible and ultimately safe side take control, I’d never push beyond my boundaries, take chances or leave my comfort zone.

Lisa Edwards wrote a great blog post last week on pushing boundaries, so it’s good to see more personal barriers being breached – although I’m not attempting Tough Mudder any time soon.

I'm raising a last vodka to Robin. Goodbye you wonderful man.

Goodwood Festival of Speed: The Greatest (Motor)Show on Earth

It's the show that offers the lot – motor racing, new model reveals, celebrity drivers and guests, stunts and the Red Arrows. Goodwood Festival of Speed is everything modern motor shows aren't... because it's actually a show.

If like me, you share more than a passing interest in cars, particularly fast ones, you'll either have already have visited this iconic event or it's written in engine oil on your automotive bucket list.

This year's show was as popular as ever and visitors flocked to the live action around the garages to sample the sound and smell of F1 and supercar models of present day and yesteryear. It's a spine-tingling experience that the digital world is a long way from effectively simulating. I hope this event keeps the memories alive long after the petrol engine is legislated off our roads.

I wanted to capture as much of the passion and action of the event this year so my Twitter, Vine and Instagram feeds were working overtime. Audi builds the largest stand by far, but Goodwood isn't all about scale, it's about intimacy and a genuine connection between fans and brands. Nissan won the day for me, revealing their incredible Concept 2020 supercar, the stunning IDx Nismo and IDx Freeflow design studies, Nismo GTRs (one driven up the hill by Sir Chris Hoy, who also made a guest appearance on the stand), a raft of new models and Oculus Rift VR simulations. All this on a relatively small stand. No Audi, bigger is not better.

To illustrate the popularity of Nissan's Concept 2020, my Vine video has received 1100+ Likes and 500+ reVines. With no social replies to this from official #FoS and @Nissan channels, an opportunity has been missed to be part of the conversation.

The only disappointment for me this year (apart from my Dad being unable to attend as my regular Goodwood track buddy) was the overhyped promise of social channel interaction – otherwise known as Twitter and Instagram coverage. As with previous years, this remained largely one-sided – with the official #FoS channels being particularly guilty of blatant 'broadcast' with very little engagement (apart from conversations with the manufacturers).

Notable social highlights were a Twitter acknowledgement from @MercedesBenzUK for this shot...

...and a regram by @McLaren for my photo of the M7C (currently on over 3000 likes).

This is an amazing show, year after year. Long may it continue, perhaps with the virtual social experience to match the physical extravaganza next year.

My full photo stream is available on Instagram, but here are my highlights. 

May The Force, Maleficent, Bernhoft... and Moondog be with you!

In the past ten days, the English have demonstrated both extremes of the effort and achievement scale. At one end (the bottom) we have the English football squad. unceremoniously dumping themselves out of the World Cup. At the other, we have our award-winning team at Brandwidth.

I hate for my writing to turn into the agency equivalent of a party political broadcast, but sod it – we’re passionate, we’re dedicated and we’re brilliant. Not a particularly British attitude (we’re supposed to be all politeness and deference) but when most of the conversation on our own fair shores revolves around a failed football team and a shortlist of the same old agencies and developers, someone has to fly the flag. We're responsible for the current US number one Entertainment app and Multi-Touch book – I'm pretty sure we're the first developer in the world to achieve this.

So, what have I got to shout about? In a nutshell, having returned from speaking at the Mobile Show in Dubai, I spent a week in the US covering WWDC in San Francisco, visits to Apple in Cupertino and meetings in LA, I touched down briefly in the UK, only to head off to Poland.

“Why Poland?” I hear you cry... I spoke at the brilliant ‘Bitspiration’ Conference in Krakow, an amazing gathering of the great and the good from the worlds of music, digital innovation and start-ups. I couldn’t have been more pleased to be attending when our latest multi-touch book for Disney Studios ‘Maleficent’ was the number one Entertainment title in the US iBooks Store! I was also happy to reveal the incredible ‘Bernhoft Islander’ app and announce our forthcoming ‘Star Wars Scene Maker’ app. More on those later...

As if that wasn’t enough, we had just updated our classic ‘Top 100 Albums’ app for Amber Books in stunning Retina detail and a new FREE cover price. I challenge anyone with an interest in any genre of music to find a reason not to download!

Despite the superstitious overtones, I returned home safely from Poland late on Friday 13th and caught up with the wonderful Nikki Bedi on her BBC London 94.9 show on Saturday evening. My role as ‘Inspector Gadget’ allows me the freedom to talk about the latest tech from around the world, discuss Harrison Ford’s injured foot and further tease the Star Wars and Bernhoft projects.

A big digital product launch usually delivers a mix of extraordinary highs and monumental lows. I’m glad to say, the arrival of ‘Star Wars Scene Maker’ last Thursday offered many more highs than lows. The Brandwidth team has been working closely with Lucasfilm and Disney for nearly a year, with the mission to bring storytelling bang up to date – and take it kicking and screaming into the future.

Who wouldn’t want to step into George Lucas' or JJ Abrams' shoes and direct the iconic scenes from all six movies, then take the reins from Episode VII and beyond? I have worked in publishing, design and technology for nearly thirty years (I started young!) and this project delivers in all areas. Don’t tell me publishing is dead when this is the result – storytelling and interactive narrative taken to digital extremes.

I’m happy to say we’re not stopping here. This is a living, breathing product with a healthy future of enhancements and updates, platform and content opportunities. Oh, and a lot of fun!

Speaking of living and breathing products, another Brandwidth blockbuster is now available – ‘Bernhoft Islander’. We had an incredible opportunity to collaborate with HD360 and Jarle Bernhoft and bring his hypnotic blend of contemporary soul music to life in an encapsulated album app. We’ve worked with a number of digital formats for artists such as The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Demi Lovato, Michael Bublé and the aforementioned Top 100 Albums app but Islander is the first app to launch globally alongside the main album, providing a genuine HD experience, with all music embedded at the quality it originally left the recording studio.

360º video, the Loop Station, an interactive Studio, all create a unique approach for a unique artist and a genuine premium product. Don’t take my word for it, here’s the man himself...

As I’m still on a music theme, the clock is ticking on a superb Kickstarter campaign, ‘The Viking of 6th Avenue’ Documentary. In their own words:

"The inspirational true story of Moondog, the legendary musician and New York icon whose life was an unexpected, outrageous adventure. 

Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman hung out with him. Philip Glass lived with him, Janis Joplin covered his music, Allen Ginsberg stuck it on his fridge, Diane Arbus took his picture and Andy Warhol’s mother designed one of his album covers. Merv Griffin interviewed him, Lenny Bruce shared the bill, Phillippe Starck named a building after him, Elvis Costello brought him to London and fashion designers have created entire collections around his look."

I’m not directly involved but Holly Elson is a brilliant documentary film maker and the Moondog story deserves to be told. At the time of writing, there are 3 days remaining and around $40,000 still to raise. It’s all or nothing – Kickstarter and the Viking of 6th Avenue are only a click away!

So that’s it then? Nope, we’re on a roll. Apart from the rest of the Brandwidth business, providing digital infrastructure and mobile solutions to the automotive sector, enterprise level websites, amazing experiential environments and all the data analytics you can eat, we have a stunning title ready to launch for Taschen later this month followed by many many more. It’s going to be a long hot summer where you’ll hear all about our amazing products, even if you don’t hear about Brandwidth.