The Virtual Force Awakens

It's a blockbuster year for Hollywood, so Star Wars Day seems an appropriate time to reveal the subject of my Bitspiration talk in Warsaw... The Virtual Force Awakens.

I'll be presenting Brandwidth's, Disney's and Lucasfilm's creative story behind the multi-million download Star Wars Scene Maker app and where leading-edge digital products go next. Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and wearable technology all provide stunning platforms for digital storytelling, so it's time to push boundaries.

Feel the Force at the superb Bitspiration Festival in Warsaw Poland, June 22-23, then find out more here after then event.

UPDATE: My full presentation video (including the unfortunate #VaderPorn incident).

Fast Forward

On April 3rd 2010, the iPad was unleashed on the world and our first iPad app was ready to download on day one. Fast forward to April 24th 2015 and our first Apple Watch app is available on the day the Cupertino giant’s smartwatch hits the streets. Brandwidth’s bloody good at this stuff, but we don’t like to shout about it.

It’s easy to claim innovation and futurology are all about predicting trends and second-guessing the market. What’s more useful for clients is to take control of the path for their products, services and delivery based on facts. To achieve this, businesses need to get better at shaping their own futures. 

In 2010 the iPad-related headlines were for our incredible Guinness World Records app, now we’ve developed an extension to our existing Vodafone Porsche Car Connect app for Apple Watch. Neither of these apps were knee-jerk reactions to product announcements, they were carefully planned, developed and crafted titles, targeted to maximise user experience for new audiences.

We didn’t wait for an official announcement for either tablet or watch. I hinted at the possibility of Apple’s tablet back in 2009 (and referenced the ‘iPad’) and we’ve been planning for an Apple Watch for nearly three years. The Porsche Car Connect app wouldn’t have been possible without a visionary client, willing to take a few risks for a well-deserved halo effect. The same can be said for Guinness World Records and both clients shared in the roller-coaster ride towards launch day. It was worth every minute!

By creating bespoke products for new technology we’ve added value rather than noise. Unfortunately, for the next few months there will be a lot of white noise surrounding the Apple Watch. The temptation for existing app publishers will be to develop smartwatch extensions just for the sake of it. To make something just because they can and because their audience is demanding content for their new toys.

Stop. if you merely add clutter to what is already a small piece of digital real estate, you’ll run the risk of consumers wanting the app off their watch AND their smartphone.

We’re entering a challenging phase in UI design. Just when you thought screens were getting bigger, along comes a new era of tiny wrist-worn technology requiring effective and intelligent design, not merely smaller text and images.

Here’s the smartwatch rule to apply, as a designer, developer or client: “If there is value added by delivering information or functionality more conveniently on the wrist than any other screen, do it. It’s the future and your audience will expect it.”

We’re not afraid of firsts but they’re carefully researched, meticulously planned and expertly produced. They’re not punts based on guesswork, dressed up as analysis. We don’t bet it all on red unless we’ve been instrumental in designing a red thing.

Top L-R: Guinness World Records: At Your Fingertips, Early Apple Watch connected concept, Oculus Rift Light Saber battle. Bottom L-R: Toyota Auris 3D filming, Lexus Symphony Orchestra, Holiday Inn Green Room.

It’s not all about Apple and apps either, demonstrated by our award-winning Lexus Symphony Orchestra, 3D screens, gestural interaction and a gold medal won at the Hampton Court Flower Show for our Holiday Inn Green Room… and a bunch of things you haven’t seen yet.

The future’s bright, because we’re busy designing bright things.

The Art of NOW

First Meerkat showed its face. Now Twitter has mounted an offensive in the live streaming wars and Periscopes have been popping up all over the place! We all have something to say at some time, but what’s the future hold for the risky ‘always-on’ culture?

We store thousands of photos and hours of video on our mobile devices and an unlimited extension to this in the cloud. Social trends are highlighting how we’re moving on from a world of storage to a society of streamers.

Snapchat conversations flash by in the blink of the eye, Spotify and Jay Z's relaunched Tidal encourage us to own the subscription rather than the music and most relevant channels attempt to capture the moment and the audience to be truly effective.

We live in an increasingly time-poor society, not because we have less time, but because we have more demands on every waking moment from many areas. It’s one of the reasons the world of ‘traditional’ advertising is now a lumbering dinosaur. We have a seemingly endless array of options to distract us from the ad break and billboard or the ability to fast forward almost any digital channel, so why stop to absorb something that doesn’t deliver immediate gratification?

It’s not hard to imagine how coverage of world events is likely to evolve now live video streaming sits at our fingertips. Incredible opportunities for live reportage have opened up for those equipped simply with a smartphone and a selfie stick. Last week’s collapsed building in New York’s East Village (on the very day Periscope launched) handed us the perfect case study.

News organisations have struggled for a number of years to reach ‘breaking news’ situations as quickly as the people on the ground armed with Twitter and a smartphone. Previous criticism levelled at Twitter reportage has focused on misleading conversations and the lack of facts. Professional channels wouldn’t push such unsubstantiated punditry on an audience for fear of legal ramifications and a loss of professional credibility, although not something that appears to bother Fox News.

Now the man and woman on the street can present the situation as it unfolds – the still camera does in fact lie but video is less malleable.

A whole world of opportunity lies beyond news of course. This is evident in most of the content generated on Periscope and Meerkat to date. I have just live streamed my home office, generating followers and likes with something as mundane as an untidy desk, a collection of tech kit and some books. Last week, I attempted simultaneous streams from Meerkat and Periscope on my iPhone and iPad Mini live from Apple’s HQ in Cupertino. Slightly more exciting, resulting in a few extra followers.

Periscope currently has the jump on Meerkat with the ability to point an audience at previously streamed video, whereas Meerkat simply saves the footage to your camera roll.

The marketing and promotional opportunities lie in live events of all shapes and sizes – from movie premieres to emerging music acts to car launches to product reveals to political debates to celebrity interviews. The list goes on and on…

Frames from my Meerkat stream of Meerkat Founder Gary Vaynerchuk and Rory Cellan-Jones at the Guardian Changing Media Summit.

The next step? VR live streams. Why settle for a small screen image of someone’s life when we have the power to experience events as they unfold as if we were actually there! Once the realm of science fiction, now science fact. Facebook bought Oculus Rift for many reasons, but the addition of Meerkat to their folio would bring the two digital stars into perfect alignment. 

In the future we’ll all be able to see anything we want, be anyone we want to be, any time we want. There have never been so many broadcast channels available to designers, marketers and the ad industry. The greatest challenge lies in capturing attention… then monetising the moment.

Oh, and we’re going to need a bigger battery!

You can follow me on Meerkat and Periscope by searching for @activrightbrain or Dean Johnson

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.