Hornall Anderson Blog

A record store that doesn't sell records

Shane Long — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:50:48 GMT

Awhile back the interactive team took a quick field trip down the street to visit a new record store. We perused the stacks, admired the covert art, and breathed in the musty smell of the sleeves and vinyl for the better part of an hour. The thing was, none of us left with any albums, because nothing was for sale.

"The Record Store" is part of a traveling art installation sponsored by the Seattle Art museum and Olsen Kundig Architechts. This interactive exhibit encourages its "users" to explore music, every decade and genre can be found throughout the store, and once you've discovered an artifact that tickles your fancy, you can go play it on one of the many turntables scattered throughout the room.

You can see some of my favorites discoveries below.

SABOTAGE

Andy Kribbs — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:27:21 GMT

Looks like the new iMacs are out...

Just like when we were kids....

Christina Arbini — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:30:44 GMT

We all remember Valentine's Day when we were kids — squirming with anxiety as we waited to see if we'd get any Valentine cards from our classmates. Well, because being a grown-up is stressful enough, the Hornall Anderson Events Committee decided to take the anxiety out of Valentine's Day this year by making sure every employee received a visit from the "milk & cookie cart."

Chocolate chip cookies and regular or chocolate milk were distributed this afternoon, giving everyone a brief respite from their busy schedule. We had many comments that it reminded everyone of when they were kids. All that was missing was a blanket and a nap! This simple act definitely brought out the inner child in many of us, and begs the question...how many straw-fulls of milk does it take to saturate one's cookie? Happy Valentine's Day from Hornall Anderson!

Shift in focus

Jessica Lennard — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:33:40 GMT

Look at the image below is the dancer spinning clockwise or counterclockwise?

While this may seem like a simple question and it may seem obvious to you which direction the dancer is spinning would it surprise you to find out that many people see it spinning the other direction? I came across this old article implying it is a test of your right vs left brain but regardless of the science I found it fascinating how with a shift in focus and change in perspective I was eventually able to make it start spinning the other way.

The real shock of Snowmaggedon

Jessixa Bagley — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:58:22 GMT

When it snows in Seattle, the city collapses. Power outages abound, busses careen down streets, cars slide into buildings. It’s some pretty scary stuff. But you know it’s really bad when Aaron Robinson, our IT guru extraordinaire, wears closed toed shoes. For the first time in over a year the part yeti/part man has forsaken his sandals for a pair of boots. No wonder the governor declared a state of emergency in the city. What will happen next? I expect the locusts to arrive shortly…

Year of the Facebook Sabbatical

Izzie Zahorian — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:56:01 GMT

A plethora of opinion pieces over the past year have been popping up about people's (often haphazard) relationship with the internet. Facebook sabbatical this, digital detox that. Each week, a new article appears urging users to disconnect from the screen and reorient with what's real. We now have an abundance of anecdotal evidence supporting the idea that our relationship with technology is faulty, while we lack an informed, collective viewpoint about what appropriate interaction might be.

Though we're still in early stages of determining which behaviors are fruitful and which are not, we now at least have an idea of what to call the phenomena that accompany them. Enter Cyborg Anthropology, a science that's been around for over a decade, but has just recently gained momentum thanks to author / TEDster / UX designer Amber Case.

In her upcoming book, A Dictionary of Cyborg Anthropology, Case coins terms like Intermittent Reinforcement [1], explaining why your iPhone feels akin to a Tamagotchi; Ambient Intimacy [2], of our ability to always connect; and a personal favorite, Liminal Space [3], which is illustrated below:

"In life, there are moments in between other moments," says Case. "Moments at the checkout register, moments between conversations, waiting for the bus and so on. In the past, people might have lit a cigarette or casually chatted with the person behind them. Now they poke at their phones. Their phones now contain a space, a virtual one, that is betwixt and between lived space."
--

The concept of Liminal Space is fascinating, especially when thinking about it in the context of an elevator. The elevator: a formally inescapable in-between place known for small talk and awkward wall-glancing. People groan in anticipation of that stuff; now, one needn't worry about it. Everyone stares at their screens and everyone has a screen to stare at. I wonder if Asch's elevator experiment would still have the same effect today. Would we look past our screens to notice anything?

Ambient Intimacy, a touchy one. Does Timeline creep you out at all? The idea that, with the simple touch of a button, you have the ability to peruse acquaintance's interactions and reports, all the way back to 2006? At first we might feel perturbed by such advancements but, after awhile, it starts to feel okay. Historically, such a level of intimacy has been built by stories, deserved through trust, and established over time. Modern advancement says we get to experience it with the drunkard from last night. Spicy! And surprisingly not that weird anymore.

Preceded by B.F. Skinner's research on Operant Conditioning, Intermittent Reinforcement is the reason we love smart phones. Getting a gumdrop every day at noon would bore us. We'd know what and when to expect. Getting a gumdrop every time we made a nice gesture would bore us too. We'd see it coming and its value would drop to nothing. Receiving a random bouquet of candies, randomly throughout the week, and for no reason at all--now that you can put a bow on. Infrequent, unpredictable gifts are what keep us delighted with, and incessentaly attentive to our smart phones.

We're still young in figuring out how technology fits into our lives, and there are plenty of opinions about it. What's great about Cyborg Anthropology, though, is that it strives to be a neutral party. Without passing judgment on technological tools or the people who use them, Amber Case provides us a better understanding of the roots of our digital mannerisms and the terminology to relate them.

The Consumer Holds Your Brand In Their Hand

Ashley Arhart — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:53:05 GMT

The world’s gone mobile. To what extent will hand-held devices affect the future of your brand? Considerably. These devices are changing more than just the way we make calls – in the next 2-3 years they will usurp PCs to become the primary way we connect to the Internet. Already, 79% of phone owners use their device for shopping-related activities, 70% use the device in-store, and 74% make purchases as a result of using their smart phone (eMarketer, 2011).

The increasing ubiquity of personal technology devices and the proliferation of information are considered a plus by many consumers. The mobile media population grew 19% this past year to more than 116 million people as of August 2011. Lightspeed Research (2011) reports that 56 percent believe mobile makes the shopping experience more enjoyable. And more appear to be following that trend. Given that 67% of consumers planned to make a purchase via mobile in the 2011 holiday season (PayPal, 2011), it would appear that mobile commerce is here to stay.

Why is this important?

Mobile devices are obviously having a profound effect on shopping behavior – and on brands. They’re enabling consumers to feel more confident about purchases because they have access to data at all times and they are also helping consumers find better deals. It’s easy to understand the more tactical aspects of the trend. But the rise of small screens also means that brands will have to lead with bigger ideas.

Image source: Anthropolgie.com

Brands have always been a shortcut to decision making, but now, these devices and the ubiquitous access to data they offer are providing a different kind of shortcut. The currency of information is allowing consumers to hold brands to a higher standard, and it’s making their loyalty harder to simply buy with advertising dollars. We as consumers pay for and support brands we relate to; brands that embody the same values we want others to see in us. As our access to increasing amounts of information grows, the value of anything but the most authentic and iconic of brands will shrink.

Consumers expect more

Consumers still want quality, bargains, innovation, and, more than ever, they want to be entertained, but they expect more in each of these categories. They no longer need “me too” brands that offer cookie cutter products and services. Our experiences with social media and application-based software are teaching consumers to demand customization and personalization in our shopping experiences as well. NikeID has been allowing consumers to create their favorite sneaker for a decade, M&M lovers can now order personalized candies in their favorite color and Coke has introduced their Freestyle soda fountain. William Sonoma can still charge $32 for a cake pan. Even so, just because consumers have come to depend on the chain as a curator of the highest-quality, most stylish products, don’t think they aren’t price checking their pots and pans on Amazon before they purchase.

Image source: M&M Facebook page

Mobile is only part of the new arena in which brands need to compete. Phones, tablets, games, social networks are all part of an increasingly diverse and fragmented media landscape. Successful brands in the m-commerce age are those that can consistently and actively engage their consumers – whenever, wherever those consumers choose. As a result, a brand’s narrative will grow increasingly important. To reach this informed, multi-tasking, short-attention-span audience, that narrative will need to be more focused so that the storyline isn’t diluted when stretched across multiple points of expression. Being more focused will make brands more unassailable and allow them to make promises they can consistently fulfill.

Successful brands will leverage big ideas

What do we mean by big ideas? Ideas that are more powerful, more broadly and more deeply relevant to a brand’s consumers and more rooted in universal emotional truths. Ideas that are flexible enough to incorporate the smallest of details and creative enough to facilitate the most random of connections. Our work with Madison Square Garden demonstrates just what we mean by this type of big idea.

It was our challenge to change the way prospective suite holders and sponsors think about Madison Square Garden as part of a planned renovation. Our client wanted to create a customer-centric sales experience with interactive technologies that firmly established a highly aspirational vision of the future.

We created the idea of “Defining Moments.” Moments experienced inside The Garden stay with people forever, and these pivotal points collectively unite New York City unlike anything else. The idea inspired a sensory-filled brand aesthetic and visual language that could be woven into every touch point to create an interactive, immersive experience. Because the idea was so personal, we knew it would be immediately relevant to The Garden’s fans, sponsors and season ticketholders. And, because the idea was so focused and true, it grew to galvanize internal audiences, press, and fans of all kinds.

http://hornallanderson.com/casestudy/living-up-to-the-legend

What does “Defining Moments” have to do with mobile?

Consumers really do hold your brand in the palm of their hand. And as they grow increasingly reliant on those devices it will be increasingly difficult to telegraph meaning. It’s vital that your brand promise can be conveyed in a pop-up notification on a smartphone as easily as it can in a full-page copy ad. Big ideas like “Defining Moments” will be the key to instantaneous recognition and relevance. Working with a partner like us, one who understands the need for game-changing ideas and the technology to leverage those ideas, will ensure your brand is earning the loyalty of tomorrow’s consumers by telling a story that will resonate in today’s mercurial media landscape.

Are you ready for the new reality?

Uncovering Inspiration with CEO Jack Anderson

Christina Arbini — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:31:33 GMT

This past September, CEO Jack Anderson was invited by Baltimore-based ADG Creative to be guest of honor at an event celebrating their 20th Anniversary. Jack shared a presentation with the firm's employees, friends and business associates that highlighted Hornall Anderson's work and culture, including sharing some thought-provoking insights. ADG Creative recently compiled an inspiring recap video of Jack's visit, including interviews with some of their thought leaders about what resonated with them the most.

…As I looked at firms to emulate or at least work to emulate, they (Hornall Anderson) were top of the list.

Jeff Antkowiak, Chief Creative Officer at ADG Creative

I think it's safe to say that Jack has inspired so many of us over the years. What about you? Do you have some inspirational insight you've picked up from Jack, whether from working with him or hearing him speak at an event? Please share!

Who doesn't like free?

Jennifer Jacobson — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:41:01 GMT

What if you had a chance to take online courses from MIT, for free?

Turns out, you will have that opportunity later this year. MIT recently launched MITx, a platform that will offer select MIT courses online at no charge. A prototype version of MITx will go live this spring, enabling people all over the world to engage in interactive learning through one of the premier educational institutions in the U.S.

This isn't about watching a pre-recorded lecture. MITx will feature interactivity, online laboratories and student-to-student communication and will organize and present course material to enable students to learn at their own pace.

Going one step further, MIT will provide free access to the open-source software infrastructure on which MITx is based, for any school to use for its own online learning initiatives.

While MITx has to get started before it proves to be successful or not, this innovative approach has the potential to be a true game-changer in online education.

Terence Conran Exhibition

Mike Willows — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:33:04 GMT