Here’s an example of The Awesome Power of a Fully Operational Internet.
If you’ve ever searched YouTube for demonstrations of music gear or techniques, you know that you can pretty much find anything. Within the past few weeks, Israeli musician Kutiman emerged with a project that, by forwarding it to only 20 of his friends, has now been raging around the ‘Net like wildfire.
This guy has talent
Kutiman has created some amazing musical mashups of random clips he found on YouTube. With an amount of media that would have driven the 1970′s David Bowie insane, Kutiman built order from chaos, and compiled it on his site, ThruYou.
This kind of project is something that only a handful of people would think of doing, let alone have the skills to pull off. Check out a full composition:
This is the Internet
This shows off the real promise of the connectivity we’ve been blessed with by the Internet. It’s also another fulfillment of a prophecy made by Andy Warhol in the 60′s: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Kutiman will certainly be more famous than most, but he’s yet another connection of inspiration for others, just as the musicians he sampled had provided inspiration to him.
Never before, have we been given so much to connect, interact, learn, and entertain with.
After launching their new Tropicana rebranding effort in early January, Pepsi has announced that they will revert back to their prior packaging design next month.
The decision came after a deluge of public criticism over the new package design’s stark departure from the original design by Sterling Brands from just a couple years ago. The new look has been described as looking like a “generic bargain brand,” a “cheap imitation of the popular British sans serif style” of the last decade and “something a friend of mine designed in high school in ’96.” That’s tough criticism for Arnell, the New York group who just recently received equally tough criticism for their new Pepsi logo.
But Arnell is playing it cool: “Tropicana is doing exactly what they should be doing,” says Peter Arnell, chairman and chief creative officer at Arnell. “I’m incredibly surprised by the reaction,” he added, but “I’m glad Tropicana is getting this kind of attention.”
Pepsi is playing it cool as well: Neil Campbell, president at Tropicana North America in Chicago, part of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, states that the decision to switch back to the old packaging came not from the volume of public outcry, but from “our most loyal consumers” who are “a fraction of a percent of the people who buy the product.”
Some see this explanation as a somewhat of a downplay, considering this just on the heels of Facebook’s having revoked their new Terms of Service over privacy issues last week after a wave of public outcry. Such incidences have become increasingly common as online communities enable consumers to quickly convey feedback to marketers.
Full-blown conceptual websites written in the Adobe Flash Platform have been around for awhile. But some question whether these sites are actually good at conveying a message to users. Instead of content, many of these sites are designed with their technology in mind. Can a Flash website provide a meaningful experience?
Attention is expensive
More often than not, we’ve summoned up a Flash-heavy site, only to stare at a loading bar. It’s in these cases, many people find themselves getting out of there, fast. Why? Perhaps because people’s attention on the web is actually pretty short, as research has shown.
Flash websites can be immediate
It’s true. When we developed the site, Ryobi Autoshift, for Torque Creative, we wanted to make it painless, as far as speed and loading time. The same goes for Splat The Mat, developed for Erwin Penland.
So, what about purpose?
One of our specialties is Flash development, so we realize its possibilities, and its potential. And sometimes, we see some Flash site executions that completely amaze us, not just with a “wow factor”, but with quick, entertaining, and meaningful intent. The producers of the following sites are big inspirations:
Get the Glass!
This site was everyone’s favorite for 2007. It’s easy to grasp the concept that this is a game, as well as a message promoting the virtues of milk. We also love it for its casual feel, execution, and irreverence.
Big Ideas come out of Big Pencils
The Leo Burnett agency website was another favorite, from 2005 . It has provided inspiration for dozens of imitators, mimicking it’s snazzy visual methods. The visual paradigm is easy to grasp. And its (mostly) intuitive interface is as charming as its big, black pencil.
So, those “in the know” may recognize these as oldies. But they’re still nice examples of the usefulness, immediacy, and potential of Flash.
It’s not all just “Flash”
By the way, we do Flash, and love it, because we do it right. Marriage is next. Then, microsites.
The story of our name begins with a list of several hundred possible names, bequeathed onto us by an old mountain sage. Many options we deemed “pretty good,” “almost there,” or “totally ridiculous, but funny, so keep it in there anyway.” But we rode onward with focused resolve, our steeds never tiring, our armor increasingly uncomfortable…
We engaged in all manner of word play and alchemy. We distilled the list, hoping to derive something unique, something “new school.” And most importantly, something that embodies our combined skill-sets of advanced web development, competitive analysis, and nationally-recognized creative. We were so close to our own name, we could smell it. So, we sharpened our blades and drove our steeds ever onward into the unknown…
Next, we fought the angry minotaur, barely escaping with our laptops… and our lives…
Alas, a name is born…
At the end of our epic quest, after all the “pretty good” and “almost there” options lay slain, there stood but one name. A name presented before us like shiny Excalibur in the drippy hands of the Lady of the Lake. A name that represents all that we stood for.
That name… was The Math Creative:
“The” spoke to the fact that there can be only one and is a definite article used before a proper noun in most grammatically-correct sentences.
“Math” spoke to our competitive brand analysis, web analytics, proven strategic thinking, an appreciation for ROI, and premium web authoring(HTML, CSS, PHP and Flash). Without these powers of math and logic, we’d be little more than court jesters.
“Creative” spoke to thehuman intuition, inspired thinking, bravery, and experience on national campaigns we bring to each client and project. Without this creative might, we would be little more than bean counters in a cube watching CSPAN 4.
And so, we took that name and made it our own. We bought the URL, and we registered it with the IRS.
Fast forward to today…
As The Math Creative, we are a creative marketing group, offering big agency experience and resources, while maintaining a smaller agency’s efficiency and passion. Through analytics, creativity and world-class production, we seek to inspire faithful relationships between a business’ product and the target demographic for that product.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions or to reserve our services today. Our swords are sharp, and our women know ActionScript 3.
