Experience planning - the first post

This weekend I'm going to set up a work-related blog for experience planning, but wanted to kick things off with my rebuttal to 'Transmedia planning, my arse.'

Your arse aside...

What I found interesting is not that the media is/isn't planned from single or coordinated idea(s) -- whether they are or are not channel-driven and defined -- but that the concept of a signifying idea is replaced by social activity at a consumer level that itself knits together meaning (the signified) from a range of media moments. It raises questions for our customer journey process in which we try to plan linear and non-linear 'connections' in the customer experience when what is potentially interesting is signfication that can happen in the 'lapses'. They may be the richest brand experiences but most elusive as they're not ones we plan, or even enable -- if we're lucky, we find them and build from them.

Roller Derby lives...

And one of the coolest chicks I know has written this book. I'm so proud and excited for her and the Renaissance woman she's become: creative director, marketer, rolly derby girl, bandmember, author. And she's one of the few who can drink me under the table (Whisky shots with beer backs on Friday nights at the Eagle Drift Inn, shudder.)

'The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.'

HL Mencken

Steven Johnson on one of the impacts of urbanisation

'The problem with all the talk about Americans living in a country divided
between red and blue states lies not in the idea of division itself. The
problem lies in framing the whole issue around states. We do in fact live in a divided nation, but states are not the organizing principle we should use in thinking about the split. We are divided between the blue city and the red country... '

There's more on his site, www.stevenberlinjohnson.com

Nintendo's Wii

Getting great press, even after the ridicule it's name caused. I almost want one. Blame Loco Roco

New photos - Carsten Holler installation.

Friday the management team at OgilvyOne had dinner at the Tate Modern which is now displaying Carsten Holler's Test Site 2006 - a series of slides which drop from all floors to the Turbine Hall below. People get into canvas sacks and slide through the tubes. It's an amazing site, especially at night when the tubes shine like metallic creatures in the darkness of the hall.

I didn't slide. I'm not good with heights and wanted an opportunity to visit the shop. I bought a hypotrochoid set (which I remember as a spyrograph) for 4 quid.

Steven Johnson on the Ghost Map

One of my favourite authors talks about his new book, The Ghost Map about the story of Dr. John Snow and the biggest outbreak of cholera in Victoria London. I can't wait to read it.

A few essays by my former university advisor, Irit Rogoff.

It used to make sense to me. I think about that time when my brain could cope with post-colonial theories now that I'm reading Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie.

10 hottest trends in IT development

From InnovationLab

And this morning I couldn't remember my password

British man draws Rome from memory

But will it blend?

Great advertising microsite.

Austria.

Austria was fantastic. Relaxing to be in beautiful cities listening to Mozart in some of the places he would have played. I saw three live concerts in Baroque churches where the sound and the atmosphere really enveloped the audience. I decided to appreciate classical music more. I studied music for years (as a pianist and vocalist) and want to re-experience it.

Salzburg was cold, but that seemed right. (Well, except that every bar and restaurant had the heat hiked and it was incredibly warm indoors). There was a fantastic rainstorm the first night so I stood in the arches of the old city wall and watched the lightning flash over the valley. Then drank a bottle of Austrian wine in the bar trying to read literary theory in German. I studied German in school, and could read a bit of it, although most nouns were unknown to me making understanding the theory impossible. There were some wonderfully odd moments - the Bollywood film being filmed in the church square, the Brazilian boy and Chinese girl having a date in halting English in a sushi restaurant.

Back to work...thrown into a pitch...got through but also got the flu at the same time and am still feeling mightily out of sorts. More pictures soon. And will write something other than a travelogue soon.

Recommendation: Raddison SAS Style Hotel, Herrengasse, Vienna. Stunning boutique hotel.