Playgroup | Creativity through play

We are itching to get to Playful this year. 

The event continues to evolve, now looking beyond 'traditional gaming' and looking more broadly at what play means creatively and culturally in the world we live in. The agenda is looking superb and the audience will be diverse, and with artists, architects, designers, developers, gamers, strategists all attending.....good ingredients for an insightful day. 

Playgroup use play as a crucial part of any creative process, whether developing a game or otherwise - it changes perspectives, removes barriers and allows thinking in new ways. 

We are really please to be involved. Hats off to Pixel-Lab, looks like its going to be an awesome day. Go to the Playful website to find out more and buy your tickets. 

Hope to see you there!

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Rush Hour London from Chris Searson on Vimeo.

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The role of play in social media from Playgroup on Vimeo.

Playgroup at the Online Marketing Show

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I went to Glastonbury for the first time this summer. My expectations were high.  From the moment I had my ticket through the door the excitement started to build. I joined the Glastonbury group on Facebook, and starting following them on Twitter finding out the line up real time, as they were confirmed and I watched as the site build via the images as they were uploaded twitter via twitpic. 

Finally the big day arrived, and we were off to Paddington to get the train.  I had heard the horror stories of what the next hours would involve; no seat on the train, queuing for the bus, queuing to get into the festival and the hours of walking to find a place to pitch the tent, and of course the portaloos didn’t bear thinking about.

As we embarked on our ‘nightmare’ journey, it turned out that Glastonbury events team had been on the ball - we jumped onto our air-conditioned train, grabbed a seat, stacked our bags, made ourselves comfortable and an hour and half later we arrived at Castle Cary, where the bus was waiting to take us to the festival, so far so good. On arriving and the entrance there was no queue. We were in, the sun was out, and the tent pitched, We were celebrating a good start with a beer by 3pm. The 4 days of pure pleasure began.

I became instantly completely absorbed in the atmosphere as we meandered around the 900 acre site. There is definitely a magic in the air, the place is buzzing 24/7, and there is a feeling of utter delight wherever you go, even if you are up to your knees in mud.

Glastonbury has had its fair share of criticisms and knocks - how ‘its not what it used to be’, about the line up ‘for oldies’, and to be honest the line up wasn’t perfect for me personally, but as anyone who has been will confirm its not just about the music.  It’s the whole experience that they have created at Glastonbury.  I reminds me of traveling, you have all your belongings in one bag, you make your own schedule, or choose to have no schedule at all, you are free, time doesn't matter, you phone either has no signal or no battery, and you get to meet the most unbelievable people from all walks of life. 

Social networks have been big for Glastonbury thats for sure, and Orange were adding to the 'brand experience' real time. They were all over it with glastonav, keeping festival goers up to date with who was on ‘now and next’ and latest news alerts, interactive maps etc...  Great idea, but perhaps that was the reason the whole mobile network was clogged for 4 days, they could probablay work on that for next time.

And my top tip after baby wipes, as much as I love my iphone, take a nokia, the battery was still 3/4 full on my way home and I saved standing in a queue of a 100 people waiting to charge :)   

All in all, a pretty amazing experience. I’ll definitely be back.

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If you love music you have to have a play with Spotify

It allows you to search for and listen to any music of your choice.  Nothing new?  Its the social aspect that gives Spotify an edge.  Start creating a playlist and send the link to your friends so they can share.  Choose to turn it to ‘collaborative playlist’ and then they can then add their songs too.

Its so easy to use and intuitive. I recommend you give it a go.

http://www.spotify.com/en/

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Since attending the Future of Social Media Conference last month - I am a converted 'tweeter' or 'twitterer' - whichever you prefer.  Since joining in, there are a few things that I have picked up:

Be selective with who you follow, and you will be updated with the exact news, opinions and cool stuff that you want to be - with no need to search for it. And its all in one place.

Don’t waffle - well you cant you only have 140 characters!  Welcome to micro-blogging! Get to the point and thoughtfully share comments, opinions and links. Use ‘tinyurl’ your shorten your links.

Mobile apps - I found Twitteriffic to be a great free iPhone app that allows you to update on the move. 

‘Retweet’ - seen a tweet that you love? Re-post it on your profile, but be sure to credit the original in your tweet.

Don’t use it for boring status updates - like what you are having for dinner etc  - this is not Facebook.  

Celebrities - Stephen Fry is still the most followed person on twitter - over 195,000 now. There is nothing groundbreaking in his tweets, they are simply entertaining, and give you and insight into his life - meanwhile raising his public profile.  And why not.  

Corporate Tweets - More and more companies are creating profiles, I think its a good thing, the audience after all select which brands they choose to follow, they are in control. 

I read in Marketing magazine last week that Twitter is looking into how they can start charging for corporate accounts - no doubt the first of many tactics in the development of the revenue model.

I just set up the PlaygroupTweet where we’ll post our best blogs, and cool things the Playmates spot in the industry.

If you want to be one of the first followers - you can find us here:

http://twitter.com/PlaygroupTweet

Clare

http://twitter.com/claredeans

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The snow yesterday took us out of our usual routine. For those not able to get to work or without VPN access, there wasn't much else to do other than get stuck in - we had the permission to play.

The last few months have been particularly tough for all, so it was great to see plenty of smiles as the snow brought people together - or drove people apart depending on which side of the snow ball you were on!

The snow allowed some pretty impressive creativity too, with some people even breaking the mould to make snowwomen. Check out some of the pictures on Flickr 

Amazing what a change in environment makes and the effect it has on all us.  It would be good to be taken out of our usual environment more often.

As I look outside to see the snowmen melting away, it seems a bit sad.  

Roll in the next snowboarding trip!

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My last blog in delight of Cadbury's advertising campaign was met with plenty of comments in disagreement.  The ads 'lacked imagination' and led to  'disappointment' - apparently.

So what do we think about the new glass and a half production staring the eyebrow dancing kids?  

Its definitely got people talking once more, and is by far the most entertaining ad I have seen on UK TV recently.  Its also being promoted by consumers themselves (every brands dream?).  My attention has been drawn to the ad several times through social media - mainly facebook status updates.  

By creating content that entertains rather than a traditional one one brand push Cadbury have got it right again. And social media is key to increasing their success.

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http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hC70X5gXViQ

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You may be thinking that with a general air of doom and gloom hanging over the global economy, that now is not the time to be thinking seriously about play – but with experts in agreement that we need to spend our way out of recession, now is it the time for battening down the hatches, making safe decisions and cutting back on innovation. 

Innovation, creativity and play all have a pivotal role in driving economic change.

This period of change is triggering a much needed shake up in the way that we interact with brands. In the coming year we will invariably find ourselves in situations that are outside of our comfort zone and with the added pressure to succeed with even more limited resources. We will be challenged to approach and think in new ways. 

At Playgroup we have developed a strategy that places play at the centre of everything we do. We have found that by embedding the concept of play into our culture and our methodologies we can bring out the very best creativity, both from ourselves and from our clients, with the result that we better engage audiences with their brands. Take a peek at some of the work from our portfolio.

It’s interesting to look back at what came out of the last economic downturn. A perfectly packaged example of iconic success is the Apple iPod which was launched late in 2001. Ample proof that despite the state of the economy, spirits can be lifted through dedicated innovation, creativity and belief. Ideas will only diminish in value over time. We need to act now, before someone else does.

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Microsoft's new approach to advertising definitely caused a stir but in general I think most were impressed by their bold approach to try something new.  

However, the Bill Gates/Seinfeld and subsequent ads have provoked a hilarious response from Apple - check out the new bean counter ad

Enjoy!

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