From the monthly archives:

August 2008

It’s friday afternoon and I just gotta get this out of my head. Have you ever wondered why you enjoy having a cup of coffee?

Don’t know about you, but many times a day I just feel I gotta get a cup of coffee. The same feeling occurs on a thursday and friday afternoon, but this time it’s a beer that signals the neurons in my brain. 

Basically what happens is your brain probably signals that it wants you to relax and the answer is a cup of coffee (or tea or smoothies) since thats what you usually do when you relax in the middle of the day at work. A strong association. It’s funny cause I remember my first Beer or my first cup of Coffee, and the experience wasn’t a nice one. Instead it was rather disgusting. They both tasted like shit.

This is what we gotta do when we create communication. We have to associate things people don’t necessary like with something they do like. This way we’ll move those associations onto the brand/product/object that we market. 

I’ve taken part in creating many Flash sites, but have always tried to make sure people don’t have to wait for the experience. Today, many price winners on competitions like Cannes Lions take forever to load. So, when you are part of the jury, the agencies instead post a video that showcases the campaigns. This way agencies make sure that judges in Cannes, Clio, Epica, Eurobest, NYF, LIA, DA&D and others don’t have to wait for that super duper flash site to load. Basically, the experience is totally overlooked.

So, do you think you would enjoy that Espresso of yours if it involved a wait that was measured in % and took 2 minutes one time and 4 the next and then 3.

 

 

{ 1 comment }

I presented an idea in front of the board members of a leading Swedish company a while ago when one of them suddenly, quite downgrading, commented on the lack of history in terms of best practise comparison in my case.

“How can you even suggest an idea that isn’t supported with at least 5 years of data” – said the not so Internet friendly gentleman in the grey suit.

My answer was of course that Facebook and YouTube didn’t even exist 5 years ago. We have to think different, it’s a new world that doesn’t go by the same business rules that’s been around for ages.

The grey suit then replied – “Yes, but the service you’ve told us about is already out there”

“So was MySpace…”

Two days ago Dave Morin, the company’s Senior Platform Manager twittered that Facebook has signed up 100 000 000 users. ReadWriteWeb, that made me notice the article, suggests that Facebook has fallen behind in terms of innovation.

  Hmm. That was my own thought about Facebook a couple of month ago, but lately I actually think the Facebook service has matured the last couple of month and it seems they are starting to get their act together again. There is definetely a change in user behaviour. In february and march this year, Facebook felt quite dead but now it’s revitalised thanks to small but significant changes. Most of these changes consist of usability rather than any specific applications.

So, if applications were the things that drove the growth of Facebook, i think usability and simplicity will be the things that makes Facebook persist.

With 100 000 000 users you ought find some good ways to earn money huh? Google did with adwords. Facebook has tried some different things altough I don’t think we’ve seen the money machine yet.

Congratulations Facebook on a fantastic job.

{ 0 comments }

FontStruct is the ultimate playground if you wanna get into creating your own fonts.

Online and all! Go.

 

{ 1 comment }

The other day I had to switch phone numbers since I got myself an iPhone 3G. The new number is +46 70 654 90 10.

The fact that this post will be picked up by LinkedInPlaxo, Friendfeed, Twingly, Facebook, Jaiku, Tumblr and probably another 20 different social networking services connected to my RSS feed makes me hope that people actually will write down my new phone number.

Why don’t you call if you have something fun to speak about.

 

{ 0 comments }

Back in 1997 I worked with financial information online. That’s when I first met Mattias Miksche, back then at ETrade, today CEO on Stardoll.

Today ReadWriteWeb made me notice the fact that Nielsen Online has published a study of online Britons under age 23 and their favorite sites. Swedish Stardoll is right up there on top! Great work!

 

{ 3 comments }

I was reading Mashable about Michael Phelps having one million Facebook fans dressed up with a Sports Illustrated cover with the 8 gold medalist on it. I’m really sorry for my blunt humor. But I could not resist retouching Mr Phelps a little bit.

A psychologist would probably say I was stressed due to the fact that Sweden has totally failed in the Olympics this year. I say, I’m just having fun.

 

{ 0 comments }

My scotch whisky blog keeps on jumping back and forth from page 2 to page 9 on the global Google.com search engine when you search for ‘whisky’ and it makes me go mad.

I’ve tried every trick in the (SEO) book to keep it steady on that second page since that drives about 1-2000 unique visitors a day. Then today I found the SEO pyramid made by Matt McGee. Now I’m filled with confidence. I will succeed!

You should head over there and climb it.

ps. While you’re at it. Take some time and visit Coach John Wooden’s pyramid of success. That one is a chocolate bar!

 

{ 6 comments }

Igår hände något som var avgörande för hur vi i Sverige använder Internet i framtiden. Susanna Kallur startade på 110m häck…och föll. 

Nu var det inte själva loppet i sig som var förändringen jag talar om, utan istället det faktum att SVT.se/OS’s liveström gick omkull på grund av den stora trafiktillströmningen. Innan det här hände har vi sett hur Expressen, Aftonbladet och andra tidningar gått omkull när stora nyheter har drivit in Svenska folket på nyhetssajterna på jakt efter senaste nytt. Men nu var det alltså Webb TV’n på SVT som skapade masshysteri.

När Peking OS är över kommer Svenska folket minnas ett OS med fåtal medaljer och desto fler misslyckanden. Beteendeförändringen däremot kommer man inte komma ihåg, den bara hände.

 

 

{ 0 comments }

Foreign.se is getting all dressed up

August 18, 2008

Right now we’re rebuilding Foreign.se, the website of the digital communication company that I was a part in founding more than 6 years ago.
While it’s down we’ve placed all our work on Flickr. Thought it was a nice opportunity to send my blogreaders that way too. So, head over there to see a selection of what I’ve worked with through [...]

Read the full article →

IKEA makes relevant use of web-TV

August 18, 2008

It makes me warm to see that companies out there are starting to utilize the possibilities that comes with social media. IKEA has definitely understood how to make good use of web-TV as they started their own IKEA.SE/TV where you are invited to upload your own interior decoration tips.
What’s even better is the fact that they’ve stuck [...]

Read the full article →

‘Actroids’ will be the puppets of future art directors

August 17, 2008

 
  
I know. This girl isn’t really competing with real actresses…yet. But in 10-15 years time, powerful computers, 3D software as easy as textpad and downloadable models with different voices to go will become the must have tools for every Art Director out there who is looking to fulfil his/her new idea for a TV commercial.
Oh, forgot. There [...]

Read the full article →

Scott Goodson’s tip on how to select an advertising agency

August 17, 2008

Scott Goodson, founder of Strawberry Frog posted a little piece on how marketeers should do when they are about to select a new advertising agency.
“Better agencies are not suppliers, they are more akin to business consultants and, as such, partners for your business. I stress partnership because the better communications firms are focused more on [...]

Read the full article →
Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes