Hasta La Ideas

I’m here in New York at our Click NY conference on digital creativity. Our chair, Michael Lebowitz of Big Spaceship (above) has just kicked things off: regular updates through the day

Our first speaker is Chloe Gottlieb who is executive creative director, interaction design at R/GA. She’s talking about the importance of data, how data is what really makes things like Nike+ come alive, or AKQA’s Fiat EcoDrive or NIke Head2Head which allows American football players to comapre their performance with others’.

It’s about making data more human – tracking grocery receipts over time to give people info about shopping habits for example. How can we get a better sense of how much energy our house is using? How can we track our emotions?

Some good points from the audience – isn’t entering data a chore? How do we make a system that collects useful data without the user having to do it? Also, we have so many things to keep trackof now – FaceBook, Nike+ etc etc, isn’t it a problem that we get bored very quickly? How do you ensure people stick with it? Chloe says it’s by thinking of it like software – continually issuing updates and new features to keep people interested. She also says it’s about designing the data – visualising it so that it’s easy to follow and inetresting to look at.

My other question would be – how much data do we want to divulge? Are we giving up too many details of our lives to corporations?

Good point – Chloe says, yes it’s an opportunity for brands, but data can be used to solve bigger problems such as carbon footprints and water usage. If we know more about what people are doing, we may be able to effect change better.

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We now have a panel discussion on developing digital products – so if agencies are developing digital products, is that still advertising?

Lars Bastholm of Ogilvy makes the point the MadMen is the most time-shifted show on TV. Even ad people don’t want to watch TV ads anymore…

Vivian Rosenthal of Tronic makes the point that, although clients want agencies to make digital products, they want them to generate revenue also. Do they need to do that or can they be something you give back to consumer in order to forge a relationship?

Companies are starting to realise that the power is with us – the consumers – not them. Putting out platforms that people can adapt to their own needs and ends.

Another new development, Lebowitz notes, is agencies producing their own products, without clients. Half of what he shows to potential clients is not commercial work but projects developed by Big Spaceship for their own research.

Lars says it’s the ‘reverse field of dreams” theory. No longer, “if you build it, they will come” but, “build it, see if they come, then go further with it”.

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Lots of tweeting in the room – see here

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We Should Do It All onstage now. You might remember their work from our Annual this year (they did the New Practices architecture exhibition signage) – check out their work here