Make Things People Want & The Hollow Factory

john v willshiresmithery LTD

@willsh

Bonjour

7 years at PHD Media in London, latterly As Chief Innovation Officer

let me take you back to the Glasgow 2012 olympics...

North korea and south korea have been enemies for

over 70 years

so It’s a probably not a good idea to mix their flags up

Merde.

Wednesday 15th July, Hampden Park, Glasgow

North Korea Vs Columbia

NOT HAPPY

REALLY not happy

The players come back out, eventually.

North korea win 2-0.

and then, the strangest of apologies is issued...

It wasn't a real flag, it was a flag on a video graphic

Paul deighton, locog chief executive

“”

Real not Real

eh?

this story tells ustwo things

1. Scottish people aren’t afraid of north korea

2. digital and physical aren’t different ‘things’...

all our metaphors are broken. The network is not a space, and

it’s not time, it is some other kind of dimension entirely.

@jamesbridlehttp://booktwo.org/notebook/sxaesthetic/

“

”

all our metaphors are broken. The network is not a space, and

it’s not time, it is some other kind of dimension entirely.

@jamesbridlehttp://booktwo.org/notebook/sxaesthetic/

“ ”

let’s think about Product, Brand and media metaphors...

The factory makesan end product...

end product implies stasis, or even death

We have made a thing, and it is finished

products today are never finished. They’re just platforms for people to build on...

“A brand is simply a collection of perceptions

in the mind of the consumer”

Feldwick, 1991

hey, let’s find out what these perceptions are and

put them in an onion...

if your brand is a bit shit, coat it with other stuff too

Oh look, it’s a bruce Lee Nokia N96

A brand today is more like a bittorrent file...

transmission model

http://mediasocialchange.net/2011/05/06/metaphors-of-media-and-social-change/Prof. Mark Hobart, SOAS, on the dominant media metaphor

a mechanical metaphor, the infamous “

”

media:let’s shout

at people

media:a rented

home for a fixed idea...

make product efficiently

innovation as incremental improvement

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes.

Wikipedia

make brand vaguely interesting& buy loads of media

make product efficiently

“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads”

Jeff Hammerbacher

””

we need to find new metaphors...

media is the connective

tissue of societyclay shirky, cognitive surplus

“

”

media is a vehicle for knowledge

cesar hidalgoMIT media lab

“”

Media is hybrid, just like buildings, devices,

spaces, events etc.

Nothing is all-digital any more that it’s all-physical.

Dan Hill, @cityofsound

“

”

media is product is brand is media is product is brand is media is product is

brand is media is product is brand is media is product is brand is media is

product is brand is media is product is brand is media is product is brand is media is product is brand is media is

product is brand is media is product is brand is media is product is brand is

we need new metaphors to

deal with what comes next

1. more clients will be making things locally

rebalancing economies towards

manufacture

“reshoring”

http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/the-long-journey-home-why-manufacturing-is-returning-to-the-usa.html

shipping costs up?labour costs as % down?

Then you bring it back home

2. people care more about what they buy

The internet is biased towards fact.  People don’t care about your brand mythology, they care about where your product is made and what’s in it.

douglas rushkoff

“

”

3. the things are... ALIVE!!!!

SPIMES: Material Instantiations of an immaterial system

Bruce Sterling

“”

Physical things directly connected to their metadata about use and constructioN Matt Jones, Berg“

”

media ships as part of every product

Dan Williams

@iamdanw

“My Tuna is

a spime”

the infrastructure is evolving quickly

it will onlyget a lot,

lotstranger

The NEw yorker, 1946

1. Clients will be closer to making things...

2. people will look more closely at the things they buy...

3. Things contain media for agencies to create for...

but what do clients & agencies

know about making things?

you are the

thingsgood

bill hicks on marketers

ruiners of all

C3podemeanshimselffor a washingmachine

really?

The Star Wars Holiday Special looks classy in comparison

you are the

thingsgoodruiners of all

though actually...

people stoppedcaring in

1999

so what is actually being ruined here?

WHY RUIN your brand WITH STAR WARS?

there is nothing in here that’s interesting

get me Darth Vadar

you are the

thingsgoodruiners of all

So how might you go about it instead?

world buildingworld borrowingless more

the labour theory of value

developed by adam smith...

...and later by karl marx

modern economics:

the value of a thing is determined by what one

is willing to give up to obtain the thing

The labour theory of value

the value of something is determined by the labour that went into its production

Field Notes

£0.99 £3.33per padper pad

We’d rather buy this world...

...than this world

“marketing is world building. With unlimited bandwidth we can now show you the world.”

@TobyBarnes

To Do a common thing

brings successuncommonly well

henry john heinz

I’m really interested in the making of ‘it’ -where the making is part of the story of the ‘it’...

thomas heatherwick

“”

Marx was half right...

it’s not about the

http://www.voyoslo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Means-of-Production-PLAYFUL12.006.jpg

meansof production

it’s about themeaningin production

layer upon

layer upon

layer upon

layer upon

layer

http://vimeo.com/43442146

Picture: Greg Petchkovsky

Labour theory of brand value:

make every product with the infinite canvas of the internet in mind

make

things

peoplewant

makethingspeoplewant

Mercijohn@smithery.co@willshhttp://smithery.cohttp://shop.smithery.co