All that blarney yesterday was by way of introducing our latest social media app. There was too much background to the project (which we’ve called ReSporter) to just jump straight in.

Thinking about stuff is what we do.

Let’s try an analogy here.

Think of social media as a party. You are going alone. Don’t worry though, there will be around 100 million other people at the party. You’re bound to find someone interesting. Eventually. And if not, there’s always that Kardashian woman. Or Justin Bieber.

Now imagine if, as soon as you walk in, there were a bunch of people with a placard which read “We like what you like, talk to us.”

That would make life a whole lot easier, wouldn’t it?

This is where our thinking got us. We saw a need for a technology which really did let people focus on their interests first, regardless of where those interests were being played out. They could be on Twitter, Facebook, hell, they might even be on mySpace (cue canned laughter track).

It was about the interests.

We call the system, ReSporter. That’s because we’re going to focus on sports. For now.

And we’ve built the first App which plugs into this system. That’s called ReSporter: Football. For our UK viewers, let me clarify something: we’re talking NFL not Premiership here.

ReSporter: Football is out now and is at version one. It’s a pretty cool way of accessing what your favourite NFL players are saying. It’s a perfect, and focussed, way of getting ready for the Superbowl.

Pick your team and away you go. ReSporter: Football takes it from there. If you read something you respect or agree with, you can nominate that person to be a ReSporter. This will happen A LOT when you access the app during a game because there are A LOT of people wanting their say on things. The ReSporters with the most votes will appear more prominently.

Who knows, you might end up being a ReSporter too with people wanting to know what YOU think.

And as we’ve seen on Twitter, careers can be forged that way.

ReSporter: Football is available NOW on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch for GBP £0.69/ USD $0.99 /€0.99. Additional theme packs are available through an in-app purchase priced GBP £0.69/ USD $0.99 /€0.99.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

Steven Moffat may not like it, but when every show advertises a hashtag in order to encourage viewers to participate in Twitter discussions during shows then you know that he’s pining for days gone by.

Many shows are ripe for hearty, heat-of-the-moment discussions and it can be as much fun to follow the #masterchef tweets of (say) Mic Wright or Greg Stekelman as it is to watch the programme. Worrying about missing out on the nuanced narrative of such telly isn’t a major issue.

The reality is, whereas once we relished the chance to discuss our favourite shows around the water cooler now we don’t have to wait. Social media commentators are regularly being quoted by the mainstream media and reputations are being made. Book deals or commissions can follow from such popularity.

Even before social media made this process easily accessible, people flocked to online chat rooms to “follow their interests”. And before that there were the bulletin boards. Life was simple, if you could manage to navigate the sign-up process and deal with a 14.4k baud rate and your mum telling you to get off the damn phone.

Twitter and Facebook finally made the rest of us sit up, take notice and take part in the social conversation and we now share squintillions of messages on what we love and hate about every aspect of our daily lives. But I think that maybe we’ve lost a little of the focus which older systems afforded. I first noticed this after we released Super Twario (a mad, fun bit of self-promotion). The vast majority of users were drawn to the app not by the fact that it was a Twitter app, but because it seemed* like it was focussed on gaming. Over the year or so since its release, I have spoken with many of the users and discussed their Twitter stats. It’s quite a revealing story. Many people start using Super Twario following nobody and by having no followers. At first this behaviour puzzled me. Then it worried me. Such people would be visiting an app that was meant to make viewing their Twitter feed that little bit different. It wasn’t designed to be a serious reader but to get something from it, you did need a feed to create the little platforms for our tiny hero to jump upon. Take this away and I think you would be puzzled.

But what it did show, was the role interests (or hobbies) play in social behaviour. People were flocking to something not because of the technology involved or the fact that they knew there was a powerful online meeting room, but because they had an interest.

And they wanted to talk about that interest.

Understanding that made me look at all the people I’d introduced to Twitter and I went back and questioned them. Rigorously. I found I could split them into two camps: power users and casual users. Power users are well catered for in the social media world. Services exist by the bucket which enable them to view millions of feeds, measure interest, analyse influence and send abuse in multiple languages.

But the casual users all reported a period of bewilderment when faced with signing up.

Who did they add to their lists? How did they know who was genuine and who wasn’t? And then, with maybe a dozen or so people in their pocket, how did they focus on what brought them here in the first place: their interests?

Which brought me back to #masterchef and realising, when 1,351 people are all chattering about a dozen different things, that sometimes I wish I’d the time to set up filters for my social feed.

More importantly, it led to a bunch of us sitting down and having a what-if discussion about social media apps.

But more of that tomorrow.

*On a sort of related note: I wish we had the time to develop Super Twario more. We still get calls for it to have this feature or that and there are many ways it could go that would be of benefit to the right brand. Maybe one day we will get a week or two to have a really good look at it again.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

See that hedgehog? Come March, it may get flattened by our angry car but for now we are pleased to see its smiling face and neat buzz-cut as it shows that our work for our Resident Evil: Mercenaries social campaign.

Under the big idea of ‘The War On Horror’ Head First created a damn fine campaign to promote Capcom’s first Resident Evil game for the Nintendo 3DS (wow, SEO overload for you there folks). From packaging to advertising by way of video and apps (with hard-core programming by Worship Digital) this was a campaign that tested new waters.

And, gosh, it was a success too. Our video saw over 80,000 views in just a few weeks and the War On Horror Facebook app we designed was played over 40,000 times in the same period. The campaign boosted the official page by 160,000 (and maybe more).

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

There’s more to come too but one item I wanted to share was Frank’s radio show. Mainly because it drew some pretty nice comments (although to be fair, one commenter thought he was an asshole). You can watch the show over HERE for part one and HERE for part two.

It’s sort of leading me to think about what interests folk through social media and also why we even want to interest them. Is interactivity important in social media or do people prefer passive experiences (such as viewing or listening), leaving social media as a mainly distributive mechanism? And how important are genuine conversations (I’d have thought that was probably the most important aspect of a campaign but mostly I tend to see broadcast campaigns). All that’s food for an article on another day, I think, because games are a very different beast when it comes to advertising.

For now, take a look at some of the nice comments:

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

In addition to campaigns, both advertising and social, Head First is asked to flex a whole set of artistic muscles to produce some rather nifty imagery.

Namco Bandai’s Ace Combat series is getting great reviews and, actually, it’s no surprise. When briefed on what was going to make it special, we were even more determined than usual not to be the weak link when it came to promotion.

I think we do some rather good work here at Head First. We really do.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

It’s led to an environment where we tend to look down on the low numbers and pity them.

At least, I do.

I read this article on Brand Republic and quickly found myself drawn to the work by Tom Ridgewell for The University of Lincoln. It’s funny, to the point and, as a result, highly impactful. I know this because his stats back him up. Over a million views is impressive.

The rest of the article showcases how other universities handle their promotion work. It’s predictable, dry stuff for the most part. Information about courses, interviews with students and lecturers – not the kind of promotions that tend to get you noticed by the Press. Their numbers are less impressive.

Following on from Tom’s work they appear ineffectual; reinforcing a dry and dusty image of study.

Let’s be honest, they do reinforce a dry and dusty image of study.

But is that a bad thing?

Numbers may be the thing to chase when it comes to selling product. A social media campaign that results in a million extra units being sold is a wonderful thing (with the proviso that the cost to get those extra million justified the investment).

A million extra applicants to a university though?

I can imagine the secretary looking at a desk full of of letters.

Social media is good at reaching large numbers of people but a good campaign should reach the right people, not the right numbers.

Numbers aren’t everything.

Much as I love them and work with them on a daily basis, even I have to admit that zombies aren’t everything either.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

The original game was great. It did well and a sequel was commissioned. Which also did well but which didn’t star Frank.

But that’s ok because now Capcom are back with a game which DOES star Mr West and it brings with it the whole smart mouthed attitude and ludicrous fun you’d expect.

Our campaign for the game is going great guns (and chainsaws and lazer powered helmets). Under the banner of “Journalism With Guts”, we have launched into Facebook, YouTube (and somewhere which will be announced soon) with a series of fun videos, copy, images and activities.

In just two weeks, our approach has boosted the Facebook page to over 45,000 users (that’s from a base of under 15,000). Our initial video (over on YouTube) has had 21,000 views so why not treat yourself to a look at that before heading over to Facebook and seeing what we are up to there?

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

Good.

Not great, not the best; just good.

The understated, happy-with-my-lot side of me likes this sign. Good is, well, good enough. It doesn’t attempt to lay claim to being the key to the one drink that will make your day or give you a story to pass on to your children. It’s just good coffee. Used in the same way as we might say that we would like “a nice cup of tea” it offers a charm which is wholesome and welcome, especially when placed against the grandiose claims of the big coffee shops.

And yet, another part of me wonders what would happen if there was a second sign next to it saying “Great Coffee”. How would that affect customer behaviour? It’s one thing enjoying the folksy charm of the ‘good’ but, given a choice under the same roof where such a decision can be clearly measured, would we stick by our simple friend or raise our aspirations?

Perhaps they know their customer is just looking for the good life.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

Every now and again we like to sit back and take stock of the remarkable range of super huge brands worked on at Head First. That such global companies have been trusting their IP to us for over 10 years now means that we are getting something right.

Too often, work for these brands doesn’t bring anything else to the mix. Maybe it is because with these brands comes a large and rich resource library from which to pull high quality art. It could be a simple job to align the images and add the necessary logos before handing it back to the client as “job done”.

The strategic arm of Head First always makes us go further and add whatever value we can into a job. This ad for Ben 10 Cosmic Destruction is one such example where we sought to bring a sense of the bigger picture to the page – one not found in the asset library.

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.

Few agencies have such faith in their own creativity that they stake their own money in supporting their claims to attract attention.

Head First is one of the few.

Recently, we had an idea, not an unusual event in an agency which has dealt with a series of high profile campaigns in its ten year history.

The idea was, if not simple, certainly straightforward.

We decided to design, create, release and publicise an App for the iPhone with the express undertaking that it get noticed. The App had to fulfil two main criteria: firstly it had to be true to our strong roots in gaming and secondly that it prove gaming is the best choice for keeping consumers engaged with any kind of advertising message.

Why gaming?

People never grow up. Too often, games are derided as being “for children”. In terms of coverage they are rarely afforded the seriousness given to other forms of entertainment. Whilst films can be lauded as an acceptable pleasure for all ages (even for the films aimed mostly at a younger market) games are left to the special interest magazines. In place of respect, more often than not, we get disbelief. Whilst movie stars are interviewed on prime time TV, games developers are largely ignored.

And this despite the clear (and considerable) financial benefits the games industry brings to society.

As an advertising agency with experience in the games industry, Head First know this all too well. Rather than being courted by other industries for its ability to engage with a consumer base that starts at age 0 and goes all the way up 100, know we are often categorised as ‘niche’. Just like gaming is often categorised as ‘niche’. Of all the reasons why you should choose Head First, the most relevant stems from our understanding of unifying such diverse consumer groups.

Yet ignore it, fight or or puzzle over it as we may, people never grow up. The thrills we enjoy as children, as we play innocently and wholeheartedly, never go away. Even as adults, weighed down by responsibility, we take every opportunity to indulge in play.

This is nothing new of course, these ideas are no pearls of wisdom.

And therein lies the paradox and the surprise. For when a game like Angry Birds comes out, it’s a shock that everybody and her grandmother wants to play it at home, on the train, in the park. Angry Birds is a beautifully crafted game to be sure, but it’s nothing new. Such games are the rule in the games industry, not the exception.

It is, in short, through games that not only do we first learn to, well, learn, but also how we continue to soak up information. We are at our most receptive when we are playing.

For Head First, tapping into that process isn’t so much a question of why, as it is why not.

That’s not to say adding a game element to advertising needs to mean making it into a platform game or a 3D Doom-a-like. Gaming means anything that is interactive, engaging and rewarding and with these three elements the approach, like that of Blues music, is endless. Head First could have designed Super Twario in a hundred different ways; what was imperative, however, was that it be engaging and rewarding in ways that Twitter, marvellous as it is, is not.

Because of this, Super Twario’s design had to incorporate these key game ideals whilst balancing that other essential part of the jigsaw: the concept of social networking.

Why Twitter?

On the face of it the question might be: why not Twitter? After all, as markets go, tapping into one that has an estimated 190 million users* isn’t a bad market to head for.

But consider that out of that number, Super Twario must take only those owning an iPhone and the number drops. By how much nobody knows but given the strong early adopter presence and, shall we say, a more independent edge to many of the people using the service and we must allow for the possibility that a good chunk of the audience will prefer Android over iOS when it comes to smart phones, if they choose a smart phone at all that is.

Then too there is the nature of Twitter. As poster boys for social networking goes, it’s up there with the best of them and is undoubtedly the fastest moving of them all. If any product already fulfilled the criteria of “interactive, engaging and rewarding” it would be Twitter.

Twitter’s approach, however, fitted perfectly into the game plan. Head First views advertising as a social, not anti-social, medium. Whilst the answer for many agencies seems to be ever more invasive media placements, Head First champion the pillars of social marketing as a way to engage with consumers. The company sees more value in a conversation than a decree and, as everybody can plainly see, the days of advertising as authority are certainly diminished.

Brands across the world are waking up to this, some more successfully than others, and whilst promotion will never be a truly level playing field, the rise of social marketing has given voice to the more creative and inspired communicators out there.

And that voice must be creative, it must be inspired in order to stand a chance of communicating value and benefit to a world turned cynical at the very idea of marketing.

Head First has shown how impact is born from creating products that engage with consumers. With a strong concept and no marketing spend, Super Twario remained talked about every few minutes for over a week, sent over 50,000 viewers to the Super Twario YouTube channel, was written about by most major commentators across the world, stayed in the What’s Hot section for over a month and inspired Apple to feature it in the App Store.

But more than that, it created fans. A base of people who are interested in talking, in using Twitter for the first time, in finding people who share their interests or any of the many pursuits that draw people together. That’s what creating an online community is about. Imagine if Super Twario chose to take a specific theme and create a community around that. A community that talked about their love of horror or sport or films in which their character could jump around and search out other people to talk to. Such a Super Twario world could have brand spokespeople in who would engage with anybody interested. To talk with rather than preach to.

If we can have such success within such constraints and unify such a diverse consumer base, imagine what such an approach can do for you.

* source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

©2012 HEAD BLOG. All Rights Reserved.