Hive Health

Sitting in a coffee shop, working on a crowd-sourcing brief for a client, wanted to share some thinking with you all.

My favourite example of an amazing crowd-sourced collaborative effort was the translation of Facebook by its own users. The collective brain of some of its 500 million worldwide users has translated every phrase on its pages into over 50 languages.  You may have even taken part.

It reminded me of this great film that Olly had shared with us about the fundamental motivations to drive us to behave and perform. Crowd-sourcing totally taps into these fundamentals: a collective purpose, to provide mastery, to do something for the better. Enjoy!

I had the good fortune to meet a gentleman called Joel Garreau this week. We were both presenting at a Global pharma conference on the exponential explosion of technological change.

Joel is the author of ‘Radical evolution’ and he’s also a wonderful storyteller. The story of telekinetic monkeys was particularly fascinating. In a nutshell, scientists have managed to train a monkey to control a robot purely through brain impulses – quite incredible, but hearing the story in Joel’s words made it even more captivating.

I was intrigued to know how Joel had ended up doing what he does and how he discovers these incredible stories. “It’s all about following confusion” he told me. He went on to explain his theory….. when you hear of something that sounds a little confusing, there are two possibilities:

1)      Either you’re a being a little dim in not understanding

2)      Or, you’re not alone and really this is quite difficult to understand

When these things occur, rush headlong into the confusion and find out more.

I like this philosophy, and running an innovation business, it’s one we have to embrace and be fearless about every day. Thanks Joel and a pleasure to meet you.

Buzzing.

That’s how I felt after 2 hours hearing from the gurus of Facebook and Google. They have changed our world and they will continue to do so. Search and social media. Without them brands and their web-presence are increasingly irrelevant.

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

The power of this mission is extraordinary. The passion of those that work there is contagious. There are 400 million active users. Returning regularly. Sharing their favourite things with those they know.  Did you know that your propensity to click on an article or join a group if you know that one of your friends has, is multiplied around 80 times? The joy of “Your friend likes this”. And it’s free! Community networks and social media are more enormous and more powerful than any media that has gone before. Social media can turn a marketing monologue into a consumer dialogue. It can give a brand talkability, shareability. Ignore it and miss out.

Google = Search.

A concept that the global population is very used to. But, the future of search is making the past look antiquated. It’s mobile and almost human in nature reflecting voice, eyes, skin and location by using speaker, camera, touch-screen and GPS to replace the Google search bar.

“Not being top of search in Google is like the modern day equivalent of being out of stock.”  This comment came from one of the most senior marketers at one of the top pharmaceutical companies. And it really stuck in my mind. How often has search been the last thing on the list?

So what can we learn from all this? A lot. Search and Social Media – If no one can find your brand and no one likes your brand, your brand has a problem. But on the plus side, the opportunities these create are endless. Thank you Google and Facebook for changing the world and making it a better and more connected place.

I always want more art in my life. Maybe it’s because I can’t draw. Maybe it’s because my eyes get hungry the way most stomachs do.

Last year saw me being surrounded by more art than ever before and inspired by some extraordinary artists.

Did you see the Antony Gormley exhibition at the Hayward last year? I never went in, but loved each walk over Waterloo Bridge, seeing another isolated statue hidden on a roof top. Inspired, we launched our first Web 2.0 patient site with a mannequin installation around the client’s head offices. Andrew has magnanimously offered to let us keep one here at National House. Thank you so much!

Lichenstein’s Pop Art inspired another great campaign. Characters whose communications were limited to thought bubbles, became the patient voice in the HIV campaign we built.

We’re now working with a famous animation artist in New Jersey – my favourite bit of the day is our lunchtime review meetings. It’s a true art-science collision project. Left Brain. Right Brain. Love it. Satiates eye-hunger like nothing else.