crab creative

January 11, 2012

We're hiring - Digital Designers, Creative Technologists, Digital Natives, Content Generators - Bloggers

We are looking for individuals with passion, energy and a love of all things digital. Digital Designers, Creative technologists and Content Generators.

Get in touch with:

1. Links to your folio / work / sites

2. Social Feeds

3. Blog and or blogs you contribute to

4. CV and covering letter

Please email your information to andy@crabcreative.com (no agencies please)

Posted by Costas Michalia

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December 20, 2011

Using Skype to talk to your consumers - If the dots join

The migration of human beings creates the need to find cheap communication channels. As an ethnic minority I have become (apart from the fact I work in digital) an early adopter of cheap / free comms channels. Mainly to speak with family across the globe. Christmas is a combination of speaking to cousins in LA; Mother in Cyprus; Uncles in Canada; brother in Australia and so on.

Being able to Skype family and see their faces is a wonderful thing. I do love the web (a subject for a future post 'why I love the web'). Every family has their routines, idiosyncrasies, traditions at various times of the year that create and evoke memories. The smell of a certain dish being cooked, the laughter around the dinner table, the age worn decorations. These little reminders are powerful they make us feel, remember, smile...

Diwali (The festival of Light) a magical time for many Indian families and a celebration that many other cultures enjoy and take part in, we spoke to several Indian families and begun to understand the traditions and elements that combined to make Diwali special for them uniquely. We filmed several elements from the making of clay 'Deeps' to the sharing of food and decorations.

Knowing that speaking to loved ones during the festival is important we wanted to produce a video that encapsulated those feeling of family, sharing and most of all evoke those memories personal to each individual. We were keen to be as true to the traditional elements of the festival while still making the film and associated mechanisms feel valid.

The banner space on Skype's page would appear to the user - who could then activate the full film and watch the short clip.

In addition the user could choose to send a Diwali greeting to a loved one.

Obviously the user could share the message across a variety of social channels.

(download)

If the dots join - Understand where your consumers / users are, understand what they want need and then provide content that resonates. The graphic above outlines crab's workflow. To view the film click here.

Posted by Costas Michalia

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November 11, 2011

Getting your audience to help your brand do a little good

There are far more able, smart and well informed individuals than me working in this field, but the premise seems simple enough, chose a day, just one and don't eat meat for that day. The side effect of your decision is a little less Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. We worked with the Provamel team and existing footage to produce a short film which expressed the idea and extended it a little further. By liking the page Provamel along with Tree Aid will plant a tree. Win for Tree Aid, win for Provamel and most importantly win for the planet and you.

This post covers the thinking and work involved in developing the idea, editing the existing footage and producing the Facebook tab. As with all our work we start by understanding the brand, the goals and the audience. The team at Crab investigated several charities and the work they were involved in. We tested several user journeys and outlined how the various existing content could fit in and where that content would need adjusting and or creating.

We tested various incentive ideas and mechanisms aimed at increasing share and value for the user.

We tested several user journeys and began to wireframe the technical requirements

Some early sketches - working on the app behaviour

While we experimented with usability and worked on the core functionality, the team started to develop visuals. We wanted to create a sympathetic tone of voice and create as much visual feedback for the user as possible without being too 'gimmicky'. This would in turn encourage users to share the page and potentially discover more about the brand and the charity.

Initial early concepts

The team at Crab are as concerned with how something works as they are with the idea and how an app or web page looks. In the digital sphere how something works or does not is vital. In many cases great ideas have been wasted by poorly executed code, bad planning, terrible user interfaces and so on. The Crab team both creatively and technically have a healthy understanding of each others area of expertise and more importantly a respect for the skills required - That's not to say we don't argue ;-) alot.

Alec and Whitfield wanted to develop the page so that users on mobile devices inclusive of iOS devices could interact with the animations and experience the user feedback adding value to their interaction with Provamel and Tree Aid. The images and information below refer to the technical / code aspect of the project.

This is a snapshot of the Cubic Bezier code. This particular code generates a CubicBezier object from four 2D vectors, two representing the start and finish points and two representing the curve anchors. When each bird takes flight, we generate a randomized CubicBezier object for each bird and use it to plot the birds flight path from its starting position to the target tree.

This is a shot of the birds flyTo function. We use this when a user plants a tree or views their existing tree to make the birds fly. The code iterates over each bird “actor” in memory and generates a path for it to play using its current position and the position of the target tree. The finishing position is randomly deviated slightly so that the birds don’t all land in the same spot.

This is showing two things, the tail end of the code that loads the tree animation sprites and the top half of the loadPage function which loads a particular page of trees from the webserver. The code comments should explain what is going on clear enough.

This is a screenshot of the birds as they are taking flight. This modified version of the page is using a HTML5 Canvas to visualize the birds flight paths. Each of these paths is random and will be different each time the birds fly.

This is an example of the animation sprites we use to animate the trees growing and the birds flying.

Refining the idea

An initial worked up visual of the app in situ

Wall post promoting the activity

If you want to support the activity and plant your own tree just click the link https://bitly.com/ProvamelMove ment

Posted by Costas Michalia

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October 21, 2011

Yummy Face - Alpro goes all Augmented Reality to get down with the Kids.

Working with the teams at Alpro HQ, Alpro Netherlands and 1MD, we designed and produced an augmented reality app that would support both in-home players and the experiential activity.
First of all, we experimented with different ways of using the pack. The idea was to make the pack the focus of the game play, so that the users experienced the product through the spectrums of sound, taste, and sight. The original concepts used the act of drinking through a straw, and the subsequent noise an empty packs makes, to activate the augmented reality. Lots and lots of 'sucking and blowing' was involved here ;-)

We discovered that a sealed drinks carton does not amplify the sound. In addition, the continued sucking causes the pack to collapse due to it being air tight. Great idea for a cinema style drinking cup - perhaps one for the future.
We investigated several other channels - using branded cups, inflating the pack and stamping on it to activate the experience on screen or drumming on the pack. Finally, we settled on using the packs to create a visual effect on screen via pack recognition.

When a user holds the pack to the camera the flavour is represented in AR (Augmented Reality).

Various tests, lots of lines of code, numerous empty drinks packs and countless cups of coffee later...

From our first tests (Yes, he does look tired)...

...through lots of refining, tweaking and testing...

...we arrived at the finished article is here.

(download)

Posted by Costas Michalia

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October 6, 2011

Simplicity is about truly understanding

Posted by Costas Michalia

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September 22, 2011

Extending sampling reach with digital

Taste or rather the perceived taste of a food tends to hold consumers back, from trying a product.

How often have you heard or perhaps said 'No thank you' when offered something you have never tried before simply because you felt it would taste odd, bad, disgusting....insert your personal preference.

Alpro has several great tasting products - fresh and surprisingly creamy, while being light and great tasting. My personal fave is their chocolate dessert. Working with Alpro and ID we sampled several products at several festivals this summer (a very wet summer). Alpro set several interesting challenges:

1. Sample both at Breakfast and afternoon
2. Extend reach by engaging the users after the event
3. Increase the value of that engagement during and post event
4. Collect data

We used several online channels including Twitter, Facebook and social bookmarking sites to make festival goers aware of the activity and support the team onsite. The overall aim was to introduce consumers to Alpro.

Using a Facebook Photo Tagging Mechanic to generate likes. Once a user had tagged their image it then posted to their wall exposing their friends and hopefully like minded individuals to Alpro. Click here to see previous posts pertaining to the FB Tagging Mech.

In addition to the Tagging activity we filmed two short films one film click here to view a traditional taste test with Emma Willis (Big Brother) and another more esoteric video which we then incorporated into Alpro's Facebook landing page Click here to view the video and here to view the landing page.

We collected users emails and once the film was edited and placed online both in Facebook and Alpro's YouTube Channel we emailed the filmed consumers an invitation to view the video

We also included a photo album for those consumers who did not make the final cut of the video. We invited those consumers to tag themselves in the album.

Several consumers also used the tagged images as their profile picture - again extending reach, engagement and brand value.

Posted by Costas Michalia

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August 26, 2011

A little Friday afternoon play

Alex likes to get around.

Posted by Costas Michalia

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August 5, 2011

Crab does Big Chill with Alpro

The Crab Team chilling at Big Chill with AlproHelena, Alec, Irrum, Will & Simon in the bowl - Will looks a little too excited!

Posted by Costas Michalia

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August 4, 2011

ROI, Value, DJ's, Digital and Experiential

ROI, ROI, ROI, We need to measure and understand the value of that activity, we need to extend the reach of that activity. Common statements made by clients who are trying to do more with less. 'Value' is not a dirty word. We and by 'we', I mean the creative services, from Ad Agencies, Digital through to PR we must seek more measurable, more concrete ways to extract the true value of the communication, deliver more and be open and transparent with clients about numbers.

I am amazed at some agencies explanation of numbers somehow every campaign they run reaches 100,000 million billion trillion people - ok ok I know that is an huge exaggeration but isn't that the point?

Let me make this clear - it is ok to experiment and it is ok to admit that to the client. It is ok to say we are not sure what will happen here are three scenarios from past experience this might happen or this. It is ok to fail just do it fast.

What is a Fan worth, does a million likes on your Facebook page of non-engaged users mean / value more than 100 über engaged users? I can provide valid arguments for both schools of thought. Comscore and hundreds of other agencies including Crab are experimenting, building, testing various theories and tools. Where does this leave us and what is my point? A million über engaged fans is best. It gives you the best value, the best return and the best conversation. But it is not easy to do attract that many users nor is it easy to continually keep them interested. Especially if you are not a Coke or Nike. So how do you keep an audience engaged with your story, brand or product, for more than the 30 seconds it takes that user to queue at your stand and or event to receive his or her sample?
Several models exist which can be used to predict the behaviour of users in such scenarios. 'Game Theory' determines that strategic situations or games in which individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others. We can determine a user is more likely to be engaged if he or she played a game or challenge with a group. The dynamics of the group would create a value around the game which in-turnre-enforces the brands value and the likelihood those users to seek out the brand online.
We are complex animals and our needs vary vastly, there are however several basic needs states that we can use to pull a person to the product, service and or brand. Once engaged the users experience must reflect the need state that attracted them in the first place.

Key Need States (in no particular order)

1. Knowledge
2. Utility
3. Reward
4. Entertainment

We are applying this methodology to several projects we are running currently with several experiential, PR and Media partners. One such project is a collaboration with the experiential agency i2i. The online element can be found here.

The following images are from the offline experiential activity:

Consumers can practice and learn how to use the app on the iPad pods.

Sampling and interaction with consumers is at the heart of the offline activity. The DJ head to head challenge enables consumers to 'play' onsite and challange friends this experience is then continued within the Maoam Facebook page where users can win prizes and challenge each other.

The large touchscreens enable the audience to participate and to support their friend while he or she is taking part in the head to head challenge

Close up of the Maoam Music Mixer App in action

The set re-enforces the brands playfulness and fun

User selecting their sounds and effects for their mix

Getting the right team is so important.

As the campaign progresses we will keep an eye on the numbers, the noise we generate online and the sentiment we will then try to map that to sales charts and extrapolate a value.

Posted by Costas Michalia

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July 19, 2011

Maoam Music Mixer - Experiential and digital in musical harmony

Working closely with i2i and Maoam teams we developed the Music Mix App concept. We wanted to explore a variety of features and effects to prove the concept had merit and was engaging enough to proceed.
We built several test platforms and refined the idea with consumer testing. We also used this resource to test the look and feel. Obviously we wanted to reflect the brand while being true to the original concept and ticking all the user / consumer need states.
First stage sketches and then final development of the male avatar head. Within the app users can change skin colour select hair or a variety of hats and accessories which in turn can also be tweaked by the user.