Archive for Relationships

Bandcamp Defender and brand personality

// February 25th, 2010 // 0 Comments // Branding, Music, Relationships

I may have passed Physics I and Mathematics I and gone on to complete a science degree if it weren’t for Donkey Kong, Asteroids and my favourite University coffee-shop distraction, Defender. Defender was insanely fast compared to other games of the time, and one slip of the greasy, warm joystick or buttons could send you flying into a lunar mountain, crashing into an alien spacecraft or wiping out whole crowds of innocent civilians (I wonder if it was the first example of a graphically violent video game?)

With clients I’m often talking about the importance of sprinkling a little personality into all things you offer customers. Many new brand owners are too worried about harming their brand equity and won’t add any personality. Please! Unless you really want to establish yours as a brand without any personality, best to get started experimenting early, when you have relatively few customers and less to risk.

Too much personality can be bad thing, but no personality at all is always worse.

Below is a beautiful example of a nugget of personality added to a brand experience without risking any damage to the brand. Online music publishing platform Bandcamp offers some great reports and charts that’ll show you how many people have viewed, listened to and purchased music from the artists you manage on Bandcamp. For a bit of personality in an otherwise dry series of reports and graphs, if you click the right link, you get to play Defender instead. Here’s a video I prepared earlier.

Bandcamp Defender from bigyahu on Vimeo.

You stay within the Bandcamp website while playing Defender, so there’s no risk of losing the user. And these days, there’s no longer any risk of upsetting people if you manage to slide your attacking spaceship into a crowd of tiny, 8bit outlines of people. To reward the early-adopter users who discover Defender for themselves, Bandcamp deliberately didn’t make a big deal of this in a blog post or a news release.

A little bit of personality goes a long way!

My wish for 2010: a little bit of Shhh please

// January 13th, 2010 // 0 Comments // My life, Relationships

I’m back from a longer summer break than I had planned, due partly to the irresistably seductive charms of a particular beach house but also because my wife Melissa being diagnosed with breast cancer. Elsewhere in the world, as the Copenhagen climate conference showed how self-interest and greed still drive humanity on a global scale, James Cameron’s Avatar3D inspired me to renew my determination to fight it as individuals, whether or not we think we can win.

In other words, it has been a time of mixed blessings.

Thanks to everyone who’s expressed their well-wishes and support. I never realised that it’s not just about being polite — it really does help. Thanks, and I will repay those favours. We’re walking in a bubble of love created by friends and family. It’s a wonderful thing to be reminded how lucky we are to know you.

Melissa and Boy8 ham it up on New Year's Eve in Byron Bay

Melissa and Boy8 ham it up at New Years Eve, Byron Bay

On to other news.

Regular readers may remember Miles Campbell from our co-presentation at last year’s Interesting South conference in Sydney. Borrowing from the iconic Australian film The Castle, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Miles is an Ideas Man. His latest idea is a real corker, inspired by his frustration with organised religion vs spirituality, and by the increasingly cluttered lives we find ourselves drawn into.

Miles’ idea is beautifully simple, memorable and in my experience, useful for anyone who seeks peace, clarity and balance in their lives. It’s called ‘Shhh’ and after participating in a few pilot sessions last year, I’m looking forward to seeing Shhh go public and grow in 2010.

I had offered to help Miles with explaining Shhh, but really, he’s done such a good job on the following description, I have very little to offer. Instead, please enjoy Miles’ explanation, since it’s clear, interesting, and strikes just the right balance between proscriptive and flexible, formal and casual, serious and funny:

What is Shhh?

Shhh is born from the belief that there is meaningful experience to be discovered when a group of people share a space and are still and silent.

Many people miss out on meaningful reflective times that are created in silent ceremonies, due to the fact that they don’t share the history, beliefs, culture or practices that are part and parcel of established ritual. You can’t really participate in these times without ‘buying in’ at some level with the expressed tradition that is hosting the event.

By choosing a name which can’t be mistaken for being the expression of any particular belief system, and by banning the writing or speaking of any words during the official gathering, the ceremony is protected from any particular personality, culture, religion, belief, ego or agenda.

Anyone from any background can happily come and share the silent space with others, and be confident that they will not be expected to listen to, judge or defend anyone’s views or beliefs.

The drink and chat afterwards provides the opportunity for those who wish to enjoy the company of the friends or strangers that they have just been silent with. Some will likely discuss what the experience meant to them. This is fine, but it isn’t a part of the Shhh ceremony, it is just people talking.

Rules:

1. Be silent (that is kind of the point)
2. Be still (so you don’t distract or annoy others)
3. No kids for the time being (see 1, and 2)
4. Don’t take it too seriously, it’s just a bunch of people not talking

So, that’s Shhh — the most minimalist and individual ceremonial expression of spirituality I’ve ever seen. Interested in learning more about Shhh and how you can get involved? For the time-being Shhh invitations are limited to like-minded friends of those who attended the pilot sessions last year, because it would be better to keep learning and growing Shhh in a controlled manner for a little while longer.

So, if you’re a like-minded friend of mine, and you’d like to come along to the next Shhh, let me know — you already know how to reach me.

Me and Boy8 getting some Shhh in the Himalayas in 2007

Me and Boy8 getting some Shhh in the Himalayas in 2007

The Errol Flynn Skill Set

// October 29th, 2009 // 0 Comments // Featured, Me, Relationships

Gavin Heaton and Mark Pollard are curating A Perfect Gift For A Man — a book about manhood arising from the blogosphere’s contributions to Reach Out and Triple J’s Man Week project. There’s #manweek on Twitter too.

UPDATE: there’s now an ebook and a printed book (AUD$44.95) available through Blurb. The following contribution didn’t make the book but that’s because the stories in the book are even better. Go buy it now (and by “now” I mean as soon as you’ve read the following…

They’re calling for submissions, so here’s mine…

I’ve been in manhood training all my life, though I was never really conscious of it until my wife gave birth to our son, who remains our only child.
When my son was born, I was no longer just the son of my father. I was now a point on a line that ran from my son, through me, through my dad, and on, in a chain of fathers and sons stretching back into time. A lot of important stuff had travelled down that line to me — stuff about how to be a good son, a good man, a good father, a good friend and a good partner. Such an incredible legacy, and I’d just been dabbling in it, never really thinking about how important it had been, how it had broadened and moulded me and influenced the life I lead.
It was my weighty responsibility to pass on as much of this as I could, so my son could grow to be a good and happy man. I also felt the need to make sure these skills survived a few more generations intact. (more…)