Say cheese

I've noticed the new Canon campaign "Freecording" popping up in relevant ad placements across Flickr and YouTube (where else?). It's a decent enough campaign, showing you that poor quality video and sound is a thing of the past with Canon's new range of HD camcorders, and it offers a neat set of rules about how to free yourself and create the video masterpiece you always had in you. Nice enough, but there's no interactivity, which I would have thought this would have been all about. There's some video content created by some reasonably cool film makers, but I would have expected something like "add your own freecording" or at least some activity / tagging across video / photo sharing sites. I found one tag on You Tube, nothing on Flickr and nothing on any of the social sites.

I'm reminded of Lomo, who had this thing down to a tee. Their site was all about the camera(s), all about how to use it, and all about encouraging you to have a go yourself and share them with other people. This was back in 2001, and it's still going strong, with a wider range of cameras and an even larger user base.

The point is, Lomo built a brand out of taking something which was far from perfect, and injecting interaction and easy access to make it something we could all feel a part of and benefit from. They gave you some simple starters (check out the 10 Golden Rules of Lomo) backed it up with the best product packaging I've ever come across (unpacking your Lomo from it's casing was really something special) and encouraged you to not be shy and keep it all to yourself, but share with others who were as passionate about photography, and Lomo, as you were.

Canon are a great brand, with a near flawless product. I've been a fan forever, but they could take that loyalty and create something as special as Lomo if they wanted to. Freecording feels like it could start that process, but it needs to open itself up to everyone.

See what I've found....

Read about this little beauty on the way in this morning, courtesy of PC Pro magazine (yes, a real paper based publication). Searchme, currently in beta, is a search engine that uses visual search results instead of the usual listings. Nice idea (see your results in a screen grab of the page) and a nice take on searching. However, the bit I thought was really neat was how the engine contextualises results on the fly.

Type in Indiana Jones and it'll offer you filtered search based on games, films, dvd's etc. However, type in Carbon offset and you'll be offered filtered search options based on global warming, plants, flights.

True, it's pulling in associated key words, but the interface makes it simple to drill down within a couple of clicks.

Tagged and bagged

Ever wandered what people really think of your brand? If you haven't heard of this yet, dash over to Brand Tags. A bit like Hot or Not, but for brands. You get shown a logo for a brand and have to submit a word or phrase that you associate with it. The idea's beautifully simple - brands are how other people perceive them.

The days of the "empowering" brand are numbered. Now it's "what he / she says".

Whayagonnado?

It's Christian Aid week, and to support it they've launched a simple campaign site, asking you to pledge or donate and add yourself to their map. Very easy to get involved, with a choice of activities (a goat for dad, a pledge to recycle your used ink jet cartridges).

Decent presence on Facebook too!

I've blogged it because it's beautifully presented, single minded (help out in anyway you can) and the entry mechanic is quick and easy.