Olympics

Analog to digital highlighted at Olympics opening ceremony

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors communicated across vast distances by beating out messages on drums. Today we relay messages across the world on Twitter, using our thumbs.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics combines both these communication impulses in a country that is seeing this dramatic shift from the analog and digital. The balance and alternation of signals is a powerful metaphor for much of what we do, no matter where we live.

The visually lavish opening ceremony with its human tableau set on a digitally created scroll was just the start. Bamboo scrolls gave way to print; and in a striking opposite effect, 2008 drummers played out a digital spectacle with their choreographed beats made to look like a LED screen which spelled out the count down. That too in Roman and Chinese numerals. How much richer could we get?

One Daily Mail journalist summed it up this way: “This was a feast for the eyes cooked not from the books of ancient culture so much as the latest Microsoft manuals.” I don’t think this is accurate. It was a feast for all our senses, cooked from a user manual that’s a mashup of the Little Red Book and Microsoft manual.

A few millenia after the drum and the torch, here’s how we send and receive information:

  • There’s a Twitter tag 080808 set up by three Chinese to connect everyone’s tweets.
  • Watch cell-phones streaming live video on Qik, a service also used by the Sacramento Bee to cover the torch protests.
  • Newspaper and TV journalists are blogging to give us expanded, less time-delayed coverage.
  • Text alerts (and video) on your phone is available at NBC at NBColympics.com
  • Several Facebook groups in support of, and as a protest to the Olympics.
  • NBC has a widget you could add to your blog or social network.
  • The Voices of the Olympic Games, courtesy Lenovo provides great back stories from the athletes themselves.

Quotes for the week ending 9 August, 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

”He went from being this renegade making films that were banned and an eyesore for the Chinese government, to kind of being the pet of the government.”

Michael Berry, of University of California, Santa Barbara, on Zhang Yimou, who directed the spectacular Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.

In addition I have offered to send the MAD Magazine Editor a $20.00 Circuit City Gift Card, toward the purchase of a Nintendo Wii….if he can find one!

Jim Babb, of Circuit City’s corporate Communications, apologizing to MAD magazine for pulling copies off the shelves in response to a parody of a Circuit City newspaper ad about “Sucker City.”

“Wait until Bob Garfield sees these new ads.”

AdRants, talking of an ad for Snickers, featuring ‘animals digitally tortured and forced to take on human qualities’ by agency NoS/BBDO Poland. The reference to Advertising Age critic Bob Garfield is because of his recent ‘open letter‘ to the president of another ad agency.

“More Americans died from pandemic flu in the 20th Century than died in World War I. It will happen again. Prepare now.”

PSA for the state of Ohio on its pandemic flu preparedness plan and publicizing of its website, OhioPandemicflu.gov

“At the moment the channel for reporters to use the internet is fully open.”

Beijing Olympic spokesperson Sun Weide, on the move by China to lift the blocks on several long-barred websites, that were only accessible by the media at their hotels.

“Never before in an election cycle has so much attention turned to the youth vote…”

Steve Capus, president of NBC News, on hiring the late Tim Russert’s son, Luke, to cover the Democratic National Convention this month.

“But what the clueless HR team doesn’t realize is that the manager community will find a way to shorten it for them – simply by hitting the “delete” button when they receive it.

Blog on MyRagan.com on why “HR is Clueless”

“The new Delicious is just like the old del.icio.us, only faster …”

From a blog post on Del.icio.us about the new, improved tagging and search features launched this week.

“Beard was supposed to shed her clothes and denounce the wearing of fur, but why anyone would wear fur in the summertime in Beijing is beyond me.”

John Crumpacker, in SFGate on U.S. Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard’s failed attempt at a stunt in Beijing, on behalf of PETA.

“Where is the protest against surgeon who remove big part of your brain?”

Someone going by the name of PeterH2 on the discussion page of the Wikipedia entry for the 2008 Summer Olympics, reacting to a question about the use of American English in the entry.

Networks and social networks push China strategy

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

I wonder why it took Facebook so long to launch in China. With the summer Olympics almost upon us, all nodes of communication will be pointed at and out of China.

Some highlights:

  • In a few week’s China will be home to 21,600 accredited journalists. Of these, some16,000 will be broadcasters, 5,600 writers and photographers, 200 broadcast groups and 10,000 non-accredited journalists.
  • 1 in 1.3 of those online in China use online video, representing 160 million people.
  • Instant messaging is hugely popular. One company, QQ Labs has 752.3 million registered users.

In other news, “Chinglish” a hybrid language that some say will emerge, is featured in this last month’s Wired.

Lenovo’s bloggers: Olympics’ inside voice

/ Angelo Fernando / 3 Comments

Social media and Olympics introduces a new angle — and a new headache — for organizers, sponsors, fans and control freaks.

Like anything else into which a dollop of social media is introduced (politics, international relations, war etc) the authenticity and immediacy of those in the field upstage traditional media. The field can include the battlefield as in this tank commander’s blog, or diplomacy. It’s Kevin Sites in the hot zones as opposed to Katie Couric in Iraq.

So the move by Lenovo to empower athletes to blog from the 2008 Olympics is an interesting experiment that others will quickly follow. The program called The Voices of The Olympics empowers insiders to give the world a glimpse of the Olympics, while bypassing the mainstream media as the conduits of information. The blogs, some of them in their native language (Italian, French, Dutch, Spanish and English) will not be produced or edited.

Lenovo has defined the blogging parameters well so as to skirt any sponsorship snafus and branding skirmishes. It notes that:

“Lenovo does not regard the blogs of the participating athletes to be Lenovo blogs – nor will Lenovo ever ask for any overt advertising or sponsorship acknowledgement on the athlete’s blogs.”

Jennifer Nichols (US archer), and Chilean Pabo McCandless are part of the blogging team covering the games for us. AS NBC and other media outlets parachute into the Olympic village to transmit the best camera angles and terrific close ups, expect to see the human side of the games from the Lenovo-backed bloggers reporting from the other hot zone.

Quotes for the week ending 12 July, 2008

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“He brought wit, grace and a great love of country to his work.”

President Bush, on Tony Snow, former White House press secretary who died today.

“But Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He’s lurching right when it suits him, and he’s zigging with the kind of reckless abandon that’s guaranteed to cause disillusion, if not whiplash.”

Bob Herbert, syndicated columnist for The New York Times

“Wake up and smell the rice Mr. Ploom! Im tired of Americans who don’t know a thing about the beauty, complexity or richness of Chinese culture.”

Online reader comment to a story about Ambush Marketing at the Olympics, by Businessweek. The story turned into an ugly exchange between readers from Japan and China.

“…it’s not the story about of the burglar who fell asleep on the resident’s couch that matters. Instead, it’s the everyday news affecting everyday life that we hope keep you coming back.”

Jacqueline Shoyeb, Online Editor, Mesa Republic

“As a metaphor, it’s strained. As a narrative –well, it has none.”

Bob Garfield, in Advertising Age, on the ad for HP’s TouchSmart PC, that he calls a large step ahead of the Mac.

“Together, they represent the real stories of the Games.”

Lenovo launching a web site called “Voices of the Olympic Games” featuring 100 athletes, from more than 25 countries.

Ambushing the 2008 Olympics, too irresistible

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments
Beijing, 2008

Beijing, 2008

Someone’s going to pull off an ambush next month in Beijing. It may be a brand ambush, but it could also be a story ambush. There’s going to be a PR controversy over a brand defending the tactic, or someone attacking the ambusher.

I say this because of two trends that have collided:

  • The capacity to blur the lines between mainstream and viral, and
  • The field of diamonds that awaits the publicity seeker because of so much media attention on China

It could happen in a variety of ways, such as the old methods of sneaking in a T-shirt with a logo, a sign with an caustic slogan, or accidental product placement. But there are more sophisticated ways of beating the logo police. The whole idea of ambush marketing is to get attention not inside the Olympic village, but outside it. To you and me.

And that means defying not the logo police but the publishing police. Portable media such as smart phones and cameras can do that all too easily. Naturally the authorities have been cagy.

Rings around social media. And how about video sharing, live streaming, blogging? It’s so easy to stand up in front of an Olympic landmark -even a competitor’s sign –shoot a video and post it in a few clicks. The Official TV sponsor, NBC, may have the rights to all the venues, but rights means nothing to someone who has audience.

Rush to blog. Blog policy is being debated for obvious reasons. NBC has made sure it won’t be usurped by some media upstart, and is embedding its own journalist-blogger, Alan Abrahamson, at the games. Other blogs have cropped up fast, such as the New York Times‘ Rings, and The China Beat written by a group largely comprised of academics. Not media people, mind you! If I remember correct, athletes are still allowed to blog.

At the time of writing, there are 23,800 YouTube videos that come up for the keywords “2008 Olympics.” This includes a BBC clip using a ‘pollution detector‘ that tells a damaging story. In sixty days you can bet that number will be a lot higher, and quite possibly include a few that document tales of ambush.