Hugh Garry

The Content, the Container and the Consumer.

I've been asked to deliver a keynote at Film4's Innovation Summit later this month, which is I'm really excited about. 

When you do things like this you always get a call asking for the title of your talk weeks or sometimes months before the event. This is so that organisers can get their publicity out. The thing is I never give the same talk twice and usually end up preparing something close to the day. For years I got away with it by calling all my talks 'Everything is Amazing' because no matter what, I could always swing the conversation around to this. I stopped doing it about a year ago when I was convinced everyone on the planet had seen that video. 

I really like talking at events like this because preparing really forces you to think hard about what it is you do. It gets you to collect all the thinking you've been doing and to make some sort of sense of it all. It requires you to take all those noodly, random and often fleeting thoughts or bits of conversation you've been having and combine them into something coherent and of value to yourself as well as the collected audience.  

So the title I gave Film4 when asked was 'Nothing Dies, Everything Changes'. But after a chat with Matt yesterday about formats, and having thought a bit more about what I'm going to talk about I'm beginning to think 'The Content, the Container and the Consumer' might have been a better title. Until recently content was made to fit a limited number of containers and just a handful of consumer behaviours. Now, the smart creators think not just about the content but are also designing for a multitude of containers and consumer behaviours.

So there are a few of my thought's that may or may not shape what I talk about. 

The sharpest creators are those who know that teetering on the edge of tomorrow is a much healthier place to be than just worrying about their industry in five or ten years time. I think 'noticing' is something we need to get better at as behaviours become more subtle. And I don't care what Bill Carr, Amazon's VP of Music and Video says about preferring the algorithm over the human tastemaker in the development of TV shows, humans understanding humans behaviour is as important as computers understanding data in our new world. A world of content created by algorithm alone scares me a little.

A Brilliant Talk on Attention

If you're a cultural entrepreneur then Matt Locke's talk on Empires of Attention for Radio 4's Four Thought show is one of the the most important listens this year. 

Attention defines our culture and as Matt points out the great cultural entrepreneurs have been the ones that know how to listen to, understand and measure attention.

From BuzzFeed all the way back to the 18th century taverns and pleasure gardens Matt tells the story of how the interaction between artists and audiences has moved from 'visceral participation to abstract measurement and back again via the birth of musical halls, cinema, TV and the internet'.

Building for new paterns of attention is one of the cornerstones of how we work at Storythings. Paying attention to how audiences are consuming, sharing and behaving around culture is something we obsess over. As a spectator sport there has never been a better time to be a fan.

The rigid cultural attention patterns of my childhood (music was split into 3 minute singles and 45 minute albums whilst TV was mostly 30 or 60 minute episodes or 90 minute films) seemed to hang around for what seemed like decades. Now our attenion is spread anywhere between a 6 second vine, glance up glance down reality TV and weekend long Netflix binges. The pace of change in audience behavior is so rapid one dare not take ones eye off them in fear they'll vanish quicker than a snapchat photo.

Empires of Attention is the book Matt is always threatening to write and the book I desperately want to read. I really hope he gets it written soon.

Map-making in an Earthquake Zone

The other night I was invited to talk at a brilliant event called The Fantastic Tavern organised by Matt Bagwell from AKQA. I was asked for my point of view on how we organise and plan for chaos. My point was that we should be careful what we wish for. 

So when I was reading this piece by the brilliant David Hepworth this jumped off the page. 

In the future, companies will no longer be seeking people who can execute the old plan. They want people who have a new plan and know how to put it in action. They'll need to keep bringing in people who've learned things that the companies don't already know. They'll need to tap into skills that they didn't even realise they needed and then, when it's fresh skills they need, dispense with those services just as quickly as they got them in. This is of course richly ironical and points out the Fallacy Of Planning - or map-making in an earthquake zone, as I've heard it described.

"Map-making in an earthquake zone". It's a new phrase to me. But I think it nails it. I wish I had it in my back pocket the other night. 

If you’re not doing some things that are crazy...

"And all the tech companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That means there’s 99 percent virgin territory. Investors always worry, “Oh, you guys are going to spend too much money on these crazy things.” But those are now the things they’re most excited about—YouTube, Chrome, Android. If you’re not doing some things that are crazy, then you’re doing the wrong things".

Larry Page

Behaviours Kickstarting Revolutions

Whenever I talk to someone about new behaviours I'm usually met with a knowing nod of the head and the gesture of swiping thumb. As a smartphone owner it's no surprise. I probably make that gesture 20 to 30 times a day.

I recently read a book called 'Curious Ritals' which looks at the new physical behaviours that have resulted from our regular interactions with digital technology and devices. Behaviours such as 'The Baboon's Face' - holding your hand over your mouth so that people can't hear your phone conversation, or 'The Periscope' - that 'holding the phone high' thing people do at gigs to make videos they'll never watch. It made me realise how many there are and how seamlessly they become common rituals. We become fluent without realising we'd gone through any kind of learning process.

What fascinates me is how these simple new rituals or behaviours can trigger revolutions. Let me explain. I've been going to SXSW for years and gotten somewhat weary of people talking up average apps as 'The New Twitter'. This usually happens because people need to justify their expense account to their boss when they get back.

But this year was different. All the talk in all the bars of Austin was not about the latest app. This year was all about hardware. I'll say that again. HARDWARE. How the hell did that happen? How did SXSW make such a giant turn in just 12 months?

There was a keynote from Julie Uhrman, founder and CEO of Ouya, the $99 games console that threatens to disrupt the console monopoly. Then there was the Keynote from Makerbot's Bre Prettis. Having created the affordable 3D printer they now have a 3D scanner to add to their ecosystem. Then there was Memoto. A life documenting device that hangs around your neck taking a photo every few minutes.

So what was the common factor and what is the behaviour driving this shift from apps to hardware? Simple. The common factor is Kickstarter and the new behaviour is pledging. Kickstarter is changing everything. At SXSW Film 25% of the movies shown were Kickstarter funded.

Earlier this year Kickstarter products were stealing the limelight from the Sonys and Samsungs at CES. The Pebble and Cuckoo watches, the VR goggles Oculous Rift and the smart skateboard ZBoard were just a few to be raved about. All Kickstarter projects. All possible as a result of a new behaviour that sees people investing in products they want to use.

These new behaviour revolutions have been happening since we first worked out how to use a browser, how to send an email, how to bid on Ebay, how to upload a video to Youtube, how to build a social graph, how to write in 140 characters, how to download an app, and so on. New services or products come along and if the reward is high enough we'll learn the new behaviour.

I used to work in radio and the big advantage we thought we had over TV was that you can listen to the radio whilst watching another screen, something you couldn't do whilst watching TV. And then the screens got smaller shifting from desks to laps to hands. The behaviour of second screening sneaked into our living rooms and TV got new wings.

So what are the new behaviours that might kickstart a revoloution soon? I wish I had the answer for you, but I don't. Instead here are a few simple questions you might want to ask yourself:

What are the new tools or services you and your friends are using? Look to friends who aren't working in the same line of work?

What new behaviour is responsible for the success of that service? Such as 'Pinning' on Pinterest?

What are you starting to notice people doing that maybe you're not? In fashion they say that when you notice something 3 times it's a trend?

What are the new phrases people are using? When a behaviour needs a name it's officially become 'a thing'

 

Imagine... The trailer

 

I love the idea that books now need trailers. I read so many books based on trailers I've stumbled across rather than reviews. Never a great fan of reviews. Recommendations yes, but not reviews. 

I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Jonah Lehrer's new book 'Imagine' and wondering why I'm holding off putting the finishing touches to my own book on the same subject. I clearly need to give myself some restrictions to make sure it gets completed before I find myself back in work with no time to think. Perhaps I should make the trailer first detailing what's in the book and when it will be finished. 

Sorry, just thinking out loud. Watch the trailer. Read the book. Feel free to let me know if there is any need for another book on the subject or if it has all been covered by writers who can actually write, unlike myself.

Lean Startup: From the boardroom to the Whitehouse (SXSW12)

The Mind & Consciousness As an Interface (SXSW12)

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think (SXSW12)

Invention & Inspiration: Building a Better World (SXSW12)