A couple of weeks ago whilst on my work experience placement with 3Sixty, one of my assigned tasks was to brainstorm a few ideas for their company’s yearly e-christmas card to clients/contacts.
Seeing as I haven’t updated the blog for a while, and we are now less than 3 weeks away from Christmas, I thought that I would share some of my brainstorming ideas and some of the influences that helped to construct them!
Hopefully this may help you with your own creative development and approaches to creative thinking!
These ideas were put forward to 3Sixty, and helped develop their final e-christmas card idea:
What is a Christmas Card?
When initially thinking about ideas, I thought it would be good to firstly outline what is a Christmas card? As much as this may sound pointless and damn-right obvious, this helped outline a detailed description of the item I was creating. In an attempt to be as specific as I could, I thought it would be good to separate the different attributes of a digital christmas card and a traditional, physical christmas card:
Attributes of a Traditional Christmas Card:
- Tangible / Tactile / Physical medium
- Handwritten – personalized!
- Degradable
- Has ‘use’ / ‘material’ value – can be collected and displayed
- Sent through the post
- ‘Static’
- Something that can be ‘opened’
Attributes of a Digital Christmas Card:
- Easily distributed via email / web
- Easily electronically personalised via mail merge / database function
- Low production cost
- Interactive / dynamic
- Does not physically depreciate
…the list could go on. But you get the picture.
By then taking these experiential functions of both a traditional christmas card and a digital christmas card, I then thought it would be good to outline what makes a good company Christmas card for 3Sixty. After some thought in to the nature of how 3Sixty would be using the card, I came up with the following attributes:
- A card that has a strong conceptual ‘backbone’
- Reflects the company’s personality / brand
- Individually targets the recipient in some way
- Develops a ‘conversation’ with the user
- Innovative
By using the core themes of merging the physical with the digital and 3Sixty team collaboration, I then started to brainstorm new, digitally creative ways of illustrating my ideas. Below I list some of my ideas:
1. Creative uses of Twitter:
I think it is fair to say that Twitter has been the ‘buzzword’ of 2009. All businesses who have an online presence are now encouraged to convert their latest company developments into a ‘tweet’, or to ‘tweet’ other like-minded business and potential clients to help generate ‘online word of mouth’. Therefore, I thought it would be a great idea to explore the different creative developments of the Twitter API function and see whether or not we could transform these ideas into some sort of online christmas card concept. Below are some examples of the creative uses of Twitter:
Twitter Vision: http://beta.twittervision.com:
A map showing where people make a tweet around the world.
Twit Pic:
A map showing the new 'picture' tweets from around the world
Twistori:
A feed of categories of 'tweets' placed in different corresponding colours
My idea: A Twitter Christmas Tree:
- A Christmas Tree that interacts with 3Sixty Twitter messages
- 3Sixty Twitter friends are assigned different colours
- Every time one of 3Sixty’s friends makes a ‘tweet’, a Christmas Light of the corresponding colour flashes on the Christmas Tree.
- When the light is clicked, the tweet is displayed.
- Demonstrates 3Sixty’s close connections with Friends.
2. Creative uses of Google Maps:
Markus Dressen's Google Map API Mash-up
Google Maps has changed the way we use the web. Many people have mashed up the Google Maps API function, such as Markus Dressen (http://www.microtyp.org/), Blaubo Design (http://www.eindexamenabkva.nl/website2008/) and Net Doc’s Hospital Rankings (http://www.netdoc.com/hospital-rankings/). I thought we could potentially do something similiar to make a digital christmas card function. One potential idea could be:
- A map of different places (API), illustrated by points on Google Maps, where 3Sixty staff would like presents from.
- The different places on the map make up an outline of a Christmas Image (i.e. Christmas Tree, Snow Flake etc.)
- The Map could then be printed off and displayed as a traditional Christmas Card
Circular Calendar Idea For 3-Sixty, based on 3-Sixty's logo.
3Sixty's Circular Logo
Based on the themes of merging the physical with the digital and 3Sixty team collaboration, I thought it would be good to have the ‘e-christmas card’ idea as a christmas calendar. This would make the concept retain its digital nature, but draw on additional experiential functions to allow 3sixty to reach its clients/contact in a new way. Below I outline a possible scenario of how a interactive christmas calender could function for 3Sixty.
- Each day of the December month a different window of the Calendar opens
- Each window has a verse of a famous Christmas Carol / Christmas related question. The first contact/client to respond with the next verse of the Carol / answer will have their image put into the Calendar window.
- Each window could be a sound bite / photo of a different member of staff reading the question / singing the Christmas Carol.
- Under one of the windows is a ‘Secret Santa’. The person who has the window with the Santa under wins a prize.
- The completed Calendar can be printed off and displayed in the clients/contacts office/home.
4. Online Puzzle /Game Ideas:
In continuing with the theme of merging the physical with the digital, I thought it would be good to explore some ideas that connected something that was ‘real-life’ or had ‘real-life’ attributes but was placed into a digital / virtual, interactive realm. Some ideas that inspired my thinking, included:
The Million Dollar Homepage:
Used an open grid space to allow users to operate and 'own' their space. Switching the role of the user.
Orange’s Spot The Bull:
Attached a live GPS feed of a Bull in a field into an online grid where users guessed its position
My Idea: Spot Santa:
- Every client / contact is given a card with a grid on its face
- Each person has a unique square marked on the grid
- The grid corresponds to an online space where a dynamic Santa/Christmas figure moves to different square everyday.
- The person who has the square where Santa hides wins a prize.
- Each person has unique user ID and is only allowed one attempt at playing per day (to avoid multiple attempts)
Overview:
Each of these initial ideas of course have their constraints/limitations, and as outlined at the start of my brainstorming seshion, each christmas card idea is dependent on the recipient and sender of the card. Nevertheless, this hopefully demonstrates one way of thinking of new creative ideas which engage the user.
If you have got any opinions or ideas based on these concepts/influences, or wish to simply share your new ideas, please feel free to share it by leaving your comments on this blog!
Many thanks, and Merry Christmas to you all!
Daniel.
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