Springboard or prisoner ball ?

The digital arena is slowly causing a much larger revolution within the music industry than what we're used to think.

It used to be about rebelling against the mainstream production companies (the big 4..) and about peer-too-peer "borrowing" (slash copyright infringements and all that comes with those, think of Napster/Pirate Bay etc.).
Now it's naturally evolving into the individual power of in-home production and of instantaneous, global connectivity/spreadibility.

Can the music industry evolve quickly enough to once again provide added value to the crowds [instead of just being of hindrance] ?

Flagship store wars

Consider the following:

[beat this Microsoft...]


Edit from Nov. 20, 2009

And here comes an unbelievably sad response from Microsoft's first flagship store.
(yes it's been proven that many visitors were paid to be there as well, nothing new on the table there)

"None of us is as smart as all of us"...

A small group of companies launched GreenXchange, a project that promotes intellectual property sharing for green product design. The initiative is hosted by Creative Commons, with Nike and Best Buy leading the way. With GreenXchange, companies can not only share research, innovation and design amongst themselves, but can also make patents available to the public.
Is this the beginning of something bigger?

Can I play too?

"This is awesome!" was my first reaction...

But then I thought:
"Hey well I am in New York...so, yea why shouldn't I be able to build up its musical profile too?"
So I tried to understand where/how to contribute with my songs but the whole process felt a bit more complicated and time consuming than what it's worth... Besides who wants to deal with yet another pandora/last.fm rating system?

Is it just me?
I believe simple AND cool tools are way better than simply cool ones...

Let me make a difference

This piece from 180/360/720 made me think.

I don't believe people share 'stuff' just for the sake of sharing.
They share whatever is worth sharing....[ read = creates value for society ]

When brands decide to (at least partially) release control and allow people to openly contribute to their image, they should do so not just for the sake of creating buzz / increasing their own popularity, which I think is a consequence rather than the main goal. The way to release control and attract people in is to link a brand's image with something bigger and more meaningful for society, something that will inspire people to contribute, to express their views, to start a give-and-take relationship with the brand, which will eventually lead to further peer-to-peer conversations.

Examples? QUANTO VALE IL TUO IDOLO? (How Much Do You Value Your Heroes?) is an Italian campaign recently launched by Reset Group and PI&C that lets people 'buy' their favorite soccer players for a day (e.g.: take them out for a pizza, or challenge them at Playstation FIFA 2010 etc.). The money raised with these ebay auctions goes to AriSLA, an organization that funds research aimed at developing a cure for ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). It's a win-win solution: people have fun and with just a few clicks they feel they can make a difference...

Amerika

The exploration of The New World continues:
a couple "international ambassadors" and I visit Washington D.C....

Amerika from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

Stop fooling your customers

OK everything's great about Grolsch new iPhone app, right?
Wrong.

The Dutch brewing giant has decided to challenge drinkers to "walk the line" with an application that promises to help users understand when they're too drunk to drive. So far so good: nowadays there isn't a more relevant issue than driving under the influence, especially among youngsters. Coming from Italy I am definitely aware of this as our government is only now introducing its first minimum drinking age regulation.

The moment you read about the app you get all excited and think how brilliant it is...until you have the most classic "duh!" moment.
The app does, in fact, exactly what it promises: it asks you to "walk the line", utilizing its internal accelerometer to establish how straight you are walking. Yes, I know. For a moment you think about Smule (the app that makes you play your iPhone as if it were a flute just by blowing air into the microphone), but then you quickly realize a microphone doesn't really test how "alcoholic" your breath is, does it?

Here's the problem I have. The iPhone is a great platform for creating buzz. Most of the time it's just buzz and no value though. In this case the geeky me jumps in and says: an accelerometer isn't really that accurate in the first place (don't worry, the cheap ones Apple throws into its devices aren't really the best anyway), and the fact that you can walk straight doesn't really tell you a thing! Most people are still able to walk pretty straight after a few drinks and when you really can't anymore, something tells me you aren't going to remember about the app or you'll get lost finding the right button on your phone...

My point being: stop fooling consumers. Noise for the sake of getting noticed is still noise.
Sure I understand this is a clever way of promoting a concert to drinkers, but it turns into a simple ad.
Clutter.
A flash in your face, which after the first impact, leaves nothing of value.

If what Naked alwas says is true ["everything communicates"...] Grolsch isn't delivering such a clever message after all, is it?

Co-creating our way out of trouble...

Here's a good example of what our global interconnectivity enables us to do at no particular effort. It's not just about a beautiful song and its great words (thanks also to the participation of Mr. Bono). It's about the fact that a YouTube URL leads to action here and now...in just a few clicks. Sure that paypal link could be streamlined a bit (it really takes a while to get down there from YouTube), but the elements are all here.

I thought the MP3 distribution system, although still limited, was particularly clever. I believe that if the viewership of PlayForChange were to grow further with the next videos (1.million+ just for this one) there may be room for bigger scale partnerships (read iTunes, Amazon etc.).

Enjoy the video, and feel free to let me know what you think!

the power of consumers.

What if the crowds started asking for new rules?
what would the cost be? what the opportunities...?

The beauty of shopping...

What paths, if any, do we follow when shopping?
We tend to think we just walk in, grab what we need and leave.
But what happens in between can be fascinating..

www.headrubforpeace.org

I recently re-discovered how powerful the human touch can be.
Thanks to a great friend and mentor, I suddenly realized how little things I do can impact the life of the people surrounding me.

Here's why I think everyone should give someone a head rub, every day.

A head rub:
- is a powerful, silent message,
- is intimate,
- is mutually beneficial
- is free,
- is addicting,
- is the easiest way to inner peace,
- is the shortest way to end a conflict
- is a gift everybody is capable of giving,
- is creative,
- is more effective than an email, a text or a call,
- is irresistible,
- is how you change someone's day for the better,
- is the simplest way to step out of a problem, freshen up and start over
- is how you win new friends
- is how you turn enemies into friends.
- is convincing
- is fun
- is unexpected
- is personal
- is unforgettable

and it only takes 5 minutes of your time...
I hope I convinced you to JOIN US

A European Dream

This is for all the people who made my visit to Europe special.
It took my breath away and it only lasted a moment.

European Dream from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

p.s.
Sorry, I decided to put a password on my mini-movies so I don't risk infringing any musical copyrights. Please log onto vimeo and friend me if you want to peek in! Thanks

Fight Night

The exploration of the American culture continues.
This time a great friend of mine introduces me to the incredible world of wrestling...

Fight Night from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

Uncle Bill comes visit

I am so thrilled to be able to participate to the awakening of an entire country and to be here to watch it stand up strong again.
This is how I see it: have a look, and don't hesitate to let me know what you think.

Uncle Bill from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

p.s.
Sorry, I decided to put a password on my mini-movies so I don't risk infringing any musical copyrights. Please log onto vimeo and friend me if you want to peek in! Thanks

Brandcenter Jeet Kune Do

Here's an example of what we people from the VCU Brandcenter are best at: put us together and we'll come up with something fun and creative.

For once though we are advertisers without advertising..
Brandcentarians without a Brandcenter...

VA Beach from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

p.s.
Sorry, I decided to put a password on my mini-movies so I don't risk infringing any musical copyrights. Please log onto vimeo and friend me if you want to peek in! Thanks

Destruction Friday

Tonight,
what I thought was just an old videogame from my childhood in Italy...
...became an extremely cheerful and culturally relevant experience.

Take a look.

Destruction Friday from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

p.s.
Sorry, I decided to put a password on my mini-movies so I don't risk infringing any musical copyrights. Please log onto vimeo and friend me if you want to peek in! Thanks

How barbaric can civilization get?

Manhattan.
The electronic counter at the MacDonald's on Lexington Ave and e.42nd reads:
"Average serving time: 49 seconds."

Scary thought.

Userocracy

More and more corporations, including the the older ones, now seem to recognize that the power of free tools in the hands of users is the best way to go. Free access to software and applications once owned by a geeky and wealthy elite only, will indeed promote faster progress as well as help develop a deeper affection to their brand.
Here's Microsoft's first, indirect but powerful response to the Google array of free services.
I am almost hoping Microsoft will be able to win my trust back some day in the near future.

(click on the image below)

An instant, imaginary JohnnyMnemonic-esque flashback into the future hits me.

And makes tomorrow a little duller.

Southside Speedway

The following clip is dedicated to all those friends that are accompanying me in this crazy journey in Virginia. These are the people I share my fears with, my strenghts...ok my weaknesses...AAAAND MY OPPORTUNITIES!
...alright alright enough already with the marketing/S.W.O.T. crap.

here you go. eat this:

Southside speedway from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

p.s.
Sorry, I decided to put a password on my mini-movies so I don't risk infringing any musical copyrights. Please log onto vimeo and friend me if you want to peek in! Thanks

Richmond art-walking

Every first Friday of the month, Richmond throws an art exhibition right on Broad St.
Here's how it looked like this month..check it out!

Friday Art Walk from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

p.s.
Sorry, I decided to put a password on my mini-movies so I don't risk infringing any musical copyrights. Please log onto vimeo and friend me if you want to peek in! Thanks

NASCAR in Richmond

This weekend me and some of my colleagues from school had the possibility to experience one of the most american, southern, crazy events of our entire summer: a real Nascar Race here in Richmond VA. I put together a video with the highlights...have fun!

The Sound of Speed from Enrico Gatti on Vimeo.

p.s.
Sorry, I decided to put a password on my mini-movies so I don't risk infringing any musical copyrights. Please log onto vimeo and friend me if you want to peek in! Thanks

p.p.s.: here's an interesting piece of news I found about the origins of all this...
"Stock car racing in the United States has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made in Appalachia. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity, and some of them came to love the fast-paced driving down twisty mountain roads. One of the main 'strips' in Knoxville, Tennessee, had its beginning as a mecca for aspiring bootlegging drivers."

how can Change change a thing if people don’t change a little first

“It’s the baseball cap” I tell myself.
“Makes him feel comfortable cause his head must look real small in the mirror in the morning”.

That’s the cultural experience I feel I should highlight this week, I’m at G.B.’s, a notorious sports pub in Greensboro, NC. The reason why I want to blog about this is because I think I may have learned something about just one pub perhaps on one particular night, maybe about just one town, or maybe about politics in the US and about what people may or may not get out of it.

But let’s focus on that baseball hat, let’s say it belongs to Tom.
Tom doesn’t get it.
Yes, he’s in charge. Yes, he’s fairly young, in his 30s and yes, he’s the one all the employees go to tonight when and if there’s a problem.
But Tom won’t get it.

It’s a special night tonight, in an hour or so Obama will deliver his speech and will accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. Although there are 9 big flat screens hung around the large main room, none of them suggests the historical moment taking place: tonight, the first time in history an African American will receive the presidential nomination from the Democratic Party. But the TVs are focused solely on college football, NC State against S. Carolina Cocks, which is the reason why my friends brought me to G.B.’s in the first place.
By 9.30 it’s clear that the Cocks are gonna get this one, they’re hammering NC State with an irreversible 30-something - zero. It’s almost no fun to watch the game anymore and by now Obama should be walking onto the podium, perhaps he’s now thanking everybody and maybe he has already begun the most important speech of his entire campaign. But me and my friends can’t get him on a screen, not even that small, abandoned one in the corner of the room where the videogames are, the one TV nobody is looking at.
Tom doesn’t let us watch Obama. He just doesn’t get it.

When Leah, her sister and one of her girlfriends walk in the pub in total disappointment, my friends and I rapidly figure out what’s really going on: if three cute girls were denied the possibility to watch Obama’s speech in three different bars downtown, there’s no way it’s going to be easy here at a Sports Bar. But by the time they end up recounting what happened, I see a glimpse of Hope...Obama is finally on screen! Victory it is! Obama is talking in the empty corner of a large and noisy room. But the TV is muted.
Because Tom didn’t get it.

The more I think about that night and how “Tom” refused to either raise the volume (which would have been useless anyway) or turn on the subtitles, the more I feel bad for all those young people at the bar who didn’t watch Obama on YouTube like we did the next morning. And although I am not American and it’s not up to me, I have to say I feel angry inside for them, as I recall all of them, one by one, as they kept drinking beers, their eyes glued to the green HD screens while important words were getting lost in the ether because of Tom, and because all of them didn’t seem to care enough. They were deaf to the 50 minutes meant for them, offering them the possibility to change, to choose to change for the better. Shouldn’t all of us be offered the possibility to choose what we want to hear, watch or do in our lives? Shouldn’t we, not Tom, take charge of what’s important to us? Why do we let Tom handle it? Why is there always some Tom trying to handle things for us...and why do we let him?

That night, entertainment won over smart thinking, tyranny crushed democracy, the silence of a mass prevailed over the voice of a minority, and the idea of Change was defeated: Change as a society that can do better, Change as a nation that wants to improve to become a wiser organism in a world that needs smarter and more peaceful players.

Change is what many other countries would love to be offered, mine included, and Change is what many others cannot afford and yet do need.
Change is what America may need as well (as far as I can judge through my foreign eyes), and what America will give up if it doesn’t wake up and reach for it with both hands.

New York New York

Arrivederci New York. I will see you soon.
It's been great playing with you.

Lost in Transit

L'arancio lampione sfreccia soffuso attraverso il retro del taxi.



Giallo fuori. Nero pelle dentro.
LaGuardia Airport -- Brooklyn con il fiato sospeso e gli occhi spalancati, mentre il mutismo disilluso di un tassista pakistano si mischia al brontolio della Buick che tira.

Rockstar G. ci ha preso in pieno: e' quel senso distaccato che il taxi-trip notturno ti lascia dentro qui, in una citta' che non puo' dormire mai. E' la malinconia felice di guardare dal finestrino un party appena finito...ma che domani ricomincia. Sempre.
Bene-maledizione di una metropoli che da' le vertigini...dove quando perdi il ritmo, tutto e' improvvisamente ancora piu' difficile.

il Chrysler, appannato strizza l'occhio in un silenzio di pioggia, lontano, dall' Isola.
Pizzicotto.
Sono qui per davvero.
E fra 2 settimane sono nell'unico altro posto dove vorrei essere....

Virginality

The ideas that really stick...are the ones that make you wonder:
"Why the heck nobody thought about this before?!"

my lady

L'ho vista stanotte.
Bellissima.
La mano in fiamme.
Senza paura, non una parola, e noi cadaveri senza segnaletica.

E non conta cosa hai concluso o in cosa hai fallito oggi,
mentre il Q la accarezza di striscio sull'acqua, lei quasi te lo sussurra orgogliosa.
Timida ma imponente:
"liberty"...

a dream or a hunch?

it almost feels like in 3 years or so...videogame consoles such as the XBOX 360 or Sony Playstation won't even have a reason to exist any more...at least "physically" speaking.










check THIS out

The time has come

The expectations all over the world are extremely high. They created the entire genre. They crushed their competitors.Will Rockstar Games be able to re-invent its baby and shock us all one more time?
Take a look at it..

Mouse or trackpad? Naaw, moving on...

I know, don't need to say it.

The mouse can be annoying at times. 

...and hey don't let me started on trackballs or the trackpad of my laptop.

How about we use a camera instead?

You are what you share

The idea of being what you own is today replaced by the idea of being what you share. It's everywhere, sometimes so outscreamed that it can create movements such as the so called anti-soci@l-networkers, people who decided they need to just go back to the good old face-to-face relationships and abandon altogether the various facebooks or myspaces communities.
But there is something so fascinating about sharing online, about leaving your comment on somebody's blog, about micro-blogging or diving into somebody's flickr account: the idea of democracy, the idea of a shared set of values, a common ground that unifies everybody in a society, that can help create equality and justice, that goes beyond sexuality issues as well as racism, political views...and lets everybody express an opinion.

Have a look at this:

Burn baby, burn...

I keep avidly absorbing this extremely different US culture as a sponge does. A culture that we Europeans got used to observe from a soldier/fastfood/hollywood-biased telescope and that we like to pretend we deeply understand in all its facets...

I play with it, I try to leverage on my European standpoint to stretch it and to create new roads for brands, products and services in order to make local as well as global noise.

And sometimes it happens again: I get stuck and amazed by it, just when I thought I had gone one step forward, when I was starting to believe I was one tiny speck of dust more expert about it.

But these guys here caught me off guard once more.
Here's how: the BURNING MAN (1986-2008)

Let the Androids handle it

Seems like Linux ain't that cool and original any more uh?

Head down...keeping up

Death of a love story (?)

Isn't it strange how the perception of a brand can change dramatically in a matter of seconds? One moment you think you want this product so bad because it has been associated to the possibility of generating less waste by reducing the overall usage of plastic bottles...and then you read that it may cause significant health problems.

...here we go again.
Welcome to the modern world

[ARTICLE]
This emerged quite a bit ago, when I wasn't part of this country just yet. I see Nalgene everywhere now: does it mean the data was not relevant? Or maybe, did the people forget?

Con cattiveria...

e poi ci sono i momenti come questo...quando in questo mondo multimediale ultra fast paced ti rendi conto che da dove vieni tu c'e' ancora un sacco di lavoro da fare.
il TG5? il TG1! I nostri fiori all'occhiello! I nostri TG preferiti...la sigla, i colori...

ma prediamo l'ultimo MacBook, ultima generazione, aggiornatissimo, drivers, codecs, tutto. 

FIREFOX fa a cazzotti con il TG5.it e provare a guardare l'edizione integrale delle 13 e'...un po' vergognoso per me, straniero all'estero...dove la TV la guardi gratis online ormai.

Ma torniamo al TG5.it...In streaming a 6Mbit tutto appare a scatti e flash (schermo nero/immagine, schermo nero/immagine) ....e con SAFARI il video e' talmente spezzettato che dopo i primi 42 monosillabi non si ha neppura la parvenza di una frase intera.

e allora andiamo sul TG1...la speranza c'e', ma i fatti non la supportano per niente: dopo 5 minuti ancora nulla...

No. Non pensarci nemmeno. 

Ti capisco: anche io ero un fan del  TG5.  Anche io ho sentito il dovere di informarli della falla! Dar loro un feedback costruttivo in qualita' di simpatizzante e consumatore.
Peccato che si sono dimenticati di mettere un link CONTACT US o simili...o forse in fondo fondo...parlano di noi quotidianamente ma...non hanno bisogno della nostra opinione?

ps
ma vediamo se il Gabibbo dice qualcosa...(dubito)

High fever in Manhattan

The days pass by one after the other and only now I realize what is going on around me. I feel I'm in the midst of two different worlds, once more, once again.
The question is always the same: where do I belong to? Do I belong to any place in particular? Do I belong to the people I care about, maybe more than any specific place? What is this drive for freshness that keeps me moving? Where am I running to? Will I ever get there? What if after running for so long I am not happy where I finally am? 6th visit to Manhattan, 1st one in bed with high fever...

holding up

Flash of a moment, an instant frozen in time.
Life is hard at VCU Brandcenter, it really is.
But every once in a while we are able to finally take a break.

I'm just loving it

till the last drop

1st class: creative thinking
ok oggi ho avuto 4 ore di lezione, la prima lezione con questo professore, una persona straordinaria, un afro-americano che nonostante mi aspettassi fosse un pazzo creativo e con la puzza sotto il naso (visto che ha un curriculum spaziale ed ha lavorato con dei brand incredibili..pepsi, nike etc)...si è dimostrato una persona molto molto sensibile.

ci ha spiazzato tutti dall'inizio alla fine, le 4 ore sono volate. (solo all'inizio per esempio ci ha fatto chiudere gli occhi nel buio e fatto ascoltare un pezzo jazz di 9 minuti...le nostre lezioni inizieranno in maniera strana ogni volta)

quello che ha fatto la differenza però sono stati i ragazzi, siamo 25 per il mio corso di Communications Strategist e altri 25 per i Creative Brand Mangers....ci sono delle teste, sono creativi, sveglissimi, provenienti da tutte le zone della nazione + un gruppo di indiani, un thailandese, una spagnola, dei cinesi, il messicano... ecc.

Sririam, l'indiano nel disegnino qui spra (è la sua immagine su FACEBOOK) ci ha tolto il fiato. si è alzato al suo turno nella presentazione, e ci ha sorpresi tutti skippando i punti della sua presentazione personale e partendo invece a raccontarci (50 persone di fronte a lui e una telecamera) una antica storia indiana della loro mitologia.....
.....non ha mai finito di raccontarcela.

è scoppiato a piangere poco dopo sotto l'attenzione di tutti...rendendo ancora più difficile comprendere la sua già difficile pronuncia.
ma non c'era più bisogno delle parole.
come lui combatte per i suoi genitori che muoiono di fame, noi tutti ci siamo riconosciuti pieni di sogni e speranze trascinati dentro quella piccola stanza buia...insieme alle paure personali e le difficoltà da vincere

passione. capacità di essere deboli e creativi allo stesso tempo di fronte ad un pubblico cui si deve presentare la propria idea, anche idiota e senza speranza...per poi diventare più forti giorno dopo giorno..per 60 settimane...le nostre famose 60WEEKS.

è stato magico
sono nel posto giusto

7 hours to go

Here we go...
7 hours and the dream starts off, with all its challenges and its difficulties and fun parts.

And I am here stuck in a slow sleepless night, feeling people close for one moment and far away the next one... family, friends from home and from other parts of the planet...

Everything's starting to mix down into a single frightening exciting pulse down my throat...

Looking forward to riding this feeling all my life long

I am what I decide to be.
I am what I am