Another example how Diesel stays cool where other brands are watching and wondering how they should… In the past 15 years in the digital era as a marketing and advertising professional I have been part of both Atari and Diesel and witnessed loads of tie ins with games and brands. After featuring Katey Perry in Sims 3 it’s now time for my ex-employer Diesel (the Italian clothing brand) to get their hands dirty in Sims, or should I say: ‘build their brand further in the digital era’…?

The latest Diesel collection has been made available in Sims 3 after partnering with Atari back in 2001 with Driver 2 (my Atari-days before I was asked to come to work for Diesel), later Devil May Cry 2 (as a special feature if you played through the game) and a virtual shop in PlayStation Home to spice up the looks of your avatar. It’s now Electronic Arts that wants to spice up the life of the Sims.

A really cool and relevant way to build the Diesel brand amongst millions of women worldwide and it enables them to show the brand spin offs like Diesel furniture and wallpaper as well! Way to go Renzo Rosso and his team!

For more information, check the Diesel website: http://www.diesel.com/sims 

As I am invited to speak in Turkey in October I thought I would update my view on Gamification and let you know ‘How I do it’ to help my clients achieve serious objectives through playful solutions.

Check out the presentation below and let me know what you think!

You can download this presentation from Slideshare if you like.

This infographic brings you up-to-date in a glance about all you need to know about the use of Android and it’s apps. As usual, the TOP10 of apps are all game (or in this case – gambling) related… no news to me, but brands seem reluctant to hop on the bandwagon and keep investing in one-way pushy and static TV advertising… (even when three independent research documents show that 70% of all viewers zap away, get a drink or go take a ‘restroom’ break). Why not develop a FUN or FUNCTIONAL app for mobile devices to be closer to your consumer than you will ever get!?

A big thanks to Start-app for sharing this!

I would like to develop a sound vision about the future of fund raising. Of course I have some ideas myself based on consumer trends, but I would like to ask YOU what you feel is the future of fundraising.

Please answer this question for me: What will the world of ‘fundraising’ look like in 2017?

Take into consideration: mobile, social media, gamification, retail, peer-to-peer, cloud computing, augmented reality, layer, Smart TV, …? What trends did I miss?

Please share your comments below!

This is the presentation I held in June 2012 in Amsterdam at the Marcom event (Playground for Professionals).

I break it down in three steps: past, present and future. Main question is: What is Mobile…? 😉

And where will it grow…?

From my friends at Newzoo an infographic that displays the use of tablets amongst console gamers.

Infographic Newzoo Second Screen

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Talking about an epic experience! I went a few days early to San Francisco to spend some time on my own before the business tour through Silicon Valley with a Dutch delegation started. Check out the pictures below and the video of my visit to notorious prison Alcatraz where Al Capone was at home for four years (from 1934 – 1938)!

Americans really know how to build up an experience. From waiting in line for 30 minutes before the boattrip starts, you can read some more about the prison through a brochure and interactive installations and have your picture taken before a backdrop image of the island.

Interactive installations throughout the waiting area made waiting less annoying. In Dutch I call this a ‘wacht-verzachter’ in English you could call it a ‘Wait-watcher’.

During the boat trip the brochure sounds through the speakers.

On the island itself you can watch a 17 minute film about the island (comparable content of the brochure) and do an interactive audio tour of about 40 minutes explaining you all the different areas and stories that took place, even explaining how 5 inmates escaped from the island in June 1962. This event was immortalized later in a film called ‘Escape from Alcatraz (duh) with Clint Eastwood).

This is one of the cells where one of the 5 inmates that escaped slept. You can see how they dug a hole around the ventilation shaft. Eventually they all got out by climbing throughout the hole they dug, climbed up the heating pipes and … gone…  No one knows if they survived the mile swimming to the main land, since they were never found again.

A picture of the ‘arrival’ at Alcatraz Island. Originally build as a military prison during America’s Civil War.

A very prominent Dutch ex-football player called Jan Mulder shows the audience how to shoot the head off a cameraman, from a 6 feet distance…