My Company Website: Star of Dena

Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve moved all info about myself to a single location, my company website: Star of Dena. It was getting a bit too ridiculous updating my details in so many locations, AND I wanted to practice what I preach. I’ve created a pivot point, a page that lists all the websites within the Star of Dena Universe! That way, you get to know everything i’m doing all over cyberspace. I’ve popped in a couple of pics of my self with my new spectacles! I only need them to read for long periods, but I think they make me look serious, so I put them in. 🙂

A Couple of My Talks, Online

I gave a talk last week on Finding and Attracting Audiences to film & TV producers at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School Centre for Screen Business, Melbourne. I was briefed to give a talk on how producers can make themselves findable, basically, how producers advertise to reach through the noise. I chose to select examples of what film & TV producers have been doing the last few months, proven techniques that have indeed made them findable and attract audiences. I chose creative, in-story examples as much as possible. I don’t consider myself a marketer, but I do look at every aspect of cross-media production and advertising is part of it. AND, in the age of “branded entertainment”, “Madison & Vine” (Scott Donaton) and so on, there really isn’t much difference between good shows and good advertising. I also look very closely at what advertisers have learnt. And there is a good reason for that: advertisers know how to motivate a person to act. The entertainment industry is new to active audiences, but marketers are not. Whereas storytellers, artists, know how to move a person emotionally, they know how to create whole worlds with a few words or brush strokes. Anyway, rant over, a pdf of the talk is now online. 🙂

I co-wrote an academic paper with Jeremy Douglass and Mark Marino (my WRT co-horts over in California): Benchmark Fiction: A Framework for Comparative New Media Studies. The paper was delivered at the premier academic new media arts event: Digital Arts & Culture (DAC) in Copenhagen last December by Jeremy. We basically put forward a theory of how new media texts can be created and analysed using the IT industry technique of benchmarking, creatively. A pdf of that talk is now online too. BTW: I have transferred my PhD from the University of Melbourne to the University of Sydney, now that I moved!

Enjoy! And of course, let me know any examples you could add, or things you would like to know more about.

Txt2Buy, Txt2Give, Txt2Know

 

PayPal Mobile

Earlier this month, PayPal launched PayPal Mobile (only available in Canada, US & the UK..grrrr). The service connects your phone to your PayPal account, making you able to purchase from your phone. Advertisements on posters, on websites, in magazines with the icon of Txt2Buy prompt you to enter a code and SMS it to PayPal. Whammo, you’ve got it and it will be delivered to you immediately. So, when you’re walking down the street, and you see a CD advertised, you can satisfy that on-demand urge and buy it immediately. So now, you can buy things immediately online and immediately on the street. We’re getting further and further away from the bricks and mortar…?

Another thing you can do is Txt2Give. By texting WATER you can donate to Unicef, other codes you can donate to Amnesty International and so on. Or you can transfer money to someone immediately. No fees apply, just your normal SMS cost.

 

mcode

 

Outside of PayPal is another service in Australia: mCode. This system provides the same code number prompt, but sending it triggers details to be sent to you. So, once you’ve registered with them, if you see a poster advertising an event you’d like to see, all you have to do is text the code. An email will be sent to you, outlining all the dates, times & avenues for buying tickets etc. In the spirit of PayPal, I’ve called this Txt2Know.

All of these services make sense, because everyone carries their phones with them all the time. I’m interested in creative uses of this system too. What if I read a story that asks me to Txt2Be…text to be closer to a character or the storyworld. I love the use of words as commands, to have ramifications in the real world.