Meet Your Future Self, Try Harder Today

By Sharon Basaraba, About.com Guide   December 8, 2011

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(Aging progression photos of young woman to age 72, without smoking and with smoking.  Courtesy Sarah C Grogan)

If you could magically transport yourself to say, the year 2045, would you give yourself a high five, or offer an apology?  Like the old joke "if I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself" laments, it's tough to understand exactly how today's behavior will play out in the future.

That may change, thanks to some enterprising researchers who are using aged photos and virtual reality to make the future more of a, well, reality.  A new study in the British Journal of Health Psychology found that young women shown photos of what they'd look like after years of smoking were shocked enough to butt out.  It seems the health promotion messages against tobacco use just didn't resonate like cold hard evidence of wrinkles and sagging skin.  Reactions of anxiety and nausea were common. (Welcome to getting older!)

Looking at photos of yourself as an older person might help you save money, too, according to Hal Hershfield and his colleagues at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University.  An assistant professor of Marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business, Hershfield found young people were more motivated to save for retirement when they saw older versions of themselves in a virtual world.  In research published this month, he reports that subjects put twice as much in a hypothetical savings account when they used the virtual aging machine.  He credits developing greater empathy with who you'll become in the future for the results.

Want to give it a try?   Using software on your computer or smartphone to age your photo, see if you're more motivated today to eat right, exercise, or even save some money.  Let me know what you find!

www.age-me.com:   Aprilage, the software used for the anti-smoking experiment, lets you download a picture online and modify it for $3.99.  It allows for additional factors like sun exposure and smoking.  Developed in 1999 in collaboration with the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Canada, Aprilage has been employed by police departments, school boards and television special effects departments around the world.

www.in20years.com: Lets you upload a photo with or without the added aging effects of a drug addiction. Also available as an app for your iPhone or iPad.

http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Transformer/: "Face of the Future" free online tool.

_Sources

_{Hal E. Hershfield, Daniel G. Goldstein, William F. Sharpe, Jesse Fox, Leo Yeykelis, Laura L. Carstensen, and Jeremy N. Bailenson. "Increasing Saving Behavior Through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self".  Journal of Marketing Research. November 2011, Vol.48, No.SPL:pp.S23-S37}

_{Sarah Grogan, Keira Flett, David Clark-Carter, Brendan Gough, Rachel Davey, Deborah Richardson and Giri Rajaratnam. "Women smokers' experiences of an age-appearance anti-smoking intervention: A qualitative study."  British Journal of Health Psychology Volume 16, Issue 4, pages 675-689, November 2011.}

Evolving Experience + Storytelling in Advertising

Posted by David Armano on Thursday, June 28, 2007 in Design/Interaction Design | Permalink

The other day, a commenter asked whether people “truly represent themselves for who they are, do they take on different personality characteristics while in their online persona, and how is their level of tolerance for disagreement affected?” One way to examine this question is to look how people provide based upon their choice of avatar — the pictorial representation of themselves in an online environment (such as virtual reality game).

Yee & Bailenson (2007) did just that and have some answers:

Across different behavioral measures and different representational manipulations, we observed the effect of an altered self-representation on behavior. Participants who had more attractive avatars exhibited increased self-disclosure and were more willing to approach opposite-gendered strangers after less than 1 minute of exposure to their altered avatar. In other words, the attractiveness of their avatars impacted how intimate participants were willing to be with a stranger.

In our second study, participants who had taller avatars were more willing to make unfair splits in negotiation tasks than those who had shorter avatars, whereas participants with shorter avatars were more willing to accept unfair offers than those who had taller avatars. Thus, the height of their avatars impacted how confident participants became.

These two studies show the dramatic and almost instantaneous effect that avatars have on
behavior in digital environments.

But wait, you say, these are just laboratory studies! How do people behave in a real online world?

Well, the researchers (Yee et al., 2009) looked at that too 2 years later to see if the effects held up in real online interactions:

The first study extends the work beyond laboratory settings to an actual online community. It was found that both the height and attractiveness of an avatar in an online game were significant predictors of the player’s performance.

In the second study, it was found that the behavioral changes stemming from the virtual environment transferred to subsequent face-to-face interactions. Participants were placed in an immersive virtual environment and were given either shorter or taller avatars. They then interacted with a confederate for about 15 minutes. In addition to causing a behavioral difference within the virtual environment, the authors found that participants given taller avatars negotiated more aggressively in subsequent face-to-face interactions than participants given shorter avatars.

Together, these two studies show that our virtual bodies can change how we interact with others in actual avatar-based online communities as well as in subsequent face-to-face interactions.

Social presence — how much you feel connected to an online environment with others — is also impacted by avatar choice. Social presence is enhanced when high-visual realism is matched with high-behavioral realism — in other words, when attractiveness is combined with our expectations of attractiveness.

Behavioral and visual realism of agents must match to produce high social presence. When the two forms of realism mismatch (e.g., high-visual realism paired with low-behavioral realism), the outcome is worse than with an agent of low levels of both forms of realism (Bailenson et al., 2005). We see a similar pattern in our data. High levels of attractiveness and height produce the best results, low levels of both produce an intermediate result, and the mismatched conditions produced the worst results.

Mismatched conditions, in this study, meant an attractive but short avatar. Apparently the societal expectation is that attractiveness is naturally accompanied by height. Think “tall, dark and handsome” or a “tall, curvy blonde with long legs.” Of course people of moderate and short height can also be attractive, but it defies one of the components of most people’s unconscious definition of attractiveness.

The upshot is simple — your avatar can indeed impact how you interact and behave online. And if this is true in virtual worlds, it may very well be true in other online environments too (such as on a support forum). This is unsurprising, seeing as simply using a pseudonym in an online support forum makes it easier for people to discuss problems and concerns with others that they otherwise wouldn’t do face-to-face (Kummervold et al., 2002). If people can change their online behavior simply by choosing a false name, I can imagine their behavior might be more directly impacted by their choice of avatar. Yee et al.’s research suggests that this is indeed true.

References:

Kummervold, P.E., Gammon, D., Bergvik, S., Johnsen, J-A K., Hasvold, T., Rosenvinge, J.H. (2002). Social support in a wired world: Use of online mental health forums in Norway. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 56(1), 59-65.

Yee, N. & Bailenson, J. (2007). The Proteus Effect: The effect of transformed self-representation on behavior. Human Communication Research, 33(3), 271-290.

Yee, N. Bailenson, J.N. & Ducheneaut, N. (2009). The Proteus effect: Implications of transformed digital self-representation on online and offline behavior. Communication Research, 36(2), 285-312.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

There are many, many self-help books for depression around these days, but which ones do experts recommend and which ones work? Liz Anderson from the University of Bristol and colleagues examined the use of self-help books for treating depression (Anderson et al., 2005). They found six books that were recommended by experts, although only one book had evidence for its effectiveness.

1. Feeling Good
This self-help book for depression has been evaluated in a number of randomised controlled trials, although small ones (Anderson et al., 2005). The book itself is rooted in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), currently one of the most successful methods psychologists have for treating depression. Broadly speaking, CBT tries to identify problematic thought processes, then uses mental activities designed to modify them.

Six studies have evaluated the use of this book in treating mild depression and overall they have showed it can be an effective treatment.

2. Control Your Depression
Like 'Feeling Good', this book is also based on cognitive-behavioural therapy. It has been evaluated in two studies, but neither of these found strong evidence for its effectiveness. This doesn't necessarily mean the book isn't useful, just that these studies failed to find an effect. The fact that it has been used in these two studies, however, underlines the fact that experienced clinicians believe it can be beneficial.

3. Mind Over Mood
While this book hasn't been evaluated in any randomised controlled trials, it is frequently recommended by experienced clinicians. Like the two previous books it is also based on cognitive-behavioural therapy and contains a large number of exercises and worksheets (cognitive-behavioural therapists love to dole out homework!)

4. Overcoming Depression and Low Mood: A Five Areas Approach
Again, this one also uses a cognitive-behavioural approach and is also frequently recommended by clinicians, although studies have yet to be carried out into its effectiveness.

5. Climbing out of Depression
Unlike the previous four books, this one isn't based around CBT. Instead it uses a psychodynamic approach. This focuses on understanding, reflection and contemplation. Again there's currently no evidence from randomised controlled trials, but this book is recommended by organisations like the Mental Health Foundation, MIND and the Depression Alliance.

6. Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison
This book falls into the same category as 'Climbing out of Depression', it is based on a psychodynamic approach, hasn't been formally evaluated but is recommended by depression organisations.

CBT or psychodynamic?

One of the main questions when choosing a self-help book is the psychological theory on which it is based. The six books recommended here fall into two categories: CBT and psychodynamic. Some people prefer the hands-on practical activities used in CBT, others prefer the more reflective techniques used in the psychodynamic approach.

Of course, there are books using many other types of approaches to depression, but CBT and the psychodynamic approach are two theories which have a large evidence base for their effectiveness in conventional face-to-face psychotherapy.

Note

Bear in mind that studies on bibliotherapy are at an early stage. The ones that exist have only examined a few of the books available, and generally these books are only for mild depression.

[Image credit: jillhudgins]

References

Anderson, L., Lewis, G., Araya, R., Elgie, R., Harrison, G., Proudfoot, J., et al. (2005). Self-help books for depression: how can practitioners and patients make the right choice. British Journal of General Practice, 55, 387-392.

스페인 북부의 산악은 지금껏 보았던 대 평원과는 전혀 다른 첩첩산중이기에 또다른 세계로 들어서는 착각이 든다. 정말, 험하고 험한 길이며, 산세도, 도로도, 계곡도 험하고 깊었다.

 
로욜라 대성당 앞에서 본 전경. 험준한 산으로 둘러 쌓여 있다.

위기의 카토릭 교회를 회복시킨 이냐시오 성인의 행적을 찾기위해 로욜라란 조그만 도시를 찾아나선 길은 차안에서 숨을 조리는 긴장의 여정이었다.

역시, 충분한 휴식과 운행 룰을 철저히 지키는 관광버스 기사님덕에 무사히 도착하였다.

 
소성당내 이냐시오 로욜라성인이 요양중인 모습을 재현하여 두었다.

16세기 카토릭 종교개혁에서 가장 큰 영향력을 행사한 예수회의 설립자 이냐시오는 스페인 로욜라의 귀족 집안에서 태어난 군인으로서 높은 명성과 행복을 누렸으나 프랑스 군에 맞서 팜플로나 요새를 방어하던중 포탄에 맞아 다리를 크게 다치게 된다.

그가 요양하는 동안 ‘그리스도의 생애’와 ‘성인들의 꽃’이라는 책을 읽고 큰 감명을 받고 자신을 주님께 봉헌하기로 결심하고 그리스도를 향하는 길고긴 고행을 시작한다.

 
예수회를 창설한 이냐시오 로욜라 성인의 모습.(다음에서 자료 발췌)

40이 넘은 늦깍기로 파리대학에서 신학을 공부한 그는 오로지 기도와 고된 극기의 생활을 한다. 환시를 보고난 후에는 성지로 순례를 떠나 일 년 여동안 기도,단식,성사,고행 등을 하며 지낸다. 체험으로 터득한 수행을 근거로 그 때 집필한 '영신수련'은 그의 가장 위대한 저서로 평가받고 있다.

 
로욜라 대성당내의 소성당 모습

그는, 뜻을 같이하는 동료 6분과 함께 파리에세 ‘예수회’를 창설하고 예수회를 통해 교회를 개혁시키고 교육사업과 복음화를 통해, 종교 개혁으로 타격받은 로마 가톨릭 교회를 회복시키는 데 크게 기여한다.

이냐시오 로욜라는 가톨릭 교회 내부를 개혁해서 신앙 공동체로 새롭게 리모델링한 역동적인 신학자였다.

 
이냐시오 성인의 방으로 들어가는 2층 계단에 성인의 조각상이 있다.

예수회는 교황에 대한 충성을 강조하고 종교개혁 이후 카톨릭 현대화의 주도적인 세력으로 부상하고 오늘에 이른다. 예수회는 독특한 훈련 과정과 운영 방식으로 카톨릭 내에서는 엘리트 집단으로서 자부심이 높은 단체로 부상 했다.

한국 예수회도 1960년 서강대를 설립하는 등, 카토릭의 중추적 사업인 선교와 교육활동을 하고 있다.

원문:

http://news.invil.org/article/PnPrintArticle.jsp?article_no=30138&menu=%BB%F3%BC%BC%C8%AD%B8%E9

New gesture, voice technology may make remote controls obsolete

Wouldn't it be nice to wave your hand, say a magic word and make the clicker disappear for good?

With a new generation of gesture- and voice-controlled televisions, that's exactly what may happen.

Viewers can control a new line of TV sets simply by speaking or gesturing at them, eliminating the need for clunky pointing devices and opening up a range of new ways people can use and interact with their televisions.

At a giant booth built by Samsung Electronics for the Consumer Electronics Show last week in Las Vegas, a young woman gave a demonstration of the company's new line of Smart TV sets, which come with a built-in Web browser as well as online applications such as Netflix, Skype and Facebook.

"Hi TV," she said, issuing the verbal command for the TV to turn on. "Channel 1034." The TV switched to a news channel. "Web browser," she continued, and the Yahoo home page popped up.

Next, the attendant waved her palm at the small camera built into the top of the television, activating its gesture sensor. By moving her hand, she was able to guide a cursor around the on-screen Web page, and to "click" on links and photos by closing her fist.

Tech observers say gesture and voice recognition systems will grow more sophisticated as the computers embedded in smartphones, TVs, tablets and home appliances become more powerful. That will make obsolete the era of mice and remote controls, which began in 1950 with Zenith's "Lazy Bones," a remote connected to the TV through a long wire.

With the newer controls, "you can simply use what God or nature gave you: your hands or your body or your voice — and that's all you need," said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Going remote-less may take people a little while to get used to, but once they do, Golvin said, "most people would say it's simpler and more natural."

Gesture control has become increasingly sophisticated in the last year, moving beyond simple commands and toward a broadening world of interactive gaming and TV applications.

Much of the progress has come from Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox, which uses the Kinect motion sensor to let gamers play without a controller, swinging swords by moving their hands, throwing video punches by throwing real ones and generally playing games with their bodies.

Powerful People Feel Taller Than They Really Are

Language can reveal all kinds of truths about our psychology. Take these expressions:

• He's the big man on this project.
• We look up to her.
• Lady Gaga is huge.
• He puts her on a pedestal.

It's not hard to see the strong association here between size and power that's embedded in the way we talk about the relations between people.

The reason why is almost too obvious to bother stating: larger people quite often do have more power. As children our parents, teachers and all our authority figures are taller than us. In adult life taller people earn higher salaries, are more likely to be in higher status jobs and more likely to end up US president.

And men are taller than women and have historically enjoyed more power.

But does the connection go both ways? Can being powerful also make us feel taller? That's what Duguid and Goncalo (2012) checked out in this neat study.

Power up

First they measured participants' actual heights, then paired them up. For each pair, one person was assigned the role of the boss and the other the employee. This was apparently done on the basis of a leadership aptitude test, but actually the results were chucked away and the leadership and employee roles were assigned randomly.

The 'leader' was told that they would have complete power during the task and that the employee must accept this. This ensured that one person in each pair felt more powerful.

Afterwards, as part of what they were told was different task, participants filled in another questionnaire. Hidden in this they were asked their height again. So now the experimenters had two measures of height: one before the power manipulation and one after.

Then the experiment was stopped before the promised role-play could be carried out.

An inch taller

The results showed that before the manipulation both groups averaged about 66 inches in height. But after the manipulation, those in the lower-power condition reckoned themselves to be, on average, 65.80 inches tall while those in the high-power condition had apparently grown to 67.01 inches.

A couple of other studies by the same researchers also showed this connection between power and height. When people felt more powerful, they also felt taller.

This shows that the connection between mind and body goes both ways in relation to power. We already know that people who stand in 'power poses', feel more powerful (see: 10 Simple Postures That Boost Performance), and this study is showing us the connection the other way: that feeling more powerful changes our perception of our own bodies.

Image credit: Uppy C

슈퍼보울을 슈퍼보울답게 하라! 박재항 조회수1352 등록일2011.02.05 16:15

슈퍼보울을 슈퍼보울답게 하라!

미국 동부 시간으로 2월 6일 일요일 저녁에 열리는 미국의 프로미식축구리그(NFL) 결승인 슈퍼보울은 이미 잘 알려진 것처럼 미국에서 시청률이 가장 높고, 따라서 광고단가가 세계에서 가장 높은 이벤트이기도 하다. 그리고 연초에 열리기 때문에 그 해의 광고 제작 성향을 파악할 수 있는 무대이기도 하다. 당연히 한다하는 기업들이 광고를 싣고, 광고주와 광고대행사가 한 팀이 되어 다른 팀들과 맞대결을 펼치는 광고의 경연장이자 검투장이다. 어디서 연유한 데이터인지는 모르지만, 슈퍼보울 시청자 중 40% 이상이 경기보다는 광고에 더 관심을 두고 본다는 얘기가 나온 지 한참 되어 이제는 정설처럼 굳어지기도 했다. 그런데 만약 슈퍼보울 이전에 본 광고들이 다시 슈퍼보울에 재탕된다면 광고를 제 1순위로 두고 슈퍼보울 중계에 채널을 맞춘 사람들은 어떤 기분일까?

그런데 이런 현상이 일어났다. 몇 년 전부터 조짐이 보이기는 했는데, 올해는 유례없이 많은 기업들이 주로 SNS 채널을 이용하여 자신들이 슈퍼보울에 틀 광고를 먼저 알리기 시작했다. 내가 처음 본 것은 지난 10년간 슈퍼보울에 가장 많은 광고를 방영해 왔고, 대부분 좋은 평점과 함께 화제를 불러일으키는 데 성공했던 미국 최대의 맥주회사인 버드와이저였다. 버드와이저는 15초 짜리 서부영화의 예고편과 같은 필름을 사용했다. 어느 술집의 문이 열리고 포스가 느껴지는 발걸음으로 한 걸음 한 걸음 술집 안으로 들어오는 부츠를 잡으며 놀란 사람들의 얼굴과 교차시킨다. 그리고 자막이 뜬다. “2월 6일, 계속(To be continued, February 6, 2011)". 이어진 다른 한 편에서는 초원을 달려오는 버드와이저의 상징인 크라이스데일이 끄는 마차가 달리는 장면만 계속 나오다가 마지막에 역시 같은 자막이 뜬다. 술집으로 이미 들어선 악당과, 확실하지는 않지만 쉬지 않고 초원을 달려오는 정의의 사도를 싣고 오는 듯한 마차. 조전적인 서부영화의 대표적인 구성원 둘이 어떻게 부딪히고 그 결말은 어떻게 날 것인지 2월 6일의 슈퍼보울 본방이 기대되었다.

아우디에서는 3분여 되는 미니필름을 내보냈다. ‘럭셔리 감옥(Luxury Prison)'이라는 무대를 설정하여 코메디 형식으로 ’럭셔리‘라는 것을 새롭게 정의해 주겠다는 의지를 풍자적으로 보여주었다. 그들 역시 2월 6일의 본방을 알리는 자막으로 마지막을 장식했다. 연주자인 케니지(Kenny G)를 쓴 편에서는 ’럭셔리 감옥은 2011년 2월 6일에 케니지를 그 어느 때보다 더욱 절실히 필요로 할 것이다(On February 6, 2011, Luxury prison will need Kenny G more than ever)'라는 식이었다.

버드와이저와 아우디 중 어느 것이 먼저 전파를 탔는지, 유튜브에 올라갔는지는 잘 모르겠다. 나는 버드와이저를 먼저 보았다. 그래서인지 아우디는 호화배역이 출연하고, 길이도 3분이나 되며, ‘럭셔리 감옥’이란 독특한 발상이 뛰어났지만, 슈퍼보울 본방에서의 광고에 대한 기대치는 버드와이저만큼 올라가지는 않았다. 이들 두 기업의 필름 이외에도, 예고편 뿐만 아니라 실제 슈퍼보울에 방영될 광고들이 유튜브나 각 기업의 페이스북을 통하여 공개되었고, 트위터를 통하여 마구 펴져나갔다. 몇몇 기업들은 아예 네트웍 TV에까지 예고편이나 축약판을 방영했다.

이런 경우는 처음이다. 본격적으로 내가 수퍼보울에 관심을 가진 것은 미국 주재를 시작하기 전에 장기출장 중이던 1999년부터이다. 미국을 비롯한 선진국에 나름 대대적인 광고캠페인을 계획하던 무렵이었다. 그 때도 그랬고, 지금으로부터 2~3년전 까지 슈퍼보울에 광고를 하는 기업들은 미디어와 다른 광고주 기업들과 슈퍼보울 경기중계 때까지 광고내용과 실제 계약가격을 둘러싼 보안전쟁을 펼친다. 가격은 대충 권역대가 설정되어 있어 화제가 오래 지속되지는 못했다. 대신 “짠‘하고 전파를 탈 때까지 광고내용을 둘러싸고 온갖 추측이 난무하곤 했다. 광고대행사나 기업 쪽에서 한두 마디 흘러나온 것을 가지고 기자들은 모든 상상력을 발휘하여 내용을 꾸며서 기사화하곤 했다. 그런 것들이 특종으로 취급받기도 했다. 그런데 이제 2~3년 전부터, SNS의 발달과 함께 모든 것이 이상하게 돌아가기 시작했다.

이제 ’짠‘하는 효과 대신 기업들은 최신의 매체를 이용한, 즉 SNS를 활용하여 버즈(Buzz)를 일으킨다는 미명하에 예고편 이상의 슈퍼보울에 틀 광고를 그대로 먼저 내보내고 있다. 2007년 이래 슈퍼보울 광고의 효과를 여러 가지로 실험하고 있는 켈로그경영대학원의 컬킨 교수와 다른 몇몇 교수의 의견을 종합하고, 나름대로 생각해보매 다음과 이유로 올해 이런 사전공개현상이 생긴 것 같다.

첫째, 버즈를 더욱 크게 일으킬 수 있다. 경기 중 한두 번 노출되는 것보다 1~2주를 두고 노출이 되니 그럴 수도 있겠다.

둘째, 효과를 보다 다양하게 수치화할 수 있다. 슈퍼보울 광고를 한 다음 효과라면 선호도 랭킹, 웹사이트로의 트래픽 정도에 불과했다. 그런데 이렇게 페이스북으로 방문을 유도하고, 거기서 노출을 하며, 트위터로 리트윗할 것을 권장하고 하면 여러 가지 숫자로 나타낼 수 있는 효과자료를 얻는다. 실제 얼마큼 ROI로 나타낼 수 있는가, 정당화할 수 있는가를 떠나 일단 더욱 많은 수치자료를 얻는 것만으로도 자금부분에 대해서 쓸 수 있는 무기가 생기는 꼴이다.

셋째, 슈퍼보울에서의 극심한 정면대결을 피할 수 있다. 최고의 심혈을 기울인 광고들끼리의 싸움에서 왠간하면 돋보이기 힘들다. 그러니 조금이라도 먼저 약간 다른 방식으로 소비자들의 눈길을 끄는 무대를 사전에 만드는 것이다.

스마트한 생각에서 출발한 것이기는 하지만 세 가지 이유와 목적을 충족시키기는 힘들 것 같다. 우선 너무나 많은 기업들이 사전 공개를 해버렸다. 행동 자체가 별로 특이하게 받아들여지지 않는다. 둘째, 여러 가지 수치가 나오기는 하지만 그 수치가 무엇을 의미하는지 설명할 방법이 아직 없다. 어떤 식으로건 ROI와 연결시킨다고 하더라도 내년에 더 큰 족쇄로 작용할 염려가 크다. 셋째, 본방에서의 정면대력에서 돋보이지 않을 광고라면 아무리 사전에 많이 튼다고 하더라도 결과는 거의 같다. 괜히 사전 방영 광고료만 더 지출한 셈이 된다.

무엇보다 슈퍼보울이라는 상황을 생각해야 한다. 아무리 광고에 더 관심을 두고 시청한다고 하더라도, 그 광고는 치열한 승부의 중간 중간에 나옴으로써 의미가 있고 더욱 임팩트를 갖게 된다. 그리고 제대로 된 광고인이라면 그 슈퍼보울이 중계되는 분위기에 맞추어 광고물을 제작한다. 이들 티저이건 예고편이건 동일 광고물이건 사전작업을 한 슈퍼보울 광고 기업들이 어떤 성적을 올리는지 주목해 봐야겠다. ‘본방사수’가 앞으로의 슈퍼보울에도 필요하다는 게 현재 개인적인 생각이다.

※ 슈퍼보울 광고를 가지고 매년 졸문을 썼는데, 본 경기 이전에 쓰기는 처음이다.

Kia Motors USA to premiere Super Bowl ad in theaters

January 20, 2012 |  6:52 pm

 

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The Super Bowl has become television's biggest stage. Within days, Kia Motors USA will begin touting its Super Bowl commercial on big screens.

To kick off its football championship advertising campaign, Kia Motors will release a teaser trailer for its upcoming Super Bowl commercial in 18,000 movie theaters, beginning Jan. 27.  Then, four days before the big Feb. 5 game, the car company will introduce the full-length 60-second commercial, called "Drive the Dream," on the same 18,000 screens.

It is believed to be the first time a Super Bowl commercial will premiere in movie theaters.

The move by Kia is part of a growing trend by marketers to give sneak peaks or unveil their entire ads before the Super Bowl to get a jump on competitors and gain traction in the increasingly important social media platforms. 

"We are trying to continue to push the envelope,” Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing for Kia Motors America, said. “Consumers at the movies will start tweeting about the ad, and that should help us build momentum and awareness.”

Kia's Optima sedan ad -- created by the car company's longtime agency, David & Goliath of El Segundo -- features super model Adriana Lima, MMA fighter Chuck Liddell and the rock band Motley Crue.  The concept for the commercial came during research sessions in which a consumer on a panel said the Optima was his dream car, said David Angelo, chief executive of David & Goliath.

Kia doesn’t think the early release will spoil the freshness of the ad, which will make its television debut during the Feb. 5 championship game broadcast by NBC. 

“Every year, the Super Bowl audience grows. And if we can tap 5 to 10 million people who see it early, there will still be 100 million people who haven’t seen it when it breaks during the Super Bowl,” Sprague said. “We are simply trying to create the buzz and get people talking.”

The Kia ad will be distributed in theaters by National CineMedia, which describes itself as the largest in-theater network in North America.  The company -- a joint venture between AMC, Regal and Cinemark -- also programs sporting events and concerts.

The Super Bowl ad stakes are increasingly high. This year, companies are paying NBC an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot, and more than $6 million for a 60-second spot.  

Related:

Companies try to build buzz for Super Bowl ads

O.C. native a finalist in Super Bowl commercial contest

 Super Bowl mania kicks off with a commercial for a commercial

-- Meg James

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Apple is slated to announce the fruits of its labor on improving the use of technology in education at its special media event on Thursday, January 19. While speculation has so far centered on digital textbooks, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Ars that Apple will announce tools to help create interactive e-books—the “GarageBand for e-books,” so to speak—and expand its current platform to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users.

So far, Apple has largely embraced the ePub 2 standard for its iBooks platform, though it has added a number of HTML5-based extensions to enable the inclusion of video and audio for some limited interaction. The recently-updated ePub 3 standard obviates the need for these proprietary extensions, which in some cases make iBook-formatted e-books incompatible with other e-reader platforms. Apple is expected to announce support for the ePub 3 standard for iBooks going forward.

GarageBand for e-books

At the same time, however, authoring standards-compliant e-books (despite some promises to the contrary) is not as simple as running a Word document of a manuscript through a filter. The current state of software tools continues to frustrate authors and publishers alike, with several authors telling Ars that they wish Apple or some other vendor would make a simple app that makes the process as easy as creating a song in GarageBand.

Our sources say Apple will announce such a tool on Thursday.

And Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis agrees that such a move would be very likely. MacInnis previously worked on education projects at Apple before leaving the company in 2009 to pursue his own ideas about creating interactive digital books. Inkling currently offers a variety of digital textbooks with interactive features, including the ability to share notes with classmates and instructors, via an iPad app.

“When you think about what Apple is doing… they are selling tens of thousands of iPads into K-12 institutions,” MacInnis told Ars. “What are they doing with those iPads? They don’t really replace textbooks, because there’s not very much content on offer,” he said.

Don’t expect that content to come directly from Apple, however. “Practically speaking, Apple does not want to get into the content publishing business,” MacInnis said. Like the music and movie industries, Apple has instead built a distribution platform as well as hardware to consume it—but Apple isn’t a record label or production studio.

But what Apple does provide is industry-leading tools for content production, such as Logic or Final Cut Pro, to help create content. The company also produces tools like GarageBand or iMovie that make such production accessible to a much wider audience.

Will Apple launch a sort of GarageBand for e-books? “That’s what we believe you’re about to see,” MacInnis told Ars (and our other sources agree). “Publishing something to ePub is very similar to publishing web content. Remember iWeb? That iWeb code didn’t just get flushed down the toilet—I think you’ll see some of [that code] repurposed.”

Mobile, social learning

Technology-in-education expert Dr. William Rankin also believes digital books will expand with tools that will enable social interactions among textbook users. Rankin, who serves as Director of Educational Innovation of Abilene Christian University and has extensively researched the use of mobile devices in the classroom, was one of three authors of a white paper on the effects of digital convergence on learning titled “Code/X,” published in 2009.

In that document, Rankin and his colleagues laid out their vision for the future of learning, which included an always-on, always-networked digital device called a “Talos.” That device turned out to be very similar to the iPad that Apple announced just six months later.

“What we saw coming was a change in the kinds of places that learning would happen,” Rankin told Ars. Since the device would always be with the student, it would give her access to information anytime and anywhere. “For that, you need a different kind of book.”

Such digital texts would let students interact with information in visual ways, such as 3D models, graphs, and videos. They would also allow students to create links to additional texts, audio, and other supporting materials. Furthermore, students could share those connections with classmates and colleagues.

“What we really believe is important is the role of social networking in a converged learning environment,” Rankin told Ars. “We’re already seeing that in Inkling’s platform, and Kno‘s journaling feature. Future digital texts should allow students to layer all kind of other data, such as pictures, and notes, and then share that with the class or, ideally, anyone.”

Exactly how what Apple announces on Thursday will impact digital publishing isn’t certain, however.

“Think about how meaningful simply authoring and publishing to an iPad will be for K-12,” MacInnis said. “However, it might not be great for molecular biology.”

MacInnis sees Apple as possibly up-ending the traditional print publishing model for the low-end, where basic information has for many years remained locked behind high textbook prices. Apple can “kick up dust with the education market,” which could then create visibility for platforms like Inkling. This could then serve as a sort of professional Logic-type tool for interactive textbook creation complement to Apple’s “GarageBand for e-books.”

“There will be a spectrum of tools and consumers, and we will continue to fit on that spectrum,” MacInnis opined. “I don’t know if the publishing industry will react to it with fear or enthusiasm.”

Steve Jobs’ pet project

We know that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was working on addressing learning and digital textbooks for some time, according to Walter Issacson’s biography. Jobs believed that textbook publishing was an “$8 billion a year industry ripe for digital destruction.”

According to our sources close to his efforts, however, Jobs’ personal involvement was perhaps more significant that even his biography purports. Jobs worked on this project for several years, and our understanding is that the final outcome was slated to be announced in October 2011 in conjunction with the iPhone 4S. Those plans were postponed at the last minute, perhaps due to Jobs’ imminent death.

Despite the delay, however, ACU’s Rankin believes the time is right for a change to happen in the field. “We’re headed toward a completely digital future at ACU,” he told Ars. “A recent study showed that 82 percent of all higher education students nationwide will come to campus with a smartphone. We need to have resources and tools ready for these mobile, connected students.”