Yet another birthday I learned (sorry, remembered!) through bluemountain.com. I love the site – it has come a long way since its inception when users sent images around. Now, almost every creation is animated. But it’s time to take it to the next level with augmented reality. I came across this post in Oddcast‘s latest e-newsletter. The company, known for its talking heads and avatars, is demoing augmented reality. They are meshing live video with animated characters. You can try it for yourself: Go here to see an example. If you have a Webcam ready, you can interact with the animated guitar player at oddcast.com/augmented. All you have to do is to turn on your camera, print a badge from here, hold it up to your Webcam and magically, a cartoonish guitar player pops up on your face. The badge becomes his stage. You can move your hands towards him to see if he’ll fall off the stage. He’ll jump and keep on rocking.
Now, wouldn’t it be fun to record a personal video message for a friend and plug in a three-dimensional, animated character to jazz it up. Your friend could then interact with the animated character while he/she listened to your message.
Imagine what this could do for brands and fans. You could finally dance on the same stage with Michael Jackson, have cans of Coke and wear your favorite designer’s clothes from the comfort of your desk. Brands could provide the tools on a micro-site to fans and let them create their own clips, mixing video with animation.
Idil has devised marketing and communication strategies for Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations for 20 years. She is the author of 'Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing: Online Strategies to Identify Influencers, Craft Stories and Draw Customers' (Wiley, 2010), as well as numerous industry briefs and articles on online communications.
Idil has been a public speaker on word-of-mouth marketing, women and ethnic minorities’ use of digital communications, and e-CRM. She has been widely quoted in trade journals and newspapers such as CNet news, CBS Market Watch, San Jose Mercury News, Chicago Sun Times, Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times and the New York Times. In 2010, she was selected ‘Digital Communicator of the Year’ by PRNews.
Idil is currently VP of Media Analytics at Nielsen, working with public sector, technology and telecom clients, gauging their advertising and brand communication effectiveness. She also serves on the Ad Council’s Research Committee.
Previously, she was a VP of Client Development at NM Incite – a Nielsen / McKinsey company, identifying and amplifying business opportunities in social media for clients. Prior to her roles at Nielsen, Cakim was a Senior Vice President in the global PR agency Golin’s digital practice and a Director of Burson-Marsteller’s think tank—the Knowledge Development group.
A native of Istanbul, she holds an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School at University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Sociology from Bryn Mawr College.
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