Watch our exclusive interview with the founder of the Plastiki, David de Rothschild, taken while he sails across Pacific on his boat from recycled plastic water bottles.

To see the first video with Graham Hill, click here.

To see the conference, click here.

Did you see Thane’s presentation at Infopresse’s RDV Web conference on April 21st? If you did, you may have noticed that due to some technical and scheduling conflicts, Graham Hill was not able to join us via Skype that day. To make up for it, he sent us a fantastic video of his adventures on the Plastiki. We’re sharing a part of it with you today, but stay tuned, we’ll have more up on Monday!

To see Thane’s conference, click here.

C’est un fait nous passons tous de plus en plus de temps sur Internet tous démographiques confondus, et encore plus au Canada. Et oui, quelque part il y a cette petite voix qui nous dit “j’aurai pu faire ça au lieu” mais finalement nous sommes comme aspirés et on ne décolle plus ! Par contre, ce qui est sûr c’est que l’objectif est bien souvent d’aller sur Internet pour simplifier une tâche que j’aurai pu accomplir de façon plus complexe dans la « vraie » vie.

De plus en plus d’outils permettent de converger nos deux vies avec comme véhicule bien souvent le téléphone intelligent. D’un point de vue usager, j’utilise ces technologies, ces outils, pour faciliter mes opérations quotidiennes. Encore plus si je suis dois gérer de front vie professionnelle, sociale et familiale.

Depuis quelques mois de plus en plus de marques commencent à saisir cette opportunité d’affaire en concrétisant des actions digitales en une valeur ajoutée dans la vraie vie. C’est vrai, Foursquare est une illustration parfaite de ces nouveaux comportements, mais d’autres exemples existent, en voici déjà 6.

L’utilité ça veut aussi dire aujourd’jhui ne plus séparer ces rencontres avec votre marque et vos produits en ligne et dans la vraie vie. C’est la même vie d’un bout à l’autre. Et mieux vos solutions de communication seront intégrées à la réalité et plus le consommateur/usager sera fidèle. L’application ING sur iPhone a rendu ma vie beaucoup plus simple, et ça ne m’aide pas de devoir attendre d’avoir un ordinateur et une connexion Internet pour faire une transaction sur mon compte Banque Nationale alors que je pourrai le faire rapidement dans le bus en allant travailler.

C’est une nouvelle réalité qui va au-delà des démographiques, c’est une nouvelle façon de gérer ses achats, ses tâches quotidiennes, ses relations sociales.

Un autre bel exemple, une marque qui a compris que son audience peut à la fois être là physiquement et virtuellement, SXSW 2010, fascinant !

J’en profite pour célébrer l’arrivée à Montréal de @missrogue, Tara Hunt, qui est une des pionnières dans ces questions de monde virtuel et réel.

A group of us returned from a trip to Kenya last week where we spent four intensive days meeting with members of a tiny rural community. We were exposed to the challenges and advantages of living in a remote village where the landscape is sublime but living off of that land can be life-threatening. I cannot describe the impact it had on me without falling victim to the platitudes we have heard time and again, so I apologize in advance.

Trying to get my head around what my role on this planet is feels like a worthwhile exercise but reconciling the way Kenyan villagers live with the way I do is complex to say the least. What I can describe is the feeling of gratitude that permeated every moment I spent there and every moment I have had since. Let me be clear, it is not so much gratitude for the life I have but rather gratitude for the chance I got to meet the people I did, to have held hands with and played games with the children there and to have been exposed to a people uncompromised by notions of ‘mine and yours’. Now, I am not so changed that I will abandon the basic infrastructure of my life. I have a mortgage to pay, a business to help run, a closet filled clothes and carefully displayed things in my home. None have been tossed away, moved nor held in any less regard because of my experience.

The lessons I learned there had less to do with stuff and more to do with people. More specifically, community. I saw two year old children walking themselves home along dirt roads and when I asked if we should intervene the answer was clear: no. In truth these children are never alone, every member of the village looks out for the other. Four year olds look after two year olds and eight year olds keep their eye on those four year olds and on…With clean water access being a luxury, villagers continue to trek to faraway river sources for dirty, infected water to do their household cleaning and use the clean water from the well only for drinking and cooking so that everyone has their share of the good stuff. Taking what is necessary, not wanted, for the greater good feels like a pretty darned good way of behaving to me.

When did we stop doing that? When did we set up this perpetual turf war where neighbours stop speaking to one another over where a backyard fence will be laid allowing an inch of grass to divide a community? Why do we perpetually search for ways of being further away from each other instead of allowing for our fundamental connectivity to reign? There are, of course, moments of grace that I experience in my own community. When it snows, whomever is out first clearing their walk will often clear the walks of their neighbours while they are at it. A small gesture, but one of unspoken solidarity that makes me feel protected and part of something greater than myself.

I suppose this is the lesson I learned:  What I do affects you. I am in this with you. And I promise that I will try do better by you. I may even shovel your walk.

J’ai été assez frappée aujourd’hui suite à quelques rencontres avec des étudiants en communication. Parlant de réseaux sociaux, tous avaient le même constat: “j’ai tellement hâte d’avoir un iPhone pour pouvoir me mettre sur Twitter”.

J’ai trouvé l’insight vraiment intéressant, moi-même sur Twitter (@DigitalPlanner) depuis quelques mois, dont plusieurs sans iPhone, je n’ai jamais trouvé que le téléphone intelligent était un frein à l’utilisation de Twitter.

J’utilise l’outil comme une prise directe avec des gens de l’industrie, des personnes inspirantes que je peux suivre et écouter chaque jour. Un accès qui me serait impossible sans Twitter. Imaginez-vous que chaque jour c’est comme si j’étais assise aux côtés d’Alex Bogusky (@bogusky), Avinash Kaushik (@avinashkaushik), Amanda Mooney (@AmandaMooney), Martin Dave (@martindave), Bud Caddell (@bud_caddell)… de temps à autre ils me disent “et tiens t’as entendu parlé de ça?”, c’est génial non Twittter?

Bon j’avoue que l’arrivée du iPhone dans ma vie l’an passé a révolutionné mon utilisation de Twitter puisque maintenant je tweet dans le bus, à l’aéroport… quand je ne 4sq pas biensûr :)

Pourtant j’ai trouvé intéressante cette idée que Twitter est dans l’instantané, on ne tweet pas des choses 3 ou 4 heurs après qu’elles nous aient marqués.

Twitter, c’est comme le hic et nunc de la communication. Et apparement, quand on est jeune, il n’y a pas d’ici et maintenant sans un téléphone intelligent connecté au web dans la poche.

Pour plus de données sur les téléphones intelligents au Québec, je vous invite à consulter cette recherche du Monde de Cossette. 46% des cellulaires achetés au Québec en 2010 seront des téléphones intelligents… 1 sur 2, ça va en faire du monde sur Twitter :)

Back in the day…

I remember a time when impersonating a plumber and killing turtles was a blast. We didn’t mind being a square persona, we didn’t care about the fact that we could only play with only one other player. We were young, innocent and we were ok with the fact that we had to start over at level 1 when you had no more life at the top of the screen.

But now, what are the gaming fans into?

Now people don’t only want to be the star of their living room but want to be the star of a community. Be recognized as one of the best on the server or of the virtual world they’re part of. Now we see the same kind of human behaviour in those gaming environments as in real world. People create relationships, depend on others, show their social status or accomplishment and even feel betrayed or left behind.

The boundaries between the games and life is getting thinner and thinner

Now people are craving for social interaction in realistic worlds and in fantasy ones. In the past, gaming was a way to get away from reality and to experience great challenges. Now with online gaming you can even live social experiences that can fulfill for some the need for a real life experience.

The gaming industry is aware of that

Today the gaming industry understands that gaming is not only for boys and it has to please everyone. This industry knows now that the little boys that were the past gaming fans are now growing up and still need their gaming fix. It now tries more and more to understand their community of players from a behavioral point of view. In some online games a lot of things are planned and studied, so they can reward the players for specific actions and make the world respond to their behaviors. What’s great is the impact that the players have on the game and the impact the game has on the player.

What makes a game so engaging? What can we learn from this industry?

How to some it’s sometime more attractive than real life? It’s really impressive how someone embraces a game, like for example ‘World of Warcraft’ and makes it part of life. How can a game make someone want to spend more time in the virtual realm instead of the real world?

• Is there a non-game related brand or a product that has as much influence on someone to be such a part of its daily life?
• Can a company learn from its customers by watching them interact in a game?
• How can we leverage the gaming power on a user to send a message?

I think that a lot of companies can learn from how the gaming industry knows their customers.

This past fall, Isabelle and Christina accompanied the boys from LimitedHype.com down to Reed space in NYC to celebrate Onitsuka Tiger’s 60th anniversary being commemorated in a limited edition magazine called Made of Japan.  Check out our saucy little video here and read all about the creative strategy here.

Exciting stuff! CloudRaker was just featured in ThisAintNoDisco, a neat site that highlights some of the worlds best looking agencies. Not only that- but we’re the FIRST EVER Montreal agency to be up on the site! How cool is that!?

Around here, lunchtime is a bit like ’show-and-tell’. But with Sunday’s leftovers. It’s an indisputable fact; Raker’s LOVE food- and to further showcase the culinary talents and yummy lunches, we present you with the Monday Cook-Off. Ding Ding!!

In the left corner of the table we have Stephane, technical whiz by day, homegrown chef by night.

Stephane brought a mouth watering Thai Style soup packed with savory ingredients such as lemon grass, ginger, rice vermicelli, fresh veggies and shrimp.

On the right hand corner of the table we have Robert. Art director, dog rescuer, and founder of his own foodie blog. Need I say more?

Robert brought in a potato gratin with leeks, ham and gruyere cheese. Rustic and delicious.

We couldn’t decide on a winner since we where too busy wiping up our drool. So instead we’re asking you to cast your votes!

Yesterday YouTube (owned by Google) announced that they would drop support for Internet Explorer 6 on March 13. While users will still be able to access YouTube and use most of it, they will receive a message that notifies them that some functions might not work properly, suggesting an upgrade to a newer browser (see screenshot below).

What does that mean for us?

If you are not already aware, IE6 has been around for about 10 year now and its user base is still around 20%. That means that we still have to develop our website taking this browser into consideration. Lately at CloudRaker, we’ve been talking a lot about starting to drop support for IE6 and charging clients for the additional work that it requires. Depending on the type of project, making it compatible for this browser can take from 10 to 20% more development time. Stopping support for this browser would mean cheaper development costs and faster delivery.

But why is it so bad?

The browser itself is not THAT bad…if we were still in 2001. When it was finally released, it was seen as a savior by the developers community. Simply because it blew away it’s biggest competitor at the time, Netscape 4. That was ages ago, and this browser is built around old standards and hasn’t improved in the last 10 years. Because a lot of people are still using it, we still need to consider it and that’s exactly why the community has had enough of it.

What does that move mean for the future?

While I don’t personally think IE6 will die on March 13, it is certainly something that will bring awareness to the average user. The average user that visits YouTube on IE6 has no clue their browser is outdated. As long as the sites work, it’s totally fine with them, they just don’t know their browsers don’t support CSS3, transparency, has a slow JavaScript engine. They don’t know because we are still making the websites we build work for them. Now that the big boys decided to drop the support it will help, even if the users still won’t realize their new browsers now support CSS3, HTML5 and such. It still makes us happy to know they switched.

Here at the CloudRaker office, there’s been much talk about haircuts among the men. Our technical director Fred had let his grow particularly wild at one point and just recently had it trimmed down. He and several of our male compadres go to the little barber shop around our corner. A few years ago, my finicky self would’ve thought they were crazy, but paying $10-15 at a barber shop versus $60-80 at the hairdresser is starting to make a lot more sense.

It’s important to note that many guys have never had trouble with the no-frills treatment at barber shops, but many like me, have been more comfortable with hairdressers. It’s not necessarily from a desire to be fashionable, but from a general fear of barber shops. My fear started at 14 years old. It was the mid 90’s and I was trying to grow my hair like Kurt Cobain. Because it was getting a little mulletesque in the back, I asked my mom to take me to that $5 place my family goes to in Chinatown for a trim. I left with one of those early 90’s skater cuts with it long and even on top and totally shaved underneath..

In the last year or so, I’ve noticed a gradual change of heart among men, partially fueled by trendsetters like the Sartorialist. Maybe it’s the economic crisis forcing us to question frivolities like $60 haircuts, or just a general back-to-basics attitude but many have gone back to the way of barber shops. During the Christmas holidays, I went to Salon Caldense on Duluth, paid $15 and got a pretty decent haircut!

Les bulles de champagne à peine évaporées que l’on se demande déjà de quoi sera fait 2010. Les prévisions fusionnent:

2010 is upon us and we thought we’d help ring in the new year by looking at what lays ahead for the year in trends, technology and goodies and gadgets that we at Cloud are crushing on (read: want for our birthdays). Our top ten:

10. Livescribe. While this computer in an ink pen has been on the market for a while now, we thing it’s glory days lie ahead. This pen can actually create interactivity using ink and a sheet of paper. Here’s the demo.

9. QR Code: To say this code which can be read by mobile devices and contain any content you chose is a game-changer for retailers, advertisers, transit systems and beyond, is grossly understating things.

8. La-di-da

Last year Apple bought lala.com and we think that in 2010 we’ll see the-ahem-fruits of the purchase.  Streaming through iTunes.? We likie. 

7. Square Space

Somewhere between a custom built CMS and Wordpress lies Square Space a  website building tool for those without any website building know-how.  It’s the CMS equivalent of modular pre-fab homes.  Now we can all unleash our inner architect.

6. OLED TV

These TVs do not use a backlight, instead each pixel is lit.  ‘So what?’ you say…  Well, that means that when the data on the screen is dark so is the space around it.  Now imagine you are watching Evil Dead when that dude is being chased through the woods by the spirit (I actually have no idea what happened in the movie, my eyes were shut the whole time) and your den is as dark as night….

5. 3D TV

‘member what I was saying about being chased in the forest by the mean spirit?

4. Vroom, vroom.

Electric cars are cool.  Really, really cool.

3.  The pocket projector.

Is that a projector in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?  Heh heh.

2. Warm white LEDs

Have you ever mistakenly referred to your living room as ‘aisle 9’?  Do you sit in your dining room and have flashbacks of your root canal?  Or do you live in not-so-secret shame and use the baddie bulbs in your home?  (I do.)  Well, for the de-saturated and delinquents among us, a proper warm white LED light bulb is finally here!  

1. iTablet

We, like the rest of world, are spazing out about the iTablet, even though nary a one of us can articulate what about makes it so special…is it a small computer sans-server or is it a giant iPhone?  We dunno, but we want it anyway.

While we are thrilled with the way things are advancing around us, we do have a few gripes.  

Below, the things that we think should totally exist by now, but don’t.

1. The Jet Pack

2. The Orgasmatron

3. The Lightsaber

4. Exoskeletons

5. Hoverboards

6. Conveyor belt alarm clock/showerer/dresser/breakfast maker.

The first time for something new is always memorable (wink wink), today we launched our first iPhone app for the 2009 boomerangs. It’s called iGeek and it’s a fun little function that allows you to geek out – anytime- any place.

Check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/igeek/id339003423?mt=8

Check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/igeek/id339003423?mt=8

Ana Andjelic wrote a blog post that was picked up by AdAge in which she boldly stated that digital agencies are not yet equipped to take the lead on accounts. As interesting as the content of her article was, the reaction from readers was far more telling about the state of affairs in our industry today. It got heated to say the least (one reader claimed her point of view was tantamount to racism). The fact that people-on both sides of the debate- got so angry about the subject speaks to what the real problem we are facing is: ourselves.

It is no secret that change is a heady beast and when it threatens our professional credibility, we can get a little defensive. I understood what Ms. Andjelic was trying to say and agreed with much of it, only the way her argument was laid out pointed exclusively to institutional failings and not human ones. I think I am in an interesting position to comment given that I spent the first ten years of my career in ‘traditional advertising’ and switched into digital here at CloudRaker almost a year ago to the day.

A few years back, when I was creative lead on integrated accounts, it became quite obvious that most of the folks from the web department were not trained to create cohesive, strategic brand campaigns, not for lack of intelligence or aptitude, but simply because the model didn’t support it. It fell on the shoulders of traditional creatives to build the strategies that would later be adapted across all media touch points. On the flip side, us traditional folk couldn’t build meaningful digital strategies-if it wasn’t a big box, a banner or a microsite (read: paid media space to fill) we were confounded. Now don’t get riled up…of course, there are exceptions to this out there and skill sets are evolving quickly. But the fact remains that neither side is really trying to understanding where the other is coming from.

And what a shame that is. Resentment and fear of the other is pervasive. Branding talk is dismissed as fluff on one side and lack of cohesive messaging built into the inherent utility of digital strategies can be maddening to come up against. But if we all quiet down long enough to listen to what the other person is saying and stop protecting our roles and instead participate in evolving them, great things can happen.

We all know the tide is turning and digital is becoming more and more significant, if not central, to many brand strategies. But the biggest mistake digital agencies can make at this juncture is to sit back and gloat while we watch more budgets redirected towards us and away from the ‘big guys’. If anything, now is the time to learn from the people who have run the ad business for decades. Belittling the past is as egregious as being in denial about what’s coming.

We envisioned a mixed team for CloudRaker, and honestly, so far, so good. But at times it hasn’t been easy. Old reflexes kick in and bad habits re-emerge. What else is to be expected? This media revolution has as much to do with people as it does technology. Two cultures are colliding! But if we stick to our respective camps and resist integrating, more time will be spent warring with one another than building great new things. The business of this is really quite straightforward, it’s the people who muck it up.

I think that if agencies get the right people on board, people who can see beyond their immediate roles, people who are open-minded and who are humble enough to recognise that the person sitting next to them can enrich what they are creating, then and only then, can digital agencies lead. And then and only then will traditional agencies be able to thrive again. Of course, by the time we all figure it out, the distinction between the two will be moot. And I, for one, can’t wait for that day.