When we hire at Cloud, one of our criteria is that folks bring with them interests, passions and talents that go beyond fulfilling a given role at the agency.   We think that those qualities enrich each and everyone of us and the product we put out.  Edmund is a great example of that.  As we’ve mentioned before he is one half of the electric pop duo Hexes and Ohs, he creates wonderful illustrations and is an art director here (not to mention an all round great guy). We thought it would be fun to chat with him about a campaign he created this fall as an excuse for you to get to know him better.

We’ll be introducing you to team members in this fashion every month or so because, we think each and every person here is a rock star in their own way.  Edmund just happens to be one for real.

(PS: Thanks for fancy camera work Joe and for coordinating all this Aleks!)

5 commentslatest by Joanie, Jan 13th at 10H00

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

Les points de vue divergent, personne n’aura raison car comme chaque année ce sont les usagers qui vont nous surprendre et faire naître de nouveaux usages, de nouvelles tendances. Tendances et usages qu’il sera de notre devoir de comprendre, écouter, analyser et intégrer à nos tactiques de marketing interactif afin d’être toujours le plus pertinent et efficace possible.

Je me lance pour un aperçu des tendances auxquelles je crois pour 2010.

Fonctionnalités et usages du web ?

Stratégies de marque ?

L’esprit, l’humeur des consommateurs ?

Dans un monde idéal, je rêve d’un web dans lequel les barrières de langues seraient supprimées, pour 2015 peut-être ? Imaginez, l’ensemble du web serait navigable dans la langue de son choix peu importe la langue de création du contenu original.

Le rêve, non ?

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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.

3 commentslatest by Edmund, Jan 6th at 9H50

Today marks our first day back at the office- and though some of us may be a bit sleepy, or still full from the copious amounts of holiday baked goods, we’re ready to get a jump start 2010. And not just by sticking to our New Years resolutions, but by promising everyone a fantastic year filled with a whole lot of, what we like to call, ‘a metric assload of awesome’.

And the first delivery on that promise: the CloudKitchen online book. You’ve seen the timelapse video of the entire evening, we’ve posted the pictures on facebook along with the entire iTunes playlist, now it’s time to witness the results.

Happy New Year and Rake On!

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Our very kind office coordinator brought us some nice coffee and cookies, we didn’t even need to ask.

And as I’m looking for excuses to use our camera, here’s a picture of it!

1 commentlatest by JS, Dec 20th at 11H01

This cloudkitchen event/talent show/cookbook/holiday card/fun fest/thing that we are all constantly talking about  (okay, I am constantly talking about) is the gift that just keeps on giving.  During the party, crafty Miss Davina our photographer/eater/karaoke-er/buddy for the evening placed a camera beneath the projection screen that took pictures every minute, all night long.  Most didn’t know it was there, but those who did, kind of forgot it was (apparently that happens to reality TV contestants too).  Here we all, in all our glory, rockin’ out.

2 commentslatest by christina, Dec 17th at 18H40

Thane went out an decided to buy a new cam for the office. And what a cam is it, I know very little about SLRs and I think these pictures came out pretty good. Enjoy!

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Il est très à la mode de parler de réseaux sociaux, pourtant au quotidien, les “stratégies” décrites sont standardisées et ne prennent pas en compte l’internaute. Or, comme toujours avec Internet, c’est le consommateur qui décide d’agir… Décide d’aller visiter votre site, décide de s’abonner à une infolettre, décide d’envoyer à un ami ou de partager sur facebook. Aucun contenu ne pourra se partager en ligne de lui-même, aussi bon/drôle/impressionnant/exclusif… soit-il !

La seule chose que l’on puisse faire c’est de créer les meilleures conditions possibles pour l’inciter à agir tel que nous souhaiterions qu’il agisse. Mais ultimement, chaque internaute décide de partager – ou non – ce que vous lui proposez avec son réseau – ou sa communauté.

Lorsqu’il est exposé à votre pièce de communication (un jeu, une blague, une vidéo peu importe), l’internaute va se questionner sur la cohésion entre la pièce (“contenu”) et son statut dans son réseau (“contexte”). Voici quelques questions que je trouve particulièrement utiles pour valider la pertinence d’un concept “réseaux sociaux” que ce soit un réseau ami, professionnel ou autre.

“Est-ce qu’en partageant ce contenu avec les miens, je …”:
- Dis quelque chose sur moi, qui je suis, ce que j’aime, ce que je supporte, ce qui m’intéresse, ce qui m’amuse…
- Me positionne socialement vis-à-vis de mon réseau: comme un “trend-setter”, un privilégié, une personne cultivée, curieuse…
- J’entretiens ma fonction sociale dans ce réseau ?
- Exprime des perceptions, des sentiments que je n’arrive pas à exprimer aussi bien que ce contenu peut le faire ?
- Communique des sentiments qui viennent de mon univers personnel et que j’ai envie de partager avec les miens ?
- Vais en apprendre plus sur mes amis ou mon réseau : celles et ceux qui partagent le plus mes opinions, passions, intérêts, émotions…?
- Renforce mes liens amicaux ou professionnels?
- Définis l’identité de ma communauté, je participe à créer la saveur de notre groupe?

Le reste est une question de coordination. L’expertise en réseaux sociaux est une accumulation d’essais/erreurs pour apprendre à créer des liens et engager des conversations.

Sources: Bud Caddell, Henry Jenkins, Xiaochang Li, Ana Domb Krauskopf, Joshua Green, Mike Arauz.

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What knives do I need in my Kitchen? - Corey Corey Milligan for New West KnifeWorks

Since my mother asked me what I want as a gift for Christmas, I told her I would like a real good chief knife. The thing is, even if cooking is one of my passion (and that I have fairly descent knives), I didn’t know what to look for in a good chief knife. I begun my search by reading some articles (here and there) and also by visiting some shops in the greater Montreal. Nothing really convinced me, I was on my own and nobody were looking to know the products they were selling. I got confused in all the brands and to what their main qualities were versus the others. Every shops were carrying the most prestigious brands like Shun, Global and Wusthof, but I found in none of them something special enough to be attracted by it.

Everything changed, when I bumped into a sponsored ad link in the Amazon Store. I ended up on the site of Corey Milligan of New West KnifeWorks. Corey and Mike (his now ex-partner who left in 2005) have been designing, developing, and producing knives for fine art and craft shows since 15 years. Their knives are not only sharp as a samurai swords, they are also very good looking! And most of all, they not only have the nerve to try making the best good looking knives in the world, but they also have reinvented some of the most common ones, like the bread knife.

But the point here is, it is this video by Corey himself who made all the difference in my choice. He is proudly presenting his own products. He has explained to me, all what I needed to know about, not only, his two lines of knives, but also about good kitchen knives in general and how to take well care of them. He has simply convinced me and I didn’t even hold one of his knife in my hand! Note that they are offering a full refund satisfaction policy part of their lifetime guarantee on their knives as they know that a good knife in your kitchen is on only one you will like to hold comfortably in your hand.

The point is, also, that nothing does a better job that a good video presentation of your products/services. It can be your best selling tool in your arsenal, same as a good chief knife in a kitchen. 90% of the result can comes from it. I would even suggest to Corey to put his introductory video at the forefront of his site, as the main feature on the home page. I would also recommend to enlarge all the videos explaining the use of each cooking knives.

The use of videos will never replace written content (simply regarding a good SEO strategy), but once on your site, they can be unprecedented selling tools.

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This post has originally been posted on 6ixPassions.

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After having taken our pictures, mug shot style, Fred had the brilliant idea of putting them on real mugs. So we did it! Here’s the all team:

Thanks to Robert for the photos.

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