Jason McCormick

Another Black Christmas - homepage

Jason McCormick — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:59:42 -0800

Another Black Christmas

Jason McCormick — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:29:11 -0800

Last Christmas we designed a desktop background to share with our community - it was black, so it used less energy. It was extremely popular, so we thought we'd do it again this year... only this time, showcasing the talents of a another local artist...

Meghan Hildebrand is a contemporary canadian artist. Based in Powell River - an industrial town and the site for western Canada's first pulp and paper mill - Meghan's wonderful range of work is awash with colour and meaning, dealing with 'themes of man-made construction overlapping and superseding our environs, and what the shapes we leave behind say about us'.

This particular effort includes animal ghosts revisiting their former homes - a contemporary take on A Christmas Carol, if you will.

We've included a number of executions based on the size of your screen, as well as how it is formatted. The majority of Mac's - for example - have icons on the right, so you are best selecting an execution marked left, while the majority of PC's have icons on the left...

BE WARM, BE SAFE, BE HAPPY... THIS HOLIDAY SEASON FROM ALL THE FOLKS AT Ci.

‘Sustainability’ + ‘Video Games’?

Jason McCormick — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:12:13 -0800

For us, sustainability is simply about understanding the culture in which business operates.To do this, we look through a number of cultural lenses – fashion, art, music, food, films… and video games.

Now, I know what most of you are thinking: Sustainability + video games? A disproportionate number of video games – including hugely successful ones like Halo 3 (US$300 million revenue in its first week) and Grand Theft Auto 4 ($500 million in its first week) – are ‘murder simulators’, where you exercise you thumbs in ultra violent kill fests, right?

In many cases - yes, but it is also a hugely important industry that rakes in more money and - arguably as a result – now has more influence than Hollywood. It has a grip on the minds and hearts of millions of people and is a legitimate storytelling platform… it’s a medium that is going through a renaissance with acres upon acres of room to grow, so you can imagine how pleased I was to see read about Jason Rohrer, a video game programmer stationed in upstate new york, and particularly delighted to play his game – Gravitation(You can download it here).

It’s an extraordinary game – ridiculously simple, by contemporary standards. You – a character made up of 12 pixels – play ball with your son. The more you play, the greater your world becomes and the screen expands to reveal a ‘mario bros’ style platform above… jump up and your can reach the stars. These represent ideas, and once you reach them you head flames. Spend too much time collecting stars and you world shrinks, and when you descend to the lower level to play ball with your son again he’s not there anymore (this symbolizes the fact that he has grown up and moved on!). Spend too much time playing with the kid, and you don't get to fulfil your creative aspirations - or score points!

The point?? It’s about finding that balance between work and family. You don’t have to be a parent to understand this sustainability challenge – one that many of us tackle on a daily basis. In fact, 90% of North Americans ranked ‘Leading a balanced life’ as an important sustainability issue in the latest instalment of SHIFT.

Jason Rohrer – along with contemporaries such as Rod Humble and Ian Bogost – make up a 'new wave' of game developers keen on giving games more depth and purpose. Rohrer himself has been hired an ‘idea guy’ for Stephen Speilberg’s latest gaming creation.

In truth, I am not all surprised to see this shift. I have long been interested in the gaming industry - both as a gamer and cultural anthropologist, and with some purpose we asked respondents in our latest research, if they played or purchased video games. Crossed tabbed against a list of sustainability issues, you might be surprised at some of the findings. For North Americans who play video games almost every day:
-    ‘Feeling connected to my family, my friend and my community’ was important to 86% of everyday gamers;
-    ‘Pollution’ is considered a more important issue than global warming with 68% ranking it important compared with 59%;
-    67% of them believed ‘Being part of a better society’ was important to them;
-    to support the need for a game such as ‘Gravitation’ 86% of once a week gamers believed it was important to lead a balanced life; and finally
-    to punctuate the need for more depth and purpose in the games that are made, as many 62% of users believe ‘Higher purpose and spiritual contentment’ is an important issue.

I could go, there’s lot more, but the long and the short of it points toward the opportunity for mainstream gaming companies to create games with an equal measure of substance + style, safe in the knowledge that mainstream gamers (we have the data) want to be aware of the issues and are looking for a (gaming) life with some meaning.

jason Rohrer's Gravitation.png

Jason McCormick — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:12:13 -0800

Jason Rohrer's Gravitation

Jason McCormick — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:05:59 -0800

Dying for consumption

Jason McCormick — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:45:10 -0800

Tragic, there’s no other word for it. A Wal-Mart Employee was trampled to death yesterday by a shrieking mob of shoppers desperate to make the most of the bargain-hunting ritual known as Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Ugly shopping scenes have become commonplace in most recent years but surely this is a shocking reminder that we - as a culture - need to revisit what is most important. Worse still, the NYT article noted that when shoppers were told they had to leave – that an employee had been killed - some people responded by yelling ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday morning’.

Terrible, terrible news… buoyed by the overall cultural shift to sustainability we are seeing in the marketplace, I am disappointed that people are still consumed with the notion that they need more stuff, regardless of the cost it has on others.

In a related story, in a Wal-Mart 15 miles away a customer sustained a cut on her leg when she was trampled by another crowd of overeager shoppers but she opted to finishing her shopping before filing the police report... I'd laugh, if it wasn't so sad!

Running of the bulls

Jason McCormick — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:45:09 -0800

Running of the bulls

Jason McCormick — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:42:35 -0800

Sustaining Obama?

Jason McCormick — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:53:30 -0800

Two months without a post and now two in two days… everything is changing today (see previous post)… and fittingly, it’s a post about Obama - and his Blackberry.

In an age where the infamously addictive device is commonly known as the ‘crackberry’, Obama is under pressure to give up his beloved Blackberry. The fear – according to aides – is anyone with the right technology will be able to track his movements and know his exact whereabouts, not to mention hack into his messages.

This poses a unique situation. On one hand, it’s one less thing for the president of the united states to have to manage and confiscating the device may make more time for a little (and I mean little) more personal sustainability. But on the other - and this is what Jonathan Freedland identified as unique in his guardian article – Obama’s Blackberry ‘represents a line out to the real world, a source of information - and casual communication with friends - that does not have to first pass through the filter of his advisers. Most of us would have more human contact if we gave up our BlackBerries: Obama may be a rare case of the reverse’.

Obama's Blackberry

Jason McCormick — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:52:21 -0800

Everything’s changing today…

Jason McCormick — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:31:45 -0800

Goodness, it’s been months since my last post… terrible, i'm usually the 'Blog Police' at work... oh well, thought I’d share this song with you… it’s by The Futureheads… not only is it a great song to get ready to before you head out for the night, but it’s got a great message… check out some of the lyrics:

‘We’ve never made a difference
But tonight it will be different
It opened up in front of us
And it can change for every one of us’.

Inspiration... it's everywhere!

Sustainability Brand Rivalry Review: Apple vs. Microsoft

Jason McCormick — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:56:14 -0700

Ci:Soundbite: Sustainability Brand Review

Jason McCormick — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:50:11 -0700

Sustainability Brand Rivalry Results: Apple vs. Microsoft

We opened up the SHIFT Report vault and dug into the key findings that came out of a query – How do technology heavy weight brands’ – Microsoft and Apple – consumers relate with sustainability issues, and how do these findings compare with the North American general population? The results are in. Thanks to all our Ci: Soundbite subscribers who voted on which brand rivalry they want to see. Click here to download a pdf of the report.

Share the Knowledge: Rolling out The SHIFT Report

Highlighting data from the Apple vs. Microsoft sustainability brand review, Facebookers & Sustainability, speaking engagements in the US & Canada… this newsletter – along with so much of what we are doing right now - is all about sharing our insight and analysis on consumers & sustainability.

We spent the summer working hard to create a series of strategic intelligence tools that give you greater access to the SHIFT Report. As one of our fellow sustainability brand allies at Nau said "From a philosophical point of view, you need to give more companies access to this kind of information". We couldn't agree more. Opening up access to SHIFT is directly in line with Ci's mission: to drive and support the shift to sustainability, by having the best intelligence on it.

As we launch this series of products, stay tuned to our blog for more tidbits that we will share. In the meantime, we’ve created a series of intelligence products for you, from a dip-your-toe in the water SHIFT Query to an annual subscription, as well as access to the Sustainability Passion Index™ (SPI) where you can see the true sustainability segments of the North American population. If you’re still thinking sustainability is just a small group of niche do-gooders, or that sustainability is just ‘green’, think again. The Vocal Globalist makes up 41% of the North American population. Click here for a pdf of an overview of the SPI, including a description of each segment and what size of the market the represent.

If you have a question about where your brand stands in the Sustainable Marketplace, our SHIFT Dive options offer tailored reports by brand (yes, that’s right, we’ve dug into data on a selection of major brands including Toyota, Starbucks, Tostito’s, Method and more) or category.

Thanks to those who shared their thoughts on this new SHIFT Report offering. Your perspective and insights have helped us shape this series of tools. We’ve often struggled with just how much do we share from The SHIFT Report and at what cost. You can download a complete overview of the answer right here.

And if you’re interested in something a little more bespoke, click here for just a sampling of what’s possible.

Facebook users and Sustainability: What’s your motivation?

Understanding what motivates people is not only key to crafting effective brand and communications strategies - obviously, digging into the ‘why’ behind the behavior is a classic account planning tactic - it’s also fundamental in shifting behavior.

In fact ‘why’ is something of an obsession for all of the folks at CI, and - together with Dr. Tom Crompton, author of the WWF’s Report Weathercocks and Signposts: The Environment Movement at a Crossroads – we believe that understanding motivation is crucial to lasting change. Rather than tantalizing their extrinsic desires says Dr. Crompton ‘…groups working for environmental change should be targeting the intrinsic set of values that motivates the public’ (Source: ‘The problem with Big Green’ article by our allies over at Worldchanging)

At Ci, one of the areas we look at is what motivates people to make socially responsible & sustainable lifestyle choices and purchase decisions. There are four key motivations:

- Being personally impacted, or feeling personally connected to the issues
- Feeling a sense of fear and personal responsibility about what will happen if I don’t act
- General concern and wanting to be a better part of society
- What goes around comes around, call it Karma if you like

Inspired by two recent articles, Clive Thomspon’s ‘Brave New World of Digital Intimacy' in the NY Times Sunday Magazine last week, and a Green Marketing Blog on Social Networks.

We got thinking about Social Networkers, and how their motivation to make socially responsible and sustainable choices might compare with the general population. We dug into the SHIFT Report vault and looked at Facebook users, Flickr users and Ideal Bite readers. We choose Facebook, mindful of the fact that it is the icon of social networking brands (See chart below). Interestingly, in terms of prioritization they rank the same as the General Population. However, when you look directly at the figures Facebookers are significantly MORE motivated. NGO’s note: If you haven’t already, start your Facebook group, but avoid Fear tactics - fear is the least important motivator for both Facebookers and the General Population when they are making socially responsible choices.

For information on the methodology for the latest installation to Ci’s SHIFT Report, a 5000 person North American study, please click here.

Back to school, and the speaking engagements!

It’s not only time to pack the kids off to school in the morning, it also happens to be conference season. Over the next couple of months, Ci will be speaking and/ or moderating a panel at the following events:

- Open Dialogue’s 2nd Annual Green Marketing conference. Taking place October 22 & 23, 2008 in Toronto.

- Focalyst Executive Forum: Targetting Boomers & Beyond. Taking place October 22 & 23, 2008 in NYC.

If you happen to be attending, please come find us – we’d be happy to connect.

Ci:Soundbite: Sustainability Brand Review

Jason McCormick — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:44:28 -0700

Share the Knowledge: Rolling out The SHIFT Report

Jason McCormick — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:06:14 -0700

We spent the summer working hard to create a series of strategic intelligence tools that give you greater access to the SHIFT Report. As one of our fellow sustainability brand allies at Nau said "From a philosophical point of view, you need to give more companies access to this kind of information". We couldn't agree more. Opening up access to SHIFT is directly in line with Ci's mission: to drive and support the shift to sustainability, by having the best intelligence on it.

As we launch this series of products, stay tuned to our blog for more tidbits that we will share. In the meantime, we’ve created a series of intelligence products for you, from a dip-your-toe in the water SHIFT Query to an annual subscription, as well as access to the Sustainability Passion Index™ (SPI) where you can see the true sustainability segments of the North American population. If you’re still thinking sustainability is just a small group of niche do-gooders, or that sustainability is just ‘green’, think again. The Vocal Globalist makes up 41% of the North American population. Click here for a pdf of an overview of the SPI, including a description of each segment and what size of the market the represent. If you have a question about where your brand stands in the Sustainable Marketplace, our SHIFT Dive options offer tailored reports by brand (yes, that’s right, we’ve dug into data on a selection of major brands including Toyota, Starbucks, Tostito’s, Method and more) or category.

And if you’re interested in something a little more bespoke, click here for just a sampling of what’s possible.