Sharing is not a new concept. People have always shared their thoughts, ideas and information.

Today, in the digital age, we’re simply better connected. We can easily share more content, more often, with more people.

Paul Adams, Global Head of Brand Design at Facebook answers tackles “What People Share and Why” at fMC 2012.

Adams says: “Sharing is a means to an end.”

I’ll agree. But why else do people share: the pursuit and delivery of value.

We don’t often take the time to think about what’s inside. We rely on what we’re told the package contains.

Tell us the features. Explain the benefits. Does any of that matter to me? What do I really need to care about?

With its marketing and branding campaign of the early 1990s, Intel made us think about the inside of the computer. Why? Because that’s what really matters. A computer is a box, and until we interact with it, there’s not a whole lot that it can do. A mouse, a keypad and a screen make the input/output a more visual and visceral experience… but, inside there were these unknown (and relatively neglected) devices that ultimately did the work to create the human experience – the device that ran the programs. Intel made us care about the microprocessor. The Intel Inside campaign was the first time a computer component manufacturer successfully communicated directly with the consumer.

With a new campaign, Sony Xperia smartphones are “Made of Imagination.” Imagination, not technological guts or microchips, are making us care about what’s inside that counts.

The new TV spots turn to the kids and their imaginations, asking them what’s inside Xperia smartphones. Taking one boy’s imaginative vision, the result is a stop motion animation by director Wes Anderson and Laika/house.

Sony is an entertainment-based company. We’d expect their mobile devices to reflect that, so the Anderson-directed advert is certainly meeting the entertainment expectation on a whole new level. While the Made of Imagination spots don’t get to the true technological root of “what’s inside,” they do connect “little robots” to Android.

Sony is selling a product, not creativity, but what do you think? Does Sony present the Xperia device in a way that defines a unique new smartphone offering?

Check out more on the Sony Mobile Facebook Page: Facebook.com/SonyMobile

You can’t fake culture.

It’s what makes creative come alive.

Mailchimp gets it. Have you used the service? Creativity is baked into the functionality of the website. It’s the kind of creativity that makes you feel good. The company’s culture breeds creativity. Mailchimp even found a way to creatively reward customers.

Watch Ben Chestnut talk about cultivating a creative culture at Mailchimp:

2011/12 Creative Mornings with Ben Chestnut from CreativeMornings/Atlanta on Vimeo.

I especially like the part about balancing order with chaos.

It’s that time of year. Soon, everyone will have a “best-of 2011” blog.

I probably won’t. Instead, I’ll just shoot from the hip and ramble aimlessly about what I consider to be the year’s most creative executions. Now is as good a time as any to start.

Most Fun Spot of 2011: Weebatix Chocolate Spoonsize Dancer

Weetabix – “Dancer” from DANIELS on Vimeo.

Intriguing:

- The pre-teen eats her chocolate cereal in her bedroom – before school as the sun is rising.
- She jumps into a dubstep routine, as perhaps part of some sugar-induced fit, with her body-popping-body-locking teddy bears in tandem.
- Their furry flesh jiggles around and she kills it with a wicked performance.
- Her three friends are stunned by her awesomeness.
- The payoff: new Weetabix Chocolate Spoonsize are “fuel for fun.”
- This sugary cereal can’t be much worse than the bacon and syrup-slathered pancakes at Mom’s breakfast table.

Conclusion:
Are these over-caffeinated kids over-stimulated by the hype of ABDC, American Idol and X Factor? Or, are kids today encouraged to get active and dance it out.

Versus the cartoon tiger that tried to convince me that “They’re grrrrrrreat…” I’d say there’s a good chance that growing up with this kind of influence is a better thing than we got in the 1980s. It’s hard to not have fun watching this and feel good about the sugary morning indulgence that some mornings are made for.

This is weird.

I suppose that I can’t be too critical of this JCP Santa Tag program because there are several elements that I like:

- It’s got Holiday shopper engagement.
- It’s obviously going to get engagement from the gift recipient.
- There’s a chance for an emotional attachement with gift, and thus the experience of getting the gift from JCP might be a nice one.

But, I’m still not convinced this is the perfect use of 2D/QR technology.

The whole concept of a multi-step personalized voice message retrieval system is oddly gimmicky. While I enjoy the fact that I can create pre-recorded messages, I can’t help but feel like we’ve only added a cutesy step to an antiquated voice message data bank system with this trendy digital bit.

Are QR Codes going to be this holiday season’s quasi-social schtick? I hope not. Youth marketing firm, Archrival, recently did a study that concluded that college students aren’t exactly scanning up a storm. Will this kind of execution change the mind of us skeptics?

If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.

- Steve Jobs.

Coca-Cola is pulling their holiday/climate-change awareness promotion early because consumers are complaining. Coca-Cola is switching their white “polar bear” cans back to a familiar red holiday theme.

The White Polar Bear Coca-Cola Can

Apparently, some consumers were complaining that the can looked too similar to the usual Diet Coke cans. Others (with poor tastebuds) have said that regular Coca-Cola tastes different in the white cans. And, some others have said that messing with the traditionally-red can was branding blasphemy.

Could the white polar bear can change have been more differentiating from the Diet Coke can? Yes. Is the switch back to red, simply to satisfy the noisy minority, the right move? If it means that this change will sell more Coca-Cola, to save more polar bears – then yes again. What hasn’t changed is Coca-Cola’s partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to highlight the global warming threat to the polar bear’s Arctic home. They plan to contribute up to $3 million for the conservation efforts.

Darren Aronofsky, the director of renowned films like Black Swan, The Wrestler, and Requiem for a Dream has created a series of anti-drug PSA’s.

His style is dark and it makes you feel uncomfortable. Perfect for tackling the anti-drug movement.

He’s done a remarkable job with these spots for The Meth Project by Organic SF.

Powerful, don’t you think?

Brent Gohde, Mike Wisniewski and I authored this blog post. We’ll be following up next week on the Active Insights blog with additional thoughts as they relate to Facebook’s new Timeline.

Facebook isn’t afraid of change. The social networking giant, best known as the free service that allows you to voyeuristically check up on your friends, has opened a new can of worms.

Amidst the recent uproar in its most recent platform changes, there are more than a few particularly interesting morsels of change that clearly point to how the social network is evolving beyond just Facebook.

When it comes to your social graph, Facebook will continue to help you build and connect your digital life. You’ll also get what it’s calling “Timeline” – a chronological recount of all your activity and interactions that are connected to the Facebook Open Graph. But first, to quickly recap, Facebook launched three big changes you might have already noticed:

Revamped Friend Lists – To let you share content with friends, as you might define them. So, should you assign them to a “Close Friends List”, Facebook thinks these “best friends” should show up more in News Feed. Also, in a move that acts like a Google+ Circle, you can better define who gets shared certain content.

Real-time News Ticker – To let you have real-time conversations with your friends, so you know exactly when they start listening to that song you recommended last week.

Subscribe Button – To let you populate your News Feed with people you think most highly of. In other words, people like us.

The Real-Time News Ticker is that up-to-the-moment firehose of activity that’ll keep you riveted to your home page view. On that newly-redesigned home page, you’re not seeing the same feed of general activity from friends and pages you’ve “liked” over time, instead you’re presented with Top News.

In addition to these changes, we’ve quickly realized they have some pretty significant implications for brands that are active on the Facebook platform. Since Facebook is letting users add control (at the top right of each story), brands will have to create much more engaging content to earn the right of continuous exposure. Now users can check to unmark a top story, so if that brand isn’t interesting, updates risk getting lower visibility.

If brands have a story to tell, Facebook has given them the opportunity to get active, interact and produce content. With Open Graph, Facebook has enabled an open platform for brands to create sharing actions that are neatly integrated into the way Facebook’s site operates.

You don’t have to just “like” something — now you can “verb” any “noun.” So, to your Facebook friends, with a single click, you can be “reading” this “blog.” Or, “listening” to this “podcast.” Facebook’s partners and developers can turn any verb into a button, distinctly offering brands the ability to further integrate their product or service into their customers and their customers’ friends’ lives.

These changes by Mark Zuckerburg and he his team may yet prove that active and attentive brands can achieve the return on investment they’ve been truly looking for. By knowing exactly what their audiences are engaging with online, brands can concentrate and target their advertising more effectively, based on their content media preferences. Access to this information is a powerful advantage.

In the world of social media, change is a constant. Now, more than ever, branded media is being made more social. Is your brand prepared?

Are you proud of your work?

Are you ever 100% satisfied at the end of every project?

Can it always be a little better?

Well, yes – because you’re not great yet. What makes you great is that you know your work has room for improvement.

Work hard. Keep working hard.

Check out this incredibly inspiring talk from the always-amazing Ira Glass:

Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.