We took Mobile Micro Jobs as a case and presented our biggest lessons from the past couple of months. It was our first presentation for a quite substantial crowd and a really nice experience. We got our first meetings with investors who might be interested.

Crucial is, to find more companies that have continual Micro Job processes – i.e. jobs that are difficult for a computer and easy for a human. Often these tasks are well hidden in the depths of organisations and are not easily discovered from the outside. Examples are; tagging, moderating, rating, categorising etceteras.

If you see the intern, secretary or a basement full of people doing excruciating boring or repetitive jobs behind their computers. Good chance you’ve discovered a source of Micro Jobs. We would be very happy, to make your secretary radiate again and provide a more elegant solution. So please give us a mail or call.

Is less always better? In the true spirit of Seth Godins book ‘small is the new big”, I shrunk the 183 articles to a top 8 of my personal favorites.

1) On Mediocrity
2) The ever-worsening curse of the cog
3) A brief history of hard work, adjusted for risk
4) Functionality
5) Open big
6) A modest customer service proposal
7) Small is the new big
8 ) Who you know doesn’t matter

I like the ideas of Seth Godin. So I try to read his blog. For some reason I never really finished reading his blog posts, especially the longer ones. I figured it might had to do with the style of mr. Godin or reading on a laptop.

Last week I bought his book, Small is the new Big, which is almost the same text as can be found on his blog. To my amazement, I read the articles completely and could absorb the information much better than when reading online.

Last night I got it. It’s about concentration and focus. Being online you’re constantly aware of all the sites, blogs, emails, webcams and other interactions you can have. All the other new stuff, easier stuff, more instantly gratifying stuff, keeps you from finishing an article that’s longer than one paragraph and requires some actual thinking.

In hindsight, this connects with my online reading habits. I can manage BoingBoing when the articles are not too long. I love the NY times, but most of the time don’t manage to get to page two. And although I hate myself for doing it, I find myself most of the time procrastinating on – quick snack – sites like de Telegraaf (a kind of Dutch Daily mail). Basically the same with TED.com, the presentations are great, but most of the time I’m too restless to watch a ‘talk’ longer than a few minutes.

Offline blessing?
My favorite place to think and write is on a train. The scenery passing by and nothing else to do besides tapping away on your laptop. No Skype, Facebook, emails, nothing. Nothing to distract from the task at hand. I guess this basically works the same for reading. When you are not online, the ability to concentrate and absorb information drastically improves.

Just pulling the internet connection from your computer doesn’t really work. I want to be online, I want to be connected. Trying to solve this paradox I installed the program SelfControl. This program keeps you from going to websites that you have forbidden yourself to go to for a certain amount of time. Technically, it works perfectly, the only problem is, Me. It’s quite easy to find other websites to waste time on that you haven’t blocked already.

Mmmm…a self-inflicted catch 22 At this moment I just see two solutions to this riddle.

Time waste tool. Develop a program that gives you feedback about how you use your computer and spend your time online. Actually seeing how much hours you spend each day and week on work-avoiding tasks, might give you a more focused and concentrated use of your laptop and internet. I would really like a program like this.

Online Jedi. Become the ‘Online Jedi’. Which basically means, being aware of the limitless temptations the internet has to offer. Knowing that you cannot read and follow everything. Absorbing stuff is better than just scanning everything. And – old school – building and working on your online discipline. May the force of concentration and focus be with you…

I’m not a Microsoft basher nor an extreme Apple fan. But I truly love Keynote and utterly despise working in Powerpoint for presentations, my portfolio etcetera.

This put’s me in a difficult position. It already happened to me twice, that for a big presentation Keynote wasn’t accepted. We had to rebuild the complete presentation in Powerpoint. Which is ugly, media don’t work properly and is quite terrible to work with.

Also when I want to send my digital portfolio to someone. Most of the time, I have to send a PDF version – in which none of the media work – because people don’t have Keynote.

Therefore I have a sincere request. Let’s make the lives of thousands of Keynote users even better, by releasing a free Keynote viewer for Windows.

So instead of making excellent presentations that never find and audience, we can actually use Keynote for what it is made for. Convincing people of great ideas.

ps: Since I do not assume Mr Jobs is procrastinating on ibisaki.com daily, I will send this urgent suggestion to Apple. We’ll see what happens.

——————-

‘You have to be a hustler’

Barely seated, Paul Graham starts talking. Anomaly London – which has been founded 10 day ago – has just scored his first client.

One could have called Paul (32) eclectic, as a student. ‘I studied art and design, till a specific point. Later on I studied French and business administration as well as doing literature, law and economics.’ In between these studies he went abroad to live in Paris, ‘trying to figure out what to do with life’ and launching a bar. After graduating back in the UK, he still had no clear vision of what to pursue. But somehow, and fortunately, he ended up working as an account manager at the agency M&C Saatchi and via various employments made it to be Managing Partner of Saint at RKCR/Y&R. In the past he has been characterized as relentless, which he dubs ‘a rather dubious, but not so much false compliment’.

Currently he is setting up the London office of Anomaly, and he already has his first pieces of business.

So you already have your first client, congratulations. How do clients normally approach Anomaly? It may sound a bit vague what Anomaly actually does.
‘A lot of the work Anomaly gets in New York is based on personal recommendation. This can be from the work we have done for entrepreneurs, business-owners and large organizations. Our reputation can kind of precede us, so rather than pitching, we are often approached by clients. We prefer not to pitch.’


Do you work with fees, or do you have a different model?
‘We try not to work with fees. We actually become a business partner with our clients. We will try sharing the revenue of the success of what we do. Then you really want it to work.
‘There are different types of creative people. Everyone at Anomaly is highly creative and has done incredible things in their previous lives. This can be in publishing, production, design, advertising or business school. The creative director of Urban Outfitters is now head of design at Anomaly. They are all focused on return on creativity. You only go into business with the things you can genuinely make a difference in.’

How did Anomaly London get started?
‘Anomaly started in New York about three years ago and I have worked with them on some occasions. As time went on, we realized it was good to start a business in London as more and more work was being asked to do here, in Europe.
‘Hopefully this year we will start to work for Converse, which is based in Amsterdam and Manchester United. Besides that, we are going to work for Umbro, who are also the tailors for the English football team.’

How do you handle the wide range of questions these clients might have?
‘Depending on the different business-problems these clients have, I’ll work with different people. Anomaly is based on never knowing what the answer is. We have different sets of concentric circles. In the middle of it, are the day-to-day diehard Anomaly people. In the second circle are freelance or project base people and outside of that are interesting people you will work with one day but maybe you haven’t worked with yet. It’s really important to have a very large network. With a lot of these people I would love to work full time but we have to stay flexible.’

It is quite difficult to label Anomaly. With what kind of requests do clients approach you?
‘That can be all kinds of business problems. For example, Umbro is an authentic English fashion brand. They were already sponsoring the English football team many years ago. Overtime they lost their position as a authentic brand. Nike recently acquired the brand and has asked us to give them back their heritage and relaunch Umbro into the media.’

The Umbro case could also be done by a more traditional agency. It is brand strategy in essence.
‘Yes, exactly. But a traditional ad agency would probably give you a traditional approach. We have removed the walls and apply our creativity where ever it is needed, for any given problem. We are not limited by our own production departments or ‘blinded’ by our own specialization.’

Then what is the difference between Anomaly and the agency Naked, because this is what Naked also claims.
‘In my opinion, Naked, though awesome, is more strategic consultancy and quite theoretical. At Anomaly we also want to deliver. We try to be part multimedia, part media buyer, part PR, part ad agency, part marketing a part of everything. We would want do all of that and really make it happen.’

Can you tell us more about the IP ventures or product development of Anomaly?
‘Having an idea or developing a brand or product is not easy but still relatively simple. An innovation company as ?What If! or IDEO do very good product development and venture capitalists invest in products. But what they both don’t have is a high understanding of consumers imagery and brands. Which we’d like to hope we do.
‘We also have the experience to grow something with very little money. This makes you more credible. You actually say, I know how to do this for you, without taking loads of money off you.’

How do you get paid?
‘We never charge for time or man hours. When you work fee based, you actually put an incentive on working longer to tackle a problem. If you figure out a problem within one day, you will actually make less. This is certainly not the most creative way.
‘You should put value to an idea, not hours. Hence your profit is made by doing the job quickly and the rest of the money is yours to put in the bank.
‘Or, again, if you’re partner in a small product, your are incentivized to maximize your profit. You have to be efficient, quick and open minded. You have to be a hustler. It makes you think differently.’

What would you consider more important for Anomaly: the media independent approach or the fact that you become partners and do not work on a fee basis?
‘There are actually three important pillars for Anomaly. We are open minded about which solution is best for a problem. We have an entrepreneurial approach about how we get paid. Which is never charge for time and value an idea. The third one is to get a share of the commercial action and really making it happen.’

Can you give us an example?

‘There is this girl in New Castle, her name is Lauren Luke, she’s a single mother and living with her parents. She does “how to” make-up tutorials. She can teach you to look like Britney Spears, Leona Lewis and other celebrities. In front of her webcam, she shows you inch by inch how to apply the makeup and puts it on Youtube. Every single one of her videos has over a million views within a day. We approached her and now we are helping her design her own range of makeup. We part-own the company with her and we put in the creativity, the communication and the design.’

You approached her. But how about the opposite, is it also possible for anyone to approach Anomaly with a product or business idea?
‘Absolutely and people really do. The trick is to be quite selective.’

How do you choose which project to invest in?
‘You have to behave a bit like a venture capitalist. But instead of putting your money in, you put in your time and effort. So this is quite a big investment. Furthermore your have to really like the people involved, you have to be able to work with each other. Secondly; could we be brilliant? Can we really make a difference? Third is, will it make any money? You have to pick carefully and be really sure. It can take two to three years before you start making money, so you have to hold your nerve. Therefore, also having customers for whom you can do communication projects helps to pay the bills.’

Obviously a new type of creative is arising beside the traditional copy and art-direction creatives. How would you label yourself?
‘A business strategist, or business conceptor…. Hmm, good question.’

A commercial creative, perhaps?
‘Yes yes, that would be fitting. To illustrate this: at Anomaly we haven’t got one creative director. That would be a too restrictive view of what creativity is. One person cannot grasp every form of creativity.’

To conclude, what do you think of the traditional advertising model?
‘We certainly don’t think everyone should be like Anomaly. The reason that we’re called Anomaly, is because we are quite different. There’s certainly still a need for traditional advertising. All we know is, it is not the only answer anymore.’

Got five minutes? Waiting for the bus, dentist or a ‘Skinny latte macchiato’, everyday life is filled with small moments of boredom. What if, you could use these moments to perform a micro job on your mobile phone, to relieve the waiting and make a some extra cash as well.

Mobile Micro Job
This service acts as a marketplace for small jobs and requests that can be done easily on a mobile phone with Internet connection. These jobs require human intelligence but are simple enough to do on a mobile phone with Internet access.

Next steps
At this moment we are working on the final data in the business plan and actively searching for our first launching customer. We’ll be presenting at Eday this coming September.

If you are interested, don’t hesitate to mail or call, we’re very happy to come by and give you a detailed presentation.

Team: Wilbert Baan, Marco van Heerde.

WPS Promo 2009 from Dustin Miller on Vimeo.

As kids we all want to be surf rock stars. Although this dream becomes more unlikely while growing up, the passion and love for the sport don’t even slightly falter.

As you start working this puts us – as surfers – in a difficult position. You would love to surf as much as possible, but at the same time having ‘grown up’ ambitions or obligations. Or in other words, you have to work. And working often means not surfing. This brings us to – what we have called- the surfers tragedy.

Surfers tragedy
As you surf less, the times when you are able to surf get more important. The paradox is, the less you surf, the ability to surf strongly declines and the more frustrated you become. This is just plain unfair!

Goal
Enable “working” surfers to stay fit and strong despite less time in the water. So when they finally have some time to surf they can truly enjoy it, and be less frustrated about their working life and growing up.

Next steps
At this moment we are actively searching for a industrial designer or agency, who is interested in partnering in this project.

If you are interested, don’t hesitate to mail or call, we’re very happy to come by and give you a detailed presentation of this project.

I’ll buy it!
Of course we cannot tell you too much about this project – it’s produced in China in the blink of eye – but we can tell you that every surfer that saw the presentation instantly called out, I’ll buy it!

INSIGHT: People feel stressed, they have full agenda’s with family, work and social obligations. Personal time is getting increasingly scarce and wanted.

IDEA: We want to communicate that a magazine creates personal time. If you buy a magazine, you actually purchase a personal ‘mini-holiday’ or a break. A magazine gives you the opportunity to withdraw and enjoy some personal quality time – IK TIJD -. In the IK TIJD package that is handed out in the Magazine week are objects that help you, to create your personal time. Or in other words; IK TIJD.

The IK TIJD pack consists of familiar objects that one can use to show people that you are enjoying some personal time and don’t want to be disturbed.

The packs are handed out from typical IK TIJD moments like taking a bath or relaxing on the sofa.

TEAM: Caesar Driessen, Lars Wierenga, Marco van Heerde

INSIGHT: Gamblers often seem lonely and unhappy. They are spending time and dreaming of a different and happy life, they could start with the money they could win.

IDEA: Holland Casino is a perfect setting for matching people. It’s a comfortable place to visit alone. You have to identify yourself before entering and there is an observation team that sees everything. Holland Casino will launch a new service with which people can be matched and find ‘happiness’.

NB: This was a school project and not an actual assignent from Holland Casino. Holland Casino is used as a case study and has nothing to do with the work that is made.

TEAM: Robert ter Bruggen, Marco van Heerde.

INSIGHT: Face to face conversation is a part of life slowly being swallowed by email and such things. Time poor, cash rich professionals under all that paper work, miss real human contact, a trait that the homeless have in abundance.

IDEA: We created a position in society for the homeless to feel to be part of something again. By concentrating on their need to talk, listen and share, we feel they are in the perfect position to become a ’social conversationalist’- Their favorite bench becomes their office (freudian couch) and our direct mail answer to the brief, their business cards.

How
When people are approved for the project, they receive personalised business cards with their picture, name and ‘title’. This sense of professionalism enhances the feeling of a equality. As well as handing cards out on the street, The personalised cards are sent straight to offices in the benches vicinity, based on the area code their favorite bench.

Web
By giving information on the homeless people in your neighborhood, it removes the barriers of the unknown, and opens possible converstion starters

TEAM: Paul Weatherall, Kasper Dado, Marco van Heerde