Sonic fountain

Ever felt that the sound of water dripping was slightly rhythmic and musical? If not you may want to reconsider after seeing the new installation at the 303 gallery in New York by American artist Doug Aitken.

The piece, called Sonic Fountain, is part of the gallery's 100 Years exhibition and features five rods that drip water into a pool below. The dripping is not random; it is released at special intervals to create a variety of patterns and shapes, with the sound amplified by the location and the pool itself having been specially excavated out of the floor of the gallery.

The piece is quiet and tranquil with a milky white glow coming from the pool and a breath like rhythm from the water drops.

Watch a video of the exhibition below.

55 Years of the Lego Brick

To celebrate 55 years, Lego has created a tumblr account called "55 years of the brick".

They've released 55 simple but effective print adverts, asking you to imagine a song, band, movie or book.

See if you can guess what the ads represent - there are a few challenging ones.

The Lego posting has a lot of advertising around it, which can be annoying, but you can view them all at Gizmodo here without the ads.

Grand Central terminal celebrates centenary

Last Friday Grand Central Terminal in New York celebrated its 100th Birthday. To mark the occasion, they surprised commuters and tourists with an amazing light show.

Performed by over 100 Improv Everywhere participants, they used led lights and camera flashes to dazzle onlookers along three floors of the grand windows. Improv Everywhere worked with the MTA Arts for Transit to produce the show, according to their blog.

Watch the show below.

TTT Tips - Content Marketing - Part 2

We’re regularly being asked about content marketing and how businesses should use social media to engage their audiences. On this note, we thought it would be a good idea to offer a few hints and tips that readers may find useful. Here is part 2 of 2. Read part 1 here.

8.    People respond better to visuals
Picture and video content makes your posts more engaging. This is very important online and across social networks, after all an image speaks a thousand words. Use infographics to demonstrate your proposition quickly and imagery that supports your content.

9.    Start and finish strong
Don’t trail off at the end; keep it consistent all the way through and summarise where possible with references to further information.

10.    Keep it simple  
Don’t overwhelm with information or numbers, give sources so that readers can find out more. We live in an age of information with the means for people to pick and choose what they want to know so let your readers choose how deep they go into the content.

11.    Employ emotion
Emotional responses make things more memorable, they invoke a natural response in people.    

12. Link, Link, Link Link your content to relevant online content.
There is nothing more annoying than referencing someone or their work and the reader having to use a search engine to find it.  

13. Tone of voice
Choose a tone of voice that is relevant to your business and how you communicate with your audiences. Once chosen keep your content consistent, using the same tone of voice every time.  

14 Ask for a response
There’s nothing wrong in asking your readers to respond to your posts. Seek their opinion and get a conversation going.  

And on that note, let us have your thoughts on content marketing.

TTT Tips - Content Marketing - Part 1

We’re regularly being asked about content marketing and how businesses should use social media to engage their audiences. On this note, we thought it would be a good idea to offer a few hints and tips that readers may find useful. Here is part 1 of 2.  

1.    Fear of missing out 
Deliver content that is unique, inspiring, useful and about something new; no one wants to miss out on the next big thing and content that is interesting and communicates something to the reader that they have not seen before will encourage engagement and sharing. Look for the wow factor or the unusual.

2.    Make your content easy to skim
Only around 20% of online content is read so try to break down what you are saying into lists or shorter paragraphs that allow readers to skim through and find the information they need quickly and without effort.

3.    Make it informative
We all want to feel like we’ve learnt something; if your content offers to educate the reader then link to other websites that substantiate your information or reference to other sources.

4.    Allow the content to be shared easily
Add sharing buttons for as many social networks as possible and offer the ability to email the content. The easier it is for people to share, the more likely they are to share it.

5.    Length is related to sharing
Make content substantial but not too long. There are direct correlations between the number of words and how viral content may become.

6.    Show consistency and authority in posts
Regularly posting content that is informative and accurate boosts your online reputation. Ensure that your content is written well, grammatically correct and offers insightful information.

7. Don’t make content all about you
People don’t like self-promoters, the most interesting person at a party is not the one who constantly talks about themselves. Talk about interesting topics that other people can relate to and that are relevant to your business and the products and services you offer.

Part 2 coming soon.....

The most inspiring places on Earth

In need of inspiration?
Inspirationfeed has listed some locations that will bring out the artistic side of anyone.
Their choices of the most inspiring locations are:

• Antelope Canyon, Arizona
• Phi Phi Islands, Thailand
• Macchu Picchu, Peru
• Iceland
• Pamukkale, Turkey

We have to agree that these locations offer some stunning views and experiences. For more information on these amazing locations take a look at their post here.

The Bear is most awarded ad of 2012

The Gunn Report has compiled their lists of the most-awarded ads worldwide of 2012, and The Bear, the hilarious commercial for French TV channel Canal+, was the most awarded TV commercial.

The top five are listed below, and you may recognise some from previous posts of ours:
1. Canal+ The Bear (BETC, Paris) which is the most awarded commercial in the 14 year history of The Gunn Report.
2. BGH Silent Air, Dads In Briefs campaign (Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi, Buenos Aires)
3. Doritos Dips, Dip Desperado (AMV BBDO, London)
4. Chipotle, Back To The Start (Creative Artists Agency, Los Angeles)
5. John Lewis, The Long Wait (Adam&EveDDB, London)  

The report has also listed the most awarded print ads and campaigns, the most awarded countries in the world, the most awarded advertisers, the most awarded production companies, the most awarded agency, the most awarded agency in digital and the most awarded agency network  

The Gunn Report also has a category for integrated or innovative work, which it calls "All Gunns Blazing".  

It uses a weighted points system to analyse the winners of the major advertising awards schemes around the world.  

Read more at Creative Review, which features the top five for all the afore-mentioned categories here.