Usually the chattering, excited and snaking queue outside Islington’s Union Chapel are waiting in anticipation for a one off performance by a favourite band. Having been to numerous showcases there over the years, I love the dappled light through the stained glass and soft reverberation of the lofty church ceiling. It’s the perfect venue to experience bands like Elbow or even REM many moons ago.

This crowd however, was in the line for a very different kind of live show. It was the first night of the School of Life Live tour, and replacing screeching rock frontmen would be philosophers, psychiatrists and modern day technology gurus, and their lyrics would be derived from a new-school series of self-help books.

School of Life is the brainchild of Alain de Botton, a prolific thinker and author of inspiring books including The Art of Travel and The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. It’s perhaps explained best in terms of a recent Intelligence Squared debate in which he proposed that religion has a great many benefits to society, in terms of guidance, philosophy, morality and more general support in our modern complex lives. But where do you go if you don’t believe in a deity as an increasing number of people in Europe now claim according to both census and church reports?

Mr de Botton conceived The School of Life; a physical space hosting a book shop, café and various rooms within which a programme of talks, courses and seminars are held every day. The curriculum is managed by several faculties (the lexicon they use parallels that of a traditional university) and covers thoughts on coping with many aspects of the modern condition; how to move on post relationship break up, career choice, retraining your brain and predictably a selection on the theme of managing stress. They also run monthly Sunday Secular Sermons, with past speakers including Grayson Perry and Rory Sutherland delivering the ‘sermon’, often accompanied by Status Quo or Kylie ‘hymns’.

Speakers, (or were they performers?), included Roman Krznaric talking about finding a job you love, Philippa Perry (wife of Grayson) who is a psychotherapist talking about how to stay sane and the headline act, Mr Alain De Botton “rocking the crowd” with his views on how to think about sex more.

The audience laughed, applauded spontaneously and to validate my rock and roll comparison, the lady beside me even seemed to be a sort of School of Life ‘groupie’ – howling out the names of the speakers as they took to the stage! With a thousand people paying £20 a ticket this was a commercial success as well as being a marketing exercise for the series of books, clearly this also generates concert level revenue too, with the merch stand peddling books rather than tour t-shirts. In fact, I think they missed a trick by NOT creating tour merchandise! A similar pattern of success can be seen with the Nine Lesson and Carols for Godless People, which five years in now sells out 6 live shows each festive season – and features a variety of comedians, musicians and thinkers all united by their atheism.

But what does all this pseudo-religious activity have to do with entertainment in 2012? Well, the answer lies in the new role entertainment now plays in peoples lives, not as a passive medium, but as an active, creative entity. The perceived definition of what constitutes entertainment is broadening out rapidly, as can be seen in the blurring of genres. Comedians once restricted to nightclub venues are aping rock stars and selling out multiple stadium shows, while film has broken out of its celluloid frame into the world of performance through a variety of pop-up and secret cinema experiences.

With the desire for shared, social and life affirming experiences at an all time high, the concept of a new style of church community, one where ‘instructions for living’ are delivered by celebrity thinkers, could offer a whole new level of escapism into the great canon of entertainment.  In fact a ‘movement’ comprised of energized, whooping and laughing audiences, led by charismatic “pin-up” speakers could be the catalyst to a whole new type of Smart Entertainment – a model that inspires people to ‘think and do’ as opposed to just consume.

We’ve been big fan of ARG (alternate reality gaming) over here at FRUKT for a while now, from the early days of ‘Can You See Me Now?’ and ‘I Love Bees’ right up to more recent branded versions of the genre, such as Nike Grid, Mini Getaway and Stella Artois’ Black Diamond.

So we were naturally excited when the latest slice of pervasive gaming landed in our inbox from Blast Theory, the four times Bafta nominated collective, responsible for a string of pioneering Interactive art and immersive theatre pieces.

‘I’d Hide You‘ is the first offering from the collective that is open to all across the Internet, with previous events restricted to specific locations. It’s a simple premise, based around a basic game of tag – no convoluted QR codes or app downloads required. Simply pick one of three runners to follow and view the world through their eyes as they attempt to locate the other runners. If you see a runner, you can snap them onscreen.

What’s interesting about this game is that the focus is not on winning, scoring points or netting a reward (as so many branded platforms in this style tend to be), it’s about the journey, the people the runners meet along the way, the conversations they have, the things they see.

FRUKT penned an article a couple of years ago about ‘The New Playtime’ and now people could reconnect with their inner child through pervasive gaming.  We also spoke at length about the associated benefits for brands getting involved in this area. One of our key takeouts was this “The New Playtime is about fun. This isn’t a competitive sport. This is the equivalent to a kick about in the park. Everyone is invited. Everyone wins”. And this is what ‘I’d Hide You’ focuses on – play, experience, uncomplicated adventure.

Without unnecessarily dumbing it down, this game is in many ways the ‘reality TV version of an ARG’ – and that may have far more to say about us as people than the increasingly complex and often overstated role of technology in our playtime.

For brands, connecting on a human level is an inherent part of what they are trying to achieve, and stripping back the complexities and offering a simple moment of play may well be the future for ARGs with genuine reach and ROI.

‘I’d Hide You’ is live online from 17-19^th May, between 8-11pm here, plus you can follow the action on Twitter here.

With 285 million visually impaired people on the planet, the eyewear business is by no means underrepresented when it comes to music. Whether its Buddy Holly (an artist that “made it OK to wear glasses” according to John Lennon), Elton John, Rivers Cuomo, or a string of hipster indie bands sporting horn-rimmed empty frames despite probably having 20:20 vision.

With eyewear (both fashionable and practical) on the rise and the business shifting its marketing trajectory due to new startups, such as Warby Parker, redefining the ethos of purchasing optical products, brands are looking for points of differentiation.

So, its not surprising that the vision care industry, a $32 billion business in the US alone, is ramping up its musical connections in a bid to woo a new generation of glasses, contact lens and sunglasses wearers. A good ear is crucial to the eyewear business. If we didn’t have them, our glasses would fall off.

Below is a global snapshot of optical brands that are using music to leverage their products.

TORTOISE & BLONDE

Tortoise & Blonde, one of a number of new startups biting at the heels of the eyewear establishment, was set in motion during the 2011 SXSW Festival’s Stylex Music Showcase. The brand describes itself as “the eyewear equivalent of an indie label band” making its alignment with the emerging music scene in many ways a natural fit.

The brand has since entered into collaborative partnerships with a wide range of carefully selected indie artists, such as Ra Ra Riot, Savior Adore, The Jane Doze and Pearl and the Beard, offering tour and promotional support, pop-up live gigs, and – in the visual equivalent of Taco Bell’s ‘Feed the Beat’ initiative’ –  free eye care for the artists.

WARBY PARKER

Warby Parker, the increasingly popular online eyewear startup, touched down in Austin earlier this year with its Citizen Circus, a live music festival curated by Grammy-award winning music supervisor Randall Poster, featuring over 15 emerging bands – including Xray Eyeballs, Bleeding Knee Club, and Dee Dee (Dum Dum Girls).

You can read more about the other aspects of Warby Parker’s SXSW experience – which included burlesque dancers, live theatre and lots of Warby Parker girls cycling round the festival letting music fans try on frames – in our ‘Exclusive: FRUKT SXSW 2012 Insight Report’.

BURBERRY

Burberry, a brand that is not stranger to music collaborations, chose to launch its summer 2012 eyewear collection with help from a variety of up and coming British acts. The fashion brand teamed up with One Night Only, Life in Film, The Daydream Club and Marika Hackman, in order to release a selection of exclusive free downloads over the month of April.

Each act also recorded an accompanying video for each track and behind the scenes footage, (with Burberry helping with those expensive production costs), plus the groups also went on to headline at Burberry gigs in Paris, Milan, New York and Sydney at the beginning of May.

ZOFF

Zoff, the Japanese optical brand, recently teamed up with seven member strong South Korean boy band U-Kiss (short for Ubiquitous Korean International idol Super Star), on an endorsement campaign that saw the group acting as brand ambassadors in the region.

The group, despite coming together in 2008, have only just recently launched themselves on Japan, with the success of the single ‘Tick Tack’ once again highlighting Japan’s love affair with all things K-pop related.

Each member of the group was showcased wearing Zoff eyewear, with plenty of behind the scenes footage adding additional value for fans.  Zoff also promoted the launch of a new store in Shibuya with a limited edition 500 product run of U-Kiss original branded glasses cases.

MOSCOT

Moscot, the NYC eyecare and eyewear brand, is side stepping the indie associations of companies such as Warber Parker and Tortoise & Blonde, instead opting to align itself with hard rock. A new campaign showcases the heaviest of heavy hitters by pairing up the brand with Chris Adler, of Lamb of God; Matt Heafy, of Trivium; Scott Ian, of Anthrax; Alex Skolnick, of Testament; and Zakk Wylde, of Black Label Society.

It’s a bold campaign, testament to the changing perception of eyewear and the fact that this category is reassessing itself amongst both the youth and the older boomer demographics

Outside of the metal endorsement the brand also hosts acoustic live sessions at its NY base, which do have a more indie vibe.

Wendy Simmons, who is co-president of Mascot, recently told the NY Times of the perception shift away from glasses as a “medical device”, highlighting how you previously “bought a pair disgruntled, because you thought you were getting older. Now, it’s an extension of your personality.”

We rubbed (big muscly) shoulders with legends of the sporting world, such as Michael Johnson, Martin Bayfield, Denise Lewis, Jamie Oliver and – erm – Keith Lemon on Wednesday night at the Sport Industry Awards 2012.

Our new brethren over at Octagon picked up an award (the prestigious Best Use Of Digital Communications in Sport) for their cracking Nivea work, and FRUKT spoke more about sport than we have ever done before.

Magic darts is I believe the phrase to be used…

FRUKT will once again be heading out to Music Matters, the influential Asia Pacific conference that gathers together key players in the global music industry to discuss the entire value chain of the music business.

Over the past seven years, Music Matters has hosted some of the biggest names in the entertainment business, whilst showcasing emerging and renowned international music acts through the Music Matters Live festival. In addition, with the launch of Digital Matters in 2011, the event now also addresses the critical issues of content monetisation and production in the digital age.

Troy Carter Keynote

This year’s event promises all this and more, with the event team at Music Matters thrilled to announce that Lady Gaga‘s manager Troy Carter will be joining the stellar line up of keynote speakers for this year’s Digital and Music Matters.

Accumulating 50 million facebook fans and over 23 million Twitter followers, Troy has been instrumental in deploying radical new marketing techniques to grow the Gaga machine into a global media & entertainment powerhouse. For anyone in the media or marketing industry, this is an Asian first to find out how they did it and what’s up next for Lady Gaga.

Some other new names joining Troy during the week that matters include:

Bob Ezrin, Music and Entertainment Producer
John Meglen, President and Co-CEO, Concerts West/AEG Live
Bob Lefsetz, Author, The Lefsetz Letter
Erik Johnson, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Facebook
Andrew Hipsley, Senior Vice President & Chief Brand Officer, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, McDonald’s
Souleymane Hamed, Marketing Director, Coca Cola Indochina
Brian Taptich, Vice President of International Development, Zynga (the world’s largest provider of social games)
Scott Dinsdale, Media & Entertainment Lead, Australia & Asia Pacific, Accenture LLC
Shridhar Subramaniam, President, Sony Music India and Middle East
Steve Savoca, Head of Content, Spotify
Hugo Hanselmann, Global Director Consumer Connections, Anheuser-Busch InBev

You can see the full list of speakers here and more event information and to register visit www.allthatmatters.asia.

Will we be seeing you in Singapore?

We’ve noticed a burgeoning trend towards invisible/hidden marketing recently, as brands look to side step the obvious by encouraging consumers to do a double take. We’ve had invisible chairs promoting KLM airlines, the invisible car courtesy of BMW, and Nivea billboards that remain invisible until activated by the sun.

The majority of big outdoor marketing stunts, by and large, tend to play upon spectacle and awe (the recent spate of projection mapping events, for example) delivered directly to a mass audience.  Invisible marketing, however, is much more about the reveal – often to only a select few – as depicted in this rather clever street stunt from Lynx in Australia.

Lynx’s ‘Invisible Anarchy’ stunt saw the brand  developing specially created polarised LCD screens, which were placed behind the windows of an ordinary house in the Darlinghurst district. Passers by – who could only see an intriguing bright white light emanating from the windows – were given a complementary pair of Lynx Anarchy sunglasses, enabling them to view the real action unfolding inside the house.

It’s an innovative take on the idea of a street marketing promo, delivering a more intimate approach to the big visual stunt, and we anticipate much more from this cutting edge technology in the future, as visual activity becomes more about ‘depth’ and uncovering hidden world’s within than merely projecting on the surface action.

FRUKT were down at the Udderbelly Festival at the Southbank last night to check out this summer’s activity.

We caught sight of an interesting performance from  The Vocal Orchestra, an a cappella group of beat boxers and singers assembled by the one and only Shlomo. They put on a pretty impressive show, though at some points it felt a little more like Glee than a ‘crew’ of beatboxers.

There’s whole summer of great stuff going on and we highly recommend getting down there to check some stuff out or simply have a drink in the nicely crafted Magner’s garden.

Maybe see you there.

Here at FRUKT we have a passion for music, and when we hear bands or DJs we are really blown away by, we often invite them in to our London office to play intimate sets for us.

Previous artists to perform at FRUKT HQ include Canadian singer/songwriter Meaghan Smith and LA indie music duo The Submarines.

Next up to grace our humble stage is Brooklyn duo Savoir Adore. You may not know them yet, but we like to think we have a good ear for this sort of thing… and this band are quite special. We’ve worked with them on a couple of events in the USA recently and we’ve become friends.

The group will be joining us for a drink and a blissful unplugged set in a couple of weeks time as part of our FRUKT Jam showcase series.

Click here to find out more about Savior Adore.

FRUKT’s Trends Editor, Giles Fitzgerald, and Creative Planner, Flora Page, spent yesterday afternoon in a packed out Purcell Room auditorium at London’s Southbank for the ‘World’s Collide’ seminar, hosted by the APG (Account Planning Group) in association with the Marketing Society.

The session, billed as a “mind altering strategy event”, pooled the collective minds of an eclectic set of speakers as they focused in on their own unique strategic approaches and sought to answer the question ‘What do you do to win, when you can’t afford to lose?’ 

Those taking to the stage to deliver their 20-minute pitches included former head of the British Army, General Sir Mike Jackson, international peace activist, Jeremy Gilley, ad maverick David Droga, and the master of spin himself, Alastair Campbell. Or – to place them in their native categories – ‘war, peace, ads and politics’.

Jeremy delivered an impassioned pitch showcasing how a simple notion (one day of peace) sparked a worldwide movement, not to mention a master class on how to squeeze a 2-hour presentation into 20 minutes by talking at heart attack inducing speed. A truly passionate guy, still with boundless enthusiasm for a project he has lived with day-in-day out for 12 years.

Next up was the General, who highlighted his strategy for maneuvering around Russian interference during the Kosovo War and Nato orders that would have resulted in “dead Russians and Brits having achieved the square root of f*** all”.  After analysis, embracing the Russian contingent proved the most effective strategy. As Michael, clearly a well pattered after dinner speaker, said himself, “there are more ways of killing the cat than banging its head against the wall”.

David Droga, the lone ad representative on the stage (i.e. the only one not in a suit), focused on the need for human truth behind advertising, showcasing some of Droga 5’s more inventive ad campaigns, from the Jay Z Decoded book launch to Puma Social’s After Hours Athlete. “I’ve come from being seduced by creativity, to creativity with a purpose”, said David.

Finally, Alastair Campbell outlined a list of acronyms that power his strategic thinking, his pathological fear of failure, and the art of visualising the victory. All peppered with a smattering of autobiographical anecdotes, from receiving midnight phone calls about the bombing of the Chinese embassy to playing charity football with Maradona.

The theme of the event felt like it got mislaid somewhere along the course of the afternoon, but maybe this apparent lack of structure is a lesson in itself. That not only is there strategic lessons we can learn from beyond our marketing boundaries, but that themes, structure and perceived goals sometimes stop the flow of creativite speech, thought and action.

For more on the event see The Guardian’s live blog and the events accompanying hashtag.

FRUKT has teamed up with the Music Matters conference in Singapore to take a look at key music and brand partnerships in the Asia Pacific region. Download our ‘Exclusive Brands And Music Asia Insight Report’, showcasing a wide variety of brand and artist alignments across areas such as Korea, Japan, China and the Philippines.

East meets West

With the West still getting to grips with the notion that artist/brand partnerships can help facilitate both new revenue streams and platforms for creativity, Asia in many ways has been ahead of the game. With brand alignments built into the artist business model from the offset, as much of a core component of the package as the music itself, commercial deals are widespread.

Girls Generation, for example – a group that has racked up an impressive tally of brand alignments over the years (27 just in 2011 alone) is a good benchmark for the way the Asian music business is pushing West.  The group recently made a concerted push in the USA, appearing on the ‘Late show with David Letterman’ (performing in English) as demand outside of Asia saw them releasing an album in the US.

Another massive all female group, 2NE1 (who recently netted an MTV Iggy Award in the US for ‘Best New Band in the World’) are currently being mentored and produced by will.i.am for a stateside release. Although the album is still in production, a collaborative track is already in use as part of a creative partnership with Intel.

And the list goes on with localised brands too, as Jeju Airlines inks a deal with Korean boy band Big Bang this week to act as ambassadors as it looks to broader its reach across Asia, while k-pop girl group KARA helps Unilever position the Rexena deodorant brand in Japan.

With the brand pact firmly ingrained and Asian artists vying for traction across an international market,  it’s now no longer a question of whether the musical and cultural divide will shrink between East and West, but when. The bigger question is which brands will be out in front facilitating innovative collaborations when it does.