High Quentinity

I just read a very inspiring article published in Google's great 'Think Quarterly: The Speed Issue'. In this article Jeff Jarvis tries to open our eyes on the potential massive disruption(s) that the internet will bring. In his mind, what is still-to-come, is an even bigger more fundamental shift for our societies. I definitely agree with everything he says there and strongly recommend you to read this article.

Beyond this, what struck me as a new very accurate and relevant idea is 'the Gutenberg parenthesis'. I felt like it needed to be popularized as much as possible, and Jarvis has it like this: 

A group of academics at the University of Southern Denmark argues that we are emerging from the other side of what they call ‘the Gutenberg parenthesis.’ Before Gutenberg, knowledge was passed mouth-to-mouth, scribe-to-scribe, changing along the way with little sense of authorship. Inside the parenthesis, with the press, knowledge became linear, permanent, more a product than a process, with clear ownership.

More than five centuries later, they say we are emerging from the other side of the parenthesis. Now knowledge is again passed along, remixed as it goes, with less sense of ownership: It’s process over product. In his upcoming book Too Big to Know , David Weinberger sketches a vision of knowledge that is too big for libraries, institutions, or our heads. ‘Knowledge is now the property of the network,’ he writes. ‘The smartest person in the room is the room itself.’

Visually speaking, it probably looks a bit like that:

For the past 2 years, I must admit that I've been rather impressed by the output of Deutsch LA & NY. If I'm being honest it's mostly due to the cut-through work they've produced for VW. Who hasn't seen 'The Force' (56M+ views for the official YT video only), 'Get in. Get happy' their superbowl commercial who was the most talked about ad online that day (see Brandbowl), and the most recent one 'The mask' which I'm sure will be as successful as the preceding ones!

Merely out of curiosity I went onto their website to get more of a sense of what they were doing right (that many other agencies weren't). Beyond the many good people they hire(d), I guess there's no secret formula behind their success. There's just the right, bullshit-free, human-focused formula:

People don’t look for ads. They look for authentic content that entertains and educates in quick doses, and for personalized experiences that make life easier, help them to feel a little more famous, and connect them to their favorite people. Brands have to become more service-minded and give people tools and content that make interacting with them a joy. Everything has to be entertaining or useful—or both.