It is manna to anyone with a creative bent and a sense of curiosity and invention – of looking at things differently.

During his career as a newspaper cartoonist – his legacy was his ‘invention cartoons’ where he looked at inventing incredibly elborate machine inventions to perform simple tasks such as pencil sharpening, or washing windows, avoiding bill collectors, peeling apples, putting toothpaste on a toothbrush. He was about creative problem solving in unconventional ways and having a lot of fun in the process .

Since his passing in 1970, his creative approach has continued to be celebrated in the form of his postcard format book called the “Rube Goldberg’s Inventions”.

IN essence these inventions over engineer very simple tasks in a very very complex fashion and usually features a series of chain reactions.

The Perdue Univeristy, Indiana USA, started the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC) in 1987 and the results have been creatively intriguing and always entertaining in terms of human ingenuity. The name of the game is to solve a problem in the MOST CONVOLUTED AND COMPLICATED MANNER POSSIBLE.

Now when you to take this Goldberg approach and mesh it with a very creative and quirky musical group OK GO – the result is a masterful visual and audible event. Memorable and fun.

OK Go’s song This Too Shall Pass” and it’s Rube Goldberged all the way. Enjoy.

Hope you enjoyed that as much as we did.

Of course this is not the first time this musical group have delivered on a memorable video clip experience.

A previous music clip, very very simple in execution and concept, was superbly delivered on the back of some fabulous choregraphy using treadmills. The clip is called “Here It Goes Again”.

Just fabulous… Rube Goldberg and OK Go… fantastic. The applications within the special event environment in terms of team building, in regards to stage showcraft, out-of-the-box thinking and creative innovation is wide ranging and excites the heck out of the FACTOR168 team and never fails to recharge our mojo.

Now for some Goldberg trivia.

Some Goldberg trivia – Rube Goldberg’s machine inventions were the inspiration for the much loved classic board game “Mouse Trap“. Compare his artwork, compare the board game… yeah, you can see it too huh?

PLUS in 1931 the Merriam-Webster dictionary adopted the word “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective defined as accomplishing something simple through complex means.

Source Notes: More on the creative world of Rube Goldberg and for more music got to OK GO.

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Love this idea of making what is a pretty boring and functional transaction with a bank -a memorable fun experience instead.There should be more of it.

Sure, many cash machines around the world offer a number of language options but this is the first time I’ve come across a ‘slang’ based version.

Customers on selecting this option are requested to enter their Huckleberry Finn (PIN) before they can receive their sausage and mash (cash).

Those wanting to withdraw £10 sterling will have to ask for a speckled hen, while the machine may inform users that it is contacting their rattle and tank, rather than bank.

‘We wanted to introduce something fun and of local interest to our London machines,’ said Ron Delnevo, managing director of operators Bank Machine.

‘Whilst we expect some residents will visit the machine to just have a butcher’s (look), most will be genuinely pleased as this is the first time a financial services provider will have recognised the Cockney language in such a manner,’ he added.

All the usual fees associated with an ATM applied but Bank Machine offer the actual Cockney display prompts at no charge. Must have been an oversight on their part.

Bank Machine have done well. They have in effect creatively customized a functional transaction and transformed it, at what I imagine is a relatively low cost exercise, into a distinctly memorable experience.

People that visit and transact with these machines will carry with them positive associations with Bank Machine units as part of the East London landscape.

No doubt Bank Machine partners will also love the extra trade that this sort of traffic, for a ‘butcher’s’ or not, will bring. And following their transaction, they’ll be ready to spend some of that ‘bangers and mash’.

This same thinking can be strategically applied to other relatively ‘soul-less’ transactional activities that all companies share on a regular basis with staff and clients.

Certainly within the event spectrum, this same approach can be applied with great potential impact.

Event elements such as the registration process and post-event follow-ups are perfect candidates for being reimagined with a greater creative and interactive dimension. The possibilities are extraordinarily exciting.

Now for those that do not live in or visit East London – you can experience the Cockney slang in all of it’s glory with this fun little online app’. It is an English to Cockney translator.

Lor’ luv a duck! i’ is bee’s knees fun. Know what I mean?

* The image featured here is from Bank Machine.

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We came across this clip from the Today’s Big Thing and thought you might really enjoy it just as much as we did and do.

The clip presents a television performance by a South Korean lounge band – and everyone seems to be on the same safe and dull ‘musical page’ until you notice the drummer in the background. He is having a a ‘wow’ of a time…

A star performer will always shine no matter where he or she sits within the ‘band’.

* Drum image courtesy of Lilguitar – fabulous images.

FACTOR168 | Creative Event Management Company

A beautifully shot advertisement showcasing the diversity of ‘the long white cloud’ in it’s locales and it’s people. The legendary story of this nations birth and the soundtrack of ‘forever young’ – it’s powerful and it works. I’d go…

This advertisement would have to be best in genre.
It’s a pity that their website lets them down so very badly.

Cluttered and difficult to navigate, and let’s be frank – just not that visually appealing. It has all the standard tourism site tools – the travel planner, event calenders and so on. I did however like the extension of the strong storytelling device evident in their advertisements with the send-a-friend a postcard and the the showcasing of visitors, residents, and fans home made films uploaded as 100% Pure NZ video experiences.

Fantastic ad, ordinary web presence. This should serve as a lesson to all of us. It’s not really good enough if there is no branded experience consistency across all facets of a project.

It would be akin to sinking the majority of your event budget into an expensive headline act and neglecting the event environment, high care table service, or even fundamentally a smooth and warm registration process. It never fails to amaze me that even today, some people spend a fortune on staging an important event only to neglect setting aside within their budget and site times for adequet presenter and techincal rehearsals and then wonder when things ‘happen’ or worse… don’t. Seriously talk with us or your current professional event management partner to best determine how to strike a considered balance between all aspects of an event so that you and your guests are assured a consistent and impactful experience across all aspects of the event cycle. It just makes sense.

Since we are on the subject of tourism style advertisements, a good one creates an expectation of a unique or at least a memorable experience and motivates the viewer to act on it. Consider the next clip which had the very hard task of promoting one of Australia’s east coast cities commonly regarded by many as a big country town – Brisbane. I think they did a pretty good job although would it compel me to holiday there or just make me feel warm and fuzzy about living there?

And finally, a personal favorite of mine. An advertisement for Las Vegas. What I like about this advertisement is it doesn’t show the Vegas most of us know – the shows, the strip, the neon lights, the gambling tables, the dancing and so on… no it just presents a little story and you fill in the ‘blanks’ with your own Vegas experience. Smart, fun, and effective. I’d go… for the shopping of course. Enjoy.

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