Re*Move

Does the car industry now get it... whatever 'it' is?

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of activities by the car companies, and their design and marketing departments, to take social media to another level and exploit its potential usefulness for designing and selling future vehicles.

First came GM with its LAB. GM has been in the social media auto world for a long time, but the Lab was a new way to test the waters with some of its more 'skunkworks' projects – such as the 'bare necessity' car and truck concepts, which you can see more of here.  What's interesting is that it gives designers, who remain - to quote Roland Barthes (yet again) "unknown artists" who are creating the "gothic cathedrals of our era" a window out into the world, and respectively, one back in to them. The videos are over-produced and slightly inauthentic feeling (the hands of a slightly nervous PR team are all over them), yet the Lab presents a platform, which, outside of the razzmatazz of the auto show, might be one of the only ways for a team to test an idea, and open up a dialogue about what they're doing, outside of the company.

The power of social in this respect seems to be growing - with the web going all-a-chatter just a couple of weeks back, when GM canned a proposed SUV, apparently in part, due to adverse responses on twitter.

GM's bare necessities car, showcased with its LAB platform

Next comes Fiat, downsideupdesign drawing our attention to their 'Mio' project, which is openly 'collecting' user research via the web, as part of the early process for developing a young person’s car, which will be showcased at a forthcoming Sao Paulo auto show. The interesting bit is that Fiat is going to openly publish all of the information it collects, licensing it under creative commons. Why interesting? Because it represents a u-turn in an industry famed for its secretive research and development processes. Furthermore, it means that others can not only reference and use the research in their projects, but critique and analyse the information, and the way Fiat use and interpret it.

While at first glance what's interesting about all of this is that it simply provides greater volumes of available raw data, what'll really be interesting is following the creative process of how Fiat translates this into something physical, and - in particular - how their reading of the data differs from that of other (outside) observers.

I'll come back to that in a minute, but it's worth mentioning the third project in this arena right now, which is Audi's (facebook log in required). As part of the development process for the LA design challenge, Audi is asking users on its facebook fan page for their input to the development of its entry to this year’s competition, which sees the car design studios of Southern California competing to design a youth-orientated car for 2030. This will only exist in 2D form, and is traditionally a place where we see designers experiment with the sublime and the ridiculous. As such, this is a low-risk, semi-serious dipping of its toes into the shark-infested waters of social media for Audi. It does signal though, that crowd-sourced ideas, and social media research could play some part in future car developments and marketing campaigns.

Audi design video from its Facebook / LA design challenge page

So what? I hear you ask about all of this. Well, let’s get the positives out of the way first. The auto industry is repeatedly accused of lagging behind other sectors when it comes to getting on new bandwagons. No such worries with social media - the train has left the station, auto industry onboard (for once). Secondly, it’s one of the simplest, fastest, most high-profile ways for an industry which has been repeatedly accused of ‘not listening’ to customers, to actually engage them and show it’s interested in their view.  

The question is, does all this mean that the auto industry now ‘gets it’? Is this a way of acknowledging the development processes needs to change, that it needs to listen more, open up, and that user-based design and research has much to offer?

I’m honestly not sure. On one hand, thinking and attitudes – in some companies – is clearly changing. On the other, using social media platforms for data collection and user research is a complete no brainer – and is becoming a prerequisite of proving that you’re a contemporary company.

But the ‘is it marketing bullshit’ or ‘is it genuine new engagement’ argument actually misses the point. Because simply having conversations, running competitions, asking for input and conducting user research online is only the first stepping-stone, and arguably not the most important. What’s missing today is the bridge between talking to customers and collecting information from them, and when the designer first picks up his or her pencil in anger. At the moment, the bridge between these two places is called 'marketing', but it has oft proved inadequate at helping deliver products people want, or in helping companies successfully innovate. In my view, there’s a clear role being created, which exists between the data collection point (be that online or in the real world), and the marketing and design teams. An ‘auto analyst’ if you will – whose critical skills are three-fold

• Being able to ask the consumer the right questions in the first place
• Analysing the data, digging deeper than the raw numbers, and testing the conclusions that these new types of research – or indeed other existing methods – lead to

• Translating the findings of research and user engagement into meaningful insight, which marketing and design teams understand and can work together around.

At the moment, social media-based user research in the auto industry is in danger of just becoming 'the next big thing' - jumped on by marketing teams as something new and radical, that they’ve got to have in order to look contemporary, but which ultimately is being treating as just another marketing method. Left like this, the results of these – often worthwhile and interesting - new means of research and engagement seem destined to be the subject of the same frowning and eye-rolling from the designer, engineering and planning teams who are ultimately charged with designing the ‘fallout’, that exists in the industry today. 

Related reading:

User research on the Ford Fiesta - the view from real life Antonellas

Drew Smith on the car industry's failure to do digital

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 1st September 2009. Hat-tip to Drew Smith at Downsideupdesign for sparking the train of thought that led me to this

Images: Joe Simpson and Drew Smith talk future auto in London - June 2009 (Mark Charmer); GM bare necessities car (GM), Audi video (Audi)

Could Scott Monty's one percent goal change Ford?

Joe and I had a drink with Scott Monty, Ford's head of social media, on Monday night. Arriving in a splendid old-fashioned bow-tie, Scott's at the heart of some of the big change going on at Ford, to communicate the company's story more openly.

Scott - aka @scottmonty on Twitter - is building quite a name for himself. @amydoesdesign, a design student at the University of Cincinnati cut to the point this weekend:

"Oh my god, you meeting Scott Monty is way more interesting than meeting J Mays [Ford's design boss]."

We talked about the challenge of getting 200,000 employees comfortable sharing more about what they do, and bringing to life what the organisation is about and how it's changing.

Scott's confident he can drive a change in how Ford communicates online. "Even if we get only one percent of our employee population doing this, that's 2,000 people - on Twitter, blogs, Facebook, discussion forums. We'll have an army of influencers from inside the company that will be able to share their own perspective on Ford. And put a human face on the company at the same time."

You can see a video of part of our chat below (in the super-low-light Dearborn Inn bar).

We talked about the tendency of young talent to be forced to leave behind the dynamic communication and collaboration tools of their college and personal lives when they arrive at a big corporation. Scott was adamant that these people shouldn't have to compromise how they communicate, just because they work at Ford.

"We're not necessarily competing with GM or Toyota for talent. We're competing with Google, with Oracle, with some of the best technology companies in the world. This has become a standard of working conditions. People want access to their Facebook pages, their favourite YouTube videos, their AIM accounts that allow them to communicate and stay connected."

If we don't do that from an enterprise structure, whether it's creating our own internally or allowing them to access it externally, it's going to be a huge problem.

He also stressed "it's not just a young person's game". And then Caroline arrived with our food. We'll pick up on that point next time we see him.

Ford's overall change theme is "Drive One". Somehow I can't help think that getting one percent of staff quickly onto Twitter would deliver radical change. Today, when we meet a Ford engineer or designer we walk away without a business card. The PR person is the funnel for communication. If Scott gets his way, maybe that will change.

Related reading:

Scott Monty on Ford's approach to social media

Posted by Mark Charmer. Mark is founder of The Movement Design Bureau, a global think tank. Video filmed in the Golden Eagle Lounge. Dearborn Inn, Michigan. 20 April 2009.

Watch: "The History of the Future: Cars"

It's easy to forget when you live in a world of road humps, speed cameras, parking fines and perhaps reduced speed limits, that there was - and occasionally still is - a time when cars, driving and 'motoring' was something to enjoy.

More than anything, people are driven by nostalgia, so BBC4's current "The Joy of Motoring" series has been a great watch. It's featured a programme on "Great British Drives", one about the history of Ford's Dagenham plant and, tonight, promises a real star piece. "The history of the Future: Cars", at 9.30pm, examines cars from the '50s and '60s and the culture around this time, when "they hadn't quite yet worked out how to make cars fly and instead just made them look like they could".

Interested in the wider series, or don't have satellite or digital TV? Then check out the other shows via BBC4's website here, and (if you have a UK IP address) watch shows screened in the last seven days on the BBC's excellent iPlayer here.

"The History of the Future: Cars" is at 9.30pm, on BBC 4, tonight - Thursday 12th March.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 12th March 2009

The Airbus A380 - a game changer at last?

In my predictions for 2009, I speculated this would be the year that the new Airbus A380 superjumbo becomes a selling point differentiator for airlines. Judging by this billboard advertisment (above) that's currently looming over the concourse at London's Waterloo station, it appears to be happening rather quickly.

What I think is fascinating about this is the direction in which it has the potential to take air travel. From the early years of flight - when air travel was an exotic, romantic experience - air travel has turned into something to be endured, rather than enjoyed.

I once heard the late, great Paul MacCready (designer of the Gossamer Albatross) lament “if only modern automobiles had been refined and developed to be as light and efficient as aeroplanes have, perhaps the automobile industry wouldn't be in such trouble” –  but what this in turn means, is that the vehicles we travel on (or in), in the air - are largely indistinguishable from one another. As MacCready alludes, that's because modern aeroplane design walks a fine line in balancing efficiency, carrying capacity and cost - and the long, thin tube sitting on a central wing box seems to have won out as the design pattern of choice... Airlines therefore don't advertise, or differentiate on the types of aircraft they fly - they appeal with cheap fares, better entertainments systems and the allusion to superior service.

Paul MacCready's Gossamer Albatross a model of aviation efficiency... but a world away from modern day machines.

Compare this to the auto industry, conversely - where the minor detail differentiation of cars from competitor to competitor is the subject of millions - no makes that billions - of dollars of advertising money, not to mention design and development funds. Thus, I'd speculate that while 99 out of 100 people will be able to tell you what make and model of car they drive, 99 out of 100 people won’t be able to tell you what the last type of plane they flew on was - nor, I'd suggest, would they care.

Yet the Airbus A380 - superjumbo, whalejet, or double-decker plane (whatever you want to call it) - seems to have firmly entered the public conscience - such was the troubled nature of its birth, and the awe-inspiring size of this 'machine', and sense of disbelief that exists, that mankind has managed to engineers such a vast craft, capable of such a graceful ascension from earth to sky.

Judging by last weekend’s article in The Sunday Times, not only are the airlines (Qantas, Singapore and Emirates offer UK-based A380 departures) differentiating themselves from the competition by advertising that they fly the A380 - but the plane's following is allowing them to charge a tidy price premium for travel on it. In an article entitled “The search for the best A380” the paper reports that Emirates - for instance - flies four times a day from London Heathrow to Dubai, and while on its Boeing 777s you can make that trip for as little as £305 in economy, if you want to fly on an A380, the price starts at £530.

  Emirates A380s have showers on board, while Singapore's first class suites have double beds

Is it worth the difference? Well, probably not - particularly in economy. As the Qantas advert illustrates, the big gains this plane allows the airlines (showers, bar areas, individual first class cabins with double beds) are reserved for Business and First class passengers. The question is, at what point will the A380 become so ubiquitous that they can now longer get away with charging a premium? And with Boeing's groundbreaking 787 Dreamliner not far away now, can new planes like these reverse the miserabilism and hatred currently exhibited by both public and media alike, towards the whole notion of flying? In the UK, at least, our wider priorities seem to suggest that's unlikely, but ultimately, planes like the A380 could be the best hope that exists of creating a new 'golden age' of air travel. 

...and finally, on the subject of current air travel experiences - if you want a laugh, you must read this. It's possible the funniest complaint letter, ever. (via Dennis Howlett on twitter)

Related reading:

• Welcome to 2009... a brave new world?
• British Airways takes the plunge

Images: Qantas advertising billboard - Joseph Simpson; Gossamer Albatross - catface3 on flickr; Qantas A380 - Joits on flickr; Emirates A380 shower - Ammar Abd Rabbo on flickr; Singapore first class suite - Singapore Airlines

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 27th Januray 2009

An eye on Detroit: NAIAS '09 - Day 1

Keeping an eye on the competition in Cobo today... guess which manufacturer's car this is from?

Judging by the response of some auto makers, you'd have thought this year's Detroit autoshow wouldn't be worth the effort. However, judging by twitter chatter, mainstream news coverage and the response of people on the ground, hell hasn't actually frozen over (its only Detroit's pavements) and those that ventured to the Cobo Hall today for the start of the North American International Auto Show 2009, were rewarded with some treats and surprises.

This show was always going to be about certain North American manufacturers proving to a skeptical American public they deserved bailout money, and for every other manufacturer, a chance to prove the auto industry wasn't actually on its knees, and could still deliver the vision, and kick-ass products that would make people open their wallets.

It started slowly, but over the day, momentum built... General Motors kicked things off unveiling a bland new Buick, and a Cadillac SRX Crossover that didn't set anyone's pants on fire. But the real big news was never going to be about these cars - and sure enough, the General used NAIAS as an opportunity to build on its good press with the Chevrolet Volt, and make the most of its E-flex, plug-in hybrid vehicle architecture. Renamed "Voltage" today, it sat under a new, rather crisp looking Cadillac Coupe callled the "Converj" (which tied for 'crap name of the day' with Kia's "Soulster").

Cadillac Converj, and a 'not the actual production car yet', Chevy Beat

But GM wasn't quite done at that, and made a slightly bizarre "reveal", which actually wasn't. It announced that the Chevy Beat, one of three baby cars shown a year or so ago, had received the public's blessing to be its new north American small car. It is to be put into production in 2011, known as the "Spark". However, we say it was bizarre, as GM showed the original Beat concept on their stand, and had just one photo of the new Spark on a big display screen. Although too early to judge fairly, in the photo, it looked less funky than the Beat, and a little clunky compared to its big competitor, the Fiesta, which Ford brings Stateside in 2010...

Speaking of Ford, they appeared to be having a rather good show. Not only was the new Taurus well received by mainstream auto press, but it made a big (some would say shock) announcement about electrification of its range - with four new cars - regular and plug-in hybrids, plus a pure battery electric vehicle, all due in the next three years. Interestingly, some of these will be based on the next Focus platform, which means they could be seen in both the US and Europe. Most interesting to us was how Ford played up its partnership with those outside of the automotive world, such as power and research companies, and how it says it is working with specific cities on the development of these vehicles. We hope to have more on this in the next couple of days and to interview some of those behind the announcement, so if you've any questions about Ford's announcements, please add them in the comments below.

Alan Mulally on stage, announcing Ford's big electric news

Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO, drove onto the stage in a -suitably coloured- green Fiesta to make this announcement, and we're intrigued by "The Fiesta Movement" Ford has launched in relation to the model, which apparently sees 100 Fiestas put into the hands of people with 'strong' web presence, before they're launched in the US. Throwing the green bathwater out with the eco baby on the Ford stand though, was the new Shelby 500 Mustang. It gets the prize for "Most brooding-looking vehicle of the day":

You'd get out of its way if you saw it in your mirrors, wouldn't you?

Completing the trio of domestic manufacturers was Chrysler, who once again showed that EV, which looks rather like a Lotus Europa covered by a "wafer-thin mint" sized Dodge badge and some EV stickers, which it promises will be on sale by 2012. If I were a betting man, I'd probably put money on Lotus themselves turning out pure EVs before Chrysler do... but most people seemed to think that Chrysler might have been better off concentrating on making their production cars look a little more like its surprising, and rather attractive-looking 200C EV concept.

Chrysler contrasts - third outing for Dodge EV concept (nee. Lotus Europa); rather good looking 200C

The Germans had still turned up in Detroit in their droves, with all of the major manufacturers except Porsche in attendance and unveiling concepts today. BMW had obviously heard there was something on the show agenda about the greening of automobiles, but appeared not to have realised no one's into SUV crossovers anymore, so showed an X6 Active Hybrid. If you haven't seen an X6 on the road yet, you'll know about it when you do, as the photo below from Mark shows. You don't truly appreciate how big it is until you see it next to something else (as Mark says, "don't believe the scale is a matter of perspective in this pic")...

 

Still, BMW took the opportunity to be serious and launch its new Z4 - a replacement for the car which got the world all a-fluster about Chris Bangle and 'Flame surfacing'. While that surface language is now officially dead, the new one still isn't without its creases and kinks. It appears to be, like many modern cars, somewhat 'colour sensitive' - showing off much better in the dark blue, than champagne.

Put me down for a blue one please...

It's always amusing to watch how announcements are reported. While the world seemed to be getting excited over the idea of Toyota 'beating the Volt to market' - with the Japanese company's announcement they'd lease 500 plug-in hybrids in 2009, everyone seemed to have forgotten that, using the same matrix, BMW has beaten them both to it with its Mini E - on show again here. Surely, anyone who's watched the film "Who killed the electric car" would hesitate to classify a car that's simply part of a manufacturer test fleet (the Toyota plug-in), and a car anyone can buy (the Volt) in the same arena?

A reminder from BMW Mini, of what the future car seems likely to be powered by...

Indeed, green poster-child Toyota is in danger of being eclipsed by a bunch of manufacturers before long. A new Prius is launched tomorrow, but this time it won't have the market to itself, with the likes of Honda's Insight on the way. We were disappointed too, that Toyota's EV concept, the FT-EV, had turned the clever, funky-looking iQ into a bit of a micro-van lookalike. I'm interested in really starting to ask serious questions about what electric cars, and advanced hybrids should look like. And it's disappointing to think they might all be Prius-a-like...

Toyota FT-EV concept, is an iQ in disguise

A car that was about as aesthetically far removed from the Prius as it's possible to get, but which still played up its green credentials, was the VW Bluesport roadster. Robb felt this looked a little predictable, even stale - something Darryl Siry attributed to TT-similarities. But then it appeared that VW's stand girls might have helped Robb change his mind... ! Slightly odd orange hood apart, this was VW proving that it could do good, clean fun - and that it was still top of the tree when it came to interiors and detailing.

VW Bluesport, some models, and detailing

Still, we could just be hallucinating about this VW due to the strength of the lighting rig the Germans had employed on their show stand. This brought about 'tweet of the day' from @commutr, who summed up the situation by saying "Maserati, Aston Martin and Tesla have saved money on lighting by being next to VW. The sun is less bright. :)"

VW Stand: "The sun is less bright"...

My car of the day though, was the final unveil, the Volvo S60 concept. We haven't had time to upload the photos yet, and it's really the interior you need to see... but if Volvo's are going to look this sexy in the future, then I want one... Check out pictures like this and this to see what I mean.

"If Volvo's are going to look this sexy, then I want one"

Stay tuned for continued coverage - and some interviews and video tomorrow.

Full photoset from today here.

Posted by Robb Hunter on the show floor in Detroit, and Joseph Simpson watching on the web in London. You can follow our ongoing coverage of the show and thoughts on twitter - @potatowedge, @JoeSimpson, @CharmerMark.

All Photos by Robb Hunter - Potatowedge on Flickr

Disclosure: Ford is sponsoring the Movement Design Bureau's design research work in 2009.

All material, including photographs, is licensed as Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0. Please feel free to copy, distribute and adapt the material within the terms of this license.

The future of the auto industry - Part I

Beginning a new short five-part series, Joseph Simpson explores an issue very close to his heart - the future of the automotive industry. Tossing his hat into an arena frothing at the prospect of GM merging with Chrysler, he has some radical suggestions for a few under-performing brands.

Make no mistake about it, the auto industry that we know and love is in a terrible place right now. While the last few weeks have seen attempts concentrate on stopping the world's financial and banking sector sailing merrily off down the river without a paddle, things are only a little-less tumultuous over in motor-town. In the past few days alone, we’ve had rumours and confirmed stories that have included... (deep breath)...: 

• Tesla slashing dozens of jobs and delaying the 'Model S'.
• Chrysler and GM – or is it actually Chrysler and Renault-Nissan (?) - merging. No one seems quite sure...
• Cerberus (Chrysler's owners) getting ready to jump ship – and announcing that they’re culling 25% of the white-collar workforce, and cancelling a new V6 engine programme.
• Industry darlings Toyota forecasting their first ever loss in North America and cutting car production.
• Lexus sales in Japan down for 13 consecutive months on the trot.
• Porsche's sales down 59% in the UK year-on-year (source: Car Magazine).
• PSA cutting production by 30% for Q4 of 2008...
• ... and Renault doing something similar – but with a larger shadow hanging over them, that if new Megane III does as badly as the new Laguna (one entire production shift chopped), the whole company could be in the kind of trouble previously unheard of outside Britain and the US.

...and that's just a tiny fraction of the stories buzzing around.

But let’s assume (and it’s a pretty big assumption) that enough people will be able to get finance to go on buying new cars while the economy bumps along the bottom, and that at some point in 2009/10 things will start to look a lot rosier economically. How will the automotive landscape look? At the moment, it takes a very brave person to predict this (although there are lots of people predicting automotive Armageddon) – but I’ve got a funny feeling that come 2011 the likes of Ford, GM, Renault, Nissan, Peugeot, Porsche, VW et al. will still be present and correct. 

But what about that strange group of brands who – despite having the good fortune to proudly wear some of the most evocative, well-loved and best known names in the automotive arena - seem almost permanently on the brink of either being shut down, sold off, or just forgotten? Years of neglect and underinvestment from their owners, incoherent strategies and duff product line-ups do not a happy car company make. So when times are tough, and cash is king, some brands look more in danger than others. 

The brands I'm talking about are Alfa Romeo, Volvo, SAAB and Jaguar / LandRover...

But those that apparently have the most to lose, may also have the most to gain. While their rich histories and house-hold names don't currently translate into the sales figures they should, there's a vast amount of public affection and affinity to tap into. What's required is a bit of innovation and clear strategy - things that are typically in short supply during a recession. So in the forthcoming blogs, I'll set out what I think the owners of Alfa Romeo, Volvo, SAAB and Jaguar / Land Rover need to do to ensure these great automotive brands make it out the other side of the automotive ditch.

First up, Alfa Romeo. Stay tuned.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 27th October 2008.

What happens when the world knows your every move?

I'm often a great enthusiast for what I describe as the digitisation of how we move and interact. Over the coming years it has the potential to transform how our cities, especially, flow. And much of it will be driven by the mobile phone - or the devices that emerge from what it is today.

It could unlock whole new patterns of commerce, mean we make and maintain more friends - or friends we find more interesting. And it could (literally) unlock new ways to grab and use networks of personal vehicles for short journeys, without owning them. Don't believe me? Go to Paris.

Where we go, where we stop by, who we meet, what we browse and what we buy could all change. Great new stores, cafes and meeting places could create sufficient custom to challenge the bland anonymity of the franchise model that has over time become the standard way to create and expand a business. Which is why we now have cities filling with Starbucks, or the cheerful but still ultimately empty experience of spending time in a branch of Pret a Manger.

But there are some very serious issues to face up to as things change. We need to deal with the downsides of location services. This article by Daniel Soar in the London Review of Books highlights some of them. It's something to take seriously right now - aspects of the transformation will happen quickly, while others take time.

Many of the worries relate to who can use your location and call data, and how. As he says:

"The information your phone provides is out there anyway. It doesn’t belong to you, and anyone with the required resources can do with it what they will."

We need to address the issues he brings up during, not after, things have changed.

Posted by Mark.

The satisfaction of a great Google Page Ranking

In one of his more surreal moments, James Governor sent Thomas and I a note once that said it was "better to be interested than interesting". After an hour of bemusement I took his point, although Thomas remained(s?) slightly less convinced.

But I think I'm starting to get it. Joe and I had a really strange epiphany about eight months ago when we realised that the easiest way to find something we've written was to do a general Google search for the phrase, which would take us to our own blog articles. This, as you can imagine, was really exciting. But we didn't know why it happened so reliably - how certain articles we've written on Re*Move have really good page rankings. We don't have vast overall site traffic - peaking at perhaps five hundred unique visits per day. Dipping down to about 200 while I've had a broken arm and Joe's spent 2 months 'up the RCA' as we'd say, finishing his MPhil.

I got talking the other day with said Governor about this - and how I can't fathom out why we do well. They're all very specialist topics - but in a proper long tail way (sorry, geek term) we rank well on the things we really follow. Which is nice. I would feel uncomfortable ranking well on things I didn't know about. But it's nice to be high up when you know your stuff.

So here are two search phrases we rock on:

GOOGLE RANKING 4 "Zipcar Review"

Ever tried one of the groundbreaking car sharing systems that are being developed by the likes of ZipCar and UK-based StreetCar? Well a search on "Zipcar review" will see our article at number 4. Which is kinda satisfying I have to say. We're big fans but think they could develop their product and engage with their markets in much more direct, tailored ways. Let's just say more metro-marketing, less global br(l)and. Read our "ZipCar Review" and enjoy. Or hey, Google the phrase! See whether we go up or down.

GOOGLE RANKING 8 "Project Better Place"

Want to know the lowdown on Shai Agassi's $200 million effort to introduce electric car charging networks around the world? Well type "Project Better Place" into Google and today we're number 8. Shai's like a whirlwind of a mind and I can't decide whether he's about to change the world or become the next WebVan guy. Read my analysis that asks 'Is Project Better Place the Big Answer?'. Or Google the company name and see if we're still on the first page.

Kinda cool huh? In fact, so cool that I've decided to add both of these search performances to my Cool Wall.

Who knows how we'll perform in future. That's part of the excitement. I suspect the key is to try all the time to be interested rather than interesting. And writers always, as George Orwell pointed out, have a touch of egoism going on. So for that I apologise. A bit.

Mark Charmer is director of The Movement Design Bureau.

Welcome to COOL WALLS

Those of you close to us - especially those who follow us on Twitter - will know we're working on the launch of our city-based trend research network in early summer.

I can't share the details yet but suffice to say we're going to throw out of the window many of the assumptions that hold Think Tanks back - number one being that most spend their time producing boring reports that noone reads.

We're rejecting what Dominic Campbell and I describe as the tendency to become the "Centre for Obvious Research". Obvious stuff which is expensively commissioned because decision-makers can only do intuitive things if they have a detailed report to prove it's true. Things like this report that proves towns in Northern England like Blackpool and Burnley need to forge better links with nearby cities such as Liverpool and Manchester. Well go figure.

A new generation of designers, policy people and entrepreneurs working on movement, cities and interaction are looking for something much more open and useable. And we're basing it around photography as the starting point.

How it works

Our trend team will maintain a network of global Cool Walls. For now we're focusing on MOVEMENT. There are just three rules:

1. You must have taken the photos yourself.

2. Each must be captioned with the date and location it was taken. You can add long captions if you like, but that's your call.

(and this is critical)

3. You must set the licensing to Creative Commons.

We encourage people to keep a Cool Wall of between 20 and 30 images. About 24 is optimal. For now, we're finding Flickr is the best place to host your Cool Wall.

In early summer I'll explain how the best trend watchers will earn money watching trends that they communicate via photography, rather than earning money selling photography. This is quite a leap - but an important one. In the meantime we won't be earning money directly out of your photos. That I can guarantee.

For now, if you want to get involved, email me (with the subject COOL WALL) to sign up to follow the beta programme. Or better still participate by just setting up your own Cool Wall on Flickr and then email me the location. As a trend watcher, you can be as public or anonymous about your identity as you like. If we think it's a Cool Wall, we'll promote it. Even if you tell me who you are, I promise not to pass that on without your permission.

You can follow mine and Joe's Cool Walls for inspiration. I expect yours to be better.

Posted by Mark Charmer on 15 April 2008. Mark is director of The Movement Design Bureau, a global think tank.

Pontiac vs. BMW: Never underestimate the Germans

Over the last few days we've been watching with some interest as one of those 'sleeper' stories went global as it made its way out into cyberspace. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, this is the new Pontiac advert (click on image below) for the company's fresh G8 (which we hope to be renting from an Alamo rental lot sometime soon - eh Mark?), taking aim at the BMW 5 series :

The ad's comical, notably because a) it takes the Mickey out of German dress sense and, b) BMW driver stereotypes. But it's also a shock for us Europeans now used to cuddly, CO2-focused, sophisticated car ads to watch something that's so old school - focusing on horse power, luxury and so on. It's actually really refreshing - watch the video, it'll put a smile on your face!

It's also signifies the stirring of GM, and the re-ignition of some really rather faded brands, such as Pontiac. With news that the Volt's design is now frozen, and yet another commitment to production by 2010, the Opel-based Saturn line doing well, and the new Chevy Malibu still flying off dealer lots faster than GM can build them, you have to say things are looking much rosier for 'The General'.

Bruce Nussbaum, who's usually on the money with these things, is even pointing to Pontiac, and GM in general, as being so innovative, that it might start to challenge BMW. Hmmm. I'm not so sure about that. The G8 is clearly a good car, but GM is still in serious financial trouble. Weakening his argument further, Nussbaum’s evidence for this innovation at Pontiac is that they're asking consumers to choose the name of their new truck via the web. Sorry Bruce, but that's not innovation, it's marketing fluff. And Pontiac isn’t the first. VW have done it before, and much more recently Alfa's new small Mini competitor has been through the naming mill, finally adorned with the title "Mi.To" (me too? - sorry, too easy), Alfa having toyed with the evocative Junior, before running a web-based naming competition, which came up with Furiosa. And was promptly binned.

The Alfa 'Mi.To'. But should it have been Furiosa? Or Junior?

GM is clearly on the up, but I feel the need to stick up for BMW here. Aside from the - frankly daft - Hydrogen7, which they've just launched a new version of; the company is on the ball at the moment, and doing some really relevant, innovative stuff. While Porsche yesterday set in train proceedings to get a judicial review on the proposed £25 congestion charge high tariff, BMW has been quietly, but radically reducing CO2 emissions levels across its entire range of cars under the “efficient dynamics” programme. Tweaks to the two BMW X5 diesel models mean they will be two of only three full size SUVs to escape the £25 a day charge. The 5 series isn’t just the car of choice for sales execs country-wide because they have no imagination. On every comparable model, it thrashes the competition from Audi, Merc, Jag et al. on CO2 emissions, and as company car drivers are taxed based on CO2, pretty much everything BMW makes – Mini, 1, 3, 5, X5 series is cheaper, and therefore preferred to the opposition right now.

But that’s not where the real innovation will come from. Rumours continue to fly about the company resurrecting Isetta as a small, sub-Mini brand to compete with Smart, but they’re not stopping there, and have launched a covert operation known as “Project I” to look at future drivetrains, and interestingly, explore mobility in cities of the future – specifically megacities. The intention is to see how and what BMW can begin to tackle with regard to key issues such as congestion and parking. This might not just mean new products, but new services too.

So all things considered, the Munich boys are probably quite happy to leave the naming frivolity, and pee-taking to others for now. As it has in the past, it will probably end up having the last laugh by stealing a jump on its competitors. Evidence, once again (and Pontiac take note), that as the saying goes - ‘you should never underestimate the Germans’.

Posted by Joseph Simpson - whose lack of recent blogging is down to him trying to finish his Thesis on the future of cars in cities at The Royal College of Art, and who will hopefully fully re-emerge sometime in May. 4th April 2008.