Below is an interview I conducted with Gábor Szanto & Zsolt Balogh @ DDB on their project #Tweetpositive. DDB has a new and refreshing look approach to marketing. They rely on “insight into human nature, respect for the consumer, and the power of creativity. Ideas are the fuel of DDB.”
Rigid methodologies minimize creativity. Paint-by-numbers gets you the same painting every time.
KSB // Where are you from, and how did you get started in the business? How long have you been doing this for?
We are both from Hungary.
ZB // I always wanted to have a job where I don’t feel I’m working. I started to work in advertising 13 years ago.
GS // I have work in the industry for 6 years, I was in banking before but since then I’m fully recovered 
We both work at the Innovation Team of DDB Budapest, Zsolt is the creative, Gábor is the business lead.
KSB // What do you like to do for fun?
DDB // Zsolt likes playing freestyle frisbee and making stuff (photos, videos) / visit me on vimeo/giugesco
Basically everything that involves a hack of something in a good way. Besides I’m a serial hobbits, I’ve used to manage a FARK-like community blog in Hungary, recently picked up playing bass.
KSB // What makes you happy in life?
ZB // Good vibes and feeling of moving forward (progress). Discovering new places and meeting interesting people. And the moments when I can make someone happy.
GS // Experimenting with new stuff, augmenting my skillset, like crafting something with hands.
KSB // What do you consider your best sources of inspiration to be?
ZB // Everyday people’s inventiveness, hacks, history and good conversations or sometimes a lonely walk. / http://thereifixedit.failblog.org/ Anyway anything that makes you look at things from a new angle.
GS // All the content on our screens, but then: getting away from the screen, going out to the street. Sometimes I just sit a caffe or public transport, trying to catch what people are talking about. Unpolite, but helpful.
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About #tweetpostive project
KSB // How did you come up with such a happy idea?
DDB // Probably it helps a lot that we are very optimistic here at DDB. We loved every minute of working on the project, so that’s what you feel when you look at the result. We wanted to have a positive kick start (boom, haha) for the New Year. From all the bad news pouring from all the channels all around us, we wanted something that would cheer up people a bit. It could have been a postcard or a poster with a good message, but we decided this one should be an experience that has more magic to it. We truly believe that words have power, so we hoped that if positive news is spread around, people will feel better a bit.
KSB // What have some of the best tweets so far?
DDB // 
“Be like a squirrel.”
“This year will be THAT year”
We even got some tweets form Spain, Japan.
KSB // Do you see other real world uses of this type of communication? I could see some really cool billboard style/ message board use cases. Do you have any plans for next steps with this idea?
DDB // Yes, sure, in fact we are on developing the project on a larger scale. We are inviting brands all over the world to join the tweetpositivism movement.
KSB // How does someone figure out that it is interactive? Is there audio playing with the installation?
DDB // There was no audio we kept it simple, the whole interaction very intuitive. All the instruction was placed on the installation in a sentence:
Every bug hides a message come and catch some.
If you started to catch lightbugs you couldn’t miss the point, people were stopping and could not resist to try it for themselves.
KSB // How many tweets have you gotten so far?
DDB // Around 300 and still growing, though we closed the installation at this location. But the nice thing was that these came from all around the world, it was lovely to see how it spread. There were funny tweets and very valuable tweets with very high number of followers. There was one with 140,000 followers, these helped us to spread the word.
KSB // What type of response do people have when they figure out its interactive?
GS // Everyone became a kid again. They were forgetting about the everyday problems and immersed in exploration. Smiling and that makes other people smiling too. Playing and exploring.
GS // Smiling and jumping around, just check it for yourself on the video. Actually this what made us smile too, not only the messages, but the way of interaction with the installation made people happy (for some time at least)
KSB // Please tell us about installation what type of equipment did you choose to use and why?
DDB // Kinect seemed to fit the best for this kind of interaction. It wanted to invite everyone to play so it was important that it has to be played without using any physical controllers or mobile phones. The only issue with the Kinects was that the sensors had to be placed behind a thick layered and colored glass window that shortened the sensibility range, but after testing them we found out they still work great. We also used additional motion sensors with an Arduino to detect people on the sidewalks (that was further from the installation). Other hardware is quite common, three computers and a projector. We back projected the image on a 5 meters wide self made screen.
KSB // How long did it take to take the project live, and what was the creative process behind putting this together?
DDB // The whole process from ideation till the official starting event was not longer that 3 weeks. Including programming, animation and building the installation. After finding out the idea it went very fluent, because the team was great and it was very clear for everyone what we want to achieve. It was done with very small iterations.
KSB // How many people were involved?
DDB // It was a very small crew. 5-6 people. We have to credit Bence Samu for the development, Eduárd Sik for building the installation, and the guys from theroom168 for doing the animations.
KSB // How many people were involved? (meaning reached)
DDB // Hard to tell, as there is no real way figuring it out (actually problem of measuring earned media). On the Facebook page of the project we engaged 700 likes, 800 talk about this, 1350 Facebook engagement, the 600 tweets theoretically reached. We did not use any kind of paid media, the projection was placed on the portal of our agency, which not a frequent place. We are sure the audience will become wider as we place the installation in the heart of Budapest, and as other brands, NGO’s take on the project.
