Prior to my first Japanese trip, a colleague gave me this sage advice, “In Tokyo, things are what they are…unless they are not” Having been to the Far East before, the dichotomy of his counsel didn’t surprise me – after all, if Asia epitomizes dichotomies and Tokyo must be the poster child.

With 33 million (give or take) souls in one metro area, it ain’t surprising there is an exception to every rule. The ultra-modern skyscraper next to the centuries old Shinto shrine, the conservative, composed work colleague who transforms into a college kid on Spring Break after a few drinks, the efficiency of Shinjuku subway station with 3 million daily travelers to the chaos of Tsukiji Fish Market; Tokyo is home to them all. And it was here that Steven Elliott and I traveled in late October to meet with our colleagues from Dentsu Y&R.

The Banner/Dentsu relationship is quite young and is based on servicing our Hitachi DMG client. With Banner’s strong European technology credentials and Dentsu’s impressive reputation in Japan, the combination was a natural partnership to service Hitachi’s European business. The Japan trip was to build on the growing relationship between the two agencies and to begin crafting the next evolution of the “Best Kept Secret” campaign we launched in May 2006.

In short, the trip was a runaway success. Nothing compares to a real live indoctrination into the Japanese obsession with technology and design. As a 30-something male, you try resist an eight-storey building dedicated solely to all manner of electronic gadgets. Couple that with a city that actually has annual robot shows. Steve and I missed a robot conference by a few days where the highlight was a race between a robot that can run and one that can ride a bike! If you want to get technology – especially in the consumer space – nothing beats Tokyo.

We also benefited immensely from the counsel of our Dentsu colleagues who took great pride in ensuring we understood the nuances and sensibilities of Japanese aesthetics and design. All key inputs as the Banner/Dentsu team attempt to develop a unique brand voice for Hitachi. It has certainly been an interesting challenge for us to develop a campaign that recognizes Hitachi’s pedigree in the electronics category whilst celebrating its unique Japanese heritage. You can just imagine the passionate debates that ensue…

Ultimately, as Banner deepens its relationship with Hitachi and Dentsu, we will continue to grow our expertise in one of technology’s most unique and vibrant markets – Asia. With partners and clients like these, we’re looking forward to forging further partnerships and friendships in the region. One’s, ideally, that will unearth some interesting opportunities. What an exciting journey that promises to be!

See our Tokyo Flickr slideshow here.

Inc.com has a nice feature profiling 50 (US) companies doing interesting stuff in the green space.

A company called Nanosolar seem to have cracked a way to, in effect, “print” solar cells, reducing the cost and offering a more versatile alternative to traditional panels.

Grist has an interesting article, Transforming the automobile about the future of the car and some of the options available and another on how the media is changing its approach to climate change reporting.

Treehugger features a new solar powered phone from DoCoMo as well as a link to The Waste Book, a directory of recycling businesses.

Sources: Inc.com, Corporate Knights, Grist, Treehugger

So, 0 to 60mph in 4 seconds, 130mph top speed and… it’s electric. This is the Tesla Roadster and I want one.

To me, it looks a bit like a Lotus Elise – which is no bad thing (the site has some nice eye candy on it). It has a 250 mile range which counters one of the real limitations of previous electric cars. The only problem is that it’s left hand drive… oh, and comes in at about $100k… and it’s sold out anyway. But if it wasn’t for all that…

Here’s some video taken at the launch:

So if you see Santa…

Treehugger has an item on IBM’s new green research unit.

From Treehugger:

The currently unnamed business unit will focus on ideas that will directly benefit the environment, develop them, market them and implement them.

Read the rest here.

(BTW, if anyone involved on this at IBM would like some help from a really good creative agency I know, click here to get in touch.)

A press release from the Cleantech Venture Network has started to place some estimates for the VC opportunity for clean tech over the next few years. From the release:

…the Cleantech Venture Network® forecasts that cleantech venture capital investment opportunities for major institutional investors globally through 2009 are estimated at $17 billion, with $10 billion in North America, $5 billion in Europe and $2 billion for the rest of the world.

Although, all these kinds of forecasts must be taken with a pinch of salt, Cleantech Venture Network has previously shown that in Q3 2006 alone $933 million was invested in clean tech – so the figures don’t appear too far fetched. The current release goes on to claim that this investment could deliver 500,000 new jobs and $85 billion in related economic growth.

As the Stern report in the UK has shown, purely on a pragmatic, economic level the costs of inactivity are far more serious than those of getting to grips with the problem. I guess ultimately it will be these hard dollar factors that will determine whether the will and commitment can be mustered by industry. While this may be sad for those of a more altruistic bent, this one is surely a case of whatever gets the result.

Source: Triple Pundit

There has been a raft of interesting articles and posts lately looking at alternatives to traditional desktop-based software. Some, like the people at Vitamin, are looking to reduce the cost by moving to a primarily open source solution. Others, like Sam at TechCrunch UK, are exploring the web OS approach, taking advantage of the plethora of new web-based apps that are springing up (and generally being bought by Google). And yet others are cautioning that there is a need for both desktop and web-based software.

At the moment, I struggle with the case for the purely web-based approach. As much as I like it on a philosophical level, I know that the one time I need to access a certain file will be the one time I don’t have network access. Until there is some degree of ubiquitous WiFi/WiMax option I simply would not have the confidence to go down this route.

On the desktop, there is a growing (and very welcome) trend to more stripped back, more elegant software. My own preference is for the kind of applications that do one thing very well (and which play nice with others). Applications without the 700 features that I don’t need (but with access to plug ins for additional, specific tasks I do need). And as I use multiple machines, I need them to share information easily and reliably.

At the moment this means bolting together a mish-mash of online and offline applications. I’ve struggled in vain to find a good knowledge repository (I’ve tried the MORIs, DevonThinks and a wide variety of wikis). My favourite so far, is StikiPad but, of course, there is no offline option). Social bookmarking has been a boon and I’ve started to use Flock for browsing because it integrates directly with my del.icio.us account (it is also pretty slow and a bit buggy but shows great potential). And while RSS is now built in to many browsers, I have been completely seduced by the elegance of NewsFire.

The great hope in all this for me is for applications that can work offline or offline as needed. Apps that won’t leave me stranded when I don’t have web access but which exploit all the benefits Web 2.0 offers when I do. I can certainly see why everyone is pouring praise on the forthcoming Scrybe and can’t wait to try it out.

I don’t believe we will be abandoning our operating systems anytime soon (’soon’ being a relative term in internet time). But if Microsoft crack the online part of their Live services or Google crack the offline part of theirs or, indeed if someone like Scrybe or 37signals manages to solve the whole thing more elegantly, they could eliminate one of the major headaches knowledge workers have today. Can’t wait.

Faris at Talent imitates, genius steals has some thoughts on selling new technologies. He points out how most tech companies are in essence run by engineers who love technology for technology’s sake and how this leads to the kind of technobabble communications that have typified the industry for so long.

This kind of speeds and feeds approach of course means very little to those outside the early adopter community. In mass markets, most people’s eyes simply glaze over when faced by the likes of a “256MB PCI Express ATI RADEON X1300 Pro graphics card” or any of the other components that make up many of today’s tech products.

Personally, I think much of the industry has moved on from this approach (with differing levels of success). With many of the features reaching near parity and an influx of marketing talent, the pitch has moved on from the “my Dad’s bigger than your Dad” contests of old. It’s no longer about who’s got the most gigabytes, dots per inch or maximum write speed. Today, in the mass market, it’s about who captures the imagination.

The thing about really new technology is that, for the most part, customers have no previous experience of it to base their judgements on. This is why many tech companies get so frustrated with research that either fails to ‘give them the answer’ or that spectacularly fails to predict customer reactions to new products in the real world.

In Faris’s Wii example, while most people understand the concept of a games console the idea of motion sensitive controllers is new. Nintendo looks to get round this by giving the viewer a vicarious experience of the Wii product. The issue for me in this example is that it feels a bit too sterile. The people on the whole are too styled, the rooms too set-like. And, for the most part, the experience they convey is (for me) underwhelming. If I put myself in their places, I come away with “that’s interesting” rather than “I must have one!”

Contrast this with the Playstation Double Life ad:

Now that engages the imagination. Yes, it’s of its time and I don’t think the same approach would work quite so well now. But it brought the product to life, created empathy with existing gamers and aspiration with non-gamers.

The real challenge in selling new technology is to give customers a compelling picture of their future lives (at work or play), one that is both inspirational and grounded.

The conclusions of the Stern Report are frightening by anyone’s standards:

• a 2˚C rise in temperature could mean 4 billion people suffering water shortages
• it would mean 40% of species facing extinction
• it could lead to a further 200 million people going hungry
• if we don’t do something very serious, very soon (ie now) climate change could shrink global economies by 20%

And this is just the beginning.

The catalogue of doomsday predictions goes on and on (and is nothing new). In some ways this is part of the problem – while it’s paramount to convey the urgency of the situation but at the same time many people feel overwhelmed. There’s a learned helplessness creeping in. Vox pop surveys routinely return comments to the effect of “What does it matter whether I recycle, it’s just a drop in the ocean…”

There are, of course, no easy answers. An effective response must be holistic and global. One part (although certainly not the whole) is technology. “Clean technology” offers increasing options to mitigate some of the problems and potentially eliminate others. And with the pace of change, it has to be one of the most exciting areas in technology at this moment.

It also provides some of the most challenging tasks for marketers. All too often marketing and communications are characterised as the ‘fluffy’ end of business that spins empty promises and half truths for a fast buck. Well, here is the chance to bury that accusation once and for all.

Clean tech adoption is about changing behaviour (whether at consumer, business or government level). This is what talented marketing professionals do best. All too often the language of climate change is the language of academic or political debate (of the worst kind). It quickly descends into hair-splitting and plausible deniability. What a great way to disengage people.

What’s needed is a language of hope and possibility. One that counters helplessness and offers a vision for the future that brings the issue alive, stirs people into action and, yes, creates profitable businesses for the clean tech industry.

To me, this sounds like the kind of thing many in our industry were born to do.