Category Archives: Discovering

Social Butterfly

Posted by Sarah Gracein Discoveringon 04.04.2012 0

We know the calendar says Tuesday, but it seems like Friday thanks to what feels like a week’s worth of exciting news today in the digital world. A roundup of some of our favorite headlines over the past 24 hours:

- It’s official: Instagram is now available for Android. We’ve got several ‘Droiders amongst us, and so far, so good - check out this owl-inspired shot by yours truly. I actually use both a Droid and and iPhone, and while the Droid version is currently lacking some features such as Tilt/Shift and Flickr integration, for the most part, Droid users can enjoy the same filter, tagging, and other social sharing options as iPhone users. Just be patient during the download process!

- China’s two largest microblog sites, Sina’s Weibo.com and Tencent’s t.qq.com, resumed normal service today following a three-day ban on posting comments and an outcry of complaints around censorship. Interesting story to keep an eye on if you’re a global brand.

- Tugg.com is still in beta but we love where it’s headed. If you haven’t heard about it, and you’re in indie film freak and supporter like we are, read up: - this new social platform puts the power in your hands to bring small budget documentaries like Morgan Spurlock’s “Comic Con IV: A Fan’s Hope” and Phillip Montgomery’s “#ReGENERATION” to your local theater.

They Say It’s Our Birthday

Posted by adminAlso posted in Creating, Playing |on 03.21.2012 0

It’s our fifth birthday—the anniversary of the day Alicia and Liz decided to strike out on their own and open a boutique shop where they could work on any projects they wanted to. Though the tagline didn’t exist yet, “We Love What We Do” was the ethos that drove them then, and it continues to inform our work today.

Since March 20, 2007, The Swift Collective has created content for two Summer Olympics campaigns, climbed rock walls in Salt Lake City, run thousands of miles (listening to music), infused Aloha into several Island travel industry sites, took a stand on air quality in our neighborhood, went behind the scenes at a repertory theater, helped raise the flag for women and children in third world countries, and made movies with sand between our toes. We have seen the emergence of social media as an essential marketing tool and poured ourselves into it.

And we’ve grown. Our flock of Swifts totals 25 (as of today) and our nest is nearly five times as large. But the same common thread connects our team—passion for every project that comes through the door. Here’s to five years of heading to work with smiles on our faces.

Happy birthday to us. And many more.

Kids These Days

Posted by Shoshannain Discoveringon 03.01.2012 0

At Swift, we’re constantly taking a cultural pulse in a number of different ways, including looking at pictures of cool stuff on the Internet. Much of the best content is created by teenagers. Scrolling through photos of kids with purple hair doing skateboard tricks, it’s hard not to get a wistful pang as we recall our own salad days. We remember when we were those kids, when we had that kind of playful energy and were that deeply into ourselves, our world and our version of cool.

Rick, one of our creative directors, says these kids are amazing. I agree, but at the risk of sounding like a deluded old person, I contend that they’re not any cooler than kids of any other era, they just have the Internet to document it. We all had our own creative pursuits—the student paper, Xerox ‘zines, sketchbooks exploding with drawings—but these didn’t garner the instant validation and broad audience that social networks do. Nobody else really knew what we were doing with our free time. My kneejerk reaction: “Wow, I wish we had social networks back when I was 13. It would have been so much easier to find other likeminded kids, to put something out in the world and get a response.”

But there’s another side to it. Read More »

Ye Olden Days of Internet

Posted by mattAlso posted in Creating, Playing |on 02.23.2012 0

I was one of those kids that basically grew up in front of a computer (i.e. Generation C – as in “connected”). We didn’t play outside until the sun went down; we went to LAN parties. We didn’t have Facebook or Twitter; our parents warned us to never reveal a single personal detail online. Heck, even viral videos were something that we prevented instead of propagated.

Taking the Plunge

Posted by marenAlso posted in Uncategorized |on 01.19.2012 3

It’s mid January and I’ve already crossed one of my 2012 resolutions off the list: to become a swimmer. While this may sound like bragging, it isn’t… swimming was a 2011 resolution… and a 2010 resolution. Two years ago, I bought a proper lap swimsuit, and last year I managed to purchase the swim cap and goggles, neither of which were ever removed from their packaging.

It isn’t that I don’t know how to swim – I learned how to swim as a kid and spent summers at the pool across the street – but most of my experience was on the side of the pool lathered up in baby oil with a magazine. And if I was thrown overboard, I could keep myself afloat and get to solid ground (as long as it wasn’t very far), but seeing me in a pool doesn’t resemble the same fluid, succinct sport that Michael Phelps or Dara Torres compete at.

I’ll Tumblr 4 Ya

Posted by ShoshannaAlso posted in Playing |on 01.11.2012 0

Dorking around online is part of our job. And it should be part of yours too. As a digital agency, we need to stay abreast of social media trends and technology, not to mention managing content for our clients, which is why nobody bats an eye around here when you spend an hour or two on Facebook. But checking out fun stuff online serves another purpose: It gives your brain a break and keeps you fresh, motivated and productive at work, whether your job is writing tweets or analyzing insurance claims.

Got a Resolution? There’s an App for that

Posted by Sarah Gracein Discoveringon 01.04.2012 0

Get in shape. Eat better. Take vitamins. Explore a new hobby. Travel more. Quit [insert bad habit here: smoking, biting your nails, being habitually late]. Finally finish [insert project that never gets done but always gets talked about here: novel, house renovation, closet reorg].

The New Year is upon us, and with it, a slew of new resolutions. Declaring one is the easy part; seeing it through is another story. Research from a variety of sources suggests the odds are stacked against us, such as University of Bristol study which showed that a whopping 78% of those who set New Year’s resolutions fail.

Portland’s Got Talent

Posted by marenin Discoveringon 12.22.2011 2

Portlanders have a lot to be proud of: amazing eateries, bike friendly initiatives, curbside compost options… the list goes on. Recently I’ve added another item to the “why I love Portland” list – amazing talent. Portland’s new tagline (whether we like it or not) is that it is the place where young people go to retire… and there is some truth to that, but I’ve also been pleasantly surprised by the wealth of professional talent here, especially among the young Portland transplants. According to the 2010 census, the largest represented age group here is 25 to 44 year olds (34.7%).

Creating a Shared Soundtrack

Posted by ShoshannaAlso posted in Creating, Playing |on 12.14.2011 0

The availability of ever more specialized music filtering online means we can all listen to exactly what we want – but at the expense of sharing a soundtrack with everybody else. (This amazing article from the New York Times explores this phenomenon in depth.)

Music sites are getting more social, letting you simultaneously drill into the sub-sub-subgenres you like and share them across your social networks to find a happy medium: you and your friends can cultivate a shared music culture that resonates. Most of us are already familiar with Pandora and YouTube. We love both of those dearly and use them constantly, but we’re also intrigued by these three newer services that are taking social listening one step further, each in a different way.