Intelligent Communication Changes Behaviour

We're working on a fantastic new series for one of our customers which involves creative use of slow motion shooting.  It started me thinking about an amazing commercial I'd seen and loved about a year ago.

Created to raise awareness of the importance of wearing a seatbelt, "Embrace Life" was deliberately developed to provide a counter-point to the hard-hitting 'shock and awe' advertising so common to road safety.  The general public had been beaten over the head with this for years, in fact since it became law. And yet there were still people chancing it, apparently.  The problem was, the shock "blood & guts" approach made us all somewhat desensitised.  Like the X-rays of spotty lungs we saw on posters for for anti-smoking lobby.  It seemed to have nothing to do with us.

An so it is with information security awareness and compliance.

Nobody has thought about the motivators for this - ask yourself as a user "why do I need to do this?" Few people are SO malicious that they do it out of some kind of devilment. Most simply do not see the need. If the need is as real as we say, then it's down to communication and education. As it is, usually only a piffling amount of budget is spent on this as a percentage of overall risk management / compliance / information security spend. So why are we surprised at the employees lack of respect for the "rules".

Also - we might try treating employees like grown-ups...instead of pre-schoolers?

We've managed to get people to recycle their waste, put on seatbelts, and seriously think about changing their habits be it drink-driving, eating fatty foods, or smoking. In every case, it was great communications that did the trick. Just like the one I mentioned above.

I believe, passionately, that creativity can solve these kinds of problems. 

In fact we've built our business on this simple truth.

In the Pink

A promise is a promise - and yesterday I promised that there would be a special treat for the B-siders. So here it is.  Not much to day - except that our little films are for all of you. Be sure to look out for your special Rose Tinted Security Spex - coming soon to a breakfast cereal near you.

http://rosetintedsecurity.com/Rose-Tinted_Security/Rose_Tinted_Security.html

Black Hat Does Employee Awareness

As I write this on the eve of Inosec Europe 2012, one of the largest events in the Information Security Calendar, I'm looking forward to seeing the annual dance between vendors and customers as they try to seduce companies into investing in the latest a greatest technological cyber-defence systems.


It's a fact , though, that most experts believe that the biggest threats come from inside the castle walls.  This - one of a series of little films we made at Black Hat Europe 2012, discusses how some companies might be failing in their duties when it comes to investing in communications.





For more examples of how some of the world's most famous brands have communicated this to their employees, visit www.twistandshout.co.uk, or for even more ideas, email us to apply for a personal login to our examples album.


By the way - don't worry B-Sides - I'll be sending you some fun stuff on your "eve", tomorrow night.

"Twice as Lifelike as Real Life!"

That was the sign outside the Victorian Photographer’s Parlour.  At that time people were only exposed to hand-created images of themselves.  So when photography exploded onto the social scene in the 1850’s, actual images of people were perceived as something magical.  There were very few “creative” photographers around. It was all about the process. The tech. So images were very plainly posed, and unimaginatively lit.  It was simply astonishing  to punters that it was an actual, clear (ish) picture of YOU.

Fast forward 162 years. Red announces the 6k sensor upgrade to the EPIC camera. Yeah baby - Twice as lifelike as real life. In fact, better quality that the human eye can perceive under most circumstances. 

Of course nowadays we have sophisticated and creative cinematographers, so this will get used to further mankind, right?

Well, let me explain how our industry works.  The people come from (broadly) two camps:

There are filmmakers and there are “videographers”.  This is because some people grew up with art, and some people grew up with technology.  This is fine, until you place a civilian (often clients) in the position of having to BUY these services.  “Production” type services.  Our business is all about image (or even “the image”) so it’s really hard to tell what you’re buying. 

This is the reason corporate video is often so dull and unimaginative. Companies understand technology. Let me elucidate:

Technology Cameras Graphics Effects Software = Measurable Familiar Logical Understandable Predictable

Art Directing Writing Performing Feeling = Vague Scary Opinionated Misunderstood Unpredictable

Companies are drawn to the left-hand column, and shy away from the right-hand one. Yet – that is where the real communication takes place. The award-winners, the ground-breakers and the artisans all live here.

Desktop Publishing didn’t make everyone a designer, just as the new 6k sensor will not improve anyone’s storytelling ability. Honestly? With the world as it is at the moment, who the hell wants real life.

Even when it’s twice as real.

A Passion for the Story

A long time ago I made this little viral sketch to show how you could lose yourself when trying to deliver your impassioned story. Some people let the passion engulf the telling. This sometimes lets the story down. Or the cause...

Telescopes that Might be Spaceships

Last weekend (as usual) I spent quality time with my gorgeous (and very entertaining) children. They are at that great age where they are constantly asking "why" to things we take for granted.  They gleefully fill the house with bits of trash that are of (in their eyes) monumental importance, and find mission-critical uses for those bits of packaging you'd rather they got rid of.

So when I started to clear some of this away, my five year old panicked and stopped me recycling a cardboard tube that has been taped to some other bits of yoghurt carton and the like. He had clearly abandoned it but when I challenged him to either finish the spaceship, of chuck it into the recycling (yes - bad daddy...), he said, with all the confidence of a senior design engineer, "that telescope - see? It might be a spaceship. Or a sword. So I need it..."

As we get older we lose that natural creativity. The lack of partitions in our lives at the age of 6 means we connect things and their uses in a way that would make us expert problem solvers later in life.. The fact that nothing needs to be "finished" or signed off, means that we can keep innovating to see what else comes out of it.

Sometimes, I look through past projects and see if I would do it the same way today, or even if I can see an opportunity to rekindle a conversation about the work.  We forget that just because the invoice gets paid, the conversation doesn't have to stop there.

I long for the creativity of Innocence. Having kids allows you glimpse it now and again, for which I am truly thankful.