COOLHUNT - A free hand poked tattoo.

Last week I bought a little book that's named: "Always be yourself unless you can be a unicorn then always be a unicorn". I bought it at the Concept store Make my Day (Read article here). It's a book with snapshots of the weird and wonderful world of the Tumblr generation. It's written by Pernille Kok-Jensen and Els Dragt. In this book I found something interesting. Mr. Pokesman, a guy whose hobby is making hand poked machine-free tattoos. 

WHAT? So his hobby is making hand poked machine-free tattoos. One day he made one for his colleague and from then on he started with this hobby. He has a blog on Tumblr where he posts pictures of some process and results. But he also answers questions and he posts sketches and inspiring material. (Mr. Pokesman Tumblr). He has no specific target audience. He does it for free. But the hand poked tattoos are for everybody now. On the internet there is a website where they teach you how to make hand poked tattoos by yourself! In the video below you can see how it works. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mlfqiJ6IhA

WHY? What gives this hand poking tattoos an extra layer of experience is that Mr. Pokesman doesn't only want to show that tattoo designs can be cool but also the whole setting around it: the place where the tattoo is made, the instrument used, the entire process and the result of course. So it's not about going to a tattoo shop for tattoo but this man creates a whole new experience to it. And also if we can make this ourselves it's also something on a mega based trend, namely individualism. But this new form of tattoos is a great example of 'the experience is in the product' and 'the journey is more important than the destiny'. So if you want a tattoo but you want something different, try a hand poked tattoo!

Photo: my own

Sources: 
- 'Always be yourself unless you can be a unicorn then always be a unicorn'. 
- http://mrpokesman.tumblr.com

COOLHUNT - Open a coke. Open a new friendship.

We all remember the personalized bottles from Coca Cola. The campaign 'Share a coke with' was a great success. It was such a success that people pulled the supermarkets upside down to find their names on the Coca Cola bottles. But now Coca Cola comes with a new action. 

WHAT? The campaign is called 'The friendly twist'. They created this concept with an underlying thought namely: a lot of people are having struggles with a new study. Younger people have to adapt to a new place and new people. Coca Cola is now trying to bring these people together to start a conversation to get through an exciting day. The idea is that on the first day of school there are bottles of coke available for the new students. Coca Cola invented a cap for the coke bottles that you can not open on your own. You need somebody else. So you have to start a conversation with somebody else. In the video below you can see how it works. 

WHY? This campaign is a great success because Coca Cola really empathized with their target audience. With this new bottle they make it easy for new students to start a conversation. And once there is a conversation it will be a lot easier for them to connect with each other. 
This campaign is a typical example of 'the experience is in the product'. This is not the first time Coca Cola pulled this off. With just a simple bottle of coke they connect people with each other. The slogan of the campaign is: Open a coke. Open a new friendship. And that's exactly what they're doing. So how strong is this campaign. With a simple product they create new friendships. And they respond to a mega trend namely: individualism. Nowadays it's simple to crawl into your phone when you don't know anyone. But when you're trying to drink a bottle of coke on your first day of school you have to communicate with people you don't know, how brilliant is that!

source: http://allesoverjongeren.nl/coca-cola-verbindt-jongeren-met-friendly-twist/

COOLHUNT - Playing the piano together.

Last week when I arrived at the train station in Nijmegen something was different. I heard a beautiful sound coming towards me. It was the sound of a beautiful piano piece. It sounded loud and with a great  acoustics. Then I saw it. A guy was playing the piano on the station. At first I thought what is this? Did someone bring their piano to the station? But when I came a little closer out of curiosity I found out what it was. 

WHAT? It's an initiative from the organization 'Buiten Spelen'. It's the fifth piano in Nijmegen. There were already other piano's spread through the city. The intention is to bring people together spontaneously so that they can make music together. When I arrive at the station I hear people play beautiful music and it's really worth to listen to them. The piano is paid out of crowd funding. They renovated the piano before they put it on the station. Now it's a great way for people who have to wait for the train to come together and make great music! You can see the photo that I made myself. And also a video from 'Omroep Gelderland'. They will tell you something more about the initiative (in Dutch). 

WHY? This is a really cool idea because the train station (NS) is often compared to negative thoughts, trains who are always late, people who are in a hurry and little irritations between travelers. This piano brings a bit of life and joy to the train station! I thinks it's a great way of sharing which in my eyes is the 'macro' trend in this story. We are so busy with sharing everything through social media and even in restaurants you see that sharing is a trend (like tapas). It's also a great example of togetherness. People come together and they just forget their stress and hurry and just make some music! And other travelers who are maybe not as musical as the people who are playing can just enjoy the music. Because the acoustics are great in the station! 

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8F_TtVkbBk

Source: my own photo

Source: http://www.omroepgelderland.nl/web/nieuws-1/2070232/vrij-bespeelbare-piano-op-station-nijmegen.htm#.VC-lgEuVd4E

APPEARANCE - Emma Watson against man hate.

We all know Emma Watson from the famous movies Harry Potter. Emma is also very popular among the men because of her beautiful appearance and she also has the brains. In July this year Emma became ambassador of the United Nations. Last Monday Emma Watson gave a speech to the United Nations about man hate. According to Emma men should be more involved in the equality of sexes. 

Last week she was in Uruguay for a campaign that is meant for boys and men to stand for equality between men and women. In the speech she talks about feminism and how often that is compared to man hate. She thinks that this has to stop. She says that its time that we see sexes as a spectrum instead of two controversial ideals. As a reaction to her speech there was loud applause. 

I think it's amazing that Emma is committed to this problem because it's true that people associate feminists with men hate. And most of the time this is not true. Emma Watson is an idol for a lot of people and especially younger people. I think more people will listen to her.