Digilogue: How to Win the Digital Minds and Analogue Hearts of Tomorrow's Customer

3: Bringing the old and the new together

Two rounds down. Digital Disruption came out swinging in Round 1 of this bout. Analogue Anachronism looked like a wounded animal, but showed in Round 2 that this wasn’t going to be a lay-down misère. Its hits connected deeply. To the surprise of the audience, and to the pleasure of those vying for the underdog, it looks like this bout may last longer than a few rounds.

In this round, the contenders will learn some new moves and see their roles in the ring changing slightly. They have been sizing each other up, tapping into their core capabilities and exposing their weaknesses. In this round, both tune into Muhammed Ali’s mantra ‘dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee’. We will investigate how to run an analogue marathon with a digital running mate with only 16 hours’ preparation, why your digital mirror can modify analogue behaviours, and how Bavaria trumped all other German states by combining tradition and technology in its economic strategy. Furthermore, we will see how a New Zealand sports apparel brand made supply chain management sexy by merging the digital and the analogue, how beef branding is experiencing a resurgence because of RFID tagging, and why cyborg anthropologists are really interested in the behaviours of Swedish toddlers.

The convergence of the digital and the analogue

I am standing on the starting line of the 2011 NYC Marathon on Staten Island. I am unprepared. I’m nervous. In fact, 17 hours ago I didn’t know I ...