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Everyone knows Bill Gates as the founder of Microsoft, of which he stepped down as CEO in 2000, and left his daily job in 2008. In 2000, together with his wife Melinda, he founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in which they seek to reduce inequality in the world. Last month, Netflix released a documentary about Bill and what he does nowadays, whilst tapping into childhood and adolescent memories and life events of the biggest entrepreneur of the 90s.

During the three 60-minute episodes of Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates the viewer gets presented one of the goals of the foundation: reinventing the toilet, eradicating polio and making nuclear power safe. The intelligence Bill Gates combined with the complexity of world problems is what made this documentary really worthwhile I find. Besides simply covering these topics, director Davis Guggenheim (known from the An Inconvenient Truth) also made room for one on one interviews to find out more about him on an emotional level: with romanticized topics such as his childhood and how he and Melinda met, but also on the darker sides of his life such as the depositions against Microsoft in 1998 and his toxic relationship with Paul Allen. As someone who only knows him from the empire he built with Microsoft, it was interesting to hear how such an intelligent and extraordinary man can be so simple at the same time.

Besides these fascinating insights in the psyche of Bill Gates, the documentary also contains some obvious flaws in my opinion. Overall, Bill and the foundation are glorified throughout the whole series, as one could expect from such a typical American-made documentary. When things tend to get interesting as the difficult times of Bill’s life are touched upon, little criticism and reflection is given. We get a glimpse from what it must be like to be or live with such a man, and how he seeks to reinvent the status quo in ways others wouldn’t think of, but still remains this introverted, mysterious pencil-chewing geek as we know him: “I don’t need to be an inspiration to others, I’m driven by the urge to optimize”.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.gatesnotes.com/Bio

https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/een-nieuwe-netflix-docu-ontleedt-het-brein-van-bill-gates-maar-waar-is-zijn-gevoel~b2821f55/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCv29JKmHNY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In marketing talk the terms “third screen” or “fourth screen” are sometimes heard to describe the historic progression of digital content consumption (from TV and Internet to mobile and digital signage). Basically, these terms are used to help brands and content providers understand the behaviors of how consumers are contextually bouncing around and using different devices interchangeably to engage with their content (Earley, 2018). Nowadays, the lines that define how consumers are using these devices to consume content are blurring and becoming more complex due to devices becoming more interactive and socially connected (Earley, 2018). For example, you start watching a tv show on your phone on the commute from work to home, continue watching it on your tv when you arrive home, chat with friends on the phone about what this mind-bending cliffhanger was about, while you ask Alexa when the next season is going to be premiered. It has begun to become one big, integrated digital content loop.

This is where concept of Digital out of Home (DOOH) makes its appearance. DOOH really is a convenient modern spin on an old idea, as it refers to digital media that appears in environments accessible to the public including billboards, outdoor signage as well as networks of screens found in malls and train stations: you can basically find it everywhere (Côté, 2018). DOOH is considered a valuable marketing asset due to its impressive visibility: its visuals are stunning, but more importantly, there is no way for the audience to skip the ad. A 2015 study by Nielsen even found that 75% of respondents recalled seeing DOOH in the month prior, and 82% of people remembering the specific advertisement (Côté, 2018). Considering advancements in technology, location and data targeting, real-time insights and cross-media functionalities are soon to be – or already are – reality, making DOOH more attractive than it already is, as can be seen in the video below. Do you have any experiences with DOOH? I certainly think they’re much more captivating than traditional advertisement, especially considering that somewhere in the near future you’ll get personalised ads. Because hey, when you can’t skip the ad, you’d better be watching something you like.

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Côté, R. (2018) What is DOOH media?. Available at: https://broadsign.com/blog/what-is-dooh-media/

Earley, S. (2018) The Fifth Screen – The future of Content Marketing in Mixed Reality. Available at: https://read.wearedevelopers.com/fifth-screen-future-content-marketing-mixed-reality/

Quividi (2018) https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLdUHzsLqRjieQguv5FWeZOXCxVgWzld56&time_continue=5&v=K9_MDzvoZJw