nanoink , inc. was a nanotechnology company headquartered in skokie , illinois , with a mems fabrication facility in campbell , california .

a spin-off of northwestern university and founded by northwestern professor chad mirkin , nanoink specialized in nanometer-scale manufacturing and applications development for the life science and semiconductor industries .

dip pen nanolithography ( dpn ) was a patented and proprietary nanofabrication technology marketed as an anti-counterfeiting aid for pharmaceutical products .

other key applications included nanoscale additive repair and nanoscale rapid prototyping .

located in the illinois science + technology park , north of chicago , nanoink had nearly 400 patents and applications filed worldwide and had licensing agreements with northwestern university , stanford university , the university of illinois at urbana-champaign , and the georgia institute of technology .

within seven months of its formation , the firm released its first product , the dpn-system-1 , which turned any atomic force microscope into a dpn machine .

in february 2013 , nanoink announced it would be shutting down due to insufficient funding when its primary backer , ann lurie , decided to pull the plug after investing $ 150 million over a decade .

nanoink

nanoink corporation believes that its “nscriptor” system for producing nanoscale structures will be a stepping stone to future nanomanufacutring . source : nanoink .
phage as versatile nanoink for printing 3 - d cell - laden scaffolds . - pubmed - ncbi
after more than 10 years and nearly 90 employees later , nanoink closes its doors today . good luck to everyone !
located in the illinois science + technology park , north of chicago , nanoink currently has over 250 patents and applications filed worldwide and licensing agreements with northwestern university , stanford university , university of strathclyde , university of liverpool , california institute of technology and the university of illinois at urbana - champaign . for more information on products and services offered by nanoink , inc . , visit www . nanoink . net .
the problem for nanoink wasn’t just scalability . companies can be very successful based on one - off products , but there has to be a market for them . nanoink ' s lack of a broad market explains how 10 years and $ 150 millions of investment failed to create a successful business , according to harper .
practical nanoink systems were introduced in 2002 by nanoink corporation , a company formed to take advantage of mirkin’s inventions . the company’s nanolithography systems utilize multiple writing tips , made on flexible cantilevers using processes similar to the manufacture of mems and other semiconductors . one of the first commercial applications for the systems was in the repair of defective silicon wafers , onto which microchips are made . defects in production normally can not be easily repaired , but nanoink lithography offers a way to do that . future applications will , the company says , move toward true nanotechnological applications .
in addition to falling victim to chasing “technology push” rather than “market pull , ” nanoink also fell victim to a common malady of nanotechnology companies : pursuing just about every application for their technology that anyone could imagine .
one of the united state’s first nanotechnology companies , nanoink , has gone belly up , joining a host of high - profile nanotechnology - based companies that have shuttered their doors in the last 12 months : konarka , a123 systems and ener1 .
these other three companies were all tied to the energy markets ( solar in the case of konarka and batteries for both a123 and ener1 ) , which are typically volatile , with a fair number of shuttered businesses dotting their landscapes . but nanoink is a venerable old company in comparison to these other three and is more in what could be characterized as the “ picks - and - shovels” side of the nanotechnology business , microscopy tools . nanoink had been around so long that they were becoming known for their charity work in bringing nanotechnology to the third world .
the technology foundation of nanoink was an atomic force microscope - based dip - pen to execute lithography on the nanoscale . this so - called nanolithography would create nanostructures by delivering ' ink ' via capillary transport from the afm tip to a surface . one thing that always seemed problematic with this technology was that it wasn’t really scalable .
so , what happened ? the news tells us that nanoink’s primary financial backer , ann lurie , pulled the plug on her 10 - year and $ 150 - million life support of the company . after a decade of showing little return on her investment , lurie decided that enough was enough . but that’s like explaining that a patient died because their heart stopped . what caused the heart to stop ?
“a major issue is that you have so many markets to take a shot at that you wind up doing nothing properly , ” explains harper . “nanoink had five increasingly desperate divisions . perhaps a better model would have been to realize that dip pen nanolithography was never going to be a mainstream technology , fold the company , write down the investors , and then use the ip and experience to build a few niche companies that addressed a real need . ”
in the race toward nanotechnology , the nanoink corporation has put itself in the running . one of the main obstacles to designing more complex nanotechnologies is that building up machines , chemicals or other structures atom - by - atom has never been done before . while some are using the atomic force microscope to move individual atoms around , or are designing self - assembling molecules through large - scale chemical reactions , nanoink and others are taking another approach . nanoink is both the name of the company and a new technology for building things at the atomic level . it is based on the work of a chemist named chad mirkin , who is a professor at northwestern university . in the late 1990s , mirkin discovered a way to use a device much like an atomic force microscope to deposit tiny amounts of material on a surface in a very precise way . the tip of the microscope can be dipped into a solution containing one or more chemicals or compounds , picking up a droplet . then , when the afm tip is moved to the surface at the desired spot , the droplet forms a sort of bridge or link between tip and surface , greatly improving the accuracy with which materials in the solution can be deposited . the process is like a microscropic version of the ink and quill used for writing before the 20th century . by combining this with other techniques , mirkin’s “dip pen lithography” could build up tiny nanostructures with relative ease .
nanoink , inc . is an emerging growth technology company specializing in nanometer - scale manufacturing and applications development for the life sciences , engineering , pharmaceutical , and education industries . using dip pen nanolithography ( dpn ) technology , a patented and proprietary nanofabrication technology , scientists are enabled to rapidly and easily create micro - and nanoscale structures from a variety of materials on a range of substrates . this low cost , easy to use and scalable technique brings sophisticated nanofabrication to the laboratory desktop .
as tim harper , ceo of uk - based consulting company , cientifica ( full disclosure : i work for cientifica ) , told me : “nanolithography is interesting on the lab scale , but so is writing down your lab notes with a pen and ink . the rest of the semiconductor works in a mass - produced , highly automated way , so nanoink ' s offering was the equivalent of replacing the printing press with a bunch of monks . illuminated manuscripts can look good but if you can ' t mass produce things there isn ' t a business . ”
bioprinting is an emerging technology for producing tissue - mimetic 3 - d structures using cell - containing hydrogels ( bioink ) . various synthetic and natural hydrogels with key characteristics , including biocompatibility , biodegradability , printability and crosslinkability , have been employed as ink materials in bioprinting . choosing the right cell - containing
bioink
material is the most essential step for fabricating 3 - d constructs with a controlled mechanical and biochemical microenvironment that can lead to successful tissue regeneration and repair . here , we demonstrate that the genetically engineered m13 phage holds great potential for use as a versatile nanoink for printing 3 - d cell - laden matrices . in particular , m13 phages displaying integrin - binding ( grgds ) and calcium - binding ( ddyd ) domains on their surface were blended with alginate to successfully form ca ( 2 + ) - crosslinked hydrogels . furthermore , 3 - d cell - laden scaffolds with high cell viability were generated after optimizing the printing process . the mc3t3 - e1 cells within these scaffolds showed enhanced proliferation and differentiation rates that increased proportionally with the concentration of phages in the 3 - d matrices compared with the rates of cells in pure alginate scaffolds .
today at its imec technology forum usa in san francisco , imec , the research and innovation hub in nano - electronics and digital technology , announced that it has demonstrated ultra - low power , high - bandwidth optical transceivers through hybrid integration of silicon photonics and finfet cmos technologies .
smart technologies take center stage tomorrow as semicon west , the flagship u . s . event for connecting the electronics manufacturing supply chain , opens for three days of insights into leading technologies and applications that will power future industry expansion .
research could lead to longer talk time and higher data rates in 5g devices .
the sic power market is now on the road , asserts yole développement ( yole ) . therefore , since 2017 , the market research and strategy consulting company identified more than 20 strategic announcements , showing the dynamism of this market and attractiveness of the technology .
extracting information quickly from quantum states is necessary for future quantum processors and super - sensitive detectors in existing technologies .
leti , a research institute at cea tech , transdev , a global provider of mobility services , and irt nanoelec , an r & d center focused on information and communication technologies ( ict ) using micro - and nanoelectronics , today announced a pilot program to characterize and assess lidar sensors to improve performance and safety of autonomous vehicles .
as smart functionality makes its way into homes and businesses , two devices are gaining a foothold into broader ecosystems to maximize growth and revenue opportunities : smart speakers and smart meters .
alta devices has today announced that its most recent single junction solar cell has been certified by nrel ( national renewable energy laboratory ) as being 28 . 9 % efficient .
for medtech applications to flourish , sensors need a supporting infrastructure that translates the data they harvest into actionable insights , says qualcomm life director of business development gene dantsker , who will speak about the future of digital healthcare in the medtech program at semicon west .
with artificial intelligence ( ai ) rapidly evolving , look for applications like voice recognition and image recognition to get more efficient , more affordable , and far more common in a variety of products over the next few years .
optimum semiconductor technologies , inc . , a fabless semiconductor company providing highly - integrated systems on chips ( socs ) for china ' s thriving electronics markets , announced the gp8300 soc .
back - end packaging is increasingly important to semiconductor device form factor , thermal and power performance , and costs . compounded by the demand for lead - free processing and the soaring cost of gold , the industry is developing new approaches to packaging , including redistribution layers ( rdl ) , through silicon vias ( tsv ) , copper pillars , wafer - level packaging ( wlp ) and copper wire bonding . experts will discuss these and other approaches in this webcast .
euv lithography has been under intense development for years and appears to be close to production . yet its delay has the industry searching for alternatives , including double , triple and even quadruple patterning , directed self - assembly , multi - e - beam and nanoimprint . in this webcast , experts will detail various options , future scenarios and challenges that must still be overcome .
the semiconductor industry is an acknowledged global leader in promoting environmental sustainability in the design , manufacture , and use of its products , as well as the health and safety of its operations and impacts on workers in semiconductor facilities ( fabs ) . we will examine trends and concerns related to emissions , chemical use , energy consumption and worker safety and health .
yukinobu hayashi , senior field applications engineer from cyberoptics , explains the application uses of the wafersense® auto multi sensor™ ( ams ) for leveling , vibration , and relative humidity ( rh ) that facilitates maximizing uptime and optimizes maintenance . the combination of these attributes in a thin wafer shaped all - in - one wireless sensor , provides engineers the ability to acquire highly repeatable measurements of tilt , vibration , and humidity while under a vacuum and without venting a chamber . the quantitative numeric results give engineers an objective basis for comparisons , and analysis that can be reproducible across multiple users over extended periods of time . june 13 , 2018 sponsored by cyberoptics
as ip and ic designers and verification teams tackle increased complexity and expectations , reliability verification has become a necessary ingredient for success . automotive , always - on mobile devices , iot and other platforms require increasingly lower power envelopes and reduced device leakage while maintaining overall device performance . foundries have also created new process nodes targeted for these applications . having the ability to establish baseline checks for design and reliability requirements is critical to first pass success . january 08 , 2018 sponsored by mentor graphics
the power amplifier ( pa ) – as either a discrete component or part of an integrated front end module ( fem ) – is one of the most integral rf integrated circuits ( rfics ) in the modern radio . in part 2 of this white paper series , you will learn different techniques for testing pas via an interactive white paper with multiple how - to videos . september 06 , 2017 sponsored by national instruments
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“normally i advise tech companies to find the need , figure out whether their technology can address , and then look at whether or not there is a business model , ” says harper . “most nanotech businesses started with the technology and tied themselves in knots from there on in . ”
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the nanofabrication systems division provides core desktop instrumentation and application expertise for current and future applications of dip pen nanolithography technology .
the nano biodiscovery division provides instruments , assay kits , and contract services for nanoscale protein detection using dpn technology .
the nanoprofessor division provides a complete solution including instruments and curriculum for hands - on training of nanotechnology and nanofabrication .
the nanoguardian division uses nanoencryption technology to offer pharmaceutical customers innovative solutions to fight counterfeiting and illegal diversion of pharmaceutical products .
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it is a so infinitesimal space , that it’s enough to put in line ten atoms to fill it up completely . think on the head of a pin , a fairly small space , but entering into the world of nanotechnology , we have found out that even in a that tiny place , there is enough space to write all the twenty - four volumes of the encyclopedia britannica .
for what concerns the printing instead , the nanocolorant is fixed easly on any type of materials , even those which by definition are non suitable to be printed on ( the glass could be one of these ) drying for touchproof is immediate , while its complete structural drying on some kind of materials must be forced by a polymerization under the programmed temperature , on the others with a normal air drying . the grip on almost all the materials is ensured by the fact that the nanocomponents of this colored fluid can penetrate , and to reticule in consequence all materials thanks to the very small size of its components . of course in case of this kind of colour you cannot expect coverage characteristics as they are not compatible with one coat coverage . this aspect for some may be seen as a disadvantage ( forex pvc etc . ) to others , a big advantage because in case of luxurious materials is important that the print won’t cover the characteristics of the material and won’t be invasive during various decoration processes .
these pigments represents the most sopfhisticated solution that nanotechnology could ever offer to the industry .
an industrial printing . wood , leather and so on are the ideal materials for this use .
case a part for glass because for this material is essential its transparency . in fact it is not possible to think of a printed glass which has lost its characteristics of transparency .
from all the colors that we already know and that traditionally are used in the field of digital printing .
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lee dy 1 , lee h 2 , kim y 2 , yoo sy 3 , chung wj 4 , kim g 5 .
department of genetic engineering , college of biotechnology and bioengineering , sungkyunkwan university , suwon 440 - 746 , republic of korea .
department of biomechatronic engineering , college of biotechnology and bioengineering , sungkyunkwan university , suwon 440 - 746 , republic of korea .
research institute for convergence of biomedical science and technology , pusan national university , yangsan hospital , yangsan 626 - 770 , republic of korea .
department of genetic engineering , college of biotechnology and bioengineering , sungkyunkwan university , suwon 440 - 746 , republic of korea . electronic address : wjchung @ skku . edu .
department of biomechatronic engineering , college of biotechnology and bioengineering , sungkyunkwan university , suwon 440 - 746 , republic of korea . electronic address : gkimbme @ skku . edu .
bioprinting is an emerging technology for producing tissue - mimetic 3 - d structures using cell - containing hydrogels called bioink . choosing the right bioink is essential for fabricating 3 - d structures with controlled mechanical and biochemical properties which lead to successful tissue regeneration . therefore , there is a growing demand for a new bioink material that can be designed from molecular level . here , we demonstrate that genetically engineered m13 phage holds great potential for use as versatile bioink . the phage - based bioink benefits from its replicability , self - assembling property , and tunable molecular design and enables bioprinted scaffolds to exhibit improved cell viability , proliferation and differentiation . this study opens the door for the development of genetically tunable nanofibrous bioink materials which closely mimic natural structural proteins in the extracellular matrix .
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42 entertainment is an american company based in burbank which specializes in creating and producing alternate reality games ( args ) .

the company was founded in 2003 as an independently owned , creative content and interactive agency under the name 4orty 2wo entertainment .

the company started with a nine-person management team and was originally based in emeryville , california .

it produces alternate reality games , including campaigns for xbox and ps3 titles , the movie the dark knight , and the nine inch nails year zero album .

42 entertainment

glassdoor gives you an inside look at what it ' s like to work at 42 entertainment , including salaries , reviews , office photos , and more . this is the 42 entertainment company profile . all content is posted anonymously by employees working at 42 entertainment .
end ,
says susan bonds , the president of 42 entertainment .
but we always expecte
alex lieu , susan bonds , and jordan weisman of 42 entertainment , which pioneered alternate reality games . photo : robert maxwell
privacy policy | terms of use © 2016 42 entertainment , llc | all rights reserved all material on this site is protected under copyright , trademark , and other intellectual property laws . all material is owned by 42 entertainment and / or its clients and licensors .
date approached , the game hit the peer - to - peer sites and regained its momentum . reznor and the team from 42 entertainment had a
42 entertainment creates immersive entertainment that invites audiences to participate in connected experiences . rooted in digital , our fully integrated campaigns leverage our 10 years of experience to engage millions , from the most casual to the most obsessive .
rscope chair jimmy iovine — reznor & apos ; s label boss at universal music at the time — called weisman to talk about buying 42 entertainment .
you touched upon this in your talk yesterday , but 42 entertainment has previously done a lot of marketing work , and you guys are just now starting to move away from marketing with edoc laundry . but from the website , it doesn ' t actually look like edoc is a part of 42 entertainment at all .
© 2018 green apple entertainment , inc . legal | digital marketing by seo smooth
42 entertainment has made a name for itself in recent years by running some of the best movie args ever . it’s the company behind the quintessential viral campaign for
so your official position at 42 is
vice president of experience design .
the biggest successes are when the alternate - reality games help spread the word about a bigger product , such as a movie . 42 entertainment recently created campaigns for the dark knight film , the sony game resistance 2 , and year zero , the nine inch nails album . big brand companies such as microsoft or film companies hire 42 entertainment to make these ephemeral games that last only as long as the campaigns do . bonds says 42 entertainment likes to choose campaigns where a deep storyline can be woven in .
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prodigy , who made up one half of mobb deep , has recently died at 42 .
42 entertainment pioneered the alternate - reality game . mixing real - life with a fictional story , these games are viral marketing campaigns for a variety of media . now 42 has created a new alternate - reality game for the international , a new film starring clive owen and naomi watts .
for three years , stewart has been the chief writer at a game development house called 42 entertainment , the leaders in a nascent gaming genre that fans have dubbed alternate reality games , or args .
prodigy , who made up one half of mobb deep , died in june . he was 42 .
the rapper prodigy , who made up one half of the group mobb deep , has died aged 42 .
, args are among the first entertainment forms genuinely native to the net , culture watchers say . unlike the online cartoons or games that differ little from their offline counterparts , args like 42 entertainment ' s just - completed
last call poker
are woven from the fragmented , deeply community - driven fabric of the web itself .
emotional speech in the context of entertainment robots . the effect of different emotions on users’ perceptions - ieee conference publication
, which supposedly tested you to see if you could participate in the “human preservation project” . now we know that the site is from prominent viral marketing company 42 entertainment , which raises the question of what this campaign is really promoting .
federation entertainment has finalised a deal with belgian distributor ella productions and prodco left field ventures , for the police cybercrime tv series unit 42 . as part of the deal , federation has secured worldwide distribution rights to the series , whilst ella productions retains rights for benelux and france . the announcement was made today by lionel uzan , managing director and co - founder , federation entertainment .
susan bonds is co - founder and ceo of 42 entertainment , leading the innovation evolution , from alternate reality games to deeply immersive entertainment experiences that engage millions of people worldwide , susan has focused 42 to take advantage of what she calls
true convergence
- the social , technological , gaming and story alignment that enables 42 to give you a role in the dark knight , halo , the human preservation project , or nin ' s year zero on an unprecedented scale . starting with ilovebees , susan has developed / produced all of 42 ' s transmedia experiences , including the critically acclaimed why so serious ? , year zero , flynn lives , the human preservation project , mouth - taped - shut , the vanishing point and , most recently , random acts of fusion .
42 entertainment ' s
year zero
campaign for trent reznor and nine inch nails also earned the top accolade for viral advertising , and
sol comments ,
a banner campaign for scandinavia online from mediafront oslo , earned the grand prix for online advertising .
new york—rapper prodigy , a member of the hardcore new york hip - hop duo mobb deep , has died . he was 42 .
so , how do we know this is a 42e campaign ? the seattle weekly website has a qr code advertisement that links to the tsn website . this ad is filed under “ad index > entertainment > concerts , festivals & events > 42 entertainment” , which pokes another hole in our theory , since i’m pretty sure chewing gum wouldn’t be classified as a concert , festival , or event , no matter how good it is .
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how could this work for year zero ? reznor had spent a long time thinking and writing about the future dystopia he imagined . now he wanted to share this story with his fans . he filled in the contact form on 42 entertainment & apos ; s web site and clicked send .
42 entertainment hope to rank high on the pop culture scale . the company develops alternate reality games ( args ) that blend online and offline content to market movies , video games , album releases , and new software products . args encourage players to hunt for clues on web sites . . .
at 42 entertainment , panic set in .
it & apos ; s a silent contract ,
explains steve peters , the game designer charged with tracking player progress .
we respect you — which means we & apos ; re not going to lead you along by the nose and then not give you anything .
entertainment & apos ; s creative director .
so were we . trent was stunned . and the whole time we were thinking , & apos ; when is so
42 entertainment thrives on innovation , and creativity . we are expert problem solvers constantly looking for new ways to surprise and entertain . there is no challenge too ambitious for us to tackle . if it ' s never been done before , then even better . we don ' t just dream big - we make big things happen .
programming for the global marketplace . a fully - integrated television studio , federation entertainment is comprised of exclusive partnerships with several of the industry’s most celebrated executives , producers and showrunners . established by leading french entertainment executive pascal breton , federation is run by managing director and partner lionel uzan and founding partners david michel , stéphane sperry & serge hayat .
directed by guy goossens , unit 42 is based on an original story by annie carels who also co - wrote the series alongside julie bertrand , charlotte joulia and guy goossens .
the incredible team that brought the flynn lives experience to life from flynn ' s arcade through end of line club and won a themed entertainment ( thea ) award for their efforts .
johnny rodriguez is responsible for all things visual at 42 entertainment . from custom graphics and mysterious web sites , to the full - scale street murals that have suddenly appeared in places like london and hollywood , his pieces often serve as standalone art works in addition to the role they play as storytelling vehicles for 42 ' s various projects . johnny leads a diverse team of visual designers who are responsible for all online , print , event , media , mobile , environmental and collectible graphic design . prior to 42 , johnny was part of the original team at disney online in 1995 , designing kid - friendly web sites as well as sites for hollywood records ' rock and r & b ; artists . he left disney for
i am here as a game designer . i think that one of the directions we really want to take 42 in is as an entertainment provider , much more so than , or even in lieu of , being a marketing agency . and with a lot of our new designs , the trend lately has really been to push things in that direction . you see that in
attract massive participation . alex believes transmedia entertainment is a true art form and loves innovative storytelling . prior to 42 , alex was the founder and chief creative at 3pin media - a new media entertainment agency serving clients like microsoft , warner brothers , boeing , espn , nickelodeon , abc , disney , and more - the vice president of creative at lightspan inc . working on innovative learning solutions - creative director at mutation labs , and one of the founding members of disney online where his team pioneered the very first use of flash for web design , animation and game development .
this sort of game draws some seriously committed players , who solve problems collectively over the internet . the best games spread by word of mouth as friends enlist each other to help . quite often , the alternate - reality games draw casual observers who number in the millions . the challenge , says susan bonds , chief executive of 42 entertainment , is to get more people directly involved .
42 entertainment also ran the vanishing point campaign for the launch of microsoft windows vista . that campaign kicked off with a secret message that was embedded as a light show on the famous water fountains of the bellagio hotel in las vegas . right now , the company has 25 people and works with a lot of outside contractors . that’s amazingly small , considering how big the campaigns are .
technology aligns with experience design as 42 always puts the player first . from left to right : hyun kim - software developer , kevin burkhardt - chief technology officer , sara raasch - experience engineer
prodigy ( left ) , born albert johnson , has died at age 42 . he and havoc , born , kejuan muchita , broke out onto the music scene as mobb deep in the 1990s
others have also tried alternate - reality games . jane mcgonigal , who worked with 42 entertainment , went off on her own and created world without oil , a game about what would happen if the world ran out of oil . the success of these games is not in how many players they draw , but in how much attention they can drum up for the particular target of the campaign .
the team left microsoft to form 42 entertainment shortly afterward and was immediately rehired to promote the company ' s
halo 2
game . the team created another sprawling story called
i love bees
( after the game ' s first fake web site ) , telling it through an online radio drama and puzzles that drove players to real - life phone booths to answer characters ' calls .
at the end of may , she led an open forum featuring prominent innovators in emerging media and arts from across the world , such as robert terceck , the former president of own : the oprah winfrey network , and susan bonds , co - founder and ceo of 42 entertainment , a prominent alternate reality video game company , in order to gauge what the industry expects from future arts graduates .
think of ourselves as a game company , and we think of ourselves as an entertainment company , and a storytelling company .
and to prove it , we ' re going to talk about our games in that forum , and we ' re going to other industry leaders in that forum , and the things you see from 42 as we move forward into 2007 will very much embrace that thinking .
double life stewart ' s office shelves tell the story of his double life . a row of his novels has as bookends the prestigious trophies he ' s won for several of them , including the 2000 world fantasy award . next to them is a copy of microsoft ' s
halo 2
game , which one of 42 entertainment ' s args helped launch . he has never opened it .
based in pasadena , california , and the bay area , 42 entertainment sports an all - star team of marketing and gaming vets whose experience runs from procter & gamble product launches to designing rides for disneyland . arg , they believe , is the next frontier – and their mind - bending online campaigns for the likes of dreamworks , microsoft and disney are often more compelling than the products being pushed .
, and you ' ll see more books from 42 coming out next year . we ' ve said
okay , there ' s a subscription model ,
which as i was talking about yesterday ,
pushing the boundaries of traditional entertainment and social gaming while re - defining the ruless of digital and real - world play , alex serves as both creative director and lead experience design director for 42 entertainment ' s award winning projects . from sending scores of batman fans to mysterious locations where mobile phones were buried inside joker - themed cakes , to leading players through a scary dilapidated warehouse leading to an ultra - secret nine inch nails performance , alex is constantly searching for new ways to immerse audiences and weave them into fiction . he pioneered immersive storytelling techniques that blend the digital and real to create
events
in fictional worlds that
after 42 years together , the couple were married new year ' s eve , liz smith reported friday in the chicago tribune . people and others confirmed tuesday that it was a private ceremony in los angeles .
example 42 : a belgian , on holiday or on business , in the baltic countries arrives at riga airport and picks up a car hired for two weeks , latvian vat will be charged on the hire .
just don’t call it marketing . “the term ‘marketing’ sure is a frustrating one for me , ” nin mastermind trent reznor recently blogged . ( he and reps from 42 entertainment declined to be interviewed . ) “what you are now starting to experience is ‘year zero , ’ ” reznor wrote . “it’s not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record – it is the art form . . . and we’re just getting started . ”
audiences are becoming increasingly adept at filtering out traditional advertising . we help cut the clutter by creating entertainment destinations that give your audience a role in the story . we create brand experiences that people ' want ' to interact with and share .
truly great immersive entertainment comes from the right balance of creativity and technology . from the web and mobile , to physical installations and custom applications , we build digital solutions that deliver best - in - class experiences that work across all channels .
after every gig , reznor rushed back to his hotel so he could watch the action on fan forums and in chat rooms unfold on his laptop .
i couldn & apos ; t wait ,
reznor says .
& apos ; did they find it ? did they find it ? & apos ; i know it sounds nerdy , but it was exciting .
the 42 entertainment team , working out of a cramped loft in downtown pasadena , california , kept an eve
weisman had long been working toward that moment . severely dyslexic as a kid , his world changed when he was introduced to dungeons & dragons .
here was entertainment that involved problem solving and was story - based and social ,
he says
in this oct . 13 , 2016 file photo , mobb deep ' s prodigy poses for a photo in new york . albert johnson , the skilled rapper and member of the new york hip - hop duo has died . he was 42 .
42 entertainment was founded in 2003 by jordan weisman , bonds and joe dinunzio . it was self - funded and never raised money . they made the first alternate - reality game , the beast , for steven spielberg’s ai movie . the 2001 campaign started with a “rabbit hole , ” or a clue in the form of a web site that rolled by with the credits of a film . that led gamers through a mystery that they had to solve collectively . the campaign was such a novelty at the time that media coverage resulted in more than 300 million recorded impressions .
one of the most memorable alternate - reality games is microsoft’s 2004 “ ilovebees ” campaign for the xbox game halo 2 . in that campaign , 42 entertainment arranged to have 50 , 000 pay phones ring across the country at exactly the same time . fans answered the phones , recorded the messages , and pieced the audio into a six - hour broadcast about the topic of the game , the invasion of earth by the alien race the covenant . while a small number of people participated , more than 2 . 5 million people watched . that campaign won a variety of awards , including a webby .
currently in production , unit 42 , is produced by john engel , ceo of left field ventures ( in association with rtbf – belgian television ) , who over the years has worked with renowned filmmakers such as brian depalma , tim burton , neil jordan , and joel schumacher , to mention a few .
stewart , on a sunny november afternoon here , is improvising inside a sophisticated online game that has put him and his co - creators squarely at the leading edge of the digital entertainment world . the fact that he has almost no experience with traditional video games makes his pioneering role here all the more striking .
an enormous amount of creativity , effort , and dedication goes into pulling off the amazing work that comes out of 42e . our specialized team is comprised of experts in every area of entertainment , design , and production - - all working in tandem to create the most socially engaging , immersive experiences in the world .
campaign , which i ' m sure you ' re familiar with . what were your thoughts about that campaign ? since a lot of people from the start were assuming it was 42 . but at a certain point , it started getting sloppy , and people began reconsidering whether or not it was something actually put together by the
if people are no longer content to passively consume entertainment , they ' re certainly not going to passively consume marketing messages . instead of pushing messages out to consumers , brands need to think about how to get audiences to engage with the message and spread it themselves . if you just want people to listen , they won ' t .
raymund served as the managing director , global networks asia - pacific from 2007 to 2011 , heading the entertainment channels division of nbc universal across 33 countries . before that , raymund spent a year in manila as the president / ceo of nation broadcasting corporation ( 92 . 3xfm ) and head of strategy and content for mediaquest holdings , inc .
michael borys leads the interactive design team at 42 entertainment - responsible for all online , mobile and real - world puzzles , games and social activities . from scores of casual game found throughout 42e ' s projects such as tron ' s ' space paranoids ' and the dark knight ' s ' sitting ducks ' , to amazing real life collaborative scavenger hunts like the one held in the dead of night on alcatraz island , michael always strives to give the audiences new experiences in fun . from 1996 to 2000 , he led various teams within the disney company and helped in the creation of the original disney ' s daily blast online . in 2000 , michael teamed up with alex lieu at 3pinmedia
the only clue to the clip’s provenance is a road sign that flashes past so quickly you have to hit pause to make it out : i am trying to believe . there’s no music , no credits . nothing to indicate that it is , in fact , a teaser for nine inch nails ‘ new album , year zero . the clip , and dozens of other online clues , form the latest salvo in a burgeoning new style of promo called alternate - reality gaming ( arg ) . part scavenger hunt , part online game , these elaborate puzzles are created by a clandestine startup called 42 entertainment . the goal : to blend fiction and reality in ways that engage a new generation of fans .
we can always get massive press coverage in the enthusiast press ,
said chris di cesare , the director of marketing for microsoft ' s game studios .
but even a game like ' halo ' isn ' t guaranteed coverage in the new york times or entertainment weekly . we were able to reach an audience beyond what we could ordinarily get .
pittard sullivan , the award - winning la design shop , where he led design efforts for fox family and the military channel . he later partnered with alex lieu at 3 pin media , joining 42 when the two firms merged in 2005 . outside of 42 , johnny is known as kmndz , a signature artist in la ' s pop surrealist art scene . he took his name from the keystroke combination
command z
- because he thinks we could all use an
undo
button in life . his work has been shown at the thinkspace and merry karnowsky galleries in los angeles , fifty24sf and the shooting gallery in san francisco , the leonard street gallery in london , and england ' s bristol city museum .
as for 42 entertainment ' s viral winner ,
year zero ,
an alternate reality game that incorporated websites , e - mails , merchandising and pre - recorded phone messages to expand the dystopian storyline behind trent reznor ' s concept album of the same name , she said that
if the conversation has been ongoing about the blurring of the lines between mediums , what we need to come out of this was a way forward . in this piece what we have is just that . it takes every medium , every skill at its best - - print , outdoor , design , events . it couldn ' t exist without being virally spread . it ' s this collaborative development where there ' s a skill and a craft around engaging audiences .
as a systems engineer by training , she first worked in aerospace at lockheed ' s advanced development projects - the famed
skunk works
- before beginning her career in experiential narrative at walt disney imagineering in 1990 .
disneyland is about bringing stories to life ,
she says .
that ' s also true about our multi - platform experiences - you are the star of the story .
as an imagineer , she developed / produced the ground - breaking indiana jones adventure at disneyland and mission : space at epcot . following disney , she spent two years producing a massively multiplayer online ( mmo ) game at cyan worlds - the company behind riven and myst , two of the most popular pc games of all time - before launching 42 entertainment in 2004 .
stewart didn ' t invent this kind of game - - that honor goes , as much as to any one person , to the ceo of his company , jordan weisman , who first brought the team together while at microsoft in 2001 . elan lee , a former video game producer and 42 ' s chief designer , has served as the games ' equivalent of a movie director .
is 42 ' s very first experiment in a product . our dream is , of course , that we want our own intellectual property , and we want to promote our own ideas , and we want to create something start - to - finish that does not support another property . you know , why don ' t we just try to run the whole show , at least once ?
media super ltd ( abn 30 059 502 948 , afsl 230254 ) is trustee of media super ( abn 42 574 421 650 ) . the information on this website is of a general nature only and does not take into account your personal objectives , situation or needs . before making a decision about investing with media super , you should consider your own requirements and the relevant product disclosure statement .
in early 2001 , weisman was creative director of microsoft ' s entertainment group . he ' d persuaded steven spielberg ( and a reluctant microsoft ) to experiment with an unconventional game to help market the director ' s
a . i .
movie , and had already tapped lee to direct the project they code - named
the beast .
soon after , they recruited stewart to be their writer .
42west’s entertainment marketing division , co - headed by leslee dart and amanda lundberg , provides expert marketing direction , public - relations counsel and media strategy for productions ( including theatrical films , dvd and vod releases , television programs , and online series ) as well as content producers ( ranging from individual filmmakers and creative artists to production companies , film financiers , dvd distributors , and countless other entities in our ever - changing , multi - platform world ) .
most fans didn & apos ; t realize their progress was being monitored nonstop . unlike less interactive forms of entertainment , args require a close collaboration between the puppet masters — the unseen figures who create the story — and the audience .
the makers and the consumers are in a tango ,
stewart says .
it & apos ; s a dance , it & apos ; s passionate , and sometimes there are sinister overtones . it creates a unique dynamic .
“the eighteen - to - thirty - five - year - old demo has grown up in a marketing - saturated environment and has developed a sophisticated set of tools for avoiding the vast majority of marketing messages , ” jordan weisman , 42’s co - founder , has said . “as a rule of thumb , the bigger the neon sign , the faster they’ll run the other way . so the premise here was , instead of shouting , go the opposite way and whisper . ”
we have employees in common , but that ' s about as far as it goes . although , edoc was based on many of the learnings that came from 42 , so as far as how to build a cool mystery , and how to tell a cool story . it ' s just that in this case , i met up with a bunch of my friends in the clothing industry that said
ooh , we want to play too .
so we started this new company .
over the next five years , e - commerce could become an even more important retail channel in china . private online consumption is projected to surge by 20 % annually through 2020 , compared with 6 % annual growth in off - line retail sales . this means that e - commerce will account for 42 % of growth in private consumption . by then , china’s online consumer market will have grown to $ 1 . 6 trillion annually—24 % of private consumption . ( see exhibit 3 . )
well , the idea behind vice president of experience design , the term
experience design ,
was when i was sorta forced to sit down and think about what i do , i thought that probably the most important thing that i do is control how our users , how our players , experience the entertainment : how they experience a story , how they experience a strange narrative . and i thought if i focus on that , that probably encompasses more of what i do than any other term i can think of .
one reason is that wealthier consumers spend a disproportionately greater share of their incomes on services than do lower - income consumers . although the average income of upper - middle - class and affluent households is 2 . 5 times higher than that of emerging - middle - and middle - class households , the wealthier spend 3 . 3 times more on education , culture , and entertainment . still , upper - middle - class and affluent households spend only 1 . 8 times more on physical goods than emerging - middle and middle - class consumers .
el : when i was at microsoft , i was terribly miscast as a producer . i thought , hey , this is what i should be doing . then i met jordan weisman , who was the creative director of the games group there . jordan is my mentor . jordan is the most creative , amazing person i’ve ever met . we sort of hit it off , and we had this discussion about the future of games one day . i remember we were sitting at this restaurant , eating sushi , and at that moment his phone rang . he looked at me and said , wouldn’t it be cool if that was a game calling me right now ? and that’s kind of where it all started . when we started talking about that , jordan realized , you suck at producing , and he moved me to the design role , and from there we met with spielberg and created ai , and from there we created 42 entertainment , and from there we started edoc laundry , the t - shirt company , and it’s just been this crazy snowball of events since then , finding this bizarre talent that i have that would be absolutely useless in any other field .
research by the boston consulting group and aliresearch , the research arm of alibaba , china’s largest e - commerce company , found that these three forces of change will profoundly reshape china’s economy and consumer market over the next five years . through 2020 , 81 % of consumption growth will come from households whose annual income is more than $ 24 , 000 . furthermore , consumers 35 or younger will account for 65 % of growth . e - commerce will become a far more important retail channel , driving 42 % of total consumption growth , 90 % of that growth coming from mobile e - commerce .
whereas a company like 42 is much smaller and much more experimental . we can afford to make a product , make a ton of mistakes , and then iterate . one of the reasons that i think our fans are enamored with the quality of our products is because we ' ve learned those lessons early on . we ' ve been doing this for three , four years now and we ' ve made tons and tons of mistakes , and we ' re getting really good at not making those mistakes , again because we can afford to try and iterate and do it again and again and again , in a way that a company like microsoft with
young - generation chinese spend more than their elders . most chinese older than 35 have lived through periods of instability and have experienced challenging economic circumstances . they are known to be frugal . the young generation is more motivated to spend . our data shows that upper - middle - class consumers 35 and younger average 40 % higher spending , across a range of product categories , than last - generation consumers with similar incomes . in a recent bcg global consumer survey , 42 % of chinese aged 18 to 25 disagreed with the statement , “i feel i have enough things and feel less the need to buy new ones . ” by comparison , 36 % of u . s . and eu respondents of that age - group , 32 % of japanese , and only 26 % of brazilians also disagreed with the statement .
why so serious ?
was designed as a 360° alternate reality experience that played out over 15 months leading up to the release of the dark knight . spilling out over a multitude of different platforms , this deep immersive campaign recruited the audience to become real citizens of gotham city . over 11 million unique participants in over 75 countries fueled the rise of the joker as henchmen , campaigned for harvey dent to get elected as district attorney , and even took the law into their own hands by becoming copycat batman vigilantes . from calling phone numbers written in the sky , to hunting down gps coordinates to find mobile phones baked inside of birthday cakes ,
why so serious ?
was an experience like no other . as these fans collectively scoured the globe in search of clues , their incredible passion generated billions of impressions in the press and blogosphere setting a new benchmark for immersive entertainment .
um , it was
vice president of design ,
it was just
founder ,
it was
interactive design ,
it was . . . you know . because we ' ve got one of those strange companies where no one has a classic title , or a classic role , our titles are very fluid . ultimately , we ' ve got to just put something on the business cards , so we ' re sorta forced into that corner .
if you cut up all our projects into two basic elements , there ' s always the story , and the way that story is delivered . that ' s really rough , obviously . there ' s a million more parts , but let ' s call it those two parts . my role is to orchestrate that second part . my role is to take really cool stories and find ways to put them in front of people in ways that they ' ve never experienced before .
no , it ' s a completely standalone entity , actually , with different founders , and a different financial model .
so in terms of commercializing arg ' s , in one way you ' ve taken it to a completely different company . but
so cathy ' s book was our very first attempt at that , because the problem with that is
oh my god , how do you make money off something like that ?
so we ' ve broken it into three basic models . you can have a product - -
tried to do , but ultimately may not be appropriate for this kind of product . you ' ll see some creative interpretations of the subscription model coming out next year , but ultimately it ' s experimental . and i have my own healthy doubts about it .
and the third one is product placement , or banner ads , or things like that . ad revenue , basically , and i think that is probably the best fit . but it ' s different from movies or tv . we ' ve all seen really bad product placement in tv and movies . it looks so fake and so contrived . but if you think of an arg , the whole point of an arg is to engage the audience member in kind of this bizarre
trust dance ,
this concept where they want desperately to believe that this stuff is real because it makes it more fun , and the role of an arg is to do everything in its power to make them not feel stupid about taking that leap with us . and we are in this bizarre position where product placement actually enhances that . if the characters in your story are doing real things , are going to a restaurant that actually exists , that makes the game better , rather than worse . that kind of product placement lets you take that leap with us so much more easily . because
oh my god , what if this thing is real ? what if this person does exist ? what happens if i go to that restaurant ? what happens if i buy that product ? what if . . . what if . . . what if . . .
so that ' s the kind of model i ' m most excited about as far as creating products in the future that do not support other people ' s products .
you know , a similar thing is actually happening in video games right now , in terms of in - game advertising . and there ' s controversy over it there as well , and questions of when does it disrupt the ' bubble ' and when is it actually lending itself to it .
don ' t get me wrong . even in arg ' s there ' s a fine line . i know first hand that you can absolutely butcher this concept if you insert things in the wrong way . if it feels contrived , if it feels forced , you ' ve accomplished the exact opposite . your realism is just shattered and that bubble bursts . but i think arg ' s are in this very unique position . the reins are a lot looser , and we can experiment a lot more than movies , tv , or even video games have traditionally been able to do .
is your first attempt at commercializing . it ' s a young adult novel , aimed at a young female audience . why did you go for that audience first , before any others ?
our staff writer , sean stewart , who ' s an award - winning science - fiction writer , it was an area he was really fascinated with . he has two young teenage daughters , and he really wanted to try to create a product for them . it is a huge market ; it ' s really just enormous . and in some senses , we kinda looked at it as
if we can do this , we can probably do anything .
( laughs ) so , we knew that sean could write a good story , we knew that there was an audience out there for it , and we knew that , if done right , the concept of a book that is fun to read beginning to end - - but also lets you poke at it , and it ' ll poke back a little bit - - we knew that a teenage female audience would be really attracted to that , or so we hypothesized . and the book just made it to the new york times best seller lists .
thank you . so , so far that experiment has gone very well and validated a lot of our assumptions .
well , first of all , oh my god is that flattering ! if people see a product that starts to go poorly , and that is the reason they think it can ' t be us , we ' re in a really good place with the community . and it ' s something we ' ve worked really hard to establish , that our products are of a really high quality , and to see that the audience is responding to that , and building their assumptions off of that . . . wow , it doesn ' t get better than that .
did a lot of things right , and a lot of things wrong . like any other arg , there is no rulebook , and there is no reference to look at and say
let ' s imitate that , because that ' s the right way to do it .
they were trying a whole bunch of new stuff . we watched them very closely , and learned a lot from their mistakes . but ultimately , the thing that we are allowed to do that microsoft is not - - and perhaps one of the reasons that you haven ' t seen
our colony 2
- - is because microsoft can afford to take a risk like that about
. and if it doesn ' t work , they have responsibilities to the stockholders , they have responsibilities to the internal teams , and they have resources that have to be allocated in a certain way , because they ' re big and they ' re huge and they ' ve been around for a while .
was to try and address that exact concern . we made it a much more casual game , a much more accessible game , because we knew we weren ' t going to be able to hit the exact same audience . because they
burnt out , and they ' ve seen one before , and they ' ve already formed opinions on microsoft ' s ability to launch an arg for this product , and why work uphill ? why try to change their opinion on that ? let ' s aim for a new audience , one that hasn ' t been tapped yet . so we made it much more casual . we made it more fun , much more tongue in cheek , and ultimately i think that ' s the reason it succeeded - - because it didn ' t try to fix a mistake that was made earlier .
it kinda leads to a much larger problem with arg ' s . because they ' re so new , and because it ' s a genre that doesn ' t have a rulebook yet , there ' s a lot of people trying them , and messing up . each time that happens , it makes it that much harder for a good one to get out there and do well . because a lot of times those bad ones are people ' s first exposure to them , and if your first experience is a bad one , you ' re almost entirely unlikely to try again . that is the thing i ' m scared of the most - - when a product comes out that makes some very large mistakes , in a very public arena .
, and you see that in edoc , which embraces that new thinking , and so it was very important for me to show up to a conference like this , to kind of establish that . to say
you know what ,
law enforcement may have a tough time cracking your phone with a usb device .
tapping into the same creative well as ' minecraft ' could be the key to long - term success .
it ' s available now , along with watchos , tvos and homepod versions .
the company will launch an ipo on a ' recognized ' us stock exchange .
the ai event of the year for growth marketers . aug . 21 - 22
the best in ai . an invite - only executive event . oct . 22 - 23
you can play the stop the international game by visiting a web site . players have to put a stop to the international bank’s corruption by searching through the site for clues . the clues lead to other web sites and can lead to caches of $ 100 bills in real - world locations around the u . s . and europe . players can also win a car similar to one that watts drives in the movie . the game runs through feb . 13 , when the movie opens .
if they take off , alternate - reality games can be quite cost effective , since the fans themselves spread the word and do so for free . but it remains to be seen if fans will stick with them now that their is wearing off . mind candy created a clever alternate - reality game , perplex city , which sent users on a real - world treasure hut . but the british company decided that , while the game created a lot of buzz , so few people actually participated in solving the puzzles that it wasn’t a good business if you were trying to sell an actual game or related trading cards .
“if this qualifies as an art form , we are just scratching the surface of it , ” bonds said .
subscribe now to get 6 months for $ 5 - plus a free portable phone charger .
the initial clue was so subtle that for nearly two days nobody noticed it .
uced into the us water supply . ostensibly , parepin was an antidote to bioterror agent
onse :
i & apos ; m drinking the water . so should you .
onlin
what this had to do with nine inch nails . a setup for the next album ? some kind of interactive game ? or what ?
, which she had bought at one of the lisbon shows , when she noticed that the tour dates included several boldface digits . fans quickly interpreted this as a los angeles telephone number . people who called it heard a recording of a newscaster announc
ng . then , a woman named ana reported finding a usb flash drive in a bathroom stall at the hall where the band had been playing . on the drive was
previously unreleased song , which she promptly uploaded . the metadata tag on the song contained a clue that led to a
, a grimly futuristic suite evoking an america beset by terrorism , ravaged by climate change , and ruled by a christian military dictatorship .
but i had a problem ,
he recalls , l
loor deck of the house he & apos ; s remodeling in beverly hills : how to provide context for the songs . in the & apos ; 60s , concept albums came with extens
this article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links . contact wiredlabs @ urltoken to report an issue .
s unfold in fragments , in all sorts of media , from web sites to phone calls to live events , and the audience pieces together the story from shards of information . the task is too complicated for any one person , but the web enables a collective intelligence to emerge to assemble the pieces , solve the mysteries , and in the
t ; now dozens of such games are launched every year , many of them attracting millions of followers on every continent .
. one player even braved a florida hurricane to take a call in a burger king parking lot .
similar games have been used to launch scores of products in the years since . gmd studios , a florida outfit , staged a fake auto theft to begin a game for audi that drew more than 500 , 000 players . a london studio called hi - res used television ads and specially made chocolate bars , among other things , in a still - talked - about game touting jj abrams & apos ;
when done well , args can be extraordinarily effective ,
says ty montague , creative director of the j . walter thompson ad agency . that & apos ; s because the games offer marketers a solution to a growing problem : how to reach people who are so media - satura
rwise you & apos ; d go crazy ,
weisman says . that & apos ; s why he opted for a
subdural
approach : instead of shouting the message , hide it .
i figured that if the audience discovered something , they would share it ,
he explains ,
because we all need something to talk about .
that led to a maze of bizarre web sites about robot rights and a phone number that , when called , played a message from a woman whose husband had just died in a suspicious boating accident . within 24 hours , thousands of people were trying to figure out what had happened .
it totally put my brain on fire . what we & apos ; re doing now is a giant extrapolation of sitting in the kitchen playing d & d with friends . it & apos ; s just that now our kitchen table holds 3 million people
— the number that ultimately engaged with the
is game the beast , because originally it had 666 pieces of content . but
s the players burned through those and clamored for more , the name took on a different meaning . he had created a mon
the internet was beginning to engage and entertain customers — whether with free singles on itunes or an arg that could run for months — before asking them to part with their money .
all marketing ,
weisman says ,
is headed in that direction .
.
we had no idea of the scope . that was the most fun — not knowing what would come next .
debates raged as to whether it had anything to do with philip k . di
ialed this number ( and some 1 . 7 million did ) heard a horrific recording from a mysterious organizat
nd killed her friend and that the cops had locked everybody inside and she was going to die .
rives were typical of what makes a good arg work . they were hard to spot and even harder to decipher , but because the narrative was being pieced together online , you didn & apos ; t have to be a propellerhead to follow it .
our assumption ,
says sean stewart , the game & apos ; s head writer ,
was never that there & apos ; s a continent of