Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Awards show attire is usually inspired by fashion shows, not ITP shows. But Imogen Heap's gown at the Grammy's last night could easy have been an NYU grad student's project in wearable technology.

Her so-called "Twitdress" had its own Twitter feed and displayed pictures sent by fans. As she accepted the award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, images tweeted with the hashtag #twitdress supposedly appeared in real-time on a small screen she was wearing. We say "supposedly" because, after watching the awards, we couldn't actually see any images -- it just looked like a rather quirky dress -- but Heap told the audience that it was indeed working. According to a tweet she sent, the dress was a way of letting fans "accompany me on the red carpet."

Perhaps it's appropriate that Heap brought not just her fans onstage, but Twitter as well. The so-called “queen of social media” may owe some of her success to the social networking site with almost 1.5 million followers.  As the Times Online points out, Heap has invited her followers to provide feedback, lyrics and remixes of her songs online. She has been a pioneer on other social media platforms as well: Her songs have been played over 44 million times on MySpace; Fans were invited to contribute designs for her album artwork on Flickr; and she informed her public about the progress of her latest album through online video.

Not only is this an instance of the "Internet of Things" i.e. connecting an object to the web, it's a great example of portable technology being used to connect people and share experiences in real-time. This follows on the heels of the People's Choice Awards which, as we wrote the other week, were a strong testament to the power of mobile at events. Jessica Alba tweeted while she was presenting, Ashton live streamed his acceptance speech from his own phone over Ustream, and Queen Latifah snapped and uploaded photos as she hosted the event. Meanwhile concert events are becoming more participatory thanks to mobile -- the Jonas Brothers livestreamed a look backstage, Superglued aggregates mobile uploads from shows, AT&T powered text-to-screen at Demi Lovato's summer tour.

Continue to watch the intersection of mobile/portable tech and events to see how formerly one-way broadcasts are being turned into interactive experiences.