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Reflecteur 65 looks into new and exciting ways digital culture brings us together and sets us apart, whether its the data from social media sites mapping our mood and location, markets catering to a specific person’s need online, or separating our social feeds by friends and ex-significant others. Also, fingerpainting with an iPad and Denuo’s foray into social gaming, via FarmVille and organic foods.

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FarmVille has long been the focal point for social gaming, what with its millions of users, socially-relevant gameplay, and showcasing the gaming potential in Facebook. However, its recent foray into branded experiences in and around the game have introduced a whole new level of possibilities on the virtual farm, something that General Mills‘ organic food brand, Cascadian Farm, saw as a perfect fit for promoting their products.

Denuo was brought on board to help Cascadian Farm extend the already awesome idea to put organic crops into the game outward into both the Farmville community and Cascadian Farm’s community. Since both communities were made up of dedicated, passionate, and extremely vocal folks, the challenge was bringing these two groups together without alienating either side.

We considered the changing gaming space and how folks are playing with each other these days and, using three key things we know about gaming culture, built a couple of ways to mix the groups together to equally enjoy this unique experience.

New and improved, with 50 percent MORE culture, it’s this week’s Reflecteur!

This week, our digital culture experts turn their eyes toward the demands of the famous, whether its the curiosity of people when it comes to celebrity tour riders or newer celebrities like the double-rainbow guy asking what could be better than a full-on, complete rainbow. Also, catalog living, avoiding your friends via location-based apps, the secrets of popular music exposed by the Axis of Awesome, and Youtube as a historical film archive. All contained in this blockbuster, 50% bonus-filled edition of Reflecteur!

Click here to download this week’s issue.

I’ve seen a lot of live shows but many of the most memorable have come from a single guy: Jon Brion. Brion used to play every Friday night at Café Largo in Los Angeles and I was there for a ton of them. What made him so compelling was that he always took the stage without a playlist. His set ended up being a mix of whatever inspired him at the moment and requests shouted from the audience. Some nights would be comprised mostly of ragtime and moody jazz. Others would be giant singalongs – the greatest hits of The Police with Brion accompanying on xylophone, for example. One night he asked the audience to name a song. Someone suggested “Dream On” by Aerosmith. Then he asked for a genre. Someone yelled “Bossa Nova”. Brion picked up an acoustic guitar, cued up a samba beat, and did it on the spot.

You truly had no idea what to expect when you walked into Largo every Friday (and neither did Brion).  The concert was unfolding in real-time as a collaboration between performer and audience – a marked contrast to the overly-choreographed shows we normally see. There is a reason he sold out every week and has become something of a living legend in clubland.

Now humor me as I segue into marketing: to what degree do your brands engage without a script and how important is it to actually do so?

(Editor’s Note: Welcome our new intern, Natalie Burch, to Denuology!  She’ll be checking in each week with a post on digital culture, her time here, and the thrill of getting our lunch orders in working at Denuo.)

This is a bittersweet post to write, because my two favorite teams, the United States and South Korea were both ousted in the Round of 16, but the World Cup is still awesome. Like many Americans, I don’t follow soccer year round, but, every four years, I live and breathe the World Cup. This year’s tournament has been especially exciting, mostly because my seven roommates and I collectively decided to take our World Cup enthusiasm to the next level. For example, I don’t want to take all of the credit for South Korea’s opening win against Greece, but my friends (one is from Seoul) and I did wake up at 5:30 AM on the day of the game to put Korean flags around my college campus, sing the Korean national anthem, and eat kimchi. So, I’d say around 50% credit is appropriate. Despite these losses, however, I remain committed to the tournament, in part because, I still have about 10 of the World Cup iPhone Apps on my phone, and some of them are really cool. Lest they go to waste, I have redirected my allegiance to Germany (I’m of German descent?) and the Netherlands (I like their orange jerseys.) So even though my excitement for the World Cup is, sadly, a bit on the downswing, I have a reason to use some great apps. Here are my five favorites (in descending order):