My Space and the New Music Paradigm

I was fortunate enough to get a preview recently of where MySpace are going with MySpace Music. Lately, while other social networks like Facebook and Twitter have stolen the limelight, MySpace have been quietly industrious, building up MySpace Music, making deals with major and indie reord labels and fostering music-based communities.

Now, MySpace are poised to spearhead nothing less than the new music paradigm. It's as big a shift as that from storing music on CDs to iTunes. iTunes gave people access to all their music on the go through downloading to their iPods. Now, with MySpace, music is to be stored in the 'cloud', that is, the unlimited and universally accessible internet, giving people free access to music from any computer.

When MySpace Music goes mobile in around 12 months' time, people will ultimately be able to access all the music in the world from anywhere in the world, through any internet enabled device, without the need to download anything. And all they pay are their broadband charges.

Users can share their playlists on MySpace Music, thereby defining themselves through their musical taste and linking up with others with similar passions. Naturally, they can hook up with their bands, who are equally active in the online community.

As part of the broader MySpace Music initiative, they'll still be able to sign up for Secret Shows, or exclusive gigs by their favourite bands.

These shows are brand sponsored in the strongest sense: they wouldn't happen without the support of brands. This is a great way for brands to genuinely bring something valuable to consumers and be duly appreciated.

MySpace Music just feels right - it taps into what consumers are feeling and doing, riding the wave, not fighting against it. It leverages trends like freeconomics and curated consumption. And MySpace are being true to their own heritage, in driving community, music and fame.

Obama vs. The Fly

Obama's anticipation and reflexes are gob-smacking. He is clearly the first Jedi president.

An article in the UK Telegraph highlights just what an accomplishment it is to score a direct hit on a fly. The insect can change course in just 30 thousandths of a second.

According to Professor Michael Dickinson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who has studied fly behaviour extensively, the most effective way to swat a fly is not to aim for its starting position, but anticipate where the insect is likely to jump when it first sees danger. This is no mean feat, as, when confronted by a predator (aka swatter), a fly rapidly initiates a manoeuvre, combining near-360 degree vision with complex postural movements, depending on the direction of the attack.

Twitter

Everyone's doing it - signing up for Twitter, writing about Twitter, even actually Tweeting. Everyone who works in communications and marketing, that is. No wonder the Twitter user profile is older than Facebook or MySpace.

I would rather eat my shorts than constantly Tweet about what I'm up to. On the other hand, I don't believe that Twitter is a flash in the pan. A recent article in the Australian (April 30 2009) "Time is up for Twitter", which suggests that Twitter lacks content to create communities, was misguided.

Granted, plenty of people (curious marketers) sign up and then hardly or never use it. But, outside the communications industry, Twitter is genuinely gaining traction thanks to the fact that it provides the public with a legitimate way to stalk celebrities - and for celebrities to exercise personal control over the manner in which they're stalked. Oprah, Stephen Fry and Ashton Kutcher are compulsive Tweeters and they have rapidly attracted huge communities.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of Twitter is its real-time nature. It's increasingly used as a Search service to get the pulse on the very latest sentiment across the globe instantly. Twitter is increasingly the first to receive breaking news stories from people on the scene. Major news organisations, including CBS and The Washington Post teamed up with Twitter to improve their own news service, in particular coverage of last year's US election campaign.

Twitter provides genuine opportunities for brands. They can communicate updates on products and offers to everyone who has signed up as a follower and moreover, they can have conversations with their fans. Provided they keep their information up-to-the-minute, in keeping with the way of Twitter.

Tourism Queensland has over 3,000 followers, thanks partly to its "Best job in the world" campaign. Since joining Twitter in December 2008, the World Wildlife Fund has gathered over 2,000 followers. Boardshop, a small Australian business, has recruited 1,500 followers since last October, to whom it largely communicates promotions. Clearly there's potential to go beyond one-way marketing to have a conversation with boarders. For more examples see Online Marketing Banter.

Storytelling

The scene from Madmen season 1, "The Carousel", in which Creative Director Don pitches a campaign to Kodak for their new slide projector, is still the best example of storytelling from a communications agency, fictional or otherwise, that I've seen. Don deftly turns a story about technology into a story about family and nostalgia.

Most agencies can raise their game when it comes to presentations. This doesn't just mean abandoning Powerpoint (although it helps). It means weaving a story - the most compelling story, not the most obvious story - that draws the audience in, holds their attention and closes the deal.

You can't do this unless you really believe in what you're presenting, unless you give something of yourself in the presentation. This may be a personal anecdote, or experience, or a way that you connected to the target audience. Whatever it is, unless you take a personal interest, neither will your audience.

The Catch

This is the first time I've come across a restaurant in Sydney that actively leverages social recommendation. The Catch at The Spit in Mosman is a fantastic cafe, which serves the best Tuna Nicoise I've ever had - and the blue swimmer crab rigatoni isn't half bad either. I eat out at least 3 times a week and I know and love my food - and this place is good. Perhaps that's why they don't shy away from asking their very satisfied customers to review them on Eatability. Perhaps that's why they've got an average rating of 8.5, with 9 out of 10 for food.

People Power

The collaborative, social web, Web 2.0, has driven a shift in values from individual to collective, from hierarchy to egalitarianism, and from absolute ownership to a more blurred concept of ownership.

This manifests itself in open source technologies and file sharing, in mass collaboration on documents and books through cloud computing and in Creative Commons licenses, which allow a scalable amount of sharing of content with attribution, depending on the license. (This blog, for example is licensed under Creative Commons.)

An interesting development is that the global recession is driving similar social values, as people pull together to help themselves. A greater emphasis on community is apparent in Australia. Neighbour Day took place on 29 March and there is increasing press coverage on the topic of neighbourliness.

The old hierarchies are no longer unquestioningly accepted, as runaway capitalism - not least, massive CEO bonuses - falls under scrutiny. Barack Obama recently announced that following the current crisis, it will not be business as usual for Wall Street.

Co-operative movements are growing in numbers and strength globally. In tandem, social lending, a form of social networking, is becoming more prevalent, with loans given out to collectives to help them become self-sufficient.

In Argentina, where recession started much ealier (Argentina the country was declared bankrupt in 2002) co-ops are particularly strong. Under the Movement of Recovered Companies, former workers took over operation of failing companies under a share and share-alike self-run system. Now, as unemployment rises again, the movement has renewed support. A key facilitator is not-for-profit organisation The Working World, which lends to groups via La Base Solidarity Fund.

The new co-operatives may conjure up images of Communism but they are different in an important respect: they are driven from the ground up, not imposed top down, much like the communities of Web 2.0.

We live in a topsy-turvy, bottom-up world, in which people power is growing. In marketing, this means engaging consumers, earning their respect and supporting their causes, so they spread the word about brands. Their causes may be big or small and opportunities for brand involvement are diverse. Billabong, for example, supports and propagates surf culture, through its programme of branded content, as Julian Lee's recent article in the SMH describes. Coles is currently making itself useful to families with its feed the family for under $10 campaign, promoted in their TV campaign and supported with online meal plans.

Tales from the brink

Dr. Manhattan, Watchmen

I have always been a fan of post-apocalyptic tales. In the current climate, I'm spoilt for choice. In fiction, Cormack McCarthy's The Road and Jim Crace's The Pesthouse are haunting, simple, achingly beautiful depictions of humanity in a ruined world.

On TV, Battlestar Galactica shows the demise of mankind, repeatedly destroyed by its own creation and abuse of AI. From Watchmen to new renditions of Terminator, the film scene is as bleak as can be. Meanwhile, the current issue of Time Magazine heralds "a new age of extinction" as we continue to ravage the planet, damaging wildlife and ultimately, ourselves.

Somewhat perversely, I see all this in a positive light. These are times of reflection and they are reflected in our stories, which, despite their darkness, have a glimmer of hope. It's as if people sense that we've brought the world to the brink of disaster. Now we're staring at the precipice and reevaluating what's important.

'Economics' and 'morality' were never heard in the same sentence, now they are increasingly bedfellows. Barack Obama has made it clear that, after the financial crisis, it will not be business as usual for Wall Street.

Climate change is on the agenda, not just out of necessity, but through a growing sense of moral obligation. Through our actions, we're signalling that our planet and the beings upon it are worth saving, hour by hour (e.g. Earth Hour) and job by job (e.g. job sharing).

The current crop of fiction is also making us think: are we worth saving? While most superhero films assume that humanity deserves a helping hand, Watchmen takes the opposite tack.

One of the characters, Dr. Manhattan, a supremely powerful being, who resides (in his birthday suit) in a quantum universe (and hence perceives time and space differently from humans) becomes increasingly detached from human beings, with their humdrum lives and inconsequential cares - in a cosmic sense. The one thing that draws him back is the epiphany that human beings are in fact remarkable - the combination of accidental connections that creates one individual is nothing short of miraculous.

Perhaps, in a sense, people are developing a greater sense of self-worth. Who knows? There have been five global extinctions to date and who's to say we won't be the cause of another?

2010 World Expo

"My Dream, Our Vision"

Singapore recently held a contest to design a pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. The theme is "Better City, Better Life". This entry is an awesome interpretation of a digital cloud skyscraper. It's also a great piece of engagement marketing for the brand "the future". Visitors are invited in to post their wishes for tomorrow.

How do recessions affect people's attitudes towards risk?

In 1951, Time magazine dubbed US youth born into the Great Depression as the "Silent Generation," berating an entire cohort for being too cautious, introspective and unwilling to engage in the great issues of the day.

Various research studies have indicated that children of previous depressions have tended to return to traditional values. There is a current trend to go "back to basics" in terms of placing greater value on close family and friends and in being more community minded.

While this doesn't exactly raise alarm bells, if people were to become over-cautious, what would it mean for innovation in enterprise in the future?

Innovation requires risk-taking and recessions tend to make people more risk averse. Research by Berkeley University, "Depression Babies: Do Macroeconomic Experiences Affect Risk Taking" indicates that a generational cohort's experience of economic factors, such as stock returns and inflation, has a significant impact on its willingness to bear financial risks at any point in time. So those who experienced high inflation early on were still cautious later in life, even if there was a subsequent boom. The study examined investors in the early 1980s (post-bust) compared to those in the late 1990s (post-boom).

So, perhaps people will be more cautious in the future, but I'm hopeful that the future won't be devoid of measured risk or innovation. The current climate is giving rise to staff retraining in parallel fields and more people are performing cross-functional roles. This could potentially raise ingenuity amongst the broader workforce, as people draw on knowledge from parallel fields.

Future Interfaces from Microsoft

The touchy-feely, simple interfaces of the future - according to Microsoft

Culture Bytes

I like mosaic images, generally - the fact that if you look too hard you can't see the wood for the trees and only if you step back do you get the picture. I spotted this one on picocool (originally for Time magazine). Picocool is well worth a look - random bytes of culture, design and trivia that caught someone's eye, somewhere.

Video is the New TV

Cadbury's "Eyebrows" video once again demonstrates the rising power of online video. Since it was first uploaded in January on YouTube and other video sites, the company estimatest that it has been viewed over 4 million times - that kills the uptake of its famous drumming gorilla campaign.

Rapidly going viral, "Eyebrows" has alread been parodied and mashed up and is firmly becoming entrenched in throw away pop culture.

Facebook Revises Terms of Service (again)

http://cruisin-mob.blogspot.com

Further to my last post, where I mentioned the difficulties Facebook has faced in monetising its offer, yesterday Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg backed down on proposals to revise the Terms of Service, following strident protests by members.

The revised terms would have allowed the site to keep a record of users' details and updates even if they left the network, which raised privacy concerns.

Facebook continues to face the conundrum of how to offer advertisers the benefits of access to over 175 million consumers worldwide without raising the hackles of its members. Its recent foray into user polls may still be a sticking point. AT&T and CareerBuilder.com have experimented with polls on people's home pages and the service is something Zuckerberg is keen to expand.

Marketers can also use Facebook Lexicon to track the topics users are talking about (e.g. via public posts on the Wall).

I think Facebook is potentially a fantastic source of market research information. But Facebook users are characteristically militant and prone to protests when they feel advertisers, or the Facebook founder, infringe on their liberties. It is their site, after all.

The Digital Tipping Point: The Future of Branding and Social Media

I attended a conference in Sydney yesterday called The Digital Tipping Point: The Future of Branding and Social Media.


That we have reached a digital tipping point is abundantly clear. IBM has already proclaimed that there will be more change in the next 5 years than there has been in the past 50 years, thanks to digital technologies. User time spent on social media increased by 43% in 2008 compared to 2007 (Pew Internet and American Life Project). Facebook has over 220 million members worldwide. Niche interest based networks are rapidly proliferating.

The future of branding and social media, on the other hand, is less clear-cut - or at least, success is not evenly distributed. MySpace, for example, has had much more success in monetising its offer than Facebook. To some extent this is a reflection of the different uses of these sites, Facebook being about connecting with friends and MySpace about discovery and fame.

But, as a rule of thumb, social media are more successful at carrying brand messages if they were designed to do so from the offset. Otherwise, established communities tend to react against the introduction of commercial messages because it feels to users as if the space they have taken ownership of is being invaded by an uninvited third party.

A growing number of emerging sites are both consumer centric and fiercely commercial, leveraging the insight that consumers are happy to use and manipulate brands to their own ends, be it self-expression or getting support for their passions.

Venture capitalist Brian Garrett, MD of Crossout Ventures, pointed out some new players: Social Vibe, Loopd and Flipgloss. While they may not be delivering great numbers yet, in terms of consumer eyeballs, these new models show commercial promise.


With companies placing greater emphasis on meaningful CSR, e.g. Kraft's "Give 6 Meals to People in Need" campaign, Social Vibe helps people get brand sponsorship in suppport of their causes. Brands, such as Colgate, provide artwork which people post to their blogs or social media profiles in support of their cause. The more views the profile gets, the more money Colgate and Social Vibe donate.

Extreme sports social network Loopd lets brands "sponsor" members - through providing branded stickers and discounts. The budding skateboarder feels like a sponsored pro, while brands get free viral marketing and an e-commerce channel.

Flipgloss is an intriguing proposition. Noticing that most glossy magazines don't migrate online very well, the developers set out to create print advertorials specifically for the online space. Instead of using small images and crowding the web page with text, Flipgloss has big muthas of images - looking just as delicious as the cover of Vogue. It then uses overlays (hover your mouse over sections of the image and contextual information appears). By clicking on these overlays, people can access information on where to buy products, or even buy directly. Flipgloss is not just a site, it's a widget which people can post to their own profiles.

It's now much easier to get your brands on to social networks, thanks to Adknowledge, which describes itself as a social applications ad network. Marketers can thereby take advantage of the thousands of applications that have already been developed, such as video applications. HBO, Neutrogena, 3 and Coldplay have already done so.

Adknowledge's President is Brett Brewer, the Co-Founder of MySpace, who knows a thing or two about social media marketing.

Oh, and he predicted that by 2015, the last major metropolitan newspaper will fall.

Making work safety sexy

I like this campaign. It's not an easy brief: Get twentysomethings engaged in work safety. But, with The Pain Factory, Worksafe Victoria and ninemsn have done a great job of making safety at work an engrossing topic.

A series of 9 videos, sourced from Funniest Home Videos, shows people getting smacked up through performing various risky or stupid activities. A smart feature is that 3 of the "sickest" videos are locked until users accrue enough points, by engaging with the site.

The use of a virtual host is effective. He has the right kind of attitude to appeal to the target audience. At one point he says something like: I don't know about you, but I'm not about to get myself messed up just for my job. Fair point.

Data visualisation

http://www.wordle.net/

The data we’re constantly creating is growing exponentially. But unless we can make sense of this data, as consumers and businesses, what use is it? Data visualisation enables us to tell stories with information.

Wordle and IBM’s Many Eyes help users analyse online text through representing the frequency of words in terms of letter size. Social news site Digg graphically represents conversations about various topics through DiggSwarm to monitor the buzz.

http://labs.digg.com/swarm/

Microsoft's phenomenal Photosynth (now out of Beta) collates people’s digital photos to build a 3D model of locations around the world for anyone to explore. CNN created a Photosynth of the of the Inauguration of Barack Obama. They invited anyone to contribute simply by taking a digital photo and sending it to themoment@cnn.com. Photosynth software compiled the shots, creating a spectacular, hyper real reproduction of the scene.

Organisations collect vast amounts of research data, much of which is under-utilised. Visualisation tools can help them make better use of company data. Marketers can use word clouds to instantly get a snapshot of what consumers are saying about their brands. They can easily share data visualisations with other offices to collaborate more effectively.

Tracer, an Aegis proprietary tool, enables us to quickly spot trends and correlations in media and sales data over time. These can then be modeled.

I love playing around with visualisation tools, particularly as they have a social networking element. On Many Eyes, for example, users share and comment on others' visualisations, which generates new ideas.

Ingenious hybrids

The internet has, for some time, encouraged user creativity. Now, forced to respond to change, people are becoming even more adaptable. Boundaries are blurring between genres, with creative and technological skills increasingly in demand. As a result of mergers and redundancies, staff are retraining in parallel fields. Reduced workforces are performing cross-functional roles. This is likely to raise ingenuity in the future, with hybrid staff drawing on different, related skills to arrive at new solutions – rather like a human mashup.

Organisations need to consider to what extent they're welcoming hybrids to gear up for the future. Rather than just recruiting people who’ve always done the same role, consider “mashing up” your staff and harnessing new combinations of skills, such as TV production and strategy in marketing roles. As the adage goes: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.

The hybridisation trend extends to brands, which are flouting category conventions and pushing into new market spaces. PlayStation’s LittleBigPlanet is a hybrid online game and social network. Levis, P&G, Coca Cola and Starbucks all have their own music labels. Musicians Groove Armada just signed up with drinks firm Bacardi, rather than opting for a normal record label.

Generosity

It may seem incongruous, but in hard times, people are becoming more generous. This relates to my previous post on changing social currency. Being less reliant on money for happiness, they’re finding meaning in generosity of spirit - the mutual-support of family and friends. This is apparent in community co-operatives, in a willingness to reduce their working hours, so co-workers can keep their jobs, and, in greater engagement with brands that support communities. Sociologists at Harvard Medical School point to the contagious nature of happiness and generosity, which are transmitted via social networks.

By reflecting consumer values of generosity and kindness and supporting communities, brands stand to gain. For example, I've previously highlighted ColaLife.org, whereby Coke’s global distribution network will help deliver medicines to the world’s poor.

Nestle flooded Tokyo with cherry blossom, as a symbol of goodwill towards exam takers, helping to defuse a highly stressful situation.

Brands that trade on optimism, helping people celebrate the good things in life, will be remembered. In Australia, insurance company IAG’s ‘Unworry’ campaign captures the mood. This is in keeping with theories of social influence. Spending time with positive people - and brands - reinforces positive feelings and behaviour (which is why people have exercise partners).

In general, brands that offer better deals and/or better experiences, helping consumers through tougher times, will generate goodwill.

Changing social currency

The global economic situation is causing people to see their lives and brands through a new lens. This reframing is a catalyst for accelerated change in values. 88% of Americans now think the US is too materialistic, a study by Boston College suggests. People are going back to basics, realising that the most valuable currency is relationships with the people that really matter.

Having competitively collected any old random acquaintance as a Facebook "friend", people are now cutting back to just the real ones - a trend, which Burger King exploited fiendishly, with their Whopper Sacrifice campaign. (Facebook users could trade in the friends they didn't really know or like for free Whoppers.)

Opportunity in crisis

There are losers and winners in every downturn. While retail growth is at a 15 year low, insolvency accountants are doing a roaring trade.

But, I believe that the current economic climate presents an opportunity for any business. It represents a dramatic shift in context. As such, it forces people to reframe their thinking.

The downturn, in other words, is forcing businesses to think differently. They're grappling with issues like, how do we get through this, how long is it going to last, what do we need to change to be competitive in this new situation, how do we manage our resources.

Some companies are still looking at short term goals - firing people and keeping their heads below the parapets. Others are thinking more creatively, in terms of long term goals and how they will evolve their company for the future. These are the ones who will benefit from the shifting context and transform their businesses in the medium to long term.

A large part of creative thinking is about changing the context in order to stimulate the imagination. Most of the time we have to do this artificially through thought experiments, for example, imagining alternative or extreme scenarios and how our brand would behave under those conditions. Thanks to the downturn, the extreme scenario is all too real. It's forcing accelerated change in thinking and in business practices. In the longer term, it may be just what stagnating businesses need.

Sweating Sickness

I'm a big fan of The Tudors. I do mean, as it happens, the TV series depicting the lives of King Henry VIII and his entourage and not vice versa, though I suspect few will jump to the opposite conclusion.

It's a rollickin' good ride - the sex, the drugs, the sixteenth century court music. But, never mind the debauchery, what particularly struck me was an episode in which the Sweating Sickness decimated London's population, sending all people, rich and poor, into mass panic, terror and abject hopelessness. This virulent plague was entirely unknown to me.

Unsettled by such a significant gap in my education, I went straight to the oracle wikipedia. I discovered that not only was the Sweating Sickness, or 'English sweate', as prevalent and feared as depicted in The Tudors, but that, to this day, no one knows what caused it, or what it was. Terrifying. The SARS of its day, or worse, as it was utterly mysterious.

I wonder if British schools over the years buried knowledge of this Sweating Sickness. We learn about The Plague and, in period novels, there's always a smattering of consumption, but these diseases, in contrast, have known causes and treatments.

Perhaps it's deemed unseemly to frighten children with incurable plagues. In childhood, all is black and white. There's no problem that can't be fixed by an all-powerful grown up, no illness that can't be cured by a knowledgeable physician. The Sweating Sickness breaks the natural order of things - in creeps uncertainty and indeterminacy. Mustn't frighten the horses.

Season 2 of The Tudors starts tonight. Count me in.

Maria and Stavros

I love the new Woolworths ad. When they launched the 'Fresh Food People' campaign I got the drift but it was still way to addy for my liking. And the track annoys the hell out of me. But the introduction of real Fresh Food People makes all the difference.

They don't come any more 'real' than Maria and Stavros, who are entirely charming and disarming. Shot in their native tongue, the commercial depicts an elderly Greek couple apparently having a barney from room to room. Turns out that Maria has spotted the birds attacking the vegetable patch. Stavros saves the day by swivelling in his chair to operate an ingenious makeshift scarecrow contraption. He then returns to a hard day of reading the newspaper, while his wife continues to slave away in the kitchen. All's well with the world.

There's something very cool about old people who know each other through and through and thus can be entirely themselves - no playing games, no pretending, no bullshit. I find their codes intriguing and their level of comfort with one another compelling. I'm reminded of an old Meat and Livestock commission campaign from the UK - again featuring an old couple and set against the Sonny & Cher track "I got you babe".

Play

We're a playful bunch, humans, whether or not we choose to indulge this side of our nature.

We love the anticipation of the game. No matter how unlikely the odds, we dare to hope for a favourable outcome. I learned recently that a high proportion of UK lottery winners continue to play. The excitement, it would appear, is in the chase.

Games don't need to be elaborate to capture our attention. According to mobile specialists the Hyperfactory, some of the most popular mechanics in mobile games replicate the whimsical interactions of old fairground attractions, such as the wheel of fortune.

And despite the awesome graphics of today's console games, old favourites like Tetris and Space Invaders are still winners. A McDonald's mobile campaign in China enthralled players with hamburgers built from Tetris blocks.

Old favourites like Monopoly and LEGO continue to delight children and adults alike. LEGO may be available as Mindstorms , which now incorporates NXT robot intelligence, but the basic blocks are just as much fun. Just today, a mystery giant LEGO man was found washed up on Brighton beach in the UK, gizmodo reports. Colluding in the prank, bemused LEGO spokespeople said that LEGO man was giving Baywatch stars a run for their money.

For all that consumers are said to be sophisticated and savvy, they're still easily pleased, provided brands can tap into people's childish sense of wonder and fun.

The thrifty will inherit what's left of the earth

The global economic crisis has prompted some serious rethinking on concepts like 'greed' and 'thrift'. Greed is no longer good and the thrifty will inherit the earth, provided, that is, that the greedy haven't destroyed it by then.

Thrift has had a bad rap in the past. Just look at some of the word associations - 'skinflint', 'frugal', 'mean', 'Scrooge'. A new report from US think tank The Institute for American Values, entitled For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture, attempts to foster a culture that's more amenable to thriftier lifestyles.


Business Week points to a growing number of 'Freegans', who see acquiring things for free (sometimes literally out of a dumpster) as a virtue.


Thrift immediately suggests saving money, but the concept is broader. People can be frugal in their consumption of resources generally, be it personal funds or the world's resources.


A culture of thrift is thus poised to take advantage not only of economic trends but environmental ones. The Australian government is set to ban the sales of incandescent light bulbs from October 2009, forcing a switch to energy saver, or halogen, bulbs.


Being thrifty can be seen as the 'smart' choice. This is the reward of thrifty consumers. They may save in one area of their lives, to splurge in other areas that mean more to them, for example, saving on basic foods to splash out on imported cheeses, which will look impressive at their dinner party. Or, people simply feel the reward of 'doing their bit' if their frugality benefits the planet in some small way.


Various brands have adopted positionings based on thrift, car rental company Thrifty, for instance. But, with frugality increasingly in vogue, others are following.


Australian consumers know that the wolf is at the door. They're beginning to cut back, but, the Mackay Report suggests, behavioural change doesn't automatically follow the realisation that the times are a-changin'. It takes a while for people to wean themselves off spending habits. Most would rather protect their lifestyles and the luxuries they now consider their dues.


Brands, which can help them protect their lifestyles, stand to gain.

On freedom

I used to think freedom was travelling the world without a care, elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp. But there's the rub. We're seldom truly carefree, being limited by time, money or energy.

The traveller is haunted by the knowledge that her adventures draw inexorably to a close, as days and funds dwindle. Monday always follows Sunday. For every dusk, there's a dawn, swallowing up the last of the revellers.

I value freedom above all else. I have constantly searched for it. I've even found it in the most unexpected of places. Lately, I've found intellectual freedom at work. Bizarrely, greater authority and even responsibility can set you free.

My Archetype, or mythical character that's common to stories the world over, is the Wild person, the free spirit. I may not be roaming the universe in body, but I am in spirit.

I went down to the Crossroads: the fork as a metaphor for choice and change

Throughout history, the fork has had a bad rap. I'm not talking specifically about the eating utensil, which has got off relatively lightly. I refer to the serpent's forked toungue, which heralded the fall of mankind, the chicanery of two-faced politicians, the crossroads where the devil lies in wait. I refer, effectively, to the fork as a metaphor for choice, change - and trickery.

People are deeply suspicious when it comes to choice and change. We say we embrace both, but when it comes to the crunch, most would rather never reach that fork in the road (except for a brief period in adolescence, when any alternative seems more exciting than a family night in). The fork is temptation and risk. It's scary and dangerous. Best to plod along on the same path.

Anyone who markets to people, or, for that matter, anyone who has any dealings with people at all, needs to bear in mind how little they like change. People are naturally risk averse and need help at the crossroads. They need guidance to feel comfortable with the choices they make, be it brand choices, life choices or whatever. Brands can be these guides, but only with the right authority and empathy. Otherwise they risk raising suspicion. At the crossroads, it's easy to be mistaken for the devil! 

It's the question that drives us

As Trinity whispered urgently to Neo in The Matrix, "It's the question that drives us." It's generally accepted amongst free thinkers that it's a good thing to ask questions. And thank Morpheus, your lucky stars, or whichever celestial body takes your fancy. Even so, I wish that people would put a bit more thought into the questions they ask.

Questions are important. Questions warrant consideration. The better the question, the more informative the answer. The more open the question, often, the more surprising the answer.

While promoting their Grindhouse films, Tarantino and Rodriguez participated in a Q&A session, included as an extra DVD feature on Rodriguez's Planet Terror. A film student asked how the directors felt about the changing competitive landscape in film, with the proliferation of directors and productions, and whether that made it more difficult to succeed today.

Tarantino, as ever, fraught with nerdy excitement, jumped in. Yes, there's more competition, he said, but if you create something brilliant, your Reservoir Dogs, then the competition is entirely irrelevant.

Now, that's some answer. One that's equally applicable to businesses and brands as films. Instead of constantly benchmarking against the competition, focus on doing something great yourself and render the competition irrelevant. It's the basic premise behind Kim and Mauborgne's book Blue Ocean Strategy.

Ask away, by all means. Try to ask the right questions of the right people and get some answers that you haven't anticipated.

Sex In The City Sucks (Tarantino rules!)

Forget Sex In The City. Tarantino makes the best chick flicks. Hands down.

When Sex In The City's Carrie Bradshaw was totally incapable of using an iPhone, even to avert a major relationship crisis, I inwardly groaned. I sunk further in my seat when women around me chortled on cue, relating to her technophobia. Come of chicks, get with the programme!

Now, Tarantino. Dude is like a lady - in a good way. As if Kill Bill wasn't enough, he directed Death Proof, which has kick ass, hot, car mad girls meting out punishment to a Kurt Russell's psycho stunt man. I watched it again the other day and it always makes me smile.

Tarantino's chicks are the modern ideal of womanhood for many teens (and me, although I'll have to chalk that one up to immaturity!) Some might say he contributes to the much talked about 'pornification of girlhood', whereby girls and women are made into sex objects by the media, making pornography part of popular culture. This, in turn, is said to contribute to low self esteem and eating disorders. What's more, women actively objectify themselves in the way they dress and dance etc.

Clearly this is an area for debate. And there's clearly some truth in it. The Dove campaign for Real Beauty wouldn't have hit such a clear home run if this weren't such a contentious issue.

But, far from demeaning women, I think Tarantino's films have the opposite effect. They're joyous and empowering. They're full of crap. They're funny and gross (take the car crash scene with the wobbly dismembered limb in Death Proof). They collude with young women, who want to be sassy and sexy and smart and tough. And, of course, there's a cracking soundtrack. Yes, we have it all. With nobs on.

When it comes to CSR, listen to someone who cares

Coca-Cola Manual distribution/Flickr

In highly competitive, increasingly commoditised markets, in which consumers have become more sceptical, powerful - and caring - one of the new battlegrounds is CSR, or corporate social responsibility. CSR has become common practice by multinationals, so, for initiatives to stand out as something more than corporate flagwaving, they need some heart.

Some companies are developing a more convincing social conscience through listening to people who really care. By keeping an ear to social networks, brands can harness the passion and ideas of people outside the usual corporate box. They can access innovative, fresh thinking and help consumers rally behind a genuine cause.

When blogger Simon Berry pursued his ingenious idea of leveraging Coca-Cola's huge global distribution network to improve healthcare in developing countries, the company took note. Berry was struck by the preposterousness of the fact that people without access to basic medicine could easily get hold of a can of Coke. For many years, he lacked the tools to realise his vision for a new medical distribution model, then he spotted the potential to organise support through social networks. He created a Facebook group, which grew organically and currently has 4,473 members and counting.

As the ColaLife campaign gained traction, garnering the support of the BBC, Coca-Cola's Global Director of Stakeholder Relations, Salvatore Gabola, invited Berry to their European headquarters to discuss his idea (see Simon's blog or WorldChanging).

On 6 May, a Business Call to Action event, supported by the British government and the UN, highlighted inspirational development initiatives by big companies, including Coca-Cola, Citi Group, Diageo, Microsoft, Reuters, Simitomo and Vodafone. A major UN meeting, scheduled for 25 September, will encourage further commitment from governments, businesses and the private sector to reducing poverty in developing countries.

To support the ColaLife initiative, which would distribute rehydration salts to poor people via Coca-Cola's network, refer to the the ColaLife blog, sign up to the Facebook or Google Group, follow the action on Delicious or Twitter, or post relevant images to the flickr group.

Tight pants and Priming

Screenshot of George Costanza, Seinfeld Episode 522/Wikipedia

Every now and then TV1's repository of television show trivia yields a little gem. Fans of the comedy Seinfeld will be all too familiar with the character George Costanza - his neuroses, pettiness and insecurities. But it's not just deft scriptwriting and the skill of actor Jason Alexander that make this character larger than life. According to TV1, the costume department always dressed Jason in clothes that were just a size too small, which instantly had comedic effect, although most viewers probably weren't aware of why.

I think this is a great example of priming, that is, eliciting certain thoughts, in this case, the expectation that George is a loser. Visual or verbal cues that provoke certain implicit thoughts can likewise be used in advertising. They can help add a layer of subtlety, which a lot of ads lack, partly due to time constraints and the need to convey a particular explicit message about the brand.

Customer Service - King for a Day

King Morpheus/Wikimedia Commons

All service companies focus on customer service. The customer is king. Bla bla bla. Unfortunately, all too often, the reality, particularly for big organisations, is patchy service, with the oversights and affronts undoing the good work. In fact it's so rare that I'm genuinely impressed by service that I'm compelled to thank the purveyor of this fine experience.

Last month, I stayed at the Brussels Marriott and it was brilliant! I used to live in Brussels and, while there are many things to recommend the city - such as the fantastic restaurants and bars and the art deco architecture - I would never have described it as the city of smiles. The French-speaking Walloons and the Flemish are still learning to love each other, while a thinly veiled Ixellois snobbery adds a dash of class conflict. Not so in the Marriott! It was a microcosm of the ideal of the United Nations. Peace, harmony and goodwill to all guests.

The concierge tracked down our favourite restaurants, despite my mis-spelling Le Zoute Zoen (a gorgeous restaurant in Antwerp - it means 'the sweet kiss', or so said the taxi driver). The concierge then left a phone message and dropped a note under our door, offering to make the bookings.

The breakfast chef's booming laugh was infectious. He had all the kitchen staff going, but didn't fail to show guests, even the stragglers, courtesy and attention, cooking up fresh food just for us.

The room was impeccably clean (sure, the Marriott is 5 star, but so is a certain hotel in Melbourne, which once treated me to a dirty toilet seat on arrival - the perfunctory apology and offer to clean the room rang a bit hollow).

All in all, it felt like everyone took pride in their work. They enjoyed being there. They enjoyed the guests' being there. (Sounds like a no-brainer, but I've known airlines where you feel like you're an inconvenience.)

Customer Service isn't a department. It has got to be practiced by everyone. And I don't think good customer service comes from a dictate from management. It comes from enjoyment.

Magic Portal

Telectroscope (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

Recently, on my travels, I stumbled upon a truly magic piece of interactive art. Near London's Tower Bridge lies a portal to another city. Londoners are linked to New Yorkers via what appears to be a huge periscope, which offers a glimpse not of life on the ocean waves, but life in Manhattan, while their NY counterparts see London life through the magic lens.

Dubbed the Telectroscope (a term coined by 19th century scientists who could only imagine systems of distant viewing) the Pullmanesque device evokes the grandeur and wonderment of great inventions of yesteryear. Like the technical exhibits that mystified audiences in the past, it's somehow uncanny.

Artist Paul St George has brought back the showmanship and whimsy of contraptions like the original Mechanical Turk, Wolfgang von Kempelen's chess-playing 'automaton' that bewitched audiences in the late 18th century. The Turk required a sleight of hand to achieve its effect, while the telectroscope uses good, honest, and now, rather simple, technology - it's basically a giant webcam.

Turk engraving, from Karl Gottlieb von Windisch's

1784 book Inanimate Reason, Wikipedia

The Telectroscope exhibit was short-lived (22 May to 15 June) but it was a fantastic example of interactive art. It wouldn't have been complete without the audience, who wholeheartedly participated, waving to, signing and miming to strangers across the pond - and across time, nighttime Manhattan connecting with daytime London.

The Telectroscope was funded by European telecommunications company Tiscali. It could, I imagine, have been a significantly more branded piece of branded entertainment, without losing its appeal. A webcam manufacturer could have created a similar installation to demonstrate the magic of its product, while a VoIP or travel provider could also have benefited.

The New Communications Paradigm is Yesterday's News

There's always a time lag between a paradigm shift and the broader realisation that the world has changed forever. We're in the throes of a time lag right now. Digital technologies have altered communications beyond all recognition, yet many professionals are still catching up. People are still talking about the shift from exposure to engagement and interaction as if it's new news. If anyone thinks we've just shifted to second gear, wake up and see the world hurtling past at breakneck speed.

One-way communication, the old way of raising awareness of a product and expecting people to buy it, is long gone. In a world of instant interaction and brand overload, everything has become an exchange, not just the transaction, but every piece of communication. The brand-consumer exchange is no longer based just on money, but time and energy because these are the trade-off decisions people make every day, in deciding what brands to bother with.

So, when speaking to consumers, brands have to offer something, be it branded entertainment, or something useful, like an online application that they can express themselves with, or perhaps, something free. What brands get out of this exchange, is consumers' attention and perhaps the permission to keep up the conversation. But, keep it fresh. A conversation, by definition, evolves; subjects change. Otherwise the speaker soon finds himself alone, engaged in a soliloquy.

My Brand New Box

On 1st May I became a 'Female, aged 35-44'. That's my new demographic box, for targeting purposes, which makes me a likely target for romantic comedies and family foods (no kids, never cook, hate sappy movies, give me Entourage or Battlestar Galactica anyday). I'm also a Taurus and an Ox. There I am, in a nutshell. You practically know me already. Or, at least, you've made your acquaintance with my group stereotype.

Some clubs you choose to belong to, while others you're assigned by default. My beef is mainly with the latter, but even members' clubs have their critics.

Groucho Marx had a thing or two to say about clubs. A famous quote, immortalised in Woody Allen's Annie Hall, is: "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member."

Clubs can be criticised for their exclusivity, which creates barriers between 'people like us' and 'people like them'. Sometimes, club members live up to the stereotypes of their chosen group, while outsiders make lazy assumptions about the members of that group. Clubs impose rules on behaviour and conduct and do not expect their terms to be questioned.

Group identification can even lead to self-delusion, for example, when people read too much into horoscopes. According to the 'barnum effect' in psychology, people tend to believe statements are specific and personal to them (such as those relating to their star sign), when in fact they are general enough to apply to anyone.

Yet, just about everyone is trying to get into some club or other, be it gaining peer acceptance at school, getting into the golf club, or blagging your way into a night club. So what's the big attraction?

Clubs provide protection, security, opportunities for advancement and a place to get food and drink when no one else will let you in. It's easy to strike up a conversation with people, who are like minded in some way. It's comforting to know you belong. The world seems more orderly and less scary. Your club is a place where, like the Cheers bar, 'everybody knows your name'.

People inevitably group together, because the desire for connection is so strong. Whether or not individuals thrive in a group depends on many factors. Personally, I'm uncomfortable with clubs that are exclusive and inflexible and I hate being assigned a group. (Ironically, my stubborn refusal to be put in a particular box probably goes some way to confirming my group identity as an 'Ox'!)

Rigid taxonomies are no longer the order of the day, as Clay Shirky points out in Ontology is Overrated. The Internet allows us to assign tags, which label and define content in a multitude of ways, without the need to impose a single, arbitrary classification.

In the same way, people can belong to multiple groups without being defined by those groups. They can connect - and disconnect - at will, engaging with particular interests or topics as it suits them.

Death of Mediocre

There was a time when people would think themselves lucky to have a telly. Foreign food was quite exotic. Foreign holidays were for the toffs. But then people started getting fancy ideas above their station, as they got their hands on goods that were once way beyond their means.

A lot of this democratisation can be attributed to technology. The cost of consumer technology, from the washing machine to the mobile phone, has plummeted, while devices have become more powerful, in accordance with Moore's Law. Now most people in developed countries think it's their god given right to watch their favourite shows, when they want to, on a flatscreen high definition TV.

Exercising this right in all their consumption, consumers expect everyday luxury and good quality at an affordable price tag. At times, they'll also treat themselves to real luxury and pay the exorbitant price. Increasingly, what they won't stand for is mediocre goods at fairly high prices. We're seeing the death of the middle ground.

Polarisation is occurring across industries. In the hotel business, on the one hand, there's 'boutique budget' accommodation with mandatory flatscreen TV and wifi, for example, Accor's Motel 6 chain in the US; at the other end of the scale, luxury hotels like the Westin in Sydney.



Motel 6


Supermarkets have low-cost, good quality staples, such as the You'll Love Coles range, and they have the premium deli-quality offerings.

Gordon Ramsay adjures owners of small restaurants to do a few simple things really well, even if it's soup or a Croque Monsieur, and offer them at a competitive price. His own restaurants are the epitome of ultra-luxury, for when people want to spoil themselves.

But still, in all sectors, falling between two stools, there's a quagmire of a) fairly cheap and fairly shit and b) mediocre and overpriced goods, fighting a losing battle to stay relevant. Unfortunately, a lot of traditional, household brands fall into this category. They're pushing out the same old so-so goods that were crowd pleasers in the 1980s. They may alter the look/taste/feel incrementally, but that's just not enough. Mediocre is dying and cannot be reanimated, despite the best efforts of marketing.

At the same time, consumer segmentation based predominantly on socio-economic, or demographic, profiling, is leading businesses up the garden path. That's because the same people, who are buying the quality budget goods, are also buying the high-cost luxury. They're not different segments. They're the same people at different times (who can be more different in their behaviour from one occasion to the next than two entirely different people!) They'll shop at K-Mart one day, and David Jones the next. They'll choose the thrifty option at times, so they can treat themselves when the need arises.

Weighing up their time, energy and money, people are constantly making trade off decisions, consciously, or unconsciously. Mediocre brands hardly feature in these decisions. They may still be household heavyweights, but this is largely thanks to shoppers' habitual behaviour. These consumers are giving way to new generations, who expect more.

B&B

Blogging is a bit like running a B&B, without the breakfast, or the bed. You set up the place to your liking, but with punters in mind. You check out the guest book and take comments to heart. You keep it neat and tidy, but retain enough character to keep people coming back. I say this glibly, for I have no experience in the hospitality trade. Then again, I'm the landlord of this virtual space.

Gridlock 2020

The issue of Australia's digital economy has dropped to second place - from bottom - on the discussion guide for the forthcoming Australia 2020 Summit, B&T reports (April 11).

This doesn't bode well for a bright digital future. But, in the light of the current debacle in the UK over the BBC iPlayer's bringing broadband networks to their knees, it seems particularly shortsighted.

The iPlayer lets users download or stream TV programmes to a computer, a Wii, even an iPhone. Such is its popularity with users that broadband networks are straining under the pressure and network upgrades are needed.

Now there's a lot of argy-bargy between the BBC and ISP providers, with the government caught in the middle, over who should pay for the bandwidth improvements. It's a debate to the tune of £830m - the estimated cost, according to regulator Ofcom, of providing the extra capacity to accommodate online video services.

Unless the situation is resolved, some analysts, including US-based Nemertes Research, predict net gridlock by 2010.

Now, let's come back to the issue of Australia's digital economy. As consumers enjoy more bandwidth bustin' on-demand services (with less bandwidth available to them than UK consumers currently have), it looks like 'Australia 2020 Summit' is a wildly optimistic title - we could be heading for meltdown well before then.

Worldview

I love this quote, which I just spotted on the FOAF site:

"There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't."

Robert Benchley, Benchley's Law of Distinction

Social Shopping: Making Online Advertising Work

A new site, Rasba, co-founded by 17-year-old Miriam Brafman, succeeds in doing what Facebook's Beacon initially tried - and failed - to achieve: the right balance between online shopping, advertising and social networking.

As I've highlighted previously, Beacon failed to have an opt-in system, so people were revealing their purchases to others without realising it. But, I believe, despite the fallout, Facebook had the right idea, executed wrongly.

Rasba not only avoids antagonising users through ensuring opt-in from the start, it makes buyers advocates of the advertising model, through leveraging social - and real - currency. They earn kudos and commission when the brands they've bought, displayed on their profile pages, are subsequently purchased by other members.

Just as 'gifting', 'begging' and feedback features on social networking sites facilitate social exchanges, other smart features of Rasba include wishlists and newsfeed-style updates on what their friends are buying. And brands get their own customisable storefronts within the website - it's win-win all round.

For teens, shopping is fundamentally a social event - whether it's spotting what the cool kids are wearing (nonchalantly, of course, and passing it off as your own style), consulting friends in the changing room, or via mms, or getting the verdict from the crowd on the way to a big night out. It makes absolute sense for e-commerce sites to leverage this. Teens' desire for acceptance, belonging and killer style is no less online.

Science fiction and innovation

Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, once said:
"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."

Most research and trends forecasting reflect the present. To envision the future takes an imaginative curve ball. There’s no formula for innovation, but the kind of thinking found in science fiction can open your mind.

Science fiction is a fusion of the logic of science and the magic of fiction, a potent hybrid where rational and emotional worlds collide. In science fiction, rules can be bent or circumvented, reframing problems to reach novel solutions. It opens up possibilities for exploration and helps make the impossible happen. The genie is let out of the bottle, the kraken wakes...

Science fiction overlaps with philosophy of science. Philosophical thought experiments allow us to imaginatively explore a range of possible futures and examine the practical and moral implications of actions. So, science fiction helps us not only to innovate, but to innovate responsibly. Though often perceived as cold and mechanistic, or as depicting outlandish adventures in space, science fiction tends to be grounded in human behaviour. It can help us manage technological development in a way that benefits people.

A famous example of a thought experiment is the ‘brain in a vat’ scenario. Basically, every person in the world could be no more than a brain, suspended in a scientific vessel, perhaps located somewhere on Mars, being stimulated by alien scientists to feel as if they were having the experiences of life on Earth – going to work, socialising, touching, feeling. Our experiences would be no different qualitatively – in other words, we have no way of knowing whether the world we live in is real. Yet somehow, intuitively, we rail against the idea. 

The idea may sound convoluted on paper, but the film The Matrix brings the concept vividly to life. Science fiction makes complex ideas easy to imagine, inspiring developers to make them come true. Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey is credited for popularising the idea of space stations, spurring on NASA scientists to build them.

Many of the computer technologies emerging today, including voice and face recognition, were foretold by Philip K. Dick in his 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? True Names (1981) by cyberfiction guru Vernor Vinge, became a cult classic among software developers and influenced the creation of multiplayer online worlds. In medicine and nanotechnology, artificial skin that fights infection was heralded by Frank Herbert in his 1977 novel The Dosadi Experiment.

Science fiction manifests the power of dreams. Instead of thinking, ‘that’s impossible’, it invites us to muse, ‘what if it were possible?’ and find a way to make it happen.

It holds the key to new inventions, to date unrealised. Concepts, such as Arthur C. Clarke’s space elevator (Fountains of Paradise), and planet colonisation, as seen in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy, continue to inspire and drive scientists. Their cross-over into reality is being made (almost) imminent by very serious research projects.

At the intersection of technology, design and marketing, concepts that once seemed to be science fiction are transforming brand and retail experiences. Interactive kiosks, such as those used on the Levi’s Fit tour, allow customers to design their own customised products. Museum or art gallery tours are being delivered via PDAs for a more personal, interactive experience. Social networking, integrated into retail environments, allows shoppers to get a second opinion from friends, wherever they are, via interactive mirrors in changing rooms (Icon Nicholson's social retailing). James Law Cybertecture create intelligent, customised spaces that will transform the cities of the future.

Wherever fresh thinking is needed, science fiction can help us envision what’s at the very edge of our imaginations. We get the car, not the faster horse.

Business, Meet Web 2.0

I've been toying with the idea of buying a house lately, but I'm scared. Not of spiralling interest rates, or even global economic meltdown. Though I laugh in the face of impending financial ruin, I scream, inside, at the prospect of filling out inscrutable application forms.

I came across the cartoon above by Eric Burke the other day on ExperienceCurve, which illustrates the problem. I'm spoilt with exquisitely simple, tactile design from Apple, with user-friendly apps on Facebook, with Open ID that lets me use the same ID to log on to hundreds of websites and with at-a-click search from Google (though I look forward to more contextual and visual search, as it develops). But, for the most part, when I encounter a corporate digital interface, it’s arcane, requiring me to perform bizarre rites and baffling repetitions.

Staff are equally bamboozled by their own systems. Too often, internal corporate architectures deter employees from doing their jobs effectively, burying data or making it close to impossible to conduct relevant queries. This drains morale out of the workplace, it makes training tricky and it delivers sucky customer service.

Many systems are old, entrenched and expensive to replace. But, their time is up. They've simply got to be overhauled. It's more urgent now than ever because people are getting used to the user-friendly, rapid interfaces of Web 2.0.

Various studies suggest that businesses are increasingly persuaded of the importance of social networking. A survey conducted in December 2007 by IDC reports that 50% of medium to large businesses across the Asia-Pacific region see Web 2.0 as a business opportunity, while around 8% view it as a threat.

Research skewed to the US and Europe indicates an even greater receptivity to business 2.0. Research by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), covering North America (39% of sample), Europe (26%) and Asia-Pacific (26%), indicated that 79% felt Web 2.0 technologies could add to their companies' bottom lines.

But, their conviction too often lacks mettle, or direction, or any tangible output. EIU research suggests that many executives are rather hazy when it comes to the specifics of just how Web 2.0 can help business. For example, just 39% recognised 'tagging' as a way to leverage group opinions and they found it hard to spot practical applications.

Some businesses really do bite the bullet – ABC has created an island for staff in Second Life and Telstra is also present. In 2007, Westpac trialled the virtual world for staff training, The Australian IT section reported. But, such efforts do little to encourage other companies, as virtual worlds are still seen as rather extreme and pointless by many executives.

I suggest, keep it simple, reflect how staff are already using Web 2.0 in their lives and start with social networks.

New 'Social CRM' companies are helping to bridge the gap between social networking and business data, delivering relevant, usable marketing data to help, not hinder, staff. The name of the game is 'social enterprise', or 'socialprise' (or any other witty juxtaposition or combination that might grab headlines!)

Kintera combines online forms with offline data, although its website is, unfortunately, rather complex, with too many options and no succinct positioning. In other words, I gave up and moved on, rather than navigating through the site.

InsideView seems more straightforward, at least the offer is clear from the website. Its SalesView platform helps sales people access both business data and data that's publicly available online. It meshes the information together in a cohesive way, helping sales people spot opportunities and deliver better customer service.

WorkLight brings social networking to internal communications and aims to put to rest corporate security fears. Its Workbook tool is a secure overlay for Facebook, combining Facebook's look and capabilities with the controls needed in a corporate environment. Employees can use Workbook to communicate with colleagues, publish and receive company-related news, create bookmarks and share material exclusively within the organisation.




In addition, WorkLight provides a range of applications that allow staff to perform tasks like filling out purchase orders, or vacation requests, in familiar environments, either on their desktops, or through interfaces like Netvibes, or iGoogle's personalised homepage, which more people are now using in everyday life.

Not only social networks, but online applications and open source, collaborative techniques can now easily be applied in business.

Too many corporate Firewalls are still raining fire and brimstone down upon digital 'invaders' like Facebook, which, they believe, threaten productivity. More than half of the companies surveyed by IDC said they do not allow employees to access typical Web 2.0 services from work – the like of social networks, Internet video and virtual worlds - because they view such services as a waste of the employee’s and the company’s time. (Yet half said they saw Web 2.0 as a business opportunity.)

But, companies would do well to balance the odd wasted minute against the potential gains of embracing the social Web in enterprise.

So, throw down the ramparts and send a virtual hug to the digital world. Or just poke it. But take a look at what's out there. What you don't know can hurt you.

The Semantic Web and the evolution of man and machine

Nova Spivack, www.radarnetworks.com


The Semantic Web is the next evolution of the Web and it’s important. Whoever you are, it will affect you. It is no less than the evolution of humankind in tandem with technology, moving towards the hybridisation of man and machine. If you’re not interested, or excited, or scared, you’re not listening. The Web is becoming part of who you are.

The Web has a dual role of connecting information and connecting people and, as Nova Spivack's chart above shows, the Semantic Web represents a higher order of both information connectivity and social connectivity.

There are a number of definitions of the Semantic Web – ironically having 'Semantic' in the title does little to aid understanding of the term. Even the title is work in progress, for it's also known as Web 3.0 or Web 3G.

But don't let that put you off. It's a thorny, difficult, contentious - and wildly exciting - topic. And it's already happening, as the Web evolves into a more conscious, intelligent entity, organising information and helping people understand things more easily.

Early examples of Semantic applications and services, already available, include twine, which learns about you as you use it and automatically tags content that interests you, letting you organise, share and discover relevant material more effectively. TripIt, the personal travel organiser, automatically generates a customised travel guide for you when you send it your itinerary.

On Friday, I attended an interesting seminar, run by AIMIA, on the Semantic Web. No forum on the Semantic Web seems complete without a quote from Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and Yoda of the Web 3.0 Consortium (W3C):

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analysing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.” (1999)

Speaking at the seminar, Jennifer Wilson, Principal of Lean Forward, described the Semantic Web as a 'Context Consciousness’, which builds on the Communication of Web 1.0 and the Conversation of Web 2.0. This suggests an interpretative intelligence, which links information together.

To illustrate this, Jennifer cited Tim Berners-Lee's example of the Semantic Web's helping people to interpret their credit card statements, by automatically overlaying their calendar data, so they know where they were when the transactions took place. It could also overlay photos from Flickr, so people can place themselves visually. This means they can easily spot any fraudulent transactions. (Unfortunately, they're also reminded of shopping sprees and various other illicit activities.)

Dr. Kerry Taylor of CSIRO and W3C highlighted the fact that there’s a substantial amount of intricate Web architecture, such W3C's 'Double Bus Architecture', that underlies any version of the Semantic Web. Tools like OWL build rich ontologies from pre-existing data. Just as there are knotty issues in defining what the Semantic Web should be, there are different interpretations of the optimal architecture.

Kerry presented 3 interpretations of Web 3.0:

• The Semantic Web,
• The Mobile Web
• The Sensor Web.

In addition, Ian S. Burnett of the University of Wollongong highlighted the importance of:

• Video on the Next Generation Web

The Semantic Web is to do with context and meaning. People talk in terms of ontologies and taxonomies. In other words, it's about ordering information to represent the world intelligently and usefully. But, as I’ve observed in my blog, we live in a relativistic world in which people create culture. Not only are there many different interpretations of events in the world, but, there is no consensus on physical reality.

AIMIA speaker Darren Sharpe of Swinburne University of Technology highlighted that there are issues with ontologies that presuppose an existing order. The Semantic Web has its critics. Among the most vocal is Cory Doctorow, author of Metacrap, who points out that there’s more than one way to describe something, that metrics influence results and, that people are stupid, lazy liars, who can fundamentally never know themselves or the world. He sounds kind of cranky like House, so worth a listen.

Semantic Web sceptic Clay Shirky points out that, in today's user-defined digital world, ontologies need to be flexible, not rigid. Instead of being like a library with fixed, pre-determined file cards, we need an evolving system that can accommodate user classification (such as the ‘tags’ people use to label their photos, videos and information).

The Mobile Web is concerned with evolving the Web so that it's optimally delivered through mobile devices. As wireless networks have become pervasive, making the Web portable has become viable and desirable. And it’s not simply a matter of plonking the World Wide Web, designed decades ago for large screens, on to mobile devices. The Mobile Web has elements of the Semantic Web and overlaps with the Sensor Web, but is more concerned with delivery.

Through the Sensor Web, digital devices will sense the environment and help people respond optimally to it. These may be physical monitoring systems, e.g. traffic warning systems, or intelligent building sensors that regulate living environments. They may be human monitors, such as personal digital healthcare assistants that know people's medical histories and their current situation, hence can help patients continuously regulate their health.

The importance of video on the Web is clear from the popularity of sites like YouTube. As Ian Burnett pointed out, video content also needs an indexing system so people can access relevant, meaningful content, but accessing content is more difficult with film. Users need to be able to reference points in both space and time in video footage - they need metadata that gets inside the video. Temporal references are most difficult.

I pointed out earlier in my Time Merge blog entry, a system from Recreating Movement that allows users to extract frames of a film sequence allowing them to reference points in time. Recreating Movement is a programme created by Martin Hilpoltsteiner at the University of Applied Sciences Wuerzburg, Germany, Communication Arts.



Recreating Movement


The informal system of tagging, already employed by those who upload content, is part of the process of indexing video. But the information is unreliable and in need of verification, either by professionals or groups of amateurs who perform 'checks' on each other.

Google is currently attempting to tag its visual content with the help of amateurs. A verification system, used by Google Image Labeler, pairs together taggers and awards them points when they assign the same label to a particular image, effectively turning checking up on each other into a game.

The world is changing. We are becoming more intelligent. The machine is becoming more intelligent. We are not separate.

Welcome to Metaverse!

Creating furniture from thin air

Following on from my last post, more on creating worlds, or in this case, squiggle furniture. Check out this video footage of FRONT designers apparently conjuring furniture from thin air. Their hand motions are in fact converted to 3-D digital files via a motion capture technique. These are, in turn, rapidly materialised in liquid plastic with the help of lasers.

The World According To Us

We are all, in a sense, world creators. The philosopher David Hume once said so. And so say all of us, today, as video by video, blog by blog, mashup by mashup, we create culture. We have made the world according to us.

We customise, personalise, tag and annotate content online, providing our own rich context, our own interpretation. Much of this is collective - the 'we' and the 'us' of communities of music lovers, dog lovers, film buffs and followers of everything from Monty Python to organic cotton.

It seems we're becoming heady with power. Scores on San Diego State University's Narcissistic Personality Inventory have risen markedly since 1982. In 2006, on average, US college students' narcissism was comparable to that of celebrities tested.

The findings are outlined in a book by lead researcher Jean Twenge: Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before (2006, Free Press). The book has generated a lot of debate, thanks, in part to the attention-grabbing title - very apt, given the subject matter - which sparked a bout of competitive headlines and labels, such as the 'Entitlement Generation'.





Just recently, a survey by Burst Media indicated that young people think the Internet is all about them. Narcissism has reached epidemic proportions, some would have us believe, in fact The Narcissism Epidemic is the tentative title of Jean Twenge's forthcoming book, to which we're invited to contribute.

But, narcissism is a very accusatory label. It's easy to put down the youth of today. In fact the youth of 'today' have timelessly been berated. Cicero's famous lament "O tempora! O mores!" (Oh, the times! Oh, the morals!) suggests that he also thought youth were going to hell in handbasket.

It has been widely observed that when people transition to parenthood, their moral framework shifts, as they become more responsible. They worry endlessly about their beloved, self-absorbed, irresponsible children. So, their perceptions of youth's narcissism may be exaggerated.

Celebrity culture and YouTube have undoubtedly encouraged the pursuit of fame, but not all narcissism is bad. Many 'narcissistic' traits are actively encouraged by society, such as self-esteem and personal influence over others.

Web 2.0 is all about leveraging personal influence, for example, impressing your friends with your YouTube video, or becoming a key member of a social news community. And personal impact is critical not just to further your own interests but group interests, at work, or in lobbying for a greener environment or cleaner beaches.

That's the crux of Web 2.0 - its community orientation. Group narcissism implies elitism, but the Web tends to be more collaborative and egalitarian. Popular culture reflects this, as Coke's The Summer of Us campaign illustrates.

Perhaps kids are becoming more confident in their abilities to win friends and influence people. But that may well be a reflection of improved actual skills, with even the shyest of people enabled to connect with others online. Perhaps we think our creativity is boundless. But online, anyone can create a cartoon strip with Toonlet, or contribute to an infinite WebCanvas, or live a double life.

We create culture, we create links, we order the world. We are world creators. How can gods be narcissistic?

For we're a jolly good fellow and so say all of us.

Ode to smeg

(Watch the video Ode to Smeg or read on...)

I seldom get homesick, for I am a born wanderer, but I recently suffered a bout of space-time sickness. I've been watching the BBC comedy Red Dwarf from the beginning (they recently released the entire series in two volumes, presumably to celebrate its 20-year anniversary).

Strange that nothing places me more squarely in moments in time and space in Britain in the latter quarter of the 20th century than a piece of science fiction, set millions of years in the future, after the demise of mankind. But, with references to the Sinclair ZX 81, Felicity Kendal's bottom and Topic bars (there's a hazelnut in every bite, don'tchaknow), the series anchors me more firmly to the Britain I grew up in than any of my unreliable memories.

I say I'm space-time sick - what I hanker after is student days of the early 90s, which Lister (the last human being) embodies. He's a former arts student, who dropped out because they had lectures first thing - in the afternoon. I read Philosophy, and bar the weekly supervision and a few afternoon lectures, I was totally free to do what I want, any old time.

At one point, Lister shoves a shed load of chili powder, some nondescript meat and ketchup into the microwave (straight in) and it delivers a fully fledged kebab. The microwave looks just like any contraption in a kitchen in a shared house. I'm thinking now of 609 Finchley Road, where a load of us lived when we began work, of sorts, in London.

I also love the patter. The officious Rimmer Hologram and Lister, a Scouser, are chalk and cheese and always arguing. Naturally, there's a good dose of culturally specific swearing. I grew up in spitting distance of Liverpool, with words like 'smeg-head' and 'keks' (not a curse, but far better than 'underpants') part of my vernacular.

I love Red Dwarf, unreservedly. I still feel like I'm wandering the universe and it is a lonely place, though I have a soulmate and a select handful of smeg-head mates. Like the life form that evolved from Lister's cat, I now have a wardrobe that crosses the International Time Zone. My place is very slightly less ramshackle and I do get up in the morning. I even enjoy my work, mostly. But, though I'm happier now, I always long somehow...

The thing is, the age of Red Dwarf is over. Although the series felt niche enough to be cool, it made cultural references that everyone of my generation in the UK could relate to. Ubiquitous cultural cues and mass-media icons are hard to come by these days, thanks to fragmented media, online video and thousands of subcultures. Consumers are creating culture, minute by minute, and much of it is specific to small groups. A product of today's mashed up digital environment, the online video The Soprano Wars satirises popular mass media, commenting on the declining position of its icons.

The journey continues...

Hack your iPhone with Steve's blessing

Facebook started the trend for encouraging third party applications, opening up its platform to outside developers last year. The site went ballistic with a flurry of user-friendly apps from Scrabulous to Vampires making Facebook the place to be. Google knew a good idea when it saw one and developed the OpenSocial system, allowing people to develop common APIs across multiple social networks. Now Apple has joined the party, legitimising iPhone hacks with its new iPhone Development Center for webapps.

Apple is maintaining a greater degree of control, inviting developers to submit their applications for consideration. Only those approved will get listed in the iPhone webapps library. So far, some applications that have made the cut include the drawing programme iDoodle, Alternative Channel TV, the game Gumball Bingo and a handy Tip Calculator for when you and your mates are totally incapable of figuring out the bill, let alone the tip.

Apple is also using digital signatures that can be traced to developers. The company admits that this means the system is not "totally open". Even so, the new SDK is good news for geeks everywhere. I wonder if existing apps like the pocketguitar will make the list? Then again, who cares, as long as there's a burgeoning universe of cool apps out there on some website, official or not.



Shinya Kasatani's pocketguitar

New ways to visualise Search

Check out Google Experimental's latest search options , which allow you to see results on a timeline or map. It looks like nothing fancy, the basic interface is much the same, but changing the context really does allow you to set different priorities and to see information in a different light.

Web participation

80-20 Rules online. In Web communities, there are a small number of creators, a few more synthesisers and a whole load of hangers on. Here's a round up of recent research into Web participation.




Participation in Yahoo! Groups, Elatable

As shown above, in Yahoo! Groups:
1% of the user population might start a group, or a thread within a group (creators)
10% of the user population might participate actively and actually author content whether starting a thread or responding to a thread-in-progress (synthesisers)
100% of the user population benefits from the activities of the above groups (consumers - otherwise known as 'lurkers')

McKinsey's study points to a similar pattern of participation. It also indicates that quick, easy activities, like social bookmarking with del.icio.us, are practiced by a greater proportion of the site's users, compared to sites like Wikipedia and Flickr, which require more time and commitment to post or edit interesting content.



McKinsey's social media participation pyramid McKinsey Quarterly, August 2007


Similarly, on Wiki sites, counting only logged-in users:
10% of all users make 80% of edits
5% of users make 66% of edits
Just 2.5% of users make 50% of all edits.


Forrester research yielded the following participation ladder:




From MTV/MSN's Circuits of Cool report, the participation pyramid for global youth indicates a higher degree of involvement.
As many as 40% of youths globally are 'creators' – keep a regular blog, upload videos or photos;
19% are ‘finders’ – they will actively look for content to share with their friends;
61% are ‘contributors’ – add comments to content;
60% are ‘forwarders’ – they will share links with their friends;
80% are 'viewers' of some form of social media content.


Circuits of Cool relationship with social media



What does this mean for companies developing social media strategies?

There's clearly no point trying to get all your customers to blog or create, or even actively participate in your interactive campaign. If you put out a competition that requires time, effort and creativity, don't expect everyone to jump to it.

The upside is, you don't need to engage that many 'active' participants to get the interest of a group. The difficulty is in finding these participants in the first place. It relates to fan culture, monitoring social news and bookmaking sites and blogs like Technorati to find the Ikeahackers and other passionate denizens of the online world.

Once they do tap into Web communities, one thing that marketers might aim to do is move people up the participation pyramid, to get more highly engaged consumers (bearing in mind that not everyone wants to become more involved).

To develop effective social strategies, marketers need a deeper understanding of what motivates people to get involved in the first place.

In their article, How companies can make the most of user-generated content, McKinsey identify fame and fun as primary motivations, closely followed by the desire to share with friends and others.


McKinsey Quarterly, August 2007


The McKinsey findings are consistent with msn/MTV Circuits of Cool research, which indicates that, primarily, humourous clips and selected and uploaded by youths on to video sharing sites, for the benefit of friends, or to see what others will make of it. In addition, links from friends are the primary mode of navigation to online video clips.

Forrester research looked into how profiles differed by primary life motivation, site usage and PC ownership.

Preposterous Marketing

Following on from my earlier post, Room Service? Send Up A Larger Room, more on Preposterous Marketing - and Preposterous Consumption. Companies are giving it away and consumers are giving something for nothing. And everyone's happy. It's a mad world indeed.


Companies are giving it away

Radiohead did it last year with their pay-as-much-or-little-as-you-like album Rainbows. Paulo Coelho is doing it with his Pirate Coelho website, linking to free pirate versions of his own books. Many newspapers have been available for free online for some time.

CBS has just uploaded the entire original series of Star Trek, which can be viewed for free on its Audience Network. The network's new strategy is to encourage viewers to upload CBS clips to their blogs and profiles. To help them, the company has already brokered deals with a host of Web 2.0 companies, including social network Bebo, Joost Internet TV, slideshow creator Slide, which allows you to create personalised frames round YouTube videos and widget providers like Clearspring and Goowy Media. Instead of swimming against the tide, CBS is joining the shoal of file sharers.

Virgin's Delight rewards programme in Australia gave loyal customers an unexpected, no-strings-attached thank you, such as magazine subscriptions or tickets to music festivals.

This week's Wired article talks about a system of 'freeconomics' being driven by the technologies powering the Web, which are halving in price at least every 18 months, as Moore's Law predicts. When businesses move from human economics, which typically inflate costs year by year, to software economics, which have the opposite effect, this allows companies to offer things for next to nothing.

So, for example, the low cost of digital distribution will eventually make movies free, while theaters make money from concessions and selling premium experiences. Hoyts in Australia are already offering corporate packages and La Premiere exclusive cinema lounges where wine and food are served.

From a consumer's perspective, The New York Times recently observed that the work hours people need to put in to acquire technology has diminished substantially, for example the work time for a cellphone was 456 hours in 1984, compared to just 4 hours today.

Apart from relying on technology, some free business models are ad supported, while some use a tiered system, with the majority of the service free and some premium offerings. For example, volume 1 of Nine Inch Nail's 4-volume Ghosts album is available free on BitTorrent sites, the whole compendium can be downloaded for $US5 on the band's official website, while CD boxed sets and a limited edition deluxe version go for $10 and $75, respectively. You can even knock yourself out with the ultra-deluxe $300 package.

Some models rely on user collaboration to create value, e.g. Google's 411 directory service assistant, while others write off giveaways, as a way to offer great customer service and recoup goodwill, e.g. Amazon's free delivery.


Consumers are giving something for nothing, sort of

They're offsetting their carbon footprints with the help of airlines like Virgin Blue that help customers pay for the privilege of carbon neutral travel. Apart from a desire to save the planet and a modicum of guilt, it seems likely that consumers' willingness to part with extra cash is partly due to the falling cost of air travel, thanks to technological developments, enabling people to travel more and to feel they have cash to spare.

An initiative by The Good Project invites people to buy a house and give one free (Springwise). By buying an eco-friendly home, people automatically house families in Africa's Burkina Faso. The Good Project enables this by funding the training of an African builder for every house they sell.

By playing an online word game - and at the same time viewing a few ads - consumers are donating rice to starving people through the UN's Free Rice initiative.


Preposterous - and Good

The most preposterous thing, on the face of it, is that this new philanthropy in marketing is often ostensibly just that, philanthropic. It's not based on recouping the cost of the giveaway somewhere else - at least not in an underhand, or forced way. But, these strategies do manage to be commercial. This is because companies gain in goodwill, which is showered upon them in sales. Radiohead got next to nothing for Rainbows, but got extra sales of their Discbox, while Coelho's hardcopy book sales have soared.

Rewarded consumers say thanks for the freebie, thanks for not judging me as a freeloader, thanks for understanding that times have changed and well, you should get some things for free these file sharing, collaborative, digital days and, occasionally, I'll even give something for nothing, if you make it easy enough. And they buy more goods, particularly given the degree of loyalty to online vendors.

The old adage was, Sex Sells. The new one is Goodness Gives - to both seller, customer and beneficiaries. The former was a one way street. The new model is symbiotic.

Throw away the rule book!

(Watch the video Throw away the rule book! or read on...)

The instruction book for PacMan was around 10 pages long. The user manual for the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) EverQuest is around 300 pages long. No wonder kids today have thrown away the rule book!

But it's not just pragmatism that has caused digital kids to turn away from unwieldy manuals, it's a shift in attitude and behaviour that favours experimentation and short-cuts. While their parents may extol the virtue of putting in the hours to know what you're doing before you set about it, kids think that's dumb. So this is also a values shift, not just a behavioural one.

Young people think it's smart to find a quicker way - whether it's knowing the keyboard shortcuts, or quickly sourcing information online for a project, or appropriating existing online content and reinterpreting it as 'original' work (otherwise known as a software 'mashup'). Older generations might interpret it as laziness, even plagiarism. For the Web 2.0 generation, it's just life.

Online, who's the Daddy?

Girls are the primary content creators online, they're more involved in the blogosphere and social networks, while boys exchange funny videos, recent research suggests. Online behaviour may reflect offline tendencies, with males seeking to impress quickly and females more likely to gradually build relationships, creating a deeper impression of their 'true' selves over a longer period.

Girls are designing free widgets, such as horoscopes to embed in your blog, layouts, icons, graffiti image generators and 'glitters' (shimmering animations) to help others customise their social network profiles and blogs. Ashley Qualls, creator of Whateverlife.com, which became the authority on customising MySpace, was a teen millionaire in the space of a few years.

Girls are podcasting their own music and entertainment shows from their homes. Emogirltalk.com by 17-year-old Martina Butler is attracting serious audiences - and corporate sponsors.

Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, released in December 2007, indicates that US teenage girls are significantly more likely to be content creators than boys. 35% of online girls aged 12 to 17 (vs. 22% of boys) create Web content. Girls are more active in the blogosphere, 35% maintaining a blog, vs. 20% of boys.

Females display different online networking behaviour. Among 15 to 17 year olds, both sexes engage in social networking, but girls are more active, 70% creating their own profiles, vs. 57% of boys. However, Facebook executives have said that males have more Facebook Friends - 150 on average - while girls tend to be more selective.

Not just teenage girls, but women, are actively fostering online communities. Women's community sites, such as Glam Media and iVillage.com, along with politics sites, were the fastest growing websites in the US in pre-election year 2007, each experiencing 35% growth, in terms of total unique visitors (ComScore). Women's community sites in total had 69,854,000 unique visitors, as of December 2007 out of the total US online audience of 183,619,000, up 5% vs. 2006.

While females are investing more time in creation and in developing relationships online, when it comes to posting and viewing videos on YouTube, males are the dominant players, according to the Pew study.

Recent research by MSN and MTV's Circuits of Cool also indicated that YouTube is used more by males. Globally, the use of online video is widespread, with 87% of males and 74% of females using video sites. But 40% of males aged 18 to 21 visit these sites regularly, compared to 24% of females of the same age.


What's really going on?

The reasons behind the differences in male and female usage of online content may lie in their motivations to impress others, versus engage others emotionally in an ongoing dialogue, with boys inclining towards the former and girls to the latter.

It's by no means a clear-cut distinction. Girls also want to impress their peers, but seem to be going about it in a different way, through creating something unique that expresses their personality. Boys also want to chat, but seem to value more instant exchanges and fast gags. Forget painstakingly building their credentials, boys may be more prone to 'bragging' with new sites like Bragster dedicated to just that - challenges and trash talk. It evokes fond memories of Jackass.


The MSN/MTV research points to the importance of humour and peers in sharing video content. Passing on funny content and, in particular, humourous content that they think will appeal to their friends, was identified as a primary motivation.

Data from eMarketer shows the popularity of humourous content, indicating that the second most viewed online video content after news is comedy - jokes/bloopers/funny clips - watched by 57% of Internet viewers at least monthly in 2007. Most of what's viewed is short - an average of 2.8 minutes, with US viewers consuming 72 online videos a month, according to ComScore - making brief, funny clips ideal.

Professor Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, believes that males may be more likely to post videos as a way to impress others. Skateboarders or snowboarders can demonstrate their athleticism, through posting videos of their masterful skills, for example.

Girls, on the other hand, he suggests, are more interested in creating content on websites to show their individuality. And they're fiercely protective of the identities they create for themselves. Palfrey points to girls' strident criticism of online imitators. Speaking to the NY Times, he likens an online copycat, who outright steals another girl's Web page layouts and graphics to someone who turns up at a party knowingly wearing the same dress as another girl.

Girls' desire to cultivate a dialogue is evidenced by the popularity of problem-solution sites by girls for girls, such as Agirlsworld.com. Girls are drawn to emotional sites and 'confessionals', like Postsecret, which ranks among the top 10 favourite websites of female US college students (eMarketer). The new teen version of Postsecret, Alykatzz's I've got a secret, attracted over 425 postings of secrets in less than 48 hours, according to their press release.

So, online, who's the Daddy? It depends on your perspective. My favourite fictitious guru House says, "Work smart not hard," which would tend to favour the impress quickly approach. But he's also creatively brilliant and easily bored, so whatever you post, make it not boring.

Champ or Chump

The social Web has made fans of consumers. They have to fight their corner to get others to pay attention to the online content that most interests them. They post content online - a funny video, a thought-provoking article - and they encourage others to comment and vote for it, so 'their' material becomes popular. This means it's more likely to be picked up by other Web users on social media sites. As a result, Web users have become instigators and agitators, advocates and dissidents. This is the age of the digital provocateur and her committed supporters, who help spread the word.

In my last post I observed how fans of TV shows are taking direct action to save their programmes. But fan culture extends way beyond that. Everyone has a passion of some kind, big or small, be it a life changing idea, a preference or peccadillo. It may be a predilection for post-it notes, a passion for The Dark Knight or an affinity for teaching parrots to talk. Whereas once this may have gone unnoticed, now thanks to social media, it's all out in the open (some for the better, some for the worse).

Communities like Squidoo enable people to quickly build Web pages on topics they're passionate about. Part of the site, Hey Monkey Brain! is dedicated to arguments. Anyone can pick a fight on any subject whatsoever. Recent top arguments include 'Boxers of Briefs - Which is sexier?', 'Is Time Travel Possible?', 'Making money online is easy', 'Obama vs. Clinton' and 'PCs are better than Macs'.





Bragster is a new site dedicated to brags and challenges. There's a monthly league table and all your dares ever are documented for posterity. So if you can eat more peanuts than was thought humanly possible, or catch the most M&Ms thrown from a distance of 10 feet, this is the place for you. Talk it up.

Sometimes brand fans create entire sites dedicated to their favourite brand. Ikea hacker is one. The blog invites anyone to send in their Ikea tips and shortcuts, from how to pimp a klippan sofa to how to stop forby stools from wobbling. A recent post shows how to create a shoe rack for narrow places from siljan bathroom mirror cabinets. The community is all about re-purposing content, a real world 'mashup' - that's so 2.0.




The significance for brands is clear. Movements are on the up. Brands need to keep track of them and where appropriate, encourage them. Last year, Apple picked up on Nick Haley's unofficial YouTube tribute to the iPod Touch. Instead of condemning the student for copyright infringements, they remade it high definition.

Brands can also champion movements. Take, for example, Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, or Trinny & Susannah's crusade to 'dress the nation'.

You don't need to be a charity to lead a cause - although a number of charities are doing very well by treating consumers as fans. Greenpeace's campaign to get people to name a whale prompted the online community of social news site reddit to lobby for 'Mister Splashy Pants'. And, having named the whale, people are more inclined to look out for Mister Splashy Pants' wellbeing. So, not only has Greenpeace generated interest in its campaign, by creating a celebrity whale, it has fostered loyalty.

Passion is contagious and spreads rapidly online. People are drawn to passionate people. They love champs. With the rise of fan culture, now more than ever, if you're not a champ, or a passionate supporter of one, you're probably seen as a chump.

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!

Howard Beale (Peter Finch) in Network - image from wikipedia


To coin a phrase from the classic 1976 film Network, fans of soon-to-be-cut TV shows are 'mad as hell, and they're not going to take this anymore!' Just as fictional TV presenter Howard Beale galvanised audiences to voice their frustrations in Network, online agitators are persuading fans of shows with dwindling ratings to make their voices heard.

While Beale's followers resorted to shouting out of windows, thanks to Web 2.0, today's protesters have more outlets to disseminate disapproval, although they're also going old-school, sending TV executives stuff in the mail!

In the US, followers of the high school football drama Friday Night Lights have clubbed together to save their show. They've been sending NBC executive Ben Silverman lightbulbs, marked with the message 'LIGHTS ON'. An exuberant prank, notwithstanding the danger of broken glass and mutilation.




Viewers have been egged on by entertainment website Best Week Ever, which has drawn up an online petition.

Meanwhile, Cavemen fans are engaged in mass action to Save Cavemen, the sitcom about Cro-Magnon men adrift in the modern world. Whipped into a frenzy by New York Entertainment's Vulture, viewers are shaving their heads and sending in their locks to ABC.



The US writers' strike means that fans' patience has been wearing thin. After weeks of anticipation, the news that their favourite shows are not long for this world is clearly too much to bear.

Time Merge

As people make choices in life, trading off their time, energy and money, time is emerging as perhaps the most important commodity. Visualisation tools are becoming more sophisticated, so we're now able to analyse people's movements through time and space more effectively.

There's a growing trend in time-merge media, in other words, cool ways to manipulate spacetime:



www.recreating-movement.com




Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run Lola Run from shiffman on Vimeo.


There are many applications of time merge media, from art installations to filmmaking to visualising user activity in websites. The consequences of different choices can also be observed, as in the video of one player's multifold attempts to reach the next level in a version of Mario World, depicted simultaneously.

For more examples, check out Kottke's post, or Split Screen, a blog dedicated to multi-layered visuals.

Digital Culture Presentation

Web 2.0: The Poster from flickr


Thanks to everyone at JWT in Melbourne who attended my presentation on digital culture. I'd love to hear what you made of it, so please post a comment on this blog (click on the comments link under this entry, or use the comment box to the right), or send me an email.

I promised to post some of the tips and links I referenced, so here they are. There's also plenty of other material in this blog, so take a look around.

If you haven’t already, get microblogging on Twitter and sign up to social network like Facebook. Explore some of the social applications like the music sharing app. iLike.

Check out the differences between Facebook, which is a network largely for people who already know each other and Bebo, which has a younger profile and positions itself more as a social media site, with online TV shows like Kate Modern. Bebo is currently championing online safety.

Use a feed reader (personal news aggregator) e.g. Google Reader or Netvibes to get your information and entertainment brought to you in one place (and you won't have e-mail newsletters clogging up your inbox).

Use social bookmarks, such as del.icio.us or Reddit, to tag and sort information and access your favourites from any computer. The bookmarks are public, so you can also see what interests other people.

Discover new websites through StumbleUpon or the del.icio.us hotlist.

Download Firefox as your web browser and get some add-ons e.g. the web 2.0 toolbar (allows you to quickly access top social news stories and top viral videos so you're up to speed with the latest online buzz).

Why pay for calls, when you can use VoIP to make free calls online - download Skype.

Store and share your documents on the Internet using Google Docs - even write collaboratively.

Start a blog with Blogger or Typepad.

Create your own cartoon strip with Toonlet.

Create a photoblog, or digital scrapbook, with Scrapblog.

Explore the groundbreaking Microsoft Photosynth, which displays digital photos in a reconstructed 3-D space for anyone to explore.

Try a search visualisation tool like searchCrystal. It's still in beta mode, so give them some feedback on your experience. You can also help improve Search at Google Experimental .

Gain ‘influencer points’ in social media like StumbleUpon or Digg, or Australia-based Kwoff, by voting, commenting and linking to sites and uploading content you think others will find interesting.

Beta test cutting edge new software - get invitation codes from mashable.

See how Brazil's Ministry of Culture is creating Cultural Hotspots, which use digital technology to help preserve indigenous cultures and help communities express themselves.

Check out how we're creating culture through online videos, TV shows and games:
The Machine is Us/ing Us
Internet People
Dick in A Box
Starburst's Little Lad Dance
Neon Bible
Get The Glass
Kate Modern

See how virtual worlds are already child's play:
Webkinz
Whyville
Club Penguin

Enjoy!

Have a great long weekend,

Moensie

Room service? Send up a larger room

Stateroom scene, A Night At The Opera


Marx Brothers' fans will recognise the line, 'Room service? Send up a larger room' from A Night At The Opera. I adopted this as the name for my blog because I love playing with language and the Marx Brothers' ingenious word play is legendary.

In marketing, there are lessons to be learnt from how the Vaudeville comedians flip language to change perspective and meaning. This allows us see things differently, in order to come up with more creative solutions to problems. Then we can genuinely surprise and delight consumers.

So, in customer service, for example, where most service providers would do the obvious, logical thing (service customers just as much as is necessary to maximise profits or shareholder value), innovative companies think laterally. They embrace the absurd and they send up a larger room.

The novelist Paulo Coelho subverted his own brand, creating the 'pirate' website Pirate Coelho, where he posts links to illegal downloads of his own books. He even published a free version of the Russian translation of The Alchemist. And his quirky strategy has paid off. Not only has he garnered the support of fans worldwide, but sales of his books in Russia quickly rose from nothing to over a million.

That's all very well for an author, but what of big brands? It turns out that this kind of lateral thinking can also pay off for large companies. Amazon went above and beyond the call of duty to provide unparalleled customer service, when Wall Street logic would have had the company build the bottom line.

Amazon embraced the 'absurd', offering free shipping, even making losses on some popular items. But, they built a powerbrand with enviable levels of trust and loyalty - 72 million active customers, each spending an annual total of $US184 on average, a 23% rise over the previous year (New York Times).

Their business philosophy is based on the principle that, if you do something good for one customer, they'll tell 100 customers. That's a hundredfold return on investment - not bad odds, even by logical standards.

Google Thyself

I was in Epoque in Cammeray the other day (great mussels and chips) and happened to see a woman wearing this T-shirt. It made me smile.

Self-Googling is increasingly common, now practiced by 47% of American Internet users, compared to 22% in 2002, the Pew Internet and American Life Project reports.

It may seem narcissistic, but keeping track of your 'personal' information online - your so-called 'digital footprint' - makes sense. The same research study, released in December 2007, indicated that 53% of online users had Googled other people, for personal or business reasons. In other words, false, or embarrassing information, or images, come back to bite you.

There's a growing industry in reputation management, with companies like ReputationDefender and the professionally oriented Naymz, helping Internet users bury potentially harmful information.

I've pointed out previously that many people, particularly teens, still don't seem that bothered about many aspects of online privacy. But, managing their image is important to them. It's about being in control of what they share and what they disclose about themselves, in order to be perceived the way they want.

War of the Words

The BBC reports that Facebook has been asked to withdraw the wildly popular Scrabulous application, following complaints from toymakers Mattel and Hasbro, who own the Scrabble trademark.

Scrabulous, created by third party developers for Facebook, currently ranks among the site's top ten applications, with around 600,000 active daily users. And these loyalists have already mobilised to create the Save Scrabulous group. They're encouraging fans to log their protest with the toy makers. There's even an online petition with nearly 700 signatures to date.

Scrabulous has attracted such a following because it gives Facebook users bragging rights with their mates. Being the wordgame master among your social network friends confers kudos in a somewhat more intellectual way than being the top Rockstar Vampire. A burgeoning number of 'scrabble cheat' websites attest to the social value of being a Scrabulous star.

Mattel and Hasbro missed a trick, failing to leverage a property that was online gold. Scrabulous developers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla spotted the opportunity - and their ingenuity was in not simply developing an online version of Scrabble, but recognising its value as a social widget.

It's as if a Scrabble ecosystem has developed, with several groups having a stake in the intellectual value of the word game. There's the original idea for Scrabble, owned by the big companies, the tweaked idea, with the addition of social networking functionality, part borrowed, sort of 'owned' (they hope) by the Scrabulous developers, and, the intellectual standing gained by champion Scrabulous players. Add to that the cheat websites and Scrabble is rich brain food indeed, feeding minds, boosting social currency and wallets.

It remains to be seen how the intellectual property battle will pan out. Not only the developers, but Facebook, face the music. By throwing open its doors to third party applications, which live on the site, Facebook has, to some extent, aligned its fate to that of external developers.

The social network's member base and user engagement rocketed last year when it invited outside applications - games, quizzes, film and music sharing widgets flooded in. Now Facebook shares the grief and the potential loss of visitors, or decline in the time spent by users within the site, should popular applications be withdrawn. For some people, Facebook is Scrabulous and the social network's value would be diminished without it.

Too cool for school?

Coolest Girl in School


A new mobile game for girls, (who now account for around 60% of mobile game users) by Australian developers Champagne for the Ladies and Kukan Studio, invites players to fight their way, tooth and nail, to the top of the high school ladder. In Coolest Girl in School, players improve their social standing by lying, bitching, getting pregnant, doing drugs, you name the vice. Too cool for school? The Australian Family Association is not amused.

There's been a lot of press coverage about the apparently dangerous effects of violent video games, or games that seem to promote aggression. They've been blamed for antisocial behaviour, teen pregnancy, even murder. Other media explore violence and horror, yet computer games get most of the heat because of their interactive nature, which is thought to influence behaviour more.

Critics are particularly scathing when it comes to games that reward bad behaviour, saying this sends out the wrong signals to children and increases aggressive thinking and behaviour. They point to a body of research. A recent study by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research likens exposure to violent games to a pubic health threat.

A counter argument is that indulging in fantasy or roleplay doesn't make kids monsters. Teens are natural thrill seekers and gaming allows them to experiment, explore and discover the consequences of their choices. Not only can gameplay help enhance their strategic decision-making ability, but it can be a safe outlet for their more brutish, or conflicted feelings.

Gameplay occurs in context - the social context and the player's preexisting tendencies, which may have a stronger behavioural influence. Gaming enthusiasts point to other studies, which indicate that short-term video game play has less of an impact on behaviour than existing personality traits.

There is no scientific consensus. If there is any common ground, it's a tentative acknowledgment that violent videogames may desensitise people to real-life violence. Cyber-bullying, such as happy slapping, has been cited as a possible consequence.

It remains unclear whether violent games cause violent behaviour, or whether they just tend to be favoured by more aggressive people.

Ultimately, kids may be attracted to violent games because they're more exciting and absorbing. Research indicates that video games can dull pain, and violent games are the most effective, according to scientists at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, US. Nilli Lavie, a psychologist at University College London, has speculated that fighting and sports games probably dull pain most because they occupy more of a player's attention.


High school - the horror!

Without getting too embroiled in the violence debate, lets look at some home truths about the school setting of Coolest Girl in School. Kids don't need video games to bring out a sadistic streak, if they're so inclined. Whether they're pulling the legs off spiders, or torturing younger siblings, or sending classmates to Coventry, baser instincts will find expression.

High school can be quite ruthless. (OK, I admit, my high school was a bitch fest. Alarmingly, encountering some of my year group later in life, I found the years had made them all the more bitter. It just goes to show, 'if you think bad, bad's what you get'.)

The primeval, Lord of the Flies brutality of high school has often been visited in media. Think Heathers, Clueless, Gossip Girl. And now there's the Australian school-themed mockumentary Summer Heights High (which rated amongst Google's top TV searches in 2007).

These films use satire, pastiche, and black humour to pull apart the social constructs in school, to reveal the power struggles, the cliques and the gender battles. We laugh, while wincing at how close they come to the ugly truth.

You could argue that a computer game, which tackles similar issues, is also making valid commentary. But, the point about a game, particularly a role-playing game, is that users can follow different paths, depending on their moral and strategic choices, therefore any point the developers may be making is less clear. A game is more open to interpretation (and misinterpretation).

While instincts may be to protect kids from various horrors, they're fielding them every day. That's not to say that computer games that appear to encourage bitching and violence should get an easy ride; we should always debate content, particularly when it's aimed at kids. I get the feeling that Coolest Girl in School, billed as 'Grand Theft Auto for girls', is banking on some debate. In games marketing, being infamous is as good as being famous - provided you're not banned.


Implications for branded entertainment

Companies looking into branded games need to be aware of the pitfalls. Clearly family brands don't want to attract the attention of watchdogs, but if they do use games in their marketing mix, marketers need to make sure they appeal to the target audience. Kids are exposed to edgy and risque games. Often, these are the most thrilling. A safe, daggy, branded game will attract nothing but derision and do the brand more harm than good.

But all is not lost. It's relatively easy to aim games at younger children, with innocent, playful, or educational content. Word games, e.g Scrabulous, or strategy games, can work well for older audiences. Brands can explore humour when targeting any audience, but bear in mind that a lot of modern comedy is edgy or dark.

There's no easy solution, but this is not a problem peculiar to branded games. Any ad, or branded entertainment property, needs to make its mark, finding a place on the spectrum between inchoate boredom on the left hand side and infamy on the other. I'd suggest right of centre, whatever your brand!

Thrifty chic

Thrifty Birthday Girl


Thrifty thinking, once the preserve of misers and cheap dates, is officially cool. As illustrated by JWT's campaign for Thrifty car rental, people are having fun with thrift. That means it's seeping into popular culture (for example, Thrifty ads are giving rise to copycat spoofs on YouTube). Thrifty thinking has become a positive lifestyle choice, a movement no less.

Thrifty thinking is such an engaging concept because it's a game of wits. You can try to beat the system, always getting the better deal, whether it's buying on the sales and getting twice as much, or shopping at a discount department store and passing it off as designer. It's not just about getting things cheap - it's the payoff when you pull it off as something bigger and shinier. Thrift has attitude.

In the Thrifty campaign, that's the dad taking disproportionate credit for getting his daughter a car (rental) for her birthday. It's Thrifty 'borrowing' someone's high-traffic billboard space round Sydney Airport.

Being thrifty is not exclusive. It works for people of all ages and incomes. As the Entourage boys demonstrate, being a multimillionaire superstar playboy, or one of his hangers on, doesn't preclude thrift. Vince orders the most expensive steak on the menu as a takeout when his business lunch goes sour. Drama steals batteries from recording studios for his (very) personal shaver.

With the mainstreaming of green or 'caring' consumption (think Anya Hindmarch's 'I'm not a plastic bag' - environmentally caring, oh! so desirable and the godmother of caring handbags), being thrifty is no longer pejorative. If you're thrifty, it's not that you're cheap, you're just putting more thought into what you buy. You're not a merchandise monster who's destroying the planet for us all through your out of control consumption.

So, join the backlash against record consumer spending, 'buy' your friends a virtual beer, pull in your purse strings and get some thrift. It's all the rage (and, given the global credit crisis, it's kind of sensible too).

4 examples of contagious customised virals

When it comes to viral marketing, it may be glaringly obvious, yet it's often overlooked that you need to give people a good reason to pass it on. One of the most successful ways to do this is through customisation: then people have a vested interest in the content and are more likely to spread it.

Here are 4 examples of contagious customised virals:


Simpsonize Me



Burger King's (still live) Simpsonize Me, which coincided with the 2007 release of The Simpsons movie, is pretty simple and good fun. It takes no more digital sophistication than the ability to upload a photo of yourself, so it quickly became popular with all ages.


Elf Yourself


Elfsonificated Markus on Flickr

US-based office supplies company OfficeMax's recent Elf Yourself initiative spawned flickr groups, caught the imagination of broadcasters, including the Today Show and generally caused a stir, attracting over 110 million visitors, according to OfficeMax statistics. So simple, so dumb, so successful...The moral of the story: people are easily pleased. You don't need sophisticated widgets and gizmos, just something quirky and customisable that gives them a chuckle.

The downside was the lack of leverage for the OfficeMax brand. Dancing elves are all very well, but unless they shift some product they might as well whistle Dixie.


Dexter



Dexter was more sophisticated, but not over-complex. To launch the TV series Dexter, Icetruck TV came up with a wickedly ingenious viral that let users give their mates a scare, by sending them video footage indicating that they were next on a serial killer's hit list. The video is a lifelike news report, which includes 'police' footage and commentary on patterns observed in the killer's activity; it's made all the more real for including your friend's name, job and a customised message at the crime scene.


Pepsi Max





Pepsi recently launched this 'tattoo' video viral that lets you play a joke on guys who fancy themselves as lady killers. It includes a good level of customisation, as you can see above, without being too time-consuming. Drop down boxes enable users to quickly make a selection.

Post-Futurism, Now!

Culturally, we're in the throes of a time slip. We're losing the present. In film and fiction, the present day is increasingly represented as the future, while current films are more often set in the past.

Firstly, the current past. In The Sydney Morning Herald (11 January, 2008) Joe Queenan observes that more new films are set in the past because technology is ruining suspense in storylines. With mobiles, the Internet and GPS tracking, the good guys get real-time information on the whereabouts of killers and help is instantly at hand. So, present day films lack the suspense of old-fashioned thrillers.

I agree with this up to a point. However, a series set very much in the present, 24, manages to be immensely thrilling. But it does have to work bloody hard to be so. It's a paradigm of multi-threading, with multiple plots and subplots unfolding concurrently. To achieve close to the same level of tension as, say, Hitchcock's Psycho, it has to be ultra-complex. From Lost to Heroes, multithreading is a clear trend in TV.

I believe that what films set in the past offer is suspense and simplicity. (Incidentally, the Coen Brothers' new movie No Country For Old Men, set in the late 70s, is awesome - the slow, slow pace of it, the entire lack of music, which makes it so oppressive. At one point, the Sheriff visits an elderly relative. I got the sense that the old guy had been sitting there in his dilapidated house, on the far side of dusty nowhere, with no company but smelly cats, since time immemorial. I loved it; others may feel they've been sitting in the cinema since the beginning of time.)


No Country For Old Men trailer


Now, back to the present future. The fantastic science fiction blog io9 recently posted a feature entitled Why is science fiction going back to near future?. The article points out that cyberpunk guru William Gibson, who coined the term 'cyberspace', now writes fiction in the present day because, he claims, 'reality has become science fictional'.

Science fiction is now closer to real life, so the genre is mainstraming, or rather, sci-fi ideas are creeping into literary fiction. I've read several such books recently by mainstream authors, including Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go and Tobias Hill's The Cryptographer, both set in the near future. Cormack McCarthy's The Road, which I would unconditionally recommend, is set in a post-apocalyptic world, which seems to loom before us, as storms and drought ravage the world.

Science fiction is no longer so outlandish. The fact is, we simply don't need to look to the distant future to conduct the 'thought experiments' of sci-fi. We already have the capability to destroy, or redeem ourselves through technology. Much of the work being conducted in breakthrough fields like nanotechnology and AI won't be commercialised for many years, but there is a research lab, somewhere, where mankind's technological nemesis lurks. It's post-futurism, now, baby!


www.postfuturism.org

Microblogging - insights and inanities

Millions of people are sharing their immediate thoughts, feelings and secrets online through digital art projects and microblogs, which encourage brevity of expression. They've found an outlet for their stories, profound, trivial and downright inane. They're empathising with strangers and connecting with friends, being privy to other people's lives in a way that's never before been possible.

Microblogs require users to pare down to the essentials. Sometimes this makes contributors stop and think because words are precious; on the other hand, it can encourage the sharing of any old kack because it’s easy.

The context of the website tends to dictate the sort of material submitted. Twitter is the place to splurge random thoughts and much of the content is banal. Onesentence, which is more oriented to storytelling, seems to encourage greater deliberation.

But even the quotidian can be of interest. Knowing that Molly is having trouble sleeping may be irrelevant to most, but important to her mum, illuminating to her teacher and a leveler for insomniacs everywhere. And, whether or not we know the person, in a way it’s reassuring to know that other people suffer the same boredom and annoyances. As much as the interesting stuff, this reminds us that other humans are like us. They're not somehow more switched on, they're just as rubbish as we are (actually, that's kind of scary).

You can stumble upon surprising, or touching entries. Anyone can tell their story, anonymously or semi-anonymously, so, in some ways, a microblog is like a confessional that doesn't require you to be a member of any group or religion. It can reveal the truth of people’s innermost thoughts, which at other times, proves so elusive.

Often, transitions are captured – the exact point when people steered their lives in a new direction. For example, a striking entry on Postsecret is ‘Everyone that knew me before 9/11 thinks I’m dead.’ Is it true? Who knows? But to many people, the postings are more 'real' than a lot of media messages.

As a consequence of the insight to be gleaned, some of these sites are tremendously appealing to viewers and readers, hungry for a good story. Compendiums of people’s thoughts, published as books, are hitting the bestseller lists.

Microblogging still seems, to many people, rather pointless, or odd. But it stems from traditional modes of expression, such as the post-it note and the to-do list. Once we kept these to ourselves, but thanks to web 2.0, we’re now able to share our stories on an unprecedented scale. More's the pity, some might say, but take a moment to check out these story sharing blogs, highlighted on Blogger.

Postsecret



Postsecret began as an art installation for Artomatic in Washington. People were invited to send in anonymous home-made postcards, with their secrets written across the artwork. The community project is ongoing and exists as a website, created by Frank Warren in January 2005, and a series of books. The fourth book is currently on the Amazon bestseller list in the US.

To-do list



In the trailer above, Sasha Cagan begins with the question: ‘Have you ever wondered what your to-do list says about you?’ Nothing in my case, as I aim to live as spontaneously as possible - that means a list-free existence (but I guess that says something about me anyway). Loads of people emailed or sent in their lists, which range from the daily grind to a record of people’s hopes and ambitions. The recent book includes entries from novelist Nick Hornby, alongside everyday punters.

One reason the site is so compelling is that checking out other people's resolutions can help your formulate your own. It's kind of lazy, but so what? And, making your goals public makes it easier to ask for help and adds an extra incentive to make things happen, so you don't look like a chump (I love that word - anyone remember the original Miami Vice?).

On the wisdom of crowds

picture from www.mindfully.org


One of my favourite fairytales is Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes. You know the script: a vain emperor is duped by rogue tailors, who convince him of the sartorial elegance of the new (non-existent) clothes they've fashioned for him. All but the stupidest of people would see the quality and magnificence of the cloth, they assure him. As he parades through the streets, naked, the crowd is taken in by the myth, wildly praising his attire - no one wants to appear to be a chump. Only one boy cries out that the emperor is stark naked and the truth quickly spreads by word of mouth.

First published in 1837, this really is a tale for the web 2.0 generation. It has all our favourite ingredients - the power of a good story, the 'wisdom' of crowds, viral marketing, the antihero who speaks up against authority and the child who's wiser than his elders.

Apart from showing that things haven't changed quite as drastically as we think over the past couple of centuries, the most powerful message for me is that we should never blindly accept accepted wisdom.

There are lots of principles and tenets in marketing and elsewhere that act as useful guides. But the only real wisdom is not to take anything as red. Next time you see a naked emperor, no matter what your friends and colleagues say, call it. Then you'll be the kick ass kid, wise beyond your years.

Mind you, you have to hand it to the emperor. Even when the crowd had turned, he held his head up high. If you're going to do dumb, do it with conviction.

5 ways to tell a more convincing brand story

Your brand's competitive set has expanded, exponentially. Every particle of entertainment, everything out there that's useful or interesting or mildly diverting competes for consumers' attention. So you'd better have something to tell and to keep telling, to keep them interested. That means a living, breathing, evolving story, not a repeated proclamation of your USP, or unique selling proposition.

Here are some ways to tell a more convincing brand story:


1. Tell your own story better than your critics can

You can't have full control over your brand's image, but you can have a strong personality and a compelling story. The more impressive your account of yourself, the less convincing is the bad stuff written about you.

Microsoft is in the business of world changing, yet its story, as told largely by third parties and competitors, has gone from despotic to dreary. Apple's Get A Mac campaign casts the PC, aka Microsoft, as a desperately undynamic, bumbling, old-school suit.

Now marketer and cartoonist Hugh McLeod, author of gapingvoid.com (cartoons on the back of business cards) is engaged in the Blue Monster Project to help Microsoft tell its own story better. The character has been adopted as a mascot by some employees.

Blue Monster

Microsoft has help from other quarters. Director Laurie McGuinness has created a series of spoof Mac ads from the PC's perspective. A mashup that's well worth a look - instead of defensively putting down the Mac, the films playfully pick up on the traits of each system and its users.


2. Create drama in the right places

Your brand communication needs to entertain consumers or provide something useful, otherwise it will be screened out. So create some drama. If you're a Nike or Mini, that's pretty easy. Not so, if you're a toothpaste, or one of many indispensable yet invisible work-a-day FMCG products. Sometimes, the trick is to accept that your most interesting story may not have your brand playing the lead role.

Realising that people are (usually) more interesting than flame grilled slabs of meat, Burger King has been creating Burger King, The Movie, about flatmates living above a BK restaurant. The brand is clearly central, but incidental in that the interest is generated by the relationships and friction between the flatmates.

For me it evokes fond memories of 160d Finchley Road, when Rhyd and I lived with 'satan', opposite a kebab shop and next door to Domino's. They weren't my leanest times, but 'although I'm happier now I always long somehow, back to 199*'. And with those memories, come the curious craving for a burger 'n' chips, even a donner will do, before going home and forgetting to shut the door and then spending the night terrified having just spent the evening discussing in detail how you'd defend yourself if attacked by the ghoul in Scream. But that's just me.

No doubt some punters will baulk at the audacity of BK's putting its name to a movie and boycott it on principle. But audacious it is, and one to watch (if not actually view). Ultimately, success or failure will depend on the quality of writing and the characters - and, of course, the buzz it generates. And will it sell burgers - who but the subservient chicken knows?


3. Get some fans

That's fans not consumers. South African winemaker Stormhoek engages bloggers to spread the word, leveraging groups on Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. It provides the wine for 'geek dinners' when the freaks and geeks (the bloggers) invite their friends for dinner and then write about Stormhoek's wonderful hospitality, which makes the wine taste that much better.

Stormhoek wine blogging guide


4. Make your story directional but openended

Allow fans to build on your story. Digital culture is mashup culture. People alter content, they comment on it, augment it, satirise it, to express themselves through it. That's how culture becomes popular. The Get A Mac ads are a case in point.

So, give people an outlet to customise, to comment and have some fun with your brand. If you don't they will anyway. Check out Flickr images by the Decapitator, recently active in London. Pimm's is quite apt, while Moet & Chandon may well be less pleased with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre take on champagne chic.






The Decapitator at work


5. Make it exciting - but accessible

People must be able to imagine themselves in the roles you cast for them. For example, Kellogg's Nutri Grain promises that boys will grow into iron men, therefore the iron man must be someone a boy could hope to become, not an inaccessible, godlike figure.

Online, it's all in a day's work to adopt different identities. Just check out some of the Facebook applications, like 'Which Hero are you?' Answer a few questions and discover which character from the TV series you are. Answer differently and try on some other superpowers for size.


Heroes Facebook application

Second Life is for freaks

To most people, who've never explored one, Second Life, Entropia Universe and other virtual worlds are a freakshow. The weird and wonderful avatars are just weird and the people they represent are thought to be social lepers in real life.

The view is that Second Life detracts from your first life.

A parallel could be drawn with attitudes to gaming in the early nineties, when adults who played computer games were dismissed as geeks. Playstation's classic TV spot Double Life captured the subversive nature of gameplay. It's still one of my favourite ads ever.



Playstation: Double Life

Now mums around the world are the people most likely to play online casual games and Nintendo's Wii has made console gaming ubiquitous.

Virtual worlds will, I believe, also reach a 'tipping point' when they're seen to enhance your social life. Web users are already 'getting' social networks like Facebook - and virtual worlds have a strong social networking component. In time, people will get that virtual and real lives needn't be separate at all. In fact, kids are already demonstrating this.

Virtual worlds like Whyville, Habbo Hotel, Webkinz and Club Penguin have kids and teens in their thrall.

Webkinz screenshot

Real cuddly toys kids are given for Christmas come to life in the Webkinz world. Children set up home, take care of their pets, with the help of happy meters and hunger meters and chat and play with other owners.



Whyville screenshot

Whyville residents learn about science, the environment and money management and go round in Toyota's Scion cars. They can write for the town newspaper or take a helicopter tour of the world.

Needless to say, many kids, for whom the highlight of the week may be a trip to the skatepark, followed by pizza, excellent as both may be, find that virtual worlds offer a new level of freedom.




In the US, in 2007, nearly a quarter of Internet users aged 3 to 17 used virtual worlds at least once a month, eMarketer reports and strong growth is predicted.

Kids who've grown up using virtual worlds won't have the same prejudices older generations have towards these environments. The future of the Internet is entwined with virtual worlds. The semantic web will be something like a mix of a hypercharged Google Earth with all the information on the net in rich context.

Why not take a trip with Synthtravels, the virtual world travel agency and begin exploring? (It can be hard to find the action if you take a cursory look without a guide, as populations are still relatively small.) Whether you're interested in fashion, architecture, thrills, or you're just curious, there's a tour for you. Go on, hang down with the freaks and ghouls!

Hero Archetypes in Shag, Shoot or Marry?

I’ve worked at a number of London ad agencies and can confidently say that the one thing they’ve had in common is a dedication, in their downtime, to the forced choice game Shag, Shoot or Marry?. It needs little explanation: three people are presented to a player and they have to assign a fate to each.

As we’re in the throes of the silly season, it seems appropriately inappropriate to discuss the appeal of this peculiar obsession. Why it should be so popular (or rather, prevalent, being reviled as much as it's relished) in London, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's an outlet for the more reserved, understated types to unleash their inner sex god.

It’s a social game and Advertising is a social industry. It’s a mating game and Advertising has its fair share of flirting. It’s amenable to cultural adaptation, which is a prerequisite of any self-respecting entertainment property in a customisable world. For example, it’s also known as The Cliff Game to those who'd rather push than fire guns. Punch, Pash or Partner is the chosen vernacular on Australian Big Brother Friday Night Live.

In keeping with another media trend, the game is a transmedia property. It also exists as a board game (Marry, Date or Dump), a radio gameshow on Howard Stern in the US and now a Facebook widget (Bed, Wed or Dead), so you can torment your friends. Clearly, the caper is well adjusted to the digital ‘Noughties’, as this decade is known, apparently.

But, I suggest, the real reason behind the game’s popularity lies in its pandering to the tensions inherent in the optimal mating strategies of men and women. It delivers vicariously the highs and lows of the dating game, like a potted version of Gossip Girl, or Entourage. Short-term vs. long-term strategies are in evidence.

Darwin’s theory of sexual selection holds that, for men and women, the greater the ‘investment in offspring’, the choosier the subject is when selecting a partner. In contrast, casual sex is chosen to be more promiscuous and competitive, in other words, trophy dates.

In The Evolution of Desire, D. M. Buss outlines the theory that for short-term affairs, women should opt for fit, dominant men, or ‘cads’ (purveyors of good genes), whereas marriage candidates should include nurturing men, or ‘dads’ (purveyors of care and resources).

According to academics at the University of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research, the two kinds of men correspond to archetypes of heroes in romantic fiction. One is the daring, promiscuous ‘dark hero’, or outlaw; the other is the kindly ‘proper hero’.

In their study, which exposed female undergraduates to the characters via passages from romantic novels, women said they’d prefer the dark heroes for short relationships, but found the proper heroes more likeable - candidates for marriage. The shorter the relationship, the greater was their preference for dark heroes.

The Hero and the Outlaw are also Jungian Brand Archetypes. I wonder if the game would have the same appeal if applied to suitable brands? …I’ll go find that cliff.

No Sex Please, We're (Still) British

A poll, originally published in The Times (UK), perfectly captures a national trait for understatement, which, perhaps even more than the Union Jack, is a particle of ‘Britishness’. While the British are increasingly becoming known for binge drinking and, thanks to Little Britain, a lady (lay-dee) is more commonly thought to be a moustachioed transvestite, the old reserve is still in evidence.

According to the poll, the most shocking public behaviours in Britain are nudity (37%), wearing a hoodie (12%), displays of affection (11%), breast feeding (10%), having a bad ringtone (8%), arguing (8%), drinking alcohol (7%), dropping litter (3%) and smoking (2%) (Brainmail). Not being one for public displays of affection myself, I find this amusing.

While it probably wouldn’t be a good thing for us all to adopt the values of Viz’s Victorian Dad, or to clamp down on those pesky nursing mums, it’s interesting to note a resurgence in grace and deportment. This backlash against binge drinking culture is as much media driven as consumer led, but it's beginning to gain traction.

www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/littlebritain

In 2006, a ‘social experiment’ transformed Britain’s worst booze hounds into paragons of sophistication. The girls were spirited away to Eggleston Hall Finishing School for Young Ladies for the reality TV show Ladette to Lady.

For some participants, the experience was life changing. For young viewers, it highlighted the benefits of deportment where it really counts – their looks. Several of the female beer monsters reported losing considerable amounts of weight. Unsurprisingly, cutting back from the customary 20-pub-a-night pub crawl resulted in significant calorie reduction!

www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/abfab

Joanna Lumley, interviewed on Parkinson in October, has called on young ones in the UK to behave better, so as to be more successful in life. In a rather ironic way, she’s the ideal spokesperson, best known for her outrageous antics as Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous and poster child to several generations of female party animals.

The actress, who, in real life, is incredibly poised and articulate, has written a foreward to a reissued book called The Magic Key to Charm. It draws on old-fashioned values and furnishes binge-drinking lasses with the skills to become more ladylike.

And, given that throwing up in the gutter is not a good look, particularly when the photos are instantly plastered all over Bebo, or Facebook, this could be very good advice.

Life isn't 'real' without brands

Advertising has been regarded as a manipulative influence, a 'hidden persuader'. Some went so far as to say that advertising created a distorted reality in which people were forced to lead inauthentic lives. Now brands are part of the social fabric, part of our collective social memories. They belong as much to consumers as to marketers.

Branded properties have become social particles, which people use for communication and self-expression. Once oxymorons, 'authentic consumption' and even 'caring consumption' have become acceptable contradictions. In other words, 'I shop, therefore I am.'

The bad news for marketers is they no longer own their brands. But, on the upside, brands have more opportunities than ever to enter consumers’ lives, provided they're ‘real’, that is, in context. Instead of interrupting conversations, brands need to be interesting enough to be part of the conversation, which isn't easy if you're a FMCG product. But any brand can generate interest, it may just have to swallow its pride and take a bit part in the story it creates. The trick is to integrate in a relevant way, so you're not creating entertainment for entertainment's sake, but also selling product.


Get Real

Today, for the majority of youngish people, it’s almost inconceivable to have a world without brands, to the extent that when social media company Bebo, excluded brands from the online TV show Kate Modern, viewers voted that brands should be shown, provided they were in context and hence ‘real’.




Express Yourself

With or without corporate consent, consumers manipulate brands for their own self-expression. One instance of this is customisation. By allowing people to personalise their trainers in its origami-themed Mexico 66 online store, Onitsuka Tiger helps customers experiment with fashion design to develop their own take on the brand.

Companies are developing new products with consumers, not through traditional, stilted research methods, but more organic discussion. Chase Manhattan began a dialogue with US students on Facebook to find out how they would use a youth-targeted rewards-based credit card. Discovering that they gave their points to charity, the bank created a Facebook credit card, the Chase +1 Student MasterCard, which facilitates donating through ‘Karma points’.


Show you care

The Chase MasterCard illustrates ‘caring consumption’, which has become a convenient way to change the world, without compromising on your lifestyle. It’s the premise of JWT’s Change The World 9 to 5 campaign, which empowers people to make a difference, through making activism seem less daunting.

No matter how thoughtlessly you consume, you can still care thanks to a campaign for the Belgian League for the Blind www.ablindcall.be, which leverages the fact that we’re all prone to making accidental calls when our mobiles aren’t locked. Mobile users are being encouraged to add the 'A Blind Call' telephone number to their contacts list. Every time they make an accidental call on that number, a donation is given to the charity.


Branded entertainment

Advertising and entertainment have blurred to the point where people increasingly don’t distinguish between the two - it's all part of life. It’s not that they don’t know when they’re being marketed to, it’s that they often don’t care. Provided they’re being entertained or given something useful, they’re happy to take on board branded content, from advergames, such as adidas' OriginsFestival, a game that lets you create your own ideal music festival, to branded social applications, such as the Sprite SIPS character on Facebook.

OriginsFestival


While consumers may not distinguish between advertising and entertainment (when it's good), brands clearly need to maintain the distinction between entertaining and selling and they must get the balance right.

The branded microseries Sunsilk's Lovebites integrates the product into an ongoing drama. There are plenty of other opportunities to convey product information, e.g. via the website, or traditional advertising, but if you want to create engaging content, people's lives are usually more interesting than shampoo.

Burger King's upcoming Buger King, The Movie likewise creates drama around flatmates, who happen to live above a Burger King restaurant. Whether or not this will fly, after years of shoving flame grilled whoppers under our noses, has yet to be seen. The company's previous foray into entertainment - the leftfield Subservient Chicken, which web users could command to do their bidding - was undoubtedly popular and demonstrated the 'have it your way' strategy, but its effect on sales is less clear. Personally, any company that lets me take control of a guy in a chicken suit, is a winner in my book. But that's just me.

Subservient Chicken


When corporates use people powered media they tread a fine line, open to criticsm that they're hijacking an environment they don't understand. By engaging audiences in co-creation they can avoid such criticism. Nike’s Chain, part of the Joga Bonito campaign, had football fans film and post online footage of their own ball skills. The only condition was that the ball had to enter the screen on the left and exit on the right. When the clips were put together, they created a chain linking people across continents and cultures – a perfect instantiation of the beautiful game.

Joga Bonito


Social Particles

Brands and branded entertainment properties have become ‘social particles’. What consumers share with their friends, through their social, real-life and mobile networks says something about them. Branded material can enhance their social standing. Being the first to pick up on a new viral campaign or widget, or being the top scorer amongst your mates on a branded online game, confers status.

Brands have become integral to life, but this comes at a price. There's much more competition. If you’re an FMCG brand and you think your competitive set is FMCG, think again. It’s the universe of all things entertaining, useful, fun, or thought-provoking.

If you're a brand that doesn't lend itself to laugh-out-loud entertainment, or deep and meaningful self-expression, where do you fit in - above, below, within, or to the side of consumers' lives - and how and where do you create drama? Is your product really the most interesting thing? A relevant, supporting role in a good movie is better than the starring role in something no one watches or cares about.

Want it...need it

Have you ever observed that, when you try not to think about something, you can't help thinking about it even more?

Cravings are linked to restraint. Anything subject to societal, or personal, restraint, in other words anything good that's deemed 'bad for you', is a candidate for a craving. Chocolate springs to mind.

Well, research suggests that it's pointless to fight food cravings, particularly when it comes to chocolate.

A study conducted at Hertfordshire University found that women who were specifically asked not to think about chocolate ate 50% more than those who were encouraged to talk freely about their predilections.

134 students were asked to either suppress all thoughts about chocolate, or talk about how much they enjoyed it. They were then asked to select from two confectionery brands, believing that it was this choice the researchers were monitoring. But how much they ate was measured instead.

Women who'd tried not to think about chocolate ate, on average, eight chocolates, while those who had talked freely about it ate five. The research, which was led by Dr. James Erskine, was published online in Appetite journal in October 2007.

The findings tie in with other research, which indicates that when you try to suppress a thought, this often has quite the opposite effect.

Some studies suggest that disrupting the mental imagery associated with cravings - visualising something else - can help. A study by Professor Marika Tiggemann and Dr Eva Kemps at Flinders University in Adelaide indicates that, instead of trying not to think about chocolate, people were more successful in reducing their cravings if they imagined a completely different object, such as a rose.

The research is published in the June 2007 edition of the Journal of Applied Psychology. It follows an earlier Flinders University study, published in Appetite (September 2005), which indicates that craving intensity relates to how vivid the food image is, with visual senses contributing more to cravings than any other sense, including smell.

Tiggemann and Kemps' work is geared to helping overweight people cope with cravings. Their research and the Hertfordshire University study have clear implications for people on diets. It doesn't pay to set unrealistic goals, such as resolving to cut out fattening foods altogether. For some people, eating a small quantity of the food they desire may help dispel the craving.


Cravings are individual and elicit different responses in different people

Cravings grip us all to some degree, but the cause and experience varies from person to person. It's a complex subject and a number of factors come into play, such as whether the suppressed thought has a high emotional content, how much it matters to people, whether the craving is physically based, caused by a nutrient deficiency, or depression related.



Differences have been observed between males and females. Women tend to crave sweet things, whereas men are more likely to desire savoury, usually salty or fatty, foods. These tendencies are also seen in 'comfort food', with men generally preferring hearty foods and women opting for quick, usually sweet, foods.

There are also differences in how men and women respond to cravings. In the Hertfordshire University study, men ate more chocolate if they spoke about it.

I wonder if perhaps this had something to do with the different level of craving experienced by men, compared to women. Perhaps, overall, their cravings weren't as strong, so restraint was less of an issue. By talking about it, it was more top-of-mind, so they ate more.

On the other hand, without reading too much into it, the findings may shed light on the different tendencies of men and women to talk through issues. In qualitative research, I've heard women admit that talking through problems is in itself cathartic, and helps reduce the problem. (In the Hertfordshire research, it seemed that talking about chocolate was the next best thing to eating it, and tended to reduce the cravings.) Anecdotally, men are more likely to want to fix the problem immediately, and if they can't, then talking about it stresses them out.

There you go. I'm off in search of chocolate. I've been trying not to think about it, and writing about wanting it is doing nothing to dispel the craving. Ultimately, though, I feel confident that a small indulgence now will pay off.

Touch

Our connection with the world is less direct than ever before because more of our information is mediated, usually via the TV or a computer screen. Visually overloaded, but sensorily deprived, we’re touch-hungry. The societal trend towards self-indulgence is partly a reaction to our biological need for touch. Increasingly, we spoil ourselves with luxury as a proxy for contact.

Our need for multi-sensory stimulation represents a big opportunity for brands. From the iPod Touch to a more tactile focus in interior design and bedlinen, brands are helping us re-connect with the world on a more visceral level. Branding is primarily about creating an emotional connection with consumers, and, touch, along with smell, is a highly emotional, immediate sense.

The way the brain processes information sheds light on the immediacy of touch. Touch stimulates us powerfully on an unconscious level: think of a tap on the shoulder, or the automatic response to withdraw your hand when you touch a hot stove. If the information that reaches our brain is based on physical senses, our reactions are much faster. This is the premise for Purdue University's experimental touch-based warning devices in steering wheels, designed to alert drivers to dangers, such as other vehicles in their blind spot.



Touch is the first sense humans develop in the womb. Babies need to be touched, otherwise their development is inhibited. Touch is fundamental to feeling comfortable, or distinctly uncomfortable. Some people like to greet their friends with a bear hug, while, for others, an air kiss is almost too much contact. A cosy, cashmere sweater can make all the difference to a winter day, not just in regulating temperature, but mood.

Research has demonstrated the positive benefits of touch in promoting animal health and human health. The Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami has conducted over 100 studies of subjects of all ages, which show the effects of touch therapy in alleviating depression, reducing pain and improving immune function, among other benefits.

Various scientific studies have shown that touch stimulates the release of endorphins (the body's natural pain killers). In other words, when a mum hugs her injured child, this can literally make it better.

But despite the demonstrable benefits, the sense of touch is being neglected. Dr Charles Spence of Oxford University, author of the ICI report on the Secrets of the Senses, warned that sensory deprivation in modern society is affecting people's health and wellbeing.

'We have moved away from an outdoor physical lifestyle to one in which we spend 90% of our time indoors, often watching TV or using computers. Although this makes life easier, it doesn't satisfy our basic need for a balanced multi-sensory diet.

‘18% of our body is skin, and if we don't stimulate it appropriately it can lead to stress and higher blood pressure,' said Dr. Spence.


Tactile brands


Vaseline Intensive Care

Brands have based entire advertising campaigns on touch. Vaseline Intensive Care is a deeply sensual brand, with a campaign that highlights the amazing properties of human skin and how it responds to touch.

The temptation to touch or fiddle is sometimes overwhelming, even when we're not conscious of it. Maltesers’ long-running international campaign is based on the chocolate’s physical attributes: the light spheres bring out consumers’ playful sides.

Retail environments present perhaps the most obvious opportunity for brands to engage in tactile marketing.

Touch in interior and retail design can be used to accentuate the personality of a place, or brand. It can convey a sense of comfort, or malaise. Furry, animal-print wallpaper in nightclubs speaks volumes - ‘Run!’. Hardness can convey solidity and supportiveness, but equally, it can feel rejecting. Softness confers comfort and friendliness, but can also suggest decadence.

Timberland, Tokyo

Timberland’s new touch-friendly stores evoke the natural world, through wooden tree-like sculptures, and reinforce the brand's credentials as being environmentally in-touch.


Touch as a discriminator of quality

A far cry from the old model of ‘Do not touch’, some new stores encourage nothing but touch, because this is one of the most important ways to gauge the quality and authenticity of goods. Now that many goods are comoditised, everything seems equal to our visual senses, so touch is more important as a discriminator.

You can’t buy anything at Tokyo’s Sample Lab , which opened in July 2007; all members can do is handle and sample new products – and, of course, review them to generate word of mouth.

In Room 414 at the Westin Philadelphia, developed to showcase the work of local designers, everything you touch is for sale.

Room 414


Marketing mashups

Marketers have borrowed from other disciplines, including tactile trends in art and design. Artists have branched out into vinyl toys, as another outlet for expression, and brands, such as shoe company Onitsuka Tiger, have followed suit.

Recently, fans couldn’t get enough of special edition platinum Adios and Ciao Ciao toys, which celebrate a new collaboration between Onitsuka Tiger and Japanese-inspired lifestyle brand tokidoki, purveyors of ultra-desirable T-shirts, toys, bags and iPod skins.

Tokidoki Adios toy


Brands can learn from the haptic tools used by theme parks and console games, whose whole business is experience. Walt Disney Imagineering uses experiential storytelling to create worlds that people can enter and touch. In theme park attractions, a ‘molecular manipulation’ technique can deliver a computer-regulated puff of air to spook visitors into thinking there’s something right behind them.

Porsche has licensed production of a Porsche 911 Turbo wireless wheel for Playstation 3 and PC games. The steering wheel, designed to Porsche quality specifications, is top-grade leather and hand-stitched, for an authentic feel.


Touchy feely tech

Although technology and touch have not had close associations in the past, touchy feely technology is the way of the future.

Nokia, for example, is committed to tactile technology. The company has just developed a Haptikos ‘touch feedback’ touchscreen. This means when you press a key on the screen, it clicks under your finger with exactly the same sort of fingertip feedback as if you’d pressed a conventional keyboard key.

‘So what?’ you may ask, but there is some satisfaction to be gained from typing and getting a tactile response. Sometimes, it’s the details that matter. Apple are also interested in this technology, and they have always been sticklers for design details, to their credit and fortune.

In December 2007, Apple filed a patent for a multitasking touchscreen that would enable a new device that integrates both games and a media player, Engadget reports. Depending on whether they tap the device or exert more prolonged pressure, users could be directed to different applications. The hybrid device doesn’t exist yet, but the patent suggests there's hope for a gaming iPod Touch in the near future.

The University of Geneva’s HAPTEX research project is investigating ways to let people ‘touch’ virtual textiles through a haptic interface. Users can ‘manipulate’ virtual textiles and see and feel the effects of the changes. What they actually touch is a computer model of the fabric, but the sensation of actually feeling material is said to be realistic.

Shinsegae Department Store in South Korea is already trialing a groundbreaking online store, which allows shoppers to actually try on clothes for size. Using data from a 3-D body scan, each shopper has an avatar which reflects his or her actual body shape. Combine scanning technology with HAPTEX technology, and shoppers could experience a new level of verisimilitude and even feel the fabric!



The Free Hugs Movement adjures people to get closer to one another. The fact that it has gained traction worldwide shows that people are actually receptive to physical contact from random strangers! Now, that's a worry.

Facebook's Beacon: The perils of social advertising on the people-powered web

Given the size of the social media audience (373 million, globally, in 2007 and projected to rise to over a billion by 2012 - Strategy Analytics) it's no surprise that advertisers are keen to leverage the opportunity. Relative to the audience size, social media are underexploited, but they present unique challenges, which even the gurus of the genre find perplexing.

Facebook recently launched its new social advertising programme, Social Ads. One part of the system, Beacon, got off to a bumpy start. Within a few weeks of its introduction in November, users had clubbed together to create an online petition lambasting the social network for betraying their trust.

Beacon enabled Facebook's 40-or-so commercial partners to track purchases made by Facebook members. These purchases were then highlighted in marketing feeds to the buyers' friends. Surprise Christmas presents were revealed by Overstock.com and users' actual movie viewing habits were disclosed through Fandango.com and Blockbuster.com.

Facebook soon issued an apology to users, quickly realising that it would have to introduce an opt-in for Beacon, as opposed to the opt-out system, which members said was unclear. The trouble with opt-in for companies is that it tends to reduce participation, but better to forgo some dollars than risk a mass exodus from the community. The changes were announced on 29 November.

I'm glad Facebook salvaged the situation, just about in time. Social Ads is not a bad idea at all. It's based on observation of how how Facebook members share information with each other, how they use and respond to news feeds on the site. As such, it was intended not to be too much of an imposition, but to complement existing consumer behaviour, which is a good thing.

Lots of people have been talking about the privacy issue. Clearly this is a factor, but privacy is not as big a deal to social network users as it's made out to be. If Facebook members were that concerned about privacy, they wouldn't post quite so much information in the public domain, and they might just have made the effort to check what was going on with the Social Ads programme. There was an opt-out option. They didn't see it. Most young people wouldn't even have looked.

The main issue, I believe, was that, while it may seem that Facebook friends like to share just about everything, from which Heroes character they are to their Top Friends, or ideal partner, they don't, in fact, like to share EVERYTHING.

What's so good about the online environment is that you can control your 'appearance'. You can present yourself exactly as you like. That means you pick a good-looking photo for your social profiles (or get an OK one touched up to look human on one of the many new online photo manipulation sites e.g. pixoo). You create an attractive avatar, or some symbol that unleashes the 'real' you inside. You challenge your friends to Scrabulous, as a way to demonstrate your hidden talent. Everything that's shared is a social particle that says something about you and enables you to vie for popularity within your peer group. You don't necessarily want your friends to know that you watched some sappy film last night, when you pride yourself on being a film buff. You almost certainly don't want to disclose 'surprise' gifts in advance.



The Beacon debacle also highlighted just how powerful a force people power on the web is. Owners of social networks and online worlds can't be too controlling, or the residents will unite! MoveOn.org, which organised the Facebook petition, rapidly achieved its objectives. It's not the first mass movement. Free Ryzom was a campaign by residents of the online virtual world Ryzom to buy their world, when the owners got into financial trouble. Though they didn't succeed in the purchase, they raised a hell of a lot of money. The spirit of the movement lives on as the Virtual Citizenship Association, which looks out for the interests of citizens across the web.

Search

Online search is huge. Gargantuan. It's the jumping off point for the Internet's millions of users. Google is the biggest brand on the planet, within 10 years of its launch.

A lot of people using search aren't looking for something new. They're trying to find their way back to places they've already been. According to online ad company Atlas, 71% of paid search clicks are of this nature. People are navigating, as opposed to exploring. Search is becoming a giant, visual, interactive map, helping us navigate our lives and the body of human knowledge.

Google has blazed a trail with Universal Search, recently introduced in Australia. The system combines listings from video, images, news and book searches, along with traditional search. If you haven't already found your way to the old vertical search options in Google (search Images, News, Maps, Groups, Scholar etc. - right above the search field, start here, then expand your horizons!)

Google has also just released an integrated application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The webapp allows users to access to Google search, Gmail, Calendar and Reader applications in one place. Google remembers where you are and gives relevant, localised search results - all formatted for your iPhone.

As the out and out market leader, commanding around 80% of the paid search market, Google can afford to commit time to growing the search market. As such, it comes across as being rather philanthropic (particularly in countries where it's not subject to the pressures of controlling governments) because it's constantly conducting experiments, with the help of users, to improve the experience of search. From contextual search to short cuts, Google is always looking for new ways to solve problems. If you want to participate in Google's various experiments to improve search, check out Google Experimental

But Google isn't alone in its desire to improve. New visual tools, meta-searches and vertical search engines are making navigation much more intuitive. Search Crystal, which allows users to compare multiple engines, including images, video, social news and RSS feeds, is a clever tool, which can be embedded as a widget on your website, or on Facebook. Again, it's in beta mode right now, so get using it and tell them how to make it better!


Search Advertising

Unsurprisingly, search + directories, worth around $600m in 2007, is the largest category of online advertising. Search + directories accounted for 45% of all online adspend in quarter 2 2007 (IAB). Banners and rich media were 28% of spend and classifieds, 27%. Search adspend has risen considerably in the past five years, accounting for just 20% of expenditure in 2002. Strong growth is predicted, with Google estimating market growth at around 30-40% next year (SMH 15.11.07), which is conservative compared to some projections.

Within paid search, Google's user-friendly AdWords is the dominant player. Advertisers assign keywords to their ads and when one of those words is used in a search, the ad may appear next to the results. The positioning of ads is determined by a number of factors, governed by a 'quality score'. This factors in how relevant the ad's copy is to the content on the advertiser's website, and, the click-through rate from the ad. Advertisers pay when people click through to their ads.

Such is the influence of Google AdWords that both Facebook and Yahoo! have used the system to promote their own advertising platforms. Yahoo's sponsored search Panama has recently undergone a facelift, with the introduction of a quality score. It seems they're keen to address gripes about user-unfriendliness. 'Easy' and 'simple' are duly stressed, with a promise to get your campaign online in minutes in 5 easy steps.

Online success - Big brands get it

It's not just teccy brands that know how to leverage the online environment. The brands reaping the benefits of online marketing are the very same world-famous names we're all familiar with, such as Toyota and Lynx/Axe.

To some extent, the reason for this is that success is autocatalytic, in other words, 'success begets success'. Big, prominent brands that have become part of the social fabric are more likely to succeed in whatever they do, including forays into online marketing. But it's not an automatic rite of passage.

Another thing these brands have in common is that they are committed to integrated, multi-media campaigns. This is true, but somewhat misleading if we're looking to the reasons behind online success. In practice, 'integration' often means that online is the last medium on a marketer's list of campaign mandatories, which somehow complements the TV ad and ticks off the 'let's do some digital' requirement that someone within the organisation is pushing, for their own inscrutable, geeky reasons.

The fundamental principle that guides successful brands online is that the digital space is an integral part of people's lives, complementing real-world relationships and interactions. Social networks have become as ubiquitous as e-mail.

The online environment sets the context for many of the most important conversations in life and for the daily exchanges, which may seem trivial, but help keep us grounded. Brands need to be part of these conversations, or be interesting enough to be the topic of conversation.

Toyota has made its Scion car the hottest virtual wheels in tween online world Whyville. An advergame, Book of Deviants, also promotes the youth-targeted car. Players mobilise midget Deviants (who go round in Scions) to bludgeon Sheeple. The neon green Sheeple blood accumulated goes to fuel a Scion xD factory. Naturally.

Book of Deviants

Toyota has engaged in branded storytelling, in partnership with DC Comics, with Smallville Legends: Justice and Doom. To promote the Yaris, the company created additional Smallville content that ran in place of adbreaks during the TV show, which chronicles the adventures of the teenage Superman. Viewers were also invited to immerse themselves in the Smallville world through an online game, promoted in the idents, which invited them to solve puzzles for the chance to win a 2007 Yaris.

Lynx's Gamekillers is a totally on-brand advergame that's entertaining in its own right. Not only is there the option to play the standard version, but players can customise the characters, choosing to cast hapless friends, or rivals, from real life, as 'Gamekillers' (the people who stop them realising their virtual love interests in the online game).

These brands get it. They offer consumers personalisation, fun and new ways to socialise and improve their social standing. They do it seamlessly, offline and online.

If you build it, will they come?

The Rise of Branded Social Utilities

Marketers can't assume that consumers will flock to their microsites, however lovingly crafted and entertaining they may be. Why? Because people have other places to go, people to see. They're on Facebook, or Bebo if they're in the UK, or perhaps Orkut, in Brazil.

Some brands are realising that they need to go where the punters are and - provide something they'd actually use! Branded social applications are springing up online, albeit rather tentatively. Their success varies according to their usefulness, flexibility, entertainment value and relevance.

Forbes created a handy stock tracker application for Facebook - but made the mistake of forcing users to leave the social network for the Forbes site, prompting criticism from online reviewers.

adidas, sponsor of Major League Soccer in the US, has been more successful with its music widget, which helps fans do what they love doing - participate in and celebrate the soccer seasone. The application enables soccer fans to elect team songs, create audio messages and add them to their MySpace page.

Coca-Cola's new widget www.cokebubbles.com for Joost Internet TV lets online viewers chat about programmes. Of course, you used to be able to come to school/work and talk about last night's essential viewing, but now that every niche interest is indulged online, no one wants to talk to me about Afterworld, or Quarterlife (a web series by the guys behind thirtysomething, now showing on MySpace TV). At least I can find people who watch Heroes.



If you're a branded widgets virgin, you can learn a lot from already successful social utilities. Check out Adonomics for the top Facebook applications. They tend to fall into the following categories:

- action-based communication (poke, pinch, hug - do it on Facebook if you haven't already!) e.g. SuperPoke!
- discover/share content e.g. iLike film network
- gifting and begging e.g. Free Gifts
- self-expression e.g. Graffiti
- causes e.g. Causes
- trivia, lookalikes, fun e.g. Compare People, Quizzes, Food Fight

But bear in mind that what works on Facebook might not work on a more serious, or career-oriented network. Throwing virtual sushi at potential employers doesn't always wash.

Would Socrates have been a blogger?

Socrates never committed his thoughts to paper. For someone who had so many thoughts and who never let a day go by without questioning how he lived and how one should live, this is uncanny.

From what we can glean of this elusive figure from the writings of Plato and other followers, Socrates believed that we should continually question our assumptions. If ever there were a proponent of the living dialogue, the constantly evolving story, Socrates is the poster child. If he were to write down his thoughts, it would perhaps have seemed that this was the end of the story, that the answer was set in stone. Just as Socrates believed that the unexamined life is not worth living, perhaps the 'definitive' text is not worth writing.

Fast forward to the 21st century. Stories are constantly evolving online. Someone posts a blog, say, about the resurgent popularity of Lego, in play, film and executive toys, others comment and Digg it, while others copy the content and aggregate it. Still others pick up the strand and tag it, add photos to it and annotate it. Someone, across the world, thinks the subject matter is perfect for a Google Map and uses Platial to create one, collaboratively, with a friend who has an idea to make the map better. This sparks a business idea and someone creates a start-up, trading in Second Life and selling toys in the real world. And this is not The End.

Socrates was about 2,500 years ahead of his time. Just as he loved the Agora, the Athenian marketplace where all sorts of people congregated to gossip and exchange goods and put the world to rights, I believe he would have loved the blogosphere. With all its faults and typos, it's a living medium, as vibrant as a real marketplace. Everyone is present, in the same way as the Agora was the one place in Athens where all walks of life congregated, plebians and patricians, slaves and masters, men, women and children.

Socrates brought Philosophy down from the Heavens. Web 2.0 has democratised creativity and knowledge.

One criticism Socrates might have had is that the social web could do with a few more discussion leaders, to guide a dialectic (the method of question and answer that Socrates used to dig deeper into issues). Everything moves so fast online that we often don't take enough time to question and define. Crowds, we know, can rush to judgment. Sometimes intervention is required.

Socrates would accost everyday punters in the Agora and ask them, "What is courage?" then keep them talking for as long as they could hold onto their fruit 'n' veg. Some bloggers and online editors are equally adept at keeping the conversation on track. Let's apply more rigour in our discussions and keep asking questions. The blogosphere needs more firestarters, who stick around to stoke the flames.

And when that becomes too daunting, we can always take time out to Twitter about trivialities. I wonder what Socrates would have thought about microblogging?

Game Girls

From time to time, I still come across the opinion that women are less active in the digital world than men. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Women are particularly suited to community-based online environment because of their natural disposition to personal interaction - in other words, they like to talk and they're inclined to sort problems out by talking them through with girlfriends. They have always been at the centre of communities, forming networks to socialise and to achieve personal and collective goals. Online social networks and games are an extension of this.

With traditional family networks eroded by factors like divorce and migration, and longer working hours compromising their social lives, women are reaching out and connecting online. In tandem, social games are evolving to meet their needs, naturally building on real life interactions, so the real world fuses seamlessly with the digital space. From games that simulate workouts and playing musical instruments, to games that double as entertaining car advertisements, this space is getting really interesting. And women are increasingly in the driving seat.



For some time, Internet participation has been split fairly evenly between males and females in many countries. What's more, the sizeable majority of casual online games, including puzzles and card games, are played by women.

In the UK, for example, women aged 18-34 are the most dominant group online (Nielsen Net Ratings, March 2007). 79% of females (almost 19 million women) play games and puzzles online, according to a survey by gaming website Zylom, published in October 2007.

They're also spending more time gaming online. 74% of those questioned spend up to 3 hours a week playing online games, although 17% choose to conceal their gaming habits from friends and family.

Increasingly gaming is combined with social networking and anecdotally, many female gamers have forged lifelong friendships with the people they meet online. The highly popular female-oriented entertainment website and social network iVillage teamed up with the gaming site Pogo earlier this year to deliver over 65 free online games to its 16 million-strong community. They can play alone, or play with other members, while engaging in online chat.

In the US, the Stress Institute and Pogo have been promoting the stress-busting benefits of casual online games to college students in the run-up to exams. According to the Stress Institute, students who take a mental break and clear the mind by engaging in activities such as playing casual games are less likely to experience stress during exams.



Console gaming has traditionally been male oriented, but now, females in Japan have ousted males to become the biggest users of Nintendo’s Wii and DS games consoles, the president of Nintendo Satoru Iwata announced in October. If this trend gains traction globally, it means that women will be driving a move towards even more social and lifestyle-oriented gaming, forcing the games industry to revisit its business models.

Nintendo is ahead of the game. Its new product, Wii Fit, which uses a sensor to register body movement, takes players through a daily routine of yoga, balancing exercises and other fitness activities. Nintendo say the sensor, due to be released in time for Christmas, will cost 8,800 yen ($AU85).

Self-expression

Web 2.0 is fundamentally about self-expression and sharing. It’s getting easier and easier to do both. Even a basic grasp of programming is no longer required to create great-looking content and share it instantly with friends and strangers, next door and across the world.

The latest digital media tools allow you to create personal stories and bring them to life more vividly than ever before. They’re relevant to anyone who has ever shared a photograph, or shot a home movie, or drawn a friend directions to their favourite cafe on the back of an envelope. They make the digital space a seamless extension of our lives.

Scrapblog, created by Carlos Garcia, is an interactive application, which allows people to arrange content – photos, videos or whatever - in attractive online scrapblogs. It gives users full creative leeway to mix content.

Garcia, who presented at MIT’s Emerging Technologies Conference (EmTech), speaks in terms of ‘social objects’. Just as dogs can help initiate conversations between strangers in real life, your online photos act as conversation starters. They may generate comments from other users, which you can respond to. By provoking a dialogue, your digital artefacts effectively facilitate new social connections.




Platial created by Di-Ann Eisnor, is a free online tool that lets you combine your own content, e.g. info about where to go for the best coffee, with mapping services like Google Maps (provides satellite and aerial maps of practically the whole world – down to street level in much of the US). Anyone can register and quickly learn to use it, consumers and businesses.

For example, the company New England Grown uses Platial services to show their community of ethical foodies exactly where and when to go for farmers’ markets and country fairs.

Guillaume Cohen's Veodia allows you to quickly and easily create broadcast quality films for your website. These are available almost instantly for broadcast in real time, or the films can be downloaded at any time.

It’s being used by lecturers to create their own vodcasts and by companies for training, or to communicate with colleagues in remote offices. There’s a free service for bloggers and a subscription service affording greater functionality.

MIT Emerging Technologies Conference - 26th September 2007

Thought Catching

Following on from my musings yesterday about the Thought Catcher, I happened to have lunch with one of the 2007 TR35 winners (Young Innovators Under 35), who is teaching computers to read minds! I asked about the possibility of one day capturing our semi-conscious thoughts and Desney Tan didn’t dismiss the idea, but said that we’re still a long way off. However, I did discover that other science fiction concepts are becoming almost commonplace – for example, popping open the head to treat patients with epilepsy!


Privacy and Security

Also at my table was Anna Lysyanskaya, who is working on securing online privacy. We had a chat about how consumers tend to say that online privacy and security is of paramount importance, but in practice, US consumers, in particular, tend to favour convenience (ultimately, with credit card fraud, they don’t pick up the tab). Until there is stricter legislation in the US, more on a par with Europe, Anna feels that the home market for her innovation may be limited. I hope it opens up and she gets rich. Like many of the TR35, she was charismatic, with a compelling mix of confidence and self-effacement.

Whether or not the consumer demand for privacy systems is there yet, issues of privacy, security and trust were much discussed by speakers and guests at this year’s conference. The panel of ‘Game Changers’, including Kevin Rose, Founder and Chief Architect, Digg, Garrett Camp, who developed the StumbleUpon toolbar, and Tariq Krim, Founder, Netvibes, highlighted the undisputable fact that more and more private data is being provided by users of their sites and other communities like Facebook. Users need to know that the service has integrity, otherwise they will go elsewhere. Online, as elsewhere, communities are built on trust and broken by mistrust.


Like-minded people

In large part, trust comes from knowing you’re dealing with like-minded people in your online communities. Through customisation tools, you can establish clusters of these people. Social news community Digg, for example, provides three levels of customisation, the front page for the masses, a Friends view to access your group’s stories and, to be launched in next few months, a suggestion service, based on Digg’s knowing what you’ve viewed in the past few months. In this instance, users would be trusting Digg to know their behaviour and to make relevant recommendations.

The ‘Discovery Engine’ Stumble Upon helps people establish more clusters of like-minded people, even if they don’t know the person in real life or through an online community. By broadening peer recommendation, Stumble Upon helps people discover more of the web, based on previous reviews and preferences of users judged by the site to have similar tastes. Garrett Camp certainly stumbled upon a great idea - although more by design than chance. eBay acquired the discovery engine in May for around $75 million, according to MIT’s Technology Review.


Advertising in the digital space

Advertising came up as part of the discussion about who’s going to pick up the tab for all the services being provided online. If the marketing world hasn’t yet bought into the idea, lock stock and smoking barrel, that Content is King, it was once more reiterated. Through StumbleUpon, any online communication gets the thumbs-up or thumbs-down, based purely on content, which dictates whether it’s recommended or not. Flash microsites, rich in entertaining content, tended to be most popular, the panelists agreed.

Kevin Rose cited the example of a recent post on Digg called ‘Ways to remodel your kitchen’, which was enjoyable content that naturally spread – lots of users ‘Digged’ it - and made it to the front page where the most popular stories reside. Ad it turned out, it was a blog post by a tile manufacturer, but it was written in the style of social news.


Insomnia

Insomnia was not discussed at the conference, except as small talk with delegates I spoke to when they realised I’d come from Sydney. Insomnia is what I will experience if I don’t log off now. There’s more to come, even from this session, and tomorrow’s another digital dawn.

MIT Emerging Technologies Conference 2007

Part 1: Women in Technology Workshop, 25th September 2007

Yesterday I attended the Women in Technology workshop, part of the 2007 MIT Emerging Technologies conference. It’s keeping me up, or perhaps that’s the jetlag, having travelled for around 24-hours from Sydney just to be here.

Once again I find myself lost for words. They came in the night, assailing me, infuriating me and entertaining me into the small hours. Streams of consciousness, combined with snippets of music. This is what I can remember of it.

Wouldn’t it be unspeakably brilliant if someone were to develop apparatus that automatically captured the thoughts you have in the dead of night, not your dreams, but those snippets of semi-conscious thought we half remember as being touched with genius, but can only partly recall? Not least because, if someone were to create this invention, many of us would be disabused of the notion that we are touched by genius, having seen in the cold light of day what those thoughts actually were.

So, I throw it open to the floor. Make science fiction science fact. Develop the Thought Catcher. Patent it. Sell it. The creative industries will go mad for it.

A brief, but sort-of relevant, random aside…

“1995 is cutting classes...” Last night, this was the musical accompaniment to the Thought Catcher, - a catchy tune, by The Radio Dept. (prominently featured in the Marie Antoinette soundtrack). Director Sofia Coppola has the greatest taste in music. I say that of course because it matches my own, exactly. By namedropping Sofia Coppola, I’m honestly not trying to dance with the stars. I secretly hate it when other people love the same music as I do. It means it’s gone mainstream. My individuality is somehow diminished. Childish I know. I’m thirty four and a half next month.

...which leads me to: the group effect

Incidentally, hating the fact that other people like what you like is not a mainstream attitude. Popularity is the be-all and end-all. Cumulative advantage, liking something just because other people do, is very much on trend (although people do then pretend they ‘discovered’ it, which still allows them to pretend to themselves that they’re individuals). We see it in the popular vote, in social online worlds in which the most bizarre things rapidly gain traction – I’m thinking Charlie the Unicorn, Starburst’s ‘Little Lad Dance’ and Cadbury’s noble gorilla, who has spawned adulation from Facebook fans around the world. Check out YouTube for some delectable randomness.

One of the speakers at the MIT workshop – Heidi Grenek, Xerox Office Group - had a great demonstration of the group effect. A sixth grade science project demonstrated how eighth graders could ‘intimidate’ seventh graders into giving what was very clearly the wrong answer, by asserting their response, loudly and proudly before any younger children got a chance to answer. They would then tow the line, all but one.

The science project involved asking respondents to say, out of three sticks of clearly different lengths depicted on a card, which one was the same length as a stick depicted on a separate card. It was child’s play…in more ways than one.


A voice in the wilderness

What was particularly interesting was that the lone voice, who gave the right answer, had the power to counter-influence the others, provided they delivered their response confidently, in a way that invited the others to change their mind. This happened when a boy asserted: “I may have seen things differently, but the way I see it is…” Great! A lone wolf, a free thinker! The kind of person I want to be! And so they changed their minds in line with his answer.

If however, the dissident voice was soft and apologetic (a lone, grimacing girl in the first group), no one else changed their mind.

The importance of delivery - make it big!

This brings me back to the moral of the story: delivery is all important. People, and females, perhaps, more so than males, too often deliver the right answer with the wrong voice. They lack impact and their ideas get lost.

When pitching an idea, make it big and important. Invite others to buy in. Project a compelling worldview. Fiona Murray, Associate Professor Management, MIT, had observed that women scientists often focus on the small intricacies of their projects when asking for funds, whereas men tend to stress how important and world-changing their ideas are. The scientists tend to get grants in proportion to the expansiveness of their story, not just the merit and likely impact of their work.

Other industries potentially have much to learn from mine: advertising. We’re always pitching the big idea. We’re storytellers and bards of the highest order, or so we should be.



Advice on intrapreneurship



The closing Keynote speaker of the day was Sophie V. Vandebroek, Chief Technology Officer, Xerox; President, Xerox Innovation Group. Xerox came across as a company that creates the right environment for innovation to flourish, through genuinely investing in its people, promoting diversity from within, through various caucus groups, and putting together teams of people from different disciplines. Innovation, it’s often said, occurs at the intersection of disciplines.

Sophie’s tenets regarding innovation in companies – intrapreneurship - were as follows:

It’s all about people.
There are fewer great people out there than there are ideas. Value them always.

Relationships are crucial
This is a point made repeatedly throughout the day. A number of female entrepreneurs had maintained their teams from previous ‘marriages’, going into business with them. In fact, as Maria Cirino, Cofounder and Managing Director, .406 Ventures said, venture capitalists tend to look for established, performing teams, as a key criterion when considering whether to invest in new businesses.

Drive credibility
In order to sell your innovation, you need to drive credibility, for example, by publishing, or collecting the right advocates.
Related to this, is the advice (and I can’t remember who gave this, but it’s important): document your accomplishments, not just your ideas. Unlike ideas, accomplishments are tangible and can be credited to you with more evidence; they help build your credibility.

Dream with your customers
This is not about researching new products or concepts, literally, to death, as research respondents are very quick to kill off good ideas that they’re simply unable to conceive of. It’s about observing people’s pain points with regards technology, looking at technology trends.

This is in keeping with how we view and conduct research at JWT Australia. My colleague, Dr. Peter Steidl, often cites the fact that the majority of innovation gets the thumbs down in research. The Sony Walkman and the alcoholic drink, Baileys, were firmly rejected by respondents. No, they piously said, it would never catch on…

People tend to rationalise their thoughts when quizzed by a researcher and their responses are misleading. So, Dr. Steidl has adapted new methodologies to research in advertising, such as Consensus Mapping (from HBS Mind of the Market Laboratory), which avoids asking consumers directly what they think is the potential of a product, brand or idea. Instead, these methodologies build on the fact that people think in images and emotions, not words – with the majority of our thinking occurring in the non-conscious mind. So, he tends to avoid the kind of situation described by Henry Ford:

“If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse.” – I need to check this quote, sorry HF, if I’ve misquoted, but the sentiment is right.

Open innovation
As Sophie Vandebroek observed, not all the smart people work for your company. This is one of the simplest and best reasons I’ve heard to open up innovation to a worldwide marketplace of independent thinkers. Online brokers already facilitate opening up research projects – for example, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk marketplace. In Australia, we have an open source online brewery, brewtopia (http://brewtopia.com.au/).

Don’t be afraid

Have fun

The last two are self-explanatory. Children aren’t afraid to experiment – and neither should we be scared to find opportunity, even, and perhaps especially, in a crisis. And, if it’s not fun, it’s not worth it. Have fun in all you do. Have relevant fun at work that drives innovative thinking.

What else are we here for? Otherwise, we’re just marking time.


I almost forgot the gadget

No doubt several others will be writing about this, but it’s noteworthy, sort of. There was a new nTag gadget being used at the conference, which the compny describes as an interactive name badge. It was a way for delegates to zap each other with their business cards, instead of handing out the dog-eared card version, that’s part of a batch that’s always being re-ordered (or maybe that’s just me, and the people I like speaking to). As a networking device, it’s not bad. You have to get quite close for the devices to exchange information – almost close enough to shake hands! It was a bit of fun, a conversation starter (the On/Off switch was not prominent) and it included the agenda for the day, so that was good.


Which reminds me: Networking

One of the big themes of the day. Whether it’s attending the big game, finding something you have in common to start a conversation, or zapping someone with your nTag, networking is all-important. Except that there are still plenty of introverts who shy away from it (myself included). Some are successful, or compelling enough, that people come to them, eliminating the need for networking (if only I were included!). Others learn to bite the bullet. I’m told it can be done. So, I’m logging off now. I’m going to try to start a conversation. I hope I’ve already begun.