Tackling cyber bullying in cyber space

This is a nice example of relevant media placement - initiated by Victoria Police in Australia. Having tried unsuccessfully to serve an intervention order to a man, who'd been harassing his former partner on Facebook, the police uploaded a video of the court order to the social media site. The elusive offender was finally served and the victim protected.

When the police initially sought the help of Facebook, Leading Senior Constable Walton found them rather unhelpful, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, describing the organisation as "rather complex and bureaucratic".

Self-determination

Self-determination is a major trend right now - a desire to take greater personal responsibility and shape your own future. This is complemented by a willingness to collaborate with others for mutual benefit, which increases each person's chance of success, leading to a virtuous circle of positivity and confidence.

The trend is illustrated by Levi's Shape What's To Come online community, which connects women to peers and potential mentors, helping them to make their personal, professional or cause-related goals a reality.

Man vs. Food

My favourite TV show right now is Man vs. Food, showing on TLC. It's about one man's journey to sample the biggest food challenges and pleasures the US has to offer. It has no pretensions or foodie aspirations, it's just about the food people love, whether that's a pizza the size of a baby, a seven-pound breakfast burrito, or a sumptuous meal from an award-winning restaurant.

The presenter, Adam Richman, is the most charismatic, cuddly, all-round good bloke you can imagine. His love of food is palpable and his lack of judgement sincere.

Tales of Things

Any place or object potentially has an interesting history that's personally relevant to a few or many people. Now those stories can easily be shared.

Share and track the history of any object with Tales of Things. Users take a photo or video of the object and can generate printed QR codes to attach to it. The movement or future stories of the object can then be tracked. It's part of a movement called the "Internet of Things" - real objects that are tagged with digital information.

Let's reinvent the Wagon Wheel

George Patterson Y&R Sydney are re-launching the old-school classic, Wagon Wheel, inviting our audience to participate in its reinvention.

Meet the Product Innovation Team on Facebook and the website.

Read the AdNews article.

The art of priming

Advertising agencies stress the distinction between message inputs and what people take out of communication. The message needn't be too literal. Take the audience on a journey and let them draw their own conclusions; don't beat them over the head with a blunt message.

The subtlety of good advertising and the art of priming an audience to be receptive to communication is perfectly captured in a scene from the film Inception.

If you haven't seen the film, stop here!

In Inception, a rational message needs to be delivered to the heir to a great business empire - that he should dissolve his father's business. But, this is a message he simply won't buy. Only through tapping into the emotional power of the bond between father and son, in a way that delivers a positive emotional outcome, will the message ever have a chance of success.

The way forward is to convince the heir that his ailing father didn't want his son to be like him, but rather find his own way in life. The young man could not be forced; he needed to come to the realisation himself.

The rise of Twitter

With vast quantities of data at our disposal and the need to make sense of it all, data visualisations, from tag clouds to timelines, are more in evidence online than ever.

The Blog Herald has published a nice infograph on the rise of Twitter. Click here for a larger view.

Using Twitter to predict the future

Following on from "Google flu", a project initiated by employees at Google in 2008, which aimed to monitor flu outbreaks through search, now we have "Twitter flu". Twitter and Facebook status updates are potentially more effective as predictive tools because people enter more words than they would typically do for a search query, so you can get a better idea of context.

Scientists at the Intelligent Systems Lab at Bristol University in the UK collected a database of over 50 million geo located tweets and, by identifying which words were associated with higher incidences of flu, used the data to generate a predictive model.

Any sort of viral effect could be predicted in this way - not just flu but contagious ideas, films or anything that generates chatter in the social space.

Isaiah Mustafa, prince among men

Isaiah Mustafa, having created hundreds of personalised videos for his fans, bids us farewell. There's only so much one ridiculously handsome man can do.

See this Mashable article for the numbers, showing how ridiculously successful the Old Spice campaign has been. And here's a sample of the best personalised videos.

London's helpful transport

When I was in London recently, I noticed that the transport system has gone awry. Instead of the usual delays without warning or explanation, pre-recorded and even real voices are now taking great pains to explain the cause of the problem and reassure passengers that they'll be on the move shortly. It's quite disconcerting. I was half expecting a "have a nice day".

England - the spoils

The English are not usually a flag-waving nation, but they do make an effort once in a while. The World Cup, for example. But, following our inglorious World Cup defeat (again) by Germany, the spoils are in evidence on motorway hard shoulders the length and breadth of the country. Here's a sample out of hundreds of flags thrown out in disgust from cars on the the M11, which runs through Essex and Cambridgeshire.

iPad - putting the magic back in magazines

 Harry Potter - The Daily Prophet

One of the most exciting things about the iPad for me is the way it's revolutionising publishing, magazines in particular. A few years back, magazines  had a lot of trouble moving from hardcopy to online and most of them failed dismally. They lost all the lustre and power of the magazine format in the translation, forsaking big, glossy pictures and straightjacketing themselves into copy heavy, image poor formats. Now the iPad is giving those with imagination a new lease of life. The hybrid format, both tactile and virtual - and big - allows publslishers to make magazines magical again. Magical enough - dare I say - to pay for them.

Harvey Norman's mystery shopping

I happened to turn on Sunrise this morning and there was Gerry Harvey doing some mystery shopping - in fact, highlighting poor customer service in his own Harvey Norman stores. While some might say he's taken leave of his senses, it suggested a level of transparency and bravery that most retailers wouldn't dare to match. It was also quite amusing to see Gerry Harvey with a prosthetic nose and to witness the responses from his sales staff to the "customer's" queries, such as "Well they're all for sale".

In order to solve a problem, you first have to acknowledge it exists. This was a public act of recognition of bad customer service with an implicit promise that things would change. And on Today Tonight this evening, Gerry Harvey will be giving his shopping tips for getting the best price.

We talk about "branded utility" - brands providing some useful tool or service to consumers. It's normally used in the context of the digital or social media space, for example, the Nike + training system that lets runners record and share their running data. But Harvey equally displays branded utility - he's championing a consumer cause of better customer service and sharing a useful skill of negotiation.

Samsung Shakedown

I love this Samsung campaign. It gets people involved with the product from the offset and taps into their innate sense of fun and playfulness. It uses technology to create nostalgia - I'm reminded of those dodgy fairground games of my youth.

Revenge of the Torture Test

When I were a lass I remember stumbling upon a U-matic (that's a non-digital, big bloody video cassette) of "torture test" advertising (extreme product demos) through the ages, or at least the last few decades. I'll never forget the image of a live chick(-en) being placed in a container and thrust into some boiling water. The material was so heat resistant that the chick emerged alive and well to die another day. If ever I needed super heat resistant container, I'd have bought that one.

For years, the torture test was relegated to the archives, but it's back and bigger than ever. Now that the zeitgeist is all about authenticity and substance, it's return is timely. People love seeing proof that something really works. Plus they like seeing things smashed and blown up. Take a look at the Google Chrome Speed Tests.

Divide and Conquer

This is one of the most abused expressions, usually used in a happy clappy collaborative context to mean "let's split up responsibility and all do our bit to get the job done."

What it actually means is "let's increase our own power by breaking up the minions into isolated groups (so they can't link up and threaten our power base)".

Divide and Conquer or "Divide et impera" is all about power and control. It's a great phrase. Use it acerbically.

Value of a 'Fan' on Social Media: $3.60

Social Media ROI: Useful analysis of the value of social media fans.

Value of a 'Fan' on Social Media: $3.60

Design by Committee

Nokia's "Design by Community" initiative gets punters to vote on aspects of their ideal concept phone. It's an interesting exercise, but I suspect it may be doomed to mediocrity, or at least inconsistency.  It brings to mind the book Painting By Numbers, by Komar and Melamid, which tells the story of an experiment to create the perfect picture, purely by listening to what viewers wanted. The "ideal" painting was a preposterous mix of classic and new, rife with inconsistencies.

Facebook trumps Google

Facebook became the most visited website in the US last week. According to Experian Hitwise, Facebook had 7.07% of US visits in the week ending 13th March 2010, compared to Google's 7.03% of visits.

That 0.04% may seem trivial, but it's monumental. The Web has always connected both information and people. Human connections - not only social but informational - are now coming out on top.

Perpetual Love from Old Spice

Having attracted around 5m views on YouTube within a month, Old Spice goes from strength to strength. Now it's offering ways to woo your woman through continuous Twitter feeds at myperpetuallove.com.

If by any chance you haven't seen the man your man could smell like:

The Marmarati

Staying true to its "You either love it or you hate it" ethos, Marmite has always attracted devotion from ardent supporters. This is the latest installment.

To promote their extra strong XO variant they created a secret society, the Marmarati. Privileged "1st circle" members, who were active bloggers, got to test the product. Naturally they spread the word, building hype before the product launch.

It's one of the best examples of a social media "ambassador programme" that I've seen.

See marmarati.org.

Pepsi Refresh

I like what Pepsi did instead of blowing $20m on a Superbowl campaign. This campaign is massive. US citizens, businesses or not for profit organisations can submit ideas, rally support on Facebook and Twitter and get funding for a social project (see refresheverything.com).

The campaign has limitations: it only takes 1,000 submissions per month and it's not global. While this makes it more manageable for Pepsi, it makes it less inclusive. It also potentially limits how much they can promote the project in Bought media. Driving too much demand will lead to more dissatisfied customers.

George Patterson Y&R - Picnic It's No Picnic

I think George Patterson Y&R's Picnic campaign is fantastic.

Can you eat one in 30 seconds? If so, upload your video here and you too could be a TV star.

In the specific, the universal

I was listening to a podcast of an interview with novelist Graham Swift the other day. Something he said particularly struck me: that, through conveying specific details of people's lives, he connects with mass audiences. Even if readers have very different lives to those of the characters portrayed - living in different countries, with different circumstances, at different times - they relate more to the details than they would to a broad description that attempts to be universal.

This relates to advertising: if you try to speak to everyone, you often end up speaking to no one. On the other hand, illustrate the small things that are meaningful to individuals, and you may well capture those elusive universal insights.

Neil Gaiman's Interactive Story

One of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, has been experimenting with interactive storytelling on Twitter. He tweeted the first line and the rest is fan fiction.

The full story- soon to be a BBC audiobook - can be read here (bottom up of course).

I love the idea, but I'd probably rather read a book that's actually written by Neil Gaiman - you can't beat the quirky genius of Anansi Boys, which relays the antics of Anansi the Spider God and his sons.

Play it safe

Promoting personal safety is not an easy task. On the face of it, it should be straightforward; it's only rational to preserve oneself. But safety is also very boring. That's why it's often more effective to take a lateral approach to safety communications.

I came across a good example of a saftety promotion in the Westfield mall in Cairns recently. Instead of hectoring people to watch their step on escalators, blue "feet" were painted on each step - turning escalator safety into a game.

Social Media ROI

Worth checking out - Social media ROI: Socialnomics video by Socialnomics author Erik Qualman. (Thanks to Salvador at Pure Profile for passing it on.)

People buy a story

It's amazing how much people will pay for a litte piece of history. When the property of former chairman of NASDAQ, now jailbird Bernard Madoff, was auctioned on Saturday, his personal property was much in demand.

A personalised New York Mets jacket, worth $720, sold for more $14,500. A set of golf clubs went for thousands of dollars above their intrinsic worth.

The Madoff "brand" is imbued with infamy and scandal and the history of the GFC. People clearly want a piece of it, at a highly inflated price.

It's a demonstration of the value of brands: people buy a story, not just a product.

It also goes to show that there are people more shallow at large in the world than the perpetrator of  what's been described as "the biggest fraud in Wall Street history".

Worldview

To clarify my earlier post, I don't actually feel that our trade press misrepresents us. It's quite a candid reflection of what our industry likes and is like. It's also an indispensable read if you want to be involved in marketing conversations.

What does concern me is that I also read and watch enough of the things my clients and consumers are into. I think some of the most useful questions to ask a client are: What do you consider indispensable reading/viewing? Where do you go for inspiration and entertainment? It helps me see how they frame the world.

An Introvert's Guide to Social Media

original image from mogul monolugues

Personality profiles, such as Myers-Briggs, cast people as introverts or extraverts based on their natural tendencies and attitudes, specifically, the degree to which they are energised - or not - by the company of others. People are roughly split 50-50, except for the Americans, who are overwhelmingly extravert.

As it turns out, I’m ideally suited to a one-man mission to Mars. Over the years I've adapted to human society through responding to my environment. I now speak to people on a daily basis and, at times, I even like it.

Enough about me (not least because hasty personal disclosure is naturally unsettling to me), the point of this article is as follows: in a socially networked, always-on world, in which people are increasingly defined by their social contacts, what hope is there for the introvert?

Social networking for introverts is not as counter-intuitive as it seems. Roy Morgan data indicates that teen gamers are highly likely to admit to both shyness and sociability - in other words, they have introvert tendencies, but they like to engage socially through online networked games. For those teens, who are too gangly, or too spotty, or too shy, the Internet is the perfect place to socialise comfortably. It’s like being together - on your own. A happy medium.

The Internet provides myriad opportunities for ‘hide and seek’ and, as such, is well suited to introverts. They can hide, or manipulate their identities, disclosing only what they want others to see. They can reinvent their appearance and their lives through creating their own imagery, through role play and storytelling.

The tools at their disposal include virtual characters, or avatars, blogging, gaming, texting and Instant Messaging. You may have heard that these are social tools, but don’t be fooled.

Blogging is something I’m personally passionate about. Unlike those who love forwarding YouTube content, bloggers tend not to be flashy extraverts. Video forwarders like to make a big impression quickly, impressing their friends by being the first to spot the next big thing. Bloggers like to disclose their true selves gradually, making others privy to some of their innermost thoughts, but in a controlled way.

Control is an important aspect of the online environment for introverts. Being able to set up your profile, your alerts and your news feeds to your exact specifications opens you up to the world, but on your own terms. It’s your very own walled garden, inhabited by your idealised version of yourself and your idealised friends.

In summary, it is possible to get social without baring all. Below are my tips and tricks to do just that.

1. Ignore ‘friend requests’ on Facebook. It may seem churlish at first, but would-be friends soon forget the snub; they're busy clocking up new friends. Also, look out for introvert-friendly promotions, such as Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice, a deliciously fiendish promotion, which encouraged people to shed extraneous Facebook friends in exchange for a free Whopper.

2. For profile pictures on social networks, use an obscure body part, reinvent yourself as a siren, or create an avatar. In Japan, where the culture is such that people are less inclined to plaster themselves all over YouTube, avatars are particularly popular and pets are more often the stars of online video.

3. If you’re one of the many people who’ve succumbed to gaming thanks to the deliciously versatile Wii, create your own Mii avatar and get social with other Miis online at Mingle.

4. If you have some time on your hands, get to know the worlds of second lives. Join World of Warcraft and become the alter ego you’ve dreamed of. If you think it’s weird, check out what kids are doing in Club Penguin, or Habbo Hotel. They already socialise in these worlds, as if they were extensions of the playground – but with considerably more freedom. In the real world they can’t even drive, while in Whyville they can take out a loan to buy their own, customisable Toyota Scion.

5. Join a niche social network that reflects your interests. Then you can get away from the masses and mix with people who are genuinely like-minded. If you love dogs, hook up with other dog lovers at Dogtree. If you’re into extreme sports, join Loopd. While you’re there, you can even get ‘sponsored’ by a brand (basically you get ‘insider’ knowledge about new products).

6. Get passionate about your favourite pastime and start a fight in Hey Monkey Brain!, located within the blogging site Squidoo. It’s a great way to engage strangers in a heated argument with no danger of any physical argy-bargy.

7. Make sure your contacts are up to date: that way you can vet your calls/Skype/IM more effectively. You don't actually have to disable IM - so you still have the semblance of being constantly in touch. Also, prepare a list of excuses for why you were indisposed.

8. Tweet disinformation. Create a fictional life of adventure and dubious virtue through your Twitter updates and Facebook status updates. But isn't this disingenuous and against the spirit of social networking? Bah, humbug, absolutely not. Provided your tweets are entertaining, who cares?

9. On the other hand, if you’ve no inclination to constantly update your status for the world to see, but are tired of being hounded by colleagues about whether you’ve joined Twitter yet, sign up and then never let Twitter darken your screen again. You can still say, “Yeah, I joined ages ago.”

10. Leave Facebook. Create your own blog or community on Twine. Define your own path. Even extraverts may find that the road less travelled can be the more interesting.


This article originally appeared in Marketing, October 2009.

Best Island in the World?

Much as I love the industry press, I always approach it with a degree of caution for fear of buying in to to our own bullshit.

Perhaps more so than any other industry, we have our own pet topics and we talk things up. To an outsider who landed in our world, Twitter is apparently the zenith of communications and the Whitsundays must surely be the most visited islands on the planet.

Mumbrella recently reported that the Whitsundays aren't in fact enjoying quite the boom that hype about the Best Job in The World campaign has led marketers to expect. That's because, in the non-advertising world, the campaign ran, spiked popular interest in Hamilton Island and then gradually faded - a fact which escaped us, because it continued to grab the headlines in our press.

The graph below, from Whitsundays online blog (for the full article see the post below) shows the spike of interest at the time of the campaign, in terms of online searches for Whitsundays, Whitsunday and Hamilton Island in 2008 to 2009.

But, for the advertising industry, thanks to awards, PR and general frenzy, the chart is more like this:

So, I tune out, turn off and drop out of adland as often as possible. I have entirely random interests and tastes. If I'm going to have a warped perspective - which is inevitable, in the absence of a god's eye view - I try to make sure it's warped in all sorts of directions.

Whitsundays News: Even the 'Best Idea in the World' can fail

Whitsundays News: Even the 'Best Idea in the World' can fail

Touch

Best Ads on TV - Publics Jakarta

I'm a firm believer that technology has the power to enhance relationships, not just through connecting people but through enabling a deeper bond. The following example is a great example of tactile tech.

Leveraging the insight that children need to be listened to, particularly as they face increasing pressure at school and high expectations from parents, Nestle Dancow in Indonesia recently ran a touchy-feely campaign to co-incide with National Children's Day 2009.

When parents placed their palm against the screen, a child would stop playing, appear to run up to the screen and "touch" them. Any loss of contact meant the child would return to her activity, whereas if the adult maintained contact, the child would relay a personal message.

It strikes me that the use of technology to convey the importance of the very untechnical activity of listening to one's children made it all the more powerful.

Moon

Moon is apparently the story of a lone man and a droid, who harvest helium-3 from the moon, on behalf of Lunar Industries, to provide the Earth with clean energy. Not your cup of tea? More's the pity.

Moon is actually the story of what it means to be human and how control is exerted through misinformation and the abuse of power. It turns out that Lunar Industries are a tad unscrupulous in the HR department.

The relevance to brands? A brand can appear to be socially responsible, through information control and careful positioning, whilst actually being quite hypocritical. But, should the truth emerge, the results can be very damaging.

This has a bearing on all sorts of debates in communication, for example, the question as to whether Dove can legitimately champion "Real Beauty" when the same company conveys the stereotype of female beauty in Axe/Lynx commercials. A Google search of "Dove + hypocrisy" currently yields 233,000 results.

Companies with high profile CSR programmes likewise need to ensure that their integrity isn't compromised. With the power of social media, the truth will out.

History of the Australian Web

The AIMIA have a great new data visualisation of the History of the Australian Web. It shows the top sites by year, according to page views, unique visitors and time spent. Visuals are available by category: commercial, government, IT, media, search and social. It's better than a lava lamp.

Neighbours

It makes no sense to make an arbitrary distinction between the digital world and the "real" world. The two are intertwined and I find the interplay fascinating.

Though some (a dwindling number!) would throw their hands up in despair at the negative effects of the internet on old-school socialising, in many ways, online environments fuel offline friendships. The net can help people get to know each other when very "real" factors, such as lack of time, or shyness, threaten to curb their social lives. 1 in 8 couples married in the US last year met online.

Stackd is a new US-based company that helps office workers get to know people from other companies, who work in their building. LifeAt connects people who live in the same building. It may seem preposterous, but with people migrating from different areas, compounded by longer working hours, getting to know your neighbours is no easy feat!

Location based services: seek and destroy

Location based services (LBS) on mobile provide exciting opportunities for advertisers to create highly personalised viral campaigns.

LBS campaigns are not without their bear traps, however, as not everyone wants their exact location to be known - especially to an unknown third party. This means opt-in is even more critical than usual.

Virgin Media Television's campaign Terminate-a-mate used the uncanniness of LBS to its advantage to promote Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The campaign linked the unsettling feeling of being watched to the indefatigable persistence of the Terminator, who will seek you out wherever you are, find and destroy you.

Users were invited to enter a friend's mobile number or email address at the Terminate-a-mate website. If the recipient was willing to share his/her location, that person was sent a link to a mobile video, delivering a warning that a Terminator was nearby. It reminds me of the viral video used to promote Dexter.

Over 9,000 visitors to the Terminate-a-mate website clicked on the 'Terminate now' button to send the text to a friend's phone. The campaign was buzzworthy, with 2,865 recipients passing the message on themselves. The video was viewed 10,971 times, Revolution Magazine reported.

LBS worked a treat in this case, but not all brands set out to unsettle their audiences. Fortunately, there are other ways to use LBS, as mainstream brands are discovering. More on this to follow...

Real-time trends on Twitter: Trendsmap

Trendsmap is a great visualisation tool to check out real-time global trends, micro-trends and inanities, through Twitter.

Virtual Currency: an exciting new communications model in social media

I attended another social media seminar recently, hosted by Adknowledge. One of the most interesting developments is a new advertising model, which leverages consumers' love of online casual games. The new model of "Virtual Currency" is worlds apart from the type of "push" advertising that people find increasingly obtrusive in social networks.

The games, such as Mob Wars on Facebook and MySpace's Be A Tycoon, appeal across the spectrum of social media users, in other words they're mainstream, attracting large, valuable audiences.

Virtual Currency works through offering people rewards that enable them to have a richer experience in their favourite games. So, for example, in Mob Wars, they would acquire greater energy or weapons. It helps people do what they want, in the environment they want to do it.

Advertisers can offer virtual currency as a reward, in order to get people to do things that benefit their brands. It's like an exchange system. For example, advertisers can offer currency and in exchange, consumers would:

• trial a product
• sign up for more information
• subscribe to a service
• download an application
• take part in a survey

Thus, Virtual Currency facilitates multiple marketing tasks, including, lead generation, distribution, encouraging trial and purchase. Given that consumers are already in social networks, they'll also tell their fellow game players, generating additional "Earned" media.

I'm excited by Virtual Currency. As a way of communicating, it's in keeping with consumers' natural behaviour; it doesn't fight it or try to muscle in. And it takes brands to where the people are, in a natural and helpful way.

For more information, see the presentation below, delivered by Brett Brewer of Adknowledge:

Virtual Currency And Monetizing Social Media

View more documents from Markus von der Luehe.

Schweppes' Cool Ridge Facebook application promotes Movember

In preparation for Movember, Schweppes' new Cool Ridge application helps Facebook users express their inner mo. They can track their mo's progress and get some Mo Bros to join them.

Movember raises awareness of men's health, raising funds to treat prostate cancer and depression - through promoting a moustache revival! It's a great Australian tradition.

Dabbling in social media spells disaster

In social media, brands can't afford to do things by halves. Rather than reducing the risk, merely dabbling in social media spells disaster, as Kraft's "Name Me" campaign illustrates.

Kraft fell short on two fronts:

1. They were only semi-transparent
2. They were only semi-responsive.

The campaign lacked transparency in that, although the company invited Australians to name the new Vegemite cheesy spread (via an on-pack "Name Me" invitation) this was not subject to an open vote. Rather, the name "iSnack2.0" was chosen by the company behind closed doors, then announced. This meant that consumers didn't feel they'd collectively chosen a name, and there wasn't mass buy-in. 48,000 Australians voted, the SMH reported, yet a good proportion of them felt jaded. What a waste.

This is in contrast to Greenpeace's 2007 name the whale campaign. Greenpeace narrowed down the 11,000 entries to 30 and then instigated a public debate and vote. "Mister Splashy Pants" got over 78% of the vote, Greenpeace reported. No one could deny that fans had spoken and the "best" name won. Fans felt genuinely involved and continued to look after the interests of the endangered humpback whale.

Kraft also fell short in their response times. As negative word of mouth spread online, the company was slow to respond. In social media, a delay of even a few days is tantamount to ignoring consumers.

The old adage goes that "all publicity is good publicity". I'd say that's true only if bad publicity is handled well and mistakes acknowledged. Dell turned Dell Hell into a positive, and is now one of the foremost players in social media, even harvesting consumers' ideas and passions through Ideastorm.

Perhaps it takes a major cock up to convince brands that if you're going to be a success in social media, you have to go the whole hog. Most of the best players in this space, from Dell to Starbucks to Coke, have also been the worst culprits in the past. So perhaps there's hope for Kraft.

Privacy

Image from http://www.sarmady.net/images/ipages-i/privacy.jpg

Privacy is a thorny and multi-faced issue. Even the concept of privacy is shifting as people increasingly live their lives online.

A recent US study from the Annenberg School for Communication and the Berkeley School of Law suggests that consumers feel they have lost control over their personal information, but this is tempered by a sense that they are, to some degree, protected.

More than two-thirds of respondents felt they had lost control, however, at the same time, they believed businesses usually handled their data well and that they were already protected by current regulations. Most were in favour of regulations being bolstered, with 63% agreeing that there should be a law requiring advertisers to immediately delete information about their Internet activity.

Privacy relates to behavioural advertising online, the merits of which are debated. Different research reports suggest consumers' preference, or distaste for behavioural advertising. Generally and unsurprisingly, consumers are more in favour of targeted offers and discounts than advertising.

My view is that the consumer response very much depends on the context. In some cases, people might feel like they're being stalked - in particular, if the advertising relates to something personal in their lives, such as relationships, or pregnancy. Other behavioural advertising is less emotionally charged and I imagine this is more acceptable, and even considered relevant and useful, for example car or insurance ads targeted at those in the market to buy a car.

Nokia phones get you talking

A new campaign for Nokia shows how Ovi picture sharing phones get you talking through a bit of customised film, which you can naturally share via Twitter, Facebook and your blog. Make your own here.

The Nokia version is cinematic, if perhaps a tad serious. Simple, funny customised virals, like Elf Yourself and Simpsonize Me are just silly enough to get people participating. (See my earlier post, 4 examples of contagious customised virals.) I'll be interested to see how the Nokia approach fares.

The Man Booker and 16th Century Soap

The subject of this year's Man Booker Prize winning novel, by Hilary Mantel, is the relationship of King Henry Tudor and Thomas Cromwell. The judges described it as "a contemporary novel, which happens to be set in the 16th century".

It struck me that the popular TV series The Tudors might have had something to do with it. It's a rollicking good drama, whose characters happen to be the movers and shakers of 16th century England. Thomas Cromwell is a shady character, who features prominently as King Henry's advisor in the second series. He's not the most hyped figure in history, which is perhaps why he inspires curiosity and sparks the imagination.

I'm sure the literati would deny making any connection with the grubby TV genre...but the subconscious is a tricky thing.

RJDJ Soundscapes

I love my music. I always have done, "balls to bone," as the Oracle said. I am intensely irritated by namby pamby musical morons who "like a bit of everything".

Music tells the story of your life. The songs that were your lifeblood as a teenager. The bands you worshipped. The songs you danced to, first loves and last rites, anger and pain and ecstasy and wine. The Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine.

As you travel, your experiences have a musical accompaniment that instantly evokes the time and place and space and feelings. That's why I love this app. It's called rjdj. It creates a personalised musical travelscape that reflects your environment - reacting to speech, the sound of a train, the clink of cutlery. Check it out.

Red sky in the morning

I wonder what omens or portents our ancestors would have read within the red skies of Sydney this morning. Much more than "a shepherd's warning" it was truly apocalyptic.

5 million tonnes of topsoil were dumped by north westerlies across New South Wales, sending pollution levels rocketing to around 1,500 times the usual levels, SBS reports.

Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

For me, competitive eating brings to mind a scene from Cool Hand Luke, in which Luke (the inimitable Paul Newman) announces that he can eat 50 eggs. I always thought that was pretty cool. Though I've never reached those heights, I remain proud of my capacity to eat unfeasibly large amounts of pizza at one sitting. 

Competitive eating contests aren't too fashionable these days. So respect to the max to Nathan's Famous Corporation, the Coney Island restaurant, which continues to stage a world renowned annual hot dog eating contest, thereby celebrating the brand's unique heritage and provenance and poking a finger in the belly of obesity.

The tradition began in 1916, when four US immigrants set out to settle the score as to who was the most patriotic. Today, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut is the undisputed patriot. In 2009, he ate 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes, beating his previous year's record by 9 dogs.

If you fancy eating for your country, check out the International Federation of Competitive Eating website. There's a World Burrito Eating Contest, or you may prefer The Upper Crust World Pizza Eating Championship. You can even scope out the competition - a surprisingly diverse bunch of somewhat bonkers men and women, from doctors to long distance swimmers to pure greedy guts.

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District 9

There's something you need to know. Something you need to see. Whatever your predilections, proclivities, or predispositions when it comes to movie genres, go and see District 9. It's one of the most stunning films of recent years.

It deals with big social themes in a way that makes you cringe and laugh and think hard about your own values. And it does this through the use of man-size alien "prawns" that have become stranded in Johannesburg! Ostensibly sci-fi, it's the best of the genre, exploring how people would react and feel in a difficult new situation.

In fact, it's a very old and familiar scenario of how people relate to those who are different from themselves. What makes them empathise? How do they justify cruelty and humiliation? How do the unlikeliest of people find it in themselves to make sacrifices for others?

Setting the film in South Africa gives the story a very real and chilling dimension. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, District 9 features an entirely South African cast - and the lead is brilliant. OK, that's enough gushing, just go and see it.

Bought, Owned, Earned

The world is constantly transforming and these changes are driven by technology. More information will be generated this year than in the previous 5,000 years. There are 31 billion searches on Google every month. Consumers are overloaded with choice.

Technology has had a massive impact on consumers’ everyday lives, on their brand choices and media behaviour.

In a world in which mass media have given way to masses of media, Bought Owned Earned is a framework to understand and manage all consumer touchpoints. It replaces outmoded classifications like “traditional” vs. “digital” and encompasses all managed and unmanaged media. It makes a complex media landscape simple and manageable.

Bought media include all media that you can buy, be they traditional TV or print, online media, paid for sponsorships, or paid for Search.

Owned media are brand-owned properties, from stores, to packaging to brand owned TV programmes to websites.

Earned media are consumer generated. This includes word of mouth, viral and social media.

All three can be made to work together synergistically...

From a consumer point of view, Bought media often reprsent the way in, as they generate awareness and help people shortlist brands. Through Bought media, consumers may be made aware of Owned media, such as a website. They may enter a competition online and Tweet about it, or post their video competition entries on YouTube, generating Earned media. The consumer journey is not linear, but rather a process of investigation, referral and corroboration of brand choice, which often takes them repeatedly between Owned and Earned media.

I presented on the topic of Bought, Owned, Earned at Carat's Future is Now breakfast, held on 20th August at The Establishment. To view the presentation, click here. The presentation will soon be posted on the Carat Australia website.

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.