citizenbay

20th April 2010 launching thereareotherworlds : A debate camp for the marketing communications world

There are many festivals and conferences that occur in the marketing services calendar. Some are huge, some little, but generally most offer little chance for real debate.

Also, even when you want to go, sometimes the financial or workload pressure prevents you from going.

Starting this Sunday is the Valencia Festival of Media, a well established event run by a good friend. This year it has a big list of names speaking, and an even longer list of brands, agencies and media owners attending. They will aim to tackle an agenda shaped around 're-writing the rule book' of consumer engagement.

Now I cannot be there, and neither can a number of other folk. But many would love to get in on the debates. You might be going to Valencia, but a colleague might not be, but would love to share their views too.

So I thought it would be fun to invite a few opinionated people to debate some of the hop topics of the industry, inspired by the Festival of Media agenda.

Topics include:

 - What is the point of a media agency?

 - What are the new rules of 'consumer engagement'

 - What to people really think about brand 'engagement strategies'

It will happen between 1330 and 1700 on Tuesday 20th April in London. You can sign up here at eventbrite for a ticket. Each ticket is £18.95. They are limited.

This is the first of such gatherings, which I call thereareotherworlds, because at times our industry is prone to secluding itself and justifying the status quo, rather than opening up to real debate.

People attend on the basis of these 'rules'

1    There is Open Debate

2    There are no 'Speakers'

3    There are no 'Experts'

4    Everyone contributes

5    No-one will be a wallflower

6    No business pitches

7    The group chooses the topics

8    The group tries to shape an output to each discussion

9    The discussion will be recorded and podcasted

10    err...that's it

Let me know if you would like to come, or just sign up...but remember come with your opinions...

The Best LIFT in the world: How a lift (elevator) can reflect your brand

Right. You get in a lift. A confined space. With people you don't know. You choose the floor. Someone might even ask you to push the button for another floor too. You look up at nothing. You look sideways or to the floor for no apparent reason. This really is time in your day where joy rarely features.

In thousands of offices every day, employees, clients, customers and suppliers all travel a few floors in the metal box. Some suffer from claustrophobia, others from bad body odour, while others just struggle with standing next to the 'crazy one'.

Occasionally, someone decides to share personal information (we try not to listen, but we just can't help it can we?)

However, a few smart cookies have been making the 'lift experience' into something other than entering the void, Star Trek style.

Some years ago, I came across IKEA getting clever in a lift. They transformed a lift into a cosy room, where people could sit comfortably and enjoy the ride. Perfectly on brand.

Meanwhile, in Stockholm, Hotel Lydnar was a cool little hotel before it re-opened into a less rock n roll version. I stayed there a few times and loved their lift. A lift that had a panel of buttons that allowed you to select the type of music you wanted for the journey ('Can I have the 3rd floor and some reggae please?'). A perfect way to travel...

So, what lift gets the award for the Best Lift in the World?

Any suggestions please share...

IMM08: Steve King seeks a new breed of media professional

(Photographer: David Banks)

As always, a great contribution to IMM08 from Steve King, CEO of ZenithOptimedia. In a room full of media agency and media owner professionals plus a smattering of brand representatives, he called his presentation ‘ Everything changes but you’. It was a challenge to all present to face up to the fact that the media agency and media owner has to evolve if they want to continue to be relevant to brands in the future.
Steve gave a great summary of how simple life was for the media agency and creative agency in the past.. Show a great TV ad in great programming, watch the ad recall measures go through the roof. Even simpler was the role of the international department which acted as a central resource of ‘Best Practice’ and monitor of local agency performance. Steve stated that central clients wanted info on the local markets, so agencies created central departments to provide it.

Consumers now have more choice, more ways to make their choice, more media, more brands and more information, and we have seen the simple relationship between advertising and ad recall is declining rapidly. Agencies can no longer depend on GRPs.

Steve is absolutely right. The communications model of buying heavy weights of media space, based on people needing significant exposure to a message to remember it, is flawed.

His demand for a more holistic view on communications planning is not new, but it is still urgently needed.

The ultimate challenge in Steve’s mind is the people who work in the communications business. To be able to grapple with the new consumer realities, the industry needs a new breed of people who think holistically, can construct strategies that do not carry the weight of old ways of working and be trenspotters.

So is your company finding these kind of people? They are out there, but it might be just that you are not looking in the right place…More on this in a future post…

The perfect retail experience?

I think I have discovered retail heaven.

The place is called You Don't Bring Me Flowers and it is found in south London right near to Hither Green train station.

I had to meet my friend Gauti Sigthorssen to discuss our on-going research project on the rise of DIY culture in music (you can find more on this over at the citizensound blog).

He insisted I made the trip to Hither Green ('where?' was my first response).

The place is fabulous. Flowers on sales outside.

Inside the walls covered in an eclectic mix of fair trade jewellery and interesting objects. They serve all sorts of tea, coffee and cakes. Cups and saucers don't match. Chairs and tables are a stunning mix of tastes and eras.

For me though the icing on the retail cake so to speak is the 1950's dansette on top of the old fridge. With a rack of LPs to choose from (Ella, Nina Simone amongst others) you can just go ahead, choose a record, and put it on the dansette yourself. I sat back and enjoyed my tea and toast listening to Ella Live in Berlin.

Oh and no wifi.

If you live in London, please make the trek there. It is truly an oasis.

Esther lays out the challenges for the media industry

Here are the communications challenges as seen by Esther Lee of Coca Cola...

More on MTV Circuits of Cool

Andy Davidson of MTV Europe delivered a fascinating presentation at the GenerationXY? conference last week. Delving into his box of tricks, otherwise known as the MTV Circuits of Cool research, he shared little nuggets including:

1 Technology helping to build friendships, not alienating kids.
2 Digital fills the void for adolescents who are too young to go out and too old to stay in
3 Youth are never separated from their friends. They are connected all the time. Marketers need to be aware of this when connecting. There is no point in pushing to the individual when the tribe is more important to youth.
4 Online usage is chaotic and random. They don't go to youtube, but go there from a clip sent to them from a friend.

Andy summarised with some advice to brands who wish to connect with youth.
Be relevant
Don't talk about technology
Understand their needs
Take account of cultural and climactic differences
Entertain kids and connect the adolescents
Use the right channel for the job

All of this in forty minutes. Normally we are lucky to get a sliver of such insight and comment in a conference.

Mum what is a social network?

I chaired the MTV/CSquared Conference in Prague last week, and was treated to some great speakers. First up was Andy Davidson, Research Director of MTV Europe. He gave us a peek into some great fresh research from MTV called Circuits of Cool. This piece of research aims to understand the digital generation, answering such questions as how digital impacts on youth, why new platforms have been so popular and how best to engage the digital generation.

First up he made the salient point that young people do not live in a world of digispeak (hello folksonomies!). Taking Poland as an example, only 39% talk about 'blogging', 16% refer to 'social networks', whilst only 8% mention 'multi-platforms' or 'web 2.0'. Shock horror! Andy rightly stressed that young people are interested in what the technology can do for them, NOT the language itself.

The classic chart where we find out that youth love their friends, family and music more than anything else appeared again. All fresh and up to date, yet ultimately stating that some things do not change for youth with technological advancement.

In the Top Ten things youth love doing, being with the boy/girlfriend, hanging out with friends and spending time with family came out as the top three, followed by 'Listening to Music'. Also in the top ten were 'going to music gigs' and 'chilling out/relaxing'. Music, friends and family...still critical to youth.

Furthermore, the research has found that the impact of technology on youth depends on where you live. In Japan, they have become tired of technology, whilst in India the mobile and ipod is a status symbol. Meanwhile in China, the land of one-child families, kids were found to have an emotional attachment to the net in their search for peer friendships.

Andy also drew attention to the impact of climate on youth trends, which got me thinking: if young Morrisey was born in Puglia, would his melancholic genius have been channelled into opera?

More from Andy coming up...

UGC is like football...

So more thoughts from the Understanding Digital Youth Conference of last week.

In football, a few gifted individuals create magic on the pitch (though being a life-long Leeds United supporter, I am having trouble finding the magic right now).

A lot more people go along to the stadium to watch the game live. They feel involved, they cheer their team on, they feel suffering and elation in the space of 90 minutes. They then share with others the rollercoaster experience they had at the game.

Even more people get connected from much further away...through their TV (and computer) screens and on their radios.

A bit similar when it comes to UGC really. A few create, a bunch of others come to have a look then help to disseminate the UGC, then a whole host of others pick up through wider channels.

William pointed out that Youth have always been a creative bunch, but that the digital age has enabled them to have greater ACCESS to the tools to create and share.

He finds them to be more media creative, more ready to write and turn to film. He did emphasise though that whilst some create, many more are watching from the sidelines...

When he mentioned this at the conference, I immediately thought of Bradley's Pyramid. Bradley Horowitz, a clever guy at Yahoo came up with a simple little pyramid which showed the following:
1% of the user population might start a group;
10% of the user population might participate actively and respond to a thread;
100% of the user population benefits from the activities of the above groups.

I wonder if Bradley likes football? You can find his blog Elatable here

As an aside, Ed and Martin also referenced this neat little pyramid, but had morphed it into a pie chart...

Brands that DO, not Brands who THINK they do...

At the Understanding Digital Youth conference yesterday, a clear message across the whole day was that young people have more control than ever over their relationship with brands, with the consequent result that brands are having to adapt their marketing strategies. Nothing new there. This has been said many a time.

I am though fascinated at understanding what drives the Brands that DO versus the Brands that TALK a good talk or Brands that THINK they do.

Definitely in the Brands that DO camp sits Mentos. Pete Healy is Vice President, Marketing of Perfetti Van Melle USA. He spoke eloquently and with such fizz (sorry!) about the Mentos and Coke phenomenon.

He laid out how Mentos defined their brand position, then went about creating a bunch of activities to bring life to the brand...with fun at the core.

When they came across the two guys who launched the eepybird site, Mentos got involved. The Brand supported the guys to create Experiment 214, Blue Man Group wanted in, and the guys got onto Letterman and beyond.

By spotting something fun, then helping the fun to spread, Mentos is a Brave Brand in my book, a brand that treats people as equal, a brand that sees others as the source of Big Ideas.

The result of this bravery?

Immense coverage, web impressions through the roof, and significant sales for Mentos. Pete shared with us a host of other activities that Mentos are supporting, all focused on co-creation and enabling people. My favourite is Steve Spangler, who is taking the science behind the mentos geyer to teachers and classrooms...

And Coca Cola's reaction to eepybird? They first distanced themselves from the geyser phenomenon, then reticently got closer. A sense of a Brand missing the point or not spotting the way the wind was blowing perhaps?

I like things simple

For some inexplicable reason, I chose to study Physics at school. I never understood a word that my teacher was saying about particles and magnetic forces...something about an apple falling on someone's head and that was about it for me.

I wish I could have visited the Science Museum when I was studying at school. I went yesterday with my son Batiste and we both a a fun day. What a great place. They have done a great job in engaging children into the somewhat odd world of science.

My favourite piece was 'How things are made' in the materials section. You push a touch sensitive screen to choose an everyday item (bath, shopping trolley and so on). It then shows what it is made of and how it is made, from the refining of oil to the smelting of iron. Batiste couldn't be pulled away from it. So he now has a better idea of physics, geology and chemistry in five minutes than I had in the whole of my school years...

They also had a wonderful section where kids young and old had brought in their favourite toys. The display cabinets were full of the toys along with a little message from the owner. Lovely bit of 'Consumer Engagement' methinks...