or next?
The last Communications Council Youngbloods event of the year was on last night at Ogilvy House and it was a fantastic look back at industry trends throughout 2010 and what we can expect in the future. Adam “Consumer Psychologist” Ferrier of Naked presided over a panel made up of Tim “the Perez Hilton of Australian marketing media” Burrowes of Mumbrella fame, Julian “a less successful but equally tall Zuckerberg” Cole from TCO and Gual “pronounced ‘Jule’” Barwell from Contagious Magazine.
Ferrier opened the evening with his observation that the 30 second spot where marketing messages are pushed onto consumers is waning, being replaced by ideas which stimulate people to choose to interact with them and share them with friends. Of course, these kind of ideas (yes, Old Spice was mentioned multiple times), are much harder to come by and much riskier to create. These campaigns require insight – a genuine understanding of your audience on a human level.
Ferrier also pointed out that his 18-month stint as a Tokyo-bound trendspotter was now an archaic profession, now that the social web has brought the sharing of culture up to real-time speeds. Jumping on a plane to check out the emergent vogue for boxing boots in Harajuku is unnecessary, as a quick cruise of the right blogs and websites will bring you the news as it happens. Unfortunately for advertisers wanting to capitalise on the next big thing before it’s become big, the web means it’s getting harder and harder to spot trends before everyone else does.
Julian, of The Conscience Organisation, spoke on memes, viral videos and online in-jokes in general. Where on earth do they all come from? Amazingly, a huge amount come from the exact same puerile epicentre: 4chan. Described as “the gutter of the internet” and “a hive mind of 14-year-old hackers” it’s incredible how few people are aware of the populous and productive 4chan image boards, considering they are responsible for some of the most recognisable memes of all time. LOLcats, anyone? Or rickrolling, sending Justin Bieber to North Korea, hacking Sarah Palin’s email and scamming the TIME 100 online poll to the extent that 4chan’s creator not only topped the list by roughly 11 million votes but that the initial letter of the following 20 people spelled a cryptic message.
It’s amazing what lax moderation, complete anonymity (all channers are known only as “anonymous”), creative minds and an enclosed space can achieve. The problem for advertisers, as Julian admitted, is that scanned the /b boards for the next big meme is probably not advisable at work. Or at all. If you do venture into the depths of 4chan, don’t expect any LOLcats. Cole says if you must browse, it’s best to check out the 4chan archives. Other, more work-friendly sites you should check regularly are The Best of the Interwebs on The Vine and Know Your Meme.
And if all else fails, humanise an animal – look! A squirrel riding the bus!! – or make something that people can easily replicate. Cole mentioned Tui, a New Zealand beer, who have a Facebook meme of their own. With the slogan “Yeah right.” they encouraged fans to post the antecedent sentence to their tag line. Some memorable user-generated offerings include
“She was topless sunbathing? I didn’t notice. Yeah right.”
“Sorry, I didn’t see you waiting for that carspace. Yeah right.”
“You look exactly like your online photo. Yeah right.”
If it’s simple, easy to replicate and engaging, people will buy into your idea.
Burrowes spoke from the point of view of a journo, rather than a creative, but pointed out that like advertisers, he’s also looking for the stories that will create a conversation. Basically – he’s the guy that could make or break your idea. He said that 2010 has been all about shareability as a strategy to make your media budget go a lot further. He mentioned the Droga5 Air Force One stunt as a fantastic example of a great campaign that was also a PR stunt and undeniably shareable. And of course Old Spice reigned supreme in terms of shareable campaigns in 2010.
Gual spoke from the perspective of a trend forecaster who produces content almost exclusively for the advertising industry. Globally, Barwell predicts the whispers about the Internet of Things will become a roar before long, with marketers seizing of the idea of attaching digital footprints to everyday objects and effectively bringing them online.
He also emphasised utility and usefulness when approaching technological trends. Technology is created to fill the gaps in society – and will only be interacted with on a grand scale if it makes itself useful. He mentioned Japanese government rail, which uses Bluetooth to send an official text message to commuters whose trains are running more than five minutes late so they can provide their bosses with an official excuse. What a fantastic way to make your consumers walk away with a smile, despite the fact their train was late and they’re late for work?
Another Big Thing to look out for are bokodes – capable of holding 5,000 times more digital information than a barcode and able to be read up to five metres away with a mobile phone. There’s already technology in Japan which allows grocery shoppers to scan their fresh produce and discover exactly who grew it. As in their name, and how long their family has lived in the town!
Another point Barwell made 3was not to overlook the emotional power of response. His own employee @JessGreenwood tweeted in LAX that she was not a fan of the Air New Zealand lounge’s music. Minutes later she was paged, and on reporting to the Air New Zealand desk was asked to make a request. That kind of service is invaluable and earned the airline endless unpaid media in the form of retweets. Social media has democratised the media landscape and brands who harness this intelligently will reap the rewards.
Gual’s three main tips were:
Be useful
Be relevant
Be entertaining
And be willing to stick your neck out in the process, as you will have to if you fulfil these three guidelines. And you’ll need to fulfil them if you want to stand out from the 3,000 branded messages that we are accosted with daily.
On social media, Gual said brands need to think about what their message and their strategy is and then decide on the appropriate channels to deliver your message. In other words, “I think we should probably get a Facebook” is not a great approach – different platforms afford different opportunities, challenges and ways of speaking and behaving, so think it through first.
One cool social media campaign Gual mentioned was Hippo snacks from India who use Twitter to help them keep their stocks on shelves. After launching their product, they realised they had to deal with the fact that small mum and dad stores often forgot to restock immediately once they ran out of the popular baked wheat munchies. So Hippo asked people to tweet the stores near them where they could no longer buy the product so that the company could contact the owners and organise new deliveries. It’s a great example of how technology is used in different ways by people in different situations.
