MARKETING IN A TOPSY-TURVY WORLD: SEND UP A LARGER ROOM

My Space and the New Music Paradigm

2009-07-06T16:33:00.001+10:00

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

2009-06-30T14:14:00.000+10:00

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

2009-05-18T19:14:00.003+10:00

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

2009-05-17T17:47:00.000+10:00

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

2009-04-25T12:03:00.001+10:00

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

2009-04-20T19:12:00.016+10:00

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

2009-04-14T20:14:00.002+10:00

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

2009-04-01T14:51:00.002+11:00

"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?

2009-03-18T14:20:00.025+11:00

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

2009-03-06T11:42:00.000+11:00

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

Culture Bytes

2009-02-24T18:02:00.008+11:00

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

2009-02-19T09:25:00.010+11:00

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)

2009-02-19T09:22:00.001+11:00

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

2009-02-18T16:19:00.001+11:00

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

2009-02-03T19:17:00.008+11:00

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

2009-02-02T18:37:00.015+11:00

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

2009-02-02T16:31:00.005+11:00

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

2009-01-30T16:18:00.006+11:00

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

2009-01-30T15:44:00.024+11:00

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

2008-12-16T10:59:00.012+11:00

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

2008-11-26T20:25:00.009+11:00

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

2008-11-20T09:52:00.017+11:00

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

2008-10-31T18:07:00.018+11:00

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

2008-10-23T13:54:00.046+11:00

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

2008-10-23T08:48:00.009+11:00

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.