Three year old Riley calls bullshit on marketing to young girls. I love it.

Marketing to girls and women requires solid strategy, not just tactics or the color pink. To really make an impact with young girls and women, you've got to commit to them-just like with any other initiative. You have to be smarter than the color pink.  There is an insight in this video.  Can you tell me what it is?

I think that Riley defines that girls happen to love things that traditionally would be just for guys.  If Riley gets it, so should we.

Fast Company’s Co.Design blog published a controversial post that triggered a lot of discussion. In their article provocatively titled User-Led Innovation Can’t Create Breakthroughs; Just Ask Apple and Ikea, Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen wrote:

“[User-centered design] doesn’t work. Here’s the truth: Great brands lead users, not the other way around.”

Skibsted and Hansen cited Apple and IKEA as some of the most innovative brands that don’t follow the user-centric design model. They say that the Apple design team spoke out against user-centric design because it’s “a waste of time”. Similarly IKEA claimes, “it doesn’t work.”

They argued that brands have to take the lead in innovation with a strong and consistent vision, and outlined several reasons why it’s actually detrimental to listen to your users.  Without vision and innovation we begin to create a sea of sameness.

I must admit, their points are compelling...[sigh] but are they correct?  Where does the user fit in?  After the innovation or to inspire the innovation?  How might we reconcile their claims with the value of design research and user-centered design?

You can read the article at http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663220/user-led-innovation-cant-create-breakthroughs-just-ask-apple-and-ikea

Are they right?  Sound off.  What do you think?

ZenithOptimedia predicts that Internet ad spending will increase of 16% through 2014, adding that it will constitute more than half of the industry's growth for the first time. GroupM's Adam Smith said digital should represent 22% of spending in "Western economies" in 2012, adding that just-maturing markets are catching up fast. The "quadrennial effect" of the U.S. elections, the Olympics and other events in 2012 is expected to boost global advertising spending 4.7%.

[Source: MediaPost Communications/MediaDailyNews (12/5), The New York Times (tiered subscription model)]

One of the most entrepreneurial acts by a designer that I have seen in a while.  Art Director, Nicole Meyer has created a project that captures the imagination of a prospect.  She's doing a logo a day, every day.  Not just any logos - she is creating one for every one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. Here's an iPhone Film so you can see a quick sample of the work.

She says it might take her 27 years to finish.  In the meantime, I'm sure it'll get her some business in the next few months. Shoot I might hire her!

Visit http://branding10000lakes.com

Generation WE: The Movement Begins... from Generation We on Vimeo.

What can brands do to help solve these problems WITH Generation We?

It's all the rage!  But what is it exactly?  Lets start with a basic definition:

ga∙mi∙fi∙ca∙tion [gay-muh-fi-kay-shuhn]: integrating game dynamics into your site, service, community, content or campaign, in order to drive participation.

The use of game dynamics into marketing is not new.  It's popularity has grown in recent years as a strategy for influencing and motivating groups of people. Brand marketers are just starting to realize the power it has to improve customer engagement, build loyalty, and incent employees and partners to perform.  In a world where everyone [millennials] gets a trophy, how will your brand engage your customers?

Conceptually, gamification has the potential to solve a variety of problems outside the business world as well, in areas such as:

• Health & Wellness: healthcare cost containment, obesity programs, smoking cessation...
• Education & Training: e-learning, corporate and vocational training, online testing...
• Public Policy & Government: education reform, climate change, welfare reform.

The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, filling out tax forms, or reading web sites.

But just like anything in business life you must beware of all the HYPE! Understanding how and why gamification works, in what contexts it is most effective, and what the limits are of this approach will be highly useful in sorting out the useful bits.  In the next few posts I hope to help provide a basic foundation and definition for the concept of gamification.

At its core, gamification applies the mechanics of gaming to non- game activities to change people’s behavior. When used in a business context, gamification is the process of integrating game dynamics (and game mechanics) into a website, business service, online community, content portal, or marketing campaign in order to drive participation and engagement.

Increasing Participation and Engagement
The overall goal of gamification is to engage with your customers and get them to participate, share and interact in some activity or community. A particularly compelling, dynamic, and sustained gamification experience can be used to accomplish a variety of business goals.

Game Mechanics & Game Dynamics
These two terms are closely related and sometimes used interchangeably. For our purposes, game mechanics are the various actions, behaviors, and control mechanisms that are used to “gamify” an activity — the aspects that, taken together, create a compelling, engaging user experience. The compelling, motivational nature of this experience is, in turn, the result of desires and motivations we call game dynamics.

Game mechanics include:

• Points
• Levels
• Challenges
• Virtual goods and spaces
• Leaderboards
• Gifts and charity

Game dynamics include:

• Reward Status
• Achievement
• Self-expression
• Competition
• Altruism

The rise of location-based platforms such as Facebook's "Place" feature, Foursquare (social network), and Gowalla have made a number gamification techniques mainstream.

• Achievement "badges"
• Achievement levels
• "leader boards"
• A progress bar or other visual meter to indicate how close people are to completing a task a company is trying to encourage, such as completing a social networking profile or earning a frequent shopper loyalty award.
• Virtual currency
• Systems for awarding, redeeming, trading, gifting, and otherwise exchanging points
• Challenges between users
• Embedding small casual games within other activities.

Humans have been playing games in various forms since the days of the caveman, and competition is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. Given this wide acceptance of gaming and the emergence of the internet, people have become more open to game mechanics in other parts of their lives. As a result, “gamification” is becoming a powerful tool that organizations teach, persuade, and motivate people.

Whether it is Frequent Flyer Programs, Samsung Nation, Nike and iPod's Nike+ or Starbucks or American Express & Foursquare we all at play. 

[Sources: October 2007, Bunchball; September 2010, Badgeville, Beyond Gamification: 7 Core Concepts for Creating Compelling Products]

We were the generation once labeled "slackers," detached and melancholic.  Now that most of us are flirting with forty, reality doesn't bite nearly as much it seemed when we were younger. According to the "The Generation X Report," from the University of Michigan's Longitudinal Study of American Youth, there are a number of myths can be corrected with the latest data.

Who are the Gen X-ers?

 We were born from 1964 to 1981. (Some argue that 1961 is the year that X starts - but most experts indicate that we start at about 1964 and 1965)

Shift The Damn Spotligtht Already!

As the cultural spotlight gradually shifts away from retiring Baby Boomers, the analysis bolsters findings in a recent marketing study from JWT Intellegence, "Gen X: Flirting With 40,"(embeded below) which stated that Gen X has matured into a group of "technologically savvy, adventurous pragmatists."   Recent media coverage of rants and reflections from Gen Xers in Gizmodo and The Atlantic has also generated intense discussion, fueling debate over whether a passing of the torch from Boomers is under way. This debate is making the case for marketers to shift their budgets from traditional methods of marketing.

Let's Dispell Some Gen X Myths

Myth #1: Gen Xers are slackers.

Reality: Generation X devotes more hours to work than average and pursues continuing education.

• Compared to a national sample of all U.S. adults, Gen Xers are more likely to be employed and are working significantly more hours above average, according to the study. In Generation X, 86% is employed and 70% devote 40 or more hours to work each week. For those holding a doctorate or professional degree, that number shoots up to 50 or more hours. Also, 79% Gen X women work.
• Kids from "The Breakfast Club" era weren't so strung out on emotional issues that they passed up learning: Half of Gen Xers have completed a post-secondary degree and 9% are enrolled in continuing education.

 

Myth #2: Generation X is hopelessly single and pessimistic about marriage.

Reality: A higher percentage of Gen Xers stay married than Boomers, and most want to be married.

• Having spent their formative years in the era of growing divorce rates (divorce peaked in 1980) might lead to speculation that Gen X would run away from marriage en masse. In reality, two-thirds of Generation X is married and 71% report having children in the home. Additionally, divorce has been declining since 1996, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• 83% of Gen Xers said finding the right person to marry and having a happy family life is very important.

 

Myth #3: Generation Xers are disengaged, existential isolationists.

Reality: Gen X is social.

• There's a reason Gen X is called the "Friends" generation. The report states that Gen X has extensive social, occupational and community networks outside of the immediate family. Two-thirds of respondents entertain friends for dinner or participate in group cooking at least once a month.
• One in 3 Gen Xers is an active member of a church or religious organization, and 29% volunteer in their community.
•  95% of Gen Xers report talking with friends or family on the telephone at least once a week, and 29% say they do so at least once a day.

Myth #4: As former latch-key kids, Gen Xers are wimpy, neglectful parents.

Reality: About 84% of Gen X parents expect their children to earn at least a baccalaureate, and 39% expect their child to earn a graduate or professional degree.

• 72% of parents of preschool children read to them three or more hours a week, and 83% of parents of secondary school students help with homework.

Myth #5: Generation X is depressed.

Reality: Generation X is actually pretty happy.

• Two-thirds of Generation X are satisfied with their job; 24% of these workers rated their job at 9 or 10 on the satisfaction scale.
• On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 meaning very happy, the median happiness score was 8, with 29% of Gen Xers saying they were very happy scoring a 9 or 10.

As we, the 45 million strong, have been sandwhiched in between the Boomers and Millennials, we are the generation that can move from the shot gun position into the driver seat of the economy. (Shhhh... I think we may be the Job creators the politicians are taking about.)  We have a much more balanced approach and we are pragmatic as hell.  

Given that we are technologically savvy, adventurous pragmatists, How will marketers motivate us to consider using their products and services?  Since we are NOT keeping up with Jones like the Boomers, what stories will you tell us to motivate new behaviors?

This report from JWT may give you a glimpse into the opportunities that you may have with Gex Xers:

Sources:

• All Single Ladies: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/11/all-the-single-ladies/8654/
• Generation X is Sick of Your Bullshit: http://gizmodo.com/5851062/generation-x-is-sick-of-your-bullshit
• The Generation X Report: http://lsay.org/GenX-1Report.pdf
• CNN: Gen X is Balanced & Happy: http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/26/living/gen-x-satisfied/index.html
• Gen X: The Ignored Generation: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1731528,00.html

Sometimes I ponder why clients allow media agencies to serve their impressions in such a random method. Check out the irony in this placement.  

When I clicked through I was taken to a site that was for an audience that would be considered the 1% - where I was invited to begin building my wealth.  

There is a better way.  Using seach and social you can target people where they are having wealth building conversations.  

For Print Only shows off, what they are calling, the Ligature, Loop & Stem poster.  It breaks down typography to their very essential parts and provides a beautiful teaching tool for how typography can impact our lives and how designers can make it better. [via Dooby Brain]

 A lot can happen in 60 seconds on Pandora, Scribd, Skype, Google and ITunes.  What did you just do?

Did you know that there is a revolution going on in the streets of America?  What started rally cry to 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals has turned into a thundering movement that is sweeping across the country. #OCCUPYWALLSTREET has morphed into a full-fledged peaceful movement. 

In June, as our elected leaders played a game of chicken with our unstable economy by manufacturing a debt crisis that would lead to the downgrade of America’s credit rating, the anti-consumerism magazine Adbusters registered the domain occupywallstreet.org. While the majority of American’s watched in disgust as elected official left for summer vacations instead of solving the problems they were elected to fix, an independent affinity group registered occupywallst.org.  This is where the movement’s official site is now hosted.  Not long after the registration of the sites, Anonymous, a hacker activist group, encouraged it's members to flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Anonymous, they were involved in the protests in Tunisia and Egypt.  During the 2011 Egyptian revolution, Egyptian government web sites, along with the website of the ruling National Democratic Party, were hacked into and taken offline by Anonymous.  The sites remained offline until President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.  Anonymous also has ties to Wikileaks, further explaining the sighting of the Wikileaks truck at the protest sites. 

One of the most consistent complaints from the protesters has been the lack of un-biased reporting of the real issues by the mainstream, corporate-owned press.  No one knows if Anonymous plans to hack any U.S. news organizations, but based on past activities, it seems its a real possibility.  Given the recent ridiculing and dismissive nature of Time Warner’s / CNN’s recent coverage by Erin Burnett or even interviews like the ones conducted by the Business Insider, I would not be surprised if Anonymous was already working on a plan.

Corporate-owned media outlets claim that the movement lacks a focus, however if you’ve have watched the content they have distributed or taken part in a rally you would hear three things:

1. The middle of American has realized they can have as much influence as corporations have with the use of technology and social media:  Thus we are the 99% (http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com)
2. “DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY”: Protestors feel that corporations have bought and corrupted our democracy by influencing elected leaders to stand behind policies that hurt the American worker.  They stand for the American workers and are fighting for proper representation in Washington.
3. There is a better way: Protesters hope that their peaceful actions lead to a new social dynamic in America.  Protestors are demanding accountability from a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington.

The movement’s core message, which is often lost in AdBusters anti-consumerism message, is that 1% of the population has profited wildly from the last 20 years and the other 99% have seen zero.  Special interest money has corrupted our system.  That's not sustainable.  It's not fair.  And it's not the America that 99% of Americans want.  If this is a democracy, those numbers should matter.

 The Art & Symbols Of The Movement

There is a ton of art that has begun to emerge and define the movement. You can visit http://www.occupytogether.org/downloadable-posters/ to view the latest in protest art. 

You may have also seen images of protestors wearing Masks. Those are Guy Falkes masks. This is a disguise used by members of Anonymous to protect their identities and brand their activities. Guy Fawkes was part of a plot to overthrow the king of England in the early 1600s and his character was made popular in the comic book V for Vendetta. 

A Growing National Movement
As protesters and citizen journalists share their stories in Zuccotti Park (near Wall Street), Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago and other cities across the country, we have recorded a groundswell of conversations and interactions taking place online. There are daily additions to the URLs who are covering and enabling this revolution.  You can visit http://www.occupytogether.org/ to get in on the local action in your area.

We are people of Substance.
We are supportive and sympathetic to the protesters.  They are showing enormous courage in the face of seemingly all-powerful institutions.  They are being arrested, maced and harassed without the protection of a free-press.  They are mocked, laughed at and even toasted with champagne from high-price balconies and yet they remain peaceful. 

I encourage you to visit a few of the movement sites I have listed below. Judge the movement and its message for yourself.  You may find that you are part of The 99%.

• Twitter Hastag: #OccupyWallStreet
• Occupy Wall Street
• NYC General Assembly
• Occupy Together
• We Are The 99%
• Photos on Flickr
• Adbusters #OccupyWallStreet
• Take The Square
• US Day of Rage
• Occupy Wall Street on Facebook
• Occupy Wall Street on Twitter

Additional Information Sources:

• Did the Advertising Industry Spark the Occupation of Wall Street?
• 'We Are The 99 Percent': Stories Of The Great Recession's Victims
• 20,000 Protestors To Occupy Wall St.
• Nobody Can Predict The Moment Of Revolution
• october2011.org
• 15october.net
• OccupyTV 

Integration is chaos.  With so many agency / channel specialists – clients waste a ton of money paying for redundancies in their big agency fees.  Furthermore, when Kellogg wrote the textbook on marketing integration years ago, I know that what they describe in their scenario planning was not what marketers are attempting to pass off as an integrated marketing plan.

Today, 'Integrated Marketing' is defined as a multi-channel plan using the same message across all channels.  What we know now is that one size does not fit all! The same message or conversation doesn’t work in all media channels.  We know customers behave and consume media differently in each channel and therefore often impressions are wasted.

All brands have a story to sell
While I create television spots, banner ads, mobile apps and websites, I do not believe that individually they can convey a brand’s story or experience.  Nor should we be attempting to try and shove years of innovation into 30 seconds.  It’s plain silly.  In this Post Digital economy, we have the tools, data and know-how to create smarter marketing and engaging brand stories.

Story-selling & Transmedia
Ten years ago, I began a building brand plans based on behavioral insights, media opportunities, and storytelling.  I began calling it Experience Planning. In reality it was Transmedia Planning.   

The basic premise of transmedia is that rather than using different media channels to simply retell the same story, you utilize these channels, their communities and functions to communicate different elements of the story.  Its success relies on fragmenting a narrative and making each platform do what it does best which, in turn, extends the life and longevity of the story.  Contrary to some thinking, this practice isn’t device-driven (Television, Laptop, Kindle, Nook, iPad), but is platform driven as it is the platform that subtly dictates and influences audience reactions, social and behavioral trends and user experiences.   The bottom line is that with a solid transmedia strategy in place everything remains connected by the same central narrative and theme, but each channel excels at what it does best, rather than bending to fit a central idea that’s being repurposed for multi platforms.

Building Brand Experiences with Transmedia Plans
With storytelling at the heart of our business model it’s not surprising that our entertainment and lifestyle clients were some of the first to embrace a transmedia approach. In fact, when working on the Matrix Film Franchise with Joel Silver Pictures in 2001, we used a transmedia approach to connecting our story in film, games and on the web.  We did this to create a story that can only be experienced by engaging with all of the different forms of content. The result, warner bros began using this as a way to put “butts in seats” for years to come.

Once we saw the success of the plan and method we saw it as an opportunity to test the same method to sell brand stories, just the way entertainment properties sell content.
 
Could it work in consumer-packaged goods?
Yes. Here is an example of a transmedia plan we created for Knob Creek.

Could it work on Financial Services? 
Yup! Here is an example of how we used in at Chase.

Could it work for a big box retailer? 
Sure it can! Here is a sample of how we used transmedia planning to create a new retail experience for do it yourselfers.

What we were doing began to catch on, as we have seen a new crop transmedia story-telling companies emerge.  Some of are some of my favorite examples:

• JayZ’z Decoded: http://youtu.be/XNic4wf8AYg
• Audi’s Art of The Heist: http://vimeo.com/9240242
• Snapple’s Best Stuff On Earth: http://vimeo.com/20479180

Transmedia + Communities
Now that people are powerful media channels on social media platforms like facebook, twitter and google+, a transmedia approach to selling your brand’s story couldn’t be more important.  In the post-digital world, meeting awareness objectives is more complex than running the same spot on TV, YouTube and in pre-roll. In order to have real-time conversations, you have to tell / sell and engage people in a story that is worth repeating.

The latest evolution of the approach is called ARG (alternate reality games). ARG includes a gaming element and encourages community participation. Real world examples of this type of Transmedia planning can be experienced with content properties like: Why So Serious?, the ARG for Batman: The Dark Knight and I Love Bees, the ARG for the Halo 2 game.  We used ARG when we took Dibs to teens.

In a world where creativity is measured by performance, this is an approach we know works.  The greatest part of all of living and working in the post-digital era is that the data and tools exist to create highly targeted transmedia plans that create measurable earned media for a brand.

Does your brand need a social data-driven transmedia plan?  Contact @substanceNYC or shoot us your marketing objectives to newbiz [@] wearesubtance dot com

With every passing day, the benefit of social listening and data becomes more engrained in how we determine where we reach and market to people.

If you use social listening to identify marketing insights and innovations, you know the power of the outputs.  More than conversations, the data provides us knowledge of where those conversations are taking place.  We can also determine the volume of conversations as well as the influence of the people having those conversations at a particular URL.  That data combined with public traffic records now gives media planners the ability to pinpoint where their customers are engaged with content. 

The power of this data and knowledge can guide higher performing media plans.

Surprisingly, most media planners and buyers use antiquated methods to plan and purchase media.  Today, media buying companies rely on publishers to supply them with traffic stats and standard demographic data.  These are typically combined with third party reporting tools from firms like ComScore. 

Given the power of data @substancenyc is extrapolating out of our social listening exercises we decided to test a new way of building media plans.  Instead of using traditional methods of media planning we used our social listening tools to identify high volume conversations & influencer data to create a media plan that allowed our branded content to reach our target.

First we used social data to identify the right kind of customer.  Then we created a keyword list for our social listening tools to listen for. After that, we created an algorithm to extrapolate relevant conversations.  Once we identified the relevant conversations, we wrapped a volume metric around the URLs & places those conversations were talking place.  Once that was achieved we used a tools to identify the number of social influencers having the conversations.  Using the outputs of these simple exercises we created transmedia plan that effectively told our brand story.

How did we know this was going to outperform a traditional plan?

We tested it. We tested a traditionally built plan against a social data guided plan. The result, the social data plan out performed the traditional plan by 19%.  The social data plan had more reach and conversion than the traditional plan. 

This test has transformed the way we are going to market for our clients.

What are you doing today that could change the way we do business tomorrow?  Let us know @substancenyc.