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Marketing in Accelerated Culture March 6, 2006

This will be a record for us.  The Longest YGG Blog Entry of All Time.  But it’s well worth it.  This is an article written by Jay Pattisall, who’s the brand strategist at Modernista!, one of the hip modern agencies overturning the old giants.  This is an intriguing read for those involved in marketing, advertising, or even consumers who think they understand pop culture.  The original article can be found on Ihaveanidea.org here, and I appologize for exhausting the scrolling muscle in your index finger, but I assure you that you’ll enjoy it, in an analytical way.

The Changing Of The Guard?

The 21st Century economy, it seems, has a strange sense of irony. The former dot-com miscreants are now the darlings of Wall Street, while the corporate establishment has weathered everything from accounting scandals to bankruptcy. The Economist recently reported that Google “is now equal to the combined worth of Walt Disney, News Corp., and Viacom,” while “shares of ‘old’ media firms such as News Corp., Comcast and other giants of television, film, radio and print, have fallen 25% behind the S&P 500 in the past two years.”And it’s not just media. Delta, Northwest, United, and US Air all struggled through bankruptcy filings in 2005, while low cost player Southwest Airlines posted a fourth quarter profit of 54%. Ford and GM continue to struggle through high fuel costs, business and product issues, while Toyota and Hyundai continue to gain market share. In the U.S. Federated closed Filene’s, while the flagship brand of Spanish fashion group Inditex is planning to bring Zara to the American retail market and Japanese fashion brand, Uniqlo’s, has said its push into the United States is part of its plan to achieve annual sales of about $9 billion by 2010.

In the advertising and marketing world newer, lesser-established, smaller agencies like Strawberry Frog, Mother, Mcgerry Bowen, Taxi and Modernista! continue to win more business and grow, while most large, established agency holding companies (the exception being Omnicom) struggle to maintain profit margins and accounts.

What could possibly be the cause of so many beleaguered established players and fortunate newer ones?

From A Culture of Unity To One Of Plurality

Audiences are smaller, more fractionalized, more difficult to define and easily distracted with many choices. As marketing and media professionals, we are versed with the shift of consumer culture from a passive audience of unity to an interactive audience of plurality. Technology, new mediums, the Internet and choice proliferation has splintered the unifying principle of Americanism into many, fragmented sub-cultures organized by interests, ideology, preferences and tastes. A twist on the Latin phrase ‘E Pluribus Unum,’ to ‘E Una Pluribus,’ (from many come one to from one come many) would adequately describe today’s society. We have become a Culture of Plurality.

In a culture of plurality, groups transcend demographics and gather around meaning. This means a 20 year old in St. Louis has more in common with a 50 year old college professor in the U.K., than his next-door neighbor. In fact, if the 20 year old has an iPod he would have a great deal in common with Professor Michael Bull, a lecturer in media and culture at the University of Sussex. Bull is often referred to as Professor iPod because of his research into the cultural phenomenon of the device and has noted that all types - doctors, lawyers, students, mothers, musicians, celebrities of all walks and all ages - have gathered around the lifestyle, dubbed the iPod generation.

Yet, we have not embraced the full significance of millions of consumers armed with affordable technology to plug them into any conceivable piece of information attainable on the Internet. This quantum leap in technology and information control is having a profound effect on society at large. Just as the railroad system at the turn of the 20th century cut transcontinental travel time from 6 months to 6 weeks, the jet plane from 6 weeks to 6 hours, the fax machine from 6 hours to 6 minutes, the Internet has cut it from 6 minutes to 6 seconds. Technology, whether we disdain it or love it, is accelerating the pace at which we live. Consider this:

  • We absorb the same amount of information in 1 year today that took 100 years to absorb in the 17th century.
  • In the next 5 years we will double the amount of information generated by all humans throughout history.

Accelerated Culture

The result is Accelerated Culture: the impact of having to simultaneously operate within the ‘Fastspace’ of our networked culture and the ‘Slowspace’ of our physical culture. We quickly get caught up in the tension of the rate at which information is produced and our limited capacity to absorb it. Psychologically, we have difficulty distinguishing between the two. Which is certainly the case of Paris Hilton and John Siegenthaler.

You are probably asking yourself “What could Paris Hilton and John Siegenthaler possibly have in common?” They were both victims of accelerated culture. Paris Hilton’s cell phone was hacked and her contacts and information were posted to Digg and linked to Yahoo! and Google by keyword search. Within hours Paris’ personal information was available to millions before she knew it has happened. Eventually, the hacker was prosecuted. John Siegenthaler, former assistant Attorney General to Robert Kennedy in the 1960’s, was recently victim of a false posting on Wikipedia that suggested Siegenthaler was at one time a suspect in RFK’s assassination. The posting was on Wikipedia for 138 days before it was corrected. Millions read it. Wikipedia itself is experiencing the tension of accelerated culture. The Wikipedia Foundation temporarily banned Congressional IP addresses to put a stop to a ‘flame’ war between congressional staffers, who have changed thousands of Wiki posts. Wikipedia cannot keep up with the amount of posts and information. They have to resort to censorship, which is ironic for an entity that bills itself the users’ encyclopedia.

By the time Paris Hilton, John Siegenthaler or the Wikipedia Foundation realized what had happened, let alone could act, the damage was done. The information was moving and evolving faster then they could comprehend. It’s slowspace versus fastspace. It’s the effect of accelerated culture.

Accelerated culture isn’t just a web thing and isn’t limited to public figures. We deal with it in all aspects of life, particularly media. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the news media was quick to report unconfirmed looting and rapes in New Orleans and the Superdome. The authorities have acknowledged these reports delayed their entering parts of the city. Now we know the reports were grossly exaggerated and prematurely shaped opinions. More recently the media misreported that 12 of 13 coal miners survived the accident near Sago, West Virginia. The ferocity to report any information led to the wrong information spreading and printed in national newspapers before the truth was known that only one miner survived. It’s another example, an offline example, of accelerated culture in which we were all victims.

Many sectors beyond media cope with accelerated culture. For example, the intellectual property courts have a permanent fast-track division to accommodate litigation in the high tech sector. Fast tracking was traditionally used sparingly. Yet, in an accelerated culture the courts have to adjust for the pace of innovation and business. The securities industry is very aware of this issue. A mere mention or rumor can send stock markets soaring or spiraling. Recently, a rumor that a Japanese Internet company cooked it’s books forced the Nikkei to close early trading 20 minutes. The Nikkei could not keep up with the volume of trading caused by a frenzy of nervous investor dumping shares. The effect was felt world-wide the following trading day when retail and institutional investors began dumping stock on all exchanges.

The fashion world is another example. The shear number of fashion magazines in publication, the growth of shopping online, reality fashion and make-over television and our celebrity-obsessed society are fueling tremendous demand for the latest trends in fashion. Labels suffer when they are slow to market. For example, GAP Inc. recently experienced its’ 13th consecutive same store sales decline in the last 14 months. Part of GAP’s woes is the time it takes to bring designs to retail. H&M and Zara, on the other hand, have made a business of mass producing and retailing the latest, hottest fashions weeks after they hit the runways in Paris, Milan and New York. The GAP is caught up in the fastspace fervor, while H&M and Zara have capitalized on it.

But in no area is the effect of accelerated culture more evident than that of email and wireless. The average Fortune 1000 company employee receives 138 daily emails. Blackberrys, cell phone and pagers have turned white-collar execs into raving email addicts. Some executives admit sneaking away during family vacations to use their Blackberrys because they cannot stand being ‘out of touch.’ All of these are examples of the tension and dissonance when information moves faster than our capacity to keep up.

The Marketing Conundrum

The implication for marketing is clear. Traditional marketing cannot keep up with accelerated culture because marketing has always followed culture. Advertising and marketing have been labeled The Mirror Makers as their goal is to reflect the audience. To that end, the traditional marketing approach researches consumer trends, conducts surveys, focus groups to uncover an insight about the target. It then exploits the insight, creates a strategy, and executes the strategy into creative work. All the troubled brands mentioned earlier follow this approach, or some form of it. Given accelerated culture, how can we expect the hierarchy of effects/ awareness, interest, desire, trial marketing model, developed after WWII for a three-network mass broadcast system to still be relevant? Given the typical 18 to 20 week strategy-to-creative schedule how can traditional marketing keep pace with accelerated culture?

The answer is it cannot. In a world where the wrong perception stays posted on Wikipedia for 138 days, where the rush for information results in the wrong information, where rumors close international stock exchanges, marketing as we have practiced it, cannot make an impact in enough time. In the future, marketing can no longer follow culture. It must lead culture.

Some marketers have arguably been doing this. In the U.S., Target has created a style cult around discount shopping by reassuring consumers that style can be had affordably. Starbucks created coffee house culture in America. Red Bull is the embodiment of club culture world-wide and invented the energy drink category. In the U.K., Orange transformed the wireless culture to distinct groups of friends and relatives. While all of these brands are the exception, they are reaping rewards in the marketplace because they are leading culture. Like Zara and H&M, who are using a business approach to capitalize on fastspace, so too are these brands.

Marketing in the Future

If marketing is to lead culture, marketers must create brands that stand for more than product attributes or heritage in the category. Brands better distinguish themselves with a point of view, rather than with a point of difference. Often, it is the intangible that makes any difference at all. Tennis shoes are tennis shoes. And coffee is coffee. But certainly Nike and British Knights are as different from one another as Starbucks and Duncan Donuts are. What distinguishes them is their point of view and how that feels to the consumer.

Ultimately, that is every marketers goal, to make the consumer feel something about your brand that they do not feel about any other brand. It begins with a strategic process that is more flexible. The traditional strategic approach of starting with a consumer insight about the brand may or may not work. Insights in fastsapce may or may not be relevant at the time work is finally produced. Another approach could be to start with a core truth about the brand, a DNA imprint of the brand (whether consumers recognize or articulate it or not) and build a vision or point of view from there. People are drawn to a point of view, just as they are drawn to a religion or a cult. Brands with strong beliefs and vision are as magnetic as leaders with strong beliefs and vision. JFK is most remembered for his idealism and efforts for creating a ‘Pax Americana’, Roosevelt for his fortitude and courage, Churchill for his bravery, the American founding fathers for their vision for liberty. The romanticized notion of our leaders is exactly the type of magnetism our brands need to lead culture.

Agencies and marketers must develop and implement ideas for fastspace. Which means the jettison of slowspace practices. Agencies should no longer aim to create a brand campaign that is to run for 10 years with a minimal staff of under-paid account executives. Those practices don’t solve business problems. They add to them. Agencies must provide the resources necessary to quickly, nimbly generate ideas that lead accelerated culture. Over the last few years the industry has seen a resurgence of smaller, independent agencies that do just this.

Part of jettisoning slowspace ideas is throwing out established testing conventions. In an accelerated culture there is no time for copy testing. By the time you test and refine your idea the dynamics may well have changed. Additionally, established copy testing conventions will no longer work because the system and conditions they were developed for no longer work. The three network broadcast system has been replaced with hundreds of cable and satellite networks, VOD, HD, DVR (and soon) home-based servers. The hierarchy of effects advertising model (awareness, interest, desire, trial) cannot yield the same returns with this system. Comparing new commercials to normative data from previous years is a red herring. In such a cluttered environment, with increasing ad rates and decreasing ad budgets awareness is difficult to achieve for both established and new brands. How, then, can we assume interest, desire and trial will follow? Rationally, it cannot. Perhaps the reason brand buzz and product placements have become so popular is because they help brands achieve awareness and interest. The question we should ask ourselves is how do we test buzz building ideas and product placement? It’s a tough question. One answer could be in-market testing. But the answer is likely not established copy testing techniques.

Perhaps a better approach is the interactive model that measures and improves in real-time, with real data. The cost efficiency of online advertising has made this possible. Since it is unlikely print and broadcast media outlets will decrease their rates dramatically, the marketing world should develop marketing incubators – efficient, affordable ways to test the waters with real data and real consumers, not unreliable focus groups or unrealistic predictive quantitative copy test models.

Whether we label it accelerated culture or fastspace and slowspace, there is little doubt that the irony of business in the 21st Century is a direct result of our lack of willingness or ability to accept just how much things have changed. Make no mistake. This is not intended to be a dooms-day article for advertising and branding. Marketing will change. Branding will evolve. And agencies will alter their practices to be relevant. The only question is how long will it take?

BzzAgent & Their New Channel February 25, 2006

I’m subscribed to the WOMMA newsletter, which they send out periodically. Alot of great info about WOM marketing. But it was the latest #1.41 that caught my real attention.

It was "BzzAgent Launches New Word of Mouth Channel". You can see the press release here.

Then I became concerned. The first thought that came to my mind was the question, "Is BzzAgent just using the people in its network?". I personally believe BzzAgent is a hypocritical company, but I’ll save that for another day.

This new service most of all gives off the impression that BzzAgent is pimping their network. Here they say it themselves:

The BzzAgent media channel enables advertising, marketing and public relations firms to purchase access to BzzAgent’s growing community of more than 130,000 consumer volunteers just as they would buy time on a broadcast network or space in a publication.

Buying access to use people in such a way, on top of that volunteers, is very degrading. I don’t care how much success BzzAgent has, when a company does such unethical things, you will cause disappointment. Now we have to remember BzzAgent is a business and their goal is to acquire money. It is not entirely possible to have a money machine based on complete ethics. So BzzAgent, don’t lie to people about your ethical practices, be honest, and live up to your creed.

I, most of all, want to know what the BzzAgents themselves have to say about this, it seems that individuals are just giving up their integrity to this company. A company calling you just some "space" and "time" that people can buy. Are you going to let people buy you off like that?

It’s just so wrong. What you think?

Seek Out / Keep Out

I just read a really interesting post at just a blip, Baba Shetty’s blog.  Although the point he makes references the ad industry, it’s something that should be applied to all of our marketing efforts and creative endevaours.  Create something worth seeking out.

When we were at Fallon together David Lubars used to explain the logic of BMW Films with the phrase ’seek out’. As in, ‘what if we reversed the polarity of advertising and created stuff that people would seek out.’ I always thought that was pretty good.

So I’m going to do an open source thing with David’s phrase — I’ll add the ‘Keep out’ part as the flip side of it. It’s really the two sides of the coin that describe the dominant media behavior of the era. Consumers today can be more purposefully intentional in their consumption of products, services and media by seeking out –  via search, online recommendations, endless browsing, and subscribing to content or people networks. But simultaneously they’re filtering out of their field of attention everything they don’t want — via DVRs, the ‘do not call’ registry, spam and popup filters, noise-reduction headphones and iPods. And of course the biggest filter of all, the simple refusal to pay attention to anything that isn’t useful or doesn’t delight.

Simple enough proposition. Either create something worth seeking out, or you will be kept out.

Integrated Marketing with the Customer In Mind February 20, 2006

Sam Decker over at Decker Marketing, has a "great" post about integrated marketing. Here are the key points that he mentioned.

The original post can be found here.

7 Habits of Successful People February 6, 2006

Great article I found on MSN network. Really rings true. It is traits I work towards improving everyday!

Success means entirely different things to different people but one thing is for certain – we´re all trying to become more successful, whatever that means. A successful person could have money, wealth, power, family, influence, or any number of other assets.

So what enables them to get it all? Let´s take a look at the traits of the most successful people out there.

successful people
Love Themselves

In my opinion, the number 1 trait of successful people is that they love themselves. When I say ?love themselves´, I don´t mean they love themselves because they have already achieved success – quite the opposite! Successful people appreciate how far they have come, sometimes through much difficulty. They recognize this. They radiate self-confidence and attract others of like mind.

They have pleasing personalities and are fun to be around because of the energy they possess. A big part of being a success means not being jealous of the next person, but congratulating them for their achievements. After all, you could do it too!

successful people
Don´t Procrastinate!

There is absolutely no place for procrastination – who has that kind of time? Succesful people tend to move forward fast. They learn what they need to learn and do what they want to do. They overcome whatever weaknesses they have to get ahead of everyone else.

Successful people are not born – they are made. Cliché? Yes but it´s true. If you want to be a successful speaker, you´ve got to do what it takes to get there. You´ve got to overcome your shyness on stage and the knot in your stomach. And if you can´t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

successful people
Have Focus

There is no question that a successful person has a clear aim or goal with a vision of how they want to live their lives. It is truly frightening that approximately 95% of the population drift along in jobs they hate, with lives unfulfilled.

The status quo is the reason that most people lack truly prosperous lives. Creating a vision of your life in five years from now will enable you to focus and put your brain to work. Begin with the end in mind.

successful people
Have Money

Plain and simple! As many of us tend to associate success with money, it would be hard to become successful if you don´t know where you´re next credit card payment is coming from.

We don´t need to be millionaires to be successful, but we can´t be in debt either. Get into the habit of saving even the pennies and you will improve your outlook – and your bank account. Make a conscious decision to get out of what Napoleon Hill calls the ?Merciless Master´ – debt.

successful people
Are Leaders and Thinkers

They don´t follow the pack! They are innovative and quick to offer solutions when an issue arises. They are fast-thinkers, but not necessarily fast-talkers!

Successful people read books. Books that will help them get ahead, become motivated, and improve their lives. They know that college or university is not the end of their learning. It may just be the beginning.

successful people
Have a Unique Ability to Adapt

Successful people have an abundant mentality and believe that there is more than enough for everyone. They adapt to the ever-changing environment quickly and without the struggle and complaining that others do.

If your business place of many years, burns down, you build another. If you get turned down for the ideal job, you look for another. Obstacles might be bothersome, but they are certainly not too much to deal with.

As you adjust to each new circumstance that comes you way, you move forward fast and this can only mean greater things are on the horizon for you.

successful people
Have a Support Group

Rarely are successful people hermits. They usually have the support of a mastermind group, an advisor, or a coach. Look at Tiger Woods – the man is ultra successful and arguably the greatest golfer of our time. He is still surrounded by coaches on a daily basis.

Successful people understand that having a team to develop ideas and move forward quickly, is key to their success. To them, synergy means 1+1=11.

- Justin

The Whopperettes February 5, 2006

This is the latest Crispin Porter + Bogusky creation for Burger King. The website is very entertaining, www.whopperettes.com, and the ad carries on the insanity of the Hootie spot I posted about before. I uploaded the video to Youtube (it’s still processing, I’ll post an approved link later), but you can view it by clicking on the image below or here.

UPDATE: For anyone that missed any of the ads or happens to live in Canada (which aired none of the great ads; thank you Global), you can see them all at http://www.ifilm.com/superbowl?htv=12

ANOTHER UPDATE:  That ifilm site is just crawling, but luckily Google comes to the rescue.  http://video.google.com/superbowl.html

The 3 Best Flashes I’ve Seen Since I Watched that “Late Night” Movie January 28, 2006

The new Swedish Heinz site is one of the three best flash sites I’ve seen in many years. A minimalistic beauty.

This site is for Leo Burnett here in Toronto and is recognized as one of the best ad agency sites of all time. It went live last year but still deserves plenty of attention.

And this last one is my absolute favourite website of all-time. They just updated it with new scenarios. I told everyone I know about this site and now I’m telling all of you. It’s for Ikea in Europe. Not sure which country. I will warn you that if you don’t have broadband it could take several minutes to load. But the wait’s worth every second. If I had an award named after me it would be given to this site, hands-down. This is truly what marketing is. This is how you tell a story.

Bernbach Said It Best January 20, 2006

Bill Bernbach was one of the original advertising gods that has greatly influenced all of the media we come in contact with each day. An excellent booklet has been circulating the net for some time. It features quotes of Midas stature that rolled off Bernbach’s gold tongue throughout his career. It’s a definite must read for anyone and everyone, not only adfolk. You can read a bit about Bernbach and his agency DDB and how they not only made advertising cool, but also put Volkswagen on the map, by clicking here. The DDB Canada site is a cool award winning site that you should check out too.

Either click here or on the image to download the pdf booklet mentioned earlier.

The link is from rm116, a great advertising blog put together by the students from VCU Adcenter.

The Three Rules of Copywriting January 13, 2006

There are 3 simple rules when it comes to writing copy for an ad, press release, article, or even a blog like ours:

1. Proofread

2. Proofread

3. Proofread

A College Marketing Goldmine January 11, 2006

If your a college student with a Facebook account then you may have noticed the Pulse. The Pulse may have been up from quite some time now, but the significance of it can’t be said enough.

The Pulse is a major listing of college campus trends and popularity. Ranging from Music to Books, and even Clubs and Organizations. The data also compares listings among college campuses.

Some of the number one listings, include:

Music - DMB
Books - The Da Vinci Code
Movies - The Notebook
Television - Family Guy
Clubs & Orgs. - Lifeguard
Hometowns - Houston

As someone in youth/college marketing this data becomes an invaluable source of information. The data is also updated daily at 6 a.m. PST.

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