Friday 9 October 2009

The C Word

Moderating focus groups is a bit like going for a bike ride. It’s not necessarily something that you look forward to with relish, but once you’ve started you’re usually glad you made the effort.

There is just no substitute for talking face to face with real punters (you can always tell which people on an account attended the groups because they speak with such authority about how real people think). However, you tend to come away with a bit of a flea in your ear about the subject of brands, ads and marketing in general. The usual take-out as you finish off their half-eaten sarnies is something like this:

a) people don’t consciously think about brands as brands, they just buy stuff they like

b) they haven’t seen your ads

c) in fact the only ads they can remember are those ones with Michael Winner about car insurance, which they hate

d) they like eating crisps

Let’s add to this list the insight that Consumers Don’t Want Any More CONTENT.

I don’t run many groups these days (I don’t go out on my bike much either) but at some recent groups exploring a territory that involved some branded content ideas it became all too obvious that one of adlands new fascinations might not be all it’s cracked up to be. The belief that ‘if people don’t want the ads anymore let’s give them more of the bits in between’ is built largely on a false assumption.

The start point for many a strategy is a place where people are hungry for content and have an unlimited appetite to consume more and more of the stuff. Therefore all you need to do is produce some content (not exactly sure what it will be, but it will be really cool), sprinkle it liberally around the web and people will seek it out, consume it and love without question whatever brand it is that attaches its logo to it.

In reality of course most people have more content than they know what to do with. Their Sky boxes are full of programmes they haven’t watched, their shelves full of books and DVDs from last Christmas that they haven’t touched, their phones give them access to hours of fun, but do they really want to watch anything decent on a screen the size of a post-it. Their Facebook pages are now full of videos and games. They don’t need or want any more content.

Charlie Brooker’s piece on this feeling of content anxiety is typically biting. Describing how he bought a book for the second time, forgetting that he had it already, he said that he now “hadn’t read it twice”. Read it here – if you have the time of course.

Remarkable content will always rise to the top, just like remarkable ads, design, art, cheese, etc. If you have six minutes to spare watch this. No-one knows or cares if it’s an ad or a piece of branded content, it’s just my favourite thing from this year.

Link here

(Note: you need to fill in your age, etc to get in, then click on "The Man Who Walked Around The World" in the bottom right corner of the home page)

Thursday 1 October 2009

Wired Breakfast

Apologies for the longer than usual post.

This morning I was at the Wired Intelligence Briefing. There was the usual mix of people in the audience, plenty of Shoreditch techies with their beards and blazers, a smattering of suits (Conde Nast luvvies), a few journos and agency types, and so on. However, I was sat next to someone who was there not because his job title meant that he could get away with a few hours out of the office to scoff some pastries like the rest of us, but because he liked reading the magazine. He was a NORMAL person. I stared at him vacantly and couldn’t think of anything to say to the poor chap.

Anyway, the bulk of the morning was a presentation on coming trends from Wired’s creative agency Hurrel Moseley Dawson and Grimmer. It outlined ten trends, which I list here and give my two pence worth on.

Trend: Individuals vs the corporation

In other words: People will organise themselves to apply pressure on companies to sort out their act and become more transparent in their ways of working

Is it real? It’s already happening (take Starbucks and their taps) but mass media still play a role (Starbucks only really took notice when the Sun, BBC and CNN started running the story)

Trend: The media are unpoliceable

In other words: You can’t regulate or control the internet which is increasingly how people access news and opinion.

Is it real? Yes, it’s like herding cats

Trend: Google’s achilles’ heel

In other words: Real time search could undermine Google’s dominance (ie if you want a plumber isn’t it better to read local people’s experiences in the last few months rather than see a bland list of local plumbers)

Is it real? Real time search sounds like a winner, but Google are smart enough and rich enough to work out a way to cash in on it

Trend: New types of abundance require new types of scarcity

In other words: We have access to tons of stuff and attention is the substance that is now scarce

Is it real? Perhaps, but there are also signs of content becoming scarce again (ie Murdoch’s plans for paid-for content)

Trend: Local Local Local

In other words: Local

Is it real? The idea of communities coming together online to improve their lot, share and discuss sounds great and happens in some places. But it only really works when there is a real shared threat, like someone wanting to build a runway through the school playground. Apart from living in the same place you probably have very little in common with your fellow town folk and some of them will be the type who litter the streets with empty bottles of Lambrini and wear Crocs.

Trend: We are entering a new era of etiquette

In other words: With so much personal info online there are some behaviours that are just not cricket

Is it real? I suppose so, brands can easily screw up by not following the unwritten rules (ie Habitat and their Twitter faux pas). But did everyone stop buying cushions?

Trend: Social networks have a half-life

In other words: there is a cycle of boom and bust as people move on, a bit like the cool kids leaving town when the first Fresh & Wild store opens up.

Is it real? It has been (Friends reunited then Myspace then Facebook). But times are changing and Facebook Connect (where you carry your profile around with you to other networks) could break the cycle.

Trend: There will be an explosion of UK political activism

In other words: Squillions of people are becoming more involved in Politics online

Is it real? Not really. Signing some online petition or joining a Facebook group is a bit of a hollow commitment.

Serendipity and shared experiences

In other words: Despite hyper targeting there is still huge demand for shared experience and discovering new things

Is it real? Obviously yes

Trend: Watch out, sport

In other words: Sport will be the next target for piracy on a mass scale

Is it real? I doubt it. There is only so much sport that people want and it’s already available for a few quid a week in HD surround sound 5.1 stereo with Hawkeye and expert opinion from Warney