Social Hallucinations

Average Consumers: The Product of Single Story

"There are lies, damned lies, and statistics" (Churchill)

Who is the average consumer? Does he / she exist? How do we define it? Or does average consumers exist, isn't just a mathematical construct that was aimed at making easier for us to explain world?

People are different, we are the individuals with different stories that shape us, stories that are driven by our mind, our bodies and social environment we are living in. Every human is the patchwork of different stories that make him/her a person, not an average consumer. The average consumer is a type of urban myth to me. 

Woman, 34 years old, urban, modern, income above average, lives in apartment, career oriented, heavy user of internet, buys organic food, interested in technology, owns mobile phone, heavy consumer of culture, blah blah...Yes, it could be me...but the above description brings more questions. 

Can a human being amount to this?

Average consumer is just a construct that derives from the single story and is intended to make easier for us to work out things like strategy, advertising, etc. But the concept of average consumer doesn't really 'disenchant' the world, it makes it single storied and mass produced.

...listen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie inspiring talk about the single story as the source of misunderstanding and stereotypes that keep us away from seeing the whole picture

Yes, I am aware it is difficult to work with the concept of individual when we talk communication, it is difficult to capture the complexity of people's lives but we can try with replacing or at least enhancing demographics with needs, motivations and more focus on the social aspects of human's lives.

Thanks for inspiration: Eskimon

Walking Makes a Difference

2 days ago I wrote about the need for companies to give back to society, about the approach that is not about planning, modeling but DOING. Seeding in order to harvest. And this morning I stumbled upon this interesting solution - Pavegen.The idea behind is simple: creating energy from people's footsteps. So in fact people save energy, make a difference without any effort...well they walk but they would do it no matter what, so it is a win win for all parts: people and the Earth. Great idea!

Capitalism, Collapse and Renaissance

Alienation - one of the causes of the current crisis - the notion of human was replaced by models and greed of producing more. The system focused its all energy on producing profit and neglected society needs. Hundred years ago Max Weber wrote in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, that wealth can lead to salvation. Somewhere in the race to become saved, we've turned the wealth into hedonism. #System fail. It is time to rewire and reboot, cause we can't continue the same way we did before Lehman&Co collapsed.

The change is constant but this time it accelerates and often raises fear and distrust. Some companies feel lost and are reluctant to the change, and stay attached to the old way of doing things... probably to feel they are still in the control. But the world needs the new type of companies; companies that are socially useful, as Umair Haiq puts it. Companies where the question is not longer how much you produce but how much you manage to seed. The more you seed the more growth you create.

It is about finding a balance between generating profit and giving a part of it back to the society, doing good things for people, making communities life better, improving society.

Profit and wealth are positive aspects of business, cause they are means to doing good, to doing socially useful things. What we need is the renaissance of business and its values. Good people doing good business in the networked markets. Well, it may sound like the utopia right now when we are looking at the world around us crashed by the dehumanized models that should generate endless profits. But the change will come once the fear of the unknown disappears, we rediscover that real value lies in other people and society and reconnect the private with the public.

There must be hope for us...

What's the Point with Internet?

Technology, tools, wires, cables, waves...hyper-connectivity leading to removing "barriers to socializing". We can connect, talk, exchange ideas and create without thinking about time and space constraints. Is it a dream? Are we wise enough to use the advantage and possibilities to make a difference?

From always inspiring gapingvoid

DONE is the Engine of MORE

"There are three states of being: not knowing, action and completion" This is how The Cult of Done Manifesto begins.

It is all about optimizing your actions to get things done, to move on. It is about effectiveness and creating things. 

Personally I enjoy the state of creating, wandering, asking questions and exploring, the tickling feeling of uncertainty but there is always the moment when the urge to move on and see the thoughts taking shape emerges. Then it is all about getting things done, cause it "is the engine of more". When you are done with one project, you can start another one and begin the new exploration. Besides if you want to know who you are, don't ask. Do something. Doing will define you.

Changing Behavior

You want people to do something differently. You want them to influence them. But how to change someone's behavior? Defintely not by telling them to act differently. It will make them aware of the other ways of acting but it will not necessarily make them to choose your way of doing things...unless you create an envirnment that makes change of behavior interesting or funny....like VW did with their The Fun Theory.

Create something engaging, something that stands out and make a difference, spice up the ordinary behavior and eventually the change will occur. Great way of thinking - show and encourage - doing instead of saying.

Save the world before the end of the world

"In nature everything is interconnected, and we are responsible now for past mistakes" (journal African Wildlife)

Blog Action Day: Climate Change'09. Climate change is the talk of the town. The future doesn't look promising. Facts are scary. We are moving towards annihilation. What are our chances to survive? Are those rumors true? Can we change it? Does it matter what I do as a person? Is it a conspiracy theory?

All those questions are ringing in my head after discussions with people representing different point of views. I must say I am confused myself and often ask myself how much difference does it make that I segregate my trash and buy organic food produced in Denmark, while there are thousands of factories, companies across the world that don't care at all about environment but their bottom lines. What influence one person's actions have for the Earth?

Well, it makes the difference that you and me make small things, it makes a difference that you and me care, but we need to do more that just being what I would call "selfish green" - just doing things that make us feel better and things that concern only our micro worlds. It struck me when I was last week in Poland.

I was walking through huge supermarket, passing by shelves groaning from the glass bottles that are thrown away as there is no infrastructure that would allow people to deliver those to special containers or shops. I was passing by the walls of plastic bottles that are also thrown away without giving a further thought what will happen with those tones of plastic afterward...You just don't pay for the glass or plastic bottles. It doesn't cost you anything, you use what's inside than throw the bottle away together with organic waste, paper, etc. I asked a few people whether they try to segregate their trash. They looked at me surprised and asked where should they throw away paper, glass, plastic when there is only one trash container in their backyards (in the area where my parents live there is no sign of glass container at all!) After a few conversations, I've realized that the only thing they were thinking was getting products at good price and saving the money. The latter one is also what I've noticed in Denmark, as soon as you get outside the big cities. Consumption, ignorance, focus on different set of needs...this is the inconvienint truth about humanity.

Doing things is one thing and I dare to say it is a minority who does something actively to reverse the climate change, which ism apart from other nature related phenomena, caused by human ignorance and materialism. That minority has a huge task of not only putting pressure on the authorities to start political initiatives that make climate change easier, more accessible and cheaper for people, but also educating and influencing people around them how to make things differently.  It is about changing our way of thinking from begin 'selfish green' to being 'sharing green' and helping each other to make a difference. Small initiatives that can turn into small movements around the world. Ignite behavior and make other people to copy it. I taught my parents to drive long way in order to deliver glass, plastic and paper for recycling even though it costs them time and money and they pass on their behavior to their friends. This is how making difference can start... Make others to copy your selfish acts of green - this is my manifesto for stopping climate change :)

Photo by Ana Santos

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• "Blog Action Day: Is Climate Change / Global Warming Real?" and related posts (neatorama.com)

Quote of the Week

“There is no practical obstacle whatever now to the creation of an efficient index to all human knowledge, ideas and achievements, to the creation, that is, of a complete planetary memory for all mankind…the whole human memory can be, and probably in a short time will be, made accessible to every individual. And what is also of very great importance in this uncertain world where destruction becomes continually more frequent and unpredictable, is this, that…it need not be concentrated in any single one place.”

 

H.G. Wells, 1937 (talking about micro-film)

via What's Next

The Source of Trends

Me and a couple of my colleagues we are working on the project called Vizeum Changes where we take look at the changes happening in the society and how do they influence people. It requires a lot of curiosity, being patient observer and mapping the possibilities, evaluating them and constantly asking questions. It isn't easy but exciting and rewarding process...and have a huge does of humor...cause some of those changes start in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected ways.

Thanks to Syamant for inspiration!

Why "Danish mother seeking" campaign failed

This is guest post from Karim Stoumann

I must say Danish Mother Seeking campaign for Visit Denmark fails in many ways which is a shame for such a good idea and brand with a good reputation. 

my opinion failure of the campaign was caused by the lack of strategy, clear message and branding / payoff. What seemed to be a unique and successful campaign with massive exposure and response has seriously backfired and created a incredible media storm in Denmark and very negative reactions abroad, which resulted in non constructive reaction like taking it down from YouTube (I hope they didn’t hope to erase it from the internet as it’s not going to happen, even TV2 has ripped it and posted it on their site).
 
Danes are neither presented in the best light, nor is the campaign message well crafted. The biggest problem is that Visit Denmark didn’t include their payoff and brand in the film at all. The few times other brands have tried it as for instance Smirnoff Ice is doing a spoof on PaperBall campaign (Papirkugle). They made a film without the payoff and brand. It was not very well received by the bloggers; you can read a bit about the story on Germ blog.   On the other hand we have the campaign called Speed Bandits that used humor as naked breasts to attract attention and even though people knew it was advertising as film had both payoff and branding, it appeared to be a huge success. Unfortunately Danish Mother Seeking lacked all those elements.
 
What characterizes internet today is transparency and anarchy; it is harder, almost impossible to cheat people nowadays. People will figure out sooner or later whether it is hoax or nor and react. Companies must learn to listen first and avoid talking down to people. This is Rule # 1 of social media marketing: don’t be afraid telling that it’s an ad. If it’s a good ad people will still spread it widely because people are interested in good and entertaining content in general.
 
Danish Mother Seeking film is well made and there is good acting, if they only had included payoff at the end of the film, something like: www.visitdenmarknow.com (please) that drives viewers to the campaign site where they can learn more about the campaign...It would still got a lot of publicity and diminish risk of negative reactions. It took us 2 minutes to make. I believe everybody would still have bought the story and after going in to the campaign site they would find out right away that it’s was fake and there feeling would be “Aha I knew that” or “That’s was fun” like the campaign for TicTac Micha where the video that balance on the verge of fake vs. real but it gives viewers opportunity to find out more on the campaign site
 
It is so important to give people opportunity to find out and understand that it was a joke when doing viral / social media campaigns. Visit Denmark failed badly here.
Of course, there will still be controversy and some people will be offended but it would be the matter of taste, not lies. The powerful reaction campaign evoked was caused not just by the message but by the fact Visit Denmark tried to cheat people and make them believe it was real. They got incredible publicity but one can ask was it worth it?
 
I feel sorry for Visit Denmark. They have dared trying out viral and social media but missed on being well prepared – apparent lack of strategy and crisis plan. They dared to be edgy but when the things heated up they stuck their heads in the sand. Neither running away, nor views are social media strategy.  Huge potential was wasted, but hopefully it will be a lesson for many.
 
I really hope that this is not the last time that Visit Denmark tries out viral/buzz marketing but next time they will be better prepared.
 
 

"Social Media Makeover"

This illustrates pretty good the last to days of advertising mistakenly called for viral and social media marketing in Denmark.

"Many businesses treat social media tools the same dropping an FSI or placing a grocery cart ad.  It becomes just more superficial window dressing.  I think it would be far better to apply that investment toward actually making the brand and products more interesting and remarkable."  (Tom Fishburne)

Danish Mother Seeking - Update

Video was removed was YouTube .... well it just proves all my points. However video can be seen here.

______________________________________________________________________________

Danish Mother Seeking is busted! Karen26, Danish mother seeking... was hired by Visit Denmark to promote Denmark abroad. This is rather disappointing that such a good idea that would work really good to promote safe sex, was used to promote Denmark. That's also pretty shocking that such an angle was chosen to tell the story of Denmark. 

After finding out who was behind the campaign, I must say I asked myself about the ethics - not about the ethics of use of social media, but about the ethics of the content, about the way the governmental company chooses to present Denmark for the world. Respect is missing.

Let's look at aftermath first: over 1 million views, over 5.000 comments and lot of commotion on blogs and in mainstream media...primarily in Denmark. It is pretty understandable Danes are shocked over the way their compatriots have chosen to promote their country. It is like a bad reality show. The comments from Visit Denmark and agency behind - Grey Copenhagen heats the situation even more up. I heard Peter Helstrup, strategic director at Grey Copenhagen say:

"I think, this is the most effective campaign, that was ever created for a danish company" 

Well, this is impressive viral campaign that used controversy, fake & real approach and delivered over million views in just 3 days. As I wrote yesterday views, buzz has nothing to do with effectiveness, it has nothing to do with social media. This is just a tactical and short-term solution, deeply rooted in traditional media thinking focusing on creating controversy in order to boost up views numbers on YouTube (views are still shiny objects for so many). They could as well just show bare breasts. (Btw I would like to hear more about the goals that were set up for the campaign apart from views and appearance on TV2)

What about relevancy of the campaign? I keep on asking myself, how this campaign is relevant for Denmark? Isn't Visit Denmark's major goal to attract tourists to Denmark? It seems like the major efforts were put into promoting this video in Denmark. Apparently, Denmark is where the most response came from. I googled this morning to find any comment, any blog post about the campaign outside the boarders of scandalized Denmark. I found one at Mashable titled: Danish Woman’s One Night Stand Video Is a Government Hoax. Not to mention the comments that appeared on YouTube.:

"its amazing to see all the foreigners who have lived in denmark for a long time (decade or more) come out and slam Denmark. I lived there for a decade too, and was disgusted by the petty racism and xenophobia. Not to mention shallow women who will fuck you but not even hold a civil conversation."

"Lets get to Denmark, and get laid! that its all folks! Nobody is interesting in little right wings shiit Denmark!"

No one can deny it - the campaign has backfired and it seems there is no plan to handle the crisis situation. I've heard around that Visit Denmark is deleting comments from people that criticize the campaign.Is it true?!

This is where public engagement begins and we can talk about social media marketing and Visit Denmark seems to be unprepared to handle it. This is when the real things happen - not while the views counter is going up and people leave comments hoping she will find the father of the child, but when the discussion gets heated and opinions about content appear all over the Internet.

Visit Denmark got blinded by the shiny promise of millions of views and lot of buzz. They got those views along with disgusted, disappointed, shocked people and apparently no plan how to handle the bad response video generated.

Companies and agencies chase the shiny objects like buzz and views, missing the big picture and opportunities that are available for creating the public engagement and relationships. Using social media tools will not make you social. We keep on mistaking traditional media campaigns using social media with social media marketing. Social media marketing is about ideas that are rooted in understanding of human behavior and emotions and that get people together, make their lives more exciting or easier. Social media marketing is about people (not views)

Is the next episode coming: Danish Tourist Agency Seeking the lost trust...

Busted Buzz - The Story of Karen26

A few days ago video of young and very cute Danish mother seeking for the father of her baby appeared on YouTube.

Funny story that made Danish socialville into the detective quest on proving the video is a scam. They succeeded in a very short time. Found the actor who played mothers role and now speculates on what company is behind. It is impressive how good people are today at using internet to solve advertising mysteries in a real CSI style. Just read it here, here, here, here and here. It takes us definitely towards more and more transparency and helps us to avoid being cheated by companies making fake ads. It requires pretty good skills to hide the evidence from the ominous eye of internet panopticon nowadays.

What's interesting about this story is to see how hype gets build along the social media experts and mainstream media pick-up the story and boost the hype even more and drive traffic to YouTube video and "campaign website".

The video raised even the question about ethics! You can read about it on Mindjumpers and Virkeligheden blogs. I find the ethical aspect rather misplaced in a situation when we talk about campaign which focus is on creating buzz, not any public engagement. YouTube here is just a channel that is used to present the content balancing in the grey zone, on the verge of mystery and reality. This is not social campaign, this is broadcasting that gets people to view the video and talk about it and wonder whether it is real or fake. The fact that buzz marketing is using social media tools like YouTube or Facebook doesn't make it social marketing. As Anders on Virkelighedens blog wrote - the video fulfills the requirements for viral campaign. However, it is not a social campaign, as it doesn't involve any interaction with people, as I mentioned before it doesn't create any public engagement. This is very tactical viral solution aiming at creating fast response.              

Of course, it still needs to be ethical, meaning being respectful, which I can't see violated in this case. There is also the question of deceiving people, as there are many people who express the compassion with Karen26. Yes, people get deceived in this video, but we have seen this before - blurry boarders between reality and fiction are broadly used mechanics in viral videos - Quicksilver- being the most popular example. There were plenty of people all over the world who were convinced it really happened. Videos gain viral effect from creating speculations - fake or real and the viewers tend to accept this as this is the part of story telling. The rule of tactical buzz marketing is: the more controversial you are the more people respond (see examples from Cult and Fleggard) and Karen26 seems to get it.

Anyhow, video with Karen26 is entertaining and it would be great buzz for "De unge mødre" TV show (Young Mothers), but I doubt it's them. My guess goes for condom producers.

Secret Life of Fliers

While most of researches stays grounded (mostly to computer screen), there are two guys who decided to take off to conduct very fascinating consumer research. Dustin Curtis and Alaska Miller have bought JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet Pass that allows one month of unlimited travel, any available seat for $599 and took off for 30 days adventure to talk to "hundreds of people with rich backgrounds and histories" that can be found on planes. 

As they put it on their website 30dayflight.com

"(...) They have fascinating stories. We want to tell some of them. Our plan is to strike up conversations during our flights and see if maybe, after 30 days of constant flying, we can get a good understanding of the average jetBlue flier."

They took off for their adventure on Tuesday. You can follow the trip on 30dayflight.com and their twitter streams: Dustin Curtis  / Alaska Miller.

I wonder how JetBlue will capitalize on this great initiative. There is the serious possibility for JetBlue to get interesting knowledge about their customers and their secret lives, none of questionaire can reveal. Plus there is plenty to learn about how their own services and staff works. There are already some complaints from Alaska Miller.

If they should live up to their claim about bringing humanity back to air travel, they should listen and learn from the real people.

I look forward to seeing final result of this 30 days trip into the secret life of fliers.

Open Inspiration - Ikea

Image via Wikipedia

Vizeum Norway is pitching for Ikea and they are doing it by crowdsourcing. Great way to show the client the understanding of social media and gather insights and be inspired. Come and join by giving your opinion on Open Inspiration blog