Social Hallucinations

No channels world

The boundaries between media are dissolving. People don't look for channels they want to tap it, they look for content which is accessible and interesting enough they want to spend a time on it. 

 

Mobile Year in Review

Neat video summarizing 2010 year in mobile industry. 

 

When selling becomes fun...

... or when fun becomes selling.

I've stumbled today upon those two ads from VW and T-Mobile. Both are sequels, another parts in the puzzle of advertising. What's interesting, none of the brands is taking shortcuts. They don't really get to the core - buy me message. They tell stories, they entertain. They rather give and take. It is good, worth seeing and works pretty well along with the traditional advertising shouting at people to buy. It works well for those who are tired of being called consumers. It gives the feeling (fake or real - decide yourself) that companies (advertising agencies?) care.

Nevertheless, both videos are enjoyable!

 

What's the New Customer Worth?

Interesting infographic based on a few studies, which focus on customer acquisition, retention and attrition rates. It gives an insight into how much the acquisition of the new customer costs.

Read more on Flowtown

Changing behavior

Changing behavior is difficult. It requires right motivation and relevance. People need to see and experience how the change would relate to their lives and evaluate the wins and costs connected with change.

Here are two interesting examples of how to catch people's attention and motivate them to change through provocative and shocking tone and experience.

Let it Ring for Road Safety

Consequences by PCRM's to draw attention to the link between heart disease deaths and fast food.

 

What do you think? Does it work?

You Brain on Google

'Technology changes. Humans don't.' We may not change but we adapt. The new technological advances and tools we take into use have an influence on how we behave, they make us not only discover the needs, we had no idea we had before but also they make our brains adapt to the new environment.

via Colectivo Planner

Experience Matters

via MisEntropy

Tweet and decrease prizes

I am a big fan of Uniqlo. They keep on delivering great stuff that integrates the experience of shopping with being social. Lucky counter - tweet about a product and its price will come down for everybody. 

The Extensions of Man

Technology empowers. Photo camera that enables people to create memories that would be lost if not for the camera. Camera that becomes the extention of the man.Well captured by Samsung.

via Scary ideas

 

The Art of Adaptation

How to catch people's attention and make them eat baby carrots? How do you make baby carrots cool? Well, the solution can be packaging them like junk food. You just need to adapt to people's needs and expectations. The question is whether the chips-like packaging will turn carrots into the new cool, people want to eat.

Packaging design by Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Via USA Today

What is Facebook Places?

Facebook Places has been launched in US and will soon reach probably the rest of the world. Some deaths are being discussed (Foursquare) as we try find out what Facebook places will mean for people and marketers.

Facebook for marketing as other geo-location services has a huge potential but how the potential turns out depends on the inventiveness of companies in adding more meaning to checking in. Checking-in is fun, especially in the first phase. It is like a game. The thrill of becoming a mayor, getting the badge. Then comes competitiveness. Ousting your friends from places and taking over their mayorship. Trying the first specials...and it appears there are no more specials near you. You just check-in less and less often. You ask yourself - why I should check-in. You lack the purpose. I believe the success of Facebook places for business will depend on the sense of purpose it manage to deliver to people.

As it goes for people, Facebook places will make geo-location accessible to broader audience. It will be another tool for sharing with friends where we are and what we are doing. As my colleague Lara wrote in her post on privacy: "Places provides us with another way of keeping tabs on our friends, of letting people know what we’re up to, of sharing what is basically unnecessary information with anyone and everyone we choose. It’s also another foray in to our private world, and will no doubt meet harsh critique from users who suddenly realise that what is actually private about their lives is diminishing at a very rapid rate."

Watch how you can check in with Facebook Places

 

The Future is Anchored in the Present

Once we used to believe it will be Google and Amazon who share the power and newspapers will be dead. We had no idea about the role Facebook will play. Why? Because we are anchored in the present. We believe in linear development of media and technology. We believe that some of them will progress and evolve undisturbed, while other become extinct. Well, fortunately the universe and people are full of surprises. It is interesting though to watch this video from 2007 and see how things have already took a completely different route.

Hat tip to Helge Tennø

 

Mobile & Social Media in Scandinavia

A demographic study within the Nordics of people mobile phone habits, and social ’s media network habits...men and women, boys and girls, from 15 – 55, from all over the Nordic regions, and from all walks of life....

Mobile & social media in Scandinavia

View more presentations from Vizeum Denmark. or read more about Vizeum

 

Technology Epitaph is Useless

The latest Chris Anderson's article in Wired on the death of web was rather provoking and caused quite a stir.

What always surprise me is the easiness with which we kill things around and present them as useless. Like we discard old clothes, we try to discard the technology. We've already tried to kill radio, TV and print. All three are still living and doing quite good, but the way they are used has changed.

As history shows, technologies evolve and being shaped by people and their needs they can coexist and merge.

There is some pinch of sensationalism in the way of declaring web dead. Alexis Madrigal from Atlantic responded to Anderson's article: "What's Wrong with X is Dead".

"From the vantage point of the present, it may seem that technologies are deterministic. But this view is incorrect, no matter how plausible it may seem. Cultures select and shape technologies, not the other way around, and some societies have rejected or ignored even the gun or the wheel. For millennia, technology has been an essential part of the framework for imagining and moving into the future, but the specific technologies chosen have varied. As the variety of human cultures attests, there have always been multiple possibilities, and there seems no reason to accept a single vision of the future." (David Nye, Technology Matters)

Killing the web seems like the attempt to simplify and feel more in control over the complex and unpredictable world of people behavior and interactions - choosing a single vision for the future. It is tempting to have a single vision, because it is more manageable and controllable but world keeps on evolving into plenty of parallel and intersecting paths.

There is no need to write an epitaph when nobody died.

What Athlete are You?

In the constantly jogging, sweating, striving and starving to be fit world where sport achievements are highly valued, this spot from Puma is quite refreshing. It is cool you finished marathon, yes it makes you an athlete but you know what we are all athletes, after hour athletes. It makes me smile. Relax. There is no need to run so fast.

"Because we know it takes just as much effort to score a phone number as it does to score a goal."