Dazzle Ships

Advertising (self) awareness

Catching up on the Daily Show this morning via the Comedy Central site.

This the pre-roll that came up every single time I wanted to watch a new segment :

 

Dead right.

-- Toby

Crime Busting?

Not all data is the personel type that our civil servants routinely leave on trains. Some information stored in data form by the government is about other stuff.  Where are the public toilets, recyling points, schools or even traffic jams etc in the UK?  Part of the government's remit is to share this data, as Toby suggested, to allow people to get better services.  With that in mind the Home Office has announced that crime mapping is now available for all 43 police forces in England and Wales. According to Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker research showed that most people wanted more information about crimes near where they live or work.

'By empowering people with this information they are able to engage more with their neighbourhood policing teams,' he said. I am sure this will lead to an even more responsive and effective police, thoroughly in tune with people’s needs.

'As a result, crime mapping can help ensure people’s voices are heard when police set crime fighting priorities.' 

I'm really not so sure. Primarily because its not all the data.  Why should the crime fighting priorities between a community and the community police force be focused purely on Robbery/Theft/Burglary as this database is? What about assault, destruction of property, public order offences etc? Are these offences less important than in our relationships, are the police less responsible for dealing with them? Given that according to the FAQ's the police can be held accountable on these results, will they focus less on those not shown in the data?

The reality of this data is that its like any other data.  It needs to be viewed in context and with a clear set of objectives as to what it is suppossed to acheive. Otherwise the risks are that you fight the statistics and not the problem.

At present apart from a tool that told me I was quite clever in choosing my neighbourhood and one that allowed me to point out to a friend that he might as well live in a crack den, I don't think this works.

Have a go though, mapping can be fun even if doesn't tell you anything useful.

Ben

Wronging the ancientry

After having a bit of a laugh at the Mail's expense in the last post, I thought it would be worth coming back to some of the points raised in the rather more serious Newsnight piece, particularly in reference to some of the claims made by Baroness Susan Greenfield about social media.

This is because, compared to the Mail at least, she's pretty heavyweight, as a quick look at her CV will demonstrate.  The head of the Royal Institution carries weight.

This means that, whether her opinion is supported by the evidence or not (and Ben Goldacre seems to think it isn't, or at least the jury's out), it'll get listened to.  She's a 'Neuroscientist and populariser of science'.  At least she is according to the RI website.

Admittedly, all we've got to go on is the Newsnight interview, but that'll have to do.  In terms of the allegedly detrimental affect 'social media' has on people (especially children) she mentions four things, all of which we've heard, in some form or another, before.  All are worthy of further discussion, the sort of discussion likely to be hindered rather than helped by the sort of hysterical pronouncements we seem to be getting.

Anyway, we'll deal with each of the four in turn.

1.  Social media 'decreases attention-spans'

Boy, have we heard this one before.  OK...

First, it seems contradictory to accuse kids of spending hours and hours on social networking sites whilst simultaneoulsy accusing them of having no attention span.

Second, the notion of 'attention span' is not an easy one.  Certainly the units of commercial time seem to be coming down.  In the 50s, TV ads were generally 60 seconds long, by the 80s it was 30 seconds.  Now for pre-rolls, for example, we're told the maximum is 15 seconds.

But contrast this with the notion of media-binging.  Research from Sky has shown that the most recorded shows are convoluted, even epic, drama series like Lost and Heroes.  Broadcasters are getting in on the act and running 'catch-up' weekends on a regular basis, where you can watch whole series over one weekend.  So successful was FX's running of all 5 series of The Wire over the last 18 months or so, that they've just started it all over again.

The Wire is also riding high in the DVD charts, and DVD box-sets have been keeping the market going for the last couple of years.

We've talked here before about the increasing trend for transmedia story-telling.  Narratives that unfold across a variety of different platforms that fans actively seek out.

And let's not even get started on gaming.  Especially the likes of Eve or World of Warcraft, which take massive amounts of time and commitment.  And which, if memory serves, were last year's reason for moral decay amongst the younger generation, according to...

...you guessed it....Baroness Susan Greenfield in her book ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century.  A work described by Prospect magazine, in an excellent and thoughtful article about gaming and the gaming industry, as 'a near-continuous train-wreck of redundancies, mixed metaphors and self-contradictions'.

Here's what's really happening.  Access to 'content' is greater than ever before.  Technological advances are facilitating this.  People are now able to fill their time with appropraitely tailored media - whether that's sending a weekend watch series 5 of The Wire, or downloading a 30" video from YouTube while waiting for the bus.

2.  Social media means people are 'live for the moment, not the content'

I have to confess I have no idea what she means by this.  But I think it may be linked to the stuff we discussed above.

3. People feel the 'need to have their identity boosted by twitter'

If we remove the reference to twitter, all this seems to be about is social affirmation.  And of course people's identity is 'boosted' by social contact.  After all, we are social beings. 

Twitter, amongst others, is just a social tool that allows people to be social.  The success of social media is that it taps into this innate human need.  I won't dwell on this here, but if you need any more convincing just check out Herd, Mark Earls' blog, which covers this topic both fascinatingly and extensively.

This charge seems to be little more than a sneering contempt for 'little people'.  I wonder what Stephen Fry would have to say about this.

(For the record, it seems she's not exactly averse to using new media to boost her own social standing given her prominence on the Royal Institution homepage)

4.  Social media 'encourages recklessness'

Again, I'm not really sure what she means by this, but hell, the older generation have always considered young people 'reckless'.  The title of the post is from The Winter's Tale, in which one of the characters bemoans the behaviour of the younger generation :

'I would there were no age bewteen sixteen and three and twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing, fighting'

 

And that was written at the start of the 17th century.

 

 

In summary - none of the charges stand up.  It concerns me that people with these sorts of ill-considered views are potentially shaping public policy.

 

 

-- Toby

'Old' media fights dirty

Last week we wrote about Metro's shrill (and wrong) story about Facebook 'stealing' users photos.

Not to be outdone, sister publication The Daily Mail, that bastion of taste and decency, promptly declared that Facebook gives you cancer! 

I kid you not.

It even made it onto Newsnight, where Ben Goldacre, of Bad Science fame, was magnificiently dismissive of these half-baked, poorly researched and sensationalised claims: 

I can't help but draw parallels between 'Doctor' Sigman's performance and 'Doctor' Fox's now legendary appearance on Brasseye in 2001: "That's scientific fact.  There's no real evidence for it, but it is scientific fact"

If you're interested, Ben Goldacre has a more detailed take down of the flawed 'science' behind the claims on his excellent blog, here.

In the meantime, when are the press going to address the issue that no one believes what they write anymore?

This sort of stuff ain't helping.

-- Toby

Patrick Bateman's worst nightmare?

Thank you to John Wilshire at PHD for this.  I won't repeat everything he has written, as you can read more on his blog here.  In short, how damn cool are the business 'cards' the guys at Lego have.  I am so jealous. 

 

While I admit they can't be the easiest to carry round in your pocket, they speak volumes about the company and I would hazard a guess that Charlotte Simonsen and her colleagues are pretty enthusiastic about their company.  The little things count you see. Unlike the standard cards most companies have, no one is going to lose these and everyone will talk about them.  It is such a simple, yet genius viral touch that instantly warms you to their staff and company.  They have learnt that every touch point matters.  Something companies often forget. 

I am not suggesting that it is related to the business cards alone, but coincidentally, after a few years of struggle, Lego have bounced back with double digit growth in 2008. 

It got me wondering what the following scene from American Psycho would have been like if Charlotte Simonsen from lego had been in the room at the time - click here.

I think it would have gone something like this; "Oh Jesus, the precision of the beams, axels and bricks must only be made possible by stereolithography machines, where the ABS plastic is heated to 232°C until at a dough-like consistency, before being injected into molds at pressures between 25 and 150 tons. Look at the moulds - they permit a tolerance of up to two thousandths of a millimeter, to ensure the bricks remain connected. The pure black lettering on the acrylonitrile butadiene sytrene resilient plastic. The red trousers even match the arms and logo."  At this point he would have then had a heart attack and the film would have ended.

- Sam

Keeping down with the Joneses

 

We were just chatting about utility bills here in Dazzle Corner (during alotted lunch hour time, obviously, we're back to full-on stratologising now), with BJ in particular concerned about the size of his gas bill. Is it normal? Is his gas usage peculiarly high? We attempted to placate him, through relating tales of our own gas usage, but he had a row with EDF anyway. It sure was a high-brow lunch chat.

I then came across this article from the New York Times (through the Neuromarketing blog) which describes how an energy supplier over the pond is getting consumers to reduce their energy usage by putting smiley faces on their bills. Now, getting green initiatives to work at an individual level is not easy. We've all been bombarded with messages through the years about reduce, reuse, recycle, be energy efficient, etc and it's very easy stuff for individuals to reject (often passing the blame on bigger institutions like the government and big businesses). So, that something as simple as this seems to work is very interesting.

The key to its success is in social comparison. When people have their gas usage compared to a neighbourhood 'norm' and see that they could be doing better, they respond. Lower usage is rewarded with a smiley face or two (so beautifully simple and primary school).

We are a social animal (back to herd thinking) and use social reference as an important determinant of our behaviour. What do other people do, and how does that relate to what I do? How does that make me look in comparison to others and how does it affect my personal set of values about myself? Where the 'right' way to do things may be ambiguous (e.g. what is the 'right' level of gas usage?) we often look to others' behaviour to set social norms for ourselves. This is what we call gaining social proof.

Social proof is an interesting area for communications. It's something often in play with messages with broad social significance (e.g. lots of COI stuff, like this kind of thing), where norms are communicated to the wide audience through public media so not only do individuals see it, but they know that everyone else sees it too. And then there's the classic idea of 'critical mass' in selling a new car model. New cars appear more appealing when you see lots of them about on the road. The logic being, 'well, if other people think they're good and worth buying, then I should too'.

It's always worth thinking about the information that consumers have to guide their behaviour in any market or purchase path, and how the communications we build might invoke social comparison effects to a brand's (or social) benefit.

Next up on the Dazzle chat agenda, petrol price fluctuation and/or why Wham bars don't taste like they used to.

-- Alex.

Music in the digital age

At Cannes last year, 42 Entertainment won the Cannes Cyber Grand Prix for their amazing ARG promoting NiN's album Year Zero.

It's a totally amazing piece of work and I urge any of you not familair with it to check this case study.

Anyway, via mashable, we hear that the former drummer of NiN, Josh Freese, has taken the merging of digital and real-world assets to new heights in the promotion of his new album.

Here's the run down of what's on offer.

$7

* Digital download of Since 1972, including 3 videos

$15

* CD/DVD double-disc set
* Digital download

$50

* CD/DVD double-disc set
* T-shirt
* “Thank you” phone call from Josh for buying Since 1972. You can tell him what you like about the record that you purchased, or what you thought sucked. Ask whatever you want, like “Is Maynard really THAT weird?” or “Which one of Sting’s mansions has the comfiest beds?” or “Are Devo really suburban robots that monitor reality or just a bunch of dads from Ohio?” or “Why don’t the Vandals play more stuff off the first record?” It’s your 5 minutes to yack it up. Talk about whatever you want.

$250 (limited edition of 25)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed drum head and drumsticks
* Go on a lunch date with Josh to PF Changs or The Cheesecake Factory (whatever you’re into)

$500 (limited edition of 15)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed cymbal and sticks
* Meet Josh in Venice, Calif., and go floating together in a sensory-deprivation tank (to be filmed and posted on YouTube)
* Dinner at Sizzler (get your $8.99 steak and “all you can eat” shrimp on)

$1,000 (limited edition of 10)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed cymbal, drum head and drumsticks
* Josh washes your car OR does your laundry … or you can wash his car
* Have dinner with Josh aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif.
* Get drunk and cut each other’s hair in the parking lot of the Long Beach courthouse (filmed and posted on YouTube, of course)

$2,500 (limited edition of 5)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* Get a private drum lesson with Josh, or for all you non-drummers, have him give you a back and foot massage (couples welcome)
* Pick any 1 member of the Vandals or Devo (subject to availability) to accompany you and Josh to either the Hollywood Wax Museum or the lunch buffet at the Spearmint Rhino
* Signed DW snare drum
* Take 3 items of your choice out of his closet (first come, first serve)
* Change diapers and make bottles with him for an afternoon (after hitting the strip club)

$5,000 (limited edition of 3)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Josh writes a song about you and makes it available on iTunes
* Co-direct a video with him for the song about you and throw it up on the YouTubes
* Josh gives you and a friend a private tour of Disneyland
* Get drunk together. If you don’t drink, we can go to my dad’s place and hang out under the “Tuba tree”
* Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam will send you a letter telling you about his favorite song on Since 1972

$10,000 (limited edition of 1)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed DW snare drum from A Perfect Circle’s 2003 tour
* Josh gives you a private drum lesson OR his and hers foot/back massage (couples welcome, discreet parking)
* Twiggy from Marilyn Manson’s band and Josh take you and a guest to Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles in Long Beach for dinner
* Josh takes you and a guest to Club 33 (the super-duper exclusive and private restaurant at Disneyland located above Pirates of the Caribbean) and then hit a couple rides afterward (preferably the Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror)
* At the end of the day at Disneyland, drive away in Josh’s Volvo station wagon. It’s all yours … take it. Just drop him off on your way home, though, please.

$20,000 (limited edition of 1)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* A signed drum from the 2008 Nine Inch Nails tour
* Maynard James Keenan, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo and Josh take you miniature golfing and then drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on YouTube)
* Josh gives you a tour of Long Beach. See his first apartment, the coffee shop on 2nd Street where his buddy paid Dave Grohl $40 to rip up tile just weeks before joining Nirvana. See the old Vandals rehearsal spot, the liquor store he got busted at using a Fake ID when he was 17 (it was Dave from the Vandals’ old ID). Go check out Snoop Dogg’s high school. For an extra 50 bucks see where Tom and Adrian from No Doubt live. For another $25 he’ll show ya where Eric from NOFX and Brooks from Bad Religion get their hair cut.
* Spend the night aboard the Queen Mary and take the “Ghosts and Legends” tour. (Separate rooms … no spooning.)
* Josh writes 2 songs about you and both are made available on iTunes and appear on his next record (you can sing back up on ‘em, clap, play the drums, triangle, whatever)
* Drum lesson OR foot and back massage (once again … couples welcome and discreet parking available)
* Pick any 3 items out of Josh’s closet

$75,000 (limited edition of 1)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Go on tour with Josh for a few days
* Have Josh write, record and release a 5-song EP about you and your life story
* Take home any of his drum sets (only one, but you can choose which one)
* Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from Tool’s Lamborghini OR play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while
* Josh will join your band for a month … play shows, record, party with groupies, etc.
* If you don’t have a band he’ll be your personal assistant for a month (4-day work weeks, 10 am to 4 pm)
* Take a limo down to Tijuana and he’ll show you how it’s done (what that means exactly we can’t legally get into here)
* If you don’t live in Southern California (but are a U.S. resident) he’ll come to you and be your personal assistant/cabana boy for 2 weeks
* Take a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin from NIN, go back to Robins place afterwards and his wife will make you raw lasagna

That makes Radiohead's 'Pay what you like' seem pretty tame!

Nice work.

--  Toby

More aggregator weirdness

A little while ago we heaped fulsome praise on Aleksandr Orlov of  ComparetheMeerkat.com.  At the time he had 2,000 friends on Facebook.  Now it's 178,000.  Nice work.

We also had a bit of a pop at Confused.com. 

Their latest offering clearly hopes that a bit of meerkat magic will rub off on their character, Confucius:

A game attempt.  But they've bottled it.  Too much banging on about the site, and no attempt (that I can find) to make the character live outside the ads themselves, suggests nothing more than a new creative vehicle for the same old strategy.  

Aleksandr delivers much more.

An opportunity wasted.

-- Toby

Data is the sword of the 21st Century...

...those who wield it, the Samurai.

Thus spake Google in the 'President's Address' earlier this week, as they set out their vision for the year ahead.  It's jolly interesting reading, setting out their 5 big goals for this year and is, as you'd expect, grand in scope, reflected in its title 'From the Height of this Place'. 

Mark Howe's been toeing the party line in his Media Week blog, opining that data is the new black and it's something we've been banging on about for ages and ages.

But all is not well.  We're not going to say 'We told you so' because it's not our style (see what we did there), but for the last year we've been warning about a data backlash from consumers.

The evidence for this is mounting up, the latest being Facebook's climbdown yesterday over their proposed new terms of service.

Just as early marketing forays into social media were marked by consumer protests about the commercialisation of social spaces (see any of Mark Earls' excellent posts on the subject here, or even the article in today's Campaign), the debate has now moved on to the commercialisation of data. 

It can be traced back to the government's losses of personal data, the publication of SuperCrunchers last year, even the remarkably prescient (and excellent) BBC drama The Last Enemy, which we wrote about here: 

So, whilst we are swooning about the possibilities of all this lovely data, we've completely forgotten about consumers, who feel, rightly in my view, that the government has no business prying into their business.  And marketing people certainly don't. 

And when marketing people do address the issue, it's the darkly Orwellian BBC trails talking about 'the database'.  Way to go.  That'll get people on side.

In short, we need to stop talking about how data helps us sell stuff and start talking about how data helps people get better services.  There's a few examples (Last fm, for example), but we need more and we need to overtly explain how data gets used to improve services for consumers, not make more money for clients. 

James Martin, in his excellent 'The Meaning of the 21st Century', recognised that 'today people worry about privacy - that their computers know too much about them.  Tomorrow they'll worry about the opposite : we'll want a personal machine that knows everything about us so it can offer us the best possible assistance'.

For the record, I think he's right.  But we need to rethink our approach to 'data', focus on how we can use it to make people's lives better, and actively promote it in this way. 

I'm sure Google believe that they, and their agency and client partners, are 'the Samurai' in the quote above.  They're not.  Consumers are.  The sooner we recognise this, the sooner we might start winning the argument.

 

-- Toby

More Hyundai

 

We like Hyundai North America at the moment. Yes they have done it again.   So they go and win the North American Car of the year for their all new luxury sedan the Genesis. Pretty cool that. But then they run this ad in the middle of the Superbowl.  

This ad is genius for four reasons.

1. It tells consumers something tangible about why the product is good. It won Car of the Year.

2. It uses competitors brand values to establish Hyundai's premium credentials

3. It expains, in a really nice way, how you should actually pronounce the brand name. Apparently its like Sunday not Mai Tai.

4. The other cars the Genesis beat to the North American Car of the Year award were the Ford Flex and the Diesel Volkswagen Jetta. Two car brands that did not appear in the ad.

We like Hyundai.

 

Ben