People are always looking to refine the algorithm of matching consumer’s to products they think they would want to buy. Sites like Netflix, Amazon, Google, all aggregate data to try and give you the most accurate suggestions for each ‘unique’ individual. One app dares to be different. Buycott is an app designed to suggest products that you shouldn’t buy, all based on the unique individual that you are. It doesn’t necessarily take browsing or personal data to do this, but rather consumer input, creating less of a guess and more of an educated suggestion.

Buycott takes preferences such as political standings, opposition to racism, GMO labeling and etc. to create a list of brands for you not to purchase, given your preference. In case you were against child labor for example, a list of companies tagged to be involved in such behaviors would be flagged by the app for your boycotting. All of this is naturally cataloged for easy boycotting the next trip down the grocery.

Now to the implications of something like this. This app is relatively disruptive to the recommendation and PR scene. If companies don’t perform triage and contain situations quickly enough, contingent on the rise of such apps, it could lead to dire consequences. At the same time, at some point businesses wouldn’t even have control over something like this anymore unless they had the press under an iron fist. The trend of shifting power to the consumer will only continue and strengthen as time goes on.

Metrics and analytics tracking consumers are all the rage nowadays. You can’t make big decisions without being backed by data and all the new savvy startups and entrepreneurs are quick to jump on the bandwagon of refining that model. But think back a bit to the days of COMM 101 and the introduction of those acronyms you once thought were absolutely useless. Think back to SWOTs and the PESTs, when you actually thought about all the other external pressure on a business. Well that’s what these guys did.

There are tons of ways to get insights from consumers, but stop to think about all the other parties influencing a business. Competitors, pressure groups and oh wait, that’s right, the government. Each business is affected by laws that govern their industry and really, each business is essentially at the mercy of these laws. What if there was a way to get valuable information about legislation currently in motion? What if you could get stronger insights into bills about to be passed before they go through? Imagine the implications of knowing political changes before they even happen. Tightening up sustainability requirements and getting ahead of the curve before competitors even get wind of change. Improving cost structures before tariffs on exports right as your competitors sign that brand new contract with that foreign wholesaler.

In this day and age, information is power. Exploring each and every single type of information that can be made available to you is really just the logical next step.

Snapchat has been a huge fad of late. It’s a service where you send your friends images or videos much like a typical messaging service except that after a brief moment (mere seconds) the piece of media deletes itself, leaving no trace of its existence. A recent piece on AdAge talks of the value of having something so fleeting. It talks about the strength and value of ads and how that has been diminished so much as people follow such easy trends. The aim of marketing nowadays hasn’t necessarily been about innovation nor creating something of true value but to reach a certain critical mass of virality, utilizing the most effective tools of the moment to do so.

Examine the idea of having media shared on the internet to be temporary and fleeting like a Snapchat message. What if ads viewed by a person were only viewable or shareable once and after that it dissipates into the void. The amount of respect and value that marketers would have to inject into an ad would be tremendous. As what the article talks about, think about those notes you used to pass around when you were a kid. Those little scraps of paper containing nothing in particular that sometimes still remains as ingrained in your head as that first Coke jingle you heard on the radio. What if an ad for a resonated so strongly and was so well done that that happened. What would be the nature of marketing and the nature of digital marketing then. I don’t know about you but it’s one thought I wouldn’t mind exploring a little bit further.

In an interesting study by Saatchi & Saatchi, two identical twins were put on display in an art gallery as a test of aesthetics. After having participants view the twins, they were asked a series of questions like ‘who do you think has a better sex life?’ or ‘More parking tickets?’. The catch was that the only difference between the two individuals was that one twin was chewing gum and the other one was not.

Astonishingly, the twin chewing gum was favored by more than 73% of the participants. Now how does this relate to digital marketing? It’s all about impressions. People’s attention spans are fleeting and this number is dwindling by the year and by the month even. Findings like this fuel the optimization of ads to have better use of the scarce resource of consumers’ attention. Ads can be better tuned to grab the most attention in the smallest windows of time.

In a world where costs are determined per impression and per click, anything to make the most use of that is as beneficial as can be.

Link to the video here.

So recently, McDonald’s announced its partnering with the NFL to have their happy meals accompanied by figures representing the 32 NFL teams. The toys are supposed to be part of a strategy by the NFL to increase their reach with children, targeting a popular product often consumed by children. Apparently kids drawn into this are ‘locked for life’ in a grim summation of exactly what companies are trying to achieve with their marketing – lifelong, high-value customers.

Kids who are supporters of the NFL are almost always locked into being a fan for life. The NFL has seen this as a strong opportunity for a sustainable marketing venture and jumped at the chance.

On the other hand, McDonald’s is taking this opportunity to piggyback on the lifelong effects of brand association. If a kid becomes an NFL fan for life, guess what he/she’ll go on and look for when it’s half time and they’re hungry, that’s right – McDonald’s. Growing up with brands has been a strongly documented phenomenon in consumer behavior. It’s been shown in clinical tests documenting the blind taste test that taste centers were activated in the brain when products were known. When taste tests were conducted blind, judgement centers in the brain were actually activated more, leading to a stronger preference in Coke, which has been forged into a lifestyle brand.

It’s always been interesting to see the effects of these kinds of things on consumers, and while there isn’t a strong digital component to this marketing campaign, it’s infinitely interesting to see how easily and strongly influenced people can be.

As I was reading this article I found myself questioning the whole concept of ‘collections’. Back in my days of toy collecting and playing Pokemon, a collection meant a pool of things you truly valued and would not part with for any amount of money. Fast forward to today’s world and the word is just a compartmentalized word for the latest celebrity’s favorite clothes; a marketing device.

Devaluing my childhood pursuits aside, I thought about the actual impact of using a collection and just how much more attractive things get when a name is attached to it. Unfortunately, I can’t exactly perform a controlled experiment to test this problem but I can definitely speak my mind about the issue (this is the internet after all).

All in all, I think this is a fairly smart move. What Ebay is essentially doing is allowing users to compile lists, similar to Pinterest and its boards, to better categorize shopping lists.

In strictly organizational terms, this just makes shopping more efficient from both buyers’ and sellers’ perspectives. Buyers see grouped up items of a similar nature without reliance on Ebay’s recommendation algorithms (accompanied by associated flaws). While sellers on the other hand, can easily suggest similar products and influence further purchases, again without relying on non-perfect algorithms.

In less strict terms, the power of influential people in persuading consumers to purchase is definitely a proven factor. Collections with high profile names like singers and actors carry far higher price tags than other similar items. Pairing up with popular bloggers and giving them another avenue to monetize is also an interesting point in this campaign. People flock to dress, act, and live like their idols and Ebay is doing nothing wrong by capitalizing on that. The pursuit of likeness is always there, Ebay is just sweetening the deal for everyone.

Earlier this year, our feeds were flooded with pictures, links and videos of these funny critters showed above. ‘Dumb ways to die’ sounded like some warped reincarnation of Happy Tree Friends if any of you have heard of that disturbingly popular cartoon of the 2000s but it was a pleasant surprise to me as I watched the original iteration.

The ad is essentially a fun mix of everything you would ever want in a viral video (catchy music, funny lyrics, lovable characters) and a relatively grim message, all in a singsong bundle of carnage. It was a PSA released by the Australian government as a way to mitigate the amount of accidents on the metro (that’s their train system for the uninitiated). The result? An unprecedented 21% decrease in accidents on the metro when compared to the same time period last year.

It’s not necessarily a case of something extraordinarily novel, but the execution and appeal of the video was just something that resonated so well within, well, everyone. Kids were attracted, adults found it humorous, I wouldn’t even be surprised if grumpy bosses everywhere got a snicker out of it. It put together the strongest facets of virality and executed it so well.

Building up on that, other companies would just take this as a win and start making their way toward the podium but they took it further. They saw this PSA, something that shouldn’t have profits mixed in its goals, and converted it into something they actually reaped revenues off of. They created campaigns to stimulate user generated content (singing their own karaoke versions of the song and sending it over), syndicated their song over typical media outlets and basically just had a field day with it.

Pushing up the bottom line, entertaining saps like me AND saving people from falling into train tracks? You have my thanks Metro Trains, Australia.

PS: A little article detailing a few of the figures and numbers I hinted on.

I’m not going to lie, I have a strong love-hate relationship with fast food and it’s been an ongoing struggle for way too long. On the one hand, it’s horrible. It’s nutritional value is something to be laughed at and clearly the cons are far greater than the pros. On the other hand, it’s just so darn convenient. Food in my stomach after just swiping a card? Convenient locations such as a 5 minute walk from my apartment?

I don’t fully understand my reaction to this in all honesty. It’s streamlining something I’m diverting so many of my resources into avoiding but I just can’t get over the fact that it’s such a brilliant idea. Basically, the Go Cup is a new product launched by KFC that is a customizable (you can choose which food items go in it) cup of their products you can easily place in any car seat cup holder. Yes, it’s that simple. It’s taking something that people naturally know as fast food and just making faster. It’s already been a prevalent idea that’s been backed by tons of data that there is a huge ratio of users who purchase fast food on the go and eat it in their cars and how it took so long to come up with an idea like this is beyond me.

It’s a classic demonstration of catering to your market. They’ve collected data, they’ve observed their consumers and they are simply adapting to something that is just so blatantly simple and obvious. I’m well on my way to a healthier lifestyle but if KFC and those other unnamed fast food giants continue doing stupidly brilliant things like this, consumers like me unfortunately have no choice. End satirical rant.

I read this article recently on AdAge and this really brought up the questions of whether conversations between company and consumer were always worth it. As described in the article, frictionless communication between companies and consumers are wholly possible and are actually the norm nowadays. How does one selectively reply to consumers? Is it worth it to reply to non-threatening comments? Has the industry really transitioned from bouts with the disgruntled customer to everyday chit-chat with random pancake enthusiasts?

First off, I’d actually like to sum up the article. The article is about a certain writer’s exchange with IHOP’s Twitter account; a funny little back and forth about really nothing in particular.

@IHOP: #WhyIDidntTextYouBack I was busy eating pancakes.

 

I couldn’t resist tweeting back:

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP That’s no excuse. You can eat pancakes any time you want! It’s clear you really don’t care about me.

 

Within a few minutes, to my surprise, @IHOP wrote back, which led to a slow-motion exchange over roughly the next half hour:

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco Don’t say that, Simon! You know that we care about you, don’t be silly!

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP Well, then put down the fork and let’s talk.

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco Forks down. What would you like to chat about? 🙂

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP I just need to feel like this relationship is going somewhere.

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco Let’s take it one pancake at a time. 😉

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP I stopped seeing @WaffleHouse because I thought you were serious about us. And now you want to take it one pancake at a time?

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco No need to rush things, the right breakfast companion is worth the wait.

 

@simondumenco: @IHOP Wow, did I just get friendzoned by IHOP?

 

@IHOP: @simondumenco We need a little time, we just got out of a relationship with French toast.

After poking some fun at it, the writer then goes on to point out that IHOP actually does this with regular everyday consumers that interacts with their Twitter handle. It’s fantastic to think that companies are willing to go out and do things like this, but from the back end of things, is this really something worth their time? In this manner, one would guess that the writer’s handle was recognized as a writer from a well known news outlet but otherwise, would interacting with any random person really do anything for a company’s brand or its bottom line? It’s a study in micromanagement that probably entails more than a tiny blog post but it’s an interesting sentiment to mull over.

So recently as I was passing through my usual feeds, I chanced upon this gem. Now we’ve talked about listening and monitoring things in our classes so far but this really put a smile on me as I read it. If it’s still unclear to you what it is, or you’re just too lazy to peruse it, the article talks about a giant ear sculpture placed in front of Seoul’s City Hall. ‘Well that’s a bit too meta’ one might think, but what sets it apart is that it invites citizens over to come and voice their complaints or praises of the government. That’s right, you speak directly into the ear itself.

What’s even more interesting is that anything you say into this sculpture of an ear is actually recorded via a microphone installed inside it and is then played through speakers situated around City Hall. On top of that, sensors inside each speaker track how many officials are actually listening to each comment and then saves the ones that are listened to the most.

This gives the whole concept of listening in on consumer (or citizen, in this case) feedback. We’ve been hearing the world rave about we can use social media to listen in on people and monitor their opinions but whatever happened to just plain old voice conversation? I think this is a fantastic spin on a platform that can have real impact to motivate employees of the Seoul government. Reading feedback and analyzing data is efficient and all but the actual emotional and personal impact of hearing feedback through a voice resonating within your halls of work is something else. Props to Yobosayo (which is Korean for ‘hello’, by the way) and to personalizing the feedback conversation.