Digital natives: high on emotions if you don't want to be ignored #digitalnatives #research

DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS : N°5
EMOTION-CENTRIC

  Get noticed!
If there’s a place where it is a challenge, it’s the definitely the digital space. There are more than 240 million web sites (a figure which has doubled in 3 years) and 150 million videos on YouTube.
All competing to capture people's attention. It's no wonder emotion is king. Whoever sends a shiver down your spine gets your attention. Especially when the average time spent on a site is around 56 seconds… The pleasure should be intense, strong and immediate. Exactly like in chatroulette where you hit the next button as soon as you start getting bored.
It's a behaviour which will be found in all media consumption: when “Star Academy” gets boring, the more extreme Secret Story comes to the rescue for TF1.
When films get pirated  on the web, cinema regains its dignity by being in 3D.
On Facebook you don't say "that's interesting" or "that's right' but "I like this".
It's a difficult movement to define because it's not just about a quick change of form. It's more a movement which demands to see a product, a speech, a moment of entertainment in an emotional and not just a rational light.
For our marketing careers, it means bringing the rational into the brand's speech, by surprising people. Because this new audience only remembers stuff that shocks, amazes and makes them laugh all at the same time.
The brands which impress, that is to say those which you want to carry round with you, use and therefore buy, are the ones which are the most surprising.

In provoking these emotions, the brands become a source of pleasure once again, making the active more attractive (rather than the passive), and favouring sharing at the heart of a like community.

   

  The advantage is great, because every source of pleasure is now shared, allowing brands which have encompassed this to multiply their marketing efforts. An effect which Wilkinson's Fight for Kisses benefited from greatly, just like Cadbury’s gorilla or the Evian babies, now a world record.

Next footprint, on Monday: talk with the Digital natives? Take the shortcut...

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Adweek’s 2009 Global Agency of the Year

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Digital natives and knowledge: try talking to millions of Master Yoda! #digitalnatives #research

DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS : N°4
I KNOW EVERYTHING.
With 65% of Digital Natives considering the internet as their primary source of information, the tables have been turned. This has pushed even certain universities to want to review their curriculums, since learning by heart hasn't the same power when confronted by students who can find the answer to all questions in just one click.
Knowledge therefore becomes more autonomous, more personalized, more individualised and offering an "à la carte" option, see for example the success of learning music via the internet.
And yet, how many critiques focus their efforts on this digitalized knowledge, because even though Wikipedia classes itself as the 12th most visited site in France, the exactitude of information found is often unreliable… but information today is more credible when it comes from a community of "friends" than when it's from a traditional source of authority. So today, professors, politicians and brands are demanded to justify themselves.
A perilous exercise, which frequently leads to crashes and burns, because being called into question is as difficult to accept as it is unusual.
Whether it’s big industrial groups accused by consumer groups, or politicians who have bowed to the pressure of the public (like we saw during the last student demonstrations), the truth comes from the web. And if that wasn’t enough, reactions against this, attemps to quash a buzz often do nothing but fuel the flame, giving further credibility to false accusations. The recent rumours about Sarkozy/Bruni rocky relationship is a good example of rumours going wild…
In order to comprehend the world of the digital natives, you have to truly understand that for them we are now all equal with regards to information, that sources of authority which, having been credible, now how to justify themselves, and knowledge has become individualistic. A knowledge which is personified, personalised. So it’s no wonder that we now see our President on TV at the same table as people from the public, normally considered ‘punters’, and in first name terms.

Welcome to a world where information is held equally by all, and where references, that is to say authority, has disappeared.

A world which lots of brands try to navigate by being chummy with the consumer, prentending to be in first name terms: "you".
A superficial behaviour which is fated to stay at best totally ignored, and at worst the target for criticism.
To the narcissism of their public, they must respond differently: with interaction. That is to say with a dialogue that makes it possible to nurture, by giving the keys to understand the world which surround the digital natives, in encouraging them to understand it.
And above all, in giving them the tools to help them tame their environment. Apple or Nokia applications are good examples of this. Living proof that this does not just create goodwill…but that it can build empires.

tomorrow: high on emotions...

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Adweek’s 2009 Global Agency of the Year

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Posted via email from #think: Freddie's posterous

Digital natives: THE 3rd footprint: they are not connected to who you think. #digitalnatives #research

DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS : N°3
Like for likes: connected to millions, yes, but millions like me.

The beauty shot the web bringing the world in all its diversity together.
The reality is quite different.

  Ok it’s true that the world has opened. But in reality  opening it’s brought together people who look like each other.
The digital natives are firstly a hyper-connected generation. In one year the time spent on social network has soared  300%. For a 11-15 year old the web is 74% about communicating with others. In our research, the top  three main reasons for connecting are instant messengers, social networks and chats.

  But this new connection occurs around like-minded people. Communities yes, but similar people. A new centre of gravity governed by new laws :

Narcissism, and a developed taste for being the center of attention.
Our tv screens are full of programs like : "nobodies with a secret, singing nobodies, dancing nobodies, …".

Scandalism: because if you want to get noticed, there’s nothing like creating a good scandal.

Mercantilism, with everything becoming a potential piece of merchandise. Whether or not money is involved, everything can be used for transaction: an autograph on your buttocks today is worth 200 commentaries on Facebook..

A new reality, which thwarts the principles of mass marketing: which preached that with 30 beautiful little seconds we could convince the masses.
Let's not be foolish. This is still often true. But let's not be blind either. The vast majority of advertisers are turning a blind eye to the opportunity which communities offer. Today, we need to be looking not just for a targeting strategy, but an ultra-precise one.  This surpasses the traditional criterion of age and socio-cultural categories, to integrate new criterias like the emotional sphere, dreams and precise interests.
This is an environment where the brand will need to focus its attention and message to their centres of interest, their preoccupations; in brief their world and its singularity.
Here is a digital footprint that eventhough it has become a little trendy, has gréât difficutly making its way into the real marketing strategy. And even if the term ‘community manager’ is th enew bizzword, it is a job that often does not have meaning..or…power. The reality is that a lot of time is spent thinking about the community manager, and very little time thinking about the ‘community managed’. Surprising when the business and Relationship potential of liking real life business and communities is simply enormous. For the first time a company’s business has the opportunity to be in realtime with the aspirations, and desires of its customers.

Few seats available though, first one first served !

   
 tomorrow: how to deal with a group that has simply got all knowledge at their fingertip...

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Adweek’s 2009 Global Agency of the Year

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Posted via email from #think: Freddie's posterous

#digitalnatives. Lesson N°2 from our research. How to behave when no law stands?

DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS : N°2
NO LAWS TO FORBID ME.

  If in real life sources of authority have a tendency to disappear, the digital revolution has literally exploded all forms of interdiction.

Constraint are ignored, stigmatised even.  On Facebook, "dedipix" are appearing: write on different parts of your body, post a photo in exchange for comments. Chatroulette, the new darling of the web, is a place for unlimited exhibitionism. Skyblog censures on average 32 000 photos each day.

58% openly declare that they have downloaded illegally. "Pirating is not stealing," they tell us.
This practice is no longer simply virtual, with the media headlines offering us perfect examples every day. Last week, it was 3 teenage girls who beat up a bus driver that didn't want to take a detour to drop them off at their houses…
Twice as many 15-25 year olds have tried cocaine in just 3 years and massive Facebook parties give us a stunning demonstration of "binge drinking". A new movement which justifiably wants to take back control of towns thanks to the web- I must confess that I think they're right…
Its not just a rebellion which is happening, the impact on these generations will be profound, 63% of them think that their parents aren't the best representatives of authority, and just 4% consider their teachers to be.
A contradiction here with their demand for "respect" and the call from 82% of them for greater authority from teachers.

  In this situation, brands have an important role to play, they have often become the first carriers of human values, the values in which these generations find themselves. The creativity of Apple, the "just do it" of Nike are much more than just a method of selling mp3s or sneakers.

But this second digital footprint poses a real problem to brands. We are faced with a generation who make clear cut choices and who don't want a purely mercenary/commercial relationship (that they have learnt to sidestep).

Learning to speak to them is, above all, learning how to approach them. A totally new phase in marketing to digital natives. Because before selling, you need to learn how to give first.
Offer them an experience, a taste of the product and the brand's merits, which are nourished by a rich, immersive imagination.  
A new age marketing that only a few brands have learnt to master. Uniqlo for example, the new success in fashion distribution. Or Wilkinson which has tamed this mode of communication for some years and which, thanks to Fight for Kisses, has manage to beat Gilette, the million dollar traditional spender. A success which won a Grand Prix Effie last year.

In France, we are still very cautious towards this new method of communication. Doing research into effectiveness turns each brand into a service. Apple isn't just a company which makes computers. The applications have had just as much success as the product itself. Wilkinson is no longer just a brand which makes razors, but a source of entertainment.
Our American coursins have truly understood the potential of differation and effectiveness in this method of communication: Burker King, Doritos, FarCry2 know that today, before selling, you need to learn to give first.

tomorrow: connected, yes, but to millions of myselves...

   

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Adweek’s 2009 Global Agency of the Year

This transmission is intended solely for the person or organization to whom it is addressed and it may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient you should not copy, distribute or take any action in reliance on it. If you believe you received this transmission in error please notify the sender.

Posted via email from #think: Freddie's posterous