PEOPLE’S INSIGHTS MONTHLY BRIEF: NOVEMBER
photo: cynergy on flickr
Disrupt, or be disrupted
Disruption – new ideas, messages, products or processes that disrupt existing markets and behaviors – is becoming increasingly common today. It’s driven in part by people’s demands for more convenience, more collaboration and more attention to addressing societal issues. Of course, it’s not easy, quick or intuitive to create new ways of doing things… especially when it comes to addressing social issues which often requires re-invention of business models. But doing it successfully can lead to benefits for performance, people and planet. In some cases, for all three. In this issue of the People’s Insights monthly briefs, we cover three big innovations launched by Apple, Amazon and Google; three new approaches to Black Friday from TD Bank, Santander Bank and Patagonia; and two examples of upcycling by Southwest Airlines and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. As a bonus, we also take a quick look at the immensely popular podcast Serial – which mashes-up different types of storytelling. First, here’s an overview of the nine examples featured in this report. mysza on flickr
Big Tech Innovations Steve Jobs’ famous line, “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” may hold true for some of these attempts to change customer behavior. •
Apple Pay – Simplifying mobile payments Apple’s latest iPhones and operating system allow people to make quick contactless payments by tapping their iPhones against NFCenabled terminals. The hype around the launch of Apple Pay boosted usage of mobile payments across U.S. stores – but will Apple be able to make this behavior more mainstream?
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Amazon Echo – Virtual assistant for your home Amazon’s Echo merges voice-activated commands (similar to Siri and OK, Google) with a speaker designed for your home. The invite-only product received mixed reactions – will people lower their privacy guards to give Amazon Echo a chance?
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Google Inbox – A new way to Gmail Google’s Inbox is designed to make it easier for you to organize your email and make email work for you. It’s currently invite-only – will it become displace Gmail to become the preferred way to manage email and tasks? cat-sidh on flickr
New approaches to Black Friday Sometimes, disruption comes from listening to the quieter voices and catering to them…. when done around the biggest shopping period in the U.S., this approach feels quite meaningful indeed. •
TD Bank’s #MakeTodayMatter Acknowledging that many of their customers are keen to give back, TD Bank gave 24 people 24 hours and up to $30,000 each to serve their communities. The bank shared these stories and videos online to encourage more people to give back during the holiday season.
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Santander Bank’s Black Tea Friday Acknowledging that the hyper-consumption around Black Friday can be distasteful, Santander asked people to make their day after Thanksgiving more meaningful. Have a Black Tea Friday or a Black Kung Fu Friday with your kids, the bank suggested on Facebook.
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Patagonia and Yerdle’s Worn Wear swap parties Continuing its commitment to recycling and reusing “worn wear,” Patagonia partnered with goods-sharing site Yerdle to host swap parties at eight of its stores on Black Friday. People could bring in their old clothes and swap them for new ones or for Yerdle credit. asylumprincess on flickr
Upcycling & Paying it Forward Inventing of new business models can take years in the making, and a lot of persistence, as these examples show. •
Southwest Airlines’ Project LUV Seat Following an eco-redesign, Southwest was left with 80,000 used leather seats. The company spent a year looking for meaningful ways to upcycle the leather. Eventually, Southwest donated the leather to NGOs in Kenya to turn it into bags, wallets, shoes and footballs which were used to develop skills, and support health and education programs for children.
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Ben & Jerry’s The Chunkinator Ben & Jerry’s invested four years to create a tank that would break down waste water and left over cream waste and convert it into “GreEnergy” at its plant in the Netherlands. In a year and a half of trials, the Chunkinator produced enough energy to create 16 million pints of ice cream.
marcyleigh on flickr
Bonus! A new way to tell stories •
Serial Podcast Serial investigates a murder that took place in 1999 and shares the findings in weekly episodes. The format is mash-up of investigative journalism, weekly storytelling and podcasting. Its success (5 million downloads on iTunes in two months) has led to speculation that podcasting might enter the mainstream.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue. Share your thoughts and feedback with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
Nidhi Makhija-Chimnani Director, Research and Insights, MSLGROUP
tzofia on flickr
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Apple Pay
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Amazon Echo
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Google Inbox
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TD Bank - #MakeTodayMatter
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Santander Bank - Black Tea Friday
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Patagonia - Worn Wear swap parties
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Southwest Airlines - Project LUV Seat
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Ben & Jerry’s - The Chunkinator
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Serial Podcast
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#innovation Apple recently unveiled a project that took years in the making: Apple Pay. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus come with NFC chips which enable safe storage of credit and debit cards and quick payment by tapping the device on NFC-enabled terminals. Apple Pay also works for in-app payment on these devices, and the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. Apple Pay currently works only in the U.S. for major banks and about 220,000 retailers.
How it works? iPhone users begin by adding their cards to their Apple Pay Wallets. This can be done by taking a photo of the card or manually entering details. Apple Pay can then be used to pay for purchases online and at stores with NFC terminals (such as Visa’s PayWave, MasterCard’s PayPass and American Express’ Express Pay terminals). Simply tap the phone against the terminal, and confirm by swiping your finger print. Recent purchases are stored in the Passbook app. Apple sells Pay as a more secure way to pay: you don’t have to hand over your card, and it relies on single-use tokens for transactions which means hackers can’t steal your data (more on that here). You still pay using your card, so you qualify for rewards points etc. Rumor is that Apple charges a small fee for all transactions, possibly to the banks. Adoption of Mobile Payment In the first three days, Apple reported that 1 million cards were registered across the U.S. In the first three weeks, Whole Foods reported 15,000 Apple Pay transactions across 384 stores, McDonald’s said that Apple Pay made up half of all mobile payments, and Walgreens reported that mobile payment had doubled.
The hype around Apple Pay spread over to other mobile wallet users too. Softbank and Google said that their own apps saw a boost in downloads and use since the launch of Apple Pay.
Impressive? Maybe not, this PYMNTS blog post argues, saying that the behavior is spread across a large country. It’s not as strong as adoption of the Starbucks mobile app which sees 7 million transactions a week. And it may not last once the hype dies down. Partners That being said, Apple Pay has an impressive range of partners, with more planning to come on board. Apple has also partnered with China’s Union Pay bank to enable in-app purchases in China. Apple does however face some challenges from retailers who have invested in their own mobile payment service CurrentC. These retailers, including CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart and Best Buy have disabled NFC-terminals in their stores to ward off the competition, much to the ire of some Apple users. All in all, it’s a long term game and Apple seems to be in for the long haul. Watch the intro video by Verge: Using Apple Pay in the real world
#innovation Amazon has had mixed success with its new products. The Kindle was a huge hit and fuelled the market for ereaders. The Amazon Fire phone on the other hand entered a crowded market and failed to make a dent. The new Amazon Echo launched in November, but critics are unsure if it will be a hit or if it is ahead of its time. A virtual assistant for your home Amazon’s Echo merges voice-activated commands (similar to Siri and Ok, Google) with a speaker designed for your home. It’s currently invite-only and priced at $199 for normal users and $99 for Amazon Prime subscribers. The device responds to the names “Amazon” or “Alexa.” People can ask it to read out the news, weather and Wikipedia entries and answer general questions (like what is the tallest mountain in the world?). Echo can also play music from Amazon play-lists or online radio stations, create to-do lists and set alarms. It can even connect with devices over Bluetooth and stream music. Echo uses far-field voice recognition technology. Its seven speakers can pick up sound-commands from across the room.
It also comes with noise cancellation so it can hear commands even while it is playing music. Its speakers offer 360 degree surround sound. An all-in-one speaker, virtual assistant, and voice-activated Siri. So, why are critics so skeptical? Processes commands in the cloud Echo processes all commands by sending them to the cloud. Amazon positions this as a good thing – Echo is always getting smarter, adding new features and adapting to your speech patterns and preferences. But people aren’t too excited by the “always on” speaker transmitting information to the cloud.
In fact, this is one of the major criticisms of the device – it doesn’t address privacy concerns in today’s post NSA-revelation age. The other criticism comes from Siri and Ok, Google users: “my phone already acts as my virtual assistant.” Mixed Reactions Tech journalists and bloggers aren’t quite sure what to make of the Echo. It doesn’t help that someone made a parody of Amazon’s Echo ad the same day it was released (or that the parody received a million views more than the original). As more people receive the Echo and upload video reviews on YouTube, the sentiment may change. Some people are already responding to video reviews with detailed questions about the product and positive reactions. According to the comments so far, the Echo seems to be a great fit for the elderly, non-tech savvy and visually impaired. Watch the video: Introducing Amazon Echo
#innovation Email today is not perfect. A Google search for “too many emails” brings up 95 million responses. As people chase for the coveted “Zero” Inbox, some have introduced email management systems, games and new apps to help people better manage the inflow. One app in particular, Mailbox, seemed to have gotten it right by helping Gmail users to swipe to delete/archive emails and ‘snooze’ emails till a later date. This may have inspired Google to come up with its own solution – Inbox.
What is Inbox? Inbox is an alternate way for people to access their Gmail via the web and mobile apps. It borrows the swipe and snooze features from Mailbox, and adds some more: •
Bundles – a handy filter that clubs email under headings like Purchases and Travel
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Highlights – Snippets from the email that appear in the Inbox view itself, highlighting Attachments, Photos, YouTube videos, Flight details, Maps, Calendar items, Reservations and Purchases – and makes things easier and quicker to find
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Icons for Bundles, and Display pictures for email senders – which make it easier to understand who your mail is coming from
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Snooze – the ability to make emails ‘go away’ until a certain time or location
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Pin – the ability to retain certain emails in your inbox, making them easier to find
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Reminders – an acknowledgement that Gmail users often email themselves reminders… or a step to make email an even more useful tool
Essentially, Inbox encourages you to act on your email. Inbox features and the size of the action icons makes email management more intuitive and easy. As one blogger put it, “Gmail’s Inbox Doesn’t Organize Email, It Reminds You To Answer It.”
Positive Reactions Inbox launched in October and is currently in invite-only phase. It’s available for personal Gmail users but not for business or Google Apps users. Initial response has been positive. The mobile apps have over 4 star ratings on both the Android and iTunes stores, and tech news sites are likening Inbox to “the future of email.” But across the reviews, there are comments from people wondering why it’s easier to archive emails than to delete them completely. As more people receive invites to use it, it’ll be interesting to see if Inbox is the email solution we’ve all been waiting for.
Clockwise: Information Week, TechTimes and Yahoo
Watch the video: The inbox that works for you
#black friday A few days before Thanksgiving, TD Bank unveiled its #MakeTodayMatter campaign. Throughout the month of November, the bank selected 24 people and offered them up to $30,000 to serve their communities within the next 24 hours. These people were nominated by local bank employees or selected after interviews at branches in the U.S. and Canada. They each came up with their own way to give back, and with the help of TD’s funds and resources, brought their visions to life.
A video featuring the behind-the-scenes of these projects and reactions of community members was shared online. Within a week, the video received 3.5 million views and – more importantly – positive reactions. All 24 stories and projects are shared on TD’s website. Why this approach? Apart from being a great way to stand out from the typical Black Friday messaging (BUY SHOP DISCOUNT NOW!), #MakeTodayMatter is also rooted in an interesting insight. According to Tim Hockey, President and CEO of TD Canada Trust: "A recent TD survey found that roughly 70 per cent of people said they are inspired to give back when they witness a good deed."
TD’s goal was to kickstart the good deeds and inspire more people to give back around the holidays. Watch the video: 24 people. 24 days. 24 communities.
#black friday Increasingly, Black Friday is becoming known as much for its long lines, violent brawls and occasional stampedes as for its value-for-money deals. In fact, this was the first year where sales over the four-day weekend declined (TIME: Spending drops 11%). Spanish bank Santander’s gamble to cater its messaging to people wary of the Black Friday madness may have paid off quite well.
facebook.com/santanderbankus
A week before Thanksgiving, Santander Bank US published a video that showed a father and son waking up early on Thanksgiving, heading past a mall and volunteering at a soup kitchen. It ends by asking viewers how they will make their “day after Thanksgiving” more meaningful. The video raked up 150,000 views on Facebook. Santander also shared a series of posters suggesting people “Have a Black Tea Friday” or a “Black Kung Fu Friday” with their kids. It’s a fresh initiative, and the focus on meaningfulness and family helps the bank differentiate itself. Now that the bank knows its messaging seems to be in the right direction, it will be interesting to see its efforts next year. Maybe we’ll see some family events sponsored by Santander branches on the “day after Thanksgiving.” It would definitely help get more customers and people involved. Watch the video: Santander Black Bean Soup Black Friday
#black friday #upcycling Outdoor clothing and gear maker Patagonia is known for promoting reuse of its products. This unique position has helped in several ways: it extends the life cycle of its products and keeps them out of landfills; it establishes Patagonia wear as durable; and it caters to an eco-conscious audience. In 2013, Patagonia partnered with eBay to create the Common Threads initiative, and encouraged people to buy and sell used Patagonia goods on eBay. For Black Friday 2013, Patagonia partnered with IFixIt to co-publish free repair guides for Patagonia clothing and invited customers to get their Patagonia wear repaired in-store.
Worn Wear This year, Patagonia partnered with swapping app Yerdle to celebrate what they call Worn Wear. In a short video, Patagonia celebrated worn clothing, with athletes talking about the trust they place in clothing they have worn on previous adventures and the superstition they associate with their “lucky” clothes. Patagonia called on people to ‘swap’ their Worn Wear through the Yerdle app rather than throw it away. Through the app, people could swap used items for “Yerdle” credit and spend these on other items. For Black Friday, Patagonia partnered with Yerdle to host 8 swap parties at select stores. People could bring in “Patagonia-like” clothing and swap it for Patagonia Worn Wear or Yerdle credit; a nice way to bring people in to stores, while sticking to the eco angle. People could also join the action on Twitter – by sharing their worn wear stories they could win Yerdle credit. Watch the Video: Worn Wear® Stories | Presented by Patagonia
#upcycling Southwest Airlines left no stone unturned with Project LUVSeat, a great example of achieving the triple bottom-line – performance, planet and people. It began with Evolve – an eco-redesign to Southwest’s entire fleet of Boeing 737-700 and some 737-300 aircrafts. The airline had sourced an upcycled eleather material to use for its seat coverings that would make each plane lighter by over 600 pounds. The eleather was made of scraps of leather and was cheaper and faster to produce than regular leather. The lighter seats meant less fuel consumption and savings of $10 million annually in fuel costs. The redesign also made space for another row of seats in the planes, giving Southwest additional revenue per flight. Southwest was then left with 80,000 used leather seats – 43 acres of leather – that it wanted to keep out of the landfills. The airlines embarked on a one year search for opportunities to maximize the use of the leather. Members of the Southwest community (employees and customers) were invited to share their ideas and happily complied in over 1,000 comments. View the full infographic
Upcycling – converting waste material into something of higher quality or value Some of the leather was donated to NGO-run workshops in Kenya where it was transformed into useful products and passed on to other NGOs. Some was upcycled in the U.S. by Looptworks – a company that employs the disabled and converts used materials into premium handmade products. Looptworks estimates that the upcycling of leather helped them conserve “more than 4,000 gallons of water conserved per bag and [achieve] a 72% reduction in CO2 emissions.”
LUV Project products by Looptworks include a limited number of convertible totes, duffle bags, backpacks and toiletry cases
Kenya: 6,000 seats for a pilot program In Kenya, Southwest gave the used leather to local NGOs and companies Massai Treads, Life Beads Kenya and Teamlift Inc. that train young adults, women and disabled persons in handicrafts. Using the leather, they produced 2,100 pairs of shoes, 1,000 soccer balls, 15,000 bags, wallets and backpacks, and other leather goods. The goodwill didn’t end there. Some of the shoes were donated to SOS Children’s Villages in Kenya as part of an anti-jigger campaign – to protect children who normally go barefoot and are susceptible to parasites. Shoes were also donated to Cure orphanage, a residence for children who lost parents to AIDS. The soccer balls were donated to Alice & Kicking which uses sports to educate children about HIV/AIDS and Malaria prevention.
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Performance, Planet, People Overall, LUVSeat resulted in:
View the full infographic
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$10 million in annual fuel savings. Extra seats for sale.
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Re-use of waste materials. Water conservation. Reduction in emissions.
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Employment for the disabled. Training for the poor.
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Health and education for Kenyan children.
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And, meaningful stories to share with employees and customers, reinforcing that they are part of a *good* ecosystem when they fly Southwest.
Watch the video: Project LUV Seat: Repurpose with Purpose
#circular economy To fulfill its mission to provide the best possible ice cream in the nicest way possible, Ben & Jerry’s goes beyond ethical sourcing. The ice cream maker is also finding more productive ways to manage its waste. Over the past two years, Ben & Jerry’s has been testing a machine that converts waste products into “GreEnergy.” Ben & Jerry’s partnered with biotechnology company Paques to install a biodigester at its ice cream factory in the Netherlands.
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The tank, which it calls The Chunkinator, contains 24 billion natural micro-organisms. It feeds on waste cream, fats, oils and waste water, and with the help of the micro-organisms, breaks these down into biogas. This gas is then used to power creation of more ice cream. According to Ben & Jerry’s: "The innovation comes from wastewater streams that contain fat and oil being treated in one compact reactor, together with the degradable particles—whereas in conventional systems this is only possible by going through a number of processing stages.”
In a year and a half of trials, The Chunkinator converted half of all waste products and all the waste water into enough energy to create 16 million pints of ice cream.
#storytelling A murder-mystery Serial investigates a murder that took place at a Baltimore high school in 1999 and resulted in the suspect Adnan Syed receiving life imprisonment. It launched in October and quickly ramped up to become the fastest podcast to reach 5 million downloads and streams on the iTunes store, and topping charts in the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada and Australia. In 30-40 minute episodes every Thursday, the show’s host Sarah Koenig reveals more of the story and clues that could reveal who did it.
Mix of Formats The show is told from the perspective of Koenig, as the host and reporter, and includes audio snippets recorded during the trial itself and during her subsequent interviews with people involved in the case.
It’s not a new type of story, Serial is about two teenagers from different backgrounds falling in love, separating, and one of them getting killed. It’s not even a new type of storytelling, but a mash-up of various established forms of storytelling: investigative reporting, episodic storytelling and podcasting in the style of a documentary.
But it’s a unique piece of storytelling, because this mash-up hasn’t been done before and is well-suited to today’s audiences. As The New Yorker’s Sarah Larson puts it, the show combines “the drama of prestige-television-style episodic storytelling” with “the portability of podcasts.” Serial is also interesting because the team behind show is still piecing together the story and doesn’t know how it will end. In fact, the show has been running in ‘real-time’ since the end of October, with new episodes being filmed each week. This allows people to contribute to the show, as we saw in episode 9 when Koenig shared information she received from listeners who were in Baltimore at the time of the murder. It also means that listeners can’t “binge-listen” to catch up as is normal for Netflix viewers. When it comes to Serial, listeners must tune in to know what happens next. “Mainstream” Response Serial has quickly become a cultural phenomenon, occupying a significant part of daily conversations which is typically reserved for popular TV shows and movies. Serial has inspired memes, infographics, podcast parodies, podcasts that analyze the podcast, communities, debates, controversies… the producers have even received offers to turn the show into a movie (which they declined, for now).
Analysts and marketers believe that Serial might drive the mainstream adoption of podcasting by advertisers and listeners alike, and some believe it might revive long-form investigative journalism. As Josh Logue, a senior at University of Maryland, explains: “Serial’s success is good news. It’s proof that journalism, done right, can captivate online audiences, and for long stretches of time.”
If nothing else, it may give the show’s protagonist Adnan Syed a chance to prove his innocence – his appeal has finally been processed and a hearing has been scheduled for January.
Charts about Serial at thebolditalic.com
Listen to the podcast here: Serial Podcast
People’s Insights is a collection of inspiring initiatives, insights and foresights shared by MSLGROUP’s SPRINTers – our global team of 100+ strategic planners, researchers and insights experts. We feature the best of these initiatives as People’s Insights monthly briefs, and original insights and foresights – from our SPRINTers and other MSLGROUP experts - in our People’s Insights magazines. We share these reports on our social platforms and distribute them freely to inspire more engaging campaigns. People’s Insights covers the latest trends in engagement on both consumer and corporate sides. Check out our latest magazine, The Future of Business Citizenship, for data and insights on how Millennials want businesses to be better active citizens. * People’s Insights is available as a blog, powerpoint decks, infographics, white papers and magazines, a Kindle eBook and even an iPad app. Follow us on Twitter at @PeoplesLab or subscribe to our newsletter to receive our monthly briefs and quarterly magazines.
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