blink - Influences 2009 by MediaCom

Influences 2009

Published by

blink #1 2008 in cooperation with the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

blink hour 1 e k a T m the off froSSION RECE

free = new paid Free exchange between two parties? Where’s the money in that?

Young and cool consumers Digital natives are on the go 44 hours – yes, 44 – a day. And ethnic minority youth have the cool factor – as their numbers increase and their buying power soars. Meet today’s youth.

In love with content Contentrules. Content rules.Content Content is currency. is currency. Read Read about about branded content, branded content,how how Nokia Nokia sells sells phones phones with with music, 66new music, newsocial social media media currencies currencies and and why why you should you should let consumers let consumers produce produce your ads. your ads.

blink In the current state of the world, it is dangerous to blink – in an instant, a country can go bust, global warming can accelerate and your retirement fund can lose 20%. The world can change in a blink of an eye – which is why we choose to name our magazine blink. We want to inspire you – to be a source of inspiration and knowledge. To give you an in-depth look into what’s happening in our world. A look at what influences our lives, businesses, economy, environment… The partnership behind blink is MediaCom Nordic and the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. Together, we bring a vast knowledge about future trends that affect us all. And we hope you will invest some time in blink. In these days of concern about greenhouse gases, why have we used paper to publish blink? It takes time to read! As pointed out on page 43, paper publication is more environment-friendly, if the reader spends more than 10 minutes reading. And we believe it’s more convenient to read the paper version of blink on the plane or in bed. But if you prefer the screen – please visit blink.mediacom.com. If you have ideas, questions, wishes, fears, concerns or just plain comments, please let us know. We will publish blink again, soon, and are always looking for inspiration. Please email editors Signe Wandler (Signe.Wandler@mediacom.dk) or Gitte Larsen (gil@cifs.dk) with any input. By the way, if you wonder why this first issue is not loaded with “Marketing in a Recession” stuff – and really miss it – please visit blink.mediacom.com, where you can find a comprehensive collection of papers on how to act. We may also return to the subject in early 2009. If you have forgotten what a blink looks like go to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Eye_ opening_and_closing.gif or blink.mediacom.com If, for some odd reason, you would rather not receive blink in the future, then please go to our website blink.mediacom.com. And if, for some other odd reason, you would like us to send blink to a friend, please sign up at blink.mediacom.com

Dear Reader,

Stronger relationships The future of communication is about content. And trading. Not the usual trading – getting the best buy – but trading content for time. Content becomes a currency, and so does time. Actually this is how it’s always been, but it has become even more extreme. Consumers – or content users – are used to receiving high-quality content for free. On all platforms, in all genres.

advertising. Not the old-school advertising model where advertisers bought eyeballs through a newspaper or TV. No, a new model where some create fantastic content, while others find ways to get our attention and exchange content for time – and that attention, time, and involvement is valuable if it’s linked or associated with brands.

Free is the new paid. In the old days, we bought a newspaper, subscribed to a magazine or paid license to the state TV and radio. And editors made sure we received the “right” content– every day. The Internet and Google changed all that – free information at our fingertips. Metro and other free distributed dailies followed, then YouTube, Facebook – and let us not forget advertiser-funded programming and branded content. Advertisers and people are so eager to tell us their story, they will pay us to spend time with their story. But it doesn’t end here. The next step of this development will be their paying us to spend time with brands. The competition among brands is so intense that, unless the brand has some extreme unique features or values, the consumer becomes disloyal to the brand. So brands give us so much added value in different currencies that we become loyal to the brand plus the benefits. This is not a new thing. Frequent flyer miles were invented decades ago – but that concept has now entered the mobile phone business with Nokia’s new music included service and TDC Play in Denmark. They give you free and unlimited downloads of music when you buy their products or subscribe to their services. So we get more of the stuff we used to pay for – for free. That’s a threat to commercialism! But on the other hand, this model will only work when based on one of the most fundamental principles in commercialism:

hope the current economic turmoil will end this development will be disappointed. It will actually accelerate it. Because we all will have to build stronger relationships with our clients with less money – and by creating our own content and managing our own, mainly digital, channels, we become media independent. Even this magazine is an example. We believe the content is so appealing that you will spend time reading it – even though you got it for free!

And we have just seen the beginning of this new trend of Neo-commercialism. The media and advertisers that

Enjoy your first issue of blink!

Jonas Hemmingsen, CEO, Mediacom Nordic Group

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Contents

Stronger relationships ............................................... 3 Introduction: Get influenced!...................................... 9 44 hours in a day....................................................... 13 Build an audience..................................................... 19 Content is King for Nokia! . ..................................... 24 The ethnic minority cool factor . ............................. 28 Six new social currencies for delivering content... 34 The green agenda..................................................... 39 Users will spread the word....................................... 45 The market of free ................................................... 51 M:files........................................................................ 57

Fancy O LIV

Resumé INTRODUCTION: GET INFLUENCED......................... 9 By gitte larsen, cifs You and your business are influenced by every possible trend and driver of societal and economic developments. Right now, your challenges are the “economy of free,” “climate communication,” branded content, mobile marketing and new consumers (either the young multimedia generation or ethnic minority youth). Every trend and influence described in this issue of blink affects how you should develop and market your organization and product. But these are not the only influences. The capitalist economy is changing, too, and it is increasingly imperative that you rethink your business. Get influenced – and gain influence over the future of your company.

m:files...................................................................... 57 Nordic countries are wired up; put the Real World to your toolbox; recession marketing. And other snippets.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Christian Johansen

BUILD AN AUDIENCE............................................... 19 By Signe Wandler, MediaCom Branded Content is the future of marketing. So far, we have had only a glimpse of what it may become. However, in time, when we have more examples of success, advertisers and media outlets will feel confident in the area, and will strive to create new opportunities for marketing in the form of Branded Content. Branded Content is a powerful marketing tool, because it relies on high-quality content, and because it can build knowledge and engage otherwise hard-to-reach audiences.

Case: TDC & Denmark’s Best Gamer

p 19

NORDICPHOT

RÖ

PA Photos MATT CROSSICK

Nokia comes with music

p 24

The ethnic minority cool factor

p 28

The ethnic minority cool factor................. 28 By Sara Jönsson, CIFS A new target group is emerging for Nordic product development and marketing sectors: “cool” ethnic consumers. Having a different ethnic background and standing out from others is becoming trendy. The new wave of advertising that puts immigrants in the spotlight particularly illustrates this trend -- which is not just Nordic; it is global. There is money to be made from ethnic minorities, whose numbers are growing while their buying power soars. While an overlooked customer (and employee) group in the past, they are attracting attention, especially because of their cool factor. Read about some of the key ethnic marketing concepts.

CONTENT IS KING FOR NOKIA!.............................. 24 By Flemming Wisler, Nxt To date, the cell phone can claim to be the most important device of the 21st century. It has become an indispensable social navigator and best friend – a pocket-size media platform that sets a whole new agenda. But cell phone models increasingly have the same features – and price. What can producers do in the battle for customers? Content is the weapon, with music at top of the wish list. blink talked to Ruhne Fiala, Nokia’s Multimedia Marketing Director, about the company’s new role as content provider.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

1881

USERS WILL SPREAD THE WORD.......................... 45 By Christian Vibe Norup, CIFS More companies are waking up to the advantages of consumer-generated advertisements. Consumergenerated ads make it easier to reach young men; they are more authentic and credible; they have great distribution potential; they provide good insight into the consumer; they can help attract talented employees. Find inspiration about how to work with user-generated ads online, and get four examples of companies doing it.

linki m

PE LL

O E KR NESTED T

NOR

DI C

P H

Case: 1881

p 45

LENA JOHA NS

AP M AR

IO PE

WORKBOOK STOCK

REZ

Six new social currencies

p 34

SIX NEW SOCIAL CURRENCIES FOR DELIVERING CONTENT............................................ 34 By Adam Morgan, eatbigfish More than any other time in media history, brands face a dilemma. Brands and brand owners struggle with social and digital media, trying to make sense of them. Some are trying to throw the old model around the new world. But that is a mistake: the new world requires an entirely new kind of strategy (and underlying model). We must start again. How does an 18-year-old digital native navigate their socio-digital world? How can brands fit in that world and add value to it? Adam Morgan, of the consultancy eatbigfish, is working on a new media model for the socio-digital economy. Take a peek at his idea about the six new social currencies that brands and media companies will use in the future.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

THE MARKET OF FREE............................................ 51 By Christian Vibe Norup, CIFS The market of free is exploding. That means every company must reconsider its business model. Money is no longer the only way to measure and create value, and it is no longer the only scarce resource. Your time and respect are the gold of the attention economy. That is why Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, author of The Long Tail and author of an upcoming book about the free economy, believes free will be the norm, not an anomaly, in the future. Read about his views about what the market of free is and read his views on six different business models - all based on the idea of free.

OJO Images FLORESCO PRODUCTIONS

Topfoto

44 hours

p 13

The green agenda

p 39

44 HOURS IN A DAY.................................................. 13 By Flemming Wisler, Nxt American studies show that young people can now cram the equivalent of 44 analogue hours into a good, oldfashioned 24-hour day. Young media users can easily handle three or four tasks simultaneously, letting them watch TV, listen to music, send text messages and game – all while updating Facebook. What seriously separates this generation from the one before is the strength of their media tools. They can tailor and personalize everything. They can act “global,” and they do. One of the common themes of young people’s media consumption is also one of humanity’s: social interaction. Meet the new multimedia generation.

THE GREEN AGENDA............................................... 39 By Flemming Wisler, Nxt Environment-friendly communication and climate strategy: consumers say they want your company’s profile and agenda to be green. The sense that the climate problem is a here-and-now problem is widespread, and is starting to affect how we organize our consumption. What does it mean for media selection and content, and will CO2 be the best excuse for cutting back?

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

NORDICPHOTOS, LARS G SÃ FSTRÖM

By Gitte Larsen, Copenhagen Institute for FUTURES STUDIES

Introduction: Get influenced! When you and your company think about the future and look for influences, you must also focus on goals. But goals may look and seem different in the future. The capitalist economy, as we know it, will not be around much longer. The currencies we use will change. You will change. Nothing will stay the same. Go explore what possible futures are actually an opportunity for your company and next advertising campaign, and do it by keeping up with what influences your business – both obvious and nonobvious influences.

Don’t expect consumers to know what they want in the future. Of course, you should interact with your customers, but you should also interact with other people: friends, people who are different from you, people you meet every day, people you have never met and will meet by accident. No one can be sure about where the next great idea will come from, except perhaps great companies, and personalities such as Nick Butler, policy adviser at BP. I recently read in Hot Spots, by Lynda Gratton, that Butler “wanted to keep in touch with people who know more than we [BP] do.” He knows that he doesn’t know, and has arranged regularly to be in touch with people and environments where the next great idea may lurk. That mindset, and doubt in general, should be more accepted and acknowledged. It is an especially important part of your relationship with employees and customers. It is important in the development of your company, products, and marketing plan. Insightfulness comes only from exposing yourself and your doubt to every kind of

knowledge, experience, and information – and from sharing what you know. Another example in Gratton’s Hot Spots (which I recommend) comes from IBM CEO Lou Gerstner. He made a rule that slides could never again be shown at meetings of senior managers. Gerstner preferred conversation to presentations, and this makes sense, I believe. The state we’re in, not least the new direction for the traditional capitalist economy, will increasingly demand we use the knowledge we already have in new ways. Conversation and the meeting of different people, views and perspectives will be the determining factors. The same will apply to marketing and advertising in the future: you will need to think about your products as new kinds of currencies, and view that which creates real value in new and broader terms, beyond just money. Yet another CEO, this time from Corning, made a rule that anyone who did not add or receive something of value from a meeting would not take part. Think about

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

how many resources your company could use better, and think about your own personal joy and relief, if you could decide yourself which meetings are worth attending. Many ritual meetings would quickly die out, as happened in Corning. And this applies to your products, and the speed of the digital market will make it happen ever faster than before. When nobody, especially your clients and customers, wants to take part in your next marketing campaign The future is not predictable

Don’t be so sure you know what your customers want in the future. Nobody can predict the future. Imagine that you could. You could confidently walk into the CEO’s office and explain exactly how to market the company’s next product. You would tell him (or her: in the future, it’s more likely to “her,” but that’s another story) that you know what the customers and other consumers want in the future. You know they will go for the mobile phone with integrated platforms, and they will only consume segmented and personally chosen information. Consumers will go for the instant, high-quality content and experiences they can share and develop further. As a reader of this article, you may believe this is exactly how the future will be, and you may be right. Tomorrow’s people, employees in your company, your colleagues, your children and their friends’ parents, etc. will demand quality content for free. They will want it whenever and wherever they like, and in the form they want. The technology will be there. But will we understand what it means to be human in a globalized world? And this is nothing but a question. You may be right in thinking that the future will be as described above (and in the other articles in this first issue of blink), but you can never be sure. If you were sure, you would stop asking questions, and you would continue to do whatever you have always done, in more or less the same way.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Even though we could, in an otherwise plausible way, predict the future, no one – no company or person – would dare act on it. It is up to each of us to approach our individual and collective futures, and we do that best by working with alternative, possible futures. A one-track mind sees and hears very little. The recommendation, then, is companies and organizations ask the question: What will happen, if such and such happened? How would the company react? It is all about being prepared for the future, and if we are, we do not need to predict the future. In short, don’t stop thinking about tomorrow - ever! In thinking about the future, and looking for influences, you need to focus, too, on specific goals. But even goals may look and feel different in the future. The capitalist economy, as we know it, will not be around much longer. The currencies we use will change. You will change. Nothing will stay the same. Rethinking business and economy

The financial crisis that has engulfed the world is quite likely a structural crisis. When we get through it, capitalism, as we know it, will no longer exist. Companies and business should not aim to be just capitalists, but happy capitalists. We should be glad, even happy, and make money. Or, said another way: there is a global need for companies to manage the capitalist system in a way that doesn’t kill us all. In different or new economies, or mutations of capitalism, our currencies are very different from what we are used to. More and more companies will be managing their business from the principle of “cradle to cradle,” and we will speak of a circular economy that will let us consume more without having a bad conscience. The award-winning Dutch documentary Waste=Food considers a more natural capitalism based on the central principle of closed-loop manufacturing. As architect Paul Bierman-Lytle of the engineering firm CH2M Hill puts it, “waste equals food.”

Get influenced!- By Gitte Larsen

How to get influenced There are many sources of new business opportunities, and ways to find them. Here are some ways for you to be influenced:

#3: Seeing differently! We often talk about opportunities as something we see. Perhaps opportunities are also something that can be heard, smelled, tasted, and felt? Perhaps you should discuss product, organizational or market development in unusual venues. Most meeting rooms aren’t really rooms for seeing things in a different manner. By moving to an unusual spot, you’ll see different things, and your mind will be opened. Wherever you are, though, see everything as a medium. Pick anything you have and make it a medium. One example of seeing differently is Air New Zealand, which changed its definition of itself from being ’New Zealand’s largest airline’ to being the ’The World’s 32nd largest airline’. The shift from high status and the challenge of maintaining routes, to a status where it is smart to sacrifice routes and over-commit on service, changed the airline and how it does business.

You might want to add these sources or ways to look for opportunities:

Get influenced!- By Gitte Larsen

#4: Think outside in! In futures studies, the core element is working with the cognitive reframing of what is possible. The future is not a given, and ’the one size fits all’ is never applicable. Every possible future is not an opportunity for everyone. But a possible or probable future might just be an opportunity for you and your company. The world is always changing. Reviewing the surroundings is a must for every business and organization. The windows of opportunities are out there. First, you and your company must stay focused on the big wins, and not drown in the small stuff. The hard part is still to translate possibilities into real business opportunities for your company, and this has to do with riding with change, quickness and skill.

#5: Recognize the creative process! #6: Store ideas! #7: Measure something different! #8: Try it in a small scale! #9: ... -and you can add to the list if you have more ways

Gitte Larsen, Doing opportunities, article in FO/futureorientation #3 2008, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.

blink012008

nxt Stine skøtt olesen

#1: Ask questions! Asking good questions is an art, and there are different ways to do it. When looking for new opportunities and influences, you must ask openended questions that offer a wide range of answers. Obviously, they must be questions to which you do not know the answer. Asking why questions lets you dig to the root of the problem. You can ask why, why not and why not now? Other useful questions are what do I need, what do you need and what is needed? In futures studies, one core question is: What if? Ask this question after you ask those listed above. Doing so lets you discuss and play with possible futures.

#2: Challenge assumptions! The heart of futures work is the ability to challenge assumptions in a way that opens our minds. First, you must agree there is no best way of doing things: there are always better ways! It’s human nature to cover up a problem rather than call attention to it. So, second, when challenging assumptions, don’t just solve problems - be creative, spot wrong questions and ask new ones. The only way to change the future, and create a better one, is by relating to the mindsets of today in new ways. Every strategy – whether in management, product development, market development, marketing, or human resources – contains implicit assumptions about the future. By making these assumptions explicit, and by challenging them, you will be able to navigate much more wisely.

blink.mediacom.com

For example, Ford, one of the biggest brands of the industrial age, has recently retooled and improved production to the benefit of employees, the environment and, not least, profitability. One goal was that children should be able to freely roam the grounds and factories, and that goal has been achieved. Ford has, in other words, changed how it manages capitalism and is now in a completely different financial rationale and mindset. The first industrial revolution was based on the belief that natural resources were unlimited. The next industrial revolution, already taking place, must be based on the opposite notion: natural resources are limited, and we do not even know what will replace the ones we are running out of -- yet. Sustainability will not be enough in the future. We need to go beyond this and rethink the way we run our business. Thoughts such as these will become a greater part of how we address the global challenges of an increasingly complicated, developing knowledge society and economy. We have heard and know that it is people who create value in the knowledge society. Humans are the most important production factor. We have heard people and their talent are every organization’s greatest asset. Unfortunately, it seems the message has begun to bore us. Many companies still have far to go, with many important changes ahead. It is not only about acknowledging that human beings are the most important resource, but also about how we organize our business overall, about cooperation, about sharing and about developing new desirable business models. In short: How can we continue to stay happy capitalists, or become even happier capitalists, in the future? Building long-lasting relationships with your clients, consumers, employees, and the surrounding (global) society will inevitably be the most important influence on profits in the future. Creating your future

obvious and non-obvious influences. And, at last, by deciding and acting. Lynda Gratton put it this way in a recent interview in the magazine FO/futureorientation: “You should think about things you need to create for innovation to take place.” All the trends described in this issue of blink will influence the media business, and marketing, but how and to what degree your company and your products will be influences depends to a large degree of how you choose to respond on these influences and challenges. Everything, in principle, is possible, but there is an important difference between possibilities and opportunities. We often speak of possibilities as something we see. A possibility is a specific view of a specific topic or challenged. Or, put another way, possibilities are futures you can create. In other words, opportunities are something you and your company do or can do. The difference between a possibility and an opportunity is that possible futures always exist outside you and your company, while opportunities are something you and your company have and do. Sometimes, a possible future gives your company an opportunity that a competitor cannot enjoy. In this edition of blink, you can read much more about several important influences in the media business. Even though we have not covered every trend that will affect you and your business, the ones we have chosen undoubtedly already play a decisive role for all companies – not least media companies. Sources: Lynda Gratton, Hot Spots, 2007. Gitte Larsen, “Hot Spots is energy”, interview with Lynda Gratton in FO/futureorientation #5 2008, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. Gitte Larsen, “Doing opportunities”, article in FO/futureorientation #3 2008, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. Thomas Geuken og Gitte Larsen, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, All Dressed Up – but nowhere to go, Gyldendal 2007. Gitte Larsen, MA Political Science, is a futurist and editor of FO/futureorientation, the journal of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. www.fo-online.dk and gil@cifs.dk

The future should be a conversation piece in any company. The future is not just out there – it must be created. You can create it through conversations and collaboration. Of course, you must also explore possible futures by keeping up with what influences your business --- both

More info on influences and trends: www.cifs.dk www.trendwatching.com www.springwise.com www.springspotters.com Waste=food: Search Google Video and watch the excellent Dutch documentary Waste=food with great examples of how companies like Ford rethought their business model to be more than sustainable.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Get influenced!- By Gitte Larsen

By Flemming Wisler, NXT

44 hours in a day If you are 25 years old or younger, you probably have special skills that make you a member of an extremely challenging club. This is the club of people under 25 who manage to cram up to 44 hours into a good, old-fashioned analogue day of 24 hours. That’s why you have to get up early to be young with the young. Meet the new multimedia generation. Making arrangements, meeting, and keeping in touch via obsolete analogue tools such as snail mail and rotary telephones would be an unholy nightmare for a teenager anno 2008. In fact, I tested it on my own two, and I could read in their eyes the utter hopelessness of the project. Just the thought of not having hour-by-hour updates about where close friends are, who they are together with and, most important, what they are doing, seemed almost to provoke fear. A new generation – the digital natives – has indeed taken the stage. Only if you deserve it!

Children born in the 1980s became the first generation in Denmark to grow up with a large television channel selection and with advertising as a natural part of the broadcast. Later, in the 1990s, the Internet turned up, along with fast computers with challenging three-dimensional playing surfaces and, not least, the mobile phone. Since the turn of the millennium, the media offering has been extended to easy access to music and, increasingly, to films. And the Net’s social dimensions, in the form of meeting places and virtual worlds, have long since made the Web both two-way and global. Young people 25 and younger are, fortunately, just as ordinary as the young people before them, with the same strong need for communities and their own identity. But what seriously separates this generation from the one before is the strength of their media tools. They can tailor and personalize everything. They can act “global,” and they do. Children and youth raised with open media channels from morning ‘til night can increasingly filter messages

and information, so that only relevant, entertaining and valuable bytes penetrate their consciousness and receive their attention. However, if you want to reach this group, you can take comfort in knowing that, if you hit the right channel with a relevant message, you will hit them right in the solar plexus. The acceptance of placed messages in personal online-channels appears, however, to vary by culture. It’s bigger in India and Asia than in Europe, for example, where advertising is mainly expected, and tolerated, in traditional media. The point, however, isn’t so much the channel, as it is the relevant message. There’s no percentage in forcing access to users, as Rupert Murdoch did when he bought MySpace.com. Google has apparently shown the path forward by delivering precisely that form of advertising that media sharks under age 25 want to use: the small, diminutive text advert aimed precisely at the situation you are in, right here and right now. The same applies to both iTune’s and YouTube, which know what you are listening to, or watching, and then recommend more from the same drawer. Multichannels need multipeople

One of the more interesting sides of the accelerating media- and content offering is what it does to our use of time. Much indicates that young people today simply don’t have the time to attack all the offers thrown their way. That means many of them “stretch” time by training themselves to contemplate and address far more tasks and information than those of us could manage, who grew up in 1970’s Denmark, when telephone booths

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

POLCREATIVE HØGSBERG SIMON PYMCA PAUL HARTNETT

fStop RAGNAR SCHMUCK

were few and far between, and when McCloud was the only show on Saturday night. Surveys show that young media users easily handle three-four tasks simultaneously, enabling them to watch TV, listen to music, send text messages and game, all while surfing Facebook. Studies and homework being an extension, understand. According to American studies, young people can now cram the equivalent of 44 analogue hours into a good, old-fashioned 24-hour day. That’s why you need to get up early to be young with youth. Fishing for information from several media has become a widespread behavior, which, as a result of multitasking, prompts chain reactions and a ripple effect through the news stream, entertainment and communities. This form of media meshing means, for example, that a news item presented in one medium will immediately be “nuanced” by viewing it in another medium closer to the event, and perhaps supplemented by a Google search,

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

reading a blog, and texting/emailing with friends. Think about how you react to breaking news you see on the Net, or hear about through a text message. You most probably research further and find your own angle on the story. The same applies to entertainment, where immediate global fame, à la Warhol’s divinely foreseen 15 minutes, can arise, if a string with music, video – or, ideally, both -- suddenly penetrates the filter and gains status as a really sick joke. The actual sequence will spread at the speed of light, and the source of the entertainment will be ransacked for more of the same, and discussion about the discussion will finally slip into the mainstream “river of news.” When the event makes it to the printed press a couple of days later, the actual entertainment is ancient history in the fast circles of the Net. At dinner, your teenager looks at you indulgently when you talk about news you read in the newspaper.

44 hours in a day - By Flemming Wisler

NORDICPHOTOS LIV CARLĂ&#x2030; MORTENSEN

PYMCA NAKI

Youth 2008 PYMCA JA Y

BRO

More young people on the streets; juvenile crime has fallen Although life is largely lived on the network, a study by the Danish Ministry of Justice Research Unit indicates more and more young people hang out on the street. The finding led the ministry to recommend more adult control in the urban environment to keep lifestyle-related crime in check. Otherwise, robberies and violence could increase. However, it is concluded that juvenile delinquency trends are generally positive, with crimes by young people declining over the last 20-30 years. Source: Danish Ministry of Justice Research Unit, August 2008

OJO Images FLORESCO PRODUCTIONS

Pass the bottle

44 hours in a day - By Flemming Wisler

Danish youth still tops the alcohol consumption list when compared to the rest of the world. In June 2008, the Danish National Institute of Public Health published a three-year Internet-based study that followed 13,000 young people from grades 7 to 9. The study showed an early drinking debut, and 25% of those in 7th class have been influenced by alcohol. There is apparently a link between the introduction to alcohol and its subsequent consumption, so early debut results in increased consumption later. The study also shows that many young drinkers do so in groups. Pre-mixed products, such as Bacardi Breezers, especially lead young people to drink large quantities for concentrated periods and then pause for a while. Reducing the age limit for alcohol sales is the way forward, concludes the Institute. Source: Danish National Institute of Public Health, June 2008

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Life is great 95% of young Danes are satisfied or very satisfied with their lives, concludes the Center for Youth Research at the Danish University of Education. The center’s study, released in June 2008, surveys security and wellbeing among 1,300 children and adolescents from grades 6 to 10 in the Frederiksberg area of Copenhagen. 84% say they have a good or very good relationship with their parents. And, generally, social relationships mean the most for happiness.

PYMCA MARC VALLEE

The six best things about being young today, according to the study: #1. #2. #3. #4. #5. #6.

Friends Parents and family To have it good Recreation and sports School Boyfriend/girlfriend

POLCREATIVE HØGSBERG SIMON

Source: Center for Youth Research, Danish University of Education, June 2008

Fancy TOM A

SR OD

RI G

The key to everything

The media generation has gone through a kind of instant evolution that has literally changed or strengthened the sensory apparatus and motor function, so that social interaction and navigation in the global digital network can be optimized. One of the most important tools has become the mobile phone. The mobile phone is such an integrated part of the young person’s character and network that most cannot imagine life without it. It has become a sort of extension of the body and a prerequisite for being able to orient and express oneself. The compressed spelling that text messaging requires has become a parallel language, where icons – smileys – become indicators of emotional state. While emails were a hybrid between telephone and written letter, texting has become a hybrid between emails and conversation. They are an even shorter, more frequent dialogue form, which act as a sort of social pulse monitor. The mobile phone long ago left shed its guise as a portable telephone. Today, it is becoming a multimedia

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

44 hours in a day - By Flemming Wisler

The social Internet has become part of everyday life, and parents are absent 30% of children aged 14-18 spend more than two hours daily on social forums online, and 30% spend between one and two hours. Fancy OLIVER ROSSI

34% speak with their parents about life on Internet net meeting sites, while the rest spend their day on the web without parental involvement. 31% have had what they perceive as unpleasant experiences on the net, but see it as part of the universe. The unpleasant experiences associated with people whom they do not know IRL (in real life).

channel for receiving, recording, editing and broadcasting. This will present problems for producers of standalone digital cameras, mp3 players and, paradoxically, mobile phone makers, because most people in the future will not want to carry a one-dimensional media platform. Sony and Ericsson saw this and joined forces in a fusion of telephony, photography, video and music. Apple saw it and has just merged the iPod with the telephone and computer. What will Canon and Nokia do? Friends

What has the media revolution done to its children? Has it eaten them and changed them into obedient Red Guards equipped with mobile phones instead of the “little red book. Fortunately, no. One of the common themes of young people’s media consumption is also one of humanity’s: social interaction. Never before have communities and friends had greater status than right now, when the phenomenon has actually become measurable. Even the Danish prime minister has bragged about how many friends he has on

44 hours in a day - By Flemming Wisler

POLCREATIVE HØGSBERG SIMON

Fancy OLIVER ROSSI

These figures are from the Media Council’s major study, published in February 2008, about the online lives of children and youth. The report’s conclusion is that few parents are involved enough in Internet life to give their children proper support. Source: Media Council for Children and Young People

Facebook. The media generation is globally informed, smart, creative, lightning fast and always in dense social relations. The challenge for the media-conscious young is being able to sort and choose in an almost infinitely large supply of opportunities. There is certainly a limit to how many times it is humanly possible to double the number of hours in a day, and a longing after deep calm will probably lead to islands of offline. Maybe there will be status in being an old, pre-media oracle from the 1970s, who dares to turn off the power and navigate via analogue instruments and undocumented wisdom? Sources: Joe Uva, OMD Worldwide, Global Media Study, New York This article, except the fact boxes, was previously printed in FO/futureorientation #1 2008, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. www. fo-online.dk FLEMMING WISLER is director of nxt, which specializes in creative execution, strategy and the media’s new social possibilities in light of futures research, art and globalization. Read his blog at www.nxtbrand.dk

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

POLFOTO LANGKILDE MORTEN

Since 1983, the Green Concerts have been an institution in Danish music. Each year, Tuborg and the Danish Muscular Dystrophy Foundation hold 1-day music festivals around Denmark.

By Signe Wandler, Mediacom

Build an audience Branded content will be the future of marketing only if brands can express themselves credibly. Otherwise, consumers will not demand the content – and giving them what they want will not do, either. Brands must involve and activate consumers, and do it through high quality and original content. When branded content is successful, the lovely relationship between brand and consumer makes everyone – consumer, brand and media – a winner. Get four examples.

Everyone has been talking about Branded Content in recent years. If they do not call it Branded Content, then they use more or less correct names such as Branded Entertainment, Branded Utility, Advertiser Funded Content or Advertainment. Branded Content (BC), as a concept, covers content with high branding value and, unlike traditional entertainment and content, is funded by a brand or company. With the successful BC, the company or brand can reach otherwise inaccessible audiences and thus gain a larger target group as audience. If it delivers content the audience demands, BC may be one answer to the demanding consumer’s desire for activation and involvement. BC became a serious part of our vocabulary in 2002, when BMW launched the mini-series The Hire. The Hire was a series of well-produced, short, quality films distributed on the Internet. The films were directed by Hollywood’s best directors, and all centered around BMW. The films were in a special class, and fully matched other Hollywood films, which was new – but the idea of letting art support companies is not. Soap operas are called that because 1930’s soap makers sponsored daytime radio shows. Before that, the patron-client system allowed artists, such as Leonardi Da Vinci, and scientists, such as Tycho Brahe, to practice their skills. Similarly, sponsorship and Product Placement have been part of the marketing toolbox for many

years. But while it has previously been about exposing the brand and building awareness, BC is about creating value for the consumer. The brand must be coupled with the consumer’s needs and thereby increase consumer involvement. More than branded film

BC is often linked to movies. But films as BC are better called Branded Entertainment. BC is much more than film and television production. Especially in the Nordic countries, restrictive national laws and small advertising budgets demand a more nuanced concept. A classic Danish example is Tuborg’s Green Concerts in which the beer brand organizes several concerts each year. A newer Danish example is Denmark’s Best Gamer, in which TDC, a telephony company, has managed to reach a difficult target group by creating Denmark’s largest gaming tournament. Denmark’s Best Gamer is successful BC, because it is close to the TDC’s core business of fast broadband and simultaneously manages to activate several of TDC’s channels (shops, Boomtown, mobile etc). In Sweden, Rexona successfully gathered the difficult male target group to races on the Web through events around Sweden and television. But film and television production are important parts of BC. In Finland, in recent years, TV stations have opened the door to obvious BC branding, and that has brought film and TV

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Dos and Don’ts OF Branded Content

Unlike commercials, branded content must win user acceptance to be successful

Start by understanding how we consume content and what piques our interest

Classic banded content, such as TV shows and movies, take time to produce. At least 12-18 months

Branded content on new digital platforms is fast, easy and cheaper than traditional platforms

Let the consumer help you or inspire you -- if you dare. Great ideas and talent often come from user involvement

Does the brand’s presence in the content add anything? If not, ensure it does or remove it. You can get credit other ways

Finally – if you are in doubt – don’t do it!

production to the forefront. 7th heaven is producing a 10-minute BC movie to be shown on Finnish MTV 3. Other brands are creating their own “TV”channels on the Internet, brand channels, where content is aimed at Internet users. Successful BC requires high quality – for both consumer and brand. So it is important to start with the consumer and a basic understanding of consumers’ lives, and then develop a concept that connects the idea to the brand. A strong and credible link between concept and brand is critical, and the concept must be centered on the core business. The relationship between the brand and the content must be credible, which makes BC more than Product Placement. A credible expression is required for the consumer to demand the content, and so is also a prerequisite for making it possible for the content to activate and involve users. BC’s goal is that the audience demands the content, but for the pull factor to work, the content must meet the needs of consumers and not be just what they want. The consumer must be surprised, which is why it is seldom advisable to create BC just because you can, or copy other concepts. Originality is rewarded. And when BC is successful, everyone is a winner: consumer, brand and the media. The future of BC

We have only seen the beginning of BC. The field is growing rapidly; in several countries, BC is the hottest marketing topic. Many advertisers is still hesitant for fear

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

of the unknown territory, but as the field is cultivated, as more cases and experience accrue, the more advertisers will have confidence in BC’s potential and take the plunge. The advantage of BC is that all parties have an incentive to create BC, because it can make all parties winners. Many channels and media are under pressure. BC lets them deliver high quality content without the usual cost. Brands are able to be exposed in new ways and to hard-to-reach audiences. Consumers get better content with relevancy, and are able to select or deselect, because the branding and its sender are obvious. BC offers many opportunities. It should be seen as a powerful marketing tool and a useful supplement to the traditional marketing plan. BC is still under development, and nothing is a given. Signe Wandler, BA (economics) MSc in IT, is an insight and research consultant at MediaCom Copenhagen. Work areas include consumer developments and trends. Contact: signe.wandler@mediacom.dk. Tel: +45 3376 2267

To learn more: BMW - The Hire. Search on “The Hire” on YouTube DBG - danmarksbedstegamer.dk Carlsberg brand channel - Partofthegame.com Frozn - Frozn.fi Content LAX - contentcph.dk 7th heaven - 7th.fi ContentCph - contentcph.com

Build an audience - By Signe Wandler

Case TDC & Denmark’s Best Gamer The key objective for the leading Danish telecom brand, TDC, was to reconnect with the 18-35 year old future clients and communicate their new brand proposition: Experience More. However, insight showed that this target group had a significant lack of interest in TDC pointing out the need for a different approach – involving the target group. Another insight was that gaming is the fastest growing entertainment category and it involves more than 45% of the target group on a monthly basis. The solution was to involve the target group in TDC’s own casual gaming tournament, Denmark’s Best Gamer (Danmarks Bedste Gamer), spanning multiple gaming platforms including console, PC and mobile. A gaming tournament supported TDC’s core business, mainly high speed broadband and secondary mobile services. The effect of media was increased ten times by credible partnerships. The concept was developed by Content CPH. In - - -

terms of the core target audience, the results were outstanding: There has been a 100% increase in people linking TDC with gaming. 7 out of 10 participants changed their perception of TDC. 70% of the participants told friends and family about the tournament.

Links: www.danmarksbedstegamer.dk dbg.tdconline.dk www.contentcph.dk

Advertiser: TDC Media agency: MediaCom Activation Agency: Content Cph Design: ContentCph Production: ContentCph

Christian Johansen

Build an audience - By Signe Wandler

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Case

Roni Tran Volvo ÂŠ Kai Lindqvist Volvo the Crash

Aitojen Asioiden Aarella Redrama Ystavyys

frozn & Keep it real / Leaf created a new gum, frozn, aimed at 15-24 year olds. Since this is a hard-to-reach group, Leaf needed a strong concept that could work on multiple platforms. The solution was letting the audience tell something real. The concept evolved into 8 TV shows, a user-generated Web site, TV commercials, buzz agents and more. And the results were very convincing - 12.5% of the entire target group got connected within the first month on the internet site - 67% remembered the TV ads - The image as young and fresh was cemented Links: www.7th.fi frozn.fi

Advertiser: Leaf Activation Agency: 7th Heaven Advertising agency: Taivas

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Build an audience - By Signe Wandler

Case

Byggmakker & Oppussingsserien Huset

Links: Dagbladet.no

Advertiser: Byggmakker Media agency: MediaCom Advertising agency: DDB Interactive design: Mediafront Production company: Allegro

Byggmakker (BM), a Norwegian do-it-yourself chain, bought a house in Moss, Norway that was built in 1947. The house required repairs and the whole process was broadcast on webTV that could be seen at Dagbladet.no and BM.no. The goal was to show BM’s categories and products in a new, modern context. The house would let BM show it sells whole solutions and would strengthen the audience’s perception of BM as an expert in home repair. A key insight from the Norwegian market with regard to BM is that Norwegians are far more interested n restoring their homes than other Europeans, and spend much more of their income on housing and interior design. Even the repair process typically takes 6-12 months from idea to start. Traditionally, the building materials supplier becomes involved at a late stage. This was the starting point for the target audience, which were men and women who are just entering the market to make some changes at home. The results were clear and exceeded all goals - More than 93,000 visits to Dagbladet.no /Huset in the first month after launch - 118,000 visits to Dagbladet.no /Huset on average per month.

Case EA games & Svenskafans.se Audience: 15-44 year old males with an interest in sports EA Sports created a forum for sports fans where it could communicate directly with the audience. On the audience’s terms, in an environment where fans already met. The result was seamless cultivation of EA Sports’ main target group through an integrated cooperation with a credible partner for the recipient. The long-term goal was to strengthen the brand EA Sports (authentic sports), while reinforcing loyalty to the strategically important sports games, FIFA and NHL. The solution was a total integration of EA Sports at Sweden’s biggest fan site, svenskafans.com FIFA increased traffic to its product pages by 1600%, while NHL increased by 550% compared to the year before. E-sports on Fan-TV were seen by 12,000 viewers during the live matches with commentators, while the other EA-related features were seen by 7,700 viewers. After the introduction, the following pull results were achieved: - Veckans Glenn 18,600 downloads - FIFA 07 films 16,500 downloads - 2,700 downloaded the introductory discount offer during the launch (FIFA + NHL). In cooperation with svenskafans, EA games have also published motion-capture films that have attracted about 50,000 downloads on YouTube and other sites. Links: Svenskafans.com

Advertiser: EA Games Media agency: MediaCom

Build an audience - By Signe Wandler

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

By Flemming Wisler, NXT

Content is King for Nokia! “Cell phones are offering more and more Internet facilities and possibilities, and have become a gateway to the net – here and now. We can see that people are changing their habits and using the mobile Internet to structure their decisions and social life,” says Ruhne Fiala, Global Marketing Activation Director at Nokia. Advertisers will gain access to more and more mobile services - providing content, of course. Eyebrows were raised among major telecom providers and former state-owned telephone monopolies in 2007 when Nokia launched Ovi, which, together with Nokia Music, propelled the world’s leading cell phone producer straight to the content side of the mobile universe. That was nothing compared with the hype that “Nokia Comes With Music” created when the concept was aired at the end of 2007. Launched on the UK market in September 2008, the new phones come with unlimited access to more than two million music tracks. The business model breaks with the principle of buying music one track at a time: instead, freely downloadable music is included in the price of the cell phone. This initiative takes Nokia yet another step towards tying its products to customers through secondary content offers. Many people see this as a direct offensive against Apple’s success with a similar strategy and a defense against the imperial expansion of iPhones. This business model based on bundling music and entertainment services and products has come to stay, a phenomenon demonstrated by Nokia’s bid – as truly one of the last, but also one of the largest modern media players – to exploit its reputation to buy free access to content for its customers. Strike up the music!

A number of subscription-based services such as Napster and MusicStation are already offering unlimited music access, and rumor has it that Apple is also toying with the idea of releasing music tracks on iTunes.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

In the telecom sector, the Danish company TDC launched its unlimited music service “Play” in 2008, and the UK BskyB recently signed an agreement with Universal which may lead to a similar service. In France, Orange launched “MusiqueMax” offering 500 downloadable tracks for about €20 a month. All these services tie the music to the device or the company selling the device. However, in Nokia’s case, users can keep the music on their computer and cell phone even if they choose not to extend the “Comes With Music” contract. For the music industry, these services are a way of distributing music and, not least, an opportunity to recoup some of the money lost via illegal file sharing. On the face of it a win-win situation for both worlds. Cross-branding in action

When news of the merger between Swedish cell phone producer Ericsson and the electronics giant Sony broke in 2001, it was a sensation. With its reputation as the Volvo of the cell phone world – a reliable but also slightly dull technical solution – Ericsson seemed a perfect match for Sony, which, although determined to enter the mobile market, lacked Ericsson’s in-depth expertise. The surprising marriage had an extra dimension holding far more perspective than the mere synergy generated by two technology-intensive development companies. Although the combination of Ericsson’s dependable mobile tractor and Sony’s mega consumer technology brand was intrinsically capable of creating powerful

mobile solutions, Sony’s vast catalogue of content was the true trump card. Access to world-class music and movies paved the way for bundling a mobile unit with content – a Walkman-style cell phone. Competition between phones and telecom companies for customer favor gained a new dimension. Neither could do without the other, but the balance of power was decisive for dividing the pie – the money that consumers devote to their darling cell phones. Five years later the stage was set for the entry of yet another brand into the mobile market when rumors about Apple’s transformation of iPod into a cell phone proved true. Steve Jobs and Co. had already capitalized on one of the consumer industry’s biggest strategic errors when Apple stepped into the void left by Walkman after Sony failed to take its megahit into the MP3 universe. In 2007 Apple went a step further with iPhone, introducing consumers to an array of other mobile Internet facilities in addition to mobile telephony. The content-platform hybrid itself is not news, but nor was iPod in its time, and yet again the strategy paid off for Apple, even though the number of units sold to date is still only a blip on the screen compared with the old cell phone companies. Nokia goes content

The counter-move from the largest mobile supplier of them all has long been awaited with great anticipation. The most popular cell phone may have made Nokia the undisputed king, but a whole new generation of mobile

content is king for Nokia! - By Flemming Wisler

nokia

PA Photos MATT CROSSICK

The Feeling perform live at the Carphone Warehouse on Oxford St in London, for the launch of the new Nokia Comes With Music service.

Nokia Comes With Music Nokia “Comes With Music” was launched on models like Nokia 5310, one of Nokia’s mid-range phones. Included in the purchase is the option to download up to 2.1 million music tracks. The music can be freely downloaded to the user’s computer. After a year, users have to buy a new phone if they wish to continue downloading music from the service. However, they can opt to keep music already downloaded even if they do not want to buy a new phone. This distinguishes the service from its counterparts. The downloaded music is controlled by Microsoft’s DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology, which among other things means it cannot be played on an iPod.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

super-users has long since departed from the notion that a cell phone is nothing more than a phone. Cell phones have become a multimedia channel that can receive, record, edit and broadcast. This presents a huge challenge for dedicated producers of digital cameras, MP3 players and, paradoxically, also for cell phone manufacturers, because most users by far are not content to walk around with uni-dimensional media platforms capable of only one function. “We’ve looked into how our customers use cell phones, and it appears that only 12% of those using our leading multi-media range, the N series, use their phones purely for conversation. The rest use them equally for all sorts of other purposes,” explains Ruhne Fiala, Global Marketing Activation Director at Nokia. “Cell phones are offering more and more Internet facilities and possibilities, and have become a gateway to the net – here and now. We can see that people are changing their habits and using the mobile Internet to structure their decisions and social life.” The master key

Navigation is an example of Nokia’s focus on the hereand-now potential of mobile phones. A single button press is all it takes to transform the phone into a fully fledged navigation system regardless of whether the user is a car driver or a pedestrian, and Nokia has acquired several manufacturers in the past few years. “We supply maps to over 150 countries all over the world,” says Fiala, “and we produce 10 models with GPS. This is one of the best examples of where it’s all headed. If you’re in a town and need to find a good Italian restaurant, you key in what you’re looking for. The system locates the various options in the neighborhood and gives you directions from where you are right now.” “This is also where we can open up the other side of the market. As an advertiser you gain access to mobile services such as the digital maps, and we work with a large number of companies that write applications for our various services, giving us another way to profile ourselves vis-à-vis our users.” Nokia has grouped its mobile services under the Ovi brand, which, like Microsoft’s Live Workspace and Apple’s mobileMe, is a community dedicated to its users, creating a sense of affinity by offering a platform for digital socializing at a highly individual level. Ovi is based on fundamental services such as contacts, files, calendars, photos – especially photo-sharing, games, music, and navigation maps. Right at your fingertips, all these functions are combined with basic mobile functions like text messaging and phone calls. For Nokia, it is a question of being a channel for personal and especially business interaction, services provided in competition with other media players whose

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

operations are based on hardware platforms, transmission rights or services and communities like Google and Facebook. Everyone wants a bite of the global media cherry that has become an integral part of daily social interaction and business in the new millennium. “Over time we have sold more than a billion mobile units, and as one of the world’s strongest brands, we believe we are in a pretty good position to assume the role of content provider for the mobile Internet,” explains Fiala. Friends are the engine of the mobile Internet

Although Nokia’s “Comes With Music” initiative has generated a lot of interest, according to Fiala, the cell phone’s predominance as a social device is the prime driver of development on the mobile Internet. Its capacity as a contact-creating and inventive broadcasting tool has made it indispensable to the social Web 2.0 culture. “You can film or photograph whatever you’re doing right now, and publish it directly on your social web platform in real time. These are the type of here-and-now possibilities that drive development in the mobile world and help to tie Nokia and the net together,” says Fiala. The battle for mobile customer loyalty and the enormous sums invested are a small indicator of where users are and where a major area of the media market is heading. So when will “Nokia Comes With Music” hit the Nordic market? “Unfortunately I can’t disclose that now,” concludes Fiala. There are many signs that the order of roll-out in 2009 will be as follows: Asia, Australia and Singapore and in Europe: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. But first the system is being pilot-tested on the tough UK market, where the Christmas sales will provide an interesting benchmark. None of the five UK telecom operators was interested in partnering with Nokia on the project. However, for the media market as a whole, this build-up is yet another indication that investments are shifting towards content. And this is even before any mention of Google, which is working on its new mobile platform Android and will thus open up yet another front in the battle for consumer loyalty. FLEMMING WISLER is director of nxt, which specializes in creative execution, strategy and the media’s new social possibilities in light of futures research, art and globalization. Read his blog at www.nxtbrand.dk

content is king for nokia! - By Flemming Wisler

WORKBOOK STOCK

By Sara Jönsson, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

The ethnic minority cool factor A leading electronics chain uses Latin American rappers in its TV ads, a furniture manufacturer uses a dark-skinned woman wearing traditional African dress to present its kitchens, and a new cell phone subscription ”Amigos” is being launched for people wanting to make cheap international calls. Companies whose public communication signals respect for and understanding of different cultural groups are likely to get a warm reception from the growing number of ethnic minorities with buying power. The year is 2004. Gringo, a Swedish newspaper founded in Stockholm, quickly attracts a large readership. Gringo’s articles are about the third option for anyone who would rather not choose between being an immigrant and being Swedish but prefers to broaden the concept of being Swedish. Focusing on the suburbs, the paper turns expressions like “blatte” (a derogatory term for immigrants) into a cool concept as well as introduces new Swedish words influenced by languages like Turkish. Words like “keff” (bad) and “guzz” (girl) figure evermore frequently in The Swedish Academy Glossary, thus becoming a generally acknowledged part of the Swedish language. Similarly, the media are also presenting a different picture of immigrants. Alongside the usual stories about crime and poverty, we now see another side of the ethnic Nordic citizen. Having a different ethnic background and standing out from others is becoming trendy. The new wave of advertising that puts immigrants in the spotlight particularly manifests this trend, which is not restricted to the Nordic countries: it is global. The USA has long since developed an ethnic marketing concept. Ethnic minorities – an overlooked consumer group

Why, then, has the ethnic minority market in Scandinavia failed to attract much attention from market practitioners? According to a Swedish forecast, immigrants, primarily from outside Europe, will make up 90%

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

of population growth until 2020. In other words, a quarter of the Swedish population will have a foreign background. The other Nordic countries are also witnessing rising numbers of immigrants and increasing migration. Today, 8% of Norway’s population are immigrants, ie, people either born abroad or with parents born abroad. If we include people who have one parent with a foreign background, the figure rises to 14%. Although pronounced in population statistics, the globalization trend is less evident in media and advertising. Dawn Burton, a lecturer at Leeds University Business School, has researched ethnic minority marketing and believes several factors account for the weak focus on the ethnic market. For one thing, negative stereotypical views of certain ethnic minorities abound, and companies are unsure how to market products to this group of consumers. Their uncertainty is also linked to the scarcity of marketing and product development employees with foreign backgrounds. However, media analysts all seem to agree on one thing: there is money to be made from ethnic minorities, whose numbers are growing while their buying power soars. An overlooked customer group in the past, they are gradually attracting attention, especially because of their cool factor. The media have also neglected immigrants in advertising and marketing drives, often projecting a negative image and/or presenting them as a homogenous group. Now ethnic minorities want to play a visible part

NORDICPHOTOS CONNY EKSTRÖM

Facts about immigrants in the Nordic region Immigrants are and will continue to be an urban phenomenon, with immigrants from non-Western backgrounds most prone to settle in city environments. If we look at which regions received the largest number of immigrants in 2004 (net migration), we see that the three largest are in Sweden. Migration often follows existing routes and networks, which means the largest minority groups differ between the Nordic countries. In Norway, Poles and Pakistanis are the largest minority groups, whereas in Denmark immigrants from Turkey and ex-Yugoslavia are the largest, and Finns, ex-Yugoslavs and Iraqis are the biggest groups in Sweden. Immigrants are considerably younger than the indigenous aging Nordic population. The first children of second-generation immigrants are well on their way to getting established, having children and becoming an affluent group.

The ethnic minority cool factor - By Sara Jönsson

Norwegian housing statistics show that the percentage of immigrant homeowners is growing rapidly. The percentage of immigrants from Pakistan, Vietnam and Sri Lanka living in owned homes is higher than for the indigenous Norwegian population. Having been part of Norway for many years, the three minorities have had time to accumulate capital. Sources: Daniel Rauhut et al. The Demographic Challenge to the Nordic Countries, Nordregio 2008. Statistics Norway (SSB): Statistical Analysis 50 Immigration and immigrants 2002. (including second generation). Ministry for Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs Årbog om udlændinge i Danmark 2005 – Status og Udvikling (Yearbook on foreigners in Denmark 2005 – status and development, in Danish, September 2005). Statistics Sweden (SCB): Statistical Yearbook of Sweden. The box was designed by Knut Ghytfeldt, a trainee specializing in demographic trends at Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS).

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

NORDICPHOTOS CONNY EKSTRÖM

Excerpts from the multicultural almanac for July 2008 4 July: Independence Day (USA). America’s national day marks the day in 1776 when the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. 13 July: Obon (Japan). Three days when Japanese Buddhists honor the spirits of their ancestors, who return to their earthly relatives during Obon. Preparations include cleaning ancestors’ graves, setting up a special altar in the home and lighting candles. 14 July: Bastille Day (France). The French national celebration commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison in France, which sparked off the French Revolution.

29 July: Lailat al Miraj The Ascent of the Prophet (Muslims). The prophet’s ascent to heaven is considered a miracle in Islam. Two archangels cleaned the prophet’s heart while he slept, and a winged being carried him to Jerusalem and thence to heaven and God. On the way he met former prophets such as Abraham, Jesus and John. Muhammed returned to earth to pass on a message to the faithful that they should pray five times a day. On this day, children are often invited to the mosque to pray with adults. 30 July: Father’s Day (Vietnam). Source: Mångkulturella Almanackan (the multicultural almanac) can be read in Swedish on http://www.mkc.botkyrka.se/alma/index.html

27 July: National Sleepy Head Day (Finland). Until 1900, this was a public holiday in Sweden named for the legend about seven young Anatolian Christians who slept in a cave for nearly 200 years. When they awoke, they thought they had only slept a single night. “National Sleepy Head Day” still features in the Finnish almanac.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

The ethnic minority cool factor - By Sara Jönsson

If you want to know more, please visit blink.mediacom.com

in society by contributing new stimulating ideas and cultural qualities. A survey conducted by MediaCom in spring 2007 about immigrants and the media showed that minority groups generally have a strong desire to be accepted and respected by their new country. Consequently, companies whose public communication signals respect for and understanding of different cultural groups are likely to get a warm reception from this target group. Marketing aimed at ethnic minorities becomes an important communication tool that creates and signals acceptance of new Nordic residents and their ethnic roots. Products for many target groups

Companies that market traditional products with an ethnic touch or ethnic products with a cool factor can, on this basis alone, reach more target groups than simply ethnic minority consumers. In Sweden, a big food chain recently launched a “Global Food” concept comprising around 300 products, mostly from the Middle East. The intention was twofold: to reach new customer groups with non-Swedish food traditions and to introduce established customers to new exciting products and a healthier lifestyle. The food chain reports the resounding success of the concept, which boosted their stores’ total foodstuff sales.

The ethnic minority cool factor - By Sara Jönsson

There is also a growing tendency to promote special festivals through specialty products, services and marketing. The Swedish Trade Association for retail businesses teamed up with another association, The Multicultural Center, to produce a calendar featuring new business opportunities for stores. The resulting multicultural almanac contains the dates for all sorts of high festivals, including the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan. Thanks to the feast of Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the festival generates millions of revenue kroner in the Nordic region, with at least half a million Muslims joining in the celebrations. Such occasions are starting to attract attention; for example, one daily newspaper publishes a special theme issue with ads aimed at the Muslim target group, several phone operators lower their cell call rates to Muslim countries, and one provider even offers an audiobook edition of the Koran.

New product categories on the way

The banks are next up to adapt to ethnic minorities. Several Danish banks are already offering special loans to Muslims – an idea that has culled success in international business bank circles. Islam forbids Muslims to pay interest, but there is a loophole: if the bank buys the house and then resells it at a higher price, Muslims avoid interest payments and can take out a loan.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

PYMCA JENNIE BAPTISTE

The fashion industry has also tuned in to the cool factor. Headscarves and veils designed by famous fashion houses have become enormously popular with Muslim women, particularly in the Nørrebro quarter of Copenhagen, where some stores exclusively sell veils. The latest idea comes from the Radio Denmark’s youth community, which launched a competition called “Miss Headscarf 2008”. The prize included a subscription to a Muslim girl’s magazine and a specially designed veil. The competition accentuated a different type of cool factor while highlighting an overlooked feature of the Danish street scene. The growing use of luxury veils also says something about ethnic minorities’ consumption of intangible goods, because this market’s buying behavior extends beyond anonymous everyday commodities. The product’s story plays a key role in creating identity and social status for ethnic groups just as it does for the rest of the population. Being able to single yourself out through your choice of car, cell phone or clothes is also a way of communicating with the rest of the world and showing who you are. Ethnic minority marketing is beginning to make an impact in the Nordic countries, and companies are gradually realizing that ethnic minority groups with money to spend can both generate profit and be a cool marketing

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

factor. Immigrants are no longer seen as a homogenous segregated group of the population with low social and economic status; they stand out from the masses, have their own specific cultures, and are entrepreneurial and eye-catching in a relatively rigid Nordic culture. They are also important for retail business, representing huge amassed potential absent in other product categories and target groups, which are growing pale and hollow. New products are developed at the interface between ethnic and Nordic, adapted to Nordic immigrants as well as to other needs for greater supply, inspiration and variation. In other words, tomorrow’s marketing also targets ethnic minority consumers and contains the minority cool factor – and we will be seeing increasing numbers of products with an ethnic touch in the Nordic market. Sources: Statistics Sweden (SCB), Sveriges framtida befolkning 20032020: svensk och utländsk bakgrund. 2003. SSB, Innvandring och innvandrere 2006. Burton, D. (2002) Incorporating ethnicity into marketing intelligence and planning. Market intelligence and planning, 20, 442-451. MediaCom Qualitative Analysis 2007. This article was previously printed in FO/futureorientation #4 2008, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. www.fo-online.dk Sara Jönsson has a bachelor’s degree in sociology and is a research assistant at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, saj@cifs.dk

The ethnic minority cool factor - By Sara Jönsson

WORKBOOK STOCK

By Adam Morgan, eatbigfish

Six new social currencies for delivering content Adam Morgan, of eatbigfish, a consultancy, believes a new media model is needed for the socio-digital economy. The six new currencies that brands and media companies will revolve around are the ride, burp, jolt, world, tool and gum. This new way of seeing content and currency cuts across all media and entertainment. I look at the way that brand and brand owners are wrestling with social and digital media, and the way they are trying to make sense of them. It seems to me that we may be trying to throw the old model around the new world, when in fact the new world requires an entirely new kind of strategy (and underlying model) altogether. We all know that, as they change significantly, categories mistakenly hang on to conventions of the past. When the first cars came out, they had whip holders fitted by the driver even though there was nothing left to whip. But, as brand owners, hanging on to the past in this way is not quaint: it is downright dangerous. We have to start again, from understanding how an 18-year old, for instance, a so-called ‘digital native’, navigates his socio-digital world, to understanding how brands can now fit into, and add value to that world. So perhaps it would be interesting to create a new model that embraced how these digital natives use media/entertainment. What if, for instance there were six (and perhaps even only six) kinds of such media use? Each of them represents a different kind of experi-

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

ence that our 18-year old seeks that either gratifies him or acts as a currency with his peers. All six currencies fill very important personal and social roles. That is the nature of a currency. It has value. And that is what we want our brands and our media spend to have in consumers lives as well, right? And that is the very thing we are most nervous about them losing in this ‘oh-the-old-model-is-broken-but-we-can’t-seem-tofigure-out-what-the-new-one-is-apart-from-some-nonsenseabout-engagement’ world. The six new currencies

To succeed in the socio-digital economy, brands must act as content creators, employing both content creators and currency planners (see sidebar). The content they choose to create will have to take the form of one of the six new currencies relevant in the socio-digital economy: Rides, Burps, Jolts, Worlds, Tools and Gum. Some of this content will be private. Most will be public. The public content will be designed to be passed continues on page 37

six new currencies Content can take the form of one of the six new currencies.

A Jolt is something that jerks me out of a complacency. It can be short form or long form. A news story about a missing child. The world heating up and polar bears drowning in the Arctic. Girls fight on YouTube. Jackass. A flight from London to NY for 99 bucks. Again this is something that can be passed on or shared. ‘Have you seen this?’ A Jolt is like a little drama.

Six new social currencies for delivering content - By Adam Morgan

WORKBOOK STOCK

NORDICPHOTOS LENA JOHANSSON

A Burp is a small moment of fun. Not necessarily rude, but three minutes of amusement/ humor that pushes my buttons. ‘Subservient chicken,’ to take a cliché. Dropping Mentos into Coke bottles and recreating Versailles. Something not just to amuse, but to share, to use as a building block between two people, as a social currency through shared amusement.

NONSTOCK BRIAN KENNEDY

Let’s talk first about The Ride. Hollywood talks about films as ‘rides’ – an initial rush of adrenaline (for which you delay the opening credits), then plotted in terms of action like a rollercoaster, sacrificing character development to keep you on the edge of your seat as much as possible. Why? Because with a ride, you are more likely to go not once with your friends but twice when it first comes out, to see it when it comes out on Netflix, to buy the game, to buy/give the DVD. There’s simply more money in rides. This is a very personal, adrenaline-filled experience. It offers escape, redness, intensity of living, an antidote to the remote and the beige that our lives can sometimes seem. As examples, some videogames are clearly rides, and some drugs are too.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

AP MARIO PEREZ

A Tool is something that is useful. This is of course is the great discontinuity that Google has created: How do you become one of the world’s favorite brands without ever marketing yourself. Answer: Be startlingly useful. And one of our key currencies will of course be utility: utility of aggregation, utility of speed of access, utility of portability and so on. Applications (increasingly free) that allow us to get what we want or need and share them with others.

WORKBOOK STOCK

A World is a self referential and detailed place where I want to spend longer periods of time. Explore the world, explore a character, explore myself with them. Look at ‘Lost’, ‘24’, some of the better RPG’s, entertainment worlds such as Harry Potter, Bond, and Alex Rider. Flickr, sometimes. It could also be my football team, and the community around that. Worlds are all about a different world to my own to live in for a while, which brings us to communities, and the work of Alan Moore. And MySpace/Facebook – the voyeurism and exhibitionism of looking at someone else’s world, and sharing ours with others.

#6 And at last Gum, which simply recognizes

linkimage PELLE KRONESTEDT

that there are some things I want to watch or experience simply because I want to do nothing and need some mindless mental chewing that restores my inner rhythm. Reruns of ‘Friends’ or Nick at Nite. Local news about local boy/girl doing good. Soft rock radio FM. My friend Rob in Spain has moved to the country, and he tells me that this is in effect the nature of conversation with most of his neighbors: They tell the same story over and over again from meeting to meeting – because, he realized, the purpose is not news, but to keep the relationship humming happily.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Six new social currencies for delivering content - By Adam Morgan

continued from page 34

on – and built on by the person passing it. Cumulatively. This means that engagement will not be about the brand with the consumer. It will be about the consumer with the consumer, with the brand or bits of brand content as currency between the two. This does not mean brands are passing on responsibility for creation of meaning. They need to have a very clear sense of what they stand for, and this will remain a consistent story or back-story in whatever currency they are using. The question is what do these six things represent? In my mind they are six kinds of content, or six kinds of social currency. These are different kinds of content than brands and media companies used to consider, and they are going to be used in very different ways. Not different lengths of content (’let’s go from 30 seconds to 30 minutes for our brand format’), or different ways of embedding in content (‘product placement is the new advertising’) or different channels through which content is piped (‘the mobile is the new TV’), or a different articulation of the move to two way communication with consumers (‘engagement is the new monologue’). No, our six kinds of social currency are none of these, and in fact they go beyond any of these. What they say is that there are different kinds of content being used in different kinds of ways, each in its own way a valid currency for a consumer on their own, and between one consumer and another, or a bunch of others. And the point is, this way of seeing content and currency cuts across all kinds of media and entertainment. Across a single so-called genre. So comedy actually could be any of these things. Spongebob is a World. Some comedians are simply a series of Burps. Friends is now Gum. Or take price, for example: London to New York for 49 bucks return is a jolt. The same trip for 499 bucks is gum. For 8000 bucks it becomes a jolt again. Some of these are things you just want to explore on your own. Some are things you want to be part of your social currency. They are thus currencies because of the value they have not simply to people, but between people. If an enormous part of the new world is having content conversations, where the content is passed on, and the nature of the passing and the way I have commented on or added to that content is itself a way of communicating something about me, then that act of building to this content as I pass it on, the ‘content fingerprint’ I leave on it, will also be a currency we need to recognize. And we will need to build it and let it go in a way that allows that to happen. Perhaps that makes it easy to happen.

Six new social currencies for delivering content - By Adam Morgan

Implications for brands

So these could be the six currencies we need to understand to make sense of the way we are going to use media, and the way brands can genuinely and relevantly fit at the heart of people’s lives in this new content, media, and brand world. What are its implications for brands? First, you as a brand owner need to understand that these are the six currencies, and how to play in each of them (so TV advertising - how well does it actually deliver against any of these any more?) You want to have a brand that is about being its own world? Then you’d better understand how worlds work and nurture themselves for an 18-year old. You want to be about Burps? One could argue that much beer advertising over the past few years has been very expensive 30 second burps - but maybe now there are better ways to create them and channels to distribute them in than television. But actually, presumably the point is that all brands will need to play across more than one of these currencies to flourish. And that is when it really gets interesting. How one uses some to build awareness, how one uses others to build loyalty, and how one uses others to break habits. This article was previously printed in FO/futureorientation #5 2008, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. www.fo-online.dk Adam Morgan is founder of eatbigfish, and author of two bestseller books about challenger brands: Eating the Big Fish, and The Pirate Inside. This article is based on a working paper from his next and third book about challenger brands.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

PYMCA CHRIS DYER

GPL MARK WINWOOD

mauritius images BUSSE YANKUSHEV

By Flemming Wisler, NXT

The green agenda Environment-friendly communication and climate strategy: consumers say they want your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s profile and agenda to be green. The sense that the climate problem is a here-andnow problem is widespread, and is starting to affect how we organize our consumption. What does it mean for media selection and content, and will climate change be the best excuse for cutting back? On 18 January 2007, former US Vice President Al Gore visited Denmark. He presented his project, An Inconvenient Truth, to a select audience of businessmen and journalist. Two months later, he returned to address a more open assembly of young people and students. The events were landmarks in many ways, because, for the first time, Danish politicians and opinion leaders realized that Americans had joined the climate fight. Until then, there was a widespread perception that the environment debate had bypassed the United States, particularly in light of the American failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and the Bush administrationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s general skepticism towards the issue of global warming. Gore is no longer directly involved in politics, but his influence and his eight years in office makes him an important representative of the American establishment. But because his network and dealings with the most influential part of the American creative class within business and culture are so strong, we know he speaks on behalf of power. Later that year came the Nobel Prize and an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, which put the climate topic even more in the spotlight. From a more scientific approach, however, it was the UN climate panel, IPCC, that put manmade global warming on the agenda. In 2007, IPCC released four reports on the Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s climate change and, once and for all, established that we have a climate crisis that we helped create. Since then, the debate has flowed strongly, not least because the next UN Climate Summit will be held in Copenhagen, in November 2009.

Green full-page ads

In Denmark, the long economic boom has dominated media consumption, and we have witnessed an unprecedented consumer orgy, in which the realization of our wildest dreams has been in focus. Recently, however, environment arguments have begun to fill the media, and we have seen the first fullpage ads built up around climate branding that appeals to a greater cause than personal consumption and satisfaction. According to senior managers of international companies, the climate question is at the top of the agenda in terms of importance, and demand for sustainable products is apparently on the rise. Thus, the Danish dairy giant Arla, for example, chose to double its investment in its climate strategy from $10 million to $20 million, prompted in part by pressure from British consumers who want to know how much CO2 it costs to produce a liter of milk. At the same time, several large Danish companies have announced that specific targets for reducing the effects of CO2 are on the way, with both climate balance sheets and sustainable products to follow. From me to we

Several critical trends in the climate question are crossing. At the intersection is a kind of green tipping point that could significantly affect the Danish, or even entire Nordic, media market in coming years.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

polfoto Tariq Mikkel Khan

After nearly a decade of uninterrupted economic boom, most families and individuals have been able to realize themselves, from a consumption point of view, at a high level. The boom in housing prices, not least, which peaked in Denmark in 2006, has made the big dream possible, and certain satiety will be the natural result. This manifests itself in a greater interest in values and spirituality: volunteerism, for example, is on the rise as a supplement, or even replacement, for continued overconsumption. At the same time, energy prices have risen quickly. In 2005, we worried about oil prices reaching $50/barrel. Today, we speak of $150 oil as not unlikely. But not only energy is more expensive – so is food. Even though prices might be going down, anyone filling a shopping cart these days knows we get far less for our money, and that basic commodities such as milk, bread and meat are 30% more expensive. In finance, the demand for money has exploded in the past year. In September, this demand triggered the worst financial crisis on Wall Street since the Thirties. Last, but not least, concern for the environment is accelerating, not least because of the rapidly increasing media coverage of the topic that was initiated by Al Gore. We also experience violent weather phenomena in our own back yard, and reports of the unusually sharp reduction in summer ice in Greenland have flowed like the melt-water itself.

NORDICPHOTOS JENNY GAULITZ

The “1 Ton Less” campaign’s symbol is a large orange ball that shows precisely how much CO2 each Dane could save to help the environment.

continues on page 42

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

The green agenda - By Flemming Wisler

Topfoto POLFOTO

Over a barrel........ Peter Gordon, great great grandson of the founder of William Grant & Sons checks out the production area at Girvan Distillery in Scotland after the launch of the company’s new £5 million state-of the-art energy center. The center, which will reduce CO2 emissions by over 30,000 tons a year, and make the distillery one of the world’s most eco-friendly, is the latest stage in a £30 million investment program to transform the Girvan plant into one of the most modern in Europe and place it in a competitive position for the next 25 years.

The Scandinavian consumers are going green Global warming has moved to the forefront of public consciousness. Most Scandinavian consumers have a greater interest in the environmental effects of what they buy, and their growing environmental concerns will challenge businesses and governments about the way products are produced and services are provided over the next several years.

# A ccording to the Eurobarometer, a slight majority of European consumers believe that they can identify a genuinely environmentfriendly product. However, only one in ten believe they can with absolute certainty. Even a significant portion of those who consciously purchase environment-friendly products admitted that they have difficulty identifying these goods and products by labels.

Facts about the climate consumers in Scandinavia # C onsumers believe big businesses - the biggest polluter – have the primary responsibility for environmental protection. Scandinavians also believe individuals have a role to play in protecting their local environments. According to a global survey conducted by McKinsey & Company, 51% of executives - up from just 31% in 2006 - now believe that climate change will be among the top three socio-political issues that will garner the most attention over then next five years.

# W hile the Scandinavian consumer appears to be more willing to make more environment-friendly purchases, half of those who have good intentions do not act on them. Why? Recent studies by both AccountAbility and McKinsey suggest that consumers lack information, do not want to compromise either quality or convenience, and believe that environment-friendly products are too expensive. Source: Jeffrey Scott Saunders, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.

# D anes were the most likely to think (91%) that individuals could play a bigger role in environmental protection, against 86% who said business and industry should be held principally responsible for environmental protection. Finns were the least likely to feel individuals could play a role in protecting the environment (77%) and that companies should be held primarily responsible for environmental protection (89%). (Eurobarometer report March 2008). # Swedes and Danes are the most likely to turn good intentions into purchasing decisions. While only 17% of Europeans made “green” purchases in the last month, of the 86% of Danish consumers who intended to make environmental purchases, 41% actually did so. In Sweden, almost half of the 88% of consumers who intended to make a green purchase did so. In Finland, where the figures are lower, only 23% of consumers made environmental purchases (Eurobarometer report March 2008). # 3 3% of Swedes claimed that they purchase ecologically friendly products for their daily needs - compared to 26% of Danes and 25% of Finns. Swedes are more likely to purchase locally produced goods than the Finns (40% to 22%), and Danes are least likely (12%) (Eurobarometer report March 2008).

The green agenda - By Flemming Wisler

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Danish retail chain Irma aims to abolish printed advertising circulars Irma is one of Denmark’s oldest and best-known supermarket chains, though primarily in the Copenhagen area. As the first retail chain, it recently announced it would move away from paper advertising circulars. Instead, it will focus on an Internet version of its advertising circular, and extend the concept opportunities through faster updates and broader descriptions of offers.

polfoto DRESLING JENS

polfoto WINTHER MADS

It is too early to draw conclusions, according to Irma marketing director Gitte Matzen, but the phasing out of paper is an attempt to meet Copenhageners’ widespread antipathy to printed circulars. Copenhagen is the most populous area of Denmark, and the area where the most official “No advertising, please” stickers have been placed on private mailboxes.

continued from page 40

The sense that the climate problem is a here-and-now problem is widespread, and is starting to affect how we organize our consumption. The growing concern about climate can, in the minds of most, be compensated for by a change in consumption, which also heavily prompted by a certain material satiety, an uncertain economic future and rising energy and food prices. Will it be sustainable to cut back?

In Denmark, there has been considerable growth in the number of paper media titles. The magazine sector, not

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

least, has grown strongly, with a plethora of launches and increasingly niche-oriented titles. This growth reached a climax in 2006, when the great Danish “free paper” war erupted with the entrance of Nyhedsavisen into the already hard-pressed newspaper market. At the height of the battle, Denmark had five daily free newspapers. The volume of paper was evident on the streets, where distributors and sanitation crews simply could not keep up with circulation. Each morning found large cities wrapped in newsprint. At the same time, the special Danish hate/love relationship to the advertising circular has led to more and more paper being forced into the mailbox. About DKK 3.5

The green agenda - By Flemming Wisler

polfoto FONFARA MARIA

Electronic paper is the most environmentfriendly - if you read fast! The Swedish Royal Technical College conducted a study last year about how media choice affects CO2 emissions from a life-cycle view. It compared the reading of a paper newspaper with reading the same material online and reading on electronic paper, a thin, flexible display that is still fairly new on the market. The two electronic alternatives to paper are the most climate-friendly if the reading is brief. But if you sit too long in front of the screen, as much energy is consumed as if you read the paper version. According to the survey, daily newspaper reading costs 28 kilograms of CO2 per year. Reading the news on the Net, via your computer, costs 14 kilograms of CO2 per year if, please note, you spend only 10 minutes. If you spend a half-hour per day, you expend up to 35 kilograms a year, thus polluting more than if you read the paper version. However, if you use the electronic paper, and keep your reading to a half hour, you expend only 12 kgs a year – a clear winner. The study looks at energy consumption across the entire lifecycle, from editorial to production, printing, distribution and reading. For printed media, paper production causes the most CO2 expense, while on-screen reading is the most expensive part of the web-based media. For electronic paper, it is the production of the electronic paper that accounts for the bulk of the CO2 release. Source: Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, TRITA-SUS Report 2007:1

million are invested each year in the production of advertising circulars, which are by far the biggest medium in Denmark, moving more than DKK 10 billion of goods. As a result, retailers have maintained their commitment to paper, despite a growing resentment expressed by “No advertising please” signs on many consumer mailboxes and political mutterings about the waste of resources and the postal service’s role. Part of the problem is that paper, in the minds of many, is associated with trees, which in the climate debate have great symbolic importance as one of the levers we can grab when we want to do something about CO2 emissions. Trees bind CO2 and are the “lungs” of Earth. So felling trees to make paper is not a good climate policy, even though things are not quite so simple when we come to the more scientific part of the explanation! The media is the message

The question is whether the unambiguous fixation on consumption and offers in the form of push-marketing from large advertising and media buyers will now be affected in a different direction. It is outrageously expensive to print produce advertising circulars, but there is outrageously good business in doing so, at least for that part of the retail sector that thrives on price as the primary marketing argument. But even if it never goes out of fashion in Denmark to talk about bargains and low prices, it is a problem that the focus on price as a selling point is no longer as credible, especially when we look at the price increases of these retail goods. The advertising circular helps maintain the concept of price promotion and nobody really dares try something else. But the climate debate and growing consumer concerns about resource use may lead to new patterns of media choices and arguments among the big advertising buyers. Wal-mart, the world’s largest retailer with sales of $375 billion, announced in August that it had begun collaboration with Novozymes, a Danish bioindustrial enzymes maker, in which Novozymes would advise WalMart on sustainability. This is hardly likely to be through resource-heavy media and a continued stream of more products at the cheapest prices! Maybe the Americans will surprise us again – like Al Gore did, two years ago. FLEMMING WISLER is director of nxt, which specializes in creative execution, strategy and the media’s new social possibilities in light of futures research, art and globalization. Read his blog at www.nxtbrand.dk

The green agenda - By Flemming Wisler

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

AP JOHAN NILSSON scanpix

Dreamhack is claimed to be the worlds largest Local Area Network party and has sold 8300 tickets . A LAN party is a temporary, sometimes spontaneous, gathering of people together with their computers, which they network together primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer computer games.

By Christian Vibe Norup, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

Users will spread the word The creative potential of users is great. So instead of just hoping for evangelic users who recommend a company on their own, some companies are attempting to make a cooperative framework that benefits the users’ and the companies’ own interests. Users produce their own content anyway, so why not make it attractive for them to make ads? According to a recent Nielsen Research survey on advertising, Denmark ranks as the most skeptical nation among the 47 countries chosen for the study. Skepticism of advertising is a global trend, and people in industrialized countries are especially skeptical. Even though nearly €266 million of the total Danish advertising budget is used on the Internet, we seem to have acquired immunity to the most frequently used form of marketing: conventional banner ads. They are no longer as convincing as they once were. Online marketing

Using various strategies, ad agencies around the world constantly try to find other, effective ways to get their message across to online users. “Astroturfing” productions--which are ads camouflaged in amateur packaging-have proven to be an especially popular, though risky, method. That is because there is a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable “fraud,” a line that Sony has been made aware of several times. Many companies need to take the risk in their hunt for users. Many of the most popular viral ad videos are unsuitable for TV and the mainstream audience. In 2005, an advertising film was spread virally; later it would become the Net’s most-viewed online ad. It depicted a suicide bomber who detonated a bomb inside a VW Polo parked beside a sidewalk café. The Polo survived, but the terrorist did not. Due to the professional look of the ad, everybody assumed VW was behind it. The real creators

were a couple of partners who simply wanted to show their skills. With such a politically sensitive issue as the basis, VW filed suit against the young men and later got a mandatory apology, even though VW gained a huge amount of free advertising. The ad is still on the Net, and this example shows three important tendencies that apply to the realm of online marketing: 1. Companies demonstrate great caution with regard to

their exactly formulated messages and images. 2. Users will voluntarily produce ads for companies. 3. The spread of content is difficult, if not impossible, to

control online. Evangelistic marketing

When technologically competent users produce ads without being asked to do so, and without immediate rewards, the contemporary marketing term for it is evangelism. Marketing consultants Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba, who coined the term Evangelist Marketing, describe the evangelic consumers as persons who willingly and happily spread the good word on the basis of their own experience. Even though users may have their own egoistic reasons behind this type of ad production, it is to the

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Online advertising in % of total advertising spend per market Norway: 15.6 % Denmark: 14.3 % Sweden: 13.3 % Finland: 7.5 % Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (June 2008), http://www.greenfieldscommunications.co.uk/releases/08/080602_IAB_ADEX.pdf

great advantage of companies. Users, spontaneously and unprompted, recommend the qualities of the companies’ products and services. Users have never had better technological possibilities for spreading the word through media and channels that were once the exclusive domain of the culture/entertainment industry. Editing programs were platform-dependent, expensive and difficult for beginners to use, but are nowadays broadly available for free as simpler Web 2.0 services. Motionbox, Cuts, Eyespot, JumpCut, JamGlue, ccMixter, Picnik and Pixenate are just some of the trademarks that offer free online editing of video, sound or pictures. What they, like all the other Web 2.0 services, have in common is that the more users who utilize them to make their own content and share it with others on the same platform and domain, the greater the volume of content and information that is available--and the greater the attraction of that specific domain. This development cannot be ignored. For that reason, marketers have recognized new possibilities connected to the popularity of services such as the video sharing service YouTube, the picture sharing service Flickr and the (legal) music sharing service MyMusic. dk. The creative potential of users is great; so instead of just hoping for evangelic users who recommend a company on their own, some companies are attempting to make a cooperative framework that benefits the users’ and the companies’ own interests. Users produce their own content anyway, so why not make it attractive for them to make ads? It is a means for commercializing grass roots culture into a mainstream culture. Especially in 2006, the concept of ”user-generated ads” accelerated. By now, many of the largest American companies have tried it, and several have campaigns running right now. Some are using this type of advertising for the second or third time. In Denmark, we have seen the concept used by companies such as Cocio, Bang & Olufsen, Ekstra Bladet, TDC, Apollo Rejser, Tuborg, Carlsberg and Heineken.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

There are several reasons why companies want to employ user-generated ads. First of all it gives them a chance to engage a user segment (primarily 18-29-yearold young men) who are otherwise difficult to reach and communicate to through traditional marketing. Secondly, the advertising message can be given greater authenticity and credibility, since the recommendation is made by another user. Thirdly, there is great dissemination potential in user-generated ads, since user-producers, for various reasons, want to show their ads to their social networks and communities. Finally, it gives companies the perfect opportunity to identify and recruit new creative employees, while simultaneously gaining insight into users’ interests and the company image. User motivation

Recognition, attention, money, travel, tangible prizes, employment, entertainment and a sense of participation are some of the central motivation factors that move users to become voluntarily engaged in the production of advertising in a commercial context. The motivation factors can be described as a mix of inner and external elements that influence users in different ways towards production. Inner motivation arises naturally as compared with external influences, challenges or rewards, and this type of motivation comprises a central part of users’ visions of themselves. Even though the call to do ad production is external, users can still experience an inner motivation to make the best ad if they see the contest as a clear and surmountable challenge. The degree of motivation depends upon the users’ views of themselves, but also upon their existing competence and interests. Everybody needs to feel competent and users--who have already gained some experience in the field of film production, for instance—will become further motivated to participate in similar projects. The development and maintenance of their competence is a vital part of their views of themselves. continues on page 49

Users will spread the word - By Christian Vibe Norup

Client: 1881 Title: Send oss ditt 1881-bilde! Year: 2008 Description: Create pictures that show the numbers 1881. Prize: New winners every week. 1st prize was a Mac Book Air Hits: 10,000+ pictures entered Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4BgIJGxg4w

Client: Libresse and JC Title: Libresse Nordic Design Challenge Year: 2007 Description: Create a new design for panties Prize: 1st prize – winning design is manufactured and sold in 180 JC stores in Scandinavia. SEK5000 gift certificate. 2nd-5th prizes – SEK1000 gift certificate. 6th10th prizes – a year’s supply of Libresse panty liners. Hits: 90,000 entries Link: libresse.se

Users will spread the word - By Christian Vibe Norup

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Client: TDC Title: Max SMS Upload Year: 2007 Description: Create a 26-second long soundtrack for an existing online commercial for TDC Max SMS. Prize: one week of advertising the soundtrack through TV ads and tdcmusik.dk, with royalties. Hits: 436 Link: tdc.dk

Client: Olvi Lonkero Title: Suomen Metso Description: Upload a wood grouse picture to the campaign website. The best were then voted on. Prize: 1st prize was a stuff grouse presented at the official long-drink festival event held by Olvi. The event was filmed and then aired in video blogs and communities. Hits: 100+ photos, 10,000+ participants Links: olvi.fi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejZ1sHGz6ac http://www.effie.fi/content/view/96/

Lack of trust in advertising Average levels of consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; trust in advertising: a 47-country comparison by Nielsen Surveys. If we look at the survey in terms of skepticism, the Scandinavian nations are ranked as follows: Denmark: #1 Norway: #7 Sweden: #16 Finland #18 Source: http://www.nielsen.com/solutions/TrustinAdvertisingOct07.pdf

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Users will spread the word - By Christian Vibe Norup

continued from page 46

External motivation connected to user production of ads lies in the companies’ call and invitation to ad production, but also to a great degree in the size and type of reward. Many users, both amateur and semi-professional, put a great deal of work into their ads. Due to this, it has been difficult to see the differences between several winning videos from American competitions and regular ads. Viewers, however, must be aware that they are user ads, so companies take great efforts to convey this information to the public. A good example would be last year’s Super Bowl, where three companies paid around $3 million for each spot featuring a user-generated ad. Who produces the ads is not so important to the company or the participants, since the primary basis for judging is often the concept itself. It is evident, though, that the type of reward for a campaign is attractive to several target groups. When you compare national and international campaigns you see that the rewards in a majority of the campaigns include exposure in various media. Exposure is, in fact, often the primary reward in Danish versions of this type of campaign. A reward in the form of broad public recognition gives users an opportunity to upgrade their visions of themselves, and it gives them better future job possibilities. User premises

After having won a competition with his user-generated advertisement on the independent television channel Current TV, 19-year-old Tyson Ibele said in 2006 to the International Herald Tribune: “It’s a great way to get people to see your stuff--and it’s a cool way to get your name out there.” Not everybody, however, can get the recognition they would like to have, and that is why so many user-generated ads are spread on communities like YouTube. It allows users another possibility for drawing attention, and in turn messages from companies get broad exposure for free. In principle it is a development that is only to the advantage of the company, but ads with undesirable messages are spread just like those that recommend the company’s products and services. This means that, even though the company has found them unsuitable as marketing materials and has omitted them from competitions, users seeking recognition often spread the ads anyway--despite the fact that intellectual rights have been assumed by the company. Especially two campaigns employing user-generated ads have spurred great discussion in the US, because they were controversial. What the two campaigns had in common was: they were first considered fiascoes, then, later, successes. When you let users become partly responsible for a company’s marketing, there will be users who are critical and those who do not necessarily follow the for-

Users will spread the word - By Christian Vibe Norup

mal requirements of the campaign. Users can, in effect, create their own messages, which do not necessarily harmonize with those of the company. This is often considered to be a marketing risk with insurmountable consequences. In 2006, Chevrolet staged a campaign in which users should make simple ads for the new Tahoe SUV model. A little more than a month later, they had received around 30,000 entries, of which some 25% were critical. The connection between the big SUVs and greenhouse gasses was especially singled out in the ads, which were dubbed: idealistically motivated. They were marked by slogans such as: “How big is yours? Ours is really big! Watch us fuck America with it!” A year later Heinz held their Top This TV Challenge contest, which also attracted many users and a number of undesirable ads that users spread on YouTube after they were rejected. Many people were certain that Heinz and Chevrolet had miscalculated and not seen the potential risks, but both companies considered the campaigns to be great successes and later continued to use similar or identical tactics. While Heinz had from the start made it clear that they would reject ads they found unsuitable, Chevrolet chose not to censor entries. Despite the different approaches, you could still find undesirable, so-called “banned commercials,” from both campaigns on communities like YouTube. The difference was simply that Chevrolet had accepted user premises, while Heinz tried to control them. User-generated advertising should be viewed as a part of the user autonomy, which is an important characteristic of our current ”participation culture.” When you invite users to participate in commercial productions, you should also understand and respect the basis for motivation that is over and above the tangible rewards. The basis is directly tied to users’ needs and their visions of themselves. This article is based on a treatise, “Brugergenerede reklamer--en analyse af reklametypens udfordringer og potential” written by Kent Riddersholm Nielsen and Christian Vibe Norup, 2008. You will find the entire treatise (in Danish) at www.iff.dk/doc/fremtidsorientering/brugergenerede.reklamer. pdf The article, except the cases, was previously printed in FO/futureorientation #2 2008, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. www.fo-online.dk Christian Vibe Norup is a multi-media expert, works in communications and is Web editor at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. cvn@cifs.dk

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Brand X Pictures BRIAN HAGIWARA

By Christian V. Norup, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies

The market of free The market of free is exploding. That means every company must reconsider its business model. Money is no longer the only way to measure and create value, and it is no longer the only scarce resource. Your time and respect are the gold of the attention economy. That is why Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, author of The Long Tail and author of an upcoming book about the free economy, believes free will be the norm, not an anomaly, in the future. Read about his views about what the market of free is and read his views on six different business models - all based on the idea of free. “Freeconomics” is a completely new kind of economy. What once was a marketing tool will become, for more and more, essential to survival in global online business. The competition online is tough and marginal cost of digital information is approaching zero. It is also extremely easy, in all sorts of industries, to become a digital business able to take advantage of new opportunities in the market of free. Two trends extend the basis of the free economy. The first is better technology, which gives businesses more flexibility to give away products to one customer segment, while earning money on other segments. The second trend is a global switch from manual to digital task management. Since the price of transistors, processors, bandwidth and storage capacity is collapsing, many corporate costs are in free fall. Free is an inevitable outcome. The development can be considered as an abundance economy. The physical world is limited by scarce and

more or less exclusive property, while property in the digital world is virtually endless and free. Intangible goods can be copied without significant cost and consumers know it. When the price of digitalization falls, consumers believe many digital products and services must and should be free. Antipirating groups know all about this. And altruistic groups such as Piratgruppen and Piratbyrån (Danish and Swedish activists. – Ed.) will use all every legal means to defend free distribution and sharing of software, movies, music, e-books, etc. Also, many examples exist of why it is a good business model to make it free - even if it doing so, when viewed through old economy glasses, seems silly. From the users’ point of view, there is a major psychological difference between “free” and “partly free” – and these are different markets. Once you accept payment for a product, you are in an industry where you

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

Six free business models

1 Freemium Free software, services and content to users of “basic” version. In the freemium model, one in a hundred users pay for the premium version. This is sufficient to generate profit, because the cost of providing the 99 free copies is virtually nil.

2 Marketing ‘Free content, services, software, etc. to all users. There is a barter between providers and advertisers, such as payper-click advertising, pay-per-page-view, pay-per-transaction, pay-per-mail and pay-per-connection.

must fight for every customer. For example, if Google had charged for search results, users would have moved to a competing, free search engine, Micropayments just do not work. But if all industries and businesses offer their content for free, how will they survive? In 1984, Stewart Brand, a writer and futurist, described the paradox: “Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive ... That tension will not go away.” Brand was pointing out the eternal dilemma of intangible assets, something akin to the “Sticky vs. Spreadable” concept elucidated by Henry Jenkins, a professor at MIT. Basically, the problem lies in the abundance economy, because companies must find new ways to survive. Instead of trying to control and centralize business-related content and the dialogue with consumers, it can be an advantage to concentrate on providing content that users themselves can spread, reinterpret and distribute. free business models

The most common way to be in the business of free is through a three-party system. As Chris Anderson writes: “Here a third party pays to participate in a market created by a free exchange between the first two parties. Sound complicated? It’s the basis of virtually all media. In the tra-

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

ditional media model, a publisher provides a product for free (or nearly free) to consumers, and advertisers pay to ride along. [...] They’re not selling papers and magazines to read, they’re selling readers to advertisers. It’s a three way market.“ “Free” is not necessarily based on advertising. Innovative companies constantly find new ways to subsidize products and exploit the falling price of digitalization. As a result, we can see a variety of business models based on the “free” concept. The question is which to choose. Chris Anderson, editor of Wired, who is writing a book about free, divides the free economy into six categories. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Freemium Marketing Cross-subsidies Zero Marginal Cost Labor Exchange Gift Economy

Sources: Chris Anderson, “Free! Why $ 0.00 Is the Future of Business,” article from Wired; Reboot10.0 conference. Christian Vibe Norup specializes in communication and multimedia the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. cvn@cifs.dk

The market of free - By Christian V. Norup

3 Crosssubsidies

5 Labor Exchange

Free products included when we buy other products and services. For instance, (almost) free cell phones and CDs whose costs are recouped through subscription, consumption, concerts and merchandise.

Free websites and services to all users because their very presence and involvement adds value. Examples include Facebook, YouTube, and Digg, where user-generated content and valuable information obtained, exchanged and accumulated.

4 Zero Marginal Cost Free distribution of something that does not entail real costs. For example, musicians who freely share music online, aiming to generate revenue through other channels.

6 Gift Economy Everything is free. The Internet gives every altruist a new platform on which to meet and create content. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Wikipedia, for example. These are non-commercial initiatives, the value of which is hard to price.

Vil du have Want it det forgratis? free?

Index Stock/POLFOTO SOKOL HOWARD

On the Internet, you can find several pages specializing in free services and goods. See, for example, TheFreeSite. com, StartSampling.com, FreeChannel. net, FreebieList.com, FreebiesPlanet. com, Yes-Its-Free.com, TotallyFreeStuff. com, GratisTing.dk, 0kr.dk, GratisBasen. dk, GratisSiden.dk

The market of free - By Christian V. Norup

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

“The “attention economy” and “reputation economy” are too fuzzy to merit an academic department, but there’s something real at the heart of both. Thanks to Google, we now have a handy way to convert from reputation (PageRank) to attention (traffic) to money (ads). Anything you can consistently convert to cash is a form of currency itself, and Google plays the role of central banker for these new economies. There is, presumably, a limited supply of reputation and attention in the world at any point in time. These are the new scarcities — and the world of free exists mostly to acquire these valuable assets for the sake of a business model to be identified later. Free shifts the economy from a focus on only that which can be quantified in dollars and cents to a more realistic accounting of all the things we truly value today.” Chris Anderson, Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business, article from wired.com

Examples of free In 2002, Yahoo launched a premium version of its 25 MB email service for $29.99 a year. In 2004, Google introduced Gmail service – for free and with 40 times (one gigabyte) more storage capacity than Yahoo’s service. In 2007, Yahoo offered free and unlimited e-mail to all. Common to both services is that the emails carry ads, so that earnings potential rises with the number of users. What was astonishing about Yahoo’s decision was that no one was surprised by the offer, because it was generally accepted that storage capacity should be free. In 2007, content from the New York Times was free, as was most of the Wall Street Journal in 2008.

ing new business models. Their revenues comes from advertising or the collection of information that other companies value. Ryanair, Wizz Air, SkyBus, Spirit and AirAsia give away tickets, hoping to attract revenue through ads, incidental expenses and miscellaneous products and services. Lauda Motion rents cars for a nominal amount, but sells advertising space on the sides of the vehicle. Products from Medi Cafe vending machines are free, but advertisers pay to show a 30-second film to the user while the product is being served.

Almost everything Google offers users is free (Google Sites, Analytics, Gmail, Picasa, GOOG-411, Google Earth, etc.) We also see a shift from the well-known shareware concept (free-to-try) in Web 1.0 to a development centered on freeware and open source. Software giants like Microsoft and Adobe are increasingly squeezed by free alternatives, which are often based on cloud computing: collective, free computing power that creates a basis for collective free programs and services.

The struggle of subscription-based papers against free newspapers is one of the challenges in the free economy that has received the most attention. The battle is not yet resolved, but the number of advertising-funded free papers and magazines is increasing quickly. According to newspaperinnovation.com, free papers were distributed in more than 50 countries in December 2007. In Denmark, Spain, Portugal and Iceland, more free newspapers are distributed than subscription-based papers. This clearly illustrates how media companies are taking advantage of new opportunities in the free economy.

The development is spreading to all markets. Telecommunications is especially under pressure from the free economy, since the real cost of operations, network and bandwidth is quickly approaching zero. Services such as Skype, Blyk, Moshe Mobile, Bumbby, Talkster, Jaxtr, Pudding Media and GOOG-411 are taking advantage of new opportunities and are creat-

Publishers offer free compendiums, notepads and photocopies (for example, Freeload Press, FreeHand Advertising and Tadacopy) to students, earning revenue from advertising. There is no end of free goods -- books, wifi, pictures, games, music – that, in one way or another, recoup their costs and create significant profit.

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

The market of free - By Christian V. Norup

WORKBOOK STOCK

To you, from me, it’s free

DPA A3386 ULI DECK

Light sculpture ‘HYPERION_Fragment’ at ZKM ‘HYPERION_Fragment’ (2008) by artist Rosalie and composer Georg Friedrich Haas at the Center for Arts and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, 21 October 2008. The artists’ joint project was created for the music event ‘Donaueschingen Festival’ in 2006. For the ZKM exhibition the work reached a new dimension. It now encompasses 3,200 colorful illuminating units on a surface of 9.25 by 27 meters. The light sculpture was introduced officially on 24 October 2008.

M:files The Nordic Countries are all wired up The top 10 most wired countries are (percentage of broadband users in the population)

1 Denmark 2 The Netherlands 3 Switzerland 4 Korea 5 Norway 6 Iceland 7 Finland 8 Sweden 9 Canada 10 Belgium Source: OECD in Wired

Recession Marketing According to a study conducted by John Philip Jones, in 2007, brands that retain large marketing share in a recession come through the recession most successfully, and even gain market share. Jones divided brands by their market share in the period 1975-2001. Those that win market share are called “winners.” Those that maintain share are called “intermediate,” while those that lose share are “losers.” The brands that have the greatest marketing share are also those that win market share.

Bring the Real World to your toolbox Real World Street (RWS) is MediaCom’s direct access to the real world. RWS was first established by MediaCom UK in a small area selected to reflect the entire UK. The area includes well-educated families, single mothers, working families and elderly couples: 25 families who provide a representative picture of the UK as a whole. In RWS, all research is carried out at the families, giving insight into the household’s actual behavior. Research is therefore contextual. In the UK, MediaCom carried out a large study for two major food suppliers to examine the discrepancy between people’s actual and perceived diets. The goal was to influence the actual behavior instead of the perceived behavior. The project involved several families from RWS. They completed questionnaires and MediaCom observed their purchases. Some households also took pictures of their shelves and refrigerators before and after grocery shopping. RWS is now on its way to Scandinavia, and Denmark will be the first stop. Want to hear more about MediaComs Real World Street? Please contact MediaCom’s Nordic Insight Director, Carsten Lind, at e-mail carsten.lind@mediacom.dk or telephone +45 33 76 00 04.

Brand groups based on performance from 1975 – 2001

Average SoV/ SoM (Base 1975)

Winners

1.6

Intermediate

1.2

Losers

1.0

Source: The true costs of cutting ad spend, 2002, WARC based on ACNielsen / multimedia data 1975 - 2001 The study also shows that the brands that did best during the three recessions between 1970 and 2000, were the brands that increased their relative spend during recession years compared to average years. The study is based on FMCG goods; for some brands and sectors, it would make sense to change communication or cut back. One argument for increasing or maintaining spend is that it achieves greater share, since some advertisers will cut their marketing budgets. Another argument is that the brand will not require a reestablishment period when the recession ends. See also the following YouTube videos: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=3p57SxxqEsQ or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9dZVwEEtY Or our comprehensive collection at blink.mediacom.com

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

M:files

AP STUART RAMSON

Know your touch points Successful marketing is not just about talking the right way to the target group. It is also about timing. Some messages are best suited to television, while others are better in direct mail. It may be difficult to understand what messages are suitable for which platforms, but it has never been more essential to ensure your product, message and contact are strongly linked. The media scene is becoming more and more fragmented, with declining media effects and consumers who multitask as never before. Much more than before, advertising must earn the consumer’s attention. MediaCom’s Touch Point Planning tool, Encounters, is a systematic approach that can identify and prioritize a brand’s relevant interfaces with the audience and their suitability for messages. Encounters quantifies the importance of the individual touch point, and the brands strength in the touch point. In that way, Encounters can uncover the best touch point mix. Encounters highlights several brands’ use of and strengths at different touch points, thus helping determine who owns the touch points in the industry. At the same time, Encounters ensures that all customer interfaces are considered in the communication. Both those that the brand or its competitors already use and those where the consumer would like to see the brand. Want to learn more about MediaCom’s Touch Point Planning tool, Encounters? Please contact MediaCom’s Nordic Insight Director, Carsten Lind, at e-mail carsten.lind@mediacom.dk or telephone +45 33 76 00 04.

The future of paper Esquire magazine launched the world’s first mass produced magazine with electronic ink. 100,000 copies of the October issue had a special e-ink cover and a Ford advertisement with spinning wheels on page 2. There have been earlier attempts to replace paper, but none has proven to be a real threat to print on paper. The screens have been too small, the updates too slow and no method existed to show color. The Esquire cover was a small peek into the future, and much research is being made into developing a true alternative to print media. Plastic Logics, a US company, has developed a paper-thin screen that closely resembles paper in shape and size. The first prototype has already been introduced and is expected to reach the American market next year. In the UK, the government-funded Technology Strategy Board has embarked in a joint venture with Liquavista for a three-year £12m cooperative research program to develop next generation flexible electronic displays that support full color and video in an environment-friendly way. The goal is to have the benefits of the screen but with the tangibility, readability and flexibility of paper.

Meet the future! Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies has Future Clubs in Stockholm, Stavanger, Oslo, and Brussels. Meet the future every quarter in these four cities - or in Copenhagen. Promoting the conditions of innovation in your region The demand for the capabilities of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies is spreading internationally. As a result, we now arrange four Future Club meetings each year in our preliminary regions. At the meetings, we seek to analyze the main influences on your company’s future, such as technological developments, consumer changes, market movements and future employee demands. We apply the uncertainties, opportunities and consequences of today’s trends as we construct likely scenarios for the future of your company. The techniques are well tested, popular tools in creative and strategic thinking, which can help you identify possible barriers, needs and interests. A membership of CIFS and our Future Clubs offers you: - Exploratory Future Club meetings - Inspiring magazines - In-depth reports - The opportunity to seek inspiration in the CIFS’ online knowledge database Read more at www.cifs.dk/en

blink012008

blink.mediacom.com

- Access to asking advice and guidance from the CIFS’ futurists - A unique opportunity for networking

Happy Capitalism? Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies’ newest issue of its awardwinning journal FO/futureorientation is about what will take for Denmark and the other Nordic countries to remain some of the happiest countries in the world. Read more about what is happening with capitalism, and the ways business and consumers will manage it. And gain new insight into what the next paradigm will demand of your company. This issue of FO/futureorientation is free, and you can read it in English at www. fo-online.dk

blink is published by MediaCom A/S, Antonigade 2, DK-1106 København K., CVR 78422017. Tel. +45 3376 0000, info@mediacom.dk, www.mediacom.dk blink is made in cooperation with Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS), Nørre Farimagsgade 65, DK-1364 København K., Tel. +45 3311 7176, cifs@cifs.dk, www.cifs.dk and www.foonline.dk Editor in chief: Gitte Larsen, CIFS, gil@cifs.dk EDITOR: Signe Wandler, MediaCom, signe.wandler@ mediacom.dk editorial team: Jonas Hemmingsen (Nordic Chief, MediaCom), Signe Wandler, (Insight, MediaCom), Flemming Wisler (Director, NXT) og Gitte Larsen (Futurist and Editor of FO, CIFS). contributers to blink #1: Christian Vibe Norup (CIFS), Sara Jönsson (CIFS), Adam Morgan (eatbigfish.), Flemming Wisler (NXT), Signe Wandler (MediaCom), Jonas Hemmingsen (MediaCom), and Gitte Larsen (CIFS). Sign up at our website blink.mediacom.com if you would like to receive blink in the future English editor and adaptation: Allan Jenkins, Desirable Roasted Coffee, www.desirableroastedcoffee.com Art direction & layout: Stine Skøtt Olesen, NXT, www.nxtbrand.dk Circulation: 3,500 ISSN: 1903-5373 The opinions expressed in articles are those of the authors. Minor textual contents may be republished as long as the original author and publication are cited. Printed by: Schultz Grafisk

MediaCom | Antonigade 2, DK-1106 Copenhagen K | Denmark

Check out our website through this 2D barcode

MediaCom is a leading Media Agency in the Nordics. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s our ambition to build strong and durable communication platforms together with our clients. We believe that great communication comes from understanding how consumers think and act, and by exploring and experimenting with new communication platforms and constantly measuring the impact of communication. blink is a way to share our insight and inspire us all to think in new ways. If you want to subscribe to blink or want learn more, please visit our website: blink.mediacom.com