Liverpool Street Flash Mob

Communities in the West are increasingly splintered and media channels increasingly fragmented – making the cohesive engagement of groups more difficult and challenging. For the advertising industry, which at times still struggles to throw off the organisational shackles of above, below or through-the-line, the introduction of ‘transmedia story telling’, ‘augmented reality’ or ‘blended reality’ adds even deeper layers of complication to an already complex communications story. Against this backdrop, experiential advertising through group mobilisation becomes an incredibly powerful branding tool.

So how can brands and agencies mobilise groups to their benefit and use these powerful forces to engage people with their brand?

Barack Obama, an Australian with a lost camera and the T-Mobile flash mob advert all share a common characteristic – they all successfully mobilised large groups to help them achieve their end goal. In 2008 Barack Obama compelled millions of black voters to visit the polling booth and in doing so became the first black president of the USA. In 2009 an Australian tourist visiting Greece found a French person’s lost camera and managed to harness over 250,000 people through Facebook to help him find the owner. In 2007 T-Mobile mobilised a 13,000 person flash mob and in doing so created an iconic piece of advertising.

To understand the forces at work in mobilising groups it is important to recognise the human triggers for joining these groups in the first place:

1. Fun

2. Share values

3. Reward

4. Herd instinct

Canvas8 subscribers can read the full report here.

"The distinction between cyberspace and that which isn't cyberspace is going to become unimaginable" - Creative Commons, cosoblues (2009) ©

Canvas8 Thought Leader and co-author of Communities Dominate Brands, Alan Moore, today released a fascinating report looking at “blended reality” and brands fundamental need to reinvent their communications to keep pace with change.

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My son Josef wakes up in the morning, goes downstairs and turns on the television.  He might watch Ceebeebies, or he might have a go on his Xbox 360. Then his mate Tom calls, as they are both playing the same MMORPG. Much to my frustration, Josef turns on the speakerphone and I can hear the conversation throughout the house. The doorbell goes. More of Josef’s mates arrive, they decide to play Call of Duty and – of course – there is group discussion around the multiplayer game. Then they decide to go and play a game of “it” in our back garden. I look out the window and see they are climbing up trees and all over the pergola – and diving through the laurel hedge. The little buggers! I had to cut the major branches off three trees last week because of their exploits. I run into the garden, shouting. They go off to the skate park. Later that day I call Josef on his mobile, asking him to come home; he moans and groans but eventually he arrives with cuts and bruises. He stacked it over the spine, apparently. He watches some Simpsons on TV and moves onto his computer to watch some YouTube clips. Before bedtime, being a tactile kind of guy, he gives me a big cuddle, which I always enjoy.

But why is this story relevant?

Because Josef’s world is not one defined by an artificial sense of separation between real and virtual. According to William Gibson, author, Sci-Fi writer and inventor of the word ‘cyberspace’, there is no online or offline – there is only blended reality.

We no longer live in a world of distinct on- and offline activities. Rather than create a strategy of siloed campaign elements, brands should look at a bigger picture in which virtual and real co-exist in one symbiotic ecosystem.

Canvas8 subscribers can read the full report here.

The whole truth or the half truth? © Canvas8

Coinciding the release of her latest book, What She’s Not Telling You, Canvas8 Thought Leader Mary Lou Quinlan explores the female psyche and why research doesn’t always give you the right answer.

Scope
This year, more than ever, every dollar counts. With women buying or influencing 85% of what is sold, it’s fair to say that your success at attracting their attention and retaining their loyalty is more critical than ever. So, you’d think that this would be the time for brands to increase their Female IQ.

But in this global economic nosedive, Mary Lou notes that many marketers are still putting more of their best creativity into their executional intelligence, fascinated with the frontiers of the mom blogosphere or concocting an unorthodox segmentation scheme. All this rather than examining the very foundation of their marketing investment: the truth of what women want.

In this fascinating insight May Lou lifts the veil on Half Truths. Half truths are what women admit. Whole truths are what women really do and believe and buy.

Canvas8 subscribers can read the full report here.