Trendspotting 2011

Marian Salzman of Euro RSCG PR just posted her annual trends report for next year. In 11 trends and 52 pages, she offers a thorough examination on everything from current societal gender roles to public "mycasting". Definite food for thought if you're an avid trendwatcher.

Enjoy!

~ alicia

We Used to Wait

About a month ago, the band The Arcade Fire worked with director Chris Milk and Google Chrome to create a music video/short film to promote their album The Suburbs. While I'm a little late in actually posting about this, I have to admit - I can't stop thinking about it. Interactive, original, and using the latest in digital technology... it's one of the few pieces of promotion put out recently that has been creatively inspirational (at least, for me).

So, for you who haven't checked it out or just want to see it for a second time:

The Wilderness Downtown

~ alicia

Awareness Fallacy

I've been making a bit of a return recently to some of the basics of advertising and research theory. In particular I wanted to address the resilient popularity of recall measures as an assessment of effectiveness in the US market.

Here's a consolidation of the main arguments against its use:

Awareness fallacy

View more presentations from Mark Lester.

If you like this presentation you can check out my blog at its regular spot:
http://planningfallacy.blogspot.com/

~ Mark

Location, Location, Location

So, with the dawn of Facebook Places on us, there's been a lot of chatter and buzz about the impact it will have on location-based marketing. I figured I would jump on the bandwagon and share a few things I've been thinking about.

I've heard the upstarts saying this will be the end of Foursquare. How can you compete against a 500 lb. gorilla (or a social network with 500 million users)? They occupy two very different spaces. Sure, both are location check-ins, but the way that Facebook is approaching this isn't in direct competition with Foursquare. There are philosophical differences in the user experience.

Facebook is creating a product extension that is in line with their brand. Facebook is about connecting people to friends, family, acquaintances, people you already know. It's about sharing your thoughts, pictures, favorite movies, religious beliefs, and if you are looking for friendship or anything you can get. Facebook gets very personal, as personal as you want to be, so that's why you don't just go around "friending" people you don't know (unlike Twitter, which is all about following people you want to know better). But the whole interaction is person to person. Sure, brands are on Facebook and some have an established presence, but no one logs onto Facebook every day to check status updates from a business.

Foursquare is a game. It's a mobile social game, just like Farmville is for Facebook. The difference between the two is instead of gaming in a virtual world (Farmville), Foursquare turns everyday places into a gamer's landscape. It has incentives for continued use, rewards (have you seen my new badge?), and a scoring leaderboard to fuel competition (who's the mayor now?). Foursquare is much more comprehensive than Facebook Places in that sense. Furthermore, Foursquare is much more of a B2C product with restaurants and stores creating promotions for the application. Because it's a game and it has that addictive competitive aspect, it caters to businesses in a very efficient and easy-to-understand way(fueling return visits to get that precious badge or become a powerful mayor).

So, I think there's space for both, it's just a matter of what people are looking for. If they want to remember the night and who was there just use Places. If they want to get a promotion or feel like they've gained something, use Foursquare.

And you know, Facebook Places is kind of creepy. It's the ultimate big brother. Your friends can check you into places, post pictures for you. No more blowing off your creepy cousin to hang out with your friends tomorrow night. That creepy cousin will know. Marketers will know. I'm in advertising, so I'll know too. Having 500 million users is the applications greatest asset and weakness at the same time. Obviously, having 500 million people be able to plug in like that is a huge asset. But I have over 600 friends on Facebook, I don't want them to know that I went to IHOP at 4 AM or get a picture posted of me on a date or something. Having that many people know where you are at all times is not something I find appealing.

Twitter can get away with it because it's so basic. All Twitter wants to know is what I'm doing. Facebook wants to know where I am, what my religious beliefs are, what my status is, who I should reconnect with, where I work, where I went to school, if I'm sexually attracted to men or women....you get the idea.

I'd like to wrap this post up by disregarding everything I just said, I think...I'm pretty sure I said Facebook was Big Brother in 2005 and that didn't stop me or anyone else from using it. I said that Twitter was pointless and a little intrusive in 2007. And when Foursquare came out, I'm pretty sure I wasn't sold on it immediately. Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon.

Who knows? Maybe I'll come around to Facebook Places. All I know is that, for now, I am checking my privacy settings so I know that if I ever go to a strip club, the stripper won't "Place" me. I'm not sure I could ever explain that to my mother, who I am friends with on Facebook of course.

Any thoughts?

~ Justin

Trials & Tribulations of a Planning newbie

So this is my first post on JPIA and it's a long time coming. I've had access to write here for over a month, but have been caught in the whirlwind of a new city and new job. I myself am a new Planner straight out of Austin, Texas. I just started my first full-time gig at a good agency in Chicago six weeks ago. Coming out of Miami Ad School's Account Planning Boot Camp last September, I didn't know where I'd end up or how long it would take. It certainly was a long and arduous process that took almost a full year to land a job. And here's the thing, that's not uncommon. Planners I have met, at all career levels, say that it took six months to one year to land a full-time gig in Planning.

When I left MAS, it was the final quarter of 2009. Needless to say, agencies and their clients had shut it down for the year, financially and in new hires. In January, I managed to land a freelance Planning gig for three months, working at TracyLocke 20 hrs/week. That ended in March and the great hunt (for a job) picked up steam. Finally, in May, I got the offer I wanted and accepted. I interviewed seriously (beyond 1st interview) for three global agencies, two mid-sized agency, and one very small agency. I got two offers at the same time and one more a week a too late (from their perspective). I say this just to give an idea of just how difficult it can be. The places that didn't offer me a job just needed a different fit for what they were looking for, whether it was experience level or digital chops. And judging from the stories of my classmates at MAS, their experiences weren't far from that. Everyone in the class has been hired though, so that should tell you something. We all found jobs, but in different ways. Four of us work for big agencies (big = owned by holding company), one works for a strategic consulting group, one person got laid off, another got in the door with media planning, another worked client-side first before moving over.

I believe there's a lot of reasons why it can be difficult. Planning as a career field is very small. There just aren't a lot of Planners in the agency because there doesn't need to be. Planners can do a lot of heavy lifting (in terms of branding/thinking/problem solving) and just isn't the same kind of work one sees in Account Management, Production, or Media.

Being a strong Planner requires a certain set of skills and characteristics that are hard to define. It's hard to tell with 1-2 interviews if someone has the skill set to be a good Planner. New Planners or those that want to break in should have some kind of work to show. Seeing how a Planner thinks can help interviewers understand that person's potential.

Getting hired as a Planner, like a lot of other job openings, is a mixture of timing and connections. The great thing about the Planning community being so small is that everyone is open to meeting others. Plus, Planners are very transparent online (or are we just vain?), keeping blogs (like this!) and using social networks (you better be on Twitter) to share content, hold conversations, and keep in touch. It's very easy to start the conversation online and if location isn't an issue, planning a get together with others over coffee or a beer.

This may have sounded like some kind of warning or begrudging commentary, but that wasn't the intention. This is a part of the reality of the situation. I came out of school believing I would find something in a month or two. That may not have been the case, but here's the other side of the situation. Now that I'm in the "club" full-time, I couldn't be happier. All that stress and hard work paid off. So, while it may take a while or be hard to get in the door, it's totally worth it once you're there. I say that wholeheartedly. So all of you aspiring Planners, all of you who are just starting to dive in to books like "Truth, Lies, and Advertising," get excited about the career you are starting because it's awesome.

~ Justin D.

We Love to Share

Mashable posted an article on Monday that has been resonating in my head for the past 2 days.

What is the best part about watching television? Personally, it's going straight to my Facebook or Twitter afterwards (or even during), posting a status about it, and then checking it constantly for replies so I can start a conversation about whatever I just watched. There is nothing we human beings love more than sharing, so an app dedicated to this experience just seems... right.

So instead of checking-in at a location with a smartphone, new apps like Philo and GetGlue allow users to check-in when they're watching a television show (or in GetGlue's case, while watching a movie, reading a book, thinking about a topic, or drinking wine). While the idea of an entertainment check-in was completely foreign to me before I read the article, now I'm concerned as to why it didn't occur to me before. It not only is another way of connecting, but it's waaay less creepy than FourSquare (which I love t00).

~ alicia

Social Media 101

I love love love this presentation on social media.

Whether you consider yourself an expert or a newbie on social networking, Paul Adams put together this awesome slide deck on how it is translating into our daily lives. It also outlines the history and psychology of human relationships, which I'm now obsessed with. Ignore the length, you'll speed right through it.

~ alicia

Things Not to Do in a Job Interview

So far, I’ve noticed a lot of great commentary on this blog about what the industry is looking for in potential planners/employees. Since those topics have been well covered, I’m going to try something a bit different for my first post here.

Something I’ve been mulling over lately is how there is no such thing as common information. It’s been said that because of Google/the interwebz, people know more about individual subjects that interest them than what used to be considered “general knowledge”. That being said, I’m going to use it as an excuse for some crazy stories I’ve heard. I’m a recent addition to the advertising community, but here are some things I’m (almost) positive you’re not supposed to do in an interview.

1. Bring someone.

A senior planner once told me that one of the girls he interviewed insisted on bringing her boyfriend into the interview to negotiate her salary and answer tough questions for her. Yeah, I know.

2. Show excessive amounts of cleavage/skin.

As my heroine Kelly Cutrone says in her book “If You Have to Cry, Go Outside” (which I highly recommend), cleavage is not for the office. I want to edit it for the dudes out there as well: no excessive skin either. Think of it this way: Do you notice when someone is showing a lot of skin when you’re passing them on the street? If so, your potential new boss will notice the same thing if you’re sitting in right in front of them. A friend of mine was recently flashed in an interview. She did not work at Hooters.

3. Fall for the trick question.

Your employer may ask if you really want to be doing the job that is entry-level/not paid well/practically janitorial. Or what you think of the company’s current work. Or what your favorite ad or current trend is. All of these questions are actually asking, “How much do you want this?” If you say, “Welllll…. It’s not EXACTLY what I WANT to do…” or have no idea what who their clients are/what they do, your potential boss is going to assume you’re not passionate enough for the job. Know your basic stuff! All it takes is a quick trip to Google. Research takes about 5 seconds and is incredibly worthwhile.

4. Misunderstand your place.

If you’re a recent graduate like me, you’re probably not THAT experienced. However many internships you’ve had in the last couple of years does not make you brilliant. But that's okay because it does make you look eager to learn a new job and what it entails. And that’s what employers want – an employee who has an can take on new projects with ease because of their enthusiasm to learn. As a previous poster mentioned – you are a brand. Be confident, but not over-confident. And if anything, understand your place in the workforce because I’m tired of reading posts/New York Times articles about my generation thinking they’re going to be CEOs at age 24 and then getting told (rightfully) that that probably isn’t going to happen. You rock, Millenials! But you’re (and I am) still young. Know that and use it to your advantage.

In conclusion: getting the interview means you are halfway there. So if you prepare for it, you can relax when you get in the room. Just make sure your boyfriend isn’t next to you.

~ alicia

Engage!

Hi there!

It's not a line from Star Trek (although, i must admit I was a Trekkie in my youth). I think it's the most important step a young and/ or aspiring planner can make towards joining the industry by researching and gathering knowledge from the planning community.

This is how I see things.

You are a brand. You've got it all: core values, history, visual identity, a communication strategy, communication channels and targets you want to reach. Planning is the completely new consumer target you want to reach and, pardon my expression, sell yourself to. You start researching the market, its history, context, insights and values and come to the conclusion that indeed this is your target and the next step in your development. But which strategy will you use to convince an agency that you are the best choice / investment in your over-crowded cathegory?

Start simple.

Engage the online planning community, become a part of it, find out how it feels and how it thinks, learn from it (be it case studies or just opinionated rants), bring all your experimental thinking to it and... don't be afraid to join in the conversation because, as Richard Huntington puts it, "blogging isn’t killing planning it’s the best thing that has happened since the death of the overhead projector"

Thanks!

See you soon.
~ def

What they're looking for

7 things:

- curiosity. Of the world around and of something specific. No butterflies allowed
- empathy. To be able to see the world from different perspectives
- the ability (?) to worry about a problem until it has been properly sorted
- questioning & listening. The ability to ask searching questions and hear the answers
- imagination. To make stuff out of your empathy
- reality. Everything has to be doable.

Craig Elston, the author of the original post is looking for at least 7 of these.

Good luck!

Do you want to write for JPIA?

So I was thinking... would YOU like to write for JPIA?

A lot of the traffic that comes to this blog is young planners looking for their first job in advertising. What better resource to find than to hear it from junior planners themselves?! It would be pretty neat to see new posts and shared stories from others just like you.

So, if you are a junior planner or if you want to be a junior planner and you're interested in blogging but just don't know how to start and would like to join a collective for the greater planning good, please leave a comment below. If you leave your email, it will be easier to contact you. :)

Look forward to your feedback.

A new blog @ erinmiddleton.com

I've decided to graduate. Junior Planner I Am has been an absolutely invaluable networking and thought-development tool for me during the past two and a half years. In fact, in all of the response emails I've sent out to you regarding "how do I get a job in account planning?" I've said, start a blog - it is an extremely easy tool to use that will not only help you network but will help you develop your voice as a planner. As you try to get into the industry, you have to turn the discipline on yourself and differentiate your brand from all the other brands trying to get the same job as you. The focus of differentiation needs to be in how you think - how can you illustrate your thought process? How does it differ from the next person's?

Essentially, we all have access to the same information, so what's your spin going to be on it? As you think about your planning brand, keep this quote in mind:

"Creativity is essentially the combination of old ideas in new relationships." ~ James Webb Young in his book A Technique For Producing Ideas (1965)

It is with this in mind that I'm evolving my brand of ideas into a new blog to cover my love for social media, strategic marketing (planning), trends, culture, and some life along the way. :)

If you came here looking for advice on the question I address above, check out the category of links called "finding a job." And, as always, plan on.

MYT 36 - Economy of Meaning

Our topic 2 weeks ago started out as “happiness,” and as we do each week, interns found a number of articles relative to campaigns talking about the emotional appeal of happiness in 2009. What turned up was an article that mentioned the evolution from the experience economy to an economy of meaning – a very interesting idea! So we’re writing about it this week in MYT 36.

It’s interesting to note that the two examples we mention this week are from the auto industry. Looking to revive the category, brands such as Ford, Mini, and Toyota (see the Prius’ page on Facebook for their “Random Acts) are focusing in the positive, the good, and the optimistic.

Also, for further support, is a research paper from the 4A’s published earlier this month on the subject of emotional vs. rational in advertising

As always, have a creative week!

What happened to connections planning?

A great presentation found on Ed's Influx Insights made by Jason and Gareth at this year's Planning-ness conference in San Francisco, rallied by Mark.

Connections Planningness

View more documents from Jason Oke.

Some great points:

• Where connections planning went wrong: we applied the lens of advertising (interruptive, message-based) to new media. We should apply the lens of new media (interactivity, iteratioin) to advertising.

• We have an opportunity to rethink the value of connections planning. It's a new creative process, not an output.

• Put human connections at the heart of everything, grounded in a deep understanding of what people are trying to do, what the brand is trying to do, and how people use media.

• It isn't about digital, it's about planning for interaction.

Take a look through the slides for more, and take some time to reflect on the way you view the role of planning. Do we need to segment the discipline or should it just be the way we all think?

MYT 35 - Real-Time Search

Every week, a small group of us here put together a Trend Lab newsletter covering a topic we think is important to make the work more culturally relevant. This week's topic was real-time search.

Clients want immediate results. We try to pacify their desire for instant gratification by talking to them about the time and attention a strong brand deserves. But it seems that more and more these days, immediacy is more relevant than in-depth information. Only time will tell what wins; maybe it’s an effective combination of the two.

This week’s MYT talks about Real-Time Search – The trend of immediacy has inspired new search tools to help feed the frenzy – we want what we want, and we want it now! The Trend Lab forecasts that it will be no different with advertising in the future. In Show & Tell last Thursday, interns brought us articles that talked about a new retail ad service that would sync with inventory – if a particular product was out, it would yank the associated ads online – talk about real-time advertising.

A pretty interesting trend to watch out for.

Examples we mentioned included Collecta and Topsy.

nailing down the objectives

prologue: the conversation will always run long and unfocused unless you set objectives first.

This morning, I was looking through my Twitter feed and was engaged by a comment from my social media friend @Kyleplacy, he said: Do you think the customer cares more about the experience of the purchase and not the purchase itself?

my first reactive reply was: re: customer experience - I think the purchase is their primary motivation but if the experience is good, loyalty will ensue

@kyleplacy: I think it depends on the product.. a high cost item will be more experience driven.. thoughts?

This was all via Twitter mind you. Then because it felt like we needed a more immediate way to communicate, we transitioned to gchat, and we discussed the following:

8:36 AM kyle: hello!

how goes it in wonderful TX?

me: cloudy with a chance of meatballs

8:37 AM me: an interesting way to start for sure

about the experience...

8:38 AM I think the "brand experience" is extremely crucial to nail down, but it's the product that attracts them to that experience

kyle: I would say it is the marketing that attracts them to the experience of the product

me: bad ads for jewelry, on the radio? I think it's a bad medium

for that category

kyle: I agree

it depends on the product though..

8:39 AM the shopping experience for a low cost shopper (WAlmart) doesn't really matter

they care tooooo much about the price

me: very true

kyle: but for a high end product.. the experience matters (marketing, store, employee) just as much.. if not more

me: but what would you sell in "an ad?"

the experience or the product?

8:40 AM you'd sell the product and make it an experience

kyle: you tell a story.. an experience.. that in turn sells the product

a product is just a product without an experience..

it is just another diamond ring..

me: right

kyle: or a car..

:)

me: agreed

8:41 AM there are a lot of bad ads in this world

creating a brand experience definitely needs to be a box to check when creating a brand campaign

I think it may do more to differentiate your brand and raise awareness than drive sales though

8:42 AM kyle: amen erin.. amen

me: I think you have to ask yourself what the objectives are. and then create accordingly

All in all, a productive conversation. I think every goal you ever have should have an objective to begin with, an objective that solves a problem. What are you trying to do? What does the brand need? What need will it be satisfying? What do you want to achieve and what problem will be you be solving? - start here and I assure you the (brand) conversation, in whatever format (or media) you choose will be productive, efficient, and effective.

You can read more from Kyle's POV in his latest blog post: Diamond Marketing and Selling the Experience.

the future of search

This week, the Search Marketing Expo is happening in New York City. And there a lot of people tweeting about the topics and conversations, just check out #smx.

One of the big topics that seems to be coming out of the keynote this AM is the future of search. Check out Lisa's transcript of the discussion here.

We might have all heard the term “real-time search” but I think there are huge implications for the future – Twitter uses #hashtags to find relevant terms of what’s happening RIGHT NOW. Google Wave, I think will be along these same lines. The fact is, Google’s way of searching is a bit old-school now, we want more relevant data. This is especially true for brands that want/need to be relevant to the cultural conversation. How to be more timely...

Read more about the future of search in this great article from ReadWriteWeb.

And head over to Twitter to start following the hashtag #smx.

Happy Tuesday.

a letter from Starbucks

Hi, We're making a change. Using simpler recipes and taking out artificial ingredients. So your food not only tastes better, it is better. It's a start. But we think it's a good one. Hope you do too. Enjoy.

Your Friends at Starbucks

PS. More to come.

I don't always enjoy lots of copy on my product packaging, but Starbucks has done a nice job handling theirs over the years. And this "letter" of new development is no exception. I think this will do good things for them in the wake of McDonald's offering premium coffees. If Mickey D's ever wrote a letter like this on their packaging, you'll bet they'd earn more media than Monster and Threadless combined.

the 4 S's of viral

"A viral won't go viral just because it's a viral." I said this in a meeting the other day and as clumsily syntaxed as it is, I want to develop what I meant.

The client says: we want a viral.

The creative team: creates a viral.

But what IS a viral? And what makes something GO viral?

Let's find out.

"A viral is something worth sharing," says Rob Birgfeld on SmartBlogs.

Dominque Hind says there are 3 things to remember about a viral:

• Must be a great idea
• Viral doesn’t necessarily mean free
• Nurture the campaign to get it out there.

And we learn from Karl Long that a viral isn't a strategy but a tactic within the more holistic term of co-creative marketing.

In the post from Karl, I especially like what he says about tactics, such as virals, building social equity with your brand. He described social equity in October 2007 as “built by aggregating, connecting, reflecting and amplifying all of the small user contributions over time so the whole is worth much more than the sum of its parts.”

You see, everything used to be about brand equity - where brands were one of the most valuable assets a company could have. But in the age of social media, we need different terms. And borrowing the term from Karl, social equity - where social networks are one of the most valuable assets a brand can have - is where we need to focus now. In creating social equity you need to take into consideration what starts a conversation and what begs to be shared - is it creativity? is it a thought? is it a point?

Anyway, back to viral. In this post, we learn that viral is a tactic used by brands to create Social equity. To do this, they need to

Simple - be birthed from an uncomplicated idea
Sharable - have all the necessary social media tools attached
Supported - be nurtured by various brand ambassadors - bloggers/influencers online, PR people at the agency, or synced up with traditional creative in an innovatively creative way

So next time someone says "let's do a viral," make sure you've got the 4 S's in place so that you're not just creating more digital crap to take up cyberspace.

writing a brand manifesto

From David at brandgymblog:

Brand manifestos are a better way to work on the vision for your brand, allowing you more freedom to express yourself, and [to help identify] what you really want to "fight for".

What are your guiding principles, beliefs and issues you want to take a stand on?

I encourage people to use provocative language, not politically correct corporate speak.

There are a series of exercises in Brand Vision to use in creating a brand manifesto, including:

1. If you were on a protest march in the street to fight against something, what would you write on your banner? And if you were to flip this into a positive and fight for something, what would you write?
2. What is the bigger role your brand can play in everyday life? What sort of "legacy" would you like to leave behind after 5 years on the brand?

A comment on David's post reads: we forget that we're supposed to be engaging people. Not clients. Not consumers. But people. And the only way to really do this is to talk in simple, human terms.

Jennifer Rice says on her blog:

So I see a brand manifesto as a declaration of 1) the core intention of the brand, 2) the guiding principles of the brand, and 3) the policies that guide each department to effectively realize the stated intention. So unlike brand visions or missions (which only focus on intention), a brand manifesto should get into the nitty gritty of turning the intention into reality.

Ultimately, a manifesto needs to put a stake in the ground - what do you stand for? what do the people who subscribe to your vision believe in? what world do you and they want to see?

Take a stab at it, it might feel poetic, it might feel liberating, it might just be the best thing you ever did for your brand. :)