Superfans

At our breakfast event today, Anna Chapman, director of Crowd DNA's Socialise division, talked about superfans - mapping their journey from hysterical outsiders to a brand’s best friend. Below are some key takeouts...

Fandom has existed in some form or other for centuries. The composer Liszt drove crowds wild with his brooding artist’s good looks and sweeping hair. So wild, in fact, that at the time the collective excitement around the famous composer was described as ‘Lisztmania’.

The very thought of fans prompts visions of screaming, hysteric devotees — teenyboppers reaching near dog whistle frequency on airport landing strips as John, Paul, George and Ringo step off their plane; or Elvis sending waves of swooning through his audience of adoring fans with every sway of his glittering hips.

Beatlemania
Beatlemania

Before the internet, the relationship between a fan and an idol was entirely one way. But that’s changed now that fans can interact directly with stars on social media.

In the age of the superfan, brands can directly engage with fan communities on social media, disrupting the traditional route. And in this ecosystem, superfans can join the likes of vloggers and even celebrities in becoming influential brand ambassadors themselves.

The ‘mania’ of fans of old has been channelled. Now, the superfan has agency, the power to share their passion amid their networks. And as more and more stars appear in celebrity-land’s night sky, the superfan’s power continues to reach new celestial heights.

We love talking about superfans, influencers, their passions and how these relate to brands. Please get in touch if you want to find out more.

Crowd DNA’s Julie Bréthous went to the Whitechapel Gallery to see how the Guerrilla Girls used research to challenge European museums and give a louder voice to women and non-western artists...

For their latest show, ‘Guerrilla Girls: Is It Even Worse In Europe?’, the Whitechapel Gallery invited the American activists to share their re-evaluation of diversity in European art institutions, 30 years after their first campaign. I was curious to discover how research could be used as a thought-provoking method within the art world to offer different perspectives on gender and racial diversity.

The Guerrilla Girls were founded in 1985, following MoMA’s ‘International Survey Of Painting And Sculpture’ (1984). Aimed at offering a comprehensive overview of the world’s best artists of the time, the exhibition failed to present a diverse portrait of the art world, only showing white artists – 90% of whom were men. A group of female artists quickly realised that, to expose the issue and shake up opinions, they’d have to find a new and unique approach. Using the language of their time – advertising – the now masked girls developed a strong visual identity, relying on outrageous statements, a dose of dry wit, and cold hard statistics.

“If you can make people laugh, you have a hook in their brain. And once you’re there, you have an opportunity to change their minds” – Guerrilla Girls for The Art Assignment

 

1985, Guerrilla Girls
1985, Guerrilla Girls

Owning the public space by stamping their findings and complaints all over the city walls, the Girls fought their battles in a true guerrilla style, aiming at the general public, artists, art institutions and investors. Not afraid to call out decision-makers, they fiercely denounced museum curators and their tendency to be dictated to by a handful of art buyers, whose vision of art remained limited to their own tastes.

In 1986, the anonymous group members were invited to speak in Europe. They came back with an implacable statement:

It's Even Worse In Europe, 1986, Guerrilla Girls
It's Even Worse In Europe, 1986, Guerrilla Girls

Twenty years of impromptu activism later, the Guerrilla Girls asked: is it (still) even worse in Europe?

Trying to determine whether museums are today presenting a ‘diverse history of contemporary art or the history of money and power’, the Girls sent out a questionnaire to 383 museums and kunsthalles in Europe.

Researchers know there’s no such thing as a perfect sample, and the Guerrilla Girls were soon to find this out… the hard way. Only one out for four institutions responded – a statement in itself on their reluctance to address the issue. Their answers have been on display at the Whitechapel Gallery since last November and the collection has achieved its objective by showing how the art world continues to be dominated by money, rather than cultural accuracy.

2016, Guerrilla Girls
2016, Guerrilla Girls

Even better, they’ve opened new avenues by showing that some institutions have managed to offer refreshing perspectives on art history, like Rotterdam’s Witte De With. The Uffizi Gallery in Florence now seeks to redress this imbalance by working with the Girls on how to include more female artists within their permanent collections. Uffizi director Eike Schmidt asks: ‘Where did this all start and how did this evolve? I think we are overdue and ready to put great female artists of the past back on view.’

‘Guerrilla Girls: Is It Even Worse In Europe?’ is at the Whitechapel Gallery until March 5

Part of GenderShift, a series exploring how identity is changing in modern times

Game Changers

Crowd DNA's Gabriel Noble explores how innovations in digital, social media and gaming are changing the sports we love and creating new opportunities for brands...

Sport is one of the last spaces to be truly disrupted by digital. As such, its stakeholders can take inspiration and lessons from past industries who have got it right, and wrong.

That was one of the key takeaways shared at the Digital Sport seminar at the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre. And based on the evidence shared by Chris Paget and Jonny Madill, two Sheridans sports lawyers who led the seminar, disruption is, as usual, being led by fans.

Sports fan behaviour is rapidly shifting. Fans of football, basketball and NFL no longer devote their undivided attention to live matches. In fact, 87% of fans second screen when watching live sport. The decreasing attention spans of audiences has led to cord-cutting: Premier League viewing figures have gone down 22% per game since the 2010-11 season, and viewing figures at the halfway stage for this season compared to the halfway stage last season have decreased by 11%. However, it’s not only decreasing attention spans that are causing this shift. Sports fans can now stream matches on various devices, and can catch the highlights as they happen via clips shared on social media.

Broadcasters are responding to this accordingly. Sky, for example, are investing more of their marketing budget on Sky Go, their streaming service, while BT Sport and Sky both upload goals from matches on Twitter immediately after they happen. Credit has to go to these broadcasters, who are adapting and engaging with their audience on their own terms, and in doing so creating new relationships with them.

However, this shift to social media doesn’t come without competition. Just this week, it was reported that Facebook were in talks with Major League Baseball about streaming one game per week from their upcoming season. This is a deal with a solid strategy from both sides in place. Facebook are reportedly keen to invest more in streaming live sports as they see it as an effective way of attracting sports fans to use the platform. Meanwhile, the MLB get the attention of a young audience, one that the league has been struggling to attract, as soccer and eSports continue to grow among this audience in the US.

Social media’s ability to attract a younger viewership was illustrated in the deal that the NFL did with Twitter. Though the stream of the first NFL game to be viewed totalled 2.1 million compared with the 14 million who viewed it on TV, 70% of people who watched it on Twitter were under the age of 35. This is extremely attractive to leagues like the NFL, who are keen to engage with, and win over, a young audience.

NFL's Twitter partnership
NFL's Twitter partnership

But where does all this leave the brands who sponsor sports teams, leagues and events? One place to look for inspiration is Budweiser and how they sponsored Euro 2016 highlight clips that ITV shared on Twitter. Throughout the tournament, 150 real-time tweets of Euro 2016 action were shared by ITV, with Budweiser advertising shown at the beginning and end of each clip. This exemplifies how sponsors should be adapting their strategy for the digital age.

Finally, how does this disruption effect the sports themselves? In January, the NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the NBA are looking to speed up the end of their games, in order to attract and retain fans who “have increasingly short attention spans.” He added, “it’s something that I know all of sports are looking at right now, and that is the format of the game and the length of time it takes to play the game.”

However, this is not a strategy that would be welcome in all sports. As Niall Coen on the Digital Sport podcast said, “mess with the formula of Premier League football, you do so at your peril. There’d be quite a backlash.”

A strategy that could be adapted by sports teams and leagues without affecting their integrity is acquiring eSports teams. eSports is a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm. In 2014, the League Of Legends World Finals attracted an audience of 45,000 in a stadium that once hosted the Fifa World Cup final in Seoul. The overall viewership of the Finals was 27 million. In 2016, the overall viewership of the Finals was 43 million.

League Of Legends World Championship Final
League Of Legends World Championship Final

Traditional sports teams have been getting in on the act by snapping up eSports teams. The Philidelphia 76ers, for example, have bought a League Of Legends eSports team. And football teams have been following suit, whether it’s Manchester City signing their own eSports player, or the French football league partnering with EA to create “e-Ligue 1”.

The investment in League Of Legends eSports teams is particularly interesting, as it suggests that traditional sports teams and franchises may become content platforms and brands outside of their own sport in order to adapt to the digital age.

One thing’s for sure, the digital model of eSports is working, and all stakeholders in the sports industry should take note.

The question that Chris and Jonny left on was, can sports keep pace with technological developments and consumer trends? We will have to wait and see, but it’s certainly a fascinating time to be involved.

Twitter Passions Meets LFW

We're excited to see Twitter release the first of our Passions film series to coincide with London Fashion Week...

Keep your eyes peeled for more Passions films – covering music, food, health, news, tech and more – over 2017.

See Crowd DNA\Socialise Director Anna Chapman discuss this and other types of superfandom over croissants on March 2. Book your place now.

Brands can do more by creating experiential retail spaces where storytelling plays a crucial part, says Crowd DNA's Essi Mikkola. It's time to help consumers feel a deeper connection with the brands they love…

If you went shopping in a department store 100 years ago, you might have found yourself being followed by a floor-walker. Their purpose was to politely ask whether “Miss or mister was going to buy something?” (if the answer was negative, you’d be asked to leave). Today, retail is facing a challenge that is quite the opposite: how to bring people into the physical stores when almost any product can be found at a lower price online and be home-delivered in an instant.

We know that time has become a luxury for many, and customers go to stores after doing their research online; even checking these reviews while in-store using their phones. So how can brands elevate the physical store experience above the online? As Armand Hadida, founder of the Parisian fashion and lifestyle concept retailer L’Éclaireur explained at the Future Of Retail seminar, creating the perfect experience is like orchestrating a performance. It should spark emotion, inspire and educate, and – in addition to the design – staff play a crucial part in this.

The Store, Berlin
The Store, Berlin

Recently opened in Berlin, The Store is a great example of how physical stores are transforming from points of sale to points of experience. The Store offers a beautiful space where visitors can hangout, eat, get a haircut, see some art and admire a carefully selected collection of artefacts that are displayed so visitors feel as if they are in a friend’s home. And naturally, everything on display, from the vinyl spinning to the couch you sit on, is for sale.

This concept of a hybrid retail, gallery and social space is actually an idea from the past brought into the modern day. As architectural writer Jonathan Glancey explains: ‘Opened in 1909, Selfridges offered bedazzled customers 100 departments along with restaurants, a roof garden, reading and writing rooms, reception areas for foreign visitors, a first aid room and, most importantly, a small army of knowledgeable floor-walking assistants who served as guides to this retail treasure trove as well as being thoroughly instructed in the art of making a sale.’

It seems that many brands are overlooking this art of sale and don’t realise the power their staff could have, if they were trained better. Hadida argues that people love to learn and hear about inspiring real-life stories; staff are ideal brand advocates who can pass on this inside knowledge about the brand, its heritage and the people behind it. Interestingly, the retail prophet Doug Stephens sees a phenomenon in which ‘the store is evolving from being a distribution channel to becoming a media channel.’

Brand loyalty is harder to achieve and maintain than ever, but when consumers find a brand they love, they often become superfans – a passionate group who readily share their experiences on social media. In the saturated world of marketing messages this is exactly what brands need: real stories from real people. Physical stores are ideal places to communicate brand stories through their design and staff, and consumers have the power of a media agency in communicating these forward to the world through their mobiles.

Latest fads like shoppable images on Instagram are encouraging impulsive mobile buying, so physical stores will need to justify their existence even more in the future. For me, multi-sensory experience was one of the biggest trends of 2016 and it’s still continuing to grow. However, brands should keep in mind that the point isn’t just to create sensational experiences with the latest gadgets; it’s to spark personal and meaningful memories, as this is what helps form stronger bonds with their customers.

Part of InterFace, a series exploring – across digital and physical – how our touchpoints with brands are changing…

360 & VR For Better Insights

We’re increasingly adding 360 and VR to our toolkit - here’s some best practice advice from Crowd DNA director Anna Chapman...

Many of our projects at Crowd DNA involve helping our clients to understand consumer needs and behaviour. And as consumer culture adopts new ways of doing things, we bring these trends into our work. That’s why last year we started to explore virtual reality and 360 cameras for insights work; after all, 89 million VR headsets were sold in 2016 (many of them in time for Christmas).

Consumers have an appetite for VR because it allows them to learn and experience the unusual in the comfort of their own home. From self-development to gaming to shopping, they’re keen to explore these opportunities. Who wouldn’t want to be on stage with their favourite band or fly around the moon without having to spend $150mil? Clients are keen to step into this virtual world too, exploring consumer lives through 360 footage and immersive experiences.

We’re using VR in two ways – as a tool for gathering insights (eg. using 360 cameras) and as a content format for immersing clients in the consumer world and socialising insight. Below are some thoughts around best practice for both.

– Google Cardboard is the go-to device for consumers – it’s inexpensive, easy to use and compatible with most smartphones.

– 360 footage is great for exploring spaces eg. if a client wants to look at the layout or products in a participant’s home.

– Keep VR experiences short (definitely under 15 minutes) – some people suffer side effects like tired eyes and dizziness. Not something you want a client to feel.

– Wearing a VR headset is more fun – and engaging – than looking at a powerpoint deck. Make this an activity at a client debrief or a workshop if you can.

– Think about how the content will be consumed – a 360 photo shot on a smartphone is much cheaper to produce and can be hosted on YouTube (see the Crowd office example above). At the moment this is more impactful and easier to send to a client than creating a bespoke headset experience.

– VR isn’t going to replace real life, it just adds another layer. Similarly, use VR to add an extra dimension alongside other methods and outputs.

Of course, the world of VR is changing rapidly and as it does, so will our methods for gathering and socialising insight. Microsoft’s HoloLens is calling out to developers to get involved in Mixed Reality or MR, which will merge the best bits of VR with Augmented Reality. Once this becomes more affordable, we’ll be able to offer headset-wearing clients even better experiences for exploring insights.

LOUD & CLEAR

Voice activation is set to become a dominant interface between ourselves and brands and experiences. Crowd DNA’s Andy Crysell gathers up notes from our recent work in the field, exploring the barriers to overcome and the opportunities ahead…

It isn’t so much a new thing, but voice activation – or voice computing – is certainly a fast gaining momentum thing. We know this because of the sales and media coverage of devices like Amazon Echo. But, as a business, we also know this as it’s a topic we’ve been asked to explore in several client briefs recently (that’s not something that would have happened much over a year ago).

Clearly there’s a huge opportunity here to create more frictionless and empathetic experiences – particularly in-home, at-work and in-(smart)car. Many of the experts we’ve been speaking to see it as a paradigm shift, something as revolutionary to our relationship with digital utility and entertainment as the rapid advancement of our mobiles was five to ten years ago.

As with most innovations of this kind, there’s a certain clunky-ness to it in its formative stages. Barriers stand in the way of true adoption. Recent data suggests 69% of Alexa’s 7,000 skills either have no reviews or just one review – this implies very low levels of adoption. Of those who enable a voice app on Google Assistant or Alexa, only three-per-cent are still active the week after. Moreover, we’re still to ascertain what kind of relationship we really want with a voice assistant – should it have a name; a gender; where does voice activation intersect with mood recognition and a deeper understanding of what’s on our mind?

Google Home
Google Home

Plenty of challenges, then. But the experts we’ve met believe that, once good use cases become popularised and eulogised, once the recognition process takes the necessary and inevitable steps forward, voice activation will gather pace quickly. They’ve spoken to us about how crazy it will soon look to be swiping away at a mobile. How we need to start comprehending the notion of invisible apps and invisible actions – the invisible interface, ultimately. That we should be ‘viewing’ voice computing as the next great platform.

What’s in it for media and for brands? A lot of our interviewees have spoken about untapping latent intent – all of the new things we will do, or things we currently do but will now do more abundantly – if we don’t have to reach for our phones, and if the cognitive load is reduced. The opportunity is there, they enthuse, for media and brands to be with us more often and more relevantly; to work towards seamless narratives that flow across devices and day parts.

So Nike tell us to ‘Just Do It’, and McDonald’s affirm ‘I’m Lovin’ It’, but how will they deliver against these messages on this emergent interface? Also fascinating is how a lot of the heavily used marketing maxims of recent times – the requisite for brands to have an authentic voice of their own; the need for brands to have a two-way conversation with consumers – will suddenly take on new and more direct meaning in the age of voice activation. Lots to think about – even more to talk about.

Part of InterFace, a series exploring – across digital and physical – how our touchpoints with brands are changing…

 

 

Power Of Audio

Introducing the Power Of Audio - a thought leadership study for Spotify...

We’re super excited to have worked with Spotify on their trailblazing thought leadership study, the Power Of Audio.

The project – which soft launched at CES – investigates and celebrates the role of sound in our lives, as well as looking at what the future of audio holds for brands and consumers.

We worked with 46 consumers in the US, UK, Brazil and Japan, conducting audio diary tasks (including deprivation phases), Skype interviews to dig deeper and filmed ethnographic sessions to truly build empathy around use cases and need states. We discovered a huge amount about people’s audio moments (singing in the shower among them!), how audio is used for mood control and the powerful recognition of brand sounds.

Our expert interviews ranged from artists and producers, to academics, marketing heads, innovators, advertising consultants and content producers. Each of them provided a fresh perspective on why audio matters so much. Themes explored included audio and memory, audio’s role in next generation marketing and the power of the podcast.

Check out our first film below – and you can find more content about the project at Spotify For Brands here. Watch this space for further video releases.