Great to see some coverage of our work into music fandom getting out there - this initial instalment exploring the notion of the retweet as the new autograph...

Published on Twitter’s blog, the post explains: “retweets from artists or bands are now as highly prized by music fans as autographs. New research underlines the role Twitter plays for fans, who can not only connect with their favorite artists and bands, but discover new music and join the buzz around concerts and festivals.

The study, conducted for Twitter by Crowd DNA , found that 74% of music fans on Twitter say a Retweet by their favourite artist is as desirable as a traditional autograph. Findings point to the value fans place in getting recognition from their favourite artists and in seeing their Tweet shared with other fans.”

It also fleshes the thinking out through some nice examples of fan-artist interactions with the likes of Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Years & Years, before adding: “as many as 80% of music fans on Twitter use it before, during or after a gig or a festival. And for music fans who can’t make it to live events, 59% say that Twitter allows them to feel involved, wherever they are.”

With a reach which extended from mainstream music to grassroots activity, festivals to nostalgia bands, the fandom project incorporated quantitative work, desk research of academic studies into fandom, ethnographic pieces, plenty of workshopping with experts and, naturally, social media analysis.

How brands can leverage the power of fandom was a pivotal area of focus. Look forward to more findings getting circulated in the near future.

Crowd DNA's insight and innovation director, Chris Haydon, revisits 78 high energy hours in Hamburg, in which we explored the strengths of an immersive, sprint-based approach to creative testing...

The team here are just back from running an intensive week in Germany. We were looking to deepen our understanding of the German consumer’s use of social media – to develop a sensible ‘jumping off’ point for creative development.

We approached the project with a strong sense of what it means to be German in 2015. We planned for influence factors ranging from the structure of formal education (a system which encourages each argument to be viewed from both sides), through the closeness with which the media links US ‘spying’ on Chancellor Merkel with US social media to the broad disregard people have for anything trivial or ‘me me me’.

We went armed with lots of ideas, questions and stimulus. Much more importantly we went as a multi-discipline team – researchers, client brand owners, designers, planners, copywriters from four counties – each with their own objectives but with a common plan, to learn ⇒ test ⇒ refine ⇒ learn … as much as we could over three-and-a-half days.

As researchers we want to feel we’re enabling people (participants/consumers) to understand and reflect their true selves; to stick as close to what they ‘mean’ as they can. Creatively, the team want to understand why people respond to stimulus the way they do. Execution-level responses can be useful but what they really want are clear creative guidelines (which allow them to do what they’re good at – crafting a compelling narrative). From a client’s perspective, it’s the need to see (and believe) all of this within the bigger business/product/market picture that’s key.

We each committed the week to this project. We aimed to only think about the questions at hand and the people/country/culture/context we were immersed in. We ate, drank and lived it through eight consumer workshops glued together with instant debriefs and live stimulus development. A broad schedule with a commitment to flex anything that we thought would push us forward.

It sounds like a big commitment of time but when you see the value that this level of immersion brings to ideas and understanding – and getting from a standing start to a set of creative guidelines, fully agreed on by all parties, in 78 hours – it’s pretty amazing.

Crowd DNA senior trends consultant, Rebecca Coleman, shares some notes from Shoreditch House's recent Rising Minds' New Era Luxury briefing...

The luxury labels succeeding in today’s crowded marketplace are those that think of their customers as fans, providing a brand encounter that parallels membership of an exclusive club. From ritualising the shopper journey to co-creation and ultra limited product runs, luxury is entering an age where access and experience trump pure acquisition and display.

These were some key insights touched upon by Katie Baron, head of retail at innovation advisory firm Stylus, during a talk entitled New Era Luxury at Shoreditch House. Part of the Rising Minds series of inspirational talks, the session focused on examples from major players getting it right in the world of high-end retail and branding.

Here’s a rundown of the top takeaways:

“Fans before consumers, interests over age”

Katie echoed sentiments from Crowd DNA’s 2015 trend Flat Society Consumerism by saying that now, more than ever, demographics play a limited role in assessing consumer needs and desires. The rise of social media and increasingly connected lives, as well as aging populations and healthier lifestyles, has made traditional models of grouping people by life stage, income or location much less relevant. Instead the luxury brands that are winning are the ones thinking about their customers as fan tribes, united by interests, attitude and behaviour.

She cited Dunhill’s houses (in various locations across the world) as an example. These “stores” encompass a holistic lifestyle offer with humidors, bars and barbers sitting alongside more conventional fashion retail space.

“Co-creation is essential”

Brand Me is a much discussed trend – especially in relation (though not limited) to the youth market – as a generation grows up increasingly selfie-obsessed. One could argue that this trend towards narcissism is nowhere more applicable than in the realm of the luxury brand.

For this reason, retail experiences that invite co-creation and customisation are ever more popular. High levels of personalisation also increase shareability of products and thus heighten brand awareness. Anya Hindmarch’s bespoke handbag monogramming service was mentioned as an example here, as was her 2014 campaign, pictured in our header image, in which she enabled consumers to virtually customise accessories with emoji-emblazoned leather “stickers” online.

“Build anticipation and use delay to inject desire”

In our modern world of instant gratification, delayed, staggered or fleeting experiences are prized. Luxury brands are using these tactics to heighten consumer lust. Katie’s top example here was Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons’ 2014 collaboration with US artist Sterling Ruby. Their collection was sold via a dedicated online portal, which stocked just one outfit per week, creating buzz and frenzied buying with each new release.

Into the future…

Katie also touched on more future facing concepts, forecasting how the luxury market might jump on burgeoning tech to enhance the customer journey in the next five to 30 years. Innovations in the area of haptics were highlighted – by allowing consumers to virtually touch fabrics, they have the potential to significantly shift the online shopping experience. For similar reasons, VR also featured as a powerful tool for altering the luxury retail landscape.

Revisit Flat Society Consumerism, among Crowd DNA’s other trends for 2015, here.

Crowd DNA's business and strategy director, Sarah Brierley, on how the financial services industry can tune up its offering to meet Gen Y and Z demands...

Comprising nearly a quarter of the UK population, millennials are a significant part of the financial services market. Crowd DNA’s expertise comes from a wealth of experience researching this dynamic audience for the likes of Channel 4, Converse, MTV, Sony Music, Red Bull, Twitter and, recently, a huge global study for Facebook.

We get social media, too. Our work has seen us examining the changing way that young people are using social media all around the world. We’ve started to see how these evolving behaviours are affecting attitudes and behaviours around financial services – an impact that will be ignored at a finance brand’s peril.

Millennial disconnect

Financial independence is among the most important future goals of young people today – second only to being happy. In fact, millennials rank financial independence higher than being part of a loving family, having a close circle of friends and discovering their interests & skills.

Hand in hand with financial independence is of course the use of financial services. But it seems that financial services brands are struggling to connect with young people – a recent survey by BNY Mellon and the Saïd Business School found that 58% of UK millennials believe they haven’t seen products targeted at people like them; they’re also more likely to turn to their parents for financial advice (48%) than their bank (24%).

So where does this leave brands?

We’ve examined millennials’ changing social media habits and come up with five implications for financial services brands wishing to engage this young audience:

1. Utility apps

There’s been a huge rise in simplified single-purpose apps in social media and beyond – in fact, many larger apps are breaking up their functionality into smaller single-purpose apps (think Facebook’s Messenger or Instagram’s Hyperlapse).

What single-purpose apps can your brand provide millennials? The key to success here is offering an incredibly useful function as simply and effectively as possible – so the app becomes a frequently-used ‘must-have’.

2. Everything is gamified

Being ‘always on’ breeds a culture of instant gratification among millennials, and products like Facebook and Candy Crush go a step further, using a clever system to hook users into habit-forming behaviours. The theme here is reward: millennials have grown to expect rewards – whether implicit or explicit – for everything they do.

How can your brand make millennials feel rewarded? – for engaging with you, for desirable behaviours (eg saving), for loyalty, and so on.

3. Selective sharing

Millennials have become selective in their sharing, using simple, single-purpose apps to communicate with carefully-curated groups. They will follow/friend/speak to some brands on social media – but not all of them, and financial services brands in particular need to be careful how they engage with millennials on social platforms.

But despite the caution required, social media is a vital platform for financial services brands targeting millennials: it’s where friends share experiences (good and bad), advice and recommendations for anything and everything. Millennials can be powerful advocates but formidable detractors too. Brands need to do their best to ensure they’re being discussed positively online.

How can your brand identify and leverage its millennial advocates online? How can you best communicate directly and indirectly with millennials online?

4. Meet the parents

Millennials turn to different ‘experts’ for different problems and decisions.

Unlike for many categories, such as fashion, where friends and social media rule, parents are a key influencer for young people making personal finance decisions.

So in addition to communicating to millennials, financial service brands should find ways to help parents advise their children. Ask yourself two questions:

• What messages do millennials need to hear from your brand?
• How you can best equip parents of millennials to guide their children to your brand?

Visual vocab

Communication among millennials is shifting to a vocabulary that relies on imagery over text. Using images to communicate is speedier, easier, more impactful and ideal for the mobile phone screen; images cross language barriers, they are more likely to get positive responses on social media and they’re easier than words to ‘get right’. The rise of Instagram, selfies, emojis, Snapchat and Vine all reflect this trend.

So young people now think in terms of showing, not describing. How can your brand adapt to millennials’ communication preferences? How can you tell your brand’s story visually and in a mobile-friendly way?

Cultural insights and innovation agency Crowd DNA is searching for a trends and insight consultant/senior consultant to join our London team...

Based in Hoxton Square, you’ll get to work on exciting and challenging projects for brands such as Channel 4, Red Bull, Twitter, Sony Music and Peroni, joining a highly skilled and creative team of entrepreneurially minded folk who are keen to forge new ways of working in the insight and innovation field. The role will suit someone with an enthusiasm for combining trends work with getting hands-on interacting (interviews, ethnography, online methods etc) with consumers – aka real life people!

What we’re looking for:

– First rate writing skills and a strong editorial style (we expect you to be contributing to our blog, producing reports and writing for trade media)

– Experience of trends spotting and trends dissemination (from reporting writing to workshops)

– Track record of insight fieldwork (groups, interviews, ethnography, digital methods – we don’t necessarily expect you to have covered all of these, however)

– An aptitude for project management

– A tangible enthusiasm for presenting work, running workshops and for reaching bold conclusions that combine creativity and good commercial sense for our clients 

We’re interested in seeing people at different levels of seniority (hence advertising for a consultant or senior consultant), with this having some impact on the specifics of the role. But at either level, we can promise a competitive salary, the opportunity to work on adventurous, future facing briefs in the UK and overseas, to learn loads from collaborating with an extremely gifted team and to have good opportunities to advance in this fast growing business.

To discuss further, please contact Andy Crysell with a CV and an example of your writing.

Robots, robots, robots. Crowd DNA innovation exec, Berny McManus, is becoming obsessed. This is work-related, though - robots, she says, can lead to exactly the kind of innovations that consumers crave...

If I say the word “robot” to you, what sort of image pings across your mind? I’m guessing you picture something that looks like Brian from that ad for a brand that rhymes with overused.com. Then again, if you’re anything like Steve Aoki, the word robot will have you dreaming of the day that you can become a robot yourself. And DJ in space.

Whatever your reaction, it’s undeniable that the idea of robots and how we can use them to enhance our lives is fascinating. Well, in the innovation team at Crowd DNA, we certainly think so!

Here’s a unique example that I stumbled across. Lexy and Tess are pole-dancing robots (ladybots – apologies girls), who have been developed by Tobit Software. Check out their YouTube debut here. Is this the first/last time you’ll read pole dancing + robots in the same sentence? Entertaining? A little bit weird?

Yes to all of the above. But innovative? No.

Unfortunately for Lexy and Tess, utility and output/impact are what turns a great idea into true innovation. Innovation solves a problem and makes a positive change. With that in mind, here’s an example that ticks both of those boxes.

I was pretty excited to read about adidas’ new plans that include (non pole-dancing) robots. adidas’ current CEO, Herbert Hainer, acknowledged that a 12-18 month production timeline just wasn’t good enough in a world where fast fashion is the norm. The new plan involves pulling back on production in Asia, slashing production time and… introducing in-store robots.

Adidas’ potential employment of robots mean that they will be able to meet consumers’ need of personalisation through customisation of their trainers, allowing for a more bespoke and current customer experience. According to Trendwatching, who list face-to-face robot interaction as a major trend in 2015, this dual outcome of speed plus customer experience is what we should be aiming for when making use of robots.

To me, Adidas’ new venture illustrates the importance of partnering innovative thinking within your business with consumer insights. Being reactive to market needs and being flexible in your thinking is one way that companies can remain highly competitive. I’m not saying that all innovation should include robots, but purpose, openness to ideas and targeted execution of solutions is what lies at the core of successful innovation.

It's never easy leaving somewhere as iconic as the Tea Building, but it helps when you're moving to a nice new space just up the road in Hoxton Square - one which gives us bags more room and will allow us to try out a few new things in-house...

We’ll be able to run workshop events and viewed groups in our own space. And, at last, we’ll be able to swing a cat in the kitchen area. Of course, it will look a lot better with stuff like people and desks in it, but if pics of empty office spaces are your thing, here goes…

The baby boomer generation might be getting older but that doesn't mean they're becoming predictable, says Crowd DNA senior consultant Laura Warby. Brands are slowly but surely changing the way they communicate with this cohort, and here's why...

The week before last I bumped into a family friend in the Westfield shopping centre. She was laden down with bags from The North Face and Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports. When I asked her about what’s in them she told me excitedly that she was off to Costa Rica in a few weeks to go white water rafting, a celebratory trip to mark her retirement from 34 years as a teacher.

I shouldn’t really have been surprised. Work we completed for Global Radio showed how alike the older and younger age groups can be. Within families these groups communicate more than ever and it seems that all the facets of ‘starting out’ happen again post-family.

Fewer and fewer people are retiring in the way we used to. A study by UCL last last year showed that many 65 year olds perceive themselves as 10 years younger than their actual age and as life expectancy increases, calls to reassess what is defined as old age are gaining traction. It seems that the innovative world of advertising is lagging behind on this one, dismissing this consumer group far too readily.

Closer inspection suggests an underestimation of this cohort.

ONS figures show that they’re more likely to get divorced than any other age group. Our own data says they’re as eager to seek out new experience as anyone and are much more confident in their ability to do so.

As children fly the nest, mortgages are paid (particularly for those Boomers who’ve ridden the housing wave) and the pressure to work dissipates, the amount of responsibility carried around on their shoulders starts to subside, and with it comes a reassessment of what their life can mean.

More disposable income and improved health compared to 50 years ago has led this group to actively seek more exciting, experience-led lifestyles; more travel, new activities, new adventures… new partners (which may go some way to explain the huge growth in the number of people aged 60 plus going under the cosmetic surgeon’s knife, according to Spire Healthcare), all indicate that this is not a generation stuck in their ways.

That is not to say that all those over 65 are now carefree and hedonistic; on the contrary, many still find themselves with a significant number of years left to work, or still supporting adult children who have been affected in some way by the recession.

But that just goes to reinforce the point – this group isn’t homogenous and is actually starting to create new conventions.

Just as we have identified the tribes that exist within our millennials, so too should we take the time to understand the complexities that exist within older consumers too. When you consider that Euromonitor have predicted a global spending power of £10tn amongst the baby boomer generation, it feels like we’d be missing a trick if we don’t.