Emotionally charged. Flat society consumerism. The omni-self. Instaliving. The purpose revolution. Here's five trends to get you thinking. How do they impact on what you do? Whether directly or tangentially, it's a safe bet that all are moving in our direction...
Youth culture gets played out in lots of different environments. On the streets and online, of course. But let's not forget the bedroom - a time-honoured safe space for experimentation, in which to let your identity take shape. These images are from a recent wave of our UK Tribes work for Channel 4. We can learn a lot from the codes and sentiment embedded in the images and items on display. Big thanks to all contributors...
“I love all things 1950s, be it the pin ups of the era, the culture of the time, the clothing, the make up. And Audrey Hepburn is an ever-lasting lovely.” – Meg, 18
“I love free romantic blockbuster DVDs. I collect them. My room is full of them. I don’t know – is that weird?” – Rachel, 23
“My wall is made up of my favourite people and my favourite memories. You put different things on your wall than you share on social media.” – Cait, 16
“So when I’m playing my guitar I’m looking at these posters of bands and musicians. Seeking inspiration, I guess.” – Jordan, 18
“There’s a mixture of photos, tickets and stickers behind me. All to do with bands. Each has a specific memory attached to it. The Smiths and Morrissey feature most.” – Amber, 18
“My room is a build up of life! Everything I’ve collected is on display – well, mostly loose bits of paper I’ve ripped from magazines or found at the bottom of a bag.” – Sofia, 19
“There are a few massive influences here. I adore anything Oriental, as you can see. Ballet shoes – I danced ballet and modern from age five to 15. It was a major part of my upbringing.” – Laura, 22
“I collect things: candles, make up, cameras, perfumes, rocks! And I spend a lot of time outside taking photos, so my cameras really represent me.” – Olivia, 17
“My room is a calming place. I am also tidy, very organised. Technology has to take centre stage.” – Ian, 17
“I love my skis and I also try to incorporate art into my room. I’m aiming for an eclectic mix of furniture: Ikea, antique, thrift, anything that catches my eye.” – Olivia, 17
You can read more about the Channel 4 UK Tribes project here.
Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYE Stern, has produced this take on who's going to win, and who's going to lose, out of the so-called GAFA big four - Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple (though there's obviously plenty of conjecture over whether they really are the big four these days). It's entertaining, it's informative, it moves very fast...
From bouncing balls to using Minecraft as a research tool, Crowd DNA managing director Andy Crysell jots down assorted notes from the MRS Gen Z conference...
With presentations offering a mixed bag of the interesting and, to be honest, rather prosaic, the MRS Gen Z conference in London saw a range of client and agency-side folk wrestling with what makes this cohort tick, how brands should engage with them and the challenges of researching them. Here’s a few notes captured from the event.
+ The MRS previewed some well considered new deliverables (short films and PDFs) designed to make their guidelines on researching youth/kids more easily digestible.
+ Back in the same room: whereas families were at once stage drifting to different rooms in the house, drawn to their own TV/entertainment preferences, the proliferation of handheld devices (kids in the UK have access to eight devices on average, and own 3.4 -Viacom/Nickelodeon research) is bringing them back into shared spaces – if doing different things while there. The scope to deliver shared experiences, albeit of a more future facing kind, thus is increasing.
+ Also from Nickelodeon, they’ve deployed facial coding to explore the appeal of advertising against five emotional traits and to demonstrate the value of advertising in the right media environment. While a method that is hotly debated in terms of its true credibility, it points to the increase in use of observational research techniques.
+ New(er) methods: there was a panel discussion on these, with references to using Gen Zs as trendspotters (we liked the idea of turning this into an online detective game); co-creation to tap into the notion that this generation are all inventors at heart; wearable cameras (good with specific tasks/issues of recall in mind, logistical hell if used without proper purpose!); grappling with quant (gamification is talked about more than used, but there’s plenty of scope to improve how visuals and copy are applied – we call this story-fying rather than gamifying; and thinking about the behind the scenes parts – ie, using trade off techniques – rather than just how shiny your interface is). Crowd DNA are well versed in all of these areas/challenges. What’s of course key is making sure the methods used are fit for purpose, accepting there will always be compromises and that perfection through one method alone is near impossible to come by!
+ The BBC’s Children’s Audiences team mixed up the presentation style by popping a ball into the audience and asking that we throw it between us. If you caught it you got to choose a number on the screen, about which the BBC team them revealed some data-derived insight. A nice stab at making the delivery of the work more interactive and therefore more memorable.
+ “We’ve all been children but not in this time”: one of those remarks that’s as obvious as it is nonetheless easy to overlook when designing and analysing work. Gen Z really are squaring up to a unique range of opportunities and challenges, and it would be lazy in the extreme to let our own experiences of childhood shape our interpretations of this cohort.
+ Risk averse: a term that came up a lot on the day. A risk averse generation with risk averse parents. An interesting area to explore further as there’s no doubt more nuances to it than that – perhaps the old cultural codes of what constitutes risk no longer apply.
+ Futurist Yesmin Kunter provided an interesting run through play and development. We got to see where hacking culture meets kids toys in the shape of new robots coming to the market; where eco consciousness meets toys in the form of the Kosmos wind turbine and 3D printing of Hot Wheels. She also, intriguingly, talked about using Minecraft as a research technique/platform with Gen Zs – definitely an idea worth exploring further.
+ John Conlon, VP of research at Viacom International Media Networks UK, offered some interesting perspective on how insight is being re-cast. Less about what’s happening and more about what will be happening. Less talking to consumers; more talking to experts and more observational techniques (from semiotics to smartphone video diaries).
+ It’s a few years old, but there was a well placed nudge to revisit education/creativity specialist Sir Ken Robinson’s RSA talk on changing education paradigms. It’s definitely worth a watch, both for the ideas discussed and the lovely delivery of them in this adaption of his speech.
+ Oh yes, and while we have you, we recommend you take a look at our own videos exploring the differences between Gens X, Y and Z. We love them, and hope you do, too.
Our Amsterdam-side strategic initiatives director, Lydia Jones, is a planner no more. Oh, hold on, she's more a planner now than ever. Think we'd best let her explain...
When I first uttered those fateful words, ‘when I used to be a planner’, in my second week at Crowd DNA, I had a little moment. Am I really not a planner anymore? After eight years in advertising with that job title, it felt weird to relinquish it. But with three months now at Crowd getting stuck in all over the place – from toothbrushes to cheese – I realise I’m might be more of a planner now than I was at any ad agency.
Gone are the days when agencies had in-house research departments with a team dedicated to moderating groups, setting up surveys, doing your desk research, and running TGI reports. Gone too are the days when every project had two months of planning time, where planners shut themselves away in a room and stroked their beards, noodling over the precise articulation of a proposition. These days, you’re lucky if you get two weeks. So planners now have to do their own research and mostly that means turning to their trusty friend Google. Trouble is, everyone else also has access to the same free but never-the-right-markets, never-the-right-target, or perfect-but-from-2005, reports that you do. So a planner ends up making do and extrapolating, ie, ‘making shit up’. Many planners are highly skilled at Making Shit Up. They have to be. I know I was. My strategies were a thing of beauty!
In my ad career, I’ve worked at many different agencies: direct, digital, above the line, old school, new school, old dinosaur, and shiny new start up, And apart from a handful of groups, a couple of surveys, and a few hastily put together vox pops for pitches, I never did any primary research. Never. In eight years. Most of the time, I didn’t even have access to proper secondary research (Mintel subscriptions were cut along with the free fruit). So it’s no wonder most planners nowadays are expert storytellers and deck crafters, but pretty terrible when it comes to talking to real people.
That’s partly the reason why I joined Crowd. To actually do some proper primary research, a skill I should’ve been well versed in by now. But secondly, I joined Crowd because they get those challenges faced by agencies today. They work fast, they tell stories, and they don’t make planners wade through hundreds of terribly ugly powerpoint charts. And they’re nice.
We are an agencies’ research department. We are their planners. Bonus being they don’t have to fork out for breakfast for us every day.
Nice to see our Bauer Media Millennials work getting shared with the trade audience. This one involved a number of phases over 12 months, and lots of collaborating on themes and story telling, resulting in some crystal clear insights...
You can read/view more about the work via this nice collaboration with The Drum that Bauer Media have put together. The findings take in detailed exploration of media habits, new typologies and some well honed pointers for advertisers.
And here’s some video material from the work…
Our innovation knowledge leader, Aurelie Jamard, reports that Gens Y and Z haven't lost their enthusiasm for cars. They're just hungry to see a greater push for innovation and for understanding how needs are changing. Green light, let's go...
In a recent report published by Ford, the brand decided to focus their research on Gen Z (young people born after 1993, according to Ford’s definition). Interesting stuff, but while it’s important to understand the digital lifestyle and aspirations of the youngest among us, the broader Millennials set shouldn’t be left out of the equation as they’ve pioneered the changes and trends that now increasingly characterise their Gen Z peers in Western economies. Most Millennials, when hit by the recession, started to review luxury codes and perceptions of status, but also blur the boundaries between owning and renting or sharing.
However, an important factor is that this generation still seems open to the idea of owning cars. Will it be the same for Gen Z as they reach the legal driving age? Gen Z are the true digital natives – they were born with smartphones in their hands; they know how to navigate the web and use it to their advantage. They’re socially active, defend the environment and their community, and they are at the heart of the sharing economy (think AirBnB, Uber, SupperKing, etc). Looking ahead to 2015 and beyond, many of the key trends listed below were conceived and shaped by Millennials, but it’s Gen Z that will really drive them forwards.
From tech that's aligned to our feelings, to motivational branding, our trends knowledge leader, Rebecca Coleman, reports on five trends set to impact on our lives, and thus on business, in the 12 months ahead…
Hello 2015! The rapid and consistent economical, technological, political and cultural shifts taking place make it hard to keep up. So, we’ve analysed what’s going on in the world and defined five actionable macro trends that you can apply to your business in 2015. Each one has three cultural drivers explaining the roots of the trend and three impacts that define how they will manifest themselves in the year ahead.