25. Rewire Our Habit Loops

Charles Duhigg, writer and author of, “The Power of Habit,” believes that we often try to track our willpower and use flowcharts and other graphs to illustrate our happiness, but in the end habits are they key to our success and failure.  To understand why habits affect certain people and what it would take to change you have to understand how habits work.

1.  There is a cue or “trigger” that produces the behavior

time of day, another person, emotional state, a pattern of behavior

2.  Routine: The actual behavior itself

sequence of events that go on in order for that habit to take place

3.  Reward: The real reason why habits exist.  Typically, the reward isn’t the physical reward like a cigarette or candy bar, but it’s a psychological feeling produced from the habit.

If you can identify your habit and figure out the “cues” “routines,” and “rewards” you can replace any of these with different behavior that evoke the same feeling the reward gives that will have a positive outcome.  Habits can be broken and stopped, but it is process that involved examination.  Habits can also be exploited.  Duhigg wrote a New York Times article about how Target uses existing customer habits to send personalized coupons to their house to start new shopping habits.  Every customer is assigned an ID# when they shop at target and at checkout every purchase is recorded and stored in a database.  Target can identify what the consumer is going to need in the future and send out coupons before their next visit.  Target was actually able to figure out from tracking a high school girl’s purchases at Target that she was pregnant and sent her a personalized paternity coupon book to her home.

Our lives are full of information, but if we can identify our cues, routines and rewards we can stop or build habits.  Target marketing relies on this theory in order to make a profit.  In order to change a habit you have to replace the habit with something else, which is the most dangerous part.  Advertisers would love to fill an existing habit with another given the chance.

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24. Perception of Beauty

Joshua Bell played violin for 45 minutes during rush hour at a Washington D.C. metro station.  More than 2,000 people were exposed to the music, yet only about 6 people took the time to stop and listen.  Joshua Bell, one of the most world-renowned violinist and musician in the world had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written on a violin worth more than $3 million dollars.

 

The Washington Post had set up this social experiment in the hopes that it would demonstrate people’s perception of beauty and priorities during a busy time in the day.  The experiment sought to answer the question, are humans able to recognize talent in an unexpected context?

“In a busy world, message matters. It is estimated that on any given day we are exposed to 3,500 to 5,000 marketing messages. Is your brand Joshua Bell playing for a sold out crowd? Or are you just a guy in the metro playing a violin?

In order to thrive YOU MUST BE REMARKABLE. In order to be remarkable, YOU MUST CREATE REMARKABLE EXPERIENCES FOR OTHERS. You must have passion and a point of view. You must elevate people, invite them to the table and empower them to share your story – by making your story their story, too,” states Amy Taylor, writer for Brains on Fire Blog.

Is it possible that without the guide of context in our lives we ignore beauty staring us in the face?  I think as humans we need direction especially in entertainment and marketing.  In an information/digital rich age, we allow ourselves to be presented with information, context and analysis all at once.  Where does this leave us?  Sleep walking perhaps.  To an extent I think we choose to ignore our surroundings because we have already consumed so much data in a day that we’re overloaded.  I also think that without the right cues we can miss the most beautiful things in life.

 

23. Where Did You Wear It?

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest (PPGNW) distributed more than 50,000 condoms in Washington state to college students.  These were not your standard condom, but a condom with a Quick Response Code (QR Code) emblazoned on the back.  The wrappers allowed smart phone users to scan the code and check in on wheredidyouwear.com letting the world know where you just had sex anonymously, of course.  Originally, the campaign was a 1 week-long event for National Condom Week, but the success outlived the PR stunt.  Now planned parenthood has adopted a social media network similar to foursquare to “check in.”  Not only does it provide the location of where you had sex, but the user can provide the “intimate details” if they choose so.

Maybe a little kinky?  Who cares.  Advertising safe sex, tracking consumers, starting a conversation online, engaging consumers for social good!  Sounds like sexy advertising to me.  Not only do we have a live condom map, but planned parenthood can see where their product is going and keep analytics of their consumer.

22. How To Name A Brand

Branding Strategy Insider described 10 guidelines to name a brand.  In order to creative an effective product you need to position yoru brand name in order to distinguish yourself in the market.  Below are 10 general guidelines for naming brands or companies.

1. Real Words: Usually real words that have an alternate meaning other than their actual definition.  Sometimes the word is misspelled or in another language.  Examples: Apple, Amazon

2. Compounds: Two words put together to form one word.  Examples: Facebook, Firefox FedEx

3. Phrases: Similar to compounds, but do not follow the same guidelines.  They are often longer and more natural sounding.  Examples: StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, SecondLife.

4. Blends: Two different words blended together to form one.  Typically the consumer can still tell what the word is although it uses two different prose.  Examples: Microsoft, Wikipedia, Skype.

5. Tweaked Words: Changed word names that usually have the same meaning but with a different spelling or slightly different pronunciation. Examples: ebay, iTunes, iPhone

6. Affixed Words: Take one real word and add a suffix or prefix to it.  Examples: Friendster, Napster

7. Made Up, Evocative or Obscure Origin Words: Made up words that are generally short.  Sometimes they have a latin stem or origin.  Examples: Bebo, Plaxo

8. Puns: Modify words or phrases that usually suggest different meanings.  Examples: Farecast, Writely.

9. People’s Names: Using a founder’s name or proper noun for the brand.  Examples: Wendy’s, Jim Beam, McDonald’s

10. Acronyms: Names that are derived from the first letter of each word.  Examples: IBM, AOL, at&t.

21. Open Exchange of Information

Below is a short two-minute remake of the children’s story Three Little Pigs by Patricia Seibert.  The British ad agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty produced “The Whole Picture” campaign for The Guardian Newspaper.  The video addresses the issue of “Open Exchange of Information” today and how the press is a tool that should be used to strengthen the exchange.  The campaign’s goal is to rebrand The Guardian by targeting a more progressive and younger audience.  Corporate accountability has become a large issue in the press over the last 3-4 years especially banks.  The ad specifically targets the banks as being the “big bad wolf.”  I think using the children’s story to get the point across was simple and affective.  Re-branding a newspaper is not easy but BBH has a good start by addressing the fundamental issue in the campaign, which is engaging their audience in the movement behind the commercial.

20. Creative Process

The breakdown of creativity.  Not one section in the infrographic above is more important than the other, but personally I think that “Rule Breaking” is the most important.  In an industry that relies heavily on creativity breaking the rules is an important concept that produces creativity.  I think that surrounding yourself with people who have ideas that contradict your own beliefs is fundamentally important to creating new ideas.  It’s not about having ideas that prove others wrong, but it is important to have ideas that may go against common beliefs or practices.

The “Creative Process Diagram” above is a perfect example of how a combination of things go into producing creative ideas.  You cannot just sit at a table and think of a new, creative idea.  You have to surround yourself with a different process, people and make yourself vulnerable to different positions in order to create influence.

19. “But I can’t Draw. I’m Not Creative…”

There is a common misconception that in order to be creative you need to be able to draw.  I was a devout follower of this ideology until I realized drawing has nothing to do with creativity (to an extent.)  It’s nice being to make your abstract ideas into concrete ones with beautiful visualization, but it’s not the only way.  I have found that there are simple things you can do every day that can help overcome the idea that drawing is creativity.

1.  Write.  Writing is a form of creativity that is expressed in feelings rather than images, but can have the same power.  I don’t mean novels either.  A simple tweet that efficiently and simply gets your idea across can be just as creative as a painting or drawing.  Every day I try to write on either my blog, Facebook or twitter not just to share content online, but perfect my communication skills.  It’s good practice because there is an audience, who judge your content and grammar, two things that produce good writing.  It can also be done from my iPhone which is a +.

2.  Draw.  Whoa!  I’m not contradicting myself here.  Really.  There are easy ways to draw for audiences that is fun, easy and fast.  I just downloaded a new iPhone app that let’s me draw for a small audience, is competitive and serves a purpose.  The app is called “Draw Free.”  It pairs you with a friend or a random person to draw words and your competitor must guess what the drawing is you drew on the app.  It is simple because it only provides you with simple drawing tools, a pen, eraser, and color.  The best part of the app is that there are no rules.  You can be as thorough or as simple as you want as long as your competitor is able to formulate the word that you drew.  It’s fun and easy to do.  Download it and stop being ignorant about creativity.

18. K.C. Missouri and Las Vegas

I really did want to go to Kansas City, Missouri at some point in my life.  As a connoisseur of hot sauce, B-B-Q and a secret love for the Midwest I would have liked to explore the city, but after watching this commercial on tv I don’t think I will make it a priority to go there any time soon.  The multimedia element is pretty cool.  The music and idea suck.  I understand why K.C. would want to jam pack their ad with information about their city, but what does this tell the consumer about the experience they can have there.  Nothing.  Showing pictures of people and fountains at night doesn’t supply me with pertinent information or a sense of engagement for why I should travel to Kansas City.  Oh well…

On the other hand.  I think the “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” campaign does an excellent job connecting the consumer with the culture behind its product.  I don’t need to see a bunch of casinos, slot machines, prostitutes, pools and money because I know that’s already there, but what they provide me with is the experience that can only happen in Las Vegas.  Kansas City could maybe offer me a one of a kind experience too, but their ad doesn’t show that.

It’s all about the experience in advertising.  Vegas is literally selling that experience as their product.  I think the K.C. ad was focusing too much on what you can do in the location rather than selling the culture behind its movement.  The Las Vegas ads are simple, to the point and entertaining.  A little bit of all the things I love in commercials.  The “What Happens in Vegas…” campaign is one of the few campaigns that has made a succesful commercial for their city.  Maybe it’s because people already want to travel their, but I get the feeling that men/women, mainly men, want the experience they sell.

17. Ego vs Creative

Today, Tracy Wong, art director, creative, co-founder at WCDW and world record holder of the most uses of the words “shit” and “fuck” in a college lecture came and spoke to us in Creative Strategy.  Besides for possessing an eclectic vocabulary, Wong addressed some serious “shit” in the ad industry.  The basis of his lecture was about how we let ourselves get in the way of our creativity.  He provided us with a set of challenges that often hinder creatives to really tap into their creativity.  All of advice on his list are applicable to any career that relies heavily on creativity, but I think the advice that resonated with me the most was that the best weapon a creative has in his/her possession is “ears.”  The ability to listen to clients, co-workers, and friends.  ”Knowledge talks.  Wisdom listens,” said Wong.  The real key to successful creativity for any campaign is the ability to keep an empty mind rather than an open mind.  An open mind is open, yet it is still full of your own ideas that fight to the death to keep other’s ideas out.  An empty mind is ready to imbibe any new ideas without judgment or bias.  A simple concept such a listening can have a profound effect on creativity.  I want to thank Tracy Wong for finding the time to come to Eugene and speak to our class today.  You’re the man.

16. Psychology of Sharing

Why do we feel the need to share?  I ask myself and others this question a lot, especially when I see pictures of food on facebook or twitter.  I didn’t ask to see Turkish Lamb Dumplings at 10:30 AM, but nonetheless my newsfeed shoots it right my way.  My roommate expressed to me about 10 minutes ago that he makes the concious choice to occasionally share on facebook what he eats in order to provide a sense of maturity or what I call “grown-man” to female friends.  This is an interesting concept because at first I thought that the sole purpose of sharing content online was to show entertainment and common emotion to others, but I think I was wrong.  My new theory, similar to what my roommate discussed, is more personal.

People feel the need to share what they cook and eat on facebook in order to supply their peers with a sense of identity in order to establish how they want to be viewed.  The purpose of their share was not to benfit others with helpful or inciteful information, but rather, with an intricately packaged image of what embodies them.  The interesting thing about this typer of “share” or “sharers” is that they may not be the healthiest consumer of food, yet they demonstrate the opposite on their facebook, twitter and blog.  I don’t blame girls for taking pictures of what they eat to show their friends that they’re consuming their daily value of vegetables and fiber, but it shows that there are different types of “sharers” in the world, atleast on social medias.

I have designated 3 types of sharers online, who they are and what they do.

Altruistic Sharer: This sharer is compasionate.  They place high value on relationships.  Fundamentally, they feel the need to share important, relevent information to others not because they think it’s what good people do, but because it truly helps people.  This typer of sharer would most likely update their twitter, blog or facebook with class notes, job postings or send relevent information to people who are looking for it.  I would go as far to say that the majority of University Professors are altruistic sharers because they often feel the need to pass along important information to students to genuinely help them.  What a concept?

Socrates Sharer: The Socrates Sharer differs from the altruistic sharer in the sense that their “ends” are different.  A Socrates Sharer is someone who poses questions to the world.  Their purpose is to thoughtfully engage their friends with questions that provide a reaction or response.  They are curious and willing to find truth in their friends and family.   A socrates sharer might employ the poll tool on facebook in order to propose a question about a political argument.  This type of sharer is important in the world because it creates reaction and action simultaneously.

Defining Sharer: Last but not least we come back to the “Defining Sharer.”  This is your friend who tweets a picture of In-N-Out everytime they go home to Moraga, CA.  Or, this is your friend who went to Market of Choice and spent $23 on ingredients to make an orzo, quinoa, raw veggie, gluten free, all organic salad and took a picture and shared via instgram so even the background is pretty.  This typer of sharer wants the world to know that they do certain things that in the end help define who they are, what they like and who/what they’re looking for.  The Defining Sharer needs to show the social media community that they are independent, funny, social and of course doesn’t need a microwave to make dinner.

What does this all mean?  Well, I think psychologically it helps us categorize the different types of humans, but the greater interest to me atleast is that it shows how we employ these social medias and why.  Let’s not forget that we’re all in this together.  We signed up for facebook and twitter to share shit so I can’t bash the sharers, even the ominous defining sharer who just told me she studied until 3:00AM last night for her Human Phys mid-term by taking a screen shot of her laptop clock.  It’s interesting to know why people choose to share the content they do and I think in the idea industry it can help us label and engage consumers more efficiently.

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