In the first issue of MILK I wrote a piece about Making Culture, the idea that brands will become culture factories producing content and ideas to connect consumers around an idea.

Since then I think it’s fair to say that the notion of a brand’s preference and performance being driven by the capital it has in cultural relevance has continued to grow in popularity. Likewise my theories on cultural relevance and the practices a brand should follow have continued to evolve.

Shortly I’ll be publishing a new paper which aims to identify how the long-term cultural paradigm has shifted, how global context and hyper-niche and real time relevance will continue to fragment culture and indeed how lifestyles and changed lifestages have led us from a post industrial, post digital age into a new ‘Cultural Age’.

With this in mind, the success of brands will be less audience centric and more culture centric, bringing about a change in the way we measure brand equity, and anchoring brand relevance against it’s measure in culture.

Marketing in the cultural age demands a change in marketing practices and organizations will work with agencies to follow initiatives which focus more heavily on the cultural equity or ‘Cultural Capital’ of a brand.

Needless to say some brands intuitively perform in this way already. Nike consistently harnesses culture led initiatives like the above ‘Republica Popular do Corinthians’ in Brazil which bring capture the cultural passions of groups of people and bring their brand into centre of focus by providing the inspiration and experience for people to engage with.

Likewise brands I’ve worked with including Red Bull and Pepsi have been successful in leveraging cultural relevance by creating innovative ways to inspire groups with initiatives like Red Bull House of Media and Pepsi Refresh Project.

The key challenge is that while these brands mentioned are used time and time again as case studies of innovators or outliers, most companies are failing to understand how to operationalize their behaviors and change their brand management model.

However, this will change, because for brands to succeed in the Cultural Age it has to!

CM

It will be really interesting to see how Doritos latest crowd sourcing campaign to create their next ad plays out.

They’ve really gone to town creating a decent digital experience for their King of Ads introduction hosted by T4′s Miquita Oliver no less.

Promising a purse of £200k for the winning ad submission which will be judged by a celeb panel and aired on national telly.

Not only are they pushing the consumer entries, but they’ve also placed a DPS in Campaign Magazine to engage with the pros! Though it has to be said the Campaign ad falls well short of the rest of the campaign.

It is without doubt one of the better constructed crowd sourcing campaigns and provides an interesting question not only as to how effective sourcing your commercials is, but also how effective the engagement process of crowd sourcing can be. Ultimately it begs the question of when is it right to use brand communications spend to engage in this way. Would the money have been better spent with a creative shop in the first place.

Ultimately does asking your consumer to create your ad gain you the respect of your consumers, or look like a cheap stunt with lack of imagination?

I guess, only the end results will answer that one!

Last year was about dealing with tough change, but this year is definitely about making the most of what you have and finding inventive ways to maximize opportunity.

Naturally here at MILK this is cool news. Being a company that specialises in cultural direction and how to develop new concepts to connect businesses or brands with consumers feels a good place to be.

The interesting thing is that the scope for developing concepts is broader than it has ever been. Whether it be straightforward brand strategy and proposition development, or NPD, or  business diversification… the range is truly expansive.

We’re talking to clients and business partners about the different ways to innovate, sometimes with IP share on ideas and initiatives, sometimes working as an ideas creator, sometimes helping to drive innovation through business. Even the approach to innovation is becoming innovative!!!

When I used to work with T-Mobile, they had a slogan for their business philosophy: ‘Never stand Still’. It is certainly this mentality which will highlight the winners and losers in the year ahead, those brave and creative leaders will embrace this new era of pioneering and those that don’t just won’t be around for long.

The folks at Nike and AKQA have been busy it would seem and just launched this slick new app for smart/ iPhones.

It uses the geo-tagged augmented reality technology mentioned in previous blog posts to create a virtual world accessed through your phone app to provide a Nike guide book to your City.

Expect this initiative to be big and likewise expect many brands to gain confidence from seeing Nike do it and follow suit in 2010!

Much of the work we do at MILK is based on understanding changing culture and trends.

The interesting thing is that generally the preoccupation with trends focuses around: What is the trend and where’s it going? This has been fueled by books like Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, focusing in on why something small fads become popular trends and others fade away without establishing themselves.

For us, the more interesting point to focus on is: What is the trend derived from and why? What in culture is changing to make something of interest bubble to the surface in general societal attitudes and behaviours?

One indicator we use as a point of reference is shown in the diagram above.

Just about anyone who’s studied or worked in marketing has heard of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but surprisingly few have come across Shalom Schwartz.

Schwartz took Maslow’s thinking and pushed it further to determine a map that demonstrates values states, it also proposes that these values sit opposite one another in a wheel like configuration.

Taking this simple reference point and applying it against society you can start to build a real picture of what makes us tick and more importantly why!

Now if you start to measure society’s values (like the smart folks over at Cultural Dynamics do!) then you start to understand the motivations and pressures driving shifts in values.

Understand this and you understand how trends form. Start to project values shifts based on known values movement and you can start to see how and if trends will grow!

For people in the communications industry or government this is like alchemy for ideas, it’s powerful stuff.

Social Influence

Something wild to think about over the weekend…

Look at the Diagram above. In principle it’s nothing new, just a simple graphic representation of how something sits at the core of things and then a variety of inter-relating connections bind, reflect and transmit.

Taking the dark grey subject circle at the core with it’s originator and close supporters, it works for just about anything… the fashion industry, religion, ethical motivations, music… test it.

It really represents things we know on a higher level too, things like how solar systems work and inter-relate, biology, geneology, disease etc. Our lives are really like a million of these diagrams three dimensionally overlapping and contrasting. It also helps to illustrate effects like six degrees of separation and how naturally our lives become interconnected.

So, it’s easy to see how social influences originate and get carried around groups, cultures and societies.

So there’s the method, but what’s the motivation?

Belief. Now there are a few simple steps to understanding belief systems:

1. Ideology – either individual or small group (the seeding bit if you will)

2. Belief – conviction and motivation that the ideology is definitively right

3. Moral rules – basic structure that  defines and represents the belief at a core communicative level

4. Ethical practices – clear and simple motivating behaviours for core believers to follow

5. Organization – more complex infrastucture to help other believers understand and adopt the ethical practices

6. Legislation – fundamental (and often societal) acceptance in the belief’s principles, practices, and organizational behaviours.

Whilst this is a basic perspective, it is the basis for all religious, political, tribal and indeed brand based success.

Now this structure and method is all very well, but it doesn’t really explain why. Why we believe things. Why we want to believe things, why we share beliefs, to the extent that they govern our  unconscious values and motivations.

Most thinking on this subject will say it’s because of the animal that we are (unless you hold a more religious belief). A weird off-shoot ape that has outgrown it’s own evolution. Seems to be the case.

But this thinking rarely goes on to explain why we have a love of dance music?! (There is a point to this)

Many child psychologists, primary school teachers and parents alike will say kids like boundaries. It gives them a sense of security. Also at all ages routine affords comfort, perhaps a sense of equilibrium gained from familiarity and perceived control of external influences.

But why? So what? It is because we are compelled to follow patterns. Both visually, aurally and behaviourally. Rocking ourselves, tapping feet, dancing, wallpaper, tiles, leaves, ripples you name it. From a pure level of infantile comfort through to correlating genetic sequencing.

We are mathematical. Whether you see it as binary or Phi everything is based in coding. We are if you like, programmed to follow patterns, they form our characteristic differences as individuals and allow us to interact as groups.

Now back to dance music. Quoting Hot Chip’s song – Over and Over: “The joy of repetition really is in you”.

With music, dancing and especially seen in things like dance music, our core coding is responding to actions and reactions to the patterns of the sound waves we hear. Patterns which stimulate neurologic impulses, releasing chemicals and flooding our emotions to trigger behavioural movements in sync with the aural patterns. And these individuals actions do not go unnoticed. Observers see and feel the benefit of following these patterns from others emotional stimulation (joy) and they are compelled to join in. Naturally there are barriers to following this compulsion, but these are cultural constraining barriers (human self-consciousness if you will), not our natural instinct.

Now transpose this thinking into belief systems; rules, order, structure, practices… patterns?!

We look for patterns to guide us in everything and are drawn toward them. From those forming ideologies based on assuming connections by cause and effect, to theorizing that there are missing links in a chain that should be filled to make sense. We make our discoveries, realizations and often mistakes by following our compulsion to follow patterns.

So, if you make this acceptance that we are in our very existential essence programmed to interact with and follow patterns, then it is easy to understand why beliefs work so very well for us as a species. Why we follow them, why we are compelled to share and adopt their behaviours and rational values. Why they influence us emotionally and reward our feelings and give us a sense of being. As it is in that sense of ‘being’ that we are human.

Something funny cropped during a recent trip to a record label.

One of smart guys there (and I should probably point out, that everyone we’ve met at this record label seems exceptionally smart) said that music is often the last thing to be considered when the ad agency is producing a new TVC.

Now there are exceptions, when the creative team send a rough cut of the shoot to the label’s Sync team and they suggest tracks to put against the final production, but this is not the norm.

The only conclusion can be because ad agencies don’t think music first. Think about Art Directors are often film makers (visual medium) and copywriters are often screenwriters (words based). So who thinks music first?

The second thing to consider is how frequently a good ad can act to launch, revive or expand a musicians career e.g. Sony/ Jose Gonzalez, Levi’s/ Mr Oizo, Guinness/ Leftfield, Cadbury/ Phil Collins?!!!!

And then there’s the role of the music video or film soundtrack. Music is the thing

to release the emotional potential of a scene, to enhance the drama, or elevate our empathy.

The really interesting thing, is the sheer number of lifestyle brands itching to get into music as a cultural equity, but then ironically not utilizing our emotional connection with the music.

How would the emotional impact of the Bravia Bouncing Balls ad have been compromised if a voice over cut in announcing just how good the clarity of the HD screen  delivers colour like no other. It would have killed it, it’s emotionally implied, so it connects on a deeper level unconsciously and fuses the association between the AV and the producer.

So the message is this…

When you watch MTV you notice there’s a thing in the corner of the screen, it says MTV. And by the power of association (Music’s biggest fan) they are considered credible and cool to represent artistic content.

So as we’ve seen steps by some great brands like Red Bull to set up their own record labels, maybe the next step is to create brand produced music videos for TV instead of ads.

And finally, the interesting thing. Only now are brands catching on to the fact that the tracks they pay to use in their commercial subsequently result in records sales. So in turn the record companies have started opening up models for revenue share schemes. Obvious? Cool! We think so.

Watch this space  - the music comes first.

They have shops in Clerkenwell Road, Covent Garden, Manchester and online.

More info on Magma here.

We’ve been looking at where the deep pocketed will safely expend their wealth in times where spending flashy cash isn’t cool and petrol thirsty motors don’t really fit with the recent Copenhagen’s agenda and here it is, the Aston Cygnet!

Now Aston Martin is without doubt still wound licking at the sales fall off in the last year, but kudos for the innovation here.

If things appear in market as planned for early 2011, for £20k you can get behind the wheel of the Cygnet. Now this is some £10k more than the Toyota IQ, the car the Cygnet is built upon, but there’s an interesting catch…

To buy one, you must already own an Aston Martin. They state that many of their customers already own a small car like an IQ, so this is Aston’s way of servicing their needs and taking steps to lower the companies emissions CO2. This is interesting because they’ve found a way of creating an accessory for a real Aston, which in this guise shouldn’t damage the core brand’s image.

We believe this sort of innovation trend around ‘Micro Luxury’ is just emerging, but something we’ve been tracking before the economy dropped.

In actual fact, other than Mini and more recently Fiat 500 and this year’s Audi A1, the choices for interesting design led small cars have been extremely limited.

Prius undoubtably carried the torch for perceived eco-motoring, but there has always been a gap for luxury drivers looking for a compact, urban, eco car, but with high quality design and styling specification.

What will be interesting is to see how and to who the Aston is marketed (if at all) and whether a decision is taken to push the rollout beyond Aston owners if the launch is met positively with purchasing demand.

We’ll be tracking micro luxury closely into 2010, incorporating ethics, styling, and rationalised over indulgence.

The other thing worth a mention is the concept of ‘restricted purchase’. We’ve seen this trend driving exclusivity in products with high loyalty cues like designer toy sales and rare books/ records, but moving out to a premium price point via a luxury brand feels pretty innovative. Again another area we’ll be reporting on as luxury brands begin to seek new ways to reinforce the exclusivity of their sales propositions.

Imagine being 13 and knowing that you have the attention of some of the most experienced, famous and revered talent in the world. Listening to you. Believing that what you had to say is firstly of interest but, perhaps even more importantly, of value.

Tavi Gevinson is 13. She lives in Chicago and she writes a fashion blog “The New Girl in Town”. The first her parents really understood of the significance of what their teenage daughter was doing in her bedroom was when she had to ask their permission to appear in a New York Times feature – because she was underage. But that in itself is perplexing. Fashion royalty is waiting to see what you say next but to the rest of the (analogue) world you are a minor. Still at school, still needing your mum to sign you out of P.E and still learning about life and what the world means.

How is it that this new generation seems to have skipped straight to the point? Even one generation ago, it was unlikely to have someone with 20 years experience, extensive amassed knowledge and qualifications give youth the time of day but the question today is whose teaching whom? How has the digital realm facilitated the proverbial leveling of playing field between age and youth, knowledge and perspectives, experience and greenness.

At MILK, we’ve been developing a model for Co:Yo or Conscious Youth. A generation that has known nothing but instant access to a digital world. To instant information, instant connection to their friends, brands and any world that excites or interests them. They have the ability and access to develop their skills and knowledge from a much younger age, exemplified by Tavi, long before the previous generation was even contemplating what “Options” at school might begin them on a path to something they were interested in. Imagine having known what you know now since you were 13; being 10 years ahead of your current self in terms of perspective forming or exposure to the commercial world. And that’s not suggesting that these teenagers have already signed off on their life’s vocation but they are commonly demonstrating an aptitude that some are still waiting to find in their twenties or thirties.

POP magazine recently ran a feature covering Tavi and her peers.  And let’s not dismiss that point too quickly. Appearing on the cover of POP magazine as part of a collaboration with Damien Hirst is arguably no small achievement; regardless of age and career credentials. The article included a roundtable amongst the young bloggers and it’s fair to say that they are both articulate and savvy. Demonstrating understanding of commercial restrictions and politics and their perceived liberation of luxurious free speech and opinions is arguably far beyond what one might expect of their years.

But the question is, if this new generation is indeed at liberty to form perceptions and explore their interests free from the bias most face in commercial environments, then who is teaching whom? For sure, the fashion glitterati are unlikely to solely base their next season’s collection purely on the wisdom or freedom of youth but they are equally unlikely to be as complacent as to ignore the impact they are having.

So what is the real lesson we can learn from this generation? That we can achieve what we thought was previously unobtainable? That with the right content and a virtual podium we can all be heard at an equal volume?

And if everything changes so rather than being a linear learning process the system is more cyclical, how will society feel about our children knowing more than us, faster than us? How will this change our education structures? Will schools encourage students to follow their individual inclinations rather than adhering to timetables with subjects that may have little bearing on their now earlier developed skill-set? It would seem fair to suggest that there may be a need for new strategy in response to this move towards self-learning.

It’s true that this generation of Conscious Youth is still just that-youth. They still require and indeed desire guidance but they are ambitious; learning and developing and getting there fast. They don’t have the answers yet but they have the resources and time at their disposable and if, as Author Malcolm Gladwell believes, its the hours that make you the expert, it may just be that those hours spent “surfing the net” will pay off sooner than we think.