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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Banksy on advertising... again



In a very pop art way Banksy made a come back today on Twitter... nope, that's not the right way of putting this.

Twitter, Pinterest and other numerous sources dragged Banksy back today and multiplied his old message on advertising. Judging by the way his quotes are distributed (FAST!), it resonates well with a certain audience.

I thought it might be really useful for researchers to have keep this point of view in mind:

"People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

Banksy

"

Friday, February 24, 2012

ecommerce in Russia - all the way from Europe

This is the last post in a series of insights on Russia and Russian youngsters. In our previous two we looked at their attitudes towards TV and brands from the West and East. This post is about ecommerce.

Given how internationally orientated young cosmopolitan Russian are it is no wonder that international ecommerce is growing rapidly. Why order grass locally if you can get a much greener option all the way from Italy or the UK?

Lots of digital natives order fashion items from Western online stores. And not only are they happy to pay premium prices for the service, they are also prepared to wait for two or even three weeks for the Russian Mail to deliver the goods.

"Winter is almost over but my jumper from Asos is still on the way I'm afraid. But I think it is still worth it."

An intriguing figure indicates the growth of international ecommerce - the number of parcels sent to Russia from abroad has more than tripled in the last 2 years!

Oh, those Russians! :)

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Russian week at Thinktank: The Grass is always greener in the West (and East!)

Second post in our Russian series where we look at the lives of cosmopolitan digital natives.

Russians may not agree with one another on Western politics, but when it comes to everyday goods and lifestyle, the grass is way greener in Europe.

Everything seems to be better there: quality, choice, let alone prices. Young Russians will tell you that even Nespresso capsules bought in Europe seem to taste better compared to the ones purchased in Russia.

So those who can afford it get most of their fashion items, some electronics and many other consumer goods during their trips abroad - literally going on shor holidays with empty suit cases and spending at least a couple of days in local malls until they run out of luggage space.

"If you want to buy a Mac, you can get it through an official Russian retailer or you can fly all the way to New York and buy it there. The latter is cheaper and more fun."

That said, young Russians can also look East - here Japan seems to be the lifestyle beacon. Girls have recently turned to Japanese cosmetics which are now commonly believed to be better for Russian skin.

"Even regular shops now have shelves that have cosmetics with hieroglyphics. Most of the time these shelves are empty".

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Russian week at Thinktank! Zombo box and the role of online shows in Russia

Earlier this month I had a chance to learn a bit about lives of digital natives in Russia. I have collected three observations about this generation, outsiders might find interesting. So it will be one observation a day for the rest of the week. Most of them are going to be about middle and upper middle class cosmopolitan youngsters and young professionals.

Russian TV is dead

With the Kremlin in control of most TV channels and broadband penetration rising, TV is a rare sight in the lives of youngsters in Russia. It is commonly known as 'zombo-box' and is considered very old school.

Instead almost all media consumption is built around the Internet - with legal and illegal downloading, advanced systems of recommendations, ratings, discussions and endless streams of suggestions from social networks, blogs and microblogs.

Youtube has its own Russian super stars, some getting over 2 million views on every video they post. More and more shows (like Minaev Live or GosDep) are now exclusively online: steaming live at certain times of the week, engaging with audience via Twitter, Skype and various polling mechanisms as they broadcast and later, obviously available online.



GosDep, political talk show for hipsters, started off on MTV (!) but despite (because of?) high viewing figures was shut down a week after to move exclusively online.

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