Slideshare presentation: 10 lessons youth brands can learn from street art

At Thinktank we have had numerous projects on young people and youth culture around the world. As you can imagine, street art has been an integral part of young people's lives.


So we thought we could share our thinking and put together a powerpoint deck on lessons that youth brands can learn from the street art world.

10 lessons youth brands can learn from street art from Thinktank International, London

10 things marketers need to know about Russia: fair trade, cash, mobile and market research

This is the last blog post in our '10 things about Russia' series. To read the previous 6 insights, please click here.

#7 Fair trade? Never even heard of it!
Russia is also unusual in having had an imperial, but no obvious colonial past. So the whole concept of Fair Trade and concerns or ‘liberal guilt’ about conditions in the developing world are often quite muted. This means that ethical or environmental claims tend to be missed or even misunderstood by many consumers.

#8 Russians buy in different ways.
It would be easy to assume that living in a G8 country with a fairly high GDP per capita income would mean that people had bank accounts and be used to online payments, but... as always Russia has its own way. The financially unstable 1990s and a number of bank collapses long undermined people's trust in financial institutions. Even in 2012 Russia remains a cash or digital cash economy on a day-to-day basis.

People can pay cash for anything - including property and luxury cars. Online transactions are still more of an exception rather than a rule. Online shops will deliver products by courier, who collect the cash from customers.

#9 Money on the other hand is more mobile.
The underdeveloped banking system also means that mobile payments (by texting and using stored value cards) are more common and more sophisticated than they are in many Western markets.

Strong WiMax networks and free WiFi in most places also mean that the mobile Internet and mobile marketing are more advanced.

#10 Not the easiest consumer to study.
Russians - culturally - were never asked for their opinion. Russia is still not a market where consumers will easily ‘play the game’ and speak effortlessly about their feelings about products or brands, setting aside the rational answers that can sometimes frustrate research buyers.

For this reason, marketers need to be mindful of how they approach research, whom they target and what the best format for exploring a brand or campaign idea is. That’s where we come in.

We hope you enjoyed our 10 things that marketers should know about Russia. Hopefully it is no longer a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Movember at Thinktank: permission, masculinity and brands of course

Movember is surely one of the great campaigns of recent years. It has engaged consumers throughout the country, got them participating (with their face no less) and made great use of social media. It has become a campaign that other brands want to be part of too. Just look at Gillette, HP Sauce and Byron jumping in to lend their support.

For the next month I will look a fool but everyone will know what I'm doing. They'll also know what I'm doing it for. Prostate cancer awareness should be the brief of nightmares for marketers. Getting men to think about their health is hard enough, let alone their intimate health when it doesn't directly affect their sexual prospects.

Movember's success is built on great insights about men. It plays on young men's desire for permission to test conventions but in the safe confines of a herd in much the same way as stag do fancy dress. Competitive facial hair growing plays on man's desire to measure his masculinity and compare it to his friends'. The moustache itself also comes with so many great nostalgic connotations; Magnum PI, Goose and Daley Thompson were 80's alpha male heroes. Finally, the timing is smart, taking one of the grimmest months of the year and turning it into something fun.

This year I am taking part in Movember. If you'd like to sponsor me that would be lovely. http://mobro.co/andycooper5

Andy, day 1

 

Christmas 2011

For retailers the Christmas TV ad is the UK equivalent on the Superbowl Half-Time spot in the US in terms of budget.
Celebrities and traditional Christmas paraphernalia (snow, nativity, tree, family) are a must. However, when striving to create THE blockbuster Christmas ad what makes great comms can potentially be forgotten.
Boots is perhaps the best/worse example in 2011. Earlier this year their 'I'm Fine' was a clever evolution from 'Here Come The Girls''. It amusingly highlighted the everyday heroism of being a mum. However, at Christmas our heroic women can't simply be keeping a home functioning, they need to be all action. The addition of Mission Impossible cues feels like it might have been at the expense of the warmth though.
But they’re not the only ones who have discovered mum as this year’s Christmas hero. The Littlewoods ad is based around this very theme (and is not simply an attempt ruin Christmas by evil Santa - deniers) It's also very close to John Lewis. John Lewis just have a bigger budget and a willingness to swim deeper into the syrupy gloop.
Ads packed with references to popular culture are designed to reassure us brands and retailers really understand what the kids are into. M&S is the worse offender here. M&S using X-Factor finalists feels like a maiden aunt trying to use Little Mix to find common ground with a 16 year old emo nephew on Boxing day.
In contrast Waitrose's ad with Delia and Heston has the magic of Christmas. The Delia cake box is beautiful and wonderfully appealing. Its an opportunity to get the thrill of making things yourself but with the reassuring guiding hand of Delia. The focus on a few hero products makes it much easier to develop links between the ad and the shopping experience too.
. Our favourite TV ad though is perhaps the one most overtly influenced by the current financial climate. Halfords simple idea gives us: nostalgia for the Christmas you got a bike (everyone wanted a bike one Christmas), the thrill of riding a bike so fast as a kid you weren't sure you'd ever stop and a reassuring message of longevity and thus value for money.
Nothing much stood out on the BTL front - there seems to still be a real focus on TV at this time of year. That said we must give a nod to Mini's Christmas wrapping paper. Great fun to do and absolutely in line with the brand's playful spirit.
Finally, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. from all at Thinktank.

Co-creation in 2011

It's been almost 7 months since I joined Thinktank as Head of Co-creation. Christmas is almost here and I think it's time to look back and reflect on co-creation in 2011.
There's a bit of danger the next sentence is going to be quoted by Captain Obvious, but... 2011 really saw the rise of consumer power. Regular people play an increasingly important role in the world - whether it's marketing, internet or politics.
And today there are three things that really stand out for me about 2011 and co-creation:
New levers. Consumers are getting new levers to influence companies. It's easy to forget how much more mainstream Twitter became in 2011. It was used with different degrees of success by brands and companies. But I guess the most memorable case of consumer empowerment on Twitter this year was the pressure people put on brands to drop News of the World advertising contracts.
New products. Open innovation is adopted more widely by businesses. More than half of Fortune 500 companies are now using consumers in their innovation processes. I guess it is important to remember that we are just getting the first results now. More products and services co-created with consumers will hit the shelves in 2012. Needless to say we at Thinktank are keeping our fingers crossed for a couple of secret products to see the world next year.
New year! As far as my own work is concerned, I find it particularly nice to finish this year under a Christmas tree co-creating ideas for Christmas 2013 with a diverse bunch of people: clients, consumers and creatives :)
Onwards and upwards - the future is bright, the future is co-creative :)