The Flasher

Festivals - Creating tiered premium experiences

There was a time when VIP event tickets were a thing of fantasy, an unachievable fantasy for most of us mere mortals who would never be able to convincingly say “I’m with the band.”

In the past couple of years, astute festival goers have noticed that they can buy VIP tickets (for $50-$100 extra for one day events). They sell well, catering to the reasonably well off crowd who don’t actually enjoy spending as much time queuing for toilets and drinks as watching music. Given such success it is unsurprising that the next stage in evolution is creating multiple tiers within the ‘premium experience’. Future Music festival this year offers ‘general admission tickets’, ‘VIP tickets’ and ‘1st class tickets’. Looking to score a merchandise pack and make it to the upper deck of the VIP area? Then 1st class is for you!

The challenge of creating tiered premium value within what is essentially the same service is an area that airlines have been exploring for many years. Recent creation of ‘Premium Economy’ is the latest attempt to build enough value to charge more than basic economy without encroaching on the upper echelons of business class. Perhaps we will soon be able to buy our flights in increments of a ‘leg-room-inch’, or the number of minutes the in-flight entertainment is complimentary before demanding that you swipe your credit card.

Who knows what learnings the entertainment industry will be able to take from the airlines as we move increasingly into an experience economy where mass events demand differentiated experiences within a single event. Another more subtle question remains – what motivation is there these days to actually become a celebrity worthy of actual VIP status? What can an event offer the really, truly, legitimately VIP... if such a category still has any meaning?

The Death of the Mall

I've never really liked shopping malls to be truthful, they don't have a lot of soul or individuality to them, and the handy car parks (read: always busy and extortionately expensive) inevitably bring out the worst in people when trying to get in and out.

Therefore, i'm not particularly saddened to read in this interesting article in the NY Times, that with the recession in full force in the US, and malls and large out of town stores closing at a rapid rate, and new and interesting uses of the vast space that they accommodate (the USA has six times the retail square footage of Europe) are being proposed.

The crux of this change in usage is that the malls have the opportunity to move from shrines of pure consumption (retail) to spaces where the community and brands have the opportunity to create centres of learning and promote the sharing of ideas (services).

So, whereas in the recent past only the largest flagship stores of multinational brands (for example Apple), have had the capital to invest in expensive retail space purely devoted to workshops and services, the abundance of cheap, accessible space has opened up the opportunity up for greater brand funded learning or services.

So for example; could Google create a Digital School in malls for senior citizens or those with limited access to the Internet, or could Health Insurance companies create free branded gyms for its members to stay healthy and keep their premiums low?

  

 

Free Stickers!

I grew up in a part of the world where snowboarding is everything, especially when you are a kid.  The halfpipe for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics is minutes from my (parents) house. You can be on the Whistler Blackcomb gondola in just over an hour.  Last weekend the world’s best riders competed in a rail jam on the rooftop parking lot of my local mall with A-Trak spinning a live soundtrack.  This is a part of the world where messy hair and goggle tans are deeply admired.

In a place like this certain brands carry heavy influence. We formed fierce opinions and pledged allegiance to our favourite snowboard brands in grade school.  Burton, Special Blend, Thirty-Two… our loyalty was built on fascination.  We wanted to live and breathe the world these brands built.  After all, they sponsored the riders, released the videos and hosted the events we all obsessed over.  They designed really cool stuff and presented it in really cool ways.  Brands became stars in and of themselves.  We wanted a slice of the magic. 

Brands elevated snowboarding from an activity to an identity.  By touching every aspect of the snowboarding experience they became larger than life.  The world of professional snowboarding was a fantasyland.  So when brands found ways to connect with us in personal ways, we fell head over heels in love.

Funnily enough, I began thinking about all this after reading an interview with Danny Fuller, who is not a snowboarder but a professional surfer from Hawaii.  His main sponsor is Quicksilver, a deal he secured at 10 years old.  When asked how he got involved with Quiksilver, Danny’s reply ignited a million flashbacks.  He said, “I started surfing at a really young age. I got spotted by the Quiksilver team manager in Hawaii. He gave me some stickers, and it all started from there. It’s funny when you’re 10 – you’re just so pumped on stickers.”

I used to beg the people working in snowboard shops to hook me up with free stickers all the time!  When I got older and worked in snowboard shops myself, I always threw free stickers from my favourite brands in the bag when younger kids bought stuff.  You could spend days, even weeks debating where to stick your precious sticker (they invariably ended up on your board, bedroom mirror or mom’s car).  Stickers were the best!

It’s a really simple snapshot of how brand loyalty works, but it hits at the nerve.  Granted, brands in snowboarding and surfing benefit from the nature of the industry.  Their commerce revolves around very marketable people, places, activities and objects.  Plus the ties to art, fashion, music and film make it easy to create a fantasy world.  But there is something fundamental at the root of the example. A small token of the brand presented in a personal context forges a connection to this world in a way that simply purchasing the product or seeing the magazine ad can’t.  It also represents a powerful form of viral marketing.  Kids spread the message because they are genuinely connecting with these brands. Stickers get you stoked.

Designing København

I was looking at an architectural photo essay today and started thinking about the powerful role architecture plays in creating the essence of a city.  But what happens when something radical and different appears?

Copenhagen (København) has found a way to blend architectural styles and not have it become a visually cacophonous eye sore.  Ultra modern bank buildings sit beside 300 year old boat sheds.  For some reason it seems very natural, very Copenhagen.  Hmmmm…

I’ve determined that it’s because high-quality small-scale projects are pursued throughout the entire city, allowing people to experience new architecture in familiar settings.
Copenhagen hasn’t fallen into the global skyscraper race.  So many cities go for architectural ‘wow factor’ in scale, creating isolated zones of engineering eccentricity that lack connection to the rest of the city.  Take George Saunders’ impression of Dubai in The New Mecca: “like four or five architects staged a weird-off with unlimited funds.”

Copenhagen architecture is less about spectacle and more about pushing the essence of the city into new territory.  A locally minded pollination of new design allows Copenhagen residents to connect with progressive architecture often and in personal contexts.  Because of this, pioneering change in a traditional streetscape doesn’t come off as wild or alienating. 

This picture is taken at Tietgenskollegiet, where some friends lived while we were studying at Copenhagen Business School.  It’s a building with unforgettable design, but it also happens to be one of the most functional living spaces I have ever experienced.  It isn’t a monumental showpiece.  It’s a student residence in a quiet suburb.

Copenhagen has been voted the world’s most livable city in a number of recent surveys.  

So what is the essence of Copenhagen?  That embracing innovation and new ideas can be a way of life.

Tell it like it is

How do you communicate with your peers?

For something so quintessentially important to the work environment it’s not something I really spend enough time thinking about.  Fortunately, there’s Malcolm Gladwell to do that thinking for me (or at least a bit of it anyway).

In Gladwell’s latest book “Outliers. The story of success” he covers the usual range of interesting topics that prompt you to think about how they apply to yourself. How to become a successful New York lawyer in the 70’s and the importance of getting 7hrs practice a night if you’re the Beatles aren’t things I think about a lot. Actually, I try not to think about the Beatles at all as they’re the most over-thought band ever (don’t get me started).

Anyway, Gladwell spends a bit of time talking about flight crews and the impact of cultural norms on their ability to handle a crisis.  I won’t spoil the read, but what I found interesting related to the “Power Distance Index” (PDI) created by Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede. To quote Malc “the PDI is concerned with attitudes toward hierarchy, specifically with how much a particular culture values and respects authority”. Or in other words, you’re propensity to tell your boss what you think.
 
Now, what I found really interesting about this is when he went on to list the five countries whose pilots (on average) have the lowest PDI scores.  They are;

15. United States

16.Ireland (the Irish have been known to have a fairly good grasp of expletives which might help here)

17. South Africa

18. Australia

19. New Zealand

Now, I’m not going to try and claim that the stresses of working in communications are even close to those of getting a $50m bird up and down without spilling someone’s OJ, but I thought there was something to this.  The vast majority of the people that I’ve worked with over the years have come from these counties (plus of course the “Advertising Industry Immigration Scheme” which sees media flooded by Nathan Barley and his mates from Shoreditch). 
 
I think it’s critical that people in our industry feel empowered enough to call a spade, a spade. God knows there are some Godzilla like egos in boardrooms around town, but I’ve found pandering to them rarely results in good work.  I’ve spat out the words “I hate it” in a creative review when I was definitely in the minority.  Not necessarily the most diplomatic approach but at least everyone knew where I stood.

Challenge ideas. Express your thoughts.  It will improve the work.
 
And hopefully you find that the PDI in your office isn’t too dissimilar to a cockpit.

Back to the Revolution

A few weeks ago my brother was in Sydney with an old school medium format film camera.  Fearing the negative effects of airport X-Ray machines on his undeveloped film (pun intended), he decided to have it developed before he went back to Canada. 

But when enquiring about medium format at camera shops and film development labs, he was met mostly with shoulder shrugs and confounded expressions.  Sure technological advances have created more efficient ways of producing images, but when photo labs aren’t even familiar with medium format film a red flag must be hoisted.

Perhaps the largest annual photography festival in North America is the Contact Toronto Photography Festival, running for the entire month of May.  This year’s conceptual theme is ‘Still Revolution’.  As the website explains,

“Much discussion throughout the festival has been focused on new technologies and the transformation of photography… Allured by many different claims, we’re compelled to explore the progression of the medium, to investigate what this image revolution is all about now.”

Some images at this year’s festival will likely broadcast an ironically revolutionary message:  Sure technological advancement opens new avenues for photography, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Is the next revolution going to be teaching how to develop film?

What does this have to do with communication?  There is something magical about an artefact existing in time and space rather than pixels and kilobytes. 

Whether it’s a handwritten note on personal stationary or a single Polaroid photograph in your hand, these vehicles of communication are not electronically syndicated.  This embeds them with a personality and contextual meaning impossible to convey in the digital realm.  Furthermore, their bespoke caché is enhanced purely by existing in the era of digital communication.

These tangible modes of producing images and messages could play an important role in how people want to communicate in the near future.  A physical note or photograph has renewed individual meaning and people are bound to gravitate back to them because of this.  I’m wondering how brands (and people representing brands) will be able to harness this newly reframed power.

…Now if I could only find a way to send my brother a telegram. Stop.

That would be just plain cool. Stop.

Growing up Star Wars

 

To think that less than fifteen years ago people from around the world would have found it near impossible to connect in their passion for photography and love of Star Wars between 1977 and 1985.

The internet, Flickr and Star Wars fans I salute you.

Special thanks to Supabomba and Corelliancaptain for these great moments in Star Wars

Happy New Year

Welcome back everyone – how does it feel to be in 2009?  Did you know that every year you are alive, one year actually becomes a smaller fraction of your total life (ie. to a 4 year old one year is 25% of their life, to a 40 year old it’s only 1/40th of their life), so that feeling that life is speeding up isn’t just perception – it’s reality.  For this reason alone I’ll keep this entry short. Happy 2009.

- Adam

Merry Christmas, Big Issue Bill

I buy the Big Issue from Bill. If you are a regular around Central Station, you may have noticed Bill. He’s a wiry looking older chap, who has constructed a vertical shelf as a shopfront which he wheels around with him. It provides a holding place for his magazines, music from a battery operated stereo, a collection of personal paraphernalia (including a small plush dog that often ‘escapes’ onto the nearby pavement), and a topical sign that greets passers-by.

You are most likely to spot Bill this time of year, when he dons his Santa jacket, hat and beard. He’s not a foolish man, so in this heat he opts for blue workman’s shorts. Buying a copy of the Big Issue from Bill is always and experience – I won’t share any of his wit and wisdom here, perhaps in another post.

Today Bill had a little surprise after he handed me the magazine. He reached down into a box at the bottom of his wheelie-shelf, and pulled out a plastic tray and a little piece of paper. From the tray he offered me a ‘tempter’ – a chocolate éclair to chew on. And then he handed me the piece of paper. ‘It’s a Christmas card’, he said, by way of explanation.

The ‘card’ is a quarter of an A4 sheet, printed with festive bunting and a photograph of Bill’s fluffy canine companion (wearing his Christmas headgear). It simply reads, in a suitably festive font, ‘Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year from Big Issue Bill And friends’.

My question is a simple one. Why is it that ‘Big Issue Bill’ is far more skilled at experience and relationship marketing than most of the faceless, charmless monster-corporations whose saccharine Christmas music and tacky festive displays we endure every day?

Merry Christmas to you too, Bill! See you next year.

- Brett

Ollie is smiling

Some new research shows how happiness can spread in clusters through a persons physical social network (the influence is three degrees of separation – my friends’ friends’, friend).

Something of note is the role that the geographical distance plays in the transfer of happiness, so the closer you are to the happy person the stronger the transfer becomes (presumably through the strength of the physical transfer of emotions – laughter and smiling etc).

So my question is this - as people spend increasing amounts of time online, connecting with friends in digital social networks than in their physical presence, and networks occur over broader geographical distances (digital only ‘buddies’?), can digital channels & demonstrations of ones' emotions to a friend (LOL, :) etc.) make our digital social network happy?

Or with increasing ‘isolation’ from physical contact, will we become people with lots of fantastic channels to express positive emotions, but actually have fewer experiences of them?