Only Dead Fish

The more connected we are, the dumber we become

The title here is a paraphrase of a heading in Jon Steel’s excellent Perfect Pitch book which I am half way through at the moment. There is some truth in it for all of us. Jon’s theory is that our modern obsession with speed and ‘always on’ connectivity reduces our ability to concentrate on the task in hand. Even if our thoughts are not already interrupted, our minds are constantly ready to be, resulting in a loss of focus. A couple of studies from Hewlett Packard and from the University of London are quoted which support the idea that constant connectivity via texting, e-mail etc can have a temporarily negative effect on IQ and cognitive processing.

Steel also talks about a paper in the Harvard Business Review (called Overloaded Circuits:Why Smart People Underperform - sub required) by Edward Halliwell which defines a syndrome he calls 'Attention Deficit Trait' . This is not a neurological condition, but rather a response to the 'hyperkinetic environment' in which we live and is supported, he says, by two delusions:

1. That it is a sign of weakness if we don’t manage to create enough time to cope with what is expected of us

2. That if we are not constantly connected the world will fall apart.

I can identify with a lot of this. I feel it myself and I see it in a lot of people around me. It really annoys me when people start tapping on their Blackberry in the middle of meetings, or stop their conversation with you to read a text. (I’m a bit of a Victor Meldrew when it comes down to it).

Linda Stone's theory about Continuous Partial Attention posits the idea that a desire to be busy, connected, maximising on all opportunities, optimising every moment leads people to live their lives in a constant state of partial attention. This is a little more subtle than mere multitasking, where people are making a conscious choice to do more than one thing at a time as a way of saving valuable minutes. But there can be no doubt that we are indeed attempting to fit ever more into our day. The well known study from Yahoo and OMD in the US showed that on average, respondents were packing 43 hours worth of activity into a 24-hour period. Our powers of multi-tasking have multiplied, as has our ability for consuming lots of different media concurrently. A study by Ball State University (PDF) in the US last year looked at the potential impacts of what they called 'Concurrent Media Exposure' - the idea that simultaneuous consumption of different media has a significant impact on not only the way that each media are consumed, but also on the level of engagement that people have with those different media. People adopt different models of consumption at different times, ranging from full engagement in multiple media (an office worker on the phone to the helpdesk whilst looking at an error message on screen), to a clear foreground/background relationship (playing a computer game whilst listening to the radio), to 'restless attention shifting among multiple candidates for attention' (reading a magazine, with the radio on as background, whilst occasionally glancing at the TV).

The implications for advertising and for brands are significant. Jon Steel suggests that this constant connectivity and competition for our attention 'has a profound effect upon our ability to collect information and to approach the process of interpretation, synthesis, and dramatization in an open, healthy state of mind.' The Ball State study concluded that some media are more likely than others to be consumed without competition from non-media life activities and other media.

If we concur with Richard's view articulated in his excellent post A Kick in the Teeth for LIP , then advertising has to do more than just influence from the background. Good advertising, he says, 'requires active engagement from people towards the brand or communication, not just their passive attention.' Richard describes work done by Millward Brown using cognitive neuroscience to develop our understanding of the 'mental workspace', the place in the brain where we make conscious decisions, build associations, control our voluntary actions. Turns out we can only use this space to think about 3-4 things at once. So the impact of multi-tasking, constant connectivity, continuous partial attention - whatever you want to call it - are really quite profound. Our ability to communicate a simple message may not be all that it seems. Strangely, most media planning takes scant account of concurrent media exposure. An OTS or OTH is assumed to be just that, an opportunity taken. But is it?

Minority report is here

As seen on PSFK...this is amazing. Sitting here typing on a keyboard suddenly seems vaguely quaint. Apparently this could be with us within the year - I just love the possibilities of using something like this in a creative brainstorm...

Starbucks BSP

Perhaps this is what David calls B.S.P (Blogger Sensory Perception)....someone sent me this and then ten minutes later I spot it on Jason's blog. Anyway, an excellent ad, especially if you're an old throw back like me and remember the first time out for Survivor and the mighty 'Eye of the Tiger'...

The Ten Commandments of mass market women

We have just undergone a project to mash-up all of the insight we have derived into mass market women (a key audience for us) from our publishing, NPD, ads and editorial research around our business, in order to distill it down into the key insights we believe to be of value to advertisers. And here, dear reader, they are:

1. They value the traditional but are open to the new

2. They are in touch with their emotions. They love a good laugh, and a good cry. But they don't let life get them down.

3. She tells it like it is - honest and direct

4. She is most proud of...her kids, her husband, her home. Her family rules - she is the glue that holds the family together, her children are the centre of her universe. They are houseproud and invest time and cash in getting their home just right

5. Friends are very important to them. They are her support network, they are who she has fun with, they are her escape from it all.

6. They live for the moment

7. She is incredibly literal

8. Tone is critical - not worthy, not threatening, not patronising, not blaming

9. Simple and clear messages work best...messages that hold their attention

10. Tell them what the benefit is to them

Behind this of-course, is a tonne of research and data so if you'd like to know more, let me know. The pic, by the way, is of Suzanna - an amazing woman and one of our research subjects.

Looking after number one

As seen on Henley Mail from the Henley Centre Headlight Vision…The HC annual Planning for Consumer Change survey has been tracking British attitudes and values for over 20 years. One question asks people whether they believe that the quality of life in the UK would best be improved by putting community interests before their own or by looking after themselves first.

Last year, for the first time in a decade, individual interests rose above those of the community.

But HC have now released more data behind the headline figures, and it makes for even more interesting reading. I’m not a huge fan of demographic segmentation but there is no doubt that affluent people (ABC1’s) are more likely than the less affluent (C2DE’s) to believe that the quality of life for everyone is best improved by looking after the communities interests and that, whilst we’ve all become more individualistic, the richer amongst us have generally been better at holding onto a ‘bigger picture’ belief in community.

This, says the HC, is backed up by findings in qual research which express the trend that low income people in the UK are increasingly expressing their desire for self-reliance – with a version of individualism that is about taking care of your own, earning enough to keep your own.

People’s versions of community also seem to be pretty different. We know from our own studies into mass-market women that they do care about what happens in the community, but often as it effects them and their immediate family. They are busy getting on with it, making ends meet. At the same time, HC suggest that higher income groups are more open to the seemingly divergent trends of a new ‘internationalism’  (consumer propositions and trends influenced  by overseas cultures) and the ‘new local’ (locally sourced produce, NCT classes, homogenous local enclaves).

It's interesting to speculate about the drivers of this. I can't help but feel that as well as the political ramifications of this (HC speculate that lower income groups gave up on the New Labour promise up to five years ago), it is also indicative of differing responses to broader security based concerns. The world simply doesn't feel as safe any more, and the threat is more immediate - in fact it can be right around the corner. Whilst the more affluent are still willing to maintain liberal ideals, they are equally still defaulting to the safety of people just like them. The less affluent are busy trying to protect their own and avoid the day-to-day hassle on the streets. It's also interesting that even though this seems to highlight the continuing wide differences in attitudes and motivations between different social groups in the UK, we are all actually heading in the same direction – towards a more individualistic national culture.

Fragmentation – It’s baaad. Nooo, it’s gooood

A lot is talked about media fragmentation. Easy to understand why - the rules of mass-marketing have clearly changed forever, and the efficiency in reaching mass audiences once enjoyed by planners is long gone. The total reach of the 500 top rating TV programmes in each year has declined by 27% since 2000. If you look at the 15 top rating TV shows of the last 25 years, not one has been broadcast since 2000 (Source: BARB). This is not a new story, but is it really such a bad thing? As a magazine owner, I’d like to think we know something about the benefits of fragmentation. The ability to target highly defined audiences can result in high degrees of message relevance, which in my book means higher levels of audience involvement. Nothing new there, but if media can increasingly deliver more tightly defined communities of like-minded people, then the ability for planners to make different media more complimentary is greater. Sparking conversation, cross-media brand advocacy, and simple word of mouth is expedited by a heightened ability to more easily target clusters of behavourially or attitudinally similar people. To quote Paul Edwards of Publicis: ‘Bring it on.’

I hate Macs

OK, not really. But here’s someone who does. A very funny take on the whole PC vs Mac thang from Charlie Brooker writing in the Guardian.

At the risk of starting something, my favourite bit is:

‘PCs are the ramshackle computers of the people. You can build your own from scratch, then customise it into oblivion. Sometimes you have to slap it to make it work properly, just like the Tardis (Doctor Who, incidentally, would definitely use a PC). PCs have charm; Macs ooze pretension.’

Discuss. (I have to admit to the occasional bit of Mac-envy but this has made me feel a whole lot better about the fact that I’m writing this on a PC…)

Image courtesy of quatzacoalt

It's a sunny day really

Last time it snowed there were loads of snowy pictures posted on the blogosphere so I decided to do something different this morning and put up the sunniest picture I could find...

Image courtesy Dennis Flood

Not often you see this...

Sometimes nature and man combine into something spectaular - this (here in all it's glory) is absolutely stunning. People have gathered on a beach in Perth, Australia to watch a sky light up. On the left are fireworks in celebration of the recent Australia day, on the right the flashes of an approaching thunder storm and right in the middle, Comet McNaught blazes across the southern skies.

Found on John Naughton's blog, from an original image by Antti Kemppainen

Which housepaint are you?

I'm conscious I've been a bit worthy on my last few posts so here's a bit of idle fun. Over on Amelia's blog she has just discovered here that she is Benjamin Moore "Royal Evening Baja Avocado" gloss interior acrylic latex. I, on the other hand, am Utrecht 'Cadmium Orange' acrylic (2oz tube), and I'm happy to hear that 'The wall is my canvass'. Not the first time someone thought I was Dutch.