Monthly Archives: April 2012

April 30, 2012 · 8:15 am

Why not take a look at Adelonomics?

This post was first published on How Cool Brands Stay Hot.

Disclaimer: fans of Lady Gaga or Adele be warned, some elements of this post may hurt your feelings, do know I appreciate them both. People who don’t like them, still can read on. Last year Jamie Anderson, Jörg Reckhenrich and Martin Kupp took an interesting and inspiring look at ‘Gaganomics‘ in “Lady Gaga: Born this Way?”, but now that we know the final recordsales of 2011 we learn that it’s not the extravagant Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta who has won the top prizes, it’s instead AdeleLaurie Blue Adkins, better known by her first name, outselling Lady Gaga by the millions. Should we thus need to take a look at ’Adelonomics’?

One could argue that they have much in common. You look surprised? Both put a lot of emphasis on being authentic. While Lady Gaga is being true to her self in being her extravagant personae, Adele is choosing to portray herself as vulnerable and down to earth. If you take a look at her recent live video you’ll get, besides her stunning voice, personal stories, little frustrations, etcetera. They both know how to feed the press with a steady stream of stories and yes, they are both gifted but were smart enough to surround themselves with other talented people.

Almost all of Adeles’ songs were written together with experienced songwriters, but still all fans feel like they are coming from her heart. She studied at the Brit school, together with for instance Jessie J and Leona Lewis, but still was discovered in a Lilly Allen kind of way through Myspace. Her clever management and Adele herself made choices that to some almost seem stupid in this day of age in the music business. She doesn’t wanted to do festivals or big stadions, while she could easily fully book them. Reason why? She would rather spend the time “drinking cider” with her pals. She thinks her music doesn’t fit this big events and she’s too scared. Yes, she’s not taking the quick buck, but it pays back in many ways. I wonder if she’s selling so much cd’s (you remember, those round little silver things) as if there never has been any downloads because she’s not doing so many liveshows.

Maybe her fans want to have an object to cherish?

This is in fact a good example of building a good brand and being consistent in it. Authenticity is important in music (cfr Peterson, Barker and Taylor), but I do think that there is a reason why the authenticity of Adele outsells Gaga.

The “brand Adele” is much closer to the everyday life of the people listening to her music. Gaga is something fun, somebody to dream away with, someone who makes big gestures. This is the friend you like to go out with, with whom you know you’ll have a great time and even makes you really think about stuff. But not every night please, because it would be too much. Adele can stop by anytime, because she’s the gifted, shy but still funny girl next door. Not perfect in any way, just like anybody else. Gaga needs to say to her fans that she’s not perfect and that she has her own personal doubts, from Adele her fans just know that this is the case. So… What can we learn from Adelonomics?

  • You do need talent
  • Surround yourself with other gifted people
  • Know your brand well
  • Go for authenticity by being close to the core of your brand
  • Make consistent choices based on this knowledge (don’t ask yourself what would Google do, but rather what would your brand do)

I can’t advice you on which star to follow (I’m an educational scientist, remember, so what could I possibly say about marketing), because I don’t know if your brand is closer to the extravangza or closer to Adele, but do know that both their success is definitely no coincidence.

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April 29, 2012 · 10:58 am

Some myths on youth checked (presentation)

This is an old slidedeck I rediscovered as I was looking at some stuff Tom Palmaerts (@palmaerts) and Polle de Maagt (@polledemaagt) have done lately. This presentation was made for an impromptu masterclass on youth research and trends the three of us did in a popup bar for Lifestyle students of the Fontys Hogeschool who visited Ghent last year. Btw, Polle is the awesome, Tom is the cool (hunter), and ehm, me.

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April 27, 2012 · 8:15 am

Education 2.0, a stop motion video with Ken Robinson, Don Tapscott,…

This stop motion movie was made by students at the Ontario University for their course “Technology and Education”.

By posting this video I don’t want to state that I agree with everything in the movie. For instance, I always shiver if I hear someone saying that children have a different brain than earlier generations. This kind of ‘digital native’-thinking has been proven scientifically nonsense over and over again.

But do watch this movie fully, because what’s been said by the professor in the second half does make much sense, I think.

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April 25, 2012 · 8:45 am

Digital Visitors and Residents: What Motivates Engagement with the Digital Information Environment? (video)

Found this video via www.netgenskeptic.com. David White and his colleagues at Oxford University show that there is much more to how learners are engaging with digital technologies and digital information than age and technology. This interview provides an overview of their findings to date and explains the digital visitors and residents framework that is guiding their research.

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April 23, 2012 · 8:45 am

You want to use the concept of the digital native? Just don’t (research)

It’s a concept we all know and that makes a lot of sense to many of us, the concept of Digital Natives (and digital immigrants). Prensky coined this concept already in 2001 and it spread like wildfire. It’s used as an argument for many changes. “Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” (Prensky, 2001). But meta-research by Bennett, Maton & Kervin showed already that there is ample evidence for this statement. New literature research by Chris Jones and Binhu Shao learns now that the truth is at least very nuanced, from the executive summary:

  1. There is no evidence that there is a single new generation of young students entering Higher Education and the terms Net Generation and Digital Native do not capture the processes of change that are taking place.
  2. The complex changes that are taking place in the student body have an age related component that is most obvious with the newest waves of technology. Prominent amongst these are the uses made of social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), uploading and manipulation of multimedia (e.g. YouTube) and the use of handheld devices to access the mobile Internet.
  3. Demographic factors interact with age to pattern students’ responses to new technologies. The most important of these are gender, mode of study (distance or place-based) and the international or home status of the student.
  4. The gap between students and their teachers is not fixed, nor is the gulf so large that it cannot be bridged. In many ways the relationship is determined by the requirements teachers place upon their students to make use of new technologies and the way teachers integrate new technologies in their courses. There is little evidence that students enter university with demands for new technologies that teachers and universities cannot meet.
  5. Students persistently report that they prefer moderate use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in their courses. Care should be taken with this finding because the interpretation of what is ‘moderate’ use of ICT may be changing as a range of new technologies take off and become embedded in social life and universities.
  6. Universities should be confident in the provision of what might seem to be basic services. Students appreciate and make use of the foundational infrastructure for learning, even where this is often criticised as being an out of date and unimaginative use of new technology. Virtual Learning Environments (Learning or Course Management Systems) are used widely and seem to be well regarded. The provision by university libraries of online services, including the provision of online e-journals and e-books, are also positively received.
  7. Students do not naturally make extensive use of many of the most discussed new technologies such as Blogs, Wikis and 3D Virtual Worlds. The use of 3D Virtual Worlds is notably low amongst students. The use of Wikis and Blogs is relatively low overall, but use does vary between different contexts, including national and regional contexts. Students who are required to use these technologies in their courses are unlikely to reject them and low use does not imply that they are inappropriate for educational use. The key point being made is that there is not a natural demand amongst students that teaching staff and universities should feel obliged to satisfy.
  8. There is no obvious or consistent demand from students for changes to pedagogy at university (e.g. demands for team and group working). There may be good reasons why teachers and universities wish to revise their approaches to teaching and learning, or may wish to introduce new ways of working. Students will respond positively to changes in teaching and learning strategies that are well conceived, well explained and properly embedded in courses and degree programmes. However there is no evidence of a pent-up demand amongst students for changes in pedagogy or of a demand for greater collaboration.
  9. There is no evidence of a consistent demand from students for the provision of highly individualised or personal university services. The development of university infrastructures, such as new kinds of learning environments (for example Personal Learning Environments) should be choices about the kinds of provision that the university wishes to make and not a response to general statements about what a new generation of students are demanding.
  10. Advice derived from generational arguments should not be used by government and government agencies to promote changes in university structure designed to accommodate a Net Generation of Digital Natives. The evidence indicates that young students do not form a generational cohort and they do not express consistent or generationally organised demands. A key finding of this review is that political choices should be made explicit and not disguised by arguments about generational change.

More even so, in December 2011 prof. Jan Van Dijck confirmed in the new trendreport on internet usage in the Netherlands that often the older generations are better in using technology for information. Full report below:

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April 22, 2012 · 6:49 pm

Want to be authentic? Live up to the expectations!

This post was first published on How Cool Brands Stay Hot.

From our authenticity research project I have described earlier on this blog we concluded that Gen Y’s realness perception of a person or thing is strongly initiated by their upfront expectations. Let’s take a closer look at what we mean with these “expectations”. For instance, for a youngster the main purpose of school, besides meeting their peers, is learning something. Our research showed that this is exactly what Millennials expect from their teachers. Authentic teachers are the ones they feel they really learn from.

Authentic coaches
Let’s take it outside school and take a look at when, exactly, our respondents perceive other adult professionals like in youth movement groups or sport clubs as authentic. Again expectations are the drivers of their perception. If Gen Yers want to become champions, a ‘real’ coach has to be a professional and experienced athlete keeping the necessary distance, and sharing both knowledge and passion. If instead they expect to merely have a great time, the role of their coach needs to be different. Authentic coaches will then behave more like their own friends, which means they share stories and experiences from a much more equal and closer point of view.

Service with a smile
When looking at expectations in retail, research by Alicia Grandey from 2004 has shown that a true authentic, friendly smile of store employees does have an added value… but only as long as the service is fast and ok. Again we recognize the importance of expectations. Clients don’t want to wait at hotel check-in desks and in the supermarket we all expect a swift service as well. Since the perception of authenticity is so in line with expectations, it is of course crucial to understand what your audience expects from you or your brand?

Personal touch
Are you living up to those expectations? If so, then a personal authentic touch (for instance based on your own unique style or identity) can bring in added value, but again as long as the basic expectations of your target group are fulfilled.

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· 6:47 pm

Online identity, keeping it real or keeping it anonymous

This post was first published on How Cool Brands Stay Hot.

One of the biggest changes Facebook has caused, is surprisingly seldomly mentioned. Where before Facebook everyone was using nicknames online and hiding true offline identity, today because of Zuckerberg & Co, everybody is using his or her own name, sharing many private details online and staying ‘true to oneself’. There have been quite some posts and research about authenticity and your online profile, lately even arguing that because of its massive growth, Facebook is killing the authenticity of a person.

Projecting this ‘being true to yourself’-image to peers is one of the reasons Facebook has a bigger appeal to Gen Y than Twitter which they see as a mere unpersonal broadcasting channel (check what Dan Penn has written about this). But still there seems to exist an urge for the anonymous with the younger generations. While everybody needs to be real on the ‘big social network’, every month,  even every week, there is a startup with a new way of sharing stuff anonymously, from the almost forgotten Chatroulette to the latest hype on American campuses,  likealittle.com. This last one is a social network service launched in 2010, by Evan Reas, a Stanford University student. The purpose of the website is to allow users to post flirts about other students around their own campus, and make the practice viral across the web. When using the site, a user is randomly given the name of a fruit, just to make it possible to follow up anonymously on the quest for love.

I do think authenticity, being real, is at the core of what GenY wants for themselves as well as expects from others, whether it’s a person, or a brand. But if you’re talking about being ‘true’ in the open, it can sometimes be a burden. Sometimes we all need to feel safe by hiding. The irony is, that most often, maybe at that peculiar moment we are the most true to ourselves. Last Sunday, Chris Poole, founder of the infamous 4chan, actually shared this point of view when keynoting on the SXSW conf in Texas: “Anonymity is authenticity. It allows you to share in an unvarnished, unfiltered, raw and real way. We believe in content over creator.” (source)

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· 6:44 pm

Happiness spreads through Facebook

This post was first published on How Cool Brands Stay Hot.

Maybe you’ve already noticed that sometimes a good feeling can be contagious? I was just talking to my 2 month old son, and as I was smiling, he smiled back. I felt great, he felt great. Oh, and how a bad mood can ruin everyone’s day… Facebook researchers have found that the same is the case with people using their social platform.

Through huge datamining they have scanned the status updates of about 1 million English speaking FB users. They have searched for positive words including “thanks”, “wonderful”, “cute” and “sunshine”; and negative wording including “angry”, “worst” and “sucks.”

In a next phase the researchers also scanned the status updates of the +/- 150 million friends of the initial studied group, to verify whether they echoed the same emotions. And this actually was truly the case.  The researchers discovered a pattern in which both negative and positive feelings were almost virally transmitted to friends for the following three days. To read more about this research, check out this link.

Well, isn’t this a useful conclusion? It surely makes you think twice of what to share next on Facebook, both as a person and as a brand.

Oh, and by the way… people DO share. New research shows that Facebook is the dominant sharing channel with 38 per cent of all sharing referral traffic and sharing accounts for 10 per cent of total internet traffic (with search still on number one). (check here)

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· 6:42 pm

How teachers can be authentic for pupils

When do young students perceive a teacher as authentic? This was the main question of our research that Tom Vermeylen and myself conducted at the Artevelde Hogeschool (University College of Ghent). Our research has shown that the main thing pupils want to do in school is of course: learn, but there is more.

Why is this question so important?
As  many sources have already shown (one being ‘How Cool Brands Stay Hot’) authenticity has become one of the main selection criteria for information. The concept of information authenticity has gained importance in this age of information overload. We dispose of so many sources to pick from, so we tend to choose the channels that we perceive as most authentic. Since school nowadays is only just one of the many information sources of students, what are the things that make a teacher authentic?

In education, we have already known for quite a while that authenticity is important in communicating with pupils. But it’s much more rare to actually find proper descriptions of what “being authentic” actually means to them.

How we did it?
In our research we did in-depth interviews with pupils aged 15 to 19. After thorough analyses we tested our results both in focus groups and with several experts.

In the interviews we asked respondents to describe the 3 main elements that form a good teacher. We also wanted them to choose the most important of the three.

What we’ve found
First of all, almost all student respondents had problems understanding the word ‘authenticity’, but saw it as important when given the synomym ‘real’.

We discovered 4 distinct criteria that pupils use to perceive teachers as being authentic:

  1. The knowledge of their topic as main criterion. A fake teacher is one who doesn’t know what he or she is talking about. Even when pupils picked authenticity as most important element of their teachers, they explicitely linked this concept to the teacher’s knowledge of his/her class topic.
  2. Passion. A very important second criterion. Pupils translated it as: relating classes to the current context and news and being up-to-date. They need to feel that teachers are constantly involved both in their own topics and teaching.
  3. Uniqueness.  They want a unique experience and want to be approached as a unique individual in a unique class setting. Teachers making the same jokes or comments in every class will easily see their perception of being authentic damaged, since pupils from different class exchange experiences on the playground.
  4. Distance. Don’t stand so close to me… Pupils don’t want a teacher to be their friend. They do want a teacher to be interested in their life, asking if everything is fine in informal moments, but on the other hand they want the teaching staff to be prudent in sharing his or her own personal background. They don’t want to know the family troubles or leisure activities of their teachers.

Wrapping up
It seems that when pupils evaluate their teachers, a lot has to do with the authenticity of the role rather than authenticity of the person. Everything is based on expectations. You are authentic as a teacher if your actions concur with the expectations pupils have of the profession of teaching, and in the end it means they want to learn something from an expert who’s passionate about his job and topic and can relate to their lives.

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· 6:39 pm

Presentation for BDMA: Youth & Privacy for Direct Marketing

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