The Emergence of Digital Secret Social Clubs

This is a repost of an article I wrote for my work blog in September on the rise of the secret social club in the digital space.
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The idea of the secret social club has been prevalent in the real world throughout much of history. However, until recently, this was not replicated in the digital space. In the last few years, status stories shared via social platforms and in real life have become increasingly more attractive and prevalent. Digital secret social clubs have begun to actively tap into these status stories. These clubs unify members not only through their exclusivity but also through shared passion points. They provide members a way to be on the inside, “in the know” about specific passions from food to art to travel. These clubs also give their members the outlet to be able to lead the way to the “unique,” the “cool,” and the avant-garde in their community.

The idea of the secret social club taps into some key emotional needs of consumers:

• The desire for unique stories to tell 
• The promise of “shared” experiences
• And, the feeling of increased social status.

As noted, in Trendwatching’s report, Statusphere: "When individuality is the new religion, owning or experiencing something no one else has is the ultimate status fix.” Secret social clubs are directly answering that need by providing participants stories that aren't common knowledge for the masses and helping consumers tell their own status-yielding stories to other consumers.

• Excursionist is a members-only travel site where travel is tailored to a consumer’s passions and around unique experiences. The trips are curated by world-renowned experts and guided by people in the local community.
• The Global Party is a worldwide extravaganza featuring luxury lifestyle brands and 80,000 of the world's elite inspired by the adventures of fictional character, Phileas Fogg. 80 exclusive parties will take place in venues across the globe all launching within 24 hours. This is based around an effort to raise funds and awareness for a collection of charities around the world.
• Diner en Blanc is an exclusive pop-up secret dining society. Members must dress in white to recognize each other and everyone brings his or her own food, tables, chairs and glassware to a secret but public location, which is revealed shortly before the start of event.

Secret social clubs allow brands to reward loyalty in a smart way. Brands can provide well thought out and unique incentives. For example, the Patron Social Club encourages consumer participation by promising the more a person participates the more likely he or she is to get an invite to one of the secret dining society events. This intrigues and engages consumers well beyond a simple offer or coupon.

The one of the strengths of these branded social clubs is that they share credible and original content that’s engaging and relevant to their target audience. They create compelling content their consumers actually want to consume. Moreover, these secret social clubs provide a holistic experience for their members by taking digital experience off-line into real life social engagements and then bringing the real life engagements back into the online experience. The branded secret social clubs have found clever ways to engage the social media audience to amplify an experience that already works well in the physical world.

The Convergence of Fitness and Digital

Wow! It's been a while since I've had a chance to write anything. It's been a busy summer between moving from Minneapolis to Manhattan and starting a new job. Anyway, fall is finally here in New York and with it, I want to repurpose some blog posts I've been writing for my current employer. I hope you enjoy them! Here's the first one from August:
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Keeping fit while traveling has always been a bit of a challenge. While a lot of hotels have gyms and a person can always throw on sneakers and go for a run, it’s easy to lose focus on the road. Workouts get off track. And, it’s easy to get out of shape.

As noted in trendwatching’s 11 Crucial Trends to Watch for 2011 report, the convergence of wellness and health is an emerging consumer trend. Health has become as important as traditional status symbols and consumers expect health-related tools to “improve their quality of life, rather than merely treating illnesses and ailments.”

The convergence of fitness and digital platforms not only addresses consumers’ interest in improving their quality of life through wellness but taps into two seemingly opposed consumer trends: the increased interest in ultra-personalization and the emergence of inclusive, global communities of shared interests. Despite the obvious tensions between these two trends, fitness platforms appear to be capitalizing on the intersection of needs between the two.

Mobile apps are allowing for even more personalization and customization, giving customers added control of the information they receive, when, where and how they receive it. The ultra personalization trend has been instrumental in the creation of a number of fitness platforms:

• Nike+ is one of the most well-known running platforms. Using a tracking device within your shoe or another GPS-enabled device, it tracks each of your runs and provides an endless about of information about each run including maps, calories burnt, stride, etc.
• YogaTailor creates custom personalized yoga video workouts for you, maximizing the benefits within your available time and level of experience.
• Jog.fm helps you create a playlist to match whatever pace you want to run, walk or cycle at based on beats per minute (BPM). It takes the existing music in your library and mixes it according to your requested pace. While options exist for listening to others’ playlists, it still revolves mainly around your music, your playlist, and mostly your desired pace.

While people want to personalize their options for working out, they also want to share their experiences and get support from a community with shared interests. Brands are tapping into people’s need to have a community of support around them as they reach for their goals. This need is especially strong in the fitness category and can be the missing link in terms of exercise for a person who has to travel regularly. Fitness platforms are focusing on creating inclusive communities that can be accessed anytime, everywhere and are based on similar fitness interests and goals:

• Two weeks ago, Speedo rolled out their new platform, “Pace Club. Speedo’s Pace Club includes a mobile app that allows swimmers to sign up for training programs, log workouts, view professional athletes demonstrating proper technique and share their progress with friends through Pace Club’s virtual “Swim Team,” as well as on Facebook or Twitter.  Additionally, “Splash Tags” allow consumers to search for and review pools – as of launch, 3,500 pools had already been entered into the system, the most comprehensive directory in the country. There’s also a blog featuring content by Speedo athletes and a product widget showcasing relevant Speedo products.
• Endomondo is a social network for runners. At its core, it is a cross-platform running app with a huge network of fellow runners built in. It has apps across most mobile platforms and GPS-enabled devices including Garmin. With Endomondo installed on your mobile device, you can track where you run, how long you run, check your personal best times, and share them with friends. From the Endomondo site, you can view exercise summaries, issue invites and challenges to get your friends involved in your fitness push, and participate in site-wide challenges.
• Track-a-thon is an app developed by mcgarrybowen labs to support a runner’s fans. The runner downloads the app onto his or her iphone and then carries it with him or her throughout the race. The spectator can then visually track a person’s race progress along the course including runners’ distance, speed elevation and the music they are listening to (assuming the race allows music).

According to trendwatching, “the ‘consumerization’ of health means that more consumers will choose products with embedded health benefits that are actually well designed, desirable, accessible, fun, tasty, interesting or storied.” So, the next time you are going on a trip, consider checking out a few of these tools and see if you find it easier to stay in shape while on the road.

Heineken Star Player Taps into Fan's Love of Prediction

Soccer is my favorite sport. I've spent many Saturdays and Sundays at the pub watching soccer with my friends and strangers. And, I've definitely overheard and joined in many conversations attempting to predict the action on the field: "Oh, Gerrard is definitely going to score. There's no way he'll miss. I bet he goes for the top left corner." "How in the world did Rooney get a penalty there? I mean he didn't step on anyone's crotch this time!" So, it's not surprising that when Heineken StarPlayer by AKQA launched I would be interested.

Fans of sports love to predict what their team, their rivals, the refs, etc. will do. Through predicting behaviors and actions on the field, fans feel connected to the action, almost like they themselves are calling the shots. It opens the door to being part of something larger than oneself. It creates a community. A perfect example is the Boston Red Sox Red Sox Nation. Heineken StarPlayer taps into this existing behavior and expands it from the real-world into the digital space via mobile (iPhone only for the moment) and Facebook. It creates a game within the game.



As noted in the Creativity Online write-up, here's how the app works: "Heineken StarPlayer is a 'dual screen' soccer app that lets fans watch UEFA Champions League (UCL) matches on TV while they play the game in real-time.

The game can be played on a PC, iPhone or iPod touch and is downloaded from iTunes or played on the Heineken Facebook page. To score points, players anticipate events unfolding on the pitch live and make decisions on what will play out. When a key event occurs, the app triggers in real-time a 'Match Moment' and gamers are asked to choose from outcome options (for example, will that goal go in?). Players can compete and share scores with their friends, via Facebook, as well as other players around the world."

Online game results in an offline solution

I am always interested in seeing how digital trends and emerging technologies manifest themselves in the real world. I love the idea of taking the online world offline and the offline world online. This is already happening in city-wide scavenger hunts using tools like Foursquare and Twitter to pass on clues and through billboards like GranataPet dog food billboard in Germany.




Now, we have another interesting idea coming out of the UK - "Real Life Farmville." According to an article today in PSFK, "a large working farm will be taken over for the first time by web users across the world on Wednesday, who will vote on every key decision taken on its cattle, pigs, sheep and crops. The MyFarm experiment hands over power at the National Trust’s 2,500-acre Wimpole Estate farm in Cambridgeshire, UK. Up to 10,000 farming novices will choose which bull to buy, which crop to plant and whether to spilt fields to resurrect lost hedgerows."

MyFarm experiment capitalizes on the existing popularity of Farmville, which currently has 47 million players a month and is the second most popular game on Facebook, to help people understand where their food comes from.

As stated in the article: "'The National Trust is the UK’s biggest farmer,' said Fiona Reynolds, its director-general. 'This is all about reconnecting people to where their food comes from. Our TNS poll showed that only 8% of mothers feel confident talking to their children about where their food comes from. That’s really poignant.'"

It will definitely be interesting to see how the MyFarm experiment shapes up. Personally, I would love to see it succeed.

Back from the dead

So, it's been about a year since my last post. Needless to say, it's been a pretty busy year with work and living life (yes, I did run a marathon while not writing my blog). This, of course, has resulted in my choice to almost exclusively use tumblr to post quick videos and comments on things I find interesting.

However, lately I've found myself thinking about the idea of mentorship, professional development and the workplace. Throughout my career, I've had different mentors at different times. In one job my boss was a mentor. In other jobs, my team members were. And, in several cases, my mentor has been someone working in the industry but not at my company (this can be refreshing because it allowed me to be truly open and honest about situations, concerns and questions). Traditionally, the belief is that your boss should mentor you. However, this is not always the case and frankly doesn't always work (even though it can be great when it does).

As my friend, Anya Kamentz, states in her Fast Company article, A Case for Changing the Way We View Mentors: "We need a new model of mentorship. We're living in an age of networks, not hierarchies; knowledge and wisdom is distributed, rather than concentrated among the gray hairs. Moreover, we're bringing more of ourselves to work and we're often chasing meaning over profit. The new model has to be more flexible and forgiving, to allow for the fact that mentorships, like any relationship, come in different flavors and change over time."

Thanks to digital communications, we can connect and learn from people all over the world in meaningful and effective ways. Blogs, conversations on LinkedIn (both personal and within groups), Facebook groups and Twitter are opening doors that previously weren't visible. That being said, there are currently a few blogs I look to for industry advice and growth within the planning discipline. Additionally, I have also connected with some of the writers via LinkedIn and Twitter, allowing me to continue the conversation in a more meaningful way. Here's a list of some of my favorites, in no particular order:

• Gareth Kay's Brand New: Head of Planning at Goodby in San Francisco
• Carlos Henrique Vilela's  BR Planning: Planning Manager at Filadelfia in Brazil
  He has a really awesome series in his blog that any aspiring and junior to mid-level planner should check out - Advice for the Next Generation Planner
• Mark Pollard's Life. Then Strategy: Strategy Director at McCann Sydney in Australia. *He just became the SVP, Global Planning Director at Saatchi & Saatchi in New York as of May
  One of my favorite posts is his post, "Why the World Doesn't Need Another Digital Strategist."
• Heather LeFevre's Buy Me, I'll Change Your Life: Head of Planning for Strawberry Frog in Amsterdam
  She's also the mind behind The Planner's Survey, a great tool to assess what's going on in planning around the world, what salary ranges are in different locations and in different positions, etc.
• Ana Andjelic's i [love] marketing: Senior Planner at Huge in New York

Who are some of your favorites?

My favorite soccer advertising campaign of all time

I'm a huge soccer fan and love advertising. So, needless to say, the World Cup is my favorite event. Every four years, I not only get awesome soccer but I also get awesome ads connected to the game. This year we got the amazing Nike campaign, Write the Future. While I'm energized by this campaign (I do think it is one of the top ones), I have to admit that I do not think it is the "best" soccer campaign ever created despite all the coverage claiming that it is.

The best soccer advertising campaign I've seen is the Adidas +10 campaign. This campaign was created for the 2006 World Cup, before the idea of social media and audience engagement were as popular within the advertising/marketing community. What makes this campaign great are two specific things. First, it is inspirational. Everyone can relate to the two kids who are playing a game and imagining their heroes are playing along with them. They get to choose their team, not just see these stars playing on a TV screen. They are the captains, not the followers. The stars of this ad are Jose and Pedro and the stars these ads usually focus on are the sidekicks. The +10 campaign taps into the imagination of the "everyman," unlike the Nike "Write Your Future" campaign which focuses on the dreams/aspirations and outcomes of the superstars. To quote 180 Amsterdam's co-executive creative director, Andy Fackrell:
“The Adidas commercial for the FIFA World Cup is based on our own childhood memory… After watching a football game, we used to run outside, recreate our own teams and re-play the match we had just seen. We tried to make every little kid’s dream come alive – getting to pick your own team and being able to choose from the world’s biggest football stars!”

Second, it was the first campaign I remember tapping into the now popular idea of audience engagement. The +10 idea was open-ended enough to function well in the new media space in 2006: video shot exclusively for web, asset downloads, UGC video sweepstakes, blogs, integrating meaningfully with the MySpace community (definitely still a huge player in 2006). They truly maximized on content distribution and user-generated content to enhance the grassroot aspects of the campaign.

Here are some quick screenshots of the interactive site (courtesy of The World of Advertising blog) as well as one of the TV spots. The +10 Adidas campaign was an integrated global advertising campaign including global and local versions for TV, cinema, print, outdoor, point-of-sale, public relations and online.

Do I get points for that?

Lately, it seems like every time I'm on Twitter I see a post where a person states what he or she did for the day and then proceeded to award his or herself points: "I'm finally getting my office cleaned up. It is way past time that I get things organized. #dapts +200." Additionally, a number of mobile apps are springing up, allowing users to gain "points" for checking in to certain locations (a personal favorite for this is CauseWorld which allows you to collect and donate karma points to certain causes). I find these trends very interesting.

#Dapts or Daily Achievement points are all about scoring points for "doing what you do." So, what does that mean? According to the Daily Achievements site, you can give yourself or your friends points for "anything from eating a sandwich to winning an Olympic medal in curling." Um, okay. Cool. So, I can get whatever amount of points for whatever I feel like. That's appealing, but arbitrary. Oh, and you can "win badges by performing certain tasks. New badges are added all the time to give you ways to bug your terrible friends." Definitely an interesting concepts, but it doesn't seem like the same activity would be rated equally by all so the system appears to have some flaws. However, #Dapts have become increasing popular which leads to certain questions about what all of this means.

Have we become obsessed with scoring points for our daily activities? Does everything we do need to be scored? Are daily activities a contest? If so, how can these point scoring systems be used to change situations such as getting people to eat more fruits and vegetables for more points, to donate money to causes for more points, to generate more sales of certain products?

Here's some thoughts from a friend, Jordan Smith: "You'll earn 30 points for being a baby on the internet, but those points are worth far more than your self respect."

And, here's an awesome podcast from DICE 2010 by Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell, diving into the idea of points-based gaming:

Oh, and I'm giving myself #dapts + 500 for writing this post ;)