What is Collaborative Consumption?

Source: seyyed_mostafa_zamani on Flickr

Collaborative consumption is an important groundswell which is changing the very nature of ownership and consumption. People are sharing the ownership and use of products, services and spaces with others in their communities, or around the world, using community-driven marketplaces that facilitate sharing, renting, swapping, bartering and gifting.

The rise of collaborative consumption can be attributed to three broad trends. First, the widespread adoption of online social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Weibo has deepened connection between people and communities and created new types of trust mechanisms based on friend-of-friend relationships. Second, the increasing density of cities has made it both possible and necessary for people to save space and money by sharing instead of owning. Third, the combination of the continuing recession and the climate crisis has made people more mindful of what they buy and how they use what they own, prompting them to save money and reduce their environmental impact by sharing instead of owning.

As a result, people, especially millennials, are becoming more value-conscious and using online, mobile and social platforms to choose products based on peer reviews, search for the best deals, and win discounts and freebies. More radically, they are prioritizing access over ownership, and choosing sharing, renting, swapping, bartering and gifting over buying.

In response, we have seen the emergence of a wide range of platforms to enable collaborative consumption, including renting services, peer-to-peer marketplaces and sharing communities. Some of the most popular categories for collaborative consumption are mobility, spaces, products and services.

Within mobility, the most popular sub-categories are car sharing (Zipcar (video), BlaBlaCar (video), GetAround (video),RelayRides (video)), bike sharing (Velib, Bixi (video), B-cycle (video), SpinLister), ride-sharing (Sidecar (video), Lyft (video),Zimride (video)), and parking services (ParkatmyHouse (video), ParkingPanda (video)).

Zipcar

Within spaces, the most popular sub-categories are vacation homes (Couchsurfing (video), Airbnb (video), Wimdu (video)), office spaces (DeskWanted (video), OpenDesks), and gardens (SharedEarth, Landshare (video)).

Airbnb

Within products, the most popular sub-categories are clothes and accessories (thredUP (video), Rent the Runway (video), Bag Borrow or Steal (video), PoshMark), books (Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, Lendle, BookCrossing, PaperbackSwap), and movies (Netflix).

Rent the Runway

Within services, the most popular sub-categories are errands (TaskRabbit (video), dogsitting (DogVacay (video), Rover (video), education (Skillshare (video), WeTeachMe (video), italki (video)), lending (Prosper, Zopa, Lending Club) and crowdfunding (Kickstarter (video), Indiegogo, Crowdrise, Razoo (video)).

TaskRabbit

In addition, several multi-purpose collaborative consumption platforms enable people to sell (Facebook Marketplace, eBay,Craigslist, Zaarly (video)), rent (Zilok, Rentoid (video), Uniiverse (video)) and donate (freegle (video), Zealous Good (video), FreeCycle) all types of products, services and experiences.

Uniiverse

Some of these collaborative consumption platforms have achieved significant scale and success. Airbnb has 4 million people who have shared 300,000 listings in 39,000 cities and rented 10 million nights. Rent the Runway has 3 million members who have rented dresses from 170 designer brands.

The scale and success of these collaborative consumption platforms demonstrates the shift in consumption from ownership to access, and signals the resurgence of trust-based peer-to-peer marketplaces.

Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, authors of What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, said:

“Collaborative consumption is not a niche trend, and it’s not a reactionary blip to the recession. It’s a socioeconomic groundswell that will transform the way companies think about their value propositions—and the way people fulfill their needs.”

TEDx Talk: Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption

How does Collaborative Consumption work?

Collaborative consumption platforms can be classified into renting services, peer-to-peer marketplaces and sharing communities. Each of these three models has distinctive characteristics across four dimensions: the nature of ownership, the type of transaction, the role of the platform and the possibilities for community-building.

In the renting service model, an organization owns the products and creates a platform to rent them to people, instead of selling them (Zipcar, Rent the Runway). This model is a direct extension of the business model that hotel rooms, vacation time shares, airplanes and taxis have been built on, and sets a precedent for all products to be converted into services over time. These platforms use technology to make the renting experience more user-friendly, and add a community layer to drive viral growth (Rent the Runway: Our Runway).

In the peer-to-peer marketplace model, an organization creates a platform to enable people to sell or rent spaces, products, services or experiences to each other (eBay, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, Skillshare). These platforms can be particularly disruptive because they use technology to directly connect people and eliminate the need for service organizations like hotels and universities. The platforms invest in creating a community and build trust between users through social connections (Airbnb Social Connections), meetups (Airbnb meetups), verified profiles and peer reviews, and typically make a margin on the transactions between users.

Finally, in the sharing community model, an organization or changemaker creates a community to connect people and enable them to barter, swap or gift spaces, products, services or experiences to each other (FreeCycle, CouchSurfing, BookCrossing). These older communities tap into people’s desire to do good and connect with likeminded others, and build trust through the same mechanisms as the peer-to-peer marketplaces.

Collaborative Consumption for Brands

Branded programs can be classified into three models: collaborative consumption platforms that connect people with products, social commerce tools that empower people to create their own catalogs or store fronts, and programs that mobilize people to re-use & recycle their products.

Auto companies have taken the lead in creating their own car-sharing platforms, enabling people to rent available vehicles online, via mobile apps, or through local dealers. Daimler Car2Go (video), BMW Drive Now (video), Volkswagen Quicar (video) and Peugeot Mu (video) have all created their own car-sharing service. Avis has bought car-sharing services Zipcar, Ford has partnered with German car-sharing service Flinkster to launch its own service Ford2Go, while Toyota Rent a Car has created a more traditional car rental service. Dodge Dart Registry (video) has taken a different approach to collaborative consumption and has created a crowdfunding platform to help customers request friends and family to sponsor parts of the new car for them. Auto companies are also partnering with collaborative consumption platforms to promote their own technology, provide additional services to their customers, or create possibilities for the future. For instance, GM partnered with RelayRides (video) to enable customers to rent out OnStar equipped cars easily, and BMW i has partnered with collaborative consumption platform Park at My House (video) to enable users to rent their vacant parking spots.

This is an extension of a wider trend in which auto companies are creating mobility services, which go beyond selling, or even renting, cars. BMW i, for instance, has entered into several partnerships to provide mobility services to its customers, inside and outside the car, including electric vehicle charging network ChargePoint (video), parking spot finding service Park Now (video), urban experience discovery service My City Way, location-based family network Life360 and mass transit app Embark. Daimler has created transit planning service Moovel (video) to help users plan their travel across shared cars, taxis, shared bikes, buses and trains. Volkswagen has partnered with Google to create Smileage (video) to help VW customers record and share their riding experiences with their social networks.

Riding on the popularity of car-sharing and bike-sharing services, other companies are also beginning to create or sponsor such services, to strengthen their brand (Barclays Cycle Hire (video)).

Going beyond mobility, apparel brands have created a number of collaborative consumption tools and platforms.

Some tools enable customers to customize products, create their own storefronts, and sell products to their own networks. NIKEiD (video) and Converse – Design your own enable customers to customize and sell their own shoes. Vancl Star in China created a Pinterest-style network to enable customers to showcase and sell their own styles to their social networks and earn a commission. Magazine Voce (video) in Brazil created a similar platform to enable people to create social storefronts on Facebook and Orkut to share tips and sell products to their friends.

Other platforms enable customers to resell, reuse or recycle their used products to reduce their environmental impact. Marks and Spencer Shwopping (video) encourages customer to donate their used clothes to Oxfam, so that they can be resold, reused, or recycled, and rewards them with discounts. Aeropostale partnered with Do Something to create the Teens for Jeans (video) campaign and asked teens to donate their old jeans for charity. Nike Reuse-A-Shoe encourages people to donate their old athletic shoes so that they can be recycled in the production of athletic equipment or athletic facilities.

Patagonia and eBay Common Threads (video) combined these two models by enabling customers to sell their used Patagonia clothes and gear to others on eBay.

Finally, other types of businesses are also experimenting with collaborative consumption. Google started renting out Chrome notebooks to businesses, and Walmart is considering incentivizing customers at its stores to deliver online orders to other customers.

Collaborative Consumption Case Studies

Branded program: Vancl Star

Source: star.vancl.com

In 2011, Chinese e-tailer Vancl launched the Vancl Star platform, which enables people to create their own personal stores online, featuring their favorite Vancl styles and photos of themselves wearing Vancl products.

Blogger Alia wrote:

“Star.vancl.com is a photo blog + brand advocate community site for VANCL fans. Fans of the brand can register to open a “store”, which is more like a photo blog, and then they can showcase their VANCL purchases and upload photos of how they mix and match.”

According to AdAdge:

“Visitors can buy featured items by clicking on the photos; Vancl handles the sale and shipping. Account holders get a 10% commission, with some Stars reportedly earning thousands of dollars.”

trendwatching points out the convergence of curation and co-creation in this model of social commerce, which it calls (M)etailing:

“Driving the (M)ETAIL trend is a shift towards more personal recommendations (from real people if not other consumers), along with ever more personalized products and services.”

Branded program: Magazine Você

Source: apps.facebook.com/magazinevoce

In 2012, Brazilian retailer Magazine Luiza launched social commerce platform Magazine Voce, which enables people to create their own store fronts on Facebook and Orkut. People feature their favorite products from the Magazine Luiza catalog along with personal opinions and recommendations. Then they promote their store within their networks and earn a commission on each sale.

Magazine Você

Marketer Eric Smith points out the power of social influencers in the world of collaborative marketing:

“Social influencers are generally powerhouses online. They’ve successfully built a core group of dedicated followers of their posts, updates, stories, etc. By partnering with these influencers, brands gain access to the influencers’ avid followers. This access allows brands to reach a larger audience while developing deeper relationships. Fostering the relationship between brands and social influencers enables brands to gain advocates with enormous social reach and stay connected to their target consumers.”

Branded program: Dodge Dart Registry

Source: dodgedartregistry.com

In January 2013, Dodge launched the Dart Registry, a platform which enables people to request friends and family members to help fund their new car. The process is similar to crowdfunding – people share their story, set funding tiers and recruit support from their social networks – while generating word of mouth around the Dodge Dart and drawing attention to the car’s parts.

Adweek’s Tim Nudd explains the process:

 “You sign up for the program, configure and customize a Dodge Dart (choosing from 12 exterior colors, 14 interior color and trim options, three fuel-efficient engines, three transmission choices, safety features, aerodynamics, etc.), and set a goal for the amount of money you want to raise to fund it. The site then itemizes components of the car—like a steering wheel, shifter, seat or engine—and allows friends, family or anyone to sponsor the parts.”

Forbes contributor Matthew de Paula notes that the program should help get the Dodge Dart “on the radar of potential buyers”:

“The way the Dodge Dart Registry ties in social media could prove helpful in that regard. As would-be car buyers post updates on their fundraising, they’ll be helping to boost awareness of the compact sedan.”

Dodge: How to change buying cars forever

Branded program: Patagonia and eBay Common Threads

Source: campaigns.ebay.com/patagonia

In 2011, Patagonia and eBay partnered to launch the Common Threads store on eBay, encouraging Patagonia customers to use the eBay platform to buy and sell used products, and thereby maximize the value of their goods while helping reduce their environmental impact.

Here’s how it works:

“A customer who lists a used Patagonia product on eBay will be asked to take the Common Threads Initiative pledge and become a partner. Membership will make the customer’s listing eligible for inclusion in the Common Threads Initiative store on eBay and on Patagonia.com. Patagonia will not receive any of the profits associated with the Common Threads Initiative storefront.”

Patagonia + eBay Green – Common Threads Initiative

The Common Threads initiative has achieved quite some scale, and has expanded to the UK in 2013. Fast Company’s Christina Chaey shares:

“Patagonia got 24,000 people to pledge to buy less and buy used; it also partnered with eBay to make it easy for people to take the pledge and then buy and sell gear from one another. Customers have resold 15,000 Patagonia pieces for $500,000 so far. “

Future of Collaborative Consumption

We believe that collaborative consumption is a social movement that will become even stronger in the coming years. We expect renting services, peer-to-peer marketplaces and sharing communities to proliferate as smaller niches attain critical mass. At the same time, we expect to see consolidation in the larger niches, with city-focused players being acquired by other players or product companies.

We expect that new services like TrustCloud will aggregate users’ trust scores across collaborative consumption platforms, just like PeerIndex, Klout and Kred aggregate social influence across social networking and content sharing platforms. These trust networks will be context-specific and enable users to quickly establish trust for specific verticals and tasks.

We expect that sensor-enabled products and spaces will dramatically improve the collaborative consumption experience, by making the service experience more seamless, making social sharing more easy, and making trust mechanisms more robust, driving the growth of platforms which first adopt them. We expect players like Social Bicycles (video) to create such sensor-based solutions for each collaborative consumption vertical.

We believe that all companies will need to respond to the collaborative consumption groundswell, by converting their product-focused selling-oriented business models into service-focused renting-oriented business models, building peer-to-peer secondhand marketplaces for their products, and providing additional services to their customers through peer-to-peer service marketplaces.

After mobility and spaces, we expect many product brands to create renting services and peer-to-peer secondhand product marketplaces, or see third-party platforms disrupt their industries. Luxury fashion and home electronics brands, which have high price tags, high idle times and short planned obsolescence cycles will be the most impacted, but we expect this trend to cut across product categories.

Similarly, we expect many service brands to create peer-to-peer service marketplaces, or see third-party platforms disrupt their industries. We expect consumer-focused industries like hospitality, education, professional services and financial services to be most impacted (platforms like Skillshare (video) have already begun disrupting the education industry), but also expect to see more B2B oriented service marketplaces.

Therefore, we expect that many large product or service companies across will partner with, invest in, or create their own collaborative consumption platforms, and use these to provide unique value to their customers and differentiate themselves from smaller players.

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This is the tenth report from our upcoming People’s Insights Annual Report titled “Now & Next: Future of Engagement,” to be published as an interactive iPad app. The report will highlight the ten most important frontiers that will define the future of engagement for marketers, entrepreneurs and changemakers: Crowdfunding, Behavior Change Games, Collaborative Social Innovation, Grassroots Change Movements, Co-creation Communities, Social Curation, Transmedia Storytelling, Collective Intelligence, Social Live Experiences and Collaborative Consumption.

In each of these reports, we start by describing why they are important, how they work, and how brands might benefit from them; we then examine web platforms and brand programs that point to the future (that is already here); then finish by identifying some of the most important features of that future, with our recommendations on how to benefit from them.

Do subscribe to the People’s Lab email newsletter to receive each report and also an invite to download a free copy of the interactive iPad app.

A “crowdsourced” credit card

In April 2012, Barclays US launched Barclaycard Ring– a credit card whose policies, fees and rewards are co-created by card members. The credit card attracted early adopters and frustrated credit card users with its promise of straight forward fees, transparency and collaboration.

Source: business.time.com

Vision to change the credit card industry

Barclays envisions the card will be “built on transparency, authenticity and a community,” and invites card members to “to start changing the credit card industry.”

Here’s a video in which Paul Wilmore, Managing Director – Barclaycard Branded Products, shares the story behind the card:

Paul Wilmore introduces the Barclaycard Ring

Source: fastcompany.com

In his review on the card, financial blogger David Weliver highlighted the two way channel of communication:

“Barclay’s is calling this a “crowdsourced” credit card. According to the bank, they are “actively listening” to card members and will change the card’s features in real-time according to feedback.”

A blog post by the Unibul team highlighted the appeal of such a unique product:

 “What I like most about Barclaycard Ring is its avowed transparency. Banks know better than anyone just how unpopular with their customers they’ve become and are looking for ways to reverse the trend (or at least some of them do).”

This comment on the Barclaycard Ring Facebook page reflects a similar sentiment:

Source: facebook.com/BarclaycardRing

How it works

Barclaycard Ring attracts people with its unique proposition and innovative Giveback rewards program; builds a community based on open communication; and keeps people engaged with a calendar of co-creation opportunities and financial literacy content, and by incentivizing participation.

Card members can access a private online dashboard which displays the different actions they can carry out, features or rewards they can vote on, and monthly performance of the community and the card. Card members can also ask & answer community questions.

Blogger Laura Edgar summarizes the opportunity for card members:

 “As a Barclaycard Ring card customer, you’ll be able to go online and see how the company is performing through an online profit and loss statement. You’ll get to vote anytime Barclaycard suggests raising fees, changing the APR or altering the card’s terms and conditions. You’ll also get to weigh in on marketing ideas and website enhancements through online forums.

“Basically, if you have ideas or concerns, you’ll always be able to discuss them with other cardholders and a Barclaycard “community manager”, who has the dual role of customer service representative and forum moderator.”

Barclaycard Ring Community Website Overview

Community managers regularly introduce new topics on the public blog, and direct card members to discuss these on a private member-only platform. Community managers also document the decisions and successes of the community on the blog, and share results of the card’s monthly performance.

Source: barclaycardring.com/

Members can contribute to the health of the community by participating actively and to the health of the card by using their cards regularly, making regular payments, referring friends and opting for paperless e-statements.

Source: lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/lithium-s-view-blog

Barclaycard’s Paul Wilmore shared the inspiration behind this model:

“We were inspired by the sense of community shared among credit union members, as well as the way social media is helping people learn from each other.

“Our online community allows for these two ideas to converge. Just like real-life circles of friends and communities of like-minded people, we’re building an online community that enables our card members to gather information, share knowledge, and have a role in the card’s future success.”

Giveback program keeps the community on track

To prevent members from voting for features that would harm the financial performance of the Barclaycard Ring, Barclays introduced an innovative rewards program called Giveback.

As TIME’s Martha White pointed out:

“Since most consumers don’t care about a bank’s bottom line, Barclaycard US set up an incentive system to get customers to consider these costs. In lieu of a traditional rewards program, Ring cardholders will get periodic “givebacks,” in the company’s parlance, of profit the bank earns above a predetermined threshold.

“Customers will vote on whether they want that money distributed as statement credits, donated to a charity, or some combination.”

Giveback presents customers with a win-win situation, as CreditDonkey blogger David R noted:

“The novel, community-driven approach allows cardholders to vote on what benefits or features they want and share in the estimated profit of the community’s financial performance.”

Jared Young, Senior Director at Barclaycard US and community manager of the community explained how members can qualify for Giveback:

“We accumulate the [Giveback] pool through two different programs: Barclaycard Ring returns and referrals from members. An individual card member is eligible to earn Giveback™ from both pools only if they participated in contributing to them.

“For example, you can only receive money from the referral pool if someone applied from your referral through the module on our website. And, you can only earn Giveback™ from the returns calculation if you actually used your card.”

Bad behavior, such as late payments, results in a portion of the member’s Giveback going to charity. The program also incentivizes ‘good community behavior,’ as financial blogger David Weliver noted:

 “when account holders opt in for paperless statements and pay their bills on time, the community benefits; the card will kick back more of a reward to account holders.”

While some card members have earned rewards through the Giveback program, potential customers are skeptical of the benefits of this new model versus traditional rewards programs.

Card member Philipwhuf commented:

“I just [received] $90 back via the “Give Back” feature which will be applied to my statement and this was with moderate usage.”

A potential customer commented:

“This card has no reward points as I am used to but gives a profit sharing percentage back. I havent used the card yet and I am on the fence whether the profit sharing is better than rebate points.”

Gamification keeps the community engaged

In addition to incentivizing good behavior, Barclays is using elements of gamification to encourage active participation and to reward active participants.

Fast Company’s Kit Eaton noted:

“It’s all about promoting active user involvement in adjustments and refinements to Ring’s ongoing financial design…

“If you actively participate to improve the Ring experience and performance, then you’ll be rewarded–using mechanisms that the community itself can adjust. That’s brilliant, as it could mean the users themselves are working to refine Barclaycard’s own design, for their own gain as well as Barclaycard’s.”

Card members can view their participation or ‘achievements’ online, as well as their latest community standing – depicted by the colors on their badge or “ring”.

Source: lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/lithium-s-view-blog

Credit card analyst Jenna Herron explained how the badges work:

“The creators of Barclaycard Ring and the online community realized that part of social media is creating status. Think of Foursquare’s mayorship, Pinterest’s repins, Twitter’s retweets or getting dozens of “likes” on a Facebook post. So Barclaycard introduced “badges.”

“Cardholders earn badges by behaving in a way that helps the card’s community… Once you earn a badge, your online avatar receives a ring of color. The more colors, the more badges.”

Benefits to Barclays

The active channel of communication between Barclaycard Ring and the community helps the bank collect real time feedback around features. For example, in a blog post titled  “Crowdsourcing the Design of Your Card,” Barclay’s Jared crowdsourced views on RFID chip enabled credit cards:

“The RFID chip – Is it worth the $1 per card? It seems to me like the community is pretty split over this one. Will mobile payments surpass RFID chip technology and make it obsolete, or will more merchants start accepting RFID making it a nice feature?”

In addition, the model of changing policies over time – with card member support – gives Barclays a great playing field to experiment with new policies, like getting rid of the 1% foreign country fee. Card members can choose to support the experiment and are equally responsible for its success or failure.

Source: community.barclaycardus.com/t5/Barclaycard-Ring-Public-Blog

Promoting transparency & understanding of the credit card business

Another notable aspect of Barclaycard Ring is the culture of sharing information freely with card members. Community managers candidly explain the cost of various transactions and the monthly earnings from each transaction.

They also share overall performance results on a monthly basis along with an analysis of what worked and external events that impacted results – giving card members a better understanding of the impact of their decisions.

Source: facebook.com/BarclaycardRing

Can the Barclaycard Ring also promote larger financial literacy?

Thinkers, card members and the Barclaycard Ring team believe the Ring community has an opportunity to promote financial literacy amongst members.

Julia Roy, digital influencer and card member, envisions more discussion around financial health in the Barclaycard Ring community:

“The number of active community members at this points is pretty small and conversations in the forums is mostly centered around questions and issues specific to the card, versus discussions around more personal financial matters. I am hoping that the conversations shifts from technical questions about the card to more in-depth conversations about financial learnings and financial health.”

And, Barclays too is exploring this space with the introduction of The Financial Planter series in honor of Financial Literacy Month:

 “Starting in May we will be introducing a year-long series called “The Financial Planter.” We will spend a few months on each stage, using the 2nd week of every month for a specific topic related to that stage. An in-depth blog post will be published on Monday, then on Wednesday we will feature third-party articles, set up a Q&A or interview an industry expert to get another point of view. And, Friday will focus on “fun” with a variety of Do’s/Don’ts, videos, fun apps or other light-hearted materials to make you smile.”

Paloma Vega, Director of Consumer Practice at Andreoli MSL and member of the MSLGROUP Insights Network, highlights the important of financial literacy for consumers and banks alike.

Source: peopleslab.mslgroup.com

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MSLGROUP’s People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform also enables our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-specific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities.

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As an example, 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on corporate citizenship, crowdsourcing, storytelling and social data on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have synthesized the insights from  2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part  People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.

As you can imagine, we can bring the same innovative approach to help you distill insights and foresights from conversations and communities. To start a conversation on how we can help you win with insights and foresights, write to Pascal Beucler at pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com.

What is Amex Sync on Twitter? 

In 2012, American Express introduced Amex Sync on Twitter, which allows card members to sync their card to their Twitter account and earn credits by tweeting special hashtags. In early 2013, American Express introduced a new feature to this program, which allows card members to make direct purchases by tweeting special hashtags.

Source: abcnews.go.com

Blogger Adi Robertson highlights the significance:

“The results here are functionally similar, but you’re not just doing some advertising in exchange for credit — you’re putting an actual purchase history online and asking American Express to charge your card through Twitter.”

Thinkers, bloggers, marketers and American Express card members note that this move further streamlines the process of shopping online, and speculate upon  the role financial institutions and social networks will play in the future of ecommerce. Several have also shared privacy and security concerns over merging their banking and social media accounts.

How it works  

Card members sync their accounts online at the American Express website, and then follow @AmericanExpress to find out about the latest credit offers and purchase offers from American Express and its partners. CNN’s Heather Kelly explains the process of loading credit offers on their cards:

“On Twitter, you tweet the hashtag for an offer and then go make the purchase in person or through a separate online store. The discount is then applied to your American Express account within eight weeks.”

Card members must use their synced card when making purchases at partnering stores.

Source: twitter.com/AmericanExpress/favorites

Social Commerce Today’s Paul Marsden explains the process of making direct purchases through tweets:

 “Amex cardholders sync their Amex card with Twitter at sync.americanexpress.com/twitter. Then, when Amex/Amex retailers offer deals (published in the @AmericanExpress Twitter feed), cardholders can buy them by simply tweeting the deal’s special hashtag – e.g. #BuyAmexGiftCard25.”

Source: sync.americanexpress.com/twitter

To prevent accidental purchases, Amex requires a second, confirmation tweet. TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas notes:

“Payments are made by tweeting a purchase hashtag, and retweeting the confirmation tweet from Amex within 15 minutes of receiving it. The product will then be shipped to the account billing address synced with Twitter, and payment taken from your synced Amex account.”

Amex Sync On Twitter – American Express

Irresistible launch offer

American Express launched the new feature with an irresistible offer – buy a $25 Amex gift card for $15. Bloggers and online media spread word about the offer, as did card members who tweeted to avail of it.

Source: twitter.com/sirradiodude (spotted on TechCrunch)

Discounts are an increasingly common – and effective – way for brands to promote their online & mobile payment initiatives. For instance, in mid-2012, Starbucks made headlines for selling a record 1.5 million $10 virtual gift cards on daily deals site LivingSocial at a discount of 50%. Strategist Jeremy Jacobs attributes this rise in real-time and impulse sales to increased connectivity on mobile devices:

“Putting the right offer in the right context in the right time frame is so much easier now than it ever was before, so consumers are responding by being willing to say, no matter where I am at  – whether at home watching TV or at my kid’s soccer game – I can make this purchase right away.”

In addition to the $25 Amex gift card, card members could also choose to purchase other items, such as an Amazon Kindle Fire HD or Microsoft Xbox 360, at discounted rates.

Commitment to social

In addition to Amex Sync on Twitter, American Express also engages card members on Foursquare and Facebook. As Mashable’s Todd Wasserman reported:

“Last July, the brand launched a program called “Link, Like, Love” that tailored deals to you based on your Facebook “likes.” (For instance, if you “liked” Whole Foods, you might see an offer on your Facebook dashboard.) The brand also linked with Foursquare last June for a national program that rewarded users with a loyalty card-like credit when they checked in.”

Source: support.foursquare.com

Other social American Express initiatives include the Social Rewards campaign in 2011, which, as AdAge’s Beth Snyder Bulik noted, encouraged “customers to think about spending rewards points in less traditional ways” and share their experience on Facebook:

“What’s the most memorable thing you’ve picked up with Membership Rewards points — great trip, cool gadget? Do tell!”

Bloggers and thinkers, like Fast Company’s Austin Carr, believe that American Express’ social media partnerships and initiatives help differentiate the brand as a modern-day social company:

“With the [Twitter] partnership, AmEx helps fortify its role as the credit card for the social media generation.”

Source:  fastcompany.com

“Social spending”

Similar to the Social Reward campaign, Amex Sync on Twitter encourages people to talk about their spends on their social networks, resulting in free promotion for the offer and brands involved. As Mashable’s Todd Wasserman noted:

“For AmEx, the move may be less about boosting a fledgling ecommerce platform and more about promotion; With each hashtag, users give a tacit endorsement to the program and, by extension, the AmEx brand.”

Source: techcrunch.com

This same philosophy is shared at PayWithATweet.com, a service which allows people to exchange their virtual items for a tweet of endorsement:

“In today’s world the value of people talking about your product is sometimes higher than the money you would get for it.”

Some thinkers, like Red Ant CEO Dan Mortimer, note that the purchase-with-a-tweet feature streamlines the shopping experience, but doubt that convenience is the only criteria for online shoppers:

“Shortening the payment cycle for impulse purchases through social is certainly an interesting field and should definitely be followed closely by certain retailers. The timing of the announcement by Amex, one week after Twitter is hacked and loses 250,000 passwords is certainly very brave as is the assumption that consumers want to make all of their purchases public and traceable.”

Ecommerce implications

Marketers note the Amex Sync on Twitter program presents ample opportunity for measurement which can help Amex develop its program further, glean insights from consumers and share this back with partners. Some, like Paul Marsden, believe the program paves the way for American Express to enter the ecommerce field:

“The Amex pay-by-tweet initiative is part of a broad industry move for financial services companies to get more intimately involved with e-commerce.”

Fast Company’s Austin Carr remarked:

“AmEx aims to be the connective tissue between merchants and consumers on social media that will provide a mix of offers, data, and branding to its members.”

Source: adweek.com

Consequently, several thinkers believe the program can help Twitter establish its validity as an ecommerce platform. GigaOm’s Eliza Kern pointed out:

“Most of Twitter’s monetization efforts so far have come through marketing and advertising, such as promoted tweets which now cost up to $200,000 a day, but this partnership that allows purchases through tweets could move the company toward e-commerce opportunities as well.”

WSJ technology reporter Shira Ovide shared a similar view:

“Marketers for the most part devote a small chunk of their advertising budgets to Twitter, partly because it’s tough to prove a tweet or an ad on Twitter leads to a sale. Being able to directly show consumers seeing a Twitter message and buying a product may prove that connection.”

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MSLGROUP’s People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform also enables our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-specific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities.

[Can't see this Slideshare presentation? Click here to view it directly on Slideshare.net]

As an example, 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on corporate citizenship, crowdsourcing, storytelling and social data on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have synthesized the insights from  2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part  People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.

As you can imagine, we can bring the same innovative approach to help you distill insights and foresights from conversations and communities. To start a conversation on how we can help you win with insights and foresights, write to Pascal Beucler at pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com.

If there is one word that would describe our two-year-plus journey that has led to MSLGROUP Social Hive India, it would be “FUN”. How could it be anything else! Dangerous, perhaps?  Enthusiasm and a team that contributes at every level, in every possible way, has led us through pitches, execution and world-class campaigns.

Of course, every one of us has a point of view on pretty much everything; which has led to strong disagreements, animated fights and the sort of posturing and aggression you only see amongst professional wrestlers in colorful tights.

All of it has been worth it. Because, what’s come out from our passionate debates are ideas and thoughts that reinforce our philosophy of being Storytellers for the Conversation Age.
We began at a simple place – when brands become stories, people get more engaged with them. After all, there is nothing more human than a story. It’s how we know each other, connect with each other, love and hate each other. The tale, the epic, the narrative, is central to our being. Good stories outlive the storyteller. Great stories are immortal. That’s the approach we bring to our work.
Every one of us is different, with a unique set of skills, but most importantly with a unique story. We find strength in our diversity — be it our Gen Y teams, our clients, or the tools and planning framework we use — it all adds up.
We are terribly excited about the launch of Social Hive India and hope some of the excitement rubs-off on you too. Have a look at our website www.india.mslgroup.com/socialhive and our video too … hope you enjoy it.

Cheers,

The MSLGROUP India Social Hive Team

Parveez Modak
Senior Vice President

Narendra Nag
Vice President

What are Social Live Experiences?

Social live experiences blend technology, community and location to create immersive experiences that blur the boundaries between online and offline.

Source: pochacco20 on Flickr

The rise of social live experiences can be attributed to three broad trends. First, people are constantly live-streaming their experiences by posting updates, photos, videos and check-ins through location-aware smart phones and tablets, creating a dynamic stream of location-based content. Second, social networks are integrating online and offline experiences through features like single-click check-in and location-tagged content sharing on multiple networks (for instance: Instagram toFlickr, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare). Third, social networks are opening up their APIs, including social graph and location data, so that others can build applications that connect people around locations.

As a result, people are seamlessly transitioning between online and offline events and connections, and organizations are creating real-time experiences that merge, even transcend, the physical and the virtual.

Consider the proliferation of location based social networks beyond Foursquare (video). Some entrepreneurs are using social network APIs to build location-based mashups (Sonar, Banjo (video), Highlight) and augmented reality apps (Google Glass (video), AcrossAir (video), Nokia City Lens (video)) that connect people and experiences around locations, often by highlighting “people and experiences near you”. Others are creating niche location-based real-time social networks around sharing rides (Waze (video)), public transport (Moovit (video)), runs (MapMyRun (video)), and dishes (FoodSpotting (video)), or completing challenges (SCVNGR (video)). These location-based social networks, along with the ubiquity of location data in popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, have made it possible for organizations to create seamless social live experiences at scale.

Google Glass

The most visible examples of such experiences are large political, entertainment or sports events. Even as journalists and spectators at the venue share first-hand experiences with their networks through location-tagged status updates, check-ins, blog posts, photos, videos, and live-streams (UStream, LiveStream, Vyclone, Google Hangouts), a larger group of people join the conversations by sharing, commenting on, remixing and curating this content (Storify (video)), checking in to live television broadcasts (GetGlue, GoMiso, Viggle), and contributing original analysis and opinions on blogs and video blogs. While all major public events, all over the world, are becoming live social experiences on their own, event organizers, social networks and media organizations are increasingly creating social curation platforms to act as hubs that connect people and content around such events (IHeartRadio’s Twitter Tracker, Grammy Live, CNN/ Facebook U.S. Presidential Inauguration, OccupyStreams).

Conference and expo organizers are also using social media to transform events into live social experiences, amplify their impact beyond the venue, and connect attendees to create a community. Some organizers are even creating custom mobile apps to help event attendees network, share content and stay in touch (SXSW Social / SXSW Go (video), Mobile World Conference, BlogWorld & New Media Expo, Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum, Amazon re:invent, Guardian Changing Media Summit, NY Craft Beer Week). Other organizers are creating private networks to live-stream the event to extend their reach to a wider community of subscribers (TED Live).

SXSW Go

Finally, public spaces are using technology, including QR codes, to enhance the experience for visitors by adding a virtual layer. New York’s Central Park transformed the park into an interactive game board for its World Park campaign with QR code clues and content all over the park. Sweden’s Gothenburg city created a Tram Sightseeing App (video) to help visitors get a geo-tagged guided tour at the price of a tram ticket. Several museums and institutions in Amsterdam use the Museum App to create QR code enabled interactive guided tours of cultural locations in the city. New Delhi’s Turquoise Cottage bar used QR code admittance stamps to share time-sensitive updates with patrons throughout their Christmas Eve celebrations. The Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra created a unique concert with musicians spread all over the city, and the music being synced in real time online. However, many of these initiatives haven’t fully integrated social sharing and community building into the experience yet.

Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra

Some of these initiatives have had significant scale. For instance, 2 million Facebook status updates were published onCNN.com/live during the U.S. Presidential Inauguration in 2009 and 3 million photos have been uploaded to Foodspotting. The scale and success of these initiatives show that the boundaries between online and offline experiences have blurred beyond recognition and all experiences are likely to become both social and live.

How do Social Live Experiences work?

Social live experiences are spread over a vast and varied territory which has overlaps with other frontiers of engagement we have covered before, including social curation, collective intelligence and transmedia storytelling. However, all social live experience platforms and programs have three common characteristics: a hybrid physical-virtual experience, real-time tracking plus social sharing, and value creation through the physical-virtual interplay.

Social live experiences are often set in a specific physical space, like a park, museum, stadium, hotel, restaurant, or store, but they can also take place out in the streets. Sometimes, the primary aim is to engage the people present at the venue, or in a specific city (SXSW Go); sometimes, a secondary aim is to use social media amplification to attract more people at the venue (Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra); sometimes, especially with large broadcast events, the aim is primarily to use social media to amplify the on-site experience to engage audiences who are not physically present (Grammy Live).

Real-time tracking and social sharing are integral elements in social live experiences. People can do real-time tracking automatically through location-aware smart phones (Waze) and sensor-enabled devices (Nike Fuel Band), or manually through social media updates and check-ins (FoodSpotting). These data streams and updates are then aggregated and displayed on maps (IHeartRadio’s Twitter Tracker) and, sometimes, streams (Storify) to enable social sharing. Social sharing is usually manual, enabled by social sign-ins, one-click sharing and linked social accounts, but it can also happen automatically, by automatic posting of runs or rides on social networks (Nike Fuel Band), or automatic alerts on people and experiences near you (Highlight).

Finally, social live experiences are so compelling because they create unique value through the interplay between the physical and the virtual. Sometimes, this value lies in increased intelligence about our own behavior (Nike Fuel Band), our own network, our city (Waze) or country (CNN/ Facebook U.S. Presidential Inauguration), or the entire world (FoodSpotting). Sometimes, this value lies in serendipitous discovery of people (Highlight) and experiences (SXSW Go) near us. Sometimes, this value lies in more meaningful connections with friends in our network (Google Glass), or strangers who share similar interests (OccupyStreams).

Social Live Experiences for Brands

The easiest way for brands to create live social experiences is to make it easy for people who are already participating in offline brand events to share their experiences on social media. Many brands are already using sophisticated social, mobile and geo-local technologies to create memorable experiences, then creating viral videos based on these experiences (T-Mobile Angry Birds Live; Mercedes Key To Viano). Some brands are designing these experiences so that sharing the experience with friends is intrinsic to enjoying the experience itself. For instance, Unilever created the Share Happy interactive vending machines that uses facial recognition technology to measure smiles, rewards big smiles with free ice cream, and encourages users to share their smiles on Facebook. Goertz created an interactive virtual shoe fitting display that enabled users to try out any shoe from the catalog and share photos with their Facebook friends to ask for their opinions. Coca-Cola used RFID enabled wristbands to encourage teenage visitors at a Coca Cola theme park to seamlessly tag and share photos on Facebook. Anthon Berg used iPads in store to give away free chocolate to people who committed to do small acts of generosity for friends and family members.

Coca-Cola Village

Some live social experiences go from online to offline back to online. Some brands are tracking online conversations to find opportunities to engage in real-time, real-life random acts of kindness, which encourage the delighted recipients to talk about the experience online, creating valuable word of mouth. For instance, Orbit White in Israel gifted chewing gum hampers to people who checked in at cafes. KLM in Amsterdam surprised travelers who shared an update or check-in about their KLM flight with relevant gifts, based on their previous updates. Kleenex in Israel gifted a Kleenex Kit to people who shared a status update on Facebook about being sick. Kotex in Israel gifted a craft item to women influencers based on the items they had previously pinned on their own Pinterest boards.

KLM Surprise

Other brands have created activations that people kick start through online actions or submissions, but result in a compelling experience in a physical space. Coca-Cola reimagined their iconic Hilltop ad for the networked age by enabling people to share a coke with a stranger through their mobile phones, then capturing the receivers’ surprise as they received the Coke at specially designed vending machines all over the world. Ariel created a game where online influencers used a Facebook app to shoot paint at white designer clothes in a physical exhibit at Stockholm airport, then cleaned the clothes and gifted them to the influencers. Nike and Livestrong created a “chalkbot” that printed messages received from supporters on social media on streets all along the Tour de France route. C&A in Brazil asked fans to like clothes on their Facebook page, then displayed the like count on hangers inside the stores to help female shoppers make better shopping decisions.

Ariel Fashion Shoot

Many brands are also creating elaborate technology-enabled games, reality shows and treasure hunts that engage people both online and offline. Playground in Sweden asked shoppers at the hiking equipment store to support one of three fitness enthusiasts in a competition to stay awake for the longest time, and returned the money to the winner’s supporters. Mini Gateway created an iPhone app to invite Stockholm residents to catch and keep a virtual Mini, to win a real Mini Gateway. Jimmy Choo asked fans in New York to track its Foursquare check-ins to be the first to claim a pair of trainers at the check-in locations. Levi’s asked fans in Australia and New Zealand to track Twitter updates to be the first to claim a pair of Levi’s at the checked in locations. Nike invited London Nike+ users to claim a street by unlocking codes at phone booths and winning points by running through specific routes. Samsung rewarded fans for recording their walks, runs or rides during the London Olympics on the Samsung Hope Relay app by contributing to charities.

Nike Grid

Finally, the most progressive brands are creating devices and smart phone applications that enable consumers to use their products in a more meaningful way, by enhancing the product experience through sensor-enabled virtual self-tracking and community-sharing. For instance, Nike FuelBand (video) enables people to track their activities and workouts on the Nike+ community to analyze their own progress and compare or share their activity levels with their network. Volkswagen Smileage (video) enabled Volkswagen owners to track their drives, record memorable moments and share them with their networks. Stella Artois created an augmented reality bar guide to help people find and share bars that serve the brand.

Volkswagen Smileage

Social Live Experiences case studies

Throughout the year, we have tracked the conversations around a number of social live experiences and branded programs in our weekly insights reports and quarterly magazines; here are a few highlights.

Branded program: Anthon Berg Generous Store

Read the full case study on our blog or on Slideshare

Source: Facebook.com/AnthonBerg

In February 2012, chocolatier Anthon Berg set up a one-day pop up store in downtown Copenhagen, Denmark and invited people to pay for chocolate with good deeds, like “Serve breakfast in bed to your loved one,’ and ‘Help clean your friend’s house.’ To hold people to their promises, Anthon Berg staff provided iPads at check out and asked people to log on to Facebook and pledge the good deed on a friend’s Facebook wall.

Within 24 hours of the pop-up store event, 150,000 feeds were posted on the Anthon Berg Facebook page. This included the pledges people made while ‘purchasing’ the chocolates at the store, and follow up posts after they had carried out the good deeds, like this one:

Source: youtu.be

With the Generous Store, Anthon Berg was able to increase its social reach and reinforce its brand promise – “You can never be too generous.” As Lana Markovic, a blogger at Branding Magazine, noted:

“Is there a better way of getting customers’ attention than by giving them free chocolates and at the same time getting them to make someone else happy? With this campaign, the Danish chocolatier managed to reinforce its leading statement – by inspiring people to be more generous the company has created a happier society, and the brand’s popularity has been reestablished.”

A video that documents the activation has received 118,000 views on YouTube.

Generous Store

Branded program: Hilltop Re-imagined for Coca-Cola

Read the full case study on our blog or on Slideshare

Source: projectrebrief.com/coke

In 2011, Google partnered with Coca-Cola to re-create the iconic 1971 Hilltop TV commercial for a digital era, enabling people to “buy the world a Coke” in real time, using their mobile phones and Google technologies.

Mashable’s Todd Wasserman explains the process:

“Using the mobile app, a consumer in New York could buy a Coke for someone in Buenos Aires. In addition, that consumer could watch a video using Google Maps and Street View to see the can traveling across the globe. After the recipient gets the Coke from one of the custom vending machines, the sender can watch a video of the person’s surprised reaction and perhaps get a thank-you note, if the recipient chooses to do so. Later, the sender can pass on the video to friends on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.”

People could initiate the activation via a mobile app and interactive display ads on YouTube.

Project Re: Brief – Coca-Cola

Marketer Amanda Jennison commented that the campaign delivers on Coca-Cola’s brand promise of Open Happiness and inspires people to become brand advocates:

“Not only does this get fans involved through a mobile app, it also creates the mindset of wanting to share the happiness that a Coke evokes to a complete stranger. At Bates Creative, that’s why we think Coca-Cola is a brand that gets It. It’s all about inspiring your audience to become an active member for your brand.”

Google’s Jim Lecinski believes: the campaign demonstrates the creative potential of the digital medium for marketers:

“We started to think about how Web ads can move from being informative and transactional to delighting and engaging, stirring the soul and building a brand.”

Project Re:Brief – Coca-Cola has received widespread coverage and was awarded the inaugural Mobile Lions Grand Prix at Cannes in 2012.

The Future of Social Live Experiences

We believe that both location-aware smart-phones and sensor-enabled devices will become ubiquitous in the near future, and almost all physical events, experiences and spaces will become social live experiences.

We expect that many location-based social networks will add augmented reality features and many augmented reality apps will add social networking features, so the boundaries between the two will blur. We expect more niche location-based social networks and augmented reality apps to emerge around niche interests and activities like live music, street art, hiking, swimming, driving and cycling. We also expect branded versions of these networks and apps, primarily by product brands that want to extend their experience (Volkswagen Smileage, Nike+), but also by brands who wish to be seen as curators of popular culture (Stella Artois Le Bar Guide).

We expect all public or semi-public spaces like parks, stadiums, museums, and event venues to build the infrastructure — including Wi-Fi connectivity, NFC or QR code stations, live-streaming equipment and sensor networks — to enable social live experiences. Event app platforms like QuickMobile (video), EventMobi (video), CrowdCompass(video), Guidebook (video), DoubleDutch (video), Grupio, Conference Compass (video) and MuseumApp already enable event organizers to create custom smart phone apps. We expect them to increasingly become specialized around niches like conferences, music festivals, and public spaces. We expect organizations and brands to use these tools to design delightful experiences that encourage attendees to share updates and photos across their social networks, creating word of mouth and increasing the reach of the programs and events.

Finally, many brands have already integrated digital elements – like QR codes and touch screens – into their retail experiences. We expect more brands to transform their retail experiences into social live experiences, by encouraging shoppers to share messages or photos on their friends’ social networks to avail of discounts or shopping advice, bringing online reviews into the store to help shoppers make better shopping decisions, and creating in-store activations that people can participate in online.

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This is the ninth report from our upcoming People’s Insights Annual Report titled “Now & Next: Future of Engagement,” to be published as an interactive iPad app. The report will highlight the ten most important frontiers that will define the future of engagement for marketers, entrepreneurs and changemakers: Crowdfunding, Behavior Change Games, Collaborative Social Innovation, Grassroots Change Movements, Co-creation Communities, Social Curation, Transmedia Storytelling, Collective Intelligence, Social Live Experiences and Collaborative Consumption.

In each of these reports, we start by describing why they are important, how they work, and how brands might benefit from them; we then examine web platforms and brand programs that point to the future (that is already here); then finish by identifying some of the most important features of that future, with our recommendations on how to benefit from them.

Do subscribe to the People’s Lab email newsletter to receive each report and also an invite to download a free copy of the interactive iPad app.

What is 365 Days of Positive Power?

365 Days of Positive Power, a part of the larger Alpenliebe Kindness Movement, aims to inspire Chinese youth to actively live a life of kindness. Alpenliebe created a new infographic every day with a specific call to action, to inspire fans to spread positive power through acts of kindness.

Source: e.weibo.com

Since 2011, MSLGROUP has helped Alpenliebe convert kindness into a shared purpose or social heartbeat, and catalyze a movement to inspire, organize and energize millions of Chinese youth to share, appreciate and engage in everyday acts of kindness. In 2011, an engaged community of 150,000+ members shared 151,000+ kindness stories and 3,270,000+ shares and comments across social networks, and the success of the campaign led to 330+ print articles and TV reports.

In 2012, the community grew to more than 600,000 members and engaged in 3.1 million shares and comments across social networks, making Alpenliebe the third most influential brand on Sina Weibo.

Year 1: Building an emotional connection

In the first year of the movement, Alpenliebe established the brand purpose “Sweeten China with Small Acts of Kindness.”

Scott Goodson, author of the movement marketing book Uprising, summarizes how movement marketing works:

“You start by identifying a powerful idea on the rise in culture. You then join, fuel and add real tangible value to the idea through innovative marketing and social media. People who share the passion for the idea join the cause. And rally others to get involved too. And so, a movement is born, which smart brands can profit from.”

Alpenliebe created a series of kindness videos on Tudou and a TV series with its celebrity kindness ambassador, crowdsourced kindness stories on a Renren minisite, partnered with key opinion leaders, created conversations across the social web, organized kindness trips with non-profit partners, compiled the most inspiring stories into a kindness bible, and honored them on the world kindness day.

Alpenliebe Perfetti Kindness Movement

Year one also served as period of gathering insights. Alpenliebe tracked people’s interests, response to posts and preference of social actions, and used this knowledge to create the strategy for year two.

(See our People’s Insights weekly report on the Alpenliebe Kindness Movement)

Year 2: Building brand re-call

Alpenliebe leveraged learning from Year 1 to select Sina Weibo as the primary platform for driving viral change, tailor a content strategy around the preferences of its community and identify super fans and grassroots influencers. The brand then focused on energizing people to participate regularly with daily compelling content and badges as rewards.

MSL China’s Owen Wang explained that the content plan incorporated both trending topics and relevant news to capture people’s attention, and specific call-to-actions to inspire action. The positive theme of the campaign also helped rally supoort:

“I think it’s the Daily call-to-action mechanism which encourages people to share kindness and love when the weibo environment (or even the overall on-line environment of China) is filled with negative message and complains.”

For instance, a single post from Alpenliebe inviting people to share photos of their smiles on World Smile Day inspired 1,000 people to participate.

As co-founder of Purpose and movement maven Jeremy Heimans, pointed out:

 “Participation requires infrastructure – and strategy”

To be successful, movements also require a base of energized and passionate people.  Susannah Vila, co-founder of social advocacy think-tank the engine room, explains how to attract and manage influencers:

“To move others in your direction you have to understand them, work within their behavior instead of trying to change it, and adapt your tactics and messages to them. Figure out the types of people that will be most receptive to your campaign and get to know them. Then approach them where they are already getting and sharing information.”

Alpenliebe introduced badges to encourage social actions such as commenting, re-posting and responding to call-to-actions. Upon interacting with the 365 Days of Positive Power application, people would receive a badge on their Sina Weibo profile page.

Gamification elements like badges are an effective incentive, can be addicting and help maintain enthusiasm and participation over time – especially where there are a wide range of badges people can earn (see 4SquareBadges List and Nike+ Trophy Collection).

In our Future of Engagement essay on Behavior Change Games, we explain the role of incentives – like badges, points and prizes – in shaping actions:

“Incentives are effective in attracting first-time players, helping them get started and creating fun and excitement. After they are hooked and begin to successfully complete missions, players receive the ultimate incentive to keep playing – they see a change in their behavior and experience a sense of pride and self-empowerment.”

Real-time campaigns

Increasingly, we are seeing brands embrace the real-time nature of social networks like Twitter and Sina Weibo. Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter’s VP of Global Brand Strategy succinctly summarizes this shift:

“We’re moving from a world where we plan campaigns for the future, to one where we adapt campaigns to the moment.”

Source: mediapost.com

Alpenliebe target fans’ passion and energy around popular interests like football and important events and news, creating content that inspires people to respond or share it on.

This message encourages fans to recall sweet moments and wishes for British footballer Michael Owen when he announced his retirement.

A play on words in reference to the new social term “Beijing Cough”

Real-time posts have higher chances of spreading across the social world, and sometimes reach more people and create more buzz than paid communications – a phenomenon we witnessed with Oreo’s tweet during the recent Super Bowl blackout in the U.S.

Source: wired.com

Purpose-inspired movements

The Alpenliebe Kindness Movement is one of the best examples of purpose-inspired movement marketing from China because of how it inspired behavioral change in Chinese youth through a sustained integrated marketing program across three years.

The movement has also helped Alpenliebe increase sales and stand out in the crowded confectionery category. MSL China’s Owen Wang noted:

“Alpenliebe is regarded as a brand with strong sense of social responsibility on-line, according to our fans survey.”

Source: guardian.co.uk

As Henry Mason, head of research and analytics at independent firm Trendwatching commented:

“For brands, it’s never been easier to surprise and delight audiences; whether sending gifts, responding to publicly-expressed moods or just showing that they care. Via social networks, brands can now access consumers’ moods, intentions, desires or frustrations as they happen, and can therefore address them in a much more personalised and timely fashion.”

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MSLGROUP’s People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform also enables our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-specific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities.

[Can't see this Slideshare presentation? Click here to view it directly on Slideshare.net]

As an example, 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on corporate citizenship, crowdsourcing, storytelling and social data on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have synthesized the insights from  2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part  People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.

As you can imagine, we can bring the same innovative approach to help you distill insights and foresights from conversations and communities. To start a conversation on how we can help you win with insights and foresights, write to Pascal Beucler at pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com.

What is the Smarter Cities Challenge?

IBM launched the Smarter Cities Challenge to collaborate with local governments and co-fund technology-based solutions to city-specific urban challenges. Through the Smarter Cities Challenge, IBM aims to help 100 cities across the world address urban issues with $50 million worth of IBM technology and expertise.

Source: fastcompany.com

IBM focuses on cities that collect data, and leverages its own technology and expertise to integrate city systems and solve problems. As former IBM-er Adam Christensen blogged:

 “Cities have tremendous opportunities to use data, connectivity, and sophisticated software tools to know themselves better and improve their efficiency and effectiveness as providers of services and engines of economic growth.”

The Smarter Cities Challenge was launched as a three-year initiative in 2011. By the end of 2012, IBM has sent 300 experts to work with 60 cities around the world. Winners of the final phase of the challenge were announced in November 2012.

How it works

Cities applied to the challenge online over three years and IBM announced 20 to 35 winners each year.

Blogger Itir Sonuparlak noted:

“In order to receive the funds and the expertise, the cities had to be prepared to match IBM’s investment with their own commitment of time and resources. The submissions that were favored included urban concerns that could be addressed using “smarter” technologies, the availability of data, and cities that demonstrated a record of innovative problem solving.”

IBM Smarter Cities Challenge

A team of IBM experts visits each winning city and spends three weeks working with local authorities to analyze the city and recommend smart city solutions.

Fast Company’s Ariel Schwartz wrote:

“The program… will give $250,000 to $400,000 worth of services to each city selected through the competitive grant process. Those services may include access to City Forward (an IBM tool which allows cities to analyze and visualize data across systems), workshops on social networking tools, time with top IBM talent, and assistance with strategic planning.”

In addition, cities are also introduced to the IBM Intelligent Operations Center, a robust tool that monitors and manages city services, in its effort to create smarter cities.

Writer Heidi Schwartz noted:

 “These pilots leverage IBM technology and will combine high volumes of data from sensors and databases (aka “Big Data”) with a layer of analytics software. This infrastructure will allow officials to visualize and manage operations more efficiently.”

Writer Rachel King pointed out:

“Essentially, IBM’s concept is to build a new user interface that exists between inhabitants and their city.”

To demonstrate the capabilities of its technology, IBM created the game CityOne – a virtual simulation of an urban city and the challenges it faces. As Fast Company’s Ariel Schwartz noted:

“Cities considering the application process might want to take a look at IBM’s CityOne, a city simulation game intended to help developers and city planners deal with issues related to climate change, electrical grid management, banking and more. The game could, in other words, help cities pinpoint problems that might be alleviated with a little help from IBM.”

IBM CityOne Trailer: A Smarter Planet Game

In their journey to make cities smarter, IBM experts address urban issues ranging from administration, citizen engagement, economic development, education & workforce, environment, public safety, social services, transportation and urban planning.

Source: smartercities.tumblr.com

Then, IBM documents the experience and learning from each city into an executive report or case study and shares this on the Smarter Cities Challenge website – giving other cities and thinkers the opportunity to explore solutions.

Jen Crozier, Vice President of IBM Global Citizenship Initiatives, shared:

“While the first two years of the program were about building expertise and connecting city leaders, the third year of the program will focus on synthesis, and the ways in which the lessons learned from one city can be combined with those from another, to yield unexpected insight into the challenges facing cities.”

IBM’s purpose

The Smarter Cities Challenge is an evolution of both IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative to address sustainable development, and also the IBM Corporate Service Corps pro bono consulting program to assist governments in developing countries with projects that intersect business, technology, and society.

The challenge reflects IBM’s vision of using technology to connect, monitor and analyze systems to create smart systems – smarter grids, smarter traffic management, smarter cities, smarter healthcare, smarter food distribution and so on – to achieve economic growth, sustainable development and societal progress.

As such, Smarter Planet is a part of both IBM’s business strategy as well as its CSR strategy. Edward Boches, Chief Innovation Officer at ad agency Mullen and professor at Boston University, noted:

“It’s a tagline, an ad campaign, a social media program, an attempt to educate customers and influencers, a library of thought leadership, an employee motivational program, and a clearly defined corporate mission.  Most importantly it’s a way to sell IBM and its services by framing the importance of, and the need to, harness the intelligence in the world’s and a company’s connected data.”

Blogger Mary Catherine O’Connor wrote:

“Does this grant project mark the dawn of philanthropy 2.0? Or is it a handy tool for IBM to market its services to urban leaders? It’s both. And for IBM, it’s also a way to advance its Smart Planet platform, which is all about building more efficient systems through analytics, sensor networks, cloud computing, building automation and other systems.”

Source: triplepundit.com

Data, crowds and smart cities

Entrepreneurs, organizations and governments are keenly exploring the use of data, connected objects and crowdsourcing to make cities smarter – especially as cities become more crowded and congested.

Source: fastcompany.com

IBM’s City Forward is an open interactive platform that allows people explore city data and discuss findings with the City Forward community. IBM has also created the community People for a Smarter Planet to connect thinkers and changemakers around this challenge.

City Forward Introduction

Governments too are opening up data and problems to entrepreneurs, coders and citizens, with challenge platforms like Code for America, Data.gov and Challenge Post in the U.S., and Spark Central in the UK.

Anthony Townsend, director of research at the Institute for the Future, argues that cities have a lot to gain by opening up to citizens:

“Why can’t the technology that makes the Web an intuitive and interactive, yet deeply personalized and social realm, be grafted onto the physical world in a similar fashion?…

“In the coming decade each city must strive to be as good a civic laboratory as it can be. It must provide a physical and social support system for hackers and entrepreneurs to experiment within.”

Finally, several entrepreneurs have launched projects to crowdsource ideas on how cities can prepare for the future (see our People’s Insights report on TED’s The City2.0 platform).

Source: thecity2.org

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MSLGROUP’s People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform also enables our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-specific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities.

[Can't see this Slideshare presentation? Click here to view it directly on Slideshare.net]

As an example, 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on corporate citizenship, crowdsourcing, storytelling and social data on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have synthesized the insights from  2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part  People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.

As you can imagine, we can bring the same innovative approach to help you distill insights and foresights from conversations and communities. To start a conversation on how we can help you win with insights and foresights, write to Pascal Beucler at pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com.

viagra

What is the GE NFL Head Health Challenge? 

In March 2013, GE and NFL launched the open innovation Head Health Challenge to mobilize innovators around head health: to help diagnose mild traumatic brain injury and improve the safety of athletes, members of the military and society overall. The challenge is a part of the Head Health Initiative a new four-year, $60 million partnership between GE and NFL to research the brain.

Source: nflgebrainchallenge.com

Forbes’s Monte Burke explains the initiative:

“There will be two parts. The first will involve a $40 million research project headed up by GE, designed to better diagnose mild head trauma and predict its outcomes. The second will be two different challenges, led by Under Armour, but accessible to anyone and called the “open innovation challenge.” The first of those will also involve diagnosis and prognosis. The second will focus on trying to design materials that help protect the head from trauma.” 

Source: forbes.com

The challenge launches amidst growing concerns around the safety of professional footballers. CNN’s Chris Isidore notes the importance of this initiative not only for the NFL, but also the larger public:

“Experts say beyond the legal risks, the growing concern about football’s brain injuries could hurt the sport’s popularity. The threat of brain damage, especially to young players, is prompting a growing number of parents to hold their sons back from playing competitive football…

“People outside of football, including injured members of the military and those with degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, will also benefit from the joint effort.”

How it works 

Like most online collaborative social innovation initiatives, the Head Health Challenge follows a contest model in which GE and NFL post the challenge on a platform and invites individuals, groups of individuals or other organizations to submit innovations.

NY Times’ Judy Battista explains the crowdsourcing process:

“G.E. would run, with an initial investment of $20 million, what it calls an innovation challenge, asking inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists and academicians to submit ideas for how safety equipment could be improved. The most promising ideas would be selected, financed and brought to market, opening the field to ideas that have not sprung from G.E. or helmet manufacturers.”

The $20 million prize money will be spread over the two parts of the challenge. Part I launched in March 2013 and calls for submissions by July 2013. Part II is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2013 and continue into 2014.

Source: ninesights.com

Proposals are judged according to set of technical criteria, and a panel of external medical experts will advise GE and NFL on the selection of awardees. The Head Health Challenge offers two types of Guided Funding Awards designed to enable collaboration between GE and NFL and the award winners. Awards range from $100,000 to $300,000 and will support development of proof of concept. Awardees will receive the cash in installments – the first after agreeing to a guided funding plan with GE and NFL, and the second upon submission of a progress report after six months. This structure instills the need for accountability and protects the interests of GE and NFL, while also providing a structured approach for the award winners.

At the completion of the funding and concept development, winners have the opportunity to discuss additional funding or business relationships with GE and NFL.

Collaborative social innovation at GE

GE has launched several similar open innovation challenges as part of its business strategy, to co-create innovative and sustainable solutions that create shared value. With this model of crowdsourcing, GE is usually looking to invest in or acquire the innovation, or promote it by supporting it with its business scale.

For instance, since the launch of the GE ecomagination Challenge to find innovations in energy and sustainability, GE has committed $134 million to 22 investments and commercial partnerships, granted $1.1 million in seed funding to early stage companies and entrepreneurs, and acquired one of the businesses that entered the challenge.

GE’s $200 Million ecomagination challenge

In addition to the series of ecomagination challenges around sustainable living, GE has also launched a Healthymagination Challenge to find solutions in the fight against breast cancer.

Why open Innovation

New this year is GE’s decision to launch the challenge on open innovation platform NineSigma, which has a community of 2 million solution providers including businesses, universities, government agencies and innovators. The challenge is also open to innovators beyond the NineSigma community.

In a recent TEDx Talk, Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of open innovation platform Innocentive, highlights the benefit of tapping into crowds:

“What we have created are systems where we build large facilities and large buildings full of the researchers that we think can solve the most important problems. We hire the best in the world to work on those problems, but we all know the fundamental limitation of that kind of system. We couldn’t hire all the smartest people in a given field if we wanted to, we can’t.”

On the Head Health Challenge website, GE shares its own experience with crowdsourcing:

“The power of collaboration between diverse networks cannot be overstated. Our experience has shown us that at GE we don’t have all of the solutions, but rather the unique opportunity to seek out great ideas and accelerate their growth. We can leverage our scale and expertise to nurture innovation wherever its seeds grow.”

GE and NFL play complementary roles within their partnership. In an interview with FastCompany, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell noted the need for a partner to process the proposals and derive solutions:

“I must get several proposals a day: ‘We have a solution,’ ‘We have the next best material,’ ‘We’ve got the helmet.’ We don’t have a disciplined system to evaluate and learn from each of those, because it’s usually not one or the other. Maybe it’s the combination. That’s the challenge of innovation.”

And, GE CEO Jeff Immelt pointed out NFL’s potential to “make brain advancements a public priority”:

“With a lot of research, you really want a catalyst so other people will join in. Very few institutions have the convening power that the NFL does.”

Big data and sensors in healthcare

One of the possible areas of innovation in the Head Health Challenge involves the use of sensors as a research tool. As Education Week’s Bryan Toprek notes:

“In an interview with the Associated Press after Monday’s announcement, Goodell mentioned the possibility of players wearing helmets with sensors to help detect hits that could cause concussions. Such helmets are already being used by researchers to determine the severity of hits during youth-football practices, for instance.”

Source: bigstory.ap.org

In our previous People’s Insights reports, we have examined the use of sensors, wearable tech and data to drive behavioral change and help people make better decisions (see our weekly report on the Nike FuelBand. These technologies are now becoming more common as start-ups and big health care companies explore the use of sensors and data as a research tool, to identify new patterns.

GigaOM’s Ki Mae Heussner notes:

“In the last couple of months, startups like Brain Sentry and X2 Biosystems, which use sensors to monitor head impact, have attracted funding from investors.”

Heussner also notes:

“Already, big companies and emerging startups are leading the way in the smart use of data. At GigaOM’s recent Structure: Data conference, Aetna’s head of innovation Michael Palmer talked about how the company is using data to prevent diabetes and heart attacks. Startup Asthmapolis (which this week raised $5 million) is using GPS data collected via sensors attached to inhalers to help individuals, physicians and public health officials uncover asthma-related patterns.”

We cover the rise of data and sensors in our annual reports on Behavior Change Games and Collective Intelligence.

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MSLGROUP’s People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform also enables our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-specific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities.

[Can't see this Slideshare presentation? Click here to view it directly on Slideshare.net]

As an example, 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on corporate citizenship, crowdsourcing, storytelling and social data on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have synthesized the insights from  2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part  People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.

As you can imagine, we can bring the same innovative approach to help you distill insights and foresights from conversations and communities. To start a conversation on how we can help you win with insights and foresights, write to Pascal Beucler at pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com.

What is the Shell Eco-marathon?

The Shell Eco-marathon is collaborative social innovation challenge that inspires students and young engineers around the world to design and build the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles. The Shell Eco-marathon traces its roots to 1939 when it was an internal  challenge amongst employees. Now, the eco-marathon takes place annually in three continents – the Americas, Europe and as of 2012, Asia. Students compete for cash prizes and the opportunity to set new records.

Shaun Stone, team manager, Aston University noted:

“The purpose of the competition is to go as far as possible on 1 litre of fuel, with off track awards for aspects such as sustainability and design also available.”

Shell Eco-Marathon Legacy

Through the eco-marathon, Shell aims to inspire a new generation of engineers passionate about sustainable mobility. In recent years, Shell has begun opening up the event to the public through offline labs at the Shell Eco-marathon in Europe and the Americas, an online Shell Energy Run Game on Facebook, and a series of blog posts and videos documenting behind-the-scenes action.

Source: shell.com

The initiative has achieved significant scale – 513 teams from 45 countries are participating in the Shell Eco-marathon this year.

How it works

Students spend a year in designing, building and testing their vehicles. Students can choose from two types of vehicles and seven types of fuel:

“The Prototype class focuses on maximum efficiency, while passenger comfort takes a back seat. The UrbanConcept class encourages more practical designs Cars enter one of seven categories to run on conventional petrol and diesel, biofuels, fuel made from natural gas (GTL), hydrogen, solar or electricity.”

Shell uses Facebook as its central platform of coordination, with invite-only groups for each region. Here, students and Shell representatives answer technical questions and clarify contest rules. In addition, Shell uses YouTube to share information around event logistics, technical engineering concepts, and even an animated video of the track.

Source: facebook.com/groups

Finally, students compete in the annual race on city streets or on a professional circuit:

“Over several days, teams make as many attempts as possible to travel the furthest on the equivalent of one litre of fuel. Cars drive a fixed number of laps around the circuit at a set speed. Organisers calculate their energy efficiency and name a winner in each class and for each energy source.”

Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2012 from Rotterdam

Integration at schools and universities

Some schools and universities incorporate the eco-marathon into a course, or invite students to work on the project as part of their thesis. Others incorporate it as an extra-curricular activity and students receive no credit. In both cases, a faculty member usually acts as an advisor to the student team. Sometimes, students develop the cars over years, as older students graduate and new students join the teams.  As a result, universities produce multiple, diverse eco-cars and students can build on past efforts.

The team at Chalmers University of Technology reflected:

“At the competition we realized that it was not that easy to complete a race, and definitely not to be competitive. Many teams had spent several years and (in some cases) several millions and it was clear that we would have to wait a few years before we could expect to be among the best.”

Indeed, some schools, like Purdue University, have been building eco cars since 1993 and participating in the Shell Eco-marathon since 2008. Purdue Solar Racing even showcased their eco car at the recent New York International Auto Show.

Source: pcmag.com

Prepares students for the real world

The Shell Eco-marathon is a good outlet for students to test their skills and creations, to face real world challenges and to explore a future in engineering and sustainable mobility.

A staff report in The News Star notes:

“The Tech students, who come from many different academic degree programs, participate in the project as volunteers and do not get class credit. They design, build, paint and test the cars on their own time, usually in the evenings, after class and on weekends. They also assist with fundraising and publicity. While employing skills they learn in the classroom, these students are also developing leadership and project management skills that will serve them throughout their careers.”

Source: stalbertgazette.com

Engineering junior and participant John Rockwell reflected:

“There’s a lot of stuff I’ve learned on this team that I wouldn’t be able to normally. Working with companies and sponsors … you definitely don’t get that just sitting in a class.”

Journalist Christine Des Garennes reported:

“The prize is a trophy and $2,000, but the real reward, many [University of Illinois] team members said, has been the learning experience that has come along with designing the vehicle and working with a group of students with backgrounds in a wide range of subjects.”

Faculty advisor of the Saint Thomas Academy Experimental Vehicle Team Mark Westlake reflected on the experience:

“Members of your team tend to blossom when given enough time to fail. Students surprised me with how creative they were and how willing they are to learn new skills.”

Engaging the public

Online, Shell engages people around the event through video series such as the two part “Road to Houston.” Structured like a reality show, the series documents the behind-the-scenes activity and challenges faced by the teams in preparing for the contest. Other video series feature the teams participating or cover live events at the various Shell Eco-Marathons. In addition, Shell partnered with National Geographic to cover the eco-marathon on National Geographic’s The Great Energy Challenge Blog. Participants and Shell community managers contribute to the blog. Many students also document their own experience and design process online on Facebook or on team websites and blogs (Chalmers University of Technology, Aston University).

In 2012, Shell launched a social game on Facebook, the Shell Energy Run Game, that enables people to participate in the Eco-marathon virtually. Players design their own car and race it on a virtual circuit. The game provides educational tips to help people increase their virtual car’s fuel efficiency, and incorporates elements like points, trophies and a leaderboard to keep people playing.

Source: facebook.com/Shell

Offline, Shell has organized activations like the Mobility Footprint Zone at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas and the Het Lab at the Shell Eco-marathon Europe.

Writer Flori Meeks covered the experience in the Americas:

“New this year is an interactive learning experience for visitors. Activities include a “Mobility Footprint Zone” with a kinetic dance floor where visitors can race toy cars powered by salt water, a Formula 1 car display, a self-guided tour through Shell Eco-Marathon Americas and the mPowering Action Mobile Recording Studio, where visitors can record songs or messages about their energy solutions for the future.”

In Europe, Shell and creative agency Imagination used RFID cards to make the experience more interactive and memorable:

“Visitors used RFID cards to store photos, videos and data from their visit, and could afterwards ‘Replay the Day’ by entering their personal code on the micro-site.”

Sharing the eco-marathon story offline

Larger social impact

As collaborative social innovation programs become more common, thinkers are beginning to place more emphasis on measuring success and finding successful models.

Indeed, Ashraf Engineer, member of the MSLGROUP Insights Network, noted:

“I think [the Shell Eco-marathon is] a superb idea. The question is this: Will the competition translate into an actual ultra-fuel-efficient vehicle? The quest for such a vehicle has been on for decades and prototypes have been paraded in automobile shows for years. Yet, there are hardly any successful models.”

Participants note that the eco-marathon has helped inspire a new generation of environment conscious engineers. Several participants have gone on to intern or work not only at Shell, but also the larger engineering industry.

High school junior and participant Jake Nyquist reflected: 

“It’s very valuable, especially for high school students. There are all sorts of students who would never consider going into engineering as a career, or looking at fuel consumption, without this.”

Bloggers and faculty advisors also note that the technology developed for the eco-marathon would eventually enter the mainstream.

Blogger Vijay noted:

“The competing vehicles are highly specialized and optimized for the event and not intended for every day use. The designs represent what can be achieved with current technology and offer a glimpse into the future of car design based on minimal environmental impact in a world with reduced oil reserves. Nevertheless, the work of the participants can still be used to show ways manufacturers could redesign their products.”

Purdue University team’s faculty advisor and mechanical engineering professor Galen King said:

“I don’t think we’ll see these cars on the road, but the tech used in them will always be incorporated. Carbon fiber material, computer-integrated control systems, electric propulsion—you’ll see all those components.”

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MSLGROUP’s People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform also enables our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-specific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities.

[Can't see this Slideshare presentation? Click here to view it directly on Slideshare.net]

As an example, 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on corporate citizenship, crowdsourcing, storytelling and social data on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights and foresights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Lab Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have synthesized the insights from  2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part  People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.

As you can imagine, we can bring the same innovative approach to help you distill insights and foresights from conversations and communities. To start a conversation on how we can help you win with insights and foresights, write to Pascal Beucler at pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com.

“Anything amazed you since you’ve been here?”
“I guess it’s how fast I got used to this place” I answered without hesitation.

New York is such an amazing place, its easy to embrace one’s cultural differences and just feel at home in this city, all doubts of being an outside visitor are taken away. Although the city is well-known for this already, I’m still impressed while I see it happen before my eyes. Thinking back on the 2 weeks I’ve spent in New York, I guess it’s more because of the people I met that enhanced this feeling, all were so kind & cheerful in personality and so generous in sharing.

A “well equipped” New York Office
This is not only about the great office environment and amazing view that we can enjoy from the office, but also the fully equipped team and resources that we have here.
With a series of independent teams ranging from media, digital, event, entertainment, research, an integrated marketing team to an in-house studio, MSL New York is capable of almost any mission from any client. There is even a specific team assigned to constantly drive creative ideas and solutions not only for clients but also for internal company development! Unbelievable!
It’s a great opportunity for me to sit down with each individual group and know what their specialties are, how they work together to support different client services, and of course, how they tackle the numerous hot-off-the-press campaigns and projects.

A model for long term client partnership
The MSL New York office has a long list of well established clients, all of which have engaged MSLGROUP and its affiliates as a long term trusted business partner. Within the two weeks, I had opportunities to talk with each client team under the consumer group, shadowing their daily con-calls, meetings or brainstorms to see how we delivered our insightful strategies and powerful executions in the US.

There are usually 2 parts of the engagements with each client team:
1. An overall picture of the client background and strategy with case study and project recaps (with team leaders usually)
2. A shadowing session in daily tasks/meeting/brainstorm/event (with other team members)
This was really helpful to see the similarities and differences in our daily work and find inspiring and useful practice tips to be brought back to my home office. I participated in case studies for P&G (dishcare, family care, Oral care and surface care), Ferrero, Tictac, Brother, GM, and many other brands. The most impressive thing is how the MSL NY office work on the level of a business partner to communicate the right message through the most effective approaches with creative ideas blended everywhere. The strong implementation of influencer communication and entertainment endorsement has also helped clients to gain immediate awareness with the target audience.

Top: The Chevy Corvette Cocktail
Bottom: Rachel Ray Talk Show video taping onsite

Good friends made over the sea!
One more important thing to me is to get to know and become friends with many of the different PR experts here! With the connection built, we are open to each other on more of the upcoming cases and ideas that could be exchanged and communicated even when I’m back in Shanghai. And they are the ones that make this journey so valuable and unforgettable.
We had great conversations together, talking about clients’ challenges, big trends, cultural differences, the media environments, China’s policies, and even on the new movies, musicals, our families and many other interesting topics. Although we come from two ends of the world, we do share a lot in common and thanks to English,  the communication between two cultures becomes such an amazing thing: minds meet and ideas enlightened!

A lot of culture experience, shopping and food! Last but not least, can’t miss the great museums, shops and worldwide cuisines in New York!

Two weeks is just too short, and I will definitely come back to New York!

By Monica Cai, Consultant, MSL China