My top 10 posts of ‘09

As 2009 draws to a close I thought I’d recap with a list of  the top 10 posts (according to you guys) that gained the most traffic on my blog. It seems the posts you guys tended to navigate towards were those that were about how brands should behave in the new media environment when trying to engage youth in conversationas well as learnings from the world’s best youth brands.

Here are the 10 posts (in terms of site traffic) in  2009 for those that haven’t read them.

1. Nike: We don’t do advertising , we do cool stuff (by far and away the most popular post of the year)

2. Levi’s ‘Go Forth’ – Inspiring Generation Optimism

3. Youth want TRIBAL IDEAS – tips on creating a movement

4. Youth are Cyborgs

5. 10 Principles for engaging Teens

6. 10 Observations on how the best youth brands behave

7. Why Red Bull is the world’s best youth brand

8. Youth marketing is about Culture Creation

9. Experimentation is the new Engagement

10. Brand Ecosystems and Participative Branding Comms Model

First look at Project X – Shaun White’s secret halfpipe

 

Hot off the press, here’s the second video released by Red Bull showing Shaun White’s private halfpipe – part of Project X.  Don’t need to say much about it, apart from the fact that it’s such a killer idea and everyone I know who’s heard about it is WOW’ed by it. Red Bull are drip feeding the content over the coming months in the lead up to the Winter Olympics, keeping his competitors and fans salivating for what new tricks he will release onto the world.

Experimentation is the new Engagement

This is the short presentation I gave at AIMIA (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) ‘Getting Inside Gen Y’ conference last week. My presentation was titled ‘Experimentation is the new Engagement’ and it was all about how brands today need to continually experiment, play with youth if you will. It’s about creating an interesting brand game, far less about your brands story. It’s about social ideas which spark a rapid mobilisation of youth, and some recent examples of brands that are experimenting with culture – from Red Bull’s Project X (Shaun White secret halfpipe) to Coke’s Expedition 206 to VW Swedens ‘Fun Theory’ social experiments. Enjoy.

Red Bull Project X – Shaun White’s secret halfpipe revealed

 

Red Bull Project X - A secret halfpipe for Shaun to practice new tricks

F@#$  me, this is cool. Red Bull has stepped it up another level with the MYTHOLOGY they create around their brand/athlete sponsorship.  This is another example of Red Bull sparking brand heat around their athletes by creating culture. In March this year I blogged here about the rumour there was a secret halfpipe being created by Red Bull for Shaun White to practice on in the Colorado mountains, only accessable by helicopter. Well, guess what, it was true, and Red Bull are about to release the content around this, it’s called PROJECT X and it’s great. It’s how content should be delivered.   Essentially the reason for creating this halfpipe was to give Shaun White a secret place to train and master new tricks to unleash on the 2010 snowboard circuit. What’s unique about this halfpipe? They actually bomb the mountain face to create the perfect snow conditions, and it’s dropped into the halfpipe so it creates the sweetest halfpipe environment for Shaun to do his shit. I love this. Makes me wanna go work for Red Bull to spend my day thinking about this cool stuff.

Here’s the video http://www.shaunwhite.com/projectx/?#/docvideos/intro

Red Bulletin uses Augmented Reality for ultimate brand utility

This is cool, found it on the CREAM blog.  Most Augmented Reality apps out there are for pure entertainment sake, which is fine, but it’s great when a brand actually uses the technology to deliver value to the users experience with that brand. Red Bull, as always, have nailed it and potentially will redefine the magazine experience. Hot off the digital press,  Red Bull has just launched PRINT 2.0 using AR to take the interactivity with its Red Bulletin magazine to the next level. Actions sports activities now come to life literally off the page. The world of Red Bull gets better all the time, and I know my buddy Q will be loving this, as he gets the Red Bulletin shipped into Australia.

Create Culture or go home.

CULTURE CREATION is the key output of any successful youth brand.

Creating an amazing product or experience is essential, but the best brands do much more than that. They create culture and spark interesting and fresh conversations. They create stories.  Why do they do this? Well, for starters, youth today are über curious and love discovering new experiences which help define their identity and give them platforms for self expressions. They’re constantly searching for ‘cultural capital’ (interesting new stuff to talk about) and they’re chameleon like in behaviour in that they are always looking to dip in and out of different subcultures and try new stuff. They are fluid like in the way in which they live, they expect the same from brands. Back to how this relates to culture creation.

The best brands in the world are always one step ahead, they CREATE stuff constantly for youth, whether that be events, content, marketing embedded into products or brand utility or even new ways for youth to connect and socialise.  They define, they lead, they jam culture, they smash the status quo. They never ever ‘mimic’ or piggy back onto a current trend. If they collaborate with other brands, they create something new and fresh, redefining the rules as opposed to just sponsoring a property and plastering. It’s more than just integrating your brand into a cultural object, it’s about bringing real value to that consumer experience, creating something worth talking about which is flexible. It’s being social in nature bringing people together to connect and create conversations.  Most brand ideas are disposable, around one day, gone the next, when you create culture, you stand above this.

So, which brands are best at Culture creation?

Me at RB Hangar 7 beside Felix Baumgartners famous 'wiing' suit used to cross the English Channel

Well, first to mind is Red Bull. They are the kings of culture creation. They are a content creator, not just an energy drink manufacturer. They don’t ‘sponsor’, they constantly create events and re-invent experiences which cover the cross section of youth lifestyle. The world of Red Bull is shaped by creativity and adventure, by courage and a maxed out lust for life, populated by their athletes/ambassadors. They create culture in every foray into youth culture they attempt…from their music academies, to the Red Bull Air Race, to Felix Baumgartner BASE jumping and ‘wiing’ suiting across the English Channel, to Red Bull X fighters , to free style football competitions, to Flug Tag, to Art of the Can, to the X Alps event, to extreme freestyle snowboarding.  They continually re-invent and create stories for their fans, giving youth cultural objects to relate and aspire to.

Nike in ’08 did a great job of creating culture, their Nike Bootcamp cross digital training program helping youth ‘train like a pro’ delivered amazing utility, but what it really did was create a cultural phenomenon whereby the football community was completely interconnected and competing on an unprecedented level. Their culture creation was about connecting and inspiring the young football community.

Burger King USA continually create culture be redefining ways in which their brand fans can show their LOVE of the Whopper. Culture Creation is as much about inspiring your brand fans, giving them a platform to show their love and letting them take your idea and run with it, as it is about you doing all the work and creating properties where you do all the work. Culture creation is conversational by nature and inclusive.

Axe/Lynx creates culture by redefining and inspiring young men in the mating game. Whether that be, coming out with loofers for blokes, digital tools like the ‘Get in there’ or chocolate scented body spray, they constantly push themselves to work out how they can give young guys the edge in the mating game.

Culture Creation is a journey not a one off event your brand creates. Think about how your brand  can spark ongoing conversations, it’s not about one off campaigns that live big then are forgotten, only to be remembered as a ‘great ad’ back in ’09. You have to have a FAIL FORWARD approach, do 10 things, if 5 things work out that’s awesome. Youth will give you credit for having a go, putting yourself out there, as long as you are authentic and stay true to who you are.

Red Bull goes Mobile at German Grandprix

Over the weekend at the German F1 Grandprix Red Bull changed the livery of its F1 cars to carry branding for Red Bull MOBILE.

Red Bull launched the service in 2008 with Austrian mobile communications outfit mobilkom austria. More than just a mobile service provider, Red Bull MOBILE lets its users into a whole world of Red Bull via their phones – with the emphasis on multimedia services and television content from Red Bull.

Not only that, but Red Bull MOBILE has also brought out a range of phones each of which come with software installed that helps you upload pictures and videos to the Red Bull MOBILE community. It’s only available as a service in Austria – at the moment – however if their magazine (The Red Bulletin) is a reliable example they’ll be expanding the service once they’ve got it right in their own backyard..

You can check it out here: http://www.redbullmobile.com/

Red Bull Racing App – it’s about utility not just play factor

Seems every man and his dog has an app these days, I’d say 90% of them are useless and provide no genuine utility (big call I know). My Red Bull fanatic mate Q, just sent me a link to the ‘There’s no app for that’ campaign just launched for Red Bull Racing new iphone application. For racing fans it provides genuine social utility around the Red Bull Racing team and the F1 races coming up. Ultra cool. This ad promoting it is a bit lame, but the app is cool.

Youth want tribal ideas – tips on how to create a movement around your brand

The fundamental emotional need of youth is and always will be BELONGING. It’s hardwired from birth, a primal need to belong to a community, to a tribe. It’s a fundamental form of self expression that is at the core of the human psyche. The growth of social media has turbo charged young peoples ability to connect and be part of global tribes.

The best youth brands understand that youth are desperate to connect with each other, so youth marketing is not about pushing messages onto a target audience of disparate individuals, it’s about inspiring the TRIBE, so they connect with each other. It’s about talking to the WE, not necessarily the ME.

 Tribal marketing in 2009 is about leading and connecting Gen C ‘The Connected Collective’ with ideas and each other, it’s about finding something worth changing and mobilizing a group of likeminded people around it.

Think the Red Bull energy tribe, Apple’s creative tribe, Nike + running tribe, Zoo York’s mischievous skater tribe, Lego’s imagination tribe, Axe’s player tribe,  Roxy’s chic surfer tribe, Wii’s playful tribe,  Threadless’ design tribe – just a few examples of brands that have inspired people to come together and form a tribe around their brand, a community with shared passions, interests.

So, how do you create a tribe around your brand? Here are a handful of thoughts

1. You have to have the balls to create ideas that polarize, ideally AGITATING and DISRUPTING the  STATUS QUO. You have to be a little subversive and not scared to create CHANGE. Unless you spark an interesting conversation, you won’t spark a movement. The biggest mistake youth brands make is trying to appeal to everyone, they end up standing for nothing and falling for everything. Think less about your proposition, and more about your brand point of view or your call to arms.

 2. Gen C are the ‘CONNECTED COLLECTIVE‘, they join tribes for the CONNECTIONS.  They’re dying to mobilize around something interesting.   Think about how you’re letting them connect via web 2.0 platforms and how they can work together around a cause/idea. It’s all about making it easy for youth to find each other and connect. Music festivals have been tapping into these shared ‘connections’ for the last decade and now the gaming world is doing the same with MMORPG’s. 

 3. It’s about leveraging PEOPLE POWER.  Done successfully, the collective becomes your most powerful asset, they’re empowered to spread your idea, to create the movement. Your job is to help facilitate the interactions amongst the tribe and give them something worth talking about, something worth changing, something worth believing in. Politicians and activists have been doing it well the past few years, think Obama, think Al Gore, think One Young World.

 4. Find your brands TRUE BELIEVERS, listen to them then, create utility for them, provide value in the experience and your brand will become magnetic. You only need a 1,000 or so, look at T-Mobile with their flash mobs. Virgin are the kings of seeking out their true believers and always giving them utility, no matter what category then enter.

 5. LEAD THEM, all the great tribes have great charismatic leaders, you create your own brand charisma by showing leadership attitude and staying true to a belief system, committing to a cause. People mobilize around strong people/brands who believe. Red Bull, Nike are the archetype leaders in their respective youth cultures, always appealing to the fringes, but not alienating the masses.

 6. CREATE CULTURE for the tribe. Create something that matters to youth, don’t try and mimic what’s happening now, give them a lens into something new. Create a new sport, create a new way of doing something, EXPERIMENT and don’t be afraid to fail. You’ll get credit for having a go.

 7. TRIBAL IDENTIFICATION is important, you have to create a way of knowing if you’re in or out. Whether it’s badging yourself or an internal point of association, it’s extremely important as tribal brands have followers, not customers. I witnessed this first hand in Austria last week, with Austrian teens plastering their bedrooms with the stickers of their favourite brands, Aussie kids brand their mobiles with stickers of their favourite surf brands.

 8. CONSTANT CONTENT CREATION  – This takes ingenuity and effort over pure big scale production budgets.  Youth brands have to think of their marketing calendars not in quarterly installments, but as an ONGOING STORYTELLING PLATFORM.  It’s less about discrete uniform evolutions of ad campaigns, but about creating interesting narratives youth can follow – think youtube channels that are constantly update with new content, whether that be experiential type stuff or raw stuff. The surf brands are the kings of this, as they see themselves as media businesses, not just surfwear sellers.

Remember tribes exist, your job as a marketer is to help organize and connect these people. Find something worth changing, then create an interesting point of view on it, something fresh, something worth believing in that they’ll want to talk about and belong to.. See, easy?

Welcome to my world..the world of Red Bull

Red Bull recently launched 3 global TV ads departing from their traditional silly animation ads. They feature 3 of their best athletes, Liam Walsh (surfer), Robbie Maddison (moto X) and world famous B-Boy Ronnie. I really like the thought of ‘Welcome to my world’, as it’s an invitation to experience seekers around the world to live the Red Bull lifestyle.  Live the dream. It’s not about the drink, it’s about pushing it to the limits and belonging to a tribe, a tribe that is about living intensely, pushing yourself, achieving.  They’re returning to their core, what made them famous, owing extreme sports and consolidating that leadership status when hundreds of other brands are mimicking them.. Like Nike, Adidas, they have ahtletes they need to use, and I like the fact that they’ve picked 3 very different athletes with very different personas. If I was in charge or Red Bull marketing I would explore the ‘mental side’ of extreme performance a little more, as I think that’s what’s really interesting in terms of storytelling. This is  real, it’s raw, not manufactured. Obviously it wouldn’t win at Cannes and they are not super original nor creatively that fresh, but in terms  of effectiveness, I bet kids around the world are watching go ‘fuck’n hell, that’s cool, gonna get me some of that”