Tag Archive for 'youth'

If it’s important, it will find me

28
Mar
08

rabbit.jpg

That’s, in essence, how the “social media generation” deals with with political news and news in a broader sense. For the first time, social networks and blogs are playing a major role in a presidential campaign in the USA. Facebook, myspace, most of the web 2.0 sites that we use today didn’t exist 4 years ago, during the precedent elections, or with a limited audience.

But as of February 2008, they respectively have 8.6, 17.7 millions average daily visitors.

According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one.

“There are lots of times where I’ll read an interesting story online and send the U.R.L. to 10 friends,” said Lauren Wolfe, 25, the president of College Democrats of America. “I’d rather read an e-mail from a friend with an attached story than search through a newspaper to find the story.”

Go check out the New York Times article for more details.

Sorry for the almost unrelated Easter photo.

Why New York City rules in cool.

25
Sep
07

tw_ny.jpg

Consider this graphic a basic guide of whats going on in “Artsy” Brooklyn these days. Clockwise from top left:

  • Macbook. As seen in coffee shops everywhere.
  • Aviator Glasses. As seen in the movie Top Gun.
  • Flannel. Made famous by Kurt Cobain circa 1992.
  • Prada Eyewear. As seen on the L-train commute.
  • Bianchi Pista. Fixies are less a trend for the band of hardworking bike messengers.
  • Mac and Cheese. Hands down an American favorite.
  • Sparks. Think of it as orange soda laced with moonshine.
  • Vans. Never out of style. Slip-ons for playtime.
  • Cheap Monday. Ladies: Tight jeans are the way to a man’s heart
  • Swing Jacket. They’re not everywhere yet but on their way.
  • M.I.A. Music that goes well with tight jeans.
  • Country. Works well with whiskey. And whiskey works with anything.
  • Budweiser. Another American classic. Goodbye PBR.
  • Americano. (to go!) Notice a trend in “Americana”? Me too.
  • Pirate boots. We’ll see about this last one. But ladies love their boots.

There. You got a quick visual taste and look at what our big city has to offer. Its OK to recycle!

Still think I’m defenseless?

04
Sep
07

Female Videogame characters don’t look that defenseless…

More and more studies are portraying women as a perfect target for Brands. Many reasons can be appointed towards this – more independence, a background on fighting against sexual discrimination, the ability to prove themselves again and again in the work place, etc… The reasons are endless and one thing we can be sure – women not only are shaping modern society as they are becoming one of the biggest and most attractive buyers a marketer must consider when developing the Brand’s positioning.
Truth be told, there are various websites addressing this fact. I could go on forever on an article that would turn into a small thesis describing all areas of society where women are creating a movement, a change in mentalities and on the symbolical universe we all share as common knowledge. But I’ll spare you the unbelievably long essay and focus on one point at a time. For starters, let’s start with a less common ground: videogames.

Why videogames? Because it’s always been a male dominant environment. And I’m not talking production-wise but story and character development-wise. Videogames started having the classical fairytale structure when addressing the roles of gender in society – the man assumes a protective brute force that saves the defenseless maiden from the evil monster. And the maiden would thank him ever so much with a kiss. While this might sound common to you, this is blatant discrimination of the genders – not because of one isolated case but because of the constant it has become. To prove it, just think to yourself – did you ever think twice about those fairytales you’ve always listened to and think about the actual symbolism inherent to it? Did you go “beyond good and evil” and actually question the innocence of a tale that is based on the conception of roles and duties in a society that was still light years away from the woman’s suffrage movement? OK, I sound like a feminist talking, but I actually believe that both genders have their strengths, and while the men’s strength has been shown through time, women’s has only recently started to actually shine. And guess what – videogames actually helped in that matter! Continue reading ‘Still think I’m defenseless?’

Casual Collapsing - So what?!

26
Aug
07

One of the major trend watching article published this year was about the Generation C. This Generation is known basically for “Content”, but there is a lot more to it – CASH, CREATIVITY, CONTROL, CELEBRITY and my personal favorite – CASUAL COLLAPSE. The best way to describe the Generation C is that it

“captures the avalanche of consumer generated ‘content’ that is building on the Web, adding tera-peta bytes of new text, images, audio and video on an ongoing basis.”

I could go on forever on this topic but I’d just be plagiarizing the good work of another website. I will actually focus on my favorite one, the CASUAL COLLAPSE, as I believe it has a specific impact on Marketing and Brands nowadays and it’s still hasn’t been developed onto a full fledged article.

CASUAL COLLAPSE refers to a supposed loss of moral values, laws and beliefs that were a given truth ever since we can remember. This loss of basic societal rules was already predicted by our elders – the World was going to a wrong path as youngsters were letting go of the good old notions of honesty and truth. The fact is: the World didn’t go that bad when these morals were lost. Ergo the CASUAL part. Indeed, with the acceptance of gay marriages, woman rights, casual attitude towards life and the reversing of the age roles – the old teach the young – only made the World shift their ideas towards a new evolution. It’s a Nietzschian conduct towards life – to be beyond Good and Evil. And the Web 2.0 only made it easier to happen – we all have an equal voice online, we all show what we are, regardless of common misconceptions we avoided questioning in the past. There has been a collapse but it was so normal for the generation who were responsible for it that it didn’t make much of a bruise on society. Continue reading ‘Casual Collapsing - So what?!’

Interesting article concerning a poll done to teens aged 12-24 in the US. The issue at hand was - what makes Teens happy nowadays? It is fascinating to see how in a World where content is King and where the Marketers are with an ever-growing concern to give appealing and strong prizes in their promotions that Teens are looking for a simpler life, stress-free and safe from the global harms that loom over their heads. They seek a Hero to look up to, a Family to cherish and are quite optimistic with the Future.

Have a look and see what really matters for kids nowadays. Personally, I’m quite happy to see that we want more out of life than the negative images that the media display on a daily basis. For the Marketers it just shows one simple thing - maybe that PS3 isn’t as appealing as a prize and as an attractive factor for this target than a really engaging website and a prize focused on human interaction…

By luis FREITAS, Comment



The TrendWatch:


The TrendWatch is the collective postings of some of the FullSIX Group’s designers, strategists, and consultants on new media and marketing trends. It is meant to be an impromptu think-tank, and is a way for us to share theories and beliefs about how we think communication and connectivity is evolving.

We work for The FullSIX Group; a leading full service marketing agency with digital DNA. From our 15 international offices with over 600 employees, we constantly embrace and encourage innovation to make integrated marketing and communication campaigns that are more accountable and efficient for our clients.


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