A few years ago, Duncan Watts — a network-theory pioneer at Yahoo! Research — wanted to test a theory. He ran a series of tests to see if popular music could be made popular again or if the original success was just plain luck. Watts wondered, can you browbeat people into thinking something is popular when it isn’t? (Sounds like some advertising out there.)

Watts partnered with Matthew Salganik to come up with the right experiment to sort this all out. Their concept? To lie.

They tested some popular music with a sample group that was not familiar with the songs and asked them for their ratings. They then inverted those ratings so that the worst was the best and the best was now the worst, and gave the songs, complete with false ratings, to a different group.

The unsuspecting new group was duped into believing the original ratings were accurate and snubbed the fake-low ranking ones. Apparently, flat-out lying works!

Not so fast.

Over time, the previously top-ranked songs crept back up the charts amongst second group and the previously lower-ranked ones dropped. However, despite the fact that the “good” music eventually did rise to the top, people participating  in this topsy-turvy experiment ended up consuming less of everything.

Astroturfing (fake grassroots) is the worst crime you can commit in social marketing. Although lying in this space may get you a short-term gain, the long-term forecast is lower sales and probably (hopefully) a damaged reputation.

• Learn more about this experiment here.
• Image source
• Hat tip

Tags: advertising, astroturfing, market research, music case study, music industry, music research, radical trust

“Ink” is a high-concept visual thriller that movie buffs might rank alongside Brazil, Dark City, Being John Malkovich and Pan’s Labyrinth.  Husband and wife team, writer/director Jamin Winans  and producer Kiowa Winans, created the feature-length digital picture on a shoestring budget with no support from Hollywood in terms of production or distribution.

Trailer:

Upon completion of Ink, the Winans couldn’t find a big studio to sign on to a theatrical or home distribution campaign. So they pitched it themselves to independent cinemas and to DVD, Blu-ray and online distributors.

After its release in November 2009, Ink found its way to the file-sharing torrent sites and was subsequently downloaded an astonishing 500, 000+ times. This exposure placed the film on IMDB’s top 20 list and sales increased four-fold.

Kiowa Winans was stunned. It seemed that the sales jump could be correlated to the number of downloads which itself seemed counter-intuitive. She’s participated in a Reddit.com thread to remain transparent about her motives and she also started a blog.

In it she writes:

“Amazing exposure? Heck yes.
No question here that Ink wouldn’t be abuzz across many forums, blogs and film websites this week without the enormous boost to #16 on the IMDb MovieMeter due to the piracy.

Raking in the dough? Yes and no.
Our direct sales have quadrupled and a decent number of donations (still nothing comparable to 500,000 downloads) have poured into our website, which we are very thankful for. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if the direct sales are coming from those who downloaded or those who saw it on Netflix and want to own a copy. Still, if each person who downloaded the film would come and contribute $1, we could pay off this film and have a budget for the next one.

Still to early to tell the effects of this? Absolutely.
Nothing in the film world ultimately happens over night and it will take several months to a year to quantify all of this so it’s entirely too early to take a solid stance either way, but I do think there’s some value in getting the discussion going about piracy which is why I’m spending time on Reddit.com and writing this blog.”

She goes on to suggest that the downloads have proven unequivocally that Ink has an audience, but the US distribution chain wouldn’t dare step up to validate the so-called “pirate” groups as an audience. Winans continues:

“So this is the real issue I’m grappling with. What is piracy all about? I’ve come up with three ideas: 1.) People want stuff for free, and/or 2.) People want instant and easy access, and/or 3.) People will only pay for what they like. Which one of these is true? I encourage anyone who has illegally downloaded a film to step up with your thoughts. The unfortunate truth in the music industry is that, for the most part, people just want things for free. Is this also true with movie downloads? How will it impact both in the long run?”

Whatever comes next for the Winans, I hope they stop chasing the Hollywood rainbow and find a way to embrace this radical decentralization model. Who cares what Hollywood thinks or does? Keep making great movies and should Hollywood come calling, milk the crap out of it. That isn’t radical trust… That’s just what all parties deserve.

If you downloaded Ink and would like to make a donation ($1 suggested by film makers), you can do so here. Otherwise you can find it at:

Amazon NetFlix Blockbuster iTunes & My local video shop

Tags: film industry, Hollywood, Jamin Winans, Kiowa Winans, movies, radical trust, torrents

Icebreaker is a New Zealand-based manufacturer of Merino wool garments including shirts, socks and outdoor wear. Icebreaker customers will find a number on each sales tag that uniquely identifies the garment they bought.  When you enter this  “Baa Code” (clever Kiwis) on their website, you unlock  the supply source of that specific garment.

One of over 130 farmers will introduce themselves, their family and farm in a welcome video. The experience continues with some family snapshots, satellite photos of the farm, specifics on the sheep and some quaint family history.

There’s no wool being pulled over your eyes with this site. The overview includes environmental and manufacturing ethics and animal welfare requirements.

“There’s a group of people that are looking for products of integrity,” says Jeremy Moon, CEO of Icebreaker, “and if you can connect to those people, it will drive your business. But you need to do it authentically. You can’t do it cynically. Otherwise, it’s just green washing.” (quote source )

The notion of Supply Chain Transparency is a growing trend amongst some manufacturers eager to grow and maintain an authentic, trustworthy brand.

• HP  has made public the list of its largest suppliers as part of its yearly Global Citizenship Report.
• Dole Organic lets consumers discover the origin of their fruit by entering a three-digit Farm Code found on the fruit sticker into their website. Customers can read background info, view photos of the farm and workers and learn more about the origin of Dole products.
• UK-based Chippindale Food offers customers full egg traceability on wheresyoursfrom.com

This trend may not be enough to buck globalization, but for those businesses interested in connecting with their consumers in a truly meaningful way, there’s plenty of opportunity and trust-building with supply chain transparency.

A radical do.

Tags: branding, business concepts, corporate communications, farming, garments, icebreaker, radical trust, Supply Chain Transparency

The “blog” is well-understood, having become a household word in the Americas and Europe, but in a Monrovia, the capital city of the west African nation of Liberia, you may not even recognize them.

Liberia has suffered two decades of civil war. Here, television and radio have all but been destroyed. The internet is very expensive, poverty is commonplace and literacy levels are dangerously low. Getting information is not an easy thing, and blogging as it’s understood in the West may not be the option.

So, to update the people of his community in Monrovia during Liberia’s civil war, Alfred J. Sirleaf started the “Daily Talk” in the year 2000 . His “News Room” is nothing more than a plywood shack and his publication, large fold-out chalkboards facing the street. Every morning he updates the boards with aggregated headlines and top stories scavenged from around the city. He posts symbols such as UN helmets and other such items relating to the main story topic to entice readership and help with the folks who can’t read. The New York Times has reported that it is “the most widely read report” in Monrovia.

Since starting his “Anablog”, Alfred has been intimidated, arrested and has had his publication torn down. He has even spent time in exile for his efforts, but he won’t quit.

”Daily Talk’s objective is that everybody should absorb the news,” says Alfred. ”Because when a few people out there make decisions on behalf of the masses that do not go down with them, we are all going to be victims.” (ref)

Grateful readers line up in droves, on foot and in cars, to read these updates, in what has been described as the country’s — and probably the world’s — only analog blog.’”

Thanks for the tip Daniel P.

Tags: analog, Daily Talk, grass roots, liberia, monrovia, radical trust, social media, trust, truth

The idea is based on the notion that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or something entirely different – the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

So far they’ve transformed a staircase into piano keys, complete with sound as you climb. The new thinking encouraged 66% fewer people to take the escalator.

They’ve also rigged up a garbage can to sound like your trash deposit is falling hundreds of feet. This simple idea increased usage by over 40kg a day.

While they continue to execute other fun ideas, The Fun Theory folks are currently crowd-sourcing more ideas through a contest.

Keep an eye on this evolving case study… a sense of play is a key principle for Web 2.0 platforms and this is one to watch …

http://thefuntheory.com/

Tags: brand, crowdsourcing, marketing, radical do, social media, strategy, volkswagen, Youtube

I’m not the first to call bullshit on this entire incident. My wife, a former “big label” gal, called foul from the moment it went down. She has spent too much time in music industry boardrooms not to suspect the whole thing a PR stunt.

A quick search confirms her evidence: Taylor Swift’s signed to Big Machine Records and Kanye West to Island Def Jam — both distributed by Universal Music Group. Taylor Swift is holding at #2 in Billboard this week, MTV Video awards are relevant again (at least for the moment) and Universal is laughing all the way to the bank.

Not to mention this is Kanye’s M.O.  Remember his statements about George Bush on a live TV Katrina benefit? Right or wrong (although it was hard to disagree with him in that instance) his single (appropriately named “Gold Digger”) lit up after that move. Kanye West is back in the charts again this week.

In the blog post “The Death of Marketing”, legendary music blogger Bob Lefsetz writes:

“The public has been manipulated so many times, that when something extraordinary happens, that becomes instantly viral in our networked world, many people cross their arms and say not fucking real.

Who’d blame them?  What with Borat and Eminem at the previous MTV awards show.

Sure, the ratings for the VMAs were comparatively good, up from last year.  But isn’t focusing on the immediate bottom line, going for instant results, what fucked up not only the music industry, but the whole economy?”

This entire incident is very suspicious. Regardless whether this was planned or not, we are  buying the records and talking about it. Do the means justify the ends? If this was a marketing stunt, it was an amazingly successful social media one.

Beyond the mainstream feeding frenzy, the online conversation has been abuzz;  from the Imma let you finish meem, to various websites and mashup videos that have popped up over this incident. They are plentiful. Kanye was a trending topic on Twitter more than once this week, and we bloggers are still writing about it (guilty as charged).

You have to wonder about the sustainability of a business that requires this kind of stunt to build relevance, planned or not.  Remember when it was about good music?

Lefsetz concludes:

In order to truly make it today, you’ve got to be honest, you’ve got to have the goods, which have been honed over years.  Otherwise, you’re just another scammer trying to make a buck.  And the public knows.  Major media companies are complaining about the audience, the mistrust involved.  Well, if you were manipulated so many times would you still play along?

If you want to make it today, focus on marketing last.  And know that online, greatness spreads.  Could take a while to catch fire, but if you’re great on a sustained basis, you’ll make it.  Although making it might mean being known by a coterie, not everybody, and having one house, not three, still…who’s entitled to all that?  The days of more, more, more are over.  It’s just that those in the media haven’t realized it yet.

Here’s one of those remixes, earning over 2 million views in the last 72 hours:

The biggest lesson I have learned from this? You can succeed in social media yet fail in radical trust.

Tags: big machine records, def jam, island records, kanye west, MTV Video awards, music business, radical trust, record labels, taylor swift, universal music

My wife Tweeted me this morning to tell me that I have an unusual FedEx package waiting for me at home today, five chocolate grasshoppers and a link to this video:

It turns out that 5000 of the most influential people in North America have been sent five chocolate grasshoppers with the hope that they will inspire, engage conversation and raise awareness for the services of Grasshopper.com (formally gotvmail.com).

Several brands are reaching out to America’s entrepreneurs, looking to them to be the ones who pull us out of the great recession (with the aide of their business products, of course). Grasshopper.com pimps out a small business’ phone service to make businesses look bigger than they are.

What does this have to do with chocolate? I have no idea, but I’m always up for a bribe and an ego stroke. I have a feeling that there are other bloggers in the 5k list who are similarly motivated.

There’s a good lesson in the combination of direct mail and influencer outreach, particularly in the digital space. You might remember the well-received outreach program which recently marked the opening of “Coraline” in which 50 bloggers were sent handcrafted boxes of movie relics  taken directly from the film. I worked on a program last fall with War Child in which we sent several bloggers an empty pre-post paid box addressed to the Congo with a message requesting knives for child soldiers. The idea was to underscore the point: if you’re doing nothing to stop it, you’re actually supporting the use of child soldiers.

The Coraline campaign was amazing, and the results of the WarChild outreach returned above our goals.  This trend is a good one and most bloggers are always up to reviewing free samples. ( This blogger included. Hint Hint: beer companies, Triumph Motorcycles, Apple computers and the Tesla Roadster

Unfortunately the Grasshopper.com 5k entrepreneur outreach program is a creative and radical trust meh. The message from the chocolate is not integrated well with the message in the video, yet technically this a good mass awareness play… Let’s see if it returns more than the typical woulda-shoulda-coulda pundit response from the blogosphere (as I have just done, proving that this campaign is a success… so meta ).

Tags: blogger outreach, chocolate, grasshopper.com, PR, radical meh, social media

Who:

What: The Guardian launches Open Platform, a suite of services that allows content publishers to freely access and integrate Guardian content with their own (with the requirement that Guardian content must not be altered or misrepresented, with watermarks retained).

Where: http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform

Why: Traditional media is having a hard time sustaining a business model in this rapidly evolving digital landscape. Instead of charging for content, The Guardian is testing new waters by trusting its content in the hands of its partners, while at the same time requiring that those partners carry Guardian advertising as part of its terms and conditions.

From the horse’s mouth:

The Open Platform currently includes two products, the Content API and the Data Store:

1. The Content API is a mechanism for getting Guardian content. You can query our content database for articles and get them back in formats that are geared toward integration with other internet applications. The Content API is a free service. We have some limits and restrictions detailed in our terms and conditions, but we hope that you will use our service for whatever needs you have, including commercial applications.

2. The Data Store is a collection of important and high quality data sets curated by Guardian journalists. You can find useful data here, download it, and integrate it with other internet applications. The Data Store has a range of different uses for different types of partners. We will include relevant terms and conditions along with each service.

Our aim is to make the Guardian Open Platform a useful environment for anyone who creates for the internet. We will offer more services in the future such as an ad network and an application platform.

Hat tip: Mashable

Tags: Data store, guardian, journalism, open platform, open platform api, UK, Web 2.0

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about Queensland Australia’s campaign for “The Best Job in the World”.

Quick Recap (full post):

“The department of Tourism in Queensland, Australia have created a new position: “The Best Job in the World”. The job’s most important duty is to report to Tourism Queensland (and to the world) to let us know what’s taking place on the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. They’re willing to pay  AUS$150 000 (US$ 100 000) for a 6 month contract to the right person. They launched a website and a global campaign to fill the position.”

To apply for the job, you were asked to submit a 60 sec video describing why you are the best for the position. Submissions are now closed.

A whopping 34,000 applicants were short-listed to 50 and posted on the application site yesterday. Only ten will get the interview, with one spot open for the “Wild Card” to be selected by your votes.

Admittedly, I am biased. The following six videos are for the Canadians who are short-listed. Please cast your vote for one of them, or visit the site to see the others.

I am completely amazed at the production quality of these submissions. No matter what mishaps have happened along the way, I still believe this campaign is an absolute home run.

Marcella (vote for her here)

Mitchell (vote for him here)

Christine (vote for her here)

Anny (vote for her here)

Erik (vote for him here)

Good luck!

Tags: best job in the world, contest marketing, global marketing, queensland tourism, radical trust, social media best practices, social media marketing, Youtube

Who: Wonga

What: Wonga provides quick, short-term cash advances. The system uses its own dynamic trust mechanism to determine how much money can be borrowed: “Once you become a Wonga customer, your trust rating determines how much cash you can apply for. In line with our responsible lending, if you’ve never used our service before the maximum we’ll offer you is £200. This amount will gradually increase, up to a maximum of £750, if you continue to use Wonga responsibly and repay our trust in you.”

Where: http://www.wonga.com

Why: It encompasses radical trust: The customer is rewarded in relation to his/her responsible use of Wonga’s system. The company makes money by trusting.

From the horse’s mouth:

“If you repay your loans as promised and use the service responsibly, we’ll gradually increase your Wonga trust rating – giving you the flexibility to apply for more cash in the future should you need it. Our unique trust system takes lots of factors into consideration when determining the maximum amount you can apply for. You’ll see the amount available to you by using the sliders after you log in. The maximum Wonga loan is £750 – a sum only available to customers who’ve used the service responsibly over a significant period of time.

Please note that our trust rating system is part of our commitment to responsible lending and rewards you with more borrowing flexibility over time. It’s not designed so you can rapidly increase the size of loans and approval of your next application is never guaranteed. Your trust rating is ultimately dependent on your track record with Wonga and we reserve the right to change or limit the amount you can borrow. You can only have one live loan at a time and we’ll never lend you any more money until an outstanding loan is repaid.

Via: Springwise

Tags: credit, earned trust, micro transactions, microloans, radicaltrust, social media, UK, Web 2.0, wonga