The Participation Economy - Part 1

T-Mobile - 'Life's for Sharing' Dance campaign

by Kevin Roberts

I was recently contacted by a journalist to talk about the Attraction Economy. What bad timing. I've moved on. From our experience with the T-Mobile "Life's for Sharing" campaign, a new shift is taking place. We are entering the age of the Participation Economy.

When watching or approving anything we make, my rule of thumb used to be: Do I want to see it again? But increasingly that's given way to: Do I want to share this? I've written about the dynamics of sharing before. It may sound like a lesson from Kindergarten, but sharing is powerful stuff.

The transformation of business and society is always seen through a collection of shifts. Power and energy changes direction and new dynamics rule the day.


The Participation Economy is an aspiration as much as it is a reality. The global recession dealt a blow to its development, perhaps. But a number of contributing factors lead to the Participation Economy, chief among them the web. Our real-time digital infrastructure is an empowering, entrepreneurial platform that lets you showcase your creativity like never before. We've seen this introduce a self-generating energy that we're just beginning to understand and harness.

All of this is an evolution. We're not totally there yet, so Attraction still plays a huge role. And the term is not my invention, as the Participation Economy has been around a while for the design of products. But it's much larger than that.

Participation is also about the health of society. The past decade witnessed rapid change in society. America doubled its consumption of antidepressants. 1% of the population is in jail. 48% of Manhattan lives alone. Social dislocation creates new channels for interaction and our need to participate and join together is going to grow in this regard.

Like the Lance Armstrong Flash Mobs I blogged on, the Participation Economy is more about sharing ideas than making purchases. It's about connecting us with ideas. When we participate, we join a larger community around an idea. That social dynamic is fluid and natural and it's a hotbed of innovation. More and more, we will see that the best ideas create an opportunity for participation. It channels the energy of a community. After all, Steve Jobs said: "Innovation is just connecting stuff."

---

Kevin Roberts is the CEO worldwide of The Lovemarks Company, Saatchi & Saatchi. For more information on Kevin, please go to www.saatchikevin.com. To see this blog at its original source, please go to www.krconnect.blogspot.com.

The Art of Seduction

by Matthew E May

Just a quick weekend note.

The idea behind the elegance element of seduction is very simple: limiting information creates intrigue and engagement. Why? Because not having the whole story leaves us without the symmetry we naturally seek. So our curiosity is piqued and our imaginations sparked, and off we go to chase closure.

My friend Iain Thomas of my favorite blog I WROTE THIS FOR YOU put it very elegantly in a recent note he wrote me, sharing with me of the story he heard designer Alexander Gelman tell. Says Iain:

"Alexander used the metaphor of a door. If a door is completely closed, no one wants to go inside the room because they assume that it's closed for a reason. If a door is completely open, there's no need to go inside the room because you can see what's in it already. But if you leave the door slightly ajar, you create intrigue and interest and they want to go into the room. People actually enjoy doing a bit of work now and again."

Exactly right!

---

Matthew E. May is the author of "IN PURSUIT OF ELEGANCE: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing." He is constantly searching for creative ideas and innovative solutions that are 'elegant' - a unique and elusive combination of unusual simplicity and surprising power.

Social Media and Music - Ideal Partners?

Quiet Company - "It's Better To Spend Money Like There's No Tomorrow Than Spend Tonight Like There's No Money"

I recently became aware of TheSixtyOne, an online music community where "artists upload their work for review, but, rather than allow a stuffy suit in a boardroom to decide what's good, thousands of listeners do." Since I canceled my Last.fm account after they handed user data to the RIAA, I've found TheSixtyOne to be the best way to learn about new bands that you otherwise wouldn't hear about.

One band I've gotten into from TheSixtyOne is Quiet Company from Austin, TX. Their music is a kind of wonderful, melodic piano-pop with lyrics that are optimistic without feeling cheesy. With songs like "It's Better To Spend Money Like There's No Tomorrow Than Spend Tonight Like There's No Money" (above), you know they're not taking themselves too seriously.

After playing the track list multiple times, I just HAD to share them with my Twitter stream. The best way to share music on Twitter is Blip.fm. I searched, found the song, and sent this:

That was the last I thought of it, until this morning. When I opened TweetDeck, I found this reply from @quietcompanytx:

They followed up with another tweet saying I could share that link with anyone I think would like their music, so here you go.

I downloaded the sampler, happy to get free music, and played the three songs about four times over.

Then something funny happened.

I went to the Quiet Company site, and bought & downloaded their newest album, "Everyone You Love Will Be Happy Soon", directly from the band.

What's so funny about that? I almost never buy new music. With the plethora of online music sites - from Last.fm to Pandora, to Blip.fm to TheSixtyOne and more - I can stream just about anything I want. For free.

But because Quiet Company used the tools of the internet - first, to showcase their music; then, to find and reach out to those talking about it - they were able to gain a new fan, turn that fan into an evangelist, and see a return on the time and effort they've spent.

This isn't something that only applies to music. Whether you're a band, a business, or a nonprofit, how can you excite people with your offerings? How can you benefit from listening to online conversations and engaging with those that are talking about your product or service?

---

Gradon Tripp is the founder of Social Media for Social Change, an organization that uses the tools of online media to raise awareness for nonprofits. He writes about ways organizations -- both non-profit and for-profit -- can benefit from using social media at GradonTripp.com.

Incorporating Social Media into the Conversation

I came across an interesting Fast Company blog article from Steve Rubel titled "How to Captivate and Hold Attention in the Age of the Stream" that caused me to think about parallels between digital media and physical media. Here is an excerpt:

"Imagine for a moment that you're standing on an overpass high above a busy L.A. freeway like the 405 or the 5. It doesn't really matter which. Pick one.

In a span of a few minutes literally thousands of cars will speed by. Some will be loud. Others quiet. Some will be notable, but most won't.

At the end of the experiment, if I were to ask you to recall ten cars and trucks and what was memorable about them, I guarantee that you would be hard pressed to do so. What's more, none of the cars would have been "repeat impressions." You saw each car only once, and likely not every vehicle on the highway. That's precisely the same challenge that marketers face in the 'age of the stream.'" (article excerpt)

Of course you can't make exact parallels, but it struck me that when people view social media as a distribution channel (which it isn't purely that), the following parallels emerge:


Steve Rubel concludes his article by saying that the solution to the streaming challenge of social media is to be ubiquitous. That of course is easier said than done and I don't feel goes far enough.

In this new digital world, excellent marketing campaigns will require integrated physical and digital planning, strategy, and execution that streams "conversation starters" through multiple physical and digital 'channels' to lead naturally into longer conversations in both corporate and uncontrolled social media outlets, before circling back into new "conversation starters" informed by this customer dialogue.


What do you think?

---

Braden Kelley is the founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Well Done Pass Along Marketing

It allows you to embed your name or a friend's name visually in the video in several spots and send the video to them. Check it out: