No this post is not about the 2012 VW Beetle that was launched earlier this week in three cities around the world. This post is about a profound idea that is changing our world – “Small is the new Big.” The magnitude of this concept is not so apparent at first look but when you think about it our world is becoming smaller in every way imaginable. Being an ad man the earliest example of this phenomena was seen in the 1950s when Bill Bernbach engineered the idea of “Think Small” to introduce the Beetle which was relatively a smaller and a simpler car than it’s competitors.
At the time this was a radical idea where big was always better than small. Soon however small became the norm. The concept was here to stay as it evolved from something that was undesirable to something that signified technological innovation. Today for everything from the iPod Nano with multi-touch to the latest Intel microprocessor small is the new big.
Then something else happened. Small took popular culture by a storm. A concept that was largely limited to technology and the manufacturing industry started to impact everything from entertainment to communication and even business. The longer way of communicating through letters changed to shorter instant mail. With the advent of YouTube the way we consume video evolved to include everything from the 60 minutes plus content to short clips sometimes as small as 30 seconds. SMS has become a part of global communication culture both at a business and a personal level. Teens have even created their own short hand language which they use while they instant message over the internet. Blogs have redefined the publishing industry. While people still read a lot of books (and e-books), a lot of them read content online on blogs and they are far smaller than other types of published material. Twitter has taken this one step further by introducing us to micro-blogging and limiting what we share at a time to 140 characters. The world has becoming a really small place. Science is proving that we are separated to each other by only six degrees. That means all six billion of us are connected to each other in as many as six steps. Those who are on social networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn for example. a connection can be made in only one small step.
And now Rory Sutherland on TED. talks about the power of small to have a really big impact. He introduces an interesting grid about how certain big things like ‘Consulting’ cost a lot of money but have little real life impact (he does not think highly of consultants…sorry folks!) Similarly ‘Strategy’ is about big actions that create a big impact (Yess!) But what was really interesting was this unnamed quadrant – how some really small actions can have a really big impact. These are usually tactics that seem trivial and counterintuitive as a solution to certain big problems but they work. At this point he is not sure about what to name this concept but he makes a strong case for these certain type of small actions. They could be the key to solving a whole bunch of social, economic and even political problems. Profound. Check out the talk below.
I am not sure if he has managed to coin a name for this yet. Sure would like to give it a crack! Ideas anyone?
The bomb of Augmented Reality (AR) has been dropped and the explosion is like that of a simmering volcano that has gone super nova! The future that we saw through the eyes of Director Steven Spielberg in Minority report is fast becoming our present reality. In its simplest form, AR is a combination of common technologies that have become largely prevalent today – a camera, a GPS device and a data connection to the internet.
The WOW factor is not in how they work individually but the power they unleash to the user when they come together. Imagine being able to look through the eyes of a camera and know what you are looking at from any perspective you can think of. The layers and context that can be added to this vision are simply exponential.
Brands too have embraced AR in a big way! With ING Bank showing you the way to the nearest ATM, Doritos creating theworld’s largest AR execution, Adidas turning their shoe into a game controller, Lego showcasing the product inside in its final form to GM using the windshieldo provide useful information mapped out on the real world. These are just a few examples of what’s happening in the world of branding with AR.
If I take a bird’s eye view of things I see AR as part of a larger trend towards a mixed, fused reality! Whereby it would be difficult to tell apart where does the virtual world end and where does the real world begin. On the technology side I am seeing some developments like this wireless glove mouse from these two students from MIT inspired by Tom Cruise in Minority Report to a wearable robot that will transmit and share a sensory emotional experience virtually while communicating online. This future of a blurred-mixed reality is nothing less than science fiction turned into everyday reality.
Just to give you a peak into things to come check out this fascinating demonstration from Pranav Mistry again from MIT! I assure you this is unlike anything you have seen before!
What can I say about Dan Ariely! This book is simply awesome! It’s a goldmine of insights. A must-read for planners looking to understand human behavior. This whole idea of behavioral economics is very intriguing (I did a post earlier on the same subject). Through a series of experiments Dan repeatedly proves his point about the infallibility of our mind that drives us to make decisions and do things we rationally cannot imagine doing. The scope of his research covers various dimensions of life from society to economics, from the mundane to the extraordinary. The findings are shockingly counterintuitive. For example, how a decoy on the Economist Subscription page leads people to go for the expensive print plus web subscription because the decoy makes it seem that the web subscription has been thrown in for free. Whereas without the decoy experiments have proven that most people went for the cheaper web-only option. See image below (although this has been changed now!). How can we be manipulated so easily?
Spot the decoy that makes you go for the more expensive option
I would like to talk about a whole bunch of such intriguing examples and insights, but I guess I would save those for later posts. But I would like to point to a section towards the end of the book which I think captures it’s essence. It is surprising to see how in a world where “change is the only constant” some old ways of looking at the world continue to dominate popular thinking. The analogy that Dan draws on is how man is clear when it comes to his physical limitations and is using all resources and technology to overcome these limitations but when it comes to the mind he believes he is limitless, flawless and continues to operate under the age-old framework of rational economics to explain how he would behave in real life. This he proves through the course of his book is far from true. He also states that continuing to operate under this framework is dangerous as some key issues facing mankind need to be addressed like how to avoid getting into another big economic crisis, how to create better educational systems, how to model health-care etc. It is time for us to look more openly and challenge these conventional ways of dealing with societal and economic issues.
Not surprisingly Dan also spoke about the core concepts of his book in a talk at TED. I have posted the video here. Check it out !
Finally after much deliberation I have setup my blog! For the first post I wanted to share a Talk from TED by Rory Sutherland! Oh this guy is amazing! For one he is from Ogilvy. The agency where it all started for me some 10 years ago as I began my journey as a Strategic Planner. Ogilvy has a special place in my heart as it laid the foundations of my career and played a big role in helping me do what I do today. Anyways, Rory’s talk is insightful and highly entertaining. It is a must watch for anybody who has anything to do with branding and advertising. I see a pattern between what he talked about and what Dan Ariely covered in his book “Predictably Irrational”. They both have touched upon ‘Behavioral Economics’ a subject that really intrigues me. I have never been a big fan of Economics but this field looks at things from a very human angle. A whole lot of insights for us planner species. It’s a subject I will definitely be exploring further in days to come! God Willing! For now enjoy this!
Spot the decoy that makes you go for the more expensive option