A recent survey by Silver Poll showed that it is the over 55s who are adopting e-reader technologies like Kindle. Six percent of over 55s own an e-book reader compared with five percent of 18-24 year olds. You may think this is an obvious development and argue that a) the numbers are still pretty small, b)the over 55s are more likely to read regularly and c) they have the time to do so.

Closer examination of the sales data shows this boom in the over 55s is part of a wider adoption across the population. Mintel estimates around 6.5M UK adults now have some form of e-reader and the Kindle is the most popular device with around one quarter of those downloading an e-book using the Amazon device. So the e-book looks like it is here to stay and will only gather more critical mass as time passes.

But if like me, you’ve spoken to any Kindle users recently, you might have spotted a potentially more interesting and less obvious technology trend and it looks like they’re taking a leaf out of the baby boomers book and re-working the sixties festival mantra to their own e-reader rallying cry “ tune out, turn off and drop out.”

I’m afraid that the rather clunky phrase I’ve come up with to describe this trend is convergent disconnection, so let me explain in a little more detail.

Over the past fifteen years the consumer electronics industry has focused on bringing together information, communication and entertainment onto a single device, meaning we can access everything we want from something not much larger than a packet of cigarettes. In doing this technology manufacturers have ensured the term “convergence” has entered the everyday language of business and marketing.

Brands have been built, fortunes have been made and consumers have chased the next technology dream in a bid to have everything at their fingertips on a single piece of hardware.

Inevitably there have been some compromises along the way, and if like me you have numerous friends who are members of the geek fraternity, you will probably have been subjected to conversations like – “device x is great for email and as a phone, but no use for surfing the Internet and device y is fab for watching YouTube videos but does not have enough memory for holding all the photos I’ve taken.”

But recent years have seen many of the shortcomings ironed out and hardware like iPads are pretty damned good at doing everything from email to e-reading and it is in this latter area that things start to get interesting (albeit I accept they fall short on the phone front).

I happened to mention to one of our technology specialists that a number of friends (who were all significantly under fifty five) have recently acquired a Kindle e-reader.

The immediate reaction of my tech colleague was one of bemused horror and he enquired, “What did they do that for and why on earth didn’t they buy an iPad instead?” before subjecting me to sales pitch that would have put even the most ardent Apple brand evangelist to shame. So I went and spoke to my mini-focus group of Kindlers and I found some interesting stuff. So much so I’ve gone and rooted out a few more Kindle users because I think I’ve stumbled on something interesting in this convergent, always-on, always available society in which we live….

Pretty much everyone I spoke to who had bought a Kindle, admitted to really wanting an iPad and that price was not an issue. They also admitted it was beautifully designed and did all the stuff they’d want it to do and they even said they’d heard it was pretty good as an e-reader, citing things like the great screen etc. Admittedly most said the Kindle was lighter, but it looks like the recent unveiling of the iPad 2 with its mantra of thinner, faster, lighter may have headed off the one advantage the Kindlers could list in favour of the Kindle. So why the hell hadn’t they just bought the iPad?
The answer lies in the fact that despite listing all the benefits of the iPad they didn’t want to be always on, converged and connected.

If anything, they regard time with a book as time away from it all, time to lose themselves in a great read and time to avoid the distractions of email and consuming a multiplicity of content from different sources. And even though they’d chosen an e-reader, they still see the act of reading, even on an electronic device as time for disconnecting from the bustle of daily life

And it is for this reason that the Kindle won through and they all said they were worried they would succumb to temptation and struggle to switch off properly if they knew the device they were using was capable of accessing email, social networks etc.

That said, if you google web access for Kindle, you’ll discover it is possible, but according to most reviews it is not a great experience. So after years of chasing a convergent utopia, are consumers finally choosing to disconnect to spend some time away from the always on lifestyles we live?

If they are, and assuming my sample size is not a case of happy co-incidence, it opens up some interesting questions for technologists and marketers alike. If the success of e-readers and particularly the Kindle continues, the makers of these devices face some interesting choices about how they develop their products in future and what functionality they choose to add.

Equally if the act of convergent disconnection is a conscious decision by consumers, is this their way of telling technology companies and brands not to intervene in their personal space and if this is the case, how will technology companies and brands respond to this – will they respect the decision, or look to get round it in various ways?

And finally is this a form of information protest by consumers who are tiring of having all their data in the public domain (even though ironically Amazon captures a fair bit of data simply to allow you to use a Kindle)? At this stage I can’t give you a definitive answer, but I do think we’ll see a growing number of examples of consumers consciously switching off and going off grid in a bid to escape the daily pressures of everyday life. One example where this is already happening is mobile phone ownership. According to a variety of sources, around 40% of UK mobile users own multiple SIMs/ handsets which would suggest a growing number of people have business and personal mobiles.

It will be interesting to see where this might go because this is one of those cases where you think you might have spotted something – maybe the start of a trend. And if you’ve spotted similar trends I’d love to hear from you – and yes you can email me, but if I’m reading my Kindle I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to respond.

On a recent business trip, Sharon Palmer Head of Media at Universal McCann Manchester, found herself in a curiously awkward position at breakfast time.
 
Do I simply eat alone staring into space trying to tune into the muffled conversations around me? Try juggling my knife and fork with one hand while negotiating to hold a newspaper? Feels awkward and clunky can we change? Or place my neat little iPad onto the table and download The Times while eating my breakfast with two hands?

Being an old-fashioned girl who built her career on print, it came to me at that moment that perhaps the death of newspapers in the print form was not only real but about to speed up. With the almost continual decline in readership of newspapers over recent years, would the birth of the easily digestible iPad and other similar tablet devices be the final nail in the coffin for one of the oldest media around?

On February 2nd, Apple and Rupert Murdoch launched the first digital only newspaper designed for use on the iPad only – the Daily. This breakthrough is hoped to change the face of journalism forever through a combination of reporting and technology.

The Daily is a mixture of the newfangled and the old-fashioned. It has whizzy graphics, including video and “360-degree” pictures. Sport fans can receive the ‘twitterings’ of their favourite players. Unlike most websites, though, the Daily is available only in America. It features outmoded things such as editorials and paid reporters. Although it can be updated to take in breaking news, it is primarily a daily, not an hourly.

The Daily will cost consumers 99 cents per week or 62p in our money – not bad value when you consider the enhanced digital experience against its rather flat print cousin. At £1 a day, it seems newsprint could be pricing itself out of the market.

It’s too early to say how successful the Daily will be but there’s sure to be a wave of ‘me too’ products – already there is talk of Richard Branson launching an iPad only Virgin magazine.

And even if it fails, there’s no denying consumers appetite for the tablet format, 4.8million were sold in the third quarter of 2010, which was a 45 per cent increase from the previous quarter. Retailers ran out of the iPad 2 within hours of it going on sale.
 
With demand for tablet formats high along with the opportunity to offer richer consumer experiences, the iPad seems like the ideal device to encourage consumers to pay for digital journalism. The stats back this up – 52 per cent of iPad users read a magazine or newspaper on their device every day, according to YouGov’s latest TabletTrack report.

There is no doubt that the platform offers advertisers an new opportunity but the industry continues to debate what that will look like and how big that opportunity is.

The restrictive rules on where product placement can be used (no news programming, no children’s shows) and which products are allowed (no alcohol, cigarettes or even unhealthy foods) mean that we are unlikely to see a proliferation in the short term.

Having suggested that viewers won’t notice an immediate sea change, what can advertisers expect from the change in rules? Nescafé’s investment probably paid off in PR, rather than media value, but as the fuss dies down, advertisers looking to use product placement to build brand awareness will need to closely examine the benefits.

For a start, how do we measure the value of product placement? Software has been developed to measure duration, visibility and area of any product placement, but valuing context and engagement will be more difficult.
 

In terms of executing a product placement campaign, there are two ways an advertiser can access programming. The first (seen on ITV’s This Morning) is to physically incorporate products and brands into the shooting of the show. A second way (called digital insertion) involves using CGI to digitally add brands or logos into pre-filmed programming.

Digital insertion of packaging and logos into programs may be relatively quick and easy, but will preclude any interaction, which is surely where the greater value lies. How much will the rules allow presenter interaction with brands? Will consumers have a negative or positive reaction to brands intruding into their favourite shows? We will only be able to answer these questions when a few more brave brands jump into these untested waters, and we can see the impact; for now, it is simply too early to tell.

The extension of the ASA’s CAP code to all online content controlled by companies, including social media, [http://www.asa.org.uk/Media-Centre/2010/ASA-digital-remit-extension.aspx] was first announced in March last year and it’s been the subject of heated debate ever since.

It seems the main challenge facing the ASA will be policing the application of the CAP code to online content, particularly content in social media where there is a grey area on who owns the content.

According to the ASA, user generated content (UGC) is not included in the ASA’s remit extension. However, if a company incorporates UGC in its own marketing, it will be covered. This will be considered on a case-by-case basis, warns the ASA, taking account of the context in which it is placed. So, what about shared media?

Shared media is content that isn’t quite owned by a brand or by a user. For example, comments by a user on a brand’s Facebook Page, blog or YouTube channel, is usually referred to as shared media.

If a user makes a comment on brand-owned social media that doesn’t comply with the CAP code, then what happens? Does the brand have to take it down? But if so, does the brand have a right to delete a comment that technically doesn’t belong to them?

There will, no doubt, be continued calls for more clarity on this from the ASA as it faces the huge task of trawling through thousands of shared media comments to decide whether they constitute ‘marketing’ or not, and whether they are responsible, depending on context.

In reality, the threat of falling foul of the ASA guidelines is likely to discourage many brands from starting and continuing conversations online with their customers in shared media area.

The ASA says its primary concern is not to punish advertisers and, of course, any guidelines which help provide people with a great experience of brands online are a positive move.

But for the many reputable brands who are already acting responsibly in the social media space and who value the two-way dialogue they have with their customers, honestly, transparently, and with full disclosure and no attempts at deception – this is a real shame. This is a real shame for their customers too.

It’s difficult to have a natural conversation if you have to watch your words or you feel you have to prove the context of what you’re saying constantly.

It will be interesting to see how the brands who are talking to their customers this way and who have seen great success with social media adapt to the new guidelines and to see how or if they change the way they talk with their customers.

Let’s hope that behaving reputably online, by being transparent, honest and listening to what people are saying i.e. being human is a strong enough defence to set some precedents in this area.

With approximately 300 sessions, 900 expert speakers and 20,000 new consumer technology products launching each year, CES is the premier trade show for understanding the latest in consumer platforms.

Technology is changing the nature of the relationship between consumers and products. An increasing number of life choices are now dictated by and connected to an operating system of preference – Microsoft Windows, Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android/Chrome ecosystem. Emerging trends in technology are rewriting the rules of how we engage with our audiences. Marketers need to sit up and take notice.

Transforming Data

Data is at the heart of all we do and understanding both the opportunities and pitfalls it offers is crucial. Understanding how to employ aggregated data and content to increase the value of customer relationships is an imperative. For example, retail brands must come to grips with the online/offline “consideration journey” and develop creative and technologically targeted tactics to build dialogue pre- and post-purchase.

Data can also be used for research and development. Often product insights and new product ideas are at the core of a consumer’s response to your current product offerings. “Milling” these conversations can lead to product innovation and new invention.

Finally, building trust with your audience in order to continue to have access to this data is vital. If your brand has loyalty or CRM programs or even a social network fan base, then continuing to build trust among these audiences regarding confidentiality is key. Once that trust is lost, it will be very difficult to manage. Moving forward, the key for data management is to value, reward and protect those people who choose to share it.

Transforming Identity

As technology develops and as more of what we do lives online, our digital footprints will increase in quality and depth, enriching profiles, which in turn will enrich the experience, fostered by closer relationships with trusted tools and brands, and creating “integrated experiences” of consumer content.

By leveraging consumer data and a consumer’s digital identity, contextually relevant content can be served up to that consumer wherever he or she is.

The result is the creation of the most discriminating consumer we’ve ever had, where technology has enabled them instant access to information, changing their behaviour.
For example, shoppers can now use their phones to scan bar codes at retail outlets to look for better prices and reviews online. Or alternatively, they can use their devices to share in purchase decisions with friends. Retailers need to adapt and embrace these
changes and create platforms that optimize and engage, tapping into the content a user produces in-store. Technologies such as Near Field Communications (NFC) open up tremendous opportunities. Retailers can deliver product information as well as coupons and offers based on what they know about you within a short distance to a device. They can also leverage gaming dynamics with rewards programs to create
more sustainable value, tailored to the profiles of their potential customers.

Key Understandings

All of this opens up the massive question of how to manage the information avalanche, with a larger network to manage and a wider data set to consider. Will consumers look to subscribe to a universal identity, one which seamlessly connects to any online destination? What information will a universal form of identity provide? Facebook
Connect is looking to make it easy to log in using a form of universal login but when it comes to transactional information, who will own the commerce piece, and what will consumers expect regarding their privacy? Who will own and help manage identity? Will it be Google? Or will consumers prefer a brand that manages money/transactions like MasterCard or PayPal?

Transforming Home

The profound effect of a connected world, where systems can for the first time be developed and enhanced through unifying technology, will give us a completely new level of insight into consumers and consumption behavior. This opens the door for creating more relevant relationships with the consumer and delivering on a brand’s
value proposition in a way that was never before possible.

Transforming Wellness

With the investment of Government programs and the interest of large corporations to decrease healthcare costs, healthcare management, wellness and fitness will take on a new meaning. Coupled with technology advancements and the ability for a consumer to stay connected at all times, personal health devices will become a natural
extension of our increasingly “always on” environment. Opportunities will abound for leveraging new marketing channels in these environments as well as reaching targeted demographics such as the U.S. “boomer,” who is poised to spend the most discretionary income on this part of their lives.

Transforming Automotive

Automotive is one area of our daily lives that will undergo an accelerated development path as multiple trends converge in one place. The automobile is now the focus of intense innovation to ensure it is consuming the least amount of energy, utilizing the road network efficiently, and entertaining and protecting its passengers. The automobile represents another touchpoint for the brand marketer, as a consumer’s digital lifestyle extends to their primary mode of transportation, their car

Happiness is certainly up there on the national agenda – and there’s lots more action to come on this in the Spring. Maybe this is a good time to reflect on the part we play as a marketing community. I’d like to pose (and attempt to answer) two questions:

1. Can we as marketing people contribute to the sum total of people’s happiness?
2. Are we about to see an era of ‘happiness marketing’?

You’ll notice that the answer to the second question could be ‘yes’ even if the answer to the first is ‘no’.

At McCann Manchester, we’re really interested in the growth of ‘smile’ marketing. There’s an awful lot of it about – stuff that puts a smile on your face. I don’t mean the ‘delighting the customer’ mantra of the business textbooks. I’m talking about marketing that sets out to put an immediate smile on people’s faces. Think Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food, or Barburrito putting the face of an ‘ass’ on each bar stool. McDougalls Upper Crust pies have enlisted the help of Armstrong & Miller in firing pies across the channel at the poor deprived French. Tyrrells reinforced their positioning by offering a Massey Ferguson tractor as a competition prize. And it’s working. Ben & Jerry’s sales value is + 24% and Tyrrells + 38%. McDougalls sales growth is probably sky rocketing too.

We’ve always known there was a positive correlation between strong advertising creative and business success. The recent Thinkbox/IPA study shows great creative campaigns are 11 times more efficient. Our own analysis suggests a strong relationship between marketing effectiveness and finding an ownable way of putting a smile on people’s face. And I’d argue a smile is the expression of at least a moment of happiness.

President Obama, Prime Minister Cameron and other world leaders (see theElders.org) are imploring us to be better citizens. Some brands are responding to this by trying to make the smile last a little longer and arguably moving further in the direction of real human happiness. Innocent’s ‘Big Knit’ making winters warmer for old people, This Water turning your purchase of a small bottle into providing enough clean drinking water for a month to someone in Malawi. Arla Foods bringing kids closer to nature.co.uk. These brands are improving other people’s lives whilst satisfying the higher self-esteem / self-actualisation needs of their own consumers. Faced with a choice of buying the good looking brand or the good looking brand that does something good as well, many people are opting for the latter. The happiness is felt by receiver and giver. Brand owner, consumer and trade outlet all benefit. Ask Innocent – their sales are up 16%.

What this demonstrates is that we don’t have to divorce our individual citizenship from our role in adding value through commercial activity. Draw yourself a Venn diagram of two circles. Put ‘Please my boss’ in the first circle and write ‘Be a good citizen’ in the second. Then sit back and ask yourself what opportunities might sit in the intersection. There’s something in that space for every brand. And the space gets bigger as the state retrenches and we move towards the Big Society.