Want to Reach Global Citizens?

Watch and reference what global citizens watch. Nielsen's research found 57% of adults aged 18 to 34 spend 11 hours a day on interactive social media. Trendwatching.com noted the Lisboeta hotel in Macau, China, and pop-up stores in New York City and Hollywood were using characters from a Japanese app in their decors. Emojis and other social media and app icons now join Disney characters as multi-format global presenters, especially in venues that attract tourists from around the world.

     Since potential customers already are watching something on their smartphones, they are a captive audience for anything, such as merchandise, food, films, and concerts, associated with what they are seeing right in their hands.

     The AFLAC insurance company has combined the traditional advertising art of creating recognizable characters, like Tony the Tiger, to connect customers to their brands with emojis from apps and social media. Working with the medical tech firm, Sproutel, AFLAC turned its recognizable duck into a companion for hospitalized children. Kids receiving chemotherapy can hook up their free ducks to IVs that demonstrate how that process works. In addition, when kids tap their ducks' chests with emoji discs, ducks act out feelings to show the medical staff and visitors if they are sad, happy, or about to cry or throw up.

Launch A Creative Career Search

 I've been noticing job opportunities while reading magazines (and a book) in a variety of fields.

In November's Vogue magazine, editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, wrote about the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and awards to new American design talent. If you are a young designer in need of money, mentoring, and magic, look into the qualifications for the fund's competition.

     Actually, all career hunters should get to know the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) now found at cfda.gov. This is a government listing of all the federal programs, services, and activities that assist the U.S. public.

     Vogue's November issue also had an item about non-profit, New Story (newstorycharity.org/careers), founded by Alexandria Lafoi in San Francisco. This is the organization involved in using 3D printers to build low cost concrete homes in places, such as Mexico, Haiti,       El Salvador, and Bolivia.

     The small print at the end of an article in The Economist (Nov. 17, 2018) invited promising and would-be journalists to apply for a three to six month internship in The Economist's New York bureau. To apply, send a cover letter and 500-word article on economics, business, or finance to:
deaneinternny@economist.com by December 14, 2018.

     Large print in The Economist advertised for an "intellectually curious adventurer" with foreign language skills and a desire to live and work for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency abroad.

     Isthmus, our free local paper in Madison, Wisconsin, runs ads for those interested in teaching English in China. Just use "teaching in China" as a keyword, and you will find a full array of information on that opportunity.

     In the book I just read, Storming the Heavens, the author, Gerald Horne, wrote more than a description of the early aviation history of African Americans. His account inspires blacks and young people of all colors to follow the pioneering pilots who found career opportunities when they ventured to Africa. Those motivated to accept a similar challenge should get to know and benefit from the advice offered at facebook.com/smallstarter.

     For positions back home in the U.S., check out promotion and sales positions in Advertising Age.

       

   

     

Themes for Global Advertising

Leading up to any big holiday, we are used to seeing companies run ads featuring family and friends gathering to celebrate. When Singtel, a telecom company in Singapore, ran a Chinese New Year's ad that captured today's alternate reality, according to trendwatching.com, the ad outdrew those of competitors and scored nine million views on Facebook. Singtel's ad recognized how distance and busy, professional careers separate and sadden both parents and their "children" nowadays. The company captured this emotional longing to get together by showing the conversations, when plans to share the holiday were canceled. Greeting card companies also have a knack for helping family and friends share holidays, birthdays, sympathy and other emotions across the miles.

     In Singapore, Singtel found half of the population spent less than 36 hours each week with family members. I suspect that seems like a lot of time to empty nesters and young professionals alike. No advertiser wants to blatantly call, "Hey, you lonely people out there, do this," but, if you closely consider commercials, you'll see some ads show a satisfying life setting when someone is by themselves and others show the benefit of making an effort to get out to meet up with family and friends. Have a piece of candy; plan a party.

Get Real About Forecasting 2018's Happenings

At the start of 2018, there has been no shortage of predictions about what will happen this year. TIME magazine devoted its entire January 15 issue, guest edited by Bill Gates, to a future of positive developments.

I have seen claims that the best places to find a job are in Arizona: Chandler and Scottsdale. Brain power will be enhanced by supplements or meditation. Advertisers will be more interested in how much time we view their commercials, rather than in how many commercials we see. Companies will mine data to personalize the messages they send us. Besides those designing technological developments, more people will be involved in considering the consequences of these developments, such as automated warfare and gene editing.

All of these forecasts remind me of the professor who said the only way to make accurate predictions is to forecast often. His prediction is more accurate than ever in our fast changing world, where today's jobs can be gone tomorrow and where so-called stable governments can disappear in the next election or coup.

No doubt, a variety of resources provide frequent updates. I'm just giving an example of one: TrendWatching.com offers its Premium Service subscribers a 100-page plus "2018 Trend Report,"  but it also provides a free daily look at innovations from around the world, innovations that often are worth imitating immediately. Businesses are reminded, for example, that they have become Glass Boxes. Consumers and potential employees have multiple ways to find out about their culture, people, processes, and product ingredients, not just their stock's performances. Evolution is not finished.

Technology Heals and Transports

If you think about it, the first uses for new products are not always the ones that become most useful. Satellites led to the GPS; nuclear bombs led to nuclear materials for treating cancer. Almonds and crickets are now made into flour. So, who knows what AI, 3D printing, drones, robots, and sensors will be best known for in the future.

The Trendwatching site introduced me to the way a Pepsi ad used phones to help sets of three people get together during Ramadan in Egypt. Three people had to hold their phones next to each other side by side to view a full Pepsi ad that told them to put away their phones and pay attention to each other. That's the way to overcome the loneliness that undermines health.

Virtual reality glasses provided health and welfare benefits in Brazil's nursing homes. Intel partnered with "Reasons to Believe" to give VR glasses to seniors who always longed to travel to the countries of their ancestors. With the glasses, they could experience these trips. Working with Burson-Marsteller, Intel's public relations agency, a project called "Technology and Life" also will show VR's importance in treating autism and patients with visual and motor disabilities.

You can start listing other VR uses, some already being tried, to show customers in one country items they could buy in another, to help a shut-in or hospitalized child go to the zoo or a ball game, to show a friend a 3-D version of your African safari.... Look through a travel magazine and you'll see Alaska, Iceland, Ireland, Paris, Rome, Prague, Rio, Cape Town, and so many other places you'd love to visit with the help of VR glasses or a VR headset..

Modern Masculinity

The "Men's Project" at the University of Wisconsin - Madison recognizes how modern masculinity is challenged to keep up with changing female roles. Around the world, women are rebelling against stereotypes that portray them as uneducated and unfit for positions in politics and government, athletic competition, business careers, and military service. Yet many cling to the image of tall, white heterosexual males surrounded by women competing for their attention and approval.

     In this period of transition, two dynamics are at play. While some men ad women have moved on to accept equality of the sexes, others have not. In the United States, for example, research in Lisa Wade's new book, American Hookup, found there are still men (and women) willing to embrace a culture where sex is a no-strings-attached form of fun that favors men.

     Marketers use age demographics to identify male segments, but careful attention to advertising also shows a gradual addition of male lifestyle segments. Loosely based o Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we might label this expanding list of male lifestyle segments as follows:

Philosophers: These men are secure in their manhood whether they are Bill Gates' types or stay-at-home dads. They think each person should do his or her own thing, and they are happy to help those in need.

Top Dogs: These wealthy, good-looking heterosexual players equate masculinity with the constant pursuit of hot women for meaningless sex. They look for wives who support their careers and enhance their status. 

Power Couples: College and graduate schools foster romantic bonds between men and women with similar professional, academic research, and business interests. Masculinity is not threatened in these relationships which are based on equality.

Pillars of the Community: These family me look for ways to serve the community. They coach children's soccer leagues, head organizations that sponsor food drives, enter local politics, look out for elderly neighbors, and attend religious services. Without trying, they meet women who also provide community services.

Providers: For men in this segment, masculinity means men don't do women's work. They don't prepare food, wash and mend clothes, clean the house, or care for children. They don't expect women to work outside the home, and they do expect to sit somewhere drinking a few beers and watching games uninterrupted. Break one of their rules and sexual abuse, domestic violence, and/or emotional bullying can follow.

     Marketers know change is possible. But changing a male's view of his masculinity requires a strategy like one a marketer would use to introduce a new product.

      The new view, such as the fact that a man can enjoy a meaningful relationship on equal terms with a woman, has to have an advantage over the old, and this advantage needs to be demonstrated. Males need to see other men enjoying meaningful relationships with women within their culture and/or by couples they admire. Change also is easier if switching to something new has an element of familiarity. When computers were introduced, for example, keyboards had built-in acceptance, because they had the look of a typewriter. If a brother has had a good, lifelong relationship with his sister or (I'm reluctant to say, because analogies all have limits) a man has the experience of a close bond with a pet, he knows the joy of friendship and intimacy, albeit platonic. Finally, change also requires minimizing risk. That's why marketers provide trial offers, guaranteed return policies, and free shipping. Men could be persuaded to move toward a new view of masculinity, if they would not suffer a financial loss, physical harm, or, possibly worst of all, the psychological pain of people laughing at them.