Some Social Technologies colleagues and I recently had the good fortune to attend Al Gore's speech in Washington, where he unveiled a new challenge to the US: be free of carbon-based energy in 10 years. His challenge calls for the US not only to be oil independent but also coal-free, relying only on renewable energy. Gore emphasized solar, wind, and geothermal energy as replacements to carbon-based fuels.

Gore also called for a unified national grid, plug-in electric cars, and a carbon emissions tax. He emphasized the need for the US to be the leader, as well as a major innovator, of renewable energy.

Acknowledging his detractors, Gore said, “Of course, there are those who will tell us that this can’t be done. But even those who reap the profits of the carbon age have to recognize the inevitability of its demise. As one OPEC oil minister observed, ‘The Stone Age didn’t end because of a shortage of stones.’”

Here at Social Technologies, we are interested in seeing the actual plan that will implement these changes, since the speech was vague in that regard. In my opinion, it is a lofty, yet admirable goal. Dear readers, what do you think?

The changing nature of television, including how new platforms and content delivery methods are being developed, is something I've been working on for a while. A great example of the changes afoot is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a new project of writer-producer Joss Whedon. Bored during the television writers’ strike, Whedon—the mastermind behind cult fave Buffy the Vampire Slayer—along with his brothers devised a short-form musical story to be broadcast over the Internet. The result is a perfect example of what we mean when we talk about power shifting to content producers with the advent of these new delivery platforms. Following the "airing" of the first (of three parts), the show racked up more than 300,000 Google hits and more than 100 Google News hits, and is the top selling video on iTunes. (That people are paying $1.99 for something they can watch for free is the subject of an entirely different blog post.)

Granted, the popularity and seeming success of this is due in part to Whedon’s large and enthusiastic fan base, but nevertheless, television programming execs should be nervous. You can hit the link at the top to watch but hurry, it is only online for a limited time.

Iron Man? Incredible Hulk? Hellboy? What do they all have in common? Besides opening number one at the box office this summer, they are all characters or properties that began as comic books. There has been a veritable invasion of page-to-screen in the past five years, and with The Dark Knight, set to open Friday ahead of rave reviews, I was asked by a reporter about the proliferation of comic-based movies.

I believe there are a number of reasons for this comic book invasion of movieland:

Technology: New filming techniques, digital cameras, and computer designed and executed special effects make it easier to translate the fantastic from page to screen. James McAvoy dodging bullets in Wanted could not have happened pre-CGI (or pre-Matrix, which really set the bar for what could be done).

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Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines is featured in Escape from Corporate America, a new book by a reformed corporate ladder-climber, Pam Skillings:

"If your corporate career is leaving you stressed out, burned out, or just plain bummed out, you’re not alone.You don’t have to choose between paying the bills and enjoying a fulfilling career.” With humor and personal accounts, she offers a seven-step approach to breaking free: assess your job’s “suck” factor, identify your true calling, develop your escape plan, find jobs that don’t bite, be your own boss, follow your creative dreams, and overcome any obstacle.

Skillings, a career coach who made the leap in 2005, estimates that 80% of the working population fantasizes about leaving their jobs for something better. She admits that making the leap isn’t easy, but it is worthwhile:

It took me years of trial and error to escape corporate America. Once I left, I was amazed at how many people were dying to know how I did it and whether they could do it, too.

Skillings found a compatriot in Hines, who worked in trends and ideation for multinational food and chemical companies before joining Social Technologies in 2006 as director of custom projects. In Skillings’ book, he is quoted in chapter seven: “Swim in a Smaller Pond.”

“No offense against corporate places, but they are not always the most interesting,” says Hines. “A lot of the attraction of my current company was the ability to work for people who are really interesting. Who else would work as a professional futurist? You have to be a little nuts, and I like that.”

The iPhone 3G has officially been released into the wild, and it's time for the most avid Apple fan here at S)T to pick apart what makes it so darned interesting and why it makes people wait in line for hours just to get one (guilty as charged).

Last year's iPhone hype was all about the hardware. The iPhone combined everything great about the iPod with a quality mobile phone complete with the best touchscreen the world has ever known.

This time around, hardware is less important (though the 3G and GPS have raised the bar). A lot of the hype is focused on software, namely the App Store, a new service that makes it simple for iPhone owners to find software that takes advantage of the hi-speed Internet access of 3G and the location-based information from the GPS. For example, Loopt has an application that combines online social networking with GPS info, so it's easier to find where one's friends are hanging out or where the cool events are happening.

With the launch of the App Store, Apple has taken a very difficult process--finding quality software for mobile phones--and made it much simpler. The App Store has already sold $55,000 worth of software within its first day.

The App Store's success seems to be driven by the innovative software developers who are contributing to the project. Apple recognized they needed to make it possible for developers to create their own applications for the iPhone, and instead of leaving that innovation to hackers, they've managed to create a successful platform that will likely continue to fuel consumer interest in mobile Internet services and, even more importantly, the mobile phone as a computing platform.

Apple has really hit another home run by giving up control over iPhone software development. And I, as a new iPhone owner, am quite thankful.

Image: velorowdy (Flickr.com)

"You're about to be playing in an entirely new ballgame if you've been marketing exclusively to baby boomers – unless you have a timeless product or service," writes syndicated columnist Mildred Culp in a June 29 article, "Expand Your Marketing from Boomers to Gen Y."

The piece ran in the Dallas Morning News, among other papers, and Culp interviewed Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines about how to connect with Millennials via their interest in environmentalism and sustainability, community, social responsibility (including humanitarian issues), and the Internet.

Appealing to those things is essential, said Andy Hines, a futurist in the Houston office of Social Technologies LLC. Mr. Hines said that Gen Y's questions are geared toward obtaining tangible results, such as "How do we make the community a better place, the environment safer? What do we do to translate into people getting more food?"

His advice to business leaders: "Bring in a Gen Y intern to mentor you."

For more information on what appeals to Millennials, read a study that Hines and his team at Social Techonologies conducted last year for MTV on the "Future of Youth Happiness: What makes 12-24-year-olds happy?" Or, view the entire presentation.

On Thursday, July 3 the CBS Early Show featured a spot on the study Social Technologies' conducted this spring for Spike TV on "The Future of American Men."

At a very man-friendly bar called the Black Sheep Pub and Restaurant in Philadelphia, CBS Early Show anchor Maggie Rodriguez talked to five men who each represented one of the personas outlined in the study.

From the plaza of the GM building in New York City, she introduced the piece with this:

Let's talk about men. The guy network Spike TV teamed up with Social Technologies and discovered there are basically five different types of guys, as I've mentioned: young carefrees, worry warriors, good ol' boys, mac daddies, and above-average Joes. And lucky me, I got to spend time with each type earlier this week at the Black Sheep Bar in Philadelphia.

She then cut to the segment in which she interviewed each guy--as well as Chris Carbone, Social Technologies' Director of Programs and author of the study, and Kimberly Maxwell, the senior director of brand and consumer research for Spike TV. Some excerpts:

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By engaging consumers through all five senses, not just sight or hearing, multisensory marketing strategies seek to evoke deep personal identification with products. The practice is being driven by advancing science and technology (especially brain science), consumer demand for affordable luxury, and competitive pressure to find new ways to differentiate products and brands.

We wrote about the multisensory marketing trend in our Global Lifestyles (pdf) project a few years back, and the interest continues to build. Here are a couple recent items of note we've come across about the use of smell in selling:

• A recent article in Emirates Business 24|7 (registration required) suggests that global spending on aroma marketing will hit $220 million in 2010, up from just $30 million in 2003.
  
• There's a new book out called Whiff, by C. Russel Brumfield, that looks pretty interesting. He was the keynote speaker at the First International Scent-Marketing Conference in NYC. See a couple minutes from him on AdAge.com.
  
• Travellodge UK is now offering scented rooms. Their press release mentions scents including the sea, baby powder, fresh cut grass, apple pie, and chocolate.
  
• And if those scents don't please you...there is always the AromaUSB...which uses power from a computer's USB port to deliver scents, and according to the website is perfect for "marketing campaigns...[and] keeping your brand or business in customers' minds."
  

Image: Joe M500 (Flickr)

Hat tip to airsensenews.com.

We recently finished some research for Spike TV, and unlike most of our work (which tends to be client-confidential), this is something we can actually share a bit. It was a project in support of Spike’s Guy’s State of the Union 2008—in which they take stock of the state of American guys.

Social Technologies handled the qualitative portion of the project. We mined our trendbase, did expert interviews, and created a set of hypotheses about the current and future state of American men. The polling firm Penn, Schoen & Berland (PSB) tested the hypotheses through an online quantitative survey, and we worked in parallel doing focus groups in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Minneapolis to hear from guys in their own words.

Using a segmentation provided by PSB we created a set of composite personas to help bring the survey and focus group findings to life. We also used the personas as a way to talk about where these segments might be headed in the future.

Five types of American guys

The segmentation revealed 5 types of American guys aged 18-49:

1. Young Carefrees (23%)—friend-focused digital natives enjoying their post-college years
2. The Above Average Joes (29%)—modern guys, thriving in their role as fathers and husbands
3. The Good Ol’ Boys (13%)—traditional guys with traditional views; rugged, stoic, and pragmatic
4. The Mac Daddies (20%)—the alpha guys…intense, successful, and in love with their gadgets
5. The Worry Warriors (15%)—hard working, well-off…but totally stressed

See the public version of the Spike TV report here, with detailed descriptions of the segments and the personas we used to bring them to life.

Watch out if you're overweight in Japan: the government is starting a new initiative to measure their citizen's waistlines in order to combat obesity. The government will be measuring all Japanese between the ages of 40 and 74, and, believe it or not, actually now has state-legislated guidelines on how large your waist should be. For men, it's 33.5 inches, for women, 35.4 inches.

What happens if your waist isn't as slim as the government wants? The individual recriminations are mild: dieting guidance and health classes. However, Japan is making employers responsible for their employee's health, and businesses will face financial penalties if their employees' waists don't measure up.

This is all in an effort to reduce Japan's obese population by 10% in the next four years and 25% in the next seven years. It all seems a bit much, no? Japan's population is already much less obese than other World 1 countries--only 3.2% of Japanese are considered obese.

Image: Omid Tavallai (Flickr)

We were pleased to see our Speed of Change Index covered in the new issue of Foreign Policy.

As the magazine says,

How swiftly or slowly life changes in particular countries is the subject of the Speed of Change Index, which measures changes in urbanization, literacy, GDP per capita, civil liberties, and access to a telephone, TV, and the Internet in countries during the last 15 years.... The index reveals where citizens' needs are rapidly changing, new markets are opening, and the risk of instability runs high.

The magazine's graphic shows selected countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, but the index actually includes nearly every country on Earth, with the exception of some microstates.

Image: Social Technologies

It’s official. My family has become the latest victim of “green noise,” that cacophony of conflicting environmental messages and concerns lobbed at consumers by marketers, environmental groups, and well-intentioned do-gooders. It’s simply become impossible to decide which eco-friendly choice is the best.

Here’s how it goes for me. I walk into a grocery store with a vague idea of what I need to get. I head to the produce section and meet with my first roadblock: which organics should I buy? The ol’ grocery budget forces me to pick and choose. The organic bananas seem like a steal at 89 cents a pound--but I’ve read that the less expensive conventionally grown bananas have only minimal levels of pesticide residues, and if I’m worried about the environment, don’t I need to consider that the bananas have racked up a considerable carbon footprint after being transported from South America? Hmm…peaches? The peaches are almost in season and at least were grown in the continental US. Easy decision ‘til – good Lord! Who can afford organic peaches?!

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Hot off the presses is the July-August issue of The Futurist magazine, featuring an article by Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines.

Entitled "Consumer Trends in Three Different 'Worlds," it is the first in a two-part series in which Hines looks at the big trends in demography, money, and consumerism that will shape the world in the next decade.

From the second chapter of "Thinking about the Future," a book co-edited by Social Technologies' Andy Hines and futurist Peter Bishop, comes this entry: ADOPT A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Here's why: Strategic foresight needs to consider what is happening in other parts of the world. No situation or system is immune to events and forces elsewhere. Consider changes around the world and how they relate to the client’s overall business as well as to the issue under study. Thinking about the rest of the world should be prominent in research, analysis, or discussion--literally in all aspects of an activity. Modeling this thinking approach will influence colleagues and collaborators to think this way as well.

Key steps: There is no single way to embrace a global perspective. But it is critical to build one into processes specific both to the work and to the larger organizational culture. Ways to do this include:

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1) New Buying Habits
iTunes is to eBay as Ellen is to Maury Povich.

2) Poor Man's TiVo
Forget to set the DVR? Click on YouTube, the world’s largest, virtual broadcast network, for American Idol caterwauling or Jon Stewart’s latest.

3) Infinitives We've Come to Love

To Skype, to RSS, to podcast, to blog, to Flickr, to GPS...

4) The E-Generation Gap
You “talk” to your teenager on each other's MySpace pages. “Private data” is only what you show 800 “friends.”

5) Attack Mode
We don’t just get spammed anymore – say hello to pharming, phishing, and vishing (voice-over-IP phishing).

6) Suddenly, Those Spring Break 2003 Photos Aren’t So Fun
Employers and recruiters use Google and popular social networking site searches as part of due diligence on prospective employees.

7) OMG!
Emoticons and IM shorthand have entered the popular vernacular, even popping up in high school English compositions.

8) Thingamajigs, Doohickeys on the Way
Wikis, widgets, applets, mashups, and dashboards have transformed desktops and GUIs.

9) That Huge $ucking $ound
Venture capital has flooded the market, fueling both clever and dubious entrepreneurs on a level not seen since the first Internet bubble of 2000. Now if some .com could somehow reverse oil’s big run-up…

10) Who Am I Today?
Create an avatar to get a Second Life. Use anonymity to flame opponents or razz friends. Online identities are a lot more fluid than they are in the real world.

Image: Social Technologies