The Most Contagious 2012 report discusses the evolution of branding and marketing, emphasizing the growing importance of purpose-driven approaches where brands operate as social citizens. It highlights trends such as the impact of social media, the integration of technology in retail, and the rise of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter. The document showcases successful examples of brands that have embraced their societal roles, offering meaningful services to consumers while navigating the changing landscape of business and communication.

2. 04 Introduction /
By Paul Kemp-Robertson, Contagious, and Dave Senay, Fleishman-Hillard
06 Movements /
Evolution and empowerment
10 Purpose /
Playing a role in society
13 Marketing as Service Design /
Utility not noise
16 Divine Data /
Insight by numbers
19 Technology /
Big battles, small victors
23 Design /
Personalised play
27 Social Business /
Adopting an open door policy
30 Image Sharing /
The year of the photo
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3. Amplified Live / 33
Enhance, capture and share
Screen Grabs / 36
Creating, sharing, watching
Augmented Media / 39
Layering content and utility
Retail / 43
Shopping gets connected
Personalisation / 47
Here’s to you
The New Loyalty / 50
Services not schemes
Payments / 53
Changing the way we pay
Small But Perfectly Formed / 56
Little brands, big thinkers
Most Contagious / Award Winners 60
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4. Contagious / Introduction
By Paul Kemp-Robertson
Welcome to the Most Contagious 2012 report, Brands behaving as super-citizens is something
our annual review of the trends, technologies and that our consultancy team at Contagious Insider
creative innovations that have influenced brands explored in a Cannes seminar in June, where we
this year. By putting the past 12 months into presented the concept of brand as interface, not
context we hope to equip you, in some small way, interrupter. We used the title ‘Better With The
for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Brand’ to suggest that the best brands are a
conduit through which the lives of real people can
The golden thread stitching the year’s report
be made better. The original definition of the word
together is citizenship. Think of the spirit of the
interface is to meet, to synchronise, to coordinate,
London Olympics encapsulated by Tim Berners-
to harmonise. We think that a brand should behave
Lee at the height of the opening ceremony,
as an indispensable tool or a common boundary
tweeting ‘This is for Everyone’ to the watching
that connects people to information, augmented
world. Think also of the disintermediating potential
content, services and experiences that they
of Kickstarter and the grassroots fan fiction
wouldn’t get via any other means.
communities that spawned Fifty Shades of Grey.
How about the data-driven intimacy of Obama’s That’s why this report is filled with examples of
election campaign? The transparency and ubiquity brands being driven by a higher sense of purpose.
of social media is fuelling the rise of people Brands have long behaved like corporate Medicis
power. What’s more, Nielsen’s Global, Socially – bestowers of creative munificence in the form of
Conscious Consumer report found that 66% of epic TV commercials or sponsored art – but now
consumers prefer to buy from companies that many are starting to take on the more purposeful
have implemented programmes to give back to role of NGOs. Most Contagious 2012 features
society. Citizens the world over are demanding examples of brands acting as lifesavers, health
that advertising speeds up its radical shift from and wellbeing networks, educators, ecologists,
perfection to honesty, from control to collaboration. technology incubators and – in the case of the
Red Bull Stratos mission from the edge of space –
In Contagious Magazine’s recent case study
daredevil rocket scientists.
on IBM (Issue 33) we looked at how one of the
world’s biggest brands has re-engineered its Maybe we should all be aiming higher.
smarter commerce principles around the ‘Chief
Executive Consumer’. This is a business philosophy
Paul Kemp-Robertson /
also endorsed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos:
Co-founder & Editorial Director
‘Above all else, align with customers. Win when
they win. Win only when they win.’
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5. Fleishman-Hillard / Introduction
By Dave Senay
You’re about to read remarkable stories about people and brands that are pushing
the boundaries of creativity and innovation. How branding is reinventing itself to
meet real human needs, delivering tools and services that truly improve our lives,
how social media is morphing into social business. And that’s just for starters.
Most Contagious is about the structure, nature and purpose of business itself,
and incorporates society as a whole. Creativity is breaking out of the confinements
of communications and marketing to the bigger, deeper role it needs to play in the
transformation of our organisations and society.
Businesses are rising and crashing faster than ever. We see this in the collapse
of the boundaries that used to separate public relations from marketing, reputation
management from brand marketing. These labels seem so irrelevant today. Your
brand is your reputation. Your reputation is your behaviour. How you are is who
you are.
This means our organisations must become exceptionally clear and aligned around
their core values, purpose and character. So we must communicate and behave in
a manner that is consistent with our beliefs. Businesses must define and know their
purpose and ensure that any marketing communication aligns with that. ‘Consumers’
need to be treated as people and provided with genuinely useful tools and services.
We need to look beyond the value of their latest transaction, towards building
lasting relationships.
Most Contagious will provide you with the inspiration. The next step is to channel
that into actions that make a difference. Over to you.
Dave Senay, President and CEO of Fleishman-Hillard
Most Contagious, in partnership with Fleishman-Hillard
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6. Movements /
Evolution and
empowerment
As we pound towards the finish line of
2012, we can finally glance back on the
landmark events, movements and socio-
economic shifts that have shaped the last
12 months.
We’ll try and save you the blood and sweat but
we can’t guarantee not to tear up a little when
replaying the collective glory of the Olympic
Games or Obama’s choking speech to his victo-
rious campaign staff… but more on that later.
In 2011, we described how the torrent of infor-
mation, collaboration and distribution afforded by
the web was putting pressure not just on global
industries, but also on governments and estab-
lished social infrastructures. This year may have
been less riotous, but it hasn’t failed to present
significant fodder for the increasingly connected,
enlightened and empowered world to sink its
tweet-sharpened teeth into. So let’s begin…
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7. Photo © It’s Your London / www.itsyourlondon.co.uk
Photo: bit.ly/11pWuzJ
London 2012 / united every nation that took part, tuned in and Mitt Romney’s digital director, 33-year-old Zac
The spirit of the Olympic Games was summed tweeted. Well played, social media. Moffatt, claimed in a pre-election interview with
up during Danny Boyle’s epic opening cer- bit.ly/olympics-social-infographic Mashable that Obama’s team was ‘still running
emony, when father of the web, Tim Berners- bit.ly/olympics-instagram their Facebook campaign like it’s 2008’. In con-
Lee, took centre-stage and live-tweeted: ‘This is trast to the Obama team’s failure to adapt and
for everyone’. The message coursed around the US Presidential Election / evolve, he claimed that his strategy centred on
stadium on over 70,000 handheld pixel screens driving engagement only on the platforms most
When Obama won his first term in office in relevant to Romney and his campaign. These
wielded by the crowd. London 2012 was an
2008, it was no secret that his team wielded a were Google, Facebook and Twitter, although
Olympic Games for, about and powered by the
distinct advantage over McCain et al. thanks to Moffatt also flirted with Instagram and Pinterest.
people.
their competency in the social web and engag-
Beyond the sentiment of this message was the ing the hoards of precious young voters who Yet the Obama administration’s head start on all
amplification of the Olympics via social media, were flocking to Facebook, YouTube and Twit- these platforms proved too much to overcome. At
prompting the ‘Social Games’ tag. According to ter. 2012, however, was a different matter; not the time of election, Obama’s 28.8m Facebook
monitoring agency Radian 6, 9.9 million Olympic only were the Republicans catching up in the Likes played Romney’s 7.1m; 19.9m Twitter fol-
tweets were sent over the course of the 17 days. polls as well as in their social media compe- lowers played 1.1m. In terms of activity, the two
Tracking tool VenueSeen revealed that 260,000 tency, but Obama’s team now had to appeal to teams employed surprisingly similar tactics, both
images were uploaded to Instagram with the a much wider range of demographics on social opting for consistent, lightweight engagement
hashtag #London2012. platforms (Facebook’s user base had increased and tempting voters with competitions to win din-
from 100 million to 800 million). Also the novelty ner with Obama or a ride on Romney’s jet.
High levels of interaction were sustained, with
#Paralympics trending worldwide during the of social media was wearing off for many voters, The key difference, however, was tone. Oba-
Paralympics closing ceremony. For the first time so the same issues that face the world’s biggest ma’s team painted a far more intimate and per-
in their 52-year history, the Paralympic Games brands today also troubled both parties’ election sonal picture of their candidate. In the end, it was
sold out, proving that, in mobilising and empow- teams – namely figuring out how to offer genu- this that signified Obama’s timely rediscovery of
ering the masses, London 2012 created an insa- ine relevance and value. the ‘everyman’ mojo that won the world’s heart
tiable appetite for Olympic competition which in 2008 and ended up clinching him a second
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8. movements /
evolution and
empowerment
term in office. He declared victory on Twitter
and then Facebook shortly after the first US
network made the announcement. The now
infamous ‘Four more years’ picture used by
his team has since become the most shared
in history, racking up a record 4.4m Likes on
Facebook and over 817,000 retweets.
tinyurl.com/mashable-romney-obama
tinyurl.com/social-media-election2012
Disintermediation / Crowdfunding on the Kickstarter blog show that as of expectations of backers, clarifying in its
Admittedly it hardly trips off the tongue, but 31 August, Games had racked up $50m, blog posts that the platform ‘is not a shop’
disintermediation (that’s cutting out the mid- beating Film ($42m) Design ($40m) Music and there will be no equity crowdfunding or
dle man) has been one of the hottest topics ($25m) and Technology ($16m). IPO made available. The process currently
in the Contagious office this year. tinyurl.com/9trtdlp remains firmly rooted in gifting, not owner-
ship, although this hasn’t stopped many
On 19 November, video game designer
Despite the success of Kickstarter, 2012 economists claiming that the real revolution
Chris Roberts smashed the record for the
has also revealed potential cracks in the will come when backers will be able to obtain
most crowdfunding ever raised for a new
crowdfunding model. In November Kick- equity in exchange for their investment.
title – US$6.2m – pledged by PC gamers
around the world to see his space sim, Star starter was sued by 3D Systems – a leading tinyurl.com/c9fw38m
Citizen, get made. The generous gamers maker of 3D printers – which claimed that
won’t get hold of an alpha version of the its patents were being infringed by a device Disintermediation / Fifty Shades of Grey
title for at least another year, but their faith made by an MIT-bred company, Formlabs, Lastly, we can’t cover disintermediation
and investment is a perfect example of how which secured over $2.9m on the crowd- without recognising the amateur success
crowdfunding has matured in 2012. funding platform. As more established com- story of 2012 – E.L. James’ (aka Brit-
tinyurl.com/9amw3tc panies start to see their offering undercut by ish author Erika Leonard’s) erotic novel
crowdfunded challenger brands, perhaps Fifty Shades of Grey. Although eventually
it is inevitable that the rigour and legality published through a traditional publisher
Roberts sourced $2.1m of his funding
of Kickstarter projects will be increasingly (Random House subdivision Vintage
through Kickstarter, with roughly 34,000
called into question. Crowdfunded legal Books), Fifty Shades started out as some-
backers donating an impressive average of
representation anyone? what niche Twilight fan fiction written under
$62 each. This is consistent with current
behaviour on the platform, with video games tinyurl.com/c8aw8my the pen name ‘Snowqueen’s Icedragon’.
receiving more funding this year than any It lived first on fanfiction.com, then on
Kickstarter is working hard to manage the
other category. Official figures published Leonard’s own website, FiftyShades.com,
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9. before being released as an e-book, join- The standard in mass, online education was set by the Kahn Acad- It is two of Thrun’s colleagues at Stanford, Andrew Ng and
ing the hundreds of thousands of other emy, founded in 2006 by Bangladeshi MIT and Harvard Business Daphne Koller, who are responsible for 2012’s other standout
titles now being sold directly from author School graduate, Salman Khan. This non-profit organisation relies source of online education – Coursera. Unlike the Kahn Academy
to reader on Amazon. on donations for funding and has delivered over 200 million lessons or Udacity, Coursera partners with 33 existing universities such as
Only after it gained significant traction on (approx. 3,600 of which are available on YouTube) across topics Princeton, Michigan and Pennsylvania to make some of their most
e-readers around the world was it selected including medicine, art history, macroeconomics and computer sci- popular courses available for free online. It has already attracted
for re-release by Vintage and proceeded to ence. What 2012 has brought, however, is a new generation of 1.8m students since April, as well as $16m in first round venture
become the best-selling book in British his- alternatives inspired by Kahn’s original dream to provide a ‘high funding. As Koller explained to the Guardian newspaper in Novem-
tory and spend a record 20 weeks at No.1 quality education to anyone, anywhere’. ber, ‘We had a million users faster than Facebook, faster than Ins-
on USA Today’s best-selling books list. Like www.khanacademy.org tagram. This is a wholesale change in the educational ecosystem.’
or loathe Fifty Shades, it proved that any- www.coursera.org
one with a basic knowledge of BDSM and a Most notable is Udacity, founded by Stanford professor and
passion for the written word could become Google Fellow Sebastian Thrun. Unlike the Kahn Academy, Udac- So there you have 2012, a year in which the novelty of social media
one of the most successful authors of all ity is a private organisation funded by venture capital firm, Charles wore off and in its place arrived a new standardised expectation for
time. Go internet. River Ventures, as well as other companies such as Google that how we can interact with the world. This includes controlling what
sponsor specific courses in exchange for access to the most products are made and how much we pay for them, right through
Democratised Education / promising talent. Launched in February this year, Udacity currently to accessing the kind of education that will create and empower
Potentially the most socially significant specialises in computer science, with courses including Program- whole new generations of technological entrepreneurs from differ-
well to spring forth from the internet in ming Languages and Applied Cryptography, although 2013 will ent nations around the world. Think we’re making progress now?
2012 is that of democratised educational see HTML5 Game Development added to the syllabus amongst Something tells us we ain’t seen nothing yet…
resources. Put simply, online learning that other new subjects. Udacity currently has approximately 400,000
now extends far beyond a bodged Sweet students worldwide.
Child O’ Mine guitar tutorial on YouTube… www.udacity.com
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10. Purpose /
Playing a Purpose has been an overriding
theme of 2012, with companies
role in
realising that a brand doesn’t exist
inside a bubble of happy, shiny
marketing; it has a role to play in
society
society.
As David Hieatt, founder of Hiut Denim
(featured in our Small But Perfectly
Formed section), says: ‘The great brands
of the world make a great product but
also have a clear understanding of their
purpose. They understand the “why” as
well as the “what” and the “how”.’
One company that embodies this is
US restaurant chain Chipotle, with its
‘Food with Integrity’ mission that pushes
the organic food agenda and fights the
cause of beleaguered farming communi-
ties in America’s bread basket states.
Contagious was delighted to see its
animated Back to the Start film (featured
in Most Contagious 2011) win a flurry of
awards this year, with its prize money for
the Grandy appropriately donated to the
Chipotle Cultivate Foundation.
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11. Movements
The New
World Order
Another Contagious favourite, the out- The Daktari 1525 service enables Safa- ping their network, linking them up with
door brand Patagonia, pinned its sus- ricom customers to dial 1525 on their local people who are part of the scheme.
tainable colours to the mast in January by mobiles 24/7 to be connected, via Safa- Members can even call people directly to
becoming a certified B Corp, an idea that’s ricom call centres, to one of 50 qualified arrange giving blood in an emergency.
gathering momentum across the US. There doctors recruited by Dial-a-Doc. The call
By using its infrastructure to extend its
are now some 650 B Corps, validated by charge of Kshs20 per minute (to cover the
remit in this way, Tata Docomo is acting as
the non-profit B Lab based on meeting doctors’ fees, rather than the connection
an NGO, stepping in to provide the kind of
specific standards for social and environ- charge) is subsidised by Safaricom, which
life-saving scheme that it could take gov-
mental performance, legal accountability recently slashed it in half to widen access.
ernments years to set up.
and transparency. The service currently handles around 2,000
calls per day. Featured in Contagious 31. www.bloodlineclub.com
The fact is, people like to be good. One of
Contagious’ choice stats of the year came The company continues to explore new Renault / MOBILIZ
from Nielsen’s Global, Socially Conscious ways to transform people’s lives via its
To help the socially or economically
Consumer report, which found that 66% of mobile network. In October, it joined forces
excluded in France, automotive company
consumers around the world prefer to buy with mobile technology company M-KOPA
Renault launched Renault MOBILIZ in July.
from companies that have implemented to make solar power accessible to low
This initiative aims to make transport more
programmes to give back to society. Below income families in rural Kenya via a pay-as-
accessible for those who can’t afford to
are our top picks from the year. you-go Safaricom SIM card.
own or maintain a car.
tinyurl.com/daktari1525
Safaricom / Daktari 1525 Renault is working with volunteer garages Renault has long held the ambition of pro-
To differentiate itself in the Kenyan telco Tata Docomo / BloodLine Club and dealerships in its network, called viding mobility for all, but this programme
marketplace, the company behind success- ‘Socially Responsible Renault Garages’ or shows the automotive company moving
Telecoms companies are a vital link between
ful mobile money transfer service M-Pesa ‘Garages Renault Solidaires’, to develop beyond its core product to invest in mobility
people. Indian telecoms service Tata Doc-
has rolled out a mobile health service. affordable repair schemes for those on low services. With lack of access to transport
omo has demonstrated the potential of
incomes. It is also partnering with NGO being one of the major causes of social
With just one doctor for every 10,000 using this link for philanthropic purposes
Voiture & Co to support initiatives such as and economic exclusion, Renault MOBILIZ
people in Kenya, Safaricom (working with with a peer-to-peer blood donor matching
car-pooling, community transport, and low- offers a genuine lifeline to the eight million
agency Squad Digital, Nairobi) joined service called the BloodLine Club.
cost car hire and has launched (with an ini- people in France living below the poverty
forces with Dial-a-Doc Ltd, an organisation Volunteer blood donors sign up via their tial budget of €5m) an investment company, line – who wouldn’t otherwise be custom-
specialising in the dissemination of medical mobile, Facebook or Twitter by entering a MOBILIZ Invest, to finance companies ers of Renault, but may well yet become so.
information, to improve access to expert few details including, of course, their blood developing innovative mobility solutions for Featured in Contagious issue 32.
medical advice for those living in rural areas type. In the event that someone needs people in social and financial difficulty. www.renault-mobiliz.com
and relieve pressure on overstretched out- blood, they’ll be pinged, and should they
patient departments. need blood themselves, they can then
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12. Movements
The New
World Order
Banco Popular / The Most Popular Song song quickly topped the music charts and
Surprise hit of the year comes courtesy of helped spark debate about the local econ-
Puerto Rico’s largest bank. Showing how omy and the country’s future. The campaign
a sense of purpose can be aligned with a culminated with the bank organising a free
company’s mission (and achieve a PR win concert (featuring El Gran Combo) for over
in the process), Banco Popular set out to 60,000 Puerto Ricans in January this year.
revive the country’s economy this year by The campaign generated $2.3m in earned
effecting a fundamental cultural change. media and helped Banco Popular to soar
In Puerto Rico, 60% of the population to an unprecedented 80% on a reputation
lives on government handouts and this wel- index. It won the PR Grand Prix at Cannes,
fare culture is celebrated in the hit song No fulfilling the jury’s criteria of a strong idea,
Hago Más Ná (‘I Do Nothing’). Based on audience impact and a sense of purpose.
this insight, Banco Popular – with agency Featured in Contagious issue 32.
JWT, San Juan – approached popular salsa www.popular.com
band El Gran Combo to re-write their song www.jwt.com/themostpopularsong
so that the lyrics extolled the benefits of
work rather than advocating laziness. The
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13. Marketing as
Service Design /
Utility not noise
Brands have long taken a good,
hard look at consumer behaviour.
But what if, instead of using that
insight to serve people with the
right type of ad at the right time,
marketers considered adding value
to the lives of those people, or
removing pain points?
That’s a service-design approach to mar-
keting. We saw it in action in March this
year when Dubai pizza-delivery company
Red Tomato realised that because of
the number of languages spoken in the
Emirate, each phone-based order took
nine minutes for customers to complete.
No amount of leaflets through doors
would ever overcome that situation.
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14. MArketing as
service design /
utility not noise
But what about – courtesy of TBWA RAAD
– a Bluetooth-enabled fridge-magnet button
that instantly sent an order for that customer’s
favourite pizza via mobile when pressed? That
would revolutionise the whole process. It’s a
marketing solution so frictionless and, dare no longer feels like you’re being sold to, merely offered help and utility. Fea-
we say it, magical, that similar fridge magnets tured in Contagious issue 30.
were quickly developed by Evian in France tinyurl.com/TramApp
and Turkish telco Turkcell. Featured in Con-
tagious issues 31, 32 and 33. Delta / Fly Delta App
www.redtomato.biz/magnet US airline Delta updated its mobile app to allow customers to track their
tinyurl.com/c6qnfet bags once they disappeared down those mysterious airport conveyor belts.
Passengers who have scanned their bag tag can keep updated on its loca-
Västtrafik / Tram Sightseeing tion even while on a flight, offering a little peace of mind that, even if it’s not
Gothenburg’s local transport authority, Väst- where it’s meant to be, it’s at least not lost. A YouTube video, Your Bag’s
trafik, was keen to get tourists off expensive Journey via Wieden+Kennedy, New York, showing what goes on ‘behind
tour buses and onto its tram network. So rather those rubber flaps’ has now cleared the 1.5 million view-count mark. The
than bombard them with ads, it took a service- app also allows people to check-in, view updates to flight and boarding
design approach to the problem. Created by times, change their allocated seat and rebook a cancelled flight. The app is
Forsman & Bodenfors, a free Tram Sight- part of a wider personalisation drive from the airline, which includes making
seeing app guided people to their nearest a range of back-end logistics data, including passenger profiles and ecom-
tram stop. Once they were on a moving tram, merce behaviour, available to customers. Featured in Contagious 30.
the app used the phone’s GPS to play an tinyurl.com/DeltaAndroid
audio tour triggered by the user’s specific tinyurl.com/DeltaiTunes
location, telling travellers about landmarks as www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocbxS5aWUSo
they passed them. Each tour told users when
to change trams and dropped them back at Orca Chevrolet / Rescue Drive
their original location 45 minutes later. Thinking more broadly about the customer journey than just how to entice
Forsman & Bodenfors told Contagious people onto its forecourt, the Orca Chevrolet car dealership in Brazil took
that the goal was ‘to produce advertising an insightful approach to promoting the new Chevrolet Cobalt. Its Rescue
that didn’t feel like advertising’. It’s an objec- Drive campaign, created by Monumenta, Brasilia, saw the business part-
tive that encapsulates marketing as service nering with a local breakdown service to send a new Cobalt (along with
design: providing something so useful that it a salesman) to people stranded with broken-down vehicles. While the
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15. rescue company towed their faulty car away, Orca Chev- With more than 498,000 coded messages written and
rolet allowed motorists to drive themselves home in the new an average site dwell time of five minutes 30 seconds,
Cobalt. the brand not only positioned itself as a trusted friend to
At its core, Rescue Drive was a smart way to add value teenage girls, but potentially provided it with a huge quan-
to people’s lives while also running a product demo pre- tity of personal insights about its target market. Featured in
cisely at the time when drivers may be considering a new Contagious issue 31.
purchase, i.e. when their old car had crapped out on them. www.dermacydteencode.com.br
Go-getting managers looking to maximise productivity will
no doubt like the way it mobilised showroom staff and stock Bupa / FoodSwitch
into action instead of passively waiting for customers to In a bid to help Australians make healthier food choices,
come to them. Featured in Contagious issue 32. medical health insurance provider Bupa launched its
www.orca.com.br FoodSwitch app in January. Supermarket shoppers can
use the app to scan food to view traffic-light coded info
Dermacyd / Teen Code about the saturated fat, sugar and salt content in more
In an attempt to become part of Brazilian girls’ conversa- than 20,000 products, as well as receive suggestions for
tions, intimate soap Dermacyd Teen with Publicis, São healthier options. The app, based on three years’ research
Paulo created an online tool which allowed people to trans- by The George Institute for Global Health, was down-
late social-media posts into Teen Code – a secret language loaded 26,000 times in the first 24 hours of its release – a
of symbols, numbers and letters. In order to write in Teen figure which rose to 75,000 in just five days, making it Aus-
Code, people first had to gain access to the site by proving tralia’s most downloaded free app on iTunes.
they were a girl – answering questions such as ‘When is Unlike traditional advertising, services are able to truly mani-
the best time to moisturise?’ Highly secret messages could fest brand promise and FoodSwitch is a great example of
then be encoded and posted publicly across social net- this. As a medical health insurance provider, Bupa’s mar-
works, allowing friends to copy them and translate using the keting may encourage, persuade and influence people to
same Dermacyd site – as long as they could pass the ‘girls adopt a healthy lifestyle. This app goes one step further, actu-
only’ entry criteria. ally helping people to attain it. Featured in Contagious 30.
tinyurl.com/foodswitch
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16. Divine Data /
Insight by
numbers If you were in any doubt as to the
value of being more data literate,
this year’s race for the White House
should have you dusting down your
calculator.
So-called ‘big data’ proved its worth for
President Obama, but for brands and
marketers the challenge remains of what
to measure, how to do it and how to act
upon it. According to 2012 research
from the Corporate Executive Board,
marketers depend on data for just 11%
of customer related decisions.
It’s not just companies that are grap-
pling with data: new tools are emerging
to help more people ‘divine’ personal
insights from their physiology too, to
help them improve their health and
wellbeing.
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17. Divine data /
insight by
numbers
Predicting Presidents / accessible. All that changed this year when Nike’s Digital Sport unit, work-
When asked by a reporter what lesson would-be 2016 US Presidential ing with R/GA and AKQA, launched Fuel, a new metric for measuring
candidates should glean from the 2012 election, David Axelrod, chief physical activity, and a piece of kit to collect the required input data, Fuel-
strategist for the re-elected Barack Obama, replied: ‘I would invest in peo- Band. Nike effectively now sees itself as a tech company.
ple… who understand where the technology is going and what the poten- The sleek black wristband measures steps taken, calories and time spent
tial will be by 2016 for communications, for targeting, for mining data, to exercising via a three axis accelerometer to work out a Nike Fuel score
make precision possible in terms of both persuasion and mobilisation.’ His against a daily target. The effect? Throughout the day, Nike – mimicking the
words will no doubt also be ringing in the ears of CMOs the world over. relationship between the brand’s founders, coach Bill Bowerman and his
With an analytics team five times larger than in 2008 and on the back of college athlete Bill Knight – offers the wearer encouragement to be more
a promise from campaign manager Joe Messina ‘to measure every single active.
thing in this election’, the sophisticated Democrat data machine (known as A double Cannes Lions Grand Prix success, Stefan Olander, Nike’s VP
Narwhal) crunched its way to helping raise over $1bn in campaign funds, of digital sport, told us in Contagious 32 that the thinking behind FuelBand
bagging Obama 1.25 million more votes from 18 to 24-year-olds than in his was a customer centric sense of purpose: ‘We don’t start with technology
previous outing. Its influence on the final result was emphatic. or the potential profit, we always start with the athlete. I think that’s an
But data-crunching wasn’t solely the preserve of backroom pollsters: important distinction, because when you do that the other things follow.’
many regular voters seeking smart analysis turned their attention from tra- www.nike.com/FuelBand
ditional political commentators towards stats junkie Nate Silver. Silver’s
predictive modelling, hosted on blog FiveThirtyEight at the New York Times Adidas / miCoach Elite System
website, correctly predicted the race’s outcome in all 50 states, often in the Not to be left behind, adidas has been making progress with its own per-
face of staunch scepticism from the old guard. At one point in the election sonal fitness tracking tool, miCoach. Football could be on the brink of its very
run-in, a fifth of traffic to the New York Times website visited Silver’s blog. own Moneyball moment, after the German sportswear brand announced in
fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com July a deal with Major League Soccer (MLS) in the US, whereby every
player in the league next season will be equipped with a miCoach Elite
The Wearable Watchmen / System data cell. The data transmitted from the devices during games
The Quantified Self movement has gathered momentum over the past few (including metrics such as heart rate, speed, acceleration, distance, field
years, but for most wannabe self-analysts there has been something miss- position and, power) will help coaches on the touchline make better selec-
ing: simple, affordable (and cool) technology to make personal analytics tion decisions based on performance levels. The MLS is also promising to
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18. Divine data /
insight by
numbers
make at least some of that data available to installed the app to bid with their kilometres. Life Stadium. The aim was to provide bet-
fans for greater insight into their favourite A total of 1,000 km were offered for the first ter experiences for fans, for whose custom
teams. Contagious 33. pair of Nike Free 5.0. Contagious 31. the stadium now competes with the ever-
Meanwhile, for those a touch shy about Meanwhile, UK insurance broker Mota- more sophisticated comforts of home and
their self-quantifying ways, help may be quote partnered with Dutch GPS naviga- big screen HDTV. The result? By running
at hand from Indiegogo-funded company tion specialists TomTom in February to cre- data from inputs such as information from
Misfit Wearables. Its first product, Shine, ate a new data-driven policy that gives lower turnstile passages, weather reports, traffic
is the size of a quarter and discreetly clips premiums to people who drive better. The conditions, and social media updates, IBM’s
on to clothing to collect activity data. It Fair Pay policy sees customers provided Intelligent Operations Centre will soon be
syncs with an iPhone when placed on the with a modified satnav that sends details able to advise stadium management and
phone screen without a Bluetooth or cable about their driving back to the insurer in fans in real time on anything from where to
connection. real time, as well as to the screen, meaning find a car park space, to which parts of the
drivers can modify and improve their driv- stadium have best performing concessions.
www.adidas.com/us/micoach
ing style whilst Motaquote can offer fairer See IBM case study in Contagious 33.
www.misfitwearables.com
deals. Contagious issue 30. Meanwhile over at Flushing Meadows, as
Performance-Based Data Deals / nikemexico.mx/subasta part of its sponsorship of the US Open, the
www.motaquote.co.uk IBM analysts were crunching match stats to
For those inclined to track and share data
offer fans new insights into the strategies of
on their physical performance, benefits and
IBM / the competing players. The Game Changer
offers lie in wait from brands keen to lure or
Over the last year, business software spe- Wall was updated in real time to show not
reward high value customers.
cialist IBM has been working with sports only real-time predictions on match out-
Nike in Mexico used data generated comes, but also how player performance
organisations to help fans understand and
from Nike+ gizmos to reward runners in a affected social media sentiment.
analyse performance in new ways, whilst
week of online auctions. Bid Your Sweat,
also showcasing its technology and data tinyurl.com/85fvbyb
with JWT, Mexico, saw the kilometres that
capabilities. www.usopen.org/ibm
runners amassed converted into currency
which could be bid on products such as At the start of the year, the software com-
Nike FuelBands. The further they ran, or the pany partnered with NFL team Miami Dol-
better they performed, the more ‘currency’ phins to install some of its Smarter Cities
they amassed. In two weeks, 5,000 people analytics solutions into the franchise’s Sun
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19. Technology /
Big Battles,
Small Victors
Patent Wars erupted into
mainstream consciousness in 2012,
with Apple beating Samsung in the
first of the year’s major quarrels.
Technology consumers are beginning to
understand the capital value of patents,
both in defending a company’s intel-
lectual property and litigating against
others, often labeled Patent Trolls. As
one Silicon Valley insider told us, it’s like
an arms race, with major tech compa-
nies comparing their stacks of patents
against each other.
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20. Technology /
Big Battles,
Small Victors
entrance to the company’s I/O developer conference, where Google out-
fitted skydivers and bike riders in the glasses and got them to live display
their stunts through a Google+ hangout before meeting co-founder Ser-
gey Brin onstage. Google sold a prototype of its glasses to the develop-
ers who attended the conference for $1,500. This project illustrates the
potential of how wearable computing can make it more seamless for con-
sumers to share and access information. In September, during New York
City’s Fashion Week, Diane von Furstenberg’s fashion show saw mod-
els wearing the glasses striding down the runway. After the show Google
published a YouTube video of footage captured by models, stylists, and the
designer herself. Contagious 31.
plus.google.com/+projectglass
The strategic flow of rare earth metals and the conditions in which prod-
Rethink Robotics / Baxter
ucts are assembled have become part of the transparency discussion for
major brands. Investigation into Foxconn, supplier to Apple and others, Baxter Rodney Brooks, world-renowned robotics expert and professor
has sparked ethical questions around consumption and compensation. emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with his com-
Meanwhile, makers in the developed world are debating the efficacy of pany Rethink Robotics, has created Baxter, a robot designed to help US
robots versus humans, to assemble parts in factories, to choose pills in manufacturers. Baxter was created to be more human than existing robots,
pharmacies, to drive cars and to write articles. with eyes on a screen that register emotions like happiness or surprise.
Baxter adapts to changing conditions and can be taught to perform new
Small prototypes point the way forward. We saw many types of wearable tasks. Importantly, at $22,000 Baxter is cheaper than most traditional
tech offer additional dimensions and functionality. And it’s getting easier robots, which may help revive US manufacturing. Contagious 33.
to raise money, with Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites continuing
www.rethinkrobotics.com
to power intriguing projects. But, watch what you make, and how long
you take: Kickstarter has just been named in a patent case, and murmurs
about project fulfillment times and realistic goals versus hype and fraud are Disney Research / REVEL
becoming louder… Disney’s research arm is working with academics from Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, to develop technology that will add artificial tactile
Google / Project Glass sensations to almost any surface or object. REVEL, by Disney Research,
Pittsburgh, is a wearable system that can add textures to furniture, touch
By far this year’s sexiest piece of tech is Google’s Project Glass, from the
screens, walls, art, plastic or even human skin. The system injects a weak
company’s X Lab. Essentially a pair of augmented reality spectacles, the
electrical signal into a user’s body, so when they touch the surface of another
device allows users to see messages, calendars, maps and even record
object connected to the system, it becomes augmented with an additional
and stream live video. After launching in April, Glass made a daredevil
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21. Technology /
Big Battles,
Small Victors
artificial texture. For instance, while wearing the REVEL the game, or charging after a free trial. Hacking is encouraged – the device
system, you may be able to feel the texture of stuffed tor- opens with standard screws and rooting it will not void the warranty. This
toises’ shells through a plexi case. The creators believe the has had the snowball effect of encouraging prominent developers to commit
mobile, inexpensive technology could be used to let people games to it. Robotoki founder Robert Bowling has announced an episodic
access private tactile information on public touchscreens, prequel to Human Element exclusively to Ouya. He told PocketGamer:
experience personal sensations in applications or games, ‘We really need to adapt our experiences and universes to the device our
or get dynamic tactile feedback from posters and maps. players are engaging with most.’ Contagious 32.
We can also envisage how the system could add an extra www.ouya.tv
textural layer to entertainment content, advertisements or
shopping websites. Contagious 33. Nest /
tinyurl.com/disneyrevel Former chief architect at Apple, Tony Fadell, has taken the minimalism and
sleekness of the iPhone and adapted it for a $250 home thermostat which
Boxer8 / Ouya claims to cut energy bills. The Nest Learning Thermostat, through Fadell’s
Riding the cultural wave for all things open source, startup company Nest Labs in Palo Alto, ‘learns’ as it is used, adapting to a house-
Boxer8 and designer Yves Béhar created an Android- holder’s schedule and using wifi to be ‘weather-aware’. An example of next
based games console costing $99 called Ouya. Funded on generation connected home appliances, it can also be controlled remotely
Kickstarter and also involving former Microsoft VP of games via a mobile app. Contagious 29.
publishing Ed Fries, the system includes a software devel- www.nest.com
opment kit. All games will be free to play via the console,
with developers setting their own prices for items bought in
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22. Technology /
Big Battles,
Small Victors
Leap / Google’s driverless car project became more significant this year when
As the tracking technology powering the Kinect passes through the ini- Nevada was the first state to allow the cars to operate on its roads. Florida
tial novelty phase, companies like Leap Motion aim to make faster, more and California have followed as the tech giant lobbies for legislation per-
accurate 3D modeling and response technology. The Leap device sits in mitting its autonomous vehicles.
a compact housing about the same size of an iPod and is set to retail In a world where the cost of connected technologies (such as RFID and
for $70. Leap’s creators claim it’s up to 200 times more accurate than NFC) is falling and smartphone penetration continues to rise, the inter-
Kinect, thus enabling it to implement detailed gesture-based commands. net of things has been on the theoretical table for a while. EVRYTHNG’s
Co-founder and CTO David Holz is a former fluid mechanics researcher engine helps manufacturers create unique digital identities for individual
for NASA. objects. Drinks behemoth Diageo used EVRYTHNG to transform whiskey
leapmotion.com bottles in Brazil so that smartphone users could scan a code on a bot-
tle to add personalised Father’s Day video messages. It has also used
the platform to create applications that help track products in the supply
chain and let customers ‘check in’ to products to receive loyalty rewards.
Venky Balakrishnan, global vice president for marketing innovation, Dia-
geo, said: ‘We now have a profound strategic opportunity to transform our
physical products into owned digital media, which can communicate per-
sonalised information and experiences to consumers, exactly when and
where they want it.’ Contagious 31.
Having pioneered Steam, a software delivery service for its games,
developer Valve is joining game industry heavies including Unity, id Soft-
ware, Epic Games and more on the Oculus Rift, a virtual-reality headset
for gaming. The diagonal field of view of the prototype is 110 degrees,
compared with earlier models, which had only 40, and the headset boasts
minimal processing delays. Founder Palmer Luckey was able to convince
more than 9,500 Kickstarter backers to support the project, buying in to
access the software development kit before the general public and raising
Ones to Watch / over $2.4 million. Expected delivery date? January, 2013.
Smart Sand comes from MIT’s Distributed Robotics Laboratory and
bit.ly/H9Kd7x
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Essentially,
bit.ly/GYQHu1
Smart Sand can self-assemble to copy objects, passing messages www.evrythng.com
between grains to create structure. From there, the structure can be shuf- www.oculusvr.com
fled off to a permanent assembly protocol, like a 3D printer, leaving the
smart sand to replicate the next item. Contagious 31.
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23. Design /
Personalised
Play In 2012 the increasing affordability
and quality of 3D printing has
seen the process become far more
mainstream, with commercial 3D
printer Cubify (priced at a very
reasonable $1299) and Kickstarter-
funded Formlabs’ Form1 ($3299)
leading the way.
Brands have reacted, utilising the
technology and rethinking manufacturing
processes in order to meet demands
for products that are personalised and
adaptable. Meanwhile hackers, makers
and intrepid amateurs are generating
and sharing their own 3D printing
designs with the help of sites such as
Autodesk’s 123D.
Here, in our round-up of 2012’s design
innovations, we bounce from new-age
architecture and sustainable transport
to playable buildings and shoes that find
the way home for you.
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24. design /
Personalised
play
Disney / D-Tech Me ABSOLUT / Unique
Disney’s tales give children the chance to ABSOLUT’s iconic bottle has long been used as a creative medium, but in
dream that they are about to be plucked September the Pernod Ricard-owned vodka brand outdid itself with a lim-
from obscurity and transformed into royalty, ited edition of four million uniquely designed and numbered bottles.
thanks to a genie or charming prince. This Collaborating with Stockholm-based agencies Family Business, Great
year, Disney gave wannabe child princesses Works, and Jung Relations, ABSOLUT re-engineered its production pro-
the chance to see what they would look like cess to create what the company describes as ‘carefully orchestrated ran-
as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White thanks to domness’. Splash guns sprayed a range of 35 colours onto the bottles,
some in-store 3D printing. while complex coating, pattern and placement algorithms ensured that each
Children at the World of Disney Store in specific combination was never repeated. The bright colours and one-off
Florida could use the D-Tech Me experience designs ensure that the bottles create a splash on the shelf, and are desir-
to capture multiple angles of their face, which able items that people want to keep, even if the vodka has long since disap-
was digitally reconstructed using 3D printing peared. Contagious 33.
technology to create a personalised Disney absolut.com/unique
Princess figurine. Costing $99.95, the prin-
cesses were seven inches high and could be Tesla S /
further customised to match their creator’s
Tesla’s S model sedan’s combination of performance, style and efficiency
eye, hair and skin colour.
saw it named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year – the first vehicle without a
D-Tech Me charmingly illustrates the poten- combustion engine to do so.
tial applications of 3D printed products for
Launched in June 2012, the four door electric car manages an impressive
brands, creating toys that are affordable and
range of 300 miles on one charge using the 85kW h battery, and takes only
unique. The experience ran from August to
30 minutes for a half charge. It aims to compete with the best gas-pow-
November and Disney is considering rolling
ered cars, and sold out the 5,000 models produced in 2012, costing from
it out as a permanent fixture. Contagious 33.
$60,000 for the basic model. The Californian-based manufacturer aims to
Japanese agency Party has also been ena- sell 20,000 units in 2013 at an increased price.
bling 3D portrait miniatures. Visitors were 3D www.teslamotors.com/models
scanned in a photobooth in Harajuku and then
awaited their tiny selves. Statuettes are avail- Coca-Cola / Coke Beat Box
able in three sizes and cost from ¥21,000
Created by young London-based architects Pernilla Ohrstedt and Asif
($255).
Khan, Coca-Cola’s iconic pavilion at the Olympic Park was surrounded by a
tinyurl.com/Disney-D-Tech perpetual queue of people waiting for their opportunity to ‘play’ the building.
www.omote3d.com
Photo / Heatherwick Studio
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25. design /
Personalised
play
Made from EFTE, a plaster polymer that acts like a speaker, the walls Strong, durable and cheap, the bikes are now close to mass production.
were sensitive to movement and touch and embedded with sample They are set to have a substantial impact in developing countries, costing
sounds. Connecting smartly back to Coke’s Move to the Beat proposi- just $9 to produce, and will be sold for around $20. The bike weighs just
tion for its sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the sound 9kg, around 65% less than its average metal counterpart, and uses no
samples included a human heartbeat and trainers squeaking on a court metal parts – even its chain is made from a car timing belt and the tyres
taken from Mark Ronson’s song Anywhere in the World also created for are formed from reconstituted rubber. The cardboard’s coating makes it
the brand. Contagious 31. waterproof and fireproof, as well as giving the bike a slightly sleeker look.
tinyurl.com/CokeBeatBox erb.co.il/en/cooperations.asp
Interactive sound and light installation Resonate also impressed audi-
Dominic Wilcox / No Place Like Home / GPS Shoes
ences in Frankfurt at the opening of biennial festival of lighting, Luminale
2012. Visitors could ‘play’ complex string structures, which illuminated Layering technology into physical products is growing apace, as Google
and made a sound when plucked. Created by students from University Glass demonstrates in the Technology section of this report. A more
of Applied Sciences, Mainz and Joannes Gutenberg University, Mainz. whimsical approach comes from British designer Dominic Wilcox who
tinyurl.com/CokeBeatBox
has created a pair of shoes embedded with GPS to help the wearer eas-
luminale2012.fh-mainz.de/en ily find their way home. Inspired by Dorothy’s shoes in The Wizard of Oz,
the shoes are activated when the wearer clicks their heels. The technology
Izhar Gafni / Cardboard Bike was developed by expert Becky Stewart from Codasign, London, and
the shoes made by Stamp Shoes, Northampton, as part of the Northamp-
Demand for sustainable, low cost and innovative solutions for everyday life
tonshire Global Footprint Project to celebrate the English region’s historic
is high, so we applaud the creativity of Israeli designer Izhar Gafni who
shoe industry.
used origami principles to develop a bike made from cardboard.
www.dominicwilcox.com/gpsshoes.htm
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26. design /
Personalised
play
Mirai Nihon / TBWAHakuhodo Made of 204 inscribed copper pots, the Cauldron was formed during the
The chance to live entirely off the grid in style comes in the form of this hi- opening ceremony, and dismantled during the closing ceremony, with each
tech house from TBWAHakuhodo. The Japanese ad agency collaborated constituent part returned to the country it represented. Contagious 32.
with 20 companies that could provide the requisite technologies. The Nis- The largest climate-controlled greenhouses in the world known as The
san Leaf electric car, for example, acts both as a means of transport and Cooled Conservatories have netted the World Building of the Year 2012
a homepower generator, while Nissan Sangyo Corporation provides a award. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, London, The Conserva-
special heat-resistant and insulating ceramic coating technology currently tories form part of Bay South in downtown Singapore and showcase the
used in rockets. application of sustainable energy solutions while telling the story of plants
This project is a ground-breaking illustration of how brand alliances can and their intimate relationships with man and the ecosystem. Contagious
fulfil a powerful social and environmental vision. Contagious 32. issue 33.
www.heatherwick.com/2012-olympic-cauldron
tinyurl.com/mirainihon
bit.ly/cooled-conservatories
www.wilkinsoneyre.com
Highly Commended /
www.mvrdv.nl/#/news/mvrdvwinsfloriade2022
British architect Thomas Heatherwick’s incredible Cauldron to hold the
Olympic flame marked the culmination of the London 2012 opening cere-
mony and, impressed as we were by the various stadia in the Olympic park,
this was the piece of design that stood out from the Games this summer.
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27. Social Business /
Adopting an Open
Door Policy Brands are moving past social
media marketing to incorporate
social mechanisms into everything
they do, from supply chains to
customer service to product design.
This is ushering in a new age of
collaboration and transparency.
Even large corporations and
governments have now recognised the
value of giving the public the power
to influence key decisions and have
adopted socially-oriented business
models. This past year, for example,
Iceland invited its citizens to submit
suggestions and comments on a new
draft constitution using Facebook,
Twitter, and Flickr. In October, 66%
voted in favour of basing the new
constitution on this crowdsourced
document.
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28. Social Business /
Adopting an Open
Door Policy
Visit Sweden / Curators of Sweden Magazine Você allows Facebook and Orkut users to create their own mini
By handing over Sweden’s official Twitter stores on the social networking sites, stocking them with up to 60 items
account to ordinary citizens, Visit Sweden, (in from Magazine Luiza’s inventory that they can sell to friends. Each sale gen-
the words of its CEO Thomas Brühl) dem- erates between 2.5% and 4.5% commission for the seller, with Magazine
onstrated that ‘No one owns the brand of Luiza organising payment processing and deliveries.
Sweden more than its people.’ The country’s
Within two weeks of launching, 20,000 people had opened stores online
tourist and travel information site collaborated
and the retailer saw 40% higher conversion rates than through traditional
with government agency the Swedish Insti-
ecommerce stores. The 53,000 virtual stores have sold more than 10,000
tute and agency Volontaire Stockholm on the
products between them.
campaign, which saw Swedish citizens take
weekly turns sharing their diverse opinions This genuinely social approach to online retail helped the brand solve its
and recommendations on things to do in Swe- dilemma of how to increase sales without the expense of building and open-
den via the @Sweden Twitter handle. ing new stores. Contagious 33 features a case study on Magazine Luiza.
www.magazineluiza.com.br
The project sparked controversy in early
www.magazinevoce.com.br
June when a Swedish woman managing the
account posted messages about Jews and
Nazis. The Cannes Jury nevertheless awarded Domino’s Pizza, Heineken, Walmart, Unilever /
Curators of Sweden the Cyber Grand Prix, Open Innovation Platforms
commending Visit Sweden for not censoring This year, a crop of major corporations developed platforms to seek public
the posts. Jury president Iain Tait said: ‘Allow- input on everything from product design to business strategies, demonstrat-
ing people to have the conversation out in the ing that no company is too large to tap into the spirit of collaboration.
open felt like one of the facets of the case. It Domino’s continued the transparent approach it has taken since 2009’s
shows that they’re passionate about freedom Pizza Turnaround campaign by launching Think Oven (Contagious 30) –
of speech.’ a Facebook platform crowdsourcing suggestions from menu ideas to the
twitter.com/Sweden design of the ultimate pizza delivery vehicle. In a similar vein, Heineken
solicited business innovations from beer drinkers through its own platform
Magazine Luiza / Magazine Você Ideas Brewery (Contagious 31). The brand requested suggestions on eve-
Brazilian electronics and homeware retailer rything from reusing and recycling its bottles to reinventing the draught beer
Magazine Luiza illustrated how social devices experience. The projects have helped Heineken and Domino’s strengthen
could play a fundamental role in driving busi- their social relationships with customers by being seen to be listening.
ness with its Magazine Você (translation ‘your Walmart, through its digital division Walmart Labs, reached out to both
store’) platform. Created with Ogilvy Etco, established businesses and new innovators with its Get on the Shelf con-
São Paulo, in partnership with Ogilvy Brasil, test (Contagious 30), which uncovered the next products to be stocked
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29. Social Business /
Adopting an Open
Door Policy
by the US retail giant. More than 270,000 Through opening up a previously closed products for answering customer que-
people voted and 4,000 product designs part of its business – collection buying – ries. Needle’s clients include major brands
were submitted. FMCG conglomerate Uni- to customers Harrods offered an exclusive Skullcandy, Under Armour and Urban
lever also opened its doors to collaborators experience. By Liking a product, people Outfitters. Featured in Contagious 30.
both great and small with its Unilever Open made a public statement of their interest in www.barclaycardring.com
Innovation Submission Portal (run in part- it, and (as outlined in Robert Cialdini’s clas- www.needle.com
nership with global technology and IP mar- sic book Influence) research shows that
ketplace yet2.com) (Contagious 30). Uni- these types of commitments are far more
lever gathered suggestions on how to grow likely to result in action, in this case going
its business and simultaneously reduce its to Harrods to buy the item they’ve Liked.
environmental impact, asking potential col- Contagious 30.
laborators to propose new ways of preserv- www.facebook.com/Harrods
ing food naturally and bringing safe drinking
water to the world’s poorest people. The Ones to Watch /
global company vowed to pursue the most
We’re expecting even companies in sec-
promising partnerships – be they with small
tors traditionally known for keeping their
technology startups or major international
processes closed to adopt social business
organisations.
initiatives. It might seem unlikely that a finan-
www.thinkoven.com
cial company would open up a credit card’s
www.ideasbrewery.com
profit and loss statements to its customers,
Getontheshelf.com
but that’s exactly what Barclaycard in the
oiportal.yet2.com
US did with its community-driven credit card
Ring. Cardholders become members of an
Harrods / Be the Buyer
online community centred round a forum in
With its Be the Buyer project Harrods which they can vote on product features
proved that even an established retailer and weigh-in on community discussions;
could take an open and collaborative they also benefit from the card’s financial
approach. The London department store success through the Giveback programme.
streamed Burberry’s A/W 2012 runway
show live via its Facebook page and invited Social business strategies can also ena-
fans to vote, via Likes, for their favourite cat- ble brands to turn real customers into not
walk look, with items from the most popular just advocates but customer service rep-
ensembles guaranteed to appear in store. resentatives. Startup Needle is a live chat
sales platform that pays a brand’s biggest
Xxxxxxx / fans $10 per hour and rewards them with
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30. Image sharing /
The Year of
the Photo Visual culture online evolved in
2012, from taking photos to virtually
socialising around them through
a raft of image-based social net-
works.
Brands spent 2012 tentatively figur-
ing out how to use these expanding
networks in their marketing (with mixed
results), and considering how to mon-
etise photos. Brands, said British ad
agency Rabbit, need ‘not only a social
media strategy, but a visual social media
strategy as well.’
Two cultural milestones marked the
Year Of The Photo: iconic film stock
maker Kodak announced it was filing for
bankruptcy in January. And Facebook’s
$1bn, if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them
buyout of photo-sharing social network
Instagram in April.
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31. image sharing /
the year of
photo
A Thousand Words /
The growth of visual culture has been stag-
gering. Late in 2011, blog 1000memories
calculated 10% of all the photos ever snapped
were taken that year. Three hundred million
photos are uploaded to Facebook every day.
Unsurprisingly, people care about photos a lot: crowd into cash. Fresh from being named Apple’s App Of The Year 2011,
a report from ROI Research found that 35% Instagram hosted a rash of campaigns from every sector. Among others,
of respondents said that of the social media apparel brand Levi’s ran a model search, jeweller Tiffany’s created custom
activity their friends post, they enjoy photos filters for budding snappers and airline BMI launched a photo-based daily
the most. For brands that matters a great deal. lottery.
In the same study 44% said they were likely After having pretty much ignored brands, Tumblr changed tack in 2012.
to engage with pictures posted by brands on In June, it bolstered its team with brand strategists, and announced spon-
social media, the highest of all options. sorship packages for brands. Adidas Football was among the first to take
But Facebook wasn’t the big news for advantage, posting videos and photos from its various celebrity endorsers.
image makers this year, as people gravitated The New York-based company rounded off the year by launching Tumblr
to niche photo sharing sites in droves. Twin A-List, showing its intent to help brands make better use of the platform.
giants Tumblr and Instagram reached giddy Arguably the most financially tempting of the three for brands is Pinterest,
new heights. The former hit 20 billion monthly which has the strongest intent graph (broadly speaking, people publicly
page views, propelling it into the top 20 most- posting stuff they want to buy). Its valuation was doubtless helped by stats
visited US sites for the first time in September; from content discovery and sharing firm Shareaholic showing that the site
the latter reached 100 million users the same drove more referral traffic than LinkedIn and Google+ combined. And those
month, double that of 12 months before. New- referrals spend a lot. A report from RichRelevance found average spend
comer Pinterest meanwhile rocketed to 25 from retail shoppers from Pinterest was $169 dollars, compared with just
million users by November to become the third $95 from Facebook, and $71 from Twitter. With around one third of brands
largest social network (from just 1.27 million in already using the platform, according to Econsultancy, the launch of Pin-
July 2011), earning a sky high estimated valua- terest for Business and brand pages in November was an obvious next
tion of $7.7bn by Forbes in April. step towards more official – and lucrative – participation.
www.levistrauss.com/blogs/iamlevis
Show Me the Money /
statigr.am/flybmi
Having reached a critical mass, all three net- tinyurl.com/WhatMakesLove
works matured and started thinking about their adidasfootball.tumblr.com
business models, courting brands to turn the a-listpartners.tumblr.com
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32. image sharing /
the year of
photo
Social Shopping / Ones to Watch /
Much like early efforts on Facebook and Twitter, brands that aligned While the big three visual social networks work on monetising
their visual social media strategies with people’s behaviour on the content through brand partnerships, three youngsters have taken
platforms fared best. These either provided seamless added utility, a more explicitly commercial approach from the off. Social shop-
or entertainment and relevant information. Many brands nonethe- ping start up Svpply brings together influencers, retailers and shop-
less simply posted ad-like content, missing the point entirely of a pers. It provides a real-time stream of images of products curated
mood board to aggregate inspiration. by members from across the web, personalised to each user based
on their social network on Facebook, who they follow on the site,
Highlights on Pinterest included online fashion retailer ASOS’s
and their interests. Influential Svpply’ers tapping the ‘Want’ button
simple strategy of using the site as an editorial newsfeed: posting
are then offered deals directly by retailers who have partnered with
catwalk trends, celebrity news and more across its 23 boards.
them.
Better still was fashion brand Oscar de la Renta’s campaign, in
which it live-pinned the catwalk show of its bridal collection, tapping In September eBay bought Svpply to bolster its personalisation
the site’s heavily female-skewed demographic and the large number and curation capabilities. Reflecting the influence of visual social
of bridal-themed boards. networks, the world’s biggest online marketplace has since subtly
changed its homepage to ape Svpply and Pinterest’s personalised,
Other smart executions created tools to maximise the conveni-
image-rich aesthetic. Working along the same curation lines, Svpply
ence of the online pinboard: interiors magazine House Beautiful’s
rival Fancy has around two million users. Affiliated brands bid to sell
print campaign let people pin directly to Pinterest via their smart-
people products they’ve earmarked on the site.
phone, for example. Gucci meanwhile cannily unveiled pinnable
online banner ads that led to the brand’s ecommerce site. Online Rather than build a proprietary system, in-stream commerce app
shoe retailer Zappos focused on Pinterest’s role as virtual wish list. Chirpify (launched this year) aims to piggyback Instagram’s API. It
It’s gearing up for the Christmas retail bonanza with a service called lets people enter their payment details, then buy directly from the
Pinpointing, which lets people enter a loved one’s Pinterest user- Instragram stream by simply putting the word ‘Buy’ in the comments
name to get gift suggestions based on their pinning activity. under any photo with the #InstaSale hashtag.
pinterest.com/asos svpply.com
pinterest.com/oscarprgirl/bridal www.thefancy.com
pinterest.com/gucci chirpify.com
pinpointing.apps.zappos.com
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33. Amplified Live /
Enhance, Capture
and Share This year’s Olympics, the first
‘social games’ (see Movements
section) showed how audiences are
increasingly creating and sharing
content during live events.
This kind of user-created activity can
be amplified to heighten the experience
of the people at the venue, as well as
enabling them to share and amplify
that experience to their wider social
networks. Brands are now recognising
that these additional, participatory layers
can have a powerful impact on their
businesses, and are starting to provide
consumers with tools to heighten,
capture and broadcast live experiences.
It’s still early days for the Amplified Live
trend, but below are some cases that
should inspire wider creativity in this
area in 2013.
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34. amplified live /
enhance capture
and share
Coldplay / Xyloband turns the speaker into an instrument, the flash into a strobe
British rock band Coldplay has built a and the screen into part of the light show.
reputation for its colourful live shows, with The app doesn’t require data connectivity or a phone signal
lasers and balloons galore. For their 2012 to operate, ensuring it will work in any venue. Fans install
world tour, however, the band took this a the app before the show and watch as their smartphone
step further by introducing Xylobands. becomes an extension of the performance. The application
Each ticket-holder was given a wristband is activated by audio signals emitted from the stage, which
containing LEDs and ultra-low-power carry data to trigger these functions.
microcontrollers. During various songs,
Forget the flags at Glastonbury; holding mobile phones in
these wristbands lit up in sync with the
the air has become a 21st century frustration for millions of
music and stage lights – effectively turn-
gig-goers. Deacon’s app turns this (rather annoying) habit
ing the audience into a visual extension of
into one that amps up the collective excitement around the
the show. The devices were designed by
concert. Contagious 33.
Devon-based RB Concepts, a company
in which Coldplay has now invested. bit.ly/RQN0s7
In a similar move, Disney handed out light-
Beldent / Random Music Fest
up Mickey Mouse ears for its Glow with the
Show event at Disney California Adventure Mondelez (née Kraft)-owned chewing gum Beldent left the
Park. The LED-filled ears were purchased audience guessing at a festival held in Buenos Aires, Argen-
beforehand and collectively synched to tina, on 29 September. Devised as part of the Project Fly
flash during the show. Both examples gen- innovation programme (which we’re proud to be a partner
erated a visually stunning spectacle, height- in), The Beldent Random Music Fest featured four stages
ening the audience’s enjoyment of, and with a lighthouse in the centre of the audience. This light-
interaction with, the performance. house randomly illuminated a particular stage, which was
the cue for the next band to begin playing. A mobile app
xylobands.com
detected the live music and provided lyrics for the audience.
People could also use the app to vote for their favourite band
Dan Deacon App / to perform an encore. More than 8,500 people attended the
For his 2012 tour, Baltimore-based musi- event, while 250,000 watched the live stream on Facebook.
cian Dan Deacon created an app that Featured in Contagious 33.
turns the audience’s smartphone into an www.beldent.com.ar
extension of his live act. The application
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35. Frontrow / upload their images using the hashtag #blurhydepark2012. These were
At this year’s Vivid Live Festival in Sydney, Australia, Google’s Creative then streamed in a continuous, moving gallery on the band’s website, cre-
Lab launched Frontrow – an in-built functionality on YouTube enabling ating a visual record of the evening’s events. Aggregation platform This is
viewers to take photos whilst watching a live stream. Fans could pause Now took this a stage further, by collating geo-tagged Instagram photos
the action, move the camera and zoom in and out to capture their favourite from cities around the world, and displaying them in a live stream online.
image. These photos could then be shared on social networks. Frontrow
was first introduced for US band The Temper Trap’s headline performance Developments in technology will also accelerate this trend, providing con-
inside the iconic Sydney Opera House. sumers with more seamless tools to capture and share their live experi-
ences. Taking real-time life logging to its natural conclusion, for example,
Rather than being passive viewers at home, fans from all over the world
is Kickstarter project Memoto: an always-on buttonhole camera from a
could create a unique image to save, and share. In just ten hours, the
Swedish tech collective that takes two photos every minute, tagged by
stream notched up 296,000 live views – 100 times the capacity of the
location for easy search. Contagious 33.
concert hall. In addition to the photos taken inside the Opera House itself,
a further 66,000 were captured by people watching the live-stream via Amplified Live will continue to spread beyond its obvious home of live
YouTube, significantly increasing the event’s presence on social channels. music and sporting events. During September’s London Fashion Week,
www.youtube.com/user/SOHfestival Topshop partnered with Facebook to launch Shoot the Show – a camera
button embedded within a live stream window that lets viewers click to
Ones to Watch / snap pictures of their favourite looks. These could then be shared directly
with Facebook friends. Contagious 33.
Increasingly, brands will provide more effective tools for consumers to
blur.co.uk/hydepark2012
amplify their experiences at live events, and share these stories with their
now.jit.su
friends. Enabling consumers to relive events after they’ve taken place is
memoto.com
another interesting avenue, which we saw in August with Blur’s Insta-
www.facebook.com/Topshop
gram feed. Those attending the band’s Hyde Park gig were encouraged to
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36. Screen Grabs /
Creating, Sharing,
Watching
Twenty four miles. That’s how high
the bar for branded content has
now been set.
Seven years and tens of millions of dol-
lars in the making (the exact cost isn’t
known), Red Bull’s Stratos project saw
Felix Baumgartner free fall from space,
breaking the sound barrier and a brace
of world records. Coverage of the feat
set a landmark for live streaming: eight
million people tuned in. Contagious 33.
Stratos represented, in some ways,
how content this year changed: from
recorded to live streaming video; and
short-form amateur content to longer-
form, professionally-produced films.
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37. screen GRABS /
creating, sharing,
watching
YouTube’s evolution to a professional network through a Robert Kyncl told fellow Googlers in January in a speech about the future
shiny new channel strategy, investment in content makers of TV and content, reported in The New Yorker. ‘We think they will continue
(the Creators Hub and London studio space) and $100m to go that way – spend more and more time in the niches – because now
to production companies paid off. Seventy two hours of the distribution landscape allows for more narrowness.’ A case in point is
content are uploaded every minute to the site, but usage Twitch.TV, founded in 2011. The site lets videogamers stream their play
is changing. ComScore reported in May that people are live to eager videogame voyeurs, and hit 20 million monthly unique views
watching fewer clips (they peaked at 21.8bn in January, in August. Average daily viewing time per user? A staggering 75 minutes.
going down to 15.3bn in April), but spending 57% more www.twitch.tv
time watching clips. In short, engagement is up – which
is great news for advertisers, 90% of whom agreed that TV Everywhere /
content marketing would become more important in the
Video content began to untether further from TV, and onto web tablets
next 12 months, according to an Econsultancy report
and mobiles. A 14-country study from NPD found that tablet use for
from October. The bad news? Only 38% said they had a
watching TV had doubled in 12 months (to around 15% of total view-
content marketing strategy in place.
ing), and that 70% said they were watching video on devices that weren’t
www.redbullstratos.com TVs. That was a boon to VOD services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon
Prime. Despite downgrading forecasts, Netflix is projected to have added
Going With the Flow /
between 4.7 and 5.4 million subscribers this year as more cable custom-
Live streaming and socialising online around content ers cut the cord. And as LTE/4G mobile rolls out, expect broadcasters to
became more popular throughout 2012, a trend which look to more so-called TV Everywhere initiatives as a way to keep viewers
Contagious identified as Digital Live. In the news realm, watching.
the Huffington Post launched a live, socially-led news
Among the most progressive, ESPN this year announced it was going
service bringing people into the heart of breaking stories.
‘mobile first’ with its content, while MTV’s Under The Thumb app from
Google pushed new social network Google+’s differ-
AKQA brought paid-for mobile content to US Millennials (Contagious 30).
entiator, Hangouts, hard, enlisting celebs, most notably
In the mainstream meanwhile, NBC’s streaming service for the Olympics
President Obama, to appear via the service. Lots of
saw seven million households stream via web and mobile apps. HBO, a
brands joined in too, including online UK grocery deliv-
groundbreaker with its TV Everywhere app HBO Go, even rattled cable
ery service Ocado, which streamed instructional cook-
companies by going it alone in Scandinavia with stand-alone, over-the-top
ing videos (Contagious 32), and fashion e-tailer ASOS,
streaming service HBO Nordic. See HBO case study in Contagious 31.
which let viewers quiz US fashion writer Indigo Clarke
www.mtvunderthethumb.com
and model, blogger and IT girl Cory Kennedy about fash-
www.hbogo.com
ion and style.
Niche streaming sites gained serious traction too. ‘Peo-
ple went from broad to narrow,’ senior YouTube exec
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38. screen GRABS /
creating, sharing,
watching
Amateur Dramatics / And Finally… /
Phones and tablets are also a platform on which videos What round up of this year’s content couldn’t name-check
can be created too, and brands are empowering people South Korean rapper Psy’s Gangnam Style (c’mon, you
with the tools to become directors and distributors. know the one…) with its monstrous 830 million plus views?
Ever the smart marketer, Red Bull tapped into the long Born of the country’s industrialised pop music-making
standing extreme sports tradition of videoing tricks with machine – K-Pop’s notorious ‘cultural technology’ pro-
its Flow app, which let fans shoot, edit and share content gramme – Psy deeply subverts its picture perfect boy and
direct from their mobile. LEGO’s Superheroes Movie girl band output with his age (too old), look (too fat) and
Maker app, through Pereira & O’Dell, San Francisco, lets off-brand message (Gangnam residents are vapid and vul-
children direct stop motion shorts using their phone and gar). But WHY the views, you ask? Perhaps it’s the global
favourite brick-based creations. Contagious 31. zeitgeist of lampooning the rich in a time of austerity. Or
redbullflow.com
the cultural jolt of seeing a wry Asian piss-take of bombas-
dcuniversesuperheroes.lego.com
tic American music video clichés. Or maybe just the sheer
bloody ridiculousness of it. More likely, like most virals, it’s a
confluence of factors so mind-bogglingly complicated we’ll
Ones to Watch / Social Video
never properly fathom it.
Just as Instagram threatened the dominance of Facebook
www.youtube.com/user/officialpsy
with a superior mobile interface and social sharing func-
tion for images, so YouTube is watching with interest the
explosive rise of a new breed of video sites that do the
same. GIFs had a brief flicker of popularity among brands
early in the year, with VW, GE and even Burberry launching
campaigns in the format, but it was ‘Instagram for video’
apps including SocialCam, Viddy, Klip and Threadlife
that really came to prominence in 2012, through building
in seamless social sharing.
User numbers are difficult to pin down, but SocialCam
claimed 16 million downloads in July (from a massive 54
million peak), and Viddy 26 million users in May, accord-
ing to The Wall Street Journal. At last count Red Bull,
GE, Sierra Mist were among the brands experimenting on
the platforms. However, YouTube needn’t worry just yet: no
one truly cracked social video this year.
socialcam.com / www.viddy.com
www.klip.com / www.threadlife.com
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39. Augmented Media /
Layering Content
and Utility
Ninety nine years ago, German
newspaper editor Wolfgang Riepl
famously observed that new media
doesn’t kill old media, but rather
they converge.
2012 saw a raft of mobile inventiveness
in augmented reality and two-screen
viewing behaviours. Smartphones are
creating exciting new ways for brands
to redraw the traditional purchase fun-
nel for TV and print by adding contextual
layers of information, utility and entertain-
ment in real time. The promise for brands
is, ultimately, cutting the time and friction
between awareness and purchase to
almost nothing.
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40. Augmented Media /
Layering Content
and Utility
That’s being led by a change in people’s mobile behaviour and and outdoor messages, drove users to www.cokepolarbowl.com
how they interact with traditional media. Smartphone penetration where two animated Coca-Cola polar bears reacted in real time
tipped over 50% in the US this year, and tablets are set to out- to events happening during the game and the ad breaks, including
sell PCs next year, Microsoft’s VP web services Antoine Leblond placing their hands on their hearts during a patriotic Chrysler com-
told attendees at the TechEd conference in Amsterdam in June. mercial and even leaving their seats during a Pepsi spot.
Nielsen reported in April that 86% of US tablet owners and 84%
The user experience was enhanced on social channels too: the
of smartphone owners used a second screen at least once over a
bears took over Coke’s Twitter account and interacted directly with
30-day period while watching TV, with as many as 45% doing so
fans, answering questions and sharing pictures. Sharable high-
on a daily basis.
lights of the bears’ antics were uploaded to YouTube and Face-
In last year’s Most Contagious we looked at how audio recog- book, and the brand also streamed the bears’ reactions live via a
nition technology Shazam was moving from being just a music Facebook app.
recognition service to being a trigger for TV content. Since then
Extending dwell times well beyond the TV spots, nine million con-
it’s bloomed: the app counts 250 million users and is growing at
sumers engaged with the bears for an average of 28 minutes and
two million a week, with a staggering 54% trying to use the app to
Twitter followers grew by 38% during a four-hour period. Conta-
identify shows they’re watching, according to Shazam. That growth
gious issue 30.
didn’t go unnoticed by broadcasters and brands; 160 channels in
the US now make their content ‘Shazamable’, serving up trivia, info www.cokepolarbowl.com
and links, as did almost half the advertisers at this year’s Super
Bowl.
TV wasn’t the only winner, though. Print evolved from a static
medium to an interactive and changeable platform – a gateway to
play games, watch entertainment content and buy products direct.
Coca-Cola / Coke Polar Bowl
More than 110 million fans tuned into the 2012 Super Bowl, and
an estimated 60% watched the big game while using a second
screen such as a mobile phone, or PC. To maximise its media
investment, Coke, with Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, created a
campaign that extended its presence beyond a standard TV spot,
merging two-screen viewing with social media.
Two TV spots aired during the game containing content specific
to whichever team was in the lead. The ads, along with Facebook
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41. Augmented Media /
Layering Content
and Utility
California Milk Processor Board / Parents could tag the TV spot using Australian Defence Force / Mobile Medic
Time to Go to Bed Shazam and receive a free download of The Australian Defence Force won a bunch
To increase milk consumption among His- a children’s book which, of course, inte- of gongs this year for its inventive way of
panic children, the California Milk Proces- grated milk into the story. They could replay recruiting medical students for its Defence
sor Board developed a campaign that used the video, leave comments, and share it Force University Scholarship. Working with
Shazam for TV to add interactive content with their friends on their social networks. George Patterson Y&R, Melbourne, it cre-
to a traditional commercial. Time to Go to 120,000 hard copy books were distrib- ated an augmented reality-based outdoor
Bed, created by Grupo Gallegos, Hunting- uted to paediatricians’ offices in California campaign that put students’ skills to the
ton Beach, CA, featured an animated video and were also available digitally via Face- test.
showing droplets of milk helping a young book, where they were reported to be A series of posters featured patients in
boy get to sleep. The spot aired in the early downloaded at a rate of 110 books a day. need of medical treatment. By pointing the
evening on two of the largest Spanish lan- Featured in Contagious 33. app at the ad, students could virtually diag-
guage television networks, letting children tinyurl.com/timetogotobed nose and treat the patients using tools such
know that it’s time to go to bed while also as CT scans, X-ray scans, stethoscopes,
promoting a glass of milk and bedtime story.
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42. Augmented Media /
Layering Content
and Utility
and ECG. After treating all of the patients, students entered their IKEA worked with McCann, New York and Allofus, London, to
details via the app and those who performed best were contacted redefine its iconic publication, which has 211 million copies in cir-
and offered a scholarship. culation, and extend its lifecycle throughout the year. Contagious
issue 32.
Effectively acting as an entrance exam, Mobile Medic was a clever
way of immersing students in the role of an army medical officer as www.ikea.com
well as testing their skill. It lives on as an education platform in all
Defence Force Universities. Contagious issue 32. ASOS / Scan to Shop
www.defence.gov.au British AR specialists Aurasma have been busy this year adding
clouds of digital content and interactive functionality to a range of
IKEA / IKEA Catalogue print publications from Tesco’s Real Food magazine to the entire
September edition of American GQ. Contagious’ favourite was the
This year IKEA added another dimension to its traditional print cata-
ASOS Scan to Shop app, which enables the 450,000 UK subscrib-
logue by presenting users with a layer of digital content accessible
ers of the retailer’s monthly magazine to access additional video
through a free augmented reality app.
content, product information, unlock exclusive offers and purchase
Scanning the catalogue with the app reveals a variety of features: items directly from the pages.
users can interact with 3D product models, find out product details, bit.ly/scan-to-shop-itunes
view how-to videos and be inspired by photo galleries. bit.ly/scan-to-shop-play
www.aurasma.com
Shortlist Magazine /
Meanwhile, UK-based Shortlist Magazine partnered with AR com-
pany Blippar, which is reported to have more than 350,000 users in
the UK, to create a special interactive gaming edition that featured a
playable AR version of a 1980s computer game on the cover.
Inside the magazine, exclusive video interviews, interactive polls,
competitions and podcasts could be experienced on a phone via
Blippar. Users could also ‘blipp to buy’ items straight from the
pages of the magazine.
Blippar recorded 229,178 blipps of the issue from more than
50,000 unique readers, who viewed and played with interactive
content for over six minutes each, on average.
blippar.com
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43. Retail / Shopping
Gets Connected
In Burberry’s majestic new retail
space, it was the screen – not in
cinematic portrait format, but iPad-
esque landscape – that epitomised
the convergence of online and
offline shopping in 2012.
This year saw retailers bring social,
mobile and web into the physical space,
embedding products with RFID chips,
sensors to detect shoppers and person-
alise content, frictionless payment, and
layers of online functionality via mobile
apps and services.
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44. Retail /
Shopping Gets
Connected
Why? Because shoppers no longer see physical, techno- brands like adidas, Nike and Puma. Fans
logical and geographical boundaries, and retailers needs with the app checking out competitors’
to adapt to changing behaviour. According to IBM’s 2012 wares were offered a 99% reduction on
Winning Over The Empowered Consumer report, 25% trainers from Meat Pack – but with every
of people use three or more technologies to shop; mean- passing second, the discount got 1%
while, mobile sales for Black Friday exceeded 16% this smaller. To get the best deal, the customer
year, up from 9.8% in 2011, also according to IBM. had to drop everything and run.
The smartest retailers are rethinking the customer journey Meat Pack Hijack is fascinating because it
– from initial awareness and product research to in-store neatly combines location, connectivity and
experience, purchase and post-sales – seamlessly bring- strategic discounting with the motivational
ing together the best of offline and online to make a com- power of a relentlessly ticking clock. Retail
pelling, entertaining and frictionless shopping experience. with jeopardy? We’re in! And so were the
600 customers the brand hijacked from its
C&A / Fashion Likes competitors in just one week. Contagious
The familiar metric of Facebook Likes was given a social 32.
twist when DDB Brasil repurposed it into an interactive www.facebook.com/themeatpack
rating system for its clothes. To kick-start the idea, the
new season’s C&A fashion collection was previewed on Audi City /
the brand’s Facebook page. Users were encouraged to Buying a new car is less impulsive than buy-
Like their favourite items, and after a week of online voting ing a new pair of trainers, but the impact
the collection finally hit the rails at C&A’s flagship store of digital on that process is driving key
in São Paulo – with one important difference. Each item changes across the sector. This year saw
was displayed on a hanger that showed a running total of the launch of Audi City, a small-footprint
the Likes it had earned, changing the scores in real time digital showroom in London’s West End.
as fans continued to vote online. Social proof moved from Visitors use multi-touch screen tables (cre-
Facebook into the real world. Contagious 31. ated by Razorfish International) to design
www.facebook.com/ceaBrasil their ideal Audi from more than 3.5 million
possible configurations. Their creation can
Meat Pack / Hijack be viewed, life-sized, from all angles on
If there’s one thing we all like, it’s a bargain. Working with huge HD screens, and can be seen ‘driv-
4AM Saatchi & Saatchi, Guatemala, sneaker retailer Meat ing’ through virtual landscapes.
Pack enhanced its existing app with a time-sensitive dis- That vivid first impression is more impor-
count feature that used GPS to map the stores of rival tant than ever. Research by Jaguar Land
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45. Rover discovered that in 2000 people the store, displaying their Facebook profile bearer for British high street fashion. The
made an average of 7.5 trips to dealer- picture (to help assistants identify them) Customise the Catwalk feature for its
ships before buying a car. By 2010 that and also their purchase history. Shoppers London Fashion Week show allowed web
figure had shrunk to 1.3 visits. The impact could use the app to access product infor- users to not only select and order key looks
of each encounter gains significance. Audi mation and to tag their favourite items, help- and accessories, but also to change the
City combines the flexibility of digital car- ing staff make more accurate recommenda- colour of their preferred option before buy-
configuration with the sense of high-impact tions for individual customers. ing. Additionally, Shoot the Show let view-
retail theatre that a brand-controlled envi- ers snap and share pictures of their favour-
ronment of a store can offer. It’s a strategy So far San Francisco-based Signature
ite looks direct from the show’s live stream.
the brand clearly believes in: Audi plans 20 Labs, the clienteling specialists behind the
Music and make-up from the show could
further such destinations around the world app, are maintaining an enigmatic silence
also be bought straight away, with online
by 2015. Contagious 32. about results. This much we know: the Lux-
tutorials available to help customers repli-
ury Institute, New York, recently published
tinyurl.com/audicity cate the beauty looks created for the show.
the findings of its 2012 Luxury Customer
Index survey, which found that across cat- Topshop’s new CMO Justin Cooke –
Neiman Marcus / NM Service App egories 70% of ultra-wealthy customers former vice president of PR at Burberry
With a long standing reputation for cus- say their relationship with a specific sales – described the show as ‘social entertain-
tomer service, high end US department associate causes them to spend more. ment’, but Topshop is not innovating for the
store Neiman Marcus spent the summer Confirmation, if it were needed, that it pays sake of it. Cooke is very clear on the value
trialling a smartphone app designed to to know your customers. Contagious 31. of this heady mix of social, entertainment
enhance the relationship between sales www.getsignature.com and commerce: ‘By putting our custom-
staff and shoppers. The free NM Service ers in control of the live experience, they
app allowed users to see which staff were show us what they love, how they want to
Topshop Unique / London Fashion Week
on duty, and set up meetings with their pre- consume information, the ways they like to
ferred associate. The opt-in service notified Understanding its young clientele is a
share and more.’ Contagious 33.
staff when participating customers entered major obsession for Topshop, the standard-
www.topshop.com
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46. Retail /
Shopping Gets
Connected
Burberry World Live /
It may have been a big, exciting year for retail generally, but it’s
also been a big, exciting year for Britishness; in the launch of Burb-
erry’s new flagship London store, those factors collided to headline-
grabbing effect. The Regent Street space has been redesigned as
a physical manifestation of the brand’s online experience, from its
acoustic music sessions to Burberry Bespoke and the Art of the
Trench.
Burberry World Live will not only host fashion events, concerts
and performances, but blurs the boundaries between online and
offline retail. RFID tags in the garments trigger relevant multimedia
content, with mirrors turning into screens when entering changing
rooms. On the shop floor, the same system cues making-of videos
when certain screens in the space are approached. Sales staff use
iPads to get real-time stock updates and product specifications,
and clienteling software is used to access customers’ purchase his-
tory and shopping preferences.
The democratisation of fashion may be a keenly debated topic
right now, but what has set Burberry apart from most luxury brands
is the authenticity of the delight it takes in embracing tech and the
passion of younger consumers. Contagious 33.
uk.burberry.com
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47. Personalisation /
Here’s to YOU
‘P&G’s vision is to build our brands
through lifelong, one-to-one rela-
tionships in real-time with every
person in the world,’ said P&G’s
global marketing and brand build-
ing officer, Mark Pritchard, in
March. ‘It means shifting from mass
broadcasting, to creating more
personal, one-to-one conversa-
tions.’ Welcome to the age of mass
personalisation.
Underpinning personalisation is of
course personal data, and vast amounts
of it. Boston Consulting Group’s report
in May said globally people send ten bil-
lion text messages and make one billion
posts to a blog or social network. There
are six billion mobile phones, of which
one billion are smartphones. That’s led
to data-driven stories, products and
even services. ‘Data,’ claims Daniel
Stein, founder of digital agency EVB, ‘is
the new creative brief.’
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48. Personalisation /
here’s to you
But what about privacy? It seems that our growing personal data Hellmann’s / Recipe Receipts
literacy means people are becoming more receptive to a new value
In a smart use of real-time data, Hellmann’s used personalised,
exchange: a recent Accenture study found 61% of online shoppers
persuasive tactics to encourage Brazilian consumers to realise that
would trade privacy for personalisation, and three in four shoppers
mayonnaise is more versatile than just a condiment for sandwiches
actually prefer retailers that use personal information to improve
and potato salad. Using point-of-sale software, the brand gener-
shopping experiences.
ated personalised recipes based on the products people bought
Our relationship with technology is changing, too, as digital per-
in 100 outlets of the country’s St Marche supermarkets. If a shop-
sonal assistants like Siri become more sophisticated. We’re more
per put Hellmann’s in their basket, they received a customised till
dependent on it, and brands like Google are starting to build digital
receipt which doubled up as a recipe card. The recipe included
tools like Google Now based on our personal data to pre-empt our
Hellmann’s mayonnaise along with other products they were pur-
every need.
chasing. In-store signage informed shoppers: ‘If there’s Hellmann’s
in your cart, there’s a surprise in your receipt.’ The campaign,
AXE Anarchy / Personalised graphic novel through Ogilvy, São Paulo, generated a 44% rise in sales within
If a brand seeks out your creative input, recreates your profile pic- a month. ‘We wanted to prove that Hellmann’s can be used daily
ture to flattering effect and integrates you into an online graphic in basic consumption without asking people to change anything in
novel, wouldn’t you at least try the product? This strategy paid their shopping carts,’ Ogilvy account supervisor Daniela Glicen-
dividends for Unilever when it rewarded AXE’s millennial target stajn told Contagious. Contagious 31.
audience with its 15 megabytes of fame. To promote Anarchy, the www.hellmanns.com.br
brand’s first unisex variant, Razorfish, New York, partnered with
Aspen Comics on creating a crowd-sourced online graphic novel
Carvalho Hosken / The Social Home Tour
starring AXE Facebook fans and Twitter followers. An initial trailer,
Visits to new-build homes can be tricky; it’s hard to imagine living
which attracted 3.2 million views, invited the 2.3 million-strong
in a show-house because they feel so impersonal and generic. So
social media fan-base to get involved. After opting in, people
Rio-based estate agency Carvalho Hosken used Facebook content
posted 15,249 story suggestions to help steer the plot, with 34%
to personalise display homes for potential buyers, helping them to
coming from females. Fans were rewarded by seeing animated ver-
visualise themselves in the property. Via Artplan in Rio de Janeiro,
sions of themselves in the graphic novel which depicted scientists
Carvalho Hosken decorated apartments with digital picture frames
attempting to hit upon a formula for attraction. Since launching in
containing personal photos from Facebook as potential buyers
January 2012, Anarchy has become the best-selling body spray in
looked around. They saw their favourite films playing on the TV,
the US. Take that, Old Spice. Contagious 30.
also selected from their Facebook profiles, and heard their most-
www.axeanarchy.com
loved tunes. While inside, they received an unexpected phone call
targeting them with a special offer. The social home tour helped to
convert 28% of visits into sales, a rate that was three times higher
than usual. Contagious 32.
www.carvalhohosken.com.br
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49. Personalisation /
here’s to you
Bank of America / BankAmeriDeals
In an initiative that is not only personalised, but frictionless too, Bank
of America launched a new deals service, BankAmeriDeals, which
gives customers targeted discounts and offers at the stores and
restaurants they regularly visit. Customers accept the offers they
want and typically receive a discount through their online banking
service. When they make a purchase in-store with a Bank of Amer-
ica debit or credit card, they don’t even need to hand over a cou-
pon: the cash is automatically refunded into their account the next
month. This eliminates the need for physical coupons or any addi-
tional interaction with individual retailers, as well as fulfilling Bank
of America’s objectives to increase account and card activity and
reinforce existing customer relationships. Contagious 30.
www.bankofamerica.com
Ones to Watch /
Where is personalisation headed? Ford’s partnership with location-
aware alerts startup Roximity shows how collaboration is bringing
convenience: Ford drivers can now benefit from a personalised in-
car service which sends – via their dashboard’s telemetry system –
notifications of nearby deals that tally with their particular interests.
When better to serve deals than when you’re close, and mobile?
On that note, expect Google Now to gather momentum. The
search giant’s personal assistant incorporates data from your brows-
ing history, location and time of day to help you plan your life better.
Google Now might even suggest a gym visit in your lunch hour, or
an alternative commuter route to avoid a delay (Contagious 33).
Meanwhile, Google Field Trip offers an unprompted personalised
history lesson about the places around you via your smartphone.
However, you can moderate how much or how little it serves up, lim-
iting it to just restaurant reviews, for instance. This is pivotal to per- beta.roximity.com
sonalisation: the brands that allow the users to control how, when www.google.com/landing/now
and with what they are targeted will be 2013’s success stories. tinyurl.com/Google-Field-Trip
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50. The New Loyalty/
Services not
schemes While the loyalty scheme is in
demise, loyalty services are gaining
momentum. Forward-thinking
companies are using technology to
incorporate loyalty mechanics across
a wide range of brand touchpoints.
Traditionally tied to product transactions,
loyalty is now being mapped to experi-
ence and engagement. A number of
brands and apps are rewarding a range
of everyday activity, from watching TV
(Viggle) to sharing status updates (Nike).
With smartphone penetration skyrock-
eting, mobile is a key force behind this
unfettered approach to loyalty. Almost
a quarter of the top 100 brands in the
2012 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty
Engagement Index enable consumer
engagement via mobile.
bit.ly/brandkeys-index
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51. The new loyalty /
services not
schemes
Shopkick / Starbucks / Passbook
Spurring a revolution in location-based loyalty, Shopkick rewards cus- One of the major stories to come out of the launch of Apple’s iOS 6 this
tomers simply for walking into a store. The mobile app, which has partnered year (apart from its geographically-challenged Maps) is Passbook. The new
US retailers like Target and Macy’s, also tracks in-store activities, allowing feature is a form of mobile wallet that stores everything from movie tickets
shoppers to accumulate points, called ‘kicks’, through actions like trying on to loyalty cards. Geolocation means Passbook pulls up the relevant pass
clothes. These can be exchanged for a wide variety of rewards such as gift at the appropriate place, taking much of the pain out of collecting points.
vouchers or meals.
As mobile money develops, loyalty and payment mechanics are merging,
A recent redesign based around Pinterest-inspired ‘lookbooks’ has making loyalty more frictionless. While the iPhone 5 doesn’t incorporate
extended Shopkick’s functionality so people can now be rewarded for ‘pre- a payment mechanism like an NFC chip, Passbook can make payments
shopping’ activity such as browsing products and saving items in which by proxy. Starbucks, for example, allows customers to store their digital
they’re interested. Starbucks card in Passbook, so they collect loyalty points and pay with
one scan of their phone. Notably, Starbucks customers can also pay via the
These new features have bolstered engagement levels. At current rates,
Square Wallet app, which also supports Starbucks’ loyalty program and
Shopkick will reach one billion product views within 12 weeks. The app
geo-fenced pop-ups (see Payment section).
also reached one million verified monthly walk-ins to partner stores in Octo-
ber this year. While paying with Passbook is still in its early stages, it is likely that it will
soon become widespread. It is expected, for example, that Apple custom-
Shopkick has quickly become the third most-used shopping app after
ers will soon be able to scan Passbook-enabled Apple Store gift cards.
eBay, Amazon and Groupon, according to Nielsen, and offers a compelling
shortcut for retailers keen to avoid the costs and hassle of developing their www.apple.com/ios/whats-new
own reward app.
www.shopkick.com
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52. The new loyalty /
services not
schemes
Nike Hong Kong / Make it Count Propel, which partnered with the platform
Alongside mobile, social media is a key in April to reward users who logged fitness
driver of the new loyalty. Rethinking the idea achievements in apps such as MapMyRUN.
of loyalty schemes for the social web, Nike According to figures released in October,
launched a campaign earlier this year that the campaign increased purchase intent by
rewards people for engagement and social 51%. Kiip has also just introduced iPhone
amplification. Passbook integration, so rewards coupons
can now be sent directly to Passbook and
Created by Razorfish in Hong Kong as part redeemed in-store.
of the wider global Make it Count campaign,
amateur athletes can undertake a series of It seems that reaching out to consumers
missions on the Nike Hong Kong Facebook during more meaningful moments pays off.
page. However, users have to then share the According to Kiip, advertisers benefit from
completed mission online using the #makeit- initial engagement rates of 18 to 22% for
count hashtag in order to accumulate points their rewards and a 50% engagement rate
that can later be exchanged for Nike prizes. for users who have previously redeemed a
The initiative is an acknowledgement by Nike reward.
that loyalty encompasses far more than purchase, and an astute use by the Having raised $11m in Series B funding earlier this year, it’s likely that
brand of existing mechanisms for sharing and posting to reward loyal fans. Kiip will become more prolific in 2013. The company has said it will soon
Social amplification is becoming an increasingly important variable in the announce a major development that brings mobile rewards and physical
new loyalty, as brands and consumers become more acutely aware of its redemption at point of sale systems closer than ever before.
value. Virgin America, for example, allows travellers to earn loyalty points www.kiip.me
each time they post a status update or take a photo at a Virgin America
airport terminal or baggage claim via loyalty app Topguest. Safeway / just for U
www.nike.com.hk/local/makeitcount The new loyalty goes beyond one-size-fits all: a study by the CMO Council
www.topguest.com suggests that 54% of people would defect from their loyalty programme if
it didn’t provide tailor-made, relevant offers.
Kiip /
With personalisation becoming a growing consumer demand, companies
The new loyalty encompasses a fresh approach to the idea of rewards. One are turning to technology to create more one-to-one relationships with cus-
of the main players turning the idea of loyalty points on its head is mobile tomers. US supermarket chain Safeway is one of the biggest retailers to be
app Kiip, which focuses on tying reward to moments of achievement. doing this on a major scale, with the launch of a loyalty programme built on
Kiip was initially set up to offer real-world rewards for virtual achievements personalised pricing; ‘just for U’ mines your shopping history and habits and
in mobile games but is now significantly widening its focus. One of its most serves you tailored prices via a desktop and mobile app.
successful campaigns to date has been with PepsiCo fitness water brand www.safeway.com
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53. Payment /
The Changing
Way We Pay With financial transactions
increasingly digital, cash is
no longer king.
Last year the conversations
about digital money revolved
around NFC (near-field
communication), due in part
to Google’s introduction of its
NFC-based Google Wallet
solution. But while NFC is
gaining pace, it is doing so more
slowly than initially expected.
However, other technology is
springing up and changing the
way we pay.
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54. Payment / the
The
Changing Way We
changing way
Paypay
we
Much of this change is driven by letting people add credit cards to a cen- Pingit has had an enthusiastic reception
smartphones. Mobile money is far from tralised system. When paying online or in in the UK, which could well set a prece-
being reliant on NFC, as the success store, Wallaby automatically sifts through dent for future mobile banking offerings in
of Square demonstrates. The disrup- the users’ cards, and crunches which one this market. Within two days of the service
tive startup has had a boost this year should be used to maximise returns. launching, 20,000 users had signed up and
following a $25m investment from it has now attracted more than 1.2 million
The way in which Wallaby helps consoli-
Starbucks. The Square Mobile Wallet downloads. Barclays claims that a signifi-
date and organise multiple payment offer-
can now be used to pay at 7,000 Star- cant amount of these are non-customers,
ings is analogous to Passbook (see Loyalty
bucks stores across the US. And just with Pingit now helping Barclays to acquire
section). It points to a future where pay-
this month it announced that it’s pro- more new customers than any of its other
ment and loyalty increasingly converge and
cessing $10bn in payments annually. online acquisition tools.
become more frictionless.
As people learn to pay via multiple www.barclays.co.uk/pingit
www.walla.by
devices, they are also becoming
more open to new units of exchange, Barclaycard / PayBand
Barclays / Pingit
ranging from in-game virtual currency While Barclays’ Pingit works via a mobile
While banks tend to be known for making
to social currency. phone, Barclaycard has been developing
life more complicated, Barclays in the UK
www.google.com/wallet frictionless payment solutions in more unu-
released an app in February that makes
squareup.com sual contexts.
transferring money incredibly simple. Pingit
lets users transfer up to £300 a day to At this summer’s London Wireless music
Wallaby / other people using just their mobile phone festival, Barclaycard debuted PayBand,
Wallets bursting with multiple credit number. The average order value of each an NFC-enabled wristband that allowed
cards have become emblematic of transaction is £70, higher than current festival-goers to make cashless payments.
our times. According to Experian’s NFC mobile payment services, which are People signed up for a free PayBand,
‘National Score Index’, 10% of Ameri- usually capped at about £20. loaded it with up to £250 a day, then wore
cans have more than ten credit cards. it around the festival site, negating the need
Mobile banking has being growing expo-
to carry extra cash or cards. To pay for items
Having so many payment options nentially but this has largely come from
from stallholders users simply swiped the
means consumers are rarely using developing countries, where access to
band on a card payment system.
them in the most efficient way – a phe- formal financial services is lower than in the
nomenon that Wallaby aims to coun- West. Last year, for example, Visa aped the PayBand is an imaginative evolution of
teract through the creation of ‘one card success of mobile money transfer service Barclaycard PayTag, a credit card sticker
to rule them all.’ The service solves the M-Pesa by introducing a mobile payment that, when stuck to a mobile handset, ena-
conundrum of which credit card to service in Africa for people without bank bles contactless payments. Both PayTag
use to maximise savings and points by accounts. and PayBand demonstrate that NFC isn’t
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55. Payment / The
Changing Way We
Pay
tied to smartphones, but can be used crea- block payments from a number of countries, look and operate like other credit cards,
tively to solve pain points in the payment Bitcoin enables instant payments to anyone, would act as a complement to the Google
process in a wide range of contexts. Fea- from anywhere in the world. Wallet mobile payment system.
tured in Contagious issue 32.
Bitcoin may also become more estab- News about the Google Wallet leaked in
www.barclaycardpayband.com lished via a physical presence. In August November and at the time of writing there
the company announced it was working on are still few details available. The move
Digital Currencies / Bitcoin a BitInstant Paycard: a prepaid debit card can be seen, however, as Google trying
As people grow more open to new ways of that would let users spend their Bitcoins to establish a stronger brand in the pay-
paying, we’re seeing a rise in the ubiquity at any store that accepts MasterCard. The ment space while NFC remains far from
and legitimacy of virtual currencies. One of debit card is yet to materialise, but with vir- mainstream.
the most prominent of these is Bitcoin: a tual currencies becoming a larger part of
Last year the conversation around digital
peer-to-peer digital currency that has been the payment landscape it seems unlikely to
money focused on the ‘digital.’ However,
called ‘potentially world-changing’ by emi- be long before such a card, be it linked to
as we move towards a more fluid approach
nent cryptographers. Bitcoins or not, exists.
to payment, the landscape is increasingly
Bitcoin is not overseen by any central bitcoin.org being characterised by a digital/physical
banking authority; instead the network www.bitinstant.com blur. Just as we no longer think of ‘digital
regulates transactions and issuances. This media’ and simply think of ‘media’, ‘digital
means it is highly anonymous, which has led Google / Physical Wallet money’ will eventually become just ‘money.’
to it becoming something of an unofficial As virtual currencies like Bitcoin look to gain www.google.com/wallet
currency of the underground economy. One a real-world presence it also appears that
Carnegie Mellon study estimates that $2m Google may be issuing a physical credit
a month in Bitcoin drug sales take place on card. The Google Wallet card, which would
the online marketplace Silk Road.
Despite its dodgy heritage, Bitcoin seems
slowly to be moving into the mainstream.
WordPress, which powers the blog plat-
form for the likes of the New York Times and
CNN, has just started to accept Bitcoins
and Reddit has suggested that it might
begin transacting in Bitcoins for subscrip-
tions to its premium Reddit Gold service.
The appeal of Bitcoins for these platforms is
that, unlike credit cards and PayPal, which
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56. Small But
Perfectly Formed /
Little Brands,
Big Thinkers
Although many established compa-
nies strive to act like a startup, the
only genuine way to experience this
kind of nimble, rapid and adaptive
way of working is to actually launch
a new venture.
This section celebrates some of the
great thinkers and agile disruptors that
Contagious has featured this year.
One sector-agnostic trait that many of
the companies below have employed is
the subscription model, which relies on
cutting friction from more mundane pur-
chases, and providing a fantastic service
at a great price point.
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57. SBPF / Little
Brands, Big
Thinkers
Another important shift is that social responsi- ‘use their product choice to create a positive
bility is no longer just a bolt-on feature, but is impact on the world’.
becoming part of the fabric of some of the best
The product went to market in 2010, securing
new businesses. And people want to buy from
distribution across the US in 2011. It subse-
companies that care. This year’s Edelman’s
quently launched in the UK during October
goodpurpose study of 8,000 consumers across
2012 and aims to expand into mainland Europe
16 markets found that if price and quality is
and Russia in the near future. Contagious 33.
equal, social purpose is the most important factor
determining people’s purchasing decisions. www.sirrichards.com
Sir Richard’s / Hiut Denim /
US condom brand Sir Richard’s impressed us The South Wales-based denim company,
this year by exemplifying the Contagious mantra founded by David and Clare Hieatt, previously
of ‘useful, relevant, entertaining’, combining of clothing brand howies, started crafting its
chemical-free contraceptives with a social- high-end, handmade jeans earlier this year, res-
impact mission, all brought to life through some urrecting the denim industry in Cardigan, Wales.
great marketing. The brand’s Vagina Rules Every pair comes with a unique code known
campaign, for example, featured an online film as a HistoryTag. This allows owners to follow
of women explaining what they wouldn’t put the production of their jeans in the factory and
in their vaginas (‘Investment bankers, roadies, then build up a presence for the jeans online,
street performers...’) to highlight the product’s by tweeting or tagging images on Flickr and Ins-
vegan-friendly and PETA-certified credentials. tagram with their code, adding their own experi-
ences to the lifeline of the jeans. We all associate
The brand’s wider social mission takes the
certain songs, scents and objects with significant
form of Sir Richard’s donating a condom to a
life experiences and love how Hiut is enabling
developing country, such as Haiti, for every one
people to attach their own memories to a phys-
bought. However, the process isn’t quite as
ical product. Welcome to the internet of things.
functional as ‘buy one, give one’. The company
Contagious 31.
worked with Haitian artists and musicians to
create a stand-alone brand called KORE (a Hai- hiutdenim.co.uk
tian slang term roughly translating as ‘I have your
back’) appropriate for that country. Speaking to
Contagious earlier in the year, Sir Richard’s MD,
Jim Moscou, told us how it allowed people to
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58. SBPF / Little
Brands, Big
Thinkers
Who Gives A Crap /
One of the most remarkable projects arising from
crowdfunding platform Indiegogo this year is Who
Gives A Crap, a subscription-based toilet paper brand
making a direct attempt to solve sanitation issues by
donating 50% of its profits to help build waste facili-
ties in the developing world. The company was first This then enables brands to use this content as the the company and its founders Dubin and Mark Levine.
established in late 2010 by social entrepreneur Simon basis for their messages across social media, helping Contagious 33.
Griffiths, former Method designer Daniel Alexander them navigate the potentially tricky waters in a more www.dollarshaveclub.com
and strategist Jehan Ratnatunga. relevant and meaningful way. Percolate received
Who Gives A Crap has successfully proven that a $1.5m in funding late last year and secured another Raspberry Pi /
commodity product like toilet paper does not need to $9m, in November. We’re looking forward to seeing
Raspberry Pi was cited as a ‘one to watch’ in the
be dull and fluffy, or without a grander sense of pur- what Percolate will get up to next, given that 90% of
technology section of 2011’s Most Contagious report
pose. The company raised AU$66,548 (US$69,000) respondents to a content marketing survey by Econ-
before its release. Since going on general sale in
in just 50 hours in July 2012, partially thanks to Grif- sultancy (October 2012) said that branded content
February, the credit-card sized computer has been
fiths staging a ‘sit in’, live-streaming himself on the will become increasingly important over the next 12
stocked by major high street electronics retailers and
toilet until the company hit its funding goal. months. Contagious 33.
is expected to sell more than one million units by Feb-
percolate.com ruary 2013. Founder Eben Upton’s Cambridge-based
The organisation is currently taking pre-orders from
Australia and the US. Contagious 33. organisation aimed to address a decline in uptake of
Dollar Shave Club / computer science classes in schools by developing
whogivesacrap.org
Dollar Shave Club burst onto the subscription ser- a programmable mini computer that could easily be
vices scene with a standout convenience service that wiped and rebooted.
Percolate /
skilfully does away with the hassle and cost of buying
How often have you been annoyed by bland and Since its launch the device has featured in hack days
razors. Its witty launch video featuring charismatic co-
generic posts on a brand’s social media pages along from Scotland to SXSW, rebooting maker culture.
founder and improv comic Michael Dubin clocked up
the lines of ‘Like this funny cat video if you also like Raspberry Pi has been approached by hospitals and
more than seven million views while challenging the
cats’? Branded content has been one of the most museums; developing countries are hoping to benefit
big players in the male grooming market (‘Do you like
hotly discussed topics in ad land this year. Percolate, a from the device thanks to its low cost (between $25-
spending $20 a month on brand-name razors? Nine-
New York startup founded by former Barbarian Group 35) and ease of use. The registered charity reports that
teen go to Roger Federer.’).
strategy director Noah Brier and former VP of pub- some universities are providing their freshmen with a
lishing at Federated Media James Gross, has devel- After receiving initial funding of $1.1m in March this Raspberry Pi whilst even seven-year-olds are using it
oped smart algorithms to help blue chip clients source year, Dollar Shave Club secured an additional $9.8m to program games themselves.
brand-relevant content, from interesting studies to in November. Given the monthly subscription options www.raspberrypi.org
sector-specific news. at $1, $6 or $9, this is a great vote of confidence for
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59. Get Contagious’ thinking in your life next year for only £740
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Your subscription will include four issues of
the award-winning quarterly magazine, online
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60. Most Contagious Awards / 2012
The Most Contagious awards are bestowed by Contagious.
The criteria are simple. They are awarded for ideas and innovations that the
Contagious editorial team have judged to be the world’s most contagious
ideas of the year in key business categories.
Winners /
Most Contagious Purpose / Safaricom / Daktari 1525
Agency / Squad Digital, Nairobi
www.safaricom.co.ke
Most Contagious Technology / Google / Project Glass
plus.google.com/+projectglass/posts
Most Contagious Design / Heatherwick Studio / Olympic Cauldron
www.heatherwick.com
Most Contagious Retail / Audi City
Agencies / Razorfish, SapientNitro, Designit, RTT, Valtech
microsites.audi.com/audi-city/en/index.html
Most Contagious Story of the Year / Red Bull Stratos / Mission to the Edge of Space
Red Bull Media House, Riedel Communications, Wuppertal, Flightline Films, Las Vegas,
3G Communications, Glen Burnie
www.redbullstratos.com
Small But Perfectly Formed (Company Award) / Raspberry Pi Foundation
www.raspberrypi.org
Nominations
Purpose / Renault MOBILIZ, Safaricom Daktari 1525, Tata Docomo BloodLine Club
Technology / Baxter (Rethink Robotics), Google Project Glass, Leap Motion, Nike FuelBand, Ouya (Boxer8)
Design / ABSOLUT Unique, Cooled Conservatories (Wilkinson Eyre), Disney D-Tech Me,
Olympic Cauldron (Heatherwick Studio), Tesla S
Retail / Audi City, Magazine Você (Magazine Luiza), Topshop Unique, Neiman Marcus NM Service App
Small But Perfectly Formed / Dollar Shave Club, Hiut Denim, Raspberry Pi Foundation,
Sir Richard’s, Percolate, Who Gives a Crap
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MOVEMENTs purpose service data Technology design social biz sharing amplified screens augmented retail personalise new loyalty payment SBPF

62. Published by Contagious Communications
Writers / Lucy Aitken, Sheelin Conlon, Katrina Dodd, Emily Hare, Patrick Jeffries, Alex
Jenkins, Arwa Mahdawi, Georgia Malden, Chloe Markowicz, Nick Parish, Gina Rembe,
Will Sansom, Dan Southern, Ed White
Editors / Emily Hare, Paul Kemp-Robertson, Georgia Malden
Research/Production / Sian Bateman, Laura Parsons
Design / Dean Dorat, Smita Mistry
Design concept / Art direction / Garvin Hirt, FLOK Design, www.flokdesign.com
Contagious Communications is a leading global news and intelligence authority
at the intersection of marketing and communications, consumer culture and technology.
Contagious / Dunstan House, 14a St Cross Street, London EC1N 8XA, UK
Contagious / 435 Hudson Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10014, USA
www.contagiousmagazine.com
www.mostcontagious.com
@contagious
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owner and material may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the owner’s prior consent.
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63. www.mostcontagious.com