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WHAT IS GAME CHANGERS?

The Game Changers series is anannual exploration of what’s driving

change in the world of brands

THE NEW MAINSTREAM

This year, we set out to determine how emergent mainstream consumer behaviours are creating

opportunities for game change by demanding a new deal in their relationship with institutions,

organisations and brands.

UNTITLED BY ELISABETH D’ORCYSOURCE: FLICKR.COM

WHAT WE FOUND3 behaviours are becoming mainstream and changing the game:

BEHAVIOUR 1People are sidestepping institutions

BEHAVIOUR 2People are making, not just consuming

BEHAVIOUR 3People are taking back their time

MACRO SHIFTSWhen our social, cultural and technological

infrastructures change at scale, so do our norms. When they change with the pace and pervasiveness

we see today, they create the conditions for new behaviours.

The majority of the world’s population now lives in cities, and

it’s growing. From youth to migrants, this fosters an environment of

stimulation, competition, opportunity but also constraint.

Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013 Flamingo & Wolff Olins

SPACES

Demographic certainties have eroded - life stages blur, people are marrying later, if at all and finding

new life in older age.


LIFESTAGES

People become more culturally omnivorous as they access and

belong to more 'cultures' through travel and technology. The 'mass' is no longer a predictable, controllable,

passive middle-ground.


TASTES

We know the familiar story of consumers’ hyper-connection,

access to everything, technological empowerment... But the world

today is as much defined by scarcity of other resources: time, space and

the care we give to others.


Miguel Pires da Rosa, Creative Commons ©

RESOURCES

Technological change has turned consumers into agents. People don’t

just want access they want interaction.


TOOLS

BEHAVIOURS3 behaviours are becoming mainstream and

changing the game:

BEHAVIOUR 1People are sidestepping institutions

BEHAVIOUR 2People are making, not just consuming

BEHAVIOUR 3People are taking back their time

PEOPLE ARE SIDESTEPPING INSTITUTIONS

“In a world of broken trust, I need to create the truth”

Everywhere in the world, people are questioning authority – and finding ways to side-step it. They are mobilising against the growing cost-

engineering, corruption and dis-enfranchisement of systems and society.

People question, compare, probe, mistrust, even boycott corporations – and find alternatives.

Behaviour 1

PEOPLE ARE SIDESTEPPING INSTITUTIONS

By-passing the phone companies, millions switched to Skype. Travel guides like Michelin have lost their influence to side-stepper

TripAdvisor. Zipcar side-stepped traditional car rental.

How to profit from this behaviour?

Be in the place people side-step to.

Behaviour 1

MASKED PROTESTERSSOURCE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

People are bypassing the mediated, top-down, received wisdom of the institutions with which they have

lost faith.


Antana, Creative Commons ©

More than ever, people question, compare, probe, mistrust, boycott

the big corporations – and then also find alternatives. Everywhere in the

world, people are questioning authority — and finding ways to

sidestep it.


Glenn Halog, Creative Commons ©

People want truth, in a democratic rather than authoritarian form. They want openness and honesty. They

want simplicity. And they want it as close to free as possible.

Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013

Flamingo & Wolff Olins

EVERYONE SAYS:

THINK LIKE A START-UPWE SAY:

THINK LIKE AN UPSTART

PEOPLE ARE MAKING, NOT JUST CONSUMING

“In a world of free flowing ideas and opportunities, I need to make the most of what I have access to”

In an era when visibility of the future is diminished and competition to stand out and progress hots up, people don’t just want access, they want

agency. The days when consumers simply consumed are over.

People now have so many ways to create, use, adapt, mix things up, sell things, and even build their own businesses.

Behaviour 2

PEOPLE ARE MAKING, NOT JUST CONSUMING

Amazon is enabling an explosion in self-publishing. Etsy , AirBnb and Asos give people their own marketplaces.


Give people ways to make, share and sell.

Behaviour 2

HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1944SOURCE: DOCTORMACRO.COM

The days when consumers simply consumed are over. People now have so many ways to create, use, adapt, mix

things up, sell things and even build their own businesses.


As makers, people are looking for a different kind of fair exchange.

In exchange for their money or effort, people want a platform on which they can

make, share and even sell their ideas. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


Charles & Hudson, Creative Commons ©

Technology lowers the barriers of entry and the more fluid flow of ideas and information allows people to make

connections between things and people more easily than ever.


Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Creative Commons ©

EVERYONE SAYS:

USE YOUR BRAND TO HELP YOU SELL MORE

WE SAY:

USE YOUR BRAND TO HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS SELL MORE

PEOPLE ARE TAKING BACK THEIR TIME

“In a world of hyper-connection and hyper-presence, I need to use my time on my terms.”

We're living time-compressed, asynchronous lives where the anchor points and rituals in our lives are being eroded.

Faster and more frequent communication has pushed toomuch at us – and people are looking for ways to control that flow, to get things when they want them, where they want them, and on their terms.

Behaviour 3

PEOPLE ARE TAKING BACK THEIR TIME

We converse now much less in synchronous phone conversations, and much more in asynchronous social media. We timetable our TV via on-demand. We use technology to build walls and seams back in to focus our attention.


Let people manage their time with you.

Behaviour 3

GHOSTFACE CHILLAHSOURCE: SNAPCHAT

Faster and more frequent communication has allowed brands to push too much at us — and people are looking for ways to control that flow, to get things when they

want them, where they want them, and on their terms.


People are managing their time and attention in entirely new ways. We

converse now much less in synchronous phone conversations, and much more in

asynchronous social media. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


A world of hyper-connection and over-stimulation has born a new skill—rebuilding the walls and seams.


Ryan Ozawa, Creative Commons ©

In exchange for data, people want freedom over their time. Today’s

consumers are better at managing their time and attention, savvier with privacy

settings and smarter at carving out spaces for immersion.


EVERYONE SAYS:

MANAGE YOUR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

WE SAY:

LET YOUR CUSTOMERSMANAGE THEIR

RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOU

NEW MAINSTREAMThese behaviours are not fringe, they are behind a mainstream

on the move. We need to re-think and re-focus on the mainstream. The language and assumptions which surround it all too often dull our creative senses because they undervalue

people and the rapidly changing world in which they live.

Consumers no longer simply consume. They’re active, sceptical, creative,

entrepreneurial. This used to be a minority pursuit. Now technology has made it

mainstream: it’s given consumers new powers to be agents.


This new consumer isn’t everybody, but they could be anybody…an

entrepreneurial 60-year-old in Toronto, a social networking Mum in Bombay, an

urban migrant as agile and pro-active as any tech-savvy teen.

They’re easy to spot as individuals. But

they’re impossible to predict as demographics.


Consumers are increasingly numbed by a culture of uniformity. They are more

omnivorous, lured by the distinctive not standardized. The New Mainstream values

surprise, difference, revelation and are open to who that comes from.


FAIR EXCHANGEThese behaviours are signs that people want, and are

creating, a new kind of relationship.One of give and get.

A Fair Exchange.

People want, and are creating, a new kind of relationship. One of exchange, not of broadcast. One of give and take. One where people and companies meet as equals, where each contributes, where

everyone gains. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


Bailey Weaver, Creative Commons ©

In exchange for their trust, people want new powers. They want truth, in a

democratic rather than authoritarian form. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


In exchange for their money or effort, people want a platform on which they can

make, share and even sell their ideas.Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


In this post-consumer world, brand becomes the joint property of the

company and the customer — the badge under which the customer makes things,

just as much as the company. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


Gustavo Devito, Creative Commons ©

The brand gives not just products and services, but inside stories, skills, tools,

insights, guidance, marketplaces – and not just to customers, but to society generally.


People are reshaping their relationships with companies. And it

no longer has to be a fight. New opportunities are opening up for companies to make much richer,

more human and more multidimensional relationships with

individuals. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


Amidst volatility, and unpredictability, more people want interaction, feedback, and control.

They’re scrutinizing traditional authorities and demanding a new

deal in their relationship with institutions, organizations and

brands. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


Some leaders are embracing the shift, finding new ways to connect

with their consumers on an individual level— but most are panicked at the thought of the

consumer now being in charge. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


In a world of sidestepping, companies gain trust by giving people a new power. Offer

your customers new ways of getting inside your business. Reveal rather than

persuade. Organize your business in a way that delivers your purpose; beyond profit.


Don’t simply sell to people: find profitable ways to play a much bigger part in their

lives. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


Let people do things on their terms, in their time: total convenience to create the

experience they want. Game Changers: The New Mainstream, October 2013


Giorgio Montersino, Creative Commons ©

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