Captivating Connections.

index your happiness.

How cool is this??

Facebook has used research and status updates to create a Global Happiness Index...

"The index is an attempt to say something profound based on the reports of daily life that Facebook users impose on — um, share with — their friends.

The idea, one that is generally accepted in social psychology, is that word choice can reveal a person’s mood. This is true in ordinary writing, these experts say, and even more so in writing like Facebook updates or the tweets of Twitter users, which ostensibly are attempts to describe what you are doing right now and how you feel. (While tweets limn the psyche in 140-character installments, Facebook updates are downright Augustinian, with some running as long as 420 characters.)

'When people in their status updates use more positive words — or fewer negative words — then that day as a whole is counted as happier than usual,' the creator of the index, Adam D. I. Kramer, explained in a Facebook blog post unveiling the project, where he also said that he was 72 percent happier than the average Facebook user."

question of the day.

As someone who spends way more hours working than sleeping, I thought this was interesting...

Q: Is hard work overrated?

Looks like science may have the answer(ish).

neuromarketing 101.

Wired has a great look at the current state of Neuromarketing, as well as the companies currently leveraging it.

So, what exactly IS Neuromarketing, you ask?

"Neuromarketing is the practice of using technology to measure brain activity in consumer subjects in order to inform the development of products and communications--really to inform the brand's 4Ps. The premise is that consumer buying decisions are made in split seconds in the subconscious, emotional part of the brain and that by understanding what we like, don't like, want, fear, are bored by, etc. as indicated by our brain's reactions to brand stimuli, marketers can design products and communications to better meet 'unmet' market needs, connect and drive 'the buy'.

It is commonly accepted that traditional market research is flawed because consumers don't know, can't articulate, or will even lie in a focus group about their purchase motivations. Neuromarketing research removes subjectivity and ambiguity by going right to measuring observable brain behavior. Respondent attention level, emotional engagement and memory storage are common metrics."

Now, you're going to ask me next, "but Whitney, how do they do it?"

Simple! They're using techniques like....

fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
SST (Steady State Topography)
EEG (Electroencephalography)
Eye Tracking
Galvanic Skin Response

And here's who's currently using the science:

Microsoft is now mining EEG data to understand users' interactions with computers including their feelings of "surprise, satisfaction and frustration."

Frito-Lay has been studying female brains to learn how to better appeal to women. Findings showed the company should avoid pitches related to "guilt" and guilt-free and play up "healthy" associations.

Google made some waves when it partnered with MediaVest on a "biometrics" study to measure the effectiveness of YouTube overlays versus pre-rolls. Result: Overlays were much more effective with subjects.

Daimler employed fMRI research to inform a campaign featuring car headlights to suggest human faces which tied to the reward center of the brain.

The Weather Channel used EEG, eye-tracking and skin response techniques to measure viewer reactions to three different promotional pitches for a popular series.

sentiment analysis 101.

How cool is this?

"The rise of blogs and social networks has fueled a bull market in personal opinion: reviews, ratings, recommendations and other forms of online expression. For computer scientists, this fast-growing mountain of data is opening a tantalizing window onto the collective consciousness of Internet users.

An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world’s unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data.

This is more than just an interesting programming exercise. For many businesses, online opinion has turned into a kind of virtual currency that can make or break a product in the marketplace.

Yet many companies struggle to make sense of the caterwaul of complaints and compliments that now swirl around their products online. As sentiment analysis tools begin to take shape, they could not only help businesses improve their bottom lines, but also eventually transform the experience of searching for information online.

Several new sentiment analysis companies are trying to tap into the growing business interest in what is being said online.

'Social media used to be this cute project for 25-year-old consultants,' said Margaret Francis, vice president for product at Scout Labs in San Francisco. Now, she said, top executives 'are recognizing it as an incredibly rich vein of market intelligence.'”

consumers still want green brands.

Green is still on the list of consumer 'wants'...

"Even as shoppers continue to hold back on spending, the evidence that they're thinking greener than ever continues to pile up. The latest is a study from the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Deloitte, which reports that 54% of grocery shoppers say they 'actively consider' a brand's sustainability characteristics before tossing them in the basket.

But that doesn't necessarily translate into buying green, and only 22% of the more than 6,400 shoppers interviewed as they left the store that day actually bought a green product on this particular shopping trip."

As Brian Lynch, director of sales and sales promotion for the GMA, explains, "One key finding that was an initial surprise was the broad scope of the green shopper demographic. We found it particularly interesting that the Baby Boomer demographic achieved the highest concentration of green shoppers in our survey, while younger green shoppers appeared hesitant -- at least for now -- to act on their green ideology when it comes to purchasing decisions."

can healthy fast food inspire an increase in unhealthy consumption?

Could adding more 'healthy' options to fast food menus cause a unhealthy eating backlash?

"Fast-food chains have recently deflected criticism of their menu offerings by adding healthy items like salads. But a paper soon to be released in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that the presence of healthy options on a menu can induce some diners to eat less healthily than they otherwise would.

In one study, college students were given one of two menus. One menu featured French fries, chicken nuggets and a baked potato; the other included those same items as well as a salad. The French fries, widely perceived as the least healthful option, were three times as popular with students selecting from the menu that had the salad as they were with the other group."

Why is that, you may be wondering?

Keith Wilcox, a doctoral candidate at Baruch College who is one of the paper’s four authors, surmises that, "When you consider the healthy option, you say, well, I could have that option. That lowers your guard, leading to self-indulgent behavior.”

Hm, interesting. Have any of you encountered this?

how ingrained is mobile web in your life?

It's not a shocker that the mobile web is becoming increasingly ingrained into people's everyday lives. Pew has done a new study proving the extent of it. According to them:

"Nearly 40% of Americans have positive and improving attitudes about their mobile devices, which in turn draws them deeper into online activities that range from sharing and creating content to increasing personal productivity."

As John B. Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet Project and author of the typology report, explains, "For a sizable minority of Americans, mobile connectivity expands their digital horizons as they do more with their suite of wireline and wireless tools. Mobile services complement existing broadband assets, and these Americans find it increasingly hard to be without their connectivity traveling with them as they go."

What's really interesting is how they broke down the subgroups of users based on their findings of those who rely on stationary vs. mobile media.

"On the mobile side are:

• Digital Collaborators: (8% of the population) Very much about continual information exchange with others, as they frequently interact with others to create and share content or express themselves.

• Ambivalent Networkers: (7%) Extremely active in using social networking sites and accessing digital resources "on the go," yet aren't always thrilled to be contacted by others.

• Media Movers: (7%) Active distributors of user-generated content such as photos and videos.

• Roving Nodes:(9%) Active managers of their social lives via basic applications--texting and emailing--to connect with others, pass along information, and improve personal productivity.

• Mobile Newbies: (8%) Many in this group are recent cell phone adopters and very enthusiastic about how mobile service makes them more accessible.

Stationary media users include:

• Desktop Veterans:(13%) Tech-oriented, but in a "year 2004" kind of way. They consume online information and connect with others through traditional means such as email on a high-speed home connection.

• Drifting Surfers: (14%) Have the tools for connectivity, but are relatively infrequent users.

• Information Encumbered:(10%) Spend an average amount of time online, but complain about information overload and need help getting gadgets to work.

• Tech Indifferent:(10%) Have limited online access at home, and while most have cell phones, they bristle at their intrusiveness.

• Off the Network:(14%) Lack the tools for connecting digitally, with neither online access or cell phones."

So which one are you? I think I actually fall somewhere among Digital Collaborators, Ambivalent Networkers and Media Movers, depending on the day or mood.

What can I say, I'm a Libra...I'm allowed to be indecisive!

read my brain waves.

Check out this crazyness regarding advertising and brain waves. Freaky!

back to the future.

IBM released their ‘Next Five In Five’ study today, an in-depth stuffy of the 5 innovations with the potential to change the way we live over the next 5 years.

What really interests me about these 5 is that much of the focus this year is from the ‘bottom up’, as teens seem to have a major impact on the way we communicate and shop, with the unlikely tools of IMs, text messages, and video games leading the way. IBM’s list alludes to the idea that these tools, usually reserved as “playthings” for teens, is affecting the way those years above them do work, and will continue to shift as these young adults begin to enter the work force.

So what are these 5 fine innovations? Check ‘em out:

1. Access to healthcare remotely (and globally)
People with health issues, like heart or kidney problems, will have the ability to be monitored from a distance, allowing them to live their lives with minimum disturbance of doctor’s visits.

2. Mobile phone to act as ‘mind readers’
Phones and PDAs will be able to track people and their locations, as well as food, work, travel, and shopping preferences, creating a preferred ‘presence’ for the user and those in that person’s network.

3. Speech translation will reach ‘real-time’
As the world globalizes faster and faster, differences such as language and accents will no longer become barriers as mobile and PDA technologies allow for real-time language translation.

4. 3-D Internet
Going beyond programs like Second Life, 3-D Internet will allow users to actually walk down the aisles or stores, tap into expertise rarely found in the real world, and change the way we learn and interact with our friends, teachers, and family.

5. Environmental Aid
Nanotechnologoy, with the ability to manipulate atoms and molecules, will be used for water filtration, helping to deal with the worldwide shortage of usable water.

While we’ve seen bits and pieces of these technologies evolving over the past 5 years, it sounds like the next 5 will have some even bigger surprises, and life changes, for us, no matter what the age. It’s an exciting time to be in media, and have the opportunity to engage with these innovations in their early stages, and take the risks of experimenting with how you can use these primarily communication-based innovations to best connect with your consumer.

magazine meltdown.

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) completed a comprehensive review of popular magazines, evaluating the nutritional info presented, and just how accurate they were. Did you know that 42% of those surveyed said that they made diet changes based on the info they found in these magazines? That’s a lofty responsibility those glossys got.

The results? 16 out of the 21 magazines analyzes were rated either ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ sources of nutritional information. Less than 1/4th scored ‘fair’ or ‘poor’. They also found that health magazines targeted men have the worst nutritional coverage, and that the reporting quality in popular magazines on nutrition overall has not improved since 2000.

So who hit their marks?

Excellent - Consumer Reports

Good - Glamour, Ladies’ Home Journal, Shape, Child, Parents, Cooking Light, Fitness, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Self, Health, Runner’s World, Better Homes and Gardens, Prevention

Fair - Men’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan, Muscle and Fitness

Poor - Men's Fitness
(Note: Allow me to quote the report: "We have rarely seen so many myths, misconceptions, and unproven notions in a single article.")

Interesting, especially considering you would think a magazine like Men’s Health dedicated to fitness (I mean, c’mon, it has the word fitness in the TITLE) would have the most reliable information. I know plenty of guys who used to read those magazines like they were fitness bibles, adjusting their workouts and diets accordingly.

It does shock me that Cosmo isn’t listed under poor, considering they tend to focus on sex and fashion more than health and fitness. Even the report called them out on being “grossly unhealthful, nutritionally unbalanced fad diets,” and just not correct.

Magazines have their demos to fill and subscriptions to sell. But, as America gets more and more serious about cracking down on nutritional fluff and reaching the bottom line, it makes you wonder if one day information these mags put out will have to follow some sort of approval process or guideline parameter. After all, fad diets come and go (grapefruit diet, Sugar Busters, Atkins, etc.), so of course no one is ever going to be on the mark, but there may need to be some sort of unofficial guidelines publications follow if they’re going to continue to push the misconceptions that’s keeping America on the fast track to becoming the worlds first obese nation.