This is the eighth report from our upcoming People's Insights Annual Report titled “Now & Next: Future of Engagement”, also available as a Kindle eBook and soon as an interactive iPad app. The report will highlight the ten most important frontiers that will define the future of engagement for marketers, entrepreneurs and changemakers: Crowdfunding, Behavior Change Games, Collaborative Social Innovation, Grassroots Change Movements, Co-creation Communities, Social Curation, Transmedia Storytelling, Collective Intelligence, Social Live Experiences and Collaborative Consumption.
In each of these reports, we start by describing why they are important, how they work, and how brands might benefit from them; we then examine web platforms and brand programs that point to the future (that is already here); then finish by identifying some of the most important features of that future, with our recommendations on how to benefit from them.
Do subscribe to our email newsletter to receive an invite to download a free copy of the interactive iPad app.
Find out more: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/future-of-engagement/
Get the Kindle eBook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D8ZZMDY
2. We are delighted to share that we will be
publishing the People’s Insights Annual
Report titled “Now & Next: Future of
Engagement” as an interactive iPad app. The
report will highlight the ten most important
frontiers that will define the future of
engagement for marketers, entrepreneurs
and change makers: Crowdfunding, Behavior
Change Games, Collaborative Social
Innovation, Grassroots Change Movements,
Co-creation Communities, Social Curation,
Transmedia Storytelling, Collective
Intelligence, Social Live Experiences and the
Sharing Economy.
Throughout 2012, 100+ planners on
MSLGROUP’s Insights Network have been
tracking inspiring web platforms and brand
programs at the intersection of social data,
citizenship, crowdsourcing and storytelling.
Every week, we pick up one project and
curate the conversations around it — on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also
on the broader social web — into a weekly
insights report. Every quarter, we compile
these insights, along with original research
and insights from the MSLGROUP global
network, into the People’s Insights Quarterly
Magazine. Now, we have synthesized the
insights from our year-long endeavor in future
scanning as foresights into the future of
engagement.
We believe, like William Gibson that, “the
future is already here; it’s just not very evenly
distributed.” So, innovative web platforms
in the areas of social data, citizenship,
crowdsourcing and storytelling point towards
interesting possibilities for brand programs
that leverage similar models to engage
people. In turn, the web platforms and brand
programs of today give us clues to the future
of engagement tomorrow.
In our reports on the ten frontiers that will
define the future of engagement, we start by
describing why they are important, how they
work, and how brands might benefit from
them; we then examine web platforms and
brand programs that point to the future
(that is already here); then finish by identifying
some of the most important features of that
future, with our recommendations on how to
benefit from them.
For the next ten weeks, we will publish
these reports one by one, then present them
together, in context, as an interactive iPad app.
Do subscribe to our email newsletter to receive
each report and also an invite to download a
free copy of the interactive iPad app.
People’s Insights Annual Report
3. 3
What is Collective Intelligence?
Organizations synthesize
search, social and
sensor data streams into
insights that guide smarter
actions.
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are anonymizing
and aggregating this data, mining collective
intelligence from it themselves, and also making
it available for third-party applications via robust
APIs.
Web platforms are using data to create reviews
of the most important trends and events in the
previous year (Google Zeitgeist(video), 2012 Year
on Twitter (video), Facebook Year in Review); add
new perspective to important political, sports
and entertainment events (Amazon Election
Heat Map (screenshot), Twitter Political Index,
Facebook America Votes 2012 (video),Twitter
Oscars Index); and even predict potential career
paths (LinkedIn Career Explorer (video)), the
spread of communicable diseases (Google Flu
Trends (video)) and traffic conditions (Google
Maps Traffic (video)).
Collective intelligence involves analyzing the
collective actions and feedback of people,
finding patterns and trends, and sharing it
back to aid understanding and guide action.
Organizations, artists and changemakers are
using collective intelligence to analyze opinions
and behaviors, identify patterns and trends, and
recommend actions or inspire change.
The rise of collective intelligence can be
attributed to three broad trends. First, people
are sharing immense amounts of location-
based, personalized data online, both implicitly
by searching, clicking or buying and explicitly
by creating profiles, posting status updates,
and checking in to locations and events.
Second, people are beginning to use sensor-
based devices to track and share real world
data about our bodies (quantified self) and our
devices, houses, and environments (internet
of things). Third, web platforms like Google,
Source: jodiejaye on Flickr
4. Click to watch: Next Bio
News and entertainment media organizations
are partnering with internet platforms or using
their APIs to use search and social data to
analyze public opinions, predict the outcome of
important events (USA Today/ Twitter Election
Meter, Facebook/ CNN Election Insights, E! Heat
Gauge (video)) or showcase upcoming artists
(MTV Music Meter (video)).
Several web platforms are finding patterns
in user profiles, networks and behaviors to
make better product, movie, book, music and
restaurant recommendations (Amazon, Netflix,
Random House’s Bookscout, Goodreads,
Pandora, Bundle).
Entrepreneurs and changemakers are creating
niche platforms to mine social and search data
to improve traffic conditions (Waze (video)),
optimize energy consumption (Opower (video)),
and aggregate health data to predict outbreak
of diseases (Sickweather (video), Flu Near You
(video), HealthMap (video)) and even explore
effective cures (Patients Like Me (video), NextBio
(video)).
Some collective intelligence initiatives have
achieved significant impact and scale. For
instance, Waze’s community of 36 million drivers
shared 90 million user reports on real time traffic,
accidents, hazards, police, gas prices and map
issues, and Opower has used data from 80 utility
companies to help reduce energy consumption
by 2 billion kilowatt hours and save $234 million
on electricity bills.
The success of such collective intelligence
platforms shows that it’s possible to synthesize
search, social, sensor and self-reported data
from millions of people into meaningful real-
time insights that can guide actions and change
behaviors at scale.
How does Collective Intelligence
work?
Collective intelligence platforms can be
classified across three dimensions: the type
of data, the method of data analysis, and the
possibilities for participation.
Most collective intelligence platforms use
a combination of search, social, sensor and
self-reported data. Recommendation engines
(Amazon) primarily use on-site browsing,
buying and rating data, but are beginning to add
social data. Navigation apps (Waze) primarily
use automatically updated location data from
smartphones, with some self-reported data.
Many behavior change applications (Opower)
use sensor or transaction data from their own
or partner devices, but sometimes add in
social data. Many platforms from media and
entertainment organizations (MTV Music Meter)
use social data sourced from social network APIs.
Platforms that use search, social or sensor data
typically use the public APIs or take a one-time
permission from the user. Platforms that use
self-reported data from specialized communities
often build their own community platforms and
add gamification features to encourage people to
share data regularly (Patients Like Me).
Different collective intelligence platforms
synthesize data in different ways. Some
platforms use algorithms to cluster users and
products based on viewing, buying, or rating
behaviors and show their recommendations
in terms of “users who liked these products also
bought these other products” (Amazon) or “users
who have similar characteristics also behaved in
this way” (Opower). Many platforms plot search,
social, sensor and self-reported data on maps,
based on keywords or metadata, to find shifts in
geographical patterns over time (Sickweather).
Other platforms find patterns in social
conversations through text and link analysis
and connect them back to source or profile
data (Facebook/ CNN Election Insights). Some
platforms allow users to filter through the data
based on time, location, popularity or sentiment
to get to more nuanced insights.
Many collective intelligence platforms have
overlaps with co-creation communities, social
curation platforms, and behavior change games,
and offer similar possibilities for participation.
Crowdsourcing-driven platforms ask users to
create profiles, share answers or ideas, and
engage with other users’ content (Patients
Like Me). Curation-driven platforms ask users
5. 5
Click to watch: Shopycat
Click to watch: Waze
to engage with other users’ content and tag
their own content so that it might be included
(Sickweather). Behavior change driven platforms
compare the users’ behaviors with similar others
and incentivize them to change their behavior
through gamification features (OPower).
Collective Intelligence for Brands
Many organizations and brands are
experimenting with collective intelligence in
meaningful ways.
A number of organizations have created
ideation platforms to crowdsource insights from
employees, partners and customers, and some
have even used these insights to create new
product and service offerings (Dell Ideastorm,
MyStarbucksIdea). Many other organizations
have created long-term public or private
insights communities to get a more nuanced
understanding of consumer behavior, and some
have even shared these insights back with the
community. For instance, Nestle launched the
Happily Healthy Project (video) quiz to help
Australians measure their Happily Healthy
Quotient and compare it to nation and state
averages, filtered by a number of demographic
variables like age, gender and income. Other
organizations have partnered with independent
community platforms to get insights about
specialized high-value communities. For
instance, several pharmaceutical companies have
partnered with Patients Like Me to understand
patient needs and drug performance.
Other organizations have taken the social
curation route to synthesize and share insights
from social conversations around important
events. For instance, KPMG built WEF Live to
curate the conversations around World Economic
Forum and highlight the most important themes
from WEF delegates and WEF watchers from
around the world. During the 2012 London
Olympics, GE tied up with NBC to track Twitter
conversations around the games. Almost
all major brands are trying to use big data,
including search and social data, to understand
and engage with consumers. For instance,
Vicks combined aggregated search data from
Google Flu Trends with demographic data to
target moms in high flu zones with ads for their
premium Flu Thermometer. @WalmartLabs
has analyzed vast amounts of social data (“fast
data”) and combined it with public web data and
proprietary data to create the social genome,
a living database of entities (people, events,
topics, products, locations, organizations) and
their relationships. It is now building a series of
collective intelligence social applications using
the social genome, starting with the social gift
recommendation app Shopycat (video).
Finally, some organizations are building
platforms and products to synthesize and share
insights from sensor data, both in the quantified
self-space and the internet of things space.
For instance, the Nike+ (video) and Adidas
MiCoach (video) range of wearable sensor-
enabled products enable people to track their
workouts, compare themselves with friends
and similar others, and even compete with
others. Audi partnered with MIT to create a Road
Frustration Index (video) based on traffic and
weather conditions, reported accidents and driver
sentiment from social data.
6. Click to watch: MTV Music Meter
Source: mtvmusicmeter.com
Collective Intelligence case studies
Throughout the year, we have tracked the
conversations around a number of behavior
change platforms and branded behavior change
programs in our weekly insights reports and
quarterly magazines; here are a few highlights.
Collective Intelligence program: MTV Music
Meter
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
The algorithm also segregates artists by type, by analyzing where people are talking about them. As
Billboard contributor Glenn Peoples noted:
MTV Music Meter is a platform that ranks artists by
social popularity and helps people discover new music.
Mashable’s Brenna Ehlrich explains how it works:
“MTV worked with music intelligence company
The Echo Nest — which recently partnered with
Island Def Jam — to develop an algorithm that
combs through blogs, social media, video and
more traditional metrics (like radio plays and
sales) to determine which bands are getting the
most attention each day.”
“Where an artist is being talked about influences
the Music Meter list where that artist appears. For
example, indie rock artist Bon Iver showed up on
Music Meter’s mainstream list after winning a
Grammy for best new artist.”
Then, MTV Music Meter provides curated content
about the artists with 30-second song previews
from music partner Rhapsody; articles, bios and
photos from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and the
MTV archive; and tour dates from Songkick.
7. 7
Source: facebook.com
The platform is accessible via the web, iPad,
iPhone and Android. In its first year, MTV Music
Meter generated 1 million downloads.
Collective Intelligence program: CNN I’m
Voting
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
In early 2012, Vicks combined three layers of data
to reach moms in high flu zones with mobile
ads for their premium Behind Ear Thermometer.
Moms only received ads if they were within three
Source: nytimes.com
Analysts acknowledge the potential of the I’m
Voting app to use metrics gathered from surveys
and insights gleaned from conversations, both
to predict trends and to better understand the
views of the masses. Online radio host Tim Berge
noted:
“Currently, about 25-hundred Facebook users
have pledged to vote in November. Of the
participating users, 53 percent said they are
Democrat, while 25 percent are Republican, and
22 percent said they are Independent.
“And, despite what the candidates may be
saying recently in their campaign attacks… most
Facebook users are listing the economy as the
most critical issue.”
Several people have criticized the data collected
from the app, pointing out that it does not truly
represent the view of Americans but of Facebook
and CNN users, the majority of whom are
democratic.
Branded program: Vicks Mobile Ad Campaign
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
CNN partnered with Facebook to create the
I’m Voting app to encourage people to discuss
political issues and pledge to vote, and to
share insights from these conversations in their
coverage of the 2012 presidential elections.
In a press release, CNN shared:
“The app will enable people who use Facebook to
commit to voting and endorse specific candidates
and issues. Commitments to vote will be displayed
on people’s Facebook timeline, news feed, and
real-time ticker…"
Govind, member of the MSLGROUP Insights
Network commented:
“I love the fact that this initiative gets media to
partner people in recognizing and thinking of real
issues, and lets people see that they are not alone.
Also, as this movement grows, political parties get
to see that they need to deliver.”
Meghan McCain, daughter of 2008 presidential
candidate John McCain, blogged:
“In my opinion, It will be really interesting to
see how this Facebook integration influences
conversations surrounding the election among
young voters, and if it will become a platform for
bipartisanship.”
8. Branded program: Nike FuelBand
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
Source: nike.com
In 2012, Nike introduced the Nike FuelBand – a
wearable product that measures people’s daily
activities and workouts in a virtual metric called
NikeFuel. People can view their performance
data on their smart phones and the Nike+ website
and can compare results and NikeFuel earned
with friends and members of the 7 million strong
Nike+ community.
Nike targets the “everyday athlete” with the
FuelBand. As journalist Jessica Stanley observed
“Just Do It’ is one of the best positioning
statements in the world, but customers started to
change. Don’t just say it, help us.”
The FuelBand does this by re-positioning
everyday activities and chores as a sport,
measuring people’s daily activities on web and
mobile dashboard, and rewarding them for
doing more. The concept of instant feedback
immediately appealed to self-trackers, like Jenna
Wortham, who commented
“From the moment I wrapped the band around
my wrist, I was enamored with the idea of a device
that could help me collect data about my habits
and behavior, so that I could try to improve them.”
Ever present on the wrists of the owner, the
FuelBand displays the amount of NikeFuel
earned for the day, and motivates people to meet
their daily goal.
MSLGROUP’s Gaurav Mishra talks about how the
NikeFuel band has helped him become more
active:
miles of a retailer selling the thermometer. On
clicking the ads, moms were shown a video on
the benefits of the thermometer and directed to
the nearest retailer selling the thermometer.
First, Vicks used Google Flu trends to find out
which areas were experiencing high incidences of
flu. Dr. Robert Brecht, a specialist in healthcare
marketing, explained how the raw data was
validated and made accessible:
“Google’s [Flu] Trends is based on a formula to
estimated flu activity based solely on searches.
Google was able to do that by correlating flu-
related Web searches with actual data from
the Center for Disease Control (DCD) (sic). By
combining the search keywords with the IP
address of searchers which provides searchers’
locations, Google is able to estimate regional flu
activity within a day of outbreaks compared to a
week or two lag with CDC reports.”
Second, Vicks reached moms and expecting
moms through mobile apps such as Pandora,
which collect user data including age, gender,
marital status and whether they are parents.
Andrew Adam Newman, a journalist at New York
Times, noted:
“A mobile campaign by Blue Chip Marketing
Worldwide, which is based in Chicago, places the
ads for the thermometer within popular apps like
Pandora that collect basic details about users,
including their sex and whether they are parents,
and can pinpoint specific demographics to receive
ads.”
Third, Vicks used real-time data from location
based mobile advertising network Where to
target moms when they were within 3 miles of
a closest retail store that stocks the Behind Ear
Thermometers.
Michael Johnsen, who covers medical marketing
news, wrote:
“The ad targets users who arguably have a
higher need for the product — a factor that would
presumably increase the purchase intent with that
branded call to action.”
9. 9
We expect that big corporations will acquire
many of these social data startups. For instance,
Twitter acquired TV social data startup BlueFin,
Intuit acquired personal finance startup Mint,
eBay acquired personal recommendation startup
Hunch, and Walmart acquired social commerce
startup Kosmix (now @WalmartLabs). Other
organizations will partner with platforms like
Kaggle or DataKind to run crowdsourced data
challenges.
We also expect that organizations will shift their
focus from collecting and analyzing data to
creating applications that use the data to help
their users get better understanding and make
better decisions. As a result, social curation tools
like MassRelevance, insight community tools
like CommuniSpace and crowdsourcing tools
like BrightIdea will all strengthen their features
around visualizing and showcasing data bask to
the users to guide action.
Finally, we expect that “fast data” will be the next
big thing after “big data”, as organizations seek to
analyze data streams from social conversations,
search queries, sensors, and transactions, find
patterns and actionable insights, and share
it back with users to help them make better
decisions, all in real time.
“I am a big believer in breaking down a large
challenge into small challenges and ticking
them off in public. I remember that the year I
first bought a Nike+ shoe was the year I ran most
regularly. The instant feedback and the sense of
progress were almost addictive. Then, I lost the
sensor, and lost my stride. I bought a NIkeFuel
band a few weeks back and I have seen my activity
levels go up significantly since then. Instead of
taking a taxi, I walk 3+ km to work, both ways,
and I am planning to buy a bike for the weekends.
I even created a goal on Nike Plus to finish 2012
active.”
As Alyson Shontell reflected
“Realizing how inactive I was during certain hours
has made me more active in my spare time.”
The Nike FuelBand is the latest addition to Nike’s
suite of fitness tracking products, all of which
incorporate some elements of games, networks
and data to help people achieve their fitness
goals.
Future of Collective Intelligence
In the near future, we expect more social
platforms like Google, Facebook, Twitter and
LinkedIn to synthesize user data to share insights
that help users get a new understanding of
their own behaviors (how families interact on
Facebook). We also expect social platforms to
create more data-driven applications that help
users make meaningful decisions and change
their behaviors (LinkedIn Career Explorer, Google
Flu Trends).
We also expect the social data space to explode
with new, specialized players. Gnip, Topsy and
DataSift (video) aggregate data from multiple
social platforms, provide applications to
recombine and analyze them, and APIs for third
party developers to build applications on them.
Other data players are focusing on building social
data applications for a specific industry: Dataminr
for financial services, BlueFinLabs (video) and
Second Sync (video) for Television, Next Big
Sound video and The Echo Nest for music, and
ReviewPro for hotels. We also expect other data
startups to focus on sensor data (SensorCloud
(video)) and transaction data (Swipely (video)).
10. People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary
crowdsourcing platform and approach that
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
helps organizations build and nurture public
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white
label communities around four pre-configured
application areas: Expertise Request Network,
Innovation Challenge Network, Research &
Insights Network and Contest & Activation
Network. Our community and gaming features
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and
collaborate to find innovative solutions.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
insights and foresight approach, which consists
of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
specific insights communities, and ethnographic
deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
insights from conversations and communities.
People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing
Innovation & Insights
Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab
11. MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupe's strategic
communications and engagement group,
advisors in all aspects of communication
strategy: from consumer PR to financial
communications, from public affairs to
reputation management and from crisis
communications to event management.
With more than 3,700 people, its offices span
22 countries. Adding affiliates and partners
into the equation, MSLGROUP's reach
increases to 4,000 employees in 83 countries.
Today the largest 'PR and Engagement'
network in Europe, Greater China and India, the
group offers strategic planning and counsel,
insight-guided thinking and big, compelling
ideas – followed by thorough execution.
mslgroup.com | twitter.com/msl_group
Write to us to start a conversation on the future of engagement.:
Pascal Beucler,
SVP & Chief Strategy Officer
(pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com)
Janelle Dixon,
North America Head of Insights
(janelle.dixon@mslgroup.com)
Dominic Payling,
Europe Head of Insights
(dominic.payling@mslgroup.com)
Gaurav Mishra,
Asia Head of Insights
(gaurav.mishra@mslgroup.com)