nokia thinks the future of media is circular

Influx Insights — 2008-01-10T17:29:51Z

Nokia and the Future Laboratory, have just completed a research study that explored attitudes and developments in the use of technology and media.

They talked to 9,000 consumers in 17 countries. The breakthough finding and brave prediction is the emergence of what Nokia is calling "Circular Media"

"From our research we predict that up to a quarter of the entertainment being consumed in five years will be what we call 'Circular'. The trends we are seeing show us that people will have a genuine desire not only to create and share their own content, but also to remix it, mash it up and pass it on within their peer groups - a form of collaborative social media.

We think it will work something like this; someone shares video footage they shot on their mobile device from a night out with a friend, that friend takes that footage and adds an MP3 file - the soundtrack of the evening - then passes it to another friend. That friend edits the footage by adding some photographs and passes it on to another friend and so on. The content keeps circulating between friends, who may or may not be geographically close, and becomes part of the group's entertainment."

Mark Selby, Vice President, Multimedia, Nokia

It's an interesting theory, the idea that consumers will add and to, interact and participate with media makes complete sense, but the constant addition and participation by members of a friendship group is hard to believe, as is the shelf-life of each piece of content.

This could get easily become boring in a short period of time.

Nokia's report also appears to miss the blending and blurring of user-generated and conventional media; users taking established media content and adding their own spin to that content.

Posted by Ed Cotton

who are your customers?

Influx Insights — 2007-05-11T04:06:44Z

You conduct segmentation studies, focus groups, surveys to try to learn who your customers are. You want to create segments, groupings, tidy little boxes to put them in, but customers are more complicated than you want them to be.

Here is Dave Pollard's nice illustration showing what defines us.

While the closest you might come to undestanding your customer is to have 12 of them in a room for 2 hours. How much can you get to know? Your brand might be simple, but they are complex and their complexity determines the relationship they have with you.

You don't get this from web surveys or profiling.

You don't get the nuances from data.

It's time to get out and spend some quality time with your customers. Go on a trip together, visit their homes, go shopping, drink together, cook together, live together. There are endless possibilities, if you are prepared to make the effort.

Influx Insights Tag Feed: consumers

nokia thinks the future of media is circular

who are your customers?