AVOIDING THE SHIT AND FINDING THE MAGIC @SXSW2017: DAY THREE

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BRAND: PRESUASION IS NOW A THING

SXSW is always full of people pushing their new book with so called "new" ideas. For this reason I went to a talk featuring Robert Cialdini being interviewed by Guy Kawasaki with a fair degree of healthy cynicism.

Robert wrote the seminal book 'The psychology of presuasion' which featured 6 universal principles of social influence: Persuasion

1) Reciprocation - if you do something for someone they feel obligated to do something in return

2) Liking - we say to people we like - like people who are like us - reduce negotiations that are deadlocked by sharing something they have in common

3) Consistency - people want to say yes to things that are related to what they have already said or done e.g. In UK medical appointment - blank card and you write next appointment - commitment

4) Authority - we say yes to people who are experts - channel the voice of expertise

5) Social proof - popular options in restaurants e.g. Apple white pods

6) Scarcity - people want stuff they can have less of e.g. Only 3 per customer

Robert was however talking about his new idea - Presuasion - or rather "The process of arranging for recipients to be sympathetic to a message before they experience it".

He used the example of online furniture store sent half customers to a site that had fluffy clouds background - other half had small coins as background - cloud purchased more comfortable furniture - pennies bought cheaper items.

His idea is predicated that brands need to think about sending people down a psychological shoot this means presuasion accelerates the persuasion message.

The best recent example he shared Was how Trump has been presenting himself as a 'change' candidate - turned camera on the audience and showed himself surrounded by a sea of faces that looked like the people watching (carefully curated) and always showing big crowds and social proof.

Snake oil or genuine neuroscience breakthrough ? To be honest I am not sure but like much you hear and see here it certainly gives food for thought when developing our net campaigns.

TECHNOLOGY: SONY GO ALL IN

Sony have been at SXSW for the last 3 years and their presence has slowly increased as they have more to share. This year was no exception with a hangar like space for the "WOW Factory". The experience certainly lived up to the name with at last 10 different experiential sections to see the future of technology. These varied from items that will be available for retail in the next year to experiments and thought starters from their engineers.

The best example of the former was a projector called the Xperia Touch that also works as a laptop and personal entertainment system - available in Summer 2017 it takes the concept of the World as your UI to a whole new level. With PS4 as their mainstay as you can imagine the gaming section was huge with haptic gaming suits, VR experience and complete surround sound experiences but perhaps the best was a life size box that projected interactive experiences from all round the World as if you really were there.

The future is certainly here and Sony are all over it !

WILDCARD: SAY HELLO TO BENICIO

Last year I went to a fantastic talk by Michael Nieling called "Fuck no, Shit yeh" where he espoused the benefits of a JFDI approach to creativity. This year he was far more reserved but equally as open and enthralling. In the talk "They're going to hate this and think I'm full of shit" he introduced us to Benicio. Benicio is the monkey on his shoulder that creates his Imposter complex that is based on the premise that we are our worst critic. His approach to life is based on the "Charm hustle: principle and that nothing comes from no - something else comes next. The downside of this is that panic doubt anxiety drives him as he does what many of us do which is to over practice, over work and over prepare.

For Michael this meant he ended up having a nervous breakdown and having to re-think his life, something which struck a chord with many in the room. The solution (or cure)? There isn't an easy one - look after yourself and control your own life more and above all have empathy. The key it seems is to know who you are - stick to it - comfortable in your own skin.

See you on Day 4.........

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