Grown Up Thinking

Today the world waits as reports are rolling in that Egypt has put a lock down on Internet and SMS, creating a blackout that has prevented internet traffic from entering or exiting the country as of 12:30am.

The unprecedented move was made by the Egyptian government in an effort to silence voices of dissent against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, just hours before a new series of major protests were planned. Before the blackout, Egyptian activists were utilizing hashtags such as #Jan25 to communicate.

As we’ve seen in Iran and Tunisia previously, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are key communication tools used by political protesters to organize large-scale gatherings and rallies. By blocking these sites, the regime has stripped its people of something much more important than a tweet or a status update—the fundamental right of equal access to knowledge and ideas.

Speaking on the importance of social media, President Obama stated, “There are certain core values that we believe as Americans are universal: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, people being able to use social networking and other mechanisms to communicate their concerns; and that is no less true in the Arab world than it is in the United States”.

While we cannot predict the ultimate political and cultural significance of the outage, our thoughts are with the people of Egypt today.

Everywhere you look, media properties are looking to bring individuals into the coverage of what will certainly be a historic moment in US history. Just as Obama himself has represented the rapid changes from a one-way communication to an open two-way dialogue through his creative use of Facebook, YouTube, blogs and a variety of social technology, the inauguration itself will serve as a showcase for how new technology has changed the way we create and consume media.

From Twittering with Current while watching the live event to CNN’s partnership with Facebook that will allow views to watch and comment together by updating their Facebook statuses, savvy networks have caught on to the new consumers’ desire to experience events together and be heard. January the 20th and CNN’s ireporters coverage go beyond the main event itself and seek to capture and broadcast personal accounts from individuals leading up to and during this historic moment by making it easy to submit their reactions and observations easily via e-mail, phone, video and twitter. Perhaps most impressive will be CNN’s The Moment, where they are asking everyone attending the event to take a picture the moment Obama gets sworn in and e-mail it to themoment@cnn.com. CNN will then take all those pictures and post a 3D image of the entire scene, with all the pictures combines via Microsoft’s Photosynch technology, within hours.

While such a transformational momemt in history certainly accelerates this desire to share and come together, what we are witnessing is a mere preview of what the mindset of Consumer 2.0 will demand from all media and information they consumer. Millenials have grown up with e-mail, IM, texting and social technologies. They will continue to expect instant gratification, dialogue and a digital soapbox to speak from.

While this unprecendented election and now innaugaration has showcased many of these new technologies, you can’t help but wonder how long it could be till the Super Bowl, gameshows, sitcoms and even commercials latch on to the new mindset and find ways to crowdsource content and create deeper communities around their properties. While 2009 looks to be a slow year for the economy, it certainly will not be in the evolution of media and communications.

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has already showcased the power of social media and other innovative means of communication; examples not only to other politicians, but best practices for marketers as well. Obama’s brand has been built on inclusiveness, openness and one of building true passionate communities. These are some of the very same pillars we repeatedly stress to our clients on how to speak to this new generation of consumers who have grown up in a world where communication lines have been thrown wide open.

Now, Obama’s presidency seeks to redefine the communication between the President and the nation. Obama has already set up a website with a blog to update citizens on what they are working on as well as areas where people can submit their own stories and feedback to the President. Obama just recently announced that he will be giving a weekly address on YouTube as he seeks to contiue to destroy communication barriers and get people further involved in their government.

While the political ramifications of this alone are significant, imagine what this presidency will do to consumer expectations from brands. Brands are all ready rapidly finding out that word now quickly travels; both good and bad, and that fewer secrets are able to be kept with consumers. Once the nation sees a President able to share and reach out for ideas and feedback, they will demand the same from all brands.

So, much has been said about Joe Six-Pack and the newly famous Joe the Plumber but convenient store chain 7-11 actually conceived of an ingenious promotion to use Joe to predict the election. In this case, a cup of joe. The idea is quite simple, 7-11 created red coffee cups with McCain’s name on them and blue cups with Obama’s. They then track the cups that their customers are selecting on a nationwide map on their 7-Election.com web site, which even allows consumers to view results by state. Even more remarkable, the results of this poll were within 1% of actual results in 2000 and identical to final results of the 2004 election. Guess Joe really does play a big role in this year’s election.

Twitter has teamed up with Current TV  to allow viewers of the presidential and vice presidential debates to Tweet  their opinions and have them appear live onscreen, giving the TV audience unprecedented access to commenting on the nation’s political discourse.
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