Morbid curiosity | Ulterior Concepts

Category Archives: Morbid curiosity

March 7, 2013 · 11:32 am

Big Data #5

Big data is fueled by an army of secret agents.

Everything you click on, hover over, buy, sell, or view is now being tracked by 1000s of companies. Your presence on social media is also being tracked and analyzed. The reason – your data feeds the online ad industry which clocks in at $30 billion + per year.

All this tracking is invisible. Like ghosts in the machine, a silent army of cookies, trackers, sensors, beacons, and widgets is recording your doings across the web. To see who they are, download apps like Ghostery or DoNotTrackMe. And for a guided tour, attend the short lecture below:

Shock & Awe

Guerrilla marketing is not new. But it remains an incredibly effective way to captivate consumers.

Check out the dance riot created for T-Mobile in Liverpool station in 2009 (click here). Or look below at the guerrilla campaign for TNT Network in Belgium. In both cases, marketers inserted gripping theatrical drama (brand content) into the humdrum venues of daily living. Then all hell breaks loose.

The result – hundreds of people stop in their tracks, establish an indelible memory of the brand/concept and then share it with all their friends. Eventually it goes viral thanks to Facebook and YouTube sharing.

Moral of the story – in this age of viral media, well executed guerrilla marketing can engage consumers and drive brand registration like never before.