PEOPLES INSIGHTS MONTHLY BRIEF: JANUARY & FEBRUARY

Photo: Wonderlane

Inspiring Innovations

Introduction
As we welcome 2015 and with it possibilities for a new era of marketing
communications, a few questions become more relevant today than ever
before:

What is the next big idea that can redefine brand-consumer

interaction?

How can businesses create more lasting value for their consumers?

Why should brands and corporations focus their energies on being more
socially relevant with their businesses?

With increasing interconnectedness and shrinking global boundaries, its an

exciting time for businesses to evolve and innovate.
In this issue of the Peoples Insights monthly brief, we look at 10 inspiring
innovations in the space of Mobile, Citizenship and Personalization.
Reaching the Evolving Mobile Audience
While active presence on the web is high on every brands communication
agenda, an increasing number of companies are now waking up to the next
big platform of advertising mobile.
Making brand communication mobile-friendly has become essential in order
to reach the tech-savvy, on-the-go and very busy consumer of today.
Photo: Ed Yourdon on Flickr

Here are five companies that are tapping the mobile and app market
cleverly:
1. Under Armour - Sports apparel giant Under Armour acquires apps in
the health and fitness market, giving it an enviable edge of being in
the possession of large amounts of relevant data from its target
audience.
2. SAPs TwoGo - With its carpooling app for working professionals, SAP
takes a strategic step towards more meaningful relations with its
customers.
3. Bellabeat - There are more pregnancy-related apps in use today than
from any other category. Launching aesthetically pleasing pregnancy
monitoring products with mobile apps, Bellabeat aims to redefine
prenatal care.
4. UberChopper - A case study in reputation rebuilding as international
car service company Uber launches chopper services via its app in its
city of shame, New Delhi.
5. Snapchats Literally Cant Even - This young app, with its innovative
original video series on the mobile, sets the ball rolling for newer
ways of content marketing.
Despite all its benefits, the mobile, due to its association with the selfie
stick the gadget of the hour is currently in trouble with museums across
the USA. An increasing number of museums are banning the use of selfie
sticks in their premises. Will this move affect visitor footfall?

Doing Good
It isnt enough today to talk to audiences about your brand; they want their
brands to be more than the products and services they represent.
Millennials, especially, demand sustainable and responsible growth from
organizations.
In the Peoples Insights report The Future of Business Citizenship, we found
that 83% of the 8,000 Millennials surveyed expect businesses to be at the
forefront in addressing social issues and being active agents of social change.
72% of them want businesses to place as much importance on their social
impact as on internal profits.
Here are three examples of organizations that are going beyond traditional
CSR to make a bigger impact.
1. Carlsbergs Green Beer Bottles Beverage giant Carlsberg ups its
green quotient with its plans to create a fully biodegradable woodfibre bottle for its beverages, moving towards a circular economy.
2. The UAE Governments Drones Project The UAE Government
establishes itself as a thought leader with its Drones For Good Award
an initiative to change the perception of drones and find more positive
use cases, by inviting ideas from across the world.
3. United Nations and Their 805 Million Names The UNs World Food
Programme gets its message across with its thought-provoking new
campaign the 805 Million Names Project. A well-executed and
innovative collaboration with soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovi makes it
one of the WFPs most buzz-creating campaigns.

Photo: Intel Free Press on Flickr

Making Customization a Priority

Not every consumer is alike; needs, expectations and attitudes differ from
one consumer to the next. More and more brands are customizing services to
meet individual requirements:
1. Health information in Googles search results - With medical
information so freely available on the Internet, self-diagnosis and selfmedication is a rising trend. To help people diagnose themselves
better and take the necessary treatment measures, Google plans to
introduce superior, more accurate and customized medical
information in its search results.
2. Workspring by Marriott White-cubicled offices are not the norm
anymore. New-age workspaces with cutting-edge designs are what
Millennials desire, and Marriott with its customized workspace
Workspring caters to this new and powerful workforce.
Let us know what you think at @PeoplesLab on Twitter. We look forward to
your feedback and comments, and hope you enjoy this issue.
Nidhi Makhija-Chimnani
Director Research and Insights, MSLGROUP
Melanie Joe
Consultant Research and Insights, MSLGROUP
Photo: Alan on Flickr

Inside

Under Armours Tech Acquisitions

TwoGo by SAP

10

Bellabeat

13

#UberChopper

15

Snapchats Literally Cant Even Series

17

US Museums Ban the Selfie Stick

19

Carlsbergs Green Fiber Bottle

21

Drones for Good

23

World Food Programmes 805 Million Names Project

26

Google adds Health Knowledge to Search Results

29

Marriotts Workspring

31

Under Armours Tech Acquisitions

#MobileHealth
Sports apparel giant Under Armour
has been on an acquisition spree
buying three Health and Fitness
communities in the past two
years.
In November 2013, Under Armour
acquired Texas-based app
MapMyFitness. Now with the
acquisitions of Copenhagen-based
connected fitness firm Endomondo
and San Francisco-based
MyFitnessPal, the athletic apparel
company has established itself as
the player with the worlds largest
digital health and fitness
community.

The three apps individually have

been growing exponentially.
Combined, they grew 46% in 2014
and added 100,000 users per day,
bringing it a total of 40 million
members for the year.

What do these numbers mean for Under Armour and its acquisitions of these
successful companies?
Valuable Data to shape its Business Strategy
These apps and their websites thrive on real-time data making them a
combined repository of big chunks of data from Under Armours prime target
audience athletes, coaches and fitness enthusiasts. Analysis of this data can
enable the brand to create customized offerings for its audience.
This plays to Under Armours favour as it looks to transform the way athletes
train, perform and live.
What This Means for the Competition
Under Armour may not be the sole player in the booming fitness apps market,
and it isnt the first sports apparel brand to invest in apps or wearables. But
with its acquisition of the three major fitness communities all with their
established user base and data - it has a significant advantage over its
competition.
Nike has invested heavily in its own family of fitness apps and achieved quite
some scale: the Nike+ community is 30 million strong, and individual apps
like Nike Soccer are available in 46 counties and 19 languages.
Women's apparel giant Tory Burch tied up with Fitbit to create its own line of
bracelets that fit over Fitbit devices. The North Face has two very popular
apps in the sporting category Mountain Athletics and Snow Report.

Such apps will only flourish in the future at present, about 50% of mobile health
related data traffic comes from personal fitness apps.
At a time when marketers are experimenting with connected devices to innovate
and enhance user experience, Under Armours strategic acquisitions are welltimed.

How effective are gamified fitness apps? Read here

Click here to read more about the growing popularity of mobile health and fitness
apps

TwoGo By Sap

#MobileCarpooling
Carpooling also known as ridesharing, car-sharing and lift-sharing
is a World War II practice from the
United States that has become
widely popular across the globe.
While carpooling has been around
for a while, the number of websites
and mobile apps offering ways to
search for and book ride-sharing
options have risen in the past
couple of years.
The latest in the market is the
TwoGo app by SAP. Available as an
app as well as on a website, its an
interesting consumer-focused move
from an otherwise enterprisecentric corporation.

Photo: TwoGo

Learn how TwoGo works here

Several corporations register with carpool services for the benefit of their
employees. At present, there are dozens of carpooling apps on Android and iOS.
Why Carpooling ?
A Green Practice
Carpooling is highly fuel-efficient fuel-wise, 85 million gallons are saved yearly
by carpooling - and co-workers sharing a ride eliminates the need of a parking
space for every employee, thus leading to a more efficient utilization of land.
This also directly translates to a lesser carbon footprint for the organization,
promoting growing through sustainable practices.
Conducive to Employee Productivity
While carpooling has been known to be fuel and cost-efficient, it also provides
opportunities for increasing employee productivity through better internal
communication.
Co-workers who carpool together get that much more time to get acquainted
with each other. This communication outside of the workplace can lead to them
being more receptive to each other, which can result in a better exchange of
ideas while working as a team.

Read here why carpooling is good for the environment

Photo: TwoGo

Bellabeat

#MobileNursing
The market of health and fitness apps is
huge, and pregnancy-related apps are
one of the most popular categories.
On average, 47% of subscribers using
one or more health apps use a
pregnancy-related app.
Bellabeat entered the market with a
fetal monitor. In 2014, Bellabeat
unveiled its cutting-edge collection of
three new products for expecting
women.
Called Balance, Leaf and Shell,
Bellabeats new products are aimed at
making pregnancy and motherhood a
trackable journey.
Balance is a smart scale, Leaf is a smart
health tracker and Shell is a smart
pregnancy and baby monitor.

Photos: Bellabeat

All three products are connected to corresponding apps which monitor the
activity of the wearable/useable products.
There are similar pregnancy-related apps in the market, though none with an
interactive app-and-product feature like Bellabeat.
What makes Bellabeat unique is their aesthetic quality both with the app as
well as the products. The products have been designed to look chic and
appealing. So much so that one of the products the Leaf monitor can be
worn as a bracelet, necklace or brooch.
Bellabeats strategy is a good example in how seemingly techie products
like health monitoring devices can be made more appealing to consumers
by
(a) engaging them with the product (interactive apps)
(b) implementing innovative product design

Pregnancy guide apps for the dads. Click here to know more

Photo: anuncios mexico on Flickr

#UberChopper

#UberChopper
As a brand, international car
service company Uber is known to
be innovative in its communication
efforts, and it has been pushing
the boundaries with each
campaign.
Teaming up with EuroCopter, Uber
provided chopper services for
couples on Valentines Day, in New
Delhi, India. This comes on the tail
of its hugely successful chopper
service to the Hamptons in the
U.S.
Though a first in New Delhi, Uber
had similar services in Mumbai
and Bengaluru over Fathers Day in
2014.

Read Ubers announcement of the

offering here

Click here for the promo video

The US-based taxi service has been in the news recently for the alleged
misconduct with a female passenger in New Delhi.
The brands new offering, in the wake of this incident might seem like a
gamble, but it seems to be working in Ubers favour. Consumers (men and
women) are beginning to welcome back the brand:

Banned on the roads, Uber has taken to the skies in New Delhi to win its
consumers back, and its a bold move that may help repair its reputation.
Itll be interesting to watch how this affects the brands long-term image
with old as well as potential consumers.

Snapchats Literally Cant Even Series

#SnapchatDiscover
Consumer attention spans are getting
shorter and shorter, and Snapchats
latest venture into video content drives
home this very point.
Called Literally Cant Even, the social
networking sites new original web
series is a part of Snapchat Discover a
digital property set up for creative
content promotion.
What makes it unique is the length of
each episode (4 and a half minutes) and
that they self-delete 24 hours after
their release.
The scripted show, written by and
starring Sasha Spielberg and Emily
Goldwyn, daughters of legendary
filmmakers Steven Spielberg and John
Goldwyn, follows the lives of the two
protagonists around Los Angeles.

Click here for a how-to on Snapchat

Discover

Only two episodes into its release, the series is already a topic of discussion.
While reviews range from applause to disappointment, Snapchat seems to be
confident in its content marketing venture.
Most of the active Snapchat community is made up of teenagers and women,
and the brand is targeting their content directly to them. Its split-screen
presentation, meanwhile, is an unprecedented step in mobile content
marketing, giving it an almost pioneer status.
Negative reviews notwithstanding, this attempt at in-house content creation
is a smart step by Snapchat, making it future competition for bigwigs like
Hulu, Netflix and Amazon.
2015 will see several apps revolutionizing content marketing, and Snapchat
seems to have set it in motion.

Click here to know more how major organizations are changing their approach
to Snapchat

Read reviews for Literally Cant Even, or click here for a video review

Photo: Maurizio Pesce on Flickr

US Museums Ban the Selfie Stick

#MuseumSelfies
The list of dos and donts have a latest
addition in the museums of the USA No
Selfie Sticks.
An increasing number of museums
across the country are banning the
ever-present photography aid that
consumers have taken a particular liking
to.
While photography (including selfies) is
encouraged in these museums, its the
use of the selfie stick that has museum
management worried.
As users of the selfie stick wave around
their phones with gusto, its the
potential damage to exhibits that
museums fear.
Im worried about visitor safety and
protecting our art, says Sree
Srinivasan, Chief Digital Officer at the
Met.

How selfie became the Word of the

Year in 2013. Read here

With good reason too in January 2015 alone, the camera equipment
company iStabilizer claims to have sold over 15,000 selfie sticks. And thats a
conservative figure considering the number of companies who sell this
accessory worldwide. The actual figure could be closer to hundreds of
thousands.
Waving goodbye to free word-of-mouth?
While visitor and exhibit safety is a valid concern, it raises one question are
museums saying no to instant and free advertising, as people upload their
selfies to their social networks?
Selfies have taken over popular culture, and equipment that lets people take
clearer and more defined selfies is here to stay.
It rings true especially for museums as more and more tourists carry selfie
sticks to capture their moments at tourist attractions. Selfies tend to spill
over to multiple platforms. A quick search on Instagram shows more than 200
million photographs with the #selfie hashtag.
With the reach of user-generated content today, the selfie has the potential
to be a free advertising tool with a lot of power. Such voluntary endorsement
by people carries more value for the general public.
Instead, a middle-ground that lets visitors use their selfie sticks with some
boundaries could be advantageous for museums in the long run.

Read here about how brands on Facebook are using selfies as a marketing tool

Read Why Millennials Take Selfies

Photo: Floris Oosterveld on Flickr

Carlsbergs Green Fiber Bottle

#SustainableInnovation
Carlsberg, as a participant on Wasteless
Supply at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, announced that it will be
developing the first ever fully
biodegradable bottle for its beverages.
Partnering with packaging specialists
ecoXpac, Innovation Fund Denmark and
the Technical University of Denmark,
Carlsberg hopes to bring the product to
the market in the next three years.
This is a significant step for the
company towards a commitment to
sustainable development.
Called the Green Fiber Bottle, it is
proposed to be made from sustainably
sourced wood-fiber.

Click here to learn about Carlsbergs

Circular Community

One of the largest brewery groups in the

world with 500 beer brands to its name,
it makes sense for Carlsberg to adopt a
greener production technique.
Especially since packaging accounts for
45% of the groups CO2 emissions,
according to its annual report.
Moving towards a circular economy is a
trend thats picking up amongst
corporations. In addition to contributing
to a more eco-friendly economy,
sustainable innovation also helps in
gaining consumer trust and loyalty in
the long run.
If Carlsbergs Green Fiber Bottle proves
successful, it has the potential to
become the next economically viable
trend that could change the FMCG
industry.

Photo: 8#X on Flickr

Drones For Good

#DronesForGood
Since their invention, drones have been
associated with warfare, espionage and
other undercover military operations.
People the common man and those in
the government alike have been wary
of drones.
While drones, also known as Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are most used in
combat today, they also have the
potential for making human lives less
complex and more efficient.
Theres a need to bring about a shift in
the current perception about drones.
And thats what the UAE Government
attempted to do with its Drones For
Good Award.

Launched in October 2014, The UAE Drones For Good Award was a contest
run by the UAE Government, calling innovators to submit working prototypes
of drones that could be developed into fully functional systems within the
next three years.
This social innovation campaign initiated by the UAE Government aims to
raise awareness about the positive benefits of this cutting-edge technology,
and to collaborate with the brightest minds for groundbreaking innovation.
We want to reach to people before they reach us. We want to save time, to
shorten distances, to increase effectiveness and to make services easier.,
said Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime
Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai while launching the award.

Participation was open to International and National audiences and those

employed with the UAE Government. With a prize money of US $1 million
and AED 1 million (for the National participants), the contest saw
participation from across the globe.
The winners from each of the categories were announced on February 8 th,
2015 at the final event.

Read more about the Drones For Good Award here

Click here to view the winners

The mention of drones usually raises red flags concerns about privacy and
safety of civilians and governments. Theres no denying though that these
machines in the sky will become a common sight in the coming years.
According to one estimate, there could be as many as 30,000 drones (small
and big) in the American airspace by 2020.
Drones can be used to provide real-time aid to areas affected by
international crisis. It can also benefit daily human lives in unprecedented
ways.
E-commerce giant Amazon, for example, is looking into ways to use drones
for quicker deliveries to customers an astounding 30 minutes from placing
the order!

This initiative by the UAE Government is noteworthy for its effort at

rebuilding the image of drones in the public mind. More awareness of the
good these machines are capable of can lead to more minds coming together
to facilitate that good.
The Drones for Good Awards is seen as a social and scientific initiative for the
larger benefit of humanity - a step that positions the UAE Government as a
supporter of tech innovation.

See: Zephyr the drone that broke records for the longest high-altitude flight

Click here for an infographic on the future of drone delivery

See how farmers are using drones for agriculture here

View the full infographic: The Big

Business of Consumer Drones by Jabil

WFPs 805 Million Names Project

#805MillionNames
805 million people are suffering from
hunger today. Make sure the world
knows.
With a call-to-action like that, the
United Nations World Food Programme
(WFP) strikes the right chord in its
brilliant new 805 Million Names Project.
Partnering with soccer star Zlatan
Ibrahimovi, striker for Paris-SaintGermaine and captain of the Swedish
national team, the WFP unveiled the
campaign during a match Ibrahimovi
was a part of, which also happened to
be on Valentines Day.
Whats made the campaign stand out is
the advertising medium Ibrahimovis
body which was tattooed with 50 names
a symbolical representative of the
estimated 805 million people affected
by hunger globally. And his Twitter
account which is followed by 2.47
million people.

Photo: World Food Programme website

Watch WFPs video about the campaign

While advertising on human bodies

what came to be known as
skinvertising is not new, the scale on
which this has been executed has the
potential to create a lasting impact.

Ibrahimovi revealed the temporary

tattoos on his body to a wave of
applause from the audience. With the
fan base he has, his endorsement of the
cause will not go unnoticed.
Each one of the 805 million people
suffering from hunger in the world has
a name, a voice, a story to share, says
Marina Catena, WFP Director for France
and the Principality of Monaco.
Zlatan accepted the challenge and
wished to carry their stories on his own
skin so that the world does not forget
them.

Read Japans version of skinvertising

- advertising on womens thighs, here

Meet the people whove been branded

for life with body advertising. Read
more here

With this campaign, the WFP hopes to

highlight the work it has been doing in
crisis-affected regions of the world, and
also encourage more people to join the
fight against hunger.

The campaign does not end with the

tattoos though. Ibrahimovi, on his
Twitter account, posted a photograph of
the shoe hell be wearing for his next
match, with 805 Million Names
engraved on it. He has received an
outpouring of positive response from his
fans on the social networking site.
Such innovative approaches to reaching
people are essential for organizations
that typically struggle for a share of
attention on the common mans several
screens.

For an interesting look at how

unconventional modes of advertising
have been used, click here

Google Adds Health Knowledge to Search Results

#EvolutionofSearch
The data shows it more and
more, people are going online to
learn about their health, sickness,
symptoms, treatments and so on.
1 in 20 searches on Google are
related to health - thats about 175
million searches on health every
day.
Its easy to understand why its
quick, convenient and cheaper
than visiting the doctor, and there
are millions of web pages offering
answers.
The trend is continuing, but raises
worries about the quality of
information people are using to
self-diagnose and self-treat.

See: Are you a Google

hypochondriac?

To address this problem, Google will

soon offer higher quality information
about symptoms and treatment
alongside search results.
This information will be vetted by its
own doctors and doctors from
MayoClinic, and will be accompanied by
illustrations commission from licensed
medical illustrators. A disclaimer
reminds people to consult doctors for
advice.
Its an interesting move, and pits
Google against the likes of search giant
Wikipedia and medical website WebMD.

Photos: Search Engine Land blog

Read Googles blog post announcement

here

For more about Googles knowledge

graph efforts, click here or watch a
video

Marriotts Workspring

#InspiredWorkspace
A day at the office today looks a whole
lot different than it did decades ago. As
professional lives see shifts from the
mundane to the more interesting,
workspaces arent left behind.
As the trend is veering towards
alternative workspaces, cubicles are
being replaced by more innovative
designs.
Catching up to the need for workspaces
that offer more flexibility, Marriott
Hotels & Resorts, the signature brand of
Marriott International, has introduced
Workspring - a new-age meeting space
for small and large business groups as
well as individuals.

Watch a video about Workspring

Collaborating with workspace design expert Steelcase, Marriott provides

integrated spaces and common areas in Workspring. With features like
ergonomic seating, natural light and individual as well as community spaces,
the aim is to create a work environment thats highly conducive to creative
productivity.
A combined survey by WIRED and Marriott Hotels & Resorts says that 48% of
the people they polled feel they are more productive when they work
remotely, while others felt they have unmet needs when working remotely.

The New-Age Workspace

The survey results clearly show that more and more people are embracing
the working-without-boundaries style, and expect workspaces that facilitate
a transformation in how they meet, collaborate and innovate. This holds true
especially for Millennials, who come with a different set of work ethics than
previous generations.
The demand for the inspired workspace will continue to rise, and Marriotts
offering with Workspring couldnt have come at a better time. Adapting
workspaces that have the potential to lead to better employee productivity
and wellness is a priority corporations need to make.

Have a look at the 12 coolest offices in the world, here

See: What Millennials Want in a Workspace here

Photo: Marriott website

Peoples Insights The Voice of SPRINT

Peoples Insights is a collection of inspiring initiatives, insights and foresights
shared by MSLGROUPs SPRINTers our global team of 100+ strategic
planners, researchers and insights experts.
Peoples Insights covers the latest trends in engagement on both consumer
and corporate sides.
We feature the best of these initiatives as Peoples Insights monthly briefs,
and original insights and foresights from our SPRINTers and other MSLGROUP
experts - in our Peoples Insights reports. We share these on our social
platforms and distribute freely to inspire more engaging campaigns.
Check out our latest report, The Future of Creativity:15 drivers for engaging
creatively in 2015.
*
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Follow us on Twitter at @PeoplesLab or subscribe to our newsletter to receive
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Peoples Lab
Peoples Lab is MSLGROUPs proprietary crowdsourcing platform and
approach that helps organizations tap into peoples insights for innovation,
storytelling and change.
Peoples Lab helps organizations build and nurture public or private, web or
mobile, hosted or white label communities around four pre-configured
application areas:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Expertise Request Network

Innovation Challenge Network
Research & Insights Network
Contest & Activation Network

Our community and gaming features encourage people to share rich content,
vote/ comment on other peoples content and collaborate to find innovative
solutions.
Peoples Lab forms the core of our insights and foresight approach, which
consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUPs own
insight communities, client specific insights communities, and ethnographic
deep dives into these communities. The Peoples Insights reports showcase
our capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing insights from conversations and
communities.

Thank You!

For more, visit: peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights