Influential Marketing Blog

8 Interesting Facts About Sweden And Social Media

As the US continues to struggle with how the healthcare system needs to be reformed, it was interesting to spend a week focused on Sweden in my Global Communications class this week as it presents an interesting opposite. The country has a high degree of nationalized services, which citizens of Sweden pay handsomely for with a tax rate that hovers between 50% and 70% - but for this amount everything from healthcare to long maternity leaves are covered. Coupled with a relatively isolated location in relation to Europe, beautiful geography and a national obsession with the environment, it is no surprise that the country routinely ranks at the top of the list for global quality of life surveys.

Online, the country has made big news recently for being the unauthorized home of illegal file downloads through a site called Pirate Bay. The site has been in legal trouble of late, being found guilty in Swedish courts of copyright infringement. The debate continues in the country, regardless, where there is even a political party dedicated to furthering the ideology of the site in terms of open copyright free access to content.

From our class blog this week and discussions in class, the team shared several more interesting learnings and topics about Sweden. Here are some highlights:

1. Social media is not about ego. It is easy to get the sense by looking at the rise of social media in the US and many other countries that it is all about ego. People publishing content in order to get their moments of "internet fame" and focused on getting others to link to their content or retweet their best sayings. In Sweden, most reports point to the central emotion in the culture being more reserved and less about promoting the self. This manifests itself through social media in subtle ways, from limiting the active use of review and ratings sites to reducing the number of individual Swedes who create a large profile and personal brand for themselves through social media.
2. Language is not much of a barrier. The language of choice for many Swedish resources was English, and in those cases where there were Swedish language sites, the translations were usually one click away and quite strong. The other implication of this is that unlike some other cultures, global sites such as Facebook also have a strong and growing local appeal here.
3. The country of Sweden is well branded online. The first thing you are likely to find when researching Sweden online is the extremely useful official government portal site - www.sweden.se. The site features everything you would ever want to know about the country, includes frequently updated content from blogs and social media, has a easy to use interface and presents what may be one of the strongest country branded official portals any nation has put online.
4. Environmental friendliness is a way of life. Everywhere you turn, you can see evidence of Sweden's progressive attitudes toward the environment. Their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released 16 ambitious objectives that are meant to guide the country toward a sustainable environment within one generation.
5. Fashion is a hot topic in social media. There are several blogs devoted to covering fashion in Sweden, driven by a few big events such as Fashion Week in Stockholm in late January and early February. 
6. Children are protected from marketers. Sweden has a reputation as one of the most aggressive countries when it comes to banning advertising to children under the age of 12. TV ads during prime time are banned to this age group and the country has been active in encouraging other European countries to follow their example. This first gained attention in 2001 when Sweden had ascended to the European Union Presidency for their 6 month rotating term. They are due to begin their next term on July 1st of this year, just a few days from now ... so this may come up again as a core issue.
7. Texting is for amateurs. The sophistication of how many Swedes are using their mobile phones is vastly beyond what many in the US may consider active mobile phone usage. Texting is only one small element of what you can do with a mobile phone in Sweden. More interesting is that you can pay for your groceries, submit your taxes and stream broadband content effortlessly - without losing a signal.
8. Research, innovation, technology and creativity drive the economy. The country has a long history of research and innovation, including a status as the #1 biotech industry in Europe per capita and a focus on mobile technology and design innovation. This combination recently propelled the country onto the Entrepreneur magazine list of top 5 "Global Tech Hot Spots" along with Singapore, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Switzerland. Anyone else spot a pattern?

Reading List Of Sources:

• The Official Gateway To Sweden (useful government sponsored site) - http://www.sweden.se
• Ruling against file sharing's impact on Swedish Internet usage - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/04/sweden-pirate-bay-filesharing-internet  
• Interesting list of Swedish facts from an American perspective - http://cva.stanford.edu/people/davidbbs/swedish_facts.html
• Good blog about all things Swedish - http://www.thelocal.se/blog/ 
• On Swedish Business Blog - http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/onswedishbusiness/
• Web pioneer to be

  Sweden

  's next

  US

  Ambassador - http://www.thelocal.se/20176/20090620/
• Swedish Pirate Party - http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25602990-5014239,00.html
• Article on

  Sweden

  's Culture of Creativity - http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/79254314.html

• Sweden

  Sustainability Blog - http://sweden.se/eng/Home/Work-live/Sustainability/blog-about-sustainability/
• Why

  Sweden

  Is One of the Top 5 Tech Countries - http://www.entrepreneur.com/technology/newsandtrends/article180678.html
• Perceptions of political marketing in

  Sweden

  - http://eprints.otago.ac.nz/263/
• Interesting stats on kids and internet usage in

  Sweden

  - http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work-live/Facts/CHILDREN-IN-SWEDEN-Growing-up-in-Sweden/

• Sweden

  's 16 environmental objectives - http://www.naturvardsverket.se/sv/Nedre-meny/Webbokhandeln/ISBN/1200/978-91-620-1266-3
• SymbioCity: Environmentally friendly development in

  Sweden

  - http://symbiocity.se/?pageId=1
• Swedish Delegation for Sustainable Cities - http://www.hallbarastader.gov.se/Bazment/hallbarastader/sv/in-english.aspx

Signs Of Hope For The Transparent Future Of The FDA

Several weeks ago, what some might consider the most unlikely government agency to embrace social media decided to launch a blog. The FDA Transparency Blog was aimed at bringing a level of transparency to an agency that its own leader FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg recently described as a "black box that makes important decisions without explaining them." Central to this effort for transparency was the creation of a "task force" of individuals that would examine the inner workings of the agency and provide recommendations on how to make it more transparent by the end of this year (2009).

To do this, they have posed 6 big questions:

1. How can the agency better explain its operations, activities, processes and decision making?
2. What specific information should FDA provide about agency operations, activities, processes, and decision making, including enforcement actions, product approvals, recalls and other actions?
3. What tools, techniques, processes, or other mechanisms should FDA use to be more effective in providing useful and understandable information?
4. What, if any, legislative or regulatory changes are needed to improve FDA's ability to provide useful and understandable information to the public?
5. As FDA becomes more transparent, what information should remain confidential in order to promote key internal and external policy goals, such as preserving patient privacy, and how, in these cases, should FDA explain the importance of confidentiality?
6. What metrics should FDA use to gauge the effectiveness of its transparency efforts?

Yesterday, this task force had their first public meeting to start to gather input to answer these questions. The meeting was open to any member of the public, and was live webcast over the Internet as well. I watched some (not all) of the proceedings to prepare for this post. The topics in conversation ranged from how the FDA should release information to ideas on how to improve their website by segmenting it into very defined consumer and industry focused areas.

As you might expect, several of the participants on the speaking roster had a very definite bone to pick with the FDA. From an irate ousted doctor to several underappreciated public interest groups - many of the 5 minute panel segments seemed less constructive then therapeutic ... helping individuals who have felt silenced for too long to have a stage to share their emotions.

Yet this combination of the passionate neglected with the involved optimists was part of the beauty of the entire meeting. Ultimately, in my opinion there were three key factors that made this meeting a big success for the FDA:

1. Asking big questions. If you look at the questions copied earlier in this post, you'll agree that none have overnight solutions. They are tackling big issues at a big agency during a big time of change in the healthcare world instead of taking the easier and more traditional government entity approach of implementing smaller more watered down initiatives.
2. Listening without getting defensive. The variety of opinions shared in the public meeting and through comments on their blog is wide, however they are demonstrating a willingness to listen that many are unaccustomed to receiving from the FDA. Most importantly, they heard the criticisms from yesterday (for the most part) without feeling the need to get defensive or justify things they are currently doing.
3. Demonstrating a desire for help. On more than one occasion during the session members of the task force asked for opinions, guidance and help from those presenting. It was a telling moment that will likely do more than anything to reduce the perception of the FDA as a closed organization. If they can effectively use all these partners willing to help and create stronger ties with their immediate community - they will leap ahead in terms of becoming more open.

The first step in transparency is a willingness to stand in front of your detractors, listen to their problems, and show your commitment to improving. The day after this first public forum meeting, it is tough not to feel the palpable sense of hope that anyone who watched or listened should feel about the future of the FDA. As the world continues to evolve thanks to social media, virtual relationships and real time communication at least one government agency seems determined not to be left behind. And if the FDA can do it, any organization can.

This post was originally posted on the 360 Digital Influence blog.

Why Google & Virgin America's Online Scavenger Hunt Campaign Rocked

Early this morning Google Apps partnered with Virgin America to launch a unique campaign where they invited people taking Virgin America flights all day, as well as those sitting on computers at home or work to participate in an online scavenger hunt for clues to answer questions they would pose at you on a website called "Day In The Clouds." The scavenger hunt offered questions requiring you to use many different Google apps and online tools to find the answers, and integrated with Virgin America both for some questions as well as by offering free WiFi to any passenger on one of their flights today.

The campaign generated lots of positive word of mouth for the brands and though it is just coming to a close a few hours from now so the numbers haven't been reported yet, it will likely boost both brands and work strategically to promote what each of them wanted to: Google Apps and the cloud architecture from Google's side, and the ready availability of WiFi on all flights for Virgin America. Going beyond, here are ten quick lessons that you can take from this engaging campaign on what they know about marketing that is fun and engaging that many brands forget.

1. Built on their core products/services. The level of integration so that users had to use many of Google's tools to find the answer to questions and learn about Virgin America's planes, technology and flight schedules as well as how to use the Internet on flights was brilliant. It was done in a way that no other competing brand could have done.
2. Designed for simplicity without compromising. The site was easy to use and great looking at the same time. For every marketing person who has sat in a meeting and listened to a designer argue that it is impossible to do both, just send them the URL for this site.
3. Forged the right partnership. The choice of these two brands together worked perfectly to add to the popularity of the scavenger hunt. Both have high goodwill among their fans and drew a tech-savvy audience to participate.
4. Integrated the brand without being overbearing. The brands were definitely integrated in the questions without making every question about something boring and branded. The light hearted approach worked in this case, because people know clearly that they are on a branded site, and we should realize value of that - but don't necessarily need to shove it into a user's face at every turn.
5. Engaged through fun and competition while educating. The engagement on this campaign was high because the content was great. The format was fun and competition as built into this in a way that made people want to engage and do even better. There were even tweets from flights encouraging plane-mates to do better to beat a competing plane.
6. Created a sense of urgency. The timer counting down to zero as well as the choice to make this only a one day long promotion all added to the sense of urgency for this campaign. It also meant that even on an LA to SF flight (like the one Virgin America took media on in the morning) the time would be enough to complete the quiz.
7. Offered a real challenge. Like most puzzle and game related marketing that Google has done (including their smart Da Vinci Code promotion), they don't tend to dumb the solutions down or make it easy. As a result, they keep people engaged and have them try harder.
8. Involved the right ambassadors. In the morning, there was a media flight that several high-influence tech bloggers including Ben Par from Mashable and Beth Blecherman from Techmamas were on where they played the game and participated in the start of the campaign. These early ambassadors posted about it and drove more interest and traffic to the site throughout the day.
9. Made it shareable. Once you complete the hunt, you get your score and you have the opportunity to share it immediately (which I did) through Twitter and Facebook. It might have been smart for them to have prefilled text that didn't share a score too (in case someone was embarrased by their score and didn't want to broadcast it), but either way this final step meant that people could share via Twitter or Facebook, and also follow the campaign's Twitter account for updates.
10. Had real and tangible prizes. The last smart move the team putting this promotion together did was going beyond recognition and bragging rights. Those are nice, but the winners with the highest scores will get tangible prizes and that is a big motivator to continue to participate even if you may be in it and not want to finish.

Disclaimer: Virgin America is a current client of Ogilvy PR (my employer) and I have consulted on social media efforts for them in the past. I personally did not work on this campaign, however, and am not being compensated or incentivized in any way to write this post. It is my personal opinion of their campaign and nothing more.

How Social Media Could Have Saved FlyClear

This is the sad story of a company that died. Actually, it's more of a question of how it could have been saved. I'm talking about the now defunct FlyClear service run by a company called Verified Identity Pass that launched in nearly 20 airports across the country with a paid service that promised a way to avoid the travel lines at security with a dedicated "VIP" line. The reasons for their demise are relatively easy to understand ... as the number of travellers has reduced, the lines too have reduced and fewer people are seeing the value of paying $99 or more per year to access these special lanes.

Unfortunately for me and about 250,000 others who already signed up and paid for the service, we are now officially out of luck and left with many questions about the service. Will something take it's place? Will we manage to get any of our money back? What will they do with our profile data (including in most cases retinal images and fingerprints)? As a marketer, though, my first thought is about how preventable this seemed to be. After all, the people who had the service loved it. And as soon as travel from major airports started to recover (which is fairly inevitable), the security lines and hassle will again drive more people to consider joining.

So how could social media have saved FlyClear? Here are a few ideas:

1. Collect real life stories. One of the truths about the travel industry is that just about everyone has a negative story to tell. FlyClear was one company that could have benefited from this conversation, because their entire mission was to make the process of travel easier. If they did collect stories of the negative (and the positive stories of customers who had good experiences because of FlyClear), social media would have been ideal to capture them and prove the necessity for FlyClear.
2. Create an army of blog ambassadors. I was only one among many other bloggers who loved the service and blogged about how great we felt it was. Guy Kawasaki agreed, and even tweeted today about its demise echoing what many card holders felt when he said "Clear has shut down http://www.flyclear.com/ I just want to cry. I loved that service..." What if they had reached out to bloggers like myself and Guy and any others that had blogged about the service and brought us together to tell their story and drive members more than just offering us a "refer-a-friend" discount code? My bet is Guy would have jumped on it, and I probably would have too.
3. Leverage Twitter for secret offers and promotion. FlyClear did have a Twitter account that is now taken down, so it is tough to go back and see what they did or didn't do with it, but it would have been the ideal platform to run membership drives, share updates on travel delays and answer customers and potential customers directly.
4. Extend memberships through social media. The nice thing about the business model for FlyClear is that it scaled well ... ie, the more members they had, the better they could do. The problem they had was that they never hit that critical mass. To try and get it, they did offer free memberships to members of hotel frequent flier programs, but they could have done it more actively through their existing members - such as letting them extend free memberships to some friends, and then sell those friends extensions.
5. Launch a last ditch effort. Part of conversation about FlyClear's demise was how sudden it seemed. Surely they would have known about this financial trouble before today - and assuming they did, they could have taken any number of steps to try and get the people who loved the service to help make sure it would stay around. Some might have renewed, while others may have more actively gone out to their networks.

Like many of the FlyClear fans, I was sorry to hear it's gone and will definitely miss the convenience. The worst part is, I would bet that as soon as travel volume (and airport crowds) pick back up again, the other people who might have signed up will be sorry its gone.

8 Interesting Things About Marketing & Social Media In Russia

This week is the first of six straight weeks where a class I am teaching on Global Communications at Georgetown University will be focused on a particular region of the world. This week's region is Russia and they have just completed one blog post each about what they learned on the region. As part of the course, I will be producing a summary of some of their insights each Sunday, as well as share what our class was reading throughout the week. Below is a list of some of the most intriguing social media insights about Russia that the class uncovered this week:

1. Russian social networks are huge, but insular. There are two large social networks in Russia that the vast majority of Internet users belong to - Odnoklassniki.ru and Facebook-clone Vkontakte.ru. These networks are almost wholly in Russian and present an important, but insular, form of social networking between Russian speakers - but also prevent the rise of more global players like Facebook or MySpace who are each setting their sites on expansion in Russia.
2. Yandex is a Google-killer (so far). Russia is one of the few countries besides China (with Baidu) that has a dominant local search engine that trounces Google, and given the Russian sense of pride in this achievement, it shows few signs of changing anytime soon ... even despite Google co-founder Sergeiy Brin's Russian background.
3. Moscow area accounts for over 70% of Internet usage in Russia. The majority of Russia is largely rural and sparsely located, particularly when it comes to Internet usage. The implications of this for social media marketing programs is that it may be reasonable to have a real life element to a program if the majority of people are in relatively close proximity to one another.
4. Twitter isn't redefining social media in Russia. Social networking is still the king of social media in Russia, followed by blogging. When it comes to Twitter, the site has been hampered in its growth due to difficulty users have with the comparatively long Russian alphabet and fitting meaningful dialogue into 140 characters. Come to think of it, we have that problem in English too ...
5. Mobile adoption is huge ... and mobile marketing is on the rise. Though mobile penetration by some accounts is even more than one per person (a strangely confusing stat), there is no doubt that mobile messaging is the communication of choice for the country's youth. Marketing through this channel, though, is growing but has not yet reached full maturity.
6. Russia is much more than one market. Several sources of marketing reading looking at the entire country pointed out that what works in Moscow won't in Siberia. From ethnicities, to languages, to cultures, the nuances of Russia create a challenging communications environment.
7. Russia's President has a video blog. Currently on LiveJournal (interesting platform choice), the leader of Russia does have a video blog and tends to keep it relatively up to date. It's an interesting irony as the government is still notoriously sensitive to criticism, yet it does signal an acceptance from the Kremlin that these tools are important and can have a global impact.
8. Rise of aspirational Russian advertising. For many years, advertising in Russia was of necessity and simply relayed information to people on where to buy something. In recent times, this has shifted to advertising that actively sells and promotes - and is mostly aspirational.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

• Overview Of Russia Industry/Marketing - http://www.repiev.ru/articles/glimps_en.htm
• Overview of social media in Russia - http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2009/03/russia-the-fourth-largest-social-networking-market-in-europe/
• Good Marketing Blog with Russian Examples - http://www.dlutskiy.com/eblog/eblog.html
• Top consumer trends in Russia: http://www.euromonitor.com/Top_10_consumer_trends_in_Russia
• Useful list of social media resources in Russia - http://hem-social-media.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-networks-blogging-platforms-in.html
• Global Voices page for Russian focused blogs - http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/eastern-central-europe/russia/
• Wired Article on Russian President's Video Blog - http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/kremlin-20-russian-prez-discovers-social-media/
• Interview with Andrew Paulson on Russian Social Media - http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2008/09/interview-with.html
• Gmail Russian Launch Case Study - http://www.culture-buzz.com/blog/Google-Russia-Learn-how-Gmail-Works-1574.html
• Russian President's Video Blog - http://community.livejournal.com/blog_medvedev
• Overview of Wireless Broadband in Russia - http://www.slideshare.net/eldaniz/market-overview-for-wireless-broadband-access
• Overview of Mobile Marketing in Russia - http://www.mmaglobal.com/articles/mobile-marketing-russia
• Case Study of Ben & Jerry's Russia Launch - http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=30376
• CNN Video Report on Russia - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/05/19/eor.barnett.rising.internet.cnn?iref=videosearch
• Techcrunch Article on Russia - http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/27/russia-rising-in-internet-population/
• CNN iReport on Russia - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/ireports/2009/05/19/irpt.for.cnn.b.5.16.cnn?iref=videosearch (starts at 3:50)

Everything I Need To Know I Learned From ... Advertising?

When I arrived last night in Myrtle Beach, I didn't really know very much about this place, aside from my destination hotel where I'm staying. A mere half hour later I knew many things, including the fact that they have the World's Biggest Laser Light Show here and that selling beach homes and condo properties is a big deal here. I didn't get these facts from asking someone or reading a book - I learned them by reading the advertising along the way.

In just about any destination around the world, the advertising you can find there is much more than just sales messages plastered on billboards. It offers a cultural compass of the place you have just entered. it helps you navigate the area by sharing examples of places to go, brands that are popular and experiences that people there typically consume. While in Athens, I noticed many of the TV ads there were for all sorts of hair removal products (for men and women). In LA the ads are often for TV programs and movies.

This impact of advertising is not just about places and billaboards. One of my favourite techniques to get to understand a new world that I know nothing about is to pick up a magazine targeted to people with that passion or in that place. For example, I may not know anything about fishing - but after I pick up a copy of Salt Water Sportsman Magazine, I can learn the popular brands of fishing rods, the dream destinations that salt water fisherman want to go to, and some proper fishing techniques.

This is also why I love Time Out Travel Guides - because they present advertising alongside the travel advice in the book. Many people complain about the ubiquitous advertising they see around them and about being "targeted" and treated like, well, consumers. Maybe it's just me and my biases as a marketer, but there is a side of advertising that is chronicling our culture and that of others around us as it is, whether we like it or not.  When I'm in a new place or learning something new, I'm actually myself grateful for it.

Trendspot: HoloCam Marketing

Earlier this week, the USPS created an engaging tool on their site called the "Virtual Box Simulator." It is relatively simple to use - you print out an icon and when you visit their site and launch their tool, the icon is recognized through your webcam and what seems like a holographic version of a shipping box appears. Since the webcam is pointed at you, the box appears in your hands as you hold the piece of paper, and lets you move it around in any direction as if it were real. 

Several months ago, a similarly engaging effort was launched by GE to promote their wind powered energy solutions. That site allowed you to also hold up a piece of paper to unlock a virtual simulation of their wind power and interact with it. What both of these efforts point to is the potential rise of HoloCam Marketing, a new form of interactive marketing using the ubiquitous webcam and a clever piece of programming to create the appearance of a three dimensional hologram that you can interact with.

DEFINITION - HoloCam Marketing could be defined as the process of using a webcam, programming and a printed image together to create the impression of a hologram on a user's computer screen.

What makes this new form of marketing work so well?

1. It is inherently talkable. Once you experience this, you can't help but share it with someone else. It is like finding a hidden component in your computer that you never knew about.
2. It uses technology you already have. With a regular computer with a short install and a webcam, anyone can see this image. There is no big technical barrier, which takes it out of the "geek" realm and into the world of real people.
3. It is experiential. Rather than relaying a message through printed words or even just imagery, this technique lets you actually see and experience something, which brings the message to life.
4. It peaks your curiosity. To some degree, you may get a user likely to do this simply to see what kind of holographic interactivity is hidden behind the printed page that you ask them to print out. It is a mystery and we can't help but solve it.

4 Reasons Facebook Won Big Last Night

In case you were under a rock last night or away from the computer (which is unfortunately the same thing for many people) - what you missed what an online event that is now being called the "Facebook Landgrab." On Friday evening (or sometimes Saturday depending on where you were) - Facebook invited every user of the site to claim their own "vanity URL." These custom URLs could be your name, any part of your name or some other term - and would replace the long string of numbers that used to be your profile URL on Facebook.

Today, the day after, the praise for Facebook is almost universal for how they conducted this. Why was it such a successful rollout? Here are a few reasons:

1. The process seemed fair and logical. From the beginning, Facebook let every user know about the timetable at the same time. They limited the offering to people who had their accounts for some time, and they took the right measures to prevent cybersquatting by requiring Pages to have more than 1000 fans.
2. The site didn't crash. This was the subject of significant speculation among the "Twitterati" as they wondered whether the crushing load of so many people logging on at the same time to choose a username would crash the site. It began to feel like an impending web crisis of Y2K levels ... and just like back in 2000, the hour arrived and passed without incident. When compared to the notoriously unreliable Twitter and even the unfallible Google that went down for a few hours for "some users" back in May - Facebook's tech team passed the test last night with flying colors.
3. Getting a profile is talkable. Satisfying the biggest criteria for a successful word of mouth marketing effort, Facebook realized that anyone getting a new profile name on Facebook was inherently talkable ... you just couldn't help telling everyone else that you know about your brand new shiny username.
4. Inspiring people to reappraise Facebook. There were more than a dozen people I saw in my Twitter stream who commented on how getting a new profile name offered a reason for them to return to Facebook and use it again. In the process, they rediscovered new friends, new applications and other parts of the Facebook experience that caused them to return to the site and potentially use it more frequently.

Do you agree that this was a big win for Facebook or do you have a different point of view?

PS - My brand new Facebook URL is http://www.facebook.com/rohitbhargava - connect with me!

The Course I Always Wanted To Teach

Photo Credit: saikofish (Lou)
Do you remember ever sitting in a class and thinking to yourself that if you were teaching, you'd do it completely differently? Most of us can probably relate to some version of this experience, though we usually don't get the chance to do it our own way. Starting this week, I'm getting this chance by leading a Masters level summer course at Georgetown University in the Center for Social Impact on Global Communications.

The format of the class is loosely based on the format for the TV show, The Apprentice (though thankfully, no one gets fired!). So each week we'll have a real client project with two teams competing to create the best strategy. The winner is decided by the client. To add a wrinkle, we're not just doing US-based projects either. Next week the class will get a project for a client in Russia, and after that they will tackle client projects in Sweden, South Africa, China, India, and Brazil - before the entire class heads to London for the last week of the class in early August.

Along the way, I've chosen to include a few real world elements in the course such as making most of the reading assignments based on the web and real time sources, requiring each student to do a blog post on the topic of the week (and choosing the best post each week), running each week like a typical RFP (Request For Proposal) response situation and creating a grading system that incorporates the way that presentations and efforts of this sort are typically judged in the real world.

It's going to be an interesting experiment over the next few weeks as the class unfolds. In case you're interested, you can check out the class blog at http://globalcc.wordpress.com to see what the group of students comes up with each week, and add your comments and thoughts. As I say in my first post, the blog will be very much like a typhoon - lots of activity for a short amount of time, followed by relative calm. Also, the class is using a service called GroupTweet to all contribute tweets to the group account @globalcc - so you can follow us to see our updates as a class throughout the summer and from London as well.

5 Ways Gaming May Transform The Future Of Healthcare & Wellness

Since the Nintendo Wii came out several years ago, the term "gaming" has begun to take on a different meaning. What was once used as a misunderstood term to describe teenagers wasting hours afterschool playing online games requiring huge and powerful computers with tattoo art on the sides has broadened. Now gaming describes everything from the massively addictive multiplayer games, to a new form of journalism, to the 45 year old woman playing a "microgame" on her mobile phone while waiting for the bus. Recent stats from the E3 conference offers research that may be surprising to some, including one data point that 25% of all gamers are over the age of 50.

Yet, despite the broadening perception of what gaming means - one area that is most interesting for marketers is also an area that is often ignored ... the market for "serious games." Serious games could be a variety of things, from educational games to help teach a new skill, to healthcare oriented games designed to aide therapy or test new prosthetic devices. Today is also the opening day of an innovative conference called Games For Health put on by the Serious Games Initiative and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In its fifth year, the event is featuring lots of interesting discussions in over 70 sessions. The event will showcase what I believe may be the 5 core ways that gaming could transform almost every aspect of healthcare and wellness as we see it today. In no particular order, these are:

1. ExerGaming - The Wii has done more for this category of gaming than any other, but this is simply the idea that gaming can be a powerful motivator in helping people to get more fit or incorporate more exercise into their schedule. The WiiFit has been a big hit in enabling this activity among Americans. The conference will also feature a case study from the US Army on their own exergaming effort called Army Fit.

2. AdverGaming - On the marketing side, advergaming has been around for some time now ... but it starting to make some waves when it comes to healthcare marketing. At least one prominent healthcare blogger believes it may be the future of healthcare marketing, and there are several examples such as Pepcid's current Nighttime Word Burn game on WebMD or a highly addictive game for Miraplex, a treatment for Restless Leg Syndrome that was released several years ago but is no longer online. (Disc. - Boehringer Ingelheim is a client of Ogilvy PR) Today Humana also announced a well concieved effort called Humana Games for Health which is seeking new game concepts to motivate people to be more active and healthy and is running a paid contest for ideas from today through September. Humana's effort is an interesting crossover that could move into one of the other categories such at TheraGaming relatively easily as well.

3. TherapyGaming - A natural fit for gaming has been in the area of visual therapy and improving cognitive abilities, as well as real physical therapy. There are several sites such as SharpBrains and Lumosity that offer gaming as a way to improve your intelligence and potentially treat learning disorders as well. To some degree, this is also the type of gaming that has been around for many years before the Internet, with flash cards and other forms of real life games that provide therapy to help patients heal or improve ability. Ben's Game is a video game designed to help kids fight cancer and the Wii is finding another use here as a tool to help physical therapy which the USAToday dubbed "Wiihabilitation."

4. CauseGaming - Sitting at the intersection of healthcare, behaviour change and cause marketing is an unique effort from The Partnership For An HIV-Free Generation and Warner Brothers called Pamoja Mtaani. The game is an interactive effort designed to educate children in Africa of the dangers of HIV in an engaging way. Another brilliant example I first heard about several months ago is Akoha, described as "the world's first social reality game." There will likely be many more examples in coming months of games that take a cause related approach to inspiring behaviour change in a health context.

5. SimulationGaming - There are several interesting examples of what you might consider a crossover between simulated training exercises and gaming. Though it may be a stretch, I'm including these in this list because it's a potentially big area where gaming can have an impact in methods and knowledge building when it comes to dealing with certain situations. The conference will be featuring an interesting case study of Burn Center, a "medically-accurate simulation of mass-scale casualty burn treatment." Another older example is the now defunct SIMHealth: National Healthcare Simulation.