1. Agency site – made in YouTube – BooneOakley.com – Clever. http://ow.ly/altG

2. Top 10 Trendplanner tweets – May 2009. http://ow.ly/al1z

3. Google: Expect 18 Android Phones by Year’s End – Am sure some will be great but problem is they wont be called ‘iphone’! http://ow.ly/akF6

4. Consumer Psychologist: How Cool Are You? The 5 factor cool test… http://ow.ly/akEw

5. The Living Book: The book written entirely in QR codes. #qr #mobile #marketing #advertising http://ow.ly/cM0m

6. 5 Digital Music Trends. Things are changing whether the record companies like it or not! http://ow.ly/akEf

7. Red Bull gives you wings – Paper wings that is. Red bull paper wings weltfinale. http://ow.ly/an4w

8. 10 trendspotting tips in 10 minutes. nice slideshow from @jon_howard http://ow.ly/aCuI

9. Do you really want your TV ads to make your audience mad? http://ow.ly/e7xr

10. Top 10 Augmented Reality Adveritising Campaigns so far. #ar #tech http://ow.ly/dsHv

Psychology has always played a part in marketing and advertising, after all you require an understanding of the human/consumer mind in marketing and psychology is the study of exactly that. Marketing Agency Neurosence aim to truly combine the two.

An ever growing and major field in Psychology is Neuroscience, which in this day an age often involves using brain scanning techniques to understand human behaviour. Neurosence make use of these techniques in the aim of providing greater insight into the consumer mind.

Neurosense claim that their techniques enable them to obtain real feedback on the consumer mind, that they can tap into the unconscious processes behind human decisions and behaviour. This is controversial for many reasons:

• There is still great debate in the psychological community to what we can information we can really obtain from brain imaging. Just because we can what part of the brain is activated by certain behaviour does not necessarily mean we actually understand this behaviour.

• On the other hand  if the technology does reach a certain level, there are potential moral issues involved, total understanding could result in total influence.

I definitely believe that psychology is a vital part of marketing and advertising, neuroscience included, there will be times the findings can be transferred but there will also be times when they cannot. Furthermore, I don’t think we will ever gain a total understanding of human behaviour, we will of gain a much better insight, but I these insights alone are not suffient, they needed to be backed up by creative ideas that you won’t find in a brain scan.

So E4 teen drama ‘Skins’ is back. For those that don’t know Skins is a UK drama that follows the lives of a group of teens living in Bristol. Now in it’s third season, it’s back with a new group of characters.

Like the series that proceeded it the third season is a triumph in nearly every aspect. Unfortunately that missing aspect is the programme itself!

The problem (or genius is you like) with skins is that they have turned the art of programme making on its head. Conventionally the process (and list of importance) is; write the script, find a cast, create the programme, create the advert, market the programme. What they seem to have done with skins is have a truly brilliant marketing campaign, but then seemly forget to actually create a good programme.

The real problem is that this works! People watch the programme, people talk about it, they might think its awful but they still watch it and they talk about it even more.

The marketing campaign is truly impressive. The ads are edgy and exciting and leave you wanting more, on the other hand the programme lacks edge and drags along. As with any good campaign there’s a lot more than TV ads, you’ve got competitions, sponsored gigs, and some great digital content spanning mini sites, virals , and social networking profiles. Of course this all runs along way before the first programme is aired gaining the series a set of hardcore fans that won’t miss an episode before they’ve even seen it!

All this fits nicely with Psychologist Cialdini’s principles of influence, specifically that of consistency. People desire to appear consistent in their actions and will often go to great lengths to remain so. If before viewing someone decides they like the programme, tells people they do verbally or perhaps by signing up online, they will be inclined to try and appear to retain this view whatever the content of the programme.

If you’ve not seen it, just watch this great video above, don’t ruin it by watching the show.

The ‘Take the Test’ virals showed us how we don’t always see what is right in front of us, now here’s a nice demonstration of how we see more than is actually in front of us. Have a look at the centre of the image, you should experience some illusory motion.

Both remind us that what we see is determined by our brains, not our eyes. Our eyes may send the information, but the brain has to make sense of it. Often the rules the brain uses don’t apply to all situations and we get illusions or errors.

No brain is the same, and it’s worth baring in mind in regards to ads, websites, etc, that no-one else will see them exactly as you do.

Source: Mind Hacks

Psychologists in China are pushing for Internet Addiction to become classified as a disease. Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) symptoms include staying online for more than six hours a day, instead of working or studying, and having adverse reactions from not being able to get online.

Many people will already fit this criteria, and in the not too distant future the majority of people in this country might. More and more people are spending time online while they watch television, many more are using the interent when ever they are away from their computer via their mobile and even through items such as their alarm clocks. It won’t be long before the internet is everywhere we go, and is constantly running in the background of our lives. Being such a vital part of our lives people are going to have adverse reactions when they can’t access the internet.

For example if your car is connected to the internet for secure access, for route information, for traffic information, to tell you who needs picking up today, to tell the people at your destination that you’re on your way, etc, you’re not going to be very happy if you can’t get online!

I’m not saying that there aren’t people who have an actual problem that is affecting their lives, just that they need to be very careful and pay very serious consideration to future possibilities when defining this disorder.

Source: Guardian