Four of Arena's young guns currently partaking in the Squared programme, a collaboration between Google, Hyper Island, and the IPA.

The Squared programme brought together 85 young people from London’s media and creative agencies. Some had yet to start in their position, others had been working for almost two years and set us upon a 12-week course. The mission statement for the course was to ‘empower the next generation of leaders to power the industry [r]evolution’. Whilst this statement manages to toe the fine line between soulless corporate speak and the dead-eyed utterances of lost boys as they sign up to a cult, the mantra is simple – Google brings the digital nous to the table, leading workshops in analytics, data visualisation and management, coding; whilst Hyper Island provides personal development workshops – how to give and receive feedback, how to build productive teams, and how to grow as an individual in the workplace.

Now, the cynics at this point may scoff. Five step plans and ‘reflection’ workshops fall under the remit of your crazy Aunt in her Maxi-dress from Oxfam and her penchant for Class-C drugs, right? Wrong. These Hyper Island-led workshops provided the foundation for three team-based projects completed over the course of six weeks, and without them I expect it would have seemed like an audition for the next series of the Apprentice. The following points were our key take-outs from our time on the programme:

• Take the time to reflect on what happened in a task/project/work situation and how incidents and people made you feel;
• Share it. Feedback to individuals, be it positive or negative. The two musts are that it is constructive and that you own it – ‘I think’ rather than ‘We err kind of all think’;
• Take risks. Learn from failing. If you ask people on their deathbeds what their greatest regret is, it is unsurprisingly not that they lived life too close on the edge and always seemed in mortal peril, but that they didn’t take enough risks. Have balls and go for it;
• This is the slowest pace of change you will ever experience. Fact. And the device you’re reading this on will be the worst piece of tech-kit you ever own henceforth. (Unless you get pissed, lose your phone, and have to get a phone from a vending machine at Victoria station).

As a foundation on which to build a career, regardless of industry, this course was an incredible way to really, yes I’m going to say it, look at yourself and think what it is you want to be. Richard Eyre, former Chief Exec of ITV, spoke passionately about success being whatever you define it as. So kick back at your desk now and think about what you want from your job, from life, and do it. Then, in whatever you do, build a bed of openness and trust which allows you to talk honestly to teammates about how you’re feeling, what you appreciate about them, and what you think it’d be good for them to have a think about. Then, take a few risks. Why not take one now? For the hardcore amongst you, look at something dreadfully smutty on your work computer. For the fainter hearted whose risk taking skills need to be honed, why not go and write a new Facebook status when you’re supposed to be looking at that spreadsheet. We all have to start somewhere.

As all keen Ebay-ers know the last thing you want to do when selling an item is stifle interest. It is a fine line between setting your reserve price too low and risk being caught short and setting it too high and driving away interest. But this appears to be exactly what Evening Standard have done in their most recent e-auction of their Olympic inventory. 

The Evening Standard this week is running an e-auction for advertising slots including cover wraps and other types of advertising opportunities over the course of the Olympic Games, in the hope of increasing commercial revenues over that time. Although the auction is not yet over as we write this the auction hasn’t attracted a single bid (according to Media Week).

The reserve price (which was also the minimum bid), on much of the inventory offered by the Evening Standard, was within the range usually paid by media buyers. So it seems to us that the media buyers would have little interest to get involved in the auction if they think they would be able to obtain it at that price in a usual transaction.

Think about it, if you buy a pound of strawberries every week for £5 would you enter an auction for a pound of strawberries that starts at £4.90… Probably not.

By ‘Anchoring’ their inventory against a price media buyers normally pay, the Evening Standard appears to have shot themselves in the foot as they have failed to drum up any interest. I have a sneaking suspicion that a financial controller at the Evening Standard would’ve wanted some sort of guarantee of income, although I think they could’ve come up with a smarter way of doing it like having no minimum bid but with a reserve price tucked away in the small print somewhere.

The Evening Standard will probably get higher than usual rates for their Olympic inventory, as media buyers realise this is premium inventory. This is because  the population of London is predicted to double during the Olympics and their circulation will most likely shoot up along with interest in the stories it generates.

However, we feel they have badly misjudged the way in which auctions and bidders think and behave.

Social Media has substantially revolutionised the way we communicate and interact globally, as well as the way we fulfil our social needs.

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist that proposed a theory in 1943, called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. He used the terms Physiological, Safety, Belonging, Esteem and Self-Realization to describe which motivations are more important to us and to what extent. The more fundamental and basic needs are at the bottom of the hierarchy. The following infographic shows how we can relate the most popular Social Media platforms to Maslow’s social needs.

Writing a blog lets your creativity flow freely and helps you expand your ideas throughout the internet. That’s why blog platforms such as Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr appear at the top of Maslow’s pyramid, in the Self-Realization area.

Twitter appears at the Esteem level, as a confidence and self-esteem booster. Because Facebook and Google+ are important parts of building relationships and being in contact with friends and family, they are classified as the social need to Belong. Finally, LinkedIn is associated with Safety, as a professional Social Network.

70 years later, Maslow pyramid continues to generate new understandings of how human behaviour and needs connect towards self-realisation. But… does this infographic represent your experience of how social networks fulfil your social needs?

…but don’t worry, it’s a well known psychological effect known as ‘illusory superiority’.
We sent an anonymous survey round to Arena Media employees, asking: “Compared to your fellow employees, how intelligent are you?”

The results revealed the following:

• 49% ranked themselves as having either ‘above average’ or ‘well above average’ intelligence;
• 43% ranked themselves as having ‘average’ intelligence;
• 8% ranked themselves as having either ‘below average’ or ‘well below average’ intelligence.

Obviously, these results can’t be right. The intelligence has to be spread evenly around the average (or ‘normally distributed’ for those of you who are mathematically inclined.) The explanation for this is slightly confusing, so follow the next part carefully…

It was found that the ability to estimate another’s IQ is proportional to one’s own IQ. So…

• People with lower IQs are less able to judge the intelligence of others and overestimate their own IQ;
• While people with higher IQs are more able to judge others and thus are able to estimate their own position on the scale more accurately.

The phenomenon ‘illusionary superiority’ also explains why 93% of Americans think they are better than average drivers.

Thanks to the internet (in particular social media), literally anything can now ‘trend’. Currently (24th April 2012 @ 2pm) Russell Brand is ensuring that his address he is giving the Home Affairs Select Committee is making the social media sphere. Who’d have thought it… Perhaps ITV can take advantage with a new Syco political debating talent contest.

So with Easter out the way, consumer’s eyes now look forward to what the summer holds. In fact there are 2 events coming which should have an effect on how consumers behave.

Firstly, the Euros. A footie tournament that captures the public’s interest right up until the point England get knocked out (usually about halfway through the 3 week tournament). The effects past Euros and World Cups had on our clients show us that it usually defers purchase behaviour, although the net effects (i.e.: will it generate or supress overall sales in a year) is typically nil.

And so onto the Olympics…

Whilst on paper this is over 3 weeks as well, the action (the start of the Athletics) doesn’t really hot up until the end of week 2. This means the Olympic effect is likely to be slower burn until Usain Bolt makes his first appearance on 4^th August. Remember: it will be over only 8 days after this date.

Our view

We believe that the Olympics will have a similar deferring effect as seen in major football tournaments. In fact, the politicians will be jumping on the post-event effect as ‘proof’ that the Olympics has bought the feel good factor back to Britain and this translates into better business. Not so we say…

The big difference however, is that the action will distract consumers at certain times of the day. The action will also typically be focussed towards the afternoon / evenings, and there will be lots of it (unlike 90mins of football), so for e-commerce clients, the mornings will become particularly important for ‘getting business in’.

Dayparting strategies will be the key way of coping with disrupted consumer demand. In particular digital marketeers will need to be on top of their game to ensure they can change strategies swiftly during the Olympics and ensure they are able to meet this changing behaviour. (Think search bid strategies, display weighting, and even messaging.)

And finally, whilst the post Olympic factor might be billed as George Osbourne’s white charger, remember that the net effect to most businesses may actually be a zero sum game, but you’ll only know if you do your sums in the right way.

Saying that, consumer confidence is the bit that needs fixing, so bring on the summer.

Tomorrow (Saturday 31st March) Google breaks a new TV campaign to drive usage of its Google+ service.

Whilst most of the UK have yet to discover Google+, the search giant already claim 100m global users, and brands like Cadburys have also generated 700m ‘Likes’ in only a number of weeks through the platform. My guess is that the UK figure is probably 4m-5m users, of which about half have re-visited since signing up. (Only Google know the real answer here and they are notoriously cagey about their stats).

The platform does offer some unique features via ‘Hangouts’, and it’s core ‘+1′ recomendation functionality will appear over the whole Google portfolio i.e. Search, YouTube, Maps, etc… However, the real issue is that most consumers will still think of it as an alternative to Facebook. The TV ad may go some way to tackling this perception.

So do I like it?

Mmmm, I’m not sure, as the main problem is that 0 (yes, Zero)  of my friends outside of media are using it.

I think I will have to come back in 1 month’s time to blog about whether this has changed, and if the TV ad has had any effect on my circle of friends. I’m pretty sure they still watch TV so they should see the ad.