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New Study Shows: 'Connected Mobility' Defines Bubble Generation

Connected mobility--it is among the highest of human aspirations.  To be free to roam and explore, while at the same time remaining tethered to loved ones, the office, the world.  The everyday reality of that long-elusive freedom is a hallmark of the cohort I call the Bubble Generation, those men and women who have come of age after the Dotcom bubble burst.

Proof of that comes from a recent report out of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  According to their study, some 34 percent of Internet users have already exercised connected mobility by logging onto the Internet using a wireless connection either at home, work or elsewhere (like Starbucks). That means one-third of Internet users, either via a laptop computer, a handheld device (PDA), or cell phone, have cruised the net or checked email using means such as WiFi broadband or cell phone networks.

No surprise: wireless Internet users tend to skew younger than Internet users in general. For Internet users under the age of 30:

• 37% have logged on wirelessly from somewhere sometime
• 32% have logged on wirelessly from someplace other than home or work.
• 25% log on wirelessly at home.
• 16% have gone online by wireless means at work.

Laptops are still the tool of choice for Internet users under 30:

• 40% have laptop computers, of which 88% are wireless-enabled.
• 26% have wireless networks at home.
• 40% have cell phones that can access the Internet
• 17% have PDAs that can connect to the Internet.

It is interesting to note that of those 34 percent who link in while on the run most seem to stay better connected--checking email and news--than when they are at home:

• 72% of wireless users check email on the typical day, compared to 63% of home broadband users and 54% of all Internet users.
• 46% get news online on the typical day, compared to 38% of home broadband users and 31% of all Internet users.

So how do we as manufacturers, marketers and retailers make sense of this "rope line wanderlust?"  We must ask ourselves, how does mobility shape consumer needs?  How does connectivity alter consumer behavior?  Do buyers become more or less impulsive, or, more or less reliant on the advice of others as they move about?  Are they harder to find or easier to win over situationally?  Stay tuned to this space for some answers.

Apple Listen Up: Slacker is iRadio

By now you know my rant on commercial radio: it's like walking around with someone else's iPod, listening to someone else's playlist.  On shuffle.  And, then you get the obnoxious interruption ads to boot.  Old radio is deader than old TV. (Tombomb archives: Podcastrated: Why Radio is History)

Fortunately, a spate of web 2.0 companies has come to the rescue.  I listen to Groovera and Live365 when I am in earshot of my laptop.  Last.fm and Pandora are also hot.

Yesterday, Slacker, a new San Diego-based company started by music industry veterans, launched a personal radio service that ratchets up the Internet radio experience with lots of customized goodies and adds a mobile player. 

From Matt Marshall at VentureBeat:

The device is about the size of a blackberry. So you can carry it around like you do an iPod. However, Slacker’s servers will communicate with your Slacker device constantly. It uses commercial satellites, and WiFi, refreshing your device’s drive with new songs when they are available. Slacker has a car dock.

The basic Slacker account will be free. A premium service of $7.50 a month lets you save tracks, and avoid ads. The hardware devices, depending on the model, will cost $149, $299 and $399. They’ll ship during the second half of the year. Slacker wants to integrate its music service within other devices, too, such as cellphones. You’ll be able to download up to 2,000 songs on the low-end device. Downloads will be $1 a track.

Freedom to roll is a big deal, but a big question mark is "device fatigue."  With mobile phone, iPod and blackberry, will someone also find pocket room for a Slacker? 

And there is the squeeze play the company could face, residing as it may, in a no man's land between iPod and XM/Sirius.  Not a lot of breathing room.  And, Steve Jobs knows it's time to upgrade iPod for radio.

Prediction: This time next year Slacker is renamed Google Radio after buyout.

'Technosexual' Backlash Continues for Calvin Klein

The "technosexual" phrase trademarked by Calivin Klein to justify its new CKin2u fragrance has galvanized bloggers around the horn, not because they bristle at the idea of either technology or sex or any combination thereof, but because it lacks any shred of what Stephen Colbert calls, "truthiness."  Lack of authenticity brings the stink of death to a brand today.  Here are some of the better rants about the reviled "T" word from the blogosphere.

Calvin Klein, The Source of Great Ridicule

by gothamist.com

Ok so wait...computer nerds are hot now?

by reluctantwhore.blogspot.com

Makes Me Want to Give Up Blogging and Communicate via Morse Code

by prettiestboy.blogspot.com

We couldn't Make this up if We Tried

by valleywag.com

Justin Timberlake is a Closet Technosexual

by steffisthenewsteph.wordpress.com

Bloggers Don't Want to Smell of Blog

by gawker.com

Technosexualready Been Done

by websides.blogspot.com

Blogosphere Backlash Begins Against Calvin Klein

Update:  The worldwide blogosphere backlash against Calvin Klein's ill-fated CKin2u has begun and I don't mind leading the charge.  This is a cautionary tale for all marketers.

I took only one semester of astronomy in college.  Unfortunately, its was a second semester course, and I will never forget the wicked winter winds blowing off Boston's Charles River as I stood on a frigid rooftop studying the heavens.  I will also never forget the lessons on how stars die.  From red supergiant, to blue giant, to white dwarf and eventually a spectacular and rapid disintegration.  Dustbunny.com puts it simple enough for kids to understand: "When a star's furnace starts to run out of fuel, the star starts to fall off the main sequence and begins the dying process."

We are now witnessing the very public implosion of what once was a star brand in the fashion and lifestyle universe.  Calvin Klein has run out of fuel, is way off the main sequence, and has begun its death throes. 

CK has been on the fade for a few years now.  The latest attempt at reincarnation involves what is evidently a comprehensive go-to-market strategy aimed at connecting with today's socially-oriented, mobile consumers, a cohort I call the Bubble Generation, a group they refer breathlessly to as "technosexuals."   The quixotic strategy includes a new iteration of the CKOne fragrance, a supergiant hit from a decade ago, renamed CKin2u.  The texting language is meant to be hip (right, maybe in Y2K lol ;-/). 

To make matters worse, they've launched a social community for the brand, called whatareyouin2.com.  I can't speak for the people who join the community, but I know what Calvin Klein has stepped in2: deep space doo doo. 

Forget New Coke, the biggest marketing misstep of our times is the New CK.

Whether due to arrogance or ignorance, the current stewards of the CK brand have shown themselves to be way out of touch with the new consumers.  Their new brand day dawning lacks the essential authenticity and veracity today's young consumers demand from the get go.  And, as I said last week, nobody today wants to smell like BS.  Moreover, a Flash fragged social community with no center of gravity, that knows so little about you it asks what you're into, is anathema.  People join communities (or neighborhoods therein) where they know others are into the same things they are.  Can you imagine the fatigue factor of hanging out in a community that is so lost in space it is asking you for guidance?  I doubt the folks at Hi5 or Twitter or Imeem are losing any sleep--or members--over this. (Although, not sure which is the bigger bonehead contrivance this week, CK's launch of whatareyouin2.com or Cisco's acquisition of Tribe.com, but I digress).

Truth be told, brand managers today need to realize that you can no longer hide behind clever marketing; this is the anti-marketing generation.  BubbleGen consumers are generous of spirit, but quite unforgiving.  They do not suffer gladly fools or phonies.  And, they talk among themselves, decide for themselves what is hip and what is not.  Hard to steamroll this group.  CKin2u may smell as delicious as The Killers sound and it still won't connect with these consumers if they get a whiff of artifice.  And, everything about this product's marketing reeks of me2 pandering.

Message to the suits at CK:  you can borrow the language, you can borrow the symbols--like the iPod-inspired bottle you've ginned up, you can even put bloggers in your ads, but at the end of the day you didn't earn it and your customers know it.  You've lost their trust, probably lost their business, and I predict, you may soon lose the entire franchise. 

I'm Tombomb and I'm from Silicon Valley.

Calvin Klein: A Star Brand Self-Destructs

With the release of CKin2u, the Calvin Klein death watch begins.

I took only one semester of astronomy in college.  Unfortunately, its was a second semester course, and I will never forget the wicked winter winds blowing off Boston's Charles River as I stood on a frigid rooftop studying the heavens.  I will also never forget the lessons on how stars die.  From red supergiant, to blue giant, to white dwarf and eventually a spectacular and rapid disintegration.  Dustbunny.com puts it simple enough for kids to understand: "When a star's furnace starts to run out of fuel, the star starts to fall off the main sequence and begins the dying process."

We are now witnessing the very public implosion of what once was a star brand in the fashion and lifestyle universe.  Calvin Klein has run out of fuel, is way off the main sequence, and has begun its death throes. 

CK has been on the fade for a few years now.  The latest attempt at reincarnation involves what is evidently a comprehensive go-to-market strategy aimed at connecting with today's socially-oriented, mobile consumers, a cohort I call the Bubble Generation, a group they refer breathlessly to as "technosexuals."   The quixotic strategy includes a new iteration of the CKOne fragrance, a supergiant hit from a decade ago, renamed CKin2u.  The texting language is meant to be hip (right, maybe in Y2K lol ;-/). 

To make matters worse, they've launched a social community for the brand, called whatareyouin2.com.  I can't speak for the people who join the community, but I know what Calvin Klein has stepped in2: deep space doo doo. 

Forget New Coke, the biggest marketing misstep of our times is the New CK.

Whether due to arrogance or ignorance, the current stewards of the CK brand have shown themselves to be way out of touch with the new consumers.  Their new brand day dawning lacks the essential authenticity and veracity today's young consumers demand from the get go.  And, as I said last week, nobody today wants to smell like BS.  Moreover, a Flash fragged social community with no center of gravity, that knows so little about you it asks what you're into, is anathema.  People join communities (or neighborhoods therein) where they know others are into the same things they are.  Can you imagine the fatigue factor of hanging out in a community that is so lost in space it is asking you for guidance?  I doubt the folks at Hi5 or Twitter or Imeem are losing any sleep--or members--over this. (Although, not sure which is the bigger bonehead contrivance this week, CK's launch of whatareyouin2.com or Cisco's acquisition of Tribe.com, but I digress).

Truth be told, brand managers today need to realize that you can no longer hide behind clever marketing; this is the anti-marketing generation.  BubbleGen consumers are generous of spirit, but quite unforgiving.  They do not suffer gladly fools or phonies.  And, they talk among themselves, decide for themselves what is hip and what is not.  Hard to steamroll this group.  CKin2u may smell as delicious as The Killers sound and it still won't connect with these consumers if they get a whiff of artifice.  And, everything about this product's marketing reeks of me2 pandering.

Message to the suits at CK:  you can borrow the language, you can borrow the symbols--like the iPod-inspired bottle you've ginned up, you can even put bloggers in your ads, but at the end of the day you didn't earn it and your customers know it.  You've lost their trust, probably lost their business, and I predict, you may soon lose the entire franchise. 

I'm Tombomb and I'm from Silicon Valley.

Calvin Klein: Smells Too Much Like Teen Spirit?

First, we get mysterious sewer odors wafting through NYC, now this olfactory challenge emerges: CKin2u. 

The eager folks at the faded brand, Calvin Klein, are hoping to sniff out a new generation of loyalists with a re-introduction of the CKOne perfume that hit it big way back in the 1990s.

From the New York Times:

"Next month, Calvin Klein Inc. and Coty, its fragrance licensee, will introduce a sequel to CK One for a new generation, the so-called millennials, and in doing so, they will attempt to capture lightning in a bottle for a second time. Calvin Klein, now without its namesake designer, hopes to rejuvenate a fragrance embodying the essence of hip 20-somethings — even at the risk that such a notion is as outdated as a Prince song about partying like it’s 1999."

The CK gambit is nothing short of shameless.  The too-cutely-named product (as if texting shorthand makes it hip) will be packaged in a phallic-shaped rocket bottle cast of iPod-like plastic and will be hawked by BubbleGen actor Kevin Zegers (who played the son of a pre-operative transsexual in “Transamerica”) and model, Freja Beha Erichsen.  The company describes the target demo as "physically bold but emotionally guarded."  Use of computers, evidently, makes them thus.

We can poke fun of the late-to-the-party pandering, but the real fatal flaw: lack of authenticity.  No one of this generation wants to smell like BS. 

CKin2u is another sign that brands and retailers are simply bolloxed up when it comes to figuring out the mindset of the Bubble Generation consumer.  Can it be saved?  Maybe.  But the old suits in the stark white offices won't have a clue what to do.  Key is, do they at least know that much.

Message to the Calvin Klein management:  I invite you to come to Silicon Valley and get a primer on the new consumer before you launch a dud.

Next New Networks: TV for the Bubble Generation

Finally, a TV scheme that meets the needs of the new connected, time-pressed consumers.  If they don't screw things up with obnoxious "pre-rolls" or other interruption-based advertising shenanigans, this is a model many other media should emulate.  From the always bang-on Tobi Elkin at MediaPost: 

............

Internet startup Next New Networks, an online video service, is poised to deliver 101 community-based sites over the next five years focused on niche content targeted to 18- to-34-year-olds.

Backed by former MTV and Nickelodeon executives, Next New will offer a series of micro-networks with content geared toward enthusiasts who enjoy do-it-yourself fashion, comics, and autos. The company's approach ties directly to evolving trends in so-called "Long Tail" content targeted to passionate enthusiasts, and will leverage short-form video content featuring programs anywhere from three to eight minutes in length--daily or weekly. Next New says it will add one to three networks per month in the coming months, and on Thursday announced the first six networks on its roster including programs like "Fast Lane Daily" and "VOD Cars;" "Threadbanger," about do-it-yourself fashion; "Channel Federator," on cartoons; and "Pulp Secret," focused on comic book culture.

What makes Next New's approach unique is that each micro-network hosts its own shows on a branded Web site. New and archived shows can also be found on iTunes and YouTube, and viewers are invited to contribute, share, and distribute the network content.

Apple-Google Phone (Gapple?) Chatter, 2.0

More data points surfacing on the probable union of Apple and Google in the telephony space.  Today, my fellow BU alum Simeon Simeonov at Polaris Venture Partners lays out a great argument for the union of the two titans, then asserts that Google should compete with Apple in the space.  Seems like needless bloodshed.  Note that the Gphone (aptly code-named Switch) shown in the Engadget-leaked photo looks like an iPhone skin, perhaps chassis.  The mythical phone is supposedly a Samsung collaboration, but is it an iPhone killer or co-brand?.

read more

Switcharoo?

Apple, Google to Team Up on Co-Branded Handheld Device?

You've got to love the street chatter percolating from this year's Morgan Stanley Technology Conference.  My favorite beme is about a possible Apple-Google hook-up, either on a version of the iPhone or on something else co-branded by the two sexy titans. 

It is one reasonable way to read the chai leaves on comments made Monday by Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt.  While again denying rumors of Apple-Google merger talks (he doth protest too much?), he revealed a few tidbits that left many doing the new math.  We know this:  Schmidt is of course now on the Apple board of directors.  We know that Google is attempting to work out an accord on video feeds to Apple's new iPhone.  We know that Google (perhaps Cisco's largest customer) intervened on behalf of Apple in resolving the iPhone trademark dispute. And on Monday, when Schmidt was asked whether Google and Apple would be competing in the handheld Internet space--as heretofore widely speculated--he left the crowd with these comments:

"I don't want to comment on rumors," he said, then added: "I will tell you that Google and Apple are doing more and more things together through the normal course of communications ... We have similar goals and similar competitors."

Everyone I have talked to believes the implications are clear: expect that something along the lines of a Gphone or a Google-powered iDevice from Apple is in the works.  No word from the infinite loop gang, but I am working on it.

More from Reuters here.

YuMe Delivers Ads for You Media

“Our network is going to bring real order to the current state of chaos in online video advertising,” so says Jayant Kadambi, co–founder and CEO of YuMe Networks.

Launching today, YuMe Networks is a new advertising network for broadband video, offering advertisers the ability to target messaging to any online video content just as they do today with keyword placements. YuMe introduces new technology to ensure content is brand appropriate and can be delivered to any device – from PC to portable.

The YuMe launch is yet another signal of the growing importance of consumer generated media (CGM) and peer-to-peer networks.  Some estimates show that more than half of all Internet traffic is driven by P2P sharing of consumer-made content.  The subject demographic, the 15 to 25-year old producer/user, is of course the sweet spot of the Bubble Generation.

Naturally, a lot of you media is dicey stuff.  YuMe claims to utilize "video sensor technology" to scour online video content, and then categorizes the video into customizable channels like Auto, Finance, Entertainment and Family Friendly. Advertisers can select the customized video channels that most closely match the brands, products and messaging in their advertising creative.

The tricky part here, of course, is that dropping ads into CGM is a sensitive business.  If not handled carefully, respectfully, a brand can easily affront and alienate the audience it intended to win over.  It's a practice a lot like polishing hand-grenades. 

YuMe Networks is a privately held company backed by Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners and BV Capital.