Study Proves: Yes, Money is the Root of all Evil.

Mai 7th, 2012 • Allgemein, Experimental
Tags: biology, Business, Creativity, crime, ethnology, Experimental, Experiments, Funny, Money, monkeys, science, World

Marketing would only be half the fun if people were not as greedy as they are – even though the world would be more fun I guess.

One of the funniest most interesting research pieces in this field was conducted by Dutch primatologist and ethologist Frans de Waal. He and others (like M. Keith Chen and Laurie R. Santos) taught Bonobos and Capuchin Monkeys the value of currency to better understand moral behaviour and sharing. And they behaved quite human-like:

The monkeys learned how to gamble, and showed a human preference for bets with an apparent upside. They tried counterfeiting the money with cucumber slices. They stole coins. And when a riot broke out, one enterprising female found a way to capitalize…

How? That’s simple.

As soon as they learned that coins had value, one of the male capuchins gave a coin to a female in exchange for sex.

So yes: Essentially money is the root of all evil. It turns peaceful primates into criminals with a clear preference for bitches and bling exchanging food for sex.

Oh…and then there is greed. The following clip, which is by Frans de Waal, shows two different monkeys eating two different foods. The first monkey, is given cucumbers and the second monkey is given grapes. After the first monkey sees that the other is getting grapes guess what happens next? Exactly: they essentially turn into members of the board of the Bank of America in less than 5 seconds.

Good news is: we may not be so bad after all. According to de Waal monkeys and apparently even us show some sign of morality and a sense of sharing if they perceive injustice. Read more about his study results here.

Social Media. How we forgot about Fun.

März 13th, 2010 • 5 comments Allgemein, Social
Tags: Creativity, Experiments, Facebook, Fun, Funny, Ideas, Social Influence Marketing

Everybody who works in digital marketing, especially in social, talks about fast little concepts. My team likes to call this ‘speedboat strategies’. And it’s based on the concept of unconventional or adaptive marketing – launch many cheap, engaging ideas and kill the ones which don’t work. Play with the ones which are fast enough and make them better. That’s basically the broad marketing approach for a time which does not believe in big ass TV commercials anymore.

Social Influence Marketing plays an important role here. Not understood as execution of tools but as the brand’s reaction to a user who acts and reacts 24/7. And in fact it’s not strategy creation in the first place that challenges us. It is its execution. Social effects cannot be properly planned. They can be initiated, they can be encouraged…but they cannot be put in conventional marketing plans and KPI’s. It’s dynamic, that’s the good and the bad thing about it.

But let’s be honest. There is one thing called strategy. And then there is another thing called Fun. I love to talk to clients how they might be able to open up one day, what they might be able to gain, etc. But just starting a social process and watching people have fun with it, is just glorious. This week I started two of these processes. And both were cool.

• Facebook Fanpage 1: Keine Sonderbriefmarke für Dr. Helmut Kohl (“A special stamp for Helmut Kohl”) – Yes, that’s a weird one. A colleague of mine got a Friend Request you get by one of these guys from first grade on Facebook. He accepted and got an invitation 5 minutes later to a public pledge to the German Parliament to print a special stamp for our former chancellor Helmut Kohl. This bizarre movement even made it to Facebook and Youtube in order to recruit 50,000 people signing up for this pledge (to make the parliament start the process). Personally I don’t like Helmut Kohl. But what’s even more important is, that there are unresolved claims of corruption and a very arrogant old chancellor who still believes he has unified Germany on his own. That’s why I started the Fanpage “No stamp for Helmut Kohl” with 340 Fans in 2 days and it is still growing. Not big but funny.

• Facebook Fanpage 2: Postfits. Two colleagues of mine had a good idea yesterday. They took Post-It notes, drew something on it and attached them to their heads. The result – they looked like Pirates, Piggies or whatever. Simple and stupid fun. So we created Postfits (Post-It + Outfit = Postfit) and asked for user pics. Just for the kicks of it. By now we have had a lot of fun, a lot of cool pics by many people and 200 Fans in 24 hours (and all of them had a good laugh). Check out Postfits here and join the party.

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