The whole person

Since the internet gave us a different way of accessing information, the moving trends have changed. Instead of ownership, for example, there is a tendency to prefer accessibility. I no longer need to own a car 365 days, if I only need it five months a year. I don't need to own an encyclopedia, to answer my questions: I go online, and within a few seconds (depending on writing speed), I have my answer.

Another change that has been more and more apparent in the later years is, the change from work to play. We no longer wish to posses a job that isn't fulfilling and fun. The days of going to work solemnly for the pay are over. If you do not enjoy at least some aspect of your job, you will always be on the lookout for something better. 

There is an urge in man to do better than yesterday, look better and BE better. We want to be better people, we want to present ourselves as 'the perfect version'. In the fifties your identity was your job; Don Draper was a Creative Director, his wife was a housewife (now called a home-maker, I believe). But the boxes we use to categorize ourselves with now, are no longer singular.

Our job is no longer our only identity, and employers tend to look on all aspects of a candidate's life, rather than just skills and experience. 

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Ello - are all media providing us a chance to see into other peoples lives. Our profiles and online friends have become who we are, or more; how we want to be perceived. Ugly photos are deleted, leaving only the 'perfect' image left.

Some has tried to nib this in the bud, by closing their profile, to make sure no future employers can snoop around. But I argue that leaving your profile locked sends a signal of secrecy; and might even raise some red flags. The social media have become such an important part of our lives, everybody is expected to be online constantly, and a profile with absolutely no posts seems odd.

Me in my Hunger Games cosplay

Instead, you should choose what you share with the world. Leave some posts public, paint a picture of a whole person. Let them experience you as a person, make sure your personality shine through.

For me, it is my geeky side. Yes I am passionate about experience economy but a big part of my life, has to do with geek culture and cosplay. It seems to me that geek culture is more popular than ever, and I get to use my event knowhow and geekiness to make conventions. It is the epitome of the Kloutscore slogan: "Be known for what you love".

Preaching respect

I feel like I have to say something. I do not want to be a part of this debate of right and wrong, but everybody else is stating something about the attack in Copenhagen. Some use what happened to further their political agenda, some preach hate against religion or foreigners - but the thing I hear most around my peers, are that you shouldn't judge a group, based on individuals actions.

What happened this weekend was a tragedy. Yet I am not surprised. It has been brewing in the corners of the world for the last fifteen years or so - and even little Denmark have been ready for 'an attack', you could almost say expecting it.
That doesn't make what happened right - nobody should be killed over their drawings, their religion, or their opinions. Anywhere in this world.

I do not want to focus on what happened - because that gives more power to the individual, a war and a cause I do not agree with, on any sides. Instead I focus on the coming together of so many people, how a memorial in numerous places was put into action very fast, how numerous people attended, and how most people are preaching love and respect.

Respect people around you - understand that difference is a good thing. You will always get the best solution to a problem, if you discuss it with someone who does not agree with you. But respect their opinions, and find common ground, instead of focusing on disagreements.

This post has got very little to do with business and acumen, but a lot to do with respect. I LOVE LIVING IN NØRREBRO. I love the multi ethnicity, how so many people live, and give room to each other. I love how I NEVER feel unsafe walking home at night, because I know that there are always someone who is awake. The only time I have ever been angry about living there, was when it was raining and the busses were crowded. Yes, at some point I will want to move to the countryside again, but I don't think anything compares to the feeling of belonging I get, living in Nørrebro, Copenhagen.

An important debate?

Sexism has been in the Danish media a lot lately. Fitness World has made a very debated commercial, that has been deemed sexist.
The commercial shows a bunch of 'hot women', and a male voice asks. "What you want to be called in 2015+" He proceeds to (cat-)call the women different hashtags, like #Snack, #bootylicious and what loosely translates to "Would like to do (her)". Very gender specific, and to me, very sexist.

So what has all this got to do with business, you ask. Well, the thing is, that even though Fitness World has removed the commercial and replaced it with one a lot less sexual, they have still gained a lot of attention for initial commercial. If people continue to be outraged, and talk about how sexist and immoral this commercial is, all they do, is give more attention to the brand behind the commercial. As a villain in a Bond movie once said: “There's no news, like bad news."

And that is just the thing. Don't you, as a company, have an obligation not to offend for the sake of being 'edgy' or 'controversial'? Isn't it better to try to make good, ethical, yet funny commercials rather than cheap and sexual ones? Or was this really the best Fitness World can come up with?

One has to wonder, if it was not Fitness World's plan all along, to get people talking about it? And then taking down the commercial, only to exchange it for a another one, one that is completely bland? They even got me talking about this - but instead of focusing on the sexist tones of the commercial, I noticed that they broke their own membership rules in regards to outfits. So I commented, and that got a lot of track. I had fun writing back to all the 'haters' who just called me a feminist and fat. These posts got deleted though, but you can read the rest of it here (in Danish)...

SEE THE DEBATE ON FITNESS WORLDS FACEBOOK PAGE HERE

Pine and Gilmore talks about experience economy being the step on the 'Progression of Economic Value'-ladder, we are on now. In order to sell a brand or a product, you attach an experience to it, making the value for the costumer go up. They also predict the next step to be 'transformations' - meaning companies have to guide transformations for the consumer. It can come in the form of preferences, loyalty or something else.

As the transformation usually happens internally, it can be hard to measure it in the customer. Except if we are talking about a person going to the gym.
Gym memberships are selling the ULTIMATE form of transformation - you have a body "we help you transform your body, into what you want it to look like." A lecturer of mine, Kris Østergaard form Dare2 jokingly said that gyms should change their fees from being monthly, to you paying for the amount of transformation you got. Meaning, if you stayed at home, you wouldn't pay anything, because no transformation occurred.
It is of cause a pretty unlikely idea (because how do you measure transformation?) - but it would certainly make the gym seem more trustworthy and personal. It might even inspire people more to go there?

My question is this: Even though gyms are selling the idea of transformations (which is very well illustrated in the before mentioned commercial), don't they have an obligation not to sexualise it, or are the fact that people go to the gym, because they want to look good naked, all that matters?

I would really like to know what you think - not about the commercial, but about the tactic to make an offending commercial to gain notice. Let me know in the comments below.

10.000 kroner from Projektduellen

Today I battled with 11 other projects at the Projekduellen 2014. And I won third place - which means 10.000 kroner for my project: 'Zombie Escape' for GEEKcore 2015.

Regastro, SC3NE and me for 'Zombie Escape'

It was a very different way of fundraising through Projektduellen. It is only for projects for young people - and it needs to be cross-regional. But generally you really get to brainstorm and get feedback on your project... and perfect your pitch.

Points came in gold...

I argued that we are missing something zombie related in Copenhagen that DOES NOT focus on drinking or exercise. But something that instead can add value and generate meaning for the participants. Something that can make people from all over the region come to city again and again.

And I believe that 'something' is an obstacle course where you get chased by zombies. Zombies are more popular than ever with television series like 'The Walking Dead', as well as the popular pubcrawl; 'Copenhagen Zombie Crawl' and the 5K run 'Zombieløbet’. So this obstacle course could work as a preparation for a possible zombie apocalypse.

I urge you to read my prezi about it here!

Generally, the event takes place on an obstacle course, where the participants are introduced to the concept by a 'soldier' from the Zombie Outbreak Unit. The participants are refugees trying to get to safety.

Then, people dressed as zombies chase the participants. Zombies have UV Paint on their hands. The zombies are slow, yet everywhere.

When the end of the course is reached, the participants are checked for UV paint. If they have any on them, they are deemed 'infected' and 'put down' with an imaginary headshot.

The idea is inspired by The Walking Dead Escape from Comic Con in the states, and as such will be an European take on a survival course - or you could say that it's sort of like a ‘Haunted House’, where zombies chase you!

The winner was SC3NE - an interesting project about creating stage-art in Copenhagen, and the second place went to Regastro, who enlightens pupils about avoiding wasting food.

#kloutscore... A Tempest in a Teapot?

Some time ago I was introduced to Kloutscore... Basically a company that measures your reach or impact on the internet. And being a critical person, I was somewhat hesitant of jumping the bandwagon.

The idea is great; "Be Known for What You Love". And the idea of measuring how you affect your followers is great, but in my mind it doesn't really work with Kloutscore.

You see, Kloutscore only measures your score from when you JOIN, yet still calculates a score from a time before you joined. As you can see in the picture below, I joined Klout on May 12th. Which caused a MASSIVE growth in my Kloutscore. But I did not quite understand why it wasn't higher before. As an example I made an epic April fools prank on facebook generating more than 75 likes. Yet, as you can see, on my calculated Kloutscore before May 12, it is very bleak. So naturally I asked the support team behind Kloutscore what was up.

 

Michelle answered me: "Please also note that the score is not just based on the pure amount of retweets/likes/etc. you receive. We also take into account how influential the people you are interacting with. If the CEO of Twitter retweets your content, this is worth a lot more compared to your average user." (email dated June 17th 2014)

Naturally I took up the challenge and added my Twitter account, my Instagram, my LinkedIn etc. On Klout you can connect many different social media, but you can only see details of your impact on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. So when Kloutscore tells me I have a 6% impact from LinkedIn, I cannot find out how.

And this how would be very interesting if I was to track and evaluate how to better impact people on said media.

From what I can deduct, the percentage of your Kloutscore is measured in a comparison with your previous scores. Which is both good and bad. It means that when you first join Klout you are able to quickly grow your score to a high level. But as time progress your score will be harder to increase, because 45 people liking your post is no longer the highest possible score impact you can have (and you need those celebs re-tweeting your wisdom).

My point is that you should take your kloutscore with a grain of salt. It will give you a great overview of which social media you have the highest impact on, but it will not do more than that. Unless you are a celebrity or a large corporation, your kloutscore is only good for boosting your own ego.