human behavior Archives - Page 2 of 2

Finding Your Funny

I came across this online article from The Atlantic and literally LOL’d myself into a good mood. It’s a great read about the weirdness of human behavior and how we animate ourselves to accommodate new means of communication like Zoom. The author, Faith Hill, is a comical social behaviorist from whom I can’t wait to read more. Please, Faith, do more!

Faith Hill’s article put me in such a good mood, it got me thinking. A dangerous course of action, in some cases, but this time all turns out well.

I googled (can you believe that’s a verb?) what we can do to put ourselves in a good mood and that lead me down a bit of a retail rabbit hole, from which I may never fully recover. A massive amount of email spam is sure to come my way from all the self-help articles I found myself dismissing (yet clicking, damn the click!).

What I discovered beyond all the sponsored content is that mood boosting can come from anywhere and can be anything. It depends on your personal preference, which leads to limitless possibilities. From looking at calming pictures to watching cat videos.

It seems we intuitively know what will boost our mood. The key, as with most beneficial things, is to do it. Take the time and watch the cat videos. Laugh at humans failing at almost everything you can imagine. Put the laughing Chewbacca woman on auto repeat. Boost your mood and you’ll always be happy you did.

So whatever legal behavior makes up your secret sauce to getting through the day, you just keep doing it. Life is short. And life can be hard. So take that break and do what makes you happy for a moment. You just might find yourself smiling. And who doesn’t need more of that.

Please share what you do to boost your mood! The Chewbacca Mask Lady Works. Every. Time.

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Travel Smarter

For some of us, it’s been awhile since we ventured out for something better. When it comes to travel in general, some silent shifts have been in play. Here are some tips for a peaceful, rejuvenating travel experience today. Because lately, the “T” in travel almost always stands for trouble.

Flying the Not So Friendly Skies

As for air travel, all I can suggest is to pack light and put on your happy face, as you’re going to need all the patience you can muster to get through it. Author Katie Way from Self.com, however, shares some excellent air travel tips, from stretching to staying hydrated.

Pedal to the Metal

For those looking for freedom that air travel seems to stifle, there’s the open road to consider. Travel & Leisure offers some helpful tips, but sadly there are still some thorns with which to contend.

With GPS practically surgically installed into our souls, getting to where you want to go has “never been easier.” That is, until the GPS navigator’s voice begins to grate on you, or contradict itself, or your phone’s GPS starts competing with your car’s, or when GPS tells you to make illegal turns you only discover when the policeman explains it to you. If you’re looking for some GPS Therapy, may I recommend this informative article from PC Magazine.

Self-driving cars simply scare the hell out of me. Maybe someday the trust will come, but until I can smooth out my relationship with my GPS, I don’t see myself giving up the wheel to technology. What do you think?

Boat? Drone? Jet Pack? How do you hope to be getting around in the future?

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Great Ideas Gone Wrong

When you hear a great idea, how do you know? The idea may sound great, but just because it has good intentions doesn’t mean it will work. At the very least, a great idea should be feasible and harmless to others.

Good Intentions

Not long ago a group of dedicated volunteers in my town got together to raise money for the local rescue squad. Their idea was to print and sell drink cards that offered a free drink at each of 6 local restaurants. The drinks were valued at $36 and the cards were priced at $20, and all the local restaurants agreed to accept them. Our town is a heavy tourist destination, so cards were given as gifts to visitors to encourage them to check-out local establishments.

Lasting Damage

People bought lots of drink cards and loads of money went to the rescue squad. Success, right? Wrong. Visitors who received the gifted drink card and attempted to use it encountered restrictions and ignorance from uninformed seasonal bar staff. So while the money was made in the moment, the damage of dissing tourists is immeasurable. Vacationers not only recount bad experiences to friends and family members, today their comments on social media reach further and linger longer. Ouch.

The drink card debacle is just one small example in the shadow of a far more substantial bad idea that occurred in Flint, Michigan. Town officials saved money in the moment, but gave way to irreversible damage down the line. Hindsight… you know what they say. So what’s the takeaway?

No Repeat

I can’t help but wonder: We all learn from our own mistakes, so why can’t we also learn from the mistakes of others? Sure, big gaffes get the news, but most mistakes only enlighten the bumbler. In today’s connected world, where is the portal to deposit our lessons learned? Facebook and Instagram are filled with accomplishments, carefully selected ‘selfies’, and emotional, envy-inducing posts. Wikipedia offers us our collectively edited facts, and millions of websites push products and self-serving information. Where is the hub for all things that went horribly wrong? All the lessons of war. Of life. A virtual library of bittersweet warnings, filled with evidence of what not to do. Or perhaps a way to tag those bits of learning amidst all that worldly web content.

With today’s technology and our tendency to share, a blunder blog sure sounds like great idea…

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Best In Show Awards

InsideHeads ad in Quirk's Marketing Research Review — See our ad in Quirk’s

(Originally Posted May, 2015)

The votes are in! Out of nearly a hundred exhibitors, InsideHeads received an honorable mention for Best Event Experience at the first annual Quirk’s Event earlier this year at the Brooklyn Marriott in NY. The Best in Show awards came from responses collected in the event app and the post-event survey to attendees.

InsideHeads at the Quirk's Event — Event attendee displays her digital caricature from InsideHeads

With the 2nd Quirk’s Event already scheduled for the same bat time, same bat channel, InsideHeads is doing some advanced planning as well. Stay tuned for more fun and fabulousness from InsideHeads at the 2016 event February 23-24!

To Glass or Not to Glass

(Originally posted March, 2015)

Since launching Google Glass in April 2012, there has been much debate over the value and ethics of having a smartphone on your head.

The battle between the Glassed and the Glassless officially began in April 2013, when the Google goggles first landed in the hands of eager early adopters. Throughout the launch, Google had their marketing and PR departments in overdrive, coddling these new Glass “Explorers”.

As non-users began encountering Explorers in real life, they began asking questions. Lots and lots of questions. A privacy debate like no other began to rage and Google even published an embarrassing list of Do’s and Don’ts for Glass wearers. The Google guide dumbs it down to playtime rules at the park, actually espousing that Explorers not “be creepy or rude”.

While Google expanded Glass into the UK and Canada, an increasing number of developers began abandoning the Glass ship and the Glasshole sentiment began picking up some serious social media speed.

When Google announced the end of the Glass Explorer program earlier this year, it was a supposed regrouping to improve “appearance, price, and functionality.” Dare I say, I am Glassless for none of those reasons, but I digress.

Google’s spin on the shutdown? Glass has “graduated” from experimental to operational, and will now have its own department at the company.

Even at this early stage, I have to wonder if Google’s tireless marketing efforts to promote Glass as mainstream these past few years moved the needle of acceptance even a little. Google’s clever product placement on athletes, television, fashion shows, sporting events, and magazine covers – did it work?

Unfortunately, Jerry Seinfeld sporting Glass on the cover of Wired doesn’t change the fact that Google provides Glassholes a tacit method for covertly peering and recording a non-consenting audience.

Perhaps Google filed that problem under “functionality.”

March Madness Message to Marketers

Kingsford Charcoal burns the NCAA with #PayEd Campaign

Meet Ed O’Bannon, a talented college athlete whose likeness was used in a NCAA-licensed video game without his consent or compensation. Reports claim there are thousands” of student athletes in the same situation. None too pleased, Ed and others filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against the NCAA, challenging the organization’s use of images of former student athletes for commercial purposes. While the group recently won a landmark case last August, the NCAA appealed and litigation continues.

In all this brouhaha, one clever charcoal company fired off a brilliant David + Goliath like marketing campaign, positioning a brave and popular underdog against the big bad NCAA behemoth.

This month Kingsford Charcoal bags tout a picture of Ed O’Bannon and the company’s familiar tagline, with a searing twist:

“Lights 25% faster, doesn’t burn athletes.”

At the hub of the Kingsford Charcoal campaign is notably the hashtag #PayEd, which when tweeted on March 19th paid Ed O’Bannon $1 each time it was used.

I can’t help but consider the brilliance of this campaign. Clearly Kingsford is burning NCAA bridges, but their choice to ride the “right a wrong” rocket on social media during a month of madness is a keen one. And with #PayEd going viral and the limit set at $25,000, the cost of the promotion, including the new printing on all the bags, must have been… darn appealing, to say the least. All in all, a pretty clear smoke signal showing us the red hot marketing trends of tomorrow.

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Decision is done. Take the cannoli.

Before you seal that deal, pop that proposal, or make that big career move, leave the cannoli until your task is done.

According to researchers, hunger is associated with advantageous decision making. Participants fasted overnight and in the morning, scientists served some of them breakfast, and others were forced to wait. All of the participants took the Iowa Gambling Task, a psychological test based on gambling that simulates real-life decision making. When the results were in, stomach rumblers performed better overall. You can even take the test yourself, because there’s an app for that.