Can social media save indigenous languages?

There are about 7,000 languages worldwide and every two weeks one of these languages becomes extinct. In most cases this happens because indigenous languages are not passed on from one generation to the next as a result of ethnic shame or cultural changes. Native American languages are a good example of this phenomenon. From 1870, Native American children were forced to go to English boarding schools and as a result they learned English rather than indigenous languages. Learning or teaching indigenous languages was even considered a federal offence for decades. Nowadays, there are only about 230 Native American languages left, likely to be only three in 30 years from now.

So how can languages on the verge of extinction be saved? Firstly, languages have to be fun and interesting to learn and it has to be ‘cool’ to do so for younger audiences. Secondly and more importantly, these languages have to be accessible. Experts believe that social media sites and apps such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Siri might actually be the way forward for indigenous languages. Not only are these tools key to raise awareness on the topic, they also give people from all around the world the opportunity to learn a language that might not be taught in their vicinity. For example, people who speak Anishinaabemowin, a Native American language from Michigan, can now connect and interact with worldwide speakers on a Facebook page dedicated to this language. With almost 3,000 likes, it is fair to say that the page is quite popular, despite the only 400 people in Michigan who actually speak it. This Facebook page was an initiative from the University of Michigan, where the Ojibwe language is taught, among other indigenous languages.

Another great project that has been recently initiated is Indigenous Tweets, an aggregation website that collects worldwide indigenous tweets on Twitter and categorises them by language. Not only does it generate interest in a diversity of languages but it also helps find top users who tweet in a given language so that they can be easily followed in the future. Another great aspect of this website is that it also offers the same aggregation formula for indigenous blogs, which are all mostly written in rare languages. Another similar initiative is Rising Voices, a project that attempts to “bring new voices from communities and speaking new languages to the global conversation by providing resources and funding to local groups reaching out to underrepresented communities”.

There are many examples of social media initiatives, websites and phone apps that attempt to preserve and expand indigenous languages on these platforms. They all show how the global conversation can be entered successfully, whether you are a participant or simply a student: the conversations are happening in real time, every day. Perhaps it might not be possible to preserve all 6,500 languages spoken globally, but social media can definitely go a long way in raising awareness about many nearly forgotten languages and preserve at least some of them. Speak your language online, teach others and make new friends: indigenous languages and social media are here to stay.

By Malou Tulleken

Know your boundaries: Is attention everything?

The ultimate goal of advertising is to raise awareness and sell. But evolving in a world where consumers are surrounded by adverts in all shapes and forms, advertisers and marketers are faced with a main challenge: how to differentiate their brand(s) from the masses? Well, there is a simple answer: attract attention.

What sounds like an easy enough task is in reality not that simple. Every day, hundreds of adverts are banned for not meeting legal standards. Most countries have their own regulatory bodies such as the ASA (Advertising Standard Authority) in the UK and in effect, they decide what is acceptable in advertising and what is not. Photoshop can easily make an advert “too attractive” for a local market, and advertising of tobacco or alcohol is strictly regulated worldwide. In other instances however, the trickiest test to pass is the ever watchful audience, and cultural differences often play a major role when it comes to how an advert is perceived by the locals. So where do the cultural boundaries lie and how to anticipate what is acceptable or not across borders?

A Red Bull TV commercial recently caused an outrage in Brazil, because Christian consumers found the ad to be ridiculing Jesus’ alleged ability to walk on water, and were offended by the use of his name as a swear word. While Red Bull denied intentions of hurting anyone’s feelings, the Christian communities in Brazil and South Africa were quite upset. Being a touchy subject in general, religion should be treated with extreme caution when used in advertising, particularly in heavily religiously influenced countries.

Sex sells – it’s not a secret. While the use of sexual imagery in advertising and our perception thereof have gone through drastic changes in recent decades, we are still far from an anything-goes-mentality. A few weeks ago, Belvedere vodka launched a viral campaign on Facebook and Twitter. It depicted a young man grabbing a struggling woman from behind – their tagline: “Unlike some people, Belvedere always goes down smoothly.” Not only did the brand suffer from copyright infringement, but the campaign also immediately sparked a barrage of complaints from their fans, who interpreted it as a direct reference to rape – and Belvedere eventually had to remove the offensive picture.

A controversial advert published in February this year by the American animal rights organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) set off a similar storm of protest. They frequently manage to make headlines by featuring nude or scantily-clad women in their campaigns and comparing them to “meat” in order to emphasise on how humans actually treat animals on a daily basis. This time however, they seem to have crossed a line. Their advert intended to point out benefits of adapting a vegan diet by claiming that this enhances a man’s sexual performance – but to the point where he will inevitably cause physical harm to his partner. PETA garnered harsh criticism for launching an ad which many regarded as an indirect approval of domestic violence.

To continue on the theme of men-women relationships, we could also mention a Reebok advert that caused a lot of controversy in Germany in March this year. The slogan said: “Cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout”. It was posted across gyms in the country and caused such an uproar that Reebok decided to withdraw it, instantly apologising for its morally questionable message. Sense of humour can also sometimes be misread… Interestingly enough however, a TV commercial for one of Germany’s biggest banks proves that even an ad which many would not consider as morally offensive can easily lead to widespread outbursts of anger. In this ING DiBa advert, basketball star Dirk Nowitzky is seen eating meat in a butcher’s shop, accompanied by the line “So that you will grow big and strong.” What shouldn’t have been more than a light-hearted depiction of an everyday life situation quickly resulted in hundreds of furious messages on the bank’s official Facebook profile, accusing them of supporting animal cruelty.

Advertisers choose very different strategies to reach potential new customers, sometimes by (knowingly or unknowingly) overruling local standards of what is considered acceptable in advertising. But in the end, does that even matter? If we take into account that every advertising campaign across the globe aims at attracting the most attention possible, even banned adverts can hardly be considered failed advertising. Looking at the degree of media attention controversial and banned campaigns get, marketers might as well call them a success – after all, negative attention is better than none. Or is it?

By Ilona Meier

Linsanity: the cultural craze called Jeremy Lin

He did not receive a basketball scholarship after high school and he was undrafted out of college. He was waived by the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets and he sparingly played in the NBA Development League after signing with the New York Knicks. Then, overnight, Jeremy Lin became a sensation on February 4, 2012, after he finally got a chance to show his worth for the Knicks. Within a week, Lin had made four starts and was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week averaging 27.3 points and 8.3 assists. Knicks’ coach Mike D’Antonio was later quoted that “He got lucky because we were playing so bad”.

Jeremy Lin’s story can be seen as the true American dream. Born in Los Angeles, California to Taiwanese parents, Lin’s father taught him to play basketball in a YMCA gym. Ultimately, it turned out that his journey to becoming an NBA player would be long, full of doubts and went mostly unnoticed. When he finally had his shot, Lin grabbed it with both hands and in the weeks after Lin’s sudden furore for the Knicks, fans even began to develop nicknames for him: Linsanity was born.

Videos of Lin’s breakthrough performances spread rapidly on the Internet and he quickly became an international celebrity. In Taiwan, where his roots are, Jeremy Lin became immensely popular in only two weeks’ time. At 8 am in the morning, the Taiwanese would already be crowding the bars of Taipei in order to see their favourite athlete play. They hardly seemed to care that Lin barely speaks Mandarin, wasn’t born in Taiwan and doesn’t pay regular visits to the country. Lin represents Taiwan: an underdog, overlooked by all major players.

But, has Taiwan gone a bit too far with Linsanity and has it quickly turned into insanity? Lin’s family has been harassed to the point where his grandmother had to relocate from Taipei to the countryside, only for Taiwanese reporters to get a small personal anecdote for their 24-hour news coverage of Lin. After one of the Knicks’ wins, Lin asked the Taiwanese media to leave his family alone: “The special request I have is for the media back in Taiwan to give [my family] space, because they can’t even go to work without being bombarded, without people following them”.

However, Lin was quick himself to make the most of his newly-found fame. Only six weeks after his breakthrough performances for the Knicks, Volvo signed the youngster to become the brand ambassador in the U.S. and China. Both Volvo and Lin stated that it was a perfect fit because of the represented values of the car brand and Lin’s personality.

Becoming a brand ambassador, Lin has followed in the footsteps of many other athletes who have signed lucrative marketing deals during their careers. One of the most famous examples is David Beckham, who has been the face of brands such as H&M, Nike, Adidas, Calvin Klein, Marks & Spencer and most recently Samsung for the 2012 Olympics in London. Beckham has almost become a brand himself, being marketed far beyond his athletic capabilities.

Yet, what is the brand’s risk in signing an athlete to be its brand ambassador? In 2009, Gillette featured Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry in the same advertisement. In a period of two weeks, both Henry and Woods were scrutinised globally for personal, rather than professional, misconduct. The message Gillette was trying to get across with the advertisement was completely shattered by the behaviour of two out of the three athletes. Gillette therefore quickly ended the endorsement deal with both Woods and Henry as it was being associated with the behaviour of its brand ambassadors. Only Federer remained true to the brand.

In the case of Jeremy Lin, it seems that the agreement between him and Volvo was reached mostly based on legitimate reasons. The question, however, remains how much of an influence Linsanity was when Volvo was brokering the deal. Now that Lin has been out with an injury for the rest of the season, Linsanity will undeniably simmer down and people will slowly start to forget about him until he starts playing again.

Will Lin become a great NBA star? Will he become the next David Beckham when it comes to celebrity endorsement? Only time can tell. In the meantime, we are eagerly awaiting the first Volvo advertisements featuring Jeremy Lin and to see how the Linderella story develops when the clock strikes midnight.

By Malou Tulleken

Pinterest : Faites-vous épingler !

La famille des réseaux sociaux s’agrandit chaque semaine et elle devra désormais compter dans ses rangs un nouvel outil que l’on pourrait qualifier d’« hybride » : Pinterest[1].

Définir Pinterest n’est point chose aisée. En effet, cet outil est à mi-chemin entre un réseau social (ensemble d’identités sociales à l’initiative d’interactions) et un discovery tool (outil de recommandation sociale). Un peu technique je vous l’accorde, mais son utilisation reste assez simple : comme sur un tableau, il suffit d’épingler vos images (ou informations) afin de les partager avec le reste des utilisateurs.

En résumé, Pinterest est une véritable vitrine offrant aux utilisateurs un aperçu clair et organisé des tendances du moment. De quoi attirer l’attention de bon nombre d’annonceurs…

Plus de 16 millions d’utilisateurs déroulent chaque jour des kilomètres de pinboards[2], sans but particulier, sinon celui de se divertir en parcourant les images partagées par la communauté Pinterest : plutôt alléchant lorsqu’on souhaite mettre son entreprise ou son produit en lumière sur la toile. D’autant plus que Pinterest est gratuit et qu’il profite de l’essoufflement de Facebook et  deTwitter.

À qui s’adresse Pinterest ?

Contrairement à ce que l’on pourrait penser, Pinterest ne diffuse pas de publicité. Néanmoins, de nombreuses agences se sont déjà lancées dans l’aventure (Havas Digital ou Pietri Publicis par exemple).  Le but n’étant pas de diffuser du contenu publicitaire comme les agences en ont l’habitude, il est alors crucial d’adopter une stratégie alternative adaptée à l’outil. Qu’en est-il pour les marques ? Et bien, la question de se lancer (ou pas) dans l’aventure Pinterest reste un sujet épineux. Quoi de plus attirant pour un annonceur qu’un support gratuit, à la porté de millions d’utilisateurs enclins à toutes sortes de découvertes ?  Il y a évidement un prix à payer: il leur faut accepter que leurs images, noms ou produits soient « épinglés » et que, comme sur tous les réseaux sociaux, les marques soient parfois critiquées ou tout simplement ignorées. Le principal atout de Pinterest est son contenu visuel. Sans images, Pinterest perd tout son sens. L’attraction visuelle dans le processus de découverte est une des clés de son succès. Les produits doivent être visuellement « attractifs » et « uniques ». En d’autres termes, les utilisateurs ne cherchent pas à retrouver ce qu’ils peuvent déjà voir sur Facebook ou en cherchant simplement sur Google.

Mais ne nous fourvoyons pas. À l’origine, Pinterest n’a pas été crée comme un outil marketing au service des marques. Il s’agissait de pouvoir partager ses intérêts (sous formes d’albums de favoris). Les thèmes récurrents sur Pinterest  sont la cuisine et la mode : en effet 80% des utilisateurs des réseaux sont des utilisatrices. Une aubaine pour certaines marques.

Quelles sont les marques qui ont sauté le pas?

Et bien, nous retrouvons les « habitués » des réseaux sociaux : Coca-Cola, McDonald’s,Starbucks pour l’alimentation et Maybelline ou Gap pour la beauté/ mode, par exemple. Mais voilà, les utilisateurs de Pinterest ne cherchent pas à (re)découvrir ce qu’ils connaissent déjà. Nous observons donc que de petits nouveaux tirent leur épingle du jeu : Etsy et Modcloth font un véritable tabac avec respectivement plus de 69 000 et  17 000 abonnés. Un résultat plutôt encourageant face au géant Gap, avec 3 600 fans. En ce qui concerne l’agroalimentaire, Paula Deen, présentatrice d’émissions culinaires aux États-Unis, réunit 53 000 adeptes de cuisine familiale et de bons produits loin devant le roi du fast-food, McDonald’s du haut des ses 199 abonnés.

Stratégie : parfois, il n’y a que l’apparence qui compte.

Pinterest est aux réseaux sociaux ce que le scrapbooking est au monde du livre. C’est l’image qui attire le regard en premier lieu et c’est cet aspect qui permet à l’outil d’exporter ces photos à l’autre bout du monde[3]. Il n’y a donc pas de miracle: comme au début d’une relation, il faut faire une bonne première impression puis, entretenir la flamme pour garantir le succès de ce nouvel outil marketing de façon pérenne. Les marques ne postent pas uniquement des photos de leurs produits, le but n’étant pas de mettre en ligne un catalogue. Partager des photos qui ont plus ou moins un lien avec la marque est un moyen de mettre de coté l’aspect marketing de la chose pour ne pas faire fuir le visiteur. En France, Monoprix s’est prêté au jeu en créant son compte avec plusieurs boards[4] intitulés « Inspirations » et « Idées recettes »,  nous sommes bien loin d’une stratégie marketing pure et dure.

Le principal défi pour ceux qui souhaitent se lancer dans l’aventure Pinterest est donc de convertir du contenu informatif sous forme d’images qui attirent l’œil. Donner envie d’en savoir plus sur ce qu’il y derrière une simple photo (bien qu’attirante) peut nous renvoyer au défi de résumer un message en 140 caractères.  Alors, à vos punaises !

Julia Locatelli

Frogs in your buttocks on April Fish!?

It is that time of year again: April Fools’ Day. No one exactly knows how April Fools’ Day originated. Some believe that it first appeared in the Middle Ages, when New Year’s Day was celebrated on 25 March in most European towns and lasted for a week, ending on 1 April. When the French started celebrating New Year’s Day on 1 January, they made fun of those who started the new year on the fourth month of the year. Nowadays, April Fools’ Day is not a national holiday in any country; however, many people play tricks and hoaxes on each other on that particular day. So what exactly does it mean? How is it celebrated globally? And do brands and media get involved in April Fools’ Day hoaxes? Here is a little inspection on the day of practical jokes across borders.

In France, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK, people mostly get a kick out of playing practical jokes on friends and family, even in the smallest ways. In Spain, 1 April is just like any other day. No particular celebration or hoaxes take place and April Fools’ Day is not a concept Spaniards are familiar with. However, in Spanish speaking countries there is a similar day on December 28, called “El Dia de los Santos Inocentes” (Innocents’ Day). It is observed in a similar way and it is all about the jokes, too. “Aprilscherz” or “April joke”, is very popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, especially in the south of the German-speaking areas. On April Fools’ Day or the day after, some people ask each other “Na, wurdest DU auch schon in den April geschickt?” which means “So, and who sent YOU into April?”.

In France, it is customary to discretely tape a paper fish on people’s backs; something that is in fact mostly done by children. The idea is to not get caught while doing this and to make the person who is walking around with a fish on their back look like a fool. When a person falls for the joke or hoax, the French simply say “Poisson d’avril”, which literally means “April fish”. In the Netherlands, the symbol for April Fools’ Day is another animal: the frog. When someone is pranked, the Dutch yell “1 april, kikker in je bil (die er nooit meer uit wil)”, a rhyme that literally means “1 April, frog in your buttocks (who will never come out again)”.

In some countries, even the media and brands get involved. In 2004, Petit Bateau (understand “Little Boat” in French), a children’s clothing brand in France, gave away free paper fish to children for them to tape to people’s backs. In Spain, on the night of Innocent’s Day, there is a TV show about celebrities being pranked, but other media do not pay any attention to this celebration.

The UK is probably the nation where the media gets involved the most. The most famous example took place in 1957. The BBC programme “Panorama” aired an item that described the harvest of spaghetti in Switzerland. The broadcast showed local villagers picking spaghetti from trees and people were made to believe that spaghetti actually grows on trees. The next day, hundreds of viewers called the BBC to see where they could purchase these spaghetti trees. Another famous example from the UK is a BBC radio broadcast in 1976. A scientist was interviewed and he stated that the planets Jupiter and Pluto would align at 09.47am exactly. This would decrease gravity and those who jumped in the air at the right moment would experience something amazing. One woman later declared that she had floated in her room with 11 other people.

In Canada, the media and brands love to play practical jokes. Last year, Starbucks introduced Mobile Pour. This app would allow customers who could not or did not want to find a local Starbucks to summon a Starbucks barista. The barista would then deliver coffee to the customer on a scooter. The article published on Starbucks’ website was written by April F., which almost immediately gave away the joke. Furthermore, Canadian local newspapers especially like to run April Fools’ Day stories. For example, the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix featured an article that the city could become the first to offer flavoured tap water on special occasions.

 “Het Jeugdjournaal” is a popular 10-minute news segment especially for children in the Netherlands. This programme is famous for April Fools’ Day hoaxes. Last year, Het Jeugdjournaal had a news segment about children doing chores to raise money for their schools. The video showed 11-year old children doing heavy manual labour. At the end of the video, the expert mentioned a website offering more information on the project where the programme revealed it was an April Fools’ Day hoax. Nevertheless, the programme received quite some complaints from concerned parents declaring child labour is forbidden in this nation. Another famous example took place in 1969. The Netherlands’ most watched public news programme, “NOS-journaal”, broadcasted a piece of news explaining that people who did not pay TV and radio licensing would be tracked by auditors with scanners. The only way to escape the auditors was by wrapping your TV with tinfoil. The next day, tinfoil was completely sold out in the Netherlands.

In 2004, US company Google found out that people are actually quite alert not to be pranked on April Fools’ Day. On 1 April of that year, Google announced that it wanted to compete with Hotmail by introducing Google’s free email service Gmail. Users would get 1GB storage, which was quite a high standard offering for 2004. By deduction, people thought that Gmail was an April Fools’ Day joke. It was not until 2 April that people started to realise that Gmail was actually real.

April Fools’ Day might not be celebrated in the same way across borders, but it is still apparent that most people enjoy hoaxes, jokes and pranks on the day of laughter or on similar days. As a brand or media outlet, creating an April Fools’ Day hoax can generate enormous attention and might be a smart way to come across as cheeky and daring, especially in an era when social media and interaction are the key to truly engaging with customers.

Whether you are playing tricks on your family or on the masses: happy pranking this April Fools’ Day!

By Malou Tulleken