Communication is no longer about just businesses talking to anyone; it’s about people talking to people. Forget who’s on the end of the conversation. This is about where it all starts. The future of communications is C2C, or consumer2consumer or people2people.

Individuals, whether buying for business or themselves, are talking to and listening to other consumers. They are setting the agenda, leading the conversation, sharing their views, recommending the best products and deciding whether brands are successful or not.

No longer are consumers just taking in information corporations and brands are spewing at them. Now they question and make brands earn their loyalty. Because of social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, consumers are now quick to ask brands: What can you do for me?

Case in point: Take the fatal example of Netflix. When Netflix raised prices last summer, customers became infuriated, took to their blogs and Twitter accounts, and raised hell. Netflix was humiliated and has yet to fully recover from the CRM crisis that has plagued it ever since. Instead of being accountable to its customers, Netflix let Facebook comments go unanswered, and the company’s president responded with an answer about profits rather than speak to its customers directly in a level manner. Millions of customers felt betrayed and gave Netflix quite a scare by cutting service, resulting in its stock prices taking a 60 percent nosedive.

So, our challenge is getting people talking about brands in a positive way, not getting brands to talk to people. With so many touch points, brands must move away from the traditional 1960s formula of one-sided information and start having conversations with consumers. Consumers want brands to be authentic and have a real human voice they can speak with when something goes wrong (or right).

Advertisers are in complete denial if they think they can continue with the same tired, one-sided formula. Brands need to have authentic conversations with consumers if they want to survive. Consumers are talking to each other, so why aren’t brands following?

Fiona Menzies is managing director at gyro Dubai.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

It’s pretty scary…the stuff of nightmares. Many have attributed the popularity of zombies in our culture to not-so-latent fears about the economy or terrorism, suggesting that these ghouls symbolize a loss of control. It also has been suggested that we see ourselves in these mindless creatures for how quickly our appetites run amok.

I see it as a metaphor for the effect that social media is having on more and more of us every day. No longer able to process information, we rip through new media, biting and chewing and spitting out content, barely digesting any of it. Ravenously we move on to the next. Indeed, barely chewed facts, items and stories pass through us onto the web like offal. Our constant tweets and updates are mere bits and pieces, carrying links like so many worms, each containing the shred of something devoured earlier. Or something like that.

I myself am turning. Last night I tried reading an article in a magazine. I found myself jumping over paragraphs, skipping entire chunks, gluttonous. Unsatisfied, I started another article. Then another. Within minutes I was in front of my laptop lapping up more, more and more! Already an addictive personality, once I taste blood, I cannot stop gorging. The more I feast, the less I retain. A vicious cycle if ever there was one.

Advertising was a major precursor to all this. Having to manage narrative and sell strategy in 30 seconds or less, we in the ad business all become conditioned to making and receiving short-form content. “Nobody reads body copy!”

Implied is the notion that we are no longer doing a good job at listening and learning. On the other hand, maybe we’re doing a terrific job. Remember the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics speed-reading program? Zipping through pages was considered a great gift, almost magical.

As a species we’ve adapted to a world of streaming content, chewing through it more and more urgently. More channels. More screens. More friends. More, more, more! We are content zombies!

Because, as one of the remaining mortals exclaims during George A. Romero’s remake of his own classic zombie film Night of the Living Dead, “We are them.”

Obviously, then, creating meaningful content (stuff that gets digested) is extremely difficult. Yet, when we do manage to create humanly relevant ideas, it’s ever so satisfying. Like a shot to the brain!

Steffan Postaer is Executive Creative Director of gyro San Francisco

Follow him @Steffan1

He blogs regularly at Gods of Advertising.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

As every b2b agency will know, the Internet’s innate sharabilility is returning us to a community-focused society that cherishes “we” over “me”. This networked economy affects contemporary marketing hugely. With people more open to building closer connections with brands than ever before, brands must be more human and open to co-creation of the marketing messaging and the product simultaneously with their customers to put the aforementioned honesty into practice. Tapping into the collective experiences, skills and ingenuity of hundreds of millions of people around the world is a complete departure from the inward looking, producer- versus-consumer innovation model so common to corporations around the world. And there are many a b2b agency out there still following in this vein.

Brands need to go beyond loyalty to establish mutually beneficial networks to give customers what they want; otherwise the Internet will allow them to find another route to get what they want. After all, customers are becoming competitors and brands are better off “employing” them by pulling them into their network. Brands are sitting on a bed of emotional human beings eager to be a part of brand creation.

In 1926, Henry Ford instituted a controversial shift change at his growing automotive empire: the weekend. To the ire of many other manufacturers, Ford closed shop on Saturdays, giving his workers the new-fangled ritual of two days off a week. His move was the high point of a short-lived historic experiment. Remember the weekend, when men and women valiantly tried to keep work and home separate, equal and unadulterated?

Now, of course, we work anywhere, and most of the time. Work is in our pocket, spilling into homes, weekends, vacations and bedrooms. Nearly 40 percent of mobile workers with PDAs now wake up at night at times to check them, at least occasionally, according to a quarterly survey of mobile enterprise workers by iPass.

Does this blurring of boundaries signify an easy return to a pre-industrial past, when we lived over the store or on the farm? Are we sliding seamlessly back into integrated lives? No. For most of human history, work and home were blended due to the restriction of experience. Geographic distance and the rhythms of sun and season limited the circumference of our work and home lives. Trade, like war, ceased at sunset. Entire lives centered on the same corner of earth.

Today we multitask in nanoseconds on a global scale, moving restlessly in thought and body across the planet. Forty percent of offices lie vacant on any given day, according to Deloitte. Bankers shift their hours to the midnight darkness of each monetary mess. We rarely speak of anything being “too far away” anymore. “Long weeks within a single community are unusual; a full day within a single neighborhood is becoming rare,” writes sociologist Kenneth Gergen in The Saturated Self. The @Work State of Mind arises from an expansion of experience.

What is the impact of these extraordinary changes? Surely, we are light-footed and nimble-minded. And yet always-on work forces us to constantly negotiate what we are doing, individually and collectively. Who changes the diaper when both spouses return from work exhausted? How do you sync a team spread across six time zones and three alternative work arrangements? Throughout the day, the average worker switches tasks on average every three minutes; half the time, they are interrupting themselves, according to studies by Gloria Mark, a professor of Informatics at the University of California Irvine. Perhaps this is why the @Work study reveals that among today’s decision-makers, a sense of accomplishment correlates with an ability to separate work and personal life. Without at least a few borderlines, we cannot find terra firma in an unshackled world.

A constant negotiation of attention is our foremost challenge. At heart, paying attention well is a matter of judicious boundary making. Focus, or “orienting” in science parlance, is akin to a spotlight of the mind, allowing us to filter what’s secondary and go deep into thought. Awareness opens our sensory floodgates, making us sensitive to our wider surroundings. Finally, executive attention fuels our abilities to plan, prioritize and weigh conflicting data. Attention isn’t singular, scientists are now discovering. It’s a multifaceted skill set that is a secret to thriving in an always-on era. How we attend shapes how we rest, play, create, manage, communicate and love.

Hopping from task to task, juggling interruptions, layering time is our default work style, although research conclusively shows that we cannot multitask very well. Beyond simple tasks such as folding laundry and watching television, we are often slow, prone to error and intellectually half-asleep when we multitask. And those who do it the most tend to do it most poorly, according to a 2009 study by Stanford University scientist Clifford Nass. The habit trains them to be “suckers for irrelevancy,” says Nass. Skimming, surfing, task switching are crucial “literacies” of this new age. But they must be balanced by time for deep focus, analysis, reflection and—dare I say it? —calm. @Work needn’t be a monotone state of mind.

Remember the weekend? It varied the pace of life, placing a boundary around something worthwhile. Put in place to protect people from the burden of never-ending work, over time the weekend, nevertheless, came to exemplify the rigidity of the boundary-centric Industrial Age. Now liberated from the confines of space and time, will we be remembered by future generations as the people who forgot the art of the limit?

Maggie Jackson is an award-winning columnist and author of Distracted

We know executives are busy. That’s not news. But, we didn’t know how and where decision-makers are receiving information. How is it influencing their decisions, and how do they feel about it?

If you are a brand looking to communicate with these people, these are the questions that you need answered. These are insights that are necessary to be humanly relevant in an age of constant information.

That’s why gyro partnered with Forbes Insights to interview 543 top executives. We wanted to understand decision-makers better.

Along the way a clear picture developed. It was a picture that we did not expect.

Contrary to the negative perceptions about being “always on,” this new reality is having a positive effect on people’s work and personal lives.

Ninety-eight percent of executives send work-related e-mails outside of the typical “9-to-5 work week.” Despite this, they said that they feel in control and able to enjoy their personal time.

Only 15 percent said that they struggle to separate work from valuable personal/family time; and 84 percent feel empowered and well prepared to make business decisions.

People no longer feel rushed to make business decisions, instead valuing the freedom and flexibility that this “@Work State of Mind” allows.

We also found that people’s private lives are playing a much bigger role in business decisions. The study shows that more than three-quarters (77 percent) cite personal values as very or critically important to their decision-making.

gyro’s pursuit, as a B2C and B2B global ideas shop, is to understand this @Work State of Mind better than anyone else in the world, so that we can best ignite emotions.

These findings show how today’s independently minded and highly connected executive looks, thinks and feels. See the full study at www.gyro.com/atwork.

We hope this deeper understanding of the @Work State of Mind will inspire you.

What a time to be alive!

Christoph Becker is ceo+cco of gyro, the global ideas shop.

A keen understanding from every b2b agency into how these devices are used across the business world will pay dividends in audience engagement and client ROI. We have been researching the effect that such mobilisation of technology has had on the business world in our recent @Work State of Mind report, and the findings highlight an appetite to use mobile tech to its fullest among key business decision makers. 84% of those polled felt better prepared to make decisions because of the freedom it gives them to work anywhere and at anytime.

Every creative agency should look to utilise this willingness to blur the line between personal and professional to develop campaigns solely built for mobile and social communication platforms. Not only will this strategy grow engagement in a world increasingly hostile to brand messaging, but it will help push the boundaries in the global b2b industry and establish each b2b agency as a leading force in the sector.

Women are almost completely responsible for Pinterest’s success—according to Inside Network’s AppData. In fact, 97 percent of the site’s users are women.

Women trust recommendations from Pinterest more than any other platform, per BlogHer’s annual study on women and social media. Eighty-one trust Pinterest versus Facebook (67 percent) and Twitter (73 percent).

Why? Because women trust other women in their circles more than anyone else. As a result, 47 percent of women bought something based off a recommendation from Pinterest where as only 33 percent bought because of a recommendation on Facebook.

It’s no surprise that brands have been jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon in troves and have seen their followers grow over night. Many products are getting more exposure than they ever could on Facebook and Twitter, and it’s relatively easy to see why.

To sum it up, here are four reasons why Pinterest is superior to Facebook when targeting women:

1. It is simple, clean and fuss free. This makes browsing delightful and easy: two main components to marketing success. Because of Pinterest’s visually appealing layout, consumers just see a picture with very little text. Facebook on the other hand is very word heavy and can turn off potential consumers.

2. Marketers have an open window into consumers’ interests. They can easily see a gold mine of information on potential customers. For example, an interior design marketing team can see who is influential in the ‘home decor’ section. They can then start following and see what trends people are repining and liking.

3. It’s relaxing. Pinterest creates a curated experience for its users in a fairly anonymous way. No constant updating of feeds, no overload of people’s lives. On Pinterest it’s about enjoying your hobbies—not having to like someone’s status or wish anyone a Happy Birthday. It lets users share experiences in a negative-free zone, briefly comment and move on without the weight of Facebook etiquette.

4. Brands have found cool ways to use it. Martha Stewart Living and Kate Spade are pinning like crazy with overwhelming response by adding more than 19,000 and 34,000 followers respectively. Kotex even has bragging rights for hosting one of the first Pinterest campaigns. The brand found 50 “inspiring” women in Israel and looked at what they were pinning on Pinterest. Then, Kotex sent the women a virtual gift. If she pinned the gift, she then got a real one in the mail that was based on something she had pinned. The result: success—nearly 100% of the women pinned and commented on their gifts.

All told, Pinterest has brought women together online in a way never seen before and tapped into an extremely influential consumer market without even trying. In many ways, this makes Pinterest genuinely more appealing than Facebook and far more trendy among women consumers who get the picture.

Melissa Pitts is a marketing intern at gyro. She blogs regularly at Newstaco.com, FlamingTortillas.com and Americas Quarterly.
Follow her at @mpittsm

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Being creative requires far more than original thinking.

Being creative means that your idea needs to be able to be executed and produced. It needs to engage, be humanly relevant and ultimately drive the response that’s expected of it.

Being creative means knowing how your mind works and how to spot and best capture those flashes of genius. How many of us keep a moleskin note pad or sticky notes by our beds, just ready for when inspiration strikes?

Coming up with creative concepts that aren’t bound by existing thinking is an important aspect of ideation, but the world is full of Walter Mitty-like characters whose ideas are never really strong enough to go anywhere. Moving from the ignition point of an idea to making it happen and pushing it live across the world requires far more than the idea itself.

We’re all competitive when it comes to who has the best idea, be it a hidden trait or an overt characteristic. Competition drives us, it’s a good thing, and it’s pervasive in our society. However, one of the reasons team sports are so popular in our culture is that they provide individuals with the opportunity to compete and cooperate at the same time. At gyro, we believe nurturing an inclusive culture where both competition and cooperation can thrive provides the best setting for being consistently creative.

We have actively embraced creative collaboration. To be creative and innovative is everyone’s responsibility at gyro, not just the creative department. Solving modern business problems in an ever-changing digital landscape requires a team that’s equipped with a mind-set as eclectic and well connected as the world itself. There’s no room for creative apartheid anymore. Anyone can come up with an idea, at any place, at any time.

So whether you believe it’s possible to be consistently creative or not, one thing’s for sure: Great ideas require something far more precious than original thinking alone. They require teamwork.

Peter Davis is executive creative director at gyro Manchester.

Follow Peter on Twitter @digitaldavis.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

The iPod was introduced in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. I love the evolution of the products. And the new iPad 3 delivers phenomenal technological advancements including 2048-by-1536 resolution, 44 percent greater color saturation and 3.1 million pixels all powered by the new A5X chip. However, I can’t help but wonder what the next new product will be. I can’t help but wonder what this iconic company will introduce, and I can’t wait to see how it will impact the world economy from manufacturing to sales and marketing.

More intriguing, I wonder how Apple will keep the legacy of Mr. Jobs alive. The stock price is still there. In fact, with the iPad 3, Apple broke the $600-per-share mark, and sales are stronger than ever (3 million tablets sold as of print), but how long will it stay there? Will Apple deliver on Jobs’ wish to be a company that is continuously inventing, continuously evolving—and will the company that lives on Infinite Loop live up to his wishes and live on into infinity?

Why am I so curious and eager to see what’s next? Maybe Apple has spoiled me. But I bet I’m not the only one anticipating what’s really next. Yes, a lot of us have learned to wait to experience the new product before we comment (and, as it turns out, I wrote this post on my iPad 2 the same day the new iPad was made available to the public). I don’t need to wait and experience the new product. Virtually all of us knew that the 4G product would be amazing. I’m sure I’ll like the next iteration of the iPad once I get my hands on one, but really, what’s next?

Why do we care so much about Apple’s next new technology? Because only once or twice in a generation does a company, a culture, a movement come along that changes the world, improves humanity and impacts the world’s economy. And as a marketer, I am eager to see how it will impact the marketing landscape.

I listened to the announcement and watched the unveiling of the new iPad, and I saw the immediate impact it had on three other company’s stock prices (their suppliers). This started me thinking about the impact that this company has on my world and my profession, but then I realized the impact that it has on the entire world’s economy—suppliers, shippers, app developers, e-commerce, the music and movie industries, and manufacturers (of everything: headsets, phone cases, chip makers, processors, glass, etc.).

Further, I recall the Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson and how a child in a developing country picked up an iPad and inherently knew how to use it, even after having never interacted with such technology before. I can’t wait to see what Apple does for the advancement and education of today’s youth. I know it’s coming as I’ve seen the announcement about Apple, textbooks and universities (Apple and NYU are expected to make a statement this month).

So, Tim Cook, we are waiting. I missed it at the unveiling of the new iPad, I missed Jobs saying, “Oh, and one more thing …” I hope you continue the trajectory of this incredible American company, but most of all I hope you keep the tradition of surprising and delighting us and keep saying “one more thing …”

Keith Turco is president of gyro New York

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

He gives plenty of texture around the comment (how agencies overcompensate for various deficiencies by stressing digital, etc.), but one can take the comment at face value and still glean plenty, especially in the wake of Steve Jobs’ recent passing.

From day one, Jobs understood how much technology depended on the human touch, figuratively and literally. And that if there were a one-word catch-all, it wouldn’t be “digital” but rather “design.” And design, Jobs said, was not merely how good something looked but how well it worked.

To him (and for us), digital was more than just tools but extensions of our limbs and imaginations. Not hardware and software. Lifeware! Sight, feel and now voice are the operating principles that drive Apple. Not “technology solutions,” a phrase, like the word digital, that couldn’t sound more inhuman if it tried.

Oh, the irony! For the last decade or longer, we marketing geniuses have gone great guns trying to bolster our digital creds, doing everything in our power to look savvy, often at the expense of working savvy. We learned the hard way that flashy microsites were likely meaningless to our clients’ businesses. And hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube often meant winning a popularity contest without any prize. We realized that brands aren’t social just because they’re on Facebook and Twitter. And so on …

The costs have been tremendous—to us and to our clients. But make no mistake, because clients are as culpable as we are. The clamoring for digital came from all corners. I’d argue that social media (another techie term) has exploded the myth of digital, reminding us tweet by tweet that people are and always will be living, breathing human beings; in other words: analog.

However painful the learning curve, this is good news for those of us toiling in Ad Land. Agencies are at their best when we put ideas before clients and, dare I say, technology.

Steffan Postaer is Executive Creative Director of gyro San Francisco

Follow him @Steffan1

He blogs regularly at Gods of Advertising.

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network