Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Web Secret 390: 8 seconds

8 seconds.

According to a YouTube video, that is the attention span of Gen Z, aka the generation that comes after the Millenials.

There is no agreement on the exact dates of the generation with some sources starting it at the mid or late 1990s and no clearly defined end point. (But when I eat in a restaurant and watch a 2 year old swiping an app on an iPad - I tend to think that a kid like that belongs to an as of yet undefined generation of the future.) For the sake of simplicity, think high school and middle school kids.

The characteristics of this group are being defined as I write this, but the video takes a stab at it:


Key points from the video - in case you don't have the attention span for it:

They are younger than Google - the first generation to have grown up with social media.

To them, 30 seconds is an eternity.

They live through their devices. Many of them use up to four simultaneously (laptop, tablet, cell phone, iWatch.)

They were born into a post 9/11 world. Millenials grew up in a time of plenty. But these kids lived through a recession. They witnessed their parents and Millenial siblings``````` struggle with a crumbling job market and college debt.

Accordingly, they do not have much faith in experts, they want to get the info from Google, or better yet, their peers. And they plan on paying of their debts ASAP.

They are highly connected and collaborative. More resourceful than Millenials and even more entrepreneurial.

They are not bound by conventional ideas of career, instead they dream up and implement career in their bedrooms (none of them use a desk.) They endorse the power of DIY (do it yourself.)

They are activists who want to make a difference in the world.

Many of them will live to see the year 2100.

Imagine that.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Web Secret 389: Classic Arts Showcase

Once upon a time, a multi millionaire from North Dakota noticed that the majority of Americans were rarely exposed to the world’s greatest performances.

In 1981 when MTV began airing short 3 to 5-minute rock music videos in succession, with no schedule and no particular order of play, the millionaire came to believe this format would be ideal for presenting classic arts performances – one in which viewers could see a wide variety of short performance videos, each of which would be a rare and unexpected gem.

And that's no fairy tale.

The visionary Lloyd Rigler did just that, launching Classic Arts Showcase in 1994. The program offers the greatest recorded performances of all time, at no cost to the viewer, and with no commercial interruptions. Today, it is available in more than 50 million homes, and can be streamed 24/7.

It's a buffet of dance, orchestra, opera, and film performances, from all over the world, and from every era since the invention of the moving picture.

Thank you, Mr. Rigler.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Web Secret 388: StoryCorps

You probably know that I write my posts in advance of their publication date.

As I sit here, it is 9/11/15 and I want to tell you about StoryCorps.

StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 50,000 interviews from more than 80,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Why the 9/11 connection?

They aim to record one interview for every person who was killed on 9/11. Some of these interviews have been transformed into animated shorts.

Here is one:



I know you get it.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Web Secret 387: Boom!

Women's cosmetics.

I glaze over. Overwhelmingly, cosmetics are marketed by 20 year old models and celebrities who are over Botoxed and plastic.

I am so sick of it.

So when I came across Boom! (and I wish I could remember how I came across Boom,) it was so refreshing, so different that I stopped everything to analyze its greatness.

And share it with you, because believe it or not, anyone can use some of the ideas behind this website to market their services or products.

1. Authentic - Cindy Joseph is a 60+ woman who has developed her line of cosmetics for older women. Yes, Cindy is attractive and models but she looks like a real person. And she uses other older women as models for her products. I believe her.

2. Aspirational - Cindy has a fantastic tagline for her line: "It's about women. it's about beauty. it's about time." Who doesn't want to be that confident, natural, beautiful, and most importantly visible older person?

3. Accessible - Cindy markets her products with short videos. Nothing technically fancy - but Cindy has written a great script, which she delivers with conviction. You could make a video like that.

4. Disruptive - As if it wasn't enough to own her age, Cindy has some revolutionary ideas about makeup and the older woman. Some of them are:
  • Women older than 50 tend to lose definition in their eyebrows. Just go with that. Don’t recreate the brows you had in your 20s.
  • Tinted moisturizers don’t work.
  • Do not wear any eye shadow at all. (Gasp!)
  • The older you get, the less makeup you should wear.
Cindy - well done.

Boom!