The Use of Cultural and Artistic Events and Contexts in Companies’ Communication Strategies

Jorge Cerveira Pinto jpinto@agenciainova.pt

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Abstract

For some time now, companies have been using cultural and artistic events and contexts as part of their communication strategies. Presently, we can identify several trends in terms of mentality and lifestyle that support the idea that arts and culture are the most important means in helping companies to get inspired, getting support to company’s decisions, helping new business ideas, new products, new communication concepts, new ways of relationship between clients and companies. By identifying this trends we will also explicit the capacities and conditions that allow arts and culture to be used by companies in their communication strategies, does contributing to a more efficient and profitable use of them.

The Oracle of Delphi

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It’s about individuals. Do countries set trends? Do regions? Do governments? Do brands? Do consumers? The answer is: yes. All of them do.

Definition of a consumer trend: “A manifestation of something that has unlocked or newly serviced an existing (and hardly ever changing) consumer need, desire, want, or value”. ‘unlockers' being anything from a change in societal norms and values, to a breakthrough in technology, to a rise in prosperity trends can and will emerge all over the place.

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In the end, it's all about ideas, ideas that translate — to technologies, to revolutions, to products—and ideas that spread. Which brings us to the following: larger entities like countries or cultures or brands that are setting trends are of course all dependent on individuals who set things in motion.

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Big Trend Themes (source: trendwatching.com)

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"The EXPECTATION ECONOMY is an economy inhabited by

experienced, well-informed consumers who have a long list

of high expectations that they apply to each and every good,

service and experience on offer.

Their expectations are based on years of self-training in

hyperconsumption, and on the biblical flood of new-style,

readily available information sources, curators and BS filters,

Which all help them track down and expect not just basic

standards of quality, but the 'best of the best'."

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FREE LOVE: the ongoing rise of free, valuable stuff that's available to

consumers online and offline.

FREE LOVE thrives on an all-out war for consumers' ever-scarcer attention and

the resulting new business models and marketing techniques, but also

benefits from the ever-decreasing costs of producing physical goods, the

post-scarcity dynamics of the online world (and the related avalanche of free

content created by attention-hungry members of GENERATION C), the many

C2C marketplaces enabling consumers to swap instead of spend, and an

emerging recycling culture.

Expect FREE LOVE to become an integral if not essential part of doing business.

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STATUS STORIES: As more brands (have to) go niche and therefore tell stories

that aren't known to the masses, and as experiences and non-consumption-

related expenditures take over from physical (and more visible) status symbols,

consumers will increasingly have to tell each other stories to achieve a status

dividend from their purchases. Expect a shift from brands telling a story, to brands

helping consumers tell status-yielding stories to other consumers.

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4. 5.

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ECO-ICONIC | "Eco-friendly goods and services sporting bold,

iconic markers and design, helping their eco-conscious

owners show off their eco-credentials to their peers.

At the heart of ECO-ICONIC is a status shift: many consumers

are eager to flaunt their green behavior and possessions

because there are now millions of other consumers who are

actually impressed by green lifestyles.”

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OFF=ON | More and more, the offline world (a.k.a. the real

world, meatspace or atom-arena) is adjusting to and

mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, from tone

of voice to product development to business processes to

customer relationships. Get ready to truly cater to an

ONLINE OXYGEN generation even if you’re in ancient sectors

like automotive or fast moving consumer goods.

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PERKONOMICS: A new breed of perks and privileges, added to brands' regular

offerings, is satisfying consumers’ ever-growing desire for novel forms of status

and/or convenience, across all industries. The benefits for brands are equally

promising: from escaping commoditization, to showing empathy in turbulent

times.

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To be a greedy pig or a free cone, that’s the question

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GENERATION G | "Captures the growing importance of 'generosity' as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy—and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care—the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers.

In fact, for many, sharing a passion and receiving recognition have

replaced 'taking' as the new status symbol. Businesses should

follow this societal/behavioral shift, however much it may oppose

their decades-old devotion to me, myself and I.

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TRYVERTISING | "A new breed of product placement in the real world, integrating your goods and services into daily life in a relevant way, so that consumers can make up their minds based on their experience, not your messages."

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“ In a consumer society dominated by experiences in the (semi) public domain

-- often branded, designed, themed and curated to the nines --

INSPERIENCES represent consumers' desire to bring top-level experiences

into their domestic domain."

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SELLSUMERS: Whether it’s selling their insights to corporations, hawking their creative output to fellow consumers, or renting out unused assets, consumers will increasingly become SELLSUMERS, too. Made possible by the online revolution’s great democratization of demand and supply, and further fueled by a global recession that leaves consumers strapped for cash, the SELLSUMERS phenomenon is yet another manifestation of the mega-trend that is 'consumer participation'.

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Good times or bad times, it’s actually somewhat up to you

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INNOVATION JUBILATION | There will never be a shortage of

smart new ventures, brands, goods and services that deliver

on consumers’ wants and needs. And if those wants and

needs currently revolve around practicality, efficiency and

responsibility, and less about traditional luxury, splurging

and upgrading, then that’s what brands should deliver on.

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Q: “What about entertainment in difficult times?” A: People will look for diversions, for (affordable) experiences that will make them temporarily forget any kind of misery that has come their way.