Many of the founding fathers of Hip-Hop are now in their 50’s and show the tell-tell signs of aging. Sagging midriffs protrude from their baggy trousers and greying hairs can be seen underneath their baseball caps. It is perhaps no surprise that Hip-Hop appears to be going through a mid life crisis.

Make no mistake; Hip-Hop has always had conflicts of identity and had to fight to justify its existence. From its earliest days, Rap music and Hip-Hop culture was first ignored and then reviled by the mainstream. The story of Hip-Hop is that of David triumphing over Goliath. It tells the tale of how the most disenfranchised and demonized members of society, African-American youths from the poorest neighbourhoods, conquered popular culture and refashioned it in their image.

Follow The Leader

When Barack Obama was elected as the 44^th President of the United States, it felt as though Hip-Hop had made it from the Crack House to the White House. But this cultural victory was somewhat unexpected. Like a challenger brand that becomes the market leader, Hip-Hop is slowly coming to terms with the fact that it is now the king of the castle and no longer the dirty rascal.

As Rap music’s leading proponents preside over their multi-million dollar empires, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, there’s no denying that Hip-Hop culture is part of the establishment. In many ways, this exemplifies the American dream, but it is something of a problem within a culture that is more comfortable being the outsider shouting: “Burn Hollywood Burn”.

Hip-Hop on Trial

This crisis of identity was played out last month at the ‘Hip-Hop on Trial’ debate held at the Barbican in London. It featured rappers such as KRS-One, ?uestlove, Q-Tip and Estelle, alongside intellectuals including Michael Eric Dyson, Tricia Rose and dream hampton. Even the legendary civil rights campaigner Jesse Jackson was present as a slightly surprising advocate of Hip-Hop.

The debate raged around Hip-Hop’s portrayal of women and use of the ‘N’ word. These are two topics that have sparked controversy for decades, but are even more loaded issues given the influence that Hip-Hop culture has worldwide today.

Comparisons were also made between ‘commercial’ Hip-Hop (seen as an extension of corporate America), in contrast to ‘conscious’ Hip-Hop, (as practiced by the likes of Public Enemy). But few were willing to acknowledge that conscious Rap isn’t generally what sells. What sells is what’s cool. Being cool doesn’t always equate to doing the right thing. In fact, it is often quite the opposite.

Cool Rules

In ‘Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude’ authors Dick Pountain and David Robins describe ‘cool’ as “a permanent state of private rebellion”. They trace the roots of this attitude back to ancient Yoruba and other West African cultures, illustrating how it was deployed by Black slaves in America as a means of resistance against oppression by white slave owners.

In today’s society there are many variations of cool that have emerged from different subcultures, such as Hipsters. However, the character of cool that can be found in urban street culture often displays four features:

1. Nihilism: The general rejection of established social conventions and beliefs, especially of morality and religion.
2. Anti-authoritarianism: rebellion against the establishment and authority figures.
3. Materialism: Concern with material wealth and possessions at the expense of spiritual and intellectual values.
4. Hedonism: Devotion, especially a self-indulgent one, to pleasure and happiness as a way of life.

These ‘isms’ are recognizable themes in raps by 50 Cent, Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z. However, they stand in stark contrast to the notion of ‘true Hip-Hop’ reflected in The Hip-Hop Declaration of Peace that was presented to the United Nations Organization on May 16th 2001.

This tension between what some see as the different cultures of Rap and Hip-Hop  lay at the heart of the ‘Hip-Hop on Trial’ debate. Although it was an entertaining spectacle, neither side landed a knockout blow.

The Art of Rap

Ice-T, although no stranger to controversy himself, decided to take a different route when making his movie documentary ‘Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap”. Instead of getting bogged down in ideological debates about language, or Hip-Hop vs. Rap culture, he simply asked many of the world’s best rappers to explain how they craft their lyrics. The result is an extraordinary insight into the passions and motivations of these modern day poets.

The film illustrates that the best rappers articulate the contradictory and multi-faceted realities of life with breathtaking intensity and eloquence. Stripped of all music, the a cappella raps delivered by the likes of Kanye West, Eminem – and perhaps most powerfully – Joe Budden, demonstrate the true art of creating something from nothing.

Having seen Ice-T’s evocative film, I am reassured that although it may be experiencing a mid-life crisis, Hip-Hop is not dead, it’s growing up.

As many parts of the UK prepare to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, it feels as if nostalgia is back in vogue. Many trappings of the festivities have a timeless feel to them – Union Jacks, Scones, and bunting – but as we all know, Britain has been transformed over the last 60 years.

Many of the reasons for this transformation have been well documented. These include breakthroughs in science and medicine; rapid advancements in computer and mobile technologies; popular music and culture; globalization; deregulation and the birth of the Internet have all helped to reshape British society.

Another visible and often contentious driver of change has been migration. There’s no denying that some parts of Britain look very different today. What was once known as a cultural melting pot could now be renamed a remix culture.

We can point to historic moments such as the arrival of the Empire Windrush, which docked in Tilbury on 22 June 1948, carrying 493 passengers from Jamaica hoping to start a new life in the United Kingdom. But most changes are harder to track as they take place on a micro level and involve the daily interactions that occur among people of different cultures. I call these hidden histories.

My Hidden History

My parents came to the UK over 50 years ago. My father had been a teacher in his native country Nigeria, but because he was bright and ambitious, he was selected by his village and sent to England to study law. His plan was to qualify as a lawyer and return home to set up his legal practice. In the end, it took him over 20 years to complete this mission.

My mother came to Britain from her home on the outskirts of Montreux in Switzerland to learn English. She worked as an au pair and was living with a family in South London when she had what turned out to be a life-changing encounter on the London Underground with a lady carrying too many bags of shopping.

The lady, who happened to be Nigerian, was struggling with her bags as she disembarked from the tube. In a random (but not uncharacteristic) act of kindness, my mother offered to help her.

The two of them walked from the station to the apartment where the Nigerian lady lived. The lady insisted on returning my mother’s kindness by inviting her back for a meal at a later date.  My mother, who until this point had never known any black people, felt it would be rude to refuse, so she accepted the offer.

It turns out the Nigerian lady was a friend of my father. When she recounted the story to him later, she declared emphatically: ”I have met your future wife!”

Soon afterwards my mother received the invitation back to the flat for a meal. Not knowing quite what to expect, she arrived brandishing a bunch of flowers. However, when the door opened she was shocked to discover that her host for the evening was not the lady she had met before, but my father. Despite wanting to turn and run away, she stayed and had dinner with the man who would become her future husband.

My mother tells me that she will never forget the date of that first meeting: 22 November 1963. How can she be so sure? It was there that she first heard the news that President John F Kennedy had been assassinated.

Half the story has never been told

Stories like the one above form a tiny part of Britain’s hidden history, composed by ordinary people who weren’t kings or queens, musicians or movie stars. Taken together they form part of the broader historical narrative of Post-War Britain, highlighting how migration created unlikely encounters that helped shape the world we now inhabit.

Bob Marley sang, ‘half the story has never been told’. Over 30 years ago a group of parents, educationalists and community activists led by Len Garrison set out to correct this by forming the Black Cultural Archives. Since then, the BCA has been preserving the hidden histories of black people in the UK, amassing a collection of magazines, photographs, recordings and artifacts that bring these stories to life.

I’ve been involved with the BCA as a Trustee for the last few years working towards launching the first National Black Heritage Centre in Brixton. Having received over £5m for a capital building project from sources including the Heritage Lottery Fund, the BCA is well on the way to making this dream a reality by 2013.

This will be a significant milestone, because as the Diamond Jubilee reminds us, history is important. Britain is far from perfect, but there’s a lot to be proud of. Our unique remix culture has created an environment where Urban Mashup’s like me can feel at home. I think that’s worth celebrating.

Photo credits: Thanks to @MelKirk for the shot of the cakes. My Mum and Dad (middle image). My youngest son outside Raleigh Hall currently under construction and soon to be home for the BCA collection when complete in 2013 (bottom image).

I first met S.K.I.T.Z. Beatz when he was barely 17 years old. By this time he was already an accomplished urban music producer that had worked with many of the biggest names in the UK Grime scene.

When I met him, Skitz was facing another challenge. He was competing against 12 other candidates for a single job as a Music Executive at a record label I was in the process of setting up. This was a label with a difference. Established as a social enterprise, it was managed by a national charity and backed by a sizable chunk of Big Lottery funding.

Run by young people, for young people, the primary objective wasn’t to make masses of money. The aim was to nurture talent and provide real world experience of the music industry for young people at risk of drifting into drugs or crime, or those who were already involved but wanted a way out.

When we set about recruiting a small staff team to help run the label, a tiny ad in the NME for a part time Music Executive generated a massive response. We received over 250 applications. Shortlisting these down to two or three candidates based on written applications alone proved impossible. So, inspired by The Apprentice, we invited the top 12 along to our grimy office in Newham and set them a series of tests. Among the candidates was a young Skitz Beatz.

One of the challenges focused on negotiation skills. We sent the candidates out in pairs with instructions to return in an hour with the most valuable or interesting items they could retrieve from local stores. The only rules were they couldn’t pay for anything and they couldn’t steal them either.

When the teams returned, most of the items they brought back were of low value: a free cup of coffee, a sandwich, some fruit and stationary. Skitz returned with a three foot ornate antique statue that he’d talked a local furniture shop owner into letting him borrow. Needless to say, he got the job.

Learning the Hard Way

For all its good intentions, the record label never quite lived up to expectations. Although the young people involved learned valuable skills about the music industry, in many ways our approach was too old school and similar to that of the big labels.

Having received a grant to establish the enterprise, the idea was to create a sustainable business that could survive when the seed funding ran out. But when we tried to negotiate contracts with young artists that would secure future revenues, unsurprisingly many were reluctant to sign. Having a six foot three, foul mouthed, ex-football hooligan conduct the negotiations probably didn’t help, but that’s a story for another time.

After an eventful 15 months of live shows, studio recordings and a few releases, my career began taking me in a different direction, so I made the difficult decision to move on. A year or so after I left, I heard that the label had been wound up. The music industry had changed. It was a hard lesson to learn.

‘Survival of the viralist’

The talented Mr Beatz went on to work with the likes of Chipmunk, Wiley and Tinchy Stryder. In 2010 he composed music for Nike’s ‘Grid’ advertising campaign, he also became a music composer and supervisor on Eastenders: E20 – a spinoff from the main  show aimed at teenagers.

Not long ago, Skitz contacted me to let me know that he was producing an album for a young artist named Sara Silveira. I took the opportunity to ask him for his views on how the music industry has changed.

The Q&A was conducted via email (old school, I know). An edited transcript is reproduced below:

1.    Is Sara signed to a major label? If not, why not?

At this current time Sara isn’t signed to a major, this is largely due to the fact there are a plethora of lucrative ventures an independent artist can potentially exploit, if they know where to find them of course. Gone are the days of a songwriter needing to be labeled ‘major’ to get major work.

2.    How difficult is it these days for new artists to break through? How are you handling promotion?

As with any business, preparation and knowhow are essential. Also having some good people on your side whether on radio, television or online. The term ‘survival of the viralist’ sums up our promotional approach.

3.    How important are social media channels these days and which ones? You were an early adopter on MySpace, does it still have any role to play?

MySpace is a relic of the past known to many as the ‘MySpace days’. Social networks are evolving so fast that even Twitter isn’t safe. These channels are evidently disposable. Nobody would have predicted that all of their MySpace surfing time would culminate in untold wasted hours. Tom who?

4.    Who are the influencers that can make or break people these days? Is it still the A&R people at the labels, or are others now more important?

The public can make or break things. There is so much choice. This new technology savvy generation of kids cares far more for playground hysteria: YouTube views and Facebook ‘Like’ pages with a free 4 track EP rather than a billboard on the motorway.

5.    Do you see a role for brands and advertisers in promoting new artists? What are the challenges here?

The cross pollination of brands and artists is a formula that I will continue to utilise as long as there are companies willing to pay to place their product in association with an artist.

6.    Who are the people that you think have played the brand game well, and who has flopped?

I have to admire the way Dizzee Rascal has played the branding game. He successfully managed to stay in the public eye without the necessity to release music – or make a Celebrity Big Brother appearance.

Somebody I fear played the brand game wrong has to be Craig David. If he was my act, I would of ridden that ‘Bo Selecta’ wave all the way to the bank by laughing about it and not sulking about a little bit of comedy.

Young Guru’s Changing the Game

Although not as well known to the general public as Jay-Z, his producer Young Guru is an equally savvy operator. The video embedded below is worth watching, as he echoes Skitz’s comments and goes further, describing how some artists get enslaved by music labels, but how a new generation of acts like Jay-Z are turning the tables.

Nobody’s Slave

Years ago, getting signed was the only game in town, as the major labels held the keys to fame and fortune. For contestants on the X-Factor, little has changed. But Hip-Hop moguls and young guru’s are rewriting the rules, creating more direct relationships with fans and brands.

As digital technology continues to disrupt traditional business models, the ‘survival of the viralist’ will inevitably lead to more evolution in the music industry. It’s not yet clear who the winners will be, but whatever happens, watch out for Skitz Beatz.

In many cases new passions have replaced old ones. I now watch Vimeo and YouTube more than television; movies are streamed via the web to my home; Twitter is my daily news feed, and my children have become the celebrities whose lives I passionately care about.

My relationship with Hip-Hop has also changed over the years too.

From Planet Rock to the death of Hip-Hop

I’ve been a fan of Hip-hop since I was 11 years old when I first heard Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, Planet Patrol and Mann Parrish. I believe Hip-Hop has changed the world and I subscribe to the view that without it, Obama would not have become the first Black President of the United States.

Hip-Hop is now truly global. From Finland to Fiji, South Africa to Slovakia, every country adds a different spin, creating cultural hybrids that are shared, downloaded and remixed on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube.

On the surface, Hip-hop appears to be alive and well. Artists such as Jay-Z and Kanye West maintain their status as global brands and there is no shortage of interest in newer artists, as demonstrated by the hype surrounding Mac Miller and Drake.

But when the rapper Nas declared in 2006 that Hip-hop was dead, he articulated a feeling shared by many that the genre was losing its way.

Pop or Hip?

There have always been two major forces pulling Hip-Hop in opposite directions.

One is the pull towards commercialization and Pop music. Many years ago rappers such as LL Cool J, Will Smith and perhaps most infamously, Vanilla Ice discovered the riches to be gained by providing a ‘Lite’ crossover version of rap music for the masses. This trend has continued unabated ever since.

Inevitably, other artists have pushed in the opposite direction, producing music that deliberately sets out to offend the sensibilities of the mainstream. From NWA to Eminem and more recently Tyler the Creator, these artists have set out to say the unthinkable and break every taboo.

Much to the horror of parents the world over, young people lapped this up with even greater fervor than the crossover rappers, creating global stars out of Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z.

This has caused problems for the Black middle classes too. Civil rights activists and liberal intellectuals abhor the misogynist and defamatory language that permeates rap music. The debate over the use of the word ‘Nigga’ is testament to this. It represents a fault line between those who proclaim it as a term of empowerment, and those who believe it reinforces all the wrong stereotypes.

Hip-Hop as Pop Art

I’ve got to admit that some of the latest iterations of Hip-Hop have left me wondering where I stand in relation to the genre. For example, I recently came across a music video by Lil B entitled ‘Ho Suck My D**k’. This left me feeling that I perhaps have outgrown Hip-Hop.

At first I struggled to believe that this wasn’t a spoof, as the track appeared to have even less musical integrity than Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’. But on reflection, I wonder whether this represents Hip-Hop’s next evolution to the status of Pop Art.

Drinking from the Fountain

In 1917 when Marcel Duchamp’s exhibit of a urinal sent shock waves around the art establishment, he began a movement that would sever the links between Art and artistry. In time this would give birth to Pop Art, which would elevate the banal and kitsch elements of culture, most often through the use of irony.

Artists such as Tracey Emin have been influenced by this tradition, while others such as Damien Hirst have followed in the footsteps of Andy Warhol and adopted a factory approach to artistic production that pumps out large volumes of work, some of which is of questionable quality.

It’s possible that Lil B is taking Hip-Hop in a similar direction. His vulgar and uncoordinated rapping style is apparently deliberate. He claims to be making a virtue of being ‘Based’ or worthless through his use of the term ‘Based God’, a concept he propagates to his growing number of fans through multiple social media channels, including Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube and over 155 MySpace pages.

He has also reportedly recorded over 1,500 tracks, a level of output that would impress even Damien Hirst. Controversially for a rapper, he titled his fifth album ‘I’m Gay’, for which he received death threats.

Lil B has been described as one of a growing number of weird-o emcees that are deconstructing Hip-Hop and creating new mutations. I should be pleased about this. After all, mutation and adaption are vital to life and evolution.  But I can’t help wondering if Hip-Hop is eating itself because it is running out of new places to go. Or maybe I’m just getting too old for this…

A quick scan of Wikipedia is enough to highlight that ‘urban’ can be used in many contexts. Most of us will have heard an urban legend, used the Urban Dictionary, or possibly even studied urban theory covering topics such as urbanization, urban decay and urban regeneration.

The dictionary defines ‘urban’ as: 1) a characteristic of a city or town; 2) popular dance music of black origin, or 3) popular black culture in general. However, the brand that can probably claim most credit for popularizing the word is Urban Outfitters. Originally launched in 1970 as ‘The Free People’s Store’ in Philadelphia, it now operates a worldwide franchise in 140 countries and is valued at over $4 billion.

I’ve been using the term since the late 1980’s when, alongside my brother and a few friends, I founded a sound system called Urban Sounds Inc. We spent a good few years DJing in house parties and clubs across London. The music we played was of black origin, but back then the term urban wasn’t in common usage in this context.

Scroll forward 15 years or so and Choice FM went from being ‘The Home of Hip-Hop and R&B’ to ‘London’s No. 1 Urban Music Station’. This appropriation of urban has extended to other areas. We now have ‘Urban Explorers’ and a popular Tumblr site proudly defines itself as ‘We The Urban’.

The ambiguity surrounding the word seems to be part of its appeal. Urban feels more inclusive and less confrontational than Black. It is often used to convey a street attitude without mentioning the problematic issue of race. With CBS Outdoor adopting ‘Urban by Nature’ as its brand positioning, it seems the word has finally crossed over into the mainstream.

The Tanning Of America

Steve Stoute, founder of the marketing agency Translation has documented a similar trend in the US.  He refers to this in his recent book The Tanning Of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy.

Forbes outlines his argument that ‘hip-hop has established a new, pan-ethnic sort of cool – one with an appeal that reaches far beyond the sort of demographics that Madison Avenue old-timers might expect.’

However, it seems the Mad Men are paying attention. Last year Ogilvy announced the launch of Ogilvy Culture, a new cross-cultural offering to help clients ‘anticipate and prepare for new ways to market to an ever changing consumer population’. Meanwhile agencies such as Noise in New York (part of Engine USA) are setting out to transform the way companies engage young adults.

Urban by name – suburban by nature

All of this should give me cause to celebrate, but despite the increased recognition of the importance of urban culture, brands and agencies in the UK remain ambivalent.

Although many campaigns try to increase their cool credentials by engaging urban celebrities and audiences (with varying degrees of success), the underlying composition of the creative communications industry is still largely anything but urban. With only a few exceptions, our industry has a woeful track record in this regard, preferring to talk urban rather than walk it. (After all, the streets can be dangerous).

The good news is that almost everyone in the industry agrees this is a problem. The bad news is they’ve been agreeing on this point for a number of years and outside of small-scale initiatives such as The Ideas Foundation (with which I am involved), precious little has been done about it.

Ten years ago Professor Richard Florida drew attention to ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’, highlighting the positive economic performance of cities that are characterized by having diverse, tolerant and creative cultures. Hopefully it won’t take another 10 years for brands and agencies to realize the implications of this and fully embrace what it means to truly be urban by nature.

The above image is taken from the 1972 campaign, aimed at the British public, to raise awareness of the racial discrimination preventing the non-white community from finding employment. Source D&AD

This post was originally published on Campaign Live

This is because what’s cool is often what’s underground. When something breaks into the glare of the mainstream, it’s time to move on.

A love of the underground is particularly true of urban explorers. As the name suggests, these are people who enjoy exploring restricted urban areas such as abandonments, tunnels, roofs and construction sites.

Although generally illegal, urban exploration (also known as ‘building infiltration’ or ‘place hacking’) is hardly new. From Enid Blyton’s Famous Five to Hergé’s Tintin, exploring is part of our culture and DNA. In recent years however, this hobby has been steadily growing in popularity across the globe. Fueled by the Internet, there are now numerous websites, Flickr groups, forums and a dedicated social network.

The unwritten rule of urban exploring is “take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints.”  This is an admirable principle and the images taken by explorers are often stunning. But as I watched the first in a series of documentaries entitled ‘Crack The Surface’ I found a few things about this trend troubling.

For a start, the film itself feels a bit like watching Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop as it features characters that you’re never sure whether to take seriously.

An urban explorer from France compares the experience to that of being like a Super Hero in real life. Another interviewee says: “It’s not particularly dangerous…. Yeah, the authorities will always say it’s dangerous because essentially it is.” Undisturbed by the contradiction, he continues: “Common sense prevails usually…” “People aren’t going to pop a manhole and go down a sewer when there’s a horrendous thunderstorm outside.” But a couple of minutes later, he describes doing exactly this in Canada, nearly killing himself in the process.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not the inherent risks involved that trouble me. Youth culture is often about transgressing boundaries and graffiti artists have been running around these spaces for years. My problem is with the types of people that appear to be attracted to this pursuit.

The French interviewee in ‘Crack The Surface’ explains that some of the explorers are people who “…have a lot of money and are bored because their money cannot purchase the experience of doing something exciting.”

He describes one of the explorers in Paris as “a CEO of a very big company.” He continues: “There’s also a lot of people that are middle class. There are lawyers, there are project managers as well as people working on constructions sites or being teachers.”

In a moment of self awareness, one urban explorer says: “If you’re poor enough to live in a situation that resembles an abandoned building, why the hell would you go and explore another abandoned building?”

This insight lies at the heart of my problem. Unlike the original graffiti artists who explored these forbidden spaces, it seems to me that many of today’s urban explorers are just bored middle-class males living out their boyhood fantasies.

Why does this matter? Well for once I find myself sympathizing with the poor security guards having to chase after all the lawyers, project managers and CEO’s that decide to escape their mundane corporate lives and explore the illicit urban landscape instead.

And what happens when big brands get involved? Consider Parkour (also known as Freerunning). This started out as a niche urban subcultural activity for the brave and foolhardy, but before long it was being featured in adverts, a James Bond movie, and corporate sponsored displays on the South Bank.  Needless to say, it never really took off after that.

Recent years have seen an increase in outdoor experiential events such as 3D building mapping projections that have become ever more elaborate and dramatic. It’s not a great creative leap to move from projecting on the side of a building to doing so in a space underneath it.

Meanwhile the concept of Gamification continues to entice marketers with brands such as NIKE taking the concept to new levels with the launch of the Nike+ Fuelband.

All of this suggests that urban exploration could provide opportunities for brands seeking to increase their cool credentials.  The Urban Tour by ASOS is a step in this direction. Some longstanding participants are already asking: “Has the Urban Exploring scene in the UK imploded?”

If the trend continues to creep towards the mainstream, I suspect things may really go down the drain.

The world has changed significantly in the last 12 months.  2011 was the year the media really woke up to the power of social and mobile networks.

The ‘Arab Spring’, the global ‘Occupy’ movement, and the UK riots all demonstrated how technology could be used to connect and coordinate disparate groups of people in ways that made it almost impossible for security forces and governments to keep up.

This phenomenon was by no means new, but it was unexpected. As more and more people became digitally connected, and mobile technology became almost ubiquitous, Clay Shirky’s adage that communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring, proved to be right on the money.

While MySpace continued its steady decline, other social networks such as Tumblr, Instagram, and Google+ grew rapidly, each vying for our attention. But as RIM (makers of BlackBerry) discovered this year, attention isn’t always such a good thing.

The hackers behind Anonymous and LulzSec figured this out too.  Niche social networks such as Path have emerged to enable sharing of information among small groups of people. Other platforms like Silk Road are designed to be invisible to those not in the know.

Unsurprisingly, the techies involved in the Occupy movement are trying to build these types of private networks. This trend has led some to speculate that there will never be another network the size of Facebook. I’m not so sure.

What is beyond question is that mass disruption has been a recurring theme across the globe these past 12 months. We’re also seeing an increase in a consumer trend that has been dubbed “SoMoLo” – Social, Mobile, Local.

Observe the modern shopping experience and you’ll see this being played out. Customers in stores are using their smart phones to check prices, compare products, identify other local shops and consult with friends before purchasing. Soon they’ll be paying for items with their phones too.

This year has also seen the rise of the Urban Mashup.  Oglivy Culture launched in the US and Steve Stoute chronicled ‘The Tanning of America’ – highlighting the growing influence of urban culture on the mainstream.

The Kiss

In June, Canadian photographer Richard Lam took one of the most striking images of the year during riots that erupted in Vancouver.

The image of a couple kissing in the midst of the chaos and riot police became an internet viral sensation. Many saw it as a 21^st Century reimaging of the famous photo of ‘The Kiss’ that took place in Times Square on V-J day in 1945.

For all the momentous changes that took place in 2011, I can’t help but feel that we ain’t seen nothing yet.

Here’s to 2012…

In the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential there is a scene in which Kevin Spacey’s character, Sergeant Edmund Exley, recounts the tale of ‘Rollo Tomasi’, the name he gave to the unidentified street criminal who killed his father. In the film, Rollo Tomasi becomes synonymous with the idea of the one that got away.

I was reminded of this when reading ‘Think of me as Evil: Opening the Ethical Debates in Advertising’ published last month by the Public Interest Research Centre and WWF-UK.

The report takes as its starting point a typically hyperbolic comment by my friend Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, in which he states that he “would rather be thought of as evil than useless.”

I couldn’t help but think that a more accurate subtitle for the report would have been ‘Reopening the Ethical Debates in Advertising’, because as the authors Jon Alexander, Tom Crompton and Guy Shrubsole acknowledge, these issues have been discussed over the last 50 years ever since Vance Packard published his famous critique of advertising, The Hidden Persuaders.

In this latest contribution to the debate, the authors argue that ‘modern advertising’s impact on British culture is likely to be detrimental to our wellbeing, and may well exacerbate the social and environmental problems that we collectively confront.’

To its credit, the report sets out the evidence in a reasonably balanced way, but what I found striking was the fact that the entire discussion failed to make any reference to the world’s largest advertising company. This is a company that claims to do no evil, but has grown several times larger than WPP by creating what is possibly the most efficient advertising model ever. Of course I’m talking about Google.

You could argue that Google doesn’t deserve this distinction because it is not the creator of the vast amount of advertising it serves to us everyday as we search the web, but that would be to miss the point. Google has revolutionised the advertising industry by democratising it.

In the world before Google, in order to reach customers, a business had little choice but to engage an advertising or marketing agency of some description. This was (and remains) a costly business best suited for those with deep pockets.  Google changed all this by providing businesses with a direct means of targeting potential customers very precisely and quickly, for as little or as much as that business was prepared to pay.

The net result is that Google’s technology has generated far more adverts than any ad agency on the planet, netting billions of dollars in profits for itself in the process.

Yet the word ‘Google’ doesn’t appear on any of the report’s 60 plus pages and there is only a passing reference to the impact of ‘Online search engine technologies and the information stored by social networking sites and webmail services’.  This is a testament to Google’s ability to act as a Hidden Persuader. It presents itself as a technology business with a mission to provide free access to information, but as someone once wisely said, “if you’re not paying for something, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.”

The genius of the Google is not just its ability to serve ads based on search queries. The Pay Per Click (PPC) model effectively sells users to advertisers. Unlike Spotify, there is no ad-free model on Google search.

Google is by no means alone. Its model is now the industry standard for online businesses and is being replicated by Facebook and Twitter among others. But the fact that Google has escaped being tarnished by the same brush as the advertising industry demonstrates that for now at least, it really is Rollo Tomasi – the one that got away.

Footnote:

On 24 November the RSA hosts an Advertising Association Debate - ‘Advertising in society: what’s the deal?’  Unsurprisingly, Google is not represented on the panel.  

October 21^st 2011 was a big day for Tumblr. It became the first blogging platform to host President Obama’s blog, launching his social media campaign for re-election in 2012.

Obama’s choice (clearly influenced by socially savvy members of his campaign team) brought Tumblr to the attention of the world’s media, including those who had not previously come across the network or had assumed it was only a place to share funny photos of cats. However this attention is long overdue.

In June of this year the network founded in 2007 by David Karp surpassed WordPress in the total number of blogs, breaking through the 20 million mark. It now has over 33 million and rising.

Nielsen’s State of the Media report on Social Media for Q3 2011 highlights Tumblr as the ‘Emerging Social Network’ citing the trebling of its US audience over the last year.

In the UK its growth has been impressive too with 7.5m unique visitors, 5.4m of whom visit in an average month. London in particular seems to be in love with Tumblr.  Its residents make 1.6m visits to sites in the network. Only San Paulo in Brazil has more Tumblr fans.

Given that Tumblr’s UK audience is more female (52%) than male (48%) and many of its users are in the much coveted demographic of 18-24 year olds, it’s not hard to see why some brands, particularly in fashion and publishing, have been quick to jump onto the network.

Vogue, Life and Vice have all developed Tumblr sites as have many fashion brands. DKNY is a notable example having recently ported their ‘Notes on a City’ to Tumblr following on from the success of their ‘DKNY PR Girl’ site.

The Economist, The Washington Post and IBM have set up Tumblr blogs too, presumably hoping to earn kudos from a younger ‘edgier’ audience than they might usually attract. I’ve even set one up (for much the same reasons).

What is more surprising is the number of brands that haven’t caught on to it yet. I was pleased to see that Bing (a client of mine) has a fully functional Tumblr site, but was amazed to find that Google.tumblr.com is a blank holding page that appears to have nothing to do with the company itself.

Google is by no means alone. A search for many of the world’s top brands using their .Tumblr.com addresses brings up some surprising and sometimes shocking results. Nike, Adidas, Microsoft, Samsung, and Apple all appear to have people sleeping on their Tumblr’s. I find it hard to believe that any of the brand custodians or legal departments would be pleased about this. In the case of Coca-Cola, I imagine they would be horrified to see what is being displayed in their name. I can therefore only assume that these brands haven’t woken up to Tumblr yet. Like the proverbial bears in the story of Goldilocks, I don’t think they’ll be too happy when they do.

Although some brands are rushing to snap up their own top level brand domain names despite the costs involved, it seems extraordinary that so many have failed to register their own name on Tumblr, which is free and is fast becoming the social network to watch.

I expect this will change in the coming months, particularly if Tumblr continues its growth trajectory and builds insight tools for brands and marketers. When this happens, I imagine a few heads will tumble.

In a few hours time Europe’s largest Carnival will take to the streets of Notting Hill for the 45^th time. However it’s not just the poor weather forecast that has worried people this year. Coming so soon after the UK riots, some local residents and businesses in Notting Hill are preparing for the worst by boarding up their houses and shop fronts.

They’re not the only ones who don’t want to get caught out. During the widespread looting that followed the riots, there was some criticism of the police for not keeping up with how rioters were using communication technology such as BlackBerry’s BBM network to coordinate attacks. This time around the police refuse to be caught napping and have already made preemptive arrests, based in part on their monitoring of social media.

While the Mayor Boris Johnson’s call for the Carnival to ‘help heal wounds’ caused by the riots was lampooned by some on Twitter, many of the comments last night were from people hoping that the event will pass off peacefully, or those too worried to attend because they feared trouble themselves.

Google turns to Grime

Meanwhile last week Google released an advert for its Chrome browser featuring Jamal Edwards, the just turned 21 year old rising star of the UK Grime scene who launched his own TV channel, SB.TV and has his sights set on becoming a future media mogul.

The ad, made by the London agency BBH, was apparently produced ‘way before the trouble’ started on the streets of Tottenham, but nonetheless it must have made a few Google Executives nervous given its focus on the UK’s black urban culture, which has been blamed for causing the riots, most notoriously by Historian David Starkey. In my view, Google’s potentially controversial choice of subject matter was no accident.

In Search of Street Cred

One of the loudest advocates for Google’s new social networking platform Google+ is the founder and former President of MySpace, Tom Anderson. In a recent article, he argues that Google+ is destined for success, and draws parallels between its launch and that of other social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

Of Twitter he writes:

“When the 140 character wunderkind launched in 2006, it was only used by tech nerds. Just one community, that knew each other by name, if not in person. Then John Mayer signed up. Now there was two communities. The tech nerds, and the John Mayer fan club. Then there was Diddy. Suddenly Twitter was of interest to people who liked hiphop & rap. One celebrity at a time started to build sub-communities on Twitter. And make no mistake, Twitter went out and recruited them. Like Facebook, they realized that to gain scale in the social networking space and take mind share from others, they needed to target sub-communities.”   

It would seem that Google has learnt that lesson. By making a hero of a young, black, up and coming entrepreneur, they are following in the footsteps of brands like Nike and Adidas who have long understood the benefits to be gained by associating with urban cool.

Google+ “not broadcasted enuff for us cool kids”

I did a bit of digging around to try and try out what types of people have been joining Google+. Perhaps unsurprisingly the early adopters were largely male geeks from the US. There is an Urban Technorati Google+ group and the odd Hip-Hop celebrity (Snoop Dogg and the UK’s Tinie Tempah). But from what I could tell, the cool urban kids aren’t flocking to the service in droves just yet.

Using my own connections, I also did a bit of primary research via BBM to see how many young people on that network had opened a Google+ account. Only one person responded positively, suggesting that Google has some work to do.  Google+ is “not broadcasted enuff for us cool kids lol to no about it” was one response I received. If the latest advert for Chrome is anything to go by, it looks like Google plans to change that.

However, engaging with an urban audience can be tricky. As BlackBerry makers RIM discovered during the riots, being the brand of choice within this demographic could land you in hot water on occasion. But to ignore them is to risk being left out in the cold entirely.

As this year’s Notting Hill Carnival hits the streets, the eyes of the media will be watching closely to see whether urban youth culture is still too hot to handle.

31/08/11 UPDATE: Fortunately, this year’s Carnival came and went without a major outbreak of violence. The Guardian reports that arrests were only slightly up at 245 compared to 243 at last year’s event. Considering that around 1 million people were expected to attend the festival, this figure is remarkably low. For comparison, 138,000 attended this year’s Glastonbury music festival but there were 123 arrests made – a significantly higher ratio.

It seems that the massive police presence played a role in keeping the crime figures down. But the remarkable photograph of a youth fleeing the scene having stabbed someone in front of a line of police officers shows that for some, the threat of arrest is no deterrent.

This kind of behaviour is almost impossible to comprehend without understanding the mentality of some of the youths on the streets today. It is described in gripping detail in the book Hood Rat by Gavin Knight, and may well be the topic of a future post.

However, like many people, I’m relieved that the Carnival on the whole brought out the best of London.