In The News

8/16/2008

The Future of Men: A Spike TV Study

What are guys like today? That was the question that Social Technologies' futurist Chris Carbone talked about in an several article featured this month including ACED Magazine (www.acedmagazine.com).
Carbone's insights are based on research Social Technologies conducted this year for Spike TV, which showed there are five "types" of guys: young carefrees, good ol' boys, above average joes, mac daddies, and worry warriors.
"While there are differences across segments, some interesting overall conclusions can be drawn," he told reporter Marilyn Almonte. "For one thing, the research shows that guys are still deciphering what it means to be a man in the post-feminist world. Life is complex, and even contradictory -- and just like women -- guys have more options for identity than ever before. In the past a guy's life path was clear. But today there is no set model or path, and men's identities and experiences have become fragmented."
Carbone concludes: "More than ever, guys are creating their own milestones and measures for success."
For more information, visit www.socialtechnologies.com/spike.

7/15/2008

Andy Hines on how to "Escape from Corporate America"

Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines is featured in "Escape from Corporate America, a new book by a reformed corporate ladder-climber, Pam Skillings:
"If your corporate career is leaving you stressed out, burned out, or just plain bummed out, you’re not alone.You don’t have to choose between paying the bills and enjoying a fulfilling career.” With humor and personal accounts, she offers a seven-step approach to breaking free: assess your job’s “suck” factor, identify your true calling, develop your escape plan, find jobs that don’t bite, be your own boss, follow your creative dreams, and overcome any obstacle.
Skillings, a career coach who made the leap in 2005, estimates that 80% of the working population fantasizes about leaving their jobs for something better. She admits that making the leap isn’t easy, but it is worthwhile:
It took me years of trial and error to escape corporate America. Once I left, I was amazed at how many people were dying to know how I did it and whether they could do it, too.
Skillings found a compatriot in Hines, who worked in trends and ideation for multinational food and chemical companies before joining Social Technologies in 2006 as director of custom projects. In Skillings’ book, he is quoted in chapter seven: “Swim in a Smaller Pond.”
“No offense against corporate places, but they are not always the most interesting,” says Hines. “A lot of the attraction of my current company was the ability to work for people who are really interesting. Who else would work as a professional futurist? You have to be a little nuts, and I like that.”
View article...

7/11/2008

Andy Hines on Marketing to Gen Y [Margaret Culp / The Dallas Morning News]

"You're about to be playing in an entirely new ballgame if you've been marketing exclusively to baby boomers – unless you have a timeless product or service," writes syndicated columnist Mildred Culp in a June 29 article, "Expand Your Marketing from Boomers to Gen Y."
The piece ran in the Dallas Morning News, among other papers, and Culp interviewed Social Technologies' futurist Andy Hines about how to connect with Millennials via their interest in environmentalism and sustainability, community, social responsibility (including humanitarian issues), and the Internet.
Culp explained that appealing to those things is essential: "Mr. Hines said that Gen Y's questions are geared toward obtaining tangible results, such as 'How do we make the community a better place, the environment safer? What do we do to translate into people getting more food?"
His advice to business leaders, wrote Culp, is: "Bring in a Gen Y intern to mentor you."
For more information on what appeals to Millennials, read a study that Hines and his team at Social Techonologies conducted last year for MTV on the "Future of Youth Happiness: What makes 12-24-year-olds happy?" Or, view the entire presentation.