photo by Perry Gerenday Photography

I’ve had my hands full with some exciting stuff at work so it has made my writing a little infrequent as of late. But nonetheless, I still wanted to to share some things that have caught my attention lately.

At the top of that list is a great presentation called “My Brain Hurts” by the folks over at Wunderman. I hadn’t had a chance to read much of their work in the past, but recently came across their "How To Think Digital” presentation from Cannes. Wunderman has a really interesting site, especially their “Pick Our Brains” and “Take Our Stuff” sections where you can see all the white papers, presentations and blogs from the Wunderman Network. This is a great example of how an agency becomes a strategic leader and partner for a brand in today’s Web 2.0 World.

Now “My Brain Hurts” is a great look at how the digital revolution is leaving the consumer behind. Or in other words, how geek marketers like me are pushing the technology faster than consumers are keeping up. It is a great presentation and one you should really read in its entirety. In the meantime, here are their 21 summary points from the deck:

1. Digital technology gets twice as fast, and as capable, and as powerful every eighteen months.
2. Meanwhile the mind of its user has not gotten anymore sophisticated in the past ten thousand years.
3. One result is a widening gap between what technology can do, and what its users - both young and old - understand it can do.
4. The other result is a growing confusion amongst consumers, as they lose touch with how their phones, computers, DVRs, VCRs, TVs, SatNavs, GPSs, home medical equipment and MP3 players work.
5. As consumers and technology diverge, there is a growing risk of a crash. And as digitization is now critical in all industries and all parts of the economy, that crash would be economy-wide.
6. Helping consumers understand technology is not easy. They struggle with the demands modern devices and software make of them, and fail to absorb new tech-based concepts.
7. The key need is for simplicity. Simple devices and software that do one thing, not several can have an electrifying effect on consumer mentality, clearing minds, and changing the way consumers think.
8. But a technology must work for it to be able to do this. So many - like mobile phone picture messaging - were launched when they didn’t.
9. We must also be conscious of the fact that consumers are rarely grateful for the changes tech brings to their lives. Once something works, they forget it exists.
10. We must also be careful not to listen too closely to nerds - the early adopters who buy tech when it first comes out. Their thoughts are not those of the general population.
11. We should think more about how technology spreads from person to person in the population. The resulting infection rate will determine how fast a technology takes off.
12. We must recognize that whether consumers fit a technology into their lives or not is the true measure of success - and that the real impact of a new technology on a society may take a generation.
13. Consumers do not read instruction books. Period. Tomorrow’s tech launches need to recognise this.
14. Digital equipment also can get twice as cheap every two years. For the consumer, price is a positioning tool - and something that costs next to nothing can also be perceived as being worth next to nothing.
15. Consumers are also visual creatures: after a while, they forget that invisible technologies - like WiFi - exist
16. At the moment, the tech world is buzzing with words like ‘convergence’. But beware: convergence devices do not necessarily contain a strong consumer benefit.
17. Beware also of the conviction within tech companies that all technologies need to keep developing. True for the company that makes them. Not necessarily true for the consumer.
18. For a tech device to fly, it needs a valuable use, a ‘killer app’. Watch out for consumers developing their own - unexpected and often unwanted - uses for a technology.
19. Study videogames carefully - they are taking consumer time away from television because they are much more compelling than television - just as compelling television took share away from passive radio and press in the 1950s.
20. Watch out particularly for women. They are increasingly the key consumer of communications technologies.
21. Watch out also for people in emerging markets. There are four billion of them, and they often use technology more effectively than people in richer countries.