Today’s post is by Jaclyn Gordyan. Senior Art Director and perpetually curious mind, discover more about her at Upshot’s main site. Follow Jaclyn on Twitter @JGordyan.

All the Peeps, Jelly Bellys and Cadbury Creme Eggs have been eaten. So what’s one to do during the afternoon Easter lull? Kick it on the couch with the NBA playoffs and hit Facebook. Yup. Wait a minute, what’s this in my Facebook news feed- Bonobos is having an online Easter Egg hunt? For cash? I’m so game.

Bonobos (a high end online menswear store) offered Easter themed promotional codes, but you had to find them first. The promotion leveraged the idea of a digital Easter egg hunt but by making you work for the codes, it became a game. An addicting one. Oh look at that, it plays beautifully into our 2011 ‘Game On! trend’. Their promo codes were distributed in an unexpected way that effectively sparked their consumers’ curiosity. It was almost too effective, as the grand prize was found just 15 minutes after the promotion went live. Lesson for those launching a game- prepare for quick wins.

Back to the hunt. They don’t even sell women’s clothes, but had you better believe I was in it to win it. A ‘friendly’ competition between myself and friends heated up to find any code, but mainly the $500 egg. We happily (and feverously) surfed their site, fast becoming intimate with the product lines, and site navigation. This obviously added value to their brand by giving us a welcome distraction from the holiday afternoon lull. Alas, I lost*. The anecdote is just a small example of how consumers are willing to ‘play the game’ and engage with brands. So where was the ‘Golden Egg’? [SPOILER ALERT] It was right under our noses… err… fingers in the HTML code. You heard me correctly. A picture of a goose laying a golden egg with the promo code below it was created in simple text (see below). 

The only hiccup in this hunt was smart phone or tablet users were at a disadvantage having to jump through bigger hoops to see the goose in HTML code. But that’s what the other hidden $25-$100 promo codes were for. The brand still won with an inevitable lift in page hits and fans. Brilliant.

A few candy companies such as M&M, and Cadbury held online Easter egg hunts in years past, but their executions were obviously targeting different demographics.

*Note: My friend wasn’t the official winner as someone had already found & used the Golden Egg promo code. But he can still hold bragging rights over my head. Sigh.

Click the image below for the full-size Cracking the Code infographic!

• Our #1 hit of 2010 was our celebration of the innovative marketing efforts of… a car company? An American car company?? Yep, Ford has Facebook all figured out, especially with their live launch of their 2011 Explorer. No other marketer demonstrated such a nuanced approach to engaging with consumers via Facebook. It’s the perfect case study for seamlessly applying all the features that Facebook has to offer, and giving consumers what they actually want from a brand on social media. (It’s also one of the reasons we wholeheartedly agree with Ad Age naming Ford marketer of the year for 2010.)
• Part of the impetus for naming Cause with Effect as a 2011 trend came from watching the shifts in cause marketing over the course of 2010. Pepsi Refresh was clearly the game changer in this category, but we put Levi’s “Ready to Work” campaign under the microscope because it really drove home the depth-over-breadth approach that we expect to become a bigger focus in 2011. Likewise, one of the few bright spots that came out of the Haitian disaster was discovering that enormous sums of charitable money could be generated by aggregating millions of small (mobile) donations. If only this breast cancer awareness gag could have tapped that tactic!
• Anyone could’ve told you that food trucks are poised to upend the restaurant world in 2011, but readers were enthusiastic about our coverage of non-food applications for the food truck fad.
• It’s not everyday that our readers get jazzed about billboards, but these outdoor spectacles changed that perception pretty quickly. Likewise, we think this might be the only time a conversation about sustainable packaging has ever been so damn sexy.

Head this way for Part 2!

Post-holiday party, it’s probably not the right day to continue our in-depth discussion about location-based services and shopper marketing applications. Nah, it’s the kind of day where we need something a little more lighthearted.

Like, say, a retelling of Home Alone via Twitter by Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

Yup, it’s exactly what it sounds like, with the characters exchanging lines (and swinging paint cans). All of your favorites are there: Kevin, the Wet Bandits, Old Man Marley… heck, even the tarantula keeps you posted on his scamperings. (Thanks to Kelly von Ebers for the tip!)

Just the laugh we needed this morning. Have a nice weekend, and we’ll see you – fully recovered – on Monday.

In our Smartshot webinar on Radical Demography, we told you about four dramatic demographic shifts that need to be in marketers’ peripheral vision, including “DINK” (dual income, no kids) households and multigenerational households. Well, guess what? In Nielsen’s new Pop-Facts® Demographics report, they describe these shifts as an integral part of their five demographic key trends for the next century. And, they’ve got the numbers to prove it. (Contact us if you’d like a copy of the deck.)

Then again, that shouldn’t be new news to our frequent readers. What is new is that marketers are paying attention, particularly to the rise of multigenerational households.  A recent article from Ad Age shares a number of examples, including:

• Nintendo marketing their Wii gaming systems to appeal simultaneously to kids, adults, and grandparents, including games like Brain Age and Wii bowling
• Toys ‘R’ Us has offered targeted coupons to grandparents, since grandparents “buy one in four toys, four of every 10 children’s books, and one of every five video games.”
• Ameriprise Financial advisers have been trained to address the specific needs of adults who are now tasked with caregiving for their parents
• Even TV shows like “Modern Family” and “Parenthood” are starting to portray multigenerational households as the norm. And those shows are likely to have more multigenerational households watching them, providing advertisers with the opportunity to target this demographic more effectively.

Oh, by the way, don’t think our other two trends from Radical Demography (single person households and female-headed households) were left behind. In fact, they recently came together when single women lauded Lowe’s for positively portraying single women in their 30s in their TV spots. See, demography can be radical.

Speaking of radical, don’t forget to vote for Upshot’s proposed panel for SXSW 2011. Voting ends this Friday. You’ll need to create an account to vote, but we promise that it takes less than a minute. We appreciate any help we can get!

Don’t forget: we also covered the topic in a more lighthearted manner in our latest Potty Posting, which is available here.

Be sure to follow Upshot on Twitter (@upshot_agency) for information on subsequent Smartshots. And, if you have marketing topics that you’d like to see us tackle (in 15 minutes!), just shoot us a message using the “submit something awesome” box to the right.

As always, a PDF version is available for sharing and perusal right here: Totally Radical Demography.

But, if you’d prefer a text-only version of the Posting, just continue right on reading.

TOTALLY RADICAL DEMOGRAPHY

Like, totally.

While we’ve been tracking all of our 10 Trends for 2010 throughout the year, the recent Census got us re-stoked about the eighth trend on our list: Radical Demography. As a refresher, Radical Demography warned us to look beyond the same stories we’ve been hearing for years: explosive Hispanic population growth, aging Boomers, Gen X-headed families. Now, we’re talking about social shifts that are so dramatic that they’re worthy of such an 80s-tastic phrase as “radical,” if not “most excellent.” Taken individually, these changes provide important clues about how to better target and message to often-ignored niches. But, as a whole, these righteous shifts have given the bogus concept of the “average consumer” a facial disgracial (in English: it’s now totallyless than a quarter of all households. We’re not mental; this is the world of outdated). By the time the Census results come out next year, the traditional family (a married couple with children) is expected to account for Radical Demography. Let’s take a look at four emerging (or re-emerging) household types and how the most bitchin’ marketers are targeting them.

SINGLE, READY TO MINGLE: Does a “singles cruise” bring to mind a scene of mass debauchery (perhaps an “excellent adventure”), or a sign of savvy marketers reading the demographic tea leaves? Well, probably both. But the fact that Norwegian Cruise Lines is offering single-occupancy rooms for the first time in their 43-year history shows a recognition of the startling spending power of the single consumer, who now accounts for 35% of all US spending. With Americans delaying marriage longer and divorce rates still hovering high, the rise in singledom isn’t especially surprising. Over a quarter of Americans currently live alone (27% in 2007 versus 17% in 1970), and married couples only accounted for 60% of home purchases in 2009 (compared to 81% in 1985). By the way, 21% of those unmarried home purchases were made by single women (meaning only 10% by single men), which may explain why Home Depot’s now (wisely) offering “Do-It-Herself Workshops.” But, when other marketers (especially in food and CPG categories) don’t address this population, they’re really doing it themselves, like singleedition.com’s recipes-for-one and kitchen gadgets for solo cooks.

SH*T MY DAD SAYS, IN THE NEXT ROOM: Even before the Great Recession forced youngsters to move back home (most heinous!), we were already witnessing a longer-term resurgence of multi-generational households. 2008 saw a record number (16.1%) of Americans living in households with multiple generations of adults, and there are plenty of explanations: the rising share of immigrant families (especially Hispanics and Asians, although many African-American families are also in this boat), the rising age of marriage, and Medicare cuts. Regardless of the cause, the effect is multiple generations having input on household decisions. With each cohort responding to dramatically different purchase drivers, these families may require simultaneously messaging to a number of household members in independent ways.

DINKS AREN’T JUST SPACEBALLS CHARACTERS: Although it sounds like an insult, “DINK” is just short for “Dual Income, No Kids” households. In 2007, married couples with kids made up a smaller percentage of US households than married couples without kids (22.5% vs. 28.3%). Throw in the aforementioned single folks (without kids) and childless cohabitators and you’ll realize that the majority of US households now lack those grody little weasels. As we asked in our original 10 Trends, how much of your marketing is based on the assumption that you’re talking to parents? When you’re talking to Gen Xers (and even some older Gen Yers/Millennials) who don’t have kids, their priorities, their interests, and their disposable income will all be greatly impacted if they’re not subject to the iron grip of Hannah Montana.

MORE ELYSE KEATONS, FEWER PEGGY BUNDYS: What’s your idea of a breadwinning head of the household? Is he a cranky middle manager like Jack Arnold? Is he generously affluent like Phillip Drummond? Is he even a “he”? PSYCH! With women increasingly outlearning and outearning their husbands, many households are reversing traditional gender roles. Our creative briefs frequently refer to the multi-dimensional mom who’s bodaciously juggling kids, work, household chores, and her own interests, but how much does that description change if we add “And, she’s the primary source of household income”? Suddenly, she’s not the overstretched “supermom” who needs a break and a pat on the back; instead, she’s driven, focused on the big picture, and, while perhaps short on time, knows exactly what she wants from marketers. We could even say she’s most triumphant.

Obviously, these are different folks (with diff’rent strokes), so we’re not saying you should be targeting all of these household types at once. In fact, we’re saying the opposite: divvying up your demographics can take your targeting to the max! When your target is Jessica the Gen Xer, ask whether your campaign also resonates with her intentionally-childless friend and her neighbor whose father has moved in. You may find your marketing taking a radically different approach.

the hotspot for haute thought is the pot at upshot

demography is totally crucial at theawesomeblog.net

But, as the web increasingly moves onto mobile devices, we’d expect these numbers to start shifting back to the young adult males that we stereotypically associate with the web, right?

Actually, no. Mobile social network usage actually shows a greater gender gap than overall internet usage, with women comprising 55% of the population. A recent post from Brian Solis dug through numbers from Nielsen and Comscore – feel free to scroll through all the info here.

And, when we break down these users by age, we’re not just talking about a bunch of Twilight fans. Sure, they’re a hefty piece of the pie (and that pie is pictured below), but everyone up to the 54 year-old crowd is pretty well represented on mobile social networks. (But before you run off claiming that most mobile social network users are middle aged, note that the bigger chunks in the pie chart actually represent larger age groups – i.e. 10 year and 20 year intervals – than the 7 year interval covering 18-24 year olds. It’s a misleading graph, I’ll admit.)

Just a friendly remind that yes, “your” target is on social networks, and if he or she isn’t accessing them via a mobile device, you can expect that to happen soon.

As an alumnus of Upshot’s Inform Sessions,  we’ve been touting the benefits of Hulu for quite a while now. Unfortunately, most of the ads we’ve seen on the site are basically re-purposed TV spots that fail to take advantage of the enormous versatility that Hulu has to offer.

Thankfully, someone at Pepsi figured this out. Pepsi sponsored a number of programs from Hulu’s treasure trove of 70s and 80s TV shows, and ran targeted ads that touted their “throwback” Pepsi (which features the 70s can design and real-sugar recipe). You can watch a reel of the spots above, which feature cameos from pet rocks, 8 track players, and other stuff that’s a total mystery to someone born in the 80s (um, sorry!).

This is just scratching the surface of what Hulu can offer to marketers, so we hope (and expect!) to see more innovative applications in the coming months.

(And, of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve touched on the throwback trend.)