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!

Yes, there appears to be a bit of a battle going on about toning shoes, the sneakers that claim to – among other things – help you shape up your abs, thighs, and glutes just by altering the way you walk. As it turns out, that’s a pretty profitable promise, as the market for toning shoes is expected to surpass $1 billion this year, led by Sketchers and Reebok.

Wait a second. Where’s Nike?

Sitting on the sidelines, actually. Nike claims to be unconvinced about the benefits of toning shoes, and has gone so far as to mock them in a recent campaign. In the example pictured to the right, the sign off (‘This shoe works if you do”) wraps up a broader message about getting a hot body through good ol’ fashioned exercise, rather than “magical” shoes. Oh, SNAP.

We’ve previously lauded Nike for their work on Nike+, noting that this sub-brand demonstrates an impressively nuanced understanding of the running community. As a result, their executions have been exceptionally targeted, ranging from iPod integrations to geo-tagged running routes to simultaneously coordinated running events. In other words, Nike has proven, repeatedly, that they understand the priorities and motivations of this Micro Community.

So, if Sketchers can get credit for having the right brand personality to launch a quick-fix toning shoe (a case made by the always-wise Ed Cotton), Nike deserves even more admiration for knowing when to step aside from a “brand-wrong” trend. We not saying the toning shoes do or don’t work, since shoe science isn’t our specialty. The point is that even if the shoes are effective, their sole selling feature undermines the essence of the entire Nike+ brand: namely, that a healthy lifestyle is a marathon, not a sprint (and yes, every single one of those puns intended). Over a long period of time, Nike’s been able to connect with the running community by continuously demonstrating that the brand is paying attention to (and delivering upon) their needs, so we’re relieved to see that Nike knew better than to undermine that promise by jumping on a possible fad.

If you haven’t already, please don’t forget to vote for our SXSW 2011 panel, accessible here. You’ll need to create an account to vote, but we promise that it takes less than a minute. Voting closes Friday, August 27th, and we appreciate every bit of help we can get!

We’ve talked about a variety of tactics to keep these Consumer Controlled Conversations going, but one thing we most definitely did not cover is responding to these conversations with personalized video messages. Hundreds of them.

Yes, Mustafa and Co. are handpicking tweets (sent to @oldspice), video comments on Youtube, and other messages, and creating personalized video responses that take the same humorous tone that pervades the campaign spots. Mustafa has already posted over 100 of these videos (one of which is posted above), including a handful of responses to celebrities such as Ellen Degeneres and Alyssa Milano. Of course, those celebrities shared the responses with their followers, which started another round of conversations… and, we’ve got a viral sensation on our hands.

There are a lot of elements that have been executed well here, but let’s focus on the most startling piece of the campaign: the series of authentic, personalized responses. This is obviously an enormous investment of time and effort (both tracking the responses and writing customized, funny content), and one that (presumably) won’t be sustained for very long. But in the meantime, this tactic is driving an enormous amount of buzz online. While the aforementioned celebrities helped with some of the initial PR, the campaign is now growing mostly because of the continued inclusion of non-celebrities. Since Old Spice is Delighting Consumers with Hidden Surprises, folks have recognized that any response could be the impetus for Mustafa’s next personalized video. As we’ve mentioned before, “attention and reputation” can be just as valuable to consumers as financial incentives, and in this case, they’ve served as very effective motivators to continue the conversation about the brand. Moreover, to kick these conversations off, Old Spice even paid to make themselves a promoted trend on Twitter – yes, to answer our recent post, we finally have an example of this working! At this point, the campaign’s taken on a life of it’s own, and no longer needs to be actively promoted by the brand.

Think we can get him to give The Awesome Blog a shoutout?

UPDATE: The video below, addressed to Demi Moore, might be the best one yet.

UPDATE #2: Well, it looks like the campaign has finally come to an end, but not without one last glorious video.

But they’re also a niche, or, in the language of our 10 Trends for 2010, a micro community. Thus, messaging to them in relevant, nuanced ways allows for far deeper engagement than simply treating them as “average” consumers.

An example that’s right on target is… well, Target’s spot above. Never seen Lost? Then, you have no idea what the heck is going on here. And you know what, that’s okay! While everyone else is on the outside for a quick fifteen seconds, Target’s playful spot is a wink and a nod to the Lost community. When you have the opportunity to connect with a niche like this, it’s okay to be a little exclusionary. After all, Target’s other spots usually go out of their way to accommodate every possible demographic out there.

While Target’s ad demonstrates an understanding of the show’s content, a TV spot from Verizon focused more on that obses– er, passionate fanbase we mentioned above.  Verizon allowed fans to broadcast their goodbyes to the show during the finale via a text message campaign, and, although it lacks the cleverness of Target’s ad, Verizon’s spot still acknowledges the significance of this event for these viewers.

Somehow, I don’t think the cancellation of Miami Medical will inspire the same response.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that Verizon is now calling attention to the ScanBuy barcode reader in their TV, print, and in-store ads (thanks to Kyle Bruner for the tip). As more consumers are exposed to these codes (and, more importantly, how to use them), we can expect QR codes to become more ubiquitous in marketing applications. Of course, this means that if you’re going to wait around and see what happens, your competitors are bound to beat you to the punch.

Case in point: Heineken has started rolling out their “Plug Into Summer” campaign, and QR codes are playing a prominent role on the packaging. By no means are we touting our rival’s work, but we think you should know that consumers who scan the code have the opportunity to download three Heineken smartphone apps: a music trivia game, a sobriety test, and an app for finding a cab. Taken as a whole, if you’re having trouble remembering who’s the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, you can test your (non-) sobriety and realize that, yes, you need cab. Or at least I think that’s the gist of the campaign.

But while brands are slowly coming around to the QRevolution, retailers (and retail-relevant services like Cellfire) have been dabbling in this technology for much longer. Now, the Norma Kamali boutique in NYC is taking this technology a step further. In addition to tagging her clothes with videos that provide more information about each product, Kamali’s QR codes also enable nighttime shoppers to purchase the items even when the store is closed, just by snapping the QR code through the window. For those who are wondering how brick-and-mortar will compete with online shopping in the future, this appeal to the digitally-enabled shopper is one big weapon in retailers’ arsenals.

A quick programming note: be sure to follow Upshot on Twitter for more Awesome Blog goodness!

It’s been a while since we’ve brought together a collection of clever outdoor executions. Luckily, Jaclyn Gordyan’s got our back, and passed along this link with a handful of case studies.

With bus stop aquariums, piggy banks, and massive velcro posters, you’ll get your fill of simple ideas, brilliantly activated.

UPDATE: I was hoping to mention the bus stop ads for Cottonelle’s Roll Poll, but couldn’t find a good image to share. Fortunately, Paul Marran was on the lookout and sent us the snapshot below. Eagle-eyed Upshotters, what would we do without you?

(But seriously, who rolls under?)

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.)