"Advertising is based on one thing... Happiness." - Don Draper

Don Draper had it right when he said "Advertising is based on one thing... Happiness." He might have lost some of us when he continued explaining what happiness means to him, but he's right about the fact that advertising is largely based on one thing- emotions.

Behavioral Economics… it sounds like it has nothing to do with the business world, but instead seems to be some crazy mixture between psychology and math, right? Not exactly… Behavioral Economics is becoming more and more relevant every day, thanks to smarter consumers who have an infinite number of choices to make every day. Not only do consumers have more choices than ever, but with the popularity of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, they have thousands of opinions they can search through and listen to as well.

Market research today is studying purchase intent and what consumers want – but they don’t study the reason someone DOESN’T buy something or suddenly changes their mind. Emotions, opinions and peer pressure greatly influence modern-day consumers, and it’s time to start researching how and why this happens. Agencies and marketers need to start thinking more outside of the box to solve this problem, because although you may be working for a Fortune 500 brand, your brand is not as powerful as it was 10 years ago.

A great example comes from a recent Advertising Age article, who discusses marketing focuses for gym memberships. Traditional focus groups have found more people say they would go to the gym if it were closer, if there was free babysitting, or less expensive… But gyms have catered to these needs and don’t see any changes. What agencies need to do is think more outside of the box. One great new idea Advertising Age brought up was charging people for NOT coming to the gym- how revolutionary is that?! Think about it, how much worse would you feel about not going to the gym that is near free as long as you attend as many days as you say you will? Now, this idea may not be the most profitable, but it really gets the juices flowing and makes you wonder what else is possible.

Thus, advertising agencies may hire the best and the brightest in their classes, but if you don’t truly understand who your consumers are and why they purchase the way they do- aren’t you missing the point?

Attaching Digital Content In Places You'd Never Expect...

If you haven’t heard of the latest and possibly greatest in the social media world… then you need to check out Yes the company name and website may seem slightly dirty, but the company creates barcodes that you can “stick” anywhere. A few major corporations (such as Pepsi) have faith in Stickybits and it might just be the next big thing in social media.

I understand the idea of scanning barcodes with an iPhone or android may seem pointless… But I can see where they’re trying to go with this. Pepsi is going to attach fun “bits and stories” to their barcodes on all Pepsi products, allowing consumers to read fun facts and stories about their products, as well as the ability to attach their own.

This whole idea could also revolutionize the health industry, as well as the food industry. Think about this: You’re walking through the grocery store trying to find a quick snack. You’re faced with 18 different choices of crackers, and want to figure out which ones taste the best, are overall the best for you, best price, etc… Instead of trying to make an educated guess all by your lonesome, you can scan the barcode and see what other people have to say about this. No, I do not recommend this while shopping for your entire list of things, but for certain products it could be really helpful to those corporations who choose to embrace this early on.

Another unique, yet highly innovative use of these are for business cards (pic). You can create a simple business card on the website and they print a barcode on the back of it. What could you use this for? Well, since the website allows you to attach anything to these codes, it’s easy to attach resumes, cover letters, previous work examples, websites to the code. Instead of handing over all of these documents, all a recruiter or acquaintance needs is a small card and the rest of your documents are already there.

Even though this company is still in the beginning stages, I will definitely keep my eye on them and see how they progress and morph into their next stage. Innovators surely need to keep an eye on this company, as well as think a step ahead for what they would like to do with such a company.