I have been lucky enough to be travelling through Latin America - Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Rio and Santiago (which actually sounds like a perfect backpacker’s journey). As i write this there are 60 young Iron Maiden fans outside the front of this hotel in Santiago. So some observations remain consistent as a global phenomenon (why do metal fans never age?)
It’s a remarkable continent, and i have enjoyed the glimpses of life through taxi windows and days out and about, (and yes when someone invites you to a cemetery in Buenos Aires - it is worth the trip). Mostly i have been talking to clients about web 2.0; the shifts in qualitative research and how emerging markets are continuing to evolve and lead in types of usage. It’s really interesting when you ask people across the world who they think (as a percentage of active internet users) leads in blogging, uploading photos, videos etc. The US is often the market that is top of mind, but not top of the statistics. We see again and again through the different data sets how emerging markets are using both fixed and mobile internet differently, and across a wider variety of moments. Increasingly the developed markets are not a proxy for evolution of behaviour or attitudes. (And in a time of a severe recession, some of the experiences of Argentina may be more relevant than those in New York).
Here is a presentation from Fallon which showcases some of the trends:
In Buenos Aires, there has been some coverage of Augstino Vivero also known as “cumbio” due to her love of cumbai music (a fusion of salsa, Latin pop and dance music). At 17 she has become a “flogger” and known for her marketing connections with a Nike campaign. Flogging is something that has emerged in Argentina over the last couple of years; and the key site is Fotolog.com. Her site is supposedly among the most viewed Internet sites in Argentina, logging 36 million visits over the past year. (Latin America has still quite low internet penetration rates, but the growth is very rapid, and people are highly engaged in the creating and consuming of content). The crowd will continue to suprise and shift, and possibly never more rapidly in our lifetime than over the next year.
Andy Warhol commented, “It`s the place where my prediction from the sixties finally came true: “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” I`m bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, “In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous.” (He also said, “They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”) A variation on this - “On the Web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people” This quote is attributed to the Scottish artist Momus.
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Click here for the NY times article.