Back in December, I blogged about where the future of marketing is headed, including the factor that firms will be tightening up their marketing teams and budgets.  Marketers will be forced to leverage their creativity to stay in the game.

An article from Time Magazine has exposed a psychological study that may help marketers foster that creativity very simply—good music and viral videos!

Participants in a study at the University of Western Ontario were separated into 3 groups:

• The first group listened to an upbeat Mozart piece and watched a video of a laughing baby.
• The second group listened to music from Schindler’s List and watched news about an earthquake.
• The third group listened to music and watched a video that were shown not to affect mood.

All participants were asked to learn to recognize a pattern that existed in a given problem.  The results?  The first group performed much better at discerning the pattern than the negative or neutral setting groups.

So what does this mean for workers, namely marketers?  Music could be their first step in easing the tension to innovate.  It’s important to “get in the zone” when working on an important project, and music may be the extra kick in getting creative juices flowing.  This isn’t to say that headphones should be in all day or offices should be blasting Pandora for everyone to hear (and deal with), but in the moments we really need to pump out great content, copy, strategy and more, we might as well pump up the jams.

In addition to the right music stimulating your productivity and creative abilities, positive videos also seem to have a good effect based on the study.  Obviously YouTube has plenty of content to boost your mood and in consequence your creativity, but for content slightly more work-friendly, sites like Mashable.com, Cnn.com, and FastCompany.com all feature videos with content that can be fun, interesting and relate to work.  During your lunch break or in the morning before diving into the workday, watch a video while you check your email for the extra positivity boost.

Do you think multimedia will become a ritual mood enhancer in your workday?

Tina Walsh
Marketing Coordinator

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Today I was reading an article on Mashable.com about a WTFJeans, an innovative style of jeans made to hold all of your gadgets. The target audience is “geeks”, as they put it on the website. But I think the creators are underestimating the amount of consumers who would buy these. Right now they only have one style for men and one style for women. I wouldn’t be surprised if WTFJeans starts expanding the collection after these are all sold because they are so practical for everyone.

The jeans feature a pocket to hold your iPhone or iPod Touch and a hidden pocket to carry a memory stick. Not only do they have a pocket to protect your iPhone, there is micro-fiber lining the pocket to clean your phone when you take it out. They’re making a limited amount that you can order online in 3 stages. The BETA version is the first 100 sold in March. The Early Bird sale starts right after the BETA, only 400 pairs available. The last set of WTFJeans doesn’t come out until August or September apparently, and people can only order whatever sizes are left.

They are only promoting the jeans online, because that’s where their customers are, obviously. There’re using a combination of blogging, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to show everyone the creative process of making the jeans.

It’s very interesting how fashion and technology are becoming integrated. Obviously technology is a huge part of a lot of peoples’ lives, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. I know I’m not the only one who feels disconnected from the world when I forget my cell phone. These jeans make carrying your phone or iPod a lot more convenient. I don’t know how many times I was going somewhere and had to carry a purse just because my phone doesn’t fit in my pockets.

I’m curious to see if features like this will start popping up in other clothing pieces. Have you seen any other companies creating clothes with technology in mind? Did you or do you plan on buying WTFJeans?

Julie Novak
Marketing Coordinator
RedZebraWorks

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