STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Everybody, I mean “Everrrrybody” was talking about social media Guru Marcus Collins keynote presentation: Creating Cultural Contagion at Hyper Island in Stockholm, Sweden in the framework of “The Contagion Cookbook.” For Marcus Collins, a native of Detroit, Michigan who currently leads the Social Engagement practice at Doner Advertising, his resume alone sparks conversation.
After earning his BSE in Materials Science Engineering from the University of Michigan, Marcus Collins chose his passion for music, as co-founder of a music start-up with a friend. However, digital disruption in the music industry left Marcus and his partner like so many others vying to break ground in the industry on the outside looking in, so he returned business school and eventually began working for Apple.
It was at Apple where he’d get the opportunity of a lifetime.
“While I was at Apple I met Mathew Knowles who had this daughter, you just might know her by the name of Beyonce,” said Marcus Collins charasmatically to the audience at Hyper Island in Stockholm, Sweden. ” He liked what I was doing and offered me a job leading digital strategy for Beyoncé and the other artists in his management firm and I said Oh Hell Yeah I’ll take the job. That was back in 2009. I accepted and that’s when I first fell in love with social media, the media of the people.”
One could assume, that just about anyone can lead a successful social media campaign for someone as successful as a Beyonce Knowles, it’s Beyonce Knowles! – but the experts know this is the furthest from the truth, and one of the exact reasons Mathem Knowles sought out the talented Collins. Social media blunders can land an individual brand in hot water.
His success, is the reason that “Everybody, I mean Everrrrybody was talking about him and his inspirational and informative presentation on “The Contagion Cookbook,” he co-authored with Chaucer Barnes that satisfies the conditions necessary for creating cultural contagion. The Cookbook focuses on stimulating cultural wake. The principles of the framework enable marketers to permeate a population’s consciousness and drive behavioral adoption by leveraging fundamentals of human behavior and brand behavior.
“One of the main things that I found attractive about social media was the connection and interaction that started to take place between the artists and their fans,” said Collins. “It aslo taught how very little I knew about it at first being an engineer who studied the way things are connected. I realized everything I thought I knew about social media was incomplete. I had been thinking a lot about technology. Then, suddenly I realized it’s really about people. In that moment I discovered the fact that I knew nothing about people. I suddenly felt like a fraud ‘here I am, the thought leader of social and I know nothing’. So I began to to study social sciences to better understand people – how we act, interact, and behave in groups. As my understanding deepened I started to get more confident about the dynamics between people; I started thinking about how to articulate that as an agency leader.”
He then later discovered Hyper Island, in which he felt like he’d found a kindred spirit – people who saw the world similarly to himself.
Troughout his career, Marcus Collins has quietly concocted campaigns for brands world renowned brands including Apple, Nike, McDonald’s, Bud Light along with the launch and creative work of the Cliff Paul Campaign for State Farm, the Made In America Music Festival for Budweiser, and the Brooklyn Nets’ move from NJ to NY. His remarkable work led him to be recognized as Advertising Age’s “40 Under 40” and Crain’s Business Detroit’s “40 Under 40” in 2016.
Why “Going Viral” is Nothing Compared to Cultural Contagion?
“In today’s connected world, creating “Cultural Contagion” for your brand is far more important than the allure of “Going Viral,” pointed out Marcus Collins to the aduience at Hyper Island. “There are great benefits to ‘Going Viral,’ however, there is something far greater and much more tangible to business outcomes that these marketers should consider…that is, Cultural Contagion- Ideas that spread from a cultural standpoint. Leveraging Behavioral Science to pinpoint consistent factors of contagious content. ”
“Just look at what director F. Gary Gray and Dr. Dre were able to do with the film Straight Outta Compton before its launch. It was a Cultural Contagion Phenomena with everything from Beats by Dre, to the Straight Outta …….. memes which allowed everyone to be part of the film without ever seeing it, he added. ”
“Going Viral, just seduces marketers into investing significant time and resources toward the creation of content — videos, memes, tweets, posts, etc. — that spread.” Marcus also used examples such as Frozen, Game of Thrones and Nike to support his theory on Cultural Contagion.
Here is what those in attendance tweeted about Marcus Collins presenting Cultural Contagion at Hyper Island:
#yeah18 with @marctothec @saraohman at @hyperisland ✌🏽 #hi #sthlmtech #ad #hyperisland @DirtyIndustries #dirtyindustries pic.twitter.com/tqPWcDtwaz
— Felipe Wigren (@FelipeWigren) 27 februari 2018
#CulturalContagion is my new creed and @marctothec is my new guru. Absolutely brilliant seminar at @hyperisland today! #MovetoStockholm #sthlmtech #socialmediamarketing pic.twitter.com/YXv2IFz48w
— Solveig Rundquist (@RundquistS) 27 februari 2018
Marcus Collins will return as the guest speaker of Social Media Marketing Course, a 3-day intensive course for you to learn how to drive interactions and engagement in your social media channels. Next course held in Stockholm from May 16-18.
Written by Andrew Mitchell for Woodlawn Post Tech
