The latest ranking of institutions and researchers in our field was just published. My great institution (I’m with the Center for Consumer Marketing at the Stockholm School of Economics) is tied for the #1 position in Europe, and is #13 in the world (and I made top-10 in the world). And we only just started…

Feels great. So great that I’m taking a week off to enjoy it.

Well, actually, I just have an insanely busy week ahead of me and am afraid I won’t be able to make any good posts (but it’s a nice opportunity to tout our rankings).

See you next week!

Coming up:

Expectity-week

Movie machinery

Banking

On September 2nd, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich was on top of every interviewer’s wish list. In 24 hours, he spilled the beans in magazines, newspapers, newscasts and blogs all over the world. Saying things like:

“We’re ten days from release. I mean, from here, we’re golden. If this thing leaks all over the world today or tomorrow, happy days. Happy days. Trust me” to British Kerrang, and:

“By 2008 standards, that’s a victory. If you’d told me six months ago that our record wouldn’t leak until 10 days out, I would have signed up for that” to USA Today.

Sparking these quotes was Metallica’s expectations-society-business-logic release of their new album, set for September 12, which I wrote about in a Swedish business magazine  (I’ll get back to that in a future post).

On September 2nd, nearly two weeks prior to the release date, a French record store began selling copies of the album, which, of course, sparked the possibility for anyone, anywhere to make it downloadable. This prompted Metallica’s distributors, such as UK branch Vertigo Records, to officially release the album two days ahead of schedule, on September 10, 2008. On that day, you could even find it at the local gas station in Växjö, Sweden.

Lars Ulrich’s quote says it all -”…by 2008 standards, that’s a victory”.

Once upon a time, in a millennium far, far away, companies worried about initial sales being too slow. Today, sales cannot be slow, they can only be too fast. Everybody must be prepared to rethink and relaunch. Even new millennium icon Google:

On the very same day as Lars Ulrich tap danced through the media, September 2nd, Google launched its new web browser chrome. Which was not the original plan.

The release announcement was originally scheduled for the day after, September 3rd. However, copies of the press material were shipped early to Europe and German blogger Philipp Lenssen made a scanned copy of it available immediately after he received it on September 1. This led Google to instantly make the material (which came in toe form of a 38-page comoc book) available on Google Books and another official sites.

Release parties world-wide were immediately rescheduled a couple of days early, and on September 2nd, Chrome was released in 43 languages.

Last friday, the Google stock was down at a real low. At 406 dollars a share it hit its lowest level in a year. Then yesterday, it broke the downward-spiraling trend that had been haunting the company since summer, when the expected recession clouded the stock market, as the stock raced to a new peak at a close 450 dollars.

What can upset a gloomy, recession-anticipating, financial market? The same thing that brought the Google stock to its last, monumental peak at 747 dollars a share in early November last year:

The Google android smartphone, G1.

On November 5, last year, Google finally confirmed rumours that they will produce an android smartphone (in case you missed it, although more than 3 million google hits suggest you haven’t, it basically means that the phone is programmable for the user). Expectations of that announcement had pushed the Google stock toward the sky for the last month or so, and when the announcement was made, the market went into an almost week-long expectations frenzy leading up to the record peak. 

Yesterday, at 10:30 am local time, Google (together with T-Mobile) unveiled the G1 in New York, announcing that it will be released on October 27 in the US, at 179 dollars a piece. The phone will then be released in the UK in November and in the rest of Europe thereafter.

As I write this, less than 24 hours later, there are already 142 youtube clips of the G1, including this one from the launch event:

World-wide hotel chain Sheraton, with thousands of branches across the globe, has been a destination for lovers and honeymooners for decades. At least in the old millennium. But not anymore.

As became evident in last week’s posts, the new millennium’s world of any makes taking your partner with you obsolete. When you can hook up and set a date with anyone, anywhere, anytime, a brought-along partner becomes an unnecessary backpack.

In sync with the times, Sheraton recently announced that they will offer WLAN (wireless local area networks) in their rooms. Instead of bringing a spouse, they invite all their guests to bring their smartphones. This way, they hope to better service their most attractive guests, namely those with 50,000+ USD annual incomes.

In a study this summer of 1,500 of these people, surveying nationalities ranging from the US through Europe, Australia and China, a market research company found that 87 percent brought their smartphone to the bedroom. And 35 percent even valued their smartphone higher than they valued their spouse.

Clearly, the smartphone, with its instant internet access and multiple communication windows, is all people need to jump on the happiness super-highway. Which is exactly what 77 percent of the people in the survey testified to, when they said that their smartphones make their lives much more enjoyable. The smartphone is all they need – just a click away from their sticky fingertips are all the products, opportunities, dates, and sex in the world. Who needs to bring a spouse when they have their smartphone?

Yesterday’s post reminds me: If 41 year-old Hong Kong resident Le Xing were a teenager today, rather than a man and a mind of the old millennium, he would probably be in less pain.

If Xing were a teenager today, he would have been able to find and hook up with anyone, anywhere around the globe sharing his dreams and desires, anytime. But stuck in his old-millennium ways, he went to the local park bench instead.

On the (late) night that his Olympics-hosting nation kicked off the Games, Le Xing tried some games of his own in the local Lan Tian park. After the local police answered the call and found Xing attached to one of the holes in steel bench, it took them 4 hours and several officers to “free willy”. And as if they were not company enough, local media soon joined and documented the rescue. 

Before long, Le Xing made headlines and newscasts across the globe, even overshadowing the eagerly anticipated Olympic Games for 15 microseconds.    

Reportedly in pain a month later, Xing can at least enjoy the impact (and million youtube views) his games rendered. Rumours have it he has also been offered to host a kinky late night TV show in Japan.

Every second of every day of the year, search engines deliver results on more than 400 “sex” searches. In the world of any, anyone can access sex, anytime, anywhere.

No wonder 34 percent of the readers of Christian Woman Today’s online newsletter admitted to intentionally viewing sex-related material on the web every month.

But in the world of any, you don’t have to settle for viewing sex anymore, you can virtually have sex. With anyone, anywhere, anytime, in any shape and form. No need for lights out when you take your top off, you can have a six-pack worth showing. No need to stay indoors, you can do it in any environment you want, and no need to settle for the boy next door when you can go at it with someone on the other side of the globe.

And anyone can rid themselves of bad sex experiences – you can even have your own support team standing by, upgrading your software (there’s a suiting term…), troubleshooting, Q&A:ing your S&M. Just check out sexgenetics.com, one of several companies offering solutions for developing your own characters, and training your sex skills in any online environment. Right now focusing on Second Life, but promising to fuse any on- and off-line environment by 2010 (“Demolition Man style”).

Meanwhile, the reported off-line sexual debut age among teenagers has gone up by two years in the last couple of years…

The British Association of Teachers and Lecturers went through the roof when they analysed the results from their recent survey. Top-ranked among the students male role models was David Beckham. This came as little surprise, but the reason for his top spot was certainly a surprise to the teachers. It is the same reason that raced Becks’s wife, Posh Vicky, toward the female role model pole position.

That reason being – fame.

Shocked as the British teachers may be, there is nothing particular about their students’ choices of role models. An Irish radio station surveyed a couple of thousand 13-19 year-olds about what they want to become when they grow up and came to the same conclusion:

80 percent of girls and 85 percent of boys wanted to be – famous.

And American boys and girls are no different. In a poll conducted by newspaper USA Today last year, teenagers were asked what they would prefer to improve about themselves – intelligence, physical skills and power, appearance, or fame. Both boys and girls chose fame.

Asked what person they would like a dinner date with most of all, Jesus Christ came in second at 16.8 percent. First place went to Jennifer Lopez (17.4 percent).

For the old millennium people, the new millennium teenagers’ wish to become famous may seem vain and naïve, but to Generation In-Charge, it is a real option. Last year, Psychology Today surveyed American teenagers and found that more than 32 percent expected to be famous.

And why shouldn’t they? In the world of any, anyone, anywhere, can be famous anytime. At least for 15 microseconds. And when anyone can study and work with anything, anywhere, anytime and the job switching frequency has increased ten-fold in the new millennium, what you do doesn’t matter, rather it’s what it leads to.

The British teachers warn that the focus of fame will lead to increased drinking and anti-social behavior. According to yesterday’s post, one cannot argue against the fact that such a strategy seems to work…

On September 2nd, 22 year-old Russian high-jumper Ivan Ukhnov made the performance of his life. At the Lausanne, Switzerland, “Athletissima 2008″ athletics gala he failed four jumps in a row at 2.17, 2.23 and 2.32 meters (and, before that, the warm-up jump at 1.80). The Russian high-jump record holder did not seem to mind this all-time low, however.

One reason why he did not mind is probably the Red Bull and Vodka mixers he consumed before the jumps. Which could also explain his less than convincing sports achievement.

Another reason why he did not mind could be that this was indeed his most spectacular performance ever. Before Athletissima 2008, nobody knew of or cared about his achievements. Having been one of the world’s best high-jumpers the last few years, the four Red Bull and Vodka -shaken-not-stirred-jumps rendered him more attention than any of his previous record-breaking and medal-winning high jumps.

They brought him to the top page of the 29 million “high jump” Google hits. Landing hit number five on that page, directly after wikipedia, encyclopedia and adverts, Ivan represents the top-of-mind, exemplar image of high-jumping. An interesting comparison to the recent Beijing 2008 Olympics winner, and fellow Russian, Andrey Silnov’s place on page 5 (hit #53).

In the world of any, anyone can jump high, but only Ivan Ukhov can jump (drunk) and low. In a decades-long list of high-jumping athletes and gold medal winners something extra is needed to catch the world’s attention.

That extra something rendered Ivan Ukhov 66,000 Google hits and headlines in media from Beijing to Oslo to San Diego over night. As well as 93 youtube clips and 4 million views:

Boooom!

That’s the sound of the United Airlines stock crashing to the ground last Monday. Over the course of one single day, the value of United Airlines went down by 1 billion dollars. What had the company done to cause this disaster? Nothing.

Or rather, nothing in the last day. Or even week, or year. What they had done, was file for bankruptcy six years ago, in 2002.

Six years ago, United Airlines was on the verge of extinction following the terrible 911 tragedy. The fallen Twin Towers brought the entire company to a crash within months. Six years later, they did it again, thanks to the world of any, warp consumption and the Expectations society. This is what happened:

Early Sunday morning, one reader, for some unknown reason, visited newspaper the South Florida Sun Sentinel’s website and viewed an article from 2002 on United Airline filing for bankruptcy following the 911 tragedy. Being virtually the only read article on the website at that hour, the six year old news story went right into the site’s automatically generated “Most popular” business story list.  

Next, Google’s web scanning bot encountered the “most popular list”, and within three minutes started feeding it to Google News readers. Before long, the story had travelled several laps around the world, including the Bloomberg financial information service. And, boooom!, the United Airlines stock crashed from 12 dollars to 3 dollars.

The United Airlines crash is a testament to the power of the world of any, where anyone, anywhere, anytime can make top news (even with a six year old story) and bring a global company to its knees. That anyone, being an early awake person visiting a local newspaper site a Sunday morning. The crash is a sign of the new millennium’s warp consumption, where no one has the time to read the entire news story (which clearly relates to the 2001 911 tragedy), focusing on the “news in brief” summary and top list headlines. And not the least, it is a symptom of the Expectations society, where no one looks back. Everyone looks forward and reads any news (even six year old ones) with a future perspective.

Expectations are an extremely powerful thing. The past and the present can’t compete with them: No matter that the record was set straight regarding the United Airlines news story within 24 hours, this Friday the stock was still not back at its original 12 dollars. Expectations simply cannot be overruled.

So, yesterday’s post might explain why Sarah has managed to stay in the world’s eye for more than a month (quite an achievement in an age when fame tends to last for 15 microseconds).  Check out Anton’s comments on yesterday’s post for great illustrations of Sarah’s explosion from zero to hero.

But how could she grow such an immediate explosion?

“Grow” would be the key word. Yesterday, I mentioned the obvious fact that a fourty-something woman is likely to be more interesting than a sixty-something man. To that, one might add that a seventeen year-old woman would be even more interesting:

Bristol Palin, Sarah’s daughter, does not trail far behind Joe Biden in interest and google hit millions, going from zero to 2+ million in a couple of days. 

Not long after Sarah officially became the Republican vice presidential candidate, Bristol experienced a real blogarazzi-bummer. A frequent poster on Myspace and flickr, her pictures of herself with friends started building comments, “drinking booze?” and – boom! – “growing belly?” Bloggers caught on immediately and soon the whole world scrutinized pictures of Bristol Palin’s belly. At the beginning of the Republican convention, more camera lenses focused on Bristol’s midsection than on Sarah’s face.

Next, the myspace page of Bristol’s boyfriend and her child’s father-to-be Levi Johnston produced more blogarazzi-bummer, as anyone in the world could read how he did not look upon himself as the father type. An issue that, evidently, was resolved – and photographed – in the company of Sarah during the convention…

And the story entered a new chapter the day before yesterday when reports on Sarah’s son Track’s drug consumption travelled from blog to blog to worldwide headlines.

Next chapter – just check out youtube to see what Generation In-Charge is cooking. Sarah, watch out!