The Occupy Wall Street movement and the restless youth

There is a new movement under way in New York, America. It is not a marketing movement. It’s an uprising that is steadily gaining traction and awareness, a social movement, sparked by hundreds of youths wishing to drive change. Marketing movements are very different to social movements. Marketing movements are constructs which enable brands to connect with ideas on the rise in culture in order to build brands that are a great degree more relevant to consumers than traditionally advertised brands. At StrawberryFrog, we have designed movement marketing for brands such as Mahindra’s RISE to Against excess and Mindless Consumption for the Smart Car in America. Movement marketing takes a page out of social movements because they are all based on relevance, rather than awareness. There are things that can, and should, be learned from social movements as they are rooted in highly relevant and contextual provocations. Today George Soros is saying we are likely to enter into a new global depression more severe than what many of us can imagine. While the upper echelon of the economic decision makers are discussing these issues, a growing community of disparate individuals are gathering in increasing numbers in New York City — between the Brooklyn Bridge and Wall Street. This movement has no name, it has not been crystallised or branded—yet. [caption id=“attachment_99153” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Demonstrators opposed to corporate profits on Wall Street rally before the start of their march at Zuccotti Park in the Financial District on September 30, 2011 New York City. Mario Tama/Getty Images”]  [/caption] Nicholas D Kristof, a columnist for the New York times ( for the complete article on click on the link) writes:

“I tweeted that the protest reminded me a bit of  Tahrir Square in Cairo, and that raised eyebrows. True, no bullets are whizzing around, and the movement won’t unseat any dictators. But there is the same cohort of  alienated young people, and the same savvy use of Twitter and other social media to recruit more participants. Most of all, there’s a similar tide of youthful frustration with a political and economic system that protestors regard as broken, corrupt, unresponsive and unaccountable.”

Movement Marketing is changing the advertising universe. Though there may be any number of reasons why people gravitate toward marketing movements, if you’re looking for one central driving force, think in terms of this word: restlessness. The derivation of this idea starts with the noted sociologist and social movement expert Neil Smelser, who theorised that social movements (and Smelser was really talking about Movements with a capital M, the kind that involve freedom, justice, fairness and the like) come about because of a combination of factors starting with social strain. In the most extreme cases, the strain Smelser was talking about could take the form of oppression, which, in turn, could spark revolutionary movements and uprisings. But the more modest movements that are happening all around us, and that are the focus of my upcoming book about movement marketing, coming out of StrawberryFrog, are more often a response to something slightly less severe than strain. We’re talking more about a sense of vague dissatisfaction or restlessness people may have with some aspect of the culture — there’s something happening around them they’re not quite content with and they be interested in helping to change it (even if they’re not entirely sure how). Going back to Smelser’s social movement scenario, as he sees it, the social strain evokes a response in people that becomes a shared belief ("things must change!") And at that point, the movement begins to self-organise and gain momentum. Regardless of whether they’re reacting to large social strains or small stirrings of restlessness, this original group of people who are the first to respond usually form the core of the movement—they are what Smelser (and lots of us) call the “true believers.” The core fans…the provocateurs. They tend to shape the group’s identity and its early agenda and create an impact that is felt by a wider community. They may even develop a distinct language for the movement—which can be expressed in neologistic or re-purposed words, powerful symbols, code, distinctive attire. These semiotics can help separate insiders from outsiders, fostering a community bond. Most important, the true believers will serve as the evangelists of the movement, helping to spread the word and attract others. But getting back toNew York and Wall Street for a moment, the protesters initially set out to occupy Wall Street but were rebuffed by police. Instead, the group set up in a nearby park, keeping the “Occupy Wall Street” moniker. The spread to other cities appears largely organic—the protests don’t have a central organiser—and the idea came from a Canadian magazine and grew on social media websites. As reported by the Wall Street Journal:

“Over the weekend, budding copycat movements spread across the country, with smaller-scale protests planned via online social-networking sites. Protesters held sizable gatherings in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. In other cities, like San Francisco and Pittsburgh, protests were smaller or existed only in a planning stage.”

A website, occupytogether.org, lists groups that are offshoots of the New York protest. Activists have begun organising outside the US, including  in Prague, Melbourne and Montreal. A map of the country displayed in the Manhattan park held by demonstrators identified 21 places where other protests were organised. If there was any doubt that social media could change the world, those doubts were erased in the Mideast uprisings and now down on Wall Street. Protestors at Occupy Wall Street’s media area coordinated news updates on Sunday using laptop computers powered by a portable gas-powered generator. It comes down to this: Technology is enabling people to connect with each other as never before. In the past, you needed to somehow bring many like-minded people together in one place—with the public square often serving as that that place— in order for your movement to actually exist. Now, the movement can come to life in cyberspace; and if there is still a need to gather people in the square (as there sometimes is, even today), the Internet serves as an ideal organising tool. Soon it will be hard to remember this, but people once upon a time had to hand out leaflets on the street. They had to go person to person to spread the word about a movement. Often, the transformation that occurred in an uprising would happen in a physical gathering place, such as on the street or in the public square; that was where, as author Stephen Pinker has noted, private knowledge would become public knowledge. And it could take a while. No more. The Wall Street Movement is immediately a global movement. Where it will end up is anyone’s guess. It will grow, and morph, it could be sidelined and possibly manipulated… but in the end it is fuelled by passion and where there is passion there is the potential to change the world. Scott is the founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog. He loves to spark Cultural Movements for brands. In addition, he’s an avid water skier, wind surfer, skier, amateur chef and traveller. Scott resides in New York City. He’s  launching his own online community of rising talent called Uprising.