Boomers
• Genealogical Tourism Booms Among Boomers
• Walt Disney World Builds Houses For Boomers
• Nielsen: Time To Recommit To Boomers
• There’s Money To Be Made In Women’s Jeans That Fit Middle-Age Hips While Still Looking Cool
• Older, Affluent Adults Seek Alt Pain Relief

Gen X
• Target Wants You To Friend Their Sweaters
• Pampers Turns Babies Into Fashionistas One Diaper At A Time
• P&G Makes A Splash Into Dry Cleaning
• Gaia Online Launches Gulf Clean-Up Fundraiser
• Getting Dad To Do Diaper (Buying) Duty

Gen Y
• State Farm Targets Gen Y With “Magic Jingle”
• College Enrollment Is Up, But So If Dropout Rate
• Evenflo Vids Inject Humor Into Gen Y Parenting
• Tommy Hilfiger To Reconnect With Twenty-Somethings With A New Line
• Gen Y Unplugs Cable TV

David Stutts | E-mail | Twitter | Blog | SlideShare | LinkedIn

A new writeup in MediaPost got several of us talking today about the increasing importance of agile methodology, a software development system built on the idea of close collaboration.

Here’s a summary from MediaPost about how digital agency Razorfish is expanding its agile approach to include teams on the client side:

The idea is to launch projects faster than they could be going through the traditional approach of developing projects to completion before going live. The Razorfish Agile practice led by CTO Ray Velez involves a training program for CMOs to adopt the rapid-prototyping techniques internally as well as understand them better in working with Razorfish.

“CMOs are letting go of their obsession with producing one-shot campaigns based on a single idea,” said Velez. “The agile test-and-learn approach is becoming especially popular as CMOs respond to pressure to prove their value constantly through innovation.”

If you’re unfamiliar with agile development, you might want to check out the brief “Agile Manifesto” that started it all.

The agile approach is all about results. It focuses on empowering developers to do whatever it takes to get to better results faster and more efficiently. It’s revolutionizing the way software is developed, and the idea has been spreading into other knowledge-based industries.

Here at Luckie, we’re using an agile approach with more and more of our daily work. Interestingly, you could even consider our direct-mail work for AT&T as agile. We create something, test it, and then go through all the small changes needed to improve the work. That’s the basic idea behind the agile approach. Short iterations designed to constantly improve and deliver the best results.

In our digital practice, we use the agile approach on all large scale projects, such as our recent redesign of BayerAdvanced.com. We develop functional products that we then continue to build out over time. The first release (initial launched product) includes only the basic set of necessary features. Updates then add additional desired features and more advanced functionality and content over time.

The opposite approach is to build everything at once and deliver it all at once. Of course that can take a long time before anyone sees a working product. The end result is that if it doesn’t work as everyone expected, it can take much longer to make changes, while also increasing costs.

Using an agile approach by doing the work in smaller batches, in shorter periods of time, allows the team to adapt to changing requirements. Adjustments can be made much more efficiently, and costs can be controlled. Plus, the quality of the work can be better assured. It’s better all-around for the teams doing the work and for the client.

For another example of the agile approach, you don’t have to go much farther than the main Luckie hallway, where our digital team has a “stand-up meeting” each morning. So for all our colleagues who have to squeeze past us in the hall … remember, it’s for the clients.

Bill Abel, Director of Digital Development | E-mail | LinkedIn

Photo credit: cliff1066 on Flickr.

The social media sector’s average score of 70 out of 100 — calculated for the first time this year — is the lowest of any e-business category measured by The American Customer Satisfaction Index. Other categories included Internet News & Information (average score 74) and Internet Portals & Search Engines (average score 77).

Reporter Mark Dolliver explains:

Why the poor scores for Facebook (now on the threshold of enlisting its 500 millionth user) and MySpace? “Customers are not satisfied with their experience on these sites,” says the report. “When asked what they like least about Facebook, survey respondents gave answers including privacy and security concerns, the technology that controls news feeds, advertising, the constant and predictable interface changes, spam, navigation troubles, annoying applications with constant notifications, and functionality, to name a few.”

Facebook’s score of 64 puts it in the bottom 5 percent of industries measured by the study, right alongside airlines and cable providers.

One thing I would be sure to factor in, though, is the fact that social networks offer a far more complex service than other Internet businesses, such as news sites or search engines. You go to Google to search for things. If you find them, you like Google. You go to MSNBC for news updates. If you find them, you like MSNBC.

But the scope of social networking is something that changes by the month. A few years back, it was all about connecting with friends. Today, social networks have become comprehensive, multimedia hubs for our online lives.

Customer satisfaction seems destined to be low with sites like Facebook, which is constantly redefining what services it offers and how it makes those services available. But if Facebook decided to stop expanding and simply become better at what it already does, satisfaction would surely increase — at the cost of innovation and long-term viability.

So will we ever be able to truly love a site whose very nature requires that it constantly adapt with our culture and technology? Factor in an audience of half a billion and Silicon Valley’s skeleton-staffing approach to customer service, and it’s not hard to see why satisfaction is a goal that might never be achieved.

David Griner | E-mail | Twitter | LinkedIn | SlideShare

Great write-up in today’s Nation’s Restaurant News digital edition about our on-going Tea Town USA social media effort with McAlister’s Deli. To learn even more about this exciting campaign, please check-out our social media blog, TheSocialPath.com, for some great thoughts from our social media strategist and architect of this campaign, David Griner. If you want to learn more about what Luckie’s social media team can do for you, please drop David a line david.griner@luckie.com.

And don’t forget that July 29 is free tea day at every McAlister’s Deli in the U.S.

Read below for the headline stories in each report and download the reports for free by clicking on the respective links.

Banking

• Pageonce Powers Personal Finance On Any Smart Phone
• DBS Bank To Crowdsource Gen Y Branch Concepts
• Belgium Bank Runs First QR Code Bank Commercial
• New Tools Allow Consumers To Window Shop Banks
• MasterCard Launches iPhone App To Compete With PayPal
• Walmart Takes Another Step Toward Banking
• Virtual Goods Boom In 2010
• Keybank Offers iPod Touch To Entice New Customers
• Zendough Calms Personal Financial Management

Snacking

• 7-Eleven Lure Snacking Gamers With Virtual Goods
• PepsiCo Seeks Media Start-Ups For PepsiCo10
• Make Your Own Candy At Hershey’s Chocolate World
• Dreyer’s Ice Cream Adds Mobile To The Marketing Mix
• New Ben & Jerry’s Flavors Debut At Target, Taste Like Volunteering
• Kettle Chips Launches “Loud Food Club”
• Klondike Multi-Screen Effort Taps Mobile To Engage Customers
• Mars Adds A Pretzel To M&M’s
• Why Do Consumers Visit CPG Websites?

Telecom

• Thermoelectric Willies Charge Festival-Goers Phones
• Nokia And Heroes Creator Team For Good
• Sprint Demonstrates 4G Through IGN Gaming Community
• Puma Introduces Solar Smart Phone
• 70,000 People Were There. Where You One Of Them?
• Sony’s Move Into Web TV
• V-me And Verizon Provide On-The-Go Video For Spanish Speakers
• Samsung Launches Low-Cost Solar Phone
• Phone Booths Repurposed To Charge Electric Cars

Tourism

• Six Flags Launches Funactic Badge With Foursquare
• American Express Survey Shows Variety Of Summer Travel Plans
• Hotel Offers Cultural Night School For Guests
• Where’s My Tip – A Cashless Way To Tip When You Travel
• Chicago Marriott Creates Some Serious Buzz
• New Zealand Crowdsources Expats To Promote Tourism
• Hotel’s Splitsville Package Sweetens Sudden Singleness
• Dutch Auto Association Touring France In Shop On Wheels
• Pantone Expands From Color Services To Hotels

For a free subscription to Trend Trackers — or our other monthly newsletter, Generational News and Views — just drop David Stutts an e-mail at david.stutts@luckie.com

Boomers

• The Boom In Boomer Models
• Core’s Split Reflects Growing Trend Among Boomers
• Sunny Delight Aims For Boomers
• One Quarter Of  Baby Boomers Use Social Networks AARP Says
• Companies Target Baby Boomers’ Changing Tastes

Gen X

• Togetherville Offers Parent-Patrolled Facebook Alternative For Youngsters
• Latest Hot Kid Trend: Brand Bandz
• New Ford Explorer To Make Debut On Facebook
• Care For Sick Kids While Parents Are At Work
• Elly The Reindeer Offers Age App-Propiate Story Time

Gen Y

• Nissan Lures Millennials With Dorky-Cool Cube
• Midas And Spin Rock The Highway This Summer
• Monsters Are Coming To The House That Barbie Built
• Dollhouse Gives Gen We Keys To Their Own Eco-Homes
• Inkpop Connects Teen Writers With Teen Readers

David Stutts | E-mail | Twitter | Blog | SlideShare | LinkedIn