INTERVIEW WITH
JOHANNA BLAKLEY
10 am on a lazy Saturday morning. Lazy no more, for the
exuberance of this charming personality was infectious, to
say the least. The conference hall in VFAST had an air of
picture perfect cleanliness. Perched on the edges of our
seats, we stared apprehensively, wondering what would be.
Across us sat Johanna Blakley, the one who had enraptured
the BITSian audience with her Think Again talk. She had
dissected the current marketing model, which classifies target audiences on the basis of demographics, and proved
how it is incorrect. She greeted us with one of her warm
smiles, and began one of the best discussions that I have
had the opportunity of enjoying.
The topic immediately went to some questions that were
left unanswered in the lecture. When quizzed about the
ideal replacement for the current marketing model, she
brought to the fore the importance of big data analytics.
Thanks to powerful computers and better data mining
methodologies, the number crunching capacity is rising
exponentially. Because of the internet, one often ends up
leaving an extensive digital trail replete with vital information. Using this, each person can be evaluated subjectively according to his or her choices and preferences. Sadly, right now most of this data is being discarded and only
the demographic details are being utilized. She claims that
there is poor understanding of consumer psychology and
social network at the executive level and this lack of understanding spawns a mistrust and fear of any new business
model. There is a huge amount of inertia when it comes to
such “risky” financial choices as they don’t want any sort of
disruptions. And the people who can actually understand
the implications of these new models are sadly unable to
sell the idea to those at the executive levels. Marketers are
not ready to move beyond their presumptions because they
are making sufficient amount of profit at present. She
maintains that such large scale data acquisition needs some
legal framework so that the privacy and security rights are
not violated.
SOPA/PIPA which witnessed one of the biggest popular
online movements, where people with different lifestyles
came together. This according to her is indicative of the
rising levels of awareness of consumers.
She is critical of the media for the way it capitalizes on people’s weaknesses, be it the usage of extremely young models, the misrepresentation of products, or the usage of stereotypes to market products. However, the general population has started recognizing the stereotypical nature of most
advertisements and this results in the occasional backlash
too.
When asked about the relationship between propaganda
and media, she gives the example of American involvement
in World War 2. USA, which was officially a neutral state,
would not allow film makers to direct movies depicting any
country or leader in bad light. As a result, public opinion
was against entering the war. But when Pearl Harbour was
bombed, the USA government began encouraging such
movies, resulting in massive amount of content generation.
The entire country was buoyed into the war. “So yeah, we
do need to be really careful,” she says.
As the day wore on, the topic of discussion shifted to intellectual p roperty rights. She maintains that although designers may initially lose significant amount of money to plagiarists, it gives them an incentive to evolve faster and think of
new and better things. For example, in the fashion industry,
plagiarism helps to create a trend and establishes the designer as a person who can anticipate the desires of people,
and whose aesthetic senses are appreciated by people. This
ends up giving a boost to his reputation.
With a PhD in English, her journey began as an employee
in the video game design firm Vivendi. Having worked on
programmes as varied as Teletubbies to interactive and educational entertainment games, she had a brief stint in business law, following which she shifted over to social sciences. With research areas covering a wide range of issues,
from social interactions to cultural diplomacy to celebrity
While she does say that we need to be wary of the ability of politics, she feels interactive media will be the harbingers of
large media houses to manipulate legislation by lobbying the next big revolution. And that is what drives her to go
using their vast resources, she also quotes the example of on.