The largest generation in history is stepping up to the plate of parenthood and rewriting the rule book. Compared to previous generations, Millennial mothers do almost everything differently when it comes to the way they plan and shop for their households. They are overscheduled, understaffed, and more time-starved than ever before.

Today we confirmed some exciting news about TED’s most ambitious television project yet: a major network series in India hosted by megawatt Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan.

The program will air on Star India, one of India’s largest media conglomerates and our partner in production. TED Talks India: Nayi Soch, which translates to “new thinking,” marks the first time TED is collaborating with a major network to produce a TV series featuring original TED Talks in a language other than English—Hindi.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be bringing TED to India in this form,” TED curator Chris Anderson tells us. “The country is teeming with imagination and innovation, and we believe this series will tap into that spirit and bring insight and inspiration to many new minds.”

“The sheer size of Star TV’s audience, with more than 650 million viewers, makes this a significant milestone in TED’s ongoing effort to bring big ideas to curious minds,” added Juliet Blake, head of TV at TED and executive producer of the series. “Global television is opening up a new frontier for TED.”

Shah Rukh Khan says the show is a concept he “connected with instantly, as I believe that the media is perhaps the single most powerful vehicle to inspire change. I am looking forward to working with TED and Star India, and truly hope that together, we are able to inspire young minds across India and the world.”

More on this unique initiative will be announced at TED2017 in Vancouver and in the coming months. Stay tuned!

Declining trust in media institutions, governments, and corporations is leaving a vacuum which brands might fill. Of the four major measures clocked by Edelman’s Trust Barometer, it seems business (especially among those in the West) is one of the last bastions of trust, and even that is on decline. One of the most interesting of Edeleman’s findings is that, for the first time, peers are now seen as equally credible to both academic and technical experts.

Customer evidence has always been important to brands. The complex solutions in the B2B industries usually sees evidence presented in the form of case studies and testimonials, whereas B2C brands might use shorter form reviews, ratings, and endorsements. But the point of evidence is to allow customers to preview or simulate the brand experience prior to purchase. Evidence helps drive and accelerate the purchase decision.

If you haven’t heard of the term Groundtruthing, it’s something every brand owner should become familiar with. Information customers get from experts and media institutions is typically inferred. So, the final edit of a testimonial or published customer story might read as perfect, but we know it has passed through a lens that is likely biased to the brand. The growing popularity of live video and citizen journalism seeks to bypass the filters and influences in order to present the story; raw, imperfect and unfiltered, so people can make up their own minds. They “go to the ground” to find the truth.

Here are seven ways brands can capture the evidence needed to grow and in some case restore trust among customers.

1. Make evidence a priority: In a fast-changing world, the short shelf life of evidence may seem like an expensive proposition with limited ROI. So, be smart about the evidence you collect. Focus on the unique situations, solutions and stories that show how your brand has made the customer a hero, and find ways to get this evidence in front of prospective customers.

2. Solicit your evidence: User generated content is great, but consider the groundtruthing implications. Customers want to get to the original source and likely will find original content much more valuable than what you create.

3. Be live when you can: Social platforms have made it so easy to go live. If your brand has presence at events or trade shows, put your smartphone to work. Find a way to capture what customers say without a script and without editing. Broadcast it live, but save the recordings to make an event highlights reel. Live video can be one way to cross-reference.

4. Provide ways to cross reference: If you have a traditional case study or testimonial, what else can you provide customers to help them cross reference? While links to other media stories are great, think about any unfiltered content can you offer to help bolster the authenticity of the story.

5. Get clear on the influence you want: It used to be about number of followers, but there are so many ways to cheat on followers, size of audience is no longer relevant. It’s more important to understand what you’re trying to influence, and build evidence that supports that.

6. Make a play for advocacy: Some brands trust their customers so much; they encourage them to connect in real life, so should you. Look for opportunities to grow advocates and find ways to get advocates and influencers in front of customers, in live video streams, at events where they can interact in real time.

7. Be Polished and raw: Many brands limit themselves by thinking the brand can only be expressed using the visual style or language of the brand. There is a place for both the polished, edited content you create, as well as raw, unedited content. Providing both will help demonstrate transparency in your story.

Think of trust as a living organism, not as feeling or a perception. Water it, nurture it, and grow it with evidence.

Don’t face your marketing challenges alone. Join us in Hollywood, California for Brand Leadership in the Age of Disruption, our 5th annual problem-solving event designed around brand strategy.

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In a wide-ranging conversation with Yuval Harari at TED’s theater, TED’s Chris Anderson (left) asked: How should we behave in this post-truth era? And Harari replied: “My basic reaction as a historian is: if this is the era of post-truth, when the hell was the era of truth?” Photo: Dian Lofton /TED

How to explain the stunning political upheaval of 2016 — Brexit in the UK and Donald Trump’s election to the presidency in the US — as well as the current and ongoing atmosphere of division, discontent and disquiet that fills many people’s lives? One simple answer: “We’ve lost our story,” says Jerusalem University historian Yuval Harari, in a conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson during the first of a series of TED Dialogues in NYC.

Humans “think in stories and make sense of the world by telling stories,” says Harari, the author of Sapiens and the new book Homo Deus. In the past few decades, many of us believed in the “simple and attractive story” that we existed in a world that was both politically liberal and economically global. At the same time, some people felt left out of — or didn’t believe — this story. By 2016, they voiced their discontent by supporting Brexit and Trump and LePen, retreating into the cozy confines of nationalism and nostalgia.

Right now, “almost everywhere around the globe, we see [politicians with a] retrograde vision.” Harari points to Trump’s efforts to “Make America Great Again,” Putin’s hearkening back to the Tsarist empire, and leadership in Israel, his home country, seeking to build temples. He views leaders — and citizens — a bit like lost children retracing their steps back to the place they once felt safety and security.

Unfortunately, taking refuge in nationalism will not help humanity tackle the huge and looming problems of climate change and technological disruption at global scale. While climate occupies the worries of many people, Harari believes the general public is less informed about the latter problem: that in the next 20 to 30 years, hundreds of millions of people might be put out of work due to automation. “It’s not the Mexicans, it’s not the Chinese who are going to take jobs from people in Pennsylvania,” he says, “it’s the robots and algorithms. And we have to do something about it now. What we teach children in school and college now is completely irrelevant for what they will need in 2040.”

And nothing less than a concerted international solution — most likely, in the form of global governance — is needed to take on these planet-scale issues. “I don’t know what it would look like,” admits Harari. “But we need it because these situations are lose-lose situations.” When it comes to an area like trade, where both sides can benefit, it’s easy to get national governments to come together and negotiate an agreement. But with an issue like climate change in which all nations stand to lose, an overarching authority is needed in order to force them to act. Such a global government would “most likely look more like ancient China than modern Denmark,” he says.

Harari notes that most of today’s nationalist governments seem loath to address — or even acknowledge — global problems like climate change. “There’s a close correlation between nationalism and climate change denialism,” he says. “Nationalists are focused on their most immediate loyalties and commitments, to their people, to their country.” But, he asks, “Why can’t you be loyal to humankind as a whole?” So in our current political climate, Harari says anyone interested in global governance needs to make it clear to people that “it doesn’t replace local identities and communities.”

Harari concluded the conversation on a cautiously optimistic note. We should take heart in the fact that the world is much less violent than it was 100 years ago: “More people die from eating too much than eating too little; more people die from old age than infectious disease; more people commit suicide than are killed by war, terrorism and crime,” he says. Or, as he wryly sums up, “You are your own worst enemy.” He believes that Brexit could be as seen as a statement of independence, and by those standards, “it’s the most peaceful war of independence in human history.” And he emphasizes that humanity has shown it can rise to major challenges. The best example is how we reacted to nuclear weapons. In the middle of the 20th century, many people believed that a nuclear war would inevitably lead world into catastrophic destruction. “But instead, nuclear weapons caused humans all over the world to change the way they managed international politics and to reduce violence.”

He adds, “The problem is we have very little margin for error [now]. If we don’t get it right, we might not have a second option to try again.”

Yuval Harari says: “One of the most powerful forces in history is human stupidity. But another powerful force is human wisdom. We have both.” Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED

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A Nielsen study revealed multicultural consumer shopping habits across grocery, drug, and warehouse club stores, as well as at convenience and gas retailers.

The latest Levi’s commercial, “Sea of Blue,” shines a playful light on our phone obsession, and what can happen when we look up and live in the moment. The W+K created ad has everyone at a rooftop party distracted with cell phones, a guy and girl wearing Levi’s catch each others eye. Before making their way toward each other amid the preoccupied crowd, he pretends to call her and she picks up an imaginary phone. Without saying a word, the girl strips off her jean jacket and they jump into the pool together to share an underwater kiss.

CREATIVE CREDITS:
Ad Agency: Wieden + Kennedy

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