4th session of the conference cycle. July 13, 2010 at 6:30 pm at the Fundación Telefónica Auditorium in Madrid (Gran Vía 28, 2nd Floor).
Sociologist, consultant and analyst of consumer trends, marketing, communication and new technologies.
Sociologist, consultant and analyst of consumer trends, marketing, communication and new technologies. Since 1998, his professional career has focussed on investigating consumer behaviour at advertising agencies and market studies institutes.
He is a frequent collaborator with different media in the advertising and marketing world, through which he has published a number of predictions about social and consumer trends which subsequently came true. He is the author of the books "Crossumer: Claves para entender al consumidor español de nueva generación” (“Crossumer: keys to understanding the new generation of Spanish consumers”) and “Coolhunting”.
Further information:
Chairman of the Spanish Coolhunting Association and CEO of the agency Coolhunting Community
Chairman of the Spanish Coolhunting Association and CEO of the agency Coolhunting Community, which specialises in Business Coolhunting and Online Consultancy. He also teaches Coolhunting and Community Management at the Direct Marketing and E-commerce Institute (ICEDMD/ESIC) and works as a strategic consultant for Limonchi Consulting Group.
Further information:Managing Partner / Director of Strategy and Operations at Territorio Creativo, a social media marketing agency. He keeps a personal blog called abladías and a posterous site: Fernando Polo (puntocom). Twitter at @abladias.
Further information:The term "coolhunter" is not new: it was coined in the 1990s and at first referred mainly to the hunt for trends in clothing within society, which later were used in the fashion sector, which always has the obligation to innovate and reinvent itself. Currently, coolhunting has evolved and refers to the activity which many "observers" carry out in cities around the world, detecting fashions (more ephemeral) and trends which can be used by companies to create products with a greater impact or to anticipate the needs of the market and thus gain a competitive advantage over the competition.
Coolhunters are professionals with a highly varied profile who act as collectors and transmitters of information which is later analysed by a team of anthropologists, sociologists and designers. There is also a figure known as the cultsearcher, an analyst in more depth, who is not limited to observation, but can also dig deeper, asking people questions, carrying out surveys and analysing the data which is obtained.
The technique of coolhunting is based on observation and requires young professionals with an innate sense of curiosity, some knowledge of photography and a certain creative sense. Cultsearchers are usually more experienced professionals, since their work requires greater critical abilities, as well as communication skills which allow them to interact with their subjects in order to access the information they need.
Both coolhunters and cultsearchers have interesting times ahead of them, since they will need to face the challenge of carrying out their work in the real world as well as the new online spaces where their subjects are increasingly relating with one another and where new trends are being born.
