The flash mob movements in London, UK

MA-Thesis / Master von Thomas Töppel

Abstract:

Flash mobs are an urban movement in which it seems that random people meet at a random place and do something out of the ordinary to amuse people as well as to make them think, ‘What just happened?’ They begin as a communication in cyberspace and end as participation in real life, and with the growing popularity of flash mobs, corporations are starting to use this urban movement for commercial purposes. This research seeks to understand the perceptions and attitudes of both participants and the audience of flash mobs and will also examine the impact that commercial use has on this movement. The research is divided into three parts.

The first part involves interviewing the audience of an actual flash mob organized by the author in London and will examine their perceptions towards the event they have just watched.

The second part involves a questionnaire sent out to the general public, including a video of a real flash mob and a video of a commercialized flash mob. This questionnaire is divided into two parts, whether the interviewee knows what a flash mob is or not.

The third part of the research involves interviewing the participants of the flash mob movement and examining their perceptions towards the commodification of the flash mobs by a corporation and the possible impacts of this commercialization on the urban movement.

The analysis shows that the majority of the interviewees can detect the commodification of the real flash mob and the agents see the possibility that the urban movement may become mainstream through the commercial use by corporations.

Table of Contents:

	Abstract	III
	Table of Contents	IV
	List of Figures	1
	List of Appendices	2
	Introduction	3
1.	Literature Review	5
	Chapter Outline	5
	Flash mob	5
	The development of a flash mob	6
	Word-of-mouth	7
	Viral Marketing	9
	Online Communities	11
	Community Marketing	12
	Authenticity	13
2.	Research Methods	17
	Chapter outline	17
	Problem Statement	19
	Objectives of this research	19
	Defining the Research Method	21
	Philosophies	23
	Data analysis	27
	Limitations	27
	Ethics	27
3.	Empirical Findings & Analysis	28
	Chapter outline	28
	Audience survey	28
	General public survey	29
	General Public A	29
	General Public B	42
	Agent Survey	54
4.	Conclusion & Recommendations	81
	Chapter outline	81
	Conclusion	81
	Recommendations	83
	Future Research	83
	References List	84
	Appendices	87

Text Sample:

Chapter 2, Philosophies:

This part of the ‘research onion’ consists of Pragmatism, Positivism, Realism, and Interpretivism.

According to Saunders, Pragmatism argues that the most important determinant of the epistemology, ontology and axiology you adopt is the research question – one may be more appropriate than the other for answering particular questions.

Ontology is related to the nature of reality and can be divided into objectivism, which is the existence of social entities in reality external to social actors; and subjectivism, which is the creation of social phenomena from the perceptions and consequent actions of social actors.

In order to the current study, the ontology of subjectivism is used as it studies the details of the situation in order to understand the reality or perhaps a reality behind them. In this case, the perceptions of an audience watching a real and a fake flash mob are investigated as well as the impact of a commercialization of an urban movement to its members.

Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study. According to Saunders there are two different researchers, one who is researching objects, the ‘resources’ researcher; and the ‘feelings’ researcher, who is more interested in the feelings and attitudes.

Regarding the current case study, the ‘feeling’ researchers has been used, as feelings and attitudes have been researched in order to collect data for a social phenomena, which has no external reality.

Positivism and realism adopt the philosophical stance of the natural scientist and does not play a role for this study.

Interpretivism, on the other hand, plays an important role, as it is used to understand differences between humans in our role as social actors. Interpretivist researchers enter the social world of the research subjects and understand their world form their point of view. The author of this research paper has entered the world of flash mobs and became an agent, organized several flash mobs and took part in different flash mobs to understand this urban movement.

Relating Saunders definition, the philosophy of this research is Axiology, ‘the researcher’s view of the role of values in research’ in combination with Interpretivism, as the research is value but the researcher is part of what is being researched and cannot be separated and so will be subjective.

The next ‘onion-ring’ is the research approach. Two approaches are possible, the deductive and the inductive.

The deductive approach involves the development of a theory, which consists of five stages:

- Deducing hypothesis.

- Expressing the hypothesis in operational terms.

- Testing this operational hypothesis.

- Examining the specific outcome of the inquiry.

- If necessary, modifying the theory.

The inductive approach makes first the research and then develops, with the help of the findings, a theory.

Regarding the flash mob research, the deductive approach has been used. The hypothesis for this research is:

‘Urban movements, such as the flash mob, are used by companies to promote their products/services and therefore these urban movements become mainstream and loose its originality’.

The expression in operational terms can be found in the three surveys, developed for this research. One questionnaire has been developed for the audience at a flash mob taking place; another questionnaire for the general public, which has been sent out via e-mail; and a third questionnaire, which was published online and done by the Agents of ImprovEverywhere.

Both questionnaires were tested with two test persons of each group and necessary changes, such as spelling mistakes or unclear questions were undertaken.

The examination can be found in the Chapter ‘Findings’.

The research strategy, the first inner circle in Saunders Research Onion, used in this research is the Survey, as three different questionnaires have been developed. This research strategy has been chosen to understand the phenomena of a flash mob and to evaluate the impacts upon the urban movement due the commercial use by companies such as T-Mobile and vtm.

The time horizon for this research is a cross-sectional study, the study at a particular time, which is June 2009 until September 2009. Within this time this research paper will be executed.

The data collection for this research is only primary data as there was no secondary data found on the subject of flash mobs.

As mentioned above, the research is divided into three primary researches.

The first one will be a flash mob organized by the author and the audience of this flash mob will be interviewed. The research target is 20 interviews.

The author organized a meeting with two other agents of UPN and discussed the strategy for the flash mob. It was agreed on a double flash mob on one day. The first one will be at Trafalgar Square in London and will be a ‘Staring flash mob’, in which the first agent starts freezing at a random spot on Trafalgar Square and stares at a random spot. Other agents will join that agent one by one until a whole group of agents stand at the same place and stare at the same spot. This flash mob will last for approximately 5 minutes and the sign for the agents to spread out again will be a whistle blow by the author. While this flash mob is happening, the author will conduct the research and interview the audience – the people standing around and watching the flash mob.

After the first flash mob is done, all the agents will gather again and move together to Piccadilly Circus, where the second flash mob will take place. This flash mob is called ‘Traffic Light Party’. There are a lot of traffic lights at Piccadilly Circus and the agents will stay together at the first traffic light and will be very sad that the traffic light is red. As soon as the traffic light turns green, all agents will cheer and make a big party. Every participant will be asked to bring noise making items, such as whistles. This flash mob continues for several times, as the traffic lights for pedestrians go around the whole Piccadilly Circus and a lot of tourists will be there.

Meeting point for this day will be a little park in Soho, where all the agents will be instructed about the two flash mobs. Meeting time will be Saturday, August 25th 2009 at 2pm.

The three organizers also developed a marketing strategy and a marketing plan for the two flash mobs. Three weeks in advance of the meeting day, a Facebook group will be created, as well as a post on UPN, giving only very few information to the agents to create curiosity. More details will be given as the day of the event moves closer. Further more Twitter has been used to spread the word. Twitter is a ‘real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices’. The messages on Twitter will be also very short and more detailed information will be given as the event moves closer.

A reminder will be sent to every interested person a week before the event and one day in advance via Facebook and within UPN. Messages as a reminder will be posted on Twitter at the same time.

The second part of the research will be a questionnaire sent to friends, acquaintances and fellow students. The questionnaire is divided into two parts. The division takes place after the first question, whether the interviewee know what a flash mob is (this group will be called ‘General Public B’) or not know what a flash mob is (this group will be called ‘General Public A’). The target for this group is 20 questionnaires.

The first and second research will help to understand the perceptions of the general public towards flash mobs as well as the impact upon the urban movement due the commercial use.

The third part of the research is an online survey for the agents of ImprovEverywhere. The target for this research is 20 questionnaires. This part of the research will help to understand the perceptions of the people actually doing a flash mob and their view towards the commercial use by T-Mobile, vtm and others.

LimeService has been used as the platform for the survey. After creating the survey, it was activated on August 10th, 2009 and the agents have been invited on that day via UPN. The survey has been deactivated on August 18th, 2009, after 19 agents have (partially) filled in the questionnaire.