At the end of May, DDB invited its friends and partners to the annual Breakfast of Champions. This year’s breakfast was held in the homely quarter of Kalnciema iela.

Viesturs Celmiņš, a social anthropology student at Cambridge University, unveiled the Diderot Effect (see video). Having received an expensive scarlet robe as a gift, the renowned, but impoverished philosopher Diderot transformed the whole interior of his hitherto chaotic study. He concluded that an object, which pleases a person aesthetically or ethically, prompts him to change his system of values and buy new goods. Viesturs confirmed that more often than not this desire for change is unrelated to any rational benefit.

Social media: facebook, twitter, draugiem.lv and other similar sites are environments in which consumers’ "scarlet robes" can be studied.

This insight was further underlined by the speech given by Nordea’s Head of Public Relations, Dagnija Stuķēna (see video): "We want to be part of social networks, because our clients are there." Dagnija talked about the bank’s achievements in the past two years and the ten main insights that Nordea Bank has obtained from its interaction with its clients on social networks. 

In turn, DDB’s Strategic Director, Reinis Grants talked (see video) about the reasons why people choose one good or another, demonstrating that consumers are often motivated not by a desire to benefit from the purchase of a particular good, but rather by the desire to be liked by other consumers who matter to them.

In the end, one is left to conclude that we are irrational beings in scarlet robes who live on social networks! Photos from the Breakfast of Champions can be viewed here.