Secret Society

Contributed by Chloe Williams of Sense Worldwide

It seems that everyone is letting the proverbial cat out of the bag.
Being ‘in-the-know’ is social kudos whether you are posting coveted
gossip information on your blog or attending one-off party.

Secrets have always intrigued people, but recently there has been a
swell in interest, just look at the recent successes of the Da Vinci
Code and PostSecret. The PostSecret
blog has received over 50,000,000 visitors in the past two years as
people have flooded to the site to read others most intimate secrets.
Its popularity has now meant it has been proliferated in various other
print media.

Last night ‘Off The Page’
(BBC Radio 4) looked at the democratisation of information through new
media forms. It seems that as soon as a secret is uncovered these days
it is put out there for the viewing public to absorb. New media forms
such as email, blogs and texting have made it increasingly easier to
disseminate information among the masses.

Popbitch is a website and weekly
online magazine produced in London. Every Thursday the magazine goes
out by email to 360,000 registered subscribers – a bigger circulation
than that of The Independent. According to its editor Camilla Wright
"the whole idea of Popbitch is democratising gossip. The stories we do
are things the industry and chattering class and media people all know,
but think should be kept out of the main world.”

While knowing the latest gossip is key it is now equally important to
be seen in the right place. Yesterday, The Sunday Times reported on ‘The New Speakeasies’
illicit drinking and entertainment venues that provide a one night only
experience. The attendees of these elite nights are all united by the
fact that they are sharing a secret. The article talks about the fact
that intelligence is strictly on a need-to-know basis and is
communicated virally through email and MySpace. However, in order to
keep attendances down organisers have been known to plea with attendees
not to pass the details on.

The word-of-mouth gossip phenomenon is not just confined to
esoteric parties, increasingly companies are trying to get in on the
act too. Just look at last week’s Threshers offer,
which underestimated the public’s Chinese whispering tendencies. The
40% off wine voucher was originally intended for friends and suppliers
to the business but to date millions of people have downloaded it.

Insider knowledge in its many forms enables people to feel like part of
a secret society and reinforces the feeling of belonging to a group.
Whether consumers are privy to where Britney stumbled out of last night
or the location of a warehouse party the importance lies in the knowing
and not on the doing. Knowledge is power, as they say.

Contributed by Chloe Williams of Sense Worldwide