Digital Activation and Social Media
One of my favourite client presentation moments occurred this year during a session where I was promoting the benefits of social media for business gain. After stating that digital was one of the battlegrounds with their competitors that they needed to own, the client casually remarked they already had a twitter and a facebook page. 'Great ... is it working? Are you engaging with consumers? Are you measuring the impact?' I replied, to which I received a few casual headshrugs and a paper aeroplane.
If you build it, they will not come
This illustrated one of the common misperceptions of digital activation. You can't just put up a website with a few social media channels and expect people to automatically find it. There has to be a breadcrumb trail that leads to a gingerbread house of rewards, minus the witch of course. Integral to the success of any social media channels then is a well-constructed launch strategy. Be it teasers, count-downs, microsites, dollars thrown into the street or free balloons ... generating buzz before the reveal is half the battle. But I'm jumping the gun ... before you even get here, you need to ask 'do I really need social media?'
Strategic Alignment
My Managing Director has a simple technique to test the solutions we develop in the creative studio. He responds to everything with a 'So what?'. Sounds horrible ... but it's amazingly effective. What's the reason for recommending social media to a client? Does it align with their business goals? Some reasons that may resonate with clients typically include:
• Crowdsourcing ideas (think Dell's IdeaStorm and Starbucks My Idea)
• Increased visibility with a younger crowd
• Improved market relevance (typically as part of a brand refresh)
• Consumer behavior analysis
• Promoted perception of business transparency
• Real-time customer service (think Zappos)
• Brand dialogue channels
• Location based monitoring
• And more ...
Social media by itself is not an answer. It is, however, a powerful compliment to your primary marketing and branding activities.
Incentivise
So your client agrees that they need to build a social media presence. Now comes the really hard part; even when people find your brand online ... the challenge is giving them a reason to stay. Unless you're a hacker and able to trap them with multiple pop-ups and fraudulent redirection tactics (generally not encouraged), brands need to provide consumer incentives to promote return visits and advocacy to others.
In the 2009 Razorfish Feed Report they conducted a study on the primary reasons consumers follow a brand online. The main results were:
• 43.5% exclusive deals or offers
• 23.5% current customers
• 22.7% interesting or entertaining content
Brands that are successfully leveraging social media for business gain like Starbucks and Dell have tapped into consumers incentives. The appeal of a location based service like FourSquare is that brands are able to reward loyal customers with special offers and an increased personal profile. I just recently had a colleague excitedly show me her new 'Crunked' badge with pride. I mean, who doesn't want to be the mayor of ... well, anywhere.
Measurement
I love stats. So much I'm expecting an intervention from colleagues soon 'Quick! Hold him down! He's trying to measure our time spent on facebook during work hours! Get that graph off him!'. It was discussing monitoring of brand sentiment that resulted in the client presentation story I promised earlier:
'Has everyone seen the Superman movies? (a few positive nods). Well, do you remember when Louis Lane has been kidnapped and Superman flies up above the earth and listens to every conversation in the world for a single mention of her name? (more nods). Imagine we could do the same and listen in to every conversation that mentions your brand, see who is speaking, see what they're saying and even zoom down to talk to them. Well, we can. Here's how ...'
Someone then asked if flying was involved, but unfortunately I couldn't promise anything beyond a flying fox. Tight fitting costumes aside, the other reason I love metrics is because it's relatively easy to measure the short term impact of social media activities. You can assess whether you're increasing your follower count, flag popular and contagious content, assess shared/retweeted posts and count increases in consumer conversations.
More advanced tools also allow you to check not only your brand's online reputation but more real-time behavior:
• brand sentiment (are people talking about your brand positively and negatively)
• influencer identification (when these people speak, the crowd listens)
• content tagging and flagging (what are the most common keywords used in association with your brand)
• demographic information (age, gender, location, referral data, bounce rates, visit times and more are often available)
With so many free tools available, there's really no reason not be participating on even an intermediate level.
Time is not on your side
I've heard a few clients say 'Yeah, we will get to that, it's in next years activity list'. But the reality is that to stay market relevant you need to catch the wave and ride it, not surf in flat water behind it. Plus, that's typically where the sharks wait. The typical long term development of a brand is a debating point but I'm more and more convinced that brands need to update every 2-3 years. The outdated concept of building a 5-10 year lifespan is dead and buried. The market changes so quickly that to avoid regular brand evolution is to fall behind. Whilst a brand's core positioning may stay the same, successful companies like Nike and Apple have proven that it's best to outdate yourself before the competition catches up.
Digital brand experiences can create some of your most powerful brand advocates. If you're not playing in the space now, it's time to change.
Christian Teniswood
Showing posts with label social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social. Show all posts
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Brand Storytelling
Storytelling is an often overlooked and undervalued communication method in branding. Using a metaphorical journey to describe aspects such as brand personalities and values is a unique way to get a client to understand a proposed brand idea. Stories are also metaphors and very powerful ones. They allow us to talk to the subconscious mind in such a way that the conscious mind does not reject or censor an underlying message (Developing Your NLP skills : Andrew Bradbury. P96)
Remember this point: A story can be used to communicate an underlying message that will not be questioned like an opinion or statement. A case study can be presented as a story to substantiate other claims or recommendations. Minimising confusion and conflict whilst providing clarity, a story becomes a very powerful tool in creative presentations. Selling an emotional concept in an analytical way results in a conflicting communication model. I agree with David Ogilvy that clients require rational reasons to make emotional decisions. However, they need to experience the emotional connection you're selling to understand the consumer's state of mind. It must be remembered that consumers make emotional choices and decisions just as much as logical choices. More importantly, it is emotional experiences that are remembered.
Therefore conveying an emotional value or idea with emotional language is clearly a more effective tool in a creative presentation. This is where telling a relevant story becomes so effective. For example, if selling a positioning that revolves around the concept of magic, a story that tells of the wonder of a child experiencing something like flying a kite for the first time can be extremely compelling. A concept like determination brings to mind some of the amazing stories of training that professional atheletes go through. The important point is to tell a story that the client will be able to personally relate to and let them recall a similar experience. If you can't tell the story yourself, there may be a video you can present that sells the experience you want to convey. This is another sensory method of selling a concept at a visual, auditory and kinesthetic level.
The average memory space of a person ranges from four to seven items at best, best represented by numerical sequences like phone numbers which are broken into digestible chunks for better retention. Research has also shown that worldwide attention spans are shrinking and people are more effectively blocking out the constant bombardment of visual stimulus such as advertising. Having methodologies to enhance a brand's memorability and recall is essential for success. I recently became interested in the way we record information after watching a world memory challenge.
What was fascinating was that nearly all the competitors used the same method to memorise what appeared to be a staggering amount of information such as numbers and patterns. An explanation from one competitor stated that by linking long number sequences to people and places he was already familar with, then creating a story as he walked through his imagination from person to person and place to place enabled him to remember the entire numerical sequence. It was compelling proof of the ability of a story to ensure maximum recall once you leave a presentation.
The conclusion was that stories are both emotively powerful and memorable. A very simple example I found effective was asking someone to write as many animal names as possible straight onto paper, then comparing it to someone who I asked to imagine walking through a jungle and naming animals they saw. A person who is able to internally visualise finds it much easier to recall items. Taking a conceptual journey stimulates more of our senses and sparks more links to existing
memories.
In oversaturated global markets every advantage to improve communication and heighten recall is beneficial. Brand stories should be part of every presentation and brand toolkit. Knowing that the brain works best by linking stories along a journey, telling a brand 'story' is a powerful tool in selling creative concepts. It also ensures the client experiences an emotional connection that is closer to the consumer experience.
Remember this point: A story can be used to communicate an underlying message that will not be questioned like an opinion or statement. A case study can be presented as a story to substantiate other claims or recommendations. Minimising confusion and conflict whilst providing clarity, a story becomes a very powerful tool in creative presentations. Selling an emotional concept in an analytical way results in a conflicting communication model. I agree with David Ogilvy that clients require rational reasons to make emotional decisions. However, they need to experience the emotional connection you're selling to understand the consumer's state of mind. It must be remembered that consumers make emotional choices and decisions just as much as logical choices. More importantly, it is emotional experiences that are remembered.
Therefore conveying an emotional value or idea with emotional language is clearly a more effective tool in a creative presentation. This is where telling a relevant story becomes so effective. For example, if selling a positioning that revolves around the concept of magic, a story that tells of the wonder of a child experiencing something like flying a kite for the first time can be extremely compelling. A concept like determination brings to mind some of the amazing stories of training that professional atheletes go through. The important point is to tell a story that the client will be able to personally relate to and let them recall a similar experience. If you can't tell the story yourself, there may be a video you can present that sells the experience you want to convey. This is another sensory method of selling a concept at a visual, auditory and kinesthetic level.
The average memory space of a person ranges from four to seven items at best, best represented by numerical sequences like phone numbers which are broken into digestible chunks for better retention. Research has also shown that worldwide attention spans are shrinking and people are more effectively blocking out the constant bombardment of visual stimulus such as advertising. Having methodologies to enhance a brand's memorability and recall is essential for success. I recently became interested in the way we record information after watching a world memory challenge.
What was fascinating was that nearly all the competitors used the same method to memorise what appeared to be a staggering amount of information such as numbers and patterns. An explanation from one competitor stated that by linking long number sequences to people and places he was already familar with, then creating a story as he walked through his imagination from person to person and place to place enabled him to remember the entire numerical sequence. It was compelling proof of the ability of a story to ensure maximum recall once you leave a presentation.
The conclusion was that stories are both emotively powerful and memorable. A very simple example I found effective was asking someone to write as many animal names as possible straight onto paper, then comparing it to someone who I asked to imagine walking through a jungle and naming animals they saw. A person who is able to internally visualise finds it much easier to recall items. Taking a conceptual journey stimulates more of our senses and sparks more links to existing
memories.
In oversaturated global markets every advantage to improve communication and heighten recall is beneficial. Brand stories should be part of every presentation and brand toolkit. Knowing that the brain works best by linking stories along a journey, telling a brand 'story' is a powerful tool in selling creative concepts. It also ensures the client experiences an emotional connection that is closer to the consumer experience.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Be careful, we're watching you
Consumer profiling is always an interesting phase of any branding project. And with social media making consumer voices more transparent than ever before ... I'm starting many projects with RSS keyword alerts across news, twitter and blogs. Combined with several social media tools (compete, social mention, socialseek and whostalkin are just a few favourite starting places) it's a great way to begin getting a clearer brand picture from a customer perspective.
But why scour the dark corners of internet alleys? Well, like any moment in a dark alley, the difference is honesty. People tend to say what they really think in a public forums, untempered by a social surrounding or within earshot of small impressionable children. A focus group creates a different context that can, if not properly moderated, create diluted or steered responses. But you can't argue when a customer posts a comment on Twitter saying 'Your product not only made my problem worse, my shrieks of pain scared the neighbours. My ex-girlfriend finally got it off with baby oil. Length and girth extender ... never again!'. The damage to brand perception and potential customers is almost irreversible.
That said, there's so much potential for real-time monitoring and instant feedback. Having recently stayed at the JIA Hotel in Hong Kong, I'd tweeted a general message about the Philippe Starck association and within five minutes, a JIA representative had replied directly to me asking about the service and overall experience. I was both surprised by the immediacy of the response but appreciative that they appeared to be concerned about my stay (or that customers are promoting a positive public facing message). My stay was genuinely a good and recommended one ... but out of pure curiosity I would have liked to have seen a response to an unhappy client...the true test. It's still a good reminder that marketing divisions should always have brand alerts set up for these scenarios. The ability to put out spotfires quickly before they become rampant is truly a part of any PR and brand perception campaign and assists in promoting a consumer first attitude to the public.
Combining the real-time presence of online monitoring with consumer profiling also changes the areas of brand focus. I've been working at integrating product adoption potential, social/peer influence and consumer brand alignment into our methodology to compliment our other data. "More stats!" can occassionally overwhelm a definitive point (as Mark Twain said 'facts are stubborn, but statistics are pliable') but in the consumer realm, they're king. In conjunction with behavioral patterns and levels of influence, online consumer profiling should be a part of your every project.
But why scour the dark corners of internet alleys? Well, like any moment in a dark alley, the difference is honesty. People tend to say what they really think in a public forums, untempered by a social surrounding or within earshot of small impressionable children. A focus group creates a different context that can, if not properly moderated, create diluted or steered responses. But you can't argue when a customer posts a comment on Twitter saying 'Your product not only made my problem worse, my shrieks of pain scared the neighbours. My ex-girlfriend finally got it off with baby oil. Length and girth extender ... never again!'. The damage to brand perception and potential customers is almost irreversible.
That said, there's so much potential for real-time monitoring and instant feedback. Having recently stayed at the JIA Hotel in Hong Kong, I'd tweeted a general message about the Philippe Starck association and within five minutes, a JIA representative had replied directly to me asking about the service and overall experience. I was both surprised by the immediacy of the response but appreciative that they appeared to be concerned about my stay (or that customers are promoting a positive public facing message). My stay was genuinely a good and recommended one ... but out of pure curiosity I would have liked to have seen a response to an unhappy client...the true test. It's still a good reminder that marketing divisions should always have brand alerts set up for these scenarios. The ability to put out spotfires quickly before they become rampant is truly a part of any PR and brand perception campaign and assists in promoting a consumer first attitude to the public.
Combining the real-time presence of online monitoring with consumer profiling also changes the areas of brand focus. I've been working at integrating product adoption potential, social/peer influence and consumer brand alignment into our methodology to compliment our other data. "More stats!" can occassionally overwhelm a definitive point (as Mark Twain said 'facts are stubborn, but statistics are pliable') but in the consumer realm, they're king. In conjunction with behavioral patterns and levels of influence, online consumer profiling should be a part of your every project.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Stop yelling and selling. Start participating.
As I write this branding continues to change at a rate faster than the average cheetah can keep up with. Digital is the buzzword floating around my office at the moment, but I'm personally seeing this less as a complete direction change and more as the space in which brands now live and interact with consumers in. It's a natural progression versus a radical departure from most agencies core competencies.
Where real change is happening is communication. Branding has moved from yelling into a crowd and seeing who listens, to opening up the forum floor to anyone who wants to speak. For the uninitiated this can be quite intimidating. Transparency has taken on the true meaning of the word as regulation, within reason, is often perceived as a negative influence to the participation process.
But this is the change that every brand must embrace. Negativity is productive. Change is good. Opinions are wanted. As Microsoft's Mich Mathews stated, brands have moved into the 'Era of Customer Participation', a business space where brands must be able to organically adapt to an ever changing landscape. Successful brands must open direct channels to consumers and ask them 'Let us know how we can help you more, because this is your brand as much as ours'.
Social and rich interactive media solutions open up a new world of possibilities to both consulting and creative people. Speaking a differentiated message consistently at all touchpoints? The tradition. Providing a vehicle for consumers to shape, create and fulfill an untapped need? The change.
Where real change is happening is communication. Branding has moved from yelling into a crowd and seeing who listens, to opening up the forum floor to anyone who wants to speak. For the uninitiated this can be quite intimidating. Transparency has taken on the true meaning of the word as regulation, within reason, is often perceived as a negative influence to the participation process.
But this is the change that every brand must embrace. Negativity is productive. Change is good. Opinions are wanted. As Microsoft's Mich Mathews stated, brands have moved into the 'Era of Customer Participation', a business space where brands must be able to organically adapt to an ever changing landscape. Successful brands must open direct channels to consumers and ask them 'Let us know how we can help you more, because this is your brand as much as ours'.
Social and rich interactive media solutions open up a new world of possibilities to both consulting and creative people. Speaking a differentiated message consistently at all touchpoints? The tradition. Providing a vehicle for consumers to shape, create and fulfill an untapped need? The change.
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