Indelibuzz

Have you talked with your brand evangelists today?

That was then; this is now. My favorite business publication today is Fast Company. The current issue (June) features ‘The 100 most creative people in business’. It’s worth reading. Number 23 on the list is Sarah Robb O’Hagan. Aside from having a very long name, she’s also the current President of Gatorade.

HOW GATORADE MADE A BRAVE TRANSFORMATION.

In 2007, Gatorade was slumping. During maternity leave, Robb O’Hagan dug deep into the stats around current customers. She discovered that 15% were high school athletes. Marathoners and weekend warriors comprised another 7%. So that was just 22% of all customers. But here’s what truly mattered: those were the people that loved the brand the most.

Robb O’Hagan decided it was best to essentially ignore 78% of her base, and focus on the core evangelists. She repositioned the brand as one entirely devoted to ‘athletic prowess’. She went to her boss and said ‘We have to start saying no to a lot of stuff retailers are asking us to do, and that Wall St. is asking us to do, and we just have to serve the athlete and act like a sport-performance company.’ Her boss at Pepsi said yes. 2011 Gatorade sales exceeded $3 billion – up 9% from the prior year.

YOU HAVE TO FIND THE BEST SPECIFIC NICHE FOR YOUR BRAND.

Too many brands think they can sell to just about anyone. It may come down to basic psychology: everyone wants to be loved by as many people as possible. But if you want to succeed in today’s marketplace, you have to find your niche. And then you have to wrap that niche around your brand like a flag. And wear it proudly.

Start by determining who the core of your target really is. You’ll have to do some research. Talk with your most enthusiastic evangelists and see what they have to say. I mean really. Call them up, and ask. Reward them for their time, because this information is more valuable than you know. Use online surveys, too. Then build your strategy upon what you’ve learned.

It comes down to this: Do you want a brand that stands for something distinct and powerful? A personality people can be passionate about? So they tell their friends, and create something that thrives in the new social economy? Or would you rather have a brand platform that’s so general and safe that nobody will ever get too excited? It really is up to you.

In case you want to read it, here’s the link to the entire article on Sarah in Fast Company.

Hungry for evangelist interaction.

As a result, a number of brands have followed suit. They create a page on each of those social sites. They hire a person or small team to post and respond. Once in a while, they try a new tactic – like a modest contest or sweepstakes. And when someone asks what the brand is doing as far as social marketing, they respond ‘Yes, we have our program in place’.

But today, that’s just not true anymore. Merely having a presence on the major social sites is definitely NOT a marketing program. People have Facebook and Twitter pages. Smart brands have well-funded social marketing programs.

SOCIAL HUNGER GAMES

Let’s take a quick look at two heralded examples of social media success. First is Hunger Games. The word on the street was that the marketing budget for this film – spent mostly around social – was $45,000,000.*

There were two new social games developed specifically for the film. An HTML5 demo site. Mobile phone apps. YouTube teaster videos. Individual fan communities and badges on Facebook. Tumblr initiatives. Endless traditional advertising teasers. Twitter campaigns. And a program of ‘turning traditional advertising into a series of social media events’. The film broke essentially every box office record, and has earned more than $450 million worldwide, so far.

SUPER BOWL VS. THE POLAR BOWL

Next is the ‘Polar Bowl’ from Coca-Cola. The brand realized that 60% of the Super Bowl’s audience of 111 million viewers would also be watching a second screen during the game. So they created their very own ‘Polar Bowl’ where the bears watched the game, reacted to ads, and of course engaged with fans on Facebook and Twitter in real time. The result? Nine million people participated on various social platforms.

Coke estimated that people would spend 2.5 minutes with Polar Bowl. Instead, fans spent an average of 28 minutes engaged with the brand.

So what can be learned from these two examples? First, it takes a substantial budget to deliver results like these. But more importantly, social works best when it’s integrated with other marketing tactics. And in particular, that means traditional advertising.

It’s perfectly fine to have a strong social presence. We heartily recommend it. But if you truly want your brand to grow, you’ll need to integrate social into a larger marketing effort. The more innovative that is and the better it’s funded, the stronger the results will be where it counts most: at the cash register.

*Footnote: The examples used here have deep pockets, and spent considerably on two large-scale marketing events. But whether you have five thousand or five million to invest, when you integrate innovative social ideas with advertising, you get significantly more bang for your buck.

Do you look good at any size?

The newest and most buzzed-about social tools for sharing content are based on visual storytelling. Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook Timeline and smaller startups like Storify are exploding, in great part, because they fill a void. They not only offer better-than-ever technology but also allow users to create meaningful, personalized narratives with enormous visual appeal. The best of these emerging apps and tools also provide good design and elegant user interface on a screen that fits in your pocket. That’s no mean feat and it’s quickly creating higher expectations in the marketplace.

Chuck Longanecker recently wrote in Mashable that the “‘beautification of the web era‘ is upon us.” He’s referring to anywhere we consume web content, but especially focuses on user experience on phones, tablets and other mobile devices. This ‘beautification’ is upping the ante for brands who want audiences to stay plugged into their content – whether browsing a mobile version of a website, using an app or on social network pages. Websites that don’t look great and work perfectly on mobile devices are no longer acceptable. And if you want customers to love your brand on Facebook, your Timeline profile image and social apps better look as good on Androids and iPads as they do on PCs.

An Italian neuroscience study published in 2007 got a lot of press because it  pointed to evidence  that our brains are actually ‘hardwired for beauty‘ – that aesthetic enjoyment is something universal and intrinsically human. Design-driven brands like Apple and Target are oft-featured examples of companies that pioneered in making aesthetic experience a key product differentiator and competitive advantage. As a result, consumer expectations have been forever changed by something once viewed as maverick:  the delivery of good design to the masses.

When it comes to our digital daily lives, we’re beyond appreciating cool technology that simply allows us to get everything we need from our phone. We want design and user interface that’s equally brilliant – even beautiful. Daniel Pink states in his wonderful book: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, that design is a critical component of economic success, going so far as to say that “the only way that businesses can differentiate their goods and services in today’s overstocked marketplace is to make their offerings physically beautiful and emotionally compelling.”

If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to examine each and every touchpoint where customers connect visually with your brand – using phones, tablets and other mobile devices as your microscope. Focusing your marketing efforts and dollars here is a priority. Because now, more than ever, what you ‘show’ trumps what you ‘tell’.

Photo by Dana Beveridge

This really rang true for me. Many, if not most brands approach social media as simply another marketing channel. A place to ‘be friendly and encourage conversation’ while telling the story about their products. The only problem is, this is the wrong approach.

TALK WITH YOUR BRAND EVANGELISTS.

When we start a relationship with a client the first thing we recommend is that we do some deep research with brand evangelists. Sometimes we’re told ‘Oh, we’ve already done lots of focus groups’. But when we look at that data, it rarely gets to the heart of what makes customers PASSIONATE about a particular brand experience. Or, what they feel would be most important to them on social pages.

That’s what you need as the foundation for effective social strategy. To give just one example: We’ve done evangelist research for a number of wine brands. What people are most enthusiastic about isn’t the taste profile of a particular bottle. It’s the experience of sharing and enjoying it. So what we hear is ‘It’s the most relaxing part of my day, and I really look forward to a glass of wine and just unwinding with my husband.’

WHERE’S THE PASSION?

So the passion for the brand is wrapped around relaxation & conversation – a chance to switch off from the digital life and embrace real communication. And that’s what needs to be at the heart of social media, not information about the winery or the harvest or awards.

Remember that authentic communities are built upon shared passions. If you provide a platform for your evangelists to express what they’re passionate about (and why), you’ll be rewarded with lots of engagement and activity. In essence, your products take a bit of a back seat, while the driver and passengers talk about what they love.

The important thing however is this – your brand is still along for the ride. And, it’s your social pages that provided the forum, so they’ll keep coming back. That’s how social works best.

Photo by BWR.

How important are visuals for your brand today? Well, Instagram was just purchased by Facebook for over $1 billion. And everyone has seen the near-endless stream of stories about Pinterest. It became the 3rd most popular social network (following Facebook and Twitter) faster than you can say ‘cheese’.

So let’s cut to the chase: The story of successful social brands is now being told on a daily basis with photos and videos. That means you have to think about new ways to tell your brand’s story through fresh, interesting images.

Here’s a simple suggestion: Neil Young once said that for musicians, it’s a good idea to ‘record everything’. Likewise your brand should now start photographing everything, too. If you want better images, hire a pro to take them. What you’re really trying to do is tell the story of your brand in a visually interesting way.

The best photos and videos, of course, are those that show the customer’s experience with your product or service. That’s why you still need to provide incentives for evangelists to do that via social media.

Successful marketing today is all about staying one step ahead of the curve. If you’re providing a constant stream of powerful, engaging imagery and video – you’re on the right path.

The best boss today is a social media zealot.

THE CEO STILL APPROVES THE BUDGET.

Ultimately, it’s all about funding. Since virtually every brand that matters has a strong presence on social networks, the only way to rise above the noise is to have a smart, well-funded program. That’s why it falls to your CEO – because that’s where the budget gets approved (or not).

OLD SCHOOL: DEMOGRAPHICS
NEW SCHOOL: INVDIVIDUALS

CEOs at the top consumer brands understand that it’s not really about demographics anymore. Today, it’s about communicating with individuals. This, in fact, harkens back to the late eighties when ‘planners’ where all the rage at agencies. They taught us how to focus on just one person when creating brand strategy. And today social media is all about one-on-one conversations.

The graphic below is a just-released survey that shows how effective social marketing can be when top management has endorsed and funded a robust program.

TODAY YOUR CUSTOMER WANTS TO BE IN CONTROL.

Consumers want to have more control over the complete brand experience today. And that includes everything from the product experience to packaging, advertising, social conversation and customer service.

Brands that are ceding that control – letting evangelists have a say about everything related to the brand – are simply more successful. They don’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on social marketing because they want to. They do it because they know it’s the only way to stay ahead of the competition. How does your brand compare?

The technology of marketing is constantly evolving.

But beyond those is where adtech gets interesting. Here’s my report on the most helpful services found at the show.

1) dudamobile If you don’t think mobile is important to your brand, you aren’t paying attention. Dudamobile offers a relatively simple way to take your website and create a version of it that’s optimized for smartphones. Your existing site stays the same – but your mobile version now looks like it was created to be viewed on a smartphone. They offer three different price points, including an intro level that’s free with advertising. To give you an idea how important this is, dudamobile just partnered with Google… today.

2) Fanzy A scrappy new company that rewards your fans for spreading the word about your brand. It’s a Facebook app that ‘gamifies’ the experience for your evangelists – and let’s them accrue points for telling their friends about you. If it sounds pretty simple, it is. While this may not be the best model for banks or insurance companies, it will work like a charm for wine, liquor, electronics, automobile, green, entertainment, resort and all other brands with high pass-along potential.

3) Extole The higher-end, more established version of Fanzy. (Yes, there is ample competition in every aspect of social marketing now.) Extole offers a broader range of incentives, as well as strategy, planning and analytics for your program. Unlike Fanzy, there is no free version. If you have a large consumer brand, Extole is the safer bet.

4) Game & Buzz Buzz Factory These guys need a better URL (one without hypens) but they are certainly in the right space at the right time. Gamification is where every leading brand is right now. You have to get beyond the initial logic off ‘why would anyone play this?’, and accept the fact that if it’s fun, and not too complex, people will. Game & Buzz Factory creates mobile and social games without breaking the bank. They have a pretty impressive client roster, too.

5) Local You wouldn’t know it from their website right now, but at adtech Local was demonstrating new technology for creating rich-content banner and display ads – with no coding skills needed. It’s essentially a plug & play model that lets you incorporate all your existing graphics, including video. I have no idea why this information isn’t on their website right now – that’s a mistake. Regardless, the ad-creation tool was impressive.

6) Sedo URL auction site. Need a great URL for your startup? Have one to sell? This is the place.

7) Consolation prize: Snap Viral Pop! ‘Guaranteed viral ads!’ Possibly the worst logo I’ve ever seen, and a website to match.

Your customers have changed. Your marketing needs to change with them.

Here it is in a nutshell: Digital marketing is changing at the speed of light. If you don’t adapt, your business will be upended by competitors who enable how consumers behave right now.

THE FOCUS IS STILL ON THE CUSTOMER.

As it should have been, the focus was all about the customer – that is to say, your customer. And what can be done to improve the ways that your brand interacts with both existing and potential product purchasers.

Brian Solis was the keynote speaker the first day, and his presentation was excellent. If you’re in marketing and you haven’t picked up his new book yet, you need to read it. Here’s the 1st sentence on the inside jacket cover: ‘Today’s biggest trends – the mobile web, social media, gamification, real-time – have forced us to rewire the way we think about and run our business.’

THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF MOBILE.

There was a huge emphasis on mobile. Today it’s imperative to create a seamless experience between your website, your social pages, your stores (if you have them) and your mobile applications. Here’s just one example of a high-end brand (Neiman Marcus) that’s making possible for customers to connect with their favorite sales associates.

What we sometimes forget is that nearly everyone carries around a computer with them now, in the form of a smartphone. And when they walk into your store, you have an opportunity to engage with them that simply didn’t exist just a few years back. As Brian states, the Golden Triangle of technology (mobile, social and real-time) isn’t just for geeks; it’s now part of our lifestyle. How is your brand capitalizing on this new behavior?

MAKE BRAND ENGAGEMENT FUN!

My other favorite speaker was Brandon Berger, the Chief Digital Officer at Ogilvy & Mather. (Just FYI, VP of Digital Innovation was his old title.) Brandon emphasized the importance of gaming in your marketing program today. His advice is to ‘gamify’ as many aspects of your business as you can. Make it fun. Make it memorable. Make it entertaining and people will reward you with near-constant activity.

One example he gave was how they ‘gamified’ Facebook Timeline for Fanta – with a series of characters you could ‘bring back to life’ by liking them. Brandon emphasized that it’s imperative to be disruptive – to constantly be thinking of new ways to increase engagement with your target audience.

JUST THE FACTS.

Here are a few other factoids: Generation Y will be 75% of the workforce in just thirteen years. This is Generation C – the connected generation. They are three times more likely to follow a brand than a family member. 66% will look up a store to see if they have a friend check-in. 73% have used digital currency.

The largest (and of course, most successful) brands all have entire departments based around emerging technologies. Smaller brands need to heed the lesson here. It really is time to innovate, or perish. No matter what your job title is.