Mobilizing and Leveraging Consumer Insights: Best Practices for the Digital and Social Media Age

This panel started out with, once again, the election.  The leitmotif of this show.

This panel had some interesting points but didn’t really deliver on the topic of consumer insights.  I did however get some good tidbits on a variety of subjects.  I found an interesting contrast between the people with line marketing backgrounds (Jeff Hunter from General Mills, Kay Madati of CNN, formerly with BMW, and Chris Pan of Facebook, formerly with Pepsi) and the other panelists.

A juicy tidbit.  Did you know that when you signed up to make calls for Barack Obama you cleaned their database for them?  Brilliant.  The session was worth it if only to hear just that.

Moderator: Jeff Flemings, Vivaki
Panelists:
Jeff Hunter, General Mills
Chris Pan, Facebook
Marc Ruxin, McCann Worldgroup
Kay Madati CNN Worldwide
Michael Lazerow, Buddy Media

Chris Pan from Facebook pointed out that this wasn’t a campaign so much as a movement.  Brands typically run 3-4 campaigns a year and blast messages out.  A movement is different: this is something I believe in.  Brands should say: what is it I have to offer?  It’s all about you the consumer, not me the brand.  It has to be relevant and make sense to consumers. Be a good listener.  Do something they already do instead of making them do something hew. 

Obama is a great brand. The campaign had great media support, $300 million on messaging.  All parts worked well together.  This was not a placement effort.  If you take social media as a way to listen and engage your consumers, you get a lot in return.

Another interesting tidbit: in the next 18 months TV will probably get less expensive given the economy, so TV may become more efficient in short term.  As Mark Twain said, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated”.

At General Mills they recognize that it’s a conversation.  You think about your brand as a person having a conversation, in terms of insights and how we capture them.  There is good work coming out of brand relationship networks.  Find brand enthusiasts and engage in a conversation.  Some stuff feels pragmatic and tactical but you end up with a richer brand experience or relationship. 

A lot of what we’re talking is technology.  Is understanding the human behind it a lost art?  Rishad Tobaccowala said no matter what the technology, you have to have emotion.  However, tools like seatguru.com don’t engage emotion.  They have to deliver something that has recurring value.  I don’t feel emotion with seatguru.com—but I get utility.  Emotion plus utility is the best combination—if you can do it. 

Most companies don’t do the sifting part to get insight.  There’s a big rush to get as much info as possible but companies don’t operationalize it.  At BMW they decided what 6 data items they needed from BMW films: simple, actionable data.  The purchase funnel could track stickiness based on 4 to 6 parameters.  That leads directly to sales.  Actionable and effective.
 
It all boils down to this: social media needs to drive the bottom line in some way.  In the end it comes down to CRM.  Build social brand loyalists, even if you are not Apple, Barack Obama, Starbucks.  Your ad dollars will go a lot further with relationships than by screaming at people.