Navigating the Current of Participatory Communication
On Tuesday, I attended a lunch presentation by Ed Dilworth of Campbell-Ewald which turned out to be an interesting view of what’s going on with today’s proliferation of media choices.
Dilworth started by saying that everything’s turned sideways now. People are coming into sites sideways from links, not from the home page. It’s all nonlinear. You’ve got to plan for this. GM’s Fastlane Blog is a way for GM to converse with consumers—and often a lot of things are said that are “not so nice”. “Starwood Aloft” in Second Life is giving the hotel chain the chance to test concepts with consumers before building them. Peter Jackson put the filmmaking of King Kong online and tried to convert The Lord of the Rings fanbase to King Kong. The Lord of the Rings was “closed” with production top secret. King Kong was “open. Borat: grossed $26 million in its opening weekend at 1,000 theaters—the biggest 1,000 theater opening ever. The cast did a 20 city tour with MySpace people and did a lot on YouTube. In content/gaming, the Navy’s Strike & Retrieve game was a way to evaluate potential recruits and allow them to experience what it’s like to be in the Navy. The Folgers manhole cover campaign ran for 2 hours, McDonald’s sundial was 1 billboard: both got enormous visibility online. Costco is a $17.5B company spends nothing on marketing. It’s an interesting twist, a radical departure from the idea of traditional media campaigns.
So how do you discuss this with clients? Campbell-Ewald has developed a concept called “the Current”, which shows the product in the midst of its communications milieu. Communications are now built around how to map out the “currents”. The diagram looks like a plate of spaghetti. Probably an accurate analogy for the world of media these days… Is it a blog at the LeMans 24 hour race? Is it five things about tires and a purchase of all the Google Adwords on the subject? We need to start thinking about communication planning in “the Current”. I’ve been talking about this for a long time (can you say “integrated marketing”?). Dilworth did a great job of putting it in perspective in today’s media landscape.
We’re in an odd world: there’s a continuous conflict between Accountability vs. Experimentation, which creates stress because clients want the former (“Why did we do this? What was the ROI?”) but need to do the latter, which often defies quantification. C-E has developed a Portfolio Communications Planning strategy across four categories, to impose some structure on the issue (Dilworth gave us sample media as well):
Safety: Secure; targeted TV, Search
Value: Reasonably sure of results; Radio, Selective Print, Interactive
Growth: New but expanding; Broadband, VOD, Mobile
Aggressive: Unknown results; Viral, Street
The last one is where the consumer can get involved in conversation, but it’s high risk, high return. Often there are unpredictable results: a consumer-generated ad contest for Chevy Tahoe generated mostly negative feedback from consumers—but it’s an opportunity for GM to have a dialogue with them. Kind of like the old idea of overcoming sales objections: if I know what they are, I can address them. In the end, of course, you do have to address them.
Ultimately, success requires the same old thing: a compelling relationship with consumers rooted in solving people’s problems. “The Current” helps make it happen better in today’s context. Like the real thing, “the Current” can be treacherous—but it can be a great aid in getting you where you want to go.
