Periodically we celebrate excellent work, great campaigns and ideas that represent a measure of vision and innovation. For the most part we chronicle higher-calling projects that can impact brand behavior. But every so often a more tactical bit of communications wizardry comes along that you just have to recognize and salute for its sheer out-of-the-box brilliance.
Certainly there’s strategic linkage between the Tropicana brand of OJ and sunshine – the warmth and glow often attributed to Florida orange groves where this delicious fruit gets its healthy props.
So the brand evidently decides that working with portable sunshine can serve as a platform for effective, engaging and maybe entertaining online video communication – as well as serving to underscore a bright metaphor that’s tied to the juice’s origins.
I would have loved to be in the Tropicana conference room when this idea was presented — just to see the reaction, the questions and the process that led to approval. I say that because of the boldness and uniqueness of the project.
Just imagine for a moment: in a small Arctic Circle town in northern Canada each year they go through a period of near total darkness – a continual and unrelenting nighttime. So Tropicana sends an expedition to the town, hauling in a giant gas filled balloon-like object in the shape of the sun. The orb is erected and lit, spreading artificial sunshine and undoubtedly some cheer to local residents…. Not to miss a product tie-in opportunity, the crew passes out OJ bottles to the enraptured onlookers as they marvel at the spectacle of man-made sunshine.
The entire story is deftly shot on video with a thoughtful music track underneath and made share-able with the rest of the world through YouTube and Facebook. Watch it here:
Bravo to Tropicana for bringing a little light to the lives of these Arctic dwellers — and then allowing the rest of us to observe and enjoy the experience. Disruptive isn’t it? Unexpected. Entertaining. Memorable. Emotional. What do you think?
Forever and a day I’ve seen this concept play out in various categories from beverages to food, travel services to floor care and cleaning products, that 80% of your profits can routinely come from 20% of your customers who constitute the most engaged, heavy users in your business. Call them your best fans.
Yet routinely we focus our efforts, strategies and spending on casting a broad net. We try to be appealing to everyone because we keep telling ourselves that our brand and business not only deserves high household penetration, but “we can’t ignore the volume opportunities.” To be sure, but the 20% that’s mainlining your brand and paying attention to your messaging with a little help and “enabling” can become a more productive core of real-world ambassadors. People who can help spread the word effectively to those who are not as fully invested and who don’t buy as often.
Take cheese and pet food for example. Cheese is one of the most popular food categories in supermarkets. We like cheese, so it’s a big volume business. Yet a closer look reveals that consumers who are more emotionally engaged and devoted to cooking represent a “heavy user” profile that purchases more cheese products, more often and in many cases will go for higher priced items when they feel the value proposition is credible. So paying closer attention to this group of emotionally charged ‘kitchen commanders’ can yield incremental benefits in talk value and word of mouth, once they’re fully embraced, recognized and rewarded by the brands they love.
Or in pet food: a dynamic audience combination we refer to as indulgers and doters consists of a high percentage of higher income households who treat their animals like family members — and will even go as far as cutting back on some of their own discretionary purchases in order to keep Fido in tip top shape by feeding him a super-premium pet food diet. Industry statistics show this group continues to fuel an incredible growth track record in the emerging natural and organic segment – even though the tough economy has weighed in heavily in many segments to compel “trading down” behaviors.
Your call to action…
Think of it this way, your PR communications ROI outcomes will improve when communicating with an audience that’s really, genuinely paying attention. Those who have emotional, personal lifestyle connections to a brand are listening — first at the category level. A brand that works over time to mine relevance with this audience has the opportunity to build a unique relationship and bond. Conversely broad awareness tactics can perform as a “reminder mechanism” for the larger audience segments out there who may buy less often but who have ties to the franchise through their habit behaviors.
1. Consider for a moment the opportunities from investing more fully in courting your heavy users. What would you do differently? What efforts might you undertake to help create a community around these groups and empower them to interact with each other – especially important for home chefs and pet parents who want to share tips, ideas, experiences and insights with each other.
2. What rewards and recognition can you offer to your most devoted followers that surprise and delight – and thus are often the triggers to generating strong, credible and organic word-of-mouth communication.
3. What sponsored experiences can you create and deliver that bring your brand as close as possible to your best fans and allow them to interact with you and each other. In food this could include unique culinary experiences that reward your best customers with an opportunity to learn from the food heroes they respect like celebrity chefs. For pets it could be local dog park events and contests that allow pet parents to engage in shared experiences with their animal and with each other.
But wait there’s more…
Today, excellent blogger and thought leader Sonia Simone has an interesting post at Copyblogger that talks about the personal side of the Pareto Principle and how it impacts you and what you do. Her observations:
“…Which means that 20% of your customers provide 80% of your revenue. 20% of the time you spend behind your computer provides 80% of your best work. And 20% of that great meal you had last night provided 80% of the pleasure. (It was the chocolate mousse cake, wasn’t it?)
Because of the Pareto Principle, there’s always a “20%” you should be spending your time on. And in just about every discipline, it’s known as the fundamentals.”
Have you sat down to think about your day, your activities and to reflect on this idea – that 20% of your efforts will produce 80% of the great results and accomplishments you’re looking for? So what do the fundamentals look like for you? Maybe it’s a good idea to start by putting more energy and investment into courting your biggest fans…
It’s Wheatley & Timmons’ 10th anniversary — a time to reflect and think ahead.
When I first got started in the PR business, I was impressed with our unique ability to bring a higher standard of proof, credibility and demonstration to new products and brand promises. But additionally I was concerned by an all-too-frequent focus on tactics (read: publicity) and what appeared to me to be an absence of connecting the dots between our work and business strategy. You know the old saying, “if the only thing you do is a hammer then the answer to every problem will be a nail.”
Just seemed to me that a stronger business proposition was to help client’s better understand their barriers to growth and success – before applying the cure. And in doing so to make sure the remedy laddered back to specific business outcomes, not fuzzy claims of “increased awareness.”
My first attempt at changing the view that PR was the province of press releases came in the form of a brand guidance plan developed for a regional food company called Nalley’s Fine Foods, based in Tacoma, Washington. My client didn’t ask for the plan, instead I treated this as “extracurricular” homework that might open the door to a larger playing field for our firm. It did.
In its day Nalley’s was a successful brand playing effectively in categories dominated by national stalwarts like Kraft, Frito-Lay and Vlasic – from salad dressings to snacks, canned meals, pickles and other packaged food categories. The platform I worked on was a refined recipe for go-to-market strategy and new product development behaviors appropriate for a business that sat in between generic store brand and large national players.
To get it done I had to study the categories and more fully acquaint myself with the channels of distribution and the growth drivers within each product category my client was competing in. There was no mention of PR in the brief. It was a great exercise and I learned a lot. The client was impressed that a PR guy would come to the table with this sort of perspective. Their opinion of what we did and were about changed. It was interesting to watch the transformation in their views and opinions. The experience had an impact to this day.
Wheatley & Timmons is a unique joining of similar strands of thinking – that the craft of editorial and social media forms of communication are enhanced and our value to clients improved as we marry our great creative work more closely to brand strategy guidance and the consumer insights required to make that leap.
It would probably be easier just to continue cultivating our best practices along traditional lines and devote all of our energies to being great tacticians. We think that’s table stakes. We fundamentally believe the world needs a better, more strategic PR firm and so we’re not satisfied with the traditional scope. My partner, Rich Timmons, shares this view and it’s our collective mission to redefine what a PR firm is all about. Missionary work to be sure given the perceptual baggage we carry with us — that “get me on Oprah” thing.
I couldn’t be prouder of the great people who’ve joined our team and their ability to embrace our calling and to deliver on this promise every day in the services we provide. It’s a challenge, but I think part of what makes you successful is your willingness to embrace a higher calling – to tackle something that goes beyond the communications training you’ve had. Makes you stretch.
Have we got it all figured out? Not by a long shot. Everyday is a learning experience, a chance to grow and refine our premise and our capabilities to deliver. We remain steadfastly determined on this path. Persistence can be a great ally, so we forge ahead and believe it’s by “demonstrating and doing” that all of this comes to life. This agency’s work for Sargento Foods is an example of bringing new perspective and ideas to the table about a brand’s future business opportunities in their category. Much the same as Rich and our team has done to such dramatic effect for Thermos brand and for Crescent in the art framing business.
We’re in the early stages of a new relationship with Crown Imports and the Corona beer franchise. It’s exciting. And not just because we know the beer business, but also we believe we can play a measurable role in helping improve their business outcomes and relevancy to a consumer — who is evolving right now.
The future
We believe that earned media (various forms of editorial media from conventional to digital) will continue to be vital but also see incremental growth for “owned” media – content created, published and distributed by brands themselves. Technology now allows us to leapfrog reporters, editors, producers and other media gatekeepers, to talk directly to consumers in environments that are more interactive and thus seen as honest.
Profoundly we see the mix of media solutions moving to embrace social platforms and other venues where brands and consumers can meet each other on more equal terms. Thus the over-arching need for relevancy between brand propositions and the lifestyle interests of their users.
One lesson remains true, from the days with Nalley’s to our work at Wheatley & Timmons over the next ten years: whatever we do in communications must be tied to a foundation of consumer insight and understanding. It’s what will inform our future and our ability to change and improve the growth path of the brands we represent.
Remember Bill Clinton’s distillation of his Presidential campaign bid to one singular message platform: It’s the economy, stupid. Similarly the onion surrounding social media success for brands and business can be peeled back to reveal one central and over-arching truth – it’s the content that drives the attraction value, fan-base growth and conversation.
Never before in the history of brand marketing and PR have we been in such a position to build credible relationships, real ones, with those we wish to communicate with.
Image c/o Getty Images
Throwing messaging baseballs
Yet so many in the communications business these days seem hell-bent on continuing to push self-serving messaging AT people in every media pathway. Why? Because we’re so used to sitting down and defining what we want to “convince” audiences of about our brand. We labor greatly to define key messages and then look at every vehicle out there as a vessel for delivering the message payload, be it paid, earned or owned media. We throw messaging baseballs at people expecting them to step up and catch them.
Oops they dropped the ball
But more often than not, consumers drop the ball, walk away from home plate and simply ignore the spinning missive at it passes by. They don’t want to play the game that way. Social media is by its very definition an “accrual” proposition. Your Facebook page or Twitter account begins with an audience of zero. Unlike every medium that’s come before it where access to a given media property brought you a specific audience size and type. In the new world of owned media, you start at the beginning. With nothing.
Building the fan base
Aggregating an audience is an outcome of great content, conversation and meaningful offers. The authenticity and value of that content is related directly to its relevance to the consumer’s lifestyle interests. Thus brands must find a path to “hook-up” with consumers based on what THEY care about, not the other way around.
1. For the food brand it might be enabling a recipe sharing community or bringing consumers into contact with their kitchen heroes like chefs.
2. For a beverage brand it could be enabling unique social experiences and providing ways for fans to share their impressions and ideas with each other.
3. For a fashion brand it might involve helping fashion-forward people to share their ideas and insights on what to wear for different occasions, from beach to ballroom.
Eyes wide open
This whole process gets a lot clearer when brands employ consumer insight research to better understand the lifestyle interests and needs of their core consumers. Then ask themselves: what can the brand do to facilitate, enable or create opportunities to experience and share those things?
Building better brand relationships
Content that’s meaningful, valuable, interesting and entertaining is the path to establishing a community of engaged fans. Here are a few practical hints for doing it right.
Multi-media is the way to go. Facebook’s share functionality only works when multi-media contact is used – podcasts and videos for instance.
Ask questions. Interactivity occurs when we purposefully invite our community into the conversation, seeking their views, ideas and opinions.
Use emotional terms and words. We are not fact-based, analytical decision making machines. We are expectation creation machines and thus frame our brand relationships based on feelings more than facts. Are you using emotive words?
Responsiveness. The “get back to me” bar is considerably higher in the digital era. Consumers want and expect quick responses to their questions. Speed matters and being responsive is part of the assessment of how well your brand performs in the social media space.
Conversation. Like-minded individuals congregate together in specific communities because of their shared interests. Are you helping enable their ability to talk with one another?
Surprise and delight. Reward your fans with special offers and values they won’t get elsewhere. Recognize your most faithful followers with special status and access to unique content or other VIP experiences.
Social media is working well when its done right. Enough so that some sizable brands are upping their social media investments. Kellogg just announced they’re tripling their social media budget in the year ahead.
Wow, last week was “Apple Land in America,” with all of the online and mainstream media conversation around iPad. Marketing sites did comparisons of buzz-metrics between Jobs and President Obama’s State of the Union message, with Apple winning on most scorecards. Apple continues to blaze new trails, even in their deft handling of the sales message.
Brands look at the Apple phenomenon with envy. Wouldn’t we all want our brands to glow with similar outsized levels of consumer devotion and enthusiasm? Truckloads of breathless media attention and positive coverage oozing out of every channel we can dream up?
There’s a very simple yet dramatically important aspect to Apple’s behavior that bears mention. So much of the time in marketing and PR we’re focused on the essence of the new feature and benefit. We sit down in a conference room to review in every detail the various achievements the R&D department has wrought in discovering new recipes, technologies or bringing measurable improvements to an existing product.
And so communications follows this path to creatively move the “what’s new news” through various media channels. On the other hand, Apple religiously and routinely focuses its communication from a slightly different angle: the consumer first and itself second.
Sure the product messaging is there, but the twist is vital, important and matters to achieving a better outcome. The overview tour of iPad is conducted from the user experience point of view. It’s about you first and how the product answers the need, rather than me first and my wizardry.
What’s missing?
The lesson here all too often is about remembering to put the consumer in the driver seat on messaging. Framing the new product in terms of the consumer’s real need and then connecting to your solution’s deft handling of same. Steve Jobs talked about iPad in the user context. How the product makes common tasks like Web browsing and book reading more engaging and interesting.
Simply said: consumer first, me second. The shift is important because relevant messaging trumps the easy-to-fall-into trap of specsmanship. Consumer self-interests govern our willingness to engage and listen. Apple smartly knows this and frames the message in this way.
Consider a new food product that comes to the table answering first how it solves a preparation dilemma cooks would immediately recognize.
Or maybe a household appliance that springs from real-world concerns expressed by time-stressed homemakers.
So often in the consumer electronics world its about increased lines of resolution or connectivity improvements and expressed as such. Apple understands the specs and technology advances aren’t nearly as compelling as the experience itself.
Girl Scouts effectively tap social media engagement
By Robert Wheatley
Social media can be powerful — when deployed effectively. YouTube provides a readily accessible platform where video can engage a broad and diverse audience — but only if it’s done right.
Meaning, the content thus is initially more important than the medium. In the absence of compelling content, social media is just a distribution platform. The viral rubber meets the road when the communication itself is relevant, interesting and thought provoking.
So today we have a living example of “right” from the Girl Scouts.
My seven-year-old daughter Heather is a Daisy this year, the entry-level designation for Girl Scouts to be. And, as you’d expect she’s selling cookies. An recurring metaphor for Girl Scout-dom that seems it’s been institutionalized as an annual right of passage for eons. She came by the agency office recently to tempt the staff with the baked delights. Virtually everyone signed up.
You don’t really think about the value of it other than the surface view that it raises funds for the organization, and you get a tasty treat in return. It’s a fair exchange. But what if you elevate the whole idea to a stronger context. What if you can re-position the perspective on cookie sales to a more meaningful and valuable proposition?
Today Marketing Daily ran a piece about the Girl Scouts’ effort to reframe the cookie sale program into an emotional call-to-action. It’s about the character-building outcomes of doing this. All housed within a deeper understanding of how the proceeds go to help others.
Watch it here:
It’s a terrific piece of story telling that uses the video medium effectively. Short, consumable, powerful – everything you want in a compelling trip to social media interaction. You watch – THEN decide how many boxes you really want. I dare you.
In the marketing communications business we’re called upon to help brands build relationships with current users and attract new ones. Clients retain agencies like ours to do this with skill and result. Hence it requires us to understand the difference between effective communication and anything that’s less than that.
What we’ve learned in the age of consumer control is that relevance precedes engagement. Push oriented messaging generally is brands talking about themselves, usually focused on features and benefits. So its important to understand how personal relevance can add power to brand communication. Thus, we work doubly hard to understand consumer interests and needs. It is within our awareness of consumer lifestyle passions that we find ways to build powerful communication.
An example of this thinking at work:
At its core, brand story telling involves some form and combination of words and pictures. These tools are at the center of the emotional relationships people acquire with the brands they care about. Here’s what I mean:
This image was taken during the holiday break looking out the living room window of our weekend home in southwest Michigan. It snowed 15 inches in a 24-hour period and the result was a pristine winter wonderland. Serene, beautiful isn’t it? The poor photography notwithstanding, there’s a visual story this image brings to life in varying degrees for people who attach their own associations and experiences with it.
It’s hard to convey exactly how I feel about this image because there’s so much meaning attached to it that transcends just the picture itself. For me our place in Michigan is a vital retreat that refreshes and revitalizes my attitude and spirit. It’s a transcendent environment that lifts me out of the pressures of agency life and in restorative manner, serves to remind me of what’s important about family, nature and quiet contemplation.
There are three levels of interaction we can associate with the brand communications we come into contact with:
Positive recognition – what we see and hear gains meaning and value based on our current experiences and connection to satisfactory outcomes.
Warm memories – an added layer of value when the communication triggers positive memories and associations that look backward through our life experiences and help us relive those important moments.
Personal relevance – when the communication is fully engaging our happiness, sense of pride, confidence and wellbeing.
We (consumers) are expectation creation machines much more than we are rational processors of facts, figures and analytical arguments. Powerful communication occurs when these associations are brought to life. So it stands to reason the more you know the human you’re trying to reach, the greater the opportunity to build stories in a manner that draws them in.
Too often we think engagement is laddering up the facts of our product features and benefits. Rather it is the associations and values, feelings we have in the presence of brands that gives the brand relationship its substance and longevity.
We are on a relentless quest to build emotional connections that mine the human capacity to shirt-list the brands we care about. Ironically, the ones we care the most about are the ones we feel good about — those that offer an expectation of happiness when we’re in their presence.
Sea of sameness interrupted here and there with unique ideas
By Robert Wheatley
The National Fancy Food Show in San Francisco started last Sunday with a bang as 17,000 retailers, distributors and brand minders came together at the Moscone Center to see and taste what’s new in specialty foods.
The convention is remarkable in its fantastic array of vendors from around the globe who showcase their products for US retail distribution. Especially cheese, cheese and more cheese that populated both exhibit halls. The air was heavy with the zesty pungent dairy-air of hard and soft varietals mostly from Europe and North America. It’s hard to imagine any of the Showgoers having to retreat for lunch given the wall-to-wall noshing – all of which was occurring at a break-neck pace as everyone attempts to canvas the acres of product categories and companies.
Even with all of the chocolaty goodness, it’s hard not to notice the pervasive sameness and slim distinctions between competing offerings. So we see in dramatic relief the problem plaguing so many businesses in the era of over-choice and saturation. It just all runs together. For any business unveiling its version of Chevre, infused olive oils or extreme Cocoa chocolate, your eyes glaze a bit as many overlap together in a noisy heap of feature/benefit style selling.
There were some standouts — interesting items you could tell were more like Purple Cows as Seth Godin would call them – ideas that exude their own natural charm and glow with built-in interest.
Speaking of cows, Slow Cow borrows a chapter from the Red Bull school of functional beverages and produces its polar opposite: a concoction that slows you down with a layer of relaxation.
The grist underneath this proposition gets interesting as you explore the nature of life’s mounting pressures, alongside a desire for better blood pressure and a reaction to the relentless push, push and more push that accompanies life in our dog-eat-dog business world.
A healthy respite sounds about right. So this new category gets interesting as you see the possibilities around it for punching through on an issue many may be pining for: some liquid relief.
Although all things bacon may be so very “last year,” the savory, smoky, salty punch of breakfast protein was back in an array of products from sandwich spread and seasonings to desserts.
Chicago high-end chocolatier Vosges hit a taste high note with their bacon-infused chocolates. A generous sample covers the tongue with caramel, chocolaty sweetness followed by a quick after-note of smoky savory-ness that offered a dramatic counterpoint to what you anticipate from a chocolate bar. Even more exciting was their new and unique line of spice inspired ice creams.
In a word — awesome.
Also interesting was Bay-area based Hint. Clean, straightforward packaging promotes a hint of natural fruit flavor at zero calories and no added sugars.
Honestly, I thought it would be no taste, too. But to my surprise the fruity flavor was there and discernable. A sweetness was also evident, but again without the added sugars found so often in these beverages.
Parents will love this option for their kids because it comes without the down side.
The winners and losers here in the longer run will be an outcome of how they invest in building their brands. Yet, for so many the pre-occupation is pushing the product into the pipeline without much effort given to considering how brands are built. Noticeably absent was any reference to consumer insight on preferences and interest in these offerings or the trends on which they’re based.
Uniqueness and differentiation are vital to getting traction with consumers and markets that are already saturated with similar products making similar claims in similar categories.
Those who can punch their idea far enough to the right or left to create a new category they can own have a shot at a sustainable business that can increasingly accumulate value for its owners in the longer scheme.
Speaking
I had my shot at the event to help bring some of these brand-building ideas to life. Here’s my deck if you want to take a look:
FROM MEDIA COURTIERS TO MEDIA MAKERS
PR now feeding the content creation engine
By Robert Wheatley
Clients have long viewed Public Relations as a source of credible, believe-able communication. Even so I’ve heard more than a few express lingering concerns about their perception of uncertainty built in to earned versus transactional media. The argument in favor: third party sourcing and separation from commerce infuses editorial media with its power to persuasively recommend brands and businesses. The argument against: you ultimately can’t fully control the messaging outcome, it’s timing and position within a media outlet.
Yesterday we talked about the importance of owned media content creation and social platforms established and developed by brands. This is changing the future of brand communication, and it’s creating a revolution in how PR firms and professionals do what they do. Here’s the story behind the new recipe for greater ROI and benefit from your investments in non-interruptive forms of communication:
Media Courtiers
Credit: Superstock
Since the dawn of PR time, we (PR experts) have been working behind the scenes to become dependable, reliable sources of strong story material, well-researched subject matter, relevant to the audiences of media. And especially we’ve worked (very) hard to become trusted and valued by the reporters, producers and editors who gate-keep access to the news in its various forms and types.
So it stands to reason that PR people have made the study of news media habits, needs, peccadilloes, preferences and people a life’s mission. We have been Courtiers serving in the Royal Court of Public Opinion. We have formed alliances with media over time based on our reliability as a source of good stories. The end result is a form of reciprocity: our clients receive favorable mentions and reviews.
This delicate dance of trust and expertise in balancing the goals of business with the exigencies of news reporting and framing brand messages in an editorially friendly context (problem/solution for example) will remain a centerpiece of PR religion. Recently the New York Times unveiled a study showing that newspapers, for example, continue to be a top source of reporting on new information that spreads to other channels. But, the world has changed…and with it the role and direction of PR.
Media Makers
Credit: Photodisc
Communication has evolved as digital technologies and communities enable direct-to-consumer interaction and conversation beyond editorial and advertising environments.
The dawn of social media press rooms and releases presaged changes in how news was distributed and consumed. Directly by its intended audience, not just through the filter of third parties who “report.”
The direct dialogue is a healthy development that further draws back the curtain between businesses and their customers. To be sure it forces the issue of authenticity, integrity, honesty and transparency. Perhaps even more important, it spells the end of interruption while ushering in a new brand/consumer relationship built off an entirely different understanding: brands must earn PERMISSION for a relationship based on their ability to bring greater meaning and value to the brand and customer interaction.
From a media standpoint this is revolutionary.
For brand-developed content to be engaging in this context, it has to be conceived and created in a mold that is at once respectful of how this newfound relationship operates. The tone and tenor of communication must be reflective of the “friendship” and trust on which it’s based. PR people have been trained to understand the importance of this as well as its unique language. Different than the hard sell…Rather the relevant principles of proof, validation an demonstration have been married and bound successfully to the roots of PR thinking as long as I’ve been in this field.
For PR strategy the revolution means communication directly with consumers, not just through the gatekeepers. And thus the separation between the message and its accurate and timely delivery comes down like the Berlin Wall.
“Owned Media”
Here’s our prediction, in the coming years PR teams will increasingly become publishers and producers of Owned Media: trusted, well-researched and intrinsically useful content that will go both directions – framed editorially for the press, and also delivered directly to consumers through social platforms and communities. We will more and more be video producers, e-book publishers, Web page builders, dialoguers, commentators, discussion leaders and article writers. Hopefully we will base all of this on top of well-developed listening strategies.
And in doing so will acquire some of the very responsibilities for thoroughness and accuracy that is held in high esteem by the best reporters. Brands are becoming the Source for new information not just the source for attribution in an interview.
Who’s building owned media pipelines now? A couple of examples:
Best Buy through it’s Geek Squad division creates and distributes editorial- style videos that open up the Geek’s world, alongside useful tutorial videos on everything from computer to iPod set up.
Coldwell Banker real estate has established a robust YouTube channel that now contains hundreds of educational videos on the housing market, selling a home, financing and other related subjects.
MasterCard uses hand-held FLIP video camcorders for internal interviews to comment in real time on emerging issues and get their experts’ views out there on the Web. They Tweet the links and also circle around with reporters to direct them to the content when appropriate.
ROI
PR can be measured not just in terms of editorial placements and the quality of message translation those stories possess. Now we evaluate direct contact and engagement then translate that learning into refinement that builds on the promise of value we deliver to make the brand/consumer contact worthwhile. We already know the message was delivered exactly as intended, where and to whom.
So the recipe for improved brand communication begins with integrating earned, owned and paid media channels. And owned may indeed be a rising star in the toolbox because it jumps the shark of third party filtering.
There’s responsibility here, too, because none of this works if trust isn’t preceding the owned communication on the way in the content door. So now corporate and brand reputation has an even more important calling: to underwrite the very willingness of consumers to opt in.
Integration the secret sauce to making new media work effectively
By Robert Wheatley
Photo Credit: Car Culture
In the year ahead, social media will no longer be viewed as that bright new star sitting on the horizon and bolted-on like a shiny hood ornament to brand marketing programs. Instead it will be integrated into all facets of brand communication. Each layer of brand outreach will benefit from social integration. But what is the right mix of media tools? What media platforms are we talking about now?
With so many channels of communication available, it may feel like we’re confronted with a daunting array of narrowly focused options. There’s great temptation here for scale reasons simply to revert to traditional strategies founded on interruption media (we covered this in yesterday’s post). There’s a better path. Getting off the persuasion bandwagon and onto the engagement trail involves understanding the three primary media platforms, their role and then looking to optimize your involvement in each of them.
Shannon Paul published a great piece on new media that brought to life some of Dave Fleet’s thinking on how to understand the interrelationships between the primary forms of media that brands must successfully navigate. Please read both of them.
Why does this matter? The media landscape has evolved because consumer behavior has changed – they control engagement. There are three primary components. Let’s take a look at these pieces and how they fit with one another.
Click to enlarge
Forrester research helps bring this conversation to life with the chart above. Here you see the three primary paths of marketing communications activity:
Earned Media – essentially outreach to mainstream editorial media (TV, newspapers, magazines and online versions of same) and bloggers. “Earned” involves convincing others to use and deploy your stories and content. It depends on the brand’s ability to package and present interesting and relevant material that third parties will publish or repurpose. This lies at the headwaters of viral communication and WOM.
It is at once a powerful channel but does not offer full control over the final outcome. Hard to forecast because it is earned and thus predict scale. Viral distribution in this case rests on the uniqueness, value and inherent stickiness of the content.
Owned Media – this is perhaps the most intriguing development to come: brands as publishers and creators of content. Owned media begins with company web sites and goes on to include Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, YouTube channels and other communities a brand may create.
This takes time and patience to scale. Credibility is always an issue because of the lingering view that brands are only focused on their self-interests. Thus brand reputation is integral to acceptance of created content. Over time, for savvy brands and businesses, this may become an increasingly important and commanding channel.
Paid media – company generated messaging placed in digital and mainstream media through ads, SEO and sponsorships.
By virtue of it being transactional, it is at once scale-able but often lacking in traction and engagement due to inherent credibility issues. As well consumers often recognize and tune out the interruptive delivery system. Messaging is created and thus controlled, and tends to play better with brand fans.
These three components together will form the basis for marketing communications strategies. Optimizing the balance and interactivity of these components is vital establishing a baseline of engagement and translating those contacts into brand preference and then sales.
Social media should be integrated across all three. Earned and owned are closely related as one can feed the other. The first two channels deliver relevant engagement and credibility while paid offers scale. The combination of all three is potent especially when messaging is delivered seamlessly.
To date, earned and owned may be underfunded so we recommend considering a more optimized mix that allows these points of brand contact to flourish and reach their potential for greater impact – especially to secure new customers.
Tomorrow we’ll look more deeply into the “owned” category and opportunities that may present.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.wheatleytimmons.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
|
| 
