Can we really fly blind and expect to be effective?
By Robert Wheatley
There are those great moments of clarity when something hits you. Often it can be something you already know, but your perspective and its horsepower (importance) will get injected with an entirely new level of “amen” when understanding adjusts or elevates a bit. Sorry to be oblique – this happened today while reading Brian Solis’ great book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” Yes, there’s a point here and a recommendation.
The emergence of social media has changed the game for PR communications, to be sure. For instance as we’ve heard from virtually every social media pundit, conversation is better than any attempted monologue in brand communication strategy. Frankly its just wayyyy more difficult these days to push messages at people and get any traction. So communication that’s truly effective is no longer one-way.
That means PR people no longer sit solely on a “dissemination” platform (press releases, editor desk-sides, spokesperson media tours) to move messages outward through various channels of non-paid or earned media.
Now relationships and dialogue with influencers and other forms of “democratized” media have to be layered into the brand outreach recipe. What over-arching strategic issue does this immediately recommend? Listening.
Let’s look at the fundamental “best practices” involved in relationship building. If the best conversationalists are always the best listeners, and if brands must form relationships with their best users based on behaviors that approach similarity to what we would call real-world friendships rather than “transactional” relationships, does it stand to reason we should be hearing our best customers?
If relationships are to work, they’re built from a foundation of shared interest. And as covered many times in this blog, we know that brand relationships are earned based on what a marketer does to correctly discern and understand the consumer’s passions and concerns. And then operate as an enabler, facilitator, educator an community builder.
Furthermore if the media landscape is littered with self-published content created by customers, then it only makes sense to know what they’re saying, good or bad.
So listening jumps to the front as an integral part of fundamental PR strategy in the digital age. Right? Yet more often than not it is at the tail end of consideration in plans and sometimes the first to fall off the budget truck when pressure builds to make some cuts.
Of course formal Web-based listening tools should be employed and made integral to PR plans. They should also, however, receive the priority they deserve to be preserved when sacrifices are targeted on the spending front. This takes understanding on both the agency and client sides of the table about the value of it. To do less in some respects is to say that pushing messages outward remains the first and most important path.
Relevant communication springs from understanding. And that’s an outcome of getting quiet for awhile, and paying close attention to the conversations going on all around.
I for one will feel more comfortable as we work harder and with greater resolve to build the listening tools into the front end of the campaign strategy, and not a final layer that almost invites elimination due to its perceived lack of priority.
Hyper-consumption falls as new era of meaning and purpose takes hold
By Robert Wheatley
We are sitting at the threshold of a new epoch in brand marketing and communication. One where old voices tempting consumers to look for the thrill in upward mobility and finding the joy in toys is being replaced by a soulful search for things more meaningful, more substantive.
Now more than ever there is a need to align your brand with a new set of consumer-driven values, to chart a different course with a refreshed voice and message, more in sync with this seminal shift in consumer attitudes. Are you ready? Read on…
The economic “thwack” on the side of the head…
Leave it to one of the worst economic disasters America has seen to finally bring some closure on the continual debate between judging one’s life by the things you buy vs. the “softer values” of contentment, happiness and belonging. Hyper- consumption may well be the biggest casualty befalling strategies for marketing and business as the economy searches for a new path to growth.
While the cauldron of behavior change continues to boil…
Sure enough the pocketbook difficulties (owing more but having less) faced by consumers here and around the world remain bitingly fresh. According to a recent report published in Food Business magazine, consumer spending at restaurants declined 2.2% in 2009 from the previous year. While that may not sound like much it is nevertheless quite remarkable. The data just released by the Economic Research Service of the US department of Agriculture indicated it was the first year-to-year decline reported since 1949, and the largest single drop in the restaurant business since the height of the Great Depression in 1938.
Today Mintel research reveals that beverage alcohol sales were off by 4.9% in the on-premise channel (restaurants, bars and clubs) over the same period. As we cut back in restaurant visits, we’re moving our adult beverage consumption to the home front, up 1.2 % over the same period and over 21% since 2004.
Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?
In a Forbes magazine report showcasing a new consumer attitude study from ad agency Euro RSCG , we find that saving rather than splurging is preferred now by 87% of Americans. And that 79% of us have way more respect for people who live relatively simple, debt-free lives than we do the bling-centric luxury lifestyle folk. Says Forbes: “Robin Leach has been sucker punched by Ed Begley Jr.”
Having possessions for their own sake and a sense of a life well lived are being separated from each other. Eight in 10, according to the study, believe that society has become too shallow, focusing on things that don’t matter. In a way you might say the “hyper-consumerist” life didn’t pan out the way consumers thought it would.
So what does this mean?
The data helps us see a new picture emerge:
80% of consumers are now shopping more carefully and mindfully.
54% are paying attention to the environmental and social impact of the products and brands they buy.
57% believe that cause participation matters.
More is less today about accumulation of goods. Instead our focus is on community, simplicity, a sense of purpose and belonging.
Successful brands in the digital age grow because they’re learning to align themselves as enablers, facilitators and supporters of consumer lifestyle interests and concerns. So, too, the message in brand communications and PR must adjust to acknowledge the desire for greater meaning, for personal growth, giving back and cause involvement – living simpler and less cluttered lives.
How can your band and product portfolio help consumers live a more satisfying life? And help them realize their desire for greater meaning? For belonging and sense of community?
There’s not a moment to lose. Your brand, your budget and outcomes are at stake. The world of communications has changed, and your PR strategy and tactics must evolve with it. Or be prepared for little to no bottom line benefits from your spend.
Why does this matter? Being in the presence of a message (PR driven or otherwise) does not mean any useful interaction has actually taken place. Your goal is to impact consumer behavior. But there’s a vast difference between communications that is built correctly to accomplish that vs. messages “out there” in media that perpetually circle the engagement airport — never quite landing.
Here are the key questions you should be asking yourself right now…
1. How does the PR strategy connect and align our brand in a relevant and meaningful way with the lifestyle interests and passions of our core customers?
Relevance is key to securing engagement — so consumer insight and understanding is a precursor to building effective communications. There must be clear and specific linkage between PR programs and the consumer’s self interests that position the brand as an enabler, supporter, educator and facilitator of your consumer’s lifestyle passions. Otherwise she’s not going to pay any attention to what you put out there.
2. What proportion of your budget is dedicated to Web-based communication vs. mainstream media?
We have ample evidence that word of mouth drives business results. And now we know that Internet based communication is increasingly the genesis of influence, conversation and discussion about businesses and brands. Yet old habits (always hard to break) push spending and programming frequently down the well-worn path of conventional print and broadcast media. It’s not that these channels don’t matter, they do. But the poor red headed stepchild in many cases is the very media channel that can activate conversation and buzz. So is it time to re-configure the proportional spending to place more assets in web-based media channels? Yes.
3. Social media may no longer be a tertiary place to participate, but are you creating scale underneath your social media strategy?
Unlike any other media property that has come before it, the unique characteristic of social platforms is quite simple: they ALL begin with an audience of zero. It is your content strategy that can help aggregate an audience over time. How well you do this will impact the overall value and benefit of social media investments. Achieving scale is a combination of building and distributing useful, entertaining and valuable multi-media content (read video) along with special offers and benefits – and then integrating social media through every consumer touch point in your marketing communications toolbox.
4. To what extent are you now investing in creating media that fuels the budding relationship with your core users and brand fans?
“Owned Media” is now the third “core” leg of the media communications stool alongside earned and paid. Brands are now publishers and content producers themselves. The Internet has enabled cost-effective distribution. However PR campaigns have historically been built around enticing and convincing third-party editors and gatekeepers to do a story (earned media). And coverage certainly comes imbued with the associative value and credibility from implied third-party endorsement. Equally important however, brands can now talk directly to consumers through custom editorial content thus assuring the message remains unaltered or diluted. Have you launched your video channel yet?
5. Look before you leap. To what extent have you refined your listening tools to be sure you understand what consumer’s are saying to each other about your business?
Pushing messages at people doesn’t work any longer. Relevance is king. And part of the equation is honing your listening investments to be sure you fully understand the conversation that’s taking place around you. There are online-based tools both quantitative and qualitative that serve this purpose. A full suite of listening platforms should be “always on” with analysis following closely behind to assure you’re aware of what’s being said, by whom and where. You can’t effectively engage without this knowledge.
These five areas are vital to effective PR strategy and tactics, tied to your ability to impact behavior. They act synergistically to make communication effective. In the absence of these tools and approaches, you’re resting outcomes more on hope — and hope is never a strategy.
Budgets lag to invest in influence building
By Robert Wheatley
This may not be surprising: A recent study published by Yahoo confirms the Internet is growing significantly as a source of influence for word-of-mouth conversations about brands.
According to the research, 38% of consumers, or 78 million people, have brand-related word of mouth conversations – both on line and off-line – that are influenced by content on the Internet. While most word of mouth conversations occur face to face, the Internet is increasingly important as a driver for those engagements.
That said, budgets and spending continue to show a disproportionate share aimed at communications through mainstream platforms in print and broadcast channels. While many in the marketing communications and PR world will admit they believe talking “at” consumers doesn’t work, and may also agree the most powerful form of communication out there is word of mouth, still spending aimed at cultivating influence on the Web is trailing.
So it goes without saying more assets should be shifted to managing online influence and reputation.
Of course this also puts more pressure on measuring the ROI. Yet social media is a different animal. It’s not about output and broadcasting messages. It is about listening, interacting and engaging on topics relevant to the consumer’s life. Does it work? Take a look at the video by Eric Qualman below:
There are so many wrong-headed thoughts and clichés bleeding from the last graph. It’s time to shed some light, shine a beacon on a new understanding of what great PR truly is. And bring a clear rationale to the reason why brand strategy guidance and PR should be, and in our case are, married.
Granted in varying degrees, some companies treat agency resources in more of a silo fashion – essentially keeping the terms of engagement focused on tactics. But here’s the rub: the difference between communicating for awareness’ sake and the kind of communication that helps build brands and open new markets, is firmly attached to how brand strategy and outreach tools feed from one another.
Successful brands now are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning to their users. We called this a “higher purpose” or strategic mission. And often in the early stages of an engagement with a new client, we are doing the spadework necessary to unearth the right path to alignment between the brand’s DNA and the lifestyle passions and interests of core customers.
It is in the grist of this strategic mission that we find the unusual coalescing of communication that is sought out and engaged by its prospective audience (the consumer is now in control of engagement, not the other way around), and our ability to construct a meaningful relationship with the brand – one that can withstand the tests of competition and even a bad economy over time.
Sure you can cast PR as an outreach tool that simply translates features and benefits through an “earned” media pipeline that runs alongside paid (ads) media as another message delivery vehicle – albeit one that is understood to be more credible. But that’s not going to result any longer in demonstrable, measurable connections between the deployment of PR strategy and bottom line business growth. Simple awareness or being in the presence of a message is not the same as acting on it.
Any PR is good PR?
Is mention in an article really the main thing? Well certainly it represents an achievement because you can’t buy it. But that’s only going half way to paradise. The real deal here is when your message truly connects with the audience on a consistent basis and in areas that go far beyond product features and benefits. Sure product coverage is important but it can be so much more when done in the context of an over-arching strategy for the brand that is chocked full of greater meaning and intrinsic value to the consumer.
PR is no longer a below the line tool anyway. PR has now merged with “owned” media to become a brand publishing and media platform universe. It combines what’s long been known as editorial outreach, with building online communities and social networks that make brands media players themselves – and in doing so jumps the shark of editorial gatekeepers to message directly to consumers (but in a fashion that’s very, very different from advertising).
So brand strategy guidance naturally must spring from a deep dive into the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Combined with a working and thorough understanding of the brand’s competitive set and category behaviors. As well as respectful efforts to fully understand a brand’s historical legacy and cultural fabric.
Most importantly, however, is the requirement to invest in consumer insight so we can know with some measure of confidence what those lifestyle passions and interests look like. This sets in motion a platform for communications and PR strategy that resonates, engages, delights and validates what we hope consumers will believe about a client brands relevance and value to them.
This is our calling. Our path. Our way. Our point of view about PR.
Coming FTC rules pose challenge to social media marketing
By Robert Wheatley
New rules are in the works that could alter the legal landscape for agencies and clients in how they handle blogger outreach and use of third party experts and celebrities as spokespeople.
I wrote an article on this that was published today at Marketing Daily. You can read it here.
Behind all this are several note-able and well-publicized events including the fake blogging scandal involving Walmart and their PR firm, Edelman along with the accusations involving lack of transparency on the part of Whole Foods’ CEO. These events and others have prompted the FTC to consider adjusting their Guides in order to better assure transparency.
This includes disclosure when blogger are paid to promote a brand, are given free products or some other consideration. The same thinking is also extended to media interviews involving outside third-party spokespeople. The FTC’s concern there is if a viewer or listener will understand the spokesperson is being paid.
So agencies are adopting new procedures and policies that will reflect the need for clarity in the relationships between brands and various forms of media.
What’s so bad about transparency?
In today’s wired world where everything can be known or discovered and both brands and businesses live in glass houses, we’re all used to routinely finding out who’s operating behind the curtain. For the most part, the curtain stays open.
I don’t think consumers are surprised to know that celebrities are often paid to promote products they’re interested in. And in those instances when bloggers have been paid and acknowledge that in their posts, I think we find the revelation honest and refreshing.
So let’s embrace the new age of transparency and not worry about the disclosure. It’s a good thing. That said agencies must be sure their policies are in line with FTC requirements to avoid legal run-ins with the Federal policy.
Social media marketing evolves to social business strategy
By Robert Wheatley
We’re standing at the edge of an entirely new business model born of the Internet age. For generations brands have made plans to target their consumers and move messages at them through various paid and non-paid media vehicles. A sort of “push button†model that would appropriate spending down different pipes of communication aimed at informing and persuading.
The Internet and social media have helped activate consumer control over brand relationships and interactions. This requires a seismic shift in thinking from command and control to mining paths of relevance and value to the consumer’s lifestyle.
Underneath the theories behind word-of-mouth marketing and social media platforms and communities is a simple but profound truth: we trust people more than we trust organizations and institutions. And trust is critical to building any kind of lasting bond between a brand and its user.
The next great leap will be the humanization of brands…
In the days of mass marketing, brands were more about their predictability and reliability. Now what matters more is uniqueness and craft. These two points alone favor giving brands a face. Literally.
Our challenge now is to humanize the interactions, communications and experiences people have with brands. This kind of intimacy breeds rapport and leads to trust. So the question we should be asking ourselves is this: how can we put a human face on the brands we guide?
First and foremost, by focusing on the people behind the brand and business. Employees, customer service reps, brand stewards, product development experts, senior management and others behind the great corporate wall should come out to participate openly in the communications process.
Why bother? A humanized brand can more meaningfully and effectively connect with consumers. What better example of this idea than agencies themselves. Sure agencies may attempt to position themselves along the lines of proprietary planning models and other methods that portend a form of “secret sauce†in the creation of effective communication. But in the end, agencies are defined by their people and the qualities, expertise and know-how these individuals bring to the table.
So too, its time for organizations to think about putting real faces in front of consumers to engage with. New media such as blogs and Twitter enable this kind of interaction. So its time now for brands to go LIVE. This approach recommends the development of social business strategy as a method of formalizing the concept and adapting the organization to this kind of change.
Do you want consumers who engage on-line to visit your Web site, consume information on your brand and follow-through to buy your product? According to a recent article at eMarketer, the best route to victory may not be through the advertising path.
A recent poll by Opinion Research Corporation finds that brand mentions in on-line articles are more likely to engage their intended audience and cause them to act, versus banner and pop-up ads, email offers and sponsored links. Once again there is mounting evidence this PR-driven form of communication holds court over push messaging in ads and offers.
The advice to marketers: don’t undercut your investments in PR communication in the on-line world, in favor of paid ad outreach.
What is it about articles?
Articles at once carry the demeanor of authorship and therefore the investment and credibility of its writer. People intrinsically respect articles as a reliable source of education and knowledge. Information and ideas are presented in a conversational fashion that allows the reader to consume, judge and form their own conclusions. They feel in control of the process. And conversely they don’t feel like they’re being overtly sold and thus manipulated by a third party.
We seek out and collect information because it makes us feel good to be knowledgeable. We have an innate thirst for understanding and so articles quench the desire to be aware and in touch.
Study sponsor ARAnet President, Scott Stevenson reports, “More than two-thirds of the respondents between 18 and 34 said they conduct Internet searches for products or services they read about in on-line articles either frequently or somewhat frequently.â€
The channels of effective communication are changing. The arena for engagement is fast becoming digital to be sure. But the basic drivers behind the human desire for information and ideas remains a constant. Content is king. Challenge your PR team to devote more of their energy and attention to securing coverage in on-line venues. Optimize your spending to make sure you’re not leaving on-line coverage opportunities on the table. And remember, brands are now content creators so you don’t need to rely solely on other voices to tell your story.
The form, style and context of the message will matter as much as the message itself. What do you think?
(I know the headline above was first coined by someone else, but can’t remember the source this morning — a bit foggy today, I apologize. If anyone can identify the author please raise your hand).
I’m reading Chris Brogan’s blog today about the changing role of advertising and the interesting question about what works effectively these days – informing or entertaining? Chris goes on to mention David Ogilvy and an age when advertising served a useful purpose? Does it still? A recent post by Jeff Jarvis entitled “Advertising is Failure†suggests the evolution of ad creative sensibilities from inform to entertain has helped undermine the relevancy of this form of marketing communication.
Buy this book. By Ken Roman, one of the greatest leaders to emerge from David Ogilvy’s inner circle…
I grew up inside Ogilvy & Mather. Spent eleven wonderful years there during the era when Ogilvy was truly Ogilvy (all but one of my years there was prior to the hostile takeover by former Saatchi & Saatchi accountant Sir Martin Sorrell). We were exposed to David’s views and philosophy on a routine basis and brought up in a culture that was religiously respectful of consumer insight as a fundamental “table stake†in any form of effective communication.
David was still around when I entered the senior management ranks and I met him several times. One aside if you’ll indulge me: at the very first agency-wide management conference after WPP scooped up O&M, we were all treated to lunch at the headquarters dining room in New York. We were to hear an introductory talk from Sir Martin. David attended. We sat next to each other at lunch and during our conversation I explained to him our common Scottish heritage and my arrival in this world in Edinburgh, Scotland. Of course with American parents I have no accent. He said I was making it up just to get in his good graces. We laughed. We talked… great time with a marvelous and legendary figure whom I deeply respected and greatly admired.
Ogilvy’s early history and legacy as inspired by the long-form (copy-centric) ad theory was characterized as story telling that informs, perhaps even educates in order to motivate. The word “news†was also liberally applied to advertising’s creative role in those days. Which I always found interesting given that in the PR business “news†is the primary media field we work in and around on a daily basis. So we’re intimately familiar with what constitutes news and news-worthiness.
The commonality between ad and PR worlds simply stated: product news can be translated through both paid and unpaid (earned) vehicles. Combined the two forms of outreach are always better and more effective layered together than separated.
In more recent years advertising has gone the way of technique, art and entertainment. Image more so than information. Movie-making at its finest in an attempt to secure attention with messages that are more oblique and implied metaphorically than simply stated. Honesty, credibility and authenticity, three central strategic pillars of correct public relations strategy are more important than ever.
How would David operate in a world of content creation?
Nonetheless, the world has indeed changed. I wonder if he were around today how David would react to the current communications environment? What would he say about the role of ad and PR now that the consumer really runs the show and has ultimate access to every shred of information imaginable about products, services and the companies that provide them? And the ability to shut out any “marketing noise†not deemed useful, helpful or inherently believable.
I honestly think he might come to the conclusion that PR is the new advertising. I say this because news and useful information reign supreme in today’s outreach toolbox. And ironically the Internet presages the first global media platform that marries a content rich environment with the ability of brands and businesses to publish “news†and “education†— without having to navigate the filter of editors and editorial eccentricities.
Today we are content creators in PR as much as we are experts in navigating the private domain of editorial operations, decisions and outcomes.
Don’t get me wrong, coverage in earned media is critical, essential and relevant as much to brands as it is to consumers who consume news either online or off. The added layer of content creation allows us to craft communications in narrative and video form that fulfills the mission of education (and conversation) around useful information. It comes across with the same sensibilities as editorial media story telling. Feels like news. The difference: we construct the material and publish it. So PR may indeed be the new advertising. And word of mouth, the purest form of advocacy, may now be the new PR.
What would remain familiar I think to David is the unending devotion to consumer insight as the first step in any effort to divine the best way to talk to consumers. His genius as a copy writer steeped in the traditions of narrative story telling would feel right at home I believe in the new media world. Knowing his penchant for books and teaching, he may have already published the definitive work on the evolution of communications strategy in the new media age.
For some time we’ve looked at media in the general buckets of print, broadcast and on-line. Whether we’re working on the paid (ads) or earned (editorial content) part of the media, one thing holds true no matter which side you butter the outreach toast: pushing messages outward has been the call to action.
However, the Internet has helped us all look at media use differently. With over-choice and a daunting number if digital and mainstream media channels available, people are increasingly opting for special interest engagements: going where their passions are and editing out the rest.
This behavior tracks with another macro-trend – the death of mass markets and the rise of niche categories serving unique consumer interests and desires. Media is following this pattern.
From a human standpoint the narrowing of media consumption only makes sense as the clutter and clamor for attention becomes impossible for anyone to absorb in any rational manner. Bob Lutz the eminence grise of the auto industry, who recently announced his retirement, told AdAge in an interview: “Back in the good old days, you had ABC, CBS and NBC. If you took three spots on “The Dinah Shore Show,†you had a Chevrolet commercial at the beginning, one in the middle and one at the end, and you knew about 25 million Americans saw those three Chevy commercials. Today, with hundreds (or thousands) of channels, you don’t know where to go anymore.â€
Pushing messages out isn’t going away any time soon. Media outreach strategies have adjusted and messaging is already re-defined along lines of relevance and meaning to its recipient — more so than broad-brush, one-size-fits-all approaches. The activity of securing awareness in paid vehicles or convincing editors and reporters of a story angle that includes a client’s brand, will remain a centerpiece of most brand communications strategies. But there’s another compelling channel now in the wings.
“Pull Mediaâ€
Brands have the ability today to create content, to become an aggregator and repository of useful information in the categories where they do business. The challenge for all of us in the communications field is developing content that is sufficiently meaningful and valuable, it becomes discoverable by its target audience through search engines and social media platforms.
One of our favorite experts in the digital space, Bob Greenberg of R/GA, one of the top and most strategic, inventive digital agencies around, in a recent BrandWeek article talks about a growing role for video (distributed on the Internet) that helps demonstrate the value and use of brands in an environment employing all of the immersive communications advantages of pictures, sound and music. Not stunts mind you or viral video anomalies that, while emanating pass around value, amount to nothing more than a temporary awareness generator. Rather we’re talking about content that can stand the test of true engagement, value and meaning to its user and thus has the opportunity to become sought-after.
So whatever forms of media outreach we work within today, one thing we believe is an unstoppable force — the need for brands to become content creators with a twist. Not just pushing messages at consumers, but also inviting them into a relationship by helping improve their lives and lifestyles with content they want, look for, keep and share.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://www.wheatleytimmons.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
|
| 
