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?
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.
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.
Self-interests can no longer be served through selfishness….
By Robert Wheatley
Image c/o Philip and Karen Smith
With all of the conversation and discussion about the explosion of social media, and the era of two-way engagement and conversation that shift ushers in, you’d think businesses must be falling to their collective knees in a sort of Road-to-Damascus epiphany about discovering a new path to building brands. Have we seen the light?
Has a new marketing and communications religion taken hold? Apparently it’s still a work in progress. We learn that the vast majority of marketing spending still flows down the hide-bound and intractable pipe of interruption media and its embedded agenda to disrupt, persuade and imprint messages.
Oscar Wilde once quipped, “I can resist anything except temptation,” and so the addiction to push media solutions rolls on. Like a massive electric motor bolted to the floor of an industrial age power plant, the tradition-bound backbone of brand marketing built from an interruptive model continues to spin on its own inertia.
Consumers are not walking wallets merely to be sold. If anything there’s a refined “selling detector” that’s emerged as consumer’s turn away from and avoid or ignore blatant pitches in favor or more interesting and helpful forms of brand interaction.
We’ve institutionalized a legacy over time of brand narcissism that should evolve. It’s not all about us anymore. Yes, the fundamental goal of a business organization is to sell more stuff more often and more profitably.
But if the tone, tenor and manner in which we go about achieving business objectives flows from a view that consumers are merely walking wallets, then we’ve failed to grasp the fundamental changes that impact how great brands are built in the age of consumer control. Behaviors that reinforce customer relationships as transactions-to-sweep-in only lack understanding that consumers now control brand interaction. And so we must move from push to engage, from tell to listen, from imprint to co-create.
Brand narcissism is a systemic problem. It emanates from deep-seated behaviors that suggest company’s can compel consumers into favorable purchase behavior at will. Years of pushing messages and other tactics at consumers continues, whether openly acknowledged or not, to flow from a belief that the one-size fits-all consumer will do what we tell them to do.
Not so.
What’s needed…?
1. Enduring brand relationships are now built from a foundation of mutual respect, interest and caring.
2. Brands must earn permission for a relationship with core customers by aligning themselves with their unique lifestyle passions and interests.
3. A form of brand selflessness must authentically take root — such that all points of contact reverberate with the same level of reverence for consumers as friends of the brand, not just targets to target.
The change here is more attitudinal than anything else. Once consideration is given towards how a brand can mine a “higher purpose” built around reciprocity, then we have room to move to refine strategies that will help effectively build a foundation of trust. And let’s be clear, trust is the fabric that binds brands to consumers.
It is the absence of meaning, compelling value and trust that turns businesses into commodities…
Social media by the way is a partner in all of this, not a stand-alone panacea. Engagement media gets interesting and valuable when it is integrated as a component part of all forms of outreach.
We’ll examine more of media integration piece tomorrow. What do you think?
Too often we hear stories of brands ignoring new technology and communications tools because they can’t grasp the ROI (or, more often, they don’t want to hear consumers complain!). Then in some unforeseen chain of events the brand must quickly engage the tools to overcome a communications crisis (e.g. Twitter response by new moms’ to poorly positioned Motrin advertising). Fortunately, I have a positive story that may help uncover the benefits of a two-way conversation with your customers.
My husband and I are beer drinkers (which makes it even more rewarding that Wheatley & Timmons handles communication strategy for the Modelo Brewing Group portfolio). Last night, I was winding down my weekend with a beer from a craft beer brewer, Dogfish Head. I’ve had their beer on a number of occasions and always found the same reliable, quality and taste.
Unfortunately, when I just wanted to savor one more sip of the relaxing weekend, my beer had other plans. Something was off and the taste replicated more grape juice flavors than the caramel and vanilla taste I had hoped for.
With a bit of frustration at 8:52pm (cst) I tweeted out “agh! my dogfish head palo santo tastes like grape juice WTF…I’ve had corked wine but don’t know what to call this beer.”
Within three minutes, one of my followers, Matthew Horbund (@mmWine), a wine consultant and blogger, responded that I should ask professional beer writer Ashley Routson (@TheBeerWench) what may be wrong.
Now, I do follow Dogfish Head on Twitter (@dogfishheadbeer) but at this point in the night I didn’t think anyone would be there to solve my problem so I just left it alone (*note to self: in the future, just send a tweet to Dogfish Head. THEY LISTEN!).
By 6:03am, I received a tweet from @dogfishheadbeer, “Not good – can you DM me an email address? Our QC folks would love to get some details from you (bottle data, etc).” From that point, I was quickly put in touch with quality control and was able to offer them the data on the bottle. I was then put in touch with a local rep who picked up the bottle from my house and made a visit to the wine and spirits store where we purchased the bottle.
As a consumer and also a brand strategist, there were a few things that ran through my head throughout this experience:
First, after I drank the off tasting beverage:
I was completely surprised that I was having a poor experience with Dogfish Head, a brewery I trust to always put out quality product. It made me consider that perhaps quality control had slacked. Could I trust my next beer selection with them?
Then, after receiving the first tweet and following rapid correspondence from DogFish Head:
I was completely geeked-out by the amazing commitment the company had to their product and their customers. They used listening tools to seek out what customers are saying. They LISTENED then used the opportunity to make a situation better. Plus, this did not take much additional effort by the customer (me). They sought the information and ran with the response.
This for me is a perfect case of when a company is truly LISTENING and showing commitment to their product and their customers.
Are there any other brands that you feel are good ‘Listeners’?
If you are interested in some additional insight in how to better connect with your consumers, I’d love the opportunity to chat. I love chatting about wine, food and building consumer relationships. Email me: cbecker@wheatleytimmons.com or find me on Twitter: twitter.com/CarrieBecker7
The world’s largest pizza chain knows a thing or two about delivery and convenience. But according to national consumer research, they have much to learn about that other half of the food equation: taste experience. They came in dead last on taste among national chains in a study done by Brand Keys last year.
So in keeping with what we already know about the consumer’s growing savvy-ness concerning quality and flavor experiences, the chain moves to substantially improve its recipes. But more importantly, Domino’s now recognizes that medium and message also matter to the outcome of brand communication.
The chain is going into the maw of the very audience previously doling out the criticism about its not-so-great tasting pies: food bloggers. Yes, into the new-age PR realm Domino’s jumps by inviting outsiders, who are beyond its control to sample, savor and sing through posting live comments at their web site.
According to USA Today’s coverage, Domino’s has tested “dozens of cheeses, 15 sauces and 50 crust-seasoning blends over two years.” Headed towards the biggest pizza consumption occasion of the year the Super Bowl, Russell Weiner , marketing chief at Domino’s said, “The best defense is a good offense.” Amen.
Bravo first to Domino’s for its willingness to take the larger risk of altering the franchise recipe in the name of better quality and taste. Second, coming from its earlier run-in with social media’s sharper knife in the form of stupid YouTube video hijinks, the chain now embraces the paradigm of transparent, conversational communication.
When you’re a $5.5 billion dollar organization there must be great temptation to revert to the old interruption model. But what we know today is that consumers look for validation brand claims and assertions from sources they trust. The rest is routinely tuned out and serves mostly as reminder media. The true convincing comes when others with the right pedigree agree and chime in.
Love the faith and belief that trust is ultimately at the core of successful brand relationships. This will be interesting to watch. What do you think?
With all the conversation about engagement with social media one would assume that online discussions about products and services lead the way as purchase decision drivers. Sure they remain important and vital because moms look to social platforms for advice, support and connection.
That said, when it comes to making purchases, offline networks of friends and family trump all other sources for advice on what to buy, according to a recent study released by MomConnection and The Parenting Group’s 5,000 member mom panel. Even though the study data confirms 60% of moms are using social networks in their daily routine, they are four times more likely to look to their off-line network for info on which products to buy.
As indicated before in a recent article we published, validation is essential for consumers to confirm assertions made by brands about the outcomes of product use and experience.
Communications increasingly is a circular proposition where touch point consistency matters and outside third party connections loom large as sources that bring high levels of built-in belief cachet. It is the belief thing that brands find hardest to “manage” because trust comes not only from brand relationships well done, but importantly, from sources outside a brand’s control wheelhouse.
So how do you influence the circle when elements of the belief system most important to moms lie not with brand outreach but with their friends and family?
Creating the tell-able tale…
It helps of course when products and services are unique and interesting enough to come already equipped with natural charm, allure and magnetism. But even with the most magnetic of brand personalities, marketers need to think through the story telling opportunity and ask these questions:
Is my message sticky and repeat-able?
Is it thus short and memorable?
Are there good story telling elements wound in to keep it interesting?
Can the “keeper of the story” come across as insightful and knowledgeable to her circle of friends?
Does the story contain nuggets of intrinsic value to the consumer that is relevant to their own lifestyle needs and interests?
Simply said, can I craft a tell-able tale around my brand and product story, one that can be easily passed around to others?
Moms drive much of commerce so this is an important discussion to have. It’s about looking candidly at this potential disconnect in the communications landscape. If I want my brand story to be passed along from mom to mom, is it truly designed to accommodate this requirement?
Complicated messages die-hard anyway, so passing communications through the crucible of simplicity is a good thing no matter what. But designing messages specifically to enhance their pass around value is yet a new technique that requires extra effort to get right.
Here are the most popular subject topics for mom-to-mom conversations on product choices:
From left to right — Andy Hopson, strategist and consultant to our firm and Noble, Bob Noble, CEO of his namesake agency and Rich Timmons, President of W&T standing in front of Noble’s 50-foot fork totem –an iconic nod to their firm’s heritage and expertise in food communications.
Our agency, like many these days, is in a constant state of reinvention as we work to align ourselves with the changing media landscape and resulting client communication needs. Chief among the requirements of effective communications and brand strategy guidance is the overwhelming need for up-to-the-minute insight into trends, consumer attitudes and behaviors.
We’re about to introduce you to CultureWaves…
Just a little background to start: We happen to believe in strategic partnerships, especially when a combination can change math so that 1 + 1 = 3 or more. And so it is that we are embarking on a partnership with Noble, a fascinating advertising, test kitchen, new product creation, Internet media and insight firm run by the visionary Bob Noble and his team of experts from, of all places, Springfield, MO. Yes they have a growing Chicago office, but the nerve center of Bob’s operations flows from his loft building environs on the business end of a shopping mall plaza in the Show Me state.
Bob’s unique take on the changing landscape is to re-think the agency business model. Voila, we had a simpatico going right out of the chute from our first meeting, as we share the same view that old agency business models and tactical capabilities simply won’t cut it in this increasingly social media-driven world.
So Noble has launched a unique, proprietary “human insights engine” called CultureWaves. Key to its functionality is the software underneath that Noble created called Neemee. So what’s it do, you ask? CultureWaves is fueled by hundreds of “farmers” – essentially a large group of intensely curious human observers who contribute articles and ideas to a searchable Thought Bank. So the magic isn’t in algorithms but in thoughts and perspective that flow from real people.
W&T now plugged into Neemee and CultureWaves…
Candidly we’re still in the training mode over here, so we have much to learn about extracting insights. What we can tell you is this — the entire process is much about discovery and the ability to aggregate information in one place in such a way that patterns and trends become noticeable. And that in turn can lead to new ideas and observations around emerging human needs and interests.
The end game is simple. We want to increase our value to clients by helping them see emerging trends and needs on the horizon that they can meet and fulfill. At the end of the day, brand relationships are built on a foundation of relevance and greater meaning. And how can you possibly expect to divine the elements of relevance without firm human understanding of what people are into these days.
Human behavior rules…
Often said that agencies exist to help brands better understand how to influence consumer attitudes and behaviors, and in doing so to earn permission for a relationship – one that hopefully drives brand preference and thus sales. So knowing more about human behavior serves to fulfill our primary mission.
So far the journey proves to be fascinating. In the coming weeks, we’ll reveal more details about the CultureWaves model and share our learning with you.
Robert Mondavi Blazes Consumer Engagement at Chicago Gourmet and Beyond
In the wine world, tasting events are the root of all marketing outreach efforts. The entry to participate alone weighs heavily on both time and cost investments. However, there are not many other ways to replace the experience of swirling, sipping and talking with your consumer one-on-one.
Understanding both the importance and the investment, many brands see just getting to the event as crossing the finish line of consumer engagement. But, if you are not activating your brand presence, someone else is stealing your share-of-voice and your next customer.
One brand that I admire for their successful event execution and consumer engagement is the Robert Mondavi brand of wines. Recently, I enjoyed experiencing their brand at the culinary, wine and spirits consumer event, Chicago Gourmet.
Here’s my run down of what Robert Mondavi did right and how you can take some pointers:
On-site Engagement: Education
Don’t just offer a wine sample. Add some value to the consumer experience and your impression will last beyond the event. Robert Mondavi has a beautifully designed traveling event that emulates their brand identity. Within their space they offer a sensory station to learn about the nuances of different varietals and throughout the event they host-cooking demonstrations and wine 101 classes led by their brand ambassadors.
Credibility Building: Spokesperson Sponsorship
What are the sources you trust for information on wine? Trade magazines, Robert Parker ratings, wine analysts, trend reports? Now, who does your consumer trust? You? Well, maybe your winemaker but sorry he/she needs someone else to give your wine a seal of approval. Robert Mondavi cleverly partnered with well-recognized and credited food and wine writer and culinary TV personality, Ted Allen, to elevate their Private Selection portfolio of wine. As their spokesperson, Ted helps spread the brand message leading up to events with local media appearances, integrates in event content as a seminar speaker and is available for giving consumers some very engaging one-on-one consumer time by attending the event.
Contests are a dime a dozen and many times miss hitting the core consumer when not honed in on the passions and interests of the consumer. Tapping into the star power of their relevant spokesperson, Ted Allen, Robert Mondavi asked consumers to submit a wine question to Ted for a chance to meet him for dinner at a high-end restaurant. The entry was simple for a wine enthusiast and it weeded out any professional contest applicants when asking a question relevant to the spokesperson and the brand.
(Full disclosure: I was one of the winners. The experience was memorable and you could not fit a more genuine and authentic group of folks in one room. Here again the experience and reach of the brand went beyond the event especially when contest winners like me blogged about the experience on our food and personal blogs.)
How else can you activate consumer engagement at events? How else should you extend the experience beyond an event space footprint?
My quick answer: applying a social media strategy.
Perhaps Robert Mondavi could employ live blogging or vlogging from the event or reward those who follow them on Facebook or Twitter by receiving an incentive when they visit the booth. This extra layer of engagement builds the conversation and strengthens the bond between consumer and brand.
But more on this for a later post.
If you are interested in some additional insight in how to better connect with your consumer at events and beyond, I’d love the opportunity to chat. I love chatting about wine, food and building consumer relationships. Email me: cbecker@wheatleytimmons.com or find me on Twitter: twitter.com/CarrieBecker7
Everything you used to believe about crisis strategy is evolving
By Robert Wheatley
Yesterday I had the extraordinary opportunity to speak at the annual conference of the Pulp and Paper Manufacturers Association in Milwaukee. My deepest thanks to Dick Kendall for inviting me. This organization represents leading companies that make paper products and the components that go into them. The theme for the conference was “The Road to Recovery.” And part of the agenda was devoted to disaster and what to do when it strikes.
My part: to present the case for an entirely new approach to crisis communications strategy, emerging from the growth, influence and realities of social and digital media.
Just before I got up to talk, two gentlemen with Packaging Corporation of America, Ron Zimmerman and Bruce Kummerfeldt, led a heart-rending review of a recent plant disaster that claimed the lives of three of their colleagues following the explosion of a large storage tank. They chronologically described the unfolding events from the moment the ground suddenly shook like an earthquake through the days and weeks that followed. Media was on-site at the plant within 20 minutes of the explosion.
You could feel their pain as they described and maybe re-lived — the unnerving conditions and loss of life. Some of the activities in response to press and other agencies (OSHA) followed a well-worn path that those of us in crisis response have been down so many, many times before. But all of that is changing. Right now.
It’s Now Disaster at the Speed of Light
Early in my career I worked on the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster in India that claimed at least 10,000 lives. I got involved downstream (1984) with a team assembled by Ogilvy & Mather, agency for Union Carbide, to address mounting community relations challenges in areas where their domestic plants operated. In those days, we spent time in due diligence, research and planning, and our work with media followed this effort using the familiar tactical tools we had come to rely on in the TV generation of sound bites, fact sheets, third party expert interviews, etc. The materials and tools we developed became the grist for stories written or produced by trained journalists. We all understood the rules of engagement.
I love this quote from Rupert Murdoch that just nails the evolutionary moment we are in: Technology is shifting the power away from editors, publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it’s the people who are in control.
The traditional media world of rules of engagement has given way to information, images and video uploaded by anyone (not professional journalists) at anytime to platforms that are instantly global. And those pieces of communication may or may not convey the facts correctly. Perception indeed leads reality.
My message: you are not in control anymore. And events unfold at speeds approximating the nanoseconds of digital transmission. Social media can help create and help solve crisis events. But the time to get involved in social media is not at the moment of crisis, but now.
The crisis communications toolbox has forever changed. There are advantages to social media communication in our ability to listen more quickly, effectively and to distribute information directly to stakeholders and by-pass the once exclusive filter of traditional media. But that comes, too, with responsibilities founded on honesty, humility and transparency.
It’s a new world, requiring a new recipe. Are you ready? Says Jason Baer of Convince and Convert blog: If you can’t get a video of your CEO on YouTube within 3 hours, anytime of day or night, you are not ready.
It’s time to overhaul the crisis response protocols. You agree?
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