Commentary
Of Widgets, Apps And Social Advertising
- by Joe Marchese , December 9, 2008
In a recent New York Times piece by Jack Hitt titled "Multiscreen Mad Men," R/GA's Robert Rasmussen put it pretty succinctly: "[It used to be] a brand could tell people what was cool because there was less freedom of choice in media. A brand could say, 'This is the latest thing, and everybody's doing it,' and if the message was persuasive enough, you might believe it. Now you can check on that on the Internet and see whether everybody actually is doing it. Brands have become transparent, and that's changed the tone of advertising. Now you have to try to be more authentic -- even if it's just authentically acknowledging that what you're doing is advertising."
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So we are back at the beginning. Want a successful social marketing campaign? Build a better product. And then use the fact that social media is a two-way dialogue with the people you want to reach to ensure that you continue to outpace your competition in delivering what the market wants.
Then turn right around and use social media to spread the news of superior product and service like a wild fire. And don't just hope a fire starts on its own and then let it burn itself out; provide the fuel and the match. Give people a reason to spread your message, then make it easy for them to do so.
Finally, use social media to ensure a continued positive brand experience, because people expect that every brand or product they engage with comes with a lot more than the tangible good, or primary service. Know the difference between a widget and an application (widgets are stand-alone content that can be taken anywhere, applications are less portable but tie directly into people's existing social graphs) and know when your strategy might call for one or the other or both.
I think we can agree "The Widget Is Not A Strategy," but packaging your content appropriately for social media distribution cannot be ignored. Still, as Bob Garfield pointed out last week and Brian Morrissey points out this week, it's easier said than done.
When you hear people talk about successful and innovative marketing today, it's most likely marketing that provided a service. Think about the implications of "marketing as a service" to the people it reaches. Marketing is inherently social. Brands are inherently social. There is no reason why they would not belong in social media.
I've been hearing that I can come off as though I mean to give agencies a "hard time" in these weekly columns. The reality is, I think the agency is going to hold the answer to meeting marketers' needs in a world where people are in control of the messages they receive and, more importantly, the messages they share. The problem is that there is something inherent in the marketer-agency relationship making it hard for the agency's role to evolve the way it should. I'm just here to provide sparks and random thoughts on how marketing could evolve. I get great value out of hearing what each of you who comments on these posts has to say. So, thank you.
"Brands have become transparent"? When something solid turns transparent, it's invisible. The brands of old were the "information" of their day, a durable trusted package of emotional sell with maybe a few facts thrown in. The consumer-created brand-directed information of today is 100% opinion. Influential but certainly not durable. It's branding the way blogging is journalism, they way videogame football is football.
Joe:
Another good one. In the age of transparency your product is your marketing. See Blackberry Storm for a recent case study.
Social media can't help that, it causes that.
TO'B
"[It used to be] a brand could tell people what was cool because there was less freedom of choice in media. A brand could say, 'This is the latest thing, and everybody's doing it,' and if the message was persuasive enough, you might believe it."
In social media people tell the brand whether they believe in it- when we track a conversation across social media we see people comparing experiences with each other in public forums. Agencies cannot control this. Brands are not 'developed', they are wholly dependent on the underlying quality of the product or service.
I understand your attitude towards the old agency/media buying model because it is going away very rapidly. You can't 'buy' social media. You can only participate honestly.
@ron I think you bring up a good point regarding "transparency", but it's not that the brand wants to become invisible, it is that people are going to see what a brand is really made of. It could be said that how brands have positioned themselves for all these years has always been 100% opinion, their opinion.
Sure, over the decades brands have tried everything to "tell people what was cool". To my eye, that process continues unabated. But if you think it falters only when awesome-smart modern online people reveal the black holes of deceit that marketers want to push us all into, your perspective is minuscule. The great preferred brands everyone can name today built their status slowly - and were given time to do it. No successful valued brand got that way by tricking people, either with product or marketing.
Hi Joe, very impressed with the way you engage with your online audience week in week out.
That's what SM marketing should be all about, whether it's widgets or apps brands need to give something of real value back to consumers and listen to them.
If you give something of real benefit/value (not just monetary) to them you will earn their trust. Once you earn their trust you must then engage further but on their terms. After all you wouldn't just turn up at a house party then start selling to everyone?? No the smart guy would listen and join in gently and would also bring along a dessert or some wine to help blend in.
I see so many major brands just talking at people and throwing carefully concealed sales messages at consumers, no wonder they don't succeed in engagement. And worse the actually cause more harm to their brands.
The problem is they don't really understand how to communicate effectively with them.
And I bet a high propensity of all major brands/agencies key decision makers don't even have a social media account, and that's a real problem.
Without real understanding they have got no chance!
Anyway Joe keep up the great work, looking forward to your next post.
Joe - great commentary, and I feel it is more attuned than the "Apps Graveyard" story released yesterday.
With these products, the expectation is that the consumer will invite you into their lives. If you're expecting that response, you do need to offer value and determine how to engage that consumer.
Yes, a lot of brands seek to gain trial usage and acquire new consumers through that. The widget/apps are less suited to that. Other brands continue to build consumer trust, and widgets/apps can excel at that. I think back to the Tylenol scare back in the 80s and J&J was a textbook case of open communication and not jeopardizing the trust their brand had built. Can you imagine how much more effective they could have been with the technology tools today?
For our part, Brand Thunder is getting great response to our products in this space. We're helping brands engage with their consumers and both are better off for it.
Big brands like Ford, Fed-Ex, Nike and Microsoft jumped into the Facebook Apps world and came up empty-handed. Social media advertising/branding is a non-starter on certain platforms. As Brian Morrissey over at Adweek wrote recently
" - the Facebook Platform, launched 18 months ago — which lets developers create social applications for users — was thought to offer the perfect opportunity to move beyond banners to provide “branded utility.” So far, however, Facebook apps from brands like Coca-Cola, Champion, Ford and Microsoft are as popular as desolate Second Life islands." Read more of that article here -
http://www.social-cache.com/2008/12/facebook-apps-brand-graveyards
Hah, of course I now note that you linked to the Morrissey article...it's a good read
I particularly like the concept of 'marketing as a service' - I've been trying to tell clients for a long time that social media can't make their product more sexy, but one can extend the value of the product by building social extensions into it.
The barriers between product development and marketing are starting to break down.
Social media is definitely a way we humans share experiences have conversations just about everything. Tracking you're markets online conversations and monitor these conversations ,Is a full-time job in itself and a critical function every brand should practice. This way marketers and agencies know exactly what's happening in these evolving species minds...then build,participate and create on that.