Call it the digital generation. The websites-are-so-20th-century generation. The iPhone-toting, Facebook-hopping, videogame-fragging, Twitter-tapping, I-want-what-I-want-how-I-want-it generation.
By whatever name, today’s marketers are desperate to connect with an ever-elusive, increasingly ad-resistant consumer republic. As the pace of change accelerates, many marketers feel themselves falling behind. And most are guilty, at least once, of chasing “what’s cool” long after consumers have moved on.
Many marketers don’t understand that it’s not just about tracking the latest technologies and trends. They lack the tools—the philosophical framework—to create the kind of experiences consumers want and demand in the digital era.
In surveying some of the most notable digital marketing initiatives of the last decade, a core set of 10 principles emerges for building on-demand brand experiences that can increase awareness, interest, and demand for your products.
Rule #1: Insight comes before inspiration
The most successful digital initiatives don’t typically start with the idea for a cool new digital experience or a me-too approach to major trends. Instead, they start with consumer insights culled from painstaking research into who your customers are, what they’re all about, how they interact with consumer technologies, and what they want from the brands they know and trust.
Dove, for instance, conducted a 10-country study of 3,200 girls and women aged 18 to 64 to better understand their satisfaction with their own looks. What resulted was the massively successful Campaign for Real Beauty, which used channels like social media, mobile, and digital outdoor signage to encourage women to define their own sense of beauty—and helped increase Dove sales by 10% worldwide.
Rule #2: Don’t repurpose; reimagine
Creating multiplatform strategies that connect with audiences where they live doesn’t just mean posting television spots on YouTube in the hopes they go viral. In a medium where the possibilities are endless, television is the jumping off point to much more interactive and engaging experiences. You’ve got to invent new ways to help your customers make your brand their own. Toyota, for instance, uses augmented reality to enable consumers to test drive what appears to be a 3D holographic image of its new hybrid automobile, called Auris, in what’s billed as “The Cleanest Test Drive Ever.”
Rule #3: Don’t just join the conversation—spark it
Don’t just slap advertising in the same social networking space where someone is breaking up with their girlfriend or chatting about their favorite Jonas Brother. Create social experiences that enable consumers to connect with your brand and to each other. Johnson & Johnson’s BabyCenter.com, for instance, is so popular with mothers seeking advice and camaraderie that it attracts 78% of online women in the US who are either pregnant or have children under two.
Rule #4: There’s no business without show business
Your brand is a story; tell it. Rather than just selling a product, sell the problem it solves, the feeling it gives, the status it conveys, or the value it embodies. “The Rookie,” an online spin-off of “24” sponsored by Degree antiperspirant, features a hero who takes on the brand’s attributes: young, ambitious, and always looking for action. In the on-demand era, the best-branded entertainment experiences are P-O-S-itive: personalizable, ownable, and sharable.
Rule #5: Want control? Give it away
User-generated content (UGC) might not be cutting edge (it’s been featured on ABC-TV’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” for nearly 20 years), but it’s a big-time buzz builder. Young consumers, especially adolescent males, seem more than happy to create their own video ads to upload on YouTube and e-mail to friends.
How do you give away control while simultaneously getting what you want? Ensure rewards for making UGC promote your brand, rather than mock or bash it. Doritos’ annual contest inviting consumers to create Super Bowl commercials generates $36 million in free publicity for the brand before and after the big game, according to the company.
Rule #6: It’s good to play games with your customers
For consumers of a certain age, there’s no better way to engage them than to play with them—in the form of branded games. Burger King has launched its own line of branded Xbox games featuring its creepy King character, for instance. According to studies, consumers are likely to spend an average of 12 minutes with a branded game, far longer than they’re likely to spend with most forms of marketing communications. And it can pay dividends. Burger King sold 3 million copies of its games. And giveaways as part of promotions at restaurants reportedly helped boost burger sales by more than 10%.
Rule #7: Products are the new services
In the digital age, differentiation may come less from the quality from which your products are manufactured and more from the on-demand digital services they deliver to your customers. The Nike+ running system, which enables you to track your running performance through your iPod Nano, helped Nike’s share of the running shoe category skyrocket from 48% to 61% in just three years.
Rule #8: Mobile is where it’s at
Mobile isn’t just about advertising sent to consumers via mobile devices. It’s also the ultimate response mechanism (aka, activation mechanism) for traditional print, television, and radio advertising. When women’s wear brand Bravissimo ran a TV commercial asking viewers to either visit a website, call an 800 number, or send a text message, text messaging turned out to be by far the most popular response mechanism, accounting for 43% of all responses. Factor in mobile apps like location-based services Groupon, Foursquare, and Shopkick, as well as offerings like Kraft’s iFood Assistant meal planning tool, and suddenly what was once purely promotional now offers utility for consumers on the move.
Rule #9: Always keep surprises in store
Brick-and-mortar stores are getting a digital makeover through new mobile apps and social retailing technologies that enable shoppers to involve their far-flung friends in the shopping experience. Bloomingdales has been piloting solutions like touch-screen changing room mirrors that let you send out real-time images of the clothes you’re wearing to your social network, for real-time feedback on whether that outfit is fly or forgetaboutit. The shopper, and those outside the store, can overlay augmented reality versions of other clothing options over the shopper’s reflection for a very social shopping experience.
Rule #10: Use smart ads wisely
New online advertising can target consumers based on age, gender, geographic location, personal interests, profession, household income, online surfing activities, advertising response characteristics, past purchase history, and more. Marketers need to make sure policies keep the digital world safe for both commerce and privacy—or face the possibility of government regulation in the years ahead.
Written by Rick Mathieson
