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Jim Nail is Cymfony's Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. Jim has an extensive background in integrated marketing through his 22-year career that spans online marketing, market research, brand advertising and direct marketing. Prior to joining Cymfony, Jim was an analyst at Forrester for eight years, leading their coverage of how marketing strategies and tactics must adapt to technology-driven changes in consumer media consumption habits. Prior to Forrester, Jim helped launch Web advertising network AdSmart, where he served as director of marketing. He spent 15 years planning and managing integrated marketing campaigns at leading advertising agencies including Ogilvy & Mather Direct, Draft Worldwide, Bates USA and Hill Holliday.

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Capitalizing on “You”: How Business Should React to the Consumer-Generated Hype

Written on
January 11th 2007
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by Jim Nail  |
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Get to know consumers’ “passion habits.” Today’s consumer, confronted by a million options, is free to spend more time on their distinct passions. They purposefully select media to interact with, not just passively absorb. They pursue out-of-the-mainstream venues where their voices are more likely to echo among like-minded individuals. They pour their creativity into podcasts, videos, and blogs that show off their knowledge.

How do marketers follow consumers into this new terrain? Rishad Tobaccowalla, CEO of Denuo coined the term “passion groups”, to point marketers away from traditional demographic or psychographic segmentations. The follow-on is to chart not media consumption habits, but “passion habits”. Reaching out to consumers not just through the media they consume but across the entire spectrum of events, activities, complementary brands, and the fundamental role this plays in their life.

Don’t mooch; bring something to the party. Marketers must understand how to participate with “You” productively in these passions. Traditional intrusive marketing tactics and thinly-veiled pitches are easily bypassed, or worse, actively trashed. To do this right, marketers can’t simply try to hijack this passion for their own viral marketing campaigns, they must bring something of value.

There is a rush now to consumer-created ads: Doritos, Chevrolet and the NFL have announced contests to get consumers to create their Superbowl 2007 ads. No doubt many consumers will participate, but the value is flowing the wrong way: from the consumer to the brand. These programs attempt to lure “You” to do an agency’s work. These events are just a new twist on the old mass-media style contest — they are American Idol for the vlog set. There may be a momentary thrill of thinking the brand is listening, but most entrants will be let down.

To create a more lasting bond, brands need to give the consumers more value, which can take several forms:
• Entertainment still has high value, as witnessed by Smirnoff’s “Tea Partay” video. But the bar is rising and a 30-second spot is too constrained to meet these high expectations, unable to deliver the combination hilarious lyrics, professional production values, and simultaneous send-up of rap music and Yuppies. In almost 2 million views, viewers forgive the commercial message in exchange for a deep belly-laugh.
• Sponsored premium content, subtly associates the brand with tightly focused information invaluable to a well-defined audience. Programs like “Your Baby Today” or “CIO Strategy Center” created by StudioOne Networks work because they trigger a “gratitude response” for the brand, first due to the information quality and second due to not aggressively interjecting the brand.
• Objective educational content, as demonstrated by companies like Powered (disclosure I’m on Powered’s advisory board). Teaching a person how to get more out of their passion creates a powerful halo effect, as long as the instruction steers clear of skewing toward a particular brand. Their research shows as much as 30 times higher likelihood to purchase a brand’s product and doubling the likelihood to recommend it to others.

“You” demand to be heard. “You” demand to be respected. “You” expect that consumer feedback results in change. “You” are not shy about sharing your opinions, and “You” are creative and passionate enough to make these opinions relevant and entertaining to fellow consumers.

Brands: are you listening?



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