We all shuffle into the meeting and take our chairs. We greet one another, sip our coffee and lift our pens in silent readiness — after all, one never knows when an action point will be thrust across the room.
Before long, even the most strategic of strategy sessions will be punctuated by tactics (and let me admit I am as guilty of this as anyone). In a bizarre twist on meeting bingo, marketing bingo is littered with words such as "viral", "youtube", "facebook" — and increasingly, "social media". Much of this is driven by short-term, campaign oriented thinking and a focus on short-term objectives. However, when it comes to advising our clients (whether they be internal or external), it is important to remember that campaigns (and microsites) are no longer stand-alone. Google has seen to that.
Where once we built our discrete campaigns around various plans to raise awareness, generate demand, build brand, stimulate sales, accelerate trial etc, brand custodians now need to consider a longer term narrative line that incorporates the way that consumers engage with the brand over time. We no longer have disconnected brand campaigns but discontinuous brand interactions. The crucial link between each of these campaigns is a combination of social media powered by Google. That is:
- The articles or references that bloggers make about your campaign (whether it is digital or not)
- The perspectives published by the media (advertising media as well as other publishers
- User generated content that riffs off your campaign
All of this can be found by Google. More importantly, it can be found by Google well into the future — long after your campaign has ended. For example, when I search on some of my old projects, I can find all the pointers, the conversations and the discussions AROUND them, but the project has passed. The microsite has gone. All we are left with are traces leading nowhere. This is brand equity being squandered.
In the future, we need to think about brand lifecycles. We need to think about brand "through lines" — and design experiences with entry and exit strategies. We need to start putting as much thinking into "reversing the launch" as we put into the start of a campaign.
When we reverse the launch, we can draw upon the P-L-A-Y framework, delivering an experience that enhances and continues the conversations that evolve around your campaign. In fact, part of your strategy could be to build upon some of these user generated conversations as a catalyst for ongoing dialogue. After all, creating the talking point is one of the early challenges, maintaining or stoking that conversation requires much less effort and attention.
Nice one Gavin.
Gavin –
Wouldn’t you say that brand experiences have always been largely been discontinous? I live a pretty brand-centric lifestyle and the only brands I interact with continuously are those tied to my habits/rituals: Apple, Google, NPR, etc.
You’re right though… the reach of web searches has made the world more transparent, and if we don’t keep this in mind, well we just might end up looking silly.
– Clay
From my mobile.
Gavin –
Wouldn’t you say that brand experiences have always been largely been discontinous? I live a pretty brand-centric lifestyle and the only brands I interact with continuously are those tied to my habits/rituals: Apple, Google, NPR, etc.
You’re right though… the reach of web searches has made the world more transparent, and if we don’t keep this in mind, well we just might end up looking silly.
– Clay
From my mobile.
My head just kept nodding through that whole article : )
I am really excited about the role that google will play in terms of credibility checker for The Population. I think there is a feeling that there is a lot of gloss in case studies that are presented to clients or bosses however when agencies are brave enough to give a synopsis of the project and then tell clients to go and see the results for themselves I think that will act as a great source of trust for a company.
Although I think it is good for people behind The Population atm, I don’t think any of us are at the stage where we could work off the credibility of our blogs (I think that is referred to as Weblebrity status), I guess I was looking more at around the actually work we have done for clients, this is still around 6 months away.
I agree with the thinking around brand lifecycles, and the entry and exit cycles should relate back to customer journeys and their levels of engagement and experiences.
The challenge for many brand marketers is that conversations and dialogue are likely to continue long past their tenure (the average CMO’s tenure is apparently getting shorter in the US which may terend that way here).
Add to this the operational KPI’s for many marcomms people are specific to executables – on time, on budget, product sales for the quarter, customer retention metrics and so on – then campaigns will always be short term in focus and output.
As activities are focused on measurable factors, perhaps “trailing commissions” for marketing staff on their campaigns is a solution – it would certainly add a dimension to agency remuneration debates and perpetuate long term thinking…..