Today, brands have unprecedented access to their audiences. No longer reliant solely on research intermediaries conducting periodic focus groups and surveys, marketers now hear directly from their brand’s consumers. Via social media amplification, brands can quickly see how consumers are reacting to a social network redesign, or to an abrupt termination of a spokesman.

Many organizations are using this access to reach out and connect with constituencies—sometimes with surprising results. Back in 2007, Greenpeace asked its fans to help name (and save) a humpback whale. Internet users rejected mellifluous names like Libertad and Mira in favor of the less dignified (and arguably hilarious) Mr. Splashypants.

Similarly, this week, NASA’s poll for the new wing of a national space station allowed a write-in option. Comedian Stephen Colbert urged his viewers to submit his name, and Colbert was the winner in a landslide.

All this raises an interesting question: how much should your brand assets become a democracy? Indisputably, brands can be shaped by their consumers and audiences as never before. But when core assets are handed over, does the community risk becoming a mob? Or does an engaged community trump all? Henry Ford was famously at the other end of the spectrum with this attributed remark on user input: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Photo credit: Richard.Fisher

Tags: brand, social web, uh oh by admin
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SXSW in Twitter conversations, March 2009

While it’s fashionable to decry the actual panels, there was some interesting conversation at this year’s SXSW that didn’t take place at the Salt Lick. The best formal panel I attended described the integrated marketing effort behind Electronic Arts’ Dead Space. EA overcame an internal bureaucracy to put together a content-driven marketing approach that included both an interactive web experience and a comic book illustrated by Ben Templesmith. EA incurred tremendous cost in content creation and orchestration with so many moving parts (and plot lines), but the user engagement more than paid off with over a million games sold in 2008.

A prevalent conference theme was that social is an undisputed growth area for traditional brands, as Monday’s Forrester report Social Media Playtime Is Over (account required) points out. Brands like Walmart and Pepsi were out in force at SXSW, capitalizing on the authenticity, reach, and mindshare that influential bloggers like 11 Moms and Chris Brogan bring to bear. While the dollar spend is still comparatively low, Forrester is counseling brands to move beyond the experimentation stage and develop management strategies for social in the long term.  The next step in social for the enterprise is to develop the listening capability and social marketing metrics that demonstrate how social efforts convert to consumer preference and purchases.

Tags: brand, events, social web by admin
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