Applying the Right Kind of Lens

Just as professional photographers use special lenses for capturing subject matter properly, marketing and brand professionals need special lenses to uncover, analyze, and solve today’s branding challenges.

Agency talent cannot help but apply the lens of advertising to branding challenges – that is, interruptive and message-based creative strategies and tactics. With this lens attached to the camera, the output will always be predictable, common, and formulaic. Consumers have long figured this out. They desire a different landscape – one that they can help shape and control – a landscape created through authentic engagement. The brands that understand this reality are thriving and the others are struggling.

Instead, we should apply the lens of new media to branding. That is, interactivity and iteration. This lens, in combination with holistic experience planning, in place of the traditional media planning lens will open up new ways of seeing, finding and forging innovation in branding.

Let’s face it, in this multi-channel world we need to utilize multi-faceted lenses to breakthrough the clutter. Applying the lens of new media allows branders to gain true “user” insights (which leads to relevant differentiation) because the focus is centered on interaction: understanding pre-and-post purchase journeys, fringe behaviors, territories and barriers, resources and tools (both used and ignored), and influencing trends and social circles.

A wonderful example of this lens in application is Volkswagen’s 2010 GTI vehicle promotion. VW is putting consumers behind the wheel of a new iPhone application. According to BrandWeek, the free Real Racing GTI app lets users race against other cars and post their time on an online leader board. The company hopes to engage consumers by targeting social networking sites, allowing players to post their racing videos on YouTube and communicate with competitors on Twitter.

In the BrandWeek article, Charlie Taylor, general manager for Volkswagen’s digital marketing explains, “our audience is very wired, they are demanding and sophisticated technophiles and for them, media consumption is higher in digital than in broadcast.” Taylor pointed to market research as key in their decision to creating an iPhone app as a promotion. According to what VW found, half of the 20-25 million Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users are male, and a significant portion are part of the 30 to 40 something age of the company’s target audience.

Clearly, the new media lens and interaction focus was the catalyst to this innovative approach.

In support of zooming in with the new media lens, new research by Webtrends found 85% of consumers are positive about brands interacting with them online but 39% said there was too much advertising on social networks. According to the study, 19% of social media users said they would regard brands more highly if they interacted with them on a social media site and, of those who have already interacted with a brand in this way, 74% said their approval of the brand increased.

Sources:
1 - BrandWeek, Volkswagen’s Virtual GTI Launch by Sarah Knapp, Oct 23, 2009
2 – Webtrends Rules of Engagement Survey, Loudhouse UK, released Oct. 15, 2009

Sling-Shooting the Brand Experience In the Digital Domain

In today’s digital domain, there is a dizzying and ever-increasing array of channels to engage people through — Facebook, Twitter, Ad Sense, Youtube, et al. There are so many, in fact, that marketing professionals struggle to maintain consistent Brand messages and effectively reach their target audiences through the noise and variety of tactics.

However, to achieve the best results, we must take a step back and look at the big picture. Taken as a whole, the digital domain can be likened to a solar system.

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