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Stop the message and start the conversation
By David L. Rawle
Marketing Matters
Who do consumers most trust? People just like themselves, and that’s a big change.
Just three years ago, only 22% of respondents said they trusted a “person like yourself or your peer.” More recently, that number had shot up to 68%.
Meanwhile, the credibility of CEOs fell to 28%, down around lawyers and legislators.
Power to the people? You bet!
What gave the power to the people? Well, for one thing, YouTube. Regular folks like you and me upload their videos onto YouTube at the rate of more than 65,000 a day. More than 100 million video streams are watched there every day.
Another recent survey showed that 38% of Americans wanted to create and share content online. The Pew Center for Media noted that 60% of U.S. teens have created and shared content on the Internet.
What they’re sharing is often unspectacular, like a 27-second video of a cat dozing off to sleep. And yet, that video was viewed nearly 2 million times in two weeks.
Time magazine named “You” its 2006 Person of the Year. The magazine featured regular folks (many of whom, like many “regular folks,” are extraordinary) who have made a powerful impact through their use of the Internet.
They ranged from a woman who has posted almost 13,000 reviews on Amazon to Charleston native Lane Hutton, who set off Mark Foley’s crash-and-burn on his blog.
There are significant consequences to this trend of peer-to-peer power. Like it or not, your employees, your customers and your stakeholders are all empowered. And they will use that power. So, if you think you can talk to them and tell them stuff and have them act appropriately, fuggetaboutit.
It’s time to stop the message and start the conversation, and marketers all over the world are realizing it and figuring out ways to tap into that peer-to-peer power for their benefit and, hopefully, the benefit of their customers.
This year, for the first time, two major U.S. advertisers put their big money Super Bowl ads into the hands of their fans. Chevy challenged teams of aspiring college-age television ad producers to create the concept for their Super Bowl ad.
The winning team worked with Chevy’s ad agency to produce the spot—a once in a lifetime opportunity for an aspiring college student to get real-world experience. An added benefit is that Chevy is able to see how college-age students (and up-and-coming vehicle brand loyalists) perceive their brand through the concept submissions.
The Frito-Lay challenge, for its Doritos brand, went a step further, asking for user-generated and produced video ads, one of which was aired uncut at this year’s Super Bowl.
That’s a big leap of faith for Frito-Lay to put the Doritos brand completely in the hands of its customers (professional producers or not), and generated a ton of buzz.
On the other hand, some marketers are using these new communication tools in ways that some critics and consumers say are misleading.
For example, The Holmes Report recently discussed how Edelman, a self-proclaimed leader in social media, was criticized for not divulging that they had paid for a Washington Post reporter to travel in an RV and document the experience on the Web site “Walmarting Across America,” in which the reporter highlighted how great all the Wal-Mart employees were along the trip.
It makes sense to work with the proper professionals and choose your tactics wisely. The point is: Your customers are in charge.
Engage them. Empower them. And communicate with them, not at them. Because they are your most powerful and effective advertising message.
David L. Rawle is chairman of Charleston-based Rawle-Murdy Associates Inc., a marketing, advertising and public relations firm. E-mail him at drawle@rawlemurdy.com or visit his blog at http://davidrawle.blogspot.com/.
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