The Evolution Will Be Uploaded – by Jennifer Miller
May 25 , 2007
What happens when a Boeing techhead wonders what ever happened to his high school buddy? If that techhead happens to be Randy Conrad, he creates one of the world’s first social networking sites. www.classmates.com.
As the idea of connecting with friends via the internet spread virally since the inception of classmates.com in 1995, virtual communities sprang up and evolved into the Friendsters and MySpaces of today. If you think the evolution is over, think again.
The Democratization of Content: Advertisers Enter the World of UGC
In a letter to his readers, Jim Spanfeller, President of Forbes.com, refers to today’s “entwined media” in which “… people are on the verge of relating to media in completely different terms than they have in the past—multi-level and self selected.”Spanfeller is quick to point out that this trend will directly affect media producers and the marketers that push their messages. Essentially, advertisers are going to have to get on board with user-generated content (UGC).
People today want content on their terms, on their time, and integrated into their lifestyle—and via the communications technologies they rely on to live it. That’s the beauty of a social network—it provides pinpoint accuracy into the passions, interests, and needs of specific audiences. Not to mention the fact that the social network is no longer accessed via the traditional PC or laptop anymore. People can connect anywhere, anytime, to anybody they like.
The challenge for marketers is to decide whether or not they want to associate their brand with the intrinsic qualitative content that springs up on these massive networks. Once that’s determined, they’ve got to figure out how to reach the new empowered consumer. It’s all gone downhill for marketers since the invention of the remote—and today’s consumer has about a hundred times more ways to block out advertising they don’t want to view or hear.
One tenuous new road a few big industry players are setting foot on is trusting the consumer to help build brand and lift sales through the spontaneous content consumers create in a “sponsored setting”. If the footing proves stable, it’s likely to become the next advertising superhighway.
Do the Rewards Outweigh the Risks?
The aim of every advertiser is to deliver the right message to the right viewer from the right content source. This can be a tricky game, but Unilever seemed to nail it when they decided to have Ms. Christine Dolce, a.k.a. ForBiddeN promote their Axe deodorant for men. In case you’re not already one of Ms. Dolce’s self-claimed 900,000 friends on MySpace, you can always visit the social networking site to introduce yourself and, uh, see a whole new branding experience.
No doubt Unilever would not want Ms. Dolce to be the face of their SlimFast target demographic. Although the example is obvious, not every audience will be so easy to read. If they can’t truly understand their customers, some marketers are opting not to run traditional banner ads next to content that they perceive as a potential threat to brand image.
Other advertisers are adapting by trying to ride the communications tide. Take Volvo, for example. In 2005 the car company sponsored a “Best of Spaces” editorial hub on MSN Spaces. Handing the reins to the public, it encouraged men to answer the question, “What would you do if you were the last guy on earth?” The question included a call for videos and a somewhat savvy offer from Volvo to “help” with editing. The goal? To create brand trust and engage with the highly sought after young male adult audience in a way that appealed to them.
Was Volvo successful? Pundits argue, but the fact remains that the brand received at least 100 million page impressions per month.
The Next Wave
Traditional media experiences are already beginning to blend together—and they will only continue to do so. Who hasn’t been sitting on the couch watching television with a laptop nearby when an actor pops onto the screen that we want to look up on the internet?
This blending combined with the massive globalization of content will likely mean that today’s barriers to distribution will be easier to cross—especially as the barriers between the different communications break down. Those marketers who remain flexible and adapt to both the changing consumer and evolving technologies will be able to deliver the right message to the right viewer at the right time.