How communication technologies have changed consumer behaviour and the implications for Agencies and Brands

Jon Wade Head of Digital, APAC – Weber Shandwick

How communication technologies have changed consumer behaviour and the implications for Agencies and Brands

…OR how the Internet has

screwed with most things in the comms business

Jon Wade Head of Digital, APAC – Weber Shandwick

Why, why, why… 1) Why the Internet has changed the PR model 2) Why the Internet has changed the Marketing model 3) Why the Internet hasn’t diminished the role of offline

communications 4) Why the Internet means agency collaboration is more

important than ever 5) Why the Internet has provided brands a responsibility to

change too 6) Why can’t you remind me of what you’ve been talking

about for the past 45 minutes? (I will…)

   

Why the Internet has changed the PR model

What’s the Internet got to do with PR?

BRAND REPUTATION

Let’s start with Traditional PR…what’s that all about then? In 2 words…

The PR industry aims to increase brand reputation through interactions with influencers, promoting advocacy.

The advocates in turn propagate the brand’s messages to their audiences.

Influencers are people with an audience who can change their

audience’s opinion about something, either positively or negatively.

If they change their audience’s opinion of a

brand in a positive way – we call them advocates.

If they change their audience’s opinion of a

brand in a negative way – they’re detractors.

They work for the government. They work at a newspaper.

They work as physicians and advisers. They are celebrities.

But why do brands care about this stuff?

Reputation (NPS)

Long-term Profitability &

Growth

Q: “How likely are you to recommend this brand to your friends and family?”

Net Promoter – Bain & Co

NPS = % Advocates - % Detractors (0 – 10 scale; 0 – 6 Detractors; 7 – 8 Neutral; 9 – 10 Advocates

This relationship is why PR exists.

…And it’s why I have a job.

It’s why Weber Shandwick’s clients

have jobs.

And life before the Internet was good in PR…

We got to hang out with journalists and editors, government officials, physicians and the occasional celebrity…

…changing their opinions of brands and having them do the

same with their audiences.

Our traditional PR model looked like this…

Brand

Influencer Influencer

Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer

Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer

Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer

One - To - Few - To - Many

And then the damn Internet showed up …

The Internet gave an

audience to anyone who wanted it.

Blog Platforms Social Networking

Services Video Platforms Live Streaming

RSS Search Engines

Internet technologies provide would-be influencers a ready-made online audience

In our digital world we need to redefine our perception of Influencers.

They are still people who can change the opinions of their audience about something,

either positively or negatively and...

…they still work for the government. …they still work at a newspaper.

But they are also David Liu, Weber Shandwick’s China GM who has a blog with 16m page views per month…

They are the geeky guy from the IT department who knows a lot about SEO…

…in Japan, they are not even human! Gachipin, a children’s TV character is the

most followed “person” on Twitter.

…another example, Kevin “Too Fat” Smith, actor/director who enjoys giving

airlines bad publicity

And in some cases they are members of the public using brand’s trademarks in dubious ways…

Our influencers have changed, and instead of working with a handful of influencers the PR industry now has to

work with MILLIONS of them…

And now our model looks like this…

Brand

Influencer

Influencer Cons-Infl

Consumer

Influencer

Consumer

Cons-Infl

Cons-Infl Influencer

Consumer Consumer

Influencer Influencer

Influencer

Influencer Influencer Influencer

Cons-Inf

Consumer Consumer

Influencer

Influencer One - To - Many

The Internet has created a

scale issue in PR.

Our millions of influencers have created another

problem too.

MEDIA FRAGMENATION

What’s that?

There’s only 24 hours in a day.

We haven’t consumed [much]

more media since the Internet showed up.

But there’s [much] more media to consume

So now in PR we have to work with many more influencers…

…And, in general, they’re not as influential

as they once were…

…And they’re different to the types of influencers we’re used to dealing with.

In fact, PR post-Internet now has these models as well…

ATL Marketing

BTL Marketing

Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer Consumer

Brand

Brand

Consumer

SNS

Micro-blogging

To excel post-Internet PR agencies need to use techniques that traditionally have

been the expertise of marketing agencies.

Going direct to consumer…

Talking to millions…

Here’s an example from Weber Shandwick in Malaysia

Route Video on YouTube Facebook Hub

Twitter & FB Synched

Q&A, Runner of the Week, Training Clinics, Photos of runs

Blog Posts

Media Coverage

•  Over 1,000 entrants on first day of registration

•  Route video still being viewed and has over 12,000 views

•  Community was still active on Facebook long after campaign finished and now migrated to later Marathon communities

…Marketing Agencies now have to think and act like

PR Agencies.

However, if PR agencies need to think and act like Marketing agencies then it is also the case that…

Here’s an example of a Marketing Agency thinking like a PR agency in China…

B2C China Case Study Example

Source: http://www.campaignasia.com/Article/244429,johnnie-walker-launches-12-film-brand-campaign-featuring-chinese-pioneers.aspx

Johnnie Walker 'Yulu' or 'Words of a Journey’ Campaign Ogilvy Beijing & Y&R Shanghai  

Brand Line: “Keep Walking”

Idea: Tell the stories of 12 Chinese pioneers from different walks of life - real estate businessman, artist, fashion designer and blogger - against the backdrop of modern China

Tudou Channel

Launch Event

TV Spot

Sina Blog

Douban Page

Sina Weibo

HanHan - KOL

Why is this happening?

Why the Internet has changed the Marketing model

The Internet has allowed people to test the validity of a brand’s claims in marketing.

Within a couple of clicks of Baidu / Google you can find out whether this washing powder really does get your

whites whiter.

The Internet allows people to find out the “truth” before they buy the product…

…because a few vocal people (mavens) who have bought it

already will tell them whether it’s any good.

…read this book if you want to find out

more about this

And brands have been found wanting…

The Internet has taken the SPIN out of marketing

The Internet has caused people to be skeptical of marketing messages because they can find out the “truth” online…

And so people don’t trust Media & Advertising like they used to…

They’ve turned to recommendations from their friends and colleagues within their social graph

They’ve turned to recommendations from people they trust like their

families…

They’ve turned to strangers with a reputation for telling the

truth…credible brand advocates.

And as a result, the Internet has taken the marketing agency’s toys away.

Creating ADVOCACY amongst influencers is the single most important skill in marketing today…

So marketing agencies are getting into the PR

game – they’re developing advocacy models in their campaigns like the Johnnie

Walker example we saw earlier.

But if that is true then the Internet has broken the media

agency model too…

Why?

Because true consumer Advocacy cannot be bought…

…it has to be earned!

However, agencies working exclusively in the earned space don’t have it all their own way...  

Campaigns that rely solely on earned media often struggle to obtain the reach

required to really kick them off…  

If we want large volumes of consumers to engage and drive advocacy through WOM, they need to be made aware of the campaign in the first place.  

The Internet is littered with the remnants of social media campaigns that failed to achieve “critical mass”  

This I believe is the most common mistake we see in online advocacy

development campaigns today  

The reason: MEDIA FRAGMENATION & SCALE ISSUES (again)  

In fact, the most successful advocacy-based campaigns in the world today…

Have a look at this. …pay special attention to the paid media that made this campaign such a success.

…WOULD NOT HAVE WORKED…

…without leveraging earned and paid media.

This campaign has had so many attempted copies but none have really worked because the brands and agencies involved missed the fundamental spark of genius that kicked this campaign off…  

…the classified ad buys.  

So the Internet has made it imperative for paid and earned media to work together.  

But has it caused offline communications to become less

important?  

As a digital advocate, I would argue that offline is as important as it ever was.  

Why the Internet hasn’t diminished the importance of offline communications

Despite all this Internet-induced mayhem, the Internet

hasn’t diminished the importance of offline communication…

Why?

1) Most highly influential sources are influential in the real and virtual worlds – we need to be interacting with them in both to maximise advocacy.

2)  Online hype is increasingly covered offline and offline stories create most online conversations.

To illustrate the points: Most significant online influencers are influential offline too…

Pop Stars

Politicians

News Organisations

Actors / Actresses

Writers Business People

But there are not so many significant online-only influencers…

There are some – but I can only think of a handful

For some reason, Perez Hilton & Julian Assange always spring to

my mind!

Whilst a recent paper by HP’s research division

found that 70% of trending topic on Twitter originated

from traditional news sources

And talking of Whistle Blowers…#superinjunction is generating front-page offline headlines in the UK right now on the back of online revelations…

Online & Offline integration in campaigns is an imperative in

our digital world.

At Weber Shandwick we call that Inline

communications.

Why the Internet means agency collaboration is more important than ever

The Reality:

The Internet has blurred the traditional agency discipline lines…

PR Agencies have to act like Marketing Agencies

Marketing Agencies have to act like PR Agencies

Media Agencies can’t buy consumer advocacy but you struggle to launch a successful online advocacy development campaign without paid media

Digital Agencies need to offer offline capabilities and Offline Agencies need to bring digital

capabilities to the table

It’s a bit of a mess.

It’s really confusing for clients.

And it hurts margins because it’s inefficient to constantly re-invent yourself and win business against ever more numerous competitors.

…we have a programme of active collaboration amongst our sister agencies to find better ways

of working together to get the most successful campaigns away for our clients.

At Weber Shandwick…

But it is not just agencies that need to better integrate in the post-Internet world…

Why the Internet has provided brands a responsibility to change too

Example US Client

Marketing

Sales

PR

WS ATL Agency

Groupon

Boutique Boutique

•  Social Media Strategy & Campaign Management

•  Crisis and Issues Management

•  Online Community Management & Customer Service

•  Social Monitoring & Response

•  Social Platform & Video Production

•  Marketing communications strategy

•  ATL / BTL concepting •  Media buying •  Digital display production

•  Online sales promotion •  Tactical online campaigns

•  Despite great strides there is still little or no co-ordination between client departments

•  Agencies act as liaison points •  No editorial / governance board

established •  Tactical rather than strategic

approach to social

Southwest Airlines

Marketing

Customer Service Sales

Initially started with a 2 person team, growing to a 7 person emerging media teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr1Wi9YnYEk

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paula-berg/revolutionizing-corporate_b_603183.html

Interview with Christie McNeil – Spokesperson for Southwest Airllines (6:43)

Brand

PR Emerging

Media Team + Social Agency

Why can’t you remind me of what you’ve been talking about for the past 45 minutes?

PR Agencies have to act more like Marketing Agencies.

Marketing Agencies have to act more like PR Agencies.

Media Agencies can’t buy true consumer advocacy but you struggle to launch a successful online advocacy development campaign without paid media.

Digital Agencies need to offer offline capabilities and Traditional Offline Agencies need to bring digital

capabilities to the table.

Because of the Internet:

Collaboration between different agency disciplines is more vital than ever to truly deliver client value. Brands have a responsibility to change too, breaking

down long established silos to embrace communications post-Internet.

Thanks for listening. Jon Wade Head of Digital, APAC – Weber Shandwick +852 9789 8973 @digital_apac jwade@webershandwick.com