Trends and Truisms FINAL DAY (day ten): The Consumer Is Not King, but Co-Creation and Collaboration Makes Us All Kings
So here we are at the final day of this experiment. I have to say I have thoroughly enjoyed this and have gotten some great commentary. This project will most likely be documented in one of the industry trades and reprinted in PDF format for ease of consumption. All comments and blog posts referenced will be included. All of you that have not joined in, I welcome you to take a stab at this one. I am hoping to hear from Joseph Jaffe and Greg Verdino on this one in particular. I would also love for Jeremiah Owyang , Amanda Mooney, my friends at On Digital Media, For Immediate Release, Brad Berens and Scott Monty to join in on the one. In fact, I am hoping that everyone on my blogroll will contribute, as I want to make this document very useful for all of us.
I will probably format this whole project over the weekend, so there are still a few more days to join the conversation.
Most of us in marketing or sales have been plagued by the adage, “the consumer is king” for most of our lives. While the sentiment is a nice one (for consumers), and may be valid in certain instances, this way of thinking needs to be closely examined before it is blindly adopted.
If markets are in fact conversations, and effective conversations consist of two parties of near equal status, where is there room for a king?
As a consumer and a marketer, I never felt the need to be king. I have only felt the need to be heard and responded to in a way that signifies care.
My feeling is that once the empowered consumer gained the ability to create and distribute content to the masses, we all went UGC/CGC/CGM crazy. I am beginning to think the key word in the last sentence is “crazy”.
While I am a huge fan of independently produced content, I don’t feel that it represented the Holy Grail that some marketers made it out to be. I feel that marketer’s adoption of consumer produced content was largely based on fear; fear of the unknown and fear of becoming irrelevant.
It is my belief that 2008 will be a year when marketers regain some of their confidence. My hope is that marketers realize that effective marketing campaigns cannot be driven solely by consumers (at least not in all cases). My hope is that marketers begin to realize that collaboration will produce far greater results than any singular constituent could ever hope to produce.
People often ask me, “As a pragmatist and a realist, how do you so roundly justify your love of Second Life?”
The answer is simple; Second Life represented mass collaboration and community like I had never experienced before (at least in the world of media). Inhabitants of Second Life got together and made a world!
Sure, uninformed marketers entered Second Life, not understanding the culture and made asses of themselves (in certain instances), but I cannot completely blame them for that, as Second Life is pretty complex for some users. Still, the idea that people can collaborate and co-create on such a massive scale gave me hope that markers and consumers would one day be able to achieve the same type of thing.
I am hoping we will see more projects this years that exploit collective intelligence, collaboration and co-creation!
Tags: UGC, CGC, co-creation, collaboration, marketing, second life
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Tags: Brad Berens, Digital media, Holy Grail, Jeremiah Owyang, Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community Dialogue and Partnership, Second Life
Jan 15, 2008
What an appropriate way to kick off a thought-provoking and insightful series. Let us indeed hope that 2008 is the year that marketers regain their confidence as there has perhaps never been a better time to create, collaborate and market on a massive scale.
Jan 15, 2008
Thanks Jamie. Let’s make this happen!
(full disclosure, Jamie is one of the owners of Morpheus Media)
Jan 15, 2008
What’s going to be fascinating to watch will be the continued growth of social media — and whether or not marketers will be able to catch up.
Marketers’ failures in the world of social media are a direct manifestation of the “understanding chasm” that exists between consumers and marketers. This year, use of social media may very well trump use of traditional online media. What happens then?
2008 needs to be the year that marketers, social media, and consumers at least begin to get a long. No one has more to lose if they don’t then marketers. And no one will lose more than consumer if those marketers get it wrong — well maybe the heavily-funded social media properties…
Jan 15, 2008
Let’s hope that 2008 is a year that makes it easier for marketers to at least monitor the conversation. There’s a lot of human brain power (that potentially could be assisted by automation) going into finding the conversations and participating.
Even worse are the folks that aren’t even looking. Take the blockbuster and David Berkowitz dustup at http://www.marketersstudio.com/2008/01/facebook-still.html and http://www.marketersstudio.com/2008/01/facebook-advert.html and even the example at http://www.marketersstudio.com/2008/01/blockbuster-has.html
If you’re going to do social ads, get involved in social networks, then the least you can do is monitor to see what the response is!
So, my prediction (and I’m also doing a top 10, Adam, for a conference coming up, stay tuned) is that this is the year that Metrics and Monitoring become REALLY important. If only to help marketers stay in the conversation, king or not.
Jan 15, 2008
Ian
Great points!
I agree that there have been a great many social media failures over the last few years as many marketers have not yet “crossed the chasm”.
I do however have hope that this will be an important year in marketing, as awareness of social media has reach a point where marketers can run, but none can hide!
The one point where I have a slightly different opinion is where you say,
“This year, use of social media may very well trump use of traditional online media”
I am not quite sure how this can be quantified, but I am also not sure it needs to be. I think marketers need to take a holistic view of interactive marketing and market in whatever way is most effective for the given audience. Not all audiences response the same to social media.
Anyhow, thanks for joining this conversation and this project. As the guy who won more interactive awards in 2007 than anyone I know, your opinion is certainly appreciated!
Adam
Jan 15, 2008
Howard
As you know, I am intimately familiar with the Berkowitz/Facebook kerfuffle (sp.). I do think that automated tools can assist in alerting brands to important conversations. There are some tools out there, but I agree that this will be of growing importance.
I cannot wait to see your list. I would love to have it be part of this white paper if you have it done before I publish it!
Adam
Jan 15, 2008
Adam, what a great post. I agree collaboration is the key. I smile when marketers call to say, “Great news: we are moving some of our TV budgets to the Web – how many 10/20/or 30 second pre-rolls can we run on your videos?”
I think there will be a great opportunity in 2008 for independent content creators and marketers and web companies to get together and figure out how to set some standards that will work for everyone. I suspect that will not end up in the land of 30-second pre-rolls (which I think can backfire on brands), but a more integrated approach in which marketers cater their message to the exact audience it wants to reach and engage. In the end, everyone will win, and especially the marketers who can learn how to cut through the cynicism or ambivalence viewers have about standard TV ads or banner ads. Let’s make 2008 the year to engage viewers and to be creative.
Jan 15, 2008
I believe that in 2008 King Consumer will become even mightier because the concept of marketing has been altered by the Web. You are correct in the assumption that marketing is a conversation, but it today it is not a conversation between producer/vendor/creator and consumer that defines effective marketing, it is the conversation between consumers that counts. Chris Anderson explains this process well in his book The Long Tail, in what he refers to as the Recommendation Age — peer-to-peer conversations and recommendations.
In today’s marketing world, the consumer is king and Google is the queen — the one who produces results.
Jan 15, 2008
Dina
Thanks for stopping by! I full agree, pre rolls are just not cutting it, and there is increasing opportunity for indy content creators (especially with the writers strike).
Charlie
Do you suppose that only the conversation between consumers is of importance? Wouldn’t it be beneficial if brands were finally able to catch up and play an equal role in the conversation?
Jan 15, 2008
I am probably the only one that doesn’t work in the field here so apologies ahead of time if some of this is over my head. I guess not working in the field makes me an unbiased consumer and as such I have a couple of Qs for you guys and gals.
What does it mean to have a conversation with a brand and how many consumers really want to do it?
Can you give me a good example of a brand whose consumers have an unmet, pent up demand to converse with said brand?
Are there certain verticals that are naturally more conducive to conversation between the consumer and the brand?
What is the best example of a brand that is properly using the web to converse with its consumers?
I have more Qs but answers to above will be a great start.
Jan 15, 2008
Jeremy
I love your question so much that I am going to post it as it’s own post and attach a PDF of an essay I wrote and hopefully start another conversation, as this is something that I know many people out there have thoughts on…
Jan 15, 2008
[...] Contact The Ringleader (Adam Broitman) « Trends and Truisms FINAL DAY (day ten): The Consumer Is Not King, but Co-Creation and Collaboration Makes Us All Kings [...]
Jan 16, 2008
While, in theory, it’s easy to talk about this new collaborative model, it’s overwhelming in practice. BusinessWeek’s Michelle Conlin recently described the Millennial generation saying that we’ve had a, “schizophrenic coming of age.” I think the same can be said of our accelerated growth in the digital space. It reminds me of the EDS Herding Cats ad (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8).
However, you’ve hit the nail on the head Adam when you say that, in the new year, more marketers should “begin to realize that collaboration will produce far greater results than any singular constituent could ever hope to produce.”
We have a huge opportunity to create and learn from direct communication and feedback channels between companies and consumers. If you haven’t already checked it out, I think you’d enjoy reading Brand Hijack by Alex Wipperfurth. Wipperfurth says, “Scrap the focus groups, fire the cool chasers, and hire your audience…Facilitate your most influential and passionate consumers in translating your brand’s message to a wider audience.”
As this collaboration moves forward, I think what we’ll see develop out of all of this is that consumers will begin asking for a more formal stake in the end product. Consumers are handing over their ideas, feedback and content. There will be a stronger push to make the payoff for collaboration really meaningful to the consumers as well as the company.
Jan 16, 2008
You rule Amanda!
You are certainly correct that this is easier said than done, but that does not mean it cannot be done.
I love the quote and am adding the book you suggested to my wish list!
Jan 16, 2008
Definitely a great read. You’re welcome to borrow my copy. Remind me when we have our next, long-awaited meetup in NY:) Will be visiting at the end of the month. Let’s set something up.
Jan 17, 2008
Consumer Is King – I don’t think marketers ever believed this, except maybe in an emperor-has-no-clothes kind of way… In a general sense this is more of an ideal than an actual practice. I’d like to think we all still strive for this ideal in the sense that our products and services must earn the trust and loyalty of our customers at every touch point.
Content Is King – The social media revolution has definitely put real content creation in the hands of the consumers, which from a different angle can look a lot like competition to marketers (Long Tail). Consumers have X amount of time each day to watch YouTube. Given the choice, they’ll probably choose the video their friend made of themselves drinking beer, than the mashup they made of your movie trailer. Maybe the future is product placement deals with high school kids in Missouri.
Collaboration Is King – Now we’re on to something. But exactly what? The best consumer generated content is created organically, by brand loyalists, out of brand-love. We can try to spark it, but it won’t run as deep. We need to find it already growing and then nurture it and help it spread. Until then… who wants another Facebook app? Hurry up. They’re goin’ fast!
So which “C” will be King in 2008? Conversations? A Combination of all of the above? I’ll go along with Mr. Warner’s peer-to-peer approach and Ms. Mooney’s consumer-honed end product thesis. What’s clear (as Godin has pointed out) from both ideas is that new marketing needs to be baked into the product from conception. It can no longer be an afterthought. This also requires the long-term follow-through of customer service. In fact I’ll predict the “C” that will be King in 2009 is a new Customer Service aided by the internet in ways we’ve yet to imagine.
Jan 17, 2008
Kirk
First off, I think definitely think we should be sponsoring high school beer chugging competition in Missouri!
I agree that new marketing needs to be baked into the product, after all, great marketing of a turd does not change the fact that you are marketing a turd.
I do however think that conversation and collaboration are near cousins if not identical twins (in the sense that we are referring to them).
Take Dell’s Ideastorm. It is a wiki that allows for collaboration and conversation and all roads supposedly lead back to R&D (at this point I am not so sure that I believe this approach is working for Dell, as I am still hearing horror stories daily).
As for your comment on brand love, yes it is best to find it, foster and grow it, but I imagine there is much more brand love out there (that is not as big as the type of love we see for Apple) that has simply gone unnoticed. I think marketers need to do a better job of listening and they will be able to find more points where collaboration can become a viable solution.
Dec 04, 2008
[...] We have moved from an era of pure User generated content to one of co-creation and collaboration [...]
Dec 11, 2008
[...] UGC effort where consumer work will be paraded around as advertising. This effort is an exercise in collaboration and co-creation, done in a very strategic [...]
May 18, 2009
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.