Did the birth of social media change everything?

Did the birth of social media change everything?
Posted by Brian Fetherstonhaugh on September 7th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Did the birth of social media come to change everything?

It wasn't just social media that entered the game. There is a new phenomenon in marketing, which is actually an old idea but with new tools. It's called word of mouth. It's faster and allows us to amplify the voice a million times more, instantly, and globally. People talk about user generated content, but what is that if not the old "I heard a joke yesterday."? We hear, we build history, we make it our own. It is the old world with a new interpretation. Social media is word of mouth on steroids: bigger, faster, global, instant, amplified. And it works whether you like or you don’t like a product or service. I may say I bought a car at the X stand, from the Y seller, and I didn’t like the purchase experience at all. Or I may say that I loved it, that I was very well handled when problems arose. In this world of social media with Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, LinkedIn… there are tons of influencers out there. Marketers shouldn’t try to control conversations. You can influence and participate in a healthy way, but a new form of leadership is necessary, a braver one, a more inventive one. It’s about seeing the whole picture and letting little things happen.

OgilvyOne is no longer just about knowing how to write good letters. What has changed?

One-to-one marketing, direct marketing and interactive marketing are no longer the bulk of the business. 75% of Ogilvy’s business is digital and the future is essentially digital. We have big digital businesses with search marketing, SEO, digital communications, site building, and mobile phone applications. The deepest change that has occurred isn’t technological. It is that the consumer has taken control, all over the planet. Marketing no longer has the power to control or decide, it has to be where the consumer is and find a way to relate to him or her. A recent example of how the type of work we’re doing has changed is for Nestlé infant nutrition in Paris. In the old days, marketing was about knowing when the child would be born and starting to communicate with mothers from the birth date. But today, research begins months before the due date and increasingly that research is occurring on digital platforms. One of the first decisions a mother makes is finding a name for the baby, so we developed the Devenir Maman iPhone application featuring a game that shows different combinations of names that can be shown to family and friends. 70% of mothers who had iPhones downloaded the application. Today’s marketing is about interaction between the consumer and the brand and enriching the brand experience.

What can we expect of the field in five years?

Five years is a long time. We see four vectors. One of them is the mobile phone. Imagine if you compare the importance the mobile phone had in our lives five years ago, and the importance it has now. In five years there will be richer experiences, reality will be magnified, local search, Facebook, Twitter on mobile phone, the use of cameras. The second vector is research. A few years ago, if you went to buy a camera, what would you do? You would look it up in the press and go to the Internet. Today, no one buys anything without doing research. That will continue to grow. The third biggest trend is social media. There are 500 million people on Facebook, 150 million of them through mobile devices. The amplification of the word of mouth phenomenon and of social connections is a reality for the next five years. It will be more mobile, more related to video. It will be more interesting territory. The fourth vector is the digital point of sale, which is somewhat similar to the “Minority Report” movie. Within our digital lab network, we are working on digital messages that target people when they enter stores, and tailor messages based on the sex of the customer, for example showing female beauty products or the new men’s line of Dove products. This is done through facial recognition software and a video camera. The environment in which we move will increasingly be more personalized. There will come a time that when someone enters a shop they’ll receive personalized messages.

Do you have a theory about the end of the 4 Ps?

I do. The 4 Ps were invented in 1967 and were great when marketers were in control. We managed the product, the place, the promotion and the price. Now, the Ps have to be replaced and reinterpreted. Firstly, don’t think of the product, but of the experience. People like the Apple iPod. The product is good, but the experience is invincible: well-designed interfaces, good software, online Apple stores. It’s a great experience for the consumer. Looking at place, it’s not just about having the product in the store, but about being where people want to be. In the past, if you were to buy a trip, you would look for ads in the newspaper. Now, the consumer might be with a friend, and spontaneously decide that they want to go to London for the weekend, and suddenly they are on their mobile phones doing research on Google, going to Trip Advisor, etc. We can’t control where the consumer is when they want to but things. We have to join him where he is and create relationships. The price of the product might be two dollars, but if the brand finds that the consumer is a good ambassador, the brand marketers might sell it for one dollar, or give it away for free. Or they might give him five units for him to publicize to his friends. It’s a subtler trade, not always involving money. Lastly, what used to be promotion, based on the frequency of communication, is in the new world is based on invitations. Inviting the consumer into a conversation and let him decide if he wants to participate or not. We have to invite consumers in, to involve them, and if it is a good experience, to sell them the product. Experience, Everywhere, Exchange and Evangelism are the Es that make successful marketers in the 21st century.