Culture Clash: Building a Bridge Between Brand and Engagement

The leading cause of death for good engagement marketing campaigns is outmoded ideas about control and the place a brand has in consumers’ lives. The best way to banish those campaign-killing concepts is by asking—and honestly answering—this simple question: “What’s in it for them?”

“Them” are the consumers, the people you hope to captivate. And unless your brand is truly an essential part of peoples’ lifestyles (think Apple Computers or Harley Davidson), consumers really aren’t interested in devoting chunks of their own time to talking about your products, playing a flash game centered on your brand, decorating their desktops with your logo, or participating in other brand-centered activities…unless you provide them with a compelling reason to do so.

And don’t think you can fool consumers with things like virtual community centers (that pretend to be meeting places but are really intended to get people talking about the glories of your product), blogs filled with nothing but company news, or widgets that enable people to interact only with your brand rather than with each other.

Consumers are extremely media-savvy today. They see through bogus marketing spiels in a second. But sometimes in our enthusiasm for a brand or a client, we lose sight of what exactly qualifies as a compelling reason for a consumer to interact with us. Worse, we occasionally also forget consumers are just as smart as marketers.

Deliver a Compelling Reason
What constitutes a compelling reason to participate in a brand’s marketing efforts? Getting consumers to engage is one of the places where old school marketing collides hard with the new reality. Old school believes marketing is all about the brand, so the brand must always be front and center. But any engagement campaign that’s centered only on discussing the brand will fail.

Likewise, any campaign that offers people a confined and controlled experience will fail. We have to run engagement-marketing ideas through our own BS filters. Is anyone really going to want this information, this offering, this activity? What’s in it for them?

Successful engagement marketing must provide something of real value—entertainment, education or an opportunity to connect with likeminded others. Effective engagement marketing is never myopically brand-centered. The most successful engagement campaigns happen when a company connects the lifestyles and/or values that define a brand with consumers.

For engagement marketing to work, you need to have a realistic view of how consumers perceive your brand—and a plan to create authentic experiences reflecting those perceptions. Some brands simply aren’t cool or high-end and shouldn’t try to present themselves as such. Old-school marketing thinks it can radically shape consumers perceptions. New-school knows that it’s better to go with the flow, build on legitimate perceptions and turn potential weaknesses into strengths that really differentiate the brand.

Consumers Steer Brand Experiences
Engagement marketing is a two-way conversation. You can’t just create an interesting campaign—you have to create opportunities for people to respond to your messaging. Old school adherents want to control the conversation. But you can’t have a conversation if one person sets the agenda and determines what everyone else should say. Consumers are no longer willing to listen to a brand that is talking at them. They want to participate in the process. If brands don’t open the door to these conversations, people will take their involvement and interest elsewhere. And there are plenty of other places for them to go.

Look closely at your engagement marketing plans. Are they too brand-centered? What real benefit are you offering consumers who participate? Have you built in opportunities for open an conversation and response? How would you respond to the same content if it was offered by another brand? Don’t let old school attitudes and brand ego run roughshod over the engaging campaigns you need to develop to connect with today’s consumers.

Arthur Ceria is founder and chief creative officer of CreativeFeed, a digital media marketing consultancy.