telling brand stories through technology

1Gravity Thinking, 185 Park Street, London SE1 9DY. T 0207 654 7693 E [email protected] W gravitythinking.com

Telling brand stories using technology

September 2012

The world of technological advancement, especially in the sphere of the internet, is creating seismic shifts in the way we all conduct our lives. But the big question is how do we, as marketers, not only find but also embrace the right approaches? How can we ensure that we don’t end up investing time and money in the wrong media channels?

Technology the art of the possible

The word ‘technology’ stems from the Greek ‘technologia’, meaning the study of art, skill and craft. And in a sense, this is what technology is really all about. As the world’s greatest enabler, technology allows us to be more creative, more inventive and more adventurous.

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Or put another way, how do you

execute strategies to make the most of

these potentially exciting technologies

that are unfolding before our very eyes?

This article will take a look at sound

ways to navigate these fast flowing

waters of technology without taking

undue risks.

They say a week is a long time in politics,

but a minute is a very long time in

cyberspace. To prove the point, Intel

recently published these astonishing

findings:

In as little as one internet minute,

Amazon clocks up $83,000 in sales;

20 million photos are viewed and

uploaded on Flickr; over 204 million

emails are sent worldwide; no fewer

than 6 million pages are viewed on

Facebook; more than 61,000 hours

of music are played on Pandora; and

in excess of 1.3 million video clips

are watched on YouTube. And if that

doesn’t impress, consider this: an

astonishing 640,000 GB of global data

is transferred in this very same minute.

According to IBM, 90% of the world’s

data created since the beginning of

civilization has been created in the last

two years alone.

If history teaches us one thing it’s this:

the onward march of technology never

slows.

The world of business is changing at an astonishing rate. Insurgent companies are taking advantage of thousands of new innovations and millions of new consumers to generate billions in revenue within a matter of years.

David Cameron


Any brand worth its salt should certainly sit up and pay attention to the simple and effective approach set out in 2007 by Forrester. This effectively breaks down into four core elements comprising: • People • Objectives • Strategy • Technology

It’s a useful model for any brand to adhere to when developing technological based marketing initiatives. So let’s just take a

closer look at each of the four components.

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The late Steve Jobs understood this better than anyone when he

uttered those immortal words on the launch of the original iPad:

It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that makes our hearts sing.

People

People use technology in any number of ways that will obviously vary massively. But we can safely categorise their specific usages in the following ways:

• Informing - news, maps, providing information, teaching something new

• Facilitating - booking a restaurant, booking holidays, making a payment

• Providing utility - apps, dropbox, Cloud

• Entertaining - e book readers, ipods

• Enhancing - Facebook, Twitter

• Developing relationships - Facetime, Skype

Objectives

Once you have established the technological profile of your audience, the next step is to consider how to achieve the goals of your brand through the relevant use of technology.

These categorisations allow us to understand people’s digital

behaviour and see where technology can act as an enabler for

the brand. There are a number of free or virtually free resources

well worth taking a look at including www.comscore.com or

www.econsultancy.com

Forrester also offers an aggregated but useful view of different

behaviours in their technographics. (http://empowered.

forrester.com/tool_consumer.html) These categorise people

according to their online and social behaviour.“ ”

As an agency, our approach is based on ‘discipline in digital’.

In other words we place a great deal of emphasis on the

brand objective. Because there is a very real danger when

facing the multiple possibilities presented by digital technology

to lose sight of your original objectives.

So it’s really important to spend some time establishing

exactly what you want to achieve and the technology you

want to utilise to achieve it.

If you don’t have a goal, how can you know when you have arrived?

Old Indian proverb

•  People – consider your audience and their technology profile – for adoption, usage and type of interaction

•  Objectives – what are the goals? is the tech designed to listen to customers, talk to them, support them, collaborate or to energise towards advocacy

•  Strategy – How do you change your relationship with customers? What do you want to get out of these relationships? Which direction do you want to take and what is the underlying proposition?

•  Technology – what technology should you use? apps, social networks, blogs, influencer outreach……

A sensible approach•  People – consider your audience and their technology

profile – for adoption, usage and type of interaction




In short, we need to see technology not as an end in itself

but as the means to the end. As marketers when we harness

technology cleverly and creatively in a wholly relevant fashion,

we can achieve brilliant results. But conversely, when we

do so badly for all the wrong reasons, we can fail dismally.










Strategy

In the words of Lexicon: ‘A brand name is more than a word. It is the beginning of a conversation.’

If this is the case, how then do we effectively harness technology and enter into a rewarding dialogue with consumers? One that will ultimately result in a competitive advantage and long term brand loyalty.

Technology

Once you have established the digital behaviour of your audience, set your objectives and developed a strategy, your final consideration is the technology itself.

We firmly believe that you can achieve this by following a

strategy built on four key principles. Follow these and you will

succeed in bringing your brands to life through technology:

• The brand story: Everything hinges on the brand story

or idea behind your offering. At one time this was called

the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) invented by J Walter

Thompson. Technology is an invaluable tool that will

effectively disseminate your brand story. But without

one, the vehicles you have at your disposal to spread it

become pointless and redundant.

• Matching medium to message: Marshall McLuhan

famously said that “the medium is the message”. He was

right then and remains right today. If you want to bring your

brand to life and make it resonate with your audience, don’t

be somewhere for the sake of it, be somewhere that makes

sense and supports your brand story.

• Marry utility and delight: Don’t get hung up on conveying

‘delight’ at the expense of ‘utility’. After all, the best brand

stories are both emotional and behavioural. So by

communicating the emotional and rational benefits of your

brand you’ll be establishing that all-important value

exchange with your consumer..

• Evolve and learn: The beauty of the vast majority of

technology based solutions is that they are always alive

and evolving. So when launching a piece of communication,

don’t abandon it; re-visit it, enhance it and let it evolve.

You have a veritable armoury of options to select from.

Everything from mobile and video, to measurement and

analytics, to blogs and ecommerce – to name just a few.

As we have said, the technology landscape is a moving feast.

So while it would take a brave individual to predict the next

big thing, there are, in our view, five global consumer trends

happening right now:

• Mobile – Near Field Communications, QR, augmented reality

• Entertainment – Pictures, video, gaming, music, TV

• Social Networks – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

• Utility – Recommendation, life enhancers, influencers

• Measurement – Social media management software,

‘Big Data’

The following pages present a selection of some of the most

exciting examples that’ll hopefully inspire you to investigate

the opportunities awaiting your brands.


Mobile

Smartphone penetration in Europe now stands at over 44% with mobiles now being used for everything from browsing products (42%), reading online reviews (32%) or actually purchasing products (23%).* Mobile marketing is now too big for savvy businesses to ignore. *Source: Comscore. Figures compiled in the last 30 days.

QR codes – Mercedes Benz

QR codes are becoming more and more

prevalent. It’s hardly surprising – they

can enhance brand experiences in

different locations, deliver more

detailed information, and elicit purchase

and adoption. This said, they can

be a two-edged sword, as brand

experiences for consumers can often

be poor, resulting in no repeat usage.

Of the QR codes out there that have

been creatively employed, this one from

Mercedes is a particularly good example

(http://bit.ly/S7ppAa).

While car manufacturers like to keep

their upcoming car models under

wraps, Mercedes decided to use the

launch of a new car to drive consumer

hype before the new model was

launched. We think this does an

excellent job by creating intrigue and

encouraging action in an entertaining

and rewarding fashion.

Augmented Reality - GUINNESS

There are a number of other image

recognition tools out there. Aurasma,

for instance recently announced a

partnership with Heat magazine

http://bit.ly/aurasmaheat And

Blippar created a Xmas game for

Guinness entitled ‘Decorate Your Pint.’

http://bit.ly/blipparguinness

By downloading the Blippar, app users

were encouraged to take a picture of

their pint of Guinness and then add

Christmas decorations like a Santa

hat, baubles and even falling snow.

The image could then be shared with

friends and followers via email,

Facebook or Twitter, with the message

‘What I really want for Christmas.’

All of which is an engaging way to get

your audience to interact with your

brand while encouraging others to

do likewise.

In addition, there are a multitude of

other Mobile opportunities coming to

the fore – from a virtual Tesco store

created at Gatwick airport

http://bit.ly/tescogatwick allowing

travellers to scan images of up to

80 products and have them delivered

to their homes, to the adoption of

M-commerce solutions like Square and

Google Wallet and the exciting potential

of Near Field Communication (NFC).

Watch this space for future developments

in the mobile arena.


Entertainment

By entertaining customers, technology can pay dividends, particularly if the entertainment revolves around your brand.

Interactive Video - IKEA

By showcasing their kitchens from the

point of view of different characters,

Ikea was able to create a hugely

enjoyable interactive video

http://bit.ly/ikeainteractivevideo

Here the viewer can see the world from

numerous viewpoints including a dogs’.

And while enjoying the video you can

interact with any of the products by

clicking on them and bringing up

information. In just three months, 540,000

kitchen solutions were looked at.

Online timelines - Storify

Rated by Time Magazine as one of the

50 best websites of 2011, Storify

http://storify.com is a really interesting

example of a site that approaches story

telling differently. Users can search

multiple social networks from one

place, and then drag individual

elements into a collection of related

stories. Elements can be reordered and

text can be added to give context. Not

surprisingly, the media has latched

onto Storify to cover ongoing news

stories. CBC News for instance, used

Storify to cover the 2011 London riots,

and Al Jazeera has a show called ‘The

Stream’ that collects perspectives on

news stories using Storify.

The use of entertainment is a hotbed

for brands, whether it’s Ford’s use of

Hulu http://bit.ly/fordhulu for branded

entertainment, or tech companies such

as Shazam http://www.shazam.com

working with brands to help them

deliver valuable rewards and incentives

for consumers. As we recently

highlighted in our report from SXSW:

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With over 70% of today’s core TV audience going online whilst they are watching, and a large number using 3 screens, the blurring of the internet and real world is encroaching upon us all - making ‘Social viewing’ an increasingly important consideration for every advertiser.


Social networks

In the wake of Facebook’s recent multibillion dollar IPO, it’s safe to say that the interest in social networking isn’t going to wane. This month both Facebook and Twitter have announced the roll out of new services and guidelines to boost their appeal to advertisers, which could arguably come at the cost of alienating their users. So brands must consider carefully how they take advantage of these massive audiences.

Facebook Apps – Olmeca Tequilla

The rise in native apps is far outgrowing

web based interactions - and with the

launch of the social app store, this can

only increase.

Night Tag http://bit.ly/Olmeca is an

iPhone App designed for Olmeca tequila

that acts as a ‘digital wingman’ for party

boys and girls, guiding them through

the best music and nightlife their cities

have to offer by contextualising photos

taken on a night out with the location

where they were shot and the music

that was playing at the time.

These condensed stories can then be

shared within Facebook’s timeline

and include the integration of listings,

guides and a radio streaming service:

Selecta.

Interactive advertising – Heineken

Interactive advertising is a big

development at the moment. Great

examples include LG’s recent text

to billboard in Times Square

http://bit.ly/LGtimessq and a recent

British campaign to raise awareness of

the ways in which people can intervene

to help put a stop to domestic violence.

It utilises a series of interactive

billboards installed at Euston Station

http://bit.ly/eustonstation. We

particularly liked this example from

Heineken in Singapore in which a

festive landmark is powered by social

media. http://bit.ly/heinekenxmas

11metres high and featuring 48 LED

screens, the tree broadcasted Xmas

greetings exchanged on Facebook in

a public space. Via the Facebook app,

users could send their friends a festive

message by tagging them on a

customised virtual tree, and once sent

this would come to life as a digital

visual showcase on the actual tree. A

video recording of the broadcast would

subsequently be sent out to the sender

to share on Facebook. Brilliant.

Pinterest – Uniqlo

A picture, as they say, paints a thousand

words. In fact, it can go further and tell

a compelling story. It’s why Pinterest has

grown to become the 3rd most popular

social network site for hits and is now

rapidly catching up the number 2 –

Twitter. With over 20 million users,

what makes the Pinterest referrals so

interesting is the fact that they spend

70% more money than visitors from non

social channels and are 10% more likely

to shop than any other social network.

Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo was the

first to use Pinterest to promote a

brand and its products this way, through

their ‘Uniqlo Dry Mesh Project,’

http://bit.ly/uniqlopin The aim here

was to cut through ‘scrolling slumber’

with a simultaneous pinning event using

over 100 account that animated the

images in real time to catch users’

attention with giant blocks of images

that coalesce into a larger, branded

mosaic across multiple categories

including Men’s and Woman’s Apparel,

Geek, Fitness and Sports.

With new entrants like Instagram

growing at a breath-taking pace and

aggregation services like Twylah

http://www.twylah.com being borne

from Twitter, as well as the omnipresent

Google+ and the pretenders to the

throne like Tumblr – the potential for

technological innovation is boundless.


Utility

The majority of technological developments of the last decade have been driven primarily by the desire to make people’s lives easier. Some have also been devised to make a brand manager’s job easier. Two in particular are worth looking at:

Influence - Hunch

You will no doubt be familiar with tools

on the likes of ebay and Amazon that

state: “if you like that then you will also

like this.”Hunch http://hunch.com

takes this a whole step further by

taking users’ likes and interests to

make informed suggestions about

what a given user will like. As users

give Hunch more feedback, it becomes

smarter about those users’ preferences.

Besides being useful for consumers,

brands can use it too, especially as it

enables integration of Facebook and

Twitter groups. So you can get an idea

of what your followers and fans like via

a ‘Taste Graph’.

Online influence – Klout, Kred

We are increasingly relying on online

recommendations to make our choices.

And this, in turn, has led to the rise to

fame of the Influencer. This is not only

helpful for consumers but also presents

opportunities for brands to convey their

message vicariously. There are several

Influence measurement tools (including

Klout, PI, Kred, PROSKore, Identified

and Twitalyzer). All of which are

becoming increasingly sophisticated as

they respond to various challenges and

requirements. Essentially, there are two

invaluable benefits to be had here:

a) To reach influencers – find out who

they are and engage with them to

tell brand stories.

b) To identify influencers among

current consumers, followers and

likers. And to find out who to talk

to and what to talk about. In

essence, you’ll be discovering your

unpaid sales army.

Many brands are developing ideas

focused on making their customers’

lives easier. A good example of this

is provided here by British Gas

http://bit.ly/gasmeter

With their new app, it’s now possible

for customers to submit meter readings,

view their balance, keep an eye on

energy usage, book an engineer visit

and track the status of an appointment.

It even comes with a handy torch to

help them read the meter.


Measurement

Although not strictly a technological development, one area that has been enhanced by technology is measurement. From aggregation of current data feeds into accessible outputs to integration of the multitude of new measurement services, technology is helping make measurement easier, faster, richer and most importantly ‘real time’.

Dashboarding

What gets measured gets managed and

with the importance of social media to

a brand’s reputation and the associated

marketing spend, investing in

technology to enhance measurement

is a prerequisite for any brand. In most

organizations there aren’t standardized

ways to report social media, so reporting

often focuses on whichever metrics look

best in a particular campaign. Getting

metrics on one page not only makes it

easier to look at best practice and

campaign success, but also where to

invest. We have been working with

a partner agency based in the US to

develop dashboards that show changes

from one reporting period to the next.

The example here is based on native

Facebook insights showing aggregate

likes, comments, shares, views and

clicks. This can, however, be developed

with any inputs.


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Developing a roadmap

An understanding of the full potential of technology and its application is now essential for any marketer. This said, the constant evolution means it is an impossible task to keep up with every development. We have only shared a small selection of the exciting opportunities out there.

As we have already indicated, there

are basic principles that you can follow

to embrace these developments. By

doing so you will be able to turn them

to your advantage and achieve your

goals. The key here is to adopt a

systematic approach to planning the

use of technology. This means not

starting with the technology but rather

the digital behaviour of consumers

and considering how best to incorporate

it into campaign planning. Only then

can the right technology be assessed

and chosen.

Archibald Putt once said:

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.

You don’t have to be an expert but if

you can make sure you are not the

latter, the opportunities are boundless.

If you would like to discuss any of the elements in this article or how you can take advantage of the opportunities the advancement of technology presents for your company or brand then please contact;

Andrew Roberts Managing Partner E [email protected] T 020 7654 7693 M 07775 612 853

Alternatively if you would like to access more information, news and comment on social media you can;

Like facebook.com/gravitymarketing Follow twitter.com/gravitythinking Connect linkedin.com/in/andrewjroberts See gravitythinking.com

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