Here in our world headquarters in downtown San Francisco, we are sometimes serenaded by the sounds of street singers outside. Now, this may seem like nice atmosphere to you, but this particular group has one rather drastic shortcoming: they know exactly one song. Mind you, the tourists think they are fabulous when they hear them once, but for all of us the song "Down by the Riverside" is enough to turn us homicidal.
And this started me thinking about messaging. Recently, with the emergence of multiple interactive channels, we have all been busy tuning our marketing for those channels. Are you doing social media on Facebook? Have you created your mobile application yet? Are you deploying advertising with augmented reality and QR codes? It's all we can do just to keep up with the explosion of opportunities.
However, as I think about our beloved singers outside, this thought occurred to me: are we just singing the same song in a different place? By just reconfiguring messaging and branding, are we creating an opportunity to bore the living daylights out of the audience? Will they be intrigued the first time they encounter a brand, only to watch that brand go stale with each encounter?
Put it this way. It's not longer enough to rebuild a web app for a mobile device. You have to consider the platform, the best way to deliver that experience, and most importantly why the audience is choosing to engage with your brand at that moment in time.
For example, say you are a fast food joint and have a viral application running wild across the web, being all successful and entertaining...Subservient Wombat or something along those lines. Now, it would seem the obvious next step to take that app and port it over to a mobile version. After all, more mobile devices than computers now access the web.
It seems logical, except for one little problem: your audience probably isn't using those devices for the same reason. They are at work, it's a break, they are having a fun time with your Subservient Badger...it's a good thing. They forward it to someone, you get a viral hit, they are more aware of your brand and/or product…also a good thing.
Now they are out and about with their mobile device. They get the same experience. It is not quite so new and fabulous now. Your brand is starting to feel a little repetitive to them. And the biggest crime you committed? They were all teed up for what was coming next, and you just hit them with the same thing again. Can "Down by the Riverside" be far behind?
This is the risk we face. More times than not, it winds up being a tease without a payoff, a setup without a punchline. So how to keep from committing this unpardonable sin? Here are three simple ways to make sure you are keeping things moving.
1. What do you want to happen? This seems obvious, but it is really not. The reason I keep making fun of the Subservient Chicken is that although it was a very successful piece of viral marketing, it didn't really move the needle for KFC. In fact, the post mortem on that campaign showed almost no impact on sales whatsoever. So when you start singing your song, ask yourself, to what end?
2. What do you want to happen next? So they liked your song after all. What's the next song? What's the next step? What's the next channel? In order to not be a one-note brand, you need to change the beat and always be ready with the next tune. And more importantly, make sure that the songs build on each other instead of drowning each other out.
3. Where do you want to have it happen next? So they played your video, they downloaded your a...now they are going to go to your site and do what exactly? See the video again? They already saw it! It's only a matter of time until they tire of the song and turn homicidal. Where are they going to end up? In your store? On your site? Requesting information? If you don't know what the final channel is, how can you dance them over to it?
The three traditional legs of marketing are messaging, positioning, and voice. Or, what do you want to say, to whom are you saying it, and how do you want to say it. And as we have become more integrated, more interactive, and more multi-channel, it's voice that has become the biggest problem. Not to beat on an old theme in this blog, but think of this as a relationship. You crack jokes on your first date...you don't on your wedding day. So next time you change your channel, ask yourself, have you changed your voice? Or are you just singing the same old song.
And this started me thinking about messaging. Recently, with the emergence of multiple interactive channels, we have all been busy tuning our marketing for those channels. Are you doing social media on Facebook? Have you created your mobile application yet? Are you deploying advertising with augmented reality and QR codes? It's all we can do just to keep up with the explosion of opportunities.
However, as I think about our beloved singers outside, this thought occurred to me: are we just singing the same song in a different place? By just reconfiguring messaging and branding, are we creating an opportunity to bore the living daylights out of the audience? Will they be intrigued the first time they encounter a brand, only to watch that brand go stale with each encounter?
Put it this way. It's not longer enough to rebuild a web app for a mobile device. You have to consider the platform, the best way to deliver that experience, and most importantly why the audience is choosing to engage with your brand at that moment in time.
For example, say you are a fast food joint and have a viral application running wild across the web, being all successful and entertaining...Subservient Wombat or something along those lines. Now, it would seem the obvious next step to take that app and port it over to a mobile version. After all, more mobile devices than computers now access the web.
It seems logical, except for one little problem: your audience probably isn't using those devices for the same reason. They are at work, it's a break, they are having a fun time with your Subservient Badger...it's a good thing. They forward it to someone, you get a viral hit, they are more aware of your brand and/or product…also a good thing.
Now they are out and about with their mobile device. They get the same experience. It is not quite so new and fabulous now. Your brand is starting to feel a little repetitive to them. And the biggest crime you committed? They were all teed up for what was coming next, and you just hit them with the same thing again. Can "Down by the Riverside" be far behind?
This is the risk we face. More times than not, it winds up being a tease without a payoff, a setup without a punchline. So how to keep from committing this unpardonable sin? Here are three simple ways to make sure you are keeping things moving.
1. What do you want to happen? This seems obvious, but it is really not. The reason I keep making fun of the Subservient Chicken is that although it was a very successful piece of viral marketing, it didn't really move the needle for KFC. In fact, the post mortem on that campaign showed almost no impact on sales whatsoever. So when you start singing your song, ask yourself, to what end?
2. What do you want to happen next? So they liked your song after all. What's the next song? What's the next step? What's the next channel? In order to not be a one-note brand, you need to change the beat and always be ready with the next tune. And more importantly, make sure that the songs build on each other instead of drowning each other out.
3. Where do you want to have it happen next? So they played your video, they downloaded your a...now they are going to go to your site and do what exactly? See the video again? They already saw it! It's only a matter of time until they tire of the song and turn homicidal. Where are they going to end up? In your store? On your site? Requesting information? If you don't know what the final channel is, how can you dance them over to it?
The three traditional legs of marketing are messaging, positioning, and voice. Or, what do you want to say, to whom are you saying it, and how do you want to say it. And as we have become more integrated, more interactive, and more multi-channel, it's voice that has become the biggest problem. Not to beat on an old theme in this blog, but think of this as a relationship. You crack jokes on your first date...you don't on your wedding day. So next time you change your channel, ask yourself, have you changed your voice? Or are you just singing the same old song.
