News from UCG Marketing

Engaging consumers in a dialogue and getting them to speak to your brand and to each other about your brand is a critical step when cutting through the cacophony of brand messaging. That said, relying on consumers to blog or Tweet your product to super stardom is not a strategy (hope is nice however it is not a strategy). Consumers need someone to start dancing before they hit the floor on behalf of your product. So, what do you do? You nudge them.

Impress or Relate?
Marketing leaders may leverage the initial consumer interaction generated by experiential marketers into brand relationships by engaging consumers in the creation of user generated content. To do so, you need to learn to measure relationships, not transactions. In the not-too-distant past experiential programs sought to tally up 1 to 30 second impressions, create a stack of media mentions and pound out samples and coupons in the hopes of generating trial and conversion interactions. You sought brand impressions.

Now consumers tap informal relationships when evaluating products and services. They rely on each other, not just you, for brand information. According to Nielson Online's "Millions of Consumers are Talking - Are You Listening," consumers trust messaging posted by other consumers substantially more than they trust information posted by marketers. With the consuming public's full embrace of user generated content and the content's accepted position as a foundation for a long term brand dialogue, experiential campaigns can represent the beginning of a long term consumer relationship. As a marketer you can initiate, nurture and manage this relationship. Are you prepared to do so?

Ready, Aim, Fire ... Advocate
Defining your campaigns in order to capture and leverage user generated content is not rocket science. It does, however, require a new mindset. Within a matter of years (or maybe months) the concept of collecting, presenting and managing user generated content in an effort to create a sustainable information-based relationship has supplanted the traditional concept of bombarding consumers with brand impressions. We now seek to create brand relationships not interactions. These relationships are based on a back and forth dialogue between you and your consumer, employing user generated content as a stepping stone. As a marketer, you have the ability to direct these relationships towards a compelling dialogue regarding your brand.

Creative Now Includes Relationships
Think about it. You have a chance to capture product feedback and insights, you can seed and grow brand advocates across the US and you are positioned to create a mutual, trust-based dialogue. As you work with your experiential marketing team, consider adding the following to your creative mix: define the type(s) of long term relationships you ideally seek to create with your consumer and ask what type of dialogue you would like to grow. What types of content support these goals? Once you know, craft your experiential campaign with the goal of jump starting these dialogues by collecting user generated content in the form of photos, videos, blog entries and product feedback.