AdAge has an interesting report on how consumers are turning marketers' assets into media opportunities. It made me pause for a moment and think how will this affect the future of brand communications and relationship marketing that such companies currently practice.
I feel that brands and marketers need to practice 'embedded marketing' where consumers are 'embedded as media' in whatever form of communications that they do. They can't just communicate and inform as in the past. They need to collaborate and converse continously. Take a look at the article:
Believe it or not, those boring corporate websites are pulling in more eyeballs -- and more influencers -- than the flashy prime time TV shows, print magazines Believe it or not, those boring corporate websites are pulling in more eyeballs -- and more influencers -- than the flashy prime time TV shows, print magazines and general interest sites on which marketers advertise.
Larger audiences
While P&G sites captured only 3.3% of ComScore's U.S. web audience in October, that's more than double its industry-leading 1.3% share of U.S. ad spending last year and nine times its share of online ad spending, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The monthly web audiences for P&G and Unilever brands now easily swamp the audiences of many magazines and cable and syndicated TV shows where they advertise.
But more important than the volume may be who the visitors are.
Recent research by VNU's Nielsen BuzzMetrics using Nielsen's Homescan consumer panel showed 33% of creators of consumer-generated media (in the form of video or blogs) also provide e-mail feedback to companies or brands via their websites, and 13% participate in brand or company blogs. Their engagement with corporate and brand sites is well above the norm for the general population.
"Visitors to websites have a much higher propensity to recommend products," said Pete Blackshaw, chief marketing officer of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, whose research shows more than 40% of people who give a brand e-mail feedback are likely to recommend it to others.
thro' Steve Rubel