Category Archives: conversation

Consumer Power pushes agencies in new directions

The Media Strategy Conference in Toronto set out to “change minds and change models.” In my view, speakers most successful at pushing the mind were Rishad Tobaccowala in his key note on “Imagination, Reinvention and the Future of Media” and Marian Salzman’s “Brand Sluts”. Nancy Vonk presented on her agency’s remarkable work for Unilever’s Dove – Campaign for Real Beauty. A 4-year-old initiative, it seems this has become a calling for the brand. Cool.

Ad agencies are trying to structure themselves to respond to the irrevocable shifts in market dynamics where community and collaboration are far more important, than traditional agencies can possibly deliver.

The bottom line is value has to be real, and the only judge of value is the consumer. Not a segment, but a person. Hard to fool anyone these days, even though advertisers and their agencies create so much noise by bombarding us consumers with thousands of unwanted messages every day.

That’s why I now spend my time on developing precise customer insights that enable relevant, valued conversations. And I work on the mechanics – and thus the backbone technical requirements – so that these insights become actionable. In my view, these will be the strategic moves that matter.

Online Research Conference in Ottawa

On November 5, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association will hold its second Online Research Conference, called Net Gain 2.0. Like I do on the Ottawa Chapter board, I am volunteering on the conference organizing committee, responsible for marketing and communications.

I’m interested in this area because just like marketers and media/advertising agencies have to go where people are – rather than where they used to be – so do researchers. Accomplishing that in ways that are reliable and valid, and thus can yield solid insight to base business decisions on, is important.

As Canadians are living and interacting via the web, are letting go of landlines in favour of cell or PDAs and are increasingly viewing their opinions as something valuable, the research field is rapidly evolving. I’m looking forward to hearing from research practitioners who we are at the leading edge of this field.

Media Strategy Forum in Toronto

I’ll be at this conference on September 27 in Toronto. I went to the first one in 2005 and found that my observations on the advertising agency world I was living in were confirmed: agencies were struggling to be relevant in an environment where customers had become vastly empowered, largely through the web and online media. This year’s theme “Changing Minds. Changing Models” aims at the roots of a reinvention. Should be a fascinating day.

In my view, connecting with customers takes a different mind set today, and in future, than the one that was honed 30 or 40 years ago when brands were powerful and consumers followed.

With my own independent consultancy, I can step out and up in search of customer relevance and creative business solutions. These solutions aren’t going to be about marketing or advertising per se; those are tools that can serve a greater purpose, though. The business solutions that will matter are the ones that are about connection, about meaningful relationships and understanding what an organziation can do, uniquely, to build them with its customers. I think, authenticity, not spin, matters.

It’s My Cornwall contest way to win trust

Over the last few months I’ve worked with a team from Banfield-Seguin on the City of Cornwall Economic Development Department’s rebranding and business / resident attraction programs.

We gained a great deal of insight from the research process, where we talked to a lot of people in Cornwall about Cornwall, conducted a review of economic development success stories as well as a reputation assessment based on news media and web coverage. Based on the findings, we felt that the next strategic move would be to give the people in Cornwall even more of a voice in shaping the city’s new brand story. We thought the benefits of that approach would be considerable: we would shift perceptions about Cornwall, earn the residents’ trust in the work, make it real and foster buy in to the process and its outcomes.

In close collaboration with the team, we came up with the It’s My Cornwall contest. With great local media support, and direct, on-the-ground engagement, for instance through a day at the mall to solicit on-the-spot video and audio submissions, we got more than 130 entries in 19 days. Then we short-listed the 20 best entries, and promoted voting: 5,071 votes were cast.

The energy and enthusiam generated was palpable. We even got CTV Ottawa coverage for this initiative. All that bodes well for the next steps in rebranding and marketing Cornwall.