With the beginning of a new year we see a plethora of reports released. Trends reports, guides to the future, the 10 biggest things to happen in 2012, communications in the year ahead and the list goes on. It seems every woman and her diamond (get it?) becomes a fortune teller and as the fear of missing out on these gems of psychic wonder grows, we all scramble to get our hands on as much occupational currency as possible.
Most of these trends are made up of 2 seemingly disparate nouns, mashed together to form one nonsensical, nonexistent word. “Masstigue”, “Statusphere”, “Maturialism”, “City-sumers”… you get the point.
My favourite game at this time of year is sitting in a meeting and watching keenly as each person in the room competes to be the first to mention one of these new trends. It doesn’t take long, usually within 10 minutes and when it’s said you can see a wave go across the room as everyone else covers their disappointment at not getting in first and pretends not to have read the exact same report as everyone else.
It seems this year; rather unsurprisingly there has been a lot of talk in these reports about consumer interaction. With the general consensus being that in order to have a successful advertising campaign in 2012, it must involve the consumer actually doing something with your brand (usually in the social space)… which is balls.
Many of the world’s strongest brands are innovators and inventors, creating the future and telling me as a consumer what I should like. They’re experts in their field and I respect and love their brand for that very reason and certainly don’t wish to be asked to give them advice on how to run their company. You don’t see Apple asking their customers what they think the next product innovation should be, do you.
Yes, sometimes consumer interaction is a great thing and can bring about a deeper connection between brand and consumer when used in the right context, as we’ve seen by campaigns such as SneakerPedia (by Footlocker) and “Do us a flavor” (by Walkers).
In both of these cases the consumers experience has been enriched, and not interrupted. There is a significant benefit that will come from their action, whether it be fame, knowledge or convenience.
Consumer interaction should always be based in benefit to the consumer, not the brand. People have very busy lives and interrupting them with constant request for interaction can be more detrimental than beneficial.
The buzz word of old was “consumer engagement” which has now inevitably evolved into “consumer interaction”. I never thought I’d say this but bring back consumer engagement! Engagement is about entertaining an audience, which can sometimes involve interaction but more often than not is just something interesting to look at.
1 way communication seems to be now looked down upon, when in reality it’s often the more appropriate choice.