Co-opting co-creation and other tongue twisters

I recently stumbled across a great article by Griffin Farley at BBH Labs. He was reframing advertising as little more than co-presenting. He used Skins as an example and spoke of how brands were pulling their ads due to complaints about the show's content. They couldn't be seen as co-presenting this show.

Griffin identified an emerging opportunity for brands to be co-viewers together with their audiences.

He raised some great points. As brands shift to engaging in social media, one of the key opportunities is in identifying the role of the team responsible for engaging in these new channels.

Are they just there to publish content? 

Can they have opinions?

What if more social media teams took to participating together with us (everyday folks) in events?

Some of the greatest evangelists do just that, already. Scott Monty. Amber Cadabra.

And this got me thinking about co-creation.

All to often, co-creation is treated as a brand initiated event.

Doritos will give someone a big bag of crunchy money if we make a commercial for them. Pick the brand. They all want us to create something for them - be it a video, a photo or a social media mention to our friends.

Is there not an opportunity to co-participate (oy... there's a bad new word) with our fans in the things they love creating? 

What about embracing and supporting someone who loves your brand so much they create a commercial about it of their own volition?

And if this commercial pokes good natured fun of your brand, what then? 

In hindsight, Eric and I set out to test this theory this past Saturday.

We made a parody video of a brand we enjoy and respect - Marketing Profs.

What would you do if this video was about your brand?

Comments

[mack collier]

Sean this is a very interesting discussion for brands to consider. And it speaks to one of the real issues that brands face when they attempt to give evangelists ownership of their promotional efforts: They'll run with it. And they may run with it in ways and to areas that the company would wish they hadn't gone.

Of course, the alternative is to ignore customers which also leads to videos being made about the company, which probably aren't as nice ;)

Great discussion to consider, I may have to spin this into another blog post ;)

[Sean Howard]

Hey Mack,

Thanks for the comment!

Im actually torn on this issue. I think we need to be able to support this type of activity. But at the same time, would I recommend that a client promote a story that is potentially damaging or that attacks a competitor? Likely not. But I do feel that there needs to be a way for the brand evangelist to post a LOL or show they engaged with the ad. You are right. To ignore or put down is to bring on a slew of other versions. 

I look forward and highly encourage you to spin this into a story.  I actually see it as quite related to your latest story about evangelists vs. influencers. I look forward to reading what you create next!

[Mack Collier]

Good thoughts Sean, you have to take the good with the bad, right? I think the best way to make sure that customers don't say anything or create content that the brand might not approve of, is to have more interaction with them. So the brand can better communicate to their evangelists how they can best spread the word about them in a way that's consistent with the brand messsaging that they want to send.

And post will be up tomorrow, thanks again!

[Jesse Luna]

In the case of this video, I'd probably comment on it but not "promote" it,... at least not until I mentioned it in a presentation on handling PR.

From a customer service side, I'd want to know what aspects of the company you find to be a flaming piece of doo. If there were valid points there, then I'd address them. Disclosure: I'm working on a video for Marketing Profs right now.

[Sean Howard]

Grin.  Just to keep the Marketing Profs name in the clear, theres nothing we see to be poo related there. It was more of a play on good shit. And there was also an inside joke involved.

But good points. I concur with the commenting and likely not promoting unless you had a street brand that could get away with such.  Looking forward to seeing your video!

[Sean Howard]

Here is a link to Mack's great followup/response!

http://mackcollier.com/brand-evangelist-message/