Wendy's Real Time Site

There are some interesting campaigns based around the voice of the consumer.  We first saw this with Skittles and now with Wendy’s.

The idea is to pull together user generated content that is popping up on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. onto the Wendy’s web site.  The display is a random cascade of user generated posts, pictures, and videos.  It seems to me that there is a potentially engaging concept here but I haven’t seen an execution that lives up to the concept.

It’s interesting to see how we could have gotten here by looking at the history of interactive marketing.  We first mimicked traditional mediums by broadcasting a unidirectional message.  Then over the last 3 years or so we all started to delve into multidirectional conversations with the consumer.  Now it appears the pendulum has swung all the way to unidirectional but the message is coming from the consumer.    I’m not sure that this is anything more than a gimmick but like I said, maybe there is something worth looking into.

Thoughts:

• The Wendy’s and Skittles execution lack a purpose.  I get it but why would I get engaged.  And what is the connection to the product?
• There is potential here.  Especially around the idea that you can reward your brand’s fan base by showcasing their posts.  Hence enticing them to post more.  But this can also quickly backfire as mischief makers start learn how to game the system.
• An execution of this nature needs a purpose.  It may work better if linked to a cause or movement.  Combining your brand with a cause ,such as Breast Cancer Awareness, than wrapping that into a platform for consumers to share with each other will build engagement much better than these stand alone concepts.

How do you think this concept can be executed in a meaningful integrated campaign?

ClickZ has some great background on a campaign Rubbermaid did through SocNet site BigTent (link to article).

The campaign focused on remodeling a Mommy Blogger’s kitchen using Rubbermaid products.  The big take away for me is the goal set for this campaign — the expectations were 250 coupon downloads and 500 links into the Mommy Blogger’s posts on Rubbermaid.  Those goals where exceeded by almost 1000 coupon downloads and 2500 backlinks.

I’ve dabbled in measuring SocNet campaigns by the number of coupons downloaded and still haven’t cracked it.  The numbers always seem too low to justify the campaign — but the numbers I’ve seen are in line with Rubbermaid’s campaign.  Which tells me my expectations are too high AND coupon downloads are not a great measure of the campaign’s success.

There has been a lot of discussion about measuring SocNet campaigns and just as we have seen with display ads I assume the debate will never be conclusively concluded.  Call me old school but I want definitive measures that show a connection to sales and justify the spend to management.  I doubt that 1000 coupon’s justified this campaign spend — so our quest for a meaningful measurement continues.

Thoughts on meaningful measures:

• Can we measure the amount of “brand buzz” over time.  So we benchmark the amount of SocNet chatter before, during, and after the campaign and set an index level of chatter we want to maintain.
• Can we drive consumers into the store from a SocNet campaign?  First, it’s a mistake to think of campaigns in terms of their tactics.  We don’t have “SocNet campaigns”.  We have Consumer Activation campaigns that use SocNet as one tactic.  To drive consumers we need to have surround sound campaigns that are amplified through SocNet.

According to the updated Natural Born Clickers research completed by Comscore and StarCom “The percentage of Internet users who click on display ads has dropped from 32 percent to 16 percent in just two years, with only 8 percent of people on the Web now accounting for 85 percent of all clicks”

The research attempts to position the Click Through Rate as an unreliable measure of the true value of display ads.  The logic goes that a display impression can move attitudes towards a brand and ultimately sales without the Click.

I’m still a skeptic.  Display ads are a form of direct marketing and are best used to move a consumers into action.  Whether that action is a sale, a lead, captured consumer data, or enagement the display ad is best optimized to deliver a click.  With less and less consumers clicking on ads we’ve got to get more and more creative if we are to move that consumer into action.