Adapting brands to the

networked world

David Cushman

FasterFuture.blogspot.com

http://flickr.com/photos/saschaaa/

The internet is for people.

The internet is for people. For people to form groups

The internet is for people. For people to form groups

Groups with shared purposes

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The internet is for people. For people to form groups

Groups with shared purposesGroups of people that can form at little or no cost

That changes everything

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Three key disruptions

Who gets to create content?

Who gets to distribute content?

Who controls the user experience?

Three key disruptions

Who gets to create content?Any and everyoneWho gets to distribute content?Any and everyoneWho controls the user experience?The user is the destination now, they control their ownA-to-anywhere journey

You can’t target every community of purpose

They can

Here’s how

http://flickr.com/photos/caribb/

You can’t target every community of purpose.

They can

Here’s how

THE STAGE

Scale = audience = where the eyeballs have gone

Message broadcast at audience

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

THE STAGE

But in social networks the broadcast message doesn’t arrive

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

They aren’t looking at The Stage.

They are looking at each other

Scale = lots of communities of purpose = where the eyeballs are focused

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

•They share messages among their groups.•They adapt them to suit their groups. •They make the message theirs

We share what we think is cool with people who (we think) will think its cool, too

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

•The groups are not fixed (adhoc).•The message spreads when the groups reform around a new purpose

Users select what they think is cool (has utility) to take with them on their journey

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

Participants adapt the message

to suit the group they wish to share it with

The people best-placed to adapt the message are in the group, not on the stage

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

And so it continues; the message evolving to survive. Or it dies out.

We share what we think is cool. That which we co-create, we embrace

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

They aren’t your groups, they are theirs. They aren’t your messages, they are theirs

Marketing is not done to them, it is done by them

David Cushman FasterFuture.blogspot.com

Key lessons for brands 1

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Key lessons for brands 2

Respond

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Listen

• The conversations are happening with or without your permission.

• They are happening everywhere people talk

• You can listen: summize.com; brandtags.net

• Listen, enable, and serve.

Business case for listening

• 70% of purchase decisions are friend-recommended.

• How much of your current spend is focused on connecting to the conversations?

• How much value do you currently place on these conversations?

• If the answer isn’t 70%, why not?

2. Respond

• Marketing isn’t done to them, it is done by them

• Think less of where the eyeballs are and more about the mouths and ears

• Place value on real-time, human interaction.

Widgets work

• Where they let users adapt them to better suit those they would share them with

Eg Youtube’s many incarnations of the Cadbury’s gorilla ad.

• Where they lower the technical barriers

Eg Pampers easy-insert of your own kids’ pictures into a Christmas video message.

Widgets require

1. A willingness to relinquish control

2. Toolkits users can play with

3. Creative users

2&3 are in place.

Ready for No1?

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The networked journey

• Listening to and responding to the network requires and drives cultural change within the brand itself.

• It raises and answers questions about ownership and control to make your brand better adapted to the networked world.

• It is your safe passage to the future

Great examples

• Zappos http://twitter.zappos.com/ Understands customer service (human interaction) is everyone’s responsibility.

• Pampers http://tinyurl.com/29wwq8 Christmas video viral

• NiN http://remix.nin.com/ makes mash-ups of their music easy and shareable

• Simponizme http://simpsonizeme.com/• Itsmy.com’s http://itsmy.com user-chooses-ad, leveraging the

social graph

• Where are the Jones’s http://tinyurl.com/2dp675 Takes Ford to new places

Further reading and inspiration• David Armanohttp://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion• David Bausolahttp://zeroinfluence.wordpress.com/ • Stowe Boyd• http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/ • Mark Earls• http://herd.typepad.com• Joseph Jaffe• http://www.jaffejuice.com/ • Adriana Lukashttp://www.mediainfluencer.net/ • Alan Moore & Tomi Ahonenhttp://communities_dominate.blogs.com

• Neil Perkinhttp://neilperkin.typepad.com • JP Rangaswamihttp://confusedofcalcutta.com/ • David Reedhttp://www.reed.com/dpr/• Doc Searlshttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc • Clay Shirkyhttp://www.shirky.com /• Dan Thornton

http://thewayoftheweb.net/

• And everyone who contributes comments at Faster Future http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com