by Matt Churchill
The viewpoint of history is always that of the winners, the conquerors and those with the most money. It is very rare that the view point of the down trodden, the losers and the conquered is ever told. There are hundreds of examples of this, from schools only teaching the American and British views of both World Wars, to the Roman myths about marauding tribes in central Europe and 20th Century Russian dictatorial propaganda.
What have these got in common? The winners have set the agenda, push out their key messages and make sure that they heard as loud and clear as possible. There are many reasons, of course, for wanting to be in total control of what is being said about you and by whom, are there different ways to do this.
As marketing and PR professionals, we’re tasked with doing something similar, although not quite the degree of the examples already given (I’d hope!!). We act as un-public spokespeople for our clients.
Advertising has always been given the role of promoting a certain ideal, philosophy or attitude that is leveraged to tell the story of a brand, and put it in front of people’s eyeballs to encourage them to buy a product and boost profits.
But now, the sands have shifted and consumers no longer accept the push messaging, or even propaganda, of the past. We have entered a pivotal stage in customer/client relations that is finally about customer engagement and interactivity. There are now marketing campaigns that are asking consumers ‘can you help make us better?’, by asking them to make adverts in the case of Dorito’s, or choose the new flavor of crisps, as Walker’s are currently doing.
What this is doing is giving the consumer the option to be a part of the brand to make them feel part of a community, and we all like to be part of a community don’t we? By marketing like this, brands are giving the consumer tidbits of information or assets, and asking them to make their own message. This gives the advert/viral/new crisp flavour a certain credibility which other consumers can then relate to.
Don’t believe me? PR is now beating advertising in terms of personal interactivity because of this opening of the communication wires.
That is of course to be said with a caveat. Marketeers and PRs are giving material out that the clients want to be given out, and are of course, controlling the elements that will make up the final message. If you give consumers A B and C and to play with, A B and C will still come out in the final word, just in a different order.
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