Establishing a new authenticity in brand communications

Antony Mayfield, Head of Content and Media, Spannerworks discusses a new authenticity in brand communications.

Social media is doing many wonderful things to help us communicate with one another and this in turn is changing the way information is provided, shared and received. The emergence of blogs, video and picture sharing, wikis and social networking sites such as MySpace is part of a shift from traditional channel media models (print and broadcast media) to networks.

This shift is significant, because it completely changes how brands should view their audience and also how they best communicate with it. We are entering an increased consumer control, and authenticity is becoming an imperative for brand communications.

The death of ‘interruptive’ advertising has been a topic of debate for some time now because it is harder and harder for advertising to penetrate growing consumer indifference. Yet as long as we remained reliant on channel models of communication, brands were still able to control how they communicated with their audience and this in turn gave them quite a large say in how they were ‘received’ by it. Today, brands can be completely wrong-footed by members of the public posting negative comments on products or experiences. Within days of its launch in September 2005, Apple was subject to strident online consumer criticism of its new iPod Nano’s susceptibly to scratches, and the genesis of this lay in the blogosphere. The association lingered, finally reaching the mainstream media two weeks later.

Today, if your product doesn’t live up to the hype then people let others know about it. And where once they might tell seven people face to face, now they are telling seven hundred or even more online. Online networks don’t pander to brands and in this new world hype is no substitute at all for something that people can trust and believe in.

And not only do consumers need to believe in products, they also need to believe in the way that businesses talk to them. People are rightfully wary of inauthentic online content which is why brands get into difficulties when they try to apply traditional marketing and communications methods to the social media world. It’s not the environment to push products at people, and marketing budget could be much better spent on actually being useful to your audience. Today, content is only attractive to people if it is helpful or interesting, not if it is a sell.

Just recently communications agency Edelman got itself in all kinds of trouble for establishing three covert blogs for its client, Walmart. Edelman took most of the flack having developed the strategy despite being a vocal proponent of social media ethics, but it also left the shopping giant itself completely exposed to criticism from anti-Walmart campaigners as well as attracting awkward media coverage.

However, a few examples of self-inflicted misadventure should not detract from the fact that social media presents a massive opportunity for brands. It encourages a culture of continuous improvement and gives them a means through which to speak to an audience directly and on equal terms. It provides an opportunity to stimulate conversation about good products that people love, and also a forum for businesses to respond properly to consumer concerns when products aren’t working out.

Spannerworks’ new Content and Media division has developed services that specifically help brands understand how social media works and how it relates to them. We then help build communications strategies and campaigns that help businesses to connect with these new environments. It’s our way of contributing to the new authenticity by creating a better understanding and dialogue between a business and its audience.