Phil Lynagh
“Earned media, paid media, Facebook ‘likes’, Twitter followers, YouTube hits. It’s all we seem to hear or talk about these days and although I definitely get the power of all the above, I rarely get to see the really interesting sales figures anymore. You remember those? The stats that tell if are we increasing sales of our clients’ brands, or are we increasing the opportunities for consumers to window-shop?
I personally believe we are focused far too heavily on the latter these days and we need to remember the fundamental reason why we exist and what this industry is all about. Selling. Everything else is secondary. Getting 1,600,000 people to like an online space can be a great tale, but it doesn’t automatically translate into more products jumping off the supermarket shelves. Desire makes that magic happen. The desire to purchase that comes from a desire to be associated with the brand promise.
Using new channels of communication which enable customers to experience the brand’s personality and promise is always a good thing, but we must always make sure there is a positive commercial result at the end. Desire is what it’s all about and extra SOM is normally what your clients will desire the most. The creation of desire is borne out of qualitative insights and targeting; it’s telling the right people the right story with the right relevancy for long enough. Then delivering on the brand promise and building affinity through relationships. This can’t happen through awareness alone. Forget ‘Like’, I have to Love.
Remember, without the desire to engage with the brand online, the content, no matter what it may be, will just sit there. A bit like all the websites that were hurriedly designed and posted years ago, now out of date, without relevance just floating in the digital ether. A device can sit on the desk with the world inside it, but unless we desire for more information, then that’s all it will do, just sit there. So, well-interrogated, integrated ideas that drive us to experience content are key.”