John Lane Dialogkonferansen 2017 - Presentation With Speaker Notes

Content, Context & Connections
How To Succeed In Modern Marketing
Alan Stark | https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/squeaks2569
John Lane
Digital Marketing Leader
Building Agile Marketing Strategies, Teams & Content
@johnvlane

David Marvin | marvins-gardens.blogspot.com@johnvlane

Personas. Or Proﬁles. Or Cohorts. Or…
@johnvlane

Personas
Segmenting
Targeting
versus
versus
@johnvlane

If you try to write for everyone,
you’ll end up connecting with no one.
Lynn Doyle
Creative Writing Professor
Appalachian State University
~1994
“ “
@johnvlane

Creating Rapid Personas:
The Exercise4 Objects
@johnvlane

LIFE CONTEXT
COMMUNICATION PREFERENCESINTERESTS
INDUSTRY

INDUSTRY
INTERESTS
LIFE CONTEXT
COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES
Q/A
@johnvlane

INDUSTRY
INTERESTS
LIFE CONTEXT
COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES
Q/A
@johnvlane
Technology - Application Development
Specifically, people concerned with
developing applications to be used in API
environments – bringing together
functionality and data from various
platforms into conglomerate dashboards
or services.
Online forums and events…
…places in which they are learning from
their peers through Q and A, anecdotes
and collaborative working sessions.
Maybe:
Sites like “Code Simplicity”
Stack Overflow, Fark and Reddit
DockerCon, KubeCon and cloud events
Tech culture — gadgets and connected
items and evolution of tech. Think
Raspberry Pi. Think Lego.
Building their own tools — from
headphones to ping pong paddles.
LARPING. And AR experiences (like
Pokemon Go)
Completely variable.
These folks are going to range from
teenagers to 30-year tech veterans.
A want to be around people who push
you. Vacillate between wanting to be a
contributor and a leader in the space.
Influenced by science fiction thought.
Is there an overlap between “tinker” mentality and gamer culture?
Is our audience more interested in being around peers or
influencers or in a competitive environment?
They tend to want an active community because it saves time in
troubleshooting, but also want to build in green fields. Where’s the
balance?
They tend to appreciate a casual tone, but are quick to degrade
people for being flippant… what’s the right tone?
Do they desire work/life balance or are their jobs so closely aligned
to lifestyle that they don't mind the overlap? (This could inform
channels and content placement...is there anywhere off limits?)

Implicit Explicitversus
Data Data
@johnvlane

The best marketing
is also market research.
John Lane
The Guy Hopefully Not Wasting Your Time
~4:10 PM; August 28, 2017
@johnvlane
“ “

Interest GraphsFor Context-Driven Content
@johnvlane

What Value Do
You Provide
What Value Is Your
Audience Seeking
The Stuff You Should
Be Talking About
@johnvlane

A Love Of Travel
and Adventure
Required To
Travel
Required, But Still Love It
and Want To Do It “Right”
What are the best
things to do in “x”?
How can I do the best
possible“on the road” work?
Where should I think
about going next?
What’s happening right now
that I should be a part of?
How can I travel
more affordably?
History
Culture
Meetings
Efficiency
Productivity
Professionalism
Travel Tips
Deals
Events
Food
Music
Fictionalized
Travel Excitement
Care-Free Travel
@johnvlane

@johnvlane | @centerli@johnvlane

Taglines will box you in.
Storylines will set you free.
John Lane
The Guy Who’s Hopefully Not Wasting Your Time
~4:20 PM; August 28, 2017
@johnvlane
“
“

What’s Provided
(Marketing)
What’s Desired
(Market Research)
@johnvlane

The conventions of the audience
are more important
John Lane
The Last Quotable Line You Have To Hear From Me
~4:30 PM; August 28, 2017
than the conventions of the
“
“
brand.
@johnvlane

Thank You!
Let’s Keep The Conversation Going
twitter.com/johnvlane
linkedin.com/in/johnvlane
johnvlane.me

SPEAKERS NOTES BY SLIDE
Slide 1
Thanks for having me!
I’m John. I have the pleasure to work with some of
the world’s most influential brands — like IBM and
GE — as well as a lot of smaller, disruptor brands
looking to make a dent in the world. My speciality is
helping brands better understand their audiences
as individuals. I help them map marketing
strategies specific to those audiences, and create
content and experiences that will engage on a
personal level. I help them create deeper
engagement through marketing based on empathy.
Today, I’m going to go through a couple methods
you can immediately put to use to better
understand your audience. And I’m going to give
you some examples of incredible brand content
created through a focus on empathy and delivering
value. And, hopefully along the way, I’ll entertain
you a bit.
Slide 2
But first, I’m going to tell you a story about a dude
who’s affected your life completely, and yet you’ve
probably never heard of him. It’s the scientist /
astronomer / social engineer Adolph Quetelet.
Like many astronomers in the early 1800s, Adolph
was often gazing at stars and planets, trying to
understand their relationship to us and what that
means for our place in the universe. And due to the
orbits of the planets, he was one of the people to
originally put averages to good use. He could take
nine measurements of our distance to Saturn, for
instance, add them together and divide by nine
and he’d have a good estimation of the “normal”
distance from Earth to Saturn.
That’s a useful thing. And he started exploring other
potential uses of averages. He somehow came
across a data set of the hand measurements of
thousands of Scottish soldiers. So he took those,
divided by 10,000 or so, and found the average
hand size of those soldiers. At that point, he started
measuring people — thousands of them — to try to
better understand the average human. So for
instance, he got an average of how tall those
Scottish soldiers were. How much they weigh, on
average. The average length of arms… which, by
the way, on average equate to your height. If the
length of your arms — from tip to tip — are longer
or shorter than your height, then you have a
positive or negative “ape index.” That’s what they
call it. An ape index. Incidentally, I have a +4 ape
index. Meaning, if only in my arms, I’m not average
in the least.
Anyway. A politician by the name of Abraham
Lincoln — pretty sure you’ve heard of him — put
this idea of human averages to work in a seemingly
very reasonable way.
Slide 3
At the start of the American Civil War, the Union
was having trouble getting soldiers into the field.
And that was affecting their ability to fight an
effective war. So Abraham Lincoln — who
happened to be a student of Quetelet’s work —
commissioned a study to find out what was slowing
things down. And he found, among other things,
that it was taking too long to get soldiers equipped
with guns, supplies… and proper uniforms.
See, before the Civil War — around the world in the
mid-to-late 1800s — uniforms (like most clothes)
were tailored to fit each individual. But when you’re
having to outfit hundreds of thousands of soldiers
at the pace the Union found the need, then custom
tailoring didn’t really work. And the study
commissioned by Lincoln included measuring a lot
of dimensions of soldiers themselves – to help
make uniforms faster, by understanding the
average soldier… in sizes small, medium and
large.
Seeing the connection now? Yes, Abraham Lincoln
was a great man… but he was also somewhat
responsible for ill-fitting clothes.

Let’s fast forward to World War 2, as the military really
carried the “averages” idea forward.

World War 2 was the first war to be decided as much in
the air as on the ground. And at the beginning of the
war, the Allied forces seemed to be owning the skies.
But as the war wore on, things started to get more even.
And, in fact, there started to be a lot more accidents
happening with Allied pilots.

So, like people do, a study was commissioned with the
hypothesis that the planes were getting too powerful
and too fast for pilots to handle. But when a young
statistician from Harvard started interviewing pilots —
one after another — they all seemed very cognitively
aware and agile. What he noticed, however, that they all
looked very different. He was seeing tall and short
pilots… larger and smaller pilots. But he knew that
cockpits were static and made for the average-sized
pilot. They weren’t adjustable. They were made for the
average male (because we were thinking erroneously
about the potential for women to be incredible fighter
pilots).

So if you were, say, 5’ 7” to 5’ 10” cockpits were
situated to work pretty well for you. But if you were 6’ 4”
— or 5’ 4” — operating things in a cockpit could get
pretty tricky. They did. It caused poor performance. And
accidents. It resulted in a military disadvantage.

That statistician figured out that out of, say, 1,000 pilots,
less than 1% were actually equitable to average. So by
focusing on average as the ideal, they were actually
making cockpits that fit no one.

So they stopped making cockpits locked to the average
with innovations like adjustable seats and pedals. And
our pilots started finding their advantage again. Can you
imagine buying a car today without adjustable seats
and steering wheels?

In short:

- Somewhere along the line, the idea of “average”
become synonymous with the idea of “ideal.”

- There’s a huge fallacy in designing for the average.

Slide 5
Marketers have found a way to make use of averages,
too. In many ways. But, perhaps, the one that is our
“fighter jet lesson” moment is in the idea of personas.

The idea behind creating a persona is to help you think
from the perspective of your audience. They are
intended as an exercise to help you build empathy.

At least, that’s the original intent. And if they were
*used* in that way more often, they might do the job
they’re intended to do. But…

What they have become, more often than not, is our
projection of what we believe our audience to be rather
than a representation of what who are actual audience
is… or about what our actual audience needs. And they
have become ideals not to be touched.

And in part, the process agencies have sold to create
personas is to blame for this incorrect use. The process
usually looks something like this:

- Set aside a month or two or three to do audience
research.

- That might include surveys and interviews, or the
purchase of third party research to attempt to uncover
the inner desires of an audience.

- And then there’s the process of building
commonalities — averages — of those results.

- Then that average is given a name and a picture. A
quote about their inner desires is made up for them.

- Then the information is transferred to a well-formed
Powerpoint slide or published in a book that is handed
out.

* Sound familiar?
- “Our buyer is a 35-40 year old, middle-income male
serving as CTO of a growing software company” isn’t
representative of the entire audience…and potentially
not representative of any of the audience. It’s an
average.

Remember that the average only equates to 1% of
actual individuals.

Let’s level set on some understanding.

A persona should be something that helps you
understand your audience as humans.

Segmenting is understanding the demographics and
psychographics that allow you to segment — go figure
— your audience into POTENTIALLY common groups of
knowable factors.

Targeting is the process of deciding which segment
you want to ensure your hitting.

Segmenting and targeting are great tools to use when
placing ads. That’s what I mean by “knowable factors.”
Because Buzz Feed, for instance, can tell you that their
audience is primarily made up of 18-28 year olds,
tending toward females within that age range, and
approximate income… on AVERAGE. They may be even
able to tell you, loosely, what other site interests those
people have. For instance, Google Analytics will tell you
your site visitors are “shopaholics” or other categories.
But they can’t tell you what they are shopping for and
why.

So neither segmenting or targeting can really teach you
the type of stories you should be telling, or the language
to use that will resonate most, or the value to provide
that will incite action. And the modern idea of
“persona,” I’m afraid, has become synonymous with
segmenting.

Let’s take a look at what I mean.

Slide 7
When brands create ads or content based on averages
and segmentation, you get things like this.

Because, you know, millennials only speak in emojis
and memes. And obviously they all want to buy from
companies who feed their emoji and meme obsessions.

On the other hand, if you understand the individuals
within an audience, you start to see commonalities…
which are different than averages. You begin to
understand that, behind the “want” for an iPhone exists
a desire to capture moments… to express yourself
freely… to share your vision with the world… and enjoy
what others share.

Slide 8
When you create content based on understanding of
individuals — based on empathy — you might get
something like this.

——

[play Apple “Human Family” ad: https://youtu.be/
ztMfBZvZF_Y]

Slide 9
I’ve heard that if you put quotes from famous people in
your presentations, people will often share those…
because I’ve made it easy for them to express what
they are learning. What they are connecting with.

So here’s a quote from someone famous to me… one of
my creative writing professors in college who taught
me: If you try to write for everyone, you’ll end up
connecting with no one.

We need to create decidedly NON average content,
NOT created for the average persona. We need to think
on a highly personalized level. And what’s amazing
about doing that, is that the more “for the individual” we
get, the communication gets better for “all those
individuals.”

I want to challenge us to think differently about the
process of building personas. To get out of the mindset
that we need some perfect understanding of the
average before we start creating content and
experiences of value. And to, instead, get into the
mindset of focusing on the individuals within our
audience.

And we’ll do that through rapid and iterative persona
building.

So… how can we, as marketers, resolve the need for
both a documented understanding of our audience with
the understanding that most personas are more about
averages than individuals?

A start would be rethinking how we build our personas.
One exercise I’ve used to success is based on creating
personas on what you know… right now.

Real-world observation — which some folks might call
“stalking.” Even if that means making some
assumptions based on the most available information…
so long as that is truly information and not our
projections of information based on who we think our
audience is. Those informed assumptions, based on
real people, will become the fodder for content we can
create which, in turn, will help us turn assumptions into
knowledge… and, through action, turn knowledge into
wisdom.

Slide 11
Here’s an exercise called “4 objects” that can help you
do that.

On the current slide are four “found” objects from an
individual within an audience. I found them by looking at
the social media streams of a speciﬁc person who was
following a tech brand.

The exercise is simple: Figure out everything you can
about this person based on these objects. Make
assumptions. Use your imagination. But see how much
you can glean from these four things to paint a picture
of who this person really is.

It’s not trying to say “everyone is like this person.” And
it’s not looking to reduce these into demographics. It’s
purposely intended to ask “what does this mean?” and
“why does this matter to them?” And then document
those thoughts.

——

In a workshop setting, I’d have folks do some
observation (stalking) on their own and bring in some
items. Then we’d take a few minutes to work in groups
to start to decipher the items. But as we’re not really set
up for that in this room, I’m going to talk through some
of the things that you’d *probably* coming up with as
you go…and tell you a bit about the conversations this
exercise has sparked when we’ve done this with
marketers from all sorts of industries and company
sizes.

You’ll see we’ve labeled the objects. In this case, we
can be fairly certain our persona does something in the
tech industry – represented by microchips. What that
might be in the industry is up for discussion… and
could be expanded upon based on the other found
objects.

For life context, we’re seeing… well, we’re seeing a
family of Star Wars nerds. It’s okay… I’m one, too so I
can say that.

For interests, we’ve found a football.

For communication preferences, we’re seeing a load —
a ton — of conference badges. What does that say
about the persons role? How they like to communicate
about their needs? What does it say about what they
ﬁnd valuable? What do the additional banners on the
badges intone?

Let’s take a second whack at this audience by looking
at some additional items.

Same “industry” object… because if you’re looking at
your own audience for your own industry, that’s
probably going to be somewhat constant. But the other
objects… you’ll notice they’ve changed completely.

What can you make of these items: Frequent flyer or
reward cards, playbills and a smartphone loaded with all
the social media channels you can imaging.

When this exercise was originally done, we had some
interesting debate as to who this person is. Are they a
veteran of the technology business? A salesperson
who’s racked up tons of frequent flyer miles… is an
empty nester now taking the time and disposable
income to enjoy all the plays they can fit into their
weekends?

Or is this a brand new graduate? Are they required to
travel for their job, and are just taking advantage of the
points? Are they a digital native who doesn’t even worry
about toting around a laptop on all those trips? Are they
living in a shared apartment in Manhattan so they can
scrape together every cent to take advantage of the city
and culture before they have a family and hit the
suburbs?

Is it both?

Both could easily be stakeholders in the purchase
process of enterprise level software. But neither is
wholly defined by their industry, age or role.

Does that help illustrate the fallacy of averages? Of
demographics?

Slide 13
To do this yourself, you’ll need a worksheet to
document the thoughts. You can grab this worksheet in
the presentation which I know the conference is making
available. Or you can recreate the worksheet you see
here quickly…it’s just five boxes.

——

[Coming Back Again]

Hopefully you’ve had some time to scribble down some
thoughts on the worksheet about who this person is…
what kind of information matters to them… what type of
communication they prefer and what that means to you
(the brand).

And what additional questions do these objects — and
your read of them — spark? You’ll notice there’s a big
area for those questions on the work sheet. And we’ll
come back to what to do with that info in just a bit.

But, right off the bat, we know that if you could
compare your thoughts with someone else in this room
— even one of your colleagues in your own organization
— there’s a good chance you would be discerning some
different details of this specific person. And that’s a
good thing.

In other times we’ve done this workshop, there’s been
good debate about whether this person is older… an
empty nester with plenty of resources for travel, now
spending time doing what they love – like going to
broadway plays. Or if this person is younger… a single,
recent grad who lives in a small apartment in Manhattan
so they can be close to culture and have the disposable
income to spend on it.

Either might be right. Or both could be. It’s in that
debate that we’re starting to see our audience as
individuals rather than averages. And we’re finding the
nuggets of information that will lead to more engaging
content – on their terms!

As we test our assumptions through content, we’ll
answer our own questions… iterate on our
understanding… and create better content.

There’s more details to this exercise in the workbook.
But I think it’s something you’ll find useful to go through
with your own teams.

But let’s look at one that was filled out during the
original exercise.

There’s two things to point out:

1. Dichotomies are listed and that’s important.
Documenting that this particular individual loves
plays is great… but trying to figure out why might
lead you to some interesting questions.

2. The Q/A box is the biggest on the page. Because, as
you think about the objects, the individual, and what
it means for your brand and communicating with that
individual, you’re going to have more questions than
answers. And that’s great! Because questions lead to
much better content ideas than highly specific
answers do.

And that content based on questions… the response
you get from your audience is going to tell you tons
more about all the individuals in your audience. I like to
call that: Marketing as market research.

Slide 15
Up to this point, what we’ve been working with is
Implicit Data; implied information, rather than plainly
expressed. It’s been information that’s up to
interpretation… in the best way possible. Hopefully, it’s
given us a different perspective on what a useful
persona is meant to be. Hopefully, it’s illustrated the
fallacy of demographics. It should absolutely illustrate
the problem with “the average as ideal.”

Implicit data helps us satisfy the requirement of “rapid”
for “rapid, iterative personas” – a quick, working
knowledge of the individuals in our audience.

But for the iterative part, we need explicit data. That’s
information stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room
for confusion or doubt.

That’s the data that will help us hone our understanding
of our audience based on action rather than
assumption. And it can come in many forms.

Slide 16
Explicit data, on the other hand, is information our
audience willingly gives us that helps us build out the
picture of individuals we want to engage. There’s some
different tactics to accomplish this.

“My Starbucks Idea” is an online community in which
Starbucks biggest fans (and potential future fans) can
put forth their ideas of what they’d like to see Starbucks
do differently… or the same but more so… or suggest
new products they’d like to see. They can pretty much
voice their ideas about any portion of the brand
experience. Others in the community can like the ideas,
promote them, or express their opposing opinions.

That’s an example of “overt” market research. Many of
the ideas expressed and voted on and discussed
become content, experience and product.

But there’s also “covert” market research. And that’s a
lot more interesting and telling, on a deep, human level.

Slide 17
Everlane is a clothing company that’s created a loyal
following through, in part, the concept of radical
transparency. On their website, they create content
around the true cost of each piece – detailing the
material cost, the hardware, the labor, the taxes and
duties… even clearly showing their profit.

They publish documentary style posts about the
farmers, herders and factories they work with… both for
education, but also as a way to held accountable for
their actions as a company.

Those are really cool pieces of anchor content – pieces
that made that are evergreen… that took some
production time, and that they could launch in many
forms (video, text, graphic) on many channels (their site,
catalog, social media). They know, to an extent, that
these will engage their audience because they are in
tune with the big story their fans want to connect with.
A story about minimal design fashion, and minimal
impact to the earth. Fashion with both style and
conscious.

But they also exude the transparency story completely
through things like “Transparency Tuesday” on
Instagram in which, simply enough: You ask questions,
and we answer them.

But it’s so much more. With every question and answer,
there’s overt research happening. But then, among
followers and fans, come the conversations and posts
and even grumblings that allow for covert research.
Everlane sparks conversations that take on lives of their
own… deeply revealing conversations… feelings about
Everlane’s brand and products, but more so, about
people’s worldview and mindsets beyond brand or
product.

That’s powerful knowledge that Everlane is gaining.
Information that allows them to create valuable content
and experiences at a moment’s notice. And not just with
one individual, but many.

Slide 19
Everlane got called out on a social channel about the
cost of a cashmere sweater. Rupert suggested Everlane
wasn’t being on the up about the cost of cashmere. So
Everlane answered with ad hoc content — at pace — in
the same channel. They went deeper into the story
about the goats and their native habitat… the herders
who tend to the flock… the reason the cost of cashmere
varies in cost from year to year.

Valuable content, in context, to create a connection…
with not just Rupert. But with fans and onlookers as
well. Individualized content that connects with many.

And for those not on social? Look at what arrived in my
inbox on Monday! An email — without mention of
Rupert or the social call out at all. But the same story,
told in an interesting way, with an offer as well. Built on
the idea that — as mentioned in social — sometimes
the price goes down.

Slide 20
The best marketing is also market research. It’s content
that sparks activity from which you can learn even more
about the individuals in your audience. It’s experiences
that connect so deeply, people share it with their
audience with new spin… and, by observing and
understanding their sentiment and language, you
understand the deeper emotional seeds that are
commonalities in an audience.

Slide 21
Once we have a true understanding of our audience,
success in modern marketing is predicated on three
things:

- Our content

- The context in which it’s found

- The connections — engagement — it creates

I felt it was important spending the time talking about a
better version of personas — our understanding of
audience — because that understanding is central to all
three of those “c”s. The audience defines the content
we should create — and the channels (a fourth c) in
which we should be activating the content. We have to
understand the context of the channel and, more
important, the context of the audience — their mindset,
what they’re actually using the channel for, and many
other facets — to create content that cuts through the
clutter. We also have to understand the context of the
pace of communication. And if we do all those things
really well, we can make a strong connection with our
audience.

Alright, that was a ton of Cs. But it leads to this:

How can we use this audience understanding and
iterative thinking to make better content, found in
context, that feels like it was meant “for me.”

Here’s a method for mapping content, context and
connections that will allow you to create stories that are
“meant for me” no matter who you are. It’s plotting the
interest graphs of your audience.

Slide 23
This is the Yahoo! Mobile Interest Graph — a mapping
of the interrelated things people are searching for and
doing on their phones. This is what a lot of people
envision when they hear “interest graphs.”

Don’t freak out. This is not what you’ll need to be
creating. What I want you to think about building is just
a touch simpler. It’s this…

Slide 24
Here we are. It boils down to this:

There’s value your audience is seeking. There’s value
that you, as a brand, provide. And what is detailed in
the overlap is what you should spend your content
creation time on.

Slide 25
Let’s expand out the idea…

What would an interest graph look like for Marriott? And
what content would that lead them to create?

Notice what’s not here. Like the rapid persona exercise
from before, there’s no demographic information of age,
gender, title, etc. Just point of view (the big colored
ovals), questions people might have within those points
of view (the rectangles), and angles to cover within
those questions (the small ovals) with content and
experiences.

This is not comprehensive in the least.

Now… let’s take a look at how Marriott is using this type
of information to create amazing stories that appeal to
the individuals in their audience; and how they’re
creating different versions (different mediums) of the
same stories to appeal to different segments; and how
they’re using various channels to target those
segments, to ensure the stories are found.

Slide 26
Let’s start big — anchor content that is meant to focus
on the big orange oval representing “A Love of Travel
and Adventure.” Two Bellmen, French Kiss and
Business Unusual are three films produced by Marriott.
Because they are big pieces, intended to be “top of
funnel” interest and conversation starters, the idea of
films works wonderfully. They entertain, get shared, lead
to interest and engagement… favorability with a
SHARED VALUE between brand and audience.

Oh, but they can also drive to bookings. French Kiss
alone had been viewed more than 6M times and, along
with a booking promotion, has resulted in more than
$500,000 in directly attributed revenue within 6 months
of launch.

Slide 27
Kick ass, right? But what happens next? How do you
get more specific? How do you not spend hundreds of
thousands of dollars and still tell compelling stories that
build on the same motivations and facets of “a love of
travel and adventure”?

Marriott Traveler magazine answers the questions “what
are the best things to do in ‘x’,” “where should I think
about going next” and so on. It’s an online curation spot
in which travelers get to put in their two cents about the
best things to do, where. So it’s not just Marriott’s
curated list of hot spots and happenings… it’s your
traveling peers providing you with their
recommendations.

It’s a place to focus on current events that overlap with
“the love and adventure” mantra as well, while giving
specific travel actions to take. Like when a pair of the
ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz went missing. It
was a perfect time to write about the heist… and let
people know where they could see the pairs that were
still where they were still supposed to be… and to put
some stake in the game, by adding their own reward to
the chase for recovery.

[7,200 room bookings in the first 90 days.]

What about the green oval? The one representing those
that are required to travel? Or the blue oval — those
required to travel but still love it?

Meetings Imagined — brought to you by Marriott — is a
blog focused on inspiration and tools for making work
life on the road (and specifically meetings) more
professional and productive. It includes articles from
both brand journalist experts and influencers on
activities, room set-up, color theory, etc. Everything to
make your work life on the road better.

It’s a great example of “value forward” content
marketing, driven by deep understanding of individuals’
needs and desires. And it’s content that sparks reaction,
meaning they learn more about what resonates with
their audience and why continually… allowing for even
more specific content creation.

Slide 29
Let’s do one more while we’re rolling; this time on how
they can focus on interests, but also start to segment
and target without simply thinking about demographics.

On the right is Jack’s Gap — a video travel blog that
creates impeccably produced, first-person perspective
experiences of travel. It truly let’s you feel like you’re
walking the streets of some really exotic places. And it’s
closely followed by affluent traveling adventure seekers
as a place to understand how to “do travel well.”
Marriott partnered with Jack’s Gap to create some
stories around the idea of “24 hours in…” several
different cities to spark interest, knowledge and, of
course, bookings.

On the left… is SnapChat — a platform known for lots
of things, but “impeccably produced” isn’t one of them.
On that platform, Marriott partnered with some very
different influencers to explore travel and adventure
from the seat of your pants. Followers could literally
vote on where Marriott would send influencers like
Casey Niestat (you saw him in one example from
Samsung this morning – the film about “the creators”),
and then they could follow Casey on the journey and
even help him decide what to do, see, eat, etc.

It was interactive storytelling. About the same story, “the
love of travel and adventure,” but for a very different
mindset than Jack’s Gap. Two versions of one story,
driven by understanding of individual desires… the
same storyline told in very different ways.

Slide 30
Brands tend toward taglines. But people like storylines.

Taglines will box you in. Storylines will set you free.

Yes, I’m going to lay claim to this quote, too. Because I
did a Google search and didn’t find these exact words
in this exact order attributed to anyone else yet. And
everybody knows that Google is the keeper of all
knowledge.

But for the explanation of what I actual mean… If I’m
doing a decent job, I’m showing you that stories in
which people can imagine themselves is where content
becomes a connection. A tagline is something people
may identify with. But a storyline is something a brand
and an audience can share together.

And, as marketers, we should be prepared to take our
cues of interests, storylines, channels, style and pace of
communication from the individuals in our audience.

Slide 31
I want to close this afternoon by talking about
something called “desire paths.”

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, desire paths are
something born in the physical world… and the concept
is illustrated nicely in the image. As you can see, there’s
a nicely paved walkway through this park. And as you
can also see, there’s a well worn dusty path that takes a
different — potentially shorter — route through the park.

That dusty path is a desire path. It’s a path created by
people going where they want to go, not necessarily
where they are guided.

If we’re going to compare this business, the paved path
provided would be “marketing.” And the well-beaten
path created by people going where they want to go
would be “market research.”

As a brand, you try to gain empathy with your audience
so that you can provide them product and content that
they are craving.

And you do market research to try to understand what
products or offerings you should create or tweak based
on how people are using what you’ve provided.

And then, you put those offerings into market and
spend advertising and content dollars to make people
aware of the value you provide. And, in a perfect world,
the dollars come rolling in.

But… many brands miss the idea of using their
marketing as market research. And I think desire paths
are a good metaphor for an iterative idea of learning
from how people use content and experiences — the
guidance — we provide… or learn from how they
*don’t* use it.

Of note: Some collage campus planners are now
starting to end sidewalks “short” of their destination on
purpose, to see where people naturally create the end
of the path. After they see where people travel on their
own, they come back and pave that path. In other
words: Designers are giving people a start, and then co-
designing the end based on desire paths.

There’s a lesson here for marketers. A lesson of iterative
learning and creation.

Slide 33
Here’s an example.

The Ikea Home Tour Squad is real employees, working with
real Ikea fans on real make-overs. The Squad were folks who
applied for the program – and then not only worked with the
apartment renters or homeowners to transform a space…
they did the majority of the video production themselves as
well.

It’s what many Ikea lovers crave. The product is part… but
the ability to mix and match the furnishing kit of parts to
perfection is part as well. Ikea is letting their audience take
the brand where they want it to go.

Through this type of content, Ikea is going beyond the
provider of simple, useful (yet sometimes difficult to
assemble) home goods. They are becoming the provider of
guidance on how to live more efficiently… more simple-but-
positive. And, in the process, fans get to become a part of
what the company believes… what makes up the Brand’s
personality.

Oh… and Ikea gains a ton of people interested in promoting
the brand as well. The holy grail of earned media and micro-
influence. Not to mention all the incredible feedback they’re
receiving on the products, brand and personality. (Marketing
as market research. Consumers viewing videos on IKEA’s
YouTube channel are surveyed in real time.)

And this was one of IKEA’s highest performing marketing
programs for 2014, and it continues to perform well enough
to get funding for the past three years.

——

#ikeahometour on Instgram and Twitter

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/02/business/media/a-
home-fixup-campaign-for-the-web.html?mcubz=0

Ikea Hackers takes this idea — of audience leading the
way — a step further.

Ikeahackers.net is one of the biggest and earliest fan
sites of the idea of taking Ikea products and mixing and
matching them, sometimes altering them completely to
make brand new products. Whether it’s a bed made
from shelving or a Game Of Thrones fur cloak made
from a rug, fans are co-creating product and content
with the brand.

And, initially it was a highly non-sanctioned fan site.
Ikea Legal actually sent a cease and desist letter to the
founder of the site at one point. They demanded that
Jules (the founder of the site’s pseudonym based on the
Ikea Jules chair) give Ikea control of the domain and
stop publishing the how-tos. Of course fans of the site
were up in arms and complaining a ton (on social
media) about the move… when someone at Ikea
Marketing got wind of the kerfuffle and sorted things
out.

He called Jules and said: “He didn’t see the brand in the
letter.” “It wasn’t very Ikea… that it went against their
mantra of making life better for everyone.”

And the happy ending is that they invited Jules to come
to Ikea HQ, and keep the site, and millions of fans
rejoiced.

Now… Ikea doesn’t pay “Jules.” And they don’t
advertise on the site. But they also no longer try to fight
the well-done fan site. And, in that sense, they are doing
exactly as a brand should – letting fans lead the way
and learning from the discussions about product hacks.

And just imagine the market research this is providing
Ikea product designers and content creators!

Slide 35
It brings me to my final thought.

The conventions of the channel are more important than
the conventions of the brand.

Your brand is made awesome by the people in your
audience. Connections are made by truly understanding
the individuals in that audience… and by creating
storylines and content of value that they are craving.

If you try to reduce them to demographics for targeting
— rather than individuals to connect with through
empathy and value — then your content is bound to fall
flat.

Slide 36
Thank you!

John Lane Dialogkonferansen 2017 - Presentation With Speaker Notes

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Dernier

Dernier (20)

En vedette

En vedette (20)

John Lane Dialogkonferansen 2017 - Presentation With Speaker Notes