Ever since marketers spotted people talking about brands for free on the web there has been an unrelenting surge in brands trying to get their consumers to create online content on their behalf. On one hand the obsession is hardly surprising, it appears there’s a chance to get free content with no media spend that could potentially be more powerful than existing activity. On the other hand you would have thought that by now people would have worked out that there’s more to it than simply telling consumers to do what you want them to do. However, 8 years since the first MySpace profile and 6 years since the first YouTube video it appears some people still think they can get consumers to do anything.
Step up Pantene and Cat Deeley. Fast becoming the definitive example of how not to create a participation campaign. Getting women to upload themselves ‘swishing’ their hair was the plan. Ignoring the fact the audience might not want to swish their hair, or video them nevertheless doing so, or doing both then going to the trouble of uploading a video to YouTube for the world to see their love of the ‘swish’.
The verdict is still out on the success of the current Cadbury’s Spots vs Stripes campaign. Some reports suggest participation levels are poor, while others are suggesting it has been great for business. Whatever the outcome it’s hard to deny that some of the participation requests have been a serious ask of consumers. See below for Reggie Yates trying to get people to film themselves unravelling toilet roll all in the name of a earning points for a team that means nothing to them. That said, based on Olympic ticket sales I’m sure people will soon step up to do almost anything when 2012 tickets become part of the incentive.
So how can you avoid another poor participation attempt?
1. Check participation is relevant
Some brands are right, some are not. People want to get involved with brands such as Nike Football, they do not necessarily want to get involved in with a toilet paper brand.
2. Focus on something people already care about
Some brands assume they need to get people to do something entirely new and entirely on brand. The truth is you simply won’t be able to get people to do exactly what you want them to do, you need to give them tools to do something they already want to do. A good is example is the Walkers give us a flavour campaign. Walkers wanted people to make suggestions for a new flavour, and they knew they would because for many years prior to the campaign consumers had been sending in their ideas for flavours. Walkers simply provided the tools to fulfil a pre-existing desire.
3. Provide people with a genuine power to influence
People like having power, they like to think there actions have a genuine effect on others. It’s not easy to get people involved when they can’t see the outcome of their actions (think voting turnouts), but when they can see and feel the consequences of their actions the desire to get involved can be unstoppable. Often this doesn’t really help brands or causes, just think back to who people voted for the Next top model or when people tried to send Justin Beiber to North Korea. However, channel this passion correctly and participation levels will benefit. Smirnoff wanted to bring a Miami music event to the place in the UK that wanted it most. In the real world the big cities hold the power, but Smirnoff threw these elements of location and money out the window pledging to give the free event to the place that simply got the most votes on Facebook. People in the smaller towns were given power they didn’t have to get something they genuinely wanted and they seized this new found power. Thousands of votes later the party wasn’t won by one of the UKs largest cities but by the smaller but more empowered Swansea and Southampton.
4. Make basic participation as clear and simple as possible
If you want large number of people getting involved you need to have a simple mechanic. People might want power but they don’t want to work for it. Anything more than a few simple clicks is going to the limit of participation for the vast majority of your audience. This needn’t mean you can’t allow for participation from the more willing members of your audience, you just need to bear in mind if you’re lucky enough to find these people chances are they will be the minority. As a very general (and unscientific) rule of thumb is the 1-9-90 rule, stating that 1% of your audience will create, 9% will participate, and 90% will participate at the most basic level e.g. a ‘like’. If the majority are only going to provide a very basic level of engagement you better make the process as simple as possible for them.
These points are by no means a fail safe or exhaustive guide, there are many things to consider and every case is different. However, in every case it is key to determine if there is a genuine business benefit to be gained from driving participation, then if so at every step and every request you must be sure to ask yourself why. If you can’t think of a decent reason people should spend their limited free time interacting with your brand then you can be almost certain that they won’t.
