Customer curation: What brands and ad agencies do about it

by Simon on February 25, 2010 · View Comments

in Advertising, Brands, Consumers

“Radio equals listening to the playlists of unknown radio people. Newspapers equal reading the playlists of unknown newspaper people. I want to read and hear lists curated by people I know.”

I read these words a couple of weeks ago. They touched on an important trend that will change the advertising industry. Traditional silos (television, print and radio) have already started to dissolve as technology has rendered them meaningless. Consumers have already been re-cast as content creators, publishers and distributors. And now, those same consumers are more and more responsible for the curation of what gets shared and why.

This is the next level of sophistication in the power shift between brands and consumers. When consumers started using social media tools they gained, perhaps for the first time, equal weight in their conversation with brands. This is now reaching a new level as consumers become curators of what holds their attention.

The challenge for advertisers is how to create content that consumers want to engage with and share, whether its an ad, viral video or a 140 character message to a friend. What’s more, this consumer driven process is organic and fluid making it even more difficult for brands to exercise any control.

Inevitably brands will start to question whether they should look to advertising agencies as the most effective means to reach consumers in a meaningful, measurable and ultimately profitable way. This, in part, explains the rise of crowdsourcing by brands are that trying to minimize risk by testing their strategies and ideas on consumers before taking them to market (much like the Threadless t-shirt business model). As such the partnership between brands and ad agencies now has to be expanded to include consumers.

The hard-won expertise of advertising agencies is still critical. But they must rethink how this expertise applies within this new dynamic. They must accept that part of the responsibility for content curatorship has shifted to consumers and work with them rather than against them.

If agencies do this, they will remain relevant and necessary partners within this new collaborative dynamic. If they deny or resist this shift, they do so at their peril. It would be far wiser to see consumers as creative partners rather than a threat.

Do you agree that consumers are now curators and how do you think this affects advertising?

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Tagged as: Advertising, Brands, Consumers

  • heyrich
    I like the opening quote, but I'm not sure if it's true that “I want to read and hear lists curated by people I know.”

    What I really want is to read and hear lists curated by the people who really matter around the subject. My friends, likable and awesome though they may be, don't really know much about sand volleyball.

    Even if I don't know who he is, what I really REALLY want is to hear what Phil Dalhausser has to say. Why? Because the crowd around the topic has decided that through their actions (visits, retweets, links, whatever) that he's a great person to listen to.
  • Thanks and totally understand. You must have authority in a field if you hope to curate it and have anybody listen. totally fair call. I guess my larger point is that consumers are no longer content to be told what to do or buy by brands. Thanks again, simon.
  • Simon, I think what we're seeing and what you're mentioning in your post is the dissolving of barriers.

    First, barriers of equipment and distribution that kept consumers from being creators dissolved. Now, barriers that keep consumers from being curators for content that may or may not be branded have disappeared.

    Yet a common challenge remains -- how to match the right people to the right process in the right context to get the right outcomes. But now -- such a dizzying array of options exist!

    Ad agencies still manage strategy, direction and planning for brands and add a ton of value to the process. They also are consistent because they're paid as shephards of the brand.

    So how do they now work with empowered consumers (of all types of motivations, experience and skills) to craft the best outcomes for their clients?

    That's a big question whose answer I believe unlocks a new kind of 'people-powered advertising.'

    As an example, here's a video shot by a free diver of an octopus stealing his video camera, while it's recording. The diver chases the octopus, recovers his camera and the footage he obtains is incredible.

    He uploads the roughly edited footage to YouTube and receive 2.4+ million views. The camera is a new Panasonic model but where is Panasonic in the process?

    This is a huge opportunity they have (thus far) completely missed out on.

    (Here's the video to see for yourself: http://bit.ly/8YRFs5)

    There needs to be an interface point that solves the big problem -- bringing together the right people, the right process and the right outcomes to create the right outcomes.
  • James, thanks so much for the feedback and the amazing footage. Yes, that's a great example. It's a real opportunity for the brand to leverage such unique footage with huge popular appeal. Here's the issue it raises however. Why should that diver share that content with Panasonic? And I'm not talking about money. Given that the diver could post it for free and receive the direct acclaim for the experience (even if there is no money), why would he share the credit and benefit with Panasonic. They may give him some money. But before that even happens, in my opinion, Panasonic will have to have done something to engender enough goodwill for the diver to even want to do it? The currency that really is being exchanged here is goodwill. Has Panasonic earned enough public goodwill to compete with the social currency of simply posting the video himself and the diver getting the credit. this is where I believe there's a critical role for brands to contribute meaningful in a way that earns goodwill that can open the door to opportunities like this. So I don't think the challenge is technological but emotional - the direct connect or feeling between the brand and the consumer. That takes time to build but without it I can't imagine why an individual would want to help out a brand unless its just for money. Hope that's useful and thanks for the great feedback, Simon
  • Hey Simon,

    Good questions and reply. I'll try to share the specifics of octopus story then draw some more general lessons and approaches for bottom-up content discovery, curation and acquisition.

    Victor Huang, the video creator of the octopus video, shared the video publicly on YouTube. He's explicitly already shown he wants to have it discovered. Perhaps not necessarily for advertising. But he's shown he wants to share.

    From there I got in touch with him to inquire about the video, specifically for advertising. He told me that as soon as he watched the video he thought of how it could make a great ad.

    He told me he was interested in seeing what Panasonic could offer him. He had also received offers from news agencies to acquire rights to the video but he thought it fit best with Panasonic.

    He felt a lot of goodwill to Panasonic because they'd created the camera that had made the video and experience possible. The video was a testament to how awesome the camera worked and how much Victor wanted to get it back.

    For him, Panasonic had earned the goodwill by making a great product. The emotional connection existed.

    I don't mean to suggest that brands that create good experiences and goodwill from their customers don't also have to compensate those customers when they want to acquire their content for wider use.

    Rather, brands that create the goodwill will find opportunities emerging from legions of advocates. The legions want to participate on terms they share with the brands -- including credit, awareness and compensation.

    So how to brands foster those legions then listen, curate and connect? That's the problem we're working on.
  • Thanks and you make some great points. The real opportunity for brands is to inspire a legion of advocates among their community that want to participate like this diver did - whether they are paid or not. As you say, that is the trick and those that do it will benefit from enormous community power. Thanks again.
  • Simon, I think what we're seeing and what you're mentioning in your post is the dissolving of barriers.

    First, barriers of equipment and distribution that kept consumers from being creators dissolved. Now, barriers that keep consumers from being curators for content that may or may not be branded have disappeared.

    Yet a common challenge remains -- how to match the right people to the right process in the right context to get the right outcomes. But now -- such a dizzying array of options exist!

    Ad agencies still manage strategy, direction and planning for brands and add a ton of value to the process. They also are consistent because they're paid as shephards of the brand.

    So how do they now work with empowered consumers (of all types of motivations, experience and skills) to craft the best outcomes for their clients?

    That's a big question whose answer I believe unlocks a new kind of 'people-powered advertising.'

    As an example, here's a video shot by a free diver of an octopus stealing his video camera, while it's recording. The diver chases the octopus, recovers his camera and the footage he obtains is incredible.

    He uploads the roughly edited footage to YouTube and receive 2.4+ million views. The camera is a new Panasonic model but where is Panasonic in the process?

    This is a huge opportunity they have (thus far) completely missed out on.

    (Here's the video to see for yourself: http://bit.ly/8YRFs5)

    There needs to be an interface point that solves the big problem -- bringing together the right people, the right process and the right outcomes to create the right outcomes.
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