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Recent Posts by David Wigder
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Marketing green can be a challenge for even the most seasoned professional. There are many reasons for this of course: consumer beliefs are still evolving; demand is not well established; and even where it is, purchase behavior tends to be inconsistent (e.g., the same consumer buys the hybrid and the SUV). For green marketers to be successful, they must effectively and efficiently target their audience when and where consumers are most receptive to green messaging. For marketers, this is no easy task. While green content sites or periodicals may seem like a natural fit, advertisers must remember that consumers come in all shades of green. As such, focused periodicals may only reach “deep greens” which today represent only a fraction of the total population
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While creating and sharing user-generated content is an effective way to facilitate consumer engagement and viral marketing, it is not the only approach that marketers can take. Professionally produced original content is another proven way. Increasingly, agencies or production studios create and seed content on behalf of their clients for consumers to view and share online. One such shop is Free Range Studios which has produced several original videos that have generated significant buzz and viral impact in the green space. Calling its approach “socially conscious viral entertainment”, Free Range tries to “distill a complicated message into a fun or moving short story” while engaging its viewers by allowing them “to write the end of that story by taking action or
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Tapping social media to engage consumers as well as facilitate viral marketing has the potential to generate significant results for marketers. Not only can this drive greater brand impact but it can significantly increase reach to a receptive audience at little, if any, incremental cost. Today, more and more marketers are trying to launch campaigns that have the twin goals of increasing consumer engagement and viral marketing impact. For many marketers, it often appears that achieving these goals is more a matter of art. Yet, platforms such as Brickfish are emerging that are rapidly turning such an approach into a science. Brickfish is an online marketing platform that rewards participants for engaging with brands. The idea is quite simple:
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Recently, the Canadian Standards Association updated its guide for making environmental claims. While not legally binding, such standards provide guidelines for industry and advertisers when it comes to making environmental claims. The intent is to protect consumers from false advertising claims regarding the environment. In many ways, this document foreshadows likely changes from a similar review of US guidelines underway by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Arguably, the current FTC guidelines are long overdue for a refresh given the dramatic evolution in the green space that has occurred since they were last reviewed a decade ago. As such, it is widely expected that the FTC will expand its jurisdiction to include terms that have only recently been added to the vernacular
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A recent survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit identified both the top influencers of – and benefits derived from - corporate environmental risk management (CERM) programs. Two things are curious about these survey results. First, customers and investors rank relatively low in influence (fourth and seventh, respectively) despite the fact that “better corporate reputation” among these groups ranks as the primary benefit for launching CERM in the first place.
Second, “regulators” and “government” exert significant influence – second only to “executive management” – on companies to initiate CERM programs; in terms of benefits, however, “improved relations with regulators” ranks only eighth.
Risk Manager Responses from Recent Survey by
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Tapping the Emerging Celebrity Power of Online Influentials
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Marketing Green contends that this celebrity status is likely to increase with time: as content continues to proliferate, consumers will look to those they know and trust to help them cut through the cutter.
Today, many online influentials are building a following of their own. Some sites understand this and are now actively recruiting participation by influentials on their site, and promoting this association directly to consumers.
As such, Marketing Green believes that marketers should continue to seek new ways to leverage the celebrity status of online activists in support of or as an extension of their marketing efforts. There are several ways that marketers can do so including:
Contribute content. Marketers can ask influentials to help create or edit content for a site or even for syndication. For example, The Element Agency frequently posts articles from guest writers in its blog, My Green Element. Another smart site is the recently launched Inside Sustainability which features audio reports with green personalities*.
Host chat sessions. Social news site Propeller (AOL) offers peer-to-peer chat functionality to facilitate discussions about its top ranked articles. While interesting, marketers may want to take this one step further: extend site functionality to enable chat sessions with users that are hosted by online celebrities (or "Contributors", "Scouts" or "Anchors" that submit content and/or moderate content on the Propeller site).
In many ways, hosted chat seems like a natural extension of Propeller's current strategy to promote content purveyors as quasi-celebrities. Today, this is done through the prominent placement of their photos or avatars online, as well as detailed profiles on the site.
Top Propeller Contributors on "Climate Change"
Facilitate a dialogue. Marketers can tap influentials to facilitate a dialogue with users. For example, ooVoo, a leading multi-person online video chat provider, launched a pilot this week in which 20+ influentials - "bloggers, podcasters and community leaders" - will converse with online audiences using its technology.
Today, marketers have the opportunity to leverage and cultivate the celebrity status of online influentials. Emerging online platforms - audio, video and chat - are increasingly being used by marketers to harness this celebrity power in order to create more compelling and engaging experiences for their consumers. Such opportunities have the potential to not only attract new audiences but deepen relationships with their existing consumers today.
* Disclosure: Marketing Green was recently interviewed for this site.
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