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Branding in the Age of Social Media Douglas Holt - Coggle Diagram
Branding in the Age of Social Media
Douglas Holt
Introduction
The writer feels like some of the optimism regarding modern marketing has been incorrect.
A central feature of many companies digital strategy is
branded content
.
"The thinking went like this: Social media would allow your company to leapfrog traditional media and forge relationships directly with customers. If you told them great stories and connected with them in real time, your brand would become a hub for a community of consumers."
The key to understanding why many branded-content strategies have fallen flat is to understand
crowdculture
.
Why branded content and
sponsorships used to work
Branded content is not a new idea, been visible in movies commercials etc for many years where branded characters have managed to infiltrate the culture.
These strategies worked because media was an oligarchy with limited competition.
As tech arose to skip out on ads, the companies thought that hollywood-level creative content was the key to gathering a community around their brand.
There is a very good "Idea in brief" section on page 2 explaining the entire article.
The rise of
crowdculture
Social media has changed everything
The internet has brought people who were
previously geographically separated together to
form two groups. Subcultures and art worlds
Subcultures. There is a subculture for everything. Previously stamp gatheres had to meet up, now it's much simpler.
Art worlds: To produce creative content, creators need to meet up and inspire each other. Previously this would happen in certain artistic citys etc, but now any creator can find a community online.
Beyond branded content
Essentially the writer describes the new online world where high quality content produced by companies gets crushed by unedited videos by solo creators.
One semi-corporate version of this are celebrities and athletes who often garner enourmous social media followings. But the corporations don't.
Cultural Branding
"While the rise of crowdculture diminishes the impact of branded content and sponsorships, it has greased the wheels for an alternative approach that I call
cultural branding
.
Interesting sidebar about how Jack Daniel's managed to be a marketing success by subverting what everyone else was doing in a somewhat authentic way.
Uses chipotle as an example
of success in 5 steps.
1: Map the cultural orthodoxy. To innovate in culture, one must first know what the existing culture is
2: Locate the cultural opportunity. An example would be whole-food markets capitalizing on movies like supersize me spreading fear about processed goods. Or Tesla with climate change.
3: Target the crowdculture. If you can get the crowd on your side (like wendys funny twitter), it will help greatly.
4: Diffuse the new ideology. Having videos go viral is very important
5: Innovate continually, using cultural flashpoints. Nike with the kneeling thing.
The main point is this: You have to step outside the current norm, standing out is what matters. Probably one of the reasons why we are seeing the return of "masculine" brands such as black rifle coffee.
Final page is a long list of good examples of cultural branding.