IAB Innovation Days Highlights the Importance of Consumer-generated Content in Advertising
As part of last week’s Internet Week in NYC, Extole participated in the IAB Innovation Days on May 16th and 17th at the Skylight Soho. The rise of consumer power and how it will change the way brands market dominated most of the conversations. Most notably, workshops from mediamind and Google+ engaged the audience by sharing examples of how consumers are bridging the gab between offline and online conversations, making social word of mouth more powerful than ever before.
In the first presentation of show, Global VP for Johnson and Johnson, Kimberly Kadlec, emphasized the change in consumer behavior and the need for brands to shift their thinking, stating, “We need to move from a reach and frequency model to a reach and relationship model.” Kadlec also addressed the “Like” and cautioned about whether it’s an effective measure of social initiatives. Kaldec said, “Brands on Facebook shouldn’t just measure by how many “Likes,” but by what they want to accomplish.” This “shift” in thinking highlights the need for brands to establish goals for social media initiatives and understand their consumers to create better strategies.
As we reflect on IAB Innovation Days, consumers and the content they create was top of mind. Here are some key takeaways:
- Marketers must “shift” their mindsets to keep up with the evolving social landscape, consumers are sharing online more and more
- Tapping into consumer sharing should be top of mind for marketers as part of their awareness and advertising initiatives
- Content is king – content created by consumers about a brand is far more powerful than the content created by the brand
- Consumer sharing + social media = word of mouth marketing at scale
Internet Week and IAB Innovation Days proved to be incredibly innovative, validating the Extole platform and our C2C approach to social media marketing. With brands becoming increasingly aware of the power of their consumers, it is imperative they launch C2C initiatives to help drive the reach, relationships and results they so desire. To learn more about Extole and successful C2C programs, check out our Customers page.
