We are all told to use the Web to its full effect to make communications with customers meaningful and deeply participative. But do your customers really want to upload videos of themselves singing about your brand of dog food, or choose how the next supermarket ad will end from 14 options, or even fill in a three stage sign-up form?
In short, ‘Yes’, but only if you are Nike or Diesel or any of the tiny number of brands that people actively choose to be associated to. For all other brands the answer is even shorter. ‘No’.
So how do these brands appear engaging, but keep such a low level of participation that users don’t just bounce to the next page in their idle search for content?
Well Archilbald Ingall Stretton has done just that this week with its new Facebook Connect microsite for Skoda, a brand that historically has sent would-be consumers running for the hills. Its site integrates seamlessly with the advertising positioning for the new Fabia VRS, and gives viewers the chance to win either the Skoda full of lovely stuff, or the Skoda VRS made of meaner stuff.
How? Well that depends on how mean (or lovely) you’ve been on Facebook. The microsite scrapes your data based on how many likes or dislikes you have, how many friends you’ve got, and even how often you wish people a Happy Birthday. It then places you on sliding scale, and the people with the highest and lowest scores win the cars. And all with the click of one button.
Your friends can then affect your score by rating you within Facebook, thus spreading the love, the hate, and the campaign. It’s brilliant, but better than that, it’s simple.
Clients will see this, and no doubt demand you create one too. But what really makes this work is the massive TV spend that lets online users search out the new mean Skoda in the first place. That’s really using the Web to its full effect.
Richard Megson is creative partner at Ruby
