Research paper - Brand engagement through participatory media

RMIT University School of Creative Media

Master of Arts (Virtual Communication)

Research Paper

Brand engagement through participatory media

by: Helen Mitchell

Commencement Date of Research Project: 26 July 2006

Submission Date of Research Project: 3 November 2006

Abstract:

Participatory media are primarily ‘many to many’ communications, through which people can contribute

to and receive information or entertainment over the web. They are characterised by the active

contribution of the people who use them, creating content, conversation and relationship.

This research paper examines the influence that participatory media such as blogs, online social networks

and virtual worlds can have on the effectiveness of an organisation’s branding strategies. It considers the

history and suitability of the web for participation and the relevance of participatory media for branding,

particularly in a highly competitive and media-fragmented environment. It explores the shifts in

consumer behaviour, technology and the growth of online communities that are driving the changes to a

‘participatory culture’. Of particular importance is the rise in availability of do-it-yourself media tools,

social software and internet connectivity, which give anyone the ability to create content and publish it

over the web.

Through literature review, examples and evaluation of current practices, the research explores the

advantages and risks that participatory media create for brand engagement. The risks present because of

the nature of participatory environment – the audience can have control over the content and distribution

of brand communication. An organisation can mitigate these risks through understanding the principles

and behaviours underpinning participatory media.

This research shows that through using participatory media, opportunities can be created to engage and

build relationships and a deeper connection with an organisation’s brand. The analysis culminates in a

set of starting points to guide an organisation in formulating participatory media strategies to develop

positive relationships with consumers, therefore contributing to engagement with the brand.

Knowledge Network Individual Project Research paper by Helen Mitchell

Master of Arts (Virtual Communication) November 2006 Page i

Table of Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1 Scope and outputs of the research...........................................................................................1 The web as an environment for participation .............................................................................3 The relevance of participatory media for branding......................................................................4

The rise of participatory media ............................................................................................... 5 What is happening: Disruptive innovations and technologies........................................................5 Why it is happening: Convergence of behavioural and technological effects ...................................5 How it is happening: Social software and the viral effect .............................................................8 Implications for branding: how do we engage the audience now? .................................................9

How organisations are using participatory media ................................................................. 11 Business blogs.................................................................................................................... 11

Company-created blog: Charlene Li’s blog for Forrester Research ............................................ 11 Individual-created blog: Dell Hell - Jeff Jarvis and BuzzMachine............................................... 12

Advertising and promotion through online social networks......................................................... 14 Music and entertainment: Weird Al Yankovic’s ‘White and Nerdy’ ............................................. 14 Consumer-created advertising: Chevy Tahoe and ‘The Apprentice’ ........................................... 16

Virtual world experiences: Examples from Second Life.............................................................. 19 Reuters news agency ........................................................................................................ 19 Starwood Aloft Hotel ......................................................................................................... 20

Starting points for creating a participation strategy ............................................................. 21 Research finding one: Capture the audience’s imagination with a good story................................ 21 Research finding two: Keep the audience at the centre of the strategy........................................ 23 Research finding three: Understand how to behave when involved in the conversation ...................... 25

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 26

References ............................................................................................................................ 28


Master of Arts (Virtual Communication) November 2006 Page ii

List of tables Figure 1: Example blog: ‘A Shel of my former self’ ....................................................................... 2 Figure 2: Examples of online social networks............................................................................... 2 Figure 3: Examples of virtual worlds........................................................................................... 3 Figure 4: Increase in home media ecology 1975 – 2006................................................................ 7 Figure 5: Charlene Li's blog - Forrester Research ....................................................................... 12 Figure 6: Jeff Jarvis's BuzzMachine blog.................................................................................... 13 Figure 7: Image from 'White and Nerdy' video ........................................................................... 14 Figure 8: Response to ‘White and Nerdy’ blog post ..................................................................... 15 Figure 9: Image of video with Schrödinger's wave equation and fans discussing the error ................ 15 Figure 10: Image of the competition entry page on the Chevy Apprentice website .......................... 16 Figure 11: Images from four consumer-created videos for the Chevy Tahoe campaign .................... 17 Figure 12: General Motors' FastLane blog.................................................................................. 18 Figure 13: Second Life homepage ............................................................................................ 19 Figure 14: Reuters news agency in SecondLife........................................................................... 19 Figure 15: Images from Virtual Aloft hotel design process ........................................................... 20

List of figures Figure 1: Example blog: ‘A Shel of my former self’ ....................................................................... 2 Figure 2: Examples of online social networks............................................................................... 2 Figure 3: Examples of virtual worlds........................................................................................... 3 Figure 4: Increase in home media ecology 1975 – 2006................................................................ 7 Figure 5: Charlene Li's blog - Forrester Research ....................................................................... 12 Figure 6: Jeff Jarvis's BuzzMachine blog.................................................................................... 13 Figure 7: Image from 'White and Nerdy' video ........................................................................... 14 Figure 8: Response to ‘White and Nerdy’ blog post ..................................................................... 15 Figure 9: Image of video with Schrödinger's wave equation and fans discussing the error ................ 15 Figure 10: Image of the competition entry page on the Chevy Apprentice website .......................... 16 Figure 11: Images from four consumer-created videos for the Chevy Tahoe campaign .................... 17 Figure 12: General Motors' FastLane blog.................................................................................. 18 Figure 13: Second Life homepage ............................................................................................ 19 Figure 14: Reuters news agency in SecondLife........................................................................... 19 Figure 15: Images from Virtual Aloft hotel design process ........................................................... 20


Master of Arts (Virtual Communication) November 2006 Page 1

Introduction

Scope and outputs of the research

The objective of this research is to provide a set of starting points to guide an organisation in using

participatory media to develop positive relationships with consumers, therefore contributing to

engagement with the brand. The research defines participatory media and explores their influence

among users of the web. It examines the impact they are having on the effectiveness of branding

strategies and the significance for business, particularly in relation to the new conditions under which

people are engaging with products, services and entertainment.

A brand has been described as a valuable strategic asset and a company’s primary source of

competitive advantage (Aaker 2002). More than a compilation of name, logo and tagline, the brand is a

symbol of the organisation and its products and services, which becomes “shorthand for the entirety of

a consumer’s knowledge of the company” (Knight 2002, p 3). Successful brands “consistently evoke

positive feelings over time” (Bedbury 2002, p 15) and great brands embody a narrative that places the

customer as the story’s main protagonist (ibid). Brands can have personality, identity and voice, and

impart both tangible and intangible benefits (Aaker op cit). They are important elements in the long-

term success of an organisation because they have the ability to form meaningful relationships with

customers. This research shows that through using participatory media, opportunities can be created to

engage and build these connections.

Examples from practice will explore the advantages and risks that participatory media can create for

organisations and how their use for brand engagement might be optimised. There are several forms of

participatory media; this research considers those that can actively be used to extend a brand’s reach,

where two-way communication is enabled and a personal connection established between the

consumer and the brand. Business blogs, online social networks and virtual worlds are the categories

examined, as examples from practice demonstrate their strong potential to build relationships. They

are described in Tables 1, 2 and 3.

Table 1: Overview of blogs

What blogs are

A simple website consisting of short articles or ‘posts’, appearing as a list, with the most recent post appearing at the top of the page.

A blog usually centres on a defined topic and can include individual diaries, political campaigns and various business uses.

The totality of blogs is called the blogosphere. On 2 November 2006, they numbered 58.7 million.

Blogs are easy to set up, and there are a number of free tools available over the web. These include WordPress, Blogger, Movable Type, LiveJournal and Xanga.

How blogs are used

Blogs are conversational and encourage feedback between writers and readers. Many blogs enable visitors to leave public comments, which can lead to a community of readers interacting with the blog.

Blogs can be authored by a single person or a group of people, and contain personal opinions as well as facts.

Some blogs are influential and are read by thousands of people, others are personal diary entries written for family and friends.

Categories for business use and brand engagement: executive blogs, company blogs, product blogs, customer service blogs, advocacy blogs, employee blogs.

References: Coggins 2006, Holtz & Demopoulos 2006, Technorati 2006, Wikipedia 2006: 1



Figure 1: Example blog: ‘A Shel of my former self’

Source: Holtz (2006: 1)

Table 2: Overview of online social networking

What online social networks are

Online social networks provide places for groups of people to interact with each other and form virtual communities.

Communities discuss interests such as music, friends, hobbies, movies and popular culture. Social networks can also form around business activities.

The content contained within online social networking sites is generated by its members and the site provides the framework and underlying technology to enable this to occur.

How online social networks are used

Members of the online social network share information and form connections, linking to each other’s profiles and discussions, enabling the network to spread.

Members use the tools provided to create personal profiles, lists of friends, discussions, share video, audio and photos, post comments, tag, rate and share favourites, chat with friends and send and receive email.

Examples YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Bebo, Friendster, Facebook, Linkedin

References: Wikipedia: 2, 3, 4

Figure 2: Examples of online social networks

Source: MySpace (2006); YouTube (2006: 1)



Table 3: Overview of virtual worlds

What virtual worlds are

A computer-simulated environment that has qualities of the real world, including gravity, topography, locomotion, real time action and communication. They are often known as massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG).

People are represented in the virtual world by avatars, which can be two or three dimensional graphic representations, of human or non-human appearance.

Characteristics of a virtual world are:

− Shared space: allows many users to participate at the same time

− Graphical user interface: depicts space visually, ranging in style from 2D ‘cartoon’ imagery to immersive 3D environments

− Immediacy and persistence: interaction takes place in real time, and the world's existence continues regardless of whether users are logged in or not

− Interactivity: allows users to alter, develop or submit customised content

− Community: allows and encourages the formation of in-world social groups, for example through events, teams, activities, etc

How virtual worlds are used

People can interact, play games, do business and communicate with each other.

Members are provided with tools to create objects to use in the world, e.g. users create avatars and can own and build on ‘virtual land’, which is in effect server space.

Many virtual worlds have a functioning economy, allowing the buying and selling of virtual goods. Some charge a fee to trade, while other levels of membership are free.

Examples Second Life, Entropia Universe, The Sims Online, Habbo Hotel, There, EverQuest, Ultima Online, Lineage, World of Warcraft

References: Virtual Worlds Review 2006, Wikipedia: 5, 6

Figure 3: Examples of virtual worlds

Source: Habbo Hotel (2006), Second Life (2006: 1)

The web as an environment for participation “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

A.J. Liebling (1960), The New Yorker

Participatory media are primarily ‘many to many’ communications, through which people can contribute

to and receive information or entertainment over the web. They are characterised by the active

contribution of the people who use them, creating content, conversation and relationship through

hyperlinking. It is the element of audience participation that extends the scale and influence of

participatory media, known as ‘the network effect’, where the service automatically and exponentially

grows and improves the more people use it (O’Reilly 2005). In participatory media, “the boundaries

between audiences and creators become blurred and often invisible” (The Economist 2006: 1).



Using the internet for participation is not a new phenomenon. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the

world wide web, envisioned it as a social creation and designed it to be collaborative, a place where “a

group of people of whatever size could easily express themselves, [and] quickly acquire and convey

knowledge” (Berners-Lee 1999, p 175). Although the web was embraced and grew quickly, it evolved

into a ‘read-only’ web, rather than Berners-Lee’s original design of the ‘read-write’ web. Web browsers

were intended to have both browsing and editing capabilities; however, early web developers designed

them without the editing function, much to Berners-Lee’s concern (ibid). It was only later that editing

capability was readily available, giving anyone with internet access the tools to be a web publisher.

The significance of the web for participation was foreshadowed by Levine, Locke, Searls and

Weinberger (2000) in The Cluetrain Manifesto, which asserts that the web returns the relationship

between business and consumers to a time when there was no distance between buyers and sellers –

where ‘markets are conversations’ (ibid, thesis no. 1). The authors detail the changing relationship

between business and individuals, signified in the natural language of the web: honest, pithy

discussions about issues, events, brands, organisations and products (ibid).

Participatory media have become influential as an effect of ‘Web 2.0’, the so-called second generation

of internet-based services and software that enable people to easily form networks, publish and share

information online (Wikipedia 2006: 7). The term Web 2.0 was devised in 2004 by O’Reilly Media to

label the applications that were emerging after the dot-com collapse (O’Reilly 2005). This term has

evolved to include participation in general (The Economist 2006: 2). Web 2.0 provides the “architecture

of participation”, enabling the harnessing of collective intelligence (O’Reilly 2005), where using the web

is no longer about “idly surfing and passively reading, listening or watching. It’s about doing: sharing,

socializing, collaborating, and, most of all, creating” (Yahoo!’s Eckart Walther in Hof 2005).

The relevance of participatory media for branding

The internet enables people to connect globally and instantaneously, and removes the barrier of

geography, a significant factor in the growth of human networks. It has brought almost instant and

unlimited access to information and options. Winsor (2004) identifies that people are exposed to over

3000 branded messages per day, and with this bombardment comes the need to filter out irrelevant

details. If the source of a brand’s influence is “a set of mental associations and relationships built up

over time among customers” (Kapferer 2004, p 16), then organisations clearly are challenged in

capturing the attention of their busy customers, clients and potential audiences. An important shift is in

the model of communication, away from the mass media form of ‘broadcast’ (one to many) towards

‘conversational’ (many to many) ( Bowman and Willis 2003, McCarthy, Miller and Skidmore 2004).

Businesses, cognisant of this shift in interest, are taking notice and investigating ways to stay with

their target markets and engage them with their brands.

Participatory media may play an even more crucial role for brand engagement in the future. While

research shows that younger audiences are the primary users of participatory media such as social

networking (Charron et al 2006), other studies show that the older generation are increasingly familiar

with the internet and use it for social as well as business purposes (Rainie 2006, comScore 2006). As

people increasingly filter their preferences for engaging with brands, those organisations that lack

awareness of the behaviours around participatory media may run the risk of losing their customers.

This may lead to loss of market share, decreasing revenues and increasing irrelevancy.



The rise of participatory media

What is happening: Disruptive innovations and technologies “We are experiencing a shift on worldwide scale from a vertical command-and-control value creation model

to an increasingly horizontal connect-and-collaborative model.”

Lucio Stanca (2006), OECD Conference for the Future Digital Economy

McKinsey and Company finds that technological connectivity is transforming the way that people live

and interact. More than the technology itself; it is the shift in behaviour enabled by technology that is

most transformational (Davis and Stephenson 2006), giving rise to the development of online

communities, allowing the growth of niche areas of interest and access to knowledge.

In early 2006, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) explored the

impacts that the rise of digital content has on business and consumers (OECD 2006: 1). A key point of

agreement from the conference was that “we are entering a participatory culture not of consumers but

users” (OECD 2006: 2, p 3), where the internet acts as a disruptive technology, both enabling and

destroying business models (Waverman 2006). Most notably, it emphasised that social, democratic and

cultural growth are at stake as well as economic growth. The speed of change in the sector is impacting

current and future business models where the boundaries between content production and content

consumption are unclear (ibid).

Disruptive technologies of the past include the steam engine, electricity, telephone, radio, television

and the personal computer. A major characteristic of disruptive technologies are the changes in

business models and innovations that emerge (Waverman 2006). While disruptive innovations have

“toppled established companies” (Winsor 2004, p 6), it is an organisation’s response to the changes

that is most critical. It is not enough to be aware of the technology, an organisation must also consider

how it might threaten the way it does business or change the way its customers behave. The biggest

risk is not the technology or global competition – it is complacency (Winsor 2006).

Why it is happening: Convergence of behavioural and technological effects “The days of crafting and delivering a top-down message are dwindling.

Several forces have converged to bring us to this precipice of change.”

Shel Holtz (2006: 2), ‘Communicating in the world of Web 2.0’

The past three years have seen an increasing uptake in people’s use of the web for communication and

collaboration, along with the development of web applications which facilitate participation (O’Reilly

2005). Social, environmental and technical effects are contributing to the rate of change. These include

the declining influence of mass media and traditional information sources, the increasing familiarity and

trust in the human networks that the web enables, and the growing access to internet broadband. A

summary of the converging shifts in behaviour and models of communication appear in Table 4.



Table 4: Shifts in behaviour and models of communication

From ‘one to many to ‘many to many’

Mass media and broadcast models are losing their hold as prime communication modes.

The broadcast notion of ‘filter then publish’; is being replaced by the model of online communities: ‘publish, then filter’.

The audience can decide when they consume content, what is relevant, and what is newsworthy through ‘on demand’ media.

(Barker, Shedd & Copper 2006, Bowman & Willis 2003, Charron et al 2006, Rainie 2006)

Declining consumer trust in business and traditional information sources

People are more independent, less brand-loyal and less trusting of traditional media and advertising.

Trust in the internet as an information source is growing, while it is declining for television.

Consumers are more likely to trust peers than institutions or experts. The Edelman Trust Barometer study found that in the United States trust in “a person like me” has grown from 20 per cent in 2003 to 68 per cent in 2006.

(Charron et al 2006, Edelman 2006)

Familiarity with the internet – for the young and older

Recent studies find that both younger and older generations are familiar with the internet as a communication tool.

As well as business use, there is increasing use of the internet for social purposes, such as family and entertainment.

This is even more significant among ‘Generation Y’ and ‘digital natives’ as they have grown up with it as normal communication activity and they ‘live online’.

(Charron et al 2006, comScore 2006, OECD 2006: 2, Rainie 2006)

Internet use and access to broadband

The growth of broadband and internet users means that more people are online. Broadband connections mean greater speed and interactivity is enabled over the internet.

The OECD reports that the number of broadband subscribers in OECD countries from June 2005 to June 2006 grew by 33 per cent, and of that two-thirds of all internet users have broadband.

(OECD 2006: 3, Waverman 2006)

Decreased barriers to entry of internet publishing

The rise in availability of do-it-yourself publishing tools, social software and internet connectivity mean that anyone has the ability to publish over the internet – text, audio, video and photographs.

These two way technologies have enabled people to become their own publishers and media producers.

(Charron et al 2006, Holtz 2006: 2, Rainie 2006)

These shifts are inhibiting the effectiveness of branding activities, driven in part by the complexity and

fragmentation of communication channels. This is weakening the brand strategies of companies,

making it difficult to respond across the range of products and services a company might offer (Court,

French & Knudsen 2006). There is also a lack of information about how new technologies and vehicles

might perform (ibid).

The scale of this media fragmentation can be seen in the measure that 25 years ago, five airings of a

television commercial would reach 80 per cent of the audience. In today’s environment, more than 300



airings would be needed to achieve a similar reach (Greenwood 2005). There are now many more

media and communication tools, such as computers, games, radio, television, DVDs, digital cameras

and mobile phones, which influence the way people choose to spend their time. As well as providing

entertainment and communications, these tools give people the means to create, publish and distribute

content (Rainie 2006). Figure 4 shows the increase in home media from 1975 compared to today.

Figure 4: Increase in home media ecology 1975 – 2006

Source: Rainie (2006)

As familiarity with the internet grows, people use it to conduct more of their daily activities. The ‘high-

speed, always on’ nature of broadband makes it easy to migrate many offline tasks to the web, for

social and business purposes. Significantly, 84 per cent of American internet users belong to an online

community (Rainie 2006), and Bowman and Willis (2003) find compelling social reasons motivating

people to participate in online communities:

To gain status or build reputation in a given community;

To create connection with other who have similar interests;

For sense-making and understanding;

To inform and be informed;

To entertain and be entertained; and

To create.

Online participatory experiences, such as collaboration, sharing of interests and immediacy of response,

can support the development of trust and credibility, therefore deepening the connection to the

community (ibid).

If each of the converging factors described above were in isolation, such a profound shift may not be

occurring. Forrester Research asserts that the combined changes will fundamentally transform the way

all businesses operate, generate products and relate to customers, creating “a social structure in which

technology puts power in communities, not institutions” (Charron et al 2006, p 2). In the participatory

culture, it is the audience that chooses how it will interact with the brand and who will achieve the

greatest coverage.



How it is happening: Social software and the viral effect “The only advertising that was truly effective was word of mouth, which is nothing more than conversation.

Now word of mouth has gone global.”

Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger (2000), The Cluetrain Manifesto, p 83

Social software underpins the functions of participatory media such as blogs, social networking and

virtual worlds. It supports group interaction and social patterns (Shirky 2003), allowing people to

interact by establishing and maintaining a connection that enables relationships and online

communities to form. (Wikipedia 2006: 8). Social software supports the spread of human networks

through ‘online word of mouth’ or ‘viral’ behaviour. Macklin (2006) defines the viral effect as using “a

pre-existing social network to produce exponential brand awareness through a viral process similar to

an epidemic”. Social software enables people to easily create and distribute their own and others’

content, making it as effortless to send something to large groups of people as it is to send to an

individual.

The enormous growth that social software enables can be seen in the popularity of participatory media

such as those outlined in Table 5.

Table 5: Reach of participatory media

Blogs Number over 58.7 million, with about 175,000 new blogs created each day. Blogs are updated at a rate of about 1.6 million posts daily or about 18 blog updates per second

(Technorati 2006)

YouTube (social networking / video sharing, launched 2005)

Reportedly serves 100 million videos per day with more than 65,000 videos uploaded per day and nearly 30 million unique users.

(Nielsen//Netratings 2006, YouTube 2006: 2)

Flickr (photo sharing, launched 2004)

Is reported as having 6.3 million unique visitors in July 2006, a 12 month growth of 201 per cent

(Nielsen//Netratings 2006)

MySpace (social networking, launched 2003)

Is reported as having 106 million registered users (Sellers 2006) and over 46 million unique visitors in July 2006, a 12-month growth of 183 per cent

(Nielsen//Netratings 2006)

Second Life (virtual world, launched 2003)

On 3 September 2006, Second Life’s homepage listed 615,800 resident members; on 2 November 2006, this number had grown to 1,221,392.

At any time thousands are online, e.g. at 3.00pm 17 September 2006, 9496 residents were logged in; at 10.15pm on 2 November 2006 it had 6000 online.

(Second Life 2006: 1)

The value of the viral phenomenon lies in the community and behaviour that the technology enables,

rather than the technology itself. Walsh (2006) explains that MySpace users are highly interdependent

and self-organising, thus creating an environment where “new ideas, brands and entertainment

products replicate through the network like wildfire”. MySpace is a community, not simply transient

traffic to a website. This is sufficiently compelling for organisations to pay large sums of money to

acquire them, such as News Corporation’s payment of US$580 million for MySpace in July 2006 (Sellers

2006), and in Google’s purchase of YouTube for US$1.65 billion in October 2006 (Macklin, Gauntt and

Hallerman 2006).



Google’s chief executive officer Eric Schmidt refers to YouTube as a “social phenomenon” (Schmidt

2006) and that the driver for Google to begin discussions with YouTube was the networking and social

aspects of the site (ibid). YouTube users can do many things with the video – discuss, rate, save to

favourites, organise, share, see other related videos, and subscribe to video channels. The appeal in

YouTube does not lie in the video itself; rather it is “about the community that’s around the video” (Li

2006: 1). Therefore, the value is in the structure of the user base, who give context and meaning to

the content, and will keep returning to the community (ibid, Walsh 2006).

Implications for branding: how do we engage the audience now? “Stories are how we make sense of things. Anything else is just information.”

Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls & David Weinberger (2000), The Cluetrain Manifesto, p 151

In the participatory culture, there is no captive audience to which organisations can deliver messages.

Assaad and Carson (2006) contend that a key problem is that the tradition of marketing is built on

interrupting people during their leisure time to deliver messages, annoying the very people they are

trying to engage and creating a situation where “we have trained them to ignore us” (ibid). In effect,

there are new ‘rules’ to play by, which are akin to the principles of entertainment rather than selling

(Leonard 2006).

Viral and networking activity cannot be implemented in the ways of a traditional branding campaign,

because it relies on the active participation of the audience to share it with their online community. A

deeper connection is required between consumers and the brand, encouraging people to contribute

content and form a community around ideas and interests. Ibeh, Luo and Dinnie (2005) find that

established approaches to branding have been changed by the internet, and the tactics developed in

response are now undergoing further change. Online strategies are no longer primarily about the

website; a range of collaborative approaches are needed for building brand engagement. These

elements include creating an online community that facilitates interactions among customers, enabling

them to deepen their experiences and build a more personal connection with the brand (ibid). Engaging

people with conversation rather than delivering information is a more effective strategy, because

“although there is no demand for messages, there is a tremendous demand for good conversation”

(Levine et al 2000, p 95).

A brand is essentially a relationship and strong brands “establish a relationship that is grounded in

brand narrative” (Denning 2005, p 106). Aaker (2002) finds that people can respond to a brand in the

same manner they relate to another person, and with this comes expectations around behaviour, voice,

character and personality. The human experience is brought to life through stories, which are an

influential tool because they can communicate identity, transmit values, foster collaboration and share

knowledge (Denning 2005). They form the foundation of good conversation and the emotional

connection that effective brand building requires. Bedbury (2002) determines that this connection is

the most powerful and lasting engagement that a brand can have with a customer. To instigate the

conversation, Winsor (2004) encourages organisations to go beyond telling their own stories by

listening to and understanding their customers’ stories, thereby being more human and increasing their

relevancy to the community (ibid).



Engagement through a storytelling framework may be seen in the experience of MasterCard’s ‘Priceless’

campaign, which operates on the narrative ‘Tangible item/service: price, tangible item/service: price,

tangible item/service: price, intangible item/concept: priceless: “The best things in life are free. For

everything else, there’s MasterCard.”’ (Bedbury 2002, Wikipedia 2006: 9)

Although credit cards are functionally about transactions, the campaign has created an emotional

connection with the public (Bedbury 2002). In response to the initial campaign, MasterCard’s vice

president for global marketing received daily letters and emails from people worldwide suggesting their

own ‘priceless’ moments (ibid). In its nine year history, the campaign has seen numerous tribute and

parody commercials created by individuals and circulated via email and over the web. MasterCard

acknowledges that “We can’t manage what happens out there…it has taken on a life of its own”

(MasterCard Worldwide’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, in Elliot 2006), and in

2006 ran a competition inviting consumers to make their own advertisements of their ‘priceless’

moments (MasterCard 2006).

This example demonstrates what can occur when people genuinely engage in a brand and its narrative:

the audience joins in communicating the story. Through online social networks the audience has the

ability to spread brand material, and it has the media creation tools to make its own content. This

phenomenon is being variously labelled as ‘participation marketing’, (Elliott 2006), co-creation (Winsor

2006), open source marketing and citizen marketing (Holtz 2006: 1). Brand identity is not solely

created by the organisation – it also rests in the hands of its audience, where the cumulative

experiences of customers will ultimately define the brand (Aaker 2002, Bedbury 2002).

Along with the benefits, there are downsides to engaging with participatory media, largely due to the

lack of control that a brand has over its communication. These risks can occur whether or not the

organisation has initiated the communication, because the audience are also producers, consumers and

distributors of content. Risks can be mitigated through understanding how to both engage and respond

through participatory media, which will be explored in the examples from practice and in the starting

points for creating a participation strategy.



How organisations are using participatory media

Research undertaken for this report identifies three models of brand engagement regularly found in

participatory media. Each of these models is reviewed through selected examples from practice. The

three communication models are outlined in Table 6 and examples from practice follow in the next

section.

Table 6: Communication models in participatory media

Business blogs Blogs usually aim to create both knowledge sharing and feedback channels. The actions an organisation can take for business blogs are:

− Create a company-authored blog to communicate and engage with its audience for a strategic business purpose, for example, about products and services, customer service, technical support, issues advocacy or research

− Set up an area where customers can talk among themselves about a company’s products and services

− Monitor and respond to the conversations that take place on individual-created blogs

Individual bloggers can also initiate brand conversations, and have the same ability to engage with online communities as does the organisation.

Advertising and promotion through online social networks

An organisation or individual creates a short video, and ‘seeds’ it on the internet, either officially posting it to a website or specific social network site, or through unofficially ‘leaking’ it to a social network site or blog.

Because of the intrinsic value of the video, such as entertainment or controversy, it creates the impetus for the viral effect and it quickly spreads through the network and gains notoriety, often being reported on by the traditional media, which further reinforces its spread.

Virtual world experiences

An organisation or brand creates a presence within the virtual world representing its real world activity, inviting participants to visit and become involved.

This might involve establishing a virtual office, holding an event such as a product launch, concert or press conference, or selling virtual products to participants.

Business blogs

Company-created blog: Charlene Li’s blog for Forrester Research

Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides advice

about technology's impact on business and consumers (Forrester 2006: 1). Charlene Li is a principal

analyst for Forrester, specialising in technology developments in media and marketing, which includes

participatory media (Forrester 2006: 2).

Li blogs in her capacity as a Forrester employee. The blog’s tone is conversational and personal; she

gives a sense of who she is by providing insights into her work, asking for feedback and creating a

sense of community around her topics. Li’s posts include commentary on developments in her specialist

area and discussion of current projects. Forrester sells research reports for several hundred dollars

each; often Li reports on this research as it is under development – the illustration in Figure 5 is a case

in point. This post is about Li’s investigation into measuring the return on investment (ROI) on blogs.



Figure 5: Charlene Li's blog - Forrester Research

Source: Li (2006: 2)

Li discusses the status of the project, provides the framework they have been developing, links to

papers on the topic, and asks her readers for their insights and experiences to add to the research. In

the past this may have been considered giving away confidential information and Forrester’s intellectual

capital – not so in the conversational mode that underlies the character of participatory media.

This blog does much to promote the human face of Forrester and its work (Holtz 2006: 3, Weil 2006).

Li herself says that a blog’s core value to an organisation is in creating a dialogue with customers (Li

2006: 3). It would seem that the blog is showing results for recognition and engagement in the

blogosphere. A search on “Charlene Li” and “Forrester” in Technorati’s blog search engine yields 2700

mentions, with 374 mentions in ‘blogs with a lot of authority’. In Google, the same search returns

274,000 results.

At an industry conference in March 2006, Li informed delegates that her blog could be equated to

providing US$1 million in new business for Forrester in 2005 (Li 2006: 3, Weil 2006). She later wrote

that financial measures are not the only ones that should be evaluated – it is a range of factors that

consider value, engagement and visibility (Li 2006: 2, 3). What is clear in reviewing the many posts

and comments Li, her blog and subject area attracts, is that she is contributing constructively to

industry and audience engagement in Forrester’s brand.

Individual-created blog: Dell Hell - Jeff Jarvis and BuzzMachine

Jeff Jarvis is well-known blogger and newspaper and television journalist. Having become exasperated

with the poor quality of his computer and the ongoing lack of helpful customer service from Dell, he

began to write about his experiences. In July 2005, in his BuzzMachine blog, Jarvis posted “Dell lies.

Dell sucks.” (Jarvis 2005: 1), complaining about the service he received upon request that Dell replace

a faulty laptop. Jarvis was incensed because although he paid for an expensive four year home service



plan, he was told by Dell that if someone was sent to his home to fix the computer, he would still lose

the computer for two weeks as the Dell service person would not have all the parts required (ibid).

This series of posts hit a nerve in the blogosphere, and soon Jarvis was receiving 10,000 visits a day

(Armstrong 2006). Disgruntled Dell customers shared their experiences by leaving comments on

Jarvis’s blog; other bloggers posted their own thoughts independently. Soon it took on the power of a

“negative viral campaign” (Gupta 2005) and was reported in mainstream newspapers such as The

Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (Mcorp 2006).

Although Dell reportedly monitors online conversations, its policy of “look, don't touch”, means that

“those monitoring do not respond publicly, nor do they try to make contact proactively” (Jarvis 2005:

2). Jarvis appealed numerous times to Dell management to respond publicly to him, and published

several open letters to Dell executives on BuzzMachine as well as emailing them directly. This situation

became known as ‘Dell Hell’, and continued for some months from June 2005. The BuzzMachine blog is

shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Jeff Jarvis's BuzzMachine blog

Source: Jarvis (2005: 2)

‘Dell Hell’ weakened Dell’s reputation and brand, reportedly contributing to the fall in Dell’s share price

(Armstrong 2006, Jarvis 2005: 1). Dell’s lack of public response proved to be detrimental. A UK study

found that ‘Dell Hell’ affected the corporate reputation of Dell to the point where Jarvis himself is

viewed as being more than twice as authoritative as Dell on the issue of Dell’s poor customer service

(Public Relations Online 2005). This example demonstrates the need for organisations to listen and

address any negative brand conversations. Perhaps if Dell executives had responded and participated in

the conversation they may have managed to turn the negative feeling to a more constructive outcome.



Advertising and promotion through online social networks

Music and entertainment: Weird Al Yankovic’s ‘White and Nerdy’

‘White and Nerdy’, a song by Weird Al Yankovic, is a parody of rap singer Chamillionaire’s ‘Ridin’. The

story of ‘White and Nerdy’' follows Weird Al’s desire to “roll with the gangstas”; however he knows they

will never accept him because he is too “white and nerdy”. The lyrics explain and celebrate the nerdy

character’s habits, friends and social activities, which make it clear why the “gangstas” want nothing to

do with him. Figure 7 shows an image from the video.

Figure 7: Image from 'White and Nerdy' video

Source: MySpace (2006: 2)

A leaked copy of the music video was uploaded to the web in mid-August 2006, reportedly one day

before AOL was due to release it as a world premiere (Wikipedia 2006: 10, Yankovic 2006: 1). As a

result, AOL cancelled the premiere, and the video quickly gained momentum through communities such

as YouTube and MySpace. It is estimated that the video has been downloaded over 10 million times.

For a viral campaign, one million views are considered to be the ‘magic number’ (Hampp 2006).

The spread of the video through online social networks has seen fans engage in the video itself, Weird

Al the person and the ‘white and nerdy’ character. Conversation topics include the trivia that the song

celebrates, such as the popular culture references to Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek, mathematics,

physics and the cameos in the video of well-known people. Examples of these conversations appear

below, which demonstrate the degree of engagement with the ‘White and Nerdy’ brand. Figure 8 shows

responses to a blog post about the extended DVD version of the film Lord of the Rings, and Figure 9

contains an image from the video showing a physics equation and a discussion about an error in it.



Figure 8: Response to ‘White and Nerdy’ blog post Source : MySpace (2006: 3)

Figure 9: Image of video with Schrödinger's wave equation and fans discussing the error

Source: YouTube (2006: 3)



The engagement with the public has translated into sales of both the single and the album. In the

United States, the ‘White and Nerdy’ single has achieved top 10 in several major music charts, the best

in Yankovic’s career. The album achieved top 20 ranking. (Billboard 2006: 1 & 2, Wikipedia 2006: 10).

Weird Al’s MySpace page, a website and references on other websites for the marketing of ‘White and

Nerdy’, have been used to good effect, capitalising on the viral nature of social networking and online

community. As a follow-up, a competition is running with Yahoo, inviting fans to make their own ‘white

and nerdy’ video and submit it for consideration on Weird Al’s Yahoo page (Yahoo 2006).

It would appear that Yankovic is holding true to his public persona, consistent with his own ‘brand’ of

music. His website shows a photo gallery of his childhood activities, demonstrating him behaving in

‘nerdy’ situations, such as winning a spelling bee, posing with trophies and wearing huge glasses

(Yankovic 2006: 2). This campaign has been successful because it engages fans and potential fans on

several levels, makes good use of cross-fertilisation through social networking sites, has high

entertainment values and is true to the nature of what it is – comedy, music and popular culture.

Consumer-created advertising: Chevy Tahoe and ‘The Apprentice’

In mid-March 2006, General Motors (GM) launched a campaign inviting consumers to make their own

advertisement for the Chevrolet (Chevy) Tahoe. The competition, a promotional tie in with its television

appearance on ‘The Apprentice’, offered prizes for creating the commercials. Chevy made available

video clips, images and music tracks, and invited competitors to write copy and put together the

advertisements. The invitation text is shown below.

“The all new 2007 Chevy Tahoe is more capable, more responsible, and more refined. Now, you’re the director and it’s your job to communicate this message by creating the best Tahoe online commercial for your chance to win.”

Source: Long 2006

Entrants were asked to upload their videos to GM website at chevyapprentice.com. Figure 10 shows the

webpage on which people could create their advertisements.

Figure 10: Image of the competition entry page on the Chevy Apprentice website

Source: Long (2006)



Climate change activists and environmental groups took notice and focused on the controversial and

environmental impacts of large vehicles such as the Chevy Tahoe. Thousands of negative videos were

uploaded on to the GM site and circulated over the web, charging the Tahoe with contributing to global

warming, protesting the war in Iraq or demeaning the Tahoe’s quality. Figure 11 shows a selection of

images from entrants. Some videos contained unsavoury content (Sandoval 2006). The campaign

created a ‘blogswarm’, which was reported by the mainstream media, gained coverage in major

newspapers such as the New York Times, and screened on prime time television news programs

(Gunderson 2006).

Figure 11: Images from four consumer-created videos for the Chevy Tahoe campaign

Source: YouTube (2006: 4)

This strong reaction is a consequence of using participatory media. Commenting on the campaign, Li

(2006: 4) wrote “If you’re going to participate as a marketer in the social computing arena, you’ve got

to have thick skin and be ready to engage in the messy world of your customer’s opinions.” This

appears to be the accepted approach when dealing with this type of social media: it is important for

both sides to participate. The two way conversation can be chaotic; however, this is the point of being

engaged in conversation, and there will be many different points of view.



GM was widely criticised for its slow response to the reaction. Although the campaign was launched in

mid-March, it was not until 6 April that the Chevrolet general manager responded in GM’s FastLane

blog, illustrated in Figure 12.

Figure 12: General Motors' FastLane blog

Source: Peper (2006)

The campaign has been called “one of the least successful attempts to engage with consumers online”

(Dudley 2006). However, in GM’s opinion, “this has been one of the most creative and successful

promotions we have done” (Peper 2006).

The marketing manager for the Tahoe campaign considered the campaign a success, with the

chevyapprentice.com website generating a total of 5.5 million visitors and an average time spent of

nine minutes. Over 22,000 ads were submitted, 16 per cent of them negative (Sandoval 2006, Soy

Daily 2006). While statistics track volume, they do not show behaviour and attitude, which begs the

question whether the campaign was in the best interests of brand engagement. These figures may be a

success in terms of web statistics; however there are wider implications for potential damage to the

brand. Sixteen per cent of negative videos are significant, equating to over 3500 negative messages

potentially remaining in indefinite circulation over the internet, in addition to substantial media and

blog coverage.

While the Chevy Apprentice campaign attracted much attention, it is questionable whether it provoked

the sort of reaction that GM intended or needed. Aaker (2002) writes that the strongest brands are

managed not for general awareness, but for strategic awareness. It is not enough to simply be

remembered – a brand should be memorable for the right reasons and not the wrong reasons (ibid).



Virtual world experiences: Examples from Second Life

Second Life describes itself as “a 3D online digital world imagined, created and owned by its residents”

(Second Life 2006: 1). The virtual world has attracted significant media attention, in part due to the

high profile organisations that are using Second Life for branding and experimentation (Terdiman

2006). Through media reportage, recognition for using virtual worlds has the additional benefit that

brand engagement can be created with the general public, even though they may not participate within

the virtual world itself. Figure 13 shows the Second Life homepage.

Figure 13: Second Life homepage

Source: Second Life 2006: 1

Reuters news agency

Reuters opened an office in Second Life in October 2006 to report on the activities and news affecting

residents and the virtual world. The ‘embedded’ reporter, Adam Pasick, writes under his avatar’s name,

Adam Reuters, and he and another reporter are shown in Figure 14. A website has been created for

reporting the news: http://secondlife.reuters.com.

Figure 14: Reuters news agency in SecondLife

Source: Hutcheon (2006)



Residents can watch streaming news and discuss stories by visiting Reuter’s virtual headquarters within

Second Life. Reuters also gives away to avatars a display panel called ‘Reuters News Centre’, which

streams the latest news from the real and virtual worlds. The initiative is an experiment for Reuters. It

aims to find new audiences and position the organisation as innovative with technology and new ways

of presenting the news, making Reuters “part of a new generation” (Hartlaub 2006, Hutcheon 2006).

Starwood Aloft Hotel

Starwood Hotels launched the Aloft Hotel in Second Life in October 2006. It has been building the

virtual hotel since September as a prototype of the real world hotel that is due to open in 2008. The

Aloft Hotels prime audience is “trendy, tech-savvy 30 year olds” which is the demographic of many

Second Life residents (Voigt and Melillo 2006).

To understand the environment themselves, Starwood executives created avatars of themselves,

bought virtual land in Second Life and began planning and building the hotel. The 25-person team hold

daily virtual team meetings in their Second Life board room (ibid). A blog was created to show and

discuss the progress of the hotel, and in the two months since blog’s launch it has had around 10,000

visits and Starwood is building into the hotel’s design feedback from visitor comments (ibid). Figure 15

shows the virtual hotel during its design.

Figure 15: Images from Virtual Aloft hotel design process

Source: Starwood (2006)

Starwood uses the virtual hotel to promote engagement with their brand and to gain consumer input

into the design of the real-world hotel. In Second Life itself, avatars are encouraged to explore the

Virtual Aloft hotel and provide feedback. Social events for avatars are also held in the hotel (Starwood

2006).



Starting points for creating a participation strategy

When participatory media are successful for brand engagement, there are benefits for both the

audience and the organisation. At the heart of this success is a good story that creates a connection,

inspires conversation and encourages people to participate and share it with their online community.

The organisation benefits through better brand recognition and goodwill from the online community,

which can also lead to the tangible benefit of revenue. This can be seen in the examples of ‘White and

Nerdy’ and the Forrester Research blog.

When brand engagement is working well through using participatory media, each medium

complements the other. Communities within blogs and social networks discuss and share the story

further, often being reported in traditional media such as television and newspapers. Unfortunately, the

same is true for when participatory media are not working well for brand engagement, such as in the

examples of Chevy Tahoe and Dell Hell. In these cases, General Motors and Dell experienced the

derogatory stories that their customers wanted to tell. Through unintended consequences, a frenzy of

involvement may be created, but work against the brand. It can damage reputation and revenue, with

the issue being widely reported and remaining indefinitely in circulation on the internet.

Therein lies the challenge of using participatory media in branding strategies: the audience reaction has

a potential global reach that cannot be controlled, consequently creating risks for the organisation.

Participatory media can create direct value for companies, such as lower product development costs,

lower marketing costs and lower research costs. However, to realise these benefits, the organisation

needs to learn to use participatory media properly (Charron et al 2006).

Three major findings have been identified from the research undertaken for this project:

Capture the audience’s imagination with a good story;

Keep the audience at the centre of the strategy; and

Understand how to behave when involved in the conversation.

Through using the research examples to illustrate, these elements can assist an organisation with

starting points to build a framework for a participation strategy, and are explained below.

Research finding one: Capture the audience’s imagination with a good story

Finding one overview: The story should resonate with the audience and encourage them to participate. Choose a story that your audience will engage with in a positive way, congruent with what the brand is and what it does.

Participatory media is about using a creative idea that people can be part of; not of delivering a

message to consumers. A successful participatory activity offers a compelling premise that engages the

audience in the story and with the brand. Ideally the story connects at an emotional level through

humour, entertainment, insight or creativity, including material with which the audience can identify, to

encourage interaction, discussion and sharing.



It is also important to consider the likelihood of the story capturing the audience’s imagination in

unintended ways, such as in the experiences of the Chevy Tahoe campaign. In this case, the story

premise captured the imagination of environmental activists in ways that could potentially damage the

Tahoe brand. Questions to assist in clarification might include:

Is the story congruent with the brand-as-person and audience expectations of the brand?

Is the proposed idea within the brand or organisation’s character and will it be accepted by the

target audience?

Does the story carry any risk of devaluing the brand or organisation? How great are the risks?

Table 7 examines the underlying story or premise for each of the research examples.

Table 7: Story or premise identified in examples from practice and audience response

Forrester Research: Charlene Li’s blog

‘Forrester helps business. Charlene Li gives insights on technology developments in media and marketing, and shares and discusses her knowledge with you.’

Li’s kudos translates into recognition and profile for Forrester’s business. Li is helpful and friendly in her blog posts, so too is conversation with her participants.

Forrester trades in knowledge – therefore their blogs are about the current thinking for how business can use new technology well.

Dell Hell ‘Dell promises home service, technical support and responsive customer service.’

Jeff Jarvis’s story about inadequate and expensive service resonates with Dell customers, contributes to Dell’s falling share price and weakens its brand and reputation.

Dell senior management refused to participate publicly in this evolving story, receiving much negative criticism.

White and nerdy ‘A nerdy guy wants to be friends with the “gangstas’” But they won’t accept him, because he is too “white and nerdy’”’

Audience enthusiastically embraces the references to popular culture and all things nerdy, relating it to themselves and people they know.

‘White and Nerdy’ is a popular song, fun, silly, and is in keeping with the persona of its creator Weird Al Yankovic, which translates into recognition and sales.

Chevy Tahoe ‘The Chevy Tahoe is capable, responsible and refined. We want to know that you think so too, so tell us.’

Many tell stories of the Tahoe’s contribution to global warming, pollution and the Iraq war. The negative stories gain the most resonance with public and media.

Tahoe is an example of how things can go wrong – people saw the brand values and story of the Tahoe differently to how the organisation promoted it.

Second Life:

Reuters ‘Reuters is technology-savvy, innovative and embraces experimentation. As serious reporters in a virtual world, we invite Second Life residents to talk with us.’

Reported by media worldwide. Avatars visit and engage with avatar reporter Adam Reuters in Reuters’ Second Life headquarters.

Although this is an experiment for an established 110-year-old organisation, sending an ‘embedded reporter’ into Second Life remains true to its purpose as a news agency.

Starwood Aloft Hotel

‘We want residents to contribute to the design of a real-world hotel by visiting the virtual hotel and our events. The Aloft Hotel is ‘trendy and tech-savvy’.

Avatars attend events, visit virtual hotel and provide feedback that is responded to and implemented by Aloft into the hotel’s design.



Research finding two: Keep the audience at the centre of the strategy

Finding two overview: Know what you want to achieve with your audience. Understand how they feel about your organisation and brand and design and assess the risk that the story may create. Create the pathways and tools for them to participate with you, and listen and promptly respond to the conversation.

Know what you want to achieve

The adage “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” (Bedbury 2002, p 61) is especially true for

participatory media. As part of a communication strategy, participatory media should be planned in line

with achieving business goals (Holtz and Demopoulos 2006). These objectives might include to:

Respond to technical questions from customers;

Gain feedback from the public on an emerging product’s design;

Show forward-thinking or thought leadership of the organisation;

Build company profile by provide insights into the operations of its business; or

Create excitement and anticipation about a forthcoming event or product.

Understand your audience’s attitudes

As the audience is a prime stakeholder in the participation strategy, it is important to know what

consumers love and hate about the organisation and its products, services and brand. This can enable

the organisation to be aware of the downsides and negativity that may occur and assess the risks of

using participatory media. This can be achieved in the following ways:

Review data collected through channels such as audience research, complaints, media

monitoring, feedback or letters to the editor.

Consider online conversations that may be occurring about the brand through monitoring

consumer generated content. There are organisations that offer this monitoring service,

providing analysis of discussions and opinions that are in circulation over the internet.

Conduct a SWOT analysis for how the audience might respond to the proposed strategy,

including the potential for negative reactions and consequences for how it might work against

the brand.

Make it easy to participate

Ensure it is easy for the audience to respond and participate through explicitly inviting participation and

creating the conditions for community to occur. This can include:

Providing a place for audience to comment and discuss. It is also appropriate to provide the

organisation’s policy for moderation of comments and acceptable language. This should be brief

and clearly visible near the comment posting area.

Enabling the media to be easily shared. For example, YouTube allows the video to be emailed,

supplies the underlying code to embed the video in a web page, and provides a unique web

address for each video.

Giving the tools to create and submit content. For example, for a strategy that asks the

audience to create an advertisement, provide the images, music and tools for them to produce

and submit their creations.



Understand the particulars of using blogs, social networking and virtual worlds

Research suggests that while the principles underlying participatory media work across its various

forms, there are some characteristics particular to each. These are outlined in Table 8.

Table 8: Features of business blogs, social networking and virtual worlds

Business blogs The person who blogs should be someone who:

− understands and thrives on blogs and public conversation, e.g. who reads and comments on blogs

− understands the specialist area the blog covers

− has the time, energy and passion or inclination to blog

− has the freedom to blog, and does not have to go through the legal department or an approval process for every post

Never publish anything that the core online community would find boring or phoney – it is important to be real

Linking is at the heart of the blog conversation - ensure sources are referenced and maintain trackbacks (where another blog has mentioned another blog) and permalinks (unique URLs to a specific post) on the blog. This makes it easy to link between blogs, and find particular posts.

(Gahran 2006, Holtz and Demopoulos 2006)

Social networking

The old way of key messages does not transfer to the new world of conversation - do not annoy the community through intrusive advertising

Do not place unnecessary restrictions on what network members can do, as this runs the risk of the community migrating elsewhere.

For example, when MySpace realised that many of its users were embedding YouTube videos into their profiles, it blocked links to YouTube, as it saw this competing with the MySpace video service. This move was loudly protested by MySpace users, and the functionality was reinstated.

(Wikipedia 2006: 11)

Virtual worlds Virtual worlds are built by players for players and can be resistant to outside commercial influences. It is not about plastering the online world with advertising.

Brands should interact with the game seamlessly and find innovative and imaginative ways to engage with participants and create an experience.

Add relevance and value to the virtual world and the player experience – this can include having participants create something with the organisation.

Factor in the cost of virtual world campaigns, e.g. the Toyota Scion launch in Second Life cost around $200,000, most of it towards the online design for the virtual and visual elements of the campaign.

Second Life assists organisations in the following way:

− Pairs the brand with content developers in Second Life

− Encourages the brand to buy virtual land, integrate into the community and hire web developers to help them with their campaigns and content creation

(McCormick 2006, The Economist 2006: 3, Trendwatching 2006)



Research finding three: Understand how to behave when involved in the conversation

Finding three overview: Once you’ve started the conversation, participate in it by being authentic, personable and responsive. Be a good conversationalist by being real – this is no place for ‘corporate speak’ or ‘key messages’.

Any form of participatory media an organisation uses should embody the qualities of an honest, ethical

and reasonable person, ready to listen and respond: in essence, a good conversationalist. Behaviours

that are important to demonstrate in participatory media include authenticity, sociability and

responsiveness.

Authenticity

In the online environment truth, identity and reality can be hard to prove (Charron et al 2006). To

create positive relationships through participatory media, authenticity is critical to trust and

engagement in the brand. This includes transparency and disclosure of actions and intentions.

Betraying the trust of readers and participants can be detrimental to the brand. Wal-Mart and

McDonalds have been publicly chastised by their professional peers and online communities for creating

fake blogs, known as ‘flogs’ (Bosman 2006, Holtz 2006: 4). A flog is where a blogger acts for pure

company promotion without disclosure, or a blog is written by a PR organisation under an assumed

name and denoted as real.

Faking the source of material through social networking is frowned upon by the online community. The

discovery of the true nature of lonelygirl15 on YouTube demonstrates this. A series of videos were

posted under the name of a home-schooled girl called ‘Bree’. In actuality it was created by two

producers piloting an internet drama. ‘Bree’ is an actress and the videos were labelled a hoax. The

community felt duped into believing that lonelygirl15 was something she was not and trust was eroded

(Bosman 2006). Examples show that if an author is honest about identity and intention, the community

will accept it. This can be seen in the case of ‘White and Nerdy’ where MySpace members quite happily

conversed on the blog of the white and nerdy character – they knew who and what they were dealing

with and played along with it. America’s NBC network had a character from the television series ‘The

Office’ write a blog. This proved popular with the audience of ‘The Office’, who were happy to

participate, fully aware that the blog was written tongue-in-cheek by the actor who played the

character (Viveiros 2006).

Sociability

Participatory media are places of informality; therefore a conversational and personable approach and

voice are best. A dialogue such as this is built on warmth and a personal connection; corporate speak

or formal language are inappropriate. An organisation can create connection through substantive and

personalised communications, providing “more than an advertising-jingle persona” (Levine et al 2000,

p 25). The genuine voice emanates from attention, caring and honesty of purpose. An early example is

shown by Symantec, who in the 1990s had an employee assist customers by scanning and responding

to online technical forums. This person gave “honest answers to hard questions, acknowledged product

shortcomings, and painted an honest, open picture of the product’s strengths and weaknesses” (ibid p

70). This resulted in much positive feeling, where “the developer community’s collective opinion of

Symantec soared” (ibid).



Responsiveness

Once the conversation has been instigated, an organisation needs to participate by listening and

responding promptly. As seen in the Dell Hell and Chevy Tahoe examples, there are risks to brand

reputation by not participating, whether or not the conversation is begun by the organisation. How the

organisation responds can make the difference whether it succeeds or fails in participatory media, and

it should be prepared to receive some negative feedback. Silence is not viewed favourably. Being

responsive also means to admit mistakes, take steps to rectify them and then follow up.

Listening and responding can help the brand to maintain and improve its reputation. Winsor (2006)

urges organisations to proactively pay attention to what the market is saying about their brands.

Because consumers increasingly trust the opinions posted in online forums, the organisation only has

an illusion of control over the brand’s reputation (ibid). This active responsiveness means that by

letting go of control of the ‘corporate message’ and participating in the conversation, the organisation

can tap into a valuable feedback channel and create a deeper relationship with its customers.

Conclusion “I believe that 99 percent of the Internet’s applications have yet to be invented.”

Vinton Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google (2006)

“And 99% of the remaining 1% have yet to be appreciated”

Doc Searls, weblog (2006)

This research paper has considered how participatory media can influence engagement in a brand and

why they are increasingly important to branding activities. Through observation and research, a series

of starting points has been created to assist organisations in planning their strategies for brand

engagement through participatory media.

A brand can be viewed as the sum total of all the experiences an audience has with it. Brands are

powerful because they can demonstrate personal qualities such as voice, attitude and identity, which

give them the ability to form relationships. Participatory media can be used to create and maintain

relationships, and are becoming increasingly important in an organisation’s suite of brand engagement

strategies. The examples discussed in this paper show that leverage can be gained through using blogs,

online social networks and virtual worlds in branding activities.

A business blog can offer ongoing and regular conversation in a specialist area over periods of time,

providing the opportunity for a feedback channel between the organisations, customers and potential

customers that contribute to the discussion. A social network can spread brand engagement through

the viral effect, creating and sharing content as a result of the relationships within the online

community. Through experimenting with virtual worlds and providing an experience for participants,

brands are proving that much media attention can be generated and recognition gained among the

general public, even if many do not directly participate in virtual worlds.

The converging social, environmental and technical factors underpinning the shift to the participatory

culture point to the influence of these forms of media. Complacency or ignorance is not an option for



organisations if they wish their brands to remain relevant to their audiences, who are increasingly

choosing to spend their time in the online communities enabled through participatory media.

Participatory media can affect a brand even if the engagement is not instigated by the organisation,

because the audience are also producers, consumers and distributors of content. Along with the

benefits of using participatory media are downsides, largely due to the lack of control that a brand has

over its communication. An organisation should monitor and respond to conversations that occur in the

blogosphere and in online social networks to counter any risk to brand reputation. When using

participatory media, an awareness of the social and behavioural principles that underpin them will

assist brand engagement and mitigation of any risks.

When people genuinely engage in a brand and its narrative, they join in communicating the story. At

the heart of a good participatory media activity is a story that the audience finds compelling enough to

share with their online community. The starting points identified to assist the development of

participatory media strategies for brand engagement are:

Capture the audience’s imagination with a good story. The story should resonate with the

audience and encourage them to participate. Choose a story that the audience will engage with

in a positive way, congruent with what the brand is and what it does.

Keep the audience at the centre of the strategy. Know the goals in engaging with your

audience. Understand how they feel about the brand and design and assess the risk that the

story may create. Create the pathways and tools for them to participate, and listen and

promptly respond to the conversation.

Understand how to behave when involved in the conversation. Once the conversation has

started, participate in it by being authentic, personable and responsive. Be a good

conversationalist by being real – this is no place for ‘corporate speak’ or ‘key messages’.

Opportunities for future research includes how to evaluate the success of participatory media in

extending a brand’s reach. While there is exploration of the criteria to evaluate brand engagement

through participatory media, there are few well-known measures to benchmark and quantify their

success. Evaluation of engagement for websites presently includes quantitative measures such as

website hits, click-throughs and conversion rates. These may prove inadequate in the social

environment created by participatory media, where intangible concepts such as conversation,

participation, ideas and the goodwill created speak more of relationship on a personal level and

engagement with the brand.

The investigation into participatory media for brand engagement has shown that it is a fast-moving and

emerging area, as evidenced by the growth of the online communities observed during the research

period. Considering the statement that 99 per cent of the internet’s applications are yet to be invented

(Cerf 2006), the ideas, concepts and conclusions drawn from this research may well change in a short

period of time. The possibilities created for communication and brand engagement through blogs,

online social networks and virtual worlds are limited only by the imaginations the individuals and

businesses who choose to participate.



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Research paper - Brand engagement through participatory media

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