Social-Mobilization

SOCIAL MOBILIZATION & Five Guidelines For Putting It Into Action 2 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW Marketing is dead. Ok, maybe not totally dead, but certainly gasping. Let’s wave the white flag and admit it: nothing is working like it used to. As Seth Godin wrote, we live in the most cluttered marketplace in history. So what is our predictable response? SPEND MORE. YELL LOUDER. CHASE FADS. Spend more. Yell louder. Chase fads. Anything and everything to get a distracted, disinterested audience to look, even for a moment. But isn’t advertising like a car alarm in a mall parking lot; it makes a lot of noise but no one is paying any attention? And how does publicity pay-off when audiences are splin- tering and iconic media outlets are auctioned for a dollar? As one publisher said, “A major review in a newspaper sells eight books.” $ OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW • 3 REALLY? And yet, we stick with our old ways, hoping for new results. Chasing hats on a windy day while sales sag, fans move on, and audiences yawn. Awareness and impressions were our currency. The thinking was sound: make someone aware and you make them care. But awareness is a 1990’s word. You know it when 7-11 sells rubber bracelets and lapel ribbons – the relics of awareness – by the dozen. 4 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION made everyone a publisher, a filmmaker, a musician, a commentator, a critic, a preacher, an expert. Everyone instantly got access to anyone. The gates were crashed. The taste makers challenged. Power went rogue, to the street, and to the fans. Information was no longer in the hands of the few. We are know-it-alls. When everyone is aware of everything why should they care about anything? The question, really, is how you move audiences and fans from awareness to action? That’s what’s missing in marketing, and that is what this little booklet is about: SOCIAL MOBILIZATION AND WHY IT IS THE FUTURE OF MARKETING, ESPECIALLY IN ENTERTAINMENT 6 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW Politics is about getting a million people to do one thing on a single day: vote. And that requires strategy and execution that is: » LONG-LEAD AND FAST-BREAKING » OPEN SOURCE AND DECENTRALIZED » COMPLIMENTARY AND COORDINATED Grassroots marketing in entertainment is often tried (and on occasion quite successfully implemented) because the content taps into a particular audience or demographic, and it has the potential to ignite a wildfire of word-of- mouth. Others want to save a buck and think grassroots marketing is a cheap way to do an end-run around the old system – which never works. Hollywood is well-versed in the power and the problems with grassroots marketing. Power, in that it can fuel unconventional ways to motivate a particular audience with less resources. Problematic, in that a number of fast-talking agencies have over-promised and under-delivered time and time again, never proving the ROI of their efforts. Our team worked for years in politics. Don’t hold it against us. As we say, “entertainment is political and politics is enter- taining.” Politics is the business of understanding people and of rallying them to do something; its half sociology and half sales. And it’s where we learned real grassroots marketing – how to create and organize street- level campaigns driven by volunteers that compliment the larger goal, in most cases, winning an election. A QUICK BACK-STORY IN THE END, THEIR WORK LOOKS MORE LIKE ASTRO- TURF THAN GRASSROOTS. 8 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW buy a ticket, a book, a song, a game. That one thing, however, is what separates marketing, and even grass- roots, from social mobilization. Here’s what we mean: Politics and entertainment are very similar then, right? Minus the Brooks Brothers suits and the power red ties, of course. Entertainment marketing is about getting a million people to do one thing on a single weekend or day: » Marketing is about getting people aware of the best “choice.” » Grassroots marketing is about getting people to tell others about the “best” choice. » Social mobilization is about getting people to make that “best choice” together all at the same time. » Social mobilization is about compressing the audience, the timeline, and the ask into a single moment, the final day, when it all counts. BUY A TICKET, A BOOK, A SONG, A GAME. In 2011 a major bridge was coming down and a new one going up over one of the busiest freeways in the U.S., the dreadfully gridlocked 405 in Los Angeles. A major undertaking that required a three-day free- way closure. How do you get millions of LA drivers, dependent on their cars, to give up a major route for three days, without caus- ing a total meltdown in the city? With television news choppers circling and reporters camped out along the freeway exits, armed police officers blocking en- trances and late night comedians telling jokes, “Carmageddon” was building. Then it happened. Or, better said, nothing happened. The freeway closed. The cars stayed away. No problems or gridlock. No meltdowns or protests. Three days later, the bridge was up and the cars came back. Why did it go so well? Social mobilization, we would answer. Perfectly executed. A blend of dozens of strategies, messages, incentives, and long-lead publicity made Carmageddon look more like Carless Heaven. Media stories encouraged people to stay off the roads. AT&T mobile users received a warning message via text if they were within 25 miles of the closure. Bike clubs took to the roads. JetBlue offered $5 flights from Burbank to Long Beach, a typical 40 minute drive. Friends set up a candlelight dinner in the middle of the closed freeway. Even the term “Carma- gedon” helped -- branding the moment as something fun and something to be feared. And, all together, millions upon mil- lions of people did the same thing at the same time: social mobilization executed by hard hats. 10 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW There is something magical about social mobi-lization. When it works well, you look back and marvel at how it all happened – because it is impossible to control and to predict. HOW DO YOU PREDICT OR PLAN FOR A FAN TO PRINT HOMEMADE FLYERS FOR YOUR MOVIE OR BAND? How do you predict or plan for a fan to print homemade flyers for your movie or band? How do you predict or plan for a flight attendant who on her own organized the sell-out of five theaters? OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW • 11 Social mobilization is about real-time data tracking, predictive analytics, and instant adjustments to spends and to strategies. Marketing is about box office reports on Monday morning, sales figures two weeks after street date. Social mobilization is about knowing when, where, how, and what the consumer will choose. Marketing is about hoping that when a consumer makes a choice, they choose you. Marketing is about broad awareness, an inch deep and a mile wide. Social mobilization is about specific actions and audiences, a wide net thrown into a trout pond. Marketing is about the individual. Social mobilization is about a tribe, all-working together whether they know it or not. MARKETING VS SOCIAL MOBILIZATION Marketing is about creating moments, saturating the market. Social mobilization is about creating momentum, intensifying the market. 12 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW It sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Go smaller? Limit your reach? Its like whispering into a bullhorn, you may say. Don’t we want the most number of people? Are you suggesting that we abandon all advertising and publicity? Glad you asked. Yes, advertising provides legitimacy (i.e. this is real). Publicity provides credibility and connection (i.e. this is on my favorite blog). And certainly marketing provides broad exposure. Only social mobilization, however, identifies, organizes, directs, and intensifies particular target audiences to- ward a specific moment to take credible, measurable action. In the end, all that matters is this: mobilization and monetization. It’s also the only thing you can measure. Did people show up and buy a ticket? A book? A song? Did they go to the concert or game? Doesn’t matter how glossy the website or how cool the game or how big the stars or how many billboards they saw. If they don’t do the most important thing, then ev- erything else is just a waste of time and resources. It may look good along the way, but when the numbers come in the only thing that matters is: did it work? MOBILIZATION & MONETIZATION $ $ $ SO, HOW DO YOU MAKE SOCIAL MOBILIZATION WORK FOR YOU? HERE ARE A FEW GUIDELINES. (Let me now officially welcome our “competitors” to the conversa- tion, as they are eager to know as well. Like everything the ideas are not the secret sauce; its whether or not you can execute them.) 14 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW tailor-made like a fine Brioni suit. Get out of the corner offices. Take an AirTran flight to Lincoln, Nebraska. Watch a movie at the local AMC. Get close to your audience. The failure of many agencies in this space is that they treat everyone the same (one-size-fits all) and go after the same people again and again (dry wells). It doesn’t work, which is why these agencies are failing their clients. Do you know your top influencers – based on actual actions -- in every zip code? One major artist does. Or do you know how to reach teens in Kansas? Or moms in Lan- caster? Do you know the differences between the United Methodist Church in Memphis and Southeast Christian Church in Louisville? It’s the tribalization of America. Small, nimble, smart, and local will win the day. FIRST, PERSONALIZATION. Fire the next person who sends out an email blast. We live in the most personal moment in world history. Know your fans. Their habits. Their trends. No more assembly line la- ziness or one-size-fits all nonsense. Everything is custom, EVERYTHING IS CUSTOM, TAILOR-MADE LIKE A FINE BRIONI SUIT. SECOND, PARTICIPATION. The emerging generation wants to do more than just buy a ticket. Or a book. Or a song. They want to be participants with the creators, with the content. If you get an audience to participate in one way – even as small as forwarding on an email to friends – they are dramatically more likely to be with you on that final ask, when it all counts. How many websites have you seen with a menu bar that reads: take action. Pull down the options and you will find boring, passive, disengaging “calls-to-action” that actually discourage participation, not to mention a terrible way to track whether the individual actually followed through. How many times have you been excited about a cause or a movie or a band – and at the very moment you’re ready to do more, to go all in – the ask comes: “go to our website to find ways to help out.”You lost them. It won’t happen, and that once passionate new fan is now onto something else. Participation is the currency of our modern culture. We want to put our hand on the problems – don’t tell me just to donate money, let me go and do the work! We want to back-stage. We want to mash together clips to make our own trailers. We want to help the author think of the title to their next book. We want to cover a song and post it on YouTube. 16 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW THIRD, RECOGNITION. Recognizing and rewarding your supporters, volunteers, top fans, most influential, well, that is a rare thing in marketing – especially in entertainment marketing. Instead, we default to “sweepstakes” and “random give-aways” because lawyers and executives find it safer and less time-intensive. The result? People get burned-out, used, and dismissed. Loyalty and life-long connection comes when you recognize who helped get you where you are today. But it goes beyond thanking the usual suspects: God, mom, dad, and your manager. Imagine how simple it would be to make a video thanking a top street-team fan by name – instantly making that fan famous at their school, and the envy of others who would now do more to get the same back-stage hang or shout-out. One top artist we worked with featured fan videos on their social channels, thanking them and asking other fans to do the same. In just one day a single video started at 25 views and ended at 28,000 views. Do you think that fan is going to buy the next album? Social mobilization’s success or failure hinges on recognition. Plain and simple. Because it is a strategy dependent on indi- viduals taking ownership of the content or product, becoming evangelists for it, and spend- ing time and energy (and sometimes money) to make it known – without recognition the advocate loses interest quickly. DO YOU THINK THAT FAN IS GOING TO BUY THE NEXT ALBUM? OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW • 17 FOURTH, ASSOCIATION. Everyone wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Consider “the wave” at a major sporting event. What begins in Section 104 with a few passion- ate “believers” convincing themselves of what’s possible can spread into the next section (often after multiple at- tempts to coax others), and the next. Until that moment of fan exuberance takes over and the wave circles the stadium, bottom level to nose-bleeds. The crowd is into it, started by a few and reaching thousands. Just like the wave, social mobilization creates temporary or perceived associations – whether real or imagined, it doesn’t matter – that give the audience a sense that they are a part of something big, important, or consequential. Some call this a “movement,” however it is our belief that history, not marketers, determine whether some- thing is a movement or not. It’s presumptuous to claim something is a movement before it even gets going or reaches critical mass. THE CROWD IS INTO IT, STARTED BY A FEW AND REACHING THOUSANDS. 18 • OK. ALL TOGETHER NOW FIFTH, MOBILIZATION. Nothing else really matters, right? After you’ve done everything else … personalized the content … created participation … recognized fan contributions … associated like-minded people … if the audience doesn’t do what you need them to do at the right moment in the right way … Well, then you are back to marketing, not social mobilization. » Marketing is getting a movie-goer to see your movie; social mobilization is when they see it on opening weekend. » Marketing is knowing that a show is coming to NBC; social mobilization is making sure you and your family are home to watch every episode. » Marketing is hearing about a book from a friend and borrowing a copy when they’re done; social mobilization is buying the book for your book club. Maybe you think this is easy, or just a few tweaks of your current marketing plan. Think again. Social mobilization is an entirely new way of looking at content, budgets, audience, and the tools and strategies at our disposal. It can be summed up in four simple words: Ok. All. Together. Now. Give it a try, and if you need some help, give us a call. Different Drummer is the high-touch, high-tech audience and fan mobilization agency for world-class entertainment brands and content. www.differentdrummer.com www.socialmobilization.com Drumtweets Written by Erik Lokkesmoe, designed by Tyler Michel © Different Drummer 2011