Goafest 2010: "Brand conversations are becoming influential with digital": Richard Pinder

Richard Pinder, COO, Publicis Worldwide, stressed that digital isn't some fuzzy concept in a media plan but a reality that is taking place under our noses and has the power to transform a brand's destiny

"We're living in a world of digital, mobile and viral marketing. However, strangely, some Indians I interacted with at the Goafest seem to harbour doubts about how strong digital is in their country!" began Richard Pinder, chief operating officer, Publicis Worldwide, on the second day of Goafest 2010 in a session where he took the audience through the growing importance of the digital medium. He elaborated that digital is not the 'next big thing' but is a phenomenon that is gaining momentum by the second, even in India.

"To me and many Westerners, India is not just about creative ideas but also digital, which sits right at the top of the global impression of brand India," he said.

In Pinder's observation, conversations are the way brands and categories live today, be it at the school gate, the playground, the café, the bar, among family, friends, casual contacts, business colleagues or even online with communities and experts. Conversations are becoming faster, broader and more influential, particularly with the rise of digital content.

Earlier, people shared their brand experiences over the phone or other one-to-one means while now, conversations also happen online. Word of mouth speed has given way to word of click speed, while contained, temporary and casual conversations through WoM are being replaced with borderless, permanent and 'searchable when needed' kind of online conversations.

As an example, he said that there are 3.5 billion brand conversations every day in the US, and these are only the online ones! "So companies and brands, you are becoming a part of the conversation, whether you like it or not, and whether you're managing it or not," Pinder remarked, adding that today, what is being said about one's brand is largely out of his control.

Today, one small brand issue can lead to five million hits online in a span of a week. "Type your brand name before the word 'sucks' on any search engine and you'll know you cannot control the conversation," Pinder said.

He went on to cite a fact from the London School of Economics which reveals that brands with the most recommendations in their category grow four times faster than the category average. As per Bain Consulting, increasing recommendation by 12 per cent doubles sales growth.

"The old school is about creative ideas, about what those communicate, about an agreement or acceptance of them," Pinder stated, "while the new school is about contagious ideas, and the question in this case is - will people want to share it? Will they personalise it?"

Pinder concluded with some case studies of contagious ideas that led to brand buzz, the first of which was the one for TGI Fridays, a fast food joint that was strong in the US but not necessarily the best brand is the last 10 years as it was losing out to outlets such as Pizza Hut or even local restaurants.

Here was a brand with low ad spends, which had to reverse the reality that sales were dipping and that people had stopped talking about it.

TGI Fridays created a Facebook character called Woody (and got a dorky looking fellow to essay it) who, in webisodes and on Facebook pages, told consumers that they could get free burgers at TGI Fridays if he got half a million fans on Facebook by a certain date. 'Woody' was even made to perform stunts on the streets such as dress up like a burger and ring doorbells, asking people to become his fans on Facebook.

The quirky, funny webisodes caught people's fancy and led to half a million fans on Facebook within 12 days of the activity. Currently, Woody's Facebook page has four million hits and more than one million fans. Needless to say, the brand started buzzing while its sales shot up.

Another case study that Pinder presented was that of snack brand Hula Hoops in the UK - a brand that had to take on the American 'big boys'. The brand launched a TV campaign to spark off the public's imagination. It had the product (which is in the shape of a ring, hole and all) being played around creatively by protagonists in the commercials, adding an element of personification to them. The tagline went, 'In a hole world of their own'.

As a result, there were several music downloads of the preppy commercials, besides which the brand provided on-pack promotion offers promising fame and glamour to its users (by morphing their photographs in places of historical importance, using Hula Hoops in a creative way). People loved this and even ended up uploading their own films at hulahoops.com.