Passenger
Passenger bills itself as "the leader in on-demand customer collaboration." The company specializes in facilitating discussions between consumers and brands -- the likes of Coke, Chrysler, Apple and adidas -- by establishing private social networks that allow its clients to listen to and "co-innovate" with their customers.
"What this means," explains Justin Cooper, who cofounded the company with Andrew Leary, "is that you have an ongoing dialogue with the people who ultimately help you shape the brand, through our online community platform." This dialogue enables brands to harvest ideas from outside their corporate walls, while giving consumers a sense of ownership of the process. Cooper cites an example of a television network collaborating with an online community about a series. The network gets valuable viewer input to help shape the series, and the community members get to view content before it's aired and be a part of the creative process. "This is really co-creation manifested into its deepest level," says Cooper.
Passenger doesn't actually build the online community (or communities) for a client; it designs the experience and configures its platform to meet the client's objectives. The client itself invites participants to join, usually from an internal database. A typical community averages around 2,000 people, and members must participate in the discussion to maintain their eligibility. This creates a sense of exclusivity to encourage member activity, but no tangible rewards or incentives of any kind are offered to members. Cooper believes incentivizing participation dilutes the quality of the feedback clients receive because consumers participate for the wrong reasons. "If you're having to give someone gift cards or cash or prizes or any sort of tangible incentives," he argues, "then you're probably off on the wrong foot."
Along with its platform, which gets updated with enhancements about every six weeks, Passenger also offers several client services, including community management, strategic direction and reporting. This full-service approach, Cooper explains, provides Passenger's clients with all the tools they need to broaden their perspective -- so they don't leave potentially valuable opportunities on the table.
"By broadening your prospective, you can get really great input from people you may not have thought would be able to provide you that input... We say, open up the conversation and have it. Then, if there are specific things you're looking for, go filter the conversation against those things later."
Like each of the other firms highlighted in this piece, positive client feedback is an important part of Passenger's own success. "Critically important," says Cooper. "We don't spend any money in outbound marketing."
The fact that these subject-matter experts rely primarily on word of mouth to market their own services may be the most compelling argument as to its effectiveness.
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Sean P. Egen is a freelance writer.
