I don't lose bookmarks anymore. I used to spend ages in front of my computer trying to remember where I bought my Brendan Behan print. Or the site I use as a reference for Flash augmented reality. Now with iGoogle I store my bookmarks online on my personalised homepage. It also gives me the current time in Detroit or Shanghai and the latest football headlines. And the weather. Useful, online tools that I use. On one page. Oh, and it's not bad at search either.
Do you remember those emails from Amazon? You'd buy Jamie's cookbook, then get an email when his new one was published? They might not be great for the brand, but they're relevant to you, or your purchases at least.
Talking of relevance, there's Facebook. I had one or two friends who dominated my newsfeed (Sarah, Nic, Sallie -- you'll know them or their type?). I had no desire to know when Sarah was angry because her train was late, and less interested in the subsequent sixteen whiney, irritated 'status updates'. Or that Nic had a new baby. Or anything about Sallie for that matter. This plethora of meaningless drivel threatened to drown out the important stuff -- clients saying they were having a bad day because of their agency. Absent employees going shopping in Westfield. OK, importance is a relative concept. Then a recent Facebook release allowed me to hide people in my newsfeed. Problem solved. Facebook redeemed. But by now I'd found Twitter.
Twitter currently has me enthralled. I know it won't last (does anything so utterly rooted in vanity last?). I am very, very close, to Stephen Fry (me and 650,000 others). And Matt Horne, Phillip Schofield and Alan Davies. Twitter and Tweet-Deck enable me to instantly 'take a bead' on my own group of Tweeters who I follow. I also follow The Economist. And AdAge. And The Guardian and BBC. It's easy to follow or un-follow individuals, companies or brands. Or to subscribe or unsubscribe. Hang on. Maybe I'm reaching a point here?
iGoogle. Amazon. Facebook and Twitter. Why am I so close to them? In any 24 hours I get at least 200 emails. I IM prolifically. I blog and I consume blogs. I read a paper, sometimes two. And I watch telly, although I 'x 30' the ads. In marketing terms I am a media whore. You could certainly target me pretty easily. A blind network reaches me with an OTS P&G can only dream about. But would I listen? Would I treat this message with the respect, the reverence with which I engage with iGoogle or Twitter? Or even my Amazon emails for that matter?
The fact is, I am driven by relevance and I give my time when I feel it's being respected. On an obvious level, Amazon uses the information about my purchases to sell me more of the same. This means I'm more likely to open emails from Amazon.
With my personalised Facebook newsfeed it takes me seconds to catch up on my entire network of friends. It's probably true that this exercise proves nothing, other than Tony is throwing a shoe at a school governor or Satish has posted a trailer for the new series of Inbetweeners, but there is relevance. Satish is an old school friend. And he's a friend because we have similar interests. I watch the Inbetweeners trailer he posted, and my Facebook visit has instant meaning and value -- I get a benefit. Well done E4 for creating the Inbetweeners fan page. I'm there and I series link Inbetweeners at home. Good work Facebook, see you tomorrow (or in an hour on a slow afternoon).
No longer can brands pull consumers in by presence alone. I want some relevance, I want to engage with brands that listen to me, that understand me. What Google, Facebook, Amazon, and other digitally astute brands have realised is that marketing in the digital age is about dialogue. Furthermore, the most important part of the brand communication is not what we say, but how we listen, and how we respond to what we are told by our audience. When Reichheld spoke about the impact of detractors within his concept of the Net Promoter Score, did he consider the impact of social networking? Where once a detractor turned to the person next to him to moan, he can Tweet to hundreds now. Never before has the need to listen to customers been so important, but it is yet more important to respond.
I predict a return to good old fashioned direct marketing. Digital simply offers us the technology to do it better than before. We still need beautiful brand communications to bring brands to consumers. But it is DigiDirect that will provide the dialogue, the engine of the conversation itself.
In 2009, more than ever, brands need to understand the importance of relevance and of dialogue. If there is one thing to learn from the boom in social networking, it's that the digital consumer likes connectivity, not just from a social network, but increasingly from the brands they want to talk to. Get it right and the network is already there to recommend and to promote. The digital consumer can be a mighty evangelist. It's a direct marketer's dream -- using data to drive relevance in our communications -- to talk, and to listen. That's where the value is, that's why relevance is the true driver of revenue.
Nik Margolis is head of digital at DCH.
