It was a packed house at the “Brand Loyalty 3.0: Alternative Channels of Digital Content Distribution” panel on Thursday in Toronto.
Part of the three-day North By Northeast Interactive (NXNEi) event, which takes place at the Hyatt Regency Toronto until tomorrow (June 18), the session focused on how to keep consumers engaged in the digital realm using rewards.
Presented by digital content promotions company Hip Digital Media, panelists included Adrian Capobianco of Quizative, Jonathan Carroll of Gowalla, Lisa Charters of Random House Canada, Chris Hardy of Sony Music Canada and Francine Sternthal of Aeroplan.
Capobianco stressed right off the bat that growing engagement with users in digital is about content and creating an experience. Hardy agreed, adding that at Sony Music, “content is what our strategy needs to be going forward.”
How are these mega brands going about creating experiences for consumers? At Aeroplan, Sternthal said it’s given its members the chance to win a trip to meet Michael Bublé in Paris or Katy Perry in Las Vegas.
Sony, of course, has also offered music-related contests. “The ‘behind the velvet rope’ experience is popular,” said Hardy. For example, Sony recently held an AC/DC contest where the winner tasted the tour experience—literally. Not only did they see a show, they also ate the same food the band ordered for backstage, made by the same caterer.
Carroll gave a cool example of a brand using location-based services as a way to drive people into a brick and mortar store—and drive sales. Gowalla did a campaign with skateboard and clothing company Element last spring in which little virtual water bottles were hidden within a four-kilometre radius in New York. Users that found the virtual goods could then redeem them for a free real water bottle in the physical Element store. They’d also get a 20% off coupon for the store, which gave them incentive to buy and spurred future sales, said Carroll.
But Carroll noticed that many brands jumped on the location bandwagon early, before they fully understood how to use it properly. It was “I want the shiny thing; I need the shiny” syndrome, he said.
On a different note, Charters addressed social media near the end of the panel and how when Random House is considering whether to sign an author, the team checks out the author’s Facebook page and number of Twitter followers. This is important since if the author’s book gets published two years down the line, Charters said her team feels better about it knowing they have a pre-existing fan base.
Addressing the elephant in the plaid-clad room (NXNE still draws a huge music crowd, after all), Capobianco said tracking ROI in social media is still really tricky. He offered this analogy: “What’s the ROI of a company golf tournament or a handshake?”
