Streaming Engagement – Telling the Brand Story, One Great Idea at a Time

Honoured as the catalyst of the information revolution, the Web is a very different creature today than it was when Tim Berners-Lee first released the World Wide Web in 1991. From making incremental developments, the Internet now evolves in real-time.

Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL, is gearing up for a fragmented Internet where content portals will be on the endangered list. Information consumption is migrating from destination sites to customised streams of data. The need for speed of information is overtaking the need for depth. Armstrong plans to move with the change in consumer behaviour and isn't too concerned about where people find AOL content. If consumers want to get it on Twitter, Digg, Google Reader, or through other real-time feeds, that's alright - just as long as they return to the AOL site to read it.

This trend in real-time information streaming echoes the trend in real-time idea streaming in marketing. Phil Dusenberry once said that one great insight is worth a thousand good ideas. Whilst this nugget of marketing wisdom by the chairman of BBDO North America certainly holds true, it doesn't stop there. In the past, it took one great insight communicated through an advert to capture the imaginations of consumers and cement the brand story. This was a feat in itself, but once achieved, it carried weight that had lasting value. Today, with engagement-hungry consumers, it takes a continuous stream of insightful ideas to keep consumers involved in the brand's story.

Real-time idea streaming by marketers is about one thing - continuously creating and initiating brand engagement at the point of intersection between the brand and the world its consumers live in. There are three types of real-time brand engagement opportunities:

• Planned engagement occurs when a brand leverages itself with a foreseen event such as Nike did at the Tour de France with their chalkbot.

• Anticipated engagement occurs when a brand plans for the outcome of a scenario and is ready to engage as soon as the scenario becomes a reality.

• Reactive engagement requires a readiness to run with an idea based on a spontaneous event , such as giving away tickets to Michael Jackson's memorial service.

With a growing toolbox of online, mobile, and interactive platforms available to marketers and innovative thinkers, brand engagement in real-time is a reality. 

I found two brilliant examples of brands using interactive platforms to spur streaming engagement:

• Volkswagen Pak de Polo - This campaign is running in the Netherlands, where anyone who spots the car can stop the driver and take his place in the driver's seat. The driver that manages to drive the car for the longest distance wins. The website airs live footage from the car and there is a digital version on the social network, Hives.

• Philips vs 140 Characters of Genius - a competition run through Twitter, Flickr and YouTube where anyone can submit a product testing idea. The best product idea gets created. What a great way to crowdsource ideas, leverage brand identity, and engage at the same time.