Transparency and Honesty are some key words for brands these days and something I've been trying to plug to
clients for a while now. Although nothing new conceptually it is in no way mainstream yet, or something to discard
because it is not the latest buzz thing. So many brands still need to adopt this practice as it is to become an
important model for the next 20 years. Once there a brand should take these practices in a new ways and channels,
but they need to adopt these ways of thinking first.
A blog with the right type of content is one way for a brand to do this, which most brands are opting for at the moment.
Funny really how a year or so ago the same brands wouldn't have understood and laughed it up, why should we give
are secrets away to rival brands? Why does the consumer need to know these things, they just want the finished
product! Well these things feed back into the brand and shine a good light with honest insight. Some brands had
heard of a blog and wanted one because it was the new thing. Well done for adopting the new, but little thought had
gone into why, what or even if it was/is the right channel for their product/service/brand. More importantly who was
going to produce the posts and content? Little Jimmy can do it when he's not busy! Yeah right!
Today many brands with blogs have hired people to work directly with social/networking/viral etc.
It's a move in the right direction ;-) Good! I have been compiling a list of the best ones which I'll post soon.
Now onto the point of this post. Many creatives, strategists, planners, economists etc are all onboard with these
forms of communication and see the importance in these new ways to reach the audience for their clients.
But how many creative agencies are really practicing what they preach? Some are but not many!
But AIRSIDE are! Rather than just posting things they like creatively, like many creative agencies, they are posting
the development process of their projects, how they got to the final solution. What directions did they take and
discard? Well you can can see it for yourself within their blog. It gives nice transparency and a form of honesty.
In a way they are the brand and their clients (or more importantly, their future clients) are their audience or consumer.
This style of posting is seen more within student blogs and experimental / conceptual art blogs / websites.
What I like about this AIRSIDE approach, is that it shows great insight into their process, to their future clients...
they get to know how they work and what they will get for their money, thus bringing them closer to the agency :-)
Because as we all know, it's not just creativity and ideas that make brands want to work with an agency...
it's just as much about the people they will be working with, are they are nice, stupid, open, fake, true, real, fair, knowing,
understanding, blagues, cooperative etc etc... and do they practice what they preach :-)
Airside have always created fun communication, which is what people need these days, brands should utilize them
for this style and dark times strategy, it comes so naturally to them ;-)
1 comment:
greg, what a well written post!
i'll use some of it in my workshop on social media next week.
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