Brands can no longer push themselves upon a customer, they have to be attractive enough to make a customer want to go to them
While this seems a simple enough observation, consider what this means for brands and media. Now that mass media no longer has the reach, people need to be emotionally drawn towards a brand, in order for the brand to grow. Now it is not about how loud your brand screams, or how often your brand screams, it is about what your brand screams. What is screams, does not just have to be good, it has to be irresistible.
Kony 2012 is the world’s most viral video, with mashable.com counting just 6 days to 100 million views and 500,000 comments in March 2012. While the video received scathing attacks by Uganda’s people, it was successful in bringing awareness to the world’s most wanted man. It also demonstrated the power of viral communication by appealing to an individual’s attraction to social justice.
The Facebook model is based on attraction, 845 million active users in 2012. If Facebook was a country it would be the third largest in the world, twice as large as the US. Facebook’s success is based on our attraction to our own social network. We pull Facebook into our world, because it makes our social connections more accessible.
What does Kony 12 and Facebook have in common? They both tap into a sense of belonging and our need to have positive emotional connections with community. Both Kony and Facebook call for participation, they both grow through our own social networks, and they both reward action and create dialogue and events.
Attraction comes down to excellence in brand planning. Your brand needs to have so much substance and value, it is worth sharing with others, without it, growth will be unattainable.
Louise Kelly
Hearts and Minds
Thought Leaders Circle 