In our day-to-day lives, we’re faced with countless reasons for wanting to engage with brands and businesses. Of course, we have customer service questions, but we also want to tell brands when they’re doing something right – and what’s more, we want to share our own ideas about how the brands we love can evolve and grow with us as consumers. After all, it’s our experiences with brands as consumers that shape the very definitions of those brands.
Sometimes simple social interactions cannot achieve these engagements effectively, and at scale, and that’s where Crowdtap comes in. Billed as the People-Powered Marketing Platform, Crowdtap helps marketers place real consumers at the heart of their marketing – from consumer insights and innovation to content creation and media distribution.
At #SMWNYC, Crowdtap CEO Sean Foster will explain what it means to be a people-powered brand, and offer up tangible examples of brand marketers who are leveraging the consumer voice across the entire marketing lifecycle. We recently caught up with Sean to get a sneak preview of his much-anticipated session:
What’s the state of brand-consumer relationships today?
The relationship between brands and consumers is broken. Most Millennials say they do not trust traditional advertising at all – yet marketers are still talking at their audiences, pushing messaging on them in disruptive ways. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Media-savvy consumers are passionate about the brands they love. In fact, nearly half of Millennials today believe that brands “play an essential role in their lives.”
Put simply, consumers want to be heard. They want a seat at the table – so much so that they are investing their own money to co-develop new products via platforms like Quirky and Kickstarter. The brands of the future are those that are putting people at the heart of it all – and that’s the definition of People-Powered Marketing in its simplest form.
What’s the difference between crowdsourcing and People-Powered Marketing?
People-Powered Marketing replaces the linear model of engaging consumers with an iterative cycle that elevates the consumer voice across all stages of marketing and product development. Crowdsourcing is a piece of that, but does not represent the complete scope of what’s possible for marketers today. At Crowdtap, we’re evangelizing a model in which consumers are involved at ALL stages of the marketing lifecycle. Beyond crowdsourcing (co-creation), this might involve giving product feedback, validating creative and creating content around their own experiences with brands. It’s an iterative, ongoing process versus a one-off campaign.
What can marketers do to help their brands become more People-Powered?
Becoming more consumer-centric is as much of a mindset shift as it is an operational shift. Marketers have to have the desire to make the leap, and understand that brands are no longer defined by executives in board rooms, separate from the consumers who experience them on a daily basis. They should not only realize, but appreciate, that their customers are increasingly calling the shots – and know how to balance consumer needs with business objectives. From an operational standpoint, managing ongoing conversations with consumers is not achievable at scale without the tools to make those engagements seamless and actionable for marketers. Our platform makes it easy for marketers to engage in two-way conversations with consumers that result in agile consumer insights and powerful word of mouth.
For more insights into marketing’s people-powered future, catch Sean’s session at the #SMWNYC Campus Headquarters (Highline Stages) on Friday, Feb. 27 at 10:45 a.m.
About Crowdtap:
Crowdtap, the People-Powered Marketing Platform, is a new operating system for brands powered by the people who love them. Our platform makes it easy for brands to put consumers at the heart of their marketing to drive product ideation, inform marketing strategy and create authentic content that fuels earned media.
In 2014, Crowdtap was named one of the 100 Most Promising Companies in America by Forbes and the No. 54 fastest-growing private company in the Inc. 500 List. The company has been ranked as the No. 3 Best Place to Work in New York by Crain’s, and the No. 6 Best Tech Company to Work For by Mashable.
With a growing community of passionate members, Crowdtap works with leading brands including General Mills, Heineken, Kraft Foods, P&G, Verizon, Walmart and Yum Brands.
Visit corp.crowdtap.com for more information.