Conversations with strangers across the world? In real time? In the form of a holograph? Sign me up! KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has revolutionized the idea of embracing the groundswell. "Make the customers an integral part of the way you innovate", suggest Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff in their book (p. 183) KLM encourages people waiting in airports around the globe to have meaningful conversations with each other. They share travel and culture stories holographically. Isn't that the coolest thing? Check it out!
The age of Donald Draper's sleek catchlines is no more. We cannot stress this enough. "The internal groundswell is all about creating new ways for people to connect and work together" (p. 226) the book elucidates in the light of case studies like Bell Canada and Blue Shirt Nation. But don't be fooled, every company adopts its own unique strategy. Coercion from the skyscrapers of Madison Avenue is the marketing of yesteryear.
Can we assume this is how Don Draper will react?
In the age where the groundswell is growing by the minute, every brand should be ready for a transformation. No one can escape it. There is no formula for thriving in the groundswell but Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff keep reminding us, "It's about relationships, not technology"
Five steps we can follow for success (p. 212)
The age of Donald Draper's sleek catchlines is no more. We cannot stress this enough. "The internal groundswell is all about creating new ways for people to connect and work together" (p. 226) the book elucidates in the light of case studies like Bell Canada and Blue Shirt Nation. But don't be fooled, every company adopts its own unique strategy. Coercion from the skyscrapers of Madison Avenue is the marketing of yesteryear.
Can we assume this is how Don Draper will react?
In the age where the groundswell is growing by the minute, every brand should be ready for a transformation. No one can escape it. There is no formula for thriving in the groundswell but Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff keep reminding us, "It's about relationships, not technology"
Five steps we can follow for success (p. 212)
- Start small: We need to pick our battles strategically!
- Educate our executives: Let's make everyone use the technologies themselves. Perhaps an internal blog? For the summer, I interned at the advertising agency Sunny Side Up in India and found that they use innovative project management technologies like Basecamp and Monday to bring employees across cities together on various tasks. They're actually fun to explore.
- Who runs the strategy: Yes, it makes a difference to choose people who really have a passion to make a difference for the company!
- Agency and technology partners working together: Both need to invest time and resources
- Long term plans: Let's ask, what's our plan for the next step?
How much more can we grow and transform in the groundswell? Like Lindsay Lohan and Cady Heron says...
Yes, you know it! It's an infinite realm of possibilities out there! And brands are just getting starting. Unilever's real beauty Dove campaign and Salesforce's IdeaExchange are two prominent examples among thousands of others.
KLM Dutch Airlines has definitely "taken off" with the groundswell. They have embraced the groundswell in creative ways. Aside from their idea to connect people in airports through holographs, they also used a great activation idea to raise awareness of their airline in Germany. 46% of the people they asked didn't know what it was.
"ein Restaurant" or "eine Bank" or even "ein Radiosender" were the responses they received. So, they simply transformed into what people thought they were. Whether KLM food served like a restaurant, KLM flight tickets in ATM machines and KLM music, no one can forget that they really are an airline!
See for yourself:
We live in a world that is turned inside out by the groundswell mentality. "When the groundswell surrounds you like a cocoon," say the authors of our textbook (p. 235) "When you breath it like air and depend on it always, the world will feel very different."
Meanwhile, let's ask companies how they're doing in the groundswell and most will say this...
Thank you loyal readers, for tuning in to this week's update on Simrants: Social Media Edition. It has been great sharing my penny's worth with you.
The holograph communication thing is so cool!! I hadn't heard of that before but it is crazy the extent to which the groundswell has been integrated into the way businesses function, and this seems like a really cool use of that. I wonder how many people make use of this function and find it to improve their experience.
ReplyDeleteThe example of KLM is enjoyable. As you said in this age of groundswell growing every minute, every company should transform into a groundswell. KLM uses the cut-edge technology to embrace their customer, which a significant improvement, and also it is a role model could be learned from others.
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